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Greek Prime Minister Withdraws Economic Threat; Video of Judge Beating Daughter; Herman Cain Demands Apology; Hacker Group Anonymous Threatens to Target Drug Cartel; Study Finds some Corporations Pay No Income Tax; Closing Arguments Begin in Michael Jackson's Doctor's Manslaughter Trial

Aired November 03, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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


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

And hello to all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let's go. Let's get you caught up on everything making news this hour, "Rapid Fire."

Let's go, beginning with some of the most powerful leaders in the whole world in France right now, gathered for the G-20 summit. In fact, you're going to be hearing a lot about Greece over the course of the next couple of days, because they may decide to vote themselves out of the euro currency union.

All of the goings on there in France, though, don't seem to be having a huge impact on American markets. Take a look there. The Dow, up 182 points here on this trading day.

Also, the prime minister of Greece looks like he is now doing an about-face. You know the whole debt bailout that a lot of European countries have agreed to? Well, the prime minister, Papandreou, calling it a landmark today that opens new horizons -- his words -- for his country.

Just yesterday, he was all for a plan to let the people of Greece decide on the deal in a referendum. He faces a no confidence vote tomorrow.

We have both Jessica Yellin and Ali Velshi standing by. They're going to be live for us from France coming up in just a couple of minutes.

Also today, the White House and the vice president's office about to be served with subpoenas. They are part of this whole investigation into the loan guarantees for Solyndra, that failed solar energy company that got $535 million in federal loan guarantees. Well, Republicans say that the Obama administrations owes them some answers. Meantime, Democrats are just worried that the development of alternative energy will, in general, suffer because of this story.

Another night of violence breaking out in Occupy Oakland. Watch.

Police showing up after protests started -- look at the fires -- bonfires, breaking windows. They even occupied one of the buildings there downtown. Officers fired tear gas when protesters started throwing things at them when they didn't obey the order to leave. By the way, the overnight violence followed a mostly peaceful general strike that shut down the port of Oakland.

Ninety-five million dollars defrauded from Medicare. In total, 12 people charged. We are talking about billing schemes that involve both doctors and patients. And according to the Department of Justice, Medicare beneficiaries got massages, facials, dance lessons, and other treatments authorities consider unnecessary in exchange for their claims to bill the government health care program.

Right now the fate of Michael Jackson's doctor could be in the hands of the jury by the end of the day. Today, we are about an hour into closing arguments there in Los Angeles in the manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. Up right now, prosecutors. They contend Murray's use of Propofol to make Jackson sleep is what killed the pop star.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WALGREN, PROSECUTOR: That is Conrad Murray knowing full well what caused Michael's death. That is Conrad Murray not putting the patient first. That is Conrad Murray putting Conrad Murray first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Meantime, the defense hopes to prove that Jackson took sedatives and gave himself that failed dose of Propofol when Murray wasn't looking.

Some horrifying moments at a Wal-Mart in California. The store shut down for a couple of hours. Why? Because police say a homeless man with a baseball bat beat an elderly man to death in an unprovoked attack.

That homeless man has now been arrested. Wal-Mart now offering condolences to the victim's family.

And if you're just kind of listening to me, not watching, come back. Come back to your television, because you have to watch this video here.

Federal police -- take a look. Federal police in Brazil shot this video of busting these accused smugglers. Take a look at the car. Bam! Right into the wing of this plane.

So, the story is, one of the agents crashed the car into the plane in order to stop it. Five people were arrested, including the pilot. Police confiscated 114 notebook computers, electronic surveillance equipment, and one bicycle from that plane.

A mangled mess, flames leaping from freight train cars piled up. Look at this. It's like matchsticks.

Reports of at least eight cars derailed. This is Bartlett, Illinois, this morning. Sparking this massive fire, causing a traffic nightmare. None of the cars contained hazardous material.

And we are just four minutes into a lot that's about to happen in the next two hours. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: A daughter posted a video online of her father, showing him beating her over and over again. Her father is a judge. So what finally prompted her to share her family secrets?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

CURT ANDERSON, RICK PERRY CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: So it's hard to leak something that you don't know anything about.

BALDWIN (voice-over): Accusations fly between Republican campaigns in a scandal of alleged sexual harassment involving Herman Cain.

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Excuse me!

BALDWIN: But suddenly, fireworks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will always remember this upcoming November 5th.

BALDWIN: It's the battle of shadows. A secretive hacker group threatening drug gangs in public.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a huge mistake by taking one of us.

BALDWIN: But the hackers may be backing up their threat out of fear.

Plus, they are the richest of the rich, the biggest of the big. But many Fortune 500 companies don't pay a dime in taxes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't aim your weapon on me!

BALDWIN: And rocks, explosives, tear gas, as tempers flare and the violence escalates between police and Occupy protesters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Big news coming out of the G-20 summit today, the fact that Greece has withdrawn its sudden threat to back out of that European bailout deal.

That's Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou speaking to reporters in Cannes.

The bailout plan reportedly would spare the Greeks from national bankruptcy and inoculate the rest of the world from a possible debt contagion.

Let's go straight to Jessica Yellin, who is live there in a very windy Cannes, France. She, of course, our chief White House correspondent.

My question here off the top, Jessica, is what happened? What happened over there with the Greek prime minister? Why this sudden about-face?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the leaders of France and Germany called the prime minister of Greece here, to Cannes, last night and told him if he put their offer to bail Greece out to a vote of the Greek people, and it fails, then Greece will get kicked out of the European Union. Well, that news was a shock to the system over in Greece, and today they ended up holding an emergency cabinet meeting that lasted for hours.

And during that time, there were rumors that the Greek prime minister was out, he would resign. Then there were rumors he is not. In the end, he is not.

And the resolution was that the opposition party has agreed to also accept the terms of this deal. It had been unpopular in Greece, because in exchange for rescuing Greece from default, the Europeans are saying, listen, you have to cut back from some of your government services and you're going to have more oversight.

Some of the people didn't like that. But for now, both parties, all sides, have accepted it. And as of now, all is fine in Greece. But you never know. And so they're moving ahead with filling in the rest of the details of this deal, which still has a long way to go -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: As of now. Let's say that for the third time.

But, you know, from over here, it looks like the big power players at this summit of the European powers, specifically France and Germany. What's the president getting done?

YELLIN: You know, and I'd even add China, because you're absolutely right. When France and Germany needed extra money to add to a bailout fund, they went to ask China for $100 billion to give them. Unclear if China's going to invest or not.

But the president is playing a role here, too. And he sat down with the head of this year's G-20, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French leader.

And first of all, I think we have some sound of the president's meeting. Let's listen to that and then we'll keep talking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's no surprise that we spent most of our conversation focused on strengthening the global economic recovery so that we are creating jobs for our people and stabilizing the financial markets around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP) YELLIN: So your question was, what role is the U.S. playing? Well, the U.S. has some experience getting out of financial crises, so administration officials insist that they're lending their expertise, sort of explaining how we did it back in 2008, 2009, and then doing some sort of financial shuttle diplomacy, commuting between the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, and then Germany and France, and making phone calls and helping everybody smooth the way as they're trying to hammer out the remaining pieces of this deal -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And as we just heard the president mention the global economy, let's talk about our own, because you look at the polls, and the polls do show that the president's jobs agenda, it is scoring points for him.

Is President Obama eager to get back home, hammer that message out a little bit more here?

YELLIN: Yes. Well, you know, one of the messages they kept emphasizing on our way to the G-20 is that he's not getting away from the jobs agenda while he's there, because the G-20 is also about jobs and the economy.

So, yes, White House officials are emphatic that the message stay on jobs. And the truth is that if there is -- I mean, the bottom line to your question is, yes, they're eager to get back and focus on that. But in truth, if there were a crisis here, more than anything else, that could derail his messaging, because every expert you talk to says the unknown, the unknowable for the president, more than any other factor, is a collapse in the Eurozone, which a contagion here could spread to the U.S., it could lead to a double-dip recession in the U.S. in the worst-case scenario. And that, more than anything else, could imperil the president's re-election chances next year.

So they really do need to hammer their deal here for him to be on sound footing on his jobs message back home when he gets there -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right. And that's why the Greek prime minister's about-face today is so, so huge.

Jessica Yellin, from Cannes.

Thank you so much, Jessica.

Back here at home, a Texas judge off the bench right now after this video surfaced of him -- I know a lot of you have seen this -- online. He's hitting his daughter over and over with this leather belt. The judge admits, yes, he's the man in the video. In fact, you're going to see that video and you're going to hear from his daughter in two minutes.

Plus, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain accused of inappropriate sexual behavior. He is blaming a fellow candidate for leaking the story. Find out who, straight ahead.

And a Mexican drug cartel could be the next target for a group of hackers. A video has now surfaced from the international hacker ring Anonymous. That's coming up this hour.

Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to a story that has a lot of people talking and tweeting, and so many people are fuming over this one.

So, a daughter posted a video on YouTube showing her dad beating her with a belt over and over and over again. Her dad is a judge in Texas.

So, keep in mind, this dad makes decisions about other families and their lives. And now he is being investigated. The thing is, this family secret is years in the making.

Kyra Phillips explains, as the video has gone viral, but we're going to show you some of it. I have to warn you, it's tough to watch. So some of you might want to turn away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM ADAMS, TEXAS JUDGE: Bend over that bed.

HILLARY ADAMS, DAUGHTER: Dad.

W. ADAMS: Bend over that bed.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The video is difficult to watch. It shows a Texas father punishing his 16-year-old daughter for using the computer to download video games. But that father, William Adams, is a Texas judge who handles, among other things, family and juvenile cases.

This happened seven years ago, in 2004, and the now 23-year-old daughter, Hillary Adams, posted it online. It's been viewed more than a million times.

The outrage is causing Judge Adams to leave his post, temporarily. A visiting judge will take over his caseload. Judge Adams could face criminal charges.

Police are investigating.

CHIEF TIM JAYROE, ROCKPORT, TEXAS POLICE: We need to see the original video. We're always concerned with seeing an original when possible.

PHILLIPS: Phones at the Aransas County courthouse have been ringing off the hook. A fellow judge says the video is disturbing and surprising.

C.H. MILLS, ARANSAS COUNTY JUDGE: Observing him in court, you would never think that he had some kind of temper.

PHILLIPS: Judge Adams admits, it's him in the video.

W. ADAMS: In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized. It looks worse than it is. There is a story, it will come out in due time.

PHILLIPS: In a Twitter post, his daughter says, "I'm feeling some regret for publishing the video because to ruin my own father is heavy, indeed."

She tells Corpus Christi TV station KRIS --

H. ADAMS: I'm very relieved that these things were brought to light, and not because I want to see my father burn or anything like that. That's a hideous way of thinking. I don't want to inflict that upon him. I just -- I cannot stress it enough, I can't repeat myself enough that he just needs help.

PHILLIPS: Kyra Philips, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Quite a story, isn't it? You can see the complete video and decide for yourself. Just go to our Web site, CNN.com. You can also hear much more from the daughter tonight on "AC 360."

Coming up in two minutes, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain now demanding an apology from a fellow candidate. All of this has to do with those sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced.

And remember those 50 wild exotic animals that were set free by that Ohio man before he killed himself? Well, today, we have new details about his finances and new information about how exactly he died. Apparently, he had bite marks on his head.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here's the big question: Is Herman Cain coming unraveled over these allegations of sexual harassment? A political adviser to Governor Rick Perry suggested as much just this morning on "AMERICAN MORNING," here on CNN.

His name is Curt Anderson, who once advised Mr. Cain when Cain was running for the U.S. Senate a couple of years ago. Now the Cain campaign has accused Anderson of leaking this story, this sexual harassment story.

I want to go straight to Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

You've been all over this, really, from the get. A fascinating interview this morning you conducted with Mr. Anderson. But let's just back up.

Big picture here, Gloria, why is the Cain campaign singling out Curt Anderson?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: That's a really good question, because it's a story that, if you want to believe it, kind of writes itself in a way.

Curt Anderson used to work for Herman Cain, helped him with his Senate bid in 2003, 2004. And so he is a former Cain person who has now gone to work for Rick Perry within the last two weeks.

And so Herman Cain says, you know what? When we had one of those conversations that every candidate has to have with his staff in which the staff says, now, is there anything you need to tell me, that if it could come up in the campaign, I need to know about it in advance, that Herman Cain says, you know what? I told this guy Curt Anderson about this charge of sexual harassment.

So I put to it Curt Anderson this morning, "Did he tell you that?" And listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: Is he not telling the truth?

ANDERSON: I'm not going to attack him in any sort of personal way or anything. I will say this -- this has been -- he's in a tough spot, and it's very rough. And candidates, when they get into a firestorm like this, have sometimes come unraveled.

And, you know, it seems to me that they're kind of grasping at straws and fishing around, trying to figure out what to do, how to get out of this. And it's a lot of stress.

I mean, these guys are under tremendous stress in these situations. And so they're floundering. And maybe it's a diversionary tactic or something.

But I'm not here to disparage Herman. I think he is a tremendous guy. And this is all an unfortunate mess.

BORGER: But you say that maybe they're becoming unraveled. So what does this tell you about Mr. Cain then under stress as a candidate or potentially as a president?

ANDERSON: Again, I have great regard for the guy. And I think both he and all the other Republican candidates running would be a great improvement over our current president. I really do believe that. And so I don't have an interest.

Here's the thing. The only reason I'm here this morning is this -- you don't really have much in this world other than your own integrity and your character.

BORGER: Right.

ANDERSON: And other than that, you may have a house and some cars or something. But you can't take it with you.

And I live my life as much as I can with a simple set of rules -- do the right thing, tell the truth. And so after I saw this news yesterday, I figured, well, I'm going to have to go out there and tell the truth. I didn't know anything about this, didn't leak it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Gloria, I mean, you talked to him for a number of minutes. And off the top, it seemed like Curt Anderson was pretty gracious when he was talking about Herman Cain, despite this story, right, that's been leveled with regard to him and the Perry camp?

BORGER: Sure.

BALDWIN: But when you pressed hill, he said he had no knowledge of this from when he was helping Herman Cain run for Senate a couple of years ago. And again, to his point, he says this is probably a diversionary tactic.

BORGER: Well, then the stiletto came out. You know, he sort of embraced Herman Cain personally, as I think he probably had to do, and maybe perhaps he really feels this way and really does like the guy. But then when it came to the campaign, he said, look, this is a diversionary tactic, this is what happens when a campaign unravels, when they fish around, when they try and change the subject.

So, you know, embracing Herman Cain, while essentially saying, you know, I think the Herman Cain campaign is falling apart before your very eyes. So, sort of deft the way he did it.

BALDWIN: OK. So that was a stiletto.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about something you were predicting, sort of unspooling. And we were talking yesterday with regard to attorney Joel Bennett wanting now to release a statement on behalf of one of Cain's accusers.

Where does that stand right now? When will we get that?

BORGER: Well, actually, it's interesting, because we just spoke with Joel Bennett, who has been in touch with the restaurant association. As we reported last night, he wants to issue a statement on behalf of his client, without naming his client, saying that she stands by she was sexually harassed, she received a settlement, very general sort of terms differing from what Herman Cain is saying, essentially setting the record straight, I believe, without giving all the details. He called the restaurant association because he felt that he needed to legally get an opinion from them saying that if she did this, she would not be held to the confidentiality agreement.

Now, we've just heard from the restaurant association. The restaurant association confirms that they've heard from her lawyer, Joel Bennett, and that they will issue something tomorrow. So stay tuned.

BALDWIN: Wow. We will stay tuned, and we will be all over this tomorrow.

Gloria Borger, thank you so much. BORGER: Sure.

BALDWIN: And now to a ruthless drug cartel, the target of a group of computer hackers. It's that international group. You've heard of them. They're called Anonymous.

Well, now there is this new twist. Apparently, the drug cartel now has hired computer hackers of their own.

That story, after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So I was just talking to Gloria Borger a moment ago about Herman Cain and all the news that everybody has been covering with regard to these allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by a number of women from some 12 years ago.

Well, despite all of this, I want to show you this tweet, because @theHermanCain has just tweeted, and he's tweeting about Iran, saying this "My message to Iran, if you mess with Israel, you're messing with the USA." So Herman Cain tweeting about foreign policy on this Thursday.

Have you heard about this latest target of the hacker group Anonymous? Their plan to go up against a ruthless Mexican drug cartel trending today and reportedly still on. Anonymous knows the move is quite dangerous. They're warning members now to protect themselves. The group says Los Zetas kidnapped a volunteer who was distributing pamphlets in part of Mexico. I want you to listen to this threat from an Anonymous member wearing a mask.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him and if anything happens to him, you will always remember this upcoming November 5th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The hackers are threatening to publish the name, addresses, personal intel of people linked to the Zetas cartel. But guess what, the cartel has hackers of their own, and they're reportedly trying to hundred down members of Anonymous.

Fred Burton is vice president of intelligence for terrorism intelligence there in Austin, Texas. And Fred, Anonymous, they're calling this operation cartel. Normally they're caught -- if they're caught, they're arrested. In this case, they could be killed.

FRED BURTON, VICE PRESIDENT OF INTELLIGENCE, STRATFOR: Absolutely, Brooke. Due to just the level of violence inside of Mexico, the outcome would probably not be good for any names that are published or outed inside of Mexico, alleged and formers. Having said that, though, the interesting part is this may actually cause the average person in Mexico to bring forth information of cartel-related activity.

BALDWIN: I was reading for cyber vigilantism. That might call for that within Mexico. But I want to you tell me more about this group Anonymous. I know it is this collective, essentially, of activists. You call them ghosts. Why?

BURTON: Well, they are a group that has no formal structure. This is a group that is very, very fractured, and there at time there is not a consensus, which is one of the reasons why we've seen the threats to release information on the fifth of November, which I think is highly probable that we'll see some names released. And the scary part as you look at this is whether or not the names are connected in any way to the cartels. There's still going to be out there.

BALDWIN: Why do this over the Internet? Why not just go to police to try to get help?

BURTON: Well, for the most part you have a challenge in Mexico of going to the right cops, those that are not corrupted by the cartel. So there's a fear there. The use of the Internet, there is that Anonymous possibility there where you can post this information out and it would be out there for not only the Mexican police and federal authorities to look at, but as well as U.S. intelligence such as DEA to see if these individuals are in any way connected.

BALDWIN: So I know we mentioned this deadline that Anonymous has given. I've heard it's on, it's off, November 5th which is this Saturday. What should we expect come Saturday?

BURTON: I think that it is highly probable we'll see some names released. The real scary part, Brooke, here is just due to the level of brutality and violence inside of Mexico it would not surprise me in the least to see some bodies surface with notes pinned to the bodies claiming that these individuals were killed as a result of this.

BALDWIN: What if the Zetas aren't behind this kidnapping?

BURTON: Well, that's the scary part. They very well may not be. Having said that, if you look at this from a sheer geography perspective, the Zetas own a large degree of turf inside of Mexico and in the area where allegedly one of these Anonymous individuals was kidnapped.

BALDWIN: And just in general, what is your interpretation now of this Anonymous group who had taken on major trends, national companies, governments, and now a very violent Mexican drug cartel?

BURTON: It's really very interesting development due to the success of Anonymous in, as you mentioned, attack governments and releasing police information to include police organizations from inside the United States. There is no doubt they have the internal forensic capability to be able to do this.

The big question is, what is going to be the information they're going to release, and who are they going to identify? Thus far, they've only identified one individual that has long been suspected of being linked to the zeta organization. If they continue to release known information, I don't see much damage done. But I think the curious part will be the level of the name that are released, who are they connected to, what levels, are they politicians or cops?

BALDWIN: Fred Burton, thank you so much. We'll follow that right along with you out of Mexico with Anonymous. Thank you.

Lions, tigers, monkeys, bears, remember, all on the loose, these exotic animals the week before last in Ohio? Well, now we are learning more about their owner's death. He killed himself after setting these animals loose. And we'll have more on that.

Plus, you normally see a school bus driving down the road, right? Not in a house. The video two minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: I've got some new information for but the man who police say set dozens of those exotic dangerous animals loose just last month in Zanesville, Ohio. So we have now learned this man, Terry Thompson, owed thousands of dollars in back taxes. He had served time on weapons charges and had marital problems as well.

Autopsy results confirm Thompson did in fact commit suicide. He later received a large bite wound on his head, most likely from one of his tigers. Deputies shot and killed more than 45 animals to protect the public there in Muskingham County. Those animals were buried on Thompson's farm. Six other animals that survived are now still at the Columbus Zoo.

And to that video we promised you, a school bus crashes into a house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUELINE CASTRO, HOME HIT BY SCHOOL BUS: I come out and I look and I see orange through my window.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yikes. You don't want to see orange that close. Look at this. The bus had just finished dropping off elementary school students in Florida when it had a brake failure. Amazingly, everyone is fine. But the home, yes, not so much.

And this -- a shoplifter getting his dance on. Take a look at him go, dancing in the women's section of a New Jersey K-Mart. Must have been some get tunes on the loud speaker at the K-Mart. Just a little while later he leaves the store with a stolen dress. Police are still trying to track him down.

Now time for your "America's Choice 2012" update. Wolf Blitzer joins me now as he always does with the latest news fresh off the Ticker. And you know what, Wolf? Are you OK?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": I am.

BALDWIN: We've talked so much about Herman Cain. Let's talk about someone else like Condoleezza Rice.

BLITZER: Yes. Some people would have loved her to run for political office, whether for the Senate in California which is where she lives, maybe governor, or even president of the United States. There was talk about her doing it. She made it clear to Piers Morgan last night she has no intention whatsoever of running for office. She is a policy person, she says, not a political person.

But we do have her new book, "No Higher Honor." This is it right here. It's a long book, more than 750 pages of memoir of my years in Washington. She spent four years as President Bush's national security adviser at the White House, four years as the secretary of state. She will be joining me in "THE SITUATION ROOM" and we'll be discussing a lot of these current issues, a little history as well. But I do want to get into a little political stuff with her. She's got some strong views. I've known her a long time. So we're going to go through what's going to in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, Syria, all these substantive important issues.

I want to hear what she has to say, frankly. I'm curious to see how she thinks the current president is doing and what she thinks of these potential candidates, their foreign policy, their national security. We've got a big debate coming up on national security, foreign policy, a Republican presidential debate on November 22 that we're looking forward to. So there's a lot to discuss with Condoleezza Rice. She'll be in "THE SITUATION ROOM." I'm sure you'll want to see it, won't you?

BALDWIN: Obviously. Are you going to ask her about Moammar Gadhafi making her a music video?

BLITZER: She's been asked that so many times. I'll try not to repeat the questions. Some good ones that we're going to get to her on.

BALDWIN: All right, Wolf Blitzer with the fresh questions. Wolf, thank you so much.

Coming up here, the corporate tax rate right now is 35 percent. But did you realize that there are many companies that pay no corporate tax? Let me repeat myself. There are many American companies right now that pay no income taxes. We're going to reveal which companies in two minutes. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There is this new study making the rounds that seem to bolster the complaints that some big corporations are getting off really easy on their taxes. The authors say some companies aren't even paying a dime on billions and billions of profits.

Let's go to Poppy Harlow at CNNmoney.com. She's been looking into this for us in New York. And Poppy, it sounds like some of these corporations, they're making big use of those write-offs.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: They are. If you look at the law, the law allows for this. Tons and tons of write-offs on these corporations and they take advantage of them. This is one reason why we've heard this increasing drumbeat for tax reform in this country. We heard it from President Obama. The super committee is looking into it right now.

It's important to know when you look at the study, it was done by to left leaning tax research groups, the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. What they did, Brooke, is they looked at 280 of the fortune 500 companies in America that were profitable between 2008 and 2010. And you look at the corporate tax rate in this country, 35 percent. What they found is that on average, those 280 companies paid 18.5 percent. So a lot less than the federal tax bill.

In fact, let's look at the next graphic, they found many were actually paying less than 17.5 percent. Take a look at these numbers -- 111 companies paid less than 17.5 percent, 98 companies paid between 17.5 and 30 percent, and only 71 companies paid 30 percent or more in their corporate tax bill.

So of course this adds to that drumbeat and that cry for corporations to pay more in taxes or to see some sort of reform. Brooke, I keep coming back to the issue. This is how our tax system works. So corporation that's have a lot of write-offs, they're falling the law.

BALDWIN: Well, this will add to the drum beat. Let's talk about GE. I know you know this. The study says over the past three years, General Electric trick earned more than $10 billion, "billion" with a "b," and paid negative taxes. How do you have a negative tax bill?

HARLOW: You have a negative tax bill by spending a lot of money. So we'll get into GE in a minute. If you spend a lot of money as a company accident you're investing, for example. NASCAR, this is a good example. NASCAR race car owners can write off the cost of their race track. Big oil and gas companies, they can write off the cost of exploration and drilling. General Electric spends a lot of money on factories and on different investments that they say create jobs. There are a lot of write-offs in our federal tax code for investment that create jobs.

So this is the way it works. It is not just General Electric. It is a lot of company across the board. In fact, what this study found that stood out to me is that 30 of the 280 companies that the study looked at owed less than nothing. That means they get a tax rebate, a check, Brooke, from the IRS.

But I want to point out, because GE came out and opposed this study, and I want to bring this out. This is what General Electric had to say to CNN. "This report is inaccurate and distorted. GE paid billions of dollars in taxes in the U.S. over the last decade and we expect our overall tax rate will be approximately 30 percent in 2011."

They went on to say "We believe the U.S. tax system needs to be reformed to close all loopholes to lower the corporate tax rate and to provide a territorial system like every other major country in the world." When they talk about territorial system, Brooke, what they're talking about is that argument over repatriation. Should profit that's these multinational companies make overseas, should they be also taxed here in the United States? So that's what GE had to say.

It's a very interesting study and I think it really adds to that call for some sort of corporate tax reform in this country. A lot of corporations, even GE, says we need to reform the system.

BALDWIN: So I should say thank you for coming on the show. I know that you were knee deep in a totally separate story. We wanted to talk about the taxing corporations. If I may just ask for a little preview, I know you've done a lot when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the youth in our country. And I guess one of the questions you're posing for this piece. Give me a preview. Is this generation an unemployable generation?

HARLOW: It's a good question, Brooke. So the jobs report comes out tomorrow among. And we wanted to find an interesting way to cover it. One of our producers had a great idea and said why don't we look at youth unemployment?

If you look at people between 16 and 24 in America, their unemployment rate is over 17 percent. So it's almost double the national average. And we're talking about college grads that have a very hard time finding work. So we went down, we spent the morning today at Occupy Wall Street, because part of the argument there among protesters is the inability to find work and to succeed.

And so we talked to folk down there. We're just looking at what is really a crisis in this country that I don't think gets enough attention, and that is the fact that you have youth that are unemployed. And what the experts say that this generation could become an unemployable generation, because if you don't give the youth in America the skills they need to succeed in the long term, it will be very hard for them to find work down the road. So we'll take a look at that tomorrow and go in depth and we'll talk to those folks and give you the troubling statistics.

BALDWIN: I can just hear the collective groan from parents everywhere with kids graduating college. You pay all this money to get them educated and then there are no jobs. We'll look for that Poppy Harlow tomorrow. Thank you so much for us in New York.

Also, closing arguments underway right now in the Michael Jackson death trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WALGREN, PROSECUTOR: Conrad Murray corrupted that relationship, and for that Michael Jackson paid with his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The jury could start deciding the fate of Dr. Conrad Murray today. We'll take you live to Los Angeles straight ahead.

Plus, remember the old wardrobe malfunction? You know the one that exposed the breast of Janet Jackson a couple years back? There are new developments in that case and that fine that was leveled against CBS.

And have you seen this incredible video here? This is out of Brazil. A police car slammed into a plane that they say was full of smugglers. The details, more on this video, in two minutes.

And today, we have a list of good paying jobs that do not require a college degree. It comes from "Business Insider." Number five, an electrician or a plumber. Starting salary, $35,000 to $48,000. Number four, you can be an appliance repair. Number three, mechanic with a salary in the ballpark of $30,000 to $40,000. And what are the top two jobs you can get without a college degree? Stick around. The answer is after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's pick up where we left you beginning with "Business Insider's" list of great jobs that do not require a college degree. So for the top, number two, someone you might need to call in an emergency, a police officer. They say that salary varies depending on where you live. And number one, a job that can save homes and lives with a starting salary of $32,000 to $53,000. We love them. We need them. Firefighters.

And another win for CBS in the ongoing battle over the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction back in the 2004 Super Bowl. An appeals court ruled against the FCC. The ruling says the agency wrongly fined CBS for the halftime show slip-up, and the FCC was not clear on its policy for brief nudity. Jackson's breast was exposed for just a moment as Justin Timberlake sang the words "Going to have you naked by the end of the song." Didn't realize that's what he was singing.

OK, the fate of Michael Jackson's doctor will be in the hands of jury very soon. Closing arguments underway right now in the manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. Let's go back out to Ted Rowlands live for us once again in Los Angeles. And Ted, you just walked out of that courtroom. Prosecution is up. What did they tell the jury?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have the jury riveted. David Walgren is doing an outstanding job of telling his version of the story and what he claim the evidence shows. He started really from the beginning, the motivation of Murray to come on board. He said that this was not a doctor-patient relationship. This was a guy looking to make $150,000 a month to give somebody Propofol in his home. He talked about false statements that Murray made, employing the jury to use those false statements when they make their decision. He said he was too busy talking to his girlfriends on the phone when he should have been watching Michael Jackson.

The family throughout this was riveted and emotional when they talked about, and Walgren did this several time, the children, saying that Michael Jackson's three children have been left fatherless because of Conrad Murray. They were also visibly emotional, at least Randy was -- he put his head down -- when he talked about the actual time that Michael Jackson died, saying that we'll never know exactly what happened when Jackson stopped breathing. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALGREN: That is Conrad Murray knowing full well what caused Michael's death. That is Conrad Murray not putting the patient first. That is Conrad Murray putting Conrad Murray first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: He went on there, saying we'll never know if Michael Jackson cried out for help or coughed or choked. We'll just never know because of Dr. Murray putting himself first. That's been the theme for the entire close here. And that is really been the theme of this entire trial, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's been the theme of that side though. We know defense will get their chance soon. When will the defense, when will Dr. Murray's lawyers be giving their close?

ROWLANDS: We'll have a break in the next few minutes for lunch. Typically it's an hour and a half, and that will be the break today. Then it is the defense's turn to try to convince the jury of their side of the story.

BALDWIN: Then the prosecution gets another shot, correct?

ROWLANDS: Yes. The defense is expected to take about an hour and a half. But because the prosecution has the burden of proof here, they also get the last word. So when the defense is finish, Walgren will step up there one more time and get the final words to this jury. They should get the case late today. I doubt they'll deliberate in earnest today. There won't be a lot of time, but they should get it by the end of the day.

BALDWIN: By the end of the day in the hands of the jury. Ted Rowlands in Los Angeles. Thank you.