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Shocking Gang Rape Video in South Africa; Ted Nugent to Meet With Secret Service; Discovery Lands in its Permanent Home; Pat Summitt to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Aired April 19, 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 am Brooke Baldwin. There could be a huge break in one of America's most famous unsolved mysteries. You're looking at photos from the air, a number of authorities on the ground in lower Manhattan.
We're told FBI agents, police, scouting this building in the Soho area of Manhattan for clues in the search for the sixing-year-old boy that went missing all the way back in the last '70s. In fact, this little boy, Etan Patz (ph), is the first missing child ever pictured on a milk carton. We are going to take you there live coming up here.
But, first, a teenaged girl disappears for weeks before turning up in a cell phone video being gang-raped, gang-raped by young men and boys as young as 14. These boys on this video, they're seen and heard laughing and like so many things these days this crime came to light when a mom looked over her teenaged daughter's shoulder to see what the girl was watching on her cell phone.
Imagine the mother's shock.
CNN's Nkepile Mabuse reports this video has gone viral all across South Africa, where some people call rape a sport.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may look ashamed now, but police say when these boys filmed themselves raping a teenager believed to be mentally disabled, they proudly showed their faces.
People who have seen the video say this girl who we cannot identify because she is a minor pleads with them to stop. They didn't according to police and instead offered her 25 cents. The 10-minute- long graphic cell phone clip went viral leading to eight arrests.
Its position and distribution is illegal in South Africa, but some media organizations have seen it in the public's interests.
MANDY WIENER, REPORTER: What stood out for me in the video was how relaxed they were, how they were candidly joking with one another and they were spurring each other on crassly.
MABUSE: Police suspect the teenager who had been missing for four weeks had been turned into a sex slave.
(on camera): Experts say a South African woman has far greater chances of being raped than learning how to read and write. But this particular story has forced a nation where rape has been described by some as a young man's sport to ask itself some serious questions about what kind of a society breeds this behavior.
(voice-over): Government ministers have taken a personal interest in the case joining the nation in calling for justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to fight this (INAUDIBLE) that is our communities. All those doing wrong things to women, they must be brought to court.
MABUSE: But angry residents blame a broken criminal justice system for allowing far too many rapists to get away with their crimes. The boys have not yet pleaded. Using a popular African prover, a local commentator opined that it takes a village to raise a child, and the village has failed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: And Nkepile Mabuse joins me live from Johannesburg.
Nkepile, this crime here, the video, it really struck a never obviously where are you in South Africa. But why this case when rape is called, you mention in your piece, a young man's sport? It's an epidemic there.
MABUSE: It is an epidemic. It is pervasive.
But I think there are so many aspects of the story, Brooke, that have shocked the nation and of course it involves young children, school-going age, and the youngest of the accused is 14 years old. It also involves a victim that is possibly mentally disabled.
But there are more important issues. I think rape is pervasive in South Africa, but it is a crime that happens behind closed doors and very often within family units, you will find like an uncle raping a niece. And then because the family fears that it will bring shame to them, they quietly sort it out and basically expect the 9-year-old girl to move on with it.
But this is public. It is in your is face, it's graphic, and it's really forced South Africans to come face-to-face with the huge problem and another thing is, it is distribution, young kids. It went viral. In Soweto, they were watching this as it were some form of entertainment. Some of them we're told could even recite the words that were used in the video and that has shocked the nation as well.
And the fact that these boys were brave enough to film themselves committing a crime and then distribute it, it really does say something about the criminal justice system. These kids didn't think that they would get caught. That raises questions about what has happened in the past when it comes to rape cases in South Africa, Brooke. BALDWIN: These acts, these videos, we see them here in the states. Obviously they're in South Africa. I know people there, this is very much so not behind closed door when we talk about this incident.
People are protesting. They want a life sentence for child rape. What is the law right now as it stands?
MABUSE: For gang rape, you can get life in prison.
And also, if it is found that this teenage girl is mentally disabled, that also carries life, so very, very serious crimes and very serious sentences. But as I said before, there are two minors that are accused in this case, and they will not go through the trial.
They will probably go through a diversion problem that is for -- designed for juvenile offenders where they basically try to rehabilitate them and teach them really to become better people, Brooke.
BALDWIN: It sounds like as you describe rape so much happening behind closed doors, family members preying on family members and it would bring apart -- shame and you're saying that's why so many people don't go public with this.
Beyond families, how big of a problem is rape? And it sounds to me there is a need for just a culture change.
MABUSE: It is huge.
The Medical Research Council here in South Africa estimates that only one in nine rapes are reported, and people have come up with various reasons. Some people argue that, you know, apartheid emasculated South African men and the only way they could really assert authority was over women's bodies and this has become a culture, and it is not only, Brooke, I must stress, happening among poor people.
This is happening within the middle class and within also the upper class. So it is a huge problem that really needs starting with young people to recondition their minds. There's experts who say that it has become a young man's sport. This is how young men express how macho they are to one another, showing off.
Like the journalist that saw this video, she says they were having fun and they were showing off. It was a game for them. That seriously needs to be looked into, and young people's minds need to be reconditioned, Brooke.
BALDWIN: It is endemic in the culture and it's interesting. You point out perhaps psychological going back to the apartheid.
Nkepile Mabuse, thank you.
Coming up next, nuns, nuns going rogue. The Vatican wants to rein in this group of American nuns who are challenging the church's ways and the Vatican accuses them of promoting "radical feminist ideas." We will speak live with one of these nuns here about this crackdown against her. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Sisters, get your act together. That is what the Vatican is saying to the largest group of Catholic nuns in the United States.
They are called the Leadership Conference of Women Religious that represents most of the 57,000 nuns throughout the U.S. Church leaders, they launched this investigation, this two-year investigation, came to some scathing conclusions, mostly about what the nuns didn't say.
That's the key part here. In a Vatican statement, the Leadership Conference is accused of not speaking out strongly enough against gay marriage, abortion, or making women priests. They're also accused of pushing -- quote -- "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
Now comes the crackdown. The Vatican appointed Seattle's archbishop to rein in the ladies and that includes reviewing all plans and programs, rewriting the group's bylaws, approving speakers and this could go on as long as five years.
I want to welcome Sister Simone Campbell, and she is the executive director of NETWORK. It's a Catholic social justice lobby.
Sister, welcome to you.
As part of this reform effort, the church is looking into ties between NETWORK and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. So, Sister Campbell, first of all, were you surprised that the Vatican called the Leadership Conference -- their word is radical.
SISTER SIMONE CAMPBELL, NETWORK: I was shocked.
I was just on my way back from being with one of the regents of LCWR where I was a resource person for them on the spiritual life and the spiritual aspect of leadership and how that intersects with our quest for justice.
We had no knowledge that this was coming. We certainly had no knowledge that NETWORK was even Implicated in the report. So it came out of the blue for us. We were shocked.
BALDWIN: When you hear the word radical or rogue associated with a nun, how does that make you feel?
CAMPBELL: Well, quite frankly, there is a humorous aspect to it because I am just so disbelieving.
The fact is we live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience every day of our lives from the time we take first vows on and that sometimes our service to the poor and to those at the margins might take us to places where we see injustices that others don't see.
But we're certainly faithful to the Gospel. We're faithful to our prayer life. And if you can be rogue in a prayer life, then I guess maybe that's what their concern is. I don't understand it.
BALDWIN: When you talk about injustices, you're inside. You are a sister. Is there a battle of the sexes within the church? And is this a battle quite honestly that women can really win?
CAMPBELL: Well, it definitely has been engaged as a struggle, that's for sure.
The fact is that our church has been struggling with the issue of the proper role of women for a very long time, and in the early church women were leaders. Women served as deaconesses. There's also kinds of evidence of that. And over the centuries that has fallen out.
Some people think that should be restored. Others think not. But the issue is as women religious, we are called to respond to the needs around us. We work with the homeless. We work with people with AIDS. We work with the hungry. We work with families in distress.
I myself became a lawyer so that I could serve people who were in need in the working poor community in California. I now work on Capitol Hill to advocate for justice.
BALDWIN: Let me jump in.
CAMPBELL: But it is all about the people...
BALDWIN: About the people you serve and you talk about struggling and the church has been struggling with the proper role of women. How would you characterize the role of women within the Catholic Church? Would you go as far to characterize it as misogynistic?
CAMPBELL: Oh, no, because, actually, misogynism, it really goes -- that's too individualized. And there is such variety within the church.
BALDWIN: What would you say?
CAMPBELL: You can't just say that's totality.
BALDWIN: What would you say?
CAMPBELL: I am sorry. I missed your question.
BALDWIN: What would you say?
(CROSSTALK)
CAMPBELL: I would say that there is definitely a struggle, that we took seriously Pope Pius XII's urging to get educated in theology.
We took seriously Vatican II and that some of the leadership of the church, who is -- our church is led by men. They're not used to dealing with strong women. In that sense there is a tension. They do not understand our dialogic model where we engage in conversation. We engage in discernment. We engage in prayer together to see the way forward.
The men that are leaders of the church are not used to -- in Rome, they're not used to dealing with strong women as we have in the United States.
BALDWIN: It sounds like though part of the issue is what you're not saying, and perhaps the church wanted you to speak up against abortion, wanted you to speak up against other issues like birth control and it is the lack of speaking up that is one of the reasons why they're investigating. It is what you're not saying.
CAMPBELL: Well, that's pretty interesting because the role of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is to foster the religious life for all of us.
And since we don't get married, we don't have families, we take a vow of chastity, so we don't have sexual relationships, the issue of abortion or family structures aren't our issues. Our issues are caring for people who are poor. And so that's where we speak with authority is when we care for people that are poor.
These other issues, you know, what can I say? The best we can do is to have dialogue and try to find a way forward.
BALDWIN: Well, thank you for engaging in a dialogue with me, Sister Campbell. I appreciate it. Thank you for calling in.
Coming up, we will take you live to New York where one of America's most famous mysteries may get a huge, huge break.
Plus, police say a nurse was so desperate to prove to her boyfriend she just gave birth she killed a new mom and then kidnapped her 3-day-old baby. But the nurse is black and we're told her boyfriend is as well. You see the baby, not black.
I will speak live with a psychologist about what drives some women to the edge.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I know by now you have heard the story about the nurse who is now charged with capital murder, gunning down a new mom and snatching her 3-day-old newborn.
Let me show you a picture of her. This is the suspect, Verna McClain. She appeared -- this is her court appearance in a Texas courtroom today and she is charged as I mentioned with capital murder and police say she opened fire on a mother, Kayla Golden, in a parking lot of Golden's pediatrician's office. Golden was trying to put her baby in the car after she had this appointment when she was shot and the baby was grabbed.
I want you to listen to what police think is this woman's motive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CPT. BRUCE ZENOR, MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Initially, information is that she did have a miscarriage. She needed to justify having a child to her soon to be fiance. They were going to get married in may. She had led him to believe that she was pregnant and had a child, so she needed a child, she needed to produce a child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So given what you just heard, if that isn't bizarre enough, here is the thing. The suspect, Verna McClain, is African- American. You can see her in the mug shot. The baby she is accused of snatching is white, and police say McClain's boyfriend, he is not white either.
This is one of those stories that makes you ask so many questions here.
I want to bring in Dale Atkins, a psychologist, and she joins me by the phone and here to help us understand why some women would commit crimes like this.
Have you this woman, she was a nurse, someone supposedly nurturing and caring and I know many an amazing nurse. But how does a woman who works in the medical profession helping others shoot and ultimately this mother dies just to get this baby?
DALE ATKINS, PSYCHOLOGIST: Brooke, it is really stunning. It is something that is so difficult to explain.
And I think that one of the issues that we have to deal with is what the police person said which was that she apparently has this relationship with someone and this is a very, very common manipulative and obsessive kind of act that women who are trying to keep their partners, keep them from leaving them, often will either fake a pregnancy or in fact have a pregnancy and then lose the baby, miscarry and then feel if they don't have the child, their partner will leave them.
So it is very manipulative. It usually is happening obviously with people that have some kind of degree of a personality disorder. That's the motive for stealing the baby and this is what is done very often. There are other people that steal babies for other reasons but the other piece of it is the difference with the race of the baby and the race of the mother.
BALDWIN: Right. What is she thinking? Because if she is African-American and her boyfriend is African-American and she was supposed to have been pregnant and she didn't have the baby and she brings home a white baby, there is obviously a huge disconnect here.
ATKINS: There really is a huge disconnect.
I think your important question is what was she thinking? I think at that point she wasn't thinking in a way that would one would say, well, what is a rational explanation? I think when women are at this point they just feel they need to have a baby on cue and they feel this time pressure and know they can't have the baby for whatever reason.
And they're afraid if she tells her partner that she has miscarried he will leave her, and then they decide to do this criminal act, and it is something that, oh, and, by the way, the baby is a different race. I guess maybe we will have to deal with that later if in fact that is even an issue. She felt I would imagine this incredible pressure. And women who do this -- I am sorry, yes?
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: It just brings up the question of sanity. Because I know prosecutors say they're going for the death penalty. She is charged with capital murder here in the case. Sanity has come up. If you're called as a witness for the prosecution here, Dale, what would you say?
ATKINS: I am not skirting you, but I can't answer it because I really don't know her history.
Clearly she has some issues with self-esteem. If she lost a baby, you know, all kinds of things go crazy. But this is a murder case as well as a baby snatching case, and I believe that there is obviously something that is clearly very wrong with her perception of reality, but I do know that sometimes with women like this who do this, there is a history of delinquency. There may be hysterical personality traits.
There is a preoccupation to have children. She has children. It is not that she couldn't have children. Maybe she can't have a baby now. They really seem to do this because they are motivated to compensate for all kinds of emotional deprivation, so I don't know what her particular issue is, but they steal children and they steal children basically because they want to keep their relationships.
BALDWIN: It is horrible.
ATKINS: That's the primary issue.
BALDWIN: It is horrible.
ATKINS: It is not to have a baby.
BALDWIN: Dale Atkins, thank you. My heart just goes out to this young father.
ATKINS: Of course.
BALDWIN: He gets the baby back and loses his wife.
Dale, thanks.
ATKINS: Of course. BALDWIN: Now Ted Nugent. Ted Nugent, if he wants to "chop heads in November," the Secret Service says we want to talk. We're live in Oklahoma where both sides are expected to meet.
Plus, we have just gotten in video of a swarm of people surrounding the car. Look at this, carrying the president of Iran, and they're shouting we're hungry, we're hungry. It is getting chaotic. What is that about? That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Any moment now rocker and activist Ted Nugent is expected to meet with members of the Secret Service today. The agents, they want to more about his tirade about the president.
This whole thing happened at this NRA conference and among issues critics say Nugent sounded threatening, saying if President Obama is reelected he, Nugent, would either be dead or in prison.
Ed Lavandera is live in Ardmore, Oklahoma, to cover this meeting.
Have you seen Nugent yet?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, we have not seen Ted Nugent here. His name is on the marquee here at this venue here in Ardmore, Oklahoma,
He is expected to take the stage later tonight to a crowd of about 3,000 people, but still no sign. His band has shown up. The tour bus is here. The sound check has been done, but still no sign of Ted Nugent. But we did just a short while ago receive a statement from Ted Nugent. We're not sure if this means this meeting with the Secret Service has already taken place or is in the process of taking place.
But Ted Nugent writes a lengthy statement part of which reads that what he was talking about in his speech at the NRA last week and saying "I spotlighted cockroaches and rallied those who care to stomp them out at the voting booth in November as is my duty as an American. By no stretch of the imagination did I threaten anyone's life or hint at violence or mayhem. Metaphors needn't be explained to educated people."
That was the statement that Ted Nugent released just a little while ago. However, obviously the statement that Ted Nugent made last weekend at the NRA convention in Saint Louis definitely got the attention of Secret Service agents because they are somewhere here in Ardmore, Oklahoma, meeting with him right now.
BALDWIN: Cockroaches, huh? I know we don't know exactly when the meeting happens. Do we know what kinds of questions the Secret Service will ask Ted Nugent?
LAVANDERA: It is a good question.
Meetings like this presumably go on quite a bit, very much under the radar and any time people make threats, Secret Service agents go out and kind of assess what exactly is really behind any kind of threats or statements that people across the country -- and so we presume meetings like this go on all the time. The question is whether or not Ted Nugent is essentially getting a lecture from Secret Service agents about what he is saying or if there is something more to it about what they want to figure out what his intentions and what his motivation was for the things that he said.
But there is no question at this point that it definitely got the attention of that agency.
BALDWIN: Ed Lavandera for us in Oklahoma, Ed, thanks.
And now if it is interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it. "Rapid Fire," roll it.
Want to begin with some pictures. This is something you really rarely ever see in Iran. Take a look. The person in this car you can see it's surrounded by all kinds of people. The person inside, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and many are complaining to the Iranian president they're hungry. That's what they're shouting, we're hungry, we're hungry, although some say they just wanted to shake his hand.
All of this happened as he was being driven there in this motorcade. Look at everyone hopping on top of the car. President Ahmadinejad later posted pictures of happy and waving supporters.
It isn't easy to listen to, this social worker's desperate call to 911 to save two children from a burning home.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long will it be?
911 OPERATOR: I don't know, ma'am. They have to respond to emergency life-threatening situations first. The first available deputy...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, this could be life-threatening. He went to court on Wednesday and he didn't get his kids back. And this is really -- I am afraid for their lives.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Helpless feeling there.
And now we know the 911 dispatcher who took that call has been reprimanded for taking too long to send help, and you can hear why, because inside that home, Josh Powell, the Utah man suspected in the disappearance of his wife and his two sons, the social worker brought the children for the court-ordered visit. She had absolutely no idea that Powell was intending to murder them and then commit suicide in the process.
And after 148 million miles of travel, Discovery, space shuttle Discovery lands in its permanent home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BALDWIN (voice-over): America's longest serving shuttle, now the premier attraction -- as it should be -- at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. Its arrival kicks off a four-day celebration.
Among the greeters there -- look at that crowd. Among the greeters, John Glenn, the former senator and the oldest astronaut to fly on board Space Shuttle Discovery.
And of course there will never be another Pat Summitt. She can now count the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which the White House made official earlier today, among her many, many honors. The legendary Tennessee Lady Vols' head basketball coach retires officially today.
Summitt is the winningest basketball coach in all of college history, 1,098 wins and eight national titles but, sadly also a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT SUMMITT, BASKETBALL COACH: I can tell you I have loved my work at the University of Tennessee. It has been awesome. And I can say for almost four decades it has been a privilege to make an impact on the lives of 161 women who have worn the orange. I am so proud of them, the Lady Vol student athletes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Pat Summitt's long time assistant, Holly Warlick, takes over.
Breaking developments in a case unsolved for decades. It goes back to the late '70s. The Feds swarming the building in Lower Manhattan, searching a basement in hopes of finding information searching for the whereabouts of Etan Patz, he was the first missing child ever featured on a milk carton. We'll take you there live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Want to update you on a breaking story out of New York City, this is Lower Manhattan where you will see the pictures -- there they are. The FBI is on the scene, NYPD is there as well. They are reportedly digging. They're using jackhammers here in the floor of this basement where a cadaver dog may have found the scent of human remains.
This building is in Lower Manhattan in the SoHo area, steps away from the former home of Etan Patz, who was six years old when he disappeared back in 1979. Etan Patz missing 33 years, declared dead in 2001, and back when he disappeared, Etan Patz was the first missing child whose likeness appeared on a milk carton.
Let's go straight to Susan Candiotti, who's there for us on the scene.
And, Susan, you told us that this combined search team, they're about to start digging with jackhammers through the walls in this basement. Any sign it has begun?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It hasn't begun yet, not using the jackhammer anyway. Here is the latest information we have on that. I am told it is doubtful they may even get to the jackhammer today because they are going over every square inch of the hallway and the basement where they're looking for the possible remains of that child.
The space measures about 13 by 62 feet, so what they're doing is taking away anything, collecting any evidence that isn't nailed down, literally down to the dust and the dirt that is on the floor, the cement floor, and on the walls, anything so that they can analyze it forensically, looking for any kind of possible DNA evidence that that child might have been there.
Authorities tell us they're looking to see whether that little boy's remains are down there, whether he was killed there or simply hidden there, if at all. Here is how police summed it up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BROWNE, NEW YORK POLICE: We're looking for human remains, clothing or other personal effects of Etan Patz, in trying to find out where he disappeared, why he disappeared and where.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: And this is going to be a very long process, Brooke. They're planning on being here at least five days and work around the clock to see what evidence they can find in that cement basement area --
BALDWIN: Susan?
CANDIOTTI: -- eventually going to dig up using jackhammers.
BALDWIN: As they work the next five days, give me a little bit more of the lay of the land. Because I understand what, 33 years ago, he lived -- the address was 133 Prince Street and that's, what, half a block from where the scene is, where you're standing in front of?
CANDIOTTI: That's right. As you were setting it up in our introduction, that's exactly right. Just about a half-block in this direction is where his parents and where he lived. As a matter of fact, we were down there a short time ago. His parents are not taking any calls or any visitors at this time. But police tell me they did tell the parents the search was about to happen.
Now about a half -- (CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Do they still live there, Susan?
CANDIOTTI: -- other direction --
BALDWIN: Sorry to interrupt you.
CANDIOTTI: -- bus stop where the little boy was -- yes, yes, they -- we were just down there and tried to see whether they could tell us anything about what was going on and what police had told them. So, yes, they're still living in that area.
BALDWIN: Wow. Wow.
CANDIOTTI: And about a half-block in this direction is the bus stop where their son had been walking the day that he disappeared.
So this is a very critical area that evidently was well searched at the time but something may -- and you are hearing some indication what that was -- that made the authorities go back and take a closer look at this basement area, which is described to me as having a long, dark hallway and at the end of it is an art studio.
In fact, it used to be a very popular area in this whole area of SoHo at the time, really an artist's colony. It is now far from that, (inaudible) very upscale area of SoHo, where there are designer shops and the like.
BALDWIN: As in artist colony but also as we were talking last hour, also known for sexual liaisons.
CANDIOTTI: That's exactly right, too. That's what we hear from a law enforcement source that, in fact, that's where people also used to gather, either in this art studio in the basement to have sex and it was popular for that reason, too, not drugs, not prostitution, but just where people would get together.
So how whether -- how that all -- you know, it is one more piece of the puzzle here that they're trying to put together here. And somehow, some way, did someone snatch that little boy and bring him down to this basement area? That's what they're trying to find out.
BALDWIN: Just think about this family peering out their windows half a block away at the scene behind you. Susan Candiotti, keep us posted, please. Susan, thank you.
The White House here, releasing a photo of President Obama reflecting on a civil rights icon. Take a look at this here. This is the president sitting in a vintage bus. This is the very Alabama bus upon which Rosa Parks took her historic stand, refused to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus.
The president later told campaign donors he, quote, "sat there for a moment and pondered the courage and the tenacity of those who insisted on their share of the American dream." And I am sad to have to tell you that this is just into CNN. Famed singer-songwriter and drummer for The Band has died. Levon Helm had been battling throat cancer for some time. "Rolling Stone" reports he was surrounded by his friends and his family and his estranged former bandmate, Robby Robertson, had even visited his bedside in these final days.
Levon Helm's career took off when he and The Band played drums for Bob Dylan. Helms made one of his first TV appearances, ironically enough, on "American Bandstand" with a group called The Hawks, and right around this time I was just telling you Dick Clark at age 82 passed away.
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BALDWIN: A Pennsylvania company turns old barns into new furniture. They nail down being green with every piece in this "Solutions."
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BALDWIN (voice-over): This furniture has a past life as an old barn.
KELLY TRYON-KELLY, OWNER, FURNITURE FROM THE BARN: Most of our furniture is made from 18th century wood. The reclaimed barn wood we get to use our products is mainly in Pennsylvania barns. It is very special to me that we can take a piece of history, American history, and build a piece of furniture out of it.
BALDWIN (voice-over): The wood here is special because the quality is so rare.
TRYON-KELLY: Our chestnut wood was harvested in the 1800s, before the blight killed the chestnut tree in the early 1900s. Some of the chestnut we get is really cool, because basically there is not too much chestnut to be found these days.
BALDWIN (voice-over): Not leaving an environmental footprint is important to Kelly.
TRYON-KELLY: Being an environmentalist helped me think, what could I do to help instead of an old barn going into a landfill? This wood is so beautiful. And it still can be used. Why not use it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Coming up, it was just 24 hours on this show, you were watching with me these two guys hanging on for dear life on this sailboat, this dramatic rescue unfolding. It's happening in frigid waters in Lake Michigan. We're about to speak live to the pilot that was shooting the video from this news chopper high above about what happened during these frantic moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: It was right around this time yesterday -- maybe you were with me -- we saw this dramatic story unfolding right here on our watch -- Chad and I were walking through this. We saw these two gentlemen -- they're both in their 60s -- clinging for dear life to this capsized sailboat. This is out on Lake Michigan, it's about a mile off of Chicago's Montrose Hook.
Police arrived in a boat. Here they were after a tip came in from a news chopper pilot. After several minutes of harrowing struggle they tossed this life preserver out, pulled these guys in all the way to safety. We mentioned that the tip, we mentioned this yesterday live on air, that the tip came in from this news chopper pilot.
And guess what? He is with me now. Kris Habermehl of CNN affiliate WBBM, and Chris, what a sight for you, as you were flying over Lake Michigan yesterday. Before we talk about how you saw them, first, I have to ask, how are these two gentlemen doing today? I think their names were Peter Kovats and William McCollum.
KRIS HABERMEHL, WBBM PILOT: Well, as a matter of fact, Brooke, I spoke to Peter just a little while ago within the past hour. He is doing fine. His associate, Bill, he is back on the job right now. He is an architect and he was doing some presentation work earlier today, and they are not showing any aftereffects of their dunking in Lake Michigan. So they are doing fine.
BALDWIN: Their dunking, according to Chad Myers, our weather guy, said it was something like 43 degrees in the water yesterday. So brr. But take me back to this time yesterday. You're up, you know, you're flying, you're over Lake Michigan and you just so happen to look down, you see these guys. Were they waving at you?
HABERMEHL: Actually, the way it played out, Brooke, is that we were over downtown, we wee actually shooting B-roll or some other video for another story that was going to be on our air at 10 o'clock that evening, and the call had come in initially that there may have been a boat in distress and the fire department was dispatched but to the wrong location on the lake front.
BALDWIN: Oh, no.
HABERMEHL: (Inaudible) out there and as anybody who has been along the Chicago lake front knows, especially when there is choppy water out there, anything that's floating in the water is kind of tough to see to see from onshore.
So looking down from at least 1,000 feet, maybe a little bit more there at the time, the initial location bore out nothing. There was nothing there, but a quick look a couple of miles to the north and east of the initial event location, there they were, bobbing up and down on the -- on their upturned hull of their boat.
So a quick call into the fire department to get them going in the right location, the police marine unit to get their boat out there, which did respond and get there on time.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: OK. Yes, we saw the rescue.
Here is the rescue here. We're looking at --
HABERMEHL: (Inaudible) pulled aboard.
BALDWIN: We're looking at it right now. And, you know, thank goodness you saw them and you were able to put the -- I guess the fire department and the police in the right direction. From the looks of the pictures, it doesn't look like the best day for sailing.
A little windy, perhaps, I know the water was very chilly. As I understand it, Chris, Mr. Kovats, the boat's owner, he tipped this thing over before.
HABERMEHL: Well, yes, he was out with some buddies of his last May, spring a year ago and they had a problem a little bit further south along the lake shore, if you will, and yes, they were fished out of the water once there before. But he showed no ill aftereffects for that.
As a matter of fact, at that time, he had a little bit more medical problems as a result of being immersed in water for an extended period. But this time at least things were done in relatively short order. He was able to be pulled out, dried off and he's fine.
BALDWIN: Kris Habermehl, good thing you saw them. Good for you. Good for WBBM. Thanks. Thanks for hopping on the line.
HABERMEHL: (Inaudible).
BALDWIN: Thank you.
HABERMEHL: You bet.
BALDWIN: And coming up next here in a couple of minutes, Wolf Blitzer with "THE SITUATION ROOM" at the top of hour, back in Washington. How was your trip?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: It was really good. I spent two days at NATO headquarters outside of Brussels. Part two of the interview -- it's going to be airing right at the top of the hour with the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton; the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta. We had an exclusive opportunity to sit down with both of them.
You're going to be anxious to hear, I think a lot of our viewers will be anxious to hear precisely what they're saying about the situation in Afghanistan right now.
Also with Iran, what's going on there, Hillary Clinton actually a bit upbeat as far as these first run of talks with the Iranians as far as their nuclear program is concerned, although as you know, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it's a freebie for the Iranians. He's not very happy right now. We're going to have the latest on that.
Also, we're going to go in-depth with Hillary Clinton on 2012. Is it possible she could be on the ticket as a vice presidential running mate? We're going to go in-depth on that, see what she has to say and also 2016. She'll only be 68 or 69 years old in 2016.
Is she going to be the first woman President of the United States? I'll ask her that question. The interview, we taped it all yesterday, you're going to see part two of it, saw some of it yesterday, but you're going to see the rest today.
I can't wait to see that. I want to see what she says, Wolf Blitzer. Thank you. We will stay tuned. Good tease.
Meantime, here's a quote. "You can't fix stupid." You ever heard that phrase? Comedian Ron White coined it and now a principal showed that clip of the stand-up at a staff meeting. It offended some teachers. So now the principal's in trouble. Ron White is responding. Sunny Hostin is on the case. She's next in the studio.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: There is a principal in Columbus, Georgia, named Marvin Crumbs, who is in a little bit of trouble for showing a routine by comedian Ron White after an after-school faculty meeting, and here is part of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON WHITE, COMEDIAN: You know, if your eyes go bad you can have LASIK surgery and they can give you 20-20 vision at any age. If your hearing starts to fail, they can put a device in your ear that will make you able to hear as good as you could the day you were born. But let me tell you something, folks. You can't fix stupid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: It's his famous line, one of his copyright line, you can't fix stupid. So the principal played part of this. Principal Crumbs has now been reassigned -- and we didn't show you the part right before that, where White talks about the female anatomy and plastic surgery. I want to welcome Sunny Hostin in Atlanta in the studio. Hello.
(CROSSTALK)
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Can you believe that? We get to talk face-to-face.
BALDWIN: Wonderful, because you're normally in New York, let's point that out for folks.
So first of all, obviously, when this principal is playing some of this stand-up comedy routine, some of the teachers were very offended, very offended.
HOSTIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: And we say the principal's been reassigned. Fair?
HOSTIN: Yes, I think so. I mean, let's face it. It's very difficult to fire a principal, to fire a tenured teacher. They are protected, but this was so offensive -- because I've seen the entire thing.
BALDWIN: OK. I have not. Was it very offensive?
HOSTIN: It was very offensive. It was very offensive. And to have been done in a -- at a sort of faculty meeting shows a lack of judgment and a lack of leadership judgment and so certainly I think reassignment is the least amount they could have done. So he got off pretty lucky, if that's all that's going to be done.
BALDWIN: I know that Ron White, who we just saw, who's the comedian here, he actually has been tweeting about it. Let me just read part of his tweet. It says, quote, "Do we have such a surplus of educators we can fire them for what? I will not rest until Dr. Crumbs gets his job back." Maybe if Ron has the time, he can join us to talk about it.
HOSTIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: But --
HOSTIN: We'd love to talk to him.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You can call on in. Ultimately, though, it's offensive -- and does it surprise you that a principal? I mean, it's not -- the principal of a school would do something like this? Perhaps he was trying to be funny? Funny, ha-ha, not so funny.
HOSTIN: I think apparently he was trying to motivate. He was talking about stupidity and what do we do to fix certain problems in the educational system.
BALDWIN: Stupid, being the kids presumably.
HOSTIN: Yes. Well, or perhaps the teachers. I mean, who knows? It certainly was a misguided attempt, I think. And I've spoken to Steve Perry, our educational contributor, and I think most people would agree that this was just really off-base and perhaps something that could lead to some disciplinary action.
BALDWIN: What's -- what do we learn from this?
HOSTIN: Don't play --
BALDWIN: Don't play Ron --
HOSTIN: I mean, come on. Don't play Ron White at work.
BALDWIN: Don't do it. Don't do it.
HOSTIN: No.
BALDWIN: Sunny Hostin, thank you, back here tomorrow.
HOSTIN: Thanks. Yes. I'll be here.
BALDWIN: Perfect.
Before we go, I do want to just get this in. There are two dangerous inmates. They are still on the loose, who knows where. They escaped county jail in Minneapolis, Kansas, early yesterday morning. That jail had accepted 22 prisoners from a state facility which was burned by overcrowding.
These two inmates are still on the loose. Take a look here. The one on the right, this is Eric James, age 22, and the one on the left is a convicted murderer. His name is Santos Carrera-Morales. He was convicted of two killings back in 2007. Both of these guys are considered armed and dangerous and now they could be anywhere.
One of the guys they escaped with, he was found -- he was actually found in Nebraska. Actually turned himself in, but he got out of Kansas pretty quickly, and now we're hearing those state inmates, they have moved to Ottawa County to relieve overcrowding that -- they were being moved there, and they've all now been moved back to state facilities.
And to tomorrow's news quickly here, let's fast forward. Todd Bridges, you recognize this guy? Child star from the TV show "Diff'rent Strokes," joins me live to talk about a proposed law. But he has got a personal connection to protecting kids in Hollywood from predators. Bridges has his own story of abuse to tell. That is tomorrow. I hope you join me then for our Friday show.
In the meantime, let's go to Wolf Blitzer. "THE SITUATION ROOM " starts right now.
BLITZER: Brooke, thanks very much.
