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Tracking Tropical Storm Debby; Egypt Elects Member of Muslim Brotherhood President; Jail Rewards Prisoners for Picking Locks; Mother, Father Jailed After Killing Daughter's Pimp to Save Her; Dangerous Fire Conditions in Colorado; Lebron James Wins First NBA Title; MLB Player Gets Second Chance to Shine; What Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care Means
Aired June 24, 2012 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Top of the hour, I'm Don Lemon, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Several developing stories that we're following this hour. We're going to get you straight to it and we are going to begin with Tropical Storm Debby. Here is the very latest. The storm is now on a track headed straight for Panama City, Florida, but people from the Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle are getting ready right now. Debby's 60 mile per hour winds and torrential rain are causing tidal surges and the fear of tornadoes. Louisiana's already under a state of emergency because of what the governor calls an imminent threat of flooding, and high winds have shut down the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects St. Petersburg to Bradenton.
Alexandra Steele, right off the top, what's the very latest here?
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you're right about that. We certainly have had reports of tornadoes. Tornado warnings are posted, and with the landfalling tropical system, tornadoes are not out of the question.
So Tropical Storm Debby, again the latest coming out at 5:00. National Hurricane Center did make a few tweaks with its intensity and also with its path, which is really quite interesting.
A big picture, it is of broad circulation. So as you heard Don say, everyone from the Florida to the Texas coast certainly needs to be mindful of this. Also, it's moving very slowly. What does that mean? It won't be a quick hitter, kind of in and out and done. Ten to 15 inches of soaking, flooding rain will be a part of this picture.
Also, we've seen western Florida get dumped on with rain. Also, southwestern Florida with isolated tornadoes throughout today.
The problem is, the future is to uncertain with this, because the track is so uncertain. Although the consensus is getting a little better in terms of moving now towards the Florida's northwest coast, but this is what we call our spaghetti model. So there are a lot of computer models out there, and each of them has its own kind of conjecture of where the track of Debby will go. You can see kind of disparate, now more of a consensus moving that way than that way toward Texas, but National Hurricane Center now at 5:00 changed their official track. Before, just the hours before, had it with a beeline straight toward here, southwestern Louisiana. And now, that is not the case. Now, it has it moving north, kind of a beeline toward Apalachicola and Appalachia Bay. That's where they could see the strongest of the winds, the rains, the surge and the flooding. Expectation to make landfall potentially on Wednesday, but now not as a hurricane, but a strong storm, tropical storm with winds of about 70 miles per hour.
Tropical threat. Here's where the tropical storm warnings are and watches, but again, Don, the biggest threat with this really seems to be the flooding. Also of course, the isolated tornadoes, rip currents, coastal flooding. And when you look at the potential rain, take a look at the beeline of this. Right here, you'll see over 10 inches of rain. Apalachicola, Appalachia Bay. So certainly, that will be the biggest troublemaker and the calling card of Debby when it's all said and done.
LEMON: And we'll be watching. Thank you, Alexandra.
More bad news for Colorado residents. Extremely hot, windy conditions have led to yet another dangerous wildfire. The entire town of Manitou Springs, 11,000 residents, were given mandatory evacuation orders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very scary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started with Manitou Avenue, north of--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need them to leave when we ask them to leave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just banging on my window.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was asleep, so I pounded on his door to get him out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty scary. I mean, it's right there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Orange. A lot of orange.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Fire crews have zero containment of the fire and are not expecting conditions to improve anytime soon. We're going to go live to Colorado at the bottom of the hour here on CNN.
To Egypt now and the massive celebrations going on this hour in Cairo's Tahrir Square. This party that you're looking at is in honor of Mohamed Morsi, who was just hours ago was declared Egypt's first democratically elected president. Election officials announced Morsi got about 52 percent of the vote to Ahmed Shafik's 48 percent. Morsi is a longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has long been linked to support for Islamic rule. In his first televised address, he paid tribute to the martyrs who led last year's revolution, and also called for national unity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED MORSI, EGYPT'S PRESIDENT: To all sectors of the people, to my people, my tribe, I say to them, to this momentous day, that today with your election and with your after the restoring of God, that I am the president today, a president for all Egyptians, wherever they are, inside or abroad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Let's get right to it. Christiane Amanpour is our chief international correspondent and global affairs anchor for ABC News. She joins us live just above Tahrir Square. Christiane, this is Egypt's first democratic election. The army is still holding the reigns of power, so what difference will this election make for the country?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does in fact make a huge difference, and all you have to do is look over this balcony. I was down there of course a lot today to see what a difference it does make.
It is the first democratic, free presidential election in Egypt's thousands of years of history. It is a big deal for people here, particularly as you mentioned, that the army still is in effective control and has actually executed a rather massive power grab in the last week or so, where it dissolved parliament, it basically put in its own interim constitution, and reserved a huge amount of power for itself.
This all has to be worked out. What will the president be able to do? What will the Constitution say once they actually write one, and what kind of powers will the democratically elected president have? But for the moment, the people of Egypt are really very, very happy.
We've spoken to so many of them who say just very simply, this is the first time we've ever been able to cast a vote that actually mattered. The first time we've actually been able to choose our president.
He did receive only about half the vote. The other half of the people voted for the old guard, really, Ahmed Shafik, who was Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. So there is a division in this country, and Mohamed Morsi is very aware of it, and did pay tribute to all Egyptians, Christians, women, all minorities, all sectors of society, and said that he was going to be a president for all Egyptians. Don.
LEMON: I want to ask you more on the substance of what's going on, with the election, but what are we hearing now? Christiane, are we hearing -- are those fireworks or people shooting guns into the air in celebration? Just wondering.
AMANPOUR: No, no guns. Let's be very clear about that. These are fireworks. There seems to be an endless supply of sort of smallish fireworks, nonetheless the sky keeps getting lit up to an extent above this very vast crowd that's been gathering ever since these election results were made official.
There was a crowd before, but it's become really big since then.
And you know, of course you do mention guns, because I know people were afraid that there might be some violence, depending on which way the election results went, and as you know, of course, both sides were claiming victory for the last week. It does actually turn out, though, that Morsi, who did immediately claim victory after last Sunday's runoff election was completed, it does turn out that almost exactly to the numbers, what he predicted is actually being borne out today, the percentage of his win.
So some -- a lot of back and forth has been going on between the candidates, between the officials and the whole election commission to get to today's final announcement. But by and large, people are happy. Even those who have not voted for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, which is the Islamist party, and this makes really Egypt the first of these Arab uprisings, the first of these revolutionary countries to have an Islamist head of state. That is of course a very big deal, and it does pose a huge number of questions as to which direction this country is going. And there are many, many people who are concerned. Women are concerned, business people are concerned, ordinary Egyptians are concerned about whether an Islamist president will have the authority or the desire to restrict freedoms and to restrict life here, even though he says he wants a democratic, constitutional and modern Egypt. Don?
LEMON: Christiane Amanpour, great reporting as usual. We thank you, and as we said, we're going to talk more about the substance of this first democratic election there. Make sure you join Christiane and our international team, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, for CNN's special coverage of Egypt's new president and the road ahead for Egypt's new democracy. Hala Gorani will head our coverage, as well as Christiane Amanpour, 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
Game show host Alex Trebek is in the hospital tonight. We'll tell you why.
And it's one of the most anticipated Supreme Court decisions in years. If this health care law is struck down, could it be political disaster for the president or could it actually help?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)\
LEMON: "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek is recovering from a mild heart attack. He checked into a Los Angeles hospital yesterday, and he stayed there today for some tests. It's a mild heart attack. It's good news, the good news here is he should make a full recovery and return to the game show when it begins taping its 29th season that will begin next month. "Jeopardy" won the best game show Emmy at last night's Daytime Emmy Awards.
Let's get right to it. We have to hold that up because Will was talking. CNN contributors Will Cain and LZ Granderson are here for our weekly discussion slash food fight. All right, just kidding. Actually, we're going to talk about a couple of things that are very serious coming up. The Supreme Court decision on health care, but I want to start, guys, with Fast and Furious first. The botched ATF gun walking operation that led to the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one border agent, U.S. border agent Brian Terry back in 2010.
In an unprecedented move this week, a House committee voted along party lines to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. The full House is set to vote on the contempt citation this week.
Will, we're going to start with you. By the way, how are you guys doing? Everybody all right?
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good, thank you.
LZ GRANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, yeah, we're great. Happy summer.
LEMON: Happy summer. I know you were traveling yesterday. You were tweeting me, LZ. And Will, I don't know, I guess you were just hanging out in New York.
CAIN: That's right.
LEMON: So listen, is this debate, Will, a problem of perception or is it something really being hidden here? Or won't we know unless all of these documents are turned over?
CAIN: Well, something is being hidden. I think the question is what is being hidden. Look, executive privilege has been invoked. That means there's something that the executive office doesn't want going out in front of the public. The question is, what is that, Don? You know, there are some on the right who have alleged some kind of conspiracy on the behalf of the Obama administration, to suggest this is a public policy ploy to put the Second Amendment in the spotlight and say that gun control is not working. I don't know if that's true or not. We'll never know unless we see all the documents. But we do know that something is out there that the Obama administration does not want the public to see. It could be as simple as incompetence. It could be a program that was no good and incompetent, and bringing that up before a House inquiry, but we just don't know.
LEMON: LZ? Or could it be, something, we don't know what it is. Could it be something that should not be made? That the public should not be made aware of? And that there -- I'm just asking. Go ahead.
GRANDERSON: Exactly. I mean, you know, I think back to that scene in "A Few Good Men," you know, when Jack Nicholson's character is on the stand and he, you know, Tom Cruise is, I want the truth, and he said, you can't handle the truth? I really believe in that. There are just some things we just don't need to know, or definitely don't need the outside world to know. This isn't something that was created by Eric Holder and President Obama. This has been actually something that's been going on longer than that. It's my understanding, this is the third sort of incarnation of a Fast and Furious sort of operation. LEMON: What I meant by that was if there was some sort of security secrets, that, you know, that we, the public didn't need to know about.
GRANDERSON: Absolutely.
LEMON: But this administration did run on transparency, LZ, and to hear the president years ago talk about executive privilege and that the Bush administration was hiding behind executive privilege, and then have him invoke executive privilege, it doesn't really bode well.
GRANDERSON: Well, keep in mind, this is the first time he's done so in his presidency. President Bush did the same thing six times in his presidency. President Clinton did it four times.
(CROSSTALK)
GRANDERSON: No, by comparison, I would think he has been the most transparent president. If you look at strictly at that, then we've had before with Bush and as well as Clinton, so I'm not necessarily seeing this as an example of him not keeping his word. There clearly might be something in there, seeing how long this program has been in place, that we don't need out that could affect our relationship with Mexico.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Moving on to the next topic, but why do you say it's irrelevant?
CAIN: No, however many times President Bush invoked executive privilege is irrelevant to this inquiry. I think it's a totally legit question. Are there security issues that the Obama administration is trying to keep that from coming out? Well, if that's the case, they have to go through all of these documents and categorize them and say why this is a threat to security. The burden is on them, invoking executive privilege with all of those documents.
LEMON: Yeah. OK, so here's the thing. It's terrible, and I saw the Terry's interview, the parents on Fox News. And it was -- it's heartwrenching for that family. Of course they want some answers, but to say from both sides that this isn't a political issue, it's not being politicized, I think it's being disingenuous. Do you disagree? LZ first?
GRANDERSON: It's obviously being politicized, because we're right in the middle of a presidential election. Every single decision that is made by the president, everything that comes from the GOP is going to be politicized. There is no way to avoid it. It's unfortunate, because I do believe national security, it should be the primary issue, but right now, it just isn't.
CAIN: Politics is definitely a part of this, but just because you say something is politicized doesn't mean it's frivolous. In the end, politics is the check on this process. You know, this can go through all kinds of inquiries, but in the end, whether or not something was done wrong here, politics will be the check. It will be the hammer on those who either did or did not do something wrong.
LEMON: Yes. And I think, depending on what's in those documents and what comes out either side, both sides stand to look badly. One if it's nothing in there and the Republicans, it's going to look like a fishing expedition, and if there is something in there, of course the White House and the Democrats are going to look bad We can't get to health care because you guys just sort of talk and talk.
GRANDERSON: Will talks too much.
CAIN: Defining limits on the federal government's power. No big deal tomorrow, Supreme Court. We'll talk about it--
LEMON: I'm being told by the boss in my ear, health care overturned or not next week. Will first.
CAIN: Limiting the Commerce Clause, it's a big deal.
LEMON: Yes or no. Health care, will it be overturned or not next week?
CAIN: Absolutely.
LEMON: Yes.
CAIN: 5-4.
LEMON: All right? LZ?
GRANDERSON: Yes, definitely. Unfortunately, but definitely.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
CAIN: Thank you.
LEMON: Moving on now. One Atlanta jail had a problem with prisoners escaping from their cells, so the jail fixed the problem and is now offering a reward to any inmate who can beat the new locks. Sounds odd, right? We're going to explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, listen to this. Dear prisoners, figure out how to get out of your cell and get yourselves some free food and maybe some other things. Yes, you heard that right. The big wigs at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta have a new concept for their cons. If you can pop the lock of your jail cell, then you can get up to 20 bucks worth of free stuff from the commissary. CNN's Nic Valencia is here now. So forgive me for asking this obvious, I think I know -- why are they offering incentives? Because they are trying to improve the locks. Are they working with the lock company to try to improve the locks, to say our prisoners are getting out this way, you need to fix this problem? Am I right?
NIC VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right. It's also -- it is a safety issue. It is an internal safety issue for the prison. Some of the guards back in the '90s got beat up. These inmates have long known that this is an epidemic there at the Fulton County Jail.
LEMON: It's not just that jail, though, Nic. I watch it, it's more broad, because I don't want to make it seem like it's a local problem just in Atlanta or a Georgia problem. This happens at many other jails and prisons around the country. They put the soap in there, they put the tissue in there.
VALENCIA: Any small little item can help pick that lock.
LEMON: Yes, right.
VALENCIA: And just imagine that you were living near your county jail and you didn't know that this problem was going on. This is a problem that the Fulton County residents do know is happening.
It is also about money. The commission is trying to -- the jail is trying to get money from the commission, about $6 million. It would cost $1,600 to put in about 1,300 of these locks here. They're testing them out so far on nine of the cells, and they're asking the worst lock popping offenders to try to get through these jails, and like you said, offering $20. Our local affiliate WSB caught up with two of the inmates who say this is an everyday thing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know how to beat the locks, get out of your cell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How often does this happen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: We got off the phone a little while ago with the old prison director who said, even back in the '90s, so this has been going on for two decades, this problem has been a consistent theme in the Fulton County jail.
LEMON: So when we talked about this story, I wondered around the country, how big a deal it was? And if someone has actually gotten out, because it poses a risk to the public if people actually do get out of jail, violent criminals. So they're going all out here to prove their point, and why? Is it something they're so fed up with that they figure let's get this behind us?
VALENCIA: Let's be clear. We don't want to cause panic and hysteria in the United States. Prison escapes are going down. Right? They're going down. In 2008, the last stats available from the Bureau of Justice, said about less than 1 percent of those incarcerated do get out. But this is an internal safety problem. Again, it's not just about the outside of the population, outside of the jail. It's also about the safety of the guards, Don. LEMON: Yes, the guards, people who are not necessarily in jail, work in jails and prisons, and so we want to keep them safe as well, as well as the general public.
VALENCIA: Absolutely.
LEMON: Thank you, Nic Valencia. We really appreciate that.
VALENCIA: Thank you.
LEMON: All right. Moving on now, a new wildfire erupts in Colorado, sending people running for their homes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty scary. I mean, it's right there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Orange. A lot of orange.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we look at the fuel (ph) is coming down, she's backing down the hill, which is not what we normally see in fire behavior.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Look how fast those flames are spreading toward those homes in that video. We're going live to this fire zone coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Getting close to half past the hour, so we want to get you caught up on your headlines right now.
A celebration in Egypt's Tahrir Square. Mohamed Morsi has been declared the winner of the country's first democratic presidential election. He is a long-time member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and he campaigned on a pledge to promote Islamic law. But in his first address to the nation, Morsi called for national unity and vowed to respect the rights of women.
Much of the Gulf Coast is on alert for Tropical Storm Debby. Debby seems headed toward Panama City, Florida, with 60-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rain, drenching some places with up to 15 inches. I mean, these are live pictures now from our affiliate Bay News 9. It looks pretty rainy. No one seems to be out on the beach of course right now. Tornado triggered by the storm already has killed a woman in Florida. Louisiana is under a state of emergency because of the threat of flooding. Coastal areas from Texas to Florida to the Florida Panhandle are on alert right now.
In Colorado, conditions are worsening for firefighters battling a series of wildfires across the state. The latest to erupt, the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs. Fast-moving flames forced 11,000 people from their homes late last night, and are threatening more neighborhoods today. We'll follow up on that for you.
Some people fear the election of Egypt's new president will mean a shift in foreign policy with the U.S. President Mohamed Morsi says he will preserve all national and international agreements. He is even moving away from the Muslim Brotherhood to, in his words, represent all Egyptians.
I want to talk now with Congressman David Dreier. He joins me from New York.
Thank you, sir, for joining us this evening.
REP. DAVID DREIER, R-CALIFORNIA: Good to be with you.
LEMON: You were in Egypt to serve as an official observer for the election process. And now that we know the outcome here, give me your impressions of this new presidency.
DREIER: First, this is a great day for the cause of democracy. If you go back a year and a half ago, and realize that the guy who was president for three decades, Hosni Mubarak, had been elected by a 90 percent margin. If you said then that 18 months later, for the first time in 7,000 years, the people of Egypt would be able to cast a vote that would count in determining the future of their country in electing a new president, one would have said you're crazy. So tremendous strides have been made in the last year and a half.
Now, that doesn't diminish the fact that we have a long way to go. There still needs to be a constitution put into place, so the constituent assembly needs to come together and fashion that constitution. They also need to, by virtue of the fact that a week ago last Thursday, they dissolved the parliament, they need to hold parliamentary elections. We know here, in the United States, that democracy is a work in progress. It still is for us. And the Egyptians have a ways to go. Their real challenge now is to get the economy growing. With all the time that I've spent in Egypt --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Congressman --
(CROSSTALK)
DREIER: -- with voters, the thing that needs to be done is they need to grow the economy.
LEMON: And that is something that's going to have to happen over time, but isn't it more imminent and something they need to do quicker than that is get a handle on the army because the army is going to meddle in this process if they don't get that under control in whatever way it turns out to be --
(CROSSTALK)
DREIER: Let me just say that obviously -- I should tell you that, still, even through this difficult time, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces continues to hold a lot of respect. The reason is the people are concerned about security.
Having said that, I don't believe they should be in control of the country. and from the time that I've spent with the military leadership, they don't want the responsibility of governing the country. I think they want to focus on their priority, security and national defense and the idea of maintaining the Camp David peace accords, which I'm very happy that Dr. Morsi has indicated he's committed to, along with the kind of secular concerns that are out there in a very secular country, that being recognizing human rights, including women's rights, the Coptic Christians and other religious minorities that need to be represented. So I think there's an opportunity here for a good balance between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the civilian Dr. Morsi is going to lead.
LEMON: That whole military and army question, everyone has been talking about that.
DREIER: Sure.
LEMON: That's why I wanted to get to that. But you said, the economy, it's the same as here in the United States. They need to get their economy -- and all over the world.
DREIER: You're absolutely right.
LEMON: The economy has to be a priority as well.
DREIER: Yes, since February 11th of last year, when Hosni Mubarak left office, there have been two million jobs lost. And so one of the things I have done, I've joined with my Democratic colleague, Congressman Gregory Meeks, and we've introduced a resolution calling for the establishment of an Egypt-U.S. free trade agreement so that we can get into this market. This is the largest Arab nation with 85- plus million people. We need to strengthen commercial ties. We now have an aid package in excess of a billion dollars. I think it's very important, as they move on their road to democracy, for us to strengthen ties there. I would like to see them become more commercial, see the benefits of being able to sell U.S.-manufactured products into Egypt, and I think they should have event greater access to our market as well.
LEMON: We have to run here but you believe democracy is the real goal there?
DREIER: It's a positive move. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy would be happy that people are finally playing a role in determining their future and that is the wave of the future. Whatever challenges we face, it's the wave of the future.
LEMON: Congressman David Dreier. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your time.
DREIER: You bet. Thanks for having me.
LEMON: Parental justice. A father kills his 4-year-old daughter's molester, and a couple is accused of killing their daughter's pimp. Many say they'd do the same thing, but is it justified? We'll talk about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Imagine this, losing your daughter to a life of prostitution. You reach out to police, do everything you can, but when that doesn't work, what would you do? Well, according to San Francisco prosecutors, for one mother and father, it meant killing the girl's pimp.
Here's CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was a 17-year-old runaway, leaving the bay area behind for Los Angeles, and lured into a life of prostitution. Her parents tried to rescue her but, according to prosecutors, when those efforts failed, they devised another plan -- to kill her alleged pimp, a 22 year old from the rough streets of Compton, Calvin Sneed. Barry Gilton and Lope Mercado are in jail under $2 million bond, charged with his murder.
GEORGE GASCON, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, SAN FRANCISCO: What our defendants are, in this case, is basically they became the judge, the jury, and the executioners all in one. And this is not an accepted war (ph) on society.
SIMON: As a father, San Francisco district attorney, George Gaston, says he understands how frustrated the parents must have felt watching their child fall into a retched life.
GASCON: The problem is we cannot run the country, we cannot run our society based on how emotional a parent might get in a situation like this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That was CNN's Dan Simon reporting.
So how far should parents go to protect their child? And is what these California parents allegedly did really a surprise? This comes just days after a father in rural Texas beat a man to death after he discovered the man molesting his young daughter. A grand jury chose not to indict him.
I talked with criminal defense attorney, Holly Hughes, and law enforcement expert, Alex Manning, about parents taking the law into their own hands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: I get it. But let's be clear, these two situations are very, very different. The little girl was currently being molested when her father walked into the barn. He heard her screaming, Don. There's a man (INAUDIBLE). He pulls that man off and he reacts in a way to get him to stop. He beats him. That's not vigilante justice. That's interrupting a crime, saving your child's life. Big difference when you go out hunting for somebody.
LEMON: The California couple's lawyer spoke out. Listen to this.
HUGHES: OK, great.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC SAFIRE, ATTORNEY: They were faced with every parent's nightmare and tried their best to protect their daughter, and here they are, end up getting arrested. It's very overwhelming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Alex, every case is different, but can you really blame these parent parents? They say they went to police and got no results.
ALEX MANNING, LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPERT & FORMER AGENT, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Don, myself and my partner, Investigator Greg Franklin, ran into the same situation. When we would have something like this, we would walk in the office, parents were at our doorsteps, waiting on us. Why did you go home? Why did you go to lunch? Why did you go home? Why did you sleep? You've just got to keep going at these people. Go up the chain of command. Get somebody to listen to you. Don't take the law into your own hands.
LEMON: The law into your own hands.
Holly, are there laws in place to protect parents in these scenarios?
HUGHES: There really aren't. They're subject to the same laws as everybody else. They went out and committed a crime. Right now, these are just charges. They're allegations. These parents haven't been convicted of anything. And while we all get that gut reaction, we all understand why they did it, wanted to do it, if they're guilty of it. But here's the thing. God forbid, an innocent person be in the way when they're out there on the street firing a gun. God forbid, they get the wrong guy.
LEMON: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: And they end up going to jail for a long time.
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: You can't do it.
LEMON: Is the line between vigilante justice and citizen justice starting to blur, Alex?
MANNING: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's the sign of the times. We just did your spot on heroin. It's the sign of the times. Now, this girl out in California could lose her two parents to jail. So the situation, the situation --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Holly Hughes and Alex Manning.
It should have been the end of his career, but find out how one Major League Baseball player is on top of his game once again. And can Lebron James finally get a little love after winning his first NBA title? Jon Wertheim will join us.
But first, this. Now that so many people use their Smartphones as cameras, it's gone way beyond just point and shoot.
CNN's Rob Marciano is "On the Go" with the latest photo apps for your phone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you're on vacation, leave that bulky camera behind. Nowadays, all you need is a Smartphone.
AMBER MAC, APP CENTRAL: More and more people are using Smartphones to take important photos when their travelling with their friends and family because they're so accessible. There are so many apps that can take along with you that will improve the quality of your photos.
MARCIANO: Say you have this incredible view and want to soak it all in. Well, 360-panorama lets you take a picture of your entire surroundings.
MAC: It will stitch together all images and give you this great panorama view.
MARCIANO: Here's a popular app, Instagram. Let's you take a picture -- hey, baby girl, add a variety filters and send them out to your friends.
MAC: For a great way to edit, you have to try Snapseed to change the contrast, the brightness the saturation and many other features.
MARCIANO: Once you have that picture perfect, you can actually send it old-school snail mail. Postcards on the Run does it with a few clicks.
MAC: You can print a scent onto the card, so when somebody receives it in their mailbox, they can scratch and sniff, so that makes it kind of interesting.
MARCIANO: Just some great ways to capture your vacation next time you're "On the Go."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: This thing is going, really going. Look at that. We'll get an update because they just held a status update on this fire. This is Colorado. This is streaming courtesy of our affiliate, KATV. Colorado Springs, Colorado. Look at that. Conditions are worsening for firefighters battling a series of wildfires across that state. The latest to erupt, the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs. Fast-moving flames forced 11,000 people from their homes last night and are threatening more neighborhoods today and with temperatures hovering near 100 degrees. Conditions are only expected to get worse in Colorado.
I want to go to Patrick Nelson, from our affiliate where you saw that video in Colorado Springs near the Waldo Fire.
Hey, Patrick, what are you hearing? There was just a status update.
PATRICK NELSON, METEOROLOGIST, KATV: Don, we just got done with a press conference and it has been an exhausting couple of days for folks living here in Colorado Springs, about an hour south of Denver. You can see what's happened to their mountain backdrop. All sorts of smoke up there. About 11,000 people have been evacuated in and around the Colorado Springs are. The fire continues to burn out of control at this hour. Zero percent containment.
What we're hearing from fire crews today is simply that they don't plan on getting any hope for containment, however, they are using point protection and simply, Don, what that means is that they're trying to protect any infrastructure. There's a cell phone tower on top of that mountain that they're protecting, dropping 400 gallons of water. Also, air tankers dropping retardants to try to slow down the fire. But what they say, it's going to have to be boots on the ground to put this fire out. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, this terrain, incredibly tough for firefighters to get in there and fight this fire and to do any type of investigation as to how this fire may have started. They say it may take two or three days to even get in there to see what is going on.
Folks here really on edge right now. We may be on the edge of even more evacuations at this point, as we're being told that this fire may be burning as close to a quarter mile of some of those homes in that area of El Paso County. And the most frustrating thing for folks trying to get information here in Colorado Springs is, because that fire is so unpredictable -- it's been moving in all different directions. Right now, we're being told it's a 250 acres-plus, but they're going to have an infrared fly overnight and we'll get more information by 8:00 a.m., as to exactly the movement and how big this fire has become.
Back to you.
LEMON: KATV's Patrick Nelson. Patrick, thank you so much. We appreciate that.
A Major League Baseball player gets a second chance to shine and Lebron James finally proving he can clinch an NBA title. Jon Wertheim will join us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The stars finally aligned, and the biggest star of all carried the Miami Heat to a championship. Plus, the best baseball pitcher you've never heard of has a degree in English Lit.
Let's talk with Jon Wertheim, a senior investigative reporter for "Sports Illustrated."
There is the new issue with Lebron James on the cover.
Jon, thanks for coming back. I gave you short shrift last week because we had breaking news, so we appreciate it. Listen, Lebron finally did it. I was there. I saw it in person. Will this silence the Lebron haters finally?
JON WERTHEIM, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Oh, if you're really inclined to hate, Michael Jordan's won six of these, Kobe's won five, a long way to go. But, no, as the cliche goes, he has silenced the critics. Couple of weeks ago, we were talking about Miami, one win from elimination. The coach needs to get fired. Lebron is a chocker. They beat the Celtics. They were great in the finals in the game you went to. They sealed it. Good performance by Lebron James. Even the haters can't hate that.
LEMON: You said it. Listen, I wasn't on any side, but since I was in Rome, I was with the Heat and Lebron has had so much hate. I was like, I'm going to root for the guy and it's good. Hate is going to hate. Right?
(LAUGHTER)
Can the Heat repeat though? They're still loaded with the big three.
WERTHEIM: Yes, now that they've won, proven that this dysfunction is actually fairly minimal, they've become a very attractive destination for players. If you're a free agent, you're getting on in years, you want a chance to win a title, you're willing to take a little salary cut for a chance for a ring. Steve Nash is a big name that's been thrown out there. This team can reload. They may well be better than ever next year.
LEMON: Let's move on. I think this is a great story. Let's talk about the Mets pitcher, R.A. Dickey. He pitched two straight one hitters, right? Throws a knuckle ball, but life hasn't always been like this for Dickey. Tell us about him.
WERTHEIM: Great story. This is baseball's Jeremy Lin. Here was this career minor leaguer. He was thinking about retiring. And deep into his 30s, he picks up the knuckle ball, mostly out of desperation, which is this funky pitch, sort of mystical, doesn't travel fast. And this year, he has mastered it. 37 years old and, suddenly, he's the best pitcher in baseball. He's 11-1. His last two games have been one-hitters. Just a great story.
LEMON: You wrote this this week, you said, "He is unapologetically thoughtful, literary and literate. His clubhouse locker doubles as a library. He's currently pondering writing a book of short stories." All that, and pitching better than anyone else.
WERTHEIM: He was thinking about writing as a second career not that long ago. Just wrote a very, very good book. He's a different kind of guy. Mostly, because of his failure, so there's almost this literary art to his story, the fact that, at age 37, after all those years of failure, he's finally having success. He's not like your traditional athlete. This is a bookworm athlete who relaxes by writing. Again, who knows where this story is going. A knuckle ball is not a reliable pitch, but 11-1, it's not even July. This has been a great story in baseball.
LEMON: We'll talk Wimbledon next. We'll talk now but it'll be happening and we'll talk about that.
And my quote from Jon is (INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you. Appreciate it.
WERTHEIM: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Jon Wertheim.
The Supreme Court could rule this week on President Obama's health care plan. What does the health care law mean to you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A landmark Supreme Court decision looms on President Obama's health care overhaul. The ruling could affect the economy and help decide the presidency.
CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, breaks down some key parts of the bill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What Obama came up with is a rule that says everyone has to have insurance and you can get it through your employer, through the private market, in a variety of ways, but everyone has to have insurance.
(MUSIC)
COHEN: When people don't have insurance, they're really in a terrible pickle when they get sick. Imagine you don't have insurance and get hit by a car or get cancer, how are you going to pay for that? Not only are you in trouble but the reason of us are in trouble because, if you don't have insurance and get hit by a car, the rest of us are paying. It comes out of our tax money, our insurance premiums. We all end up taking care of the uninsured.
(MUSIC)
COHEN: The health care plan was passed two years ago and it's implemented in a series of stages. Some things happen quickly and other parts don't happen for a couple of years.
Health care reform has already made it illegal for insurance companies to say no to a child with a preexisting condition. Before health care reform, insurance companies would often tell children with preexisting conditions, no, sorry, we don't want to insure you because it's expensive to insure somebody that already has a serious condition. Insurance companies have already been told no more lifetime limits on benefits.
What used so happen is that insurance companies would say you have, let's say, $5 million of benefits and that's it. When you hit that, you can't have anymore care. Health care reform laws said you can't do that anymore. There are no more lifetime limits. Most people never meet this cap, but if you've got a serious illness, you can meet a $5 million cap easily.
Health care reform also allows children to stay on their parent's insurance until they're 26.
(MUSIC)
COHEN: One of the things that will happen in the future because of health care reform is insurance companies will have to accept adults with preexisting conditions. They can't say no to you because, let's say, you have asthma or you have cancer or heart disease.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, thank you very much, CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
