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Top Terror Suspect on U.S. Soil; Unemployment Dips Below 8 Percent; Romney in Florida; Obama Riding High on Job Numbers; North Korean Soldier Defects
Aired October 06, 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. You're in THE CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon.
Let's get you up to speed on the day's top stories.
The highest profile Islamic terror suspect in Great Britain is now here in the United States. Abu Hamza al-Masri, he and four other terror suspects appeared in federal courtrooms today just hours after landing on American soil. Stay there. Full details of the extradition and charges, just two minutes away here on CNN.
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both talking money today -- campaign funds, as a matter of fact. President's people announce they set a record for their campaign in September, bringing in $181 million.
We will get you now to central Florida. Live pictures there, you're looking at. It is a Mitt Romney rally near Orlando. Romney's campaign says his performance at Wednesday's debate energized donors who bumped Romney's coffers more than $12 million in the past 48 hours after the debate.
New developments to tell you about in the deadly meningitis outbreak. The CDC says the death toll has risen to seven people now. Sixty-four people in nine states have contracted meningitis linked to steroid injections into their spines. The plant where the contaminated steroid was made has been voluntarily shut down.
A North Korean soldier says he killed his platoon and squad leaders before defecting to the South. South Korean soldiers along the demilitarized zone heard the gun shots before the soldier crossed the heavily armed area between the countries. More than 2,000 people defect from North Korea to South Korea each year.
The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI will most likely pardon his former butler after he was found guilty of stealing confidential church documents. The pope's butler was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He's said to have passed the stolen documents to an Italian journalist.
Gas prices in California jumped again overnight. Drivers are now paying an average of $4.61 a gallon, some parts of the state seeing closer to six bucks. Experts blame it on a series of problems in California, refineries and an already low supply. CNN affiliate KNBC reports the most drivers are paying 50 cents more than just a week ago.
U.S. officials tried for years to get a Muslim cleric brought here from Britain to stand trial on terrorism charges. Well, today, that man and four others arrived in the United States. They were formally extradited and the wheels of justice are already turning.
CNN's Richard Roth now with details from New York -- Richard.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, it didn't take long after extradition for the accused terrorist Abu Hamza to appear in a U.S. court. The one-eyed, bearded, fiery cleric didn't say much as the 11 federal charges against him were read out. With an attorney by his side, he offered a simple "I do" when asked to confirm a financial court form he had filled out.
His major concern was about his ability to live in the U.S. prison system. Abu Hamza's attorney asked the government to return two prosthetics taken from him as he flew with other suspects from the U.K. to New York. His attorney said without the limbs, he won't be able to function in a civilized manner. Abu Hamza, who fought extradition for years in the U.K. and Europe, is accused in a 1998 kidnapping in Yemen, plotting to put a terrorist training camp in Oregon and supporting violent jihad in Afghanistan.
The federal magistrate ordered him held on arraignment for Tuesday. Two of the men who were flown in overnight with Abu Hamza did enter not guilty pleas at an earlier proceeding. Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary are charged with conspiring to kill Americans in the East African embassy bombings in 1998, which caused the deaths of 224 people and injured thousands of others. Bary nodded in apparent pride when charges against him were read out.
Two other men accused of fund-raising for terrorism through the Internet entered not guilty pleas in a Connecticut court. If convicted, Abu Hamza faces life in prison. The defendants are facing trial in American civilian courts, not military court, as in Guantanamo Bay, because that was the criteria for European justice to agree to extradite -- Don.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Richard, thank you.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressing his frustration with the leader of Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai said the U.S. isn't doing enough to fight terrorism in Afghanistan. Karzai wants the U.S. to send weapons and planes to the Afghan air force. But Panetta told reporters Karzai shouldn't be complaining.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We lost over 2,000 U.S. men and women. ISAF has lost forces there. And the Afghans have lost a large number of their forces in battle. Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy, not the wrong enemy, and I think it would be helpful if the president every once in awhile expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: From foreign affairs to domestic affairs now. An upbeat jobs report is getting wildly different reactions.
The unemployment rate fell below 8 percent for the first time since January of 2009. According to new numbers out yesterday, September's unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent, about 114,000 new jobs were added.
President Obama says the nation is moving forward, but there are still too many people out of work.
Mitt Romney says the unemployment rate dropped mainly because more jobless people got discouraged and stopped looking for work.
Outside the political spin, people's reactions showed restrained enthusiasm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think any improvement in the job numbers is obviously good. And I'm glad that it's happening and I'm glad it's happening possibly just before the election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the numbers are accurate, that's always a positive thing. I don't know how you could spin it negatively, but I'm sure someone will.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's encouraging but I don't know that it's where it's going to stay. I feel like it might go back up. I'm hopeful that it could stay down and I'm hopeful the jobs are coming back. But it just seems like it's too soon to tell that it's going to keep declining.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LEMON: You can see the jobs numbers elicited cautious optimism in many people. Others, like one former G.E. CEO, suggested the administration was playing fast and loose with the numbers. Some people were upset by that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: To say something like this is like Donald Trump saying that President Obama is not an American citizen without any proof. You are Jack Welch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: More of that heated exchange, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Friday's jobs report was good news, both for Americans and for President Barack Obama's re-election effort. But some people like former General Electric CEO Jack Welch hinted that the Obama campaign was responsible for cooking the books.
Welch wrote on Twitter, he said, "Unbelievable jobs numbers. These Chicago guys will do anything. Can't debate so change numbers."
Well, CNN's Ali Velshi challenged him yesterday about that claim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: To say something like this is like Donald Trump saying that President Obama is not an American citizen without any proof.
You are Jack Welch. Jack, you got to take this opportunity while everybody is listening to you to actually say, yes, Anderson, I'm taking that tweet back. I'm going to send a new tweet to say I was exaggerating.
There are problems, BLS maybe should look into it -- but to actually throw out an accusation, that's like asking the government, how often do you beat your wife?
JACK WELCH, FORMER G.E. CEO: I should have had a question mark, Ali, at the back of it. Let's face it, OK? But the facts are, Ali, no matter how you want to look at this, we had 25 economists polled before this number came out. The average number they expected was about 115,000.
VELSHI: Yes.
WELCH: Not one of them had a number below 8.1.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, the jobs report was a challenge for Mitt Romney. It might make his own job winning the White House a little bit harder.
Here's CNN's Jim Acosta. He's going to look at how the Republican is spinning the new unemployment rate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Campaigning in Virginia coal country, Mitt Romney tried to dig through the latest jobs numbers to make the case President Obama has not hit pay dirt just yet.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month. And the unemployment rate as you noted this year has come down very, very slowly, but it's come down nonetheless. The reason it's come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work.
ACOSTA: Still, one of Romney's key metrics on the president's handling of the economy went up in smoke when the nation's unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent.
ROMNEY: Eight percent unemployment for over, how many, 43 months?
We still have unemployment above 8 percent.
He told us he'd get us back to work and hold unemployment below 8 percent.
Unemployment above 8 percent month after month after month.
ACOSTA: It's a political bar Romney has repeatedly accused the president of failing to clear for months, a threshold the GOP nominee repeated in his closing statement at the first presidential debate.
ROMNEY: We have had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent. If I'm president, I will create -- help create 12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes.
ACOSTA: But Romney notes the president has fallen short of estimates set by the administration's own economic advisers, who once predicted the stimulus would lower the jobless rate to below 6 percent.
ROMNEY: What's happened is this has been the slowest recovery since the Great Depression. As a matter of fact, he said right now we would be at 5.4 percent unemployment.
AD NARRATOR: President Obama says he's creating jobs, but he's really creating debt.
ACOSTA: And Romney has a new ad out arguing that the president's job creation efforts have only added to the deficit.
ROMNEY: A couple nights ago, we had a debate. You may have gotten the chance to see that.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
ACOSTA: Before the new jobs numbers, Romney had been riding a wave of momentum after this week's debate. He even got a pass from the president, who never mentioned Romney's comments on the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes.
ROMNEY: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.
ACOSTA: With an Obama campaign ad still repeating those remarks, Romney tried to put an end to the controversy once and for all on FOX.
ROMNEY: Clearly in a campaign with hundreds, if not thousands of speeches and question and answer sessions, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right. In this case, I said something that's just completely wrong.
ACOSTA: Democrats maintain that tone deafness extends from Main Street to Sesame Street. So Obama aides send a protester in a Big Bird outfit to Romney's event in Virginia to mock his call to end funding for PBS.
(on camera): Romney will spend part of his weekend here in Florida, back in debate prep, the other part hitting the president once again on the economy. As one senior Romney adviser put it, weak job growth should not be the new normal.
Jim Acosta, CNN, St. Petersburg, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All righty, Jim.
Speaking of Mitt Romney, taking the stage in Apopka, Florida, shortly for a rally. We may dip in and listen to Mr. Romney during this hour, but you can watch the entire event by logging on to CNN.com.
A legal system nightmare -- thousands of cases may have been jeopardized by a lab worker who allegedly tampered with evidence. That story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A scandal with potentially massive implications for the Massachusetts criminal justice system. A chemist at a state drug lab may have tampered with evidence in at least 34,000 cases.
As Susan Candiotti reports, for one woman who ended up behind bars on a drug charge, her new freedom seemed unreal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MYLAZIA JOHNSON, SENTENCE VACATED: It was refreshing because I didn't think it was real.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was real. Until last week, Mylazia Johnson was doing about three years in prison on a drug conviction. Then she was suddenly set free.
(on camera): What is it like to be out of prison?
JOHNSON: Yay, I can breathe.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Free because of the bizarre alleged actions of this woman, former Massachusetts chemist Annie Dookhan.
REPORTER: Can you tell us what happened?
CANDIOTTI: The state of Massachusetts is accusing Dookhan of tampering with drug evidence that could call into question at least 34,000 cases going back to 2003 -- 34,000. At the moment, she faces only three charges. However, in Boston alone, the D.A. estimates as many as 500 convicted felons could be set free.
(on camera): How big of a mess is this?
LISA HEWITT, MASS. COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC COUNSEL: At this point, Susan, we don't know.
CANDIOTTI: At this lab, now closed by the state, Dookhan allegedly mishandled drugs seized by police for evidence at trial. She allegedly estimated the amount of drugs at times by simply looking at them and certified some drugs as cocaine that are now testing negative.
(voice-over): She didn't just write down the wrong thing. Prosecutors accuse her of doctoring evidence to change test results.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would take known cocaine from an area that she knew was cocaine and actually add them to the sample to make it cocaine.
CANDIOTTI: Dookhan is also charged with lying on the witness stand about the credentials on her resume, including a masters degree in chemistry she never received.
But the question is why. Was Dookhan trying to help police? Was she trying to make herself look good?
So far it's a mystery. The only thing we know is what's in this court document where investigators say at first she denied doing anything wrong, but they say she later admitted, quote, "I screwed up big time, I messed up. I messed up bad. It's my fault."
In some cases, Dookhan's alleged tampering may have destroyed solid police work. In others it may have wrongfully convicted the innocent.
HEWITT: This is the most egregious situation because this is government-tainted evidence that has been presented against these individuals.
CANDIOTTI: How can something like this happen?
HEWITT: I don't have the answer to that. The community has no confidence right now in the justice system because they are being told that the scientific evidence which we're all supposed to depend on, you know, in the year 2012, is faulty.
CANDIOTTI: We tried unsuccessfully for two days to reach her attorney. Dookhan's free on bail, wearing a court monitor.
Judgments are in the process of staying sentences and setting felons free on bail until everything's sorted out, making moms like Stephanie Cooper nervous.
STEPHANIE COOPER, MOM: I do worry for my safety, you know, and my son also. CANDIOTTI: Community organizer Michael Kozu is worried about what will happen to this Boston neighborhood.
MICHAEL KOZU, PROJECT RIGHT: We're concerned about with people getting let back out, it will go back to what it used to be.
CANDIOTTI: Mylazia Johnson insists she was wrongfully accused of serving crack on the street. After serving half her sentence, she's free for good and plans to challenge her conviction back home. What she cannot get back are the nearly two years she lost with her daughter, born eight weeks before she was sent to prison.
JOHNSON: I lost my child, I lost custody of my child, and I don't know how I'm going to fix that.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): What do you think of the chemist who is now accused of --
JOHNSON: To destroying my life, but I forgive her. But as long as I have my daughter, that's all I care about.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Susan Candiotti, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: When you think of sex trafficking, what countries come to mind? Wait, I want you to think closer to home now. It's happening right here, on our streets, in our cities, and in our suburbs. It's a disturbing report coming up next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You don't have to be in front of a television to watch CNN. Stay connected, do it on your cell phone or you can do it from your computer at work. Just go to CNN.com/TV. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: American teenagers sold for sex. Just let that sink in for a moment.
This is not a problem going on in some far-away third world country. It's happening right here on our streets, in our cities and in our suburbs -- and it is on the rise.
All new tonight, Deborah Feyerick continues her investigation into child sex trafficking and the men who pay for sex with girls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Image after image, there's nothing glamorous about underage sex trafficking. American children caught up in a world nearly impossible to escape.
Targeted by pimps, vulnerable teens are first befriended, then recruited and exploited. Their photos uploaded on classified ad web sites like backpage.com, where the business of buying and selling underage girls is apparently thriving.
Federal law protects Internet companies from liability for ads people post.
(on camera): It just seems morally wrong to have this as a business model, no?
LIZ MCDOUGALL, VILLAGE VOICE MEDIA: To me, it would be morally wrong to have the opportunity to rescue women, children, boys, out of exploitation and to walk away from that opportunity.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Attorney Liz McDougall represents Backpage and argues the Web site is a helpful tool for law enforcement to fight child sex trafficking.
But many in law enforcement disagree and the grim fact is lots of women and children never get rescued.
TAMARA VANDERMOON, SURVIVOR OF TEEN PROSTITUTION: You know, I look at pictures like this, my pimp had beat me and stab my face and I was black and blue. And, you know, I have more pictures, and nothing makes it go away.
FEYERICK: Tamara Vandermoon was 12, and like many, looking for acceptance when she turned her first trick.
VANDERMOON: Look how young she looks.
FEYERICK: Now 31, she's trying to heal from the horror of her childhood and the cycle of addiction she says it triggered.
VANDERMOON: You know, there's so many men out here who prey on young women, who, you know, it excites them or it's something sexual for them, and I was just a baby. I was 12.
FEYERICK: Vandermoon and these other victims of prostitution are fighting to rebuild their lives as part of the group Breaking Free.
(on camera): By show of hands, how many of you were raped?
How many of you have scars because of what you went through, physical scars? Emotional scars? How many?
How long does it take to heal?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You may never heal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ask the girl her age?
FEYERICK (voice-over): It's no surprise these men did not want to speak with us or show their faces. Each arrested trying to pay for sex. Because it's their first arrest, instead of jail time, they pay a few hundred dollar fine and sit through a day-long John school.
DORIS, SURVIVOR OF TEEN PROSTITUTION: These are the simple consequences that you get. We, on the other hand, go to jail. We go to prison. We are victimized over and over and over again.
FEYERICK: The men listened as survivors describe the physical abuse, the humiliation, the reality of what these women call the life.
TERRY, SURVIVOR OF TEEN PROSTITUTION: By the age of 18, I had been stabbed, I had been kidnapped, raped numerous times, shot up with heroin.
FEYERICK: Joy Friedman, herself a teen prostitution survivor, runs the John school. Her message? Buyers, sellers, all are part of the problem.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until you pick up the phone and call it, tell you open your car door, no harm happens to me, OK? No violence comes to me. You are the biggest part. The solution to this problem.
FEYERICK: Those on the front lines, like Sergeant Grant Snyder of the Minneapolis police, agree.
(on camera): Do you think laws have to come down harder on the buyers, the people who are putting the money out?
SGT. GRANT SYNDER, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: I think so. I think we need to treat the men that are clients of women in the sex trafficking industry as part of the conspiracy, as part of the conspiracy to kidnap, to imprison, to enslave into traffic these women.
FEYERICK (on camera): Minnesota's cracking down with tougher laws. This man, arrested after answering ads on backpage.com and engaging in prostitution with minors, is the first John in the state to be charged not with the usual misdemeanors, but with felonies. He's pleaded guilty and could serve up to 10 years in prison for each count.
SYNDER: This isn't just somebody who is worth $500 to you for an hour. This is someone's daughter. This is someone's sister. These people have a reason that they're here and it's not a good reason.
FEYERICK: Along with tougher charges, the surge in child sex trafficking prompted Minnesota to reclassify children arrested for prostitution. Instead of criminals, they are now being treated as victims.
JOHN CHOI, RAMSEY COUNTY PROSECUTOR, MINNESOTA: We will no longer prosecute children who are being prostituted. We are focused on helping that victim get out of the situation that they're in and then when you build that trust, we can build a stronger case against the person who is doing the trafficking.
FEYERICK: Zero tolerance for sex trafficking is exactly what Lee Roper Barker wants. As head of the Women's Foundation, she's spearheading a $5 million campaign under the banner "Minnesota Girls are Not for Sale".
(on camera): Do you think the people who are buying sex from children realize that they're involved in a sex trafficking trade? LEE ROPER BARKER, WOMEN'S FOUNDATION OF MINNESOTA: I don't think they think about this as a horrific act of violence against children. I think they think of this as something they're doing and they're paying and that somehow this young --
FEYERICK: So it's legitimate.
BARKER: That's right.
VANDERMOON: I have triggers, flashbacks. All of a sudden, I start crying out of nowhere, but it's a process. I'm on a good road and, you know, I'm trying to tell my story as much as I can to heal me and to, you know, save another woman.
FEYERICK (voice-over): For the victims, the damage is done. The effects, not easily erased.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Half past the hour now. Time for a check of your headlines.
Live pictures here from central Florida. Mitt Romney at a rally near Orlando. There you see him on the stage. His campaign coffers grew more than $12 million in the 48 hours after this past week's debate. Let's listen to the candidate now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (INAUDIBLE) title one money for disabled and poor kids. I want to make sure those dollars don't just go to states and to school districts. I want them to go to the kids, if you will, so the parents are able to choose the school their child goes to. We have to put the children and the parents and the teachers first and the teachers union behind.
Number four, number four, I have already mentioned it. You're not going to get entrepreneurs to risk their life savings to start a business or companies to come to Florida or other states and expand and hire more people if they think we're on the road to Greece. Let me tell you, if this president keeps spending $1 trillion or more than we take in, than we take in every year, you're going to see us on the road to Greece and you're going to will see a financial crisis down the road. I will not let that happen. I will cut federal spending and I will get us on track to a balanced budget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Mitt Romney now speaking (INAUDIBLE) Florida near Orlando. You can watch the rest of that live on cnn.com.
And you know, his opponent, President Obama, and the Obama campaign are talking campaign funds. President Obama getting a boost on one hand and doing some damage control on the other. He's riding high on lower unemployment numbers, but also trying to recover from his poorly reviewed showing at the first presidential debate with Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, Romney's team claiming a big supporter bounce since the debate, they say they have raised more than $12 million in the past 48 hours.
The highest profile Islamic terror suspect in Great Britain is now in the United States. Abu Hamza Al Masri, he and four other terror suspects appeared in federal courtrooms today just hours after landing on American soil.
An extraordinary trial in Vatican City has ended with a guilty verdict. The former butler to Pope Benedict XVI was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing confidential church documents and passing them on to an Italian journalist. A Vatican spokesman says the Pope will most likely pardon him.
Gas prices in California jumped again overnight. Drivers are now paying an average of $4.61 a gallon. With some parts of the state seeing closer to six bucks. Experts are blaming it on a series of problems in California refineries and an already low supply.
CNN affiliate KABC reports that most drivers are paying 50 cents more than just a week ago.
The deadly meningitis outbreak is rapidly growing. Today, the CDC announced Meningitis cases were found in two new states, Ohio and Minnesota. This map shows you where tainted steroid injections linked to the outbreak were sent. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on how the meningitis outbreak got started.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, again, we're talking about fungal meningitis here. It's a relatively rare form of meningitis. We're used to hearing more commonly about bacterial meningitis caused by bacteria, which can be treated with antibiotics typically, or the most common form which is viral meningitis. We typically hear about that, for example, on college campuses. Fungal meningitis can be very serious. It can cause very significant symptoms, but the good news here if there is any is that it's often not very contagious.
Now, the way they pieced this together, Don, is a real medical investigation. You had people getting this rare form of meningitis in different states all over, you know, different times over the summer, and eventually they were able to trace this back to the medication, a type of steroid that is often used as an injection in and around the spinal cord to treat back pain. What they found as well was that what happens, the manufacturer of the steroid will send it to a compounding facility where they can divvy up the doses into smaller doses and send that out to hospitals and clinics. They believe at that point, that's where the contamination occurred.
In some cases, they could actually see mold, which is what fungus is, they could see that mold in some of these vials. As far as the patients themselves, again typically older patients, most of them had back pain. That's why they were receiving these injections. And take a look at the list of the symptoms that they might develop. First of all, it could take awhile after the injection, up to 28 days or so. That made the investigation more difficult. Mild stroke-like symptoms, numbness or weakness on one side of the body or the other, and then it could progress pretty significantly from there. Stiff neck, dizziness, headache and all the symptoms associated with an inflammation around the brain and spinal cord.
Obviously the goal, Don, at this point, make sure nobody else gets any more of these injections, identify the patients who have had and try and treat those patients as quickly as possible. Don, back to you.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Dr. Gupta.
An incredible story out of South Korea. We are told a North Korean soldier killed the leaders of his platoon and squad, and then raced toward the South Korean border so he could defect. That unbelievable story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A North Korean soldier says he killed his platoon and squad leaders before defecting to the south. South Korean soldiers along the demilitarized zone heard the gun shots before the soldier crossed the heavily armed area between the countries. CNN's Paula Hancocks has details now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's not unknown but certainly rare for a North Korean to escape the south through the DMZ, the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. It is described as the most heavily fortified border on earth, yet a North Korean soldier was able to walk across it on Saturday. The joint chiefs of staff here in Seoul describe to reporters how he managed it.
COL. LEE BUNG-WOO, SPOKESMAN, SOUTH KOREAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF (through translator): A North Korean soldier has defected to our guard post in an inter-Korean management zone at 12:10 p.m., October 6. Our army has raised its military alert in the area but there has been no extraordinary moves by the North Korean army so far.
HANCOCKS: Seoul says the soldier was on guard duty when he killed his platoon and his squad leaders. He was then able to cross the border without being stopped. South Korean guards say they heard the gunfire before seeing the North Korean soldier fleeing after it was confirmed that he did in fact want to defect, he was taken to an undisclosed location and interrogated.
Very few manage to cross this tightly controlled border, in fact, the last time a North Korean soldier succeed was two and a half years ago, according to the defense ministry here in Seoul.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, this is what happens when we take America's stars of TV and film and turn them over to cnn.com users.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. This guy has a room full of Kermit and action figures behind him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's "Saturday Night Live" co-star getting grilled by CNN viewers, that's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Imagine this. Going from the highest point of your life to the lowest point in a fraction of a second. Nothing about if you're given a second chance to prove yourself.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
LEMON: With the entire crowd behind him, as Aerosmith's "Dream On" blared from the Miami Marlins stadium speakers, Adam Greenberg stepped up to the plate for the first time since 2005. May be thinking the guy just struck out, but you must remember what he did to get to this point.
Seven years ago, Greenberg made his major league baseball debut. He was beamed in the head on the first pitch, in his first time at-bat, ending his major league baseball career on the spot. Then a moment and passion was born. Adam got his second chance at-bat and was all smiles afterwards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM GREENBERG, INJURED BATTER GET A SECOND START: This is the start. This is realizing day one of that dream that I had seven years ago, and had as a child, but I never went at this as a publicity stunt. I didn't start this campaign. I didn't ask for it. Matt Liston called me out of the blue, told me he had this great idea to create an army of fans to get me back to the big leagues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Because he went for his one in a million shot, Adam Greenberg making his mark this week.
With characters like Debbie Downer and the over-affectionate wife of a college professor in "The Lovers," "Saturday Night Live" alum Rachel Dratch has firmly placed herself as a pop culture icon. Now the comedienne opens up about how she got into comedy and spills a few secrets about the show's production when she takes questions from our ireporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL DRATCH, COMEDIENNE: "SNL" is the most fun comedy job you can imagine but also a lot of pressure that you don't see when you're just watching it on TV. All the actors are always trying to come up with characters and it's not always easy to come up with, you know, something really original that's going to catch on.
This from Nicole. This is technology.
NICOLE CORREALE, IREPORTER: There have been numerous "SNL" sketches that have been turned into movies. For example, "Wayne's World" and "Tonight at the Roxbury." I'm thinking the next "SNL" sketch to movie should be "The Lovers" starring you and of course, Will Ferrell. Would you be down for that?
DRATCH: Would I be down for "The Lovers" movie. Yes, of course I would. Working with Will Ferrell that would be amazing. Back in the old hot tub.
At this point during the soak, my lover and I usually crave spiced meat.
They don't really make many "SNL" movies just off the characters anymore. Kind of a thing of the past. But you never know. See if Will can fit it into his schedule.
ANDY CLINTON, IREPORTER: Sometimes I'll hear one of my students being pretty negative and another student will tell her to stop being such a Debbie Downer. Do you think that this is a form of flattery or is it just another sign that today's young people have nothing original to say?
DRATCH: OK. This guy has a room full of Kermit and action figures behind him, so I don't know what to think about this fellow but I do not see it as an un-original thing. I kind of like it when people tell me they know a Debbie Downer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also like us all to remember grandmom. I'm sure she's looking down at us and smiling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope it's the version of her before she was in the grips of dementia.
DRATCH: I take it as a form of flattery for sure. It's kind of cool to have created something that became this identifiable type in society.
DAVID KRONMILLER, IREPORTER: What's your inspiration for getting into comedy and improv and more importantly, how has it impacted your non- comedic work?
DRATCH: When I was little I was super shy. Then I became the class clown, I was really into doing plays and I always gravitated towards comedy. And then in college I joined the improv group there. That's really how I got into the whole improv and sketch idea world. So it was sort of a gradual, just like a hobby, then I just kept pursuing it. Luckily for the public, I do not act dramatically very often. It's not really my strength, I'd say. But I would say that improv helps you in writing a lot because if you take improv class it kind of frees up your brain in a way that if you're just sitting in front of a computer trying to write something, doesn't really work as well. Writing sketches alone, I would always rather write with somebody. There's something about the partnership or group mind that kind of, people throw in contributions and to me, that's what makes funny comedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: See more great ireport interviews. You got to love Debbie Downer. Log on to cnn.com/interview you can check it out. Of course, you can catch them right here on CNN every Saturday at 7:00 Eastern.
President Obama and Mitt Romney have spent a good deal of time courting the Latino vote. Which candidate is resonating more? So far, that is. I've got that next.
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LEMON: With a month until election day, we're looking at one group that's been getting a lot of attention by both campaigns. Latino voters. So who's resonating with those some 23 million voters? This is a new CNN-ORC poll of Latinos. When asked who's done well reaching out to minorities, 77 percent says democrats have done a good job, only 33 percent says Republicans have. And this maybe even bigger, 69 percent felt the democratic party cares more about Latinos. That's compared to just 24 percent for Republicans.
Latinos are a very diverse group, especially in one of the most diverse cities in America. And as our Soledad O'Brien reports many Mexicans find Manhattan not only immigrant friendly but rich with opportunity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This store is called Escondido, hidden. But the Mexican wares it sells are no hidden secret.
LOUIS SALAZAR, CO-OWNER ESCONDIDO: You see more and more products and cheeses and those kinds of artisinal products from Mexico. You see much more interest in Mexican chocolate, and you see the changing demographics of people demanding higher quality products.
O'BRIEN: These high end chocolates (INAUDIBLE) cultural artifacts are so popular, they are not just fetching top dollar. Escondido has begun accepting pesos.
SALAZAR: You have more Mexicans, you have more pesos. IT only makes more sense to be able to accept them as a way of providing a public service to the people who come to the shop.
O'BRIEN: Mexicans have also work taken Manhattan, moving in where Puerto Ricans and Dominicans once ran bodegas and beauty shops.
FRANCIS SANTIAGO, RESIDENT: They also work - a lot of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, also working in factories and hair salons, nail salons everything, and from there they got better and some of them you see them now, are store owners, their own clothes stores, cell phone places, dealers. They moves up. The same way as somebody I think from Mexico come and do the same thing here.
O'BRIEN: Mexican birth will soon outpace Dominican and Puerto Ricans in New York. While more Dominicans are leaving than arriving, not just moving up but moving out.
MOISES PEREZ, LATINO POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Mexicans are now willing when they come straight from Mexico to take lower paying jobs and to endure some of the exploitation the Dominican endured, you know, years ago.
O'BRIEN: Rodrigo Abrajan says he finds New York immigrant friendly and rich with opportunity. He began working in New York's kitchens at age six, then sold tacos off a cart, a taco truck, a taco stand, tacos to go. And now he's the owner of four Mexican restaurants.
RODRIGO ABRAJAN, OWNER, LA FONDA: You have to work very hard, and we - would never expect to be that successful as we are doing right now.
O'BRIEN: Soledad O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Well, Soledad's documentary "Latino in America Courting Their Vote" airs tomorrow night 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
A dog stuck in a car grill for more than 10 miles. That story is next.
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LEMON: Most dogs like to ride in cars but not like this. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is it the story of a poodle with oodles of luck. Look where she ended up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's just kind of wedged in there with the license plate and license plate cover.
MOOS: The dog ran into the road in Taunton, Massachusetts. The driver said he braked but didn't see the poodle mix and thought he missed her so he kept going. Drove for 11 miles to East Providence, Rhode Island. At a stop light, another motorist alerted him to the dog in his grill. Animal control supervisor William Muggle got her out.
WILLIAM MUGGLE, ANIMAL CONTROL SUPERVISOR: She was holding on for dear life as it were.
MOOS: Vets believe she suffered a concussion and a minor bladder rupture, but she's fine, now. You'd suffer a bladder rupture, too, if you were stuck here for 11 miles.
(on camera): So how does something that big fit in here? Check out the size of a pooch that managed to get stuck in a grill in Brazil.
(voice-over): It was like a tug-of-war. They had to drag the dog out by its hind feet. It kept coming and coming. How much dog can you fit in a grill? And then, as it slinked off, they started yelling "dog" in Portuguese because the dog was heading back into traffic. All kinds of critters get stuck in car grills from a type of weasel -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I bet you'd like to bite me just because I'm driving.
MOOS: To a parrot. A woman thought she hit the bird and heard chirping the next day. And his red-tailed hawk looked done for until mechanics began taking apart the grill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked in there and he had his head turned kind of sideways, I could see his eye, he blinked.
MOOS: Injured but alive. And then there was the rabbit stuck in this grill. The owner took off the bumper and try to coax him out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) dumb.
MOOS: Who are you calling dumb?
(on camera): Maybe mistook it for a Volkswagen Rabbit.
(voice-over): Whatever. Out he came.
Better to be a rabbit in the grill than on the grill. But watching the extraction isn't always pretty as one person posted, first time I've seen a car give birth. Tell that (INAUDIBLE) to push.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Poor little pooches. Glad they're OK. Be careful when you're out there driving. That's it for me. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here at 10:00 Eastern. You know, what we're going to do here. We're talking about a story that made headlines this week when a television anchor in Wisconsin addressed on air a viewer who e-mailed her, calling her fat and a poor role model. We're going to ask if celebrities and public figures have an obligation to look attractive, healthy and set positive examples. Plus size model, Amy (ph) joins us live at 10:00 Eastern. See you then.
