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Obama Campaign Hammers Romney on Record in Massachusetts; SpaceX Capsule Touches Down off California Coast; Syrian Rebel Groups Strike Back after Massacre in Houla; Kidnapped Americans in Egypt Not Yet Released; Strikes Could Paralyze Syria; Violence in Chicago; Chicago: 40 Shot, 10 Killed; NYC Plans To Ban Large Sugary Drinks; House Debates Gender Based Abortion; Scary New Disease on the Horizon; Wells Fargo To Pay Big Settlement

Aired May 31, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DAVID AXELROD, CHIEF STRATEGIST, OBAMA CAMPAIGN: He doesn't make that argument. He talks about how well he worked with the legislature. The reality is -- I mentioned that governor Romney raised spending by 6.5 percent. His proposals were for 8 percent. This group of people reined him in and exercised some responsibility. So, you know, we all know he vetoed 800 bills along the way, almost all of them overridden, but most of them for the benefit of Republican primary voters and other states, not for purposes of governance, and that was the problem. He was a drive-by governor here on his way to running for President of the United States.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

I had a chance to work with Elizabeth Warren in Washington and I --

(END LIVE FEED)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Just want to tell you what you're watching here, this is David Axelrod. He is a chief strategist of the Obama campaign. He is in Boston, Massachusetts. He is there to essentially criticize Mitt Romney's record as the former governor of Massachusetts in that state. That is the aim here.

What you are hearing, however, is a lot of heckling that is going on, what seems to be Romney supporters who are not actually allowing him to deliver the message or to talk. He is taking some questions from reporters, but there is a lot of back and forth there. There is some support through the Obama campaign. You heard them chanting let him talk, let him talk. He addressed the hecklers at one point saying you can't handle the truth. A lot of back and forth there. Clearly not what they had expected, not that they planned, but there is kind of a fiery exchange that is going on, taking place inside -- right there at that event in Boston, Massachusetts.

Something else I want to talk about as well. Let's get right down to it. It is a federal appeals court ruling against the Defense of Marriage Act and in favor of same sex couples. It was just a short time ago, the court in Massachusetts ruled the act was unconstitutional. Defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and it bans federal recognition of same sex marriage.

The court says the act discriminates against gay couples. Going to ask the Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank what he thinks about the decision when he joins us in the next hour.

His dramatic escape from house arrest in China, it made the made headlines. Today, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is speaking out about the ordeal. Chen is currently studying in the United States after escaping detention. At the council on foreign relations he talked about the danger faced by his family and what he calls lawlessness in china.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN GUANGCHENG, CHINESE ACTIVIST (through translator): What I am most concerned about is also the most important question, is the state of law in China. It is still very much being trampled on. And, more specifically, after I left my home in Shangdong, the local authorities there have been having -- retaliating against my family in a frenzied way. Please think about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: In Seattle today, people are still wondering why. Why a man killed five people in two separate shootings before turning the gun on himself. The suspect identified as Ian Stawicki died last night, several hours after he shot himself in the head, bringing a five-hour search to an end. Police say he killed four people at a university district coffee house and then killed a woman near downtown Seattle.

Just moments ago a private space capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. The SpaceX Dragon as it is called, the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the international space station, brought a cargo of food, clothes, supplies for scientific experiments. And NASA is hailing the mission a success. Chad Myers is following it. We are seeing the future, are we not?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, absolutely.

MALVEAUX: This is a private enterprise, and doesn't cost as much as NASA would have paid, and it was successful. Tell us a little about it.

MYERS: And guess what? It is pay for play. If they don't get the rocket up there, we don't have to pay for it. If it is a failure, if the rocket doesn't go - let's say rocket number 7 doesn't go, they don't charge the American people. They just put it on their own bill and say we'll build number 8 better.

So hear this. This is number one all the way up. I know these pictures, they look like they're coming out of a Commodore 64. People ask me all the time, we know that these satellites are falling from space. Remember the last two that fell from space? Why didn't anybody get any pictures? Because we didn't know where they were falling. We knew where this was going to fall, and we still couldn't get pictures.

MALVEAUX: OK. Explain those pictures for us, Chad.

MYERS: It is in the pacific ocean off the West Coast of Mexico. Those are the main chutes that deployed right at 10,000 feet. This is after the orbit burned, this is after it came through the atmosphere, literally on fire.

Remember how the Apollo capsule same through the atmosphere, just shooting fire all around it? Same way, basically, that the shuttle comes through. That's why there were so many tiles on the shuttle. It made it through the burn, it made it to deploy the main drogue parachutes at 45,000 feet and those three colorful parachutes you saw there. They got it down to 11 miles per hour at splashdown. Now there is a giant barge out there in the Pacific that's steaming to it, at probably - I don't know what, five miles per hour, 10 knots at the most. But there are these little boats that are going out to make sure this thing survived, make sure it survived splashdown, make sure it didn't crack. All of these things. Our pictures are in the middle of the Pacific, and we don't have very good ones yet.

MALVEAUX: It is amazing that you can actually see it as well as you can. Tell us about this. Because this is unmanned. How soon before you actually are going to see commercial space flight, where you're going to have astronauts?

MYERS: Oh, I think as long as Soyuz is still active and we can send men and women up from the Soyuz capsule with Russia. It is going to be a long time. They are not going to put a man or woman on this thing just yet. They are going to make sure that many missions go successfully. This thing left nine days ago, it got up into space. It followed the space station for a number of hours. The space station took its claw -- the claw, the arm, came out, clamped on to it, drug it in. Then they clamped into the space station and took all of the stuff out. But the bigger news is they put stuff back in. They put experiments back in. They put probably some dirty stuff back in as well. But now we're going to get these experiments back on land, and now scientists down here can even do more work with the experiments that were up there.

MALVEAUX: What can we learn from those experiments?

MYERS: Nothing else is able to go up and down, except for Soyuz, but that always brings people down, not 1, 400 pounds worth of stuff.

MALVEAUX: Stuff. What does the stuff tell us?

MYERS: Oh, you know, all of these experiments have been going on for years and years and years, right? So now, what the shuttle could do is bring a bunch of stuff back down. Now this SpaceX can bring it down as well. Everything going up from Japan, everything else, when they go up there to resupply, those resupply pods, those resupply capsules, leave the I.S.S. and they are destroyed in space, so nothing ever comes back down.

MALVEAUX: All right. Chad, it's so cool.

MYERS: What can we find out? I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: But we'll find out.

MYERS: You know, that's what NASA is all about. And now, that's what SpaceX is helping NASA do.

MALVEAUX: Pretty cool. All right, thank you, Chad. Appreciate it.

Today in Syria. One small town, the shooting and shelling began as soon as the U.N. observers actually left. Watch this.

This is Houla. This is the same village where more than 100 people, entire families, were massacred in their homes just a few days ago. Reportedly by forces loyal to the president, Bashar al Assad. They say two people died in the mortar and rocket fire today. It started right after a visit by an unarmed u.n. Opposition sources say that two people died in today's mortar and rocket fire. That started right after a visit by an unarmed U.N. observer team. And we can't confirm the deaths independently, since CNN reporters and cameras are not allowed inside that country.

Also today, the rebels who are rising up against Syrian forces gave the government until tomorrow to start complying with the U.N. peace deal.

That's what we want to talk to Ivan Watson about. He is in Istanbul today. And, Ivan, you have a deadline here, right? The rebels issue this deadline and if they don't comply, what else? What's the threat here?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, first we have to take this with a grain of salt. The rebels are not exactly a hierarchical, cohesive single army. This is a bunch of separated bands, self-defense groups that have grown up village to village, town to town. They don't answer to one leader. And what we've found is, Suzanne, one rebel may say, OK there is a 48 hour deadline. And another may say, 48 hour deadline, I have not heard of that.

What we do know is that some of these rebel groups have been carrying out attacks in revenge, they say, for the Houla massacre last Friday. One rebel commander told me he burn a police station and a city hall in a northern town within the last couple of days. So we have to take this with a grain of salt and acknowledge that while one guy may be giving an ultimatum to the Syrian government, other people are doing completely different activities on the ground. It shows how chaotic the situation is.

MALVEAUX: Ivan, we're seeing pictures, and it looks very chaotic, the scene on the ground there. You learned something that was very interesting today, because clearly there is fighting that is taking place there, but there is fighting on another front, and that is on the economic side here. What is taking place in the city?

WATSON: OK. I want to show you some video that activists shot surreptitiously and released over the internet. And it comes from Aleppo. Now, that is the second city of Syria. Kind of the commercial powerhouse, economic powerhouse of the country. And there we see row after row of shuttered shops, closed shops. And we've talked to residents there. They say, especially around the historic citadel, that there is a general strike there. That shop keepers and store owners are protesting against the horrific Houla massacre that left at least 109 people dead in the village of Houla last Friday, which has triggered a diplomatic firestorm.

We saw a similar scene, Suzanne, earlier this week in the capital, in Damascus itself, in the heart of the capital, in the Hamdiya (ph) historic bazaar, where, again, there were row after row of shops. Now, this is very important, Syrian analysts tell me, because what we're seeing is that silent business community that has perhaps stayed on the fence and not broken with the regime or joined the opposition, who are showing their displeasure. And this is an important psychological blow to the government, which has tried to prove that it can maintain security and life as usual in the main cities while who knows what fighting is raging in the hinterlands.

This shows that its grip on the cities is shrinking, and it is a big blow to the regime and shows that it is faltering right now. And that the Sunni merchant class is showing its displeasure with the regime. We have been hearing reports - hard to confirm from outside -- that security forces are going around trying to force the shopkeepers to open up just to try to restore that image of life as usual on the ground.

MALVEAUX: Ivan, thank you very much. We have got a war on both fronts there. The economic front as well as the violence that is taking place on the streets there.

I want to go directly to Cairo, Egypt. Our Ben Wedeman is there. He is on the phone from Cairo. And, Ben, I understand you have news about the kidnapped Americans. What do we know about their status and where they are at this moment?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, I have been speaking with one of them. The status seems to be good in the sense that he said they were being treated extremely well. But what it turns out, is that despite claims by multiple Egyptian officials, but despite an announcement on Egyptian state TV, they have not, in fact, as of when I spoke to them last, which was about half an hour ago, they have not been released.

They were in an unknown desert location and said that they have been told that they were about to be released. That somebody from the Egyptian authorities was going to come and pick them up. But as of about half an hour ago, they were still in the custody of the group of Bedouins who had kidnapped them the day before. - Suzanne. MALVEAUX: So explain to us how this happened, Ben. Take us back and take our viewers back to how they were actually captured, and who are they in custody now. I am a little confused by that.

WEDEMAN: You're not the only one. Apparently they were driving outside of Dahab in the southeastern coast of the Sinai peninsula, when their car was stopped by armed men who took them into their custody. Now, according to the Egyptian intelligence reports that we received from the area, the reason why they detained these two Americans is because one of their tribe members was arrested by the Egyptian security authorities because he had a large -- he was found with a large amount of marijuana. We understand that the reason why they were taken hostage was basically to use as a bargaining chip with the local authorities.

Now, it is worth noting, and this is very important to understand, is that in the last year-and-a-half since the fall of the Mubarak regime, the security services in the Sinai have deteriorated dramatically as the inhabitants of the Sinai have become more assertive, more angry with the central government. And this may go some way to explain why this confusion about the situation of these hostages, because clearly the intelligence officers of the Egyptian government clearly don't have the kind of information that we can rely on.

MALVEAUX: So, Ben, are they going to be released soon? Do we understand that their release is imminent? Is that happening?

WEDEMAN: This is what I was told by one of the hostages himself, that they were told that they would very quickly be released. And this was the understanding also of the United States embassy here in Cairo as of a few hours ago. Although it appears even they are confused as to the status of these two American citizens.

MALVEAUX: All right, Ben. We're going to get back to you when you have more information and whether or not -- when the release does take place. Thank you very much. Ben Wedeman out of Cairo.

Here is what we're working on for the hour. Syrian opposition fighters draw a line in the sand, telling the government to stop their fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: The Syrians are not going to listen to us. They will listen, maybe to the Russians, so we have to keep pushing them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: A dozen shots on Chicago's south side. I talked to the police superintendent about solutions and his fight for gun control.

And super sizing may go on a diet in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Top Obama strategists for the campaign David Axelrod in Boston, Massachusetts earlier today with a group of Obama supporters holding a rally trying to address and criticizing Mitt Romney's record of former governor of that state. I want to bring in our senior White House correspondent Jessica Yellin in Washington with me. Jessica, this did not look like much success here because David Axelrod was trying to make very strong points, strong criticism. I want the viewers to essentially hear what he was saying first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It is great. It is great to be in Massachusetts, Obama country. I think some of my -- I get tweets from some of these folks. I feel close to them. You can shout down speakers, my friends, but it is hard to Etch-a-Sketch the truth away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Jessica, what actually happened there? Who were those people who were heckling David Axelrod and did they have any preparation? Did they have any idea this was going to happen?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we all knew that this press conference was happening as of yesterday, so there was plenty of time for folks to get organized. The Romney campaign organized we call it a prebuttal, a pre-press conference at the state house before David Axelrod's event with Romney's supporters defending Mitt Romney's record, so they had an event in the hours beforehand. So yes, everybody knew this was coming and this is, you know, campaign sophistication, you know, 3.0. I think they shouted we want Mitt, five more months, five more months of the Obama presidency is what the Romney supporters were shouting and there were Obama supporters shouting Etch-a-Sketch, Etch-a-Sketch, and attacking Romney, and let him speak, so just had a lot of shouting on all sides.

MALVEAUX: It was kind of hard to -- it looked like it was difficult to get that message across there. Was this a group that was organized by the official Romney campaign or was it just a group of various individuals that were there who decided we're going to come and disrupt this?

YELLIN: I can investigate that, Suzanne. I would have to believe there was advance notice given to folks who are supporters and they were given a chance to get together and organize. That's how these things tend to happen. Folks who are supporters are asked to come out and show their support there. So these things are usually organized. I would point out that this is what you call the launch of a new effort and so it was a loud and rowdy scene and certainly won't be the last time we'll hear from the Obama campaign on Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts because they also launched a new video today with the same message attacking his record as governor of Massachusetts, so this may have been a noisy launch, but it was certainly not the last time we'll hear from them.

MALVEAUX: I am sure we'll se a lot of noise. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Something emerged out of Syria that could hurt the Assad government worse than public demonstrations. What we're talking about is the business as usual illusion, Syria's violent deadly uprising is not a national emergency. That illusion is being shattered. Small business owners and merchants, they are now closing down their shops.

I want to bringing in Michael Holmes from CNN International to talk about it. We're looking at a different front of this war, the economic front. Now you have local business folks saying, look, we're shutting down our offices. We're shutting down our businesses here in protest of the government. How would that impact Assad in at all?

MICHAEL HOLMES, ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT, CNNI: If it goes on, it could be very significant because this merchant class, this middle class if you like, they are a significant part of his support base, a lot goes back years from his fathers. It is the economic hub of the nation. It is the end of the old silk road back in historic times.

MALVEAUX: Look at the pictures. It is extraordinary. When you talk about economic hub --

HOLMES: Shuttered doors. And what I find more extraordinary is you have had the army going around with loud speakers telling people to open their stores and in some cases going in behind the stores and getting the owners and making them open the doors. This could be a remarkably important point if it goes on, if it is not a one-day protest against Houla.

MALVEAUX: How would that trickle down so Assad would feel it?

HOLMES: We have said this before. We talk a lot about the revolt, the revolutionaries, the rebels and all that; he does have some support in Syria and a lot of long time support among various groups. This is one of the core groups, this economic backbone if you like of the country. If the economy starts getting hurt in a big way by that merchant class, it could be very significant.

MALVEAUX: Does he have any other supporters besides kind of this merchant class? Are there other folks backing him as well?

HOLMES: You have obviously his Alawites, they're about 12 percent of the populations. The Christians are traditional supporters and the Drews. Therefore because they get protection from him, the military, which of course is run by friends and family and others who have benefited and as this middle class, this merchant class if you like. So he does have support there, but if that starts to erode, which could be happening there with the merchant class, you could see things turn around faster than they have. He does have support. We have to keep reminding that.

MALVEAUX: We saw this massacre, 100 people, more than 100 people killed over the weekend, about almost half of them children. The government is going to be talking about that later today. What do we expect that they can possibly say about what took place there? HOLMES: Well, funny you should say that. Just minutes ago they did speak and down at CNN International listening in and a government spokesman came out and basically said that the killings in Houla were carried out by armed gangs. This is the armed gangs we have been hearing about forever and he said hundreds came in and butchered the people and these are the terrorists causing the trouble all along. It doesn't add up or jive with anything we heard from the U.N. or people on the ground, that the Syrian army pounded this city, this town, and then the Shabihad, the militia, which is brutal came in afterwards. The notion that it was armed groups of Sunni killing Sunni is ridiculous.

MALVEAUX: Nobody believes that.

HOLMES: No. They have more to say about it as the investigation continues, but I don't put a lot of stock in it.

MALVEAUX: Thank you as always.

Deadly shootings on Chicago's south side. Going to talk to the police superintendent about new steps now to stop the violence. Don't forget, you can watch CNN live on your computer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Yesterday, we spoke with Bobby Rush about the epidemic of gun violence in his district of Chicago. The last weekend alone 40 people were shot and ten died including a seven-year-old. The Congressman wasn't shy about calling out Mayor Rahm Emanuel, blaming him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BOBBY RUSH (D), ILLINOIS: This is a problem. This is a result of failed strategies over many decades by the ones who are responsible for solving these problems, and this is the failure of past administrations, failure of past police departments, past mayors, including this one that we have right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I want to bring in the other side here. I want to bring in police superintendent Gary McCarthy. What do you make of the Congressman's remarks there? Does more need to be done from your department and from the mayor's office to address this?

SUPT. GARY MCCARTHY, CHICAGO POLICE: Well, absolutely. Good morning, Suzanne. Absolutely. This is not a problem that happened over night. It took a long time for the violence in Chicago to get to the levels that it has. Unfortunately, everybody wants immediate solutions so do I.

The fact is that it is going to take a little while to get that done. Coming into the end of last year something that really dawned on us was the fact that we had things we did about gangs.

Chicago has a very unique gang problem, and we realized that having things to do about gangs and having a comprehensive gang strategy are clearly two different things. We put together a comprehensive strategy, which took us months to produce.

We went across the country. We looked at best practices from different jurisdictions, learning as we went, taking the things that we know work here in Chicago and adding other things to it.

And that has resulted in what we basically started to unveil the other day and unfortunately came right after a bad weekend, none of that was planned and here is what I have to say.

MALVEAUX: What do you do specifically, Superintendent, if you don't mind? What do you specifically need to do to address this? It is like a very serious problem in your city.

MCCARTHY: It is. There are a number of things that we need to do. The first thing we need to do is identify the potential for gang retaliation and that has been driving most of the violence that occurs in this city.

One event begets another begets another begets another. As a result that what we did was we put together an audit of all the gang members and all the gang factions and all the gangs in Chicago.

We have more than -- we have about 58 gangs. We have more than 600 gang factions, and the dynamic has been that the young kids are splitting off from the older gangs and doubling the number of gangs in the city and basically doubling the number of gang conflicts.

And with the proliferation of firearms in the city and a traditional gang hierarchy that has existed for, I don't know, 40, 50, 60 years that resulted in a lot of violence.

What really is important to realize is that we hit our high point back in March of this year. We had a big increase in shootings during the month of March and over the last two months when we have been implementing various components of this strategy because we couldn't wait to get the whole thing done to start rolling it out, to start making a difference.

We have had a double-digit reduction in shootings over the month of April and the month of May right now.

MALVEAUX: Right, what do you make of what the mayor said?

MCCARTHY: I don't accept that any gang violence or any gun violence is OK. The fact is this is not a new problem. What we're looking at are new solutions to it.

And I think one of the things the congressman said is the mayor needs to get more involved and this is about jobs and about social services and very clearly that is a component of this strategy that we're running with right now. MALVEAUX: What do you make of what the mayor said just a couple days ago when he was addressing this? He said there is a lack of outrage in the community here and that he believes there is a cultural component to that. Do you think that that's true?

MCCARTHY: Well, you know, there are two sides of it. I think that there is a hopelessness sometimes that seeps into parts of our community when they become accustomed to hearing gun violence.

I think there is an acceptance of the fact that if it happens in this neighborhood and it doesn't happen in mine, then that's OK, and I think over the last year.

You've heard the mayor say time and time again and I endorse the same concept, which is a murder or a shooting and a city of Chicago affects the entire city of Chicago whether you're on the north side or the west side or the south side or downtown.

Just because it is not in your backyard doesn't mean that it is OK, and that really goes to the core of our message is and it is not about gun violence on the south side. It is not about gun violence on the west side. It is about gun violence in Chicago and we have to do more to intercede and prevent the next shooting.

MALVEAUX: All right, Superintendent, we're going to follow that story. We're certainly going to have you back as we watch what takes place in Chicago.

Clearly the weather is just going to get warmer and the kids will be out there and as you said, it is alarming to think about it. Now you have these gangs that have split.

And now you have factions of gangs and some 600 organizations or groups out there in your city, so we'll be following up with you as the summer goes along. Thank you very much, Superintendent.

New York's mayor wants to ban the sale of giant sodas. Hear what New Yorkers have to say about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: New York is getting ready to launch an all out war on sugary drinks. That's right. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he is planning to impose a ban on large size sugar drinks at restaurants, sports arenas and theatres.

This is all a part of the city's aggressive campaign to fight obesity. Also includes controversial ads, check this one out.

Alina Cho is in New York with the details of the ban. Wow. Alina, when you take a look, it is disgusting. What is he talking about here? What types of drinks are going to be banned under this law?

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, Suzanne, basically the city is saying those are drinks that have no nutritional value and as you saw in that ad, the city also believes these are drinks that will make you fat and maybe even obese.

Now under the proposed ban, all sugary drinks that come in bottles or cups larger than 16 ounces, so if you look at this bottle here of Coca-Cola, this is 20 ounces. This would be included in the ban.

It includes all New York City restaurants, food carts, movie theatres, even ballparks. You know, we're talking about an estimated 20,000 establishments in the city, and Suzanne, the idea of course, being eat your calories, don't drink them. If you drink them, they will make you fat.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Are there any drinks exempt here?

CHO: There are. Diet sodas, fruit juices, alcohol beverages, and dairy based drinks and we should also tell you that the ban does not include grocery stores or convenience stores.

Only those places it appears where you can actually go in and order something to eat, so a bodega would be included and the street side carts. A lot of people were asking about coffee drinks that people love so much.

The answer to whether they will be banned is it depends. If the drink is composed of less than 50 percent milk, then it is included in the ban so that means, for example, the large coffee with several shots of caramel syrup probably included in the ban where as the large frozen latte with lots of milk, probably not -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: You sound like you're one of those latte drinkers. I want to show you, New Yorkers, they're used to a smoking ban in public, no trans fats, a whole bunch of stuff. Here is what they think about this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't feel he is entitled to someone else's opinion about what they should drink, how large should be or how small it should be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just poison. It is all sugar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are schools, no more soda. We just have water and healthy drinks and stuff. So I understand where he is coming from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom of speech and freedom to do what you want and as long as it is not harming nobody, so it is up to the parents, the individuals and if you want to drink that stuff, so be it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: So what's the reaction, Alina, obviously from the beverage industry? I don't suppose they're happy about this.

CHO: No, not at all. In fact, the New York City Beverage Association sent out a statement in short order in part reading there they go again, the New York City Health Department's unhealthy obsession with attacking soft drinks is again pushing them over the top.

The city is not going to address the obesity issue by attacking soda because soda is not driving the obesity rates. In fact, if obesity continues to rise, CDC data shows that calories from sugar sweetened beverages are a small and declining part of the American diet.

Now Suzanne, I should tell you, the city counters that by saying more than half of New York City adults are either obese or overweight.

They have done the research and they say that their studies show that in those neighborhoods where soda consumption is high, more people are overweight. So you do the math.

MALVEAUX: All right, very controversial over there in New York where you are. So thank you, Alina. Appreciate it.

House votes on an abortion bill today. We're going to tell you what it says about gender selection.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The debate over abortion is playing out on Capitol Hill today. The House is voting on a bill that would ban abortions based on the sex of the fetus.

Doctors that perform the procedure could face up to five years in prison. Now supporters say that the bill defends the civil rights of unborn children. Opponents say it is a distraction and part of a so-called war on women.

A gruesome discovery in Canada has some police searching for a self described porn star. Police in Ottawa are looking for this man, Lucca Magneto. He is also known as Eric Clinton Newman.

Now they say he is suspected of dismembering an acquaintance and then posting a video online and mailing the severed limbs to a political party headquarters in Ottawa. Interpol, the global police agency, now adding him to the most wanted list.

Scientists are warning a new disease could become the next AIDS epidemic. And the scary thing is, it is spread by bug bites.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Doctors are sounding the alarm about a disease that could become the world's next major epidemic. It is called Chagas and it is spreading in South America. Brian Todd, he's on the case. He tells us that it's transmitted rather easily by something as simple as a bug bite.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): AIDS. The scourge of the post war era, killing more than 25 million people over the past three decades. Is there a new AIDS on the horizon? Experts worry about a disease now affecting millions in Latin America.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: I like to call Chagas disease arguably the most important infection you've never heard about. And you've never heard about it because it almost exclusively affects people living in extreme poverty.

TODD: Chagas, a parasitic infection prevalent in poor areas of Central and South America. Dr. Peter Hotez is lead author in a recent editorial about Chagas in a respected medical journal. Health authorities say roughly 10 million people are infected with Chagas. Hotez estimate it kills at least 20,000 people a year.

TODD (on camera): Is this difficult or impossible to cure?

HOTEZ: There are two medicine available which, if you catch the infection very early on, seem to have some beneficial effect on treating the patient. The problem is, once the heart symptoms start, which is the most dreaded complication, the Chagas cardiomyopathy, the medicines no longer work very well, problem number one. Problem number two, the medicine are extremely toxic.

TODD (voice-over): Also, Hotez says, Chagas is like AIDS because it's contaminated part of the blood supply in South America.

TODD (on camera): This is ground zero for Chagas, the Reduvient (ph) bug, prevalent in Latin America. Experts say the parasite for Chagas lives in its guts. It likes to hide in wall crevices and thatched roofs. Then, at night, it drops onto people who are sleeping. It likes to bite you in the face. It's called "the kissing bug." When it ingests your blood, it excretes the parasite at the same time. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected. You can be infected with Chagas for decades before you actually get the severe symptoms of the disease. But then, when you move into the severe stage, you can develop an enlarged heart or intestines that can burst.

TODD (voice-over): But Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health says Hotez and others are overstating the danger of Chagas.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I am concerned that when people talk about comparisons with HIV, that that comparison would translate into thinking its transmitted like it is with HIV, which is just not the case.

TODD: Fauci says Chagas is transmitted primarily by the bug biting you, by pregnant women infecting their children, and by people living in areas where it's prevalent, donating blood that's not screened. Dr. Fauci says only about 20 percent of people who get infected will go on to get the life-threatening form of the disease, and he says Chagas does not pose a significant danger to people in the U.S. Dr. Peter Hotez disagrees, saying there is transmission in south Texas and those Reduvient bugs can be found in south Texas and that many dogs in that area have Chagas.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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MALVEAUX: She's just six years old and she's probably a better speller than I am.

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MALVEAUX: You can call her a six-year-old spelling wonder, but her amazing run came to an end at the National Spelling Bee. Check it out.

LORI ANNE MADISON: Ingluvies. E-n-g-l-u-v-i-e-s. Ingluvies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is incorrect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ingluvies is i-n --

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MALVEAUX: Oh. Second grader Lori Anne Madison of Virginia tripped up before she could make it for the semifinals, but pretty amazing. She is incredible. Already in the history books. It is because at six years old she is the youngest person ever to compete in the national competition. Good for you. Congratulations.

Wells Fargo putting together a package worth hundreds of millions of dollars in a settlement on predatory lending.

One man actually created a brand new language for a movie. Here's this week's "The Next List."

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Dothraki are a kind of wondering tribe in this kind of imaginary world that George Martin in his books has create. They're first and foremost warriors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took the tribe from George Martin's best- selling series and in George's book the Dothraki's speak their own language. And we thought we could create that fictional language for a few lines. And we tried to do that and it sounded like gobble gook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's where I came in. I created the language for the Dothraki and worked as a translator on the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I was a little bit skeptical. But once we actually got the Dothraki language that David Peterson created and we saw the actors performing the lines, there was no question, it made a huge difference in the scenes.

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MALVEAUX: A major bank is -- will pay out millions of dollars to settle a lawsuit accused of predatory lending. The city of Memphis sued Wells Fargo back in 2010. Alison Kosik, she's standing by at the New York Stock Exchange to explain this.

How much are we talking about here?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what Wells Fargo is going to do at this point, Suzanne, is pay out just over $432 million to put this lawsuit to rest. Memphis had actually accused Wells Fargo of predatory lending to minorities with the city and the surrounding county, Shelby County, saying that what the bank actually did was target black neighborhoods for high priced loans. And Memphis says this practice actually dated way back to 2000. So it wound up happening here, say the city and the county, is that the area saw increased foreclosures because people wound up getting in over their heads.

So what's going to happen is that $432 million, it's actually going to go back into the Memphis economy in the form of new loans, grants for down payments and home renovations. Wells Fargo denies these allegations, saying it's committed to fair and responsible lending practices.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: What is the market look like now, Alison? What are we looking at?

KOSIK: The market's looking pretty flat right now. Dow barely higher right now. You know what, the market's pretty much chewing on some lackluster economic data. We found out that economic growth slowed down in the first quarter of this year, slowing down to 1.9 percent from 2.2 percent. Also found out that jobless claims spiked. Manufacturing was weak as well.

But I think what you're seeing is, investors kind of in a wait and see mode. Waiting for that big jobs report coming out on Friday.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll be looking out for it. Thank you, Alison. Appreciate it.