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More Violence In Iraq; Sen. Kerry Arrives In Boston; Warning For Troops Who Took Lariam; Update On Hacking Case; More Voting Troubles in Florida

Aired July 28, 2004 - 14:00   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: Deadly bomb blasts in Baquba and a raid in Baghdad on month to the day after the handover in Iraq -- reporting live from Baghdad.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A grand entrance, smooth sailing into Boston Harbor for John Kerry. Will he be able to convince voters his ship of state will float?

PHILLIPS: Women and the November election: How the Democrats are turning up the girl power to reach out to female voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: People are our roommates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: And a dose of reality TV for the Amish? Truth can be stranger than fiction, you know.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

O'BRIEN: Up first this hour: Death, destruction, and determined attempts at democracy in Iraq. Today will go down as the bloodiest since the return of self-rule, and Iraqis make up the vast majority of the victims. It comes just three days before a national conference charged with choosing an interim assembly.

CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A day of bloodshed and mayhem across Iraq, with a number of events we need to report.

We'll start, though, with the carnage in Baquba, a city to the north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where a suicide bomber has driven a minibus packed with explosives into a crowded area at the center of the city, killing many people -- the latest casualty figures at 68 dead, according to the Health Ministry that we've spoken to here in Baghdad, another 56 injured. It seems, according to eyewitnesses, that the target was a police-recruiting center. The eyewitnesses say that the car picked its way through the crowd before detonating just near where all the young recruits had gathered outside the police station, hoping to sign up to the new Iraqi police service.

Scores of dead taken from the scene. Amongst those killed, 21 people on board a bus that just happened to be passing when that bomb exploded. Elsewhere, there have been a number of incidents as well. We'll start there in Ramadi, to the west of Baghdad, a flashpoint town where, we understand from U.S. military officials, there have been simultaneous strikes by insurgent forces against various U.S. multinational military bases in that area. We also understand that U.S. aircraft have come under fire from insurgents on the ground.

Now, we know there have been a number of injuries. We've also had it confirmed to us that at least two U.S. troops have been killed, though it's not quite known yet which incident they were killed during, whether it was the simultaneous attacks on the bases or the attacks on the aircraft. We'll have that information for you as soon as we can.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces, multinational forces, along with the Iraqis, have been going on the offensive near the town of Suwayra, to the south of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, engaging and killing at least 35 insurgents, in what military officials say is exactly the kind of operation that's happening increasingly, a joint operation with U.S., and Iraqi, and multinational forces to really try and break the back of this increasingly bloody insurgency.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Slow boat to Charleston, a roll call in Boston: In between another day of fervent festivities leading up to the formal nomination of John Kerry as the Democratic candidate for president.

Live pictures now as CNN's Bob Franken watches it all from the FleetCenter. Bob, what's this about you dancing to Black Eyed Peas?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that's right. And we would have hoped that maybe John Kerry would have still been on the boat and heard the music -- chances are, he could have heard it from here. It was quite loud when they did their audio check a few moments ago.

But the serious business of the day, of course, John Kerry with about 74 cameras looking on, making his highly telegenic trip into Boston Harbor aboard one of the water taxis here, the version of a grand entrance into Boston, not only the convention city, of course, but his hometown.

As a matter of fact, he has repaired -- as they say in his circles -- repaired to his Beacon Hill mansion for a night of polishing his speech and watching as his vice presidential ticket mate, John Edwards, makes his speech. Edwards came over about midnight last night to do an audio check of his own in the convention center, the FleetCenter here.

He is going to be the headliner this evening. He's going to be addressing the people. But obviously, the big story is about John Kerry, and Kerry gave us a preview of coming attractions when he got off the boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been an amazing journey for me over the last few days. The whole thing's been an amazing journey, from the beginning -- of reaching out to Americans and going into peoples' homes and having people just share their personal stories and hopes for our nation.

Nobody can ever properly give the honor, due to that privilege, that gift of being able to listen to you and try to translate it into a vision that lifts our country up and takes us to a better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: A little rehearsal of what we can expect in the speech tomorrow night from John Kerry.

Of course, as I said, tonight is John Edwards' night. Not only that, but there are speeches from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson is the head of the Credentials Committee here and will be speaking -- a man who was also considered for the vice presidency on the ticket along with John Edwards, who you see here in his midnight visit, along with his wife, Elizabeth, check out the hall.

Bill Richardson speaks. Al Sharpton, the former presidential candidate, he's speaking. Dennis Kucinich, another of the formers. And then, as I said, that other former presidential candidate, now vice presidential candidate, John Edwards. Then, after that, the nomination roll call, and the prediction of the evening, of course, is that it's going to be virtually unanimous, if not acclamation, for John Kerry and John Edwards.

The actual acceptance, which makes it official, occurs tomorrow when John Kerry makes what is now billed as the speech of his lifetime. And that, of course, is until the next speech of his lifetime -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Bob, we're seeing all this fanfare today, the arrival of John Kerry. It was quite the opposite for John and Elizabeth Edwards yesterday, actually reading that they spent time at their son's gravesite -- 16-year-old Wade, who lost his life in a car crash -- just to sort of remind him why he went into politics.

I thought it was a pretty touching moment. We didn't hear a lot about that.

FRANKEN: Well, no, as a matter of fact. I first started covering John Edwards when he ran for the Senate in North Carolina. And at one time, I went by the center that they've created for young people in memory of their son. This is obviously something that has caused John Edwards to get into the public arena. And now, of course, he's near the top. He's already on the vice presidential ticket, and he will be making his speech to the nation in that capacity this evening.

PHILLIPS: His son having a lot of strong feelings about politics, wanting his dad to run.

Bob Franken, thanks so much.

Well, CNN's prime-time coverage of the DNC begins tonight at 7:00 Eastern with Anderson Cooper. Also on tap, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, dozens of CNN correspondents inside and outside of the FleetCenter. John Edwards speaks tonight.

We've been telling you about this, of course -- 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific time, followed by "NEWSNIGHT." Then, Larry King wraps up the night at midnight, all right here on CNN, your campaign headquarters.

O'BRIEN: John Edwards will be introduced by Elizabeth Edwards. Mrs. Edwards sat down for a one on one with CNN's Judy Woodruff, who wanted a sense of the tone of her husband's remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: How much anti-Bush?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: This is not a campaign strategy. That is not the way John ever presents anything. He might make the contrast -- this instead of that -- and I don't know, because I haven't seen the last version. He might say, you know, they want "A" and "B," we want "D" and "E."

But he doesn't engage in that kind of personal attack, never has. He doesn't think any people want to hear it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You can hear the rest of that interview on "INSIDE POLITICS" at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific.

PHILLIPS: Sixteen minutes may have been enough to put an Illinois state senator on the national political map. U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama wowed the crowd during the Democratic National Convention last night. Obama used his keynote address to promote John Kerry as a candidate who could bring Americans together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Now, even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spinmasters, the negative ad peddlers -- who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America.

There is not a black America and a white America, a Latino America, an Asian America -- there's the United States of America

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Pretty powerful speaker. Well, if you're away from your TV, you can still hear all the DNC coverage. CNN Radio's John Lisk and I will be anchoring for CNN Radio's 2,000 affiliates in the U.S. and overseas. What? No radio, you say. Hey, no problem. Log onto cnn.com to hear and see all the prime time action on the CNN Radio Web stream.

CNN, bringing you DNC coverage in every way, shape, and form. You can't miss it. You can't stay away.

O'BRIEN: Just can't. Can you tell a Republican from a Democrat? Well, take our quiz and see if you can match the quote with the party of the person who said it. Log onto cnn.com/americavotes to test your skill. Now, get this, campers. If you get a perfect score, you get three virtual convention balloons filled with virtual hot air or something. We don't know what that means at all, but it sounds like fun, doesn't it?

PHILLIPS: Hot air, conventions, I don't know. You think there's a connection? Well, it was designed to save soldiers' lives, but now there's a warning about serious complications from a drug taken by U.S. servicemen and women. We're live from the Pentagon straight ahead.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kimberly Osias live in Salt Lake City. It is day number nine and the volunteer search efforts have been called off. But the investigation continues into the missing Utah jogger Lori Hacking. Stay with us as LIVE FROM rolls on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An ounce of prevention might be worth a pound of cure, but the federal government is issuing a warning about the possible side effects of a drug given to U.S. troops to prevent malaria. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now to tell us more about it -- Barbara

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it's already a controversial drug -- Lariam -- indeed, the drug that thousands of U.S. troops are taking in Iraq to prevent malaria. It has been linked by its manufacturer to the possibility of severe side effects, psychiatric side effects mainly. But even that has not been proven yet.

It's mainly been warnings until now and a lot of anecdotal evidence. But Lariam now is the subject of a warning from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is weighing in, and the VA is alerting all of its clinics and doctors to, quote, "the potential for serious complications," close quote, associated with the drug -- the VA noting that some of those could be violent behavior, possibly even post traumatic stress disorder.

Now, veterans, of course, are watching all of this very carefully. They are watching a court case going on right now involving the preliminary hearing for soldiers accused of misconduct in Iraq -- waiting to see if the defense attorneys in those cases make the point that Lariam may have contributed to their clients' behavior, soldiers' behavior in Iraq.

The Pentagon, also, Kyra, is now studying the entire medical issue of Lariam, because at least a dozen or so soldiers also have reported inner ear disorders that some military doctors believe may be linked to the long term use of Lariam.

So some growing anecdotal evidence, some warnings, some cases, but this drug now an object of great scrutiny by the military medical community -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow it. Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thanks.

O'BRIEN: New developments in the disappearance of Lori Hacking. A Utah convenience store clerk may have seen the young woman before she disappeared. Our Kimberly Osias in Salt Lake City tracking details for us -- Kimberly.

OSIAS: Hello, Miles. Well, local reports have said that a convenience store owner may have been the last person, as you mentioned, to have seen Lori Hacking, possibly on Sunday night, when the pair, Mark Hacking and Lori Hacking, walked in and he, Mark Hacking, said to the convenience store owner, "Hey, I want to buy some cigarettes," kind of on the sly, "Don't tell my wife."

And what makes it a little bit unusual is, obviously, in Salt Lake City, it is predominantly Mormon -- that is highly suspect, you know, that it was perhaps another lie. And obviously, there have been a web of lies that have been unraveled in this case, among them that Mark Hacking said he was in medical school, that the pair were planning to move to North Carolina.

Well, he never even graduated from undergraduate. Mark Hacking, for his part, remains here at the University of Utah Medical Center. He is in the psychiatric ward. He is on a voluntary admission, we are told by family members, although it is a secured unit. I just spoke with Assistant District Attorney Bob Stott, who says that the police have not given him any evidence, or his office, any evidence in this case, at this juncture.

And there is no hold on Mark Hacking, so he is free to leave here. Now, last evening, for the second consecutive night, police searched an area landfill using cadaver dogs. They say that the dogs are actually able to work much more efficiently. When it is dark and it is cooler, they can work longer.

Homicide is involved, as are other agencies in the search, although the FBI is not involved, and that is a little bit unusual, as the FBI is involved in most missing person cases. Detective Dwayne Baird said that they had received hundreds of calls about mattresses from the public, and they didn't need that. They had what they needed. Mark Hacking bought a mattress some 30 minutes before he called to report his wife missing.

Police say this is still considered a missing person case under very suspicious circumstances. No charges have been filed. Police are naming Mark Hacking as the only person of interest in the case. The Hacking family has hired prominent local criminal attorney Gil Athay. And for his part, he has been here to the hospital since he has been retained on Thursday evening. Since then, he's been here every day to meet with Mark Hacking.

The fact that Mark Hacking is in this psychiatric facility in no way really buffers him or insulates him from any kind of arrest -- Miles

O'BRIEN: CNN's Kimberly Osias, thanks very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: From dangling chads to crashing computers, is this really how to make every vote count? Troubles with Florida's new voting system raises troubling issues for the November election.

Foreign policy and the presidency from the war in Iraq to Osama bin Laden. How do John Kerry and George Bush differ? We're going to talk with their advisors straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: New across America begins with a compromised plan for Martha Stewart. Sources say Stewart would begin serving her 10-month sentence now if she could do it all from home. She was sentenced to five months in prison and five months on detention. No word on the judges' take on it, but federal prosecutors do not approve.

Flash flooding around the Beltway. Thunderstorms and rain turned some Maryland roads into flood zones yesterday. So much rain fell on Baltimore-Washington International Airport that it set a new record. More storms are expected today.

A TV Land tribute to Bob Newhart. A statue honoring his character, Dr. Robert Hartley, from his '70s sitcom, was unveiled in Chicago yesterday. Newhart, in typical deadpan, said when he tried out the sofa, bronze is not as soft as it looks.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's a vote of no confidence for Florida's new voting machines. Electronic records from the first widespread use of those new touch screens has vanished. It's raising new concerns about the machines' reliability.

Our John Zarrella tracking this one in Miami. John, it's hard to believe four years later, we're coming back to you in Florida and talking about a potential election mess.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, deja vu all over again. I've already got a headache, Miles, leading up to November. I think we're all going to have one massive one down here, certainly the potential. You remember four years ago, the judge with his magnifying glass, looking at those chads in Broward County.

Well, all that was supposed to be erased when they got these new electronic voting machines -- wouldn't have those problems again.

Well, in 2002, when former Attorney General Janet Reno ran against Tampa attorney Bill McBride in the Democratic primary for governor, that was the first time in the counties that these new electronic voting machines were used in Dade County and in Broward County. Well, that was a fiasco, that election.

As most of us recall, there were problems with the machines, they didn't start up on time. There were concerns that some votes weren't tallied, that people didn't know how to use the machines.

Well, all that was even supposed to have been rectified since then. But now, it comes out that during that election, back a year or so ago, the information, the results, the audit tapes, everything from that election had been lost because of a computer glitch. And it was in Miami-Dade County only -- that's the only county where this was involved.

Well, the Election Reform Coalition, which investigated and looked into it, and found out that these records were missing, is not confident in these new machines, and says that's because there is no paper trail to tell you what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIDA RODRIGUEZ: Voters go to the polls and they vote. Once they hit the vote button on these machines, they don't know where that vote went. That vote just goes out into space, and it is up to the elections officials to make sure that that vote is actually counted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, county officials say, look, the problems with the server going down, which caused the loss of the records from this particular election, happened long after the results were finalized, and there was never any concern about the actual election itself. They say, yes, there's a problem when the server goes down. That's been fixed. And they, they say, are very confident in the election system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH KAPLAN, MIAMI-DADE ELECTIONS DEPT.: We wouldn't try to run an election with a system that we didn't think could conduct an election with a certain degree of integrity. I mean, that's the bottom line. We are passionate about making sure that this runs smoothly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: The only data left from that election in Dade County, according to county officials, is from 350 machines out of 6,000 machines. Now, for this coming election in November, an additional 800 county workers are going to be used to make sure that the system works in Dade County as best they can.

And meanwhile, there are lawsuits pending. Congressman Robert Wexler here of Florida wants to have a paper trail for these voting machines just in case we get down to a situation where there is a recount in Florida, which is highly possible, Miles. And right now, there is no way to have a paper trail for the 15 counties that use these electronic voting machines -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Boy, I hear a train wreck a coming in Florida. All right, thank you, John Zarrella, appreciate it -- Kyra

PHILLIPS: Well, now to Houston, Texas, where a local TV station scored a real news exclusive. All right -- Michael's taking advantage of the free samples. He's shopping at Houston's Memorial City Mall, where we're told he just spontaneously purchased several Teddy bears. Stay tuned -- that's the news.

O'BRIEN: All right, turning now to less important matters, business. No, let's get to some real news now...

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired July 28, 2004 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly bomb blasts in Baquba and a raid in Baghdad on month to the day after the handover in Iraq -- reporting live from Baghdad.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A grand entrance, smooth sailing into Boston Harbor for John Kerry. Will he be able to convince voters his ship of state will float?

PHILLIPS: Women and the November election: How the Democrats are turning up the girl power to reach out to female voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: People are our roommates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: And a dose of reality TV for the Amish? Truth can be stranger than fiction, you know.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

O'BRIEN: Up first this hour: Death, destruction, and determined attempts at democracy in Iraq. Today will go down as the bloodiest since the return of self-rule, and Iraqis make up the vast majority of the victims. It comes just three days before a national conference charged with choosing an interim assembly.

CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A day of bloodshed and mayhem across Iraq, with a number of events we need to report.

We'll start, though, with the carnage in Baquba, a city to the north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where a suicide bomber has driven a minibus packed with explosives into a crowded area at the center of the city, killing many people -- the latest casualty figures at 68 dead, according to the Health Ministry that we've spoken to here in Baghdad, another 56 injured. It seems, according to eyewitnesses, that the target was a police-recruiting center. The eyewitnesses say that the car picked its way through the crowd before detonating just near where all the young recruits had gathered outside the police station, hoping to sign up to the new Iraqi police service.

Scores of dead taken from the scene. Amongst those killed, 21 people on board a bus that just happened to be passing when that bomb exploded. Elsewhere, there have been a number of incidents as well. We'll start there in Ramadi, to the west of Baghdad, a flashpoint town where, we understand from U.S. military officials, there have been simultaneous strikes by insurgent forces against various U.S. multinational military bases in that area. We also understand that U.S. aircraft have come under fire from insurgents on the ground.

Now, we know there have been a number of injuries. We've also had it confirmed to us that at least two U.S. troops have been killed, though it's not quite known yet which incident they were killed during, whether it was the simultaneous attacks on the bases or the attacks on the aircraft. We'll have that information for you as soon as we can.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces, multinational forces, along with the Iraqis, have been going on the offensive near the town of Suwayra, to the south of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, engaging and killing at least 35 insurgents, in what military officials say is exactly the kind of operation that's happening increasingly, a joint operation with U.S., and Iraqi, and multinational forces to really try and break the back of this increasingly bloody insurgency.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Slow boat to Charleston, a roll call in Boston: In between another day of fervent festivities leading up to the formal nomination of John Kerry as the Democratic candidate for president.

Live pictures now as CNN's Bob Franken watches it all from the FleetCenter. Bob, what's this about you dancing to Black Eyed Peas?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that's right. And we would have hoped that maybe John Kerry would have still been on the boat and heard the music -- chances are, he could have heard it from here. It was quite loud when they did their audio check a few moments ago.

But the serious business of the day, of course, John Kerry with about 74 cameras looking on, making his highly telegenic trip into Boston Harbor aboard one of the water taxis here, the version of a grand entrance into Boston, not only the convention city, of course, but his hometown.

As a matter of fact, he has repaired -- as they say in his circles -- repaired to his Beacon Hill mansion for a night of polishing his speech and watching as his vice presidential ticket mate, John Edwards, makes his speech. Edwards came over about midnight last night to do an audio check of his own in the convention center, the FleetCenter here.

He is going to be the headliner this evening. He's going to be addressing the people. But obviously, the big story is about John Kerry, and Kerry gave us a preview of coming attractions when he got off the boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been an amazing journey for me over the last few days. The whole thing's been an amazing journey, from the beginning -- of reaching out to Americans and going into peoples' homes and having people just share their personal stories and hopes for our nation.

Nobody can ever properly give the honor, due to that privilege, that gift of being able to listen to you and try to translate it into a vision that lifts our country up and takes us to a better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: A little rehearsal of what we can expect in the speech tomorrow night from John Kerry.

Of course, as I said, tonight is John Edwards' night. Not only that, but there are speeches from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson is the head of the Credentials Committee here and will be speaking -- a man who was also considered for the vice presidency on the ticket along with John Edwards, who you see here in his midnight visit, along with his wife, Elizabeth, check out the hall.

Bill Richardson speaks. Al Sharpton, the former presidential candidate, he's speaking. Dennis Kucinich, another of the formers. And then, as I said, that other former presidential candidate, now vice presidential candidate, John Edwards. Then, after that, the nomination roll call, and the prediction of the evening, of course, is that it's going to be virtually unanimous, if not acclamation, for John Kerry and John Edwards.

The actual acceptance, which makes it official, occurs tomorrow when John Kerry makes what is now billed as the speech of his lifetime. And that, of course, is until the next speech of his lifetime -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Bob, we're seeing all this fanfare today, the arrival of John Kerry. It was quite the opposite for John and Elizabeth Edwards yesterday, actually reading that they spent time at their son's gravesite -- 16-year-old Wade, who lost his life in a car crash -- just to sort of remind him why he went into politics.

I thought it was a pretty touching moment. We didn't hear a lot about that.

FRANKEN: Well, no, as a matter of fact. I first started covering John Edwards when he ran for the Senate in North Carolina. And at one time, I went by the center that they've created for young people in memory of their son. This is obviously something that has caused John Edwards to get into the public arena. And now, of course, he's near the top. He's already on the vice presidential ticket, and he will be making his speech to the nation in that capacity this evening.

PHILLIPS: His son having a lot of strong feelings about politics, wanting his dad to run.

Bob Franken, thanks so much.

Well, CNN's prime-time coverage of the DNC begins tonight at 7:00 Eastern with Anderson Cooper. Also on tap, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, dozens of CNN correspondents inside and outside of the FleetCenter. John Edwards speaks tonight.

We've been telling you about this, of course -- 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific time, followed by "NEWSNIGHT." Then, Larry King wraps up the night at midnight, all right here on CNN, your campaign headquarters.

O'BRIEN: John Edwards will be introduced by Elizabeth Edwards. Mrs. Edwards sat down for a one on one with CNN's Judy Woodruff, who wanted a sense of the tone of her husband's remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: How much anti-Bush?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, WIFE OF SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: This is not a campaign strategy. That is not the way John ever presents anything. He might make the contrast -- this instead of that -- and I don't know, because I haven't seen the last version. He might say, you know, they want "A" and "B," we want "D" and "E."

But he doesn't engage in that kind of personal attack, never has. He doesn't think any people want to hear it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: You can hear the rest of that interview on "INSIDE POLITICS" at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific.

PHILLIPS: Sixteen minutes may have been enough to put an Illinois state senator on the national political map. U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama wowed the crowd during the Democratic National Convention last night. Obama used his keynote address to promote John Kerry as a candidate who could bring Americans together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Now, even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spinmasters, the negative ad peddlers -- who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America.

There is not a black America and a white America, a Latino America, an Asian America -- there's the United States of America

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Pretty powerful speaker. Well, if you're away from your TV, you can still hear all the DNC coverage. CNN Radio's John Lisk and I will be anchoring for CNN Radio's 2,000 affiliates in the U.S. and overseas. What? No radio, you say. Hey, no problem. Log onto cnn.com to hear and see all the prime time action on the CNN Radio Web stream.

CNN, bringing you DNC coverage in every way, shape, and form. You can't miss it. You can't stay away.

O'BRIEN: Just can't. Can you tell a Republican from a Democrat? Well, take our quiz and see if you can match the quote with the party of the person who said it. Log onto cnn.com/americavotes to test your skill. Now, get this, campers. If you get a perfect score, you get three virtual convention balloons filled with virtual hot air or something. We don't know what that means at all, but it sounds like fun, doesn't it?

PHILLIPS: Hot air, conventions, I don't know. You think there's a connection? Well, it was designed to save soldiers' lives, but now there's a warning about serious complications from a drug taken by U.S. servicemen and women. We're live from the Pentagon straight ahead.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kimberly Osias live in Salt Lake City. It is day number nine and the volunteer search efforts have been called off. But the investigation continues into the missing Utah jogger Lori Hacking. Stay with us as LIVE FROM rolls on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An ounce of prevention might be worth a pound of cure, but the federal government is issuing a warning about the possible side effects of a drug given to U.S. troops to prevent malaria. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now to tell us more about it -- Barbara

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, it's already a controversial drug -- Lariam -- indeed, the drug that thousands of U.S. troops are taking in Iraq to prevent malaria. It has been linked by its manufacturer to the possibility of severe side effects, psychiatric side effects mainly. But even that has not been proven yet.

It's mainly been warnings until now and a lot of anecdotal evidence. But Lariam now is the subject of a warning from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is weighing in, and the VA is alerting all of its clinics and doctors to, quote, "the potential for serious complications," close quote, associated with the drug -- the VA noting that some of those could be violent behavior, possibly even post traumatic stress disorder.

Now, veterans, of course, are watching all of this very carefully. They are watching a court case going on right now involving the preliminary hearing for soldiers accused of misconduct in Iraq -- waiting to see if the defense attorneys in those cases make the point that Lariam may have contributed to their clients' behavior, soldiers' behavior in Iraq.

The Pentagon, also, Kyra, is now studying the entire medical issue of Lariam, because at least a dozen or so soldiers also have reported inner ear disorders that some military doctors believe may be linked to the long term use of Lariam.

So some growing anecdotal evidence, some warnings, some cases, but this drug now an object of great scrutiny by the military medical community -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow it. Barbara Starr, live from the Pentagon, thanks.

O'BRIEN: New developments in the disappearance of Lori Hacking. A Utah convenience store clerk may have seen the young woman before she disappeared. Our Kimberly Osias in Salt Lake City tracking details for us -- Kimberly.

OSIAS: Hello, Miles. Well, local reports have said that a convenience store owner may have been the last person, as you mentioned, to have seen Lori Hacking, possibly on Sunday night, when the pair, Mark Hacking and Lori Hacking, walked in and he, Mark Hacking, said to the convenience store owner, "Hey, I want to buy some cigarettes," kind of on the sly, "Don't tell my wife."

And what makes it a little bit unusual is, obviously, in Salt Lake City, it is predominantly Mormon -- that is highly suspect, you know, that it was perhaps another lie. And obviously, there have been a web of lies that have been unraveled in this case, among them that Mark Hacking said he was in medical school, that the pair were planning to move to North Carolina.

Well, he never even graduated from undergraduate. Mark Hacking, for his part, remains here at the University of Utah Medical Center. He is in the psychiatric ward. He is on a voluntary admission, we are told by family members, although it is a secured unit. I just spoke with Assistant District Attorney Bob Stott, who says that the police have not given him any evidence, or his office, any evidence in this case, at this juncture.

And there is no hold on Mark Hacking, so he is free to leave here. Now, last evening, for the second consecutive night, police searched an area landfill using cadaver dogs. They say that the dogs are actually able to work much more efficiently. When it is dark and it is cooler, they can work longer.

Homicide is involved, as are other agencies in the search, although the FBI is not involved, and that is a little bit unusual, as the FBI is involved in most missing person cases. Detective Dwayne Baird said that they had received hundreds of calls about mattresses from the public, and they didn't need that. They had what they needed. Mark Hacking bought a mattress some 30 minutes before he called to report his wife missing.

Police say this is still considered a missing person case under very suspicious circumstances. No charges have been filed. Police are naming Mark Hacking as the only person of interest in the case. The Hacking family has hired prominent local criminal attorney Gil Athay. And for his part, he has been here to the hospital since he has been retained on Thursday evening. Since then, he's been here every day to meet with Mark Hacking.

The fact that Mark Hacking is in this psychiatric facility in no way really buffers him or insulates him from any kind of arrest -- Miles

O'BRIEN: CNN's Kimberly Osias, thanks very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: From dangling chads to crashing computers, is this really how to make every vote count? Troubles with Florida's new voting system raises troubling issues for the November election.

Foreign policy and the presidency from the war in Iraq to Osama bin Laden. How do John Kerry and George Bush differ? We're going to talk with their advisors straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: New across America begins with a compromised plan for Martha Stewart. Sources say Stewart would begin serving her 10-month sentence now if she could do it all from home. She was sentenced to five months in prison and five months on detention. No word on the judges' take on it, but federal prosecutors do not approve.

Flash flooding around the Beltway. Thunderstorms and rain turned some Maryland roads into flood zones yesterday. So much rain fell on Baltimore-Washington International Airport that it set a new record. More storms are expected today.

A TV Land tribute to Bob Newhart. A statue honoring his character, Dr. Robert Hartley, from his '70s sitcom, was unveiled in Chicago yesterday. Newhart, in typical deadpan, said when he tried out the sofa, bronze is not as soft as it looks.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's a vote of no confidence for Florida's new voting machines. Electronic records from the first widespread use of those new touch screens has vanished. It's raising new concerns about the machines' reliability.

Our John Zarrella tracking this one in Miami. John, it's hard to believe four years later, we're coming back to you in Florida and talking about a potential election mess.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, deja vu all over again. I've already got a headache, Miles, leading up to November. I think we're all going to have one massive one down here, certainly the potential. You remember four years ago, the judge with his magnifying glass, looking at those chads in Broward County.

Well, all that was supposed to be erased when they got these new electronic voting machines -- wouldn't have those problems again.

Well, in 2002, when former Attorney General Janet Reno ran against Tampa attorney Bill McBride in the Democratic primary for governor, that was the first time in the counties that these new electronic voting machines were used in Dade County and in Broward County. Well, that was a fiasco, that election.

As most of us recall, there were problems with the machines, they didn't start up on time. There were concerns that some votes weren't tallied, that people didn't know how to use the machines.

Well, all that was even supposed to have been rectified since then. But now, it comes out that during that election, back a year or so ago, the information, the results, the audit tapes, everything from that election had been lost because of a computer glitch. And it was in Miami-Dade County only -- that's the only county where this was involved.

Well, the Election Reform Coalition, which investigated and looked into it, and found out that these records were missing, is not confident in these new machines, and says that's because there is no paper trail to tell you what happened.

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LIDA RODRIGUEZ: Voters go to the polls and they vote. Once they hit the vote button on these machines, they don't know where that vote went. That vote just goes out into space, and it is up to the elections officials to make sure that that vote is actually counted.

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ZARRELLA: Now, county officials say, look, the problems with the server going down, which caused the loss of the records from this particular election, happened long after the results were finalized, and there was never any concern about the actual election itself. They say, yes, there's a problem when the server goes down. That's been fixed. And they, they say, are very confident in the election system.

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SETH KAPLAN, MIAMI-DADE ELECTIONS DEPT.: We wouldn't try to run an election with a system that we didn't think could conduct an election with a certain degree of integrity. I mean, that's the bottom line. We are passionate about making sure that this runs smoothly.

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ZARRELLA: The only data left from that election in Dade County, according to county officials, is from 350 machines out of 6,000 machines. Now, for this coming election in November, an additional 800 county workers are going to be used to make sure that the system works in Dade County as best they can.

And meanwhile, there are lawsuits pending. Congressman Robert Wexler here of Florida wants to have a paper trail for these voting machines just in case we get down to a situation where there is a recount in Florida, which is highly possible, Miles. And right now, there is no way to have a paper trail for the 15 counties that use these electronic voting machines -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Boy, I hear a train wreck a coming in Florida. All right, thank you, John Zarrella, appreciate it -- Kyra

PHILLIPS: Well, now to Houston, Texas, where a local TV station scored a real news exclusive. All right -- Michael's taking advantage of the free samples. He's shopping at Houston's Memorial City Mall, where we're told he just spontaneously purchased several Teddy bears. Stay tuned -- that's the news.

O'BRIEN: All right, turning now to less important matters, business. No, let's get to some real news now...

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