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Facebook Founder's $100 Million Gift; New Battle Plan for School Lunches; From Inmate to Hero; Vatican Prosecutor Admits Failures; Colbert in Capitol Hill; Mission to Save Vick's Dogs; XYZ: It Takes a Community

Aired September 24, 2010 - 13:58   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It's a brand-new hour. Brand new "Rundown." Let me bring you what I've got. I promise not to talk about food for a few minutes.

They were pitted against each other in blood matches, but Michael Vick's dogs aren't being put down. Believe it or not, they're being saved, rehabilitated and sent to loving owners. It is an amazing story of rescue and redemption.

Plus, for a lot of kids, it might be their only meal of the day so it better be a healthy one. There's a new push underway to make school lunches better. Sanjay Gupta digs in.

And I have the honor of profiling our Top Ten CNN heroes of the year. We revealed them yesterday on our show. Today, you will meet Susan Burton, a former drug addict and prisoner. She saved her own life, and now she's saving others.

But first, a young entrepreneur donates a ton of money to a struggling school district. On the face of it, it is pure philanthropy. But in the case of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, a lot of folks see pure public relations. Zuckerberg is injecting $100 million into Newark, New Jersey's public schools. The announcement today on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": Breaking news. Why Facebook's young CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, says enough is enough and putting his money where his mouth is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK, now, here's thing. This big donation comes the same day a big movie about Zuckerberg premieres. It'll be out in theaters next week. It's called "The Social Network." You've probably seen trailers for it. Folks who've seen it says Mark Zuckerberg doesn't (AUDIO GAP) in it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Potentially worth millions of dollars. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You stole our Web site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're saying we stole the Facebook --

I know what it says.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So did we?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to get left behind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sue him in federal court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't wait to stand over your shoulder and let you write us a check.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you guys were the inventors of Facebook --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anything you need to tell me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Some say, why are we worried about his motives? Regardless of his motives, Newark's embattled school system does need the help.

The school system is New Jersey's largest. It has more than 40,000 students enrolled. It was taken over by the state in 1995 because of waste and mismanagement and performance issues.

Several of its schools are among the worst performing in the states. Even so, not everybody is sold on this new windfall.

The headline on "The Star-Ledger" newspaper in Newark says, "Is this really the way to fix Newark schools?" I don't know if that's the intonation they used, but I'll find out in a minute.

And that first paragraph is a killer. "Oh, good. Now we're solving intractable urban school problems by relying on a 26-year-old billionaire geek from California and Oprah Winfrey."

Let's bring in Tom Moran -- he's the editorial page editor at "The Ledger" -- to talk about some of the competing issues and interests out there.

Tom, good to talk to you.

In Newark, a city with the -- all the urban problems that urban cities have, are there a whole lot of people looking this gift horse in the mouth?

TOM MORAN, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, "THE STAR-LEDGER": No, they're not. I mean, there are some concerns attached to it, but everybody I've talked to says this is fantastic. We have a few little quibbles here and there, some people. And what you read there was one opinion writer. There's a whole course of different takes on it.

VELSHI: I almost feel like a self-respecting news organization or newspaper has to put that out there, that there is something to be said about society when we are depending on individual donations to fix our public school system.

MORAN: Especially when what Zuckerberg is saying is, if I don't like what's happening in Newark, I'm going to pull the plug on this donation. He's parsing it out year by year.

VELSHI: Right.

MORAN: Again, we're very grateful. People in Newark are very grateful, and it will help, but you have to raise that issue.

VELSHI: Sure. I mean, there's always strings to money, but strings in a public school system to private money -- this isn't even a public company -- that probably has some people wondering about it.

But tell me a bit about, for my viewers who don't know, what's up with Newark? What's the situation as it pertains to public education?

MORAN: Well, they're struggling. They've slightly improved since the state took over, and the Supreme Court has forced the state to invest huge sums there. We now spend in Newark over $24,000 per student. The total budget is a billion dollars.

VELSHI: Right.

MORAN: When you put $100 million over five years in that perspective, it might not have a giant impact, helpful as it is.

The improvements have been too slow by all accounts, Democrats, Republicans. That's why you see a Democratic mayor and a Republican governor saying we need to revamp this entirely.

We want things they say like charter schools, teacher accountability, fire the bad teachers, reward the good teachers, evaluate teachers based on student performance. And you don't have that now. You have union protections that prevent most of that.

So they're going to bang their head against that wall, and this money should help. What exactly they're going to do with the money, we just had a press conference. They're saying we're not going to decide that. We're going to ask the people of Newark.

VELSHI: But for now they're taking the money?

MORAN: Oh, yes.

VELSHI: They're accepting it?

MORAN: No, there's no question about that. VELSHI: Now, as mentioned, the school board in Newark -- or the schools in Newark are run by the state. Explain that to me.

MORAN: Well, in the '90s, Newark schools were so corrupt and ineffective, that along with the schools in Jersey City and in Paterson, the state came in and took over.

What that means basically -- it's not as though the state hired every teacher. They appoint the superintendent, they oversee the books. And it's been only modestly successful. It's been -- I think most people consider it a disappointment. And now there's an effort to turn it back to these cities.

VELSHI: And the question is whether it goes to the mayor's control, as you said, in some cities or abort?

MORAN: That's right. The law says the people of these cities. In Newark's case, Newark voters should decide, when we get control, do we want to invest this power in the mayor or an elected school board?

Now this money is coming with this -- the main string is that Zuckerberg was so impressed with Cory Booker, who he met at a conference in July, that he said, if you're behind the reforms that I want to see, I'll give you the money. He just repeated that at the press conference. He has a lot of faith in Booker and a lot of faith in Christie.

VELSHI: Yes.

Let's talk about Booker. Who is Cory Booker? I mean, a lot of people do know him, a lot of people don't. But this is a charismatic -- the mayor of Newark, young guy. If things work out for him in Newark, there are some people who think he can go further in politics in America.

MORAN: Yes. I think absolutely everyone does. He's a remarkable talent. He knocked out the machine -- four years ago, the machine that was run by former mayor Sharpe James that everybody thought was invincible, Cory beat that machine and Sharpe James went to jail.

He's made a lot of progress in Newark on crime. He appointed a crackerjack police director, Garry McCarthy, who was part of the Giuliani team, their success in New York. And they've cut gun violence in half. This summer has been particularly bloody, but up until then they cut it in half.

Booker is saying, I want to do with the schools what I did with crime during my first term. He was just reelected to a second term in May.

VELSHI: But with a smaller majority.

MORAN: Yes. He's having political trouble these days. A little of the shine is off his star. He won by a much smaller margin against a very weak candidate who was just charged yesterday with fraud and is now probably on his way to jail. But he lost a couple of seats on the city council.

After the election was over, he revealed that the city's budget was a complete mess. We're facing deep cuts in Newark now, layoffs of police, fire. The schools are facing their own series of layoffs. So it's a definite bump in the road.

VELSHI: So you can see the attraction. I mean, he's a young guy. Mark Zuckerberg is a young guy, young up and comer. He can have an impact with this $100 million.

You don't personally care -- or maybe never mind personally. You don't professionally seem to care much whether this is a PR move on Mark Zuckerberg's part or not.

MORAN: I don't think anybody in Newark does.

VELSHI: Right. I hear you.

Tom, good to see you.

Tom Moran is the editorial page editor at "The Newark Star- Ledger."

Good to talk to you. Thanks for bringing us some information on this.

Hey, it's one of the most important meals of the day, and for too many kids it is their only meal. Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about a new battle plan for school lunches in "Chalk Talk," coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In today's "Chalk Talk," we're taking a closer look at what's in your kid's school lunch.

First lady Michelle Obama has made it her mission to wipe out childhood obesity. Now Congress is trying to do its part by making school lunches healthier.

Chief Medical Correspondent, my friend, Sanjay Gupta, has more on what is at stake here.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, as people heard about school lunches again, I'm sure there's a lot people whose eyes out there are sort of glazing over. But I can tell you, this is a pretty important topic.

There is this Childhood Nutrition Act that they're trying to get passed next week, and a lot of people are weighing in on this including military leaders. More than 100 retired generals and admirals writing letters, specifically saying they want this act passed as well. Why is the military getting so involved, people ask? Well, it's because of this stat: more than a quarter, they say, of young adults are unfit to serve. They say 27 percent are simply too overweight to serve in the military right now. And that's a number that may shock a lot of people.

And when they really try and dissect down what is the problem here? Obviously there's lots of different reasons, but school lunches appear to be a big one. About 40 percent of a child's calories come from school lunches, and a lot of those calories are out of the control of the parents, as I'm slowly finding out.

But here's the thing. You have a certain expectation I believe when it comes to school lunches. You think that the food is going to be healthy, a kid's going to get a good, healthy meal. And sometimes that can be true, but not always.

In fact, what they found, interestingly enough, about two-thirds of the time, Ali, 67 percent of the time, these lunches exceeded the dietary guidelines for fat intake. Almost three-quarters of the time, they exceeded the recommendations for saturated fats.

So it's not always what you expect. And therein lies the problem. They want to get this nutrition act passed to try and reduce the bad food that's coming to children on any typical day.

You may ask, as a lot of people do, what is a typical school lunch? Well, take a look at this.

I mean, they get a choice of entrees typically such as a hamburger, a queso quesadilla with salsa, chicken corn dog. They also get three side choices as well: French fries, coleslaw, mandarin oranges, red grapes. And dessert, banana pudding.

The question is, what are the kids really going to eat? Are they going to eat the healthy stuff, or they going to make the good choices or not?

What they find is that more often than not, they aren't always eating these healthy choices. So that's why so many focused on this nutrition act to improve what kids are getting in schools.

Again, stay tuned on this, but the military weighing in on school lunches.

Ali, back to you.

VELSHI: Thanks, Sanjay. But if I'm a kid and there's corn dogs on the menu -- on a healthy menu -- I don't even understand that -- I'd go for that.

All right. All next week be sure to join us for special coverage on Eatocracy. We're going to take a look at where our food comes from and some of the problems we've recently seen with recalls, salmonella and the like. Learn ways to keep your food safe all next week only on CNN. I'm going to be here reporting on food. I feel like I shouldn't get paid for doing that. I should give my salary back.

All right. She emerged from a life filled with addiction and prison time, and then she reached out to help others put their own lives back together. We will meet the first of our "CNN Top 10 Heroes" and hear her remarkable story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Can you believe this is the fourth year already of our CNN Heroes initiative? And once again you guys all came through.

We got 10,000 nominations from CNN viewers in more than 100 countries telling us who your heroes are. Each week we've introduced you to one of these extraordinary people. Yesterday, we revealed the "Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2010," as selected by our blue ribbon panel.

Each honoree will get $25,000 and a shot at the top honor, "CNN Hero of the Year," which, again, you get to decide on.

Today we meet the first of our Top 10 heroes. After her 5-year- old son was hit and killed by a car in 1981, Susan Burton's grief spiraled into more than a decade of addiction and prison time.

When she ultimately got clean, she realized that she wanted to help other women offenders stay out of prison. She saved up enough money to buy a house in the Watts section of Los Angeles, put in some bunk beds, and in 1998, a New Way of Life Reentry program was born. Since then, she's helped more than 400 women make the transition from prison life.

She joins me now from Los Angeles.

Susan, good to talk to you. Thank you so much, and congratulations on being named a "Top 10 Hero of the Year."

SUSAN BURTON, FOUNDED, "A NEW WAY OF LIFE REENTRY PROGRAM": Thank you. And thank you for having me here today.

VELSHI: Susan, tell me about what you were able to do, what you were able to learn from your experience that you can actually transfer and help -- use to help other people. Because I imagine women who are coming out of prison are varied, they have varied reasons for how they got in there in the first place, and varying needs when they come out. So tell me what you've learned and how you've actually put it to work.

BURTON: I learned that there were so many women being incarcerated, not given any other option to sort of get their lives on track, no options to address some of the hardships and difficulties they were experiencing. I learned that there is another way to support people to develop and take a part, a positive part, in the community. You know, I learned that prison doesn't work.

VELSHI: So what do these women come out with that you can give them? Is it work skills? Is it confidence? Is it resumes? Is it just a place to live?

What do they most need when they come out of prison that you can help them with to help them get a leg up in life?

BURTON: Well, first of all, they need a place to live. They need support. They need inspiration.

They need training, direction. They need to build their own self-confidence. They need patience and compassion. And we try to wrap all of those things around each resident as they come home.

You know, they need to get an I.D., a California I.D. card. They need get a Social Security card in order just to do a simple thing like apply for a job, in order to meet any requirements.

We take so for granted that -- we walk around with our I.D. cards. We walk around with our Social Security cards. We know the community. We know the routes.

VELSHI: Sure.

BURTON: And everybody has to learn that sort of all over again.

And then most of all, they have to learn what their life's mission is. So we sort of support them to begin to develop and look at why they're here in the world and what they can contribute, and what role they can play in making the community safer and better for everyone.

VELSHI: Susan, let me ask you, if you -- just give me an example of the range or the continuum. On one side there will be women who you help who will end up like you, achieving their best, maybe helping others, but meeting with success in life. And on the other side the spectrum there will be women who will go back to prison.

What are the biggest obstacles to coming out on this side, the successful side, and those who end up going back to prison? What is that they were not able to overcome and you were not able to help them overcome?

BURTON: One of the biggest obstacles for people exiting the prison system is to find an environment, a safe environment that would actually support their reentry needs and also to help them to heal from their life experience and the prison experience. So there are those people that get off a bus downtown Skid Row with no resources, no place to go, no I.D., just being sort of like ejected back into the community. And then there are those who have the support of a community-based organization like A New Way of Life, or possibly their families.

Many of the people who go to prison are poor people, and their families are poor. And sometimes the family environment to go back to is not the quite -- right environment.

So that's the two scenarios you have. And on any given day, you can go downtown Los Angeles to the bus station and watch people exiting that bus coming from all of the prisons in the -- California and sort of see -- I mean, they have some joy, but there's also some anxiety about what they're going to do, how they're going to make it in the world. And, you know, I went back and for to prison --

VELSHI: And that's what you help them with.

BURTON: Yes. I beg your pardon?

VELSHI: I was going to say that's what you help them with. You help them deal with that.

BURTON: That's what I help them with. And I started A New Way of Life in my own home. Now there are five homes. We've grown quite a bit.

And there are women, and they are women with their children. And I watch just simple community-based compassion and resources rebuild a person's entire direction in life --

VELSHI: Yes.

BURTON: -- versus, you know, the incarceration, which is really expensive, taking money away from our educational systems and our social service systems, and just does not provide what's needed for people to be whole and healthy.

VELSHI: Susan, thank you so much for talking to us. And thank you and congratulations for being nominated. It's a pleasure speaking to you, and we hope you continue to help people and that this nomination helps you.

Susan Burton joining us today. She's one of our "Top 10 Heroes."

The "Top 10 Heroes" will be honored on Thanksgiving night at our fourth annual heroes celebration. You can watch that. It's an "All- Star Tribute."

Only one will be named "CNN Hero of the Year." That person will be awarded an additional $100,000.

As always, you get to decide who it's going to be. Our voting site is live, so head over now to CNNHeroes.com. We've got our "Top 10" there, and you can click on them to refresh your memory about who everybody is and the incredible things that they are doing. Once you're set, hit the "vote now" button and choose the person who inspires you most.

OK. We're going to take a break. We'll be back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Hey, listen, changing tracks here, what did the Pope know before he was the Pope about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests? And what did he do about it, if anything? A preview of a CNN investigation when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

***30 (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALI VELSHI: This weekend CNN airs a remarkable documentary titled "What the Pope Knew." Before he was Pope Benedict, he was Cardinal Ratzinger, one of the most powerful men in the Vatican.

It's recently come to light that as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Cardinal Ratzinger had direct responsibility for decisions in some notorious sex abuse cases.

CNN'S Gary Tuchman examines his handling of one case from the heartland of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In 1989, Bishop Daniel Ryan drove about 45 minutes north of his diocese office in Springfield, Illinois to the town of Lincoln. He came here to Lincoln to visit one of his priests, a priest who was living here in a prison.

(voice-over): In 1985, Father Alvin Campbell pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault on boys as young as 11 years old. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Matt McCormick was one of the children Campbell abused.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't come by this school and I don't come by the church.

TUCHMAN: Starting in seventh grade, Campbell molested McCormick in the church's school, the rectory and even here.

(on camera): This is the confessional you were in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the confessional.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Campbell was sent to prison, but he was still a priest. That's why Bishop Ryan had come to visit him, to try to convince him to voluntarily leave the priesthood. Campbell refused.

So Ryan turned to Rome for help. He sent copies of Campbell's indictments, spelling out in graphic detail what Campbell had done to his victims and asked Joseph Ratzinger to defrock Campbell. Ratzinger's answer, no.

The petition in question cannot be admitted in as much as it lacks the request of Father Campbell itself, which is called for by the current norms.

(on camera): Incredibly, what Cardinal Ratzinger was saying was that he could not agree to defrock a priest, even a convicted child molester, without that priest's permission. (voice-over): Monsignor Charles Chacuna, the Vatican's prosecutor worked with the pope for years in sex abuse cases. When he sat with me at the Vatican, it was his first ever television interview on the pope's record.

(on camera): Monsignor, do you see though how it sounds so ridiculous under the Canon law unless he requests it we can't defrock him?

MSGR. CHARLES SCICLUNA, CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH: It would sound ridiculous if you forget the next paragraph that says there is a way of reducing him to the lay state and it is by church trial.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Ratzinger's letter does say the bishop can avoid responsibility for keeping Campbell by putting him through a church trial, but again, that would take years and Campbell had already been convicted in a criminal trial. Scicluna admits the process needed changing.

SCICLUNA: I think these cases certainly taught Cardinal Ratzinger, his collaborators that something needed to be done and something has been done.

Today, Canon law has a different scenario. This thing would not happen under today's Canon law. That is also the merit of Cardinal Ratzinger who is Pope Benedict XVI today.

TUCHMAN: Campbell would finally be defrocked three years later, after he eventually agreed to request it himself. After bouts with depression, alcohol and drugs, McCormick today is happily married with a daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want to give momma a kiss?

TUCHMAN: And a wife who gave up on the church.

BETH MCCORMICK, MATT MCCORMICK'S WIFE: We've both converted to Lutheranism because of this. I don't -- I personally -- I don't have faith in the Catholic Church whatsoever at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Gary Tuchman joins me here in New York. Gary, the gentleman you spoke to said today Canon law has a different scenario.

TUCHMAN: Right.

VELSHI: Does that mean that a priest is defrocked if he's convicted of this kind of a crime?

TUCHMAN: Monsignor Scicluna who talked to us at the Vatican is the prosecutor and basically they are defrocking priests now who molest children.

What's interesting, though, is you wonder why wouldn't they have done that in the 1980s? That's what Cardinal Ratzinger is being blamed for. What's being told to us is things were different back then.

But what critics and detractors say is the church was more interested in protecting the reputation of the institution than the children of the institution.

What they're saying is things were different. We know it wasn't handled well and things have changed, but there are still problems now. That's the thing certainly not as bad as it was though in the 1980s.

VELSHI: Let me ask you this, why are we doing this story now? Why is this - why is this important now?

TUCHMAN: The reason we're doing the story now is because we have obtained documents from the Vatican that were kept secret, literally in a safe in the Vatican for 30 years. They were subpoenaed.

We've got our hands on them and they do show Cardinal Ratzinger's signature on letters responding to bishops in the United States who are writing to him saying, please, we have a bishop in our diocese in Oakland, in Milwaukee, in Springfield, Illinois, who is a molester.

We want him officially removed. The letters from Cardinal Ratzinger either slowed it down or opposed it and sometimes took years to get rid of priests who in some cases were in jail for molesting children.

VELSHI: All right, it will be on TV this weekend and Gary, thanks very much for doing that. Gary Tuchman joining me now in New York.

It's the sex abuse scandal that rocked the church as cardinal and Vatican official. What did the pope know and when. Two chances to watch this CNN investigation Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

All right, they were brutally trained to fight and kill. The story of how a few people came together to save and rehabilitate the dogs of NFL quarterback Michael Vick is both remarkable and harm warming coming up next in "Mission Possible."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed with the top stories we're following right now at CNN. Comedy Central meets C-Span on Capitol Hill.

Stephen Colbert testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee about a day he spent picking beans on a farm in upstate New York.

(Inaudible) was vintage called there, but the issues are serious, illegal immigration and chronic rampant unemployment. Colbert says he hopes his experience would, quote, "bump this hearing all the way up to C-span1." Some lawmakers were not amused. The 20-something billionaire who founded Facebook is giving some of his money to Newark public schools. When you're a billionaire, some can mean a lot. I'm talking $100 million. It's the first check written by a new foundation called Start-up Education Finance by Mark Zuckerberg.

Still in New York with the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama turns his sights to Sudan. Next hour focused on a countrywide vote set for January on whether the oil rich autonomous south should break altogether from the north. The vote was part of a 2005 agreement ending two decades of war. Some fear war is destined to return.

A case of stunned and outraged dog lovers around the world and many other as well, star NFL quarterback Michael Vick busted for running a brutal dog fighting ring on his Virginia farm. You may recall Vick and three others were arrested and charged with operating a dog fighting ring in July of 2007. Officials seized 51 Pit Bulls from Vick's Bad News Kennels in Virginia.

Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison. He ended up serving 18. At the time Vick was suspended by the NFL, but he was eventually reinstated and signed by the Philadelphia Eagles where he was recently named the starting quarterback for this season.

What about those 51 Pit Bulls that were trained to fight and kill? You would think there would be no choice, but to put them down and that's the real and remarkable news about this story.

Those dogs have been rescued and rehabilitated. Here with me now is Jim Gorant. He's a senior editor for "Sports Illustrated." He's written a book. He's the author of a book called "The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption" based on articles that he wrote for "Sports Illustrated."

Joining us from Mountain View, California is Marthina McClay, a certified pet dog trainer and the president and founder of Our Pack, a dog rescue training and education organization. With her, we can hardly see him, is one of Michael Vick's former dogs now living a happy, new life under the name of Leo.

Hi, Leo. Leo is looking around. He's wondering where that voice is coming from.

There we go. Leo is paying attention now. All right, Martina, we'll get to you in a second. I want to start with you, Jim.

You started covering this. You were writing these stories. This is fascinating. I mean, a lot of people I've told about this story say they couldn't have imagined that Pit Bulls who were actually trained, fighting dogs could be rehabilitated.

JIM GORANT, AUTHOR, "THE LOST DOGS": Well, yes. A lot of surprises in the whole story and it starts out with the idea that, you know, people asking the question what was possible.

There was a huge public outcry and people wanted to do something for these dogs. Like you said, traditionally they would all be put down, but in this case, they went in and individually evaluated them hoping to find a few they could save and they end up saving 47. It's been a great story so far.

VELSHI: Martina, I want to ask you about this. You are dealing with a dog. You've got one right there. That has been trained to fight and kill -- looks like the cutest thing in the entire world right now.

How do you determine that you can make that dog into a safe dog for somebody? And is that safe for anybody or is it safe for somebody like you who has an advanced understanding of dog behavior?

MARTHINA MCCLAY, PRESIDENT/FOUNDER OUR PACK INC., CERTIFIED PET DOG TRAINER: Well, I felt that he was safe from the beginning and I really do feel that he was safe for anybody. I also felt that he was therapy dog material right off the start.

Really all he needed was training for manners. You can see he's very loving. He just need to learn not to jump on people and good intentions, but jumping up to get affection and he's a happy-go-lucky guy and just need to learn how to sit and be -- have good manners.

VELSHI: OK. Well, what part of this dog -- what happens to the training that this dog -- by the way, he jumps around because his name back then was Bouncer because he jumped around so much.

I mean, obviously, this dog was taught to do -- to fight with other dogs. Does Leo just forget all that?

MCCLAY: Well, we don't know that he was taught that. I don't -- I actually don't know what his history was. I just basically look at the dog as they are right now and who are they are at this moment and, you know, basically train them from there.

And I didn't see that in him. Leo doesn't want to fight. He lives with three other Pit Bulls. He plays with my dogs. He also lives with a Chihuahua and he puts up with her. So I don't know that his past was exactly that.

VELSHI: Right.

MCCLAY: I know that he was totally cut out for therapy work.

VELSHI: Jim, clearly there were some dogs on that -- that property that were fighting.

GORANT: That's right. Well, out of the 51 that they took off the property, when they did the evaluation, they determined there about 10 or 12 that were sort of hardened fighters. They were dogs that just had an issue with aggression toward other dogs, no real incidents with people.

The other 40-something dogs, most of their problem was fear. They just never really experienced the world and what they had experienced if it was bad. So any new situation or new person they were afraid of.

So for most of the dogs that came off the property, fear was the biggest issue.

VELSHI: How big a deal is this, dog fighting?

GORANT: It's bigger than you think it is, is what we're learning. The Humane Society estimates there's 40,000 dogfighters.

But what's interesting about it, too, is that it cuts all sort of demographic categories. You know, it's rural and urban, it's interracial and sort of -- it's way more widespread than you think it is.

VELSHI: Marthina, why do Pit Bulls have a bad reputation generally?

MCCLAY: Well, I think it's a multipronged problem. I think that there's definitely some over reporting in the media. I think that we have people who get dogs and don't socialize, they don't train them, they don't manage them well.

And, of course, as a trainer, I know there was a two-week period where we did have an issue with a Pit Bull that was reported in the paper, and during that same time frame, there was a German Shepherd and Golden Retriever both attacked two different people very severely, requiring hospitalization and there was not one report about that. I didn't see one item in the paper, whereas the Pit Bull attack was everywhere. I couldn't turn on the TV without seeing it. It was in all the papers.

So that's part of it. And certainly, when you do get a popular dog that, you know, people want to get and they don't realize that you really do have to work to raise animals.

VELSHI: All right. Well, good talking to you, Marthina. Thank you so much.

Goodbye, Leo. Is he getting up to say good-bye? Hi, Leo.

MCCLAY: He says good-bye.

VELSHI: All right. Thank you.

And, Jim, thanks very much. Jim Gorant is the author of "The Lost Dogs" and he's the senior editor at "Sports Illustrated." Thanks for being with us.

GORANT: Thanks.

VELSHI: All right, for more information, just head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali.

An apology for the people of Fresno. Your CNNPolitics.com update is up next.

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VELSHI: Time now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update. Senator political editor Mark Preston is at the CNNPolitics.com desk in Washington.

Mark, what have you got for me?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Ali, we talked about the Pledge to America yesterday. This is the campaign pledge, the governing document that House Republicans revealed yesterday. Well this just in like literally got into my e-mail box, you'll hear it first here on CNN.

The Democratic National Committee has put out this 40-second Web video which has become a very tried and true practice nowadays in politics. They are hitting back against this Pledge to America that the GOP released yesterday. They're criticizing them specifically about a House vote yesterday on a small business lending bill that House Republicans voted against. So we'll have that up on the ticker very shortly. Again, this just in.

You know, I told you last hour, Ali, that Alex Mooney here had a story about Meg Whitman. I told you he would tell you about it, but clearly he seems a little busy talking on the phone, so I'll let you know what this story is about.

Meg Whitman has had a little faux pas earlier this week where she compared Fresno to Detroit. She said that it was awful. In fact, she had to backtrack from those comments yesterday. She went on the airwaves in Fresno and said, look, the central valley has been hit very hard much like Detroit. Not a good thing to say when you're 39 days to election day.

And let's bring in one of your friends from Atlanta, Steve Brusque (ph). It's going to be a very busy political weekend and Steve Brusque has the top three things that we think that are going to make news -- Steve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to have Mitt Romney going up to New Hampshire doing the key note for the big republican event up there.

You're going to have Mike Huckabee campaigning this weekend in Kentucky going for Rand Paul in that very tight Senate race down there.

And Bill Clinton going to give some help in the northeast for both Barney Frank in the surprisingly tight House race in Massachusetts and for Richard Blumenthal who is in trouble in Connecticut.

PRESTON: So big things happening, Ali. As you heard, two potential presidential candidates on the campaign trail and Barney Frank, somebody you thought would be safe has Bill Clinton coming to town -- Ali. VELSHI: All right, guys. Thank you to all of you. By the way, let Alex Mooney know this is actually CNN and it's on TV so if he's going to be on TV he could put the phone down and join us another time.

PRESTON: Yes, I'll let him know that. He's kind of a rude character, but we'll work on it.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: You guys are hard working. It's all -- it's all business with you guys. All right, Mark, have a good one. We'll give you another update in an hour.

Poking fun at some serious issues -- it's a living for guys like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, it's also our "Wordplay" on the other side.

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VELSHI: We wanted to play off the congressional testimony given today by comedian Stephen Colbert. Our word -- Testify.

Among the definitions is to express a personal conviction, but maybe satire fits better using sarcasm to expose. Celebrities have been used for years to bring a more public face to issues and causes being brought before Congress. Just this week Kevin Costner was on the Hill to talk about cleaning up oil spills.

Let's be honest, would you be paying attention to the House Subcommittee on Immigration's Friday morning hearing if Steven Colbert wasn't there? Colbert is a comedian, so there were questions about whether he would be taken seriously, but a comedian or satirist can poke fun at power to shine the light on the process, in case immigration and farming labor.

And let's not forget who works down the hall, Al Franken, a comedian elected as senator from Minnesota.

OK, an 11-year-old boy brutally beaten up. Why? Because he's a cheerleader. I'm going to talk about him and about bullying in my "XYZ."

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VELSHI: Time now for "The XYZ of It."

I want to tell but a very special, very brave young man, 11-year- old Tyler Wilson from Findley, Ohio. Two of his classmates are now facing assault charges for allegedly jumping the sixth grader and beating him up. Why? Tyler says it's because he's a cheerleader.

He joined a youth cheerleading squad this summer. He has no intention of quitting. He says he feels bad that some of his classmates can't accept him for who he is, but he says, quote, "If I want to be a cheerleader, I'm going to be a cheerleader." Good for you, Tyler. Your story is an inspiration for anyone who is pursuing dreams or aspirations, anyone who is staying to stay true to themselves.

Bullying doesn't just have physical effects. It can stifle someone's drive, their inspiration, their self worth. It can force them to close the door on what they want to do and who they want to be.

So Tyler, you keep cheering and I hope your community will cheer for you, too. You've heard the phrase it takes a village? Well, it takes a community to stop the epidemic of bullying. Parents, teachers, kids, until they all stand together and say we're not going to tolerate this any longer, until they say every person in our community must be respected and encouraged and loved, and until they say enough is enough, until they say these words and put them into action, their community will remain a breeding ground for bullies.

Bullies thrive on isolation and on isolating their victims, making them feel helpless, making them feel no one will help them and that hurts far more than punches and kicks. It takes one bully to knock someone down, it takes a community to lift them up.

So thank you, Tyler, for being who you are.

That's my "XYZ." Time now for RICK'S LIST.