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CNN Sunday Morning
Insider Attack in Afghanistan; Candidates Doing Debate Prep; Supreme Court Begins New Term; Cultural Icons Destroyed; Google Goes Underwater
Aired September 30, 2012 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, this is EARLY START WEEKEND.
The circle of voter fraud widening. New reports out of Florida that at least 10 counties are involved. We'll tell you who's behind the scandal.
Two dead in another green-on-blue attack in Afghanistan, just three days after joint patrols resume. As the number of coalition dead rises, so do concerns over the stability of the region.
A vacuum of nothingness now can be measured. How measuring a black hole for the first time has it's led to a groundbreaking discovery.
It is Sunday, September 30th. Good morning, everyone. I'm Gary Tuchman, in for Randi Kaye.
We start with a deadly battle in Afghan between Afghan soldiers and international troops. Right now we know that at least one coalition service member is dead. A civilian contractor is also dead, as are an unknown number of Afghan troops. Joining me now live on the phone from Kabul is Ben Farmer. Ben is the Afghan correspondent for "The Daily Telegraph."
Ben, thanks for joining us. And do we know right now how this clash started?
BEN FARMER, CORRESPONDENT, "THE DAILY TELEGRAPH" (via telephone): No. The coalition here is only saying that it was a suspected insider attack. The Afghan officials are giving a little bit more information. They say there was a clash between the two sides. Now there was one American soldier killed. One American civilian contractor killed. And either two or three Afghan soldiers killed.
The clash happened at around 5:00 on Saturday evening local time about an hour's drive southwest from the capital in an area called Wardak province. It's an area where American troops are having a great difficulty securing the main highway in the country.
Now, what caused that clash is not clear, but investigators are on the way to the scene and they're trying to find out exactly what caused these deaths. TUCHMAN: Now, Ben, NATO just resumed patrols with Afghan troops. Could this lead to another halt to that?
FARMER: Well, I think it will be -- this incident will be viewed with a lot of concern in coalition headquarters. You're quite right that around two weeks ago General John Allen dramatically scaled back the number of operations that the Americans and coalition forces staged with their Afghan partners just to -- to prevent just this sort of attack. Those joint partnerships started to increase in the last few days, but now they'll have to decide whether -- what action they will take as a result of these deaths. But first they'll have to final out exactly what happened.
TUCHMAN: Ben Farmer from "The Daily Telegraph," we thank you very much for joining us.
There have been at least 50 of these so-called green-on-blue attacks this year in Afghanistan. A fact that angers the U.S. military's top commander there. Here's what he told CBS' "60 Minutes."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CBS NEWS: You're in a tough spot right now. Can you explain why the sudden increase in these attacks?
GEN. JOHN ALLEN, U.S. COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: Well, I'm mad as hell about them, to be honest with you. We're going to get after this. It reverberates everywhere, across the United States. You know we're -- we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign, but we're not willing to be murdered for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At a certain point, if these attacks continue, the American people are going to say, we've had enough, right, why are we training these people if they're murdering us?
ALLEN: Well, that may be, in fact. It may be the voice right now that we're hearing. The key point is for us to understand that the vast majority -- the vast majority of the Afghans -- and you've lived with them, you understand these people -- they're with us in this. They understand right now the severity of this problem and the urgency of what's happening. And there have been Afghans who have been killed trying to save our forces when these attacks have been underway because that was the only reaction that they could have taken was to try to save us at the moment of that attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Regional coalition commanders in Afghanistan have been given the go-ahead for the resumption of some of those joint patrols. Those OKs only came after a review of their specific security situations.
To politics now and more allegations of voter registration fraud in the sunshine state of Florida. The complaints center around a company originally hired by the Republican National Committee. Strategic Allied Counseling did registration drives in Florida, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina. "The New York Times" reporting that suspicious registration forms have now been found in 10 Florida counties. In Colorado, one worker was caught on tape trying to register only Mitt Romney supporters. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, hi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: HI. I am polling people, but would you vote for Romney or Obama?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, wait, I thought you were registering voters a minute ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am. I am. But --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And who are you registering, all voters?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm actually trying to register people for a particular party --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Uh-huh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we're out here in support of Romney, actually. I am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And who's paying you for this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the -- let me see. We're working for the county clerk's office. And so we're just taking a poll --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You cannot come out here and register one party, lady. Are you working for the county clerk's office? I've got it all on tape. You're working on the county clerk's office?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe so, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're only registering Republicans?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nope.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said, we're only registering Romney's people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we're trying to, to be honest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're working for the county's office? What's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ma'am, my name --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: All right. So she said she was working for the county clerk's office, but the county clerk says that's not true. He also said, "my office does not and will not engage in partisan voter registration," although he added that asking a presidential preference before registering someone is not illegal. A local paper quoted local officials who said she actually worked for Strategic Allied Consulting. Now, CNN has not been able to confirm that.
So, what is the Republican National Committee saying about Strategic's actions? First of all, the party fired the company. This from RNC Spokesman Ryan Mahoney. "We have zero tolerance for any threat to the integrity of elections. We have, therefore, cut ties with Strategic Allied Consultants and urge state parties to do the same."
The Republican Parties in Florida and Colorado followed suit and fired strategic. Strategic Allied Consulting is now being investigated by law enforcement. It's quite a story.
It's actually going be a little quieter for the next few days on the campaign trail and that's because both presidential candidates have something else to work on. Here's CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, good morning, Gary.
You know, it's pretty obvious, one event will definitely dominate this week in the race for the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm looking forward to the debates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: And the first of the three showdowns comes Wednesday night when President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney face off in Denver. Both candidates have a lot on the line, especially the GOP challenger, who a few days ago gave some insight into his debate preps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: It's just great to have Senator Rob Portman. You know he debates me from now time to time. We -- he's playing Barack Obama in these mock debates we have. I don't like him very much anymore, all right? He keeps on beating me up and I keep on going away shaking my head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Romney flies to Colorado Monday holding a rally that night before hunkering down while final preparations.
The president heads to Nevada Sunday, greeting voters that night, then going behind closed doors before his last minute preps before flying on to Denver on debate day. Meanwhile, both presidential campaigns continue to play the expectations game, trying to lower the bar for their candidate.
Gary.
TUCHMAN: Paul, thank you very much.
Next hour we'll take a closer look at the art of the debate and the strategy of the dodge. We'll show you how dodging important questions can actually earn candidates points with voters.
And a programming note. The first presidential debate of 2012 is this Wednesday night. Watch it live, 7:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN and cnn.com.
Tomorrow morning the U.S. Supreme Court justices will formally kick off a new term. On the agenda, some of the toughest and most controversial issues of our day. Here's Joe Johns with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right after the Supreme Court's health care's decision in June, Chief Justice John Roberts joked to colleagues that he would find an island fortress to escape the political heat. Here's how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described the eventful spring.
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT: The term has been more than usually taxing. Some have called it the term of the century.
JOHNS: Now, three months later, the court is back and there are no sign of it cooling down.
THOMAS GOLDSTEIN, SCOTUSBLOG.COM, PUBLISHER: The justices are moving from the frying pan right into the fire. They are tackling some of the most difficult legal questions of the day. Across the board, probably the biggest term in at least a decade.
JOHNS: Cases involving the contentious issues of affirmative action, same-sex marriage, voting rights and abortion are all likely to come up this term, which kicks off Monday.
CARRIE SEVERINO, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: There's some very exciting cases already on the docket and there's a lot more in the pipeline that may -- the court's could be making a decision on soon.
JOHNS: Another set of big decisions will bring even more scrutiny on the chiefs justice. Rumors surfaced that the health care ruling he authored caused a personal rift with fellow conservative colleagues, including Justice Antonin Scalia. A claim Scalia denied to CNN's Piers Morgan.
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA, SUPREME COURT: No, I haven't had a falling out with Justice Roberts.
PIERS MORGAN, CNN'S "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Loud words exchanged? SCALIA: No.
MORGAN: Slamming of doors?
SCALIA: No.
MORGAN: Nothing like that?
SCALIA: Nothing like that.
JOHNS: The other big question, will the chief justice take the court in an aggressive, new direction. Liberals fear a more hard line, dogmatic shift to the right.
ELIZABETH WYDRA, CONSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY CENTER: A lot of progressives are concerned that this might mean that Chief Justice Roberts has built up some capital, some good will, and will now push the conservative agenda.
JOHNS: Tom Goldstein, who has argued before the court, thinks Roberts wants a more conservative court, but that he'll do it gradually.
GOLDSTEIN: He's not trying to move the law radically quickly. I think Justice Scalia or Justice Thomas really want to get to the end answer as quickly as possible and make the law conform to what they really understand, whereas the chief justice is more incrementalist.
JOHNS: But conservative court watcher Carrie Severino doesn't believe much will change any time soon.
SEVERINO: Certainly this is not a crusading conservative court. Until we have a shift, I think, in the membership of the court, it's impossible to call it a court that leans more to the left or to the right.
JOHNS (on camera): For opinions that could be close, 5-4 decisions, attention will also be paid to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is frequently the swing vote in some of the toughest cases.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Protests and bloodshed dominate international news. Austerity measures continue to bring pain and outrage. We'll take you to Madrid and the latest from protests over Spain's planned budget cuts there.
In Syria, the death toll and devastation continues to mount as fighting rages block by block in the country's biggest cities. We'll have the latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Typhoon Jelawat continues to roar in the far east. More than 50 people have been hurt. Hundreds of thousands of homes without power on Japan's islands of Okinawa. The sustained winds of more than 100 miles per hour, the storm is comparable to a category three hurricane.
We have report this morning of two opposition leaders killed in the nation of Venezuela. The pair was stopped at a blockade in the western state of Barinas Saturday. When they exited their vehicle, gunmen opened fire. Opposition party candidates Henrique Capriles will face Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in elections one week from today.
Protesters battled with riot police in Spain Saturday night. Thousands gathered in Madrid protesting government plans for deep budget cuts. The austerity measures were imposed to help Spain secure loans and reduce debt. Unemployment in the nation is close to 25 percent.
Today in Iraq, a series of bombings has left at least 16 people dead. The majority of the blasts occurring in and around the capital city of Baghdad. Five explosions there and a car bombing at a checkpoint in Kut, south of Baghdad, that killed three Iraqi police officers.
To Syria now where rebel and government forces are fighting it out block by block. Opposition leaders say at least 126 people were killed across the nation in fighting yesterday. That's what it looked and sounded like on the streets of Aleppo. In another part of the city, an historic public market was badly burned. It's just one of the cultural and civilian landmarks being destroyed in Syria's civil war. ITV's Bill Neely has more from Syria's largest city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL NEELY, ITV REPORTER (voice-over): In one city, this would be bad enough. In three, it's a disaster. But this is now their reality in the three main cities of Syria. The regime's troops fighting rebels for control of whole districts.
Aleppo is Syria's biggest city and business capital, engulfed now in the business of war. The damage is extraordinary. The death toll, incalculable. Aleppo is being destroyed to make it safe.
Syrian troops are on the offensive in the country's third city, Homs. Recapturing many areas from what they say are foreign fighters and extremist Muslims. Rebels, they say, directly armed by Arab states. In one district they took, they showed us what they said was an abandoned rebel headquarters. Bags with Saudi Arabian markings scattered around. A makeshift scaffold with ropes and a meat hook was there. They said rebels tortured and hanged people here. We have no way of proving this. The U.N. mostly accuses the regime of mass torture, but says rebels are guilty of human rights abuse too.
But it's clear this is a dirty war. Here in Homs and in every city, no one is safe, no faith is spared. Christian churches and Muslim mosques, a battleground. But one man is an optimist, the new governor of Homs, Syria's third city. "These rebels," he says, "will be beaten and we'll win the war in Homs in one month."
NEELY (on camera): One month. That seems very optimistic.
NEELY (voice-over): "One month," he insists, "but Britain and America should stop supporting terrorists." They are his master's words. Throughout the interview, explosions echo across the city.
Explosions, too, in Syria's capital city. One at a military base. Bombs smuggled inside and detonated by rebels. Here, too, troops crack down on restive areas with brut force. Three cities, one war, tens of thousands dead. And at the United Nations, complete failure to stop it.
Bill Neely, ITV News, Homs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Google Maps takes a dive, but that's not a bad thing. We'll tell you about the new venture that gives us an up-close view of a whole other world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: A flight to Australia from anywhere in the U.S. can cost you thousands of dollar. Want to add a tour of the Great Barrier Reef? That will be a few hundred more. But now Google is giving you a chance to see it for free, taking its street view off the road and under water. Editorial producer Nadia Bilchik has been getting her feet wet, so to speak, with Google's latest offering.
Nadia, what's this all about?
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's fascinating because Google Maps has joined the Catlin Seaview Survey. So this is a scientific project that's dedicated to really exploring reefs around the world. And what they've done is taken this extraordinary camera that gives you these panoramic views.
Now the camera is based on a shock (ph). So it's got the motion, the mobility, and the speed of a shock (ph). So it's if you're actually maneuvering and swimming through the water.
TUCHMAN: Why do this? What's the bush -- what's the incentive for Google to do this?
BILCHIK: The idea is the preservation of the great reefs and the awareness because about a million visitors go to the reefs a year. But as you said, you haven't been. So now, today, you can go and without getting wet, Gary.
TUCHMAN: Well, I don't mind getting wet. I mean I would like to go to Australia some day. I haven't been there. Have you been there, let me ask? BILCHIK: I have not been to Australia, but if I did, this would definitely be one of my destinations. You can see 30 species of whale, six species of turtle and around 125 sharks and stingrays. And I did want to tell you this.
TUCHMAN: OK.
BILCHIK: You can meet the dugong.
TUCHMAN: And what is a dugong, may I ask?
BILCHIK: Have you ever heard of a dugong?
TUCHMAN: Is that like a shrimp on my barbie (ph)?
BILCHIK: There is a dugong. Gary, take a look at the dugong. This is a marine --
TUCHMAN: It looks like a manatee, actually.
BILCHIK: Isn't it interesting?
TUCHMAN: Yes.
BILCHIK: It's a marine mammal that is closely related to elephants. And it's one of the things you can see at the Great Barrier Reef and certainly on your Google Maps tour (ph).
TUCHMAN: He's very handsome.
BILCHIK: He is rather fascinating. But the whole idea of taking this extraordinary camera, these panoramic views, right now you can only go to Australia, Hawaii, and the Philippines in terms of the reef. But each time they do this, they'll be bring you more parts of the reef. So there's so much to explore. And done in the most exceptional way. You literally feel that you are there.
TUCHMAN: So the anticipation is that Google will be doing more of this kind of thing?
BILCHIK: They'll be doing this kind of thing. But they -- future they hope to go to the Bermuda, the Coral Triangle, the Indian Ocean. Right now there's Australia, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
TUCHMAN: Very interesting, Nadia.
BILCHIK: But state-of-the-art camera. That's what's so extraordinary is this model of this camera on a shark (ph).
TUCHMAN: Well, let's do the Google trip and then go to Australia some time.
BILCHIK: I think (INAUDIBLE).
TUCHMAN: Both of us haven't been there. OK, Nadia Bilchik, thank you very much. BILCHIK: Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Well, we now go, and not with Google, but live -- well, not live, but on tape, but you'll see in a second, to the state of Minnesota, where I've been following an unbelievable story. A sixth grade teacher resigned after racist allegations from his students. Now, the community wants to know why he is still collecting a check.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Welcome back and thanks for starting your morning with us. And a special welcome to the troops watching on the American Forces Network. I'm Gary Tuchman, in for Randi Kaye. It's 29 minutes past the hour.
And take a look at this. A huge chunk of a bridge came crashing down, just barely missing construction crews in Los Angeles yesterday. It's part of the project on Interstate 405 dubbed "Carmageddon II." One official said they didn't plan on the chunk falling on the 405, but it's not out of the ordinary in this type of project. Nobody was hurt.
It's the final day of the Ryder Cup and the team USA is hoping to retain the trophy. U.S. dominated day two over Europe. They'll be trying their best to grab the win today. You can follow CNN's live blog on the golf by logging on cnninternational.com and click on the world sports tab.
To Florida now where 18-year-old Pedro Bravo is sitting in jail this morning charged with the murder of the same university, a Florida student Christian Aguilar. Police say, Aguilar's bag pack was found hidden in a suitcase in the suspect's closet. Bravo made his first appearance Saturday in court in connection with Aguilar's disappearance. He has not been granted bond.
You might not have heard about this next story but it is one that's been unfolding over the last ten months. Sixth grade teacher Timothy Olmsted is accused of discriminating against black students. The allegations that were so disturbing, I went to St. Paul, Minnesota to investigate myself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): It's the middle of the school day and the sixth grade teacher is riding a motorcycle. The reason Timothy Olmsted is not in school is complex. And according too many, deeply disturbing. Twelve-year-old Alicia Jones was one of his students.
ALICIA JONES, FORMER STUDENT OF TIMOTHY OLMSTED: He separated me from the white kids and sent me to the other side of the room where all the black kids were.
TUCHMAN: Timothy Olmsted is accused by students and their families of taking black children and disabled children at the Heights Community School in St. Paul, Minnesota and segregating them from white children. Melissa Dobbs was also a student in the class. (on camera): So what did you think when he put you and the other black children in the back of the room, what did it make you think about yourself?
MELISSA DOBBS, FORMER STUDENT OF TIMOTHY OLMSTED: Like I wasn't smart enough, or I'm not good enough -- I'm not good enough for me to be with the other children, the other white children.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The children say at first they were afraid to tell their parents and grandparents, but they ultimately did, after they say they were repeatedly called stupid, sloppy and disgusting.
(on camera): Why do you think he was so mean to you?
JAMIA WARE, FORMER STUDENT OF TIMOTHY OLMSTED: Because we were black and he was white.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): It's not just students and relatives who are speaking out about Olmsted.
(on camera): Do you work at the same school where Timothy Olmsted worked?
JENNIFER COUTURE, TEACHER, THE HEIGHTS COMMUNITY SCHOOL: I do.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Jennifer Couture is a teacher who substituted for the class one day when Olmsted was out. She worries school administrators might punish her for speaking to us about him, but backs up what these children told us.
(on camera): When you took over his class.
COUTURE: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Were the black students segregated from the rest of the class?
COUTURE: Yes. As were the Special Ed students.
TUCHMAM: So Special Ed students and the black students were not sitting with the white students?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
TUCHMAN: The children, the parents and other teachers say the bizarre abusive behavior lasted for months. Finally after continuing complaints, Olmsted was placed on leave this past January and then two months later, he resigned. But get this. He's still getting paid.
(voice-over): The St. Paul School District says he's owed back sick pay. All this has caused a great deal of anger. The three children we talked with and their relatives have filed a civil suit against Olmsted and the St. Paul Public Schools, who they say knew about his actions for months and did nothing.
The superintendent of schools denied to us in a written statement that the district ignored the complaints. We promptly investigated. We responded appropriately and we intend to vigorously defend the lawsuit.
But the lawyer representing the children and parents disagrees. Saying the school put protecting its reputation above protecting its children.
MARGARET O'SULLIVAN KANE, CHILDREN'S ATTORNEY: They would rather sweep it under the rug than deal with it. That's exactly what happened in this case.
TUCHMAN: And then there is this. Documents from the school district indicate Olmsted was reprimanded back in 2011 for sexually offensive behavior toward a female co-worker at a holiday party. And in 2003, he was suspended for five workdays for making sexually offensive and inappropriate references to school children.
In the disciplinary letter to Olmsted, the former superintendent stated, "For no discernible appropriate instructional reason, you digressed to describe some of your experiences of life on a farm and gave the class a graphic description of castrating horses and throwing their testicles into the field for cats to eat."
(on camera): Despite the fact that allegations against Olmsted in the past were excessively disturbing, the St. Paul School District continued to welcome children into his class year after year without ever telling parents a thing.
(voice-over): So we wanted to see what Olmstead, who still has a teaching certificate, had to say. He happened to be talking to a cop when we came up to him.
(on camera): Mr. Olmsted?
TIMOTHY OLMSTED, 6TH GRADE TEACHER, THE HEIGHTS COMMUNITY SCHOOL: Yes.
TUCHMAN: My name is Gary Tuchman with CNN. I want to ask you about what happened in your classroom. Do you have any comments about that?
OLMSTED: I have no comments.
TUCHMAN: OK. I mean, there are allegations you separated the black children from the rest of the children in the classroom.
OLMSTED: No comment.
TUCHMAN: In 2003 and 2011 reports about you, a fellow employee, saying inappropriate things to other students.
OLMSTED: No comment.
TUCHMAN: Did you do it or not? Just be honest with me.
OLMSTED: No comment. TUCHMAN: OK. And why you are still collecting a salary from the school?
OLMSTED: No comment.
TUCHMAN: I mean, should taxpayers be paying you money after you resigned from school?
OLMSTED: No comment.
TUCHMAN: How come you don't want to talk, sir, with all due respect?
OLMSTED: I won't even comment to that.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Following Olmsted's litany of no comments, we asked for a comment from his attorney. In a written statement, his lawyer declared, Timothy Olmsted has never discriminated against any student. Plaintiffs' allegations against Mr. Olmsted are false and Mr. Olmsted is confident he will be completely vindicated by the true facts.
What those true facts might be remain a mystery. To the children, though, what happened is all quite obvious.
(on camera): Did he make you feel like you were not as important as the white kids in the class?
(voice-over): Children who are still dealing with the emotional ramifications.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: We'll continue to follow this story as it makes its way through the Minnesota court system.
Up, if you've been to the grocery store lately, you may have noticed meat prices have gone up. Next, we'll tell you why pork and beef prices in particular are rising and costing you more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Mortgage rates hit record lows again this week. Here's a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: General Motors recalling more than 40,000 cars because the fuel pump could break, cause a fuel leak and possibly catch fire. We're talking about five models made between 2007 and 2009, the Chevy Cobalt Equinox, the Pontiac G5 and Torrent and the Saturn Ion. GM said, it will notify owners, dealerships will replace the parts for free as they should.
On your next trip to the supermarket, you may want to brace yourself, that's because the price of meat is going up. Nobody's happy about it. Not farmers, not butchers and not you.
CNN's Athena Jones has the reasons why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE STACHOWSKI, OWNER, BUTCHER SHOP: People love meat.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meat has pride of place at Jamie's Stachowski's shop in Washington.
STACHOWSKI: What can I get for you, my friend?
JONES: Ham, pastrami, steak, it's all here.
STACHOWSKI: We're a meat-eating country, and no matter what, people will find a way to get meat.
JONES: But with price of pork and beef expected to rise next year, this long-time meat man says consumers will have to pay more or get used to new cuts.
STACHOWSKI: What happened in the last increase was people went from eating a lot of primals to New York strips, the porterhouses, they went to eating secondary cuts.
Everybody loves steaks.
JONES: The coming sticker shock will impact not just butchers, but restaurants and dinner tables across the country.
(on camera): The worst drought in decades means higher costs for animal feed and lower profits for farmers. Farms like this one here in Maryland have already had to raise prices to keep up.
JULIE GRAY STINAR, FARMER: What are you doing, honey? Hi, pig.
JONES (voice-over): Julie Gray Stinar runs a small farm near the West Virginia border where she raises hens, hogs and cattle. A third of her cost goes to animal feed, which is mostly corn and soy. The prices for chicken and pig feed have skyrocketed since July.
STINAR: It was 14.77 on July 2nd. Now it's 16.79. So, it's gone up by two dollars in two months.
JONES (on camera): That is a significant amount.
STINAR: And so here we have the pig pellet was $12.22, and now it is $15.06.
JONES: So it will get worse?
STINAR: Oh, it will get a lot worse.
JONES (voice-over): She is now charging a dollar more for her sausage, pork chops and bacon, and plans to switch from corn-based hog feed to sorghum to save money. STINAR: It is requiring a lot more creativity. You have to be really good at adapting.
JONES: Since she doesn't raise broiler chickens, the kind you eat, in winter, Stiner is hoping to avoid the worst of the price spike for their feed. And unlike most American farmers, she grass feeds her cattle, meaning she won't have to worry about grain prices for them.
Back in Washington, Stachowski's customers are preparing themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The quality is worth it, I don't mind spending the money.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a limit to how much any person would pay.
JONES: One tongue-and-cheek solution for the problem?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eat more tofu?
(LAUGHTER)
JONES: Then again, tofu is made of soy.
Athena Jones, CNN, Sharpsburg, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Black holes may be featured in movies like "Star Trek," but now we're going to tell you even more about them. They are some of the most destructive and mysterious monsters in the universe. We will journey to the center of one after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: You're about to watch a very cool segment. We're going to be talking about black holes. You've probably seen them in popular Sci-Fi movies like "Star Trek," right? They're hard to find but hidden in space, this matter-eaters are all over the universe. Most galaxies, even our own milky way, are full of black holes. And for the first time, scientists have measured what's called the event horizon. I think of it as the point of no return for, well, everything. If you cross it, you will get sucked into an infinitely dense point in space. This is cool.
Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss joins me now from London. He's an author of "A Universe From Nothing." Lawrence, thanks a lot for joining us. We appreciate it.
LAWRENCE KRAUSS, DIRECTOR, ASU ORIGINS PROJECT: It's always good to be back.
TUCHMAN: Let's start at the begging, what exactly is a black hole, how are they created? KRAUSS: Well, black holes of course have a great name but the really just very dense object, basically if you try and leave the earth right now, you can do it if you got a NASA rocket ship and go at 11 kilometers per second. But if I add a little bit more mass, another tea spoon full of mass for the earth, you'll have to travel a little bit faster to escape from the earth, a little bit more, a little bit faster. And eventually, if there's enough mass you'll have to travel faster than the speed of light to escape from the earth.
But since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, you're suck. Even light itself can ought to escape for a black hole. As you shoot a laser beam up, it will go up and come back down. And so, a black hole is just simply something for which the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light and what goes in doesn't come back out.
TUCHMAN: So, Lawrence, how massive are they and how small can they be?
KRAUSS: Well, that's the interesting thing about black holes. It's actually remarkable. They can be any size depending upon their density. And in fact, when I was a high school student I learned this fact that just amazes me and I want to tell you. The smaller a black hole is, the denser it has to be for light not to escape. So say something the size of the sun, if it collapsed to the size of London where I am right now, the entire masses collapsed to the size of London where a teaspoon full of material would way say, ten billion tons or so, that would be a black hole.
But if you add something with the massive our whole galaxy, a hundred billion suns, the average density of stuff if you piled it up together to be a black hole would only be the density of water because there's a lot more stuff there. And the neat thing is, if you took our entire universe and asked what would its density have to be so that we would be living inside a black hole, the density would only have to be about twice with the density of the actual universes is. So, we could be living inside of a black hole, it's not too bad right now, anyway.
TUCHMAN: You learned all this stuff at MIT, right, Lawrence?
KRAUSS: Yes.
TUCHMAN: OK. That's very impressive. So Giant stars turned into black holes. What about 93 million miles away, our own sun?
KRAUSS: All right. A last note. Because what happens, our sun is too small. It will basically just burn out with a whimper rather than a bang. But as stars get bigger, as they burn their nuclear fuel, when they end out their lifetime at burning the nuclear fuel, they collapsed. And some stars collapse into a supernova. In one second the core of a star, the size of the earth, collapses to something the size of Manhattan in one second and forms one giant atomic nucleus, and that's so stiff that it bounces back and the star explodes. But if the star is still bigger, something like ten times the mass of our sun, it's so massive that it doesn't stop collapsing. The gravity is strong enough to counter even the nuclear forces and the whole thing we high pocket size anyway will collapse into a black hole, and then there are larger objects. And as you pointed out, at the core of every galaxy, we seemed to see super massive black holes, millions over mass black holes, or billions over mass black holes and actually, we don't yet know how they form. That's one of the reasons why we want to build the James Webb Space Telescope and look at the earliest galaxies to see which came first like the chicken or the egg. The black holes in the center or the galaxies?
TUCHMAN: Do we have any idea roughly how many black holes there are?
KRAUSS: No, not really except that when we look at galaxies and there are a hundred billion galaxies or so, we tend to see large black holes at their centers. There are probably lots of other black holes, we can't see that are much smaller. Because of course, you can't really see a black hole directly. The way you see a black hole is seeing stuff fall into it because, because of course, the black hole doesn't shine but when stuff falls into black holes they emit a lot of energy because they lose a lot of energy coming in. And in fact, probably the most luminous objects in the universe quasars, are probably just have black holes at their center. And they're eating up stars at such a massive rate, the radiations going out that they're really among the most observable objects at the universe.
TUCHMAN: He's the author of "A Universe From Nothing," Lawrence Krauss. That was very interesting. I can't say I understand 100 percent of it. But I still think it's really cool and interesting. It's a complicated stuff, right? So, either way, Lawrence Krauss, thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it.
KRAUSS: All right. It's always a pleasure.
TUCHMAN: Well, now to politics. A Republican Party caught in the middle of a fraud scandal. A company that was hired by the GOP mailed an illegally registering voters. Even possibly making up phony names. In the next, hour we'll tell you what else one of the workers is accused of doing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAZIA JAN, CNN HERO: In Afghanistan, most of the girls have no voice. They are used as property of a family. The picture is very grim. My name is Razia Jan, and I'm the founder of a girls school in Afghanistan. When we opened the school in 2008, 90 percent of them could not write their name. Today, 100 percent of them are educated. They can read, they can write.
I lived in U.S. for over 38 years, but I was really affected by 9/11, and I really wanted to prove that Muslims are not terrorists. I came back here in 2002. Girls have been the most oppressed, and I thought, I have to do something. It was a struggle in the beginning. I would sit with these men and I would tell them, don't marry them when they are 14-years-old. They want to learn.
How do you write your father's name?
After five years now, the men, they are proud of their girls when they themselves can't write their names.
Very good.
Still, we have to take precautions. Some people are so much against girls getting educated. We provide free education to over 350 girls. I think it's like a fire, that it will grow. Every year, my hope becomes more. I think I can see the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: The top ten CNN hero honorees for 2012 have been revealed. And now, you can vote for your choice for hero of the year, up to ten times a day you can vote, everyday. Go to cnnheroes.com and vote early and often.
Now, it's time to get you ready for the week ahead. This is our handy dandy calendar. We start with Monday. And we can tell you that on Monday, there you go -- well, actually, there you go. We'll click that. There you go. Well, it's not -- that's what's going to happen on Monday. I'm not always good at technological things. But we get the message across. The U.S. Supreme Court meeting for the first time since the health care ruling.
And late June, the justices will kick off the new term. This year they could hear some controversial cases like affirmative action, voting rights, and same-sex marriage. Now, I hope they are better like on Tuesday -- there you go -- that's not on Tuesday. But let me tell you. On Tuesday, early voting starts in the swing state of Ohio. Other states have already started mailing -- tea voting. And a big night on Wednesday.
Now, I'll go to Wednesday and now it will pop up. Trust me, it's not our technological wizard's fault. It's my fault for having big hands. The first presidential debate this Wednesday. Mitt Romney and President Obama will face off in Denver. We'll have live coverage on CNN. And then Friday -- and this should work. Now I'm getting good at it. Friday, the September jobs report will be released. This could be a critical talking point for the presidential campaigns. This report and one report next month, the last two reports to come out before the November election.
We thank you very much for starting your morning with us. We've got much more ahead on "CNN SUNDAY MORNING" which starts right now.
Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. This is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. The circle of voter fraud widening. New reports out of Florida that at least ten counties are involved. We'll tell you who's behind the scandal. Two dead in another green-on-blue attack Afghanistan. As the number of coalition death rises so the concerns over the stability of the region.
Debate night is three days away and we'll soon find out who is most skilled not at making his point but at avoiding the issues. I'll talk to an expert on the art of the dodge.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Gary Tuchman in today for Randi Kaye. It's 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 4:00 a.m. on the west. We thank you very much for starting your morning with us.
We start in Afghanistan where an American servicemember has been killed in a clash with Afghan troops.
Joining me now on the phone from Kabul is Ben Farmer. Ben is the Afghanistan correspondent for "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper.
Ben, do we know how this clash began?
BEN FARMER, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (via telephone): What we do know is the clash happened at 5:00 on Saturday evening local time. The American and coalition forces say it was a suspected insider attack, one of these green-on-blue attacks we've been suffering so much of . They won't give any more details.
But the Afghans I was talking to say a little bit more. They say that there was some kind of misunderstanding and then a clash at a checkpoint in Wardak, which is southwest of the capital. Now, they won't say what the misunderstanding was, but it led to an argument and shots were fired.
Now, as well as one soldier being killed, also a foreign civilian contractor was killed and three Afghans were also killed.
So it doesn't look like this was the normal kind of green-on-blue attack. There seem to have been significant casualties on both sides.
TUCHMAN: Ben, there will be a news conference, we understand, about this attack coming up in about 90 minutes from now. Is that unusual have a news conference so soon after an attack like this?
FARMER: Yes, I believe it is. The news is being given by the deputy commander of the entire coalition. He said he'll make a statement on what happened yesterday evening and then we'll answer questions. It is unusual for someone so senior to give a press conference after such an event.
TUCHMAN: Ben, it's only been three days since the resumption of these joint forces. Is there concern -- I mean, it's very early that this happened and it's tragic and we're going to hear a news conference shortly. But is there a concern it's going put an end to them once again?
FARMER: Yes, I think the coalition commanders will be very, very concerned about this. It's really one of their biggest problems at the moment, something like one in six of the coalition troops who are dying in Afghanistan at the moment, dying at the hand of their allies. It was two weeks ago, special rules were put in place to scale back the number of joint operations to try to prevent these green-on-blue attacks, especially while tensions were so high over the anti-Islam film which appeared on YouTube.
Now, in recent days, we saw they've increased again the number of these joint patrols. These joint patrols really are critical to what the coalition is doing here. But now as you say, days after they started to resume their patrols, it looks like there's been another of these green-on-blue tragedies.
TUCHMAN: Ben Farmer from "The Daily Telegraph," joining us from the Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital of that nation -- Ben, thank you very much.
There have been at least 50 of these green-on-blue attacks this year. This one coming just a few days, as we said, after the ban on joint Afghan and NATO patrols was lifted.
CNN's Anna Coren has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind these high walls of Polacharki Prison, among the 7,000 inmates are several men who say they're hell-bent on being terrorists.
We've come here to meet a confessed would-be suicide bomber, one of hundreds now locked up behind bars.
Twenty-five-year-old Ruhullah believes he was carrying out God's will when he and his friends planned an attack on American soldiers in Nangarhar Province. He says he agreed to wear a suicide vest and kill as many foreigners as possible.
"It's a special feeling that comes to you when you are ready for a suicide attack," he tells me. "No one can stop you. No one could stop me."
That is, except the law when police arrested him five months ago in Jalalabad during the planning of the attack. He's now awaiting trial.
Proudly a member of the Taliban, Ruhullah says no one encouraged him to do this.
"Look at our situation. The foreigners kill our people. They insult our religion, burning the holy Koran and making cartoons of our Prophet Mohammed. If we don't defend Islam, then we are not Muslims."
Suicide bombings and other attacks are now daily occurrences in the war in Afghanistan. And the methods of the insurgents are constantly changing, according to the prison boss, General Khan Mohammad Khan. "The enemies don't use their old tactics. Now they use women, sometimes children and teenagers. They even get dressed up in military uniforms. They don't fight face to face. They're cowards."
(on camera): Well, the Taliban denies recruiting children as suicide bombers. The facts tell a very different story. Authorities say just a few days ago, a 10 year old orphan boy managed to escape from insurgents who were going to make him wear a suicide vest so he could blow himself up in front of coalition troops.
(voice-over): Ruhullah has a 4-year-old son who he says he loves and misses very much. When I ask him how he'd feel if his child was used as a suicide bomber, he tells me, "If he wants to be a suicide bomber when he gets older, well then no one can stop him. If he follows Islam and does it for Islam, then that's a good thing."
At times he speaks with hatred in his eyes. And then there are moments when he smiles, explaining this is all a test from God.
"Our real life starts after doomsday, so this is not our real life. This world is a paradise for pagans and a hell for Muslims. We just need to be patient."
The Afghan intelligence service and armed forces say they have foiled dozens of attacks in recent months. And while that's an encouraging sign, Ruhullah says there are thousands of others just like him ready to put on a suicide vest and die for their country and their religion.
Anna Coren, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Now we move to politics and more allegations of voter registration fraud in Florida. The complaints centered around a company originally hired by the Republican National Committee. The company is Strategic Allied Consulting. That company did registration drives in Florida, also in Colorado, and Nevada and North Carolina, and Virginia.
"The New York Times" reporting that suspicious registration forms have now been found in 10 Florida counties.
We reached out to the Florida Republican Party but the party says it could not comment on Strategic Allied.
Meanwhile in Colorado one worker was caught on tape trying to register only Mitt Romney supporters. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am polling people but would you vote for Romney or Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait. I thought you were registering voter a minute ago. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who are you registered? All voters?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm actually trying to register people for a particular party because we're out here in support of Romney actually. I am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And who's paying you for this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the -- let me see. We're working for the county clerk's office.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You cannot come out here and register one party, lady. Are you working for the county clerk's office? I've got it all on tape. You're working for the county clerk's office?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe so, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're only registering Republicans?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nope.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said you're only registered Romney people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we're trying to, to be honest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you're working for the county's office? What's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: In all fairness she sounds confuse order afraid. Either way she said she was working for the county clerk's office but they said that's absolutely not true. He also said, "My office does not and will not engage in partisan voter registration." Although he did add a presidential preference before registering someone is not illegal.
A local paper quoted local officials who said she actually worked for Strategic Allied Consulting. Now, CNN has not been able to confirm that.
So, what is the Republican National Committee saying about Strategic's actions? First of all, the GOP has fired the company.
This from RNC spokesman Ryan Mahoney. "We have zero tolerance for any threat to the integrity of elections. We have therefore cut ties with Strategic Allied Consultants and urge state parties to do the same."
Republican Parties in Florida, Colorado and Virginia followed suit and fired Strategic. Strategic Allied Consultant is now being investigated by law enforcement.
We're looking ahead to the major political story of the week. It's the first presidential debate coming up on Wednesday. But for the candidates, artfully dodging the questions may be the key to winning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: The first presidential debate is just three days away. Not the first debate ever. The first was 1960 with Kennedy/Nixon -- the first of 2012. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will be live from Denver.
It is serious business, but there are also two games being played here. There's the expectations game the two campaigns have been playing. Then there's the game of dodge ball. That's what we're talking about this morning.
Joining me now live is Todd Rogers. He's an assistant professor at Harvard's Kennedy School.
Thank you very much for joining us, Todd.
TODD ROGERS, HARVARD'S KENNEDY SCHOOL: Hi, Gary. Thanks for having me.
TUCHMAN: First of all, tell us -- the artful dodge. I mean, that was the character, the artful dodger. We're going to talk about artful dodge. What is that all about?
ROGERS: So with a collaborator here at Harvard, we've been doing psychological experiments to understand how it is the politicians manage to evade questions without being detected. And so we've run a series of these experiments where viewers are randomly assigned to one of three conditions.
In one condition, they watch a video where a moderator asks a question that says, what will you do about the universal health care problem in America? The politician answers and said, I'm glad you asked me that. We need some many -- we need universal health care.
We then splice out the question, and have the moderator answer a question -- ask a question about the illegal drug use problem. The politician answers the exact same thing, we need universal health care because.
And then a different group watches the moderator ask a question on war on terror, and then the politician answers we need universal health care because.
And we find is that the viewers think the politician who answer the question about illegal drug use is just as honest, trustworthy and likeable as the politician who's asked about health care and answered about health care. And they couldn't remember the question he was asked. They basically thought he asked about health care and he answered about health care. But when he was asked about the war on terror, everyone knew he dodged and thought he was a jerk. So, basically, if you answer a question that is similar to the one that you were asked, people don't even notice.
TUCHMAN: It's also interesting and also quite humorous. How far can a candidate stray, Todd, from answering the question before viewers like us realize it's a dodge?
ROGERS: Well, what we find is that an egregious dodge is easily detected. But for the most part, what viewers do is they evaluate whether they like the speaker. It's do I want to have a beer with this guy. And so the first -- the default human evaluation is, do I like this guy? Is he trustworthy?
So what they're capturing and taking advantage of is this human tendency to first evaluate socially and with our limited attention focus on that. It's sort of like magician misdirecting attention.
TUCHMAN: In one of the CNN Republican debates this past February, which has already been seven months ago, Mitt Romney didn't even try to dodge a question. He just said this. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a government, I'm the only person --
JOHN KING, DEBATE MODERATOR: Sir, a misconception about you -- the question is a misconception.
ROMNEY: You know, you get to ask the questions you want. I get to give the answers I want.
KING: Fair enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: All right. So why have moderators. Just make statements for politicians.
But I want to ask you -- I mean, I would imagine maybe there are some people who would say, all right, right on, Mitt Romney. Did he get points for honesty or getting points taken away clearly not even caring about the question?
ROGERS: So they all do this and they're all trained to do it. What's interesting about this clip is Mitt Romney's honesty where he says this is the philosophy I have. You know, Henry Kissinger used to come to press conferences and say, OK, who has questions for my answers, and that's a very -- that's what people are coached to do. What's unusual is Mitt Romney actually articulating that publicly.
TUCHMAN: Now, when we journalist sit around and watch debates and hear candidates dodge questions, oh, he's dodging the question, do people really care for the most part? ROGERS: So, from our research, from our experiments, we find is that for the most part, viewers don't notice, and that's because the answers are usually similar enough to the questions and cognitively it's really hard to follow each logical piece of a response and then keep linking it back to the question.
So as long as it doesn't feel incongruous, most people don't notice. It's because humans have a limited amount of attention and they need to direct it to the most important thing and in this case it's social evaluation.
TUCHMAN: Todd, I issue a challenge to all of our viewers, look for the artful dodge this Wednesday night and listen to what Todd Rogers had to say about it.
Todd from the Kennedy School at Harvard University -- thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.
ROGERS: Thanks, Gary.
TUCHMAN: And remember, you can see Wednesday's presidential debate right here on CNN. Our live coverage of the debate begins at 7:00 Eastern Time.
A fire destroys a house and now two children are missing. As a community desperately searches, a mystery unfolds. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: A mystery this morning coming to us from Tennessee. Two children are presumed missing after their house was destroyed in a fire. Authorities are searching for 7-year-old Gage Daniel and 9- year-old Chloie Leverett. Both lived with the grandparents.
But here's the confusing part. The bodies of the grand parents were recovered at the scene but no sign of the grandkids.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than a week after sifting through ashes and debris, investigators have found no sign of 9-year-old Chloie Leverett and 7-year-old Gage Daniel. No sign that the youngsters were there and so far, no evidence they were when an inferno swept through the home where they lived with their grandparents.
Friends and family don't understand and neither does anyone else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think something is very fishy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more you find out, the more questions you have.
CANDIOTTI: Helicopters equipped with infrared cameras found no signs of the children in surrounding woods either. The children were last seen playing in the neighborhood about three hours before the fire started last Sunday night. Did someone take them?
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issue and AMBER alert Friday night, calling the missing children endangered. Authorities don't know what caused the fire, adding to the mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said that it was not an intentional fire, but obviously there's more to it than that.
CANDIOTTI: Chloie's parents are not considered suspects according to police.
MARY LAM, SISTER: We're tired but we want to continue on until we figure out what's happening to these children.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: And Susan will join us live next hour for more on this story as it develops.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Here is some amazing video. A huge chunk of bridge came crash crashing down, just barely missing construction crews in Los Angeles yesterday. It's part of the project in the 405, also known as the Interstate 405, dubbed "Carmageddon 2". One of the officials said they didn't plan on the chunk people, but it's not of the ordinary.
Traffic hasn't been that horrible during "Carmageddon 2." And fortunately, no one was hurt during this incident.
It's the final day of the Ryder Cup and team U.S. is hoping to regain the Ryder Cup's trophy. The U.S. dominated day two over defending champion Europe. Europe will be trying its best to grab a win today. You can follow CNN's live blog by logging on to CNNinternational.com and click on the world sports tab.
Police used pepper spray to break up a brawl outside the BET Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta last night. Reports online and tweets from celebrities at the event. The fight was between rappers Rick Ross and Young Jeezy. CNN has not been able to confirm those reports. No one was arrested, we're being told. And police denied reports that shots were tired.
Anne Hathaway is waking up this morning a married woman. "People" magazine reports last night she tied the not with Adam Shulman in Big Sur, California. She's 29, he's 31 and they've been dating we're told for about four years.
Shulman is also an actor. He is also a jewelry designer. The 2012 campaign is proven to be comedy gold for some of the biggest names in late night. Here's their view of the race for the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who here has a job? There we go. There we go. What do you do, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a manager at Burger King.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go, having it your way.
DAVID LETTERMAN, COMEDIAN: Mitt Romney is doing what he can. He's trying very hard, he wants to unite America -- wants to unite America. The rich with the healthy, the poor with the indigent, and the white with the Caucasian.
Obama and Romney had to agree to 32 pages of rules, 32 pages of rules. They had to both agree, both parties, both camps had to agree, rules, 32 pages. I mean, it's like being a Kardashian husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in a deep financial hole. The numbers are bad, 23 million people out of work. But things are getting better.
Remember that movie the "Sixth Sense"? I'm like the kid in that movie. I see employed people.
I know you don't se them. Don't even know they're there. But one day, all of you will be Bruce Willis, and you'll realize that do you were employed all along.
JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: Mitt Romney is doing what he can to try to broaden his appeal. In fact, in his latest policy ad, he's trying to target that 47 percent he alienate add couple weeks ago. Remember that whole thing?
See? I think he's trying a little too hard. Show the new ad.
AD NARRATOR: And now a message from Mitt Romney.
ROMNEY: Too many Americans are struggling to find work in today's economy. My plan will create 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
I'm Mitt Romney, and I approve this message.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Politics can be funny. I'll be back with more news an hour from now, actually, 30 minutes from now.
"SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." begins right now.
