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Rick Perry to Run for President; Dow Surges; Romney Camp Doubles Down on 'Corporations Are People Too' Statement; From NY to LA in 12 Minutes: New Aircraft Could Reach Mach 20; Grim Sleeper Possibly Linked to Over 200 Murders; Barefoot Bandit Signs Movie Deal; U.S. Sending $17M More in Famine Aid; Pelosi Names Final "Super Committee" Members
Aired August 11, 2011 - 15:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some breaking news here just into the world of politics with regard to someone else who plans to announce he will throw his hat in the ring to become the next president with regard to the Republican Party.
Let's go to Jim Acosta quickly, here, as we are also watching the markets begin to close. Jim, what are we talking about?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we are talking about Rick Perry. CNN has just confirmed through a source with the Perry campaign that the governor of Texas will be announced on Saturday that he is running for president. He's going to be making the announcement, from what we understand, at the Redstate.com speech down in Charleston, South Carolina.
Brooke, as you know, the RedState.com blog is a very influential blog for conservatives. The person behind that blog, Erick Erickson, is a contributor here at CNN. And a lot of people have been looking to this speech as some kind of indication to what the Texas governor is going to do. And earlier this week we learned that he was going to make his intentions clear.
But now we understand that the governor of Texas is going to throw his hat into the ring, his cowboy hat into the ring, in this race for 2012, this very crowded field for 2012.
And, you know, he did give an interview for our friend Mark Halperin over at "TIME" magazine earlier this week indicating all of this, some of that video is now on the timemagazine.com Web site, in which Perry says that he has basically come from the answer no, no, he does not want to run for president, as early as 45 days ago, to now saying, yes, he is in the race for president -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Tell us a little bit more about the Texas governor. He's done pretty well when it comes -- you look at Texas, you look at jobs, you look at the unemployment rate there in Texas, that's some pretty good stats coming into this race.
ACOSTA: That's right. This is going to be the Rick Perry message for the coming days. It's going to be his economic message down in Texas. In the last two years -- and this is not from the Perry campaign D this is not from Rick Perry -- this is from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Nearly half of the jobs created in this country since June of 2009 have been created in Texas.
Now, part of that is because Texas is a big state, but also it's because this state has been fairly recession-proof. And what the governor will tell you is that that's because of the policies that he put in place. Now, his critics will say some of that is a result of the fact that Texas has always been a good climate for business and it's not just the hot weather down there. The state has no income tax, so it's a very attractive place for businesses to go. It's also a big energy state.
So those are also factors to why Texas has such a robust economy, but this is going to be an interesting race for the Texas governor. I was down there just a couple weeks ago in Austin, and was told by Republicans, look, Rick Perry has never lost an election in his life. He's a very tough campaigner.
You only have to ask Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senator from Texas who tried to unseat him in a very bitter primary just last year. So, Rick Perry knows how to run for office. He's done it over and over again to great success.
BALDWIN: So he has a pretty good track record, according to you, Jim Acosta.
Let's go to Wolf Blitzer.
And, Wolf, when we talk about Rick Perry and his track record, what about the fact, is America ready for another Texan governor/president?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, some Americans probably won't. Those who didn't like the last Texas governor who became president of the United States, George W. Bush, they probably will be reluctant to vote for Rick Perry, if he in fact gets the Republican nomination.
He's very popular, though, with a lot of conservatives, a lot of Tea Party activists. In the short run, it might hurt Michele Bachmann somewhat, because they might be competing for some of those same votes. It might even wind up helping, at least in the short run, Mitt Romney, who is trying to appeal to more moderate Republicans, if you will, Mitt Romney not spending a whole lot of time campaigning in Iowa.
We will see if Rick Perry starts campaigning in Iowa, getting ready for the Iowa caucuses. Obviously, he's not going to be around for the Iowa straw poll in Ames this weekend, although people could write in his name, even though he's not formally on that ballot.
It's going to shake things up. He does have a lot of strength. He has got some serious money behind him. He is going to be a formidable candidate. And some are already suggesting that when all the dust settles down the road, it could be Romney vs. Perry, maybe Michele Bachmann, maybe some of the others creeping up there as well.
But it will liven things up. And what would really liven things up, Brooke, is if Sarah Palin announced that she was running. As you know she's showing up in her bus in Iowa.
BALDWIN: She's in Iowa.
BLITZER: Yes, that's right.
So she certainty wants a little bit of attention herself. She's not ruling it out by any means. So we will see what she decides. But my sense if she were to announce that she is running, it would be more of that competition for that more conservative base of the Republican Party, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin.
Maybe that would create an opening for Mitt Romney to get some serious support out there as well.
So, it's -- it's unpredictable at this stage. And the good news is we have got a great political story and we will be covering it every step of the way.
BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, Jim Acosta, I thank you both.
Speaking of unpredictable, shall we go to Wall Street? Take a look at some of the numbers as we are four minutes past the closing bell, and you can see the numbers, huge, huge positive territory, the Dow closing up 422 points.
Markets did a lot better than yesterday's nosedive. What, they closed yesterday, it was down 519, now up 422. We have also had a better-than-expected jobless claims report.
Let's go to Alison Kosik once again live for us at the New York Stock Exchange.
And, Alison, looks pretty good. Talk to me about some of the market drivers today.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
So green and lots of it on the screen. I will tell you what. It's a much more cheerful color on the Big Board, but I'm afraid to say this, Brooke, but Brooke, today's huge gains seem so mundane after what we have been through over the past few weeks. BALDWIN: We will take it.
KOSIK: What really drove the market today -- yes, we will take it.
What really drove the market today were those worries subsiding about France's debt being downgraded. All three of the major ratings agencies says rumors of a downgrade are unfounded, so what investors did, they swooped in, they scooped up bargains after stocks had taken such a beating over the past week. We're also seeing the markets kind of trying to find their equilibrium at this point after such huge price swings. Still, there's a different mood here today. I got to tell you there's a lot less nervousness, and I'll tell you, we will take it after the week we have had -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: We will take it.
Alison Kosik, stand by.
I want to go to Paul La Monica, CNN.com -- CNNMoney.com -- excuse me -- editor at large.
And, Paul, we're looking at the Dow. Talk to me about what about S&P and also Nasdaq. How did they fare?
PAUL LA MONICA, EDITOR AT LARGE, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, we had a great day for pretty much the broad stock market. The Dow obviously gets all the attention, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both surging as well.
I would be a little cautious, though, like Alison said. Keep in mind that Tuesday was a very good day as well for stocks. And Tuesday was followed by yesterday, which was not so good. It's just -- the roller-coaster ride is just not going to end anytime soon, I'm afraid. We're up and down and up and down.
BALDWIN: Up and down and up and down. What about blue chips today?
LA MONICA: Yes. I mean, the Dow, as we mentioned, blue-chip stocks leading the way, but it was a broad move higher for all stocks and all industries, which is encouraging.
As Alison mentioned, some of the fears about Europe may be diminishing a little bit, but again, you have to be cautious here. There still are so many worries about the global economy, even if ratings agencies aren't going to be downgrading some of the big countries in Europe just yet. France is at the center of all these worries right now, about how their banking system is looking right now.
And those worries don't change overnight, even with a great day like today.
BALDWIN: Paul, thank you.
Alison, you get my last question.
And I was kind of trying to look out of the corner of my eye when I was listening to the president speaking, trying to do some juggling and also watching the markets. Just curious if the markets were at all affected by the president's we will call it effusiveness. He was pretty fired up and also talking about the S&P downgrade. To quote him, he talked about how it was a self-inflicted wound.
Did the markets at all react to the president? I couldn't tell that they did.
KOSIK: They didn't. I think it was full speed ahead as far as on that news about France. I think that's what really was the catalyst that got the markets going today.
The jobs news that we got, that definitely helped keep the gains going as well. You know, we found out that the number of people filing first-time jobless claims fell by 7,000, below that crucial 400,000 mark. It's that level that we really want to watch, because below 400,000 is seen as the tipping points. If claims can continue to trend down from that level, then the economy has a decent shot of creating more jobs.
But, no, did not see any reaction when the president was speaking. You know, a lot of the spikes that we saw today, they were also due to those computer-driven trades. Just like we saw that happened on the sell side, we saw that on the buy side as well, that as these levels go higher, they trigger new points, whether to sell or to buy, and today it just happened to be to buy -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Alison Kosik, the woman with quite the busy job the past couple of weeks, as have I know the traders down on the floor below you.
Alison, thank you so much.
And now I want to take you to Iowa, the Iowa straw poll, a slew of presidential prospects out there. We just heard about someone else throwing his cowboy hat into the ring, Texas Governor Rick Perry.
But let's talk about Mitt Romney here, the front-runner thus far in the GOP race. Romney is campaigning and taking part in tonight's debate, even though he's actually not competing in that Iowa straw poll Saturday.
Now, we told you about this. Romney got heckled. He got heckled by a man who we're told is a liberal activist. That's not news, but perhaps this is, a comment Mitt Romney made about corporations.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: We have to make sure that the promises we make in Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are promises we can keep, and there are various ways of doing that. One is, we could raise taxes on people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corporations.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Corporations.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: Corporations are people, my friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they are not.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: Of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: CNN's Shannon Travis out there with CNN's Paul Steinhauser at the Iowa State Fair.
Guys -- we will talk to you in just a moment here, Paul.
But, Shannon, I understand that there's been some reaction to that comment from Mitt Romney saying -- quote -- "Everything corporations earn goes to the people."
What are you hearing?
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Absolutely, Brooke.
As you can imagine, this has been lighting up a lot of news stories, the Twitterverse. I got on the phone, made some phone calls to people in the Romney campaign. I actually looked at a tweet from Eric Fehrnstrom. He's a senior adviser for Mitt Romney.
And I'm going to read this tweet reacting to all the buzz over that clip that you just played from Mitt Romney -- quote -- "Do folks think corporations are buildings? They are people who incorporate to conduct business. They create jobs and hire more people."
So, basically, the Romney campaign is not backing down. In fact, they're doubling down on this comment from Mitt Romney that corporations are people -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: OK.
Paul Steinhauser, I want to go to you here looking ahead to Saturday. You called it last hour, by the way. Rick Perry -- you told me this -- now we know -- will officially get in the race this Saturday. Jim Acosta just confirmed that for us.
But looking ahead, like I said, to Saturday, the Iowa straw poll, two Republican hopefuls with a lot at stake, you have Michele Bachmann, who did well at our debate, the CNN debate, and also Tim Pawlenty.
First, Paul, talked to me about Tim Pawlenty. Why is it so important for him?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, he's got a lot at stake.
Remember at our debate back in New Hampshire, he had a chance to really go after Mitt Romney, who's perceived to be the front-runner, and he didn't do it. And since then in the polls, he's not been doing so well. So, he's got the debate tonight, first debate tonight since our debate two months ago. And you got that crucial straw poll on Saturday.
There's a lot at stake for Tim Pawlenty. A lot of pundits say that if he didn't do well in the debate tonight and if he doesn't do well at the crucial straw poll in Ames, can his campaign survive? The Pawlenty people are downplaying that, but a lot is at stake for him and also for Michele Bachmann. She did well at our debate, and she has risen in the polls, but can she win the nomination? I think she has got a lot to prove at the debate and at the straw poll as well, Brooke.
I tell you, this weekend may end very differently than it started when it comes to the race for the Republican presidential nomination -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: Yes, Rick Perry is getting in. Who knows who else might.
Let's talk about the other fellow female here. Seemingly, bam, out of nowhere, you have Sarah Palin in there in Iowa. Has she been spotted? Do we know why she's there?
STEINHAUSER: Yes. Yes, we learned this last night. Guess where -- exactly. Every time Sarah Palin it seems is out of the spotlight, she jumps right back in.
And we learned last night that that One Nation bus tour, remember that, it went from Washington, D.C., to New Hampshire earlier this summer, a lot of coverage of that -- well, she's bringing that bus tour right here, the state fair in Des Moines, Iowa, probably tomorrow, maybe Saturday.
And you know what? Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, said she will announce, have a decision by probably September if she's going to run for the Republican presidential nomination.
You know her quite well, Shannon. You have covered her as well. I tell you, every time she's out of the spotlight, she's right back in it.
TRAVIS: The one thing that, as Paul said, Brooke, is that Sarah Palin unpredictable, definitely will shake up this race. We got Perry apparently jumping in now. If Sarah Palin jumps in, just like Paul just said, it will shake things up quite a bit.
BALDWIN: It's getting exciting, gentlemen.
Shannon Travis and Paul Steinhauser there at the state fair at Iowa, gentlemen, thank you so much.
Coming up next, the picks are in for what is suddenly becoming the most powerful group in Washington. You have six Democrats, six Republicans who about to take an axe and decide what gets cut from America's budget. It will affect every single one of us from entitlement programs, jobs. We're going to break down which lawmakers are making these massive decisions and where their interests lie.
But first, coming up, behind the scenes of this nationwide manhunt that ended in guns, a high-speed chase and blood -- no longer fugitives, these three siblings appearing in court today all of 24 hours after their violent run came to this screeching halt. That is ahead.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you come to a Christian school of something like that, the last thing you think is that one day something violent of this nature would happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Yesterday we thought it was a teacher. We have learned today it was a principal, a principal found inside a classroom lying in a pool of blood, a student now behind bars.
And there are breaking developments about what went down, about the student's disturbing plan. I will speak live with the Memphis police next -- a lot coming your way. Stay right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A Memphis school is in shock after a horrifying murder on just the third day of school. The school's principal was found dead in a pool of blood, stabbed multiple times. This happened at a Memphis private school affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventists.
Police say 17-year-old Eduardo Marmalejo (ph) told investigators that he stabbed Principal Suzette York and he had been planning to kill her months ago, since last may. The 17-year-old has now been charged with first-degree murder.
Joining me by phone, Memphis Police Spokesman Toney Armstrong.
Toney, what happened? What happened?
TONEY ARMSTRONG, DIR., MEMPHIS POLICE SERVICES (via telephone): From the information we have now, it appears that this young man is a suspect we have in custody now, has been carrying a grudge all summer long for something that happened last year in reference to a class that he was either allowed to take, or not allowed to take. At some point throughout the day, he found himself alone in the classroom --
BALDWIN: So am I hearing you right? That this is--
ARMSTRONG: Armed with a knife, he attacked Ms. York, stabbing her multiple sometimes, resulting in her death.
BALDWIN: So I'm hearing you right, this was all over a class he didn't want to take?
ARMSTRONG: Apparently he had recently been switched, well, last year, was switched out of a class. Apparently he enjoyed this class and did not want to be taken out of the class. He carried a grudge all summer for that. And basically conspired all summer to how he was going to get revenge for this.
BALDWIN: Did he conspire with anyone? Was there any indication this had been months in the making? Had he voiced this opinion to anyone, parents, friends?
ARMSTRONG: From the information we have now, no it does not appear he conspired with anyone. It seems like he acted alone in both his thoughts and carrying out of this crime.
BALDWIN: According to the Memphis newspaper I was reading this morning, Principal York had worked at the school for a number of years as a teacher, she had left to go back to Canada, and then school wooed her back to be principle. Obviously, I'm sure you know, living in Memphis, the community there is just in total shock. Let's listen to some of the reactions to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's so nice, that's why I'm kind of shocked. Why to her? Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tragic all the way around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We grieve. We grieve --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People have been praying at this corner of Memphis for a long, long time. It's a sad day for our whole community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: You're in Memphis, Toney. I'm sure you are talking to people about this. I can't imagine losing a teacher, let alone a principle, in such a horrendous way. What else are people saying. Is school off?
ARMSTRONG: Well, it's -- it's sad that you have something of this magnitude to happen in an institution of learning. You never want to even consider or in your wildest dreams, or your worst nightmare, think you are sending your child to school, and a teacher in this particular instance. This lady actually served dual roles as a teacher and principal, to be the victim of a violent crime that results in her death. I mean it is horrific. It is something that is probably going to have a tremendous affect on the kids as well as the additional staff in that school.
BALDWIN: Do we know anything more about the 17-year-old's past? Any red flags?
ARMSTRONG: From what we've been told and from the people we've talked to so far, there were no red flags. Don't know what could have possibly triggered him to react in this manner. We certainly wish there had been some red flags. Maybe somebody could have gotten prior to him acting out and carrying such rage around him for an entire summer. And then return to school, and we've only been back in school two, three days, and this is the result of it.
BALDWIN: Such rage. It is horrendous. As we mention looking at your police release, this man was charged-17-year-old charged with first-degree murder. Toney Armstrong from Memphis P.D., thank you so much for calling in.
ARMSTRONG: Thank you.
BALDWIN: We have new pictures of the brother/sister crime team arrested, as we mentioned, in Colorado. Take a look here, we have their mug shots. These are the siblings known as the Dougherty Gang. Here we have sister Lee Grace, in the middle, along with brothers Ryan and Dylan. They began their crime spree a little over a week ago in Florida, proved violent enough to earn a spot on the FBI's most wanted list.
Take a look with me at how their run from the law ended. The car, there, carrying the three of them, Flipped, slammed into that guardrail just yesterday morning during a high-speed shootout with Colorado law enforcement. Listen to what happened next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF CHRIS NOCCO, PASCO COUNTY, FLORIDA: They were prepared for a battle. That's what they got.
JIM DAVIS, COLORADO DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY: The female defendant took off running through a field. She had an automatic pistol. She turned and made an attempt to chamber around and point it at the officer, and he fired at least one shot striking her I believe in the leg.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The siblings appeared in a Colorado courtroom just a couple hours ago. They are now being held on $1.3 million bond each. Each sibling now charged with four counts of first-degree assault on a peace officer. That's just in Colorado. Add those charges to the armed bank robbery complaint the State of Georgia has waiting for them. The robbery came just hours after the siblings became in gang on the run.
That part of the story takes us back to Florida where a police officer says this trio fired on him when he tried to pull them over for speeding. That was the moment that manhunt began. The Florida officer spoke out today. You can hear the relief in his voice that these three are caught.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OFFICER KEVIN WINDER, ZEPHRYLLS, FLORIDA POLICE: At first it was like, wow, you know, they're shooting at me? And then it just turned to I just want to catch them, you know, before they hurt anybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Just to give you an idea to why these officers, why law enforcement was so eager to catch this Dougherty Gang. I want you to watch and listen to the video that was recorded by that Florida officer's dash cam, as he was in hot pursuit of these siblings. Listen and watch this. Listen for him to say Morris Bridge, right after he says that you'll hear several pops. Those are gunshots. That gives you just an idea how dangerous this initial chase was.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WINDER: He just cut through the parking lot of CVS at Morris Bridge, he -
(GUNSHOTS)
WINDER: He's now headed south, down on Morris Bridge. Fired several more shots at me.
BALDWIN: So you can hear some of the shots, maybe hitting some of the metal on the car there. The three now sitting in a Colorado jail, yet to be determined which state gets priority over where this Dougherty Gang will be heading next. Could it be Florida? Could it be Georgia, or do they stay in Colorado? You know we'll keep you posted. Now this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love the family, this sister. Just became an uncle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw the man in uniform, and I just fell to my knees. There's just no preparing for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The Department of Defense has now released the names of all of those U.S. troops who were killed when that helicopter was fired upon and went down early Saturday morning in Afghanistan.
In total, here, 38 people died in that attack; 22 were U.S. Navy personnel, including 17 SEALs, and five so-called conventional forces, who regularly work with those SEALs. Three were U.S. Air Force air controllers. Five were Army helicopter crew members. Eight were Afghan military personnel.
Police would like to know who opened fire on a New York State lawmaker and his seven-year old son. Neither was injured in this hail of gunfire last night. But the SUV that Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. was in has three bullet holes in it. The shooting happened in the heart of Brooklyn, the neighborhood he represents. It's unclear if Boyland who had recently been embroiled in this federal corruption case, if he was the intended target. Constituents say they're happy he's OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so happy that nothing happened to him. OK? I'm going to tell you one thing, that God was on his side, and his kid's side. He is a beautiful man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: A spokeswoman for the lawyer says that police suspect that these bullets that hit Boyland's vehicle was crossfire from an unrelated gang shooting and two people are in custody. Police deny making any arrest yet in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is shooting through the atmosphere and almost breaking air apart as it flies through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Oh, somebody is a little excited over this. A jet that could-could take you from New York to Los Angeles in 12 minutes. Really we should be saying this is a rocket. Not impressed by that? How about anywhere in the world in under an hour?
The U.S. military testing a hyper sonic jet that could change air travel as we know it. Wait until you hear why they are doing this, and why. At this very moment it's missing. I've got Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, to explain this.
Also Chad Myers will geek out a bit, I have a feeling. Don't miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: OK, I can't stop talking about this with Chad Myers. OK, imagine -- imagine being able to fly anywhere in the world in under an hour? Sounds unreal, right? Think again. The Pentagon's new ride, it's called the fall ton hypersonic test vehicle two, or HTV2 for short, this experimental, unmanned aircraft could travel from New York City to L.A. in a cool 12 minutes. Today's test flight, by the way, attempt number two here, lifted off earlier today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Here's how it's supposed to work. An air force rocket boosts the HTV2 to the edge of space. The aircraft separates from the rocket. It reenters the atmosphere and reaches speeds up to 13,000 miles an hour. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is standing by, also Chad Myers is standing by as well.
Barbara, first to you. This sounds amazing, but today's test flight not a success. They lost contact with this thing. What happened?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It didn't work too well, did it? It turns out about nine minutes in flight this unmanned vehicles, basically they did lose contact with it, no electronics signals going back and forth between the vehicle and ground controllers. Their working assumption now is that it basically sort of self-detonated and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, exactly how it's supposed to.
But Brooke, 13,000 miles an hour, Mach 20, the friction it creates is something like 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit on the skin of the aircraft. I guess one of the questions is, does it fly faster than Superman? I think we're looking into that.
BALDWIN: I know that yet. We'll have to track him down and ask. But Mach 20, that's kind of fast. But why are they doing this? We may have fun with this in a moment, but this is just for research. This would just for the military, right? This would never be meant for sticking someone in this thing?
STARR: Well, I think most of us would be a lot of anti-sickness bills. I won't be too cavalier about it. It is trying to test a concept of hypersonic military technology in all candor. What they want to do is see if they can actually prove that they can fly at these speeds.
What does that mean? It means the military could deliver weapons to a target anywhere in the world within one hour. That's the kind of response type that the military is looking for obviously in a very serious security crisis, that it can put a bomb on target one hour from launch, one hour from making the decision. That's a very futuristic concept. But it's one of the things they're really looking at down the road. It means you don't have to deploy tens of thousands of troops possibly halfway around the world. If you do this, that's the instant response the military of the future wants, Brooke.
BALDWIN: That is amazing. Barbara Starr, thank you.
I'm bringing in Chad Myers. We had an interesting conversation earlier behind the scenes over, obviously as Barbara illuminated, there's no way this would be for human flight whatsoever, 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, forget about it. But we were talking in terms of Gs. You had been on a Blue Angels flight that got up to.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was 7.6.
BALDWIN: And how did you fare?
MYERS: The vision in my eyes started going away. This is only 10 seconds with a 7.6 pull, right. So the vision started going away. I had about that much to see. And then it all turned black and white and got all sparkly. And then the pilot pulled out and I could see it again. But I was doing the thing called the Hick maneuver. So you like grunt to keep the blood in your head. And it's like --
BALDWIN: Like you're slamming a tennis ball. MYERS: Like your entire face is turning red because the blood's coming back up. If you're not doing it, though, you're going to pass out. All the blood will be in the bottom or your feet, because all the G forces are down. The G forces on this plane would be enormous, maybe 20, 30 Gs, which would be like you hitting yourself in an embankment --
BALDWIN: Forget it.
MYERS: -- a concrete embankment in your car. That's how instantaneous it is.
BALDWIN: So you're able to do six, seven Gs in a Blue Angel. Just because I don't mind making fun of myself, let's go ahead and pull up the video when I was at space camp a couple weeks ago, months ago, whenever I was there, and I got on the centrifuge, because you know astronauts, when they're launching up into space, they go three, max four Gs.
So here I am in the centrifuge, we're supposed to be going 3.2. This poor kid Clayton sitting next to me, he was so excited to go around, whipping around this thing. And I lasted three Gs, and then I was waving the proverbial red flag. Plus my crew had my eating lunch before this thing. Nothing happened, but I think that was a cruel joke. Point being, I have such respect for people who can endure that.
MYERS: Yes. And this vehicle -- I want to call it a vehicle, because it isn't a plane.
BALDWIN: It's a rocket.
MYERS: It's the end of a rocket that shoots off, drops back into the atmosphere. It's not that we can't go Mach 20. We've never gone Mach 20 in the atmosphere. You can go in space Mach 20, because there's no drag, there's no air up there. But this thing literally tears air apart -- I know you love that term --
BALDWIN: I do.
MYERS: It disassociates oxygen, it disassociates nitrogen as the end of that front ring hits that air, it literally rips it apart. There's no laminar flow, there's no Bernuli principle. You know that is. You know I can take this piece of paper and make it go up.
BALDWIN: I remember that.
MYERS: It goes up because that's the life. I'm making lower atmosphere pressure. That has nothing to do with hyper-sonics.
BALDWIN: It's amazing. They're going to try again, 12 minutes, New York, L.A., very impressive. We'll be watching for it from the department of defense.
MYERS: They're more impressed with going from our side of the world to the other side of the world in under an hour rather than New York to L.A.
BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thanks for having a little fun.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BALDWIN: Now to this. A frightening development actually in the case of the Grim Sleeper. He's already accused of killing 10 women, but now investigators say he could be linked to more murders, as in 230 of them. Coming up, the brand-new efforts to get inside his mind. Sunny Hostin is on the case. That's next.
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BALDWIN: The infamous bandit gets a movie deal and the Grim Sleeper serial killer investigation is now really expanding. Sunny Hostin is on the case here.
And Sunny, let's start with the Grim Sleeper case in L.A. His name is Lonnie David Franklin, Jr. He was arrested in Los Angeles more than a year ago, charged with killing 10 women. This week, L.A. police say they're now looking into 230 unsolved murders to see if this guy is at all tied to them.
It is a massive undertaking. What is involved here?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's quite terrifying, isn't it, Brooke? And it's interesting. I think what's involved is going over every place he lived and worked since the mid-70s. The reason he's called the Grim Sleeper is because he started his serial killing in the mid '70s and then took a break for almost 14 years, almost slept. And so that is why they're reviewing unsolved cases because while they think that certainly he had a lot to do with the 10 -- he's the suspect in the 10 cases that he has been charged with, they believe there are many, many more.
BALDWIN: What are some of the common threads they could be looking for, and why open so many more? It seems daunting.
HOSTIN: Yes, well, interestingly enough when they raided his home and searched his home, they found about 1,000 photos, and hundreds of hours of video involving different women. And so they believe that that will give them some leads. We know that he preyed upon prostitutes. He had sort of a motive in that he sexually assaulted them, usually shot them, and dumped them in trash cans and covered them with debris. Any so any sort of profile that fits that, I guess, motive, they are going to look at.
BALDWIN: Case number two, the so-called barefoot bandit. He's the kit, we've covered him, who pleaded guilty to this one-person crime spree. He stole cars, boats, planes. His cross-country spree brought him folk outlaw status. Now comes word today, and by the way, he's 20 years of age, and reportedly has signed a movie deal worth $1.3 million with 20th Century FOX, Sunny. But he's not getting all this money. Where is he saying the money will go?
HOSTIN: Apparently he's not getting any of it, because he owes $1.4 million in restitution to his victims. And so he's made it very clear that none of this money will go to him. Rather it will go to his victims.
And that's really how it works. Most states have enacted the Son of Sam laws, Brooke, where really criminals cannot profit from their crimes. Typically what happens, even in the federal case -- there is also a federal statute -- any money derived from a crime does go to victims.
So I would say there are people that are outraged by this amount. I quite frankly am shocked that why people are that interested in his story. I mean, he's a criminal just like the other ones that people prosecute every day, folks that I have prosecuted. But I think it's a good thing that his victims will get their money because oftentimes in these cases, these defendants are judgment-proof. So a good thing, perhaps, comes out of his criminal behavior.
BALDWIN: I guess, but a kid running around barefoot stealing yachts and planes and cars --
HOSTIN: I don't get it.
BALDWIN: I don't know. Wait for the movie, I guess.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Sunny, thank you very much.
Coming up here the picks are in. We finally know now who will sit on the so called super congress, super committee group of lawmakers deciding what gets cut from our budget. And Nancy Pelosi's selections could make this an even bigger battle.
Also, the U.S. has just made a huge move in the race to save lives in the famine that's putting millions of people at risk. Coming up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta gives us an explanation into what's happening there in Somalia with regard to starvation, and it isn't the most immediate concern right now.
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BALDWIN: I want to share a staggering figure with you on the famine in Somalia and other parts of East Africa. More than 29,000 children have died since mid-May and that is according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Many more children are sick and not enough food, not enough supplies are in emergency camps to help them. The U.S. says it is sending an additional $17 million to the horn of Africa.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that brings this year's total assistance to more than $580 million, but it's still not enough to help those suffering. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me with here with a firsthand look -- Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, you've ahead the numbers now for some time at the largest refugee camp in the world.
People coming here in search of a better life, but for many people that's simply not the case. In fact, for some their problems have only just begun and for some parents out there, they're forced to do the unthinkable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: The kids here will melt your heart.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: How old are you?
GUPTA: Wow, I'm 41.
(voice-over): They impressed me with their English. So I spoke a little Somali to them. They loved it. (Inaudible) Is that good?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): Rare smiles in a place too full of heartbreak. Amin and her 1-month-old daughter Addison came here in search of a better life, fighting so hard not to starve to death, but in the end it made little difference.
Amin lost the one thing in the world she cared about more than anything else. We are walking to her daughter's grave. They are really just piles of dirt, with no nameplate. No flowers, no reminders of their lives, just small sticks with colored plastic trash blowing in the wind.
She says she brought her healthy baby girl here with dreams of new beginnings, but Addison died within a month.
(on camera): What went wrong?
(voice-over): She started vomiting, she said, then diarrhea. It wouldn't stop for days and days. Diarrheal illness, it has been the major reason 30,000 kids have died here over the past three months. So many tiny little graves like this one.
(on camera): You know, part of the problem is even after you get to one of these camps, there's still not enough food here, not enough water and there are plenty of infectious diseases. There are viral illnesses. There's also diphtheria. There's pertussis.
And I want to shows something else, something that's very frightening in a camp like this. This is Osmond. He's 14 years old. You can tell he really doesn't feel well. People are concerned that he has measles.
He had a high fever, the characteristic rash and conjunctivitis in his eyes. He never got vaccinated. He never got any sort of treatment. And measles, as you know is very, very contagious. He has nowhere else to go.
(voice-over): And so hundreds of thousands more of these adorable children unvaccinated are at risk of the same fate as Amin's daughter.
(on camera): Is there anything anybody can do? It is with God.
(voice-over): It is with God. So there's nothing else these kids can do, but laugh and play, surrounded by the dead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Brooke, it's tough to think about, but it's happening way too often out here. Parents actually burying their children. Again, it's just unbelievable.
But you also have to keep in mind, it's not just about food and water, but also about medical care, vaccinations, making sure that people get these things quickly. That can make a huge difference. Back to you.
BALDWIN: And that mother herself so young. Sanjay, thank you. If you want to keep watching some of Sanjay's reporting, you can do so special edition of "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." this weekend on the "frontlines of Famine" Saturday and Sunday mornings both at 7:30 right here on CNN.
A lot going on here in the world of politics today, we started this hour with some breaking news about the race for president. While the candidates already in the race are in Iowa. We're going to bring Wolf Blitzer back in, next.
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BALDWIN: Now for a check of what's going on in "THE SITUATION ROOM" in a couple of minutes. Let's go to Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Wolf, we were talking, what, just less than an hour ago, breaking news in the world of politics.
You got Texas Governor Rick Perry, no big surprise, saying he's going to announce, what, Saturday.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Yes, it's going to be official on Saturday. Not a huge surprise as you say. He earlier said he's going to South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa over the weekend. Only one reason to visit those specifics states, he didn't say he was going to North Dakota, California and Utah, for example.
He's going to the first three contest states for the Republican presidential nomination. So he'll make it official. He's running. It's going to shake things up I think rather dramatically in this race.
He's going to quickly emerge as a potential frontrunner together with Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann. It's going to be an exciting Republican contests. He's going to bring some of that Texas flair into this race as well.
He's got some credentials 10 years or so. He's been governor of Texas ever since George W. Bush became president of the United States. He succeeded President Bush as governor of Texas so he's got a lot of gubernatorial experience, which I'm sure he'll talk about it in great length over the coming weeks and months.
BALDWIN: He does pretty good numbers when it comes to jobs, employment there in his big state of Texas.
Wolf Blitzer, we will see you in a couple of minutes there on "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thank you very much.
Still to come here, big news out of the Washington today. Congressional leaders have named all 12 members of the Super Committee, that debt-busting committee charged with handling that deficit. The final three were named today. Joe Johns will tell us who they are and what they bring to the table, next.
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BALDWIN: Well, we now have the final piece to this debt-busting puzzle solved as we get this news here out of Washington. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has now come forward today announcing her appointments, her three appointments to this bipartisan Congressional Super Committee to cut the nation's deficit.
Joe Johns is joining me with that. Joe, give me the names. Who are they?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, they all have ties to her leadership, the last Democrats to be named to this Congressman Jim Clyburn is the assistant minority leader from South Carolina. Number three Democrat in the House, highest ranking African-American member of Congress.
No stranger to this issue, present for the vice president's debt negotiations, certainly a liberal of Congress, taking heat, too right now, conservative group, Americans for Limited Government. Slammed his selection because of his past earmarking and said the Super Committee process is going to be a farce.
Javier Becerra from California, he is the Democratic Caucus vice chair. He's the first Hispanic on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax issues. He's seen as a very sharp guy, at times certainly outspoken.
Congressman Chris Van Hollen from Maryland is the former money guy for the Democrats in the House, who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He's also a member of the Budget Committee. His naming to this committee was predicted.
He put out a statement saying he thinks fixing the unemployment problem is the best way to reduce the deficit, and is seen by some as a Democratic rising star in Congress, Brooke.
BALDWIN: OK, so we now officially have these 12 people. We have three, three, three and three representing the House, Senate, both parties, put them all together, this picture, what does that look like?
JOHNS: Think of it in terms of a jury, perhaps. A jury and their job is to pass judgment and cut out $1.2 trillion worth of debt. Twelve people, there are 11 men in this group. There's one woman, Senator Patty Murray of Washington State.
There's one Hispanic, Becerra, one African-American, Clyburn, six of the people on the so-called jury come from the Senate side, six from the House side, liberals, conservatives. All six Republicans, by the way, signed a pledge not to raise taxes. On the liberal side, you have Patty Murray, a leader in the fight to protect entitlements. I think you can say the two minority leaders in the Congress, the Republican leader in the Senate, the Democratic leader in the House picked at least two people who would certainly protect their respective bases.
So in the middle you have some potential for deals. Senators like Kerry, Baucus, Portman are seen as perhaps able to compromise and we've got until Thanksgiving to see something happen.
BALDWIN: So it's Thanksgiving, that's the deadline. If they can't come to some kind of compromise then that's when the so-called trigger mechanisms come into place. But you know, here's hoping they can pull it through.
Joe Johns in Washington. Thank you so much.
That's it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in Atlanta now tossing things off to Wolf Blitzer. "THE SITUATION ROOM" starts right now.
