Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Bloody Uprising in Libya; Judge Guilty in "Kids For Cash" Scheme; Gossiping with Gawker; Robots on the Battlefield
Aired February 19, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Message.
SANDY FONZO, SON SENT AWAY BY JUDGE CIAVARELLA: My kid's not here. He's dead, because of him. He ruined my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) life. I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: An angry mom lashes out at the judge she says is responsible for her son's death. She's live on this show and she'll explain why.
Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children are back in the news, but this latest case has an interesting twist that we'll tell you about.
Just about every 50 soldiers in Afghanistan are robots. That's right. I said robots. We have one right here in the studio. And I'll give you a live demo.
And our exclusive interview with the family of Zsa Zsa Gabor. At 94 years old, she recently had her leg amputated and now she's a center of a bitter fight within her own family.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
There's a lot of news to get you caught up on. So, let's go right to it.
(MUSIC)
LEMON: And we begin this broadcast in Wisconsin where massive protests over the state budget bill are now in a fifth day. The bill would strip public workers of collective bargaining and force them to pay more benefits.
Republican Governors Scott Walker says the state needs to pay its bills and ultimately this will save jobs. Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate fled the state to stall a vote on that bill.
Wisconsin is not alone. Budget problems loom in Washington as well. Early today after a marathon session, the Republican-controlled House approved a budget for what's left of the fiscal year. It includes $60 billion in cuts. The measure now heads to the Senate where it's sure to meet heavy opposition from Senate Democrats who called the cuts extreme.
An army soldier wanted in the rape of an underage girl has been captured at a motel in Daytona Beach. Twenty-year-old Private Daniel Brazelton has been on the run since his escape from military custody in Georgia a week ago. He faces extradition to Los Angeles for sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.
Somali pirates have hijacked this yacht with four Americans on board. That's according to U.S. military officials. It happened yesterday on the Indian Ocean as their vessel was headed to Oman. It's not clear who the abducted Americans are. But the yacht, the S/V Quest, is registered to Jean and Scott Adam, a California couple who have spent the last seven years traveling the world.
In Bahrain, fear turned to joy today as protesters surged into the square where they battled security forces earlier this week. The crown prince ordered the military to leave the Pearl Roundabout to the protesters. He said they could remain there without fear and that the government is open to dialogue.
A much different story to report in Libya where the military is putting down new protests in Benghazi with brutal tactics. Witnesses report bloody clashes between demonstrators and the military. A doctor treating the injured in one hospital said at least 30 people died, most from gunshot wounds to the head.
Of course, Libya tightly controls the media. So, confrontation is difficult and the government hasn't responded to our request for access. But people in Benghazi have reached out to CNN to tell us their stories.
You can hear the terror in this woman's voice as gunshots rang out while I spoke to her earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): I am very afraid, you know? Maybe they will -- they will, the force, the special force will take me from my house. You know, they listen to everything. And I want to say in Tripoli -- oh, my God, you listen.
LEMON: Yes. Was that gunshots?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh! Oh, my God. They are in (INAUDIBLE). They saw everything.
LEMON: What just happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One car came to near the camp. They shot. They shot with a gun through the car. It's a runaway now. I'm afraid of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: More on that story in this broadcast.
And lots of kids get in trouble with the law. Usually if it's a minor offense, there is an expectation of leniency. But a judge in Pennsylvania saw dollar signs in their misfortune.
Now, a jury has found former judge, Mark Ciavarella, guilty of racketeering for accepting money to send kids away to a juvenile facility to ensure it had a high occupancy.
Shannon Murphy of our affiliate WBRE in Scranton has the emotional reaction as Ciavarella exited the court.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a cash-for-kids case and we hope somebody starts getting the message.
FONZO: My kid's not here anymore. My kid's not here. He's dead because of him. He ruined my (EPXLETIVE DELETED) life. I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, come on.
FONZO: You know what he told everybody in court? They need to be held accountable for their actions. You need to me.
You remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son? An all-star wrestler? He's gone! He shot himself in the heart. You scumbag!
SHANNON MURPHY, WBRE REPORTER (voice-over): That mother lashed out at the Ciavarella this afternoon after the verdict was read. She says her son committed suicide after being sent away by Ciavarella for a minor crime. But that's just one of the hundreds of stories surrounding the kids-for-cash scandal.
Eyewitness News also caught up with Kevin Williamson. Kevin was sentenced to 90 days at a juvenile detention center back in 2008 for a minor offense.
KEVIN WILLIAMSON: I was honestly expecting like something simple probation of some type of fine. The last thing I expected was to get sent away.
MURPHY: Kevin and his mom say they're happy with the verdict, but not the fact that the Ciavarella walked out of federal court a free man.
WILLIAMSON: I wasn't impressed because he walked out of there. I would have rather see him go away straight from away, considering that's I had to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought the judge should have had a little more compassion and thought about the kids and what they went through, that they never had a chance. They got taken right out of the chair, into handcuffs and shackles right out the side door and never had a good-bye.
MURPHY: Kevin, now 20, says he will be there for sentencing. He just hopes the punishment fits the crime.
WILLIAMSON: That's what I'm afraid of. He's going to get like some type of simple punishment, slap on the wrist-type deal. Like I think he should be treated like everyone else should. No special -- there's like nothing special about him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: This story deserves getting to the bottom to. The mom you just saw in that story joins me right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Message.
FONZO: My kid's not here anymore. My kid's not here. He's dead because of him. He ruined my (EPXLETIVE DELETED) life. I'd like him to go to hell and rot there forever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, come on.
FONZO: You know what he told everybody in court? They need to be held accountable for their actions. You need to me.
You remember me? Do you remember me? Do you remember my son? An all-star wrestler? He's gone! He shot himself in the heart. You scumbag!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A heartbroken mother lashing out at former judge, Mark Ciavarella. Her son, an all-star wrestler, killed himself after being sent to a juvenile detention facility for a minor drug offense, and action that lined Ciavarella's own pocket.
Sandy Fonzo, the mother you just saw. She joins me now live. That's her son right there.
Sandy, tell us how you're doing, first of all.
FONZO: I don't know. I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other every day. I'm just trying to keep myself together. And -- I don't know.
LEMON: You don't know.
FONZO: I don't know. I have -- my son was my life. And that's all I had. And now, it's gone. So, I don't have that same life. I don't -- you know, I exist right now.
LEMON: How did your son first come in contact with Ciavarella's court?
FONZO: He was 17 and he was going into his senior year of high school. Like I said, he was an all-star wrestler. He was expected that year to take state. He would have been the first one in his high school to have that title. And he would have received a scholarship to anywhere in the country.
And right before school started, he just started hanging with a different crowd. And he was staying out later. You know, he was pushing the limits. And it just went on for a while.
Ed lived just with me. I wasn't with his father. And he just -- I don't know, things were just getting a little bit out of control.
And when I spoke to his father, he had friends that we actually went to school with in the Wilkes-Barre Police Department. And we knew Ed was at an underage drinking party. So, we sent them in just to get him out of there. We wanted to put a scare into him and just get him back on track. And, you know, he had just too much to lose to go down that path.
LEMON: So, he was like many teenagers. Most teenagers want to experiment, they try things, they go through the bad years.
FONZO: Right.
LEMON: So, he was just dealing with that. So, you feel what this judge, Ciavarella, did was way too harsh for the offense that you think your son actually did.
FONZO: Right.
LEMON: The drug -- the paraphernalia thing.
FONZO: My son went away for six months for that. He sent him to -- well, first he sat in that juvenile detention center for 30 days and then came in front of Judge Ciavarella. And at that time, I had letters and coaches -- of teachers and coaches, a letter, myself, my son cried. He said, OK, I just want to go back to my life. I want to wrestle. I want to get back to my life.
And he -- no, he wanted to send him -- he told him he had a drug and alcohol problem. So, he needed more help. Sent him to a boot camp which he was in with all inner city kids, murderers, gang members, arsonists --
LEMON: And you believe that your son just never -- just never really got over this and sort of internalized it and then he killed himself?
FONZO: No, no, no.
LEMON: So, listen, that --
FONZO: No, no, no. He was six months --
LEMON: -- that outrage that we're seeing in front of the courthouse, that outrage, that was what, months, years of build-up that you had inside of you?
FONZO: Yes. Yes, because this snowballed. That time when he went in front of him, it never ended. It snowballed.
He ripped my son's spirit. He killed his spirit. He just -- he crushed him. He just -- he didn't help him.
He just -- he knew he was wronged. He was so full of resentment and pent-up anger, and he was just -- he was never the same. And it snowballed. It wept from one thing to the next.
And the only reason I went there yesterday, I was at work. I couldn't go to that trial because I knew I couldn't contain my emotion when I saw that judge. And the only reason I was there is because I heard he was going to be taken by the court marshals and cuffed and taken away right to jail. And that's what I went there to see.
And when I got there and learned that that was not the story, that he was going home with his daughter and I said, none of these kids -- and they still wouldn't say -- they were trying to say there was still no cash for kids. You know, no remorse. Never did he ever say he was sorry. He still says --
LEMON: Sandy, can I -- can I interrupt just for a second and ask? I mean, at this point, you said your son was your life and you don't know how things are right now. Can you ever forgive this judge?
FONZO: No, never. Never. There is no justice. He'll never receive my sentence. What I have to live with every day of my life without my son.
He left on that beautiful day yesterday to go back with his family. I have nothing anymore. And he still has no -- nothing -- it was all for nothing. It was all for greed and for more and more.
He never had enough. And he took everything from me. And I'll never, never forgive him. No.
LEMON: Sandy Fonzo, our hearts are with you. And I think the whole country -- anyone who's watching this would feel the same way. And we understand your rage in front of that courthouse. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you, OK?
FONZO: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you.
OK. So, listen, when we come back, some breaking news. It's an exclusive in Libya. We haven't heard many voices coming out of there. We heard about the brutal crackdown, one man risking his life to speak to us live after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breaking news here on CNN. We've been telling you about what's happening in Libya -- the brutal crackdown against pro-democracy activists in Libya isn't pausing for nightfall, another sign that leader Moammar Gadhafi has no intention of stepping aside.
And we're joined from one protester from inside Libya with the latest on what is happening at this hour. We're not going to reveal his name or his location because we want to protect him.
So, sir, listen, thank you so much for joining us. What are you seeing there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am seeing right now, out in front of the court, there are so many people. I have a live feed -- do you want me to show you the live feed I have already?
LEMON: I would rather -- if you can show it without breaking the interruption with the camera -- via our connection, then absolutely you can show it to us. But I want you -- I am hearing -- I spoke to a woman there earlier. And she said that there were military officers, and military people in the trees and they were shooting at protesters, just gunning them down one by one.
Is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And the last thing that I have heard from a friend of mine who has died today is that there were -- (INAUDIBLE) cars packed, and there were people in them and they were running on the streets killing protesters. Believe me, that's true.
Listen, we're not making up any news. I wish there was a CNN reporter to see this --
LEMON: We were on the phone with her and she said a car randomly drove by and started firing at people who were on the streets?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's 100 percent correct, yes.
LEMON: So, that is happening? Is this happening outside of your window now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That already happened. Outside of my window, everybody is trying to (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: So, listen, we're not there because the government is not allowing journalists in. And they are also trying to break the connection from calling. And you know that. And it's for your safety that we don't reveal any information about you. So please don't do that on the air.
But you believe that your life is in jeopardy just by making this call and talking to us now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. I do. They've already shut down two of my SIM cards, my personal SIM cards. This is not mine. This is just a random SIM card I was given to be able to speak to you. LEMON: How many people would you estimate -- and there are reports, different reports of the number of people injured. We're hearing in some spots there were 150 injured, there were 70 injured and on and on and on. And again, because the government won't allow reporters in, it's hard to verify.
In your estimation, can you give us -- and this is just you saying this -- injuries that you've seen or heard about or deaths?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last -- the last update I was given, that today, a doctor was -- he with us earlier and he was trying to speak -- he was trying to speak -- he was trying to speak to Al Jazeera. And when he came, he came from al-Jalaa E.R. Hospital to tell us over 200 people died today, and that was maybe at 10:00. And now, it's 2:20. So, I can't estimate how many.
That's only today, sir -- only today. And tomorrow -- as I was telling the other woman, there's going to be a live feed from (INAUDIBLE). We will show you people getting buried.
LEMON: What's going on? I believe -- what's going on? Is everything OK? Is everything OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. People are trying -- tomorrow we will send you videos because today the connection is not that good.
LEMON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But tomorrow, we will send you the videos.
LEMON: Yes. Well, listen --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will show you actually tomorrow, the video --
LEMON: All right. We're going to talk to you tomorrow. But, listen, I want to thank you for getting in touch with us, and, again, risking your life. And I want to say the numbers, the information that you reported again at the hospitals and about what you're seeing -- sadly, we cannot confirm that because the government is not letting journalists into the government.
But, again, thank you so much and be in touch and be safe, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure I will be there tomorrow because I'm not sure if I'm going to survive tonight. But there's going to be another group tomorrow with you hopefully --
LEMON: Hang on. Do you think the situation is that bad that you believe that people won't survive overnight? Is it that bad?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm telling you, my friend has died already and also 100 people died. I don't know what's going to be worse to you.
LEMON: OK. We'll leave it at that. Thank you.
We're going to continue to follow this story happening in Libya. And again, government not letting journalists into the country. So, it's tough to confirm that and to get accurate information. But we'll stay on top of it for you.
OK. Coming up next here on CNN, another exclusive interview. This one with members of Zsa Zsa Gabor's family. Our Alan Duke has insight of her family's bitter feud, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZSA ZSA GABOR, ACTRESS: One lifetime is not enough. I wrote a book with that title. I'm starting in a movie in May. I'm doing "David Letterman" the 11th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That accent, the hair, the looks, none other than Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of Hollywood's original blonde bombshells. The Hungarian beauty was so glamorous she actually won the Golden Globe for the most glamorous actress in 1957.
But today, as she just celebrated her 94th birthday, the former actress is battling a family fight that pits her ninth husband against her only child.
CNN producer Alan Duke is here to tell us all about that. He spoke with Francesca Hilton and Prince Frederic Von Anhalt exclusively.
So, Alan, why the infighting?
ALAN DUKE, CNN PRODUCER: Well, first of all, those pictures you saw on her 94th birthday, she didn't look very good. Francesca is furious that Fred Prince Frederic would release those to us and other media because she didn't have any makeup and her mother would never want to be seen that way. This is a very bitter fight.
Many American families go through this where an older parent and a stepdad and the children are in a fight. And what we've done is I talked with Francesca Hilton, the only daughter, and also I talked with Prince Frederic, the ninth husband, the seventh stepdad of Francesca, if you're counting. Very emotional -- Fran is very sad because she's not able to see her mom except on very few occasions.
LEMON: And what about her -- what about her husband? How is he dealing with it? He's sort of a gregarious guy. You see him, you know, sort on the Hollywood entertainment shows a lot, out and about in California, in Los Angeles. How is he dealing with this?
DUKE: Well, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt is a gregarious person and he likes to talk to reporters. He actually invited us into his home not too long ago to talk to us about his problems with his stepdaughter. He's at the hospital a lot because at 94, she had a leg amputation just a few weeks ago, Zsa Zsa did. And she had a hip replacement last summer. So, he's there with her. But Francesca Hilton, the daughter, is questioning just how good of a care is her mom getting. And, again, her big complaint is, she never gets to see her mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
FRANCESCA HILTON, ZSA ZSA GABOR'S DAUGHTER: That main thing, Alan, that really bothers me is that I can't see my mother, OK? And he's basically taken my mother away from me.
FREDERIC VON ANHALT, ZSA ZSA GABOR'S HUSBAND: It's high time for her daughter to get her own life together, take care of her husband and her children. And if she doesn't have a husband and if she doesn't have children, it's not our problem. It's her problem.
HILTON: It has nothing to do with him, of course not. I don't -- that's my life, you know? I have been married, you know? It didn't work out. But what has that to do with my relationship with my mother?
VON ANHALT: A year ago --
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
DUKE: This is just a taste of a very odd, nasty relationship between a stepfather and a stepdaughter. Not much time to get further into it, but it is something you're going to read about in the tabloids and hear about for quite sometime.
LEMON: And, Alan, we'll be watching, too, to see if her health improves and find out the situation going on within the family as well. Thank you, Alan Duke.
DUKE: Sure.
(MUSIC)
LEMON: Time right now for your viral videos. And sometimes, viral videos are so good, so impressive that we bring them back from the vault for a whole other round because you have This was from an air show in Seattle just a few years back. Talk about precision landing. Look at that.
Watch as this plane touches down perfectly on the moving motor home. The pilot cannot actually see his target. He can only make an experience guess about where the motor home is. That guy can fly my plane every time.
Now, check this out, you're riding down the road and you come up on a motorcycle that you didn't expect. Somehow this man seems totally at ease sitting sideways on a speeding bike, not even holding on to the handlebars. How did he do it? We have no idea. We just hope he doesn't hit a bump there. And we're saving the best for last. One more viral video that you must see when we come right back.
Hang on, buddy. Look ma, no hands. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Look at that. A punk street performer in San Francisco doing her thing, just another day in the big city of the girl who goes by the name Renee de la Prad. (INAUDIBLE) she's playing on the accordion. But look who stopped to admire her musical prowess. A couple of nuns who were strolling along (INAUDIBLE) alley near Vesuvius Cafe. They thought she was great. And we agree.
OK. About to talk to one of my favorite people ever. An outburst on live TV. The case of a fake Twitter with an affection for the F word and a potential presidential candidate with a serious Google problem. Stories you'll find on one of our favorite web sites around here, gawker.com.
And joining us live is one of Gawker staff writers Maureen O'Connor. And as I say one of my favorite people. OK. So before we get into anything, Maureen, we haven't gotten a chance to talk to you since you broke the scandal on the now former New York Congressman Christopher Lee. Any new follow-up on that one?
MAUREEN O'CONNOR, STAFF WRITER, GAWKER.COM: You know, I think everybody's been hunting because the assumption is for the man to resign so quickly after such a relatively PG-13 scandal, everybody keeps thinking there's got to be something else -
LEMON: There's more.
O'CONNOR: Some other skeletons in his closet. So we'll see. We're still working on it. So we'll see what happens.
LEMON: You haven't found anything?
O'CONNOR: Not yet. You'll be the first to know, Don, if we do.
LEMON: So a lot of folks watch "Real Time with Bill Mauer" on HBO. And there was this moment last night. I don't know if you saw it, Maureen. Let's play it and then we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has to come with this or it's never going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't you see what missiles do to modern women? Just last week, you continued to (INAUDIBLE) -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dad, shut up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has that ever happened?
BILL MAUER, HOST: Oh, yes. I once had to go into that crowd and throw a guy out myself. And I think I might have to do it again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So what was that all about, Maureen? What was that guy so mad about?
O'CONNOR: So Bill Mauer was having a discussion with Tavis Smiley about the status of women in Muslim nations. And in the midst of this, Bill Mauer is saying for democracy to work in the Middle East and in the Arab nation, they need to work on gender equality. In the middle of this, some guy sort of starts screaming about how hell fire missiles are damaging to the women in Muslim worlds and sort of about the American military in general, sort of not exactly a political argument, just somebody kind of going crazy and heckling.
And of course gets pulled away. What we saw there, Bill Mauer, he mentioned it's happened before on his show. A few years ago, a group of 9/11 truthers got into his live studio audience and started freaking out and yelling all these messages about how the U.S. government took down the World Trade Center. So that's live TV, I guess.
LEMON: OK. Let's talk about this Rick Santorum, Republican senator. He has a real issue with Google. Can you explain to us. It's kind of an oldie but a goody. But there's something new is happening.
O'CONNOR: Yes. Well, for the first time, Rick Santorum addressed the fact that he's got a major Google problem. He has now thrown his hat in the ring and he wants to be a presidential nominee with the Republican Party for 2012 and he finally acknowledged that one of the biggest thing that everybody laughs about is that his name has become a sexual neologism. It dates back to 2003 when Santorum made a reference to gay sex and compared it to pedophilia and bestiality.
After that, gay sex columnist Dan Savage started a campaign to rename the word santorum and to make it refer to the filthiest sexual neologism possible. They had a contest and now when you Google the word santorum, the first two hits you get are about that sexual neologism, not Rick Santorum. So he finally acknowledge it. He said it was a about vulgarity. This man has some serious issues if he's going to attack him. And the question is whether you can get actually get over something like that.
You know, it's one thing to try to bury a negative article about you. But it's something different to try to bury your name when you're getting Googled.
LEMON: Yes.
O'CONNOR: It's interesting. It's interesting because the way he's positioning it now, we've seen how, for instance, Sarah Palin, what she'll do is she'll say her critics are unfairly attacking her and that they're being unfair in the way that they malign her. He's taking a bit of a similar tactic saying this is a vulgarity attack. This is an unfair attack from a really vengeant part of the media. So that is sort of an interesting take on it -
LEMON: But we'll have to see how it plays out. Because it's hard to get stuff off of Google. And people pay lots of money to have it rise to the top. So Google, I don't know will be open to it. Thank you so much, Maureen. We appreciate it. Gawker.com, whenever we need an interesting read, that's where we go around here. We appreciate it.
O'CONNOR: Thank you.
LEMON: You know, there's more to good taste behind the popular ethnic food like ox tail, short ribs and Jamaican jerk chicken. There's also a rich history, you'll hear about it after the break.
But first, almost a year ago, almost every teacher at Rhode Island Central Falls High School was fired. It was a radical move to reform one of the worst schools in the state of just seven percent of juniors were proficient in math in 2009 and not even half the students were graduating. CNN education contributor Steve Perry has an update in today's "Perry's Principles."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Before the start of the school year, all 88 teachers at Central Falls High School got their jobs back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people misperceived that all of the teachers were poor performing. And that's actually not the case. We needed the teachers to commit to the reform plan.
PERRY: And they did. The teachers union and the school district agreed to a longer school day, more after-school tutoring, eating lunch with students and tougher teacher evaluations, after getting a pay raise.
(on camera): So in its town in which the average income is $22,000 and the average teacher now is making approximately $76,000, what are the community members paying for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The highest paid teachers are making about $76,000, which quite honestly, I don't think is enough for the committed professionals that are in that school district.
PERRY: But they're not successful. You have a 93 percent fail rate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the teachers are responsible. I think the failure of the district to have a math curriculum that gives kids what they need, the failure of the district to get kids to attend school on a regular basis.
PERRY: You have one high school in town. What do you hope is going to happen?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're offering p.m. school for those students who prefer to come at a different time in a smaller setting. We've reached out to students who had previously dropped out and are trying to pull them back in. We have outside evaluators evaluating teacher performance and are working to help those who are basic in their skills or on satisfactory to say, this is your opportunity and you must improve. And if not, we're back to where we were.
PERRY (voice-over): Steve Perry, Central Falls, Rhode Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. Have you ever wondered about the history behind popular ethnic foods like oxtail, short ribs or jerk chicken? I'm getting hungry here. There's a new cookbook with over 130 recipes from African-American chefs with African and Caribbean ancestry whose mission is to pass down their food culture to future generations. Here's a taste of history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF HENDERSON, CHEF AUTHOR: We're here to talk about food. We're here to talk about the African-American contributions, not just to history but to cuisine. The pass down cookbook is a collection of over 130 different recipes from African-Americans who have Caribbean ancestry, African ancestry. And we want to talk a little bit about the braising of foods we have here.
We have oxtails that are slow braising here. We have short ribs. We have a little bit of Caribbean jerk chicken. A slave used to go out and hunt for game. When they brought game back to the mansion, the slaves got the tough parts of the meat. They got the meats that took all day to cook, all day to braise like the oxtails, like the short ribs. So when the slaves were out in the fields, these particular meats were braised and slow cooked all day long. So when the slaves came home and eat, they would have nice tender meat that was normally tough that the slave master really didn't want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right. And that was very interesting. Again, hungry it's making me. Tomorrow night, CNN spotlights another moment in African- American history.
A man at the center of the civil rights movement, but was he a hero or was he a traitor? His camera lens captured pivotal moments in African-American history. Now FBI documents expose a darker angle. Join our Soledad O'Brien for a special investigation. It's called "Pictures Don't Lie." Sunday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Time for your news quiz. One in 50 U.S. troops in Afghanistan is not really human. However, the military uses them because they follow orders and have no fear. What is it? The answer right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back. They follow orders, they have no fear and they can't feel any pain. It's no wonder the military is putting more robots on the front lines. In fact, a recent "Wired" article claim that had one in 50 U.S. troops in Afghanistan is a robot. By 2013, that number will probably go up to one in 30.
And tonight, we've actually got tech whiz Katie Linendoll. Katie Linendoll right here in the studio with us. Finally, no delay. It's so weird - it may as well be a war zone.
KATIE LINENDOLL, TECH WHIZ: It is. To not be on a delay in New York. I feel like I'm in Fallujah. You never know the difference.
LEMON: I know. It's so weird. I think it's the way our cameras are controlled so there's always a delay and we're always stepping on each other.
LINENDOLL: Yes.
LEMON: So Katie, we're not just talking about these military robots -
LINENDOLL: For the first, I have a present for you, real quick. This is your very own scrolling L.E.D. name badge. You can take out that magnet and you can wear it for our segment. Yes.
LEMON: Look at that. It's just like the delay in New York. Very nice, very nice. Thank you, Katie. Let's talk about these robots. You brought one of the models here. Let's take a look.
LINENDOLL: Yes.
So I'm talking about, let's just show you. This is one of the most popular robots in the battlefield. This is a PackBot. And a PackBot is actually interestingly enough made by iRobot, a name you might know because they also make home appliances like the Roomba. There are over 3,000 of these PackBots deployed throughout the world and the main job is really to do what we don't want the soldiers to do. Put them in the line of fire. Now what's awesome is a PackBot can actually go in a number of different situations. They're great for bomb squads and has-mat teams. They can actually cut wires, diffuse bombs, they can also sneak around a corner in a hostage situation or a sniper situation where you don't want a soldier. You can toss it through the window. They lay on the right side up using their flippers and send back imagery and video using the number of different cameras it have.
So imagine now in a situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're great in altering environments. You can see here, they have a nice rugged bottom. There's just a number of different things that they can do.
LEMON: Keep talking, you hair's hitting the mic.
LINENDOLL: Oh, sorry.
LEMON: So listen, are these things hard to control?
LINENDOLL: OK. So that's the best part. Paul over there is actually controlling the robot, the PackBot. He's using a Playstation controller. They're incredibly portable. You can take them with you anywhere you go. This particular one is about 50 pounds.
LEMON: Look at that.
LINENDOLL: But to be able to train soldiers quickly and to have the robot go up in less than two minutes, using an Xbox controller or a Playstation controller, that is remarkable.
LEMON: It's similar to like when we watch the bomb squad and they send the little robot in to take a look.
LINENDOLL: Yes. It's so funny you said that.
LEMON: - right, it's just the same thing?
LINENDOLL: I talk about Iraq and Afghanistan and areas across the world that we've seen the PackBot. At 9/11, this is on the ground going through the rubble.
LEMON: Oh really.
LINENDOLL: So it can be used by law enforcement. It can be used by soldiers. It has so many different varieties. Is it going to hand me this cup? Oh interesting. We're going to play a drinking game. We mix it up here on CNN.
LEMON: That is so cool.
LINENDOLL: And as you can see, there's a number of different cameras as I mentioned. And I like to compare these PackBots to kind of like an erector set, which is interesting. You can configure it in a number of different ways depending on the mission.
LEMON: But serious stuff, how many lives - this has saved a lot of lives.
LINENDOLL: A lot of lives. And it's hard to put really a return on investment, (INAUDIBLE) so much. With the PackBot - I just ripped off the head. It's hard to put an actual number on how many lives it's saved. But it's so cool to know it's kind of a hero in the battlefield. IRobot gets tons of postcards and tons messages from soldiers saying, "Hey, it has saved our lives. It has save us over mines." It has its own Facebook page. It's really a celebrity in the battlefield.
LEMON: It's really cool. I'm glad that it saves lives. It's really amazing (INAUDIBLE)
LINENDOLL: Oh, Don's got the controls.
LEMON: We've got the controls here. But you have to do like two and he told you -
LINENDOLL: Don't act like you haven't played with Playstation 3.
LEMON: I have to say this, and again this is a great innovation. It's great technology. But everybody's been watching Watson this week, the computer that's on "Jeopardy." You actually got to meet Watson? LINENDOLL: I got to play Watson in a full game of Jeopardy. I got killed.
LEMON: Really?
LINENDOLL: I got smoked -
LEMON: Do you have pictures of that?
LINENDOLL: But it was amazing.
LEMON: Do you have pictures of you and Watson hanging out?
LINENDOLL: No.
LEMON: No. There he is.
LINENDOLL: There's my BFF.
LEMON: I thought you and Watson got to hang out.
LINENDOLL: We did. We're dating. We're exclusive. We're Facebook exclusive.
LEMON: This is really weird. There you go.
LINENDOLL: I have point there, Don.
LEMON: You didn't believe me.
LINENDOLL: I was waiting at that point.
LEMON: This is really where we're going in terms of innovation. I was doing a story on Friday talking about medical uses for robots -
LINENDOLL: Right.
LEMON: And for technology and this is - we're in the future.
LINENDOLL: We are. And I think a lot of people think we haven't come far enough with robotics, but when you actually learn about things like the PackBot and Watson and where we can go with the technologies, that's what's fascinating and promising.
LEMON: All right. Thank you.
LINENDOLL: Thanks.
LEMON: I'm going to play with this. Oh, there he is. Come over here. Hit Katie. Say hi. There we go. This is our very own Watson. Our iRobot.
LINENDOLL: Yes, the PackBot.
LEMON: Katie and I are going to play with this. We'll be back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. We're so excited about this innovation that Katie brought in, Katie Linendoll brought to the studio here. We talked a lot about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and what our men and women in uniform are facing there. And this robot saving a lot of lives. You know, it's fun - I have to be honest, to have it in here and to see it up close and personal and to see what they're doing over in the war zone. And Paul's here as well with iRobot. He's going to show us - this is where - come over here, bring this over here. This is on this little screen, right, Katie? That's what they look at.
LINENDOLL: Yes, so basically this particular model. This is the PackBot it has to be hooked up to a laptop. And Paul is controlling it with a Playstation 3 controller. Easy to train the military soldiers who already played a ton of video games on how to utilize the PackBot. But another - in the family, another robot in the family can actually be using AR goggles, to operate it. You don't need the laptop, you actually can just use the goggles.
Don, I'll get you hands on. Because this thing can fly. It can go up to eight miles per hour.
LEMON: Is it on fast or slow?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on slow.
LINENDOLL: It's on slow now but you'll see how quickly it can pick up. And we talked about it going in Iraq and Afghanistan, in an all- terrain environment. It's great for areas like that. But as I've mentioned, we've also seen it state side in times of - like 9/11 where it was crawling through the rubble and it can pick up a pay load of about 30 pounds.
LEMON: Well, this is a Flipper, it moves -
LINENDOLL: Yes, it has flippers on it, Don.
LEMON: How do I get the flipper to go down?
LINENDOLL: You can throw it through a window in a hostage situation, even if it lands on its back, it can flip itself over and then send back imagery in videos to let you know what's going on.
LEMON: You do it just like that.
LINENDOLL: Man, up on that thing. Hit that.
LEMON: Yes, yes, and look right here. This is just a regular old gaming controller, right? Just a regular -
LINENDOLL: Play station 3.
LEMON: It's the same thing like someone, probably one of the soldiers played at home before he went off to war. And they probably do it over there, as well.
LINENDOLL: Right.
LEMON: Isn't that amazing? So Katie, what's the next round of this?
LINENDOLL: Well, we're learning that there's a lot of - the military robotics budget is really recession proof. It's one of those budgets that isn't going anywhere. ARI Group actually just reported that in 2010 $5.8 billion for military robotics. This particular device costs about $100,000 but when it's saving a life, you really can't put a price on it.
And we're learning that by 2015, 2016, $8.5 billion in robotics budget. So there's a lot of room for improvement. Another member of its family, the (INAUDIBLE) is about 30 pounds, so it makes it really portable for any military use to actually just strap it on your backpack and take it with you. They are ready to go in under two minutes. And now you can see the mouth, it has a ton of different camera mounts on it and can be configured in number of different ways per military operation.
LEMON: And this can go all around the studio. And look at this. There was also some talk, Katie, about robots, actually the sad thing getting casualties of the field, off the battlefield.
LINENDOLL: Right. Well, the whole primary function of a PackBot is to get in the line of fire. We want to put robots where we don't want our soldiers to be. If it's going to go down the road and look around a corner and see if a sniper is there, that's awesome. That's where we want our robot to be taking over a job. We don't want to put a soldier in the line of fire. Put the PackBot there and be able to beam back video and imagery and say "Hey, this area is safe, hey, it's not." That's what's so awesome about robotics in the military.
LEMON: I'm having so much fun with this. I'm like a little kid.
LINENDOLL: And there's over 3,000 of these deployed worldwide, which is pretty remarkable. So if you're a bomb squad or a haz-mat team as I mentioned before, they can actually constantly sample the air for chemicals and radiation. Or if you just want to go, as I said, go into a hostage situation or you want to send this, it has a distance of up to 800 meters in line of sight. So it's pretty remarkable all the different things that it can do. And all the configuration. It's like an erector set, configure it the way you want it to be configured.
LEMON: Katie Linendoll, thank you. Thank you. The future is now.
LINENDOLL: Here.
LEMON: It's here. We appreciate you guys joining us. Hey, thank you for watching. I want to tell you this before we leave. Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children are back in the news. And tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, we're going to have a report from Philadelphia about a priest being charged for different reasons now. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. Again, thank you so much for joining us. I'll see you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN PRESENTS "SELLING THE GIRL NEXT DOOR" starts right now.
