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Preacher Accused of Bullying Young Men Into Sex; Tense Battles in White House Over War Policy; Health Insurance Changes; Making the Case for Liberia; Bed Bug Scourge Spreads

Aired September 22, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Wednesday, September 22nd.

A preacher who crusades against homosexuality accused of bullying young men into sex. A spokesperson for megachurch pastor Eddie Long calls a lawsuit a shakedown.

Bureaucrats who run -- or ran the small town of Bell, California, arraigned this hour. A prosecutor says they used the town as their personal piggybank.

And new provisions of the health care law are kicking in. President Obama promoting the changes live this hour from someone's back yard.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A megachurch pastor facing a monumental legal battle. Bishop Eddie Long, leader of a 25,000-member congregation here in Atlanta, denies allegations he used his position to coerce two young men into sexual relationships when they were teenagers.

CNN's Ed Lavandera broke the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BISHOP EDDIE LONG, NEW BIRTH BAPTIST CHURCH: Angels were flying around my bed all night, all day!

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bishop Eddie Long's fiery sermons have made him a revered evangelical pastor. He's the bishop of the New Birth Missionary Baptist megachurch near Atlanta, Georgia.

JONATHAN WALTON, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL: Eddie Long offers himself up as this kind of man's man. He's the quintessential man, he's a successful businessman.

He's a successful preacher. He has a beautiful family. He's a successful family man, he drives a fancy car. He wears custom tailored clothes.

So in some ways some would argue that he is the man that all women want and that all men are supposed to aspire to be.

LAVANDERA: But in separate lawsuits, two young men, former church members, say Bishop Long used his spiritual authority to coerce and manipulate them into destructive sexual relationships. Twenty- year-old Maurice Robinson and 21-year-old Anthony Flagg say they met Eddie Long through the Bishop's Longfellow's youth academy, a ministry aimed at nurturing boys into strong young men.

BJ BERNSTEIN, ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFFS: He would use biblical stories to talk about how important it was to follow your leader and your master, and let him know that the acts that he was engaged in were not necessarily meaning that he was a homosexual.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Long's spokesman tells CNN he adamantly denies the allegations. The young men allege Long made them his spiritual sons in a private ceremony called a covenant.

BERNSTEIN: Within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony where there was candles, exchange of jewelry, and biblical quotes given in order for Anthony to know, and for the bishop to tell him, I will always have your back and you will always have mine.

LONG: In the name of Jesus.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Eddie Long built a spiritual empire by sheer force of personality. New Birth Church had 300 members some 20 years ago. Today it has more than 25,000 members. When Coretta Scott King, the wife of the Reverend Martin Luther King died, her funeral was held in his church.

As Bishop Long's prestige has grown, so has his conservative voice in social politics. He once led an anti-gay marriage march in Atlanta.

LONG: We're not marching against folks, we are marching for folks. And if they don't understand it now, they'll understand it better, as the old preacher says, by and by.

LAVANDERA: Bishop Eddie Long often refers to himself as "God's scarred leader." Those who followed his career say Bishop Long has never shied away from talking about his own personal struggles and faults. That's made him even bigger than life to his spiritual flock.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. And Ed Lavandera joining me live now.

And Ed, let's talk about this in a little more detail. We're starting to get more reaction from the bishop's camp.

LAVANDERA: Strong reaction, to say the least. His spokesperson, Art Franklin, called into CNN this morning and essentially accused these two young men of shaking down the bishop.

Listen to what he told us a little while ago.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ART FRANKLIN, SPOKESMAN FOR BISHOP LONG: This is actually, John, a case of retaliation and a shakedown for money by men with some serious credibility issues who are trying to mount their own defense. This is something that went from 48 hours in contact with the attorney claiming outrageous demands to this dog and pony show that we are seeing that began yesterday.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And what he's talking about there, Tony, the shakedown and the credibility issues that they're talking about, kind of gets to the heart of I think what will matter to a lot of people as they follow the story. And essentially what he's alluding to here -- and it's something that is brought up and mentioned in the lawsuits themselves -- is back in the summer, in June, there was a break-in at the New Birth Church.

Eddie Long's office was broken into, $100,000 in jewelry was stolen. It turns out that one of the people arrested in that case is Maurice Robinson, one of the men named -- who's filing these lawsuits.

Obviously you hear what the bishop's folks are saying, that he wants money, he's trying to get money, and that's essentially what the lawsuit is about. His attorney is saying that, look, this came about the same time that he was starting to find out about these relationships. He was upset about it, and it was his way of lashing out at the bishop, to go after what he cared for most, which is the material possessions.

HARRIS: Right. So, Ed, there are some other developments in this case that you're following as well, right?

LAVANDERA: Yes. We're starting to hear that two more people could come forward. Those cases have not been filed. So we are not ready to kind of get into the details of that, but we have been told on good authority that that could be happening sooner rather than later, today or tomorrow.

HARRIS: Right. OK.

LAVANDERA: So we'll follow that.

HARRIS: So let's do this -- Ed, stay here with me. We're going to have more on this story certainly next hour. We'll have a live interview with J.L. King, the author of "On the Down Low." He will talk about homosexuality and the (INAUDIBLE) church.

Ed, appreciate it. Thank you.

(NEWSBREAK) HARRIS: 2009 rewind. President Obama spent a good deal of that year developing his Afghan War strategy. Now a new book details the tense battles inside the White House over war policy.

Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry joining us now.

Ed, good to see you.

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: Any attention-grabbing headlines so far?

HENRY: Well, it's interesting, because what you see in "The Washington Post" and "New York Times," getting early copies of this book supposed to be published next week, suggest that the president, for example, in these deliberations, when he was considering about a beginning of a withdrawal of U.S. troops, and he settled on July, 2011 to start bringing troops home, that there was some political pressure there. The book quoting the president at one point saying, "I want an exit strategy. I can't lose the whole Democratic Party," suggesting he was reacting to pressure from liberals.

There's also a quote allegedly attributed to Richard Holbrooke, one of the president's senior adviser on Afghanistan/Pakistan policy, saying of the new strategy in Afghanistan, "It can't work." So there's a lot of details about in-fighting, et cetera.

Senior administration officials are basically saying, look, we've always known that there was some division. They think that's healthy debate within the administration. This is serious policymaking going on. And they add this: "The president comes across in the review and the throughout the decision-making process" -- this is about the Afghan War-making policy -- "as a commander in chief who is an analytical, strategic and decisive, with a broad view of history, national security, and his role."

And this official added the debates, division was well-chronicled within the media when this all happened. But I have to say, sure, that was out there, but not at this level that Bob Woodward brings to the table in the form of the book, number one. And number two, there are more specifics that were not known, and we'll see what the White House reaction -- they don't really get into tit-for-tat, point-for- point about the politics of all this.

But certainly this is coming at a time when the White House would be preferring to talk about jobs, the economy so close to the election. We've heard a lot about that. Now they've got to be dealing with a new book that raises questions about whether there are people in this administration who have second thoughts maybe about the strategy -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. OK.

Our Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry with us. Ed, good to see you. Thank you, sir.

HENRY: Good to see you.

HARRIS: And we should mention that Bob Woodward will be on "LARRY KING LIVE" next Wednesday. That's September 29th.

And the president is in Falls Church, Virginia, this hour. He is talking about the Patients' Bill of Rights. We will take his comments live at 11:45 Eastern Time.

Six months after passage of the president's signature health care reform bill, some changes are already kicking in. What they mean to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, the battle lasted more than a year. Now, at long last, some big changes in health care finally going to come into effect. What will they be exactly, and how will they help you? Two big questions here.

Josh is here with a breakdown -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Tony.

Today marks six months -- or, actually, September 23rd, so it will be tomorrow, marks the six-month mark since the president actually signed that legislation, and it is the day that some of these big changes actually come into effect. It's always interesting to see the length of time between the battles that go on and when it actually impacts you.

The first thing to tell you is that most people get insurance through work and actually won't see changes in your health plan until it renews, and that's usually January 1st. But for plans that are sold to new individuals or groups, starting tomorrow the changes could be there right away.

So let's take a look at a few of the changes I have for you on my screen right here.

The first one I'm going to show you is this, dependent coverage, coverage through age 26. Employers will now have to cover dependents who don't have access to other employer-based health care coverage.

Here's another one here, children covered for pre-existing conditions. For adults, that won't go into effect until 2014, but health insurers now will have to start covering children under 19 with a pre-existing condition.

Here's the next one: insurers cannot rescind your coverage. As you know, and a lot of you have experienced this, unfortunately, there are insurers who try to take back your coverage when you get really sick, or they go to your original application and try to find some random error in there as an excuse to drop you. They'll no longer be allowed to do that.

And here's another one: no lifetime limits. Insurers cannot put a dollar limit on essential benefits like hospital stays or expensive treatments.

One more thing I'll show you now.

HARRIS: OK.

LEVS: Free preventive care, this is interesting one, because new plans are now required to cover certain preventive services like mammograms, colonoscopies, without charging anything. Any of those terms that health insurers come up with to make you pay deductibles, co-insurance, co-pays, you won't have to pay anything for some basic preventive care on top of obviously what you are already paying for that -- Tony

HARRIS: Right. So, will this apply, what you have just outlined here, to all health care plans?

LEVS: Actually, no. And that's really a good thing for us to talk about.

Certain plans are actually grandfathered and avoid some of these changes. I'm going to break that down for you in the next hour.

I'm also going to tell you about some other changes, because we are just picking off the top here. There's a few other major changes that kick in tomorrow. We'll tell you about those as well.

HARRIS: Appreciate it. Thank you, Josh.

LEVS: You got it.

HARRIS: And the president is in Falls Church, Virginia, this hour. He is talking about the Patients' Bill of Rights. We will take his comments live at 11:45 Eastern Time.

And a big bank halts evictions in almost half the states. Questions today about Ally Bank's foreclosure practices.

We're coming up on, what, two hours into the trading day? We'll that's a nice shot. Let's take a look at markets here.

We are in negative territory, as you can see, down 30. We are following these numbers throughout the day for you, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: This year's Eastern States Exposition, The Big E, for short, in full swing in Springfield, Massachusetts. A lot of folks come to eat. And we are talking extreme eats here, as in, I wonder what they will deep fry this year? How about a ball of butter with a few jelly beans thrown in?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I take my butter and whip it into balls, and I put it into fried dough, wrap it tight like a little pig in a blanket so the butter don't escape. And after it's all fried, when they go to eat it they break it open, and the butter just oozes out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I walked in. I saw fried jelly beans. Never heard of it before. Said let's give it a try. And they were amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Fried balls of butter. Now, that's good eating.

When we come back, we'll take you live to Los Angeles. The mayor of Bell, California, and others charged with ripping off the small town they ran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The prosecutor calls it corruption, and he's talking about corruption on steroids. The mayor, vice mayor and two council members among eight current and former officials from Bell, California, in court right now.

CNN's Ted Rowlands joining us now from our Los Angeles bureau.

Ted, good to see you.

What are we expecting to happen today? Is this a simple arraignment, a reading of the charges, and maybe a plea?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the most part, yes, Tony. We are expecting that to start in the next five minutes. But one thing we're going to really be watching is bail, and specifically bail for Robert Rizzo. This is the city manager who allegedly paid himself, according to the state investigators that looked into this case, $1.1 million a year using taxpayers' funds.

Prosecutors want bail set for Rizzo at $3.2 million and they also want an investigation, if he does come up with that bail money, they want to make sure that that money didn't come from the Bell taxpayers. So it will be interesting to see if he actually makes bail or stays in jail for awhile.

HARRIS: What about the police chief that was making $450,000 a year?

ROWLANDS: Yes, which raised a lot of eyebrows considering the starting salary for the guys on the beat is $30,000. He was not charged in all of this because, prosecutors say, he was getting a lot of money, but that was not against the law. He didn't try to hide his salary and he wasn't involved in the backroom dealing, if you will. So at this point, scott free he got his check. He did resign, but he's set now to make a huge pension as well.

HARRIS: Yes, Rizzo, let me take it back to Rizzo here. Any comment from either him or his attorney?

ROWLANDS: Nothing from Rizzo. In fact, from the beginning of this scandal when it broke, Rizzo really hasn't said much at all. I talked to his attorney at length last night on the phone last night, and he's basically saying that Rizzo was transparent. He says that it will come out in court that what Rizzo did was not illegal.

He also says the fact that this is it a political season and Jerry Brown is running for governor, he's jumped on this case and the city district attorney in Los Angeles County, Steve Cooley, is running for Jerry Brown's seat, he's jumped on this case. He says his client is being actually pushed into the limelight here and isn't getting a fair shake.

But I'll tell you what, the people in Bell, they were celebrating when they saw the image of Rizzo in cuffs.

HARRIS: Well, speaking of the people in Bell, with all the city leaders locked up, whose running city?

ROWLANDS: Well that's a very good question, because you've got five out of the six City Council members in jail this morning. Technically, they keep their seats unless they are convicted, that's when they'll lose their seats, but in the interim it is a bit of a mess.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors wants to bring a receivership scenario in where somebody else comes in and takes control of the city. But right now, it is pretty much a mess. No business is being done in Bell. And if these guys do get out today on bail, they technically are still in charge.

HARRIS: All right, Ted Rowlands following the procedures in court there in Los Angeles. Ted, good to see you. Thank you.

Making the case for African-Americans to embrace Liberia just as Jewish-Americans embrace Israel. Billionaire investor -- where is he? There he is -- Robert Johnson joining me live right here.

Bob, good to see you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Delta Airlines is capitalizing on a demand for greater access to Africa. It just added flights to Liberia. It is the seventh African country with direct flights to the United States. Airline execs credit African-American investor Robert Johnson with making the business case for this latest destination.

CNN's Brenda Bush reports Johnson has deep-rooted interests in helping Liberia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRENDA BUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and America's first black billionaire, Robert Johnson, together celebrating a milestone, the first U.S. commercial flight in 20 years to touchdown on Liberian soil.

ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF, PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA: Our deep thanks goes to Mr. Robert Johnson who is here on this flight.

(APPLAUSE)

JOHNSON-SIRLEAF: He has been a steadfast friend to Liberia in so many ways.

BUSH: After more than a decade of civil war and lingering security concerns, Liberia is trying to make a comeback and Robert Johnson is joining in the fight and it is personal.

ROBERT JOHNSON, FOUNDER, BET: The connection, historical connection between Liberia and African-Americans in particular is significant. The first ten presidents from Liberia were freed American slaves. Liberia's flag is red, white and blue. It has a president, a house and a Senate, much as we do.

BUSH: Johnson is a trailblazer, he is the first black person to be named on "Forbes'" annual list of "The World's Richest People." He founded BET, the first cable television station for black Americans, he is a real estate mogul and investor.

And now, fulfilling a vow made at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative to make a difference, Johnson entered a new frontier, helping the country that was founded by America's freed slaves.

JOHNSON: There is this unique cultural tie and historical tie between African-Americans, the freed slaves who settled Liberia, and America.

BUSH: Strengthening those ties have prompted Johnson to plant roots here. He has built Kendeja, the first oceanfront resort of its kind Liberia, it's villa-styled rooms decorated with a contemporary African flare.

He also established a $30 million investment initiative to provide loans to entrepreneurs.

JOHNSON: Well, Liberia has all the right ingredients. It has a beautiful coastline, as you can see behind us. It is 9.5 hours if you fly direct from Atlanta, as Delta is doing, eventually to Monrovia. It has an English-speaking population that is very well educated. It has a huge airport. It has an opportunity, as I said, to be the entry point into West Africa.

BUSH: But one thing Liberia still needs according to Johnson, is the support of African-Americans.

JOHNSON: We as African-Americans need to look to the future and determine how we can help Liberia never return to the dark days of the past.

BUSH: Liberians have long felt a strong kinship with the United States, so there is tremendous appreciation here for the wealthy American who is making the case for this impoverished nation.

JOHNSON: This is an opportunity for African-Americans, and I've said this before, for African-Americans to embrace Liberia the way Jewish-Americans embrace Israel.

BUSH: Robert Johnson taking a lead in that embrace.

Brenda Bush, CNN, Monrovia, Liberia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And African-Americans certainly need jobs in this economy.

Robert Johnson is back from Liberia and he joins me live from New York.

Bob, it's good to see you. Thanks for your time today.

JOHNSON: Tony, delighted to be here with you.

HARRIS: Let's get started with this, Bob. Take a look at this quote from former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin. And here it is, we'll put it on the screen for you.

"It seems to me that we in the United States should be more focused on Africa not only as the source of natural resources but also for the full range of opportunities that exist. There is no reason why our presence shouldn't be as great if not greater than China's."

Now, given your investment in Liberia, you obviously agree with the former Treasury secretary. As you were thinking about Africa, what did you see as the possibilities for the continent?

JOHNSON: Well, Tony, when you look at sub-Saharan Africa, which is I think is what we're talking about, there are over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. It's a tremendous opportunity for the growth of a vibrant middle class.

The African nations are rich in minerals and natural resources. They have a tremendous coastline for exploration of oil, as they are doing outside of Liberia. And the governments are becoming more stabilized, more focused on free-market economies, contractual rights. And all of this augers well for sub-Saharan Africa becoming the next emerging area in the world as these countries become more stable and politically sophisticated, and the economic need for the rest of the world to engage sub-Saharan Africa.

HARRIS: You know, Bob, I heard your case for Liberia in Brenda's piece, but that's not enough for me. I want to push a little bit more on that.

Why Liberia? Aren't you taking a big risk investing in that war- torn country?

JOHNSON: Well, you know, obviously, Tony, with risk in any area, emerging nations or war-torn countries, there's a huge risk, but I think Liberia, in the case of Liberia it's a risk worth taking.

First of all, they have a dynamic leader in President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Her commitment to Liberia and the experience that she's gone through in becoming president convinces me and is convincing a lot of businesspeople that Liberia is open for business, that the government is focused on contractual rights, it's focused on prohibiting any form of bribery or corruption.

And as I said, Liberia has ridge mineral resources, great fishing opportunity, great tourist opportunity, and I can't imagine in any scenario that the Liberian people will ever return to any form of the fight against civil war that crippled Liberia for over 15 to 20 years.

HARRIS: So you attend the big Congressional Black Caucus Weekend, and when you talk to black leaders about African, sub-Saharan Africa and specifically Liberia, what kind of reaction, Bob, do you get?

JOHNSON: Well, most of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus have been committed to Africa for a long time. Obviously, they took the lead in apartheid, ending apartheid in South Africa. They have seen what happened in Ghana with we get political stability.

And they look at Liberia because of the number of Liberians who live in the United States. Liberia has a huge ex-pat population living here, some 15,000 in Atlanta alone, and the opportunity for these individuals who want to support Liberia with their sending money back or going back home and take their U.S. training and knowledge and applying it to the Liberian economy as well as the historical relationship of the United States with Liberia.

Liberia was one of the, as I said, the first countries in Africa that embraced the United States. During World War II, Roberts field where we landed our planes was a place where planes flew into to continue the flight on into North Africa to defeat Nazi Germany.

So there's this connection between the United States and Liberia and between the people of the United States and Liberia that I think the caucus members would want to see promoted and encouraged much as we do with much of the Diaspora.

HARRIS: Well, Bob, can't let you go without asking you a political question. And I got to tell you, you were a Hillary Clinton supporter during the campaign, the campaign is obviously over. I'm sure you followed the first 18 months-plus of the Obama administration, and as you know, we're showing everyone the umbers now, the president's job approval number is in the 40s.

Here's the question -- As you consider the president, the first African-American president of the United States, do you approve of the job he's doing? JOHNSON: Well, I think you got to put it all in context, Tony. Obviously, President Obama should get credit for stabilizing the financial markets and the banks and the confidence he had in making that transition from what was happening before he was elected.

I think he has his work cut out for him in two areas. One is, obviously, business confidence and consumer confidence. And you don't get consumer confidence up unless you have a coherent message of how you're going to put people back to work. And at the same time, you don't get business confidence unless business can get some certainty as to what are your policies towards economic growth, investment and tax policy.

So while I think he has got, you know, a tough fight ahead of him, some of it obviously he didn't create, but the fact is it's on his watch now and it's his responsibility to give a clear message to the American people in the broad sense, not just Main Street but Wall Street and small businesses and minority businesses that I've got a plan to get this country back on the right track in the short order and give people the confidence that his leadership is going to provide the confidence that this country is sorely lacking.

HARRIS: I think you just made the CNN Political Ticker.

Robert, it's good to see you. Mr. Johnson, thanks for your time today and we'll visit again soon.

JOHNSON: All right, I'll see you in Liberia some day.

HARRIS: OK. All right, Robert, thank you.

Let's take a break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's see, I believe we have some live pictures from Falls Church, Virginia right now. The president will soon be talking about the Patients' Bill of Rights from someone's backyard. We will take the president's comments live when they happen.

Time now for your "CNN Equals Politics" update. CNN's senior political editor Mark Preston with "The Best Political Team on Television" joining us live from D.C.

Good to see you, sir. What's crossing right now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Tony, of course, shortly we'll have the news that you just broke with Mr. Johnson on the CNN Political Ticker. So if you didn't get a chance to see the interview, please check out the CNN Political Ticker, we'll have the video up.

But let's talk about President Obama. You said he's in someone's backyard. This morning, Tony, he was in the e-mail boxes of about 13 million people. In fact, he put out a call to arms to supporters. Let's check out this story that we have on here on the Political Ticker. What he did today is that he is asking supporters to not only come out and vote in November, but he also needs them to donate to democratic candidates and also needs them to volunteer.

So President Obama really ramping it up as we're heading into the midterm elections, but it's not just him, Tony. You might not remember this because of, you know, of your age, you're pretty young. But 26 years ago, Tony, check out this, the Reagan era is back in some way, shape or form.

If you remember, 26 years ago in 1984, Ronald Reagan talked about "Morning in America," it was the theme that talked about economic prosperity, it helped him cruise to reelection. Well now some loyal aids and some associates are out with a play on words. They're calling it "Mourning in America," if you can hear my Boston accent, to talk about how bad the economy has been under President Obama. So there's an ad that's running nationally on cable, about $400,000. And again, being run by some loyal Ragan aides.

Let's close it out like this, it hasn't been a very, very good year for the Nevada governor, Jim Gibbons. He lost the ability to run for reelection. Well, he has now fallen off a horse and he's been hospitalized in Nevada. We think he's OK. But, you know -- hasn't been a very good year, Tony, for Jim Gibbons.

HARRIS: That's a bad turn.

All right, Mark, appreciate it, and I'll be looking for that Bob Johnson interview up on the ticker here soon.

Mark Preston for us. Your next political update in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The bedbug infestation is now bicoastal.

Are those bugs behind me? Thanks.

Reports of bedbugs are surging now in California in both the San Francisco and San Diego areas. The epicenter of the infestation appears to be New York, the blood-sucking creatures have checked into hotels and shut a big clothing retailer down.

They spread easily by hitching a ride in suitcases. Seasoned travelers, look for the signs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GAINES, TRAVELER: When I go to a hotel room, what I do is I actually pull the covers up and I look around. And you know the little rim on the mattress, I check all around there because if there are bedbugs, that's where they like to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: Bedbug experts are holding a summit near Chicago. Nice.

We have been asking you to tell us your bedbug horror stories. Robert W. says, "This summer, my wife and I discovered bedbugs in our apartment with our 8-month-old son. We went to a hotel unable to move back. Everything we owned had to be washed and sealed. Fortunately, we recovered some damages."

George D. in Chicago writes, "I noticed a series of small bites around my sock line on my legs," oh, man, "turns out my apartment was fully infested. I had an exterminator come in, but he suggested that I dispose of all of my furniture."

Oh, man.

OK, still to come, the pastor of a megachurch faces blistering allegations of sexual misconduct.

Next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, we examine black churches and homosexuality. J.L. King the author of "On the Down Low" and he joins us.

Plus, disease detectives in action -- CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to some patients with medical mysteries doctors are trying to unravel.

We'll be back in a moment.

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