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More Gridlock?; Jared Loughner Sentenced

Aired November 08, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hour two here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we have some news in from Tucson, Arizona. We now know that Jared Loughner, the man that tried to assassinate former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, shot 18 others, killed six of them, he has now been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Former Congresswoman Giffords stood up in court today. Here she is now just outside. And she faced this man who tried to kill her by firing that bullet into her brain. Her husband, former shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, did speak up on his wife's behalf at the sentencing hearing just a little while ago and here's what he said.

Let me quote him: "Gabby would trade her own life to bring back any one of those you savagely murdered that day. Her life has been forever changed. Every day is a continual struggle to do those things she was once so good at.

Many, many other victims had the opportunity today inside this courtroom to speak up, to speak to this man about their pain, to speak about their loss, and Loughner was then sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole.

At one point during the hearing, aides helped Gabby Giffords walk out of the courtroom for a couple of minutes and then she did return. We still don't know why it was she left. But I can tell you at least nine other shooting survivors were there, including a woman who stopped Loughner from reloading his gun and the man that helped tackle him. Again, six people killed, 13 wounded in last year's shooting rampage just outside that grocery store in Tucson.

One survivor speaking up in court today said that Loughner's sentencing cannot bring closure to that dreadful day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That incident will be in my heart and mind for as long as I live, so I call it another step in the journey. It gives you a new perspective on the important things in life and it can't help but change you and hopefully for the better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It changes your priorities and you look at all of the good things that are happening every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Casey Wian was inside that courtroom and he joins me now by phone.

Casey, just set the scene for me. What was it like in there?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, I'm sorry. I'm having a very difficult time hearing you. I'm just outside of the jury assembly room where the U.S. attorney and other officials are going to have a news conference where they will bring out some of those victims who appeared at the sentencing today.

I have to tell you that one of the most dramatic moments, Brooke, was when the wife of an elderly gentleman, Dorwan Stoddard, who was killed by Jared Loughner, got up and looked at Loughner in the eyes and talked about how when she was shot as well, her husband was laying on top of her, both of them shot. He was bleeding.

She struggled to get out from under his body and told him to breathe and breathe and she said she heard him take a deep breathe and that is how she knows he heard her also tell him that she loved him. She said just minutes later he died in her arms. And then several moments after that she passed out. She looked at Loughner and said, it's because you shot me three times as well.

Despite some of the graphic, graphic stories that some of these victims came forward with, including Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, who said you may have put a bullet in her head but you didn't dent her spirit and her ability to continue to do good in the world.

What was amazing, though, Brooke, despite all of the graphic, graphic testimony, if you will, is the fact that so many of these victims said that they were willing to forgive Mr. Loughner and they also said they wanted him to continue with his medication while he is in prison for the rest of his life so he will never forget, always be aware of what he did to these people, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Casey Wian for us on the phone.

Casey, I spoke with Mrs. Stoddard three months ago when Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty. I will never forget it when she said, yes, I do forgive him.

We will take if we can some of the family members speaking, as Casey mentioned, this news conference any minute. We will be looking for that and we will take in it Tucson.

In the meantime, we have more information about an incident last week here. Two Iranian military planes fired at an unarmed U.S. Predator drone. The drone aircraft was performing routine surveillance over the Persian Gulf when the Iranian Su-25 warplanes opened fire.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.

Barbara, I know that there was just a news conference. Tell me what you learned. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, now that CNN reported the information, the Pentagon for the first time is publicly responding to questions about all of this now that we have put it out there.

It was last Thursday, just a few days, of course, before the election, Iran took action that ratcheted up military tensions. Two Iranian Su- 25, pretty old Russian fighter aircraft that they have, went out in to the airspace over the Persian Gulf and fired continuously at a U.S. Air Force Predator drone.

This was about 16 miles off the Iranian coast. It was in international airspace. They did not hit the drone, but this is a very aggressive action. The Pentagon press secretary talked a little while ago about whether this is an act of war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE LITTLE, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: We believe this is the first time that an unmanned aircraft has been shot at over international waters in the Arabian Gulf.

QUESTION: Is that an act of war?

LITTLE: I'm not going to get in to legal labels. The reality is that we have a wide range of options as I said before to protect our assets and our forces in the region and will do so when necessary.

We have communicated to the Iranians that we will continue to conduct surveillance flights over international waters, over the Arabian Gulf consistent with longstanding practice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Look, this was an unmanned drone so there was no U.S. military pilot on board. That doesn't make it any the less serious. President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta informed very quickly last Thursday morning after this happened.

The Pentagon pledging to continue to conduct the missions. And make no mistake. This might have been routine surveillance over the Gulf, but it was a classified military mission that the Iranians went after -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, here we are on, what is this, Thursday today and this was last Thursday? Was this kept quiet?

STARR: Yes, it was. And the Pentagon says the reason is it was a classified mission and they say they're not in the business of talking about it until, frankly, CNN reported it and they started getting questions from a lot of reporters about it.

You know, look, the Iranians know exactly what they did so it's not a big secret from them. The question may be, were the Iranians trying to shoot it down? The Pentagon says yes. How much do the Iranians really want to cause over those vital oil shipping lanes in the Gulf right now, Brooke?

BALDWIN: Barbara Starr, thank you very much at the Pentagon for us.

And now President Obama gets four more years in the White House. Will it be four more years of gridlock or does he have a new strategy perhaps working with the divisive Congress? We will go live to the White House for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It has been now almost 48 hours since the polls closed, but there is one state where the election isn't over yet, Florida. The state introduced us to hanging chads and butterfly ballots back in the hotly contested presidential race in 2000, and this year, long lines, long ballots and long waits combine to frustrate Floridian voters that waited more than seven hours to vote at this police place in Miami.

Dozens were still in line at 7:00 at night when the polls were supposed to be closing. The last ballot cast we're told was at 1:30 Wednesday morning. Election officials pulled an all-nighter, counting 21,000 absentee ballots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENELOPE TOWNSLEY, MIAMI-DADE ELECTION SUPERVISOR: I would like to take this opportunity to remind our voters this is simply a matter of sheer volume. We're dealing with a tremendous amount of paper. We will continue this process. It will be completed, but it will be done so with integrity and accuracy. Every vote will be counted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We have been told all of the 21,000 absentee ballots have been now been counted and the canvassing board is meeting this hour to go over Miami-Dade's provisional ballots and results are expected tomorrow. Three other Florida counties still counting ballots as well.

For the reelected Barack Obama, it is back to governing. This morning at the White House, the president got his daily intelligence briefing, but we have not seen him yet in public. We did just learn here that he will be stopping in Myanmar on a previously unannounced trip to Asia.

Let's go to the White House to our chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin

What's the president doing today, Jessica?

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

It's never a quiet day for the president and that includes today. In part, I'm told he's taking meetings with staff here at the White House and he has been returning a list of phone calls from world leaders who called to congratulate him. It includes the prime minister of Israel, NATO secretary-general, King Abdullah from Saudi Arabia. I could go on. I'm sure we will hear about his day later on this afternoon.

And no doubt taking meetings with staff about some of the upcoming items on his agenda, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Speaking of those items, Jessica Yellin, a lot of folks are hoping that maybe the election will usher in a season of change in Washington, namely, less gridlock and more problem-solving. What does the White House make of John Boehner's assertion -- we heard him just this time yesterday speaking from the Hill, saying that he and his Republicans, they're ready and willing for the president to take the lead, trying to head off the January tax increase, plus the automatic military, the other spending cuts that -- the so-called fiscal cliff?

YELLIN: Look, everybody is expecting to head in to negotiations on this quickly.

There's full plans here at White House for quick entrance into the discussions, and the president has no plans, Brooke, to give any kind of major speech, any kind of address on economic policy or on the fiscal cliff. It's their view that the president did lay out what his vision for a grand bargain for the negotiations when they were talking about first the grand bargain back in the summer last year and then when Congress was negotiating that super committee.

But they're prepared to deal, you know, to create some sort of room for negotiation. The one thing we know is that the White House said point-blank the president would veto any proposal that raises taxes or -- sorry -- that keeps the Bush tax cuts for people making $250,000 or more. So that's sort of a nonstarter.

So, you know, the battle lines are drawn. We will see where the first offer comes in from which side, but it does look like both sides are willing to negotiate on this one for now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: As we await the negotiations, what should we expect from the president in the next couple of days?

YELLIN: Well, nothing's on the schedule, but it would be surprising if the president does not address the public. So we're all gearing up here for some kind of press conference if not tomorrow, then at the beginning of next week, one would assume, so something's coming up even though it's not on the schedule, I think.

BALDWIN: Something. Something, yes.

YELLIN: Right?

BALDWIN: Jessica Yellin, we will be looking for it. Thank you so much for us in Washington there.

People are calling it one big ground zero. This is what one of my guests called it this past hour. Superstorm Sandy victims now being hit and devastated by this nor'easter, snow, ice, bitter cold temperatures. We will talk to someone else affected live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Want to take you to the Northeast, where nature is really delivering this one-two punch, as if Sandy didn't deliver enough misery here, people shoveling, trying to recover from last week's superstorm now being hit by the cold, cruel nor'easter. I'm talking snow, wind, freezing rain, and the last thing in the world this region needs, more power outages.

Listen now to New Jersey's governor reacting to this latest weather threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I said I'm waiting for the locusts and pestilence next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Here's what the nor'easter is delivering,more than a foot of snow in some areas, a new round of evacuations, power outages stretching all the way from Delaware to Maine and along with the misery, the storm is fueling anger.

Sandy's victims all the way from Brooklyn to the storm-battered sections of the Jersey Shore spent the night riding out these miserable conditions, very, very cold for them. Many don't have power, don't have heat, don't have lights. The nor'easter knocking out power to 59,000 more homes and as temperatures are plummeting and frustrations are rising, state officials say not enough is being done to restore power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN GOLDEN (R), NEW YORK STATE SENATOR: If you had a major supplier and a major contractor in here right away, we can have these lights on within a week. The way they're going right now, it's going to taking us to Christmas to get this done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Deb Feyerick, I want to go straight to you live in Brooklyn.

I'm hearing a lot of frustration and a lot of people feeling neglected.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot of frustration.

A lot of focus was on Lower Manhattan, because you have Wall Street, you have got a lot of the big firms there and the subways and people were saying Lower Manhattan, Lower Manhattan. But it is really the outer areas that have gotten hard-hit where they really feel that help has just been way too slow coming.

You see some of the snow here, Brooke. This was sort of the second punch that hit this particular community. This is Gerritsen Beach. This is across from Breezy Point, where the fires initially hit. And if we go down, OK, you're going down. This is the path that a surge wave took. It was as high as 10 to 12 feet, people simply running for their lives. These cars, they're not even salvageable some of them. We saw one sticker that said total loss and that's pretty much how a lot of people here in this community feel, because they're waiting for FEMA officials to put boots on the ground.

We saw some National Guard. They dropped off some water and some MREs. That's helpful, but what people need is a way to get the electricity back in their homes and they're being told that they need to bring in licensed electricians to go through each of the 2,000 homes in the community and sign off before Con Ed will begin to turn the power on.

You can see some of the volunteers here who are bringing more meals to some of the people here.

Barbarann Harper is one of those volunteers.

Tell me, what has it been like and what is the mood among the people here right now?

BARBARANN HARPER, VOLUNTEER ORGANIZER: We really feel forgotten down here. A lot of areas such as the Rockaways were affected greatly and we're affected here greatly. But there's been support.

I notice -- I went to my mother-in-law's house where there's electricity and watching on the news, what bothers me is I don't see our area being spoken about. The people who are giving us things are local businesses, local restaurants, donating food. The Red Cross, we saw one truck. OK? Do you know that they didn't have hot coffee? They were able to give us turkey gumbo soup or a dry turkey sandwich.

Many people who contribute -- I understand that in the administrative part of it, they make a lot of money. OK? A lot of people contribute to the Red Cross, but where is the help?

FEYERICK: So there's a lot resentment, it sounds like. The help that everybody seems to be getting is not coming here.

(CROSSTALK)

HARPER: ... very powerful word. I don't think we have even gotten to that point. We're just trying to survive right now. We're not even there yet. We feel abandoned. We feel hurt. That's how we feel.

FEYERICK: Barbarann Harper, thank you so much.

At least Barbara's one of the people that is trying to help these folks, but you can hear, Brooke, abandoned, we feel hurt. They're just trying to survive. So, it's tough for a lot of these people now trying to make a difference.

BALDWIN: Trying to survive. Deb Feyerick, thank you. Thanks to her.

Want to take you now from Brooklyn, though, to one of the areas we showed you right after Sandy hit last week, Toms River, New Jersey. Remember these pictures? This was last week on Halloween. This is bad, obviously. But it gets worse.

Take a look at this. This is what Toms River looks like now coated in white, nor'easter bringing snow, wind gusts topping 50 miles per hour.

Keith Paul, I'm going to bring you in. I know you're on the phone from Toms River.

Keith, thanks for calling in. I know you're there with your wife, you have a 2-year-old. How are they? And how bad are conditions where you are?

KEITH PAUL, RESIDENT OF NEW YORK: You know, Brooke, it's pretty bad. I do consider myself one of the fortunate ones because my house is still standing, but a block away from me, houses got destroyed. I'm three houses from the bay. Luckily, my street was OK.

But this snow we got hit with, they were telling us it was going to be rain where we are on the Jersey Shore. I'm one mile away from Seaside Heights and it was snow. We have five to seven inches of snow outside and it was such a wet, heavy snow that -- so basically, what happened was I had a generator from somebody who got their power back because I still have no power, but now their power went back out because of this heavy snow and it's just happening all over.

You know? It's difficult. But like I said, I feel fortunate that I have my house.

BALDWIN: Keith, you mentioned that generator. I was told that you could be using that entire generator to yourself. But you're not. You're sharing it with who?

PAUL: Well, let me tell you how it happened. It was two days after the storm we lost power and I pulled up to the house and my neighbor behind me pulls up in front and knocks on my door and he goes, are you guys staying here with the baby? The baby turned 2 years old November 5.

And I said, yes. He goes, go to your backyard and he threw an extension cord over to me for half of his generator. So, for two days I shared his with his. I would use it for four hours. Then I would take my cord and give it to my next door neighbor. She's an elderly woman. She's got to be 75 years old and she's in the house by herself. She was using her stove and her oven to heat her home.

BALDWIN: And now you're helping her as you were helped post-Sandy. It's incredible just hearing your story. I talked to someone last hour and they're saying, it could have been worse, it could have absolutely been worse. Just for people who, though, are watching this on TV, they hear your voice, they see the snow, just...

PAUL: I mean, let me put it to you this way. Now I have a generator and I'm sharing it with my next-door neighbor. I could hook this up. It's a powerful generator. I could hook it right into the panel box and run my house like normal. But I don't have the heart to do that and leave her without power, but now -- so like last night you have to have the generator all covered up because of the snow. So, 4:00 in the morning I'm outside, snow coming down. I have to completely move all this stuff to fuel up the generator, so we have heat during the night, because I have a 2-year- old.

BALDWIN: Keith Paul, you're a good man for sharing with your neighbor. So many people...

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: No, no, no.

BALDWIN: Neighbors helping neighbors. Keep your little baby warm and we're thinking about you and your wife. Thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Wishing you warmth there in Toms River, New Jersey.

Man, I know a lot of you want to help. You can. Help some of these storm victims. This is what you need to do. Go to CNN.com/impact. Click around. You'll find all kinds of information on how to help, how to contribute to the relief effort very much so under way.

Now a brutal dictator says he's not going anywhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA: I'm Syrian. I'm made in Syrian. I will die in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Bashar Assad says, "I will die in Syria." We will take you to the crisis there unfolding still 18, 19 months in, word of a possible missile deployment, too, on the border of Syria.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We have told you here we have gotten the breaking news out of Tucson, Arizona. Jared Lee Loughner, the man who killed six, wounded 13 in Tucson in January of 2011, he has now been sentenced to life without parole.

So, what you are looking at here, there a number of those victims from that fateful day outside that grocery store in Tucson, people who had been shot, including the now Congressman Ron Barber. He's taken the seat from former Congresswoman Giffords. He was there that day, shot in his leg.

Let's listen in.

REP. RON BARBER (D), ARIZONA: I also have to say how grateful we are to the victims services staff at the U.S. attorney's office, particularly Shawn Cox, who was with us all the way, and the county attorney Barbara LaWall's office, one of the, if not the most outstanding victims services programs in the country.

They have been a lifeline for all of us and the support has been invaluable throughout this legal process and our recovery.

And I just want to close with this. As I was finishing my remarks in court this morning, I wanted to address Mr. Loughner's family. His parents were in the room. I told them that we and I hold no hatred towards them, no animosity towards them and that we can certainly appreciate the agony and the grief that they, too, are going through.

And then I turned to Mr. Loughner and said, I hold you -- hold no hatred for you, but I'm very, very angry and sick at heart about what you did and the hurt you have caused for all of us.

I told him that he must now live with this burden and he'll never see outside of the prison again.

And I said, in the end, I hope that these long years of incarceration that you face will give you the time to think about what you have done and to seek forgiveness from those whose lives to which you so much tears and so much sadness.

In the end, we are a community that's unified and passionate and caring. We have not only survived this awful tragedy, but as a community, clearly, we have triumphed.

Thank you so much.

BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": We're going to come back to this. We're going to be watching this.

So, these are, again, different victims from that horrendous shooting in Tucson in which six people were killed, 13 were injured. Jared Loughner in court today and this is the first time these survivors or perhaps even spouses of those who were lost got to look at him in the eyes and send a message to him and, clearly, Congressman Barber did just that.

Also, interesting in talking to our correspondent who was sitting in the courtroom, many of the people want Jared Loughner wherever it is he ends up for his life -- want him to keep taking the medication because they want him to be fully aware of where he is and what he's done to change their lives forever.

Moving on here, let's talk Syria. Today, we have Turkey talking of a possible missile deployment along its southern border in response to the crisis in Syria. What might Syria think about that?

We have been focused on the election. The killing in Syria has progressed, unabated, with intense fighting just this week in the capital city of Damascus and now we have the embattled Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad saying, forget it, I'm not going anywhere, prepared to die in Syria.

So, forget about leaving for a nation of his choice, as suggested this week by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Hala Gorani, bringing you back in, it's been a couple of weeks since we've sat here and we've talked Syria. Bring me up to speed as far as the fighting in Damascus.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's gotten a lot worse. The killings have continued. The death toll, daily, is routinely in the triple digits.

That used to be an anomaly a year ago. Now, we're seeing 100, 150 killed every day as a regular occurrence.

We're seeing more car bombs, more al Qaeda-linked fighters in the country using al Qaeda-type tactics, like targeting military installations with car bombs, but inevitably, of course, that carries with it civilian casualties.

And now we are hearing from the Syrian president himself, as you mentioned. Bashar al-Assad, he spoke to "Russia Today" television and he said he's not going anywhere.

I'm not a puppet. I was not made by the West, he said, to go to the West or to any other country. I am a Syrian. I was made in Syria. I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.

That might sound a little bit familiar because if you replaced Syria with the word "Libya," it sounds a lot like something Moammar Gadhafi said before he was deposed..

BALDWIN: Turkish officials telling CNN that they've been talking within NATO about a possible missile deployment on the border with Turkey and Syria.

GORANI: A missile-defense system there because their concern is this cross-border violence that has gone on over the last several months and has, in fact, killed Turkish citizens on the Turkish side of the border, that this will lead to a spillover.

They're concerned about that. The Turkish president has said that this is something that's being discussed and this is an effort to contain the violence and not allow it to spill over.

This gives you a sense of the regional quality, the regional sort of how regionally this could spill over to Syria. We have seen it in Lebanon. We've seen it in Turkey. We've seen it in Jordan.

BALDWIN: Would that mean maybe a possible no-fly zone? Would the U.S. be affected by it?

GORANI: I think we are very far from that. I think we're very far from that idea. Right now, there's no appetite because the no-fly zone involves taking out anti-aircraft installations in the country, it involves a true military intervention and the situation is so much more complicated than Libya and so much more dangerous for any intervention.

I think we are far from that. Eventually, though, the big question is going to be who is this opposition? Today in Doha, Qatar ...

BALDWIN: Yes, they're all meeting, right? The U.S. is there. Britain's there.

GORANI: And, last week we heard -- because we've been so focused on the election, there's been news coming from Washington, as well.

Hillary Clinton said, look, this Syrian National Council, this is kind of a loose grouping of opposition exiles, you know, who -- some of whom haven't been to Syria in a long time. We need to move beyond that. We need to find a group more representative.

They're in Doha. By all accounts, the meeting fell apart. They didn't all agree on a cohesive, unified, representative group of the Syrian opposition.

So, militarily, it's getting worse and, also, diplomatically, it's going nowhere, but here you have, politically, it's not really advancing.

BALDWIN: Bad situation, getting worse. Hala Gorani ...

GORANI: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: .. thank you very much.

Just ahead, another link in a chain here of troubled events for Jesse Jackson, Jr. Now, word of a possible plea deal as the Illinois congressman faces legal trouble.

We're "On the Case," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Despite being out of the office and in treatment for this mood disorder since the summer, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., was re-elected two days ago . While he managed to get voter approval, he is now seeking a much tougher signoff from prosecutors investigating him for allegedly misusing campaign funds.

"The Chicago Sun-Times" is reporting Jackson is working on a plea deal. Let me quote a source here talking to the newspaper. Quote, "No one has pled guilty, but plea discussions are ongoing," end quote.

Sunny Hostin, our favorite legal analyst, with me now, "On the Case." Good to see you again. What would a plea bargain for Congressman Jackson involve?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, it's certainly wouldn't involve jail time. I don't know that any defense attorney would allow him to agree to that, but this is -- these are serious allegations. I mean, allegations that he allegedly used campaign funds to decorate his D.C. home, to buy a $40,000 Rolex for a lady friend.

Those are significant allegations and any federal prosecutor would make him give up his seat in Congress. And I think that that would be a significant blow for Jesse Jackson, Jr.

He would have to plead guilty to a federal felony and there's no way he would be able to continue seating and it's unfortunate because he -- this was a resounding win for him, right, 64 percent of the votes?

BALDWIN: Right.

HOSTIN: But any plea deal would certainly, I believe, include giving up his seat.

BALDWIN: OK. Let's move now to this ballot measure that's causing quite a stir in, of all industries -- I know, you laugh -- the porn industry.

Voters in Los Angeles county, they passed Measure B." What's Measure B? It requires actors in adult films to wear condoms in sex scenes as a way to prevent, obviously, you want to prevent the spread of AIDS, other STDs.

One group says it's planning to sue, to stop enforcement. Sunny, as a former prosecutor, how do you enforce this law?

HOSTIN: You know, I think you can enforce it. I suspect that they will have to get -- film production companies will have to get a permit, a health permit from L.A. county and part of that health permit would be the agreement that porn performers would have to wear condoms.

And I suspect that they'll also be set visits and you see that sort of enforcement with restaurants, right? You have health inspectors come.

BALDWIN: Sure.

HOSTIN: You have health inspectors visit school cafeterias, so it can certainly be enforced.

What's fascinating to me, Brooke, is that the Free Speech Coalition is filing a lawsuit because they're saying that the law is unconstitutional, that it really should be a state law and not necessarily a local law.

But the bottom line is that in California workplace laws, porn performers are supposed to use condoms anyway and it's, of course, wildly violated and, so, I don't think that any lawsuit is going to be successful.

But one thing that was interesting to me, the other ground for the lawsuit was that -- let me look. It would be excessive money to comply with this law. Porn industry's a billion-dollar industry. Condoms aren't that expensive.

BALDWIN: No, they're not. No, they're not. And we're just going to leave that one there.

Sunny Hostin, thank you, "On the Case" with us today. Thank you so much. HOSTIN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Just ahead here, we have new details in the case of the U.S. army sergeant accused of shooting and killing 16 Afghan civilians.

We will tell you why U.S. investigators had to wait weeks and weeks before even traveling to the crime scene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Military investigators had to wait three weeks before entering some of the Afghan villages where an American soldier allegedly murdered 16 civilians.

A military investigator says Afghan tempers running so high that it was too dangerous for investigators to actually leave the base.

Robert Bales accused of murdering 16 Afghans last March.

Chris Lawrence is working this story for us from the Pentagon. And, Chris, what are you hearing about the anger after his alleged shooting spree?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It was paramount, Brooke, and it was something the investigators clearly had to deal with.

In fact, one of the lead investigators who did eventually get on the scene said they were expecting to be attacked at any time. They had to be guarded by two separate security patrols on the ground as well as two helicopters in the air. So, there is still a tremendous amount of anger in that village over what happened.

But those investigators finally did get a chance to go in there. And although a lot of the evidence was collected by the Afghans in the immediate days after that attack, the U.S. investigators were able to get some other things, too, as well as blood samples, some nine- millimeter shells and, perhaps most importantly, one investigator said they found steroids. They found steroids outside of Sergeant Bales' quarters.

We know from what Sergeant Bales' defense attorney has said that he plans to use the use of steroids as a primary motivator in his defense of what happened that day.

BALDWIN: OK. And just quickly here, we should point out this is all coming out because of this Article 32 hearing, right? This is this preliminary hearing involving the sergeant.

LAWRENCE: That's right. This is sort of shaping what's going to go forward, you know, what evidence is going to be presented, what has been found, laying out the charges.

And again, now, we're starting to get an indication of what the prosecution will present and how the defense attorney is going to try to defend him from the murder of 16 people in that village.

BALDWIN: Chris Lawrence, thank you, at the Pentagon for us.

Coming up, marijuana with no high. Yep. It's real. A new strain of medical marijuana is being developed with virtually no buzz and some doctors say, hey, it's for a very good reason.

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BALDWIN: Pot without the high. I know. Some of you are asking but why? There is definitely a market of patients who want to feel better without the buzz.

Now, there's a form to match. It's coming from, of all places, Israel. CNN's Sara Sidner has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Every morning, 80-year-old Moshe Ruth gets his medicine, stuffs it in his pipe and smokes it. Moshe is using medical marijuana, also known as cannabis.

How did the cannabis make you feel?

MOSHE RUTH, PATIENT: Oh, good.

SIDNER: He is a Holocaust survivor and author and painter whose hands started shaking so much he couldn't work anymore.

RUTH (via translator): My hands are now steady. I can hold things like tea, he says.

SIDNER: The cannabis also makes him high because of the psycho-active effects of the substance, THC, in the plant.

For those who use medical marijuana, the high they experience is the price for the reported help it gives to cancer patients on chemotherapy or others suffering from everything from Parkinson's disease to pain.

Rivkah Halup thought marijuana just got people high until she was prescribed a new strain of the plant and tried it, two spoonfuls a day with her other medications.

She says the pain that left her wheelchair-bound began to be relieved without leaving her lethargic.

RIVKAH HALUP, PATIENT (via translator): Outstanding. I was turned into a different person. I was resurrected. I was awakened to life, she says.

SIDNER: Because the new cannabis helped her get back on her feet again.

Tikun Olam, a company in Israel that grows and distributes medical marijuana, says the new strain it has developed has almost no THC, virtually eliminating the high. The plant produces a high concentration of another substance called CBD. At a press tour to publicize their new product, we met Professor Ruth Galilly. She's been studying the affects of CBD for more than a decade and is now being paid by the company to continue her research.

RUTH GALILLY, SCIENTIST: So, we are really dealing with non-toxic material, very active as anti-inflammatory and anti-pain, and not expensive to grow.

SIDNER: Growers here say this is the most potent time of medical marijuana, or cannabis, and it's in its traditional form, but just next to it is the wave of the future. We're talking about putting cannabis in capsules and also having it put into chewing gum so that even children can take it.

Cannabis is being prescribed in Israel and used by children who have been licensed. Medical marijuana has been legal in Israel for more than a decade. It is strictly controlled. A doctor has to prescribe it and each patient must have an individual license to use it.

YULI EDELSTEIN, ISRAELI MINISTER OF INFORMATION: We can't be, all the time, narrow-minded.

We have to think about people who are suffering and we have to think how we help them without, God forbid, allowing more use of drugs among those that don't need them.

SIDNER: But critics say there's simply not enough research on marijuana of any kind for medical purposes. They say that unlike other drugs, the results of testing, including dosing and negative side effects, are not yet clear.

But growers here hope their new version can be exported around the world one day.

But 80-year-old Moshe Ruth says he will stay with the good old- fashioned medical marijuana.

Sara Sidner, CNN in Northern Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: I've been watching her tweets here through that piece. In a word, interesting. Tweet me.

Looking at pictures. The Dow down just about 80 points here. We're talking to Alison Kosik about the numbers and about apple stock. That's next.

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BALDWIN: This just into us here. Gas rationing in New York City will begin tomorrow morning. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, signed an emergency order today for odd/even rationing in New York City, starts at 6:00 tomorrow morning.

Governor Andrew Cuomo says Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island will also do the same. So, people's license plates ending with an even number, you can buy on even-numbered days. Odd number plates, odd number days.

Mayor Bloomberg says gas rationing is necessary to help alleviate all those long gas lines and get the supply of gasoline back to normal.

Two minutes from the closing bell, another losing day for the major indices. Alison Kosik in New York and, before we talk numbers, what's going on with Apple?

ALISON KOSIK: You know what? For Apple, it's just not about Apple anymore, alone on the playing field, Brooke. You know, there's stiff competition, especially in the tablet market.

Windows Surface hit the market last month, the Samsung Gallery. There's a new line of Kindles. Look, the market's getting pretty crowded, but, listen, if you've invested in Apple shares, you know how the old mantra goes. Buy low, sell high.

If you bought the stock at $100, $200 or even $300 and you sell it, $500 or $600, I think you've made yourself a nice profit, Brooke.

BALDWIN: As we look at the numbers and I see they're getting ready for the closing bell here, down about 100 points. Yesterday, what, the worst day of the year?

KOSIK: It was the worst day of the year. Actually, those losses we're seeing right now have accelerated in just the past few minutes and, so, we're seeing the Dow continue to pile onto yesterday's massive selloff.

You know, investors, Brooke, they continue to worry about the fiscal cliff, whether the higher taxes and the federal spending cuts will go into effect all at once.

And, you know, there is an expectation that something will get done, that President Obama and Congress will hammer out a deal, but until lawmakers get there, analysts say there's not going to be much conviction to buy stocks.

BALDWIN: So, should we assume until those negotiations here -- 20 seconds -- until those negotiations are finalized in Washington, we will continue to see this selling-off trend on the street?

KOSIK: The trend really is downward. Don't be surprised. You will see some pops of green on the screen, but, you know, the trend is down just because there is so many uncertainty.

It's not just about stocks. It's also about jobs because a lot of companies, Brooke, are holding off on hiring because they don't know what the tax situation is going to be like ...

BALDWIN: Right.

KOSIK: ... next year, so they're holding off on hiring. That hurts the jobs market. That hurts the economy. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Alison Kosik, thank you very much.

And thank you very much for being with me here. I'm Brooke Baldwin at the World Headquarters of CNN in Atlanta.

Let's go to my friend, Wolf Blitzer. "THE SITUATION ROOM" starts right now.

Hey, Wolf.