california to avoid a disaster. is the president's health care reform a political disaster for him? >> these struggles have always boiled down to a contest between hope and fear. that's what happened when fdr tried to pass social security. they said that was socialist. >> but wait. the president can point to an economic success story. we'll tell you what it is. the brad pitt of bollywood treated like a terrorist. or is he looking for publicity? your national conversation, the first social media newscast for monday, august 17th, 2009, monday, august 17th, 2009, begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, everybody. i'm rick sanchez. as we always tell you, it is not a speech, it is a conversation and we want you to get involved.

here's something that's gotten our attention. i want to see if it gets as much of your attention. let's start with that picture. remember when president obama had a town hall meeting and somebody showed up with a gun in a holster that he was later interviewed and actually said that the gun was loaded, told that to an interviewer. all right, moments ago, we got this picture in. let's flip the shot. this was just about an hour ago. that picture's coming in right now from phoenix, arizona. he's actually carrying an assault rifle. he's at an obama event. that's an ar-15 on his back. we're being told from our crews on the ground that he may not have been the only person in the crowd today that was carrying a loaded weapon. we should let you know, by the way, it's important that this is perfectly legal in the state of arizona because they have an open carry law. our white house correspondent ed henry is in phoenix. he's been at these rallies. he's been following this one for us today and is joining us to bring us up to date on what's going on.

you know, i'm curious as i look at this story, as to whether you saw other people in the audience that may have also been carrying guns the way this fellow was. >> reporter: i did, i saw at least a couple weapons, including an ar-15, and it happened just across the street from where i am. there was a large group of obama supporters, they were supporting the president on health care and it was peaceful, you know, there were some protesters across the street shouting things like socialism, et cetera, kind of typical stuff you see outside of some of these events these days. and i happened to wade into the pro-obama side to take some pictures, still photos, and try to interview some people. and all of a sudden, i saw this gentleman who was anti-obama, he was shouting something about socialism, with an ar-15 on his back. it sort of startled me because at first i thought maybe it was some sort of law enforcement officer, and i had forgotten about the open carry law in arizona just off the top of my head because it's kind of jarring at first to see an assault weapon in the middle of

the street. >> but just to be clear, i'm going to interrupt for just a moment, the first thing you saw that was carrying a weapon, was it the fellow we're looking at on videotape now? this african-american gentleman with the glasses? >> reporter: it was not. it was not person. it was not an african-american gentleman. it was another gentleman, and so there was at least two of these weapons here in the crowd. i want to stress that none of these weapons went off. there was never any sort of confrontation. >> yeah, but secret service -- i'm just thinking secret service has got to be looking at this and wondering if this is going to become a trend and whether they're going to have to be prepared for something developing in the future. >> reporter: let me tell you exactly what happened, which is that when i noticed this one person who is different from that photo, with an ar-15, i also then noticed several police officers and some secret service officials moving closer to this person, not doing anything, not, you know, hassling him but

staying close to him in sort of a semi-circle to make sure as people were shouting at each other, again, peacefully, that nothing went out of control. so yes, the secret service, local law enforcement here on the ground in phoenix, were very much aware of this situation and are very much monitoring this to make sure it doesn't go out of control. >> the obvious question here that you and i would have or anybody at home watching is what's this guy's motivation. why would he show up to an event with what may be a loaded assault rifle. i understand he did an interview a little while ago. we listened to this and i really couldn't make out what he said, but for the sake of transparency, let's all listen to it together now. go ahead, play this, if you could. [ chanting ] >> why are you here are an ar-15? [ inaudible ].

>> why are you here with an ar-15? >> why are you carrying an ar-15. i can't tell exactly what he said. we don't know at this point if that guy was protesting against the president or for the president, or maybe trying to make a point because he saw guys on the other side that were carrying weapons. i can't imagine -- you don't know the answer to that question, either, at this point, do you? >> reporter: well, i know the person i saw with an ar-15 different from that person was definitely against the president's policies. he was shouting things that suggested he certainly did not support the health reform effort or very many other policies of this president. someone affiliated with the democratic national committee who is here said that they heard one of these gentlemen say he was carrying a weapon because he could, that essentially, he has a second amendment right to do it, there is an open carry law that makes this legal in the state of arizona, as you noted at the top. i did not hear that myself. i want to tell you that was someone affiliated with the dnc, that's what she overheard. >> but here's the point on that, and i'm just having a

conversation with you, one that i think is logical, that anybody else watching this would have. just because you can do something, does that mean that you should, and given the fact that it's president obama that we're talking about right now and not president bush or president clinton or another president in the past, let me ask you this. you've been doing this job for a long time. you've been -- do you remember people showing up at president bush's rallies with open guns like that? carrying weapons? >> reporter: they may have but i have to be honest, i never saw one. that was what was jarring to me at this event today was actually seeing an ar-15 which i had never seen myself up close, within a couple of feet. so now, people may have had weapons, concealed or, you know, outside events, i want to stress, outside bush events, but i never saw one out in the open. i have to be honest with you. never saw that. that was what was pretty startling to see. >> that's what leads me to ask, then, is this an open display or

gesture that is trying to send a signal to barack obama about gun rights or about health care or about anything, and i'm asking that question rhetorically. i know you don't have an answer to it but it's something we obviously will continue to follow as we see this situation. >> reporter: absolutely. at future events, as we, you know, this just happened in the middle of this health care rally. we were not expecting it to happen. in the days ahead, it's something we will be watching closely, obviously, and asking more questions than we did today because you're right, it's a hard question to answer but it's one that deserves an answer. >> you're doing a great job as usual. ed henry, thanks so much for getting up to us on that. we just saw this video just a little while ago and turned this around and asked ed to join us. i know you have to get work done for "the situation room" so get to it. i want to show you another situation we're following for you right now because it's not every day you get so many stories kind of creating the perfect storm. in this case, four perfect storms that we're following. let me talk to you first about claudette. this is mysterious in many ways,

because it's a storm that really kind of came out of nowhere. we had our eyes on two other storms, three, really, but two other storms, bill and ana. if we can make a four box, that's claudette you're looking at right now, just popped up and boom, the storm hit the florida panhandle. there, you see ana right behind it, some perhaps reason for concern with ana. then you see bill right behind ana so that's one, two, three and then we've got the situation out in california where you also have fires as a result of the wind conditions there, and we've been following what they're doing. there are some of the crews that are choppered in to fight and create walls to stop the fire from moving in one direction or another. chad myers has been following all four of these situations for us today and is joining us now. do me a favor, start with claudette because i found it interesting that a storm would suddenly develop in the gulf of mexico and suddenly create a

threat for the people in florida when they're actually looking elsewhere. >> the water was so warm and still is. this can happen all the time in the gulf of mexico. it's a very tiny little thing. we didn't get winds over about 45 miles per hour with this storm, and most of the convection is still offshore, although there is rain coming in to parts of northern florida, alabama and georgia. this is not going to be a big event. i really don't think we will get a lot of flooding with this. i think we have other things to worry about, ana, the next one here. there's puerto rico right there. the forecast, the hurricane forecast center is for this thing to be a 35 mile per hour storm and not to worry about it. i'm not sure i'm buying that just yet. bill is a monster storm. this could be a category 3 or 4 storm, out here in the middle of the atlantic ocean. i don't think it's going to stay there very long. here's what we think bill's going to be. 1, 2, 3, those are categories when it comes to hurricanes, category 3 hurricane right over bermuda and i think even now, we'll switch our attention to something that's a little closer. >> that's a good thing, by the way. i like the bermuda storms.

if you look at what could be threatened, that's the least compared to what else could be struck in the united states. >> i know of no place else that's more prepared for a hurricane than bermuda. you've got to think, they have seen their share of them. they build their buildings correctly and people know when to get out and what to do. here's ana. you were alluding to this. i believe ana could sneak into the gulf of mexico and if that happens, even though it's a 35 mile per hour storm right here, it could be much larger than that as it gets into this very warm water here. take you to a couple more things. this would be our storm pulse.com map. there's bill way out here. we can turn -- it's going to turn. i don't see any chance that it hits the u.s. there's the outliar chance would be if it just didn't turn soon enough and then maybe started to clip the east coast of the united states. i saw bill do this. hurricane bill, way up into the northeast, and that made kind of a smack into the hamptons, then on up toward the northeast from

there. i don't see that happening. this may be a 1% chance that it's there. that's not even inside the cone right now. there's an awful lot more to still happen. now you want to go to the fires? >> yeah, because look, bill's probably -- we're going to be okay from bill. ana is still far away. the thing about ana, before we let it go, ana could hit texas, it could hit new orleans, you know, heaven forbid, it could hit part of the florida panhandle, it could hit parts of cuba, this thing could go anywhere at this point. all of those areas are big threats. >> we're not self-absorbed on this show with the u.s. haiti will get smacked with this. you know what happens to haiti when you get 15, 20 inches of rainfall in any one spot, you start getting floods and you start getting loss of life. the loss of life last year from haiti was enormous. we didn't even have any storms really out there that affected it. they were close, they were, some of them were bigger, but what can happen in haiti is amazing. >> let's talk about california. they ever going to put the fires out? >> i think they're going to be out, the forecast is for them to

be out by thursday. because there's no more wind events coming. bonnie doon, davinport, the lockheed fire, there are a couple more fires out here, at least ten active fires in parts of california. they could not get to the lockheed fire yesterday because of what you see there. see how that smoke just sat there? you think oh, i don't want wind, but if you don't get some wind, you can't blow the smoke away and the firefighting helicopter efforts and the big airliners can't get in. they didn't get any help. 2,000 people on the ground fighting that fire there, 65% contained. they expect to have the rest of the containment without any big problems by the end of this week. >> chad myers, nobody can cover four stories at a time better than you. >> with this wall, we can do it. >> it's all about the wall. thanks, buddy. the world's second biggest economy is doing something special. we'll tell you where it is and we'll tell you whether they had a stimulus plan to get themselves out of recession and

into recovery. wouldn't that be great if it was us? maybe. should obama, by the way, be pointing to that and saying it works. don't know. we'll ask the experts. later, cocaine, cocaine, cocaine. lots of it. you handle it every single day of our life. how do you handle it? i will tell you exactly how you handle this every day of your life. don't forget, at 4:00, we will start the aftershow on cnn.com/live. stay with us.

welcome back. big economic news today is about japan. that's right, japan. did you know that japan is the second largest economy in the world? we, of course, are number one. here's the good news. the japanese are out of recession. they are now officially in recovery mode with their economy growing .9% in the second quarter. all that according to economic

experts and forecasters and the japanese wire services. like us, and the rest of the world, their economy was as bad as it's been since the 1940s. they may have been one of the worst cases. because they used government stimulus money to boost their recovery, is this now something that president obama can and should perhaps point to as a sign that his strategy will eventually work? that's a question. speaking of something that works, not, the president's push for a public option. seriously, is this thing off the table or is it on the table? does anyone know? does the white house know? we will try and keep score on this one as well for you when we come back. these healthy choice fresh mixer thingys, they taste fresh... say it again! what? say it like, "mmmm, these healthy choice fresh mixers taste freshh!!" they taste fresh... wait. what are you doing? got it. you're secretly taping me?

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm rick sanchez. we began this newscast by telling you that more people are showing up today at the president's town hall meetings armed with guns and that it's perfectly legal where he is, by the way. you've been alarmed by this and you're telling us in no uncertain terms. let's go to the comments, if we can, before we get started. start on myspace, if we can.

it doesn't matter if he is for or against the president, that weapon could be taken from him and used on the president or innocent people. on twitter, there in the middle, we've got another one that says bad precedent by allowing these idiots with guns at any presidential political rally. not a trend that should be followed. we thank you for your comments. that's what you believe. joining us now are joe klein with "time" magazine and patricia murphy with politics daily. murph, what do you think of these people showing up at the obama events with these weapons? i think we've got the video, we can put it up again. put that up again in case viewers missed that. that's a heck of a piece there. that's an ar-15, an assault rifle. >> yeah, to me, that's really quite terrifying. i have talked to a lot of people in politics, out of politics, who said this entire debate is inching closer and closer to a place that everybody is afraid to even think about, that anger

will turn to violence. i think having an automatic weapon at one of these events is exactly how something like that happens. it may be legal but it's a terrible idea. it's absolutely terrifying to me. >> joe, i don't remember people protesting against president bush showing up with weapons. do you? >> i've been doing this for almost 40 years now, and i have never seen anything like this. there should be like a second amendment equivalent of the first amendment shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. i mean, you know, there is a right to bear arms. but there's also a right to protect the president and a right to sanity, and this is clearly getting quite out of hand. you know, what we've seen this month is pretty frightening in general. we have seen the celebration of ignorance and misinformation in this health care battle and you know, this more than almost any other issue i can think of is one where we need to be

clear-headed and, you know, lay out the facts and let people decide the facts. >> i'll tell you, it's really something and i would hate like hell to have to be a secret service agent or have my brother or a loved one dealing with secret service right now. they got their hands full, don't they? >> i was just out with the president over the weekend in montana and colorado, and there are an awful lot of -- the secret service does an amazing job, but there are an awful lot of angry people out there, and most of them, i got to say, are misinformed. >> hey, let's switch the subject because this is the other big news story we're following right now. i'm trying to figure this one out myself. is the public option dead or alive? this is what democrats hope would create competition and would eventually drive the markets. i want to take you first to what the president said. this was back in july. hit that, claude. >> any plan i sign must include an insurance exchange, including

a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest. >> i think i just heard him say any plan i sign must include public option. now, listen to the president last night. listen to him last night in colorado. this is grand junction and then we'll get your take on it. i think these are two completely different statements. play that, claude. >> public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. this is just one sliver of it. >> now it's whether we have it or we don't have it. joe? >> well, the public option was always going to be a bargaining chip, i thought, in the final negotiations, but they've kind of blown that with the confusion over the last couple days. some in the administration say it's off the table, some say it's still on the table. what i think the intention was was to hold it in the bargaining up until the very end, then trade it for republican votes, saying okay, you don't want

government managed health insurance of any kind beyond the stuff we already have, okay, we'll drop that in return for your vote. but they blew that the last day or so. the important thing about that first sentence and -- which keeps it in context with the second, is the most important thing here are these exchanges, not the public option. it's setting up these kind of health care superstores where individuals who buy health insurance, who don't buy through big corporations, would have the same kind of -- would be able to join together and have the same kind of market power in negotiating with the insurors that people who work for like you and me, for time warner do. >> it makes sense. murph, let me ask you a completely different question. last night when i saw this report that the japanese economy was actually on the rise, they had grown by .9%, almost 1%, i thought to myself oh, my god, isn't it nice to hear that somebody somewhere in this world is actually out of its recession and showing signs of recovery.

i wish that was us. but shouldn't the president of the united states point to that and tell the american people look, they poured a bunch of money, the government got involved in that system, they had a stimulus plan, they're coming out of it. that just goes to show that my strategy is right. should he do that? will he do that? >> i don't think that pointing towards japan's success or france or germany's success is really going to help the president at this point. he's got to put some american successes on the table. he's trying to do that but we're starting to see a lot of polling that says it's not working, he is way under 50% in terms of how people think he's handling the economy. it's also starting to hurt him on health care. he's trying to make health care a political issue. when it comes to the economy, it's just not all tying together. i think he's trying to do a lot of things at once, trying to fix the economy, change energy, fix health care. he's got a lot on the table but at the end of the day, people are paying their bills, they want to know the economy's getting better and i don't think the economy in tokyo is going to make them think the economy here in the states is any better. >> maybe he needs to be more

brazen at these town halls, for example, and say things like people are lying and maybe i should set it straight. >> well, he did some of that in the colorado town hall meeting on saturday, but i got to say, rick, he and his aides are very frustrated because they go out to these things and they're hoping to get some loony talking about pulling the plug on granny so he can directly confront them, and he hasn't been getting those kind of questions. >> you mean he's hoping for -- you mean to tell me his ground people there, his folks can't find somebody to plant to ask him a tough question? >> i was watching the president's eyes in colorado and he's looking for loonies. there's this guy in a blue teeshirt who looks angry as hell and turns out he's angry about right wing misinformation. you could see the president just, you know, his body sag because he wanted to get some angry right winger. >> can i add one point? >> interesting perspective. go ahead. i'm going to get yelled at my producers. be good to me.

>> hold on one second. my quick point is during the campaign, obama's numbers, the massive crowds, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 people coming out to support him, where are those crowds right now, the conservatives are turning out their numbers and the democrats are not turning out. >> they are not. >> they are. of course they are. >> they're turning out handfuls of people. they scream very loud. >> they're making the news. >> they're making the news because we're letting them make the news. >> it's working. the public plan is off the table now. >> but the public plan was never going to be on the table. >> it's off way early and i think it's because of these crowds they're getting. >> i think it's because of message confusion in the administration. look, it's really hard, if you're going to have an open democracy to prevent crazies from coming in and hijacking town meetings. it's happened on both sides. i think even if you put 30,000 obama supporters in a room and you had six crazies there

willing to make fools of themselves in public, we would shoot the crazies. not shoot, we would, you know, cover the crazies. >> we know, not good word choice on this day, joe. >> don't go shooting anybody. >> not on the day we see all these guys with guns. joe, you're fabulous. come on back. let's talk about tiger woods. a bunch of ten-foot putts. money in the bank for this guy. he's that insanely good, usually more than 80%. yesterday, not so much. you're going to see them all. we will line them up for you, golfers. now the fbi wants to know why this police officer right there is pulling that man out of his car and why eight other police officers showed up to beat on him. to turn his face into a punching bag. right now, there's a nurse saving a life in baltimore. 20 minutes later, she'll bring one into the world in seattle. later today, she'll help an accident victim in kansas.

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we really have hit a nerve. a lot of folks are talking about the situation with the guns. look at the top of the twitter board. we're social media here. first to do it. let's depend on your input as well. what america thinks. look at this one. the problem isn't bringing weapons. the problem is what will happen if an innocent -- if an incident, pardon me, begins, how will law enforcement decide who is who? that's actually a great question. i think we probably should reach

out to law enforcement and find out what their plans might be if something were to happen, because the key to good law enforcement, as my brother or anybody else in the business will tell you, is the planning. knowing what to do before something happens. i'm sure they're thinking about it. all right, i read this one over the weekend. it's the biggest booking house in ireland offered to pay off bets on tiger woods even before he teed off sunday at the pga championship. tiger leading a major going into the final round. you know, as they say, that's money in the bank, right? when he's ahead, he just doesn't lose. he's also like a more than 80% putter when it comes to putts inside of ten yards. come money time, tiger putted less like tiger and more like rick sanchez. hey, who wrote that? right here, let's start there. it's more than ten putts. tiger woods misses -- watch this. there's more. you ready?

what better proof that tiger woods, like the rest of us -- no, not a hacker. he's human, though. sometimes. y.a. yang won the pga, he's 37. he hails from south korea. his ranking, 110th in the world. 110th. in case you haven't heard, this was the first ever time, ever, that tiger failed to seal the deal at a major championship after starting the round, the final round, as a leader. that is amazing to watch. one putt after the other that simply would not go down. more news as we continue, including your comments in just a little bit, including the very latest going on with a police officer who may have done something the fbi is going to be asking a lot of questions about. and we have the video. ted an amae days..wh.n you have to spend, shopping online can help save. doing it with bank of america can help save a lot more. up to 20% cash back from over 300 online retailers with our add it up program.

just sign up and use your bank of america debit or credit card when you shop online. it's one of the many ways we make saving money in tough times a whole lot easier. (voice 2) how bad is it? (voice 1) traffic's off the chart... (voice 2) they're pinging more targets... (voice 3) isolate... prevent damage... (voice 2) got 'em. (voice 3) great exercise guys. let's run it again.

welcome back. i'm about to show you some footage from a police dash cam and you are not going to be able to look away.

it's dead of winter, this is minneapolis. a traffic stop goes bad while the video rolls. this driver you're seeing right there says this police officer jacked him up and beat him down for no good reason. the police officer says otherwise. we will pick this thing apart right after you watch both sides of this incredible story. here is jeanelle klein in minneapolis. >> reporter: it was a traffic stop like many others. 42-year-old darryl jenkins pulled over in february as he drove through north minneapolis, stopped for speeding as he allegedly went 15 miles over the limit. >> i was very nervous, very nervous. very, very, very nervous. >> reporter: the stop's all here on this seven-minute tape from the squad car of officer richard walker. jenkins says walker refuses to explain why he was stopped and he asks for a police supervisor. walker says one isn't available, and jenkins says he gets outs of

the car to get his driver's license from his back pocket. that's when he says walker tries to tackle him. backup arrives and six officers help walker as jenkins is punched, kicked and hit three times with the taser. walker claims jenkins slurred his speech and smelled of alcohol. jenkins says he drank three beers with dinner but insists he was not impaired and repeatedly asked what did i do wrong. >> all i remember is getting out of the car, getting thrown down, and feeling the punches. those last words were i can't breathe. >> reporter: he says he next remembers waking up to paramedics with cuts, bruises, chipped teeth and permanent damage to his thumb. he spent four days in jail but says he's never thought the arrest was racially motivated. >> i don't want people to think, you know, a black person with the police, no, this is a people issue. >> incredible they would have the audacity to do what they

did. >> reporter: this is jenkins' attorney. he says anyone who doubts his client needs to watch the video. >> his palms are outstretched, he never swings at the officer, never punches him. >> reporter: worse than the beatings, he says, was being criminally charged, accused of a felony for assaulting an officer. walker has never waivered from his version of the arrest, insisting his actions were justified. nine other officers at the scene back up walker in a special report. >> you can clearly see from the video that what happened was not right. and writing reports that are false is not right. there should be accountability for that. >> reporter: a judge agreed, after watching the squad car video, finding walker had no reason to suspect jenkins of dui and dismissing the charges against him. jenkins says he may not have been so lucky without the tape and that others who don't have proof on video could be the victims of police.

>> they just did that way too easy, then lied about it and tried to cover it up. that's the kind of stuff that scares me. >> got some reactions coming in already on this. let's go to our twitter board, if we possibly can. that's lou palumbo, who will join us in a little bit. he's a retired police officer. go to the twitter board, start from the bottom. normally i side with law enforcement. in this case, i side with the guy who was beaten. way too excessive. let's stop it there and bring lou. you agree, lou, that it may have looked a little too excessive? i'm trying to figure out, is there a rule in law enforcement if a person gets out of the car, you have to pick them up and throw them to the ground? >> i don't believe that rule exists and quite frankly, it would appear this police officer unnecessarily escalated his contact with mr. jenkins. the response of the other officers who responded in support of the police officer, that's kind of like a contagious

response. what they apply there is a swarm tactic but this whole video from start to finish is perceptively horrifying. they do not teach us, i would like the public to know that, to employ these tactics in any progressive or intelligent law enforcement community. they do not teach us to kick you. and my real concern here is that we're now creating a typecast of what your car stop could be with a police officer. i frankly think that this one individual officer decided to, how would you say, institute his own policies and procedures as to how to carry out a car stop. it's quite evident through the videotape that mr. jenkins did not pose a threat. if the police officer was concerned about mr. jenkins stepping out of the vehicle, then he should have stepped off him and advised him he's not following a lawful order. he obviously had access to mace and you could utilize that. this entire encounter is just completely revolting. >> i think the key word that you

used is escalate, which means you're in a situation, you can either do one thing that will calm things, or you can do another which will make things even more harried, perhaps more crazy. this officer chose number two. >> clearly. what they do teach us is to defuse situations, diplomatically and expeditiously. we have to come to terms this was a rather random act by a rather random law enforcement agent who is now under investigation with the fbi for violation of this man's civil rights under the cover of authority. >> we have the official comment, by the way. don't mean to interrupt you. here's the official comment, official statement we have just received. let me read that to you. this is according to -- official statement from the police chief, right? hand-to-hand fighting with a suspect on the street is one of the most dangerous encounters for police officers. is there more? or is that it?

officer walker's actions all appear to be very appropriate. interesting. some of the actions of responding officers, specifically the kicking of the suspect, give me concern. because of this, i am asking for an outside review by the fbi. that's interesting. but you know, in that comment, he seems to be saying that hand-to-hand combat was elicited or amped up or begun by the suspect. it almost looked to me like the hand-to-hand combat began when the officer threw him to the ground. did it not look that way to you? >> clearly. the officer instituted the physical contact with mr. jenkins. it wasn't the other way around. but the thing that's really interesting is that we discuss the use of tasers and mace and training issues and tools they give us in law enforcement. if you look at the injuries that were sustained by mr. jenkins, clearly they made a point of not only just kicking him randomly but striking him in the face repeatedly. that's not how you subdue someone you want to take into

custody. especially when you have six police officers. you should be able to restrain his arms and legs and handcuff him. but in this case, this is a little bit of an anomaly. i think everybody should be mindful of that. >> you tell it straight and you tell it from both sides. that's why we keep having you back on. thanks for being with us, sir. what is la photo dell dia? maybe it's this. a rehearsal at a russian air show that goes not so good. and why could i almost guarantee that you have cocaine in your pocket right now? that's right, you. doesn't matter whether you're a granddad, grandma or small child. there's a very good reason for it and we will explain this to you in a little bit. but i've still got room for the internet. with my new netbook from at&t. with its built-in 3g network, it's fast and small, so it goes places other laptops can't. i'm bill kurtis, and wherever i go, i've got plenty of room for the internet.

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i want to start you with the question i just asked about the chances you may have cocaine in your pocket. in fact, the chances are really good. many of you have written to me saying no! in fact, listen to what she says. rick, cocaine in my pocket? right there, all the way in the middle. let's see how good you are at this. oh, robert, that's so well done. go ahead, focus it in. see it? rick, cocaine in my pocket? i could agree with baby powder but cocaine? scary. you don't believe it, huh? bring it on back. i want to show them something else now. you ready? see if you can go in on this. see this right here? this is a $20 billion that's in my hand. see it right there? feel like i'm doing a magic trick. there's an 85% to 90% chance that this bill has cocaine on it. the study took bills from 30 big cities in five different

countries so this is all over the world. that's a lot of cocaine on an awful lot of money. that's the finding they came back with. 90% chance there's cocaine here. does that mean cocaine use is up? well, there's some information on that. i'll give you this one. a recent massachusetts study found that 3,000 students in 50 middle schools and 50 high schools, that was the sample, 3,000 students, 6% of them had used cocaine. that's pretty big for children that age. whereas in 1999, that was only between 2% and 3%. so from '99 to 2008, for some reason, it went up. before you send jimmy to a drug prevention program, you should also know this. experts say that cocaine cross-contaminates money. so they say once a bill that has cocaine on it mingles with another bill that maybe doesn't have cocaine on it, like at a cash register or bank's money counting machine, the rest of the bills will then show traces of cocaine. so it just cross-contaminates.

by the way, it was my unsavory staff that pointed this story out to me. i didn't find this one on my own. here's another one for you. who's the fastest man in the world? fastest man in the world as of this weekend. that's next. just another person in a one-size-fits-all world. you're you. aarp understands that. that's why they endorse products from top companies... so people 50 plus can choose health coverage options... as unique as they are. aarphealthnow.com... call or visit for free information that let you select the coverage you want... and skip what you don't. let's say you want to start your own business. a major medical plan could make it easy... to get those employer-like health benefits. you may want dental coverage, too. call now and find plans that include... three cleanings a year and long-term care plans... that help protect your retirement assets;

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all you have to do is be yourself. and, if you have any questions about medicare, call today and get your free copy of "medicare made clear," by unitedhealth educational publishing group. it will help you better understand all your choices. so don't wait. call today for your free guide. some of you are saying you want to learn spanish. here i am, everybody. start with that one up there at the top, if you would, robert. that's -- hey, rick, i'm learning spanish. can you do a spanish phrase? word of the day. speaking of las as photos del dia, let's start with an elephant in thailand who lost a leg on the border with myanmar.

doesn't this feel like it needs music under it? this weekend, the animal took first steps on a prosthetic leg, a leg made by the same company that makes artificial limbs for people. prosthetic leg. don't blink, everybody. that's usain bolt, the fastest man in the world. 9.58 seconds to cover 100 meters as of this weekend, smashing the old mark in beijing. as i heard from warner wolf on "imus in the morning" this morning, the sound bite he gave to reporters afterward was longer than the race. military plane. two sukhoi-27 precision jets from russia's flying team, they collide in midair. they hit the ground, some hit houses. one of the pilots was killed. one of them, though, was able to eject. wow. all right. i've been wanting to explain why i did this for years. what am i talking about?

this. have you got it? have you got it? >> do it. do it. i know. ya, ya, ya, ya. it hurt. yeah, it does hurt. does it? you sure? can't tell by that hair. we'll have that for you, and we'll do an explainer like you've never seen before, come limits of, you know who, wolf blitzer. speaking of 4:00, we're going to go on to cnn.com/live today. guess who's joining me? patricia murphy today at 4:00 on cnn.com/live. stay with us. i'm coming right back. and you have high cholesterol. you've taken steps to try and lower both your numbers. but how close are you to your goals? there may be more you can do. only caduet combines two proven medicines... gd high blood pressure and high cholesterol. in a clinical study of patients... with slightly elevated blood pressure and cholesterol,

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spanish word of the day, many of you thought it was soup. no. the answer is meatball. meatballs. "the new york times" has done it, and so has npr. did their reporters end up being made fun of by john stewart? what am i talking about? you've figured it out by now. here it is again, and, yes, you have my permission to laugh. go. do it. ya, ya! oh. why are those guys laughing at me? not that it matters if all you're trying to do is take a clip and show it out of context. but there was a fairly important reason for doing that story, like four dead people. that reason enough, do you think? who could have been saved, by the way, if jails across the country weren't so hell bent on having guards walking around with open holsters with guns in them. what's that? wolf blitzer wants to know more about this? you mean he doesn't want to just show the clip and laugh with

everybody else and move on? sure, wolf, i'll talk to you. 50,000 volts of electricity. let me tell you something, this is very, very painful. but the findings of that report are really, really important, and i stand behind the findings, which essentially say i think most people remember us. here in atlanta, we remember when brian nicholls decided he was going to break out of a jail, go out and go on a killing spree. and i asked myself that day, wolf, why in the world would guards be walking around jails with guns on open holsters. that just doesn't seem right. that seems silly. so, i went down to the training academy where they train guards in south florida, and i asked the supervisors, isn't there a better way of doing this? and they said, yes, there are several better ways, including the fact that people in prisons and in jails shouldn't have guns. why have something that can kill people? use tasers instead. if a prisoner takes your taser, he's not going to kill anybody. he may do damage, but he's not going to kill anybody.

that's the reason we did that story and why i let myself be tasered because no one who graduate from that academy graduates without being tasered so they feel exactly what it feels like before they use it on another human being. i want to now personally thank wolf blitzer for being the first responsible guy who actually asked me on the air, more information than showing the video and laughing like everybody else. how's that, wolf? >> good. i'm glad you did it because a lot of our viewers were interested in seeing that video of not only you being tasered but that woman who was tasered by that cop and a lot of people simply don't understand what it feels like to be tasered, rick, and we had that personal experience so, we thought let's ask rick and explain why he wanted to do it. >> always there for you. what you got coming up. >> we'll speak to a liberal democrat who's upset that there are rumors they may run away

from the government option on health care reform. we'll get his sense on what's going on. and arwa damon, rick, if you haven't seen it, has a terrific report on these suggestions that gay men in iraq are being tortured right now. what's going on? there's a lot of disturbing information just coming in to "the situation room." we'll have that for our viewers. >> best political show on television. "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. thanks, wolf. we'll look forward to it. >> thank you. in india, this guy's a big bollywood star. in new jersey, just a guy who apparently looks to somebody else like a terrorist. is this a tsa profiling case or somebody trying to get publicity for themselves? i was in the grocery store when i had a heart attack. my daughter was with me. i took a bayer aspirin out of my purse and chewed it. my doctor said the bayer aspirin saved my life.

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and medicare guide and find out... how you could start saving. good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. jo this is one of the stories we'll be talking about in the after show with the murphster. you can go to cnn.com/live in just a bit and join us there. big argument between the airport security at newark and one of the world's biggest movie stars. you may not know him, but millions do. not many people recognize him outside of india. that's shah rukh khan, king of bollywood, like a tom cruise type. he spent more than an hour at newark airport over the weekend detained by homeland security who said his,