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Gloves Come Off at GOP Debate; Audience Reaction to Republican Presidential Debate; Mentally Disabled Held Captive; Exotic Animals on the Loose in Zanesville, Ohio

Aired October 19, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Want to get you up to speed for Wednesday, October 19th.

It is a weird, wild, scary day for people in central Ohio. That's right. Police are trying to track down dozens of dangerous animals that are now on the loose.

Schools in Zanesville are closed. People are hunkering down indoors. Around 48 wolves, grizzly bears, lions, cheetahs, other animals were let out of their cages as a wild animal preserve. Deputies shot and killed at least two dozen of them overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MATTHEW LUTZ, MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO: I had deputies that had to shoot animals with their side arms at close range. That's how volatile this situation was.

When we got here, obviously public safety was my number one concern. I gave the order on the way here that if animals looked like they were going out, they went down. We could not have animals running loose in this county.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Well, I'm going to talk live with Sheriff Lutz in just a few minutes. This story also tragic as well. The man who owned the animal preserve -- that is Terry Thompson -- was found dead outside his home. Now, Zanesville's mayor tells CNN that Thompson freed the animals and then shot himself.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, well, he kind of sported a new aggressive style at last night's CNN debate in Las Vegas. Perry's poll numbers have tumbled after some pretty uninspiring performances in previous debates. Well, this time he repeatedly jabbed his chief rival, Mitt Romney, on jobs, health care, and illegal immigration, and Romney fired back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm speaking. I'm speaking. I'm speaking. GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Your newspaper -- the newspaper --

ROMNEY: I'm speaking.

PERRY: It's time for you to tell the truth.

ROMNEY: You get 30 seconds.

PERRY: It's time for you to tell the truth here, Mitt.

ROMNEY: This is the way the rules work here, is that I get 60 seconds and then you get 30 seconds to respond. Right?

Anderson?

PERRY: And they want the truth. And they want to hear you say that you knew you had illegals --

ROMNEY: Would you, please wait? Are you just going to keep talking? Will you let me finish with what I'm just saying?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Some unbelievable moments last night.

Herman Cain, who has recently surged in the polls, well, he got pretty beat up over his signature issue. That is the 9-9-9 tax plan. His rivals portrayed it as a windfall for the wealthy, and Cain wants a flat 9 percent tax on individual and corporate incomes, as well as anything you buy.

The manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor gets going again in Los Angeles. That is happening this hour.

An anesthesia expert is expected to testify that Dr. Conrad Murray's use of Propofol to help Jackson sleep amounted to gross negligence. The prosecution could rest its case after today's witness completes the testimony.

New information today about four mentally disabled adults who were held captive in a basement boiler room. You remember this story.

Philadelphia police say the female victim -- one of thee female victims -- gave birth to two children during captivity. Now, detectives say there may be 10 other victims, and six of them, children. The victims were held in a dark, wood, no food room. At least one was in chains.

Our CNN's Sarah Hoye went inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HOYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the that door was closed, it probably took me a good 10, 15 seconds to feel claustrophobic, and I wanted out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, three suspects are jailed on charges of kidnapping, assault, and false imprisonment, and police say they arrested a fourth suspect overnight. She is actually the daughter of the alleged ringleader, Linda Ann Weston. Police believe they targeted the victims to steal their Social Security checks.

Well, the number of people killed by bad cantaloupes has now climbed to 25. That is nationwide. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 123 other people have gotten sick.

Now, the cantaloupes, they're grown in Colorado. They were infected by a bacteria called listeria. They were recalled more than a month ago.

Now, listeria symptoms, though, can take up to weeks to develop. Health experts say if you don't know where your cantaloupe came from, just throw it out.

Check out this video. Protesters and police scuffled in front of Greece's parliament today as workers kicked off a two-day general strike.

Now, government offices and businesses, they are closed. Airlines, trains, taxis, at a standstill.

Now, Greeks are angry about tax increases and pay cuts. Parliament is voting on those measures today, as well as tomorrow. Both measures have to pass in order for Greece to get another bailout.

So, if your holiday plans include a flight, expect to pay a little bit more. The travel Web site Hotwire crunched some numbers. It says that airfares will be six percent higher for Thanksgiving travel, 10 percent higher for Christmas. So, advice, book early. One expert says your ticket goes up $5 for every day that you wait.

Well, Apple is going to hold a company-wide memorial service today to celebrate the life of its co-founder, Steve Jobs. The service will be held at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apple stores will close so employers can watch it on the Internet as well.

Jobs died two weeks ago, you may recall. He had battled pancreatic cancer.

All right. You might have seen it as the showdown on the Strip, fight night in Vegas, whatever you want to call it. You watched it. The gloves came off during the latest Republican presidential debate.

Our Jim Acosta, well, of course he had a ringside seat for all the action last night. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMNEY: Anderson?

Would you please wait?.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a Wild West shoot- out on the Las Vegas strip and at times it felt like Rick Perry's last stand with an urgent strategy to take down Mitt Romney.

PERRY: You hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year. And the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy.

ACOSTA: But Romney wasn't laughing for long.

ROMNEY: Are you just going to keep talking? A tough couple of debates for Rick.

ACOSTA: Civil discourse was out the window. This was the first GOP debate to get personal.

ROMNEY: We hired a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants who we're working there. You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking and I suggest that if you want to become president of the United States, you've got to let both people speak.

ACOSTA: Unlike past debates, the night was also Romney's first real test as the frontrunner as the candidates took aim at his health care plan in Massachusetts. Rick Santorum pointed out some of Romney's own advisers helped draft President Obama health care law.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You just don't have credibility, Mitt, when it comes to repealing Obamacare. You are -- your plan was the basis for Obamacare. Your consultants help craft Obamacare.

ACOSTA: At issue, Newt Gingrich says is the individual mandate and both Romneycare and Obamacare.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a lot of big government between behind Romneycare, not as much as Obamacare, but a heck of a lot more than your campaign is admitting.

ACOSTA: Romney responded he got the idea from Gingrich.

ROMNEY: We got the idea of an individual mandate from you. You did support an individual mandate.

GINGRICH: Yes, sure.

ACOSTA: Rising Republican star Herman Cain also found himself on the defensive over his 9-9-9 plan. Independent studies have found the plan's individual business, national and sales taxes all set at 9 percent would raise taxes on millions of Americans.

PERRY: Herman, I love you, brother, but let me tell you something. You don't have to have a big analysis to figure this thing out. It's not going to fly.

ACOSTA: Romney pointed out a new national sales tax would be combined with existing state sales taxes.

ROMNEY: Will the people in Nevada not have to pay Nevada sales tax and in addition pay the 9 percent tax?

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Governor Romney, you were doing the same thing that they're doing. You're mixing apples and oranges.

ROMNEY: I've got to get a bushel basket that has apples and oranges in it because I've got to pay both taxes.

ACOSTA: For Perry, it was a night to take a campaign full of lemons and make lemonade giving Republicans a bitter taste of a more combative campaign to come.

PERRY: You get to ask the questions and I get the answer like I want to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Jim Acosta, he's joining us live from Vegas.

Jim, it was a fascinating debate, actually, to watch. I mean, really, the fireworks. And I know that Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan, under a great deal of scrutiny.

Did he make a convincing case, do you think, that it's viable strategy for creating jobs and fixing the economy?

ACOSTA: You know, I don't think so, Suzanne. Keep in mind that the main criticism of Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan is coming from conservatives who are worried about creating a whole new national sales tax that, once you implement it, it could go up from 9 percent to 10 percent and so on. And so I don't think he's made that case to his fellow Republicans that this is the plan that they should adopt.

What he should get credit for and what a lot of Republicans are giving Herman Cain credit for is starting the conversation on tax reform. Keep in mind, you know, the Republican debate has largely focused in these last couple of weeks on Herman Cain's tax plan, his plan for the economy. You can't say the same for Mitt Romney on Rick Perry. So you have to give credit to Herman Cain there.

MALVEAUX: And Jim, one thing that struck me was Michele Bachmann. She really didn't seem to benefit that much from all these feisty exchanges. She seemed either ignored or lost in some way.

What was your take on it?

ACOSTA: You know, I think this is the problem for these candidates who were the un-Romney (ph) at one point during this campaign. Michele Bachmann was seen by many in the Tea Party among conservatives as being the main alternative to Mitt Romney, and she lost that moment. Rick Perry also had that opportunity and lost that moment.

But what you saw last night at this debate was what you had to do to get back into the top tier. And that is what Rick Perry at least tried to pull off last night.

It was a very risky strategy. And, Suzanne, opinions are mixed as to whether or not what Rick Perry did last night will actually be effective for the long run. You have a lot of pundits saying today, oh, we really like Rick Perry's combative style, but it did not go over well in the audience. There were boos and jeers for the Texas governor.

And in the end, Mitt Romney showed he can take the heat. He was getting Rick-rolled, you could say, because he was taking the hits from both Rick Perry and Rick Santorum. And I think, yes, you're right, Michele Bachmann did not seize this moment that she might have had last night. And if the moment was seized by anybody, it might have been Mitt Romney, because he was able to withstand some pretty serious abuse.

MALVEAUX: It will be really interesting to see if they take on that same kind of combative tone the next go-around, to see if it really worked in their favor.

Jim, thanks. Good to see you.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, the tone got a little testy last night. Some of those attacks got personal in the GOP debate.

We want to find out how people in the audience thought about what they heard. Want to bring in our own T.J. Holmes in Vegas with that part of the story.

So, T.J., you were there. You had a chance to talk to a lot of the folks who were watching the debate last night. And what did they make of the tone, the tenor, this go-around?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they made of it -- and it was unanimous -- everybody thought this was the best show they have ever seen on the Las Vegas Strip. But that is not a good thing. They didn't show up for that, necessarily. They're still trying to decide about which candidate they might want to vote for.

Now, also, you know on Vegas, they have a lot of prized fights out here, a lot of boxing. Well, those fights go the distance sometimes, there's a decision. Well, these people who watched the debate last night, they agreed that somebody last night might have gotten knocked out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too much fighting tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of them were a little immature.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not getting better, it's getting worse. It's polarizing the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a little surprise for me tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And some of the candidates didn't exhibit the class that other candidates did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Governor Perry has hurt himself tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would not vote for Rick Perry at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really liked Rick Perry, and then after the debate, I kind of faltered away from Rick Perry a little bit more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Romney and Perry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way they acted to each other.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a little uncomfortable with the Perry/Romney exchange, but they seem to have a thing for each other. But they don't -- they don't seem to get along too well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they know that time is running out and that they're trying to get to that upper echelon and get the votes, and the only way to do that is to bash each other instead of taking the moral high road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, this is -- these are not role models that I would be looking up at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sure, they're ratcheting it up a little bit, but, you know, it's a very low-level ratcheting up. I mean, nobody called anybody else either a socialist or a Nazi.

You know, so they really haven't -- they haven't made it European parliamentary-style debates. Those will be fun. Or Korean, where things get thrown. I'd love that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, the last guy there, Suzanne, being a little tongue-in- cheek. But I'm telling you, it was unanimous.

We talked to people on camera and off camera. We didn't need to prompt them, we didn't need to mention any names. They all said the same thing, "I hated the tone," and "Governor Rick Perry did himself a disservice tonight."

MALVEAUX: Wow. Well, it's good they didn't throw anything, but, yes, very consistent there. I guess that whole boxing/fighting, analogy there in Vegas really works for this debate. Huh, T.J.?

HOLMES: It does apply. And when Romney put his hand on Governor Perry's shoulder, I did not -- for a moment there, at least me, and maybe you, I thought they might actually come to blows. You shouldn't think that about a presidential debate.

MALVEAUX: OK. Well, thank goodness they didn't.

All right. We'll have to see how the next one turns out. Huh, T.J.? All right. Thanks.

HOLMES: Can't wait. I'll buy tickets.

MALVEAUX: Front row. All right.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.

Next, Philadelphia police make another arrest in the terrible case of mentally disabled adults locked in a boiler room.

And then, did you know presidential candidate Herman Cain is a colon cancer survivor? Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he has more on how rare it is for patients to beat the type of cancer that Cain had.

And later, young people in Yemen take their street protests to the Internet in a very creative campaign.

Well, police in Philadelphia say there are more victims and another suspect in this horrible case. We told you about this, these four mentally disabled adults being held captive. Well, they believe they were held as part of a Social Security scam, and authorities say they have found now 10 more victims who are now in protective custody. Six of them are children.

CNN's Sarah Hoye, she is live from Philadelphia, and the city's police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, he is joining us by phone.

Commissioner, I'd like to start with you first.

Before we talk about any new alleged victims, I understand that you do have a fourth suspect in this case now. What can you tell us about her?

COMM. CHARLES RAMSEY, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPT.: Well, the fourth suspect is a Jean Mcintosh. She is the daughter of Linda Weston, who is the person we arrested a couple of days ago regarding this particular case. She's also been charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and several other charges.

That occurred yesterday evening after we located six juveniles and four adults. Of course, she was one of them -- nine other adults -- as part of this investigation.

MALVEAUX: What do we know more about these 10 new victims? RAMSEY: Well, they range in age from 2 to 19. The 19-year-old, Beatrice (ph), is a young woman that we had been looking for, and we were able to locate her yesterday.

The other children we have in our custody are being examined by medical personnel for any injuries, signs of abuse, and so forth. Just looking at them, some look malnourished. But again, we're awaiting results from the observation made by medical professionals.

MALVEAUX: Do we believe that they were all in this room at the same time? Or this occurred over a period of time?

RAMSEY: This occurred over a period of time, and this didn't occur at the same location where we found the four.

MALVEAUX: Oh, I see.

RAMSEY: These are people that have been at various times in Texas, in Florida, here in Philadelphia, and perhaps even elsewhere.

MALVEAUX: Now, I understand that one of the mentally disabled adults who was rescued from the boiler room over the weekend actually had two children while allegedly being held against her will. Can you explain that?

RAMSEY: Well, she did have two children. We don't know -- we believe that two of the six juveniles we got yesterday could be those children. We don't know for sure. We'll have to do DNA testing in order to find out. Apparently, they were taken from her at a very, very young age. So -- and then she's also mentally challenged.

So, we're -- we're using DNA to make sure that these are the two children that she's referring to. We aren't aware of any sexual assault that -- taken place against her. The person who she identifies as the father was actually another one of the captives.

MALVEAUX: I see. This -- it just gets more confusing and disturbing as we go along.

I understand that you have arrested three people, Gregory Thomas, Eddie Wright, and Linda Ann Weston, and that Weston had documents, identification documents, for about 50 people, including Social Security cards, documents, these types of things.

RAMSEY: Right.

MALVEAUX: How did this group get ahold of these individuals? I understand there's like something, a dating Web site that was involved?

RAMSEY: Well, one of the people we recovered Saturday was -- that's how he met her. But we don't know about all the others. We have to track down each individual. And many we don't believe are here in Philadelphia.

I mean, they could -- Virginia, Texas, Florida, perhaps North Carolina. I mean, we have got a lot of work yet to do, and we have put together a task force to assist in this. So we have got to track everybody down and find out what took place. Some may be victims. Some may not be victims. We just don't know at this point. This keeps growing.

MALVEAUX: All right, Commissioner Ramsey, thank you so much. It's just such a disturbing story and we are getting more and more details about it.

I want to bring in our own Sarah Hoye here, who has been inside of this boiler room where these folks were kept.

You have also been to the community talking to people. How are they reacting to the news now that there are even more alleged victims in this case, that this is just growing?

SARAH HOYE, CNN ALL PLATFORM CORRESPONDENT: Neighbors are absolutely shocked, and especially with the arrest this morning of Weston's daughter, Ms. McIntosh. Speaking with the block captain, Danielle Tisdale, she was completely floored. She cannot believe it.

She describes the woman arrested this morning as being a good neighbor, never bothering anyone, speaking when they would pass on the street. She has two children. And her children would play with the neighborhood kids. So they're very shocked. They were first hit with the fact that there was four people held being captive in the basement.

MALVEAUX: Right.

HOYE: Then at this things continues to grow, they just can't even believe it. A lot of them are just in awe, and especially with the daughter now being arrested. That really took everybody for a surprise, because they knew her.

MALVEAUX: Yes. And I understand that Weston has a criminal past. she's spent at least eight years in prison for killing her sister's boyfriend, right by locking him in a room without food, starving him to death. It sounds very similar to this case. Do we know more about Weston and now her daughter, who's also a suspect?

HOYE: No, we don't.

All we have is just what you had said, Suzanne, and the fact that she does have this criminal past. So there seems to be a lot of murky details, which as the commissioner just said they're working through. They now have their task force. This thing is huge. It covers a multitude of states, as well as different agencies. So they really have their work cut out for them.

MALVEAUX: All right, Sarah Hoye, thank so much, Sarah, for providing some of those details for us and working the story as well as you are. Thank you.

Well, it was no more Mr. Nice Guy. That seemed to be the theme at last night's Republican debate. We're going to take a closer look at how two of those candidates went after each other and why ahead in the political update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right. The Republican candidates for president didn't pull any punches in the latest debate last night.

Paul Steinhauser live from the scene of last night's debate in Vegas.

So, Paul, Rick Perry had a lot at stake. It was kind of a do-or-die night for him. What do we know about his performance during the debate? What do we learn from it? What's the fallout?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I think we learned that Rick Perry definitely woke up. Suzanne, let's be honest. He jumped into the race back in mid-August, quickly became the front- runner.

But in those five presidential -- or four presidential debates in September and early October, his performances were lackluster. He dove in the polls. Even last week, when we thought -- at that debate in New Hampshire, when he was going to have a breakout performance, he didn't.

But he didn't waste any opportunities last night here in Las Vegas. Suzanne, he went on the attack on Mitt Romney even before the questioning began. In those intros that the candidates were allowed to do at the beginning, he said he was no conservative of convenience. So definitely an attack, a slap at Mitt Romney right off the bat.

I know you were talking to Jim Acosta earlier this hour about some of the other back-and-forths. Listen, the Romney campaign says Perry is not acting presidential and this will be damaging to him, but Perry's people tell me they were very happy that Rick Perry was Rick Perry in that debate last night. They say that's good for their campaign, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And you wonder what Rick Perry or Mitt Romney is going to show up in the next debate.

But tell us a little about Mitt Romney. He seemed to be even more on the attack than usual.

STEINHAUSER: Exactly. You know, when you're the front-runner, you know the other candidates are going to be gunning for you. And that happened again last night. But it seemed that some of the candidates got under Mitt Romney's skin a little bit.

He was a little more contentious and a little more vocal in his pushbacks against Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and some of the other candidates, and maybe for Romney's campaign they must be a little frustrated that Romney's health care plan that he passed, so-called Romneycare, when he was governor at Massachusetts keeps coming up and up and up and he has to keep dealing with it.

But, overall, it seems that he gave as good as he got. Mitt Romney is a very good debater and I don't think the storyline or the order of the candidates in the polls will change that much after this debate, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And it was an interesting moment when you saw Mitt Romney actually just show that, put his hand on the shoulder of Perry there, the body language, very close there, and a little combative.

STEINHAUSER: Yes, that was an interesting moment, though if you go back to the first debate which Rick Perry was part of, which was in California at Simi Valley in early September, he put his hand on Romney's shoulders. So maybe it was payback time for Mitt Romney to Rick Perry last night.

MALVEAUX: A little payback there.

All right, thank you, Paul.

STEINHAUSER: Yes.

MALVEAUX: For the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

Well, Herman Cain is fighting to become the Republican nominee for president, but he's already won the battle of his life. And that is against cancer. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: CNN in-depth.

When Herman Cain entered the race for president, he didn't have a big following. Well, today, he's one of the front-runners for the presidential nomination.

So what do we really know about him? Well, we know that his father worked three jobs, he was a janitor, a barber and a chauffeur, his mother a domestic worker. After majoring in math at Morehouse College here in at , Cain went on to get his master's in computer science from Purdue University. He also worked for Coca-Cola, then worked his way up at various Pillsbury companies before buying the Godfather's Pizza chain.

So whether he wins the GOP presidential nomination or not, Herman Cain has already won another big battle. Cain says his political fight was inspired by his journey of overcoming stage four colon cancer.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here with here with us.

So, Sanjay, great to see you, first of all.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MALVEAUX: It's pretty serious, stage four colon cancer. What was he battling, what was he fighting?

GUPTA: It is pretty significant. What this basically means is he had cancer of the colon that had spread to another area, in his case, his liver. In 2006, he was having lower abdominal pain, and that is sort of what prompted all this. He got diagnosed with the stage four colon cancer caner, underwent cycles of chemotherapy. Then he had surgery, and then he had more chemotherapy.

So again this was quite a process for him. What was important about that is that if you can resect the tumor in the colon and in the liver, as he had done, it dramatically improves your chances. As you said, a single-digit likelihood of survival without treatment. And in his case now, it's been five years. Listen, Suzanne, to how he put it specifically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got my five-year checkup from my oncologist, CAT scans, X-rays, all of the various blood test, and the special blood tests they do if you're a cancer patient. And I got a clean bill of health, five years totally cancer-free. And that's after only having a 30 percent chance of survival.

That's an aha moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Wow.

GUPTA: Yes. We talked to his doctors as well. And they say they're careful with the language. It's five years. He has no evidence of cancer in his body. It's different than saying a cure. He will still need to be monitored from time to time, but he looks great.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

GUPTA: Has no evidence of that stage four colon cancer anywhere to be found.

MALVEAUX: He's got a battle, he's a fighting spirit, that's for sure.

GUPTA: He really does.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: You could see it in the debate.

GUPTA: Yes.

MALVEAUX: How common is colon cancer, and what is the survival rate?

GUPTA: Well, there's four different stages of it. He had stage four, which is the worst, the highest and the worst. About 100,000 people or so are diagnosed every year. Those numbers may be going up, Suzanne, because more people are actually getting screened.

As much as we talked about screenings, and there's been some debate on some of them recently, but this is a -- this is one where people have been pretty good about it and people agree that it needs to be done. See, there are about half the people, 50,000 deaths, every year, the third most common cancer. So there's other ones that are more common, but this is one where you see about 50 percent mortality.

Again, a lot of people are diagnosed late though still. And if you get diagnosed early, your chance of survival much, much greater.

MALVEAUX: Can it be prevented?

GUPTA: I think so. It's interesting, because people make a lot of diet, for example. And you talk about the low-fat diets, you talk about high fiber diets. There's plenty of evidence now to suggest that decreases your chances.

Also something as simple as aspirin. Just an aspirin a day, they have found -- it's an anti-inflammatory and it can decrease your chances of developing colon cancer. So some things out there, but the screening so key.

MALVEAUX: And not everybody survives obviously stage four colon cancer. Why would Cain want to put himself in this position here, run for president? Obviously, that's a pretty tough job?

GUPTA: I thought about that, too. It's a good question. I think there's sort of three things. One is that he definitely feels like he was given some purpose in life. That's how he put it. He was saved, as he put it, for a reason.

And he believes that this is his higher purpose. Second thing is, as you said, he's been through this big battle. And perhaps after you have gone through something like this, running for president, as hard as it is, may not seem as big a deal.

But the other thing which I thought was interesting, he's brought this up a couple times, is that he was obviously lucky to get the care that he got, to get the chemo. He's obviously a man of resources, but he's concerned that that's -- that the current health care plan, this is something that he wants to weigh in on as well and he wants to do that as president of the United States.

I don't know exactly what he wants to do with it, but he doesn't believe that under Obamacare he would have gotten the same sort of care that he received. So stay tuned for that. I think we will hear more about that over the next year.

MALVEAUX: Certainly that's a very engaging personal story.

GUPTA: Yes, for sure.

MALVEAUX: Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you.

GUPTA: You got it.

MALVEAUX: We're happy he's well.

About six out of 10 African-American children in Omaha, Nebraska, are now living below the poverty line. Well, city officials there admit that it's alarming, but why is it happening? And what is being done to change things?

Plus, powerful storms in Florida today. I want you to check out this damage. We're going to tell you where the bad weather is headed next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A disturbing divide in Omaha, Nebraska. It's home to five Fortune 500 companies, right, the most for a city of its size. But it's also home to one of the poorest African-American communities in the country.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez takes a look at both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Omaha, Nebraska, is the country's heartland.

IVAN GILREATH, CEO, BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF THE MIDLANDS: You have really got a lot of big-time companies here.

GUTIERREZ: Ivan Gilreath earned his MBA here and launched a successful corporate career. He drove us through a predominantly white neighborhood...

GILREATH: And this is where the majority of your African-American population resides.

GUTIERREZ: ... to the other Omaha that Gilreath knows just as well.

GILREATH: This area here has been really the site of a lot of violence over the years.

GUTIERREZ: He says the disparity between whites and blacks is shocking and deeply rooted in Omaha's segregated past when many black families were denied banking loans, and equal education. The percentage of black children in poverty here ranks number one in the nation.

GILREATH: You can be shocked and say, oh, my God, it's an awful place, or you can be shocked with feeling like we need to galvanize.

GUTIERREZ: For Gilreath, that meant leaving a lucrative corporate job to return home to his community as CEO of the Boys and Girls Club, to make sure that kids like 14-year-old Markell Vaughn have a safe place to play and study.

(on camera): What are some the challenges that you're up against being a single mom? CORINA VAUGHN, MOTHER OF MARKELL VAUGHN: I don't want to see anything happen to my son. He is a good kid. You know -- I'm sorry. I'm thankful, you know, every day that I have him in my life.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): In the past seven years, five children from the Boys and Girls Club that Markell attends have been killed.

GILREATH: There is still a need for as many of us African-American men who can come back and provide that same kind of influence to these young people that I received at the club.

GUTIERREZ: Like Markell, Gilreath also grew up in this neighborhood.

(on camera): What are your goals for yourself? What is it that you want for yourself?

MARKELL VAUGHN, BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB MEMBER: I want to be able to go to college and be able to make it to the pros. But if that don't work out, I want to be a veterinarian or a zookeeper or something.

GUTIERREZ: As an honor student and a star athlete, Markell is well on his way on the same road that Ivan Gilreath traveled.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Omaha, Nebraska.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Well, look for "The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley," a "Black in America." That's Soledad O'Brien, Sunday night, November 13, at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

MALVEAUX: Well, people who live in Zanesville, Ohio, are told to stay indoors. Authorities have had to kill dozens of animals set loose from a wild animal preserve.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, in Ohio, a frantic search is under way right now for dangerous animals that escaped from a preserve. Their owner was found dead. And the animals includes lions, tigers, bears and wolves.

Well, the preserve is in Muskingum County in eastern Ohio, and schools there are closed. Folks who live near the preserve were told to stay indoors.

We have got Sheriff Matthew Lutz. He's on the phone. He's out of Zanesville, Ohio.

Sheriff, thank you very much for joining us here. I know you have had a very busy day.

In your news conference just a short time ago, you said that deputies had to gun down some of those animals. Do you still, first of all, believe that there are animals on the loose? MATTHEW LUTZ, ZANESVILLE, OHIO, SHERIFF: Yes, we do.

At this point we feel there's about three animals that are unaccounted for. So we are still -- now that we have daylight hours, we're still trying to track down the animals that we had to put down last night and getting a head count and comparing that to the list of the farmhands that worked out here to make sure that we have where these animals are at and accountable for.

MALVEAUX: What kind of animals are these and how dangerous are they, the ones that are still loose?

LUTZ: We think right now, tentatively, we're saying that we believe there's a wolf, possibly a mountain lion and possibly a monkey. We thought there was possibly a bear loose, but we think we have recovered that. But that is still preliminary, still sketch, and we will have more at 3:00 on our next news conference.

MALVEAUX: There have been tweets that people have been sending out saying that they have had sightings of certain animals. Can you confirm whether or not that is true? And are you using this information to help you try to track down these animals?

LUTZ: Oh, yes, every lead that comes in, we're checking on. I can tell you we have had several things where they have been reported, but we have had no confirmation from law enforcement in those situations.

So we are following up on those leads. And we have instructed our media, if they see something they think is unusual, or think they have one of these animals, to make sure they report it to us.

MALVEAUX: Sheriff, what kind of conditions are you working under now? Is it still raining?

LUTZ: I have to go. Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Oh, OK. Looks like the sheriff had to go, obviously a lot of work ahead. And perhaps they have even spotted one of those animals. He says that there are at least three, they still believe, that are on the loose and that it is still a very dangerous situation in that community.