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"Jena 6" Court Hearing; Delaware Campus Shootings; State Department: Blackwater USA Resumes Security Work in Iraq

Aired September 21, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in today for Kyra Phillips.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: First, reports of a small plane crash in south Florida. And now you're seeing this image, this graphic, that shows this plane crash, just as you're also seeing instruction there on I- 95. That's, indeed, the case.

The southbound lanes of I-95, we're being told, between Commercial Boulevard and Cyprus Creek Road (ph), which is the heart of Fort Lauderdale, a very, very busy area and not too far from the Fort Lauderdale airport, we don't have much information on the plane, just that it's a small plane crash right near the Fort Lauderdale airport. It's also a small private airstrip, so it could be that it took off or was trying to land at any one of those locations before this crash took place.

We have crews on the way to the scene there in Fort Lauderdale, just south of I-95 between Commercial Boulevard and Cyprus Creek Road (ph). When we get more information we'll bring that to you -- Don.

LEMON: And also, we have something developing, Fredricka, with the Jena 6 case. One day after thousands of people marched in Jena, Louisiana, to support him and five other teens, Mychal Bell could get out of jail. It depends on what happens at a bond hearing, a bond hearing that's going on right now.

With the very latest on that we go to CNN's Sean Callebs.

But also some other news, and this is regarding a hearing over recusal (ph) in this case. Tell us what just happened.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Let's back up just a little bit and set the stage for how we got to where we are now.

Of course, you know Mychal Bell, who is 17, was initially tried as an adult. Well, that ruling was thrown out by an appeals court.

Now, right now inside the courthouse behind me, we know that Bell's defense team is trying to get a bond motion approved. They would like to get him released from the jail where he's been held for the past nine months. But before this bond hearing began, there was a recusal motion by the defense trying to get the attorney, J.P. -- the judge, rather, J.P. Mauffray, who has overseen every aspect of Bell's trial so far, they wanted him removed from the case. Well, Judge Yeager (ph) from a neighboring parish overheard those arguments this morning and a short while ago ruled Mauffray will indeed stay on the case.

Now, this is someone who has turned down bond in the past for Mychal Bell, but back then he was being treated as an adult.

We know that Bell's family is inside. We also got a more up-to- date picture, look at what the 17-year-old looks like now.

A mug shot was handed out a bit earlier. We had been showing you for the past several weeks a picture taken of Bell some time ago. It was actually a high school football picture. He is now 5'10 and 180 pounds, and he has been in this lockup now, Don, for nine months.

We have no idea how long the bond hearing will take, but theoretically Bell could be released from custody today. He doesn't have to go back to the LaSalle correctional facility where he has been held. There is a detention facility in the basement of this courthouse, and if indeed he makes bond today, he could be processed downstairs and be released. We know his mother brought clothes in for him, so certainly she is optimistic -- Don.

LEMON: Yes. And you know, I had lots to ask you, but you know we have some developing news, so I'll save it for the next time. So thank you for that update. We'll check back in with you.

WHITFIELD: Back to south Florida now. You're looking at traffic cam pictures there over I-95, southern Florida. And you see the rescue and the emergency squads, and you can also see the result of some pretty severe backups there.

Southbound lanes of I-95 in Fort Lauderdale between Commercial Boulevard and Cyprus Creek Road (ph), always an extremely busy location, but this time the emergency response is responding to a small plane that has crashed, we understand, right there on I-95. And this location not very far, only a few exits away, from the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, as well as a nearby private airfield where mostly smaller planes would take off.

But we don't know the origin of this small plane, whether it was coming in for a landing, whether there was trouble, whether it was taking off. We're looking into all of that. But we just wanted to bring you these latest pictures from a traffic cam there at I-95.

More when we get it.

LEMON: Also some weather affecting the Florida area, as well as the Gulf Coast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Well, now to Delaware, where two college students are shot and a university campus is in lockdown. Police at Delaware State University say two people have been identified as persons of interest and one is being interviewed.

For the latest, let's go to CNN's Kathleen Koch in Dover -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we had a press conference not long ago, and they gave us a blow-by-blow account, campus police did, of how they believe this incident occurred. Now, according to them, last night a group of some eight to 10 students here at Delaware State University left something called The Village Cafe, apparently part of the school cafeteria, sometime between midnight and 1:00 a.m.

They ended up in a pedestrian mall area on campus between something called Grossly Hall and the Memorial Hall sports arena. Then shortly before 1:00 a.m., someone produced a gun.

Police say that four to six shots were fired, and that two 17- year-old students from the D.C. area were struck. A young woman was struck twice by bullets. Police say that she's in serious condition. A young male student was shot once. He's in stable condition.

And they have two persons of interest in this shooting. Police say that they have interviewed one. They are searching for the other.

They also say that they're searching for a male suspect. Now, they wouldn't say if that suspect is the same as that second person of interest they're looking for.

The campus right now, the campus, this 400-acre campus, is on lockdown. It's being searched by police. No classes.

Now, earlier we talked to some of the 2,500 students who live off campus, getting their reaction to the shootings and their concerns about their classmates who are in lockdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS REUGRE, DELAWARE STATE UNIV. JUNIOR: I never thought it would happen here, and here it is, you know. It just -- you know, it teaches me a lesson, you know, just to be more safe and watch the people I surround myself with, you know.

KOCH: And the shooter is still on the loose.

REUGRE: Wow. I mean, I thought he was caught, but, oh, man. That's even more frightening. Wow.

FRANS DELIMA, DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY SENIOR: I just talked to my friend a couple of minutes ago. She's still scared. She hasn't slept since 1:00. And she's an R.A. She had to walk in the hallway and make sure everybody was inside a resident hall. So they're all frightened in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KOCH: Now, there are some 1,200 students who are on campus currently in lockdown, according to authorities. They aren't allowed to roam campus. They're escorting them by police to the cafeteria if they need to get something to eat. They're also making arrangements for them to leave campus for the weekend if they choose.

As far as where this gunman might be, the spokesman for the campus, Carlos Holmes, said, "We hope he is not on campus. We think it's a pretty safe bet that he's not, what with the increased police presence." But with what happened at Virginia Tech back in April, he said, "We're just taking no chances."

Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kathleen Koch, thanks so much.

LEMON: Police in Boston say 19-year-old Star Simpson (ph) is lucky she's just in jail and not in a morgue. She appeared in a court this afternoon. Officers armed with submachine guns arrested Simpson (ph) this morning and charged her with disorderly conduct. They say she showed up at Boston's Logan airport with a fake bomb. The woman, an M.I.T. college student, reportedly says it was art, an art project.

We'll have a live report coming up from CNN's Dan Lothian, who is in Boston.

WHITFIELD: And we're continuing to work our sources in south Florida because of this scene that we can show you right here from a traffic cam there in the southbound lanes of I-95 in south Florida, in Fort Lauderdale in particular, of a small plane that has crashed there. You can see that it's also causing quite the backup in both directions.

We have crews on the way to get more details as to what happened.

LEMON: They carry automatic weapons in Iraq in the combat zone, but they're not soldiers. Just who works for Blackwater and why does Iraq's government have a problem with the way they do business?

We'll explain, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Two developing stories happening here. Both of them, Fredricka, involving plane crashes.

WHITFIELD: Right.

LEMON: The one on the left is a new one. Fred has been telling you about the one on the right. That was on the right.

But this one is in New Smyrna Beach. It's happening -- a small single-engine aircraft crashed on the ground at New Smyrna Airport but did not make it to the runway. That's what we're being told.

The pilot was a lone person on board and is being transported to a local hospital for injuries. It's not known whether or not that pilot is going to be airlifted. But you're looking at the images there from that crash courtesy of our affiliate WKMG.

Again, this is a new one. Another plane crash to tell you about. We're going to check back on this one.

In the meantime, Fred is going to update us on the one in Fort Lauderdale.

WHITFIELD: Right. On the right-hand side of your screen there, you're seeing an incredible backup there on I-95 because of a small plane crashing there. It's difficult from this tower cam -- traffic cam kind of image to be able to exactly make out the wreckage, but possibly it's at the center of the screen between those two flashing light-type emergency vehicles.

It's unclear exactly why this accident took place, but it's only a few exits away from the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, as well as a smaller, more private airstrip, as well.

Chad Myers is in the weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

LEMON: They're back on the job in Baghdad, civilian contractors from an American company with guns and a lot of latitude. Blackwater USA was ordered out of Iraq earlier this week after a shooting that resulted in several civilian deaths.

Iraqis were outraged by this. The U.S. State Department now says Blackwater is again providing security for diplomats as of today and will likely be back to normal work status this weekend.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly discussed the matter with Iraq's prime minister. The shooting is still being investigated.

Our Suzanne Simons has been following Blackwater and the other unique private security situations in Iraq. She joins us now with the very latest on that.

What's going on?

SUZANNE SIMONS, CNN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Right. Well, you know, I'm told by a high-placed industry source that as of tomorrow, Blackwater is back to operations as normal in Iraq. And there's still no resolution, of course.

You'll remember a couple of days ago the Iraqi Interior Ministry was calling for all of these contractors to be kicked out of the country. Well, clearly, that's not something that's easily going to happen, simply because the State Department has the need to be able to get around in Iraq and they can't do it without security. It's such a sensitive issue. Now, once again, it's a very delicate balance of moving people around, their safety in country, and still, in fact, leaving the impression that -- well, and telling the world, not leaving the impression, that the Iraqi government is in charge. That's the problem.

LEMON: OK. Hearings today from the Democratic Policy Committee on this contractor. Results of that? What came out of that?

SIMONS: Well, you know, they've had hearings on this issue before, nothing that's gotten as much attention as the hearings today.

Let's just take a quick listen to what was said there.

Maybe we'll do that in a second.

LEMON: Yes.

SIMONS: We'll do that in a second. All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY SCAHILL, WROTE BOOK ON BLACKWATER: We're in the midst of the most radically privatized war in this nation's history. Right now in Iraq there are 630 companies on the U.S. government payroll. According to the Government Accountability Office, there are over 170 private military companies like Blackwater operating in Iraq.

Right now the U.S. military is the junior partner in the coalition that's occupying Iraq. There are about 180,000 private contractors, about 170,000. We don't know with the surge, et cetera -- U.S. troops.

That's an extraordinary development. And right now what we're seeing is a situation where the administration is using these forces from the private sector to circumvent a draft, to wage an unpopular war. Instead of going to war or occupying a country with a coalition of willing nations, they have purchased a coalition of billing corporations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONS: OK, so let me just set this up for you and tell you why it's important.

Senator Webb was at this hearing. You just heard from Jeremy Scahill, who wrote a book on Blackwater, really detailing every bad thing that has ever been associated with the company.

LEMON: Right.

SIMONS: Now, it's an election year coming up. You're going to see a sense over the course of next year Democrats who really haven't been able to show a lot of progress on Iraq yet have now finally found something that they can hold up.

LEMON: OK.

SIMONS: A lot of the people who were invited to that hearing were people who have clearly been vocal about anti-Blackwater issues in the past.

LEMON: But it's not just Blackwater, right?

SIMONS: Right.

LEMON: There are other companies that are involved in this.

SIMONS: There are a lot of other companies.

Get this -- this is another thing making headlines today that we first reported to you about a year and a half ago. There's a company called Aegis Security Services...

LEMON: OK.

SIMONS: ... which is headed up by a guy by the name of Tim Spicer. Now, Tim Spicer has had some issues in Africa. He's been involved in some scandals there.

He nearly brought down -- well, he was involved in a scandal that nearly brought down the British foreign minister a few years back in the '90s. Then there was this video that surfaced, and this video was reportedly taken by different Aegis contractors in Iraq.

We're looking at it now. And you can -- what you're looking at is video that was actually set to Elvis music.

You can see the guns there as they're pointing at the cars around them, and then they're firing sort of -- it seems randomly at these cars. Now, some of them stop. We don't know if people were killed, we don't know if people were hurt.

LEMON: Goodness.

SIMONS: There was an investigation launched after this. And the Army looked into this, and they found that they did not do anything wrong, that they have a contract that stipulates you can do things like this if it means, you know, doing -- fulfilling the goals of the contract, which is protecting whoever you're accompanying.

So these are the kinds of issues that we're going to see a lot more of I think in the next year. And once again, you have to ask why more hasn't been done for accountability issues. It's the responsibility really of the government, isn't it?

LEMON: Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth. So this is all really about accountability.

SIMONS: It's about accountability and getting Congress to act on issues that they have been talking about for a long time. There hasn't been a lot of action on it.

LEMON: Suzanne Simons, thank you.

SIMONS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on the spot at an NRA conference. How did he explain his lawsuit against the gun industry?

We'll tell you, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the world CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Kyra Phillips who is off today. You're in the NEWSROOM.

Two close calls for two pilots in two separate accidents, both in Florida, to tell you about.

First, you're looking at some live traffic cam images out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where a small plane crashed right on I-95 near the Commercial Boulevard exit. Apparently the pilot of this small plane had just taken off from the Ft. Lauderdale executive airport, which is the smaller kind of private airstrip right next to the international airport.

And somehow this cargo flight, we're being told it's described as, did not gain altitude, and the pilot declared May Day and then went down on I-95 at Commercial Boulevard. That one pilot, we understand, received some minor injuries.

Now, let's tell you about the other plane accident taking place in New Smyrna, Florida. In that case, very similar in that the pilot declared that there was a problem with the plane and it was an unspecified problem. He was cleared to land on any of the runways, but apparently the plane then crashed into a tree and, again, that pilot very lucky to only sustain a few injuries.

More on both of those plane crashes as we get it in Florida.

LEMON: Absolutely.

Under fire in front of the National Rifle Association. Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani took flack about his stance on gun control at the NRA conference in Washington today. Giuliani was one of six candidates on the conference agenda, five republicans and one democrat.

CNN's Brianna Keilar joins us now with all the details on that.

Hi Brianna. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there Don. Yes, Bill Richardson, the only democratic candidate to appear today. He appeared in a taped statement and he actually gets an "A" grade from the NRA actually better than some of his GOP counterparts. But really the two candidates to watch today were Rudy Giuliani as well as Mitt Romney. And not just because Giuliani actually took a cell phone call from his wife in the middle of his speech.

I should mention this was kind of an odd moment. Or because Romney was the only top tier GOP candidate who did not appear in person, but it's because they are really both digging themselves out of the hole, out of holes that they have created by their past statements and actions regarding gun control and gun rights.

Giuliani tried to play up where he agrees with the NRA. He emphasized reducing crime by using existing laws, but he's still far from being in line with NRA priorities. In 2000, as mayor of New York, he actually initiated a law against a number of gun manufacturers and distributors. And today he back pedaled saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that lawsuit has gone in a direction that I probably don't agree with at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Without naming Giuliani, John McCain in his statement slammed him for that lawsuit, but John McCain himself gets a C-plus rating from the NRA. The NRA is firmly against his campaign finance reform efforts seeing him as a threat to the influence the NRA has on lawmakers. And that's where Mitt Romney and his taped comments took aim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'll ask Congress to repeal the McCain/Feingold law which sought to impose restrictions on the first amendment rights of groups like the NRA to advocate for issues we care about. Some parts have already been declared unconstitutional. We ought to get rid of the entire bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You may recall that Romney had a bit of an embarrassment back in April when he talked about being a hunter pretty of all of his life, and then his campaign came out saying that actually he'd only been hunting a couple of times.

Now also as governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed a very tough restriction on assault weapons into law.

And then lastly, Fred Thompson, former senator from Tennessee. He told the crowd that he'd recently been to a gun show, and then he told them to simply check his record. And if you do look at that record, you will see that during his time in Congress, his voting record for gun rights against gun control is stronger than his top tier competitors, Don.

LEMON: All right. CNN's Brianna Keilar. Brianna, thank you for your report.

And more news on Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who was ordered held without bond today in California. Hsu was returned to the state from Colorado to face felony theft charges dating back 15 years. Yesterday, a New York court charged him with swindling investors out of at least $60 million and using the money to make illegal political donations.

WHITFIELD: A longtime senator said to be bugged by the FBI. It may be a first, but it all stems from a corruption investigation in Alaska.

CNN's Joe Johns reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a remarkable situation if you think about it, the idea of the government eavesdropping on the longest-serving republican in the U.S. senate.

A source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN and the Associated Press that the government has tape recorded conversations between Senator Ted Stevens and a disgraced oil executive who has already pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators, but whatever the senator may have said on the tape has not been made public.

The former executive's name is Bill Allen. He used to run an oilfield services company called Vico. Allen is a government star witness in a wide-ranging corruption probe involving a number of Alaska politicians. Stevens hasn't been charged with anything.

So what makes Bill Allen a star witness? It helps to have a guy on the inside. Allen is the guy on the inside. In the trial of a former Alaska state house speaker, Allen said he and Orvico helped remodel Senator Steven's house in Girdwood, Alaska.

It's clear the feds are looking at the house. They executed a search warrant there and they've interviewed contractors who worked on it, but Stevens said he paid all the bills he received. There's no evidence of a quid pro quo that Allen or Vico got anything in return from Stevens in exchange for any of the work on the house.

But legal observers say the alleged free services raised a lot of questions for the senator. There's a potential IRS issue. There's also an illegal gratuity statute on the books. But, again, Senator Stevens denies wrongdoing and hasn't been charged with anything. His office declined comment. His attorney, Brendan Sullivan, has not returned our calls.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Mychal Bell, one of the Jena six, and the only one behind bars, well that could change today. Right now his lawyers are working to win him at least some freedom.

Bell's attorney, Carol Powell Lexing, will join us as soon as that wraps up, that hearing wraps up.

Nooses, symbols of hate that helped put tiny Jena, Louisiana, in the spotlight in the first place. They reappeared nearby last night as demonstrators from yesterday's march headed home.

Two teens were arrested for allegedly hanging the nooses from a pickup truck and driving it around so people could see it. 18-year- old driver was charged with inciting a riot and driving while intoxicated.

CNN's Heidi Collins talked with the mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana who found himself in a potentially tense situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACQUES ROY, ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA: At that point, I arrived there still in pajamas actually, and I addressed the crowd when I got out of the vehicle. The crowd immediately said you know there's the mayor and they recalled from our discussions during the day who I was, and we had a very frank discussion, a big huddle, if you can imagine, of about 200 people, and I addressed the crowd and told them that this was nearly unforgivable, that in 2007 the seriousness of a symbol of hate of that nature wouldn't be recognized by kids even 15 and older.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the mayor added he had a good discussion with the demonstrators and that their last impression of his town would be their talk, not the nooses.

WHITFIELD: Suspect number six in the O.J. Simpson case has turned himself in. Charles Bruce Ehrlich faces charges of armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and kidnapping. His lawyer says Ehrlich was an acquaintance of Simpson. A judge set bail at $32,000.

Six men, including Simpson are accused of bursting into a Las Vegas hotel room and stealing sports memorabilia at gunpoint.

LEMON: All right. We eat about a million of them every single day. Do you eat them?

WHITFIELD: Not anymore. I used to.

LEMON: But the Twinkie's ingredients sound like a science ingredient. WHITFIELD: I think that's why I stopped eating them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL, AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN: The Twinkie one of the finest examples of modern engineering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There you go. The treasure Twinkie unwrapped. Every once in a while a Twinkie is good. Are you sure you want to know what's inside?

WHITFIELD: It's the cream that I'm worried about.

LEMON: OK. We're going to check in with entertainment in just a little bit.

The CNN NEWSROOM, back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This will bring you back a little bit if you can remember it. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" won best picture at the Oscars. The price of a postage stamp had just gone up to four cents and the minimum wage was a buck an hour. It was 1958 and the first year of the Monterey Jazz Festival. There was a young actor. His name was Clint Eastwood. You know him. He decided to check it out.

It's time to check in with the well known actor, director and our very own Brooke Anderson. They're live at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Go ahead, Brooke, make our day.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Don. You know he's an Oscar award winning movie icon, a living legend, and a staunch performer, an avid pianist himself and a staunch supporter of jazz preservation. Clint Eastwood is here.

Good to see you.

CLINT EASTWOOD: Good to see you, Brooke.

ANDERSON: It's been 50 years since the first Monterey Jazz Festival and you were here for that festival.

EASTWOOD: I was here for that.

ANDERSON: You sat where? Over here?

EASTWOOD: I sat right over there, yes, and this program was kind of the same formula that we used then. They had the same colors and everything, and the trumpet on the chair and everything is kind of the same. We have a lot of the same players, an awful lot of the same players, which is a tribute to the longevity of it.

ANDERSON: Sonny Rawlins, Jim Hall. Exactly. And early 70s, you were here to film part of your directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me."

EASTWOOD: That's right. We did "Play Misty" here. We did a whole sequence here during the rhythm and blues show during the day on Saturday, and then we did at night, too, with Cannonball Adderley and his group.

ANDERSON: I'm sure the festival brings back a lot of memories for you. And you know, why is jazz to you such an important art form and really such a priority of yours to help preserve it and promote it?

EASTWOOD: You know, I don't know. I mean, who could say why anybody likes anything. You just like -- but I have always liked it. I liked it as a kid because it was non-mainstream. My mother liked jazz before me. She turned me on to Fats Waller when I was a kid and all of those kind of players, and then I grew up with Louie Jordan and all those groups and it was a fabulous era for music.

ANDERSON: You're receiving quite an honor this weekend because of your commitment to jazz. Diana Krall presenting you with honorary degree from the Berkeley College of Music tomorrow night. How does that stack up with all of the Oscars and all of the accolades you have received?

EASTWOOD: Well, it stacks up nice. I have been to the Berkeley School of Music in Boston when I was shooting "Mystic River" back there and I looked over the place, but never did I realize I might be graduating from there.

ANDERSON: Quite an honor.

EASTWOOD: That's a better way than having to attend class.

ANDERSON: Certainly is. And speaking of requests "Mystic River," you have composed the musical scores for a number of your films including that one and also the "Bridges Of Madison County." As I said, you are an accomplished jazz pianist yourself.

EASTWOOD: Well not necessarily accomplished but you know a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, but a little bit of knowledge works for you. Sometimes you go for a simple score line when you know the difference between "A" sharp and "B" flat and not too much else. So anyway, yes, I sit down and jot stuff down now and then, and it's fun to do.

ANDERSON: You're also working on a documentary about this festival and its legacy to be released next year and you're working on a film in L.A. right now. Clint, what drives you to keep going? You could just kick back, play golf every day.

EASTWOOD: Yes, but who needs to do that. I love playing golf, by the way. I really enjoy the game, but I don't want to have to do it. I like to do it in my spare time, but, yes, working on a film in Los Angeles with Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich and we're then -- and I don't know if there's going to be any jazz in that. It's a '20s movie. Maybe there will be some '20s jazz. We'll see. ANDERSON: And you are a veteran actor. You've been in Hollywood for many years and you have seen the changes that celebrity has gone through. What do you think about the state of celebrity now and the obsession with all things celebrity?

EASTWOOD: It's crazy now. I don't understand quite why it ever got to that -- to the state it's in now. It seems like -- I think it's the information age. There's so many information outlets. There's so much photography being used up. People are making celebrities out of people who haven't even done things.

ANDERSON: Right. Waste of talent.

EASTWOOD: To some degree. I don't understand it, but then that's not for me to worry about.

ANDERSON: It's pretty baffling for a lot of us. Well, you are a true talent. Look forward to seeing you throughout the weekend.

EASTWOOD: OK Brooke.

ANDERSON: Clint Eastwood, great to see you again.

EASTWOOD: Nice to see you.

ANDERSON: Thanks so much.

EASTWOOD: Yes.

ANDERSON: All right. And the Monterey Jazz Festival, a nonprofit event, Don, it has poured hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars into jazz education over the years.

Back to you.

LEMON: Very good cause. All right. And a very good festival. Thank you so much for that, Brooke.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, more on a plane crash in Florida. We're starting to hear from eyewitnesses now on the ground. The latest from there straight ahead. The news keeps coming, and we'll keep bringing it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, this is going to be very familiar to you because American kids have carried them in their lunch boxes for decades, including you. You know it. But do you know exactly what a Twinkie is made of? Well, you should. Then again, maybe not, because you will lose your appetite.

Again, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta found out, the snack is sweet, but it's hardly simple.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: With more than 500 million sold every year, chances are pretty good, you've tasted a Twinkie. But have you ever wondered what's in one?

We asked Christopher Kimball, host of "America's Test Kitchen," to deconstruct the Twinkie for us.

CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL, AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN: The Twinkie is one of the finest examples of modern engineering. Here's why. It started out in 1930 as basically a sponge cake with the basic ingredients, milk, butter, eggs, et cetera and they filled it with cream. It lasted maybe well maybe a couple days, three days on the market. Hence, the problem. How do you create something that's going to be shelf-stable, not going to change over time?

GUPTA: To do that, Hostess replaced the egg yolks with lecithin.

KIMBALL: It's an emulsifier like egg yolk which means it takes lots of ingredients and sort of lets them blend together.

GUPTA: Cellulose gum replaces fat.

KIMBALL: It brings in moisture. It holds moisture and gives you that mouth feel you get from fat.

GUPTA: Artificial colors take the place of natural ones.

KIMBALL: Those colors actually come from oddly enough, the petrol chemical injury from benzene and aniline and other chemicals which in quantity is actually poisonous, about in the small quantity it is used here the FDA has approved it.

GUPTA: In response, Interstate Bakeries, maker of Hostess products, says the core ingredients have been the same for decades, flour, sugar, water. Adding that deconstructing the Twinkie is like trying to deconstruct the universe. Some people look at sky and think it is beautiful. Others try to count the stars.

Urban legend would have you believe a Twinkie can last for years. Hostess says, just 25 days.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: 25 days, is that all?

LEMON: Good.

WHITFIELD: Well, be sure to catch Dr. Sanjay Gupta's report in its entirety, the CNN special investigations unit "Fed Up, America's Killer Diet Yet," the first CNN documentary in high-definition. That's this Saturday and Sunday 8 eastern.

LEMON: And Fredricka, happening right now, we're following a plane crash in Florida. Starting to hear from eyewitnesses on the ground. The latest from there. Straight ahead.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Dan Rather was a public face of CBS News for more than a generation. Now, 2 1/2 years after he was forced to step down as evening news anchor, he's seeking $70 million in the lawsuit against his former employer. CBS says the suit is baseless, but Rather says he was made a scapegoat after the network retracted a controversial story that angered the Bush administration.

Rather discussed his suit with CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RATHER, FORMER CBS NEWS ANCHOR: I had a contract. They had obligations under the contract, and they didn't fulfill the obligations of that contract.

For me, it's not about the money. It is about this principle of what we're going to do with our democracy.

Now, so if, if the time comes that there's money as a settlement, the substantial part of that will go to such outfits as the investigative editors, reporters and investigative editors association committed to protect journalists because I would like the legacy of this lawsuit to be not that I made tons of money out of it but that we kept the little flame, the flickering flame of hard-nosed investigative reporting alive.

Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say, democracy cannot survive, much less thrive, with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I was riveted last night the whole time. I just sat there watching the entire thing and tonight on "LARRY KING" he talks with another media figure, Joy Behar of "The View." That's on "LARRY KING LIVE." It's tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

In the meantime, the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

If it gets any stronger and it probably will, it will be Jerry, the 10th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Even it stays plain old tropical depression number 10, it will still be a major rainmaker and New Orleans could get a major soaking.

WHITFIELD: And warnings are in effect from the Florida panhandle to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Our Chad Myers has the latest from the CNN severe weather center straight ahead.

Hello again, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

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