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Rick's List

Tiger's Return; Weekend Earthquakes Rock the U.S.-Mexico Border; Dad Dives Into East River, Saves Daughter; Lack of Funds Shuts Down VA Hospital

Aired April 05, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes, sitting in today for Rick Sanchez.

Michael Jackson -- his doctor is headed to court today to find out if he'll be able to practice while he could possibly be tried in connection with Michael Jackson's death. We will bring you all that coverage live.

And here is what else we've got for you the next two hours.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): Making THE LIST today -- he's back. But will his words resonate with the fans beyond Augusta?

A toddler at a tourist destination falls into the water and dad goes in after him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the product falling off the shelves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A weekend of earthquakes and aftershocks. What in the world is going on near the Mexico/California border?

THE LIST you want to know about, who is the most intriguing in the news today? Who is tweeting about Tiger Woods, about politics? Our national conversation starts right now.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: At the top of THE LIST today, Tiger Woods. He's out of seclusion, dead-center in the spotlight. He could possibly outshine the biggest, most prestigious golf tournament we see every year. That is the Masters.

Here he is a short time ago, having his first news conference since the whole scandal began. He had questions tossed at him on a number of topics -- golf, yes, but also the whole scandal that got him to this point.

Now, a big question that Tiger had, and a big question that a lot of people had was exactly how he was going to be received by the public, the galleries, the golf fans, as he walked up and down those greens. Well, let me show you right now how he was received during a practice round today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He got some applause. Maybe a bit muted, but still, he was received. And he talked about in his press conference how well he was received and how people were out there on the golf course. He even spoke to some of them directly who said, "Way to go, Tiger," "Welcome back, Tiger," he looked them -- looked at them, something he's not used to doing, looking at them and responded one-on-one to some of the folks out there.

Keep in mind, though, this is the Masters. This is a different kind of golf crowd than you'll see at many of the open golf tournaments, other places that he does play. He is still the world's number-one golfer.

He answered some reporters' questions a short time ago. It went for about 35 minutes. Take a listen to some of it now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: I come to know you as a guy that controls things around, pretty tightly around you, whether it's this or your -- everywhere around your life. And with all of the reports that have come out with seemingly a lot of loose ends with the things that you did, with -- whether it be text messages or whatever those things be, it leads to wonder why you would leave so many loose ends. And is there almost some element of you that wanted to get caught?

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: I don't know. All I know is, I acted just terribly, poorly, made just incredibly bad decisions, and decisions that I've heard so many people close to me. And that's enough.

QUESTION: You said earlier that you were in some form of a rehab. Can you talk about -- are you still in rehab, and what that rehab was for?

WOODS: You know, I -- yes, I was in there for 45 days. And it was to take a hard look at myself, and I did. And I've come out better -- certainly a much better person for it than I was going in.

And does that mean I'm ever going to stop doing that? No. I still continue with my treatment. And that's going forward. That's not going to continue. I'm sorry, not going to stop in the near future, for sure. QUESTION: What was it for?

WOODS: That's personal. Thank you.

QUESTION: Tiger, there was a four-week lapse between the accident and when you entered therapy. Did -- when did you make that decision that this was something you were going to have to deal with rather than just push it into the background?

WOODS: Well, probably just prior to Christmas, I made the decision to enter rehab. And having spent Christmas day with my family was just incredible, and then having to go off from there into treatment. That was a very difficult time, because what people probably don't realize is that because of the time frame of it, I missed my son's first birthday. And that hurts. That hurts a lot.

And I vowed I would never miss another one after that. I can't go back to where I was. I want to be a part of my son's life and my daughter's life going forward. And I missed his first birthday. I mean, that's -- that was very hard that day. And something I regret and I probably will for the rest of my life.

QUESTION: Tiger, will Elin and the kids be joining you this week, the Masters? And if not, is there a time that she's not ready to support you yet, and should you be making this return so soon to the game?

WOODS: Elin is not coming this week, no.

QUESTION: So, should you be returning to the game so soon with (INAUDIBLE) time repairing your relationship?

WOODS: Well, I decided to play this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, again, that was Tiger Woods, from just a short time ago.

And joining me to talk about this, Samantha Hayes of CNN, who is there at Augusta. Also, Geoff Shackelford, golf writer and author who is in Los Angeles.

Geoff, let me start with you. You were scratching your head of why he did a press conference in the first place. But after watching this thing, do you think it did him some good?

GEOFF SHACKELFORD, AUTHOR AND GOLF WRITER: Oh, absolutely. Now, I always thought he should do this kind of press conference a long time ago, because he's in his element. He's so good at this. He controls the room. He knows how to have these guys just swooning.

And you saw, the questions were pretty soft, and he only got a little testy with a couple of them, and those are probably people he doesn't care for as much. But you also heard the nicknames, and, you know, he really owned the room, I thought. HOLMES: Samantha, what's the feeling out there going into this? Did you get a sense that so many people that were going in -- and these are people who have covered him for quite some time -- they were ready to kind of move on and ask golf questions and get back to golf?

SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is the Masters, and everybody is ready to play. And I think we saw that early on.

Even Sunday, when Tiger Woods made an unannounced visit to the golf course to practice a little bit and some of the other players were there, and he was embraced, he was welcomed. And I think that certainly sent a message that the golf world is ready to move on -- with the exception that I think there's curiosity as to how this breakdown in his personal life would affect his mental game, because, of course, you can't separate the two in golf. And that will continue to be observed when the tournament starts on Thursday.

HOLMES: And also out there, Samantha, we played a little video at the top of how he was received, got a little applause from the galleries there. Again, this is a different golf crowd out there.

From the fans, at least, are they certainly ready to talk about golf? These are big golf fans and he is the biggest golfer. They're just ready to have him back.

HAYES: That's true. And when people say, you know, he got a tepid response, you know, sort of just a little bit of clapping like this, well, that's pretty typical for the Masters.

HOLMES: For Augusta.

HAYES: You don't see a lot of whooping and hollering and a lot of, you know, broad gestures or anything like that -- sometimes if it's really dramatic toward the end of the tournament. But people here are very polite. They really want to hold on to their tickets. If they're members, they certainly don't want to lose that status.

And this golf course, apart from that, is revered. And you can tell that Tiger has a tremendous amount of respect for it, too, and, of course, the number of times that he has won here. And he wants to break Jack Nicklaus' record. So he has his eye on that. But he also said, you know, his tone is going to change. We saw that during this morning's practice rounds and we saw that in the press conference.

HOLMES: Geoff, I'm going to bring you back, he didn't answer the question about rehab, said he's not going to answer that, and left it really a short answer, and said, thank you. He also wouldn't answer whether or not he was under the influence of Ambien when he had that car crash. He said the police investigated, it's a closed case.

On those two questions, is it a closed case now that he has put himself out there? He took all questions, he answered them. Is he pretty much done with his -- as far as the P.R. goes, as far as taking questions?

SHACKELFORD: I don't know. I think that his answers were --

HAYES: I would suspect so.

HOLMES: Go ahead, Geoff. That was to you.

SHACKELFORD: His answers were a little short and curt on that. And I don't think that's going to rub people quite the right way, especially on the notion that he just got a citation, and the cops charged him $166, and I'm on my way. That just didn't come across very well.

And I have feeling that these questions are going to kind of linger, because what bothers people is that since they feel like he then got away with a crime. And I think that's why it just will not die on -- at least on the car accident front. And probably, they're going to be a few more questions about Dr. Galea as well, as we find out more about what's going on and as we learn more about the FBI investigation.

HOLMES: And Dr. Galea, you're talking about, for our viewers, he's talking about this doctor who is under investigation for possibly being out there pedaling performance-enhancing drugs. He actually treated Tiger Woods in '08 four times down at his house.

Geoff, do you buy as well, since you have been watching him for quite some time, like so many of us, that people have come out and said, you know what, he looks different. His demeanor was different. And it could be an act, but some got the idea that maybe he just feels a little better, and he said himself that golf feels fun again now that he's not living this secret life.

Just watching his demeanor, did he seem like a different guy than we've seen over the years?

SHACKELFORD: Well, we'll see how fun he thinks golf is when he makes his first bogey. However, that said, I've sat through a lot of his press conferences and he was noticeably nervous at the beginning. His voice was very different.

And so, I did sense he was much more humble. I thought he did very well. But I -- again, I want to see what happens when he starts to play golf.

And, you know, the early reports are that he's not playing very well in the practice rounds. So, we'll see about this new attitude that he talked about today, if that really comes forward in his -- on- course demeanor.

HOLMES: And a note to our viewers, as well. That, in fact, we wish we could have played you play more of that press conference, however, there were restrictions put on it. We can only show you three minutes of it per hour.

Now, that is something we're not used to getting at these press conferences, but still, at the Masters press conferences, they're not usually covered like this. So, the reputation of Tiger Woods being so controlling in his image, the control seems to continue. We will show you more of it next hour, as the restrictions will allow.

So again, Geoff Shackelford and Samantha Hayes, we appreciate you both being here.

We'll continue to follow, of course, the Tiger Wood story. We'll be talking more about it. Samantha will be back, and another P.R. guy will talk about how this help's Tiger's image. He's going to be coming up at the next couple of hours as well.

Also, you know, here, Rick keeps lists of a lot of things, including relevant golf writers, pros, organizations, and things like that on Twitter. We just found a tweet from Rhys Lloyd, he's with the Minnesota Vikings, and his wife is a golf pro, actually.

And he put this out. Apparently, he was watching, and he said, "Tiger is doing a great job, being flat-out honest. This is good for him."

Of course, we have plenty of lists here on RICK'S LIST. And we will continue to share tweets from those in the profession, in the golf, in the golf writers, the golf journalists, and others out there -- as we find them, we'll bring them to you.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, what you're seeing here is a toddler after the toddler fell about 15 feet into the East River in New York City. We'll explain this picture -- just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like an ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like a tsunami.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes, like a tsunami. What was going on to make the pool look like an ocean that got a tsunami? Well, it's one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit California in decades. It happened near the Mexico/California border. That is next on THE LIST.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, today's list, the places where you should hold on to something. The west coast, the big one, 7.2 magnitude quake centered in northwest Mexico and rattled southern California, Arizona, interrupted what was otherwise a hot, sunny, nice Easter Sunday.

Let's get to the pictures -- Mexicali, Mexico; south of San Diego, where the Baja -- down the Baja Peninsula there. Some of these pictures are taken from someone right in the center of some of the worst damage -- several buildings collapsed, power lines down, roads cracked. This is where we know of the only fatalities from the earthquake. At least two people dead there. At the same time n San Diego, we have pots and pans swinging back and forth. Not so much of the damage on the U.S. side of the border. No reports of people killed or hurt. Some rattled nerves, however, elevated heart rates.

One of our iReporters hit the still-shaking streets yesterday in southern California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was really hard, and I thought -- like, you think dizzy. I said, oh, my God, I'm losing myself. My daughter is saying what happened, and all the shelves shake and everything is falling apart, falling on the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was the first one in our family to feel it! Nobody felt it! I said, do you feel that? And they said, no! And all of a sudden, we saw the chandelier swaying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A few numbers to give you now. At least 140 people hurt or hospitalized in Mexico, near the epicenter of the earthquake. Scientists put the magnitude of 7.2, actually the strongest quake to hit the south California, in the Baja, in nearly 20 years.

A little bit later, some more of the pictures from the quake zone sent in by our citizen journalists, our iReporters. Really good, scary, up-close video to share with you, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see what these guys are going through right now. It's just -- it's very, very sad. I mean, because, you know, these guys put their lives on the line for this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A group of veterans with PTSD could be left out in the cold with no funding because of a government snafu. That's ahead.

Also, Rudy Giuliani hitting the campaign trail in Florida. Jessica Yellin is going to be along in just a moment to tell us why, and if he is running for something. Oh, that's not the case. "Yellin's List" coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to RICK'S LIST.

We're keeping an eye on a number of things on the lists today, including the golf list. A lot of people, no matter -- quite frankly, if you're a golf fan or not, a lot of people have their eyes on the tube watching Tiger Woods take questions for some 35 minutes this afternoon at the Masters. And we got some on the list, Rich Eisen normally writes about the NFL. He, like so many others, is weighing in on Twitter about Tiger today. And here's his comment, he says, "Tiger's peers should hug him. Their paychecks are much fatter because of him. More people watch them on TV because of him. Period."

A lot of people will not argue with that point. Some golfers have come out in interviews and saying, "Hey, Tiger has helped put my kids through college."

And again, Tiger Woods on -- out there on the golf course. No doubt, a lot of you are going to watch -- like it or not, he's out there, people are watching and the numbers will go up. Some of the golf numbers actually going down some 50 percent in viewership since Tiger Woods is not on the course. So, they're happy to have him back.

I want to go to "Yellin's List" right now. We have her. She joins me now from Washington, our national political correspondent.

How are you doing today, first of all?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Doing well. Loving this weather. It's finally warm on the east coast, T.J.

HOLMES: And did you watch the Tiger press conference, as well?

YELLIN: I did.

HOLMES: OK. We'll get -- we'll get to that in a second.

YELLIN: OK.

HOLMES: Well, we'll talk first about the Supreme Court. Now, given what we have seen in Washington with this health care debate and as partisan as the city seems to have been -- is there anything more partisan than a Supreme Court fight? A Supreme Court nomination? Do we have to go through that possibly now?

YELLIN: Right. Can you imagine? It's really a tough time to face this. But Justice John Paul Stevens, the smart money is on this theory that he's likely to step down at the end of this term, which means that there will be likely another confirmation hearing that the president would nominate someone else to fill his seat. And that would take place likely before the midterm election -- so during campaign season.

And those hearings are already acrimonious to begin with. You can only imagine how partisan and sour this hearing could be if it takes place in this environment, T.J.

HOLMES: Now, has the president tipped --

YELLIN: It's going to be a rough one.

HOLMES: Yes. The president tipped his hand at all? This is a long time liberal on the court. I assume the president keeps a liberal list, if you will.

YELLIN: Right. Well, there are a bunch of people who were vetted, and before when he was looking at filling the last seat that went to Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now Justice Sotomayor.

So, the expectation is that, yes, he would likely replace Stevens with someone who has liberal views or what's considered liberal views by most on the bench. But it's important to keep in mind, that: "A," he hasn't announced anyone so we'll see, and "B," it won't change the make-up of the court, because the majority is still -- it wouldn't -- it would just be replacing Stevens and the majority is still conservative center. And it wouldn't swing the court's balance significantly.

HOLMES: But just the thought is so scary to think about as partisan as the town has been, D.C. has been --

YELLIN: Yes.

HOLMES: -- that the most partisan of all fights would now be lumped on top of all of this.

Let's turn to Florida, and Rudy Giuliani showed up campaigning. Let's take a listen. Then I'm going to tell everybody who he is campaigning for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NYC MAYOR: He's an easy choice for a Republican, because he's the one candidate that we can trust to represent Republican principles in Washington, and to remain a Republican if he goes to Washington.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: To remain a Republican when he goes to Washington, taking a shot at somebody there. But Rudy Giuliani coming out, supporting Senate candidate Marco Rubio. You're seeing his picture there now.

But, Jessica, what's with the popular governor -- Charlie Crist is nothing to sneeze at down this in the state of Florida. But some are saying now he is not conservative enough to go to D.C., and now he has a primary fight.

YELLIN: Them's fighting words.

HOLMES: Yes.

YELLIN: And this is the theme we're seeing in a number of primaries around the country, T.J., where in the Republican primary, one of the candidates is being accused of being what they're calling a RINO, Republican in Name Only. In other words -- who is more conservative is what the fight is shaping up to be in races across the country.

What's interesting is, this has been a theme in Republican politics in the U.S. for more than a century or for about a century. We saw it in one of the races back in the 1910s and then again during the 1930s where there was some upset that some Republicans were supportive of the New Deal during that era's depression. So, it's interesting that it's recurring now during our great recession. And a parallel Charlie Crist is being blamed for supporting this Democratic administration's efforts to get out of the recession with the stimulus.

So, some historical parallels, but it's going to be a tough season for Republicans who are considered centrist, because they're accused of being not true-blue or true red, I should say.

HOLMES: OK okay. I'm going to I guess kind of turn away from some politics. I asked you about Tiger at the top.

YELLIN: Yes.

HOLMES: And unfortunately, we have, and you certainly have, seen time after time again a bunch of politicians, quite frankly, get into similar trouble, if you will. Have you seen Tiger handle himself in a similar fashion that some of these politicians, quite frankly, have had to handle themselves in getting out of trouble and doing their image rehab?

YELLIN: Yes. It seems to follow the same pattern, doesn't it? It's just a script you can write. You apologize, go into hiding, maybe go to rehab, then come back and take questions. And he's done it.

This is P.R. 101, right? Open yourself up to questions, show that you're an open book, and then just try to do the job. And if politics is any parallel here, you know, winning is the best measure of success. If he wins, he's back in the game for good with the public, huh?

HOLMES: Well, you know, everybody will be watching.

YELLIN: We'll see.

HOLMES: No doubt about it, he could pull off a win in Augusta this week.

YELLIN: I'll be watching.

HOLMES: I'll be -- you know what, I'll be there on Thursday.

YELLIN: And I don't even watch golf.

HOLMES: You don't even watch -- I don't normally, unless he's playing.

YELLIN: No, but I'll watch this.

HOLMES: But we're there.

All right. Jessica, good to see you as always. We'll talk to you, of course, again soon.

And we're going to turn to the man who is accused now of killing the King of Pop, that man, Dr. Conrad Murray. Could he possibly continue to practice medicine while being tried for Michael Jackson's death? He's back in court today. We'll bring that to you live next hour.

Also, a man who is supporting Tiger Woods. He is our most intriguing person of the day. Who is he? You'll find out next on THE LIST.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Going to the list of most intriguing person in the news today. We're talking here about a -- about a golfing guy. We're not talking about a guy named Tiger, though. Other people in the pro golf universe today, he's a pretty important one, as well. He's intriguing for as much of what he is doing as much as for what he's not doing.

He's in charge of what is arguably the most important golf tournament in the world. He's welcoming the man who is definitely right now the most distracting or maybe attracting golf figure in the world at the moment. I'm talking about Tiger Woods. His words, quote, "We support Tiger's decision to return to competitive golf, beginning at this year's Masters' Tournament. Additionally, we support and encourage his stated commitment to continue the significant work required to rebuild his personal and professional life."

He's not going to tell Tiger Woods to stay away from the Masters, though, is he? In another era, possibly. Billy Payne is chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, a group that was all white until 1990, and is still all-male. Augusta National's Billy Payne, today's most intriguing.

(MUSIC)

HOLMES: OK. He knocked on the door, said he worked for an electric company, got in the house, and then went after the housekeeper. The story that was caught on tape is just ahead.

Also, men -- go topless. So women decided to do the same. That's what some women say, that they should be allowed to go topless, as well, and they are taking their message to the streets, topless. That story is next on THE LIST.

And, hey, a lot of people out there, you might want to be on this show. Do what I did. I just called this number, and they let me anchor the show today -- 1-877-4CNN-TOUR. See if it works for you, too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: All right, they are baring it all. We're going to bare some of it in our photos of the day, our list of some of the day's best video.

This is in Portland, Maine, about two dozen women walking down the streets topless. Why not, on a Saturday afternoon? So why exactly would they do this? Their concern, they simply wanted to exercise their right, actually, to go topless. And apparently, they have the right to do so in Maine. So, why not?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, zero. Booster ignition, and liftoff of Discovery, blazing a trail to the international space station.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And no matter how many of these you see, it's just cool. But it's a countdown now to a swan song. The whole space shuttle program is raising into the heavens over Florida. After this mission, there's only three more until the fleet is retired. And it will be the first time on this trip that four women have been in space at one time.

Finally, head to Washington to see the "Easter Bunny in Chief" -- President Obama this morning surrounded by all the gleeful little children. He officiated the Annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. If only all the presidential duties were this fun.

Practice for the Masters began today, but we know what people are really talking about there. They're talking about Tiger. After that, they talk about Tiger, and then they follow up with a question about Tiger.

He talked to the press just a short time ago. We played it for you at the top of the show. We would like to play you some more now, but we are not allowed to. You know this guy is famous for controlling his image. He has a lot of control there at the Masters because the Masters, they absolutely control the environment there.

And also, the PGA and CBS, which is airing the Masters, having some control, as well, over how much of it we can play for you. We're only plow allowed to play three minutes per hour -- seriously, folks. So we'll play some more at the top of the hour. And look at this here, folks. That is a little toddler there visiting New York City, South Street Seaport, falls more than a dozen feet into the river. And dad, you know what he did, he went right in after him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, Welcome back to RICK'S LIST. I'm T.J. Holmes sitting in today.

We have been talking about and showing you Tiger Woods, big day for him. He faced reporters today for the first time in a press conference since this whole scandal broke back in November of last year.

He talked a short time ago about 35 minutes, took questions and answers, and answered everything that came to him. Some things he kind of left still, he said were personal, he wasn't going to touch. This is him walking into the press conference.

We would like to play you some more. We played some at the top of the hour, but we have some restrictions on this video. We have restrictions on how much we can show you per hour. So you'll hear from him at the top of our next hour.

We do want to let you hear from Christine Brennan now of "USA Today" who has been covering Tiger Woods for quite some time. This is what she told Ali Velshi -- she was in the room, by the way, for the press conference, and asked a question -- but this is what she told our Ali Velshi as soon as they walked out of the press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, SPORTS COLUMNIST, "USA TODAY": I think overall the feeling was -- this is my first time I've seen him, we have written about him a lot, we all have, since Thanksgiving.

And Ali, what struck me, once again as I saw on TV on February 19th and the two interviews he did a few weeks ago, I felt we saw a changed man.

But I think it's going to be his actions. I think it's going to be over time. If he throws a club this week -- he said he's going to try not to do that, but if he does, then what has changed? And I hate to have the same refrain over and over, but I hope for his sake and his family's sake that he is a different person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And he certainly claims he will be a different person. He came on and actually said that he enjoys golf more. This is the most fun he has had in quite some time, and he has been a part of that, even though he was winning. Winning majors wasn't as fun as now, because he can now live without that secret.

Here also is Christine Brennan who sent a tweet out going into that press conference. She said, "I will be in Tiger's press conference," again this is before the press conference. "Most coveted ticket in sports to get in is postage-stamp-sized." And she sent this Twit-pic. You can see the interview number 396, Monday, April the 5th.

This is what some of those reporters had to get to get in there. Normally, this is not the case. Everyone has their press credentials and you're allowed to go to these press conferences, but for this one in particular, another layer of credentialing had to take place for this one. And she sent out a picture. We do appreciate that.

Brooke, we call this "Brooke's list," "Brooke's Block"?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do have a list in the "Brooke Block." By the way, that was a postage-stamp-size? I would so lose that. I'm just saying.

HOLMES: I bet they held on to them today.

BALDWIN: Hi, T.J. Holmes, good to say you!

HOLMES: Welcome back.

BALDWIN: Yes, Costa Rica, I'm on Tico (ph) time, as they say, a little slow today.

But I know we're Tiger, Tiger, all day long. This is guy whose name you will be talking about possibly over dinner want to. His name is Dave Johnson and the story essentially is that he rescued his two- year-old daughter who fell 20 feet into the East River -- take a look at this video here -- fell into the East River over the weekend. And he jumped in, any parent out there watching this is thinking, of course, I would do that as well.

But I found out something new today. We were trying to dig more on this guy, and I found out that he used to be a ski patroller at Vail Mountain. So rescuing, kind of in his blood. The guy -- I tore my ACL a couple years ago skiing in Colorado, and they're the guys who kind of bravely ski you on down, right? So he did that some time ago. Moved to California, family visiting the South Street Seaport, they're visiting the ship, it was called the Peking, ship turned museum, essentially. Daughter goes down, he goes down in, had to go grab her.

And we have some sound from the guy from behind the camera shooting this video. He says he remembers hearing the splash and the best sound, he said, was hearing this little girl cry. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC STRINGER, WITNESSED GIRL'S RESCUE: I saw the father, I didn't know it was the father at the time, running down, making a bee line to get into the water, you know, sort of taking off a bracelet or whatever it was. And I could see somebody was in the water at that point. I had no idea if it was a kid or not.

The father sort of hesitated a second before he jumped in, and the hesitation I think was just to see where his daughter was, because when I got over there, he was just coming up. It seemed like he jumped in and in one motion went in, went underwater, and came up with her. She was in his arms when he came up.

Right away, you could see he was focused on getting her head back, clearing her airway just to make sure she was breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The father is Dave Anderson -- forgive me if I said Dave Johnson, he's one of our producers. Dave Anderson swam back with his girl back to the pier.

And according to Eric Stringer, there was also this other guy not a lot of people are talking about today, the unsung hero, the Frenchman who dived in with his boots on, helped the father get this little girl, Bridget, back to the pier, back up safe and sound.

And according to reports, the Frenchman kind of did that and took off in a cab. The father is reportedly -- you know, the father, the daughter, the whole family, they're exhausted but they're OK. And paramedics arrived, took the whole family to the hospital, just to be safe.

But it's amazing, and it's one of those stories that just has a lot of people, I think -- thinking miraculous perhaps over the weekend. And a lot of parents -- and I would love to hear from you. So tweet me. What would you do? We're not parents yet.

HOLMES: I'm a parent.

BALDWIN: Of a --

HOLMES: Yes -- of a child. Yes, I am a parent. So that's what you do. You just react like that. You just -- it's natural. Even if you rescue or not. Anybody's child, quite frankly, in trouble --

BALDWIN: You would jump in.

HOLMES: No matter what. You don't think about consequence, the temperature of the water. You see a child in trouble.

BALDWIN: And think about how freezing the East River would have been over the weekend, absolutely. The parents, right? You're jumping in after your child.

HOLMES: You react. That's what parents do. And it's a great story and good to have dad as a rescuer. That's kind of cool.

BALDWIN: Yes that is kind of cool. Ski patroller at Vail -- nice guy.

HOLMES: Like you said, send in the tweets and we'll get those.

BALDWIN: Yes, we'll check those next hour. "The Brooke Block," and "The List." You got it, T.J.

HOLMES: Stay tuned for this too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACKENZIE PHILLIPS, ACTRESS: I've been to doctors who never even touched my body or took my blood pressure. And I walked out with a prescription for 130, you know, Hydrocodon tablets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Huh? Is this Hollywood's dirty little secret? Some of those well-known people in the world popping from Dr. Doctor to doctor to doctor undetected. That is next.

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HOLMES: All right, now, this is the list of government red tape coming off a pretty cool program. Last year we told you about a therapeutic post war project that was helping combat veterans' reentry into society. Well, that was then. Something has changed now, as our Barbara Starr reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We first visited this hillside near San Diego last year because it was a success story for a group of young Marines recovering from the stress of war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These aren't just, you know, people that come out here for training. These are guys that we support each your overseas with.

STARR: We have come back, because everything has come crashing down.

CORY POLLARD, MARINE CORPS VETERAN: I did have to pawn my laptop and just to try to, you know, get some extra money to eat. And, you know, everything is really, really tight for me, and I think for everybody here.

STARR: Here at Archie's Acres, farming has helped the former Marines decompress and learn new job skills. But the VA cut off funding, saying after three years it discovered the money it was using to pay the vets came from the wrong federal account. That government snafu has led to this.

CARLOS RIVERA, MARINE CORPS VETERAN: I'm stressing. I'm really -- I mean, I'm really concerned -- you know, rent, me, my mood swings, you know? Just, you know, I'm spend more time by myself, away from my wife, because, you know, it's --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard.

RIVERA: Yes, it's hard.

STARR: Former Navy Corpsman, Robert Krause, keeps an eye on the vets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carlos, an upcoming young family, in the beginning, starting out. You know, it's not a good, solid basis.

STARR: This young Marine veteran, who goes just by the name "Mike," often sleeps under the trees here. He worries about the others.

MIKE: And when I see what these guys are going through right now, it's just -- it's very, very sad. I mean, because, you know, these guys put their lives on the line for this country. STARR: The Archie in Archie's Acres is a Colin Archipley Marine veteran of three tours in Iraq. He bought this farm after he came home, determined to keep helping fellow Marines.

COLIN ARCHIPLEY, OWNER, ARCHI'S ACRES: When I was leaving, I left with the hopes that I can create some type of unit outside the military that was as efficient as the unit that I was within the military.

STARR: So when the VA cut the funds, Colin and his wife paid the men thousands of dollars out of their pocket, all the while, talking to the VA about how to get the money turned back on.

ARCHIPLEY: The problem is, the eight vets we have in this program will fall victim to interpretation of statute, and it leaves them high and dry until we can patch that up.

STARR: High-level VA officials have come to the farm to try to find a funding solution. But we are told those visits came after the VA learned CNN was working on the story. Private money has been donated to pay some of the vets' immediate bills.

What we have found on this hilltop, once and former Marines, still Marines helping each other. Retired brigadier general David Brahms, an attorney, is here helping with legal advice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We always hear once a Marine always a Marine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Sometimes the burdens get heavy. You can't leave them on the battlefield. And that's why we pulled them together. You don't leave wounded on the battlefield.

STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, San Diego.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And the Department of Veterans Affairs sent CNN a statement saying they are working with Archie's Acres to resolve the issue and find sources of long-term funding for the veterans. But the VA also said it believe Archie's should be paying the vets' wages.

So earthquakes and aftershocks on the Mexico-California border. What's going on? We take there in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We are just getting this in from the AP wire that the government in fact will seek one of the largest penalties ever against an automaker, Toyota, for its recalls of its vehicles, some 6 million vehicles in the U.S., 8 million worldwide. It had to do with a defective accelerator on some of the cars and braking issues in the Prius hybrids.

The reason for this, and the amount they're seeking is $16 million, that would be the amount of the fine. The reason they're doing this they say that Toyota, not because the car was necessarily faulty, but because they failed to notify the government about the problem ahead of time.

Reportedly they told the Transportation Department, let the U.S. government know in January, but knew of the problem, at least according to the government, Toyota did, back in September. So they are seeking now what would be the largest fine in the history, some $16.375 million. That's the largest penalty possible for not telling the government in a timely fashion. We'll continue to keep an eye on that story, of course.

Now, back out to the west coast. Our Ted Rowlands is there for us live along the U.S./Mexico border that is still feeling some aftershocks after a pretty good sized earthquake we just saw on Sunday. Ted is standing by there.

Ted, I guess update us on what more we have been able to find out, at least about the updates about injuries? I know we've seen some deaths as well. Maybe not on the California side, but still, just give us the update and if the place is still shaking?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is still shaking. We're feeling a lot of aftershocks, T.J. Last night we had a 5.2, thereabouts, and that jumped everybody up and got them on their feet.

We are on the California side now, but we spent the better part of the night in Mexico and we're in Mexico all day this morning. And we're about 35 miles north of the epicenter on the California side. You can see there's significant damage here. The border patrol is helping out with security. They've blocked off the street right along the border.

The reason is because of the amount of structural damage. You can see these building are basically red taped. They're not allowing anybody in here to clean up or anything because they're worried about the structural integrity of these buildings.

It's worse, as you can imagine, the closer to the epicenter you get. And in Mexico, they are still dealing with a lot of power outages in Mexicali, and hospitals are still dealing with the issue of patients being treated out in the parking lots because the hospitals themselves, the two main hospitals there, the clinics, have problems. No electricity, no water, and structural damage.

They're getting by, though, and the good news is the patients that are coming in at least today and this morning, were all suffering relatively minor injuries. Last night they did get a couple severe cases. Two people died already, 140 people injured so far, and they did see a handful of very serious cases last night.

But today we were over at the hospital. Things do seem to be getting much better. There's a lot of destruction, a lot of damage, and a lot of frayed nerves, because this thing really rocked not only Mexico but all the way through southern California up into Los Angeles.

And it was one of those earthquakes that lasted a good 30, 35 seconds. And when that happen chances, everything runs through your mind -- is this the big one? And people sort of had that moment, millions of people had that moment across the southwestern United States on Easter afternoon.

HOLMES: I don't know if it was the big one, but certainly it was a big one. Ted Rowlands, we appreciate the update out there for us. Thanks so much.

As we've been telling you today as well, practice for the Masters began, but a lot of people are not talking about golf. They are talking about that man, Tiger Woods. He talked to the press a little over an hour ago, spent about 35 minutes taking questions from reporters in the room. We showed you some at the top of last hour. We will show you more coming up in a few minutes.

Stay here.

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