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Is U.S. Headed for Surgical Mask Shortage?; California Nurses Demanding Protection from H1N1; Afghanistan to Hold Run-Off Election; Are Secret Service Agents Overworked?

Aired October 20, 2009 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thanks so much.

H1N1 vaccine. You've got health care pros demanding it or they walk. You've got others saying, no way you're putting that in me. And they're suing! What are the rest of us supposed to think?

Plus, one school's dealing with a totally different kind of outbreak. An epidemic of motherhood.

And you've got to be hardcore to be the drill instructor to drill the instructors. For the first time, the person with that title is a "she." The glass ceiling was no match for her.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York. And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right. Don't panic over H1N1 flu or the slow delivery of a vaccine. That's actually the message from the CDC to all of us right now. Give them a couple more weeks. Then it should be easier to find your dose.

But how about these mixed messages about the swine flu? On one hand, you have thousands of nurses in California. They're ready to go on strike if their employers don't do more to protect them from H1N1. They've been really rattled since this nurse in Sacramento, Karen N. Hayes, died from a severe respiratory infection, pneumonia, and H1N1. She was only 51 and a triathlete.

Now, on the flip side, on the flip coast, you have health-care workers in New York, duking it out with the state over mandatory seasonal and swine-flu protection. Four nurses claim the vaccine might not be safe. Others don't like being told, "Get a shot or get lost."

Now, how about a mask? Cover up your mouth and nose, keep the germs out? Should be easy to get one, right? Shouldn't even be an issue. Believe it or not, it's a big issue.

Jeanne Meserve tells us why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the cataclysmic 1918 flu pandemic, Red Cross nurses hand-made surgical masks to help control the spread of disease. Now machines crank them out at the Prestige Ameritech plant in Richland Hills, Texas, one of the few manufacturers in the U.S. Ninety percent of production has moved to other countries, where labor is cheaper, and some say that has created a vulnerability right here.

MIKE BOWEN, PRESTIGE AMERITECH: If there's a pandemic, America won't be able to supply its own need.

MESERVE: Bowen and others fear that, in a 1918-sized pandemic, the nations that make masks, like China and Mexico, would keep them for themselves.

REP. JOE BARTON (R), TEXAS: Push comes to shove, you take care of your own before you take care of others. That's just -- that's just human nature. And for that reason alone, I think we should buy more of these masks in the United States, and we should encourage the capability to manufacture more of these masks in the United States.

MESERVE: The government estimates the U.S. could need 3 billion surgical masks during the H1N1 outbreak. Right now, the strategic national stockpile contains only a small fraction of that amount, 37 million. It's a yawning gap, government officials acknowledge, one that was laid out in stark detail in this Health and Human Services Power Point presentation two years ago.

Government officials say before they build up supplies, they want more evidence the masks provide effective protection. But current guidance from the CDC recommends the use of surgical masks. And last year OSHA estimates that a single health professional could go through close to 2,000 during a pandemic.

Bowen has been crusading for more domestic production of surgical masks. He could benefit financially but says this isn't just about business. It's about the nation's health and security.

BOWEN: Important things like face masks should be made in America. And I think they'll finally realize what we've been trying to tell them for almost three years.

MESERVE (on camera): Hospitals, clinics and physicians are creating their own stockpiles of surgical masks. A good thing, except manufacturers are already having trouble keeping up with demand. And if H1N1 becomes more deadly, that demand will likely grow much larger.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: OK. Pushing forward now, nurses on the front lines in the battle against swine flu. How do they keep from getting sick? Like I told you at the top of the show, it's a big worry in California, where the state nurses association is threatening to strike.

Joining me now from San Francisco, spokeswoman and pediatric nurse, Martha Kuhl. So Martha, I know last spring you became very concerned about H1N1. Tell me why. What was happening in the emergency rooms among nurses?

MARTHA KUHL, SPOKESWOMAN/PEDIATRIC NURSE: Well, this, as you know, is a novel virus. It's been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. And patients were getting sick, and it was being communicated from patients to -- all over the community and through hospitals. Nurses needed to help prevent the spread of that infection.

PHILLIPS: Now, did nurses feel like they were getting what they need to protect themselves so they could treat these patients, that they weren't even sure in some cases how exactly to treat them?

KUHL: No. Hospitals throughout the nation have not uniformly implemented the highest standards that have been recommended by the Centers of Disease Control. In fact, CNA did a survey of 190 hospitals, and hospitals were not uniformly providing protective equipment and doing the No. 1 recommendation, which is identify and isolate patients who could expose others at the door of the hospital.

PHILLIPS: Now, we've talked about Karen Ann Hayes, the nurse that died from what you say absolutely, from H1N1. How -- how did that happen? What was she not given that could happen to other nurses?

KUHL: Well, many hospitals don't have enough masks and protective equipment, and if patients aren't immediately identified who have fever and respiratory symptoms, and a nurse has close contact with that patient, they would be considered exposed.

So, it's very important that there be protective equipment readily available that's disposable, not that the hospitals do not require us to reuse that protective equipment, and that we can isolate patients appropriately so that it does not spread to other patients. Anybody in the hospital these days is very medically fragile. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there.

PHILLIPS: So now nurses are organizing this massive protest in California, Nevada. Will they protest in any other states, do you know of? And what do you hope to achieve through the boycotting? And does this mean we're not going to have our nurses in many hospitals in California and Nevada?

KUHL: Nurses give notice of intent to strike as a last resort. We've been in negotiations for many, many months. The public agencies are recommending the hospitals take protective measures. And the hospitals aren't doing it. This is a last resort. We truly hope to go back to the table and prevent a strike. But if we have to, as a last resort, to protect our patients, we will.

PHILLIPS: And I think that's the main concern. Hearing about nurses striking, for me, as a patient, and for all of our viewers, they're wondering, "Oh, my God, what if this strikes my family, if anything strikes my family and I don't have my nurse." KUHL: We always will be available in emergency situations. We set up patient protection committees. We help -- we alert the employer in advance so that they can make -- take appropriate protective measures for the patients. This is a very last resort, and we would never allow a patient to needlessly suffer.

PHILLIPS: That's good to hear. Just quickly, real quickly, before we go, you're a pediatric nurse. What have you been doing to protect yourself? Are you wearing a mask or doing anything differently?

KUHL: Yes. In fact, I -- whenever a patient is identified who -- who has a fever and respiratory symptoms, we wear a mask, a gown, gloves. If we're very -- in close contact to the patient -- and children are notorious for not covering their mouth when they sneeze or cough -- we wear goggles to prevent the -- the spread of infection to us.

And we really need to do that, and we're recommending that nurses do get the vaccine, to help protect -- prevent illness and the spread of illness.

PHILLIPS: Well, we need you, Martha Kuhl, and all the other nurses that are talking about striking. We just hope this can all get worked out and folks don't have to worry about their health, as well.

Appreciate your time. Martha Kuhl, with the California Nurses Association. Appreciate it.

KUHL: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And as always, I want to hear from you. Tell me your thoughts or concern about H1N1. Tweet me at KyraCNN. I'll read some of your responses on the air.

And our Web site is chock-full of info, by the way, on how to protect yourself from H1N1. Just log on to CNN.com/health. All the information you need right there.

Hamid Karzai or Abdullah Abdullah? Who will lead Afghanistan? The historic election, take two.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Protect this man at all costs. The sole, sacred mission of the Secret Service, right? Not quite. They've got a lot more on their plate, and the strain is showing. It's no secret.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hamid Karzai bites the bullet and agrees to a runoff election in two weeks. Of course the Afghan president didn't have much choice. As we told you yesterday, U.N.-backed fraud investigators tossed out hundreds of thousands of his votes from the August election.

Chris Lawrence joins us now from Kabul.

Chris, how much of a factor was the White House turning up the heat here?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, nobody is going to say anything publicly, but over the past couple of days, John -- Senator John Kerry met with President Karzai five times. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called him. They had all the same line. Urging him to come out early and say that he would accept a runoff election and that he would abide by some of the findings of the investigators.

He did not do so. Until today, when the Independent Election Commission verified a lot of those fraud findings and pushed this to a runoff election. So, in some respects, although many are praising him now for coming out and accepting it, in essence they are praising him for simply following Afghan law at this point.

PHILLIPS: So, two weeks isn't much time. Can they pull it off?

LAWRENCE: You were breaking up just a little bit, but I think the gist is the problems that could be associated with this runoff. With trying to get it done on such short notice. You know, you've got several factors involved. The military is telling us that they do have sufficient security forces.

In fact, we -- we did speak with some of the commanders of the international forces here, and they told us that they have actually been in planning for this runoff for some time, so they are ahead of the game. They're not starting from scratch from today, trying to plan for the runoff in just 18 days.

At the same time, what you're going to see is that they have a definite challenge in trying to find people to run some of these polls. When you look at things, there was a tremendous amount of fraud. You can't rehire some of the same people who were involved in the original fraud. That will be a challenge, in addition to the military challenge of trying to provide security for this runoff -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence, live in Kabul. Chris, thanks.

Few reporters have a better grip on the Afghan crisis than our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. We're going to check in with him on President Karzai's crucial decision next hour.

They served our country by going off to war. In the heat of battle they risked their lives to save their buddies, surrounded by an overwhelming enemy force.

Those who survived the nightmare of combat in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago returned home. Some of them got their uncommon bravery was spit in the face and chant of "baby killers." Well, today those ordinary civilian soldiers gathered in Washington, 88 proud members of the Army's Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th armored cavalry regiment. Finally receiving the recognition they paid for in blood and death.

Presidential unit citation for extraordinary heroism and auspicious gallantly. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who fought in what came to be called the anonymous battle. Troopers, you are not anonymous anymore. With America's overdue recognition also comes responsibility, our responsibility as citizens and as a nation to always remain worthy of your service.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, when the battle was over on that day in March of 1977, 70 American soldiers lay dead or wounded. The soldier who led the rescue effort, retired Captain John Poindexter, worked seven hard years for this day of recognition. He says the group's presidential unit citation is not just for them, but for all Vietnam War veterans.

You can bet the Marines are getting a hoot out of this. The Navy's changed its recruiting slogan to "America's Navy: a global force for good." Critics have already torpedoed the move, blasting the Navy for going soft. The Navy's take? The new slogan creates more sensitivity to, quote, "global issues."

As we mentioned, the Marines are probably rolling on the floor. And in case you're wondering, the old slogan was "accelerate your life."

All this comes as the Navy is celebrating its 234th birthday.

Protect the president, no matter what. That's what the Secret Service does, right? The only thing the Secret Service does, right? Well, this should be the only thing they should be doing, but something has gone terribly wrong. It's just one of many jobs, and it's a mission that's taking a toll. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They shadow the president at every turn: protecting him, the vice president, their families, dignitaries. They move ahead of the president to handle security on his trips and investigate threats against him. Could those crucial missions be compromised by so-called mission creep?

The U.S. Secret Service also investigates financial crimes, including fraud, identity theft, and even counterfeiting. That was, in fact, the agency's first mission when it was created in 1865. But now it even helps track missing children, and a recent congressional report suggests the service may be overstretched.

Quote, "If there were an evaluation of the agency's two missions, it might be determined that it is ineffective for the U.S.S.S. to conduct its protection mission and investigate financial crimes." The author of a recent book on the service has already determined that.

RON KESSLER, AUTHOR, "IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE": The fact is that the Secret Service is totally overloaded. They have so many extra duties that they're performing and the number of agents has not really increased.

TODD: Contacted by CNN, a Secret Service spokesman strongly disputes those assessments, saying the agency is not overstretched and that its ranks have increased.

The spokesman said last year, while agents protected several candidates during the longest and most expensive campaign in American history, the Secret Service also had its biggest haul ever of financial assets seized from criminals: $141 million. A former Secret Service officer we spoke to says agents shouldn't be just bodyguards.

WILLIAM PICKLE, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: After a number of years in protection, you need to send those agents back out to do criminal work, to stimulate them, because what we found is good criminal investigators make very good protection agents.

TODD: But is the Secret Service dealing with increased threats to the president? A report last spring by the Department of Homeland Security says right-wing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African-American president and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members.

But the same report also says those groups have not yet turned to attack planning, and the Secret Service spokesman we dealt with says. contrary to recent media reports, President Obama is not receiving more threats than other presidents.

(on camera) The spokesman says Mr. Obama's threats spiked right after his inauguration, but that right now, they're within the same range as his two immediate predecessors.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

Taliban suicide bombers hit an Islamic university in Pakistan's capital today. The blast tore through a woman's cafeteria and a faculty building. At least five people were killed; 22 were wounded. Hundreds of women are enrolled in school there. Meantime, the Pakistani military is pushing ahead with a massive anti-Taliban offensive.

At the University of Connecticut, a day of silence after a candlelight vigil. Students are remembering football player Jasper Howard, stabbed to death this weekend during a fight outside a campus dance. One man is charged with interfering with police, but he's not accused in Howard's death.

In north Florida an Amber Alert and a massive search for a 7- year-old girl. Somer Thompson vanished yesterday while heading home from school in Orange Park. She was walking with her sister and some friends and disappeared when she ran ahead.

Good thing the universe has plenty of storage space. Otherwise there might not be enough room for 32 new planets.

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PHILLIPS: I'm with it.

Well, it's a cosmic population boom. Astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system. Pretty cool stuff. That brings the total number of so-called exoplanets to more than 400 now. So far, there's no sign of little green men, so we think. But it sure adds weight to the theory that the universe has a lot more places where life could pop up.

Chad Myers, do you believe that? I don't know. The folks in Roswell think there are little green men running around somewhere.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Why are they green? I never understood that.

PHILLIPS: That's right. How did it start with green? That's a great point.

MYERS: Right. I mean, you know, Mars was a red planet. How do you get green people from the red planet?

This is actually some of the new stuff coming out of the observatory, a big observatory in Chile, and they have found 32 in what we understand is many, many more new planets. These are the only 2 that they're -- 32 that they're writing about at this point in time.

They take, and they look, and they use their telescope, and they look for wobbles in the suns that these things are surrounding, that these planets are going around, because the suns will wobble just a little bit because of the gravity of these planets.

Go to CNN.com/technology. You'll know everything you want to know about it. You can take it to the water cooler tomorrow.

We'll talk about this for a second. Here's Rick. There, right there, Hurricane Rick. That would be Cabo San Lucas. This does look like it's going to skim the city of Cabo San Lucas and also San Jose del Cabo, the areas there surrounding Cabo San Lucas. It is a pretty big storm, still; it's 65 miles an hour. It's going to be more of a rainmaker than anything else.

Still a rain maker and a wind maker, Typhoon Lupit. There's Manila, the Philippines. I've shown you this picture now, I think, ten times with three separate hurricanes, typhoons, whatever you want to call it. There you go. It is still there.

And then the story for the U.S.: warmer weather for the east and the southeast. Heavier rainfall in the middle part of the country, especially Texas that has already picked up significant flooding. More flooding to come. Even flood watches for Dallas area coming up in the next 48 hours. Some snow in the mountains of Colorado, but not too much at this point -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You got it.

PHILLIPS: Birth out of control. Pregnancy knocks on epidemic's door at one school. What is going on at Robeson High? And if Chicago teens didn't have enough to deal with.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's see what we can...

PHILLIPS: President Hamid Karzai has agreed to a November 7 runoff election. A U.N.-backed panel found evidence of massive fraud in the August presidential election and threw out a ton of Karzai's votes.

President Obama, Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, Oval Office. The U.S. is worried that Iraq's January parliamentary elections may be delayed, leading to a possible new surge in violence.

And for months, we've been following all sorts of controversies swirling around the Veterans Affair department. This morning, first lady Michelle Obama made a visit, calling the agency's work vital.

Fear, violence and death -- facts of life for far too many students on Chicago's South Side, and against that backdrop, way too many kids disregarding another fact of life: Unprotected sex is a pretty good way to get pregnant.

Paul Robeson High School just made local headlines, with the principal sharing some incredible stats. Of the school's 800 girls, 115 are pregnant or already teen moms. Just imagine a class full of students, row after row. Now imagine five classrooms full. That's how many girls we're talking about.

OK, that's 14 percent of Robeson's female students. Nationally, the birthrate for that age group around 4 percent.

Now, we've been talking about some of this community's problems with her the past week or so, and, boy, did she respond, so we asked HLN's host and author, I want Jane Velez-Mitchell to come back for this one.

I just, you know, I go back, and I -- you and I have talked about this. I've grown up -- I grew up in the inner city, and, you know, there were girls that were getting pregnant. But, boy, those girls were shunned. I mean, they were looked at as the sleazy girls. I mean, you just didn't get pregnant if you were...

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST, "ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL": At least when we were teenagers, we knew the goal was to not get pregnant.

PHILLIPS: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That's not even the case anymore. PHILLIPS: You were told that left and right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, absolutely. But that's all gone out the window. I mean, we had eight years of a president who was virulently anti-birth control, anti-sex education, anti-family planning and preaching one thing, abstinence only. And we know from Sarah Palin's daughter and from many, many other examples, abstinence-only does not work.

And there's a very simple reason. The mind, the intellect, is a very low defense against biological urges. Biological urges will immediately trump the mind. If a person as sophisticated as Eliot Spitzer cannot control his biological urges with everything he had to lose, how can we expect teenagers in a Chicago public school...

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Come on, Jane, we're talking about...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... to control their biological urges?

PHILLIPS: ... men in power, OK? We had a president that, you know, got action in the White House with an intern. I mean...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: ... we're talking about young -- that's a whole other issue you and I could go off on, men in power.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right.

PHILLIPS: But you bring up a...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But if they can't control themselves, how can we expect these teenagers...

PHILLIPS: Great point.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... to control themselves...

PHILLIPS: Great point.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... when they are in a hormonal high at that moment. That's a peak of their hormonal urge, and we're telling them just abstinence only. We know it doesn't work. And what happened is that the whole culture shifted because of the Bush administration.

So, you had movies like "Juno" coming out that celebrated teen pregnancy. You had Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's kid sister, 16 years old, pregnant, and she was on a kids' show at the time. Millions of American kids saw that. What kind of messages does that send?

We cannot keep celebrating having more and more kids, but we do it because we live in a consumer culture, and the business interests know the more people we have out there, the more buyers we have. So, there's a drumbeat -- a drumbeat -- in this society: Procreate, procreate, procreate!

PHILLIPS: OK, so how do you target teen girls now, then? How do you tell them, this is not what you want to be doing? Because, let me just point out, I was reading about the principal at this high school, OK? He has now decided he wants to take this former crackhouse that's right across the street from the high school and turn it into a day care for student use, OK?

And here's another little tidbit. The principal, his mom, had him when she was 15. So, he's saying, I can kind of understand what's happening here. I want to try and figure out how to help and add support. Is that enabling, or is that just addressing a problem he has right now? Because you don't want to even be in the point where you're having to turn a crackhouse into a day care because all your students keep getting pregnant.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. Obviously these beautiful children that are born into the world have to be cared for. It's not their fault. So, yes, I applaud all those efforts to make sure that these moms, who are completely incapable when they're a teen -- I mean, I remember what I was like when I was a teenager. I wasn't capable of raising a child. I don't know about you. Most teenagers are immature, and they're not capable, so they need help.

PHILLIPS: And I was wild, and I got in trouble, and I did all kinds of horrible things. But can I tell you something? Getting pregnant, not on my list. That was -- I mean, I knew, boy, that would be the end of it if I did that. But teenagers seem to have this mentality that it's OK.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, one of the things we have to do is provide them with birth control pills, which has become kind of a dirty word, and we need to start talking about that again.

PHILLIPS: So, you're saying forget about the "don't have sex." That just ain't going to be a reality these days?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, look, you know, it's so funny, because when you mention birth control, people automatically assume you're encouraging teenagers to have sex.

PHILLIPS: Condoms and pills and -- OK.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, when I tell somebody to wear a seatbelt, I'm not saying go out and have a car accident! I'm saying, if you have a car accident, you should be wearing your seatbelt so you don't go through the windshield.

And it's the same thing with birth control, but we really aren't talking -- when's the last time we had a national discussion about birth control?

PHILLIPS: Well, that's a good point. I can't remember the last time we covered something about that. We seem to have covered a lot of issues...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nobody talks about it.

PHILLIPS: We hear Eric Holder, you know, our attorney general, talking about domestic violence, but, heck, maybe we should start talking about other women's issues, and that could start with our young girls and the fact that pregnancy rates are going up across the country.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly, and powerful women like you have to set the agenda. And you are doing that, and I applaud you for that. And we women have to kind of seize control of the airwaves and say, these are the important issues we want to talk about, and stop letting a patriarchal society determine what is news and what isn't news.

PHILLIPS: Jane Velez-Mitchell, always good to see you. I hope you never have daughters, because they're hosed. They'll never get out of the house. Always great to see you.

(LAUGHTER)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, Kyra, for having me on.

PHILLIPS: Come back tomorrow.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I'm delighted. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: I'll come up with another great issue for us to discuss.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, great. We'll do it.

PHILLIPS: Wonderful.

All right, well, talking about casual Friday, school kids in Hawaii will be ending the week in pajamas. Boy, what a switch from the talk we just had about kids in school. Well, they're going to be staying home, that's why, actually.

New teacher contract cut 17 Fridays from the school calendar starting this week. It's meant to save money for the cash-strapped state, but a lot of educators are afraid that students will pay for it academically. Hawaii's near the bottom nationally, by the way, in achievement, and now it's got the nation's shortest school year.

Government school lunch guidelines don't match up with the government's own food pyramid. Listen to this, just one revelation in a new report calling for big changes in the cafeteria. No surprise -- it wants more fruit, veggies and whole grains, and yes, the report authors say that it's going to cost more to do that, too. All this comes as Baltimore schools are trying to trim the fat, both budget and belly.

CNN's Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Hampstead Hill Academy in Baltimore, it's meatless Monday. The only food served in the cafeteria, vegetarian. The Baltimore city schools implemented the districtwide policy this year as a way to cut costs and to promote healthier eating.

TONY GERACI, FOOD AND NUTRITION DIRECTOR, BALTIMORE SCHOOLS: In every culture on the planet, there are, you know, plant-based meals, and we wanted to be able to start a conversation around that.

SYLVESTER: On the menu, vegetarian chili with rice, corn, green beans and fruits. The policy is being embraced by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, which presented the school district with its Proggy Award for the most progressive public school district 2009, and has been praised by the Center for a Livable Future, a group out of Johns Hopkins University that's promoting these cartoons called "The Meatrix," a play off the movie "The Matrix," criticizing large factory farms. Baltimore school officials say they do not have a political agenda.

MATT HORNBECK, PRINCIPAL, HAMPSTEAD HILL ACADEMY: We're not the food police, and so we know that families and children will make choices, and we don't want to judge those choices. We just want to provide more options.

SYLVESTER: Parents we spoke to didn't have a problem with the new menu.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a great choice for kids. I mean, they can learn about theirs other ways to eat food without having meat.

SYLVESTER: But the American Meat Institute does. The institute represents meat packagers and processors, and says that what kids are being served up is an unhealthy dose of indoctrination.

Janet Riley is with the meat institute. She's also a mother of two.

JANET RILEY, AMERICAN MEAT INSTITUTE: I am not suggesting that every child should be forced to eat meat every day. What I'm suggesting is that children and parents should have the ability to choose what their children eat.

SYLVESTER: Riley says the school lunch may be the only source of protein some children get during the day. Three-quarters of Baltimore students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

(on camera): The American Meat Institute says in fact, three out of four children are actually not getting enough protein.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, parents, listen up. A baby food company has issued a nationwide recall because some of its stuff might be tainted with botulism. The product in question, Plum Organics, pouches of apple and carrot blend. You're looking for a best by date of May 21st, 2010. The company says no illnesses have been reported. You can get more info at plumorganics.com.

All right, let's check our top stories.

Back to the polls, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to a runoff presidential election November 7th, and President Obama's applauding it. The August presidential election was tainted by findings of big-time fraud. Tons of Karzai's votes were tossed out.

In northern Florida right now, more than 100 cops are searching for a 7-year-old girl. They put out an Amber Alert for Somer Thompson, who vanished yesterday. She has brown hair with a ponytail. She was carrying a purple Hannah Montana backpack and a lunch box.

Well, are we ready to take on swine flu? We're getting pretty mixed messages here. The California nurses union says it will go on strike against 34 hospitals unless they do more to protect workers against H1N1.

The streets that have been their home are now their escape. Running away from past mistakes, toward pride and purpose. Some of Dallas's homeless lacing up their donated sneakers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hey, don't panic over the H1N1 flu or the slow delivery of a vaccine. That's actually the message coming from the CDC to you and me. Might have trouble finding a dose today, though, but in a couple more weeks, it should be easier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: There are now millions of doses out in states. What we've done is to get a vaccine out as soon as it becomes available to us. We're shipping overnight. There are about 10 million doses now out in the community or getting to the community. And it is challenging for people to find vaccine. The good news is that if there are no further manufacturing delays, within two or three weeks we should be in a much more comfortable situation, where it is much easier to find the vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're getting a lot of iReports from you, our viewers, about the swine flu threat. Here's what you're saying and doing about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA FAZLI, CNN IREPORTER: Older brother first. Age before beauty, come on. No, come on! Now. Sit down. Stop being such a baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, you won't even feel it. Look at me. Look at me. You don't even feel it. FAZLI: You don't even feel that. Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMERON HARRELSON, CNN IREPORTER: As all of you know, the swine flu has scared many people across the nation, including getting people to go out and get vaccinated for the flu. Well, I'm about to go right now and get my vaccination.

Well, I'm proud of myself for taking another step to ensure my health and safety by getting vaccinated. And I encourage all of you to go out and get your vaccination, too, whether it be with the flumist version like I got, or with the shot version.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: By the way, I love that T-shirt.

Well, we've asked for your thoughts and concerns about the swine flu and the flu season in general. Let's check some of our tweets @kyracnn. Jaley says, "I think I'm more nervous about the vaccine than I am about the actual H1N1. Not much testing to back it up."

From Msstag, "I won't be getting an H1N1 or a regular flu shot. I have read the ingredients in the shots. Scary. Worse than the flu."

Trhogan says, "I'm in the group of 'compromised immune patients.' Fourteen years HIV-positive, and my clinic hasn't offered swine flu shots yet. I'll give them a call."

And Etcpolitics says, "Too late for us. We've all had the flu already."

Thanks, guys. We're going to try to read a bunch more next hour.

They're not asking for your change or sleeping on the street. They're running down it. A 5K run in Dallas aimed at benefiting the homeless. For the first time this year, some of the runners training for it are actually homeless. Five homeless runners will take part next month using donated running gear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OWENS LONGMIRE, HOMELESS RUNNER: I looked at the price, and it was $130 for the tennis shoe. And I said, man, this is nothing but a blessing. You know? That's the way I felt. And then I look at the shirt, and I say, $59, and I ain't put a quarter on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The race will bring in $5,000 for a homeless shelter in downtown Dallas. Behind an inflated balloon, quite an inflated ego. The Colorado balloon escapade back down to earth, and it's time for our Jeanne Moos to hand out the awards.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It was a high-flying sensation that deflated in more ways than one. The sheriff says the "balloon boy" story was a lot of hot air. So, now that we've gone from the high drama to the low comedy, it's time for Jeanne Moos to hand out the awards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A kid who looked like the cat that swallowed the canary adrift in a balloon resembling an unidentified flying chef's hat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Hurry, Mom, better call the cops got a weather balloon looks like Jiffy Pop.

MOOS: Yeah, well, now that the story's popped, time to hand out the coveted Silver Saucers.

(on camera): The Silver Saucer Award for most awkward moment goes to the parents, reacting to their son.

(voice-over): They seemed speechless when he told Wolf Blitzer...

FALCON HEENE, THOUGHT TO BE MISSING IN BALLOON: We did this for a show.

RICHARD HEENE, FALCON'S FATHER: Man.

MAYUMI HEENE, FALCON'S MOTHER: No.

MOOS (on camera): For best PDA, public display of affection, we award the Silver Saucer to the dad.

R. HEENE: I'm just so glad he's here, you know. I'm really sorry I yelled at him.

MOOS (voice-over): Mom had a supporting role with comforting rubbing.

(on camera): We award the Silver Saucer for the most heartfelt tears to the mother.

(voice-over): During that 911 call...

911 OPERATOR: It's a flying saucer?

M. HEENE: Yes, we've got to get my son.

MOOS: The Silver Saucer for worst acting goes to mom and dad during the reality show "Wife Swap." M. HEENE: No, I've told you from my heart.

R. HEENE: You're not my wife, you're a man's nightmare.

MOOS (on camera): The Silver Saucer award for not acting but acting out goes to young Falcon.

(voice-over): Before the family's interview with Wolf Blitzer, Wolf introduced himself.

R. HEENE: Say hi to Wolf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

F. HEENE: Who the hell is Wolf?

MOOS: During the interview, Falcon made faces, took his dad's phone and slapped his brother. But the kids also get the Silver Saucer for best hygiene when sneezing.

(on camera): The Silver Saucer award for best balloon cameo goes to "Saturday Night Live."

SETH MEYERS, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Bye, balloon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Seth.

MEYERS: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a hoax.

MEYERS: Yes, we know.

MOOS (voice-over): But the Silver Saucer for most genuine moment goes to Falcon's brothers for their reaction when he threw up on national TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh.

MOOS: Dad looks like he almost lost it.

(on camera): At least with the Silver Saucer award, you can eat it after receiving it.

(voice-over): Just don't make yourself sick.

F. HEENE: Mom, I feel like I'm going to vomit.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN...

(on camera): Not enough room in there for a kid.

F. HEENE: Who the hell is Wolf?

MOOS: ... New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We're pushing forward to our next hour now. You think housing prices have hit bottom? Well, maybe not. Our Ali Velshi brings us a chilling prediction. On the brighter side, we're going to tell you what is selling these days, iPhones and Macs.

Plus, he's an accused spy. He could face life behind bars. Oh, and by the way, did I tell you he was a former government scientist?

A little girl happy, seemingly healthy, dies suddenly, no explanation. Could her heartbeat provide important clues?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's a little bit modern medicine, a little bit "CSI," and it's given at least one family something they desperately needed after their little girl's sudden death, some peace.

Here's CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elizabeth Glassell had a really bad feeling. The nursery was way too quiet the day she raced to check on firstborn Lillie Grace.

ELIZABETH GLASSELL (ph), MOTHER: Her head was about here and she was laying facedown with her hands out to the side of her head. And I flipped her over, and then I knew.

FEYERICK: Lillie Grace died suddenly a month shy of her second birthday.

GLASSELL: The day before, I was feeding her lunch, and she was dancing in front of the mirror singing a little, you know, made-up baby song.

FEYERICK: The medical examiner found no illness and no injury. So, how could such a happy child so full of life die so suddenly? It's more common than you think. As many as 12,000 babies, toddlers and adults die similarly each year, leaving grieving families overwhelmed with questions.

GLASSELL: Did I miss something? Was she calling me? Why didn't I go in? Why didn't I save her?

FEYERICK: Driven to know why, Glassell's (ph) quest led her to a unique program in the Bronx at New York's Montefiore-Einstein Center for Cardiogenetics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking at ion channels, which create the electrical signals in the heart.

FEYERICK: Dr. Tom McDonald (ph) and the diagnostic team led by Dr. Robert Marion essentially analyze the heartbeat in dead people. Using cutting-edge technology, they inject genetic DNA mutations into cells to see if they trigger an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to sudden death.

DR. ROBERT MARION, MONTEFIORE-EINSTEIN CENTER FOR CARDIOGENETICS: A change in a gene has led to the cardiac channel not functioning properly, and as a result, heartbeat can't get through.

FEYERICK: The disease, known as Long-QT Syndrome, is thought to cause up to 20 percent of sudden infant death and up to 30 percent of unexpected deaths in older children and adults. Once the diagnosis is made, family members can test their own risk factor and seek treatment.

MARION: They now have control again over a situation that was uncontrollable.

FEYERICK: Elizabeth and John Glassell (ph) were tested. Neither they nor their two other daughters are at risk. Because of the way Lillie Grace's DNA was originally preserved, the family will never know for sure what killed her. But after cardiogenetic testing at least they now know this.

GLASSELL: There wasn't anything that anyone could have done, and no, she did not suffer.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Stratford, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)