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President Obama Launches Tour; Poll: Mitt Romney & Newt Gingrich Tied; Navy SEALS Make Rescue In Somalia; Battle of the Tax Rates; Drug Sweep Nets Principal And Coach; Apple Profits Shock Tech World; New Rules For Plane Ticket Prices; Big Hits Gave Way To His Parkinson's; Demi Moore Rushed To Hospital

Aired January 25, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin as always with "Rapid Fire," beginning with this --

First up, Republican presidential candidates, they're out in full force today. They're going after President Obama and his State of the Union speech that he gave just last night.

Here is Newt Gingrich in Miami today. He was not at al happy about the president's call last night for higher taxes on millionaires.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If he actually meant what he said, it would be a disaster of the first order. He had a very clever political promise that we ought to make sure that everybody who earns a million dollars pays at least 30 percent taxes, which sounds terrific on the surface and is perfectly left-wing demagoguery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Also today, Mitt Romney attacked the president's speech saying he was "detached from his own reality."

The Federal Reserve says the economy is picking up, but it's going to keep interest rates low, at least until 2014. And that certainly seems like good news considering the warning we had from the International Monetary Fund that the global economy is slowing down.

And a private funeral this afternoon for legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. The service for family members comes after thousands stood in line for hours yesterday and also earlier today to just file past his casket. A public service will be held tomorrow in a 16,000-seat arena on campus.

The 85-year-old Paterno died Sunday, just two months after being forced out of his job in the wake of the whole child sex abuses against his former assistant coach.

And the wife now -- the wife is coming forward of that captain of the capsized cruise ship, Costa Concordia. She says her husband is not the monster portrayed in the media. Fabia La Russo (ph) is defending her husband, Captain Francesco Schettino, in an Italian weekly magazine. It's out today.

And here's what she says. She says her husband is a maestro who knows how to do his job and he's simply been a scapegoat here.

We should also point out the body of a 16th person has now been recovered from the ship. Still, 17 are missing.

Not a lot of dry eyes in the room there this morning. A very emotional day on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords formally resigned from Congress, and she said she gave up her seat to focus on her recovery after being shot in the head at a rally last year in Tucson.

Her friend and colleague, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, read Giffords' resignation letter on the House floor. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: "Always, I fought for what I thought was right, but never did I question the character of those with whom I disagreed. Never did I let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In San Antonio, Texas, a woman got quite the scare this morning when her car got stuck in some high water. According to KSAT, the driver didn't see any barriers, so what did she do? She drove right on through that flood zone. Her car, a brand new BMW, stalled, and the woman did make it out OK. Her BMW, not so much.

And did you hear the most valuable company in the United States right now is Apple? It surpassed ExxonMobil today. Apple shares are way up as a result, up $448 a share after the company announced its profits skyrocketed 74 percent in the last quarter with help, of course, of all the iPhone sales all around the world.

Still ahead, President Obama taking his message of inequality on the road. Find out why he's choosing to visit the states he's chosen to visit, and it could matter big time not just for now, but for months down the road.

Jessica Yellin joining me live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: The feds accuse several police officers of racial profiling in one city, but it's the mayor who is in hot water for making an offensive comment when asked about the case. You're going to hear from the mayor and also now all the backlash.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): How much should the rich pay in taxes? Ben Stein tells me his thoughts on this bitter fight.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good job tonight.

BALDWIN: Mystery solved. Hours after this candid comment, news breaks of a daring raid to rescue an American hostage. New details on how a secret group of Navy SEALs pulled it off.

Plus, a beat-down caught on camera. And one of the teenagers behind bars is there because of his own dad. I'll speak with his father live.

And jurors apparently get emotional after Garth Brooks takes the stand.

GARTH BROOKS, MUSICIAN: That's the longest time of my life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And here we go.

State of the Union last night. I hope you watched it with us.

Now the president has hit the road, three days, five states. Certainly no coincidence here. He's not going to Iowa for the corn dogs, folks, not going to Nevada to hit the craps table, not going to Colorado for skiing, et cetera, et cetera.

Folks, this is calculated election year politics, and to walk us through all of it is our chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin. She's a step ahead of the president. She's in Phoenix.

And Jessica, we're going to hear from the president here in just a moment, but talk to me about these five states and how crucial they are in his reelection bid.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.

Well, they are all battleground states, 48 electoral votes in total, and each of them has particular meaning.

First, there's Iowa, which was the symbolic start of his success in 2008. Two of the states, Colorado and Nevada, were crucial purple states that he won the last time around, but he'll have to fight to keep them this time.

Michigan, a state where he brought that auto bailout, brought back a lot of jobs. They expect that they will be able to hold on to that one, but with a fight.

And I'm here in the state of Arizona, which is an interesting place. It is a red state, but the president's team is persuaded that they can win it this time around if they fight hard enough, and that's because it's got such a large Latino population, and they are determined to win it by turning out the Latino vote.

And the president is headed here next, Brooke. He's selling a message on manufacturing, but this is heavily, as you say, about electoral politics -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And before he gets to where you are there in Phoenix, he spoke just this past hour in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And we noticed, Jessica, he's hitting about against this notion that raising taxes -- he mentioned this in the State of the Union, again today -- the notion that raising taxes on the wealthy is class warfare.

YELLIN: Right. Sometimes he says call it class warfare if you want to, I don't care. Sometimes he says, oh, it's silly and ridiculous to call it that.

But the bottom line here is that's a fight the president is happy to have, because he is standing in line with where the majority of Americans stand. Polls show they are overwhelmingly -- or I should say a plurality of Americans agree that they would rather see taxes go up on the wealthy as a way to correct some of the challenges our economy is facing.

First, let's listen to the president and we can talk about it on the back end. Here's what he just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So I believe we should follow what we call the Buffett rule. If you make more than $1 million a year -- I don't mean that you've got a million dollars worth of assets, I don't mean a family that's been saving all their lives and doing well and is comfortable, and finally they've got a little nest egg. If you make more than $1 million a year, you should pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Now, if, on the other hand, you make less than $250,000 a year, which includes 98 percent of you, your taxes shouldn't go up.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: And, by the way, if we do that, and we make some smart cuts in other areas, we can get this deficit and debt under control and still be making the investments we need to grow the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, Brooke, two points here.

One, this is drawing a contrast with the Republican positions. The president's campaign wants to be able to say that they are laying out a specific vision for the future of the economy in the middle class, and one where middle class Americans have an opportunity to get ahead. This is the idea he's -- one component of it.

The other piece of this is they were handed a gift yesterday when Mitt Romney came out with his tax returns, and implicitly, there's a contrast here he's drawing between what Mitt Romney paid and what he thinks folks in his category should be paying. It's accidental that it happened, but it's very convenient for the Obama team -- Brooke. BALDWIN: Yes, how about that for a quinky yesterday, Jessica Yellin?

YELLIN: Right.

BALDWIN: Thank you. And, you know, you mentioned the GOP positions here. I just want to play you some sound. I want you to hear what one of his Republican challengers actually said about the president today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was speaking in Fantasyland again last night. He seems so extraordinarily detached from reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mitt Romney uses the word "fantasyland." Newt Gingrich uses the word "disaster" when describing President Obama and his plans. But the fighting words, they're not stopping there. Both candidates speaking live during the show.

We're going to take you to Florida, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Keep in mind we are now less than a week out from the Florida primary. Florida -- you know this -- it's ground zero in the Republican campaign for the presidency.

And I want to show you some new numbers. This is a brand new Quinnipiac poll. Take a look at this.

Look at the top two there, putting Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney basically in a virtual tie, 36 percent of the likely primary voters supporting Romney, 34 backing Gingrich.

Want to bring in CNN's Joe Johns. He is in Cocoa, Florida, for us today.

And Joe, so much we could talk about Florida. Specifically, though, I want to talk about the Hispanic vote, the coveted Hispanic vote. Certainly Newt Gingrich reaching out to those voters.

How is that working out for him?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Gingrich campaign put out a radio ad here in Florida. That radio ad, among other things, called Mitt Romney an anti-immigrant candidate, which is some new language Democrats like to use here, not typically Republicans.

So, Marco Rubio -- you may know that name very well --

BALDWIN: Yes.

JOHNS: -- he's a senator from here -- also has been mentioned many times as a potential running mate, a vice presidential running mate for whoever turns out to be the nominee. He weighed in on this.

He hasn't endorsed anyone here in Florida or in south Florida, but he weighed in saying the ad by the Newt Gingrich campaign was inaccurate. He called it a variety of names, and the upshot was that the Gingrich campaign ought to take that ad down. They eventually did, because you don't want to upset Marco Rubio in Florida.

So, that's done. But it's also been tough in some other ways here for Newt Gingrich, too, Brooke. Among other things, he went on to Univision, which is a major Spanish language television station, got a lot of grilling, a lot of very tough questions, but also sort of gave as good as he got as well.

So, this is all in the lead-up to the big primary here, and you have to reach out to the Spanish-speaking voters, especially the Cubans down in south Florida -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about Florida? I was at Cape Canaveral -- what was it, last July? -- the final space shuttle launch. You think Florida, you think space coast. And a lot of jobs, a number of jobs don't exist anymore. I know Newt Gingrich is tapping into that as well today.

JOHNS: That's right. We're expecting a speech around 3:30 Eastern Time.

And so we're told Newt Gingrich is going to speak in visionary terms about the space program. We do know from his days in Congress as the Speaker of the House he's been a supporter of the space program, but not necessarily the way the money is spent.

So what we expect him to do is to support the space program and suggest there ought to be, for example, prizes that might bring in private industry to try to spend a lot of money in order to get discoveries and breakthroughs in the field of space science. The Speaker of the House obviously very interested in what NASA does. The question, of course, is how NASA does it.

BALDWIN: That's interesting. We'll dip into a little bit of that. You mentioned 3:30 Eastern Time, Newt Gingrich speaking about space.

Joe Johns in Cocoa, Florida.

Thank you, Joe.

Now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Good job tonight. Good job tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Did you catch that last night when you were watching? The president, he's giving this mysterious praise to the defense secretary, Leon Panetta. "Good job tonight." Little did we know a group of Navy SEALs had just carried out a daring mission to rescue an American hostage. We are now learning today exactly how they did it and who did not make it out alive.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There was this moment. It was quick, but it was certainly a moment last night when President Obama was walking toward the podium to deliver his State of the Union Address, and when you see the moment in hindsight, it's actually pretty cool.

Here it is in case you missed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Leon, good job tonight. Good job tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Huh. So, the president, you see he was talking to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. What they knew then, what we all know now is an elite Navy SEAL team had just rescued these two hostages in Somalia, one of them a young American woman.

And now CNN has confirmed the Navy's top-secret SEAL Team Six was in fact part of that Somalia rescue. You know that unit. That's the unit that killed Osama bin Laden last May.

Here is Chris Lawrence with details on last night's rescue -- Chris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It was a daring nighttime raid that brought U.S. Special Operations forces back to Somalia, the same country where years ago, they suffered those infamous losses in Black Hawk Down. But this mission was a complete success.

Now, these aid workers were kidnapped back in late October, but officials tell us the sense of urgency really started to heighten this month. What was contributing to that? Part of it was the deteriorating health of Jessica Buchanan.

So, on Monday, President Obama authorized the rescue mission. And on Tuesday, the military pushed forward with it.

Special Operations teams which included Navy SEALs came to the compound there in Somalia. We're told that there were nine kidnappers holding the two hostages. All nine of them were killed in the assault. We're also told that those kidnappers were armed and had explosives nearby.

The team was able to get the hostages, get them on the helicopter, and get them out of Somalia safely.

I'm Chris Lawrence, reporting from the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Chris, thank you so much.

Also developing this hour, thousands of people without power as powerful storms and flooding slam Texas. I feel like we were talking about all the drought in Texas not too many months ago, and now you have this. The situation could get even worse.

Chad Myers is all over that. That's next.

Plus, the president says it's "unfair" -- his words -- to ask the middle class to pay higher tax rates than the super rich. He is also calling upon Congress to help homeowners in trouble. But Republicans, they're not buying any of that.

Ben Stein is standing by live. He's got some thoughts on how to fix this economic mess, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

BALDWIN: Now to this. You say the word "taxes," and most people's eyes glaze over, your ears shut down as soon as the subject matter, you know, comes up. But not now.

Please don't glaze over. This is so important. This is huge, especially now in this political climate. Not with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We need to change our tax code so that people like me and an awful lot of members of Congress pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett Rule. If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the president, of course, just last night during his State of the Union speech. And earlier in the day, that very day, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney actually released his taxes, and we found out not only did he make $21 million last year, but a total of more than $42 million over the course of two years. And his tax rate was under 14 percent, adding fuel to the fire that the incredibly affluent -- you k now, the rich folks -- pay taxes at a lower rate than the average person.

And we could be adding more fuel here, or maybe a little clarity, hopefully, by talking to Ben Stein, who's an economist, an author, good enough to join me there from Washington.

Ben Stein, nice to have you on.

BEN STEIN, ECONOMIST AND AUTHOR: Happy to be here.

BALDWIN: So, clearly, this isn't news. Mitt Romney is a successful guy, and under Obama's proposal, which we heard again last night, he would be paying taxes at that 30 percent rate if the Buffett Rule is in effect.

Question to you, is the president's tax proposal, is it fair or does it penalize the successful?

STEIN: It's totally fair and it's actually necessary. We're headed towards national default. I mean, no candidate has told you from either party, but we're heading toward default.

No candidate has told you we are going to have to declare a fall on our national debt sooner or later. I just did tell you that, but it's true, unless we raise taxes dramatically and cut spending.

And raising taxes on people who will have incomes over a million dollars a year seems to me a fair way start. I don't see any rational reason why people who have that much money should not pay a higher rate of tax.

I think it would be nice if they could keep it, but it would also be nice if we could fly by flapping our wings.

BALDWIN: Ben Stein, are you agreeing with President Obama right here on something?

STEIN: I am agreeing with him about that. I don't agree with him about much else, but I certainly have been saying all my life that we have to do something about the budget.

We cannot run these enormous deficits forever and the best place to get them on is who have lots of it and that would be very rich people.

BALDWIN: I also want to talk though also about how the IRS, you know, breaks pays what in taxes, because we keep hearing that the majority of Americans, they pay, take a look at the chart with me.

They pay 15 percent or less, so the poor and the very rich, right, the folks on the opposite end of the spectrum, they get the breaks.

But the folks who are paying the higher rate are those who are the middle to upper middle range. Not the wealthy, not the poor, probably a lot of people watching. The Buffett rule wouldn't affect them, so what's the solution?

STEIN: Well, I'm sorry to say the solution would be to raise taxes on almost everyone and at this point, we have roughly 50 percent of the population in the labor work force not paying any federal income tax.

They should pay at least a little something so they have skin in the game. Look, we are running deficits on a scale, which is unheard of except during World War II. We just can't keep doing it.

We have been running a low tax society living in a dream world for a long, long time now. That's got to stop. We have to live in the real world. We're not little children.

We're grownups, we have to act like grownups and we have to pay more taxes if we want to spend more money. If they want to drastically cut entitlements then they can spend less money, but -- and won't have to raise taxes, but we're not going to do that.

BALDWIN: So these are all ideas posed by -- different ideas posed by whatever side of the political aisle you find yourself, but all this posturing and pontificating in Washington haven't gone very far, in terms of you know, concrete issues, right?

So when you look at the brinkmanship in Washington, are you confident there will be real tax reform, or will we have to wait until after November?

STEIN: I think we're going to have to wait until doomsday. I mean, neither side is even close to facing reality in this situation. We have some very, very smart economists in this country who have made calculations that show we simply cannot avoid default unless we have mammoth inflation that washes away the debt.

But then washes away everyone's savings so we have to do something quite drastic and I don't see any sign of Congress doing that. They're just nibbling at the edges when they do anything at all. We're really heading towards a very difficult spot here.

BALDWIN: I don't like words like that, Mr. Stein.

STEIN: I don't like it, either.

BALDWIN: Finally, I wanted to just slide this question in for you. Really calling all homeowners, the president also last night calls for legislation to make it easier for Americans to refinance their homes.

Do you think it's a good idea, or should the government totally butt out? I mean, what's next for the housing market, do you think?

STEIN: Well, I think the housing market is so low the next step is up for sure, but I don't know how long it will take. But it might take a while, but I think the government should be helping people refinance.

Losing your home is so incredibly traumatic, so incredibly upsetting that I think whatever the government can do short of really infringing on lenders' rights is very, very important. It's just a terrible drama to lose your home.

BALDWIN: Ben Stein, thank you so much.

STEIN: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Nice to meet you.

STEIN: Nice to meet you. BALDWIN: Police busted an alleged drug ring in Wisconsin. The suspects, an elementary school principal and a former Special Ed teacher. Wait until you hear who they're accused of selling to and where the headquarters wee. We're going to speak live with the sheriff in this case. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If investigators are right, the school principal may turn out to be the town disgrace. John Lund used to be the acting principal in an elementary school in Wisconsin as well as the high school football coach.

But he is on leave now. Police just busted him for allegedly selling pot to teachers in his school district. Also part of this sweep is Lund's brother-in-law, Bradley Maas, a former special education teacher and Coach Scott Peterson.

The men according to the sheriff sold marijuana right out of their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN QUARTARO, FORMER PLAYER OF JOHN LUND: I really liked them, but it just makes me lose respect.

JUSTIN FLACK, FORMER STUDENT OF SCOT PETERSON: One of them was my teacher and it seemed like he never did that. I mean, I've even been out to his house before, and now I'm just completely shocked and I'm disappointed in him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: On the phone, we have the sheriff of Langley County, Wisconsin, Bill Greenling. Sheriff, I guess, my first question when I heard about this story and I just have to get this out of the way. We're talking about a principal and a football coach. Do you know at all if they were selling drugs to the students?

SHERIFF WILLIAM GREENING, LANGLEY COUNTY, WISCONSIN (via telephone): No. We have no information to this point in the investigation that any alleged illegal activity occurred neither on any of the school grounds nor involved any of the students.

BALDWIN: OK. And as we show some of these men who are allegedly involved, tell me a little bit more about them both on the selling end and the buying end. How many people total are involved?

GREENING: Well, we are still in the process of conducting this investigation, so that investigation has not been completed. The first phase, as I have termed it, of the investigation, which resulted in charges against these three individuals. I think the total -- a number of people that were named in the criminal complaint amounted to approximately 14.

BALDWIN: Yes. I'm looking at the criminal complaint right now. I looked through it and you also list out, you know, what investigators found in several of these homes, including a water bong, pipes, cash, high times magazines.

Do you have any idea how much marijuana was sold -- you talk about five years here in the criminal complaint. How much money made?

GREENING: Well, we're not sure on the financial transactions and the exact money figures. One of the defendants allegedly in this case, Scot Peterson, admitted to selling approximately 15 pounds of marijuana over a five-year period.

BALDWIN: OK, you said there was no indication the drugs were sold on school property. You said they were sold out of these different homes, correct?

GREENING: That's correct.

BALDWIN: OK, and we understand Lund is on leave from this school. Do you know how long he's been there, what his reputation was like around town until now?

GREENING: Certainly, Mr. Lund is a local resident, was born and raised here and has lived here other than going away for education pretty much his whole life.

And he is well respected and is a well respected principal and coach in the school district for a considerable period of time. As far as how long he's been employed with the school district, I am not sure.

BALDWIN: You're the county sheriff. You say this guy has been here all his life. You know him. Are you shocked?

GREENING: Yes, we are very surprised as this investigation unfolded and the names came to light of suspects in this investigation. It was both shocking and disappointing.

BALDWIN: Sheriff Greening, I appreciate you picking up the phone and joining us. Now you say, you do anticipate more arrests. Please keep us posted. I also want to be clear.

We did reach out to the attorneys for the suspects, but have not gotten a response yet. Now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't fly, you're going to get hit and that was my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What happens to athletes years after those hard hits? Sanjay Gupta is in the studio. He's going to join me live to talk about his new documentary. They're calling it "Big Hits, Broken Dreams." Stick around for Sanjay, of course.

And then some companies have never ever told a worker, "You're Fired." Find our which ones next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We're going to talk about that documentary actually in just a minute with Dr. Gupta, but first this, Apple shocks everyone and some changes are coming to the published price of your plane ticket.

Felicia Taylor is live at the New York Stock Exchange. Felicia, first Apple here and a lot of people were worried. They were wondering, you know, if Apple would suffer without the leadership, Steve Jobs. That's not the case, is it?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. It seems Jobs left Apple in great hands with a great plan in place. The company had record breaking sales of the iPad, iPhone and Mac.

The stocks trading at a record high near $450 a share, up about 7 percent today and get this Apple made a whopping profit of $13 billion last quarter.

There is only one time when a U.S. company made more than that, and that is ExxonMobil in 2008, but then, of course, oil prices were at a record high so not a surprise necessarily.

Apple success has an ability to make us all think we need their products, and I'm this close to going and getting an iPad so close.

BALDWIN: Yes, I kind of love mine, so I would vouch for that. Secondly, though, if you're buying a plane ticket, here are the heads up. There are new rules today.

TAYLOR: Definitely, and this is all to benefit the consumer. As of tomorrow, airline ads must include all fees and taxes in the price of the ticket, not in the small print. The price advertised will be the actual price that you pay.

There was a case where AirTran was recently fined for advertising $59 one-way fares. That sounds great, but that's not what you actually end up paying. It didn't clearly show all the fees that would be tacked on except with a tiny asterisk at the bottom mentioning the fees and didn't tell you the actual complete price.

So now ad showing fares must include fuel charges, that government 911 security fee, taxes, any other charges. And airlines must clearly lay out bag fees on your e-ticket. So it's a little more transparency on behalf of the airline for the consumer so you know what you're paying when you actually buy the ticket.

BALDWIN: Tomorrow, going into effect tomorrow. Felicia Taylor, thank you very much.

And for months now, CNN has been investigating the danger of concussions in high school sports, and in his big new documentary called "Big Hits, Broken Dreams," our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to athletes both young and old about what their life is like after taking hit after hit.

Then the case of one retired pro, Sanjay asks, would you do it over again?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forrest Gregg was part of six NFL championships, including five with the Green Bay Packer dynasty under Coach Vince Lombardi. He was nicknamed "Iron Man" for playing 188 games in a row, and Gregg's role on a bruising offensive line won him a bust in the hall of fame.

FORREST GREGG, NFL HALL OF FAMER: By the time you start playing, you're coach to hit the other guy. He's going to hit you. So I want you to hit him as hard as he hits you or harder.

GUPTA: And Gregg believes it was those hard hits that have forced him to tackle a new opponent, Parkinson's disease.

GREGG: This is the first time I noticed this thing. I brushed my hair in the morning and I had a tremor in my left hand.

GUPTA: Gregg is now undergoing treatment at the Colorado Neurological Institute. His neurologist, Dr. Rajeev Kumar suggests Gregg's years of playing football may be to blame.

DR. RAJEEV KUMAN, NEUROLOGIST: If a head injury can cause Parkinsonism and it may be a risk factor for Parkinson's disease.

GUPTA: He says it's a combination of factors.

KUMAN: He's a man, he's older and he's been bumped in the head a lot.

GREGG: If you're going to play, you're going to get hit. That was my life. I played it for a lot of years and I coached it for a lot of years. It's what I did.

GUPTA: New research says exercise could also help slow Parkinson's.

GREGG: I try to get in about five or six days a week.

KUMAR: As much I give a medicine prescription, now when I newly diagnose a patient, I give them an exercise prescription.

GUPTA: And Gregg is now attacking his condition the way he used to take on defensive linemen, nothing less than an all-out effort.

GREGG: The physical things, the workouts, that's what I can do, and that's what I'm doing to the best of my ability.

GUPTA: He's also taking medication, seeing a physical therapist, working on his balance, flexibility, speech and doing cardio workouts.

ELLEN BELLE, CNI PHYSICAL THERAPIST: We started working on a few balance activities and also his posture. I was also having him multi- task activities, because people with Parkinson's tend not to be able to do two or three things at once. GUPTA: And he's got the support of his family who is by his side. Gregg says he has no regrets.

GREGG: That's what I did for a living, and I did it to the best of my ability.

GUPTA: And he says if he had been more cautious, he probably wouldn't have kept his job playing football.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And now we have Dr. Gupta in the studio. It's always a great day when you show up on the show. The big documentary last night, huge crowd in Atlanta, so congratulations first and foremost.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: How strong, though, when we hear Gregg's story, how strong is the link between Parkinson's and the head injuries?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, I think in the last couple years it's been much more of a strengthened link. There was a belief, but it hadn't been proven.

But now as you heard the doctor say the evidence is accumulating. It's interesting, Brooke, last Tuesday, a week ago, Mohammad Ali's 70th birthday. When he was 42 years old, so 28 years ago, he wrote a letter about the onset of his tremor even at that time.

And talked about how he believed it was due to head injuries, the head blows he took as a boxer, and over in the last three decades, science has borne out what he thought to be true.

Those blows they disrupt what is known as the blood brain barrier, which keeps good stuff in, but stuff out. It's disrupted toxins can get in there and possibly cause some of these problems, like Parkinson's.

BALDWIN: But you don't have to have a concussion, do you not, to have serious issues, if you're taking hit after hit after hit.

GUPTA: Such an important point. And football, for example, a high school football player will take 650 hits on average every season, 650 hits to the head. Most of them are not concussive hits. They are what are called sub-concussive hits.

BALDWIN: But they add up.

GUPTA: They add up and people didn't realize. They thought it was an isolated thing, it's cumulative. Now we know that in players as young as 17, and I saw this with my own eyes, 17 years old.

They start to develop changes in their brain as a result of those hits that are similar to someone with Alzheimer's disease in their 70s, 80s or 90s.

So those blows to the head, they have lasting damage, and now there's objective evidence of this in those players whose brains have been examined.

BALDWIN: It was the premier last night in Atlanta that actually debuts this weekend.

GUPTA: Sunday night.

BALDWIN: Sunday night, but before we let you go, just because we're friends and I just wanted to do this. You were tweeting this morning, not only come at these stories from a neurosurgeon perspective, and a great on-air guy. You're a dad. So happy birthday to your five-year- old. Let's show your five-year-old. You can't believe she's five.

GUPTA: I can't believe she's five. I remember the day my wife told me she was pregnant with her. People told me, time flies by, and I'm like, come on, it seems like it takes forever. All of a sudden they're five and they look like that.

BALDWIN: And you said in your tweet that you played the silly scientist at school. Did you go to her school?

GUPTA: I went to her school and for the whole class, I did science experiments. I'm a science guy. I don't know how much they understood or if they just enjoyed watching me be a mad scientist. Thanks for putting that up.

BALDWIN: Of course. And again, just so you're all watching, it's "Big Hit, Broken Dreams" Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern on CNN. Dr. Gupta, thank you very much.

It's got a lot of you talking here. Demi Moore rushed to the hospital a couple months after her breakup with Ashton Kutcher. Of course, that made headlines.

We're going to speak live with "People" magazine about what happened, and we will show you the before and after pictures of her dramatic recent weight loss, but first to this list.

I love this list today, down economy or not? We have a list for you of the top five U.S. companies with no layoffs, ever. In fifth place, Baptist Health of South Florida. Coming in at number four, St. Jude's Children Research Hospital.

Third best company with no layoffs to date, Nugget Market. In 85 years, the family own grocery store chain has never fired a soul. Who are the top two employers with no layoffs ever? That is after the break.

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BALDWIN: So who are the top two companies with no layoffs ever? These are no layoffs, these people didn't do anything wrong, and that's good because they haven't laid off at any one of these companies. Coming in at number two, the Container Store, and the number one best company with no layoffs ever, Wagmans Food Market. When one of their New York store closed this past summer, the company offered all 250 employees jobs at other locations in the same city.

What is trending today you ask, actress Demi Moore rushed to the hospital (inaudible) quote, "because of distresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health.

She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends. Now TMZ is reporting Moore's trip to the hospital is because of substance abuse. Again, this is TMZ.

We asked her rep about that, and this is a quote, "No further info" says her rep. We want to bring in Carlos Greer, a reporter with "People" magazine. Carlos, what do you know about what happened?

CARLOS GREER, REPORTER, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Hi, Brooke. Demi has had an extremely tough year. She's been partying this year and her marriage came to an end in November. Unfortunately, she was hospitalized on Monday and she's now seeking professional treatment.

BALDWIN: This is something people have been talking about. We pulled a couple photos of Demi, and let's pull it up, because on one side of the screen here, look at the left. This is from sometime last year. The one on the right is last week. Look at her legs. The weight loss is striking.

GREER: It's extremely striking, and the thing is, friends actually told us she hasn't been eating. She's been under a lot of stress, she's been partying.

Just a couple weeks ago, she was out with her daughter, Rumer who is 23 years old, but in terms of her reports that she's been treated for substance abuse.

She actually wasn't drinking or anything that night. She was drinking Red Bull or no one saw her drinking rather, but she has been acting erratically, according to sources.

BALDWIN: We understand she was supposed to make a cameo in a movie, the movie about a porn star, the Linda Lovelace film. Does she have any other projects coming up that could be affected by this?

GREER: Well, she actually did pull out of the project. She was supposed to play Gloria Steinem, and she's been producing other projects as well. There's no word yet on what will happen with the other projects, but she's definitely not going to be in the Lovelace flick.

BALDWIN: I know, you know, Ashton and Demi, looks can be deceiving. We weren't on the other side of the relationship. Appearances were they were a happy, loving couple but, alas, perhaps not.

The timing of their breakup was pretty stunning to Hollywood insiders as it was -- do you think it was a surprise to the general public. You said the two had been living pretty much a nightmare of a marriage.

GREER: Yes, they were. Demi and Ashton, they were living a nightmare marriage. There was intense fighting. This entire year, Demi has been dealing a lot of insecurity and neediness. This led to her acting erratically and partying out of control.

In Vegas, I know everybody remembers the YouTube clip when she was dancing with Snoop Dogg on stage, and again, two weeks ago she was out with Rumer Willis and dancing with Ryan Rodham from 90210. She's been acting erratically.

BALDWIN: You point out that she's stressed and she's partying. To me those are two different things. Which is it?

GREER: Well, it's both. But she's stressed and she's partying because she's stressed. The end of her marriage has taken its toll on her.

BALDWIN: Carlos Greer, "People" magazine, thanks so much. We're talking about what's trending here. Appreciate it.

GREER: Thanks, Brooke.