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New Bill Will Place Tobacco Under FDA Regulation; Women May Be Key in Iranian Election; Girl Gets Obama Memento from Town Hall Meeting; Texas Officials Using Forfeiture Funds for Questionable Purposes
Aired June 12, 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, thanks so much.
Is it a food? Is it a drug? To many of the lawmakers who put tobacco in the hands of the Food and Drug Administration, it's a lot worse than that. We're pushing forward on a historic blow against smoking.
And we're following the dollars in Texas. You won't believe how some cops and D.A.s are using confiscated cash. Let's just say it is a day at the beach.
And a day out of school nets a presidential pardon. We'll meet that Wisconsin fourth grader with a new friend in Washington.
Hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips live in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, is this a typical day; more than 3,000 American kids will smoke for the very first time. That's just one of the sobering numbers that brings us to a historic day on Capitol Hill, a final vote to put cigarettes and other forms of tobacco under FDA jurisdiction, unprecedented federal regulation.
President Obama will sign the measure as soon as it hits his desk. But if you were watching last hour, you know he couldn't wait to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATS: This tobacco bill will be the fourth piece of bipartisan legislation that I've signed in to law over the last month that protects the American consumer and changes the way Washington works and who Washington works for. So, I look forward to signing it. I want to thank all the people in the House and the Senate for working so hard to pass this bill in a bipartisan way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Just moments before those comments, the House passed the same bill that the Senate passed yesterday. Neither vote was close.
The FDA won't be allowed to ban tobacco, but it will have a say in additives, including tar and nicotine. It can ban the use of flavors, which are primarily used to hook kids, and it limits advertising aimed at children and teens. And to make it harder for underage smokers to feed their habits, it mandates face-to-face purchases.
Now, if you're past a certain age, you'll remember smoking as a virtual fact of life. Take a look at some old ads that we found on the Internet. This one aimed at the military. In World War II GIs received meal rations containing food, chocolate, and, yes, cigarettes.
And parents who object to Joe Camel would faint over this. Smoking Santa. Nowadays he's even ditched his pipe.
And the Marlboro man didn't always have a cowboy hat and chaps. This guy helped make smoking sophisticated.
I want to turn now to the ultimate tobacco insider. In 1996 Jeffrey Wigand became the highest-ranking former cigarette executive to speak out about the dangers of smoking and the industry's decades of deceit. We're also going to talk with a former pro baseball player, Rick Bender. This is Rick as a boy. He's now in his 40s. You're going to meet him in just a moment.
First, Jeff, let's start with you. You know, the president is coming out saying that this is historic, but let's just hold on for a second and go back to your case, which made history. And then let's go back actually to 2001, the $246 billion litigation settlement that started with your words, once again, in a Mississippi courtroom.
You know, what happened? Those two moments were supposed to be historic. What's so different about right now?
JEFFREY WIGAND, FORMER TOBACCO EXECUTIVE: Well, I think -- yes, those were historic moments. I mean, Kessler, the Supreme Court. But this finally brings tobacco, you know, product when used as intended, who kills more than 400,000 people under regulations. It's one of the only consumer products that had widespread use, targeted to children that had not been regulated.
And this finally puts the first regulation into effect that will start to ameliorate, hopefully, the 3,000 children a day, the 400,000- plus lives lost each year. Hundreds of billions of dollars spent in this country for health care and productivity loss, you know, regulated format that will help, I believe, reduce these tolls.
PHILLIPS: So, do you actually feel vindication right now and that this is not one of these typical, political compromises that take place in Washington, D.C.?
WIGAND: Well, as with all things that come out of Congress, it's not perfect. And, I mean, there are multiple areas that still kind of concern me. I mean, there are going to be -- I'll have the FDA regulate additives, but one additive that has particularly been exempted is menthol, and that bothers me, because it serves as a gateway to kids. It also has been targeted primarily to African-Americans. And we also know menthol changes the metabolism of nicotine. So, I mean, that's not -- is not included in any additives.
The whole issue of e-cigarettes: is the FDA going to ban or regulate e-cigarettes that are coming out mostly from China? That are basically just other nicotine delivery devices.
I think it was said in the 1950s by Brown and Williamson, head legal counsel, that they were in the covert pharmaceutical business. Well, it's no longer covert pharmaceutical business. Now, it will be regulated by the appropriate Food and Drug Administration, and hopefully, they'll have enough funding, enough expertise, to regulate an industry that has been, up to now for some five decades since the first surgeon general's report, been unregulated.
PHILLIPS: Jeff...
WIGAND: So, change the labels. Make the labels more graphic. And have face-to-face to sell the product. They're going to have to evaluate new products, something that we've never had before. So, it is historic, but it's the beginning of continued history making.
PHILLIPS: I like that, "the beginning of continued history making." Couldn't have been better well said.
WIGAND: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Jeffrey, I definitely wanted to hear your reaction to everything that's happened today. Hold on for just a second, because you might want to react to our next guest. You know, we showed a picture of Rick Bender as a young baseball player, when he was a young child, into his teens.
And something happened in his life that definitely changed his career path, also his mission of what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and what triggered that? It was tobacco. Rick Bender joining me now.
You know, I look at that picture of you as a child, and now I'm talking to you. And that right there is a statement and a message of what tobacco can do. Tell me your story.
RICK BENDER, CANCER SURVIVOR: Well, basically I started using what a lot of people like to refer to as smokeless tobacco. I call it spit, because you really don't smoke it; you put it in your mouth and spit.
But I started when I was 12. There was a couple reasons. A lot of my buddies were starting to smoke. I didn't want to smoke. The advertisements back then were take a pinch instead of a puff, safe alternative to cigarettes. I was a ballplayer.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. Take a sniff instead of...
BENDER: Take a pinch instead of a puff. PHILLIPS: A pinch instead of a puff.
BENDER: Yes, it was supposed to be...
PHILLIPS: And a safe way to...
BENDER: Quote-unquote.
PHILLIPS: ... use tobacco?
BENDER: Safe alternative to cigarettes. And I started when I was about 12. At 26 I was diagnosed with oral cancer because of that use. I lost a third of my tongue, half my jaw. They had to dig the cancer out of the side of my neck. I lost my lymph system on this side, partial use of my right arm.
And then I was only given about 18 months to live after the initial surgery, which was 12 1/2 hours.
PHILLIPS: Eighteen months to live.
BENDER: Yes. And that was 20 years ago this April. So, I'm 20 years cancer-free now so...
PHILLIPS: And obviously, yes, there was -- God had intended something for you.
BENDER: I think so.
PHILLIPS: A plan.
BENDER: I lost a third of my tongue, and I can still talk really well. I mean, it's amazing. People say on paper I shouldn't be able to talk, and that's what I do now. I run around this country. You guys caught me driving up the highway here today, going home. And I run around talking to young people, trying to give them the information I didn't have so that maybe they can make a better choice than I did.
PHILLIPS: And you hear, you know, about Jeffrey Wigand, of course. You know how he blew the lid off what the tobacco industry was doing and how deceptive it was. You were a victim of that. It sounds like you believed the fact that a pinch was safer than a puff. You thought that tobacco would be OK.
BENDER: But not only me. I mean, I didn't run home at 12 and say, "Hey, you know, Mom and Dad, I'm dipping." You know, but they found out: "At least Ricky's not smoking."
So, you know, everybody -- and people still look at it that way. I mean, even if you go into a building that says "no tobacco use," people don't think about spit. They only think about cigarettes.
And this bill today, you know, they're talking about the flavors. Probably one of the most flavored-up tobaccos on the market is spit tobacco. We got apple, citrus, blackberry. I mean, there is just tons of them. Different flavors. And these are -- these are aimed at the young people. And that's why, you know, I'm not a big regulation person. But I do support the bill today, just simply because of these flavored tobaccos.
PHILLIPS: So you think it will make a difference?
BENDER: I think it will help, definitely.
PHILLIPS: You know, let me ask you, now that you guys -- and this is maybe going off into a different direction, but I want to hit on it while we're talking about this. And Jeffrey, you may want to talk about this. You were mentioning the menthol.
You're mentioning the flavored dips. How about the hookah? I mean, that's what all the kids are doing now. They're smoking the hookah with all these flavored tobaccos. I mean, are we looking at a new way to kind of move tobacco into something that's, I don't know, a different marketing scheme, Jeffrey?
WIGAND: Well, I mean, a hookah or whatever, they're all a drug- delivery device. Whether it's a cigarette, snuff, hookah, e- cigarette, they're all meant to addict.
And we now are learning through science, since the -- sort of the unveiling of the -- archeology of the tobacco industry, that nicotine is what they want to sell, and nicotine is what hooks you and keeps you hooked.
Now, the hookah gives you supposedly less exposure to the risk. Well, that's the same thing that they tried to portend for the light cigarettes. Light cigarettes, hookah, snuff, they all deliver nicotine. And nicotine has now been shown to interfere with normal -- normal cell reproduction. It supports tumor growth.
We may find out that nicotine in itself is just as an effective pathogen as the six -- 4,000 to 6,000 chemicals that come in cigarettes, snuff, smokeless tobacco products and whatnot.
And also at the same time, the industry has put nicotine and has manipulated the nicotine to make it more potent, by creating what we call a free-base nicotine. And free-base is -- nicotine, it has a gas phase, it has faster addiction, faster to the brain, and more insidious addiction to those who use it. So if it comes in a hookah, it comes in a dip, it comes in an electronic cigarette, or whatever form it is, it is basically to use this drug, nicotine, and to addict.
PHILLIPS: And real quickly, I just want to -- Rick Bender, your Web site, NoSnuff.com. You're on a mission now to teach kids, adults, everyone about the dangers. Just real quickly, tell me about your efforts.
BENDER: Well, basically, I mentioned earlier, I travel all around our country. I've been in pretty much every state, not quite every one. And I mainly work with middle schools and high schools. I tell my story. I talk about what happened to me. I talk about warning signs. And in reality, just like Mr. Wigand said, you know, tobacco is tobacco. I don't care if you roll it in a cigarette, stuff it in a pipe or chew it. It is all the same stuff, and it can do the same things to you. And I've been doing this now for 16 years, and I hope to keep doing it for another 16. I don't know if I'll make it that far, but we'll see.
PHILLIPS: Well, the doctors told you, you only had, what, 18 months. You beat that, so...
BENDER: Right yes. That's what I want to. You know, I make my little pun: what -- I want to give people something else to chew on.
PHILLIPS: Thanks for your straight-forwardness. Appreciate it, Rick.
BENDER: My pleasure.
PHILLIPS: Jeffrey Wigand, thanks to you, too. Appreciate you both.
WIGAND: Thanks, Kyra. Have a good day.
PHILLIPS: You, too.
Well, the new regulations are a part of the even bigger campaign to overhaul health care in America. And that brings me to CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth, what does this mean to you and me?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if this legislation can really get people to stop smoking, it means a lot to you and me.
First, let's take a look. I think sometimes, Kyra, people think, "Oh, well, you know, everyone knows that smoking's bad. People have quit, right? Smoking rates are low. They're not nearly as low as they ought to be.
Let's take a look. Right now in the United States, 1 out of 5 U.S. adults smokes. That's 1 out of 5. One out of 5 high school students smoke. And smokers die 13 years earlier than nonsmokers.
So, economically, what does this mean to everyone? This country spends more than 97 -- or has more than $97 billion in lost productivity because people smoke.
Also there's $100 billion in medical costs because people smoke. Now, to some extent, of course, the smokers pay for that, but really, Kyra, because we're all involved in health insurance, because we're all sort of interconnected, all of us end up paying those costs -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, we do. Elizabeth, thanks. Well, straight ahead, change may be coming to Iran. One voter -- one woman voter, at a time. Our Christiane Amanpour is live in Tehran.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the voters have spoken in ways and in numbers we've never seen before. This is Iran where a brief, but remarkable, campaign for president today produced huge lines at polling stations across the country.
At stake is the post now held by this man, but sought by three other candidates. Many in the west and Israel consider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a mad man, but his problems at home stem mainly from high unemployment and inflation: issue No. 1.
The strongest challenger is a reformer who served as Iran's prime minister in the 1980s, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. He's widely popular among Iran's youth, and that's most of the country.
The government kept the polling sites open three hours longer to accommodate the crowds, and we expect to start getting numbers late today or tomorrow. There will be a runoff if nobody wins a majority of the vote.
Well, some are already calling this vote a revolution, in part because of women. At the rallies in the forefront, even at the elbow of a leading presidential hopeful.
Leading our coverage from Tehran is CNN chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): this is Mother's Square in Tehran. The center statue was sculpted by Zahra Rahnavard. An artist and academic, some of her other work is displayed in this downtown gallery, which was designed by her architect husband, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who also happens to be President Ahmadinejad's leading rival in the Iranian elections.
For the first time ever in Iran, a candidate has campaigned with his wife. And Rahnavard has drawn huge crowds to her husband's rallies, especially women.
"I'm here to say that men and women are equal," she tells us.
More women than men have voted in the past few elections, and Rahnavard promises them it will count this time if Mousavi wins.
"We've made this promise to the women, and we'll stand by it," she says.
"Mousavi, Mousavi, Mousavi, get my Iranian flag back for me," chant these women. With their demands growing, all leading candidates were forced to listen. (on camera): On the day before the election, the graffiti is being spray painted off the walls. The "change" was a slogan used by one of the reformists, the only cleric in the race, who promised to campaign for women's rights if he became president. And the hard-line conservative, Mohsen Rezaee, also said that he would have female ministers if he won the election.
(voice-over): Women were allowed to register for the presidential race for the very first time, but the religious vetting body deemed none fit to run.
"Thirty-four million women demand female cabinet ministers; 34 million women demand to be eligible to be run for president," says Rahnavard. "Thirty-four million women want the civil law and family law revised."
Women remain legal, second-class citizens in criminal, divorce, child custody and inheritance cases, despite making up 65 percent of university students.
Ahmadinejad's fundamentalist government has even tried to make polygamy easier for men and public-sector careers harder for women.
Even Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, was banned from running for parliament as a reformist.
"For Ahmadinejad's government, women are just living things," she says. "A woman is there to fill her husband's stomach and raise children."
Not these women, who are demanding change, after a fair election.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, tough new sanctions against North Korea. Within the last hour, the U.N. Secretary Council imposed some new sanctions over North Korea's last nuclear test and recent rocket firings.
U.S. officials say that indications suggest North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear test. The new sanctions tighten arms shipments in and out of the country and allow inspections of suspect cargo -- cargo in ports and on the high seas.
Some fear that they could prompt an even more defiant tone and stance from Pyongyang.
Another country (sic) in Texas cashes in on so-called driver forfeiture laws, with the district attorney bankrolling vacations to Hawaii as official business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Could you understand, sir, how it kind of looks bad to the people if you're going to Hawaii four times?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I only think those people are jealous, because they haven't been to Hawaii.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: We're going to tell you about what some are calling the best little rip-off in Texas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: It's been a story that we've been covering all this week, Operation Orange Tree. It's a big child-porn sting in Florida that's hauled in 77 suspects.
Three oranges still need picking, though. Take a look at these guys, the latest stars of "America's Most Wanted," and call the cops if you know where they are.
One of the sickest details about the sting? Several of the suspects, not these guys necessarily, had a Child Molestation 101 videotape. So graphic, devious and sick that even hardened law officers couldn't believe it.
Here's what Florida's chief of law enforcement told me yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Mike, have you ever seen anything like that before, an actual tutorial on how to molest a child, in the hands of these predators?
MIKE PHILLIPS, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT: No, not like this. It's a video that tells them how to physically do it, and then it also tells them how to avoid detection by wives or, you know, people who may come into the -- into the situation.
And it's very graphic. Not only visually graphic, but just to read the actual words and how these children are molested. And we're talking about children. I'm not talking about a teenager. I'm talking about starting before they're even 1 years old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: We're going to keep an eye on this story for you. John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" told us he wants every state to have the new, cutting-edge software that helped Florida nail these guys. Software that's free, by the way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Severe weather threatens much of the mid-South today. Right now it's Arkansas in the bullseye. Meteorologist Chad Myers keeping vigilant in the CNN severe weather center.
What do you see, Chad? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A very dangerous situation -- I don't say that lightly -- today. The weather service -- the severe storms forecast center putting out a warning today in their watch that -- a warning in the watch, but, you know, what I mean. That says the winds and the storms today could be 105 miles per hour.
The watch is because this long line of weather, that's going to just roll all the way into Arkansas, will continue to blow wind ahead of it. Now, it also could make some tornadoes, too. But the real threat today would be hail, and certainly wind damage nearly everywhere across Arkansas and then it's not going to stop. It's going to continue maybe into Memphis and into Mississippi and maybe as far south as northern Louisiana.
But right now a tornado warning to be had, still there. That was right over Bentonville, Arkansas. You'll know that name -- that town from the Wal-Mart fame and now up toward Bella Vista and up near Powell. This thing is still rotating, still spinning. And there will be more rotating storms all day today.
But the big story will be when you see this weather coming, you need to batten down everything. It's called a derecho. That means it's going to be a long-lived event. It already is: it's coming in from Oklahoma and Kansas, and it's still rolling through into very moist and unstable air. And it has no intention of stopping anytime soon -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, we'll keep tracking it with you, Chad. Thanks.
MYERS: You bet.
PHILLIPS: All right, I love this story. Not just because it's about an adorable 107-year-old, but we can actually help. Basically, he's getting hosed for living too long, and he needs our help.
This is Larry "Curly" Haubner. He takes no pills, except a daily vitamin. Maybe we can scroll down or lose the banner there so we can see him. Can we bring up that picture a little bigger there?
He never gets sick. He works out every day with weights and exercise band. His nurses at Greenfield Senior Living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, say that he's the spark of the building.
But here's the problem. Curly has outlived his savings account, again, so he can't afford to stay in his cozy home. The same thing happened two years ago, and good Samaritans chipped in.
So here's my humble plea, help save Larry. Don't worry, it's easy. Just logon to SaveLarry.org. You can make a donation. You can even add a link to your Facebook page.
Speaking of face, just one more time. Can we make that picture bigger? Is there any way? Oh, bummer. I just can't get enough of smiling Larry "Curly" Haubner. Go to the Web site and check him out. He's there with his little birthday hat, all his candles. I think he's got two teeth left. He's adorable. You don't want to get kicked out of your senior home, do you? All right.
Well, how many times did you hear it when you missed school? "Do you have a note? Show me the note."
Well, one fourth-grader can, "Oh, I got your note, all right. Read it and weep, teacher."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, President Obama's heartland health care tour hits Illinois on Monday. The audience this time, doctors. He'll speak at the American Medical Association's meeting in Chicago, and he won't be preaching to the choir. The AMA isn't on board with the president's proposal of a government-sponsored insurance plan. The group represents about 225,000 doctors. Its support is considered critical for any plan to cover uninsured Americans.
Town hall meetings on health care reform, not exactly a venue for laughs. But a funny thing happened at the president's town hall meeting in Green Bay yesterday. It started when a dad asked about health care reform. Then things got a little sidetracked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN CORPUS, TOWN HALL MEETING AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm fortunate enough to be here with my 10-year-old daughter who is missing her last day of school for this. I hope she doesn't get in trouble.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, no!
CORPUS: Yes.
OBAMA: Do you need me to write a note?
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: No, I'm serious, what's your daughter's name?
CORPUS: Her name is Kennedy.
OBAMA: Kennedy. All right, that's a cool name. Here you go, Kennedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That sure beats the old "dog ate my homework" excuse. John and Kennedy Corpus with me now, and also Kennedy's teacher, Mary Pat Mallien. Mrs. Mallien, I've got to ask you first, you know, when you heard about the note, when you saw the note, is Kennedy excused?
Can you hear me OK, Mary Pat? All right, we're going to get things situated, and we'll come back to that in just a second. We're going to take a quick break.
We got it? We got it fired up? Mary Pat, can you hear me OK?
MARY PAT MALLIEN, TEACHER: I can hear you.
PHILLIPS: OK, here we go. We had a little issues there, a little technical difficulty.
MALLIEN: OK.
PHILLIPS: I'm curious. I don't know, after -- did Kennedy bring the note in to you?
MALLIEN: I have not seen the note yet, no.
PHILLIPS: Well, is she excused?
MALLIEN: She's excused. I think she's been kind of a busy girl these last couple hours.
PHILLIPS: Now, did you know that she was not coming to school yesterday?
MALLIEN: Yes. Kennedy came in to school about ten minutes before school started, all dressed up, all excited, wanted to say goodbye and say goodbye to her classmates, and then she headed off.
PHILLIPS: OK, good. So, she let everybody know what she was doing, and you were OK with that.
MALLIEN: Oh, yes, she sure did. Oh, it was great.
PHILLIPS: So, Kennedy, was it worth it?
KENNEDY CORPUS, FOURTH-GRADE STUDENT: Yes, it was.
PHILLIPS: It was. So, did you have any idea your dad was going to put you on the spot like that?
K. CORPUS: I had no idea. I would never imagine that.
PHILLIPS: So, when he said your name, what were you thinking? Did you sort of -- did you tug him and say, Dad, what are you doing? I mean, what were you thinking when he did that?
K. CORPUS: I didn't really believe that he was going to give me a note or anything.
PHILLIPS: So, when the president said he was going to write you a note to take back to class, did you get nervous?
K. CORPUS: Yes, I did.
PHILLIPS: You did? Now, did your dad tell you to go up there and get the note, or did you just think, oh, I'm going to go right up there and get it from the president?
K. CORPUS: My dad, he met a guy named Bill in line...
PHILLIPS: Yes. K. CORPUS: ... while he was waiting for, like, two hours...
PHILLIPS: Right.
K. CORPUS: ... and two more hours with me. And he was sitting next to me, and he kept nudging me and telling me to go up.
PHILLIPS: So, you finally did it. Now, let me ask you, Kennedy, why did you want to come to this town hall? Why were you dressed up and excited about this?
K. CORPUS: Because I've never seen a president in person before, and I just really wanted to see somebody in person.
PHILLIPS: Now, John, did you have any idea the president was going to call on you with a question?
J. CORPUS: No. In fact, I didn't have the question formulated until about a minute before I raised my hand. And didn't really mean to put Kennedy on the spot either, so...
PHILLIPS: But I think it turned out pretty well for your daughter.
J. CORPUS: It turned out very well for her. She's on cloud nine and having fun with it. We've been nonstop since 6:00 this morning and didn't get to bed until 1:00 last night, so it's interesting.
PHILLIPS: Well, John, did you get your question answered by the president? I mean, what you asked him, and did he give you a good answer?
J. CORPUS: The funny thing is, everybody says to me, so what was your question? Because I didn't catch it. Everybody was focused on the note.
I work for a health system here in Green Bay, Bellin Health, and my particular interest is FastCare, which is a retail health clinic. And I wanted to ask something around that. We try to make health care affordable to, for the most part, employers and individuals, and we can only do so much.
Now, the uninsured certainly we can't impact as well in those arenas or in that environment, so I wanted to know what he was going to do and how soon for the people that are uninsured specifically. And I believe he answered it throughout the rhetoric. He came up with an acceptable answer.
PHILLIPS: Good. Glad you're satisfied. I know Kennedy is. Kennedy, what are you going to do with that note from the president?
K. CORPUS: I'm going to frame it.
PHILLIPS: Did you bring it with you?
K. CORPUS: Yes, I did. PHILLIPS: Why don't you show it to me.
All right! Now, you be really careful with that. And don't let anybody touch it, OK? Only special people.
K. CORPUS: OK.
PHILLIPS: And, Mary Pat, before we let you go, are you going to have Kennedy give any type of special presentation maybe to the students, or is there a good lesson here about health care and, you know, reaching out to your president?
MALLIEN: I have to say, I had a really interesting class this year. They were very involved in the presidential race, and so it was really a very fitting way for us to end the school year. I would imagine there may be something at the beginning of next school year with this note.
PHILLIPS: There we go. A special project. And hopefully, Kennedy, you'll get an A. Kennedy Corpus, dad John, Mary Pat Mallien, thanks, you guys, for joining us.
J. CORPUS: You're welcome, Kyra.
K. CORPUS: You're welcome.
PHILLIPS: OK. Well, some demolition dudes were sent down to tear down a house. Mission accomplished. Just one tiny little problem: wrong house.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: "I saw things today I think will mess me up for life." This is a line from Specialist Trevor Hogue's e-mail. Home from Iraq. A line 15 months later, "please know I'm happy, finally." Well, that was his suicide note. The Army veteran, just 24 years old, took his own life last week, hung himself from a tree in the yard of the home where he grew up.
These pictures and the article that you're looking at featured in "The Sacramento Bee." Well, Trevor Hogue had already been discharged from the service, so a suicide won't be counted in the Army's official numbers, numbers that just keep going up. There were a record 133 soldier suicides in 2008. Through May 31st, less than halfway through '09, we're already at 82.
We've been on this for months now, looking at the tragic suicide rate and how the military handles troops' mental health. All along we've been trying to bring on General Eric Shinseki, the V.A. secretary, to talk about it. We reached out for him again today, and as they've done every other time that we've called, his office declined an interview.
Meantime, there are a lot of groups out there trying to help veterans and their families. Two of them that we can point you to, TAPS, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. All types of access to ways that you can get help, grief support services, resources to comfort you and your family. They have a fabulous program for families to send their kids to a grief camp.
I'm involved with this organization. It's absolutely tremendous. Taps.org.
Another one that we found as we've stayed on top of this story, stayed on top of the numbers and tried to make a difference for our vets is communityofveterans.org. And this is fantastic. It talks a lot about the transition for vets when they're coming home, specifically Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Also offer help out there for other vets of other wars, but this focus mainly on the transition home, navigating the V.A., seeing what's out there for help.
Also a lot of testimony, too, from veterans that have used this. They talk about their situation in their own words. Provides you a chance to connect with old friends, share videos, stories, pictures, help each other. Once again, communityofveterans.org and also taps.org.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Isn't this what everybody does on their 85th birthday? They jump out of a perfectly good airplane. That's what George W. (sic) Bush, our 41st president, did. Let's take a listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Well, that's what we train to do, and I'm glad that's what you look like.
ROBIN MEADE, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Thank you to the Army and the Golden Knights, and thank you so much for letting me be a part of this day.
PHILLIPS: All right. That's our Robin Meade. She actually anchors the morning show on Headline News. She's interviewing the president right now. Apparently she got the chance to jump out of that aircraft with the 41st president.
And here he is right here, coming down. What a way to celebrate. We should see how good that landing is. What do you think? Let's go ahead and watch it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please watch as this jumper brings him in (INAUDIBLE) parachute down for a beautiful Golden Knight landing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I hear it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Sgt. First Class Michael Elliott (ph) and the 41st present of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush.
PHILLIPS: There you go, 41st president of the United States on his 85th birthday, jumping with the Army's best skydivers (INAUDIBLE). Happy birthday, everyone. And our own Robin Meade, who anchors Headline News there on the mornings got to jump out of the other perfectly good aircraft right there alongside with him.
Well, these kids have done everything right. They've aced their classes, racked up big fat GPAs, Ivy League schools knocking on their door, but a skeleton in their closet is keeping an education out of reach. We can push that forward next hour, along with this question: Is HIV a valid excuse to deny a qualified applicant for a job?
All right, let's take a look at the bright side of the story. At least the crew was close. They missed the house that they were supposed to tear down by a few yards, and that's it. But close doesn't cut it when you're talking about demolition. Jovita Moore from our affiliate WSB shows us a mammoth mistake that can't be taken back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL BYRD, HOMEOWNER: We had heirlooms in there. My mom's dining room set, a hutch with her dishes in there.
JOVITA MOORE, WSB-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Al Byrd cannot believe his eyes. The house his father built brick by brick with his own hands mysteriously demolished.
BYRD: This is incredulous that something like this can happen and no one contact the owner.
MOORE: Byrd grew up here with nine brothers and sisters, a three-bedroom house on the little road bearing his family's name.
BYRD: We were taught that you can do anything that you want to do as long as you're willing to work hard and pay the price.
MOORE: Byrd's cousin shot this video Monday, a bulldozer in the yard, dumpsters loaded with rubble. The demolition company says it had paperwork.
BYRD: And I said, but paperwork for what? He said, for the house, to demolish the house. I said, I'm the owner of the house. I haven't given you, anybody, any authority to demolish this house.
MOORE: But did he have an address?
BYRD: No. I said, what address did you have? I said, this is 11 Byrd Trail. He said, they sent me some GPS coordinates. And I said, don't you even have an address? He said, yes, my GPS coordinates led me right to that street there and this house was described.
MOORE: Byrd suspects the intended target was actually across the road.
BYRD: Right there.
MOORE (on camera): Over there? BYRD: Yes. See, that's called...
MOORE: Over there?
BRYD: Yes, yes, yes.
MOORE (voice-over): Byrd says this house held decades of memories. While we talked, the enormity of what's gone sets in, and Al Byrd can barely speak.
BYRD: I don't know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: We'll follow that story, of course.
Well, bad GPS coordinates and a bulldozer doing what no termite or tornado could do. Got to feel bad for Al Byrd. Jovita Moore from WSB says that a crew outside Atlanta did the deed but was hired by a Texas firm. So far, no word from that firm explaining why this happened.
Another county in Texas you'll want to steer clear from, where officials are taking the low road with the state's driver forfeiture laws, all the way to Hawaii. Is that legal?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MEADE: And thanks to the Army -- aww! -- and thank you so much to the Golden Knights as well. Happy birthday! We're glad you were born.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm so glad you arranged this. Neil! You meet Robin?
PHILLIPS: There you go. You've got to love it. Headline News anchor on the mornings Robin Meade, working the cameras there. I think probably the highlight of the president's 85th birthday was kissing Robin Meade. I don't know, I mean, jumping out with the Golden Knights there. But let's go ahead and listen. She's getting ready to go live for HLN.
MEADE: (INAUDIBLE) because of what I do for a living, in front of the camera, that knowing that the camera is there -- and we'll show you video from the actual jump. There were videographers jumping with us, so we'll be able to show you that.
Knowing the camera is there, I kept saying, I'm doing this for my job, and don't look stupid for the camera. You know, don't, like, totally scream your head off. So, that helped temper my nervousness. But, yes, yes, I was scared. Yes! Are you kidding me? I keep joking that I -- Bob is -- hi, Bobby.
PHILLIPS: That's live television, folks. We actually, we're feeding off of the live shot that Robin is doing there for Headline News. We'll go ahead and move on to other news now. But she just jumped with the 41st president of the United States, George W. (sic) Bush, as he was celebrating his 85 birthday. You heard the former president there saying he plans on doing it for his 90th. And then you heard Robin ask the former president, George Bush, his son, what he's going to do to stay fit until 85. He said he's going to stick to mountain bike riding.
All right, moving ahead. Much more serious news. Cops and robbers, they may be harder to distinguish when you're deep in the heart of Texas. CNN's Gary Tuchman has found another local sheriff's department hard at work making the most of the state's driver forfeiture laws. Get ready to be outraged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The dusty roads here in Texas hill country have been a gold mine for police and prosecutors. But some defense attorneys call it the best little ripoff in Texas.
RICHARD ELLISON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It makes Texans look like buffoons, and it makes it look like all of our judges and police officers are crooks down here.
TUCHMAN: In Texas and other states, cops can pull over drivers suspected of serious crimes, and they can actually seize their cash and valuables. Four times, the former D.A. here spent tens of thousands of it for all-expense trips to Hawaii for himself, some of his staff and spouses.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Do you think it was OK to spend that money to go to Hawaii?
RON SUTTON, FORMER DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Absolutely.
TUCHMAN: Why do you think that?
SUTTON: Well, it's part of the United States, last time I checked. I mean, we have conferences all over the other states. What's the difference in Hawaii?
TUCHMAN: The organizers of the annual trip to this resort in Oahu invite "spouses, sweeties, friends." The trip does include ten hours of law seminars, ten hours out of an entire week. The rest of the time is for sun, golf and luaus. The price, 4,000 bucks a couple, steep but not when it's paid for by public money made back home on the highway.
Ron Sutton was the district attorney here for 32 years. He didn't run again this fall, but he's still working part-time in the D.A.'s office.
TUCHMAN (on camera): But could you understand, sir, how it kind of looks bad to people that you're going to Hawaii four times...
SUTTON: Only because those people are jealous because they haven't been to Hawaii. TUCHMAN: (voice-over): The money used by the former D.A. came from the Texas forfeiture law. District attorneys offices get a cut of the seizure money and are allowed to use the cash for, quote, "official purposes," which the former D.A. says is...
SUTTON: Anything used in connection with promoting and functioning of the office for training. Could be anything.
JOHN WHITMIRE, TEXAS STATE SENATE: It's outrageous.
TUCHMAN: Texas state Senator John Witmyer says the forfeiture law often leads to corruption.
WHITMIRE: The law that I am going to change is so general that they can literally get away with stealing, in my mind.
TUCHMAN: The purpose of forfeitures is to strip real criminals of ill-gotten gains. Although in Texas, there have been many accusations that innocent people, often minorities, are targeted and pulled over. Deputies told this man he was driving too long in the passing lane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step out. You're acting funny. I don't like it.
TUCHMAN: It got violent. The driver, a Latino and a U.S. Navy veteran, was charged with endangering police. After his lawyer got his hands on this video, charges were dropped.
ELLISON: It was, I think, probably a classic profile stop.
TUCHMAN (on camera): This is the Kendall County seat of Junction, Texas. There are only 4,400 people who live in this entire county. This is Main Street. You can see it's a quiet, sleepy place. But the sheriff's department deputies here are very active and busy. Getting forfeiture money is a very important industry here.
(voice-over): How important? The sheriff's office keeps more than an average of $1 million annually in forfeitures. The former D.A. says he had more than $1 million in his account when he left office. He says Hawaii wasn't a vacation, but a way to learn and get legal credits.
But beyond paying for airfares and hotel rooms, there's spending money for the group. Here's a check paid to cash for $6,000 to cover the week.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Why do you guys need $6,000?
SUTTON: Well, if you go to Hawaii, you'll see why. The hamburgers and drinks are $20.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But what really got our attention was this. The former D.A. says that one year, he took this man to Hawaii, Ameel Pro (ph). He's the judge who hears forfeiture cases.
(on camera): But wouldn't it have been better to say, Judge, you can't come with us to Hawaii because we're using forfeiture money?
SUTTON: Well, that issue has never come up until right now.
TUCHMAN: OK, so what's your answer?
SUTTON: The answer is, I don't see anything wrong with it. It's help educating the judge.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): And what about this? Our search through the public records show checks written directly to the judge. Here's one for $3,000, $4,000, $4,500.
(on camera): Why were checks written directly to the judge from the forfeiture account?
SUTTON: To cover his expenses on conferences.
TUCHMAN: Can you see how taxpayers might say, you know, a little more documentation would be nice here?
SUTTON: In retrospect, maybe so. But I know I did nothing wrong. My conscience is clear.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We asked for an interview for the judge but were told he did not want to talk. But we needed his side of the story. So, we caught up with him outside the courthouse to ask about his Hawaii trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I'm really not able to comment on that at this point. I appreciate your interest. At some point, I hope I can. But at this point, I can't. I appreciate your interest.
TUCHMAN (on camera): How come you can't comment about it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's just issues. I mean, I've got forfeiture cases still pending. And I can't...
TUCHMAN: And that's why I'm talking to you about this, because you hear the forfeiture cases but that's the issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand. And we're dealing with that issue.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): There is a new D.A. in Texas hill country. He says there will be no more trips to Hawaii.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Gary Tuchman, there's a lot of issues there, like all the issues of why was he given checks for thousands of dollars.
TUCHMAN: There's a lot of issues. And we've done three stories on it now, Kyra. And that's why they're such interesting stories, because each county we've gone to in Texas has different dilemmas and ethical questions that we're trying to answer. But the fact is, this law is so ambiguous that a lot of defense attorneys and a lot of citizens think these public officials can just get away with it, and they really do. The fact is, we don't know if they've committed a crime because the law is so ambiguous. And that's why they're trying to toughen the law.
PHILLIPS: All right, so, what's the status of the attempt to try and toughen these forfeiture laws? I mean, it's interesting because this is not the first time that you've covered a story like this in Texas.
TUCHMAN: Well, this may make your blood boil, Kyra, and our viewers. But here's the deal. Overwhelming support. Even the D.A.s and the cops we've talked to who've been accused of these unethical dealings support it because they say it would be nice to have a law that's very specific.
So, what happened in the Texas Legislature is the Senate passed it unanimously. Then it went to the House committee. A House committee passed it unanimously. The word is, the governor was going to sign it immediately after the full House passed it. But the full House had all kinds of issues and some controversies to deal with and never had time to vote on the bill. And the legislative session in Texas ended last week.
And get a load of this. In the state of Texas, only a few states like this, but the state of Texas only has a legislative session every two years. So, the next time the legislature meets isn't until 2011. So, this will not be a law at least until 2011, so two more years of this.
PHILLIPS: Well, it looks like you're going to have a number of follow-up stories, Gary. Are you going to start traveling Texas and finding out who else is doing this as well?
TUCHMAN: Well, I think we should tell you, Kyra, so Texans don't get too mad at us, but this isn't just in Texas. We've gotten calls and e-mails from all over the United States. People who complain they've been pulled over, had money taken from them for no reason. They suspect their public officials are up to stuff. So, it's not just Texas, but I must emphasize, and this is really important, it sounds cliche, almost all cops, almost all D.A.s are good, hardworking people.
And the people we have talked to in these stories claim they are good, hard-working people do.
So, it's very important to mention this does not go on in most counties, but it does go on in some counties. And there's no question, Kyra, that not only will we be investigating other counties in Texas where we've gotten calls and e-mails, but other counties and other states throughout the country.
PHILLIPS: Well, we'll look forward to it, Gary. Sure appreciate it. Thanks.
