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CNN Live Saturday

Israel Beefs up Aerial and Ground Assaults on Lebanon; Tour de France Champ Landis Test Positive in 2nd Doping Test; U.S., France Agree on U.N. Security Council Resolution, But Lebanon Disagrees; Cuban Exiles in Miami Await Word on Fidel Castro, Two Serial Shooter Suspects Arrested in Phoenix

Aired August 05, 2006 - 18:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN SATURDAY NIGHT, your link to the world, the web and what's happening right now. I'm Carol Lin and straight ahead in this hour --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lebanese soldiers have told us that the Israeli commando assault began on this beach, just on the northern edge of Tyre. It's not clear exactly where they landed but we have found some military glow sticks. These can be used to mark some kind of landing spot.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Karl Penhaul on the front lines in Lebanon. You'll see village to village, door to door how the Middle East fighting is continuing. But we are seeing the first steps toward peace.

Also, is it proof positive, an American champion in trouble. Tour de France winner Floyd Landis's second test comes up positive. Will his win be wiped off the books forever?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do I buy food or do I pay the daycare in full and not eat, so that they can go to daycare so that I can work to do what? To be in the same predicament that I'm in now. I'm never going to get ahead.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Can you relate to this woman living paycheck to paycheck? It's a reality for millions of Americans. So why did Senators in the middle of the night say no to a minimum wage hike? Find out what it's like to live on $5.15 an hour. That's our focus.

But first we want to bring you up to speed on the headlines. All right, we want to give you the very latest as well. Lebanon has officially said that it does not agree with the draft resolution that's before the U.N. Security Council right now. The United States and France working out the language over hours and days to try to stop the fighting between Lebanon and Israel. But Lebanon has to agree to the plan. We're going to tell you what it all means and what's next straight ahead.

In the meantime, the fighting on the ground. Our correspondents are seeing it firsthand. Israeli commandos storming the beaches of Tyre, Lebanon and attack an apartment building Hezbollah allegedly used as a launching site. Karl Penhaul on the scene. Hezbollah clearly has plenty of fire left, at least 170 rockets hit northern Israel today. We've got a full wrap-up straight ahead.

Taking you now to London. Thousands of protesters rallied to demand an end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. They passed by the U.S. embassy and they ended up at parliament.

And a chilling new videotaped message from Al Qaeda's second in command. You're looking at Amman Al Zawahiri who says that members of an Egyptian militant group has now officially joined the ranks of Al Qaeda. But the aftermath of more deadly attacks in Iraq. An Iraqi police officer was shot to death this morning in Baghdad and nine more bullet-riddled bodies were also found across the Iraqi capital. And to Baqubah, a bomb exploded near a market and bus station wounding at least nine people.

Ah, an American champion. His championship at stake now. A second doping test has come back positive for Tour de France winner Floyd Landis. The race director says Landis is no longer considered the winner, though his title has not officially been stripped. We're going to have more details in five minutes.

Cuba's vice president says Fidel Castro is on the mend from intestinal surgery. Meanwhile, former Cuban revolutionaries say they are ready to defend the country in the event of a U.S. attack. The Cuban government has also mobilized citizen militias.

Now, in Arizona, two men are being held without bond in a serial shooter case. Phoenix police think that they're responsible for killing six people and wounding 18 others. The shootings terrorized the city for more than a year. The full story in under 20 minutes.

It has been a day of developments in the Middle East crisis. Today is day 25. And the push for peace finally gained some traction. Thousands of miles from the fighting, the U.N. Security Council has ended its first meeting just an hour ago on a plan put forward by the U.S. and France.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-MARC DE LA SABLIERE, FRENCH AMBASSADSOR TO U.N.: The text calls for a full cessation of hostilities. There's the point in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operation. That is to say, naval, ground and air.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well that was the diplomatic talk. But there was fighting and boots on the ground still in the Middle East. There was no letup in the fighting today. Israel says three Israeli women were killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks. Israel launched air strikes south of Beirut and ground attacks along the border and Israeli commandos staged a predawn raid from the sea. That story from CNN's Karl Penhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flashes in the sky as Hezbollah fighters appeared to launch a long-range rocket. Then two hours before dawn, Israel struck back. Helicopters blast cannons, jets dump bombs. And on the ground an Israeli raiding party battled Lebanese troops and Hezbollah gunmen.

(on camera): Lebanese soldiers have told us that the Israeli commando assault began on this beach just on the northern edge of Tyre. It's not clear exactly where they landed, but we have found some military glow sticks. These can be used to mark some kind of landing spot.

(voice-over): Ahmed Moussa says the Israelis came through here, their target, a first floor apartment in this block.

AHMED MOUSSA, TYRE RESIDENT: It was 3:00 a.m. and I was sleeping when I heard shooting. There was a lot of shooting from everywhere. Around 60 people were on that corner, they were pointing weapons with laser sites. There were people screaming, Moussa explains.

PENHAUL: There are spent shell casings in the stairwell, a pool of dry blood in the doorway. In the fighting, the apartment caught fire. In the wreckage, it's easy to make out magazines for assault rifles, ammunition and a few rounds for rocket-propelled grenades. Israeli military sources say they killed two or three men inside and said they were Hezbollah commanders in charge of launching long range rockets. City official Al Hussaini says both Lebanese soldiers and Hezbollah gunmen were battling the Israeli force.

MOHAMMED AL-HUSSAINI, CITY HALL OFFICIAL: The Lebanese army resisted the Israeli forces. And I think there was some supplies came from Hezbollah.

PENHAUL: As the Israeli commandos fought their way back to the beach, Lebanese intelligence sources said Israeli attack helicopters provided air support and destroyed this car.

(on camera): The vehicle's still warm after it was shot up and caught fire. And you can clearly make out large caliber bullet holes sprayed through the roof.

(voice-over): A city block away, another helicopter fired on this Lebanese army armored truck mounted with anti-aircraft guns. Later, Israeli military sources admitted their commando force took casualties, but said the operation was a success. They said, quote, "Everyone we wanted to kill, we killed." Karl Penhaul, CNN, Tyre, South Lebanon.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: So getting back to the possible diplomatic resolution, President Bush keeping tabs on the Middle East crisis from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux standing by live there. Suzanne, since we last spoke, we've heard from the Lebanese U.N. ambassador. He said that his country is not agreeing to this draft resolution, not as the language is -- as it stands now. So where does the president go from here?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just spoke with Press Secretary Tony Snow, who really is downplaying kind of that chilly reception that we got from Lebanese officials, as well as some of those Arab ambassadors. He is saying that, look, this is just a chance to take a look at this resolution now, that really this is chatter in the hallways, if you will. But there is a very aggressive diplomatic campaign that is going on to try to convince those members of the U.N. Security Council to sign off on this. Secretary Rice, as well as the National Security Adviser Steven Hadley met with the president this afternoon at the Crawford ranch to try to figure out a way forward, to try to sell this resolution.

They are also looking at of course the possibility of a second resolution that deals with even more controversial matters. That is when Israeli forces are going to leave Lebanon's territory. Now, we've been told that the president did sign off on this draft resolution, according to Snow. He says that he's happy with the progress, but he certainly doesn't have any disillusions about what it's going to take to end this violence. And as many people have been talking about, Carol, really, right now, this is simply a piece of paper. The future of peace is really going to depend on what happens on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI LIKUD PARTY LEADER: I don't know where this thing is going to go. I know where it has to end. It has to end with the removal in the main of Hezbollah's ability to rocket Israel's cities and its ability to terrorize us and the Lebanese.

MOHAMAD CHATAH, ADVISER TO LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER: Any attempt to end this crisis without a domestic Lebanese agreement is a recipe for continued conflict. We in Lebanon, including Hezbollah -- including Hezbollah, which is part of the government -- have approved a plan that includes -- that includes having the army as the only group with weapons. And that is the central point of our plan to get out of this quickly but permanently.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Carol, you bring up the very important point. As really the administration now has to sell this draft resolution to the other members of the U.N. Security Council. And some of this language may make it difficult for the Lebanese to do that. Specifically, the language that calls for the cessation of Israel of all offensive military operations. But Israel all along has been saying that this has been a defensive operation. So, there's going to be a lot of talk, a lot of questions over exactly what does that mean. Carol?

LIN: That's right. The parsing of words. It doesn't say immediate cessation to the violence, just that it stop. So they're still apparently working out those details. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much, reporting live from Crawford, Texas.

Now, we're not going to leave the Middle East for long, because that is our big story. But there was another explosive story in the world of sports today. A second doping test on Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has come up positive for high levels of testosterone. We're going to get more now from CNN's Larry Smith. So Larry, what happens next? He is appealing?

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he will appeal, that is next. Possibly a two year ban after that, but we do know this Carol, the speculation is over. That second test of Floyd Landis' urine corroborated what the first test revealed, that the cyclist had a high ratio of the two hormones testosterone and epitestosterone after the 17th stage of the Tour de France.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: It was a result Floyd Landis expected to hear. After becoming just the third American to win the Tour de France, the 30- year-old must now prove his innocence. In a statement released early this morning, Landis said, quote "I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone. I was the strongest man in the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion. I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing."

PHIL LIGGETT, CYCLING COMMENTATOR: What Landis will certainly want to prove is that the presence of testosterone at the higher levels in this test is naturally produced and hasn't been aesthetically introduced into the system. If it has and they say it has, then of course he most certainly is guilty. If it hasn't, then they're destroying the career of a very good bike rider.

SMITH: The findings will now be sent to the U.S. anti-doping agency, which will review Landis' case. If he's found guilty, Landis faces a two year ban and would be the first Tour de France winner to have his title stripped. However, Landis could appeal that decision, which means it could be many months before his situation is ultimately resolved.

GREG LEMOND, FORMER TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER: I just hope this is an event that will be a positive thing for cycling in the sense that I think the problem has been there, but few people actually want to really look at it honestly and transparently.

SMITH: Landis was leading the Tour de France when he had a disastrous 16th stage and fell from first place to 11th. But the next day, Landis regained most of the time he had lost. Many called it the greatest performance in the Tour's 103-year history. It was after that incredible effort that Landis tested positive for an 11 to 1 ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, almost three times the legal limit.

LIGGETT: The fact is, he was tested less than 48 hours earlier and he was negative on that occasion. And he knew that if he was to win the stage on the day he won, he would automatically be tested for testosterone. So I find that very strange.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: It will certainly be an uphill battle for Floyd Landis. His Swiss based team Phonak says it will not help in his fight to keep his Tour de France crown, and in fact has already fired him from the team. Carol?

LIN: Larry, it's still not over though, so as soon as you hear more about the investigation and what happens next, let us know.

SMITH: We will.

LIN: Larry Smith, thank you.

Well Cuba's vice president says Fidel Castro is recovering nicely from stomach surgery. And in Miami, Cuban exiles have been rallying today. They say it's to show support for the oppressed people of Cuba. CNN's Ed Lavandera standing by live in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Ed, how many people actually showed up?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're starting to trickle in, a little bit behind schedule, as you might imagine. It's kind of typical for the leisurely pace in South Florida. But as people show up here, it's kind of been interesting to watch how the initial frenzy of Fidel Castro's transfer of power to his brother and everyone convinced that he had passed away, that excitement in the street here has changed over the last couple of days. Now not necessarily many people talking about whether or not Fidel Castro is alive or dead, but now looking to take advantage of what they perceive as an upcoming opportunity to change the political environment in Cuba.

This rally here organized this evening by a group called the Democracy Movement, which says it wants to be involved very close into what happens next in Cuba. That is exactly what many people here are talking about, not just this Democracy Movement group, but the Cuban American National Foundation. Many of these groups specifically talking about the ways they will become involved in trying to shape what happens next on the island politically. What all of them say is that they do not want to see just a transfer of power from one dictator, Fidel Castro, to another dictator, Raul Castro. They see Raul and Fidel as essentially the same person.

So many of these people coming out here tonight to hold a candlelight vigil in hopes that people in Cuba they hope will see what is happening here tonight and understand that there are many people here rooting for them and hoping that they will rise up and do something in protest of the dictatorship that has lasted there in Cuba for 47 years now. Of course, this is just one of the interesting things that we've seen transpire here over the last week. Whereas initially we saw many -- this spot right here was full of people, dancing and celebrating in the streets. Many people convinced that Fidel Castro is dead. That feeling continues today, they say, until they see Fidel Castro give a speech or appear on television or appear in public, they won't be convinced that has happened. Quite to the contrary versus everything that we have heard come from the island throughout the week. Carol?

LIN: All right Ed. Can you tell the guy standing behind you, he's got a newspaper he's holding up. Can you tell what it says?

LAVANDERA: Fidel is the devil, quite frankly.

LIN: Ok, so we know where he stands.

LAVANDERA: Yeah, very clear-cut right here in this part of Little Havana.

LIN: All right, we'll see how it develops throughout the night. Thanks so much.

Coming up at 10:00 eastern, I'm going to talk with one of Miami's most popular Cuban talk show hosts. And you're going to hear what Miami's Cuban community is saying about Fidel Castro and what life after Castro is going to be like. She's a fire brand, you're going to want to stay tuned.

In the meantime, city on the edge. Two alleged serial snipers behind bars, but police aren't resting easy as the hunt for a third serial murderer continues.

And cashing in on casinos one year after Katrina. The daily dilemma of getting back to business.

And this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need more money. I earn money here, but hand to mouth. Like hand to mouth. I do not save money.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: So many Americans living just like that man, paycheck to paycheck, living on $5.15 an hour. The struggles of some working class Americans while Congress votes down their pay raise. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In news across America, former Ohio Senator John Glenn is recovering after a minor car crash last night in Columbus. The 85- year-old former astronaut was with his beloved wife, Ann and both were taken to the hospital just as a precaution.

Now incredible video out of Phoenix, Arizona, take a look at that. Firefighters caught in that collapse of a burning roof while they were fighting a hotel fire. It looks pretty bad but we are so glad to tell you that both of those firefighters survived. They were able to pull themselves out of the flaming rubble and they only suffered minor injuries, credit to good training.

And a tale of two Texas towns that they'd rather not tell. El Paso completely flooded. Take a look at these pictures, week-long rains and hundreds of people had to evacuate.

Now farther north they'd love the rain as grass fires rage throughout the metroplex area. This blaze charring parts of North Richland Hills, which is a small bedroom community between Dallas and Ft. Worth.

And the push of a button and plenty of dynamite took down Atlanta's old air traffic control tower this morning. A new $44 million tower replaces the one that was next to it. Let's see if it goes. Come on. The implosion could be seen and heard -- we're hoping to show it to you -- for miles. Did it go down? All right, what's that thing standing in front of it? It looks like the control tower. The new one, ok, thanks guys.

Now life in the valley of the sun got a little bit brighter after Phoenix police picked up two suspects in their serial shooter investigation. CNN's Chris Lawrence wraps up yesterday's stunning arrests, they're one of two serial killer cases in the same city. Phoenix has been grappling with this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apprehended by investigators and taken into custody, the mayor of Phoenix says these arrests signal the end of a killing spree.

MAYOR PHIL GORDON, PHOENIX: These are the two monsters we've been hunting.

LAWRENCE: Police say they've had Dale Haussner and Samuel Dieteman under constant surveillance since Monday. Investigators arrested one outside an apartment in a Phoenix suburb, then went inside to capture the other.

ASST. CHIEF KEVIN ROBINSON, PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: We recovered several weapons. Whether or not they've all been used on our offenses, we don't know yet. We have a series of steps that we need to go through to determine what weapons may have been used on what victims and we'll go from there.

LAWRENCE: The two men have not been formally charged with any crime and have not made a statement to their own defense. Police offer little evidence but accuse both of being connected to the so- called serial shooter crimes. Firing from a car to randomly shoot dogs and horses, wound 18 people and kill six victims. The most recent was Robin Blasnek, shot last Sunday while walking to her boyfriend's home. Investigators say the killer or killers targeted people walking alone or riding their bikes. Not everyone here shares that relief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's one down, one to go. LAWRENCE: Phoenix has been terrorized by two serial crime sprees. Apparently operating independently. The baseline killer is accused of eight murders and a number of sexual assaults, including carjacking a mother and raping her 12-year-old daughter.

(on camera): These killing sprees cover more than 80 square miles and terrified a lot of neighborhoods. Most people here say it's too soon to breathe easy. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Phoenix.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: If you have ever said to yourself, I want to report for CNN, now is your chance. CNN is launching something called I-Report. You, the viewer are the eyes and the ears on the ground. And if you capture a great picture or video on your camera or cell phone, you can send it to us. Log on to cnn.com or punch I-Report at cnn.com right on your cell phone. We got some amazing video of a house explosion just this past week. It was one of our viewers and we were able to interview him live on the air. So we really count on our viewers because you often see it first.

Now, can you afford to be poor? Well one best selling author abandons her lifestyle in search of answers. Our hook here is the vote down on the increase of the minimum wage by Congress in the middle of the night. Now coming up, you're going to hear her daily diary about living on minimum wage for three months. You try it.

Also, this -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really sad to, you know -- to be able -- to go out there and drive down the beach and see emptiness but you can come inside of here and it's like there's life again.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Taking a gamble. A multibillion dollar industry making a comeback on the Gulf Coast and creating jobs. We're going to take a look at who's betting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Senators say no to a minimum wage increase. But could they even live on $5.15 an hour? Coming up a "New York Times" best selling author tried it. The sacrifices she had to make on a drastic pay cut.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: A quick look at the most popular stories on cnn.com -- immigration reform is one of them. President Bush says he's fulfilled a promise to beef up security along the U.S./Mexican border. So now he is daring Congress to pass legislation giving immigrants more legal ways to enter the country.

Natalee Holloway's mother says she feels crushed, that's because a lawsuit against a Dutch teen last seen with her daughter has been dismissed. Holloway disappeared more than a year ago on the island of Aruba.

And the movie "Talladega Nights" making noise at the box office. Actor Will Ferrell is Ricky Bobby, a NASCAR driver whose one mission in life is to go fast. Several critics say it is hilarious.

More fallout from hurricane Katrina. It seems like FEMA can't win. First they're criticized for not giving people trailers and now they're having to go in and test trailers to see if they're making people sick. So far FEMA says it's gotten 46 complaints. They're government issued trailers and they're being used by Katrina victims in Mississippi. An environmental group has found high formaldehyde emissions in dozens of those trailers.

But there are signs of recovery along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. After being hit hard by hurricane Katrina nearly a year ago, casinos are reopening their doors. Susan Roesgen has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 10 months out of practice, Deborah Brady says her hands haven't quite gotten the rhythm of dealing black jack again. But after hurricane Katrina forced her out of work, she couldn't wait to get back to work in Boomtown Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.

DEBORAH BRADY, BLACKJACK DEALER: It 's really sad to go out there and drive the beach and see emptiness but you can come inside of here and it's like there's life again.

ROESGEN: The artificially cheerful atmosphere of a casino isn't just therapy for employees like Deborah. It's big business for the state of Mississippi. Before Katrina, the casino industry was the state's biggest employer, boosting Mississippi's tax revenue by half a million dollars a day. That was until the state's luck ran out August 29th.

The hurricane pushed a wall of water on the Gulf Coast casinos, damaging some, wiping out others completely. The biggest, Beaux Rivage, lost just one window in the hurricane, but the ground floor casino flooded, putting 3,000 people out of work. Today Beau Rivage is trying to hire new and former employees and helping them find housing, transportation, and child care.

ROGENA BARNES, BEAU RIVAGE HR DIRECTOR: Over 50 percent of the child care centers were destroyed as a result of the storm. So those are the kinds of issues that we've had to deal with.

ROESGEN: Beau Rivage is planning to re-open August 29th, the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. And Boomtown Casino is planning an expansion. More room to accommodate more gamblers today than it had before Katrina. But Deborah Brady says if a hurricane heads this way again, she'll start dealing cards in Atlantic City.

BRADY: I'm going to have to go up north to one of their casinos. I don't ever want to stay for another one.

ROESGEN: Mississippi casinos are betting that they won't get hit again. Gambling on life on the Gulf Coast. Susan Roesgen, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Boy, those workers had to wait a long time to get their job back. But what if you made a paycheck that you could barely live on? It's hard to do, especially when you're only making minimum wage. I'm going to talk with a best-selling author who took on the task of living on $5.15 an hour, next.

And held hostage by Hezbollah. Still no word on the Israeli soldiers whose captures sparked the Middle East crisis. Do they have a chance of making it out alive? We're going to get insights from men who have been captives themselves when we go on the front lines.

And they say necessity is the mother of invention. But flying pianos, spinning dresses and the shower car? Do you need those? We're going to take you to an offbeat exhibit. You're watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Let's catch you up on the news. Just in the last hour, a new message from al Qaeda, in a videotape. The terror group's second in command says members of an Egyptian militant group have joined al Qaeda. That group is suspected in a number of terror attacks during the 1990s.

And the U.N. Security Council poring over a new draft resolution aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. It was hammered out by the United States and France and it calls for a cessation of hostilities. A vote is expected next week.

More U.S. troops on the streets of Baghdad. About 3,700 soldiers have been transferred from northern Iraq to beef up security in the Iraqi capital. Today at least 21 people were killed or found dead, most of them in Baghdad.

And Maryland police say these men stole a laptop computer from the home of a Veterans Affairs employees. Now that computer contained Social Security numbers and other personal information for millions of military personnel. Three people have been arrested in the case and the computer was recovered and the information was never tapped, most important of all.

Tour de France champ Floyd Landis vowing to clear his name now. His second doping test came up positive for synthetic testosterone, which would have to be ingested. Now Landis will keep his title pending the review process. The cyclist also vowing to appeal the test results.

When we were covering the Middle East crisis, knee deep in that battle, the Senate rejected another plan this week to boost the minimum wage. And they did it in the middle of the night. Now, Congress has given itself more than $30,000 in pay hikes since 1997, while minimum wage stayed the same. That is frustrating poor wage earners who can hardly make ends meet. We asked our Allan Chernoff to report on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the muggy heat of New York summer and the frigid cold of winter, year round, Michael Matlatou is on the street selling refreshments for the minimum wage, $6.75 an hour in New York State. With a wife and child to support, it's a struggle for the Russian immigrant, who puts in marathon hours.

MICHAEL MATLATOU, MINIMUM WAGE WORKER: Like 12, 13, Saturday, Sunday more, like 14 hour days, like this.

CHERNOFF: Fourteen hours day at work?

MATLATOU: Yes.

CHERNOFF: How many days a week do you work?

MATLATOU: Depend how I feel. If I feel nice, five days, six days, seven days, whatever.

CHERNOFF: For Mohamed Howader an immigrant from Bangladesh, the minimum wage is barely enough.

MOHAMED HOWADER, MINIMUM WAGE WORKER: I need more money. I earn money here, but I hand to mouth. Like hand to mouth. I do not save money.

CHERNOFF: Jennifer Stewart, a single mother of four in Chicago, also makes $6.75 an hour at a sporting goods store, which in Illinois is 25 cents above the state minimum.

JENNIFER STEWART, SINGLE MOTHER: Do I buy food or do I pay the day care in full and not eat so that they can go to day care so that I can work to do what? To be in the same predicament that I'm in now. I'm never going to get ahead.

CHERNOFF: In Georgia, the state minimum is the same as the federal, $5.15 an hour. Makwal says that's what he earns, simply not enough.

MAKWAL, MINIMUM WAGE WORKER: It's like really cut short to the point you might just be able to pay your bills and that's about it. And, like, we all have to hustle and do other things just to make it by.

CHERNOFF: The minimum wage is only $5.15 an hour in 31 states. That's been federal law for a decade. The Senate this week again failed to pass a bill that would have gradually raised the wage. Eighteen states, like New York and Illinois, require a higher basic wage, while Kansas State law has a lower minimum. Consider this. An eight hour day at the federal minimum wage will earn you $41.20, and that's before taxes. That's not even enough to fill up a typical tank at today's average gas price. As difficult as it is to live on the minimum wage, Mohamed Howader puts it in perspective. He says life here is still easier than in his native Bangladesh.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: So nearly a decade and still no raise for people making minimum wage. Meanwhile, basic necessities have become even more expensive. So take a look at this. We did some math here. Gas, eggs, milk, bread. Take a look at what it costs to buy those items back in 1997, the last time minimum wage was raised. All right, $1.29 for gas, for example. Today $2.96.

Try to buy a dozen eggs, you're paying, look at that, 95 cents the last time minimum wage was raised. Today $1.24. This is how people have to survive today. And there is an author who actually wanted to go out to try to find out what that wage actually bought you. Barbara Ehrenreich, she is the author of "Bait and Switch" and "Nickel and Dimed." Barbara, I love the titles of your books because you really just cut to the chase.

So here we are, you know, the greater news media, covering the Middle East crisis, congress goes to vote on whether to raise the minimum wage. The answer is no. There's that whole political argument, right. It was tied to estate tax breaks for the rich. You can debate that. What was your reaction?

BARBARA EHRENREICH, AUTHOR "NICKEL AND DIMED": In fact, most groups that work to get a living wage, as we call it, for low wage people really didn't like this bill. They wanted to see it go down because it would have, first, undercut the earnings of a lot of tipped workers like waitresses and so on. And, also, because it involved this great big tax cut for the wealthy. So it was a little bit cynical, this bill. It wasn't a straightforward let's raise the minimum wage.

LIN: Some might say on the hill politically motivated perhaps.

EHRENREICH: Yes.

LIN: But there's the principal, right? There are people out there who are working for $5.15 an hour. When you wrote your book, what was the minimum wage then?

EHRENREICH: Same as now.

LIN: And where do you get to live when you make $5.15 an hour?

EHRENREICH: That was the biggest problem for me. I was hoping I could keep rent down to about $500 a month or less. It turned out that that was really a kind of ridiculous hope, that rents were very high. And I was not going to expensive cities, by any means. I'm talking about trailer parks. Trailer parks, it's surprising, $650 a month for a half size trailer, which is teeny.

LIN: How long would it take you to make $650 a month?

EHRENREICH: Oh, well, I was earning $7 an hour, I was averaging $7 an hour in my different jobs such as waitressing.

LIN: After taxes how much would you take home?

EHRENREICH: That would be $1,000 a month after taxes.

LIN: After taxes, all right. So you could at least pay the rent but where you were was pretty bad.

EHRENREICH: Yes, you could pay the rent. Then you have transportation costs to get to work. Minimally you have laundry costs. You certainly are not getting cable TV or Internet access or any of the things I take for granted in my normal life.

LIN: And you're not even taking into account the fact that you might have to come up with a deposit, first month, last month's rent.

EHRENREICH: Well that really, really is a huge obstacle for so many people. Because those two months of rent to get into an apartment, that's easily over $1,000, which is a big amount of capital.

LIN: As you wrote on your blog, it's very expensive to be poor. I mean, it depends on do you want to live inside? Do you want to live outside? You actually make that choice on your blog. But that is a real choice that many Americans face. You know, a lot of people say, though, look, if you raise the minimum wage, it raises the cost of doing business. Labor is the most expensive cost for an employer. Don't you want people out there creating jobs and opportunities for others?

EHRENREICH: Yes. But if you can't live on the wage you're earning, that's not going to work. In the long run, it doesn't work. You have more and more people living in cars, you know, living in vans or whatever. You have children not getting proper nutrition. This is not viable. And that's why the living wage movement in this country really sees it as a moral issue. When you have people working full- time year round, working very hard and I found that out for myself and they still can't make ends meet, that's a moral question.

LIN: You bet. Barbara Ehrenreich. Terrific writing. I love your blog. It is very funny and very insightful. Appreciate your time.

Want to get back to our top story now, the Middle East crisis, which has kept the world on the edge of its seat for nearly a month now. Now the United States and France have drafted a U.N. plan to end the fighting. CNN's John Roberts, also embedded with Israeli troops in south Lebanon right now. He says the new draft resolution is spurring the IDF to move even faster. They feel like there's international pressure now for a cease-fire, so get the job done, root out Hezbollah. This is what John is also finding on the front lines right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the news of this United Nations resolution, at least the framework, United States and France agreeing to it, there was a sense of skepticism and a new sense of urgency for the unit that I'm traveling with here. The sense of skepticism is how is this going to work? When an end to hostilities are called, if Hezbollah fires a rocket into Israel, is Israel allowed to go after that position. Don't forget, the key words here, as Richard Roth highlighted, were offensive operations. It's not to say Israel can't stay in southern Lebanon and hold that ground, prevent Hezbollah from coming back into the towns and villages they have spent so long cleaning out, in trying to reconstitute itself.

Israel would probably hold on to that ground until a U.N. force can come in and probably slowly withdraw or even remain in the territory until that larger international stabilization force comes in. As far as the unit I'm with right now, it's called a tank hunting unit but there are no tanks to hunt on the Lebanese side ever the border. So what they do is they turn their expertise, their fire power, their American made sophisticated TOW missiles against Hezbollah positions, searching out bunkers. They set up an observation post. They look for a Hezbollah bunker, try to engage the enemy.

What they have now is, they believe, an increasingly narrow opportunity of time to attack those Hezbollah positions while the diplomatic gears grind forward. They believe that maybe there's 48 to 72 more hours before a cease-fire is called if the track continues at the United Nations at the pace that it is. Therefore, they have a very short time after this ramp-up in offensive operations, ramp-up in the ground forces, to try to degrade Hezbollah's capability to the greatest extent possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: John Roberts reporting while embedded with Israeli forces inside southern Lebanon. He's going to be reporting as he can throughout the night, as soon as he is able to technologically, as well as depending on where they are on the battlefield. So I want you to stay tuned throughout the night for John Roberts' reports on the front lines.

Now, they're at the center of the crisis in the Middle East, being held hostage. So will they be able to get out alive? I'm talking about the men who have been captives themselves when we go on the front lines as well.

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LIN: Every week we like to bring you the more personal stories from the front lines. And obviously today the focus was on the diplomatic front, the potential for a U.N. draft resolution to pass, to end this crisis in the Middle East. But we can't forget about the Israeli soldiers being held hostage right now by Hezbollah and also by Palestinian militants, one soldier in Gaza. To understand what their experience, what they are going through right now, our Gary Nurenberg spoke with a man who was held hostage by Hezbollah. This is his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The draft United Nations resolution, agreed to by France and the United States Saturday, calls for the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah has so far refused Red Cross requests to visit the man Eldad Rigav (ph) and Ehud Goldwasser, who's wife made an appeal on CNN's LARRY KING LIVE.

KARNIT GOLDWASSER, WIFE OF HOSTAGE: I ask the wife of Hezbollah to help me to get a sign that Udi and Eldad are still alive and to know if something happened to them, if they're injured or not.

TERRY WAITE, FORMER HEZBOLLAH HOSTAGE: I would tend to think that they would be treated with reasonable consideration.

NURENBERG: Terry Waite was among the more than two dozen westerners grabbed by Hezbollah in the '80s and '90s.

WAITE: I myself was kept in solitary confinement for four years. I slept on the floor, I was chained to the wall and I had no contact with the outside world.

NURENBERG: Hezbollah has killed hostages. American Marine colonel William Rich Higgins was hanged after his capture in 1988. An American hostage Joseph Cicippio was held for five years, starting in 1986.

JOSEPH CICIPPIO, FORMER HEZBOLLAH HOSTAGE: They had the authority there, if we did anything, they can kill us. So you had to be careful.

NURENBERG: He was tortured by his captors and carefully hidden.

CICIPPIO: And I was moved in the dark. I mean, I was moved with my eyes closed. So I had no idea where I was at. And I was put into a, I was put in this cardboard box, carried out of the building in the box.

NURENBERG: Some hostages like American reporter Terry Anderson were forced to tape messages for Hezbollah.

WAITE: Who are quite capable of keeping hostages for a very long period of time. Terry Anderson, the American journalist, was kept for seven years in total security in the middle of Beirut. So if they could do that then, they can still do that now.

ELHAM CICIPPIO, WIFE OF FORMER HOSTAGE: Some people who were kidnapped and up to now never showed up. Their loved ones know nothing about them up to now, for quite 20 years, whatever. So we're lucky. We're quite lucky.

NURENBERG: The kind of luck the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Rigav are hoping for today. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, they say that necessity is the mother of invention. But flying pianos, spinning dresses and the shower car? Who needs those? CNN's Veronica de la Cruz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are the machines that dreams are built on, the stuff of pure imagination, fantasy turned into reality. Imagine a snowstorm in the summer. If the snow machine doesn't actually cool this crowd off, after all the suds just look like snow, then how about a blast from a water cannon? At least the crowd seems to like it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think it's great. This exhibition really takes you into a dream world.

CRUZ: This dream world can be found at the Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibit called le Grande Repetoire is an exhibition of machines invented for circus shows and the theater.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I never imagined that theater could be so imaginative, curious and funny.

CRUZ: If you can get them to work, that is. But when they do work, the operators of these exhibits literally fall head over hills for machines like the Gyro Doom Doom. Some of these machines are very practical. Oversleep this morning? Why not save time by showering on the way in to work.

Have a neighbor who likes to play piano until the wee hours of the morning? You can pick up the pieces of that relationship later. According machine operator Coco Jaconelli, the machine was used in a show.

COCO JACONELLI, MACHINE OPERATOR (through translator): In the last scene of Peplum (ph), a show by the Royal Deluxe Theater Company in 1994, they catapulted a piano across the stage.

CRUZ: Some of the machines have a sort-off Rube Goldberg magic to them. What Harry Potter look alike wouldn't dream of having a Nutella Sandwich magically, though mechanically, delivered to them through parted curtains?

There is an Odorama Machine, which blows good and bad smelling odors. But the machine which may have drawn the most eager line of volunteers is the tequila shot making machine. A creative toast to the spirit of invention and imagination. Veronica de la Cruz, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: There's lots more ahead on CNN tonight. Up next at 7:00 Eastern, "THIS WEEK AT WAR." Then at 8:00, CNN PRESENTS "Inside Hezbollah. Anderson Cooper takes a look at the group's weapons, warriors and mission.

At 9:00, comedian Kathy Griffin joins Larry King and I'll be back at 10:00 Eastern to talk to a popular Cuban American radio host, who has been taking calls all week regarding the future of Cuba. A check of the hour's headlines next and then "THIS WEEK AT WAR."

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