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Wrongly Convicted; Drone Video Intercepted?; '30 Second Pitch'

Aired December 17, 2009 - 13:59   ET

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

RICHARD LUI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Pushing forward now on our top stories. U.S. military drones in the spotlight. A published report says militants inside Iraq and Afghanistan are hacking video feeds from these unmanned aircraft.

The Democratic holdout. Nebraska senator Ben Nelson still is not on board with his party's health care reform bill. His biggest demand? More restrictions to prevent federal money from paying for abortions.

And a close call for air travelers in Europe. A judge tells British Airways cabin crews they cannot go on strike as planned. Holiday travel plans are safe for you travelers for now.

Top story, 247 people who have been arrested, charged and convicted of violent crimes have now been cleared, proven innocent by DNA tests. That's according to the Innocence Project, whose latest victory may be its biggest here.

Jamie Bain was just 19 years old when he was accused of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old boy in 1974. For 35 years, he languished in Florida prisons knowing authorities had nabbed the wrong man, filing motion after motion that went unheard, until a state law, a court ruling, some lab work and legal muscle led to this moment this morning.

You've got to watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JAMES YANCEY, FLORIDA CIRCUIT COURT: Mr. Bain, I am now signing the order now, sir. You are a free man. Congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: It makes you tingle when you see that. He smiles, you hear the judge.

Bain spent more of his life in prison unjustly than any other DNA-exonerated inmate.

Now, despite all of that, Bain says he is not angry. In fact. he joins us live now from Tampa, along with one of his Innocence Project attorneys, Melissa Montle.

Thank you both for being here today. Jamie, I've got to start with you, because I was watching when the judge made the announcement, and then I watched your face when you smiled. Can you describe to us the moment that you heard the judge say that you were free what you were feeling?

JAMES BAIN, FREE AFTER 35 YEARS IN PRISON: My opinion on that, sir, was I felt extremely well.

LUI: And so, were you thinking of what I'm going to do next, what sorts of things you have missed? What are you going to do next, by the way?

BAIN: I am going to go home to my parents. My mother, the main thing I'm going home, sir.

LUI: All right. Jamie, I described the smile that I saw on your face now, as well as when it was announced, and consistently since. You were smiling and you were saying that you are not upset. Why aren't you angry here?

BAIN: I'm not upset because I understand what took place here. And I always had God on my side.

LUI: Are you angry at your accusers?

BAIN: No, I'm not angry.

LUI: Not at all?

BAIN: No, sir.

LUI: So, you know, we were thinking -- we were talking about this in the newsroom, about what had transpired in the 35 years. Nineteen years, 1974, computers, cell phones, all those things have happened.

Have you ever used a cell phone before?

BAIN: No, sir, that was the first time.

LUI: So you used it today. What were you using it for?

BAIN: To talk to my mother.

LUI: So that was the first thing you had done once you were released?

BAIN: Yes, sir.

LUI: Now, what do you remember from 1974. What are some of the memories that you have?

BAIN: Well, the anguish that we both went through, me and Leroy Smith went through, both of us. That's the most important thing. Mainly my family.

LUI: Mainly your family.

BAIN: Yes.

LUI: Let's talk to your attorney here, Melissa Montle.

The law in 2001 in Florida allowed DNA cases, at least cases to be re-evaluated based on DNA. It's been eight years. Why did it take so long here?

MELISSA MONTLE, INNOCENCE PROJECT OF FLORIDA: It took so long because there were procedural bars in place, time bars in place. Jamie kept getting denied at every turn. I also think it took a long time because he didn't have representation at that point. And pro se litigants trying to litigate a case from jail have a tremendously difficult time.

LUI: So, Melissa, I understand that he attempted four times. Are you saying the first four times he did so without representation?

MONTLE: Yes.

LUI: And so, the fifth time he was represented and he got through, was able to be released based on this DNA evidence?

MONTLE: It was actually his own motion in 2006, the last motion that he filed that was denied that the second DCA overturned the denial was sent back to the trial court. We came on board and reworked the motion a little bit for him, filed it again, and that is what got us here today.

LUI: Jamie, we're very excited for you.

Those first four times that you were applying to go through the process of having DNA examined in this case, what kept you going? Because, I mean, three, four times, you might say, I'm going to give up on this.

BAIN: No, the gentlemen that were helping me at the time in the prison kept me going.

LUI: All right. Very good.

Jamie, congratulations.

Melissa Montle, thank you both for being with us today.

Jamie, whatever you're going to do today, are you going to have some ice cream? Are you going to do something different today once you're done with this interview?

BAIN: Yes, I am, sir, as soon as I get back home.

LUI: All right. Jamie Bain, thank you so much.

BAIN: Thank you.

MONTLE: Thank you.

LUI: Clearly, wrongful conviction is not an isolated problem, by the way. And while no innocent inmate can get his life back, most states do make some sort of amends.

Here's what we found. The states you see here in green, 27, plus the District of Columbia, have laws that provide for financial compensation.

Now, Florida is among them. The law there allows for $50,000 for every year in prison, up to a maximum of $2 million. Twenty-three states, the ones in yellow you see on your screen, have no such laws.

The U.S. military unleashed two separate drone missile attacks today inside Pakistani territory, killing at least 15 people. The strikes happened in the north Waziristan tribal region. Intel officials expect the death toll to rise here.

Meanwhile, "The Wall Street Journal" says militants in Afghanistan and Iraq are using software to intercept U.S. drone video feeds cheap, using off-the-shelf software costing about $26. Now, that's a troubling development since the U.S. increasingly relies on these drones, as you know.

Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson has covered U.S. military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He joins us live now from Washington.

So, Nic, the danger that might be exposed to troops because of this -- and it's a $26 piece of software? Is that right as well?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The technology is very cheap. One of the reasons that the technology is so cheap is that when the drones were designed, they were designed using off-the-shelf components because it allows their development to be much -- to be done much more quickly, if you will.

If you look at the development of the F-35 fighter aircraft, that development took place over decades, costs a huge amount of money. The drones don't. They deliver a reliable service at a very cheap cost, but it does give them this vulnerability, or has given them this vulnerability.

As far as troops on the ground are concerned, if you imagine a platoon of soldiers walking down a road to attack a building, if you will, where there are high-value targets, they would have an image in front of them potentially that's being fed to them from that drone that's flying overhead, and it can show them the doors to the building, can show them if anyone is running out the back, it can show them if there are any gun positions around that building. But if you imagine the insurgents now have access to that same video, they can be training their weapons on the soldiers walking up the road.

So, it puts soldiers directly in harm's way. And the solution is, obviously, to encrypt the video stream in such a way that the insurgents can't use it. LUI: So, U.S. defense forces will think that they have very unique intelligence, but in the end, they are really sharing it if this particular drone has been hacked.

So when we think of the word "hacked," does this also mean control of the aircraft, too?

ROBERTSON: No, they're two very, very different things here. I mean, what the drone is designed to do in terms of feeding multiple images, as is the intention in the future, but images to multiple different troops in the field, whether it's feeding to the helicopter pilot who is flying in support of the troops on the ground, and the troops on the ground, it is designed to give them a feed down, if you will, to the down on the ground. And this is the way that getting on that same satellite signal, it seems, that the insurgents have been able to pick up what the aircraft is seeing.

But the control of it is done remotely, from a long distance away. And to be able to do that, you would have to hack into those control signals which are very clearly encrypted. Not an impossible task, and it's certainly something when we focused our reporting in the summer on these UAV drones, that the U.S. Air Force was clearly looking very carefully about how to make that control mechanism impregnable, not just to insurgents, but to other governments around the world. And they intend in the future to allow the drones to sort of fly by themselves, see the targets, analyze the targets, and kind of work alone, if you will.

LUI: All right. So, Nic, what you're saying is they've got a fix in the works right now to try to deal with this situation, which is obviously very concerning for many.

All right. Nic Robertson from Washington.

Thank you so much on that.

One more note, by the way, on Afghanistan. We're keeping an eye on Capitol Hill, where a hearing is getting under way this hour. Senators are looking into possible wasteful spending in Afghanistan. And special reports that military contractors have overcharged the government by nearly $1 billion.

You're about to meet a woman. She is in human resources, but right now she is running out of resources. So, we need to get her a job fast.

Mia Logan is her name.

And Mia, you are about to have a "30 Second Pitch."

If you're listening, you better get ready.

'Twas the night before Christmas, 1989. A half-hour "Simpsons" debuted in prime time. And yes, today marks two decades of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. It's hard to believe it's been that long. This year, they gallop past "Marshal Dillon" and "Gunsmoke," becoming the longest running prime time series in U.S. TV history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: A south Carolina woman loses her job, so she starts using coupons. No big surprise, right? But that's when she got a big idea here.

CNN's Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi has her story. He's on the road with the CNN Express.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Richard, here's what's really interesting about this. We have been finding very inventive, resourceful solutions across the Southeast, people who are doing things to improve their financial situation, their business or their communities, but here is a really simple solution. This woman has taken coupon clipping and elevated it to n art form.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANNON JUSTICE, UNEMPLOYED: A year ago I was laid off from my job as a marketing director, and because of the economy, and because of needing financial help, we decided to start couponing, me and my friends. And what has come out of that is we developed a Web site called smartcoupondeals.com where we send out e-mail shopping lists to people showing people where they can save about 60 to 90 percent on groceries. And we match what the coupons are that are currently out there with the sales that are out in the local stores.

We charge $5 a month for our service, and we e-mail on the day that every single sale starts a list to all the people. And we actually do all the hard work for everybody. We tell them we do the leg work for them, because couponing is really not an easy thing to do.

FRANK MARZE, RETIRED: What I will do is take the sales flyers...

JUSTICE: My father has recently retired, and he has just taken to couponing like a duck in water.

MARZE: So this is my stash, as we say here.

JUSTICE: He's actually had to build on a second pantry into his house because he saved so much and he's buying so many things.

MARZE: I can walk in and spend $150. With my discounts, with my coupons, I can walk out with $35, $40.

VELSHI: Has this generated some income for you?

JUSTICE: Very little right now. We're just in our beginning stages. What we've done is we've started with Facebook marketing. Just in the month of October alone, we went from having 100 fans on Facebook to about 2,067 fans. A lot of people feel that, well, we're not that bad off, that we have to go use coupons. The point is that it doesn't matter how bad off you are. You can really take that savings and put it towards something else in your household.

VELSHI: So it's logical regardless of what your financial station is to try and save on the basics.

JUSTICE: I believe it is. And one of the things that we do, too, is we also promote charity, too.

MARZE: And one of the nice things that I found recently was glucose meters. You can go into some of the places like CVS, pay $20 for this here, and they will give you $20 back in extra bucks. So you can use the $20.

And then I'll do this -- I will donate it to the Mercy Ministries, one of the doctors' offices, so they can start their patients out with a glucose meter. It just surprises me that there's not so many people that are out actually doing this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: And Richard, the great thing about this is they're saving money, they are creating a small business out of it, not a particularly lucrative one, but getting a little bit of money by getting subscriptions to these lists that they are providing on a weekly basis, and at the same time encouraging people to save money or get free things using their system and giving it to people in need.

All in all, a good story for the holiday season -- Richard.

LUI: Yes, a great story. It works on both sides of the balance sheets as well there, Ali. Thank you so much. Making money by saving money.

Everybody wants an apartment with a great view, but sometimes that view comes to you, and that's when it's time to leave.

What's going on here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

LUI: All right. Let's move on over to your top stories right now.

Cincinnati Bengals player Chris Henry is dead. He died this morning at a Charlotte, North Carolina, hospital. Police saying Henry fell off the back of a pickup truck yesterday during a dispute with his fiancee. They say the woman tried to drive away earlier, but then Henry jumped into the truck bed and fell off.

The clock is ticking. President Obama heads for Copenhagen tonight to join other world leaders at the global climate summit. Tomorrow marks the final day, and more than 100 leaders are arriving in hopes of signing some sort of final agreement there.

A penny a mile -- that's how much it costs to drive a new electric car that's already for sale. It's simple thing, and our Randi Kaye goes for a spin in it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Plug it in, charge it up and go. That's all you need to hit the road in this vehicle. It may look like a suped-up golf cart, but it's actually an electric car. Its official name, a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, because it's mainly used for errands around town.

Colin Reilly owns Drive Electric, the company that sells them.

(on camera): What's been the response so far?

COLIN REILLY, OWNER, DRIVE ELECTRIC: It's fantastic. People love it. They love the fact that 80 percent of travel in the U.S. is inside of 10 miles of your home, so this is something, even in New York City, you can zip around town, run errands, drop the kids off at school and what have you.

KAYE (voice-over): Running errands in this, Colin says, benefits the environment since electric cars are supposed to be quieter, less expensive to operate and they emit fewer air pollutants. We took it for a test drive around New York City. It is street legal and can be driven on any road with a speed limit under 35 miles per hour. It goes up to 25.

REILLY: I think rather than firing up the old Suburban to go down the street, you can jump in this; there's no cold start. Again, a car would have to have the equivalent of 160 miles per gallon to be as efficient as this is.

KAYE: So efficient the cost of driving this vehicle is about one penny a mile. That's right, one penny a mile.

(on camera): Not only is it good for the environment, but it's good for your wallet, too. It costs about $6,500 but because it's part of the stimulus package, if you get one before the end of the year, the government will give you a tax credit for the full amount.

(voice-over): The Obama administration wants to have 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. This one isn't great at handling the potholes on New York streets.

(on camera): Whoa. It's a little bumpy.

REILLY: It is.

KAYE (voice-over): But it sure is an attention-getter. We got plenty of stares and thumbs up all over town. This trucker suggested we add a spoiler and some wheels with spinners. Maybe the next model.

(voice-over): Hey, you like it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love it. I think everybody should have one.

REILLY: That's a great thought.

KAYE: It's electric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody should have it instead of all these big cars.

KAYE: Hey, honk your horn.

How do you like that?

REILLY: Back at you.

KAYE (voice-over): The car comes standard with four seats. If you want six seats, you'll have to pay a little more. They're also available in six different colors. But no matter what color you choose, you can count on this: it will be green.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: It looks like a fun golf cart there.

Understanding teenagers, maybe it is like brain surgery. To walk in teens' shoes, you really need to get into their heads, or you try to, at least. Well, now, we're learning what violence does, actually, to a teen's brain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: Unless you're under 13, you have already walked in a teenager's shoes. But if you want to understand what makes a teen tick in 2009, it helps to go a step further and go inside of their heads. Well, scientists are learning why teens react the way they do when it comes to violence specifically.

Here's another special report from our T.J. Holmes.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard, in the series this week, we've been taking a look at teen violence and also showing exactly what teens, specifically in Chicago, have to go through sometimes just to get to school, the volatile environment that they are subjected to.

Now we're examining how to exactly explain why they do what they do, and on some level doctors say it's as simple as this -- they're teenagers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Have you all witnessed some kind of violence? Shooting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen violence. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens every day. And it's mostly over petty stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Petty stuff.

HOLMES (voice-over): Mix the constant presence of violence these kids on Chicago's west side face with the developing teen brain, and researchers say you have got a recipe for danger.

DR. JAY GIEDO, NEUROSCIENTIST: In the frontal lobe right here is very late to mature. Not until about age 25.

HOLMES: And so teens are prone to act more impulsively, according to Dr. Jay Giedo, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health.

GIEDO: Whenever there is high emotion, then this part of the brain is really taxed, it really has to work extra hard to sort it all out.

HOLMES: That's true even for teens living in the best of circumstances. But add a constant barrage of violence to a kid's life, and that risky behavior can become magnified.

GENE GRIFFIN, PSYCHOLOGIST: They misinterpret signs of danger, they overreact to it all the time, and they have trouble calming themselves down and seeing the world the way other people see it.

HOLMES: Dr. Giedo says the brain can actually get used to the violence, taking even more violence to shock it.

GIEDO: If the world of the teen is violent, and that people need to be aggressive in order to survive in that environment, the biology will make the brain change and adapt to whatever demands they are.

HOLMES: The teens we spoke with say they have seen so much violence, that they actually grown used to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In front of the store from my house, there was a boy with his brains blew out. So really saying there are people won't (ph) stop, and it don't even scare me no more.

DR. CARL BELL, PSYCHIATRIST: How is it that we have forgotten that we need to raise children?

HOLMES: Experts say as much as the teen brain can be transformed by excessive exposure to violence or danger, it has the ability to change, also responding to a nurturing environment.

BELL: You've got children who are all gasoline, no brakes. It's for parents and society, schools, communities to provide the brakes. HOLMES: One such program is Umoja. It partners with Chicago's Manley (ph) High School helping teens to cope by surrounding them with support, teaching them leadership skills and encouraging students to see a future for themselves.

LILA LEFF, FOUNDER, UMOJA: There is not a magic thing we say to kids that make them stop -- that will make them stop killing each other. That's not how it works. We connect and we have relationships, or none of this ever changes.

HOLMES: When the program started 12 years ago, only 10 percent of the students went on to college. Today that number has grown to 60 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) beyond what you ever thought. They took me out of town. And I never thought (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They tell you, like, there's more to life than just being around here. You can just go out and experience more things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And it's important to point out that according to the Bureau of Justice statistics, teen violence across the country has been trending down over the past several years, and in some places, has gotten down to levels we haven't seen in the 1970s. But in Chicago specifically, the part that's alarming is that over the past three years, there has been an uptick in the number of teens, the number of school-aged kids who have been killed. And we're already at 49 for this year -- Richard.

LUI: All right. T.J., thank you so much, with that special series, "Walk in My Shoes," that latest installment from T.J. Holmes.

The war next door -- Mexican cops, Mexican troops against Mexican drug lords armed with U.S. cash. Check out a major takedown. Arturo (ph) Beltran Leyva, leader of the drug cartel of the very same name, killed last night in a shootout with the Mexican navy. Now, Beltran Leyva's brother, also a kingpin -- he was taken out, as well, along with five other traffickers and a Mexican sailor.

Now, I spoke last hour with Anthony Placido, chief of intelligence for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Here's what he told us on the subject.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY PLACIDO, CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, DEA: I think last night's operation is the beginning of what we need to do, and that is to collaborate at a bilateral and multilateral level to share the information that is so critical if we're going to fight transnational criminal organizations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: All right, Beltran Leyva was one of Mexico's three most wanted criminals.

President Obama heads to Copenhagen tonight for the global climate summit. He'll be catching the tail end of it, and there's little time to waste if world leaders hope to reach an agreement with this.

CNN's senior White house correspondent Ed Henry is there right now. Now, Ed, we understand you just got there. You're digging around right now. And the big question, based on all that has been said is, will there be a deal for the president to see?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question, Richard. And I can tell you right now, things appear to be as frozen as the weather outside. When I first landed, it was negative 4 degrees Celsius, a little bit of snow on the ground, as well. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is already on the ground here, sort of trying to thaw things out ahead of the president. She's trying to resolve a dispute with China. That's basically the stumbling block here. China is saying that the U.S. and other rich nations should put up some money to a global fund to try to help poorer nations deal with global warming.

And so Secretary Clinton today had an important gesture, basically said the U.S. will start putting money into a $100 billion global fund to help these poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change if two things happen. Number one, if there's a broader deal here in the next 24 hours on cutting emissions among all of these big countries, nearly 200 of them. And secondly, China will have to be more open and transparent on whether or not they really are complying with these new standards.

I can tell you I spoke to some members of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional delegation, a bipartisan group that's also here on the ground already, and Congressman Ed Markey, a real power player on this issue, told me he thinks there will be a deal worked out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I think this is the moment. I think the world has come together. I think they want the United States and China to be the leaders. That's what this conference really wants more than anything else. And if the Chinese will accept more transparency in the way in which their commitments that they're making at this conference are, in fact, monitored, then I think we have the makings of something that will go a long way towards protecting the world against the most catastrophic effects of global warming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: But Republican senator James Inhofe, a climate change skeptic, was also here on the ground in Copenhagen. He's already declared that this summit is a failure because he does not believe that the U.S. should be pouring money into this global fund, helping out developing nations at a time when the U.S. is dealing with 10 percent unemployment and a deep, deep debt problem, Richard. LUI: So Ed, a significant international forum here. You describe it as 200 countries being represented there. What sort of political capital is the president putting out there in Denmark at this moment? What are the stakes?

HENRY: The stakes are enormous for this president because if you'll remember, he originally was going to come here at the beginning of this two-week summit, sort of very low risk, maybe just come in for a photo-op. But then when the White House saw that, Look, maybe things are moving along towards a deal, they decided to bring him in here tomorrow, which is the final day of this two-week summit. So clearly, they felt that he could help push this along.

If it doesn't come through, he's going to have his second straight trip to Copenhagen here -- you remember the last one was when he came in for the Olympic bid for Chicago. That fell through. He does not want a repeat of that.

But I can tell you, a few moments ago, I spoke to Fred Krupp. He's the president of the Environmental Defense Fund. He put a little perspective on this by saying, Look, sure, the stakes are high for this president, but there -- this is now the 15th U.N. climate change summit, Fred Krupp saying, Look, there's going to be at least 15 more of these. Global warming's going to be a challenge we're going to deal with for decades to come.

And so while this is a critical moment in all of this, even if it does fail, these leaders are going to have to come back in 2010 and deal with it again. It doesn't mean that nothing will happen on global warming in the years to come, Richard.

LUI: All right, Ed Henry on top of that. The intermediate deadline or finish line, shall we say, tomorrow. We'll see what happens there in Denmark. Appreciate it.

There are a lot of creative, talented people out there, and it's time to find one of them a job. Mia Logan joins us right now -- actually, we understand Mia Logan will be joining us later, hopefully. That's our "30 Second Pitch." And we all always, of course, try to do a good job and help folks get a job.

A Christmas gift from CitiBank to struggling home owners -- well, at least a temporary one we've got. If you got a CitiBank home loan, you just bought some time for yourself.

All right, and also, nominees announced today for the Screen Actors Guild awards. This year, three films got three nominations each. They are "Precious," starring Mo'Nique, "Up in the Air" starring George Clooney, and the Quentin Tarantino film "Inglourious Basterds" starring Brad Pitt. "Inglourious Basterds" and "Precious" are competing for SAG's coveted overall cast prize. "Up in the Air" did not make that category but garnered a lead actor nod for Clooney, along with two supporting actress nominations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LUI: So it was not unanimous, but the Senate Banking Committee has voted to push forward on Ben Bernanke's nomination for yet another term as Fed chief. The vote was 16 to 7 in this. Some senators blame Bernanke for not spotting problems that led to the financial meltdown. The full Senate now takes up his nomination. We'll see how that goes.

And Pope Benedict has accepted the resignation of a bishop. Donald Murray was identified in a report on clergy members abusing children in Ireland. The 720-page report found that the archdiocese of Dublin covered up clerical child abuse from 1975 to 2004.

And Senate Democrats facing internal pressure over their health care bill right now. The more liberal Democrats say the bill does not do enough. The more conservative ones want much tighter restrictions here on federal funding for abortions specifically.

Well, in some ways, she's your average spouse. You can turn her on or turn her off. Meet Nene -- animated, pretty as a pixel and a flesh-and-blood man's new bride.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: David Goldman is in Brazil right now, hoping to get his 9- year-old son, Sean, on a plane and bring him home to New Jersey as soon as possible. Yesterday, a court in Rio gave him custody. Now, this story began back in 2004, when David's wife took Sean to her native Brazil on vacation. She never came back, divorced David and kept their son. When she died last year, her family fought to keep Sean. That battle may be over after five long years now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GOLDMAN, FATHER (via telephone): I hope that this is the last trip that I'll have to come down here to bring my son home, that he will be on the plane with me. I do hope that we will finally be able to bring him home to me, his only parent, his only father, and his family that have been waiting for him for over five years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUI: Hey, there's help coming for thousands of troubled home owners from one of the nation's most bailed-out banks. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow is in New York with more on that. Poppy, what can you tell us about? It sounds like good news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, I mean -- I mean, it is good news, certainly on the surface. This is CitiGroup, one of the biggest bailed-out banks, coming forth just late last night, Richard, and saying, Listen, we're going to suspend foreclosures for 30 days starting tomorrow for about 4,000 of their customers. That's about 20 percent of their total loan portfolio when you talk about mortgages.

But we should tell you this will only apply to you if your mortgage is owned by Citi and if you -- even if you make the payments directly to Citi, if your loan is owned by another investor, then you're not going to qualify. So make sure to check on that. And what's interesting is the timing here. This comes as the Obama administration's efforts to modify mortgages have by most accounts really fallen short, Richard. When you look at the numbers, only about 4 percent of troubled borrowers have gotten long-term help under the administration's foreclosure plans. For CitiGroup -- listen to this number -- they have enrolled about 100,000 people in that federal program, but only 271 of those modifications -- 271...

HOLMES: 271?

HARLOW: ... have been made permanent. That's according to the Treasury. I don't even know what kind of percent that is...

LUI: Right.

HARLOW: ... but 271 out of 100,000 is something to be worried about. To be fair to the banks here, one of the heads of these banks told me that, Listen, the problem is the Treasury paperwork is about an inch thick and it's too complex for most people to get through accurately. That's why we're having the problem modifying these loans. We'll see, but some help on the way, at least for the next month, Richard.

LUI: 271? That is less than -- a little bit more than a quarter percent. That's almost nothing.

HARLOW: Yes, you do the math.

LUI: My word. My word!

HARLOW: OK. Exactly.

LUI: OK. Let's move on to some perhaps more positive news. The House of Representatives...

HARLOW: Right.

LUI: ... looking to help out folks for the holidays. The jobs creation bill passing last night -- what does that do to help people?

HARLOW: It did. It did. It passed the House. It's still awaiting approval in the Senate. But this is more $150 billion earmarked for job creation and unemployment assistance and some other things, so that could be very helpful if it becomes law. Seventy-five billion of that would come from the TARP fund, like the president was pushing last week, to spend on infrastructure, also to help states prevent layoffs where there's a lot of pain. Also $79 billion of that will go to what they're calling an emergency safety net. And actually, most of that would add to the deficit. It would be government spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In terms of what this money would go for, a lot of it is geared towards extending unemployment benefits once again, and also towards the COBRA health care subsidy that would also be extended.

While we wait for the Senate to look at that probably early next year, this weekend, Richard, the Senate is expected to pass a two- month extension for unemployment benefits. So some help that looks like on the way. You can get more details from that story on, of course, our Web site, CNNMoney -- Richard.

LUI: And a much higher percentage getting a benefit out of that, I guess, with the jobs creation bill, when we compare it to CitiGroup.

HARLOW: Yes. We hope so.

LUI: Yes. Exactly.

HARLOW: We hope so.

LUI: Poppy Harlow, thank you.

All right, now to a beautiful bride, a bessetted (ph) groom, shall we say. It's a virtually perfect relationship, except for the fact one of EMs (ph) -- one of -- one of them is a real character -- if I can read properly. CNN's Kyung Lah reports more on that for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you love a machine?

SAL9000: I love this character, not machine.

LAH (voice-over): Loves her so much, he married her, a character in his Nintendo DS player, a game called "Love Plus." Her name is Nene Anegasaki, but she's known to this 27-year-old man as his bride. SAL9000, his virtual name and the only name he would give us, streamed his wedding to Nene her live on the Web. I played third wheel on a dinner date as we chatted about his relationship to a video game.

(on camera): You're not really married to her, are you?

SAL9000 (through translator): I understand 100 percent that this is a game. I understand very well that I cannot marry her physically or legally.

LAH: What is the object of the game?

SAL9000 (through translator): The purpose of the game is to enjoy your romantic relationship with the characters in the game.

LAH: How is she superior, or is she superior to a human girlfriend?

SAL9000 (through translator): Yes, she is. She doesn't get angry if I'm late in replying to her. Well, she gets angry, but she forgives me quickly.

LAH: You don't have to buy her dinner ever. New outfit! So she changes clothes?

SAL9000: Yes.

LAH: If you keep winning the game, does she take all her clothes off?

SAL9000 (through translator): No, that doesn't happen. She changes clothes if I win a game.

LAH: Is she the dream woman?

SAL9000 (through translator): Yes, she is. Her character changes to my liking as we talk and travel to different places.

LAH: Does it make you a little sad that she's not real?

SAL9000 (through translator): It would be great if such a woman actually did exist in real life and if I could find such a woman.

LAH: If a real girl came along, would you see both at the same time?

SAL9000 (through translator): Well, that would be an extramarital affair. I would not do that.

LAH: You would dump Nene for the real girl?

SAL9000 (through translator): I don't have a girl friend now, so I'm only with Nene.

LAH: But if a real girl came along, Nene out the door?

SAL9000 (through translator): No, I can't do that because our marriage is now widely known to other people.

LAH: How long can this go on? How long can your marriage to her go on?

SAL9000 (through translator): Since there's no ending to this game, you can continue this game forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LUI: That interview was like a box of chocolates. You just never knew what you were going to hear there. My word.

OK, they may not look like they're typical bodyguards, but don't let, in this situation, appearances fool you. These women know how to protect a client, defeat an attacker and knock down a few stereotypes along the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LUI: There are a whole lot of creative, talented people out there, and it's time to find one of them a job. Mia Logan joins us right now. She owned her own human resources consulting company for about 11 years. Hey, Mia, how're you doing there? Now she needs some...

MIA LOGAN, JOB SEEKER: Good. LUI: ... resources of her own. Evidently, over the past year, most of your contacts dried up as businesses cut back on human resources training, and as a small business owner, Mia, you didn't qualify for things like jobless benefits. You lost your health insurance. Mia, you're in Albuquerque right now. You're here for our "30 Second Pitch." First I want to get into your background. I was looking through your resume, quite extensive. You're an HR senior executive. You're an organizational development executive, as well, an HR consulting firm. It seems like if there's anybody who knew how to see what was coming down the road and prepare for it, it was you. Were you surprised when this happened?

LOGAN: Well, I kind of had a feeling things were changing, and I just feel like right now, we're in a transition and organizations are still trying to figure out what they want to do next.

LUI: So what's your simple advice, as an HR expert, shall we say, to others that might be in your position?

LOGAN: To be flexible and also try and be as creative as possible and try and create some new ways of doing things.

LUI: How are you being creative? What have you done?

LOGAN: Well, I've actually been networking a lot, working my network. I've used LinkedIn a lot, which has been a very helpful tool. And I've been teaching, and I've actually been helping others find jobs through my network to kind of pay it forward.

LUI: That's right. And by teaching folks, you kind of learn new ideas yourself. OK, let's move into the "30 Second Pitch." You've got 30 seconds. We'll start it in three, two, one, go.

LOGAN: OK. I'm creative, innovative, collaborative and a practical problem solver. And as an organizational development specialist, I bring 20 years experience guiding executives, leaders and staff through transitions such as downsizing, culture shifts and performance improvement. As businesses continue to grow, merge and transform, I partner with key stakeholders to develop and implement coaching, training, talent management, leadership and strategic visioning to successfully achieve long-term sustainable change.

LUI: All right, Mia Logan, you did it in 28 seconds. Very well done. We appreciate that. And if you'd like to get to Mia, you can see her e-mail there at the bottom of the screen. Mia, very good luck. We hope to be able to help you out here on the "30 Second Pitch."

LOGAN: Thanks, Richard.

LUI: All right, straight to this. We're just learning here at CNN some breaking news coming out of the Brazilian supreme (SIC) court. David Goldman is in Brazil right now, as you know, hoping to get his 9-year-old son, Sean, on a plane.

What we're learning right now is that the Brazilian supreme court has halted and delayed at least the departure of his son. Yesterday, a court in Brazil did allow Mr. Goldman to have custody of his son.

Now, this story began back in 2004, when David's wife took Sean to her native Brazil on vacation. She never came back. She divorced David and kept their son. When she died last year, her family fought to keep Sean. The battle may be over after five long years. But again, what we're hearing is there's a little bit of a hiccup right now, the Brazilian supreme court halting again the departure of his son. We will tell you what's happening with the Goldmans throughout the day here on CNN when we learn more. That just in to us.

OK, let's move over to Rick Sanchez for the 3:00 PM hour of NEWSROOM. That gets going right now.