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Future of War; Vote Counting in Alaska Continues; A Real Iron Man Suit; Dems Jockeying for Position Ahead of 2012 Elections

Aired November 12, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We will get another "Political Ticker" update in just half-an-hour. You can also get the latest political news. Go to CNNPolitics.com or get on Twitter at @PoliticalTicker.

And here we go, top of the hour. I want to welcome the men and the women watching us right now on American Forces Network all around the world. We're going to move fast. Let the rush hour begin. Here we go.

Wolf mentioned the Supreme Court today refusing to temporarily suspend enforcement of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy on gays in the military. Now, it was that group the Log Cabin Republicans who had filed an emergency petition with the court. The Obama administration wants the policy repealed, that's what they have been saying, but do not favor a court-based end to the issue.

But the policy here still remains in effect until the full appeals process is complete.

Next, a young man beaten brutally to death at a house party near Atlanta last weekend will be buried tomorrow. The coroner says Bobby Tillman died of a lacerated heart. Four young men are now facing felony murder charges in this case.

And I spoke with Bobby Tillman's mother earlier this week. And her message was one not of grief, but of strength and of hope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONIQUE RIVARDE, MOTHER OF BOBBY TILLMAN: My son died from bullying. If we can stop it before it gets there and help these children -- it was rage. It was jealousy. It was pride. All these things in these boys to make them want to stomp my son and kill him? That's outrageous.

How can someone have so much of that inside of them, especially someone that is not even 21 yet? So they have lived only that long and have that -- so much of that built up that they had to stomp my child.

It has to be stopped. It's before, not once they're caught, because we can put everyone in jail, but before. You know what I mean?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Bobby Tillman was just 18 years old.

Next, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been moved from a Tel Aviv hospital. He's been in a coma for almost five years. Doctors now transporting the incapacitated ex-leader via ambulance there to his ranch in southern Israel, where his wife is buried. Sharon was reduced to a persistent vegetative state after a series of strokes back in 2006 and requires 24/7 medical care. Doctors say there's been no improvement in his condition and there's no sign he's likely to recover.

Next, take a look at the tar balls here. They're washing on shore. There they are. This is Orange Beach in Alabama. And they look kind of like meatball size. Maybe not that one. Some of the other ones do. Many beachcombers claim they have found tar balls the size of burgers. Some say this is the first significant impact from the BP oil spill along these beaches in weeks. Experts, they're blaming the weather saying tar balls that were submerged are now being pushed onshore by heavy surf.

Next, the guy who hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account, do you remember that story, might not see jail time. You had a Tennessee judge recommending 22-year-old David Kernell spend his one year and one day of custody in a halfway house, not prison. The judge also recommended Kernell get medical health treatment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will get the final say where Kernell will spend his time. Palin and her daughter Bristol testified at that trial earlier this claiming the hacking caused the family emotional distress.

Next, if you are a Nissan driver, heads up. You may need to head to the dealer, take your car. More than 500,000 Nissans in the U.S. right now being recalled over possible steering and battery problems. Take a close look here. We made a list of the models being recalled, 2002-2004 Frontiers, 2002-2004 Xterras, and 2010 Sentras. Did you get that? Nissan plans to notify owners next month as soon as replacement parts become available. We are told at least no accidents, no injuries have been reported with any of these issues.

Next, is there a job cut coming at Yahoo!? That's the industry watchers, that's what they're asking, as the online giant wraps up its fourth quarter. Two tech blogs are reporting that 10 to 20 percent of search engine's employees may be searching for a job in the near future.

Yahoo! recently -- roughly, I should say, cut 700 jobs over the last year.

Next, San Francisco's mayor is expected to veto the city's ban on toys in McDonald's Happy Meals deemed too unhealthy. It could be meaningless, though. The board of supervisors approved the ordinance with a veto-proof majority.

Next, you may have heard of U.S. Marshals auctioning off all those possessions of the disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, like that 10- karat rock his wife had. But there is another high-end auction this weekend you may not have heard of. This is all about America's pastime. In fact, two items on the block are catching a lot of attention.

Take a look with me. First, you have got a historic Babe Ruth- autographed 702nd home run baseball. That is from 1934. And on it reads, if you can read it with me, "To Billy from Babe Ruth." Wow. This thing estimated at at least $50,000.

And then there is this, Marilyn Monroe-autographed photograph, Joe DiMaggio, and in blue ink, she penned the words, "I love you, Joe, Marilyn." There it is. That has an estimated valued at at least $40,000.

Wow.

Next, we have a couple of new developments here we are tracking in Alaska's hotly contested Senate race. We're still on this, yet another lawsuit being bandied about and the Tea Party Republican candidate has hired now the man behind those infamous Willie Horton ads.

CNN's Shannon Travis, who is tracking all of this new stuff in Juneau, Alaska.

And, Shannon, let's just begin with what's going on behind you. I don't know if the counting is still continuing here. Where are we with that? And I also understand that Joe Miller's camp is also alleging voter fraud.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Yes. Well, let's be clear here. They're not alleging voter fraud. But I will get to that in a minute.

BALDWIN: OK.

TRAVIS: Let's talk about what is going on behind me right now. It's day tree of the vote count.

Right now, Lisa Murkowski is still getting about 89 percent of the votes being sorted in her favor, again not officially added to her vote tally, just being put in a stack saying hey, these are clear, unambiguous votes for Lisa Murkowski.

In terms of the lawsuit, the Joe Miller campaign is going to be filing the lawsuit in state court today here in Juneau, actually, that basically says, hey, we want voter rolls. We want to see -- we want to look at different districts and say if 1,000 let's say voters registered in that district, we want to make sure that there aren't 2,000 votes in that district.

That addresses this notion of voter fraud. They are not alleging voter fraud. They are saying that they're hearing complaints from voters calling into radio shows or what have you talking amongst themselves saying, oh, we might have been disenfranchised. So they released like an 800 number saying, hey, if you feel that you were a victim of voter fraud, call this number.

BALDWIN: What about -- quickly, what about the issues of somebody putting an O. where a U. should be in her name or it's smudged at all? Is it being that particular, the vote counting, and are those being counted?

TRAVIS: Yes, some are being counted, and some are not. It's this whole of voter intent. Does an O. where an I. needs to be, does that mean that the person was trying to vote for Murkowski or not?

Election officials here are ruling some of those yes votes for Murkowski and some of them no.

I want to get really quickly to what you talked about, the whole Willie Horton thing also. There's a guy here. His name is Floyd Brown. He's legendary in a lot of conservative circles. He has signed on as a sort of spokesman for the Miller campaign. He was the one announcing the lawsuit last night. And he's behind probably one of the most controversial ads in political history, that Willie Brown (sic) ad, Dukakis, that a lot of people say sunk Dukakis' campaign. So, he signed on board. That's raised a lot of eyebrows -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Bottom line, Shannon, when might we have a winner declared?

TRAVIS: Anyone's guess.

The lawsuit will continue. The first lawsuit that was filed in federal court will continue next week. But the judge will only decide whether he has jurisdiction to even hear the case. Beyond that, the vote counting will continue with these write-in ballots, with questioned ballots, with absentee ballots.

We may not have a certification until the 29th of November. And only until then -- only after then I should say can the Miller campaign if they choose to even mount more legal challenges. So this thing could drag on for a while, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I hope you like Thanksgiving dinner in Alaska, Mr. Travis. Sorry to break it down to you like that.

TRAVIS: Don't say that.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Shannon, I'm kidding.

TRAVIS: My mom in Chicago will be very unhappy about that.

BALDWIN: Sorry, Shannon's mom. I'm half-kidding.

Shannon Travis for us in Juneau -- Shannon, thank you.

Are we looking at the future of war? Could soldiers soon become real- life iron men? Look at this guy. I will show you this fascinating technology that could end up on the battlefield. That's ahead.

Plus, one mistake, one single mistake from Google Maps almost push two countries into war. Not joking. I'm going to tell you about the invasion that has the Internet giant in some hot water. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Behold the power of Google. Wait until you hear this. It will strike a chord with anyone, me included, who has gotten a little lost using an online map.

Can you believe Google could sway world affairs, perhaps even start some of war without even trying?

Sebastian Castro from CNN en Espanol is here.

Sebastian, we're pulling in the big guns here, because we want you to explain what almost happened. Talk to me about Costa Rica, your home country, and Nicaragua.

(CROSSTALK)

SEBASTIAN CASTRO, CNN EN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's always been a sort of territorial dispute over this river, which was recently declared a Nicaraguan part. The San Juan River, it's also been a very controversial issue in bilateral relations.

However, what happened here was that Nicaragua sent in troops to Costa Rican territory because of a Google Maps error.

BALDWIN: So, let's take a look. If we can pull up the map guys, we have the Google map, which is wrong, and we can see. So, the green Costa Rica.

CASTRO: The line is the actual border -- or the line is the actual river. I'm sorry. So that would be the actual line that's wrong.

BALDWIN: That's the wrong line. This is the Google map. So the white is Nicaragua. The green is Costa Rica. And that little squiggle purple line, that is wrong. And that is what they looked at apparently and that's what irked Nicaragua, correct?

CASTRO: Indeed.

And the problem here was that Nicaragua should not trust a product that is aimed at consumers and businesses to make political decisions. That is just a very irresponsible thing to do from the Nicaraguan government. And they need -- they have corrected. Google has said that -- has apologized and said that they will correct it.

BALDWIN: Well, let's pull up what Google said. I think we pulled a little full-screen, because I was curious as to -- this is quite a bit of power in Google's hands. I don't know if they fully even comprehend that countries are looking to them and the messy idea of having to draw some -- some border countries.

In fact, if we can pull up the full-screen, guys, we have a full -- OK. So I have it here. Boom.

Here's what Google is saying. It is our goal to provide the most accurate up-to-date maps possible. Maps are created using a variety of data sources. And there is inevitably going to be errors in that data. We WOODRUFF: rk hard to correct any errors as soon as we discover them.

You said, you know, they're working on it or they have corrected it.

SEBASTIAN CASTRO, CNN EN ESPANOL: And this has sparked a controversy. I mean, this is getting bigger every day. Today, the OAS, Organization of American States, is actually having an extraordinary session to decide what -- how they're going to act on this, all because of this little Google Map incident.

BALDWIN: Because of Google Maps?

CASTRO: I know. And actual maps that have been presented by the Nicaraguan government in the past for other disputes show the island being part of Costa Rica.

BALDWIN: And, briefly, before we let you go -- this isn't the first time something like this has happened, right? There are other examples of two countries who look to --

CASTRO: Cambodia and Thailand have had the same problem. And more recently, even Morocco and Spain over an island as well have been in dispute -- thanks to Google Maps (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: So, lesson learned. If you are running a country or military in a country, don't go to Google Maps to --

CASTRO: Go to a more reliable source.

BALDWIN: Reliable source.

Sebastian Castro, gracias.

CASTRO: A pleasure.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

OK. So, an attempted purse snatching turns into something far more dangerous. And the surveillance footage, it is frightening. We'll bring that all to you right after the break.

And here is a recipe for disaster. You have an angry commuter. We can relate sometimes, right? And a frustrated transit worker.

They mixed it up, it's caught on camera. Of course, it is. Now that person is in hot water. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know this day and age, you should know this. If you know anything, you know this -- you do something that you shouldn't really have been doing, chances are you're going to get caught on some kind of camera, right? So, I have two examples of that for you today.

First, case in point -- let's go to Boston. Train passenger says he was attacked by a transit worker after complaining about getting some bad directions. So, Stuart Wilkerson says the directions he got were wrong, set him back an hour and a half. He claims he tried to get the worker's name and when she refused, Wilkerson says he pulled out his cell phone to take a picture of the worker.

According to Wilkerson, that's when the transit worker started hitting him. You see it? You see it in the little picture, a little spotlight we have for you? He claims the video you're watching shows assault.

Now, that worker has since been fired, but the general manager for the Massachusetts Transportation authority says when he took a look at that video, we just showed he thought Wilkerson was a tad aggressive with the cell phone camera. Some sources are telling the Boston media that the fired worker told investigators Wilkerson was drunk and was belligerent.

Wilkerson admits to drinking earlier on in that day but denies he was drunk at the time of the attack. In fact, he says he's considering a lawsuit.

The union is fighting to get the woman's job back.

Then there is this -- this is from Ohio. Watch this. You see the SUV pulls up to a woman walking in a parking lot. Someone inside asked for directions.

And when the woman points to explain where they need to go -- it happened to fast. It's hard to see it. We're going to show it to you again. The moment the driver appears to snatch the woman's purse.

See her on the ground? Watch it again. Go watch, pay a very close attention. She's hanging on. The purse is in the car. You see? She lands on the street.

Police say the woman you saw, she evidently let go. She lost her purse, suffered bumps and bruises. By the way, that woman, 61 years of age, hanging on for dear life.

You have seen these sci-fi suits on "Iron Man" and "Avatar," but could soldiers evidently use this gear to fight wars? You've got to see this new technology. And how soon might the military implement it?

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Are you in the market for maybe a new truck? How about an extended cab? How about an assault rifle for the gun rack while we're at it?

A Florida truck dealer is offering free vouchers for weapons with each purchase. So, anyone who purchases a truck can get 400 bucks as a voucher to redeem at a local gun store. In fact, we also found another deal in Missouri making a similar offer. I thought it was interesting. OK. So, we're sitting around in the morning editorial meeting and our whole team and we learned about this piece, this idea that we thought was so cool we had to show you.

First, you know the movie "Iron Man." Actor Robert Downey, Jr., he puts on this space-aged suit that made him stronger. You know, he can fly. Basically, he becomes Iron Man.

So, when we saw that, we wondered -- why don't real-life soldiers actually have that technology? So, it turns out they may soon have some of it.

CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence takes us to Utah where a prototype is in the works.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brix Jameson (ph) -- it's got a "Tony Stark is Iron Man" sort of ring to it. Stark runs a defense-contracting company. Jameson just works for one.

But Raytheon's test engineer is no playboy billionaire.

Married, three kids, but just maybe wearing the prototype for future soldiers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't fly. That seems to be the big thing that Iron Man does.

LAWRENCE (on camera): If you're Tony stark, I mean, where's -- you know, where's the sports cars? Where's the scantily clad women, the penthouse, all that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I roll in a minivan, man. It reacts to the force of your feet so you want to react immediately.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Granted the XOS2 is dead weigh -- until it's used by outside power, and then the hydraulic fluid starts pumping. Steel and aluminum arms make everything lighter.

(on camera): So, do you -- this 200 pounds feels like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Less than 20 pounds. The weight of my arms does most of the work. You don't have this imminence feeling of strength that just when you go to do something that you couldn't do without it. Then that's when you notice it.

LAWRENCE: So, this is probably three inches of pine thick enough to hold up the second story of a house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not even going to tell you how much that hurt.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show off. LAWRENCE (voice-over): But here's where fictional meets functional. Iron Man can fly and shoot pulse rays out of his hands. This suit is still tethered to its power source. Mobile batteries like lithium either don't last long enough or can't be strapped to a soldier' body.

DR. FRASER SMITH, V.P. OF OPERATIONS, RAYTHEON SARCOS: They get breached. They aren't gentle in the way they explode.

LAWRENCE (on camera): So, for safety, liability reasons, they can't power up the suit with me in it. But I've at least got to feel what it's like inside.

Without the hydraulics, the first thing you notice is how heavy this is. I mean, it's tough to take a step forward. But I still feel like I've got my dexterity, the range of motion.

(voice-over): That's important to supply units where being tethered to a power source wouldn't matter.

SMITH: The logistics personnel in the military typical move 16,000 pounds a day, which is an awful lot of load.

LAWRENCE: And the suit can keep lifting for hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things that would just destroy your back, this thing pick it up, no problem.

LAWRENCE: Today's troops are carrying up to 150 pounds in Afghanistan. But the suit can make armor and equipment feel 17 times lighter.

SMITH: That means you exert one pound and it exerts 17. That's a major amplification of strength. And -- but it's all loads that the person doesn't have to carry themselves.

LAWRENCE: Chris Lawrence, CNN, Salt Lake City, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You've got to admit that is kind of cool.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize and for the last 15 years, she has been under house arrest. But could she be a mere hours from her own freedom? The incredible story of activist Aung San Suu Kyi. That is ahead.

Plus, Dana Bash is standing by with brand new information just in from the world of politics. We'll get you the CNN Political Ticker -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: CNN has all your latest political news with the Best Political Team On Television. Dana Bash is in Washington for us.

And Dana, what do you have, what's crossing right now?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I know election day was just last week, but everybody is already thinking about the next election, specifically who is going to help both the Democrats and Republicans get elected.

And for the Democratic senators, we have learned that Michael Bennett, who actually just won his own re-election bid by a hair last week, he was approached by the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to run the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, that is the arm that is in charge of getting Democratic senators elected. We're talking about 2012 now.

I am told by one source that the ask was made and Michael has been thinking about it, but I'm also told that it is not that likely he's going to accept it. That speaks to a larger issue about the Democrat's struggles in the next Senate election. Because, Brooke, they have 23 incumbent seats to defend. And it's going to hard, and an uphill battle for anyone who takes that job.

Next up, on the Ticker, it is a name that people who are political junkies, I know we have a lot of viewers who are junkies. They certainly will recognize Floyd Brown. He is somebody, if you go back in time, who was responsible for that infamous Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis, that many think help sink Dukakis' campaign. He helped push Jennifer Flowers into prominence back in 1992, for allegations she had an affair with Bill Clinton.

Well, guess where Floyd Brown is right now, Brooke. He is in the state of Alaska. That's right, he's in Alaska. He's helping Joe Miller, the Republican senatorial candidate there with his recount vote, or his ballot count vote, I should say. And also helping with his court battles as well. He talked to our Shannon Travis there. He said that he's going to make sure that the ballots get counted, that is what he is doing. A really interesting blast from the past I think it is fair to say.

And last, I think our viewers, it would be in their interest to go to CNN.com/ticker, and listen to a podcast from our friend, Brooke, Candy Crowley. She did a preview of an interview that she is going to do with former President George Bush. Now, I know he's been on Oprah, but you what, Oprah is no Candy when it comes to book.

BALDWIN: Amen.

BASH: Exactly. And the reason, specifically is because Candy has been covering George Bush since he was governor. She was on the plane with him all through 2000. She knows him extremely well. She is going to do an interview, not just with him actually. It is also going to be a unique interview, because she is also going to part of it with his brother, Jeb Bush, who of course is the former governor of Florida. That's going to air 8:00 o'clock on Sunday night.

BALDWIN: I cannot wait. I love watching Candy's reporter notebooks after "State of the Union" on Sundays. And I will totally go to CNN.com/Ticker for that. I'm sure a lot of other people will. BASH: Sounds good.

BALDWIN: Dana Bash, thank you so much.

BASH: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And we'll get another political update for you, next hour on CNN.

Also, this story: The murder of three members of a Connecticut family have been described as pure evil. We've followed this very intensely for you. One killer has already been sentenced to death. But we did not hear the whole story in an open court here. So we're hearing now new details and a look at the other suspect in this case. This thing is by far not over. That's coming up.

Also, after more than 15 years of house arrest, could Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi finally be freed? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One of the world's bravest dissenters remains under arrest, still this hour. Today, though, some excitement in Myanmar, amid talks of the impending release of former Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. For most of the past two decades Myanmar's military leaders, junta, have kept her in prison or under house arrest. And now they have barred international media from getting in to cover her expected release. That said, we do have a report, it is from Myanmar. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People in Myanmar, and the world public, are still waiting for opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi to be released. Many were expecting that to happen on Friday and hundreds gathered outside her party's headquarters.

But the deadline came and past. Then one of the leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy, said the release had been postponed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): She might be released tonight, after midnight. And we believe that the whole world, and all the people of Myanmar demand her release, and legally her release date starts at midnight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big question is whether Myanmar's repressive military junta will try to attach strings to Aung San Suu Kyi's release. For instance, she never enter politics again, or that she cannot leave the largest city, Yangone (ph). Those close to her say she would rather remain in detention than accept conditions.

But her lawyer tells CNN he does not believe that is the reason her release is being held up.

"I think that's not true," says Nyan Win. "I have not received such information. Her term ends tomorrow and I think she will be released in the evening tomorrow."

Even after spending more than 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi remains the most important opposition figure in this reclusive country. Many now believe she will be released Saturday. However, we have to emphasize none of this is confirmed. The ruling junta has not given any information as to the time of her release or if she will be released at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You know we will continue to follow this story. We have eyes on the scene right now, and as soon as we know if Aung San Suu Kyi, when she is released, we will turn some pictures around and bring it to you here at CNN.

Listen to this. You have this woman, she's living -- there she is. She's living in sort of a glass box. But anyone can watch her, and she's refusing to do anything face to face. Kind of odd, right? Well, not to her. We'll explain why she is doing that, next.

We're just now getting some new pictures here of storm damage in Texas. Pictures are ahead, too. Stay there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here's a thought. At some point or another, sometimes we get so wrapped up in our Internet world, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, that we can lose human contact, you know, with other people, we are so into our computers. So this woman, in Portland, Oregon, is trying to turn that concept into performance art. Here she is. She's spending 30 days in what's being described as a glass box, as a symbolic warning.

Here's the deal. Her only contact with the outside world will be through social media. We thought it sounded a little gimmicky, but Cristin Norine says there's a very serious message behind her self- imposed public isolation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRISTIN NORINE, FREELANCE PRODUCTION MANAGER: I just want people to kind of take a step back and look at how all of these new technologies have changed how we communicate with each other. It's not all bad stuff, they do great stuff for us, but we should pay attention to how those things are changing our daily lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You saw some of the people kind of peering in through the glass, right? The whole time she's in there Tweeting, Skyping, texting, she's in full view of total strangers. That's a good chunk of the point she says she's trying to make.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORINE: I think that all these things are so new that a lot of people haven't even had time to digest them. One of the biggest things that stands out to me is kind of a generational thing, where we have the younger generations who don't really-they don't filter what they're saying on the Internet, and they don't pay attention to all these other companies and stuff that are using their information. And then there's generations, in my generation, where I think we see the good and the bad. But it's interesting to look at that and then even look at my parents generation and just see how we all look at things differently. So that's another reason I got interested in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, so we get it. 30 days in this glass room to make a point about social media. But you have to wonder about sort of the truly private personal stuff. She's just in a room for 30 days. Anyone can watch. We'll let Norine go there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORINE: The basic idea here is that it's not about me suffering. It's about me trying to create a living space as much like my own home as I could. The only thing that I was trying to suffer with is getting by without human interaction. But basically I do have a private bathroom and a shower, which is great. That would be a little bit too extreme for me, I think. But I also have a kitchenette and I get groceries delivered once a week. And I order all that stuff online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, there you go. She answered your questions. I know you were thinking about it. Norine plans to turn her 30 days into a documentary.

And with that, let's talk weather. We have some pictures from Greenville, Texas. This is tape; aerial shots of storm damage, you see the bits and pieces from the roof all over the ground. We are hearing no reports of injuries. Chad Myers is here to talk to me about the storm. What we are seeing, what rolled through?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there was one storm. And literally, Brooke, there is one area in the entire United States that had storm damage, and it's right there.

BALDWIN: That is it, that lone building.

MYERS: That is an amazing television station. What does station does that say?

BALDWIN: Oh, we lost it.

MYERS: CBS TV, I think. Right? To get the one place that has storm damage in the entire nation, and to get it on TV that fast, is pretty amazing.

Here's Dallas, Texas. Here's Fort Worth. There's Greenville right there, kind of up I-30 or the old U.S. 67. So what happened is that a line of cells rolled through Dallas, and there's still more weather up here. The airport would be right there.

A couple of airport delays because of the cells we're seeing here. But as the weather went right along I-30, right there, that cell blew down some signs at the mall. A sign fell on a car, some awnings are off.

But, literally, this isn't a spring-type storm. This is not a tornado night-type (ph) day. But when you get storms that line up like this, they can charge ahead and blow winds 30, 40, even 50 miles per hour.

That's what we think happened. And so these structures that were there were right against and facing the wind, and as soon as that wind hit it dead on, all of a sudden, some of these things came down.

Great pictures, great shot. Great hustle by that TV station -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, I know. We like hustles. Good for them.

Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: All right.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, he is next with a look at what's ahead in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Right now President Obama has moved on to Japan, the final leg of his Asia tour. He'll be taking part in a regional economic forum there this weekend.

Wolf Blitzer joins me now in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

And Wolf, the president did not get currency or trade concessions from China or South Korea. It wasn't the full grand slam. He was speaking sort of in baseball metaphors. He said he got a couple singles here.

But can he expect perhaps a better reception in Japan?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, he's still the president of the United States, he's still the most powerful man in the world. And he's got the U.S. economy, which is not necessarily in the best of shapes right now, but it's still the most important economy in the world. So he's going to do just fine.

He's got serious problems, though. He didn't hit a homerun at the G- 20 in Seoul. He says he got a single, as you say.

A single, it's still better than striking out, or whatever. So still got a ways to go. A lot of people believe that the political setbacks that he suffered and the Democrats suffered last week are having an effect around the world. He doesn't necessarily have the glow that he had before, right after he was elected, when he went around the world and people were admiring him.

All of a sudden, he's another politician to some of those allies in some countries that are not necessarily allies. So, obviously what happens domestically, politically can have an international effect. And it seems to be having a little bit of an effect right now. Some of these countries playing hardball with the United States.

BALDWIN: Well, you mentioned he is a politician. He's sort of a half a world away. But he is still very aware of what's going on in Washington and Capitol Hill, and all this back-and-forth about the Bush tax cuts. And we know he has commented from the road on that.

What has he said?

BLITZER: He said he's not going to negotiate through the media. He's going to negotiate with the Republican and Democratic leadership when he comes back to Washington.

He's going to have a full agenda. As you know, the lame-duck session is going to start next week. He's going to invite the leadership, the Democratic and Republican leadership, over to the White House for dinner.

They've got to come up with some sort of solution on what to do with the Bush tax cuts, because if they do nothing, then taxes for everyone, including the middle class, will go up January 1st. So he's got a lot of work to do, but he's not going to negotiate through you and me, if you will. That's why he refused to say at that news conference today what his bottom line is going to be, which is smart, because he doesn't want to give an advance what he might have to give behind closed doors.

BALDWIN: Right. Doesn't want to put it out there.

Finally, sir, what do you have coming up on "THE SITUATION ROOM"?

BLITZER: We're going to talk about all of this and a lot more. Kent Conrad, who's the Democratic outgoing chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and a member of that commission, that bipartisan commission dealing with long-term debt, he's going to be joining us.

He's got some pretty strong views on all of these issues, whether the future of Social Security, taxes, national defense, earmarks. He's up for re-election in 2012 in North Dakota, so he's looking over his shoulder. He's got some major decisions he's got to make.

So we'll get a good assessment from him of what's on his mind.

BALDWIN: We will see you in nine minutes. The countdown is on for you.

Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much.

Now to that brutal home invasion we've been talking so much about recently in Connecticut. What is next in a family's search for justice?

Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Simple errands -- you know, running to the grocery store, running to the bank -- we run them every day. But in the case of one family, a simple errand led to a horrific crime.

This week, a jury recommended the death penalty for one of the men accused in that crime, the home invasion and triple murders of a Connecticut mother and her two young daughters.

CNN's Randi Kaye has been covering this almost unimaginable case since the murders more than three years ago. She's been all over this.

So this weekend, she is putting it all together in this special report. She's calling it "Pure Evil: Nightmare in Connecticut."

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the Petit family in this quiet Connecticut suburb, there was never any hint of the violence that was to come.

BETH KARAS, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION" ON TRUTV: The epitome of the all-American family: a beautiful mother and two beautiful daughters.

KAYE: Never any clue their vibrant home on Sorghum Mill Drive in the town of Cheshire would soon become a house of horrors. Their last day together as a family was a classic summer Sunday.

Dr. William Petit, a prominent Connecticut doctor, a leading expert in the field of diabetes, played golf with his dad. Earlier that day, his wife of 22 years, Jennifer Hawk-Petit, and her daughter Michaela, 11, had gone grocery shopping at this Stop and Shop supermarket.

LUTHER TURMELLE, REPORTER, "NEW HAVEN REGISTER": The younger daughter, Michaela, was going to make a special dinner for her family, and so she and Mrs. Petit went to the Stop and Shop here in town.

The older daughter, Hayley, 17, had just graduated from Miss Porter's School, a prestigious prep school. She wanted to be a doctor like her dad.

As Jennifer Hawk-Petit, a pediatric nurse, drove back from the supermarket, she had no idea she was being watched. Watched, police say, by two career criminals paroled from prison just weeks before.

Within hours, their worlds would collide. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: I want to bring in Randi Kaye.

And Randi, our show, we have covered this case, at least the first trial, very extensively. And we know the jury decided Steven Hayes should be put to death. That came down this week.

But what we haven't talked a whole lot about, and what we will, I guess, in the months to come, hear the other defendant here, Joshua Komisarjevsky, who is scheduled to go on trial in January. And I was fascinated to read that he -- I couldn't believe where he grew up. He's not just some punk from the streets.

KAYE: No. He grew up in an affluent family, affluent neighborhood, actually, Brooke, just a mile or so away from the Petit family, around the corner, on a 65-acre estate.

He was adopted as an infant. His grandfather was a well-known conservative columnist for "The New York Times." His grandmother was a Russian ballerina.

His parents were very religious. He went to a lot of Boy Scout bible camps. But he started robbing homes at the age of 13, and he used night-vision goggles. He was very skilled. Friends of his that we spoke to said he could get in and out of a house in just seconds.

And when he was arrested for the Petit murders, he had about 20 arrests on his record already for burglary and larceny. So something went wrong.

He writes quite a bit and talks quite a bit about being sexually molested by another foster child that his parents had brought into the home when he was just about 5 or 6 years old, and how nobody helped him. And in many ways, he makes that out to be the reason why he took this very dark turn.

BALDWIN: Wow. In listening to, or reporting on sort of the opening and the closing arguments, at least, in the Hayes trial, it was the Hayes defense attorneys who really tried to make it out, comparing Hayes to Komisarjevsky. Hayes -- here he is -- as being, if I may, the lesser of two evils, that Komisarjevsky was the leader and that Hayes was the follower.

Did Hayes' defense lawyers get that right, do you think, Randi?

KAYE: Well, they were trying to do that really to try and spare Hayes the death penalty. But I guess they did to some extent. They were successful at it.

I mean, it was Hayes, though, who called Komisarjevsky after they had met as roommates in a halfway house about a year and a half before this crime. It was Hayes who called him and said he needed some money, his mother was about to kick him out of his house, and he was broke.

So he asked Komisarjevsky to help him rob a house. So, in that sense, Hayes really might have spurred this on.

But it was Komisarjevsky who was in that Stop and Shop parking lot the day before the crime, and it was actually Komisarjevsky who spotted Mrs. Hawke-Petit and her 11-year-old daughter named Michaela. He apparently had a real affection for young girls, and he spotted them, and he chose them as their next victims.

So he was also the one who first went into the house and who takes credit for masterminding this, and who takes credit for nearly beating Dr. Petit to death with a baseball bat that was in the basement. So I would say they certainly tried to paint him as the ringleader, and in a way he takes credit for it himself.

BALDWIN: We've got about 40 seconds. You covered this, Randi, from 2007. I've heard different people when we've talked to different reporters saying they sort of still have nightmares over it. I mean, is it still very vivid to you from three years ago?

KAYE: It is. I mean, when I first covered it there years ago, I didn't sleep. I mean, I had terrible nightmares of someone cutting the screen and breaking into my home, because this could happen to anybody. It could have been any family on that street, and that's why this is so important to talk about, because it really could have been anybody.

And we talk a lot about that in the special that's coming up, and the fear that is still out there in this community. This community may never recover from what happened, just like many of us never will.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. And I want to make sure we get this in before we hand it over to Wolf here -- "Pure Evil: Nightmare in Connecticut," 10:00 p.m. Eastern, Saturday; 10:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday.

Randi Kaye, we'll be looking forward to it. Thank you.

And with that, here is Wolf Blitzer in Washington.