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Officials Say H1N1 Vaccine Safe; Gangsters Target Health Care; Witness to Sweat Lodge Tragedy Shares Story; Protecting Yourself against H1N1; Latino and All-American; Experts Claim Texas Wrongly Executed Man

Aired October 22, 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, thank you so much.

We are pushing forward on H1N1 flu, because it's pushing forward with a vengeance. You won't believe how busy the bug has been just in the last few days. And it's not stopping.

The gangsters of 2009, finding a racket even richer than bootlegged liquor, stolen cigarettes, even gambling. Getting fat on health care.

And what is it about one high school, where the problem is not swine flu? It's suicide.

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

What a difference day three can make. Let's do some swine flu math. Monday, this week, 11 schools in 5 states closed, thanks to H1N1. Wednesday, 198 schools in 15 states. Now, how's that for a multiplication problem?

Now add these numbers. One of those greater than/less than problems: 2,200 kids out sick Monday, 65,000 yesterday. What will tomorrow's numbers be? We'll wait and see.

Now a geography lesson. Check out the red spots. The southeast, Great Lakes region and west are seeing the most swine flu cases right now.

Now, how about that vaccine, assuming that you can find it? Well, you've got nurses in New York suing the state because they're not convinced the vaccine is safe. A mixed message here, from health- care pros, no less. So what do you do? Get the vaccine or not? On Capitol Hill they're making no bones about it.

Here's congressional correspondent, Brianna Keilar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dressed for the cold and huddled together in the predawn darkness in Rockville, Maryland. Around the country, people like these are lining up to get the swine flu vaccine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got here around 1 a.m. in the morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a premature baby. I want him to get it this morning. Look at the line! It's bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a limited amount of injectable vaccine.

KEILAR: Many are disappointed when they can't get a shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With a year advance that they had on this disease, I am amazed at the lack of response by the medical community in the United States.

KEILAR: The lines are fueled by the newly available H1N1 flu vaccine and warnings from government officials trying to avert a wider outbreak. The secretaries of homeland security, health and human services, and education, testified before a Senate panel Wednesday.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HHS SECRETARY: There are actually 86 H1N1 lab-confirmed pediatric deaths since we began reporting this in April, and the number is equivalent to the entire flu season of past years. So, we are already at that level.

KEILAR: Despite the scary statistics, many Americans have no plans to get the shot, concerned about the safety of the vaccine. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 43 percent of respondents said they were afraid the vaccine could lead to death or serious health problems.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: They want to know if it's safe to give to their children, what kind of testing was done and whether it contains any dangerous additives.

KEILAR: But just steps from where congressional staffers in high-risk categories were receiving their H1N1 vaccines, officials told Congress it is safe.

SEBELIUS: We have a vaccine. Go get vaccinated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Brianna is with us now from D.C.

So, we heard Kathleen Sebelius say, "Go get vaccinated," but you've got to find it first. So, when will the vaccine be widely available? There's been a number of mixed messages, Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, Secretary Sebelius is hoping, or she said, really, the vaccine should be widely available by the beginning of November.

And the issue right now, Kyra, is health officials were hoping to have about 40 million of doses of the vaccine ready to go by the end of this month. So far, they're about 10 to 12 million short. And that's why there are people who are really priority for getting vaccinations: health-care workers, pregnant women, those with underlying health conditions. And so some of the rest of us are really waiting in line or just having to wait until it's more widely available.

PHILLIPS: And now we're hearing that a member of Congress, right there, someone that works behind you, has swine flu?

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon has disclosed this week that his doctor thinks that he has swine flu. His office says he's taking it easy per the doctor's orders, and it really seems that he's the first member of Congress to be diagnosed with H1N1.

But a lot of the kids of members of Congress have been diagnosed with it, Kyra, as well as a lot of pages. Those basically teenage interns who work here on the Hill. So, it's going around.

PHILLIPS: Well, hopefully you won't get it, Brianna.

KEILAR: I hope so.

PHILLIPS: That's one person we'd like to avoid this. That's right, all right. Thank you.

Well, they could make a movie, call it "Germs on a Plane." Wouldn't need Samuel L. Jackson or special effects, just lots of hand sanitizer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let's go with the worst-case scenario. I have H1N1. I cough and cough, and I don't cover it up well. What are the chances you think that you'll get sick?

JULIE GERBERDING, FORMER DIRECTOR, CDC: Well, there's a very good chance. Flu is very transmissible.

COHEN: This is a graphic simulation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Yes, when you get on a plane, you might be a sitting duck for swine flu, because germs fly free. We're going to talk more about how to protect yourself when you travel this hour.

And go ahead and fire off any swine flu questions you might have. We've got a doctor with us with the 411 on H1N1. Send your questions to CNNnewsroom@CNN.com. The doc will be in to answer all your questions this hour.

Health care going gangster! You and I see Medicare and Medicaid as a way to keep up with soaring costs, but criminal gangs see easy money. And why wouldn't they? It's a lot easier and potentially more profitable than drugs, prostitution, even gambling.

An exclusive report now from our senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Federal agents in Los Angeles last week arresting two Nigerian members of an organized crime ring. They're charged with defrauding Medicare of $6 million. It's the latest strike in a growing battle against organized crime's newest scheme.

(on camera) These are big checks.

(voice-over) Ripping off taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs.

GLENN FERRY, HHS INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE: They are definitely well organized, well schooled in how to commit Medicare fraud.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Easy with sort of the heavy hand.

(voice-over) Organized crime groups of multiple ethnicities and nationalities are muscling in on the action in health care fraud hot spots like Los Angeles.

Prime boss Constantine Gregorian (ph), a former Soviet army colonel. He pled guilty to stealing $20 million from Medicare.

Karaped Dakarian (ph), boss of a Eurasian crime gang. He and five of his lieutenants were recently convicted of stealing doctor identities in a $2 million scam.

(on camera) The Dakarian (ph) gang filed Medicare claims for patients receiving treatment at an office here in downtown Los Angeles. But there's no doctor's office here, only a mail drop, where prosecutors say the crime ring received hundreds of thousands of dollars of Medicare reimbursement checks.

FERRY: Medicare was -- had no idea that a lot of this was going on, because they assumed a legitimate doctor was providing services.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): In this undercover sting, Dakarian (ph) was caught giving instructions on how to set up bogus medical clinics that bill Medicare, using stolen doctor I.D.s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doctors that do know that they can claim identity theft any (EXPLETIVE DELETED) way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty slick.

CHERNOFF: Dr. Gianfranco Burdi had his identity stolen when he was recruited to join what appeared to be a new medical practice here. After the managers failed to show a business license, Dr. Burdi pulled out. Two years later, the FBI came calling.

DR. GIANFRANCO BURDI, PSYCHIATRIST: I was actually pretty -- pretty frightened.

CHERNOFF: The FBI questioned Dr. Burdi, a psychiatrist, whether he had prescribed electric wheelchairs for Medicare patients, $800,000 worth.

BURDI: I'm a psychiatrist. Why would I prescribe an electric wheelchair?

CHERNOFF: To file fraudulent claims, criminals need beneficiary I.D. numbers. They're easy to collect along L.A.'s Skid Row. Residents tell CNN they've accepted cash from recruiters, known as cappers, to go to bogus medical clinics. There, they share what they call their red, white, and blue, their Medicare card that has a beneficiary number for billing the government.

(on camera) And that happens all the time around here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, all the time.

CHERNOFF: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day people down here need to eat. Somebody who comes up with a quick hustle, for quick money, they're going to jump on it. I'm one of them. I say, "I will."

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Jimmie Rodgers (ph) says he went three times a week to a clinic, receiving $100 a visit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were no doctors. They were just -- somebody just had their hand out and just ripping the system off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Wow. OK, so you were there in L.A. But how -- how big of a problem is this? I mean, is this going on in more states?

CHERNOFF: Massive quantities across the nation. Health-care fraud amounts to about $70 billion, according to experts. That's a very conservative estimate, they say, but that is corrupt doctors, corrupt hospital administrators. Nobody knows exactly how much involves the mob.

But the government is trying to crack down. They are making this a priority now. And they say that so far this year, they're anticipating pulling in $4 billion from fraud.

PHILLIPS: That is outrageous. Now, OK, I guess this is sort of that optimistic question. Can health-care reform in any way, shape, or form put something in place? Could any of the changes that are being suggested stop this? Because you just pointed out how easy it is to do this.

CHERNOFF: It's very, very easy. And Congress is somewhat aware. So, it is getting a little bit of a priority in the bill before Congress, but not all that much. Only $100 million a year extra is going to be spent fighting fraud.

And, Kyra, $100 million, that's about the amount of fraud committed over 12 hours, on average.

PHILLIPS: And you know. Twelve...

CHERNOFF: Hours.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh!

CHERNOFF: That's how big this problem is. It has not gotten that much attention at all.

PHILLIPS: And, you know, when you think about the mob, you think hired assassins. You think brutal murderers. You know, you think bodies hanging in freezers, all these horrible things. But they never had -- there weren't any allegations of that of that because it was so easy to do. They're just smart criminals and figured out how to infiltrate the system.

CHERNOFF: You have to be a good administrator. That's all. Collect the numbers from the doctors, from the beneficiaries. All of a sudden, the money comes pouring in.

PHILLIPS: Now one more thing for lawmakers to think about when they're working on health-care reform. It's pretty fascinating stuff. Great job. Thanks, Allan.

CHERNOFF: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, watching someone die. You offered to help them, and then it was ignored.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEVERLY BUNN, WITNESS: And they would not let me. They wouldn't let me go over there and help. And that's -- that's one of the hardest things that I have to deal with because I...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Hell inside a sweat lodge, and you're going to hear more, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Meet Amanda Ward. You probably don't know her, but a lot of you can definitely relate to her. Out of work, trying to support her family. Sound familiar? Amanda's our "30-Second Pitch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Some of Wall Street's big-money execs are about to see some big-time pay cuts. The government's pay czar will announce major salary cuts this hour. They affect companies that had to be rescued by you, the taxpayer, you know, places like AIG and Citigroup.

Oh, and by the way, I did say pay czar. The man imposing these cuts, Ken Feinberg, appointed by the White House. He also oversaw the 911 Victims Fund -- or the 9/11 Victims Fund, rather.

Feinberg talks to reporters this hour. If there's big news, we're going to bring it to you.

Compensation of another kind. Unemployment insurance and more people need it. The Labor Department says that the number of first- time filers for unemployment went up by 11,000 last week; 531,000 people fired -- filed, rather, for initial jobless benefits, ending two weeks of pretty significant drops. Analysts tell CNN it seems that companies are still leery about ramping up their hiring, and it could stay that way for some time.

Well, Amanda Ward is hoping companies do ramp up their hiring. She was an award-winning account manager with Cisco. Here's a picture of her actually getting a medal from the top executives. But then the bottom fell out of the economy. And that's when this mom, the sole breadwinner of her family, got laid off. She says it's an exciting but scary time for her, her husband, and their two boys.

Amanda Ward joins us now from Los Angeles. She's today's "30- Second Pitch."

Amanda, did you even see it -- see it coming? And how did your bosses tell you that they had to let you go?

AMANDA WARD, JOB SEEKER: Hi, Kyra. Yes, you know, I sensed that it was coming. Certainly, the economy isn't where we would all like it to be, and eventually, after a few months, my name was called. I was recently affected by a rift in my company.

PHILLIPS: So what type -- what type of work were you involved with? And -- and tell me, you know, how tough it's been looking for that type of work or anything connected to it and what you're doing on a daily basis.

WARD: Sure. My background is in social services and information technology services. And the economy's a little bit rough here in Southern California. Starting a new business, I left Cisco about a year ago, went to a reseller. And that's -- it was just a little bit tough starting a new business and getting new clients.

But I'm really optimistic about the future and having my background at Cisco and now with a Cisco partner, I'm ready to take the next step.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I know your kids and your husband would love that, too. Are you ready for the "30-Second Pitch"?

WARD: I sure am, because they really want me to find a job fast.

PHILLIPS: I can just imagine. All right, let's start the clock, and Amanda, take it away.

WARD: Thanks so much, Kyra.

I'm Amanda, and I'm from Orange County, California. My background is in social services, human resources, and information technology. As a Cisco seller, I was consistently an overachiever on a $40 million goal. My passion is around connecting people, whether that be through media, video, or social networking. I'm great at what I do because of my spirit and personality. I bring results and positive interactions where I go. I look forward to going and joining a new company, where I can continue on my mission of the human connection.

PHILLIPS: I love it! Well, I think you just made a human connection with a number of people out there. Amanda, keep us posted, OK?

WARD: I sure will. Thanks, Kyra, and thanks to Kelly (ph), Joe, and Karen (ph).

PHILLIPS: Ah, you bet.

Well, once again, Amanda's e-mail is hireaward@gmail.com. You can find her e-mail on our blog, as well. And if you want to be part of the pitch, e-mail us at 30SecondPitch@CNN.com. Or you can tweet us at KyraCNN. Next hour, another pitch that you don't want to miss.

Wanted: one personal assistant. Not for a high-powered exec. Not for a top-flight politico, but for a college student. Boy, times have changed. You're not going to believe this want ad.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm an American. What are you, Mexican?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Mexican-American and a bunch of other things I'm still trying to figure out. I'm from Argentina.

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(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now.

Far from recovery. Doctors say that's where this Florida teen is right now. He was doused with rubbing alcohol and set on fire, allegedly by five other teens, suffering burns to more than half his body. It all started with an apparent dispute over a video game and a bicycle.

He's supposed to provide security, but he allegedly did the opposite. The 55-year-old Newark Airport security guard due in court, accused of threatening President Obama. John Breck was arrested Tuesday night after he was allegedly overheard making comments about the president.

A mistrial declared in the alleged extortion plot against John Travolta. A judge in the Bahamas says that one of the sequestered jurors may have spoken out of -- spoken out of line, rather, during deliberations. The judge has ordered a retrial. The alleged extortion stems from the death of Travolta's son from a seizure there in the Bahamas.

Well, we're now hearing what happened in that dark, packed, and stifling sweat lodge in Arizona, where three people ended up dead while on a retreat. The attorney for one of the survivors says he's suing the organizers, self-help guru James Arthur Ray.

Meantime, our Gary Tuchman spoke to a woman who was in the lodge when all hell broke loose.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUNN: Everybody was throwing up everywhere. There was spitting going on. There was -- people were so disoriented they were screaming at one point in time, 'cause I know that they were yelling and yelling, yelling at this man, because he was so disoriented that he actually started crawling into the pit with the hot rocks.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He wasn't alarmed by what was happening inside this sweat lodge?

BUNN: No, because actually, they had taken a couple people out that had passed out, and there was some people yelling, you know, calling different names to see if anybody else was passed out and see if -- who was responding. But I don't think they called everybody's names.

TUCHMAN: So people were passed out, though, and he was still continuing this and not making any comment about that?

BUNN: He made one comment and they did say, "She's passed out. She's passed out. I don't know if she's breathing."

And he said, "The door has now closed, and this round has begun. We'll deal with that at the end of this round."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Wow. Beverly Bunn has a medical background but says her offers to help were rebuffed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUNN: The person actually doing the chest compressions did know CPR, but the person doing the breaths didn't know CPR, and I told them about ten times when I actually got -- stood up and I saw what was going on. And I saw all of these people lying around and mucus coming out of their nose and their mouth and eyes rolled back in their heads. And one guy's eyes were, all the blood vessels were burst, and there was just people lying everywhere, just unconscious and everything.

And then I saw them doing CRP and I told them, I said, "I know CPR. I can help." And one of the Dream Teamers -- I told them about ten times, and one of Dream Teamers -- said, "I know it's Kirby over there, and I can help. I know CPR." And they would not let me. They would not let me go over there and help. And that's -- that's one of the hardest things that I have to deal with, 'cause I -- I didn't do this. I didn't do this.

TUCHMAN: So sorry, Beverly. So sorry.

BUNN: I didn't do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: James Arthur Ray says that he's coordinating -- or cooperating with police and praying for the affected families. As of now, no criminal charges have been filed.

A big, wet, uncovered sneeze. You've heard it on planes, trains and buses. But did you ever think about who is in the line of fire? Pretty gross, huh? We're going to help you put up your defenses.

And send us your swine flu questions, because the doc is in. Get answers from an infectious disease expert, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: You've heard at the office and at your kids' school, at the grocery store, the coughing, the sneezing. Well, could the guy standing next you to have swine flu? Coast to coast the H1N1 virus is spreading fast, and it's spreading like that. States in red have the highest percentage of cases. Hardest hit, the southeast, the Great Lakes region and the west. Doesn't leave much room to breathe, huh?

So, the goal is to stay healthy, even if someone is hacking right next to you. But how can you protect yourself in enclosed places like a plane? Is it even possible? Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, got on board to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Kyra, if you want to avoid getting sick on an airplane, who better to get advice from than the former director of the Centers for Disease Control? Yesterday, I hopped on an airplane with Dr. Julie Gerberding. Here's what she had to say.

We wanted to know what kind of germs do you face when you're on an airplane? We have this nice little airplane here, so come on, and we'll -- we'll get on there and talk about it.

We're actually sitting pretty far apart. In a real airplane, we'd be shoulder to shoulder! Let's go with the worst-case scenario. I have H1N1. I cough and cough and I don't cover it up well. What are the chances, do you think, that you'll get sick?

GERBERDING: Well, there's a pretty good chance. Flu is very transmissible.

COHEN: This is a graphic simulation of a cough. The guy in red there, he's the sick passenger. And he coughs.

GERBERDING: Coughing. Whoo! and there come the droplets. What's happening here is that the ventilation system of the plane is distributing them, and basically removing them except for the people who are close.

COHEN: I mean, look at these little dots, they're just flying everywhere.

GERBERDING: It's a great illustration of why flu is so transmissible. Because if you're in the strike zone, you're at risk. The good news is if you're anywhere else on the aircraft, you probably have very low risk.

COHEN: Do I need to worry about the guy sneezing 10 rows behind me?

GERBERDING: You really don't. That is way outside of the zone where the droplets are going to hit you directly.

COHEN: You had an interesting experience. You were just on a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta. And tell me what happened.

GERBERDING: We were ready to taxi down the runway. The lady next to me is speaking in her cell phone and says, I know I have swine flu. I feel miserable.

COHEN: So, in retrospect, you wish you had alerted a flight attendant.

GERBERDING: I absolutely do. And I ask myself, why I didn't do that?

COHEN: Could you please offer this person a mask? I mean, that sounds so rude.

GERBERDING: I really do wish I had said, hello, I'm Dr. Gerberding, and I think the person sitting next to me has swine flu. Could you do something about it?

COHEN: And you can say that even if you're not Dr. Julie Gerberding.

Here's something Dr. Gerberding did when she ended up getting stuck next to that sick person on the airplane. She reached up and turned the air vent towards Miss Sneezy, so hopefully the air would flow and the germs would flow that way. So, that's another tip, something you can do when you end up get stuck next to someone who can't stop sneezing or coughing -- Kyra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth, thanks so much.

And as you can imagine, a lot of you out there have many questions about the swine flu. Well, so do we. So, let's go ahead and dig into the mailbag. Dr. Manoj Jain is a doctor and an infectious disease expert. He's joining us from Memphis, Tennessee.

So, Dr. Jain, I'm curious. We've received so many mixed messages about H1N1. Even you as a doctor, do you sometimes find yourself confused on the best way sometimes to give advice or deal with your patients?

DR. MANOJ JAIN, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Absolutely, Kyra. I'll tell you, I was also flying on a plane last weekend, and I did carry a mask with me, and it's really concerning when someone sitting next to you has a coughing or a hacking cough, and they say that they've had H1N1.

And what we're telling patients and telling the public is that you really need to take precautions, more so with the droplet precautions. And so, those are things that really work if you keep the distance from those who have H1N1.

PHILLIPS: All right, I'm going to get into our questions in just a second. But you bring up something interesting -- or you bring up an interesting point about coughing. So many times, we're around people who have a hack -- oh, I'm sorry, I'm beating a cold. I just have a cold.

It's very common. I mean, here in the newsroom, I mean, there were a couple people I heard coughing. How do you know -- or do you really know -- if that could be H1N1 or just a regular cold that they're beating and they're not contagious anymore?

JAIN: Right. Good question. And it's impossible to tell absolutely if you've got a cold or if you've got H1N1. I think what's important to keep in mind, patients who have H1N1 will tend to have high fevers, body aches, headaches. Those who have a common cold, they'll tend to have more sniffles.

So, we can differentiate one or the other in the symptomology, but absolutely we cannot be sure. It could be a mild case of H1N1. It may feel like a cold.

PHILLIPS: OK, interesting point, that there actually is a difference in symptoms. OK, let's get right to the questions, OK?

JAIN: Sure.

PHILLIPS: This one is a tweet coming from Sunnykathy: "NIH says that those born before '57 may have an immunity. I had a long exposure and didn't get it. I was born in 1950." Their doctor agrees. What do you think?

JAIN: OK, this is a good point. And the data on those who are older and why they're not getting sick is quite interesting. What we noticed in the springtime was this, that those who are over 65 tended to get sick much less often with H1N1, compared to those who were young, pregnant. And nearly a 35-fold difference.

And we're attributing a lot of that to a sense of immunity that the elderly population may have. Now, the listener also asks a question whether it's related to the exposure. And exposures can vary.

As we talked just now with Dr. Gerberding, it depends on how far you are. If you're within three to six feet, it's likely that you may be exposed. If you're much farther away, there's a much less chance of getting exposed.

The other thing is how we use our hands. Quite interestingly, if you have noticed, if you sit in a meeting, and I did, in fact, I was at a meeting a couple of months back, and I viewed all of my colleagues. And in a period of about a minute or two, all of them had touched their face with their hands. So, those are the ways that we infect ourselves.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Jain, do me a favor. Stay with me. Just real quickly, we have to go to Chad Myers. There's a tornado near Jennings, Louisiana, we're being told. We'll get back to the doctor and your questions in just a sec.

Chad, bring us up to date. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, tornado on the ground reported to be a half-mile wide near Jennings, Louisiana, moving over I-10, north of I-10 now by one mile. Being reported by the Weather Service employee there in Jennings, Louisiana, and people are driving into this storm on the interstate. Very scary situation to be in a car at all, but Jennings, Louisiana, right here. The storm is right on the I-10 now, moving to the north at 30 miles per hour.

Anywhere from Jennings -- this is Jeff Davis Parish. Anybody up here in the northern sections of Jeff Davis Parish need to be taking cover now. A dangerous situation, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Got it. We'll keep tracking it. Chad, thanks.

MYERS: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Doctor Jain, Maureenmower wanting to know this: "Is it the H1N1 flu itself that's killing people or secondary infections that you get because you have the flu?"

JAIN: Sure. It has to do with the secondary infection, which is very lethal. Let me tell you about a case I saw a couple of weeks ago. A young man, 19-year-old, he came in a week earlier to the emergency room. He had sickle-cell disease, and they did a swab for H1N1. And it was positive for flu A. They sent him home. He wasn't very sick.

A week later he comes in, his white count is -- which is a sign of infection -- is in the 30s. He is very, very ill. Luckily, he did not have to be intubated.

We think what he had was probably a staph infection, and a staph infection due to the lining of the airways which were damaged by the H1N1 virus. So, we do see some pneumonia, some illness due to the H1N1 virus. But it's usually the superinfection that sort of tails along behind the H1N1, the bacteria, staph-like bacteria. And lots of times we're seeing MRSA, the methicillin-resistant staph aureus. And what we're suggesting is doctors to do is to be very cautious and to cover with antibiotics such as vancomycin, which covered that MRSA infection.

PHILLIPS: Got you. Or MRSA, right, that a lot...

JAIN: MRSA, that's right.

PHILLIPS: ... we refer to that in the media.

All right, one more, Doc, if you don't mind, Beachlife2: "I want to know if there's mercury in this vaccine. My son may get it at high school in a few weeks. Not if there's mercury."

JAIN: Sure. I think many people are concerned about mercury, which is used as a preservative in the vaccine. Some of the vaccines do have mercury, and many don't. The multidose vials, they have the preservative with the mercury in it. The single-dose injections do not. And it's really up to the parents what they would like to do. My kids are going to get vaccinated. I have three kids. And I'm really not concerned about the mercury. There is a pretty good evidence that it really does not cause any problems or complications.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Manoj Jain, thanks so much for joining us today. Really appreciate it.

JAIN: OK. My pleasure.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, barbecue, baseball and Old Glory everywhere. You can practically hear June Cleaver calling! But this California town is 92 percent Latino. We're going to take you on tour of Pico Rivera, redefining all-American.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories now. A first from the Federal Reserve. It's proposing to police to pay the policies -- or police the pay policies, rather, of banks. The goal is to make sure employees didn't make the kind of reckless moves that led to the financial crisis. The proposal would actually cover thousands of banks, even some that never got bailed out.

Also today, the administration is ordering some bailed-out companies to dramatically slash the pay of their top executives.

Gay rights in the spotlight on Capitol Hill. The Senate could vote as early as today on a bill expanding the federal hate crimes law. It would make it a federal crime to assault someone over their sexual orientation or gender. It's already passed the house.

In Los Angeles, a crackdown on street gangs. Police and FBI agents started banging on the doors across town before dawn. They're looking for 75 people wanted on state and federal charges. The raids are targeting suspected members of the Rolling 40s.

Shattering stereotypes one of the main thrusts of on our continuing special "LATINO IN AMERICA." Case in point, we found a Los Angeles suburb called Pico Rivera. It's known as the Latino Mayberry.

Soledad O'Brien joining me now with what could be a window into the future.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it really could be. Pico Rivera is a California town that really started becoming majority Latino in the '70s. Now, today this is a town that is wildly successful, and part of their success is that they deal with their problems in what they call the Latino way.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the barbecue sauce is on. O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's opening day in the Los Angeles suburb of Pico Rivera, and the scene is pure Americana -- hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Cotton candy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome!

O'BRIEN: And, of course...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): ... at the twilight's last gleaming.

O'BRIEN: But take a closer look at the jerseys, the faces. These kids are Fuentes, Vasquez, Armentas, Garcia, Lopez and Martinez.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T-Ball Bambinos. T-Ball Bambinos.

O'BRIEN: That's because Pico Rivera is 92 percent Latino, and as American as apple pie.

BOB SPENCER, PICO RIVERA PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER: Sorry, on the what?

O'BRIEN: That's Bob Spencer, the lone Australian in town, and Pico's public information officer.

SPENCER: For the PIO of this town not to speak Spanish is probably not a good thing. But I speak Australian, so they tend to listen to me because of that.

O'BRIEN: As the demographics of our nation change, we wonder whether a place like this could be a window into the future. So, I asked Bob for a tour of the nine square miles known as Pico Rivera.

(on camera): It looks like a movie set.

SPENCER: A little bit, it does. You can see American flags. There's an American flag...

O'BRIEN: There's another one down there.

SPENCER: ... on a lot of the houses. There's one there. There's one here.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): In fact, Pico Rivera is solidly middle- class.

LUPE ONTIVEROS, ACTRESS: Welcome to the dollhouse.

O'BRIEN: It even has its own Hollywood star, Lupe Ontiveros. You've seen her as the stereotypical Latina maid in movies like "As Good As It Gets" and "The Goonies."

(on camera): How come you don't live in Beverly Hills?

ONTIVEROS: What for?

O'BRIEN: Because you're a movie star, that's what for.

ONTIVEROS: No, no, no, that's not me. I'm just a real person. And Pico Rivera is "mi jente."

O'BRIEN: Your people.

ONTIVEROS: And I don't have any pretensions of any sort, and plus they consider me their most famous resident.

O'BRIEN: So, you won't leave.

ONTIVEROS: No, Beverly Hills wouldn't even know. They'd probably, you know, ask me to clean their house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Lupe Ontiveros is a woman who, of course, has broken down lots of barriers. She's a pretty incredible woman. Kind of a both a typical resident of Pico Rivera, though, a woman who's very dedicated to her family and her community.

PHILLIPS: It's, you know -- and there seems to be this attitude, this spirit, this -- it's -- I mean, you know the Latino culture is to have such an amazing sense of family and culture. But there's something about this that seems like it could create a domino effect.

O'BRIEN: Yes, you know, you certainly hope so. One thing that we'll show in the documentary tonight, and this is from our second part, so tonight's episode, when you look at Pico Rivera is how they deal with their problems.

So, when there is a young person that seems to be falling through the cracks, when there are children who are really struggling, we'll show you how they sort of surround them and not allow them to fail. They like to call it the Latino way, the Latino way of solving their problems.

PHILLIPS: What's been the reaction so far to the documentary?

O'BRIEN: It's been great. It's been very interesting. People are very interested in who they feel reflects themselves. So, they'll say, I love this person. That person is nothing like me.

And another person will tell me, no, no, that person is exactly me. That person is nothing like my story. And I think it really is actually a metaphor for the American experience and the Latino experience in America, which is, we're everything. We're everything.

When you sort of scratch the surface and show some stories, you're going to, you know, please some people and not please others. And that's OK. We have a lot of stories to tell.

PHILLIPS: You know, this leads me into my favorite picture in your book. Scotty (ph), do you have -- were you able to freeze that for me? I love this picture! Soledad cruising in the low rider. Tell me about...

O'BRIEN: Do you know how much money they raised to help kids in town? The Low Riders, which has such a stereotypical, you know, picture of these guys who are bad guys, look like they are all gangbangers, and they are not. They fund scholarships in Pico Rivera, and they mentor kids so that they don't join gangs.

PHILLIPS: I love it.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's great.

PHILLIPS: And of course, it's all in the book. You've got to only see "LATINO IN AMERICA," but Soledad also came up with a book this time with some fabulous pictures and stories and her personal story. Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Well, tonight, yes, see, we told you, the all-new "LATINO IN AMERICA." It's our groundbreaking look at how Latinos are changing America forever. The finale, actually, of "LATINO IN AMERICA," it does air tonight, 9:00 Eastern only on CNN. And it will also be simulcast in Spanish on CNN en Espanol.

Our Rick Sanchez also involved. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 Eastern, he'll actually host a live CNN Radio call-in show. He did it today. It went really well. He's going to do it again tomorrow. It's also going to stream on CNN/live.

And then talk about another courageous Latina woman, this one doing something pretty extraordinary to honor her fallen heroes, her brothers. Army Specialist Jose "Freddie" Velez and Army Specialist Andrew Velez both died by serving their country. Had they lived, they would both be celebrating birthdays this month.

Well, in just a few days, their sister, Monica, is going the extra mile to help military families. You're going to definitely want to hear not only their story, her story, but her family's story. And you're going to meet her tomorrow right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Pretty remarkable woman.

A house burns down with three little girls inside. Tragic? Clearly. Criminal? The state says so. Made room on death row and chose execution over new blockbuster evidence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right, we're pushing forward to the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM and a string of shocking suicides. Four students from the same school in six months throwing themselves under trains. Parents are petrified.

And a very different suicide case shakes the Navy to its core, exposing a culture of hazing and harassment. All right, what the heck happened to old-school college life? You know, ramen noodles, saving dirty laundry until the next trip home. Fishing quarters from the vending machines.

Check out this job posting at Georgetown University, home of the Hoyas. Apparently, a sophomore really misses his mom and his butler and his driver. He's actually advertising for a personal assistant, someone to organize his closet, make his bed, do his laundry, pick up his dry-cleaning, shop, chauffeur and on and on and on, like he's Elizabeth Taylor or something.

Pay? Twelve bucks an hour. "Georgetown undergrads preferred," it says. Well, if you end up being this guy's personal assistant, you won't be a Georgetown undergrad for long. When the hell are you going to study?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Todd Willingham killed his three kids because he wanted more time to play darts and drink beer. So said the D.A., and it took the horrified jury about an hour to convict him. Well, it took Willingham's supporters 12 years to pull together scientific evidence that said he was innocent. He didn't do it. Just in the nick of time too. He was about to be executed. But he was anyway. State of Texas plunging that needle right into his arm.

Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just 88 minutes before Cameron Todd Willingham's execution, this man was his last dying hope.

(on camera): Do you believe there was overwhelming evidence that Todd Willingham was guilty?

GERALD HURST, CHEMIST, ARSON EXPERT: There was not the slightest iota of evidence. There is no evidence that this was arson. None, zero, zip.

KAYE (voice-over): Gerald Hurst, a nationally recognized fire investigator, was the first to sound the alarm contending that Todd Willingham's conviction was based on flawed forensic evidence used to show he set the 1991 fire that killed his three girls. The lawyer handling Willingham's appeal had asked Hurst to review the case just three weeks before execution day.

(on camera): If you're saying there was no evidence of arson, and he was convicted of arson homicide and sentenced to death, should he have been executed?

HURST: Absolutely not. It was bogus from the get-go.

KAYE (voice-over): Bogus, Hurst says, because the prosecution's fire investigators based their findings on, quote, "folklore" and "junk science," not fact, not the science used today. So, Hurst wrote this five-page memo signed February 13, 2004, four days before the execution, warning Texas Governor Rick Perry that critical errors were made in interpreting the evidence that led to Willingham's conviction.

Still, Willingham was executed less than an hour and a half, 88 minutes after Hurst's memo reached the governor's office.

(on camera): You were the guy who got that memo to the governor's office. The first one to say, wait a minute, hold on, this guy may be innocent, this was not an arson fire?

HURST: Yes.

KAYE: Yet, nothing was done with your findings.

HURST: Well, it feels terrible, of course.

KAYE (voice-over): The governor's office told us, quote, "Hurst's report was no more than an opinion and did not merit reopening the case."

Randy Kaye, CNN, Austin, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now Randi's piece first aired last night on "AC 360." Anderson asked for an expert update. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": At this point, how many arson experts, forensic scientists, have come forward in saying that this was junk science that these folks used?

KAYE: Gerald Hurst was the first, and there have been eight others since, so a total of nine investigators. And these are experts who are Harvard-educated, Cambridge-educated, nationally recognized experts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, one of those experts who thinks Texas made a mistake, the same guy the state hired to review the case. In an August report, he says the state's key witness, the fire marshall, seemed, quote, "wholly without any realistic understanding of fires."

You might wonder why nothing like that came up at trial. Well, Willingham's defense didn't put one expert on the stand. Randi Kaye talked to that defense attorney. That interview tonight on "AC 360," 11:00 Eastern.