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Troubled Vets Find Allies and Hope; Town Halls Taking Place Across the Country Today; No Public Option?; America's Souring Dairy Farms; Tangible Health Care Innovation in Las Vegas; Iraqi Bodyguard Makes New Life in Atlanta; Little Progress Made in Appointing Federal Cyberczar

Aired August 17, 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: Protecting America's veterans, expanding Americans' health care, twin commitments of President Obama, And we're pushing forward on both. You just saw the president's address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Earlier, we saw the secretary of veterans affairs pledging to speed up the turnaround time for benefits claims. On the health care front, it's a make-or-break month. And we'll see which key issue may not make the final cut.

To the VFW convention in Phoenix now. The commander in chief brought a two-word message: Thank you. He also brought a promise to fight waste in defense spending, to fight for America's interests anywhere in the world and to make sure the U.S. military is second to none. The president talked about the war that's winding down in Iraq and the war that's ramping up in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These new efforts have not been without a price. The fighting has been fierce. More Americans have given their lives. And as always, the thoughts and prayers of every American are with those who make the ultimate sacrifice in our defense. As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight, and we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick, nor easy, but we must never forget this is not a war of choice, this is a war of necessity.

Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So, this is not only a war worth fighting, this is fundamental to the defense of our people.

Whether you wear the uniform today, or wore it decades ago, you remind us of a fundamental truth. It's not the powerful weapons that make our military the strongest in the world. It's not the sophisticated systems that make us the most advanced. The true strength of our military lies in the spirit and skill of our men and women in uniform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And we in the CNN NEWSROOM have made it our mission to push forward on the battles that so many troops face long after they leave the wars behind. We're all about solutions, and that's where new directions comes in.

Here's CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERGIO ARIAS, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: You know, it kind of helps me forget about everything. You know, it helps me stay calm.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A calm far from Sergio Arias's combat tour of duty in Iraq. He served as a Marine during the 2003 invasion.

ARIAS: We have apricots up here.

STARR: Sergio, now 28, says he came home from war with post- traumatic stress. He wound up in jail for possession of drugs, and when he was released he had nowhere to go. Sergio came here to New Directions, a recovery center for addicted and homeless veterans.

JOHN KEAVENEY, VIETNAM VETERAN: You did this one.

STARR: And he found John Keaveney, a Scottish-born Vietnam veteran who started the program after he served nine years in prison on a stabbing conviction.

KEAVENEY: And he's going to get the honest truth from me.

STARR: Blunt talk from John, still with a metal plate in his head from being shot in Vietnam. He mentors this Iraq vet 32 years younger.

KEAVENEY: He'll have to make a choice what he wants to do, you know. He's got all the potential in the world. He really does.

ARIAS: I look up to John, you know. Because, you know, he tells me that I shouldn't be ashamed of having been put here. I shouldn't be ashamed of having problems.

STARR: Sergio suddenly finds another mentor, 60-year-old Michael Anderson, a fellow Marine, who served during Vietnam. Michael started writing poetry while he was in jail

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the bell tolls, I offer salute to our fighting men in uniform, brave and resolute.

STARR: The vets decided to collaborate.

ARIAS: I already have a picture in my mind of what I want to paint for that home.

STARR: While this Iraq and this Vietnam vet are separated by generations, they are now joined by their art and their battle against the demons of homelessness, addiction and combat duty. (on camera): New Directions says they're beginning to find today's troubled young vets in jail, like Sergio was. So they're trying to get them help as fast as they can so they don't wind up here.

Barbara Starr, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now, be sure to join John Roberts and Kiran Chetry all this week on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" as veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come back from the battlefields only to fight the war at home. All this week, on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

Veterans and health care issues collided today at a town hall hosted by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. The latter, by the way, we've invited to appear on this program many, many times, with no success.

Alongside Specter in Philadelphia, the secretary's message came down to seven words: "We're working as fast as we can."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC SHINSEKI, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: It's not just a matter of taking 131,000 homeless veterans off the streets. We have to go after education. We have to go after drugs -- jobs. We have to go after substance abuse. We have to go after mental health issues.

And unless we're solving and attacking all of those things, homelessness is just -- continues to be the end state. So we have to do all of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, many other town halls are taking place across the country today. Besides Pennsylvania, we're watching Florida, Virginia, and Texas. And when I say "we," I mean CNN's Jessica Yellin as well. And she's in Washington.

Hey, Jessica.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

I've been keeping my eye on the town halls that Representative Allen Boyd has been holding. He's a Blue Dog Democrat who came out today and said he is not in support of that one House health care bill that the Blue Dogs in general were going to support.

What we've heard at his town hall is a lot of frustration on the same topics that we have been hearing in general, but especially in Florida, whether illegal aliens will be covered under this bill. Three people asked him whether that would happen. He keeps saying no, there will be no coverage for illegal aliens or immigrants, and he's asked it over and over again. Not a lot of faith in the Democrats and trust in the members of Congress in representing this accurately, it seems.

And then he was confronted by one member of the audience who wanted the same health care that members of Congress get.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALLEN BOYD (D), FLORIDA: Thank you for coming, Dennis (ph). I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I didn't get an answer to my question. Why not -- why can't all Americans have the same health care...

BOYD: I don't want, Dennis (ph)...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you don't want this.

BOYD: Dennis (ph), let me make myself clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want the same plan as they're trying to force on us.

BOYD: Let me make this clear. I don't want all Americans to have the same. I want you to have your choice about what you have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: Now, Kyra, that encapsulates some of the rock and the hard place contradictions members are dealing with, because in the same breath, folks will say, I don't want the government making decisions, and then I want the government to give me what you have, meaning make the decision for me. You've got people saying, I need lower health insurance costs, and then someone else saying don't do anything to bring down health insurance costs, that's the job of private industry.

So, these folks are feeling like they're in a no-win situation, to some extent. And Allen Boyd's answer was we've got to get to a better bill.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jessica Yellin, live from Washington.

Thanks, Jessica.

And we're calling this a make-or-break month, and it looks as if the White House is breaking with the so-called public option. That's the concept that opponents call a government takeover of health care.

More now from CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Now, wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After weeks of congressional town halls gone wild, the Obama administration is now keeping its options open on health care reform, specifically on the crucial question of whether Americans should have the option of joining a government-run plan, the so-called public option.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: And I think what's important is choice and competition. And I'm convinced at the end of the day the plan will have both of those. But that is not the essential element.

ACOSTA: And there were no lines in the sand drawn by the president himself at his own town hall in Colorado.

OBAMA: This is a legitimate debate to have. All I'm -- all I'm saying is, though, that the public option whether we have it or we don't have it is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it.

ACOSTA: The White House is spending less time pushing the public option and more time talking about injecting competition into the health care marketplace, costs to drive down costs and give Americans more choices.

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: The fact of the matter is not enough votes in the United States Senate before the public option. There never have been. So to continue to chase that rabbit I think is just a wasted effort.

ACOSTA: North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad is offering one compromise that would establish nonprofit health care cooperatives, like the rural electric co-ops that have existed in the U.S. for decades.

CONRAD: Land O'Lakes is a cooperative. Ace Hardware is a cooperative. So, this is a model that works. It's not government-run and government-controlled. It's membership-run and membership- controlled.

ACOSTA: The president is stuck. Keeping the public option would anger Republicans and some Democrats in Congress who insist a government-run plan would drive private insurers out of business.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: I still think we should have a bipartisan solution, but what I can't tolerate is a government plan.

ACOSTA: Dumping it would disappoint liberals, who see a surrender on a public option as defeat.

(on camera): If he backs away from the public option, is that health care reform?

SARAH CHAISSON WARNER, HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW: It's absolutely not health care reform. No. We need the kind of reform that's going to improve the lives of families and communities everywhere. ACOSTA: But this is not the last of the public option debates. Supporters and opponents of health care reform are spending tens of millions of dollars on commercials that are slated to air well into the fall, a campaign-style overdose of political advertising not seen since the election.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: OK. And if you want to know more about the health care debate and how reform could affect you and your family, check out the special "Health Care in America" Web site on CNN.com. You can get the latest from town hall debates, fact-checks, iReports. You can even read the bills. Just go to CNN.com/health care.

What do Ana, Bill and Claudette have in common with the Canadian rock band Loverboy? Everyone was working for the weekend, not to mention keeping Chad Myers very busy. We're going to have the latest on the wild tropical weather.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: California firefighters are work overtime battling almost a dozen wildfires on both ends of the state. They're making progress on a fire around the Santa Cruz community of Bonny Doon. It's now 50 percent contained.

Officials are allowing hundreds of people to return home, but the danger's still real. In southern California's Santa Barbara County, officials say that a campfire started by Mexican marijuana growers sparked a massive 84,000-acre fire. It's now about 64 percent contained.

Is affordable health care nothing more than liberal rhetoric? We're going to take you to San Francisco, where the answer is a resounding no.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So, is the future of affordable health care for everyone existing right now in San Francisco? As part of our "Health Care in Focus" series, San Francisco photojournalists Jeff King and Jim Castle (ph) break down the program known as Healthy San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right in here.

DONNA BOWLING, "HEALTH SAN FRANCISCO" PARTICIPANT: I have mitral valve prolapse. I was diagnosed with that about nine years ago.

After I lost my insurance, I would have to pay out of pocket for everything, 100 percent. It would have been really costly, more costly than I could have afforded. Probably, eventually, I would have died. It was scary.

I thought it was really unfair and just not right, basically, that you should allow anybody to die because they cannot get coverage, they can't get help even though they're trying to do the right thing. That's why I sought out the clinics that are here in San Francisco.

DR. MITCH KATZ, SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH DEPT.: Healthy San Francisco is a coverage model that provides medical care, hospital care, emergency care, pharmaceuticals, laboratory, radiology for people within San Francisco. Any adult who is uninsured in San Francisco can qualify. How much people are required to pay depends upon what their income is.

BOWLING: In my opinion, much better and more thorough care than I had when I was insured.

We have required only a very minimal amount of city general funds to start up, $750,000. The rest of the money comes from one of three sources. We receive the state federal grant, we are receiving money through the employer spending requirement that requires businesses that have more than 20 employees to spend money on health care. And then, finally, participant fees pay.

KATZ: We have figured out how to decrease the cost of care and use that money to cover a broader set of people. What we're able to do is to supplement all of the money that had been existing to enable people to care for a group of people that they were, by and large, already caring for.

BOWLING: I wish that everybody had access to the kind of medical treatment that I get, because it's just fantastic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, if you want to know more about the health care debate and how reform could affect you and your family, check out the special "Health Care in America" Web site on CNN.com. You can get the latest from the town hall debates, fact-checks, iReports. You can even read the bills. Just go to CNN.com/healthcare.

A cause for celebration in Japan. The world's second largest economy appearing to break free from the global recession. We're going to bring you the numbers and what it means for our own possible economic turnaround.

Susan Lisovicz is here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, it may seem like a holiday in Chicago, but it's far from it. Most city offices are closed to help an ailing budget. Libraries are also closed. There's no garbage pickup or street sweeping. But it's work as usual for police, firefighters and EMS crews. This is one of three reduced service days planned this year. The savings? Listen to this. It's expected to be about $8 million, possibly more.

Love your job enough to work for free? Well, a number of dairy farmers are asking themselves that, thanks to the economy.

Here's a pretty unique piece from CNN's Deb Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every morning, bright and early, you'll find Alan Bourbeau and his two sons milking the cows at their farm in St. Albans, Vermont.

ALAN BOURBEAU, DAIRY FARMER: I've been doing it for 34 years. To be able to have a weekend off, it would be awful nice, but I cannot go afford to pay an extra man right now just to work two or three extra mornings a week just so I can have that luxury.

FEYERICK (on camera): And you're the chief executive officer.

BOURBEAU: Yes. Yes. Chief of everything, debts and all.

FEYERICK (voice-over): And the debts right now are soaring.

BOURBEAU: We're definitely running negative, yes -- $4,000, $5,000, something like $6,000 negative.

FEYERICK (on camera): Every month?

BOURBEAU: Every month.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Why? Last year, demand for U.S. dairy exports was high and milk sold at a record $19 per 100 pounds, about two of these jars. That price has plunged to $11, less than what it actually costs dairy farmers to produce it.

BRAD KEATING, DAIRY FARMERS OF AMERICA, NORTHEAST REGION: This is certainly not overblown. This is the worst crisis that the dairy farmers probably have ever seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, farmers are in a position where they're paying to go to work every day.

FEYERICK: Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took the unusual step of raising support prices by about 15 percent for dairy programs through October.

JOE GLAUBER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, USDA: Hopefully these actions will suffice and get a lot of dairy producers over, you know, this rough patch they're going through.

FEYERICK: Maybe. Maybe not.

(on camera): While the cost of milk is going down, the cost of virtually everything else to run a farm is going up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, my fertilizer cost was roughly $20,000. This year, my fertilizer is $25,000.

FEYERICK: Like many farmers, Bourbeau has been borrowing from the bank and cutting corners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to cut the grain, every cost we possibly can, but trying not to lose too much milk production.

FEYERICK: Sons Justin and Eric know every cow and every inch of land. What they don't know is whether there's a future here.

(on camera): Obviously, this is in your blood. Are there some days where you think about giving it up?

JUSTIN BOURBEAU, DAIRY FARMER: Yes, more often now than before.

FEYERICK: Still, the Bourbeaus have faith things will turn around and that they will keep the farm for generations to come.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, St. Albans, Vermont.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, I trusted him with my life in Iraq's war zone. Now the Iraqi bodyguard who kept me out of danger is starting a new life in the United States. We will have the back story on why he felt like he had to leave home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As CNN covers this make-or-break month for health care reform, our team wanted to highlight some people who are helping other folks get the care that they need. And in many creative, innovative ways. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez meets an oncologist who's made sure when one door closes, another one really does open.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, everyone is talking about health care reform, so we came to Las Vegas because we heard about a doctor who's doing something innovative to try to treat underinsured patients. We came here to meet him.

(on camera): Dr. Spirtos, how are you?

DR. NICK SPIRTOS, WOMEN'S CANCER CENTER OF NEVADA: Good. How are you?

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Dr. Nick Spirtos is director of the Women's Cancer Center of Nevada. When the outpatient cancer center at the county hospital was closed down earlier this year because of state budget cuts, Spirtos found a solution in his storage area. He converted that space in the back office into a chemotherapy room.

(on camera): That is an incredible picture of your mother.

CHRISTINA AGUILAR, CANCER PATIENT: Yes. That was her wedding day.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Twenty-eight-year-old Christina Aguilar's mother died from cancer when she was 18. Now she has advanced-stage ovarian cancer. And nowhere to turn because her insurance doesn't cover chemotherapy, and she makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

AGUILAR: When I found out, I was still working and making good money so they wouldn't pay for it, because I was making a little bit more than what they recommend.

GUTIERREZ: How much were you making?

AGUILAR: I'm making $8.76 an hour.

GUTIERREZ: $8.76 an hour.

AGUILAR: Yes.

GUTIERREZ: What did you do for a living?

AGUILAR: Cashier at a "Toys R Us."

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Christina is lucky. She is still employed.

SPIRTOS: If you're recently unemployed, you have no insurance benefits and you don't qualify for any of the public aids. So, amazingly, the people who have been working and supporting the system, the moment they're out of work, they don't fit in any of the round holes, they're square pegs.

GUTIERREZ: So Spirtos created a place for them to fit in. He convinced his partners to take on the patient's Pro bono. Then they arranged for Clark County to pay for expensive chemotherapy drugs.

(on camera): If Christina were not able to come here, what would happen to Christina?

SPIRTOS: Over time, her cancer would progress and she would pass away.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Now he's trying to cure her in what used to be a storage room, converted into a place of hope.

SPIRTOS: The great part about this is Christina's hair is going to grow back, and mine won't.

GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Las Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: When I covered the war in Iraq, a very brave and professional Iraqi put his life on the line to keep me and my crew safe everyday. And as you can imagine, the security situation is not only intense, but deadly. From the moment you land, the gamble with your life begins, and probably one of the most terrifying trips is the one you will make from the airport to the Baghdad bureau.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, it's times like this where security definitely becomes more a concern. They call it a bit of a chokehold, where we come to a standstill and all the cars stop because if something were to happen, you're a bit of a sitting duck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And the man driving that car, actually getting me through the danger zone, is Hamdi. That's him on the far left, right there, on one of our assignments at Baghdad's all-female sports college. Because of Hamdi, I was able to enterprise some pretty incredible stories on Iraqi life in a war zone.

But unfortunately, every night, the war followed him home. A bomb was thrown at his house, wounding his daughter, his young son was haunted by trucks carrying dead bomb victims past his home. So, for his family's sake, Hamdi realized they had to leave.

They are among four million Iraqis who have left their home since the war began in 2003. A few thousand have come here to the United States. CNN International's Michael Holmes understands Hamdi's commitment to all of us as well. Hamdi kept Michael alive on assignment in Iraq, too. So, when it was time to leave, Michael had a great idea. To tell the back story of our special bodyguard's emotional last day of work in our Baghdad bureau. A farewell that would lead to the beginning of Hamdi's journey to Atlanta, Georgia, for a new life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMDI, IRAQI BODYGUARD: Hey, Joe. How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.

HAMDI: Good? (INAUDIBLE) ... goodbye times. I will miss you. I will miss you all. Seriously. Come on.

Where is that fellow? Where is Hamid? Come on, Joe. I'm going to see you on the web cam. I've been working here and see you guys more than my family. I mean, I've been working here sometimes 18 hours, sometimes 16 hours. I slept here maybe sometimes a week, a whole week, just to keep this mission, you know, this office running and -- keep moving and working. They need us to do the job. It's very hard to leave someone you live with for what? Four or five years.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDETIFIED MALE: Say something. Please.

(INAUDIBLE)

HAMDI: It's eleven in the morning. It was emotional back there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would imagine from my time living there, that one of the things that these guys are going to find different is things aren't exploding every day. Is that something you noticed, you don't hear the booms?

HAMDI: No, just that. A lot of things, booms, gunshots. We had power shut down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does he think of America?

UNIDDENTIFIED MALE: Better.

HAMDI (via translator): He says there's no explosions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN International's Michael Holmes joins me now live from our global headquarters in Atlanta.

Oh, Michael! I get tears in my eyes. We'll talk about little Fazul (ph) in a second. You know, tell our viewers -- I only got a second really to touch on what Hamdi has done for us, but explain to our viewers how he impacted your ability to tell stories. I mean, stories that a lot of the other guys said nope, can't do it, too dangerous. But Hamdi really made a lot happen for us.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He did both ways. It is interesting. We were, of course, as you know, Kyra, there's a big security team there, but Hamdi was the only Iraqi security guard on our staff. You could go to him and say look, I need to get here, I need to talk to this person. He's on the phone, Arabic, of course, talking away and making things happen for us.

Yes, he could get us places that maybe the other guys hadn't thought of route-wise to get to, but he also -- I remember one day I wanted to go to a place, problematic suburb back then, I think it was in '05. He said, no, you can't go that way. We ended up going a long way, ended up hooking up with the military to get there. The next day, an IED went off on the route we wanted to go on. So, he made things happen and stopped us from making mistakes, too.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I know one of the most special part of you putting this story together, it was when he arrived here in Atlanta, Georgia, and you know, he did so much for us over there. It's been so great to see him and his family here, and your big event, you joined families and went to Six Flags, right?

HOLMES: Oh, yes, we did. We did. We have some flip-camera material here we shot while we were there, myself and somebody else at CNN-I took our kids and went with his kids. We had a blast. You've got to imagine, these kids, Hamdi's kids, had seen one roller coaster in their life. And it was nothing like Six Flags, I got to tell you. I remember Steve saying to me at one point, he said, these kids are so brave, they're jumping on everything. I said hey, if you have had bombs going off every day, this is nothing.

I got to tell you one almost bittersweet thing, though, Kyra. We're sitting down having lunch and about, I don't know, 50 feet away there was a Wild West show going on, you know, how they go. The kids couldn't see it, but you could hear it. When they started shooting blanks, you saw three kids and mom jump through the roof. Every time those blanks went off. So, they're here, it's an adjustment, and that adjustment is a work in progress.

PHILLIPS: I tell you, they seem to be doing pretty well. I think the highlight for me is when they came over to the house for a barbecue, and I just fell in love with Fazul and the two girls immediately.

HOLMES: Great kids.

PHILLIPS: He was so drawn to the guitar. We brought a guitar out and he just, his eyes just lit up, and he took hold of it and here he is. He just couldn't stop playing. Everybody was sort of paying attention to his fascination with something that, you know, so many of us take advantage of, just a guitar, playing the guitar. He didn't want to put it down.

HOLMES: First time I went over, we took a basketball with us. Thrilled, absolutely thrilled. He used to go down and play on this court in the area they're living in and didn't have his own. But he does now.

PHILLIPS: We're going to talk more about him this Thursday. He's still looking for work. I know all of us are trying to help that family get adjusted and push forward. Michael, what a great piece.

HOLMES: It's a great story. We are going to continue telling it, too.

PHILLIPS: Good. See you later.

HOLMES: All right. See you.

PHILLIPS: Michael Holmes will join us, by the way, every Friday now with another of his special "Back Stories," and if you would like to know how you can help refugees around the world just like Hamdi and his family, log on to our special Web site, CNN.com/impact, and there you will find more information on the world refugee crisis and links to groups working to take action.

Every day, hackers are trying to break into our government's computers. Every month, they're getting in, dozens and dozens of times. So, where the heck is our cyberczar?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Being a big city mayor is a tough job. It can get pretty rough sometimes, too. Just ask Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. He's actually recovering in the hospital after being beaten with a metal pipe.

It all went down over the weekend at the Wisconsin State Fair, of all places. The mayor and his family were leaving when they heard screams. He rushed over and saw a woman and baby being menaced by a guy police call a real vicious thug. Well, Mayor Barrett intervened, the guy started whacking at him, and the mayor fought back. He has a fractured hand and head wounds, but our hero mayor will be okay.

All right. Two out-of-state cops find out real quickly what happens in Vegas can mean jail stays in Vegas. Listen to this. Over the weekend, local police spot a van parked illegally. As they approached, the van takes off. After a short car chase, then a foot chase, the local guys search the van and find drugs. Then they realize their suspects are two officers in town for the Police Olympics. Geez, are there any athletes not doping these days?

All right. They break into his house, steal his stuff, and end up calling the cops on their victim. Just a bizarre story out of Britain. Two burglars delighted with their haul were disgusted to find kiddie porn on a stolen laptop. So, they rang up police and tipped them off to Richard Coverdale's computer and where it could be found. The cops found 78 illegal pictures and movies on that computer. Next thing you know, Coverdale is sentenced to three and a half years in prison, and the crooks with a conscience? Well, they got community service.

As always, Team Sanchez working hard on the next hour of NEWSROOM. Hello, Rick Sanchez.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: How you doing up there in New York, Krya? Everything good?

PHILLIPS: I'm doing okay here in the big city.

SANCHEZ: Big girl, big town.

PHILLIPS: Big Apple.

SANCHEZ: Hey, listen, we're starting to see a little bit of a trend. It's starting to look a little bit bothersome. Remember last week, we did a story about what was going on with that one guy who showed up in an Obama town hall event with a gun in a holster, a loaded gun, according to him when he was interviewed later. It was a little alarming to see that.

Today, the president's in Phoenix, Arizona, and we understand from our own correspondents that they have seen not only this fellow right there -- that's an assault rifle he's carrying, but that Ed Henry has seen others as well in the audience. Now, you should know that Arizona is an open-carry state, so what this guy's doing is perfectly legal. Still, I'm sure Secret Service has some concerns, and we're drilling down on this. We will bring you the information on that.

The other story we're bringing you is unbelievable video. I think we've got that. Show some of this video. It's a police officer who is -- we don't have it, you will see it at the top of our show. This is a police officer who's getting beaten, who's - VDing, I should say, a suspect.

The question is, did he have to go to that so soon? Because when you look at the video, and all of us will, together, it almost looks like it's their first reaction. And then there's about seven or eight other police officers who jump into this fray. The FBA (sic) is now involved. Once the FBI is involved in an investigation like this at the request of the police chief, you know there's something going on. We will be bringing this one to you as well. All this right here at 3:00. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Sounds good. See you then, Rick.

SANCHEZ: All right.

PHILLIPS: Homeland cyber security becomes a bigger issue by the day. Hackers are targeting government our agencies and, yes, they're getting through. So what's the big delay on that cyberczar? Two words. Money and power.

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PHILLIPS: Turf wars and budget battles are real problems as the government moves to battle virtual threat. Still, no czar to head up our cyber security efforts. And as a White House official said earlier this month, we can't get this done soon enough. Here's our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Kyra, denial of service attacks against Twitter and government Web sites earlier this summer got a lot of publicity, but experts estimate hackers are successfully penetrating almost every government agency seven or eight times a month. And those experts are perplexed that the Obama administration isn't doing more to stop it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): In May, President Obama declared a new day in cyber security.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNTIED STATES: From now on, our digital infrastructure, the networks and computers we depend on every day, will be treated as they should be. As a strategic national asset.

MESERVE: But two and a half months later, some cyber experts are asking where is the action to match those words?

TOM KELLERMANN, VP, CORE SECURITY: It seems that it's only been lip service thus far. We really need real, tangible action. MESERVE: Two high profile cybe rexperts have announced plans to leave government in recent weeks, and the president has yet to appoint the cyber czar he promised to lead and coordinate government cyber security efforts. Word in the computer community is that well- qualified people don't want the job for one big reason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, there's no indication that that person will have a great deal of power.

MESERVE: The White House vigorously denies that, insisting cyber remains a top priority, and a rigorous selection process is well underway.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Those of you from the private sector, I hope to recruit some of your smartest people to join the government, so watch out.

MESERVE: Homeland Security is looking to double its cyber staff and has already brought in some well-regarded experts from industry.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is starting up a new cyber command to secure military networks and develop offensive cyber capabilities. But some experts say with more leadership, there would be more progress in the federal government and beyond.

KELLERMANN: In order to engage international actors, in order to engage the critical infrastructure community globally, we have to have real leadership on the civilian side. Leadership from the White House. Because there's too many turf battles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (on camera): Meanwhile, the attacks continue, largely unabated, with cyber crime and cyber espionage sucking valuable information and money out of the U.S. every day. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

Before we wrap up here, the top U.S. commander in Iraq may be sending some troops into disputed areas in the northern part of the country, we're being told. General Ray Odierno points to the spike in violence as the reason for the possible move he wants to make.

If it happens, it would be a departure from a security pact with Baghdad that actually pulled U.S. troops out of cities and towns, as you may remember, back in June. Under Odierno's plan, U.S. soldiers would partner with Iraqi and Kurdish troops in the areas disputed between the Arabs and the Kurds. No final decision has been made, but we wanted to get on record that that's being talked about right now. We will keep you updated on what happens.

That does it for us. We'll be back there -- we'll be back here tomorrow. Rick Sanchez picks it up from here.