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Former U.N. Sec-Gen Annan Meets With Syrian President Al-Assad; Kansas Voters Cast Their Ballots; High School Valedictorian Wins Right to Remain in U.S.; Disaster in Japan: One Year Later; South by Southwest Festival

Aired March 10, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Most of the morning there has been new violence in Syria and it has overshadowed high-stakes diplomatic efforts to stop the country's bloodshed. Bashar Al-Assad sat down with former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Damascus today, and Nic Robertson is monitoring the developments from neighboring Beirut, Lebanon.

Syrian state-run television calling today's talks positive. But was there any real progress?

NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly no indication of progress in those talks. And the progress on the ground was the Syrian military continuing to shell citizens in the northern town and Homs and arresting citizens in other parts of the country. Activists say about 30 tanks have been seen advancing on the town. One activist said that the city there has been circled, it is under siege. People are too afraid to go out of their homes.

The government has been shooting and shelling it throughout the day, 19 people killed in that town alone in the north of the country, 16 of them killed in an ambush, according to activists. We don't have a way to independently confirm that.

So while the government on the one hand says the talks in Damascus with Kofi Annan and president Bashar al-Assad are positive, the reality on the ground is something different. And Bashar al-Assad, according to Syrian state media, is saying that he will do everything to make sure there's a positive solution to the situation inside Syria.

But it seems his troops on the ground are not getting the same message that he's giving the U.N. diplomat there.

WHITFIELD: So underscoring that real contradiction, Nic, some are alleging that the assaults being leveled by the government is actually intensifying while these talks were taking place.

ROBERTSON: This is what the activists fear. They think that while the international community tries to engage President Assad in some kind of talks -- and what Kofi Annan has gone there to do today is to call for a cease-fire and get political talks going.

And the activists fear Bashar al-Assad will just use this as a smokescreen to continue his military advance on the ground, that what he is looking for here is time to sort of continue the maximum sort of most deadly part of his campaign so he can sort of wrap that up and sort of push down the opposition, if you will, around the country, so that, from now on, in the future, the death toll will be much lower and people will say, oh, the situation is getting better, whereas he's really using this time to sort of go after the opposition in the most aggressive way possible.

WHITFIELD: Nic Robertson, thanks so much, from Damascus.

Well, there is more on Syria. CNN's Arwa Damon and her team were inside the besieged Syria city of Homs. It is one of the most dangerous places in Syria right now. Join us tomorrow night as Arwa gives us an eye-opening account, a CNN special "72 Hours Under Fire," that's tomorrow night, 8:00 pm Eastern time.

All right. Now to Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials say Israeli rockets killed at least 15 Palestinians. Twenty-two people were injured in the series of attacks.

Israeli forces say they are targeting people who are part of a terror infrastructure. They say they are responding to several Palestinian rocket strikes in southern Israeli communities. One of the men killed has been identified as a Hamas military leader.

In Moscow now, thousands of people turn out to protest against the man who will be their new president again. Vladimir Putin won his third term as president last weekend, but the opposition says the vote was rigged. Military police and security officials are keeping close watch on the demonstrations. Putin will be inaugurated come May.

Here in the U.S., the last group of prisoners pardoned by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour are set to be released today. The state supreme court upheld the controversial pardons of more than 200 convicts, including four murderers. The justices said the decision to pardon the prisoners rested with Barbour. Mississippi's attorney general, who had challenged the pardons, expressed sympathy for the prisoners' victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL JIM HOOD: I feel for them. Having had a first cousin murdered in 1976, and gone through a trial and understanding how victims feel, you know, I think they have been victimized twice. and the criminal justice system has let them down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, the presidential race is picking up speed, as more states hold GOP caucuses this weekend. Voters in Kansas are casting their ballots right now, and we could know the winner in just a couple of hours.

CNN political reporter Shannon Travis is live at a caucus site in Overland Park, Kansas, now. It looks like a full house. That's good. So, Shannon, the contest in Kansas, well, it hands out delegates proportionately, so which candidate is expected to do the best, to take the bulk of the 40 delegates?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people here in Kansas believe that Rick Santorum, that he's the favorite to win this contest.

You know that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, they pretty much ceded the state to Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. They were supposed to campaign here this week. They actually skipped campaigning here, so a lot of people believe that Santorum has the momentum going into this. He has been campaigning across the state or he did yesterday. Ron Paul as well today.

I just want to show you a little bit about what's going on right here. You'll notice that at this table right here you've got some caucus workers basically handing out ballots. The ballots, Fred, I've got one right here. I can't fill it out. I promise not to slip this in the ballot box, but you've got all the candidates on there pretty much. They go from this table, they walk along this path right here.

You'll notice that there are some people who are sitting, listening to some speakers. That's the lieutenant governor of Kansas right there, Jeff Collier, he's speaking to the crowd right now. But after they hear from the lieutenant governor and some other campaign workers, this ballot right here goes into that box over there, Fred.

There's a ballot box where they're walking, dropping it in. We're told that about two hours away from now they expect for -- to open -- to crack open those boxes and to start to count some of these ballots. And we'll be on hand to see who actually wins here and who wins the state of Kansas.

Of course, obviously, on Tuesday we've got some other important contests in Mississippi and Alabama. But today all eyes are on Kansas, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, results (inaudible) early (inaudible) today, Shannon.

There are other caucuses this weekend, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam. OK, so maybe the candidates are not necessarily, you know, giving up a whole lot of face time in those places, but I understand in Guam, Romney's son, one of his sons will be there representing him. Is that still the case?

TRAVIS: Yes, I mean the candidates can't make it, as you said, to all these places themselves. So what they do is they send their high profile surrogates. Newt Gingrich's daughter is supposed to be here. As you mentioned, we've been watching Mitt Romney's son go to different places. I was in Idaho on Tuesday; Mitt Romney's son was there.

So, yes, they basically farm out or fan out their surrogates to a lot of these different places. But Mitt Romney won the nine delegates in Guam. Again, a smaller contest, but a delegate is a delegate. And he also won the nine delegates in the Northern Mariana Islands earlier this morning, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Very good. Thanks so much. Shannon Travis there in Overland Park, Kansas. We'll check back with you directly after this.

And of course you want to join me every Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock Eastern when we dedicate an entire hour to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election.

All right. Also coming up, a high school valedictorian avoids being deported, but her fight to stay in the U.S. is far from over.

Also, might it be a sign of similar cases to come? A man is ordered to pay child support to twins conceived after he separated from his wife. Our legal guys weigh in straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots of clear skies and sunshine, particularly in the tornado zone. That's going to help out in the cleaning up. Meteorologist Tom Sater with us this weekend. Good to see you, usually on CNN International, you decided to help us out this weekend. How are you.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: (Inaudible), I'm doing well, Fredricka. Thanks for having me. And I hope, as I mentioned earlier, I don't go metric on you, but that happens in international.

WHITFIELD: We'll understand.

SATER: OK. Thank you. Let's start out with the U.S. weather. The overall picture, I mean, really the features are quite nice. We do have some rainfall over the Pacific Northwest. Needed rainfall in Texas, but as mentioned earlier, really the best news on this map here is a sprawling area of high pressure.

When you have a strong area of high pressure like this, it's the weight of the atmosphere down on the ground. So cloud cover doesn't develop, you know, you don't have any updraft, the winds are light right now and that severe ravaged area that we had a week ago with the tornado, so it's great cleanup weather. Remember they were hit with snowfall after that mess of the tornado outbreak.

Here's a satellite picture. The view is nice. You can see how we do have a little bit of a flow around that high to the north. Some light snow showers moving in across the Great Lakes and upper parts of New York State, but really it's not going to amount to much, but really the good news is what's happening in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

In fact, West Liberty, we have received new pictures now and video. You know, it's amazing. We all joke about Big Brother watching, but surveillance cameras are everywhere now, and sometimes the best pictures are what we have from stores like this.

This is a pharmacist. Notice in the distance that is the West Liberty tornado, the EF-3 made its way on the ground. Six fatalities in West Liberty but a total of 11. You can see the debris follow the vortex of the screen, from left to right across your screen. We're looking at this vortex from the south, so it's moving west to east, 140- to 160- mile-per-hour winds.

Watch this garage door get blown over. Near 200-mile-per-hour winds. That's why we get in the basement or an interior room like a bathroom, where the piping in the walls helps sustain it and maybe keep you through something like this, but it's just amazing.

I want to take you into Hawaii real quick, because this has been another extreme story. Heavy amounts of rainfall on all of the islands in staggering amounts. Can you believe we get around Kauai, reports of 46 inches of rain. That's right, not 4 or 6, 46.

We have video, too. It hasn't just been devastating rainfall, it's been hail, hail damage, typically pea-sizes or marble-sized hail. State record hail here. Get this, baseball-sized hail. Three-inch diameter hail. That's got to be a state record.

So we go from one extreme, Fredricka, to another, but 46 inches of rainfall. And, they have got mudslides that's going to occur the entire week. So if you know anybody going there, you know, I hope they brought some movies.

WHITFIELD: Change those plans or something. But hail, that really is extraordinary, too. Something very unusual to see there in Hawaii on those islands. All right, thanks so much, Tom. Good to see you.

Let's go to Miami now, where a high school valedictorian and her sister, who face deportation, have won their fight to stay in the U.S. for now. CNN's Lisa Sylvester has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA SYLVESTER, ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM"SYLVESTER (voice-over): Daniela Pelaez is valedictorian of her North Miami High School. But instead of getting her diploma, she was on the verge of getting a deportation order.

She's in the United States illegally, but a last-minute reprieve from Immigration and Customs Enforcement will now allow her and her sister, Diana, to stay for the time being.

DANIELA PELAEZ, GRANTED TEMPORARY STAY: Very fabulous news, my attorney, Nera Shefer, was able to get a two-year deferred action and it waived our deportation for two more years.

SYLVESTER (on camera): Why do you want to stay in the United States?

PELAEZ: Well, I've lived here since I was 4 years old, and I consider myself American. And I just want to live the American dream like everybody else.

SYLVESTER (voice-over): Her high school rallied by her side, 2,500 students and teachers holding a protest last week. Members of Congress, including Senator Bill Nelson, appealed to immigration authorities to give Pelaez a chance to stay.

SEN. BILL NELSON: Until we can pass the DREAM Act.

SYLVESTER: Pelaez is in Washington, D.C., the new face on the fight for the DREAM Act, that would put undocumented students on a path to citizenship.

But Pelaez's own future is far from settled. Yes, she can stay for two more years, but what happens after that? She has applied to several Ivy League colleges and hopes to go on to medical school.

NERA SHEFER, ATTORNEY: We need to fix the problem. We need to somehow get a green card for them and for thousands of young people like them that would like to stay here and give back to the community.

SYLVESTER: Pelaez's case highlights the limbo of kids like her, who were brought to the United States illegally. They're caught between their birth country, that they don't know, and the United States, where they're not allowed to stay.

PELAEZ: I just want to get that message across that kids just like me with grades just as good as mine, with families serving in the military like my brother, et cetera, and, you know, just to show them that we're good -- we're good citizens just like anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a statement, said it exercises prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis. The agency says it is focusing its efforts on deporting criminal aliens. The next two years will buy Daniela and her sister a little more time, and their attorney will appeal the immigration judge's ruling and apply for green cards -- Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

And another war of words between supermodel Christie Brinkley and her ex-husband. This time it's over child support and, quote, "bullying." We'll talk to our legal guys next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, a court rules a man must pay child support for twins conceived after he separated from his wife. Let's bring in our legal guys, Avery Friedman, a civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland. Good to see you.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Hi.

WHITFIELD: And Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Las Vegas. Good to see you as well.

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hi, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, gentlemen, this is a really fascinating case, is it not? We're talking about a Massachusetts couple, at least they were a couple at one point, husband and wife. They went into an agreement that they would have in vitro. There was an agreement involving either donor eggs or sperm.

Well, then they separated and apparently the wife, who's name is Blessing (ph), went on with this procedure after the donors came through.

Now, apparently the husband, whose name is Chuqueda Coley (ph), Richard, had a written agreement -- it was my attempt -- had a written agreement that he would kind of be absolved from the responsibility even, you know, because they had split up, but then what happened, where that agreement, was null and void, it was invalidated, why?

HERMAN: Well, that's the problem, Fred, when people try to practice law and they don't know what they're doing. Yes, you can draw up an agreement. It looked good on its face. She says -- he says I'll give you my consent but I don't want any responsibility for these kids.

And she says, yes, OK, I will not go after you for child support, no problem. So he signs the agreement. Then as soon as she has the kids, she sues him for child support. He said you can't do that, I've got this agreement. They go to court.

The court says whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You consented to let her do this. and by virtue of that consent, you are responsible. We don't enforce nonpayment of child support, that's not enforceable. The courts will not enforce those types of agreements and, therefore, you owe, you've got to pay, too bad.

WHITFIELD: So, Avery, what's with the confusion that he thought one thing, she thought another, they had an agreement when they embarked on the whole in vitro, but then, you know, post separation they embarked on a different agreement. So whose -- I guess -- rights would be protected here?

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, ultimately the only rights that are protected, Fredricka, are the children's rights. You see, these adults -- and we really don't know what they were thinking. It may very well be that Blessing thought, well, I'll have this sucker sign into this kind of an agreement, having been told that the rights are really the kids.

So Blessing for Chuck Oedera Ocholi (ph) became a nightmare. The fact is that you can't agree to waive child support because, ultimately the money is the money of the children, not the mom or the dad.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, hopefully she called him Chuck and not sucker, as you put it, Avery.

FRIEDMAN: Yes, yes, Chucky.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: OK. Now let's talk about former supermodel Christie Brinkley, who's seeking $140,000 in fines from her ex-husband because she says that he, you know, owes this in back child support while he was also simultaneously taking care of the kids while she was doing an on-stage production. So, Avery, boy, they already had their divorce settlement in public and now this, I guess, custody or at least payment dispute is being publicized in a very ugly way as well. Who is likely to end up with a real settlement here or end up happy?

FRIEDMAN: Yes, the only people that will be happy are the lawyers. And that's because --

HERMAN: That's right.

FRIEDMAN: -- in this back and forth in pleadings, what's going on is Peter refers to her as a egocentric maniac and Peter claims that he's being publicly castrated. Look, legally what you put in pleadings and briefs generally is protected. There's no basis for defamation.

But ultimately this battle will rage on. Christie wants tuition, she wants a penalty for the nasty e-mails, that type of thing.

But Peter is spending most of his time taking care of the children. At the end of the day, it will be the lawyers who prevail, not either one of these. In fact I've got to tell you, the doctor said, in both of this, both of them should be in therapy. And you know what, she's got to get out of her white bread world and so does Peter and get some help.

WHITFIELD: And, Richard, how do you see this concluding?

HERMAN: Yes, the Uptown Girl's downtown here, Fred. She's got three failed marriages, let's just put that aside, OK.

WHITFIELD: Oh, come on, what does that have to do with this?

HERMAN: Well, there's something wrong there. But $142,000, calling him a deadbeat dad. Please! About 130 of that is what they're claiming -- they're using the buzzword "bullying e-mails" and you can't have aggressive e-mails, says the judge. So based on --

WHITFIELD: Yes, because apparently that was part of the agreement. That was in writing.

(CROSSTALK)

HERMAN: Yes, but that's 130,000. The guy owes 6,000 in child support. She's claiming he's a deadbeat dad. When she did her show on Broadway, he had the kids for five months. She left those kids with him for five months. He took care of them 24/7. WHITFIELD: And he says that was enough.

HERMAN: He's not such a deadbeat dad, come on.

WHITFIELD: All right. OK. All right. Well, we know --

FRIEDMAN: He's still got to pay the money. He's still got to pay the money.

HERMAN: Absolutely. FRIEDMAN: We know this is just the tip of the iceberg of that case and I know we'll be talking about it again. For now, we're out of time on that one, but I'm going to see you again in about 20 minutes.

We're going to talk about a man who is so fed up with high popcorn prices and concessions prices, candy, all that stuff at the movie theaters, he's saying,5 you know what, I'm suing for gouging. We'll talk about that.

Also in the wake of those torrential storms, a CNN Hero brings order to chaos and hope to despair.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: As the fierce storms tore through the Midwest and South last weekend taking 40 lives, emergency recovery teams scrambled to respond to devastated communities across 10 states.

TAD AGOGLIA, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: Keep pushing it forward.

MARCIANO: Among the relief workers heading into the destruction zone was CNN Hero Tad Agoglia and his First Response Team of America.

AGOGLIA: Let's go ahead and get this debris cleared enough so we can get the grapple claw in here.

We got here just a few hours after the tornado struck this community. We've cleared the road, we've provided the light towers, we powered up the grocery store, we powered up the gas station to provide the essentials that this community needs.

MARCIANO: Since 2007, Agoglia's team has crisscrossed the country, providing recovery assistance to thousands of people at 40 disaster sites for free. This week they have worked tirelessly for days, restoring services and clearing tons of debris.

AGOGLIA: See if you can grab the claw, actually cut the roof right in half.

It's very hard for traditional equipment without the claws to actually grab this debris. That's why you need specialty equipment like this.

MARCIANO: What do you do with it?

AGOGLIA: We remove it from the community, but time is of the essence. There's a lot of people that want to get back in here. They're looking for anything they can salvage.

MARCIANO: Why do you do this? Why did you choose this road?

AGOGLIA: When I'm watching these supercells go right over these small communities, I want to be there to help.

MARCIANO: We'll let you get to work, you do good stuff.

AGOGLIA: Thank you. MARCIANO: Thanks, Tad.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, checking today's top stories, GOP rivals are fighting for Kansas today. The state is holding its caucuses right now and we could know the winner very soon. Forty delegates are up for grabs with the delegates handed out proportionally. Earlier today Mitt Romney was declared the winner of caucuses in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In Washington State officers are hunting for a man who shot a police officer and stabbed a judge. It all happened inside a courthouse. Police say the suspect is Michael Thomas. The judge who was stabbed talked with our affiliate, KOMO.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE DAVE EDWARDS, STABBING VICTIM: When I went to assist the deputy, he had a weapon in his hand, a knife or something, and he was stabbing at her.

He got -- cut away from the deputy and went pop, pop, and turned and looked at me and then he went out the front door with the gun in his hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The judge and the officer will be OK. Police still don't have a clear motive for those attacks.

Seventy million people around the world have seen these images, thanks to the Internet and producers of "Kony 2012." A California-based nonprofit group is hoping its documentary will expose and help find the notorious Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. He is one of the world's most wanted men. U.S. forces actively joined the search for Kony in Africa last fall.

And now to the violent crackdown in Syria and a new attempt to broker peace. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad today in Damascus. Annan is trying to convince Assad to order a cease-fire and begin talks with the opposition.

But on the streets, the death toll mounts. Opposition activists say at least 31 people were killed today, and now we're learning more about how Syrian forces are targeting the opposition.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us live now from Washington. So, Barbara, what are your sources telling you?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi there, Fred. We want to get right to it and show some newly declassified imagery, and we're going to keep it up on the screen so people can have a good look at it. This comes to us from a U.S. State Department website, showing some of the destruction across Syria, especially in the city of Homs, in that Baba Amr neighborhood. Why is this imagery, as we continue to look at other images here, why is it so important?

This is giving the U.S. intelligence community a good handle on the broader picture of the level of destruction in these areas. You know you see those YouTube videos, and that may show you destruction on a particular street or in a particular place, but like here you see the city of Aleppo.

You see very recent injury, broad scale, vehicles on the move, this indiscriminate artillery shelling across broad areas. That's giving the U.S. government a much better idea of the scope of the Syrian military and how well they are dug in, how much the regime is in this for the long haul.

WHITFIELD: And then we've heard about defections from Assad's regime. What more do we know about the power behind that?

STARR: Right, exactly. You know, we see the Syrian regime, the Syrian military, as I say, in for the long haul but yet you hear about some defections. What senior intelligence officials are telling us is that none of these defections so far are really Assad's inner corps, his -- the people that are the closest to him, that are helping him with command and control, with ordering his forces into his battles.

Those people, that inner corps of advisers around Bashar al-Assad, remains very firmly in place right now, no sign of the regime cracking in its determination to attack. So until there is some signal that there may be a crack, or Assad feels maybe he is vulnerable, which he doesn't feel now, hard to see how some of the diplomatic initiatives might really work out, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Barbara Starr, thanks so much from Washington.

All right. Tomorrow, hard to believe, marks the one-year anniversary of that 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Japan. It triggered a massive tsunami that engulfed entire communities and killed nearly 16,000 people.

A year later, more than 3,100 people are still missing. Japan's earthquake became a triple disaster when it caused the world's worst nuclear meltdown since the Chernobyl disaster. Our Kyung Lah got a rare look inside the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A year after these reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant exploded in a triple meltdown, reporters were reminded this is still one of the most hazardous places on the planet. We wore head-to-toe protective gear, full facial respirator and hazmat suits. Then we drove up to the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

LAH: This is our first look on the ground at the reactors. This is the heart of the nuclear problem in Japan. What you are seeing over my shoulder are the reactors. There are four of them. The two that you see over my right shoulder, those are two of the reactors that exploded in the early days of this disaster.

When you take a look at the reactors, you can see that they have a long way to go. This is a year after this disaster, and you can see that the force of the explosion crippled those buildings. You can understand how so much radiation spewed from this point when you are standing here.

LAH (voice-over): An army of 3,000 workers are now here daily in shifts to control the melted nuclear fuel and contain the further spread of the radiation. Inside the onsite crisis management building at the plant, a control center monitors the progress and safety 24 hours a day.

"The highest risk we still see is if something goes wrong with the reactor says plant manager, Takeshi Takahashi. The plant is in cold shutdown, but the nuclear fuel needs constant cooling, and the situation is far from over."

TEPCO says the plant won't be decommissioned for at least 30 to 40 years, the challenges evident as we drive around the Fukushima plant. Debris still mangled from the tsunami sits untouched because of radiation concerns.

These blue tanks and these larger gray ones hold water contaminated with radiation. TEPCO is continuously challenged with finding more space for the water. Work conditions and safety, while they've improved since the early days of the disaster, remain a constant concern --

Saori Kanesaki used to give tours to the public at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

"Before the accident, I explained to many people that the nuclear power plant is safe," she says. "Now that this has happened, I feel very sorry I ever said that."

Kanesaki also lived here, in Tomayoka. She's now an evacuee, uncertain of when or if she can ever return home. A year later, she and 78,000 others are the legacy of this accident, paying the price when nuclear energy goes wrong. Kyung Lah, CNN, at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Back in this country, reality TV star Kim Kardashian and two of her sisters have been slapped with a lawsuit for a product they endorsed. We'll see what our legal guys have to say about this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Going to the movies is not cheap. Everyone agrees with that statement. So the cost of a ticket and snacks can certainly add up. And a man from Michigan is so fed up with prices at the concession stand that he is actually suing. Our legal guys are back, Avery Friedman in Cleveland and Richard Herman in Las Vegas. All right. Good to see you again, gentlemen.

OK. So this young man, Joshua Thompson, says he is being gouged. He and a number of others who are part of this class action suit against the local AMC theater there in Michigan say that they're being gouged and this is an issue of consumer protection liability. Is it, Avery?

Well, that's what he's claiming. I mean josh Thompson says not only did he pay $3.50 for a pack of Goobers but on top of that he spent $4.50 for a little Coke and you know what, he claims in the lawsuit they wouldn't give him a refill.

The $5 million lawsuit, everybody understands it except for one problem. Under Michigan law, regulated industries are exempted from consumer protection. There are two Supreme Court cases. This case is gone. Gone.

WHITFIELD: Really? Richard, are you in agreement on that?

HERMAN: Well, not for the Goobers, I like Raisinets, you know, and you've got to get popcorn, Fred, come on.

WHITFIELD: I know. And the next thing you know, it adds up to $20 for one person, you know, a little candy, a little soda and a popcorn, man.

HERMAN: They're encouraging people smuggle to candy into the theater, that's what they're doing.

WHITFIELD: (Inaudible).

HERMAN: And the prices are exorbitant. But my partner there is absolutely right. There's going to be no liability here, they're exempt. They're exempt because it's a well-regulated industry and they're exempt from the consumer protection laws for this.

WHITFIELD: OK. And we did reach out to AMC Theaters, but the spokesman said they're not commenting right now, so especially while this lawsuit is pending.

HERMAN: They don't have to worry about it. Pure profit to them, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, very interesting. OK, now let's talk about the QuickTrim diet pills and how that company and the Kardashians are now being leveled with a lawsuit, also a class action suit. This, a $5 million lawsuit, alleging that they are all party to false advertisement, Richard.

Those who are part of the suit say, no, QuickTrim not only doesn't help me lose weight, but those Kardashians who are helping to push the product were not being truthful. That's their allegation. Effective, not effective? FRIEDMAN: I just need oxygen. Fred, I need oxygen. I can't take it. The definition of obscenity, I've been saying, is Kardashian. This is obscene. They're are on there with those pictures that are all airbrushed, not even them, claimed to have lost all this weight taking this product. They're just doing it for the bucks. They don't know what they're talking about. They made so many express --

(CROSSTALK)

HERMAN: What about the lawsuit?

WHITFIELD: So do they have to be held liable?

FRIEDMAN: Yes.

WHITFIELD: You know -- they do?

FRIEDMAN: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

FRIEDMAN: You can't represent that this product does certain things to you when it does absolutely nothing, nothing. No scientific evidence that caffeine is the cure to weight loss. It's ridiculous, Fred.

And they're going to get hammered. I've got the lawsuit here, I read it. Federal district court in New York. It's a thick, nice class action. It breaks down all the misrepresentations. I hope they get hammered on this and get thrown out. I can't take that.

HERMAN: Come on.

WHITFIELD: We did reach out to the Kardashians and we did reach out to the QuickTrim, neither of which are commenting right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No kidding.

WHITFIELD: But if the Kardashians are able to say that we did take these QuickTrim pills or tablets and we do still look like we do in those pictures that we just saw of them, is that defense enough for them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, here's what that's about. That's what they're going to say. It's actually a beautifully pled, responsibly pled, pleading in federal district court, 51 pages, and it represents that, under the Magnuson-Moss Act, the Consumer Protection Act, that the Kardashians are responsible in the marketing.

Nothing in the 51 pages, Fredricka, nothing says that they have an ownership interest in this. But the question is they found four people, four people who really are relying on the Kardashians. I think the only four people in America, but it's a serious case. We're going to know the answer to that after some discovery. We're way too early to learn what's really going to happen here.

WHITFIELD: And just clarification, apparently, while I thought -- I was told we reached out to the Kardashians, we have not reached out to the Kardashians, but we have reached out to the QuickTrim and no comment from them. So we'll see where this goes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Fredricka?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible), Fred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They couldn't respond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to say we're losing our feet to the fire producer today, Pam (Inaudible), who has been very devoted to you.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I'm sad. And I'm still in denial. I refuse to believe it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know. And it's -- she will do wonderfully well, but it's a loss to us and we wish her nothing but the best. She's just wonderful.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's so sweet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we sit here and do these each week, she's texting me with projections for the following week to talk about.

WHITFIELD: I know. She's amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredible.

She is indefatigable -- let me get my hanky right now because you're making me sad again. I'm already like very much (inaudible) that she's on her way out. So I've got -- you all have today in which to enjoy her. I have at least one more day before she's, you know, riding off into the sunset and moving on. But, yes, we're very happy for her too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enjoy her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wish her well. All the best.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Avery, Richard, appreciate it.

All right. Movers and shakers are gathering at one of the largest digital festivals in the world. We'll go there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An unusual story out of Texas. Police say a mom left her 5- year-old daughter behind after a birthday party overnight at a restaurant. Details for you.

But first -- the South by Southwest festival is about movies, music and technology, and it's in full swing in Austin, Texas, today and that's where we find CNN's Ali Velshi. Ali, do you have your cowboy hat on today again? What's going on? No hat?

(CROSSTALK) ALI VELSHI, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: In the rush I left the hat somewhere, but it's around, it's around. Fred, let me tell you, moments ago I was just going to have this conversation with you myself, and then I saw Frank Abagnale, who you will know from "Catch Me If You Can."

Frank has got this remarkable history as a guy who knows how to work around the system and now works inside the system, but he's going to be talking to us about a few things.

And Steve Case, the founder of AOL, responsible for what still remains the biggest business merger in history. Steve, what's your big message here?

STEVE CASE, FOUNDER, AOL: I guess that entrepreneurship is critical to our nation. It's what built our nation, the leading economy in the world, and we need to double down on entrepreneurship if we're going to stay in the leadership division because other countries are getting a lot smarter about that.

And in particular the Jobs Act was passed last week by the House with overwhelming bipartisan support, supported by the president and the White House team (ph). And next week hopefully the Senate, under the leadership of Senator Reid, will take it to the floor and pass it and the president will sign it, which will help on crowd (ph) funding and (inaudible) --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Crowd (ph) funding, which is a great idea.

CASE -- (inaudible) will help entrepreneurs create more companies, they can create a lot of jobs through American innovation.

VELSHI: That's a great reason why we're here, because we want to discuss how this entrepreneurship, how this stuff that looks to so many of our viewers as pie in the sky here, actually ends up creating jobs.

Frank, whenever I see you, I wonder what the other side of things are. What's -- the whole world is becoming digital, we're all moving into the cloud. What are you talking about here?

FRANK ABAGNALE, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, REVOLUTION: We're going to talk a little bit about identity theft, about 10 million victims a year. We're going to talk about very simple steps to protect yourself and especially young people, and high school and college-age kids, about how to protect themselves from being victimized by that crime.

VELSHI: All right. So this is the kind of thing I described South by Southwest as being like this remarkable exchange of ideas between people, and that's what it is. We're going to be talking about all of this -- all of this development in the digital world. This is the biggest gathering of interactive digital creators and people who have ideas that they want funded in the world, Fred, so a lot of -- a lot of fun here and I'm here all weekend. WHITFIELD: Oh, that's great. And we're going to see you live in about 10 minutes from now, where you will be hosting "YOUR MONEY" from Austin, Texas. Thanks so much, along with Steve Case and Frank Abagnale. Thanks so much.

There are some new tricks to finding the best seat on your next plane trip. You're going to find out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Other stories we're watching today. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, say a 27-year-old man stole an empty school bus and began driving erratically on a major highway, forcing police to close the road.

Officers chased the bus and eventually stopped it using spike strips. They say the suspect the refused to follow police commands and that's when an officer shot him three times. The sheriff says the suspect was hospitalized, had surgery and is expected to recover.

Near Houston, Texas, a mother threw her 5-year-old daughter a birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and arcade place, but apparently forgot the girl when she went home without her, without her child.

Police say the woman didn't realize it until the next day. A Chuck E. Cheese worker alerted police about the girl, who is now with child protective services. The mother could face child abandonment charges.

And in San Diego, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife were spotted cruising on three-wheeled scooters called trikes. The couple is in the city for the Carter Center's annual winter retreat fundraiser. Having a lot of fun there.

All right. It could be called the art of flying in coach. There are some new tricks to find the best seat. and even a way to use social media to pick who you'll actually sit next to. Rob Marciano is on the go with details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Flying coach doesn't have to mean an uncomfortable flight if you can find a good seat. American Airlines, Delta and United are now offering a special row with a bit more leg room.

BRETT SNYDER, CRANKYFLIER.COM: This relatively new and greatly expanded class generally called premium economy.

MARCIANO: You can find other good seats in coach online. Websites like seatguru.com and seatexpert.com offer such services. Expertflier.com will let you know if a better seat opens up on your flight.

SNYDER: The bad news is you might end up having to pay for it because airlines have started charging for more of these seats.

MARCIANO: Even flights with open seating may offer you first dibs. SNYDER: Try and check in about 24 hours in advance. You can actually pay to get on board the aircraft before the rest of the teeming masses.

MARCIANO: But your seat might only be as good as the person sitting next to you. Malaysia Air and KLM offers social seating, where passengers' social media profiles are matched with their seats connecting people who want to network.

SNYDER: Other people, they just don't want to sit next to anyone so that does also create some opportunity. Create a profile that makes you the most unliked person around.

MARCIANO: Finding your seat on the go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll have a look at the top stories straight ahead, including the latest on the high-stakes fight for delegates under way right now in the Sunflower State.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Checking today's top stories, voters in Kansas have about an hour to wrap up today's high-stakes caucuses. Forty delegates are up for grabs. And while the vote is still out, the prediction is that Rick Santorum will win the majority of the delegates. We'll bring you the results from Kansas as soon as they are announced.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, and it means we put our clocks forward by one hour and lose that extra 60 minutes of sleep. It will stay this way until we fall back again come November. The history of Daylight Saving Time goes back to the First World War, but today the main reason is to help save energy.

All right. NCAA March Madness is almost here. Selection Sunday, well, that's tomorrow. I'm actually filling out a bracket, are you? If you are, test your bracket skills against mine. Warning, novice here. Visit CNN.com/brackets to join the March Madness CNN group. We'll have a little fun with it.

And I hope that you'll stay with me this afternoon. Coming up in an hour from now, if you call an ambulance, there's a chance that the EMTs won't have the drugs you need. Our Susan Candiotti examines a nationwide drug shortage problem.

Plus the new iPad, out next week, our gaming and gadgets guru, Marc Saltzman, has the pros and cons at 3:20 Eastern time today.

And then once you've had a job interview, there are five things that you need to do. We'll tell you about it in our "Reclaim Your Career" segment, 4 o'clock Eastern time.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. I'll be back in one hour. Right now, time for "YOUR MONEY" with Ali Velshi live from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

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