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Bangladesh Devastated by Cyclone; Thanksgiving Crunch: Americans Travel in Record Numbers; Cops Snare Gang Members in Augusta, Georgia; Forced to Get Shots: Court Hearings on Immunizations; Vets Battle V.A. for Benefits
Aired November 17, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had one case that two guys went and robbed a convenience store and shot the clerk. And the next day, they sold us the gun that they shot the clerk with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's pretty bold, don't you think? But unfortunately for those guys, they sold the guns in a fake tattoo parlor.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the travel rush has begun, but what are the airlines doing to keep you on the move? We'll find out.
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN MIRANTO, HUSBAND: Every time I talked to him, I couldn't help myself but start balling and saying what an adult he acted like and what he actually did in saving his mother's life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes, too small to drive but big enough to save mama's life. Yes, little heroes. We'll explain this story. You'll want to stick around for it. It is a nice one to hear on a Saturday morning.
And from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is the CNN NEWSROOM. It is Saturday, November 17th.
Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
DE LA CRUZ: And I'm Veronica De La Cruz.
Good morning. I'm in today for Betty Ngyuen.
It's nice to see you.
HOLMES: Good to have you back home here in Atlanta.
DE LA CRUZ: Oh, it's nice to be back. Everybody has been so great. I did miss you guys.
HOLMES: Good to see you. Good to see you.
DE LA CRUZ: All right. Let's go ahead and get caught up now with news from around the world -- T.J.
HOLMES: Yes. It's another night of uncertainty for thousands in Bangladesh. They are still looking for loved ones missing since a major cyclone ripped through the southern part of the country. The Associated Press now quoting government officials who say more than 1,700 have died.
CNN's Dan Rivers is in southern Bangladesh. He's getting a good look at that destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've spent much of the day trying to push further south into the epicenter of this cyclone. As we've moved further south through the countryside of Bangladesh, the destruction has been getting more and more severe.
We've been seeing an increasing number of homes that have been destroyed. Either they've been simply blown away by the force of those terrific winds, 240 kilometers an hour, 150 miles an hour, but many homes have actually been destroyed by falling trees. And we're seeing an increasing number of falling trees the more we go south, the more trees we've seen. Some of them that were lying across the road. Some huge trees which have been completely uprooted, ripping great holes out of the highway that leads down here.
We haven't seen much evidence so far of any great need for food. What the main need seems to be at the moment from what we've seen in the area that we've driven through is for shelter, that people are having to make due in their homes or the debris of their homes that have been destroyed. Not every house has been destroyed either. Some houses have been left completely intact, while the neighboring one has been smashed into tiny pieces.
So it's very random, the destruction here. But certainly, those that caught the full force of the cyclone-force winds have been completely ripped away.
So now a huge international operation is beginning to get under way. We're waiting to find out what commitment the United States will put in in terms of sending in possibly the marines.
We also have seen the Bangladesh army in operation here as well. But, clearly, the main need will be for the international aid organizations to get down here to help with temporary shelter, to help with sanitation, with health. And, of course, beyond this southern point that we've reached, there is an unknown picture of the level of destruction. We understand it is very, very severe indeed.
Dan Rivers, CNN, southern Bangladesh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And CNN's Cal Perry will be joining Dan Rivers reporting from Bangladesh a little later today.
And if you want to make a difference and contribute to the recovery efforts, go to CNN.com. Click on "Impact Your World." You can find a list of charities working to help victims of that cyclone. You can also get the latest headlines from the disaster zone.
DE LA CRUZ: Hey, so can you believe that the Thanksgiving travel rush is already in progress?
HOLMES: People are already traveling.
DE LA CRUZ: Already under way.
HOLMES: And if you are watching us and if you leave today, right now -- I mean, get your things and leave the house...
DE LA CRUZ: Right this second. Go. Get out.
HOLMES: ... you'd at least have a chance then of making dinner next Thursday, possibly. Well, of course I'm just messing with you there.
DE LA CRUZ: Maybe. If you're lucky.
HOLMES: Yes. And you probably don't think it's funny if right now you are at the airport stuck in a security line right now. You probably don't appreciate it if you're on the road, maybe stuck out there with some crazy drivers.
You'll have a lot of company out there. Look at that mess on the right side of your screen there. Almost 39 million people will be traveling more than 50 miles this year. And 80 percent will make the trip by car.
DE LA CRUZ: All right. But if you are flying, those planes will be as stuffed as your turkey. AAA figures that's how 4.7 million Americans will get to where they are going. But last-minute travelers might still get lucky.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA PETERSON, CONDE NAST TRAVELER: There may be some hope, but you really have to be flexible. Now, if the airlines do have any empty seats at all, they'll be glad to unload them. So the strategy really is to look for off times, maybe consider flying a day before you really would want to fly. You may still find some seats out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: Yes. You've definitely got to get a head start.
Let's check in now at one major airport to see how things are going there this morning.
CNN's Jim Acosta is live for us at LaGuardia in New York.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Veronica. Yes, and travelers will probably see the calm before the storm today.
The government says it has a solution for all these flight delays that we see every time of year during the holidays. And they are calling them express lanes in the sky. And for these travelers out here, they cannot be open soon enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice over): There's a new flight plan aimed at those epic Thanksgiving lines at the airport. President Bush's proposal for easing pressure on the maxed-out Northeast Corridor rests on opening the military's training air space to the big commercial carriers.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These new routes will help relieve air congestion from Maine to Florida, for nearly five full days surrounding the holiday.
ACOSTA: The move comes as the nation's aviation infrastructure is as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey.
DAVID STEMPLER, AIRLINE TRAVELERS ASSOCIATION: We're basically operating the same way we did 60 years ago. It's as if we had the old U.S. highway system of the '50s with two-lane highways. We never replaced it with the interstate highway system like they did on the ground.
ACOSTA: But not everyone is sure the extra room in the sky will be enough for busy Northeast airports, which account for one-third of all air travel in the U.S.
PATRICK FORAY, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOC.: The bottom line is you can only land a number of aircraft at one time on any given runway. So the capacity at the end game and at the beginning game needs to double or increase before you start killing delays. This is just another gimmick to try and appease the flying public.
ACOSTA: The industry wants to avoid a repeat of the Valentine's Day nightmare, when hundreds of JetBlue passengers spent hours stuck on a runway.
DAVID BARGER, JETBLUE CEO: As a result of that well-publicized disruption in our operations, we've instituted many changes to ensure we don't ever repeat that performance.
ACOSTA: Travelers in the New York area are demanding improved performance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is as bad as it can get. You know, if you want to get somewhere, you have something planned, you get to the airport without any advance notice, and for no reason, no plane malfunctions, you know, they are canceling it. And it is, it's probably because of too much air traffic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's kind of hard when you live here to avoid the New York airports. There's nowhere else to really go, I mean, unless you are going to go to Philly or somewhere. One of our friends has a private plane. We can go with him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And one thing you want to keep in mind is just because the government has a solution or what they say is a solution for these flight delays to get flights off on time, that has nothing to do with those lines at the airport. If you are expecting this solution from the government to somehow take care of those security check-in lines, you are sadly mistaken. Those lines will be just as long as they were last year.
So again, if you are heading to the airport, if you are traveling over this next week, definitely get to the airport way ahead of time if you want to make it to the Thanksgiving dinner table at grandma's house.
DE LA CRUZ: All right. You've got to be early.
CNN's Jim Acosta live for us this morning at LaGuardia.
Jim, thanks so much.
HOLMES: All right. The other thing that can mess with you in your travel plans, the weather
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: We do have something new here we want to tell you about this morning. You remember that fire, that deadly beach house fire in North Carolina. Well, now they are looking into whether alcohol could have been a factor.
Seven college students died in that fire last month. And the chief medical examiner says six of the victims were legally drunk. He says that may have impaired their ability to respond.
But the local prosecutor, he's not buying that. He points to the fact that six other students were able to escape that fire.
DE LA CRUZ: For the moment, Broadway is dark. Crews are on strike. But CNN has learned that could all change really soon.
Sources tell us producers and stagehands will meet sometime this weekend. They are in a dispute over work rules, but they're hoping to resolve it in time for that lucrative holiday season.
HOLMES: And we'll head across the country now. There could soon be peace in the hills of Hollywood. Striking writers and TV studios say after Thanksgiving they'll resume contract talks. Their fight is over how much money writers get from Internet downloads and DVD sales.
DE LA CRUZ: All right. Truly an amazing story now, T.J.
HOLMES: Yes.
DE LA CRUZ: Listen up here.
A New York woman lucky to be alive this morning. And it is all because of her two young sons.
HOLMES: Yes. The woman actually fell unconscious while backing out of her driveway. Her head slumped over the steering wheel but her quick-thinking sons who are 7 and 12 managed to stop the car and get help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAYDEN MIRANTO, 7-YEAR-OLD SON: We back up and she just puts her hand on her head and she just says, "Ow," and then her head just goes down.
JAMIE MIRANTO, 12-YEAR-OLD SON: And I put my hand on the pedal and turned off the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Isn't that awesome? Of course, the boys' dad, he's got plenty to say. You know he's a proud father.
DE LA CRUZ: Definitely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B. MIRANTO: Every time I talked to them, I couldn't help myself but start balling and saying what an adult he acted like and what he actually did in saving his mother's life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: Now, we are told what happened to the boys' mom was caused by low potassium levels. But she is expected to be OK.
A great story.
HOLMES: Nice to have those two around.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, seriously.
HOLMES: Well, next up here, this story, going undercover. Deep, deep, deep undercover to shut down gang activity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we were trying to do is put the idea in their head that there's no way these guys are in any way affiliated with law enforcement. (END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: That's right. How a small-town police department and a fake tattoo parlor did just that.
HOLMES: Also, parents threatened with jail time if they don't vaccinate their kids.
DE LA CRUZ: And are you a friend of Jack's? Yes, Jack Daniel's, that is. Well, then you've got to see what happened to this rare stash of whiskey.
It's all coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DE LA CRUZ: All right. Sixteen minutes past the hour on this Saturday morning.
Thank you so much for waking up with us today.
Our "Quick Hits" now give you more news in less time.
The Earth's climate is at the tipping point. That's according to a fresh report from U.N. scientists presented today in Spain. The report concludes that global warming is happening so rapidly, urgent action on a worldwide base is needed to head off an environmental crisis.
HOLMES: A female U.S. Capitol Police officer is now the prime suspect in an arson investigation. CNN affiliate WUSA reports she is now suspended with pay. Seven minor fires have been set in two separate Senate buildings since September. Most of those fires were set in women's bathrooms in various parts of the buildings.
DE LA CRUZ: And we're just minutes away from now from seeing a big "thank you" on the campus of Virginia Tech. Students, teachers and others will gather to spell out "VT Thanks You" on their drill field. It's all in an effort to thank people for the outpouring of support after last April's deadly shooting on campus.
HOLMES: When crime started getting out of hand in Augusta, Georgia, the sheriff had to get a bit creative.
DE LA CRUZ: Listen to this. He set up a sting to turn gang members into marked men. And they showed up in droves.
CNN's Rusty Dornin has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get gang activity from this area east.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Life in this southern river town now means more and more gang life. Sheriff Ron Strength -- yes, that's his real name -- decided it was sometime to go undercover. But he didn't just plant an officer in a business.
He invented a whole new business. And it took off.
Colur Tyme Tattoo Parlor on to Tobacco Road created and staffed 100 percent by undercover agents recording every move. Lieutenant Scott Peebles made sure gang members felt welcome.
LT. SCOTT PEEBLES, RICHMOND COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: And what we were trying to do is put the idea in their head that there's no way these guys are in any way affiliated with law enforcement. They've got bombs, they're, you know, packaging instruments, scales, all of the things that if you are into drug use you would need.
DORNIN: The cops even gave them markers to scrawl their graffiti. In return, agents got to record their names and faces.
Colur Tyme Tattoo was so successful that four months into it, the sheriff called in the ATF for money and expertise. Then ATF agents helped cover the store counters and learned local ways from the sheriff's deputies.
VANESSA MCLEMORE, ATF: We had some very well-trained and skilled undercover agents and officers.
DORNIN (on camera): They had to be sort of a brotherhood working in a tattoo store.
MCLEMORE: Right. Right. They have to be able to relate with each other very well.
DORNIN: Agents discovered that often after a crime was committed, the gang members would come in here, get a tattoo, smoke dope, and sell the very guns that had been stolen just hours before.
(voice over): In this undercover video, agents say suspects are selling guns stolen only hours earlier.
PEEBLES: Two guys went and robbed a convenient store and shot the clerk. And the next day, they sold us the gun that they shot the clerk with.
DORNIN: Agents trafficked guns at the tattoo shop for 16 months. And they even had their own spot on MySpace that blares music, screams tattoos and promises, "We buy things others don't."
Then the bust -- 68 arrested, dozens more illegal guns confiscated on search warrants. Plus, 54 pounds of marijuana and more than 1,000 grams of cocaine.
Across town, Sheriff Strength showed us one gang stronghold hit in the bust.
SHERIFF RONALD STRENGTH, RICHMOND COUNTY, GEORGIA: This is a territory of the East Boundary Boys (ph). We've purchased stolen weapons, as well as narcotics, from this group.
DORNIN: One sheriff who took on the gangs and won.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Augusta, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: So we're going to hear a lot more about the tattoo sting operation and its success. We're going to be talking to one of the ATF officers coming your way in about 15 minutes.
DE LA CRUZ: It is shocking.
T.J., you know, I think we all know that you don't know Jack.
HOLMES: We all know that?
DE LA CRUZ: Yes. No, you don't know Jack Daniel's is what I'm talking about.
HOLMES: OK, yes.
DE LA CRUZ: Right?
HOLMES: Yes, of course. Yes. Yes.
DE LA CRUZ: You don't know Jack Daniel's. You don't know why all these bottles of Jack Daniel's are in the news.
But we're going to tell you why. But if you're a fan of Jack Daniel's, it might make you cry. Just a little warning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, folks. If you love Tennessee sipping whiskey, got to worn you here, you might find this next story just downright disturbing.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's could have a date with a drain.
Tennessee authorities confiscated about a million dollars' worth of the hard stuff from Lynchburg and Nashville. They think someone, T.J., is selling it without a license.
HOLMES: Yes. So some bottles are more than 90 years old and might have to -- might have been stolen, you know, from the distillery. It's unclear how much Jack will have to get poured out, but as one Jack Daniel's fan put so eloquently...
DE LA CRUZ: Yes?
HOLMES: ... "The whiskey is innocent."
DE LA CRUZ: The whiskey is innocent.
It's crazy, because didn't you hear about the Jack Daniel's aquifer drying up, the well drying up? HOLMES: They were worried that they weren't going to be able to produce enough, yes.
DE LA CRUZ: And now we're pouring it down the drain.
HOLMES: Ninety years old though.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, not the brightest idea.
But I've got another bright idea for you. Pop up the big question in lights. On a high-rise maybe.
Take notes here. Take notes here, T.J.
HOLMES: Come on now.
DE LA CRUZ: Please? Come on.
HOLMES: This is an Iowa State graduate student. All right?
DE LA CRUZ: It's so sweet.
HOLMES: He pulled out all the stops to make this happen. And the woman better be impressed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA HAUBRICH, ISU GRADUATE STUDENT: This is a pretty big surprise. It's huge. And I love that it's so personalized.
K.C. DOHSE, ISU GRADUATE STUDENT: I took the (INAUDIBLE), put it into Photoshop and checked if "Marry Me" worked. It did. So I said, well, this will be cool.
HAUBRICH: We do the "Beat Iowa" here every year, so that's a really nice touch. It was really cute.
DOHSE: Well, I was mostly nervous about this, because I had a feeling that she'd say yes.
HAUBRICH: Yes.
DOHSE: So the key element was that this actually worked right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: That is a lot of effort.
HOLMES: Had a feeling? You better be sure you are going to say yes if you go through all of that, young man.
And for the record, folks, yes, in fact, she did say yes, and she didn't have an option but to say yes, in my opinion.
DE LA CRUZ: Don't -- take note here. Take note. That's how it's done. HOLMES: OK. All right.
We will move on to another story.
DE LA CRUZ: OK.
HOLMES: This story here, really a disturbing one we've been following here at CNN for a little while. It's the form of outsourcing you're not used to hearing when we talk about India. This is women in India renting out their wombs to women in the U.S.
Why do they do that? We'll find out.
DE LA CRUZ: Plus, we all know what tattoos do. They sting. But not like this. How a fake tattoo parlor led to real arrests.
HOLMES: Also, speaking of arrests, some Maryland parents are facing arrests, possible jail time if they don't vaccinate their kids.
We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And welcome back, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes.
DE LA CRUZ: Nice to see you. I'm Veronica De La Cruz, in this morning for Betty Nguyen.
A quick check now of our top stories.
Get ready for crowded airports and jam-packed highways over the Thanksgiving holiday. The holiday travel period is getting off to an early start. A record number of people expected to travel.
HOLMES: The savage cyclone that hit Bangladesh taking a huge toll. Casualties are staggering. The Associated Press now reporting more than 1,700 people are dead. Relief officials say 15,000 people have been injured.
Well, earlier this hour we told you about a sting operation to crack down on gangs. It worked in Augusta, Georgia.
Undercover agents in a tattoo shop gathered enough evidence to arrest six members -- or rather arrest members of six different gangs. Well, teaching police how to bust gang activity a pretty big job here. And Mark Kraft is the deputy director of the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center. A center with a big old name and a big old job there. And he gets these guys trained.
Mr. Kraft, sir, thank you for being with us this morning.
MARK KRAFT, ATF: Thank you, T.J.
HOLMES: This particular bust in Georgia, in Augusta, us listening to it, it sounds pretty unique. The police officers set up their own tattoo shop. Now, does this -- is this a really unique occurrence, or does this stuff happen around the country, that law enforcement officials use these type of tactics?
KRAFT: Well, obviously, it is unique. And that's why it's a big news story.
I think one of the big important elements here to realize is these are undercover officers who place themselves in harm's way. They voluntarily interacted with the worst of the worst criminals. And when we look at a story like this, sometimes we overlook that personal aspect of the story, that these are people who are very brave and they're very committed to public safety in the communities that they live in and that they serve.
HOLMES: Mr. Kraft, what was key to this one? This thing was open over a year and a half. You had criminals coming in, over and over and over. Apparently pretty comfortable in their surroundings.
KRAFT: Well, I think what you had here was you had a sheriff who recognized that he had a gang problem. And he recognized that the common denominator in that gang problem were firearms.
Firearms frequently are the tools of the trade used by violent gang members to carry out their criminal operations. And most importantly, he partnered with other agencies.
He reached out to ATF, who has unique statutory authorization over federal firearms laws. And he partnered with state investigators. And it's that partnership, and it's looking for those common denominators like drugs and guns and money, that's frequently the key to this type of success.
HOLMES: And so key to the success as well is the officers have been convincing. How do you train an officer?
I mean, you hear all the time that certain criminals can just smell a cop a mile away. How do you train these officers? These guys in this tattoo shop were in close contact day to day, and they had to get these criminals to believe them, to trust them.
How do you train a cop not to look and sound like a cop?
KRAFT: Well, obviously, a lot of that just comes from the officers' personal experience and their understanding of gangs and the criminal element. And one of the things that's very important to recognize is the gang problem in America is different.
In many regions of the country, it is the large national gangs that are manifesting themselves locally that are the problem. In other places, it's a neighborhood-based cruise. And it's being on the ground and knowing what's going on in your community that makes you an effective law enforcement officer, and it's the intelligence and gathering information and thoroughly understanding the problems that makes them very effective . Partnership is always the key, though. HOLMES: Now, was this a situation as well, this tattoo shop -- I mean, was there any way it could have been kept open, if you will, or is this a thing where you have to just -- you are only going to be able to get one shot to make one bust of a lot of people? I guess, why couldn't we keep it open for five years and just keep arresting people as you go along?
KRAFT: Well, T.J., I wasn't personally involved in this investigation, but what I can tell you is there's a gang problem all across the country, and law enforcement is always looking for proactive partnership ways to address the problems, the violent crime. It is eroding the quality of life in so many of our communities.
Gangs are a problem. But why are gangs a problem? This isn't just about young men wearing the same color clothes and spray painting on walls. If that were your problem, your problem would be vandalism.
The problem is violent crime. And violent crime erodes the quality of life in neighborhoods all across the country. The gun is frequently the tool of the trade used to do that.
In this investigation, they realized that was the common denominator, they focused on that, and they're going to improve the quality of life. Partnership and reaching out across state and local boundaries and reaching out across agency boundaries is what we do at a national level at Gang Tech. And what you saw here was a local example of why that's successful.
HOLMES: And again, this sheriff finally here, you can chalk this one up to a sheriff seeing he had a problem and came up with a pretty unique way to solve it?
KRAFT: With partnership, with the state and federal agencies -- in this case, ATF. We see the same thing all the time. And what you're seeing today is law enforcement responding to the most current threat, and that's gangs.
You know, at Gang Tech, we have the criminal division of the Department of Justice, we have ATF, the Bureau of Prisons, DEA, FBI, ICE and the Marshal Service, all represented, all working side by side as a nervous system, reaching across jurisdictional boundaries and agency boundaries to allow agents and law enforcement officers in different parts of the country to communicate, to share their information and evidence in different investigations of the same gang in different parts of the country.
HOLMES: Well, we hear you about that partnership. Just about every letter of the alphabet covered in some of those agencies there.
Mark Kraft, deputy director, National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center.
Sir, we appreciate your time this morning. And certainly continue the good work you guys are doing.
Thank you, T.J. HOLMES: All right.
DE LA CRUZ: To vaccinate or not? That question playing out this morning at court hearings in Maryland.
One county says unvaccinated kids need to get their shots for certain childhood diseases. And if they don't, their parents are being threatened with jail time.
CNN's Gary Nurenberg is live for us at the Prince George's County Courthouse in Upper Marlboro.
Gary, hello to you. You've been out there for a while this morning. What has the turnout been like?
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are coming in shifts, Veronica. We've had about 500 parents here so far for a series before judges here in the Prince George's County Courthouse, where they will be asked to explain why their children have not been inoculated.
Maryland state law changed last year imposing new requirements that required vaccinations for Hepatitis B, for chickenpox, for example. And when that law changed, a number of parents were out of compliance.
The school board went out of its way to send letters, make phone calls, and even do home visits to get those kids inoculated. And as you can see this morning, hundreds of people showed up after having receiving a threatening letter from the state's attorney saying either get your kids inoculated or you could end up with a $50 a day fine and even jail for 10 years.
There are some parents who are worried about the state putting that kind of pressure on parents who are worried about the safety of vaccinations.
Jim Moody is with an organization called SafeMinds.
You have some concerns about the safety of vaccines. Why are you worried?
Yes, Gary.
JIM MOODY, SAFEMINDS: The -- we're in the midst of a national health emergency on autism and other neurodevelopment diseases. CDC has never demonstrated the safety of vaccines by comparing health outcomes of vaccinated to unvaccinated children. That's a study that must be done.
NURENBERG: You're saying that vaccinations can make children ill?
MOODY: Well, it's never been proven. The science demonstrates all sorts of concerns with mercury in the vaccines, MMR vaccine. The science is uncertain. The burden is on the government to prove safety, not on parents to prove they are unsafe.
NURENBERG: You would also like to hear, here in Prince George's County, have better representations for waivers that would allow parents to opt out. What would you like to see?
MOODY: Yes, 49 have medical -- or religious waivers. All states have medical waivers. Parents apparently were not informed here that they have a choice of a medical waiver or a religious waiver. And some states have philosophical waivers. And that's a very, very important concern as well.
NURENBERG: And what are you doing about it?
MOODY: Handing out the forms for the medical exemptions and the religious waivers and hoping the parents read them and bring them to the attention of the judges inside.
NURENBERG: Mr. Moody from SafeMinds, thank you very, very much for helping us out.
MOODY: Thank you, Gary.
NURENBERG: We should tell you that several hundred parents have been here already. Apparently, it is happening here, what authorities wanted to have happen. Parents are coming with their kids. There are free inoculations inside. Many are leaving saying their kids have been inoculated and will return to school later in the week.
We expect hundreds of more parents here for a session later in the day. Veronica, we'll cover that and keep you up to date throughout the day.
DE LA CRUZ: You know, Gary, I'm just curious. You just spoke to another father there who is asking for a waiver. Is that something you're seeing a lot of? A lot of parents wanting to be exempt from having to vaccinate their child?
NURENBERG: It really depends on the individual circumstance of the child. There are only two ways you can do it under state law -- religious waiver and a waiver for medical reasons.
The concern is that many parents don't know they have those options. And Mr. Moody is trying to get the state's attorney here to make a more active effort to let parents know that the waivers are available if they choose to use them.
DE LA CRUZ: Gary Nurenberg live for us this morning in Maryland, staying on top of that story.
We do appreciate it. Thanks, Gary.
HOLMES: He's disfigured, fractured and blind. Just one of the many wounded warriors returning from the so-called war on terror, only to be terrorized by not getting the medical attention he needs.
DE LA CRUZ: And, in case you missed it, the Democratic presidential candidates talk about the war, health care and education. The CNN Las Vegas debate, we're going to be showing it again tonight. That's at 6:00 Eastern and later at 10:00.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
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DE LA CRUZ: All right. Welcome back. It's nice to see you.
It's 43 minutes now past the hour on this Saturday morning. Our "Quick Hits" give you more news in less time.
We want to start with this: news out of Pakistan. Lift the state of emergency, ditch the uniform, set a date for elections. More tough talk from U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte as he visits Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf's base of support eroding. Negroponte tells him to move quickly or the U.S. won't be able to help.
HOLMES: Oprah Winfrey is in Georgia. Specifically, Macon, Georgia. A big surprise for the Macon residents there.
And look at her face. She looks a bit surprised, too, to see so many fans.
Well, there should be so many fans there in that town, because that town has more Oprah watchers than any other town in the U.S. She's there today to tape a show as a part of her...
DE LA CRUZ: Macon?
HOLMES: Macon, yes. More viewers there than anywhere else for her show. And she's there to tape part of her hometown series. So very excited to have her.
DE LA CRUZ: All right.
A doomsday cult in Russia won't budge from its underground hideout. More than two dozen members dug a cave to await the end of the world and say they will kill themselves if anyone tries to force them out.
HOLMES: Well, spending in Iraq has hit a snag. A pair of spending bills failed in the Senate. Democrats were pushing $50 billion in funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. That bill would have mandated troop withdrawals, however, in Iraq to begin within 30 days. The Republicans had their own $70 billion plan with no call for troop withdrawals.
The White House says the money will run out in January. Democrats say it may last until early March.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, the images you are about to see are very disturbing. But it is important that you not turn away. HOLMES: Yes. A young man's battle wounds we're about to show you are a permanent reminder of his military service in Iraq. And that is just, however, the beginning of his story.
DE LA CRUZ: CNN's Josh Levs now joins us to explain how the real battle is with his own government.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's unbelievable what happens to a lot of these guys. And we've reported in the past what goes on with veterans when they're home.
We saw the disaster over the past year right at Walter Reed. But what we're seeing today and what we're going to be seeing more of tonight is some individual, powerful stories that you really need to see in order to understand what's happening to these veterans when they come home.
I want to tell you about this man. His name is Ty Ziegel. And he brought his story to CNN.
This is what he used to look like. He was a 25-year-old marine sergeant. Was in Iraq at a suicide bombing.
Now, he was disfigured there, and you're going to see some images of that. I want you to understand what you're going to hear him talk about.
When you are injured in the military, in action, what happens is the Veterans Administration ends up giving you a severance pay, gives you disability pay based on a percentage system. They look at the extent of your wounds and give you a percentage system.
Well, he -- we're going to show you what he looks like, but he was originally given only 10 percent for his head injury. Let's take a listen to what he said about that.
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SGT. TY ZIEGEL, U.S. MARINES: That's the part of my skull they took out. The left frontal lobe, like right in here, about a quarter of my brain was taken out due to the shrapnel that caused this big hole.
Just this here, this, and the brain trauma, I forget how they worded it on there. They awarded me 10 percent, which doesn't seem real fair to me. I'm not an expert, but that's a little bit bigger than 10 percent.
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LEVS: Now, just to back up and show you that he's right, after he brought his story to CNN over the summer, and CNN brought that forward, now the government came forward and said, you know what? He should get 100 percent for that.
But we can't possibly chase every veteran's story. And he's very far from alone.
We have a special coming up tonight. I want you to take a look at this.
This is -- you're going to see the stories of him and many other injured soldiers who have come home from Iraq. This is from CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's investigating the shocking reality of what happens to the nation's wounded warriors after they return home.
"Waging War on the V.A.," and that airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.
And obviously, guys, we encourage everyone to watch this. There's disturbing stories. It's really tough to see.
DE LA CRUZ: But important to get those stories out there.
LEVS: It's so important, yes.
DE LA CRUZ: It really is.
LEVS: And this is what happens when they come home.
HOLMES: We had him here are in the "NEWSROOM," not too long ago.
LEVS: Yes.
HOLMES: And, you know, he was in better spirits than you would ever imagine. He had a great attitude. Actually, we hooked up a link...
DE LA CRUZ: Really strong.
HOLMES: ... got to talk to his brother who is over in Iraq on a satellite link. He's a great guy. Great attitude.
Just sad to see a battle with his government now.
LEVS: Well, and I'm glad you said that, because this special tonight isn't just sad, disturbing, get angry. It's also inspirational.
And when you see the stories of what these people go through and can wake up in the morning smiling and happy for all they have and glad to be alive and recognizing that they did survive when many of their brethren didn't, it's very powerful, it's inspirational. And at the same time, it's a crucial piece of news that we all -- I'm going to learn -- we're all going to learn from it.
So, 8:00 tonight right here, CNN.
DE LA CRUZ: Josh Levs, thank you so much.
HOLMES: Josh, thank you.
DE LA CRUZ: Important stuff for sure. HOLMES: Well, we'll move forward here to this story.
You know it's time to give up the wildlife when...
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I screamed and I screamed, "Somebody help me! He's going to kill me!"
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DE LA CRUZ: That's right. When Bambi goes bad.
We've got that story coming up.
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HOLMES: All right, folks. Of course you've heard of outsourcing customer service. You know, you dial up a help line, the person picking up is in India.
Well, what about outsourcing your pregnancy?
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, it does sound crazy, but a growing number of Indian women really are renting out their wombs, giving birth to American children.
HOLMES: Lisa Ling of the National Geographic Channel recently traveled to India to see this for herself and she recently spoke with our Betty Ngyuen.
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BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk about wombs for rent. This is really kind of shocking to a lot of people, that you can actually rent someone's womb and they will carry your child.
So if I were interested in having someone else carry my child, outsourcing, if you will, a child, where do you begin?
LISA LING, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Well, this is a story I did for the Oprah show, and it was absolutely fascinating. Right now there -- in this little village in India, there are 50 women who are carrying babies for international couples.
So if you wanted to do it, you would seek out this doctor. Her name is Dr. Patel (ph). And she would make sure that you have no other option but to do surrogacy, because she is against women who just don't want to carry babies going over and doing this.
And you'll fly over to India, you and your husband. And he will give his sperm and you will be injected. And your embryos will be created, and it will be implanted into an Indian surrogate.
Most of the Americans who have done this, they don't stay over there for nine months. They'll go back when the baby is born. But it's much less expensive. It's a fraction of the cost of surrogacy.
NGUYEN: How much?
LING: Well, in the United States it costs upwards of about $80,000. In India, it's $12,000.
NGUYEN: Really?
LING: And the woman gets about $5,000, which is a huge, huge amount for an Indian woman.
NGUYEN: Well, let's talk about what that means to an Indian woman's life, because to carry a child, somebody else's child for all that time, and you get $5,000? But that can really mean a change in someone's life in India, correct?
LING: Five thousand dollars for a lot of these women, they say -- they told me that they couldn't even dream of making that amount of money during their lifetime. And the difference between the story that I did about the surrogacy versus the kidney story is that, with regard to the kidneys, these middlemen are taking advantage of the people.
With the wombs and the surrogacy story, there's a doctor who is extremely careful about helping women invest their money. So it's -- there's just much more scrutiny with regard to the surrogacy story.
NGUYEN: And is it true that husbands are really supportive of their wives renting out their wombs?
LING: Well, they are, because the woman becomes the primary breadwinner. I mean, I did this story for Oprah and she said, you know, this is really interesting, because this is really a story of women who are helping women. The Indian surrogate is helping the American woman who can't conceive. And it actually has been -- has a mutually beneficial result.
NGUYEN: Well, what kind of screening process is there just to ensure that the woman carrying your baby is healthy?
LING: Well, that's the thing that surprised me. When I first heard the story, having been to India about 10 times, it's a country that I love deeply, but, you know, every time I go there I have to be injected with multiple shots and I take Cipro and various pharmaceuticals with me.
So when I found out that American couples were actually going there, having an operation, and then hiring a surrogate to carry their baby, I was astounded. But the doctor actually is extremely careful. And the women who become surrogates are housed separately. They are very, very well taken care of.
I was extremely impressed.
NGUYEN: And at the end of the day, is there ever a bond that forms between the surrogate and the American couple?
LING: That's a great question, and that's why one of the reasons why a lot of American couples don't want to do surrogacy in the United States, because they're afraid that the surrogate may want to maintain emotional contact with their baby. In India, what they try to do is they make sure that the surrogate mother already has at least one living child. So after she delivers the American child, she goes back to her family and has a child of her own.
NGUYEN: Lisa, it is a fascinating story. And as always, we do appreciate your time with us. And really great work out there.
Thank you.
LING: Thanks, Betty.
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