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Obama Calls Professor, Arresting Officer; Small Business Owners Wary of Health Care Reform; President Obama's Busy Week; Demonstrations Around World in Support of Iranian Protesters; Gen. Petraeus Says Iraq Still Critical to War on Terror; Man to Be Deported Despite Being Found Not Guilty of Terrorism; Michael Jackson Had Plans to Buy His Own Wonderland

Aired July 25, 2009 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN: It is not over yet. Both sides speak out on the police call that shocked the country and turned into a national uproar over racism. What are they saying now?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNN SWEET, "CHICAGO SUN-TIMES": ... Cambridge. What does that incident say to you, and what does it say about race relations in America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Tough question. She asked what no other reporter did and got an answer no one expected. This time, we question the reporter, and we do it live.

Plus: How is your health care? Not too healthy, if you're following the battle on Capitol Hill, divisions in both parties, and the president is on the -- in trouble on this issue. We take you live to the White House.

And taking it to the streets, protests right now all over the world, the Iran election outrage escalating, with no signs of slowing down. You'll see it for yourself right now.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the world CNN headquarters in Atlanta. The president calls it a "teachable moment.' He says all Americans can learn from the events that snowballed following an arrest of a Harvard professor by Cambridge police. Now, as we all know by now, the professor is black, the officer is white. And the incident highlighted some of the most sensitive issues in American society, including race and police profiling.

So where does it go from here? CNN's Elaine Quijano is standing where I was yesterday, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she has the very latest. Both sides are speaking out now. The attorney -- we spoke to the attorney last night. What's going on now there, Elaine?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, President Obama, first of all, really tried, Don, as you know, to turn down the volume on this story by calling both Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley and inviting them both to the White House. He also tried walking back his comments from Wednesday, when he said in that press difference that Cambridge police acted, quote, "stupidly." Well, how's all that being received here in Cambridge? It seems pretty well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): It wasn't a full-out presidential apology.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words differently.

QUIJANO: But for police officers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, united in their outrage, the president's expression of regret appears to be enough.

SGT. LEON LASHLEY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., POLICE: We were happy. It was a good thing. We said, yes, I mean, we'll give him -- the high fives were going up all over the place.

QUIJANO: Sergeant Leon Lashley of the Cambridge Police Department was on the scene the day his colleague, Sergeant James Crowley, arrested prominent African-American Harvard professor Henry Gates on Gates's own property.

LASHLEY: Would it have been different had I shown up first? And I think it probably would have been different.

QUIJANO: But he says he supports the actions Crowley took that day.

LASHLEY: I, too, would have probably had placed him under arrest if it had gotten too -- too much further out of control.

QUIJANO: At this national conference of black law enforcement executives in Virginia, the consensus: that what happened in Cambridge can be a valuable training tool in navigating the complex issues surrounding law enforcement and minorities. While most steered clear of commenting specifically on the Gates case, one officer believes police deserve the benefit of the doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say that it's a tough job for law enforcement to make those decisions on the spot. I would say that we need to look at all the possibilities of what could have happened and...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: And back here in Cambridge, in a written statement, a coalition of area police unions said that Sergeant Crowley was, quote, "profoundly grateful that President Obama had taken the time to try to resolve the situation." And the statement went on to say it was clear the president respects police officers -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Elaine Quijano in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Elaine, stand by. We'll be getting back to you. Thank you very much.

And make sure you tune in tonight for -- 7:30 PM right here on CNN. It's going to be a live no-holds-barred discussion. It's a panel discussion. We're going to be honest and open and frank about what that meeting might be like at the White House and how they should start and what issues they need to work on. How do we resolve this? Tonight 7:30 right here on CNN.

Well, before he answered that now famous question about the Gates arrest, President Obama spent almost his entire primetime news conference talking about health care. Simply put, he's hit some serious, serious roadblocks. His hopes for a quick vote -- well, they have simply vanished. And congressional Democrats are divided on this issue.

We go now to our Kate Bolduan. She is live at the White House with the very latest. What's going on, Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Don. Well, trying to return the focus to his top domestic priority, President Obama is out fighting for momentum in the debate over health care.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): President Obama in his weekly address is pitching to small businesses across the country, saying they will only benefit from health care reform.

OBAMA: These are the mom-and-pop stores and restaurants, beauty shops and construction companies that support families and sustain communities. Right now, they are getting crushed by skyrocketing health care costs.

BOLDUAN: We talked to two small business owners who face similar challenges every day. David Guernsey employs 170 people at Guernsey Office Products in Virginia. Brian England has 18 employees at his Maryland auto repair shop. Both small businesses that provide health insurance to their workers, but both admit it's getting harder and harder to keep up.

DAVID GUERNSEY, PRES., GUERNSEY OFFICE PRODUCTS: Top line's not going up. Gross profit's not going up. Expenses in terms of health care will go up. And that affects the bottom line.

BRIAN ENGLAND, OWNER, BRITISH AMERICAN AUTO CARE, INC.: The pay is the number one expense, obviously, to running a business. Next is rent. And then next is health care. So it's third in line, a very large third.

BOLDUAN: These men and their employees are keeping close watch on Washington and the health care debate. One idea England supports, requiring employers to provide coverage. He says it would help level the playing field for him against competitors.

ENGLAND: Every year, it gets worse because the rates go up, more employers stop providing the complete coverage, and then that makes a big problem for the ones that are left.

BOLDUAN: But Guernsey fears that expanded coverage could come with an expanded price small businesses simply can't afford.

GUERNSEY: If the requirement were such that the kind of coverage we offered were dramatically different, dramatically more comprehensive, and the cost accordingly would go up significantly, that would then be a problem.

BOLDUAN: Instead, Guernsey hopes small businesses will be able to pool their coverage to help drive down prices.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Now, President Obama supports allowing small businesses to buy coverage through an insurance exchange, which he says would give them the opportunity to shop for different, cheaper coverage plans for their employees. Now, Wednesday, the president hits the road. He's heading to North Carolina and Virginia to continue selling the White House reform agenda -- Don.

LEMON: All right, thank you, Kate.

Well, from Washington to Alaska and Sarah Palin's final hours as governor. She leaves office tomorrow, but not before saying good-bye to the people who elected her. Palin is holding a picnic at this hour, right now in Anchorage. More than 1,000 people showed up for an annual picnic yesterday in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska. Another gathering is planned tomorrow in Fairbanks, when Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell officially takes over as Alaska governor.

The president and the police officer, Sarah Palin stepping down, and of course, a huge battle over health care -- politics are grabbing the headlines this week, and we have one of the best in the business to talk about it. Actually, he's one of the best political -- part of the best political team on television, and that is our Bill Schneider.

It's been a very full week for the president, Bill. Where do you want to start?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, certainly, he wants to start with health care, and I think he regrets the fact that the -- what shall we call it -- "Gates-gate" got in the way at his press conference of his health care message. But he's trying to create a groundswell of popular support to put pressure on members of Congress so that people will say to them, You'd better vote for health care or else you're going to pay a price. He wants to ratchet that pressure up, and that's why he's out there. He's having press conferences, giving speeches, going to Virginia and North Carolina next week. He wants to increase the public pressure.

LEMON: So Bill, you know, you said that "Gates-gate" (INAUDIBLE) before we get to "Gates-gate," where are we on this issue? Because it said the president wants it on -- he said by fall, and he just wanted to give, he said, people something to work on, something to look forward to or to shoot to a deadline. But so far, even in his own party, he has huge opposition, and it doesn't appear that this is going to pass the way he wants it to pass. It's a pivotal moment for the president. We've heard that from a lot of folks. So where exactly does he go from here besides making more speeches and setting new deadlines? What can he really concretely do?

SCHNEIDER: I think he has to concretely work the legislative process. He's got to work directly with members of Congress. He, the president, has to do that. I think he sorely misses the skills of Tom Daschle, his first choice to be Health and Human Services secretary, who knows the Senate. He was former majority leader. He needs someone who can work with the members of Congress, a Lyndon Johnson type skill of twisting arms, of getting people to come on board his program. There's a lot of members of Congress are saying it's not clear to them exactly what the president wants and what the president will accept. This is now a legislative process, and he's got to get engaged in that.

LEMON: This was not a twisting-arms moment. It was sort of a mea culpa. But I think a lot of people respected that he at least came out and addressed it. And you know what I'm talking about. You called it "Gates-gate." Let's take a listen to this, Bill, and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I want to make clear that in my choice of words, I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department of Sergeant Crowley specifically. And I could have calibrated those words differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So I was in Cambridge, and the reaction was very positive from the police department, very positive from the people on the ground there, and even from the people who were -- you know, who sided with Gates. So they're going to have this beer, this meeting in the White House. Is that -- is this the end of that? Did this hurt the president in any substantial way, maybe among law enforcement or people who support law enforcement, or maybe people who may base their votes on race?

SCHNEIDER: I think the president acted very quickly to quiet the controversy, basically by acknowledging that he overreacted, just as he believes Professor Gates overreacted and he believes the police may have overreacted. Everybody overreacted. I've heard people say the press is overreacting!

(LAUGHTER)

SCHNEIDER: Here we are talking about it. But basically, everyone overreacted, and the president acted wisely by saying, So did I.

LEMON: Yes. And I was on an airplane today coming back, and every single person on the airplane had the paper, and it was open to the page with "Gates-gate." OK, so -- and it may have been because I was coming from Boston, too...

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: ... and that's why the paper was filled with it!

Listen, let's talk about Sarah Palin now, who's saying her final good-byes. Is this a, Farewell, I'll see you again, or do you think it is over for her political career? Maybe -- I don't know. Who knows?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it's certainly over in Alaska. She's saying farewell to her constituents as governor. She clearly wants a national political career. She says she's going to be campaigning for Republican candidates around the country.

The problem is, her reputation has taken a hit. We've had two polls come out this month. Both of them show that her favorability has dropped sharply. About 40 percent of Americans now have a positive opinion of her. A lot of people are critical of her because they say she quit in the middle of her job. She had 18 months to go as governor. When -- this was an ABC News/"Washington Post" poll, asked people, Do you think Sarah Palin shares your value, the public is split 50/50 about that. Republicans believe she does, but very few Democrats do.

She is a very divisive and controversial figure for Republican and conservative base. She's suffered some losses there. So her reputation has really taken a hit because so many people call her a quitter.

LEMON: Well, I've got ask you this, then. I mean, when you're talking about those polls -- from conservatives and liberals, I get the same question. Why so much focus on Sarah Palin? She is no longer running for anything. She is quitting as governor. People want to know, why are we paying so much attention to her?

SCHNEIDER: Two reasons. One, she was on the ticket for vice president, so she became instantly a national figure. She was nominated by the Republican Party. Second, the Republican Party has an absence of a national leader right now. Who is there to speak for the party? They're looking for a voice. They're looking for leadership. They have a number of people who are competing for that, but right now, she's one of the contenders to become the spokesperson for the Republican Party.

LEMON: All right, Bill, thank you. We'll see you back here at 7:00, in just a little bit. Appreciate it.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

LEMON: I have a quick reminder for you. Sarah Palin will deliver a farewell speech tomorrow night, 7:00 PM Eastern. Make sure you join me here in the NEWSROOM and watch it live right here on CNN. You won't miss anything.

Six continents, more than 100 cities, worldwide outrage over the arrest of protesters in Iran. Plus, a CNN exclusive, a top commander talks about Iraq. You're not going it like what he has to say. Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She left us on one of her friends' steps and she never came back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Abandoned by his mother more than a decade ago, here's a young man whose chase (ph) for success never stopped (ph) him. It's a success story. We're going to tell you about that.

Plus, we've been talking about health care, we've been talking about Sarah Palin, and oh, boy, "Gates-gate." Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iReport.com -- we want to hear from you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Ousted Honduran president Jose Manuel Zelaya is setting up camp for the night within shouting distance of the nation he once led. The exiled leader says he'll stay right on the Nicaraguan side of that border a day after stepping down -- stepping under, I should say, a rusty chain onto his home soil. A crowd of thousands defied armed security guards to cheer that very short, very brief homecoming. But Zelaya is frustrating his allies who want to see democracy restored there. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls his actions reckless.

A shootout in Afghanistan between the Taliban and security forces, and tonight NATO says it ended with at least seven suicide attackers dead. It happened today in the city of Khost on the Afghan- Pakistani border. Governor officials tell CNN the Taliban insurgents wore suicide vests and brandished machine guns when they struck a bank, a police station and a military hospital. More than a dozen people were wounded, most of them civilians.

All over the world today, people are demanding the release of hundreds of Iranians arrested after the June presidential election. The protests stretch across six continents and about 100 cities. Crowds gathered outside the United Nations building in New York City today and the demonstrations -- the demonstrators want U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to send a delegation to Iraq to investigate the fate of those detainees. They also are demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners and journalists.

And in London, protesters waved green flags and wore wristbands the color of the opposition party in Iran. Demonstrators also blindfolded, gagged and chained themselves together. They're supporting the protests. Protesters, they say, were silent (ph) in Iran after that election.

About 40 Berliners have been on a hunger strike over the past several days. Meantime, 2,000 people gathered at rally for Iranians in Germany. A moment of silence was also held for the imprisoned protesters in Iran.

In Seoul, South Korea, demonstrators held up Amnesty International signs and pictures of Iranian protesters. They stood in silence, also demanding the unconditional release of Iranian dissidents.

A famous Dutch singer has written a song in memory of Neda. You'll recall she is the young Iranian woman killed by a militia bullet amid protests right after the Iranian presidential election. I want you to listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAN BARTENHEI, SINGER (ph) (SINGING): She was dying on (INAUDIBLE)...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: An iReporter videotaped Ran Bartenhei's performance to crowds of at least 1,000 people there at a rally in Amsterdam. The mostly Iranian protesters clapped and sang along as the musician played. And Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and a native Iranian, urged the crowd to show unity in supporting the Iranian people.

And Iraq is preparing for a post-war era by planning to educate its young people. Government officials want to send 10,000 students to colleges abroad under a new scholarship program. Meantime, American troops are shifting their focus to Afghanistan, but Iraq is still ground zero in all this.

So that's what General David Petraeus says. He's the head of Central Command. He sat down exclusively with CNN's Arwa Damon in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even though the U.S. is reducing its combat role in Iraq, the American general in charge of both Iraq and Afghanistan told us in an exclusive interview that Iraq is still the center of the fight against international terrorism.

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND COMMANDER: You have the al Qaeda connections, of course, with the senior leadership, and the federally administered tribal areas of western Pakistan extend into Afghanistan, threaten Pakistan, and then very much threaten the rest of the world. There are links from there to al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, which has reestablished itself in South Yemen. And then, certainly, Iraq is in the center of all of this. It's very, very important geostrategically.

DAMON: That is mainly because of its location, but also because control of Iraq's natural resources, oil and gas, is so strategically important. The general, who served nearly four years as a commander in Iraq, was one of the main orchestrators of America's surge strategy there. He says there are Iraq lessons that apply to Afghanistan. PETRAEUS: Some of the lessons are very obvious. Again, you shouldn't start clearing until you have your plan to hold and build. It wasn't just the surge. It wasn't just 30,000 more forces here. It was the employment of those forces in a manner that focused on security of the people and did it by living with the people, and then also sought to help the process of reconciliation because you cannot kill or capture your way out of this kind of endeavor.

DAMON: And that realization is why America implemented another strategy in Iraq it wants to carry over, reaching out its enemies. In Afghanistan's case, the Taliban.

PETRAEUS: There is -- there has always been activity at local levels which one would characterize as reaching out to elements that were willing to be part of the solution instead of a continuing part of problem.

DAMON: Those efforts, though, not yet on the scale of what they were in Iraq. There is the realization that when it comes to combating global terror, brute force is not the solution.

PETRAEUS: Well, this is not the kind of struggle where you kill or capture the bad guys, take the hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade. At end of the day, it is about education. It is about, in a sense, accepting modernity, pragmatic, progressive leadership of countries. And that's the ultimate solution. And that's why, again, I mentioned that this takes a whole of government approach. Again, you just can't kill or capture everybody. You have to kill or capture the condition.

DAMON: Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: A jury said not guilty at his terrorism trial, so why is this young man from Florida still behind bars? An exclusive report on the lengths the government will go to in the war on terror.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, there's now word that President Bush considered using U.S. troops in a terror raid on American soil. In 2002, six men were arrested in Buffalo, New York, for allegedly plotting with al Qaeda. They're now known as the "Lackawanna 6." Well, "The New York Times" reported Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the administration wanted to send in U.S. troops to make the arrests, but President Bush said no, instead letting the FBI take the lead. If troops had moved in, it would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power within America.

Nobody wants terrorists running around loose, but innocent people can sometimes get caught up in the frenzy. And then they do, there can be an overwhelming presumption of guilt that even a court system can't fix. I want you to pay close attention, special attention to this exclusive report by CNN's John Zarrella. It's about one young man in Florida who was cleared at a federal trial but still has the government on his case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you believe the federal government, Youssef Megahed is a terrorist, or a man likely to engage in terrorism. If you believe Gary Meringer, Youssef Megahed is an innocent man.

GARY MERINGER, JURY FOREMAN: I was surprised that the government even brought the case, sitting there listening to it.

ZARRELLA: Meringer was the jury foreman. Megahed, who came to the U.S. from Egypt in 1998, had been charged with possessing and transporting explosives. After a three-week trial and three days of deliberations, Meringer and 11 other jurors circled "Not guilty" on the verdict form. For Megahed, freedom, right? Wrong. Megahed is again behind bars.

(on camera): Now they're flat-out saying that you're a terrorist and they're going to deport you. You know, how does that -- how do you react to that?

YOUSSEF MEGAHED, FACING DEPORTATION (via telephone): I would say this is a false allegation, like, baseless. And I go to court and fight those allegations against.

ZARRELLA: We talked by phone with Youssef Megahed because for, quote, "national security implications," we were not allowed to bring recording devices into the detention facility.

So how did this unfold? Two years ago, Megahed, a student at University of South Florida, went on a road trip with a friend, Ahmed Mohamed. Pulled over for speeding in South Carolina, police found a pipe with potassium nitrate inside, along with detonator cord -- for model rockets, Mohamed claimed. But it wasn't what authorities found in the car, it was a video posted on YouTube that made the case against Mohamed.

In Arabic, he demonstrates how to outfit a model car with explosives. Mohamed pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists and is serving 15 years. Megahed claimed he had no idea what was in the car. On the family's home computer, authorities say they found videos, documents and an Internet search history that supports, quote, "jihad against the United States."

The jurors believed Megahed, not the government. He was free for all of three days. He was leaving a Tampa Wal-Mart with his father when he was rearrested by federal immigration agents.

SAMIR MEGAHED, FATHER: They didn't give us a chance to speak to somebody to know what is going on!

ZARRELLA: This time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is accusing him of being, quote, "engaged in or likely to engage in any terrorist activity." The same case Megahed was acquitted in will now be heard in immigration court, where the government's burden of proof is far less than at a criminal trial.

GUY LEWIS, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: The government doesn't use this a lot, but I think is it an arrow in the quiver that needs to stay because there are those cases where the government needs to do everything within its power to keep us safe.

ZARRELLA: Megahed says he's been profiled and that this is contrary to President Obama's call to end the, quote, "cycle of suspicion."

YOUSSEF MEGAHED: First, it's (INAUDIBLE) keep talking about change and change and -- if President Obama was to think about change, he should look first inside -- inside the U.S. before talking about change worldwide.

ZARRELLA: A senior administration official told CNN the White House would have no comment on this case. But jury foreman Gary Meringer has had plenty to say. On a dreary Saturday, he got in his car for a two-hour drive to visit Megahed at the Florida detention facility.

MERINGER: I told him that I wanted him to know there were people out here that cared about him, that were praying for him. I want this kid to get a fair shake.

ZARRELLA: On the way out, Meringer sees Megahed's father.

MERINGER: Oh, God bless. You're a great dad!

ZARRELLA: Youssef Megahed will be deported if the judge rules against him this time. John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: From Neverland to Wonderland. You'll see the house we're told Michael Jackson wanted but couldn't afford.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Much has been made about the debt that Michael Jackson left behind. But there is new news to be reported about his assets. The administrators for Michael Jackson's estate have filed court papers disclosing they've recovered $5.5 million in cash from one of Jackson's former financial advisers. They expect to present contracts to the court within the week that should add tens of millions of dollars to Jackson's estate, which they said is solvent and worth an estimated $500 million. That's according to the documents.

The Los Angeles sheriff is looking into whether employees in the county coroner's office illegally leaked information about Michael Jackson's death investigation. The sheriff spokesman won't say what prompted the inquiry but the "L.A. Times" reports the county supervisor's office requested it after employees not involved with the investigation were found accessing Jackson's death certificate.

If you thought Neverland was spectacular, wait until you see what might have been Michael Jackson's next pad.

Our Drew Griffin of our "Special Investigations Unit" gives us an exclusive tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the home Michael Jackson wanted but at the time even he couldn't afford. According to his Las Vegas realtor, Zar Zanganeh, this ten acre estate was to be Michael Jackson's Vegas wonderland.

ZAR ZANGANEH, MICHAEL JACKSON'S VEGAS REALTOR: This is the only house I showed Michael out of probably ten or a dozen where he came outside -- and he came outside with no umbrella or mask on, just came out here with the kids to see the groups of the property.

Through this estate here we have an apartment, it's about 1,000 square feet, and the kids wanted to make this into the playroom and Michael loved that idea.

GRIFFIN: Instead, Zanganeh placed Jackson and his family in this leased home. It was not up to par, say Zanganeh, but Jackson was building a life in Las Vegas and also trying to build back his wealth, entertaining casino owners who were offering Jackson deal after deal to make him stay.

ZANGANEH: I know that Michael really liked the idea of being able to perform in one location night after night. He loved the fact that the kids could actually have a place to call home and not move around with him since they're always going everywhere with him. That was an idea that very much appealed to him.

There's a couple of secret tunnels through here.

GRIFFIN: The estate is filled with quirky appeals. Secret tunnels leading to a gun range Jackson wanted to turn into a music studio. A barber chair in the master bath. A full gym, theater room and a 20-car garage where he and his family could load into and out of cars out of view.

(on camera): What was he most interested in when he'd come into a house?

ZANGANEH: Michael's biggest concern, in my opinion, was always the safety of his children.

GRIFFIN (on camera): At the time, just back from his self-exile in Bahrain and Ireland, Jackson simply couldn't afford the $22 million to $25 million price tag.

Zanganeh says he believes the concert tour would have been Michael Jackson's pathway back to this house, a permanent show in Las Vegas, and new retreat he would have called Wonderland.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Las Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Wow. You saw that "Special Investigations Unit, Drew Griffin. Interesting story.

Powerful winds slam into east Florida this weekend. And along for the ride, a devastating tornado.

Jacqui Jeras, is that right?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. We had a lot of waterspouts, too, Don. We have some pictures coming up of it former. Really cool stuff. Also, what about what about the rest of your weekend? What kind of weather can you expect? We've got a lot of storms to talk about. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So as the nation wrestles over health care reform, we focus on the uninsured and on a horrific killer. We're talking about breast cancer. Uninsured women are less likely to get annual mammograms and, therefore, are at greater risk. And black women are 37 percent more likely than whites to die from the disease.

This week's hero is fighting to better those odds for all women. And she's doing it by hitting the streets.

(CNN HEROES)

LEMON: You can find out more about her work and nominate a hero of your own. Go to CNN.com/heroes. Next week is your last chance, your last chance to tell us about your hero, because nominations close on August 1st. So if you know a hero, go to CNN.com/heroes and do it right now.

A sudden tornado shreds an east coast Florida community leaving dozens of neighbors with a monstrous cleanup project. Look at that. A twister slammed parts of mobile homes into the upper branches of trees, in Port Orange. These pictures of storm damage is always amazing to me. You can see the debris was flying across people's yards. One person was hospitalized with minor injuries from shattered grass there. More than 160 homes are damaged.

Tonight parts of the Ohio Valley are facing a hail and wind threat.

Our Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN Severe Weather Center.

Florida, that was terrible.

JERAS: I know. You know what? Check out these pictures too. This is also out of Florida. This is the Vallejo County. They tell me this is the Port Orange area. Take a really close look. Do you see it? There it is.

LEMON: A waterspout.

JERAS: There is it. Yeah, you had you to look at the bottom to see that water getting kicked up.

LEMON: Jacqui, they can be dangerous, but they're beautiful. Look at that picture, the blue sky and the water. Amazing isn't it?

JERAS: It is. But you know what happens to a waterspout when it comes on land? It becomes a tornado. That could cause damage. That did happen in Ormond Beach yesterday. There you can see a little bit of that funnel and some of the debris right there on the ground. Just an incredible progression of pictures catching that still video. Wow. You can see a very well developed spout coming off of that. You can see that's kind of what we would call a high-based thunderstorm. This is a little higher up, into the atmosphere. Really amazing stuff.

We do have some severe weather going on out there today. It's kind of more focused in the upper Midwest. Even though we don't have watches or warnings now across south Florida, take a look at that. We've had a lot of action across the southern parts of the state. Really heavy downpours. and don't be surprised if maybe we have an isolated waterspout or two. Certainly going to need the umbrella if you think you're heading out on the town in south Florida for tonight.

Here's the Ohio River Valley, where we have showers and thundershowers. A severe thunderstorm watch in effect for you from Louisville over towards Lexington. And east of there you can see severe weather outside of that box. So be aware that that can occur at times even though you're not technically in a watch. And there you can see stronger thunderstorms. Going to put that down to 2-D mode. You can see another watch across parts of Pennsylvania into upstate New York. This is going to move into New York City and Philadelphia after midnight tonight.

Don, Back to you.

LEMON: Jacqui, and that waterspout picture, that was from someone on vacation at Port Orange, Florida. Right? I think it was -- is that the one from Rebecca Owens?

JERAS: That's the one.

LEMON: Thank you your picture, Rebecca. Glad you're safe, though.

JERAS: Yeah.

LEMON: It's good over water if nothing's out there. But you're right, once it gets on land, not so much.

Thank you, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

LEMON: "The Situation Room" is straight ahead.

Wolf Blitzer, what do you have for us?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Thank you very much, Don.

Coming up at the top of the hour right here in "The Situation Room," a lot more on the controversy involving the Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates, and the president's comments on that. We'll have a full discussion.

Also, two key U.S. Senators. They're here to debate health care reform. Is it going anywhere anytime soon?

Plus, Rudy Giuliani on a new terror threat in the American heartland.

All that and a lot more, coming up in "The Situation Room."

Back to you, Don.

LEMON: Looking forward to it, Wolf. Thank you, sir.

The literary world has lost a best-selling author who pioneered his own genre of fiction. E. Lynn Harris died Thursday night on a business trip to Los Angeles. No word on the cause of his death. Harris will be remembered for novels that introduced millions of readers to the life of affluent black gay men. His characters were often masculine, complex and sometimes tormented while living double lives. His novels enjoyed a huge following among black women. And his book signings were often standing room only. Harris eventually became one of the nation's most popular writers with four million books in print. E. Lynn Harris dead at the age of 64.

Abandoned by his mother 13 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DASHEEN ELLIS, STUDENT: She left us on one of her friend's steps and she never came back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That didn't stop him from chasing his dream to go to college. His story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is a story about overcoming all kinds of obstacles, so I want you to pay attention to it, because, life through him, plenty of hurdles and Dasheen Ellis could have fallen through the cracks. Thanks to people who believed in him and to his belief in himself as well, Dash's future -- that's his nickname -- is looking pretty bright.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON (voice-over): There's a guest speaker at the Jewish Childcare Association's Pleasantville Cottage School.

ELLIS: My name is Dasheen. I'm 18 years old. LEMON: Former resident, Dasheen came back to give advice and encouragement. For years, this place kept him from a life on the street after his mother abandoned him and his brother.

ELLIS: She left us on one of her friend's steps and she never came back.

LEMON: Dasheen was just five years old.

ELLIS: She was a drug addict and she had sex for drugs also. She was always high or whatever and was experimenting with different drugs.

LEMON: He bounced around from his godmother to foster care to a group home that eventually shut its door. The women that ran the home were determined to find him a family for Dasheen. They reached out to Gene and Lonnie Dall, who had previously been foster parents.

LONNIE DALL, FOSTER PARENTS: They tell you about these poor kids. I'm literally -- I just don't know what to do about it. I wish there was something I could do about it, because to think of the things these children have gone through, through no fault of their own. I kept thinking of Dasheen and I thought, he's not like that. He's not that way, you know?

LEMON: With the Dall's guidance, Dasheen is now a motivated student and a high school running sensation, nicknamed Dash.

His foster dad, Gene, who just happens to be his track coach, said just about everyone had written him off.

GENE DALL, FOSTER PARENT: They're very surprised when they find out he's a foster child, because he's probably better adjusted than 75 percent of kids who really have supporting family.

LONNIE DALL: Who have the mom and dad at home, yeah.

LEMON: That doesn't surprise his former social worker, Andrea Fink.

ANDREA FINK, SOCIAL WORKER: He came in quiet, peaceful and very self-assured, but underneath it, very, very scared and worried about what was going to be with his future.

LEMON: It's a bright future now for the recent high school grad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will the class of 2009 now stand?

ELLIS: I'm going to Courtland and I'm going to study education.

LEMON: State and university grants will take care of his tuition. And his passion for track that carried him this far, will no doubt help, too.

ELLIS: Track, in general, is a way for me to, I guess, express myself. I would think about things that happened to me when I was younger and I would try to bring it up and it could get me through workouts. When I think of the things that happened, it's a fuel. It fuels me.

LEMON: Dasheen Ellis is now poised for the biggest jump of his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Good luck to him. Very inspiring young man.

If you missed even a minute of our "Black in America 2" special, you can see it again. Our Soledad O'Brien hosts "Black in America 2" tonight and tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern only here on CNN. Make sure you tune in for those stories.

Using sports to combat homelessness, the topic in today's "Fit Nation" segment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, how do you get homeless people off the streets and drug addicts off drugs? How about a little game of soccer?

Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(FIT NATION)

LEMON: I like that. Whoo-hoo.

Thank you, Dr. Gupta.

As always, we like your comments and feedback here on CNN. Let's read a couple from Twitter that I have here.

JuneJohn says, "Don, Michael Jackson home. He wanted to move in but couldn't afford in Las Vegas. Who can? Who lives there?"

Here's what Pelotchi says, "Please stop saying Gatesgate. The situation bares no resemblance to 70's, the breaking in. And I am so tired of the use of this tag."

And then kenpotter24 days, "Don, it sounds like two professionals had a bad day and met. And add to that racial history and, bam, throw in a presidential slip as well."

Royalrain says, "Why is health care reform not voted on by the people instead of Congress?"

That's a great question.

And then Endora says, "Hi, Don, I'm glad you made it back from Boston and it is good to watch you again."

Well, it's good to have you all. And we appreciate your feedback.

Go to Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook or iReport.com and we'll get your comments on.

We appreciate them. It's good to be back. It's good to see you here.

Be sure to join me at 7:30 right here in the "CNN NEWSROOM" for a live panel discussion on the issues over race and the controversy over the Henry Louis Gates arrest. This is just a starting off point. We'll talk to an interesting group of people who are going to be very honest, opened and frank and probably say some things that might upset you, but need to be said. So make sure you join us. That's at 7:00 and the discussion is at 7:30.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here at 7:00 and again at 10:00 p m. Eastern.

Meantime, here's "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer.