Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Fire Out of Control in Santa Barbara; Obama, Sharpton, Bloomberg and Gingrich Meet

Aired May 07, 2009 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL SHARPTON: We have a crisis of inequality in this country with education.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: So, Gingrich, Bloomberg, Sharpton and Obama walk into a room. No, this is not a joke. In fact, it's happening during our watch. Reaching out. We're on it.

The Bernie Madoff we didn't know from his secretary. What he was doing with all the money?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He had a habit of getting frequent massages. One day, I caught him scouring the escort pages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Miss California may have broken the no-nudity rule. Will it cost her the crown?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARRIE PREJEAN, MISS CALIFORNIA: I have no comment for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Legalizing pot -- are Americans really in favor? And is California serious?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: I think that we ought to study very carefully on what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Forget pot. Why can't Americans stop eating? The former head of the FDA spills the beans on the food industry, and how they addict us to junk! You've got to watch this.

Then, we'll talk about it, on the nation's first, the original, national conversation -- right now. Hello, again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez, with the next generation of news. It's a conversation, it is not a speech. And it's your turn to get involved.

I want to show you one of the prettiest places in the country -- on fire. This is Santa Barbara. Parts of this fire are burning out of control. It's a combination of hot temperatures, of low humidity, some drought conditions coupled with strong winds. You get the picture.

More than 13,000 people have been evacuated from their homes already. At least 20 homes have burned to the ground.

Chad Myers, any good news out there on this thing?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the wind died down a little bit today, Rick. But I think it's going to pick up again probably later on tonight.

Here's what we have for you. I mean, you can kind of see some of the topography from some of those pictures. But I'm going to take you to a Google Earth tour, I'm going to hit the bottom and just one time, this is going to tour all around the Santa Barbara area, and we are going to continue to move all the way from about -- I would say, right in -- there you see L.A. to the right and there you see Santa Barbara.

You see what the problem is? That the problem is that this is an east/west beach. And there's a mountain range to the north. So, you get a wind from the northwest, the north, or the northeast, and you're going to have a down-slope flow, down-slope flows are hot. It was 102 degrees in Santa Barbara yesterday. And down-slope flows are dry. Relative humidity, 15 percent.

And there's the fire, right there in the foothills, just across -- just to the north of Santa Barbara proper. And it's going to be another smoky night -- like we said last night, I said this to you: If you smell smoke overnight, you got to wake up and figure out what in the heck is going on in your area.

Also here, talked about the storms as well, there's Atlanta, Albany -- tornado warning near Eufaula. Let's bring it right back here. And we're going to move that right down, we'll zoom it right in here is Dothan and that storm is very close to Eufaula and Osco, that pink box, that means tornado warnings, we did report that a tornado was very possible with some of the rotation here. We'll keep watching it for you for the rest of the day -- Rick?

SANCHEZ: If you leave Atlanta and you're going toward New Orleans, you got to drive right through Eufaula, by the way. I happen to know that.

MYERS: Absolutely right. And then here -- you're driving right down here. You're either going 65 or down through Dothan, that is -- that is southeast lower Alabama, they call it the SLA.

SANCHEZ: Great barbecue territory. By the way, I hope those people are OK. Let us know, Chad, if anything changes on that.

Now this: Three people no one ever thought would be in a room together. You ready for this? The Reverend Al Sharpton -- there he is walking out of the White House, with his polar political opposite, Newt Gingrich right there behind him, and the straight man in all of this -- in this trio is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. All three of these guys fresh from a meeting with the president of the United States.

Remember, one of these guys rips into the president on a daily basis over on FOX News. And that would be the Newtster himself. But there they were together, committing themselves to working with the White House, to close the gap in public education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: We may not agree on certain specific issues, but there must be a commitment in this country for equal education for all American young people.

NEWT GINGRICH, (R) FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: What I've said to Al Sharpton and others is, I'm prepared to work side by side with every American who is committed to putting children first, putting learning first, and getting the job done in the next two or three years, not talking about it for 26 more years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Unique groupings like this don't come around every day.

Joining us now from Washington is A.B. Stoddard from "The Hill."

A.B., good to see you.

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, THE HILL: Good to see you, Rick.

SANCHEZ: What's this "crazy like a fox" president trying to do here politically by inviting Newt Gingrich to the White House?

STODDARD: This is so vintage Barack Obama. I thought it was amazing. He's bringing his greatest critic and Newt Gingrich is doing everything that he can to prepare -- everything you need to do to prepare for a run in 2012, and positioning himself as the face and voice of the party. And blasting Barack Obama, as you mentioned on TV, day in and day out, on his domestic policy or he's a reckless deficit spender, on his foreign policy saying he's endangering Israel and his, you know, effort to engage with Iran is a fantasy, day in and day out.

So, to bring him into a conversation and say, "Let's work together," and then put him next to Al Sharpton, and someone who's, you know, an effective, independent leader like Michael Bloomberg, is the perfect -- it's the perfect way to draw Gingrich in because Gingrich still sees himself, though he's a fierce partisan, he still sees himself as a real leader, as a problem-solver. He still loves to govern, even though he might not be so talented at it. He's ideas man.

So, it was sort of a perfect -- I think -- I think it was a really great trio actually and a good idea.

SANCHEZ: Friends close but enemies closer.

STODDARD: Always -- Hillary Clinton in the State Department.

SANCHEZ: Is he also doing something -- is he also sending the teachers union a signal, this, quote, "communist/socialist" president -- sending the teachers union a signal that the party may be over, "You want a raise, you want tenure, show me what you're doing for the kids"?

STODDARD: Yes. You know, Barack Obama has actually been very even and former speaker, Newt Gingrich, actually made mention of that today when he left the White House, that he's shown to support for charter schools. And though he opposes vouchers, he supports merit pay, and he has definitely put some distance between himself and the teachers unions. And it will be interesting to see what he does in terms of bringing to it the mat in policy in the months and years to come.

SANCHEZ: You know, that's interesting, he would do something like that and then he gets Al Sharpton into the mix. Now, you can say all you want about Reverend Al, you know, I've interviewed him many, many times, he's probably as good a voice -- I know there's a lot of folks on the other side that don't like him -- but he's probably as good a voice for the inner city African-Americans than just about any other African-American leader out there, is he not?

STODDARD: He is. And what's interesting is he's in a new sort of position of supremacy in the age of Obama. Barack Obama is a post- racial president who clearly is resisting being identified as an African-American leader. We've talked about that before.

But what's so interesting, is the fact that Al Sharpton used to sort of play second fiddle to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who, after all his troubles with Barack Obama during the primary campaign last year, is really on the outs now and he does not have the prestige that he once did. And so, it's a new day for Al Sharpton. He works very hard in New York, very hard on these issues, and it's interesting to see him take this and have this kind of prominence now.

SANCHEZ: Sharpton, Gingrich, Bloomberg and Obama -- I got to tell you, if you'd told me that those four guys would be together ...

STODDARD: I agree.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: A surprise. And it does, yes, like many of the folks on MySpace and Facebook and Twitter have been telling me all day long, it's the beginning of a joke and we're still waiting for the punch line, those four guys walking through a room.

A.B. Stoddard, thanks so much for being here.

STODDARD: Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: All right.

Look at this video we just got in. The Father Alberto scandal is now taken to the streets. It gets -- there's even a fight here. You'll see it. We're going to show it to you as we put this piece together for you.

Also, an insider, who worked for Bernie Madoff has come forward, talking about massages, escort services, allegedly he received. What to do with all the money, Bernie?

And then, you know why you can't stop eating junk? Because that's exactly what many food companies want you to do -- not stop eating junk. The man who once ran the Food and Drug Administration explains that on this show in just a little bit. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. We got a lot of comments that are coming in from you, obviously. Let's take one, if we can, Robert.

MySpace, OK, this is about Miss California, and that story that doesn't seem to want to go away. Now, they're talking about taking away her crown because there are nude pictures -- partially nude pictures, I should say. And to that, we get this, "Everybody has been naked at some point."

Flip it over to the Twitter board if we can, Robert. Job well done. "Newt Gingrich and addictive junk food, why does it seem like these two stories have something in common?" We'll let you make the tie.

Whenever you want to know what somebody's really like, you know, who you should talk to? His secretary. No different with Bernie Madoff. His assistant has been with him for 20 years. Where did all the money go? Did he talk about it? Did she suspect anything? Good questions, huh?

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff to ask him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While Bernard Madoff was running the biggest investment fraud in history, his secretary says, she had no clue.

ELEANOR SQUILLARI, FMR. BERNIE MADOFF SECRETARY: I'm pretty devastated.

CHERNOFF: Eleanor Squillari says she's angry, too, and is cooperating with the FBI as investigators try to determine who helped her former boss perpetrate the fraud. In "Vanity Fair" she writes, Bernard Madoff orchestrated his arrest by having his sons, Mark and Andrew, who were executives at the company, turn him in.

(on camera): Many people wonder, was that his way of protecting the sons?

SQUILLARI: Well, I think that it's natural for any parent to want to protect his sons, but I believe that he protected his sons because they weren't involved. I've always known them to be professional and just very good people, and I never saw anything.

CHERNOFF: Which is ...

SQUILLARI: That would indicate that they were involved in that side of the business.

CHERNOFF: Is not the way, though, that you probably felt about Bernie Madoff himself?

SQUILLARI: That's a good question. It's true, yes.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Madoff's wife, Ruth, had her own office at company headquarters, and for many years, was deeply involved in the business.

SQUILLARI: But they did everything together, and they talked about everything together. So, yes, she was very involved.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): To most people, it's inconceivable that his wife could not have known.

SQUILLARI: It is. And I've heard that from a lot of people. But I would be -- I would not be comfortable damning somebody without having absolute proof.

CHERNOFF: Madoff, Squillari says, was flirtatious, writing, "Bernie had a roving eye and I knew he had a habit of getting frequent massages. One day, I caught him scouring the escort pages."

(on camera): It's not illogical for one to have the idea that -- did Bernie Madoff ever have affairs? Any sense of that?

SQUILLARI: I'd rather not say. It's between him and his wife.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Squillari says most painful of all is the knowledge that her boss of 20 years stole billions from clients who had trusted him with their lifesaving.

SQUILLARI: I didn't know I had that many tears in me.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Squillari says she had invested with her boss but withdrew the money years ago when she needed it for expenses. Bernard Madoff is in jail awaiting sentencing next month where he'll almost certainly be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Arnold Chernoff, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Now, we got comments coming in right away on this as you might imagine. Let's go to MySpace if we can, Robert. "Yes, like I'm really going to trust Bernie's secretary. That's funny!" And then we'd go over to Twitter, we got a comment on that as we're watching the news and you're reacting to it immediately. "I thought pigs would fly before we would see those four guys in a room talking education." Referring, of course, to Bloomberg and Sharpton and Gingrich and President Obama. "Well, guess what? Swine flu, laugh out loud."

Figs flew and then this ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Said that she never posed nude or seminude. Well, she did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Here's a new controversy and some racy photos that everyone seems to be talking about, that have some calling for Miss California to have her crown taken away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: You know that as we're putting this show together, we are talking to you. And then when we have the show actually on the air, we continue to talk to you. That's what makes us a verifiable national conversation, as we often say. Let's do that, if we can.

Because we did MySpace and Twitter, now let's do this -- let's go to Facebook, over to your right, Robert, right there in the middle. See that guy, Chris? He just contacted us a minute -- two minutes ago it says there. "It's about time important political figures are finally making some smart, bipartisan moves to help our education system in a positive direction," he writes. He's talking about that meeting that the president had with Newt Gingrich and Bloomberg and Al Sharpton.

And then we got a comment that I think is a little bit more critical. And I have no idea how we got to that. I think sometimes it moves. There we go, here's the one I wanted to show you. This is about Miss California, but Bajangirl says, "Vanessa Williams lost her crown for naked pics, this idiot should, too."

And brings us to this -- there are fish stories and then there are fish stories. Look at what Florida fisherman Bucky Dennis pulled this morning in the Gulf of Mexico. Yes, it's a hammerhead, and yes, it's a big one. Thirteen feet, weighing about 1,060 pounds and bloody to boot. Bucky says that beats the old hammerhead record by 440 pounds, he should know. He hoisted another record hammerhead three years ago, that tipped the scales at about 1,280 pounds.

In case you're wondering, it took roughly 2 1/2 hours -- we're told -- to haul that big sucker in.

They're saying "We should forgive Father Albert." A rally in Miami supporting the father, the priest, has turned into a confrontation. The priest gives more reaction to the scandal over photos of him on a beach with a woman as fights break out.

Watch this. Here's where it goes. Bang! Fisticuffs.

And there's this story coming up as well ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PREJEAN: I have no comment to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Speaking of photos, a racy one, one from her past, may cost Miss California big time. And everyone seems to want in on that one.

And then, the story for so many of you know and the social services here or the social media is interested in, perhaps as much as more than any other story we talk about -- should marijuana in this country be legalized? And why California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is considering it? Also considering taxing it? In fact, that's the reason he's considering it?

What do you think? Let us know. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): Hey, this is Aaron (ph) Chicago. I just want to say, you should be allowed to smoke weed. That's the bottom line. And the junk food thing, don't ban it. We need something to eat when we're high. You know what I'm saying? The point is, our bodies, we should be able to put into it what we want.

Hey, Rick. Have a nice day.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Yes, there you go. The market, and that's our market watch. It's down 115. We'll continue to keep an eye on it for you. Obviously, it closes in -- oh, about 26 minutes, give or take a few.

Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez right here in the world headquarters of CNN. There are plenty of polls taken recently that reflect that Americans seem to be softening their position when it comes to legalizing marijuana. Some polls even show that Americans are now even in favor of it. Why? Follow the money, baby. The billions that we could be making by taxing it -- say many government officials, including the governor of California, who's now making it part of his platform!

And on my blog, CNN.com/RickSanchez, we asked you that question. The response: 82 percent of you say, "Go ahead, legalize it. Good thing." Eighteen percent of you said, "No, do not legalize it. It is not a good thing."

And then there's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly 15 million Americans smoke marijuana each month. The U.S. government says 44 percent of high school seniors have tried it, and some adults openly use it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do. I'm not afraid to admit that.

FOREMAN: Now, amid rumbles that legalizing and taxing marijuana could bring California $1.3 billion a year, lawmakers there are considering just that. A poll shows voters favor it. And the governor wants to talk it over.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, (R) CALIFORNIA: And I think that we ought to study very carefully on what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana.

FOREMAN: In New York, the Drug Policy Alliance encouraged by more than a dozen states that have already approved medicinal marijuana has long argued for full legalization, comparing the costly war on drugs to prohibition.

ETHAN NADELMANN, DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE: The number one, two, and three factors that brought alcohol prohibition to such a rapid end in 1933 were the depression, the depression, the depression. And what's driving things very quickly right now with ending marijuana prohibition is the recession, the recession and the fear of another depression.

FOREMAN (on camera): Drug opponents disagree, saying any new revenue could be swallowed by new problems for law enforcement and health officials, because as the marijuana trade has grown lucrative, the drug itself has been re-engineered to be stronger.

(voice-over): Drug Watch International is a nonprofit group against legalization.

JOHN COLEMAN, DRUG WATCH INTERNATIONAL: No question about it. I mean, it's -- it's the difference between having maybe a four-ounce glass of beer, versus an eight-ounce glass of Jack Daniels. It's far more potent today than it was back in the '60s.

FOREMAN: The president himself doubts the positive economic impact of legalization.

PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.

(APPLAUSE)

FOREMAN: But the drumbeat to consider it is growing.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grandma has no problem showing us her piece, but she doesn't want to show her face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to be on TV, because they still might be vindictive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Yes. This is a grandmother who brandishes a Glock on a group of kids to fight off road rage. Who's right? Who's wrong on this one? I want you to watch this report and then let me know what you think. Stay with me.

Also, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, he's going to be telling you, in large measure -- pardon the pun -- why so many of us are fat. He's next. Stay with us right here.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): Hey, Rick. My name is Dana. Yes, we should legalize pot. It's been a long time coming. This way the cops can focus on the real criminals and Uncle Sam can get its hands in people's pockets. It's a win/win situation all the way around.

And as far as the junk food, we should hold the companies accountable and stop putting so much sugar and crap in all of it.

Hope you have a good day. Bye.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Man, have we got a ton of comments on legalizing marijuana. I get it. I get it. I know it's something you guys out there have been wanting to talk about. Welcome back, I want to switch the subject here a little bit and talk about something that's important to really all of us, including Moi (ph). Noting America's burgeoning waistlines we as a nation have never been fatter, seriously.

But here's a question that you never thought of reaching for the next bag of chips or that can of soda, is it you who's actually deciding what to eat? Or how much to eat? Or is someone really deciding for you or maybe even making you decide?

The former chief of the Food and Drug Administration says you and I are being programmed, kind of like manipulated, like Pavlov's dog. So, who is manipulating us for profits?

I don't think it takes too long to figure that out, but David Kessler is with us now, Dr. David Kessler. He has a new book out. He slams America's food industry. It's called the "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of Insatiable American Appetite." What makes this interesting is that he's not a guy selling a diet book. He's not telling you how you can lose weight or anything like that. He's just telling you something about the system that he uniquely knows because of his former position.

Doctor, good to see, sir.

DR. DAVID KESSLER, AUTHOR, "THE END OF OVEREATING": Good to be with you.

SANCHEZ: You suggest the nation's food industry is intentionally creating adult baby food. What does that mean?

KESSLER: Much of our food that we're eating is predigested. It's pre-fried. It's bathed in sugar and fat, sometimes it's needled. Next time you eat, just pay attention to how many times you're chewing. You know, back 10, 20 years ago we chewed on the average about 20 chews per bite. Today the food goes down in two or three chews. It's a whoosh. You get that sensory hit and you just reach for more.

SANCHEZ: Really? I guess, well, since that's how we eat nowadays, nobody remembers, I don't have my grandparents, unfortunately, they passed away, to ask them how they chewed. But I'm curious, what is it about the food that makes it predigested, as you say? Who's doing that to our food before it gets to us?

KESSLER: Well, the food industry knows exactly what happens in your mouth. They understand the cheese melt, but the main drivers of consumption are sugar, fat and salt. We used to think that we ate to satiate ourselves, eat for nutrition. We're eating for stimulation.

SANCHEZ: So it's the salt, fat and the sugar and I imagine the preservatives to boot that creates this manipulation of what, sensory effect that we get to it? From it, I should say.

KESSLER: What we see in millions of Americans, that once they are stimulated, once they are cued, once they start thinking about the food, their brain gets activated. They're -- the amygdala parts of the brain get activated and don't shut off. So it's very hard to stop eating. There's excessive activation by sugar, fat and salt. It's as if your brain is being hijacked.

SANCHEZ: This is fascinating stuff. I'm thinking -- whenever you have a problem, I believe, there's two ways to think about it, internalize it or externalize it. Internalizing this, I would think there are things we need to do rather than to blame the other guy for what he's doing to us. What can I do to protect myself against it and externalizing it, I'm thinking, maybe we can also do something as a group or a government to put a little pressure on the government to stop doing that crap to us.

KESSLER: You just said it brilliantly. The fact is once we know -- now we know that in -- that sugar, fat and salt, the foods that we're eating are excessively activating the brains of millions of Americans, that doesn't mean that we can't do something about it. We have to take responsibility to protect ourselves, to be able to fight back, to decrease the stimulation and pre prevent us from being manipulated.

But it also puts responsibility on the food industry, and also government. Government has a role for disclosure and education.

SANCHEZ: That's a great interview. I'm so glad we asked you to come and join us. Ever since I've started reading about your book being out, I asked my staff to contact you. I'm glad you had a chance to come in and talk to us about this. Give us the name of your book again. I know there's probably a whole bunch of people that will want to read about it.

KESSLER: "The End of Overeating."

SANCHEZ: "The End of Overeating" by Dr. David Kessler. Thanks again, doctor. Appreciate it.

KESSLER: Thanks an awful lot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said she never posed nude or seminude. Well, she did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KESSLER: Miss California might be fired by something she allegedly did when she was 17 years old. Did she break the anti- nudity rule? Guess who has to decide that now? Donald Trump.

And after our story yesterday, they're hot under the collar down in South Florida, where it's hot to begin with. People fighting mad over the photos of Father Albert with a woman on the beach in Miami, affectionately.

And then should anybody, even a grandma, pull a gun on motorists? Think about that question when you watch the next story that I'm going to be showing you. We're going to be right back with your responses.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CALLER: Yeah, my name's Rob. I'm calling from Ohio. If you legalize pot and ban junk food, what are you going to eat when you get the munchies? I'm just saying. Bye, now.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back, I'm Rick Sanchez here in the world headquarters of CNN. Before I show you this next report, let me bring your attention over here to MySpace, because we just got an interesting comment from someone who has been watching the situation out in California with this -- with this Miss California, and all the controversy that she has been embroiled in lately.

This is the question - "So you can't be seminude until the bathing suit competition?" Interesting question. We get your point.

All right, now, I want you to watch this next story, and tell me who's right and who's wrong. I want you to watch this. We'll watch it together, in fact. Because nobody wants to see rowdy teenagers who are harassing, or as the cool people in the media say, harassing, the elderly, but most of us also aren't comfortable with the idea of people pulling guns out in traffic, right? That's why you should make your own decision, as you watch this report by Tyisha Fernandes of affiliate WFTX.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TYISHA FERNANDES, WFTX CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Grandma has no problem showing us her piece, but she doesn't want to show her face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to be on TV, because they still might be vindictive, right?

FERNANDES: She's talking about a 22-year-old driver and his passenger's road rage. This is a reenactment about what deputies and Grandma Patcallen (ph) say happened. About 7:00 Cinco de Mayo evening, grandma and her husband left this restaurant and headed west on Pine Island Road.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all of the sudden my husband said, look at the car, they were right up the back of us. They were riding up next to us and shooting us birds and getting in front of us, getting back beside of us, and I thought my goodness.

FERNANDES: So the couple pulled to the right shoulder to let them pass. But then they started hitting the brakes. Grandma said they were trying to cause an accident. A few hundred feet later, Peck pulled into the left lane and they were side by side again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just wouldn't stop. FERNANDES: So grandma pulled out this 9 millimeter Glock.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I scared that one guy, I thought he was going to drop his eyeballs out! I did not point it at them, though. I just held it in the palm of my hand and ...

FERNANDES: And dialed 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was horrifying. I was so scared talking to the lady on 911. I couldn't hardly talk.

FERNANDES: The other driver flagged a deputy down.

(on camera): When the driver pulled up to this intersection of Stringfellow Road and Pine Island Road, he saw a deputy here directing traffic. So he started telling that deputy his side of the story.

(voice-over): Which is very similar to grandma's, but he says grandma was the one doing this.

Vinne Nataro (ph) works at the restaurant grandma was leaving, he said the flip-flopping speed limit is exactly why the road rage happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It changes constantly. When you first come in, it's 45 and drops down from 35 to 30 and then back up to 45 and then 55, back down to 40.

FERNANDES: He says the speed limit confusion turns into road rage. This one leaving a group of young drivers with a new respect for their elders. In Matlashe (ph), Tyisha Fernandes, Fox 4, in your corner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Yep, forgive Father Albert, tempers flare over the Miami priest scandal and the father's reaction, since the photos surfaced. You're going to be seeing that in just a couple of minutes if you stay with us.

Also, those other photos that everyone has been talking about, except it's not this one, it's one where she is, I suppose, seminude. Should they cost Miss California her title? And we've just gotten some new information in on the case against John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi and killing people.

There's the video we showed you before, as there was an attempt to extradite him from the United States to face new charges in Germany. Now there's a decision on this story. We'll bring it to you on the other side of the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Lawyers were trying to stay the deportation of John Demjanjuk. We have just received information that shows -- here's Demjanjuk, by the way, the last time we ran with this story. Thinking that day as we watched this video that he was about to be deported, but when he got to the airport, there was a court injunction that stopped his deportation.

Now, his case has gone all the way through the courts. The Supreme Court has just ruled that John Demjanjuk's stay of deportation is denied. That means he will be extradited to Germany, where he will face charges as a killer, as a Nazi killer in some of the concentration camps there.

We'll follow the story and bring you updates as we get it.

Yesterday when I got home and started twittering and reading blogs, I noticed that there was a ton of material about my coverage of Father Alberto. He's that Miami priest, photographed on the beach with his -- with a woman in his arms. Having Bill Donahue of the Catholic League, whose passionate pugnaciousness often matches my own, certainly may have heated things up on the blogosphere. I understand that.

Regardless, the story now has legs. And two camps, literally, two camps, those who back the priest and those who don't back the priest. Here is a report from my former TV home, WSVN, and reporter LuAnne Sorrell from Miami Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here because we love Father Albert and we support him.

LUANNE SORRELL, WSVN CORRESPONDENT: Dozens of parishioners loyal to Father Alberto Cutie rallying outside St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Miami Beach Thursday morning.

MARYANN MCILRATH, SUPPORTS PRIEST: There are so many friends that just want to show their support for a human being that has done amazing work throughout the whole world.

SORRELL: This coming two days after racy photos of the priest apparently kissing a young woman show up in a Spanish tabloid.

PATTY COLOSIMO, SUPPORTS PRIEST: I'm a Catholic, but I think it's time to change. I think priests should be able to get married and have a normal life like every other single religion.

SORRELL: But not everyone sharing that opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Preacher has to make an example to the rest of the world.

SORRELL: Differing viewpoints turning physical between this elderly man and a radio deejay from el Sol. Father Cutie removed from the altar and from hosting a radio show. The Archdiocese of Miami saying he's on a leave of absence, sorting through his feelings. In an interview with a Spanish television station last week, Cutie reportedly saying he endorses giving priests the right to marry, saying, "If they want to discipline me, let them discipline me, but I think the option would be better and healthier."

When asked to identify the woman seen in these photos, Cutie reportedly telling a local paper, "It would be inappropriate to protect that person, it's best not to speak about that. It has been enough already. It has been too much for me and my family."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And what are you saying about this? Well, a-plenty. And both sides are being covered here. Just as many people who are for him as are against him. But here's one, Maria's watching us from New York, and she writes, "Rick, the church should void celibacy. It was not Jesus' teaching. Priests are human beings, for goodness sake!" One response to which there are many.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ: She said that she never posed nude or seminude. Well, she did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Will Donald Trump fire her for going topless when she was 17?

A follow-up on Miss California, who can't seem to get out of the news cycle these days. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. You know, we've been following that story out of Connecticut where police are searching for a suspect in the shooting death of a Wesleyan student. In stories earlier today, CNN and other news organizations published an incorrect photograph that we wanted to bring to your attention. It was supplied to the media by the university. And it showed another individual. That means the photo shown earlier today was not that of the suspect, and we at CNN regret that error.

Now, here's a correct photograph. Just to clear things up. The correct photograph police have now given CNN. This is Stephen Morgan. He's wanted in connection with the shooting death of a Wesleyan student in Connecticut. Police say he is armed and he is dangerous.

It began with a response to a question, which, while not articulate, was at least response to a question. Which while not articulate, it was at least honest. I think we can all agree on that.

That was followed by Miss California going on a quote, pro- opposite marriage campaign. And then came the question of breast enhancement paid for apparently by the pageant itself. And now, this. Miss California signed a contract saying she had never been photographed nude or partially nude. Then the pictures came out.

Here's CNN's Dan Simon from San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Miss California may soon be missing her title. And it's not because of the interviews or the implants the pageant helped give her. It may be because of this. A photograph taken when Carrie Prejean says she was 17. The picture was posted this week on a gossip site thedirty.com. It shows Prejean posing at a modeling session wearing underwear, nothing else.

(on camera): At first, Prejean told pageant officials there was just one photograph. Now, she admits there were more of her taken at the same time. Either way, it could spell trouble.

LEVIN: There are several things that Miss California pageant officials are concerned about. One is she lied in her contract. She said that she never posed nude or seminude. Well, she did.

SIMON (voice-over): Some, including a Miss USA judge, are calling for her head. Make that crown.

ALICIA JACOBS, MISS USA PAGEANT JUDGE: She is in horrible breach of contract. She signed a morality contract, a morality clause within her contract saying she had never posed for nude or seminude or inappropriate photos. That right there, it's my belief that she should lose the crown.

SIMON: Prejean calls it a witch hunt, telling CNN in a statement the pictures were part of a vicious and mean spirited effort to silence her for defending traditional marriage. And it was that that first ignited that fire storm and earned her worldwide publicity.

CARRIE PREJEAN, MISS CALIFORNIA: I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

SIMON: Her traditional values stand hit the airwaves, with Prejean appearing on cable program to push her message.

ANNOUNCER: They are called liars and bigots.

SIMON: She also joined an ad campaign against same sex marriage.

PREJEAN: Marriage is good.

SIMON: Preaching morality, but posing nearly naked. Some say it's hypocrisy. But that's a charge also being leveled at the pageant which helped Prejean get the breast implants and paid for them.

The organizers are now considering disqualifying her. The co- executive director of Miss California USA plans to meet with the Miss California runner-up, Tammy Ferrell (ph), to discuss the next steps. Whatever happens, Prejean has stolen the spotlight and as they say, there's only one worse thing than being talked about and that's not being talked about.

Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SANCHEZ: And as you might imagine, we've been getting a ton of comments on this story as we have on the Miami priest story. Let's go over if we can, let's go to the Twitter board.

"We are all born naked. Why hide it? To many people in this country" -- too many people in this country is what I believe they meant to write - "are worried about trivial things."

There's the comment coming up on this.

Let's go to Wolf Blitzer now. He is standing by. Going to bring us up to date on what's going on in the news out of Washington today.

Politics, politics, hey, Wolf, what about that meeting at the White House? Did you ever think, Wolf Blitzer, that you'd see Newt Gingrich, Michael Bloomberg ...

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And the Reverend Al Sharpton.

SANCHEZ: ... Al Sharpton and the president of the United States in a meeting?

BLITZER: You know what? And Al Sharpton's coming here now. He'll be here in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're going to talk about it. I want to take us inside the White House when the president was there. It's one thing for the president to meet with Al Sharpton and another thing to meet with Michael Bloomberg and another thing to obviously to meet with Newt Gingrich who has been so critical of the president.

I want to hear how that meeting went. Al Sharpton will come here. You know him. He's very blunt. He'll tell us what happened inside. Also, we're going to be speaking to the president's budget director. The budget cuts they came up with today, $3.5 trillion budget. They managed to find half a one percent to trim out. We're going to go through some of those specifics. A lot coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

SANCHEZ: I'm going to watch your interview with Al Sharpton. Tell him I said hi.

BLITZER: I will.

SANCHEZ: I haven't seen that character in a while. And boy, a lot of folks call him that, too.

All right. We're going to be talking to you about what you have been saying about many of the stories that we've been presenting throughout this newscast. And man, you guys are saying plenty, especially on the story about legalizing marijuana, Miss California and the Miami priest. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Oh my goodness. Look what is happening right now to somebody's house out in California, the Santa Barbara area. Look at that. This thing -- It's a goner. Chad Myers watching this thing for us. We heard earlier there had been about 20 homes destroyed by the flames. Looks like this is going to make it 21 at least.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: As more people get up into the canyons and find their homes aren't there, that number I think is probably going to increase, although I've been watching this feed from KTLA all day. This is the first home I've seen lost in the daylight. The firefighters have done an incredible job.

Just to keep it real, Rick. This entire fire, all of the acreage, all of the square footage, is still less than one square mile. The problem is million dollar homes were in that one square mile. And it isn't just a square or a big circle either. This fire has turned into a big checker board, fires on one side of the street, then the house right across the street is just fine. Firefighters are doing their best. There have been a lot of air tankers in the sky today, helicopters as well, doing a fabulous job.

This one just got in the way. It almost looks like a pick-up truck might have caught fire first.

SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting as you look at this, you and I talk about this all the time when covering tornadoes, why does one house burn and then the one across the street doesn't? Is it happenstance?

MYERS: At some point in time but some people do things that are correct and other people don't have time to do those things. Would you believe that many fires, Rick, are caused by the curtains inside the home catching fire due to the heat outside of the house?

SANCHEZ: Really?

MYERS: Yes. The heat goes right through the window. The sheers are probably made of nylon or some polyester thing, those sheets catch on fire and the inside of the house burns from inside out rather than the fire catching a spark and ember on the roof whatever it might be. There are certainly other ways. There are firefighting efforts to get people to move furniture away from the windows, to board up the windows if you can or even steel the windows so the heat doesn't translate inside the home and catch the house on fire from the inside out.

SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting? I'm seeing a firefighter there who is just taking pictures. They're at the point now where there's too much of a mess there to take the fire crews out of what is the big area, the big problem area to go and fight one house fire.

MYERS: I didn't see a unit there though. I don't know that that was a firefighter. It very well may have been a freelance photographer.

SANCHEZ: That's true. He could have been wearing a yellow rain gear outfits and stuff. My question is still valid. We're not seeing firefighters putting this out because this is not about a house fire. This is about a forest fire.

MYERS: Right, and this house is fully engulfed. There's nothing you can do to save this structure. The only thing you can do is try to save all the structures around it. Because there's nothing left in the inside of this thing. The poor guy, probably watching this on TV from some shelter somewhere, realizing it's his or her home. And then the big house right on the hill, absolutely fine, and the one house just down from it, absolutely fine as well.

SANCHEZ: You're right because this whole area has been evacuated and the people don't know that this fire is going on unless they're watching CNN right now. My best to them and Chad, as usual, thanks so much for being with us my friend.

Going to turn things over to Wolf Blitzer now. He's standing by in Washington. He's going to bring you the best of his interview today with Reverend Al Sharpton who was in on that meeting today with the president at the White House. Wolf, here you go. It's all yours.