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Truth about Health Care; A Trifecta of Storms: Ana, Bill and Claudette; Japan's Economy Rebounding?; Human Smuggling in Mexico; Losing a Child to Violence
Aired August 16, 2009 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Tonight, the first major storm of the hurricane season is bearing down on the U.S. Gulf Coast at this hour. And it could be just the beginning. Two other big storms are also looming on the horizon.
Let's check in with CNN's Jacqui Jeras, who is keeping a close eye on all three for us - Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Don, we could see within an hour now of landfall as tropical storm Claudette is somewhere about 20 miles away from the coastline between Panama City now, and the Dustin area. Very heavy rainfall along with strong gusty winds had been intensifying, and we're getting reports now of power outages in the Panama City area, as many as 3,000 people without power at this time. The maximum winds are 50 miles per hour. So expect those gusts to increase as it makes its way onshore. The worst of the storm is bearing down as we speak.
LEMON: All right, Jacqui Jeras, gathering more information for us. She'll be back in just a moment to update us.
Now to the battle over health care reform. The president taking time away from his family on vacation to sell his health care reform plan to the American people. We'll go in-depth on that plan in just a minute.
But first, let's talk strategy. Mark Preston is CNN's political editor. He is here. Also April Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.
Mark and April, the president at a rare Saturday town hall in Grand Junction, Colorado admitting even he doesn't know how he's going to pay for all of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The truth is -- I want to be completely honest here, there is no perfect, painless, silver bullet out there that solves every problem, gives everybody perfect health care for free.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Mark, he's on vacation, taking time away from his family. It is a Saturday. Is the president getting desperate for support?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: You know, Don, I think he realizes that he needs to put some skin in the game. You know, there've been some criticism from congressional Democrats that he was not as engaged in the talks as they would have liked, that he could really try to pressure and really force some people into his corner.
Now, what we're seeing over the past few weeks is that he's decided to really jump in feet first. We've seen him doing these town halls. We see him really trying to use the trappings of his office and the bully pulpit of the White House to really, really try to pressure Congress to join him as well as try to inform Americans that, look, we are at a critical juncture right now and we need health care reform.
LEMON: Yes. And he's just not trying to convince conservatives, April. He's got to do it within his own party.
APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Oh, yes. I talked to Congressman Ed Towns, the head of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and he said, look, if the issue of a public option is off the table, liberals are not happy. He's saying it's back to square one essentially. He said the public option was about covering everyone with insurance. And if you go to a co-op, millions upon millions will be without insurance. So he said, you know, a lot of liberals are upset, particularly those in the Pelosi area. They are just not happy with this.
LEMON: I want to get you to answer this question as well because what we're wondering and what people are wondering -- is the president running out of time because how soon does he need to get something passed? We've got this on the table. He's got all of the reform on the table and the bailouts. How soon does he really need to get something passed here, make something happen?
RYAN: Congressman Towns says something like the end of October. I have heard from other people in the House and in the Senate. They're saying sometime in November, around that time frame.
But, you know, it's a high stakes game right now, Don, because you have 50 marginal seats that are up for the -- during the midterm elections and people are saying it's like the Clinton effect. If President Obama loses health care reform, it could be a Clinton effect. Democrats would lose in the midterm.
LEMON: OK. Mark, let's switch gears a little bit because the president is speaking at a VFW convention in Phoenix. He's going to be talking about veterans but also what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is also on his plate as well.
PRESTON: Yes, Don, it's a two-fer for the president, of course, when he addresses the VFW, because he can talk to folks who really understand the need for health care when you're talking to veterans of foreign war.
At the same time, you know, let's not forget that the country is at war. And we haven't discussed much about what's going on over in Afghanistan or the cleanup that's going in Iraq at this point. And President Obama still needs to tell the American people that his eye is on the prize.
Here's a disturbing number though for President Obama, Don, regarding Afghanistan. 41 percent of Americans support the war in Afghanistan. Back in May, 50 percent did. And that's from a CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll that was recently taken.
LEMON: All right. Mark Preston, April Ryan, we appreciate it.
So, what is really in these reform proposals? We're cutting through the rhetoric for you. A health care reform fact check at 18 after the hour right here on CNN.
Also, check out cnn.com/healthcare for ongoing coverage of the health care debate, a list of town hall meetings from across the country and how health care reform might affect you.
LEMON: Now we want to get to the economy and news just into CNN. Japan appears to have worked its way out of the worst recession in decades. Is this good news for us? Team coverage for you. Poppy Harlow is in New York.
First though, we want to go to CNN's Morgan Neill live in Tokyo to tell us about what this is all about. And again, we want to warn you, there's a long delay.
MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. That's right. Well, the news just in this morning, Japan has pulled out of recession. In the second quarter of the year, Japan's GDP grew by 0.9 percent. In annualized terms, that comes to 3.7 percent overall.
So that puts Japan along with France and Germany as the first G-7 countries to pull out of recession.
Now, what has led to this? Essentially, it's been export growth all the way, as it so often has been through Japan's history. When the economy grows, it's because of better news abroad, greater consumption abroad.
In terms of the specific report, we actually saw domestic demand shrink by 0.7 percent in the second quarter, while trade grew by 1.6 percent over those three months. Thus, adding up to this figure here. Again, primarily export-led growth.
Many governments abroad have been putting in stimulus packages just like Japan has. That's led to growth in purchases of electronics and cars. It's raised some fears this may not be self-sustaining. Nevertheless, great news today, Don.
LEMON: All right. Morgan Neill joining us in Tokyo.
Why are we going all the way overseas to Tokyo to talk about this?
Poppy Harlow of CNNMoney.com, the reason we're doing it is we want to know what's in it for us.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Don, that's a great question. I mean, the traditional definition of a recession, when you look at consecutive course of economic contraction, so you see Japan pulling out of that. Positive growth for the first time in 15 months for this country. For Japan, the worst recession since the end of World War II. For our country, worst recession really since the Great Depression.
And we don't know officially if we are out of the woods yet. But what this means for the United States is that countries abroad that consume products made in Japan from big companies like Toyota or Sony also consume products from our country.
So the hope here will be as we see the markets open up tomorrow morning, will the same be true for demand for American products abroad. Even if our demand is still lagging, what about demand abroad?
But, again, when we look at this, we have to take it in context. We saw a lot of stimulus packages around the world. You see it in China where it's working. You saw a lot of government stimulus in different ways in Japan, Don, and that's obviously working.
But is our stimulus package working? Not even half the money so far has been spent and that's still a huge question, Don. We'll see how the markets react early in the morning.
LEMON: Yes. Everyone will be watching the markets tomorrow. Let's hope it will be a positive day. Thank you very much to Morgan Neill and Poppy Harlow.
Tropical storms are brewing and one of them is making landfall right now. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN hurricane headquarters tracking all of the action for you.
Also, from trafficking drugs to trafficking humans and worse. Mexico's violent cartels are targeting a new market.
Plus this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one place that I never worried about was at the church. I never worried about him being at church. And to get a phone call that your son got shot coming out of church, it was just unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Shot and killed on Chicago's deadly streets. And this parent's story is not alone. No exception here. Far from it.
And as always, we want to know what's on your mind. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or iReport.com. We'll get your comments on the air.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We want to get back now to our breaking news. Landfall for a tropical storm hitting the Gulf Coast.
CNN's meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is following it - Jacqui.
JERAS: Yes. We're getting very close to that now, Don. And we're feeling those winds, 40-plus mile per hour gusts, even stronger at times. Claudette is packing winds 50 miles per hour maximum sustained. And we're within 20 miles likely now of landfall. Those showers and thunderstorms have been especially heavy across the Cape San Blas area. And we're going to continue to see these intense gusts causing power outages over the next couple of hours.
I want to show you the area that we think is the center of rotation. It's down in here somewhere, and as these thunderstorms move around the center of this storm and they intensify and weaken, it's been changing the direction of the storm a little bit. We're starting to see this jog now a little further to the west.
So landfall may be a little closer to Destin than the Panama City area that we were talking about before. Either way you slice it, it's still going to mean a lot of trouble for parts of central Florida. We have been feeling those impacts throughout the day today.
Take a look at the time lapse video now that we've had. This is from Panama City beach. And this is a tower cam on top of the Holiday Inn SunSpree there. And you can see those waves that just continue to roll on in and those winds that will continue to get stronger.
Now, this storm is expected to make its way inland through the overnight hours for tonight. So we'll watch that make its way through the Panhandle then end up into Alabama. You're going to be feeling the impacts of this all across the southeast with heavy showers and thunderstorms from Atlanta even towards the Birmingham area.
Two other storms we want to mention real quickly. We've been talking about Ana for a little while now. This is a very weak storm, but it's important still because even though it's not going to do much over the next couple of days, it could eventually make its way towards the Gulf of Mexico. And if it does that, that could be a real problem for the United States.
And then Bill, that's been intensifying throughout the day today. Now 65-mile-per-hour winds. This will likely become a hurricane late tonight or early tomorrow, Don. And right now, it's still well a week away if it would even have an impact on the U.S.
LEMON: All right. Jacqui, thanks very much.
Let's get to the ground now and go to Troy Kinsey of our affiliate Bay News 9. He's right in the thick of it tonight.
Troy, what is it like along the Gulf Coast? Are you seeing any flooding? TROY KINSEY, BAY NEWS 9-TV CORRESPONDENT: None so far, Don. We're in kind of a lull right now. We're coming to you from Apalachicola and that land mass basically along the Panhandle that dumps out into the Gulf. We're on the eastern side of that, about 20 to 25 miles east of where we think the eye of Claudette is right now, around the Port St. Joe area. And, of course, we expect that storm to make its way onshore sometime over the next couple of hours.
I can tell you things have been quiet for the past couple of hours. But when I drove out here around 5:30 or 6:00 along Highway 98, which basically parallels the Gulf Coast here along the Panhandle, waves were lapping up over the road. The wind was really kicking up. It was difficult to control the vehicle I was driving. So things were bad then. We're in a bit of a lull now, but again, we expect things to pick up as the evening progresses.
So far, the people here in this town are treating this tropical storm as they would really any other storm or a major hurricane. I mean, they're being advised to stay indoors, being advised to stay off the roads. They know well the power of Mother Nature, the power of the tropics, because they have been through storms like Hurricane Dennis back in 2005, for instance. Packed a real punch in this area.
So, relatively quiet here. People staying inside. And, Don, if you don't have your almanac on you, this is the oyster capital of, if not the nation, in Florida. About 90 percent of the oysters that you eat when you come down here to the "Sunshine State" come from Apalachicola Bay.
LEMON: All right. Troy Kinsey of our affiliate Bay News 9, we appreciate it.
If you're in the path of tropical storm Claudette, send your photos, your videos and your stories to iReport.com and we'll look at them -- take a look at them and then we'll put them on the air if they're approved. But please be safe while you're doing it.
In California tonight, fire and scattered smoke are causing big problems. Eleven wildfires are burning up and down the California coast, all in varying degrees of containment. The most serious, the Lockheed fire, already charring some 10 square miles of Santa Cruz County, which is under a state of emergency. The fire is only half contained.
From the so-called death panels to promises of health care coverage for all Americans, it seems like we've heard it all in the past few weeks. But how much of it is true? How much of it is true? We're checking the facts for you.
Also, a tough day on the greens for Tiger Woods. He's not invincible. Can you believe it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. So this is what everyone has been e-mailing us, asking us to do, at least me. Let's cut through the health care rhetoric right now. Just the facts here.
Angie Holan from PolitiFact.com is here, a nonpartisan fact- checking group.
And, Angie, let's jump right into it. OK. My first one here is that all of this -- let's just say there are a couple of different proposals. I think there's like three in the House, two in the Senate or what have you, and they're all just proposals. No bill yet. There's no bill. All of the proposals include no pre-existing conditions and health care for all Americans.
True?
ANGIE HOLAN, POLITIFACT.COM: They all include the no preconditions and they all expand Medicaid, which is a health program run by the government for the poor. And we essentially have a bill in the House that three committees have jurisdiction over, a bill in the Senate that two committees have jurisdiction over. And we're waiting for one committee in the Senate to see what they say, the Finance Committee.
LEMON: OK. And you mention that each proposal expands Medicaid. So we got that out of the way.
HOLAN: That's right.
LEMON: If you have coverage, you won't be denied it once you're sick under these proposals, and if you leave your job you can keep your health care coverage, yes?
HOLAN: OK. That covers up a little bit of complexity. If you leave your job, you will shop for insurance in an exchange under the plan. And there is the rule on no preconditions, but it might not be the exact same plan you had with your previous job.
LEMON: OK. Only the smallest of employers would be exempt from providing worker coverage. So small businesses and their workers would have to go to -- have the option to take part in a health care insurance exchange program which would be subsidized by the government, but even then they can still choose from a number of plans.
HOLAN: That is what's laid out in the legislation. That's correct.
LEMON: OK. Abortions are not part of the federal money here.
HOLAN: OK. Congress is trying to broker a compromise here, what they're calling abortion neutral. And the idea here is that people who want to pay for coverage of abortion services can do that. And people who don't want to be part of a plan that offers abortion services can do that. It's very detailed on our Web site, PolitiFact.com. We have more details about this compromise.
LEMON: OK. The proposals are not a complete government -- this is what people, I believe, some people are thinking you can -- you can save, you know, if it's true or not. The proposals are not a complete government takeover of health care. Single pay is only one part of the proposal, one option.
HOLAN: The plan leaves the employer-provided insurance in place. Private insurance has a major role. There's one option under the House bill that would be run by the government, and that's just one option on this health care exchange that they're going to create according to the bill.
LEMON: Does this plan include so-called death panels, who decides who does or does not get medical services?
HOLAN: No, it does not include death panels. We looked into this in a lot of details, again, on our Web site.
LEMON: Euthanasia -- they've been saying.
HOLAN: No death panels or euthanasia. The grain of truth in this is that they would like Medicare to, for the first time, pay for appointments with doctors so that you can discuss living wills...
LEMON: End of life coverage. Is that what you're talking about?
HOLAN: That's right. That's right.
LEMON: OK. All right. Seniors, are they going to face longer lines or lose their existing doctors? I understand that there's a lot of rhetoric about that as well.
HOLAN: You know, I think that the lines question is a little bit unpredictable for either side to really have a firm answer to. The idea, though, is that Medicare coverage stays largely the same although there are a number of cost-saving measures that could have effects that, you know, we can't really predict.
LEMON: OK. Until it happens, if it's actually passed, but then, Angie, as the president said, even he doesn't know exactly how he's going to pay for all of this.
HOLAN: That's right.
LEMON: Angie Holan from PolitiFact.com, we appreciate it. Thank you.
Well, during the health care battle, we've heard a lot about "real Americans," socialism, even fascism, but what's really being said when those words are tossed around? And what about some of the images we've bee seeing? Like this.
Well, Tim Wise is the author of "White Like Me." He joins me now from Nashville to go behind the rhetoric in this. He's going to talk to us in just a little bit.
Plus this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone went out there and took away his ability to make his mark on the world. And the only way that anybody who never met him is ever going to know him is through me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. Well, see that? That cell phone and the fireman's hat? That's all she has left of her son. The unbearable reality for parents touched by gun violence. We'll take you to Chicago's killer streets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So we know, we have seen some spirited, sometimes heated, debate on health care, but most rallies and town halls like the one here in Atlanta yesterday had been peaceful. A few have gotten ugly with pushing, shoving, angry shouts of socialism and claims about government death panels, even race, as it so often does, has gotten thrown into this discussion. And some of the president's critics say they're being accused unfairly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA CAMPER, OPPOSES DEMOCRATS' REFORM PLANS: The senators and the congressmen, I don't know if they're listening. But if they are -- and the president, you know, just know that we're angry that you're not listening and that they're trying to turn us into people who are part of this, you know, special interest or, you know, we're not racist people, you know.
LEMON (on camera): Why do you say -- why do you say that? I mean, you've mentioned that -- why do you say special interest and racist?
AARON CAMPER: I've seen many commercials talking about how special interest groups are trying to block the health care reform. That's just not true. I mean, we're not from special interest groups. We're not being paid to be here, you know. We're just voicing our own opinions about this, you know.
LEMON: What does it have to do with race?
A. CAMPER: A lot of people accuse, like, all of us are being racist and we have a problem with a black man being in office. And that's just not true. I mean, people had problems with Bush being in office, and he just wasn't smart sometimes. Obama is not being smart. People confuse that with being racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. Let's talk about the health care debate and the difficult subject of race here. Tim Wise joins me tonight from Nashville. He's an activist, author and a frequent speaker on the issues of race in America.
Thank you, sir. TIM WISE, AUTHOR, "BETWEEN BARACK AND A HARD PLACE": You bet.
LEMON: You heard the young man there. He's saying, you know, people are accusing us of being racist and that's not so.
WISE: Well, you know, not everyone who opposes the president's plan or him as an individual obviously is acting on the basis of racism. My argument is that there is a background noise of the hostility, that is, I think, about what I guess I would call white racial resentment.
Let me give you an example. We know in Missouri the other day, a white man goes, assaults a black woman, rips up her poster of Rosa Parks and then receives a huge ovation from literally hundreds of white folks in attendance for doing that. And then as they haul her away, the police in the room, the security, haul her away, these white folks are applauding. She was assaulted, a picture of Rosa Parks ripped up. Meanwhile, there are white folks in the room with posters that refer to the president by the "N" word. No one seemed to care about that.
Secondly, we've got right wing radio talk show hosts who for months now have been playing the white racial resentment card to get their forces revved up. You have Glenn Beck saying just the other day on two occasions that the health care bill is really not about health care, it's Obama's way to get reparations for black people.
Now, that's absurd. What kind of reparations do you have to get sick first in order to get paid?
But when you say that and then you send these folks out there or Rush Limbaugh back at the end of May saying that Obama hates white people. Pat Buchanan saying that white men are, quote, "experiencing exactly what black people experienced during segregation" which is, of course, absurd. That kind of rhetoric underlying this opposition makes it very hard for me to think that race is not in the picture.
LEMON: OK. So then if we're going to put blame on anyone's shoulders, whose fault is it anyway? Is it -- is it people just buying into the rhetoric? Or is it some of the people that you mentioned, some of the conservative talk show hosts there. Should they be more responsible with their language because people may be buying into what they're saying and not realizing that it's coded racism?
WISE: Well, words have consequences. And I think if you're going to have a microphone and you're going to speak to millions of listeners every day, you have a responsibility to, first of all, do your homework so you don't tell lies about the health care bill and act like they're going to kill grandma and then send Sarah Palin out there with a head full of nothing to tell lies to the American people.
And when you do that, don't be surprised when folks show up at these events and are throwing around buzz words like socialism, fascism, comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler. See, that too, I think, is very telling. Because when you portray Obama as Hitler, as some of these folks at these rallies have done, what you're saying, and this is very interesting, think about Hitler. We think of Hitler as not just a fascist, but a racial fascist.
So if what they're saying is, this man, Obama, is a racial fascist, the question that gets begged in a lot of white people's minds is, hmm, I wonder what race he's going to come for. Oh, yes, us, because Glenn Beck said it's reparations and Rush Limbaugh said Obama hates white people.
It gins up this type of hostility and really white racial paranoia and white racial resentment at a time when we need to be seriously talking about issues that face us as a nation and not being engaged in this kind of racial politics, but that's what's going on.
LEMON: And here's the thing, and what I think many people don't get is that just because you're on the side of the camera that I'm on doesn't mean that you're always going to be objective.
WISE: Right.
LEMON: And I don't mean -- you know, and a lot of people are. But it's a racket. It's a gimmick for some people who are into it to make their names bigger or make money for themselves. And the people who are buying into this stuff may not exactly realize that in this process.
WISE: It's a good point, Don. You know, there's about 40 years of research, for example, which has found that whenever we talk in this country about social program spending for the have-nots or those who have less in our society...
LEMON: Like I had one guest last night, said that it was -- said that it was health care welfare, which was an odd...
WISE: It is. It seems odd, but, see, that's the problem. Whenever we talk about any type of social spending, whether it's income support, housing support, nutrition support, or now health care support, there is a large percentage of white America, again according to 40 years of research, which hears black people. They hear Mexicans. They hear immigrants.
There is a perception, it's often very wrong, but there is a perception that when we talk about government spending for the have- nots, we're talking about taking from hard-working white people and giving to lazy black folks.
I would recommend that folks read Martin Gillen's book from the mid-90s called "Why Americans Hate Welfare," where he shows that the hostility to social program spending of any kind began in earnest in the early '70s which was precisely the moment where the media representations of poor people switched from being mostly white folks during the Depression, Appalachian poor during the Dust Bowl, to being mostly black folks. There is a racial component to that.
LEMON: Tim, I've got to run here, but just real quickly. I was at a town hall yesterday and I really had to take some people to task. They're very nice people, but they're using those buzzwords that I don't think people realize all the time like "real Americans" or "Give Me Back my America" was one of the songs or "Take Back America." It's like where has -- I don't -- what do you mean by that?
WISE: Well, when you stand up and you wax nostalgic and say things like I want the country that the founders envisioned, when the country the founders envisioned was a formal system of white supremacy, excuse me if I found it a little hard to think that race is not perhaps playing a pretty big role.
LEMON: Tough talk from Tim Wise.
Tim, we appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
WISE: You bet. Thank you.
LEMON: A grisly new side business rises from the drug war -- selling people. It is a Michael Ware special report.
But first...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I think back to what kind of child I had, it hurts me so bad. It hurts so bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The heartbreaking reality for families coping with the loss of a child. We'll take you to Chicago's deadly streets and hear from the parents themselves.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The mayor of Milwaukee turned into a crime fighter last night when he heard a grandmother screaming for help outside a state fair. But no good deed goes unpunished.
Mayor Tom Barrett was attacked by a man with a pipe when he tried to help out. The 55-year-old is in stable condition with head and hand injuries. Police say Barrett was leaving the fair with his children and niece when he saw a man attacking a woman who was protecting her grandchild in an apparent domestic dispute. But when he called 911, the attacker changed targets coming after the mayor instead and beating him with a metal pipe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM ZAJA, WITNESS: I've seen the guy -- one guy down on the sidewalk in a pool of blood and then the other guy jumped over the fence and headed that way. It was a domestic thing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It was the mayor of Milwaukee.
ZAJA: Yes? I didn't know that at the time. That's a shock.
JOHN BARRETT, MILWAUKEE MAYOR'S BROTHER: Tom stepped up and did the right thing. He called 911 and tried to calm the situation, protect a grandmother and her grandchild. As a result of his actions, Tom was attacked and stuck repeatedly with a metal object. Tom's efforts protected the woman and the child. His efforts also protected members of our family as well. We're extremely proud of Tom's selflessness and his courage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Police nabbed a suspect this morning and they say they may have found the pipe inside that man's home. The mayor is expected to be in the hospital through tomorrow.
More than 250 people have died by the gun in Chicago just this year. The year is not over yet. Many of them are teenagers. Some of them were innocent bystanders caught in the cross fire. They are someone's sons or daughters. They have names. I sat down with parents whose pain, well, it never seems to ease. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (on camera): Is that raw? Is he right? It takes you back? Is it always just raw pain?
ANNETTE NANCE-HOLT, BLAIR HOLT'S MOTHER: Every time we talk about what happened that day, it breaks me down all the time.
RONALD HOLT, BLAIR HOLT'S FATHER: I'm just as numb as that night, that afternoon, when they called me and she told me Blair had been shot. You talk about the worst feeling in the world, instant trauma to the emotions.
NANCE-HOLT: And you know, when I think back to what kind of child I had, it hurts me so bad. It hurts so bad.
LEMON: Most of you are carrying some sort of memento or something. What are you guys carrying?
MARIA RAMIREZ, MATTHEW RAMIREZ'S MOTHER: My son was killed 3-1/2 years ago, and as you can see I still have his cell phone on. I just can't bear to turn it off because I keep having that stupid little thought in the back of my head when he walks back through the door, if he doesn't have a phone, he's just going to die.
LEMON: Does it ever ring?
RAMIREZ: I leave it on for his friends. You know, for them to, you know, text him and, you know, they text him a lot.
LEMON: What are some of the text messages say? Do you get the text messages?
RAMIREZ: Just, you know, poems...
LEMON: Do you have any on there.
RAMIREZ: ... tell him I love you, I miss you, things like that.
LEMON: You can read. Do you want to read?
RAMIREZ: I don't want to lose anybody else. This hurts a lot. I love you.
LEMON: You brought something of your...
MICHELLE LINTON-DELASHMENT, KERMIT DELASHMENT JR.'S MOTHER: I brought a program, an obituary and also the newspaper article because he told me he would be in the paper.
LEMON: This is how he's in the paper.
LINTON-DELASHMENT: Yes.
LEMON: College student is city's 500th homicide of the year. This isn't how you expected your son to be in the paper?
LINTON-DELASHMENT: Uh-uh.
LEMON: Tell me your story.
PAMELA MONTGOMERY-BOSLEY, TERRELL BOSLEY'S MOTHER: Terrell was basically a gospel base player. He was at a church coming out to help his friend get drums out of the car, and somebody came shooting and shot Terrell.
TOMMIE BOSLEY, TERRELL BOSLEY'S FATHER: I drove him to high school for four years. I drove him every day so that he wouldn't have to take public transportation. And the one place that I've never worried about was the church. I never worried about him being at church. And to get a phone call that your son got shot coming out of church, it was just unbelievable.
CYNTHIA WATERS, CHRISTINA WATERS' MOTHER: I get a call from a complete stranger. They're coming from a prom and her friend were coming from a church function. And I get a call, you know, on my cell phone. It has her name. So, you know, calling to get an update, how's your afternoon going? It's 5:00 in the afternoon, a complete stranger, telling me my daughter is lying in an alley bleeding.
JAMES ROSE, CHRISTINA WATERS' STEPFATHER: We almost lost Christina. I feel very lucky that we still have her.
LINTON-DELASHMENT: If I could say anything to that parent whose child caused my child to lose his life, I hope you'll never feel like I feel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, next week, we'll take you in depth into Chicago's deadly streets. You'll hear from families affected by this violence. We'll talk to members of the community, both local and national officials, who had enough. We're going beyond the headlines right here on CNN, Saturday 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Make sure you join us.
Tropical storms are brewing and one of them is bearing down on the Florida Gulf Coast right now. You see meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN hurricane headquarters. She's tracking all the action for you.
Also, from trafficking drugs to trafficking humans and worse than that. Mexico's violent cartels are targeting a new market.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We want to warn you, some of what you're about to see and hear is very disturbing. Recently, we introduced you to Los Zetas, Mexico's most feared and dangerous drug cartel. CNN's Michael Ware uncovers the cartel's grisly side business in human trafficking. Again, this is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a tale of kidnap, imprisonment and worse, much worse. It's the story of those who fall prey to Mexico's drug cartels because of their hope to come to America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Because they didn't let me free, they raped me.
WARE: I cannot tell you her name nor anyone else's in this story nor can I show you their faces or tell you where I met them, because if I did, they say, they would almost certainly be killed. That's because the violent drug cartels have a new and lucrative business. Think of it as a hostile takeover -- the people smuggling business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We were very scared because these men were very bad. They don't have a soul. They can just kill an immigrant without a thought because to them, we don't count for anything.
WARE: This woman fled the poverty of her hometown, the seventh of 12 children. As hundreds do every week in Central America, she headed north to Mexico bound for the U.S. -- only to be seized by one of the most brutal cartels in the business, Los Zetas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We boarded the train. When the train arrived to _____, many vans drove by with members of Los Zetas. They kidnapped us and us into a secret location.
WARE: The cartel ransomed them off for whatever they could get, selling them back to families who barely could pay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They couldn't follow the route. The have the infrastructure. They have the money. They have the people. They have the guns. They have everything right now to control everything.
WARE: This man is one of few working with the cartels' victims. He tells us the cartels new business, human trafficking, is flourishing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this not only a drugs issue. It's getting money. Where come from the money, they don't care.
WARE: And some of the money is used for bribery. When the car carrying the young woman in our story arrived at an immigration police checkpoint, she hoped her ordeal with the cartel was over. But she says the immigration officials were in on it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was telling myself, than God, something is going to happen the instant an immigration officer approaches. But the kidnapper in the car said he was a member of an organization without a name, and made some hand signal, and the immigration officer said, OK, go through.
WARE: This is another woman who was held by a cartel. Her family was unable to pay a ransom. So for four months, she was forced to work, cooking for the other hostages and the cartel kidnappers themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): While I was kept in the safehouse, I found a lot of things about the cartel because being the cook, I had to serve them, I had to attend to them, bring them their beer and their food when they were in their meetings.
WARE: She says she was also ordered to take food to prisoners shackled in makeshift torture chambers and to wash the clothes of their cartel jailers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Because I washed their clothes, it was always bloody. I didn't realize why. But then I realized the people tied and cuffed, they chopped them into pieces, then burned so there was no evidence of that.
WARE: The men chopped into pieces, she says, were hostages who could not pay. Or more often, they were the men they called coyotes, the Mexicans who specialize in smuggling people across the U.S. border. The cartels literally butchering their competition. And anything that makes cartels like Los Zetas stronger is a threat to America, particularly when it offers a new means of importing more drugs.
RALPH REYES, DEA, MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA CHIEF: Los Zetas are a prime example of an organization that has, from a traditional perspective, looked into other areas of making money, specifically with the alien smuggling situation. It's a means of introducing drugs into the United States.
WARE: And that means only one thing -- many more horror stories to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN's Michael Ware joins us now. He is back in New York.
Michael, you know, you have been just about in every -- in every dangerous territory on earth. Did you feel unsafe at all, though, covering this story? It seems very dangerous.
WARE: Well, obviously, there's a danger lurking when you're doing anything with the drug cartels. Although the ones who are bearing the price of that, journalistically, are the Mexican journalists. I mean, they are literally being kidnapped and executed by the cartels for their reporting.
Now, for us, the way we have to operate is in and out very, very fast. Now, you'll see people going past you, making quick phone calls on cell phones. You'll see that there are people watching you, a couple of cars will circle around. You always have to be aware of your surroundings when you're doing a story like this.
Were we in direct danger? I don't think so. But it's the sort of story where you really have to keep your wits about you, Don.
LEMON: You know, the Zetas -- you know, I hate to sound insensitive. Is this just, you know, human smuggling for them? Is this just another revenue stream? Or is this, you know -- is this very profitable for them? How do they view this human smuggling as far as making money?
WARE: Well, you hit the nail on the head. It is just another revenue stream. In many ways, it's just following a classic business model. Especially in hard economic times, what do you do? You diversify.
Now, the question is why are they doing this? According to the Drug Enforcement Administration in D.C., it's because the cartels are coming under so much pressure in terms of their drug business that they're branching out into other enterprises.
However, people on the ground say no, no, no, this is the cartels' flexing their muscles. They're moving into human trafficking. Soon, they'll going to be moving into all sorts of illicit businesses. It's not taking over. They're like, say, mafia in New York neighborhoods. They'll be taxing illicit activities within their own territory.
LEMON: So then how does this compare to drugs then? I mean, is this just as profitable or does it have the potential to become as profitable as drug trafficking?
WARE: They do say human trafficking is a multimillion, perhaps multibillion dollar a year, business. But, no, it's still going to be cocaine. That's their primary business. That is definitely a multibillion dollar business every year. I mean, the DEA estimates anything from $10 billion to $40 billion travels south to Mexico every year in the drug trade.
So it's going to be hard for anything to compete with that. That's going to remain their primary business, but we're going to see them spread out, diversify, consolidate their power and their business and anything that makes these drug cartels stronger is not good news for America, Don.
LEMON: Michael, I know that you're back now. Do you have any plans on going back to the region though and continuing to cover this?
WARE: Well, I certainly won't be advertising because I don't want to give anyone a heads up. But, yes, Don, Mexico, the drug wars, Central America is now very much a part of what I'll be doing.
LEMON: All right. We will be following you, Michael. Great reporting out of there. Thank you so much for joining us.
WARE: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Three powerful storms in two days. The Atlantic hurricane season is all of a sudden in full swing. Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN hurricane headquarters tracking all of the action for you.
Also, taming the Tiger. Believe it or not, Tiger Woods did not come out on top in the PGA Championship. Who beat him?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: As this busy weather news here, I came over to check it out with Jacqui.
A lot going on, Jacqui. I want to get out of your way and let you get right through it.
JERAS: All right. Just got the 11:00 advisory and Tropical Storm Claudette is just within a couple miles from landfall now. Winds still the same at 50 miles per hour. We'll show you the radar picture and watch those heavy bands as they continue to move on in.
And as we close in here, you'll be able to see that center of circulation right about in here. Destin is over here. We've got Santa Rosa Beach over in this area. So that storm is going to be coming in, we think, right in between there, and it could happen really in the next half an hour plus.
Those winds continue to stay very much on the strong side. We want to show you some of the reports that we're getting across the area. These are just your sustained winds, so those are your average winds that are blowing constantly.
But we're getting gusts of 45 miles per hour. We could see those reach as high as 60 miles per hour. The storm will be making landfall through the night tonight, and we'll watch this move into Alabama as we head into the day for tomorrow. And we will expect to see some strong winds with that. Heavy downpours and some flash flooding can be expected as well.
There you can see the forecast track. Much of the southeast being impacted by Claudette even through a lot of tomorrow - Don.
LEMON: Yes. Pay close attention to the weather forecast and, of course, "AMERICAN MORNING" tomorrow morning starting at 6:00 a.m. Eastern here on CNN. They'll have it covered for you as well.
Thanks again, Jacqui.
He is a huge Bollywood star, but the security screeners at a Newark international airport didn't recognize him and caused a little bit of trouble there.
Also, an American arrested in Myanmar. A U.S. senator tries to get him freed. What happens next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A Missouri man jailed in Myanmar for taking a forbidden swim is in the clear now. John Yettaw landed in Thailand today looking pale and worn out. But first, he met with U.S. Senator Jim Webb whose mercy mission got him out of a seven-year prison sentence. Yettaw was convicted for swimming to the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The uninvited visit earned the Nobel Laureate an extra 18 months house arrest.
An international uproar after a Bollywood VIP was questioned by immigration officials at the Newark Airport. Some angry fans are burning American flags in India while others are marching with posters of Shah Rukh Khan.
The 44-year-old actor initially said he was detained for hours because his last name showed up on a computer alert list. But immigration officials say it was just a routine stop. Khan is now downplaying the incident while promoting his new movie about racial profiling in the post-9/11. Again, Shah Rukh Khan -- Shah Rukh Khan.
Who would possibly -- could possibly beat Tiger Woods? Someone did today in a major tournament, believe it or not.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Tiger Woods has never lost a major tournament when he was leading at the start of the final round. Well, that was until today. South Korean Y.E. Yang beat Tiger by three strokes to win the PGA Championship. Before today, Tiger Woods was undefeated, 14-0, when he had the lead on Sunday in a major tournament. Yang is a relative unknown in this country but he has beaten Woods once before three years ago at a tournament in China.
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN center in Atlanta. Have a great week. I'll see you back here next weekend.
