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Tragedy in New York; House Passes Budget Deal; Missing Mother in Georgia Found; Republicans React Negatively to President's Budget Speech; New Footage of Gadhafi Hits Airwaves; Catherine Zeta Jones Checks into Medical Facility for Bipolar II

Aired April 14, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Randi Kaye. Thank you so much.

There are several big stories unfolding this second. First, the House voting right now on the deal to keep the government running through September, but what will happen in the U.S. Senate? That is ahead. We will get you a live report here in just a moment.

Also, this compelling interview:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEAVE RYAN, EYEWITNESS: He was saying, help me, help me. So I opened my window and I said, what's the matter? And he said, my mom drove the car into the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That woman you just heard from, she is the woman who stopped when the 10-year-old boy there in New York sopping wet begged for help on the side of the road, this just moments after police say his mother drove herself, her four children there in the water, into the Hudson. Three of them never came up alive.

CNN has just spoken with this woman. It's a tough interview to listen to. It's an honest interview. It's very emotional. We will bring you a chunk of that here in mere minutes.

Also, large parts of the country bracing for severe weather. There are major concerns about tornado outbreaks. We're monitoring everything.

But, first, we mentioned Capitol Hill. Let's go back to Capitol Hill. Live picture. The U.S. House of Representatives have been voting.

Dana Bash, do I hear that the gavel's been thrown down and this thing, funding the government through September, has passed?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has passed by a vote of 260-167.

So, this is the first of two votes we're going to see today one, of course, in the House. Then it's going over to the Senate to keep the government running for the rest of the year. This is, of course, the deal that was hashed over weeks and weeks of negotiations and finally finalized in the late, late hour on Friday night.

Interesting note though that we should underscore with this vote in the House, though, Brooke, 260-167. But at last count, 59 Republicans, 59 Republicans defected from their leadership and voted against this bill.

And there are a whole host of reasons for it, but first and foremost, as we have been reporting, concern about the fact that this -- although there is about $38 billion in spending cuts in this bill, Republicans say -- in the House, say, look, we campaigned on cutting what is equivalent to $61 billion. And the fact that their leadership compromised in order to get this through was not good for a lot of these Republicans, particularly some of the freshmen who said that they were staking their jobs on the idea of cutting spending.

That's one reason. Another reason that we will try to figure out in talking to some lawmakers off the House floor here is whether or not something else that sort of was brewing late last night and this morning affected those defections, and that is that there was a new CBO report, a report from the Congressional Budget Office, which is the nonpartisan watchdog -- I shouldn't say watchdog -- it's a nonpartisan organization here that really crunches the numbers.

And it said that although this bill does cut $38 billion, only a small, really small fraction, $352 million with an M., will be realized this year. Now, the reason for it is arcane differences between budget authority and budget outlays. I won't get into that now.

But the fact that there are arcane rules that give the reason for that caused a lot of confusion here, Brooke, among Republicans. Leadership was scrambling last night and all morning, holding briefings, trying to explain and convince rank and file Republicans that this is not smoke and mirrors, that these budget numbers are real, that they're not fake, and that they are cutting a significant amount from the budget. So this is something that was going on all morning long.

BALDWIN: Dana, let me get you back to your point about these defections there in the U.S. House. As we look ahead now as this heads to the Senate, could that be foreshadowing for what we could see there?

BASH: It could be. It could be.

I mean, look, this is going -- the next big fight between Republicans and Democrats is going to be over raising the debt ceiling, which we have been talking about for days and days. And Republicans, they don't know what they want to demand yet, but demanding that there will be some conditions along with their vote.

The next vote though we're actually going to see in the House is tomorrow and this is on Paul Ryan, the House budget chairman's plan that will cut trillions, over $6 trillion over 10 years. So, there was some hope among Republican leaders that the fact that they saw that that was the real big war and this is maybe just a small battle, that that would stem some of the defections. But 59 Republicans is pretty big. And we're going to see the final vote. It might go up or down after we see the final tally. But that's more than we have ever seen before on one of these spending cut votes.

BALDWIN: So far it's officially passed the U.S. House. And again this is just funding the government through September.

Dana Bash, thanks for the hustle, as always, live on the Hill.

And now to something that affects a lot of us, if you hop in a plane fairly often, rising fears about our safety in the skies after yet another case of an air traffic controller falling asleep on the job. The man in charge of them all has now quit. And now there are new questions today about who's actually calling the shots.

FAA manager Hank Krakowski resigned today. He's the guy who had been heading up the agency's Air Traffic Organization. Now his resignation comes after a controller fell asleep in Reno's airport tower just yesterday during a potentially life-and-death situation. The pilot of a medical flight ferrying a sick patient was trying to land, and you could hear the frustration in this pilot's voice when he can't reach anyone in the tower.

Workers in the end at a local radar facility in Northern California had to try and help him out.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cheyenne Lifeguard Zero Tango November.

No luck on ground, clearance or tower. We have got a pretty sick patient. We may just have to land whether we have clearance or not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zero Tango November. They're not answering the phone either. We're going to try and get another number to see if someone can go up there and check the tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need to land.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zero Tango November. Roger. And landing will be at your own risk. And last report is winds was calm.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, they're trying to help him out. The pilot tried to reach the controller, seven times, seven times before landing safely on his own. That's what he ended up having to do.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says this kind of behavior is unacceptable and announced some coming changes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY LAHOOD, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: This is ridiculous. It's outrageous. It is the kind of behavior that we will not stand for at the Department of Transportation. The controller has been suspended. We're conducting an investigation.

And I have said that immediately there will be two controllers in 27 control towers around the country that control planes between 12:00 midnight and the early morning hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that's a solution right now. But with so many cases of air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job, and let's be specific here, this is the sixth incident this year, we wondered, what's going on in those control towers overnight?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRYS BART, CEO, RENO-TAHOE AIRPORT AUTHORITY: We have very light traffic at 2:00 a.m. We are a 24/7 operation and open to any aircraft that want to land or take off at any hour of the day or night. However, during the night, we typically have very little traffic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Bill Voss. He's head of Flight Safety Foundation. It's a nonprofit agency that campaigns for aviation safety.

And, Bill, I read all about you. You spent 23 years with the FAA helping with his very thing, focusing on air control and management. So, you know what goes on. I'm curious, was this a problem when you were in charge? And given your contacts with the FAA now, is this even a bigger issue than these six reported cases?

WILLIAM VOSS, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION: Well, I think, first, we have to talk about what the real issue is, and it's not so much about people falling asleep.

It's people going to work and working aircraft in a safety job who are actually impaired by fatigue. That's the larger question here, because these people aren't...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let me stop you there. Why is that even happening? Why are there not rules in place that you have to have had X-number of hours of sleep before you're working this job overnight helping land planes?

VOSS: Absolutely.

And the truth is the FAA, after the Colgan crash was working very vigorously on this for pilots. And they have also been trying to apply some of the same lessons in air traffic control. I'm afraid a lot of that really good work may have been sidetracked here.

The fact is, is that there's rules for federal employees. For example, a pilot, an airline, if a pilot says I'm too fatigued to take this flight has to be able to allow that pilot to decline the flight, and not punish him. There's no provision for an air traffic controller to call in fatigued.

That's actually illegal, and they have to be punished. So in one way, you are forcing people to work even if they can't. In addition, the air traffic control shifts have always been a problem. Scientists have looked at them and they just work the wrong direction.

They create the maximum level of fatigue. And that really has to be addressed. There's some things to they can do to adjust these schedules that are important that could reduce the fatigue level. But the ultimate problem is the one that nobody can talk about, because it's politically incorrect. And that's the point where you really do have to talk about controlled rest.

If there is an opportunity to rest a couple hours while another controller's working, it's only logical to do the same thing a fireman would do and take a rest and wake up at an appropriate time. That's illegal in the government.

BALDWIN: Bill, we hear from Mr. LaHood, who is now adding that second man overnight. Do you think that will do it? Is that the solution?

VOSS: No. No.

This is clearly an interim fix or a stopgap. Canada had the same problem, and actually Canada took the same approach and they ended up having two people falling asleep, because you still have to deal with the underlying issue that you need to have people that are alert and rested doing safety work. And it's just not enough to throw more people at the problem.

BALDWIN: Bill Voss, have a feeling we can talk again as the problem, as you say, it's still just a stopgap measure. Bill Voss, head of the Flight Safety Foundation, Bill, my thanks to you.

And now this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: He was frantic. Very, frantic. He was hysterical crying, wet from head to toe, and he was shivering uncontrollably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She is talking about that 10-year-old boy who escaped that sinking minivan his mom was driving into the Hudson River. That woman is the one woman who found him right after this happened, right after he saw his mother and three siblings disappear into the river. And you may not believe what he actually told her his mom said as the car was sinking.

Also, take a look at this video. New leader -- the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, he's hanging -- there he is, hanging out of a sunroof. That's all coming up. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: We have some compelling new details today about how a young boy 10 years of age begged help for his mother and siblings after she drove her minivan into the Hudson River. It is from the only survivor of what police are calling a murder/suicide in Newburgh, New York -- 10-year-old Lashaun Armstrong is the only child who managed to escaped from the sinking van.

He swam back to the shore, managed to finally flag down a car.

CNN producer Sheila Steffen joins me by phone from Newburgh.

Sheila, I know you have spoken with this woman, Meave Ryan, the woman who picked up Lashaun. We're going to talk in a moment.

I first just want to play -- everyone, this the first part of the interview, where he's basically -- she's -- she is recounting what he told her in terms of the chilling moments inside this minivan as it was sinking. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: ... is in the car and he thinks that they're going for a drive. And I said, tell me what else happened.

And he said, well, we're just going for a drive. And mom was driving the car frantically. She was speeding. And by the time they got down by the ramp, he was like, mommy, mommy, what are you doing? Stop, stop, stop. You know? And she was like, get to the back seat.

So he went to the backseat. And she went to the back seat as well and cradled all the children with her arms and said, if I'm going to die, you're all going to die with me. Two or three times, she said that.

So he broke free, but she was still holding on to him because he was wearing a pair of green pants and she was holding on to his pants, but he broke free from her and went outside the driver's side, I'm presuming -- I think it was the driver's side window that he was able to roll down a little bit and get out.

But at the last minute, when he was leaving to go out the window, he heard his mother saying, I made a terrible mistake. I made a mistake.

So, she came from the middle of the row to the driver's side and tried to reverse the car back out, but at that time she was too much in the water at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Too late.

Sheila, what an interview. I want to go back to a couple points she's made. First, that was time I heard that this mother inside the minivan hopped in the back seat. What was she trying -- did Lashaun explain, was she trying to hold her children down?

SHEILA STEFFEN, CNN PRODUCER: It's quite an ordeal to hear what actually happened in that car and it seems to me that she was going to go down with them. And she crawled back there, this according to how Meave describes what Lashaun told her, and embraced her kids and if we're going to die, we're going to all die together.

And she did then say she repeated almost kind of crazy or not quite right, but then it was at the point when she saw the water that things changed, climbing into the front seat and saying, oh, God, I have made a mistake.

Now, it's interesting, too, that Lashaun recounted to Meave how his mom was on the phone with his grandmother while driving and said, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. And then apparently the grandmother called back and Lashanda told her their whereabouts, that she was at the river, so that they could find them when they were dead.

So this is -- this -- I can't imagine what this boy went through, but...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No. None of us -- none of us can. But back to the fact that this mother -- so she's on the phone with her own mother. She's apologetic and she's also -- Lashaun talked about how she was angry about being cheated on. What did he say?

STEFFEN: He said that basically, she went crazy because my stepdad cheated on me and described his mother as frantic and very upset.

BALDWIN: We know that she had mentioned he slipped out of his pants and was able to get, I think it was the driver's side window, rolled down the window, and he was able to escape because he could swim and get out and flag down Meave. Were there several people who passed by this sopping wet 10-year-old, Sheila, hadn't stopped?

(CROSSTALK)

STEFFEN: Yes. She was traveling on Water Street, and maybe four or five cars back at a traffic light, a little bit of traffic there. And she noticed some boy waving his hands. And finally when she got up to the stop, she rolled down her window, and he was, help me, help me. But she was surprised that no one had stopped.

And she immediately opened the car door and said he was hysterically crying and soaked from head to toe. But then when she would ask him, he got -- he was very composed and she called him an intelligent boy. And she was able to -- he was able to relay to her what had happened.

But, yes, she was very surprised no one had stopped. And so she went actually back to the river because he said, my brothers and little sister are in the car and went into the river my mom drove in. So they went there, and there was no trace of the car. So she immediately drove to the fire station.

BALDWIN: I want to play this second piece of sound which this just really gets you in the gut because this 10-year-old is blaming himself for not teaching his siblings how to swim. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: He was talking about how he regrets not teaching his two brothers how to swim, because he had just learned to how to swim last summer with his aunt, and he blames -- was blaming himself for what happened to his two brothers. And I said, you can't blame yourself. I said, it's not your fault.

STEFFEN: What did he say about that? What gave you the impression he blamed himself?

RYAN: Because he said, it's my fault. He said, I didn't teach them how to swim. He blamed himself.

And he was -- he said, I couldn't help my baby sister. She was buckled in, and I couldn't get her free. And he said, I could have done -- he said, I should have done more. And I said, you did as much as you could, Lashaun. I said you made it to the top of the hill. You tried to get help. I said, you are a very, very good boy, very good boy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's tough to listen to, Sheila. He's 10 years of age and is certainly not to blame here.

Final question, I know he's with relatives. Any word on how he's doing emotionally, physically, right now?

(CROSSTALK)

STEFFEN: Yes, an amazing young man.

In fact, just a short while ago, at the river, the scene of this tragedy, Lashanda's aunt, Angela Gilliam, and several family members, including this young 10-year-old boy, arrived for what they said was a private moment. And they were shooing away the media and all of that.

And he -- I didn't really see any emotion, strong emotion registered on his face. He was just sort of looking blankly towards the water, but held very tightly by a family member. Just a sweet face on this boy, but that was just a short time ago and then they drove off.

Apparently tonight, the community, different church groups, there will be a vigil there at the scene.

BALDWIN: Cannot even begin to imagine what this family and this little boy is going through. Sheila, thank you so much for that interview.

Coming up next, we're going to stay on the story. The Newburgh fire chief, he's standing by. He's going to talk about that night when they found that minivan and including how the boy looked after the escape once Meave brought him to the fire station.

Be back in 70 seconds. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to take you back to the story out of Newburgh, New York. The murder/suicide of a mother and her three children.

Before the break, I just spoke with a woman who picked up 10-year-old Lashaun Armstrong after he escaped from the sinking minivan.

I want to now bring in the fire chief of Newburgh. A 10-year-old child taken to his fire station. His team, his firefighters responded to his horrific scene on the Hudson.

Newburgh Fire Chief Michael Vatter joining me now by phone.

Chief, we heard from Meave Ryan. Really what we didn't hear that is she really has commended your fire department for getting to the scene there so fast, but there really wasn't much your firefighters could do.

MICHAEL VATTER, NEWBURGH FIRE CHIEF: You know, it was a tough situation.

We're very grateful for Ms. Ryan and absolutely amazed at the composure of Lashaun in this in whole ordeal. We're only two blocks from the scene, but the car wound up some 75 feet into the water.

And while we were able to put people in the water immediately in cold water suits, the Hudson River this time of the year is very murky with the winter runoff and the rain and everything. So it's a very -- basically a blind search. You just do search patterns in the water trying to locate the car.

BALDWIN: How are your guys? How are your firefighters doing coming upon this scene? I know that you come upon death often in your line of work, but three children and a mother in a minivan underwater. How are they doing?

VATTER: They're doing pretty well. You know, a few -- now we're about 48 hours into it.

BALDWIN: It's a tough scene.

VATTER: It's very, very difficult. Everybody's dealing with it in their own way.

We have had -- we brought in a critical incident stress debriefing team to kind of just take the -- let them blow off steam the evening of the incident. And that goes a long way in decompressing these folks, because firefighters, Type A personalities, they like to lose. And to be in a position of just going to what wound up being a recovery is really hard on these guys.

You know, they all have -- a lot of them, I should say, have children in that age range.

BALDWIN: Sure. Sure. Yes. Yes. They have children. They put themselves in their mother's shoes.

Let me ask you just a last question. How is the community coping with this?

VATTER: The community is stunned and is I would say probably shattered and is now just starting to get itself righted and to unite behind to support Lashaun and his family in this time of need.

You know, the neighborhood churches and everything are reaching out. We have had people just coming to us and what can we do to help? And we're still organizing that, you know? And it's -- it's a bit of an undertaking and it's hard. But I think this is a tough town. It's a small town. It's seen its share of tragedies, but nothing on this scale.

BALDWIN: Yes, that's what the mayor said. That's what you say.

Out of, to use your word, a very shattered Newburgh, New York, Chief Michael Vatter, my thanks to you.

President Obama is heading home tonight to Chicago. But he's got much more on his plate than relaxation. We're going to tell you why he's heading to the Windy City with money, maybe on his mind. We're back in 70 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: After the last couple of weeks, the bitter budget fighting in Washington, President Obama is getting out of Dodge for at least a bit of a break, a respite. Tonight, he's heading to his hometown of Chicago.

On tap, maybe not so much rest. Three campaign fund-raising events for the 2012 reelection campaign and the DNC. President Obama made that reelection bid official you remember last week with this video. Didn't actually show him, just showed a bunch of his different supporters. His campaign says he received 23,000 contributions in just the first 24 hours.

But he's got a long way to go if he wants to reach the lofty mark of $1 billion.

For more, I want to go to CNN's national political correspondent, Jessica Yellin, live in Washington.

And, Jess, so the president holding his first campaign fund-raiser tonight, as I mentioned three. Does this mean, dare we use the official word, has election 2012 officially begun?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not so much.

The campaign, the fund-raising campaign has begun, but we're really not going to see the president out on the stump holding big campaign style rallies for as one of his top aides put it to me a long time. That means months at least. And, traditionally, the candidate who holds the Oval Office is always best served by spending more time looking presidential and less time being an official candidate and I think that's what we will see in this case.

BALDWIN: OK.

Well, let's talk Republicans because they're kind of, sort of, kind of, sort of throwing their hats in the ring. You have Mitt Romney here. he's announcing he's forming an exploratory committee. You have Tim Pawlenty let it slip this week with Piers Morgan -- that was some fun sound to watch -- that he's running.

And then Rick Santorum saying he's forming a presidential exploratory committee. So, my question is, why aren't any of these folks making this official? Why the hesitation on the side of the GOP?

YELLIN: It is a silly kind of political theater we're watching, these guys pretending they're not sure if they're running, when it's pretty clear many of them are.

But think about it this way, Brooke. There's no primary on the Democratic side. We know it's President Obama. So whenever the primary on the Republican side begins, all the attention will be focused there. If one Republican announces first and is in there alone, he or she will take a barrage of attacks. I mean, you can imagine.

And so no one wants to be the first in right now. Plus, the sooner you're in, the more money you're spending. And so, for both those reasons, this year, the calculus on the Republican primary side is there's limited upside in going all in early. It's almost a race to see who can be last in.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: For the longest time, in terms of issues, whatever side you're on, we thought it was going to be all about issue number one, the economy, jobs specifically, all of the talk of spending and tax cuts, is that sort of just where the focus has shifted.

YELLIN: We're still, of course, going to talk -- hear them talking about economy and jobs. But I'm talking to operatives on all sides and I think you're going to see in this campaign essential debate will be about this big question, what's the role of government we want in our lives?

And that speaks to what government should do to create jobs and it speaks to what should be done to change our debt and reform Medicare, Medicaid. So the Republicans will argue that maybe smaller entitlement programs, less taxes, let's government stimulus. President Obama and the Democrats will say, if you like government as it is, you to be prepared to pay more taxes, et cetera.

So we're going to see a fundamental debate about different perspectives, philosophies about government. Kind of what the senior President Bush used to call the vision thing will actually be at the center of the campaign.

BALDWIN: At least it's looking like the government's funded through the end of September.

YELLIN: Right.

BALDWIN: That's a good thing.

YELLIN: That's something.

BALDWIN: That's something all right. Jessica Yellin, thank you very much.

And an update on a story we brought you out of North Korea. We know the name of the American man detained there. Who is he? How long has he been there?

Also, do you remember the woman who accused three duke lacrosse players of rape? This was a huge story several years ago. Now this woman could now be charged with murder. Those stories are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Several stories unfolding now including heads up if you drive a Ford. Ford issuing an air bag recall on more than 1 million trucks. The issue, air bags that can go off randomly. To check the models gead to CNN.com. Ford, by the way, says it doesn't know of any accidents related to this problem though one driver did jump out of a slowly moving vehicle when his air bag went off.

North Korea identifies the American it says it's holding for quote/unquote "committing a crime" inside the communist nation. The news agency says his name is John Young Su. It doesn't say what crime he allegedly committed. The department sources tell CNN he's a Korean-American businessman who had a visa to enter the country. The U.S. is working with Sweden to try to get this man released.

And a woman who accused three duke lacrosse players of raping her in 2006, she is back in the news. Her boyfriend is dead from stab wounds. Here she is, Crystal Mengam accused of stabbing 46-year-old Reginald Day with a kitchen knife. He was stabbed. Last year charged with assaulting another boyfriend. She remains behind bars.

And we're getting word of tornado watches. We're hearing tornado watches, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas. Chad Myers, I saw him popping on his jacket, getting information. He's going to join me after the break with what he has.

Also, a missing mother of five found alive. She disappeared about a week ago after she left her kids at home to go rent a movie. So what happened? The sheriff in charge of the investigation has just held a press conference. We'll tell you what he said next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER BREAK)

BALDWIN: Part of the mystery over today for a Georgia mother of five. She is fine but she's not ready to come home quite yet. Have you heard this story? A 30-year-old vanished last week after leaving her five kids home alone while she went out, according to her kids, to just rent a movie. Obviously a search ensued. No signs of mom. Husband says her cell phone went unused, same for credit cards for five days. And her husband goes and gets grilled by the cops. He says his wife left him one night, left a text message before totally falling off the grid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABED SULEIMAN, HUSBAND: She said it's over. I'm throwing the phone out the window. She would never, everybody talk to me like that and never text me like that. She never ever has. And I was like something's not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It seems like several things haven't been right. The husband says some real estate investments in Florida went bad. The couple filed for bankruptcy in August. Her family was worried enough to show up from Jerusalem to Georgia just this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASAM JABAR, WOMAN'S FATHER: We believe she's still alive. We want to say please, please, come back home.

SULEIMAN: If you hear me, all -- we all love you. Your parents are here. Everybody's here. We all love you. Your family loves you. People that are so concerned and just want to see you, come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Come home seems to be something this mom of five not quite ready to do. After days of looking for her, Bartow County sheriff briefed the media today before closing the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CLARK MILLSAP, BARTOW COUNTY, GEOGIA: Our main concern was to make sure that she was safe and we have discovered that. We can't tell you where she is but her request, anything just going on in her residence is her business and her husband's business. I don't have comments about that. But our case, we've done more interviews with her. There is no criminal charges to be filed against anyone. This case is officially closed. Thank you. Have a nice day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Case closed. Ma's OK. Just not home.

Next, Catherine Zeta Jones says she's bipolar. She's checked herself into a hospital. So what does that mean? We know she had quite a year, if you're following her story, her husband battling cancer. Could that have been a factor here? And there are different types of bipolar, so which one does she have? Elizabeth Cohen is here with the facts to explain next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Actress Catherine Zeta Jones says she has now checked into a hospital for treatment of bipolar disorder. It is a startling admission from a superstar. A lot of you are talking about it. Catherine Zeta Jones is a top name in Hollywood. She won that Oscar playing Thelma Kelly in "Chicago." Remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: She also married into a Hollywood dynasty. Her husband is Michael Douglas. He has spent much of the last year battling throat cancer, and Catherine has been by his side the entire time. The stress of dealing with her husband's illness perhaps cotributed to her illness.

This is from Zeta Jones' publicist. They write, quote, "After dealing with the stress of the past year, Catharine made a decision to check into the mental health facility for a brief stay to treat her bipolar II disorder. She's feeling great and looking forward to starting work on his upcoming films."

With that said, Elizabeth Cohen, we brought you in to help us explain what bipolar means. You hear "bi," that's two. So that means your highs are high and your lows are low.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. You go like this, you're high, manic, you think you can do anything, and then the lows are your very depressed and you're in a terrible state. The opposite of feel like you can do everything.

BALDWIN: OK. So how many people does this affect? Many people?

COHEN: About six million Americans are believed to have bipolar disorder. You mentioned she had bipolar II.

BALDWIN: Yes. What does that mean?

COHEN: That's an important distinction. Bipolar I is where the ups and downs are like this, way up, way down, right? Bipolar II, they're more like this.

BALDWIN: So it's more mild.

COHEN: More mild, right. But still it's enough to affect your daily life.

BALDWIN: Is it treatable?

COHEN: You know, there are treatments patients can do. And it doesn't necessarily cure it. We don't like to use that "cure" word, but it can definitely help. There are amazing medications that can stabilize moods. There are medications called lithium that people can take when feeling very depressed and this becomes very important because depressive states end up lasting longer than the manic states.

BALDWIN: How do you know, though? It sounds tricky because someone may have a great day or a great period, their year, and you may have a low. How do you know if that means I have bipolar?

COHEN: Everyone goes up and down, that's only natural. It's when ups and downs interfere with your ability to live your life. In the most manic states, people do things like buy four cars in one week or have sex with strangers. They're all over the place. Some people, some psychiatrists have mused Charlie Sheen perhaps is bipolar. We saw him in that manic state in some of the pieces that we saw a couple of weeks ago.

BALDWIN: It's not often -- final question -- that we hear of bigger names. I rather reading Jane Pauley's autobiography and she talks about being bipolar.

COHEN: Right, Jane Pauley talked about having bipolar. Carrie Fisher has talked about it. You know, it's funny. It's almost it seems like it's more OK to talk about substance abuse than it is to talk about this. I think there is still some shame associated with having this when there's no shame at all.

In fact, it's not often that you hear doctors say that a psychiatric disorder is useful. I heard doctors say that for the II form because when you're somewhat manic, that's useful. And so a lot of people who are bipolar, they are really geniuses and maybe incredibly artistic and creative or great business people because they do a lot when they're in those manic stages. But then, they cycle. You don't stay up there. You go down.

BALDWIN: Kudos for Catherine Zeta Jones for saying what's go on with her.

COHEN: Absolutely. And I think a lot of people will look at that and say I shouldn't be embarrassed how I am or how my family member is.

BALDWIN: Thank you for explaining it.

Take a look at this. We're getting new video, hanging out of the sunroof, Moammar Gadhafi, where he showed up and how the opposition is reacting to this appearance. Reza Sayah is live in Libya, next.

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BALDWIN: It has been a pretty busy day from President Obama, aside from all the budget discussions. The president is also focusing on international matters and specifically Libya. Just last hour, president Obama met with the emir of Qatar in the oval office. There they are. Qatar, keep in mind, a key U.S. ally in this region. It was also the first Arab country, you remember, to participate in the NATO-led military operation in Libya.

Meantime, take a look at this new poll here, it shows most Americans favor, just barely though, favor U.S. involve in Libya. The CNN opinion research poll finding 52 percent support while 47 percent oppose involvement.

But I want to take you now to the ground in Libya where pro-Gadhafi forces are pounding the sieged city of Misrata for the second day, specifically targeting the port where a medical aid ship was docked or expected to dock, en route to dock. The U.S. says Gadhafi is attempting to starve people who live there.

For more out of Libya, want to go to Reza Sayah live for me in Benghazi. I want to get to this image we have seen, the video of Moammar Gadhafi, first time in a while we have seen public appearance, hanging out of a sunroof. Where was he and what was he doing?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is not exactly clear when it was shot. Many people say it was shot today in a Tripoli street, that he was looking defiant, as ever, pumping his fists as he stood through the sunroof of an SUV. It didn't take long for those fresh images of colonel Gadhafi to hit the television air waves here in the opposition capital of Benghazi, in coffee shops all across town.

People were gathering around the big screen and looking at Colonel Gadhafi appearing triumphant, but they said he doesn't -- he is not as confident as he looks. They said it is all an act. They pointed to the streets. They said not too many people were there and they said those who were there were probably paid. And they said if he tried something like that here in the streets of Benghazi, he would probably wouldn't make it out alive. But it was vintage Gadhafi again today in those pictures with saw.

BALDWIN: Reza, less than a minute before we lose your signal, let's just ask you about that ship, doctors en route to Misrata, any update on supplies successfully head there?

SAYAH: It is our understanding that that ship and other humanitarian ships are whiten to the port of Misrata but all sorts of concerns they could be facing Gadhafi forces once they get there all kinds of indications the Gadhafi forces are now targeting this port, which is the only lifeline to this city.

A medical assistant telling CNN today that Gadhafi forces fired rock nets the ports area, destroying a shipping container, a cement factory, 23 people killed in this fighting. One ship has already turned back. Again, growing indications that Gadhafi is trying to obstruct these humanitarian ships to dock in the city.

BALDWIN: OK. Reza Sayah, thank you so much live for us from Benghazi.

Next question here as we are talking Middle East -- is Iran helping the Syrian government crackdown on protesters? This is obviously a disturbing development. We will get a live report from the area ahead.

Also, Gloria Borger standing by with some news just in from the world of politics. That's next.

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BALDWIN: All right, let's talk politics and go to senior political analyst Gloria Borger with the latest off the Political Ticker including her column. Gloria, I know you talked a lot about the president - you wrote about the president's speech and if there is any good will left.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think if you talked to Republicans after the president's speech yesterday, he took them on quite frontally on the issues of Medicare changes, Medicare reform, Medicare cuts and the question of whether you should get rid of the tax cuts for the wealthy, they will tell you, as they told me, that all the goodwill that was there is evaporating quickly.

They didn't expect to be taken on that directly by the president before they have to deal on this question of raising the debt ceiling. And so it is pretty clear the 2012 campaign, whether you want it to or not, has already begun.

BALDWIN: Well, it was a different President Obama than we have seen in recent speeches, right? There wasn't much in the sense of bipartisanship yesterday.

BORGER: He did say we have to work together, but I describe it was we are used to him being more Clark Kent than Superman. Yesterday, he decided he really needed to mend some fences with his political base. Don't forget, he compromised on the government shutdown, he compromised during the lame duck session. The base of the Democratic Party hasn't been so pleased with Barack Obama. So he decided to let them know exactly where he stands on these issues of Medicare and ending the tax cuts for the rich.

It was an important definitional speech for him. My question in the column, was is it the right time for him to give it? I think it might have been a little early. I get pushed back on that from the White House. They say to me any time the president gives a political speech, you get mad at him for it, you know. He is the president, he is a Democrat, he owes it to the people to show where he stands on these issues.

I still think if he wants to get something done, on the budget, a little early.

BALDWIN: Okay. Gloria Borger -- I love reading your columns. You can always go to cnn.com/borger.