Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Missing Sect Members Found Alive; Freed Prisoner Back in U.S.; Igor Bearing Down; IPad Alternatives are Available; "Sesame Street Live Turns 31

Aired September 19, 2010 - 18:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN: Hurricane Igor is bearing down, thousands either fleeing or bracing for the worst. It is a giant storm and our hurricane headquarters is tracking every single movement.

A story beyond frustration, trying to prove you're an American citizen. No one believes you and you're deported. Don't think it can't happen to you. You won't believe one man's story of many this hour.

And they live on one of the most famous streets in the world where everyone, even the people who live there, wonders how to get to. But some residents of "Sesame Street" have found their way to our studio.

Grab the kids, everyone. Elmo is in the house this hour!

(MUSIC)

LEMON: Hello. I'm Don Lemon.

But we start with this story. It's a strange one unfolding in southern California. More than a dozen people, including many children, that were reported missing overnight and they were feared that they were about to take their own lives in a cult-like mass suicide. They have been found and everyone is OK. But now, there are lots of questions -- one of which includes how police are handling this case.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez joins us now live from Palmdale, California.

So, Thelma, first of all, was this a cult? What's going on here?

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, obviously, there's some kind of a disconnect between the stories that the spouses told investigators and what now the women are telling investigators. So, we're not exactly sure exactly how this thing is going to come out. But I can tell you that they belong to a church here in Palmdale.

These women say that they just broke off from the church. They went off on these little prayer sessions that they would organize on their own. They routinely would come out to the desert and pray overnight. And so, something happened, Don, that made the husbands go into authorities and say, "We're very concerned." Authorities look through some of the belongings that these women left behind, cell phones, apparently letters that were interpreted as goodbye notes, and they wanted to know, were these children, eight children and five women, in any kind of danger.

So, they said they wanted to err on the side of caution. And so, they started this huge manhunt that we had been hearing about since last night. What happened is that, apparently, a viewer was watching the coverage and recognized the cars parked here outside of Jackie Robinson Park and saw 13 women and children sitting right here praying on the grass at the park. In fact, you can see they left their Bibles right here on the grass.

So, police come rolling up, and, in addition to that, all the media. We come. We find these people, and they had this look on their face, Don, they were absolutely stunned to see the authorities out here, to see the media out here --

LEMON: Well, Thelma --

GUTIERREZ: -- and I asked one of the women in Spanish, I go, you guys OK?

LEMON: I got to --

GUTIERREZ: Everything all right? They said, absolutely.

LEMON: I've got to ask you this, then. So, did police, in fact, overreact? Are sheriffs saying anything about this now?

GUTIERREZ: You know, that's a really tough thing, Don. They're saying that they did the right thing. They felt -- they heard these spouses were very concerned about their children who had left with a woman who was, you know, a member of a cult. And so, authorities said that they did what they had to do. Here's what they told us a few minutes ago.

LEMON: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: Were they eating? What were --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They appeared to be praying. This appears to be a prayer session that seems to be elongated. One a.m. it started. Three a.m., one of our deputies saw them at Pete Knight High School, visited with them, talked to them. The kids seemed to be in good spirits.

They waved to us. They were praying. They were praying for no violence in schools. Praying for abstinence for premarital sexual relations, things like that, honest and well-meaning things.

However, why did they leave this? Why did the two husbands come into our station terribly concerned? All of those questions we're going to try to answer. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: Now, sheriff investigators say they have detained Reyna Chicas who was allegedly the prayer group organizers. They talked to her. They found that she was very confused and so, they are going to be conducting a psychological evaluation on her a little bit later. And Children and Family Services will be coming out to talk to the other parents of those children who are here in this prayer circle -- Don.

LEMON: Thelma Gutierrez, reporting at Palmdale, California -- Thelma, thank you very much.

And, you know, stories like this will immediately trigger memories of Jonestown. Remember that? Heaven's Gate, the Branch Davidians, the Manson family and other notorious cults. Expert Marc Galanter will join me next hour to explain why even a whiff of cult- like behaviors sets off alarms so quickly. We'll get back to that story.

Back on American soil now, more on that massive prison in Iran -- we're talking about Sarah Shourd. She was in custody in Iran for about a year now. She touched down just a short time ago following her release last week.

Shourd is one of three American hikers that detained by Iran after they allegedly crossed over the border from Iraq in July of 2009. Her arrival comes as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly session that begins tomorrow.

Susan Candiotti is following all of this for us from New York right now.

Susan, we heard that Shourd may have had some health issues. Is she OK? That's the question.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem that she is OK. She said that she got a clean bill of health from doctors in Oman. More on that in a moment.

But with her companions behind bars, Sarah Shourd says she feels one-third free. Shourd's long journey to the United States began, of course, from Iran to Dubai and then she went on to Washington, D.C.

And then, she wound up with a news conference in New York City just this afternoon. She stuck to a prepared statement. And in that statement, she said she is going to focus on her still-imprisoned fiance and friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SHOURD, FREED AMERICAN HIKER: Shane and Josh do not deserve to be in prison one day longer than I was. We committed no crime and we are not spies. We in no way intended any harm to the Iranian government or its people, and believe a huge misunderstanding led to our detention and prolonged imprisonment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: The mothers of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have requested a meeting with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly. No word yet on whether, in fact, he will meet with the mothers.

I met with them after the press conference, and they tell me Sarah's release makes them more hopeful their own children will be allowed to leave prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY HICKEY, MOTHER OF AMERICAN IMPRISONED IN IRAN: I was very excited for Sarah to be free for our families and also Nora and Sarah. However, the bittersweet truth is that Shane and Josh aren't home. We really want them home. They're innocent. It's the same case. They need to be returned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, we asked the mothers as well if they learned anything else about the way the hikers were treated in jail, but they said she haven't had a chance to talk to Sarah about that yet. Shourd didn't take any questions today. In her statement, she said she will continue to work for the release of Shane and Josh -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Susan. Listen, we heard that Sarah may have had some health issues, again, we're wondering is she OK? What's the deal with her health?

CANDIOTTI: Well, here's what happened. Remember, we were told by her mother that Sarah had found a lump in one of her breasts and that she had some other issues as well. And, in fact, Iran said that was one of the reasons that they included in their reason for humanitarian release. But she said when she was freed and got to Oman, that the doctors there looked at her and told her that you are in physical good health.

Now, of course, she may have some emotional issues as well. She's been through a long ordeal and she'll be resting now.

LEMON: All right. Susan Candiotti, thanks for following this story for us.

We want to go down to the Gulf of Mexico where the all-clear has been given on that busted BP well pipeline that caused so much drama, heartbreak and nearly the death of 11 men, becoming the worst disaster, oil disaster in U.S. history.

National incident commander, Thad Allen, declared the Macondo oil well officially dead early this morning. The so-called bottom kill operation, pumping mud and cement into the line, passed all pressure tests. The line may be plugged, but no doubt it will be years before the people along the Gulf fully recover. Bermuda is bracing at this hour as Hurricane Igor pounds a tiny Atlantic island. Already, we're hearing that half of the island may have been lost power. We're live from there -- next.

And the new darling of the Tea Party movement and her past comments about witchcraft. We'll tell you how Democrats are already trying to exploit Christine O'Donnell's decade's old remarks.

And don't just sit there. Become part of our conversation. Make sure you send us a message on Twitter or Facebook. Check out our blog, CNN.com/Don. And look for us on Foursquare.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's talk weather now. This is really a bad one -- gusting winds, driving rains and fearsome waves. That's what Bermuda is facing right now from huge Hurricane Igor. We are covering it from every angle for you.

Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras at the CNN hurricane headquarters here at the CNN Center and Reynolds Wolf is right in the middle of it at Elbow Beach in Bermuda.

We're going to start with you, Reynolds. It looks like the wind is kicking up and you're getting lots of rain.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, Don.

Now, we're expecting the storm to actually just pass just to the west of the island. But we're going to catch the brunt of it, biggest wind fall, obviously, some of the biggest waves right here on Elbow Beach, at the same time, some of the heaviest rainfall. That rainfall has caused some flooding across parts of the island. That rain combined with the strong wind gusts, some of them in excess of 70 miles per hour, had caused power outages widespread across the island.

You mentioned earlier that half the residents' population, half of the population of this island, without power.

Another number for you: 60 people reported to emergency shelters -- and just to many viewers around the country, 60 does not sound like a very big number. But I got to tell you, it's about 10 times the amount of people that went to shelters back in 2003 for Hurricane Fabian which was considered one of the most devastating hurricanes in Bermuda history.

So, yes, they're definitely dealing with the onslaught of the storm. One of the biggest issues we have along the coast is some serious beach erosion and these waves are going to continue to pound across much of the coastline.

I can tell you, some video we took earlier in Hamilton, the city of Hamilton, you'll see the streets there, many of those places are virtually deserted. A few brave souls have been out and about, checking some of the storm damage, seeing some of this, storm actions firsthand and, of course, it made the downtown areas that I mentioned without power. That's the bad news.

Good news, though, Don, is that as we fast forward into tomorrow, into Tuesday, the storm should be well north of Bermuda. Things should slowly get back to normal. But the airport probably going to be closed until late Monday or Tuesday and then the process of restoring power will then resume. It's going to be a tough, long haul. The cleanup is going to be a big one, no question.

Let's send it back to you, Don.

LEMON: Stay safe. Reynolds Wolf, thank you very much.

Let's turn now to our meteorologist in-house, Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, looks like some strong winds there.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and that's been going on for probably four, five hours for sure, Don. And things are going to continue to get worse in the next couple of hours before it gets better.

You know, this is a long duration event. Those winds are going to be whipping them. Overall, we're talking about, about a day and a half that they're going to be dealing with tropical storm-force winds. Right now, hurricane wind gusts have been reported and those are expected to continue.

This is a very large storm and so even though we're no longer expecting a direct hit, those hurricane conditions are going to be there regardless and that's going to last through the evening. It's going to be a long night for those folks and likely, more power outages can be expected and structural damage possible, though many of the structures there are reinforced and have concrete in them as well.

Eighty-mile-per-hour, that's the maximum sustained winds. We're getting gusts beyond that, up to 100 miles per hour.

The storm is moving north and it's about 80, 80-plus miles away from Bermuda right now. There you can see the cone moving northward and then hooking on off to the right. We have been getting quite a bit of rip current and rough surf here along the East Coast of the United States as a result of that.

I-reporters are doing a great job showing us some pictures and things that have been going on from Bermuda. These from Michael Simmons (ph) from Pembroke. He says that they have been boarded up and ready to go with this. He lost power at noon today and reporting lots and lots of rain.

Six to nine inches expected overall on Bermuda -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Jacqui, thank you very much.

You know, what's a sitting U.S. senator to do when she loses her seat in the primary? Well, she runs as a write-in candidate, of course. The latest next in our CNN.com political update. And he's been branded a supporter of terrorism, and tonight, he is on U.S. soil. What Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may say this week before the U.N. General Assembly?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Time right now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update. We're keeping an eye on the latest headlines on the CNN.com Political Ticker.

So, let's join now our deputy political director, Mr. Paul Steinhauser. He's with "The Best Political Team on Television."

So, Paul, tell us what's crossing right now.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, Don. Let's start with Christine O'Donnell. Of course, she's the rock star right now on the right. Remember, it was just five days ago that she won that Senate GOP primary in Delaware, beating a big moderate out there whose been known a long time.

But check this out. You know, there's been a lot of talk now about O'Donnell and what she has said, some of her comments when she was a spokesperson for Christian conservative groups back in the '90s. Today, Don, she was supposed to be on two of those Sunday talk shows, but you know what? She didn't. She canceled yesterday because her campaign said she needed to be back in Delaware to campaign with voters.

And the Democrats are wasting no time. (INAUDIBLE) Michael, take a look at this. The Democrats -- I just spoke to a top Democrat, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee out with a new ad today in Delaware to highlight what they call her fiscal irresponsibility. We'll probably see more of that.

Steve Brusk, our coverage manager, right over there, doing just that. Planning our coverage this week of O'Donnell. That is a great, wise race. Now, remember, the Democratic nominee there, Chris Coons, going out to California this week to raise some big bucks.

Let's talk about Lisa Murkowski. She was on CNN "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley. Remember, Murkowski losing the nomination there in Alaska to a Tea Party candidate. Now, she is running as a write-in candidate.

She said today, she told Candy, that she feels like she was the victim after smear campaign and she basically focused on the Tea Party Express, Don. That's the Tea Party group that spent $600,000 helping Joe Miller who is the Tea Party-backed candidate to defeat her in that primary. Republicans, national Republicans, now, they are backing Miller, not her, but she is going to fight on, Don.

And, finally, let's talk about the fundraiser-in-chief. Yes, I'm talking about Barack Obama, the president. Tomorrow, he is in Philadelphia to help fundraise and raise big bucks for the party. He does the same thing on Wednesday in New York City when he teams up with Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The idea here is to raise a lot of money, spend it on commercials and get-out-the-vote efforts. Hopefully, Democrats, they think, will maybe not suffer as many big blows in November against the Republicans in those midterm elections.

Don, a lot of stuff going on the CNN Political Ticker.

LEMON: All right. You went through it. Thank you very much, Paul Steinhauser.

And for the latest political news, go to CNNPolitics.com. We'll have another political update for you coming up next hour.

From imprisoned Americans to nuclear plants going live, Iran is the focus of world headlines. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is here in the United States tonight. He's going to address the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow.

And CNN's foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty joins me now.

Jill, what is going on this week? What is going to be coming this week and what is the U.S. going to be focusing on?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Don, these U.N. sessions are really pretty interesting, even though everything, or a lot of it, 98 percent, is worked out in advance. You know, the leaders from all over the world come to New York. They have huge staffs. They make speeches. And a lot of it's kind of precooked.

But there are always interesting moments that are unexpected when people, quote, "bump" into each other in a corridor. After all, you have the leaders of literally every country practically in the world, and a lot of hot topics.

So, if you would ask the Obama administration, this is their second UNGA, they talked about multilateralism and they say they're going to follow up on that.

There will be things that are very important right now -- things that are very active, issues like the Mideast. Iran, you mentioned. There are other things that are more long-lasting but very significant, and that would be the Millennium Development Goals. Those are setting out human goals for people, especially women and children, and nutrition. You're going to hear a lot about that.

To give you an idea, Don, of what Secretary Clinton will be doing up there, the president will follow later on in the week. Sunday, in fact, today, there was a big meeting on Pakistan and the flood, the aid that the U.S. and other countries are providing to Pakistan. Tuesday, there's going to be a quartet meeting on Mideast peace, very important because of the peace talks that are going on. Wednesday, Millennium Development Goals that I was just talking about. Thursday, Secretary Clinton makes a speech. And then Friday, the president will be there and one of the hot subjects will be Sudan.

And then finally, the leaders who will be there -- you mentioned Mr. Ahmadinejad. He's already made some comments, interesting comments about the American hikers. And he will be there speaking as well. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will be there.

So, you've got a lot of possibilities for interesting bumping into each other and discussing major events.

LEMON: All right. Jill Dougherty, thank you very much. We appreciate that.

And be sure to watch "LARRY KING LIVE" on Wednesday. He will be interviewing the Iranian leader. Their conversation starts 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Up next --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIS ALBERTO DELGADO, U.S. CITIZEN (through translator): Are you going to deport me? I'm a U.S. citizen, I told them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A U.S. citizen is deported for three months. A careless mistake or racial filing to the extreme? We'll hear from the man's lawyers after the break.

And we have the answer to the famous question: how do you get to "Sesame Street"? Well, just stay with CNN because Elmo and Cookie Monster are in the building.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is the kind of story critics of immigration crackdowns fear -- a Texas man says he was deported despite having the documents on him to prove he is American. His attorney says Luis Alberto Delgado showed border protection agents his Social Security card, a certified copy of his birth certificate and a Texas I.D. card.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELGADO (through translator): They are discriminated against me. Just because I don't speak English well and have not studied here, then, they are discriminated against me. The situation is really bad in Mexico. There are shootings all the time and I cannot believe that they were just send me there.

I am angry. Because of this incident, I lost my job. I just spoke to my boss and asked him if I could get my job back and he said there is no position for me. Because of their fault, I lost my job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, border agents deported him to Mexico on June 17th. Eighty-five days later, the federal government finally let Delgado return. He came back to the United States just last Saturday.

And Delgado's attorney, Isaias Torres, joins us from Houston.

Also with us is political science professor Jacqueline Stevens of Northwestern University and she tracks improper deportations on her blog, "States without Nations."

OK. First question, to you, Isaias. Luis Alberto Delgado speaks limited English since he spent a lot of his childhood in Mexico after being born in Houston, right? So, was it the prime reason officers wouldn't believe him?

ISAIAS TORRES, ATTORNEY FOR DEPORTED AMERICAN: Well, the prime reason was the language, the lack of the English-speaking ability. And once the officer, the deputy sheriff, looked at the documents, he discounted it and called in ICE, called in immigration, and they held him for eight hours and they basically felt that these documents must have been fraudulent even though, in 2007, three years ago, he went through a similar process in Laredo where they fingerprinted him and photographed him. And yet, this time around, they still wouldn't believe his documents belonged to him.

LEMON: OK. And I want to say that we tried to get a response from U.S. Customs and Border Protection who said officials won't comment on individual cases, even though your client signed a waiver allowing his information to be released.

So, Isaias, your client signed the paperwork that allowed him to be deported. Why did he do that?

TORRES: Well, after eight hours -- he's 19-year-old kid. He's being pressured by them. He says he was threatened, that they said, they told him if he didn't sign the waiver and the deportation, they would beat him because they were sure that those documents did not belong to him. So, he thought that if he would just get it over with, go back to Mexico and then be able to, through a lawyer, get back in, he could solve it in that manner. But as it turned out, it dragged on longer than he thought.

LEMON: How is he doing?

TORRES: Well, you know, he's a 19-year-old. He's resilient. And thanks to the good folks here in Houston, Texas, he's had job offers. He's had teachers offering to give him free English classes.

He -- people are poking fun at him saying that he's the born in East L.A. kid, like the movie from a few years back. He's taking it in stride, but he's also trying to get past it.

LEMON: OK. To Jackie now. How often do Americans get deported and why does this happen?

JACQUELINE STEVENS, PROFESSOR, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: Well, I did research in Florence, Arizona, looking at files that were obtained through the legal orientation program there from 2006 to 2008. And on the basis of that research, I learned that 1 percent of the people ICE detains are U.S. citizens. These are people who are going through immigration court proceedings and an immigration judge terminates the deportation order because the person's a U.S. citizen.

In addition, I estimate, on the basis of interviews with attorneys and people who were deported, that an additional one-half of 1 percent of people who are arrest by ICE and deported are U.S. citizens. Now, that may seem like a small number, but when we think about the magnitude of deportations each year in absolute terms, that's thousands of U.S. citizens each year who are detained or deported.

LEMON: That is my question to you because some might say that's unfortunate but worth it when you think about the overall people who shouldn't be here. So, what do you say to that?

STEVENS: Well, I mean, I'm really glad you raised that point because the overall policy of trying to exclude people on the basis of where one is born is something that's a medieval and barbaric practice that, in earlier periods, was used to prevent people in England, for instance, from moving from one parish to another. In the 17th century, you could be branded or have your ear cut off for being in an area without a pass, for the same reason people are being prohibited from moving between countries right now, which is this fear that poor people will move without restraint and somehow over many cities and cause chaos. There's been no evidence that that's the case.

In earlier periods, when there was less enforcement of the border, there was no discernable increase in crime. In fact, economists have shown the opposite.

This panic and fear are not based in economic realities. The "Wall Street Journal" has been on record since 1984 of supporting an amendment that would say to the United States Constitution, saying there shall be open borders. And it's precisely because of the benefits of free movement that economists endorse this.

So, I don't think that these kinds of exaggerated fears would be the basis for a policy that ends up not only deporting people who have lawful rights to be here, who are immigrants, but also, obviously, U.S. citizens as well.

LEMON: Jacqueline, that's going to be to have to be the last word.

Our thanks to Jacqueline Stevens and Isaias Torres.

Thank you both.

Here's the question. Does that person chatting it up on the cell phone at your favorite restaurant annoy you, me? Yes. Or are you one of those people doing the chatting? Maybe.

(LAUGHTER)

We're looking at what women and men think about talking at the table. What everybody thinks about talking at the table. Happened to me this morning at breakfast. Surprise! They don't agree.

And the iPad, it started a trend. There it is, right there. Now other tablet computers are either out or they're on the way out and they are pretty cool. Some of them, maybe. Tech guru, Katie Linendoll, takes some for a spin for us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK, this is my pet peeve. If you're on a cell phone, especially in a public place, don't talk that loud. As a matter of fact, go outside. If you're going out for dinner tonight, you might want to shut off your cell phone. Most people think you should. That's according to a new survey from P.C. Tools. But while 81 percent of women say you should completely power down at the restaurant, only 69 percent of men agree with them.

Also, some interesting stats on privacy in the survey. 17 percent of men say they don't want their spouse or significant other checking out the files on their computer. That's also one of my pet peeves. And nearly one in two people would be embarrassed if someone saw their files.

OK, so everybody here in the studio knows that I love my iPad. Can we show this? I have it hanging out with me and we're going to get to Katie. Oh, it just fell down, my poor iPad.

(LAUGHTER)

There it is. I love my iPad.

It's the most popular tablet on the market, and so I don't want it to be jealous.

There you see Katie Linendoll there.

Katie, we don't want to make our iPad jealous because I know you're obsessed with yours. I'm obsessed with mine. But there are alternatives.

Before we get to those alternatives, can we talk about the survey about talking on phones in restaurants? Men and women -- it's it annoying. I give people the meanest looks, like, I look back and, like, I don't want to hear your conversation.

KATIE LINENDOLL, TECH GURU: No. That is seriously the most annoying thing ever. But for me, living in New York, it's these people on their phones and not paying attention to anything else that's going on. They're just walking and texting. Nothing else in the universe is happening right there except their conversation. Drives me crazy. Crazy.

LEMON: Nothing else in the universe is happening right now except for Katie and I with our iPads.

What's up with the iPads?

LINENDOLL: I can't believe you just dropped that.

LEMON: No, no, no. It's the thing where you can set it up and watch video on it or whatever. I take it in and out of the case so much that it doesn't hold properly. I need a new case. Poor baby.

LINENDOLL: Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Go on, Katie.

LINENDOLL: All right, let's talk about tablets because, of course, the apple iPad everybody knows all about. And it exploded into the marketplace. but it wasn't the first tablet in the marketplace. It was the first one to nail the entire concept. In 80 days, they sold over three million. Of course, the competition is heating up, especially as we head into Q4 and the holiday season.

I want to introduce to you a few of the tablets that are making waves. The first is the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet. They made a big announcement Thursday that they would live on four major carriers. The iPad is about ten inches. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is going to be limited to about seven inches, so a little bit more portable, easy to carry around. The biggest difference is it has is a front-facing and rear-facing camera and the capability to video conference and use as a phone.

LEMON: That's cool.

LINENDOLL: So it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It will be slated as the biggest competition to the iPad.

I want to show you how diverse the word "tablet" is being used these days. And I want to showcase the KNO. Interesting enough, college kids have those backpacks that are about 20 pounds, trying to carry everything inside it. The KNO is a dual screen tablet, both 14 inches in size and they're hoping by the end of the year -- it's in beta testing right now -- by rollout, by end of year, they're going to have 90 percent of textbooks right on the KNO device. This will take the place of the bookbag with all the highlighters, pens, and text books. It will do everything right on that dual screen tablet.

We're showing you a diverse number tablets. Here's another one. This is the Dell Streak, available for about $549. What's interesting about this one is, it has that nice gorilla screen, so it's a little bit easier to use for rough use. But again, it has that front-facing, rear-facing camera. It is based on the android operating system.

LEMON: Is that a phone?

LINENDOLL: It can be used as a phone, which is crazy, because, again, we're talking about two 14-inch dual screens on the KNO. This one is five inches. It's kind of awkward in size. You kind of become Zach Morris. Like, I don't know if I'm ready to make a call on this. It's kind of weird, right?

LEMON: Looks like early cell phones, but probably easy to type.

LINENDOLL: It does.

LEMON: Yes, It's in between.

LINENDOLL: Easy to type. I had a really good experience with this one. But I want to introduce you to one final tablet.

LEMON: OK.

LINENDOLL: And that's in the Dell Inspiron line. They came out with a convertible. They've unveiled a convertible Netbook tablet coming out in the next few months, which is an interesting concept, because it flips between a tablet and also a netbook, which we saw in popularity last year.

Plenty of tablets on the marketplace. Keep your eyes peeled. They're going to be having a lot of deals, especially with the competition heating up.

LEMON: The book thing is very smart because I see kids and their book bags and they can barely pick them up.

LINENDOLL: Yes.

LEMON: As they say on the commercial, iPad is magic.

(LAUGHTER)

LINENDOLL: It is.

LEMON: Thank you. Katie and her iPad.

LINENDOLL: Thanks. Talk to you.

LEMON: Did you name it yet? No?

LINENDOLL: No, this is like my buddy.

LINENDOLL: Katie and my buddy, thank you. See you soon, Katie.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Getting that first job after college you may think an expensive private school education will get you hired first, but a new report finds you might be better off saving your money.

And we have the answer to the famous question, how do you get to "Sesame Street"? Just stay with CNN because Elmo and Cookie Monster are in the house! Yeh, Elmo, Cookie Monster!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(EDGE OF DISCOVERY)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This is one of the most exciting days I've ever had in the "CNN NEWSROOM." It is a sunny day here at Studio 7. I'm joined by my friend, Bebo, right here.

(LAUGHTER)

How are we keeping the clouds away? By having our friends from "Sesame Street" join us live.

We're on TV here. I've got a whole bunch of friends here.

Tell me your name.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: Ken Fous (ph), Luke. And who's that? Jack. And who's this little fellow?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Alex.

LEMON: Alex, Alex, Alex! All right.

Joining us, Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Welcome!

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I'm Kate.

LEMON: And Kate is over there as well.

We wanted to make sure you all felt at home so we brought our little CNNers to greet you.

This isn't mine. This is one of my producers' -- Tina Kim's little kid, Bebo. He's such (INAUDIBLE).

We also have Emily too right here. She's a performance director for "Sesame Street." For grownups who may not be in the know, it is a live version of the TV show.

Emily, Elmo and Cookie can't talk to us. We want talk because we want to make sure they stay healthy. We don't want their voices to give out. We want them to go out and we don't want them to get sick.

EMILY TURAY, PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR, SESAME STREET: Exactly.

LEMON: But tell us about the stage performance, how long it's been going on. You guys are in a whole lot of countries.

TURAY: A whole lot of countries. Actually, over 150, over five different continents "Sesame Street Live" has been to. We play over 150 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada every year, so we make our mark everywhere we go. We want to entertain all families, children and adults of all ages. All generations. 31st season of touring 31 years. LEMON: Very nice. Very nice.

Listen, parents are being, like stage parents, like, look this way. They're fine. They're fine. Just let them be who they are.

No offense, Cookie Monster, but I hear Elmo is just the monster, but is he the most popular of all the characters, Emily? And how do know?

TURAY: Well, he seems to get a really, really big brouhaha for all of the performances. Everybody gets really excited when they see Elmo. But I would like to say too --

LEMON: I love you, Cookie Monster. I grew up with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cookie!

TURAY: He's a classic.

LEMON: Yes.

TURAY: There's characters for everybody. There's Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch. Then we have Elmo. and Abby is a little bit new too. There's something for everybody. Everybody will know some character when they come to see our show.

LEMON: Hey, let's, bring him over here. Come on over.

Isaac is afraid to come over. We have one more little kid in the house.

I grew up watching the TV show. And I wanted to tell our viewers, TV show, stage show, two completely different things, but both probably equally as popular. What makes it so interesting? What makes people want to come out and see "Sesame Street" on the road?

TURAY: They are two very different things, but the producer of all the live shows, they work closely with sesame workshops, so the shows you're seeing when you come and see the live performances are going to mirror what's happening on the television shows. So you feel like you're jumping inside your television.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Look how excited they are. All you have to do is look at their faces, they get so happy.

Oh -- Bebo didn't even want to go back to his own mom and dad. He wanted to be next to Cookie Monster and Elmo.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (INAUDIBLE).

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: So, I have to say, happy birthday to you guys. Stage performance, 31 years old. TURAY: 31 years old.

LEMON: Happy birthday.

(LAUGHTER)

Yes. Shake your head up and down, Cookie Monster and Elmo. How do you love the kids here? Awesome.

You kids like them? What do you think?

LEMON: Bebo, you want to go Elmo?

TURAY: Oh, there he goes.

LEMON: Oh, Bebo with Elmo?

So, listen, are you in different places at different times because "Sesame Street" is magic. You can be at more than one place at one time.

TURAY: You are correct. Next week, we're going to be in Pennsylvania, Alabama and Florida, so there's going to be a few different performances going on. There's "One, Two, Three, Imagine with Elmo and Friends," also, "Elmo's Healthy Heroes." And there's also "Elmo's Green Thumb." So if you go on the web site, SesameStreetLive.com, you can look at the show that's going to be near you. Enter in your zip code and the cities will pull right up and you can go and see a show.

LEMON: It's so different than when I was a kid because there are some new characters. Elmo wasn't around when I was a kid.

TURAY: Right.

LEMON: You guys sort of adapt to the time, what's going on. Even DVRs and TiVo's and on the Internet, how do you adapt to that? Is there an element for "Sesame Street Live" online? Do you deal with that?

TURAY: Yes, a little bit. Now we've got the web site, like a super "Sesame Street Live."

LEMON: Yes.

TURAY: You can go to sesameworkshop.org and there's games the children can play online.

(LAUGHTER)

And you can check out merchandise and different things about the shows and the characters. So there's a lot that happens with it.

LEMON: So, listen. Cookie Monster is now a veggie monster because we want our kids to be healthy.

TURAY: Cookie Monster is still Cookie Monster.

LEMON: He likes veggies.

TURAY: But he has learned that cookies are sometimes food, and he is incorporating more veggies and healthier foods into his diet, and not having cookies quite as much as he used to.

But he's still the Cookie Monster and he still eats cookies and he still loves them.

LEMON: All right.

Thanks, guys. Everybody say, bye, Elmo. Bye, Cookie.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Did you enjoy it? Did you have fun? Yeh!

I'm more excited than the kids.

(LAUGHTER)

Thank you, guys.

TURAY: Thank you so much for having us.

LEMON: We're back in a moment.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: There is a reason that private colleges are so expensive and so hard to get in. They're supposed to be a pathway to a better career, right? But the "Wall Street Journal" this week released a list of the top 25 universities that employers recruit from. And the results might surprise you.

Jennifer Merritt is the careers editor at the "Wall Street Journal." And she oversaw this particular survey.

Jennifer, first of all, thanks for joining us. Tell us what you looked at and what you found.

JENNIFER MERRITT, CAREERS EDITOR, WALL STREET JOURNAL: What we did was we surveyed recruiters from the biggest companies, public, private, also non-profits, government organizations. We asked them which schools they recruit at and which schools produce the best graduates overall, as far as being prepared to work in their companies, succeed, academic prowess leadership capabilities, et cetera. What happened was the list we came up with, the top 25 out of the almost 500 companies who responded, was primarily made up of state schools. What we found was that they really liked these graduates who had all this academic preparedness. And also were sort of well rounded in other ways.

LEMON: So, Jennifer, it leads me to this.

I want to pop this up, the top ten, so our viewers can take a look at it.

All of them, except one, which is Carnegie Mellon, are publicly funded. Tuition at Carnegie Mellon this year is about $42,000. But it is only about $15,000 at number-one ranked Penn State. What's making these cheaper public schools more attractive to recruiters?

MERRITT: There's a couple of things going on. First of all, companies now need people who can really understand their business. So you could be brilliant and come in with a great marketing idea, but if you don't know marketing analytic, that company's not going to get as much out of you. Same for engineering. If you have a great strategy for building the next big thing, but if you don't know how to do it, that's a problem. So companies are starting to reach out to schools they can partner with on research. And what they find is, wow, these faculty come in. They go back to the classroom and they're teaching these folks real word, grounded education that can work in our companies. So then, they start recruiting these people. And they find that they really like them.

LEMON: I hate to cut you off. but even the expensive universities, the private universities, maybe they need to evolve a little bit and figure out what recruiters and what jobs -- employees want. and maybe they're not doing that. Maybe they're just relying on their name and history and their reputations.

MERRITT: There is definitely a little bit of that. Some of the elite schools will tell you they don't have those bread-and-butter classes. I just heard, after we published the report, from a few elite schools that said they're actually working on this. They're trying to mix that liberal arts with that real base foundation of skills.