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CNN Live Saturday
Three Explosions In New Dehli Kill 55; I Lewis "Scooter" Libby Indicted.
Aired October 29, 2005 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): ... minister of foreign affairs and minister of state for defense keeping you informed. CNN, the most trusted name in news
(on camera): To our top story now, holiday shopping turns to horror in India. Three explosions blew apart two crowded markets and a bus in New Dehli, killing dozens. The markets were full of shoppers looking for gifts for the upcoming Hindu Festival of Lights. Their joy replaced now by grief and heartbreak.
Satinder Bindra is in New Delhi
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The aftermath of three powerful blasts that ripped through India's capital Saturday evening, two of the explosions in crowded marketplaces where thousands were shopping just on the eve of the Indian Festival of Lights, known as Diwali.
But on Saturday, their merriment quickly turned to disbelief
UNIDENTIFIED INDIAN MALE: (Speaks untranslated Indian.)
BINDRA: We don't know how the blast happened, he says. There was smoke all around for two or three minutes, everyone was shaken.
Bystanders stand by to help in the marketplace alone, they pulled dozens of bodies from under the rubble. Most of the wounded were women and children, some whose limbs were torn from their bodies by the force of the explosion. Eyewitnesses say they saw a suspicious- looking bag just before the blast. Gas cylinders stored in shops then ignited a huge blaze. Dozens more were injured in the stampede that followed.
Indian authorities are describing this as a terrorist attack. They're also warning tens of thousands of petrified residents in New Dehli to stay away from crowded areas, and to try to remain calm.
Hours after the tragedy, Sonia Gandhi, who heads India's ruling coalition, offered her sympathies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SONIA GANDHI, LEADER, INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS PARTY: I'm really expressing my pain and anguish at what has happened and I want to send my condolences to all the families who have lost their dear ones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BINDRA: Just two days before Diwali, when millions of Indians decorate their homes with candles and lamps, many are now trying to come to terms with what happened, saying their thoughts are those who will be preparing, not for celebrations, but funerals and cremations over the weekend.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And after all of that, there was more tragedy in southern India today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): More than 100 were killed when a passenger train derailed. Ninety-two were injured. The train was attempting to cross tracks washed away by floodwaters. Hundreds of rescue workers are trying to get to several coaches still, right now, underwater. And we don't know how many people may still be trapped inside.
(on camera): Now back in this country, it has been a tough week for the Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is mounting his defense after being accused of lying about his role in blowing the cover of a CIA agent.
And the president's top political adviser remains under scrutiny, CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House right now. Elaine, a lot of people must be gathering over the weekend now to figure out what to do next
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN ACHOR: Well good evening to you, Carol. That's right, President Bush is spending today at Camp David after, what has been, a trying week for his administration.
Here at the White House there's been a mixture of sadness and relief.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Sadness, of course, that the vice president's former chief of staff, former national security adviser, "Scooter" Libby, has been indicted. At the same time, relief here as well that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not charged.
But, of course, there are still open questions. Rove's lawyer says that he remains under legal scrutiny. Today though, President Bush, in his weekly radio address, made no mention of the CIA leak investigation. Instead, the president turned his attention to an issue that's actually dragged down his approval ratings in the past, the Iraq War.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN RADIO ADDRESS)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): The progress we have made so far has involved great sacrifice and the greatest burden has fallen on our military families. We've lost some of our nation's finest men and women in the war on terror. Each of them has left grieving families and loved ones back home. Each loss of life is heartbreaking. Yet, these patriots have also left a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans and millions of others who have only known oppression, to enjoy the blessings of liberty.
(END RADIO ADDRESS)
QUIJANO: Now the president's comments come at a challenging time on that front as well. It was just this past week there was that grim threshold of more than 2,000 Americans dead in the Iraq conflict. As for what is ahead for the Bush administration, aides say that we could expect to hear an announcement from President Bush on a new Supreme Court nominee within a matter of days. Carol --
LIN: All right. More you from in the next hour. Thanks very much. Elaine Quijano live at White House.
All right, so how is the American public reacting to Libby's indictment and the CIA leak investigation?
Here's CNN's Mary Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Key players, Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove, have had practically their every move captured on tape in recent days. Even trips for coffee by Special Council Patrick Fitzgerald were watched as interest in the CIA leak probe hit a fever pitch.
With the investigation veiled in secrecy for almost two years, recent headlines have splashed across the nation's newspapers, anticipating developments. And with reporters, like Judith Miller, a part of the probe, the media has become part of story. Outside the world of Washington, in Denver, Colorado, some say the details aren't as closely watched
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably more of an east coast issue than it is out here in this part of the country. I think more people are concerned with what's on in Iraq and how the government is currently handling that situation.
SNOW: But others say they've been awaiting the outcome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think a lot of people don't understand it quite frankly. I think it's going to affect the administration.
SNOW: In Miami, still reeling from hurricane Wilma, some say they're not upset the leak probe is overshadowing their plight. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think, really in Washington news, I think it needs to be, I think, a lot of people aren't as inform, as they should be.
SNOW: In Chicago, where Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is based as a U.S. attorney, some felt strongly about protecting CIA operatives.
(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE): I think our country needs resources for information, and we can't get those resources and keep them safe if somebody is going to leak them.
SNOW: As to the question of why the case of a leak to a reporter matters to the general public?
(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE): I believe that there is a implication of what the political situation is, and it goes back to the very first part of 2000 and the war in Iraq
SNOW: New Yorker Dion Tulluck (ph) says, on a scale of one to ten, he rates the significance a three.
DION TULLUCK, NEW YORKER: I think there are so many other things that need to be addressed right now?
SNOW: Such as?
TULLUCK: Such as, like, so many soldiers are dying In Iraq?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (on camera): And from Main Street to Wall street, where there was yet another reaction. Stocks rallied. The Dow was up 172 points and some on Wall Street say that is due, in part, to the fact that the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not indicted.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
LIN: Now, our Wolf Blitzer goes one-on-one with the husband of the covert agent whose cover was blown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Former ambassador Joe Wilson. Look for that interview "IN THE SITUATION ROOM" Monday at a special time, 7:00 eastern.
CNN.com has launched a special report detailing the CIA leak investigation. For a timeline of the investigation and the look at key players, a profile of "Scooter" Libby and the full text of the indictment, log onto cnn.com/cialeak.
Now coming up right here, sick of feeling the pinch at the pump while the oil companies are posting record profits? Tom Foreman breaks it down for you. Just who's getting rich and who's paying for it? And some in Miami are rationing.
CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: In southern Florida, tens of thousands of homes remain without power, and people are waiting for hours to fill their cars with gas. All this, six days after Hurricane Wilma.
CNN's J. J. Ramberg in Miami. J.J., what's the problem down there?
J. J. RAMBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, carol. Well, the real problem hinges on power. You were just talking about power. Florida Power & Light said they had about 50 percent of their customers back up with power as of last night.
But the problem with power for the other 50 percent is not only just that their homes don't have power and their refrigerators and their lights aren't working, but when it gets to gas stations, it means that gas station can't pump gas out.
Now, I want you to just look behind me. This is a gas station that was bustling early this morning. We got here at about 6:00 in the morning, there was a line to gas. It was going very smoothly, nonetheless, there was a line.
But by 9:30 a.m this place had run out of gas, and that's because this station does have power. Any gas station that has power has huge lines around it, and then is running out of gas because there are still about two-thirds of the gas stations that, at least as of earlier today, that didn't have gas. So really, when power comes on, this isn't going to be a problem anymore because then all of the gas station will be able to pump out. Supply isn't an issue, there is plenty of gas here. It's just that people can't get to it. Carol --
LIN: So J. J., when do you think people are going get online, then? Why is it taking so long to get power on?
RAMBERG: You know, Florida Power & Light was really hit with a big one, this one. The storm had a big reach. It was incredibly strong. They've been working, as they say, as hard as they can. They've got extra relief troops in here. They hope to to have most of the customers back having power by November 8, and 95 percent of them by November 15. Now as for these gas stations that do have power though, they're expecting supply trucks to come in. They're just not coming as fast as they expect them.
LIN: Right, J. J. Wow, that's a couple of weeks the people are going to be living like this.
RAMBERG: Yes.
LIN: All right. Thanks very much.
RAMBERG: I know, and you're hearing a lot of complaints from them, too.
LIN: I can imagine. J. J. Ramberg live in Miami. Thank you.
So did you all know that Exxon Mobil posted a record profit this week? Congress plans to investigate. And CNN's Tom Foreman now has done the same.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The luck ran out downtown for Steve Thomas.
STEVE THOMAS: This can't be good .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can't be.
FOREMAN: He was shopping for the lowest gas price when his tank ran dry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you actually ran out of gas trying to get here.
THOMAS: Never in my life have I seen gas this high. We can't drive, we can't heat our homes, we can't do business. Nothing can be down without this energy.
FOREMAN: So you think there are people who are just flat-out taking advantage of you?
THOMAS: Of course. I think it's price gouging.
With that accusation flying everywhere these days, we broke down the average price of a gallon of gas so far this year. Around $2.29 to see where the pennies go.
According to the American Petroleum Institute, you can start by giving $1.34 of that pump price for crude oil, paid to the company or country that pumps it from the ground. Next, give federal, state and local governments about 43 cents a gallon in taxes. Gas stations get about 10 cents a gallon, the entire distribution chain about 12 cents. They have their own ideas about who's getting much more.
THOMAS: I guess the people who are running the oil refineries.
FOREMAN: Maybe those people?
THOMAS: Yes.
FOREMAN: But you're not getting rich?
THOMAS: No.
FOREMAN: The refineries, indeed, get the remaining 30 cents. But what about the oil companies? Well, for any gallon, they're raking in money from the ground to the tank.
Rayola Duir (ph) is with the Petroleum Institute and she gave us all the number.
RAVOLA DUIR, PETROLEUM INSTITUTE: This is a huge industry. They're make billions of dollars. Billions. They're spending hundreds of billions. And the energy that we're consuming right now is brought to us to by investments made many years ago.
FOREMAN: she has many eplanations about how rising demand among the Chinese, consumption by Americans and hurricane damage in the Gulf, may mean, even with all of those billions coming in, the oil business may not be all that lucrative in the long run.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOREMAN: I just get lost in all this.
DUIR: Do you?
FOREMAN: I'm trying to understand this. But it sounds like everybody is saying it's not our fault. But people are get fabulously wealthy while other people are paying. Is that fair?
DUIR: Well, no, it's really not because there are winners and losers, as I said, and we're going to have to add them up.
FOREMAN: But the losers are the people buying the gas and the winners are the ones selling it.
Still she points out that commodities brokers are also cleaning up. What in the Dow Jones is a commodity broker? You already know the most famous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Randolph Dukes. How you doing?
SECOND UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing Randy? What's happening?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My younger brother , Marvin.
SECOND UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey Mar-kay. What it is?
FOREMAN: Remember in Trading Places how the Duke brothers wanted to buy all the oranges in Florida because they knew the harvest would be small? The short supply would drive up demand and they could resell at a much higher price.
Anyway, the same thing is happening right now with oil. But if that's all part of keeping big oil companies rolling, Marisa Paul (ph) says, "So what."
MARISA PAUL: When we see it at the pump it's a little shocking to us. But, I think, in their long-term business, that they're trying to protect themselves.
FOREMAN: Really?
PAUL: I do. FOREMAN: Well, they're posting, like, record profits.
PAUL: Right now.
FOREMAN: Doesn't that seem a little odd when you're paying record amounts?
PAUL: Are they going to be posting profits in a year from now? In two or three years from now? I think that's what they're thinking about.
FOREMAN: Finally a voice of calm and understanding in the beleagured populace. Oh, by the way, what do you do for a living?
PAUL: I'm a lobbyist.
(LAUGHTER)
FOREMAN: On the other side of the pump, Steve Thomas says It all comes down to fear, fear Of shortages, fear of natural disasters, fear of what brought him here: running out of gas.
THOMAS: People would spend all that they have to consider themselves safe.
FOREMAN: They'll just pay and pay and pay.
THOMAS: They'll pay and pay and pay. And these people know this.
FOREMAN: Just like Steve knows, he'll pay and others will profit when he rolls up to the pumps again in just a few days.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIN (voice-over): Coming up, it battered a small Colombian island, and forecasters say it's only getting stronger. The latest on Hurricane Beta.
Plus, a gathering storm of criticism for the nation's leading discount retailer after a memo about employee benefits is leaked.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIN (voice-over): Nicaragua braces for Hurricane Beta. The storm is bearing down on the Central American country and it should hit overnight as a Category 2 or even a Category 3. The storm is not expected to threaten the United States mainland.
(on camera): But we're still having Bonnie Schneider track it at the CNN weather center because it's interesting. This is an historic hurricane season, Bonnie?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. That's right. We've never had a Beta before, that's for sure. And after this we'd have a gamma. Let's hope we don't have that.
But Beta, right now, is a serious hurricane. It is a Category 1, maximum winds are 90 miles per hour. But the storm is moving and we're expecting it to pick up speed and also pick up in intensity.
As Carol said, we may see landfall with this storm as a Category 2 sometime late tonight or early tomorrow morning. And right here on the border there of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, we may see certainly some torrential downpours.
We're expecting up to 20 inches of rain possible. That's a lot of rain It will will cause mud slide problems and flooding, really, throughout much of these countries in Central America. A pretty wide cone of uncertainty.
Though the storm itself is fairly compact right now, with about 120 miles in diameter around the entire storm. And other eye, according to an hurricane hunter aircraft that just flew into the storm, is 10 miles wide. So it's not large like we saw with Rita, Wilma and even Katrina, but it is going to be a powerful and that will affect this area in a very negative way over the next couple of days.
Well, switching gears, as we talk about what's happening in the northeast here and the U.S. Mainland, we have a nor'easter sitting offshore. It could be whole lot worse for New England because this area right now, as we take a look at our radar picture, is really affecting just the extreme northeastern sections of New England. New York right now, New Jersey, Philadelphia, all dry now, not affected.
However, as we travel to the north, you'll see a combination of rain, wind and even snow. The winds are certainly picking up on the Cape and the islands. And in Nantucket, sustained winds have been climbing to about 21 miles per hour. Gusts recorded at the airport at Nantucket at 25 miles per hour. So some strong wind there on the that island.
(WEATHER REPORT)
One thing to note, very important before you go to bed tonight. Remember, it's time to fall back so we'll set the clocks back one hour and that time change will happen at 2 am. So the best thing is you get an extra hour of sleep. It's a great time of year. You can sleep a little bit later tomorrow. Carol --
LIN: All right. But the kids still get up early. That's the problem.
SCHNEIDER: Well, at least tomorrow will be good. LIN: Thanks, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
LIN: All right. Well, almost 2500 elderly patients were evacuated out Texas and Louisiana after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Hundreds ended up in Georgia and may spend the rest of their lives far from home.
Well, we found a poignant twist to the story. A man with more courage than most.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(UNIDENTIFIED REPORT) (voice-over): One elderly patient said it was like entering the belly of the beast. More than 2000 nursing home evacuees from Texas and Louisiana loaded on stretchers and stacked along the walls of a giant military cargo jet on a flight to the unknown.
Seventy-four-old Charles Ruiz was one of them.
CHARLES RUIZ: It was the biggest plane I had ever been in.
REPORTER: Charles and the others eventually landed in Atlanta and were moved to a nursing home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE NURSING HOME ATTENDANT: We're doing squats for strengthening, OK?
RUIZ: OK.
REPORTER: He was born with a bad heart and grew up extremely poor. He felt almost doomed when he was hospitalized with a raging fever right before Hurricane Katrina Hit. After the storm, doctors packed him in ice and evacuated him to the New Orleans airport where, he says, someone stole the shoes right off his feet.
RUIZ: I tried to go to sleep. The next thing, I feel somebody take my shoes off and my socks. I said, "What the hell's going on?" And then she walked away.
REPORTER: Throughout his journey, Charles Ruiz had no idea if his family survived. Yet, as he recuperates at an Atlanta nursing home, Charles spends most of his time making people laugh.
RUIZ: I told her don't make me too cute because I came in single, I want to leave single.
REPORTER: He kids with his friends if he looses at chess.
Do you think that you are, in some ways, tougher than look? Are you tougher than you look?
RUIZ: I think, since I been here and every since I gone all the illness, I think, I have gotten a lot tougher. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE NURSING HOME ATTENDANT: Hi, Mr. Ruiz.
RUIZ: Hi. Pleased to meet you.
REPORTER: A volunteer group, called Second Wind Dreams, which grants wishes for the elderly, visits him and the other evacuees on a regular basis.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER: Another bag of goodies. Lets see if these are...
RUIZ: Isn't that pretty?
REPORTER: So it turns out that, while the staff and volunteers thought they were the ones helping, the courage of these elderly is actually helping them.
TERRY WASHINGTON, SOCIAL WORKER: These people had nothing and they still, to be able to smile now, it's jsut a blessing. It is.
REPORTER: Terry Washington is a social worker whose father taught him to serve the needy. Volunteer Patricia Harris is still grieving the death of her grandmother.
PATRICIA HARRIS, VOLUNTEER: I feel the love. I want to be loved just like anyone else. I'm getting that from them. I'm getting the appreciation. I'm getting the love. I'm getting the verification that I have done something right.
REPORTER: And for Charles Ruiz, something has gone very right. They helped him find his scattered family.
RUIZ: I got a message from my family, "For God's sake, before you come home, please shave."
REPORTER: And there was another thing that went right. It's turns out his family survived Katrina, and most of his family will need to live with him. So as they head back home, the man who grew up so poor has the most to give.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: I asked Charles Ruiz, what was going to be the first thing he was going to do when he got back home to New Orleans. And he said, "Head to the casino and make a few bets." He's betting that everything is going to be fine from here on out.
Now we've got much more in this hour. Wal-mart may be famous for rolling back prices, but there is no way to roll back a leaked memo about employee benefits. And critics are taking aim. That's straight ahead.
(voice-over): Plus, there is no easy way to say good-bye for the families of the men and women who have given their lives for this country in Iraq, and the generals who attend their funerals. Coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN (voice-over): Good evening, and here are the latest developments. Rescue workers in southern India are pulling passenger train coaches out of the water and cutting them open to try to find survivors of a disastrous wreck. At least 102 people dies when the train derailed off tracks washed away by floods. And continuing heavy rain is making the operation extremely difficult.
Now there is a breakthrough agreement to help victims of the recent South Asian earthquake. India and Pakistan will open the militarized boarder in the disputed Kashmir region. Five points on the ceasefire line will be established where families can cross and supplies can go through.
Now, it's bigger than a Boeing 747. The world's largest passenger jet finished its first test trip to a major airport. The super jumbo Airbust A-380 landed in Frankfurt, Germany where a crowd of thousands was waiting. The jet can carry 555 passengers.
So did you hear about the Wal-Mart memo that got leaked? An executive plainly said health care costs are skyrocketing thanks to obese employees who develop heart trouble or worse. So the suggestion? Hire healthier people and drastically change the health benefits.
A debate in just a moment. But first here is CNN's Adaora Udoji.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sometimes controversial megastore chain Wal-Mart prides itself on family values. But critics charge an internal company memo, one you were never meant to see, shows the nation's largest private employer caring more about its public relation woes and profits than its 1 million plus employees.
TRACY SEFL, WAL-MART WATCH: What this memo reveals is essentially there's nothing more than rampant corporate greed that woos their every move.
UDOJI: The memo about healthcare costs and other benefit which is the company says was a draft was leaked to a watchdog group critical of Wal-Mart. In the document, a Wal-Mart executive says, quote, "our workers are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases."
Healthcare to the tune $1.5 billion the past three years is a major reason for rapidly rising benefit costs, it says. Among several solutions to hold it down, the executive writes, quote - "Given the significant savings from even a small improvement in the health of our Associate base, Wal-Mart should seek to attract a healthier workforce to design all jobs to include some physical activity as well as better informing their workforce."
Does that mean Wal-Mart wants younger and more able bodied employees? The memo's author says, no.
SUSAN CHAMBERS, EVP, WAL-MART: We are very interested in encouraging more healthy lifestyle choices, if you will. As an employer we believe the way to do that providing information raising awareness and certainly offering choices that make for healthy lifestyle.
UDOJI: Wal-Mart benefits executives Susan Chambers says the company already offers roughly 18 different health plans to employees across the country in 3,600 stores which they're trying to improve. In response to the leak, the company released its own official copy of the memo.
(on camera): But critics point out, as the company's memo does, that nearly half of employees' children without medical insurance or are covered by taxpayer welfare dollars. And another concern is spousal coverage. It's expensive and the company wants to minimize it.
(voice-over): Wal-Mart pulled in over $10 billion in profits last year so critics say it can do more for the people that help to them there.
SEFL: They can stand to pay more for the health benefits but instead trying to cut corners and they're doing it on the backs of the lowest paid workers.
UDOJI: Wal-Mart maintained the grappling with complex health issues with both employees and the company's interest in mind. Critics say it's not what Wal-Mart says but what the company does and they are not convinced it is enough.
Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Well, a lot of Americans are overweight, and health care costs keep going up. So let's pose the simple question. Is Wal-Mart right? In Washington to debate it. Paul Blank, the campaign director of wakeupwal-mart.com, which is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union and also Dr. Tim Kane of the Heritage Foundation who tells us that the onus on businesses should not be necessarily to provide health care. Welcome to both of you.
PAUL BLANK, WAKEUPWAL-MART.COM: Thanks.
TIM KANE, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Thank you.
LIN: Tim, let me start with you, did Wal-Mart do anything wrong here?
KANE: Well, they're guilty of thinking of ways to contain health care inflation, which all Americans are suffering from. It does seem like a looming crisis, and this memo points to an internal conversation they're having, and I think thank goodness they're, our system is dysfunctional and it's something that Congress can fix by taking the onus off American companies. They shouldn't be the primary caregivers or payers for what should be a free market system.
LIN: Wait a second. Adaora made the point in her piece, $10 billion in profit. Do you think the company can afford to give better health care to its workers?
KANE: Well, they could, but it's really not our business to tell them how to run their business. If anything at least Wal-Mart is providing one million jobs and there are certainly companies out, there I was a small employer, we didn't offer health care to our workers. Wal-Mart is at least doing that. But that's not the issue, the issue is we have health care inflation, it's a crisis, all Americans are suffering from it. And Wal-Mart is not to blame. Congress should try to fix this.
LIN: Paul, I want to continue on the point on the part of the memo we saw in Adaora Udoji's piece, that the workers are sicker than the national population, the prevalence of coronary artery disease in Wal-Mart's population grew six fold compared to the national average. Does the company -- should the company actually foot the bill for an unhealthy lifestyle?
BLANK: The question is this memo is an embarrassment for Wal- Mart and points out the fact that Wal-Mart has a serious health care crisis. Six hundred thousand of Wal-Mart workers are not covered the under the company's health care plan. And now we find out that 46 percent, one out of every two children of Wal-Mart workers either gets no health care or forced to rely on a public program.
LIN: But that's a different point, Paul, because we can debate how many benefits Wal-Mart can offer, but when you take a look at Wal- Mart - the employee base and the people who are covered by health benefits. If their coronary heart disease is six times greater than the national average, it's more expensive for the company to carry them. So does the company have the right to seek a healthier worker if they want to hire new workers?
BLANK: No, what this memo says and I quote from it they "want to dissuade healthy workers from applying." That's simply wrong. We can't discriminate on the basis of health characteristics. What is this? It's like a rancher taking cattle and weighing their size and age and deciding what to do with them. That's a very bad precedent for corporate America to set. And I hope that's not the message Wal- Mart is saying.
LIN: Tim, is this memo a case of discrimination? Is that what Wal-Mart is talking about?
KANE: Certainly not. There has been no act of discrimination at all. Wal-Mart can do away with this headache by saying we're not going to offer health care. In fact, most retailers offer - only cover about than 36 percent of their employees with a health insurance plan. Wal-Mart covers more.
BLANK: That's factually incorrect.
KANE: The plan also says they want to limit the waiting period from two years to one year, so, you know, I think we need to focus not on Wal-Mart but why health care costs are going out of control. And Wal-Mart is saying if you are going to work here and we are going to offer you a health care plan, we're going ask you to actually pay a little bit more, that would be a way to control inflation, it's probably a good idea. But again, this comes back to Congress and benefit income should count as taxable income. Then we would really get right to the nub have a free market health care system, and we don't have that in the U.S. right now.
LIN: Paul, I'll give you the last word here.
BLANK: Here are the facts. Wal-Mart only covers 48 percent of its employees. The average Fortune 500 company covers 68 percent. Now that should be -- that's just wrong.
Think about it ...
LIN: You are saying the company has a moral obligation to offer health care to all employees.
BLANK: This is not a small mom and pop store struggling to survive. This is $10 billion in profits. It's America's largest corporation, largest employer, for them to only offer health insurance to half of their workers is wrong and costs taxpayers billions of dollars, in the upwards of $2.5 billion a year, that's the price we pay for Wal-Mart's greed.
LIN: Tim, I really do have to give you the last word here, quickly.
KANE: Well, he put it out to Fortune 500. Let's compare them to retailers, to like minded companies and there the comparison is Wal- Mart is better than average.
BLANK: Costco gives health care to 80 percent of their workers.
KANE: Costco is not Wal-Mart. They serve a different clientele. I think we need to remember Wal-Mart has been a great poverty fighter. They do offer lower prices, it's effected lower inflation in the U.S. Let's not beat them up, they're not the problem.
LIN: All right. Tim Kane. Paul Blank. Good have you, obviously the debate doesn't end here. And Paul's group, you're going to be launching ad campaigns starting on Monday.
BLANK: That's right, and anybody can go to wakeupwal-mart.com and see the ads. And we encourage them to do it. Join our campaign.
LIN: All right. Paul Blank, Tim Kane, thank you.
Coming up, a small L.A. community fights a message of violence, saying enough is enough. The $0.50 controversy, next, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LIN: Well, it's been a mystery for 63 years, but some Ohio sisters think they finally know what happened to their older brother when he disappeared in California. Here's CNN's Thelma Gutierrez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High in the Sierras at 13,000 feet, near the bottom of the glacier, a startling discovery by some ice climbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
GUTIERREZ: It reopened the missing persons' mystery. It is an unsolved cold case from World War II.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got some teeth so we do have a cranium.
GUTIERREZ: Preserved in ice and granite, climbers found the body of a young man. We now know he was a World War II soldier. He had light hair, he was still wearing a vintage military sweater but no dog tags and no wallet.
But here's what we do know. He was carrying a leather address book and a sewing kit and he also had a World War II era silk parachute and it apparently did not open. And there were no signs of plane wreckage. We also note the Sierra Nevada range a routine flight circuit for air force pilots training to go to war against Germany or Japan.
So who is this iceman? Where is he from? And who did he leave behind? One possible answer takes us to Pleasant Grove, Ohio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We followed the story in the newspaper of the frozen airman who's been recovered after so long.
GUTIERREZ: For three sisters here, this is the message of all but lost hope. Louis Shriver (ph), Sarah Zayer (ph), and Jeanne Pyle (ph), all in their 80s have prayed they would learn the fate of their big brother Glen Munn (ph). Relatives called when they first heard the news of the iceman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could it be Glen? Could it be Glen?
GUTIERREZ: Ernest Glen Munn was 23 when he enlisted in the army. He was based in Sacramento. Seven months into the service, on November 18th, 1942, the army airman was in a training flight over the Sierras and then disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said the plane was lost.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said they were out on a training flight and never returned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember mom fainting in the bathroom. She just couldn't take it. GUTIERREZ: Newspaper reports of the time tell of an ill fated navigational flight. Search teams went out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they searched for a month and then they told us that the search had been called off. Five years after that, they declared him dead.
GUTIERREZ: The sisters say their big brother was their idol. They say Glen knew he was about to be drafted and so he enlisted and was the pride of the town.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And when he walked in, they said, oh, here comes the blond bomber. And I said, that's my brother.
GUTIERREZ: And they've been waiting for six decades to find out what happened to him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just believe in miracles.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was supposed the happen. Before any of us passed on.
GUTIERREZ: The frozen airman was thawed and flown to a military forensic laboratory in Hawaii where scientists will study his skeleton, teeth and his shirt.
PAUL EMANOWSKI, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: There was a badge above his shirt pocket but it is corroded. There's -- after we take it in and clean it up, might be able to look at it under an alternate light source.
GUTIERREZ: The military lists 25 different training crashes in the Sierras during that period so we don't know yet the answer to the frozen mystery in the mountains. The sisters hope this will finally close a painful chapter in their lives and if the iceman is Glen Munn they say they'll bring him home to Pleasant Grove home of his family after 60 years.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Pleasant Grove, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Quickly checking some of other stories in the headlines across America. The New Orleans Police Department has fired 51 people for abandoning their posts when Hurricane Katrina flooded their city. More cases of AWOL cops are still under review.
In Baytown, Texas, federal attorneys call a news conference to announce that 1,000 ExxonMobil workers apparently got fake flu shots. They've arrested the owner of a home health care company and accused him of trying to defraud Medicare.
It may be a seriously bad marketing approach to holiday spirits. Seriously Bad Elf is a British imported beer with holiday appeal. But what's got lawmakers in Connecticut and Massachusetts up in arms is the labeling. This one shows a grouchy look elf with a sling shot firing Christmas ornaments at Santa's sleigh. State liquor regulations ban alcohol advertising with images that may appeal to children, and of course, Santa is off limits.
So imagine taking your kids to school and seeing a billboard overhead with a half naked man posing in a cross with a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other. Well, the people of South Central Los Angeles complained so much it is forcing a major movie studio to take down its ads. CNN's Sibila Vargas has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a scene from the trailer of Paramount Pictures and rapper $0.50's new movie "Get Rich or Die Trying." And these the movie's billboards, billboards showing the rapper in a crucifixion-like pose, his bare tattooed torso revealing a bullet-scarred back A microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're kicking you out. You've got to go.
VARGAS: Posted near elementary schools and even one preschool, they were billboards that pushed community members in South Central Los Angeles over the edge, and they rallied do something about it.
EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, L.A. URBAN POLICY ROUND: The message is violence is okay, is promoted at the highest level, and we say Paramount, you are doing damage to our community, you are doing an injustice to our community and you are committing violence in our community, and that includes $0.50, too. It must go.
VARGAS: In communities plagued with gun violence and gangs, enough was enough.
LITA HERRON, MOTHERS ON THE MARCH: If $0.50 doesn't have good sense, then he needs to stop doing what he's doing or teach our men more productive ways to live. Because I'm not raising five grandchildren to follow him into the thug life or to follow him into prison or to follow him to the cemetery either.
VARGAS: The community campaigned Paramount Pictures to take down the ads. It's a story of a community against a corporation, and the community won.
SHOWBIZ TONIGHT spoke to an insider at Paramount who told us they have taken down some of the billboards in the neighborhood and might take more. It's a win for a community living with gun violence every day. I went to the South Central neighborhood preschool right near where one of the billboards used to hang.
(on camera): What do you think the impact of this victory is?
CYNTHIA OLIVAS, GOLDEN DAY PRESCHOOL: I think it's a star for the community.
VARGAS: What is the message here? OLIVAS: The message here is we should feel free to call somebody for help when we need it and get together and do things together the way everybody came together to get the billboards down.
VARGAS (voice over): This isn't first time rapper $0.50 has come under criticism for promoting gun violence. And here's the first look at his new video game Bulletproof. In the game, you shoot, stab and break the necks of drug dealers using dozens of weapons including many guns and knives. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT spoke with the executive producer of the game that's in the crossfire of controversy, too.
ANDRE EMERSON, VIVENDI/UNIVERSAL GAMES: Because of the violence and mature content and the language it's definitely a mature title. And we targeted that from the start and it's like we knew what the kind of things - knew the aggressive nature of the game. We knew it was going to be mature. But we didn't try to go over the top, make it gratuitous.
VARGAS: But some would argue there is sometimes no way to avoid these children playing the video games or watching these movies. But now some of the billboards are off the streets, the community says it's one small step for change.
HERRON: And the public should note, that since 2000 there have been 800 homicides in this community! Now, who wants to uphold that standard? Who wants to keep perpetrating that madness?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: That was CNN's Sibila Vargas reporting the story from Los Angeles.
Coming up, a tough duty for everyone involved in a military funeral, and for U.S. Army generals who also attend the funerals of the fallen in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: The U.S. reached an important and grim milestone in Iraq this week. The number of troops killed in action reached 2,000, and they all deserve our honor, and their families, our compassion. But may not know that the army pays a very special tribute to every single man or woman who has given their life in Iraq. Here is Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So many funerals. So much grief. The army has been at war in Iraq for nearly three years, and for those three years, it has been burying its dead. Since the beginning of the war, the army has assigned a general to each funeral. Each time to render final honors.
MAJ. GEN. WAYNE ERCK, U.S. ARMY RESERVE: This particular funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Gaimes (ph) was in my division, he was a battalion commander, so I knew him personally, I knew the family personally. This is the only place I wanted to be today, right next to him.
STARR: It's an extraordinary mission for the highest-ranking officers. More than 200 army generals have now journeyed often on a moment's notice to towns across America. Meeting widows, moms and dads they may not even know, telling families the army is sorry for their loss.
MAJ. GEN. GALEN JACKMAN, U.S. ARMY: There is not a general officer in the United States Army who would not drop what they're doing to participate in the funeral.
STARR: Major General Galen Jackman escorted former First Lady Nancy Reagan through President Reagan's funeral. He has now attended four funerals here at Arlington. This senior officer says the heartbreak of death so young is tough for everyone.
JACKMAN: You see them, they're lance corporals and sergeants and private first classes (sic), and so most of these young men and women are probably anywhere from about 18 to 23 years old.
STARR: It begins with a phone call from Major Holly Gay, whose job is to make sure there is a general for every family who wants one there. She says it's the hardest job she has ever had.
How many funerals have you coordinated for?
MAJ. HOLLY GAY, U.S. ARMY: Too many. Too many.
STARR: Give me a ballpark.
GAY: If it's been over 15 months. Over 700.
STARR: The names of the fallen are very personal even after the 2,000 deaths.
STAFF SERGEANT TERREL GANT, U.S. ARMY: You see some of these soldiers in the army for a year, a couple of months, you see what's actually happened, how the sacrifice they made, and you always think it could be you.
STARR: One reason for the effort, it keeps senior officers in touch with the grief of a life lost.
GAY: When you go to a funeral, you understand the sacrifice that the soldiers and families are going through.
STARR: Confronting the last full measure of devotion. The generals say they will keep coming to each funeral, for each soldier, for each family. Barbara Starr, CNN, Arlington National Cemetery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Coming up, it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I'm going to be talking with a doctor who says that can you actually cure breast cancer or even prevent it by what you eat.
A fresh hour of news. Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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