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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  August 6, 2011 5:00pm-6:00pm EDT

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hi, everyone, welcome to the c nrks nrkn nrksz newsroom. in afghanistan, where u.s. forces have suffered their deadliest incident since the afghan war began. 30 americans were killed early saturday when a large army helicopter crashed while on a rescue mission. it apparently was shot down by the taliban. cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr has the latest for us. many of these were navy
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s.e.a.l.s and some were part of the unit that killed osama bin laden? >> what we do know is that 30 were killed on this mission. 22 of them were u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s, many of them from the same unit, not the same troops. these are very highly trained, all indications are at this point according to sources we have spoken to, they believe it is likely the helicopter was shot down. there were reports, credible reports of enemy fire in the area. when all of this happened. the s.e.a.l.s have been called in to be a quick reaction force, to go to the aid of another unit that was already pinned down on the ground, in the middle of a firefight. they needed help, they needed re-enforcements and they called in the navy s.e.a.l.s, and this was the tragic result. 23 navy s.e.a.l.s and seven
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others plus the crew of the helicopter. >> do we know for sure that it was done by the taliban? >> i think you raise a very good point. in eastern afghanistan where this happened, there are so many insurgent groups. you hear the name is hukuni network thrown around a lot. that's a group of insurgents very closely tied to al qaeda. there are foreign fighters in eastern afghanistan. it will remain to be seen. but the u.s. may have a fairly good idea because there was a firefight going on in the area at the time, they might have a very good indication of who they were up against, but they're going to want to figure out, of course, in this investigation, exactly what happened, what was the vulnerability of the aircraft? how is it possible that enemy fire potentially got to it, don? >> barbara starr, thank you very much. president obama was notified of the helicopter crash and released a statement, their
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deaths are a reminder of the exthe recordary sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces. the navy s.e.a.l.s are a breed apart from any other u.s. troop. drrks nn spoke with retired u.s. army general kimmitt. >> number one the mission they have is special operations, they're going against the highest level targets and in many cases the most dangerous targets. with regard to their training, the military invests far more money into their training than they do for conventional forces this. these are people selected from the conventional no, sirs and pu -- forces and pulled out to go to a special army ranger course. but they're always training, they're self selected from inside the military, the best of the best. and that's why they're given the toughest missions out there.
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>> now among the 30 americans who died in the incident, 22 were navy s.e.a.l.s, seven afghan commandos were also killed. tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern i'll be speaking to a former navy s.e.a.l. about the elite forces. it has never happened before, the u.s., the world's largest economy has lost its sterling aaa credit rating, standard & poors downgraded the u.s. to a aa plus rating and it could directly affect you, you may have to pay higher interest rates on things like credit cards. and that's just for starters. this is just days after the ugly protracted battle over raising the debt ceiling seemed to end with an agreement that made almost no one happy. s&p is pointing the finger at washington. >> the first thing you could have done is raise the debt celling in a timely manner so much of this debate could have
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ended to begin with. it's been done 17 times since the 1960s. and point number two is it could have come one a fiscal plan, similar, for example to the bowles-simpson commission which was bipartisan. >> huh? we probably need a lot more political analysis about that. but first i bring in poppy harlow, this essentially kicks the u.s. out of a very exclusive aaa club. >> it does, don. up in the about 8:00 eastern last nights, we were part of 16 countries to have that pristine aaa credit rating, we no longer do. we still have it from moody's and fitch. i want too talk about the countries that still hold that aaa credit rating. australia, austria, canada,
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denmark, finland, the united states not part of that anymore. we still have a pretty high rating, aa plus, just knocked down one notch. we're rated higher than china. china has a aa minus rating. this puts us on par with a country like belgium for example. and this by the way has happened to other countries like canada, that have after a few years gotten that aaa rating back, don. >> so which factors did s&p use? i know there was some back and forth about it. but what do they use to come to their decision to downgrade our country's credit rating? >> it's a good question, because there's five main factors, i'll put them up here on the screen so you can see what we're talking about. but the one that got the most attention in all this, don, is the politics of it. the political environment and we'll talk more about that in a moment. but as we all know t bickering in washington that went into finally getting an 11th hour debt ceiling agreement, that did not help at all, s&p pointed at that as one of the reasons for
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the downgrade. how is the u.s. economy doing? it's not doing well at all. the fiscal situation, what was the state of texas. you heard him say that if we allow the bush 2000 and 2001 tax cuts expire that would add $950 billion so that would help our situation. how is the global economy doing? not very well and finally, monetary policy. but following this, the politics of it was what was so interesting in this report that s&p issued. >> how much did politics play into that? was that at the top of their list? it appears that it was very high because that's what the guy from s&p said, that, hey, washington couldn't get their act together fast enough. >> and the question is, could it have been avoided if washington had? i mean there's too many things, it's what the fiscal path we're on, what do the numbers tell us? those were not strong enough to maintain that aaa credit rating
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but it's also the politics of it. and i want to read you a statement that i think is so emblem matdic of this standard & poors saying last night the political beginningmanship of recent months highlights what we see as america's governance and policy makes becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed. so they're telling us they believed that the system didn't work the way that it should in a country that has one of the top ratings in the world. this bickering in washington, delaying this, dragging it on and on and on, that that contributed to something that you said at the outset of the show could affect us all in terms of our interest rates and we don't know how it will affect us because we have never seen it before in the history of our country. >> and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. the economy, the housing market
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not good. the republicans running for president wasted no time responding to the credit downgrade. mitt romney released a statement saying america's credit worthiness just became the latest casualty in president obama's failed record of leadership on the economy. standard & poors's rating downgrade is a deeply troubling indication. michele bachmann, i call on the president to seek the immediate resignation of treasury secretary timothy geithner, and to submit a plan with a list of cuts. and john huntsman, for far too long, we have let reckless government spending go uncheck and cancerous debt affecting our nation has spread. we need new leadership in washington, a balanced budget and job friendly policies to get america working again. if you're looking for somethi something, anything positive to say about the kbhi, it is this. the jobs report for the month of
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july was better than expected. the u.s. added 117,000 jobs, and that beat expectations. but that's still short of the 150,000 jobs that economists say must be created each month to keep the pace with population growth. president obama in his weekly address says jobs are his number one priority. >> so our job right now has to be doing whatever we can to help folks find work, to help create the climate where a business can put up that job listing, where incomes are rising again for people. we have got to rebuild this economy and the sense of security that middle class families have felt slipping away for years. and while deficit reduction has to be part of our economic strategy, it's not the only thing we have to do. >> the s&p downgrade, credit downgrade was announced after the president taped his address. so how will the credit downgrade affect the markets? what does it mean for interest rates on your mortgage or car loan.
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a special report tonight with wolf blitzer and christine romans is coming up here at 7:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. the latest estimate, 29,000 children dead from lack of food and water in the past month alone. coming up, we take you inside the crisis and show you what the u.s. is doing to help. and many of you are seeking information from us through social media, you can reach out to us through twitter and facebook. [ male announcer ] walls can talk. but it's our job to make them say something interesting. so how about this weekend we learn some new tricks of the trade...
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yeah! [ male announcer ] hurry in to crabfest at red lobster. the only time you can savor three sweet alaskan crab entrees all under $20, like our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake or snow crab and crab butter shrimp. [ jon ] i wouldn't put it on my table at home, i wouldn't bring it in. my name's jon forsythe, and i sea food differently. the famine in somalia has tested humanitarian groups like no other.
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they have to feed children from -- one solution they have turned to out of desperation. >> reporter: the humanitarian crisis in somalia is deepening and aid agencies are trying to use every means necessary in their fight against hunger and starvation. the world food program, through it's local partners is supporting so-called wet feeding programs where food is precooked before distribution. wet feeding only happens in the direst of humanitarian situations. the last time aid agencies rolled out a wet feeding campaign was in haiti. for those people that you see queuing here, this is the only guaranteed meal that they have. and wet feeding is especially necessary in somalia. increasingly here, the hungry and vulnerable are being targeted for the ilittle aid they're receiving. >> it was their suggestion to
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move my office because their food should be cooked and everybody benefits. it's better that way, other than their leaders fa s taking away food. >> reporter: but it's not just corruption that worries them, one woman who was too scared to speak on camera said her son was killed by the al qaeda affiliated al shaboob group for accepting western aid. feeding these communities is a continuing struggle. they must fight to protect even what little they have. >> tonight the somali government is in charge of that city, it's capital for the first time since 2006. al shabob, the terrorist group just mentioned withdrew today, urged by the u.s. government to relax -- i want to go to our senior state department producer, her name is elise
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laven and she joins us with more. what do the -- >> don, up until now, basically any humanitarian group that's trying to operate in these areas has had to pay taxes and tolls to al shabob to get the aid through, that's one of the reasons it's so difficult. u.s. sanctions say no money, no u.s. aid can go to al shabob. secretary of state hillary clinton said we know how difficult it is to operate in these areas t u.s. doesn't want to make it anymore difficult so they're relaxing restrictions on his humanitarian groups, if someone gets to al shabob, the u.s. is not going to prosecute them as of now, don, because millions of people are at risk. there are thousands of people that have died and as you stayed in that piece that nima said the
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feeding centers are overwhelmed. >> so do you fear this could be letting groups aid terrorists? >> well, no, what the u.s. is saying there's going to be procedures in place to make sure that as little aid as possible is going to be diverted, but at the same time they don't want to penalize these groups, how difficult it is to get money in. the somali american community are wiring money home, but they're worried it could be diverted to al shabob, the state officials are going to be traveling to minneapolis and seattle in the coming weeks to try and alay these nears that they're not going to allow money to get to them, but they're going to be as lenient as possible in terms of these restrictions. >> is there anything that the u.s. is doing to improve the crisis on the ground? >> the u.s. has given about $500 million so far to give medicine and water and food.
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and at the same time, they're trying to deal with the long-term effects of drought and food shortages by basically helping countries deal with this in terms of changing their agricultural sectors, make sure they can grow drought resistant plants and giving them drought resistant seed, over the long-term, a lot of these farmers are women, trying to help them grow food that can sustain these drought and food shortages. >> thank you very much. and i want to tell our viewers that cnn's anderson cooper and cnn's medical correspondent dr. sanjay group that will be reporting from somalia next week. that's an "anderson cooper 360" special report, somalia, on the grounds of familiar minute. you can help with the humanitarian crisis, for ways to help, go to cnn.com/impact. our impact your world website, we'll tell you what aid groups need and how much you can do to get in touch with them, what you can do to get in touch with them. that's all at cnn.com/impact. a public official is under
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investigation for child porn, you may have heard this one before. but this official definitely has a new excuse. you'll want to hear it straight ahead on cnn. vrrooom...vrrroooomm vroom vrrooom vrrroooomm vrrroooomm vrroom vrrrooomm vrrroooooooommmmmm mmmm mm. what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and 4g devices like the motorola photon. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers.
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i turned around and said, excuse me, you don't know anything about me or my situation. >> these women say talking back
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to a flight attendant led to southwest airlines taking them off the plane. more on that in a moment, but right now the downgrade on the u.s. credit rating. people are bummed about our country's state, how do you handle these feelings of depression and sadness, i guess it would be instead of out of control, just a not knowing really what this means for me and for my interest rates and my home and my credit cards and my personal finances? >> it's a simple answer, don, get involved. if you have some sense that you're contributing something. remember the disaster in haiti? those people that were texting their $5 helped them to aleave some of their anxiety. get involved in your local politics. if you're not registered to vote, shame on you and you're over 18. get involved in the system and the process and then you will have more control. that's the bottom line. >> just having the control where you can, good, good, good answer
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there. so listen, good advice. i want to move on now to the case of the l.a. city commissioner, under investigation, just under investigation for having child porn. his excuse, my tumor made me do it. he just resigned as a neighborhood commissioner, he told our affiliate kcbs that a tumor in his spine triggered a split personality. he said, quote, it's what my split personality decided to do. that's what happens when you have tumor tumors. wendy, are you buying this and what is this about split personality? >> i was speaking with your producer yesterday and having lunch with a psychiatrist and two psychologist and i bounced it off of them and they say he's cull of crap.
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not only is he a pedophile, he's a pedophile who's full of crap. >> i have never heard of a split personality -- let's move on now, let's return to the story that we first mentioned when we were starting this segment. our dallas affiliate ktvt reports two sisters grief stricken took a flight to dallas to visit their father on his death bed. one sister orders a drink and later she overhears the flight attendant say this. >> yeah, we're all nervous flyers and we all need a drink. >> i just turned around and i said, excuse me, i said you don't know anything about me and my situation. >> okay, so the airline told ktvt that the flight attendant was, quote, uneasy with the sisters on board so southwest removed them and booked them on another flight.
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wendy, we all have these moments when we could either bite our tongue or say something. so do you think the woman should have stayed silent or is it worse to keep your frustration bottled up? especially when a person is grieving? >> we weren't there, so it's really hard to comment. but in answer to your question about should we learn to bite our tongues sometimes, we should not be using short-term strategies to achieve long-term goals. her short-term strategy was to get a drink, her long-term strategy was to get to her father on his death bed. we need to -- flight 'ten don'ts are under a lot of stress and there's a lot of threats to the sky and a lot of threats to them and their jobs. i'm sorry this happened, it seems like a very tragic misunderstanding, but sometimes we just got to learn to bite our tongues. >> you don't think it was a bit an overreaction there, and we don't know what happened on that plane. >> again, i wasn't there, i didn't hear the tone of voice, i didn't see the body language.
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google just had it's international science fair, and the top three winners were the girls. >> i did a touchdown cheer when i saw this. and the winner, that high school student, she developed some cellular way to beat offense varn cancer. the truth is that women have lagged behind in the hard sciences, with the exception of biology. so they tend to win in biology. the thing i love about this, it was offered to 21 countries, a lot of countries participated in it, it was an online registration. anyone could go online and enter their science project and traditionally there might have been old fashioned science teachers who encouraged their male students. three girls won, took the top honors in all three age categories, so it's really
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exciting. >> girl power, did you do the whole touchdown dance, did you spike the ball and everything? >> i was dancing around the kitchen, i was really happy. >> whose side are you on, wendy? all right, congratulations to those girls. the u.s. no longer has perfect credit. no longer, no perfect credit for the u.s. for the first time ever, the s&p took the country's top rating down a peg. so what does that mean to you? we're going to explain. and take a look at this, dramatic new video inside a missouri high school when a powerful tornado ripped apart the city of joplin. i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. no, this is new bayer advanced aspirin... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? great! thanks. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief. twice as fast.
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let's check your headlines, 30 american troops died today when executing a rescue mission. the chinook was most likely shot down by the taliban. 22 of the dead were special forces, members of the navy s.e.a.l.s. for the first time in history t credit rating has dropped for the united states. standard & poors, downgraded the u.s. from a aaa to a aa plus rating that. could mean higher interest rates on things like credit cards, loans, insurance, you name it. s&p blamed congress and the obama administration for the downgrade. the announcement came just days after a much criticized deal to
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raise the debt ceiling. he's a politician by trade, but texas governor rick perry says there is nothing political about his huge prayer rally today in houston. critics say the religious event televised live to churches around the country breaks the standard of separating search and state. but perry says the gathering entitled "the response" focuses on america's struggling economy. >> his agenda is not a political agenda. his agenda is a salvation agenda. he is a wise, wise god and he's wise enough to not be affiliated with any political party. >> about 50 protesters demonstrated outside the gathering at reliant stadium. digital billboards across the southeast are putting out alerts about a man hunt for three members of a florida family. three siblings all in their 20s
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are wanted for questioning in a bank robbery. it looks like a horror film, but instead, it is real life video from the tornado that tore through joplin, missouri just last may. cameras at the town's high school captured the twister on video as it battered the campus. the tapes were just released. the tornado badly damaged the school and destroyed a big part of joplin, more than 150 people died. danielle m. downs. accepting the degree on danielle's behave is her sister michelle dawns. >> the celebration, yet sadness at the university of alabama's graduation ceremony. about 4,700 students received their degrees while remembers six of their own who died in april. that's when a tornado ripped apart tuscaloosa, alabama killing p seven young people. in week's cnn hero survived
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stage three breast cancer, instead of trying to pay back those who helped her, she's paying it forward. you're going to meet her when he come back. i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matter most. good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you.
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more than a quarter of a
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million women are living in this country who are diagnosed with breast cancer before their 40th birthday. debbie cant well was one of them. she was fortunate to have a husband and family as a support system. now the family is helping others as they cope with this deadly disease. >> when i was diagnosed with breast cancer, we had three young children. and when you're juggling -- my husband took care of me, took care of the kids, my parents and my friends did everything for me. through treatment, i was meeting women that just didn't have it as easy as me. all these people were there for me and i couldn't possibly pay everybody back, so i decided i was going to pay it forward. my name is debbie cantwell and i provide care and comfort to women fighting cancer. we set up gas cards, restaurant gift cards, grocery gift cards and house cleaning services. >> i was really bottoming out
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emotionally and then all of a sudden, i could buy diapers and i could get food. >> yeah, it's a card. look at that. it's so much more than just tangible things, it's hope. >> i help young women that can't wait for a cure. these women are sick right now and they can't wait for a cure. did your groceries come? >> yes, they did and i appreciate it. it's such a huge help. >> they're my sisters and i honestly would do anything to help them out. >> i take it really personally. and it's hard when i lose somebody, but it's just part of the job. i'll probably die of breast cancer someday, but i want to really make the most of the time i have by doing some good in the world by doing whatever i can in whatever time i have left. >> remember, cnn heroes are
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chosen from people you tell us about, so nominate someone who's making a big difference in your community, go to cnn heroes.com. polygamist warren jeffs, found guilty again, this time it was for sexual assault against two underaged girls, will the conviction be overturned like before? legal expert holly hughes joins me next to talk about this disturbing case. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." ♪
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[ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th.
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♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah
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you don't have to worry about which man and do they like you, and all the silliness that goes with the world's way of marriage. let the lord reveal the man that you belong to. it frees you completely from all the terrible mistakes. >> that is creepy, that was the very disturbing voice of a sexual predator, apparently preparing his young victims
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under the guise of religious instruction. a jury convicted warren jeffs of sexual assaulting two underaged girls, he's the leader of a polygamous second. the jury is now considering his accomplishment. i want to talk just now with holly hughes, she's a criminal defense attorney and a former prosecutor. holly, warren jeffs was convicted and it was overturned. is there any possibility that's going to happen? >> it's not going to happen. >> the man chose to represent himself and anybody will tell you, the man who chooses to represent himself, has a fool for a client. because when a judge allows you to represent yourself, they have the right, they can't tell you no. but they have a very sifting examination they're going to go through with you, and they're going to say --
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this was response sorried so you could come to school dressed any way you want. apparently a lot of black students dressed up as black rappers and the baggy pants,
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kind of the imminent thing. >> not smart to go that. >> that's what i said, they're teenagers, they do idiotic politically incorrect things. the school didn't sanction it, they didn't sign on. they weren't making fun of black students, look at eminem, eminem is one of the hottest selling music recording artists. i don't think it was meant to be hateful ha hateful. >> i can't believe that someone would have a wiger day. really? >> not sanctioned by the school, don. >> some kids said don't take our word, that's our word, don. i guess that's it. we're done. >> with all the legal news? >> you are pretty cool, i think you're hip and cool. >> thank you, don. >> it doesn't matter if the kids think so. a family tragedy leads one man on a mission to make life a
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"the situation room" is straight ahead and wolf blitzer
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is live in washington. wolf, you're having to do it live every weekend, it seems. >> the news always comes first here at cnn. we're going to be speaking right at the top of the hour with one of the men largely responsible for this extraordinary decision, never happening before to downgrade america's credit worthiness from aaa to aa plus. john chambers is going to be joining us live, i'll ask him bluntly how 24 hours after s&p made that announcement, made that controversial decision, any second thoughts on what it has done. we're going to go deep into this story and we're going to be all over the story of what happened in afghanistan, those navy s.e.a.l.s killed in that helicopter takedown. each week cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta introduces us to someone who has done remarkable things despite having to overcome physical challenges.
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we meet a man whose rocky childhood inspired him to make growing up a little more fun for other children. >> reporter: darrell hammond's dream is to build a safe playground within walking distance of every child in america. >> the real spark came when i was reading the paper one morning of every child. >> kids suffocated in a car. they had no place to play. it really struck a justice nerve with me. >> reporter: that's probably because his childhood wasn't so easy either. >> when i was 4 years old and my father left my mother and all eight of us children and after several years of trying to raise us, she had a nervous breakdown. and we had an option of becoming wards of a court or go to a group home. >> reporter: they moved to the home, separated into age group dorms, darrell kept everything he owned in a trunk, waiting to move to the next home.
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in college, darrell took another hit. >> i learned that i had a severe learning disability and was dyslexic. >> reporter: darrell says that it instilled in him the desire to give back. >>ist not neglected. i was not abused. i was given clothes and a great education. i just did not want to be a nuisance. >> reporter: and contribute he has. he founded a nonprofit group which brings the other corporate sponsors and residents of needy communities to build playgrounds. to date, they've built more than 2,000. >> what it showed me was the power that play actually had for kids and bringing back both the sense of community and normalcy in kids' lives. >> reporter: hammond said it's not about him. it's about empowering kids to make good decisions, something he learned as a child, even under the most difficult
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circumstances. >> if we can do this in a day, build a playground, what can we do tomorrow and into the future. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting. >> thank you, doctor. we're all over the biggest stories today. the deadliest incident of troops fighting in ten years. the latest on a helicopter crash that killed 30 u.s. troops. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen.
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in texas, july was the hottest month on record there. a dozen people have died in dallas alone and neighbors say at least one of those deaths should have been prevented. >> reporter: these days, when the sun breaks through the horizon, it comes with a sense of dread. it doesn't take long to have a sufficient gating grip. that dread struck the heart of lucy's dallas neighborhood. her 79-year-old neighbor died in her home. the medical examiner said the heat caused her death but lucy
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says her friend didn't have to die. someone stole her air conditioning unit. >> she said my house is hot. i said it's because someone stole your air conditioner. >> reporter: too two days later she died. >> what do you think should happen to the people who stole this air conditioning unit? >> they need to be put away. they need life in prison for doing something like that. they caused her to die so they need to be in prison. >> reporter: protecting the most vul ner rabel is a concern for the social salvation army. they are keeping emergency shelters opened. it's a matter of life and death. >> have you seen people come in here with heat exhaustion, on
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the verge of passing out or anything like that? >> uh-huh. sometimes we have guys who pass out in front and we've got to bring them in. >> pass out from the heat? >> uh-huh. uh-huh. >> reporter: some of the hottest spots in major urban areas, they are on the lookout for stranded drivers. they can use heat sensors to monitor roadway temperatures in realtime. >> when someone breaks down and they are out in these kind of temperatures on a roadway system, it's very dangerous. >> reporter: the numbers are staggering. workers are recording temperatures of 105 degrees. 18 inches below the toll roads. that can cause roadways to buck. >> caller:. temperatures reach almost 142 degrees if you're standing here. >> the actual temperatures are going beyond what we've experienced in the past and we've not really seen roadway
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temperatures like this probably ever. >> unfortunately, there's no immediate relief in sight. the scorching temperatures are expected to continue into next week. all right. let's check your headlines tonight. u.s. troops in afghanistan have suffered the deadliest incident since the war began. 30 americans died when their helicopter crashed in the province of and was most likely shot down by the taliban. president obama received the news last night. 25 of the dead were social services and most of them were members of the navy s.e.a.l.s. for the first time in history, the credit rating has dropped for the u.s. standard & poor's downgraded the u.s. from a aaa to a aa plus rating. that could mean higher interest rates on loans, insurance, you name it. s&p blamed congress and the obama administration for the downgrade.
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the announcement came days after a much criticized deal to raise the debt ceiling. a texas injury heard testimony that warren jeffs raped his then 5-year-old nephew more than a decade ago. prosecutors call the brent to the stand as part of the penalty phase. his uncle removed him from sunday school to sexual assault of a minor. he faces possible life in prison. although prosecutors say there could be several days before the penalty phase is over. after 40 years, the fbi is still looking for d.b. cooper. he's a sky jacker who got away with cash and jumped out of a plane and was never seen since. the fbi is working on a fresh trip. the infamous cooper may be a man named as lynn

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