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CNN Saturday Morning News
Standoff With Seattle Murder Suspect; Food Safety Risks Every Consumer Should Know; NJ School District Accused of Allowing Verbal Abuse Against Autistic Student; Exploring Pinterest; Teens Drinking Hand Sanitizer; John Edwards on Trial; Zimmerman Collects $204K Online; "Cactus Jack" Gets a New Home; Mining Asteroids for Precious Metals
Aired April 28, 2012 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, I'm Randi Kaye. It's 8:00 in the east, 5:00 a.m. out west. Thanks for waking up with us. Let's get you caught up on the news.
We start with that standoff near Seattle. A man accused of murdering his wife and daughter, now holed up in a homemade underground bunker. A SWAT team pumped in tear gas in an effort to force Peter Keller out. It's believed that he is well armed and that the bunker is well stocked so police are being cautious and patient.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. CINDY WEST, KING CO. WASHINGTON SHERIFF'S OFFICE: It doesn't matter how long it takes, if this takes a day, a month, a week, we're going to wait it out.
SHERIFF STEVE STRACHAN, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON: This isn't a hole in the ground. This is a large, built up structure that's hidden. It took some time to find it. And in fact our tactical team smelled the wood smoke coming before they actually saw it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The bodies of Keller's wife and daughter were found in their home on Sunday. The house had been set on fire, Keller hasn't been seen since.
There is a manhunt underway this morning in Denver. Police are looking for two suspects from a violent robbery this week. This is new surveillance video of a robbery Thursday night. The suspect demanded the clerk open the cash register, then shot him in the arm. They then fired a couple shots at customers in the store before leaving. There it goes, see that shot right there. None of the customers was hurt. Police say the pair may be responsible for a string of recent robberies.
Next week marks the one-year anniversary since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and key experts say the terror organization is in disarray. Senior officials say al Qaeda has been marginalized and is in survival mode instead of attack mode. They also say there are no known credible threats connected to the bin Laden anniversary. John McCain is criticizing President Obama over a new campaign ad that talks about the bin Laden operation. He's accusing the president of shamelessly trying to score political points. Here's the ad. To that McCain says shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political ad.
A wayward dolphin is drawing crowds in Huntington Beach, California. It strayed into a wetlands area several miles from the ocean. People gather along the banks to get a look at this unusual visitor. Rescue crews are trying to lure it back out to open water.
Say it isn't so, some people could see heavy rains, even snow today, maybe it's you, maybe not, so let's find out more from Reynolds Wolf. Reynolds, good morning.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning Randi. We have a great day weatherwise, a lot of sunshine around the country, some in the northeast, some in the southeast, some out to the west. But as you mentioned, some people are going to be seeing the rain and the snow Randi and it looks like the places that might see the heaviest could be in the Ohio valley, parts of the southern plains and the northern Rockies, some snow, some locations up to a foot, this time in spring, hard to believe.
That's the latest we've got for you Randi, so much more straight ahead. Let's send it back to you.
KAYE: OK, Reynolds, thank you.
Food safety is in focus this morning. We're looking at inspections and whether they are really working. Plus a case of mad cow in California, is it something that you really need to be worried about next time you go to the grocery store? We will follow the food chain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Following the food chain, we are focusing on your food and food safety this morning. One controversy is how animals are fed. It's an issue that is getting a little more scrutiny in wake of that new mad cow case out of California.
CNN's Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the wake of the discovery of the fourth case of mad cow disease in the U.S., the Agriculture secretary reassures Americans their food supply is safe. How does he know for sure?
TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: We know because of taking out of the feed and out of the food supply those parts of the animal that could potentially cause mad cow disease in humans.
TODD: Tom Vilsack means they make sure the nervous system material of the cow, the brains, the spinal columns don't get into the food system. Those are the parts that can transfer the agents in a cow's body which carry the disease.
Also, the government no longer allows feed from dead ground up cows to be used to feed other cows. That's prevented potential transmission of mad cow disease.
But the government does allow dead cows to be ground up and fed to chickens. Chickens eat it and excrete it. Experts say that chicken excrement has nutritional value, so sometimes that's ground up and fed to other animals like cows.
I asked Patty Lovera of the nonpartisan advocacy group Food and Watcher Watch about that.
(on camera): Should the U.S. government ban cow feed from being given to chickens?
PATTY LOVERA, FOOD AND WATER WATCH: We think so. We think that we didn't allow the cow parts to be in any animal need, it would really lower the risk of accidents happening and contamination, accidentally having that cattle part get fed back to cows.
TODD (voice-over): But you don't need to worry about getting mad cow from eating chicken. Experts say even if a chicken eats feed from a sick cow, the agent that transfers mad cow disease doesn't infect chickens, doesn't contaminate the eat.
We asked Dr. Richard Raymond, a former undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture who oversaw safety in the meat industry, why take chances? There's still a slim chance infected proteins could make their way through the chicken population back to cows or ruminants as they're referred to in the industry.
DR. RICHARD RAYMOND, FORMER USDA UNDERSECRETARY FOR FOOD SAFETY (via telephone): I do not believe a ban on poultry litter to ruminants is necessary at this time. I do not believe there's scientific evidence that our herd is at risk from eating poultry litter and in fact, that the ruminant to ruminant ban has been so effective. I think that shows that we have this situation well under control.
TODD: So far the safeguards have been effective. From a peak of over 37,000 cases of mad cow disease worldwide in 1992, only 29 cases were reported last year. And the Agriculture Department says in this case, the animal tested positive for a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed.
Still, we called the FDA which handles feed bans to ask why the government doesn't ban the feed from dead cows from being used to feed chickens. We didn't hear back. USDA is still investigating how this one cow actually got the disease.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KAYE: A lot to think about of course, joining me now is Will Houston, professor of public health at the University of Minnesota and a former USDA official.
Dr. Houston, good morning to you. Did the safety system really work in this case, do you think?
PROFESSOR WILL HOUSTON, SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIV. OF MINNESOTA: I think it's working.
KAYE: You're proud of it?
HOUSTON: I'm proud of it. We put in place or the government put in place this series of protections on the animal feed and then again on the harvesting of meat for the consumer. So it prevents the transmission from cow to cow and it also prevents the parts of the cow that accumulate this BSE agent from being fed to people or entering our food supply. That's good news.
KAYE: Do we know how this cow got the BSE or mad cow disease?
HOUSTON: Yesterday, they reported a little more from the investigation. It turns out that this cow is very old, 10 years of age or more. And we know that this particular type of BSE is a rare spontaneous occurrence in older animals. So it looks like it's an unfortunate disease of an old cow.
KAYE: But was this -- you don't think under any circumstances that this was just a lucky catch, because this wasn't even a cow that they were actually testing. They don't test everybody.
HOUSTON: The system, the surveillance system that was designed tests 40,000 cows each year and the idea is to be able to detect any type of disease that occurs in as few as one cow per million cows in the United States. So it picks up -- it has picked up a rare disease.
KAYE: And so for anybody who's watching this is really just wondering this morning, is it safe for me to go out and eat meat or maybe even drink the milk. So is there a danger from the milk from a dairy cow that may have been infected with mad cow if somebody were to come into contact with that?
HOUSTON: Thankfully, there's no danger in the milk. There's been a whole series of scientific studies in Great Britain and Europe where they had an epidemic of BSE and they've never been able to identify that BSE agent in milk or to show any transmission with milk. So that's the good news that the BSE agent does not appear to be spread by milk.
KAYE: We have seen of course plenty of salmonella and e. coli stories about produce. We've covered these all the time. Is there a difference would you saw in scrutiny from inspectors between livestock and produce?
HOUSTON: They're very different things. The cattle, we focused on the harvesting of the cattle, we do these surveillance programs that control the feed ban, we talked about for BSE. In produce, there's a process of harvesting and then washing and packaging and delivering and that's a complicated process.
The key is that produce, any raw food has a potential level of contamination, so it really encourages or it depends on the consumer assuming some of the responsibility for the handling of those raw materials to prevent disease.
KAYE: So your advice to us this morning for anybody watching, are there any foods do you think that we should avoid?
HOUSTON: I'm sorry, I'm losing you.
KAYE: Are there any foods would you say that we should avoid?
HOUSTON: I think we need to be very, very careful with raw foods, whether it's raw milk, raw shell fish, raw vegetables, all of those raw foods are potentially contaminated and that's where the greatest risk occurs.
So personally, I choose not to drink unpasteurized milk and I take strong great care when I handle raw vegetables and other things like that. So it's the raw foods that are the greatest risk.
KAYE: We appreciate that. Will Houston, thank you very much.
HOUSTON: You're very welcome.
KAYE: Have a great day. And we have got much more of our focus on food coming up.
Next hour, I'll be talking to the top chef all star, Hugh Atchison. He's a leading innovator in the farm to table culinary world. We went to his kitchen which was really fun for all of us.
And later, I'll talk with the author of a controversial new children's book. Vegan is Love, a lesson meant to keep kids meat free, a lot of talk about that book these days. That's ahead now at 10:00 hour as we keep the focus on your food.
So you have heard of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, right? What about Pinterest. Some say it is this year's hottest new app. We'll tell you what the craze is all about next.
Plus, comedian Jimmy Kimmel is leaving his L.A. studio and heading to Washington, D.C. only for one night. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Good morning Atlanta, welcome back everyone to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
a teacher at the center of a bullying scandal says she did nothing wrong. Kelly Altenburg is accused of being one of the teachers who verbally abused a 10-year old boy with autism. The boy's father Stuart Chaifetz, taped some of that interaction. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What'd you do in the library yesterday? You looked at the sculpture, that's what you did. Did you look at books? Do you see any books in the library or you just looked at sculptures?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The Cherry Hill, New Jersey school district says none of the teachers involved work for them anymore. But Altenburg's attorney says his client's voice isn't one of the ones on that tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW B. WIELCZKO, KELLY ALTENBURG'S ATTORNEY: The point today is not to attack the father of the student. I started the conference off by saying we respect his advocacy. At a point, there had to be a time when we said that the comments that he is saying that my client made are simply inaccurate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Time ago, I spoke with Stuart Chaifetz who says that Kelly Altenburg isn't telling the truth when she said that she wasn't even in the room when that taped verbal abuse took place. He also says he can prove that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUART CHAIFETZ, FATHER OF 10-YEAR OLD SON WITH AUTISM: It was involving a situation where my son was reading and he innocently put his finger in the nose, he was yelled at by the aide, and then the teacher said it was gross and he was basically humiliated in front of the whole class.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Chaifetz says he had six hours of that audio tape. And remember, this comes from just one day that his son was in that classroom. He says he made the tape after teachers claimed his son was hitting him.
It's the place where politicians and celebrities collide, the annual White House correspondents' dinner. Comedian and event host Jimmy Kimmel with the big task of keeping everyone entertained tonight. That's a lot of pressure. He says some of his jokes maybe ripped right from the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, COMEDIAN: Obviously the Secret Service is something that I won't talk about, but I'm not necessarily going to do 30 jokes about it. We'll probably stop at 20.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) White House before. KIMMEL: (INAUDIBLE) asked that either. But it's really very cool actually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Tune into CNN we'll have live coverage of the dinner beginning at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time. It is around 17 minutes past the hour, time for another check of the weather with our friend Reynolds Wolf. How does it look out there Reynolds?
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAYE: So Facebook who? Up next, 2012's hottest new social media app. Tech guru Mario Armstrong and I, we're going to test this thing out and see if it lives up to all the hype. I'm ready Mario, hope you are. I see you're getting ready over there. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back, everyone, so do you think you know about all the coolest apps out there? Are you on Pinterest? Some are calling this breakout social network 2012's hottest website. It's basically an interactive bulletin board where we can post personal pictures and some pretty cool things that we find online, and it is this week's "Start Small, Think Big."
And HLN's Digital Lifestyle Expert Mario Armstrong joining me now to talk a little bit more.
I love having you here.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: I'm not a hologram.
KAYE: He's never here in studio with us. This is so nice.
ARMSTRONG: This is awesome.
KAYE: You got me started on Pinterest yesterday.
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely.
KAYE: For those at home who might not be as familiar with it, I'm not even familiar with it at this point, but how does it work?
ARMSTRONG: It's very easy. You're sharing your life through images. That's what the whole thing is all about, so you are posting images of things you love, recipes, places to go, shoes, clothing, whatever it is.
And basically, to make this work, I'll pull-up my account here and show you that all you have to do to add a pin, is simply just hit add and pins are photos. So if you add a pin from the web or you can upload one from your computer or you can even do it right from your cell phone. And then basically we start to create your own pin board, so things from my home, things that I'm inspired by.
KAYE: You can group things together.
ARMSTRONG: Right. You can use it as research. People can talk about it. You can share it. Favorite places, I'm a vegan, I love to go to this cafe, maybe other people should know about that cafe.
KAYE: So I set one up at your suggestion (INAUDIBLE) We're going to take some pictures and things like that whenever I'm on the road.
ARMSTRONG: Nothing quite yet.
KAYE: We could do something here behind the scenes, but I did put a picture of my cat up.
ARMSTRONG: This is her cat.
KAYE: You just post whatever you like. But why sign up? There's Facebook, there's Twitter, there's all these other things.
ARMSTRONG: Because Facebook is a huge community. They have photos, they have texts. I'm not going to say your cat's not cute.
KAYE: His name is Browser.
ARMSTRONG: A techie cat, I like this. Good thing you don't have a Firefox running around on your browser. That's a techie joke for those who didn't follow that. But the thing is that, yes, it is different. Twitter is about text. You can send images, you can send links, but this is telling a story.
For example, Ann Romney is actually using this as well. Very clever to learn more about her, what inspires her, what are family photos, what are her favorite recipes? So even candidates, even companies are starting to understand.
Oscar de la Renta did one for their bridal show and so if you're interested in a wedding dress, you can come right here and see all the different dresses, what people are saying, what they're commenting on, what they like, what they don't like. It's a different way to tell a story about who you are.
And Nadia Bilchik came up with an interesting one. If you're going on a job interview or you're going to meet someone, if you find out that they have a Pinterest board, you can find out more about their interests and you have a better connection.
KAYE: So do you follow people on Pinterest? Do you have friends?
ARMSTRONG: You have friends. You have followers. You comment on photos. You can see here...
KAYE: How do you know who to follow?
ARMSTRONG: It's all based on your interests. So you say, you know what? I like recipes or I like food or places to travel. Once you start to use the service, you start to find other people that are pinning things that you like. I like those things, let me follow that person. So whenever they upload a new photo or a new ping, I also will see that on my board as well.
KAYE: And how secure is something like this? Can you have privacy settings like you do on Facebook for people who watch what you're doing or check out your --
ARMSTRONG: No, this is very public right now. It doesn't have the same security settings and that's something that I'm a little concerned about and the company has talked about. There might be some new features for this. I'm not too sure right now. But it's all public. I'm in my settings page right now, so if you do create a profile, I would suggest scroll down --
KAYE: This is so easy by the way. It took us like two minutes.
ARMSTRONG: A couple minutes, we knocked it out. I would suggest at the very bottom, see where it says hide hide your Pinterest profile from search engines. I would turn that on so you could go ahead - I don't know if it will actually pick up - and actually turn that off.
KAYE: Did you do that on mine?
ARMSTRONG: Not yet. I did turn that on for you. That's one of the first things I did to make sure. But you may not want everything.
But the bottom line is, if you're going to use Pinterest, it's public so remember that. You want to always remember. A friend of mine that was saying Mario, I like the idea of using something like this, but I don't know if I want to be out -- everything out in public.
KAYE: When I tweeted out yesterday that I'd gotten a board going here on Pinterest, everybody is like, oh, you're going to be hooked. You're going to be hooked and I am hooked. And in fact it turns out that a lot more women are hooked than men, like 58 percent women are following the site, right?
ARMSTRONG: And that doesn't surprise me, I'm going back to your cat. That doesn't surprise me at all. Because the thing is, look, women are very tech savvy. They're jumping aboard. They're going to technology, they're using it early or not.
There's a misnomer out there that people think that women aren't techie. They're very techie and they love to share and I think they're better story tellers than men. And so this is a visual way of telling a story. They got us beat right now but we're catching up.
KAYE: We had you beat a long time ago. All right, Mario, any last word of advice. Look at you. All right, Mario, great. I love that. I love that you're here. You should come every weekend.
ARMSTRONG: We'll work on that right away only if the viewers like that.
KAYE: Thank you. And of course, don't go too far because you're going to be back in an hour or so. You're still staying here. We're going to talk about some really cool spy gadgets, some tools that parents are using to track their kids down. Have you been recording me? ARMSTRONG: I have been videotaping you the whole time and she did not know. So stick around to learn how.
KAYE: Well, we'll get to that later on, in about an hour or so. And be sure of course to join us every Saturday at this time as Mario Armstrong gives us the scoop on the latest technology.
Traveling with pets is much more common nowadays, but finding pet friendly destinations can be a challenge. Look no further, we have one solution next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye. Thanks for starting your day with us. Bottom of the hour now let's get you caught up.
Checking top stories, the Secret Service has issued new conduct rules following the prostitution scandal in Columbia. Agents on assignment cannot engage in heavy drinking, bring other people to their hotel rooms or patronize non-reputable establishments.
Sources tell CNN the agent at the center of the scandal has been identified as Arthur Huntington. They say he had a dispute with an escort over pay. The married father of two left the agency after the scandal broke.
An incredible story of discovery, a 35-year-old Philadelphia man went on a missing children's Web site and get this, he recognized himself in an age progression image. Steve Carter's mother apparently took him from his father when he was just six months old and left him in an orphanage, 34 years after he was reported missing Carter finally spoke to his dad on the phone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE CARTER, FOUND SELF ON MISSING PERSON'S LIST: He was convinced that my mother had taken me and you know taken me and raised me somewhere else. And I think one of his first questions to me was, where is your mother? And I said that's a fantastic question, I have the same one for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Carter hopes to meet with his dad in person this year.
The stage is set for another showdown in Washington. This time it's over cyber security and a controversial bill passed this week in the House. The bill which got 248 votes and bipartisan support allows the government and private companies to share information with one another. Critics including the White House say it doesn't go far enough to protect citizen's privacy. President Obama has threatened to veto it.
Britain's Prince William and Katherine will celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary tomorrow. It seems like just yesterday that millions of people tuned in around the world to watch the couple tie the knot. Since then the Duchess of Cambridge has become a global fashion star.
And her sister, Pippa Middleton has also been in the spotlight most recently causing some headlines when she was spotted in a car with a male friend who waved a toy gun at her paparazzi chasers.
In Mexico, a towering volcano is roaring back to life. The country's second highest peak is spewing clouds of gas, ash and steam into the air. But look at those pictures -- they are something. Some 28,000 people live nearby but authorities who are keeping watch on this say there are no plans to evacuate anyone for now.
Planning a trip with your family can be time-consuming, especially if you're looking for places to stay that allow pets. CNN producer Jamie Maglietta reports for this week's "Travel Insider".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMIE MAGLIETTA, CNN PRODUCER: Hi, I'm Jamie Maglietta a producer at CNN, and this is Rambo our little mini poodle. My husband and I, we live in Atlanta, Georgia and we've been looking for some pet friendly vacations good for Rambo. Our favorite is Hilton Head, South Carolina. Go get him Rambo.
If you're looking to book a pet-friendly trip I suggest you search for pet-friendly hotels or rentals at BringFido.com. Out of all the Web sites this one is the most reliable -- we booked a condo instead of a hotel for a low rate.
Just keep in mind that if you bring Fido, it could cost more. Some places require a dog fee. And if you want your pooch on the beach all day plan your Hilton Head trip before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. During the summer your pup can only be on the beach leashed before 10:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m.
If you think planning a dog vaca is hard, think again. Besides hotels there are also pet-friendly restaurants, we found a few in Hilton Head that offer a dog menu. And consider this, if you travel with your pet, you don't have to find someone to watch him. And Hilton Head made it easy to enjoy a weekend away as a family.
That's Hilton Head, South Carolina. I'm Jamie Maglietta, CNN. Rambo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: I think Rambo is having a pretty good time out there. Rambo a poodle, who knew?
All right so listen to this, some teens are getting drunk off hand sanitizer perhaps not knowing about the dangerous side effects. We'll have more on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Forget beer and liquor. Some teens are now getting drunk by guzzling hand sanitizer. Yes, hand sanitizer. Many of them are even posting it on YouTube. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just drank Purell and I think it's starting to kick in. My vision is a little fuzzy and there is a -- there is a feeling in my -- my stomach area, it's kind of like warming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Can you imagine? And drinking it is extremely dangerous of course. In fact, emergency rooms around the country are seeing more people hospitalized because of this.
So why are so many teens drinking hand sanitizer and then bragging about it? I asked our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Who would have thought that kids would be doing this, because it seems so disgusting, I mean, it's hands sanitizer but they have a lot of alcohol in those hand sanitizers.
So you drink two ounces of hand sanitizer and you're getting three ounces of 80 proof tequila.
KAYE: Wow.
COHEN: OK the equivalent in alcohol of three ounces of 80 proof tequila and they don't necessarily just drink it straight up they add ingredients to make it taste better. Some people have figured out how to separate the gel from the alcohol I mean, they've gotten very creative about it.
KAYE: Yes and they're putting this all out there on YouTube. Other kids are seeing it.
COHEN: Yes.
KAYE: It's gaining in popularity. How many kids are we talking about?
COHEN: We know exactly how many kids are doing it but we do know that the Poison Control Center folks say nationally, they got about 465 calls last year from kids who had gotten too drunk, from kids who are actually sick because of that.
So that's a lot of phone calls and you have to assume that even more kids are doing it and didn't call the Poison Control Center.
KAYE: Right.
COHEN: Most of the kids who call the Poison Control Center they ended up being fine. I mean maybe they went to the hospital and got some IV fluids. But every so often you did get a kid who got really seriously ill. I mean, really serious because it can -- I mean, alcohol poisoning can kill you. This is possibly the time to take hand sanitizer off the counter. (CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Yes but possibly the time to take --
COHEN: -- that hand sanitizer off the counter and put it somewhere where they can't find it.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: -- the hand sanitizer off the store shelves. So -- so there you go exactly.
COHEN: We don't need hand sanitizer. It's a wonderful product but you don't need it.
KAYE: All right, Elizabeth, thank you.
COHEN: OK thanks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: A former Edwards' aide says that he was scared for his life and intimidated by the former presidential candidate and his big money donors. Can John Edwards' attorneys defend against this attack? Holly Hughes, with the latest on the Edwards trial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Prosecutors in the John Edwards corruption trial are counting on testimony from his former aid to build their case against the former presidential candidate. Andrew Young is considered their star witness. He was on the stand most of this week. And Young testified yesterday that he was so intimidated by Edwards and his two big money donors that he was, quote, "scared for his life".
Criminal Defense Attorney Holly Hughes and former prosecutor Holly Hughes is here to talk about this. Good morning to you.
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good morning Randi.
So how much can we really believe this guy? I mean his credibility was certainly in question on the stand. I mean, he -- he's testifying for the prosecution in hopes of not being prosecuted himself.
HUGHES: Exactly. This is a man who is all about him, Randi, the fact that he was even involved in the John Edwards campaign, he had to flat out admit he's in love with the Senator, he loved him and he says things like, well, yes, you know if he gets elected president, then me and my family are really going to benefit from this.
Andrew Young has a lot of credibility issues. They also had to get him to admit that he was involved in 2006 car accident and some other criminal activities that he covered up. So he is not very credible, he's got his own agenda, he's trying to save his own hide. And quite frankly the way he testified, he sounds like a scorned lover.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYE: Yes, yes it was pretty dramatic -- it was pretty dramatic in there.
HUGHES: It's -- it's -- it's pitiful when that's your star witness because he's got his own agenda working.
KAYE: One of the things they also got him to talk about, the defense team pointed out that he spent -- Young, Andrew Young spent nearly $1 million on building his dream home. Now what kind of defense is that because if he spent this money would he then come out and try and say that well, Edwards then couldn't have -- couldn't have spent this money or Edwards team would come out and say that he could have spent this money, there was nothing left for him to do.
HUGHES: No essentially what they're doing is attacking this guy's judgment and his credibility. And they're saying you're here pointing fingers at Senator John Edwards, but isn't it a fact that you were taking money, and you were spending money you know just on your own, building this $1.5 million dream house for yourself, among other things.
So it goes directly to his judgment, his ability to tell the truth and the fact that he's not above doing something a little underhanded himself. So if he's that underhanded is he lying on the stand to save his own hide?
KAYE: Of course this coming week we could see Rielle Hunter the mistress in this case --
HUGHES: Oh yes.
KAYE: -- take the stand. Will she hurt or help John Edwards do you think?
HUGHES: It really depends on her presentation because if she shows up and she's all glammed up and looking like the other woman that we expect, right, remember, the majority of these jurors are female. And they're going to sit back and they're going to go, OK, you know, we just flat out don't like you --
KAYE: Right.
HUGHES: Maybe we'll just find something to convict you of. But if she is humble, if she takes the stand and she says, yes, in fact I was involved with this man but I fell in love and I had a child and I kept the child. The problem that the state has that this prosecution -- defense has with this prosecution is that how are they going to prove that that money that was given was number one, supposed to be for the campaign and the campaign only and not to be used by John Edwards for other things.
And Rielle Hunter really can't shed any light on that. So it's how she presents herself on the stand, and how much those jurors either want to stick it to him for just not being a very nice guy as opposed committing an illegal act.
KAYE: I also want to ask you quickly about the Trayvon Martin case.
HUGHES: Yes.
KAYE: We've heard some news with that. Just in fact his accused killer George Zimmerman, his attorney telling Anderson Cooper first this week that his client had collected more than $200,000 in donations online. That wasn't revealed when he had this hearing and was given the bond and now Trayvon Martin's family wants him back in jail. What does the judge have to consider here?
HUGHES: Do you know what? The likelihood that that's going to happen is very low Randy because the judge has already made a decision and he made it based on the factors, is this guy going to be a flight risk? Is he going to show up for trial? Is he going to intimidate witnesses? There are certain factors judges consider. Bond is not punitive. It's not meant to punish you. It's not meant to be set so high you can't make it.
And the fact that we don't know when the money came in -- maybe the money was raised after the bond hearing. Mark O'Mara, the defense attorney for George Zimmerman did exactly what he was supposed to do. He stood up in open court and he argued for a low bond, because even though there is a lot of money there, it is extremely expensive to defend a criminal case.
You have to hire expert witnesses, your own forensic people. You have to hire your own investigators. So that money doesn't necessarily -- you don't want that all money tied up in bond. Mark O'Mara has said, again defense attorney -- he said, look, I didn't know anything about it. That was strategic that George Zimmerman did not have his brother available to testify at his bond hearing, because his brother is the one that set it up and is running the money through that Web site.
So Mark O'Mara didn't do anything wrong and quite frankly the prosecution could have subpoenaed the brother to testify at the bond hearing if they wanted to know how much money is out there --
KAYE: Bottom line is it wasn't out there.
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: -- so they sort of missed -- they missed the boat.
KAYE: Yes.
HUGHES: It's a done deal. And because they didn't lie on the stand or presented any perjury testimony, I don't see the judge reversing himself.
KAYE: Yes. There's a fine line though between not lying and not sharing.
HUGHES: Exactly. But again, that witness wasn't available. So you know, the defense attorney did his job. KAYE: All right, Holly, thank you.
HUGHES: OK.
KAYE: We got a lot in there.
Coming up, he was found stuck in a cactus, look at this little puppy. Now thanks to a little help from strangers, "Cactus Jack" as he is being called now is out of -- what shall we call it -- maybe a sticky situation? An update on this courageous little pup next.
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KAYE: This next story is just something. A stray pup, you see him there, dubbed "Cactus Jack" has a new home. Take a look at this little guy. He was found last week stuck in a cactus covered in spines -- you can see them all over him. Someone rescued him though this eight-week- old Yorkie terrier after hearing him cry out. The Good Samaritan pulled out a bucket full of spines apparently.
So many people fell in love with this story and this little guy they wanted to adopt him. So the Arizona Humane Society had to hold a lottery to actually pick his new family. And the lucky winner was Sarah Messer Schmidt. She says that she was touched by "Cactus Jack's" story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH MESSER SCHMIDT, ADOPTED "CACTUS JACK": This story just was heart wrenching, heart breaking, but the thing that just drew my heart to it was the fact that he just kept wagging his tail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: His new owner is now debating whether or not to change his name. He is just so darn cute.
All right. Now check out this 200-pound bear dangling from a tree, holding on for dear life, then -- boom, he drops on to a thick mat below. This is at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Students spotted the sleepy bear napping in the tree and called wildlife officials. He just fell asleep and yes, there he goes.
Rangers came and tranquilized it causing it to fall safely out of the tree. They tagged the bear and yes, they did release it into the Colorado wilderness. That's the good news. And he is just fine.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wow.
KAYE: All right. So the calendar says that it's almost May so -- I just want to talk about that bear.
WOLF: I do too.
KAYE: I don't want to talk about weather. I'm sorry. WOLF: I feel like we're kindred spirits. The bear -- I can't figure how many times I've been sound asleep and got shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart.
KAYE: Fell out of bed.
WOLF: Unbelievable.
Hey guys, let's go right to the forecast. Here's what we have today. Randi, we're going to be seeing two places where we could see some severe weather; one in the Ohio Valley, the other in the Southern Plains. Plenty of dry weather out towards the west and in parts of New England; high temperatures for the day, very cool in parts of the northeast. Boston and New York in the 50s and 60s; 86 in Dallas, 75 in Albuquerque, 69 in San Francisco, 60 in Seattle and Miami with 79 and chance of thunderstorms.
Now switching subjects with the delicacy of a hatchet, we are going to be talking about something very different. We're talking about space mining. I had a chance to speak to an expert just a short while ago about this incredible new technology and this new type of exploration. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN FLEMING, EXEC DIR, ENTERPRISE INNOVATION INSTITUTE OF GEORGIA TECHNOLOGY: It's past time that we do it. We should have been doing this 20 years ago.
WOLF: Well, you know, we think of mining, we think about mining in Pennsylvania, we think about West Virginia, maybe even Oklahoma. Mining in space on an asteroid? Could you walk us through how this will happen?
FLEMING: Well, it's a lot harder. It's a lot harder. But the asteroid belt is a bunch of rocks, which look a lot like the rocks here on the surface of the earth. They just happen to be busted up into little pieces that are orbiting a few million miles away.
So rather than drilling holes in the ground to go find precious minerals, precious metals or other things, you can simply drive up next to one and pull these materials off the surface.
WOLF: What type of minerals do we hope to find on some of these asteroids?
FLEMING: There's really two categories. There's things like the platinum group metals -- platinum palladium, those are very expensive here on earth. That's easy to make a business case for to go get them there, bring them here. Use them here -- platinum has industrial uses, in your catalytic converter in your car, in making better batteries, fuel cells things like that.
So there's clearly an economic case for those very valuable metals. And there's another category of materials that don't cost that much down here -- water, nitrogen, iron, (inaudible) things like that which are incredibly valuable in space because you don't have to launch them from here.
WOLF: I see. Now when you're talking about this in terms of the time frame, how far off could you see this actually becoming a reality?
FLEMING: They could be launching their surveillance satellites or their prospecting satellites within a couple of years. Those will stay in earth orbit and they'll have telescopes on them on to look at these asteroids and identify the first candidates.
Actually going out and parking next to one and starting operations, probably within 10 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Mining asteroids -- that's good stuff. Thank you, Reynolds for that.
So if you run a red light, chances are, you'll get a ticket, right? And if you don't pay the fine, well, you could get your utilities shut off. Yes, we'll have more on that.
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KAYE: A little Aerosmith for you this morning. Lots of folks coming together at Columbus Circle there; looks like it's going to be a beautiful day there in the southwest corner of Central Park in New York City. Lovely day.
Time now for stories making news cross country.
If you don't pay a traffic fine, you should buy a red light camera in Las Cruces, New Mexico, well, you could have your utility shut off. The city will cut off your water, sewage, even your gas and that's because violators have racked up an estimated $2 million in debt over the past three years. And the city says it is fed up. Residents have already begun receiving final warnings.
And a school in California is using dogs to help kids learn to read. Teachers say the therapy dogs help take away the anxiety of learning to read because the animals won't judge a child for messing up. The school started the program two months ago and said it's been a huge success. And kids like it too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It helps me relax and it helps me read the book.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: A recent UC Davis study found kids who read to dogs just once a week can improve their skills.
By the dogs are volunteers and have to pass a test to actually enter that program.
