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Bin Laden Letters Published Online; 107 Charged in Medicare Fraud Bust; Bachmann Backs Romney; "Tanaholic" Fights Abuse Charge; Seau's Death Fuels Concussion Fears; Making Football A Safer Sport; America's fascination With Chen; A Super Moon Saturday; Deal Of The Week
Aired May 03, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta where it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
I want to get you up to speed for Thursday, May 3rd.
For the first time we get to see what Osama bin Laden was thinking. Letters written by him were posted online just a short time ago by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. They're among thousands of documents seized by the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden last year in Pakistan.
Well, they show he worked until his death to organize another major terrorist attack against the United States. We're going to have a live report.
He is probably the most famous guy in China today and the biggest headache for the Chinese government. Chen Guangcheng remains in a Beijing happen. He says he desperately wants American's help to get out of China, get the United States where he believes he's going to be safer.
Chen is an anti-government human rights activist. And Chinese officials, they promise to leave him alone. But Chen, he doesn't believe them. He made a personal plea to President Obama.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CHEN GUANGCHENG, ACTIVIST (through translator): I would like to say to him, please do everything you can to get our whole family out.
I'm very disappointed with the U.S. government.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Chen is continuing to seek comment -- CNN rather is continuing to seek comment from U.S. officials about Chen's claim that he was mistreated and threatened by the Chinese government. We're going to talk later about why this man's troubles in China matter to us here in the United States.
A suspect in the Florida A&M hazing case is out on bond after turning himself in. Brian Jones, he is one of 13 people charged in the beating death of drum major Robert Champion. Two other suspects are in custody. Police say they are still searching for 10 more.
Another former rival gets ready to get back at Mitt Romney. Michele Bachmann, she's going to endorse Romney in a campaign event in Virginia. That is next hour. We're going to take you there live.
Bachmann has strong Tea Party support but when asked why she held out so long for the endorsement, Bachmann said -- well, she's working behind the scenes to bring the party together.
So, check out the video. A huge sinkhole opened up behind a house in Windermere, Florida. This is 50 feet wide, 50 feet deep, growing still, actually swallowed four trees when it collapsed.
We're going to get more on the Osama bin Laden's newly declassified documents. Seventeen letters or draft letters totaling 197 pages in the English translation posted online just a short time ago by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
Now, they are among more than 6,000 documents seized by U.S. Navy SEALs during the last raid -- last year's raid that killed bin Laden at the compound in Pakistan.
Our Nic Robertson, he's been reading the letters. He's joining us live from London.
So, Nic, explain to us what these documents show, the state of bin Laden desperate to launch perhaps another attack in the United States.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is 17 out of 6,000 documents or roughly 6,000 documents. So we know it's a picture, it's probably at best the partial picture and even the CTC who released this material said you really have to take this with events that happened.
But it's an amazing insight. Bin Laden said he dedicated two teams specifically to try to kill President Obama when he was visiting Afghanistan, one near Bagram Air Base where often Air Force One or whichever aircraft will fly in there taking the president into Afghanistan would land. That's how much he was going after President Obama.
Also talking about going after General Petraeus who was in command of troops in Afghanistan at that stage, talking about wanting to launch more attacks inside the United States, not just attacks on aircraft flying into the United States.
So that is one theme of many that emerged there, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And, Nic, what do these writings tell us about his state of mind?
ROBERTSON: You know, some of it is absolutely fascinating. I mean, you can see there's jealousy there. I mean, Bin Laden is in a way here the CEO of a large organization. Some of it doesn't want to go along with his views, some of then want to follow their own path.
You can see these differences emerging in some of these letters, these draft letters, if you will. But one of these letters comes from their affiliate, al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, and they're recommending that the Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is a rising star in al Qaeda at that stage, has inspired many people to perpetrate attacks for al Qaeda, kill many people.
And the Yemenis say to bin Laden we would recommend him as leader for al Qaeda in Yemen and bin Laden puts it down, essentially saying, "I hear what you're saying but we like our leaders to be battlefield-tested," a clear swipe at Awlaki who is a cleric. Bin Laden himself being on the front line of the battle.
So, you see these petty jealousies emerging.
MALVEAUX: And, Nic, does it tell us anything about the state of our own security today?
ROBERTSON: Yes. It certainly tells us that there is a battle against al Qaeda's operatives in the field, in the west of Pakistan, where they get their training, Waziristan, that it's clearly being effective. It's removing, killing some of al Qaeda's key leaders. And so much so that bin Laden is looking and is writing them and saying, I'm considering moving my brothers from there, telling -- essentially saying he would like them to move to Afghanistan to a mountainous region of Kunar where there tall trees, where satellites and drones cannot penetrate visually to the ground to see what the operatives are doing.
But Bin Laden is saying he'd like toto send the al Qaeda fighters there. At the same time he's saying his son, his 20-year-old son, Hamza, who is in the same area of Waziristan --
MALVEAUX: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- he'd like him to go to the luxury of Qatar, but only to move when there's heavy cloud cover. So, clearly, bin Laden is saying in as many words there, the United States has the upper hand in Waziristan over those camps.
MALVEAUX: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Nic, I appreciate it.
Here's the rundown on some of the stories we're covering.
First, doctors and nurses accused of ripping off American taxpayers, and it's happening all across the country.
And then if you can believe this, can you imagine bringing another $200 just to bring your bag on board the flight. Before you book the ticket, you're going to want to hear this.
And he had talent, money, and fame -- so, why would this former football great take his own life? And is the game itself to blame?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: A dozen doctors, nurses, and therapists across the country are charged with trying to defraud Medicare out of more than $450 million. Federal authorities are calling it the biggest Medicare fraud sweep in recent history. In some cases federal agents went to doctor's homes to make the arrests.
A hundred seven people were arrested for allegedly false billing in seven cities, including Miami, L.A., Houston, and Baton Rouge.
Sandra Endo, she is live in Washington with some of the details.
And, Sandra, this is hard to imagine because we're talking about doctors' offices, we're talking about mental health facilities.
How did this go down?
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. All the people you're supposed to trust, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
ENDO: And all of the 107 defendants in this bust are accused of allegedly submitting claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often times never provided. Charges include conspiracy, health care fraud, violation of anti-kickback statutes, and money laundering.
Now, the Baton Rouge case is the largest and most egregious in this takedown, according to authorities. Seven people were arrested there for allegedly filing $225 million worth in false claims, and they allegedly preyed on beneficiaries who are the most vulnerable.
MALVEAUX: Sandra, tell us, do we know how much money the federal government actually paid out for false billing?
ENDO: Well, yes. Officials say they will continue to be aggressive in curtailing this type of crime because they say every taxpayer is a victim.
And you asked how much money the federal government actually paid out for false billing? Well, Suzanne, it's really unclear at this point. A spokesperson for the justice department says they don't really know at this point in total, but they are allegedly trying to recover at least $60 million in those false claims.
MALVEAUX: And, Sandra --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANNY BREUER, ASST. A.G. CRIMINAL DIVISION: These defendants allegedly recruited elderly, drug addicted, and mentally ill patients from nursing homes and homeless shelters in order to submit false claims on their behalf.
They also allegedly falsified patient notes and attendance records and forged signatures of medical professionals all to make it appear as though these patients were receiving medical services when they were not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENDO: And as part of this investigation, officials are stopping payments on 52 health care providers as more investigations are under way. So certainly their work is not over -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And, Sandra, I understand the worse case, alleged worse case was out of Baton Rouge. What was that about?
ENDO: That's what you heard about right there where these health providers were really preying on the most vulnerable, getting beneficiaries from homeless shelters and people who were drug addicted and making claims that they provided services to these people, but when really in reality, they didn't get one single service to help them.
MALVEAUX: Such a shame. Sandra, thank you. Appreciate it.
Travelers beware. We're going to tell you which airline just jacked up the baggage fee to 100 bucks a suitcase. And that is each way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: All right. We all hate to pay the fees to check a bag in at a flight. Well, now, Spirit Airlines taking baggage fees to a whole new level. The airline is raising its existing fee for carry- on bags to as much as $100 each way.
Alison Kosik, she's joining us from the New York Stock Exchange.
Wow, Alison, that's -- that is kind of -- that's crazy, $200 round trip for a carry-on? Really?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's like your packing the body into that bag, right, other person into the bag. They're going to stick you with the low cost fares --
MALVEAUX: What's going on?
KOSIK: -- they're going to stick it to you with the baggage fees.
So, yes, as you said, it's $100 each way if you carry your bag on. I'm talking about the bags that go into the overhead bins. It doesn't count as personal items like your purse or laptops that can fit under the seat in front of you. Now, for Spirit, you know what? It's not such a huge surprise because Spirit Airlines has made a name for itself, Suzanne, for charging a lot of fees.
And guess what? Their strategy, it's working. Spirit flyers, they pay an average of $50 in fees on a one-way flight. The CEO of Spirit says, "You know what? That's an industry first."
And here's the tradeoff though. Look at Spirit's fares. They are cheaper than the big carriers. You know, the average one-way ticket in the first quarter was around 76 bucks. You know, I can't think of any other airline that has that. Also, Spirit's ticket prices, they fell last quarter while many other airlines, they raised their prices, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right. So, I'm one of those people who has a ton of bags.
KOSIK: Of course you do.
MALVEAUX: People look at me like what the hell, you know? Is there a body in that bag? You know, it's usually overweight and all that stuff. So, is there anything you can do if you were actually on that flight and you wanted to save on baggage fees, you don't want to pay them that amount of money?
KOSIK: OK. So, listen closely then since you are the lady with the bags. So, it's only $100 if you get to the airport. You know, you go straight through security, you get to the boarding gate and you go, I forgot, I didn't realize I didn't pay for my carry-on yet -- that's only when you will be charged that $100.
So, Spirit Airlines is really trying to push people to do is plan a little early, because it's going to save you money. So, what you do is pay $50 a bag if you pay at the ticket counter or the airport kiosk before you go through security. Now, the cheapest way to carry on is $35. That's what you would pay if you booked a ticket online, pay right then.
But on Spirit, almost always it's cheaper to check your bag than to carry it on. It's about $5 less. And by the way, these higher fares, these higher bag fees, that $100 fee, that goes into effect in November, Suzanne, just in time for the holiday travelers.
MALVEAUX: All right. So you hope that if you check the bag, at least it will get there and it's not lost in luggage. That happens all the time, too.
KOSIK: That's true. And there's a tradeoff there.
MALVEAUX: Yes. Thank you, Alison.
KOSIK: Sure.
MALVEAUX: Newt Gingrich bowing out of the race of the White House, about $4 million in the hole and his best hope of paying off the debt is the same guy he's been slamming for months on the campaign trail. So, what is the next move for Gingrich? I'm going to throw that to our political panel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for the "Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions.
And joining me this hour, Greg Olsen is a certified financial planner, and partner of Atlantic Advisers. Lynette Khalfani-Cox is the founder the financial advice blog, AsktheMoneyCoach.com.
Guys, thanks for being here.
Greg, first question to you from Malloy in Atlanta. Malloy wrote in, "I purchased my home 20 months ago and currently have a 30- year fixed loan at 4.475 percent. Should I consider refinancing?"
GREG OLSEN, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER: You should consider it. Recent drop in interest rates might make that be a smart idea. The first thing you should do is look to maybe do a modification with your bank because that would be the least expensive option.
HARLOW: Right.
OLSEN: Should that not be available, look to do a refinance but calculate the refinancing costs and see how long the savings on a monthly basis will take you to recoup the refinancing costs.
HARLOW: And you have to think about the upfront costs absolutely. Thank you.
And, Lynette, your question comes from Phil in Colorado. Phil wrote in, "I'm 69 years old and have a large portion of my savings invested in mutual funds. How should I allocate my assets?"
LYNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: Well, tough to give specific advice here, obviously without knowing his full financial picture.
HARLOW: Yes.
KHALFANI-COX: But I would say two things for someone who is 69 and thinking about, you know, their investment strategy. Too often I think older people, retirees or pre-retirees go a little too conservative. Obviously, they want to preserve their principal, but you have to think about the fact that we're all living longer than ever. And so, you could live potentially decades in retirement.
So, you want to be broadly diversified. You want to have some growth, though, to power your portfolio. So, don't just think it has to be C.D.s or money market accounts, very conservative fixed income investments exclusively.
Make sure you do have a mix of stocks in there as well -- stocks, bonds, cash. Obviously, you got to get the right asset allocation, the right mix. And you need a professional to review your entire situation.
HARLOW: Absolutely.
Thank you both. If you've got questions you want answered, just send us an e-mail anytime to CNNHelpDesk@CNN.com.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on.
Newt Gingrich has to come up with millions of dollars to pay off his failed bid for the White House.
And he was a football hero with everything going for him. So, why would Junior Seau kill himself?
And later, a super moon on the horizon. We're going to tell you when to look for it.
Michele Bachmann said it was only a matter of time before she endorsed Mitt Romney. Well, that time is less than an hour from now. Bachmann is going to appear with Romney in Virginia next hour, officially endorsing him.
So what is her support going to mean? And what about all that criticism of Romney during the primary campaign?
Joining us to talk about that, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, and Republican political analyst Ana, Navarro.
Good to see you guys both.
JAMAL SIMMONS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be here.
MALVEAUX: So, let's talk about this here. She was campaigning -- while she was campaigning Michele Bachmann blasts Romney as too liberal, a flip-flopper.
Here's what she told Wolf just back in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Governor Romney has also advocated for mandating that every citizen in the state of Massachusetts also purchase health insurance, which is exactly the same as Obamacare and was a pattern for Obamacare.
He's been on both sides of the abortion issue. He was for abortion. He was against abortion.
He was for same-sex marriage and, in fact, I believe had signed 189 marriage license for same-sex couples and then came out against it.
And so, on issue after issue after issue, Governor Romney has been on both sides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Ana, you're going to miss Michele, aren't you? I think you're going to miss her there. You know, she was quite the presence and now they've buried the hatchet. They're frenemies.
Is that going to really help him now?
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think so. I think it's a very good message she's sending.
I was exposed to Michele Bachmann during the campaign. I learned to respect her. I think she works very hard. She's certainly earned a spot, a room, a space, in the Republican Party.
It will help him because it sends the message that all Republicans are coalescing now behind Mitt Romney. It's just a matter of time before Newt Gingrich and Santorum do the same thing.
All of us are now falling behind our candidate. We are supporting him. We want to see him beat Barack Obama.
And I don't think the attacks that she made during the primary are a big deal. You know, we'll rather four years ago, the primary between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and Barack Obama was very strong, one ended up as a V.P., one ended up as his secretary of state.
So, people understand that there's a difference between primaries and general.
MALVEAUX: Jamal, she brings up a good point there. The fact that we -- you and I, we saw it first hand, 2008. You had Hillary and Barack, you know, mano-a-mano there. This is something where obviously makes a difference, primary and general election.
Is she really going to be able to get the kind of support, the Tea Party support behind him? Or does he need to move towards the middle and attract more of those moderates?
SIMMONS: You know, it seems to me that Mitt Romney is going to need every single conservative right wing vote, Tea Party vote he can possibly get because he keeps having problems like the problem he had this week with his foreign policy spokesman who had to resign because he was gay and some of the gay activists took after Mitt Romney for having him on the campaign. Ultimately, he felt unwelcome and he resigned.
Those are the kind of things that scare off moderate, independent, conservative independent voters who might be considering voting for Mitt Romney, but they just don't want to be in bed with that kind of reactionary thinking. And so, I think -- when it comes to somebody like Michele Bachmann, he's going to need her help as much as he needs every other conservative because without those conservative votes, I don't think there's any way he has a chance.
MALVEAUX: Ana, I want to point out here. This is the Obama campaign putting the focus on women again. There's a Web site called the Life of Julia. And we went into this Web site.
You can kind of -- you click on Julia at different stages of her life -- so, just to get a sense of Obama's policies, how they would affect her compared to Romney's policies. So, at age 3, she's in a Head Start program that is backed by Obama. In college, she gets grants, these low-interest loans, and when she has to have surgery later on, she's covered by her parents' insurance. All of this trying to highlight here what the Obama administration is able to offer here.
Do you think that this is something that will resonate with people? Is this something that Romney also needs to get on board with or does it look like kind of a gimmick here?
NAVARRO: I hope I don't see that kind of gimmick from the Romney campaign. To me, it looks a little creepy. Frankly, it was depressing to me that Julia went from birth to death practically on the government dole.
And, you know, I think it's a distraction. Obama is trying to distract. We're talking about a virtual Julia, a virtual woman, because they don't want to talk about real women and the pain they're going through.
More than a million, almost a million woman, nearly a million women are unemployed because of the Obama administration or during the Obama administration. The women's poverty rate is the highest it's been in 17 years.
So women, we know how bad it is. We know, you know, what suffering has been like in this recession. Women are worried about sending their children to school. They're paying 4-point-something for gas.
Let's talk about the real women and leave the virtual ones behind.
MALVEAUX: Wow. Jamal, you got to respond to that. She really hit pretty hard.
SIMMONS: Well, you know, the reality is women know that this president is in their favor. They know about the child care issues such as Head Start.
They know one of the number one pre-existing conditions that people get banged for -- dinged for when they want health care a pregnancy. Pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition on a lot of health care policies. That's no longer something that can keep you from getting health care coverage because of President Obama.
There's all sorts of reasons why women will do better under President Obama.
And if Mitt Romney wants to compete for voters, he's going to have to be more create at this. This kind of interactive info-graphic is the thing that catches the eye, that gives people who aren't paying attention to politics normally, something to latch on to so that they can understand the real life their terms why one candidate is better than another. And Mitt Romney better get in the game.
MALVEAUX: And, real quick, we have new poll numbers --
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Real quick here, we go new poll numbers we want to talk about here. Two key battleground states, Ohio and Florida. They show Mitt Romney is actually gaining ground on President Obama.
I want to show you this one here, Quinnipiac poll in Florida. Romney and Obama nearly tied with Romney at 44 percent, Obama at 43 percent. Obama had a seven-point advantage in March. Take a look -- Ohio, Obama edging Romney out 44 percent to 42 percent. In March, Obama led by six percentage points.
What do you think, Ana, Does this show us how close this race is going to be? Or is it more of a reflection of Romney's opponents essentially now clearing the field and getting out of the race?
NAVARRO: It's certainly a good trend for Romney. We're going to see if Obama hit his ceiling.
As you know, I live in Florida and I can tell you on the ground, you can sense it, you can feel how close this race is going to be. It's no coincidence that President Obama has been here now 15 times, almost every other week, we've got somebody from his administration, you know, the first lady or Jill Biden or Joe Biden or a secretary here, and it seems not to be helping much.
I think what you're going to se in places like Florida, like Ohio, massive ground efforts, massive campaigning, a lot of media blintzes.
Listen, if you live in Florida, you live in Ohio, you live in Virginia, you better get used to seeing a lot of negative ads and political campaigning because it's going to be a long six months.
MALVEAUX: On both sides. I would agree with you on that point.
Jamal, should the Obama administration, should they be worried about those poll numbers or is it just too soon to tell?
SIMMONS: No, they certainly should be concerned. I think everybody knows this race is going to be tight as a tick going into the finish line. There's no way the president is going to win in Ohio by seven points or win in Florida by seven points. This is going to be a two, three, four-point race nationally and in states like Ohio and Florida.
But the good news for the Obama administration is that they're not like the old Democrats from 2000, 2004 who are dependent upon Ohio and Florida in order to win. They're playing in places like North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, maybe even Arizona and Nevada. Those kinds of states are going to be the difference I think in this election.
MALVEAUX: All right. We got to leave it there. Jamal, Ana, great to see you guys both.
SIMMONS: Good to see you.
NAVARRO: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: There's certainly a lot of outrage over the story of this New Jersey mom who allegedly put her 6-year-old in a tanning bed. All anyone online is talking about is the woman's overcooked complexion. That's right. We're going to get a closer look.
And this weekend, on CNN's "NEXT LIST," a guy who makes investor's dreams a reality now in the marketplace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's human nature to invent, right? It's human nature to try to make your life better. It's human nature to try to make the world around you a better place. And what stops people is to actually do that and to execute on all those ideas.
It's really freaking hard. Good ideas shouldn't find their ways on to shelves because they're the ideas of people with the right look or circumstance. They should find their ways onto shelves because they're just great ideas. That's it, plain and simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: All right, bust out the shades. You got to see this New Jersey mom who was arrested on charges she abused her daughter. Someone complained the woman took her 6-year-old in a tanning booth.
This lady, she admits she's been a bit excessive in her own tanning treatments, but forcing her daughter? She went to court for that. Jeanne moos has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In court she pleaded not guilty to endangering her child by taking her into a tanning booth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm innocent.
MOOS: But what she's not innocent of is torturing her own skin with that flabbergasting tan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the mother. That's the mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's 44 or 84. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's 44 and that's burnt up.
MOOS: Talk about tan lines. That's a tan that crosses the line. Sort of like this. Though her shade changes from interview --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been tanning my whole life.
MOOS: To interview.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mommy tans.
MOOS: Maybe because of the lighting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's my little girl.
MOOS: All of those interviews make her mug shot look normal. The 44-year-old Patricia Krencil of Nutley, New Jersey, was arrested after her daughter showed up at school with a sunburn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you get a suntan?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yes. I did.
MOOS: Anna told the school nurse she got it going tanning with mommy, and the school called child services. Mommy says Anna got some sun playing outside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's 6 years old. Yes, she does go tanning with mommy but not in the booth.
MOOS: When she showed up for court with her pale-faced attorneys, the whites of her eyes stood out as she rolled them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would never, ever allow her child to go inside a tanning bed.
MOOS: And though she stated her case convincingly, that this is all a misunderstanding at her daughter's school, it's hard to look past her skin tone. Early on set mummification said one poster. Another said she resembled an oompa-loompa or Magday from "Something About Mary."
Patricia Krincel seems like a perfect candidate for way too tan, a blog that collects those who have fried themselves to a crisp, but there's nothing funny about skin cancer. And the word "Tanorexic" kept coming up.
Some researchers say people may get addicted to UV rays, that they produce endorphins, but this mom is not feeling so good now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a wonderful mother. I would die right now for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you excessively tanning yourself though?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You admit that, OK.
MOOS: No shades of gray in that answer. She prefers shades of brown. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: That is a crazy story. Concussion literally knocks your brain inside your skull around, and if you're a football player there's a risk of getting a jolt like that every time you step onto the field. We're talking about more than a bad headache. We're talking about brain damage. We're going it get a closer look at what helmets cannot protect.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The sudden death of former NFL star Junior Seau is putting the national spotlight on a troubling issue within the league, a growing number of current and former players now taking their own lives.
Seau died yesterday after apparently shooting himself in the chest. He was just 43 years old. While Seau didn't have any reported brain injuries on the field, the former linebacker was known for his fearless and aggressive tackles.
In a recent interview, he said football needs to become a safer game. Last year in a tragedy eerily similar to Seau's, former Chicago Bears player, David Dorson shot himself in the chest. He left a suicide note requesting his brain be studied to find out the long-term effects of concussions.
Just a few hours ago, more than 100 NFL players filed suit against the league for concussions they suffered during their careers.
Joining me now is former Atlanta Falcons running back, Jamal Anderson. Jamal, just full disclosure, your name was on that list among the players. You're still trying to sort it out with your attorney.
JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Right, yes. We knew this was coming and it's something we've been talking about for a while. I think you have a lot of players now who are taking interest in what has transpired in the documentation and different things that have been discovered.
Obviously, I have some concern about their health moving forward. As a former player in the NFL just like everybody else, I think that's of critical importance to look at and that's what we're doing.
MALVEAUX: Have you yourself experienced any kind of problems?
ANDERSON: Not major, but there's certainly going to be issues because of the way I played and how long I played football. So, sure, sometimes I wake up, I may have a headache. Sometimes I wake up and I may have a sore shoulder, my knee may be sore.
I had two ACL repairs, tore my shoulder up. It's football. It's the tough part of the sport. It's an unfortunate part that you do get injured and you have to deal with those things.
But I wouldn't say on a daily basis I'm waking up and I'm crippled and I can't move and do things like that, but there are certain ramifications of playing this game.
MALVEAUX: Jamal, explain to us how this is -- the culture of football, how is this possible, how is it tolerated that so many of you guys end up getting these kinds of concussions?
ANDERSON: You know, the whole history, especially with football, there was a culture several years ago, and, you know, Junior Seau came in, in 1990, you didn't want to be hurt.
It wasn't something guys 15, 20 years ago, even 5 years ago, 2 years ago, you didn't want to disclose you were hurt because you wanted to be on the football field, you wanted to be able to play.
You wanted to be a viable part of the football team and contribute and, frankly, it was frowned upon if you were a player who got injured often, if you were one of the guys -- there used to be things you don't make the club in the tub.
That means you're in a cold tub trying to recover. It's a tough sport. You want your healthy guys on the field. You want your players who can play to be out there.
MALVEAUX: In light of that fact, I mean, who do you point the finger to? Is it the managers? Is it the doctor on the field or is it the players themselves who are like maybe a little too proud to say, look, I'm having a real problem here thinking or concentrating?
ANDERSON: It's something that starts -- I think the culture has changed in the NFL. There's now an emphasis on safety, player safety. We see the fines. We see the suspensions happening with different teams and different players from the hits, the hits to the head.
They're trying to change the culture of the game, and I think all of the things that the commissioner has done and the emphasis on player safety is of critical importance to the game moving forward, but it wasn't like that before. This is football.
It's a tough sport. The toughest guy is usually the last guy standing and things of that nature. So it wasn't like guys, especially the type of money your making, if you get banged up, guys weren't running to the doctor saying, I got banged up on this play, I need to come out.
In fact, there were several doctors on several different teams who didn't necessarily want those top players out. So it's a different culture now, but, you know, unfortunately, it is.
MALVEAUX: Let's talk a little bit about kids here, expand this a little bit. You have so many kids playing football here. I want to bring up some statistics here.
Millions of kids across the United States playing tackle football. For bays age 10 to 19 years old, brain injuries are happening almost often during football and bicycling.
Football alone causing more than 55,000 traumatic brain injuries a year. That's a number that keeps growing and Jamal, you have a child -- a young son.
ANDERSON: I have a son who plays football.
MALVEAUX: You coach his team.
ANDERSON: Yes.
MALVEAUX: Do you worry about that? How do you protect those kids?
ANDERSON: That's why I'm coaching his team. I am worried about it, and I was actually -- I started playing football when I was 7. He's 7 years old. He started a year before me, which kind of made me nervous.
But what was important for me to get out there is to teach them how to play the game, teach them how to play the game the right way. Change the culture of kids sticking their head down to try to make a tackle.
If you teach kids how to play the game right, no, you will not be able to deflect from every major hit that could cause an injury. This is football. People are flying around, but if you teach them how to play the game right, how to not lead with their helmet, how to lead with your shoulders when you want to tackle.
How to wrap up, you can teach kids how to stay as best as possible injury-free. Obviously, you can't control these things, but that's why it was important for me because I love the sport of football. The way I feel about football hasn't changed one iota.
I had great coaches in youth, high school who taught me the game, who taught me an appreciation for the game, and that's what I'm trying to impart with my kids, with the kids on my team, the kids that are part of what we do.
We try to teach them how to play the game right, how to tackle right. So, you know, you can be as healthy as possible and continue to be successful moving forward.
MALVEAUX: All right, we wish the best to you and your son and to those players out there.
ANDERSON: I'm always -- Suzanne, I just can't -- I mean, next year you've got to take me to the nerd prom though. I'm really upset with you.
MALVEAUX: You're still obsessing over the nerd prom. ANDERSON: I'm a little upset that I didn't get an invitation from you about that. We'll talk after this.
MALVEAUX: I'll get you -- I'll get you an invite there, White House Correspondents' Dinner. All right, thank you, Jamal. Good to see you.
ANDERSON: Thanks.
MALVEAUX: Think about this. Thirteen million abortions performed in China every year. A lot of times it happens against the mother's will. We're going to hear more about the blind activist who was trying to put a stop to that.
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MALVEAUX: A couple of weeks ago the name Chen Guangcheng was not in the news very often here in the United States. Well, now he's on every front page in the news blogs and he's also the top story on CNN. Chen is a blind lawyer who's been irritating the Chinese government for many, many years now. He's against China's one child policy. He says that China makes millions of women have abortions and forces them to be sterilized. The government threw him in prison for four years and then house arrest until he escaped just last month. I want to bring in Michael Holmes from CNN International to talk a little bit about this.
Of course he's making problems -- causing problems for the Chinese government. But the real question is, why his case over there has really resonated for so many people here when they think about what is happening to this one man and what he represents.
MICHAEL HOLMES, ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, he's one of China's leading dissidents, if you like. He's been known for a few years. As you pointed out there, he was put in jail for four years, trumped up charges by all accounts. Then when he got out of jail, he was put into home detention, house detention, where there was a -- they built a wall around his house and he wasn't allowed to leave. He claims he was beaten up by thugs, government thugs, on a routine basis. And the reason that he's become so prominent was partly because of what he was doing, which was opposing, you know, forced sterilization and abortions in China. But, also, Hillary Clinton had mentioned him in several cases when -- on several occasions when she was talking about China's human rights record. So he had a huge profile outside of China. Of course, you know, China cracks down on all sorts of dissent and people who speak out against their policies. And also, even within China, they censor. And so people in China don't know him hardly at all.
MALVEAUX: Well, that's interesting because it reminds me when I was -- actually when President Bush was over in China and we actually had all of our materials confiscated, cell phones, laptops, the whole thing and the Chinese government actually blocked live coverage of the presidential press conference so that their own people were not able to see that we were there and the coverage, live coverage, of the president's visit. Talk a little bit about the difference here, the importance.
HOLMES: You know, I have -- I've got another anecdote that I'll share with you actually. When I was anchoring on CNN International, this was last year or more than a year ago, it was when the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, we actually did an experiment. We put up in the monitor behind me CNN's signal into China. What you could see in China of CNN.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
HOLMES: And I said to viewers, I said, watch this, I'm just going to say the words Tiananmen Square anniversary and, bang, goes black. And that was the Chinese authorities. So they have guys sitting there monitoring us. I mean if we were broadcasting now into China, like CNN International does --
MALVEAUX: Right. Exactly.
HOLMES: This conversation would not be airing. So, no, they have guys sitting there and as soon as something is said, bang, they hold it off. A few minutes later, when you've stopped talking about it, the signal will come back up.
MALVEAUX: And this kind of thing happens around the world.
HOLMES: Yes.
MALVEAUX: In Egypt -- and this was a while ago. This was before the Arab Spring. I did an independent broadcast and everything was censored through the Egyptian government.
HOLMES: Absolutely.
MALVEAUX: Could not have anything broadcast without their approval. Explain to us really the significance of being here. I mean we are allowed to protest. We are allowed to express ourselves. How unique that is.
HOLMES: We complain, you know, often. You know, it's all about relative, isn't it? Yes.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
HOLMES: We complain sometimes if we don't -- we're losing our freedoms, they're taking our freedom away. We don't know what that's like. I mean you look at all sorts of countries -- I've reported out of eastern Europe back before the Berlin Wall in Romania and Czechoslovakia and places like that where the same thing, we couldn't feed our material out until every piece of video had been screened by a government censor.
And this happens in numerous countries around the world even now. And China's one of the biggest defenders when it comes to people speaking out. And Chen, Mr. Chen, is a prime example of that.
MALVEAUX: Yes. HOLMES: I mean he's done -- he's done some remarkable work in terms of exposing the effects of the one-child policy in China and the forced sterilizations. He did a class action lawsuit and that's what brought him to prominence. But he's a classic example. There are many dissidents in China suffering from the same sort of, you know, oppression.
MALVEAUX: This is one man who's really shining a spotlight on that issue. Michael --
HOLMES: Yes, but this puts the U.S. in a tough position, though.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
HOLMES: You know, they had him in the embassy. They let him go. He's now in the hospital there. And what is the U.S. going to do if they go and shove him back in house arrest?
MALVEAUX: Yes. And Secretary Clinton being over there, really dicey -- very dicey diplomacy going on.
HOLMES: Tough position, yes.
MALVEAUX: Michael, thank you.
HOLMES: Good to see you.
MALVEAUX: As always.
Just three days to go before presidential runoff elections in France. The two contenders have been firing off insults at each other. The debate last night got heated and personal.
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MALVEAUX: The televised debate lasted almost three hours with Francois Hollande accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy of ruining the French economy. The president responding, it's a lie. He called Hollande a little slanderer. Analysts say neither man landed a killer blow.
Saturday is going to be pretty cool. A marvelous night for a moon dance. We're going to tell you what is going to cause a super moon to light up the sky this weekend.
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MALVEAUX: The moon will hit your eye like a big pizza pie this weekend. It's not amore, but something much less romantic than that. I want you to take a look at this picture. This is not PhotoShopped. This is one night last year. The moon was so close to the earth, it seems like you could just reach out and touch it. They call it a super moon. We're going to see another one this weekend. Joining us, Reynolds Wolf, to talk about this funky effect in the sky.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Funky effect. MALVEAUX: That is awesome. Awesome. I love this.
WOLF: Super moon. Heck, yes, it is.
MALVEAUX: I love -- I just love full moons, but this is like really special.
WOLF: Yes. This is the super moon. This one actually has a big "s" on it and it has a big red flowing cape and can leap tall buildings in a single bound.
It is called a super moon. The reason why is because the moon is at its closest point to the earth during its orbit. It happens once a year. That's the shot we had from last year. Just a spectacular thing to see.
You'll notice sometimes the earth has a different hue when it's lower in the atmosphere and that's because of all the stuff that's up there, volcanic dust, all kinds of smoke that can sometimes give it different colors. And that's the beautiful thing you have there.
What we're going to be seeing though with the super moon, at least in this instance, is going to be something larger. Again, it's about 13 to 14 percent larger than what we see normally during this time of the year. And the amazing thing about it, as we advance this map, you'll see some of the cool factoids about it. There's the shot that Suzanne loves so much.
A full moon during a perigee, that's the word for it, was when the moon's orbit brings it closest to the earth at that time. Some people say it can have all kinds of effect. The tides can be enhanced, so to speak. Fish act differently. All kinds of animals have a different reaction to it they say. The moon comes within 221,000 miles and it will be about 16 percent brighter than normal and very big, especially near the horizon.
Now, if you happen to be in the southeastern United States, you might have an issue trying to see it because of a mix of sun and clouds here and there. By the evening, of course, the sun down but the clouds are going to remain. And any place you happen to have rain, you may be out of luck. But for parts of the Northeast, it should be very nice for you to see the moon coming up between those clouds.
Let's send it back to you, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Yes, well, do you -- do you get crazy when you get a full moon there? Yes, it's romantic, by all means.
WOLF: My last name is Wolf. Come on. We're talking super moon. What do you think?
MALVEAUX: You'll be howling, I'm sure.
WOLF: Exactly. You bet.
MALVEAUX: Thanks. Well, looking to get away to Europe for the summer without spending a lot of money? Clark Howard has your "Deal of the Week." He says cruises are the best deals right now.
CLARK HOWARD, HLN MONEY EXPERT: Suzanne, I got a deal for you.
Europe in a lot of ways is going to be really expensive this summer because of the Olympics going on in England late July to mid August and there are already warnings about how expensive travel there is going to be. But there's one thing this year that I can tell you in Europe is going to be a steal of a deal, and that's Mediterranean cruises. There are two reasons for it. One, the horrible incident with the ship going on its side. Somewhere around 30 people sadly losing their lives. It took a lot of excitement out of people about going on a cruise in the Mediterranean. So that has definitely depressed sales.
But you want to talk about what's really depressing sales for this summer? The European travel market, Europeans that might have gone on a Mediterranean cruise, are much less likely to book because of the financial crisis in Europe and declining economies in several European countries.
In addition, do you know the euro is down in value versus the dollar generally trending. So not only whatever you do on land is going to be cheaper, but the cruise itself is going to be a real deal. If you're not familiar with cruising, you want to buy from a cruise- only agent. But if you're really experienced, the online deals are fantastic.
MALVEAUX: For more deals and trips from Clark Howard, tune into our sister network, HLN, every Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 a.m. and 11 -- and 12:00 p.m.
