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Carnage in Syria; Houston Death Investigation Continues; Paying Kids to go to School; Retrial for Alleged Wife Killer; Houston's Infamous Interviews; Santorum Leads Polls In Michigan
Aired February 14, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour here. Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Here's a number for you, 40, as in 40 more people have died today in the government onslaught in Syria.
But I want to start this by telling you about one survivor. And this is not from today. It's actually from last Friday, but let's watch this together and I will explain the backstory in just a moment.
So you saw initially in the middle of that street, a Syrian child running loose in the midst of sniper fire. Watch what happened again with me. This hero, this man here, there he goes, grabs this child, swoops him up, whisks him to safety around the corner, kind of behind what bit of wall that he can find, just then goes back to grab the child's stray shoe.
Folks, this is life in Syria right now. And now a new piece of video. This is some video just in to us here at CNN, and you have to watch closely. This video was shot Sunday in the capital city of Damascus. It appears to bolster claims that Syrian forces are using civilians as human shields. These men are apparently being forced at gunpoint -- look at them on both sides -- to line up behind this tank.
Watch what happens. They're forced to kneel and then slowly they go from kneeling to ultimately laying on the ground, and it's hard to tell precisely what is happening here, but we can see men carrying arms. And one can surmise those are the guys calling the shots. Laying down behind a tank, not something one would expect a person to do voluntarily.
And as we told you, the Syrian government in Damascus has refused entry to CNN crews who are trying to tell the story, to cover this story for the world.
However, CNN's Arwa Damon has managed to get inside Syria, and of course for Arwa's safety, we can't tell you her precise location, but we can show you what she's seeing and also what she's hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the areas where the government crackdown is at its worst, people say that there are snipers positioned on every single street corner. You can hardly cross a main thoroughfare without coming across government snipers. And, then, of course, there are all of the tanks and the government checkpoints. People that we have been talking to, every single one of them has one horrific nightmare story, and some of them are still too afraid to publicly talk about with their names attached to it.
One man who we met, he had four members of his family executed as government forces, he said, were raiding his village. And he wanted to tell the story, he wanted to put out the images of loved ones. He was afraid because he said at the same time his uncle had been detained.
They believe that at the end of the day, at some point in time, who knows when, the regime is going to fall, that quite simply they cannot go back and Syria will not go back to the way that it was.
But one young activist I was speaking to put it this way. He said, if there is military intervention, yes, there will be a lot of bloodshed, but it's going to be over a lot quicker. If there isn't military intervention, there's going to be even more bloodshed, and it's going to take a lot longer to bring down the regime.
What a lot of people are realizing and accepting at this stage is that this is going to be a bloody battle, that more lives are going to be lost and that perhaps the biggest challenge for Syria, too, is going to be after the regime topples.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: Do you hear that? The biggest challenge after the regime topples. Again, Arwa Damon, my thanks to you reporting as I mentioned from an undisclosed location in Syria.
As you can imagine, it is extraordinarily dangerous there for Arwa and her crew. In fact, in the middle of the NEWSROOM today, I had a conversation about precisely that with CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. He, of course, as you have seen, has been in multiple similar situations, and here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Given all the dangers in Syria right now, and I don't want us to give any details away that would put Arwa and her crew in danger, but how difficult, how dangerous is it for her to get in country, to be reporting in the midst of bloodshed?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the hardest thing is going to be knowing the people she is with who are taking care of her can protect her from the dangers around them, which means she needs to put and her team need to put their faith in the opposition members they're with who will be helping them get from A to B and onwards from there.
That's tough to know because people often are desperate for you see how bad things are, and they will try and put you in a position, unintentionally, of taking huge risks that they would naturally take, but maybe you wouldn't want to take. And you don't kind of know.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: How well can she know these people?
ROBERTSON: You can judge them. We know that she's taken her time in what she is doing, that she has done this a lot of times before, that this will be calculations, careful steps and calculations on her part.
Of course, she speaks Arabic, so she will really understand. No one will pull the wool over Arwa's eyes. We know that for sure. But she will be making those very tough judgments every step of the way.
BALDWIN: In terms of a journalistic perspective, how different is getting the story out, a story like Syria vs. I know we saw you for months and months in Libya.
ROBERTSON: Let's put ourselves in Arwa's shoes again. She's with the opposition.
The opposition in Libya had huge swathes of territory, and everyone would saw how they would rush to the front line and they would be firing rocket launchers then they would get bombed by Gadhafi's planes and they would run back 20 or 30 miles. There's none of that in Syria at the moment.
The difficulty of reporting from the front lines in Syria with the opposition is that it's a guerrilla fight, that the opposition don't have large areas of territory. But when they drive down a road, they could be stopped at an army checkpoint, they could come under gunfire or tank fire from the army. So it's much different.
There is not a clear front line, one side and the other. You are behind the line, essentially, if you're with the opposition. If you're in Damascus, the capital where the government really controls still in Syria, the government can really limit where you can go.
They have an intelligence network of 200,000 people. Anywhere you go on the street and you're filming with your camera, any one of those people can come up to you and tell you to stop you and drag thank off to a government office. So there's limitations that way, too.
BALDWIN: So there's absolutely nowhere that's safe. Every moment, you just have to be aware.
ROBERTSON: If you're with the opposition, there is nowhere that is safe whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Nic Robertson, thank you for doing that, speaking from experience, speaking there on the dangers of reporting from a war zone, Syria in particular.
Coming up, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: What do I think about this? I think I'm outraged by this. I'm sick of it.
When I guarantee you abstinence was the goal and here she is with her friends toasting, that's sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Coming up next, the serious concerns about prescription drug use in the United States, not just for Hollywood, but for average folks. We will talk about the hidden dangers here.
Plus, my next guest agrees with Dr. Drew that the people partying with Whitney Houston were not her friends. In fact, he calls them the worst people in the world. Bob Forrest from "Celebrity Rehab" coming back on the show. We will talk next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A private funeral for pop superstar Whitney Houston will be held Saturday. Her body is now home in New Jersey, arriving in this gold hearse at a Newark funeral home.
A very young Whitney Houston. It's significant because her funeral will be held at New Hope Baptist Church, the very place there she learned to perform. This is a YouTube clip, one of her solos when she was just a child.
But how Houston died is still such a mystery. The L.A. County coroner is downplaying the amount of prescription medication found in her hotel room. But still, we are learning bits and pieces from friends that Whitney Houston had been partying in the days leading up to her death, so it begs the question, where does a decade-long addict draw the line?
I want to bring in Bob Forrest of VH-1's "Celebrity Rehab" and "Sober House," joins me live from Los Angeles.
And, Bob, as you're hearing all the different bits and pieces, some say it was erratic behavior in those final days, some say she was fine, she just had a couple glasses of champagne, totally innocuous, what do you make of all of this?
BOB FORREST, "CELEBRITY REHAB": It's the worst environment in the world for a newly sober person is going to these parties, and they're kind of artificial and inauthentic.
One of the things I have to say about Whitney Houston, I just loved her genuineness. She was the real deal, when you see her talk so honestly and openly about her battle and her life. I saw Chaka Khan talking about her planning how to come to these parties. The fact is, you don't have to come to them at all. There is no reason you need to be there and to be in an environment where there's drinking and drugs, and more importantly, a false sense of self. The addict has to get in touch with who they are. That place is the worst place on earth for a Whitney Houston newly sober to be.
BALDWIN: Chaka Khan was saying given her history, you arrive the of the Grammys or the day before, certainly not a week leading up to it in Los Angeles of all places.
We have also heard from her friend, last person she performed with her friend Kelly Price. They were at this club Thursday night and had a couple glasses of champagne. As I mentioned, she said it was all fun and good, all innocuous partying, but for an addict, especially a chronic addict, isn't one glass of champagne too much?
FORREST: It's always too much.
And here's the thing. You showed Drew's outrage. We have been trying to talk about this for years. Addicts need to not do anything. They need to not see doctors for sleep medication. They need to not worry about their back aching, they need to not be in drinking environments, they need not have one sip of champagne.
It feels like for seven or eight years, we have been screaming this. And nobody gets it, not even best-intentioned best friends of addicts who are sober going out drinking with them. It's just outrageous. It's really shocking.
BALDWIN: You have, certainly, enablers, but there's also, from what I understand, a bit of a misperception when it comes to prescription drug abuse. That, hey, say, I'm not taking cocaine, I'm not doing heroin, I'm not buying these drugs off a dealer off a shady street corner, I'm getting drugs from the doctor. So it feels safe, I would imagine.
FORREST: Let's ask Heath Ledger's family and Anna Nicole Smith's family and all these people.
My nephew died of a prescription drug addiction. It's a tsunami epidemic problem in America and when Americans are going to wake up to the fact that just because a doctor tells you to take it doesn't mean it's good for you.
BALDWIN: You told one of our producers -- you use benzodiazepine as an example found in the bodies of many of those people you just rattled off. One day you're fine and one day you're not. Talk to me about the combination of that and alcohol.
FORREST: More qualified medical professionals can talk about it. I just know my own experience with it.
Addicts regularly take the same amount of benzodiazepine in coalition with opiates or alcohol and go to sleep and wake up the next morning. They take that exact same amount and don't wake up. It's the most dangerous drug. The idea that Lunesta is this benign sleep aid with a butterfly is not true. It's a deadly disease. It was in Michael Jackson's system, it was in Heath Ledger's system, and I believe you will see it might have been in this situation.
BALDWIN: We don't know. We won't know yet for another six to eight weeks with the toxicology reports an official cause of death. But as we were talking just in the commercial break, whatever the cause of her death can be, this can be used as a wakeup call. You mentioned you lost your nephew. Thousands of people, not just -- you mentioned some celebrities -- thousands of regular people die from abusing prescription medicine.
FORREST: Prescription medicines are by far the most destructive thing in our culture and nobody is paying any attention to it.
Oxycodone, all this, it's just an unbelievable phenomena. It just appeared in the last seven, eight, nine, 10 years.
BALDWIN: How do we change that, though, Bob?
(CROSSTALK)
FORREST: Huh?
BALDWIN: How do we change that, though?
FORREST: I would like to see some sort of federal laws looking into if you can prescribe these drugs to children, to minors. They're often used in minors. Ritalin, Adderall, are meth by another name.
And benzodiazepine for anxiety in a 15-year-old, it lays the found to believe that taking pills is safe, taking pills is expected to be well, and that's why you have this extreme epidemic in young people of prescription drug use. I believed we sowed the seeds.
BALDWIN: Just because you get it from a doctor does not mean you can take it over and over and over again.
Bob Forrest, love having you on. Thank you so much.
FORREST: Thanks so much.
Coming up next, the Taliban kills U.S. soldiers in war. So why suddenly are the militants saying they will only negotiate with Americans? In fact, they're claiming the talks have already begun. We're live in the region with that story.
Also, if you survive a heart attack, we're now hearing of a way to heal the heart using stem cells. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is about to give us this inside look at this cutting edge treatment. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The Afghan Taliban's surprising claim about peace negotiations. China's vice president visits the White House. And cutting edge treatment of heart attacks.
Time to play "Reporter Roulette."
Want to begin with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh Beirut on possible peace negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Nick, what have you learned and from whom?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We received an e-mail from a Taliban spokesman, a man called Zabiullah Mujahid.
Now, in this, he confirms the first time from the Taliban side that they have had initial talks with American officials about potentially having peace negotiations in the future, but there is a sting in this particular e-mail, too, because the Americans want these peace talks to be between the Taliban and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.
What this e-mail says is the Taliban have no interest in talking to the Afghan government. They want to talk to the power and they want to the Americans directly, the people with the military might there and with the cash. That could really pull the rug right from underneath this months-long secret American effort to try and negotiate a peace to this decade-long war. Troubling words in this e- mail.
BALDWIN: They want to talk to the Americans, specifically, and they're making a claim about contact with U.S. officials. Tell me about that.
WALSH: This is just simply a sounding out meeting. This is what they refer to as building of confidence between the two sides.
Remember these people have been at war with each other for a decade now America vs. the insurgency. They clearly don't trust each other so they need to have meetings which they can begin to work it out if the other side is capable of delivering on the things they negotiate.
That's as far as it's got. This has always been a very delicate process, but really what the Taliban have done in this e-mail is say that the major condition that Hillary Clinton and all U.S. officials have had for these peace talks, that they happen between the Afghan government and the Afghan insurgency, Afghan-owned, Afghan-led is the American phrase, the Taliban don't want that. They just want to talk to the Americans, and that's going to be a major, if not potentially fatal hurdle for this whole process -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much.
Next here on "Reporter Roulette," the man who is to one day lead China is right here in the United States.
White House correspondent Brianna Keilar is live there at the White House with more on the Chinese vice president's visit.
The U.S. vice president pointed out that the two countries don't always agree.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, that's right, Brooke. It's pretty interesting because this is a trip where sort of both sides, the U.S. and China, are kind of walking a line. They're talking about cooperation but they're also sizing each other up and talking about some pretty sticky issues.
Right now one of the elephants in the room has to do with Syria, not surprisingly, because that U.N. Security Council resolution against Syria was voted down by Russia and China. And it was Vice President Biden who addressed that today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the United States and China, as you have pointed out, Mr. Vice President, will not always see eye to eye.
It is a sign of the strength and maturity of our relationship that we can be candid about our differences as we have been. We saw this in the recent U.N. Security Council debate about Syria, where we strongly disagreed with China and Russia's veto of a resolution against the unconscionable violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So highlighting a difference there with Vice President Xi, who is expected to be president soon and head up China for the next decade, with him there in the room. It is a pretty big deal just to kind of hear that language coming from Vice President Biden.
But, Brooke, there is a whole lot of other issues that will be discussed behind closed doors. We may not get a whole lot of details about them. Some of them have to do with the trade imbalance, that's a sticky issue, as well as the currency that is undervalued in China, as well as military interests.
The U.S. just announced it would have military presence in northern Australia, right in China's neighborhood, so to speak. China not so happy about that. And also Iran, because China is its largest customer of oil, and the concern is that the U.S. does not want China to increase its consumption of that oil.
BALDWIN: So other issues to talk about, also other stops on the U.S. tour. He headed to the Midwest. He has ties to a state there?
KEILAR: Yes, this is pretty interesting. Vice president Xi will be heading to Iowa. When he was a local official in the 1980s -- he's been to Iowa before. He went in the 1980s. He will be talking about agriculture, and he will also be heading to Los Angeles, where President Obama seemed to let slip during their bilateral meeting today that he might be taking in a Lakers game.
So, you know, maybe a little fun and games on this five-day business trip. BALDWIN: Lakers, huh? But maybe no Jeremy Lin on this tour, right?
That's what I kept thinking. Everybody is talking about Linsanity.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: That's right.
BALDWIN: Brianna, thank you.
Next on "Reporter Roulette," regrowing human heart tissue. I know it sounds like science fiction. Scientists are very much doing this. They are finding it can actually undo some of the damage from heart attacks.
CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains this cutting edge treatment which uses stem cells.
Hey, Sanjay.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, people have been talking about stem cells for some time, the promise of stem cells, but this particular trial is an important one. It shows a couple things that are very specific to the questions people have been trying to answer.
First of all, you can inject these stem cells back into the heart and do it safely. And second of all, and this was a little bit of a surprise to researchers, that they saw the benefit. They saw specific things change in the heart as a result of that injection.
These were patients who had had mild to moderate to severe heart attacks. As a result, they had developed scarring in the heart. That scarring in the heart sort of impacted the function of their heart overall. So what they did, take a look here, they specifically thread a catheter into the heart and they took some muscle from the heart itself, some healthy muscle.
This is the patient's own heart. They pulled that back out and put it into a petri dish where they allowed those cells to grow, to reproduce, turn into millions of these cardiac cells. Then they injected those and let those go back into the heart.
What they found was a significant reduction in the scar that often accompanies heart attacks. So, again, patients did not have negative side effects that were significant, and they had this regeneration of the heart tissue.
One of the things in medical school that we have learned is once heart cells die, they're not coming back. So these patients, once they have heart attacks, they're not going to get that function back. So in this particular trial, again, they showed injecting those stem cells did show about a 50 percent reduction in scar.
This is an early trial. It was 25 patients -- 17 of them had these stem cells put in and that was compared to standardized treatment. Where this goes next is that they have to reproduce this in other patients. But, again, so much discussion about the promise of stem cells. This is an example of how it can work and how it might work down the line -- back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.
That's your "Reporter Roulette" here on this Tuesday.
How about this one? Let me throw this at you. A school is paying students to come to class. Yes. Wait until you hear how it works, and as you can imagine the backlash that idea is getting.
Plus, for the first time ever, we're getting a look at private notes from Jackie Kennedy as first lady. Find out who is releasing them and what they reveal, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: If it's interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it, "Rapid Fire."
Let's go, beginning with Mitt Romney. His home state seems to be liking the other guy. Check out this new poll out of Michigan today. See the guy at the top? Rick Santorum beating Mitt Romney 33-27, an American Research Group poll of likely voters. Michigan's primary two weeks away, but the Santorum campaign already has ads on the air.
And take a look at some other numbers. Look at these. These are Gallup poll numbers nationwide. It is basically a successful tie between Romney and Santorum, 32 versus 30. Make sure you stay tuned to CNN because we're going to be releasing this new national poll numbers at the top of the hour, half an hour from now.
Israel on a high state of alert after three bombs went off in Bangkok, Thailand. Israel says Iran is to blame. The explosions come just one day after Israeli diplomats were attacked in India and Georgia. Two Iranians are in custody and police are looking for another person in connection with the blast. Five people were also injured.
Amanda Knox would go back to prison if prosecutors in Italy get their way. They're appealing a decision to overturn the American's murder conviction. Knox was cleared last year in the murder of her roommate. Knox's lawyer says prosecutors are wrong to try to keep this case going.
And how about this? You can get a look into the private thoughts of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy talking dinner invitations, notes on decorating. This is all part of this first batch of personal papers being made public by the Kennedy Presidential Library. The documents are also available online, and one includes the transcript of remarks Mrs. Kennedy made to Cuban dissidents captured during The Bay of Pigs. Kennedy's children donated the collection to the library after her death in 1994.
And how would like to get $25 a week just for being, I don't know, on time? An Ohio High School thinks incentives like that will keep students in class, keep them out of trouble.
Alison Kosik joins me with more.
Alison, I read the story this morning. And I thought, what?
(CROSSTALK)
I mean, we're all supposed to be on time right? We're all supposed to go to school, at least that's how it was when we were going. You talked to the school district.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.
BALDWIN: What did he say?
KOSIK: Yes. So this is, first of all, what this program is, this is happening at a charter high school in Cincinnati, Brooke. And, remember, charter schools play by different rules than public schools.
And yes, it's paying students to go to school. This whole thing started yesterday with students getting VISA gift cards if they show up everyday on time and stay out of trouble. The underclass getting 10 bucks a week. Seniors getting 25 bucks. The school saying to me they're giving this a try because its state report card is terrible. Attendance is below average. Only 14 percent of students actually graduated last year, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Wow. So here is one way, perhaps, of raising those graduation rates. But how, you know, you mentioned the VISA gift cards. Where is the money coming from?
KOSIK: OK, so what the school has gotten so far has gotten large donations. It's gotten help from an Easter Seals grant. It's very close to its goal, the CEO says, but it still needs more money.
Now the school's lawyer actually said the school can use state funds to finance the program. It's not planning to do that, but it may have to if these donations fall short. And this program, Brooke, cost $40,000 a year.
There is a huge controversy about this, but the CEO is defending it saying, you know what, 90 percent of the students who go to this school are in poverty. They're excited to come to school now and be rewarded. But you flip the coin over and critics say, wait a minute, why don't you figure out why the kids aren't attending the school in the first place? Is it a problem at home with the parents? Is it a problem with the teachers? And to reward students, this critic say, to reward students with taxpayer money for doing something they should be doing, anyway, they say it does not set a good example. So you've got both sides on this fiery issue.
BALDWIN: I wonder what taxpayers are saying. I wonder what parents are saying as well. Wow, Alison Kosik, thank you.
KOSIK: Sure.
BALDWIN: Now this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She told me that she was pregnant and she was very excited to share the news with Jason.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She specifically said she did not get the reaction out of Jason that she had hoped to get. I said, I'm sorry for your loss, and his response was very odd. He said, Cassie has been a real trooper.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: A pregnant woman is found beaten to death with her two- year-old daughter hiding under her parents' covers. And the disturbing crime scene led investigators straight to her husband. And now he's on trial for a second time. Sunny Hostin is on the case. We're going to talk about this -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: It has been more than five years now since Michelle Young was found dead in her North Carolina home, and there's still no closure for her family. Investigators have described the bloody scene, including tiny bloody footprints belonging to her toddler.
Now her husband, Jason Young, he is back in the courtroom. He is arrested in 2009 in connection with the death of his pregnant wife. But last summer, a jury couldn't reach unanimous verdict and the case actually ended in this trial.
Sunny Hostin is on the case as always. And so, Sunny, this go- around, what will the prosecution do differently?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, it seems that they're trying the same kind of case, Brooke. There are cameras in the courtroom. I've been watching this trial day in and day out, and the case doesn't look very different. This is not a strong case for this prosecution. It's a circumstantial case with no physical evidence tying him to a very, very bloody crime scene. No blood in his car, no blood on his clothing, and he has an alibi. He says he was at a hotel in another state for business.
And so very difficult case. And in fact, it ended in a mistrial the last time, but the vote, Brooke, 8-4 for acquittal. And so this is a case that many of us are watching very closely to see if the prosecution can get a conviction this time.
BALDWIN: So just quickly before we move on, if he has an alibi and was in a different state, were there any other suspects?
HOSTIN: No. He was always sort of been the prime target her. And he was, of course, tried once before. The question now is, will he testify this time? He testified in his first trial. He did quite well on the witness stand, so many of us are wondering, will he get on the witness stand again and deny any involvement in his wife's death?
BALDWIN: We mentioned the horrific scene of the crime and these teeny tiny footprints belonging to, you know, a two-year-old at the time, this daughter is now seven. Do you think she could at all play any role in the trial?
HOSTIN: Well, that's been something that many people are wondering. Many people are talking about. Her name is on the witness list, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Wow.
HOSTIN: But I cannot imagine having her get on the witness stand. At two years old, very rare for a child to remember anything. When I prosecuted child sex crimes, it was very rare for a child under the age of five to get on the witness stand. So although she is seven at this point, I think it is unlikely that she will get on the witness stand.
BALDWIN: So final question, the what-if. What happens if the jury can't reach unanimous verdict again?
HOSTIN: Well, it's interesting, I looked this up, and in this part of our country, there is no hard and fast rule preventing the prosecution from trying this case again. So if they get a hung jury, they could very well seek a third trial against him. I also think that is unlikely given the fact that the first time around, there was 8-4 for acquittal. I think this will be the final trial for this defendant.
BALDWIN: OK. Sunny, thank you.
Let's talk about Oprah Winfrey, shall we? She's in a bit of hot water after sending out a controversial tweet. And while much of the television audience was watching The Grammys this past Sunday, Oprah Winfrey sent what some are calling a desperate tweet. So here is what it said, quote, "Everyone who can, please turn on OWN, especially if you have a Nielsen Box."
But what may have seemed like a simple plea for viewers on a personal network may actually be a violation of the policy. Nielsen, the company that keeps track of TV network ratings, it is currently reviewing the incident. Nielsen goes on to say, quote, "We take any violation of our policy seriously. And will work with clients to resolve the situation." Oprah Winfrey has apologized and has removed said tweet.
And as we continue to get those details about Whitney Houston's funeral arrangements there, her final hours, many people are talking about rocky personal life. And coming up next, you're about to see some of her most bizarre moments including television interviews and a reality show with her ex, Bobby Brown. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: It's certainly no secret that Whitney Houston had a rocky, personal life. And she revealed a lot of those struggles in bizarre interviews. CNN's Randi Kaye take a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whispers about Whitney Houston's troubles began to surface shortly after she appeared in this Michael Jackson tribute concert.
Looking rail thin, the appearance fueled rumors that her health was rapidly declining. She defiantly denied those rumors in this infamous 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer, insisting that she didn't have an eating disorder and didn't have a crack addiction.
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS: "Whitney Dying, Crack Rehab Fails."
WHITNEY HOUSTON, SINGER: First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. OK?
I don't do crack. I don't do that. Crack is whack.
SAWYER: This says "$730,000 Drug Habit." This is a headline.
HOUSTON: Come on. 730? I wish. You know? I wish whoever was making that money off of me could share it with me.
(LAUGHTER)
HOUSTON: No way. No way.
KAYE: Still, she admitted to battling other demons.
SAWYER: Is it alcohol? Is it marijuana? Is it cocaine? Is it pills?
HOUSTON: It has been, at times.
SAWYER: All?
HOUSTON: At times.
SAWYER: If you had to name the devil for you, the biggest devil among them?
HOUSTON: That would be me.
KAYE: Houston also had a turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown. Married in 1992, some pointed to their relationship as a primary source of Houston's troubles. Houston publicly denied that Brown abused her.
SAWYER: Has he ever hit you?
HOUSTON: No, he's never hit me, no. I've hit him in anger.
KAYE: That marriage and her erratic behavior eventually became reality show fodder on Bravo's "Being Bobby Brown." But that show did little to burnish her reputation.
HOUSTON: We've got to live with (INAUDIBLE). We've got to live with (EXPLETIVE DELETED), with the anthrax.
BOBBY BROWN, SINGER: You just watch too much TV.
HOUSTON: Kiss my ass!
KAYE (on camera): In her later years, Houston attempted something of a comeback. She divorced Bobby Brown and released an album in 2009 that debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. But her tour was reportedly plagued with vocal difficulties. And in 2011, her publicist admitted Houston was seeking help for addiction.
(voice-over): Before her death, Houston was still trying to rehabilitate her image. She completed another movie, "Sparkle," speaking about it with the TV show "Extra."
HOUSTON: I think over the years being a mother and married as a mother, the whole thing -- you know what I'm saying? I have matured in so many ways. And my daughter is my greatest inspiration. She has trained me for this role. She has trained me. She trained me good.
KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And we invite you to watch Sunday night, a look back at Whitney Houston's life, including her rise, her fall, and of course investigation into her death. 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.
And in case you haven't noticed, we've actually gone the whole show without mentioning it's Valentine's Day. But one presidential candidate, well --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All I can promise you is that I believe she will be quite happy tomorrow night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So instead of swellings of the surprise, we're going to let Newt Gingrich explain what he's doing for his wife on this Valentine's Day. We want to warn you it gets awkward. But we'll back in 50 seconds with important advice about your money and your savings account -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Donna Rosato is a senior writer with "Money" magazine. David Novick is a certified financial planner and an adjunct professor of finance at New York University.
Thank you both for being here.
Donna, your question comes from Emily in Minnesota. Emily wrote in, "I'm taking a trip to England next month. Is it better to change my money now or wait until I arrive?"
DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR WRITER, "MONEY": Ah. Well, it's actually better to change your money -- you'll get a better rate if you wait until you go overseas. But you really don't need to have a lot of pounds in your pockets these days. The best way to get a good exchange is to use your -- a credit card or your debit card when you're overseas. You'll get more favorable exchange rates and the fees will be lower for converting.
Now, one thing you have to keep in mind today, though, is that a lot of the European countries and South America and Asia are moving to credit cards that have a chip and a PIN in them.
HARLOW: Right.
ROSATO: And the U.S. cards only have the magnetic strip on them. So you may run into a little problem unless you have that. If you have a person who could swipe your credit card, that'll be fine. But if you're at like a gas station or a kiosk without an attendant, you may not have one. So just make sure you have enough currency to meet those kind of short-term needs.
HARLOW: That was a good point.
And, David, your question comes from Winer (ph). Winer wrote in, "I have a UTMA account that I started for my son to pay for college before the days of the 529 plan. He'll be 16 next month. What can I do with a UTMA account so that it doesn't hurt us when we apply for financial aid in two years?" They don't want this money to account against them.
DAVID NOVICK, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER, PROMETHEUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, probably the best thing to do would actually be to convert it to a UTMA 529 plan, that way it would be considered the parent's asset for financial aid purposes, you get the tax advantages of a 529 plan.
The issue with doing that, though, is you have to transfer it in cash and there could be some tax consequences. An alternative might be that you may be able to spend that down on items for the child now before they go to college so it doesn't exist.
HARLOW: Interesting. NOVICK: The issue is that it does vary by state and it can't be what's known as a support obligation. But if it's something, paying for child's care or school or whatever, typically you can do that and it may be a way to exhaust the account.
HARLOW: Yes, that's a very good point.
Thank you both.
And, folks, if you have a question you want answered, just send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right, breaking now. We have now established contact with CNN's Arwa Damon, who is inside Syria right now.
And I just want to warn our viewers, as she is far, far away there's quite a delay, so just bear with me as we begin to talk her. And Arwa, just begin with what have you seen being in country thus far?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, our movements are very restricted and we have to be very cautious at how we'll be getting around as you can only imagine. We've effectively been moving from safe house to safe house, coming across a number of activists. A number of them were also now working as medics, just been trained as medics in the last months.
A few members of the free Syrian army have had to take the utmost caution, of course, not to come across government forces. We have seen tanks in the distance. We've been hearing them rumbling. We've been hearing these sounds of artillery in the distance and gunfire as well. And then as you can only imagine, the story that people are telling us, that they're suffering because of this government onslaught they say, because of the siege that they have effectively been put under in just about every single town that we have been through at this stage.
The circumstances the people living under are unimaginable. From basic things like not being able to send their children to school, not having access to basic supplies, to also having to deal with trying to remove them from underneath rubble, from various stress and also trying to get medical help for the wounded.
Some of these areas are under such tight military control that for days on end, people are unable to evacuate the wounded. People are dying within their hands, because they can't get them out of their various locations or get medical aid in.
One of the safe houses that we were in, they have stacks and stacks of bags of blood, just waiting to get inside one particularly hard-hit area. And they were so frustrated, so angry at the fact they were unable to get supplies in there to be able to save lives.
BALDWIN: Wait, back to your point about the blood, the supplies of blood, are people on the ready, you mentioned they've been training medics. I mean, talk to me about hospital conditions. Can people even get out of their homes, given the snipers on the street corners to get medical attention?
DAMON: Well, it's incredibly difficult. And what the activists have been doing now and what we've been able to witness just under normal occasions are these secret underground clinics that have been set up. But even calling them a clinic is something of a stretch of the imagination. They're basically a living room in someone's house with basic medical supplies. They tend to move the various clinics' locations around because they're afraid of being detected by government forces because on a number of occasions we have heard reports of these clinics being targeted.
The aim of these clinics is to basically either treat or stabilize patients enough before they can then move them on to perhaps a location that is farther away with slightly more sophisticated equipment, move them into some sort of private clinic or a doctor sympathetic to the opposition, and therefore can get medical care or even move them out of the country entirely.
But many of these locations as I was saying are just someone's living room. And on many occasions, the doctors, the medics that are there are unable to save lives, because they're lacking in the basic equipment that is necessary.
We've also began signing up citizens that have no prior medial experience in the basics as well so that they can also help out, because many times they're overwhelmed with the number of patients that they're getting in. And then there's also, of course, the shortage of medical supplies in many of these areas.
What they've done is set up a network where they put word out to various locations that perhaps aren't under such strict military conditions where the crackdown as not as dire. They try to collect bits and pieces of medical supplies from here and they consolidate all of it and try to ship it off these hardest hit areas. But every single step of everything that these people are doing involve plotting, planning, and then having to execute whatever plan they have all the while avoiding government forces around a trip that normally would take five minutes. Then in some cases, it takes up to five hours.
BALDWIN: You avoiding government forces. You and our crew putting your own selves in harms way so that you can share the story with the world.
Arwa Damon, my thanks to you. Thank you so much, reporting from an undisclosed location. So many other questions. We're going to be seeing Arwa popping up from Syria. In fact you can watch our entire report from Arwa coming up with Jessica Yellin in CNN "THE SITUATION ROOM."
And now let's continue here talking about this special date, that date being February 14th. It may just be another day on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential candidates, but there's no excuse for missing Valentine's Day. In fact one candidate has some big plans for tonight, and he's not keeping them secret.
Joe Johns, good to see you back again, by the way. Nice to have you back. Busy, busy on the political trail.
OK, Newt Gingrich. Hot date?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. All right, Valentine's Day, one of those days. Some guys don't like it, some guys don't care. Newt Gingrich is one of those guys who doesn't really know how to talk about it. He can talk your ear off about almost anything, but when it comes to Valentine's Day with his wife, Callista, he seems almost, almost at a loss for words. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really need to know what are you going to do for your beautiful wife tomorrow on Valentine's Day.
(LAUGHTER)
GINGRICH: After that question, I need something a lot stronger than water.
That's a great question. All I can promise you is that I believe she will be quite happy tomorrow night, and we'll have a nice private -- I think the first time in a while, we have a private dinner, and just hopefully exchange gifts and, you know reconnect a little bit. But she's -- you know -- but I'm not going to get -- no more details.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: She'll be happy, he says.
JOHNS: Hmm, I know. TMI. TMI.
OK, Rick Santorum breaking news, by the way.
BALDWIN: What?
JOHNS: We hear that he sent his wife red roses. Big surprise.
BALDWIN: That's so nice, red roses.
So what about this barbershop on Capitol Hill, it's the Senate side barbershop getting bailed out?
JOHNS: Yes, well, OK, perfectly honest, I had no idea there was a Senate barbershop. I knew there was a House barbershop. I worked up there for years. I didn't know there's a Senate barbershop.
Here's some pictures of it. Craig Shultz picked out a few. Actually that looks like the House barbershop. Well, anyway, whatever.
BALDWIN: It's been there for years and years. JOHNS: Yes, it's been there for years and years since the 1920s. Apparently, they've had some cost overruns. And the Daily.com reports, it was almost $300,000 in the red last year. There's a move afoot to privatize it, because, you know, taxpayers are footing the bill, and that's not a good idea right now.
BALDWIN: They need those haircuts. They need those highlights.
JOHNS: Yes. Right, you know, it's been some time since I've been to the barbershop. However, there are some senators, John McCain, Orrin Hatch, Keith Conrad, and Blake Curd, a lot of people go up there. So we're all going to miss the barbershop.
BALDWIN: Joe Johns, thanks for the scoop. "Political Pop."
And thank you so much for watching. Now "THE SITUATION ROOM," Jessica Yellin, starts now.
JESSICA YELLIN, ANCHOR: Thanks, Brooke.
