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North and South Korea Exchange Fire; Waiting for Holloway Announcement
Aired November 23, 2010 - 10:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's 10:02 on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. out west, 7:02. Here's the stories that we are talking about right now. Ten people under arrest in a European anti-terrorist sweep. They were nabbed across Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. All 10 suspects facing a judge today.
Less than 24 hours before the busiest travel day of the year and catching your Thanksgiving flight this year is a whole different ballgame. Thanks to TSA's enhanced security measures. But a new "Washington Post"-ABC poll says about two-thirds of people are OK with the full-body scanners, and only about half think the pat-downs are justified.
And mark you calendar for a royal wedding. Prince William and Kate Middleton getting married April 29th at Westminster Abbey. One of the most anticipated events of 2011 and the day will now be declared a British national holiday.
We got developing news out of Korea this morning. The north launched military strikes against the south near a disputed border in the Yellow Sea. The north reportedly bombarded a South Korean island with dozens, maybe hundreds of artillery rounds killing at least two soldiers and injuring a lot more. That's according to the South's Defense Ministry.
We are talking about pretty powerful artillery shells, too, not just gunfire. Both South Korea fired back and also scrambled F-16 fighter jets. Chris Lawrence is following it for us out of the Pentagon. So Chris, what's the latest?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest is, you know, you're getting international condemnation of North Korea's actions from around the world, including right here in Washington with the White House issuing a fairly strong statement against North Korean actions.
Let's take a look at it now. This is from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He said "The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and to fully abide by the terms of the Armistice Agreement. The united states is firmly committed to the defense of our ally, the Republic of Korea, and to the maintenance of regional peace and stability."
I just spoke with a senior defense official who said right now, U.S. officials in that area are consulting with their South Korean allies, taking stock of the situation, but there seems to be no movement right now to further escalate what happened here. The two sides, South Korea and North Korea, traded artillery blasts for about an hour, hour and a half.
Two South Korean marines were killed, several more were injured, and some civilians on that island were also injured as well. The defense official I spoke with said no U.S. forces or weaponry were involved in this artillery exchange. We do believe, though, that some U.S. forces were involved in the general training exercise, assisting with that, that was going on at the time.
And the defense official I spoke with said, "look this training exercise had been scheduled for sometime, and he says that South Korea warned and informed North Korea before it fired its first artillery blast as part of this training. He says there was no reason that North Korea should have been surprised by what happened. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Chris Lawrence, appreciate it. Now, let's go fast forward to this afternoon. Natalee Holloway's family could finally get some answers about what happened when that Alabama teen disappeared in Aruba five years ago, just a few hours from now, prosecutors are expected to reveal whether a jaw bone found at a beach resort belongs to Holloway.
Martin Savidge is covering the story for us. He is actually just outside the courtroom there in Aruba, the exact place where Natalee Holloway was last seen leaving a night club in the early hours of May 30th, 2005.
Marty, what exactly are we expecting today? We just lost our connection with Marty. We'll work on getting him back up live and get an update on the case.
All right. Snowfall in Seattle, it's a rare sight and it's causing lots of problems for commuters right now. Accidents, abandoned cars, drivers stuck for hours. A cargo jet even slipped off the runway at the airport there. Luckily, nobody was hurt. Joining us from Seattle, Clark Stahl, the helicopter pilot for our affiliate, KIRO. So Clark, what are the conditions like right now?
VOICE OF CLARK STAHL, HELICOPTER PILOT: Well, Kyra, as far as the weather goes, it's absolutely beautiful here. The sun coming up, not a cloud in the sky, but you can see as we pull out from the internationally recognized (INAUDIBLE) Space Needle, looking to the north, that's Queen Anne's Hill, one of the many hills in the Seattle area.
That is part of the problem, with all of these hills here and the very deep freeze that we're experiencing. I'm looking at 16 degrees in my cockpit right now. Awful, awful cold. We got a real snow blast through here yesterday and so all of that has turned to pretty much ice. We're now panning over towards the east side of Seattle. That's another hill here, Capital Hill, and the same story over there, people trying to get up and down. A lot of people staying home this morning.
I went by and checked out bus barns, checked out the runways at the airport. They are reporting fair breaking conditions, pretty rare for this area once again. The freeways, the traffic is pretty light this time of morning for what we would normally expect because, again, a lot of people are staying home. Cars abandoned just about everywhere you look. We've seen spin outs. In fact, just before we went on the air, Kyra, I had a spinout right below me. We couldn't have gotten the camera down there at the time but it's just a mess here.
Once again, I think a lot of people are taking the opportunity to stay home by a warm fire. It is real interesting and we'll call it sporty driving up here. Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Clark, you say real interesting, pretty rare, yes, for Seattle?
STAHL: Yes, it is very rare. I have lived here virtually all of my life. We are going to pan over to the left here where looking up the north, from the downtown Seattle area. This is interstate 5. Everybody is familiar with interstate 5. You can see a very light volume of traffic. This would be normally right in the middle of our commute here in the Seattle area.
We had a major accident just a little bit further to the north of where we are right now, up by the University of Washington. It was well before the commuting hour but it involved a number of semi- trucks. Many ended up sideways in the middle of the main southbound lane. They are still working to clear that. So it's just wherever I look, I don't have to look very far to find major problems.
PHILLIPS: Wow. All right. Clark Stahl, a helicopter pilot out of our affiliate KIRO. Clark, appreciate the bird's eye view.
Well, Prince William may be royalty but that doesn't mean that he doesn't know how to have a good time. An American rapper reportedly tops the list to perform at the engagement party. That's next in our showbiz update.
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PHILLIPS: All right. Set your calendar, folks, April 29th, 2011, Westminster Abbey, that's where Prince William and Kate Middleton will tie the knot. The date was released a couple of hours ago. We have new information on their engagement party and the guest list just might surprise you. "Showbiz Tonight" host A.J. Hammer here to fill us all in.
OK.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": You look confused about this.
PHILLIPS: I am very confused because I can't imagine seeing the Queen getting down to Snoop Dogg. There's something about it.
HAMMER: What do you mean? What are you saying about the queen? Are you saying she's too formal for something like that. Let me fill you in. Because this actually makes perfect sense. Now, according to reports in UK newspapers and tabloids and some hip hop web sites, Snoop Dogg is in fact in talks to perform for Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton at her engagement party. What in the world could Prince William have to do with Snoop Dogg?
PHILLIPS: Exactly.
HAMMER: Well, I'm here to cut through all the confusion and let me connect the dots for you now. Before you go riding this off, I should add that it is Prince Harry who is reportedly planning this party, which will have a decided hip hop theme. Now, Harry apparently wants both Snoop and another one of his favorites, Brit rapper, Tinie Tempah, to perform and in addition to being the better known partier of the brothers, Harry has really never hidden his love of hip hop. You just may not have noticed now. He has been out and about on the ton with hip hop impresarios people like Diddy and Pharrell Williams.
He recently shot a reality show in Buckingham Palace with UK artist Goldy and Ms. Dynamite for the BBC. William's a fan as well. You might remember in 2007, there was a big charity concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium. It was spearheaded by Prince William, Kyra, and he brought Kanye West to that performance. So (INAUDIBLE) it's not such a huge surprise and who knew, for a lot of people that these things go hand in hand, royalty and hip hop.
PHILLIPS: Hip hop. That's pretty hip, huh?
HAMMER: But I'm with you. I actually would like to see the Queen, Diddy serenading the queen.
PHILLIPS: It's like that moment where Lady Gaga shook the hand of the queen and every body around the country was like - it had to be an awkward moment. I would love to just see these whole party, how it will go down?
HAMMER: And you know what, we probably will.
PHILLIPS: Well, a lot of people watching "Dancing with the Stars" to see how that's going down.
HAMMER: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And I got to be careful here because I got you into a little bit of trouble saying OK, you know, a lot of people saying "Bristol PaLin," can't dance.
HAMMER: We can ignore people at times.
PHILLIPS: Yes, a lot of it is - you know, it's getting political, shall we say?
HAMMER: Well, look, last night was no different. Bristol Palin landed in last place, by the judges' scores on "Dancing with the Stars" as they work their way to tonight's finale. But the viewer votes haven't been counted yet.
And "Showbiz Tonight" was right there last night, after Bristol and partner Mark Ballas performed. They had a few choice words for every one who is still outraged that she is still in this thing. Let's watch what she said.
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MARK BALLAS, PALINS' DANCE PARTNER People can complain regardless. When you have Nicole Scherzinger in the final, you have Mel B., you have Kristi Yamaguchi, people like, "that's not fair, they have dancing experience. That's not fair. I want to have someone with zero dance experience. You got what you asked for but still, that's not fair.
BRISTOL PALIN, "DANCING WITH THE STARS): Stop complaining.
BALLAS: Either way, you're never going to win.
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HAMMER: So be prepared, Bristol could win it all. Once the viewer votes are calculated. They count as 50 percent of the score. And remember she's been in last place with the judges before. Now, Kyra, we did ask in our exclusive "Showbiz Tonight" poll. If Bristol winning "Dancing with the Stars" would actually hurt the show. You know, because it does have some degree of credibility as far a dancing competition.
Look at this 77 percent of our viewers say, yes. It would hurt the show. 23 percent said no. We were debating it on "Showbiz Tonight" last night, and some people are saying, you know, what it has already shifted from being a (INAUDIBLE) dancing competition to being a popularity contest. I actually think it could damage it a little bit because there are a lot of people who love to tune in and see people grow as dancers and see the best dancer win. We know that doesn't always happens, kind of like "American Idol."
PHILLIPS: Boy does that have a following. But you're right, with "Dancing with the Stars," that's an interesting point, when I ask people what it is about it, it always does come down to the dancing. It's not necessarily the people that they're watching.
HAMMER: Right.
PHILLIPS: Although they have interesting contestants. But it's the dancing, it's the moves, it's the music and that is where -
HAMMER: (INAUDIBLE) and nothing against Bristol who really has come so far in this competition.
PHILLIPS: She admitted she couldn't dance in the beginning.
HAMMER: It's amazing how well she has done. Is she the best dancer? No. And there are a few people who would disagree with that.
PHILLIPS: The show has gotten a lot of attention because of her. That's for sure.
HAMMER: People are talking about it every day.
PHILLIPS: Great to see you.
HAMMER: Nice to see you. Welcome to New York.
PHILLIPS: Thank you so much. Always good to be with you, A.J.. Of course if you want information on about everything breaking in the entertainment world, you can watch, A.J. Hammer every night, "Showbiz Tonight" 5:00 p.m. and 11 p.m. at HLN.
With all of the news about the TSA's new security rules, here's what we wanted to know. Who are these people with both our security and our dignity in their hands? We'll give you the background check right after the break.
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PHILLIPS: All right. We're hours away from the busiest travel day of the year and if you think the noise over TSA security is loud now, wait until the holiday is over, after the new measures touch more people, shall we say.
Right now, the outrage doesn't seem to be boiling over, but check out this new poll from "The Washington Post" and ABC. Pretty interesting. Respondents are split on the enhanced pat-downs right now. Half of them say, they don't think they're justified but about two-thirds say that the full-body scanners are okay. One inventor in Colorado isn't among the 64 percent, though.
Look at this, that's right. He is selling underwear. That's lined with metal. He says it will shield your privates from TSA eyes and protect your body from radiation.
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VOICE OF JEFF BUSKE, INVENTOR (via phone): It's been well known that x-rays and ionizing radiation in general are hazardous to cellular life and DNA and what not.
Well, the TSA says that the scanners will zapped with unhealthy doses of radiation. There is an internet movement calling on passengers to boycott the body scan still for tomorrow and also just ask for pat-downs.
Now last hour, we told you how the head of the TSA, John Pistole, actually called a bladder cancer survivor to apologize for his nightmare pat-down. A TSA agent in Detroit didn't know or didn't care about Tom Sawyer's urostomy bag. He actually ended up tearing off the seal and urine spilled on Mr. Sawyer. It was a humiliating experience, and Mr. Sawyer doesn't want to fly again because of that. He says agents need more training to handle passengers, just like him. We're going to talk more about the TSA and its people and the background with Paul Light, a public service professor here in NYU, here in New York.
He's written several books on government and bureaucracy. I have so many questions about why somebody can be so - I'm going to lay it out there - ignorant when dealing with a passenger who said I have an issue here, please be careful. And then you hear this story and it causes so embarrassing, and the head of the TSA calls to apologize. We're talking nine years we've had the TSA now. Where is the disconnect?
PROF. PAUL LIGHT, PUBLIC SERVICE PROFESSOR: Well, you know, we've had nine years but we had 25 percent turnover in that agency.
CHETRY: Why is that?
LIGHT: Not a great job. A little over $13 an hour, tough working conditions. You're standing all day, very cramped quarters in many, many airports.
And Paul, these are guys, women and men, that are supposed to track terrorists. They're law enforcement officials. So why such a - why such low pay, why such a low standard, for something that an incident that devastated our country and our lives ever since it happened?
LIGHT: Well, when the TSA was first stood up, as they call it, Republicans were really quite opposed to the notion of having federal government employees in those jobs. They wanted contractors to stay on the jobs, and the contractors had failed miserably, as you'll recall, in 2001. So part of the legislation was to keep the pay low, not allow for unions, and, you know, I'm in agreement with that general position, but, you know, it was created as an agency that kind of had a chip on its shoulder.
Now, the first heads of the agencies really cared about customer service. They brought in Marriott, they brought in Disney, to help that agency figure out how to put the smile on the face and welcome the fliers to what was going to be a distracting and delaying process, but, you know, nine years later, we have a little bit of amnesia, complacency about terrorism, and the agency isn't smiling very often right now, high rates of absenteeism, this turnover problem.
PHILLIPS: And why is that? Is it because they don't have enough incentives to be happy about their job in addition to every single day they are dealing with passengers who are becoming more frustrated with them? Is it that simple? Is that cut and dry?
LIGHT: I think so. You go through the counter for your airline, and you pay $25 to $50 for your bags, and you're anxious already about sitting in the airplane, which is going to be as crowded as a sardine can, and then you walk down and you see the checkpoint and you know, focus your fire on those federal bureaucrats. Let's face it, federal bureaucrats aren't that popular these days and some of the TSA screeners, to be quite frank, are abusive.
They don't know how to smile. They take their law enforcement responsibilities very, very seriously, and it's like, hey, this is a law enforcement kind of job. I don't have to be friendly, and TSA has forgotten how to be friendly and it has forgotten how to be communicate with the public. Nobody really knew that this was coming.
PHILLIPS: So in the books that you have written, and you have studied this for a number of years now, what would be your advice now, now, to say, if you could sit down with John Pistole, the head of TSA? What would you say, this is what you've got to do? Here's one, two, three, just to get started here's what you've got to do.
LIGHT: First thing, these are your customers. They're not, you know, criminals so you got to get that mindset from the very beginning, the person who greets them, the person who comes out there has to know how to smile. They have to deal with the flying public as almost entirely decent people who just wanted to get through that screening area so they can get ready for what is an anxious flying experience?
Bringing in Marriott again. Bringing the top consumer relation companies again. And get that right and get past the constant haranguing of we got to catch the criminals because they don't. The whole point of TSA -
PHILLIPS: But they haven't arrested any big time criminals.
LIGHT: Well, not that we know of. But you know, the whole point of TSA is deterrence. You know, if they're doing their jobs, the terrorists isn't showing up. They need to explain to the public what they're doing. All these inconsistencies across the country, they're designed to create uncertainty among terrorists so that they are not really sure what's going to happen to them when they get to the airport. That's a good thing.
PHILLIPS: That's interesting. Because that has been the biggest complaint. Look, I fly through Eugene, Oregon, there one way. I fly through (INAUDIBLE) California, they're one way. I fly through New York, La Guardia, they're one way. So you're saying there is a message behind that madness?
LIGHT: There is a little bit of message. Well, there is a little bit. Some of it is just, you know, rank and confidence. But some is planned so you can't go to Boston and say, "Oh this is what the screener station is going to look like in San Francisco. You don't want that. You want to keep the terrorists off-balance. So that's the point.
But again, it's a problem here at the TSA of explaining that to the flying public. You know, you can get liquids through in Denver perhaps, or you can get them through in Orlando. But you can't get them through LaGuardia but you can't get them in JFK.
PHILLIPS: Right.
LIGHT: The flying public says what's up with this? Are these just a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats. Some of it is planned. Some of it is this new blood that they are bringing in all of the time, trying to keep them up to speed, trying to teach them how to do this job well. You know, it's a darn tough job and very few people say thanks at the end of the line.
PHILLIPS: True. So maybe the message is when you do get that good agent, thank them and wish them a happy Thanksgiving.
LIGHT: Fill out a comment card. Fill out a comment card. That's the only way they get credit.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Paul. Great to see you.
LIGHT: You're very welcome.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, blizzard warnings, nasty storms. We're keeping an eye on it all before you hit the road or head to the airport. We're going to check in with the CNN Travel desk.
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PHILLIPS: A developing news out of Korea this morning. The north has launched military strikes against the south. Near a disputed border in the Yellow Sea, the north reportedly bombarded a South Korean island with dozens, maybe hundreds of artillery rounds killing at least two soldiers and injuring a number more. That's according to the south's defense ministry. We are talking about pretty powerful artillery shells too, not just gun fire. Cell phone video actually shows the sea side village here on fire following that show, of course.
South Korea did fire back and even scrambled F-16 fighter jets. Now, the South is on high alert, calling an emergency meeting of the security ministers now . That firefight broke out near the Longfock (ph) sea border of Ya Yang. And at that time, we're told that South Korea's military was actually conducting routine military drills in the waters there.
CNN's Stan Grant is right near that South Korean island where the attack happened. Stan, what are you seeing?
STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have had some people come ashore here. We're about 70 kilometers, about 30, 40 miles, from the island itself. Now, some people have been evacuated after the gunfire, the shelling of the island today, and we are talking about people still in a state of shock. These are elderly people. Some are being brought assure in wheelchairs. They are saying they are sad, they are angry, they are shocked. One old lady was telling us she had to leave all of her possessions on the island.
You know, Kyra, this is already a very, very volatile place, and obviously, it is now really a flash point. We have seen the South Korean leadership bunker down in meetings. Calling for calm, not wanting to provoke the situation or escalate it in any way. But listen to the language coming from North Korea. They're calling South Korea a puppet group - a puppet of the United States. They're talking about a merciless military confrontation if South Korea continues to, in North Korea's words, "provoke it."
And of course, it does not just involve South Korea. It involves Japan, it involves China and it involves the United States. They have a envoy in the region right now in high-level talks in Beijing, and of course, there are 30,000 U.S. service men in South Korea. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: And Stan, when we look at what's taking place here between these two nations and the pictures that we've gotten in, would you say that this is definitely the most serious incident or actions, shall we say, since the Koran War ended in 1953? Because I have been reading, actually, that that's what people are writing. And if that's true, why now?
GRANT: It's all about context, Kyra. There have been flash points like this in the past. Let's not forget, earlier this year there was an attack on a South Korean ship, 46 sailors were killed then. But we've seen just in the past week, North Korea unveiling this uranium enrichment program, basically stepping up their nuclear program. We know that in the past few years, they have carried out two atomic tests and are developing a nuclear bomb. They are warning of this merciless military confrontation. They have walked away from negotiations involving the United States and regional powers to give up and abandon its nuclear program.
What makes this attack particularly different is they have attacked civilians. In the past there has been confrontation between the military, but here civilians were involved. We know two people, two military service men in South Korea have been killed. A number of other people injured.
But you're right, it's about context and the fact that North Korea is stepping up its actions at that. It is a rogue state. We know that it's developing nuclear weapons. We know that Kim Jong-il has been unwell for some time and is looking handing over power to his son. So, a very uncertain picture. A volatile picture, and one right now that we're trying to guess and try to look at how South Korea and how China may react and how the United States may react. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Stan Grant, keep us updated. Thanks, Stan.
Tornadoes, ice, snow, even record-high temps. All part of the nation's weather picture today. Take a look at this tornado that hit northern Illinois. This is in Boone County. Damaged homes, brought down power lines, even turned a school bus on its side. No serious injuries reported though, thank goodness.
And we just video in from Seattle, too. Several traffic accidents there due to snow and ice, which rarely happens, by the way. And live pictures from Salt Lake City, Utah, a blizzard and high wind warnings in effect through the morning. This video coming to us from our affiliate, KUTV. It could mean travel could get dicey later today as we watch all these conditions
Jacqui Jeras is at the CNN Travel Desk. Or is she at the wall? No, she's at the wall. That's sort of a desk there.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sort of it. I'll be at the desk next hour, I promise.
PHILLIPS: Oh, good! We really do have a desk set up, and you're monitoring everything. But it's much easier to show us on the wall.
JERAS: We do.
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PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jacqui.
One concussion is bad, but did you know two concussions can kill? We will introduce you to a former prep football star forever changed from a hit he still can't remember.
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PHILLIPS: Well, in today's "Daily Dose," we're talking football where no pain, no gain is a pretty popular refrain. But not always the case especially as it applies to second impact syndrome. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to one former prep footballer whose life was forever changed by one play that he can't even remember.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Friday night, game night. On a kickoff return, 17-year-old Max Conradt takes a hit.
RALPH CONRADT, MAX CONRADT'S FATHER: He took a knee to the head and went down for several seconds and was staggering off the field.
GUPTA: A week later, another game, another hit.
RALPH CONRADT: He drills his forehead and helmet right into Max's chin.
GUPTA: For some reason, Conradt let him catch the ball.
GUPTA: Astonishingly, Max continues to play. But then --
JOY CONRADT, MAX CONRADT'S STEPMOTHER: He was walking toward me, and he looked at me and he said, "My chin hurts." And then he collapsed.
GUPTA: Max Conradt, star athlete, stellar student was dying. What happened -- second impact syndrome, one concussion closely followed by a second one before the brain has time to heal. In Max's case, his brain began to swell uncontrollably.
GUPTA (on camera): During a concussion, the brain, which has a consistency of jell-o, is stretched and twisted. As it's rocked, chemicals start to flood it, damaging different cells within the brain and throwing the brain into a sort of state of crisis. With rest, the damaged cells can heal. But when a second concussion happens too soon after the first, brain cells die, and that's when permanent damage sets in.
GUPTA (on camera): Max was rushed to the operating room.
RALPH CONRADT: The head surgeon comes over and puts his hand on my back, and he just goes, "I'm really sorry," basically telling us he's not going to make it. He's not going to survive.
GUPTA: Three operations in ten days, Max is alive but barely conscious. It took months before he finally woke up.
MAX CONRADT: What happened?
RALPH CONRADT: What happened?
MAX CONRADT: Yes.
RALPH CONRADT: You were hurt in a football game.
MAX CONRADT: What?
RALPH CONRADT: Yes.
JOY CONRADT: Yes.
MAX CONRADT: Oh my god!
GUPTA: That was 2002.
MAX CONRADT: I don't remember the season. I don't remember the football season.
GUPTA: This is Max today. He's 26, living in a home for brain injured adults. He still has no memory of the hit that changed his life. In fact, these days he has problems remembering, period.
MAX CONRADT: Once in a while I get upset about if I can't remember the stuff I want to remember. I wish it never happened.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
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PHILLIPS: Well, people of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds, are victimized by violent hate crimes, but the most common minority target -- gay people. We're digging into a new study and talking about what we can all do to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: People of all shapes, sides, colors and creeds are victimized by violent hate crimes. But the Southern Poverty Law Center says the most common minority target is gay people. There are ways to help out and reach to all victims of hate crimes.
But first, I've got to show you these numbers. They're stunning, plain and simple. In an analysis of 14 years of FBI stats found that gay people are those -- or those who are thought to be gay -- are twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime than African- Americans or Jewish people.
And listen to this. They're four times more likely to be attacked than Muslims, and 14 more times as likely than Latinos. That's why messages like these from the It Gets Better Project really resonate.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know what it's like to be picked on for being gay, but I do know what it's like to grow up feeling that sometimes you don't belong. It's tough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry about being gay. That's who you are. That's how God created you. He created me as a Jew, and he created me as a gay person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I seem to be the only gay Muslim I know of. But I know that with 1.5 billion people in the world, I can't possibly be the only one.
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PHILLIPS: An entire community of people banding together to show support for the gay community and the victims of gay bullying. It's part of Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. The author and columnist joining us live via Skype from Seattle.
You know, Dan, when you saw this report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, what were your first thoughts? We were just astounded by these numbers.
DAN SAVAGE, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: It was shocking. Unfortunately, I wasn't as surprised as some people might be. There is a tremendous amount of violence directed at members of the LGBT community by people who feel they have license to bully and really commit acts of violence against gays and lesbians because of the rhetoric that sloshes around our culture promoted by haters flying under the radar, even the supposedly Christian right. They promote the idea that gays and lesbians are a threat to the family, a threat the institution of marriage. They even claim, U.S. senators have claimed, that gays and lesbians are a threat to the survival of the planet and climate change.
And when you have that kind of hateful, apocalyptic, demagogic rhetoric, some people will act on it and feel they have license to abuse, physically and emotionally, the gay and lesbian, bi and trans people they encounter.
PHILLIPS: But Dan, here's what I have a hard time understanding with numbers like this. We've come so far, our society has. I mean, if you look at -- take "don't ask, don't tell" about to be repealed. Gay marriage going all of the way to Supreme Court. Ellen, one of the most popular gay celebrities of our time. We love her talk show. And then even TV and movies and gay characters that are totally accepted. And it's hard to understand while we're being so progressive that these numbers are so high.
SAVAGE: Well, it really is for gays and lesbians kind of a "best of times, worse of times" moment culturally for us. We have never been freeer, more open and rights protected in more and more places.
And yet, at the same time we have made a tremendous amount of progress, there has been a tremendous amount of backlash. And the backlash is exacting a price in the lives of gays and lesbians who are being abused or targeted for violence. And we can't -- those of us who live in places like Seattle, places like New York, places like Atlanta, large tolerant places, we can't lose sight of the fact that in you know, out in the boonies, out in the sticks, even in the cities - recently there was a vicious anti-gay hate crime in New York City, which is a great place, really for most people who are gay to be gay.
We can't lose sight that there are haters out there, and it has to be addressed and really the root causes of the hatred and the justifications of the hatred. Which unfortunately, often have a religious justification, have to be confronted and addressed.
PHILLIPS: So, what are - I mean, it's difficult to say what would be a solution. But can we start with more hate crime legislation, where bullies are prosecuted more severely?
SAVAGE: We can start with that. We can also start -- really, we need a cultural reckoning among gay and lesbian issues. There was once two sides to the race debate. There was once a side you could go on television and argue for segregation, you could argue against interracial marriage, against the Civil Rights Act, against extending votes rights to African-Americans. And that used to be treated as one side -- one legitimate side of a pressing national debate, and it isn't anymore. We really need to reach that point with gay and lesbian issues.
There are no two sides to the issues about gay and lesbian rights. Right now, one side is really using dehumanizing rhetoric. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels these groups as hate groups. And yet, the leaders of these groups, people like Tony Perkins are welcomed onto networks like CNN to espouse hate directed at gays and lesbians. And similarly hateful people targeting Jews or people of color or anyone else would not be welcome to spew their bile on networks like CNN. We really have to start there. We have to start with that kind of cultural reckoning.
PHILLIPS: Dan Savage, always good talking to you. Appreciate you Skyping in.
SAVAGE: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
John Lenin album is going on sale for $850,000. It's not just any album. It's one that Lenin autographed for his killer.
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PHILLIPS: Seems like voters aren't the only ones who want a change in politics. Four lawmakers in Alabama switching parties. Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is joining us at the CNNpolitics.com desk. So, what's up with the switch, Paul?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Four state House lawmakers there in Alabama -- not federal, state. And they are switching, Kyra. They say they're following their hearts and switching from Democrat to Republicans. They say, these four lawmakers, they vote with the Republicans most of the time, and they're just following their hearts.
Now, we'll keep an eye on Congress as well because there are still some conservative and moderate Democrats in the House, and we'll keep our eyes to see if any of them maybe swap from Democrat to Republican.
Hey, another thing I want to talk about is Alaska and that battle up there. that Senate battle up there. It's been three weeks since the election. Another court case now. Joe Miller, he's the Republican nominee up there. Remember, he beat Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator, the incumbent. He beat her in the primaries with a lot of Tea Party support and support from Sarah Palin. Well, she is now leading. She ran as a write-in candidate. She is leading by about 10,000 votes. He is taking it to state court. He's suing the state of Alaska, saying they shouldn't have counted votes that went to Murkowski because they broke the law by allowing intent, that you didn't actually have to spell her name correctly to count the vote for her. State officials up there said if you had the intent and came close to spelling it correctly, then it counted.
We'll see what that one ends, Kyra. That race still far from over, I guess.
PHILLIPS: Got it. Paul, thanks so much.
Quickly, want to get to before the top of the hour, our Marty Savidge in Aruba. Apparently, we have word that there might be some type of press release or news conference concerning Natalee Holloway and her death. Marty, what can you tell us?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Kyra, we are standing outside what would be the prosecutor's office here in Orengestad (ph), and that's on the island of Aruba. And we are anticipating that an announcement would come this afternoon. We are one hour ahead of East Coast time, which means it is five minutes to noon.
And that would technically mean that the window would open that we anticipate we would hear someone giving a statement as to this bone fragment that has been found and sent to the Netherlands for forensic -- scientific study. And we anticipate to hear first, one, is it human and then, two, is it in any way tied to Natalee Holloway. So, we are expecting momentarily to begin to hear from authorities as to exactly what their scientists found. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: OK. We will check in with you as soon as that happens.
Once again, we are awaiting some type of announcement on the Natalee Holloway case. As you know, and as Marty just mentioned, a jaw bone was found there on the shores of Aruba. There has been speculation that could be the jaw bone of Natalee Holloway, who went missing back in 2005. It's a case we have been following since the very beginning. As soon as we get news and developments, we will bring that to you live. Our Marty Savidge in Aruba for us.
All right. That does it for us. See you back here tomorrow. Almost the top of the hour. Tony Harris with more in the CNN NEWSROOM right after a quick break.
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