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Pilots Failed Skill Tests, Still Flew; Depths Hold Air France Answers; Obama Dissatisfied with Stimulus Spending Rate; 2 Toy Companies Fined for Lead; Colon Cancer Increasing in Young Adults; U.S., Iraq Debating Fate of U.S. Murder Suspects; Day Care Center Had Malfunctioning Fire Alarm

Aired June 08, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thank you so much.

We are pushing forward on the searing cost of stunning failure. The vast majority of recent regional airline crashes have one thing in common: at least one pilot who flunked more than one test flight. We want to know why.

Want to learn how to turn an $8,000 tax credit into cash you can put toward a house? Our Gerri Willis has the answers.

And talk about diabetic shock: a fourth grader's blood sugar plummets. She reaches for a snack, and the school calls her a thief. We're on the case, right here in the NEWSROOM.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A lot of regional airlines pilots make peanuts. We learned that after the recent crash near Buffalo. That was quite an eye-opener. But this is a real jaw-dropper.

"USA Today" looked at government records and found in eight of nine regional airline accidents over the past ten years, at least one pilot had failed skill tests two or more times. These are the check rides that pilots take on the job to prove that their skills are up to speed.

Major airline pilots had failed more than once in just one of ten serious accidents over the period. About 20 percent of air passengers in the U.S. fly on regional carriers.

Well, regional pilots have your life in their hands, just like a major airline pilot does. So is there a different standard for them?

Let's push this forward with Mary Schiavo. She's a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Mary, thanks so much for being with me.

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Thank you. My pleasure.

PHILLIPS: You know, just looking at these numbers and what has come out with regard to these check rides, you know, why is there such a discrepancy with regard to the accountability there?

SCHIAVO: Well, there's a big discrepancy in part because of the pay and because of the major carriers set up many of these regional carriers on a contract basis to extend or to take the liability and the responsibility away from themselves.

And it's just like moving from the farm clubs up to the majors. You start out on the regionals, and if you're able to progress, if you're a highly-demanded pilot, if you've got great skills, you move up to the majors. You know, you go from the farm team up to the Yankees.

But here, there are a couple of reasons. A lot of these pilots are very new and just starting out, and then some of them aren't going to make it to the majors.

PHILLIPS: And you know, it's interesting. You mentioned pay. And we brought this Web site to the attention of our viewers a couple of months [SIC] ago when we learned what the pilot of that Colgan Air aircraft was making.

And you can go to this Web site and type in all these various different types of aircraft. And we did it here. It's airline pilot at -- actually, what is that Web site? It's airline pilot -- Tony (ph), can you tell me what that Web site is.

SCHIAVO: Airlinepilot -- I think it's dot org. And there are several salary, pilot salaries...

PHILLIPS: So you know the Web site? You know the Web site?

SCHIAVO: You're right.

PHILLIPS: OK. And I apologize for that, because it's so light on the bottom there.

So Delta, you know, DC-9s, makes 130 bucks per hour. And then you look at what somebody at Colgan Air would make on a Q-400. We tried to take two, you know, small aircraft. Fifty three dollars per hour. I mean, the Delta first officer -- or the captain, rather, makes more than double. Why is that?

SCHIAVO: Well, again, part of this was the reason for the regionals. The major carriers a number of years ago specifically spun off a number of flights to the regionals because they did not want to pay these higher pilot salaries.

And remember, co-pilot on the Colgan Flight was making $16,000 a year but also had things deducted from the pay, such as uniforms and some other things. And so not a lot of people will stick around for a job at $16,000 a year.

And this was in part by design. The regional carriers were a way to relief economic stresses from the majors. And so we have two levels of safety, and the law says it's supposed to be one level of safety. That's the problem. PHILLIPS: Well, we were looking at the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance. I didn't even know that this organization existed. I guess before I ask you about a quote that came from this organization, what do you make of this alliance? Has this been good with regard to trying to keep airlines accountable and the FAA accountable?

SCHIAVO: Well, yes and it's good for the whistleblowers themselves. Whistleblowers in the government, particularly in the aviation industry and the FAA, get blackballed. And you really don't survive being a whistleblower in the agency long or in the industry. And so in part, the organization was to band together for mutual support.

But yes, I mean, whistleblowers in the government are generally good people trying to do the right thing.

PHILLIPS: OK. So on that note, then, a whistle blower from the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance was actually interviewed in the "Buffalo News," and he elaborated on the flight safety issues that he had described to the National Transportation Safety Board officials after that Colgan crash.

And he said that test flights he took with a Colgan crew on the Q-400 back in 2008 in January, that the pilot exceeded the plane's speed limitations, failed to recognize a communications system malfunction, and mishandled the plane's landing.

And he went on to talk about how the test pilot acknowledged to being fatigued, a problem that has been laid into the accidents here on the Colgan flight, the one that crashed in Clarence.

And then the same whistleblower actually went on to say, the evidence of FAA oversight failure has been a constant and troubling concern in fatal air carrier accidents over the past several years.

How can this continue when you've got so many people's lives in your hands? I mean, several years, that's pretty frightening to think, a lot of, I guess, lucky breaks some of these pilots had.

SCHIAVO: Well, it was very poignant at the Colgan crash hearings three weeks ago, because there was a series of questions about that. And the airline was questioned again and again: "Why don't you do more for safety? You can do so much more."

And the answer almost every time was because it's not required by the FAA. And the FAA has also testified they don't like to put additional requirements on the airlines, because they like to work in partnership. They want the airlines to do it voluntarily, and it just doesn't happen. And it's time for that to change. The new FAA administrator needs to make this job one.

PHILLIPS: Well, and let me ask you: as a former inspector general, do you remember some of the same concerns back when you were inspector general, same concerns that you're actually seeing right now? And are you sitting back thinking, gosh, you know, why isn't something being done? SCHIAVO: That's right. In fact, I called these deja vu disasters.

We were working so hard in the '90s for one level of safety. And in 1995, one of the things we worked for was one level of safety. It was a big initiative that came on board, in that everyone had to meet these standards. And we didn't have commuter airlines anymore. All were under the same laws.

And we have gone clear back to the condition that had existed before 1995. And indeed, I mean, I even wrote a book about it. It was so abysmal how little policing the FAA really does. And we are at a break point now. Fifty-three percent of the flights in the United States of America, domestic traffic, are flown by regionals. We're all at risk.

PHILLIPS: Well, we'll continue to follow up on the story and hold people accountable. Mary Schiavo, thanks for the reality check. Once again, appreciate your time.

We'll talk more, also, about that Air France Flight 447 and the mystery surrounding it. The U.S. Navy now sending equipment to help find clues to what caused that crash. The Atlantic giving up more bodies and debris but still holding onto answers that might solve that mystery.

Brazil's military says that 16 bodies have now been recovered, but the recorders that could hold the secret to what went wrong could be five miles down.

Here's CNN's Karl Penhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A radio crackles as pilots and ship captains call in coordinates. Far out into the Atlantic Ocean, Brazilian and French navy ships began recovering the dead and debris from doomed Air France Flight 447.

This is search and rescue headquarters in Recife, Brazil. Brazilian military officers are using computer charts to pinpoint the exact location of every new find.

"There's no doubt that all the debris we're finding belonged to this plane that crashed. There's no doubt all the bodies are from people on this flight," he says.

Video and photos taken by the Brazilian navy show the scale of the recovery effort. Planes and boats are combing an area as big as the U.S. state of Nebraska or almost the size of Britain. It's more than 1,100 kilometers or 700 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean.

"There are currents, winds and tides that drag off debris, bodies and whatever is left of the plane," he says. The weather and waves make bringing the wreckage back to dry land more difficult. Photos from Sunday show this navy boat pulling debris aboard. Helicopters help with the heavy lifting. It's an around-the-clock effort. Aircraft packed with electronic spotting equipment fly through the night. As dawn breaks, military spotters scan the ocean for wreckage and bodies.

Debris fields are marked with flares, allowing the navy to move in.

The Air France Airbus bound for Paris made its last radio contact with this air traffic control center in Recife Sunday night a week ago. Brazilian authorities say their priority now is recovering as many bodies as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Karl Penhaul, reporting there from Brazil. The U.S. Navy, by the way, sending acoustic equipment called Towed Pinger Locators there to help in that search now. Those locaters can actually hear emergency beacons up to 20,000 feet below the ocean's surface. Track that, as well.

Well, pushing forward in Pyongyang, where North Korea's highest court today sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of, quote, "reform through labor."

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were working for Al Gore's Current TV when they were captured back in March on the Chinese-North Korean border. Now, legally, their case is now closed. But politically, diplomatically, some see potential openings.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and he's worked these cases before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: The sentence was harsh, 12 years, but the good news in the sentence was that it was not for espionage. It was for entering illegally, hostile acts.

In my past negotiations with the North Koreans, you don't start negotiating for humanitarian releases until after the North Korean legal process is over. It's over now, so the discussions have to start at the highest levels of the Obama administration, which I think has been doing a very good job of separating the political issues, the nuclear issues that separate us from North Korea, and the humanitarian release.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, there are no signs yet that Richardson or maybe even Al Gore might try to personally negotiate the women's freedom.

On the military front, the Japanese Coast Guard says that North Korea is warning fishing boats to steer clear of North Korea's east coast. That's a strong indication that more missile tests are in the works.

And speaking of boats, the Obama administration is reaching out to allies, including China, about a virtual blockade of ships believed carrying North Korean nukes or weapons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We will do everything we can to both interdict it and prevent it and shut off their flow of money. If we do not take significant and effective action against the North Koreans now, we'll spark an arms race in Northeast Asia. I don't think anybody wants to see that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Clinton says that she's also looking at the possibility of returning North Korea to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Getting off that list was a key demand and major coup for Pyongyang when it vowed to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Now, at the moment, the terror sponsor list consists of Syria, Cuba, Iran and Sudan. Syria's been singled out the longest, since December of 1979. Being on that list means being on the outs for a wide range of U.S. aid and exports.

So are we stimulated yet? President Obama says he isn't happy with the pace of the economic stimulus. Still, it may be a very busy summer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Talk about a champ. This beach house took everything Hurricane Ike could dish out and then some. Today, its survival brings tears to the eyes of the owner. He'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Busy. Well, it's cleanup day around Denver after the area was slammed by at least five tornadoes. These pictures of one of the twisters that touched down yesterday were taken by CNN iReporter Rick Sand.

A man taking pictures of another twister that ripped through a mall suffered serious injuries.

And the threat of more damaging tornadoes still with us today. Chad Myers in the severe weather center with the latest.

Hey, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kyra.

It appears today -- I'll circle the area -- that it's going to be almost Fort Wayne through Chicago, and then down to almost St. Louis. This is the area of maximum risk for tornadoes. Still, only about a 5 percent chance of a tornado being anywhere near that zone in any one of those counties. We'll watch it for you.

We've had rain move through the area earlier today, and that will cool the atmosphere down. But now the sun's coming back out. That will reheat it back up. So we're going to get almost a secondary round here with this weather.

Also, back down into parts of St. Louis, we could be seeing a little bit of weather come up for today.

Here's the picture right now out of KUSA out of Denver, one of my favorite cities. And you know, I mean, Denver is not in shambles. Don't get me wrong. They've had a couple of tornadoes, mainly around Aurora. They were small. They did do some damage. But I mean, you can see. The city is doing just completely fine today, and it will continue to do fine.

San Francisco, LaGuardia and also D.C., these are your only airport delays so far today. San Francisco 40 minutes for the marine layer. LaGuardia and D.C., you're just talking about some volume delays, and they're not really all that much significant.

Here's Chicago. A lot of planes flying around here. Here's Midway; there's O'Hare. A bunch of planes still in the sky today. As storms develop back out to the west of this area, the downtown will be right here. As storms develop to the west, some planes will have to divert around those cells, around those storms, don't want to fly through them, especially if they have hail or maybe even tornadoes today. And so you may get some delays later in the day as this happens. I suspect that Chicago will probably be a tough way to get -- tough to get out probably by 6 or 7 p.m. tonight.

So if you can get on an earlier flight, jump on it for another 15, 20 bucks, whatever it costs to stand by nowadays, it might be worth your while.

PHILLIPS: Good advice.

MYERS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Well, solitary survivor: the only house standing on a stretch of beach after Hurricane Ike battered the Texas Gulf Coast eight months ago. Today the owner is counting the days before he moves back in.

CNN's Jacqui Jeras paid him a visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARREN ADAMS, HURRICANE IKE VICTIM: And so we're all sitting there glued to the TV watching. And as the chopper made its turn to go back to the west, its cameras came upon our house. And still emotional -- but we saw it. JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Warren and Pam Adams's house became for some the symbol of hope along the Texas coast after Hurricane Ike. The last house standing was a sign that there would be a future.

But what appeared to be a totally intact house turned into one of the greatest challenges of Warren Adams's life.

ADAMS: We got water inside and tore up this deck on this side, and a lot of sheet rock damage. And all the floors were damaged. All of the cabinets and stuff.

JERAS: The damage was worse than expected.

ADAMS: When the wind hits the house, you know, it just sort of makes it -- twists it back and forth. And it breaks the sheetrock and the joints, breaks those loose.

This is my temporary quarters.

JERAS: Adams wasted no time moving into a trailer on the property to oversee every step of the repair project.

ADAMS: We're working out of our pocket right now, but we're getting to the point where we don't have to rely on some finances that are due us.

JERAS: Eight months after Ike, Adams's dream house he calls Fantasy is still the only one standing for 11.5 miles. He sits beach front now, instead of three houses inland.

ADAMS: Not going to be as great as you used to when you don't have all the neighbor that were down here. But I'm sure in time people will come back.

JERAS: Adams hopes that he can finish Fantasy by the end of July and get back to a relaxing retirement.

(on camera) Are you excited?

ADAMS: Sure I am. I've can't wait to get this thing back together. It's been so long. Like I said, it's eight months now. So I'm really looking forward to it. Looking forward to sitting right where we're sitting with all of the hand rails painted white and the house back to its natural yellow color.

JERAS (voice-over): Jacqui Jeras, CNN, Gilchrist, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, just how devastating was Hurricane Ike? Consider these facts. Eight months after the storm, about a third of businesses in the Galveston area still have not opened. Of those that are open, only 20 percent are at pre-Ike capacity.

More than 600,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed from Galveston Island alone. And if you dumped all that stuff on a football field, it would create a mountain more than 700 feet high.

Well, if you're waiting to pull the trigger on a new house, here's some incentive to go ahead and fire: quick cash from Uncle Sam making the downpayment a little more doable.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Here's some good news if it's your first time. We're talking about your first home of course. Gerry didn't like that.

The government's going to give you quick cash to help with the down payment or those dreaded closing costs. Gerri Willis, joining us...

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: We're talking about housing.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Here's something else a writer put. Gerri, you're even more brilliant in person.

I'm going to check and see who wrote this. I'm going to call up the writer on the air.

PHILLIPS: My mom wrote that.

PHILIPS: Oh, that's what it is. Momma wrote that. Good to see you.

WILLIS: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Tell us the good news.

WILLIS: This is great news for people out there who want to buy a home for the first time. You know, usually with an $8,000 tax credit, you would have to wait till you file taxes to actually get the money. The government has set it up so that you can access it immediately, if you're using an FHA-backed loan. Ask your lender for details about the FHA loan.

But the reality here is that you can use this money, not as part of your initial down payment. But you can use it for closing costs, insurance premiums, and to pay points.

Keep in mind, these FHA loans, you only put down 3.5 percent. So it's not like you're putting down 20 percent to begin with anyway. Down payment is smaller. That's the good news. This is really going to get some people into houses. Because this money is going to be accessible immediately. And then you repay it when you finally do get that credit when you pay your taxes.

PHILLIPS: How do you know you qualify, though?

WILLIS: Big details there. OK. First of all, you have to meet income requirements. As a single, you have to be making $75,000 or less; $150,000 or less AGI, adjusted gross income, if you are a couple. You can't have bought a primary home in the last three years. And you definitely want to make sure that you're meeting all of this criteria.

There's a great Web site to figure it out: FederalHousingTaxCredit.com. the administration puts up a million Web sites for this stuff so you can figure it out right away.

But make sure you qualify before you decide to buy the house. The devil's in the details.

But I've got to tell you, Kyra, this is going to give a real kiss to the housing market, I think. There's a lot of people frustrated on the sidelines because they couldn't afford these homes. Now getting a little cash. People are starting to get interested, and we're already seeing an uptick in sales across the country, even in markets that, you know, looked terrible before, like Vegas, parts of California.

PHILLIPS: Even in Atlanta. We have neighborhoods. I mean, the real-estate agents were getting really creative about homes and how to sell homes. And tons of beautiful neighborhoods just being completely shut down. And even a lot of people across the state tearing down houses because...

WILLIS: Yes. Well, that's bad news.

So this should help, though. Bottom line, if you -- you may well qualify for this tax credit. Check it out. Again, the Web site, FederalHousingTaxCredit.com. Definitely want to check.

PHILLIPS: That was Ed Perrier (ph) our writer, by the way. Obviously, reminiscing about his first time. Hopefully, buying a house.

Thank you, Gerri.

Let's take a look at the numbers now. Dow Industrials, it looks like, down about 109 points right now. We're following the numbers, of course, from Wall Street.

The $787 billion, what's it brought us so far? President Obama says, not enough.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're getting this news in from the Associated Press. Apparently, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has fractured her ankle at the airport, stumbling en route to the Senate meetings. As you remember, she was going from office to office as she was going through a series of interviews, working her way up to the confirmation process to sitting on the highest court in the land. And we're getting word now that she had a bit of a fall and fractured her ankle. That would be a tough time going through all those the interviews and on top of that being rushed back and forth. So, we'll follow her progress, of course, there.

Well, it's been almost four months now since President Obama signed the Economic Stimulus Act. More than a quarter trillion dollars of government spending and tax breaks. And he isn't happy with the progress. He actually spoke to reporters after a Cabinet meeting just last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got good news to report. I've been receiving the weekly reports from all of you, and I thank you and your teams for your dedication in moving this forward. Having said that, I'm not satisfied. We've got more work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So, the White House wants to pick up the pace of spending, building, stimulating over the summer. Jim Acosta is following the dollars in Washington for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Kyra, the White House is talking about ways to accelerate the flow of stimulus funds into government projects. The president is now saying the Recovery and Reinvestment Act will create or save 600,000 jobs this summer. In other words, the president seems to be saying, it's time to stimulate the stimulus.

(voice-over): It's a caution sign on the road to recovery. The White House warns the stimulus, like the program's highway projects, is a work in progress.

OBAMA: There you go. It's done.

ACOSTA: When the president signed the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he vowed the $787 billion program would save or create 3.5 million jobs. So far, the administration says the program has saved or created just 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days. That's fewer than the 345,000 job losses in May alone, which is why Vice President Biden says the White House is looking at new ways to get a better bang for its buck.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not be satisfied until we're adding jobs on a monthly basis.

ACOSTA: House Republicans who never supported the stimulus are all but saying, "Told you so."

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: While the president is trying to convince us the plan is working and that more jobs are being created, it's clear we're continuing to lose an awful lot of jobs.

ACOSTA: After all of that talk about shovel-ready projects, the Recovery Act's own Web site shows the Transportation Department actually ranks fourth in stimulus spending so far. Education comes in first.

CHRIS WHATLEY, COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS: I think that if you were to poll all of America, they would probably think that there's $800 billion worth of asphalt in the Recovery Act.

ACOSTA: As stimulus supporters point out, much of the money is going to save the jobs of teachers.

WHATLEY: States are facing their worst revenue shortfall that they've ever faced. And when states hit the wall on tax collections, they make stark choices. They lay off teachers. They furlough prisoners.

These are things that have an immediate impact in the lives of communities. And states are still facing very tough choices. But without the Recovery Act, they would be in dire situations.

ACOSTA: There would be more layoffs of teachers and police officers and that sort of thing.

WHATLEY: Without doubt.

ACOSTA: The administration predicts job creation will come next.

DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR POLITICAL ADVISER: The president said it was going to take some time for it to filter through the system and that employment was the last thing that was going to respond.

ACOSTA: But by then, stimulus critics argue the economy will be staging a comeback.

PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST: Yet economists were forecasting all along that the economy would come out by the end of the year. So, you can't have it both ways. If he relied on economists, then why did he not rely on their projections?

ACOSTA (on camera): And there is still plenty of pressure on the White House to show results. The nation's jobless rate stands at 9.4 percent, inching closer to what most political experts agree is dangerous territory, double-digit unemployment -- Kyra.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Jim Acosta, thanks so much. Well, President Obama has his sights set on another polarizing domestic issue, health care reform. After months of insisting that he would leave the details of constructing a new plan up to Congress, he's making a major push to have a health care reform bill drafted by fall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The status quo is broken. We cannot continue this way. If we do nothing, everyone's health care will be put in jeopardy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROY BLUNT (R), MISSOURI: Activating the grass roots effort from the campaign is one way to keep your campaign effort alive. It's not a particularly effective way to create a bipartisan solution to an important problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the president thinks that capping tax deductions for high-income Americans may be the best way to lower the cost of expanding national health care. It's estimated about 45 million Americans are uninsured.

Two medical issues of concern today, lead paint on children's toys and an alarming increase in colon cancer among young adults. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us in Atlanta. Hey, Elizabeth, let's talk about the latest first on the lead in toys.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest, Kyra, is that a huge fine has been lobbied (ph) by the Consumer Product Safety Commission against Mattel, Fisher-Price, $2.3 million, because the Consumer Product Safety Commission says there was lead in these toys.

We're talking Elmo, Ernie, Dora, all of kids' favorites. And now these toys were recalled in 2007. However, it is possible that parents do have some in their playrooms. So, you want to go to CNN.com/newsroom to see a link to a list of all 83 products that have been recalled. And Kyra, I also want to tell you a statement from Mattel. They say, "Mattel continues to be vigilant and rigorous in ensuring the quality and safety of our toys."

PHILLIPS: Well, if you're worried that your kid has one of the toys, what do you do right now?

COHEN: Well, if you're worried that your kid has had one of these toys and has been gnawing on it or putting it in his mouth, what you want to do is go to your pediatrician and ask for a lead test. There's a very simple blood test so that your pediatrician can see if your child has any kind of lead poisoning.

PHILLIPS: And what about this new study on colon cancer? Tell me what that's about.

COHEN: This one is very interesting and very, very serious, Kyra. What these researchers found is that the rates of colon cancer and colorectal cancer have gone up for young people. So, let's take a look, for example, for what they found for people in their 20s. And they found for men in their 20s that the rates of colon cancer have gone up 5.2 percent each year. For women that they have gone up 5.6 percent per year.

Now, the problem of course is that people in their 20s aren't getting colonoscopies, so there is concern that somehow, doctors are missing these escalating numbers of colon cancer cases.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, what are the reasons for the increase? COHEN: You know, it's not entirely clear, but a lot of doctors that we talked to said they think that obesity and that fast food has something to do with it. They said that too much of let's say red meat and processed red meat can increase -- some studies have shown that it can increase a person's chances of having colon cancer.

PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, not exactly the trip he planned. The mayor traveled to China on a business-hunting (ph) trip late last week and wound up quarantined along with his wife and an aide. Nagin had sat down on the plane beside a passenger who exhibited the symptoms of swine flu. No word on how long the quarantine will last. But an aide says that Nagin is in good spirits, and he has been treated well by the Chinese.

A mother wails for her baby. Just heartbreaking, and just one of dozens of moms grieving after a Mexico day-care fire. Today, a mass burial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A Michigan principal is able to address his graduating class even though he was recently deployed to Iraq. It's all thanks to a satellite technology. But wait until you see the other surprise Lieutenant David St. Aubin had in store for the graduating class of Goodrich High School near Flint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. DAVID ST. AUBIN, U.S. ARMY RESERVE: I'm proud of all of you and what you have achieved. And I'm proud to call myself a marshall, and I'm proud to say that I am your principal. I'm also very proud to wear this uniform because this uniform represents the greatest country in the entire world. I love our country, and you should, too.

Be proud to be an American and proud to live in the land of the free. Just don't take these things for granted. Remember, others like our Iraqi friends don't have the same freedoms. So, see these things as a gift. And I want to do a short chant for you. USA! USA!

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA!

ST. AUBIN: I miss all of you. I wish to be there to share this day with you. Be safe tonight and be smart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's such an amazing person, coming from such a small community in Goodrich, and then go to Iraq and do so much good for everyone. It's incredible.

ST. AUBIN: And I'd like someone to come out here and say hello to you.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Congratulations, Class of '09. Stay strong! Whoo!

ST. AUBIN: Yes! God bless you all, and don't ever forget where you live: in the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, your eyes were not playing tricks on you. That really was Stephen Colbert making that brief appearance with Lt. St. Aubin. The host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" is on a USO tour in Iraq. You can check out the camouflage suit that he wore when he visited the soldiers at Camp Victory in Baghdad yesterday.

Now, to really show his solidarity, Colbert even sat down for a military-issue buzz cut. His barber, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno. The shows airs tonight on Comedy Central.

Trying to help veterans by impersonating one? Such a bizarre case out of Colorado. Now, the first-class faker's given a jail house interview.

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PHILLIPS: Well, it's cleanup day around Denver, Colorado, after the area was slammed by at least five tornadoes. We've been getting a lot of iReports in from all of you, and we appreciate it so much. As a matter of fact, our Chad Myers has been able to wade throughs some of them there and give us a little insight to what folks are seeing -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Something from Sherry Fryshaw (ph) with her cell phone camera near the Southland Mall. I'm just going to go ahead and let this play. There it is, literally right there. And it came very close. During the video -- I don't have audio on this part, but you hear people screaming, my car, my car, as hail is pounding out of the cell.

And that was the least of their worries because this tornado right there did come very close to the area. Did some damage around Southland Mall, but you know, Kyra, just in general, Denver and Aurora and those places. They're not in shambles. So, this was a small event.

We call this really a low-precip storm, although I can't see the rest of it and I can't really see the wall cloud because they are so close. But the cell being right here, coming all the way down, touching the ground. We do know it was touching the ground for a while because we could see some of the debris, some leaves and things being blown around down around the base of this cell.

But because you can see it so well, a typical high plains storm, you don't have a lot of humidity. It's not like you're in the middle of Mississippi, where it's just muggy everywhere. Where if this was -- let's say this was Mississippi, you would have possibly this thing wrapped in rain, where you couldn't see it very well, and all of a sudden you have brief glimpses of the tornado through the rain shaft. And that even makes the tornado look bigger as you see that. And then you see the color. Do you see the color change? I don't know if that was she white-balanced it or something like that, but you could see the green. I see it right there. That green is indicative of hail in the storm. Take a look at an old Coke bottle. Look at the top of the Coke bottle. It's green. It's refraction. It's the refraction in the clouds that makes the clouds look green in a hail-producing storm -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow, got -- that's the best thing about getting our iReporters to send stuff in because we would never get our eyes on stuff like that.

MYERS: I know, 12 minutes. It's on ireport.com. You can go take a look.

PHILLIPS: All right, terrific. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's a place that no American wants to be, in North Korea, at the mercy of its corrective system. What's it going to take to get two U.S. journalists out of there?

Plus, Berga, the unspoken and nearly forgotten horror of World War II. It was a death march, tribulation and a secret for a group of American soldiers turned into slaves. Now the U.S. Army and history give them their due.

Well, a man who's lied from the get-go, who's posed as a wounded Iraq veteran and 9/11 survivor, well, he says the end justifies the means. Richard Strandlof has given a jailhouse interview about the time he spent as Rick Duncan. Strandlof insists that his lobbying for disabled vets proves that he's a good guy. Quote, "Some people may not think so, but I believe at the core I am."

He's been jailed on an outstanding traffic warrant and has a court hearing tomorrow. The FBI is investigating all of his lies.

The disabled man being kicked out of his home instead trapped there. When crews board the place up, well, he was inside. He was upstairs packing some last-minute stuff, trying to coral his cat. That's when he heard drill noises at the front door. He headed that way but uses a cane and can't breathe very well. By the time he got downstairs, the workers were gone. It took a couple of hours to get hold of a rescuer.

Well, do not be drunk with wine but be filled by the spirit. It's right there in Ephesians 5:18, but maybe you can have both. Last week, we told you about "Bring A Gun to Church Day." Well, this week, it's "Have a Brew at Church Day."

Some Montana worshippers pass right by the pews and belly up to the bar instead. They're part of a church called The Well which meets at a brewpub on Sundays. Got to love the picture, huh? Bible in one hand, beer in the other. How old is that girl, anyway?

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PHILLIPS: Well, the court has spoken. Now the fate of two American journalists who were captured, tried and convicted in North Korea may rest with diplomats. If we've been -- as we've been reporting, rather, Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced today to 12 years of prison labor by North Korea's highest court. Observers say that they may be used as bargaining chips as Pyongyang tries to fend off a new round of sanctions over its nuclear program and missile tests.

And in Baghdad, five U.S. contractors appeared before an Iraqi investigative judge today. The judge has 30 days to decide whether the five should be tried in connection with the death of another American contractor. CNN's Phil Black has the latest from Baghdad.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The five American men have not yet been charged. An Iraqi investigating judge must now decide if the case is strong enough to go to trial. Iraqi security sources say they are being held in connection to the murder of another American contractor, who was found bound and stabbed in Baghdad's green zone last month.

But U.S. Embassy officials say they were detained on an unrelated matter. All five men are private security contractors, with at least four working for the same company. One of the men's sons says this group was not responsible for this murder. He says they all have alibis, and he's confident they will be released quickly. If the men are charged, it will be the first time Iraq has tried to flex its muscles as a sovereign country by trying to prosecute American citizens since the war.

Phil Black, CNN, Baghdad.

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PHILLIPS: Well, there's no consolation for a mother who's lost her child, but today may be some tiny comfort in the tragic day care fire in Mexico. Word that many of the 44 little victims may have died in their sleep. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has more now on the aftermath.

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THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the first hearse drove up to the mass burial, this mother cried out, "My child, what will I do without you?" His tiny coffin was carried to the gravesite. People gathered around the family. Many, like Evangelina Terrazas, complete strangers who shared their pain.

She says, "I don't know any of the families, but it doesn't matter. I'm a mother of four, and I feel for all of them."

The mother cried, "Don't leave me. Don't leave me." No one could control her grief. Officials believe Friday's fire started in the nearby building, then quickly spread. No one is sure what caused the flames to engulf the day care center. One hundred forty-two children, the oldest 5, the youngest only 1, were trapped inside as witnesses say fire rained upon them.

Twenty-three-year-old Francisco Lopez watched in desperation as the day care center burned. With no accessible windows and only one door open, he jumped into his pickup truck and rammed into the building three times. When he finally punched through one of the walls, dozens of children were able to escape, but not 2-year-old Paulette Padilla. The toddler died in the fire.

Her mother, Maria Jesus, played her youngest daughter's favorite music. She told me, when she kissed Paulette good-bye Friday morning, she never imagined it would be the last time she saw her.

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PHILLIPS: Well, Thelma Gutierrez joins us now on the phone from Hermosillo, Mexico. What's the latest in terms of the investigation, Thelma?

GUTIERREZ (via telephone): Kyra, I can tell you that the government officials just had a news conference a few minutes ago. They did say that now they believe that that fire began in a warehouse that they own. It's a government warehouse. It began in a cooling system. Apparently, it was an electrical problem.

The flames quickly spread up toward the ceiling, which shares a rooftop with the day care center. There's only one wall that separates the warehouse and this children's day care center, and so the fire quickly spread, Kyra, into that day care center. And I can tell you that we went and saw the day care center. It was a warehouse that was actually turned into an area for children, and just a terrible, terrible scene.

PHILLIPS: Tell me more about the scene now that several days have passed since the incident, Thelma.

GUTIERREZ: At first, Kyra, they had this area cordoned off. It was an entire city block. Today, we were able to get close, and I can tell you that we saw the holes that were punched into the wall by that pickup truck driven by that 23-year-old who had the presence of mind to just bust through the wall to get those children out.

You could see that the roof had completely caved in on top of those children, and in addition to that, Kyra, what really struck me is looking at that building, you could see the windows way up high, completely inaccessible. And here this thing was a converted warehouse into a day care center. There was no emergency exit.

We went to a news conference. We asked officials about alarms. Apparently, fire officials here said that the alarm system had not been installed properly. We asked how many adults were caring for those children at the time. They couldn't give us an exact number. They say there's an ongoing investigation and so those details are sketchy at best. But you can bet that people here are very angry. They do want answers.

PHILLIPS: And we'll follow up to get those answers. Thelma Gutierrez, appreciate it so much.