ed lavandera, appreciate it. charity smith was just 18 years old when she was killed in that terrible car crash. she was saving money for college. she had a lot of big plans for her life. charity's mom linda smith told me a couple of days ago she doesn't have good days anymore. losing her daughter has been unbearable, as you can imagine. she joins me again tonight. thank you so much for being with us. i'm sure this has been a tough day for you. how are you holding up when you got the word that he was going to be charged? >> i was praying for justice, and i feel like that if he -- if it served. i don't know how this is going to turn out, you know. i mean, for his third one, he got probation, and we know how that turned out. i mean, i'm glad they charged him, but i still don't know how this is going to turn out. >> has the governor, the former governor at all reached out to you? has anybody tried to explain from his office why they gave this guy a pardon? >> no, no one has called me. no one has tried to get in touc

i'll have the latest coming up. >>> i'm ed lavandera in dallas.ysterious highway shootings in northwest mississippi. >>> i'm dan lothian at the white house. two summits this weekend. one at camp david and the one in chicago. i'll have more on that in the next hour. >>> also coming up, fired up and ready to go, vice president biden seems to be reaching back to the last campaign as he seems to court voters. we will look at his role as attack dog. my dad's gonna kill me dude... [ male announcer ] the security of a 2012 iihs top safety pick. the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. that's the power of german engineering. i haand then i have eleven my grandkids. right when you see them, they're yours, it's like, ah, it's part of me. it's me again. now that i'm retiring they all have plans for me. i'm excited. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go

ed lavandera is on the phone covering this story.oes this affect his bid for the triple crown? >> well, the quick headline is that it will have no effect. and this is not only will doug o'neill the trainer of i'll have another, he will participate fully in the belmont stakes and go for the triple crown, but his horse, i'll have another will also participate. so that's the quick headline. and what this california racing board has decided here today is that doug o'neill and this is dating back to a violation they were investigating dating back to 2010 will be suspended for 45 days starting no sooner than july 1st. well past the date of the belmont. and this all has to do with accusations of a violation of suspected milk shaking, which we've talked about. and this is this kind of concoction that is apparently used in horse racing that -- a concoction that is injected through the nose of a horse to help them build up stamina and keep them -- keep horses from getting tired. what's interesting, erin, in this ruling is that the california r

our ed lavandera had an exclusive interview with perez's son who gave us details on the murder mysteryd seedier side of horse racing. >> reporter: the mystique of kentucky derby day draws tens of thousands. the glamorous fashion, a tip of the hat. what many might not know about horse racing is that on that side of the racetrack, it's a completely different world. that's where all the fan fare and the beauty of race day takes place. it's a different story on this side of the track. this is the forgotten side of a horse track. it's called the back side. a secluded world of transient workers in the horse racing industry. some 600 people live on the back side of churchill downs in louisville, kentucky. it's where 19-year-old wilson perez worked alongside his father, adan perez, until adan's body mysteriously turned up in barn number eight just hours after one of the most famous horse races in the world. wilson perez is speaking about his father's murder for the first time. [ speaking in spanish ] >> how difficult have these last days been? >> wilson says it's been very hard supporting ever

>> ed lavandera thank you for the details.world is mourning the loss of disco's original queen, donna summer, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. she was 63 years old, just 63. summer had a string of mega hits in the '70s and '80s. can't believe i have to say them. they're just so familiar to us, "last dance," "love to love you baby." fellow artists say she'll be missed. >> we really lost somebody who was great and such an important artist of her time and of a particular type of music that was so important of america's pop cultural history. >> donna summer's family say she was a woman of many gifts, the greatest one being her faith. we'll have more on her life and legacy, 6:20 a.m. eastern time. "the wall street journal's" christopher farley will be joining us. >>> less than 24 hours away from the launch from the first commercial rocket headed to the international space station, it's set to lift off from the kennedy space center in florida at 4:55 a.m. saturday, a major first step in nasa's plan to turn over space

wilson perez spoke exclusively to ed lavandera. >> reporter: the mystique of kentucky derby day drawse's game. the glamorous fashion, a tip of the hat to a bygone era. on that side of the racetrack it's a completely different world. that's where all of the fanfare and beauty of race day takes place. it's a different story on this side of the track. this is the forgotten side of a horse track. it's called the backside. a secluded world of transient workers in the horse racing industry. some 600 people live on the backside of churchill downs in louisville, kentucky. it's where 19-year-old wilson perez worked alongside his father, edan perez until his body turned up in barn number eight just hours after one of the most famous horse races in the world. wilson perez is speaking about his father's murder for the first time. how difficult have these last days been? wilson says it's been very hard supporting everyone in my family. i need to stay strong. wilson perez is one of adan's seven children and their family lives in guatemala and wilson begged his father to bring him to the united stat

ed lavandera, appreciate that.with my colleague wolf blitzer in d.c. >> ashleigh, thanks very much. >> my life is hanging out with women. >> president obama steps up his courting the female voters, but democrats get a

that alone could face him up to 25 years in prison. >> ed lavandera, thanks so much. charity smith's mother says she hopes no one gives bostick anymore pardons. she says i pray for justice. >>> well, she's lost her job, she's been arrested twice. now rupert murdoch's former right-hand woman is the first person hit with criminal charges in the phone hacking probe that's shaken murdoch's global media empire. rebekah brooks faces three counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. maximum punishment, life in prison. cnn's dan rivers is joining me now from london. let's remind our viewers exactly what brooks did within murdoch's empire and how -- what she did that allegedly got her into so much trouble here. >> okay. so she was a rising star in rupert murdoch's media empire. she was ceo of news international, which was in charge of a number of newspapers here but most notably "the news of the world" the infamous tabloid that was closed down last summer. what it is alleged she did is effectively conceal evidence from the police who were looking into how widespread

ed lavandera is following the new developments from dallas. thought the shooter was posing as a police officer. they don't believe that's the case anymore, right? >> yeah, at this point -- there was a theory they had thrown out there as a way of trying to warn the public that this was going on, that this was a possibility. they are trying to figure out and are still trying to figure out how it was that this man was able to get two people to pull over in the early morning hours in the darkness, 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. they're still a little baffled by that. law enforcement agencies there in northwest mississippi evare holding a press conference as we speak outlining the details. this is very interesting alabama, suzanne. on thursday afternoon authorities get a report of a disturbance in a nearby apartment complex. they go over there and in the process -- once they get there, a woman there tells them this man had just raped her. they take him into custody. one of the detectives notices a nine millimeter handgun that was on him. perhaps heard

our ed lavandera there.ng about the nfl's new orleans saints alleged bounty program. well, now, apparently some charges are being imposed. ed has more on that. ed? >> reporter: fredricka, several week ago we reported on the punishment that was levied against the team officials with the new orleans saints, but now the nfl has announced the suspensions of various players involved in this bounty program. pay for performance scandal, if you will. of course, all of this stems back to the nfl's investigation that it says had found that players were paying themselves and paid by the defensive coordinator in a pool of money that had been collected for hits that would end up with players getting carried off the field or carted off. now the nfl says that four players in all will be suspended. the main player here, jonathan vilma, a captain of the saints, defensive side of the ball, has been suspended for the entire season. jonathan vilma. will smith has been suspended for the first four games. anthony hargrove suspend

ed lavandera, appreciate that. the news continues with my colleague wolf blitzer in d.c. >> ashleigh, thanks very much. >> my life is hanging out with women. >> president obama steps up his courting the female voters, but democrats get a wake-up call. a new poll shows mitt romney may be leading among women. that's not the only category where obama is trailing and i'll ask for congresswoman debbie wasserman shut who is standing by live. a facebook co-founder unfriends the united states of america on giving us his u.s. citizenship could save him hundreds of millions of taxes when the company goes public. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> democrats have been betting on a big gender gap to give president obama an edge in the november election, they've accused republicans of a war on women and president obama has been going all out to kort female voters, but suddenly a new poll suggests it's mitt romney who may have an edge among women. let's go to brianna keilar