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Obama Picks Up Key Pennsylvania Endorsement; How is Mexico Fighting Drug Traffickers?; Baby Missing from Florida Hospital is Found; Special Assistant to President Bush Resigns
Aired March 28, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we want to get you back live now to the scene of our breaking news story. This is in Orlando, Florida. And this is the Central Florida Regional Medical Center, these pictures courtesy of our affiliate there.
And here's what we're being told by our affiliate, that there is a missing baby here. An infant is missing. Also, local media is reporting that it is a 1-day-old baby. They're still doing an assessment of this building, a search, if you will, and they're checking some surveillance video to see exactly where this baby might have gone and who may have taken this baby. WFTV is our affiliate there. We thank them for these pictures and also for this information that's coming into the CNN NEWSROOM -- details to come.
We're going to move on now and talk about a wave of drug violence just across the U.S./Mexico border. It brings an armed response from Mexico's government. About 2,000 Mexican troops are headed for Juarez, across the river from El Paso, Texas. Mexican officials say Juarez has become a battleground for rival drug cartels. They blame the traffickers for about 200 killings so far this year.
Juarez is the latest front in Mexico's drug crackdown. President Felipe Calderon has already sent more than 20,000 federal agents across the country to put down drug-related violence.
We have the mayor of Juarez on the phone shortly and we will bring that to you just as soon as we can talk to him.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The Green Zone in Baghdad, also known as the International Zone, offers the most protection in the city, but it has never been totally safe. And this week, today included, insurgents launched deadly attacks there. U.S. forces responding to those attacks.
Our Kyra Phillips is in the Iraqi capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The violence that began in Basra has now spread to Baghdad, and U.S. forces are coming to the aid of the Iraqi government as it vows no retreat.
This vehicle was destroyed by a missile from a U.S. helicopter after Iraqi forces called in air support during a gun battle with the Mahdi militia in Sadr City. Angry crowds took to the streets of Sadr City, chanting "No to America." And so far, no signs the Mahdi militia, led by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is ready to give in.
The Green Zone in central Baghdad again came under mortar fire. Two guards were killed at the residence of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. The U.S. military blames the latest rocket attacks that killed two U.S. civilian workers this week on breakaway factions of al-Sadr's militia.
No letup in the battle for Basra either. Fighting continues into a third day and U.S. warplanes carried out airstrikes in support of the Iraqi army.
TOM HOLLOWAY, U.K. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: The first one was a building which was -- had a large amount of militia troops inside and on it and around it. And the second strike was on an enemy mortar team which was shelling one of the army Iraqi positions.
PHILLIPS: The government's drive to rid Basra of Shiite militias has won the support of the U.S., but is a major test for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
He's threatened harsher measures unless militia surrender their weapons and renounce violence. The response from al-Sadr's forces is defiant. They have launched attacks against Iraqi security forces in towns across the Shiite heartland. And, in the capital, a three-day curfew is in effect in an effort to prevent the violence spreading.
Most streets are empty, and most shops shut.
(on-camera): The situation in Baghdad remains tense. And while the coalition has left the ground fighting up to the Iraqi forces, today, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Michael Mullen, warned the current flare-ups could affect the timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.
Kyra Phillips, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Time now to check today's political ticker. There are new signs the Democratic Party's hard-fought primaries could hurt turnout in November. A new CNN/Opinion Research poll find one in six Obama supporters and an equal number of Clinton backers say they won't bother voting if their candidate doesn't win the nomination.
KEILAR: And a big endorsement in the next big Democratic primary. Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey joining Barack Obama for a bus tour around the state. Casey fought a tough, but losing campaign against Governor Ed Rendell several years back, and Rendell is a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton.
Our latest estimate in the Democratic delegate race gives Barack Obama 1,625, Hillary Clinton 1,486, and, of course, 2,024 delegates, the magic number needed to clinch the nomination.
LEMON: Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd says party leaders should work out some sort of deal to choose a nominee, and do it soon. Dodd, who was in the race briefly and is now backing Obama, wants a resolution after contests in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina. The alternative, he says, would be irresponsible.
KEILAR: This week, for the first time, Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama's relationship with his former pastor. Is the controversy hurting Obama or Clinton?
CNN's Jessica Yellin reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Senator Clinton, it's not over 'til it's over.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, we may be halfway through the fourth quarter, and we're trying to figure out exactly who's going to come out on top.
YELLIN: But if she were hoping her opponent might suffer a fourth-quarter collapse, no such luck.
A new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll shows since the controversy over Obama's former pastor broke, Democratic support for Obama appears to have risen. He's statistically tied with Clinton. Voters we spoke with here in Philadelphia were not troubled by the Reverend Wright controversy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I see how he handles the conflict and I see how he handles the difficulties, I think he's very -- I actually believe him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I look at that as like something that's like kind of the far in the past, you know, and I'm looking at what is going on now more than anything.
YELLIN: This week, Obama himself is calling on the media and public to move beyond Wright's comments.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It spoke to some of the racial divisions that we have in this country and have tapped into some of those divisions. I hope people don't get distracted by that. I want a politics to get stuff done.
YELLIN: Still the drip, drip, drip of information about Reverend Wright continues. The latest, over the last year, the pastor's page from Wright's church bulletin has featured anti-Israel statements by an Arab activist saying Israel and South Africa worked on an ethnic bomb that kills black and Arabs, and that what Zionist Jews did to the Palestinians is worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews.
So far there is no clear evidence this kind of helps Clinton. In fact, in the last two weeks, Clinton's negatives have gone up, which suggests voters might blame her more for the negative tone of this campaign.
(on-camera): But a Clinton campaign spokesperson has a very different explanation for those negatives. He says, the Obama campaign has been savaging Senator Clinton and engaged in character assassination. And he's eager to point out those attacks are at odds with Barack Obama's message of hope.
Jessica Yellin, CNN, Philadelphia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. A big name in Pennsylvania politics offers big support to Barack Obama. Senator Bob Casey today stood shoulder to shoulder with Obama in Pittsburgh. And Casey's choice comes as something of a surprise.
Our Suzanne Malveaux is traveling with the Obama campaign today. She joins us now from Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Hello, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don.
It was a surprise, because this was something Barack Obama certainly was not seeking, he was not asking for, and, quite frankly, Senator Casey didn't have to necessarily do that. We know that Senator Clinton, really when you look at the polls, has an edge in this state, but Barack Obama today making it very clear that this is going to be a competitive place. He's going to work very hard in the weeks to come.
We're talking about 158 delegates that are up for grabs for that April 22 primary. Now, really, what the message for this six-day bus tour is, is that he is moving forward, Don. We did not hear earlier today any talk of his controversial pastor. We heard, basically, a routine criticism of Senator Clinton.
And he really saved the best his best material, if you will, the hardest punches, for the Republicans, for Vice President Cheney, for the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, as well as the Republican president.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We can't wait to fix our schools. We can't wait to fix our health care system. We can't wait to have an energy policy that makes sense in this country and that can start lowering gas prices and -- and create new sources of energy. We can't wait to bring this war in Iraq to an end. We cannot wait.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: That's why I'm running for president of the United States of America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And, as you mentioned before about that key endorsement from the senator, Bob Casey, one of the reasons why that is important is because he's very popular among white voters, male voters, Catholic voters.
These are the kinds of groups that we have seen Clinton in the past, the previous primaries, do particularly well with. It is the group that Obama hopes to certainly improve, make some inroads in this state, but, as you know, Don, Senator Clinton does have some advantages here.
Scranton, Pennsylvania, that is where her grandparents, her parents are from. She talks about that a lot, she's been there quite often. And she does have the backing of the governor, as well as the mayor of Philadelphia. So, this is going to be a very competitive situation the next couple of weeks, but the Obama campaign certainly hoping that they can try to close that gap -- Don.
LEMON: Yes. She certainly does have the heavy hitters in her corner.
All right, Suzanne Malveaux reporting from Greensburg, Pennsylvania -- thank you, Suzanne.
KEILAR: Let's get back now to that breaking news coming out of Orlando, Florida, a missing infant at a hospital there. Local media reporting that this is a one-day-old baby who is now missing.
Let's bring in Cleo Cohen (ph). She's with the Sanford police.
Cleo, where was this baby when it missing? And the understanding, perhaps, that it was stolen?
Cleo, can you hear me?
All right, apparently, we are trying to get Cleo Cohen with Sanford police on the phone with us.
But to recap this story for you, this is coming out of -- near Orlando, Florida. This is happening at the Central Florida Regional Medical Center. And we have confirmed that there appears to be a missing infant, a baby that according to local media reports is a baby that is just one-day-old, a one-day-old infant.
At this point, police, hospital officials still doing an assessment and a building search, checking video surveillance as well. We're going to follow this story and bring it to you after a short break.
LEMON: And the big question is, is the hospital on lockdown? Exactly what are they doing? Because we're seeing the law enforcement officials out front, Brianna, many of them talking on the phone. And there appears to be some activity in the front of the building trying to figure out exactly -- exactly what to do in this instance. And you and I were talking moments ago. We will remember that story out of Texas, what happened in a hospital, a woman dressed as a nurse or a hospital worker went in last year, took a baby, and then I believe went to the next -- ended up in New Mexico with the baby.
So, this one is going to be very interesting to figure out exactly what happened with it. But can you imagine if you're a family member or the mom in all of this?
OK. So, we're going to follow this developing story, very interesting. If you have any -- if you have a child or you have had an infant in your family, you know the horror that the family is going through right now.
Mortgage meltdown also a topic today. How can you protect yourself from predatory lenders? We will get the lowdown from an insider.
KEILAR: And factory jobs are disappearing. Are they ever coming back? We will meet American workers facing the end of the road.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: A developing story that we're following here in the CNN NEWSROOM: an infant missing from a hospital in Sanford, Florida. This is just north of Orlando. And according to local media reports, this is a 1-day-old baby.
Let's get now to Darrel Presley. He's the deputy chief of Sanford police there in Florida joining us on the phone.
Sir, what can you tell us.
DARREL PRESLEY, SANFORD DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF: Oh. Well, currently, we're continuing our investigation. We do have some police units out with the vehicle we believe may be our suspects at this time in a neighboring jurisdiction.
KEILAR: You have a vehicle with suspects in custody?
PRESLEY: That's correct.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESLEY: Well, we have them detained at this point. We are continuing the investigation. We do have two females and an infant. And we just have to confirm identification, but at this point, everybody is secure and safe. And we're going to continue the investigation to determine if it...
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: OK, so, you're saying two females who have been detained. Do you have the baby?
PRESLEY: And we have a child. We have got to confirm everybody's identity at this point. This just happened.
KEILAR: OK. So just, give us a sense, though, where was -- where was this baby in this hospital when this happened?
PRESLEY: The baby was in the birthing center area. At this point, I couldn't tell you exactly where, whether it was the nursery or an individual room.
We're reviewing all the security tapes, along with the staff of the hospital, to determine exactly the sequence of events at the hospital, and reviewing the security procedures.
KEILAR: And is this a one-day-old child; is that right?
PRESLEY: That's correct.
KEILAR: So, born yesterday? It was a full day old, born last night?
PRESLEY: I don't have the time of birth, but it was born sometime yesterday, a male.
KEILAR: Can you tell us about the events that led up to the detention of these two female suspects? How did you come upon them near the hospital?
PRESLEY: Well, after we got the call and put out all the information, our units responded to the scene. We had a helicopter from the sheriff's department that was airborne, checking the roadways. We had a description of the vehicle, blue Blazer.
A neighboring patrol unit from the city of Lake Mary saw a vehicle matching the description, conducted a traffic stop on that vehicle. The description of the individuals in the vehicle matched the description we had given out. They detained them, and now we have investigators and witnesses responding to that scene to make a positive identification.
KEILAR: So, obviously, this child, who, of course, you still have to I.D., just to be perfectly safe here and to make sure that you have crossed all your T's, but the child was OK? Is that right?
PRESLEY: Right. Yes. The reports I have initially from the scene is everybody's fine. Everybody's secure. We do have a fire department rescue vehicle also en route just to make sure.
KEILAR: And, Deputy Chief Presley, just so you know what we're looking at right now, we're looking at least three squad cars, at least that I can see in the frame -- I imagine there may be more -- that have pulled over a dark-colored SUV, I imagine the blue Blazer that you spoke of, several police officers there.
Don't know if we can see the suspects here. Perhaps they are in a vehicle. But just take us through the amount of time that elapsed between when the baby went missing, was reported missing, and then when these suspects were detained. PRESLEY: We received the call from the hospital at 1:45 this afternoon, and our first units were there at 1:49.
Subsequent to that, the -- within the first three or four minutes there, the officers on the scene got a description of the two females that were seen leaving and were -- they were acting somewhat suspiciously. Witnesses further advised they got into this blue Blazer. We put out our local lookout information and started our Amber Alert checklist.
At that time the sheriff's department helicopter got involved, started checking all the roadways surrounding the hospital departing the hospital. The hospital was locked down and security staff as well as our Sanford police officers started conducting a search of the hospital grounds and rooms itself.
And subsequent to that, at about -- at about 3:00 -- a few minutes after 3:00, 3:00, a Lake Mary police unit, about 3:05 observed this blue vehicle, conducted the traffic stop, and subsequently we're conducting this investigation at that scene.
KEILAR: So we're talking about an hour and 15 minutes from the time the baby was called in as missing to when this traffic stop was done. But I just want to ask you, we're seeing a local report here that both women seen at the hospital were described as wearing scrubs. Is that true?
PRESLEY: The initial report that I got was that one of the women was reported as wearing a flower-type scrub top.
KEILAR: So, was there a sense, perhaps, that they belonged at the hospital?
PRESLEY: Well, that may have been -- if in fact these are our suspects, and that may have been their M.O., if in fact this turns out to be a kidnapping case.
KEILAR: And, Deputy Chief Presley, just wondering, can -- at this point, I know it's somewhat preliminary, but can you shed any light, perhaps, on the motivation here? Do we know if these suspects are related to the mother in this case or if perhaps they're familiar to the mother?
PRESLEY: We have no information on that at this time.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir, but I see that we see a medic who's actually walking to the ambulance who appears to have a baby carrier in hand, I imagine, with the infant inside of it. It's kind of difficult to see, but it looks at this point that medics have taken the baby into the ambulance.
They're not rushing too much, going pretty slowly here. And I imagine they're going to be doing, what, heading to the hospital to check this baby out, heading back to the same hospital, would you imagine?
PRESLEY: Yes, that would be correct.
KEILAR: And sorry. Let's get back to that point that we were talking about, the motivation here, if you can shed any light on that.
PRESLEY: No. At this time, we don't have any information on that. We're reviewing all the security tapes and interviewing the staff at the hospital to try to determine where these two women were, how they got in, how they got out, and any contact that anyone there at the hospital may have had with them.
KEILAR: All right. So, at this point, police trying to figure out exactly how this happened. And what possible charges might these suspects be facing?
PRESLEY: Well, they could be very serious charges. Depending upon how this all comes out, clearly, if their intent was to take the child and they're not just -- there's possibly child kidnapping would be obviously the most severe.
KEILAR: Does it seem strange to you that it may have been two women involved in this together? We have heard of these cases before. Don and I were just talking about one that happened last year almost about this time in Lubbock, Texas, and it was a single woman.
But this is two female suspects, it appears. Does that seem strange to you, in your experience?
PRESLEY: Well, I don't know of another case, certainly not in our area, that there were two women involved in a case like this.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Deputy chief, this is something we were talking about that happened in Texas, really almost a year ago to the date that this happened.
Real quickly, before we move on here, because it's a very interesting story, what happens to this baby now? Back to the hospital, or what's the procedure here?
PRESLEY: Right. Our first effort, our first concern, obviously, is the health and welfare of the child, make sure the child is OK, be brought back to the hospital, be checked out, and reunited with his mother. And then we will continue our investigation into the criminal activity and what the appropriate charges will be.
KEILAR: All right. We're going to let you go. Thanks so much for all of the information here, Deputy Chief Darrel Presley with the Sanford Police Department there in Florida. We appreciate you talking with us today.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Good news, a good ending there. LEMON: Yes, absolutely. Good news there.
And if you're just tuning in to us, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We're following breaking news that is happening in Sanford, Florida, which is just north of Orlando. A baby was taken from a hospital there, the Central Florida Regional Medical Center.
Live here in the CNN NEWSROOM, you saw that baby taken back into custody by officials, that baby believed to be taken from a hospital, according to local reports there, by two women who were dressed in hospital garb.
This is the scene of that, moments ago, that baby being put into this ambulance. It happened live on the air as Brianna was speaking to the deputy chief at the Sanford Police Department.
But here's what we were told. It was a 1-day-old baby, believed to have given birth yesterday. That's what they told Brianna. There was a picture that was circulating on the Web site of a couple of news reports, a couple of news stations there of a woman wearing scrubs and going out of the hospital.
So, they had video of this baby before they found it. These pictures that you're looking at now are from Interstate 4, a car on Interstate 4, a black SUV, at a rest stop, and police pulled them over.
So, moments ago, live on our air, Brianna, we saw this taking place. Usually, in these cases, sometimes, they don't get the baby back, or it's days before they get the baby back and the family is left to wonder what is happening with the child.
KEILAR: Certainly, we just heard from the deputy of Sanford police that this really all played out in a matter of less than an hour-and-a-half.
At 1:45 Eastern was the time the first call came in from the hospital to police that this infant was missing. And after, they had a helicopter search. They had a lot of police officers out on the road. They had a description of the vehicle and the two female suspects.
And within an hour and 15 minutes, at 3:00 Eastern time, a traffic stop was made on a vehicle that fit that description, as we just saw, that dark-colored SUV. And just about less than a half-hour after that, the baby taken into police custody, taken away in an ambulance.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: And, yes, usually, when you see us following vehicles, it's for something that's not good news, a suspect usually on the loose. But in this case, this ambulance that you're looking at, these live pictures that we're showing you here from our affiliate -- and we thank them -- WFTV, Sanford, Florida, we thank them for those pictures. This is going to be a happy ending, a baby being returned to his family.
We have been telling you also about this story, drug violence at the United States right at the back door. What is Mexico doing to fight drug traffickers who have turned a border city into a killing ground? We will talk with the mayor of Juarez, Mexico. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: And this is breaking news, sort of a happy ending, it appears, to a story that we have been covering here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
This is near -- this is near Orlando, Florida. An infant who was stolen from a hospital in Sanford, Florida, appears to have been recovered by police and appears to be in this ambulance that we are seeing right now going down the highway. This is a 1-day-old baby.
And what happened was, at about -- less than two hours ago, actually, a call came in from this hospital saying that a baby had been kidnapped, this 1-day-old infant. And within a matter of about an hour-and-a-half, after a helicopter search and sending police out on the roads nearby, police detained two female suspects who fit the description of two women who had been seen at the hospital near the time of the kidnapping.
They detained them on road not too far from the hospital, their car, according to Sanford police, that dark-colored SUV that you see on the top right of your screen. And, according to one of our affiliates, WESH out of Orlando, both suspects were wearing scrubs.
Of course, we have seen similar things like this before. We know that a woman in Lubbock last year also kidnapped a week-old baby. She was wearing scrubs. And, so --
LEMON: And that happened right there live on our air. That's that baby.
KEILAR: That's right.
LEMON: The second guy you see in that yellow vest, so, he is putting the baby inside of this ambulance, and the baby believed to be the one recovered, missing from this hospital.
And the picture on the left, live picture of the baby being returned to the hospital inside that same ambulance -- these live pictures, all of this unfolding, Brianna, right here today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Meantime, we want to move on and talk about another story that is affecting Mexico and also border towns here in the United States. The Mexican government is sending some 2,000 troops to the City of Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. It is a show of force against rival drug cartels that have turned the border city of a million plus into a killing ground. Now, there have been some 200 drug-related murders so far this year. Did you hear that? Two hundred drug-related murders so far this year and we're not even out of March yet.
Juarez's mayor, Jose Reyes Ferris, is on the phone now with us to talk about the problem that has plagued his city.
I had to say it twice, mayor, because over 200 so far and we are barely just about to get into April here. This is a huge problem for you.
MAYOR JOSE REYES FERRIS, CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO: Yes, it is. It's a problem where, as you said, two rival drug cartels tried to push each other out of the city. The drug cartels attack the police force. We lost about -- close to 20 police officers from the state, from the military, from the federal government and from the municipal government. Many of those --
LEMON: When you say you lost those, you mean they were --
REYES FERRIS: They died.
LEMON: You don't have them anymore?
REYES FERRIS: Yes. They were killed by the --
LEMON: They were killed?
REYES FERRIS: Yes. Many of those say the drug cartels targeted specifically the heads of the police departments. We lost an operation chief of the city police. We lost a couple of sector chiefs. It was the violence got extremely bad in the city. And this was, fortunately, limited to the drug cartels.
The killings were among the drug cartels. There were no civilians that were injured in any way in the city, except for the police department that was also (INAUDIBLE) by these rival drug cartels.
LEMON: So the people who have died you said were the drug cartel -- members of the drug cartel and the police officers who were trying to crack down on that.
Now these -- obviously this -- these are rival cartels, right, obviously vying for territory within your area?
REYES FERRIS: That's right. The two rival drug cartels in Mexico -- one's from the Gulf and one's from the Pacific. And Juarez being right down the middle, they tried to push the other one out of the area. And, unfortunately, this happened. And, fortunately, we have received from the president of Mexico a strong show of force, with over 2,000 military personnel on these helicopters and everything else coming into the city.
LEMON: And as you're talking, you're talking about that and we're looking at these pictures. And real quickly here -- sorry, we have to move on, but an important story. But this appears to be a military state and that's unusual for you?
REYES FERRIS: It is. It is very unusual. And, of course, it's not a military state. We do have military checkpoints that move around the city on this first stage of the operations. But mainly it's the intelligence work that the federal government is doing in the city that will allow us to hit specific spots where drugs are hiding, where the drug cartels are hiding.
And so far, over 200 arrests made in the city. So it's been very successful.
LEMON: Yes.
Well, Mayor, you know, our hearts go out to you. Also, we hope that you get this under control. A problem for Mexico and, also, even for the United States, because it's right there at a border town.
Mayor of Juarez, Jose Reyes Ferris. We appreciate you joining us here today in the CNN NEWSROOM.
REYES FERRIS: Good to talk to you.
KEILAR: Mortgage meltdown -- how you can protect yourself from predatory lenders. We're going to get the lowdown from an insider.
LEMON: Why were the passengers and crew of this 737 left way short -- way short of their gate?
KEILAR: Travel trouble in Texas -- a woman with, yes, nipple piercings told to take her rings off if she wanted to get on a flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Rising gas prices are a headache for many of us. But one woman has actually turned it to her advantage.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has her story in today's Fit Nation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Skyrocketing gas prices and exorbitant parking fees weigh on the minds of countless commuters. That forced Lois Fletcher to find a solution that saved money while providing an added benefit -- take the train downtown and walk to her office.
LOIS FLETCHER, WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS: I hadn't been on a train for 30 years. And I thought, well, let's give it a try.
GUPTA: She soon started shedding pounds -- lots of them.
FLETCHER: At first, I started to see changes in the way my clothes fit me. When I got on the scale, I found that I had, indeed, lost weight.
GUPTA: Lois dropped 40 pounds and no longer needed to take blood pressure medication. She also says she's less stressed out.
FLETCHER: I have diabetes and I had hypertension. My doctor has been encouraging me to exercise for quite some time. And I never seem to be able to fit it into my schedule. And I notice that now I don't have to fit it in, it's a part of my daily commute.
GUPTA: A small change that paid huge dividends.
FLETCHER: I feel better. Now I can see how I can drop the rest of the weight. And I challenge you come and meet me in this park a year from now and you won't recognize me.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM. This coming to us from the White House. The White House saying that an aide to President Bush has resigned because of the alleged misuse of grant money from the U.S. Agency for International Development. That's U.S. AID -- basically, the U.S. government agency that provides worldwide humanitarian and economic assistance.
But what we're hearing from the White House, from presidential Spokesman Scott Stanzel, is that this former aide, Felipe Sixto, had been a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs. And he was actually promoted to that position earlier this month.
He came forward about a week ago to tell his supervisors about this alleged wrongdoing.
And some of the particulars that we know from this, according to the White House, this involved improprieties involving the use of grant money -- that grant money from U.S. AID -- and involving, also, Sixto's former employer, The Center for A Free Cuba. This matter has now been turned over to the Justice Department.
And we want to bring in White House correspondent Ed Henry for more on this -- Ed, what can you tell us?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right Brianna. White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel has confirmed to CNN that, in fact, all of this has gone down, that they've accepted the resignation of this staffer, Felipe Sixto. As you know, he used to work for The Center for A Free Cuba.
And we understand that the now -- or he's now leaving because of the allegations that he had mishandled some grant money from the U.S. Agency for International Development -- an agency the president has obviously touted for its work around the world, in Africa and many other places.
The significance of the group, Center for A Free Cuba, of course, could be the president has spent a lot of time, especially with the transfer of power in Havana, talking about and pushing for freedom and democracy to go to Cuba. And so this, obviously, very embarrassing for the administration that a White House aide, Felipe Sixto -- now a former White House aide -- had allegedly misused some federal grant money.
We don't have an idea of exactly how much money, but essentially U.S. taxpayer money misused to go to his former employer. Again, we don't yet have the details in terms of where or how that money was used by this group. All of that is going to be investigated now.
As you noted, the White House has decided the turn this over to the Justice Department. The significance, of course, is that makes it possible and maybe even likely that the Justice Department would open some sort of a criminal investigation. So, obviously, this is a very embarrassing revelation for the White House -- Brianna.
KEILAR: All right. Thanks for the update.
Ed Henry for us there on the North Lawn.
LEMON: All right, you've all heard this -- it's 10:00 p.m. do you know where your children are? Well, you may not have to ask that question anymore. Some new technology might actually help you out.
Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange with that story and some troubling safety implications, as well -- hi, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Don.
Yes, Sprint/Nextel has been offering a service called Loop to some of its customers. And it uses GPS technology to track users. Now "The Wall Street Journal" reports that industry Verizon Wireless is getting ready to offer a similar service.
Now, here's how Loop works. Cell phone users who sign up can make their whereabouts available to a network of friends who also buy the service. A map that's viewable on the cell phone screen plots the locations of people within the network.
And then every 15 minutes or so it refreshes and users always have the option of temporarily turning off the tracker. And they can't troll outside their Sprint networks for other cell phone users to find out where that person they have a huge crush is hanging out and didn't show up -- you know, young kids. You know what they do, Don.
LEMON: No.
OK. You know what the kid -- what the kids are doing these days.
ELAM: Exactly.
LEMON: All right, still, it raises some serious concerns, though, about personal safety.
ELAM: Of course, it does. I mean the cell phone companies are potentially on the hook here. It wouldn't take long for the first lawsuit if the personal tracking leads to stalking. And that's why most carriers have stayed away from it so far -- too much privacy and liability concerns.
But now the wireless industry sees the sales potential as too great to pass up. And in this age of MySpace and Facebook, young people are more willing to share private information with their friends, including, evidently, their location.
Of course, children under the age of 14 can't sign up because of concerns about child predators. But parents -- they can actually sign up their kids. And all of this is a sign that I am old because I do not want anyone knowing where I am at all times, except for like right here.
All right --
LEMON: Isn't that what the BlackBerry is for?
ELAM: Yes. Exactly. I feel like it finds me all the time.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: All the time, right.
ELAM: I don't need to put it on a Web site -- like and right now I'm on vacation. No, just --
LEMON: What's happening with the markets?
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
ELAM: All right, coming up, from Chicago to Bangkok, some cities are going to be in the dark tomorrow night. I'll tell you why they're going lights out at the closing bell. We have just about 15 minutes until that happens -- Don and Brianna?
LEMON: All right, see you in a bit.
Thank you, Steph.
ELAM: Thanks.
KEILAR: Travel trouble in Texas -- a woman with nipple piercings. That's right. She was told to take her rings off if she wanted to get on a flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. We have some very sad news to report here today. You never knew her name, but you knew her work. Bev Broadman's work was CNN and Bev was a CNN original. She helped invent this place and gathered news that informed and transformed the world.
Our friend and colleague died last night. And the loss extends far beyond the NEWSROOM that she thought of as home.
CNN's Chuck Roberts has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUCK ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's some sad news to report from the CNN family.
Our dear friend and longtime colleague, Beverly Broadman, has died after a battle with cancer. Bev, as she was known in the newsroom, was a CNN original, joining the network in 1980 -- one month before CNN went on the air.
She had many important jobs here. She began her career with CNN Sports. Later, she became a news manager on our domestic assignment desk. And for the past several years, as an editor on our News Planning Desk.
She was always here for the big stories -- the 1986 Challenger explosion and the day America came under attack, September 11 2001, right in the thick of things.
BEVERLY BROADMAN, CNN EDITOR, NEWS PLANNING DESK: We'll see what comes out of the news conference.
ROBERTS: Bev was always taking care of her field crews and always on the phone. It's how most of us saw her doing her job -- a job she loved. And to our benefit, she also loved sharing her passion with young journalists.
BROADMAN: It's teamwork. It's not being a prima Donna, being ready to pick up and do anything from coffee to interviews to editing.
ROBERTS: CNN wasn't her first job in national journalism. Bev first began at CBS News in 1970 and worked her way up fairly quickly to join the staff of the CBS Morning News. She joined CNN after a 10- year career at CBS News.
Bev was far too young -- only 60 -- when she died.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: A female suspect has been arrested in connection with that kidnapping of a one-day old baby in Florida. And that baby is now safely in custody.
Let's get you now to a news conference underway from Sanford, Florida police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...gowns, hospital attire. The child was brought back immediately to Central Florida Regional Hospital. The hospital was brought back -- the child was brought back to the emergency room, has since been reunited with the parents. The child is in good shape.
I want to emphasize the hospital security did an excellent job trying to apprehend this woman. She managed to get out the door. The information they provided was critical to us successfully finding this child.
The child is OK, back in custody of the parents. And it's a pretty good day in the City of Sanford.
QUESTION: Do you have any idea -- the suspect -- do you have any idea who this woman is and why she targeted this particular baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we don't know that at this time. This is unfolding. You know, the investigation is just beginning. What you're seeing is Johnny on the spot police work. And the investigators, the Lake Mary P.D. Sanford patrol officers, our investigators, FDLA, everybody did a great job in turning what could have been an extremely, extremely tragic situation into a good day.
QUESTION: Can you talk about her ability...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ...where the baby was and were there other babies in that room?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the nursery in the hospital.
KEILAR: All right, you are listening there to a press conference in Sanford, Florida. That one-day old baby who had been kidnapped a little more than two hours ago now reunited with her parents, safe and sound. And a female suspect has been arrested. A woman identified as Jennifer Latchum (ph). This apparently is the suspect here, you can see, holding this infant in her left arm.
Jennifer Latchum is what police are -- police are saying this is the suspect. She's about 40-years-old. And they're crediting Johnny on the spot police work -- their words -- for recovering this baby so quickly -- really, in about an hour and 15 minutes from the first 9-1- 1 call. A good ending to a story.
LEMON: All is well. We're glad for that.
Now let's check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. A couple minutes away from the top of the hour.
What's coming up -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, thanks very much, Don and Brianna.
The chairman of the Democratic National Committee is defending his party's system. But he's also calling on the superdelegates to decide by the first of July. Will it work? We're going to have reaction from Clinton supporter James Carville.
President Bush calls this the defining moment of the war in Iraq. Yet it's another day of terrible violence. The president, though, keeping on message.
Plus, Republican voters switching sides -- could it have an impact on the votes in Pennsylvania? We're live with the story.
All that, guys, and a lot more coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM".
LEMON: Hey, Wolf, don't go anywhere, because you've got -- there's a new sheriff coming to town. And here she is right here, Steph Gogins (ph). She works for us here on the CNN NEWSROOM p.m. team, Wolf, and she's coming to you. She's going to work with the political unit --
BLITZER: Excellent.
LEMON: So you'd better treat her well.
BLITZER: We will. She looks like she's excited.
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: She's nervous.
LEMON: Steph, are you excited?
Bob your head up and down if you're excited.
KEILAR: Well, she's wonderful and we're very excited to have her in (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: She is excited, yes.
BLITZER: You know what? We're more excited to get her.
LEMON: Yes.
Hey, Wolf, thank you. We'll be watching you at the top of the hour.
And take good care of our girl. She is -- Steph Gogins knows every piece of video that comes into the building.
KEILAR: Yes.
LEMON: And she keeps us on the air every day. So Steph, we're going to...
KEILAR: And she's witty to boot.
LEMON: We're going to miss you.
Enjoy D.C. , though.
The closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.
KEILAR: Hi, Stephanie Elam. What's going on?
ELAM: OK. I looked up and saw that banner and I thought you guys were telling me something I didn't know about, about good-bye Steph. Mess with my head a little bit. LEMON: You're like where am I going?
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: Good luck, Stephanie.
LEMON: What a way to tell me I'm done.
ELAM: I know. That was a little scary.
(LAUGHTER)
ELAM: I was like what's going on, people?
Anyway, good luck to Stephanie.
I hope she likes D.C.
LEMON: Yes.
ELAM: I used to live there. A great city.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KEILAR: All right. Have a good one, Stephanie.
Let's go now to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Wolf Blitzer.
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