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Congresswoman Giffords' Plane Lands in Houston; Last-Minute Leniency; Few Options for Victims of Child Sex Abuse; "Extreme Parenting" Hits Home; From Cocaine to Plantain; Hope Scholarship Faces Cuts

Aired January 21, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: It is 2:00 on the East.

Now that he's no longer California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger may get back into the movie business, and have we got a plot for him.

A college student dies in a bar fight. His attackers include the son of a well-placed state politician. The son gets the maximum sentence, but in his final hours in office, the outgoing governor cuts that sentence by more than half. The governor, as you've probably guessed, was Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The inmate in question is Esteban Nunez, the son of a former state assembly speaker, Fabian Nunez, also seen in this video.

Esteban pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon after a drunken brawl at San Diego State University in 2008. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but Schwarzenegger slashed that to seven without a word to the victim's family. And that's the decision that may land him in court.

I'm going to speak live with the family's lawyers in just a few moments.

Checking some other stories that we're following right now.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has left the city where she was shot and saved to begin some aggressive rehab. These are pictures from earlier in the day in Tucson. You saw people lining the street as that ambulance brings her to an airport.

Her ambulance left the University Medical Center surrounded by police cars, as well-wishers waved from the sidelines. The next leg is the quick flight to Houston, which she's on right now.

Now, the congresswoman's plane is expected to arrive in Texas any minute now. Then a medical chopper will airlift her to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where doctors will assess her condition and start planning months of physical, speech and occupational therapy.

Tomorrow marks two weeks since the shooting spree that wounded Giffords and 12 others and left six people dead.

Well, for 12 years, a machine spoke for her. Kids made fun of her. Even adults stared at her.

Now a California woman has found her voice again thanks to a rare larynx transplant. Brenda Jensen had the surgery in October, just the second successful voice box replacement on record. She was able to speak again just two weeks after the transplant, but she wasn't ready to speak until now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDA JENSEN, LARYNX TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT: Just being able to speak again and be able to smell food -- which I'm not able to eat yet, but, boy, I can't wait until I can dig in -- has just been amazing, because when I talk on the phone, people don't hang up on me no more. I've got a real voice.

They don't think I'm a telemarketer or a mechanical machine. It's just been a big, big difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Wow. That sounds incredibly normal. She lost her voice back in 1999 due to damage from a breathing tube that had been inserted during kidney surgery.

All right. We told you about this yesterday. It happened 23 years ago, but there could still be charges in the Carlina White kidnapping.

This is the amazing story of the young woman who realized something was off at home. She did some digging online. She basically found her own biological parents in New York.

She had been stolen from a hospital more than 23 years ago. Now the feds and the New York Police Department are exploring a criminal case. As it happens, the woman who raised White seems to have disappeared, even though she hasn't been named a suspect.

Meantime, White's birth father is ecstatic at their second chance. Her aunt talked about the emotional airport reunion on NBC's "Today Show."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA WHITE-HEATLEY, CARLINA WHITE'S AUNT: It was a beautiful experience, just to see your niece after so many years. And then when I had seen her, her face, she looked just like herself.

You know, I had seen the big old eyes. I said, "Oh, my God," and just grabbed her. I was just so happy. I was so happy to see her.

And then my sister had seen her and my sister started to cry. So Carlina said, "Mommy, don't cry." And my sister, she couldn't hold back the tears. And Carlina said, "You're going to make me cry, mommy." And so Joy didn't cry, but I boo-hoo cried.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: South Korea's navy has pulled off a daring secret rescue mission on the high seas, reclaiming a South Korean freighter from Somali pirates. It happened in a predawn raid with naval forces rescuing 21 sailors, capturing five pirates, and killing eight of them.

All right. Let's go over to the Severe Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. They are young victims who have been sold for sex right here in the United States. Even when they're rescued, they often end up in a place where most people would never want to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Now back to the case of the last-minute leniency.

As I mentioned, the newly-departed governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is facing outrage from the family of Luis Santos, a 22-year-old college student killed in a bar fight in 2008. This month, hours before he left office, Schwarzenegger cut the sentence of one of Santos' killers from 16 years to seven.

Governors can do -- hang on one second. I just want to give you this breaking news.

We are just looking at pictures from KTRK, our affiliate in Houston. That is the plane carrying Gabrielle Giffords. It has just touched down in Houston right now.

As you know, she was taken by ambulance in Tucson to the airport, where she was flown to Houston Hobby Airport, where she will be transported, I believe, by helicopter to the hospital. There's the helicopter right there waiting for her. There's the plane pulling up to it.

Elizabeth Cohen is standing by in Houston. She's on the phone with us.

Elizabeth, the plan now is to move her from that plane to that helicopter and get her right to the hospital?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, to get her right to the hospital. It's 14 miles, so I imagine that's a very short helicopter ride. And then when they get her to Memorial Hermann Hospital, which is here at the University of Texas, the first thing they're going to do, Ali, we're told, is make sure she did OK on that helicopter ride and on that plane ride from Tucson.

VELSHI: All right. She was monitored, though, on the plane, right? I assume. Right? There was a doctor or a nurse with her?

COHEN: Oh, she sure was monitored. I mean, she flew with her trauma surgeon, Dr. Peter Rhee, as well as with a nurse and her husband and her mother. And, you know, Sanjay Gupta described this plane as being sort of like an ICU in the sky. You know, they have oxygen, they have monitors, they have -- not everything an ICU would have, but they've got a lot.

VELSHI: Any anticipated dangers in that trip for her? I mean, as you said earlier, in the world of medicine there's always something. But the bottom line is they felt they were controlling her situation, her vitals, things like that. She was in good shape to make that trip.

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. They were making sure that she got enough oxygen. They were making sure that her brain was receiving enough oxygen.

You know, this is something they do every day. It seems to us like, oh, my goodness, someone had a bullet wound to her head two weeks ago, and now she's flying. But they transport people who are way more medically fragile than she is, way more medically fragile.

VELSHI: Tell me why she's in Houston.

COHEN: She is in Houston because they hope that soon she'll begin the process of rehabilitation, learning how to walk again, learning how to speak again, learning how to get dressed and do all those regular daily activities that we take for granted. We don't know what problems she has right now, but she definitely is going to need some rehab.

But what's interesting is that I spoke to the doctors in Houston yesterday, and her office had said that she was going right into rehab, and she's not. She's going to a regular hospital first. They want to make sure that she's medically ready to begin the process of rehabilitation.

VELSHI: All right. And what kinds of -- is this hospital special for some reason?

COHEN: Yes. Well, this hospital is one of the best rehabilitation hospitals for brain injuries, Ali, in the country.

You know, there's a handful that are all excellent in New York, in New Jersey, in Washington, in other cities. And her husband, Mark Kelly, talked about that yesterday.

He says, look, there was a lot of places that I could have sent my wife, but he said, you know, a big factor was that he lives here. He works for NASA and he lives in the Houston area, and his two daughters are here. So, like many families, when you've got a long- term recovery, which is what she's looking at -- it's a long-term recovery -- you want the person near the family.

VELSHI: Sure.

All right. Elizabeth, we'll stay on top of this story. As you can see, these are pictures of Houston Hobby Airport, where that plane has landed. There's a helicopter standing by. She'll be moved from the plane to the helicopter.

The helicopter will take her to this hospital, where she will be monitored. As Elizabeth said, not to start rehab just yet, but that is going to be the longer-term plan.

OK. Let me get back to the story I was telling you about just before we found out that the plane had landed.

The newly-departed governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is facing outrage from the family of Luis Santos. He's a 22-year-old college student who was killed in a bar fight in 2008.

This month, hours before he left office, Schwarzenegger cut the sentence of one of Santos' killers from 16 years to seven years. Governors can do that. Presidents can, too. Many do just before their terms run out.

The issue here is the California Constitution, which gives victims' families a right to be heard on matters of post-conviction release. The intrigue comes from the connections of the inmate in question.

He is the son of a former speaker of the California Assembly. And now comes the lawsuit. The Santos family is suing to reinstate the original 16-year sentence of Esteban Nunez.

Joining me now via Skype are the lawyers for the dead man's family, Laura Strasser and Nina Salarno-Ashford. They are in Auburn, California.

Thank you to both of you for being with us.

Let me just start by telling our viewers about a response that former Governor Schwarzenegger has offered. And he says, "I recognize that the last-minute nature of my final acts as governor provided you no notice, no time to prepare for or absorb the impact of this decision. For that, I apologize. As a father, I believe there's no sentence too harsh for the death of your son, but our system of justice demands that the facts of the case be weighed without the passion of a father's rage."

What's your response to that?

NINA SALARNO-ASHFORD, LAWYER FOR SANTOS FAMILY: Well, he's right about a system of justice that needs to weigh the facts, and that's precisely what did not happen with Governor Schwarzenegger's last- minute commutation. He did not have all the facts of the case in front of him. He did not hear from the victims, which the California Constitution mandates.

It mandates that all the evidence be in front of him. It also mandates that public safety and the victims be considered. And that is exactly what he did not do. And it is our contention that he violated the California Constitution. And, although, as you pointed out, a governor, even the president, has the authority to do that, they do not have the authority to violate the law.

VELSHI: Can this decision be undone by your suit, or are you looking to pressure somebody to do something about it?

LAURA STRASSER, LAWYER FOR SANTOS FAMILY: Whatever it's going to take to overturn it. It's not a lawsuit about money damages or anything like that. It's simply to try to overturn the entire decision so that he serves his entire sentence as handed down by the court.

VELSHI: Is there something --

(CROSSTALK)

SALARNO-ASHFORD: I'm sorry.

VELSHI: Did they offer some explanation as to why they were cutting -- why the governor was cutting the sentence in half? When he talks in his response about the facts of the case being weighed, what is the fact that he said required the sentence to be lowered?

SALARNO-ASHFORD: Well, he's using the excuse that the killer, Esteban Nunez, was not the stabber. And in fact, that is incorrect. It was actually never determined who did the fatal blow.

And again, he's saying he weighed facts. He didn't have all the facts in front of him. He didn't talk with the district attorney's office. He didn't talk with the victims.

The only facts he had front of him were presented by Esteban Nunez's lawyer, the people that had the most bias, because they're trying to reduce the sentence. And that's the only facts that he had in front of him. So the facts were not weighed.

VELSHI: Do you believe that this was done because of Esteban Nunez's father?

SALARNO-ASHFORD: People are very, very smart. I believe that they can gather that information for themselves. That's not a part of this lawsuit.

Obviously, something seemed to unduly influence former Governor Schwarzenegger, because in his history he's never commuted a sentence, and he had many cases just like this, and actually refused to grant parole or commute sentences. So something definitely weighed into it. It is known that his chief political adviser is the business partner of Esteban Nunez's father, Fabian.

VELSHI: Do you know of history of cases like this where a president or a governor has commuted or reduced a sentence that has been subsequently overturned by a lawsuit?

SALARNO-ASHFORD: As far as we know, this will be the first threshold litigation. However, California is unique because in 2008, we actually passed a constitutional amendment that gave victims enforceable rights. And that's the premise that we're going on. So I don't believe there is anything else, because no other state has the same constitutional amendment that we have.

VELSHI: You have filed --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Sorry. Go ahead.

STRASSER: And no other commutation has happened in California since Marsy's Law was passed.

VELSHI: Have you had any response -- have you filed this lawsuit, and have you had response to it?

SALARNO-ASHFORD: We did file it yesterday. There was a large press conference.

We've had overwhelming response from the people of the state of California who are offended that this governor usurped the very initiative and constitutional amendment that they voted in. The response from the public has been overwhelming support for the lawsuit and for the Santos family.

People want to see justice. They want to see -- Esteban Nunez pled to this sentence. It's not like he went to trial. He pled. He knew what he was pleading to. So, for the governor to argue that it was a heavy-handed sentence makes no sense.

The Santos family has to settle that their son is in a grave. They relied on the justice system. And for the governor to violate the law and undermine that family is just unfathomable.

VELSHI: Laura Strasser is a lawyer for the victim's family. So is Nina Salarno-Ashford.

Thanks for joining us for this topic. An interesting discussion.

SALARNO-ASHFORD: Thank you.

STRASSER: Thank you.

VELSHI: Underage girls sold for sex in America. Estimates show there could be anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 girls forced into prostitution, many by pimps who take everything they earn.

Even when they're rescued, getting them help is still a battle. A Justice Department report says there are just 50 beds available in facilities dedicated to victims of child prostitution in the United States.

CNN's Amber Lyon shows us where these girls often end up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Federal law says that if you're under 18 and you're being sold for sex, you're a victim, not a criminal. That's the law. But for thousands of American girls who get arrested every year on prostitution charges, this is the reality: belly chains, ankle cuffs, a locked cell.

(on camera): Three-inch mattress, cement. They don't have any pictures on the walls, no TV, nasty looking toilet. They're locked in here at night just like a prisoner.

(voice-over): Nobody thinks that these kids should be locked up, but nobody wants to risk turning them loose.

JUDGE WILLIAM VOY, CLARK COUNTY FAMILY AND YOUTH COURT: Well, this is a good example of one.

LYON: Judge William Voy keeps an old case on his desk to remind him why these girls need to be safe.

VOY: She was released on February 7th and she was found dead on February 10th. She was murdered and her throat was cut.

You can always theorize that maybe they'd be alive, but this one, I know it. I know it.

LYON (on camera): So why do you keep this case on your desk every day?

VOY: I keep it here because it reminds me that if I had that house, she would be alive.

LYON (voice-over): Judge Voy is trying to get funding for an alternative to the jail, a safe house for the girls who cycle in and out of his courtroom.

VOY: It starts right here. It's not a detention center, it's not an institution.

LYON (on camera): You have bedrooms instead of cells.

VOY: It looks like another healthy homeowner in Vegas, right? And that's what we want it to look like. These kids are messed up in a lot of different ways, and they need a lot of help.

LYON (voice-over): Voy says private donors will pay for the land and the building. All he needs is the county to pay for probation officers. But the county won't pay.

VOY: We can't get to the next level, and it's extremely frustrating.

LYON: It's not just this county. There are almost no places for these girls anywhere in America, girls like 13-year-old Selena, now stuck in jail.

"SELENA," 19-YEAR-OLD SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIM: Oh, my God, that's my favorite picture in the world. I love my little sister more than anything in the world. Oh, my God, I miss her so much.

LYON: Selena wants more than anything just to go home to be with her little sister.

Today, Judge Voy and Selena's mom are trying to figure out what's best for her.

VOY: So you're my best judge right here because you know this child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course I want my child to come home, but we need a plan. I mean, it's not --

VOY: No, I understand what you're saying. OK.

SELENA: You know, she's saying all this. I want to go home, that's all I want.

LYON: But she's not going home because no one can say for sure that she won't just run away, back to the streets, back to the pimps.

SELENA: So I'm going to be here for, like, another month? I just want to go home.

LYON: Selena is now getting help through a court-ordered drug treatment program in another state. Her future is uncertain at best.

There are thousands of girls just like her caught up in an industry driven by lust and greed, now online and better than ever at selling the girl next door.

Amber Lyon, CNN, Las Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: And don't miss "Selling the Girl Next Door." It airs this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

You're looking at live pictures right now of Houston's Hobby Airport. Gabrielle Giffords has arrived by plane. There's a helicopter -- you can just sort of make it out there in red -- ready to take her to a hospital. We'll tell you more about that on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

VELSHI: Of all the people in Boston this morning who woke up to bitterly cold temperatures, more than 2,000 were homeless women. This week CNN Hero is giving them something they can count on, quality health care right in their shelters, and it's free.

Her name is Roseanna Means.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. ROSEANNA MEANS, CNN HERO: You OK?

Every week I talk to women who are sleeping outside.

It's only 17 degrees out, so I didn't want you to get frozen.

There's so much pain and suffering right on the fringes of our perspective.

Do you need some help, hon?

In Boston, despite all the medical resources for the homeless population, I was seeing very few of the women using the services. For women who are poor, homeless or battered, to deal with a system of health care becomes overwhelming.

They don't have an address. They don't have a phone. There are lots of emotional issues, psychiatric issues.

I just didn't like the idea that they were falling through the cracks.

I'm Dr. Roseanna Means, and I bring free, high-quality medical care to women and children in the shelters of Boston.

Good morning.

The women come into the shelters to get warm, to feel safe, and we're there.

Come on, Ellen (ph).

There's no registration. We're not charging anything.

If they want to come see us, we'll use that moment to try to build a relationship.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my safety net right here.

MEANS: The women learn to trust us as ambassadors of the health care system.

All right, hon. God bless.

Over time, we can teach them how to use the system as it was intended, and eventually they do move forward.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I knew she really cared, I started wanting to take care of myself.

MEANS: I love these women no matter what.

You're dog a great job.

That starts to get taken inside, that if I matter to somebody else, maybe I matter to myself. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Now, remember that all of this year, CNN Heroes are chosen from people you tell us about.

Do you know someone who's making a big difference in your community? Well, you can nominate them at CNNHeroes.com.

Well, she starred in the "Real World San Francisco." She's married to a U.S. congressman. She is the mother of six. And she's a mommy blogger.

She's standing by to talk to Rachel Campos-Duffy about extreme parenting right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: So, we have been preparing this series for this week called "Extreme Parenting," when out of the blue, a woman who calls herself a "tiger mother" blasted on to the scene. This Chinese- American law professor's memoir of her ultra-strict parenting techniques set off a national debate and has led CNN to try to define extreme parenting.

Basically you know you're an extreme parent if -- well, we'll have plenty of stories to help fill in the blank and some parenting experts as our guides.

There are 150 million parents in this country, many of them looking online for parenting advice. It's a phenomenon called mommy blogging. There are tons of them online. The majority are regular moms with advice on parenting, finance, disabilities, cooking, environment, fashion, so much more -- topics on everything.

And here to tell us about it is Rachel Campos-Duffy. She started her television career on MTV's "The Real World: San Francisco." She married one of the guys guy from "The Real World: Boston," Sean Duffy, who, by the way, was just elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. So, Rachel kind of knows something about everything.

She's also, by the way, a mommy blogger, which makes since because she's got six kids. And if you have six kids, you're probably compelled to share some of your information with the rest of the world.

Rachel, good to see you.

Tell us about this phenomenon. It really kind of is a phenomenon.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, TV HOST, AUTHOR, MOMMY BLOGGER: Yes, it really is. I write for AOL parentdish.com. I have a column there, "View from the Home Front." And I try to give that parenting Web site the perspective of an at-home parent.

And I've chosen to be an at-home parent. I think there's never been a better time to be an at-home parent because of the Internet, because of the ability that I can do this right here with you, with a blouse and pajama bottoms on and still be connected.

VELSHI: Right. And I guess -- I mean, mommies have been blogging since before there were blogs. I mean, there's probably no better source of information on parenting than from other parents.

Is mommy blogging a term that encompasses daddy blogs or, in my case, step-daddy blogs?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely. In fact, our Web site has several at- home dads and working dads that contribute to the parenting Web site.

I think the trick to mommy blogging is you really have a unique point of view. I don't try to -- I have a very unique style of parenting. I have a very unique lifestyle.

VELSHI: Yes.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: I tell it like it is, from my perspective. And I don't try to reach everybody, because I think you kind of water-down your experience and it becomes useless.

VELSHI: Right. Who -- what's your target group? You're the wife of a new congressman. You've been on TV. You are a mother of six kids. What's the thing people learn from you? How to keep it all balanced when there are too many things pulling at your time?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Well, the congressional thing is a really recent thing. As you know, I've been blogging for many years now as a mommy blogger.

I come from a very conservative political perspective. I'm a practicing Catholic. I often share my points of view with regards to that.

I'm an at-home parent and a parent of many kids. And people with lots of kids get a lot of different opinions from people out in the world. And so, that is a perspective that I bring as well, because having six kids these days is not always the norm.

VELSHI: Do you think -- I mean, we're talking about extreme parenting here. Are you in any fashion an extreme parent? Do you know what that even means?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: No, I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. If by having six kids that's extreme parenting? Then, sure. But I think that -- I wrote a book called "Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to Loving At-Home Motherhood."

So, I write about how much I love being an at-home mom and how many opportunities there are, thanks to technology, a lot more helpful dads out there, and just how it's changed from my mom's stay-at-home experience to mine. VELSHI: It kind of is interesting, though, in the last couple of weeks, all of this stuff about the tiger mom and comparison between Asian moms and American moms, and it sort of has dovetailed into this national debate about whether parents in America are too indulgent of their kids. Your thoughts?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Well, I am the product of a Spanish mom. So, I probably lean a little bit more towards a tiger mom. I came from a very strict upbringing, very traditional in its religious formation. And so, I think it produced good results in me and my siblings.

I'm certainly -- I think I bring that to my parenting. I'm considered on our Web site to be a more traditional mom, though. I think I'm a lot of fun, too.

VELSHI: Are you strict?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: I am. My kids have chores. I think that the lack of chores that kids do these days is not good. I don't believe in hyper helicopter parenting.

I'm home, but I'm not always sitting down and singing and playing games. I read. I am involved in my writing. But I'm here to also, you know, pick them up when they stub their toe or need a nose wipe. So, I'm around, but I don't believe in this super, uber, hyper- parenting where kids have to be in 20,000 activities.

VELSHI: Right.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And so, I believe my presence is necessary in my house. I believe I run it like a CEO would. But there's a loving angle to it, and I do tend, I think, with the moms on my Web site, to be more on the traditional side and my columns are especially known for my concern about the over-sexualization of childhood.

VELSHI: Right.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: You've seen this, "Skins" on MTV.

VELSHI: Right.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And all kinds of other things in child fashion and so forth. So, those are the issues that I advocate for and bring awareness to on our Web site.

VELSHI: Well, that's a good topic for us to talk about again. So, you come back and we'll have that conversation.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely.

VELSHI: All right. Rachel Campos-Duffy is a mommy blogger. She's a former star of "The Real World: San Francisco," joining me via Skype on extreme parenting.

All right. You've heard the saying, "Turning swords into plow shares." Well, some farmers in a drug war battle zone are doing something similar and it's saving lives. I'll tell you about it next in "Globe Trekking."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. You're looking at pictures right now at Houston's Hobby Airport, the arrival of Gabrielle Giffords' plane. It came just a little while ago.

We turn this around. It is taped you're looking at. That's the plane. On the left side that's the helicopter, on the right side. She came in on the plane. She was transferred over to that helicopter, I believe.

And I'm just going to ask Sarah to confirm with me that that helicopter has now left Houston Hobby Airport en route to the hospital. And we will report to you as soon as it arrives at the hospital. This is where Gabrielle Giffords will be going for the next phase of her recovery.

She left the hospital in Tucson earlier today where she had been since she was shot in the head 13 days ago, two weeks tomorrow. We're expecting an update from the doctors just a little over an hour from now. You'll see it here on CNN.

OK. It is an age-old problem in the war on drugs -- convincing farmers to switch from a drug-producing plant, which gives them lots of money, to one that's legal but brings them far less money. Some farmers in Colombia have been sold on the idea.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the story from a region once the center of coca production and a major guerilla stronghold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jorge Elias Benjumea proudly inspects his plantain field. He's not only happy his crops are doing well, but also for the first time in years, what he's growing is legal.

JORGE ELIAS BENJUMEA, COLOMBIAN FARMER (through translator): Everything is different now, more peaceful. I go to bed at night with no worries.

ROMO: Benjumea says he used to grow coca, the plant from which cocaine is produced. He used to make $2,800 a month growing coca. Now, he makes about $840 with plantains, but he doesn't have to deal with guerillas or drug traffickers anymore. His peace of mind and the safety of his family, he says, are priceless.

BENJUMEA: Coca is a plant that can make you a lot of money but also gives you a lot of headaches.

ROMO: Benjumea is a part of a new wave of Colombian farmers growing alternative crops in a region known as La Macarena.

(on camera): This region was known for decades as a stronghold of the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, the guerilla commonly known as FARC. La Macarena used to be not only a major recruiting and training center for new guerillas but also a production point of coca and a key transit route for illegal armed groups.

(voice-over): In an area known as Albania, farmers got together to grow and process sugarcane. Not far from there, another group is venturing into fish farming with government help.

SERGIO JARAMILLO, COLOMBIAN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: So, you need to stabilize those drug-producing areas -- that's what we're doing here. And there's no better investment for prosperity in a country like Colombia than supporting that integrator point of security and social development.

ROMO: U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited several communities developing alternative crops as part of awe three-day visit to Colombia.

GIL KERLIKOWSKE, DIR., OFC. OF NATL. DRUG CONTROL POLICY: We have to continue to be supportive of Colombia in a whole host of ways. The other is none of this was possible without safety and security first.

ROMO: The U.S. has provided more than $7 billion in aid in the last 10 years to help Colombia fight drug trafficking. According to U.S. government figures, cocaine production in the South American country fell from 700 metric tons in 2001 to 270 in 2009, a 61 percent decrease.

Farmers in La Macarena say it's hard to make ends meet with alternative crops, but this is a sacrifice many are willing to make for their children so that they grow up free from guerillas and drug traffickers.

Rafael Romo, CNN, La Macarena, Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: OK. It's helped to educate some of the brightest young minds for nearly two decades now. But the nation's largest free tuition program has a big problem. I'll talk about it in "Chalk Talk" after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In today's "Chalk Talk," the free ride may soon be over for Georgia students who depend on the lottery-funded Hope Scholarship to attend college. That's because the state is facing a multimillion- dollar deficit in lottery money.

Let me give you a little background on the Hope Scholarship. It's the nation's largest merit-based scholarship program. It provides free tuition to Georgia students with a B average who intend an in-state school. It also covers some fees and books. Since it started in 1993, the program has awarded $5.7 billion to more than 1.3 million students.

CNN talked to one mother about what possible changes could mean for her daughter's future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY HARRIS, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA STUDENT'S MOTHER: Without the Hope Scholarship, she would be depending on student loans and starting life after college with debt, and that's just a fact of life for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: So a tough decision facing lawmakers in Georgia who are considering how to revamp this program. I'm joined now by Len Walker, he's a Republican state representative who chairs the Georgia House Higher Education Committee.

Representative Walker, thank you for being here.

STATE REP. LEN WALKER (R), GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: Glad to be.

VELSHI: We didn't know lotteries even run out of money.

WALKER: Oh, they do and very quickly.

VELSHI: What's the problem?

WALKER: Well, the problem is very simple. People are not buying lottery tickets --

VELSHI: Interesting.

WALKER: -- in the way that they have in the past. In fact, we project that in the coming year the lottery revenues will be below what they were last year. And so that presents a tremendous problem for the Hope Scholarship.

VELSHI: All right. So now what are some of the options that you're considering? Because really in this tough time, in this time where we have constantly heard that education is really going to be the key to our longer term future, this has been one of the more successful programs in the country.

WALKER: Absolutely. And make no mistake that the quality of life of every Georgian is in many ways dependent upon higher education.

VELSHI: Absolutely.

WALKER: And so, it's a very important issue. There are a number of suggestions and ideas that are being put forth. I was at the university of Georgia last night speaking with about 50 students, getting their input.

VELSHI: Right.

WALKER: What can we do to maintain the viability of the Hope Scholarship? VELSHI: And here are some of the suggestions: partial scholarship instead of full one, a higher GPA requirement, and making some of it need based as opposed to entirely merit based.

What were the responses to some of these ideas?

WALKER: Well, I think the idea that has the most interest among students is to increase the level of academic achievement in the high school.

VELSHI: OK.

WALKER: Where there might be one tier of students at one grade point average and one SAT score that would get one type of Hope Scholarship all the way down to the lower GPAs and lower SAT scores would get another level of scholarship.

We're also going to be discontinuing any Hope money for remedial classes in our colleges and universities. It's also very probable that all books and fees will be eliminated from the Hope Scholarship.

There also will be a shortened timeframe in which a student can either access the Hope Scholarship and then a timeframe or time limit for their graduation when Hope runs out.

VELSHI: Now, last year there was a funding shortfall as well, but at that point you went into other state revenues.

WALKER: No. We went into three reserve funds --

VELSHI: Oh, reserve funds. OK.

WALKER: -- that are in place right now. However, as of July the 1st of this year, the unrestricted reserve will be at zero.

VELSHI: OK, so you don't have that option.

WALKER: The other two reserves, three years ago they were at a billion dollars, they've slipped to 600 million and now to about 350 million.

VELSHI: What did this program do? How can you measure the success of this program over time?

WALKER: Well, I think the number of college graduates we have in the state of Georgia. Also, I think one of the key factors in its success is that a college graduate earns a lot more money over their lifetime in income.

And so we have, I believe, one of the best if not the best system of higher education in the nation, and we want to maintain that.

VELSHI: Representative Len Walker, thanks for being with us. We appreciate you talking about this with us.

WALKER: Thank you very much. VELSHI: It's a topic close to our hearts.

Representative Len Walker, Georgia state representative.

All right, we've got breaking news for you right now. We have confirmed that the helicopter carrying Representative Gabrielle Giffords from Houston Hobby Airport is one of those two helicopters you're looking at right now on the roof of Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Let's go live to Elizabeth Cohen on the phone with us right now.

Elizabeth, what do we know?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): What we know is that her office just confirmed she's on one of those two helicopters.

You know, Ali, we've been talking about the number of people who have been traveling with her, her trauma surgeons, Dr. Peter Rhee, a nurse, her mother, her husband. So we're assuming that's who's taking up the space on the rest of those helicopters or perhaps they're coming some other way.

Now, you can see that some people -- I'm seeing on the live feed that there's personnel who are walking out to those helicopters, and we were told by -- we were told by doctors that one of the first things -- oh, now you can see --

VELSHI: Is that a third helicopter?

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: All right, there's three on the roof.

COHEN: That is a third helicopter, yes. So we'll have to see who they take off of there.

I see a door opening. The lifeline helicopter from Houston's Hobby Airport.

VELSHI: Clearly, this is a busy hospital because there are three helicopters on the roof there.

COHEN: Yes. And it looks like there's room for more, Ali. Yes, this a big, busy hospital. This is a Texas Medical Center, this is a campus that has many, many hospitals on it -- Children's Hospital, MD Anderson, Methodist Hospital, a whole array of them.

And so, they -- we see some people coming off and shaking hands. Now we're waiting to see if they bring her off.

VELSHI: All right, and this is, just to be clear, this is where -- is this the facility at which she is going to start her rehabilitation? Because you told me earlier she has to go through a little more recovery before she starts her rehab. COHEN: Correct. This is not the rehab facility. What you're looking at right now is Memorial Hermann University of Texas Medical Center. So this is just a regular general hospital, an acute care hospital as doctors would call it. This is very similar from the hospital she came from in Tucson.

So the doctors who are going to be greeting her, I talked to them yesterday, and they said we need to assess her before she starts rehab. We need to make sure that she's ready to go, ready to start her rehab.

VELSHI: All right, and as we see -- we're looking at the live picture -- people are walking to and past the two and three helicopters. Looks like the one on the far left is the one that had landed most recently because its rotors were still going.

COHEN: Yes.

VELSHI: But there are people -- there's somebody stopping at another one. So we'll continue to follow this.

But what we do understand, what Elizabeth has confirmed for us, is that Gabrielle Giffords has arrived at that hospital in one of those helicopters, and we will continue to cover this story for you.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

We're taking a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Well, in addition to award winning-movie roles, George Clooney is also known for his philanthropy. In a recent trip to Sudan to help monitor the presidential elections, he contracted malaria for a second time. Fortunately, he was able to joke about the situation with CNN's Piers Morgan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": I mean, you're looking slightly overheated now, George. I thought it was down to me, but it turns out it's actually -- you do get malaria flare-ups quite regularly, do you?

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR/ACTIVIST: No. I've had it twice, this is just -- I just, you know, I guess the mosquito in Juba looked at me and thought I was the bar.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: You can catch the entire interview with George and his father, Nick Clooney, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT" part of premier week.

All right, we're taking a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

A new CNN poll asks more than a thousand Americans what they think of the seating arrangements for the president's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

As is custom on such occasions, congressmen from one party sit together on one side of the House, those in the other party gather on the other side. But according to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, over two-thirds of those surveyed -- by the way, from both parties -- think Republicans and Democrats should mix it up, sit next to each other when the precedes gives his address.

That's interesting because the State of the Union seating arrangement is pretty much a metaphor for today's partisan politics. We will surely see Democrats seated on one side standing in ovation every chance they get and just as certain we'll see Republicans staying put during many of the ovations to express their disagreement.

But politicians from both parties may want to rethink their partisan bickering and reach across the aisle because increasingly that is what Americans who voted them into office want them to do.

That's it for me. My friend Randi Kaye take it's over now with NEWSROOM.