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Girl Brutalized outside Homecoming Dance; Eight U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan; Home Prices Seeing Some Increases; Parents' Guide to H1N1

Aired October 27, 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. Two major stories. Two days in a row, U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan. The weapon? Roadside bombs. Could there be more this hour? We're live in the Afghan capital six minutes from now.

And a shocking attack on the home front, on the fringes of a high school dance.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN studios in New York, and we begin with a story filled with "if-onlies." The biggest one: If only somebody who witnessed a teen girl's horrific and repeated attack had called police. But police say no one did call 911 until the young victim had been brutalized for hours outside her homecoming dance and left for dead. Two teens now in custody in Richmond, California, and police are looking for more.

We get the latest from reporter John Sasaki from KTVU in Oakland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SASAKI, KTVU-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richmond police detectives arrived at Richmond High School and took this freshman into custody as a person of interest. Now, they're calling him a suspect, who faces charges of robbery, false imprisonment, rape and other sex crimes. Police are appalled by the nature of this crime.

LT. MARK GAGAN, RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA, POLICE: I remember thinking that it's something out of a Hollywood movie. It's so extremely vicious and absolutely unnecessary.

SASAKI: The 15-year-old victim, a student at Richmond High, left her on-campus homecoming dance around 9:30 Saturday night and walked with someone she knew to a secluded area on the north end of campus, where she may have had some alcohol. That's when she was robbed, gang raped, and beaten severely for over two hours. Police say it was witnessed by up to a dozen people and may have been caught on video.

GAGAN: Their behavior was either not to (UNINTELLIGIBLE), not get involved and not call us, to sit there and observe it, or in some cases to get involved and commit crimes.

SASAKI: School board trustee Charles Ramsey says a new school surveillance system that's going in by January might have caught the crime earlier.

CHARLES RAMSEY, SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE: Absolutely. Because it's tied into local law enforcement. It would have -- it clearly had a more visual view of what's going on, and people would have been alerted and known that this was -- was here.

SASAKI: The school district spokesman took what seemed to be a more cavalier attitude about the incident.

MARIN TRUJILLO, SCHOOL DISTRICT SPOKESMAN: Our assumption is that, when parents bring their kids to school, to the dance, that they also arrange for a safe ride back. If kids wish to leave the dance in the middle of the dance, we assume that they have a safe ride back. There's -- there's a limit to what we can do.

SASAKI: Police say the victim is suffering from non-life- threatening physical injuries but substantial emotional injuries. Nineteen-year-old Manuel Ortega, who was arrested shortly after the incident, is facing charges of rape, robbery, and false imprisonment in this case.

And police are looking for five other people, but they say that number could grow as the investigation unfolds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, it may be inhumane to stand by and do absolutely nothing while someone is being raped, but is it actually a crime? Joining me, defense attorney in New York, former New York prosecutor Paul Callan.

I keep thinking of you as a New York prosecutor. But Paul, good to see you with us here.

I guess what -- the outrage here -- first of all, your heart just breaks for this 15-year-old girl. But the outrage: 15 individuals standing there, watching this, allegedly for two hours. Can they be held accountable, as well?

PAUL CALLAN, NEW YORK DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, they can't. And this is something that absolutely shocks people, that you can have bystanders witnessing a crime. They have no legal obligation to call the police. They cannot be prosecuted.

Some of the earlier reports on this were, in fact, that people were coming out of the dance when the word spread that a rape was going on, to watch the rape. Now, I don't know if that will turn out to be true, ultimately, but if that happened, this is one of the most shocking cases of bystander apathy and indifference I've ever heard of.

PHILLIPS: Let me play something else out, because we don't know a lot about what happened, exactly. What if they cheered it on? What if they were rooting on the crime? Could they be held accountable?

CALLAN: Well, then you get a little bit closer to having a situation where they could be charged. In order for them to be charged, Kyra, you have to show that they aided and abetted in the commission of the rape in some way. In other words, if they tried to block her from leaving, if they attempted to restrain her, then you have active involvement that can be charged, but merely cheering it on, as repulsive as that is, I'm betting that it would be very difficult to win a criminal case on those charges.

PHILLIPS: I just -- I'm thinking back to that movie, "The Accused," with Jodi Foster. It was based on the true story, where she was raped, and -- and men were cheering on the rape that was happening. And she absolutely went into court and changed laws.

CALLAN: Well, that's interesting that you bring that case up, because I was thinking of it before we came on today, and I did some research on it. I went back to the original case, the New Bedford case that "The Accused," the movie was based on.

And in fact, everybody who was convicted in that case actively participated in the rape. They didn't just cheer.

PHILLIPS: OK.

CALLAN: They either restrained her, or they were involved in active participation in some way. So the movie played it a little bit differently. The law is a very different animal on this. You have to be actively criminal in order to be charged.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, let me ask you this. What if these -- let's say all 15 or a couple of these 15 didn't participate in the actual rape, but they maybe formed a circle so she couldn't escape or they covered up her mouth, or they did something else to help someone else rape her?

CALLAN: Well, the law would then say that they were acting in concert with the rapist, that they were aiding and abetting the rapist, and in fact, they could be charged with rape, just as the individual who actually committed the rape.

If you get them involved in any way in participating or enabling the rapist to continue with the crime, then they are guilty of criminal conduct. So that's what prosecutors will be looking at here. Did they do something other than watch and cheer? Did they restrain? Did they obstruct her from leaving? And then you might have criminal charges against them.

But it's difficult, difficult to make a case, as repulsive as this behavior might be.

PHILLIPS: Repulsive to say the least.

All right. The school's liability. This happened on the high school grounds. And apparently, according to research that was done, that there was -- in January surveillance cameras were supposed to be installed on campus. Obviously, they were not. How is the school -- how could the school be held liable for this, since it happened on campus? CALLAN: Well, now we're talking about a civil case, a lawsuit for money damages that the victim could bring against the school. And I think you might see such a case arising here.

The school has an obligation to provide adequate security to protect these children. And obviously, if there's a history of crime with respect to the school, there's a history of the crime in the parking lot, they had an obligation to provided adequate security guards. And there may be an argument here that they didn't provide that. I mean, if they didn't put the cameras in, if they didn't have a security guard, there may be a theory against them.

And the victims in this case, if she's bringing a case, she'll be looking for a pocket, somebody who can pay a judgment. That would be the school. These rapists, these alleged rapists, if it's proven that they did this, obviously probably don't have a lot of money.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I should clarify, they're saying that they were going to install the cameras this January. So too bad they weren't installed that much earlier. But my guess is that they're going to do everything possible to have those cameras put in by this January, now that this has happened.

CALLAN: Absolutely. And, you know, the other thing about this case, I'm waiting to hear more facts about the development of this case, as well.

PHILLIPS: Does the two hours make you wonder how this could happen on a school campus, where there allegedly were chaperones and some -- some security, that this could happen for two hours on campus?

CALLAN: There's something off about this because, yes, two and -- how could two and a half hours go buy without somebody making a phone call to the police to say that a rape was in progress?

And also a rape that takes two and a half hours, in a public place, that's a very unusual fact scenario, too. So I want to hear more facts as they develop during the course of this investigation, because it's a bizarre, bizarre situation.

PHILLIPS: Well, we'll track it and we'll have you back.

CALLAN: OK. Nice to be here, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Paul. We appreciate it.

And we, of course, want to know your thoughts on this case and whether all those bystanders should see any charges. Just shoot us a tweet at KyraCNN. We've already received a couple.

Joanna_Lyn says that, "If those boys who watched and did nothing are not charged, gang rape will continue to be considered acceptable by males."

And this one came from Carolinewitha_C: "This is a disgusting story, but I'm glad you're covering it. Maybe we need classes in high school to teach basic morality now."

Veritaz says, "No surprise. Our kids have been desensitized through the media. Their parents don't care, and adults make money from it. Heartbreaking."

Liz580 says, "Yes, they should be charged. To me, they are just as guilty, sick, and disgusting as the rapists are."

Not too late if you still want to weigh in. Tweet us at KyraCNN. We'll try to read some more coming up next hour.

More coordinated, more brazen, more deadly than ever. We're talking about the enemy in Afghanistan, which just today claimed eight more American lives. And you've got to think: every American soldier on the front lines is thinking, "Am I next?"

Chris Lawrence is in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Now, Chris, let's talk about if, indeed, these were random attacks, or is the enemy actually tracking troops and getting sort of ahead of the crime here?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, U.S. defense officials tell us that these were two coordinated complex attacks, meaning that the insurgents used one or more roadside bombs in conjunction with small arms fire, which suggests a possible ambush.

We're also told that all of these troops were in armored vehicles when the attack happened.

And we've also been told before that U.S. defense officials believe that insurgents in the past year have gotten better. Better at making the bombs and better at strategically deploying them to hurt or kill American troops -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we can only hope that we don't see any more attacks. But obviously, we'll be tracking throughout the day with you, Chris.

Now, the runoff presidential election is next week. The U.S. military trying to make sure it goes smoothly. It sure didn't last time. But now some Afghans are complaining that the U.S. is just interfering.

LAWRENCE: That's right. They're -- from what we've been hearing here in Kabul, there's just a rising frustration among some that the U.S. has gone from simply trying to make the election fair to actually dominating its outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Protesters in Kabul scream at Afghan police, calling them American slaves and sons of Obama. And the rising anger at American influence is not confined to the street.

SHAKRIA BARKZAI, MEMBER, AFGHAN PARLIAMENT: They just want someone to be a good partner for them. That's what Afghans want.

LAWRENCE: Shakria Barkzai is a member of the Afghan parliament.

(on camera) Do you think that American and European officials have been a help to Afghanistan's election?

BARKZAI: Technically, yes. Politically, no. They played the most dirty game in Afghan election, unfortunately.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Flashback to Hamid Karzai as he agreed to a runoff election, flanked by a U.S. senator and U.N. official. To American eyes, a diplomatic triumph, but to Barkzai and others, just another symbol of outside pressure bending Afghanistan's president to their will.

BARKZAI: We don't want any puppets.

SEN. GEORGE LEMIEUX (R-LA), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: America's interest here is that we have a fair process in this election.

LAWRENCE: Republican Senator George LeMieux flew to Afghanistan last weekend, meeting with both candidates for president. LeMieux says the U.S. and its allies had to step in.

If Karzai would not accept that investigators found massive fraud, it could have discredited the entire government.

LEMIEUX: I think we were right to -- to press for a second election, to make sure that there was no doubt that the person who wins that election, either President Karzai or Dr. Abdullah, did so legitimately, because it's going to help further our efforts to make sure that Afghanistan succeeds.

LAWRENCE: But Barkzai says outside pressure has done the same damage as massive fraud.

BARKZAI: It's like Afghan decision is nothing. Foreign decision is important.

LAWRENCE: Guaranteed that Afghans won't see any winner as legitimately their own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: And Barkzai told me that she doesn't have a problem with Abdullah, with Karzai, or the runoff itself. She just wants to see less U.S. influence going forward -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Chris Lawrence, appreciate your reporting.

And we can now report a first for the Afghan war: the first U.S. official to resign in protest. Matthew Ho, a former Marine Corps captain and combat vet, who actually fought in Iraq. His take on the war? It's doing nothing but fueling the insurgency.

In his letter of resignation from the State Department last month, this is what he said: "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States presence in Afghan."

Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special rep for Afghanistan and Pakistan says this: he disagrees with Ho saying that Afghanistan wasn't worth the fight, but he agrees with, quote, "much of his analysis."

We'd like to take a moment now to remember four of our most recently-fallen heroes, U.S. Marines killed in a chopper collision yesterday in southern Afghanistan.

Captain Kyle Van De Giesen, 29 years old from North Attleboro, Massachusetts. A college professor says that Kyle knew from day one he wanted to be a military pilot. He and his wife, Megan (ph), have a 1-year-old daughter, and she's about to give birth to their son.

Lost with Captain Van De Giesen, three of his Camp Pendleton brothers: Corporal Gregory Fleury, 23, from Anchorage, Alaska; Captain Eric Jones, 29, from Westchester, New York; and Captain David Mitchell, 30, from Loveland, Ohio. All their names released today, so details are still coming in. But we really want to pay them proper tribute when more information is available. Their families are in our thoughts.

These are four men joining the 886 U.S. troops who have given their lives for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and all around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Finally, some signs that prices are perking up. How's the landscape in your town? Our Susan Lisovicz is here with the home prices.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, your home, most likely your greatest asset. And as you well know, prices have been spiraling lower and lower. But a new report today says, hey, they are inching higher. Susan Lisovicz breaking down the report for us.

So what do you think? Housing market turning the corner?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the operative word there is inching. We're talking, Kyra, baby...

PHILLIPS: Any increase is better. We'll take it.

LISOVICZ: That's correct. Baby steps forward, right direction. This closely-watched report comes out every month called the S&P Case Schiller report. It showed, month over month, a more than 1 percent increase. Fourth straight monthly increase. Also good.

The other side of the coin, though, year over year, 11 and a half percent decline in home prices. So when you start to get these baby steps, it starts to chip away at the overall decline. But let's face it: the housing market is fragile. It's vulnerable to the economy, to the 26-year high of unemployment, which is why the government has been taking extraordinary measures, putting a lid on mortgage rates, which is helpful, and of course, the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, which is why the Senate could vote on it this week; bipartisan support. Without the tax credit, you can see home sales and home prices go in a completely different direction.

PHILLIPS: OK. So where do we want to move? Where are the cities -- where are the cities where we're going to get a good deal?

LISOVICZ: We're actually seeing some value?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Literally, all over the map. Let's start with number one, where we saw the biggest increase, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the heartlands. A 3 -- more than 3 percent increase, month over month. Then, three of the top five on the West Coast, which is important because California has been devastated...

PHILLIPS: Right.

LISOVICZ: ... by the housing recession. But also your eyes are popping.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Detroit. Look at Detroit there, seeing nearly 2 percent price increase. I have to tell you, though, Detroit, the median price for a house in Detroit, $65,000. Median means half the prices are over $65,000, but half of them are under. Just an extraordinary, devastating climate in Detroit. No question about it.

PHILLIPS: You know our -- our Poppy Harlow has been -- you know, she's from that area.

LISOVICZ: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Yes, assignment Detroit. You go to CNN.com and this is amazing news, because that city has just been battered.

LISOVICZ: Right. And so maybe we're seeing a bottom there. But boy, what a cost.

And we're still looking at other cities that have seen year over year 20 percent or higher price declines: in Las Vegas, where there was so much speculation; Detroit, of course; and Phoenix, Arizona. We have a ways to go, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. All right. We'll keep tracking it. Thanks, Susan.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome. PHILLIPS: All right.

OK, Mom, what do you do? Little man gets a fever, little princess starts sneezing and coughing. You don't want to panic, but you don't want to be passive, either.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Top stories.

A murder charge now filed in the killing of University football player Jasper Howard. The AP reports John Lomax was arrested and charged this morning. Two other people were arrested on other charges. Howard was stabbed to death nine days ago during a fight outside a school dance.

She showed up in New York two weeks ago with apparent amnesia, and now we're learning more about that Washington state teenager. Police in Casey Peterson's home state say that she emptied her bank account and left behind everything, including her wallet, before she traveled across the country. A viewer say Peterson's picture on CNN and identified her. Police say there's no indication that she's faking her memory loss.

In South Carolina, a move to impeach Governor Mark Sanford. A state lawmaker plans to introduce a resolution to get the governor kicked out. A GOP lawmaker accuses Sanford, a fellow Republican, with dereliction of duty. It stems from Sanford's trip this summer to Argentina to see his mistress.

Cases are spiking, frustration is mounting as people wrestle with the swine flu. A House subcommittee is asking tough questions next hour about the government's response to the H1N1 virus.

Forty-six states are reporting widespread outbreaks. More than 1,000 people have died in the U.S., and many who don't have it are scared, and they're looking for the vaccine. But with reduction behind schedule, it's hard to find. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that there will be about 30 million more doses available by the end of the month.

Buffalo State College in New York battling the swine flu head on. The school has 12,000 students, ordered 6,000 doses but only got 1,600.

A dilemma in New Jersey: Go to school sick or lose any chance at perfect attendance. Some school districts took the choice out of kids' hands. They suspended recognition awards.

A clinic in Delaware County, Ohio, flooded by people looking for the vaccine. The line stretched around the block. The clinic had only 2,000 doses for high-risk groups like pregnant women and little kids.

Nearly 100 little kids have died from H1N1 in the U.S. Many of them were perfectly fine otherwise before they contracted the virus. So what do you do if your doctor says to treat your kid at home? Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has a parents' guide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, I've been on the phone recently with parents whose children were diagnosed with H1N1. They took their children to the pediatrician, and the pediatrician or the emergency room doctor said, "They're sick now, but they'll be fine in a couple of days. You can take them home."

They did this not once but twice. These parents, however, had this gut feeling that something was wrong with their child. So they were vigilant, and they noticed the warning signs that H1N1 was taking a turn for the worse.

Let's take a look at some of these symptoms. If a child has a fever that's not responding to drugs -- Advil, Tylenol aren't helping -- that is a bad sign.

If a child can't keep liquids down; if a child has fast breathing, blue skin, especially around the toes and the fingers, or numbness; or if a child gets better and then worse, you need to take that child back to the doctor, even if you've been there two or three times before and told that your child would be fine. It's very important to be vigilant.

We were talking to Dr. Gregory Poland, who's an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic and he said that you know your child best, and you need to advocate for your child. So even if you're told your child will be -- will be fine, if you have a gut feeling that something isn't fine, take your child back and explain that you think your child is in trouble.

Kyra, the parents who I talked to, their children ended up in the intensive care unit and almost dying. They didn't die, because their parents had been so vigilant about bringing them back to the doctor -- Kyra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

How many people have you heard say this? "There's no way I'm getting that swine flu vaccine." Well, call that person up right now and tell them to tune into the top of the hour. A young woman's story of her weeks in a coma, collapsed lungs, seizure and then the loss of her baby. It might change some minds.

Today's high-tech planes too automated for pilots to pay attention? We hit a cockpit simulator with our Deb Feyerick to find out just how many distractions are overhead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Suspended from the sky, their jobs on thin ice. I'm talking about those two Northwest Airlines pilots now infamous for losing track of time and their intended destination, overshooting the Minneapolis airport by some 150 miles. Both men could lose their licenses and their chance to fly.

Investigators say that both pilots admitted to being on laptop computers, a violation of airline policy. Well, it might surprise you just how easy it is for pilots to lose track of time or place. After all, today's planes have a whole lot of new gizmos and buttons.

And CNN's Deb Feyerick actually found out firsthand. But not only that. I mean, let's lay it out here. I've got friends who are pilots that say, well, they're on their BlackBerries, they're, you know, they're on their computers. I mean, I'm getting messages from friends of mine who fly.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly it. I mean, the big question is, is it really able -- are you really able to get so engrossed doing that that you simply forget where you are, that you forget to fly the plane? Technically, the answer should be no, but realistically, the answer's yes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The plane simulator we're in models a four-seat Cessna, significantly smaller than the Airbus A-320. But the control panels are similar.

(on camera): How is a pilot alerted that it's time to land? What do they see? What are they -- what are the indicators?

VINCENT DRISCOLL, FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, VAUGHN COLLEGE: Well, you're not alerted. And nobody is going to say to you it's time for you to land.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Vincent Driscoll trains pilots at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics across from New York's LaGuardia Airport.

(on camera): Is it easy for a pilot to get distracted, to sort of become involved, to essentially stop flying the plane?

DRISCOLL: Planes can distract you. Weather can distract you. A mechanical problem on board the airplane can distract you.

FEYERICK (voice-over): In the case of Northwest Flight 188, it was not turbulence or heavy cloud cover. The distraction appears to have been laptop computers both pilots were using, they say, to check new crew schedules in place as a result of the Northwest/Delta merger.

(on camera): When you're flying, how often are you -- is somebody communicating to you when you're up in the air?

DRISCOLL: You're responsible for -- with your own navigation. OK? The ATC, what they're doing is monitoring you and other aircraft around you. They won't navigate for you. When it's busy they (INAUDIBLE) you to be on certain airwaves (ph).

FEYERICK (voice-over): ATC or air traffic control anxiously tried reaching the pilots for more than an hour and 15 minutes. That's roughly 30 percent of the Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis. An extremely long time to maintain radio silence, especially since controllers alert pilots to switch radio frequencies roughly every 10 to 15 minutes as the plane crosses into new zones or sectors.

DRISCOLL: They'll say, OK, radar contact positive identification, you go on your merry way. And when you get to the end of his sector, he's going to hand you over to another sector.

FEYERICK: According to the NTSB, the pilots say they heard radio conversation but did not specifically listen to what was being said.

(on camera): For a plane to overshoot an airport, does that happen a lot? When we're talking 150 miles, we're talking, what, about 10, 15 minutes maybe?

DRISCOLL: It seems like a lot when you say 10 to 15 minutes and you're talking about 150 nautical miles or so. It's really not in terms of flying.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Driscoll, a former pilot, says the cockpit is generally quiet, though some busier sectors have more radio chatter. Also, it's easy to tune into the wrong frequency by a single digit.

(on camera): What's the lesson then? It's just that it's easy to happen?

DRISCOLL: We're human beings, and things happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now, yes, they are human beings, but for those pilots, the stakes are incredibly high. And as we mentioned, according to the airline, they were violating company policy by using those laptops in the first place -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. As I watched that piece, and you're saying, yes, that's the -- here's what fishy.

FEYERICK: Questions.

PHILLIPS: Exactly, that radio silence. I mean, how many people would they have talked to? I mean, the whole missing the frequency by one dial. I mean, come on, we're talking an hour and a half.

FEYERICK: And that is really the big question. Yes, they flew past the airport. But that happened almost in a split second. The bigger issue, they would have had to talk to anywhere between five to ten people as they crossed in and out of those sectors, and they would have had to change radio frequencies that many times.

So, didn't they know that an hour had passed that they weren't tuning in and changing? And that really has not been answered yet, and I think that that's the question that everybody has.

PHILLIPS: So, what's the next move here? What...

FEYERICK: Well, the next move is, we wait to hear exactly what's coming out of those black boxes. We wait to see whether the investigation bears out that in fact, they were on their computer for as long as they say they were, and the fate of the pilots. Right now, they're seasoned veterans. Why this happens, nobody knows. But there's going to be a penalty, clearly a big one.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it with you. Thanks, Deb.

FEYERICK: Of course.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.

All right, meanwhile, we are getting word that the FAA is investigating a reported close call involving two passenger planes on Sunday afternoon at LAX. It's believed that the two flights may have come within 100 feet of each other on a runway. The FAA says that it's checking radar logs to determine the exact distance between those planes.

A no-go for the world's biggest rocket. Bad weather kept NASA's Ares 1-X rocket out the launch -- off the launch pad, rather, in Florida this morning. Another attempt planned for tomorrow. That unmanned rocket's two-minute test flight carries a whopper of a price tag, $445 million. It's part of NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon.

And NASA's watching the weather, and so are we. More heavy rain in the U.S. and another typhoon headed for the Philippines. Chad Myers tracking all of it. Are you tracking the NASA deal, too?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know what? The reason why the NASA flight didn't go off for real is the same reason that if you shuffle your feet and you touch the door knob, you get a shock, and especially in the wintertime.

There were clouds high in the sky. They were shearing water into ice crystals. And when that happens, you can get static electricity. They don't want static electricity around the rocket, because then they can't communicate with it. There might have been enough static around it that their signals couldn't go back and forth, and that would have been a problem.

I don't see it getting a whole lot better tomorrow. But they're going to try it at 8:00 in the morning, which there may be fewer cirrus clouds up there in the top layers of the atmosphere.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: On the road again. The Tea Party Express serving up cups of hot conservatism. Maybe coming to a town near you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking your top stories now, eight American troops killed today by roadside bombs in Afghanistan. It happened in the southern part of that country, a Taliban stronghold. Those attacks make October the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war started eight years ago.

Two Chicago men busted on terrorism charges. The two are charged with plotting to support or carry out terrorist attacks against a Danish newspaper. The same paper published controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed four years ago.

Uplifting news on home prices. They rose for the fourth straight month in August. That's according to a new report out today. On the downside, a research group says consumer confidence fell unexpectedly. That could dampen holiday shopping.

The Tea Party Express rides again. Conservatism on a roll. They're back on the road protesting Washington's spending habits and sending, perhaps shouting, and their message a very long way.

CNN all-platform journalist Patrick Oppmann along for the ride. He's in Tonopah, Nevada between Reno and Vegas. Am I saying that right? Tonopah? I don't think I've been to that part of Nevada, Patrick.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN ALL-PLATFORM JOURNALIST: It's an easy town to miss, and it's actually -- we're getting a little bit of snow right now. But it's a population about 3,000. You might ask, what's the Tea Party Express doing coming to a town, frankly, this small when they have rallies that are bigger -- you know, often have rallies that are bigger than a town like this, but they say Nevada's such a crucial battleground state, they're going everywhere they can to get their message, their conservative message out.

I've been traveling the last three days with the controversial conservative Tea Party movement. They're planning on holding about 38 rallies over the next 19 days or so. And people we spoke to here and all through California the last couple days really had a lot of different views. But if they had one message, it's that they're angry at Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's fix the mistakes that we're aware of instead of jumping headfirst and blindly, as this administration has, and creating more problem. That's been proven with the bailout. And that's on both the Democrats and theRepublicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's just an astroturf teabag. It's a Nancy Pelosi vest.

OPPMANN: Why the astroturf?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's what she said. She said the people out here are astroturf, they're not grassroots. She couldn't be any more wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to get back to the days when we were responsible, and we assumed the responsibility of ourselves and our families, and the government is not a part of my daily life. I really resent the government taking up so much of my time that I'm down here having to protest right now.

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PHILLIPS: Patrick, can you still hear me OK? There's a little bit of a delay.

OPPMANN: Now, as you know, Kyra, the Tea Party movement has generated a lot of controversy. Sorry, a little bit of a delay. It's modern technology, but I can hear you just fine. As you know, Kyra, the Tea Party movement has generated a lot of controversy. Critics accuse it of spreading misinformation, spreading fear, but the organizers here say they're not backing down. In fact, they plan on trying to have as much influence as possible in the health care debate and as we get closer to the 2010 congressional races.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Patrick Oppmann, thanks so much.

Well, straight ahead, a dancing Afghan boy dancing for not for joy but out of fear, the fear of being raped.

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PHILLIPS: Well, Halloween's almost here. So, you know the other big holidays are lurking right around the corner. And if you're thinking about stocking up on gift cards, well, you're going to want to hear what personal finance editor Gerri Willis has to say about this.

So, what's new about the gift cards this year?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, I'll tell you, consumers are using them in a different way. They're spending less on these gift cards, six bucks less so far this year. And what they're buying isn't the usual things. They're buying household goods. They've really traded down a lot.

And now retailers are coming in, and they're saying, hey, we want people to use these gift cards because we make more money off of them. People spend more in-store. So, they're doing everything to lure you in if they can.

For example, Best Buy has something they call a pitch-in card. So, let's say that you have a big-ticket electronic item that you want to buy. Your family can go online, pitch in to the card, add some money on to the card so you can buy the flat-panel TV.

PHILLIPS: Well, that's a neat idea.

WILLIS: It is a neat idea. And other things -- CVS, for example, they have something called a gift card for employees that's a wellness card, that you can use for co-pays, you can use for anything you want if it has to do with wellness. So, we're seeing a lot of innovation here. As the holidays approach, you're going to start seeing a lot of freebies, a lot of gimmicks.

But keep in mind, 10 percent of Americans who have gift cards don't use them. So, you can see why the stores and the retailers like them so much.

PHILLIPS: Yes. I actually even have a few that I'm thinking about that -- and the good thing is, they don't expire. But when the business goes out of business, then you're in trouble.

That's interesting about the putting money toward the health care. I mean, talk about getting creative. Hey look, if you don't have great benefits and you're struggling with your health care, donate to the cause.

All right. What should people know about gift cards in addition to the creative nature of these out there? Any other warnings, or...

WILLIS: Well, they're creative sometimes in a bad way, OK?

PHILLIPS: Oh, OK.

WILLIS: Sometimes they charge you fees just for getting the card in the first place, $4 to $7 on average we found. What's more, they're charging monthly fees if you don't use them in some cases, what they call an inactivity fee.

And sometimes, if you want to split a payment -- let's say you go to the store, you want to buy something for 20 bucks but your gift card only has $10, you want to make up the difference out of pocket. Some of them will not allow you to do that.

Now, the good news here is that with the changes in the credit card laws, they're also changing the rules on gift cards too. So, some of this is going to improve. In 2010, you'll start seeing some of those inactivity fees drop off.

But I'll tell you, the devil's in the details. If you think you're going to get off easy this year for Christmas by just buying everybody gift cards, you might be able to use your money in a better way.

PHILLIPS: We should be more creative anyway. We should put a little more thought into a creative gift or just give cold hard cash.

WILLIS: Are we going handmake -- we're going to handmake all our gifts.

PHILLIPS: Exactly. Let's go back to crochet or maybe latch- hook.

Thanks, Gerri. Appreciate it.

WILLIS: My pleasure. PHILLIPS: Well, we're pushing forward to the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM now. From the picture of health to a five-week coma, she nearly lost her life and did lose her baby. Aubrey Updike wants to talk to you about the dangers of swine flu.

And she knew the health insurance biz inside out. Heck, she sold it. Then her insurer sold her out, dumping her days after her rape. Talk about insult to injury, it doesn't even come close, folks.

All right, talk about lactose intolerance. This recession has been absolute murder on dairy cows. Get this. Fewer people are buying milk. So, what are dairy farmers doing? Well, they're killing off the supply.

That's right. The National Milk Producers Federation actually pays farmers who are going out of business to slaughter their dairy cows instead of sell them. Some 225,000 so far this year, all to make a buck.

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PHILLIPS: Child prostitution alive in the U.S., but maybe not as well after this. Nearly 700 people, alleged pimps, traffickers, would-be johns and others arrested in a three-day sting across the country. The FBI says 52 children were rescued from places like truck stops, casinos and street corners. The youngest of these kids just 10 years old. That sting was part of the FBI's ongoing Innocence Lost initiative.

Now another horrifying form of child prostitution that you may not know about. Young boys in Afghanistan forced to dance for men. Their reward, often rape. CNN's Atia Abawi is in Kabul with this disturbing story.

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ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A young boy dances, dressed in women's clothing, his face lathered in makeup. He is known as (INAUDIBLE), or boy without a beard, performing for a crowd of Afghan men, a custom known as (INAUDIBLE), or boy play.

He has bells on his feet, but they might as well be chains because (INAUDIBLE) is more than dancing. The boys are lured or snatched from their families and forced to become sex slaves by powerful men.

CNN obtained this video from a pimp who introduced us to two dancers who are now adults. Farod (ph) and Jamil (ph) didn't want their faces shown. They say they're continuously threatened, beaten and raped by men who attend the parties. Both say they were forced into boy play as teenagers.

They continue to dance because they say it's the only thing they know and their only way to make money. For each performance, they get about $30, but the dancing often leads to assault. Farod (ph) was 13 when his older neighbor raped him and locked him up as a sex slave for five months.

"I got used to him," he says. "He would sometimes take me to parties and sometimes other places. I was with him all the time."

Jamil (ph) was the (INAUDIBLE) of a powerful warlord who has since left the country. He says he is now married, but he continues to dance to provide for his younger brothers and sisters.

"I make them study, dress them, feed them," he says. "Any money I make, I spend on my family. I don't want them to be like this, to be like me."

(on camera): Islamic scholars have condemned (INAUDIBLE) as immoral, but the age-old practice goes on, especially in northern Afghanistan. And with 60,000 (ph) street kids in the capital of Kabul alone, there are plenty of potential victims.

(voice-over): One human-rights group has produced a brochure warning parents about the danger.

MOHAMMAD MUSA MAHMODI, AIHRC: Pretty much unappreciated by the society, unaccepted and illegal. But still, it continues because of the culture of impunity, lack of legal provision against this practice.

ABAWI: Jamil (ph) and Farod (ph) feel trapped. "We are not happy with this line of work," Jamil (ph) says. "We say that it would be better if God could just kill us rather than living like this."

Hundreds of boys in Afghanistan don't have a choice. They are condemned to dance for their masters, and one day,may become masters themselves.

Atia Abawi, CNN, Kabul.

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