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Sprint to the Finish in Florida; Priest Investigates Police Discrimination; "Honor Murder" Verdict: Guilty; Possible Break in Medical History; A Black Doctor's View of Race
Aired January 29, 2012 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Sunshine and politics. But just two days from Florida's big primary, the sun could be setting for some GOP hopefuls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANTORUM (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're doing great. And we -- but we're in this for the long haul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Priest, lies and videotapes. A man of the cloth with a camera sparking an investigation. Now four officers indicted, accused of excessive force and profiling Latinos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm taking a video of what's going on here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Switching mystery. What's causing high school students to erupt with uncontrollable outbursts and tics?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got worse and started twitching and everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Famous activist Erin Brockovich on the case, turning up the heat for answers.
Black or white? Even his neighbors growing up were wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He grabbed my hand and he goes, what are you doing playing over those (BLEEP)?
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: But as you'll discover, when it comes to race in America, don't assume anything.
It's all right here, right now on CNN.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you for joining us.
The Florida finish line is coming into view. Four Republican presidential hopefuls are still standing as we approach Tuesday's primary. And the three most recent polls show Mitt Romney holding double digit leads over Newt Gingrich. The question is, can Romney translate his front-runner status into votes? And what will Florida mean once all those votes are counted? Here is CNN's chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Florida will break the tie, but it won't end the game. The four survivors in the Republican primary process intend to keep on keeping on. They can all see the White House from their campaign headquarters.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will beat Barack Obama.
CROWLEY: Newt Gingrich thinks he can muddy up Mitt Romney's prospects by doing well in states that divvy up delegates by percentages.
GINGRICH: The fact is once you get beyond Florida, these are all proportional representation states. And he's not going to be anywhere near a majority by April. And so this is going to go on all the way to the convention.
REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you for coming.
CROWLEY: Looking to caucus states where dedicated followers might produce outsize results, Ron Paul also depends on the law of political gravity.
PAUL: We're going to stay in and see what come of it. And who knows what will come of the other two candidates. You know, there's been lots of ups and downs. So maybe there will be some downs and we might be able to pick up the pieces.
RICK SANTORUM (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't come from, you know, a background of wealth.
CROWLEY: Steady, sure and under-funded Rick Santorum needs a miracle like Iowa, but on time and bigger. He needs a tumble from the top, leaving space for him to step in as Newt without the baggage.
SANTORUM: We're doing great. And we -- but we're in this for the long haul. We just weren't going to go out and spend every dime in a huge state like Florida.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to get America working again by --
CROWLEY: Ever the CEO, Romney is a numbers cruncher, figuring in the highs and lows. He patiently awaits a return on his investment.
ROMNEY: This is a campaign that's going to go the distance. I'm confident we're going to get the delegates we need and that despite all the ups and down of a campaign, in the final analysis, if I do my job right and we get our supporters motivated, we'll be able to take the prize.
CROWLEY: Even if the Florida results do not change the players, they will surely change the game.
SANTORUM: Game on.
CROWLEY: Florida is not Rick Santorum's Iowa, dismissed as too white, too rural with a lousy record of choosing winners.
ROMNEY: Thank you, New Hampshire.
CROWLEY: Nor is Florida Romney's New Hampshire, discounted by critics as a hometown win. And Florida is not Gingrich's South Carolina, deluded by naysayers as an oversampling of evangelicals.
Florida is nobody's home state. It is populous, diverse, and hard-hit by the economic downturn. There is a constituency for everyone. Florida is the no-excuses state.
(on camera): A good win for Romney would reestablish him as the front-runner, the better for his bruises. And a nice win for Gingrich would make him more than a one-state wonder. Florida will change everything, even if we don't notice it at first.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Looking now at a live picture of Miami. Beautiful city there. And a programming note for you -- CNN, of course, is your source for complete coverage of Tuesday's Florida Republican primary. Our special coverage, live coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
And coming up in less than a half an hour, my "No Talking Points" segment. Tonight, a challenge to tell the truth. You won't want to miss it.
In other news tonight, a massive pileup along a one-mile stretch of Florida interstate kills 10 people. Drivers on a stretch of I-75 were blinded by smoke from a brush fire in the predawn darkness on Sunday. Some stopped when they drove into the smoke and in an instant cars and trucks started smashing right into each other. It happened near Gainesville. Steven Camps, who survived, says he got a second chance. He told me how he watched a driver who had stopped next to him die.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN CAMPS, ACCIDENT SURVIVOR: And I tell you, no later than five seconds later, we heard a crash on the back. And I guarantee you in no less than three seconds after we heard that, the driver was under the semi truck.
LEMON: Wow.
CAMPS: And that experience alone just really blew me and my friend's mind because we were just sitting here talking to this guy and he is under a semi truck. And after we, you know, we sat there and we were like, you know, we're going crazy, no later than 10 seconds later, we get hit by a car going at least 80 miles an hour on the interstate and then literally knocks us into the semi truck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The Florida Highway Patrol had just reopened I-75 when the collision started.
In Oakland, California, city hall is trashed and hundreds are under arrest now after an Occupy protest boiled over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SCENES OF CLASHES)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Police fired tear gas and smoke grenades into the rally crowd. They claim protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, improvised explosive devices and burning flags. The Occupiers tried unsuccessfully to take over a convention center, but some of them trashed city hall, burning up flags, busting windows and spray- painting the walls. The police, they arrested as many as 400 demonstrators.
In the nation's capital, the clock is ticking for occupiers at two camps near the White House. Police threw down an ultimatum -- leave or you'll end up in handcuffs. On Friday, park police put up a notice telling occupiers they can't camp there overnight anymore. Here's what one protester had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm more than happy to go to jail as many times as they would like to take me to jail. Everybody else here is in the same boat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So starting around noon on Monday, officers may begin making arrest. We're keeping a close eye on the situation for you on CNN. Four police officers in East Haven, Connecticut arrested and charged with beating and harassing Latinos in their company. The justice department has accused police of supporting a policy of abuse. But a Catholic priest is getting credit for bringing the problem out in public.
CNN's national correspondent Susan Candiotti introduces us to Father James Manship.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Serving his parishioners is something Father James Manship takes from his office to the streets.
FATHER JAMES MANSHIP, ST. ROSE OF LIMA: Any affront to somebody's dignity, to somebody's safety is an affront to God, and it required a response.
CANDIOTTI: So respond he did. Long before four East Haven, Connecticut, police officers were indicted for systematically targeting and arresting Latinos, Father Manship picked up a camera to document alleged abuse in his own backyard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, what are you doing? Is there a reason you have a camera on me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: A store security camera also was rolling in this Latino convenience store when the priest saw police order that some old decorative license plates be taken off a wall.
MANSHIP: I began to videotape what was going on. And then I was arrested.
CANDIOTTI: The priest's camera kept rolling on police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a reason you have a camera on me?
MANSHIP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is that?
MANSHIP: I'm taking a video of what's going on here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: The store's camera shows what happened next. Father Manship is arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and interfering with police. JOSHUA ROSENTHAL, YALE LAW STUDENT: He's definitely played a critical role in helping people come forward and helping people really stand up.
CANDIOTTI: The FBI used Manship's video to help establish what the justice department called discriminatory policing of Latinos. Authorities say more arrests are expected.
East Haven's mayor, who himself has been criticized for insensitive comments about the Latino community, says he stands behind the police department. Father Manship's parishioners say they are blessed to have him speaking out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CANDIOTTI: "If it weren't for him," she says, "we wouldn't know what to do. He's the best."
MANSHIP: This is not -- was not for us. It's just simply about a few bad apples. And this was a serious de-cultural issue within the police department that needs to be transformed.
CANDIOTTI: Among Latinos, fear of police remains rampant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the reason why you stop me? No reason at all. It's just because you are Latino, you look like Latino.
MANSHIP: My hope is that one day that we'll have a police department in East Haven that we can be proud of.
CANDIOTTI: The priest who holds an engineering degree and once designed brakes for a living now finds himself trying to put a stop to alleged racial profiling.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Only two days before Florida's primary, one candidate is surging. Who is he? And what is he doing right?
Plus, what is making this girl twitch? There are about a dozen others like her with a mystery illness at a high school in Upstate New York.
Those stories straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Mitt Romney is gaining back his breathing room in the latest numbers out of Florida. The NBC-Maris Poll shows Romney with a 15-point lead over Gingrich. Two other polls released in the past 24 hours both show Romney with an 11-point lead. And Gingrich doesn't seem to be taking it well. Today, he was basically calling Romney a liar to any talk show that would listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I was amazed. I mean, I'm standing next to a guy who has the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race in my lifetime. He would say thing after thing after thing that just plain wasn't true. And I had - I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain, factually false. And that is going to become a key part of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I was talking earlier about the Romney versus Gingrich battle with CNN contributor Will Cain and L.Z. Granderson, a contributor to CNN.com and senior writer at ESPN. And I asked them what Romney's been doing right lately.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: I had a huge complaint about Mitt Romney was that I couldn't believe he wasn't man enough to stand up to Newt Gingrich. But this past week, he's been man enough to stand up to Newt Gingrich. He's actually confronted him. He's taken him on.
And I think that has taken Newt Gingrich aback because, up until that point, Mitt was pretty much playing the nice guy, the no-toss (ph) guy. And now Mitt has rolled up his sleeves and he gotten kind of tough. And I think that's taken everybody by surprise.
LEMON: I want to play something Romney said about Gingrich on the campaign trail in Florida today. Listen, guys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: I think for each of us if we fail somewhere, if we fail in the debate or we fail to get the support of people, it's time to look in the mirror. And my own view is the reason that Speaker Gingrich has been having a hard time in Florida is the people of Florida have watched the debates, have listened to the speaker, have listened to the other candidates and have said, you know what, Mitt Romney is the guy we're going to support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, Will, is that true? Are we watching Newt Gingrich implode?
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You got a couple things going on. First, there is the mechanical answer, the political answer. And that is Mitt Romney has outspent Newt Gingrich something like $15 million to $3 million in Florida. Mitt Romney fooped (ph) Newt Gingrich in the last two debates in Florida. So there's things going on politically.
He also has surrogates out there across the state following Newt Gingrich around, winning the political battles. So that is going on.
But at the same time, yes, this is following the pattern of all of Newt Gingrich's relationships, whether or not they are professional or personal. The longer you are exposed to Newt Gingrich, the less you like him.
GRANDERSON: Wow. I can't even believe you went there. Wow.
LEMON: Yes, and a conservative. Well, you know what? You know what else? He is not the only one because you heard what Bob Dole had to say. I mean, there are lots of people who are high up in the conservative party -- in the Republican Party who are saying the exact same thing that -- or expressing the exact same sentiment that Will just expressed there.
GRANDERSON: Absolutely. You know, it is really hilarious to see Newt running around calling Mitt Romney a liar. When he goes off on John King, basically based on a lie. You know, he knew full well that he did not offer ABC all those extra witnesses that he talks about and had to admit to his lie. So for him to talk about who is lying at this point, he looks absolutely ridiculous.
LEMON: Go ahead, Will.
CAIN: Yes, I just want to say, on this lying thing, L.Z. is pointing to this. Newt Gingrich did it in a debate the other night. When Mitt Romney gave an answer, Gingrich said, well, there were at least four lies involved in the answer. And I'm not going to spend the time right now, you know, rejecting all those lies.
And he did it in the clip you just played, Don. He said I've got a candidate I'm running against who is just lying consistently. He keeps using the word liar but he's not telling us what are the lies.
Tell us the lies and tell us how you are rebutting them. Tell us how they are false. You can't just call someone a liar and let it stick, and hopefully, shouldn't just stick. You can't just do that over and over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Will Cain and L.Z. Granderson. And another reminder for you. We will have complete coverage of Tuesday's Florida's Republican primary. Our live coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. A live shot of Miami there. A beautiful evening, it looks like.
Coming up here on CNN, a Canadian jury convicts three members of a family of Afghan immigrants in the honor killings of these four victims. That report right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I want to check your international headlines right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Another violent day across Syria as shown in this YouTube video. A wounded protester shot by soldiers is dragged away in Damascus. An opposition activist group says at least 64 people died in attacks Sunday. Nearly 100 on Saturday. CNN cannot confirm those numbers nor the validity of the video since Western journalists are heavily restricted.
Iran's state media report nuclear inspectors have arrived for a two-day look at Tehran's atomic energy program. They are concerned that Iran is secretly building a nuclear weapon. Iran denies this but agreed to inspections after the European Union imposed stiff sanctions. Those sanctions are aimed at cutting off funding for Iran's nuclear program.
Another likely hero found in the wreckage of that Italian cruise ship that capsized two weeks ago. The body found Saturday has been identified as that of a bartender from Peru who worked on the Costa Concordia. She was found without a lifejacket on. Survivors have spoken about a Peruvian bartender who gave her jacket to an elderly man who did survive. The number of dead stands at 17, 15 people still unaccounted for.
The verdict, guilty, for three Afghan immigrants charged in so- called "honor murders" in Canada. Mohammad Shafia, his wife and their 21-year-old son were convicted of killing Shafia's three daughters and his first wife in a polygamist marriage. Our Paula Newton has the details in Ontario.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, you know, this jury did not take very long with this verdict. Basically seven women, five men decided little bit less than 15 hours. They had to look at 12 counts. That's four counts each of first-degree murder and they decided guilty. Now, those three defendants will now spend 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
And really, the details are stunning. Can you imagine, a mother, father, and son, the brother of those girls in the car basically taking their Lexus, their four-by-four vehicle, ramming the family Nissan into a seven-foot deep canal. Now, inside, three teenage girls.
And listen to this, Don, Rona Amir -- Rona Amir was the woman they called auntie, but really she was the first wife of Mohammad Shafia, now a convicted murderer, the first wife in a polygamist marriage.
Again, this family emigrated here from Afghanistan. And you know, social workers have been to their home. They knew that there was conflict in the family. But what was really at the crux of this as the jury heard in multiple wiretap conversations was this whole question of honor. This, the jury decided, was an honor murder.
And why? The family had decided and the father made it very clear in wiretaps that these women had to go, that they were just shaming the family far too much. And he actually uttered things on the wiretaps to say if they came back to life 100 times, I would do it again, and then, may the devil defecate on their graves.
I mean, really, when you hear this on a wiretap, a man talking about his three teenage daughters, one of them being just 13 years old, it was shocking days. And many who were here tell me that you could see a difference with the jury, saying that, look, they were really quite emotional even in rendering this kind of verdicts.
Again now, these three people spending 25 years in prison without possibility of parole. But many here in Canada now asking questions. You know, I have to underscore this is a rare crime. This is not like this happens very often. At the same time, many people asking how can social service workers and teachers and principals be more attuned to make sure this doesn't happen again -- Don.
LEMON: Paula, thank you very much.
For many Americans, the word liar is already synonymous with politicians. But if you're going to call someone that, you better be ready to back it up. "No Talking Points," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Now to the big stories in the week ahead. From the White House to Davos, Switzerland, our correspondents tell you what you need to know. We begin tonight with the president's plans for the week.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian at the White House. After a week of selling his State of the Union priorities on the road, President Obama will take his message online. On Monday, he'll answer questions on Google Plus, a live multi-person video chat room. He'll also host the president of the Republic of Georgia on that same day. President Obama is not expected to travel this week.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm Poppy Harlow coming to you from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Back on Wall Street, all eyes are on the January jobs report that is coming up on Friday morning. It is our first look at jobs in 2012. Also coming up this week, the latest consumer confidence reading. That's out on Wednesday. And we'll get earnings from Amazon, UPS and AOL.
We'll track it for you all week on CNN Money.
A.J. HAMMER, ANCHOR, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer. "Showbiz Tonight" has major star power this week. I go one-on-one with "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Taylor Armstrong. She is telling all about her alleged abuse nightmare. Plus, Hollywood's most charming guy, Neil Patrick Harris, on life as a new dad.
Be sure to catch "Showbiz Tonight" exclusively week nights at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on HLN.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, guys.
And tomorrow morning's weather. How's that going to affect your drive to work? Jacqui Jeras in the CNN weather center with the travel forecast for you.
Hey, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Don.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Enough to scare a lot of people as well. Thank you very much, Jacqui Jeras. Appreciate it.
Time now for "No Talking Points."
Well, this past week, there had been a lot of accusations from Republican presidential candidates against each other, and perhaps the best place to sort it all out is by getting them into the same room on the same stage. I have an idea -- a debate where they can hash it out and explain themselves. But one candidate in particular refuses to own up the to attacks he's been leveling against his strongest competitor about his finances. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a nonsense question.
(APPLAUSE)
GINGRICH: How about -- how about if the four of us agree for the rest of the evening to actually talk about the issues about America.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Speaker, you made an issue this week when you said that he lives in a world of Swiss bank and Cayman Island bank accounts. I didn't say that. You did.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wouldn't it be nice if people didn't make accusations somewhere else that they weren't willing to defend here?
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Go Wolf Blitzer. Wolf Blitzer gets an honorary "No Talking Points" award for an excellent follow up. And Mitt Romney makes an excellent point. If you're going to go around accusing people of making negative claims about them like the ones I'm about to show you, then you have to be ready to back it up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I'm standing next to a guy who has the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race.
He came into the debate preparing to say things that are false.
You cannot debate someone who is dishonest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election? This man would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's some serious stuff. He is basically calling Mitt Romney a liar. CNN conservative commentator Will Cain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He keeps using the word liar, but he's not telling us what are the lies. Tell us the lies and tell us how you are rebutting them. Tell us how they're false. You can't just call someone a liar and let it stick, and hopefully, shouldn't just stick. You can't just do that over and over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, the reason Mr. Gingrich is up on those debate stages is to answer questions and not to do this, deflect and push supporters to his website.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I'm not going to spend the evening trying to chase Governor Romney's misinformation. We'll have a site in newt.org by tomorrow morning. He listed four things that are false. I don't want to waste the time on them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, not that we're taking any sides. We're not taking any side. But the truth is that sometimes when you repeat something over and over and over again, people start to believe it. Perception is reality. But it's not always the truth. I'll say that again. Perception is reality, but it's not always the truth. However, it can become a catchy refrain. You want an example?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): N to the E to the W-T. Newt Gingrich taking over these streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I like that song. It may be cute and catchy. But it's not the truth. N to the E to the W-T is not taking over these streets.
In all seriousness though, it's great that Mr. Gingrich wants to move on and focus on the issues. But if he doesn't back up his claims, it's just name-calling. And that's tonight's "No Talking Points."
Up next on CNN, a symbolic landmark that was a reminder of the tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri last year comes down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Check your headlines now this hour. Police in Alabama believe more than one person is responsible for the deaths of five people at a home in Birmingham. Officers discovered the bodies early Sunday as they responded to a report of a robbery in progress. Police do not believe the killings were random.
New developments in the case of a missing girl in Maine. Police say test results show that blood found in the home of little Ayla Reynolds does belong to the 20-month-old girl. She was reported missing on December 17th. Police say there's no evidence the girl was abducted and they have cast doubt on stories told by three adults including her dad who were in the home when Ayla disappeared.
It's been eight months since a monster tornado slammed Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people. A hospital was heavily damaged and, Sunday, demolition crews began tearing it down. A four-foot wooden cross that once hung in the emergency department was taken to the new hospital site about two miles away. Demolition crews used a wrecking ball to tear down the hospital instead of explosives, fearing they would damage surrounding properties.
Now some highlights at tonight's 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. "The Help" was the big winner among movies. Viola Davis wins for top female actress and she was back when the award for the top cast of motion picture went to "The Help" as well. Among other winners, Betty White for outstanding female actor in a TV comedy series.
We love Betty White, don't we?
And outstanding TV cast went to "Boardwalk Empire" for my producer's favorite show for the second year running.
Earlier tonight I asked George Clooney why I didn't get to attend the SAG Awards. Listen to the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: There's someone there, I don't know, I kind of recognize this guy and young lady. I think he is George Clooney and Stacy Keibler, Kareen Wynter.
Hello, Kareen.
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Don, I haven't stopped -- I haven't stopped laughing. George is such a comedian. George Clooney and his beautiful date Stacy Keibler. We are so thrilled to have you here with us. Talking about the big night ahead with "The Descendant." How fabulously thrilled are you? I just made that up, by the way.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Fabulously thrilled I am, but I'm a little disappointed that Don couldn't make the show.
WYNTER: Don, what do you have to say about that?
LEMON: I'm very disappointed as well. I didn't get George's invitation.
WYNTER: George, Don said he didn't get your invitation so he's very disappointed as well.
CLOONEY: I'm sorry, it's in the mail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Still never got it. All right. Moving on now.
Hugh Hefner says the Lindsay Lohan edition of "Playboy" magazine could be the biggest-selling issue ever. Hefner used Twitter to announce that "Playboy" with Lohan on the cover is going to be a record breaker. Lohan was reportedly paid close to $1 million to pose for "Playboy."
All right.
It was the longest grand slam tennis final in history. The Australian Open men's final started Sunday in Melbourne and ended in the early hours of Monday. When it all was over, after almost six hours, well, world number one Novak Djokovic, he defeated Spain's Rafael Nadal in five sets. Congratulations.
Up next, a mystery illness in Upstate New York causing high school students to have violent outbursts and uncontrollable twitches.
But first, the drastic drop in home prices at the root of America's economic crisis is still being felt in Florida which was hit especially hard. In this week's "Mastering Your Money," Christine Romans and Ali Velshi report on the crisis in the "Sunshine State," site of Tuesday's GOP primary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, CNN'S "YOUR BOTTOM LINE": Home prices here down from the peak $80,000, median home prices down $80,000. Orlando is a little bit worse. Miami is a little bit worse. Down about 40 percent here. You can see it's about 50 percent. Imagine, the value of your home cut in half. Really limits your options, doesn't it, if you're a homeowner, whether or not you're under water, to be paid by yourself.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Which is why when we heard the debate in Jacksonville on Thursday night, those social issues didn't come into play all that much. If you can get past Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney sniping at each other, it was all economic issues. Even Rick Santorum, who likes to spend a lot of time on social issues, wasn't doing that in Florida.
ROMANS: Yes. And, you know, anybody who's going to go cast a ballot either on Tuesday or in the general election, clearly, they're going to have some sort of housing baggage and jobs baggage. 9.9 percent is the unemployment rate here.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And you know, I talked to a real estate professor who said, you're not going to fix the housing crisis until you fix the jobs crisis --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: -- first and foremost. But he also said, Ali, and I know you're going to be interested in this, he said when he runs studies going back as long as we have any kind of data about housing, five years from now, his best assumption is that home prices will be higher. Because all of the ingredients are there, right?
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Record low mortgage rates. Home prices, they're so low. Affordability finally. He said you got to clean out -- kind of brutal term -- but clean out these foreclosures, the people who have been blown out and start fresh. But right now you've got to delay in that cleaning out because the foreclosure, there is still the shadow of inventory homes.
VELSHI: That's exactly right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Now is the developing story from Upstate New York. A mystery is plaguing the small community of Le Roy. At least 15 teenagers are displaying odd symptoms -- twitching and verbal outbursts. Doctors have diagnosed it as possibly conversion disorder.
But new developments may have revealed there is more to this story. Earlier, I spoke with HLN's Dr. Drew Pinsky.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Famed environmentalist, Dr. Drew, Erin Brockovich has gotten involved in this, conducting her own investigation. You have spoken to her on your show. What did she have to say to you?
DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST, HLN'S "DR. DREW": She has come upon information that really is rather stunning. And I just like that we are looking under every stone to try to see if we can understand what happened to these young girls. And even if there's not a direct relationship between what we uncover with Erin Brockovich and these girls strange illness, the fact is what we've uncovered I can only describe as an environmental disaster up there in Le Roy. She found out that in the early 70s there was a train derailment where thousands of gallons of TCE was spilled. That's trichloroethylene, a known carcinogen, something that can cause neurological disorders, was spilled into the ground right there outside of Le Roy just a few miles from that school.
And she had discovered that there had been actual bedrock samples from in and around that area showing a plume of this potentially carcinogenic compound heading towards that high school.
Now, she has set up one of her own investigators to Le Roy and we have sent a team up there. And what you're going to see on Monday night is just astonishing.
They went to the site of the train derailment and has found that the remediation site, the site where they were supposed to manage all these toxic chemicals, has itself become a spree -- almost an autonomous toxic spill of its own. It says those remediation site is now a toxic site, and it's just miles from that school.
So, we are on this and trying to understand where and what these girls might have been exposed to and what this community might be facing.
LEMON: I want you to talk about this conversion disorder but even if it is that and it turns out it is conversion disorder, as you said, it's still a huge problem when you look at all the chemicals that were spilled here and if you look at that site now.
Let's talk about conversion disorder, Dr. Drew. I have another doctor, Dr. Wendy Walsh (ph). You had worked with her before. And she said it could be conversion disorder, but we don't know right now until all the testing is done.
And I have people who are writing to me via social media saying, I don't think it's conversion disorder, I think it's chemicals. What do you make from talking to the girls?
PINSKY: I spent decades working in a psychiatric hospital and my primary job was to make sure that there was not a medical condition contributing to her causing psychiatric symptoms that were causing the need for hospitalization. And you would be stunned how often I found bona fide medical conditions underlying the psychiatric syndrome.
In this particular situation, particularly Thera Sanchez (ph), to me, it just -- it just felt like there was something organic going on. Yes, there are psychiatric symptoms.
And let me define conversion for you since you asked what that is. Basically, it's a way of the body expressing psychiatric or psychological symptoms through blindness, numbness, twitches, seizures, and this sort of thing. It's a physical manifestation unconscious of an emotional event. And it does happen. It happens. And there could be a contagion, and it's called the mass hysteria.
But you don't want to call -- and by the way, there may be a component of this up there in Le Roy. I have no doubt there might be. But you don't want to say everyone's got that until you have categorically ruled out medical causes. And that has been my call.
If there are some experts out there, they can help us with infectious agents that can cause this or chemical agents and Erin Brockovich stepped up and we have uncovered things that are astonishing even if it's not directly related to what these girls have.
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LEMON: Monday night, 9:00 Eastern, "DR. DREW" gets new details from famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich about her findings in the town of Le Roy. "DR. DREW" every night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.
Coming up, in this hour, meet Dr. James Scott. That's him right there. He sees a racial divide in America like almost no one else does. We'll have his fascinating story. It's part of "What Matters in America" tonight.
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LEMON: Often, you can't see what really matters in life. Take the case of Dr. James Scott, an anesthesiologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. From outside appearances, he looks like any other white doctor. But he's not -- white that is. That's what matters. He talks about it with Yaba Blay, an assistant professor of Africana Studies, and be warned, this story contains language that some may find offensive.
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YABA BLAY, ASST. PROFESSOR OF AFRICANA STUDIES, LAFAYETTE COLLEGE: Hi. How are you? I'm Yaba.
DR. JAMES F. SCOTT III, ANESTHESIOLOGIST: I've been in situations where people perceived me perhaps as white. I never passed. I never denied who I was. But I didn't always go around and advertise. I just was myself.
BLAY: How do you identify culturally or racially?
SCOTT: I'm Appalachian African-American.
BLAY: Appalachian African-American. OK.
So your father is African-American, your mother is European- American.
SCOTT: My father, who was a graduate of Howard University, an army man, was a very powerful force in my life. We grew up -- my dad pretty much subscribed to the thought of the "One Drop" rule. We were raised African-American and proud of it. Growing up, people may not have initially realized I was African-American. One time, I was with my cousins and my cousins came in a variety of skin tones from brown to black and we were playing, I don't know, maybe touch football. And there were these two white men and they were staring, they were looking at us. And one of them says, hey, come over here, come over here, fellow, come over here, I want to meet you.
And I said hello. He said let me hold your hand. And he grabbed my hand and he goes, what are you doing playing over there with those niggers? I was like, what? He goes, a white boy like you shouldn't be over there playing with those niggers. I don't like seeing a white boy over there. You shouldn't be there. Come on. And I looked at him and he was a big guy. And I kick him in his knee. I just kicked him in the knee. I said, don't you call my cousins niggers.
I was brought up to be proud to be black and that racism existed but it's not an excuse for weakness or cowering. It's something that makes you stronger.
When I was admitted into my program, my specialty, I can only remember there were a couple of times that were quite painful. I had a few professors use the N word.
BLAY: In class?
SCOTT: In the operating room.
But you know what? I also was around African-Americans who made horrible racist remarks about whites. And there is racism on both sides of the spectrum. It's so much more important to have a sense of self-worth and an identity of who you are inside and not be classified by the way that others look at you.
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LEMON: Having to write for the One Job Project and In America has inspired me to search my own family history. I'm going to do my ancestry and you can read my latest posting on cnn.com/inamerica. It's also on cnn.com's homepage right now. Check it out. Let me know what you think.
One week away from the Super Bowl and suddenly the question is being asked. Is football too dangerous a sport? Ahead, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and former NFL player Lamar Campbell join me to talk about the dangers of concussions.
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LEMON: Time to get you up-to-date on some of the headlines now. Tragedy on Interstate 75 in Florida before dawn on Sunday. Cars and trucks piled up outside Gainesville, killing 10 people, injuring 18 more. Drivers were blinded by smoke from a nearby brush fire. One survivor called it horrendous. The highway patrol had just reopened the interstate when the chain of collisions occurred. In Canada, an Afghan family -- Mohammad Shafia, his wife and their 21-year-old son have been convicted of murdering these four women. The murdered women are Shafia's three daughters and his first wife. Investigators say the three conducted so-called "honor murders" to punish the victims for being rebellious and westernized.
CNN has spent more than a year investigating the dangers of concussions in sports. Coming up at the top of the hour, we will bring you "BIG HITS, BROKEN DREAMS" hosted by our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Earlier, I spoke with Dr. Gupta and former NFL player Lamar Campbell about the dangers of concussions while playing football.
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LEMON: Let's talk about the dangers. Is it more dangerous than people think? And can it be made, after all, I mean, it's sports, it's football. You're hitting. That's the nature of it.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's a violent sport and it's always going to be that way, I think. But there are two things. There are a lot of things in the documentary. But two things I'll share withy you quickly.
One is if you got a concussion and then you get a second concussion while the first one is healing, you turn a bad situation into potentially a catastrophic situation. If you have a bruise on your arm and somebody hits you, the next day somebody hits you again in that same spot, it would hurt a lot more.
It's going to heal from the first hit, no doubt. But that second hit hurts that much more. Think of your brain the same way. Inflame, swollen after that first concussion. It will heal. But if it gets a second hit, it becomes a really bad situation. So number one.
And number two is, you know, those 650 hits a season, when we really dissected a season of a high school football team, we found the vast majority of those occur in practice. No questions these players have to learn skills and some of that does involve hitting. But so much of that can be dialed back as they're starting to do in states like North Carolina and other states around the country.
LEMON: I want to ask you a question. If you had a teenage son, would you let him play high school football?
LAMAR CAMPBELL, FORMER NFL PLAYER: No. No, I would not. I'm very conscious of how I feel today. But if he did decide to do that, he would be offered the one thing that I did not have which is the education and the knowledge of what the game can do to you down the line. I think that's the important thing.
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LEMON: Thanks to Dr. Gupta and Mr. Lamar there. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Make sure you have a great week, great night and a great week. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, "BIG HITS, BROKEN DREAMS. It begins on CNN right now.
