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FBI Joins Search For Woman Accused of Kidnapping Carlina White in 1987; Divers Continue Search For Missing California Toddler; Doctors Very Optimistic on Giffords; Financial Restart For 2011; Reviewing New Movie Releases; 127 Indicted in Mafia Round Up
Aired January 22, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Former Haitian dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier speaks out for the first time since his unexpected return to Haiti. He insists he wants to help rebuild this country - that country, rather, and that his reasons are not political.
A looming crisis in Afghanistan's government. What's causing the turmoil and what President Hamid Karzai is doing to end the political stand-off.
And the U.S. military and the Coast Guard are searching for missing American sailors in the Philippines sea. Their ship, the Pineapple, is six days overdue in reaching port.
The FBI has joined in a search for a woman accused in a 1987 kidnapping. A warrant has been issued for Ann Pettway's arrest. Police believed Pettway took Carlina White from a New York hospital when she was just days old. The case unraveled when White tracked down her biological mother. Pettway's family and friends are stunned by the allegations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm mad and I'm fed up, and I'm hurt. I'm disappointed, simple as that. I'm still thinking why would Ann do something like that. I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have mixed emotions. It was shock, it was anger, it was fear that someone could do this and then go on for so many years as if this didn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Carlina White was reunited with her birth mother this week. Joy White says she never gave up hope that she would see her daughter again.
White says that she grew suspicious about the woman who raised her when she couldn't get a birth certificate. Her own birth certificate. An internet search resulted in a baby photo that White said looked so much like her own five-year-old daughter, and she connected the dots and realized that was her, little girl missing for many years. And on to California now. Divers are searching a canal for signs of a missing four-year-old boy. The toddler has been missing since Tuesday. Investigators believe he was kidnapped by his mother's ex- boyfriend. Investigators are concentrating on the canal because a witness says he saw a car crashing into it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF ADAM CHRISTIANSON, STANISLAUS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: I'm always hopeful. I remain hopeful that we get to bring Juliani home to his family. I'm not entirely confident based on what we know to this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Investigators say the boy was snatched from his grandmother's arms by this man, you're about to see, Jose Esteban Rodriguez. He has a violent past and extensive criminal record as well. And police say he developed a special bond with the boy during the time that he was involved with the family. Rodriguez's own mother says she's worried that something bad is going to happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONNA AVILA, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: I'm afraid because I know my son has a bad temper. He's not going to just give up, I just know. And I'm scared in my heart that something is not going to go right. That's what I'm afraid of. You know, that there might be violence or something with the police and he's not dangerous. He won't hurt anybody. I know my son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: For her part, the boy's mother is beside herself with grief. She is pleading with her former boyfriend to simply give the boy up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juliani needs to come home. He doesn't need to be with you. He's not even your son, Jose. You need to get a grip on reality. You know, take off, leave Juliani somewhere and you take off. I don't care where you go. Just give me my son back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, yesterday divers searched the canal and located two vehicles in the deep water. Both were pulled from the water but neither had anything to do with the search for the missing boy apparently.
And now to Gabrielle Giffords. Her doctors say that she is doing great and that's just two weeks after a would be assassin shot the congresswoman in the head. Yesterday Giffords was moved from a hospital in Tucson to one in Houston, Texas. She faces a long recovery. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining me now from Houston. So Elizabeth, you just spoke with one of the doctors. What does the doctor say?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we asked the doctor what is Gabrielle Giffords able to do at this point, and he gave us this example, Fred. We thought it was very interesting. He said that she was dangling her foot kind of like this off the side of the bed and they said can you put your foot, your leg on the bed and they said that she swung it up like this. She managed to swing it up and put it on the bed something like this.
They said that that really surprised them, that she had the strength to do that, and it also told them how she was able to follow commands. So they were thrilled to see it. Here, let's take a listen to what one of her doctors, Gerard Francisco, had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GERARD FRANCISCO, CMD, TIRR MEMORIAL HERMANN: She surprised us. She did not need as much assistance as we had anticipated. There were still people holding on to her as was described previously, but she's activating her muscles even more than what I had anticipated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, Dr. Francisco said that she is getting - they hope to give her about three hours of physical therapy a day in the intensive care unit. That's where she is now. She had physical therapy at 9:00 a.m. this morning. Fred.
WHITFIELD: And so among the questions I guess doctors are asking her, are they asking her to verbalize anything? Are they asking her to stand or do anything beyond the leg movement that you showed us?
COHEN: Right. They're trying to get her to stand - you know, they would like for her to stand up on her own, but Dr. Francisco said that she needs considerable support. She is not standing up on her own at this time. And the speaking part gets a little murky. She has a tracheostomy which is a hole in the windpipe, and so there's really no way to get words out. The question then is, is she trying to get words out and they're not sure. They're seeing her move her lips. They're not sure if she's trying to get words out or not.
WHITFIELD: And she remains in intensive care primarily why?
COHEN: Primarily because of a drain in her head, Fred. She's got a drain in her head because she has hydrocephalus. And that's too much fluid around the brain. So they have to drain it out. Now, over the next couple of days they're going have to make a decision about whether she's ready to have that drain come out, because she can't leave the ICU with that drain in.
So if she's ready, if the swelling has gone down, they can take the drain out. If not, what they might do is sort of an internal drain that's called a shunt. What they would do is to put a drain inside her body from her head, believe it or not down to her abdomen and that fluid would drain internally down to her abdomen. And sometimes people walk around for their lives with that internal shunt.
WHITFIELD: All right. Fascinating stuff.
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Houston, thanks so much.
And we will be taking a closer look at what Representative Giffords might be facing. A brain injury specialist joins us later on this hour to talk about rehabilitation.
And this week a federal grand jury indicted suspect Jared Lee Loughner on three charges of attempted murder. More charges are expected. Loughner is accused of killing six people and wounding 13 others outside a Tucson grocery store two weeks ago today. A congresswoman in North Carolina says watching the events surrounding her colleague has made her more aware of her own security situation and she plans to do something about it. Listen to this, Representative Renee Ellmers says she has a license to carry a gun and she's going to use that license.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RENEE ELLMERS (R), NORTH CAROLINA (via telephone): There have been times in the past, you know, that I've carried my weapon and I will probably continue to do so. Sometimes I might have it and some days I might not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Ellmers isn't the first member of Congress to announce that she'll be packing heat after the Tucson shooting. North Carolina democrat Heath Schuler also said he'll carry a weapon more weapon in his district.
All right. No break from all this frigid snowy weather. In fact, some parts of the country are getting the coldest weather so far in the season, and those NFL playoff games tomorrow, ouch, it's going to be chilly.
Bonnie Schneider with more.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think the fans will be excited, so maybe they won't feel the cold. Wishful thinking, right?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
SCHNEIDER: This is what it feels like right now. We've got temperatures well below zero and it's frigid out there, feeling like it's negative eight in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It feels like it's six degrees in Des Moines, Iowa, so the brutal cold is well in place as this cold air came in behind a cold front, reinforcing that blast of winter air.
But as we look towards tomorrow, we're watching for a coastal storm to emerge. This one first coming out of the Gulf of Mexico and it will likely bring wind and rain into that region but what happens on Tuesday and Wednesday is really significant because this storm could really turn into a snow maker for the south, places like Tennessee, North Carolina, where it's actually snowing in east North Carolina right now and then you see northern Georgia, northern Alabama, parts of South Carolina. You may get that wintry mix where the rain-snow line is so close that we'll see all sorts of weather developing.
And then it gets even more complex because depending on the proximity of the low to the coastline, if it's further inland, in places like the Jersey Shore, Long Island, Cape Cod, will get more of a rain mix because they'll get more of an ocean influence rather than if the storm was further off to sea.
Well, if that happens, then it could be a very, very snowy, windy mess in the northeast for New England. So we're going to monitor this very closely. Still a couple of days away, the computer models are showing something interesting though. The rain-snow line, for those of you concern in Georgia and Charlotte, you could see a little wintry weather, particularly north of the city as we go into Tuesday.
Well, let's talk about tomorrow. It's a great day for football. It's a cold day for football, whether you're in Chicago or Pittsburgh. Check out the temperatures, Soldier Field, 3:00 p.m. temperature of 19, a wind chill of 10. Heinz Field, 14 and a wind chill of six, of six. That's what it will feel like.
WHITFIELD: Brutal. All right. Bonnie, thank you.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: All right. Making the right financial choices in the new year. Experts have advice to help you get ahead in 2011.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. The new year with the old problems in the financial markets aren't going away any time soon. So earlier we asked our financial experts, Ken and Daria Dolan to help us make the financial restart in 2011.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEN DOLAN, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: We're concerned about this year for a bunch of reasons. Number one, nobody seems to be worrying about it. The market is going, let's rock. Number two, food and energy prices are up. Food is up nine percent year over year. Daria, you just filled up your car the other day.
DARIA DOLAN, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: 14 cents difference in five weeks. That's 4.3 percent.
WHITFIELD: Wow. You get -
KEN DOLAN: Also high unemployment. WHITFIELD: You get little bang for your buck. Go ahead.
KEN DOLAN: Yes, no, I'm just going to say this, this high unemployment which we'll talk about, Fred and also the weakening dollar and we have an $88 trillion unfunded liability in our entitlement programs which is a disaster. So we're not really to jump off the cliff or jump off the top of a building, but investors please be careful this year.
WHITFIELD: So one way some people feel like they can squeeze a little bit more out of their paycheck or their dollar is to maybe think about the assets that they have like their real estate, their homes. They want to refinance because maybe they can shave off a couple bucks a month, a couple hundred bucks a month -
KEN DOLAN: Oh, yes.
WHITFIELD: And that might help -
KEN DOLAN: Their monthly payment.
WHITFIELD: But you say, you know, there really needs to be a formula when you think about that, you need to keep a few things in mind. And what about people who have a lot of credit card debt who say maybe I should consolidate, might that save me money, too? So can you tackle those two things, refinancing and consolidating credit.
KEN DOLAN: Refinancing and - yes, very good.
DARIA DOLAN: Let me do the house first because although it is the perfect time. I mean, it's almost a little bit late. You could have gotten really good rates about three or four months ago.
KEN DOLAN: Rates are going higher.
DARIA DOLAN: The lowest rates we ever had. But the rates will be going up because of this inflation, which the government continues to tell us doesn't exist. Go to the grocery store and come to the gas station with me and then we'll talk.
KEN DOLAN: We'll talk about inflation.
DARIA DOLAN: But here's the problem for people who want to refinance. Not everybody can. And it's not because of their financial situation per se except for one fact, housing prices are still going down. A lot of people don't have enough equity in the house to permit them to refinance.
WHITFIELD: So maybe you thought you had enough equity if you look at the calendar, maybe you had enough equity two or three years ago but because of the housing market as a whole you lost a lot of that.
KEN DOLAN: And, Fred, maybe you still have it. And if you still have enough equity in the home, the Dolan formula is very, very simple. How much am I going to save per month if I refinance. I'll pick a number, $200. But it's going to cost me $2,000 to refinance. Then don't do it if you don't expect it to be in the house 10 months. It's cost of refinancing into the savings and dividing by - and finding out exactly how long you're going to be there.
If you're long term, then - and have equity, consider refinancing now. Interest rates are going up.
WHITFIELD: All right.
DARIA DOLAN: As for the credit cards, yes, yes, yes. If you can consolidate, if you can do it, find which card has the lowest interest rate and consolidate to that one as much as you can.
KEN DOLAN: Right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: I love the Dolans. You can watch the Dolans, most weekends, right here on this program. We'll try to answer your e- mails, your tweets, all the time, when we have them along. Get you some good, free financial decisions. Of course, you can always check them out at their web site, www.thedolans.com.
All right. She got rave reviews for her role in "Black Swan." But can Natalie Portman give the same type of performance in a comedy? Our critic weighs in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Lots of big names on the big screen as new movies hit the theaters this weekend. Are they worth the trip? Pete Hammond is with "Box Office" magazine and he's joining us from Los Angeles.
Let's start with a short clip from one of the first movies we want to look at "The Company Men." This is Ben Affleck. Let's take a little look at it first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I responded to an ad for the vice president of marketing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we've had a number of highly qualified applicants for that position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a highly qualified applicant for that position. I'm a highly qualified applicant for that position. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I must have had too many cups of coffee while I was sitting in your waiting room for two hours. Thanks for your time, Joyce. Just between the two of us, you can probably skip the Diet Cokes, they're not helping you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Boy, he won't be getting the job. OK. "The Company Men," Pete, this is really a slice of real life too. People losing their jobs. He's lost his job, can't get a job and then we're kind of seeing the frustration of everything kind of building up. He finally gets an interview. So overall did you like this film? Did you think it really was a slice of real life? Did it hit home with you?
PETE HAMMOND, "BOX OFFICE" MAGAZINE: Yes, I think this is a very timely film now. It's right at what's happening to a lot of families. It's got a superb cast, Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner. It's among the best work all of them have done. John Wells, who wrote and directed it, is responsible for TV shows like "E.R." and he's done a terrific job here sort of showing what's happening in a lot of these big corporations.
Now, the characters here are very well to do. They have Porsches, they're members of golf clubs. So maybe some people won't relate to their plight but I think it has a lot of pertinent things to say about where the economy has gone and it's right on the money.
WHITFIELD: What was the grade you'd give that?
HAMMOND: I would give this movie an "A." I think it's definitely worth checking out.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
HAMMOND: It's a terrific drama.
WHITFIELD: You're a tough grader too. OK. "A."
HAMMOND: I am.
WHITFIELD: OK. "No Strings Attached." Some have said this is kind of the modern day "When Harry Met Sally." This one with Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Kline. let's take a quick look.
HAMMOND: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to do this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Use each other for sex at all hours of the day and night, nothing else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I could do that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good. It's going to be fun
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD:. OK. A little different. Natalie Portman from, you know, the "Black Swan," we talked about a few weeks ago. OK. So, Pete, what were your thoughts on this one?
HAMMOND: Well, you know, this is a very crude, raunchy comedy. They're selling it as a romantic comedy, but it's neither romantic nor much of a comedy, I'm afraid.
WHITFIELD: Yes, I didn't see the "Harry Met Sally" tie in that clip. OK.
HAMMOND: No, it's really - it's a switch on the genders. She's the one that doesn't want commitment, doesn't want to cuddle doesn't want to wake up with him in the morning, she just wants sex. He wants more of a relationship so it's that kind of switch. But it really is, it's very, very crude. Surprisingly it's written by a woman but it's more in line of what you might expect from a (INAUDIBLE) or those kinds of raunchy comedies.
WHITFIELD: OK. You said raunchy a few times which tells me you didn't give it a high grade. So what was it?
HAMMOND: No, I gave it a "C" for crude.
WHITFIELD: Oh. "C" for crude. Ouch.
OK. Now let's talk about "The Way Back." Am I seeing that Ed Harris in this one?
HAMMOND: Yes, absolutely.
WHITFIELD: Let's take a quick peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you swim
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, mister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wouldn't lie to me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not lying, comrade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't call me comrade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Wow! OK. Does she make it? All right. The way out. This looks compelling. Who doesn't love Ed Harris in everything he does. What were your thoughts on this one?
HAMMOND: "The Way Back" actually. It's directed by Peter Weir who did "Master and Commander," "Dead Poets Society," "The Truman Show." So many great films and this is a superb movie. It's an epic adventure. The kind that Hollywood doesn't make anymore and really didn't want to make. They had to make it independently.
Ed Harris is terrific, Jim Sturgess, Collin Farrell. It's exciting. It's got a lot of different weather elements in it. It's the snows of Siberia and the hot sands of the desert. It's really gripping and beautifully made. I highly recommend this film.
WHITFIELD: OK. That means you gave it a good grade.
HAMMOND: It's another "A." I've never done this before, Fredricka. Two "A"s. Two "As."
WHITFIELD: Very impressive. I know it's a very serious movie. I see Ed Harris and all I think about is the "Sex and the City" with, you know, Ed has no Harris. It just cracks me up all the time. But this one very serious.
HAMMOND: Very, very serious.
WHITFIELD: OK. Very good. Two "As," we like that. Pete Hammond, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Good to see you. Happy weekend.
HAMMOND: Absolutely. You too.
WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Candiotti will be joining us. The latest of a very interesting giant sweep that you'll want to hear about. Introducing precise pain relieving heat patch.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: So when the FBI throws a net, they throw it wide. Organized crime experts are not in full agreement about how much damage has been done to the mafia in this country, but one thing is for sure, the members are - the numbers, rather, are impressive.
Take a look at this. In one day, Thursday, the FBI acted on indictments naming 127 people in three states. They came from seven recognizable crime family names with charges ranging from murder to gambling and racketeering.
Susan Candiotti is in New York. Let's go to her for the very latest on how this happened. Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. Well, first, you want some family reaction to the feds' bust? Michael Franzese belonged to the Colombo crime family. He made tens of millions of dollars on a gas tax scheme. He did seven years in prison and quit the mob. His dad is still behind bars and his brother is in witness protection. Franzese knows the life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Did you go to someone and order hits on someone in the past?
MICHAEL FRANZESE, FMR. MEMBER OF ORGANIZED CRIME FAMILY: No, I did not order hits. But listen, you know, you're part of the life and violence is part of that life. Unfortunately, it's all around you. So, you know, have I seen it? Yes.
CANDIOTTI: Did anyone die because of something you said or ordered or asked?
FRANZESE: No. You know, honestly, and this is not to try to make me look good, but it's - you know, there are guys in that life that they feed off of that. And I wasn't one of those guys. It was not something that was - it was distasteful to me. Honestly when I got into the life and Andrew, as a matter of fact, Andrew Russo, the guy that's indicted on this case, he said, "Mike, you're an earner. We've got plenty of guys to do the street work." He said, "you go and earn money for us, that's what we want out of you." That's what I did and I kind of stayed in that direction.
CANDIOTTI: What don't you miss about the life?
FRANZESE: Look, when you become a target of law enforcement like I was, you are looking over your shoulder all the time from both sides.
CANDIOTTI: So the people who are charged now, these are allegations, are these people in your view who got sloppy?
FRANZESE: Well, you know, it could be. I mean, it's easy to get sloppy because everything is all around you. Like I said, you don't know where it's coming from next. You don't know who to trust. They could be talking to somebody they know for 10 years not knowing that he's made a deal with the feds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And the only way to beat the life, Franzese says, "is to get out of the life." Victims have little sympathy for accused mobsters charged this week. Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa was shot in an alleged hit back in the '90s. He testified at a trial. Sliwa praises racketeering laws that make it easier to take down organized crime.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURTIS SLIWA, ANTI-CRIME ACTIVIST: The Rico statutes have been so effective and actually modern technology. Getting some of these life-long criminals to wire themselves up like Christmas trees and go in and tape meetings. You would think they would have TSA agents doing invasive body checks like they do to us in the airport.
These knuckleheads, they don't even search their own guys. We learn of 130, 140 tapes live on Memorex that sinks many of their boats. So really it's for those two reasons that many of them are going off in perpetuity and why so many of them are deciding to (INAUDIBLE) join Team America and do the unthinkable, rat out their fellow cohorts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Well, the latest sweep covers a range of charges and crime families. La Cosa Nostra (ph) isn't going away, the Justice Department claims it is just getting better at going after the mob-- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right. We'll see what charges stick and what trials actually take place. Susan, thanks so much in New York.
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier is speaking publicly. It's the first time since his unexpected return to Haiti that the former dictator addressed the media. But he didn't say much about his plans. So what does his return mean for the impoverished nation?
Earlier, I spoke with Susan Purcell, she is director of Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN PURCELL, DIRECTOR, HEMISPHERIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: There is another theory that he came back in order to be able to gain access to $4.6 million that he has in a Swiss bank. A new law is coming into effect that if he can prove he's not going to be charged, he can get access to that money. The deadline is February 1st, so that's one thing.
The second is he's just thrown a monkey wrench, of sorts, into the efforts to resolve a kind of standoff that came about from the first round of elections at the end of November. And the Organization of American States is trying to sort out who's in the runoff, which two of the top three candidates. And suddenly he appears.
WHITFIELD: Do you see his presence as interrupting, intimidating, interfering with that process?
PURCELL: It clearly interferes because although it seems strange to many of us, because he was a dictator, who was quite abusive, there were people who didn't live under him, Haitians, who are now looking for order and an end to a certain amount of instability and chaos, and he represents that to these people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Susan Purcell of the University of Miami.
So before his return, Duvalier had been in self-imposed exile for 25 years in France.
No let-up from winter. Snow and bone-chilling cold in the forecast for many parts of the country. Bonnie Schneider with this hot forecast, about a very cold state.
(WEATHER FORECAST)
WHITFIELD: What Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords faces next; a brain injury expert joins us to explain her possible treatments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is in Houston at a rehabilitation center where she's receiving a lot of care there after arriving from Tucson yesterday. This taking place two weeks after that gunshot wound to the head.
Well, to get a better understanding as to what she will be enduring over the next few months perhaps, during this recovery period and rehabilitation, I'm joined by brain injury expert Doctor Donald Leslie. He is the medical director at the Shepherd Center, which is one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the country.
Doctor Leslie, you actually talked about one of the doctors treating Gabrielle Giffords today. What was said?
DR. DONALD LESLIE, MEDICAL DIR., SHEPHERD CENTER: I called Doctor Gerard Francisco, a good friend of mine in, Houston. And they're very, very busy. They're very busy. Things are doing well there. I'm sure they'll take great care of her.
WHITFIELD: Some of the doctors have already said they're quite impressed by her situation and her recovery thus far. What are they looking for? What are the signs where they say, you know what, she is making a good recovery already just two weeks out?
LESLIE: She's following commands. In rehabilitation that's so important that they ask her to do something, she understands it, and she does it. I understand that they asked her to pick her leg up, the leg that has been more effected. The neurosurgeon in Tucson said she had good tone in that leg meaning that the muscles are working well.
WHITFIELD: So you have a scale for us, a model of the brain. We have since learned based on the information that we've received that that gunshot wound was on the left hemisphere of her brain. So when that is to take place, what areas of the brain, in terms of how this side of the brain operates the rest of your body, what is potentially impaired by that kind of injury? And what is -- what are the measurements in her rehabilitation? What will they be looking for that's controlled from that side of the brain?
LESLIE: Many brain injuries, particularly those with entrance wounds as hers was from the front, I understand, in the front lobe, which is the temporal lobe, the largest lobe of the brain and then behind that the parietal lobe and, then, underneath that, temporal lobe, here.
But the frontal lobe is very important in that this is where our memory is seated, a lot of our receptive capabilities. As far as her speech is concerned, the speech area is back here, farther back in the brain. So not knowing exactly the track that the bullet took, depending on where the bullet went and what swelling it causes, the brain is encapsulated in bone, of course. As it swells, that skull causes an increased pressure.
WHITFIELD: So you mentioned memory then. Are you at least encouraged based on what we've heard from her husband, she recognizes him. That says something about her memory. That her family traveled with her; that there's been the squeezing of the hand. Does that tell you that that portion of her brain seems to be intact? Is there a way of measuring memory? LESLIE: There certainly is. There's a good way to measure memory. Unfortunately, memory is not just on or off. There are basically two types of memories -- memory that we train. That's short-term memory and long-term memory. Her husband's name, who she is, that's all long-term stuff. Unfortunately, with acute brain injury, oftentimes the brain-injured person cannot do the short term. Did you have breakfast yet, you don't remember. So there will be a lot of testing done as to what her memory is, what her memory capabilities are later.
WHITFIELD: And we know that there is this sort of lid. Part of her skull has been removed, you've mentioned, for the swelling, any potential swelling. How long would that stay off or would that be detached?
LESLIE: No. Oftentimes the neurosurgeons will take the bone off and put it in the freezer and actually freeze it sterilely or we also can implant it in the body of the patient surgically. I'm not sure which they did with the congresswoman. But it will, at some point in time, when all the swelling is down and when she's very stable medically, they will elect to do a cranioplasty which is putting that piece of bone back where it was.
WHITFIELD: Does it sound encouraging to you or what judgment do you make when you hear Elizabeth Cohen, who's there in Houston, says there's some fluid, the drainage of the fluid is then channeled to the abdomen, the stomach.
LESLIE: Correct.
WHITFIELD: What does that tell you about the recovery or how her body is responding to all of this?
LESLIE: What they have done, if I take of the cerebral hemispheres, and you see these sac-like organs here, these are the ventricles. Those hold the cerebrospinal fluid, the CSF, that bathes the brain and bathes the spinal cord.
WHITFIELD: That is good that the body, that the brain is creating this fluid.
LESLIE: It is. And what we don't want is there to be an excess of that. So that takes it off out of the brain to allow the brain to go back into normal size and channeled down into the body cavity.
WHITFIELD: Wow, it is fantastic. Of course we wish her the best. It's good to hear that you are encouraged too, and you are having dialogue with the doctors there. This is something that is slow going. We're talking months, maybe even more, a year?
LESLIE: Absolutely. Well, hopefully, I've seen brain-injured individuals improve over years, but typically the acute rehabilitation phase is a number of months hopefully.
WHITFIELD: All right. Doctor Donald Leslie, thanks so much. The medical director for the Shepherd Center right here, thankfully, in our backyard. Glad to have you here.
LESLIE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.
All right, meantime the votes have been counted in a presidential straw poll in New Hampshire. We'll tell you which candidate pulled in a lion's share of the vote.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: New Hampshire is first in the nation presidential primary still more than a year away, but the results of a GOP presidential straw poll are already in.
CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby has been following the action in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Tell us what you're learning.
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Well, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won a straw poll that was put on today by the New Hampshire Republican Party. He surveyed a field of 20 different candidates. Mitt Romney came in with 35 percent of the vote. The rest of the vote was completely fractured between everyone from Sarah Palin to Jim DeMint to Herman Cane (ph), the talk show host, and Michele Bachmann, a bunch of dark horse candidates.
Like you said, the primary is a year away. I wouldn't read too much into the straw poll but it does give you an early sense of where these really hard-core party activists are looking. What kind of candidates they want. You know, as the candidates start to come to New Hampshire, in advance of that primary, the first in the nation primary next February as it's scheduled.
WHITFIELD: So it looks like a lot of the same familiar faces. It doesn't appear as though this is going to be potentially a Republican run with some unfamiliar, or even newcomers.
HAMBY: Well, yes, you look at the field at the top, the familiar names of Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty has been making noise about running for president for several years now, Sarah Palin, they did well in the straw poll. But some of the folks that you see do well nationally among polls, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, those familiar names to a lot of Americans, they haven't really visited -- Mike Huckabee never really campaigned in New Hampshire, last time, very hard and Newt Gingrich hasn't been up here too much.
So really Mitt Romney did very well here because he has property in New Hampshire, he used to be governor of an adjacent state. He's basically been campaigning in New Hampshire for about four years, so the people here really know him. And Ron Paul tends to do well in these sort of straw polls, especially in New Hampshire, where you have a sort of libertarian streak. And today's New Hampshire GOP meeting was dominated in large part by Tea Party activists and libertarians, so it also wasn't surprising to see him come in second. WHITFIELD: Tell me also about this GOP party chair. There was a vote on that. Who took the lead?
HAMBY: Well, yes, so they had a chairman's race. They were electing a new leader of the State Republican Party here in New Hampshire. It was really kind of a Petri dish of the fight in the Republican between sort of establishment figures and the Tea Party. The Tea Party-backed candidate, businessman Jim Kimball, narrowly won that election. He got a big reception from his supporters in the crowd. You know, the establishment had really pushed for the other candidate. So the Tea Party is going to be in charge of the New Hampshire GOP heading into the 2012 election cycle.
WHITFIELD: All right, Peter Hamby, CNN political producer, thanks so much for your time. Good to see you.
HAMBY: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: For their part, House Democrats gathered for their annual retreat yesterday and emerged vowing to retake the House in 2012. They're calling the effort "Drive for 25." That's the number of seats they'll have to take from Republicans in order to regain control of the House of Representatives.
All right, the U.S. government turning off the lights, your lights. Not all of them, just certain kinds. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. The traditional incandescent light bulb, well, it is going the way of the rotary telephone and beta max. The U.S. government is switching off the incandescent light bulb a little at a time. It is supposed to make us greener, but not everyone is on board.
Watch this report by CNN's Kate Bolduan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This month furniture giant IKEA pulled traditional incandescent light bulbs from its shelves.
CHARLIE DIMARIA, IKEA SALES MANAGER: It just goes along with our future in terms of how we want to be a sustainable company and how we want to provide a better life for our customers.
BOLDUAN: IKEA says it's the first of what will be thousands of companies that will no longer sell the incandescent bulb by 2014. In 2007 Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which essentially forces a phasing-out of traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of more energy efficient alternatives like compact florescent, halogen and LED light bulbs. But lights off for the inefficient bulbs may come with some unintended consequences. Higher prices for consumers and some say the loss of jobs in the U.S. Republican Congresswoman Joe Barton says the law leaves consumers with too few options.
REP. JOE BARTON (R), TEXAS: Al Gore doesn't need to worry about how much his light bulbs cost, but the average American family, especially fixed-income families, low-income families, that does make a difference.
BOLDUAN: Barton has introduced a measure to strip the new light bulb inefficiency standard from the law.
HENRY JEANES, HARDWARE STORE ASSIST. MANAGER: This is going to be the first light bulb which is going to be phased out.
BOLDUAN: Meanwhile, hardware stores and manufacturers across the country are already preparing for the end of the Thomas Edison light bulb and what that means for business.
JEANES: It might be a little more upfront investment, but the amount of electricity that you're going to be saving more than pays for the light bulb.
BOLDUAN (on camera): And how long it lasts?
JEANES: And how long it lasts.
BOLDUAN (voice over): According to an industry group, sales of incandescents have dropped by 50 percent in the last five years in the U.S. However, the leading alternatives, CFLs are almost entirely produced overseas, mostly in Asia. And the move away from the old- fashioned bulb isn't sitting well with some.
JEANES: Sometimes it is met by a little anger.
BOLDUAN (on camera): Reluctance from the customer?
JEANES: Reluctance. Sometimes they call it light bulb socialism.
BOLDUAN: Liz Maleski is one of those CFL foes. She's gone so far as to stockpile incandescent, knowing they won't be around for long.
LIZ MALESKI, WASHINGTON, D.C. RESIDENT: There's somebody trying to do something about a problem that, yes, we have, but switching light bulbs isn't going to fix it. I think we could have other better political methods than making us all use horrible light bulbs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Now, compact fluorescents do contain a small amount of mercury so some states and localities are actually requiring that they be recycled rather than thrown away because of the hazardous material. That's one complaint by some people.
Now some big stores like Lowe's and Home Depot and IKEA, Fredricka, are offering in-store recycling and many counties and cities are joining the effort as well. Obviously, the people see the cities and counties are seeing we're all moving that direction anyway so they need to get involved in the effort.
WHITFIELD: They're starting to see the light, so to speak.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLDUAN: Very good.
WHITFIELD: Kate Bolduan, thanks so much, in Washington. Appreciate it.
BOLDUAN: All right.
WHITFIELD: Why a little Utah town is playing host to big Hollywood talent. We'll take a look at what's playing at the Sundance Film Festival.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Diversity is the star of the Sundance Film Festival this week. The casts and crew of more than 200 films are swarming across Park City, Utah, as their films are being premiered. Our Brooke Anderson gives us the rundown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE ANDERSON, HOST, HLN'S "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" (on camera): From a documentary about the black power movement of the '60s and '70s, called the "Black Power Mixed Tape" to a feature film titled "Vampire," the Sundance Film Festival lineup this year is extremely diverse.
This event is considered the premier showcase for independent movie making and each and every year, Hollywood's biggest stars come here for this celebration of film. Take a look.
JENNIFER ANISTON, ACTRESS: Hi, how are you.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Jennifer Aniston's done Sundance.
ANISTON: It's exciting. It's an honor.
ANDERSON: Robert Downey Jr. too.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR., ACTOR: It's super important. You know, believe me.
ANDERSON: James Franco came last year, and he's coming back again.
JAMES FRANCO, ACTOR: It's just an honor.
ANDERSON: Some major stars will be joining him in snowy Park City, Utah. Pierce Brosnan returns to the festival playing a charismatic preacher in "Salvation Boulevard."
(VIDEO CLIP, "SALVATION BOULEVARD")
ANDERSON: Ed Helms premiers his new comedy "Cedar Rapids" with John C. Reilly.
(VIDEO CLIP, "CEDAR RAPIDS")
ANDERSON: Demi Moore has got two films in the festival; so does Elizabeth Banks.
(VIDEO CLIP, "THE DETAILS")
ANDERSON: In "The Details," she stars opposite Toby McGuire and Laura Linney.
(VIDEO CLIP, "THE DETAILS")
ANDERSON: The cast hopes someone bites on their film. It's up for sale at Sundance, along with dozens of other movies.
And Oprah Winfrey could be one of the buyers. She's looking for product for her new own network.
(VIDEO CLIP, "BECOMING CHAZZ")
ANDERSON: Oprah already snapped up the documentary "Becoming Chazz" before it premiers at Sundance. The movie follows Chazz Bono, who's mom is Cher, as he transitions from female to male.
And there are hints Oprah may fly to Sundance to check out another documentary --
(VIDEO CLIP, "SING YOUR SONG")
ANDERSON: -- about singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.
Celebrities do flock to Sundance, but when all is said and done, the festival's really about finding and nurturing unknown films and undiscovered talent.
(VIDEO CLIP, "YOU CAN COUNT ON ME")
ANDERSON: Talent like Mark Ruffalo. He got his big break in the Sundance movie "You Can Count On Me" in 2000.
MARK RUFFALO, ACTOR: My career started at Sundance. It's just a huge support for us and we would be lost without it. It would be really sad if we didn't have Sundance.
ANDERSON: Not to worry, Mark. It looks like Sundance will be around for a while.
(on camera): More than 200 films will be screened and premiere here over the course of Robert Redford's ten-day festival. Now, there's a lot of optimism here surrounding the films and their chances of locking in distributors, so you can soon see them for yourself at your local theater or on TV.
Brooke Anderson, CNN, Park City, Utah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, Park City, that's the place to be right now.
CNN NEWSROOM continues up next -- except for the NEWSROOM, that's the place to be with our Martin Savidge, he's coming up.
After being silent for years, a California woman gets a new voice. Martin Savidge gets into the details of that story straight ahead.
