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Wall Street Protests Turn Heads In D.C.; Hoping For NBA Buzzer- Beater ; Furor Over "Fast and Furious"; Treading Water For 20 Hours; NetFlix Won't Split Services; Hank Williams Jr. Fires Back; Ain't No Mountain High Enough; NBP Haggles To Avoid Canceling Games; Undercovered Story; Race and Discipline; Abuse Suspects Going Free

Aired October 10, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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


RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne, thank you. Have a great day.

MALVEAUX: Thank you.

KAYE: Hello, everyone. Take a look at your paychecks, if you will. Does it make you cringe? More than likely you are taking home less money than you used to. For many of us that is the reality according to a new study that was done by two former census bureau officials.

Here's what they found. From the start of the recession to this past June, the average income for families plunged nearly 10 percent. We're talking about the biggest drop in decades. In fact, the two former census bureau officials who did the study called this decline, quote, "a significant reduction in the American standard of living." Their words, not mine. But when you break it down, the reality gets even more troubling. During the recession, the average income slipped by about 3 percent, but after the recession when the economy was supposed to be picking up, take a look, the average income dropped by nearly 7 percent, down to $49,909.

Incomes fell more after the recession ended than they did during the actual recession. As the Senate begins debating President Obama's jobs bill, perhaps this explains why so many people are angry. And also explains, in part, why Occupy Wall Street has become a nationwide movement in its fourth week.

The protests have now spread far beyond Wall Street to more than two dozen cities. Like it or not, it's a voice the president, lawmakers and the GOP presidential candidates can no longer ignore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: I don't know where it's going to go but they need to go away, because in my opinion, they're focusing on the wrong thing.

REP. MICHELE BACKMANN (R), PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: Seems to me that their anger should be directed at the White House.

REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I, for one, am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: I didn't hear him say anything when the Tea Party was out demonstrating, actually spitting on members of Congress right here in the capital.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: While Republicans point the finger at Obama, the president slammed the GOP this weekend for going against his jobs bill which happens to include tax cuts that would increase your take-home pay.

Now, as your pay goes down, NBA owners and players are haggling over hundreds of millions of dollars. If there isn't a buzzer beater in labor talks today, the NBA could cancel the first two weeks of the regular season. The big sticking point, their share of basketball- related income. The last collective bargaining agreement had players getting 57 percent, owners 43 percent, the league now wants a 50 percent stake, at least.

Coming up shortly, veteran NBA reporter David Aldridge weighs in on whether the negotiations are just a bit petty at this point.

New fallout over Operation Fast and Furious. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair Darrell Issa says he may issue subpoenas to the Justice Department to find out who knew what and when. That could include attorney general Eric Holder. The operation involved ATF agents allowing and tracking the illegal sales of guns that would likely end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel members. Controversy over Fast and Furious erupted when weapons found at American and Mexican murder scenes were traced back to that program.

Well, after treading water for 20 hours, a 4-year-old girl and three other people were rescued by the coast guard off the Florida Keys, but an 80-year-old woman drowned yesterday before rescuers could reach her. The rescued were part of a group of eight on a boat that sank around noon Saturday, three others were picked up by passers-by.

A quick death for Quickster. Netflix is rewinding its plan to split its DVD by mail and streaming video services. It has decided to keep them together at Netflix.com. One name, one Web site. A few weeks ago, Netflix announced it would rebrand its DVD by mail service Quickster. At the time, it was also planning on adding video games to that service. A spokesman now says the plan on video game rentals is to be determined. Netflix's CEO says the company was moving too fast in this case.

For only the second time in two decades, Monday night football will not begin with the iconic Hank Williams Jr. song about his rowdy friends. So now, well, he's written a new song.

Now to a rock star of a different kind. Check out Kyle Maynard. His arms and where his elbows would be and his legs and above the knees, but that hasn't kept him from the football field, wrestling mat, or mixed martial arts. Now, he's training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in January. He would be the first quad amputee to reach that summit. On top of it all, it's for a good cause bringing medical supplies to children in need. Kyle Maynard, you are today's Rock Star.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. While millions of Americans face shrinking paychecks and struggle to pay their bills, the NBA and its players are haggling right now over how to split their billions in revenue in salaries. If they don't reach an agreement today, the first two weeks of regular season games could be canceled. The owners want a 50, 50 split with the players, but the National Basketball Players Association is not budging.

NBA TV reporter David Aldridge is monitoring this for us and joins me on the phone from New York. David, nice to have you on the show.

Let's talk about this for a minute, I mean let's be honest here, with people these days trying to figure out how to put food on the table and pay their bills, you have millionaire basketball players an team owners who are also super wealthy arguing how to split billions in revenue and salaries. Does it all seem a bit petty to you?

DAVID ALDRIDGE, NBA TV REPORTER (via telephone): Well you know, Randi, I'm sure it sounds petty to people who've been out of work for two years and (INAUDIBLE) and don't have -- don't know how they're going to pay their mortgage, but you know, all of us who negotiate salaries, whether we do it ourselves or have agents, or we unions that do it for us, we all fight for that last dollar.

And so, this is really no different. The numbers are certainly higher but the principle is the same. I mean, you're -- you've got one side that wants to save $1 billion in paying salaries and you have another side that doesn't want to give up $1 billion in salaries, so you can understand why they're fighting over it. And having said that, I certainly understand why people out there in the mainstream don't care about that and can't seem to understand why people can't make a deal over $4 billion in revenue. It is certainly understandable.

KAYE: Well, let's talk about some of the sticking points. I mean, the NBA commissioner says last season was not profitable for most of the 30 owners in the league. They lost as much as $300 million. As we said, the owners want this 50-50 split. The union of course wants 53 percent. And if you look at the average salary there, $5 million for players, I mean how far apart are they, do you know, in terms of these talks?

ALDRIDGE: Well you know, they are about 3 percent apart on the split of basketball, and you have another aspect to it as well as how do they spend that money? And that's a totally different set of problems that they are working through. But right now, in terms of how much money they're going to split, they're about 3 percent apart and it certainly doesn't sound a lot -- like a lot but each percentage point is about $40 million.

KAYE: Wow.

ALDRIDGE: So, they're about $100 million -- $120 million apart per year on the deal and the deal is going to be at least six or seven years, and the owners actually wanted 10. So, if you do a 10-year deal and you're $120 million apart per year, that's a $1.2 billion that your apart, it's a lot of money.

KAYE: So, how likely do you think a deal might be?

ALDRIDGE: Well, I wish I could say I'm really optimistically going to knock something out here today, but as you know, the last mile in any negotiation is the hardest one because you've gone as far as you want to go. The problem is now somebody is going to have to go farther than they want to go to bridge this last gap and that's what's going to be difficult. Both sides have, you know, parties that are pushing them to stand firm and not give anymore, and so you know, they're talking, which is better than not talking. But I'm not really optimistic they're going to have a break-through today.

KAYE: NBA TV reporter David Aldridge, thank you so much for your insight. Nice to chat with you.

Well, a few days after ESPN dropped Hank Williams Jr.'s theme song from its Monday night football broadcast, Williams is fighting back. ESPN stopped using the song "All My Rowdy Friends" after the singer compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler in a Fox News interview. Now, Williams has recorded a new song, blasting ESPN, Fox News, and the Obama administration.

If your children are white and able-bodied, they are less likely to be suspended from school. Doesn't sound very fair, does it? Well, it's happening in America right now. We're going to break down numbers for you.

But first, here's a look at the stories you're watching on CNN.com. Look at all this stuff for coffee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It is time for today's "Undercovered Story." It is one that you need to hear and we need to be reporting on much more. According to a new report to the National Education Policy Center, schools disproportionately punish and discipline students of color and the disabled. Yes, it's true. Can you believe this stuff? Today, even for the same minor offenses, U.S. public schools are suspending black, Hispanic, and disabled students at much higher rates than their white counterparts.

Joining me now for much more on this, the study's author, Daniel Losen from Massachusetts and CNN contributor Steve Perry, he's joining us from Connecticut. Welcome to both of you. Daniel, just briefly if you can, break down your report and tell me what the most shocking findings to you.

DANIEL LOSEN, AUTHOR, NEPC REPORT: Well, I think it's very important to understand we're talking about mostly minor offenses. So, things like truancy, excessive tardiness, dress code violations, minor disruptions to the class, kids are being suspended right and left for these kinds of minor violations. Over 3.25 million students every year are being suspended. And when we look at the middle schools, the numbers get even worse and parents really need to know. For example, black male students, more than one out of every four black male students was suspended out of school for these kinds of minor violations, compared to only about 10 percent of white male students. Kids with disabilities are also being suspended in really large numbers and it -- sometimes we're able to look at the first-time offenders and compare those data.

So we have data from across the state of North Carolina. And they are for something like possessing a cell phone. About 32 percent of the first-time offenders for black students, suspended out of school. Only about 14 percent if you're white. Same thing with public display of affection. These kinds of minor violations we're seeing in large racial disparities.

KAYE: Yes. So we have a cell phone, showing affection.

Steve, do you see this in your school?

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: You know, we don't have that great of a disparity. However, I have seen it in schools. And what happens is, there's an overcriminalization of the behavior of African-American, Latino and some of students who are special needs. The expectation is that what they're doing is worse than what other children are doing, even when it's the same thing.

I also have seen at the primary school level, there's a, you know, there's a whole focus on having the boys act -- I call an over feminization of primary education, which means that we expect the boys to act and react the same way that girls do. And when they don't, we think that there's something wrong with them. And as a result, many boys are being turned off to school as they're being suspended.

KAYE: Daniel, why is this happening is really the bigger question. I mean who's to blame here?

LOSEN: Well, one of the things we need to get back to is using suspension as the last resort. So one of the things that has happened over the last 20, 30 years is we're resorting to suspension for these minor offenses with a really high frequency. What we need is -- teachers also need to be trained better in classroom management. We also know from the research that it really matters what the attitude of the principal is. So the choice isn't between chaos on one hand and suspending kids right and left on the other. There's a lot of things that a well trained school leader with well trained teachers can do in between that keeps kids in school.

KAYE: Right. LOSEN: And it's so important because being suspended is one of the leading indicators of whether kids will eventually drop out and become incarcerated.

KAYE: Yes, I was just going to get to that actually with Steve.

I mean, Steve, what do you think really the long-term effects might be on these students who are being so harshly treated?

PERRY: Well, I mean it's almost a direct line from a statistical perspective to prison, and/or dropping out and/or pregnancy and/or any of the other maladies that are often faced by those people who don't do well in school. We can, as principals, we can do a better job.

I don't know about sensitivity training. I think sometimes that's overstated. What I can do as a principal is, I can identify the teachers who are least effective at managing their classrooms and discipline them, as opposed to disciplining the children who are constantly being put in a bad situation by a teacher who can't control the classroom.

KAYE: Steve Perry, Daniel Losen, thank you so much. A very important topic to discuss there. And we'll continue to watch it as our "Under Covered" story. Thank you.

LOSEN: Thank you.

KAYE: Well, outrageous doesn't even begin to describe this next story. People accused of domestic violence are being released from jail in Kansas all because authorities can't decide who will prosecute the cases. Find out why straight ahead.

But first, on October 10, 1944, 800 children were murdered at Auschwitz. According to The History Channel, the children were gypsies. The kids were killed in response to an uprising by several hundred Jewish prisoners a couple of days before. And that is the shame in history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: In "Crime & Consequence" today, we're going to focus on a maddening controversy in Topeka, Kansas. Domestic violence suspects are going free because of a dispute between the county and the city. Richelle Carey from our sister network HLN has been digging into this and she joins me now.

So what is happening there?

RICHELLE CAREY, HLN CORRESPONDENT: A fight over money. And I know that that's not --

KAYE: That's what this comes down to?

CAREY: Yes. And I know it's not surprising, but it's pretty sad. It's pretty maddening. Basically, Randi, the city of Topeka deals with about 1,900 domestic violence cases a year. And in the past few years, the county, which is Shawnee County, has had an agreement where they helped them prosecute these cases.

Well, the county has had 10 percent trimmed from their budget and they said, we can't help you any more with these cases.

KAYE: So they can't afford to prosecute them.

CAREY: Exactly. Putting it right back in the lap of the city. The city says, we can't afford this either. This is why you were helping us in the first place. That's how we get to this point.

KAYE: So how is it playing out? I mean where are these guys?

CAREY: They're free. I talked to the spokesperson for the city of Topeka this morning. He says 18 domestic violence suspects have been set free since September 8th because nobody filed charges. Not the city. Not the county.

And I have to tell you, that's the most dangerous time for a battered woman when police come and make an arrest and then he is released. He's angry. He's upset. So you're releasing these suspects and they've had no consequences at all. None.

KAYE: And so, obviously, I mean, you and I, we've reported on a lot of these cases where, when they are, as you were saying, when they're put back out there, they can do more harm than they've even done before because they're angrier. So what are domestic violence groups saying about all this?

CAREY: They're furious. I talked to a few groups. One woman -- literally the first words out of her mouth was, this is frightening. She says that it sends a message that domestic violence is not a crime. That it's dangerous for women. And she also says that if the point is to save money, but it's actually kind of short sighted to take this approach because domestic violence costs us all money. It costs the country. Look at these numbers here. About $4.1 billion a year in health services. Women have to be taken care of physically if they're harmed.

KAYE: Right.

CAREY: They go to emergency rooms. They need mental help. And so you're going to pay one way or another.

KAYE: Plus you have to re-arrest them if that happens.

CAREY: Exactly.

KAYE: If it comes down to that. So, I mean, what is the answer here? What's going to happen next? Are the two sides negotiating about how to handle this?

CAREY: That's what they say. There's three choices. This is what can happen now. The city says we could just take the cases. They say we could pay the county to take the cases. Or what they're dealing with tomorrow is the city is going to vote on whether or not to decriminalize the cases, meaning it would not be illegal on the books in the city of Topeka to commit domestic violence. They say effectively putting it back in the county's lap because they say there's no way that these cases wouldn't eventually --

KAYE: To decriminalize it?

CAREY: That's the word I said, yes, decriminalize it.

KAYE: Wow.

CAREY: So playing ping-pong with this cause, basically.

KAYE: So where does this leave battered women?

CAREY: I asked that question to the spokesperson for the city Topeka. I said, what is a woman supposed to do when she hears this? He says, tell her to call us anyway. We will make an arrest and we will figure it out, because he acknowledged, this is not a solution.

KAYE: Wow. This just -- wow, maddening, right?

CAREY: It is. It is.

KAYE: I know you cover this -- you cover these stories quite a bit.

CAREY: I do. And I'll cover the vote tomorrow as well.

KAYE: All right. Well, keep us posted. Richelle Carey, thank you.

CAREY: You bet.

KAYE: In a country founded on freedom of religion, should faith play a part in the highest office in the land? Coming up, Mitt Romney and Mormonism. It is all "fair game."

OK, something of a trivia test for you political junkies. First, we talk about straw polls all the time, especially after two recent straw poll victories helped propel Herman Cain into the top tier of Republicans running for president. How and when did we start using the term? The answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Before the break we asked where the term "straw poll" comes from. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable has the answer. It say it's derived from the idea of showing which way the wind blows by tossing up a piece of straw. The "Harrisburg Pennsylvania" newspaper first popularized the term back in 1824. But William Safire's New Political Dictionary traced the straw polls back to the 17th century.

In politics, almost anything is "fair game." Religion certainly is. In 1960, one issue dogging John Kennedy's campaign for president was his religion, Catholicism. In 2008 and again in the 2012 campaign now, Mitt Romney can't seem to escape the fact that he's a Mormon. And to be fair, religion also caused Barack Obama problems in his campaign for the White House.

Now this. In Dallas, last week, one of Rick Perry's supporters called Mormonism a, quote, "cult." Here's what he said to our Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. ROBERT JEFFRESS, SR. PASTOR, 1ST BAPTIST CHURCH OF DALLAS: The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest protestant denomination in the world, has officially labeled Mormonism as a cults. I think Mitt Romney's a good moral man, but I think those of us who are born-again followers of Christ should always prefer a competent Christian to a competent non-Christian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, who is hurt most by that comment? Romney, Perry, the GOP perhaps? We're talking about it now. But should it be "fair game?" Let's ask my guest. Ed Espinoza is a Democratic political consultant. He's joining us today from Austin, Texas. And in Washington, Christopher Metzler is associate dean of the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and a Republican.

So, Christopher, I'm going to start with you.

Let me ask you, why do you think this issue came up? Is this a political ploy here?

CHRISTOPHER METZLER, ASSOCIATE DEAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY'S SCHOOL OF CONTINUING STUDIES: Yes, it is a political ploy.

And the pastor, we have seen this movie before and we know how it ends. The pastor in this case is kind of reminding me of Punxsutawney Phil. He's coming out of hibernation and seeing his shadow.

The fact of the matter is, here, the Republican Party will do its best by distancing itself from this entire conversation. It further reinforces the notion that the Republican Party is insensitive. This is absolutely ridiculous. And then he tries to walk it back by saying he's making a distinction between a theological cult and a sociological cult?

I'm a social scientist. Distinction without a difference.

KAYE: All right. Wow.

Ed, you tell me what you think here. Who gets hurt the most by this, do you think?

ED ESPINOZA, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: It was only a matter of time before this came up.

And, a matter of fact, when we talked about "Saturday Night Live"'s debate parody a couple weeks ago, they brought this up and even said that they expected it to come out. So, like you mentioned in the lead-up to this segment, you saw it in '08, you saw it in 1960. Some people say that Al Smith lost the election in 1928 because of his religion.

What this comes down to is, is the Republican Party big enough and diverse enough to accept people with differing views on religion? I think Christopher's right. This is a tough issue. We need people like the RNC chairman to come out and say we accept differing views on religion and to get past this. In 2012, we should be past this issue. Clearly right now we are not. We need to get there.

KAYE: So, Christopher, if this was a tactical move by the Perry campaign, could this come back to bite him, too?

METZLER: Yes. It can. It will. And it has. The fact of the matter is, there are no coincidences in politics.

It is not coincidental that now with Perry trailing and trailing badly, all of a sudden, this issue comes up. And, in fact, it has already backfired. We're spending so much time talking about this. We're not talking about job creation, which is what people care about.

People really don't care about this. And the fact of the matter is the people who are going to vote against Romney because of the fact that he's a Mormon, they're going to do that anyway. This does not appeal to a broader sense of the American public and it certainly is not a winning issue in the general election campaign. So move on. Get over it.

(CROSSTALK)

METZLER: And that's a good point.

KAYE: Yes, go on.

METZLER: Yes. Christopher brings up a really good point about the general election.

There are some numbers that I think are really important to note here. I put these up on Twitter earlier today. When we think about Mormon voters, most people just think about Utah, maybe Idaho. But Utah borders four battleground states that have significant Mormon populations. Arizona has 400,000 Mormons, Nevada 200,000, Colorado close to 150,000, New Mexico close to 100,000.

These are all margins of victory -- beyond margins of victory in every one of these battleground states. The Democratic Party is a big tent party. We have succeeded with Mormons in these places. I think Republicans need to show that they care about these populations, too.

(CROSSTALK)

ESPINOZA: Well, Pastor Jeffress aside, the Republican Party is big tent, the party of pluralism. Here we go.

KAYE: OK. There you go.

Ed Espinoza, Christopher Metzler, thank you both for taking part in today's "Fair Game."

Well, it is an ancient civilization, one of the focal points of this year's Arab spring. Now there is new unrest and it's turned deadly. Can you guess where? We will take you there in "Globe Trekking."

But, first, "Money" magazine is out with its list of the best jobs in America. This yea, they are featuring hot jobs in growing fields for people making a career change.

Let's take a peek at one that you can take to new heights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you want to go from a top gun to a top job, then become a pilot. Pilots make an average of $89,000 a year, and more job openings are expected over the next few years. It's easy to see why it landed on "Money"'s best jobs list, especially if you are leaving the military.

As a pilot, you enjoy a flexible schedule and never have to take your work home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The answer to the question we posed before the break is Egypt, which is suffering from its deadliest violence since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled last February. Reports say more than two dozen people were killed yesterday in clashes between the Egyptian army and Coptic Christian protesters.

Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman is standing by in Cairo.

Ben, what is behind these violent protests exactly?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, this is a culmination of months of rising sectarian tension between the Coptic Christian minority, they make up about 9 percent of the population, and the Muslim majority.

What happened was they were protesting right on this street below me against the burning of a church in upper Egypt. Now, exactly how the clashes broke out is not altogether clear. I spoke to many protesters today who said that as they approached this area, plainclothes men started to throw rocks at them, attack them with sticks and machetes.

The government has a somewhat different version. They're saying that some of the protesters had firearms, opened fire and killed several soldiers who were protecting the main television building just up the road.

But what is beyond dispute is that sectarian tensions as a result of these deaths are higher now than they have been for a very long time in Egypt -- Randi.

KAYE: And, Ben, with all the violence, is it even possible to get a count on how many people have died, and also is there any possibility that they're going to be able to cool the tensions at all there?

WEDEMAN: Well, the government is taking some steps.

What they have done in this area, they're imposing a 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. curfew. They have also said they're going to launch an investigation into what happened, but they have done that before. In fact, there's something called the National Justice Committee that was formed after the last outbreak of sectarian violence in May, and several members of that committee have resigned in protest because they say the government has done so little to address this mounting problem of sectarian tensions.

So there are efforts being made. And we see actual -- outside the hospital we were at today, we saw Muslim women coming to wipe the tears off the cheeks of women whose relatives had died in the clashes. But at a government state level, it is not altogether clear whether they have the wherewithal or the will to address this problem.

KAYE: And, Ben, I thought that after Mubarak was ousted the country was going to be moving toward democracy. This doesn't look like anything like democracy.

WEDEMAN: Well, really, since Mubarak was ousted, we have seen this country become increasingly more unstable.

The economy has come to a screeching halt. Very few tourists are coming here. The Cairo stock market crashed almost 5 percent, then regained a bit of territory. One of the main complaints is that the military council that took over after the fall of Mubarak is simply ineffectual. They don't have the experience or the ability to run this very complicated country of nearly 90 million people -- Randi.

KAYE: Ben Wedeman for us in Cairo, Ben, thank you.

And now to another Middle East hot spot, Syria. The European Union today called on Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down, saying his government's crackdown on dissidents may amount to crimes against humanity. An opposition group says 31 people were killed in clashes across the country yesterday.

This YouTube video appears to show a burned-out military vehicle. The Syrian government has restricted access to many parts of the country so there is no way for CNN to actually confirm fatality figures.

There is news about an unsettling milestone in the European debt crisis, the first bank bailout. France, Belgium and Luxembourg will put up 90 billion euros to rescue the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia. That's the equivalent of a 121 billion U.S. dollars and it includes partial nationalization of the bank.

Dexia's problems stem from loans to Greece and other countries that may not be able to replay. Finance ministers from the G20 nations are expected to discuss other steps to control the debt crisis at a meeting later this week.

Eighteen million kids are going to be bullied this year alone. That's according to the Bully Project. We go inside the mind of a bully with Anderson Cooper coming up.

But, first, remember when? Yes, we're going to go there. This. Tanning beds were cool? It's so easy. It takes just minutes and you're, ta-da, tan, bronzed, sun-kissed, beautiful. Pretty much an easy fix for a lot of teens to wear summer tans like a summer accessory. But not so fast.

California, a state not lacking in beautiful bronzed people, is now banning teens under 18 from tanning beds. That means all minors. Yes, think skin cancer. For that, tanning beds, your 15 minutes are up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: All this week, CNN is taking an in-depth look at bullying. What more can we be doing to stop it and what can we do to stop kids from killing themselves because of it?

Anderson Cooper is devoting much of his show to that topic this week. He worked with a team of sociologists on a six-month pilot study looking at why bullying happens. And what's so unique is that Anderson actually tracked down the bullies themselves.

I asked him earlier to share what he learned about how bullies operate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, looking at these questionnaires -- and we do this multiple times with this student body population in this school -- to me, what was most interesting is just how we think of it that there are bullies and that there are victims and we think they're different people.

But what we learned is they're actually much more intermixed, that somebody can be a bully but also be a victim depending on the day and depending on the situation and that bully something is really about what our sociologist Robert Faris calls social combat, about moving up or trying to move up or improve your position in a social hierarchy in a school.

So it is about a kid trying to belittle somebody else below him, attack somebody, bully somebody below him to gain social status or even somebody who is kind of slightly above him or perceived to be above him in the social order to try to bring that person down and elevate him or herself.

COOPER: You know, we have done so many stories on this. I know you have certainly done so many stories on this.

KAYE: We have seen students take their lives because they have been bullied, often too many times. Did any of the students talk to you about that? Did they talk about thoughts of suicide or thinking about hurting themselves because they were bullied?

COOPER: Yes. It's really kind of shocking because you really don't have to talk very long to a group of students before somebody says, you know what? Yes, I reached a point where I was thinking about suicide, or I was cutting myself.

We talked to a lot of young girls who had been cutters to try to relieve some of the emotions that they were feeling. But, again, you do. You talk to a lot of kids, and suicide is something that comes up an awful lot.

And I think a lot of adults really don't understand, that a lot of times adults think, well, look, this is something that's always been around, it's been around for generations, but the pressure that kids are under today and the relentlessness of the bullying because it is not just -- the stereotype is being bullied on a playground in school and physical bullying, someone pushing you.

This is not even physical bullying and it is not happening just in the schools. It is happening online and it's happening in social media and it is happening around the clock to these kids.

KAYE: And did you talk to these kids about whether or not they told adults? Is there a pattern there where they are afraid to report it?

COOPER: You know, whether it's fear or just not including the adults, but, yes. Overwhelmingly kids didn't tell adults. It's actually pretty eye-opening when you look at the numbers of how rarely kids talk to adults, whether it is their parents or counselors in the school or teachers or school administrators.

And when you talk to kids about why, a lot of times they feel it is just going to make the problem worse. And the way administrators sometimes handle this does make the problem worse. So this is really about educating teachers, educating school administrators, guidance counselors and parents about how to deal with it properly.

KAYE: I know you focused on this one school in New York. But bullying, we know, is much more widespread than that.

COOPER: Yes. It's pretty much everywhere. This school that we focused on, it actually takes the problem very seriously. They have anti-bullying programs from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, but their principal is the first to admit that this is a problem even in our school. This is one of the top-rated schools in the entire United States. And our sociologist who did the study at the school had also done an earlier larger study at a Southern school with a much greater variety of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and the results were almost identical, so that there are some kind of universal truths in terms of bullying being about social combat and about trying to improve your social position and about the -- that there's not just bullies and victims, that people can be bullies, but also can be victimized.

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KAYE: It really is time for us all to take a stand on this issue. All this week at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. Eastern, "ANDERSON COOPER 360" will bring attention to America's bullying crisis. You do not want to miss that special reporting.

Well, every day on this show, we call out someone who we think, well, deserves it. Today it is the guy who was behaving -- forgive me -- like a real hot dog at the Frys.com Golf Open in California.

Picture this, Tiger Woods standing over a putt at the seventh green and out of nowhere this guy rushes on to the green yelling Tiger's name. He was not armed, well, not with a gun or anything dangerous. His weapon, a hot dog, bun and all. The guy threw it at Tiger, and then immediately surrendered to security.

He's been charged with disturbing the peace. Do you think he had a beef with Tiger? Can't you picture it? Tiger was quoted as saying -- "I turned around and the hot dog was in the air." I mean, come on.

Whatever happened to golf etiquette? Remember that? And on top of it all, the unidentified hot dog-thrower didn't even have the courtesy to yell fore. For that, hot dog man, it is time for you to face the music.

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KAYE: Now a lesson in school nutrition from a teacher who used to go by the mysterious blogger name Mrs. Q.

Last year, she decided she wanted to eat what kids ate at her old high school -- 162 meals and lots of blog entries later, Mrs. Q is revealing her true identity. There she is.

Sarah Wu joins us from Chicago.

Sarah, thank you. Welcome to the show.

I know you have a new book, "Fed Up With Lunch." It just came out. What inspired you to take on this experiment and eat 162 school lunches?

SARAH WU, AUTHOR, "FED UP WITH LUNCH": You know, I work in an elementary school in Chicago, and one day I forgot my lunch and so I just decided I would eat in the cafeteria.

I really had rarely spent any time down there. So I went downstairs and I bought a lunch. And I just really couldn't believe what I saw on the tray. That day, it was a bagel dog, which was this weird doughy hot dog thing, and a side of tater tots as well as a fruit cup.

And I just looked at what was there and I really worry about my students because many of them do live in poverty and rely on the school for what could be their best meal of the day.

KAYE: So give us an example. Is that really a typical meal? Of all the meals that you ate, was that the worst one, or did it get even worse?

WU: There were some meals that were not as good.

However, I did see improvements in the lunches as the year went on, which was encouraging. But one of the ones that was also very bizarre was this strange peanut butter and jelly sandwich that did not have any bread on it. It was graham cracker with an inch of peanut butter. And unfortunately it had been, like, thawed because it had been frozen and then it was thawed out. And the cracker just really crumbled.

It was not pleasant.

KAYE: So your blog obviously has been a huge success, it's caught the attention of these child health advocates around the country. What are you hoping to get from the book? Do you want to change the menu at schools nationwide?

WU: Yes. I really want to see parents getting involved. And even teachers, even kids and community members. And in the book, I write, not only about my experience eating school lunch, including photos. I also have a lot of practical ideas for everybody who wants to pitch in and really make school a place for terrific health and wellness.

KAYE: Well, I think you're well on your way. Sarah Wu, nice to know your true identity. And I'm sure the kids appreciate what you're doing as well.

WU: Thank you.

KAYE: Thank you very much.

The focus of the 2012 political campaign turns to New Hampshire today. The question is, will the Mormon issue follow Mitt Romney and Rick Perry there?

Joe Johns is in Washington.

Hi there, Joe.

What do you think about the reigniting of this issue all these years, what, four years later now?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Randi. It's sort of deja vu, isn't it? We're really re-plowing some old ground.

For people who haven't been paying attention, Reverend Robert Jeffress is the Dallas, Texas, minister who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit last Friday. And Jeffress is the guy who called Mormonism a cult, said evangelical voters ought to vote for Rick Perry.

But, against that backdrop, tomorrow's debate in New Hampshire is looming. The question of course is, how is Rick Perry going to answer questions like that? And he's already said he doesn't think Mormonism is a cult, but this still adds just a little bit of drama because New Hampshire is such an important state, especially with independent voters.

Romney, you know, seems to be basically handling it fairly well, backing off, if you will, and so on. Perry basically needs to dust off his campaign and get back on track. So, strong showing on this issue and others might just help him a lot -- Randi.

KAYE: So, Joe, is it too soon to call this Rick Perry's Jeremiah Wright moment, or you don't think it will get that serious?

JOHNS: I think so. Who knows. It's quite a moment. It's pretty clear Reverend Jeffress is a supporter of Perry just by his words, but he also says he's only an acquaintance of the Texas governor.

The problem of Perry is that fear, as you said, of getting into a Jeremiah Wright problem that President Obama had. Mr. Obama was really haunted by the words of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, which were pretty much out of the mainstream, if you will. People tried to tie it to the president, and he had to figure out how to get out of it.

Now, you know, you also have to say, I think, that evangelicals, generally, said they would be about a third less likely, if you will, to vote for a Mormon. That number has pretty much struck around from the last time voters got asked about this, and that was when Mitt Romney was running for president in 2007.

KAYE: Yes.

Joe Johns, I know you will continue to follow it, and we will do that along with you. Thank you very much.

That will do it for me today.