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The God Particle; Power Outages Continue; Yasser Arafat May Have Been Poisoned; More Americans Travelling Due To Low Gas Prices; Victim Linked With Magnotta Case Found; Some Swing States Going Against President Obama; U.S. and Pakistan Reach Deal

Aired July 04, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour now. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. I'm standing in for Brooke Baldwin today.

This day is one of the hottest Fourth of July holidays on record, Chicago, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Minneapolis. It is steaming out there. Extreme heat paralyzing much of the Midwest and all the way up to the Dakotas too. The heat index racing up into the 115s.

The death toll now from the heat and the related storms now reaching 20. The Virginias, in particular, having a terrible time today. In some cases police are having to hand out ice. Hundreds of thousands of people who have not had power since Friday since a wave of violent storms hit pretty much at their wit's end by now.

And with us now from Washington, CNN's Lizzie O'Leary, who has been following this story.

There's a critical problem. West Virginia hit the worst and they are talking about water now, water, a serious problem for a lot of people there.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is something a lot of people don't think about in the first wave of coverage of a storm. You tend to hear about power loss, but of course you have a lot of water systems that are running on electricity. A lot of people don't think about that being something that they need to think about.

If you have been through a hurricane, you get the advice, fill up your bathtub and a lot of that is so you can use that water to restore water pressure to a toilet, for example, if you have lost your electricity. We have some numbers from West Virginia.

About a third of the state's population gets their water from West Virginia American Water and they say people are reporting water service loss, low pressure, cloudy water. They are getting boil water advisories because often when they have that low pressure the water sits in the pipe. Bacteria can get in to it.

We know reporting from our team out in West Virginia and Brian Todd has been seeing a lot of folks who are storing water both for drinking water but also just for daily use as a lot of this happens. We also know that out in West Virginia about 20 percent of the state's population isn't connected to water service. They use a cistern or a well. When the power is out, that becomes really problematic as well.

These are the problems people are facing several days into the power outages as well as the heat that you have been talking about because you think first about the lights and then people start to think about water. You can go without light, but you can't go without water.

BANFIELD: Yes. You can go as well, for the most part, when it's really hot without fan or A.C. but that can also be lethal.

You mention the boil water advisory which they're giving out. Well, that's fine and dandy, but how do you boil the water if you don't have the power which leads to the piling on, on the power companies. Come on. We're five days and you're still saying another three or four until we get our power back. Can federal regulators get in here and make a difference?

O'LEARY: It's very hard on a federal level. Federal regulators really only control the big electrical transmission lines.

Everything else is generally governed by state and local municipal regulators. There's a slightly different relationship. We are starting to see them take over the last couple of years. Folks we have talked to out in West Virginia say the power companies are doing all they can. They are doing a good job.

I talked to the top regulator in Maryland yesterday. They are looking closely at the power companies in Maryland. In Maryland, last year, they took a step to fine the power company Pepco a million dollars for power outages in 2010 basically saying you didn't have a good enough storm plan and you had bad maintenance.

In Connecticut, the attorney general there is going after the power company there for bad storm planning in Hurricane Irene and in the nor'easter last year. You're starting to see a slightly more aggressive tack by some of these regulators, also saying, look, if you spend a lot of money after a storm, we understand that, but you can't pass that rate raise onto your customers.

So, several states have passed laws forbidding that. But oftentimes they go back and do a postmortem and look at what happened and then see if they will pursue penalties.

BANFIELD: I know Pepco has been taking it on the chin. That's for sure.

This story does continue. Lizzie O'Leary, thank you and happy Fourth.

On this holiday, more Americans are actually hitting the road. It's actually the highest number of people taking off in the car or the SUV or the whatever else you roll with. Why is it? Take a look. The national average gas price is not too shabby, $3.33. It's up a wee bit from yesterday. But it's still way down from a year ago and some of the cheapest prices can actually be found in the southeast part of the United States.

That's where we find David Mattingly, and he is live in Atlanta for us.

Give me the rundown on why people are choosing the road over skies.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, everything's down a little bit over last year.

When you fill up your tank you can save a couple of dollars per tankful. That's not a lot. That's not very dramatic. But prior to this holiday, there were 78 straight days where gas prices actually went down and people started to make the decision there's not going to be any better time to hit the road.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): More Americans in more cars are traveling more miles this Fourth of July holiday. Lower gas prices is one of the big reasons why. AAA estimates more than 42 million Americans are on the move during their time off, the most since 2007. Eight out of 10 are hitting the highway.

NANCY WHITE, AAA: This year, we've seen the highest volume vehicle travel for the Fourth of July holiday period in over a decade.

MATTINGLY: Nationally, prices for regular fell earlier this week to $3 a gallon in Alabama, and $3. 74 in California. There's a feeling of get it while you can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am taking advantage of gas prices, the low gas prices now. I better fill up now. Better fill up now and take advantage.

MATTINGLY: Prices average about 24 cents a gallon less than last year, but 60 cents more than in 2010. And already, there are signs this consumer roller coaster is already on the climb again, maybe up 10 to 15 cents more on average.

BETH HENSON, OIL PRICE INFORMATION SERVICE: Sort of a range of $3. 25 to $3. 50 through the summer until about September.

MATTINGLY: And just yesterday, the price of oil jumped more than 4 percent. The highest since May.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: We have gone up one cent to two cents a gallon across the country just in the last 24 hours. The people who are on the road right now probably made the right decision to make that long trip and buy that gas for this holiday -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, David Mattingly, thank you very much. Do appreciate it.

Coming up next, see what it looks like to fight a fire from really close up and personal. Normally, you're told to stay away from fire, but CNN invited along with firefighters as they went home by home to battle this monster. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We have been reporting the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs has claimed the title as the state's most destructive wildfire ever. Take a look at the flames and video that was shot on Monday.

The fire has crept to the edge of the Air Force Academy in that state. It has absolutely destroyed 350 homes. It erupted back on June 23. So, it did its damage very fast.

Jim Spellman is in Colorado Springs for us today.

We're getting better news. We're hearing more about containment, but I have also heard, Jim, this is like the tiger in the cage with the door open. Is it still that bad?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eighty percent containment and that's really a phenomenal number.

As bad as this fire got at its worst, they actually are ahead of their containment schedule, where they are seeing containment. They got a little rain yesterday. Everybody was glad for that. But with these long-term dry drought conditions, not only is there a chance that this fire especially on its north end could kick up again, but we could get new fires happening at any time.

There's a possibility we could get some rain that could alter that. But it's been such a dry season here that we have just seen so many wildfires start almost on a daily basis, definitely not out of the woods yet. But, for today, right here, they are celebrating Fourth of July thankful that they have got 80 percent containment and no homes immediately in danger from this fire, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, Jim, tell me, please tell me that there is a ban on fireworks in that state, given what that state has just gone through in the last couple of weeks.

SPELLMAN: Ban on fireworks, campfires. Pretty much any kind of fire you cannot have in the state of Colorado. It's forced the cancellation of a lot of public celebrations here. Normally, this is a very patriotic military town. You would have big fireworks shows in the part on the Army base, Fort Carson. All of that has been canceled.

People are looking to have more quiet celebrations this year. A lot of the people that are still out of their homes are staying with friends and even in hotels are forming little makeshift barbecues and parties like that. Also, today, being that people are not working today and a holiday, it's really the first chance this town has had to kind of exhale.

As we have spoken with people today, some evacuees and other people we have met today, there's definitely a sense that today is the first day everyone can relax and exhale and maybe take stock that even though a lot of homes were lost and two people died, it really could have been a lot worse. And I think there's really a sense of sort of quiet gratitude this year that has replaced the big celebrations we might normally see on the Fourth of July -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I think that's exactly the way to put it. The quiet gratitude. And hopefully the people of Colorado who have been affected by this know the rest of their fellow Americans are thinking about them and praying for them. Thank you, Jim Spellman. Happy Fourth to you.

The name certainly has been an attention grabber, the God particle. I'm sure you have heard of it, but do you have any idea what it really means? The pictures are great. It sounds awesome. It sounds like this should really be the top story of the century. What does it really mean, and does it answer the question how did we get here anyway? We have the best source to explain this to you coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It's not every day that you see a whole bunch of scientists standing up with champagne bottles and cheering, but today is no ordinary day.

Take a look at that scene just a couple hours ago in Switzerland at the Center for Nuclear Research, otherwise known as CERN. Now, that's some enthusiasm. What's all the excitement about? Discovery of an itty-bitty little particle, a subatomic particle like be one you see in this animation.

Before you're checking out and your eyes are going all glossy and you think this is way beyond my ability to understand, I'm not a nuclear physicist and I never will be, consider this. If this discovery is what the scientists think it is, it could change everything. It could change everything we know about the world much like the discovery of the nucleus 100 years ago. Think about that. Produced nuclear energy, produced pretty much everything we know about life at this point.

We have enlisted the help of Michio Kaku, who is a physics professor at City University of New York.

This will be a tricky one because I think a lot of people are trying to make sense of what the God particle means and what it means to their life and what it means to the question of how did we get here? Can you break this down and what this significance really is?

MICHIO KAKU, CUNY: There's a reason why physicists are dancing around their atom smashers even as we speak.

They spent a lifetime, 30 years and $10 billion searching for this particle. Now, the God particle, we physicists wince when we hear the words. But there's some truth to that. The Bible said that God said let there be light and there was the universe. Physicists say there was a big bang, an explosion 13.7 billion years ago, but what was the match? What was the fuse? What was the spark that lit the Big Bang?

Where did the bang come from in the Big Bang theory? We're clueless. We didn't know. And that's where the Higgs comes in. We think that...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: The Higgs is part of the what has been termed as the Higgs boson. Explain the Higgs and the boson both again.

KAKU: OK. We're celebrating the fact that we have found a new particle never seen before in Mother Nature by slamming two beams of protons at trillions of electron volts.

And this particle we think was in fact a particle like this was the fuse that set off the explosion which created the universe so that everything we see around us, the galaxy, the planets, the Earth, life itself is a byproduct of an explosion which was set off by a Higgs- like particle.

BANFIELD: This made a little bit of sense to me as I was trying to make sense of it today. The Higgs field broke the symmetry of a uniform soup of weightless particles produced by the Big Bang, giving everything we know mass and making the universe possible.

KAKU: That's right. We think that originally the universe was a gas of particles with no mass at all. Think of a crystal. Beautiful. Crystal, totally symmetrical, but useless.

It exploded and the shattering of this crystal gave us all the masses of the particles today, the electron, the proton, the neutron, the atom. Why do we have a nucleus? Why do we have a proton? Because they have masses. The explosion of the particle broke the original perfect symmetry of this crystal giving us the broken world we see today of planets, stars, galaxies, you, me, even love, all of it from this explosion triggered by a Higgs-like particle.

BANFIELD: It's still very complex. But I know you often break out into the sociological implications of science as well. This is the beginning of a very, very big conversation, isn't it?

This isn't just science. This is how science may actually disprove religion? Because you said you cringe when you hear God particle. Is that where we may be headed with this?

KAKU: Even more than that.

Realize that the Higgs boson takes us to the instant of creation itself. And we can run the videotape before the Big Bang. We can talk about the universe before the creation of the universe itself. If our universe is a soap bubble of some sort and it's expanding, there could be other soap bubbles out there, other universes.

This is where the next step beyond the large hadron collider comes in. We're going to look for evidences of a pre-Big Bang universe and perhaps the existence of other universes. And then of course we have the question that everyone asks me. Is Elvis Presley still alive in another parallel universe?

BANFIELD: Is he?

KAKU: Maybe.

You can't rule it out.

BANFIELD: Come on. We're going there, really?

KAKU: We're going into areas that take us before the instance of Genesis chapter one verse one. We're talking about going before the beginning itself.

I tell you, this is deep, this is really deep. It has philosophical and theological implications as we talk about a universe, a parallel universe, other universes out there coexisting with ours. The large hadron collider, this gigantic machine in Geneva, is the key to perhaps proving the existence of these other dimensions.

BANFIELD: The hadron collider is basically the machine where you said this smashing occurred.

KAKU: That's right.

BANFIELD: Isn't that extraordinarily dangerous? I don't know your job but doesn't that hold potential more disaster?

KAKU: Not at all. Realize that Mother Nature thinks as this gigantic colossal machine as a peashooter. In outer space, cosmic rays hit the Earth every second just as energetic as our most powerful beams of proton here on the planet Earth.

Here, we can create controlled beams of protons, slam them together to create the Higgs boson. Mother Nature in outer space, in the Milky Way galaxy, does it all the time. And we're still here.

BANFIELD: We are. You know what? Listen, you and I need an hour to go over this more, because while I understand the larger concept, I'm still having a really tough time understanding the subatomic concept and how that really does create the larger concept.

But for anybody that doesn't know about your book, it's awesome. "Physics of the Future," I highly recommend it. Go get it now.

Michio Kaku, also professor at City University here in New York, it's great to see you. Thank you for that. You made English of it, which is wonderful, because this a tricky subject, to say the very least. Take care. We will talk soon.

KAKU: OK.

BANFIELD: It's the largest 10K race in the world. More than 60,000 people competing. You see the one second from the left, that was Suzanne Malveaux.

Up next, a fascinating story of a man who decided he loved that traditional Atlanta road race so much, he took it with him even when he went to war. I kid you not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. I'm Senior Airman Kirsten Bradley (ph) with the Ninth Security Forces Squadron at Bagram, Afghanistan.

And I want to wish my husband, Derrick (ph), and my son, Aden (ph), a happy Independence Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: In Atlanta, the Fourth of July would not be complete without the Peachtree Road Race. If you have not heard of this, take a look at your screen. That's just 60,000 people going for a run today, 60,000 people from all over the world running in the world's largest 10K event this morning, despite how hot and humid it is too.

It's a 40-year-old tradition in Atlanta. One retired Army major general was so into this race he could not bear to leave it behind when he was sent overseas into the war zones, and so he took it with him.

Nick Valencia has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM JOHNSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I first started running the Peachtree Road Race back in 1980.

And I had just left active duty and needed something to keep me in shape. I sat that first goal for the Peachtree in 1980. And once I ran the first one, I was hooked.

I joke around that my goal is to run the Peachtree every year until I'm 80. I had received orders and deployed to Kuwait back in 2004. So, my string of Peachtrees was in jeopardy. My driver and I mapped out a 6.2-mile 10K course and on the morning of July the 4th, I ran it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one and begin.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JOHNSON: For us over in the combat zone, we're fighting for the liberties that we all hold dear. And it was a piece of America back on July the 4th and a piece of Atlanta. We were in the middle of a desert in a combat zone halfway around the world at 95 degrees, at 5:00 a.m. in the mornings.

The Atlanta Track Club was just great. She sent 1,000 shirts, starting and finishing banners. Everybody wants a Peachtree Road Race T-shirt. It's very special.

I'm a very patriotic person. So, that's why I am very involved with this. But, also, the Atlanta Track Club is just super in this support now for eight years of these overseas races to let our service members have a little piece of America on July the 4th in a combat zone halfway around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Coming up next, he believes his widow was poisoned, and now she wants to prove it. And he's not just any he. He is the Palestinian Yasser Arafat. The mystery behind his death, hear what scientists have found on his toothbrush and on some of his clothing, findings that might lead to Yasser Arafat's body being exhumed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Today, a real bombshell coming out of the Middle East. Tests conducted at a Swiss lab into the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat reveal that the long-time Palestinian leader may not have, in fact, died from natural causes. He may have been poisoned.

Let's bring in CNN's Elise Labott who's live in Jerusalem. So, there's testing of his clothing and some of his personal effects that suggests this might actually have happened. But how credible is this and how serious is it?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, the simple answer is, we don't know just yet. Now, this Swiss lab found normal traces of this radioactive material, polonium-210, on Yasser Arafat's toothbrush, on his clothing that Al Jazeera who was doing this investigative documentary and his widow, Suha Arafat, asked them to test.

But the researchers were very careful to note that this doesn't mean that Yasser Arafat was poisoned and the symptoms he showed just before his death in the Paris hospital and they were going through those medical records are not consistent with the kind of symptoms that you would see from a polonium poisoning, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And those symptoms, I think -- if I read correctly -- his bone marrow was not depleted. He didn't lose his hair the way we have seen in other cases of polonium-210 poisoning.

LABOTT: That's right.

BANFIELD: So, at the same time, while that's inconsistent, they're taking it serious enough and his family wants his body exhumed. Is that likely to happen? LABOTT: Yes, it's likely to happen. His widow, Suha Arafat, talked to CNN earlier today and said she hasn't officially put in a request yet, but she plans to do so.

And the PLO, Palestinian officials, leadership that we spoke to today said President Abbas is very insistent on an international investigation to make sure to find out really what happened and they are going to cooperate.

And as soon as they get some kind of official request from his widow, they are prepared to exhume his body and they are calling for an international investigation.

If you remember the death of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, they're pointing to those kind of international investigations. They say Yasser Arafat was no ordinary man. He was the leader of the Palestinian people, considered the father of the Palestinian people, and they want to know what happened to him.

BANFIELD: Elise Labott, it is a fascinating story and I think you're probably going to be getting more of it as we move on throughout this day and the next. Thanks very much. Reporting live from Jerusalem for us.

What we're about to show you now is very graphic and it's very difficult to watch. And so I want to give you this warning in case you have some kids in the house or kids near the TV. It's probably a good idea if they're young to ask them to move away or at least leave the room.

Some video out of Syria, two little boys believed to have been killed in their sleep in Southern Syria, a bomb hitting their home in the middle of the night. We've had to blur their faces because it truly is just too gruesome.

They are just little brothers named Hasan and Hussein. They're about seven or eight years old and you can see water bottles sort of lying beside their bodies. They are frozen water bottles because that's really the only way to preserve their bodies. The morgues are too full.

So this is their burial service. And during this burial we can hear man at one point reading a poem and saying, quote, "They slaughtered us and then they came to my child, my baby." They, that's referring to Syria President Bashar al-Assad and his forces.

They are believed to be responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Syrians since this uprising began last spring. CNN cannot confirm this video or any of the others that we run for you because Syria limits journalists from entering the country.

But it is very hard to look at these tiny little bodies, two little brothers, and see anything other than indiscriminate slaughter. Rights organizations are estimating that the total dead now is about 14,000 and that includes men, and women and little children like those two little brothers. This story is not over. Just 24 hours ago, we were telling you about terrible torture. A report out of Syria, in fact, from Human Rights Watch releasing sketches that showed different torture methods used on Syrian detainees by the government, by the Syrian forces, torture, including prolonged beatings, burning with acid, even sexual assault.

These are sketches, but we actually now have video, allegedly showing one of these beatings. And again, warning goes out to you now. This one even more graphic than the video we just showed you, but have a look.

What you are seeing right now, this is believed to be Bashar al- Assad's Syrian government forces violently beating this man who has already, as you can see from the marks on his body, gone through a blistering beating. His body is thoroughly bruised. He is being hit with electrical cords. They are stumping on his back and on his body.

It's the kind of video that you would assume Syria would not want leaked because it makes the Syrians look terrible. It makes the government forces look like animals. And here's what is bizarre. Apparently, they do want the videos out because it is a scare and intimidation process for people who oppose them.

They are saying things in that video like, is this the freedom that you want? And then they force the prisoner to say that Bashar al-Assad is their god. We don't know when that video was taken. We don't know where it was taken, again, because Syria is off limits to us. Very, very difficult to get in to report on what's going on there.

We think at CNN as an organization this is crucial that you see it. It's crucial that you know just how bad it has gotten in that country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Breaking news in to CNN. Montreal, Canada, police have told CNN that a human head that was found in a park on Monday does, in fact, belong to this man, Jun Lin. He's the Concordia University student who was murdered and dismembered more than four weeks ago.

The suspect in this murder, a 29-year-old porn star, Luka Magnotta, who is being held in Montreal by police there after being captured in Berlin last month and extradited back to Canada.

You may remember this story because most of Lin's body parts had been mailed out, hands and feet mailed out to the conservative party and the prime minister of Canada, the liberal party, a school in the province of British Columbia.

Those parts had been found, but police had told CNN in weeks prior that Mr. Lin's head was still missing. Well, at least now, the family has some closure, but that case is going to be massive in the Canadian courts. All right, "On the Case," now, this is the frightening side of superstardom, obsessed fans. The apparent victim this time? Usher. Usher, the music star.

Somehow a woman he doesn't know was able to get beyond a security gate and able to get beyond guards and able to get beyond his own security team right to his front door.

So ABC News has this report. They have a 911 call from Usher asking the police to come to his home.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

USHER, SINGER: She came to my house earlier today. Once anyone realized this was not a woman who anyone knew, she was asked to leave the house.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: All right, so, why is this an "On the Case" case? Defense attorney Joey Jackson with me now. Not so much for the stalking element of it, but for how the stalking element is playing into Usher's custody case.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Exactly.

BANFIELD: What is happening?

JACKSON: Well, here's what goes on. As we know, it's in the best interest of the child, right, to have parent, of course, who cares and loves and supports them.

Now, what the wife wants to do is say, listen, this puts my children, right, two boys, in danger, one four, one three, because, in essence, what she is claiming is that if a stalker can ultimately go up and knock on the door, then how much in danger are my children and if they are, should the court take that into account in making a child custody determination?

BANFIELD: So, to be clear, Usher's ex-wife, Tameka Foster, wants to use this stalking case against her ex-husband in order to get the children to come with her, suggesting it's too dangerous for them to be -- doesn't that victimize him twice?

JACKSON: It does. I think there are two problems with that, Ashleigh. One is the one you mentioned. OK, first, I'm victimized because I have a stalker now that's after me, so why ...

BANFIELD: I didn't ask for it.

JACKSON: You didn't ask for that. They just came and they are literally knocking on your door.

And the second way is this. Now, the court is going to hold that against me such that they're going to take the children away. And there's also a third and that's the "parade of horribles." How many celebrities have stalkers and how many celebrities have children? So, now, if you have a child and you have a stalker, the court should now intervene and take your children away from you?

And that's why I don't think it will play so big in a court proceeding. The court's going to look at other things. Of course, the ex-wife has made allegations in a number of ways, talking about drug use, talking about the fact that there's infidelity, not that that'll play so huge in that, but also talking about his schedule, that he's on tour. He's away. He doesn't really have the time commitment for his children.

Those things, I think, are significant, but to use this, a stalking incident, to victimize him twice, as you say, Ashleigh, don't think it's going to happen.

BANFIELD: But although as a mom, I would be very worried if there was somebody knocking down the door where my children were staying.

But let me play something very significant. ABC News/"Good Morning America" had another 911 call in which Usher actually uses the word -- I believe -- "delusional" to describe this woman. Have a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

USHER: I have two children in this home and three adults in the house and this young lady apparently is a bit delusional.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: All right, here is why I want to bring that up. Because he also got a restraining order in which he did say the words, you know, she's dangerous to my family. I'm paraphrasing, but she's dangerous to me. She's dangerous to my family. So it is on record, he believes that that woman ...

JACKSON: Is dangerous.

BANFIELD: ... that alleged stalker is dangerous.

JACKSON: And poses a danger not only him, but other people at the house.

BANFIELD: Does that pose a danger to his custody case?

JACKSON: It could potentially, but I really think, ultimately, listen, he has body guards. This was a lapse in security. The woman should not have made it that far. I doubt it will happen again. They will be on heightened alert.

And, of course, a judge wants to make sure the children are safe and, if the children are not safe, you have to take court action and make sure that they are. But, ultimately, I don't think this will play so huge as to say, you know what? The children are this danger as a result of stalker and as a result, give me your kids.

Apparently, the stalker is just sort of infatuated with him. There hasn't been threats or allegations made by her that she wants to kill him or do anything other than to say she's his wife and she wants him and she's married to him. She is a bit delusional in that regard, but I don't really think, Ashleigh, the judge will hold him accountable for that.

BANFIELD: Well, certainly, let's hope that the "parade of horribles" doesn't happen because other celebrities in that boat with children might be more resistant to actually going for the restraining order if they have to put on the record -- I'm worried about my kids.

JACKSON: Right. And that puts them in danger and we don't want that effect here.

BANFIELD: Joey Jackson, as usual, awesome.

JACKSON: A pleasure.

BANFIELD: Thank you.

JACKSON: A pleasure, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Happy Fourth.

All right, in the fight over voters in the swing states, there's some big time auto towns that have benefitted from President Obama's bailout of the industry, no matter how people argue about the bailout.

But some of the those voters are leaning towards Mitt Romney who infamously said, let Detroit go bankrupt. So find out what the thinking is here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: This week CNN is hitting the road for a special series. Poppy Harlow toured the Rust Belt, driving from Wisconsin to Indiana to Michigan and Ohio. What a road trip. She wanted to take the pulse of voters in the key auto towns.

Because all four states went for Obama in 2008. However, Indiana is leaning towards Mitt Romney. Poppy visited Kokomo, an Indiana town that relies heavily on the auto industry for good jobs and, while that bailout, Obama's bailout, kept the residents employed, it didn't seem as though the love is continuing for President Obama.

Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: When we rolled into Kokomo, Indiana, it was 93 degrees, a few clouds in the sky, reflecting the revival of this Rust Belt town.

MAYOR GREG GOODNIGHT (D), KOKOMO, INDIANA: Our three largest employers are all automotive companies, Chrysler, General Motors, and Delphi.

HARLOW: We came to meet Cliff Pitcher and Dewayne Bates at their neighborhood bar, two friends whose blue-collar auto careers have followed a similar path, but whose politics have not.

Do you agree on who the next president should be?

CLIFF PITCHER, CHRYSLER ELECTRICIAN AT KOKOMO PLANT: No. I'm all over Obama.

DEWAYNE BATES, RETIRED CHRYSLER WORKER: And I'm leaning toward Mitt Romney.

HARLOW: Why Obama?

PITCHER: Because I have a job today.

HARLOW: He credits the auto bailout which Romney opposed. You see, folks here call Kokomo "Little Detroit."

BATES: If it wasn't for Obama, I would not have a pension. I would not have insurance.

HARLOW: Despite that, Dwayne doesn't think President Obama deserves another four years.

BATES: We're not much better off than we were three and a half years ago.

PITCHER: You cashed a check.

BATES: I'm thankful for that.

PITCHER: I think I'm better off.

HARLOW: Kokomo's unemployment topped 20 percent in 2009 when GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. It's down to 9.7 percent when we visit.

Why do you think that Romney would be better for the U.S. economy right now?

BATES: I think he'd be good at jobs and Romney might get jobs back in America.

PITCHER: Romney might be able to create jobs, but they're going to pay $7 or $8 an hour. And, you know, honestly and truly, I can't support my family on $7 or $8 with no benefits.

HARLOW: We asked the two to make their best argument to each other.

PITCHER: I have a job. You have a job. We both have insurance. We can still raise our families. And no one in this town is gone.

BATES: We still have a long road ahead of us, but I feel Romney with his background experience in business will turn this economy around.

HARLOW: The debate is going on all over Indiana.

This is a really fascinating state politically. It voted for Obama in 2008, electing a Democrat as president for the first time since LBJ, but right now the state is leaning towards Romney.

In Kokomo, you can really see the politics play out in the stories of auto body shops on opposite sides of town. Allen Wilson is on the south side. He credits Obama.

RICK MCCLAIN, OWNER, ALLEN BODY'S SHOP: Got three more employees than we used to have, so our business has doubled.

HARLOW: How's business?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow. It's very slow.

HARLOW: Rick is on the north side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the guy in the middle that pays the taxes. It's actually crippled me.

HARLOW: You're ready for a change it sounds like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to happen.

HARLOW: You're so confident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. There are so many people around here -- I understand the East Coast and West Coast probably are pro- Obama. That's fine.

But the people in the Midwest have had enough. I mean, we've been stepped on. We've paid enough bills.

HARLOW: As for Cliff and Dewayne, they'll be voting.

BATES: I've never missed an election.

PITCHER: You can check my record.

HARLOW: Again this year, one of them is going to lose.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: CNN's Poppy Harlow for us.

OK, so it is a holiday, right? How many times have you checked your BlackBerry or your e-mail? How many times have you checked your second BlackBerry and your second e-mail account?

Apparently, more Americans have decided, huh-uh, I'm unplugging on vacation. But in this day and age, is that really possible? Can you? Should you? Why aren't we? My next guest has some interesting advice for you coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Just minutes away now from the top of the hour, which means Wolf Blitzer is coming up. And, of course, it means Wolf Blitzer is coming up. He does not take a vacation, even on a holiday. Hello, sir.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": It's July Fourth. Happy July Fourth to Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Thank you. You, too.

BLITZER: Happy July Fourth to all of our viewers. I hope everyone's enjoying.

I assume, Ashleigh, a lot of folks are -- it's really hot outside. They're going to come inside where there's air-conditioning, at least, if there's power, they'll be watching "The Situation Room."

BANFIELD: Two hours ago, they started.

BLITZER: I know they've been watching you, as well.

They're going to have a good time inside today, watching all the important news.

We're going through what Mitt Romney is now saying on this July Fourth as far as the healthcare law's concerned, the mandate. Is it a tax, not a tax? Donna Brazile is here. Rich Galen is here. We're going to go in-depth on that.

Also Erin McPike is going to be joining us. She's got some strong views on what's going on.

And then we're going to make a turn later in the hour to Pakistan. There's been a dramatic development, as you know, 24 hours ago the U.S. and Pakistan reached a deal that will allow these convoys of trucks to bring supplies to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

What was the cost? What was the price? The Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, is in Islamabad right now in Pakistan. She's going to be joining us and we're talking about all of these dramatic developments.

BANFIELD: That's great. Awesome. That sounds terrific. Thank you, Wolf. Look forward to it.

It is turning out that more and more business leaders are getting real serious about having some real fun. A new survey found that 51 percent of chief financial officers say they do not check-in with the office at all while on vacation. And that is up from 26 percent in a 2010 poll. And 21 percent in a 2005 poll.

That's why Rachel Sklar here. She's the founder of the website "Change the Ratio." The survey is fascinating. But I've got to ask you, how difficult is it to actually unplug? I don't just mean checking in with the office. I mean putting down your electronics and saying, enough is enough. It's family time.

RACHEL SKLAR, FOUNDER, "CHANGE THE RATIO": Well, those are two different things. I question the survey's language because checking in with the office is different than letting the office be able to check-in with you, which you can do when your iPhone or BlackBerry safely in your bag or in your pocket.

I think the actual unplugging is very difficult for people who lead busy lives, are used to being available and around and also want to know what's going on at every moment of the day, which now we're getting pretty used to.

BANFIELD: I mean, look, these devices aren't just our BlackBerries for work. They are also BlackBerries for our personal e- mail accounts. They are our telephones. They are our cameras. They're our Twitter accounts. They're almost just about everything we do.

So how is it that you're supposed to use your phone on vacation, but don't look at the e-mail account?

SKLAR: I don't understand who's making those rules that if you're using your phone, that you can't check your e-mail. A lot of people actually feel much less stressed out if they have their, you know, their twitter, their e-mail.

If they want to scroll through Instagram, let them. If they need that quick dopamine hit, let them.

BANFIELD: Well, I'm glad you said that. I am one of these people. I really wanted to do this interview with you today because I feel as though I am anxious if it's been an hour and I haven't cleared the backlog, the 400 or so e-mails that me and all of my friends get back here at CNN.

SKLAR: Look at what business you're in. That has something to do with it as well. If you're in the news business, if your business is breaking news or keeping up to date with what's going on, then obviously you're going to want to keep that BlackBerry or that iPhone with you while you're on vacation. It will not feel like a vacation if you're freaking about what you're missing.

But for a lot of the executive surveys I'm sure and more traditional companies where there are layers and layers and layers of people taking responsibility beneath them. So in that case ...

BANFIELD: I'm so frustrated by this. Because I thought that -- you know, I'm reading all this research that a digital detox is really good for you. It's good for you if you ...

SKLAR: I've done it.

BANFIELD: It's good for your mental health, if you have depression. And I just keep wondering, is there like a withdrawal period of time where, if I go on vacation and I just let myself be anxious for at least a day or so, will it go away and will I relax? SKLAR: I think they say three days. You get sort of used to it. I am not a psychologist. I may be an enabler, but I'm not a psychologist. And I think you do get used to it.

For me, personally, I'm a lot less anxious if I have my device with me then I can enjoy a dinner, hang out with my family, hang out with my friends, watching a movie, you know? I might not want to be disturbed from "Magic Mike," but if I need to be reached, at least I know that I have my phone with me.

BANFIELD: I'm with you. I think that the toothpaste is out of this tube. I think we're stuck with this, no matter what. But it's good to see you. Happy Fourth. Another Canadian, too.

SKLAR: And that's why I was able to check my e-mail and come on in today.

BANFIELD: I love it. All right, Rachel, thank you. Good to see you.

It is time now for the inevitable Wolf Blitzer who never takes a day off and always checks his BlackBerry. Thanks for being with us.