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Corruption North of the Border; Health Reform Road Trip; Unhealthy Debate Over Health Care?; Taliban Not Losing; Passengers Stranded on Commuter Plane For Nine Hours; GM to Start Trial Run of Sales Via Ebay

Aired August 10, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, law officers taking bribes, looking the other way as drug runners get their goods across the border. We've all heard about the infiltration of Mexican authorities by the drug cartels, but they're also infiltrating U.S. law enforcement. An Associated Press investigation shows the corruption is far reaching.

Since 2007, more than 80 U.S. enforcement officials at all levels have been convicted of corruption. In Customs, and border protection alone, the number of officials charged with corruption crimes has almost tripled. In the past 10 months, 20 agents have been charged.

One of The Associated Press reporters digging on the story, Martha Mendoza, joins me now live from Mexico City.

Martha, I was reading your investigation this morning and it caught my attention, because usually we hear about the corruption within the Mexican police, the Mexican military, also the government. And now we're hearing that our agents, on all levels, local, state and federal, have been caught in this corruption sting.

What shocked you the most when you made the request and got all these documents?

MARTHA MENDOZA, ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER: Well, Kyra, what we learned and what was surprising to us was the extent of this. There's almost a culture of this that now the Department of Homeland Security is trying to crack down on and the Justice Department is trying to crack down on.

We found that there's been, as you said, 80 different law enforcement agents on the U.S. side who are currently -- have been sentenced. They are convicted and have been sentenced. We also learned that there had been 2,000 different disciplinary cases within Customs and Border Patrol, including more than 100 that were clear cases of corruption.

Frankly, what surprised me the most were interviews that we did with law enforcement agents who are currently in custody, who described again and again a culture of being approached and offered bribes, being asked to smuggle. These are people who were paid moderate incomes and for whom $1,500 to turn their head the other way on a particular day means a lot.

PHILLIPS: And that grabbed my attention, too.

You talked to this former agent, now in jail, talking about this Mexican man that just approached him at one of his checkpoints and said, hey, you know, I'll give you $5,000 if you just let this guy come through, and he actually said, "I thought, nah, I can't do that. Then I thought, hell, my life's a mess, everyone does it. If I'm caught, I'll just say the guy got past me. I'll do it once. I could use the money."

Well, he didn't just do it once. He did it 66 times.

MENDOZA: Right. And his case was really an example. I mean, I interviewed him, and he was very sorry that he had been caught, but what he said was this is what's happening.

And I spoke with, like I say, about 12 other people who are also currently doing time, or we communicated on the phone as well, and they all talked about this pervasive corruption going on.

PHILLIPS: And what do they tell you? I mean, as I read through and hear what these agents told you, and local sheriffs, how they were running drugs and they were totally corrupt, what was the common, I guess, confession here? That it was easy money?

MENDOZA: It is easy money and it's being offered very, very aggressively. There's a broad context here.

In late 2006, Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, declared war on the cartels. And since then, the Mexican side of the border has been having a lot of huge violent problems; right? Eleven thousand people killed since then.

Well, that has put a lot of pressure on the U.S. side, where Customs and Border Patrol has almost -- I guess they've increased their force by about 50 percent. And at the same time, hiring all these new agents, it's now the nation's largest law enforcement agency, Customs and Border Protection.

And by adding all these new agents, they have added a problem with these strong cartels pushing for holes to bring their drugs through, holes to smuggle people through as well. In one situation, Customs and Border Protection told us they had caught four cartel members who were actually making their way through the job application process and took polygraph tests, at which point they realized that these were people who are already corrupt and trying to get jobs in the agency.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. So, stop pointing the finger just at Mexico. It looks like DHS has its work ahead of that organization as well, to keep those guys out of the system.

Great work, Martha Mendoza. It was a fascinating investigation. Really appreciate you joining us.

MENDOZA: Thank you. PHILLIPS: Our other top story, August is make-or-break month for health care in America. We're pushing it forward with a closer look at the town hall meetings across the country. Some of them have gotten out of control.

A public forum over the weekend in Memphis was so heated, that law officers working it had to call for backup. One scheduled for tomorrow in Missouri has been canceled over safety fears. We're also looking at a meeting earlier today that actually went pretty well.

Meanwhile, the CNN Express pushes the issue forward with a bus trip.

Our chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, is taking the issue on the road, getting feedback from people in six states, starting here in Atlanta, ending up at the Iowa State Fair later this week.

Ali joins me now somewhere in Georgia, I believe. We saw him, what, about 10 minutes ago leaving the CNN Center?

Where did the cowboy hat go, buddy?

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, the hat's in the front. I don't need it for shade here right now.

We're just trying to get all the systems going. We have just left you a few minutes ago.

Speaking of feedback, you might hear some because we're just trying. But we're moving right now. We're heading toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, where we're going to talk to people about, like you said, health care.

We want to get to the bottom of a few things, Kyra. What we want to do is establish what ordinary Americans out there are thinking, what they're worried about, what they've been hearing, what they want out of their health care system.

And I think it's going to be very useful for this debate, while Congress members are out there talking to their constituents, or, in some cases, having great difficulty talking to them, for us to cut through all the filters, have this bus pull into small-and-medium- sized towns, and ask people exactly what they're thinking and what they want, bring that information back to you so we're having a real two-way dialogue here. So, that's what we're excited about.

And, by the way, Kyra, we'll be hitting state fairs and county fairs, so I'll be getting my fill of fantastic summer fare food.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, a little cotton candy, caramel apples, and what's that other sticky thing with all the powdered sugar?

VELSHI: Oh, those waffly (ph) things, those funnel cakes.

PHILLIPS: There you go. Thank you. VELSHI: Funnel cakes, corn dogs, anything on a stick.

PHILLIPS: Fabulous. We'll be checking in with you.

VELSHI: Now, you know, you haven't seen this for a while, but you've seen this technology, right? We're moving. You can see this.

I'm on the CNN Express, and that's the highway behind me. So, we're moving, we can do this. So, we can be talking and moving around while we're doing it. We're going to be talking to you a lot over the course of the week.

PHILLIPS: Well, we can't wait to meet all your new friends. Ali Velshi, thanks.

Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri held a meeting today in a rural area of the state. Pretty calm, no fireworks, but plenty of questions.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Brianna Keilar was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This town hall event was very civil. And certainly, Senator Claire McCaskill knew it had the potential to become unruly.

This is southeastern Missouri, which is a rural conservative stronghold. And Senator McCaskill is a Democrat who supports that public option, that government-run insurance plan.

As this meeting broke up today, we asked her about the tone of the event.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: This is Missouri manners at its best. People had really strong opinions in there, but I think we had a good, full discussion. I think I was able to hopefully correct some really bad misinformation that's out there. People are just getting information that is just flat wrong.

KEILAR: Senator McCaskill was asked if there would be money in this health care reform package for abortion. She said there would not be.

She also confronted a concern of many of the people here in the audience that this health care reform package would move the U.S. towards socialized medicine. She said that's not going to be the case.

And a lot has been made about who is at these meetings. At this one particular, were these folks from the local area or outside of the area? And I asked two gentlemen, one of them who is for health care reform, one who is very suspicious of it. The two of them acquaintances; they knew each other.

And they said, looking around the room, they recognized about two-thirds of the faces. So they felt that a lot of the people at this meeting were from Kennett and from the immediately surrounding area.

But certainly, Senator McCaskill faced some really tough questions today, and they were mostly from critics of the Democrats' health care reform plan.

Brianna Keilar, CNN, Kennett, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Kennett, Missouri, looks like an exception. Senator McCaskill had an event slated for tomorrow at a high school in St. Louis, but it was canceled. Why? Because a meeting last week in St. Louis hosted by Congressman Russ Carnahan got so out of control, that police actually arrested six people. The school was worried for its staff and students, and Senator McCaskill and the White House say that there's a lot of misinformation out there stoking that fury.

Here's CNN's Elaine Quijano.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reads like something that was brought up in the early 1930s in Germany.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With lawmakers back home, anger is boiling over. Democratic Senator Tom Harkin got shouted down at this health care meeting in Iowa.

In Georgia, signs the debate is taking a toll.

REP. DAVID SCOTT (D), GEORGIA: Those of you are here who are taken and came and hijacked this event that we are dealing with here

QUIJANO: Democratic Congressman David Scott lashed out after a doctor from his district asked...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you voting for a health care plan that is shown not to work in Massachusetts, and why are you going to institute that in the statewide -- in the nationwide...

QUIJANO: At first, Scott said he wasn't sure how he would vote. Then he let loose

SCOTT: Don't come and take advantage of what these individuals have done. You want a meeting with me on health care? I'll give it to you.

QUIJANO: In Texas, where Republican Congressman Michael Burgess...

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), TEXAS: This doesn't look like a mob, this looks like home.

QUIJANO: ... the crowd stayed calm. But some of the questions, pointed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the Republicans controlled Congress and the Senate, why didn't you introduce and pass health care reform?

QUIJANO: In Austin, supporter of health care reform are getting fired up. This crowd booed as Republican Senator John Cornyn tried leaving after touring a community health clinic.

And more fuel to stoke the fighting. On her Facebook page Friday, Republican Sarah Palin wrote, "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

In his weekly address, President Obama fired back at opponents.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform euthanasia or cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of healthcare. That's simply not true.

QUIJANO (on camera): This week, the president heads to New Hampshire for a town hall meeting on health care. Later, he'll visit Montana, home state of Max Baucus, a key Democrat trying to negotiate a deal on health care reform.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, The White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, let's take a look at where health care reform stands right now in Congress.

Three House committees have passed separate versions of the legislation which now have to be merged into one bill the full House can vote on. On the Senate side, two plans have to be merged, assuming a bipartisan measure ever gets out of committee. And if bills pass the House and Senate, negotiators work out differences, well, then both houses vote again. Now, if the final bill passes, it goes to President Obama for his signature, so there's still a long road ahead.

Far from the halls of the Capitol, health care issues hit home for many of families. Little Jessica is just one of them. We're going to have her story straight ahead this hour.

Also, we're watching the situation right now in Hollywood, Florida. Live pictures we're going to take you to here. It looks like a baby whale. A baby whale looking for his mom, we are told, is beached.

Live pictures coming from our Miami affiliate, WSVN. We're following that for you right now as it's happening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Once again, live to Hollywood, Florida.

They have the towels around the baby, is that the deal? OK.

A bunch of beachgoers -- this is happening live via our affiliate out of Miami, WSBN. These beachgoers here have jumped to the rescue of this little baby whale.

Apparently, the two whales -- there's the mom and the baby -- got stranded in shallow waters off the coast of Hollywood, Florida, there, and this is the baby they're trying to keep warm and trying to keep from coming up on the beach. But apparently, the mom is up on the beach.

One of the affiliates, WSVN's chopper, actually, is above there, hovering above, bringing us this shot. But we're going to follow this. And hopefully, we'll be able to see a reunion between the mom and the baby, and they'll be able to get shoved back off into the ocean. But right now, it doesn't look so good for the mom, but the baby they're just trying to keep warm and trying to keep it from coming up onshore in those shallow waters.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan tells "The Wall Street Journal" that the Taliban are gaining the upper hand now. In the words of General Stanley McChrystal, "It's a very aggressive enemy right now. We've to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work."

Joining us now from Kabul, CNN's Atia Abawi.

Atia, why after all this time are things getting better for the Taliban and apparently worse for the U.S. and NATO forces fighting them?

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it's not that the Taliban are winning. It's the fact that they're not losing.

After eight years, this Taliban insurgency that has a fraction of the amount of troops that the coalition troops and that the Afghan army has is still fighting the fight. They're being resilient.

They are attacking U.S. and coalition troops. With thousands of U.S. Marines and coalition troops flooding the country, it has still been the bloodiest summer in the war on terror here in Afghanistan. Several dozens of coalition trips killed by the Taliban by successful tactics, primarily these roadside bombs, these IEDs that they've planted that have been killing many coalition troops, particularly this summer -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Atia, we also have been talking a while about the drug trade and the funding of the Taliban through these drugs. It's their currency.

What are coalition forces doing to dismantle the drug economy in that country? It's been an ongoing problem, obviously. ABAWI: You're absolutely right, it has been an ongoing problem, and it continues to be a problem. We've been to Helmand Province, the drug capital of the world -- Afghanistan provides over 90 percent of the world's opium, most of that coming from Helmand Province. And we actually spoke to coalition troops, coalition troops that were training the counter-narcotics police.

And we have been to drug burn after drug burn, 22 tons at one of these burns. But the mere fact is, is that these poppies are still growing, that these narco leaders are still very powerful, and that they're using these poppy farmers, are using the poverty in Afghanistan, to actually help this drug trade. But when we spoke to some of these poppy farmers, that they were actually being helped by USAID. USAID, that they were teaching them how to plant wheat, plant vegetables, feed your family this way, make an income this way.

When we spoke to those poppy farmers, they told us this is the kind of help that they need. They need this civilian effort. They said -- they told me to tell a message to the world, don't bring us guns and bombs, bring us this type of help. And General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of ISAF troops, ,has stated time and time again, particularly this summer, that with this increase of troops, they will be bringing that civilian effort and that they will be bringing advisers within these troops to help the Afghan people -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Atia Abawi, live from Afghanistan.

Thanks so much.

Straight ahead, Mother Nature wreaks havoc across Asia. If you thought hurricanes were bad, we're going to look at where not one, but two typhoons are creating some challenging and life-threatening situations today.

Also, live pictures once again from WSVN, our affiliate in Miami. Hundreds of beachgoers coming out to try and reunite this baby whale with its mom.

Earlier today -- or just a little while ago, rather, we saw the mom up on the shore there. She had gotten stranded and couldn't actually get back into the water. And then we were able to see, through our affiliate, WSVN, the chopper there, the little baby. And the baby was trying to find the mom.

Well, as you can see, the swimmers here keeping both mom and baby warm with towels, trying to get the mom out of those shallow waters, back into the ocean to reunite with baby. As you can see, it's tough. It's not easy trying to get a heavy whale off the sands there on the edge of the beach and reunite with the baby, and get back off so they can take off, hopefully happily ever after.

We're going to continue to follow it. We're watching the live pictures for you.

We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about waves, or the tide, just a little bit.

Look at these live pictures with me if you don't mind out of Hollywood, Florida. And actually, I misspoke when they had all the wet towels on the whales. I should have known better, not keeping the mom and baby warm, but trying to keep them wet so they don't dry out there in the sun.

But now, Chad, just a few minutes ago, it was looking pretty good. I mean, they were pushing the mama whale back out into the water there and kind of connecting her with the baby, but now it looks like all the towels have been taken off and the whale is up on shore.

It doesn't look like good news right now.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, but if you look at what all of these people are holding on to, they have a sling under this whale now. And see, it's almost like now we're going to try to turn this thing around and point the nose in the right direction, and maybe it can help itself off the beach.

I'm sure that this whale followed a little pup in. Probably its little young came over a sandbar and all of a sudden, stuck in this almost little tidal pool, if you will.

What would be nice is if we could find out where this water is going out, it would be called a rip current, dangerous for swimmers, great for ocean life because they get taken back out into the deep water. Right now, though, probably the waves just coming over the sandbar here. And it's very difficult to get the whale back.

Also, something else they were doing with the towels. Whales, just like us, can get a very, very significant sunburn as well. So, they want to get those -- keep that -- I even saw for a while -- I even saw people having umbrellas out there.

But this is a sad situation right now. This has been going on a long time, and this whale is now suffering.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I'm being told it's a beaked whale, Chad. So, I'm doing a little research here on the computer.

And it looks like, if this is the mama, they can -- average weight can be 12 tons. So, you can just imagine -- I mean, it doesn't even look like they're trying to get mama back into the water right now, because they were. They were trying to push her out for a while. And I don't see sight of the baby, either.

MYERS: Now, the baby was there, and they put the baby right next to the mom's nose, thinking maybe they could actually get things back. And there's just no real reason why this happens. People have been asking me, "Are they sick? I hear whales do this on purpose."

The most likely part is that this was a mama and a pup, a little small little whale swimming alongside. The whale got -- the small whale got over a sandbar, something that the small whale could get out of, but now when they got on shore -- I mean, you can stand on the beach and know what these waves feel like, just getting pushed and getting pushed and getting pushed. And that's what these rescuers are trying to deal with, getting this whale -- they're trying to push them out, and Mother Nature and the ocean trying to push them back in.

Literally need a complete tidal change, or maybe some type of help from something mechanical. And that's just so difficult. This is hard. This is actually now at this point, with that whale on land now, just becoming hard to watch.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it's not good. I think we will tear away from that.

They were still holding on to the baby, too, Chad, trying to keep that baby from coming on shore. It doesn't look good for mom. But we're trying to get a marine biologist on the line to hammer out a few more details.

Chad, I appreciate it. Thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, nothing against Rochester, Minnesota, but I know 50 people who probably won't be rushing back. Passengers and crew of a commuter flight stuck there overnight, not in a hotel, or even in an airport, but get this, on the plane. No food, crying babies, stinky bathroom.

Get me off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Honestly, hats off to the passengers and crew, because I think I would have lost it. Dozens of people trapped aboard a teeny, tiny commuter plane on the tarmac all night. Believe me, it gets much worse. Listen to this nightmare from Joe Fryar of our affiliate, KARE.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE FRYAR, KARE-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rochester International Airport was an unexpected pit stop Friday night for passenger Link Cristin.

LINK CRISTIN (via telephone): To make a long story short, we stayed the entire night on the runway in this plane.

FRYAR: His Continental Airlines flight was supposed to fly from Houston to the Twin Cities, but thunderstorms forced the small plane to land in Rochester around midnight. Express Jet Airlines operated the flight and says the crew reached its maximum work hours in the air, so another flight crew had to be flown in.

In the meantime, the airline would not let passengers off the plane because TSA screeners had gone home and passengers legally couldn't get back on the plane. Plus, the airline says the airport didn't have enough personnel to let passengers sleep in the terminal. So, nearly 50 passengers spent the night on the plane.

CHRISTIN: Everybody in the plane was kind of moving, trying to find positions to sleep in. There wasn't any room. The plane was getting warmer. There were at least two babies nearby me who cried and screamed almost the whole night. The smells were getting worse. The bathroom was getting worse. The babies obviously had started going to the bathroom.

FRYAR: Passengers were finally allowed off the plane 6:30 a.m. when TSA screeners arrived. Three hours later, they left Rochester and flew back to the Twin Cities on that same plane with the restroom that was now out of order.

CHRISTIN: And I think there are a variety of options they could have utilized, not the least of which is to call the manager of the airport, say that we have a situation that we consider an emergency. We need you to bring some people back in to reopen the terminal, we will pay for it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: OK, that was Joe Fryar from KARE in Minneapolis. OK, we reached out to Express Jet, which operated the flight for Continental Airlines, and here's what they had to say. "Express Jet's priorities were ensuring customer safety. We apologize for the extended delay and inconvenience these customers experienced. We will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent this situation from occurring again."

And this came from Continental. "Service provided to customers on this flight was completely unacceptable. We're apologizing to our customers and will be offering them a full ticket refund and a certificate good for future travel."

All right. That's just ridiculous, plain and simple, what we saw happen there in Minnesota. It might be a bit extreme, too, but a "USA Today" study of government data actually shows between October of last year and May of this year, 577 planes sat on the ground for three hours or more. About 200,000 passengers had the pleasure of going nowhere.

Put up your tray tables, we're pushing this forward with Kate Hanni, executive director of flyersrights.org. First of all, Kate, what happened here? Does this surprise you?

KATE HANNI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG: Well, of course it doesn't surprise me, because everyday, somewhere in the U.S., there were 1,231 of these incidents just on taxi out in 2008. We had 278 this June that sat for three, four, five, six, seven and eight hours on the tarmac. They call our hotline, it doesn't surprise us at all.

What shocks me is that people would come anywhere close to believing that it's a safety issue, getting people off a plane when they're stuck for nine hours, and God makes the weather. The airlines decide to keep passengers out on the tarmac.

PHILLIPS: So, what happened to our passenger bill of rights?

HANNI: Well, we're working on it. The House has approved what I call a watered-down bill. It does not have a mandatory timeframe. But the Senate has bipartisan legislation that was just unanimously passed through the Commerce Committee last week that has a three-hour maximum and has all of the essential needs that these people would have needed while they were on the plane: formula, servicing the toilets, water, food, and it requires every airport in the country to have a plan.

So, that if a plane lands on a diversion there, there has to be an emergency number so someone can come open the airport and allow the poor souls in. One more thing. TSA had nothing to do with this flight. This was a domestic flight from Houston to the Twin Cities.

PHILLIPS: So, who failed these passengers?

HANNI: The airline and the airport both failed these passengers but in particular, Express Jet, because they did not make an emergency call to get those passengers off.

PHILLIPS: So, what should these passengers have done? Without getting in trouble, without getting arrested, without, I guess, bottom line, without getting arrested because they can't storm the door, right?

HANNI: Well, that's the problem. What can you do? I've been in the situation myself for nine hours. The threat of federal arrest is there if you touch an exit door without permission of the crew, you are under the threat of federal arrest as a terrorist.

So, what you want to do in these situations is -- what we love is when people call our hotline, which you can find on our Web site, flyersrights.org, if you call the hotline from the plane, we tell you get photographs, get video of the toilets, get video of the babies screaming so that we can prove to Congress the kinds of conditions that are really on these planes. When I talked to the victim last night for over an hour length, he said it was more horrifying than anyone could possibly describe.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you this, because the Air Transportation -- or Air Transport Association gave this statement. "Although we fully understand the concerns, we continue to believe that a hard and fast rule requiring mandatory deplaning of passengers after three hours will have numerous unintended consequences." Meaning -- oh, I guess you've heard this before. HANNI: It's the same thing every time. They say the same thing. And those congressmen and senators and airlines that believe them say -- it's the exact same phrase. Have we ever looked at the unintended consequences to those poor passengers? You know, I've been on the phone all day long with different press outlets, trying to find the victims, and the problem in these events is that it's completely destroyed several days of their lives, trying to get to where they're going.

PHILLIPS: So, basically what you're telling me, if this were to happen to me, that I'm hosed...

HANNI: You're hosed.

PHILLIPS: There is nothing I can do.

HANNI: Absent...

PHILLIPS: Except call your hotline and take pictures.

HANNI: No! Call your senators right now because our bill is going to the floor before September 30. We have a stakeholder here and we're holding in Congress September 30th at the Hart Building. It's extremely important that people be active right now, whether or not they have ever been in a stranding. If they know they couldn't tolerate it or they're afraid it might happen, they should be on the phone to their senators saying please pass the three-hour maximum and the bipartisan legislation as it's been passed through the Commerce Committee.

The other thing you can do is call us. What we do is we call the local airport. See, what the airline didn't do is call the airport. I get on the phone at 1:00 a.m. And I find the airport manager for that airport and I say, do you want every media outlet in the U.S. over at your airport right now filming that poor jet or will you please open your airport and go get those passengers off?

PHILLIPS: All right. I want to get your cell phone and distribute that to all our viewers because...

(LAUGHTER)

HANNI: It's on our hotline.

PHILLIPS: All right. It's on the hotline, flyersrights.org. Kate, great stuff. Really appreciate it. I can't believe this even happened.

HANNI: Me, either.

PHILLIPS: It's absolutely wrong. On every level. Thanks.

HANNI: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, this story woke everybody up at our morning meeting today, and the team had all kinds of ideas about, well, what we should all do in that situation. Now we want to hear from you. Shoot us a tweet at KyraCNN, and we will try to read some of them this hour.

And in the deep waters off the Hudson river, searching for bodies and answers right now. The key question, what caused Saturday's collision between a small plane and sightseeing helicopter? All three people on the plane and six in the chopper were killed. All but two bodies have been recovered. Strong currents have forced divers out of the water, but they hope to recover the plane later today. A crucial aspect of that investigation, too many aircraft flying low over New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH HERSMAN, CHAIRMAN, NTSB: This is a congested corridor, so I think we're going to have to see what the investigation develops, what the facts tell us, and then we will look to determine recommendations to prevent something like this from happening.

The safety board investigates about 11 midair accidents every year. We have seen over the last ten years those accidents have resulted in about 158 fatalities. Our charge is to make sure that accidents like this don't happen. We're going to try to look at everything to make sure that it doesn't, and we will make recommendations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Some of the crash victims are being mourned half a world away. The tourists on the helicopter, very close friends, making a dream trip to New York, were from Italy. The pilot of the chopper, a native of New Zealand, was engaged to be married.

Once again, we're monitoring the situation in Hollywood, Florida. Live picture coming to us from WSVN. A beaked whale came up on shore in the shallow waters, and you can see the beach goers there, even rescue crews trying desperately to save her, trying to keep her wet, trying to get her back out into the water. Her baby not far from her.

There's a couple other beach goers there holding on to that baby, trying to keep it from coming ashore. Not sure of the condition of how this whale is doing. We're trying to get a marine biologist on the line to kind of give us an idea. It's a heartbreaking story. Hoping that mom survives and will be reunited with its baby. We're following it for you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: General Motors is finding a new way to sell cars. The automaker is teaming up with eBay, a move that will take the dealer parking lot straight to your laptop. But will it be enough to return the automaker to profitability? Felicia Taylor at the New York Stock Exchange with more. What kind of cars is GM trying to sell?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're going to be selling Chevys, Buicks, GMC and Pontiacs in terms of models, and the years are 2008, 2009 and some 2010 models. So, the trial period begins tomorrow, and it will last for about four weeks and pretty much it's only going to be happening initially in California. 225 California dealers are going to list about 20,000 vehicles, and if the program is successful, then they will expand it nationwide. The goal, obviously, is for GM to return to profitability, so it's trying this new way of selling cars on eBay. I don't know. Would you buy a car on the Internet?

PHILLIPS: I don't know. Because when it comes to buying a car, an expensive car, any kind of car, really, you like to take it for a test drive.

TAYLOR: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: Can GM realistically overcome that kind of thinking?

TAYLOR: Well, evidently research shows that car shoppers already use the Internet, especially when it comes to buying a used car. Already happens on eBay. And they do a little research. That makes sense. I would definitely go to the Internet to do research to buy a car.

But we don't know yet. GM is hoping that getting directly involved in the online sales will give buyers some security about buying this vehicle online. But you're spending thousands of dollars, so one reason that gm and eBay are testing it out in California, evidently residents in California are a little more tech-savvy than the rest of us, and that might help the program have success. We'll see. We'll find out in the coming weeks if they're able to do it.

Anyway, looking at the markets today, we're seeing a little pullback. That's pretty normal considering the rally we saw on Friday. People taking a little bit of profit. The Dow, keep in mind, is at a nine-month high and up about 43 percent since the low point reached in March.

Right now, the Dow is up about three-quarters of a percent, the NASDAQ off a little bit more than that. The S&P is also off about three-quarters of one percent. So, tiny pull-back ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting that begins tomorrow, where we're likely to see interest rates remain unchanged. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Felicia.

TAYLOR: Sure.

PHILLIPS: We're doing our part to help the unemployed right here in the CNN NEWSROOM with a segment we call the "30-Second Pitch." Well, we have a success story for you. Remember A.J. O'Malley and Sean Christman? They were college grads who passed out their resumes on a street corner. The pitches were pretty hilarious.

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A.J. O'MALLEY, 30-SECOND PITCH JOB SEEKER: I'm a very determined, outgoing individual, looking for a career in the financial sector of the business world. Initially, I'm looking for somewhere I can sink my teeth into and show my dedicated nature, and I'm looking to advance my career -- aww.

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PHILLIPS: You should have heard what the other one said. A.J. tells us he started his new job today with a wealth management company and his buddy, Sean O'Malley (sic), starts a new job next week. If you want to be part of the pitch, it seems to be working. Go to our blog. It's at CNN.com/kyra. We will also have Sean and A.J.'s entertaining pitches posted there, and you can also tweet us at KyraCNN.

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PHILLIPS: Some movement in that infamous Texas fight club case. It's a story we've been following for months. Several former employees at a school for the developmentally disabled are accused of forcing adults in their care to beat the hell out of each other. Some of those fights, as you can see here, caught on a cell phone camera.

One former worker, 22-year-old Vincent Johnson, pleaded guilty Friday to allowing the injury of a disabled person. He got a two-year suspended jail sentence and promised to testify against the other defendants. Jury selection begins today for another former worker. We'll keep following it.

Team Sanchez back there working on the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. What you got going, Rick?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: What possible reason could there be for people being stuck on an airplane, a small airplane, mind you, one that only has 50 seats, for nine hours? Should I get any closer? Wait, let me get closer to the camera -- for nine hours.

PHILLIPS: No, I'm with you. It is a story that got us all stirred up today. That's why we wanted to book Katie from the organization that's pushing for a passengers bill of rights. It's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. There is no excuse. They were totally -- every passenger was failed on every level.

SANCHEZ: It defies common sense. When a story defies common sense, it needs to be told, it needs to be drilled down on and we need to look into it, and that's exactly what we're going to do.

We're going to be talking to passengers. We have also already talked to the airline, and we talked to the guy who's getting blamed for this, the guy at the airport who has said well, we couldn't let them in because somebody locked up the airport and didn't let any TSA there. We have all angles of this covered for you, Kyra. I know you love this story.

The other story we're doing, by the way, is this. This is curious. The possibility -- we all know there's a lot of Americans hooked on prescription drugs, right? But think now about the possibility -- this is a CNN exclusive we are going to be sharing with you -- that some Americans are so hooked on prescription drugs that as a result, it's a gateway to them becoming heroin addicts and using heroin.

In other words, they're not starting with drugs, then maybe using prescription drugs. No. The prescription drugs like Oxycontin are leading them to use heroin. It's going on in Maine, of all places. We have the story nailed for you. We will also be talking to somebody who was affected by that story directly.

And that goes around and around with a story we're following about the Obama administration possibly doing a deal with the pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma. It's all there at 3:00.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's get back to the outrage, dozens of people trapped on that commuter plane on the tarmac. We have been asking for tweets throughout the day, Rick, and all night, no food, no relief from the crying babies, stinky cabin. You know what we're talking about.

We actually wanted to know what you would do in that situation. Maybe Rick, you can tell me what you would do. This is what StoneofAges said. "I would have called 911 to report that the airline was holding us against our will and subjecting us to inhumane treatment on tarmac, request rescue..."

SANCHEZ: I like that.

PHILLIPS: You like that one?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right. Here's one, Twicegirl28 says she would have "called my attorney and told him to get the paperwork started. And then Bozonest said, "I would be tweeting my complaint from my phone." What would you have done?

SANCHEZ: You know, the last thing you want to do is encourage somebody to do something that's against the law, but wouldn't it have been difficult, I mean, if you start feeling claustrophobic enough. Now, it's a small commuter plane, barely enough room to stand up, no leg room. You're in a situation like this for nine hours. At what point would it not almost behoove you to stand up, go towards the door and tell the flight attendant, just please, open the door. You know what happens then, you get arrested. Suppose it goes to a jury. What jury's not going to understand your own level of stress at that point? I don't know. Tough question.

PHILLIPS: The point is, it's a small airport, nobody was there. Let them off the plane. Get an escort, get them off the plane. It wasn't like it was hundreds of passengers.

SANCHEZ: We found out the airport was open and they could have been allowed in, according to the airport manager. He says don't put this on me, that's not true.

PHILLIPS: Oh, oh. All right. We'll be watching for more. Outrage. Thanks, Rick. Quick break. We'll be right back.

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PHILLIPS: At a church service in Phoenix this weekend, Liberia's deputy ambassador described his meeting with an eight-year-old victim of an alleged gang rape. Edwin Sele says the girl, a Liberian refugee, is traumatized. Police say she was assaulted by four boys, all Liberian refugees, last month.

The oldest boy, who was 14, was charged as an adult. He pleaded not guilty today, and police thought the parents were ashamed of the girl and placed her in child protective services. Sele claims that a language barrier led to that misunderstanding and that her parents are desperate to see her. He describes his emotional meeting with the little girl.

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EDWIN SELE, LIBERIA'S DEPUTY AMBASSADOR: She cries, (INAUDIBLE) I almost cried. This is a very pretty girl that has gone through some very trying times, and it's injurious more to her to keep the parents away.

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PHILLIPS: We will speak with the ambassador about his visit right here tomorrow in our 2:00 p.m. hour.

That does it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Rick Sanchez takes it from here.