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Rebuilding Begins in Joplin; Boy Drowns in Raging River; Senior NATO Officer Wounded; Casey Anthony Goes on Trial; Gil Scott-Heron Dead at 62; Fleet Week in New York City

Aired May 28, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Computer hackers have apparently breached the security networks of some large defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin. Investigators are trying to determine what information in any was taken. The contractors have sensitive information about future weapons systems.

And fire crews are battling a southern California wildfire threatening about 100 homes, and 400 homes have been evacuated. The so-called cove fire began yesterday in Kern County near Bakersfield. No injuries are reported. Flames have charred about 200 acres of the Sequoia National Forest.

And in Joplin, Missouri, the death toll from last week's deadly tornado has risen to 139, and 105 people are still missing. It is a grim place, but there are signs of hope returning. Casey Wian reports on a contractor who has already started to rebuilding amid the ruins.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is America and we're going to rebuild it.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four days after a historic tornado demolished much of Joplin, Missouri, contractor Darren Collins started construction on the first new building to emerge from the rubble.

DARREN COLLINS, CONTRACTOR: At some point we're going to have to stop scratching our heads standing and staring at the rubble and roll up our sleeves and get things back to some sort of normalcy.

WIAN: He's rebuilding his wife's beauty salon, which he built once before 17 years ago. On Tuesday, Collins discussed the idea with shocked city officials. Wednesday, they gave him the OK to start and Thursday construction began.

COLLINS: We've had just an enormous outpouring of generosity and help to get prepared to get back to this point. The city has been great. The city of Joplin allowed us a permit in record time.

WIAN: There's still no electricity in this part of Joplin. The substation across the street remains in ruins so a generator powers the tools. COLLINS: It's time to roll up our sleeves and do what we can do to move on with our lives.

WIAN: Passersby continuing stop to offer encouragement and support.

COLLINS: I just had two police officers stop by and say, man we want to shake your hand, the first glimmer of hope that we've really seen towards the town rebuilding.

WIAN: Four nearby homes that Collins built in the past year are in ruins. Already he has at least six projects waiting to be rebuilt.

COLLINS: My heart and prayers go out to everyone that did lose loved ones. I hate for it to come to something like this to bring business to the area. But I believe everyone around here will surprise everyone in the country with the rate that we can come back.

WIAN: After so much tragedy and so much devastation, Collins takes solace in the cross that remains standing in the rubble of St. Mary's Church across the street and in the support he's received from his community.

COLLINS: I thank God to live in such a place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIAN: Now Collins says he expects to have that business reopened in about 45 days. He mentioned, Fredricka, he thought they would surprise the community. He also said he thought he would have the roof on that structure by tomorrow.

Now those pictures we've just showed you were shot on Thursday afternoon. Let's look at some pictures we just shot a few minutes ago. He's already got the roof up on that building. It's really incredible how fast he and his co-workers have been working.

Now, another part of this story is the fact that many homeowners also want to rebuild. You can see this structure right here which was part of a home. It was partially completed when the tornado hit. This homeowner told my colleague, Paul Vercammen that he wanted to rebuild.

When he went to the city, they said that he could not have a building permit yet. So the process is working for some, not working for others. One more development that we'd like to share with you, earlier today we went to the beginning of the tornado, the place where the tornado touched down about three miles to the west of us.

You can see the long, long debris field. What we've been told throughout the week is that this tornado cut a six-mile swath through the city of Joplin. We decided to see for ourselves. We went all the way down to the area where the tornado first started and drove east until it ended.

And actually, that debris field and visual confirmation from local residents that a tornado was on the ground stretched for 12 miles, which is twice as long as the first initial estimates, and it explains why there is just so much damage throughout Joplin, Missouri and the surrounding areas, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: That is incredible. Casey Wian, thanks so much. The president of the United States will see firsthand tomorrow when he touches down exactly what you're talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): And a heartbreaking story out of the Pacific Northwest this Memorial Day weekend. Divers in Greenwater, Washington have recovered the body of a toddler who was overcome by a fast-moving river current.

Sheriff's officers say the 2-year-old boy was visiting a campsite with his family when we walked into the raging Greenwater River yesterday and was quickly pulled under by the strong current.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And even though this weekend kicks off the summer travel season, in the mountain west, record amounts of snow means no camping, no hiking, no driving, no nothing.

Take a look at this picture from Yellowstone. Can you believe that? Words like "epic" and "monster" are being used to describe the snowpack covering the mountains. The red on the map right there that you're seeing shows the snow records, that they're being broken.

People trying to get to national parks or mountain resorts like Yellowstone or the Tetons or parts of Yosemite are finding roads blocked by the snow. Remember, we're almost at June. So snow still a problem in some places.

So last hour I stalked with a woman who runs a Colorado resort. The road to her business is open today, but she told me that this late deep snow is hurting her bottom line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA DAY, COLORADO BUSINESS OWNER (via telephone): I think everybody has been negatively impacted because the weather has been so unpredictable in Denver and in Colorado in general. We have had -- we have had five feet of snow in the last two snowstorms up here. So it's significant.

WHITFIELD: Boy. So how do you plan for this if at all, if this can typically happen Memorial Day weekend?

DAY: Well, you don't plan very well. I mean, it's impossible to plan.

WHITFIELD: My goodness.

DAY: It's crazy. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It is crazy. Look at those pictures. All that snow is extraordinary. Bonnie Schneider in the weather center. Barbara Day was saying it's not that unusual for Memorial Day weekend to have that kind of snowfall where she is.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It probably is. The problem is, Fredricka, this has been a series of storms after unbelievable amounts of snow. That's right. It's going on up. We had an incredible winter out there with blizzard after blizzard.

And don't forget, the temperatures have to be cold enough to support the snow to stick and pile up like what you saw in those pictures. As you can see here, temperatures across much of the mountain west for states like Utah, Wyoming and Montana have been well below normal.

And unfortunately that's really also influencing some of the problems we're seeing with snowfall. Here is what else is interesting, is that as we go into this holiday weekend where many of you might be thinking about taking a beach vacation, we are looking at a brand new winter storm system working its way across the Sierra Nevada.

It will bring three inches or more there and then certainly across Idaho and into Montana and Wyoming, more heavy snow. These are winter weather advisories that aren't just for the weekend, but they're also straight for Memorial Day, into Monday so incredible snowfall totals there.

Now on the flip side, it's certainly warm enough for some really powerful thunderstorms to hit a place that doesn't need it. I'm talking about northern Vermont. We have a lot of flooding here this week and now we have a severe thunderstorm watch box for parts of western New York into Vermont and that will go straight into the evening hours.

These storms could contain very strong gusts of winds as well as heavy downpours and frequent lightning. Chicago also getting hit with storms, but don't worry. This doesn't mean your weekend is a complete washout. We are looking for improving conditions for areas of the Great Lakes as we go through the weekend.

So temperatures, albeit pleasant, a little more warm, but here is one more last look at some of the heavier snowfall totals we're expecting across the west. You can see some of them will be quite high as we go into the weekend.

For today, the risks for severe storms remain right here in the center of the country. This is where we're tracking severe weather possibly into states like Nebraska. For those of you that are planning to travel out to the beach for this holiday weekend, for today it is looking pretty good.

We have temperatures that will be comfortable. The water temperature here in the Gulf Coast, for example, is in the lower 80s. Of course, as you travel further north, that water temperature gets much colder. You probably know that if you're heading to Cape Cod or something like that this weekend --

WHITFIELD: And people don't care.

SCHNEIDER: At least the weather is nice.

WHITFIELD: Its' beautiful. Good stuff. All right, thanks so much, Bonnie. Good to see you.

All right, a NATO commander targeted in a suicide attack. Details right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: One of the top NATO officers in Afghanistan was wounded today in an attack being claimed by the Taliban. Major General Markus Kneip commands all NATO troops in northern Afghanistan.

He was reportedly meeting with a regional governor and police commander when a suicide bomber detonated himself nearby. Seven people were killed. The general is among the nine wounded. More details when they become available.

In Libya this morning witnesses believe explosions that rattled Tripoli came from NATO air strikes. No comment from Nato.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): But NATO officials did confirm they targeted a vehicle storage area in Tripoli and said they aimed the air strike to minimize civilian casualties. No one was reported hurt.

Egypt opened its border with Gaza today for the first time in more than four years. About 600 Palestinians entered Egypt at the Raffa Crossing. Egyptian officials say they did it for humanitarian reasons.

The man who kept that border closed tight is about to be out of millions of dollars. A court has ordered former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to pay a big part of a $90 million fine for his role in the revolution that forced him from power this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Barack Obama, he is in the air right now, headed back to the United States after six days overseas. His last stop, Poland, where memories of the Soviet Union are still fresh. Here is our White House correspondent Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: On this final stop in Poland, the U.S. president has really hit two big themes. The first, trying to reassure the Polish people that America will be there to defend it. There's a lot of mistrust here in Poland about the intentions of Russia, this former Soviet Bloc nation, concerned about blocking the missile defense shield for this region, concerns that maybe Russia has bad intentions.

So the president trying to reassure Poland that even as a young member of NATO, he said basically there's no such thing as a new member of NATO, that they're all treated alike and the U.S. and its allies will rush to Poland's defense no matter what.

The other big theme picks up on something that the president talked about in France at the G8 summit where he was basically saying he sees some similarities, some parallels between the Arab spring playing out right now in the Middle East and North Africa and what happened here in central and eastern Europe after the crumbling of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union, the struggle -- the transition to democracy.

There may be some lessons learned from the past that could be pitch toll now in the Middle East and North Africa. Along the way at this joint news conference with the Polish prime minister, the president made an impassioned plea to the American people.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Even at a time when we have fiscal constraints, even at a time where I spend most of my day thinking about our economy, I want the American people to understand we've got to leave room for us to continue our tradition of providing leadership when it comes to freedom, democracy, human rights.

HENRY: After returning the White House Saturday night, it's right back to work for the president. On Sunday, he's heading the Missouri to attend a memorial service and try to comfort some of the people devastated by those tornadoes in Joplin. Ed Henry, CNN, Warsaw.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Celebrating life while honoring the dead, one young woman's mission to help others heal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: This Memorial Day weekend, we honor a war widow. When Taryn Davis couldn't find the support she needed after her husband's death, she started a support group to help hundreds of families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TARYN DAVIS, COMMUNITY CRUSADER (voice-over): My husband Corporate Michael Davis was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. Even four years later people still don't really know how to react, when you say hi, I'm Taryn and I'm a widow.

After the widow I felt ostracized. Everybody liked to write off my grief due to my young age. They would say you're young, you'll get remarried. I wanted to talk about it with other widows. They're not going to judge me or laugh at me or tell me I'm grieving wrong.

I wanted to create what I was searching for and hope there were others out there to help me rebuild it, too. I'm Taryn Davis and I invite a new generation of military widows to share their love, their sacrifice and their survival.

We hold these events because they step outside the comfort zone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His impact will continue to affect us all for the rest of our lives.

DAVIS: There are moments where they can all reflect followed by that time where they feel like they're living life to the fullest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My little sister wrote Taryn. She didn't know how to get me through the loss. She wanted me to find other sisters. From my first event, I went from feeling completely alone to not anymore at all.

DAVIS: You get up that high and see the world a different way. I think as widows we see our life a different way when we land, too.

They teach me so much and show me how far I've come to know one day another widow is going to come along and they're going to be the one to change that widow's life. That's pretty amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Taryn Davis joins me from Austin, Texas. Taryn, first, tell me about your husband.

DAVIS: My husband, Michael, or as they called him in the military, Corporal Michael Davis, just a beautiful man, 6'2", big gap- tooth smile, green eyes. A little geek. He loved things like "Star Trek" and PBS. He was my soulmate and he would do anything for anybody.

I mean, if you were to come up to him and say, I want to walk on the moon one day, Michael would look at you and smile and say, bring me back a rock. He was one of those people that believed in everybody and followed his heart and put his heart into anything he wanted to pursue.

WHITFIELD: Through your support group, is that something that you're trying to encourage to the other widows, that they should talk about or live with that -- with those beautiful memories of the spouse that they lost?

DAVIS: Definitely. I think when you hear the word "widow," it has such a stigma. For me, before Michael was killed, when I thought of a widow, I thought of a 90-year-old woman in black. I didn't think of someone that looks like me.

But I think by allowing these women to embrace their title as a military widow, not only because it signifies their sacrifice and their husband's sacrifice, they can then take the next step and allow that title to also represent their survival.

WHITFIELD: So you've helped about 800 other families. How do you know this is working? That what you're able to offer through your group, that really is kind of filling a void that so many have experienced?

DAVIS: You know, I can sit here and give you statistics and numbers, but the way I know it's helping is the little things. When I'm invited to one of the widows' college graduations or I receive a Christmas card with their family photo and they're smiling once more or even for some widows, getting invited to their wedding for their new life with this new person.

That's how I really measure it. I measure it by the smiles, I measure by the laughter. I measure by the connections that I see they pursue after attending one of our events. I measure it by what they've done for me. That's given me the abilities to smile and to love life once more.

WHITFIELD: What is next for the American Widows Project? How do you see it expanding? What do you think still needs to be done that you'd like to tackle?

DAVIS: Well, unfortunately, we still have men and women being killed over there. I've had a lot of people ask me, what do you think you'll do once the war ends? I say, well, we're still going to be military widows.

That will probably be the time more than ever that the support will be need. This isn't a long-term process that each one of us are going through as far as dealing with the death of our spouse. This is a lifetime process.

So the American Widow Project is here to stay. It will be something that even after I'm gone, I know the new generation after us will have it. I know we'll expand. We'll be able to quadruple the amount of services that we're doing now.

And I think we'll be able to do that by having the women that love the organization and know what it does for them be the ones that are helping fulfill what is need, and that's just offering this generation's military widows the support that they deserve.

WHITFIELD: Taryn Davis, thanks so much for your time and thanks for all you're doing to help so many families.

DAVIS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Of course, we always want to hear from you. Tell us about the heroes in your community. Send your nominations to cnn.com/heroes.

A memorial for 9/11 victims takes shape in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: This is day five of testimony in the long-awaited Casey Anthony trial. She's charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

But in opening statements, her attorney surprised nearly everyone with the claim that Caylee drown accidentally in her grandparents' pool.

Earlier today I talked with our legal guys, Richard Herman and Avery Friedman about these developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: The problem with the defense, at least as I see it, is he's created multiple conflicting defenses.

Meaning he now has to prove that the cause of this mental problem that the defendant had was because of the behavior of the father, the brother, everybody else.

WHITFIELD: How will they go about that?

FRIEDMAN: It's inconsistent.

WHITFIELD: How will they do that?

FRIEDMAN: I don't know how he's going to do it. He's trying - actually George has been on the stand, and he said, well, you abused your daughter. He says, no, I didn't. That was the end of it.

WHITFIELD: He's very composed throughout and apparently the prosecutors were asking questions to possibly get a rise out of him to show that this kind of agitation that you're seeing now on the stand could certainly be now placed to the scene of this alleged accident.

Of course, he never did lose control apparently. He was very much in control the whole time. So I guess no one really scored any points here, Avery.

FRIEDMAN: Well --

RICHARD HERMAN: Well, I don't think any points were --

WHITFIELD: Go ahead.

FRIEDMAN: The point here.

WHITFIELD: Avery first.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They have to have an explanation for her erratic conduct 30 days after the child goes missing and her compulsive lying. What they're saying is because of long-term sexual and physical abuse, Caylee has this trauma.

And they're going to bring in experts, Fred, forensic psychologists that are going to say her actions are consistent with someone who suffered incest or sexual abuse by family members. That's going to be their explanation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, you can catch our legal guys, Richard and Avery every Saturday, noon Eastern Time.

The musician known as the Godfather of Rap has died. Gil Scott- Heron was best known for his 1970 recording "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Listen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: Much of his music reflected his struggles with drugs and alcohol. Three years ago Scott-Heron was HIV positive. The cause of his death yesterday at the age of 62 is still unclear.

A bit of relief for the millions of Americans traveling this holiday weekend, gas prices are actually dropping. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is just under $3.80. That's almost a penny less than yesterday, but still almost a dollar more than this time last year.

As Americans remember their war dead this holiday, Virginia Senator Mark Warner is pressing the U.S. Army to fix problems at Arlington National Cemetery. In a letter to the secretary of the Army, Warner expressed disappointment about the lack of improvements at the burial ground. Arlington has been criticized for misplacing remains due to its antiquated recordkeeping system.

Thousands of U.S. military personnel are spending the Memorial Day holiday in New York for fleet week. A parade of vessels is docked at the New York Harbor as you see right there.

You have the chance to see some of their high-tech gear close up as well, if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Tanks, specialized aircraft and helicopters are on display. Fleet week runs through June 1st.

Work is under way in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the victims of Flight 93 from 9/11. A temporary memorial has been in place for some time. But now work is being completed on a permanent memorial to honor the 40 passengers and crew who fought with the hijackers. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA GLESSNER, FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL VOLUNTEER (voice-over): We found here in the community that so many people were visiting the memorial and really not getting the information we felt that they were looking for.

No one there to help them understand what they were looking at when they stood on that grassy hilltop and looked down at the crash site, it really felt wrong to us to not have someone there to help these visitors that were coming from all over the world.

So a group of local people began staffing the memorial hoping to provide information to these visitors that was accurate --

And perhaps more important at the time, we were listening to the visitors who all had a story to share of where they were on September 11th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you see is the field of honor and debris field from Flight 93. The wall here frames the entire field for about 900 feet from a visitor center behind me. The entire wall and the marble wall of names are the focal point of the architect's design.

This design, the circle of embrace, is intended to place a large circle on the landscape, and it's intended to focus everyone's viewpoint towards the impact site.

When visitors come to the site, they ask us two questions. Where did the plane go in the ground and how close can I get? The first phase of this construction will help visitors understand that and allow them to be as close as we are standing now to the impact site.

On top of the hill will be the future development which is the visitors center and the memorial groves of trees which is -- will give the site its color. There will be a mixture of red maples, sugar maples, chestnuts, and other type of trees that give the color -- the fall color, if you're here in the fall, that give the sense of color to the site. But it's still focusing everything on the impact site.

DONNA GLESSNER, FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL VOLUNTEERS: For the last five years we've been recording stories with all sorts of people who have a connection with Flight 93 and September 11th: first responders who came here with fire departments, state police, FBI agents, and others that were involved in the investigation, eyewitnesses that saw the plane in the moments before it crashed, as well as the family members of the passengers and crew.

These nearly 700 oral histories will be just such a rich resource for future visitors and researchers that want to understand how September 11th affected this small community and the whole nation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The Flight 93 memorial is expected to open to the public in September.

In 2007, Greensburg, Kansas, was devastated by a tornado. Just take a look at these pictures of the damage. Do you know how strong this twister was? Was it an EF-1, 2, 3, 4, perhaps even 5? The answer right after this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A deadly EF-5 tornado, the strongest on the scale, wiped out Greensburg, Kansas, back in 2007. When you see the tornado destruction, it is difficult to imagine how any family, a business or a town, for that matter, can possibly rebuild. Greensburg is still rebuilding.

And Mayor Bob Dixon joins us live with more on how you've been able to recover after 2007. How far along are you now in the rebuilding process?

MAYOR BOB DIXON, GREENSBURG, KANSAS: Well, first of all, it's an honor and pleasure to be with you today. Thank you for having me on. We're probably about 65 percent in the completion process four years out from the tornado.

WHITFIELD: That's pretty impressive, 65 percent. So what kind of recommendation are you going to have then for towns that have just been devastated by tornadoes who are looking to Greensburg as real inspiration of bouncing back?

DIXON: Well, the first thing you have to do that we found out is, no matter what your socioeconomic status was in the community, you lost everything. So the true sustainable green thing you have left is your relationships with each other.

So make sure and cultivate those and hug together, cry together, and just be community. Allow yourself time to grieve, and do not make life decisions rapidly. We all want to get started with debris removal. We want to get started in rebuilding not only our homes, but our lives for some sense of normalcy and stability.

But in the midst of that, it's still about us as -- each other as citizens, uplifting each other and encouraging each other.

WHITFIELD: And after you have gone through so much and really helping to build upon your community so that people are closer together and have that kind of bond, your city made a conscientious decision that when you rebuild, it would be just that, of your namesake, it would be very green, an environmentally friendly city.

Do you feel like that has helped kind of cultivate that sense of community that everyone is on this very similar mission together? They're all making the same kind of commitment?

DIXON: It has made a tremendous impact on that. Because when we look back at our ancestors that built our communities on the prairies of western Kansas, they built communities to last lifetimes. It was about environmental stewardship, taking care of the resources we've been blessed with.

So it's our awesome responsibility to build back communities to last lifetimes for our future generations.

WHITFIELD: Mayor Bob Dixon, thanks so much, of Greensburg, Kansas, all the best. You said 65 percent of the way before you feel like your city is completely back up and running?

DIXON: It's an ongoing process. It's a growth process. I've had people ask me, when are you going to be done? And I say, never, because we don't ever want to be done with the growth process. You're either growing or you're declining. So we want to make sure that we continue to offer hope to each other. And it's our awesome responsibility from what we've been through to offer hope to those other communities all over the United States that are suffering extreme disaster.

And in the midst of their devastation, I just want them to know, if you work together as a community, and it's about the people and the partnerships that you can develop with public and private entities, great things happen and great hope for the future.

WHITFIELD: Mayor Dixon, thanks so much for your time, all the best.

DIXON: Thank you, and have a great day.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is trying to rebuild its image. A list that appeared on Newsweek magazine's Web site called "Grand Rapids, a Dying City," Grand Rapids decided to fight back.

(VIDEOTAPE OF GRAND RAPIDS CITIZENS SINGING/PLAYING, "AMERICAN PIE")

WHITFIELD: So the community got together to create a huge music video promoting Grand Rapids, as you see right there, 5,000 people showed up. The bid to break the world record for a (INAUDIBLE), performing Don McLean's "American Pie."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: This week we awoke to news that a major figure in the Balkan civil wars, an accused war criminal, was no longer on the run, this man, Ratko Mladic. We're used to seeing pictures of him in his general's uniform from the days when he allegedly committed war crimes and genocide in Bosnia. Well, CNN INTERNATIONAL's Ralitsa Vassileva is back.

And you can explain to us kind of the big picture why it took so long to find him. What were the circumstances and why is this so significant?

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, why it took so long and why now. It took almost 16 years since he was indicted in 1995. He lived openly for about five years, until President Slobodan Milosevic, who was shielding him himself was indicted. And he was extradited to The Hague to face justice.

That's when he kind of went underground. And prosecutors accused Serbia of not doing enough to find Mladic. So finally, three years ago, the elections were won by a more moderate president, Tadic, who went after him and finally they found him in 50 miles from Belgrade, the capital city.

But the timing is crucial because handing over Mladic was the biggest obstacle to Serbia really joining the rest of Europe, applying for candidacy in the European Union. And he's also facing elections next year. So all these little factors came together, analysts say, to push for this to happen.

WHITFIELD: But not necessarily alleging that the government didn't do enough in prior years if he was just a stone's throw away upon capture.

VASSILEVA: Well, we don't know -- we know that he was there for a few years. We don't know exactly where he was. Earlier on there were reports that he was shielded by military, by security. Although the president, Tadic, said that he didn't believe that at this point he was being shielded by the military, but he is going to investigate.

He was found in a relative's house and did not resist. He had some pistols there. He did not resist. He even congratulated the forces for finding him.

WHITFIELD: Maybe even got tired of running. You know, after a while...

VASSILEVA: Sixteen years.

WHITFIELD: ... just tired of hiding.

VASSILEVA: But the important thing, Fred, is that it sends a message that even though it takes a long time, even if you have support from the local population and you can hide, justice will catch up with you.

And that's what observers say that future military commanders like him who allegedly are willing to commit something like this, if this is proven true, will not go ahead and do such -- commit such atrocities.

And we can also look at Libya right now. Action was taken by the West before an atrocity was committed in Benghazi. So that's of huge significance of what has happened right now and hopefully in most cases at least we see that such acts are not going to take place.

WHITFIELD: And one other item I wanted to talk to you about, this between -- you know, the border between Egypt and Israel, this reopening after so many years. Now what?

VASSILEVA: Actually the border was closed, Egypt and Israel closed the border after Hamas, the militant Islamic group Hamas won elections about four years ago. But on the one hand, it did serve as -- it did block Hamas, but it also caused a lot of economic hardship to 1.3 million people who live in Gaza who had very little access to goods, to services, to be able to travel.

The concern in Israel is that there will be militants who will be able to smuggle some weapons, that militant attacks against Israel will increase as a result of this, although there are restrictions. Only women and children and men over 40 will be allowed without special visas. But it is a source of concern for Israel.

WHITFIELD: That was the fear before, and it's the fear that remains now.

VASSILEVA: Yes, and it also shows how this region is changing since the toppling of Mubarak, you have the military in power and they are more responsive now to what the people who sympathize with the Palestinians in Gaza want.

And they're facing elections in September. So you see how the whole region is changing and the calculations are different and Israel faces a whole different host of neighbors.

WHITFIELD: So Ralitsa Vassileva, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Good the see you back.

VASSILEVA: Good to be back.

WHITFIELD: After months of review, the criminal investigation into former presidential candidate John Edwards may be about to come to a head. Our legal guys are ready to jump on this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Is former presidential candidate John Edwards about to be indicted for alleged misuse of campaign money to cover up an affair? I put that question to our legal guys earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: There's, I think, little doubt that the Justice Department is going to indict John Edwards. But they're going to have to prove a case that is very novel both in facts and law. The bottom line on it is his big donor, Bunny Melon, gave him 4 million bucks, 700,000 of which is alleged to have been applied to Rielle Hunter, and a cover-up.

The campaign manager is dead. Bunny, by the way, Fredricka, is 100 years old, actually John Edwards went to visit her yesterday, and the only witness left, the discredited Andrew Young, the former campaign aide, that's it.

WHITFIELD: But about that money, prosecutors are going to have to prove that if there was money that was transferred to Rielle Hunter, that it came from that Melon money and not, perhaps, from John Edwards's own bank account, because he had money too.

FRIEDMAN: Sure.

WHITFIELD: So that's going to be difficult, is it not?

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, well, absolutely. Well, I don't think it's going to be difficult, Fred, since his former finance chairman, Fred Baron, already gave interviews with the government to say that he absolutely took that money and used it for a cover-up to cover up his relationship with her.

They will forensically trace the funds. The issue is violation of public trust. The Department of Justice is not going to put up with that. He raised some $49 million, $50 million from campaign donations. And if they applied any of that money to cover up his relationship, that's improper, that's what they will indict for, I guarantee you John Edwards's hair is all messed up these days and he's absolutely sweating this one out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can catch our legal guys every Saturday beginning at noon Eastern time.

All right. Forget windsurfing, why not reach higher and try kiteboarding this summer? It's a rapidly growing sport that actually uses a kite to propel surfers across the sea. Don't believe me, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILLY BOSCH, OWNER, GOOD BREEZE KITEBOARDING: I'm Billy Bosch, we're hear in Cocoa Beach at the Ron Jon Surf School, and we teach people how to kiteboard.

We get a lot of professionals, doctors, lawyers, the most we probably get are pilots and engineers.

It's a form of flying and sailing and so pilots are already kind of in touch with that.

DAMIEN LEROY, PRO KITEBOARDER: We're pumping up the kites. And we have got a bar here. We're going to set the lines on to the kites. How it works is push and pull. So what I'll do is I'll turn and I'll push with my outside and pull with the other, and that's what directs the kite and makes the kite steer left and right.

When I pull in on the bar, it creates more power and it wants to pull me. When I release the bar, it depowers the kite.

HARRY ANDREWS, KITEBOARD ENTHUSIAST: You get a lot of exercise. You burn a lot of good calories out there during the day. And it keeps you young because, I mean, you've got to carry all of your kite gear out, you've got to pump your kites up, carry your boards, and then you've got to battle the ocean. And it's a lot of fun. If you're not in shape, it will get you in shape.

OLIVER BERLIC, KITEBOARD INSTRUCTOR: Full body workout. You've got your legs, your core, shoulders, arms...

STEPHANIE BERLIC, KITEBOARD INSTRUCTOR: Everything.

O. BERLIC: Everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a life-changing experience to fly kites in the water. It's just incredible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. That does look incredible. So earlier in the NEWSROOM, I actually told you about a new Census Bureau data that has nothing to do with kite sailing over anything like that -- kiteboarding, but instead it's about married couples. Married couples now accounting for just 48 percent of all U.S. households. And I asked for your tweets as well. Some of your responses right here.

Twitter follower @MirzaG writes: "People focusing more on careers and less on marriage coming off the heels of a recession, not surprising."

And @HaniBABA writes: "Not surprised. Marriage has been on the decline. The benefits then are no longer the same today!"

And this from @18GolfHoles: "When first marriage fails, people race into second, and divorce rate is even higher."

More of your tweets next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: High gas prices have some people looking for more fuel-efficient cars. And if you go car shopping this weekend, you might actually have trouble finding the car that you want at the price that you can afford.

Our Alison Kosik explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two car dealerships, one problem.

RICK DESILVA, OWNER, LIBERTY SUBARU: I've never seen anything like this.

LAURA BOTSACOS, CO-OWNER, JAMES TOYOTA SCION: I've never experienced this before.

KOSIK: The devastating earthquake struck Japan more than two months ago, but some of the effects are just now hitting American soil. Automakers aren't operating at full speed and that means we could see a car shortage this summer.

DESILVA: We're probably going to get about, in round numbers, 70 cars a month. We'll be about 30 percent down for the normal numbers that we normally get for this time of year. So it's not great.

BOTSACOS: On a typical month you could be earning anywhere between 140 to 200 vehicles per month, right? So now we're in a situation where we are seeing that we are earning anywhere between 40 vehicles a month. That's a drastic reduction.

KOSIK: The auto industry has been through tough times before but what makes this situation so unique is that dealers don't know when things will get back to normal.

DESILVA: There is still a little bit of uncertainty as far as exactly when we're going to get cars, what we're going to get, what the numbers may be. There's really not a really good forecast, where normally you could forecast what you were going to get.

KOSIK (on camera): Why is it a problem business-wise to not be able to forecast?

DESILVA: Well, because you have to know whether or not you can pay your bills.

KOSIK (voice-over): And ultimately paying the bills is the issue.

BOTSACOS: We have a huge responsibility. We're responsible for people and, you know, we're also responsible for making sure that people's needs are met. It's -- so, yes, if you're -- let's put it this way, I don't sleep very well.

KOSIK: Unfortunately there's not much these business owners can do. They don't make the cars and they can't change what's available, so they are literally watching business walk out the door.

BOTSACOS: A woman walked in, she wanted a specific model. And it's fine people, when they want what they want. We didn't have it. And I just -- I didn't have it. I tried my best.

KOSIK: This is a supply and demand business. So with fewer cars available, prices are rising. Edmunds.com says overall car prices are up $350 since the earthquake. So if you want options and lower prices...

DESILVA: You really, really need to come out and start looking now if you want to get something.

BOTSACOS: If you are thinking about buying a vehicle this calendar year, now is the time. Because as we've all experienced, we just can't predict what may or may not happen.

KOSIK: Alison Kosik, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)