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Congress Again Risks Government Shutdown; President Obama Speaks at LinkedIn Town Hall Meeting; The 'CSI Effect'

Aired September 26, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Build a network, grow your brand, connect, and link in. For the 21st century job seeker and the president, who hopes to keep his job, those are all records to live by.

So, President Obama, who's done virtual town halls at Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, takes questions this hour on LinkedIn, the business-oriented social networking site. He'll be pitching his plan to lower the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate through a combination of infrastructure spending and tax breaks totaling $447 billion.

A live audience is in place at the Computer History Museum. That's in Mountain View, California. And who you see there, that's CEO Jeff Weiner giving the introduction right now. But questions will come online as well.

All right. Back in Washington now, the top Senate Democrat predicts reasonable heads will prevail in the latest showdown that could bring a government shutdown. Others aren't so sure.

If you're counting, only four days remain in fiscal 2011, which means only four days remain for Republicans and Democrats to agree on a spending plan that, by Washington's standards, isn't all that big and isn't all that controversial.

What controversy there is centers on FEMA in a year jam-packed with disasters. FEMA says its emergency relief fund will run out, be completely depleted as soon as Wednesday.

House Republicans want to give the agency roughly $3.6 billion and offset some of it with cuts in clean emergency programs. Senate Democrats want to spend almost $7 billion and offset none of it.

A Senate compromise due to be voted on today would accept the House figure and eliminate the offsets. But even if it passes, the prospects are still uncertain.

For one thing, the House is in recess. Here's another thing. We've been through this before, remember? More than once. Yes, this year.

When people talk about broken government, this is what they mean. But guess what? People inside government think it's broken too.

My colleague Candy Crowley talks to them every week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the third time this year, a congressional stare-down threatens a government shutdown.

(on camera): Let me start with you, Senator Warner, and ask you if there is a point at which you think this is embarrassing.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Yes, it is embarrassing.

CROWLEY: Are we there?

WARNER: Can we once again inflict on the country and the American people the spectacle of a near-government shutdown? I sure as heck hope not.

CROWLEY (voice-over): The U.S. government runs out of money at the end of this week unless a temporary spending bill is passed on Capitol Hill. Inside the House version is money to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, which assists disaster victims -- tornadoes in Joplin, hurricanes in the Northeast.

The remarkable thing is that basically Congress can't agree on something everyone is for, funding FEMA. The crux of the matter is how and when to decide how to pay for it.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The House version says a disaster has to be dealt with. We're going to help people who have been affected by disasters, but we're going to start cutting the government in other places where the money is not so important.

CROWLEY: Senate Democrats have rejected the House version, saying Republicans are proposing to pay for increased FEMA funds with cutbacks in programs that create jobs. Nobody's budging -- ergo stalemate, a looming shutdown, and the politics that ensue.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: I'll give the Senate Democratic Leader most of the credit. He manufactured a crisis all week about disaster when there's no crisis. Everybody knows we're going to pay for every single penny of disaster aid that the president declares and that FEMA certifies.

WARNER: One point about who to blame or not to blame on this current, hopefully non-shutdown, is that there is a group. And I do believe it is mostly Senate and the House in terms of these some of these Tea Party Republicans, who is say on every issue, we're going to make this a make or break.

CROWLEY: Pointing fingers about an impending shutdown can be good politics, but an actual shutdown is likely to hurt any politician in a 50-mile radius of Washington. Odds are good they'll figure this out. They have until Friday.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KAYE: It's not clear when the Senate might vote on the latest stopgap funding plan, though we still expect it today. And we will of course keep you posted.

Now let's listen in for a bit to President Obama. He's at that LinkedIn town hall meeting. Let's see what he has to say.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And also make sure we're providing small businesses the kinds of tax incentives that will allow them to hire and allow them to succeed. And I have said to Congress I understand that there's an election 14 months away, and it's tempting to say that we're not going to do anything until November of 2012, but the American people cannot afford to wait. The American people need help right now. And all the proposals we've put forward in the American Jobs Act will not only help us now, but will also help us in the future, will lay the foundation for our long-term success.

The last point I'll make, and then I want to get to questions, it's all paid for. And it's paid for in part by building on some very tough cuts in our budget to eliminate waste and things we don't need that we've already made $1 trillion over the next 10 years. We've proposed an additional half a trillion dollars over the next 10 years of spending cuts and adjustments on programs that we want to keep intact but haven't been reformed in too long. But what I've also said is, in order to pay for it and bring down the deficit at the same time, we're going to have to reform our tax code in a way that's fair and make sure that everybody is doing their fair share.

I've said this before, I'll say it again. Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't be paying a lower tax rate than Warren Buffett. Somebody who's making $50,000 a year as a teacher shouldn't be paying a higher tax rate than somebody like myself or Jeff, who have been incredibly blessed. I don't know what you make, Jeff, but I'm just guessing.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, who have been blessed by the incredible opportunities of this country.

And I say that because whenever America's moved forward, it's because we've moved forward together. And we're going to have to make sure that we have laying the foundation for the success of future generations, and that means that each of us are doing our part to make sure we're investing in our future.

So, with that, thank you so much for the terrific venue. I look forward to a bunch of great questions, both live and through whatever other linkages that we've got here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got it.

So we're going to be going back and forth between folks in the audience members and some previously generated questions from the LinkedIn group.

So we're going to start. Our first question is from LinkedIn member Chuck Painter (ph).

And Chuck, we're going to get you a mike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Mr. President.

OBAMA: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Austin, Texas. I've been in sales in the plastics industry for 20 years. I lost my job in 2009 and am fortunate enough to have found another position, become reemployed.

My question is, what can we do as American citizens to unite ourselves and help the economy?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, are you a native of Austin? Because that's one of my favorite cities in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, I'm a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, but just relocated to Austin, and I love it there.

OBAMA: Austin's great. Charlotte's not bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: That's the reason I'm having my convention in Charlotte, because I love North Carolina as well.

But how long did it take you to find a new job after you got laid off?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It took nine months.

OBAMA: It took nine months?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

OBAMA: And that's one of the challenges that a lot of folks are seeing out there. You've got skilled people with experience in an industry. That industry changes.

And you were fortunate enough to be able to move. Some folks, because of the decline in the housing industry, are having trouble with mobility and finding new jobs and relocating in pursuit of opportunity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

OBAMA: But the most important thing that we can do right now is to help jump-start the economy, which has stalled, by putting people back to work. And so, not surprisingly, I think the most important thing we can do right now is pass this jobs bill. Think about it. Independent economists have estimated that if we pass the entire package, the American Jobs Act, we would increase GDP by close to two percent, we would increase employment by 1.9 million persons. And that is the kind of big, significant move in the economy that can have ripple effects and help recovery take off.

Now, there's been a lot of dispute about the kind of impact that we had right after the financial crisis hit, but the fact is, the vast majority of economists who have looked at it have said that the Recovery Act, by starting infrastructure projects around the country, by making sure that states had help on their budgets so they didn't have to lay of teachers and firefighters and others, by providing tax cuts to small businesses -- and by the way, we've cut taxing about 16 times since I've been in office for small businesses to give them more capital to work with and more incentives to hire -- all those things made a big difference.

The American Jobs Act is specifically tailored to putting more of those folks back to work. It's not going to solve all of problems. We've still got a housing situation in which too many homes are under water, and one of the things that we've proposed as part of the American Jobs Acts is that we're going to help reduce the barriers to refinancing so that folks can get record low rates. That will put more money into people's pockets.

It will provide tax cuts to not only small businesses, but almost every middle class family. That means they've got more money in their pockets, and that means they're going to be able to spend it on products and services which provide additional incentives to hire folks like you. So, it's the right step to take right now.

Long term, we're going to have to pull together around making sure our education system is the best in the world, making sure our infrastructure is the best in the world, continuing to invest in science and technology. We've got to stabilize our finances. And we've got to continue to drive down health care costs, which are a drag on our own economy. And we've got to continue to promote trade, but make sure that that trade is fair and that intellectual property protection, for example, is available when we're doing business in other countries like China.

So, there are a lot of long-term agendas that we've got to pursue. Right now, though, the most important thing I can do for you, even if you already have a job, is to make sure that your neighbors and your friends also have jobs, because those are ultimately the customers for your products.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you.

KAYE: You've been listening to the president there speaking in Mountain View, California, talking taxes, talking jobs, certainly pushing his jobs plan.

We'll let that go for a moment, but we'll have much more on that later on in the program. In other news, meanwhile, there's new uncertainty surrounding the Republican presidential race -- apologies for the sirens here in Los Angeles -- following a pair of weekend straw poll votes. Front-runner Rick Perry came in a distant second in both Michigan and Florida. Mitt Romney won the Michigan straw poll. That's not particularly shocking since Romney was born in Michigan and his father was a Michigan governor.

The big surprise was in Florida, where underdog Herman Cain pulled off a stunning upset. Cain got 37 percent of the vote in the Presidency 5 straw poll. Perry got only 15 percent.

Overseas, there's been another attack on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan in an annex used by the CIA. An Afghan employee opened fire last night, killing a U.S. citizen. Officials say security personnel then killed the gunman. One or two other people suffered some minor wounds.

Two weeks ago, Taliban militants staged a 20-hour attack on the embassy. There's no word yet on whether militants were behind yesterday's attack or whether it was just the work of a disgruntled employee.

College Republicans plan to cook up some controversy tomorrow with a bake sale at the University of California at Berkeley. They say they will sell baked goods at differing prices determined by -- get this -- race.

Prices will range from $2 for white men to $1 for Latino men to 75 cents for black men and 25 cents for Native Americans. All women will get a 25-cent discount. Campus Republicans say it's a protest of pending legislation that would allow California universities to consider race and national origin in the student admission process. We'll have much more on this story later on in the hour.

One of two Fullerton, California, police officers charged with beating a homeless man to death entered a not guilty plea today. Manuel Ramos is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas. Prosecutors say that the homeless man begged for his life as Ramos and another officer tasered him and beat him.

The judge has scheduled a November 4th pretrial hearing for Ramos. That is the same day as the scheduled hearing for the other defendant, Corporal Jay Cicinelli. Cicinelli entered a not guilty plea last week.

Up next -- and you are not going to believe this -- how America's love for crime dramas -- yes, crime dramas like "CSI" -- could be helping the guilty go free in real life. You'll want to know what's going on here. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The trial of the King of Pop's former physician begins tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. Eastern, 8:45 Pacific, right here in Los Angeles. Dr. Conrad Murray is facing involuntary manslaughter charges.

He's accused of giving Michael Jackson a fatal dose of this very powerful sleeping medication called Propofol in 2009. Twelve jurors, seven men and five women, will report to court, in addition to five alternates, to decide the fate of the former physician.

Of the 12, two watch crime-solving shows. Yes, we actually know what kind of television they watch.

Why? Because it was asked of them during last week's intense jury selection process. Many attorneys believe that shows like "CSI" can make jurors expect the same kind of evidence that they see on television, something that's really not possible in all cases. It's been called the "CSI Effect."

CNN's Ted Rowlands reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jurors in the Conrad Murray case will hear testimony from crime scene investigators and from the coroner, but it won't be like an episode of "CSI."

Many attorneys believe that shows like "CSI" can have an effect on real jury trials. They say some jurors who watch the shows expect to be shown the same kind of clear evidence that they see on TV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "CSI")

ROBERT DAVID HALL, ACTOR: Let's take a look at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "CSI")

HALL: Our show has impacted the culture, I guess you'd say, to the point where people expect "CSI" type of evidence.

MARY HONG, SENIOR FORENSIC SCIENTIST, ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA: It's really frustration because it's unrealistic.

ROWLANDS: Mary Hong is a senior forensic scientist in Orange County, California. She says the good thing about the "CSI" effect is that now, when she takes the stand in a criminal trial, jurors know what she does and she says they're usually riveted to her testimony. The problem is that sometimes they expect too much.

HONG: I think they do understand that we don't have fancy cars to go out on a crime scene and that we can't solve a case within hours. But I think a lot of people feel that when what they see on TV is realistic.

ROWLANDS: The "CSI" effect usually works to a defendant's advantage. Jurors are reluctant to convict without some clear scientific evidence. One of the jurors from the Casey Anthony trial said there wasn't enough physical evidence to find her guilty.

JENNIFER FORD, CASEY ANTHONY JUROR: There's no solid evidence that there was a crime.

ROWLANDS: On the juror questionnaire, potential jurors in the Dr. Conrad Murray case were asked if they watched "CSI." The prosecution case against Murray will include crime scene evidence taken from Michael Jackson's bedroom, but jurors aren't expected to get any of that "CSI" type of "ah-ha" evidence that clearly shows exactly what caused Jackson's death.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Opening statements begin tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. Eastern. And make sure to tune into CNN for live coverage and all of the updates on that trial.

Women's rights in Saudi Arabia, they're few and far between, but the king just agreed to grant one right at the very heart of democracy. We're off to the Middle East when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: A new day is dawning for women in Saudi Arabia. We're just not exactly sure when.

Days before Saudi men go to the polls in local elections, King Abdullah announced Saudi women will be able to vote and run in future elections for municipal councils, whenever they happen to be. This week's races were scheduled for 2009, but pushed back and pushed back and pushed back until Thursday, September 29, 2011. The last elections were in 2005, and those were the first since 1963.

Now, still, the White House is calling the king's reforms an important step forward in expanding the rights of women in Saudi Arabia. They have precious few rights at the moment.

Religious edicts bar women from driving, though some of them did in June of this year as a protest. Saudi women also are barred from opening bank accounts, getting passports, even going to school without male guardians.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom is following this story from our bureau in Abu Dhabi. He joins me now on the phone.

Mohammed, how are women's rights activists reacting to this suffrage announcement?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Randi, yesterday, it was pure elation and joy that we were hearing from women, especially women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia, women's rights activist who had been campaigning for a long time to have an expanded role in the political realm in Saudi Arabia. And especially, they've been wanting to play a role in the last two election cycles.

Today, a bit of reality has set in. And women's rights activists that I'm speaking with are saying, look, the problem here is that it's not specified exactly when it will happen.

And the fact that the next election cycle isn't for at least another four years, they're concerned that a lot can happen in that time. That's if the elections happen by 2015. They could be delayed again like they were the last time.

So women now are saying we know that there are conservatives in the government in Saudi Arabia who do not want this to happen, and they're worried that even though the king has promised them this, that four years is a long time, and what has been given could be taken away. And it's important to point out that even though this is being taken as the king saying that women will be able to vote, he actually didn't use the word "vote." He said they could nominate themselves to be on the council or that they could nominate other candidates. That's being taken to mean they can vote, but, again, not completely clear because he doesn't actually use the word "vote."

So, today, even though yesterday so many people were overjoyed and said it's a very important step and it is historic, what the king said, today some of them saying, look, we wish that this had been an immediate reform, that this had been something that would happen this Thursday, or a year from now, not four years down the line, when so much can happen between now and then -- Randi.

KAYE: And what more can you tell us, Mohammed, about this Shoura Council? I mean, have women been lobbying to become a part of it so that the king would open it to them?

JAMJOOM: Women have been lobbying to be a part of this as well. This is a consultative body that is appointed by the king. It's all male membership, and women had been wanting to be a part of this because this is a body that studies laws that are being considered by the king, makes recommendations. It doesn't really have any legislative authority, but it is something -- their recommendations are taken under consideration by the king before he passes laws or royal edicts.

Women have been wanting to be a part of this. They do think this is a very big deal, that it's the first time women will be official members of this council, that they will be on this body. They say there's nobody better qualified in Saudi Arabia, a country that's so restricted towards women, to consider laws that would apply to women than other women, so they think that's good.

But again, the earliest this could happen, that they could be appointed to this Shoura Council, is about a year and a half. And again, today, women are kind of saying, look, this is great, but we wish that this could have happened right away, because there are women advisers to this council that aren't actually on the council. They work as adviser to the council, and the women I spoke with today said, hey, we wish that these women, these 13 women that act as advisers to the council, could have been appointed officially to the council, and then, maybe in another a year and a half, they could have appointed a lot more women to it.

That would be an immediate reform. It would be a lot more welcome -- Randi. KAYE: Mohammed Jamjoom, in Abu Dhabi.

Mohammed, thank you.

Let's take a look at some other top stories that we're following for you.

President Obama is continuing to focus on the economy and passing his jobs bill this hour. Right now, he's in California, answering questions about Social Security and job creation at the business Web site LinkedIn's headquarters. That's in Mountain View. Some of the questions that he's answering were submitted online.

Now the contest for Republicans who want to replace the president.

Herman Cain managed a huge upset in the Florida straw poll this weekend, dealing a worrying blow to Texas Governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign. Cain won with 37 percent of the 2,657 votes. Perry trailed a distant second, with 15.4 percent, but he still leads in national polls, seven points ahead of Mitt Romney.

On Capitol Hill, Congress is again flirting with a government shutdown. The Democratic-controlled Senate effectively rejected the House GOP's temporary spending bill in a procedural vote Friday, and senators are expected to vote on their own plan today. Both members of Congress must now agree on new spending legislation which would include disaster relief funding to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week.

If you want to bear it all in San Francisco, well, you pretty much can, because there is no law that actually stops you. But that could soon change, and nudists there aren't so happy about it.

So why the change? Well, we'll tell you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Perhaps it may come as a news flash to you, as it did to many of us, that public nudity is actually legal in San Francisco.

In fact, if you walk around long enough, chances are that you will come across someone who does know it though and exercises that right in plain sight. But a city supervisor wants to change things by requiring nudists to cover up in restaurants and put something down before sitting down in public areas.

But let's just say that's not sitting well with nudists, several of whom staged a nude-in this weekend TO oppose any new ordinance. They say it's simply unnecessary.

So, joining me now to discuss all this, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener.

Scott, thanks for coming on the show and talking about this.

You're actually behind this proposed new ordinance. Why is this so important?

SCOTT WIENER, SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR: Good morning. And thanks for having me.

Well, San Francisco is a tolerant city. And we have some folks who go around naked in public. And there's a big debate about whether that should be legal or illegal. But this is really focusing on two very specific issues, one, that when you go into a restaurant, you should cover up. And, two, if you're going to sit down on public seating, you should put something down, which is already apparently a nudist etiquette.

But, unfortunately, not everyone is following that etiquette. So it's a pretty basic piece of legislation.

KAYE: What kind of complaints do you actually get from residents about those going nude?

WIENER: Well, I represent the Castro, among other neighborhoods. And I get a lot of different opinions. There are folks who are very much in favor of banning it completely, people who don't like it but think we shouldn't ban it, and others who think it's just fine.

There's a lot of different opinions in the city. And I'm sure the debate will continue. But this legislation is a pretty basic commonsense measure to have public sanitation.

KAYE: I mean, if I'm hearing you correctly, I think that you're suggesting that this might be a health risk to those around there, around the nudes?

WIENER: It's just not sanitary.

And I think, if you ask most people, would you want to, you know, be eating in a restaurant and have a bunch of naked people sitting at the next table, most people would probably not like that. And if you ask someone if you would want to sit down on a public bench that a naked person just sat on without covering, most people would probably prefer to avoid that as well.

KAYE: I mean, just give us an idea, if you can, of what it's like just to walk around there. If it's legal, people are just walking around on the street nude? Is it really that common?

WIENER: In the Castro, there's a group that does it on a pretty regular basis. So, the Castro, it's a pretty common occurrence. In most of the city, it's not.

This is pretty geographically limited. But it's gotten more common in the Castro in the last few years.

KAYE: You know, there's a lot of things that make San Francisco colorful. Some might say this is one of them and you're shutting it down or trying to shut it down. What do you say to your critics?

WIENER: Well, no, it's not shutting anything down. It's saying that you need to put a towel down if you're going to sit down on public seating, and you need to dress if you're going to go into a restaurant.

In terms of that color, that wouldn't -- this doesn't prohibit that at all. That's a debate that we're having in the city. And it's a discussion for another day.

KAYE: So what's the next step here? When will we know if nudists can still roam free in the San Francisco area?

WIENER: Well, again, it's not about nudists roaming free. It's about whether they have to put a towel down or put clothes on to go in a restaurant. And it will go to a committee hearing probably next month. And I assume it will come to the full board of supervisors within the next few months for consideration.

KAYE: Scott Wiener live from San Francisco, please do keep us posted on this. We'd love to know how this ordinance turns out.

WIENER: Absolutely.

KAYE: Thank you.

WIENER: Thank you.

KAYE: Coming up, the Washington Monument was damaged, as you know, in an earthquake back in August. And in just moments, Americans will learn just how bad it really is. We will have that story for you up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It is about half past the hour. Here's a look at the stories that you may have missed.

In Mountain View, California, right now, President Obama is holding a town hall at the headquarters of the networking site LinkedIn. The president is discussing job creation and the economy and answering questions. The live audience consists of LinkedIn employees and members from across the nation.

In Washington, four days until a possible government shutdown, the Senate is expected to vote today on a spending bill to keep the government operating through mid-November. The Senate measure includes critical disaster funding for states hit hard by hurricanes and wildfires. But Republicans won't support the plan without offsetting spending cuts from clean energy programs. Senators rejected a House-passed bill that included offsetting cuts. The Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate must agree on a spending plan by Friday, when the current fiscal year ends.

A news conference is just getting under way in Washington to discuss the extent of the damage to the Washington Monument. Cracks and small pools of water were discovered after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck the East Coast on August 23. The National Parks Service is offering details about damage and what it will cost to repair it. Built between 1848 and 1884, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall. The walls are made of white marble. Engineers say the monument is structurally sound. That's the good news.

The Tea Party political group is looking for a domain name, but the Web address teaparty.com, well, it turns out is already taken. According to Bloomberg Business, a band out of Canada registered the domain in 1993. But after receiving offers for a little over a year, the rock band is considering a buyout. Some expect the domain to fetch well over $1 million for that.

Macy's announced today that it plans to hire 78,000 temporary workers for the upcoming holiday season. The retailer said that's 4 percent more than last year. Expecting continued sales growth in both their in-store and online divisions, they plan to staff Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, call centers, distribution centers and warehouses that store products for online shipping. Most of the seasonal positions are part-time, but the company says these temporary positions can lead to year-round jobs in some cases.

The story of a courageous newspaper editor and what happened when she spoke out against Mexico's drug cartels -- a shocking live report coming your way next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It's happened again in Mexico, this time a newspaper editor brutally murdered. Her crime? Speaking out against the country's drug cartel. She's the latest victim in an apparent war against the country's social media.

Rafael Romo has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): The decapitated corpse was a clear message dumped right in the heart of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Mexican officials said the victim was 39-year-old Maria Elizabeth Macias Castro, editor in chief of "Primera Hora," one of the three local newspapers, but also famous for her online social media posts.

Next to the body, a hand-written warning: "I'm here because of my reports and yours. For those of you who don't want to believe, this happened because of my actions and for trusting the Defense Ministry and the marines," said the sign.

The gruesome murder is the third this month in which victims were apparently targeted for their work online. Just last week, the bodies of a man and a woman who had been hog-tied and disemboweled were found hanging from a nearby bridge. The bodies have not been identified.

A hand-written poster attached to the bridge threatened two blogs that follow organized crime in Mexico. One of them said: "This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet. You better pay attention. I'm about to get you."

Nuevo Laredo Mayor Benjamin Galvan didn't want to talk to CNN about the wave of violence, but earlier this month told affiliate KSAT he's working on improving security.

BENJAMIN GALVAN, MAYOR OF NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO: It's not at the level that we want it to be. There aren't easy and fast solutions to the problem of violence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Rafael Romo joins us now from Atlanta.

Rafael, do Mexican officials have any ideas about who might be Actually responsible for these murders?

ROMO: Randi, there's really no confirmation as to who might have been responsible for this, but what we know is that both messages were signed with the letter Z. There is a cartel operating in that part of Mexico by the name of Los Zetas, the Z's.

And apparently, that's what officials are going for, that it might have -- they might have been responsible for this atrocity.

KAYE: All right. Rafael Romo, thank you for the update.

Well, this is a little bit disturbing. A she-devil, that's what one lawyer called Amanda Knox in court today -- the latest on her murder trial appeal in Italy coming next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It has been a brutal day for Amanda Knox at her appeal trial in Italy.

Two years ago, the American college student was convicted of killing her roommate Meredith Kercher and sentence to 26 years in prison. Her lawyers are trying to get the conviction overturned. But Italian prosecutors are arguing for an even longer sentence, life in prison.

Today, the court heard from the lawyer for Kercher's family and a lawyer for a former suspect in the case who called Knox a -- quote -- "she-devil."

Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is live for us in Perugia, Italy.

Matthew, tell us a little bit about what happened in court today. What did the Kercher family lawyer actually have to say?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He had quite a lot to say.

He was, first of all, showing the jury images which are very gruesome of Meredith Kercher's body with her throat slit after what the prosecutor said had been a sex game that had gone wrong in which Amanda Knox had taken part. He showed those photographs to the jury, obviously attempting to sort of pull at their heartstrings, to get them to basically vote to uphold this conviction for murder against Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

He also said that the Kercher family backs the forensic findings and the forensic work the had been done originally by the police here in Perugia. That's work, remember, that has already been discredited by independent experts who have been called in by the court to examine the methodology used by the police.

And so these were all attempts again by the lawyer representing the family of Meredith Kercher to convince that jury to uphold the murder sentence against Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

KAYE: And, Matthew, who was it who made this comment about Amanda Knox being a she-devil?

CHANCE: His name is Carlo Pacelli. He's the lawyer representing another sort of character in this case, a guy called Patrick Lumumba, who's a bar owner in Perugia and somebody who was initially implicated in a witness statement made by Amanda Knox early on in this whole sort of tragedy.

He's essentially looking for financial compensation from the Knox family, saying that he's been slandered and has suffered as a result of it. His lawyer using absolutely astonishing kind of remarks and phrases to characterize Amanda Knox, calling her a she-devil, saying that she was an enchanting witch, with a character that was on one side angelic and on another side a Lucifer-like, demonic, satanic side.

So, he's using these sort of quite colorful phrases that obviously got the attention of the jury. Again, he's also wanting the jury to uphold that murder conviction as well.

KAYE: And what happens here in terms of timing? Because, I mean, her life is on the line here. When will we actually know what her future holds?

CHANCE: Well, that's a good question.

It's obviously the question everybody's waiting to hear the answer to. In terms of the timing, well, we're going to see the start of the defense summing up over the next few days. And so I think we might see the whole tone of these hearings change because we will be getting essentially the Amanda Knox side of events.

And then there will be some periods of rebuttals. And we're expecting the court, the jury, the judge to make their decision early next week, possibly as early as next Monday morning on whether Amanda Knox stays behind bars or whether she is set free -- Randi.

KAYE: Wow, not long to wait, but certainly I'm sure she's on pins and needles waiting to find out what they decide.

Matthew Chance in Italy for us -- Matthew, thank you.

A bake sale with a pointed message. Pay full price if you're white, but minorities and women, they get a discount -- the controversy over cookies next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Young Republicans at the University of California at Berkeley are cooking up some controversy over their upcoming bake sale. Take a look with me at this price list for tomorrow's event. Yes, you're seeing that correctly. A cookie costs $2 if you're white, $1.50 for Asians, and down there you can see it's just 75 cents for African- Americans.

Needless to say, this has caused some angry responses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANAIS LAVOIE, PRESIDENT, U.C. BERKELEY CAMPUS DEMOCRATS: The way that they made the statement, the words they used, the fact that they humorized and mocked the struggles of people of color on this campus is very disgusting to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So is this for real? Well, it sure is. The guy behind it is Shawn Lewis, the head of the Young Republicans at Berkeley. He says that it's all about diversity of opinion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAWN LEWIS, PRESIDENT, U.C. BERKELEY YOUNG REPUBLICANS: Right off the bat, the motivation for this event was that our Berkeley student government, the ASUC, was actually sponsoring a phone bank to call and urge Governor Jerry Brown to sign this bill into law.

And that event, that phone bank is at the same time and location we decided to have this bake sale. So the point is that our student government is sending a message to Governor Brown that U.C. Berkeley students have one opinion, one voice on this issue.

So the reason for us to organize this event was specifically to show that there's another opinion on this issue on campus. Not all Berkeley students support this bill, SB-185, which would allow public universities to consider race and gender, ethnicity in the admissions process.

The purpose for the satire and for the pricing structure, which is inflammatory, was to cause some uproar in response to our event because we feel that discriminating people based on their skin color for baked goods is discriminatory, in the same way that judging people on the color of their skin for admissions process...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The bill he's talking about, State Bill 185, was introduced in the legislature in February. And to be clear, the bill doesn't say schools have to take race or economic issues into account in admissions. It just says they can.

While we're talking about diversity, what's the breakdown on the Berkeley campus? Well, the school is split evenly among whites and Asians. Both are 33 percent of the total. But African-Americans make up just 3.3 percent.

As for tomorrow's planned bake sale, Lewis says he's surprised by the threats his group has gotten on their Facebook page, from physical injury to burning down their table full of brownies. We will keep an eye on this one.

The showdown over the shutdown -- but now a possible deal could keep the government running past Friday's deadline. We will get the latest from Capitol Hill next.

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KAYE: We're just a few days away from a possible government shutdown. A key sticking point has been funding for FEMA, but now we are hearing that a deal could be close.

So let's bring in congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan.

Now, Kate, what are you hearing?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Randi.

Well, this battle, this standoff that we have been covering for days now over keeping the government funded, as well as offering additional funding for disaster relief for FEMA, well, there may be a way out of this impasse emerging.

And it has to do specifically with FEMA funding. Sources are telling my colleagues Deirdre Walsh and Lisa Desjardins that contrary to what was previously known, which was thought that FEMA was going to run out of money for its disaster relief fund early this week, sources are now telling them that FEMA may be able to stretch its funds in order to get them through the end of this week. That is key because that -- the end of this week is the end of this fiscal year.

It is also key because several Senate Democratic sources tell me and my colleague Ted Barrett that that basically -- that fact makes the central issue of this battle a moot point, being that the big battle was over whether or not the additional money for FEMA should be offset, should be paid for. But that only had to do with the additional money for FEMA having to do with fiscal year 2011, which is only until the end of this week.

So, if this all can play out, this may be the way out of this impasse, meaning that the Senate may be able to pass, as what we call it up here, a clean short-term spending bill, because the federal funding for FEMA for the next fiscal year would then kick in with the short- term spending bill come Saturday really. So this may be a breakthrough in this stalemate that has really threatened a government shutdown, as well as the fact that recovery efforts in many states that were facing -- that were ravaged by many natural disasters. This may be all resolved as early as this evening, at least here in the Senate. Of course then all eyes turn to the House and how it will be resolved there. But this could be a big breakthrough here in the Senate this evening -- Randi.

KAYE: So, Kate, exactly how long would this keep then the government running?

BOLDUAN: This short-term spending bill has all along, in talking about just keeping the government funded, all along, the agreement on both sides of the aisle in both chambers has been just the short-term spending bill would take us through November 18.

When you really think about it, it's not very long that they really have been battling over. But it really had nothing, very little to do with keeping the government funded. And it had all to do with the positions between Democrats and Republicans over whether or not these additional emergency funds for federal disaster relief should be paid for.

And that was really the obstacle that was holding this up all along. If FEMA can stretch their funds through Friday, this might -- that central piece of this battle might go away.

KAYE: Wow. Interesting, interesting development there.

Kate Bolduan on Capitol Hill, thank you.

BOLDUAN: Lots of twists and turns up here. Thank you.

KAYE: Oh, yes, I'm sure.

Well, that will do it for me. I will have much more news for you live from Los Angeles tomorrow.

But, for now, CNN NEWSROOM continues with Brooke Baldwin.

Hi, Brooke.

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