Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Retooled Hummer Raising Money for Vets and Their Families; More Iraqi Violence
Aired May 26, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Well, hello, everybody, from the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It is Saturday, May the 26th, on a Memorial Day weekend that we have here.
Good morning to you all. Good to see you. I'm T.J. Holmes.
MELISSA LONG, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning. I'm Melissa Long, in today for Betty. Thanks for starting your Memorial Day weekend with us.
And this morning we are on the road for the holiday with Warrior One, from the battlefield in Iraq to the auction block and beyond. See how this Hummer is now helping thousands of U.S. troops and their families.
HOLMES: Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq. Could GPS technology help find them? We'll take you to the front lines of this dangerous search.
Also, we've got this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every inch of the house and the living quarters have been converted into basically marijuana growth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Wow.
LONG: What? Did he say marijuana?
HOLMES: He said weed, yes.
LONG: Well, you won't believe what's going on inside some very nice suburban homes. Could there be a secret, multi-million dollar pot house on your street?
HOLMES: Well, I certainly hope not.
But we're going to start now. A lot happening in Iraq the past 24 hours. Get you up to speed now.
The U.S. military says Iraqi and coalition forces killed five terrorists today during raids in the Sadr City section of Baghdad. Also nabbed a suspected terrorist leader with alleged links to Iran. But this Memorial Day weekend brings the worst possible news for three more American families. Two U.S. soldiers and a Marine died in Iraq in separate incidents yesterday.
Ninety-three American service members have been killed so far this month, 3,444 now since the start of the Iraq war.
Meanwhile, President Bush is getting the war funding he requested, and he's getting it without any troop withdrawal timelines. Democrats abandoned that timetable effort, because they faced another presidential veto if they kept it in.
The main part of the bill earmarks about $100 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. has spent well over $300 billion in Iraq alone since the start of the war. But this latest spending bill is only good until September.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KENTUCKY, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: I think that the handwriting is on the wall, that we are going a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it.
In other words, I think he himself has certainly indicated he's not happy with where we are. And I think we are looking for a new direction in the fall.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIFORNIA, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We are going to bring an end to this war, and we have to take the steps necessary to do them. Some of them will be more unifying in terms of the vote that is there, but all of us have that goal.
But at the end of the day, the American people are very wise on this, and their wisdom will be reflected in the actions of Congress in a bipartisan way.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LONG: There's a new report this morning we want to tell you about on a possible troop reduction in Iraq. The "New York Times" is reporting the White House is looking at tentative ideas to decrease troops by about 50 percent and change the focus of the mission in Iraq. Those discussions targeting a mid-2008 timetable.
One administration officials says - and I quote now - "It stems from a recognition that the current level of forces aren't sustainable in Iraq, they aren't sustainable in the region, and they will be increasingly unsustainable here at home."
The "New York Times" notes, top military commanders in Iraq have not been part of these discussions.
Ramadi was an Iraqi city under siege just weeks ago. But today, the sounds of reconstruction are replacing the sounds of gunfire.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is there.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
CAPTAIN IAN BROOKS, MARINE CAPTAIN, RAMADI, IRAQ: You could see where they're starting to clear out right now. This is actually the sewer draining out ...
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, RAMADI, IRAQ: So, all the water is sewage.
BROOKS: Yes, sir.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Raw sewage putrefies in the road. Ramadi's battle-scarred streets have become a graveyard for the city's services.
BROOKS: And this is all sewage, but we also swept and got as much of this up as possible.
ROBERTSON: Marine Captain Ian Brooks says these few blocks are typical.
BROOKS: When you have neglect for four years, this is what happens.
ROBERTSON: Sewage, electricity, water - all took a pounding as troops and insurgents slugged it out for control of the city.
When the fighting stopped several weeks ago, more than 90 percent of Ramadi was without water and electricity.
ROBERTSON (on camera): This is what's left of the high-power electricity cable feeding Ramadi. It connected to the national grid. But if you look up there, you can see where the power lines were broken down by the insurgents.
The effort is now on to get the lines connected again. Contractors have already been to assess what's needed.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): U.S. forces have already earmarked more than $10 million to fix the city. No project is too small.
ERIC STRAUSS, CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER, CIVIL AFFAIRS: Right now, to compensate for the electricity, is all the neighbors now do have generators that we go around and put fuel in, and they run off that.
ROBERTSON: Officers across Ramadi are spending fast.
LT. JOHN HOOD, U.S. MARINE CORPS: This clinic that you're looking at right here, painted blue, didn't even exist two months ago. So, the locals actually have a clinic of their own that they can go to now.
ROBERTSON: Hood also pays local laborers $10 a day to clean trash. Across the city, trucks paid for by the U.S., haul away rubble. Sewage contractors turned in these photographs to prove their job well done.
Speed is key. Get the city back to normal, keep al Qaeda from returning.
HOOD: The reason, it fits right in with the counterinsurgency mindset. Win the hearts and minds of the people, and they will follow in with you.
ROBERTSON: But the task is huge. Bigger projects take weeks, if not longer, to get approved.
Some sectors of the city lag others, have had no cleanup, no electricity repairs.
In his neighborhood, Marine Captain Brooks is flush with success. Even though he was shot his first day, he still says he's achieved more in his first month than he expected during his entire deployment.
BROOKS: In the long run, I'm looking at getting 189 Marines back home alive and safe. And hopefully, with all this going this way, we can do that.
ROBERTSON: Spend now, shorten the war, save later. It's a lesson hard-learned after the failures in the early days of the war.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Ramadi, Iraq.
(END VIDEO)
HOLMES: Two weeks of searching and still no signs of two American soldiers missing after a deadly ambush in Iraq.
Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops hunting for the men who vanished in the "Triangle of Death," south of Baghdad.
Fifty-two people were detained for questioning Friday as the search focused on an area along the Euphrates River. The body of a third missing soldier was pulled from that water on Wednesday.
Coming up in about five minutes, we're going to speak with "New York Times" photojournalist, Michael Kamber. He's embedded with the Army unit searching for those missing soldiers.
LONG: The Fisher House Foundation and CNN's Warrior One, teaming up to help wounded veterans. The auction of the refurbished Hummer helped raise money for the foundation. And now, Warrior One is touring the country.
Perhaps it's where you are. Do you live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio? Well, that's where the Hummer is, and so is CNN meteorologist, Bonnie Schneider.
Bonnie, is it still raining there?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN AMS METEOROLOGIST, CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO: It just stopped raining, Melissa. I'm so glad, because people are here. You can hear how noisy it is. There's lots of kids here and everyone is having a great time.
People are kind of walking by and checking out this gorgeous Hummer behind me that was actually embedded with the troops in Iraq in 2003. It came under heavy fire, then was overhauled, and now it looks terrific. We're going to show you more about it in just a moment.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Here we are in Ohio, and you can see it's getting very crowded. A lot of things going on here at the Blossom Time Festival.
Many folks are looking to come and check out the Hummer. You can see people are walking over and taking a look.
A lot of the 50,000 people that are here, many of them are veterans themselves. So, they want to take a close look and see how this Hummer has been overhauled and what it looks like now.
What you're looking at across - oh, it started raining again, there you go - across the way are all the families under the tent, because this is the kid's day, this is the kid's portion of this three-day festival that will run straight through Memorial Day. And the kids are enjoying games and festivities inside, under the shade of the umbrella. Good thinking.
All right, well, you'll want to stay with us throughout the morning, T.J. and Melissa. We are going to have some terrific guests throughout this morning.
Some of them have family overseas right now in Iraq, and they're going to talk about their experience and what seeing this Hummer means to them. So, stayed tuned.
LONG: Hey, I've got to ask you. I heard the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the background, is that like a potato sack race, or a race of little animals? What's going on?
SCHNEIDER: I can't see beyond the crowd. But, you know, there's people in costumes and a lot of kids.
LONG: Sounds like the place to be. Good assignment. Have fun there. We'll talk to you a little bit later.
SCHNEIDER: Yes. Thank you.
LONG: As Bonnie mentioned, this Memorial weekend, you can turn your frequent flyer miles into hero miles. Fisher House will use those miles to transport servicemen and women wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan - and their families - to treatment centers all around the country.
It's simple. Just go online, FisherHouse.org, and then donate your frequent flyer miles this weekend. And we should point out that participating airlines will match your contribution.
HOLMES: Vice President Dick Cheney tells West Point graduates the security of America depends on success in Iraq.
The vice president just wrapped up the commencement speech at the U.S. military academy. We're taking a live look at some of the festivities and activities still going on at that ceremony.
Iraq and the war on terror were the prevailing themes of his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The terrorists know what they want, and they will stop at nothing to get it.
By force and intimidation, they seek to impose a dictatorship of fear under which every man, woman and child lives in total obedience to their ideology.
Their ultimate goal is to establish a totalitarian empire, a caliphate, with Baghdad as its capital.
They view the world as a battlefield and they yearn to hit us again. And now they have chosen to make Iraq a central front in their war against civilization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And back to the live picture again in West Point, New York. The graduates taking the stage, the cadets there, and getting a greeting and congratulations afterwards there by the vice president, Dick Cheney, there in the center of your screen.
Again, the vice president giving that speech. And he said, after 9/11, the U.S. decided to deny terrorists any safe haven.
Also during that speech, anti-war protesters rallied outside West Point. A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that they wouldn't be allowed on the grounds.
Another commencement, this one didn't go too well, angry protests at a commencement in Amherst.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andrew Card, Jr.
AUDIENCE: Boo!
(WHISTLES AND BOOS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, that was a bit awkward.
All this noise brought on by former Bush chief of staff, Andrew Card, who was getting an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts. The protestors complained that awarding the degree makes it look like the university supports the war in Iraq.
Card smiled slightly and awkwardly, while the university's provost spoke, raised his hand in thanks, then sat down and didn't say a word.
LONG: Gas prices edging down a fraction after 12 days of record highs. But the 32 million Americans hitting the road for the weekend probably won't even notice any savings.
According to the latest AAA survey, the average price for a gallon of gas is $3.22 a gallon. That is down about 0.2 cents.
HOLMES: Point two, is it?
LONG: Yes, 0.2 cents. That's not a typo. It's 0.2 cents.
HOLMES: Point two.
LONG: Yes. The drop will save you four cents on 20 gallons of gas.
HOLMES: Outstanding.
LONG: But it's the first decline, we should point out, in prices since May 9th.
HOLMES: We'll take it.
LONG: You can get more on oil and gas price trends online. Go to CNNMONEY.com. You can get in-depth analysis of what's happening and why, and find out what you can do. Again, CNNMONEY.com.
HOLMES: Meanwhile, some are using America's suburbs to cash in on an illegal crop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the outside, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual about this house, or this one.
Neighbors had no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's shocking, actually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: Pretty houses, aren't they? Well, coming up in 30 minutes, why a house in the 'burbs is becoming a drug dealer's ideal planting field.
HOLMES: Also up next, the newest high-tech ways to track lost troops in war.
Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: We've got an image here to show you of U.S. soldiers in the war zone, on the hunt for two of their own. It's south of Baghdad where American and Iraqi forces are combing towns, fields and river banks, looking for the missing service members.
Traveling with them, the man who took this picture, "New York Times" photographer, Mike Kamber. He's on the phone with us now, embedded with this group that's looking for these two missing soldiers.
Mike, we appreciate you giving us some time.
And tell us, it's been two weeks now. No word from these two missing soldiers.
What's the morale been like? Have you seen a change at all among these forces who are looking for two of their own?
MICHAEL KAMBER, "NEW YORK TIMES" PHOTOGRAPHER, SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (by telephone): I have not seen any change in morale, no.
I was out with them yesterday for four or five hours. And the sense of determination to me seems the same. It's even undiminished, basically.
HOLMES: How difficult is the terrain? How difficult is the mission, as well? Because walking around Iraq anyway, your first thing is to protect yourself and to stay alive.
But they have that mission, as well as the mission of finding two of their own.
KAMBER: Boy, you know, words almost fail me in describing how difficult it is out there. The heat is a huge problem. It's well over 100, maybe 110 or 115 degrees. They're carrying a lot of gear, maybe 70 or 80 pounds of gear out there.
And then the terrain, you know, they're pushing through fields, through mud, through canals. So, the terrain is extremely difficult, and there are many places for snipers to hide. They're constantly being shot at by snipers.
And also, the insurgency have begun to put bombs in the countryside. Previously, the bombs were just along the road. But now they know that the soldiers are going off into the countryside, so they've begun to put landmines and IEDs there.
So, there's multiple threats. And the conditions really couldn't be more difficult, in my opinion.
HOLMES: And Mike, as you've seen, are there any physical clues, really, that they're coming upon? Or is it just a matter of intel? I know people have been arrested, and talking to locals.
Is that what they're having to depend on, because of the lack of physical clues? KAMBER: Well, I don't - I don't have access to the military intelligence, obviously. But from what I've observed, they're going through houses carefully.
You know, they're basically going through every house in the area. They're looking for trap doors. They're searching the yards to see if there are places where things have been dug up or buried, possibly.
And they're questioning everybody as carefully as they can, especially military-aged males. And when they do come up with somebody who has a suspicious answer or something that doesn't add up, they do detain that person.
They're checking all the IDs against lists of known, wanted insurgents. So, I think that they're arresting people that are giving suspicious answers, and then they're relying on their interrogations to give them further clues. That's my impression.
HOLMES: And Mike, to wrap up here with you, we're going to show our viewers a picture here that you took of soldiers appearing to just take a break here. They absolutely look exhausted and worn out.
Give us an idea, or how you go about - and this is what you do - but to identify a picture and see something that just is striking to you.
Do you see images over there like, of course you've never seen before?
KAMBER: Yes, absolutely. I mean, the war's been going on four years. But every day there's something extraordinary out there.
And there are constantly striking images, mostly having to do with fatigue, with exhaustion, sometimes with battle, with, you know, the excitement of battle, sometimes the tragedy of battle.
So, there are still - there are still important images to be taken over here, in my opinion.
HOLMES: All right. "New York Times" photographer, Mike Kamber, who is on, I believe it's your third visit over to Iraq on assignment there, with the "New York Times."
We certainly appreciate your time. Appreciate you sharing your photos with us. And you stay safe, Mike.
KAMBER: Thank you. It's a pleasure.
LONG: And some really remarkable photographs. They're capturing the difficulty of the mission.
HOLMES: And that was him in that last one that we just had up, exhausted himself, as well. But the conditions he talks about, he said it's hard to put into words.
So, wow, just striking images. He said you never run out, some of the things you see over there. Always striking images to capture.
LONG: A unique opportunity to chat with him.
Let's see. We're going to continue to follow those two whales that have been stranded in the California River, coming up in about 20 minutes from now.
The latest plan - again, the latest plan - to help these beautiful creatures find their way back out to the Pacific, back out to the open sea.
But first ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are as many as 5,000 to 10,000 kids on the streets of Arizona.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: One doctor's mission of mercy for America's forgotten teens. Be inspired by this CNN Hero. That story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Keeping track of troops in Iraq. The military is already using some type of GPS on some soldiers. But what more can be done?
CNN's Brian Todd takes a look in this week's "Tech Effect."
(BEGIN VIDEO)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON (voice-over): A relentless search for two missing American soldiers in Iraq. Could tracking devices placed on their bodies have helped to find them faster?
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: That kind of technology does exist. Obviously, it's not down to fine microchips at this point. But it does exist and is used in this theater by certain forces when they're conducting specialized-type missions.
TODD: Because of the high risk and sensitivity of those missions, we cannot say what units the troops who carry tracking devices are assigned to, what the equipment looks like or where it's placed on the body.
Just about every U.S. military vehicle in Iraq has GPS or another type of electronic tracking device, so their commanders can monitor them. It's called Blue Force Tracking.
Some law enforcement units back home have experimented with chips that give physical data about officers, but don't have tracking signals. U.S. military officials say soldiers and Marines in most regular combat units in Iraq, like the missing soldiers' division, are not outfitted with tracking devices. One reason, the high cost, another, the danger involved if a soldier carrying one gets captured.
MAJ. BOB BEVELACQUA, FORMER ARMY GREEN BERET: That provides certain options for the adversary. If he knows that this is a tracker, and somebody's going to come back and get this tracker, because they think it's associated with a human being, they have the ability to set up an ambush for whatever unit's going to come back and try and find this unit.
TODD (on camera): One option - placing a tracking microchip under a service member's skin. Former U.S. Special Operations officers tell us they believe that's being developed. Current military officials won't comment on that.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO)
HOLMES: America's drug war hits the suburbs in a whole new way. Coming up in 15 minutes, how drug dealers are outfitting homes in quiet, well-to-do neighborhoods into major marijuana-growing centers.
My goodness, Veronica, do you know who your neighbors are?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN DOT-COM DESK, ATLANTA: Yes, you never know. And that's the point there.
Also just after the break, how to be a hero this Memorial Day weekend. All you need are some frequent flyer miles and a minute of your time. That's all.
I'm going to tell you more next from the dot-com desk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The cost of distribution has remained roughly the same. Taxes have remained roughly the same. So, the culprit has got to be ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: So, what is CNN's Ali Velshi blaming? Who is he blaming for the high gas prices?
We're going to have Ali's answer in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
HOLMES: You can't just leave us hanging like that.
All right, a couple of live ...
LONG: Good tease.
HOLMES: It was a good tease, Ali. A couple of things to show you here, not going to tease you with.
On the left there, you're looking at a live picture of New York City, where Fleet Week is getting underway, a celebration of sea services and the folks that serve in the Marines, the Navy. There's a lot of sailors in town.
Also, there on the right, another celebration this week and commencement ceremonies at West Point in New York. Graduates there getting their walking papers, if you will, crossing the stage right now and getting a congratulations from Vice President Dick Cheney, who is in the center of that picture right there, shaking hands with the grads after they collect those papers, as I said. He gave the commencement speech there a short time ago.
Meanwhile, I am T.J. Holmes, and it is 10:30 on the east side here, 7:30 on the West Coast. Good to see you here.
LONG: Good morning. I'm Melissa Long in today for Betty.
HOLMES: Now, we're starting to get a lot of developments to tell you about.
Iraq - first, here's what's happening in the past 24 hours. President Bush signed a bill to pay for military operations in the war zone. It gives him the funds he wanted without any requirement that would bring the U.S. troops home at a certain time.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says, Iraqi and coalition forces killed five terrorists today during raids in the Sadr City section of Baghdad. They also nabbed a suspected terrorist leader with alleged links to Iran. But this Memorial Day weekend brings just horrible news for three more American families. Two U.S. soldiers and a Marine died in Iraq in separate incidents yesterday. Ninety three American service members have been killed so far this month, 3,444 since the start of the Iraq war.
Well, the Fisher House foundation and CNN's warrior one teaming up to help wounded veterans. The auction of the refurbished Hummer helped raise money for the foundation and now warrior one is touring the country. And today it's in Chagrin Falls in Ohio, and that's also where CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is on a great assignment, hanging out there. Hello to you, again, Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hello, good morning. We are definitely on a great assignment. The weather hasn't been too bad. It's been intermittent with rain here on and off. Doesn't matter, lots of people here at the blossom time festival here in Chagrin Falls to really just enjoy as much as I can with three days of this festival going on. We're going to tell you why we're here in just a moment. I want to first go to the weather graphics and show you that we are looking at a lot of rain for Texas once again. It's been really wet across that region. We have seen temperatures that have been warm. Unfortunately, 10 inches of rain across Texas and that really has made a big difference for folks there. More rain is in the forecast and it looks like we're going to be seeing plenty of rain across that region for a good portion of the day.
All right, we're going to come back to weather in a moment, but we want to first introduce you now to Doug, McIntosh joins me and thank you so much for joining me. I understand that your son Chris has been serving overseas on and off. He's now in Miami?
DOUG McINTOSH, FATHER OF ACTIVE-DUTY SOLDIER: That's right.
SCHNEIDER: So seeing this Hummer, warrior one here on display, what kind of feelings does that bring to you?
McINTOSH: Well, it's impressive to see it, of course, and I love what it's doing and the money it's generating for the reason that it is. It is terrific, a great program.
SCHNEIDER: It is raising a lot of money for families of wounded soldiers and to get educated and just to get more rehabilitation after four years to get back into their daily lives.
McINTOSH: Couldn't support that more.
SCHNEIDER: And you were talking about this holiday that a lot of people are saying it's a holiday weekend, but you're afraid maybe the meaning of it is being lost with the word holiday.
McINTOSH: I don't know what holiday we're talking about anymore, but it's important for us to remember that, you know, there are an awful lot of people are making a terrific sacrifice and that's what Memorial Day is about.
SCHNEIDER: You're right. And if your son, Chris, was here right now and he was able to come and see warrior one, what do you think he would say about it?
McINTOSH: I don't dare put words in my son's mouth. He's got very strong and very good opinions all his own.
SCHNEIDER: Right, but it is an impressive vehicle with all the work that's been done to refurbish it.
McINTOSH: Oh, it's terrific, very impressive. It brings it a little bit more home. If you stop and think about what happened to that vehicle and the people who were in it.
SCHNEIDER: You're right. Thank you so much for joining us, Doug.
McINTOSH: Not at all. Glad that you're involved.
SCHNEIDER: Thank you. It's a beautiful town. And Doug was talking about what this vehicle has been through, and it has been through a lot, because actually in April of 2003, this Hummer you see behind me came under heavy fire. It doesn't look like it now, because once it was eventually towed and shipped and literally pushed back to get to the United States, it was completely overhauled last summer on TLC's show "Overhaulin'" and look what they did. Not only did they redo the interior, but they redid the interior as well. It has a sound system, four LCDs in the back, a brand new engine, new paint job, new seats, everything is new. So it is quite a sight to see. The reason it's touring the country through Remax is because it is going to raise money for wounded soldiers' families. Back to you.
HOLMES: So that's certainly good to see. And I just wish the TLC folks would redo my truck like that as well, Bonnie. I'm putting the request in. All right, Bonnie, thank you so much. We'll see you again soon.
LONG: Of course, warrior one all about the veterans this weekend, and you can do your part as well. If you have a pile of frequent flier miles sitting around, haven't used, perfect opportunity to do something for somebody else this weekend.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here's the thing. Let me put this into perspective for you and no guilt trips here. But the way you can look at it is men and women, they put their lives on the line for us, so the rest of us can go on with our lives, right, right?
LONG: Of course, absolutely.
DE LA CRUZ: So whether you spend the holiday weekend at the pool or maybe having a cookout, take a second to make a difference in someone else's life. You can go to cnn.com/cominghome. Scroll down the page to "Fisher House hero miles," and there you will find a web page with a list of 10 airline companies who need those miles. This weekend any miles that you can donate will be matched by the airline, doubling your contributions. Those miles are then given to families of wounded vets so they can fly for free to be with their loved ones. And donating is extremely easy and it only takes a second.
Also, we want to remember those military men and women who gave their lives far from home. This first one is of Sergeant Brandon Michael Read (ph), who died in Iraq in 2004. The family says Brandon is a true American hero and is missed more than anyone can imagine. And Steven Jopek (ph) sent us this picture of his brother, Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, killed in action last August. He was just two weeks from returning home when he died from an IED. Steven writes, he was a fantastic brother and had a very honorable funeral and I wouldn't trade him for any other brother, dead or alive. God bless America. And just looking at that picture, I mean, it really, it really says it all. You can go ahead and send us your I-reports and e-mails about your family's sacrifice. Send them to cnn.com/ireport or you can even e-mail them to ireports@cnn.com.
And there is, of course, as you know, a beautiful tribute on our website as well.
DE LA CRUZ: CNN.com/cominghome is the place.
LONG: Veronica de la Cruz of the dot com desk. Thanks, Veronica. TJ?
HOLMES: Of course there are people in this country doing extraordinary things and we'd like you to know about some of them. In a year-long project, we're bringing you stories that we call "CNN heroes." We found one hero on the streets of Phoenix helping homeless kids. His name is Dr. Randy Christiansen and he is today's CNN hero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I was 10 years old, I decided I would run away from home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been on the streets from 12 to 20.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's scary living on the streets. There's so many drugs and there's violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I sleep in an abandoned house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was taken away from my parents at 10 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dad dropped me off at a dumpster. He told me, don't even think about coming back home.
DR. RANDY CHRISTENSEN: There's as many as 5 to 10,000 kids on the streets of Arizona. We turned our heads. We don't look at them in their eyes. Many of the kids are truly forgotten.
I'm Dr. Randy Christensen. I'm the medical director for the cruising health mobile. We take care of kids on the streets through a medical mobile van. Everything that would be in a regular doctor's office is on the van. All of the kids that are seen by us are seen free of charge.
Did you need anything? Did you need a new backpack?
I've never really been about the money. I went to medical school thinking that I was going to be a surgeon but everything that made me stop and think had to do with children and adolescents. I chose to come out in the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Christensen makes it where people actually want to come back and actually want to get help.
CHRISTENSEN: We pull up in the van and within five to 10 minutes, there's 20 or 30 kids coming out of every different alley or different street. You get out there and you see some of these kids and you talk to them and you give them a little bit of dignity and respect. All of a sudden, they open up. It's like a light bulb goes off and they want to talk and they want to tell you their story.
Let me listen to you. They think you might have pneumonia. Take a deep breath.
They still have that gleam of hope in their eyes. It's that hope that gives you hope. And at the very end, they give you a big hug and they say thank you. That means the most to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And there is a whole lot more about Dr. Randy Christensen and his cruisin' health mobile on our website, cnn.com. You can also nominate your hero for special recognition later this year. All the details at CNN.com/heroes.
LONG: It's 10:38 in the morning at West Point. Hats off to the graduates this morning, 978 cadets graduating today of course after years of hard work. This is of course members of the 2007 military class, West Point's 209th graduating class.
HOLMES: And of course, this is the moment. We're going to try to hang tight and see the hat toss here, which is also a beautiful moment, a staple of a lot of these graduations. That's what it sounds like they might be getting ready for. We're going to have to try and hang tight and catch this scene and try to catch it live. If not, we'll bring it to you on tape here in a little while I'm sure, so we're keeping an eye on that, hoping we can get it here to you live, but they just don't want to cooperate with us today. No, they are on their own time, as well they should be, but congratulations to them. We'll try to get you that picture to you here shortly.
LONG: Also a story we're going to talk about, we mentioned this about 20 minutes ago, a pot bust in the burbs.
HOLMES: Coming up next, is America's increasing security along the border to blame for this. Why an increasing number of drug dealers are using suburban homes for indoor pot farms.
LONG: Plus, saving those whales in California. Experts hope fire hoses will do the trick to get those wayward whales heading back out to sea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: There it is. You got them coming down, you didn't quite see them going up but we were trying to bring you the moment from West Point, these grads, the famous hat toss, a beautiful moment, a couple of them still flying up in the air there, but there they are. Congratulations to the 2007 class, almost 1,000 grads there. Been through it the last several years, and that group there you are looking at are the ones that are depending on -- that this country is depending on to be the future brains of the military, future military leaders. That we have here. This is the moment we were just telling you about a short time ago we were hoping to catch live. We almost got it there but you see the hats go on, you wait for it, you wait for it --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Graduating class of 2007, dismissed!
HOLMES: Get me out of here! Yes, you are dismissed. Kind of a light moment. Of course, they saw the vice president give the commencement address there a short time ago. And a light moment, saying that he pretty much gave amnesty to some of those cadets who are still on restrictions for some behavior there.
LONG: Well, he did say you have to speak with your seniors about exactly what the minor conduct offenses may have been.
HOLMES: So a good day, a light moment there. So congratulations to that class.
LONG: Congratulations, 978 cadets, and actually, the first class to enter the academy since the start of the Iraq war. Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, this morning.
A better product, grown at home. That's usually encouraging, right? You know, better vegetables, better fruit, grown in your own backyard? But now, a new breed of growers is trying to cash in on that thought process, but with a very different kind of crop. Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the outside, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual about this house or this one. Neighbors had no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's shocking, actually.
ROWLANDS These and dozens of other suburban homes police say were sophisticated secret indoor pot farms.
CAPT. DENNIS WERNER (ph), LA SHERIFF'S DEPT: There could literally be hundreds more of these in unsuspecting neighborhoods.
ROWLANDS: Los Angeles County sheriff's Captain Dennis Werner says criminals are moving their operations from the fields inside, where they can control the environment. Instead of just one annual harvest outside, they can now get up to six, plus the potency and therefore price, is much higher with indoor crops like these. In fact, believe it or not, this house was set up to generate millions a year in profits.
WERNER: Every inch of the house, of the living quarters, had been converted into a basically a marijuana grow.
ROWLANDS: Walls were knocked down and replaced with timed lighting and water systems. A ventilation system was put in. Even the electricity into the home had been bypassed to steal power and to hide usage levels that could raise suspicion.
WERNER: They've removed the drywall below the meter and they've tapped into the main electrical lines.
ROWLANDS: 2100 plants were found growing in this house. Each, according to investigators, could easily produce a pound of high-grade marijuana annually. That means this house alone could potentially generate more than $5 million of pot a year. Growing marijuana in suburbia is nothing new. It's the premise of the quirky Showtime drama "Weeds" where a housewife grows and deals pot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just getting started.
SARAH POLAND (ph), DEA: We've seen them in Michigan, New York City, down in Florida. So really, it is sort of across the board.
ROWLANDS: DEA special agent Sarah Poland says a rise in suburban pot houses may be tied to increased border security, forcing operations originally in Mexico and Canada to move to the United States. She also says quiet, relatively crime-free neighborhoods are perfect for organized crime rings to hide from law enforcement and from other criminals. These are expensive homes. Why do it here?
POLAND: Well, what we're seeing is typically when the individuals purchase these homes, they are purchasing them with no money down. These are typically newer neighborhoods where a lot of neighborhoods don't know one another.
ROWLANDS: Most pot house busts are from tips or fires caused by makeshift wiring. Investigators say oftentimes, once they have one house, it leads them to others. In northern California, Federal investigators used real estate records and other documents to uncover a string of about 50 pot houses tied to an Asian crime organization.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a lot of drilling going on, and then they painted the windows in the garage and stuff, you know. They were never here.
ROWLANDS: Investigators say they suspect hundreds, if not thousands of suburban homes are currently being used to grow pot, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue for drug dealers and a new element of crime to suburbia. Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: Another reason to know your neighbors.
HOLMES: Yes. I'm going to go introduce myself today.
LONG: Hello, nice to meet you. Here are some cookies or jams, or whatever.
HOLMES: And see what they give me in return.
LONG: Yeah, right.
Turning crude oil into useable gasoline. I hope they give you jam back. Why that process is to blame for the high prices at the pump. But why isn't anything being done about it? We're going to go in search of answers coming up about 30 minutes from now.
HOLMES: But first, we're doing some whale watching in Sacramento. We've been doing it for seems like a couple weeks now. We got new details on those wayward mammals, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Some wicked weather this holiday weekend. At least five deaths are being blamed this morning on severe flooding in central Texas. Among those, five and six-year-old brothers who died when their car was swept off the road. One person is still missing. Tornadoes near Killen, Texas, injured six people. As many as 100 homes and other buildings were damaged. Texas Governor Perry is putting emergency personnel on alert if there is more severe weather.
HOLMES: This is pretty severe here, hail and high water. Storms in Kansas produced hail more than an inch in diameter. Parts of the state also got hit with flash flooding last night, some rivers, creeks still rising from rainfall earlier in the week and that looks pretty bad there, but take a look at this. This here is in Minnesota. Some areas got hail the size of tennis balls. And our thanks to one of our I-reporters, Sandip Bhakta of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, for providing that I-report video to us.
LONG: I don't know about you, but I've within following the travels of the wayward whales over the last couple weeks.
HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE)
LONG: The search is on hold actually for the weekend, for this holiday weekend. And of course, we're all pushing for them to get back where they belong, so the whales are going to have to in circles essentially for the weekend without minimal interruption, but come Tuesday, the attempts are back on. Marine scientists will be using high-powered water hoses to try to drive them down river. The whales as you know swam into the Sacramento River nearly two weeks ago now. They headed back down river about a week ago, but then they stalled at the Rio Vista bridge. Right now the wounded whales are still about 70 miles from the saltwater, 70 miles from the ocean.
HOLMES: Taking you to your post office now, your local post office. There is something new there, an invasion of "Star Wars" characters. Yes. Some postal employees --
LONG: Is he in "Star wars," too? At the post office when you go?
HOLMES: Yes. From now on, it's a new uniform for the U.S. Postal Service. They all have to war "Star Wars" uniforms. No. They took it a bit far here and it's all in good spirits. The grand unveiling of the new "Star Wars" stamps, 15-stamp collection, issued in honor of the movie's 30th anniversary. One character is going to be available as a single stamp.
LONG: And you have an issue with this.
HOLMES: Well, I like Vader. I don't know what that says about me that I like Darth Vader, but Yoda is the guy who got his own stamp, and he did beat out Darth Vader in that voting. So I'm just a Darth Vader fan, I don't know why.
LONG: You're entitled to your opinion.
HOLMES: He became around and became a big guy later.
LONG: When's the last time you filled up your gas tank, what'd you pay?
HOLMES: I think it was $50, $60.
LONG: OK, about $2.30 a gallon, right? That's what most people are saying.
HOLMES: About $3.
LONG: What'd I say, two? I meant $3.20, yeah. Sick of the gas high cost? I think everybody is. Have you heard of something called E-85?
HOLMES: I actually have one of those flex fuel vehicles. It's a mixture of ethanol and gasoline. It's cheaper than traditional petroleum, but once you hit the road, is it ending up costing you more in the long-run? Those details up next. You need to see this.
LONG: But first, today's lawn and garden forecast.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: Next, feel what it's like to experience a shuttle launch. Why NASA hopes this new ride will help create the astronauts of tomorrow.
HOLMES: Also, the main source of those high prices at the pump, oil supplies, taxes, consumer demand, what is it? You might be surprised to find out that answer. That's coming up at the top of the hour.
But first, check this out. All right, it is that time, the time for us to check in with Kiran Chetry for a look at what's coming up on a special holiday edition of "American Morning" of course on Monday. Hello there dear lady. What's you got going on?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nice to see you. I'll be working. So will you and we have a lot to talk about. What people are thinking about over the weekend -- if you took a road trip, how much did it end up costing you? Are gas prices actually putting the brakes on your summer vacation plans? We're going to talk about that. Even the big companies are trying to do more to cut back. In fact, this week we talked to UPS, rolling out new hybrid trucks.
Also, TJ, have you heard of this E-85 gas? It goes for nearly $1 less per gallon than regular unleaded. So it got us thinking, is ethanol really a bargain? Meaning how many miles per gallon do you actually get on ethanol? We put our Greg Hunter on the case. Check out what he found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They used a new Chevy Tahoe fueled with E-85. They tested it the same way they do all vehicles, using special meters on a predetermined track. Their findings, a whopping 27 percent reduction in fuel economy with E-85. In other words, you get fewer miles on the same amount of fuel.
DAVID CHAMPION, SR. DIR., AUTOMOTIVE TESTING: The amount of energy in a gallon of E-85 is substantially less than the energy in a gallon of gasoline. It's just sheer chemistry.
HUNTER: So you get less gas mileage.
CHAMPION: You get less gas mileage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go. So you got to figure out when you look at the prices, is it worth it? Greg is also on the road. The gas gauge challenge, he's calling it. We're going to go along with him as he drives from the Midwest to Myrtle Beach. So that should be interesting. I think he just wants to go on a road trip, TJ but of course, he's going to see how much it ended up costing him.
HOLMES: That's a tough story for me because I drive one of those E-85 Tahoes. That's not good news for me.
CHETRY: Oh, so you have flex fuel? You can decide which one.
HOLMES: I have the flex fuel, but now hearing that, it doesn't sound like I'm getting a good deal, even if I use that E-85. So it's not a good story for me. I'll tune in, for sure.
Also, I know Memorial Day, of course, certainly going to have a lot of tributes going on that day, as well.
CHETRY: That's right. In fact John Roberts is going to be live on the Washington mall at the World War II memorial. And also, I had a chance to talk with historian Douglas Brinkley. His fascinating, new look at the diaries of Ronald Reagan and the insight behind one of the most pivotal presidencies in our nation's history. Doug Brinkley and I talked also about one key diary entry. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Also from the journal entry of the assassination attempt, he went on to write whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can. How did that brush with death change him?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: Many times people say Ronald Reagan didn't have a friend. But when you read the diaries, you feel he had a friend in God, in the sense that that's who he's communicating to all the time. And I was surprised by that element of it, how much he used the diaries almost like a confessional booth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Very interesting and a lot more from Douglas Binkley as well as the Reagan diaries Monday, TJ on AMERICAN MORNING.
HOLMES: Well, we are certainly looking forward to it on Monday. Have a good weekend.
CHETRY: You too.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
