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Sex Trafficking in the U.S.; "Popinator" Mania; Rage Over Anti- Muslim Movie; Protesters Condemn Attack on U.S. Consulate; Cancer Cures Within Reach
Aired September 22, 2012 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
You're in THE NEWSROOM. Let's get you up to speed on the day's headlines.
Protests flare up across the Muslim world as rage against that anti- Islam movie continues to burn.
Several protesters were arrested in the capital of Bangladesh as police try to break up a furious mob. The crowd took out their anger on the police, torching a van. At the same time, there is a new threat to the life of the man who produced that movie. We'll have more on that straight ahead here on CNN.
There are new developments also in Libya tonight. Two extremist militia groups are disbanding and shutting down bases in eastern Libya in response to counter protesters' demands. Those counter-protesters rallied last night in Benghazi against groups they say are responsible on the attack against the U.S. consulate that killed four Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pro-democracy demonstrators began taking the situation into their own hands and storming various headquarters of known extremist militias in the city of Benghazi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Counter-protesters were met by some resistance. Four people were killed and dozens injured last night in Benghazi. More in Libya in about three minutes here on CNN.
At least 220 people were killed today in Syria with government forces shelling Aleppo and the Damascus suburb.
This comes as leaders of the rebel Free Syrian Army are moving from Turkey into Syrian territories these fighters seized. It's a milestone for the group which has many ex-soldiers who defected from President Bashar al-Assad's army to fight the regime. Its leader says the next step is to start liberating Damascus.
The wife of a missing retired FBI agent hopes to meet with the president of Iran to plead for her husband's safe return. Robert Levinson disappeared on Kish Island off Iran's coast back in 2007, while investigating cigarette smuggling for a private company. Now, billboards with Levinson's pictures are up in New York's Times Square in hopes Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will see them when he attends a U.N. General Assembly next week.
His wife is pleading with Iran's president for a meeting. She last him in a video sent to her two years ago where he is pleading for his release.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT LEVINSON, AMERICAN HOSTAGE: Thirty-three years of service to the United States deserves something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Iran's president has repeatedly turned down meeting requests from Levinson's wife in the past.
A man jumped into a tiger den at the Bronx zoo because of a desire to be with the tigers. That is according to New York police. The man jumped from the monorail car yesterday into the pit where a tiger bit him. Rescue crews helped move the tiger away from the man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Is the tiger going to be put down?
JIM BREHENY, DIRECTOR, BRONX ZOO: No, absolutely -- as I said, the Tiger did nothing wrong in this, did nothing wrong in this case at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Twenty-five-year-old man is in stable condition with a broken shoulder, rib, pelvis, and ankle. He will be charged with trespassing.
The filmmaker behind that anti-Muslim movie that has caused outrage in several countries is said to be in hiding, and he may need the stay there. A Pakistani government minister says he'll pay for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's death for $100,000. He says he feels it's his duty as a Muslim to do this, and he is inviting two of his enemies to carry out the assassination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GHULAM AHMAN BILOUR, PAKISTANI MINISTR OFFERING BOUNTY (through translator): I announced today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward with 100,000 U.S. dollars.
I invite the Taliban and al Qaeda brothers to join in this sacred mission, and God willing, whoever is successful in killing him will get the $100,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The minister made it clear to CNN that this is his own idea, and it isn't the official position of Pakistan's government.
Counter protests growing in the Libyan city where U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Pro- democracy demonstrators in Benghazi are fighting back against radical extremists they blame for the deadly attack.
CNN's Arwa Damon has more from Benghazi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: This probably is one of the few countries where we are seeing mass demonstrations not just in support of the United States, but more condemning the attack that took place on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. People taking to the streets yesterday in the thousands, demanding democracy. But more importantly, demanding an end to these extremist militias whom people and the government here say were in fact behind that attack that took Ambassador Stevens' life and the life of three other Americans.
What happened is that at night on Friday hundreds of these pro- democracy demonstrators began taking the situation into their own hands and storming various headquarters of known extremist militias in the city of Benghazi, including the headquarters of the militia known as Ansar al-Sharia. And if you'll remember, the Libyan government has said that it has detained individuals who are part of Ansar al-Sharia, in association with the attack on the U.S. consulate, although they say the group as a whole was not behind that assault.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN's Arwa Damon reporting there.
It's getting close. Just 45 days until Election Day, President Obama back on the campaign trail in Wisconsin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Barack Obama!
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: He held a rally this just the last hour in Milwaukee. And earlier today, he held a couple of fundraisers with home run king, Hank Aaron. He hit a familiar theme with the crowd in Milwaukee, hammering Mitt Romney over his plan for tax cuts.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He thinks that if we just spend another $5 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, all our problems are going to go away. Jobs and prosperity will rain down on everybody, deficits will magically disappear. It will all end happily ever after. But there is a problem with that. We tried what they're selling. We tried it for a decade. It didn't work then and it won't work now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Mitt Romney also on the road, but he is working out of sight. He is holding fundraisers in California, raising some campaign cash.
Here is Romney's number two, Paul Ryan spending the day in Florida. Several hours ago he held a town hall in Orlando. And this morning he held a rally in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.
The vice president, Joe Biden, and his wife Jill, they're in New Hampshire on the second day of a two-day swing through that state.
It is a groundbreaking announcement from the largest cancer center in the world. Researchers are finally in a position to radically reduce the death rate from several common cancers. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has all the details next.
And child sex trafficking, the horror for teens and the horror for parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst part was the torture I had to hear about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: How one mother's story shines the light on a growing and dangerous problem in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breakthrough medical news to tell you about that could mean the difference for life and death for thousands of cancer patients. The world's largest cancer center announced it's just years away from radically reducing the death rates from some of the most common types of cancer.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, got exclusive access inside the lab of the MD Anderson Center.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you translate?
(voice-over): Rozlyn Austin is 23 years old. She was half way through her senior year of college last December when she noticed something strange in her left breast.
ROZLYN AUSTIN, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: Something was just not right. And I knew it was not. And it just -- you know, I just felt like it was something not good.
GUPTA: Two doctors told her not to worry. But a biopsy told her the truth. It was cancer.
Rozlyn lives outside Dallas. But her father, an x-ray technician, insisted they drive six hours to Houston, in MD Anderson.
The first thing you notice when you get here -- this place is big. In fact, a whole city devoted to fighting cancer. Hallways, like highways here. And if you're walking, stick to the side. That's the part with the blue stripes.
More than 100,000 patients every year, nearly 20,000 employees, more than a thousand clinical trials, all of it going on at once.
And now, Dr. Ronald Depinho, MD Anderson's president, says we are at a turning point.
DR. RONALD DEPINHO, PRESIDENT, MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: We're in a position to make dramatic impact on cancer morality in this decade.
GUPTA (on camera): You're saying if we do everything right, and five years from now, there will be far fewer people dying from cancer, right?
DEPINHO: Correct. I think that with existing knowledge, and the application of what we know now, we could begin to see dramatic declines in mortality, that would accelerate in years five through 10, and beyond, set the stage for ultimate control of the disease.
GUPTA (voice-over): He calls it the moon shots program. They're pouring in $3 billion over 10 years, at a time when national funding for cancer research is flat.
So, how will it save lives? You might think it's all about wonder drugs. But what strikes me is that the biggest promises involved things that are much more basic.
DEPINHO: When people talk about curing cancer and wrestling this disease to its knees, they really think in terms of having that magical cocktail for a patient with the advanced disease. It's much more than that.
GUPTA: Take lung cancer, that's the biggest killer of men and women. It's also the first on the list.
DEPINHO: So if you catch stage one lung cancer, you're dealing with about a 20 percent morality, as opposed to advanced stage cancers where you are dealing with about 10 percent survival. So just by shifting the stage, you have an opportunity to impact on 170,000 deaths per year.
GUPTA: He is talking about screening, but screening does have a down side. False-positive test results, leading to invasive procedures. Even surgery for patients who turned out not to have cancer.
Recent studies show, though, if you focus on current or former heavy smokers, that down side is smaller. More the suspiciously findings really are cancer. GUPTA (on camera): Figuring out who to screen, in this case, heavy smokers, you can make a huge impact.
DEPINHO: A huge impact.
GUPTA (voice-over): Or look at melanoma.
(on camera): When you sort of forecast now, a few years into the future, this is a big moment as you're describing for MD Anderson, is there a particular cancer where you think there's going to be the greatest impact?
DEPINHO: Well, the one that I'm most excited about is melanoma.
GUPTA (voice-over): I got an exclusive look at some experimental therapies that in a handful of cases are actually reversing a disease, that even now is usually fatal once it spreads.
It's vitally important science, but MD Anderson says we'll save more lives through systematic screening and basic prevention, by keeping kids out of the sun.
DEPINHO: We know from a pilot study in Germany that a seven-year intensive screening for skin lesions led to a 50 percent mortality in melanoma. There's no drug that does that.
GUPTA: Also on the moon shot list, prostate cancer, and two types of leukemia. There are new medicines and a growing understanding of the genes involved.
Also targeted, triple-negative ovarian cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer, like Rozlyn's. These cancers are aggressive. But Depinho says our understanding of genetics is now at a point where doctors can make rapid progress developing and using the right treatments.
AUSTIN: I came back positive for BRCA 1.
GUPTA: Rozlyn was fortunate, in that she caught her cancer early. And after surgery and chemotherapy, the doctors say the tumor is gone. Her goal is to be a pediatrician. And for now, she's devoting her time to helping other patients.
AUSTIN: I tell people I see a bright future ahead of me. So I'm going to get right back in school and act like this pretty much never happened.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Houston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And there are some promising news to tell you about one of America's favorite TV personalities. I'm happy to report that ABC's Robin Roberts is feeling energized. Her doctors say the bone marrow transplant from her sister only took about five minutes on Thursday, and also say the next five to seven days will be crucial ones, and she may be in the hospital for a month. They're watching closely to see if the transplant takes, and for possible infection.
The "Good Morning America" host is battling a rare blood disorder she got because of earlier treatment for breast cancer.
Wishing you well, Robin.
In the nuclear standoff with Iran, we keep hearing about this red line, essentially the no turning back point. Ahead, how the two men running for president feel about the issue. They don't feel the same way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: There is no doubt about it. How the U.S. handles a country that crosses a red line has become part of the race for the White House. CNN guess in-depth now on the issue of foreign policy to see where President Obama and Mitt Romney differ over two looming issues internationally -- Iran's nuclear program and the civil war in Syria.
The specifics from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney on degree on two crucial, national security issues. Iran will not be allowed to go nuclear and Syria will not use its chemical weapons. But if it looks like either might happen, they differ on what could trigger sending U.S. troops into action.
On Syria --
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change any calculus. That would change any equation.
STARR: The White House won't say what it will do if the red line is crossed. Seizing dozens of chemical weapons sites would be tough, requiring tens of thousands of troops on the ground.
Romney has openly called for covert action.
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would -- instead of watching what's happening in Syria from a dispassionate distance, I would be leading in Syria by encouraging our friends there, like the Turks and the Saudis, to provide weapons to the insurgents in Syria.
STARR: But he, too, hasn't said how or when he would use U.S. troops.
The bottom line on Syria? President Obama's red line, moving or using chemical weapons. Governor Romney advocates greater U.S. involvement now.
On Iran, the candidates agree. Iran cannot be allowed a nuclear weapon. OBAMA: We are determined to prevent Iran if acquiring a nuclear weapon.
STARR: Romney has a different take.
ROMNEY: Clearly, we all hope that diplomatic and economic pressures put on Iran will dissuade them from becoming a nuclear-capability nation.
STARR: The bomb bottom line on Iran? President Obama says the regime would have to take direct steps to acquire a nuclear weapon. For Governor Romney, the red line merely having a nuclear capability without actually moving ahead to produce a weapon.
But in the case of Iran, many believe the red line already has slipped.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: We said that any enrichment was unacceptable in the case of Iran and, yet, here they are with hundreds of kilograms, if not thousands, of material.
STARR (on camera): Neither candidate is advocating war with Syria or Iran. Both of them, in fact, have expressed hope the sanctions will work, but if the red lines get crossed, both of those countries pose serious national security challenges to the United States.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Barbara.
And remember, for in-depth coverage of the election campaign, just go to CNN.com. CNN.com -- you can get all the information there.
A flight for the history books. The space shuttle Endeavour made its mark this week, becoming the final shuttle to take to the skies this time on the back of a 747. Aren't those pictures beautiful? Can't look at them enough.
Endeavour is the last of the four remaining shuttles to head to a new life at a museum -- as a museum centerpiece. It will be at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The three-day trip from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida could be described as taking the scenic route. Wednesday, it flew over NASA facilities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas.
Thursday, it flew low over Tucson, Arizona, where Mark Kelly, who was a commander on the last Endeavour mission, watched with his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Friday, Endeavour made a picturesque pass over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Isn't that spectacular? All told, Endeavour made 25 flights into space, traveling over 123 million miles. The space shuttle Endeavour, making its mark this week. Until I dragged that out to look at those beautiful pictures. Amazing. The end of an era truly.
Moving on now. Child sex trafficking, the horror for teens and the horror for parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The worst part was the torture I had to hear about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: How one mother's story shines a light on a ballooning problem in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You don't have to be in front of a television to watch CNN. You can do what I do. You can stay connected. You can do it on your cell phone, or you can do it from your computer at work. Just go to CNN.com/TV.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Survival sex -- trading sex for a warm meal or a place to stay. The term is disturbing enough. It's even more disturbing when it involves 13-year-olds trading sex just to stay alive.
And this is not happening in faraway places. It's happening in cities and suburbs around America. Teens being kidnapped and forced into prostitution.
CNN's Deb Feyerick begins our series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a state the FBI ranks as 13th in the nation for child sex trafficking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SGT. GRANT SNYDER, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're a few blocks away.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-ovver): Police Sergeant Grant Snyder has spent more than a decade combating sex trafficking in the Midwest.
SYNDER: White Dodge Caravan.
FEYERICK: In the van is a convicted pimp. He's about to violate probation meeting with a prostitute he picked up online. The transaction is under way when Sergeant Snyder and his team enter, confiscating potential evidence.
SNYDER: Got a bag here. Appears to have condoms. Couple thousands dollars in cash. FEYERICK (on camera): Is that a normal amount of money?
SNYDER: Considering that she's been here for a day, this is more than one client.
Minnesota is a place where a lot of women, a lot of girls are recruited in the sex trade.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Many travel these highways known as Spaghetti Junction, arguably the crossroads for those in the Midwestern sex trade. With its hundreds of conventions and year-round sporting events, trafficking online is so brazen, ads offer game day specials.
The FBI ranks Minneapolis-St. Paul among top 13 cities in the nation for child prostitution and adolescent sex trafficking.
JOHN CHOI, RAMSEY COUNTY ATTORNEY: We have this misconception that the children that are being trafficked are not the children that live in our communities. And all time what I see is that they have come from our communities.
VEDNITA CARTER, FOUNDER, BREAKING FEREE: When you hear sex trafficking, you think international victims. And when you say prostitution, you think of domestic, usually women that have choices. But the average age of entry is between 12 and 14.
FEYERICK: Teens more emotionally vulnerable than adults get coerced and forced into the sex trade without realizing it at first. The majority of these children are runaways. When they disappear, few notice. Survival sex is not uncommon. Teens trading sex for a warm meal or place to stay.
SNYDER: Imagine being 13 years old, you're a runaway. You don't have money for food. You don't have a credit card you. Don't want to go back home, because what's going on at home may be worse you feel than what is going on out here.
"VIOLET", MOTHER OF SEX-TRAFFICKED TEEN: Not knowing where your daughter is or your child, absolutely terrifying. I had nightmares, you know. I'd wake up and go to work in the morning, and she would be dead on my front stoop.
FEYERICK: She asked we not use her real name. So we'll call her "Violet". Her daughter ran away when she was 14.
(on camera): What do you understand of her live on the run?
VIOLET: I just know that she was doing what she had to do in her mind to survive.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Vulnerable and alone, the teen was a perfect target, later telling her mom she was spotted by a man at a bus stop.
VIOLET: And he saw her, and he approached her, wanted to know if she wanted to go hang out with him and his girlfriend. And she got in the car with him and that's where it all started. VEDNITA CARTER, FOUNDER, BREAKING FREE: They don't say they're pimps. They say they're boyfriends. So it's very easy to lure somebody into believing that this person doesn't mean any harm for me.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like many teens, by the time Violet's daughter realized, it was too late.
"VIOLET": Threats were made that if she told anything about what she was doing, or told on him that he would come back and kill her family.
FEYERICK (on camera): And she believed him?
"VIOLET": She believed him.
FEYERICK (voice-over): This is a story Vednita Carter hears over and over. Her group Breaking Free has helped hundreds of women and girls escape the sex trade. Carter says teens are forced into prostitution by someone they initially trust. And like victims of international sex trafficking, American girls are kept isolated and moved from place to place.
CARTER: Many young girls that get lured into prostitution end up in other cities, other states. And people don't realize that. It's very hard once they have been taken to find them.
FEYERICK (on camera): Roughly 1.7 million children runaway every year. The figure was quoted by advocates, though difficult to confirm independently is that within 48 hours of being a runaway, a teen will likely be approached by a pimp or someone in the sex trade.
(voice-over): That's why officers at Manhattan's Port Authority Police Department work tirelessly to find hundreds of teenaged runaways first before the pimps and traffickers. The missing from around the country are too many to name.
OFFICER JACK COLLINS, PORT AUTHORITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: For people who are looking to exploit kids, they'll throw a broad net out. It's not that they're just looking to get one or two kids at a time, while they are campaigning for one or two kids at a time, what they're doing is they might be speaking to as many as 10 kids a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't rely on people you don't know.
FEYERICK: This teenager from the midwest turns up with two friends and only $5 to meet a stranger.
OFFICER MARTIN JAYCARD, You know, I call the mother up. The mother is petrified. The mother wants her home.
FEYERICK: At 17, the girl is considered an adult in her state, and is therefore released.
JAYCARD: I said you don't know where you're going. You got no means of support. You don't know who this person is. He could be a serial killer.
"VIOLET': The worst part was the torture I had to hear about.
FEYERICK (on camera): Was this torture by pimps? By men that she had to have sex with in order to survive?
"VIOLET": Both. Both. Mainly the pimps. Getting burned with cigarettes, cigars, getting hit in the head with Snapple bottles, you know, maybe she didn't bring enough money in or maybe she didn't do what she was told by him so she got beat up.
FEYERICK (voice-over): The internet has changed the sex trade. Girls no longer need to walk the streets. Customers simply find them online. Teens like Violet's daughter are advertised through classified like this one, captioned "hot and sexy little pleaser." With more than $28 million in ad revenue in the last 12 months, backpage.com, the national advertising Web site, has been called a hub for prostitution.
MIKE FREEMAN, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINN. ATTORNEY: That was really where the pimp set out to the world that the services of this young woman were available.
FEYERICK (on camera): what your initial reaction when you clicked on escorts?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was actually disgusted. All I saw was naked behinds, naked breasts.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Minnesota prosecutor Mike Freeman says the girls advertised online are forced to have sex with numerous men a night. The trafficker sets the price and gets the cash.
(on camera): How much money are these men making?
FREEMAN: Too much. It's really hard to tell how much. But my guess is his lifestyle was pretty good.
FEYERICK: A couple of thousand a week?
FREEMAN: Oh, sure.
FEYERICK: How much did the girls get?
FREEMAN: Usually not much, if they get anything.
FEYERICK (voice-over) : Online classified like backpage.com also profit, charging a fee for every ad posted. But the Web site's attorney Liz McDougall says Backpage isn't putting profits before safety, and in fact works with law enforcement to eliminate sex trafficking.
LIZ MCDOUGALL, VILLAGE VOICE MEDIA, LLC: We're not in the prostitution business when we're doing everything possible to impede prostitution, to impede the exploitation of women, children, boys, men, labor, sex trafficking. The internet is unfortunately the vehicle for this, and within the internet we are trying to be the sheriff. FEYERICK: As for Violet's daughter -
"VIOLET": It has wrecked her life.
FEYERICK: Rescued in a police sting. She is currently at a safe house, getting the help she needs after missing for more than three years.
(on camera): You never stopped looking for her?
"VIOLET": Never.
(voice-over): Making her one of the lucky ones.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It turns out ordering a girl for sex can be just as simple as ordering a pizza, sadly. In part two of her series, Deb looks at how pimps are using the internet to sell girls and she confronts a lawyer for backpage.com.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (on camera): How would you feel, for example, I mean, as a mother if you saw an ad like this, or like this. Or I mean, this girl she says she is 19. If you saw your daughter in this - like this. What -
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Part two of Deb Feyerick's series airs next Saturday night right here 7:00 Eastern on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I already told you the vice president and Mrs. Biden were out today campaigning. The president was in Milwaukee, and there is his wife, there the first lady of the United States speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner in Washington. Let's listen.
MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: So we move forward and we won those battles. And we made progress that our parents and grandparents could never have dreamed of. But today while there are no more whites only signs keeping us out, no one barring our children from the schoolhouse door, we know that our journey is far, far from finished. But, yes -
But in many ways, the path forward for this next generation is far less clear. I mean what exactly do we do about children who are languishing in crumbling schools? What about kids growing up in neighborhoods where they don't have opportunities worthy of their dreams? What about the 40 percent of black children who are overweight or obese, or the nearly one in two who are on track to develop diabetes in their lifetimes? What court case do we bring on their behalf? What laws can be passed to end those wrongs? You see today the connection between our laws and our lives isn't always as obvious as it was 50 or 150 years ago.
And as a result, it's sometimes easy to assume that the battles in our courts and our legislatures have all been won. It's tempting to turn our focus solely to what is going on in our own lives and our own families and just leave it at that. And make no mistake about it, change absolutely starts at home. We know that. It starts with each of us taking responsibility for ourselves and our families. Because we know that our kids won't grow up healthy until our families start eating right and exercising more. That's on us.
LEMON: The first lady there talking about the importance of being healthy and the importance of family. Of course she has the Eat Healthy initiative. She is speaking tonight at the Congressional Black Caucuses Foundation Phoenix Awards dinner where they honor four people who are making a difference. And of course addressing the issues facing African-Americans. The first lady of the United States speaking in Washington.
Continue watching live if you want to watch at cnn.com/live.
Meantime, coming up tomorrow, don't method miss a great new Fareed Zakaria special. It's called "Global Lessons, Putting America to Work." It airs at 8:00 and 11:00 Eastern and Pacific. It's all about to solve this nation's unemployment problems. Here is a sneak peek.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: The world's tallest building, over half a mile-high. Man-made islands shaped like a palm tree, sprouting with luxury hotels. There is even an indoor ski slope in this desert oasis, conveniently located in a shopping mall.
Dubai stops at nothing to woo tourists. And when tourists come and spend their money, they're like walking job stimulus programs.
FRITZ VAN PASSION, CEO STARWOOD HOTELS AND RESORTS: They'll create about a million jobs by tend of this decade just from travel and tourism.
ZAKARIA: Fritz Van Passion is the CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, a company that owns the Sheraton, Westin and W hotel brands.
VAN PASSION: Twenty or 30 years ago people didn't think of going there now if you're in Europe, or especially if you're in Russia, it's a place where people go.
ZAKARIA: By 2020, hotel guests are predicted to triple.
VAN PASSION: This idea that a small city state could create a million jobs in a decade, that's an enormous amount of growth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: The rest tomorrow at 8:00 and 11:00 Eastern and Pacific time.
She is a TV personality that you either like or you don't, but one thing is for certain, Nancy Grace is passionate about the law. We love Nancy Grace here. She answers questions from I-reporters and talks about the murder case that still makes her cry. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Question for you. Which is tougher "Dancing with the Stars" or law school? HLN's Nancy Grace gives a surprising answer and talks about the cases that still make her cry when she takes questions from our I-reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: I think all child predators the first go- around should get life without parole. Now cry about that, ACLU.
Hello, I'm Nancy Grace from HLN, and I'm here to answer your questions from CNN ireport. What's your question, friend?
NICHOLAS PEGUES, IREPORTER: Hi, Nancy Grace. Which was harder, "Dancing with the Stars" or being a law school student?
GRACE: I'm going to have to go with law student because it lasted three years. And "Dancing with the Stars" only lasted three months. Although I would like to point out I did make to it the coveted final five. Law school was something I understood to an extent, and I can work, work, work, work, work. And the harder I worked, the better I could get. With dancing, either you got it or you don't.
RUMMEL PINERA, IREPORTER: Nancy, what qualities and skills that a person have in order to be successful prosecutor?
GRACE: As I tell my twins to this day who are only four, you don't have to be the smartest, strongest, don't have to hold your breath the longest, to be a good prosecutor, you got to care.
WILLIAM BERNSTEIN, JR., IREPORTER: Out of all the cases you talked about, horrific cases of children being abducted, missing, and found dead, what are some of the most compelling cases that you remember?
GRACE: I still remember a case a long time ago about Matthew Checchi. He was eight or nine years old, and he was at a public picnic area at the beach. His aunt took him to the bathroom and waited outside. And while he was in there, a guy slit his throat and he died. He bled to death on the bathroom floor. I guess that one. Sorry. That case always gets me upset.
KELLY ARNOLD, IREPORTER: All the horror and the death that you see every day, I just wanted to know how you cope with it each day when you go home?
GRACE: I remember when I prosecuting felony crimes and I would be leaving the courthouse. I would just have to pull over on the side of the road and cry. Now in my life, I have been blessed with my twins. And my love for them and being with them really helps me get past the shock and the horror of a lot of stories on which I report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So now you know what we've always known here. Nancy Grace is a big softy. To hear more from Nancy Grace and to see more I-report interviews, log on to cnn.com/interview. And be sure to catch Nancy Grace every weekend, of course, week night should say at 8:00 Eastern and again at 10:00 Eastern on HLN.
You wouldn't have heard this three years ago. "The Sound of Music" is helping to drown out the screams and the explosions of war. That's next.
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LEMON: In Afghanistan amid the strains of relentless violence, seemingly endless grief and pain comes a sound so much sweeter and so much more peaceful, music has found its way back in Afghan culture and it's coming to the U.S..
Here's CNN Anna Coren.
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ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sound of a budding pianist who 2-1/2 years ago was living a very different life.
WAHIDULLAH AMIRI, STUDENT (through translator): I was working on the street selling plastic bags and chewing gum. Now I go to school and study music.
COREN: 16-year-old Wahidullah Amiri had never touched a piano until he met Ahmad Samarst, the man responsible for creating the Afghanistan National Institute of music who believes, through music, the wounds of war can be healed.
AHMAD SAMARST, AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MUSIC FOUNDER: That vision was based on a very strong belief in the power of music.
COREN: With 141 students of which 41 are girls, the institute not only teaches music but gives these kids an education. Thanks to international funding led by the World Bank. And, as part of the school's policy, 50 percent of placements go to orphans and disadvantaged students like Negin Khpalwak.
NEGIN KHPALWAK, STUDENT (through translator): Music is very important to me because it's my future, she explains. I want to teach other students, especially young girls.
COREN: Ten-year-old Sapna Rehamati and her friend Aziza both live at an orphanage. They are playing a traditional Afghan song on one of the only pianos that survived the Taliban's brutal five-year rule. Most instruments were destroyed and used for firewood. If they were too big like piano, the Taliban would blow it up with a grenade.
SAPNA REHAMATI, STUDENT (through translator): The Taliban is bad, says Sapna. Every child, every human being should have the right to study music. Nobody should interfere in their lives. COREN (on camera): It's hard to imagine music not being a part of Afghanistan's rich and vibrant culture. In 1996 when the Taliban took over power, they banned all musical activity. So if you were caught with an instrument, let alone playing one, you risked being punished by getting your hands cut off.
(voice-over): The institute has just found out its youth orchestra will be performing in the United States early next week to sellout concerts in Washington's Kennedy Center and New York's Carnegie Hall.
WILLIAM HARVEY, AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MUSIC CONDUCTOR: When people of the world see that there are Afghan girls and boys performing side by side, that means, to a certain extent, that we've won and really Afghanistan has won.
COREN: As this country fast approaches an uncertain future with the international forces leaving in 2014, it's these children that will remain a beacon of hope.
Anna Coren, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Coming up - popcorn at the sound of your voice? It turns out there's more to the popinator than meets the eye. That looks like Tom, actually.
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LEMON: The popinator thing is all going to make sense now. File this under the it sounds too good to be true category. And it is.
CNN's Jeanne Moos has the real story behind the popinator.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's our duty to expose the popinator.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just hold on one second. OK. Thanks. Pop. Yes.
MOOS: Forget grubby greasy hands stuffing your face with popcorn. The popinator launched its kernels on command.
JAMES PERCELAY, CO-FOUNDER, THINKMODO: The popinator is a fully automated voice-activated popcorn launching machine that is triggered by the word "pop."
MOOS (on camera): Now, which of those words are actually true?
PERCELAY: The popinator uses a (INAUDIBLE) microphone system.
MOOS (voice-over): It's able to decipher the word "pop." And locate where the sound originates to find your mouth. No, not really. Nevertheless, it is still -
PERCELAY: The iPhone of popcorn delivery systems.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pop!
MOOS: The popinator video has taken the web by storm and taken in TV anchors, even Pee-wee Herman the guys who know a thing or two about automated food. We did the future of popcorn is here. Actually it's more like the future of viral marketing.
The co-founders of Thinkmodo dreamed up the popinator to promote the popcorn maker Popcorn Indiana. The only existing prototype actually fires not on voice command but by remote control. But the videos has become such a sensation -
PERCELAY: Not only people want the machine but companies are asking to license it to mass-produce it.
MOOS: But there's talk of actually mass-producing a voice-activated version. We'll believe it when we see it. Engineers spent a couple of months designing the popinator. Catching the kernels in the video required repeated takes.
PERCELAY: In some cases it took three. In some cases it took 15.
MOOS: It took me more than that.
(on camera): Pop! Pop!
(voice-over): Over my head.
(on camera): Pop!
(voice-over): Bouncing off my teeth.
(on camera): Pop!
You know who's not going to appreciate the popinator? The cleaning service, right. Pop!
(voice-over): Imagine the fun at staff meetings.
(on camera): Facilities, we have a popcorn emergency. Well, a thing called the popinator happened.
(voice-over): Though there are some places even facilities can't clean. Butt out.
Jeanne Moos, CNN.
(on camera): Pop!
(voice-over): With hair rather than a kernel of truth in my mouth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Pop! That was a piece of paper not popcorn. See you at 10.
