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White House Spokesman Resigns; Rumsfeld Answers Critics; Friends, Neighbors of Duke Rape Suspects Defend Them

Aired April 19, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Kyra Phillips is on assignment. LIVE FROM begins right now.
There is a big job opening at the White House. Just two days after President Bush's new chief of staff promised changes to refresh and reenergize the administration, a very high-profile staffer is leaving and another is losing some of his duties.

CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry is traveling with the president in Tuskegee, Alabama -- Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Fredricka.

That's right, the staff shuffle at the White House accelerating today. White House spokesman Scott McClellan announcing he is resigning, leaving in the next couple of weeks.

Not totally unexpected. We knew there had been some Republican grumbling about the White House communications operations, but still a dramatic development, because of course, Scott McClellan is the public face of this administration, all around the world.

He made the announcement this morning with the president at his side on the South Lawn of the White House before they headed here to Alabama. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I have given it my all, sir, and I've given you my all. And I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary over the next two to three weeks. Thank you for the opportunity.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to be hard to replace Scott. And -- but nevertheless, he's made the decision, and I accept it.

One of these days he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary, and I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now administration officials say in an announcement on Scott McClellan's successor is likely within a week, maybe even sooner. As you noted at the top, this staff shuffling going very quickly, Republican sources telling CNN that FOX News anchor and radio talk show host Tony Snow is somebody who's been sounded out as a possibility to replace Scott McClellan. No comment from Snow.

Another name that's been floated out there, former Pentagon spokeswoman Tori Clark, now a CNN contributor, who has previously said me is not interested in the job.

Meanwhile, the person who's losing some of their duties, Karl Rove top adviser to the president, losing some of his portfolio. He will stay on as a deputy White House chief of staff and senior adviser, but he will only be focusing on strategic planning, politics leading into the mid term elections.

He's giving up, ceding his policy duties to a new deputy White House chief of staff, Joel Kaplan, a former top budget official. He now comes in. That's just another piece in this whole White House game of musical chairs.

A top Democratic aide, Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, is declaring that this is basically just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Henry traveling with the president out of Tuskegee, Alabama, thanks so much.

Now words describing another member of the Bush administration. He's incompetent; he's doing a fine job; he's dismissive and arrogant; he's decisive and tough. Donald Rumsfeld has his critics. He also has his supporters, among them, the man whose opinion matters most.

Here is CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Armed with a fresh endorsement from his boss, the president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confidently faced the Pentagon press corps and made it clear he won't be offering to resign again as he did two years ago in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why in one case and not the other?

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Oh, just call it idiosyncratic.

MCINTYRE: Asked if he was dismissive or contemptuous of military advice, Rumsfeld took the leadoff question and ran with it, rattling off a list of his accomplishments and refusing to take another question for a full 10 minutes.

RUMSFELD: Just a minute! Just a minute! Just a minute! I was asked a question, and I'm going to take all the time I want.

MCINTYRE: Joint chiefs chairman General Pete Pace was anxious to defend his civilian boss.

GEN. PETER PACE, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: There are multiple opportunities for all of us who have whatever opinions we have to put them on the table. And all the opinions are put on the table. But at the end of the day, after we've given our best military advice, somebody has to make a decision.

RUMSFELD: And the person who is appointed by the president, who's elected by the people, and then confirmed by the Senate as secretary of defense has to make those kinds of decisions. And when you make a decision, you make a choice, somebody is not going to like it.

MCINTYRE: It was the same message Rumsfeld gave to a group of 15 military analysts who were invited to a two-hour private briefing on Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the retired military, CNN's own Don Shepperd.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: And he's clearly distracted by this. He also though, basically said, openly, "Look, this is going to pass. This is one issue. We've had good times and bad. This is a bad time. There will be good times again."

MCINTYRE: And Rumsfeld brushed aside questions about being hard to work for.

(on camera) In this "Wall Street Journal" opinion piece that was written yesterday by a number of retired generals, it was said that some feel that you have been unfair, arrogant and autocratic. And this was from your supporters. How much you think is this about your management style and...

RUMSFELD: No idea.

MCINTYRE: Are you arrogant and autocratic?

RUMSFELD: You know me.

MCINTYRE: I do know the secretary to be decisive and, at times, dismissive. He's also determined not to be driven from office by generals he sees as resistant to change.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Failure in Iraq is not an option. The words of President Bush, again rejecting calls for an early withdrawal of U.S. troops. Speaking to reporters today on the White House South Lawn, Mr. Bush vowed the U.S. will complete its mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I don't expect everybody to agree with my decision to go into Iraq. But I do want the people to understand, the American people to understand, that failure in Iraq is not an option. Failure in Iraq would make the security situation for our country worse. And the success in Iraq will begin to lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The president spoke after a meeting with several governors who have just returned from a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan.

More evidence said to be in Saddam Hussein's own handwriting, tying the former Iraqi president to a deadly crackdown in the 1980s. The judge in Hussein's trial read a report today from handwriting experts who said it was Hussein's signature on a memo approving death sentences for 148 Shiites.

The executions and imprisonment of hundreds of others followed an assassination attempt on the Iraqi dictator back in 1982. The trial adjourned until Monday so experts can review more documents.

Here in the U.S., bracing for severe weather in the southeast. Let's check in with CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

In mug shots, in handcuffs, in court. That's how we've seen the suspects in the Duke rape case. But are those images the full picture? Friends and family say no. And we'll take a closer look, coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Who's next? That's the question in Durham, North Carolina, where two members of the Duke University lacrosse team stand accused of raping a woman at a party. And the D.A. says he's not done yet.

Our Alina Cho has the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The D.A. says he is working to identify the third assailant in this case and that he hopes to bring that third suspect to justice. Sources close to the case have told us the name of the third lacrosse player the D.A. is targeting, but we are not releasing the name at this time.

Meanwhile, friends and neighbors of the two suspects already charged in this case say there is no way they committed this crime.

(voice-over) Far away from the Duke campus, those who know the two lacrosse players are coming out to support them. Nineteen-year- old Collin Finnerty is from Garden City, New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a good kid. He's absolutely -- I mean, any family would love to have a kid like him. CHO: Finnerty was a two-year letterman at Chaminade High School. Jack Moran was his lacrosse coach.

JACK MORAN, CHAMINADE HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE COACH: He always met my expectations, and I never had a problem with him as player or as a student.

CHO: Back when Finnerty was a student there, he was No. 7. At Duke, the sophomore had family ties. His brother is a senior there. Classmates say he and teammate Reade Seligmann would never commit rape.

AAINA AGARWAL, FRIEND OF THE PLAYERS: I just know these boys to be kind and amazing people who wouldn't even be capable of thinking something like this, let alone participating in it.

CHO: But this is not the first time Finnerty has been in trouble. In November, he and two friends were arrested in Washington, D.C., charged with assaulting a man outside a Georgetown hotel.

Twenty-year-old Reade Seligmann has no prior criminal record. He's a sophomore from Essex Fells, New Jersey. In high school he was No. 4, known as a go-to guy who came through in the clutch.

When it came time to decide where to go to college, a friend said Seligmann chose Duke over Harvard and Princeton. The head master of his high school said, quote, "I believe him innocent of the charges."

Neighbors of Collin Finnerty say they stand behind him 100 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth will come out, and I will bet my life on it. He's innocent. He's definitely innocent.

CHO (on camera): A Duke classmate who lives in the same dorm as the two suspects tells me that police last night thoroughly searched both of their rooms, but there is no word on what, if anything, they have found. The two students have been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

Alina Cho, CNN, Durham, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So what are the suspects' families going through about now? Collin Finnerty's lawyer said it's hard for most people to imagine, but he told reporters today, one word sums it up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COTTER, FINNERTY'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Terrified. I mean this is awful. If any of you had received a call that said that your son or daughter was charged with a serious crime, and you had all the confidence in the world that he or she didn't do that, you'd be terrified. You'd be scared to death. Like I said earlier, this is a good, decent, tight family, and next to one of them dying, this is going to be probably the worst thing they ever go through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And more on this investigation over the next couple of hours.

Meantime, bubonic plague. It sounds so last millennium. Doesn't it? But it's making headlines today in Los Angeles.

A local woman is the city's first confirmed case in more than two decades. She's hospitalized in stable condition and being treated with antibiotics.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial disease often transmitted to people by fleas that have fed on infected rodents. Symptoms include fever and swollen lymph glands. Ten to 20 people are year are infected with bubonic plague in the U.S., mostly in rural areas.

But there is a much bigger concern at the CDC right now: the nation's biggest mumps outbreak in almost 20 years. Nine Midwestern states are reporting cases of the troublesome virus, more than 800 cases in Iowa alone.

Mumps causes fever, headache and painful swelling in the glands under the jaw and can be spread by coughing and sneezing. Coming up in our 3 p.m. Eastern hour, CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, joins us with more on the outbreak and what you can do to protect your family.

Washington state trumps Washington, D.C., at least this time as China's president begins his first U.S. visit on the West Coast. We'll tell you why when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: You spent $265 million. Don't we all wish we had that problem? Someone in Ohio will get to decide that very soon, at least what's left after taxes. The winning ticket to last night's Megamillions drawing was sold at a Kroger store near the University of Cincinnati. The lucky numbers: 13, 14, 25, 34 and 50. The Megaball was 6.

And check your pockets. That small change could mean big money. Coin collector Scott Travers (ph) used three rare pennies when he bought a bottle of water and a newspaper in Times Square yesterday. He wanted to grab a little publicity for National Coin Week. Well, now in circulation somewhere, a 1908 "S" penny worth $200, a 1914 "D" penny worth $300, and a 1909 "S" penny with the initials "VDB." It's been appraised at $1,000. Check your pockets.

Oil prices are near record levels and gas prices are on the rise, as well. That's not just hurting consumers; it's also having a major impact on a broad range of industries. Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with more on that.

Hi, Susan. SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred.

We're talking about millions of pennies here for the price that we have to pay, increased prices for energy costs.

And you know, just imagine, we think we're paying a lot. Companies -- virtually every company relies on fuel in one form or another. So the recent high prices we could say are hurting everyone, but some companies more than others, especially, for instance, in the transport business, trucking and delivery companies, especially those that use those inefficient big rigs or vans.

Many firms have been trying to pass along higher costs by raising prices, but some simply can't for competitive reasons. If their competitor isn't, they can't either, and so they have to eat the higher costs. And this is especially tough for small businesses.

And we're not just talking about gas prices. We've been focusing a lot about that, but jet fuel futures also closed at their highest levels ever yesterday. So we're talking about airlines, which are under extraordinary pressures of their own. They're likely to pass those along to travelers. In fact, British airways says that it will raise its fuel surcharge across transatlantic by $10.

And if cars and planes are costing more to fill up, trains are as well. This is truly trains, planes and automobiles. Railroads are charging huge fuel surcharges, up to 16 percent of shipping -- of the shipping rate. Railroad customers obviously don't like it. Some of them are saying that the surcharges are rising above diesel fuel costs. Basically everybody is affected here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Even the non-transportation companies?

LISOVICZ: Yes, because they use -- they use energy as well. For instance, agricultural prices could rise. Think about all of the irrigation equipment that runs on fuel or electricity. Costs more to water the crops. You've got to water the crops. It adds up in a big way for farms and orchards. And oftentimes those increases get passed on to us, the consumer.

And gas prices, by the way, unlikely to decline any time soon. We got a report an hour after the opening bell that fuel inventory, gasoline supplies dropped for the seventh straight week, more than expected. Crude stocks also were lower than expected, Fred. No good news in this report.

(STOCK REPORT)

LISOVICZ: Coming up in the next hour, I'll tell you whether McDonald's campaign to change its public image is paying off. Stay with us. LIVE FROM will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: East meets more of the west this hour as China's president tours a Boeing plant near Seattle. Hu Jintao's first day in the U.S. included dinner at the home of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Tomorrow the Chinese leader meets with President Bush in Washington, D.C.

Many wonder what China hopes to gain from this trip.

CNN's Kitty Pilgrim investigated for "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Business first. The Chinese president's first stop at America isn't the White House but Seattle, Bill Gates' house. And China's largest P.C. maker, Lenovo Group, said it is buying more than a billion dollars of Microsoft Windows software over the next year.

NICHOLAS LARDY, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: China is looking to foreign companies, including Microsoft, as sources of technology. Microsoft is doing a lot of research and development there. A big part of China's growth strategy is to become more sophisticated on the technology side, move up the technology ladder, and companies like Microsoft potentially can help them do that.

PILGRIM: The deal is being touted as a so-called breakthrough. Up until now Chinese computer makers have routinely ripped off software. Now, by offering to actually buy it, the Chinese hope to smooth tensions over intellectual property rights.

In advance of Hu's trip, China has also been making conciliatory gestures with its checkbook to other companies, such as Boeing. China has done $15 billion worth of deals in this country in the past few weeks.

China had a record $200 billion trade surplus with the U.S. That is roiling Congress, demanding responsible trading practices and fair currency exchange from China.

FRED BERGSTEN, INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: China is very long on making promises and very short on delivering on those promises. And he wants to get away with giving as little as he can. The economic issues are high on the agenda. The Chinese don't have much to offer and don't want to give much, so he wants maximum return for very little contribution.

PILGRIM: President Hu is also looking to bolster his reputation in Beijing by cleverly managing the relationship with the United States.

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Let's get an update on the Chinese President's West Coast stop. Brad Goode of KING -- K-I-N-G -- Television in Seattle joins me now.

Goode to see you, Brad. BRAD GOODE, KING, TELEVISION: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So in addition to the economic reasons why Hu is even in the U.S., let's talk about why Washington State first and not Washington D.C. Is it more along the lines of some real cultural ties?

GOODE: Well, yes, I think it certainly is, and it certainly makes a statement when you have the president of China in his first visit to the U.S. after being president for four years, to make a stop here in Seattle and meet with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates before he even goes to meet President Bush. That to us is very significant in this area, going to this very lavish dinner they prepared at the Gates mansion yesterday.

And this visit all comes, this visit, on the heels of great news, as Kitty Pilgrim just talked about, that we've following closely. Linovo (ph) doing this $1 billion deal to puts Windows operating system software on their computers, to finally agree to battle the piracy that has plagued software makers for so long. And then you have President Hu and dignitaries fly in to Everett, home of the 747, triple seven, the big jets, on a Boeing 747. It made a clear statement that there is a real favorable business environment going on here. We've seen that every step of the way. The president surprised many of us, he stopped to talk to the media. When he landed, several impromptu press conferences where he seemed very willing and open to talk about business. He addressed many of the dignitaries at the Gates dinner last night, specifically the Starbucks chairman.

The man is well aware of the business dealings with this country, and specifically the Peugeot Sound region. China is Washington State's third largest trade partner after Canada and Japan. Last year we exported some $5 billion worth of goods to China. So I would say by all accounts, Fredricka, the president's visit, in terms of the eyes of business leaders here in the Peugeot Sound area, it's been nothing sort of a resounding success.

WHITFIELD: While, and so while President Hu was meeting with what maybe most Americans would consider kind of economic royalty in this country, I also understand that the president was also very impressed, as anybody would be, of the Bill Gates mansion and all that took place during this dinner.

GOODE: Well, I can tell you, it is a very impressive palace, if you will. It is on Lake Washington, just east of Seattle, a beautiful lake with a view of the city. It's a 65,000-square foot mansion. Obviously Bill Gates hosting other dignitaries. Warren Buffett is a usual visitor. They like to play cards together. Martha Stewart and a whole list. So it certainly is impressive. The menu was impressive as well last night, with a lot of Washington-type items on the menu.

And our governor, Chris Gregoire, also making quite a statement in her toast to President Hu, that they believe this is just the beginning of better trade negotiations, which of course is what both countries want. And of course we can assume when he gets to D.C., the president will address maybe some of the more difficult issues in terms of free trade, floating the he wants to make trade even more fair and equitable for businesses in this country.

WHITFIELD: And so, Brad, while it looked like everybody got along, you can't miss protesters whenever have you a visiting president to any country. Were there protesters? And if so, what was their behavior like for President Hu?

GOODE: Yes, Fredricka, there were. And you do expect it when a head of state, someone of this magnitude, coming from China, is in. There were some protests in downtown Seattle, outside the hotel where President Hu was staying. Some protesters of course demanding the independence of Taiwan, which, as you know, has been a long standing issue in terms of international affairs with China and the rest of the world.

And then a couple of other smaller protests, some of these other religious groups. One specifically, Failan Gong (ph), a meditation practice, they were banned from practicing in China back in 1999. There was a contingent of those folks out here in front of the hotel as well, asking that they be allowed to practice in their homeland of China. But all in all, pretty small, very calm, quiet protests.

I think a lot of us perhaps were a little surprised just how smooth this visit went. We know he's back at Everett right now. He's saying he is going to make a major policy statement. We find that interesting that he is saying he's going to make a policy statement while he's still here in the Seattle area, as opposed to saving that for a meeting with President Bush. It almost seems a little backwards. And as many people have said as they travel the globe, they're so impressed coming here, and it's almost like Bill Gates is on the list before any others when they come to the U.S.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.

OK, not to harp on the dinner alone, but what was on the menu?

GOODE: Well, let's see. I have the menu here in front of me. I was invited.

WHITFIELD: Of course I love the graphic.

GOODE: OK, let's see. Dinner included smoked guinea fowl salad with hazelnuts, spring radishes and granny smith apples. Of course Washington a huge exporter and grower of apples.

WHITFIELD: Got to have the apples in there.

GOODE: Yes. We had a filet of beef with Walla Walla onions from Walla Walla, Washington, local asparagus, a puree, a nice glazed Alaskan halibut. Of course we're known for our fish here as well, prawns with spring vegetables, fingerling (ph) potatoes, smoked tomato infused olive oil. And the wine was a standout, 2002 Leonetti (ph) Cellar's Cab. WHITFIELD: Impressive.

GOODE: Yes. So it sounds to me like it may be better than what the president has offered for lunch in D.C.

WHITFIELD: Ooh, yummy! And the desert!

GOODE: Oh, the desert. Oh, that's right. Yes, rhubarb brown butter almond cake. You can't be worried about calories when you sit down and consume that.

WHITFIELD: No, of course not.

All right, Brad Good, thanks so much, of KING TV, and of course hopefully President Hu won't be disappointed with that kind of spread and reception there in Washington State as he now makes his way over to Washington D.C., over his four-day visit here in the U.S.

Thanks so much, Brad.

GOODE: Fredricka, my pleasure. Have a good one.

GOODE: You, too.

And more on Hu's U.S. visit tonight on Lou Dobbs. That's at 6:00 Eastern, 3:00 Pacific, right here on CNN.

(NEWSBREAK)

PHILLIPS: A highwire act high above New York City. Dozens of men, women and children dangling for hours.

Coming up on LIVE FROM, we'll tell you how it all ended.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A live picture of President Bush right now speaking at the Tuskegee University, where the focus is keeping America competitive. After this stop, it will be back to Washington, D.C., where the search is on for a White House spokesperson after today announcing that Scott McClellan is stepping aside.

Meantime, you may have seen New York's cable trams in movies such as "Spider-Man," small gondolas dangling from wire, suspended hundreds of feet above the East River. Well, dozens of men, women and children found themselves trapped in two of those cars, some of them all night.

CNN's Christopher King reports on their ordeal and their eventual rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High drama some 25 stories above New York City's East River. About 5:00 Tuesday afternoon, a mechanical problem triggers a series of power failures. The cars of the Roosevelt Island tram stall. The tram operates alongside the 59th Street Bridge, shuttling passengers back and forth between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan.

It's normally a four-minute ride, but this was no normal ride. Sixty-nine people were on board the gondolas; 12 were children. The hours drag on, the tram cars and passengers dangling. 6:00, 8:00, 10:00.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: We got supplies to people in both of the gondolas. That's done with a very small car that goes up over the cable and drops some supplies down. And then the operators mount the rescue vehicle, which they can only do one side at a time.

KING: Finally, at 10:52 p.m.,rescue teams start transferring people from the tram into a rescue basket. A short time later, at 11:18 p.m., the cage docks at Roosevelt Island, carrying the first of the stranded passengers, seven children and five adults, to safety.

DAX MAIER, STUCK ON TRAM: We were happy to be down and a lot of people cheered us up when we were up there. They were making us laugh. They were dancing a little bit. They were nice people. And sometimes you can find great people in New York.

KING: Christopher King, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: What a precocious kid. Well, here's a little bit more about New York's cable trams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: The tramway was born out of public frustration with New York City delays in building a subway link to residential Roosevelt Island. In 1976, the first trams began making the four-minute journey between the island of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. The system was built by a Swiss company at a cost of $5 million. Today, the price would be more than $20 million.

At its peak, the tram climbs to 250 feet above the East River. It zips along at 16 miles an hour and travels a total of 3,100 feet. Each cabin can hold up to 125 passengers. Two cabins make the run every 15 minutes and continuously during rush hours. A one-way ticket is $2. Seniors and the disabled get a 50 percent discount.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: An irresponsible luggage screener, a sloppy would-be terrorist or just a not-so-funny practical joke? A Jet Blue passenger traveling from New Jersey to Tampa says she found an official TSA shirt with Homeland Security patches in her suitcase when she unpacked. Certain it is not hers -- it's a size 3X, for one thing, and she reported it to authorities and they are now investigating. TSA says a shirt alone wouldn't give anyone who wears it clearance to move through an airport. They would also need a security badge.

Hold the blue. It's all about pink today in Hollywood. Up next on LIVE FROM, bouncing baby girls make the scene in two showbiz homes. Isn't that interesting? And we're naming names coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So Labor Day came a little early on left coast this year, as a bouncing baby girl arrives for Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, seven pounds, seven ounces, 20 inches long. The baby has been dubbed Tomkitten in Hollywood shorthand, but her official name is Suri. In Hebrew, it means "Princess." In Persian, it means "Red Rose." In paparazzi, it simply means big paycheck if you're the first to snap the picture.

Well, the stork must have gotten pretty dizzy circling Hollywood Tuesday. Brooke Shields and her husband Chris Henchy also welcomed a baby daughter. Their new arrival is named Grier, seven pounds even and also 20 inches long. The coincidence of Shields and Cruise's babies arriving on the same day isn't going unremarked in Tinseltown. The pair famously feuded last year after Cruise dissed Shields for using drugs to treat her postpartum depression. The actress shot back at what she called Cruise's ridiculous rant with an editorial in "The New York Times."

Well, here's a scary thought: as Hollywood goes, so goes the nation. Some believe that too many stars are setting a bad example by putting the stroller before the stroll down the aisle.

CNN's Sibila Vargas has more to report, first seen on "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tom and Katie, Brad and Angelina, Heath and Michelle -- some of Hollywood's hottest couples either just had or are expecting babies. Another thing they have in common? None of these new parents is married.

KEN BAKER, US WEEKLY WEST COAST EXEC. EDITOR: I think there's a lot of burnout, a lot of fear, a lot of sort of suspicion among celebrities that if we get married, wait, they always end up getting divorced.

VARGAS: Tom Cruise has been down that road before with Nicole Kidman, and so has Brad Pitt with Jennifer Aniston. When it comes to lasting love in Hollywood, sometimes what works best is staying away from the traditional script.

BAKER: You look at people like Goldie Hawn, Susan Sarandon. They've had long-term relationships that are basically marriages but not on paper. And they're very, very happy.

VARGAS (on camera): And Hollywood may just be reflecting a trend. All across the country, more and more people are choosing not to tie the knot. According to a 2005 study by the National Marriage Project, the marriage rate in the U.S. has dropped nearly 50 percent since 1970. (voice-over): Then there are individual celebrities who are making a clean break with custom and adopting children on their own. Sharon Stone, Calista Flockhart and Angelina Jolie did it. And Jessica Simpson recently said she wants to adopt. The Christian group Concerned Women for America says those wealthy stars might be sending the wrong message to their fans.

DR. JANICE CROUSE, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: It is very detrimental to particularly the young women who look and say, well, I don't need a ring on my finger, I don't need a husband. I can do it all by myself, and they learn the hard way that they cannot.

VARGAS: They think that celebrities should be leading the charge when it comes to getting married.

CROUSE: You know, it is really cool today to not be traditional. And I think that somebody has to take the lead. One of our celebrities has to start going back to the traditional values.

VARGAS: Some star watchers say expecting celebrities to conform to an ideal notion of love and family is unrealistic.

BAKER: They're famous for pretending to be other people on the big screen and the small screen. They're not politicians. We did not vote for them and expect them to uphold some higher standard. They aren't public servants. They are celebrities.

VARGAS: When you consider that in the United States now more than one-third of all children are born to unmarried parents and that 50 percent of all children will live in a single parent home at some point in their lives, what's happening these days in Hollywood seems just about normal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that was Sibila Vargas reporting. Make sure to join Paula Zahn weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

So who in Alaska would complain about a warm spell? These guys might. Life with less ice is pretty rocky for the polar bear. And we'll have the cold, hard facts, plus one or two theories when LIVE FROM continues.

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WHITFIELD: There are some big-time marine biology underway in Atlanta. Scientists are working to save a whale, Gasper, a beluga whale in the Georgia aquarium a few blocks away from this CNN center.

He was rescued from a tank under a roller coaster in Mexico City awhile back. But Gasper now has a skin condition that could lead to some serious problems. University of Georgia experts have developed an ointment they hope might help.

Polar bears and greenhouse gases -- some experts believe their relationship is that of the canary to carbon monoxide in coal mines. Polar bears in Alaska are dying off faster than they're reproducing, and that could signal trouble for the whole planet.

CNN's Joe Johns filed this report for "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the top of the world, the top of the food chain, a strange and troubling new phenomenon: Polar bears are drowning, and some scientists say these kings of the Arctic ice may vanish from the wild.

BOB CORELL, AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY: They're getting thinner, and thinner, and thinner. And so, instead of having two or three cubs a year, they're now having one and zero. And our report says, by the end of this century, the polar bear is headed towards extinction.

JOHNS: What's going on? To understand that, start with a simple fact: Polar bears depend on sea ice, and the sea ice is melting and growing thinner. And that means their primary prey, seals, are harder to find with the new expanses of water and harder to kill.

The disappearance of the sea ice off the north coast of Alaska was reported at the end of last year by the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which matched it up with a sharp rise in sightings of swimming and drowned bears.

They're drowning because they're apparently trying to swim to shore, as much as 80 miles, in a desperate attempt to find the food that was once readily available on the ice. Harry Reynolds has been studying bears his whole life, and he had never heard of a polar bear drowning until recently.

HARRY REYNOLDS, INTL. SOCIETY FOR BEAR RESEARCH: That's in the last two or three years. And prior to that, I don't recall of hearing any in the 32 years that I've been in Alaska.

JOHNS: Flying over Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States, it's easy to see the problem. The pack ice is breaking up earlier than in years past, cutting the polar bears' seal-hunting season from nine months to six. The bears may be falling victim to the way they hunt and their dependence on winter seal kills to get them through the summer.

REYNOLDS: Can't make it through the summer, then they're not as physically fit. You know, their offspring are more likely to die or, in some cases, their offspring might not even be born.

JOHNS (on camera): The melting is coincided with an increase in temperatures in parts of Alaska, some scientists believe as the result of global warming. And over the last few years, they say, the process has started speeding up.

(voice-over): The bottom-line question: What's causing the warming? Is it because of greenhouse gases, as a majority of scientists believe, or simply because of natural climate fluctuations that different species have always had to adapt to? Whatever the answer, because the climate change has been so rapid, adaptation may be hard for both the bears and their prey.

Just last week, a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute published a scientific paper describing an unusual incident from the summer of 2004.

The team, cruising in a Coast Guard icebreaker off the north coast of Alaska, reported seeing nine walrus pups swimming without their mothers, highly unusual since the walrus young are dependent on their mother's milk for up to the first two years of life.

CARIN ASHJIAN, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INST.: These little walrus pups would just come swimming up to boat, and look at us, and just start barking. And they would just sit there and bark for hours.

Our theory is that the sea ice retreated very fast to the north and that the mothers had to abandon their babies because the babies couldn't keep up with the retreating sea ice.

JOHNS: The Arctic north is a harsh world where even small climatic changes can have a magnified effect and where the effects of global warming are becoming apparent in ways that are almost impossible to ignore.

Joe Johns, CNN, Anchorage, Alaska.

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WHITFIELD: Beautiful images there. You can watch "ANDERSON COOPER 360" weeknights at 10:00 Eastern only on CNN.

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