Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Delays Action on Immigration; How Did Joan Rivers Die?; Interview with Kurt Volker; Manhunt Under Way for AK-47 Bandit; Francis, the Social Media Pope; CNN Fit Nation Challenge; Kayaking the Most Endangered River

Aired September 06, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. Here are the big stories we're following.

A ruthless criminal known as the AK-47 bandit is making his way across the country, hitting banks and getting away with it for years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MAY, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: He's already shown a potential to even fire upon the police and I have a feeling it's just going to be a bloody shootout when that does happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And police believe the gunman is one of their own. The hunt for the AK-47 bandit this hour.

And deadly storms ripped through the Midwest leaving a path of destruction. Now the storm is marching east. Find out who's in the danger zone.

And a different threat in Hawaii. Red hot lava is now within a mile of a beach town. The ominous warning from authorities coming up.

We begin with major news out of Washington. President Barack Obama deciding to delay executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections in November.

Let's go straight to the White House with CNN correspondent Erin McPike.

So, Erin, why the delay?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka what we're hearing is that the White House decided this was not a good idea to go forward until after the midterm elections. President Obama evidently made this decision on the plane ride home last night.

I want to play for you, though, something he said on June 30th in the Rose Garden. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours. I expect the recommendations before the end of the summer. And I tend to adopt those recommendations without further delay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: And of course now he has decided to delay that until after the midterm elections, however, the White House is stressing that he will make some sort of executive action by the end of the year just after the midterms.

Well, as you can imagine there has been some very strong reaction across the political spectrum today. I'm going to read to you a comment from Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

He says, "What's so cynical about today's immigration announcement is that the president isn't saying he'll follow the law, he's just saying he'll go around the law once it's too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November election. This is clearly not decision making designed around the best policy. It's Washington politics as its worst."

Now pro-immigration reform groups are also upset saying that President Obama is cementing his legacy as deporter-in-chief. So a lot of reaction on both sides of the aisle there -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Erin McPike, thank you so much from the White House.

In Michigan, tents full of people went flying when a massive storm blew in. Several people were hurt at two different church events there in Detroit last night and the power outages are expected to last for days now.

Jennifer Gray joins us live now from the weather center.

Wow, this was a brutal storm.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It was a mess and we had over 350,000 people without power in Michigan alone. And it's going to take days for that power to be restored as you said. About 2,000 power lines down in that storm.

Same storm system is pushing to the east now. We aren't seeing much in the form of heavy rain or any rain at all really in Boston, New York, D.C. even Philly, so we're saying quiet for now, but some very warm, moist air is feeding in. It's going to cause pop-up showers and storms anywhere from the southeast all the way up the East Coast, with slight risk of severe weather in place today, Fred. From New York, Boston included in that very heavy rain. Also some gusty winds involved as well.

Should be pushing offshore by the late hours into the early morning hours, some storms lingering in Florida by tomorrow, but cooler air behind it and that is the big story because of humidity levels coming down, temperatures will finally come down, so it will be out of the 90s and even the 80s for a lot of the East Coast next week -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jennifer. Appreciate that. Hopefully, the folks at the U.S. Open can, you know, still get through a good weekend of tennis.

GRAY: Yes. Right.

WHITFIELD: All right. Appreciate it.

GRAY: All right.

WHITFIELD: All right. Powerful new video showing deadly flood waters in India. Up to the windows of people's homes. Nearly 100 people have died after monsoon rains caused heavy floods. More than 2,000 villages were hit.

And in nearby Pakistan, more than 100 people have lost their lives to flooding. Incredible images there. Spokesman for a disaster relief group says it is expecting even more deaths in the coming days.

All right. Back here at home, a private funeral for comedienne Joan Rivers is planned for tomorrow in New York. And just a short time ago, CNN caught Rivers' daughter, Melissa, leaving her mother's apartment with her son there. So many of her mother's fans have offered their condolences to her during this very difficult time. Meanwhile, an investigation into Joan Rivers' death is underway.

Our Alexandria Field is outside Rivers' home there in New York.

So, Alexandra, you were able to ask Melissa a question.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka. We saw her come out of Joan Rivers' apartment. She was getting into a car that was waiting here for her and she stopped just for a moment to tell us how amazed she was by all the tributes that we've seen to Joan Rivers, really a legendary comedian, not least of which the ones behind me. Flowers, cards have been piling up outside the door of the apartment buildings where Joan Rivers lived here in New York.

While so many people are grieving the loss of Rivers at the same time investigators are conducting three separate investigations into what went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): Joan Rivers lived for laughs and joked about death.

JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: I am now 81 years old. I could die any second. Any -- no, no. No, no, no. Don't applaud. Like that, I could go like that. Do you understand how lucky you would be? Do you understand you would have something to talk about for the rest of your life?

FIELD: She lit up the stage for the last time last week in New York City. STEVE OLSEN, OWNER, LAURIE BEECHMAN THEATRE: Well, she gave a

tremendous performance her last performance. She was particularly on that night. She came in. She was in a great mood. She left in a great mood. She was very healthy. She was very vital. She looked great. She always looked great.

FIELD: The next day, Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. The comedy legend was put on life support and never recovered. Rivers went into cardiac and respiratory arrest during a procedure at the Yorkville Endoscopy Center.

The clinic is now the focus of an investigation by the New York State Department of Health. The board that gave the clinic its accreditation is also investigating. Together, they'll look at the clinic's staffing, life-saving protocols and which drugs may have been given.

(On camera): What kind of sedative would be used in a case like this?

DR. GEOFFREY KEYES, PRESIDENT, ACCREDITATION ASSOCIATION: Some facilities use a combination of Versid, which is like Valium, intravenous Valium, and maybe another type of sedation. But more commonly today, Propofol is used and Propofol is newer medication with respect to some of the others, but it provides a really adequate level of sedation to do this type of a procedure.

FIELD (voice-over): Doctors say medical professionals would have had to determine that Rivers was healthy enough to undergo the outpatient procedure. One night earlier, Rivers sold out her final show, taking the stage at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.

RIVERS: Back in the car.

FIELD: Where at 81 years old, the legendary comedienne was still testing out new material.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: And friends and family will say their final good-bye to Joan Rivers tomorrow. The funeral is scheduled for a temple just a few blocks away from her Manhattan apartment.

And, Fredricka, you know, there was no topic that was off limits for Joan Rivers, so she had joked about just about everything. She'd even written in one of her books about the sort of grand showbiz affair funeral that she wanted. I think it's supposed to be taken as humor and as some comedy. You know, right now the family is keeping the details of the funeral private, but we are certain that there will be a lot of friends and fans to be there to say good-bye.

WHITFIELD: Yes. She always went there. She went where nobody else would and that's why so many of us love her.

All right. Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

All right. This just in. We've just learned possible debris from that plane that crashed near Jamaica has been spotted. That's according to the Jamaican government's Information Service. Yesterday that plane flew for hours unresponsive before crashing from over the skies of North Carolina, and then crashing there in Jamaica. Relatives say Larry and Jane Glazer were on board that flight. Their flight left Rochester, New York, yesterday morning and then was heading for Naples, Florida, where they have a home.

But somewhere over North Carolina, air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot after he mentioned wanting to descend, come to a lower altitude. Fighter jets flew alongside at one point, and even a pilot seeing the pilot in that small plane slumped over and the windows frosted.

All right. Kurdish fighters are making gains against ISIS militants. We'll get the latest and find out how NATO forces could eventually help in this fight.

And later, a serial bank robber striking again and this guy isn't just stealing money. Why police are afraid of what he might do next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In Iraq Kurdish forces still battling ISIS militants in the Mosul area. With the help of U.S. airstrikes they have managed to retake several villages captured over the summer. U.S. warplanes launched strikes around Irbil and the area surrounding the Mosul dam. After a fierce battle, Iraqi and Kurdish forces retook the dam from ISIS in the last couple of weeks. The dam was seen as strategically vital and important for Iraqi forces.

So ISIS was a big topic at this week's NATO Summit. NATO has agreed in fact to form what it is calling a Spearhead Force of Troops. These troops would be ready to deploy within days of being activated and they would be prepared to deal with ISIS or an escalation of -- tension, rather, in Ukraine.

Kurt Volker knows all about the challenges of NATO and what they'll be facing. He is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and is now executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

Good to see you.

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: So, Kurt, this turned out to be one of the most important NATO meetings involving the U.S. in quite some time. Did this result in a more united front, united message on both the topics of Russia and ISIS?

VOLKER: Well, I think there were some very good steps that NATO took this week and I think there are a few shortcomings as well. On the positive side of the ledger, I think what NATO did to reassure the Baltic States and Poland that it is 100 percent committed to collective defense. An attack on one is an attack on all. And putting in place some realistic steps to make that commitment real, like increased air policing in the Baltic States. Additional exercises, this 4,000 man response force. All those things are good.

Where I think that NATO came up a little short, though, was when actually dealing with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I think there's more that can be done there in terms of helping the Ukrainians regain control of their territory.

WHITFIELD: In what way?

VOLKER: Well, I think we could be providing trainers to the Ukrainian military, equipment, a full cut off of all military and (INAUDIBLE) sales to Russia. Advisers in the Ministry of Defense. And frankly, if necessary, if the Ukrainians required it, additional NATO support such as air or ground, you know, reinforcement to Ukraine.

There's a war going on. They're losing control of a good chunk of their territory. Russia's supporting that. They are fighting back. They want to regain their territory and NATO didn't really put much on the table in terms of helping them.

WHITFIELD: So even with this alliance, even if it's lacking some of those things that you just spelled out, is this really the only leverage there could possibly be imposed on Russia? Because Russia's saying, you know, so what to sanctions. So it seems as though may be through this alliance, this might be the only thing, you know, to really combat or respond to Russia?

VOLKER: Well, I think the sanctions are important. Just because Russia is pooh-poohing them in public doesn't mean that they aren't real and that Russia is not concerned in the long-term. And yes, the U.S. and Europe both can put in place tougher sanctions, particularly in the energy sector that Russia depends upon for its income.

The NATO steps that we talked about, trainers, advisers, equipment and so forth, those are things that could still be done and they could also be done by individual countries if not by NATO as a whole, so the U.S. could be doing more nationally if we chose to, rather than only limiting to what everybody in NATO agrees to.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mr. Ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you so much for being with us.

VOLKER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: So this cease-fire between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebel leaders appears to be holding for now. The -- truce, rather, went into effect more than 24 hours ago. Ukrainian officials say President Petro Poroshenko talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone just after the cease-fire was reached. They say the two leaders discussed additional steps that could be taken to make the truce last. Those measures included greater economic freedoms for the rebel strongholds of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Lava keeps flowing from a very active volcano in Hawaii and now a small community is in its direct path.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: A small beach town in Hawaii is under a state of emergency after warnings that lava is headed their way. Experts say it could reach the Puna District as soon as this week and when it does it will completely isolate the village, but at last check, there were no evacuations ordered.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray joining me now.

So, Jennifer, always fascinating when Kilauea erupts. It is fascinating. I visited it in a sleepy stage. And the people there who live there are used to it, but this really could be potentially dangerous.

GRAY: Yes. They are used to it. This has been active since 1983, but this is a new vent. Ever since 1983, the lava that's been coming out of it has been flowing to the south. Straight into the ocean. This new vent that popped up on June 27th, the lava from it is flowing in more of a northeasterly direction, opposite of the way that Kilauea normally flows. This is the lava from Kilauea. And so that's why it's impacting these homes.

Before, it was never a concern. Now it's a concern. You're right. No evacuation orders have been made but they have told people get ready, because it could be coming. This lava is flowing very, very slowly, anywhere from 800 to 1600 feet per day, and so very slowly, but in the next five to seven days, it could impact these homes.

Here's a look at the terrain that we're talking about. The little village right there. And the lava could cut off some of these roads. It could flow over some of these roads, so then, you'll have a problem getting in and out of these places. And so there's a closer look. You can see some farmland, some cattle there and even some homes, so folks, as you can imagine, Fred, very, very concerned that live right there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Because you can't -- you can't redirect that lava. It's going where it wants to go. It has the upper hand.

GRAY: Very, very -- yes. It certainly does.

WHITFIELD: Gosh. All right. Keep us posted, Jennifer Gray. Thanks so much.

GRAY: Will do.

WHITFIELD: All right. A nationwide manhunt is now underway for a serial bank robber. This is the man police want to capture and he didn't just carry that weapon. He used it to fire at police they say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Mortgage rates held steady this week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are some of the big stories crossing the CNN news desk right now.

An American doctor infected with Ebola is in stable condition at a Nebraska hospital. Dr. Richard Sacra arrived in the U.S. on Friday making him only the third Ebola patient to ever enter this country, but unlike the previous patients Sacra will not receive the experimental drug ZMapp. That's because there isn't any left. Only a small amount of the drug was made.

A wildfire in central California has forced people in 700 homes to evacuate. The Bridge Fire started yesterday afternoon near Yosemite National Park and has already burned 300 acres. So far no structures have been damaged and only one person is injured. The fire is 30 percent contained.

A newly discovered asteroid is zipping by earth this weekend coming within just 25,000 miles of the planet. The space rock is about 60 feet in diameter. It was only discovered last week. Scientists say the asteroid does not pose any threat to the earth.

And American Serena Williams is going for her sixth, count them, six, U.S. Open Women's Titles tomorrow. She will face Caroline Wozniak from Denmark in the finals. This would be her 18th grand slam title. You can watch the match tomorrow, noontime, or at least learn about it by watching us first.

(LAUGHTER)

All right. Right now a national manhunt is underway for the so-called AK-47 bandit. He's wanted in a string of bank robberies across the country. Police say he could strike anywhere. He started on the West Coast, but they've warned that he's now moving east.

He's incredibly dangerous, police say, earning his nickname by threatening people with his massive rifle. Authorities believe he has a police or military background and now they are bracing for a potential shootout.

Here's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's very serious. He's very aggressive.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Automatic rifle raised, a trained gunman, the masked robber moves to the tellers in minutes. Chino, California, Police Detective Dominguez instantly recognizes him.

DET. DOMINGUEZ, CHINO POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is the AK-47 bandit.

LAH (on camera): Same guy.

DOMINGUEZ: Same guy. No doubt.

LAH (voice over): Detective Dominguez has been hunting the bandit for two years. That's when he first struck in California appearing to wear the same mask, same gloves, carrying the same assault rifle with 75 to 80 rounds, similar clothes, even driving the same car.

A Chino police officer responding to the robbery call never had a chance to even grab his gun before the bank robber advanced without hesitation striking the officer once wounding him.

DOMINGUEZ: He's got some skills. There is definitely no doubt that he's law enforcement or military trained.

LAH (on camera): How bold is this guy?

DOMINGUEZ: He's very bold. It's almost like a game to him.

LAH (voice over): A game law enforcement says he's moving across the country.

February 29th, 2012, he hits the California Bank and Trust in Chino, California. Two weeks later on March 12th wearing a vest marked as sheriff, he robs a bank in Vacaville, California, he then travels north to North Bend, Washington, and robs a bank there on July 6th.

November 7th, 2012, he strikes a credit union in Rexburg, Idaho. He disappeared for almost two years until just days ago, August 22nd, robbing a bank in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

(On camera): How bad do you want to have him?

DOMINGUEZ: Real bad. This is leaning more towards a North Hollywood type shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down. The suspect is shooting AK-47.

LAH: The 1997 North Hollywood bank robbery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they have got automatic weapons. There is nothing we have that can stop them.

LAH: Officers were outgunned facing two robbers armed with high- powered rifles who refuse to surrender. Two dozen others, both officers and civilians, were wounded. Miraculously, no one other than the gunman were killed. The FBI fears a repeat of this battle with the AK-47 bandit.

MAY: He's already shown a propensity that he will fire upon the police and I have a feeling it's just going to be a bloody shootout when that does happen.

LAH: Law enforcement chasing a man they believe is one of their own, so this case is also personal.

CHIEF MILES PRUITT, CHINO POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're going to hunt this guy down, regardless where he goes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. He's already been dubbed the people's pope and now Pope Francis can add the title social media Pope.

(LAUGHTER)

In a first, Francis went online and held a Google Hangout video chat session. He's amazing. He spoke to children from around the world Thursday on the Internet. Students in Australia, Israel, Turkey, South Africa and El Salvador got the chance to ask him questions.

It's part of the Pope's new educational initiative to promote social integration, education and culture.

CNN's tech analyst, Brett Larson, is back with me now in New York and John Allen is CNN's senior Vatican analyst joining us from Denver.

Good to see both of you, guys.

So, Brett, wow. He is a social media savvy, too.

BRETT LARSON, CNN TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: I think it's fantastic. We know that the Pope takes to Twitter, now he's doing Google Hangouts with people. I think the more attention that we can draw to that level, and the Pope is pretty much the highest level we can get, especially in the Catholic Church. It's fantastic. We still have this great digital divide all around the world and if there's anything he can do to help get more technology into places where it absolutely needs to be because it's such a helpful thing to have, I think it's fantastic. I think it's fantastic.

WHITFIELD: Wow. It is incredible.

LARSON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, John, I'm just -- I'm just learning about this Google Hangout thanks to the Pope now, but he already knew. Look what he has -- he has commandeered the attention of these kids from all -- all places of the world.

So what does this say to you? And what does this say about the Vatican that this Pope is reaching out in this fashion to young people, answering questions candidly?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, Fredricka, I mean, first of all, what it says is that Pope Francis obviously sees social media as a kind of tool in the missionary tool box. I mean, not only, by the way, this week did he become the first Pope to make his debut on Google Hangout, which frankly I couldn't even have defined prior to this.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Me either.

ALLEN: But most people can't define it. That's the problem with Google Hangout.

LARSON: Yes. ALLEN: He also -- he also became the first Pope to attach a photo to

one of his tweets. He actually sent out a photo of a Yazidi family in Iraq that's living under an overpass because they got, of course, you know, driven out by ISIS. It's a photo that was taken by Catholic Relief Services, which is the overseas humanitarian arm of the U.S. bishop. So, I mean, he's just clicking on all cylinders.

And look, I mean, you know, what does it mean? What it means is this Pope fundamentally sees himself as an evangelist, as a missionary. I mean, I hope I'm not like too much of an iconoclast when I tell you he is not really personally that much of a high-tech guy. I mean, he is the first Pope to use --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: But he has the willingness. That's sometimes what -- you know, that means a lot.

ALLEN: He has the willingness. That's right.

WHITFIELD: The willingness.

ALLEN: I mean, you know, for example, he -- he does not send out his own tweets. I mean, he's got people who do that for him, but what he believes in his heart is that the church has to -- and this is his -- his famous line, the church has to get out of the sacristy, that's kind of a metaphor. That's the room in which priests get ready for the mass on Sunday. It has to get out of the sacristy and into the streets.

And I think what he recognizes is that for people around the world in the early 21st century, young people in particular, the streets means the digital highway. The information superhighway and so he is profoundly committed to using every tool in the missionary tool box to try to get his message across.

WHITFIELD: Wow, Google Hangout.

ALLEN: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So, you know, Brett, what's the next frontier? Digital frontier that we could expect that this Pope will, you know, leave his imprint?

LARSON: Listen, if we can go to confession via Skype, I think that would be phenomenal, although --

WHITFIELD: You (INAUDIBLE) an idea.

LARSON: Maybe that won't happen. I mean, I --

ALLEN: Just for the record, the Vatican has actually said that digital confessions don't count.

LARSON: See, now they got -- we got to get them to get on that.

WHITFIELD: They have to get updated. Come on, just when we thought -- updated, now the setback.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLEN: Right.

LARSON: You know, I think it's -- I think it's great that they're putting this in their missionary toolbox. I think if we could -- you know, if as part of their humanitarian aid as the church, if not only are they bringing food and help and relief, if they were also bringing, you know, inexpensive computers and an Internet connection, an access to the rest of the world, that would be fantastic.

WHITFIELD: All right. I'm hearing some great ideas there.

John Allen, Brett Larson, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

LARSON: Right.

WHITFIELD: We know the Pope is paying attention.

LARSON: Yes. Tweet at me, Pope.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: I know. I wish I had people to help me tweet like he's got people. I got to work on that.

(LAUGHTER)

John, hook me up.

(LAUGHTER)

All right. Gentlemen, appreciate it.

ALLEN: I'm on it, Fredricka. Next time --

WHITFIELD: OK. Cool. I know I can count on you.

All right. Land that used to be the bottom of a flowing river is now miles of dry, parched dirt. One of our CNN colleagues actually tried to kayak that river and you see right there, there is feet. You see the outcome at least in part with the outcome. He's got an incredible story about that journey coming up.

But first, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta, six CNN viewers and me. We're gearing up for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon next week, just a few days ago before the big race and we want to take a minute to reintroduce you to the teammates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In January, these six CNN viewers were selected to join me on a journey to become tri-athletes. They all had one common goal. To make a change. And over the last eight months, I've seen them transform. Swimming dozens of hours. Biking hundreds of miles and running farther than they ever thought possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today we're going to do a 400-yard swim on the ocean.

GUPTA: With hard work comes rewards. They're healthy. Physically. And mentally. Connie's breakthrough, it's not all about the scale.

CONNIE SIEVERS, PARTICIPANT: If weight loss would have been my only goal this year, I may have quit within the first few weeks. This experience has given me so much more than weight loss. It's given me strength, confidence, endurance, new friends, new sports. Lots of spandex and a great tan.

GUPTA: Mike learned how to balance his new healthy lifestyle.

MIKE WILBER, PHYSICAL EDUCATION TRAINER: The structure I have in my life now is amazing. I plan my meals a week ahead of time. Eating out is a rarity.

GUPTA: Karen now makes herself a priority.

KAREN MANNS, POLICE DETECTIVE: I have learned to listen and take care of my body with proper sleep and nutrition is very important.

GUPTA: For Ron, he learned that age really is just a number.

RON COTHRAN, RESPIRATORY THERAPIST: Age does not define who I am or what I can do. It is simply a mile post along the journey of my life.

GUPTA: Jamil started this journey recovering from cancer. He beat that cancer and he got his confidence back.

JAMIL NATHOO, CANCER SURVIVOR: I'm capable of the same things, but those things may take me longer. The sooner I made peace with my new normal, the easier I was on myself, which in turn helped me grow into my new body and achieve better results.

GUPTA: And last, but certainly not least, Sia.

SIA FIGEL, LOST 100 POUNDS: It's so important to have your family and friends on board. Their involvement is critical to your success.

GUPTA: She's right. Getting the support of those around you is an absolutely must.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Nice. Well, they are all inspirations and so are you, Sanjay, and that's why I took him up on the offer to join the group. I will be in Malibu next weekend hoping that my swimming, my biking, my running, training, all of that allows me to at least keep up. My only expectation is that I finish and I can't promise you what kind of shape I'm going to be in, but hey, Sanjay, and team, I will see you at Zula Beach, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: More than 80 percent of California is in an extreme crippling drought. People, animal, businesses, nature, all of it suffering. One place where it is extremely evident, the rivers. And one river in California, the San Joaquin River, has been named the most endangered in America by the non-profit conversation organization, American Rivers, but the problems on the San Joaquin River started long before this drought.

My colleague at CNN.com John Sutter kayaked the whole thing or sort of kind of tried to this summer. Huge sections of the river are only a trickle or completely dry. These are some of his images. Those are his feet.

Here is a look back at how he made it from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SUTTER, CNN OPINION COLUMNIST: So three weeks and like 400 miles later, this is my neck beard, these are my ridiculous paddling clothes and proof I made it to the Golden Gate. You don't see me? Yes, I'm that orange dot.

From the Sierra to the sea, I thought back on all the people I met along the way. There's Bill Conner who drinks from the river. Michelle Sneed, who's measuring the sinking ground, and George Mancillas (ph), whose job depends on the water.

We owe it to ourselves and to them to figure out how to make this river connect. The San Joaquin is a broken river, but it's not a dead one. Smarter policies to conserve water could stop nonsense like this from happening.

As I floated under the Golden Gate, I thought back on how far I'd come, and then I realized none of the water from the start of the San Joaquin makes it this far.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Great perspective. I'm joined now by John Sutter and also meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

So, John, what a huge undertaking. You just told me you're not even really a kayaker, but you decided I am going to, you know, take the challenge and see what happens to this river. So your expectations were met by a lot of surprises, weren't they?

SUTTER: Surprises all along the way. I mean I think that a lot of us are really blind to our rivers these days. They're sort of invisible. We don't travel by them anymore like the Hudson days are long, long gone. And so this was sort of my idea to get to know this river like at its own speed and sort of this intimate, personal way, and yes, there were surprises all along the river. I met, you know, farmers whose land is completely dry because they don't have any water to use from it. I, you know, encountered a part of the river for about 40 miles where

it looks like a desert. And I had to leave the kayak in a parking lot and I hiked for three days across this desert portion of the river and then it is sort of is, you know, refilled by drain water from farms. It's very polluted after that. So it -- you know, it was full of surprises.

For me one of the most surprising thing is that so many of our rivers including the San Joaquin no longer make it to the ocean like this river is dry from overuse. The drought, you know, contributes to it but essentially California has engineered this river to be dry. It's engineered it almost to the point of extinction. And I found that shocking. I mean, but this is not just a California story.

The Colorado River until earlier this year didn't meet the ocean. It carves out the Grand Canyon.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SUTTER: It's like this majestic American symbol.

WHITFIELD: Right.

SUTTER: But it -- you know, it's in trouble. The Rio Grande which forms our border with Mexico. So I think this is really a national problem and I think it can be solved in part by looking at our rivers and understanding their stories. I think it's something we just don't really do anymore.

WHITFIELD: And then part of your experience where you talked about the drought and the dryness of this river where you had to, you know, hike for three days, you said, right? Three days?

SUTTER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: You also encountered quicksand and no one can prepare you for that. What happened?

SUTTER: No, I had no idea that coming. So this was sort of after the dry section of --

WHITFIELD: It sounds like something that's just in the movies like it's fictitious but it's real.

SUTTER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: There's really quicksand.

SUTTER: It seems very "Indiana Jones." Like "Princess Bride". I had those images in my head but I didn't expect it at all. So it looked like the river was back and I was told by sources that, you know, the river was back now, you can get your kayak, you can get back in, and start paddling, and I started that again and then all of a sudden it was dry again and it was back a little bit of sort of intermittent. And I came on this part where the river was actually flowing backwards into a farmer's pump because it's being pumped out so rapidly, and sort of the result was this kind of sort of dry, sort of wet area that I'd sink into and got very stuck for like quite a bit of time.

WHITFIELD: Did you panic?

SUTTER: I kind of did.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SUTTER: Because I was by myself. I had to sort of -- I had to kind of leverage myself on the kayak to swing myself out of it. So I didn't expect that at all.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

SUTTER: And I later met that farmer whose pump was basically like pulling -- I mean, it's many farmers, many people who were overusing the river. But I met him and talked about it and it's interesting to hear the perspective of someone who needs every drop of that water to keep his business going and his view on it versus mine as someone who's trying to sort of like connect the river and help tell its story.

WHITFIELD: So, Jennifer, really, it's kind of a calamity of areas, isn't it?

GRAY: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Because there is a need for the river. The overuse is what I'm hearing, the language that you're using, of the river. There is naturally the weather pattern.

GRAY: Right.

WHITFIELD: The drought in California. So you've got a confluence of events and then just as John is telling us you've got situations where none of that water is making it to the ocean.

GRAY: Right.

WHITFIELD: And it's not just the San Joaquin but it's the Colorado River and others.

GRAY: And it's so sad because this is progressively getting worse and worse over the past three years. And they've essentially been in this drought for the past three years. Right now it's the worst that we've ever seen. So historically this will go down as California's worst drought so 95 percent of the state in severe drought, you know, we've got over 50 percent in exceptional drought.

And this is something we've never seen before so it is going to take a lot of rain to reverse this. And it is just getting worse by the second as he saw firsthand. Amazing.

WHITFIELD: So what's the forecast? I mean, is there an immediate forecast? An immediate relief, you know, people can count on, I mean, weeks, months or something like that? GRAY: We're counting El Nino. We've been counting on it and that's

the pattern that happens in the Pacific and it will change the weather patterns and drive storms in to, you know, California which is what we need. Right now it's not looking like it's really materializing. We're hoping that it will, but, you know, over the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, we need rain and then when we turn into winter we need the snowpack to come back because in the mountains because, remember, last year it just wasn't there. And this is something that we're going to be dealing with for years to come.

WHITFIELD: And then, John, what did you learn from the people who rely on the river, who live by the river, who do business by the river?

SUTTER: Yes.

WHITFIELD: What's their forecast? What are they planning for, hoping for?

SUTTER: I think everyone in California's hoping for rain and the degree to which this is the conversation that everyone there was having was really surprising to me. Like I met people who didn't know where this river was coming from or where it's going but water is on everyone's mind in California.

And I think that's really a sign of what's to come for us nationally especially with climate change. You mentioned snowpack, you know, the forecast for snowpack in the long term are great, great reductions in what's going to be there and that feeds the river. So I think what I learned is that all of this is connected. I think there are -- there's common ground between farmers and environmentalists in California that they often don't see. And I've seen some positive things happening.

California recently passed sort of commonsense ground water legislation to regulate the use of water that's under the ground. Sort of out of sight, out of mind. There's a proposal to bring back just half of the San Joaquin's natural flow before the California Water Board. And there are people who are supporting that and half of the river would be, you know, an amazingly healthier version than what currently is happening.

WHITFIELD: And all of this came about you're opening our eyes because of this change, the list challenge on CNN.com and, of course, if folks want to learn more about it, how it came about and more about your journey, go to CNN.com. Right?

SUTTER: Yes. CNN.com/change. People voted for this story and so I reported it.

WHITFIELD: And you went there.

SUTTER: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: You had an incredible story to tell.

John Sutter, thanks so much. Jennifer Gray, appreciate it.

Thanks to both of you.

SUTTER: Thank you.

GRAY: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead a random act of kindness provides more to winning on the field in the NFL. What one team is doing to help its player and his sick daughter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An NFL team has taken an incredible step to show there's a lot more to life than just winning and losing. The Cincinnati Bengals had cut number 75 defensive tackle Devon Still from the 53-man roster, but then the team re-signed him to the practice squad. Why? Because of that little girl right there. They kept him to make sure that he keeps his health insurance and continues to get paid all to help his 4-year-old daughter who is battling cancer who he says is his main concern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEVON STILL, CINCINNATI BENGALS DEFENSIVE TACKLE: It was tough to stay focused, but what I had is what I gave to football. I mean, I have a lot of stuff going on right now but when I stepped on the football field, I try to focus on football as much as possible, but in the back of my head what was going on outside of football is a distraction that I just can't stop thinking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A very compassionate move by the Bengals and, of course, we wish Devon, the family, and his daughter the best.