Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
House to Vote on GOP Budget Blueprint; Searching for a Serial Killer; Saying Thanks to the Troops; Tornadoes in Alabama, Mississippi; $2 Million Ticket Quota Lawsuit
Aired April 15, 2011 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with a private moment of public importance. President Obama is on the way back to Washington after a quick trip to Chicago for three reelection fundraisers. At one of them, a microphone stayed on after reporters were let out and the president described rather candidly, in fact, his budget talks with House Republicans.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said, you want to repeal health care? Go at it. We will have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget.
You think we're studied? We are happy to have the debate. We'll have the debate on the floor of the Senate or the floor on the House.
Put it in a separate bill. We'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this through.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KAYE: Some tough talk from the president there.
Now, one of the first things the president will do when he gets back to the White House later this hour is sign the deal that came from those negotiations. It cuts almost $40 billion in spending authority for the rest of this fiscal year, though the Congressional Budget Office projects barely $350 million in actual tangible savings between now and September 30th.
So much for 2011. The House is just about to vote on the Republican budget plan for fiscal 2012. Its main author calls it the "Path to Prosperity," and claims it would cut roughly $6 trillion in federal spending over the next decade.
It would limit so-called discretionary spending to pre-2008 levels. It would cut personal and corporate tax rates, but also close loopholes. And it would transform Medicare into government subsidies for private insurance. That's the one that really upsets the Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN LARSON (D), CONNECTICUT: They are out to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There is a time to draw a line in the sand and fight!
I'm proud of the president of the United States for drawing that line and call upon everyone across this nation, and especially our seniors, to rise to the pulpits in the churches, in the streets, and take this battle forward. We will keep their hands off of Medicare and on this sacred contract that we have with the people we're sworn to serve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Republicans say putting Medicare on the table means they are serious about saving money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's a serious step in the right direction, and I'm really hopeful that the president will take his job as seriously as we are taking ours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: For "Two at the Top," let's bring in our Dana Bash to preview the vote.
Dana, I understand it's getting pretty raucous up there.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there actually was a disturbance in the House gallery that was not on the House floor, it was actually the public. Our Deirdre Walsh, our congressional producer, reports that nine people were removed, six people she saw in handcuffs, and they disrupted this debate. It doesn't sound like about the debate, it doesn't sound like it was about the budget. It sounds like they were more environmental protests, but it just added to the tension here in the House -- Randi.
KAYE: And if you could, compare today's House vote to yesterday's. That one saw dozens of Republican defections. I think, what, 59 or so didn't vote with the Republican leader?
BASH: Exactly. A quarter of all House Republicans defected from the leadership.
I should tell you, I believe that, actually, the vote on the 2012 budget that you were just laying out is beginning as we speak. And we don't expect -- to answer your question, we don't expect anywhere near that number of defections, even amongst some of the Republicans who may be vulnerable to Democratic attacks.
I talked to several of them who say that they believe that this is just a blueprint, which it is, this is not something that will become the law of the land. And it's a way to begin discussion about cutting trillions of dollars. So we do believe that this is going to be actually a pretty partisan vote -- Randi.
KAYE: And, you know, we've talked so much about Medicare, Dana. Will the budget battles that lie ahead, do you think, become Medicare battles, really?
BASH: It's happening now. It has been actually tremendous to see the way that the battle lines have been drawn on this vote that they are taking right now.
You mentioned -- you laid out the fact that in this particular budget, this House Republican budget, it overhauls Medicare in a pretty dramatic way. Well, Democrats have been seizing on that. You played Congressman Larson. We've been hearing that from Democrats all across the Capitol today.
Republicans have been on the floor and elsewhere trying to defend what they are doing, saying that they believe that the status quo is the wrong way to go, and that this is at least an idea to, from their perspective, save the Medicare for the long term. They also make the point that people who are 55 and older will not be affected. But I can tell you, I know that -- I have talked to Democratic officials -- that as for the scripts for the ads against Republicans, they are already written and they're ready to go against them, those who vote for this budget that they are voting on right now.
KAYE: All right. Dana Bash, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
BASH: Thank you.
KAYE: Good to see you. Let us know what happens with that vote as well.
BASH: Will do.
KAYE: And we should tell you that President Obama has just landed back in Washington. There you see Air Force One. He is heading back to the White House to sign the budget which was approved yesterday by both the House and the Senate. That is the 2011 budget for the rest of this fiscal year.
Moving on, severe weather is tearing across the Southeast right now. A number of tornadoes have been reported in Alabama and Mississippi. There are reports of widespread damage to homes, vehicles and a oil refinery.
This is part of a powerful line of storms moving across the country that has killed at least nine people. Two dead in Oklahoma, where authorities say a tornado touched down last night. The storm left a trail of downed trees and power lines, scattering cars and damaging homes as it moved east.
In Arkansas, seven people died when trees fell on their homes. Nearly 36,000 people in the state were without power today.
Other big stories we're following. The search for clues in the Long Island serial killer case goes on. Police and FBI agents are scouring the coastal area again today. They did not find any additional human remains yesterday after searching 18 spots of interest, as they called them.
New York troopers and police officers are hacking their way through more thick brush, using guidance from aviation teams that are flying over the area. It's part of an investigation that has turned up the remains of at least eight people since December.
And we have more gut-wrenching details of the last moments before a mother drove her van with her kids inside into the Hudson River. Ten-year-old Lashaun Armstrong, the lone survivor, revisited the dock with family members yesterday. A passing driver who drove Lashaun to a fire station after he drove to safety says the little boy was terrified and courageous, but he does blame himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEAVE RYAN, DROVE BOY TO FIRE STATION: He was talking about how he regrets not teaching his two brothers how to swim, because he just learned how to swim last summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The boy told Ryan his mother, Lashanda Armstrong, cradled her children and told them, "You're all going to die with me." Not long before, the mother posted a Facebook message saying, "Forgive me, please. This is it."
Police divers eventually found the body of 25-year-old Armstrong, along with her 11-month-old baby girl and 2-year-old and 5-year-old sons. We've now learned police have ruled out criminal charges against the father.
The governor of Virginia is officially declaring April 16th as Virginia Tech Remembrance Day. Tomorrow marks the four-year anniversary of a mentally ill student gunning down 32 people at Virginia Tech.
Flags will be flown at half-staff across the state, and there will also be several events to honor those who died, including a moment of silence and a ceremony in front of the state capitol. On campus, in honor of the 32 victims, students plan 32 hours of community service.
The bodies started turning up on Long Island when police began searching for Shannan Gilbert. Her sisters have been speaking with CNN's Kaj Larsen, and he joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: The search for a serial killer began after 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert went missing in Long Island. While looking for Gilbert, police stumbled upon what turned out to be at least eight bodies. In a CNN Special Investigations Unit exclusive, Kaj Larsen talks to Gilbert's sisters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAJ LARSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sherre, when did you first know that your sister had gone missing?
SHERRE GILBERT, MISSING WOMAN'S SISTER: We first found out that Sunday. Her boyfriend called me and said that she hadn't come home in two days and that he didn't know what happened to her. He wanted to know if she was up with us, and I said no. I was just confused.
LARSEN: Did you have any thoughts then?
SARRA GILBERT, MISSING WOMAN'S SISTER: Honestly, yes. I just thought maybe she went off and found some friends and partied for two days, and then she was going to come home. But then when we looked at her Sprint account and we figured her last call was to 911, then that kind of changed our whole perspective of what might became of her.
LARSEN: So tell me about what was going on with your sister?
SARRA GILBERT: As far as her profession, she was an escort and she posted through Craigslist, and went down here to meet a client. And through phone records, we determined her last call was to 911.
And we pretty much from there tried to do our little own investigation. We made up fliers, passed them out, went door to door and knocking, and getting stories (ph), making up notes to give to the detective. I actually found a piece of her jewelry which happened to be an earring.
LARSEN: What did you guys think when they found four bodies in the area where your sister went missing?
SARRA GILBERT: We were just, like, stunned, and we couldn't believe it, because we spoke with Suffolk County police, and they said they did a thorough search of the air, and they had cadaver dogs and this and that. But then when we found out that the bodies were only three miles from the place where my sister went missing. You know?
LARSEN: Sherre, I know this is hard, but what do you think happened to your sister?
SHERRE GILBERT: I don't know. I really can't say. You know, in the back of your mind, you want to believe that everything was OK with her, but at the same time, it's just, like, so much time has passed, that it just seems like it's impossible to really think that she is still alive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And Kaj Larsen joins me now in studio.
So, besides the earring, what else have they been able to learn about this?
LARSEN: Well, Randi, one of the things that the three Gilbert sisters have done is they have essentially launched their own investigation. So, they got the 911 records from -- or they got the phone records from their sister which showed that she had called 911. And, actually, they were on the phone with 911 for 23 minutes.
KAYE: And we have no idea what was said. We don't know what's on those tapes?
LARSEN: Yes. The 911 tapes themselves have not been released, but all of this focus on the family and focus on the sisters sort of indicates one of the large problems with this case, which is that, frankly, there is just not that much to go on, and that serial killer is still on the prowl.
KAYE: I'm sure as they watch the body count add up -- because now we know at least eight bodies -- I'm sure that's so terribly frightening and disheartening for them.
LARSEN: Yes. And for the Gilbert sisters themselves, their efforts have led to the discoveries of these other women, but their sister has yet to be identified and is still missing.
KAYE: All right. Kaj Larsen, thank you. Appreciate it.
And don't miss CNN's special on the serial killer case. It takes a closer look at the timeline and clues related to the bodies found on New York's Long Island. That's tomorrow night, 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
It began as a high school project to say thanks to the troops serving overseas. Now the CNN Hero responsible is enjoying an achievement that no one ever even considered possible. Her story is right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: An incredible milestone has been reached by a CNN Hero, made possible by her desire to remind American military men and women serving abroad that they aren't forgotten by the folks at home. And one day soon she may be joining their ranks.
CNN's Anderson Cooper reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kaylee Marie Radzyminski became a CNN Hero in 2008 when she was a sophomore in high school. At the time, her organization, Tunes for the Troops, had shipped more than 200,000 CDs and DVDs to U.S. military men overseas. It was Kaylee's way to say thank you.
KAYLEE MARIE RADZYMINSKI, CNN HERO: Tunes for the Troops has gone so far these past five years. There's absolutely nothing that I would change, because it has made a difference in so many people's lives.
COOPER: Today, Kaylee is on a military ROTC scholarship at Tennessee Tech University, which has become the new home of the organization.
RADZYMINSKI: Tunes for the Troops is now part of the Service Learning Center here at the university. There's basically a staff and student workers that volunteer for community service hours. So, this way, Tunes for the Troops will able to continue even once I graduate.
COOPER: This week, volunteers gathered to pack the latest shipment of CDs and DVDs which included a special milestone, the group's one-millionth disk.
RADZYMINSKI: One of the guitarists from Lynyrd Skynyrd showed up at our packing party to actually pack the one-millionth CD.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number one million.
RADZYMINSKI: Once I graduate, I'll be able to know that Tunes for the Troops is in some wonderful hands. And who knows? Once I am an officer in the United States Army, I can potentially benefit from Tunes to the Troops, getting CDs and DVDs, and that's, I mean, pretty cool.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: If you know a young person like Kaylee who is making a world of difference, well, you can certainly tell us about them. All of this year's CNN Heroes are chosen from people you nominate at CNN.com/Heroes.
(NEWSBREAK)
KAYE: All right. Queue the dramatic music and the glaring close-up. ABC is canceling its long-running soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." They join a growing list of scripted TV shows canceled in recent years, all making way for a surge of reality TV programming -- "Jersey Shore" and "Real Housewives," just to name a few.
Real-life drama, or the comedy that we pull from it, rules the day. And no one knows that more than Lizz Winstead, co-creator of "The Daily Show."
She's here with us in studio.
So, Lizz, did Snooki kill the soap opera star?
LIZZ WINSTEAD, CO-CREATOR, "THE DAILY SHOW": You know, I'm not sure what killed the soap opera -- I think Twitter might have killed the soap opera star.
KAYE: Really?
WINSTEAD: Well, it's funny, because I grew up watching "All My Children," "One Life to Live," and when I was on the road doing comedy, and I was out for 40 weeks a year, I would watch those shows, because they were the only consistent people in my life.
KAYE: They were your friends.
WINSTEAD: And so, I would be, like, oh, Erica, how was your day on the set? Oh, they got new drapes at the Quartermaine house. And then I realized that Twitter has sort of -- so I've replaced my fake friends with my real fake friends.
KAYE: So will the demise of scripted television continue, do you think? Are we headed for Snookiville all the time?
WINSTEAD: Snookiville all the time, and maybe talk show all the time. You know, it's slightly depressing, because --
KAYE: It sure is.
WINSTEAD: -- with the reality show surge, I only watch reality shows if I can't find my remote, first of all. I'm not a big fan. And when I do watch them, it's -- often, I see women pitted against other women, and I think if aliens landed on this planet, they would think women were the lowest forms of life if they just watched reality TV. It's unbelievable.
KAYE: We're not all like that, right?
WINSTEAD: No. But when you call people "Real Housewives," and they are constantly pull each other's extensions out, you're like, that's really what a real housewife is? Interesting.
KAYE: I know. You really wonder what they think about.
So I want to talk about Donald Trump with you, because I know you're a big fan.
WINSTEAD: Oh, you know what? What a joy. What a joy. It frightens me a little bit when I see in the polls that he is the number one choice for the GOP --
KAYE: Tied at least.
WINSTEAD: Tied. And it makes me think a couple of things.
One, it makes me think that maybe the people that were polled that are just too dumb to get caller I.D. And they answer, and they answer "Donald Trump." But, B, you really, really going to want a president who's going to announce his intentions on his reality show?
KAYE: Well, yes. Well, right, because he is planning on making his announcement when he is going to make his announcement at the end of his season.
WINSTEAD: Exactly. Right.
KAYE: Right.
But what do you think about him using reality television and talk shows to go after President Obama on this whole birther issue?
WINSTEAD: I think anyone talking about the birther issue should completely be disqualified. Here is what my dream would be -- is that, finally, Barack Obama, he reveals his long long-form birth certificate and his father is Ronald Reagan. That's what I wish.
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: Would that silence Donald Trump, do you think?
WINSTEAD: It would be so epic. It would be so -- I mean, I would just love it. Or Strom Thurmond. Just some crazy -- like, what's he hiding? Well, people, this is what he's hiding. What are we going to do now?
KAYE: That's pretty funny.
Last night, though, as you know, the president, he addressed all these Trump attacks, the ongoing zings from Mr. Trump. So let's listen to that and then I want to get your reaction to it.
WINSTEAD: Great.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Over the last two-and-a-half years, there has been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for Republicans, but creates I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in a general election, where most people feel pretty confident the president was born where he says he was, Hawaii. He doesn't have horns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So do you think it was a good idea for him to address this? Was it necessary? Did he have to?
WINSTEAD: I think you can't avoid it when it's the number -- when Donald Trump is on television more than you, it's a problem. You know? And spewing this stuff, how can he not address it?
And I just don't know what more these people want. You know, I've actually thought I might just come up with Barack Obama birth certificate wrapping paper just so people can use it for baby showers, just to put an end to it.
KAYE: It might be a hit.
WINSTEAD: I think it might be a hit. I know.
KAYE: And you can find it, of course.
WINSTEAD: I'm going to make it. KAYE: So you have created -- co-created -- the top rated satire show, "The Daily Show." A lot of people are familiar with it. A lot of people are big fans of it. But some wonder, is this journalism? Is it supposed to be journalism?
WINSTEAD: I don't think it's supposed to be journalism. "The Daily Show" exists because it just follows the trajectory of media. And so we are having a lot of fun at the expense of, let's say, you and your ilk.
KAYE: Yes, I have been there. I've seen it.
WINSTEAD: You know. And so, you know, we have 72 hours of 24- hour media that's going on and on and on. You're just going to be the brunt of jokes, I hate to tell you.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Yes. You cover how we cover the news, is basically what you do.
WINSTEAD: That's right. It's basically, yes, we are the watchdog of the watchdog, if you will.
KAYE: Right.
WINSTEAD: So I think that that's kind of what "The Daily Show" -- I mean, it's fun, because it's not only newsmakers. You know, cable news has created its own world and energy and stuff. And how can you not satirize it? Consider it flattering.
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: OK. The next time I'm on and Jon Stewart is pointing at me and making fun of me, I will be so flattered, I promise.
WINSTEAD: Consider it flattery, yes. Yes. Exactly. It's like the guy who whistles at you on the street. Think of it that way -- hey, baby, I like your news.
KAYE: All right. Liz, we'll have to leave it there.
WINSTEAD: Great.
KAYE: You made my day. It was a fun afternoon to chat with you.
WINSTEAD: Thanks.
KAYE: Appreciate your time.
And Lizz is traveling all over the country doing standup and teaching writing workshops. If you want to learn more about that, check out her Web site, lizzwinstead.com. Or you can follow her on Twitter like so many other folks do, @LizzWinstead.
All right. Now we want to get right to Dana Bash. Apparently, the vote has just wrapped up on the House floor on the "Path to Prosperity."
Dana, what can you tell us?
BASH: We can tell you that that vote passed overwhelmingly. We talked about it passing on partisan lines. Boy, did it.
It was 235 to 193. Randi, not one single Democrat voted for this Republican budget.
And what a difference a day makes. Or maybe it's better to say what a difference trillions of dollars make, because, yesterday, of course, the big story was about a quarter of the House Republican House Caucus defecting, voting against the budget that was dealing with last year's because it didn't cut enough.
This bill, of course, proposes to cut trillions of dollars. And there you have a very strong Republican majority voting for it.
I just talked to the House Republican whip, the guy in charge of making sure that all the votes were there. As you can imagine, he is pretty happy.
But I can tell you, just politically -- they were talking about this early in the hour -- so are Democrats, because they feel very confident, frankly almost giddy, talking to them, that they have something that they can really attack Republicans on, and that is not just this overall budget, but specifically the idea that this overhauls Medicare in a way that they are already to do to attack Democrats on in robocalls, in advertisements, in town halls all across the country for the recess that they are about to go on for two weeks -- Randi.
KAYE: And Dana, I want to ask you, I mean, this certainly isn't a surprise. You expected it to go this way, down partisan lines. But now they are going to be on break for two weeks. So where does this -- this is just going to sit now?
BASH: That's right. I mean, this is -- as you know, this is a blueprint. The budget never goes to the president's desk, but it is -- it's going to sit, but it's also going to percolate and probably be on fire when it comes to the rhetoric and when it comes to the debate.
This was the Republican and is the Republican roadmap, if you will, to deal with the deficit that cuts, they say, about $4 trillion from the deficit over 10 years, to deal with entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. And as we saw from the president's speech earlier this week, the Democrats are also ready to take this on.
The battle lines are there. The question though, of course, that we're all looking for is whether or not there is a group in the middle who can come up with something that brings the two sides together. But this will be out there, and it will be a very, very, very big -- probably the biggest point of debate in the political season ahead.
KAYE: Yes, because now you have Paul Ryan's plan, the Republican plan. You have President Obama's idea for what needs to happen. BASH: Exactly.
KAYE: And then you have the Gang of Six as well working on their bipartisan plan.
BASH: Exactly.
KAYE: So certainly a lot needs to happen before we get this figured out.
Dana Bash, thank you for bringing us the vote. Appreciate it.
BASH: Thanks, Randi.
KAYE: A deadly storm that has already left behind a path of destruction in the Midwest is spinning off more tornadoes in the Southeast right now. Meteorologist Chad Myers will join us live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: A deadly storm system has moved into the Southeast. It's already tore through parts of the Midwest, killing nine people in Oklahoma and Arkansas. All the deaths in Arkansas are blamed on uprooted trees falling into homes. Among the victims, an 18-month-old girl and 6-year-old boy.
To get the very latest now on what's happening, meteorologist Chad Myers is here.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Big line of weather and the line is not what we're worried about. We're worried about the storms that are not in the line. The storms that are all by themselves, and they have all the energy and they have all the moisture that they want. They are not competing.
Just like I said, we put a bowl of dog food out, you put 20 puppies, you got 20 small little dogs. You put one bowl put out, you put one puppy there, he's going to be the dog, because he doesn't have to share.
These storms, they don't have to share. They don't share the energy, they don't share the moisture and so, everything, when they start to rotate, they can be on the ground rather quickly and we'd had many reports of tornadoes on the ground today and that's not going to stop for much of the afternoon. Every storm like a ball like this -- it's called a super cell. It rotates on the backside of the storm, typically on the southwestern corner of the storm is where the storm will rotate enough to put a tornado on the ground.
We've had a tornado through Clinton, just north of Jackson, Mississippi, a lot of damage there. We're getting crews all of way through here.
More tornadoes to the north, but I think now because of the way the moisture pattern is going to set up, a lot of southern counties are going to get the tornadoes for the next few hours rather than the northern counties up towards Tennessee.
So, every storm that you see here with the pink box is rotating enough up to be a tornado warning. Some of them right now have tornadoes on the ground, being confirmed, being tracked on the ground by either law enforcement spotters or fire departments or even the public.
KAYE: Is there a typical time that a tornado might spend on the time? I mean, once it touches down?
MYERS: No, there's no such thing as anything typical. And you lose that typical -- when you move into the South, everything is different than if you have a tornado on the plains. A tornado on the plains can be on the ground for a very long time, nothing really to interrupt it. It's a flat land. It could be seen for a very long time.
Here, you have valleys and ups and downs and undulations in the topography. It's hard to see them sometimes. You can't even give visuals because it's driving, trying to chase them, you are surrounded by trees on both sides and you can't even tell that the tornado might be coming near you. You don't want to be talking -- you don't want to be out there at all in this weather, especially if you see something coming your way.
In Atlanta, we'll start to get airport delays big time with all this weather coming in and the weather all the way back down to Mobile. But, you know, typical, maybe 10 or 15 minutes on the ground is a very long time if a tornado is doing damage for that.
KAYE: Wow. That is -- I was just going to say, imagine all the damage it can do in that amount of time. All right, Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
KAYE: Egypt's former president is on the move. Details in "Globe Trekking" -- coming your way next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: In Syria today, thousands took to the streets to protest the government. Take a look at this video. It's security forces beating and kicking protesters. Their hands are tied.
CNN has been unable to confirm the video images, but it's certainly disturbing. Another week of protests against President Assad there.
And to tell us a little bit more about what's happening there. Michael Holmes joins us now.
That video is really something.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's pretty disturbing, isn't it? Yes, what was interesting though and there were tens of thousands of people out and they're chanting freedom, calling for greater reforms in Syria.
What was interesting about it, though, was that deadly force was apparently not used to any great extent. It was mainly tear gas. It was beatings like you saw there. But, no firing at the moment that we've been hearing about.
These protesters were outside of the capital of Damascus. They were trying to get to Damascus, because they want to bring this protest movement into the capital. That hasn't happened really yet. There's a big demonstration there today in favor of the government. So, you know, it's been a bit of an interesting move by the demonstrators, trying to get this into the capital, but it hasn't -- it hasn't happened yet.
KAYE: Let's turn to Libya, if the we can. Obama and other foreign leaders saying Gadhafi must go, again, even writing about it in an op-ed.
HOLMES: What's interesting here is that really sort of indicates the split that exists within NATO. You know, there's a big difference of opinion about how this is being prosecuted in Libya. Some, like the French, the British, are saying, let's go harder and let's go in harder militarily, and a lot of others within NATO and some of other countries not in NATO who are part of what's going on in Libya say, they're saying, well, not so fast. Let's get the talks going. And the Russians have been saying that as well.
The danger that the British, the French, and the Americans are saying is if this stalemates -- a stalemate is not anyone really wants here.
KAYE: No.
HOLMES: You got the west in one group and you got the east in the other group. What are you going to do then?
KAYE: Especially after this.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly.
KAYE: And what do you make of Gadhafi's daughter saying that the allies are trying to kill her father?
HOLMES: Yes. Well, that's pretty much what you'd expect to come from her. She also said, what did she say? She said, I got it written down here. She's saying that demanding his departure was an insult to Libyans because Gadhafi is not in Libya, he is in the heart of Libya.
I mean, it's almost sort of rhetoric you'd expect from his offspring who -- let's face it -- desperate to say where they are.
KAYE: And yesterday, he was in the streets in this open air vehicle waving. I mean, you could see the surprise on people's faces. What kind of messages you think that was?
HOLMES: Well, his message there, and we don't know when that was filmed either.
KAYE: Right. It's true.
HOLMES: When it ran on Syrian state television, they were saying he was driving around while bombardments were taking place. I mean, basically, it's a show of defiance thing. You're right, the people on the streets were like, wait, where did he come are from?
There's a lot of desperation. There's a lot of concern, that they want the Americans and the British and the French in particular, they want to pour the pressure now so that Gadhafi thinks he's not going to survive. Because at the moment, he actually is playing a waiting game and he thinks he's going to get through this, obviously, if he can wait it out.
You look at NATO and 14 of the 28 members are actively participating in the operation. Forty countries in all, including countries outside of NATO, only six are actually involved in doing any military work.
KAYE: But even if he survives this, he'll never be a friend of the U.S. again. I mean, he's going to have real problems.
HOLMES: Yes, I mean, he's going to have problems, too.
KAYE: Perceived friend, I guess.
HOLMES: Yes, he's going to have a lot of problems going forward. I mean, it really is not sustainable, but it's a matter of how long he drags it out. And if he drags it out long enough that the will of NATO becomes tired, then, you know, that's a victory for him.
KAYE: Right. Let's go Egypt. Mubarak has now been moved to the military --
HOLMES: Not yet.
KAYE: Oh, not yet?
HOLMES: He is going to be moved.
KAYE: OK.
HOLMES: He's at a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, near his sort of the holiday home, if you like. And they are going to move him to a military hospital where he'll actually be put under a guard and kept there, and then the officials in Egypt are saying that when his health does improve, he will then go to prison while all of this investigating goes on and continues.
KAYE: And his sons are also in detention as well.
HOLMES: Yes, they are in detention as well. And we still don't really know what the medical condition is. We think it's heart. We think it's blood pressure.
KAYE: A nervous breakdown we heard as well.
HOLMES: Yes. And part of this is because of how he ruled Egypt for 30 years. He's had health issues for years. He had gallbladder surgery in Germany a year or so ago. But it was all kept under tight wraps and it was part of how he ran the country.
It was only I think 2009 that a blogger who wrote about his medical issues was locked up. So, this was not something that was spoken about.
KAYE: You only write about that once.
HOLMES: Exactly. Yes.
KAYE: What is he -- he's like, 82?
HOLMES: Eighty-two, I think. Yes. He's not a young man. He hasn't been well for a while.
KAYE: You have to believe that they had their chance, right, to leave?
HOLMES: Oh, yes.
KAYE: To leave Egypt and maybe they should have at the time, because now look at them.
HOLMES: I bet they are thinking that. Yes.
KAYE: I'm sure. All right, Michael Holmes, thank you.
HOLMES: Good to see you.
KAYE: Great to see you as well.
HOLMES: Have great weekend.
KAYE: You, too. Thank you.
Well, I don't want to ruin your lunch, but there could be some pretty unsavory stuff in that burger -- and by stuff I mean staph. Yes, staph. I'll show you how to eat safely in our big breakdown. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: We are getting into grilling season and nothing spoils a good cookout like staphylococcus aureus. Doctors call it staph for short, and we call this "The Big Breakdown."
Research in Phoenix tested more than a hundred samples of beef, turkey, pork and chicken from grocery stores in five American cities. Almost half -- yes, almost half those samples, 47 percent, contained staph, a highly dangerous a bacteria. Even worse, 52 percent of the meat contained a form of staph that's resistant to at least three antibiotics.
So what's the big deal? Well, here's what I meant when I said highly dangerous. Staph can cause nasty skin infections, and if it is under your skin, it can kill. It can cause sepsis, which is a raging infection of the blood stream, endocarditis, which is swelling of the lining of the heart -- yes, none of this sounds any good, does it? -- and it can also cause pneumonia.
Where does it come from? Ironically, the study's authors point to farms that give their livestock antibiotics to keep them healthy. Researchers call those ideal breeding grounds for drug-resistant bacteria.
The USDA does test meat and poultry for four types of drug- resistant bacteria, but staphylococcus aureus is not one of them it turns out.
A spokesman says the department will, and I'm quoting here, "...will...determine if new information warrants changes in our policies to protect the nation's food supply."
In the meantime, cook those burgers, chicken legs, turkey dogs, ribs very thoroughly. Wash your hands after handling raw meat or maybe even wear gloves they suggest. And wash knives, cutting boards, anything else that touches meat, and never ever, ever use them to prepare any other food until they have been cleaned.
There you have it.
Two Los Angeles police officers say they refuse to enforce the law by violating it. Our "Stream Team" is ready to weigh in on their multi-million dollar verdict against the city. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: In today's "Stream Team," we are focusing on ticket quotas. While many police departments deny they require officers to write a certain number of tickets, two Los Angeles police officers recently won a $2 million lawsuit against the city.
Quotas are illegal in California. The officers sued alleging their supervisors retaliated against them for not writing at least 18 tickets a day.
In the last year, other states and cities have also made headlines over quotas. New York and Michigan have toughened their anti-quota laws.
In Chicago, the "Chicago Sun Times" obtained a memo from city hall about traffic citations. While it didn't specifically ask police to step ticket writing, it did warn of a dramatic decrease in revenue if the number of citations continued to drop.
Now, in Tampa, critics argue a city council vote last week in favor of installing red light cameras has little to do with safety and is more about generating revenue by skirting around quotas.
Joining me to talk about all of this, our Andy Hill, a retired sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, and Lisa Bloom, an attorney with The Bloom Firm.
First to you, Andy, you spent 26 years in law enforcement. You said you're totally opposed to quotas. Why is that?
SGT. ANDY HILL (RET.), PHOENIX POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, Randi, I'm not opposed to officers doing their job and being able to measure their -- how they do their job, but to have a quota kind of puts the onus on the officer to have to do something and kind of takes away the discretion.
You want police officers that know how to do the job, have the freedom to do it as they see fit. They may not have to write a ticket, they can make what they usually call and educational contact and just talk to that person. It helps them to find out who is in their area, who is living there, but you don't necessarily have to write the ticket. To do it just for the purpose of writing the ticket for the revenue of the city is totally inappropriate.
KAYE: And, Lisa, in L.A. at least, the officers allege they were punished with bad performance reviews and threats of reassignment among other punishments for not writing these 18 tickets a day.
So what's your take on this is?
LISA BLOOM, THE BLOOM FIRM: Well, as an attorney who represents a lot of people in employment cases, this is a great whistle-blower case and I applaud this verdict. I mean, these are two officers who stood up not only for their rights, but for the rights of us as citizens saying that ticket quotas are illegal here in California.
And for good reason, Randi, because they give lawyers like me ammunition. If somebody gets a ticket, their attorney can go to court to say, look, these police officers were just ticketing them to meet their quota, this was not really a violation of the law and get the whole thing thrown out.
So I agree ticket quotas are a bad idea. This was a great verdict on behalf of a couple of officers who were standing up for what's right.
KAYE: The captain said that, in testimony at least, that the number 18 on the reviews had probably been more of a goal instead of a quota.
You don't buy that, Lisa?
BLOOM: Well, the jury didn't buy it. The jury threw that out. I mean, of course, no captain or supervisor in any employment situation is going to say, yes, guess what, I broke the law. So the jury rejected that in reaching the verdict.
KAYE: So, Andy, I mean, how do you measure performance then? How do you make the streets safer if quotas can't be used?
HILL: Well, that is really the question, and I think it goes down to every officer that is working out there should keep a log of the contacts they have. They may have 20 or 30 contacts in a day, but they may write only 10 or 15 tickets based on each individual contact. And I think they need to be able to document what they do and that helps know if they are doing the job as opposed to having a quota of a certain number of tickets.
But we also have to remember that traffic enforcement is so important. I mean, that is one of the primary things that we in our country need. We need officers out on the streets cause most of us are out there driving, we want to be safe.
On the other hand, that also gives us intelligence information if you make a traffic stop. Let's not forget that the Son of Sam killer would not have been caught without a parking ticket having being written.
So there are other options and helpful things that tickets provide, but to have a quota takes away the discretion of an officer and really does remove the public from trusting that department.
KAYE: And, Lisa, if this really all about revenue, what do you think of communities trying to do this maybe to increase their revenue?
BLOOM: Well, it certainly is legitimate for local municipalities to want to increase revenue. And I agree, look, we all hate getting ticket, right? And I love the phrase "educational contact," that's people like me saying, gee, officer, I'm really sorry, can you let it go by this time. And I'm grateful when they do and I really am educated and I'll never make that illegal left turn again.
But we can't raise revenue on the backs of good people who are just making simple mistakes. We have to give law enforcement the discretion to do their job, to let things go by sometimes and other situations where it's more serious, use their discretion to give that person a ticket.
KAYE: All right, we'll have to leave it there. Andy and Lisa, thank you both for weighing in. Have a great weekend.
BLOOM: Thank you, Randi.
HILL: You're welcome.
KAYE: Time now for a CNN "Political Update." CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley joins me now from Washington.
And, Candy, for the third straight year Tea Party activists are protesting Tax Day.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: April 15th, although this year, you have until the 18th, because in the District, it is Emancipation Day, which is a holiday here. So if you haven't filed the taxes, you have until Monday to do that.
Nonetheless, it is not only given taxpayers an extra couple of days to get their paperwork together, it's giving the Tea Party an entire weekend in which to hold rallies, and guess who is taking full advantage of that? A lot of the 2012 hopefuls who may or may not run for president.
We see Tim Pawlenty, for instance, will be up in New Hampshire talking to a Tea Party rally there. He's also going to travel over tomorrow to Massachusetts because there is another one. We see Michele Bachmann in South Carolina. Mitt Romney is going to be at an H&R Block talking to the taxpayers there.
So Tax Day always a good day for politicians, because nobody likes to pay taxes. So it is a good time to talk about it.
Also, in South Carolina, as we say, Michele Bachmann is going down there, and she is going to talk to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, always good in South Carolina to check in with the governor, especially when you are a Republican thinking about running for president and the governor is Republican.
South Carolina is huge in the primary process, particularly for Republicans, that first southern primary. So if you go through the state, that is a good place to check in with Nikki Haley, the new governor there.
Over in Georgia while we're south of the Mason/Dixon, we have also got a story up on the Ticker of a new law the governor is about to be sign, it was passed by the Republican legislature. It is supposed to be the toughest anti-illegal immigration law in the country.
It does a little bit of what we heard the Arizona law, which is it allows police officers, when investigating certain crimes and certain suspects to, in fact, ask them about their documentation. It also has a stiff penalty for anyone that uses fake documents to get a job.
So a very tough law going into effect, other than the fact that it now faces almost certain lawsuits. It is something that Republicans say they campaigned on in Georgia and wanted to see through.
So again, toughest law in Georgia, you can read about it, as always, on all of these things on CNN Tickers.
KAYE: All right. Thank you, Candy.
CROWLEY: Thank you.
KAYE: And your next update from "The Best Political Team On Television" is just one hour away.
An imposter's picture makes it on the way to a U.S. Postage stamp. How could this happen? My "XYZ" is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Time now for the "XYZ," and today a lesson for the U.S. Postal Service, yes, it might want to check the fine print or at least the photo next time.
You see, last year, it printed 3 billion stamps that which were supposed to have the image of the Statue of Liberty, an iconic symbol of freedom that has stood in the New York Harbor for 125 years, but they got something else and didn't even know it until an experienced stamp sleuth uncovered the truth.
Take a look at this stamp. A stamp collector noticed that the hair is different than the true Statue of Liberty and the eyes much more sharply defined.
Well, it turns out the image that is really on the 44-cent stamp is a replica of the Statue of Liberty not from Liberty Island, but from Las Vegas. Big difference. The image is actually of the statue at the New York, New York Hotel and Casino. King of embarrassing, huh?
But the Postal Service said it would have picked that image anyway, and it points out the mistake has, quote, injected some enthusiasm into our stamp program.
I guess, if anything is going to make stamp collecting exciting, it's going to be a little taste of Sin City.
That's going to do it for me, everybody. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brooke Baldwin.
