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Michael Jackson's Death Investigation; Government Predicts Flu Could Sicken 30 to 50 Percent; Model Wins Lawsuit to Reveal Critical Blogger's ID
Aired August 25, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Here now are some of the other stories we're watching right now. Four U.S. service members in Afghanistan are dead; victims of a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. A NATO spokesman says they were patrolling in one of the most dangerous parts of the country. 42 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan this month.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may be planning a run for governor. Republican representative Peter King tells the "New York Daily News" Giuliani is a 50-50 bet to run next year. He failed in his presidential bid last year.
Home prices on the rise: a key new home price index shows prices were up 3 percent over the first quarter of this year. It's a small spike, but it's the first rise in three years. Prices are still down around 15 percent over this time last year.
One drug after another administered within hours of each other. Preliminary findings suggest Michael Jackson died of an overdose two months ago today.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has documents and what investigators believe happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This 32-page document released in Texas reveals there was lethal levels of the powerful drug Propofol in Michael Jackson's blood at the time of his death according to preliminary findings of the Los Angeles coroner.
The police affidavit says Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician told detectives he had been treating the star for insomnia for six weeks, giving him an IV drip with 50 milligrams of Propofol diluted with Lidocaine every night.
Murray worried Jackson was becoming addicted to Propofol. In an attempt to wean him off, Murray put together other combinations of drugs that succeeded in putting Jackson to sleep for two nights prior his death.
On June 25th when those drugs failed, Murray told detectives what he did hour by hour. He said around 1:30 in the morning he gave Jackson 10 milligrams of valium. At 2:00 a.m. he injected Jackson with Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. And an hour later the sedative Versed. At 5:00 a.m. more Ativan. At 7:30, more Versed.
Murray says he monitored Jackson's vital signs the entire time. According to documents at 10:40 a.m. after repeated requests and demand from Jackson, Murray administered 25 mg of Propofol and Jackson finally went to sleep. After 10 minutes Murray says he went to the bathroom and was gone for two minutes. When he returned he says Jackson was no longer breathing.
Murray says he administered CPR until paramedics arrived but those efforts proved futile.
(on camera): Dr. Conrad Murray's attorneys released a statement saying "Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual, however, unfortunately, much is police theory. Most egregiously the timeline reported by law enforcement was not obtained through interviews with Dr. Murray as was implied by the affidavit."
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Since Jackson's death, investigators have searched the house where he died, as well as the offices and home of Dr. Murray. Keep in mind, he has not been charged with anything yet and the coroner's finding does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.
Our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin talked with Anderson Cooper about what might happen next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It would be some version of manslaughter, an unintentional killing. But you can still go to prison for several years. Keep in mind though that these sorts of medical situations, it's very rare that they give rise to criminal charges. Malpractices suits, yes, losing your medical license, yes, but an actual criminal case resulting in a jail sentence, very unusual.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: In a statement, the Jackson family expresses "full confidence in the legal process and commends the efforts of the L.A. County coroner, the district attorney and the police."
New numbers to tell you about on the possible toll from the swine flu. A government panel has released a report saying between 30,000 and 90,000 people could die from the H1N1 flu this fall and winter. And more than 120 million could get sick. Senior CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us now with more on this perspective, of course, important.
So the numbers are alarming when you hear them, Elizabeth. The worse-case scenario is what we're talking about.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, the high end of the ranges that you just mentioned, Heidi, those are the worse-case scenarios. So let's take a look at what this report found. This was found by the president's council of scientific advisors and let's put it in perspective of what happens every year with the flu.
What this report found is that it predicts there could be 30,000 to 90,000 deaths from swine flu this upcoming flu season. To put that in perspective, every year 36,000 people die of regular seasonal flu. Secondly, the report found that 30 percent and 50 percent of Americans could become ill with swine flu, regular flu five to 20 percent of Americans become ill just from regular seasonal flu.
So what you're seeing here, bottom line is that this will likely be a much worse flu season than other flu seasons because this year you have regular flu, plus you have swine flu on top of that. What they can't say is exactly how many people will die. You will see those ranges are huge, that's because, Heidi, nobody has a crystal ball. Everyone is just estimating at this point.
COLLINS: Yes, of course, and trying to prepare. A lot of people are asking, in fact, where do we stand on a vaccine now? When will they really be ready? Because we're looking at fall, right?
COHEN: Right. We're looking at fall. I mean, they would like to start vaccinating for flu really in September. That's when the shots are often available, but for swine flu they don't expect the shots to be available until the middle of October and even then there won't be enough available for everyone who needs to get it, to get it all at once.
However, there will be more doses available as the season progresses and not everyone necessarily needs to get a swine flu shot. Top on the list are pregnant women and, actually, younger people. Usually we talk about older people getting shots for flu, for swine flu it's actually younger people who are more vulnerable.
COLLINS: Yes. Good reminder there. Also remind us of what we should be doing to prevent swine flu. A lot of hand washing and coughing in our elbow or arm, right?
COHEN: That's right. You just named two of them. There are really three basic things you should think about doing. First of all, you should think about washing your hands frequently with hand sanitizer or soap and water. Don't go out if you're sick. Don't go to work. Don't send your kids to school. You're just going to make the problem worse for yourself and for other people. Also cough or sneeze into your sleeve, not into your hands.
COLLINS: Yes. Very good. All right. Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent. Sure do appreciate that.
President Obama taps one of his top money man for a second term now. Just last hour, the president nominated Ben Bernanke to remain as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke has gotten mostly positive remarks for his handling of the financial crisis and the nation's worst recession since the 1930s. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE: The Federal Reserve, like other economic policymakers, has been challenged by the unprecedented events of the past few years. We have a goal and deliberate circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant. To restore a more stable, financial and economic environment in which opportunity can again flourish and in which Americans' hard work and creativity can receive their proper rewards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The Senate will need to confirm Bernanke, of course, into a second four-year term and then later CNN's Stephanie Elam is going to be talking with us a little bit more about Ben Bernanke. That will come your way on the back half of this hour.
Homeowners take heart, we have some encouraging news to share. Just last hour we learned the U.S. home prices gained some ground from the first quarter of the year to the second. The first quarterly increase in three years, in fact. It adds to the optimism that the housing crisis may be easing, but we still have to give you this reality check. Last quarter's home prices are still down 15 percent from one year ago.
We are following another money matter this morning, the national deficit. As an American how much debt are you and your grandchildren facing? Just in now the congressional budget analysts say deficits over the next decade will total $7.1 trillion.
Christine Romans is part of the CNN money team and she's joining us from New York this morning. We have those numbers right, Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, what we are expecting they had for some time the White House had said $7.1 trillion will be the 10-year deficit. We expect them actually to raise that to about $9 trillion. So think of that 10 years, over 10 years a budget deficit of $9 trillion, what does that mean?
Well, this is how you measure I guess the books of the country. The money that's going out and the money that is coming in.
COLLINS: Do me a favor, Christine. Let's remind everybody the difference between deficit and debt. Because I'm not quite sure people totally get that and why it's important.
ROMANS: The deficit is the difference right now between what our government is spending every month and what we're taking in every month. So what we know is that we're spending way, way more every single month than we are taking in. We are spending on a far-reaching expensive program to try to remake and rescue the American economy.
The sky rocketing spending on unemployment benefits, health care, bailout programs and a lot of different bailout programs, frankly, a lot of different things. At the same time, revenue is plunging. The tax receipts that are coming into the government are plunging. So we're spending more. I mean, think of it what your own books look like at home. You know, money coming in is less because of the declining income and payroll taxes, those are declining and that is hurting the government coffers.
All kinds of non-wage income, the recession has hurt and also the stimulus tax credit, people aren't spending as much on taxes because part of the stimulus was to give a big tax break there. So, the money that's coming in is far, far less than the money that's going out and over 10 years that deficit could be like $9 trillion.
What's the debt? The national debt, this is all the money that we have already spent that we haven't paid for and that is about 11, more than $11 trillion, almost $12 trillion. I mean, it goes up by the second, frankly. That's a growing, growing number. That's what we have already spent that we haven't paid for as soon as we borrow that. We borrow that from ourselves and we borrow that from overseas lenders, from foreign governments. We issue treasury bonds and we pay interest on it. The worry is you borrow so much money, Heidi, and then in the future you pay so much on interest that it starts to limit the amount of investment that you can do in your own economy.
COLLINS: Exactly this is why we talk about China so much.
ROMANS: Sure.
COLLINS: Interestingly, these numbers - this year's deficit will be less than what's predicted earlier?
ROMANS: It's interesting, a little bit less, and the reason why is because we expected we would be spending a lot more money on the bailouts to the banks, frankly, that we actually had to. And that's the small - I can't even call it a silver lining, really, because when you're talking about this much red ink there's very little optimism about it, but we didn't spend as much as we could have on the banking rescue and on some of the other bailouts and so that's why the numbers, while still humongous and still a record will not be quite as bad as we had thought before.
COLLINS: OK. All right. I understand what you're saying, I do. All right.
ROMANS: It's a lot of money and the calculation that they're making right now is that we have to spend a ton of money right now to get this economy fixed so that it can grow again in the future. That's what the gamble is here.
COLLINS: All right. Well, Christine Romans is watching all the numbers for us.
ROMANS: Sure.
COLLINS: We sure do appreciate that. In fact, we continue to watch the numbers as we check out the Dow Jones industrial average and you see there, up about 87 points or so, resting at 9,596. Pretty early in the trading day about 40 minutes, I should say. We'll continue to watch those numbers throughout the day.
A model goes to court to unmask the blogger who is attacking her, now that blogger claims she has been wronged and she is going to sue.
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COLLINS: First it was the model taking on the blogger. Now, it's the outed blogger versus Google. CNN's Jason Carroll has the latest round of a Web fight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the kind of photo spread no model would want, featured on a blog called skanks in New York City, former "Vogue" cover girl Liskula Cohen ended up on the blog telling CNN's Campbell Brown she was determined to find out who was behind putting her there.
LISKULA COHEN, SUED GOOGLE AND WON: I wanted it gone. And I didn't want it to be there for the rest of my life. And I knew the only way for it to be gone was to call my lawyer.
CARROLL: She's not the only one calling a lawyer. So is the woman behind the blog, Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old fashion student and casual acquaintance of Cohen. Port's attorney saying she's the real victim.
SALVATOR STRAZZULLO, PORTS' ATTORNEY: I not only feel my client was wronged, but I feel now it sets a precedent that anyone with money and power can get the identity of anyone that decides to be an anonymous blogger.
CARROLL: Port's name released after a judge sided with Cohen who sued Google to reveal information about the anonymous blogger. The blog had appeared on Google's web site. The court rejected Port's claim that blogs like hers serve as a modern day forum for conveying personal opinions and shouldn't be regarded as fact.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The court said, look, there was specific evidence that this one person may have libeled another person. In that circumstance, we're going to disclose that name.
CARROLL: Google says it complies with court orders saying we have a legal team whose job it is to scrutinize these requests and make sure they meet not only the letter but the spirit of the law. Port still says Google should have kept her name private and plans on suing Google for $15 million. Cohen's attorney says he can't believe Port's nerve.
STEVEN WAGNER, COHEN'S ATTORNEY: Her being a victim here? I have trouble understanding that, in its entirety.
CARROLL: Web watchers like "Wired" magazine's Nicholas Thompson say, this is a lesson for all anonymous bloggers.
NICHOLAS THOMPSON, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: Some of the effects will be good. People will recognize, wait a second, the law does apply to the blogosphere. Some of them may be bad. There will be people who won't publish things that maybe they should publish. It may be good for society.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Jason Carroll joining us now from New York with more on this. So, Jason, since the judge already ruled in the model's favor, what sort of legal ground does this blogger's attorney think she has to go ahead with a suit against Google and a $15 million one at that?
CARROLL: Yes, that's pretty big, isn't it? Well, you know, I think that there are a lot of folks who are looking at this. First of all, her attorneys feel as though that she does have a legal leg to stand on here that at the very least, she should have been allowed to appeal this decision before information about her was released, but, you know, many of the legal experts that we speak to say she really doesn't have a lot of legal footing here. The judge has already ruled, what she did was defamatory. End of story. Heidi -
COLLINS: Do we know what the motive for all of this was? Why did the blogger begin attacking her to begin with?
CARROLL: Well, that's sort of a convoluted story but let me just give it a basic sort of rundown of what we have been able to hear here. Basically this may have started simply because of the model in question here may have made some sort of remark, disparaging remark about this young woman (INAUDIBLE) to a boyfriend. And, so, basically, long story short, all over a guy. This may have started because of something someone said to an ex-boyfriend.
COLLINS: Always back to the guy. You know. All right. Jason Carroll, sure do appreciate it. Thank you.
CARROLL: All right.
COLLINS: Speaking of guys, Rob Marciano joining us now with more on the weather situation across the country, as well as some trouble spots, maybe another tropical storm you're looking at, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I guess we'll start with that. I was debating on where we should start but this thing looks more and more impressive every hour we take a glance at it, Heidi.
All right. Just to give you some perspective. Here's Miami back through here and Puerto Rico, Leeward Islands, so this thing is pretty close. We were talking about, we were watching bill for several days before it even got to the Caribbean. This thing is already there. So that gives us some alarm.
Also, what gives us some alarm is this area has become better organized and this area over here that is it is moving in to is a little bit more conducive to strengthening. So it's just a wave right now. Our next stop will be tropical depression in the National Hurricane Center has actually upped the ante to say that they think it is a better than 50 percent chance of it becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm in the next 48 hours.
We got the hurricane hunter aircraft gassed up to take a look at this thing later on today. So, that's what we're looking at as far as there. There had been a couple of models that have gotten cranked up on this thing which could be the next tropical depression and these kind of take it at least at this point. Here's the East Coast in a very Bill-like manner.
So, that's very early. We'd like to really get things nailed down a little bit more, once we get a plane in there and start to run the models more accurately. So we'll just give you a little sneak peek into how things are doing. All right.
A little bit farther to the south, we got this issue. Area of low pressure, kind of a front down across Florida. They typically get showers and thunderstorms this time of year. They don't usually last to the nighttime. It did last night. They scrubbed the shuttle launch but they're going to go for it again tonight at 1:10 a.m. and still about a 30 percent chance of it not happening.
So we will keep you, certainly, up to date on that. Jacksonville, take a look. Here's a shot. You also have a 50 percent chance of seeing some showers and thunderstorms develop in the afternoon and some of them right now are inland, but, this, obviously, a shot of the beach. WTLV is our affiliate out that way. Temperatures will get easily into the mid-80s today. But all in all, not a bad day to be hanging out at the beach. If you're hanging out inland, temps will be in the mid to upper 80s from Atlanta to Chicago to New York, maybe up to 100 in places like Texas as we try to wrap up the summer. Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. All right. Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: You got it.
COLLINS: It may not be the best time politically for the White House, but Attorney General Eric Holder is going ahead with an investigation into CIA prisoner abuse cases. Holder appointed a special prosecutor yesterday. This comes after a lawsuit forced the CIA to release a 2004 report by the agency's own inspector general. It describes tactics like threatening one prisoner with a drill and telling another his children would be killed.
So we want to know a little more about what you think on this topic. What, in fact, do you believe should happen here? Should the government actually launch an investigation into the CIA and its tactics for interrogation or not? That is the topic of our blog today. Just head over to the Heidi Mac and, of course, remember to post your comments at cnn.com/heidi. We'll try to get to some of them a little bit later on in the show.
President Obama makes it official. He wants Ben Bernanke to remain as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Earlier this morning the president announced Bernanke's nomination for a second four-year term. Bernanke is credited with a largely successful response of the nation's financial crisis in the worst recession since the 1930s.
Around 120 million of you may get swine flu this fall. That is the message in a new government report on the H1N1 virus. The report says as many as half that number may end up at the doctor, putting a strain on the health care system. In this worse-case scenario, as many as 90,000 people could die from the new flu.
The space shuttle "Discovery" still on the launch pad, this morning's lift off scrubbed because of bad weather. Rob just told us about that. NASA does plan to try again after midnight. There is in fact a 70 percent chance that the weather will cooperate.
She was spending like there was no tomorrow because for Catherine Howard there almost wasn't. Her credit cards weren't for flat-screen TVs or fancy dinners, but, instead, to save her life.
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COLLINS: She beat cancer, but not the credit card companies. Catherine Howard used plastic to cover her mounting medical bills and now she has the rest of her life ahead of her, but she'll spend it in some deep, deep debt.
Photojournalist Jeff King lets Catherine tell it in her own words.
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CATHERINE HOWARD, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I have a great job, but I live like a pauper because I basically spend all of my money servicing the debt that I accrued while I was sick.
In 2004, I was working as a documentary film producer. I wasn't making a lot of money, but I knew that keeping up my health insurance was a priority. I was afraid that I would break my arm snowboarding or take a fall at work. I picked up the phone and I said, I would like to buy some health insurance, please. And this is the outcome.
I ended up almost $100,000 in debt after being diagnosed with breast cancer, having surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and some of these things I just put them on my credit card because I thought, if I don't die, I'll deal with this later. I pay something around $1,800 a month towards all my debt related to my illness, both the tens of thousands of dollars that I paid because my insurance didn't cover me.
And then the, you know, not being able to work. I have this great plan through my work now, but if I went back on the open market and tried to buy myself some health insurance, they wouldn't cover me. I have a pre-existing condition. You know, once you've had cancer, I could never just go out and buy the same crummy coverage that I had before. I would be denied.
I am a really determined person and overcoming cancer I felt has just been my mission for the last couple of years and getting out of debt, I guess, is another one. And just bankruptcy seemed like a cop out and I don't cop out on stuff. I hope I'm alive to see the day I'm out of debt, you know. I'm 36 years old.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: If you want to know more about the health care debate and how the reforms 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 and other health care news, too. Just go to cnn.com/healthcare.
It's one of the hot-button topics in the health care debate and one we have been talking about here. We've heard from the politicians and the people and now we talk to the folks working on the front lines, treating undocumented immigrants. How many are there, and how much does their care cost you?
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ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: With less than a week left into what may be a make-or-break month for health care reform, today, an issue that always seems to fire up emotions every time it comes up. Handling health care for undocumented immigrants.
In our "Snapshot Across America," health professionals have you covered in three states with large immigrant populations. Dr. Juan Tovar is an expert in emergency medicine in San Diego, California. Doctor, hello to you.
Dr. Eneida Roldan is president and CEO of Jackson Health Systems in Miami, Florida. Hello to you as well.
And Dr. Jonathan Lee-Melk is a community pediatrician in Douglas, Arizona. Thank you to all three of you for joining us today with promises for an interesting discussion because it comes up every time we seem to be talking about health care reform.
Dr. Juan Tovar, I want to begin with you. As I mentioned, you are an E.R. doctor right there on the Mexico border with California. You can't refuse care, obviously, if someone comes to you and they are in trouble. You are required by law to treat them. But what sort of issues does this present for you?
DR. JUAN TOVAR, PRACTICES IN SAN DIEGO NEAR MEXICAN BORDER: Well, I would contest that the legal immigrant population is actually a very small amount -- percentage of our population. Most of the people that we see in our hospital and two campuses, one a little bit further up north in San Diego city, and one in Chula Vista in the south called the south campus and the South Bay of San Diego, which is about five to ten minutes from the border.
We see similar populations, which would be a -- about 50 percent Anglo, white Americans and about in the 40s Latino American, but it is a very mixed population. It is -- it does have border flavor and of the influences at the border, but we're not being overrun by a large illegal immigrant population taxing our system. What we are seeing is an increase in uninsured or underinsured people that are using the emergency department as a way out or as a safety net.
COLLINS: So, if the undocumented immigrants are not an issue there, then you're dealing with a similar problem for many different geographical locations across the country that are not border states, if you will. What is your solution? Have you heard anything in the health care reform policies that have been offered, at least at this point, that you like or that you see as solutions?
TOVAR: Well, I believe that the discussion's trending towards a universal health care policy is actually a good one. I think the system is taxed at this point. We have a large amount of our GDP, close to 60 percent, that we use for our health care, and our returns on that health care are not great.
We ourselves are taxed by multiple visits and people coming in for visits that could have gone to see a primary care doctor. We sort of estimate about 40 percent of people we are seeing these days could have gone to see a primary care doctor and be treated there. Instead, they're coming to the emergency department because they have no other way.
COLLINS: Yes. Understood. We appreciate that. Dr. Rhoden, you describe your hospital as sort of a safety net where you are. South Florida, obviously, near Miami. Sort of a go-to facility. What do you mean by that?
DR. ENEIDA ROLDAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEMS: Well, basically, our hospital is the hospital that sees a lot of chronic and very catastrophic diseases. It is a public hospital, and it is one of the largest health systems down in south Florida and, obviously, its location is very close to the Caribbean, as well as central and South America.
So, we do see quite a number of undocumented illegal immigrants. In fact, in the year 2008, fiscal year, we saw approximately 77,000 visits of which approximately 10 percent were of age 65 and over. And that was a cost to our hospital of approximately $38 million...
COLLINS: So, what happens then? Again, we should remind everyone that you're mentioning people coming in from Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Bahamas. When you talk about those numbers and that amount of money, how does it affect your facility?
ROLDAN: Well -- absolutely. We do have overcrowding, and we also have to face the fact that a lot of these undocumented immigrants, they don't go for preventive medicine. They don't go for preventive care.
Therefore, when they come to our hospital, they have very chronic, life-threatening diseases and, obviously, that's very costly at that point. We do have a high incident of cancer in this population and as we all know, chemotherapeutic agents and the treatment of cancer diseases is very costly to our health system in general. COLLINS: Very quickly, I want to ask you the same question as I asked Dr. Tovar. What sort of health care reform would help you?
ROLDAN: Well, one of the things I would like to see is especially in Section 1011 which was the funding that was available from the years 2008 to -- excuse me, 205 (sic) to 2008. We would like to see more funding. This was a federal budget that was allocated to the treatment of undocumented immigrants. It was approximately $250 million on a yearly basis, and we would like to see more funding go to that specific bucket so that it would be able to allow us to provide health care to those that are in need.
COLLINS: All right. Interesting. I wonder if that will be in the one that we're looking at, the final bill once we get a chance to look at that.
Also want to have a chance to talk with Dr. Jonathan Lee-Melk. Thank you for sticking around with us. You're a pediatrician, and you're working on the border of Arizona and Mexico. In fact, you say if we would come to your facility, it would resemble, like, a military zone because of all the border patrol there. Tell us what you face every day. I mean, obviously, your concern is children.
DR. JONATHAN LEE-MELK, COMMUNITY PEDIATRICIAN: I work for a federally qualified community health center named Giracah (ph) Community Health Centers. We're supported by the Children's Health Fund. Our clinic is located about four blocks from the border.
In fact, border patrol is part of our community, as is Homeland Security. And, so, we -- for instance, our waiting room might consist of a father who is a border patrol agent, a teenage mother and a grandmother who is fostering a child.
Children in our community really unify all these different issues, despite all the controversy that goes around the border. I actually agree with Dr. Tovar, the first speaker. About 95 percent of our children -- we just ran these numbers yesterday, Heidi. About 95 percent of our children have insurance. That implies that about -- that all those children are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.
About 5 percent of those are illegal immigrants -- or don't have insurance. So, of those 5 percent, that would include the working poor and also people who don't have paperwork...
COLLINS: OK. Well then I would ask you the same questions as I asked the other physicians. What sort of health care reform do you need in your area?
LEE-MELK: In our area, our main issues are poverty, distance to our referral sources and really, lack of primary care providers.
COLLINS: All right. So, if you had it in your way, you would get a whole slew of primary care providers to come down and handle all of the issues you face.
Well, to the three of you, we appreciate the discussion very much. Dr. Juan Tovar, Dr. Eneida Rolden and Dr. Jonathan Lee-Melk. Thank you very much.
ROLDEN: Thank you.
TOVAR: Thank you.
COLLINS: Banking on Bernanke. Is Big Ben the right man to steer the economy back to better times? The president thinks so. We'll see what Wall Street thinks in a moment.
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COLLINS: Dire predictions on the scope of the swine flu. A new government report says as many as 90,000 people could die from the H1N1 flu this fall. That's the worse-case scenario. Officials say the vaccine is on track for mid-October, but there will only be 50 million initial doses available.
Attorney General Eric Holder going ahead with an investigation into CIA prisoner abuse cases. Holder appointed a special prosecutor yesterday. This comes after a lawsuit from the ACLU forced the CIA to release the 2004 report by the agency's own inspector general. It described tactics like threatening one prisoner with a drill and telling another his children would be killed.
So, we have been asking you what you think about the CIA interrogation program or the tactics that were used here, according to this report. You sent in quite a few comments. We want to take you over to the Heidi Mac and take a look at some of them.
The first one here says, "Unless laws in this country are applied differently to different people, yes, they absolutely should. If the CIA interrogators broke the law, they should be charged as such." Of course, the question here asking whether or not the CIA should be investigated.
The next one says, "No, they need to be prosecuted for releasing still dangerous information that could cause us to lose more troops and start a trend of traitors to pass on top secret information to our enemies. The president is being reckless with our national security, and I'm sure he's already been told this by his generals."
And the last one here says, "Absolutely. If crimes were committed, they must be investigated and prosecuted. We still live in a democracy."
Thanks for your comments, everybody, once again on the CIA interrogation report.
Workers across the country had job reviews to determine if they're doing good work, and it seems the chairman of the Federal Reserve has passed his tests. Now, earlier this morning, President Obama nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term.
Stephanie Elam is at the New York Stock Exchange now with more details on that. Hi there, Stephanie. Is it having an effect on the market? STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not so much, really, Heidi. I think that was pretty expected around here. President Obama has ended the speculation about Ben Bernanke's reappointment. That's true. And by tapping Bernanke for a second term, the president is signaling that he does not want to shake things up. We're still in the midst of a fragile time for our economy, and that could jeopardize what has happened to make things better.
Now, Bernanke has used some unprecedented moves. This off the recession (ph) from turning into a depression. Now, let's show you a few things he's done. He's pushed interest rates to near zero. He's bailed out big companies like AIG, GM and Chrysler. Unleashed new programs to allow companies to borrow money directly from the government.
And keeping Bernanke in his position shows the president isn't changing his economic plan. It shows a bit of stability by keeping the people in place who are there through all the turmoil, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. But those actions haven't come without some criticism. Earlier, we showed the sound when the subprime mortgage crisis is going on. He said he really didn't see that it would bleed into other parts of the economy. But I bet be can expect more of this type of questioning or issues to come up during the Senate confirmation hearings?
ELAM: Yes. He will still go through this, even though he's in the position now, he will have to go through the confirmation hearings. And it could get tense. Senator Chris Dodd says Bernanke acted too slowly in the early stages of the crisis. And Republican Richard Shelby said he's disappointed by some of the Fed's actions.
Still, Bernanke is expected to win a pretty easy confirmation. Despite the criticism, it seems President Obama is focusing on the end result, and the end result is a stabilizing economy.
The most recent example, home prices rose in the second quarter. This is the first time we have seen a gain there in three years. Consumer confidence also jumped this month.
That's helped out the markets here today. Let's give you the numbers right now very quickly. The Dow up 58 points, 9,567. NASDAQ up by 11 at 2,029. So, obviously, he will have to go through the browbeating, but more than likely, he will be back in his position, which isn't up until January, I should add. And he's right back in position to see how things go beyond that point.
COLLINS: All right, very good. Stephanie Elam, thank you.
ELAM: Sure.
COLLINS: Just over an hour left to get Cash for Clunkers, but don't get too excited here. We're just talking about the dealers. The government is extending the paperwork deadline for dealers until noon today. The rush of applications shut down the government's computer system before last night's original deadline. The Transportation Department says they have received 625,000 vouchers so far. That covers $2.5 billion of the $3 billion allocated for the program.
In fact, you may want to break out the aspirin because the Cash for Clunkers party is over, and now these auto dealers is bracing for quite a hangover. How bad will it be? CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Breakdown" now from New York.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Great way to put it, Heidi. The party cannot last forever, folks. The U.S. auto industry is gearing up for a big hit. We're going to see likely a big dropoff in sales. One dealer in Portland, Oregon, even told us, quote, "I think you're going to be able to shoot a cannon through here and not hurt anybody." Talking about how his dealership will be empty.
What we're hearing from experts over at Edmonds.com -- they think U.S. auto sales will fall 40 percent immediately now that the program is over. That would actually take us below where sales were, right down to where they were in May, which is below that 10 million car annualized sales basis. That's how they run the numbers. How many you'd sell over a year looking month by month.
Thanks to Cash for Clunkers, a huge spike in July. We saw over 11 million cars sold when you look at it on an annualized basis. And that, Heidi, is the first time that we crossed that 10 million mark all year. So, obviously, Cash for Clunkers doing a lot to help the dealers and bracing for that hangover, as you say.
COLLINS: Aren't some dealers just totally wiped out of inventory?
HARLOW: Yes, they are. Especially here in the New York area. One dealer we talked to in Bay Ridge Toyota in Brooklyn said he didn't have enough inventory left to sell. We shot this video last Thursday when we went over there during the final rush of Cash for Clunkers. The general manager, Drew Preschotti (ph), you see him right there, he said Toyota can't even tell him when he might get new cars in.
He said, listen, I'm out of Corollas, Camrys, RAV-4s. I don't have enough to sell. So that puts him in a predicament. At dealerships that do have cars left to sell, experts tell us, look, the price is probably going to be pretty high because there is a lack of inventory. The bottom line take-away here, if you're in the market for a new car, because new cars is what Cash for Clunkers applied to, it might pay to wait until the inventory comes back and the prices fall again, Heidi.
COLLINS: OK. If you wait, what about more of these manufacturer or dealer incentives? Any chance there will be more out there?
HARLOW: We're not going to see anything specific from GM or Ford. They told us, listen, we're not planning any new incentives right now because Cash for Clunkers has ended and it doesn't make sense with the inventory so low. Analysts predict once we have the cars back on the lot and edmonds.com says the average incentive should be about $3,000. You can check out more of that story right there on CNNmoney.com. A lot of people rushing into the dealers over the weekend. The party has ended.
COLLINS: Yes. All right. Poppy Harlow, thank you.
HARLOW: Sure.
COLLINS: Outrage and anger from a mobile home community in Texas after the remains of at least three infants turned up in the same area in less than a year and a half.
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COLLINS: Want to update you on a story we were following this time yesterday. Rescue crews in Miami were able to safely free a three-year-old girl from a swimming pool drain. Remember when we were showing you these live pictures. They were working really hard to get her arm out.
Well, apparently, the girl was playing in her condominium's pool when her arm was sucked into a drainage pipe. Crews chipped away the concrete and removed her arm with the pipe still attached. You can see it there. She was taken to had hospital where doctors carefully removed that pipe.
Meanwhile, a disturbing and heartbreaking discovery around a mobile home park in Texas. The remains of two infants found in trash bags. Sana Saeed (ph) and from our affiliate KTXA tells us it is not the first time infant remains have been found in this particular area of Tarrant County.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BO PAVELKA, NEIGHBOR: We need to find out who the heck is doing this to little itty-bitty babies.
SANA SAEED (ph), KTXA-TV CORRESPONDENT: Neighbors in this small mobile home community in Rendon (ph) want to know why infant remains are being found. The landlord found the remains of two babies under this mobile home. Another set of remains were found a year and a half ago in a brush area nearby.
ALISHA NAIL, NEIGHBOR: We never heard anything else about that one. It was just, you know, they found it and that was it. That was end of story and now it's like, it's a big thing because they found another or whatever. But we just like to know what is going on and who's doing it.
SAEED: A sheriff's office spokesman said a brother and sister recently moved out of this mobile home. The landlord's son found two plastic boxes under the mobile home while he was cleaning up. A neighbor called 911.
CALLER: A person just moved out and we were over there to see how much they left and how much they cleaned, that kind of thing. And dug a box out from under the porch. And I don't think it's an animal in this box. TERRY GRISHAM, SPOKESMAN, TARRANT COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Well, we don't know if there's been a crime committed. You know, we have no way of knowing whether we've got a murder, a late-term abortion, a stillborn...
SAEED: Terry Grisham says the medical examiner couldn't figure out how the baby found last year died or who it belonged to. Grisham says the former residents of this home are cooperating and are not considered suspects. They told investigators they never knew about the bodies, and they're willing to do tests to prove the remains don't match their DNA.
NAIL: You know, it's just wild something like this happening. We don't know what's going on. We would like to know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: The landowner rents mobile homes to several people on the five-acre property. Authorities also plan to compare the infant's DNA samples to the other baby whose remains were found one year ago.
A triage area where there used to be a den. A new approach to health care for the people of New Orleans four years after the levees broke.
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COLLINS: Four years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans. The storm destroyed the city's medical system among many other things. And after all this time it is far from one hundred percent. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us people there have had to improvise.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four years ago, Katrina unhinged New Orleans. Homes, people, buildings, bruised and battered. Along with the medical system destroyed. An icon of that system, Charity hospital, today is still closed. But out of the woodwork in unorthodox places, the community is responding.
(on camera): What does community-based therapy look like here in New Orleans? You're looking at it. This used to be somebody's home but now is an outpatient clinic. Let's go take a look.
So, this is your house?
PATRICIA BERRYHILL, OWNER, LOWER NINTH WARD HEALTH CLINIC: Yes.
GUPTA: Used to be your house?
BERRYHILL: Yes, now a clinic. I still own it, but it's the clinic now. The Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic.
GUPTA (voice-over): Before the storm, Patricia Berryhill was a nurse at Charity Hospital.
BERRYHILL: I had water to the ceiling here in this home.
GUPTA: Right here? So there was water to the ceiling?
BERRYHILL: To the ceiling.
GUPTA: Just so hard to imagine.
BERRYHILL: Oh, yeah.
The first time I saw it, it looked like a time bomb hit it. Everything was destroyed.
GUPTA: The triage area used to be a den. Berryhill's kids' rooms, now a kid-themed exam room. Her old bedroom? More exam rooms. Berryhill built the clinic alongside a friend, another nurse at Charity.
ALICE CRAFT-KERNEY, LOWER NINTH WARD HEALTH CLINIC: The first patient that walked through the door was so ill that we had to send her to the emergency room. But what that did, that confirmed our belief that we need to be here.
GUPTA: The days are long. The two nurses alongside two part-time doctors and two medical assistants care for about 80 patients every week. And the cost of the patient, even those without insurance, a pittance. Funded in part by government insurance like Medicaid and donations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, ma'am. All right.
GUPTA: Across town, under a bridge, a free therapeutic drum circle.
DR. JAN JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, PROJECT RISING SUN: We've had an increase in mental illness since the storm with a decrease in providers and a decrease in hospital beds.
GUPTA: This is not a cure for depression, but organizers say it's a subtle, nonstigmatizing way to give some relief. The circle, the clinic, both a response to hemorrhaging hospital budgets and emergency rooms filled to the brim with patients.
(on camera): You going to get to a point in time when this doesn't have to be a clinic any more?
CRAFT-KERNEY: You know, we hope we get put out of business in a way, because if that happens, that means we have adequate health care.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: I'm Heidi Collins. CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Tony Harris.
