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"We Will Have the Votes"; President's New Lesson Plan; Northeast Soaking Wet; Americans Killed in Mexico

Aired March 14, 2010 - 19:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, two Americans were among three people shot to death in Juarez, Mexico, within the past 24 hours. The victims either worked for the U.S. consulate in Juarez or their spouses did. The White House quickly condemned the killings and vowed to bring the killers to justice.

The State Department also sent out an advisory to U.S. consulate workers in Mexico to temporarily send their families out of Mexico just as a precaution. And it said Americans traveling through Mexico should exercise extreme care and avoid places where drugs or prostitution are likely.

In addition to these killings, 25 more victims surfaced in western Mexico yesterday. The bodies of nine civilians and five police officers were found across parts of Acapulco. And a shootout with federal agents trying to carry out search warrants resulted in ten more deaths in another town.

And as we're telling you federal tests do not appear to back up the story of a Toyota Prius owner. Jim Sykes claims his gas pedal stuck and the car sped out of control last week on a California freeway before a state trooper helped bring it to a stop.

But according to a draft Congressional memo, technicians couldn't recreate the same conditions on the car. Sykes claims he slammed on the brakes. But the memo says that does not appear to be feasibly possible. Sykes says he stands by his story.

The northeast is mopping up after this weekend's deadly storm, but there's still a flood threat as rain lingers. Half a million homes remain in the dark after 70 miles-an-hour-winds toppled trees and power lines. Five people were killed in the storm-related accidents.

It is do or die, when or go home. Pick a cliche because Washington politics is a lot like the college basketball tournament. That's about to get under way.

President Barack Obama has what amounts to one last chance to pass health care reform. He needs 216 votes in the House. He's not there yet, but representatives say he's close. Republicans vow to block it any way they can.

So let's bring in our senior political editor, Mark Preston, to talk about it. Mark, I like that little music that's announcing you there. It fits you. It suits you.

So let's -- ok, let's get serious here and talk about the president's lobbying efforts and what you might call a great example of staying on message. I want you to check this out then we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's going to travel to Ohio tomorrow near the hometown of a woman named Natoma Canfield.

DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Natoma Canfield, Natoma Canfield was someone who had insurance in the individual market. She didn't get it through her job. She paid through the nose for it.

GIBBS: She had to decide, she said in that letter to the president, do I keep the house that's been in my family since the '50s or do I pick insurance?

AXELROD: She had to choose between her house and her insurance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Ok, Mark, that's just the beginning. How is that for talking points? Are they going to -- how's that for talking points? And then we're going to go on to talk about the votes.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Look --

LEMON: But obviously, everybody got the memo, stay on message, right?

PRESTON: Yes, you can't accuse the White House from not staying on message certainly Don, when it comes to health care. This is a huge issue for them. And as we also heard David Axelrod say today, now is the time that it needs to get done. And you know we saw Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod just a few hours ago as you morphed their quotes together. They're on message on this one.

LEMON: And that was just one part of it because there were other talking points that I noticed as I was looking through this. I said, wait a minute, someone else just said the exact same thing on another channel.

And you know, everyone does say, and this is just the Democrats turn to do it. Republicans do it as well when they're trying to get something passed or their message across.

So here is the real question. Democrats, do they have the votes to get this passed?

PRESTON: No, I don't think they have the votes right now. When we saw James Clyburn, who is the top vote counter in the House, this morning say that they don't have them yet. I will tell you about 15 minutes ago, I just got off the phone with the House Democratic leadership base and they echoed what we heard this morning.

This will be done as you and I are talking next week. They think that this is going to get done no later than Saturday. They think right now the divide at least in the House on trying to get health care through is mid-single digits. So a lot of arm twisting we'll see over the next couple of days -- Don.

LEMON: So Mark, I didn't get a chance to talk to you today. But members of the staff did and they said that you sort of notified us about this lobbying effort going on, these church TV commercials. Tell us about those.

PRESTON: Yes, you know a couple of things, Don. We call it the inside game/outside game. The inside game is here on Capitol Hill where President Obama calls up a Member of Congress and says, I really need your help or President Obama pulls aside a Member of Congress at a reception and says, "I need your vote." (INAUDIBLE) he'll do the same thing on other Democratic leaders.

Here is the outside game and that is interest groups that are running television ads, Don, across the country trying to either support the bill or trying to get voters so riled up to oppose the bill. In fact, let's look at this one ad right here that's targeting a specific demographic. Right now it's running on Black Entertainment Television. Let's take a quick look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next week, Congress can make history by voting to make health care a right. President Obama's plan would rein in exploding insurance rates to prevent insurance giants from denying coverage --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: There you are, Don. Right there, this is an ad from Americans United for Change. They're spending $125,000 to run this ad on BET over the next few days. And of course, you see President Obama in that ad.

Now, President Obama did not give him -- or give this organization the right to use his image, but they're able to use it in legal means.

I will tell you, Don, over the next five, six, seven days $1 million a day is going to be spent just on TV advertising.

And I will tell you I was at church today and as we were leaving the priest from the pulpit said, talk about -- the church weighing in on this now, asked everybody to fast tomorrow because they're upset at health care, this health care bill because of the abortion language.

So we're seeing it on the airwaves and we're hearing it from the pulpit -- Don.

LEMON: Oh, Mark, very interesting story. I had not heard that. Thank you very much. We'll have to check on that.

I might send out a tweet and see if people in other houses of worship got similar responses today from their pastors.

So listen, real quick I want to turn to education. Why is the president going to revamp that "No Child Education Program?" Why is he doing it now, is the question, when health care is on the line this week?

PRESTON: Well, because he has to do it now. And the fact of the matter is the clock is ticking. We're almost to the point of the midterm elections where we're not going to be able to see anything done here in Washington. Everything will be politicized at that point.

And then, after the midterm elections the president has to focus on running for his own re-election. The idea is for the president to try to get everything lined up right now and really try to marshal it through Congress when he can. That's what we're seeing with "No Child Left Behind" -- Don.

LEMON: All right, thank you much Mark Preston. Again, I like that music. It is very -- you got to do the dance.

Thank you, Mark Preston. We'll see you again next week. All right, oh -- we'll see you at 10:00. Sorry, we'll see you later on tonight.

And you know we're going to continue to follow this story. We're talking about education. As we just told you, President Barack Obama has a new lesson plan for the nation's schools.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our future is determined each and every day when our children enter the classroom ready to learn and brimming with promise. It's that promise we must help them fulfill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He wants to take a red pen to the "No-Child-Left-Behind Act," but is his plan right for your children?

And a warning if you're heading south of the border. After three people connected to the American consulate are gunned down in Juarez.

Plus, a town without a police department; it could be a reality unless there is a budget miracle. Everyone is feeling these economic times, these tough times.

Also, weigh in on our stories, will you? Log on to the social networking sites. We'll put some of your comments on the air.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Low test scores, high dropout rates, American students falling behind their peers in other countries. President Obama wants to change the course by proposing sweeping education overhauls this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: As a nation we are engaged in many important endeavors: improving the economy, reforming the health care system, encouraging innovation in energy and other growth industries of the 21st century, all while still in the midst of two wars. But our success in these efforts and our success in the future as a people will ultimately depend on what happens long before an entrepreneur opens his doors or a nurse walks the rounds or a scientist steps into her laboratory.

Our future is determined each and every day when our children enter the classroom ready to learn and brimming with promise. It's that promise we must help them fulfill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The president plans to do all that by totally rewriting the "No-Child-Left-Behind Act." Tomorrow he is sending a new set of guidelines to Congress.

All right, let's get into this now. CNN education contributor Steve Perry is in Harper, Connecticut tonight, he is a fan of "No- Child-Left-Behind".

Patricia Avallone says, "No Child" is not effective, but she did coordinate the program for New Haven, Connecticut.

And also joining us, Bruce Piefke, he is a parent with two daughters who go to school right here in Atlanta, Georgia. He joins me here on set.

So before these two get into it, because they -- you know they are education people -- I want to ask you, as a parent, anything that Patricia or Steve can say that can help guide you through this or that might change your mind? What do you -- what would you like to see to help your child?

BRUCE PIEFKE, CONCERNED PARENT: Well, I think, number one, 11 years ago I started off just reading to my daughter's kindergarten class. And that's when I learned that being involved as a parent can make a difference. I also learned that great teachers and great principals make all the difference in the world.

So anything that reinforces that model to get better teaches and better principals in school --

LEMON: Yes.

PIEFKE: -- I think is a step in the right direction.

LEMON: Ok. Listen, I'm going to ask Patricia this. Many critics of "No Child Left Behind" say it is too results-oriented. Does this Obama plan really present a different option or sharpen that in any way for you?

PATRICIA AVALLONE, FORMER PRINCIPAL: I think from everything I've heard about what the president is just saying that he's going to take the best points of the "No-Child-Left-Behind". I think he is going to change the name and he's going to make it address the issues that are not just addressing math, reading and science.

For years -- for the last eight years in education we've been taking an awful lot of time drilling in math, drilling in English and just recently we added science into that. But to the detriment of all the other programs that enrich the lives of children: art, music, PE, many of those things. Kids don't have recess many times.

Kindergartners are learning how to do bubble sheets when they're five years old. And I want to say one thing right now. I'm not saying that "No Child Left Behind" doesn't have great points so I want to clear that up. There's two wonderful points that I really like about it.

But what's happened, as with any other program, we've lost it somehow. The orchestration and the choreography along the way and the pressure that it's put on schools, that's the detriment as I said.

LEMON: Miss -- and Ms. Avallone, that's just going to -- my next question was going to be if you didn't think it was effective then why did you coordinate it in New Haven, Connecticut. And I guess, your answer to that would be, there were some points to it you did agree with and you thought will work for you.

AVALLONE: Yes.

LEMON: Ok, so let's --

AVALLONE: Let me just say it was part of my job to do it and I loved the part of the job because it involved educating parents, engaging parents, and closing the achievement gap.

LEMON: Ok.

AVALLONE: I was very proud of the work we do in New Haven.

LEMON: Ok. So Steve, why do you think the Obama plan is the wrong way to go? Is it just the rebuke do you believe of the Bush administration?

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I don't know that anyone knows exactly what the Obama plan is just yet. So it's unfair to say that I'm against it or for it. But what I've heard about it says that it's going to peel back the responsibility, as Ms. Avallone talked about, the pressure on the schools.

The point of "No Child Left Behind" is simply that, to establish a standard by which every single child will be measured and that their performance is what determines whether or not a school is an effective school. I have a deep problem with anything that goes in the opposite direction of that.

If a school cannot for six years serve the needs of children, for God's sake, why are we leaving it open? And how do we even call it a school, all we can call it is a building with employees.

Until such time as we begin to put children's needs above all else, until we begin to give them the options that "No Child Left Behind" actually called for, what I had expected was that this president would go one step forward and say now that we found so many schools are performing horribly, we need to find more options. We need to look honestly at vouchers; we need to look honestly at other choices.

LEMON: Ok.

PERRY: But to go in any other direction is the wrong way.

LEMON: Ok. And Steve and Patricia, I have to tell you -- I want to tell you guys -- we're going to get a lot of points in so if we can keep them a little bit more concise so that we get all these points.

Of course we want to let Bruce in. We didn't hear any mention -- we heard Steve say, you know, until we put the child's needs above everything else we're never going to get it right. I didn't hear anyone say -- and not to say that they're not thinking about it -- but what about parental responsibility in all this instead of someone saying we have to overhaul our education system? What about you as a parent? Do you feel a responsibility?

BRUCE PIEFKE, CONCERNED PARENT: Absolutely. I mean I think parents have to be responsible. They have to be involved in the schools if we're going to raise the standards. There has to be accountability, yes, but I think no child left behind -- the problems hopefully they're fixing them. Problems where really good schools were being punished and other schools that weren't achieving the results they should probably were slipping through.

LEMON: I want to ask Patricia -- you know "Newsweek" recently said it's time to fire all the bad teachers. Have the teachers become scapegoats? And would the Obama plan, you believe, change that at all?

AVALLONE: Who are you talking to?

LEMON: I'm talking to you.

AVALLONE: Nobody wants a good teacher -- I'm sorry -- nobody wants a bad teacher.

LEMON: Yes, you want to say that? Start over again.

AVALLONE: Yes. Please. You know, and I know unions do get a bad rap because they say, well, you can't fire a teacher because of the union.

Let me tell you something. Steve, you're an administrator. It is the administrator's job. The union is only supposed to be there to protect them if things are being done unfairly. But if a principal really does their job, there's four years in Connecticut for a teacher to gain tenure. If a principal doesn't know in two years that that teacher is not making it then it is up to the school district and that leader to ask that person to leave without any questions asked. Unions always get blamed for that.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I'm going to let Steve respond but I hear the dad here saying -- the parent saying, "absolutely". So Steve, respond -- because listen, the criticism has been by some -- hang on, I'm going to let you respond -- is that the Obama plan panders to unions. Respond to what she said.

PERRY: It's interesting that someone who's representing one of the lowest-performing school districts in the state of Connecticut would talk about performance. It's important to understand that if we're going to take responsibility for that which we've done we have to put the problems in their place.

One of the places where we have them is we keep schools open to employ adults not to educate children. "No Child Left Behind" in its purest form would close failed schools and put in its place more successful educators and individuals who have the capacity to help children. It would give children choice to go to a tutoring program if need be.

Anything else that was necessary to improve the child's performance, not increase the likelihood of the individual to continue.

LEMON: Steve, I'm going to give Bruce the last word here. Very quickly because we're running out of time. Why were you nodding?

PIEFKE: Well, absolutely, I've learned firsthand that the principal is so important in a school and they have to be held accountable. They have to hold their teachers accountable. If you have a great principal, odds are you're going to have a great school.

LEMON: Bruce Piefke, a parent here; Patricia Avallone is an educator, Steve Perry as well -- you're both educators. Thank you guys, so much. We appreciate it.

PERRY: Thank you.

AVALLONE: You're welcome. Thank you.

LEMONX: The northeast gets hammered again. But this time it is not snow; it's winds, it's rain. Homes are in ruins. We'll tell you if the stormy weather will ever let up.

Plus a deadly pursuit: two American citizens are gunned down in Mexico. And their murders are sparking outrage at the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Two Americans were among three people shot to death in Juarez, Mexico within the past 24 hours. The victims either worked for the U.S. Consulate in Juarez or their spouses did. The White House quickly condemned the killings and vowed to bring the killers to justice.

The State Department sent out an advisory to U.S. consulate workers in Mexico to temporarily send their families out of the country as a precaution.

One witness describes it as just a big white wall of snow. Two people are now confirmed dead in yesterday's avalanche in Canada's Rocky Mountains. Hundreds had gathered for a snowmobile competition when the avalanche came crashing down on them. Thirty people were hit. Witnesses say daredevil sledders may have triggered the slide.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was all smiles as he was released from a South Korean hospital today. The 86-year-old was admitted yesterday for a stomach virus. Doctors say they found nothing serious after performing a thorough checkup. Kissinger was in Seoul for a security forum.

Let's go to CNN's meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. Jacqui, our breaking news; that weather that hit the northeast still going on in many ways. They're still reeling from it.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it doesn't want to away, you know. It's a system that's just sitting there and spinning; eventually it's going to pull out of here. But we're going to have to wait until Tuesday before it completely loosens its grip.

The damaging winds with this system have just been so incredible; our iReporters now showing us some pictures from this. This is from Andrew Summerfield from New Jersey showing us the Wyckoff area. All the trees that have been downed in this area; there you could see a huge one, uprooted, causing damage, falling down on cars. Thankfully, he says, nobody in this situation was injured.

With that rain in the area and that's going to continue as well as well as the snow melt, we're real concerned about flooding problems across the mid-Atlantic and into the northeast. We also have issues across the upper Midwest.

Let's zoom in here. We're watching the Red River Valley of the north where the flood levels are beginning to rise here. We're watching Fargo, North Dakota; it's expected to be in major flood here by Tuesday getting close to record stage by next weekend. They've been preparing this, Don, for weeks already, by filling up sandbags.

LEMON: Jacqui thank you very much.

He was a football player, a wrestler, a husband, and a dad, but for 40 years he lived with the wish to become a woman. That wish secret no more. How David transformed into Donna, straight ahead.

And brewing up an alternative to the TEA party; we're talking with the founder of the fledgling Coffee party movement and finding out why she wants more choices on the political menu.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Want to go back now to our top story tonight. The shooting deaths in Juarez, Mexico, of three people ken connected to the U.S. consulate there. Two of the victims were Americans.

The White House has denounced the violence. And the U.S. government is warning its employees in Mexico and Americans traveling to the country to use extreme caution.

I want to bring in now Rafael Romo; he is CNN senior Latin- American affairs editor. So listen, tell us about these killings. What do we know about these killings? I know that they were supposedly attending a function. And what of this baby we're hearing now that was involved?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR-LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Exactly. We understand -- I spoke with the mayor of Juarez not so long ago. And he was stilling me that there was a baby -- a three-month-old baby found in the back seat of this couple, the female employee of the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez. There was 3-month-old baby there who luckily wasn't harmed.

Also there were two girls younger than age 10 in the second car -- the second incident -- who were also unharmed. Their father was killed -- shot and killed right in the middle of the city. But fortunately the children, these three children, who witnessed the shooting, in the middle of the day are fine.

LEMON: Because of what's been going on in Juarez, and we know about its connection to, you know, illegal drugs, some people are going to say this is drug-related. Do we know that yet if it is indeed?

ROMO: We don't know at this point whether it was or it wasn't. What we know is that the first couple, the American and her husband, were being chased by a car. That was witnessed by a police officer on foot patrol. He saw it. He radioed a patrol.

By the time they got there the shooting had already happened. It seems like they were being targeted. Somebody knew who they were looking for and they chased them down the road and they found them. And this happened just across the street from the international bridge that connects Ciudad Juarez with El Paso, Texas.

LEMON: Within sight of the U.S. border.

ROMO: Within sight of the U.S. border, exactly.

LEMON: So then, if we don't know if it's drug related, we don't know then that this is some type of message that they might be sending?

ROMO: Exactly. What we know is that they might have been friends because they went together to a children's party earlier in the morning. So there was that connection and also the connection that they -- all three of them were related to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez.

LEMON: You talk about the children's party. We heard about other young people being killed, happened recently just at the end of last year, and other -- all over Mexico, especially near the border. And then now in tourist spots, because we're hearing about 25 people that were killed in western Mexico in a tourist spot.

ROMO: Exactly.

Two separate incidents. In one incident federal police was trying to carry out a search warrant. They go to a house and they are received with bullets. 11 people were killed. That's one incident. In separate incidents, 14 additional people were killed. So 25 people all together in a 24-hour period in Acapulco, as you know this time of year, a lot of American and international tourists go there for spring break.

LEMON: OK. All right. Listen, before you go away, I just want to - I'm hearing that we're just getting a statement from the secretary of state Hillary Clinton. It is involving this. She says, "I have spoken with our ambassador in Mexico and we are working with the government of Mexico to do everything necessary to protect our people and to ensure that the perpetrators of these horrendous acts are brought to justice."

So again, (INAUDIBLE) from the secretary of state. And obviously, the president own the secretary of state responding, this is serious.

ROMO: This is serious. And just one more thing, Don, there was an incident on Thursday, an incursion of a chopper. That is also being investigated.

Thank you. Rafael Romo, he is our senior Latin American affairs editor. We appreciate it.

Juarez racked up about 2,600 killings last year. That makes it one of the deadliest cities in the world, if not the deadliest. And everyone blames the drug cartels. CNN has been committed to bringing you this story since it began. And last year our very own Anderson Cooper went to Juarez to investigate reports of a mass grave. Here's his report, and again, it is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We're pretty far out from the city of Juarez, on the outskirts on town. Very deserted area. A couple of weeks ago, some workers were out here excavating land and noticed a foot sticking up from the sand. They found a shallow grave. This one right here. It had four people in it. Four men. One of them had been shot. The rest had all been beaten pretty badly.

And just a few feet away another shallow grave was found. Three men were inside here and two women. They'd all been killed by cartels.

(voice-over): The police removed the bodies but were never able to identify who the victims were. Hundreds of bodies found in Juarez have never been claimed, according to the city's mayor, Jose Reyes.

MAYOR JOSE REYES, JUAREZ, MEXICO: 1,600 people died during last year. About 800 of those we buried in mass graves. Unknown males. Mostly from other cities. Came in for the war. I'm pretty sure their families don't even know that they're dead.

COOPER (on camera): There's about 800 unidentified people have been buried here?

REYES: Right.

COOPER: And still no one knows today.

REYES: Nobody has claimed them. Nobody has come in to try and see if their family members are here.

COOPER (voice-over): The unclaimed dead are put in wooden coffins and buried in communal graves in a special section of the city's cemetery. After the burials there are few visitors. No one knows who lies beneath.

(on camera): There are no tombstones, no names, just metal grave markers with serial numbers indicating how many people are buried in each plot. There's four people in this one. It just goes on row after row.

(voice-over): Though the murder rate in Juarez dropped with the deployment of Mexican soldiers on the city, at the cemetery they're prepared if and when the violence increases. Dozens of new communal graves have already been dug, ready to receive the next anonymous victims of this drug war.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: We'll continue to follow that story for you here on CNN.

The slowing economy hits home in a way most people never imagine.

((BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a shock to everybody. Nobody believed it. I couldn't believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Budget cuts could force a small Georgia town to close its police department. We're going to take you there.

And panic in a former Soviet ?republic after a false media report that the Russian Army was invading. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: When the tea party stole the political spotlight a year ago it was just a matter of time until someone with an opposing view used the internet to organize an alternative. Well, someone has and it's called the coffee party. The founder is Annabel Park and her group helped kicked off events nationwide just this weekend. I asked her if she created the coffee party to counter the tea party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNABEL PARK, FOUNDER, COFFEE PARTY USA: Many of us felt at the same time a desire for an alternate to the tea party. Because we share with the tea party kind of a generalized discontent with our government. So most of us spent the past year watching kind of the train wreck which is the health care debate and I think we were just feeling like there is something very wrong with our government and that is really kind of our starting point. We want to figure out how to get our government to represent us better.

LEMON: So then why not -

PARK: That is really the starting point.

LEMON: So why not just join the tea party then and try to make your difference through the tea party?

PARK: Well, I think what we don't share with them from kind of what I've seen, and I'm not an expert on the tea party, at all. From what I know about the tea party, it seems like they feel the federal government is not the solution to the challenges that we face collectively and we agree that there are things very wrong with the federal government right now, but we would like the federal government to work for us, for ordinary Americans and our interests and our needs. We don't want to abandon the federal government because it needs to be treated. So we -

LEMON: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

PARK: We kind of see the federal government as almost like kind of a patient that needs to be treated. We don't want to abandon the patient. We need to revive it and have it work for us.

LEMON: You say this is a return to civility. And I don't want to put words in your mouth but do you believe that among the Tea Party-ers that there is not a lot of civility there and so are you countering that by trying to have a civil discussion. Because much of the things it says that you want civility, open dialogue, freedom, fairness, an energized electorate and engagement and you also want diversity as well.

PARK: Mm-hmm. Right. I would say that, you know, civility is important because many of us, I think, feel kind of alienated from the political process right now because the political discourse is so divisive and polarized. It just feels like it is either a football game or even ultimate fighting. People are just trying to win points. And it doesn't feel like we are there to work together, cooperate and come to solutions. It feels very alienating.

LEMON: Well, I have to say to you, thank you very much. Let us know how it goes, OK. Annabel Park, the founder of the Coffee Party movement.

PARK: Thank you.

LEMON: Appreciate it.

PARK: Thank you for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Annabel Park now has about 115,000 friends on Facebook, most of them joining just in the last two weeks or so.

A look now at your top stories. Another earthquake, this one hitting off Japan's east coast today. The 6.6 magnitude quake rattled buildings in much of the country including the capital of Tokyo. There are reports of damage, but no casualties.

A fake broadcast sends a country of Georgia into panic mode. Georgian television station aired what is called a simulation of a new invasion by the Russians, but many thought it was real. They rushed into the streets and jammed the phone lines. It brought back memories of a 2008 war between the countries. The show used old sound bites and footage from the conflict. The station later apologized.

Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's alliance is maintaining its slight lead in Iraq's parliamentary elections. The latest tally shows Al Maliki's coalition leading in seven of the 18 provinces. Two more than his nearest rival. Officials expect to have at least 60 percent of the vote in all 18 provinces counted by tomorrow. The alliance that wins the most seats in the parliament will pick a candidate for prime minister.

As we have talked about this hour, education, spending cuts and school closures are making a lot of headlines, but it's not just education that is taking a hit these days. Consider the small Georgia town of Monticello, hit by the same economic slowdown and falling revenues as so many other cities. City leaders, like their counterparts around the country, are being forced to make some very tough tradeoffs.

In this case, a possible shutdown of the entire police department.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON (voice-over): Detective Roberta Anderson has spent 19 years protecting the small rural city of Monticello, Georgia and about 2,500 people.

(on camera): Is this an area that you're more concerned about?

DET. ROBERTA ANDERSON, MONTICELLO, GEORGIA: This is the area, yes. This is Mason Street.

LEMON (voice-over): But soon she may have to hang up her badge for good.

ANDERSON: It's just a shock to everybody, nobody believed it. I couldn't believe it. But it was said that they have no money, so they cannot afford to fund the police department. It was cut.

LEMON: In February, the city council reduced the police force. Now there's just three officers. The mayor says barring a miracle, the entire department will probably be gone by July.

(on camera): So you don't have enough reserve or anything to get through this economic downfall to keep up a police department?

MAYOR GLENN NEWSOME, MONTICELLO, GEORGIA: Unfortunately, we have no reserve.

LEMON (voice-over): Mayor Glenn Newsome calls it the perfect economic storm. Just as the city was dealing with nationwide problems like declining tax dollars, the real estate bust and unemployment, it was hit by an unusually cold winter and the city runs the areas power, gas and water systems.

NEWSOME: People came in and say we can't pay the utility rates. The council decided to lower the utility rate for electricity. It's called a power cost adjustment. When they lowered that that reduced anticipated revenue by $250,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year.

LEMON (on camera): And you already had a shortfall?

NEWSOME: Right. We already had a shortfall.

LEMON (voice-over): The city put land up for sale, borrowed money, furloughed employees and cuts programs but even that wasn't enough to save what makes up the biggest part of their budget, the police department.

NEWSOME: I think the council had no other choice. I mean I think that's the only place that you can't have a deficit. I mean, we just can't do as the federal government does. And so they had no - there was no other place to go to get that kind of money.

LEMON: The county sheriff will take over, but many here worry about safety.

NICKI WOMACK, MONTICELLO, GEORGIA RESIDENT: We've been told our crime is low. Of course it's low because we have the presence of the police department. But without the presence of the police department, you're going to see our crime rate go up.

LEMON: This week the city council got an earful from the people of Monticello demanding they keep the police department, make other cuts and audit its budget. They council accepted offers by two judges to cut their salaries, is considering selling laid off police officers their old gun. They'll even rent the mayor's office in city hall. But a motion to save the police department failed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion falls by a vote of 2-3.

LEMON: For now Detective Anderson and her two remaining colleagues are still on patrol, hopeful that somehow somewhere the city will find the money to keep them on the beat well past summer and the seemingly unrelenting economic downturn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: A lot of towns are dealing with, cities dealing with the same issues. Closing the police department is a drastic move but it is not unheard of. Byesville, Ohio is the same size as Monticello and its police department will close the end of the month. Highwood, Illinois with about 4,500 people considering the same move. So is Auburn, Michigan, they're considering the same thing. Their population 2,000. We'll continue to follow this one as well.

And still ahead here on CNN, a little boy's 911 call you'll never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly what happened. OK. Just stay where you are and , don't hang up, whatever you do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. OK. The guys, they have a -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That call saved the lives of his parents. You'll hear the entire thing and why it was such a desperate situation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. So Imagine this, living much of your life feeling that you are in the wrong body. That's how Donna Rose says she felt. Born male. She was a burly football player and wrestler. His name was David. A man's name, if you will. David married, had a son, but at age 40, David became Donna. She spoke with CNN's Drew Griffin about her secret wish and her very public transformation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA ROSE, TRANSGENDER SPEAKER: There's nothing specific in my childhood, you know, that you could say, well, this is what girls do or this is what boys do so you should have behaved this way. I knew how I was supposed to behave as a boy.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Right.

ROSE: And when you look at those pictures of me you'll know that I did a very good job of playing a role and I would argue that the first 40 years of my life were playing the role and the last 10 years have been the real me.

GRIFFIN: And in those last 10 years, do you feel like the real you? Is this now who you are supposed to be and you are much more comfortable? Can you say you're much more comfortable now than you were then?

ROSE: I am. I am much more comfortable. You know, but the thing in my situation is that who I am, what I am as Donna is a combination of 40 years of growing up as David in a world of privilege that white heterosexual men don't even recognize that they have and finally being able to let parts of myself express themselves that I had hidden for a long time.

So the me that I am today is kind of a combination of a very unique opportunity to experience life in ways that most people don't but unfortunately transsexuals and transgender people continue to have to explain or rationalize or justify, you know, why they are the way they are rather than recognizing that people are complicated and we are more than just the bodies that we are trapped in.

GRIFFIN: Do you feel fully female now or do you feel like a man who's become a woman?

ROSE: I couldn't even begin to - I wouldn't know what feeling fully female would be. And I don't think that if you ask a roomful of women who are born comfortably in their body as girls, that there's a consistent feeling of what your gender is or how it feels to you.

So all I know is that for me and for many people who deal with situations similar to mine and Susan's is that we find a way to be able to live a life where we're no longer constantly thinking about it, where we're no longer feeling like we're living a lie and we can just live our lives and go on. And to me that's the goal of all of this, is to live happy, productive, fulfilling life. It has nothing to do with -

GRIFFIN: The documentary that we're showing tonight, it really documents how hard it is to transition.

ROSE: Yes.

GRIFFIN: But how hard it was for you to transition in your personal lives with your son, right, your mother that you just mentioned, your family? How difficult was it for them to accept you as you are now?

ROSE: Well, as I came to accept myself, which is what had to happen before I came out, which was a long and hard process, because there's a lot of shame. There's a lot of guilt. There's a lot of fear that goes with having this secret. But the fact is that I was terrified. You know, as David I was a very selfish word, very manly kind of a guy.

And all of a sudden I was completely vulnerable. I was completely confused and it was an interesting process. But I'm very, very, very fortunate that the relationships in my life, most of them, have never been stronger. My mother, my sister, my brother, that my - the friends who are still friends and my son, most importantly, are relationships based on a real recognition of who I am, not based on what people want me to be or think I should be.

So finally I'm able to express that. And I'd have to say that the best part of being Donna is being able to have friendships and relationships that don't have to hide something below the surface.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Fascinating interview. And you heard our Drew Griffin mention the documentary that we're going to show you tonight in just a few minutes here on CNN.

Largo, Florida, city manager Steven Stanton was fired after a newspaper revealed his lifelong secret, he, too, wanted to be a woman. Thus began Steve's isolated journey to become Susan. You can see "Her Name was Steven," It's right here at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. It is fascinating. Make sure you stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Every weekend we bring you interesting news items that you might have missed. This is one.

Talk about drama on the high seas, look at this heart-stopping video off the coast of Australia. A $3 million speed boat belonging to anti-whaling activist playing chicken with a giant Japanese whaling ship. Why do that? Well, the pricey little boat, it lost a skipper of the speed boat was taken into custody by the whaling captain. The whaling ship has now arrived back in Tokyo with its prisoner who was promptly arrested by the Japanese Coast Guard. The case is attracting a huge amount of attention in Japan where whaling has strong cultural support despite international condemnation.

In San Francisco, hundreds of narcotics cases are in jeopardy because of a scandal in the city's crime lab. At the center of it, a 60-year-old lab technician accused of stealing drug evidence for her own use. She has since retired. The prosecutors fear hundreds perhaps thousands of cases may have been compromised.

We end tonight with one of the most gripping 911 calls that you'll ever hear. A seven-year-old boy in California is credited with saving his family's life by keeping a cool head in a life and death situation. Today he is hailed as a hero. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 911, state your emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a guy that is going to kill my mom and dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are you at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Norwalk, California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, what is your name?

CARLOS: one of them having just a jacket and they both have guns but there was three of them.

And they have guns. They shoot my mom and dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Can you come?

CARLOS: They were next to the door with my mom and dad. My mom was putting her hands up and her head down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where were you?

CARLOS: Me and my sister were at the bathroom. Calling 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen to me, take a deep breath. We already have the police coming.

CARLOS: Can you drive really fast? Hurry up.

MONIQUE PATINO, 911 DISPATCHER: I still hear his little voice on the phone. So to hear him talking in person, it kind of just brought back the memories of that phone call.

Tell me exactly what happened. OK. Just stay where you are and don't hang up, whatever you do.

CARLOS: OK. The guys - they have -

PATINO: I'm very proud of myself that I kept it together. But once I heard the screams towards the end, honestly. I'm holding the phone and I'm in tears. I can barely talk. I'm shaking. I'm in tears because all I hear is them screaming and it was very, very tough for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Very brave little boy. Glad they are OK.

I'm Don Lemon. I'll see you back up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

"Her Name Was Steven" begins right now.