Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Memory Service Today for Pat Tillman; Burying War Dead
Aired May 03, 2004 - 13:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's campaign is hitting the road. He left this morning for a two-day bus tour of Ohio and Michigan. They are two states that have been hit hard by manufacturing job losses and in which Bush is running a very close race with John Kerry.
Kerry, meanwhile, is hitting the airwaves in a big way. He's paying $25 million to run two full-minute ads, designed to show his personal side. His campaign calls this the biggest single ad buy ever in a presidential campaign. The ads will run in 19 states.
An alleged aide to Osama bin Laden is scheduled to be sentenced next hour in New York. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim pleaded guilty to stabbing a jail guard four years ago. He's still waiting to be tried in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa.
He could have earned millions of dollars playing football; instead, he gave everything on the battlefield. A memorial service will be held today for former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last month.
Cara Liu of our affiliate station KPHO joins us now live from Tillman's hometown, San Jose, California.
Hi -- Cara.
CARA LIU, CNN AFFILIATE KPHO REPORTER: Hi there. How are you doing?
Well, sports personality Jim Rome is set to emcee this memorial service for Pat Tillman later on this afternoon. It will be held here at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. And among those attending will be thousands from Tillman's hometown, many who have been making their own tributes for the last week and a half.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIU (voice-over): Throughout Almaden Valley, where Pat Tillman grew up, memorials are honoring his service and sacrifice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyone could say that they would do it, but when it comes down to it, I don't think many people would be able to do what he did. So, in that sense, it's pretty impressive.
LIU: Flags lined the streets in his neighborhood in New Almaden, along with photos and flowers at the town marquee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were just brought up the right way.
LIU: Roland Jenise (ph) is a family friend, who also taught all of the Tillman brothers in middle school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they didn't even want anybody even talking about it from that standpoint. It's just I'm doing what I think I need to do. I'm no different than any other person who is also doing what they think they need to do, and that's defending their country when their country needs them.
LIU (on camera): There's even a memorial in front of the local Safeway here. The sidewalk is lined with dozens of American flags. And, in fact, this memorial is growing every day as more and more people come by to pay tribute.
(voice-over): Patty Olsen (ph) ed to the display and plans to attend the service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time we drive by, we shed a tear for him, and I know other people are also. We'll miss you, Pat and we'll all love you forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIU: And so many people have commented what a unique person Pat Tillman was and what a huge loss this is for this community. The service is set to begin at 3:00 Pacific Time -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Now, Cara, I understand that you went to the same high school as Pat Tillman. I bet you've heard a lot about what an amazing person he was.
LIU: I did. We both went to Leeland High School. And, you know, one of the things so many people have repeated is that nobody ever said a bad thing about him, that he always set a good example, and also he didn't want to be singed out. He felt like in anything he was doing he was just doing his job. He wasn't necessarily anyone special, just doing his job.
PHILLIPS: Cara Liu, thanks so much.
Pat Tillman is one of hundreds of American soldiers killed overseas during the past year.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr looks at what has become a grim right this spring.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As U.S. troops continue to fight and die in Iraq, in towns across America, personal intense moments of family grief several times each week, military funerals for those killed in action, the ritual gun salutes, folded flags and "Taps," now happening at a rate not seen in decades -- suddenly a thread in the national fabric. Marine Lance Corporal Tory Stuffle Grey (ph) was buried in his Illinois hometown as his friends and neighbors turned out to honor the memory of the man killed when his convoy was attacked. He was 19 years old, carried to his grave by a Civil War caisson.
LT. COL. JACK HILL, U.S. MARINE CORPS: They lined up the whole five-mile route to the cemetery. That was by far the greatest, if you want to call it, patriotism and support for a veteran that I've ever seen in my life.
STARR: Private First Class Moises Langhorst (ph), buried in Minnesota. Lance Corporal Matt Serio (ph), laid to rest in Rhode Island. Sergeant David McKeever (ph), his funeral in Nebraska. All private tragedies that are now the nation's main view of the ultimate cost of a war one year after President Bush said major combat was over.
The death of former football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the first public pictures of flag-draped coffins coming home from the battlefields were television-age reminders that it is a life well- lived, or a single startling image that may first grab the nation's attention.
But in churches and at gravesides, private lives remembered every day now by family, friends and comrades.
Sergeant Major Michael Stack (ph) was 48 years old, the father of six. With a 29-year career mostly in Army Special Forces, Stack (ph) did not have to be in Iraq. He could have retired. He was killed in a recent convoy ambush near Baghdad.
Tiona Avery Felder (ph) died one week before she was scheduled to go on leave. Her soldier husband received the flag from her casket at the grave.
Not since Vietnam has the human cost of war been such a matter of national discussion. As the bodies continue to return, the moments of grief across the country now increasingly a loss felt by the nation. Names, faces and lives now making up the history of a U.S. war whose final chapter has yet to be written.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Looking at this hour's "Legal Briefs," rocker Courtney Love is set to go on trial in an L.A. criminal court this afternoon. She is accused of using a controlled substance and disorderly conduct. Police say they caught her trying to break into the home of a former boyfriend.
Also in L.A., there is a preliminary hearing set for the man apparently caught on videotape shooting a lawyer last fall. If you'll remember, Williams Strier has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. Prosecutors say that shooting stemmed from a dispute over a trust fund.
And prosecutors in Toledo, Ohio, may have cracked a quarter- century-old murder case. A Roman Catholic priest has been indicted on charges of murdering a nun nearly 25 years ago. Reverend Gerald Robinson was arrested and jailed last month in the ritualistic killing of a nun during Easter weekend in 1980.
Today is the first day seniors can sign up for Medicare discount prescription cards. Those cards became active June 1, and the Bush administration says seniors can save 17 to 30 percent on the cost of medication. Critics say seniors can save much more than that by just using Canadian pharmacies.
With a serious and sometimes nasty presidential campaign under way, late-night laughs helped to put a little perspective on politics. Here's some of the latest, beginning with Jay Leno.
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": President Bush told the Iraqi people that we are not going to cut and run while I'm in office. Today, the Iraqi people said, yes, what about next year when you're not in office?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a question that you want me to ask?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I got one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is wrong with you people?
LENO: Bush said he's glad to speak to the 9/11 Commission. In fact, he said he would also be happy to meet with the 7-11 people, too, if they have questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush and Dick Cheney appeared before the 9/11c. It was kind of an awkward start. A senator said, "How are you Mr. President?" And they both answered, "Fine."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if they ask about integrating the intelligence-gathering branches of the federal government?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will be reassuring. I will seek to put their minds at ease. I will say, 'Gentlemen, I have good news.'
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good news?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just saved a lot of money on my car insurance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, here's something that's not good news. There may be trouble on the horizon for teens looking for summer jobs. What's up with that -- Rhonda? RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: Kyra, getting your teen off the couch and into the job market could prove to be more difficult than usual, and it might not be the kids' faults. I'll tell you why when LIVE FROM returns after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Got milk? If so, you probably needed more milk money to buy it. You can say dairy prices are utterly expensive. Why? CNN's Kathleen Hays explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS (voice-over): Ice cream lovers, beware. Milk drinkers, watch out. Dairy prices are hitting record highs, because milk is suddenly in short supply. And it's hitting families and businesses across the country.
DAN BASSE, PRESIDENT, AGRESOURCE COMPANY: When you go buy that ice cream cone at your local custard stand, you're going to find it's about twice the price it was last year.
HAYS: The price of milk is climbing to $3 a gallon nationwide; in some states, even higher. And milk products from yogurt to mozzarella are getting a lot more costly, too.
NICK KLEINE, CHICAGO MERCANTILE TRADE: Prices have never been this high in the cheese market before. They've been this high in the milk market. But it's been about eight years since that's happened.
HAYS: Hard to believe that just a year ago the price of milk hit a 25-year record low and forced some money-losing dairy farmers to send their cows to slaughter. That helped cause a shortage of milk- producing heifers. Add to that, the ripple effect of mad cow disease, which led to a ban on cows coming from Canada.
There are 150,000 fewer cows producing milk than this time last year, and the cows that are left are producing less milling due to a shortage of BST, a hormone that boosts milk production, and due to problems with the feed supply.
KLEINE: Feed is expensive. So it's -- the farmers have to get more money in order to put more animals on feed, and the cycle is so long for milk that you can't just throw another bunch on like you can with chicken. It takes three months. With cows, it's close to two years.
HAYS: Meanwhile, the popularity of high-protein Atkins-type diets has kept milk products in demand even as their prices move up. This is sweet for dairy farmers, whose profits are spurting higher again.
BASSE: They are making more money now than they have, that I know of, looking back over the past 40 or 50 years. So on a per cow basis, the dairy business is very good to be in at the moment. HAYS: And prices may stay high for a while, especially if this summer is exceptionally hot, because dairy cows don't like extreme heat, and their milk production falls dramatically, just when ice cream lovers are looking to scoop up a cooling treat.
Kathleen Hays, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BUSINESS NEWS UPDATE)
(WEATHER BREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: So, what's in a name? Plenty, especially if it's edible sounding like burger or fries.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has the tasty treat from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this lunch, the name tags read more like a menu.
(on camera): Oh, you're Mr. Hamburger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS (voice-over): And why settle for a plain, old wiener when you can have:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harry Wiener.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Kyra Coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rosalie Cream.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Evelyn Cherry.
MOOS: But the cherry on the cake was making introductions.
(on camera): Mr. Fried?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS: I'd like you to meet Mr. Rice.
(voice-over): Fried rice notwithstanding, this was nothing but a PR stunt to publicize the opening of a Burger Heaven. When your name is Chester Burger, it makes sense for your granddaughter to point out the Burger Heaven sign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Grandpa, that's where you're going to go when you die."
MOOS: How did Burger Heaven gather 40 or so folks with edible last names?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each word that was in the cookbook, I looked it up on WhitePages.com.
MOOS: Where she found:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don Coffee (ph).
MOOS (on camera): Don Coffee (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don Thomas Francis Coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Emily Apple and this is Jozet Apple (ph).
MOOS (voice-over): Apples were a dime a dozen. This is Virginia Apple.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a rumor that Tea and Coffee are together.
MOOS: The Teas and the Coffee, two couples, sat together. There is Irene Tea drinking wine next to Tony Coffee. And that's Kyra Coffee snapping a group photo as Don Coffee spoke of the jokes he had to endure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People call up on the phone and say, "Is this Maxwell House?"
MOOS: Rosalie Cream recalled her daughter being paged at the airport by a friend being named Ilene Sugar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you heard "Cream for Sugar." Cream for Sugar?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did the Vaughn Egg Cream come?
MOOS: Alas, Vaughn Egg Cream never replied to the invitation for a free lunch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Jason Salt.
MOOS (on camera): And I'm Jeanne Pepper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you really?
MOOS: No, I'm not.
(voice-over): Abby Pepper was a no show. David Fries is used to hearing his name mispronounced.
(on camera): Erin Hamburger? David Fries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do appreciate meeting you.
MOOS (voice-over): Burger and Fries, they are what they eat. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a computer virus is threatening millions of computers worldwide. Coming up on LIVE FROM, we'll tell you about the problem that struck over the weekend. Don't go away.
Damage control. More U.S. service members in trouble after photos showing alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
He gave up his NFL career and ultimately his life in the war on terror. This hour, remembering Pat Tillman.
Is your computer ready for the Sasser. Well, a new worm is trying to do a number on your PC.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off today. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Focus on photos. Those shocking depictions from the depths of a Baghdad prison are still sending shockwaves from Baghdad to Washington and beyond. President Bush ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to throw the book at any U.S. forces found to have tortured, tormented or humiliated Iraqi prisoners of war. Alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib was -- disgusted, rather, U.S. and Iraqi officials, not to mention the ordinary Iraqis whose hearts and minds the coalition so hopes to win.
So far, the Pentagon has reprimanded half-dozen soldiers and hauled up a half-dozen others on criminal charges. The commander of U.S. military police in Iraq, herself officially admonished, says military intelligence agencies are -- military intelligence agents, rather, carrying out prisoner interrogations deserve much of the blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. JANIS KARPINSKI, CMDR., 900TH M.P. BRIGADE: One of the most despicable aspects of those pictures, those faces on those soldiers, those soldiers who belong to one of my M.P. companies absolutely, I don't know how they do this. I don't know how they allow these activities to get so out of control. But I do know with almost absolute confidence that they didn't wake up one day and decide to do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And you can see the rest of Karpinski's interview with CNN on "AMERICAN MORNING," 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific, tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 3, 2004 - 13:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's campaign is hitting the road. He left this morning for a two-day bus tour of Ohio and Michigan. They are two states that have been hit hard by manufacturing job losses and in which Bush is running a very close race with John Kerry.
Kerry, meanwhile, is hitting the airwaves in a big way. He's paying $25 million to run two full-minute ads, designed to show his personal side. His campaign calls this the biggest single ad buy ever in a presidential campaign. The ads will run in 19 states.
An alleged aide to Osama bin Laden is scheduled to be sentenced next hour in New York. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim pleaded guilty to stabbing a jail guard four years ago. He's still waiting to be tried in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa.
He could have earned millions of dollars playing football; instead, he gave everything on the battlefield. A memorial service will be held today for former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last month.
Cara Liu of our affiliate station KPHO joins us now live from Tillman's hometown, San Jose, California.
Hi -- Cara.
CARA LIU, CNN AFFILIATE KPHO REPORTER: Hi there. How are you doing?
Well, sports personality Jim Rome is set to emcee this memorial service for Pat Tillman later on this afternoon. It will be held here at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. And among those attending will be thousands from Tillman's hometown, many who have been making their own tributes for the last week and a half.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIU (voice-over): Throughout Almaden Valley, where Pat Tillman grew up, memorials are honoring his service and sacrifice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyone could say that they would do it, but when it comes down to it, I don't think many people would be able to do what he did. So, in that sense, it's pretty impressive.
LIU: Flags lined the streets in his neighborhood in New Almaden, along with photos and flowers at the town marquee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were just brought up the right way.
LIU: Roland Jenise (ph) is a family friend, who also taught all of the Tillman brothers in middle school.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they didn't even want anybody even talking about it from that standpoint. It's just I'm doing what I think I need to do. I'm no different than any other person who is also doing what they think they need to do, and that's defending their country when their country needs them.
LIU (on camera): There's even a memorial in front of the local Safeway here. The sidewalk is lined with dozens of American flags. And, in fact, this memorial is growing every day as more and more people come by to pay tribute.
(voice-over): Patty Olsen (ph) ed to the display and plans to attend the service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time we drive by, we shed a tear for him, and I know other people are also. We'll miss you, Pat and we'll all love you forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIU: And so many people have commented what a unique person Pat Tillman was and what a huge loss this is for this community. The service is set to begin at 3:00 Pacific Time -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Now, Cara, I understand that you went to the same high school as Pat Tillman. I bet you've heard a lot about what an amazing person he was.
LIU: I did. We both went to Leeland High School. And, you know, one of the things so many people have repeated is that nobody ever said a bad thing about him, that he always set a good example, and also he didn't want to be singed out. He felt like in anything he was doing he was just doing his job. He wasn't necessarily anyone special, just doing his job.
PHILLIPS: Cara Liu, thanks so much.
Pat Tillman is one of hundreds of American soldiers killed overseas during the past year.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr looks at what has become a grim right this spring.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As U.S. troops continue to fight and die in Iraq, in towns across America, personal intense moments of family grief several times each week, military funerals for those killed in action, the ritual gun salutes, folded flags and "Taps," now happening at a rate not seen in decades -- suddenly a thread in the national fabric. Marine Lance Corporal Tory Stuffle Grey (ph) was buried in his Illinois hometown as his friends and neighbors turned out to honor the memory of the man killed when his convoy was attacked. He was 19 years old, carried to his grave by a Civil War caisson.
LT. COL. JACK HILL, U.S. MARINE CORPS: They lined up the whole five-mile route to the cemetery. That was by far the greatest, if you want to call it, patriotism and support for a veteran that I've ever seen in my life.
STARR: Private First Class Moises Langhorst (ph), buried in Minnesota. Lance Corporal Matt Serio (ph), laid to rest in Rhode Island. Sergeant David McKeever (ph), his funeral in Nebraska. All private tragedies that are now the nation's main view of the ultimate cost of a war one year after President Bush said major combat was over.
The death of former football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the first public pictures of flag-draped coffins coming home from the battlefields were television-age reminders that it is a life well- lived, or a single startling image that may first grab the nation's attention.
But in churches and at gravesides, private lives remembered every day now by family, friends and comrades.
Sergeant Major Michael Stack (ph) was 48 years old, the father of six. With a 29-year career mostly in Army Special Forces, Stack (ph) did not have to be in Iraq. He could have retired. He was killed in a recent convoy ambush near Baghdad.
Tiona Avery Felder (ph) died one week before she was scheduled to go on leave. Her soldier husband received the flag from her casket at the grave.
Not since Vietnam has the human cost of war been such a matter of national discussion. As the bodies continue to return, the moments of grief across the country now increasingly a loss felt by the nation. Names, faces and lives now making up the history of a U.S. war whose final chapter has yet to be written.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Looking at this hour's "Legal Briefs," rocker Courtney Love is set to go on trial in an L.A. criminal court this afternoon. She is accused of using a controlled substance and disorderly conduct. Police say they caught her trying to break into the home of a former boyfriend.
Also in L.A., there is a preliminary hearing set for the man apparently caught on videotape shooting a lawyer last fall. If you'll remember, Williams Strier has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. Prosecutors say that shooting stemmed from a dispute over a trust fund.
And prosecutors in Toledo, Ohio, may have cracked a quarter- century-old murder case. A Roman Catholic priest has been indicted on charges of murdering a nun nearly 25 years ago. Reverend Gerald Robinson was arrested and jailed last month in the ritualistic killing of a nun during Easter weekend in 1980.
Today is the first day seniors can sign up for Medicare discount prescription cards. Those cards became active June 1, and the Bush administration says seniors can save 17 to 30 percent on the cost of medication. Critics say seniors can save much more than that by just using Canadian pharmacies.
With a serious and sometimes nasty presidential campaign under way, late-night laughs helped to put a little perspective on politics. Here's some of the latest, beginning with Jay Leno.
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": President Bush told the Iraqi people that we are not going to cut and run while I'm in office. Today, the Iraqi people said, yes, what about next year when you're not in office?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a question that you want me to ask?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I got one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is wrong with you people?
LENO: Bush said he's glad to speak to the 9/11 Commission. In fact, he said he would also be happy to meet with the 7-11 people, too, if they have questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush and Dick Cheney appeared before the 9/11c. It was kind of an awkward start. A senator said, "How are you Mr. President?" And they both answered, "Fine."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if they ask about integrating the intelligence-gathering branches of the federal government?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will be reassuring. I will seek to put their minds at ease. I will say, 'Gentlemen, I have good news.'
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good news?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just saved a lot of money on my car insurance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, here's something that's not good news. There may be trouble on the horizon for teens looking for summer jobs. What's up with that -- Rhonda? RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: Kyra, getting your teen off the couch and into the job market could prove to be more difficult than usual, and it might not be the kids' faults. I'll tell you why when LIVE FROM returns after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Got milk? If so, you probably needed more milk money to buy it. You can say dairy prices are utterly expensive. Why? CNN's Kathleen Hays explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS (voice-over): Ice cream lovers, beware. Milk drinkers, watch out. Dairy prices are hitting record highs, because milk is suddenly in short supply. And it's hitting families and businesses across the country.
DAN BASSE, PRESIDENT, AGRESOURCE COMPANY: When you go buy that ice cream cone at your local custard stand, you're going to find it's about twice the price it was last year.
HAYS: The price of milk is climbing to $3 a gallon nationwide; in some states, even higher. And milk products from yogurt to mozzarella are getting a lot more costly, too.
NICK KLEINE, CHICAGO MERCANTILE TRADE: Prices have never been this high in the cheese market before. They've been this high in the milk market. But it's been about eight years since that's happened.
HAYS: Hard to believe that just a year ago the price of milk hit a 25-year record low and forced some money-losing dairy farmers to send their cows to slaughter. That helped cause a shortage of milk- producing heifers. Add to that, the ripple effect of mad cow disease, which led to a ban on cows coming from Canada.
There are 150,000 fewer cows producing milk than this time last year, and the cows that are left are producing less milling due to a shortage of BST, a hormone that boosts milk production, and due to problems with the feed supply.
KLEINE: Feed is expensive. So it's -- the farmers have to get more money in order to put more animals on feed, and the cycle is so long for milk that you can't just throw another bunch on like you can with chicken. It takes three months. With cows, it's close to two years.
HAYS: Meanwhile, the popularity of high-protein Atkins-type diets has kept milk products in demand even as their prices move up. This is sweet for dairy farmers, whose profits are spurting higher again.
BASSE: They are making more money now than they have, that I know of, looking back over the past 40 or 50 years. So on a per cow basis, the dairy business is very good to be in at the moment. HAYS: And prices may stay high for a while, especially if this summer is exceptionally hot, because dairy cows don't like extreme heat, and their milk production falls dramatically, just when ice cream lovers are looking to scoop up a cooling treat.
Kathleen Hays, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BUSINESS NEWS UPDATE)
(WEATHER BREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: So, what's in a name? Plenty, especially if it's edible sounding like burger or fries.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has the tasty treat from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this lunch, the name tags read more like a menu.
(on camera): Oh, you're Mr. Hamburger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS (voice-over): And why settle for a plain, old wiener when you can have:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harry Wiener.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Kyra Coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rosalie Cream.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Evelyn Cherry.
MOOS: But the cherry on the cake was making introductions.
(on camera): Mr. Fried?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS: I'd like you to meet Mr. Rice.
(voice-over): Fried rice notwithstanding, this was nothing but a PR stunt to publicize the opening of a Burger Heaven. When your name is Chester Burger, it makes sense for your granddaughter to point out the Burger Heaven sign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Grandpa, that's where you're going to go when you die."
MOOS: How did Burger Heaven gather 40 or so folks with edible last names?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each word that was in the cookbook, I looked it up on WhitePages.com.
MOOS: Where she found:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don Coffee (ph).
MOOS (on camera): Don Coffee (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don Thomas Francis Coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Emily Apple and this is Jozet Apple (ph).
MOOS (voice-over): Apples were a dime a dozen. This is Virginia Apple.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a rumor that Tea and Coffee are together.
MOOS: The Teas and the Coffee, two couples, sat together. There is Irene Tea drinking wine next to Tony Coffee. And that's Kyra Coffee snapping a group photo as Don Coffee spoke of the jokes he had to endure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People call up on the phone and say, "Is this Maxwell House?"
MOOS: Rosalie Cream recalled her daughter being paged at the airport by a friend being named Ilene Sugar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you heard "Cream for Sugar." Cream for Sugar?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did the Vaughn Egg Cream come?
MOOS: Alas, Vaughn Egg Cream never replied to the invitation for a free lunch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Jason Salt.
MOOS (on camera): And I'm Jeanne Pepper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you really?
MOOS: No, I'm not.
(voice-over): Abby Pepper was a no show. David Fries is used to hearing his name mispronounced.
(on camera): Erin Hamburger? David Fries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do appreciate meeting you.
MOOS (voice-over): Burger and Fries, they are what they eat. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a computer virus is threatening millions of computers worldwide. Coming up on LIVE FROM, we'll tell you about the problem that struck over the weekend. Don't go away.
Damage control. More U.S. service members in trouble after photos showing alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
He gave up his NFL career and ultimately his life in the war on terror. This hour, remembering Pat Tillman.
Is your computer ready for the Sasser. Well, a new worm is trying to do a number on your PC.
From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off today. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Focus on photos. Those shocking depictions from the depths of a Baghdad prison are still sending shockwaves from Baghdad to Washington and beyond. President Bush ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to throw the book at any U.S. forces found to have tortured, tormented or humiliated Iraqi prisoners of war. Alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib was -- disgusted, rather, U.S. and Iraqi officials, not to mention the ordinary Iraqis whose hearts and minds the coalition so hopes to win.
So far, the Pentagon has reprimanded half-dozen soldiers and hauled up a half-dozen others on criminal charges. The commander of U.S. military police in Iraq, herself officially admonished, says military intelligence agencies are -- military intelligence agents, rather, carrying out prisoner interrogations deserve much of the blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. JANIS KARPINSKI, CMDR., 900TH M.P. BRIGADE: One of the most despicable aspects of those pictures, those faces on those soldiers, those soldiers who belong to one of my M.P. companies absolutely, I don't know how they do this. I don't know how they allow these activities to get so out of control. But I do know with almost absolute confidence that they didn't wake up one day and decide to do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And you can see the rest of Karpinski's interview with CNN on "AMERICAN MORNING," 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific, tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
