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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  June 21, 2012 9:00am-11:00am EDT

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as 110 degrees from virginia all the way to southern maine. so sit back, get out the fan, stay cool. newsroom starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we do start with this breaking news. for the first time, we're seeing video of george zimmerman describing the play-by-play of what happened the night he shotted trayvon martin. overnight, his defense attorneys released several police interrogation tapes. in one of them, zimmerman is re-enacting the fight for investigators just a day after the shooting in february showing how he says trayvon martin repeatedly slammed his head into the sidewalk. in one tape, you can see the back of zimmerman's head is bandaged. the new tapes are shedding a lot of new light in this case. and they are fascinating to listen to. and horrible at the same time. martin savidge has been listening to the tapes, and it's -- they're incredible. >> let me take you back to where this all happened and how it came to be. first of all, these are tapes in the first interview that you
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hear, the audio, is coming from the night of the actual shooting. in fact, it's probably an hour or two after trayvon martin has been killed by george zimmerman. george zimmerman admits he did the shooting. what is significant is that it's in his own words, and it's so fresh and so right after the event that, you know, you put a lot of credibility into this as the investigators begin to question him. we're going to play for you a sound bite here. and what has transpired is that george zimmerman described how he had the confrontation, initial contact with trayvon martin. trayvon martin has surprised him by jumping out of the bushes, he says. and let's pick it up with what george zimmerman says next. >> i was walking back through to where my car was, and he jumped out from the bushes. and he said, what the [ bleep ] is your problem, homey? and i got my cell phone out to call 911 this time. and i said, hey, man, i don't have a problem. and he goes, no, now you have a problem. and he punched me in the nose.
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as i -- i fell down. i tried to defend myself. he just started purchasing me in the face. i started screaming for help. i couldn't see. i couldn't breathe. and then he started taking -- >> were you still standing at this point? >> no, ma'am, i fell to the ground when he punched me the first time. >> ok. >> it was dark. i didn't even see him getting ready to punch me. as soon as he punched me, i fell backwards into the grass. and then he grabbed me -- he was wailing on my head. and then i started yelling help. when i started yelling for help, he grabbed my head and he started hitting my head into the -- i tried to sit up and yell for help. and then he grabbed my head and started hitting it into the sidewalk. when he started doing that, i slid into the grass to try and get out from under him so that he would stop hitting my head into the sidewalk. and i'm still yelling for help.
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and i could see people looking and some guy yells out i'm calling 911. and i said help me, help me, he's killing me. and he puts his hand on my nose and on my mouth. and he says you're going to die tonight. and i don't remember much after that. i just remember -- i couldn't breathe. and then he still kept trying to hit my head against the pavement or -- i don't know if there was a sign or what it was. so i just -- when i slid, my jacket and my shirt came up. and when he said you're going to die tonight, i felt his hand go down on my side. and i thought he was going for my firearm. so i grabbed it immediately, and as he banged my head again, i just pulled out my firearm and shot him. >> and as we know, carol, that was a single shot that was fired. it was extremely close range. and it actually pierced the heart of 17-year-old trayvon martin, killing him. we should point out here, of
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course, trayvon martin didn't survive to be able to tell his account. so this is again as compelling as it may be, as recent as it may be after the shooting event, is one person's side of the story. >> and this person's side of the story, he is telling it to police right after he shot someone to death. so you should keep that in mind too. >> right. >> the other thing, it's interesting that the defense released these tapes at this particular time, when george zimmerman's bond has been revoked. george zimmerman's wife has been charged with perjury. >> and there have been questions that have been raised about how truthful has george zimmerman been, how accurate can we believe his story telling. and you're right, you know. is it coincidence or part of a chess game here? we can't say for sure. only his defense attorney, mark o'marra, can say. this evidence, though, is evidence that was gathered by the state and has to be shared with the defense team by law. the defense team gets time to look at it themselves before making it public. so in other words, the defense team can choose when to make it public. why did they decide to do so today so shortly before this important hearing? we don't know. but we also could say, look,
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they just had to release it on their own time schedule. >> we must ask those questions. there's more tape. >> a lot. >> george zimmerman on the scene re-enacting this. i know you're just going through it because cnn is just getting the tape in. you'll do that and be back at 10:00 a.m. eastern, about an hour from now, to show us more. >> right. and this video is really -- we expect it to be fairly dramatic because it's george zimmerman at the site, where the shooting took place, walking authorities through. so we will see george zimmerman saying, i was here. trayvon martin was there. and given all that's been said about this case, it should be pretty remarkable. >> ok. we'll let you get busy. martin savidge, thank you so much. also in the news this morning, in upstate new york, a youtube video goes viral and stirs an outpouring of sympathy for a bus monitor viciously bullied by middle school students. >> oh, my god. you're so fat. >> you're fat. >> you're so fat. >> it went on and on.
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the profanity-laced jeers drove the women to tears. but the most cruel remark from one student who said her family was so ashamed of her they probably killed themselves. well, it turns out the woman's son really did commit suicide 10 years ago. karen klein says she still is in disbelief of just how heartless and unprovoked these taunts were. >> for some reason, they just started in with this. garbage. i still don't know why. and i sat there and took it until they got off the bus. i don't know if i want to see them face-to-face again. i doubt it. >> now here is something to restore your faith in humanity. the viral video inspired an international fundraiser for klein. more than $100,000 has been raised so far. in the meantime, police are investigating to see if charges should be filed against these 12 and 13-year-old kids. the school district also considering action. now let's turn to a
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remarkable showdown taking shape and making history in washington. right now, attorney general eric holder is in denmark, but his future rests on capitol hill. as early as next week, lawmakers in the house could hold him in contempt of congress, an action never before taken against the nation's top law enforcement official. >> i think it's going to go to a vote. but i would very much hope that it would be negotiated out. and really all we're asking for is documents. and these documents have all been inside of the justice department. we know of no presidential involvement in this. i have never accused the president of anything until just now, when he puts executive privilege in. and then that raises a whole bunch of questions. has he been involved? >> so many questions attached to the story. snow johns is in washington to help sort them out. first let's talk about the contempt charge. the house is controlled by republicans. this vote on the committee was split along party lines.
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it's likely that the full house will vote to file a contempt of congress charge against eric holder. so let's say they do. what does that mean? >> well, what it means is it goes to the full house. and presumably they have the votes. if they take a vote. if the speaker of the house puts it on the floor. but the question of course is if there's going to be something that intervenes, perhaps negotiation. eric holder suggesting he is still holding out hope that there could be a negotiation of some kind to get this off the table so it doesn't appear on the floor of the house of representatives, which would be pretty unprecedented for a united states attorney general, carol. >> so the president inserted himself into this mess. explain that to us. does it really make any difference as far as what could happen to eric holder? >> well, it makes some difference because in some ways, it can immunize the attorney general because the president of the united states says these are communications that he needs to
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keep secret that are not -- the congress is not entitled to. of course, it's the kind of thing that still ends up in a court of law, if they don't figure it out. and the president, of course, is very close to eric holder. and i'm sure he doesn't like this. but all democrats, if you talk to them on capitol hill, will tell you they believe this is politically motivated. they say that republicans are doing this during an election year for a reason. and if you look at it very closely, it is true that on the surface, it looks like it's advantage to the republicans because it keeps the administration on defense, it's something of a distraction from talking about all the other issues we could be talking about during an election year. and it might very well help rally the base of republicans. so there's certainly a political element to this, carol. >> joe johns reporting live for us from washington. thank you. court spectators began lining up more than six hours ago to get a seat at the closing
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arguments in the jerry sandusky trial. those arguments are just about to begin after days of agonizing testimony, and no surprise, no testimony from jerry sandusky. more now from cnn's jason carol. the prosecution launched right in on day one, calling the first of eight sandusky accusers to the stand. alleged victim number one says he was assaulted in the basement of sandusky's home. the 18-year-old brought to tears. quote, after rubbing and cracking my back and the blowing of the stomach, he put his mouth on my privates. another alleged victim, number five, says sandusky assaulted him in a penn state shower. i kept lurching forward, but i didn't have anywhere to go. i felt his arm move forward, and he touched my genitalia. >> here he was with this relationship with boy after boy after boy, which by any conventional evaluation of any normal adult would say, this is
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just so terribly odd and wrong. >> reporter: on the second day in court, the prosecution turned to another of its key witnesses, former grad assistant mike mcqueary, who says in 2001, he saw sandusky sexual assault a young boy in a penn state shower. quote, coach sandusky's arms wrapped around the boy's midsection, just as close as i think you could be. the prosecution went on, showing several letters sandusky had written to young boys, including one reading, love never ends. it bears all things. the defense countered, questioning why so many accusers hired civil attorneys, suggesting financial motives. then calling 18 character witnesses on sandusky's behalf. many former members of second mile, a charity founded by sandusky. chad rexroad told jurors, i have never had a father in my life, and he was a father figure. the most anticipated character witness, sandusky's wife dottie, testified she never saw inappropriate contact with her
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husband and young boys. she told the court three of the accusers had actually visited the sandusky home as adults. one of the oddest moments came from defense attorney joe amendola, comparing the trial to a soap opera. >> actually, "all my children." >> reporter: that comment went viral, critics calling him insensitive. amendola challenged that notion saying he has shown sensitivity throughout the trial by not revealing the accusers' identities. as for those letters, a defense psychologist testified sandusky has histrionic personality disorder, which causes people to act inappropriately when not the center of attention. then the defense lays out what one source says is their strongest move, presenting jurors with a recording which they say shows investigators leading an accuser. the final witness testifying, i felt like they kept asking me to say something that wasn't true. jason carol, cnn, bellefonte, pennsylvania.
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>> all right. let's talk about what will be going on inside that jury room with wendy murphy, a former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor who teaches at new england law boston. good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> ok. so closing arguments are about to begin. let's start there actually. what do you suppose -- let's skip over the prosecution because we pretty much know what they are going to say. as for the defense, what might he say in his closing arguments? since there is so much evidence presented against jerry sandusky. >> yeah. you know, it's a tough case. i have said many times that it's in my opinion not defensible. the defense can't make the claim that this is all a big conspiracy and they are all a bunch of liars and all of these young men are willing to commit perjury for money because it doesn't make sense. it's irrational. the jury won't believe it. and i think he'll alienate the jury if he tries to make that kind of grand claim during his closing. i think what we'll hear from the defense is an overexaggeration
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of some of the points that were made that are valid, that are legitimate. you know, you heard, for example, ladies and gentlemen, one of the witnesses testified that a victim and his mom both said, boy, we can't wait to buy a new house from the money we'll get from suing in this case. juries don't like to hear that victims are looking for cash. it's a very strong defense point. it may well persuade the jury to find him not guilty on that one case. i think we're going to hear the defense exaggerate all sorts of things from the character witnesses that were put up there. i mean, they put up a lot of people to say this was a good guy who did a lot of nice things and was decent and kind and generous. and so, you know, in some ways, i think he's going to play on the feeling in the room. there are a lot of people connected to penn state on the jury who will want to believe in the goodness of humanity and that this is a decent man. it's hard for jurors to look at a guy who seems so decent and nice and has done so much for so
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many and think, you're a monster. i mean, it's so hard for them to get their head around that that i think the defense will try to exploit that to some extent. the desire to disbelieve in the jury. but, you know, at the end of the day, no way are they going to win on every count. no way. >> 51 counts. we'll see. wendy murphy, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> you're welcome. still ahead, our jim accosta on the campaign trail at a special event that mr. romney and mr. obama will be speaking at. jim? >> carol, that's right. in a few hours from now, mitt romney will be speaking to a national hispanic leadership conference here in orlando, florida. what will he say? and will it help the gop contender with latino voters? we'll talk about that in just a few moments. the all-new rx f sp. this is the pursuit of perfection. [ slap! ]
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turning now to presidential politics and a reminder of just how important the latino vote will be in november. both president obama and his republican challenger, governor mitt romney, are getting ready to speak to a major gathering of hispanic leaders and activists near orlando. florida just one of several battleground states that could be decided by latino voters. national political correspondent jim acosta is at the conference.
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he joins us live. do we expect governor romney to change his position on immigration today? >> reporter: carol, that is the million dollar question at this conference. that is what everybody is going to be watching later on today when mitt romney talks to this crowd of latino leaders at around noon. and it is sort of dueling speeches. mitt romney will talk today. president obama will talk tomorrow. but obviously, there's a lot of pressure on mitt romney here for a variety of factors, carol. first of all, just take a look at the positions that he carved out during the republican primaries. they were pretty hard lined when it came to the issue of immigration. he vowed to veto the dream act. he said that undocumented immigrants in this country should self deport themselves. he supported the arizona immigration law. that is before the supreme court. by the way, we may get a decision on that sometime in the next week or so. so all of this is creating some pressure for mitt romney to come in here and spell out exactly where he stands on these issues. a conference call that the romney campaign had with
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reporters yesterday indicated that there may be some news in what mitt romney has to say today that, he may talk about some new aspects of his immigration positions. but he's also, carol, expected to turn back to the economy. and we have talked about this before. every group he goes in front of, he feels like that is the issue that works with voters, whether they be latino, african-american, or people in the midwest, you know, predominantly white audience. he feels like that's the way to wage this campaign. and he's going to be talking about the economy as well. the obama campaign has tried to go after mitt romney in the last day or so, saying, hey, wait a minute. when are you, mitt romney, going to take a position on what president obama announced late last friday when he said he was going to show some leniency towards undocumented young immigrants in this country, carol. >> jim acosta. i know you'll be watching for us. we appreciate it. >> reporter: you bet. depending who you ask, the u.s. military is facing an epidemic of rape and sexual assaults. take a look at these stats. in 2010, the armed forces logged
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roughly 19,000 incidents of sexual assault. of those, only about 14% were reported. and according to our next guest, those who rape or sexual assault a fellow service member are not likely to be punished. she says they have an 87% chance of keeping the crime a secret, and a 92% chance of avoiding a court-martial. congresswoman jackie spear has introduced legislation to put a stop to the way this is handled. the numbers are shocking. >> aren't they? it's more than shocking. i mean, it really is a huge stain on the military and on the u.s. congress for not having addressed this issue sooner. >> so you're trying to address this. you're going to introduce a bill to try to change the culture or atmosphere in the military. how are you -- how will your bill do that? >> my bill provides that rather
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than report it to your commander, as you are required to do now, you report it to a separate office within the military that will objectively look at the case and determine whether or not to prosecute. right now, by reporting to your commander, what happens if your commander is the assailant or the best friend of your assailant? i mean, there is a fear that if you do report, you're not going to be treated fairly. and that if you do report, you will more than likely be discharged from the military, labeled with a personality disorder, and your career is ruined. so that's why the actual reporting is so low. they don't have faith in the system. >> i'd actually like to think that commanders in the military could handle charges of sexual abuse from their subordinates. i mean, i listened to the reasons you cited. but you would think that most of them would be able to help these victims out. >> you know, within the military, it's still unfortunately an old boys network. oh, she consented. oh, she wanted it.
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oh, she was dressed provocatively. all of those old lines that were used in the '60s to somehow dismiss rape are still being used in the military. lackland air force base. you have instructors there who after their trainees had completed their work and had been promoted, they were called on the intercom and asked to come and meet with their instructors. now, they're told when they first enlist that you do anything your instructor tells you to do, even if it doesn't make sense. and then they rape these new recruits. is now turning into a scandal in the military, in the air force, when we've been told, oh, all these other cases are old. they are happening right now. and using the chain of command to deal with this problem isn't good enough. >> so why isn't every congressman taking up this cause and trying to put a stop to this? >> well, we do have 120
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co-sponsors on the legislation. it is a bipartisan bill. we have organizations like protect our defenders who are trying to gain additional support for this measure. but the truth of the matter is, we've known about this in congress for 25 years. and nothing has been done about it yet. now, to secretary panetta's credit, he is saying zero tolerance, we're going to fix this. i think you can't fix it within the chain of command. unless we increase prosecutions and convictions, we are not going to see the kind of change that needs to take place. the culture will remain the same. >> congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. i know you wrote an op-ed for cnn.com. and you can read that complete op-ed on cnn.com. in fact, it's posted on that site right now. the latest incident of bullying on a school bus has stunned people around the world and makes us wonder, is there any way to effectively discipline abusive kids? that's our talk back question today.
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now is your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question for you this morning, what should happen to
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the students who bullied that bus monitor? an outpouring of love and support from all over the world for a school bus monitor in upstate new york after video went public of one of the most horrific bullying incidents you've ever seen. not kid on kid, but a bunch of 12-year-old and 13-year-olds verbally abusing a grandmother. it's tough to watch. >> karen, you're fat. >> you're so fat. you take up like the whole seat. >> oh, my god. your glasses are foggy from your freakin' sweat, you [ bleep ]. >> she probably doesn't [ bleep ] deodorant because she can't afford it. >> your mom, oh, way, she's dead. >> if i stab you in the stomach, and my [ bleep ] knife would go through you like butter. >> the taunting was so bad, the bus monitor, karen klein, started crying. klein said she'd been abused before but never reported it because she thought she'd get blamed. >> if you yank the phone out of
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his hand, then you get in trouble, you know. i thought i'd just let them go. and i just tried to ignore them. >> it brings up a lot of questions. she's the adult. she's supposed to handle these kids. but evidently, she felt she could not. the story clearly struck a nerve. an online fundraiser has brought in more than $125,000 to help give karen the vacation of a lifetime. karen told nbc she'd like to see the students punished, but she didn't know how. the school and the police say they'll deal with those involvedf involvedf involved. they'll have to, because the world is watching. so the talk back question of the day, what should happen to the students who bullied the bus monitor? facebook.com/carol dlrvegscnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. opening bell on wall street.
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it looks to be a flat open with investors still concerned about the global economic slowdown hitting both china and europe. for the first time this morning we are seeing george zimmerman's police interrogation tapes. his defense team revealed several of the tapes on their website overnight. one tape shows him re-enacting the fight for police. remember zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder charges. 30 minutes from now, the supreme court could hand down some of its most important decisions in years. among them, president obama's health care law. but the one getting the most attention is the individual mandate, specifically whether it's constitutional to require health care for most of us. the justices could also announce a decision on arizona's tough immigration law. the question there, whether states have the authority to write their own immigration laws or if only the feds have that power. relief in sight for millions of people on the east coast sweltering in the summer's first heat wave.
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almost the entire northeast is facing temperatures that are feeling temperatures i should say in the 90s. some people are going to the beach to cool off. but for those working outside, it's been kind of like hell. >> it's like 100 degrees on the platforms. at least the subway cars have air conditioning. so it's not as bad. >> it really feels like you're in an oven out here. it's crazy. >> yeah, it's really hot. >> it's so hot. >> i can't even take it. >> so we look to rob marciano. >> d.c. and new york, you have lived in both places. it's a place where you actually wear it. >> it's not the heat. oomp . it's the humidity. >> and the pollution. so have you that too. but we had record-breaking heat yesterday. more today. relief in sight but not for another day, maybe two. here is a look at some of the numbers yesterday. near 100 in spots. as far north as burlington, vermont, seeing 95. and there's a lot of folks up
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there just don't have any ac in northern new england. so they are dealing with some serious discomfort to say the least. boston, new york, philly, d.c., these are the numbers from yesterday. in the center. to the right, what we expect today so a couple of degrees warmer today than it was yesterday. and we are off to a red-hot start. temperatures already at the 9:00 hour 87 in baltimore and d.c. boston, 84 degrees. in new york, and remember these are numbers that are measured in the shade without the humidity. you include the humidity, and you talk about the heat indices which are expected to get to 110. in some cases more than that. 10 states now under heat advisories and heat warnings for today, meaning it will be dangerous for the kids, for the elderly, and for the folks who may not be doing well healthwise. so keep an eye on them. 99 degrees potentially in new york city. but there is your blue line. the cold front moving towards the i-95 corridor. maybe erupting some heat bursting thunderstorms today against the allegheny and western new york. but tomorrow afternoon, and actually if you're traveling in
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this area tomorrow and friday afternoon, might be some thunderstorms that will slow you down. but there's the relief on saturday. temperatures in the mid 80s. do what you have to do to stay cool. today is the first day of full summer. mother nature obviously cooperating across the northeast. it's also the first heat wave that is the biggest shock to your system. >> after that, it's smooth sailing. oh, yeah, baby. >> yes. >> thank you, rob. we are keeping an eye at the supreme court, awaiting a health care decision. we'll be back in 20 minutes.
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in about 20 minutes, we are waiting to find out if the supreme court will make a ruling on health care. several issues under the microscope, but the one getting the most attention is the individual mandate. specifically, whether it's constitutional to require you to get health insurance.
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justices could also announce a decision on arizona's tough immigration law. the big question there is whether states have the authority to write their own immigration laws or if only the feds have the power to do that. so it's states rights versus federal authority. it's an election year fight that turned into a huge constitutional battle left for the u.s. supreme court. cnn's kate baldwin explains. >> reporter: two men on the frontlines. both fighting illegal immigration, but they couldn't be further apart. david salgado is a 20-year phoenix policeman, supposed to enforce arizona's immigration law. instead, he is trying to stop it. and his lawsuit helped trigger a supreme court battle. >> i think it's a racist law, because that law was specifically picks and chooses certain people. when i took an oath 20 years ago, i said i'm going to enforce all laws and treat everyone equal. i can't treat the hispanics equally. because i'm going to profile
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them. >> reporter: glenn spencer heads a private group that patrols the border along his 104-acre ranch with high-tech equipment. planes, cameras, even testing a sonic barrier. >> so this flashing here would indicate, ok, here we go. >> reporter: spencer says he and the state are stepping in where washington has failed. >> this is a wholesale invasion of arizona. and our federal government is not protecting the state. we are going to make sure that they get all the help and the federal government gets all the help that it needs to do the job. >> reporter: it's an old fight, but a new battle ground. and it all comes down to this. the u.s.-mexico border, an arizona law known as sb 1070, meant to crack down on illegal border crossings. but the question dividing this state is who should be enforcing illegal immigration laws. sb 1070 requires local police like officer salgado to check people's immigration status while enforcing other laws if
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the police have, quote, reasonable suspicion they are in the country illegally. all in an effort, the state's governor says, to help federal authorities deal with illegal immigration. >> they are coming across our borders in huge numbers. the drug cartels have taken control of the immigration, illegal trespassing. >> reporter: but the obama administration and the law's opponents argue the federal government alone has power over immigration enforcement. for officer salgado, it's personal. you think it's going to hurt your job? >> absolutely. >> make it harder to do your job? >> absolutely. the rapport that we build with the hispanic community, it took us years. one day, destroyed it. one day. >> reporter: but glenn spencer says if nothing's done, lives and livelihoods are at risk. >> i have nothing against mexico or mexicans. but when you import poverty on a massive scale, you can only expect that your tax base is
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going to erode, and you're going to run into serious problems. >> reporter: what happens here is being closely watched by states across the country. a wild card, though, justice elena kagan, has pulled herself out of hearing this case, which raises the possibility of a 4-4 split, meaning this election year fight could be pushed to another day. kate baldwin, cnn, at the u.s.-mexico border. but we could find out in 20 minutes if the united states supreme court has made a decision on arizona's immigration law. we'll of course keep you posted because we're watching. and we also asked to you talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question for you this morning what, should happen students who bullied that bus monitor? your response is coming up. facebook.com/carol cnn. ♪
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we are awaiting a u.s. supreme court decision on two very important cases. one dealing with arizona's tough
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immigration law. it's sort of a states rights versus the federal government case. the u.s. supreme court also expected to make a decision on obama care as the republicans call it. they are going to decide whether parts of it are constitutional, all of it is constitutional, or none of it is constitutional. we expect the u.s. supreme court to make some sort of decision on these two very important cases by the end of june. this would be one of the days that they release information about whether they have decided. that should come our way at about 10:00 eastern time, 15 minutes from now, when the u.s. supreme court makes its decision on if it will decide today. we'll pass that information along to you, of course. as early as next week, lawmakers in the full house could hold eric holder in contempt of congress. it's an action never before taken against a sitting attorney general. at issue, fast and furious and holder's reluctance to turn over documents that presumably show whose idea it was to allow thousands of illegal weapons to get into the hands of mexican drug cartels. the atf insists the operation
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was an effort to track the guns to other traffickers, but was it? some republicans say it was much more than that. >> people forget how all this started. this administration is a gun control administration. they tried to put the violence in mexico on the blame of the united states so they concocted this scheme in actually sending our federal agents sending guns down there and trying to cook some little deal to say that we've got to get more guns under control. >> the nra, the national rifle association, agrees. in a letter supporting the contempt resolutions, the nr a's chris cox writes, quote, we first called for attorney general holder's resignation more than a year ago. the department's obstruction of kopgz congressional oversight that cost lives in support of an anti-gun agenda. cox adds, the nra will consider this vote in our future candidate evaluations.
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cnn political contributor roland martin is here to help us parse this out. we invited will cain too, who leans right, but he must have had some sort of emergency and couldn't make it. we are left with you, roland, and we're happy you're here. >> likewise. >> ok. so you heard what i just said. i mean, what is really behind the actions being taken against eric holder and fast and furious? is it real concern about this border agent who was killed? and i'm sure there's real concern there. but is it also about the gun control issue? >> of course. it is about shameful politics. it is not about this border patrol's death. here's the deal. if you look at the documents that congressman issa is requesting, whatever the last name -- >> issa. >> he asked for the documents after the agent's death. if you truly want to get to the heart of the issue, you would be investigating this whole issue from the beginning. have we had any public testimony
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of the former head of the atf in phoenix? have we had any public testimony of the agents in that phoenix office? no. issa wants to go after the attorney general. and so this is a sham. it's an absolute joke. and i know the right wingers out there, i have dealt with them on twitter yesterday and they are running off at the mouth trying to blame the agent's death on holder. but it's ridiculous. and now this whole deal is concocting this whole plan to somehow circumvent the second amendment. this is absolute crazy talk. pure and simple. >> i will say that eric holder makes things more difficult for himself, because he kind of told one story to congress, and then he came back another time and said, oh, i misspoke. i might kind of wonder about that if i'm a congressperson. >> of course. i mean, obviously, you want to get to the bottom of the issue. but, again, exactly what is the motivation here. and so when you all of a sudden hear the nra making their
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threats by saying how you vote on this we're going to factor in in terms of how we support future candidates of the we see what the game here is. they have been after this president and holder from day one, somehow believing they want to outlaw all guns. that is constantly being their whole motive. so for republicans to say this is what we think is going on, here's the problem, carol. how do you disprove something that's a fallacy? so they are saying we think they concocted this, so you need to disprove a delusional thought. that's utter nonsense. >> all right. well, we have breaking news so we have to break away. roland, thank you for being here. we appreciate it. >> thanks a bunch. this is cnn breaking news. all right. here is the breaking news. three counts have been dropped this morningex-penn state footb coach jerry sandusky. all three counts pertain to the
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alleged victim four. the judge dismissed defense request to have all counts related to victim eight dismissed. this brings the total number of counts against sandusky to 48. susan can't deon the write is at the courthouse and will join us live at the top of the hour. she's trying to parse this out to see what it means. she will bring us the latest at the top of the hour. don't forget if you are heading tout door you can take uses with us and watch us any time on your mobile or computer. we're at chicago's renowned saloon steak house where tonight we switched their steaks with walmart's choice premium steak. it's a steakover! tender. really tender. the steak itself is phenomenal. it's so juicy. this steak is perfect. these are carefully aged for flavor and tenderness. it's probably the best steak i've had. tonight you are actually eating walmart steak. are you serious? wow. i'll get some steaks from walmart. walmart choice premium steak in the black package. it's one hundred percent satisfaction guaranteed. try it and check us out on facebook.
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seven minutes to go. we will know if the u.s. supreme court made its final decision on two important cases. one on arizona's tough new immigration law. the other on president obama's health care law. justices are determined to -- to determine whether the law is constitutional or parts of it are unconstitutional or the whole thing sun constitutional. we are going to take a break and be right back. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000. and by pooling more thankyou points from folks all over town,
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a park near you if you don't have that awesome half-mile track running around, running on the grass, you know, running around the soccer field. another good place to look. most high schools have cross-country track or trail. one of the worst is actually city blocks. running city blocks. >> a lot of people say when you run on dpras, it is better for your legs and feet because it makes your ankles move and strengthens you. is that true? >> you want to be careful. you could twist those ankles. that's a risk you take. it is more forgiving on the legs, you can recover faster from it. >> check out my tips with april every thursday morning. all part of the 2012 fit nation triathlon challenge with dr. sanjay gupta. airs right here 9:00 eastern every thursday. next hour of "cnn newsroom" after a quick break. ♪
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good morning to you. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining us. just ahead, a shocking video
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showing a bus monitor bullied by middle school students. some of the crude and hurtful things they say to the 68-year-old grandmother, we can't even repeat on television. the video has gone viral and people from around the world are showing their support. for the first time we are hearing george zimmerman explain what he says happened on the night he shot and killed trayvon martin. >> he came out from the bushes and he said what [ bleep ] is your problem, homey. >> new audio and videotape shows zimmerman re-enacting his confrontation with martin. flash flooding swamps parts of minimum. hundreds of people are forced out of their homes. cars are swallowed by massive sinkholes. and mitt romney's sons head to late night tv and offer an interesting glimpse into their relationship with dad. including using computers to play a practical joke on the on the presidential candidate. >> what does he do? who is your daddy?
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>> we are taking a look at how candidates are using late night tv for political gain. we begin with breaking news from the jerry sandusky trial. the judge has dropped three counts againsts him. susan candiotti is outside the courthouse in obama font, pennsylvania. the judge waits until the trial over to drop these charges? it is just strange timing. >> reporter: some of these involve pending motions before the court. he had to make a decision about them before the jury begins deliberations later today. he did drop three counts in this case involving alleged victim number four. in one ace he said that because the charge is redundant involving involuntary sexual assault and that -- those were dropped. two other counts were dismissed because the judge ruled the alleged victim's description of the sexual assault during his
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testimony did not match the original charges in the case. that this things brown the total number of the charges in the case from 52 to 48. right now the jury is about to begin hearing closing arguments by the defense that will be followed by the prosecutor's closing argument and deliberations will begin. right now we are keeping a close eye on the u.s. supreme court at any time justices could hand down some of the most important decisions in years. looming for all americans, president obama's health care law. several issues under the microscope, the one getting most attention is the so-called individual mandates, specifically whether it is constitutional to require most americans to get health insurance. the justices could announce a decision on arizona's tough immigration law. big question there is whether states have the authority to write their own immigration laws or if only the feds have that
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power. we will keep you posted if the u.s. supreme court hands down any of those decision this morning. a youtube video goes viral. strangers around the world opened their hearts and their wallets. the outpouring of sympathy is for a bus monitor who was viciously taunted and bullied by middle school students. see for yourself. this frort deanna king from wroc in rochester, new york. >> you are so fat. you take up like the whole entire seat. >> oh, my god. >> it is a disturbing video that has gone viral. a school bus monitor, karen klein, being harassed by students from greece athena. >> she probably beat beat eats deodorant because she can't afford real food. >> what are you doing? your mom, oh, wait, she's dead. >> reporter: while one students records, others call her names, even threaten her life.
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>> if i stabbed you in the stomach [ bleep ] my life would go through you like butter. >> it is scary, you know. i never thought -- i never thought anything like this would ever happen. >> klein, a grandmother, has been working in the district for 20 23 years. but felt like she had few options that day. >> yanked the phone out of hips hand, then you get in trouble. i thought let them go. and i just tried to ignore them. >> unless you have something nice to say don't say it all. >> reporter: the district launched an investigation and found other videos youtube and are working to identify the students and say they will be disciplined. >> we do not tolerate harassment of staff or students. >> reporter: the police are also investigating. but at the same time are concerned about the is safety of the students involved. people have been posting their names and addresses online. >> there are people showing up here angry. we understand that. give us time to look into the
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investigation. please don't jump to conclusions. these are 13, 12-year-old kids. >> reporter: the video has more than 100,000 hits on youtube. the district has received angry e-mails from people as far away as australia. klein has been getting messages on facebook and flowers from strangers. >> thinking of you. be strong and defy gravity. >> reporter: people are showing support by using the hash tag team karen. klein says she she hopes the kids on the tape learn a lesson from this. >> i hope you never do it again to anybody else. >> karen klein says she is haunted by just how mean these kids were and how powerless she felt. this morning she was on the "today" show on nbc. >> they just could be really nasty. i never wrote them up. i didn't know how to write that up. you know. i just -- how do you put that in words? and what are they going to say to the kids?
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are they going to say, well, that was not a nice thing to do. slap their hand? >> here's something to restore your faith in humanity. klein's facebook page has been blowing up. you heard that. people around the world offering her encouragement and best wishes. and the kindness doesn't end there. another website is raising money for karen and her family to take a fabulous vacation. you won't belief this. more than $150,000 has been raised so far. >> those kids. would any kind of punishment make them better people? clinical psychologist jeff gardear is in new york. hi, jeff. >> hi. how are you? >> this is not normal behavior, is it? >> this is horrible behavior. i'm so sorry this has happened to karen klein. i'm so glad you are reporting on this and the other news outlets are. because it brings up what's been going on in this country for a very long time. it is not just bullying but it is elder abuse and 9.5% of
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seniors are physically, emotionally, sexually, financially abused by young people, most often their own children. >> okay. where do kids learn this stuff? does it start at home? >> i do believe that it starts at home. here is what i think happened. i think that there are some of those kids that started taunting her, bullying her, who have their own emotional issues and see bullying going on at home because that's where it begins. then there was some sort of what we call psychological term contagion where some of the other kids who may not have had some of the emotional issues at home join in because of the peer pressure we see in middle school. >> i have been asking my facebook friends how should these kids be punished. i will read you one of the responses from facebook.com/carolcnn. mindy says those kids should write a 20-pages aon bullying, 45 hours of community service and banned from school functions
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for six months. this is from tom. trash duty, highway trash duty with their parents doing this, too. kids are at fault, parents cause this mess. their kids, their responsibility. i want them to feel the pain what their kids did, too. do you agree? >> i think that's a little bit too harsh because we do want this to be a teachable moment for those kids. i'm sure -- look, we are talking about young kids as that police officer said. they are very, very immature and are following what other kids are doing. i'm sure that they really we don't to hurt this grandmother, karen klein. >> one said i want to put a knife in her stomach and go through like butter. >> well, that's -- now -- this is what they are talking about. i'm sure that they wouldn't do something like that. but it -- it exposes what's going on with this whole idea of bullying. and so bullying is not just about bad kids acting out. these are kids that are probably not getting proper parenting at home and, therefore, parents
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need to be involved and they need to sanction their children and these children need to get counseling as far as respecting elders and respecting other people. so i want this to be in a situation where these young people are actually counselled and taught about respect because right now we are not really seeing that. this is really epidemic in our school systems and with our children. >> i'm glad done say teachable moment. should these kids be criminally charged at all? >> i'm not an attorney. i don't think so. i think that their parents need to be called out. they need to be able to address their children's behavior. and i think this is a red flag that parents need to look at that there is something going on with your adorable little brat if that child is actually taunting someone, threatening them, talking about hurting them, that you need to take control of that child, take a look at what's happening with the child. but take a look at what's going on in your own home and behaviors you may be modeling
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for your children that are not very positive. >> jeff, thanks for joining thus morning. >> my pleasure. >> we want to know what you think about this store write. that's the talk back question today. what should happen to those students who bullied the bus monitor? i will read more of your comments later this hour. also this morning, we are seeing new video, incredible new video, of george zimmerman describing the play-by-play of what happened the night he shot trayvon martin. the defense attorneys released several police interrogation tapes. one, zimmerman is re-enacting the fight for investigators a day after the shooting in february. showing how he says trayvon martin repeatedly slammed his head into the sidewalk. in one tape you can see the back of zimmerman's head. it is bandaged. the new tapes are shedding light on the controversial cause. martin, you have been listening to these tapes, watching them fast as you can. >> let's go right at the new one.
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it is the day after the shooting has taken place. this is where authorities have taken george zimmerman out back to the twin lakes where the shooting happened, where george lived and trayvon martin was visiting and essentially re-enacting telling authorities step by step what happened. let's just take a listen and look. >> walking in the grassy area. but up towards -- between these two poles, it was rainy. he wasn't -- leisurely looking at the house. like i said, my wife -- i left for the grocery store. i just felt luke something was off about him. and there has been a history of break-ins in that building. i called previously about this house. >> right. >> when the police arrived at this house, when i called the first time, the windows were open and the door was -- >> what's kind of eerie about looking at that is, of course, when george zimmerman made the initial 911 call about trayvon
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martin he is in his vehicle. there is a lot more of this to come. we will be bringing it to you. there's also the audiotapes. these are two different interviews that were done of george zimmerman on the night of the shooting just hours after he killed trayvon martin. one was done by an investigate wror and another one was done just by the police officer on scene. so let's start with the one done by the detective. it is george zimmerman describing what led up to the fatal shooting. >> at what point -- >> after he hit my head against the concrete several times. he yelled out for help and then he tried to smother my mouth -- >> who yelled for help? >> i did. he smothered my mouth and my nose. >> okay. >> and when he did that i tried to slide out and squirm. and i realized -- my shirt came
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up. i felt him slide his hand towards my right side. and he said, you're going to die [ bleep ] and then that's when i grabbed it -- i don't know if it was away from him or, you know -- >> pulling for the gun? >> yes, sir. >> what we want to play for you is -- that's what led up to the shooting. here's the seconds immediately after the shooting. again, according to george zimmerman. >> on top of him, straddling him. he was face down. and when he was hitting me in the face, the head, felt like he was hitting with me something in his hands. so i thought -- he had a weapon. he grabbed his hands and pushed away from his body. i said stop. i said, stop. don't move. and he was saying something like -- ahhh, ahhh. cursing. i said -- stop. don't move. and then somebody came and they
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had a flashlight. i thought it was a cop. i said -- i still had my gun in my hand. i was holding his hand up. and i said -- are you the cop? he said no. i said -- he said, i'll call them. i said i don't need you to call them. i already called them. they are on their way. >> and again, very dramatic. of course, very one-side. >> i notice he said he didn't call an ambulance. did he know? is that not on the tape. i don't know. maybe he wanted to. >> he didn't at that particular point, i don't believe. of course, he still believes that trayvon martin is potentially a threat. and so that's why he's pinning him down and is also telling a witness who has now come up, i don't need you to call police because they are already notified. i need you to help me with him. it was some time after that medical ambulance came on the scene. there was cpr and applied by the police. >> just one other point. it is interesting that george zimmerman's defense attorneys would release these tapes at this particular time after george zimmerman, back in jail
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with his bond revoked after lying in court, and after george zimmerman's wife is now -- charged with perjury for lie. >> correct. we have seen this up and down as far as the defense of george zimmerman. he was on sort of a down moment, i guess, you could say because the fact there's -- indications he may have misled authorities about money. if he was lying about that, the familiar will you of trayvon martin said what else is he lying about in the storytelling. now you get this very fresh account that seems to support the self-defense claim george zimmerman made. so timing it could very well play into it. >> you have a lot more tape go through. martin, thanks so much. >> you bet. a husband jumps into rushing waters after his wife goes over a waterfall. as cameras roll, emergency crews come to the rescue.
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turning to presidential politics. a reminder how important the latino vote will be in november. president obama and his republican challenger mitt romney are getting ready to speak to a major gathering of hispanic leaders and activists near orlando. florida, just one of several battleground states that could be decided by latino voters. suzanne malveaux is at the
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conference. romney has not said much about obama's immigration policy change. what's this group? what do they wouldn't hear from romney about immigration? >> reporter: well, actually they want to hear an awful lot here because this is really the largest latino policy making organization in the country. we are talking about 6,000 members here. nonpartisan. nonprofit organization, 1,200 who landed here. it is an interesting and bizarre situation if you think about it here. we are in the middle of disney world, carom. you may see the rail go by behind me. space mountain that's here. view lot of families and kids. you have a lot of very important latino policymakers representatives from school boards and all the way up to cabinet members of the obama administration. they are meeting for three days. essentially looking at a lot of things. the main thing, of course is what is the policy here? what's it going to be for the obama administration if president obama wins going forward? what's it mean if it is a change? when it come to mitt romney. last week we know immigration was a very hot topic and saw the
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president essentially changing his immigration policy. allowing important some young adults meeting certain criteria to day in the united states and despite the fact that they are illegal immigrants to stay in and avoid deportation. we have not gotten a lot of detail from mitt romney on what he believes the policy -- immigration policy should be. what are folks looking for here? if you ask them they are talking about details. they want details from mitt romney today. and president obama tomorrow. take a listen. >> really hope for both candidates, actually, to come up with some realistic plan, immigration reform. it is not the number one priority issue for latinos as tends to be misconception. but it is a great -- of great concern. >> reporter: what they say overwhelmingly here is they want details from both of these leaders here and the other thing is they don't want people to think it is all about immigration. on their list of priorities on
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their agenda, have you education and health care, financial empowerment. they are going to be looking for both leaders, both of the candidates to talk specifically about that and how that impact it is latino community. this is -- you cannot really overstate the importance of this convention, of these folks. er in going to go back to the communities and they are going to say here's who we support. here's what they had to tell us. this is what makes you -- reason you should actually come out and vote. >> suthanks so much. the racial wealth gap gets wider. new figures show whites are 22 times richer than african-americans. a look at why that number jumped. [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up.
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there's always brent a racial disparity when it comes to wealth. the latest census bureau number shows the gap -- you won't believe how wide the gap is. christine romans studies these kinds of things. what i saw -- what the numbers were, i was shocked. >> i know. this is new data crunched cnn. i will tweet this as well. it hose the recession hit minorities so much harder than white americans.
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and now white americans have 22 times more wealth than black americans. 15 times more wealth than hispanic americans. i want to show thank you numbers for wealth. median household net worth in 2010 for whites, $110,000. hispanics, $7,000. carol, blacks have less than $5,000 median household net worth. everyone got slammed in the recession but black and hispanic families got slammed way more. >> why? >> because of housing. everything got hit. but because of housing, if you look at black and hispanic families, again, on average, these are demographics. but on average, more of their net worth is tied to home equity. and more and more families had subprime loans and got blown out and now they have no savings, no investments, and they don't have the home equity. they got hit very, very hard here. white families got hit hard, too, but less of their income is from home equity.
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>> so -- what's the answer? >> the thing is that money -- is how you grow wealth. you grow wealth by job and you about money. that's why this is so troubling. politically such a big, big problem for this country because you want people to advance. juan people to begin to grow wealth because out of that becomes investments and -- in a home and in education and in your standards of living. so -- the real issue here is trying to make sure people get jobs and can get savings and can start to build wealth instead of lose wealth. we are going to talk more about this in my weekend show. your bottom line, saturday, 9:30. go to cnn.com to read the analysis of this. it is an important story. >> it is an important story. thank you for helping us understand. breaking news to pass along to you involving the u.s. supreme court. don't get too excited. the supreme court has handed down a decision on tv indecency. it ruled in favor of the network television. kate bolduan is at the u.s. supreme court. we will get to her with more details after a break. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through,
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man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. good morning. i'm carol costello. 30 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now. attorney general eric holder is meeting with european union officials but he isn't talking about the u.s. government's botched fast and furious gun sting. as early as next week they could vote whether to hold eric holder in contempt of congress.
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a house committee recommended the move after holder and the white house refused to turn over more documents on the case. jerry sandusky in the courtroom as attorneys deliver closing arguments in his child sex abuse trial. earlier this morning the judge dropped three counts against him. sandusky still faces 48 charges. the defense decided not to put the former football coach on the stand. jurors will probably get the case later today. egypt's presidential election mission delayed releasing the results of the presidential election. that's according to state-run media. a senior official on that panel says they are still looking into 400 electoral violation reports submitted by the two candidates but say the election results would be delayed by only one or would days. overnight, george zimmerman's defense attorneys released several police interrogation tapes shedding new light on what happened the night george zimmerman shot and killed trayvon martin. in one, zimmerman is seen taking investigators through the neighborhood. a day after the shooting in
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february. showing how he says trayvon martin repeatedly slammed his head into the sidewalk. on another tape you can see the back of zimmerman's head as bandaged. he also tells police the 17-year-old was intent on killing him. >> he started hitting my head into the -- i tried to sit up and yell for help. and then he grabbed my head and started hitting it into the sidewalk. when he started doing that, i slid into the grass to try to get out from under him and so he would stop hitting my head into the sidewalk. i'm still yelling for help. and i could see people looking and some guy yells out and calling 911. i head help me, help me. he is killing me. and he puts his hand on my nose and on my mouth. he says you are going to die tonight. and -- i -- don't remember much after that.
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>> welcome. >> good morning. >> you are a defense attorney. why did zimmerman's attorneys release these tapes? >> they are releasing the tapes because they are his statements. they do show some consistency. first of all, they remain very shortly in time -- relate shortly to time of the incident. they were the night of and morning after. you are beg to look at how close to the crime to -- to the incident they were made. and they also back up his story, what he saying, that he was not the aggressor, that tray vor martin came to him, martin had him pinned down on the ground and corroborate what his story has been. it is vining. we have been looking at in the latest media that came out was the jailhouse phone calls with his wife and which obviously have cast a negative light on both george zimmerman and his wife who was just recently arrested for perjury as a result of what she told the judge about their bank accounts. it is very interesting time when you look at that, mark o'meara release it is tapes days after we are hearing about that. >> that's what i was getting at.
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back to the tapes themselves, the police chief was fired yesterday. so he's gone. prosecutors, special prosecutor, decided to bring the case to trial. in listening to the tapes does anything that george zimmerman says in the recordings make you say wow, i can understand why the prosecutor decided to take this case to trial? >> i definitely understand why the prosecutors s taking the case. first, public outcry. i think there was great pressure on the prosecutor to take the case. but it still is a case where he has to claim stand ground. no question he killed him and so -- it becomes does he get immunity? really you are looking at than issue of credibility. what i think people sometimes forget about stand your ground is standndnd your ground doesn' just say as long as you have a reasonable fear of your own safety that you can act. what it also says is you can't be engaged in an unlawful act. the first thing we have to look at is was george zimmerman
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engaged in an unlawful act in the first place. was he the aggressor to begin with? >> more tapes being made public, we will have them on cnn later today. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. as i said, little bit ago, we have breaking news out of the u.s. supreme court. doesn't concern obama care. doesn't concern arizona immigration law. but it does concern indecency on network television. kate bolduan live outside of the court. what's this about? >> reporter: this is a very uning case. it is about free speech versus censorship. a tv indiecency case that dates back almost a decade now to when these instances happened. this has to do with the federal communication commissions, really get tough policy on pleating expletives as well as scripted sexual content on the traditional broadcast tv. we are not talking about cable here, traditional airwaves, broadcast tv and radio. the fcc put in place get tough
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policies. really cracking down on these fleeting expletives, imposing up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per violation on the broadcast networks. they have been battling this out in court over the -- broadcasters say these rules were arbitrarily put into place and were too vague and not given notice. but the -- government has been defending -- has been defending this standard, this policy, saying that these are public airwaves and so they need to be protected. this needs to be held to a higher standard. today in an 8-0 ruling, the justices ruled for the broadcasters. i will read new part from the opinion. it says here in part, carol, commission failed -- fcc failed to give fox or abc, two of the networks involved here, fair notice prior to the broadcast in question that fleeting expletives and momentarily nudity could be found actionably indecent. therefore, the commission's standards as applied to the
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broadcasts were vague and the commission's orders must be set aside. this is a very important ruling as we are dealing with broadcast tv. >> to make things more clear, are they talking about this janet jackson incident? nipple-gate, when her breast was exposed for a short period of time? the fcc came down on the network and issued big fines, is that when we are talking about? was that a wrong decision by the fcc according to the u.s. supreme court? >> reporter: this does not specifically have do with the janet jackson circumstance. it is a separate case. this dates back to, i believe, in 2003 on -- on the golden globes. bono said a curse word in the live broadcast. that case, as well as another case in a scripted drama, "nypd blue," scripted sexual content, there was basically a fleeting nudity, if you will, in that. those are the two main parts, those main instances in this case. but it does relate to kind of how broadcast tv, what kind of
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content can be on tv. i mean, the broadcaster said this will have a chilling effect on their creative expression. clearly, as you hear from the justices, they agree at least they were not given enough notice to no what was right and what crossed the line. the end of in opinion of the court, it does say the opinion leaves the commission free to modify its current indecency policy p n light of the determination of the public interest. it is leading leeway. typical of the supreme court is a very narrow ruling. not saying the fcc could never put these hefty fines in place. they are just saying they would need to modify their policy in this case, fcc went too far, broadcasters are in the right. >> got you. kate bolduan reporting live outside of the u.s. supreme court. we will take a break and be back with much more.
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if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this.
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big political battle important the presidency has been spilling over into late night television.
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the president and mrs. obama have already had face timeith jimmy fallon and david letterman. >> are you nervous? >> a little bit, yeah. >> i'm so excited about this. i met your wife, the first lady. i -- >> she was fab us yeah. i was at your house. >> you were. >> beautiful house. >> the number one fact about gardening. >> with enough care and effort, you can grow your own barack-oli. >> that was funny. romney joined team cocoa, actually romneys. presumptive republican nominee's son stopped by conan o'brien's tv show last night. dad was not there but was mentioned a lot. check out conan trying to keep all the names sons' names straight. >> josh. tag. craig. ben. matt. my first question, why the name
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tag? everyone else got a very -- were you -- you are the oldest? >> i'm the oldest. born in 1970. i'm glad i wasn't born moon beam or sunshine or something. >> what happened, though is, they named you tag first. usually in my family my parents went with conventional names and then i came a little later and -- let's get crazy. and conan came along. but with you they made a decision right off the bat. he will be tag and then after that suspiciously everyone else has normal name. >> actually he was named after a friend named tag. that's how tagg got his name. they were considering starting a boy band. entertainment reporter david kaplan joins me from new york to talk about the late night political wars. welcome, david. >> hey, carol. >> i must say, a young woman on my team was watching this conan bit with the romney boys and she was laughing her head off. >> yeah. you know, they were really great on the show last night. they did a great job at humanizing the romneys. the thing about them is they are
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inherently interesting. there are five of them and they are good looking. they are like this von trapp family. one was let's rake the romney brothers from creepiest to -- rate the romney brothers from creepiest to hottest. >> they really did try to humanize their dad. they talked about all of the pranks they play on one another. especially their dad. one of the sons shared this story they used this special computer program that changes your voice, you know, into voices like arnold schwarzenegger's. i will play that prank for all of you to enjoy. >> governor, mitt romney. how are you? >> hi. how are you? >> i'm fine, governor. how are you doing today? >> good. good. >> what can i do for you? >> i'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. answer them immediately. >> go right ahead and shoot.
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>> who is your daddy? what does he do? >> i must say that -- mitt romney looked at ease and looked personable. he looked like he had a sense of humor. that's better than gold in a political campaign, that appearance there. >> it was really great because that was a common theme in the interview saying how their dad was a prankster and go -- gave other antidotes how mitt himself pranked a friend of his important when he was a lot younger. so sort of shows the other side of mitt romney we are not used to. when you hear from candidate's children, you see a softer side, different perspective. they barely talked about politics. that was better. you get the message, out there supporting their dad, but doesn't hit you over the head. people love -- politicians are like celebrities. and how we are obsessed with celebrities, what they eat, where they go, what they do, what their families like. we want the same information about politicians. >> i'm sure there's more to come. david kaplan, thank you so much
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for joining us this morning. we are going to take a quick break. ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. 14 clubs. that's what they tell us a legal golf bag can hold. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan.
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we want to head back to the u.s. supreme court. we are expecting a decision on the president's health care bill. his health care law. we a a a aecting the u.s. supreme court to rule whether it was constitutional, whether the whole thing should be thrown out, et cetera, et cetera. jeffrey toobin is live outside the court. we are dying here. why no decision? >> you know what? we don't know. we don't know if obama care is constitutional. we don't know if the arizona immigration law is constitutional. we know nicole richie has place in the constitutional history of the united states. >> she has a potty mouth and she is allowed to have a potty mouth for short periods of time. >> reporter: at least this time she was allowed to have a potty mouth. the supreme court issued a very narrow ruling because a lot of people thought that they were going to decide whether
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so-called fleeting expletives which are sort of non-planned bad words, everyone can let their imagination run wild about what those words are, but what the court said was we are not going to decide whether the seven dirty words which was the subject after much earlier supreme court case are still prohibited on broadcast television. all the court said today was the fcc, which imposed this penalty, changed the rules after the broadcasts were made. these famous awards programs were nicole richie and cher said stupid things. they were in 2002 and 2003. the fcc changed the rules in 2004 and the supreme court says no, you can't do that. you can't penalize someone for rules that weren't in effect when the broadcasts were made. so that was the only ruling about these particular nicole richie, cher and nypd blue dirty
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words. >> that -- >> reporter: whether you can say those words in the future, that's still uncertain. >> yeah. okay. so -- the u.s. supreme court is expected to rule sometime in june about the health care law and about arizona's immigration law. so might that happen on monday? the end of the month? >> reporter: it might. i can say with great certainty it might. it also might not. >> are they -- >> reporter: we don't know. ility will be next week. we know that much. they -- they are all will be done by thursday. but whether it is monday or they add a couple of days, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, we don't know. i mean, i don't mean to be flip about this. but, you know, the rule about these sorts of issues, about when supreme court decisions are coming down is those who know don't tell and those who tell don't know. we just don't know specifically which day these decisions are
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coming down. they are scheduled to sit on monday. some decisions are going to come out monday. they have five cases left. chances are that they are going to add one or more days later in the week. tuesday, wednesday, thursday are possibilities but we don't know for sure. >> it is a good thing you pitched that tent in front of the u.s. supreme court so you can sleep there overnight. >> reporter: absolutely. it is so pleasant here. temperatures only about 100 degrees. it will be wonderful. >> it is a beautiful building. what do you want? >> reporter: it is indeed. >> thanks, jeff. coming up next, how many calories are in that slice of pepperoni pizza? nation a pizza chains are fighting a plan to force you them the tell you how many calories are in your pie. the s, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering d i found myself in the middle of this parade sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering honoring america's troops., sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering which is actually in tquite fitting becauseade sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering geico has been serving e military for over 75 years. aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me.
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in today's daily dose, one part of the health care law you may not know about. it is a rule that if the health care law is enacted would require big restaurant chains to post cal are you counts on men use or menu boards. the national pizza chains are already fighting it saying the plan is costly and confusing. pizza people say most of their business is not from walk-in customers but from people ordering online or by phone so
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making up those menu boards would just be a waste of money and time. the pizza chains also argue that customers can get calorie counts by going to their websites. my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com.
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we asked to you talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question -- what should happen to those students that bullied the bus monitor? this from ronnie. how do you teach empathy? sigh. sad, sad, sad. remember when it was okay to spank your kids? these things didn't happen back then. spare the rod, spoil the child. the students should be banned from bus transportation for a we are. that will teach them cause and effect and teach their parents how to raise children. keep the conversation going. facebook.com/carolcnn. thanks for your comments and
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thanks for joining me this afternoon. i'm carol costello. "cnn newsroom" continues with kyra phillips. closing arguments in the jerry sandusky and a small ray of good news for the defense. three more charges are dropped. 48 still in place. we are inside the courtroom. a court in canada back on the case of the porn actor accused of murdering, dismembering and mailing the body parts of a chinese student. at issue today, mental health. also this hour, our dr. sanjay gupta looking at death. doctors who help patients die. families who may be opposed. states where it is not legal or not. we begin this hour with a free speech decision from the highest court in the land. unanimous decision that could make prime time television even less family friendly than it is now. our justice correspondent joe johns joining meo

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