Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Your Money, Their Answers; Midwest Slammed by Tornadoes; Tulsa Shooting Suspects Arraigned; Norway Rampage Suspect on Trial; Secret Service Prostitution Scandal; Hunt for Militants in Afghanistan; Recovering in the Tornado Zone; Can Trayvon Martin's Family Sue Homeowners Association?; Roger Clemens Back in Court

Aired April 16, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed. They spent $800,000 of your money on skits, clowns, mock award ceremonies. This hour we're going to hear their answers about the spending scandal. The House and the Senate may begin hearings on the actions of the general services administration employees. Now, the agency supposed to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Instead, they threw this lavish conference in Vegas at taxpayer expense.

Tornadoes ripped through the Midwest. Six people in one hard-hit Oklahoma community died. Ten states in the Midwest and plains got slammed by the storm system. People are cleaning up trying to get back to normal today. Now, those who made it through the storms, they say they're not taking anything for granted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't know when the last time you're going to tell somebody you love them and stuff or see somebody and it's one of those things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE Just like that everybody was gone. Everybody. I mean, everybody. Don't matter about what we have, it's just -- we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: National weather service tells us it was an EF-3 tornado that hit Woodward, Oklahoma, which means winds were at least 136 miles an hour.

CNN has joined several newspaper and broadcasting companies asking a Florida judge to reverse last week's order sealing George Zimmerman's court records. The motion argues that the court must decide if closing the records prevents, quote, "a serious and imminent threat to justice." Zimmerman, who is scheduled to return to court Friday for a bail hearing.

An Oklahoma judge today entered not guilty pleas for Jake England and Alvin watts. They are accused of killing three people and wounding two others during a shooting spree in a predominantly black neighborhood of Tulsa. It happened Easter weekend and England's mother is pleading for this not to be prosecuted as a hate crime. She herself is in jail. She's written a letter to a Tulsa defense attorney saying, quote, "our family does not hate black people." Two of my beloved grandchildren are African-American.

The man accused of killing 77 people in a rampage in Norway claims he acted in self-defense. The trial got under way today for Anders Brevic in Oslo. The trial opened, he raised a clenched fist and said he did not recognize the authority in court. Brevic is charged in a bomb blast that left eight people dead, a shooting spree that killed 69 others. Many of them were teens and young adults.

We are continuing to follow the scandal that has erupted at the secret service. Well, 11 agents and officers have been put on leave and they're under investigation. They're part of President Obama's advance security details for the summit of the Americas in Colombia. Now, they're accused of meeting with prostitutes at a hotel in Cartagena. The president says he's going to be angry if the allegations are proven true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What happened in Colombia is being investigated by the director of the secret service. I expect that investigation to be thorough and I expect it to be rigorous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: There is also an investigation into the behavior of at least five members of the military who were on the trip to Colombia. Now, U.S. officials have told CNN that the allegations including heavy drinking and engaging in prostitution. Fran Townsend, she's our national security contributor, and she was homeland security adviser under president George W. Bush, and she's joining us via Skype from New York.

And Fran, I want us to talk a little bit about this, because you and I have had the privilege, the opportunity, to travel with the president. We've been dealing with the secret service for years now. We know these guys. We've been around these guys. The culture seems to be work hard, play hard, but when you're on duty, you snap in line, you get in line, and you're all about the president and protecting the detail there. Give us a sense of whether or not this is a culture of this community, the kinds of allegations that we've seen today.

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR (via Skype): Suzanne, it's not part of their culture, which is what makes it so sort of stunning to those of us who have worked with them. This is actually a culture -- you know, these agents, most -- many of the agents are married. There are men and women who are agents. They are family folks. Every year the president would have been event where the agents would bring their families and children with them to the White House. It's a very -- it's a very tight culture and a very disciplined one which is what makes this so unusual.

You know, when you traveled, Suzanne, on behalf of the U.S. government, much less as part of the president's detail, you represent the United States, and that's drilled into you. You're on duty when you're traveling on behalf of the U.S. government whether you're working or not, and so it really is sort of an anathema to me that such a thing would have happened. It's such a lapse of judgment, such a lapse of discipline and sort of good order and discipline, as at the say in the military.

MALVEAUX: And Fran, is there a difference between the advance team? We know the advance team scouts out, looks at the situation before the president arrives, and those who are actually a part of his detail?

TOWNSEND: Well, you know, Suzanne, they're not any different in terms of the organization, but they do have more down time. You know, when you're traveling with the president, those schedules are brutal and you're constantly on the move. So, I -- there is no down time when the president is actually in country. But when you're doing the advance work, those teams are there for a period of time prior to his arrival, and they do have a good deal of down time, but they're not expected to engage in this type of behavior.

MALVEAUX: Right. Fran, one of the things I think folks should know is when I was traveling with the secret service, they really do protect everyone who is in their sight. I was traveling with the first lady, Laura Bush, at the time back in May of 2005 in the Middle East and she was met with protesters who were going to the dome of the rock there, and they were dangerously close. They were yelling. There was pushing that was going on. A lot of tension there and literally secret service agent -- two of them picked me up off the ground, literally threw me into that mosque with Mrs. Bush at the time. They made no distinction. It's really those moments when you're, like, you know, you're happy that you're with those guys and you don't want to be with anybody else. It seems as if that is something that is important, that these guys are even more vigilant off American soil.

TOWNSEND: That is exactly right. And, you know, there's a potential counterintelligence problem. Everyone who travels, particularly in the intelligence and law enforcement community, are told to be very cautious about and aware of their surroundings, to be cautious about being approached by strangers, and that prostitutes are often used by foreign intelligent services as an effort to infiltrate the inner circle. And so, for so many reasons this was an example of poor judgment and a breakdown in discipline. And you can expect no matter how this turns out, all those agents will be disciplined.

MALVEAUX: There are some occasions, Fran, you and I both know, where there is a breach has occurred. And I remember a trip to Africa with president Bush back if 2003, there was actually a stowaway who joined the White House Press Corps, boarded from south Africa, took the bus to the hotel, got on the press plane, landed in Uganda. Wasn't until we were in our workspace that a couple reporters noticed that he didn't belong. He was acting strange. Secret service approached him, he started screaming, they arrested the guy. If there would have been one more breach in the layer of security there, he could have been in the pool of reporters that get very close to the president. How important is it that this is sealed tight here? Are there still concerns that there are some ways of breaching the security because of secret service?

TOWNSEND: Suzanne, I think it's important for people to understand what we're talking about here are the exceptions, the very rare exceptions. But, look, the protection of the president and the cabinet and first family is done by human beings, and we'll -- are there opportunities for mistakes or errors? Absolutely. But that's why you have multiple layers, so that you hope each time someone has to pass through an additional screen there's the opportunity to identify a threat or a breach of security and correct it. You know, no one was hurt here. This is an example of poor judgment, and they'll go back and they'll do a lessons learned, and they will incorporate those lessons learned into new training. So, I mean, this really is an exception far from the norm.

MALVEAUX: All right. Important point. Fran, thank you very much. Good to see you.

TOWNSEND: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: $800,000 in taxpayer money spent by the agency that is supposed to look out for taxpayer money. Well, this hour, government officials involved in that lavish Vegas conference are going to be called on to testify about all the spending that happened over there allegedly. A House committee begins the first hearings on this excess spending of the general services administration. Now, here is some of the things they spent money on, $59,000 for an audio visual firm, $75,000 for a bike building exercise, $9,000 for colored theme tags, also spent money on clowns, a mind reader, commemorative coins, music videos.

Dana Bash is covering this hearing and is scheduled to begin at the bottom of the hour. So Dana, what do we expect, first of all, from the committee chair in bringing these people forward?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the committee chair actually spent some time with him yesterday, on a Sunday, in here and also back there, which is where the real work gets done, Suzanne.

And what he, Darrell Issa, said to me is that he wants to find out about not just this particular conference which has now become infamous in 2010 that you were talking about, but even more broadly excess spending at the GSA. And -- but on this particular conference, one of the things that he and other members of Congress have said that really bothers them is that the inspector general, who is going to be a witness here, told the then administrator of the GSA about this investigation, and many of the findings 11 months ago. One of the questions that at least the Republicans have is who inside the administration knew?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM: We do not have, if you will, the specifics of who told who in the White House something. That's to be discovered, but, again --

BASH: And that's probably what you're going to be asking Martha Johnson.

ISSA: It's part of what we're going to be asking, but let's remember that when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. One is you have the confidence of the president to execute, and the second is you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process, the chief of staff and other individuals. We want to know where that process failed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, part of what's going on here, members of both parties say, is that there's a real cultural problem at the GSA. Again, this is the agency that's supposed to be making sure our tax dollars are spent correctly and wisely, but they have been apparently spending extravagantly.

And that is one of the things that they are going to ask the inspector general, who's really been doing all the work on this. Now, we should note that spending also went up during the Bush years, and the Republican year admits that that is the case and says that he will eventually look into that. But the people who are testifying now really are focusing on the current administration.

MALVEAUX: And Dana, I just want to let our viewers know what we're watching here on one side there, we're looking at some videos of people who are kind of making fun, I guess, a talent competition of all the spending that's going on there. Who do we actually expect will be testifying today? Who's going to be in the hot seat?

BASH: Well, actually, we can show you, because the hot seats happen to be right here, Suzanne. I mentioned the inspector general, that's Brian Miller, he will be sitting here. In fact, he's already here. We saw him come in. Martha Johnson, who was fired as GSA administrator two weeks ago. This is going to be a key witness just really in terms of the drama here.

Jeff Neely, he is the acting commissioner for the whole Pacific region of the GSA. He's really the one who set up this conference in very, very specific ways made decisions to spend a lot of the things that you were talking about, like that $75,000 bike exercise and did it in -- without contracts apparently, with no bidding and contracts. Those are according to some of the transcripts that we've seen from the GSA inspector general investigators with him. We're told that he is expected to take the fifth amendment. He is going to say that, you know, because --

MALVEAUX: Right.

BASH: -- he doesn't want to incriminate himself, he's not going to want to testify, but let me give you an irony alert here.

MALVEAUX: Yes. BASH: The committee, the Republicans on the committee, subpoenaed him to come here from California to testify at this hearing on excess spending. So, they're asking him to come here spending money to talk about spending too much money.

MALVEAUX: Yes. And we might not hear anything from him. OK.

BASH: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: Dana, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Here is a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next hour. First, we're going to show you how one couple survived the deadly tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma this weekend.

And more Americans are saying, take this job and shove it. That's what the economy -- a sign that the economy is actually improving.

Then, the worst assault on Afghanistan's capital in months hits a heavily guarded part of the city.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Breaking news now here. World Bank selecting Obama's nominee, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, as its head of the new World Bank. The Dartmouth president is replacing Robert Zoellick. Kim, he joined Dartmouth College back in 2009. He's a medical doctor who previously worked for the World Health Organization combating AIDS.

We know that he has advanced degrees in medicine and anthropology from Harvard. He chaired Harvard's medical school's department of global health and social medicine before becoming the president. Zoellick had announced his retirement in February. That was after five years at the World Bank. Since the World Bank began in 1944, the top job usually going to an American. It's part of an informal agreement with the Europeans. So they've got a new head.

Dust is still settling in Afghanistan after an 18-hour assault by insurgents. So this was Kabul just this morning. These explosions came after periodic bursts of gunfire lasted well into the night. It happened in the district that houses government offices, foreign embassies, including the U.S. embassy. Afghan authorities say that they have killed all but one of the attackers. He has been captured. The Taliban, they're claiming responsibility for these attacks. The captured insurgent says he worked for the notorious Haqqani network. Most of the attackers used women's clothing with burqas covering their faces in order to reach their intended positions. Now, some of the attacks were launched from high rise construction sites. That is exactly what happened when I was in Afghanistan last September during attacks on the U.S. embassy and NATO headquarters. Just take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Six guys in a vehicle pulled up. Five of them were wearing burqas to try to disguise themselves as women to bypass security. They took the burqas off, brandished their weapons, and then they all entered this building.

Six police officers guarded this building. You can see, this is where they stayed. The television, the remote control. You also see the bedding here.

This is where the terrorists, on the second floor, first confronted the police. They shot one officer, and then they threw him over the ledge.

Here on the 12th floor is where the final showdown was. There's evidence of it everywhere. You've got these spent shell casings. You have got pieces from explosive grenades. And if you take a look around, there are hundreds and hundreds of holes on the wall here. Clearly a fierce fire fight that went on here for hours well into the morning to get the terrorists.

I'm told this is where the last terrorist was killed. You can see the old scarf that's left behind. Holes in it. An empty water bottle. An old shoe with bloodstains. And on the wall, evidence of him being shot here. Even splattered brain matter in the gravel.

Now, I want to give you some perspective. We are in the building on the 12th floor on the east side. Here's what the terrorists saw. If you take a look and you go beyond, about a half hour, you see that orange building. That is the U.S. embassy. If you go over to the left, the white building, that's the NATO compound. This essentially gave them a clear shot to continue firing throughout the evening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So the question now is, how could the Afghans let it happen again? Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed an intelligence failure on the part of the Afghans as well as NATO.

And elsewhere in Afghanistan, our Nick Paton Walsh, he's taking us on a joint U.S./Afghan air assault south of Kabul. They're on a hunt for militants in Taliban territory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A last stand in a Taliban heartland. Americans and Afghans launch an air assault before dawn into a remote hostile district of Ghazni they've not set foot in for six months.

WALSH (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) an incredibly flat, exposed space about a mile away from a village where there are two high value targets the Americans want to arrest.

WALSH (voice-over): America's withdrawal is meant to awaken Afghan forces to take over these manhunts. But as they push into the village in search of the American's most wanted local militant, the Afghans seem pretty casual. Some doors stay locked. Their prey likely vanishing when they hear helicopters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They hear the birds coming and they usually flee immediately.

WALSH: But as the Americans search a former weapons cache, they become the targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's it at? Where's it at? Where's it at?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No (EXPLETIVE DELETED) clue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Hey, we got (INAUDIBLE) two (ph).

WALSH (on camera): Clearly insurgents are keen to defend this building, or at least attack the Americans as they get near it.

WALSH (voice-over): The shots come in close, fired from a distant tree line. The Afghans spring into life, firing a rocket, and then move to flank the insurgents who keep taking potshots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, they don't like me running.

WALSH: Warning flares from attack aircraft massing above stop the gunfire. And distant figures, probably women and children, appear, meaning a counterattack is too risky and the fight's over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the one in the white is a child, to be honest with you.

WALSH: But keen warriors make for poor police. Riding motorcycles is illegal, and they have to decide on a punishment. Should they shoot the fuel tank? Perhaps not. They let the tires down and then deliver what is here a rare encounter with Afghanistan's government. That night they leave and the Taliban surely return knowing that without American support, the Afghan state's relevance here slips further into the distance.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Ghazni province, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Hundreds of communities torn apart by tornadoes. People across the Midwest, they're cleaning up today. And one small town is mourning those lost. An update from the tornado zone, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: From Texas to Minnesota today, folks there in recovery mode, cleaning up after storms and tornadoes. The hardest hit community, Woodward, Oklahoma. Six people died there, three of them children. Our Rob Marciano tells us that it is not the first time that a tornado tore through this town.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): It's been 65 years since the big one hit Woodward, Oklahoma. In 1947, more than 100 people died in a twister here. Back then, Charles Hoge (ph) lived 30 miles away. But he remembers it well. CHARLES HOGE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I was 10 years old and I seen it when it wiped out this whole town.

MARCIANO: But now he lives in Woodward, and this latest tornado hit his home, blasting into the living room, blowing off the roof, and ripping the house inside out.

MARCIANO (on camera): Look how the tornado actually shoved this house off its foundation. It's tilted by a good 20, maybe 30 degrees. Last night before the storm hit, though, Mr. Hoge and his wife got warning. They came outside of the house, into a backyard. Why? Because there's a valuable commodity out here, a storm cellar. Heavily fortified. And, see, be heavy to open up. He and his wife got down there and that's what saved them.

And that door is heavy. How are you able to -- you're a strong man.

HOGE: You just -- you just do it.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Paul Lord's family didn't have a storm cellar or any basement and now they're lucky to have their lives. The tornado threw Paul out of the house and onto the street.

PAUL LORD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: When I was laying down there on the curb, and I looked up and saw the house gone, I didn't know what to do. And then neighbors come in and started pulling bricks off and tilting walls up and everybody started coming out.

MARCIANO (on camera): What kind of injuries did you sustain?

LORD: I got a big gash in the side of the head with a flap laid over and laid open, and they stitched that back up.

MARCIANO (voice-over): His grandson had deep cuts, too, after getting buried under appliances.

LORD: That's about where the bathroom was at. And that's where he was underneath in the tub and had the washer and dryer on top of him.

MARCIANO: Paul got into a battered truck, drove himself and his bleeding grandson to the hospital. His wounds bandaged now but still stunned. The Lords are getting a helping hand with the cleanup. But searching for keepsakes and sentimental items are a low priority.

MARCIANO (on camera): What specifically are things that you want to find in this rubble?

LORD: I found him, my son, my daughter, son-in-law, my grand babies, my wife. Everything else is just brick and stick, and they're all easily replaced.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Rob Marciano, CNN, Woodward, Oklahoma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Want to bring in Chad Myers here. We saw some really amazing pictures from the storm chasers there. What actually happened? What can we expect?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, what we saw and the numbers that are on the screen and maybe you've heard all weekend, 135 tornadoes or whatever, that's all going to be reduced. There were so many tornadoes on the ground for a very long time that it's the same tornado. One tornado may have been reported 35 separate times, watched by 35 separate chasers, maybe affecting 35 different communities. It was on the ground for so very, very long.

There's some storm chasing video. You don't see that every day. Two tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Our Rob Marciano experienced that as well.

Here's what I'm talking about and why I don't believe we're going to see that record-breaking day of, you know, how many hundreds of tornadoes. Because if you take a look at how the tornadoes went down and how the reports went down, every little red dot is a report of a tornado. Well, I am convinced that if you go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all those -- that's 20 tornado reports right there. Probably the same tornado on the ground for a very long time. And that's what we're going to see.

And if you want to go online, go to the i-Reports. We are still getting i-Reports of a tremendous, tremendous tornados. And it was a violent day because it was so very warm.

Very warm in Boston as well. Current temperature in Boston, 82. Why do we care? The Boston Marathon is going on. And if you're still running by 1:00, about 87 degrees. Eighty-eight by 3:00. And, you know, I would still be running by 5:00 or 6:00. I wanted to buy the t-shirt that I saw yesterday. I was up at the Biltmore (ph) and I saw one that said, "I walked the entire breadth of the Appalachian Trail." Not the length, just the breadth. That's about how far I could go.

MALVEAUX: That's OK. If you're out there -- if you're walking or you're running, I wish you all the best.

MYERS: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: I know what that's like. But, boy, in the 80s, that is some tough stuff that they are going through. We hope that everybody is hydrating and staying well. And if you have to step off, that you step off as well.

MYERS: Sixteen percent. Sixteen percent of the people canceled. They said, I can't do it. I can't do it in 85 degrees.

MALVEAUX: Yes, that's a tough thing to do.

MYERS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: All right, Chad, good to see you.

MYERS: Good to see you. MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown on some of the stories that we are working on.

Next, why neighborhood watches need to be careful about who's guarding the neighborhood.

And then, an update on Bee Gee star Robin Gibb.

And why more workers are telling their bosses to take this job and shove it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin has sparked many different discussions. We want to focus on one aspect of the case that could impact homeowners and their associations, particularly those of you with these neighborhood watch groups. George Zimmerman was a self-declared neighborhood watch captain, right? He called police to report a suspicious person just before shooting the unarmed 17-year-old in what Zimmerman claims was self-defense. So the question is, can Trayvon Martin's parents file a lawsuit against the gated community where Zimmerman shot their son?

Attorney Kenneth Direktor specializes in homeowner associations. He joins us from Plantation, Florida.

Ken, explain to us, if you can here, could the homeowner association be liable in the Trayvon Martin case? Do his parents have a case here?

KENNETH DIREKTOR, COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS ATTORNEY: Well, let's resist the temptation to comment on facts that haven't been finalized yet, but the answer to your first question is yes, the association -- any association can be liable if it engages in negligent conduct. Here you had a horrible pattern of criminal activity. If I read the reports correctly, there were over 400 calls to the police in the 14 months that preceded this event. Clearly the association then had some duty to do something to provide security. Now, I don't know what deliberations occurred at the level of the board of Directors at this community. Did they consider private security, where they would have had licensed, professional, insured security provided by an outside company or did they have no choice based upon economics to use a neighborhood watch group comprised of volunteers?

The issues that will determine liability for the association are really two. Number one, what happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin? I realize that a special prosecutor has brought charges, but until some civil or criminal liability on the part of George Zimmerman can be established, the association doesn't have liability.

Secondly, the association when it instituted neighborhood watch, again, if I understand the reports correctly, brought out the Sanford Police Department to discuss how the neighborhood watch program should be implemented.

MALVEAUX: Right.

DIREKTOR: Did George Zimmerman comply with those guidelines? Did he deviate? I can't imagine the Sanford police suggested that you could provide a neighborhood watch program using neighborhood volunteers who were carrying firearms.

MALVEAUX: All right. So Ken --

(CROSSTALK)

DIREKTOR: So the second question -- I'm sorry. Go ahead, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: I want to make clear here, if you are a homeowner in that community, in that area, could you be charged here? Could you be liable if you're just a part of the neighborhood?

DIREKTOR: Well, you have to understand something. The association is a corporate entity that's comprised of the homeowners. So the liability of the association, which is the crux of your question, ultimately gets passed through to the homeowners to the extent that it's not covered by liability insurance.

MALVEAUX: OK.

DIREKTOR: That's part of the problem here, Suzanne, is you have victims everywhere, I believe.

MALVEAUX: Right. That's a yes answer then.

DIREKTOR: Yes, ma'am.

MALVEAUX: They could be liable if you were just somebody who was in the neighborhood.

DIREKTOR: Well --

(CROSSTALK)

DIREKTOR: Pardon me, the individual owner is not personally liable. You're liable as a contributor to the costs of the association. If a judgment is entered against the association, it is collectible from only one source and that's the homeowners.

MALVEAUX: You say that the homeowners and the surrounding community are victims, too. Can you explain how?

DIREKTOR: First of all, they suffered from what sounds like a pattern of crime for over a year now. They had to figure out some way to respond to that criminal activity, and they chose a neighborhood watch program. They've had assaults. They've had burglaries. And now the shooting of a 17-year-old young man right outside their doorsteps. They're also living with this pattern of criminal activity and they're struggling to find a way to get on top of it and do something to stem the tide and improve the quality of life in this community. With all due respect to everyone else involved, I think that makes them victims, too.

MALVEAUX: All right, Kenneth, thank you so much. Appreciate your perspective.

DIREKTOR: Thank you for having me. My pleasure to be here.

MALVEAUX: Robin Gibb is one of the biggest pop groups of all times, the Bee Gees. Now he's fighting for his life. We'll have the latest on his condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Have some sad news about an icon from the disco era. Bee Gees singer, Robin Gibb, is now in a coma.

I want to bring in our showbiz correspondent, Nischelle Turner, to tell us what we know about his condition and how this happened.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Suzanne. It's actually very sad. He is in a coma. He is battling pneumonia. That's what we're told. Doctors believe the 62-year-old, who recently fought colon and liver cancer, is also facing a secondary tumor as well. Now, a lot of people are praying for him today, but this is a tough battle. His family is releasing medical updates on his web site, which has led to a flood of support from his France and contemporaries, like Peter Frampton, Julian Lennon and Jackie Jackson.

Now, in addition to the problems that we just mentioned, Gibbs' rep confirmed to CNN that the pop star has needed two emergency surgeries since 2010 for bowel obstructions. You should know his twin brother, Maurice Gibb, died in 2003 of a twisted bowel. The brothers Gibb -- we all know them as the Bee Gees -- they broke out in a huge way in 1977 after "Saturday Night Fever." It was built around their disco songs. The Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and they have sold -- this still astounds me -- they have sold more than 200 million albums.

So while Barry Gibb we know sang the lead vocals, Robin stepped forward several times on songs like "I Started a Joke" and "I Have to Get a Message to You." All those memorable songs. They make me smile, Suzanne. We send nothing but good thoughts out to Robin and the Gibb family.

MALVEAUX: I love the Bee Gees. One of my all-time favorites.

I love the Bee Gees.

Thanks you.

TURNER: Me, too.

MALVEAUX: I want to talk about "Iron Man 3." The producer partnering with a Chinese producer. Tell us why that's significant?

TURNER: Well, it's significant for a lot of reasons, but Disney basically is trying to tap into the Chinese market with this deal. Now, Disney and Beijing-based DMG Entertainment will team up on "Iron Man 3," which will be partially shot in China. It's no wonder, because I have looked at the estimates, and the movie industry could take in $5 billion from Chinese moviegoers as soon as 2015. And action films like "Iron Man" easily translate into foreign markets. The first two "Iron Man" films took in almost $600 million outside the United States but only $23 million in China. This deal would hopefully help Disney's market and market the film there.

Now, there is this added wrinkle because there's the speculation that the next villain for Iron Man to face off with could be a Chinese character called the Mandarin. But some versions of the Mandarin in the comic have been called a racist caricature. Adapting that kind of a character into a Chinese villain in a film co-produced by a Chinese company -- you see where I'm going -- that could get complicated, so we'll have to see how that all works out.

MALVEAUX: A little messy.

Nischelle, thank you. Good to see you.

TURNER: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Don't forget to catch "Showbiz Tonight" on our sister network, HLN, week nights at 11:00 p.m. eastern.

Republican Mike Huckabee blames rising gas prices on President Obama's gas policies on offshore drilling. Does that claim stand up to the fact check? We'll let you know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: With all the political rhetoric flying back and forth, sometimes it's tough, right, to separate fact from fiction. We're putting some of these political claims to the test.

Bill Adair, the Washington bureau chief for the "Tampa Bay Times" and editor of Politifact.com joins us.

Good to see you, Bill.

Let's start off with a new ad from a conservative group called Crossroads GPA. It says, "Oil production is down where Obama's in charge." The ad suggested oil production on federal lands dropped under President Obama. Is that true or false?

BILL ADAIR, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, TAMPA BAY TIMES & EDITOR, POLITIFACT.COM: We gave that a half true on our truth-o-meter. It's a classic case of cherry picking. They have taken one year when there was a decline in oil production but ignored two years when there was an increase. The classic cherry picking we see. They also ignored the fact that the reason it was down was because of the oil spill in the gulf. Half true for that one.

MALVEAUX: Picking what you like. That's not uncommon.

What about this from Vice President Joe Biden? He says the 30 percent tax rate called for under President Obama's so-called Buffett Rule is lower than the described tax rate for millionaires already. Not just for millionaires, for people making over $200,000? True?

ADAIR: That also gets a half true. This one is kind of complicated in that the numbers are right in most cases, but it's the way he's put them together. He's comparing apples and oranges. In one case, he's talking about the marginal tax rate, which is the rate you pay on the last dollar of your income, to the overall tax rate, the rate you would pay on your overall taxes. He also is wrong when he says -- talks about the marginal rate on people who make $200,000. So overall, we gave that a half true.

MALVEAUX: OK. Finally, what about this claim in a robocall from Mike Huckabee? He says "President Obama's refusal to grant permits for offshore drilling is one reason gasoline prices are soaring." How does that rate?

ADAIR: Well, we set the truth-o-meter on fire for that one, Pants on Fire.

MALVEAUX: Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

ADAIR: This is just ridiculously false. This was in a robocall made in Rhode Island. And our partners at Politifact, Rhode Island, at "Providence Journal" checked it out and found it's ridiculously false. There have been more than 140 permits issued for deep-water drilling, not to mention many for more shallow-water drilling. How Huckabee came up with that one, we don't know, but Pants on Fire on the truth-o-meter on that one.

MALVEAUX: Pants on Fire.

(LAUGHTER)

Bill, thanks for setting it straight. Appreciate it.

ADAIR: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We have some health news you need to know about. Before you make the salad for lunch, take a close look at the lettuce. Dole is recalling now 756 cases of Seven Lettuces salads because of possible salmonella contamination. The salad was sold in 15 states. The recall doesn't affect other Dole salads. We haven't reports of any people getting sick at this point.

Another salmonella situation to tell you about. The CDC says at least 116 people in 20 states and the nation's capital are infected with a strain of the bacteria. They think the outbreak was caused by people eating raw yellow-fin tuna. The product, it isn't sold to individual consumers, but it is used to make sushi and sashimi available in restaurants and grocery stores.

Also catching our eye this morning, a story out of the "Wall Street Journal." The paper is reporting that some patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, are so frustrated with clinical trials they have resorted to making their own drugs. ALS is incurable, eventually fatal. So those patients say the risk of experimental drugs is worth it. But many doctors, of course, warn this extreme practice can be dangerous.

Economists say it is a sign of the improving job market. More Americans are quitting rather than getting fired. It is "take this job and shove it" indicator.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: For the fist time since the economic recovery began, more workers are saying "take this job and shove it," which means they can actually find a better job elsewhere.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, I can't tell you how many people enjoyed saying that, "just take this job and shove it."

(LAUGHTER)

What does this mean?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The positives of being able to walk up to your boss and saying, I've had it, I'm out the door. That's positive. And you see this strength and confidence to say, "Take this job and shove it." That strength and confidence is actually increasing as we see the economy getting stronger. In February, 51 percent of all instances where people actually left their jobs was because they actually quit. They left voluntarily, on their own volition. This is the first time since September of 2008 that the number of people who quit outnumbered the people who were laid off.

Now, quitting is a sign of strength in the economy. Employees don't quit their jobs until they're confident about finding a new job. It could also be seen as a sign that layoffs are down, which obviously is also a good sign -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Always nice to have options there. Tell us a little bit about the market, job market. Mixed numbers?

KOSIK: As far as the job market, yes. You could say the March figures, the job numbers were really a step backward. I'm talking about the number of jobs added to the economy. We got that news just recently. We don't yet have the numbers from March on jobs separations. We could see the so-called quitters go below the 50 percent mark. We've still got a ways to go to get back to the prerecession quit level. But that level peaked at 59 percent at the end of 2006. Then you saw it fall to 37 percent at the bottom of the recession. So yes, you know, there's been a lot of progress, but still more to go before we can all just walk up to your bosses and say, "take this job and shove it."

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Tell us a little bit about the markets. How are they doing?

KOSIK: The markets are mixed. Dow is rallying, up 126 points. The good news is retail sales jumped 0.8 percent last month. The good news is that that jump in retail sales, not only coming from higher gas prices, but also consumers spending on other things like home improvements and on cars. So the market seeing the positive on that. You see the NASDAQ down 16 points right now.

A lot of that has to do with Apple. Shares of Apple are down $19, down 3 percent. Each share about $586. A lot of investors saying, you know what, it looks like Apple has had a nice run of it. It's time to take some profits. What a bargain, $586 for Apple -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Back to the "take this job and shove it" story, do we know what kind of jobs are actually out there? Are there certain sectors, people can say OK, I don't like this, I can go and make a switch to this?

KOSIK: It all depends on your skill set. It runs the gamut. You look at the jobs report from the previous month and, you know, you saw retail jobs -- actually the biggest loss of jobs there. But you saw construction jobs in addition. So you're seeing this change in patterns as time goes on, as the economy recovers -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: I saw over, the weekend, I went to a bakery in the neighborhood and they had a "help wanted" sign. They said we want managers and cashier answer people who can bake. That's a good sign.

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: Signs are coming up everywhere. Sure.

MALVEAUX: Alison, good to see you. Thanks.

KOSIK: OK.

MALVEAUX: Prosecutors taking another shot at a baseball great. Why Roger Clemens is back in federal court today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Former baseball great Roger Clemens is back in court today. Jury selection is underway for his second perjury trial. He is accused of lying to Congress about his use of steroids.

Mark McKay has more of the back story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROGER CLEMENS, BASEBALL PLAYER: Let me be clear, I have never taken steroids or HGH.

MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been more than four years since former Major League pitcher, Roger Clemens, appeared before Congress and testified under oath he had never used performance- enhancing drug, including human growth hormone, also known as HGH.

At that same hearing, Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee, said just the opposite.

BRIAN MCNAMEE, FORMER CLEMENS TRAINER: During the time I worked with Roger Clemens, I injected him on numerous occasions with steroids and human growth hormone.

MCKAY: After a grand jury investigation, Clemens was charged in August, 2010, with six counts, including federal perjury, making false statements and obstruction of Congress. Each count carries up to a five-year prison sentence.

Clemens went to trial last July but, on the second day of testimony, the judge declared a mistrial because the prosecution showed evidence the judge had exclude excluded. The second trial is now at hand with the seven-time Cy Young award winner hoping to prove his innocence.

Mark McKay, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.

Hey, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Suzanne. Thank you.