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CNN Live Saturday

New Orleans voters making their choice in the runoff race for Mayor. It's too close to call. Coal mining families mourning; explosion killed five miners in Kentucky. Bush trying to win support for his plans to stem illegal immigration. In New Jersey, FBI trying to recruit Arab Americans "CNN Presents: How to Rob a Bank," the sophisticated methods of today's criminals.

Aired May 20, 2006 - 18:00   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Will it be incumbent Ray Nagin or challenger Mitch Landrieu? We'll take you there live in just a moment.
An Israeli air strike in Gaza kills the most senior member of the militant group Islamic Jihad. Also, dead, a woman, her 4-year-old son and the child's grandmother. They were in the car behind the target. Israel confirms the attack.

Five miners are dead in a Kentucky mine explosion. Governor Ernie Fletcher says it was caused by a buildup of methane gas. That's also what caused the Sago Mine explosion that killed 13 West Virginia miners back in January.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCCAIN, (R), ARIZONA: I supported the decision to go to war in Iraq. Many Americans did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Big boos for Senator John McCain. It happened while he was delivering the commencement address at the liberal New School in New York.

And some students were angry about his support of the Iraq war and his recent speech at Reverend Falwell's Liberty University.

San Francisco's Barry Bonds hits his 714th home run, two hours ago. That means he ties Babe Ruth for second on Major League Baseball's homerun list.

Now Bonds is 42 homers behind Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755.

The sky is blue over Andrews's Air Force base. And that's a good thing because the Navy's Blue Angels, well, they're the main event.

The air show is part of a three-day joint-service open house with the Army's Golden Knights. We're going to have more throughout the hour.

Now, take a look at our top story.

The polls in New Orleans close in just three hours. And voters are making their choice in the runoff race for Mayor. It's considered too close to call right now. But the two men at the center of it all, incumbent Ray Nagin and challenger Mitch Landrieu, have cast their ballots.

Now, with the race all but over, the city's massive reconstruction is poised to resume in earnest. And less than two weeks away from hurricane season, there's not a moment to lose.

Standing by live for us in New Orleans, CNN's Susan Roesgen.

Susan, any momentum building up there at the polls?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I couldn't quite hear you there but let me tell you where I am today. I'm at the University of New Orleans, the gymnasium here. It's been turned into one of four super sites, four mega polling places, consolidating dozens of polling places that were wiped out by the flood.

People come in here to vote. They come in. They check the signs, Carol.

They're looking for the sign that represents their old neighborhood polling place. Then they check in at the desk, go behind the red curtain and make their choice.

Mayor Nagin and Mitch Landrieu both voted today. Mayor Nagin went to another super site in the city, a local high school, surrounded by photographers and reporters. And Lieutenant Governor Landrieu did the same thing at an elementary school, again, surrounded by photographers and reporters.

Later in the day, the two men went to a protest rally at City Hall. This was a rally put on by evacuees from Houston who come here hoping that both candidates would promise to help them continue to get FEMA housing.

At this rally, the two ran into each other. They gave each other a hug. They shook hands. And really, that's been the tone of this campaign. It's been a pretty calm, civil campaign, Carol. No major mud-slinging. And, yet, people are passionate about this election, passionate about the future of this city with so very much at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN (voice-over): If only 5-year-olds could vote. Political analysts say, in the last week, incumbent mayor Ray Nagin has gained momentum. But they give his challenger, Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, a slight edge.

UNKNOWN MALE: Where you been? MITCH LANDRIEU, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW ORLEANS: I've been winding up.

ROESGEN: Landrieu has picked up more big endorsements and he's raised about six times as much money as Ray Nagin, money to spend on critical advertising in these last few hours of the campaign.

Landrieu also has strong support among both black and white voters, while Nagin's "Chocolate City" comments, back in January, when he said God wanted New Orleans to be a majority African-American city, caused many white voters to dessert him.

But Nagin has been courting the conservative business vote, reaching out to voters who see Landrieu as the more liberal candidate and worry he'll raise taxes and support social programs voters don't want.

The turnout is expected to be about what it was in the primary election, about 36 percent. But with so much of the city standing still, waiting for a recovery that's been promised but hasn't come, that 36 percent could change the city's future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN: And basically, voters want whichever candidate wins to help them rebuild this city. So many neighborhoods still don't know whether they're going to be rebuilt or not, or whether those neighborhoods will have to be abandoned, that, Carol, and, of course, the start of hurricane season.

The city came out with an evacuation plan two weeks ago, but it has a lot of holes in it. Mayor Nagin will have to patch up those holes and work out some details to make the plan work if he is reelected.

If Mitch Landrieu is elected, he could reject the plan or he could change it. And we don't really know what's going to happen.

Whoever is sworn in, formally sworn in, will do that on May 31st, which is the day before the start of hurricane season, Carol.

LIN: Cutting it real close, Susan. Thank you very much.

Susan is going to be with us throughout the night as we wait for these election results.

In the meantime, tens of thousands of hurricane evacuees are trying to make it on their own. And a bunch of them have actually filed a class-action lawsuit against FEMA to keep from being evicted from government-funded housing.

Now, FEMA says that it's going to stop these payments by the end of the month. It's going to affect some 17,000 evacuee families who are living in those apartments. FEMA says they're not qualified for the leases. And some of them, though, have signed one-year leases. So they don't have a place to go just yet. So a controversy brewing right there.

A little later, a little bit of local flavor from the New Orleans election. Pollster Silas Lee -- he is terrific. He's going to offer his take on the city's spicy political stew. And it is pretty spicy.

Stay with CNN throughout the evening and tomorrow for complete coverage of the New Orleans mayoral race. We're going to have the final election results as soon as they're ready to report. We're hoping by 10:00 tonight Eastern Time, but it could be a little later.

We have got analysis and reports, though, from our Gulf Coast bureau.

Now, another reliable avenue, cnn.com. Our website is going to be out front all night with the latest returns from New Orleans.

Coal mining families are once again mourning today. This time, it's in Kentucky where an explosion killed five miners early this morning.

It's happened in Holmes Hill, Kentucky, about 250 miles southeast of Louisville. One miner survived the explosion. He was later treated at a nearby hospital and released.

A short time ago, Kentucky's Governor told CNN's Briana Kielar what investigators know about today's explosion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERNIE FLETCHER, GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY: It was very similar to the previous mine, as you know, in West Virginia, where there was a sealed-off area that was apparently leaking a methane collection there, with the seal being broken, allowed some oxygen to get in. We don't know what ignited the methane to cause the explosion. But that appears the cause.

We're going to have to learn from this to find out if there was anything that we can do about these sealed-off areas and make sure that that, in fact, is the cause, which early investigation appears to be accurate.

We do have to learn from these. I've talked with four of the spouses of these five that have died in this accident. And they clearly want to make sure that we investigate it. We will.

We've shut down the mine to see if there's anything we can learn to make sure we save any lives in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: A total of 31 coal miners have died across the country so far this year. On the street, Capitol Hill, the White House, immigration is the issue. And this rally in New York is one of several demonstrations across the country this weekend. It's happening as a broad immigration bill moves through the senate. Now, a vote is expected next week.

President Bush is still trying to win support for his plans to stem illegal immigration. In fact, earlier this week Mr. Bush called for using thousands of National Guard troops to help secure the nation's borders.

Here's what he had to say in this week's radio address.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This week, I asked Congress to provide funding for dramatic improvements in manpower and technology at the border. We'll hire thousands more border patrol agents. And to help these agents do their jobs, we will deploy advanced technologies such as high-tech fences in urban areas, infrared cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LIN: The president also wants the border re-enforced with improved fencing and infrared cameras.

We're staying ahead of some of the bad weather up in the northeast and even the Midwest.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LIN: Building bridges with young Arab Americans. Straight ahead, a unique recruitment plan for the FBI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm thinking to myself, how can this be? I've never even used this account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Protecting you from identity theft. We're going to show you just how easy it is for predators seeking your personal information.

And a new drug shows promising results against the fight against cervical cancer. What you need to know. We're going to separate fact from fiction.

And Barry ties the Babe. Details when "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Barry Bonds has tied the Babe. Bonds hit his 714th homer in Oakland today. But there is a dark cloud above him as he sets his sights on the great Hank Aaron.

CNN's Larry Smith reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Barry Bonds broke Mark McGuire's single season home run record in 2001, he was the toast of Major League Baseball.

ANNOUNCER: Here's the 1-0 pitch. Bonds swings. There it is to right center field way back to the flagpole. He did it.

SMITH: Now, almost five years later, Bonds sits on the cusp of another monumental moment, passing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. But fan reaction to that achievement will be missed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FAN: I think the last couple of years of Barry Bonds' career have to be considered tarnished. And if you want the honest answer, I would say it's bad for baseball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FAN: There will be a lot of controversy because of the steroids. But just the excitement about it, I think it's good for the game.

SMITH: Bonds has been front and center of baseball's steroid controversy.

In 2003, he testified before a grand jury and stated he never knowingly used steroid. Suspicions of Bonds' alleged steroid abuse exploded in March when two reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a book detailing his alleged use.

Since that time, Major League Baseball has launched its own investigation and federal prosecutors are investigating whether Bonds lied under oath.

JOHNNY DAMON, NEW YORK YANKEES: Just get over it, move on and -- you know, and what he's done is amazing. He's been one of the best players. And, you know, we should commend him on that.

SMITH: Cory Lidle disagrees. In an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, the Phillies pitcher said, quote, "I don't want to see him break records. If he breaks them, it will be a shame. Because I think, when all is said and done, the truth will come out."

Although Bonds is beloved by fans in San Francisco, a recent field poll of Californians show that 58 percent believe the slugger used steroids, and 64 percent thought he should be penalized in some way.

GEORGE WILLLIS, COLUMNIST, NEW YORK POST: If something certain would come out, then he should be suspended from baseball for breaking the law for one thing. MARC TOPKIN, COLUMNIST, ST. PETERSBRUG TIMES: I just don't know how baseball can take away what he did. You don't have to celebrate it. You don't have to make a big deal about it. I don't think you can discredit it, cross it out or asterisk it. Ultimately people will make their own decision as to how legitimate he was and what he did.

SMITH: Bonds is within reach of Hank Aaron's record 755 home runs, but Commissioner Bud Selig has not said how, if at all, baseball plans to celebrate, should he break that record and become the new home run king.

Larry Smith, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: News around the world now. More attacks and carnage in Iraq. A series of attacks killed at least 31 people. And a roadside bomb in Sadr City killed 19 people and wounded 58.

Now, in Iraq, though, a milestone on the road to democracy. Parliament gives a stamp of approval to the prime minister designate's cabinet. But permanent defense and interior ministers still have not been named. That is a serious issue.

An Israeli air strike in Gaza City today killed Islamic Jihad leader. Palestinian sources say a woman, her 4-year-old son, and the boy's grandmother were also killed.

In New Jersey today, an unusual outreach effort. FBI agents go to Giant's Stadium to talk to young Arab Americans about careers in the FBI.

CNN's Sumi Dass has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMI DASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): College Show and Tell, FBI style.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FBI AGENT: These are steel-toed boots so if you step on something it won't go through your foot.

DASS: At Giants Stadium, in New Jersey, young Arab Americans and their parents are learning about FBI agents' work. And the bureau is getting some face time with the community it's trying to better understand, and whose help it needs to help fight terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FBI AGENT: We're trying to reach out to the kids of the Muslim Community. I think it's very important that we establish a dialogue with them.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE FBI AGENT: Education is what is going on here today, exchange of knowledge. Who are you? Who am I to you?

DASS: Some Muslim Americans say they felt a backlash after 9/11, which led to a distrust of the FBI.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FBI AGENT: It's just removing the negative stigma of law enforcement to the people, making -- showing that law enforcement are just regular people, that you shouldn't be scared of them.

DASS: The FBI isn't looking to sign up new recruits at this event. But it does hope to spotlight what it can offer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE FBI AGENT: Youth are very important; it connects across all communities, whether talking in the Arab Community. We have to do a better job of creating sort of a tracked atmosphere where youth come in and they're actually put through a process, sparking their interest, whether it's forensics, whether it's cyber crime, whether it's white collar crime, to give them the flavor of what the FBI does.

DASS: While not a traditional choice, some Muslim Americans say teens are considering careers at the FBI.

UNIDENTIFIED MUSLIN FEMALE: It's becoming more and more of an option for Muslims, because, you know, they are part of the fabric of the society. And they, too, want the security of this nation.

DASS (on camera): The 9/11 Commission cited the FBI's lack of Arab American agents as an area needing urgent attention. Officially, the FBI won't reveal how many it has. Privately, officials, as of early last year, say there are about 20 in the entire bureau.

But it does admit employing Arab Americans at all levels of the FBI is important. In the words of one agent, the FBI wants to look like America.

Sumi Dass, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Stealing your private information and using it, well, to even get access to personal bank accounts. How identity theft happens and who really pay. A CNN investigation coming up.

Also, from the "Da Vinci Code" to "Dream Girls," we're going to take you to the final days of the Cannes Film Festival when "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Hey, all you web browsers, this is what's most popular. You're voting for this on cnn.com.

The story about air marshals at risk. The House Judiciary Committee came out with a report that says the new rules about what these marshals are supposed to wear and how they're supposed to act out in public may actually blow their cover. A serious story there. Also, you know this search on this Virginia farm for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa. Well, we're learning more about who actually tipped investigators off.

A government investigator says it's an ailing prison inmate and that inmate actually passed a polygraph test. Jimmy Hoffa vanished 31 years ago. It's one of the great mysteries.

Senator McCain getting booed at a commencement address he's giving at New York's New School.

Some students at that very liberal college were upset that he was actually the commencement speaker, because they opposed his support for the Iraq war, and also the fact that he just spoke at Reverend Jerry Falwell's Liberty University last week.

Now, back in the day, the easiest way for crooks to get your cash was to point a gun and say give me your money. Today their methods are much more sophisticated.

Here's CNN's Drew Griffin with part of tonight's "CNN Presents: How to Rob a Bank."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE JENE (ph), VETERINARIAN: There we go, sweetheart.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Houston veterinarian opened his clinic in 1999...

JENE: She's real tender down here in her abdomen.

GRIFFIN: ... he also opened a $90,000 line of credit with Bank One.

JENE: I still have the original first check from this account, check 1001.

GRIFFIN: Then why would he get a notice from Bank One two years later claiming he owed $85,000?

JENE: And I'm thinking to myself, how can this be? I've never even used this account.

GRIFFIN: Around the country, other Bank One customers were asking the same question, because they had the same problem.

(on camera): A Bank One fraud investigator described it as a gusher, a problem so big the bank needed help from the feds. What was eventually uncovered is a chilling example of employees stealing the private information we all entrust to our banks.

It is a whole new way to rob a Bank.

MATTHEW BOYDEN, U. S. POSTAL INSPECTOR: Oh, it's a lot easier and a fairly sophisticated and common way to do it. GRIFFIN (voice-over): How did they do it? Step one, getting account information. And what could be better than the customer service center, where the ringleaders recruited rogue employees to build an information pipeline -- name and address, mother's maiden name, date of birth, Social security number, and account number. Step two, take over the account.

Some of the juiciest targets were businesses.

RONNIE SANDERS, OWNER, TRIANGLE METALS: Get one of your boys to give you a hand with that.

GRIFFIN: Ronnie Sanders owns Triangle Metals. Unbeknownst to him, someone called Bank One and said Triangle Metals had a new address, had moved from an industrial section of Meterland, Texas, to this house in Houston, 100 miles away.

When a batch of freshly printed checks arrived at the phony address, the heist went into overdrive, $37,000, $38,000, $39,000 checks, fraud totaling $195,000.

SANDERS: It's a form of bank robbery, that's for sure.

GRIFFIN: Some of the largest Checks were paid to the order of Floyd Turner and paid to the order of Ronald Humphrey.

Turner and Humphrey are former professional football players, teammates on the 1994 Indianapolis Colts.

SANDERS: Is this for real? That's just really hard to believe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: That is just a taste. The rest of "CNN PRESENTS: How to Rob a Bank" in less than two hours, right here on CNN at 8:00 eastern.

They came by bus, by car, any way possible to vote. Then they partied in the park. The mood and the momentum of Election Day in New Orleans.

And a cancer vaccine that has many parents worried about teenage promiscuity.

You're watching "CNN LIVE SATURDAY."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Coming up on the half hour, these are the headlines.

It is decision day in New Orleans. Who will oversee New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina? Will it be incumbent Ray Nagin or challenger Mitch Landrieu? We're going to take you there live in just a moment.

Iraq's parliament approves a new government today. But violence continues to flair. A roadside bomb in Sadr City kills 22 people and injuries 58. Also, a dozen bodies were found around Baghdad today, some showing signs of torture.

Five miners are dead in a Kentucky coal mine explosion. Governor Ernie Fletcher tells CNN it was caused by a build-up of methane gas. That's also what caused the Sago Mine disaster that killed 13 miners in West Virginia.

Now, San Francisco's Barry Bonds hit his 714th home run two hours ago. He ties Babe Ruth for second on Major League Baseball's home run list. Bonds is 41 homers behind Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755.

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