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$100,000 for Wanted Baby Killer; U.S. Office in Libya Bombed; Further Developments in Candian "Body Parts" Case; R.I.P. Ray Bradbury; Attack on U.S. Diplomatic Office in Libya

Aired June 06, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We will have to leave it there. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, thank you so much, Mayor.

Another stomach-turning development in a story that we didn't think could get any more sickening. Packages containing human body parts have arrived at two schools in Vancouver. And police are linking both packages to Canada's now infamous murder and dismemberment case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why we know it's linked to our investigation, we have all the reasons to believe this. First of all, we're talking about the same body parts that we were looking for, which is the right hand and the right foot.

Secondly, it was shipped from Montreal. We know that as a fact. Where exactly from which location in Montreal, I can't confirm at this moment, but we know it was shipped from Montreal. So right now, we have got all the reasons to believe this. We have got no confirmation whatsoever. There will be a DNA sample that will be proceeded on body parts to confirm 100 percent this is the right one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's bring in our Paula Newton, who has been following this case really from the very beginning.

Paula, it just gets worse and worse the more we hear about this. What more are you learning? Is there any chance that any children were at any time near these horrible deliveries?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The schools in Vancouver have gone to great pains to say, look, the children at the schools were not affected. The schools did reopen this morning.

And also they're really underscoring the fact that all they can figure out now is that this was a random thing. Why anyone would have targeted these schools with these body part, no one knows. As for the key suspect in the case, Mr. Magnotta, who remains in Berlin right now, they really can't even make a link between him and Vancouver.

They do say though that there were two notes in the packages and they're examining everything. In speaking to a police commander in Canada today, even they themselves are bewildered, Kate. They are saying this gets more and more mysterious and gruesome by the minute. And I have to tell you they said that, look, these body parts, they told me, were severely decomposed. And that's why identification may take more time.

BOLDUAN: And more details of this case are emerging. What more are you learning on this case?

NEWTON: Well, I think the saddest thing -- and again, not to reduce all of this to gore and perversion at all times -- the saddest thing is that the Chinese student, Jun Lin, his family has arrived in Montreal. And police still are looking for the victim's head. They're looking also for a right foot and the right hand if this does not turn out to be the body parts that were found in Vancouver.

It is also very -- it's still a mystery to what exactly Mr. Magnotta might have done if indeed he's guilty of the things they're alleging between the time that he left Montreal and then went to Paris and then went to Berlin, but a lot of different questions, and one of them, of course, principally among them is being motive, especially then when you add those random acts apparently of sending body parts to a school.

BOLDUAN: Well, and have police learned, are you learning -- that was kind of my question -- the link between Luka Magnotta and Karla Homolka, who spent 12 years in jail for rapes and murder of three girls? It seems to be just another chapter that we're now entering.

NEWTON: It is another chapter that we're entering. Police say they will investigate that as well.

Kate, I covered that case. It was a gruesome case and again it involved dismemberment. Did Mr. Magnotta have some connection to her? She's a woman. It shocked everyone at the time -- I have to tell you, Kate -- that one of the victims was her sister. She had a plea bargain, but this again was a huge controversy.

She is now free. At he at one time claimed and then another time denied having any connection with her. But I think also crucially, Kate, police are looking at cold cases. They say they have no indication yet that there is any connection. But given all the different angles that we have covered now in this case, they're not ruling out that he's connected to other crimes.

And I want to underscore as well that he has traveled extensively, and that includes the United States.

BOLDUAN: Wow. Seems like this is definitely not over yet. Paula Newton, thank you so much.

I'm Kate Bolduan. If it's interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it. It's called "Rapid Fire." So here we go.

A South Carolina prison guard has been rescued after being held hostage for several hours at a maximum security prison. The guard was helping a nurse actually distribute medicine when some inmates attacked last night. The nurse got away , but the guard was grabbed by prisoners and held until early this morning. The guard has since been taken to a hospital for treatment.

And a massive dock has washed ashore on an Oregon beach. And no one is shore where it came from. The 60-foot structure landed on the beach Monday. Oregon officials have no confirmation of the dock's origin, but a few beachgoers believe it may have crossed the Pacific as a result of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Another clue? This placard with Japanese writing was found attached to the dock. Our Casey Wian will have more on this late rights hour.

An attempt to raise the cigarette tax with the money from that tax going to cancer research fails in California. Voters rejected it yesterday 51 to 49 percent. Supporters say it would have raised $735 million a year. Opponents say it would hurt poorer people who are more likely to smoke.

In California, just so you know, a pack of cigarettes runs about $5. Compare that to New York City, where a pack tops about $11.

And Ms. Pennsylvania is giving up her crown and she says Sunday night's Miss USA Pageant was rigged. Sheena Monnin resigned her title today and ripped pageant organizers in a Facebook post, saying the top five finishers were determined before Sunday night. Organizers deny the allegation, saying an e-mail she sent to them claimed she was stepping down because the pageant accepts transgendered contestants.

Donald Trump, of course, co-owner of the pageant, wasn't too thrilled with the allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN & CEO, TRUMP HOTELS & CASINO RESORTS: It is so ridiculous. And what we have authorized today is we're going to bring a lawsuit against this girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: In a very different story, science fiction author Ray Bradbury, who wrote the classic "Fahrenheit 451," has died. Bradbury's stories predicted things we have today, such as ATMs and live broadcasts of car chases. He wrote for nearly 70 years, including dozens of books, 600 short stories, even screenplays and operas. Ray Bradbury was 91 years old.

We have got a lot more to cover this hour. Here's what's coming up ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Cocaine, heroin trafficked through airports, huge busts today.

Plus, a young woman's fight with a flesh-eating bacteria takes a turn, from physical wounds to mental, her phantom pain.

And star power shining on and showing up for the president, fund- raisers that should bring in big, big bucks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: The U.S. diplomatic office in Libya was attacked last night with an explosive device, causing, fortunately, little damage, but a lot of questions. The blast damaged the front gates and fortunately no injuries, and no claim of responsibility either.

But the explosion comes a day after a U.S. drone attacks killed al Qaeda's second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi.

Joining me now to work through it all is CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

Fareed, thanks for coming back joining me today.

It's more than seven months, Fareed, since the death of Moammar Gadhafi, now this bombing. So much of our attention has been on violence elsewhere. Is the stability of Libya still in question?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: The stability of Libya is very much in question.

Look, it's a big country. People often forget that. Just to give you -- to remind people, it's 10 times the size of Syria with one-third the population. So gangs can be marauding around, can take refuge in vast swathes of the desert. And the government of Libya never had a very powerful army.

Gadhafi, unlike many other Middle Eastern dictators, never wanted to build a very large army because he feared it would depose him. And so he kept tribes in effect warring against each other. That makes for a very weak state. And in Libya, one of the great challenges here is not just regime change, is not just nation-building, but it's really state building. Can they build some kind of an organization that can hold this place together?

BOLDUAN: Well, it's a great point.

We have to switch gears, because I want to talk again about your upcoming special on immigration. As part of it, you spoke with one of the key contributors to Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law. It's known as SB-1070, and very timely that you're talking about it because we're right now waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on some of that law's key provisions.

Give me a preview of your conversation with the secretary of state, Kris Kobach.

ZAKARIA: Kobach was -- he's a very smart guy. He's very passionate and committed to what he believes in. And it's a very tough line on immigration.

He's very articulate. He basically points out that these people are here illegally, that to countenance, to do anything to legalize their status is to effectively forgive them for having broken the law. He doesn't really have much of an answer for what to do about the fact that you have about 11 million of them here, a population the size of the state of Illinois.

And when you ask people, well, what would you do about that, that's when they come short of answers.

BOLDUAN: Look forward to hearing the full segment.

Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much.

This is about exploring immigration policy, what works, what doesn't. You will want to watch Fareed's special, "The GPS Road Map for Making Immigration Work," Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. Also can see Fareed Zakaria on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."

So a popular hockey team offers a $50,000 reward to help police track down the suspect who shot and killed a toddler -- that report coming up.

And just a quick note for those of you heading out the door. You can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. Or if you're heading to work, you don't have to miss us. You can also watch CNN live from your desktop. Just to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: The search for the killer of a 1-year-old boy gets a bit of a boost from the Los Angeles Kings. A donation from the hockey team and its owner, AEG, doubles the reward for information leading to the killer from $50,000 to $100,000.

Angel Mauro Cortez-Nava was fatally shot Monday night as his father cradled him in his arms on the front porch of the family's homes in Watts. Police believe the dad was targeted for the color of his shirt.

And the Georgia woman who nearly died from a flesh-eating bacteria now feels pain in the hand the doctors amputated nearly three weeks ago.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explains what is known as phantom pain -- Elizabeth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, Andy Copeland says that his daughter feels like her hands have been carrying bags of rocks and they're tired and they hurt and she can't put the rocks down, of course, because she doesn't have hands.

He says that she is in considerable pain and that pain meds aren't really working and that the medication is making her sick. Now, how could she feel pain in a body part that she doesn't have?

Well, here's the thing. She still, of course, has a brain. And there's an area of the brain that's connected to that amputated body part, and it's still expecting input. It's still connected to it, even though it's not there anymore.

And the brain needs to adjust. And as the brain is adjusting to no longer having that input, that's what can happen, is that pain can be the result. The only good news here is that this usually does get better with time, as the brain starts to understand that that body part isn't there anymore -- Kate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Wow. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

A rocket blasts a U.S. helicopter out of the sky. One terror group says it's responsible.

We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This just into CNN -- a jury has been selected in the Jerry Sandusky child rape trial. The jury and its alternates will not be sequestered, as the judge has announced, and the trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, so just a quick update for you on that story.

Also, the girlfriend of the man in that gruesome face-eating attack in Florida says that her boyfriend was a loving family man. Just last hour, Yovanka Bryant spoke out with high-profile attorney Gloria Allred by her side. She says she believes Rudy Eugene had a drug slipped to him and that he was no monster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOVANKA BRYANT, GIRLFRIEND OF RUDY EUGENE: Rudy never drank alcohol or used drugs around me. I only saw him smoke a marijuana cigarette once.

One thing that I loved about Rudy is how he talked about his family. He loved his mother and his grandmother very dearly. The care that he expressed for my son, the friend he became to my brother and cousins, and the man he was to me will never be forgotten. I felt safe with Rudy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Over the last few days, we have been getting more and more detail on what happened that day, like the 911 tapes.

Listen as a bus driver frantically describes what she saw before police arrived that day.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a naked man on the McArthur Causeway, at the end of the causeway coming forward, Biscayne Boulevard. He is beating another man to a pulp, like on the top of the man beating him. The man is bleeding. He's going to kill that man, I promise you.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: When asked if charges will be filed in this case, attorney Gloria Allred said no.

So the Taliban says it shot down a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan, and a drug sweep in a major airport.

Time for "Reporter Roulette."

Let's begin with the fatal crash of a helicopter in Afghanistan. Two crew members were killed.

Let's bring in Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence. He's joining me live now.

Chris, what more are we learning about this incident and about the victims?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we have now confirmed with military sources that they were both Americans, both American troops who were killed when this helicopter went down in Afghanistan.

Now, they were flying a Kiowa Warrior. This is a smaller helicopter, only two people inside. And it's mainly used to provide armed reconnaissance for troops on the ground, sort of close air support. What we do know is that basically this happened in Ghazni Province. This area hasn't seen the level of fighting that we have seen in some of the other areas like Helmand and Kandahar. But it's part of this prime road of trade between Kabul and Kandahar. And it's an area that the Taliban controls most of the rural spaces.

BOLDUAN: And so is the Taliban claiming responsibility for this?

LAWRENCE: Yes. And that's not unusual, Kate.

They claim responsibility for many things that they did not do. But in this case, military officials are saying they do believe that the helicopter was brought down by Taliban fire. They think it was a combination of small-arms fire and rocket-propelled a grenades.

This -- helicopters going down has become -- or has always been really one of the most dangerous ways in which some of the troops over there are killed. You remember the big Chinook crash that was brought down about a year or so ago when the special forces troops were killed on that. That was more of a transport plane. This is a smaller helicopter. But again, right now, it does look like the Taliban brought it down.

BOLDUAN: And I'm sure the investigation is only beginning into exactly what happened.

Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon, thanks so much, Chris. Next on "Reporter Roulette": The feds raid the main airport in Puerto Rico and that prosecutors say it will limit the cocaine supply to Miami, New York, Dallas and Orlando. Sounds pretty serious.

CNN's Rafael Romo is here to explain more.

This seems like it was a pretty big bust, if it's affecting that many cities.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: It was very big.

And just let me give you an idea of how this operated. They would bring in suitcases with 45 kilos of cocaine, if you can imagine that.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

ROMO: These were workers at the airport or workers at a private company that worked for the airport. And because they had security clearance, they were able to get in.

Then, once inside the airport -- this is in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico -- they transfer those suitcases or backpacks, whatever the case, to couriers, who board flights to the mainland, to the United States. And that's the how the drug came to this country.

Now, we're talking anywhere from 100 to 150 a year. We're talking easily 4.5 metric tons every year. So, it's a lot of drugs.

BOLDUAN: And very organized, it seems.

So this specifically involved American Airlines, a group of American Airlines employees. Is the airline saying anything about this?

ROMO: That's right.

Out of 45 indictments, 12 are either current or former employees of American Airlines. Now, the company posted a statement earlier today. They said in part, "Our support also extends to helping prosecute the individuals responsible to the fullest extent of the law. We have a zero tolerance policy for any employee when it comes to this type of activity."

But, again, some of these workers were no longer tied to American Airlines. They were former employees. Some others still were.

BOLDUAN: Wow. Pretty amazing that it all went down. It was -- 200-some federal agents were involved in taking this down. It was very interesting.

ROMO: Between DEA and Puerto Rico police, yes, 200.

BOLDUAN: Wow, good coordination there.

So, all right, Rafael, thank you so much.

ROMO: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: So you sign up to a dating Web site. It happens all the time. You go on a date, you get a bit more intimate than maybe you had planned, and end up with a sexually transmitted disease. One woman sues. We're on this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: We want to pause for a second and play some video for you. This is a 12-story building collapsing in the town of Homs, Syria. The reason? Government forces shelling neighborhoods.

This, as Syrian activists say at least 71 people died today in clashes, 71 people today alone. CNN, of course, we have to say, cannot confirm this because Syria has severely limited journalists from entering the country.

Violence there, I probably don't need to remind you has been going on for about 15 months now.

Two crew members were killed in a chopper crash in Afghanistan. We heard that from Chris Lawrence earlier, but those are far from the only lives lost in that country today. Dozens of others died in two very different incidents in separate parts of the country.

Our Mohammed Jamjoom is standing by live in the capital of Kabul. Mohammed, first tell us what happened and tell our viewers what happened in Kandahar today.

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, twin suicide bombings claimed the lives of 22 people, injured at least 50.

The provincial chief of police there told us that one suicide bomber was on a motor bike. He was in a crowded part of the city outside of a restaurant this morning when he detonated his explosives.

Then, as residents flooded that scene after the first strike, there was another suicide bomber in the crowd that detonated his explosives and that just increased the casualties there.

A truly horrific scene in southern Kandahar city today. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely horrific. And there are also now allegations that civilians died today as a result of a NATO air strike? What can you tell us about that one?

JAMJOOM: That's right. A provincial official from Logar Province, south of Kabul, tells us that in the overnight hours today that there was an air strike, that there had been a NATO convoy that had been fired upon by insurgents, that the NATO convoy called for backup, for air support and that's when the air strike happened.

They say that 18 people were killed, among them women and children. Now, we spoke to NATO earlier today. They have a slightly different version of events. They say that there was a firefight that happened, that a joint coalition in Afghan security forces operation that was targeting a Taliban leader and that because of that, only two civilians were injured.

They say two women were injured, but they say they are aware of these allegations that civilians were killed, that they are conducting an investigation.

They say, though, that multiple insurgents were killed in this attack, but they're still waiting for the results of the investigation that they're commissioning right now.

We should stress today, the deadliest day for Afghanistan civilians this year so far. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Wow. All right. Mohammed Jamjoom in Kabul, thanks so much.

So you sign up on a dating website like many do. You go on a date and maybe you get a little too intimate and you get much more than you bargained for. One woman sued because of it. We're on the case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: We've been following really throughout the day the final journey of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The Enterprise made a slow trip by water to the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum in New York City, passing by the World Trade Center site and the Statue of Liberty just this morning.

And this afternoon, a delicate dance is under way as the Enterprise is lifted to its new home on the flight deck of the retired World War II aircraft carrier.

Chad Myers, you've been watching this very closely. Quite a journey. When you look at this crane, how are they going to pull this off?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's off the ground now.

BOLDUAN: Oh, it is?

MYERS: It's off, folks. It took a slow boat to New Jersey and then to New York and then now it's there. And it's right off the carrier and now, finally, we just got a new twit pic from the Intrepid Museum.

You can go to @IntrepidMuseum on Twitter and follow them and you can see, every two minutes, they're taking a picture. It's very cool.

And we actually have some live shots, too, that we can see, but as they're lifting, it's about two feet off the barge. It's going to be taken all the way to the top of the aircraft carrier, set down on the flat top atop that deck and then it will be housed in a little building to take care of it.

BOLDUAN: And we hear that it will be opened to the public, come maybe mid-July. It really is interesting -- and you were talking about this earlier -- that this shuttle never actually made it into outer space, but still is important to American history?

MYERS: It is because it was launched off the back of this airplane -- a 747 brought it in -- and to see if it could see fly, to see if it could actually land.

So it was like the guinea pig.

BOLDUAN: In this case, expensive guinea pig.

MYERS: Never got hooked to a rocket, but it was the guinea pig and they're going to leave that aerodynamic cone on the back.

If you notice, there should be three big engines on the back, three big engines. If you notice, those engines aren't there. There's an aerodynamic cone on the back and they're going to leave that there.

BOLDUAN: Pretty impressive. Oh, and there was a bit of a snafu, I guess, on the way to the Intrepid? Some damage, I guess?

MYERS: Yes. The right wing, as it was hanging off the barge, hit a bridge. You don't want to hit a bridge or a car ...

BOLDUAN: I think they're blaming it on winds or something, right?

MYERS: A little bit of a wind gust did push it off course and there it is, just touching there. And really it was very superficial damage and, in fact, it's already fixed.

BOLDUAN: Man, I would not like to have to make that call. Sorry, boss.

MYERS: Hello?

BOLDUAN: Hello, NASA. Whoopsies.

Thanks so much, Chad. We'll keep watching it. It's happening all day long. Thank you.

So celebrities once threatening to sit out this election are now hosting dinner parties and concerts for President Obama, raising some very big bucks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: An Oregon woman won a $900,000 settlement against a man she says gave her herpes. Yes, a very interesting case.

The woman said she met the man through the dating website, eHarmony. By their fourth date, they had sex and, afterwards, the man allegedly told her he had herpes. She sued saying he should have told her sooner.

It's rare that a case over sexually transmitted disease, I would say, goes to a jury trial because I never hear about it. This case is believed to be the largest of its kind in the state of Oregon.

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin is on the case for us on this one. Sunny, when I heard $900,000 in this case, I thought that number was huge.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It is huge and it's especially huge for Oregon. I believe it's the largest of its kind, but these cases, Kate, aren't rare. I wouldn't say they're the norm, but they're not rare.

This sort of explosion of STD litigation started in the '80s, actually. We saw a big uptick then and, even as recent as about 15 years ago, we started seeing more and more of these herpes cases and cases of folks being accused of intentionally infecting partners with either HIV or herpes

So not unusual, but I will tell you, difficult to prove. Many people don't have the resources to hire attorneys and, even if they do hire these attorneys, it's a little difficult to prove in court that this particular sexual partner is the person that infected you with either the herpes virus or HIV.

And so while not unusual, not rare to have these suits, very unusual to win $900,000.

But it's interesting because one of the jurors said they just felt he should have told her.

BOLDUAN: And do you think because of the huge number, $900,000, do you think this kind of paves the way for kind of similar huge settlements or major lawsuits like this?

HOSTIN: You know, I don't think so. Again, because we've seen these suits since about the early 1980s. We've seen an uptick, probably about 15 years ago. I don't suspect this one significant verdict in Oregon is going to lead to sort of an explosion of juries awarding this amount of money.

But a good, good result for this particular woman who says she was just devastated after learning that she had contracted herpes.

BOLDUAN: And another interesting case I wanted to ask you about. In Massachusetts, a landmark case they're describing it as, where a man is believed to be the first person to be convicted of motor vehicle homicide as a result of texting.

A lot of states have taken on these laws banning cell phones while driving and texting while driving. What's your take on this?. And how many years did he get? HOSTIN: He got about two-and-a-half years and so he will likely serve two years in prison. He was sentenced two-and-a-half years for motor vehicle homicide. One year to serve and then two years for texting while driving with one year to serve.

So he'll serve about two years. This is a landmark Massachusetts case. And this is a case that I think, Kate, we will see more and more of. He's 18 years old. This happened when he was 17 years old.

But, get this, apparently, he received and sent about 193 text messages on February 20th, 2011.

BOLDUAN: On that one day? Wow.

HOSTIN: On that one day when this tragic accident occurred.

And you're right, there are many, many states that have banned text messages, about 38 states, by my last count.

But I do think that we are going to see much more litigation arising from texting while driving because we now know that it does lead to so many fatalities in our country.

BOLDUAN: It is so dangerous with how much it distracts the driver. We'll leave it there for today. Thank you so much, Sunny Hostin. We'll talk to you soon.

HOSTIN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: President Obama will likely end his fundraising trip to California saying, hooray for Hollywood. He's expected to raise millions of dollars tonight at the LGBT leadership gala in Beverly Hills.

It's the president's third recent fundraiser targeting the gay community.

CNN's Kareen Wynter shows us how the president is winning back a demographic that had all but abandoned him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When President Obama made his bombshell announcement on gay marriage, Hollywood rejoiced.

ELLEN DEGENERES, DAYTIME TALK SHOW HOST: President Obama just came out in support of same-sex marriage.

GINNIFER GOODWIN, ACTRESS: I could not be more proud that he's my president.

CHRIS COLFER, ACTOR: I was ecstatic. WYNTER: Now, it's time for the president to reap some rewards, financially speaking. Hollywood's gay community is welcoming him not with one, but two fundraisers that could rake in millions.

STEVEN ROSS, AUTHOR: By coming out for gay marriage, he has mobilized his base.

WYNTER: Steven Ross, the author of "Hollywood -- Left and Right," says the president's reversal on same-sex marriage policy energized many celebrities who had been threatening to sit out the 2012 contest.

ROSS: The minute he announced his support of gay marriage, they publicly changed their mind. Norman Leer, immediately, he and his wife donated $40,000 each and will be active in the campaign again.

WYNTER: Openly gay actor, Rex Lee, best known for "Entourage," admits Hollywood had been disenchanted with the president before his announcement.

REX LEE, ACTOR: A lot of people that want to support him were disappointed that he hadn't said anything up until now. So we're all glad he did it. As a gay man, I'm glad he did it.

OBAMA: I've been going through an evolution on this issue.

WYNTER: But some in the entertainment industry believe the president didn't go far enough.

HOWARD STERN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: It's a baby step. I wish we didn't always have to take baby step.

WYNTER: Howard Stern faulted the president for leaving the future of gay marriage for individual states to decide.

STERN: I wish he would have been even stronger about it. I would like the president to really get behind this and push it.

WYNTER: By being so outspoken, celebrities may continue to drive the debate on same-sex marriage, but Hollywood's biggest influence on the public and the president may come from TV shows like "Glee," "Smash," "True Blood," and "Modern Family."

ERIC STONESTREET, ACTOR: We happen to be a very traditional family.

ROSS: It's the repetition of certain kinds of images and the repetition of certain ways of looking at the world over and over again until they seem normal.

I think this does begin to change the way people look at the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: I want to bring in Kareen Wynter live with me now. Kareen, that was really interesting the way that you ended that piece. You mentioned that shows like "Modern Family" and "Glee" are helping to encourage the debate on same-sex marriage, starting that conversation and keeping it going.

So from the Hollywood perspective, do you see more shows like this on the horizon?

WYNTER: Well, we see definitely a push out of Hollywood to really portray those gay characters, be it an individual or families on the small screen.

In fact, Ryan Murphy, who created "Glee," is holding a big fundraiser tonight -- he and his partner -- for President Obama and Murphy has this new show coming out, Kate, in the fall called "The New Normal." It takes a look at a same-sex couple, two men and their struggles to have a baby via a surrogate.

So again, it's these issues and themes that we're seeing out there, show creators like Ryan Murphy, trying to turn the non- traditional into the traditional, the non-conventional into the conventional.

And what's interesting with this, it's not going to be a perfectly packaged series about this couple's life, but he actually has characters there who don't agree with that gay lifestyle.

So you'll see a little bit of the drama, a little bit of that on that end and what's interesting is to see how the audience will really receive this, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And they're hugely popular shows, of course.

So looking specific -- now, looking at the politics as the president is heading out to the West Coast today, I hear there's some pretty star-studded appearances that will be attending some of these events?

WYNTER: Absolutely. Ellen DeGeneres is going to be making an appearance at the LGBT council. Their fundraiser for President Obama is happening in Beverly Hills at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, so that will take place today.

And after that, Ryan Murphy and his partner, as I mentioned, will be hosting their lavish fundraiser at their L.A. mansion.

What's interesting about these events and you know this, Kate, when it comes to politics and especially this town, you have some stars who are so outspoken, like George Clooney and Eva Longoria. They'll put their political message out there.

Not everyone is like that, however, and so these guest lists are kept under wraps. In any event, these two fundraisers are fundraisers are expected to draw millions of dollars, so President Obama will have a lot of money in his campaign chests.

BOLDUAN: Yes and at least some of these are closed to the press because they do want to keep it private.

WYNTER: We'd love to cover it.

BOLDUAN: We would love to cover it. Let us in anytime. All right, Kareen Wynter, thanks so much.

A massive dock washes ashore off the coast of Oregon. It's 7- feet tall, 19-feet wide and 66-feet long, made of concrete. We're tracking where it came from and how it got in the ocean in the first place.

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BOLDUAN: We've been watching live the Space Shuttle Enterprise taking its final path, its final journey to its final resting place on the Intrepid.

And I want to bring Chad Myers back in because it looks like they're getting to the final point, Chad. it's pretty amazing, watching all these people scurrying around the Intrepid.

MYERS: It took a long time to get off the barge, but once they got it in the air, they rolled it right up there and now they're setting it down. You can see some ropes, basically, lines hanging off there so they can position it with people on the ground. Coming down now.

BOLDUAN: Finally. And I was looking at the tick-tock from this morning. It left New Jersey at about 10:00 this morning. I guess we shouldn't expect something when you're moving a space shuttle that weighs some 170,000 pounds or something that that should move very quickly, but they're finally getting to it.

It's just really amazing to watch this crane when you see how small the people are in relation to the shuttle itself.

MYERS: You have to understand, too, the Hudson River was going downstream and the boat was going upstream. So, even if you think you're doing about 8, you're not. You're doing about 2.

So it went by the Statue of Liberty today. The fireboats were out there, just the parade with the water going in the air, just really a spectacular event. All of the boats were coming up and it was like a little armada coming up the river.

And you can see the Circle Line Tours getting right up close to it with all the people in the tour boats in the end, little ferries.

It has been quite the event for the people there today and the Intrepid very happy to get it, obviously, only three places in the world that will have a shuttle.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely and I don't know if we have a picture of it. I think it was just kind of passing on one of our affiliate cameras, just how many people are trying to gather around to just get the shot of the final move. I thought it was really, really awesome to see. The latest we heard is that it would opinion open to the public some time in mid-July, but they're clearly moving that pretty slowly.

I know it was only cosmetic damage, but part of the delay had to do with one of the wings being injured.

MYERS: The right wing bumped into the dock -- there it is right there -- as it was coming in and out of -- you know, obviously, this thing went through a couple of different places and then that is the wing of the shuttle up against one of the bridges.

It was just -- who do you call?

BOLDUAN: I was thinking about that.

MYERS: Call your insurance agent. You're not going to believe what I have to tell you right now.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

MYERS: So that's the damage right there and you can see it was a foam corner there and they fixed that within just a couple of hours.

They wanted it in pristine conditions when it comes down there. And there you can actually see, if you look right above the word "space," all of those tiny little heads are bodies -- I know we're looking at tiny TV screens, but the people at home are watching on 60- inch plasmas, they can actually see those people that are there. Just on that little dock, on that little jetty there.

BOLDUAN: Look how slowly. I mean, they've got to be so careful, delicately moving that crane down.

But anyway, it's awesome to watch. We've been watching it all day and we'll track it as it continues, so slowly, to reach its final resting place. All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much.

Another story that we've been watching, a massive dock washed ashore on an Oregon beach. Where it came from, that's anyone's guess at the moment. The 60-foot structure landed on Monday.

Oregon officials have not confirmed the origin of the dock, but this much is certain -- something this big doesn't just appear out of thin air. That's for sure.

Let's go straight to Casey Wian. Casey, officials found some sort of clue of where this came from? A placard? What are they making of this?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Kate. They found a clue because this plaque on this giant dock, you mentioned 66- feet long, 19-feet wide, 7-feet tall, showed up Tuesday morning on the Oregon coast.

There's a placard you can see there with Japanese characters on it and what we've been able to do is trace that back to a dock manufacturing company in Tokyo, Japan.

Also, there is some equipment on the dock, these rubber bumpers that look like tires. That was manufactured in Japan. And we've also traced a phone number on the dock to a fish processing plant in Japan.

Now, what, of course, people are wondering is, could this be debris from the tsunami last year? We've seen evidence -- we were reporting a couple of weeks ago up in Alaska signs of a lot of debris showing up there. People in Oregon are now wondering if this dock broke off during the tsunami last year.

The short answer is we don't know yet. Oregon state officials are checking with botanists right now who are looking into the origin of the plants that are on the dock to see if they're native to Japan and also trying to contact the dock manufacturer to see where it may have been.

The one thing they have done is they have tested it for radiation, just to make sure that that is not a problem and it has tested negative at this point.

They're hoping to have an answer of where this dock came from and perhaps if it's related to the tsunami sometime in the next several days, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Casey, as you mentioned, you were just up in Alaska, seeing all of the debris on the shores there and of course, you didn't see anything of this size, but did anything appear at all similar to what they're seeing now in Oregon?

WIAN: The only thing -- what we saw mostly in Alaska was lightweight debris and all of this debris is starting to show up much sooner than anyone had predicted and the theory there is this lightweight stuff, these buoys, these Styrofoam large chunks from housing, they're saying that that's because of the wind. That's really lightweight and it can blow across a lot faster.

There was a ship off of the coast of Alaska, a fishing vessel, not that long ago, that was a couple of hundred miles, I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, that was adrift, tied to the tsunami that they actually had to sink because it was a hazard to maritime traffic.

We don't know if this dock could have come over that quickly. It would be a surprise to officials, but all of those models that they originally put out after the tsunami as to when we would start to see the debris have proved wrong.

We're seeing it earlier, so perhaps this could be. We may never know, Kate.

BOLDUAN: You say we may never know, but are officials giving you any kind of estimate as to when they'll have some kind of final determination if they can give an answer or not and then what are they going to do to remove this thing? WIAN: They're hoping to have an answer within the next couple of days of definitively where it was from. We don't know whether they'll have an answer as to whether they lost this during the tsunami.

What with will they do with it? They're going to have to get rid of it. They may be able to find somebody to take it, maybe recondition it, put it back to use, float it back out into the ocean or tow it somewhere.

Or they may have to cut it up into pieces and get rid of it that way, which, of course, is going to be a big job.

They're asking all the spectators that have gathered around this dock now to stay off of it because, you can imagine, people are tempted to climb up on top of it.

BOLDUAN: And I'm sure they're only more attention getting to it. Casey Wian, thank you so much.

That's all for me. I've got to toss it to my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, in "The Situation Room."

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, thanks very much.