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Senate Democratic Leaders To Meet With Obama At White House; Craig Wright, Reginald Chance and Robert Sims Now Being Charged In Biker Assault

Aired October 12, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It is 3:00 p.m. on the east coast and noon out west. For those of you joining us, welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Miguel Marquez in for Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories we are following.

Going nowhere fast -- on the 12th day of the government shutdown and the debt ceiling deadline quickly approaching, a compromise deal is now off the table, and a House vote isn't expected until Monday night at the soonest. We'll go live to Capitol Hill.

Plus, Howard Schultz is no stranger to Washington politics. Now that CEO of Starbucks wants Americans to send a message to Congress.

And a third New York City police officer is now being investigated in connection with the motorcycle road rage incident that ended with the violence attack of the SUV driver. And you won't believe which department he works for.

A hectic Saturday in Washington, Capitol Hill and the White House, and we have new developments outside Washington.

Senior White House correspondent Brianna Keilar is at the White House. She joins us live.

Brianna, what do you got?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in about 15 minutes, as we understand, and White House officials tell us Senate Democratic leaders will be coming down here to the White House to meet with President Obama. We just heard on the hill, this was the development in the last hour, that they have essentially rejected a plan put forward by Susan Collins to increase the debt ceiling and reopen the government. This is a plan by Collins, who is really one of the more moderate Republicans in the Senate.

The White House, and officials here saying it's not that they rejected it, but they think it neither works or changes, but at the same time White House officials are not being specific at all, Miguel, about really what they would be amenable to other than a clear increase in the debt ceiling and the reopening of the government at this point.

So, we are really sort of waiting to see what comes out of this meeting. One official told me it's just a check-in, so it's really unclear if there's anything that is going to be really substantive other than they're sort of getting together really trying to see what the state of play is.

Things are very uncertainly at this point, as we stare down this deadline come Thursday, October 17th when the U.S. is expected to lose its borrowing authority and Congress doesn't act, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: That is the question whether this is just optics, Democrats want to prove to the world they're actually doing something or will they actually taupe about something that can be done.

All right, Brianna Keilar at the White House. Thank you very, very much.

Now, the Senate Democrats held a news conference on the negotiations over the shutdown and the debt ceiling just a little while ago. Senate majority leader Harry Reid said there is a long way to go in fiscal talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NY), MAJORITY LEADER: Conversations were extremely cordial, but very preliminary, of course. Nothing conclusive, but, I hope that our talking is some solace to the American people and for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: He also said the government must be open and must maintain ability to pay its bills before progress with budget talks.

Let's bring you up to speed on what's happening today.

The Senate defeated a procedural move to bring up a clean bill, a debt limit bill. The vote was 53-45, party lines. The White House responded to the vote with this statement. Congress must do its job and raise the debt limit to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default. It is unfortunate that the common-sense clean debt limit increase proposed by the senate Democrats was refused a yes or no vote today.

Meanwhile, in the House, not much is getting done, because members have left and they go back to their home districts leaving only the GOP leadership in town.

Athena Jones is live on Capitol Hill today, putting in a long day.

Athena, what do you make of what the Democrats are saying now?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miguel. Well, it's interesting to hear senate majority leader Harry Reid saying that he hopes the talking, the fact that both sides are talking, will bring the American people solace. But the talking doesn't seem to be getting anyone anywhere.

A few days ago, it looked as though they could be on the verge of some deal, but today it doesn't look like that anymore. And now, you have the House ending its legislative business for the day some hours ago. Many members headed home. This has to outrage furloughed workers and people worried about this debt limit. Now, you have the Senate in recess. No votes are scheduled for tomorrow, and so, it doesn't look like any advancement is going to be taking place soon.

Now, we have just heard from Brianna that Senate Democrats are headed over to the White House, but of course, those are the two sides that agree with each other. I mean, they are on the same side in all of this. And so, sure, make they will hash out a way forward on that side, but what really matters is coming up with a deal that can win the support of both parties in both chambers in order to make it to the president's desk.

After that press conference that the Senate Democrats held, one of my colleagues (INAUDIBLE), was able to pull aside some of the senators to do a little bit more talking. And we heard from New York senator Chuck Schumer telling my colleague Dan (INAUDIBLE) that they believe the Senate has to leave here lead here. If they can come together with some sort of big bipartisan vote in the senate, that will make it easier for the House to go along. But the question remains, what are they going to do to get by broad bipartisan support in the Senate? Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Well, that's perhaps interesting. The things moved back to the senate. One real quick question, did you say 90 members have left, 9-0?

JONES: I said many members have left. We don't an exact count. We had our cameras out there talking to some of these members. Certainly, some people live close by, some were planning to go home. Certainly, several senators said they would stick around. But the bottom line is they are not actually in session that they are not planned to be in session right now, tomorrow. And that's got to make a lot of people unhappy as we get so much closer to this big, big deadline -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Big day. Thank you very much, Athena Jones on Capitol Hill.

Top military brass behaving badly, a two-star air force general in charges of the nuclear missiles was fired for alleged personal misbehavior. And just two days ago a Navy admiral who oversaw the military's nuclear forces was let go. He is being investigated for gambling issues.

Barbara Starr joins us on the line from Washington -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Miguel there are two top, top officers involved in the nation's nuclear weapons forces losing their jobs too in two days.

First up was air force major general Michael Carey. Now, he was in charge of all 450 land-based nuclear missiles in the country, allegations against him personal misbehavior, that's officially why he was removed from his job. Sources have been telling us that it involved alcohol while on a trip, reported by several people who were on that business trip with him. Next, two days earlier, vice admirable Tim GiarDina. He was second in charge at the United States strategic command. That meant he was the deputy in charge of overseeing nuclear command and control issues, all of that, very high level, again officially misconduct. Sources are telling us it did involved gambling.

The nuclear force, you know, they tell us that absolutely safe. There is multiple layers of security, but the fact is very troubling, because this is a part of the military where they are, of course, is zero-tolerance with nuclear weapons, for any misconduct, any failure to be anything other than a very excellent commander -- Miguel?

MARQUEZ: Extraordinary circumstances.

Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

Coming up, a third police officer is being investigated in the high- speed motorcycle chase. And you just wait until you find out which department he worked in. We will have all the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: It's the video that shocked a nation. Now, three bikers have been indicted in connection with that violence attack on an SUV driver in New York. Craig Wright, Reginald Chance and Robert Sims are all accused of attacking Alexian Lien while his wife and child were watching in horror.

Margaret Conley joins me from New York.

Margaret, bring us up to date.

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel, seven bikers have been arrested in the SUV driver's assault, part of a high-speed chase that was captured on the video and went viral. Three of them have now been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. They have been charged individually with either striking the SUV driver or the vehicle. They will next be in court for arraignments on October 30th. That's when their charges will be made public. The police are still looking for at least four other bikers who may have attacked the SUV driver.

MARQUEZ: What more do we know about the off-duty police officers who were on the scene?

CONLEY: Well, there are three of them. One of them has been arrested. We have photos of him. You can see him there on your screen. He is the one that's blurred out. And his worked as an undercover detective, including infiltrating the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The second detective, he has resigned to a desk job. He has not been charged. And CNN has now learned that a third office involved works for internal affairs, the very same department that's investigating this entire case.

Here's more from yen's legal analyst Paul Callan. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: It's hugely significant. IAD officers are supposed to be the guys that really enforce the law. They enforce the law even against fellow police officers, the letter of the law. And to think that an IAD officer might in fact be involved in this incident, I think the public will be very upset and disturbed about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONLEY: Now, the officer's lawyer told our Susan Candiotti that his client has worked with internal affairs for five years. He didn't see any part of the assault. He said the officer didn't do anything wrong. Now, both of these officers, they took days to report to their superiors that they were there, all of this continues to be investigated.

MARQUEZ: All right. Margaret Conley, thank you very much, from New York.

Millions of people love it. I'm talking about candy crush. Some people say this online game is addictive, as addictive as candy, but can it make a lot of money for the company that produces it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Well, you are looking at a live picture of the White House, where our folks on the ground tell us that Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader has arrived after that press conference, where he said that there was no deal with Senate Republicans, a deal forwarded by Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine, a compromise that folks thought might end, at least one piece of the concerns over the debt limit and possibly the government shutdown all in one go it's not clear why Reid and other members of the Democratic leadership who said they are going to the White House this afternoon, are actually going there because it is not clear what they can talk about at this point given that this deal seems to be off. Perhaps, this was described to our Brianna Keilar, who is working hard for us today and earning her pay as a check-in, that the members of the Senate Democratic majority. We are going to check in with the president and the White House and figure out where they go from here if anywhere.

The other question is whether or not this is just optics on the Democrats' part trying to show the country they are taking this seriously and trying to bring in government shutdown and the debt limit crisis to an end.

We will come back to Brianna. She is out there furiously trying to figure out what is going on and what's going to be discussed. We will come back when she gets back up and going. But for now we know Harry Reid has arrived at the White House. We expect other members of the democratic leadership to arrive as well. Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARQUEZ: All right. The drama in D.C. continues. At the White House Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader has showed up there. We expect other members of the Senate leadership to go to the White House to check in, to try to figure out where they go from here after rejecting a centrist Republican plan to end the dual crises we have going now.

Also working hard for CNN today is Athena Jones is up on Capitol Hill.

We are getting our money's worth out of you today, Athena. What have you heard about this meeting?

JONES: Hi, Miguel.

Well, we know we have seen Senator Reid arrived. But I should mention that here on Capitol Hill there was a lot of activity earlier in the day, not as much recently. But because of all that's been going on, we had a whole team of folks out going to the different events. And my colleague Deirdre Walsh is reporting that she was also able to grab some folks after that Senate Democratic presser right before Senate majority leader Reid and Durbin and the others headed to the White House. And she was able to learn that Harry Reid plans to continue speaking with senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on the Republican side. He said there's not a meeting scheduled, but imagines will be speaking by telephone, so that potentially a good sign.

Another reporter asked him if the Senate, this is interesting, if the Senate is going to be in session tomorrow, and apparently Senate majority leader Reid nodded, and asked, what's the House doing? We know, of course, that the House has no vote scheduled for tomorrow. They don't plant to come back until Monday evening. I believe we have a clip from Senator Reid that we can play right now from that presser that ended not too long ago. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Conversations were extremely cordial, but very preliminary, of course, nothing conclusive, but I hope that our talking is some solace to the American people and to the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, I don't know how much solace the talking really is to the American people and the world. We have this debt limit coming on Thursday, just a few days away. One more thing that came after the presser we are learning is that Senator Durbin said that right now the thinking is that they are going to be two separate votes, one that would raise the debt ceiling. We don't know at this point for how long or even when that vote would take place, but Durbin also said this spending bill that we've been talking so much about to reopen the government, it's been 12 days that it's been closed, that spending bill is sitting on Speaker Boehner's desk.

So, once again, we get back to one of the arguments we have been hearing from Democrats all along, which is that the House has the votes, with the Democrats and a few Republicans to pass a bill that would reopen the government as soon as the speaker will schedule one. So, that's what we're hearing.

MARQUEZ: Perhaps the headline here, and maybe I'm a pie in the sky optimist, and we understand that Dick Durbin has entered the White House as well, is it a good thing the Senate is back in the full focus here? That a deal could be reached in the Senate, which is considered more conciliatory, more amenable to a compromise on this? Is that good? And then if they can actually pass something, and it all goes back to the House again, then we have to see where they go?

JONES: Well, that's the thinking. That is something that Senator Durbin said -- or sorry, Senator Schumer, I believed, was said after that press conference, that the Senate will have to lead here, and if there could be some sort of a broad bipartisan vote in the Senate, then that might make it easier for the House to get Republicans on board. Of course, remember there is conservative House Republicans who ran on the idea they weren't going to ever vote to raise the dead ceiling, so it looks like no matter what to be might have to see in the House side, Speaker Boehner gets some help from House Democrats to pass whatever could pass there.

But some of the thinking is that the focus is on the Senate. The two sides are talking. And so, they say they have an understanding of just how important the deadline that's coming is for the debt ceiling and also just reopening the government, to get all these folks back to work and end this crisis -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Yes. I mean, that seems to be the backdrop is the tea party clearly pleased that the government is shut down and that the debt limit is not being raised. The big question will come, if the Senate can get something else passed, the big question will come then to John Boehner again in the House, and whether or not he will allow a vote to go forward. And, you know, by CNN's reckoning, there are Republicans out there who would put them over that 217-vote limit in a bill came up. Is that correct?

JONES: That's right. The latest count we had earlier in the week was at 219, 200 Democrats, 19 Republicans. I'm told that number is remaining steady. People are in trench. But there was an effort by House Democrats this morning to put what's called a discharge petition on the floor, try to get enough signature, 218 signatures, to try to force a vote on this spending bill with no strings attached and they didn't get enough signatures. They got 186 from Democrats. And so, that whole argument the Democrats has been making trying to shame Speaker Boehner into bringing this clear and so-called clean spending bill with no strings attached to a vote on the floor. It hasn't worked so far and it didn't work today. There is some thinking that as we get closer and closer or as the shutdown last longer and longer and we get closer to a debt ceiling, it could force some action especially as we look at this whole Republicans are taking a bigger beating than either Democrats or the president on all of this. And so, that could play into this as well -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Athena Jones, who appears to be all alone in the capitol building at this point, thank you for keeping up with it. We will come back to you again and again, I'm sure. Thanks.

JONES: Thanks.

MARQUEZ: We'll have more on the developments throughout this hour, but one programming note. You can catch all-new Anthony Bourdain "PARTS UNKNOWN" tomorrow night. Bourdain goes on a tasty journey to Sicily, love it, where he learns the language of food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: So what do we have here? So I can identify these products. Cap I coalo (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosciutto. Lardo.

BOURDAIN: Pancetta. Oh, that looks good. Guanchiale (ph).

The bread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These ricotta, and just cooked in the oven. The bread is from the uncle, and they have also salami, and sausages.

BOURDAIN: This cheese?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Canestrado (ph).

BOURDAIN: And what do you call this dish?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just -- on a pan.

BOURDAIN: Right. Beautiful. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's good. The best moment of the day.

BOURDAIN: Indeed. Oh, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: All right. We understand that several members of the Senate leadership have now arrived at the White House and they are in a meeting to figure out where they go from here. This is after Senate majority leader Harry Reid said there was no deal with Susan Collins and the compromise that she had put forward earlier. We expect to hear and hope to hear from either Brianna Keilar or Athena Jones or many of our CNNers who are out there working hard this weekend to figure out where this goes in the hours and days ahead. We will keep you fully updated.

Well, coffee isn't the only passion of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. He is also very vocal about politics, politics and coffee and angst these days, perfect. But this time, he is not the one doing the talking and says Schultz is offering Americans a platform to voice their frustration about the government shutdown, urging lawmakers to come together to stop the stalemate.

Bick Valencia is at Starbucks here in Atlanta. And we hope you're not drinking too much coffee there, Nick.

What are folks saying? How many signatures do they have? And do you think it could make a difference?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miguel, I just checked in with Starbucks a little while ago. Their number, officially anyways, still stands at about a million. But they expect that to go up significantly throughout the weekend.

Look, they got about 11,000 stores nationwide, they average 20 million customers through a weekend. The hope if the CEO, Howard Schultz, is that every single one of those customer this weekend signs this petition.

Elaine Johnson is one of those customers. We were talking a little while ago. Come on in here, Elaine. We talked a little while ago about the shutdown, about this petition. What do you think about this initiative that the CEO has pushed forward?

ELAINE JOHNSON, STARBUCKS CUSTOMER: I think it's wonderful. I think more people should come out. Put your names down, get involved. It's time. We are falling behind. America should not be in this situation.

VALENCIA: If something like this, Elaine, is it more of a symbolic gesture, or do you think when these millions of signatures are delivered to the White House, do you think it will lead to any tangible results?

JOHNSON: To me, it means that people are actually putting their names down, they are present, this should be a sign to Washington. People are tired of this. It's time for a change.

VALENCIA: So many people we have talked to this morning and throughout the afternoon say they're tired of this. And you know, really some people look at this and they blame both sides. They say this is both Democrats and Republicans. What do you think?

JOHNSON: As a whole, yes, both are involved.

VALENCIA: You think they need to grow up?

JOHNSON: They need to wake up. People are hungry. We have military men coming in that are -- that have been out in battle. They can't get home, they can't get buried, their families can't get benefits. We have babies, people on WIC right now. What's happening? What's happening to us? I'm a retiree and this is very stressful, you know. We go about our everyday business sometimes as if nothing is going on, but we need to put our feet down, we need to get in touch with Congress. People need to come out, put your name down, be heard, be seen. It's time.

VALENCIA: Thank you very much, Elaine, for your comments.

And Miguel, we have heard a wide range of pins throughout the day. Some people say that this petition is exactly what Washington needs to hear. Others people, they aren't as inspired. They don't think signatures on paper is really going to break through to the politicians in Washington -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Thank you very much there, Nick.

I tend to side with the latter folks. I think things are pretty stuck there right now. It's going to take a lot of coffee and late nights.

And right now, I want to remind you that the Senate democratic leaders are at the White House meeting with President Obama. Our Brianna Keilar is at the White House as well. You will hear from her after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Well, there you are, live pictures of the White House, where congressional Senate leaders are gathering to talk to President Obama about where they go from here, after rejecting a compromise by Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine.

Our Brianna Keilar has been nosing around trying to figure out what's going on in that meeting, what are they going to talk about and where this all goes from here.

Brianna, what are you hearing?

KEILAR: Hi there, Miguel.

Well, I spoke with some White House officials and they basically say that Senate Democrats are meeting with President Obama really just so they can get on the same page, now that we've had these developments throughout the day and yesterday, the rejection of a House plan that would have increased the debt ceiling just for six weeks. And now, this rejection by Senate Democrats of a plan by Republican senator, Susan Collins, which would have increased the debt ceiling to January, so beyond the holiday season. But many things in there, including the duration of that debt ceiling increase were unpalatable to Democrats and the White House as well.

I mean, basically, what you are sort of seeing play out is that President Obama, Miguel, has said all along. He doesn't want to negotiate, and he doesn't want really wanted to negotiate on the shutdown. He doesn't really want conditions to have this threat when it comes to reopening the government. And the White House senses at this point they have more leverage. So, you are seeing them not really give. I think they're looking at some of the polls out there that show while really everyone is blaming Washington in general, they are in particular blaming Republicans. Approval ratings for the tea party at an all-time low, a recent poll showed this week, so it doesn't give the White House an impetus to cave on this. They think that really that is more where Republicans should be heading, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Is there is a sense of the Republican is pleased, that the momentum seems to be back at the Senate where they possibly can cut a deal, where there seems to be some room for maneuver?

KEILAR: Were House Republicans pleased by that, you mean?

MARQUEZ: Is the White house pleased by that, that they can work with the Senate, that McConnell and Harry Reid can, somehow, get together and hammer something out, that they then present to the House a couple days down the road?

KEILAR: Yes. I don't know if I would say necessarily that they are pleased. I think we're sort of in the middle of a process here. I don't think there's a tremendous -- I mean, there is concern here obviously as we are heading towards a default, but it doesn't have sort of a break glass feel at this point. I do think that they feel there's still time to maneuver and there is still to find a resolution. So, in that regard, I think that you still feel that there is time, at least, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Break glass and break dishes, and glasses, and pull the emergency lever --

KEILAR: Americans will, if we get to that point.

MARQUEZ: Do you know how long this meeting will go on?

KEILAR: No, we don't know. A lot of the meetings that they have been go on for maybe an hour, maybe a little more. We're not sure. That's kind of the standard. So, we will report back to you as soon as we know.

MARQUEZ: And we know that Dick Durbin showed up, we have that Harry Reid was the first one there. Do we know how many members in total are there?

KEILAR: You know, I don't know exactly at this point. I know that it is Democratic leaders. So, I believe you are going to have, at least, four Senate Democrats, but it's unclear to me if maybe there are some others. I will get you that information as soon as I can.

MARQUEZ: No, that's fine. I know it's a moving target out there. I really appreciate you running around and trying to get all this. I have a difficult question for you. Because we heard that Susan Collins was going to address us earlier today, and then that seemed to go away, did you hear something changing, or was that never really in the plans that was just, you know, I was hoping she would come to the microphone?

KEILAR: No. I think honestly what's happened there, Miguel, is now that her plan appears to be dead in the water. And when you ask the White House about that, they will say no, we're not completely rejecting it, but it does appear at this point that that plan is dead in the water, so kind of getting in front of the microphones is pointless, that's sort of my read on that.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

The two things that Harry Reid talked about was that that they agreed with is that the Collins plan opens the government and raise the debt ceiling. And then basically said everything else doesn't work in that. I mean, we're not just talking about the medical device tax to put that up. We are talking about several others pieces of that deal, yes?

KEILAR: Sure. Yes, but this is what is interesting and I think this shows kinds the mindset of the White House in Democrats as they're negotiating here. That medical devices tax, President Obama said in the meeting with Senate Republicans yesterday that he doesn't consider that to be a core part of Obamacare. I think that's actually something that under different conditions, the White House would be open to making a change to, but it's just sort of this being under the threat of something, the fact that they would give in, even on something that they might already that they would separately give in on. They don't want to do it when it comes to it being in a way sort of like paying a ransom. They are on principle saying they don't want to do that. I think that's really motivating a lot of what the White House and what Senate Democrats are doing in these discussions or negotiations, if you can even call them that, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Amazing. Thank you very much. Working very hard for us today in Washington. At least it's not raining. We're going to follow this story this afternoon into the evening maybe as long as it takes to figure out where this government shutdown is going. We will have more for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Here are five things crossing the CNN news desk right now.

Number one, Democratic leaders in the Senate are meeting this hour with President Obama on the in pass over the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The short time ago, Senate majority leader Reid said there's a long way to go in fiscal talk with Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Republicans in the House say the president rejected a proposal and many members are heading home to their districts.

Number two, the statue of liberty and other federal landmarks will be reopening. The state of New York says it's losing too many tourist dollars because of the shutdown. It will be pay the national park service $61,000 a day to operate Liberty Island. Arizona has struck a similar deal with the federal government to reopen the Grand Canyon. It will pay the national park service more than $650,000 to operate the park for at least one week.

Number three, tropical cyclone Phailin is battering India. The storm with winds of 140 miles per hour made landfall just hours ago on the country's east coast. Several people have been killed by fallen trees. Phailin is massive, think hurricane Katrina size massive. Tropical storm force winds stretch 270 miles, that's about the distance between Boston and Philadelphia.

Number four, Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson is asking for privacy as he mourns the death of his 2-year-old son. The child died yesterday of injuries he received after he was allegedly beaten by his mother's boyfriend. Joseph Robert Patterson has been arrested. Peterson says that despite the tragedy, he'll suit up and be ready to play football tomorrow. And number five. A couple aboard a cruise ship bound for St. Marten as being credited with saving three men who were stranded at sea. According to CNN affiliate WBC, (INAUDIBLE) seen here on the rights were getting ready for bed when they heard voice off the water. They alerted the captain and turn the ship around, began searching with flood lights. Three Americans were pulled from the water alive. They had been floating are for more than 10 hours after their speedboat capsized.

Now, every weekend we bring you the science behind stories in the news. Today we're going retro. Folks that grew up in the '70s will remember the hit TV shows like "$6 million man" and "the bionic woman." Well, fast-forward a few decades and bionics are now real. We take a look behind the scenes with the story of Craig Hutto who had his leg taken by a shark attack but is now walking again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRAIG HUTTO, BIONIC LEG TEST PATIENT: Back in 2005, I was on vacation with my family. My brother and I we were fishing out on a sandbar when something bumped me on my left leg and then grabbed on my right leg and it turned out to be a shark. There is just so much tissue damaged after that. The physicians had to either choose life or limb and that's when they amputated my leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, the typical prosthetics, you can't go up slopes or down stairs and by mechanically healthy way and with power we can provide the equivalent of muscles and therefore we can sense they duplicate whatever the healthy limb can do.

HUTTO: I never thought it would be possible for me to walk up stairs. Surprisingly enough, once we started it, it's remarkable how easy it is for me.

MICHAEL GOLDFARB, PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: We're working on a robotic leg for the above-the-leg amputees. We are, in fact, the only group in the world that has a fully robotic leg prosthesis was the power of the knee and the power to ankle. It has own power moved by itself, but it is not connected to the user in any kind of explicit way. Instead, it has lot of sensors on it and it understands how the user's interacting with it.

The leg has two fully powered joints. So it has a motor at the knee joint and a motor at the ankle joint. So, effectively the motors are the equivalent of the muscles and sensors are the equivalent of the same sensors that we have in a healthy limb.

If you look at conventional prosthetics, they essentially lack muscles, so you have to sling them around and move them around. This is a leg that affectively has the equivalent of muscles. And so, what we found is that people use less energy when they walk with it and people generally walk faster and they can do things like go up stairs and down stairs and up slopes and down slopes and run which are things that generally you can't do with a conventional prosthetics.

We look forward to having it improve people's quality of life and minimizing their disability and enabling them to do things that maybe would be difficult before or maybe things they couldn't do before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: We turn now to a story of a young man who found out he has an ailment that can slow you down but doesn't have to stop you in your tracks. And as our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, he's living and racing a dream come true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Green, green, green.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Against all odds 20-year-old Ryan Reed is living his dream.

RYAN REED, 20 YEARS OLD: Been a race car driver since I was 4-years- old.

GUPTA: He was 17 when Kyle Busch, he is one of NASCAR's top drivers recruited him for his development team.

REED: It was like everything was falling right into place in my life and nothing could stop me. I was really cranky and I remember being thirsty a lot. I was using the bathroom extremely frequently, losing a lot of weight.

GUPTA: Reed was diagnosed with type I diabetes.

REED: You are, no, Ryan, you'll never race again.

GUPTA: But they were wrong. Reed adapted. He is on a strict diet. He has a sensor implanted in his abdomen that transmits his blood sugar readings. There's a continuous glucose monitor that is mounted to the dash inside his race car that allows him to check his blood sugar during the race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten four, how are your numbers? There get 120, still maintaining.

GUPTA: And his fire suit sports a bull's-eye?

REED: We have a pit crew that can reach in and give me an insulin debut should I need it.

GUPTA: Reed made his debut in NASCAR's second biggest series on April 26th. And just last month he finished in the top ten.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta CNN reporting.

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MARQUEZ: Now, the Vatican has been forced to withdraw commemorative coins commissioned to celebrate Pope Francis' first year. It's all over a misspelling and you'll never guess what they misspelled. We'll tell you next.

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MARQUEZ: All afternoon we have been following developments in Washington, D.C. You're looking at a live picture of the White House now where congressional leadership of the Senate is meeting with the president to figure out where they go from here after Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, objected and rejected a compromise proposal from Republican Susan Collins of Maine. We don't have a read yet on that meeting, but we expect to and you will have a full update coming up as soon as we do.

Now, from Krispy Kremes to monogamy, "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." has it all.

Brooke Baldwin is spilling in and has a look at what's in store.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Miguel. I mean, it is an incredible story. We're calling her the bravest girl in the world. It is now been one year since Malala Youseff was shot by the Taliban at point blank range. So, she is sharing her story with us exclusive details with Christiane Amanpour.

We have that, also, sex and relationship expert, Dan Savage. He will make the case monogamy not always the best policy. So, stay tuned for that kind of thing.

And you're a healthy guy, Miguel, you will not believe how much sugar is in some of these so-called super foods. We're breaking out the Krispy Kreme doughnuts today and we're talking about multiples Krispy Kreme doughnuts in some of the so-called healthy foods, we would all for you ahead 4:30 eastern.

MARQUEZ: All right, then. Thanks, Brooke.

So tune in for Sanjay Gupta M.D. That's just 30 minutes from now.

There are some red faces at the Vatican today over an embarrassing misprint. A new coin honors Pope Francis' first year in office but there's just one problem. The coin had a misspelling on it. The word? Jesus. A Latin phrase on the coin instead said lesus with an "l." About 6,000 medals were made but all but a handful has been retrieved and those out there I'm sure are worth a lot of money. Expect these to become some pretty big collectors' items.

Well, it's has been a long afternoon and that's all for me. And we are now going to hand it over to Don Lemon who is covering all the developments happening in Washington. Plus, how the battle over the budget and the government shutdown will affect your money, that's something you do not want to miss.

Don, my friend, it's all yours. Good luck.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: I think Kanye West has the name of his next album Lesus instead of Jesus. Thank you.

MARQUEZ: You, too.