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Final Checks for Miner Rescue; Shot to Surface Tonight in Chile; Countdown to Election Day; Outside Groups Funding Congressional Campaigns; Congressional Staffers Charged With Inside Trading; Democrats and Republicans Vie to Convince Voters They're Part of Economic Solution; Hurricane Paula Headed Toward Yucatan; Birth From 20-Year-Old Embryo; Stolen Valor; Economic Impact of Legalizing Marijuana

Aired October 12, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I know what Kiran was thinking. Bret Favre and all those text messages must be inspiring him to do well on the field, right, Kiran? Just saying.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I was thinking that there is possible talk that he might, you know, get in trouble perhaps suspended, so we'll see how the rest of the season goes.

PHILLIPS: Yes, we shall. As we know those boys get --

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I wasn't going to go there.

PHILLIPS: -- with a lot of trouble. All right, guys. See you later.

Well, good morning, everybody. Trapped miners prepare for their shot to the surface. It's complicated, claustrophobic and it's going to be quite a step through half a mile of planet. We're going to show you what their inner space capsule actually looks like.

And a remarkable before and after. An Afghan teen maimed and left for dead gets a new face and a new life.

And exposing military fakers and cheats. We're talking to the couple who's fighting to take stolen valor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their mission, making liars criminals.

I'm Kyra Phillips and you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, we've got nothing but good and encouraging news about those 33 miners in Chile. That hole half a mile underground could have been their grave. But instead, it's been their home for more than two months as they waited for rescue.

Today could be their last full day in there. And the rescue operation is expected to actually begin tonight.

Rafael Romo is going to give us an idea of what that rescue capsule looks like in just a moment, but right now let's get you down to Chile and CNN's Karl Penhaul -- Karl? KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, all systems are a go here. The steel encasing is in place in that rescue shaft. And the platform of concrete well, we understand now the cement has dried on that so the pulley and winch system can also be put in place.

Now -- yet -- yesterday the rescue operation was likely to begin around midnight tonight local time. That's 11:00 p.m. Eastern. But they've also said that if things went well that could begin even earlier so we're expecting in the next couple of hours to get some update from the Mine's Ministry to see if this rescue operation even starts up a few hours earlier.

But amazing to think this morning that as the sun rising here over the San Jose Gold and Copper mine that by tomorrow some of these miners could be seeing their first sunrise in more than two months -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And Karl, have they figured out who's going to come up first and who's going to come out last? I know there was a lot of debate, a lot of guys wanted their buddies to go first.

PENHAUL: Exactly. At one point when the Health minister, Jaime Manalich, talked on a fiber optic video conferencing system to the miners, all of them said that they wanted to be last and that's really an example of camaraderie that has grown up there in extreme circumstances.

That each miner wants to see his buddies get safely to the surface before they themselves step into the rescue capsule but it could be that two paramedics and the two rescue experts that really do define the batting order. They're going to go down into the mine shaft first. They're going to assess all 33.

And what we're being told is that, according to the government, what the government wants the happen is for the first five fittest and technically most knowledgeable miners come out first. That way they can give any feedback on the way that the rescue capsule is operating as it comes up through that half mile rescue shaft.

And also, feedback any details of any problems down in the mine itself. Then will come another group of 10, 10 that we know suffering from some kind of medical conditions. One of the guys has got diabetes. Another has got high blood pressure. Another of the miners has got a longstanding condition known as silocosis. I believe that's what miners in the U.S. call black lung.

So they will then be brought up in the next group. And then the final group will be the fittest men of all. Still some debate about who the 33rd miner out of that hole will be but it is Luis Suoy, the chief foreman who has volunteered to come last. He said, it's my position as chief foreman. He said I was the boss down there on the day of the cave-in and he likens his position somewhat to that of a ship's captain.

Should always be the ship's captain to be the last leaving a sinking ship and he really wants to know these men are safe on the way back to the surface before he himself steps into that phoenix capsule -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Can't imagine being that last one down there.

Karl Penhaul, we can't wait to watch this operation begin and just imagine. They're going to have a headset. They're going to have communications and they're going to have a lot of faith getting into that capsule and working their way up.

It's also going to very claustrophobic, Rafael Romo, and of course oxygen, too. So there are a lot of safety precautions in place when get into this capsule.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Exactly. Well, let's take a look at this replica that we have here. It's only a little more than 21 inches. Just enough to fit a normal person. Just about the width of my shoulders. So it's going to very, very tight in there.

And at the height is about 6'4" so it's expected to be just good enough for all of the miners -- all the 33 miners inside. Now once they're in here, they will have communications equipment to be able to talk to the rescue team above the mine and they will also be wearing a special suit that is going to -- it's moisture resistant.

They will be wearing equipment that will monitor the vital signs just to make sure that on their way up. A ride in this capsule is going to take 15 minutes altogether. So as you can imagine, for somebody who's been underground for so long, it's going to feel like a very long 15 minutes.

PHILLIPS: So are you going to step in and show me how tight this is? Or is it a little too dangerous to do so?

ROMO: Yes. It's --

PHILLIPS: Is it wobbling? What if I --

ROMO: It is wobbly so --

PHILLIPS: How does it open up? Does it open up? There we go. All right.

ROMO: So we're --

PHILLIPS: We're not going to close it. But step in there for me just to give me an idea. OK? And be careful. We don't want to -- I promise, if you roll over, I won't, you know, push you around. But OK, don't want to close it because if I can open it -- no, now you're making me nervous, Rafael.

All right. So you're looking at -- you're -- how many inches?

ROMO: It's about 21-and-a-half inches.

PHILLIPS: Twenty-one-and-a-half inches.

ROMO: So about the width of my shoulders.

PHILLIPS: Oh my gosh. And how tall are you?

ROMO: About five-nine-and-a-half.

PHILLIPS: Five-nine-and-a-half.

ROMO: Don't tell that to anybody. All right?

(LAUGHTER)

ROMO: Officially 5'10".

PHILLIPS: And how much do you weigh? No, I'm not going to ask you that.

But seriously, I mean, this is a tight fit. So if they've got the vest on, they've got the headsets and the whole communication system, my gosh, you have to definitely meditate, pray, do something to kind of keep -- but then again, they're used to close quarters, right?

ROMO: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: I mean these guys aren't claustrophobic guys.

ROMO: And that's the reason, Kyra, that what they wanted to do first, as Karl was telling us, was to have the most experienced miners go first because as they are going up, they're going to be able to tell whether there's any instability in the structure, the rescue shaft.

PHILLIPS: So they'll probably be describing the whole journey. Right?

ROMO: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: OK. I see this. I feel this. I hear this. Because if anything cracks, that could be an issue. Right?

ROMO: They're going to be on the phone constantly with specialized team above telling them exactly this is what I see. If they see any rocks falling down that will be a cause for concern. So every step of the way is going to be monitored.

Once they're sure that there will be no problems, then it's the turn for the sickest men to get inside the capsule and be hoisted up. So that's the process they're going to follow.

PHILLIPS: It all starts about 11:00 Eastern Time tonight, right? Of course --

ROMO: Midnight their time in Chile. And so that's very important because they've been underground for two months and so their eyesight may be damaged if they're brought up in the middle of daylight. They will be wearing special glasses but in any case, it's going to be dangerous for their eyesight. PHILLIPS: We're going to be carrying it live for sure. I'm trying to calculate that in my head. If it happens midnight Chile time, what time is that our time?

ROMO: 11:00 Eastern.

PHILLIPS: OK. It is 11:00. OK, I was right. OK. I thought I got it wrong.

OK, Rafael Romo. Thank you so much. We can't wait to see those guys starts coming up, appreciate it so much.

ROMO: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, the midterm elections just three weeks from today and political ads seem to be everywhere. We've probably all seen one or two of them. But today, there are new questions about who's paying for them and, you know, why you should care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The all-important midterm elections just three weeks from today and the control of Congress could change hands. With stakes that high, political ads are filling the airwaves but you may not always know who's paying for them.

This morning, we're following the money. That's why we're going to senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash. She's taking a look at the legal loopholes and telling us why we should care.

Hey, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kyra.

Well, consider this statistic from the nonpartisan watchdog group Opensecrets.org. In nearly half of the most competitive Senate races, outside groups are spending more money than the candidates themselves.

Now more money is pouring into these outside groups on both sides of the aisle but it is the Republicans that have the enthusiasm and most of the cash. We just don't know where most of that cash is coming from.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): Embattled 14-term Democrat Rick Boucher said he's never had an election enemy quite like the one he's facing now. Not his opponent.

REP. RICK BOUCHER (D), VIRGINIA: This is an organization that is truly shadowy.

BASH: A third party Republican group running this ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boucher has failed to protect our jobs. Now it's time Rick Boucher loses his.

Americans for Job Security is responsible for the content of this advertising.

BASH (on camera): Americans for Job Security is responsible. You don't know who they are?

BOUCHER: We have no idea who these individuals are. This could be a foreign entity. It could be someone who has a corporate identity in the United States. It could be a very wealthy individual who has some grudge against me.

BASH: Americans for Job Security is one of those outside groups likely benefiting from a Supreme Court decision which on free speech grounds said corporations can spend unlimited money to promote or defeat candidates without disclosing donors.

(Voice-over): It does have this Web site which said it promotes free market ideas and its more than 1,000 members are, quote, "businesses, business leaders and entrepreneurs" from around the country. But also bluntly states it won't disclose donors because too often politicians or the media define an organization or message not by the merits of the argument but rather by the perception of the people associated with it.

(On camera): Republican sources say Americans for Job Security only has one full-time employee, Steve Demorro, whose offices are right across the river here in Washington here in Alexandria, Virginia.

Now we left multiple phone messages for Demorro to try to get more information about his group and we never heard back so came here to his office, knocked on the door and we were told he wasn't there.

DAVE LEVINTHAL, OPEN SECRETS CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: Because of the type of group that they are, you don't know if that's one American for job security, a million Americans for job security.

BASH (voice-over): What we do know with the help of the nonpartisan Opensecrets.org is American for Job Security have spent nearly $8 million against Democratic candidates nationwide, and overall conservative outside groups have already spent $108 million. Liberal groups, $69 million.

Tim Phillips with Americans for Prosperity, another GOP group, did talk to us. It's been singled out by the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Even though they're posing as nonprofit groups, with names like Americans for Prosperity --

BASH (on camera): By the time we reach Election Day, how much will your group have spent?

TIM PHILLIPS, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY PRESIDENT: This year we'll spend around $35 million.

BASH (voice-over): That money funds ads like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To small businesses, Betsy Marky is the same as Nancy Pelosi.

BASH: Who are its donors? The Texas billionaire Coke brothers are the group's founders and give significant dollars. Besides them, who knows?

PHILLIPS: Most of it is private individuals, but we're glad to have their support, and we tell them, look, we're going to protect your privacy as the law allows us to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The key thing to remember about all this, it is legal for these particular groups to spend tens of millions to affect elections without anyone know who's funding them. The Supreme Court left it in Congress' hands to fix, and Democrats' legislation to do that, at least try, was blocked in the Senate before they went home for the recess.

Now, Kyra, today we focus on Republican outside groups, but we have to make the point that Democratic groups are hitting GOP candidates, too. They're not as well funded, they're not as big, but they're out there, and we'll take a look at that tomorrow. Kyra?

PHILLIPS,: Got it. Dana, thanks so much. Let's keep following our money, shall we? There are new charges of insider trading by the very people who should be looking out for all of us. We're talking about congressional staffers, who have privileged information that can make or break companies. And according to "The Wall Street Journal," dozens of these congressional staffers may have cashed in. CNN's Christine Romans has been investigating this for us. Hey, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We did some digging on this story, Kyra, and you're right. It's perfectly legal, and an analysis from "The Wall Street Journal" of 3,000 disclosure documents found some 72 congressional staffers and aides who were trading on information, information gleaned in the halls of power in Washington, DC. Information about companies who were being regulated by or who were lobbying for certain kinds of rules and regulations that could benefit their companies.

Seventy-two aides traded shares of companies their bosses helped oversee. And in particular, several of these outlined by "The Wall Street Journal," one of them was an aide to Senator Henry Reid, the Senate majority leader, who actually profited from a company, renewable energy stock for a company that did well after some laws were passed by Henry Reid, that helped it.

Henry Reid's office saying that his staffer showed poor judgment. Senator Reid has made it very clear to that staffer and his staff that their actions must not only follow the law, but meet a higher standard of the public -- that they have to respect from officials and their staffs. It's interesting here, because this is perfectly legal. And this is something that I was not aware of. It is perfectly legal and, in fact, over the past five years, a couple of times a law has been introduced, a bill has been introduced in the House called STOCK, the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act. A law that has been floated to say, look, it's not fair for people in Congress and their staffs to be able to be trading on information that's floating around there in -- on Capitol Hill.

This law has never passed. In fact, it's never garnered much support. Its most reiteration, Kyra, in the spring, only nine -- look at that. Only nine members of Congress supported a crackdown on inside the Beltway inside information trading. Very, very interesting here. Not a lot of support, overall, for that.

Many of the critics say, look, it's not really fair that these very people, Congress, really bashing the banks and Wall Street and the way Wall Street does business, but when you peel back the curtain, you can see that there's special rules for Congress, as well.

PHILLIPS: Yes. There are always special things for Congress. We'll stay on the story, that's for sure. Christine, thanks.

ROMANS: Sure.

PHILLIPS: In these final weeks before the election, both Democrats and Republicans trying to convince voters that they're part of the solution to America's economic problems. And last night on "Parker Spitzer," the two talked about the new documentary, "Inside Job," and who's to blame for the financial crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN PARKER, CO-HOST, "PARKER SPITZER": You just can't blame only Republicans. You can't blame just Democrats, either. You can't pin it on President Bush or President Clinton, and it really didn't matter who controlled Congress. It's really just a story of runaway greed, of a relatively small number of people who nearly destroyed our financial system.

ELLIOT SPITZER, CO-HOST, "PARKER SPITZER": The only thing I would say is it's all of the above. It was President Bush. It was also President Clinton and the folks around him. The Fed the SEC, Congress sitting there.

Everybody bought into this notion that Wall Street could just make everybody rich. But you know what they did? They made themselves rich, and we are poor. This is one big Ponzi scheme, because we had to bail them out, and they kept all the money, and they gave nothing back to us. And that is what's outrageous and, I think, has people really angry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You can watch "Parker Spitzer" weeknights 8:00 PM Eastern, right here on CNN All right. Paula now a hurricane, apparently, and it's headed toward the Yucatan Peninsula. Rob Marciano joining us from the Hurricane Headquarters. So, bottom line, is it going to affect us? How -- where's it moving?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it may. This is the same area where Hurricane Wilma developed back in 2005, and we all know what happened to that storm. It became the strongest storm in the Atlantic Basin ever, and also made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 and tore apart that state on both coasts. That's why we're worried about Paula.

Right now, we do have hurricane winds of 75 miles an hour. The -- it looks like the last couple of frames of this, it has gotten a little bit larger. The winds only go out about ten miles, as far as the hurricane-strength winds from the center of this thing. So, it has room to grow, certainly, and there's a lot of warm water in here.

Right now, it's about 200 -- a little bit less than 200 miles south of Cozumel and it's heading in that direction with northwesterly movement about 10 miles per hour.

Here's the forecast track, to answer Kyra's question, which doesn't give us a lot of concrete answers. There's a lot of uncertainty here, because if it stays relatively weak, it will probably meander down in through here. If it gets stronger, then it will get into some of the deeper steering currents and probably go towards Key West.

So, those are the variables we're dealing with right now, but here's the official forecast track. Tomorrow -- tonight and tomorrow into -- we'll be battering and scraping the eastern coastline of the Yucatan, and then after that, all bets are off, so we're watching that very carefully.

Little bit closer to home, we do have thunderstorms that rolled through New York City last night, some of which were pretty strong, and some showers and storms from New Orleans back through parts of the southern tip of Florida.

And on top of that, we had record-breaking temperatures from San Francisco, to Louisville, to DC yesterday. And hail falling in Brooklyn. Look at this video. Can you believe this in the middle of October? Not only, I mean, any time of year, really, to get hail this size, coating the sidewalks and the roadways in Brooklyn, New York. Quite a night last night in the Big Apple. We don't expect that sort of activity today. But decent storm actually taking shape for the weekend for those folks. We're -- right now monitoring Paula. All eyes on the tropics. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

PHILLIPS: She was mutilated by the Taliban, and that exposed how women are treated in Afghanistan. But today, we're celebrating a new beginning for this teenager who's endured so much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we've got an update on a story, now, that we followed earlier this year. This is the face of brutality in Afghanistan. Remember 19-year-old Bebe? She was just a teenager when she ran away from an abusive, arranged marriage. A Taliban court ordered that her nose and ears be cut off. She was left for dead until American medical team came to her rescue.

Today, her face and her future, much different. She begins a new life in the US, where she has been outfitted with a prosthetic nose and will undergo eight months of plastic surgery.

Her story is shockingly similar in Afghanistan. The United Nations actually estimates 90 percent of women there suffer from some form of domestic abuse. But at a weekend event, former first lady Laura Bush explained why this has become a major focus of her post- White House years. Mrs. Bush says, quote, "There's some Afghan leaders" -- "Though some Afghan leaders," rather, "have condemned the violence and defended the rights of women, others maintain a complicit silence in hopes of achieving peace. But peace attained by compromising the rights of half of the population will not last."

The nation's housing crisis, millions of Americans booted from their homes, some of them possibly victims of a fraud that preyed on them when they were at their weakest. That story after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Wall Street this week, it's all about the Federal Reserve, several policymakers set to speak including Fed Chief Ben Bernanke.

Investors are listening closely to what they have to say about the economy. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. All right, Alison, how important are these words?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is incredibly important, Kyra. You know, what the Fed says directly affects how stocks are traded. You know, look at what happened last week. The market rallied because investors merely thought the Fed will do something to help the economy.

They were buying on the rumor. So today, now that Fed officials are actually talking, you can bet it's definitely going to have an effect. In a speech last night, Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen warned that keeping interest rates at record lows and expanding the Fed's balance sheet could create big problems down the road.

And for Wall Street that's a sign that policymakers are pretty cautious about helping the economy so stocks as we can see are opening lower. Later today, we're going to hear from Kansas City's Fed president and we'll get minutes from the last policy meeting that they had in September.

And that's going to give Wall Street some clues about possible Fed actions, but the most important thing to watch will be Fed Chief Ben Bernanke's speech, which happens on Friday.

In the meantime, the Dow Industrials are down about 39 points. The Nasdaq is off 7. We'll keep an eye on all the numbers for you. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Alison, thanks.

Foreclosure sales are getting new scrutiny because of questionable practices that may have caused struggling borrowers to be evicted from their homes.

A CNN exclusive - enough problems with the mortgage industry's foreclosure process not only are the signatures and legal documents in question.

In many cases, those documents themselves are not entirely factual. CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): (Replique D'Amelio) bought her dream home in Wapfingers Falls, New York four years ago. Hard times hit and she fell into default on her mortgage. This summer, (D'Amelio) declared bankruptcy hoping to head off foreclosure.

(on camera): How important is it to you to hold on to this home?

REPLIQUE D'AMELIO, FIGHTING FORECLOSURE: Outside of my children and my family, there's nothing more important.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): The threat of a foreclosure looms from Citimortgage, a division of Citigroup even though the company doesn't own Replique D'Amelio's mortgage.

Fannie Mae owns it along with millions of other home loans. Fannie Mae's name is nowhere to be found on assignment of mortgage document. Citimortgage produced in the D'Amelio bankruptcy case.

Instead, the document states the mortgage was assigned to Citimortgage. D'Amelio's lawyer says the bankers are not following proper legal procedure.

LINDA TIRELLI, ATTORNEY FOR D'AMELIO: This is an improper assignment of mortgage that's meant to shortcut the system. It's less about the truth and more about how fast can we get the property foreclosed on?

CHERNOFF: Citimortgage which collected D'Amelio's monthly payments as the servicer of the loan says there's no foul play here. It's normal procedure and Fannie Mae agrees pointing out this is how it operates all the time.

(on camera): In fact, Citimortgage owned the D'Amelio loan very briefly for only a couple of months back in 2006. The original lender Home Loan Center sold the mortgage to Citimortgage on November 3rd, 2006. The very day Replique D'Amelio borrowed the money. Less than two months later, Citimortgage turned around and sold that loan as an investment to Fannie Mae on January 1st, 2007.

(voice-over): Yet the assignment of mortgage documents starting Citimortgage still owns D'Amelio's loan is dated June 24th, 2010. That information on the document comes from a Virginia company owned by Citimortgage, Fannie Mae and other big mortgage players, MERS, Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

When banks sell mortgages, they use MERS as an electronic repository to keep track of the real owners. MERS has 64 million loans in its database.

If a bank wants to foreclose, it simply turned to MERS for the necessary documentation. Much faster and cheaper than retrieving local title records, but the MERS' papers like for those for Replique D'Amelio's home sometimes don't reflect the true status of the mortgage.

PAULA A. FRANZESE, SETON HALL REAL ESTATE LAW PROFESSOR: We are seeing forgeries. We're seeing backdatings. We're seeing post datings. Largely because lenders are scrambling to come up with a chain of title that MERS was ill equipped from the inception to provide.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Allan joining us now live from New York. So what does MERS have to say about all of this?

CHERNOFF: They say they provide clarity, transparency and deficiency to the mortgage finance system and Citimortgage says they rely on the MERS' data to pursue people who are delinquent on their mortgages, but a lot of lawyers increasing are going after MERS for the way it operates.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, we'll follow to follow it with you, Allan. Thanks so much.

Well, this is something that has science fiction written all over it, but it's not fiction. It's fact. A healthy baby boy born in May from an embryo that was frozen for almost 20 years.

CNN's John Roberts actually talked this morning with the director of Virginia clinic that did the transfer and, John, it is remarkable than an embryo frozen for 20 years can produce a healthy baby.

Tell me how does that happen and why did it take 20 years for this embryo to actually be used?

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is pretty remarkable. It is like a real-life rip van winkle story. The oldest embryo ever used to create a child was 13 years previous to this. So they're pushing the envelope out another seven years.

This was a 42-year-old woman, had been using IVS to try to get pregnant for some 10 years, but couldn't so she went to the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine and said, have you got an embryo I can use?

They looked in the bank and they said, here's one. Matches the characteristics you would like. It's 20 years old. She said, well, that's fine. Let's give it a shot and behold it worked.

The baby boy was born back in May. I talked to Jacob Mayer who is the head embryologist there at the Jones Institute about why use a 20-year-old embryo. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB MAYER, PH.D., DIRECTOR, JONES INSTITUTE EMBRYOLOGY LABORATORY: Remember that the freezing million embryos of any type has only started to occur in the 1970s. Human embryos in the 1980s so we really 20 years, 20-some years is about the longest we could have had something in storage at the moment.

But in theory when you look at it, these embryos are frozen and stored at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit. And at that temperature, there are no thermally driven reactions. All of the biochemical reactions are essentially frozen in place. It's really a state of suspended animation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: I love that term, suspended in animation. It's like Antarctica where everything is frozen in time from the days of Shackelton, but it's an interesting point that, you know, everything is basically frozen in time. And so what kind of implications could this mean for the future and are there risks involved?

ROBERTS: Well, here's what somebody said to me this morning. Would you want chicken frozen for 20 years? It's a different process here, but they're proving that at this point there's no bounds to how long embryos or eggs because a lot of women are freezing their eggs can be frozen and held and still be viable.

Are there potential risks? They really don't know because as he said, you know, the technology is still fairly young. This is the oldest embryo. It won't be until later on in the child's life they know whether or not there are potential implications from a risk perspective.

Now what are the overall implications for this? Some women are beginning to freeze their eggs or freeze embryos for future generations. In 2007, a woman froze her embryos for a child who had a disease or condition that might make her infertile later in life.

But there's a possibility, 30 years old, let's say you freeze the eggs, or embryos. Your grandchild comes along and turns out to be infertile. Great grandmother could be the parent of the great grandchild. Doesn't that just blow your mind?

PHILLIPS: That is pretty blind blowing. Keeping it all in the family. It's pretty fascinating story. Thanks, John.

Take a close look at this. President Obama on stage when a book goes whizzing past him. Glad it wasn't a shoe. We'll tell you what happened after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking top stories. A scientific first, a spinal cord injury patient here in Atlanta is the first person to be injected with human embryonic stem cell. Researchers are hoping that the controversial therapy will regenerate tissue in the partially paralyzed patient.

Police in Colorado say they're reopening the murder case of Jon Benet Ramsey now using the latest DNA technology to find her killer. The body of the 6-year-old girl found in the basement of her home in December of 1996. Two years ago, the Boulder County District attorney cleared Ramsey's family of any involvement in the murder case.

The alleged gunman behind last year's Fort Hood massacre has a hearing today in a military court. Officials trying to determine whether there's enough evidence against Major Nidal Hasan to put him on trial. He faces 13 counts of premeditated murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Just three weeks away from today, Americans will cast their votes in the midterm elections in the very control of Congress may be at stake. We're counting down to bring you all the stories that could shape the voters' decisions.

We're taking it to Mark Preston now in Washington at the Political Desk. Hey, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, how are you? Good morning, good morning. Let's start off with Florida. There's a very, very, very competitive governor's race down there right now.

Rick Scott, the former health care executive, and the chief financial officer for the state, Alex Sink. Well, the polls have been going back and forth. Rick Scott, the billionaire spent a lot of money, the Republican who win the Republican primary.

Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee, well, a new poll out this morning show that the race is a dead heat. Why is this important? Because just a few weeks ago, Mr. Scott had a six-point lead over Alex Sink.

It's showing that this race is tightening up. The poll from Quinnipiac University out of Connecticut, a very good polling outfit. Where is Sink making up all the ground, Kyra, making up with independent voters.

We're talking over and over again how important the independent voters are, a huge swing we've seen in this new Quinnipiac poll. Of course, several weeks left before the Election Day a lot could happen. Let's focus in on Kentucky. You know, we talked a lot about Rand Paul. Well, what about his son, Rand Paul, he is the Republican nominee in Kentucky. He is the Tea Party favorite, came out of nowhere.

Well, he debated against the Democratic nominee Jack Conway last night. They talk a lot about fiscal discipline. One common thing that they also had is they talked about their independence.

Jack Conway talking about how he'd be an independent Democrat. Of course, Rand Paul talking about his own independence from the Republican establishment. Why is this important?

It's important because the Tea Party is really looking at Kentucky as a major win should Rand Paul win a victory in November.

And what about that book flying incident? You know, on Sunday, President Obama was rallying the troops up in Pennsylvania. All of a sudden, a book came out of nowhere. And you can catch it, and you can see the video, of course, here on CNN and you can also see it online on CNNPolitics.com.

The book comes flying by Mr. Obama. We didn't know what it was. The Secret Service apprehended the man. They did not charge him. They just described him as an exuberant author.

Well, I guess my question is, Kyra, why didn't this guy throw the book at Oprah Winfrey? Isn't she the one who really, really makes authors; as far as we know President Obama didn't even see the book -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, that's a good thing. And as I said earlier, I'm glad it wasn't a shoe. That would have been a whole another issue.

PRESTON: That's true.

PHILLIPS: Mark thanks.

All right, we're going to have more political news next hour. And a reminder: if you're away from the TV, just go to our Web site CNNPolitics.com.

All right. Flashback: to the first time a favorite chocolate treat hit store shelves. The KitKat bar actually debuted 75 years ago today in London. It was originally marketed as the best companion to a cup of tea. Most people think that the name comes from the legendary KitKat political club dating back to 18th century England.

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PHILLIPS: Man, what a waste of good toilet paper. Well actually, it was for a great cause. You're looking at Robert Rizzo's house. Remember him? He is the former city manager of Bell, California. You know the dirt bag who was making about $800,000 a year running a tiny, poor town where most households we're bringing in a fraction of that. Well, he made bail last week and faces dozens of corruption charges. But it looks like several rolls of TP justice have already been served.

So if you watch our newscast in the mornings you already know how much I love to lift up our military heroes, but on this morning, I'm going to trash these guys. Why -- because they're fakers, liars, cowards; an insult to our real men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line every day for us.

The Stolen Valor Act passed in 2006 dealt with these kinds of cheats; made it a crime to lie about your military honors. But recently a federal appeals court ruled that the act violates free speech, so any Tom, Dick and Harry can say that he or she won a medal in Vietnam, or Afghanistan even though he or she never served one day in the Armed Forces, and he or she won't be punished for it.

Doug and Pam Sterner are trying to change that. They've made honoring real heroes their mission. And they have not given up on the Stolen Valor Act. It may now actually go all of the way to Supreme Court. And we sure hope it does.

It's great to see you both.

DOUG STERNER, HOMEOFHEROES.COM: Good morning, Kyra, it's good to be here and I know you've seen these men and women that are our at best and doing their best and what it takes to be a top gun and do these things that they do. We appreciate your honor of them and also pointing out the frauds that detract from what they do.

PHILLIPS: Well, I appreciate that, Doug. And you know, you served in Vietnam, and you saw firsthand how guys fought and survived and lived, the true heroes that we're talking about. So, as you reflect back on your time in Vietnam, and -- and what you experienced, right now when you see guys stealing honors like this, how does that make you feel?

D. STERNER: I try not to let it become personal. Sometimes it does become personal, but, you know, this is much more than just lying. It's fraud, and almost always there's some kind of financial fraud going on behind it.

PHILLIPS: Pam, what about you?

PAM STERNER, HOMEOFHEROES.COM: Well, this was such a frustrating thing to me that when I was in college, I decided to do my policy analysis paper on the current code that wouldn't allow us to prosecute these people because they weren't actually wearing the medals that they claim to wear.

And so my law now goes ahead and encompasses the people who simply state on their resumes or -- or go to a public speech or hold up a medal and say they earned those medals. They can now be prosecuted under this law.

PHILLIPS: And we should point that out you authored the Stolen Valor Act. And you said this became an interest to you years back. Why? Why did it move and touch you to the point where you wanted to actually author a law?

P. STERNER: At that time my husband was running a very nice military honor Web site, and he was constantly getting calls on why aren't you paying tribute to this person and that person, only to find out that those people were actually phonies, and -- and they had been duping their families and their friends and things into thinking that they were actually military veterans. And Doug said unfortunately, under the current law, we can't do anything to them because the current law only allows us to prosecute people who are wearing military medals they didn't earn.

So for a policy analysis paper at Colorado State University, in Pueblo, I went ahead and extended the current law to go ahead and include people who would verbally also lie about their service. For my sake, misrepresentation is misrepresentation, and it doesn't matter how you do it.

PHILLIPS: And -- and we should say that the Justice Department is also battling to save this federal law that would make it illegal to lie about being a war hero, and if, indeed, this fight is carried all of the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, because now the talk is it may get there, Doug, what will this do if passed? Where will it give you peace, and how will it hold these guys accountable?

D. STERNER: Well, first of all, it's the first part of two pieces of legislation. Congressman John Salazar who is our Congressman when we lived in Colorado introduced it and he's introduced a follow-up legislation that would create a database of military heroes.

But I'd like to point out three different courts have reviewed Stolen Valor, and there was a split decision two to one, it was upheld in one court. Five different judges split 3-2. So this is not a slam dunk for either side but we believe it will be upheld and when it is, it will at least mean that you cannot claim the honors established by Congress to recognize our bravest men and women with impunity.

PHILLIPS: Pam and Doug Sterner, we will follow this fight for sure. We would sure like to see it get up there to the Supreme Court and we would like to see the law passed.

(CROSSTALK)

P. STERNER: We thank you, Kyra for your interest in it.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely, always, we'll follow up. Thanks, guys.

D. STERNER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: More from CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: Well, on November 2nd, Californians will vote on Proposition 19, the measure to legalize marijuana. One controversial side to the heated debate, the economic impact of legal pot, whether it's going to cost billions of dollars or generate billions of dollars depends on whom you ask.

Here's Josh Levs.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A big part of the battle surrounding the idea of legalizing marijuana is the financial impact. And people on both sides have put a lot of figures out there about what would happen.

This is a big unknown, actual legalization, not just decriminalization, not just medical marijuana. Let me show you some of the key figures that are being floated in this debate. We're going to start off with this from the Kato Institute. This group, they put out a report and it says that it would save about $8.7 billion when you put together reduced expenses on enforcement, legal sales and tax revenue. That's $8.7 billion for the government each year they're saying.

Here's another one -- take a look at this. This is from Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance. He wrote a commentary for cnn.com saying legalization would reduce the mass incarceration of drug offenders and therefore save a lot of money.

Joe Klein over at time.com wrote something really popular there. A lot of people picked up on this -- he says nearly half, 47.5 percent of drug arrests in this country are marijuana-related.

One more I want to tell you about since it's California we're talking about. California has a board of equalization. They put out a report -- I want to show you this figure here. They say themselves that this estimate is based on a number of guesses, they admit that, but they say pot and marijuana is such a popular crop that the state could raise $1.4 billion through levies and taxes.

All right now, let's take a look at the other side.

Some people look at these figures and say no, they paint way too rosy a picture that ignores reality. The consequences of legalizing marijuana could be economically devastating.

Two things I want to show you about that. One is a quote from Kevin Sabet, formerly with the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He wrote this commentary in "Los Angeles Times". He says "Accidents would increase, health care costs would rise and productivity would suffer."

The current director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said in a speech earlier this year, this is a quote, "the social costs would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied. Illegal drugs already cost $180 billion a year in health care, lost productivity, crime and other expenditures. That number would only increase," he says. So those are some of the key points on both sides as we look at this debate over how legalizing pot might affect the economy. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Josh, Thanks.