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SUV Falls 60 Feet, 7 Die; Crash Site "Functionally Obsolete"; One Year after bin Laden's Death; Dwindling Hopes for Peace in Syria; Dramatic Testimony in Edwards Trial; Beating that Triggered L.A. Riots; One Year After Bin Laden's Death; Spinal Muscular Atrophy Affects Avery; Google's Cloud Drive Up
Aired April 29, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Don Lemon.
Just coming up on the top of the hour here and we're going to begin our ---- our newscast with this story. There are some new details coming out of New York right now where seven people including three children have died in a horrific crash. Their SUV flipped over a guardrail and plunged 60 feet to the ground.
CNN's national correspondent Susan Candiotti is standing now near the site for us. Susan, this is terrible, you've seen the video ---- well, you've seen it in person. What are police saying happened? Do they really know?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, it's a horrible tragedy and no, police still do not know why this accident happened. What caused a woman driving her SUV to go sailing over an overpass and crashing that vehicle, killing everyone inside, all seven people?
Here's what they do know. According to eyewitnesses, police say a woman, 45 years old was driving this SUV down a six--lane highway called the Bronx River Parkway. For some reason, they don't know why, she hit the middle barrier, a concrete barrier, the median. It's only about three feet high. Witnesses say she overcompensated and made a sharp right, crossing over three lanes of traffic going in the very same direction, hit a curb then went over a fence, only again about two to three feet high and went sailing about 50 feet ---- 50 to 60 feet and another 60 feet down.
The car was crushed, this SUV. It flipped over, killing everyone inside. Police say everyone was wearing seat belts but it wasn't enough to save them ---- Don.
LEMON: Do we know about witnesses and what they're saying about what may have caused the driver to swerve?
CANDIOTTI: That's the real mystery here, none of the witnesses is able to know or does know or could tell what caused this woman to lose control of the SUV. It could have been, authorities say, any number of things. Maybe something physically went wrong with her. Perhaps there was a mechanical failure, a distraction of some kind. These are all the things that they'll be looking at as some of the possibilities ---- Don.
LEMON: All right, Susan Candiotti in New York. Susan, thank you very much.
This stretch of road is no stranger to bad wrecks. Back in 2006, six people were killed in almost the exact same spot. I spoke with CNN Radio correspondent, Steve Katenbaum about the safety of this particular roadway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE KATENBAUM, CNN RADIO CORRESPONDENT: Back in 2010, this bridge was one of several in New York State that were determined to be functionally off the lead and not structurally ---- the structural integrity of the bridge was called into question.
But when we look deeper the meaning of that, what that definition means, it doesn't mean that the bridges are necessarily unsafe, but it means that they don't meet today's standards, contemporary standards.
So these bridges, in other words needed to be brought up to date to meet today's safety standards and this particular portion of the Bronx River Parkway, this bridge that this vehicle went off of today, it was declared in 2010 to be functionally ---- functionally obsolete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That was CNN's Steve Katenbaum.
The search continues for a missing crewman after a sail race accident killed three others. The yacht was heading from Newport Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico. Race organizers say it likely collided with a much bigger vessel over Saturday near the Coronado islands. That's where they found the bodies and the wreckage. The Coast Guard and Mexican Navy are searching 500 square miles of ocean.
Today the threat of terrorism is a concern front and center for many Americans. Well that treat may have diminished a little one year ago this week when U.S. commandos flew in a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.
CNN's Athena Jones looks at the global fight on terror as it stands today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice--over): It was an historic moment.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tonight I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda.
JONES: After a risky overnight raid, America's enemy number 1 was dead. LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think the one thing all of us feel pretty good about that were involved in this operation is that as a result of what we did, America is safer.
JONES: It's the view shared by National Security Analyst, Peter Bergen, who interviewed bin Laden in 1997, says al Qaeda is in terrible shape.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Almost all their leaders are dead or captured. They haven't mounted a successful attacking the West since the London attacks of July 2005. Their brand is severely tarnished.
JONES: But government officials and experts warned that the fight against global extremism isn't over. So--called Lone Wolf attackers, like the man who plotted to bomb Times Square, the Christmas 2009 underwear bomber and the man who killed seven people in southern France earlier this year remain a threat. Terrorism expert Bruce Riedel is a former CIA officer.
BRUCE RIEDEL, BROOKINGS INTITUTION: We have al Qaeda franchises in places like Yemen, Iraq, which remain dangerous, and we have the idea of al--Qaeda, the idea of global jihad, which inspires a small minority of fanatics to carry out mass murder and commit suicide.
JONES: Riedel said Americans shouldn't underestimate the importance of getting rid of bin Laden and people like American--born cleric Anwar al--Awlaki, killed in a drone strike in Yemen last fall.
U.S. counterterrorism efforts are aimed at keeping up the pressure on al--Awlaki's sponsor, al--Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and other al Qaeda allies who are still bent on attacking us. Analysts say the Arab Spring has changed the game.
RIEDEL: The Arab spring showed that dictators could be toppled through Twitter, not terror. And that's not al--Qaeda's MO.
JONES: Peter Bergen says it's important to maintain perspective.
BERGEN: Seventeen people have died since 9/11 in the United States at the hands of al Qaeda or people inspired by their message. About 300 Americans die every year in accidental bath tub drownings and we don't have a sort of irrational fear of bath tub drownings.
JONES: Athena Jones CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Are we any safer today since Osama bin Laden was killed? In about 20 minutes, we'll get some expert insight from retired General Spider Marks.
Britain's defense ministry is considering putting missiles on top of apartment as part of Olympic security. That is straight ahead.
And CNN is embedded with U.S. forces who are trying to take down a notorious warlord.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You won't find many places more dangerous in the border between Sudan and South Sudan. Reporters covering troops in the south saw that firsthand today. I want you to watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Journalist says they were with soldiers when they were attacked by Sudanese helicopter gunships and fighter jets. The President of Sudan declared a state of emergency today for cities along the border.
Deep in the jungles of Uganda U.S. troops are aiding the mission to bring notorious warlord Joseph Kony to justice. If Kony's name sounds familiar to you it's probably because of Jason Russell. His Kony 2012 media campaign called for bringing the Lord's Resistance Army leader to justice.
White House officials say that won't be easy, but they aren't giving up. Special Forces troops are helping with the training of Ugandan forces.
The fate of Egypt's Prime Minister is up in the air. The head of the ruling military council told state media that he'll shake up the cabinet but he didn't say whether the current Prime Minister will keep his job. The Parliament's decision to suspend its session forced the changes. A presidential election is only a few weeks away.
The Syrian government's isolation grows deeper by the day. That's what happens when a country declares a cease fire even as videos show war raging in towns and cities.
As CNN's Mohammad Jamjoom reports, Syrians aren't counting on the bloodshed ending soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Sunday even as the newly appointed head of the U.N. observer mission arrived in Damascus, violence in Syria continued and the tenuous ceasefire appeared to be unraveling.
Major General Robert Mood of Norway began his work amid growing doubt that the six--point U.N. peace plan will be able to stop the bloodshed in the besieged country. Roughly 30 monitors are expected to be on the ground in Syria by Monday and a total of 300 are supposed to arrive in the coming month.
But there's been growing concern that no matter the amount of monitors, the violence will continue. Appointed General Mood addressed on Sunday ----
MAJ. GEN. ROBERT MOOD, CHIEF U.N. MONITORING MISSION IN SYRIA: Ten unarmed observers, 30 unarmed observers, 300 unarmed observers and a thousand unarmed observers cannot solve all the problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JAMJOOM: Also on Sunday, state--run Syrian Arab news agency reported that a delegation of U.N. observers was visiting the al-- Khaldiyeh neighborhood of Homs.
Meanwhile, opposition activist in Homs which is a bastion of anti--government sentiment have said attacks by President Bashar al Assad regime only stopped when the U.N. monitors visit. One amateur video posted on line purports to show U.N. monitors driving through the streets of Homs with U.N. vehicles on Saturday and escorted by dissenters during an operation to recover corpses left in the cities decimated streets.
CNN can't independently verify the authenticity of the video but on the video one man's voice can be heard saying corpses were dumped on the ground there for over 40 days and that they were not able to recover the bodies before because of the presence of snipers. It was only now they're able to get the corpses out of the streets because of the presence of the U.N. monitors.
According to opposition activists since the ceasefire deadline passed on April 12 at least 700 people have been killed.
Mohammad Jamjoom, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Mohammed, thank you very much. Some Londoners think Olympic officials are taking a risky step in the name of fighting terrorism. The British Defense Minister is considering a plan to place missiles on apartments during the summer Olympics. People who live there are asking how they could possibly use those weapons safely in a city. The summer games are just three months away.
Straight ahead here on CNN: the trial of John Edwards, the man who once wanted to be president, now trying to avoid becoming an inmate. But the dramatic testimony of a former campaign aide could put him behind bars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: He certainly made the race interesting for a while, but Newt Gingrich is getting out. A source close to him says Gingrich will officially end his presidential bid on Wednesday instead of Tuesday as previously reported. For a while he was a front runner but only went on to win two primaries, South Carolina and Georgia.
Tonight President Obama is holding a fundraising dinner at a private home in Virginia with former President Bill Clinton. Tickets are $20,000 each. It is the President's second fund raiser today. Dramatic testimony in the John Edwards corruption trial; Edwards' former campaign aide Andrew Young is considered the prosecution's star witness. Young testified that Edwards intimidated him and that he was scared for his life.
CNN's Joe Johns reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Recounting the moment he and John Edwards finally had it out and parted ways, Andrew Young, the top Edwards aide, who falsely claimed he had fathered a child with his boss' mistress and field--marshalled the cover up, was now claiming he was afraid.
Young said he felt threatened by Edwards and feared for his life. He said he and Edwards went for a drive on a lonely North Carolina road. He said Edwards was driving erratically after learning that Young had received $725,000 from wealthy donor Bunny Melon without telling Edwards. Young said "I was scared for my life. It was bizarre."
Young told the court, "I said if he wasn't going to tell the truth, I was going to tell the truth." Edwards responded to him, "You can't hurt me, Andrew. You can't hurt me."
Defense attorney Abby Lowell asked Young if he had threatened Edwards with exposure of the whole story. Young said he and his family "did everything that he, Edwards, asked us to do. He completely abandoned himself from us. He walked away from us and I was extremely angry."
Drilling down on the cost of shepherding John Edwards' mistress around the country while she was on the run from the media, Andrew Young admitted under cross--examination that he got thousands of dollars more from two rich benefactors than he actually spent on Hunter's expenses.
Defense attorney Abby Lowell pressed for more. Young said he had attributed expenses to Rielle Hunter that he actually spent money on himself or on his family for lavish trips on a Disney cruise, trips to San Diego, Cabo San Lucas and Legoland. And Lowell continued to press on the issue of Young's dream house on 10 acres in North Carolina with a $100,000 sound system, Lowell pointing out that Young had gotten a construction loan to build the house and didn't have to draw down on the money because he had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank from Bunny Melon.
The cross examination by Edwards' lawyer ended with Lowell quoting a line from Young's book, asking him, "Are you concerned that people will see you as a cold--blooded schemer who was motivated by ego and greed or the desire for power."
Young: "Of course, I'm concerned about how people see me."
Lowell: "Isn't that exactly what you are?" STEVEN FRIEDLAND, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: The defense is now saying they're dirty too. And that they're playing in the same stand by.
JOHNS: With the end of Young's testimony, his wife Sherry was called to the stand, who talked almost regretfully about how many different jobs her husband did for the Edwards family, "things he was never able to do for my family," she said. "I allowed him to do that."
(on camera): The trial is expected to pick up next week where it left off with the wife of Andrew Young on the stand. No word yet on when Rielle Hunter, the mistress of John Edwards is expected to testify.
Joe Johns, CNN, Greensborough, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right Joe. The man at the center of some of the worst rioting this country has ever endured says he's fortunate to have survived. Who doesn't recognize a Rodney King beating? Now, two decades ago, I had a chance to ride with him on a journey back in time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just gushing (ph) down the street. Death wasn't far away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: My conversation with Rodney King, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We've grown used to seeing stunning video clips capturing images of events, large and small. We almost expect them now that almost every phone has a camera, too. But arguably, one piece of video started it all and also helped trigger some of this country's worst rioting. I had a chance to talk to the man at the center of the storm 20 years ago this weekend ---- Rodney King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice--over): A city in flames. Entire neighborhoods burned to the ground. Now, two decades later, what's it like to be the man whose beating, seen around the world, ignited one of the worst race riots in U.S. history?
(on camera): Do you still have nightmares?
RODNEY KING, BEATING VICTIM: Yes. I do.
LEMON: What's the nightmare? KING: You wake up like tossing and turning; sometimes even hearing the voices that were going on that night. Get down, get down. Get down, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You know, those words, you know. And so I have to wake up ---- it's all right ---- look outside and it's all green and blue.
LEMON (voice--over): King's nightmare began just after midnight. He and two friends, out celebrating, head west on the 210 freeway.
KING: I had just gotten word that my old construction company had called me to come back to work that following Monday.
LEMON: But the celebration is cut short. State police caught King's car going 110 miles per hour and immediately start a nearly eight--mile high--speed chase through L.A. neighborhoods.
KING: I was doing 100. I did every bit of 100. And I'm not proud of it.
LEMON: Following our interview, Rodney King agrees to relive those terrifying moments by taking me back to the scene.
KING: Coming down the 210.
JOHNS: As we retrace his steps, we discuss those split--second decisions.
KING: I exit here on Paxton (ph).
LEMON (on camera): Where did you pull over?
KING: I seen all those apartments over there, so I said, oh, man, I'm going to stop right here. If it goes down, somebody will see it.
LEMON (voice--over): Once he stops, they are surrounded by police. King's two friends are arrested without incident. But Rodney King would have a much different experience.
KING: I opened my door and they said, "Take three steps back away from the car." Which I did that ---- I took three steps back. When I took the three steps back, they said, "lay down". So when I laid down, I laid down like this. My face was facing this way so I could see them and they said, no, put your f--ing head down, face down.
When I put it face down, bam. Bam ---- a real hard blow to the temple. When he did that, I just ---- and then I went up like this and ran this way with my hands up to show no threat. And that's when I didn't know if my leg was broke.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Get more on what life has been like for Rodney King, the man whose videotaped beating made him a worldwide symbol of police brutality when CNN presents "RACE AND RAGE" coming up at the top of the hour, 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Your top stories are next.
Plus, Osama bin Laden killed one year ago by U.S. forces. Even though the head of the snake was cut off, the threat of terror still exists. I'll talk with retired U.S. Army General Spider Marks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Coming up on half past the hour. Now we're going to get a look at your headlines.
Seven people, including three children, have died in a horrific crash in New York. Their SUV flipped over a guardrail and plunged 60 feet to the ground. It landed upside in an area of the Bronx Zoo that is close to the public. Police say all the victims were wearing their seat belts. In 2006, six people died on the same stretch of road.
U.S. troops are helping in the hunt for Joseph Kony. The notorious warlord is the lead of the Lord's Resistance Army in Africa. An Internet campaign called Kony 2012 pushed for world leaders to make his capture a priority.
The fire marshal is now looking into a deadly tent collapse in St Louis. One person was killed and 16 others injured after a storm and a strong wind hit the area after yesterday's Cardinals game. Based on guidelines from the company that makes the tent, it should have held up to the estimated 50--mile--an--hour wind gust.
It was on a Sunday just like this. Almost one year ago, the country learned that the most wanted man in the world was dead, and Americans had pulled the trigger. The news broke on our show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I want to bring in CNN's John King. He's the host of "JK USA". John King, what do you know?
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "JOHN KING, USA": Don CNN is told by several sources that the President of the United States will announce in just moments that United States has the body of Osama bin Laden. That Osama bin Laden has been killed, that the United States is convinced that it has the body of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11, the architect of al Qaeda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Osama Bin Laden, the biggest villain of the 21st century killed by an elite SEAL team six, at a secret compound in Pakistan. I want to talk about this anniversary with former Army General James "Spider" Marks. Thank you, sir, good to see you.
JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Hi, Don.
LEMON: It's an anniversary and a lot of people are glad about this anniversary, let's just say that. He's a CNN contributor, of course, and former commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center. So general, one year after Bin Laden's death, are we safer because of it?
MARKS: Well, we are safer, absolutely, Don. But I think it's important -- we've heard a lot of analytics on this that it's not time for high fives, and upon the execution of that mission by the SEALS last year. Nobody took a breather and said this is wonderful and did victory laps. Clearly what is required is vigilance and persistence, and this is an ongoing struggle that's not going to go away for any immediate time frame.
It's very much a persistent operation that has to take place in multiple locations around the globe, and our intelligence community with a lot of partners and a lot of locations are doing a very good job of making sure THAT we're identifying those pockets of radicalism as they appear, identifying the leaders and being able to target them quite effectively.
LEMON: General, has the U.S. strategy against terror shifted in the years since Bin Laden's death?
MARKS: Well, you know, it really has. Clearly our intelligence community has a very, very broad mandate and a lot of partners that are helping in terms of the identification of these leaders. And in fact, even within our own command and control and our own military and our intelligence communities, we have multiple lists of who those known terrorists are, what their leadership infrastructures look like, and where they overlap and they intersect, we get clearance and then we conduct operations and quite effectively we've been conducting operations through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles that have both the collection capability and the strike capability.
That's been ongoing for quite some time. So what's happening is we've had a very large presence in places like Iraq and very large presence in places like Afghanistan. Obviously, Iraq now we're gone and Afghanistan we're drawing down, but we're drawing down in a way that we can increase Afghan security forces, give that government a sense of security, allow them to get a little more confident in terms of how they can do their business so that they can grow their own capabilities to go after these pockets.
Now, in other places, Don, as you know, like Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula has migrated into Yemen.
LEMON: Right.
MARKS: We have a very strong presence there in terms of targeting where we know they are and their types and patterns of activity, and we can go after them.
LEMON: All right. I found something very interesting this morning on NBC, and it was said by a senior Obama campaign adviser, Robert Gibbs. Take a listen. We'll talk about it, general.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're saying President Romney wouldn't take that shot?
ROBERT GIBBS, SENIOR OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER: I don't think it's clear that he would. Again he criticized Barack Obama a few years ago when Barack Obama said we have actionable intelligence about a high value target. And let's be clear, nobody was bigger, nobody was high value target than Osama Bin Laden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. You know, I'm not sure you want to answer a political question, but we have to go there because this has been debated in the media and by both camps. You were national security adviser for Mitt Romney during the last campaign. Do you feel the Obama camp is politicizing this? Do you think that assertion is true?
MARKS: I think it's being politicized, but I cannot support an assertion like that as a pure hypothetical. How can somebody transfer to someone else an affirmative statement that an act wouldn't occur if that individual were in that position? That's complete fantasy to me.
LEMON: Wasn't Bin Laden the main reason that the U.S. invaded Afghanistan? He has been dead a year. And can you remind us, do you know what the mission is now?
MARKS: What we're doing?
LEMON: Yes.
MARKS: With the defeat of Osama Bin Laden, that was a major, major accomplishment by our intelligence community and our military. I mean, it truly is a representation of what our military can accomplish and what our national leaders, the types of decisions, that they can make.
Now, let's be frank. Our president made a very tough call. The secretary of defense said "Don't do it, there are other ways to go after him." The chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time said, "Don't do it, there is another way to go after him." This was a very tough decision on the part of our president and it was executed with incredible precision, and we should all be extremely proud of that.
The mission in Afghanistan is altering as the Afghan people in the government stand up and increase their ability to maintain governance and security in the region. Again, let's go back. Where did the attack on 9/11 occur in terms of its genesis and its planning -- in Afghanistan. That must never happen again.
Now, has that now migrated? Are we playing (INAUDIBLE)? That has now migrated to Yemen. The argument can be made that it will migrate where it can. That's fine. Let's keep them on the move. So let's go after him in Afghanistan as we have and we're doing that in Yemen, which we should continue to do and if they migrate elsewhere, we got it. We'll be able to find them and we'll be able to apply a similar pressure.
LEMON: I'm sure you can. I can't believe it's been a year. I mean -- I know it sound like a cliche. I can't believe it's been a year since that happened.
MARKS: I know. I agree, Don, it's quite amazing. But again, in that interim period of a year, the pressure that we've been able to apply on Al Qaeda where it exists, the Taliban where they exist in Afghanistan is quite remarkable in itself, and all the while, U.S. presence is drawing down and Afghan forces we can only hope and continue to focus, will grow in their capabilities.
LEMON: General, thank you.
MARKS: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: All right.
It is the kind of news that would crush most families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA CANAHUATI, AVERY'S MOTHER: We've got all the time in the world to cry. We can cry, you know, when she's no longer here, but for now we want to try and enjoy the time we do have with her and just make memories.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Look at her. So precious. Their baby is dying, but you'll meet a remarkable couple determined to live out her days with joy and not sadness.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The kind of news that would devastate most families is turning to inspiration for one couple. The parents of a dying infant say they want to build memories in the little time they have left.
Kevin Reese of CNN affiliate, KHOU, has this very touching story for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN REESE, KHOU REPORTER (voice--over): At a home in Bel Air, everything was right with the world. Her parents named her Avery. She arrived perfect and with a smile. But just a few months old, her legs went limp. Something was wrong.
LAURA CANAHUATI: I just started screaming, and just -- it just doesn't seem real.
REESE: What was real was spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disorder. The legs first. Avery's use of her arms will be next, then the ability to breathe. At best doctors give her 18 months. So what do you do with that little time? You dance. Mike and Laura Canahuati took Avery's story on line, created her own blog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is that this disease will take my life.
REESE: And offered her own bucket list. The moments, the memories they want her to have before she's gone.
LAURA CANAHUATI: Hey, Avery, you silly girl. Look. Mike always told me, we've got all the time in the world to cry. We can cry, you know, when she's no longer here, but for now we want to try and enjoy the time we do have with her and just make memories.
REESE: Memories like her first Easter, her first trip to college, her first innocent kiss, her first little girl tea party with her mom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yummy.
REESE: All of this online for a reason.
MICHAEL CANAHUATI, AVERY'S FATHER: We can watch her die or we can let her live, and through letting her live, we're going to try and educate other people about this so they don't have to go through it, too.
REESE: SMA is a genetic disorder. There is no cure and very little research. But parents can get tested to find out if they are carriers, if its something they can pass to a child.
LAURA CANAHUATI: It's very aggravating that no one knows about this.
MICHAEL CANAHUATI: I refuse to think that my daughter will die in vain.
REESE: So Mike and Laura promised to chronicle every moment in a very short life so that we remember Avery, remember a disease that needs more research and remember how they spent each day.
LAURA CANAHUATI: We didn't sit there and cry that day. We sat there and we made memories with our daughter.
MICHAEL CANAHUATI: And lots of them.
REESE: Memories they will keep alive, hoping someday they lead to a cure.
Kevin Reese, KHOU--11 news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We'll be right back after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: One of the best known American tragedies, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy but now there's a new account of what happened that night back in 1968. As you know Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to life as a lone shooter but his attorneys are hoping for a new trial. Among the evidence they may present is the story told by Nina Rhodes Hughes. That's here on the left with Robert F. Kennedy. She was there at the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was shot.
And in an exclusive interview with CNN, she says, there is a part of the story the FBI has ignored all these years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NINA RHODES--HUGHES, WITNESS TO RFK ASSASSINATION IN 1968 (ON THE PHONE): There were more than eight shots, and interesting that you read whatever the FBI issued, everybody said eight shots. Not. I wish there were some recordings of me that night. I did give an interview to somebody with a microphone where I said there were at least 12, maybe 14, and I know there was because I heard the rhythm in my head.
And I know with the first two or three shots, I wasn't aware. As I said, I thought they were flashbulbs. What has to come out is that there was another shooter to my right, and Robert Kennedy was also to my right where Sirhan Sirhan was almost straight ahead and was standing to my left standing on some steel, you know, raised platform. And that there were two shooters. It must come out on who they were. It must come out who the other shooter is because there definitely was another shooter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Nina Rhodes--Hughes says she was never called as a witness in the original trial. She says she just wants to get her story out. A federal judge is reviewing that story right now. We'll keep you updated on that.
What if I told you that your computer was obsolete, a relic, even if it's brand new, and not years from now, right now, as of this week. That's some of the chatter we're hearing at the Google debut their Cloud drive. Mashable.com's Christina Warren is a tech pro. She knows everything, and then we're going to get a, you know, a Google -- to Google in a moment here, but first in simple terms, OK, explain this cloud thing to us.
CHRSITINA WARREN, MASHABLE, COM: OK. So the idea of the cloud is that instead of having to store your documents on, you know, your hard drive or a thumb drive or something else locally, it can be stored in a server so that you can access it from any other computer. So once you log in with your Google credentials, you're on your laptop, or, you know, a work computer or your phone, you can log in and access all your documents.
LEMON: Yes, so it's there. It's like a virtual -- whatever it is, you can go and get it. OK. So you've heard the ads that you can put your pictures, your music, your videos in a cloud. I don't know but is it safe for everything? WARREN: You know, it's relatively safe, and the big problem, I think, is for certain types of documents. You know, you might not want to put your tax records. You might not want to put really sensitive business documents, and the reason is for right now, Google doesn't offer what's called encryption of those files which means there is the off chance that if someone could access those documents they could access your account, they could breach those documents.
So you might not want to put your most sensitive financial documents up there, but for photos and videos and regular word processing files, it's a great way to quickly and easily store things.
LEMON: OK. All right. I just want to go back over a little one on one because we've been talking about this cloud for a year now.
WARREN: Sure.
LEMON: OK. So let's get to this Google drive where we said your computer may be obsolete right now. You know you've got something when your competitors are freaking out about this right? So tell us about why is my computer, possibly this brand new Mac book Pro, or whatever it is that I have, why is it maybe obsolete?
WARREN: Well, I mean it's something that would be obsolete, it's that Google is kind of pushing everybody to store everything in the cloud. So meaning that it's no longer that important about what you have, what specs your Mac book has, but whether or not it's accessible from anywhere. And you know, some of the biggest competitors against Google drive are Drop Box and Microsoft Sky Drive, and Amazon has a service that all do very similar things.
But the advantage that Google has is a lot of people use Google for e--mails. They use it for search. They use it for Google docs and it will integrate in with your existing Google account. So that when you create a Google document, it goes in the drive. If you upload photos to Picassa, it goes on the drive. If you have e--mail attachments, it goes on the drive.
LEMON: Yes. That's a lot of stuff to be out there. But, you know, and even with that, I say that because some of the legal mumbo jumbo from Google this weeks raised some eyebrows. Because the worry is that Google could possibly sell your information?
WARREN: Sure. I mean that's the kind of the problem, when you look at some of their competitors like Microsoft and Drop box, they make it very clear you own all of your stuff. The only thing we're doing is, you know, they're giving you permission to serve your files to you but we're not going to do anything with your files and you own it all.
Google's term of service are a lot more broad, and they make it seem, depending on how you read it or how you interpret it, they might be able to use it in advertising or they might be able to, you know, sell advertising on top of it or they might be able to do other things with your content. And so that has a lot of people concerned. To be clear, this is something that Google does with all of their terms of service, so they make the same sort of claims about Gmail and Google docs. But I think that when people have the idea of uploading files that we're created by Google but were create maybe in Microsoft Office or created someplace else, it's understandable that people get a little bit more nervous about who might have potential claims over that content.
LEMON: When something like this happens, you know, is this where we go from cassette to DVD or DVD to iPod or whatever? Is this a fad or is this the way the future is going?
WARREN: No. This is definitely the way the future is going. I mean there are a lot of notebooks, you know, laptops are sold today that don't have a CD--rom at all. That don't have a DVD drive. The iPad, and other tablets and phones, it's more and more common that you access documents that way. And so the idea that instead of taking up storage space on your phone or your iPad you can just plug into a server and access the content no matter what system you're on. I think it's really attractive to a lot of people.
LEMON: Christina?
WARREN: Yes.
LEMON: I think you're right. Because once I got, you know, a PDA or a phone that actually worked well, you can access quickly, or the iPad, or whatever, I wondered why do you need this big thing with all of this -- why do you need it anymore?
WARREN: Yes. And why do you need to make sure that you have it saved to a certain disk or you've got that file with you. You can just make sure, "Hey, can I log on to the Internet? Yes. OK. That means I can grab my files."
LEMON: There you go. All right. Thank you, Christina. We really appreciate it. Have a good one.
WARREN: Thanks. You too.
LEMON: Washington goes Hollywood. And for the most part, at least it was funny.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, COMEDIAN: Mr. President, you remember -- you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? That was hilarious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Jimmy Kimmel zings the president. But Mr. Obama had some funny lines of his own, including eating a dog. Right? The best of the White House Correspondent's dinner next. But first, something much more serious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALYA VILLARD--APPOLON: Two years after the earthquake, the situation is still the same. The people are still under the tents. They don't have electricity. There is no security where they sleep. They are getting raped.
In Haiti, things are very difficult. Before the earthquake, there were rapes happening. Now, I can say, it is total disorder.
(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
VILLARD--APPOLON: Adults are not spared. Mothers are not spared. Even babies are not spared.
My name is Malya Villard--Appolon. I am a victim of sexual violence. I am on a mission to eradicate this issue so that other Haitian women do not fall victim. We do awareness in the camps. We were working in 22 camps after the earthquake. Now we are trying to work in others. We tell people to come out of silence. Do not be afraid to say that you have been victimized. We offer psychological and legal support. We have a call center. We accompany the victim to the hospital. And we have a safe house program.
For me, the first thing is justice that I want. I was a victim, and I did not find justice. But I know I will get it for other women that are victims. We have to fight so we can say what was said in the past. We love Haiti. This is a great nation. There will be a change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMMEL: You know, they say that inside every American governor is a president struggling to get out. In Chris Christie's case, it's the only one where you can still hear him screaming.
Governor Christie, I think you might be misunderstanding New Jersey's slogan. It's not the Olive Garden state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Oh, Chris Christie was a good sport with that. That was Jimmy Kimmel. President Obama got to show off his stand--up comedy skills as well. He went zinger to zinger -- zinger for zinger with Jimmy Kimmel at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Here are some of the best one--liners.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Four years ago, I looked like this. Today I look like this. And four years from now I will look like this.
KIMMEL: Mr. President, you remember -- you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow. That was hilarious.
You know, there's a term for guys like President Obama. Probably not two terms.
OBAMA: We got men in tuxes. Women in gowns. Fine wine. First-- class entertainment. I was just relieved to learn this was not a GSA conference.
KIMMEL: If anyone has tickets to the GSA after party, the plane is leaving for the Four Seasons in Dubai at midnight on the dot. Don't be late or you'll miss out on your complementary white tiger cub.
OBAMA: It's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom. Or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.
KIMMEL: We have numerous members of the print media in attendance. Which reminds me of a riddle. What's black and white and red all over? Nothing anymore.
OBAMA: Even Sarah Palin's getting back into the game. Guest hosting on the "Today" show. Which reminds me of an old saying. What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious.
KIMMEL: I do have a lot of jokes about the Secret Service. You know, I told them for $800 I wouldn't tell them, but they only offered $30. So--
OBAMA: I really do enjoy attending these dinners. In fact, I had a lot more material prepared, but I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: No smiles from the Secret Service, though.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here 10:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN presents "Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King." It begins in just a few moments.
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