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U.S. Hikers Sentenced in Iran; Rebels: Tripoli is Next; 2011: Big Year for Weather Disasters; Community Pitching in for Somalia; High-Tech Board Games; Feeding Children; On the Books As Dead; Rapper's Tweet Jams Police Phone Lines; Atlanta Cheating Scandal Fallout; Moving Past Cheating Scandal; India's Modern Day Gandhi
Aired August 20, 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: Topping our news this hour, two Americans locked up in Iran on spying charges, and, according to Iranian state-run media, they have each been sentenced to eight years in prison. Iranian officials say the two men crossed the border from Iraq illegally.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is watching this case from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Again, this is being reported by state-run media, and specifically a judiciary source who is talking with them, telling them that the two hikers that remain in prison now, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, have been sentenced, as you said, to eight years. It's five years for spying, as they put it, the words, "cooperating with the American intelligence service;" and three years each for illegally crossing the border into Iran.
Now, this information, according to the lawyer, for the hikers, they've not officially - he's not officially been told this yet, so he's still waiting for that. Until then, is withholding comment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And a third American was arrested along with Fattal and Bauer. The Iranians released her last year due to medical reasons.
A military jet crashed today at an air show in the United Kingdom. It was one of the Royal Air Force's precision Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows. They were performing at a big aviation festival on England's Southern coast. No official word yet on the pilot's condition.
And rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi's army say they are in complete control of towns surrounding Tripoli, that Gadhafi's fuel and supplies are cut off and a stranglehold is in place that will now tighten. It's the most progress yet claimed by rebels as they push toward Tripoli.
CNN's Sara Sidner and her crew were caught in the middle of a firefight in the city of Zawiya today. Here's her report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just a 40- minute drive from Tripoli, rebels battle their way closer to the capital. This is the city of Zawiya. On this day, even if you could not see the firefight close up, you could hear its deafening sounds reverberating from the eastern part of the city.
(on camera): So it is just getting too close. There are snipers on tops of building. There's loud bangs. There's artillery fire. There are mortars. So we've got to get out of here.
(voice-over): Despite the firing around him, a rebel fighter who did not want to be identified to protect his family was confident of victory.
(on camera): Considering the fighting is fierce here in Zawiya, how long do you think you could push into Tripoli?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, in a couple of days.
SIDNER: A couple of days?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A couple of days or one week maybe.
SIDNER: You think it is that soon?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so because we are controlling 80 percent of Zawiya.
SIDNER (voice-over): But to push forward, they need to secure the whole city for Gadhafi's army is doing everything it can to keep a hold of this strategically important town.
(on camera): Why is Zawiya so important?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of oil factory.
SIDNER (voice-over): Zawiya has one of the last remaining functional oil refineries in the country and is the most direct supply route to the capital, Tripoli.
As of now, the rebels have captured the refinery. We are told there is a large amount of oil still left in the storage tanks.
But the opposition fighters say, for them, this is not about oil, it's about securing their homes and neighborhoods.
Most of the town is shuttered, abandoned by frightened residents, but some families remain. This family is staying put, including the children, even though missiles and mortars are falling around their home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): A person feels unsafe and can't rest because of the (INAUDIBLE) rockets. They hit us every night, but we are resisting by staying in our homes until liberty. But we do feel fear, especially for the children. SIDNER: She and the rebel fighters are convinced the end of the Gadhafi regime is near. But most here agree, trying to take control of nearby Tripoli will be one hell of a fight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And Sara Sidner joins us on the phone now from Zawiya.
So, Sara, while we see the forces are very active there, what about unarmed citizens? What are they thinking and feeling, and what are they doing to kind of protect themselves through all of this?
SIDNER (via telephone): That's a really good question, Fredricka, because we keep seeing just a few families. But we do see children, which is always sort of shocking, in one of these areas where literally there are bombs falling around their homes and inside the city. And what they're saying is we are scared, and sometimes their children are scared.
Sometimes, they will take them, for example, down to the basement. Sometimes you'll see them just up against the wall when - when they can hear firefight. But, a lot of times, what you start to notice is that the children have started to become accustomed, almost, to this kind of - of fighting in their city, and - and that is always hard to take from an adult's perspective, seeing a child who becomes used to seeing men with AK-47s roaming the streets and tanks roaming the streets. It becomes sort of an everyday kind of life for them.
But certainly sometimes there is definitely fear in their eyes, as there should be. There were definitely injuries from that firefight that you saw in those pictures just a - a few hours ago.
But I do want to give you an important update, Fredricka. We were in the city center today, which is the first time that we've been able to push in that far, and the troops from the Gadhafi forces have now been pushed outside of the city of Zawiya. So now, instead of taking control of 80 percent of the city, the rebels now appear to have taken control of the entire city of Zawiya. A big victory for them today.
WHITFIELD: Wow. That's incredible.
All right, Sara Sidner, keep - keep us posted there, from Zawiya.
Now, back in this country, an Indiana community is saying goodbye to a hero. Funeral services were held today for 49-year-old Glenn Goodrich, caught in the middle of this when this stage collapsed at a state fair. Goodrich's mother says her son saved the lives of a woman and a child who were near the stage when it fell.
Goodrich leaves behind a wife and two sons.
And on to California, a police officer, who is a former Oakland Raiderette, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Vacaville. She claims she was sexually harassed and teased for her cheerleader past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICOLE ROSENSTIEL, FORMER RAIDERETTE TURNED COP: Basically from the first day I arrived, I got snickers and comments about the way I looked, the fact that I was a prior Raiderette.
JERRY HOBRECHT, VACAVILLE CITY ATTORNEY: We have seen the claim and we don't feel that there's a lot of merit to her claim, and we plan to litigate this vigorously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Rosenstiel is seeking $1.5 million in damages.
And a 12-year-old Atlanta girl is being called a real life Nancy Drew after cracking a burglary case the police couldn't. Jessica Maple had just finished a summer forensic class when someone broke into her great grandmother's home.
Police investigated, but couldn't solve the crime, so Jessica did her own investigating. Not only did she track down the stolen items, she also tracked down the thief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA MAPLE, 12-YEAR-OLD CRIME FIGHTER: The investigator, he came and he was all, like, oh, my gosh, how did you find all this stuff here? I was coming here. And I was like, I did your job again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So, how did she do it? Find out tomorrow, when Jessica joins me with her remarkable story. That's at 2:00 Eastern time, right here on CNN.
Three people were killed as flashfloods swept through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last night. A car with a mother and two children inside was swept away.
Flooding was so bad, rescuers couldn't even see the vehicle until the water receded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY DEMICHIEI, PITTSBURGH EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We were right over top of the vehicle that, unfortunately, the victims were in and never knew they were there. I mean, the bottom of the boat didn't even scrape against the - the top of the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: One person is still missing. Police say 11 people climbed into trees to escape the rushing water that was nine feet deep in some places.
And in Wausaukee, Wisconsin strong winds flipped big trucks and cars onto their sides. The high winds damaged buildings and snapped dozens of trees in half. One man died when the roof of his trailer collapsed.
The National Weather Service is sending crews to determine if a tornado touched down.
So this has been quite a year of bad weather. Huge disasters. Let's bring in Jacqui Jeras. Record-breaking in a lot of ways - monetarily, damage, and lives lost.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. That's right. Yes.
Now we released a list this week, the top billion dollar weather disasters of 2011, and we tie with 2008, as of this point, for the most of them. There are nine so far, and it's only mid-August. We've got a long way to go. I think most of these you're going to remember, and they're really going to resonate with you.
We're going to start out with the first $9 billion disaster, and that's the Southeast Ohio Valley and Midwest tornado outbreaks. Remember Tuscaloosa, Alabama?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JERAS: Yes. I think we've got some video to show you of that one, just to refresh your memory a little bit. This was the deadliest tornado outbreak. An EF-5 hit Northern Alabama. Seventy-eight people were killed in that one. There were many, many other tornadoes that touched down in places like Birmingham, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and overall 327 people died from that outbreak.
All right, the next one, May 22nd to the 27th, another tornado outbreak, this one in the Midwest and then into the Southeast. Remember, Joplin, Missouri?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JERAS: You certainly can't forget that one. That was a $7 billion disaster, with this event. And, of course, Joplin just started school this week, and they're doing that in - in a mall -
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JERAS: -- because their school was destroyed, and that was -
WHITFIELD: They were determined to, you know, try and resume some kind of normalcy for the kids, at least.
JERAS: Yes. Yes. Good to know that they're back in school and they're learning.
An estimated 180 tornadoes from that outbreak, and 177 deaths overall.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.
JERAS: And that EF-5 that hit Joplin, that was the deadliest single tornado to strike the U.S. since modern tornado recordkeeping began in 1950. All right, let's move on to the next one.
This one is the drought and the wildfires that have been burning across the Southern Plains states and parts of the Southwest. Take a look at the pictures of the wildfires. Who could forget, for example, the Wallow fire in Arizona - New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Kansas and Western Arkansas and Louisiana all dealing with those terrible conditions, and as much as 75 to 63 percent of all range and pasture conditions in Texas and Oklahoma are classified as very poor. So big agricultural problem as a result of this as well, and over 2,000 homes and structures were lost as a result of these drought and these wildfires that have been ongoing there as well.
And then, as we move on, think of the flooding. Remember what's been happening across parts of the Mississippi River?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JERAS: That was spring and summer of - of this year, including Tunica, Mississippi, $4 billion in damages associated with this one. Remember the heavy rainfall that we had, the record snow pack that we had up north?
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JERAS: All of that came down, and we had record flooding in many areas.
Memphis, Tennessee had a lot of flooding. And, remember, we opened up some of those spillways that we've never done since they had been developed as well. So really (INAUDIBLE) year.
WHITFIELD: Hard to believe this is all in one year.
JERAS: I know. And it's only August.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: -- the eighth month.
JERAS: So what - one thing is missing on this list?
WHITFIELD: I know, the hurricane activity -
JERAS: I know. Hurricanes, right?
WHITFIELD: -- as we reach that peak portion of the season.
JERAS: And often as you take - as you take a look at lists from years past, you'll find hurricanes are often in the top five. So we're just getting started with the - the peak of hurricane season, and unfortunately we're probably going to beat that record now from 2008.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui. Thanks for putting all that in perspective for us.
JERAS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate that.
All right, so massive crowds, by the way, overseas, gathering for World Youth Day. We'll look at what firefighters did to actually keep them cool there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking international headlines now.
In Spain, ecstatic crowds joined the Pope to celebrate the final weekend of World Youth Day. The 84-year-old Pope held a mass at Madrid's massive cathedral this morning.
Pilgrims are also enduring searing temperatures there to join the Pope for an evening prayer vigil. That's why firefighters sprayed the crowds with water hoses to try to cool them down.
In Myanmar, long time opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has vowed to work with the president for the country's national interest. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who spent much of the past 20 years under house arrest, was released in November.
It is her first meeting with the president. In March, the military handed power over to him.
And in New Delhi, India, it is the fifth day of Anna Hazare's hunger strike. The activist is protesting systematic corruption in India's federal and judicial institutions.
Ralitsa Vassileva will be joining us in about 30 minutes from now to talk about the situation in India.
And it may be a world away, but what's happening right now in Somalia hits home. More than 12 million people in that region are in desperate need of food, and there is a special community here in the U.S. that is seizing this human catastrophe as a call to action.
CNN's Jill Dougherty reports from Minneapolis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tonight we'll be working with this. This is our rice Manna Pack.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Monday night in Minneapolis. One hundred fifty volunteers, many of them Somali Americans, are here to pack food for famine victims. This Christian charity, Feed My Starving Children, has pledged to send five million meals to the Horn of Africa.
Saciido Shaie has family in Somalia.
SACIIDO SHAIE, SOMALI AMERICAN: I'm glad that, you know, everybody is getting the food. MARK CREA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN: This is simply the - the ideal, the perfect food for a child that's starving. Designed by food scientists here in Minnesota, it has all of the nutrients to rebuild that child.
DOUGHERTY: Minneapolis is home to the largest number of Somalis in the United States - 50,000 to 70,000, many of whom fled the civil war in their homeland.
At the Carmel Mall, almost everyone seems to have family back home, and for years they've been sending remittances to their relatives.
HALIMA SHEIK, SOMALI AMERICAN: I have relatives in Mogadishu.
DOUGHERTY (on camera): Are they OK?
SHEIK: Everybody's hungry.
DOUGHERTY (voice-over): But in war torn Somalia, terrorized by the al Qaeda linked group al-Shabaab, money has disappeared. Halima Sheik says she's donating to the American Refugee Committee, which works with the U.S. State Department.
DANIEL WORDSWORTH, AMERICAN REFUGEE COMMITTEE: Never before has a Diaspora community been so desperately needed.
DOUGHERTY: State Department official Don Yamamoto visits Somali communities across the country. The famine, he says, has brought communities together.
DON YAMAMOTO, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: Not only the youth, but also youth with their - their parents and elders.
DOUGHERTY: The famine has galvanized Somali American students, like Shukri Abdinur, who just graduated.
SHUKRI ABDINUR, SOMALI AMERICAN: We've done car washes. We've done picnics. We've done - we've done grocery bagging.
DOUGHERTY: This is the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day and eat bountiful meals at night. Student Faduma Abdulle tells me she thinks all the time about people who don't have the luxury of fasting.
FADUMA ABDULLE, SOMALI AMERICAN: In Somalia, people don't get to eat at night. People don't get to eat at all. They're lucky if they even get to have a drink.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The total number of meals that you've created tonight in just under an hour and a half time, commitment time, was 15,552 meals.
DOUGHERTY: Boxes ready to be shipped to refugee camps in Kenya.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good and gracious God, we thank you so much that you provide so much for us. DOUGHERTY: Forty-three children will be able to eat for an entire year because of the food these volunteers have packed this evening.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Minneapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And you can help the starving people of Somalia. CNN can show you how. Go online now and visit Cnn.com/Impact.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: So, board games have been around for generations, but two MIT graduates are giving them a high tech upgrade.
Gary Tuchman brings us the story in this "Technovations."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't be fooled. This is no ordinary video game. They're called Sifteos, electronic cubes that communicate with each other wirelessly.
But inventors Jeevan Kalanithi and David Merrill say old- fashioned games were the inspiration.
DAVID MERRILL, SIFTEO: What we used to think of when we talked about social games was checkers, board games, where you sat around the table with other people, face to face and played games with pieces on the table. We're bringing these two great play traditions together.
TUCHMAN: The colorful cubes present all kinds of possibilities.
JEEVAN KALANITHI, SIFTEO: Little, miniature games that are all about sorting numbers and spelling words, things like that.
TUCHMAN: The MIT graduates say multiple players and movement combine the best of the old with the new, creating a whole new gaming experience.
MERRILL: Video games came along, and video games are awesome because they're interactive, but they lose some element of this face to face dynamic of play with game pieces.
KALANITHI: This is a great moment in history where computing is getting to the point, and sensing is getting to the point where we can build devices that understand how people work in the world naturally.
TUCHMAN: Technology that speaks to the way we play.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Desperately facing starvation, thousands of children depend on the work of a CNN Hero. That's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Reaching children at risk, one CNN Hero helps provide food to thousands of children a day in Northern Kenya. Our Anderson Cooper reintroduces us to Magnus MacFarlane and his organization.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As millions struggle across the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa in what the U.N. Refugee Agency is calling the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, CNN Hero Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow's organization, Mary's Meals, is in the middle of the crisis.
MAGNUS MACFARLANE-BARROW, CNN HERO: We've been working in northern Kenya for about four years now. We've seen the situation worsen steadily.
Today, around one-third of the children are malnourished and so we have a real situation of life and death. And, because of that, we're trying desperately to expand our program to reach more children at risk.
COOPER: Since 2006, Mary's Meals has been feeding thousands of young children in schools across the region.
MACFARLANE-BARROW: The mission of Mary's Meals is about linking food to education, allow education to be the light out of poverty for their whole community.
COOPER: In recent weeks, Magnus' organization has responded to the drought crisis by feeding an additional 6,000 children daily, 24,000 in all, the kind of important global work for which Magnus was named a Top Ten CNN Hero last year and received an Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth. But Magnus remains laser-focused on the critical work in Africa.
MACFARLANE-BARROW: As part of our East African emergency response, we intend to reach many more thousands of children, and we'll do that as funds allow us to.
COOPER: Many more thousands of children to be supported by an organization already feeding half a million children daily in 16 impoverished countries.
MACFARLANE-BARROW: It's so much just about the will of people to share a little of what they have in order that these children can be fed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: If you know someone who deserves special recognition, just go to CNNHeroes.com.
The Social Security Administration killed a woman in New York City. Well, she was declared deceased, according to the government's computer system, but wait until you hear the headaches that she actually had to go through to prove that, no, she's not dead. She's very much alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A Brooklyn woman has been trying to prove to the government that she is alive. That's because a human error years ago changed her social security status to deceased.
CNN's Allan Chernoff found out that such government goof ups can very easily happen to you too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." That quote, attributed to Mark Twain, certainly applies to thousands of social security recipients every year, including one elderly woman we met who received some very untimely news from the Social Security Administration.
(voice-over): Marjorie Louer is a healthy and vibrant 94-year-old, yet the Social Security Administration thought she died five years ago.
(on camera): You look very much alive to me.
MARJORIE LOUER, LISTED AS DEAD BY SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM: I feel alive now, but at one time I didn't.
CHERNOFF: Was that because of what the Social Security Administration told you?
LOUER: Yes. Exactly. Yes. In fact, one young clerk looked me in the face and told me I was dead and I said, but I'm standing right here.
CHERNOFF: Marjorie went to her local bank to get some cash, but her ATM card wouldn't work. When she went inside, a bank officer cut the card up right in front of her and said, according to our records, you're dead.
LOUER: And I explained to her, well, I didn't feel dead, but she insisted that I was. And, from there, I -
CHERNOFF: To your face?
LOUER: To my face.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Someone inside the Social Security Administration had accidentally typed in incorrect digit while recording the number of a person who had recently died, leading the computers to believe Marjorie was the decedent.
It happens all the time. About 14,000 times a year, according to the Social Security Administration. What's more, when someone is recorded as deceased, their Social Security Number and address are recorded in the Death Master File that the public can purchase, raising the risk of identity theft for those who have already suffered the ultimate insult of being declared dead.
Social Security told CNN, "Mistakes do happen and there isn't a process where there will be zero mistakes. We try to correct these situations as quickly as we can."
Marjorie quickly had the mistake corrected. Proving her identity to the bank and notifying Social Security which sent her two months of missed payments. Both Social Security and Citibank mailed apology letters, but the memory of having been killed off remains a bitter one for Marjorie.
LOUER: It's a dreadful experience to go through. You laugh and your friends joke with you, but inside you're feeling pretty sad about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Social Security says it could be nearly error free if every state participated in a computerized system called Electronic Death Registration. But only two-thirds of the states do apparently because of a lack of federal funding for the program - Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. Two Americans locked up in Iran on spying charges learn today of reports that they have each been sentenced to eight years in prison. Iranian officials say the two men crossed the border from Iraq illegally. A third American was arrested along with the men, the Iranian released her last year due to medical reasons.
An uncertainty is swirling this weekend about the near future plans for Moammar Gadhafi. A government spokesman says the long time Libyan leader is not going anywhere despite rebel claims that Gadhafi is asking the governments of several other countries for refuge. U.S. officials say Gadhafi may be preparing for a last stand in Tripoli.
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department says the rapper known as Game wouldn't face criminal charges for a tweet gone awry.
Here's what happened. Last week the Compton, California Sheriff's Station was flooded with hundreds of calls causing the phone system to shut down. Investigators traced those calls back to the rapper Game's twitter account, which promised an internship and a number to call. The rapper says the tweet was a prank gone wrong. The L.A. Sheriff's Department says the prank was no joke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. MIKE PARKER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: The people that were legitimately calling through with important calls would include two robberies, a spousal assault, a missing person, hit and run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: I spoke to Game about the incident and here's what he said happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GAME, RAPPER: It was hacked but it was by my friend. Like I said, we were just - my phone was laying around and whatever. You know, his phone is laying around. My phone is laying around. We always tweet from each other's page. So that's what, you know, that's what happened.
WHITFIELD: OK. So what's your response to the L.A., you know, Police, which they're saying legitimate calls about assaults and accident calls didn't make it through because of this mishap?
GAME: It's a real sensitive subject. I never want to be, you know, the source of anything happening wrong to anybody or anyone not being able to get through the help lines at the police station. But it was - it's a 10-digit toll-free number and, you know, when people are in trouble, you know, they call 911. That's not to take away from the police, you know, them doing a job or them saying that there was a robbery or something happened.
I don't ever want to see anybody hurt. I got kids at home, a woman at home. Like I don't, you know, I'm not that guy. So, you know, definitely my sincerest apologies to, you know, the Sheriff's Department. Like I said, it was just a joke gone wrong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: So the Outlaw Enforcement says it's a problem, swatting. It's a type of hacking that leaves emergency services to phony crimes. Authorities say it is downright dangerous. Earlier today, I got our legal guys talking all about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: What is happening here is groups of individuals or individuals for revenge or for jealousy or ego, not for money, go after target individuals, get into their Xbox, make up these scenarios where these people are being held at gunpoint, they have been slashed, they're holding their parents.
And what happens is when law enforcement hears this and gets it, they dispatch SWAT teams to try to break it up because they can't tell if it's a prank or it's real.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
HERMAN: -- or it's real. It costs about $10,000. It could be a lot of problems. People could get killed in these raids -
WHITFIELD: Right.
HERMAN: -- and it's very dangerous. Federal - federal penalties for this. Federal - using the wires.
WHITFIELD: So, Avery, this is dangerous. This is costly. And the sad thing about this, another sad thing about it is the people who are doing the hacking, they often get away with this because it's very difficult for authorities to then trace and track down who is responsible for this.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yes. 911 systems, Fredricka, actually were created around 1968, long before this technology. So the difficulty is that technically it's hard - technologically it's hard to get a hold of these people, but what these cyber freaks are doing, these social misfits are doing is they're bragging about it.
And since late 2010, Congress decided to do something about it. They enacted the Truth in Caller I.D. Act. And Richard is right. The penalty is up to five years in the penitentiary. If you're engaged in fraud, up to 20 years. And, in fact, there's a man in Massachusetts who this year was convicted. He's spending 11 years in the penitentiary for swatting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And you can catch our Legal Guys every Saturday noon, Eastern.
No ordinary school year in Atlanta as the fallout from an unprecedented cheating scandal mounts. Find out what's happening to the educators accused of inflating test scores and the students caught in the middle. What about them?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Atlanta public school students are seeing plenty of new faces as they start the new year. A state investigation implicated nearly 200 teachers and principals in a massive cheating scandal. And those educators have been replaced in the classroom with interim staff.
CNN's Julie Peterson visited one school severely impacted by this scandal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE SETTLEMAYER, NEW PRINCIPAL, DOBBS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: All right, ladies. Did you have breakfast?
JULIE PETERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Principal Pete Settlemayer has his work cut out for him in his new job at Atlanta's Dobbs Elementary School, hired just 10 days before the start of classes.
SETTLEMAYER: You're going to make Mr. Settlemayer cry in a moment. Here, hold on to that. Let's tie these shoes.
PETERSON: At a school with more than 550 students, most of Settlemayer's responsibilities are obvious.
SETTLEMAYER: Well, I know we have one child with severe chronic asthma. PETERSON: Like motivating.
But there will be even greater challenges for Settlemayer, who was brought in as interim replacement for a principal implicated in Atlanta's test cheating scandal, cheating not by the students but by their teachers and administrators. One hundred seventy-eight teachers and principals were accused of either changing student's answers to improve scores on standardized tests or failing to stop the cheating from occurring.
At Settlemayer's school, the principal and four teachers were implicated and have been placed on administrative leave.
SETTLEMAYER: I think my job as well as any other school leader's job is to create culture and positive culture. Give yourself a big pat on the back because that's amazing.
PETERSON: His message to teachers appears to be sinking in.
SETTLEMAYER: We have a family and, you know, families change either through marriage or either through death and our family is changing but in a positive way.
RUBY CHAMPION, TEACHER, DOBBS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: His positivity has really rubbed off on the rest of us here. So when you have a great leader, it really guides us and we're just following his lead and we're supporting him 100 percent.
PETERSON: And there's one point he emphasizes when talking with teachers and staff.
SETTLEMAYER: The one thing that I did not care about was the standardized tests, the CRCT tests. I said what I care about most is that we can bring a child in here with a certain set of knowledge and that they exit in May with a greater sense and a greater understanding of the world they live in.
PETERSON (on camera): It sounds like you think people will moved on, the staff, the families.
SETTLEMAYER: Sure. And I probably would be naive to think that, you know, there isn't some skepticism out there or some, you know, what's it going to be like? And I try and be as proactive as possible.
Excellent job, Miss Champions' class. Have a fabulous Friday, OK?
STUDENTS: OK.
SETTLEMAYER: You can either wallow in the past and think about all of the things that could have happened, or you can think of the things that need to happen.
PETERSON (voice-over): Julie Peterson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: Also focusing on the future, the city's new school superintendent, Errol Davis replaced retired superintendent Beverly Hall, who was implicated in the Atlanta public school test cheating scandal and he joins us live now.
So, Mr. Davis, good to see you. I'll ask you about where that investigation goes, et cetera, but for now, you know, let's talk about the investigation and your focus right now, your focus to kind of restore some confidence in the public school system, the students, the parents, how do you prioritize that when there are so much to tackle at once?
ERROL DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: You're correct. There is a lot to tackle. We certainly - I as on the job for two days and the scandal was dropped into my lap and I certainly have to deal with that. And we removed quite a few teachers and principals and administrators and we had to struggle to replace them before school started.
And the schools are now open. They opened for the most part with a full complement of teachers. We had some substitutes at the high school level on particular courses where specialties where we have difficulty attracting teachers always. But at the elementary level, we had a full complement. It's up. It's running. And I'm starting to worry about not only day to day, but strategic problems and challenges.
WHITFIELD: And sometimes before you can look forward, you do have to look back. It means investigating how did this come to be? You know, how deep is this scandal, how complicit, involved, were educators.
So in that, is there an internal investigation as well as, you know, criminal investigations that are under way?
DAVIS: Well, let me first put this in context. We had 178 people who were implicated in the cheating scandal out of a complement of in excess of 3,000 teachers. So most of our teachers do a wonderful job every day. They're very committed, very hard working, and they are angry. They're angry and they are grieving that they've been tarred with this very broad brush of cheating. And they are adamant that they didn't and if anything it is motivating them to prove it and by working harder.
WHITFIELD: And the cheating has meant that the standardized testing that was under way, some teachers were - were allowing students to move on when perhaps some students needed a little bit more assistance in learning in certain fields. So in the end, it's the student who was failed by the system.
How do you reach out to those or identify some of those kids that are still in the public school system to try to address their needs as a result of cheating that may have taken place on the administrative teaching level?
DAVIS: Well, we're - we are candidly wrestling with the issue of how - how do you identify a child who needed help in 2009, who's had two more years of schooling and they may have in fact caught up. And so I believe the answer is going to be we're going to assist every child and those children that are not where they should be, we will provide them additional assistance because I think it's almost impossible to identify every child that was harmed or implicated by cheating.
WHITFIELD: We've heard it on the federal level from the Education Department, the standardized testing should be optional now in many school districts. You're a product of public schools. Standardized testing perhaps was not being utilized when you were in public schools.
So at this juncture, are you kind of feeling like, you know, Atlanta public schools needs to reconsider standardized testing or are you married to that idea?
WHITFIELD: Well, I am first no great fan of high stakes single point testing. I believe that the children as well as the teachers should be judged on the body of their work, not just in an instant snapshot of it. But also you should understand that we don't have all the flexibility that we would like to have. Many of the tests are mandated by the state. Some are mandated by the federal government. And so we will comply with the law, but how we evaluate teachers will be focused more on what value are they adding to the student and how do we measure that over time.
WHITFIELD: What do you suppose one of the greatest memories of your public school experience that you think might be missing now from public schools that you hope as a new superintendent to perhaps bring back to public school education?
DAVIS: Well, like every person of my generation, of course, we were always smarter and more disciplined. But I think the aspect of classroom discipline is a little bit different today. The challenges are a little bit different. We are a microcosm of society and we have a lot of societies, challenges, which didn't exist when I was a child in our classroom. Our teachers hopefully are trained to deal with -
WHITFIELD: So things outside of the classroom -
DAVIS: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: -- that you're talking about, challenges that need to be addressed.
DAVIS: Yes, absolutely. Issues of poverty and hunger, we have significant number of students that we feed not only one, but two meals a day because you really can't learn when you're hungry.
WHITFIELD: Quickly, how does that get addressed then outside of the classroom?
DAVIS: Well -
WHITFIELD: If you're talking poverty and families are strapped, it's difficult. They don't have any other options. How do we as a country help address that? DAVIS: Well, you know, I'm on a centralized policymaker in Washington. But, again, we have to get this economy going and depending upon what side of the political spectrum you're on, you can either talk about stimulus - stimulus to get it going or you can talk about balancing budgets to get it going. And probably the truth lies somewhere between the two of those.
WHITFIELD: Atlanta public schools superintendent, Errol Davis, thanks so much.
DAVIS: Thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: Nice to meet you. All the best on your new endeavor.
DAVIS: Thank you. I'll need it.
WHITFIELD: Leaving the corporate world and now into the public school system. Thank you very much.
DAVIS: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
WHITFIELD: A man in India is being called the modern day Gandhi. He's on a public hunger strike and people throughout the nation are rallying to his cause. His message, and whether India's leaders are listening next.
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WHITFIELD: Across India today, people are packing public spaces and loudly marching, showing their support for one man who many people say is a modern day Mahatma Gandhi. His name, Anna Hazare. He's a long- time Indian activist who is on a hunger strike and today is day five. He very openly invokes the images of Gandhi and his protest is against what he calls the out of control corruption that Indian people endure in their every day lives.
Let's talk more about this man with CNN International's Ralitsa Vassileva from CNN International. I said that, didn't I?
Anyway, let's talk about, you know, who he is and how he has - he is being recognized, isn't he, widely as kind of the new Gandhi?
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's a 74-year- old anti-corruption campaigner. Has complained (ph) for a long time. But this time, he has struck a nerve nationwide because Indians are really disgusted with the corruption which pervades society, from - from the policeman who's taking a bribe, from a vegetable vendor in order to get them a permit to sell his vegetables to voters who are being courted by politicians -
WHITFIELD: So he's been recognized kind of as a man of the people.
VASSILEVA: Yes. As a man of the people, he's wearing the homespun clothes. You see those clothes that Gandhi used to wear. His tactics are the same. A hunger strike, he's having water, that's the only thing he's having right now. But some have criticized his - his tactics as going too far, undermining parliamentary democracy because he's trying to impose his idea of a legislation that he thinks will tackle corruption on parliament by threatening to end his life.
WHITFIELD: So what are parliament or government officials saying, doing in response?
VASSILEVA: The prime minister came out today and said that he's willing to negotiate with him. But he wants a national consensus. He's come out this week saying that the goals of Hazare are noble. He respects them. He supports them. However, the way he wants to achieve them, are really a threat to India's parliamentary democracy. There's got to be a national consensus.
So he's offered dialogue, but they can't agree on legislation. The legislation that's before parliament is too weak according to Hazare. He wants a broader, wider legislation. And he's going to be fasting. He's given the government 15 days -
WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. And we're on day four?
VASSILEVA: -- to draft his version of the legislation. And India has a law for hunger strikes that the government can start force feeding him or just give him sustenance and not allow him to die. But analysts say that they think that they're going to work out something.
WHITFIELD: Interesting.
VASSILEVA: There's going to be some negotiation.
WHITFIELD: Wow. And certainly getting a lot of attention, not just in India, but abroad as well. Ralitsa Vassileva, thanks so much.
VASSILEVA: A broad section of society is supporting him in India.
WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted on this. Thank you.
All right. Pet owners, listen up. You may be a little bit curious about this next item and it really kind of underscores the curiosity people have about what dogs might be saying to one another. It's coming up. We'll let you in on the conversation between -
VASSILEVA: Oh, my God (ph).
WHITFIELD: And me, too. Conversation between two pooches, coming up.
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WHITFIELD: Oh, this is something that every pet owner will be able to relate to. You just want to know, what's your animal saying?
JERAS: You know they talk, too.
WHITFIELD: They do. And this is the case of two dogs who were talking to one another. And this has gone viral. Take a look and listen.
Oh. So read the subtitle. This is by the pet owners. This is what they've deciphered this is what they've been talking.
Come on, let's play little one, I'm not feeling good.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: I'm the alpha. I know.
JERAS: They like howling like no. I don't want to play.
WHITFIELD: Apparently, they're sister, these Siberian huskies by the name of Mishka -
JERAS: Mishka.
WHITFIELD: -- and Lyca. And it's so cute.
JERAS: There were a ton of videos with the two of them, by the way. So if you like this, there's more on YouTube.
WHITFIELD: And people love watching the pets stuff. I would watch this all day long, too.
JERAS: You know, that's what they're saying.
WHITFIELD: This is why it's gone viral, 800,000 views on YouTube. Come on.
JERAS: They're so cute. Eight hundred thousand and one after me.
WHITFIELD: Thankfully people know exactly what we're saying all the time. Right, Jacqui?
JERAS: Of course, they do. Right? I don't want to come back on TV.
WHITFIELD: No.
JERAS: No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
WHITFIELD: No.
JERAS: I'm kidding.
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