Transcripts For CNN The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20090715

rain, no cumulus clouds, no cirrus clouds, no lightning. well, we've got two of the four okay, but we're probably not going to get all of them again today. there's a chance, there was a lot of weather earlier that's scooted out to sea and has moved away. but we also can't have cirrus clouds. those high clouds made of ice, you can't have those at all, and they are coming in from a different system off the atlantic. see how that weather is kind of coming in there? you think, chad, why can't we just wait? why can't we wait until all this is good and the skies are clear, 8:00, 9:00, when most of the storms go away? well, you've got this thing, this space station going around the earth very, very fast. this is the old question, the old math question you hated. there's a train going 50 miles per hour, a car going 30 miles per hour, how long does it take for them to meet? same thing, as these things have to meet in place, otherwise the space station is a million miles away and the shuttle can't catch up. that's why the window spreads are so small. we'll see if the clouds go away. >> thanks so much, chad. appreciate that. >> you're welcome. all right. momentarily, a press conference to be under way in escambia county, florida. that involves the couple that was murdered with a house full of children. more details as we get it. forgots, by the way, are also on this case. drug enforcement administration investigates are involved. these cast doubt on hopes that this is an open-and-shut case. watch this report from cnn's david mattingly, the love story at the core of this crime and how an ordinary family grew to extraordinary proportions. >> reporter: outside the spacious pensacola home, a small memorial for an extraordinary couple. byrd and melanie billings, their love immeasurable, their deaths unthinkable. >> our mom and dad only had love in their lives. since the day they met 19 years ago, they knew they were soulmates. >> reporter: soulmates with a calling to let their family grow. byrd and melanie each had two biological children from first marriages, then together they adopted 13 other children, several with developmental disabilities, others came from abused homes and drug-addicted parents. all embraced with open arms and unconditional love. >> to our mom and dad, their children were perfect, angels that god provided them with to love eternally. >> reporter: for the billings, the affection overflowed, from getting the kids ready for sleep to sending them off to school. >> they would get on the bus every morning, she would call them her little princesses and one of their little boys, he would always get on the bus and blow her kisses. i'd say miss billings, he's blowing you a kiss and she was blowing the kiss back. >> reporter: quite actually, the couple appeared secure. they were local business owners operating a string of used car dealerships. athals ran a financial service companies. couples show the billings took out two mortgages on their nine-bedroom e estate, one for $300,000 in 2003, another for $265,000 last year. the house is worth an estimated $700,000. they also had an elaborate surveillance system, but authorities say it was there to keep an eye on the kids. >> those were special-needs children. you cannot live in an open environment with that number of children that they had, so your surveillance systems, your security systems were safety measures in place there for what? for the safety of the children. >> reporter: tragedy has marked the billings before, three times with the deaths of two adopted children and one biological child. now in the wake of the killings, a pledge from a family torn apart to stay together. >> we know our parents are watching over us now, reunited with their three angels in heaven. they will give us strength to make it through the hard times and their love to make the world a better place just as they always did. >> reporter: the billings did make plans for the care of their children in case something happened to them. a spokeswoman says the children will be kept together as a family. >> right now, that press conference is beginning there in escambia county, florida. let's listen in. >> -- orange beach, alabama, by the orange beach police department. it is my understanding that she's currently being cooperative. she's coming back to escambia county. it was reported by someone that she's in custody. i want to state emphatically at this time miss long is not in custody of the es camby y county sheriff's office or any other law enforcement county of florida. she is coming back with her own attorney to discuss the issues with us. we expect her here within 30 minutes. >> how was she caught? >> she was identified by a be on the lookout order from the police department. >> where was she? >> i understand she was near or at one of the marinmarinas. [ inaudible question ] exactly. she was identified and located by the orange beach approach. >> who is her attorney? >> that, sir, i do not know. i was not in consultation with him. [ inaudible question ] i understand -- no, sir, she's not being transported back. she's with her attorney as i understand. they're following us back. >> what was she doing at the marina? >> i have no knowledge of that. >> could you give us some sense of the reaction you got when you first put out the lookout area? >> you mean from the community or what? again, a flood of calls from friends and neighbors. again, she had been incognito, if you will, for approximately 48 hours, so, again, we were concerned about her personal safety, and we were getting calls from folks who said yes, we had spotted her within the last couple day, and of course that leads to more information, more leads, et cetera, and then she's located in orange beach. >> was she aware that you guys were looking for her? >> to the best of my knowledge, no. >> when you say incognito, what do you mean? >> she was not in the public eye. she was not making contact with her normal routine friends and neighbors is my understanding. >> hiding or -- >> i have not on received miss long at this time. i can't address that. >> anything unusual about [ inaudible ]? >> i can not release that information at this time. >> does she have a boat at the marina? was there a sense she was trying to escape? >> i will not address that issue at this time. [ inaudible question ] do you know any connection about that? >> i know that there is a red van that is part of this investigation, whether or not it is that red van i have no verification of that. >> what is the nature of her relationship -- is there anything more than her being a landlord to gonzalez? >> there obviously is the friendship. she's been observed transporting his wife and children at times, so we can say that there's that sort of relationship. >> what information are you hoping to get from her? >> well, we know that she was associated with leonard patrick gonzalez jr. up until the day of the murders. and so, again, we would like to get information from her about his activities, whereabouts, movements, those sorts of things. again, she's a person of interest because of her close association with him. [ inaudible question ] >> yes. the other person of interest that we're looking for is associated, again, associated, again, with the security and video surveillance system at the billings compound. >> did that person work for a company that had the surveillance system? >> that person does not. >> do you have an identity on that person? >> we have several identities. we have, again, persons of interest, okay. we have narrowed it, we believe, to one, to one person, we believe. >> were you looking at the mari marina, were you sort of watching something at the marina and you found her? were the orange county officials alerted to be there looking? >> no, sir. i would not speak to that issue. i have no knowledge of that issue. i have, again, just been advised that that is where she is located. and let me be specific. we did not direct in any way another agency to look in the marina or airports, those sorts of things. that was not what the order was about. >> i'm struck by the fact that throughout this case remarkable police work and remarkable breaks. >> yes, sir. >> was this ba break or some sot of a -- >> we communicate well in the south. [ inaudible question ] if she's been in contact with gonzalez jr., [ inaudible ]? >>ly not speak to that issue at this time. >> you said earlier there were two possibilities with the security system, something inside that -- or somebody at the house who was supposed to -- >> all right. you've been listening to the escambia county sheriff's department there and a press conference updating. they were looking for a realtor, a pamela laverne long. they did locate her in a neighboring county, orange beach police department apparently approached her. it's unclear, however, exactly why they are looking for this woman or why they had been looking for pamela long. it is believed that perhaps she may have rented some property to one of the suspects involved who is now been connected to the murder of the couple there in es kcamby ya county, byrd and melanie billings. we get a better explanation as to why they have apprehended pamela long or why they are questioning her, we'll be able to bring that to you on this ongoing investigation. also questions as to why the dea is being involved in this investigation as well. meantime, we want to go to our continuing network coverage of the hearings of sonia sotomayor hosted by wolf blitzer. back to washington. fred, thanks very much. i want to get right back into the hearings. they've just resumed and jeff sessions, the top republican on the committee, has been asking serious questions about when, if ever, foreign or international law should be used in helping to interpret the constitution. >> i think that's a fair summary of that speech which others can read and make up their own minds. you were asked about the legal defense fund of which you were a member of the board for 12 years, and in response to senator graham's question, you say you've never seen any brief and that the main focus of your work at the organization was fund-raising. is that accurate? >> when i was responding to the senator, i was talking about the board in general. i belong to many committees, and so i did other things besides fund-raising. but i was beginning to explain what the structure of the board was and what the primary responsibility of board members is. but clearly, board members serve other functions in the organization. >> you did serve on the litigation committee, and boards are supposed to, i would think, and legally are required to superintend the actives of the organization that they're a member of. and then you have committees of the board who do various things. i'm looking at a june of '87 document, minutes of the board, the litigation committee, sonia sotomayor reported that the committee, in addition to recommending a litigation program had identified three initiatives. in october of '87, i'm just looking at some of the documents we were given. litigation report. quote, chairman sotomayor summarized the activities of the committee over the last several months, which included the review of the litigation efforts of the past and present and initial exploration of potential areas of interest. member sotomayor advised that a preliminary report would be provided at the january meeting. and then at the january meeting there's about a 50-page document summarizing 30 or more cases that the board has undertaken. a number of them are pretty significant and very consistent with the kind of cases that we had in the firefighters' case, where the board has filed litigation to really basically insist that you have perfect harmony between the applicants for a job and those who are selected for promotions. isn't that true that you were more active than you may have suggested to senator graham yesterday? >> no, because as i said, i started to describe the role of the board generally, and we were not addressing the question of what i did or how i participated. that memo has to be examed in context. the board was planning a retreat. so, think about what direction if any we should consider moving into or not. we were not reviewing the individual cases to see if the individual cases -- what positions were taken, the type of strategies that -- >> didn't you know the cases that -- the positions the organization was -- >> excuse me. >> well, my time was running out. >> i'll let you answer, but i just -- >> the end of my answer was the fund had been involved in a series of areas -- unemployment, public health, education, and others. and so, the broader question for the fund was should we be considering some other areas of interest to the community? we held a retreat in which speakers from a variety of different civil rights organizations, academic, a number of people came and just talked to us. i don't actually remember there being a firm decision that followed that, but it was a part of a conversation, the sort of retreat that even my court has engaged in. what are we thinking about. but it wasn't the review of each individual case to judge its merits. >> judge, there's been a lot of talk about a case. i should note it's not what you said. it's what justice scalia's opinion for the supreme court said, and his decision left in place 123-year-old supreme court precedence on guns, did it not? >> justice scalia is a footnote in the heller decision, noting the court's holding that the second amendment wasn't incorporated against -- >> the only reason i mention that, i've been a gun owner since i was probably 13 years old, i've seen nothing done by the supreme court, by the second circuit court of appeals, by the congress or by our state legislature that is going to change one way or the other the ownership i have of the guns i now have. >> thank you very much, senator. >> all right. so, you just heard the ranking republican, jeff sessions, ask some tough, very pointed questions. clearly he's still not on board. he's not ready to confirm her as a supreme court justice. there was a whole exchange he had once again with her on her "wise latina" comment, another whole exchange on guns and the second aemtd, where she stands on that, and also, as you heard, foreign law, international law. when if ever should it be used to help determine constitutional law in the united states. so, we'll take a quick break, continue our coverage of these historic hearings. remember, cnn.com is streaming all of this live uninstrumented. you have questions. who can give you the financial advice you need? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these are tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney. here to rethink wealth management. here to answer... your questions. morgan stanley smith barney. a new wealth management firm with over 130 years of experience. the united states supreme court, that's what is the issue right now. one of the justices has retired, david souter. there's an opening, and sonia sotomayor is being grilled right now by the senate judiciary committee to see if she's ready to step up and become an associate justice of the supreme court. looks like she's not going to have much trouble in terms of getting the necessary votes, but republicans are asking some very, very pointed questions in this, the second round of questioning. we just heard lengthy exchanges involving the ranking republican, top republican on the judiciary committee, jeff sessions of alabama, including this exchange he had with judge sotomayor on the whole issue of judicial activism. >> justice o'connor's truth and approach was that americans in the ideal should reach the same decision if they can put aside all their biases and prejudices. and you seem to say in your approach and throughout that speech that background sympathies and prejudices can impact how you rule, and you could expect a different outcome. how would you respond to that? >> senator, i want to give you complete assurance that i agree with senator hatch on his decision -- his definition of activism. if that's his definition, the judges should not be using their personal biases, their personal experiences, their personal prejudices in reaching decision, and that's how he defines activism, then i'm in full agreement with him. to the extent that my words have led some to believe that i think a particular group hasn't -- has -- is better than another and reaching a decision based on their experiences, my rhetorical device fails. it fails because it left an impression that i believe something that i don't. >> all right. an important exchange on the whole latina woman comment that's still generating follow-up questions by republicans. and jeff sessions clearly was concerned that she might not necessarily be ready to become a supreme court justice. john king, everything we've been hearing from him, the interview we did with him, especially his questioning, seems to suggest he's not one of those republicans who might vote to confirm. >> absolutely right on that point. and what it appears to be in the second round, very interesting as we move on to the other republicans, he seems to be using it to go back through the list of the reasons, the wise latina speech, her views on affirmative action, her views on guns. there are three or four things -- property rights will come up with other republicans -- where the republicans who are going to be voting no will use the second round to give her another chance so they can explain these were the top issues for me and she didn't meet my test. >> the other issue was international or foreign law. he kept coming back to that issue, jeff sessions, as well. >> he did, and she kind of backtracked a little bit today. she said today flatly that foreign law cannot be used as a precedent, period, end of sentence. >> in interpreting the constitution. >> in interpreting the constitution. now, in a speech she had given previously, she said judges shouldn't flinch about referring to foreign law. so, i think what we saw today is a clarification of her position because she understands that this is something that's been very important on the court. justice kennedy has been criticized, as jeff knows, for referring to foreign law. and this is really something that conservatives do not like. >> senator sessions portrayed this as a debate principally between justice ginsburg and justice scalia. it's really justice kennedy and justice scalia. justice kennedy cited international law and the laws of other countries in his decisions outlawing the death penalty for children and his decisions outlawing prosecutions of consensual sodomy for gay people. lawrence v. texas and the case of the juvenile death penalty. those two cases were really the issue that put this subject on the map, and those were only in 2003, 2005. >> justice kennedy is the swing vote in that 4-4 balance, if you will, on the supreme court. >> usually on the conservative side, but in those two cases siding with the liberals. >> she would obviously be on the liberal side assuming she is a real liberal, although we're not sure, you know? >> i think what's truly interesting was the introduction of a letter of support for her from a hispanic conservative born-again christian group, supporting her nomination and urging her confirmation. >> the letter that the chairman patrick leahy read while we were in recess. >> right. and i think that actually is very interesting. i had a call yesterday from someone on the conservative side who thinks she may get as many as 80 votes because what is the downside for a republican to vote for her once having made these cases? >> there may be a rare case or two where judge sotomayor actually meant what she said, and one of the things she said at one point was that she was a liberal. and some of my best friends are liberal. there's nothing wrong with that. but those are her own words. as a matter of fact, when she was talking about her prosecutorial experience, she said i'm a liberal but i am still outraged by violent crimes, as if it requires a violent crime to be outraged about that. so, again, those are her words. it's not any mischaracterization, i think, of who she is. >> it'll be interesting, candy, because the next republican to ask questions with a maximum of 20 minutes is orrin hatch of utah, who seems to be much more receptive, much more open to the notion of actually voting to confirm. >> he is. and he's old school in the sense that he believes when the president gets elected he gets to have a supreme court nominee, one, provided that nominee is qualified. and no one here has questioned her qualifications to sit on the supreme court. in fact, they've said she's got more experience on the bench than anybody currently sitting there. when they went on to the court. so, you know, you're right. i mean, in the end, i think this is going where we knew it was going to go, from the get-go, but i think you are going to watch both orrin hatch and probably lindsey graham begin to show their hands a little bit. they have kind of gradually over time. i think we're about to see them do that, because they're wrappinging up, sort of -- i mean, all of them get 20 minutes but that's sort of a wrap-up for the senate, and we're going to begin to see where they're going. >> yeah. i want to play this little clip from then senator barack obama back in 2006. he was explaining why he didn't vote for the bush-nominated supreme court justices, samuel alito, specifically. >> there are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee and the senate should only examine whether or not the justice is intellectually capable and an all-around good guy. once you get beyond intellects and personal character, there should be no further questions as to whether the judge should be confirmed. i disagree with this view. i believe firmly that the constitution calls for senate to advise and consent. i believe that it calls for meaningful advice and consent that includes an examination of a judge's philosophy, ideology, and record. >> all right. a very specific statement explaining why he would disagree with, let's say, a lindsey graham or an orrin hatch for that matter. you were making that point. >> absolutely. in fact, presidents evolve once they get into office. evolve is a word that politicians love. and we're seeing this on a couple things up on the hill, in health care and things that he's now asking for. it's one thing when you're on the campaign trail, which, by the way, he really was when he made that statement. we saw earlier lindsey graham, in fact, had said -- he volted against him for political reasons on the way to the white house, and a lot of people -- >> because the accusation against then senator obama, he was appealing to the democratic base in rejecting these nominees. >> he also was a legislator defending the prerogative of the legislative branch. now he's an executive, wolf, and guess what? he has a somewhat different opinion. but you're going to see this play out because he will pay a price for that remark, a political price. some republicans who vote for judge sotomayor will adopt what i'll call the hatch standard. the president gets to make his pick and unless there's something egregious in the record, you might not have picked them or agree with them, but a qualified person, you vote for them unless you have disagreements. that's the hatch standard. you'll have some, the obama standard. president obama has told me this is how i should vote. >> would he have gotten the democratic presidential nomination if he had voted to confirm those republican nominees? >> i think yes. yes, i do. the issue in the primaries -- it would have been a contentious issue, it would have been a point of fighting, but the issue in the democratic primaries was to the iraq war and he was to the left of senator clinton on the iraq war and raised money and outadvertised her. >> all the democratic presidential candidates voted the same way. if one had voted differently, that would have been a problem so, i think we were all kind of in the same -- >> they all voted to reject the -- >> that's right. they were all in the same vote on this one. but, you know, you don't hear the president talk a lot about advise and consent. you're not hearing president obama saying -- >> they like the consent part. >> yeah, right. but -- >> all right. orrin hatch is on deck. he's going to be asking his questions, and we presumably will get a little hint. will he vote to confirm sonia sotomayor? so what do you think? i think i'll go with the basic package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. you can make a positive change in your career. you can make a greater contribution to the greater good. and you can start today, by earning your degree online... at walden university. where advanced degrees advance the quality of life. confirmation hearings for sonia sotomayor continuing before the senate judiciary committee. we'll get back to what's going on in that hearing room, but let's check in with fredricka whitfield. she is monitoring some other important stories developing right now. fred? thanks, wolf. the investigation into an iranian passenger plane crash is under way. officials say all 168 on board were killed when the russian-made jet crashed shortly after takeoff from iran international airport. emergency workers are searching for the plane's flight data recorders. witnesses say the jet's tail was on fire as it circled before slamming into a field. and political observers say secretary of state hillary clinton is trying to regain the diplomatic spotlight. she delivered a major policy address to the council on foreign relations today. clinton aides insist she has not been back benched, but a broken elbow last month forced her to cancel international trips and miss numerous meetings. tomorrow she embarks on her first trip abroad in over a month. and at his retirement ceremony, general david mckiernan admitted he was, quote, dismayed, disappointed and more than a little embarrassed when he was ousted as the commander of nato forces in afghanistan. a year in his appointment, defense secretary robert gates asked for mckiernan's resignation, saying he needed new thinking and ideas in afghanistan. mckiernan said he eventually accepted the change out of respect for his profession. and forecasters are keeping an eye on tropical storm doll lor res. it has maximum sustained winds of about 40 miles per hour. hurricane carlos is also in the open pacific, but it's losing strength and is now a category 1 storm. wolf? all right, fred. thanks very much. just want to show our viewers a live picture of the shull shull. the space shuttle "endeavour." there it is on the pad there. 6:03, the sixth time they'll try. right now we're told there is about a 60% chance of it happening because of the weather. we'll watch it, and if, in fact, it does take off, you'll see it live in "the situation room" at 6:03. let's go back into the hearing room right now. orrin hatch, the senior republican from utah, is asking questions of sonia sotomayor. >> -- would protect that interest. >> sure. >> and so, that is one of the misnomers about the right to privacy, and when i say "misnomer," it can be misleading because it's not that i've not viewed what the court has been doing as creating a right that doesn't exist in the words of the constitution. what i understand the court to be saying is, okay, there's this situation. someone's privacy is being affected by this government regulation. does the right in the constitution, the liberty clause of the due process provision, protect the individual from that invasion of their privacy? people in short hand have called this a right to privacy, but in my view, what the court is doing is say iing states, police officers with the unreasonable search and seizures, you can't do this act, you can do this act in searching and seizure. they're not creating a new right of privacy. they're just sayinging how does this right that exists in this provision and the constitution has these words, what does it mean in this factual setting? >> well, as you know, when they did the griswold case, there was no language right to privacy in the constitution, but they determined that through approaches that they could find that. at another point in the hearing you said, quote, i don't believe we should bend the constitution under any circumstances. it says what it says, unquote. now, you know, i -- i think, if you could, maybe you could describe some way where the court can bend the constitution. >> i said you can't. the words are the words. the court can't be looking to ignore the words or to change them. what it does is apply those words to each situation. i stand by that answer today as i did then. >> well -- >> the constitution has rights. they are some of them -- >> well -- >> i'm sorry. >> i think what i'm saying in light of the statement i just asked you about that we cannot read rights into the constitution, as you had said. would you agree that the supreme court bends the constitution when it does read rights into the constitution? >> what i understand the court to be doing in those situations in which it has recognized the protection of certain privacy interests and other interests is that it supp's applied those br words to the facts of the situation before them and has determined that that right, as it's contained and expressed in the constitution, does apply to a certain set of facts. >> can the court change the meaning of the words of the constitution? >> courts can't change the meaning of the constitution. they can apply those words to the facts before them to see if the facts fall within the protections of the constitutional right at issue. >> okay. in one case, the supreme court said that the constitution is intended to govern courts as well as legislatures. do you agree with that? it governs both courts and legislatures. the constitution. >> the constitution limits the powers of all three benranches. >> can the constitution control judges if judges can change its meaning? >> as one of the senators has pointed out, it is often said that the supreme court is not fallible. it's infallible because it's final, so in terms of the interpretation of the constitution, that is the function of the court. that is its function of checking or considering the acts of government vis-a-vis an individual or a state. the constitution -- it is -- that's established by marbury is interpreted by the court. >> okay. one of my fellow judiciary committee members was speaking recently on the senate floor, and he said that judges may perceive, as he put it, quote, the need for -- the need for change, unquote, and they maye make some change through their decisions. is that an appropriate role for judges? >> as i've indicated, the role of judges is to interpret the constitution and law. their role is to do both in accordance with their term. and so, that is the function of a judge. clearly, a judge looks at the terms and tries to -- if it's the constitution, whether the principles that underlie that provision of the constitution andd y precedent, if it's a statute, you use principles of statutory construction starting always with the words, and you give it congress' intent. that's the role of the judge. >> in a speech you gave in 2006 at the university of puerto rico school of law, you said, i have often said that the difference between district court and supreme court judges is the circuit court judges do justice for the society as a whole, unquote. i think it's important that we get what you mean by this, especially the way in which appeals court judges do justice for society. and this is even more important in light of your comments at duke law school, that, quote, the court of appeals is where policy is made. you've, i think, tried to distinguish that. and in this increasingly broad trajectory of judicial power from the district court to the appeals court, from the parties to society, what does the supreme court do justice for? >> in that speech, as well as the duke law school remark, they're all in the context of trying to describe to students or lawyers what the focus of the district court is and the circuit court. and all of them are talking about precedents. when i was talking about justice for society, i was talking about we're not looking at what the individual outcome is for the parties before the court the way that a district court is. the district court knows that its decision is not binding on anybody else. it is not an invitation for them to follow whim or fancy. but their focus is on this case, what does it mean. it's not affecting anybody else. i'm just going to decide this case. and in that speech, as with the duke remark, looked at in the entirety of the comment, it is you're doing justice for society when you're establishing precedent because you realize that that precedent is going to bind the cases. so, you're looking at the effect of those cases on other similar situations. you're looking at -- and i've described it this way to other students -- you're looking at what the law is to announce it recognizing that now it's going to affect other cases and other people. so, you're focus is different. district courts looking at the two parties, the circuit court's looking at the law and upholding of the law that will affect many people. >> okay. president george h.w. bush appointed you to the u.s. district court in 1992. i was here. about a year earlier, he nominated clarence thomas to the united states supreme court who, like you, was a u.s. circuit court judge. president bush described him as, quote, delightful and warm, intelligent person who has great empathy, unquote. president bush then said that judge thomas would decide cases fairly, quote, as the facts and the law require. in other words, he drew a clear distinction between the human quality of empathy and the judicial quality or duty, excuse me, of impartiality. now, this is obviously very different from -- than saying that a judge's personal empathy is an essential ingredient for deciding cases. now, which of these is closer to your own view, distinguishing human empathy from judicial impartiality or mixing them together so that empathy becomes part of the judicial decisi decisionmaking process? >> two presidents have used the word "empathy." >> that's why i bring it up. >> and each of them has given it their different meaning. and i can't speak for their choice of the word or make a choice between what meaning is closer to what i believe or not. i can state what i believe very simply. life experiences help the process of listening and understanding an argument. the law always directs the results in the case. a judge cannot decide cases on the basis of personal feelings, biases, or sympathy. to the extent i've ever spoken about those things, it was to make sure that one understood and said that a judge always has to guard against those things affecting the outcome of a case. the question of when it's appropriate, the supreme court has said, some emotion is appropriate. judges, if they're reacting to an argument of a party, that's an appropriate emotion. inappropriate is deciding the consequence based on that. there are -- in sentencings, you're asked to look at the effect of a defendant's conduct on victims. are you ruling on the basis of sympathy? no. but you're being asked on the basis of life experience to understand that. and then you look at that consequence and weigh all the factors that the statute commands you consider. and then you come out at a reasonable -- >> i accept that. you gave a particular speech at least five times, has has been mentioned, over a period of nearly ten years while you were a district court judge and an appeals court judge, and you spoke specifically about some elements of judicial philosophy. i know that senators discussed some statements from that speech with you yesterday or from those speeches. i just want to ask you about a few others, statements that you made when you gave this speech on the various occasions. the first issue, response that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices so that their decisions are based on law and, as a result, have more fairness and integrity. do you agree that transcending personal sympathies and prejudices enhances the fairness and integrity of judicial decisions? >> yes. >> that's good. i'm going to go through these as fast as i can with you. i think it's essential in -- in your speech, you consistently characterize the idea that judges transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices as an aspiration. you question whether the judges can achieve it even in most cases. do you believe that transcending personal sympathies and prejudices is a judicial duty or an aspiration? >> when i was speaking about aspiration, i was talking about the fact that we do have personal experiences that may on occasion not permit us to understand an argument, and so it's an aspiration in the sense of recognizing that we have those experiences. i wasn't talking about that it was -- impartiality was impossible. i was just talking about the obligation of judges -- >> sure. >> -- to monitor themselves from those unconscious influences that have affected their decisionmaking. >> sure. in that same speech, you stated, "the aspiration to impartiality is just that. it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others." i realize that judges are people. they're not robots or machines. but here again you say that impartiality is only an aspiration. now, i think you've pretty well tried to explain the -- >> all right. we're going to break-away briefly from the hearing. orrin hatch, the senior republican on the judiciary committee, questioning sonia sotomayor. we'll continue our coverage in a moment. remember, cnn.com is streaming this hearing uninterrupted. not long ago, this man had limited mobility. last month, this woman wasn't even able to get around inside of her own home. they chose mobility. and they chose the scooter store! if you or a loved one live with limited mobility call the scooter store! no other company will work harder to make you mobile or do more to guarantee your complete satisfaction. if we pre-qualify you for a new power chair or scooter and your claim isn't approved, the scooter store will give you your power chair or scooter free. that's our guarantee. they were so helpful and nice. they filed all the paperwork, and medicare and my insurance covered the cost. we can work directly with medicare or with your insurance company. we can even help with financing. if there's a way, we'll find it! so don't wait any longer, call the scooter store today. the confirmation hearings for sonia sotomayor to become an associate justice of the united states supreme court, they've gone into recess once again, taking a little break. the chairman, patrick leahy of vermont, has just told everyone go ahead and take a little time-out, so everyone is sort of leaving that room. going to be 10 or 15 minutes we're told before the hearing continues. orrin hatch was the last senator to ask questions. we're going to ask the republican from utah, now followed by dianne feinstein, democrat of california, then another republican, chuck grassley, republican of iowa. going to be interesting. hatch, grassley, and maybe lindsey graham, those are the three republicans that some democrats have always felt potentially could vote to confirm sonia sotomayor. so, we'll see what happens on that front. let's check some other news that's unfolding right now. fredricka whitfield is joining us now with more on that. fred? thanks again, wolf. well, there are concerns the annual muslim pilgrimage to mecca may increase the spread of the h1n1 virus. two pilgrims in iran have contracted the disease. last month, health officials in saudi arabia recommended that pregnant women, children, and the elderly with chronic illnesses avoid the hajj this november. they also recommended visitors to the country have a seasonal flu vaccine at least two weeks before visiting holy places. south carolina's governor is clearing his schedule this week to take a personal trip with his wife. this comes three weeks after mark stanford disappeared over father's day weekend without his staff knowing where he was. he then admitted having an affair with an argentine woman. the governor's spokesman says sanford remains committed to repairing the damage that he has done to his marriage. >> an unusual group of lobbyists taking care case to lawmakers today. they're survivors of shark bites, and they want congress to protect their attackers. the environment group is organizing the push. it's believed a growing market for soup is behind the overfishing that is threatening many shark species. and actor robert redford is a newlywed. a church in hamburg, germany, says its pastor performed a ceremony over the weekend for redford and his longtime girlfriend. redford's new wife is an abstract artist whose work has been xinted in a number of countries including the u.s., britain, and germany. wolf? >> congratulations to robert redford, the newlywed. fred, stand by. we're going to be getting back to you. i just want to point out the space shuttle "endeavour," we still don't know if it will take off. it's supposed to launch at 6:03 p.m. eastern, a little bit more than an hour from now but it's been delayed now for five times so we'll see if the sixth time is the charm today. if, in fact, it does take off, we'll have live coverage coming up in "the situation room." we'll have more of the confirmation hearings of sonia sotomayor. kelly saunder's nature valley, the place that inspires her to go faster... and slower, elk mountains, colorado. where's yours? 100% natural nature valley granola bars. the taste nature intended. are more than words here. it's personal. i have diabetes. rodney's kid too. so we're so proud to manufacture... the accu-chek® aviva meters and test strips... here in the u.s.a. plus, we've proven you'll waste 50% fewer strips... when you use our meter, which means greater savings... for people with diabetes, like me. now that's a true american value. accu-chek® aviva. born in the u.s.a. but we missed the first half trying to download the docs. which turned out to be the old-new docs... rather than the new-new docs. then bob dialed in from home and his... dog starts barking. so jen jumped in with her "two cents"... which katy missed because she was buying shoes online. and then i hit mute... to talk timelines with my team. getting lots of dirty looks through the phone in the process. - overall... - a great call. - great call. yeah. introducing a better way. learn more at cisco.com/newways [ dog barks ] okay. live pictures of the space shuttle "endeavour." it's supposed to take off from the kennedy space center in about an hour, 6:03 p.m. eastern. if it does take off, we'll have live coverage in "the situation room." it's already been delayed five times because of the weather and potentially could be delayed today, as well. if it's delayed today, it will be delayed for some time given the schedule. we'll watch the space shuttle "endeavour" and let you know if it finally takes off in about an hour from now. as i say, we'll have live coverage if it takes off. in the meantime, we're watching the confirmation hearings of sonia sotomayor. she's the nominee to become the next associate justice of the united states supreme court. the senate judiciary committee committee is now in recess for a few moments. they're taking a break. they'll resume questioning in this, the second round of questioning by the senators of the judge. the senior democrat, dianne feinstein, of california, she's up next. she's one of two women on the committee, so she's going to be asking her questions. she's a strong supporter of sonia sotomayor. she'll be followed by chuck grassley, one of the senior republicans. then they'll go back and forth. we're anxious later today, if we get that far, depending on when they call a recess for the day, lindsey graham, the republican senator from south carolina, we'll be anxious to hear his questions. yesterday he was very dramatic and very pointed in his questioning, some very tough questions for sonia sotomayor. so, a lot still to come in these historic hearings. so, let's talk a little bit about what had just happened most recently. orrin hatch was asking questions. john king, he's one of three republicans, seven republicans on this committee, one of three potentially that could vote to confirm. >> if you were watching the questioning you might think he's inclined to be against her because he asked some tough questions or made it clear he wasn't satisfied or felt she gave him enough information. that has been his trademark over the years, he asks tough questions in a gentlemanly way, but he ascribes to the theory that presidents who win elections should get their pick. he's voted for every nominee in his long tenure, whether the republicans were in the majority, he has been the chairman, now the minority and outnumbered by a big number in the senate, 60-40, but his rule is the president gets the pick. i look at the qualificatioqualis the person qualified, not what i would pick, not what i like, but is it a qualified person and he tends to vote yes when it comes to the supreme court pick. there's every indication he will be as consistent as he has been throughout his career. >> he voted to confirm the two bill clinton nominees, stephen buyer and ruth bader ginsburg. >> when he was up in 1998 -- >> talking about sonia sotomayor. >> he voted to oppose her. there's lots of concern among republicans and that they didn't want to put her on that court because she might, indeed, become a supreme court nominee, which has occurred. it will be interesting to see if he's old school, as we keep saying, and he'll stick to the advise and consent and the president gets his prerogative, whether he abides by his own rule or whether he uses the obama standard. >> she was -- the president -- judge sotomayor was among the sitting appeals court judges that orrin hatch said would most likely be accept to believe the senate. he did not say he would vote for her, but he gave the president a recommendation, if you nominated people like this, they would most likely be accept to believe the senate and she was one of them. >> too early, jeff toobin, to start looking ahead to a potentially second nominee that the president barack obama might put forward? because there are some current members of the supreme court who may be retiring perhaps in the not-too-distant future. >> john paul stevens is 89 years old. ruth ginsburg is 76, and the administration identified four finalists for this role. the three who didn't get it were janet thnapolitano, the secreta of homeland security, former governor of arizona, elena kay ginn, dean of harvard law school, and diane wood, a judge on the seventh circuit court of appeals in chicago. i think if you go by past experience, the finalists tend to get it the next time. stephen breyer was still a finalist for the appointment that went to ruth ginsburg. samuel alito was considered for spot that went to john roberts. you'd have to think one of those three would be the front-runners -- >> they were all women, so -- because she would be replacing a woman, would he appoint another woman? >> i think he would appoint another woman. almost half the lawyers in this country are women, and more than half of the lawns are women. when you look at people like wood, like hagen, like th napolita napolitano, it's not like you're sacrificing quality or qualifications. >> oh, absolutely not. >> does it make any difference -- >> well, not -- >> maria, does it make a difference janet napolitano is a politician, not a judge? >> i wrote saying what we needed was someone not coming from the court of appeals because i think it would be time to have someone who's stood for office, who's had the balance, and if you look at sandra day o'connor, she actually had experience that perhaps served her well in building consensus. she'd been in county government, she'd had local office, and i'd want to go back to those days to mix up the experiences which we've talked about how important that is. >> and wolf, if judge sotomayor is confirmed here, one of the first cases they may hear is a political case, is a case of a conservative organization that made a movie about hillary clinton. and it's citizens united i think versus the federal election commission. now there's -- campaigns are not just tv commercials anymore. they're movies. it's the internet. what kind of speech should be regulated in campaigns? and this could be one of her tests and we'll find out if she's a judicial activist or not. >> a lot of the hot cases out there that are coming up. and one of the reasons she's ducking a lot of questions today and yesterday, she makes the points, as others have made before her, these are issues that may come before me as a supreme court justice. i don't want to prejudge before i hear the arguments and the facts. a convenient way, candy, for these nominees, whether looealir roberts or now sotomayor to simply say "no comment." >> it has worked very well for many nominees since robert bourque, and i don't see it changing anytime soon. >> not to drop a hint or anything. >> and we're kind of looking forward on this, not just to the supreme court. sort of seems to me that the tone of this hearing, of these hearings, has been pretty important for the republicans who went in wanting to ask the tough questions that their conservative base is skeptical about when it comes to sotomayor's record without looking like mean old white men picking on her. and i think we have seen that repeatedly, the exercise -- we heard coburn saying i'm so sorry for the outburst that came during this hearing. >> hold on a second. lindsey graham, the republican senator from south carolina, speaking to reporters outside the hearing room during this break. let's listen in. >> -- time on the district court or the circuit court to make major policy changes, but when you look at the position she has taken as an advocate regarding the death penalty, if she had been on the supreme court where they were looking at whether or not the death penalty violates the cruel and unusual component of the eighth amendment, i think her advocacy positions tell you a lot. the speeches are edgy. that's the point we're trying to make here, is that when she was an advocate, she took -- and the puerto rican legal defense fund took some pretty, i think, edgy positions on quotas, on abortion, on the death penalty, the speeches are outside precedent. and the advocacy role is outside precedent. so, when -- if she does sit on the court and determines what a fundamental right is regarding the second amendment, the speeches and her advocacy positions tell us a lot about what she would do when she's not bound by precedent. that's why we're not talking about this. that's why it's relevant to find out what causes she embraced. and here's the point i'm trying to make to the country -- what do you expect? president obama won the election. so, i expect someone to be chosen who would have been on the other side of an abortion case than me, as an advocate. i would expect someone potentially to have a different view of the death penalty than i would if you're writing a memorandum or giving a speech. what i'm concerned about and what i have to be satisfied of is that even though we would be different as advocates, we do share some common understanding that being a judge is different and that you are bound by things bigger than your preferences. an at the end of the day, that's what i have to be convinced of. [ inaudible question ] has she got therein yet? i'll let you know after my last round of questioning. but e lebs do matter, and that's the point. the president has earned the right to pick somebody different than i would have picked, and the balance of power of the court's not going to change dramatically if she gets on the court. but in other circumstances it might. >> is she willing to be bound by precedent in her ruling? >> yeah, i think she has, but her speeches are very edgy where she has a view of the law and judging that i completely feel uncomfortable with. and the advocacy positions are, quite frankly, not traditional in terms of being pro-choice. they were, you know, some of these briefs and some of the positions about hiring were well beyond sort of the mainstream positions they have taken. we'll talk more about that. >> a pretty powerful symbol today when the new haven firefighters came in and sat. [ inaudible question ] is there a message there? >> well, i think he deserves his chance to tell the american people how he felt about being denied his promotion and why he filed suit and what he did to make himself a better candidate for the test. and here's the complexity that we're dealing with here. no matter how smart you were, no matter how capable you were in the past, if you were an african-american or hispanic member of the police department or fire department in a lot of places in this country, no matter how the test was constructed, you couldn't make it. so, we're trying to do better as a nation so we're coming up with tests, and this idea of this impact is something to consider. you want to make sure the test is not rigged, that it's fair, that if everybody studied hard they'd have a decent chance of passing. the problem i have with judge sotomayor's decision in the ricci case is that it's jumping out at you. it is a new and novel concept, disparate impact and disparate treatment are finally coming together, and she took a pass. [ inaudible question ] well, i think it's good. i think a lot of americans would like to hear what he's got to say, and i think a lot of americans have a lot of sympathy for him. but he's not owed sympathy, as justice alito said. he's owed a fair interpretation of the law and i don't think she gave him one. i think she took a pass. i think she considered her rendering of that decision and how it might affect her future aspirations and she took a pass. she's not the first to have done that, let's put it that way, and that's not good for the country, but i think that's exactly what's going on here. now, about that case, the one thing that justice alito pointed out is that are you going to allow cities to set aside the result because you have some loud person in town who's threatening the elected officials that if my -- the guy i like or the gal i like doesn't get promoted i'm going to make life hell for you and sue you? i am so glad the supreme court said you can't just listen to a few people and give in to threat base the few. >> all right. lindsey graham offering some thoughts on what's going on. he's getting ready himself in the next hour or so to ask his own questions in this, the second round of questions for sonia sotomayor. we're getting sort of -- i have to say, candy, you've studied lindsey graham as all of us have for a long time -- conflicting signals from him, whether he's inclined to vote to confirm or reject. >> that's the money bite and the one that will be played over and over not just for the public consumption but for consumption by republicans in the senate as the one that says, you know, all things being equal i think the president certainly is -- should be given his choice. and i also think that in the end some of these things -- i mean, he obviously told us what his problems were with her, which we knew. but this does not sound like a man who is going to turn her down, certainly, in the one part of it we saw he was pretty strong. >> for those who don't work in television, the words "money bite" -- >> oh, sorry. so comfortable around the table, you know? >> a major sound bite before a clip or quote that he made with the one that candy referred to. all right. we'll take another quick break. remember, we're going to know very, very soon whether the space shuttle "endeavour" will or will not be launched today. supposed to launch at 6:03 p.m. eastern, less than an hour from now. the dodge chrysler and jeep summer clearance is here, and it's the best time to get some of the best deals. get in now and get the chrysler town & country with a generous cash allowance, or 0% financing for 60 months. the @%ail rated jeep grand cherokee also comes with a cash allowance or 0% financing for 60 months. or choose a hard working all new dodge ram truck with a cash allowance that's tough to beat. all with our best in the business lifetime powertrain warranty. so hurry come see the deals we've built for you at the dodge chrysler and jeep summer clearance. vñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñvñ senator chuck grassley has just asked joan ya sotomayor a sensitive question, the first time it's come up so far, the issue of same-sex marriage, and should it be judged in the states, the federal government, listen to this. >> whether it be roe v. wade, chevron, whether it's a whole bunch of other cases you made reference to, the casey case, the gonzalez case, the league in creating leather products case, the way you read that case to me, you said these are precedents. now, are you saying to me that baker v. nelson is not a precedent? >> no, sir. i just haven't reviewed baker in a while. and so, i actually don't know what the status is. if it is the court's precedent, as i've indicated in all of my answers, i will apply that precedent to the facts of any new situation that implicates it. always the first question -- >> well, then tell me what sort of a process you might go through if a case -- a case came to the supreme court, whether baker versus nelson the precedent or not, because i assume if it is precedent, based on everything you told us yesterday, you're going to follow it. >> the question on a marriage issue will be two sides will come in, one will say, baker applies. another will say this court'ses predentd applies to this factual situation, whatever the factual situation is before the court. they'll argue about what the meaning of that precedent is, how it applies to the regulation that's at issue, and then the court will look at whatever it is that the state has done, what law it has passed on this issue of marriage, and decide, okay, which precedent controls this outcome? it's not that i'm attempting not to answer your question, senator grassley. i'm trying to explain the process that would be used. again, this question of how and what is constitutional or not or how a court will approach a case and what precedent to apply to it is going to depend on what's at issue before the court. could the state do what it did? >> can i interrupt you again? following what you said yesterday, that certain things are precedent, i assume that you've answered a lot of questions before this committee about -- even after you said that certain things were precedent -- of things that are going to come before the court down the road when -- if you're on the supreme court. you didn't seem to compromise or hedge on those things beings predent. why are you hedging on this? >> i'm not on this because the holding of baker v. nelson is a holding. as a holding, it would control any similar issue that came up. it's been a while since i've looked at that case, so i can't, as i could with some of the more recent precedents of the court or the more core holdings of the court on a variety of different issues, answer exactly what the holding was and what the situation that it applied to. i would be happy, senator, as a follow-up to -- written letter or to give me the opportunity to come back tomorrow and just address that issue. i'd have to look at baker again. >> i would appreciate it. >> it's been too long since i've looked at it, and so -- it may have been, sir, as far back as law school, which was -- >> you were probably in grade school, you were, at that time. >> it was -- no, that i looked at it, sir. >> okay. okay. i want to go on and -- >> all right. so, that was the first time the issue of same-sex marriage came up, a very sensitive issue likely to come before the supreme court one of these days. and you heard sonia sotomayor saying, you know, she really hasn't studied the precedents, she really has to study it, she's willing to take a closer look at it. it's been since law school since she reviewed that one sensitive case, but maybe tomorrow, she says, if you want to follow up with that she'll be able to follow up. but she did dodge that issue, maria echaveste. she didn't want to answer the question. >> right. especially since i think all the experts around the table think that this issue will likely come up as whether it percolates its way through california or iowa -- you know, as it moves its way across the country. so, certainly on this one she was -- i have to say -- right to try to avoid answering because it's likely she'll rule on it. >> if it did come up on the supreme court, given the split, 5-4 on some of these sensitive issues, how would the current court, assuming she becomes a member of the current court, succeeding david souter on the supreme court, how do you think they would decide the issue of same-sex marriage? >> well, if the question was directly posed -- does the refusal to allow gay people to get married violate the united states constitution, i think at this point it's inconceivable that the court would rule in favor of same-sex marriage. i think they are nowhere near that point. the closest issue that they have come is 2003, the case of lawrence v. texas, where a person was charged with the criminal offense of consensual sodomy in texas and justice kennedy said you can't -- there is a privacy right to do that. but he very explicitly in that opinion, he said we're not ruling on anything relating to marriage. this relates to criminal prosecution for consensual gay sex. i don't think this court is going to rule that there's a federal right to gay marriage with her confirmed. >> candy, from her perspective, she just dodged this issue. >> absolutely. these are the similar issues, abortion, the right to bear arms, gay marriage. they really are percolating in the pipeline. i don't know if they'll do it in the next two or three years. but there are all over this country states in court grappling with all of these issues. and you can say all you want that she didn't answer the question or that justice roberts didn't answer the questions. but i think it would be -- they would be hard-pressed to say, yes, i actually think -- i agree with that because then doesn't that prejudice how they're going to hear the cases when they get there? >> politically, i think you'd find it hard to find a republican or conservative side anyone that would fault her for saying that this is -- >> all right, guys. hold your thoughts for a second because we're going to take another short break. we're going to continue our coverage of the sonia sotomayor confirmation hearings. we're also watching what's happening down at the kennedy space center. you're looking at live pictures of the space shuttle "endeavour." they're about to make a decision whether it will launch at 6:03 p.m. eastern, a little more than a half an hour or so from now. if it does, you'll see that live. introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups. it's the most fuel efficient crossover on the highway. better than honda cr-v, toyota rav4 and even the ford escape hybrid. the all new chevy equinox. 90s slacker hip-hop. ♪ singer: buckle up, everybody 'cause pu're taking a ride ♪ ♪ that can strain your relationships and hurt your pride ♪ ♪ it's the credit roller coaster ♪ ♪ and as you can see it kinda bites! ♪ ♪ so sing the lyrics with me: ♪ when your debt goes up your score goes down ♪ ♪ when you pay a little off it goes the other way 'round ♪ ♪ it's just the same for everybody, every boy and girl ♪ ♪ the credit roller coaster makes you wanna hurl ♪ ♪ so throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em around ♪ ♪ like a wanna-be frat boy trying to get down ♪ ♪ then bring 'em right back to where your laptop's at... ♪ ♪ log on to free credit report dot com - stat! ♪ vo: free credit score and report with enrollment in triple advantage. quality and reliability... are more than words here. it's personal. i have diabetes. rodney's kid too. so we're so proud to manufacture... the accu-chek® aviva meters and test strips... here in the u.s.a. plus, we've proven you'll waste 50% fewer strips... when you use our meter, which means greater savings... for people with diabetes, like me. now that's a true american value. accu-chek® aviva. born in the u.s.a. to our viewerings, you're in "the situation room." happening now, day three of the confirmation hearing for judge sonia sotomayor. the supreme court nominee is pressed for her views on abortion and gun control and lots of other sensitive issues but avoids, by and large, providing some direct answers. explosive allegations from michael jackson's father and sister that their son and brother was the victim of foul play. is the probe into the pop singer's death on the verge of becoming a homicide case? we're taking a closer look at where the investigation stands right now. and the space shuttle "endeavour" prepared for a launch, but weather could make liftoff no-go for the sixth time. we're about to go live to the kenne kennedy space center. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." right now, nasa officials consider history as they consider some very serious concerns. very soon, we could see the spectacular launch of a critical mission for the space shuttle "endeavour," or we could hear nasa officials groaning from yet another delay. "endeavour" is ready to launch from the same spot that launched apollo 11. that liftoff. we'll see its 40th anniversary tomorrow. it put the first men on the moon. cnn's john zarrella is over at the kennedy space center right now watching what's going on. john, how does it look? >> reporter: well, wolf, if there's going to be a delay in today's launch, it's not likely to be from the weather. finally some good news for nasa as far as the weather is concerned. all of those storm clouds that we saw earlier in the week, they're not around today. there were some earlier in the day, but they have cleared off. right now, the air force meteorological team right here is giving nasa an 80% chance that they will be able to go from a weather standpoint. we are in the last of the built-in holds at the t-minus nine-minute mark and holding. we'll be coming out of that hold in roughly 20 minutes or so, aiming for a 6:03 p.m. eastern time liftoff. the astronauts have been on board the shuttle now for about 2 1/2 hours. they're strapped in. they're ready to go again. and, wolf, looks like right now, unless something else crops up, that "endeavour" will be on its way on a 16-day mission to the international space station. wolf? >> the skies look very clear behind you over there, john. let's bring in our severe weather expert, chad meyer, for a little forecast over the next 20, 30 minutes. chad, what do we see? >> the old saying, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. well, we do like the weather, so maybe we can wait 35 minutes. there were many showers here about two hours ago. we were in violation of cumulus louds, of lightning and cirrus. the cirrus clouds came from this mess and they were heading over the kennedy space center there. what i want to show you now is that the cloud cover is just this cirrus cloud deck. it's those icy clouds you see way up in the sky. believe it or not, you can't fly through those icy clouds because you don't want to have anything in those engines at all. but for right now, we are in good shape. there are some lightning strikes to the north, way up north, and well south into west palm, but we are in this very little, nice little section right here right over the cape, and we will hope that that lasts for another 30, 31 minutes. >> 6:03 p.m. eastern, almost exactly 30 minutes from now. it's a spectacular, spectacular sight whenever you see it. back to john zarrella. john, if you look at the sky, any clouds up there? >> reporter: just those high clouds that you guys were talking about, and that's about it. we'll probably see a pretty good launch from here, at least, you know, quite a bit of the way up. but not too many high clouds, just some high clouds around and that's it, wolf. that's pretty good. >> and if they can't do it at 6:03 p.m. eastern, what's next? >> reporter: well, they'll try again tomorrow at 5:32 p.m. eastern time. and then if they cannot go tomorrow, that's it, they're done until the end of the month because russian progress resupply ship will then take priority to go to the international space station on that resupply mission. so, they'll have to stand down roughly the 25th or 26th of the month if for some reason they can't go today or tomorrow. >> but everybody's on board, all the crew members. they're ready to go. right? >> reporter: yeah. they really are, wolf. you know, they've been down this road before. they've been on that vehicle, you know, the last couple of days. they tried it, couldn't do it. so, you know, they walked out today. they still were smiling when they came out of the operations and checkout building, waving to the crowd, led by commander mark polans polanski. dave wolf, a veteran of three flights, he's the main spacewalker, he pumped his fists a couple times. they were all encouraged, and seemed to have a pretty good feeling about today's weather cooperating enough that they would -- that they'd get off the ground. i tell you, wolf, you know, they're on board that vehicle, sitting in those seats strapped in for three hours before liftoff. to me, that's got to be an awful long, excruciating time. lying on your back, facing up in that space shuttle for a good three hours they've been on board. well, 2 1/2 hours now they've been on the board vehicle. >> five timesitis been delayed. let's hope the sixth time tomb, 6:03 p.m. eastern, is the charm. you can follow this mission much closer. our commission commander has been updating the launch all day on twitter. abbi tatton has more on what he's been saying. what has he been saying? >> wolf, the latest tweet from polanski was cautiously optimistic saying i hope the next tweet is going to come from orbit and not from the ground. he's certainly got a lot of followers here. mark polanski has 30,000 people watching him, reading the updates coming on twiter, and they wanted to be seeing what was happening on the international space station, but for the last few days they've just been getting these informational updates every hour or two about all the delays, all the scrubbed attempts. i'll show you what we're talking about. over the last three days, we've seen polanski put the suit on once, take it off again, do it again monday, he's put it on for the third time. he said this takes a little bit out of you physically, to suit up, then to get the delays over and over again. he just hopes the third time is the charm for this mission and hopefully the next thing we'll see will be coming from orbit. >> we wish mark polanski and the entire crew all only the best. we'll watch it every step of the way. once again, 6:03 p.m. eastern, if it launches, you'll see it live. that's coming up here in "the situation room." we'll show it to you. you'll see it obviously when we see it and that will be live. shocking claims of abuse by foreign exchange students who have come to the united states. their disturbing stories have resulted now in a criminal investigation. and the search for clues in the murder of a florida couple who were the adoptive parents of a dozen chirp with special needs. federal drug agents are now joining the case, and police are focussing in on another person of interest in the of interest in the investigation. arenjoying the nw palm pre with its revolutionary web os. they're running multiple live applications at the same time. - ( thunder and rain ) - 3 million are using the simply everything plan. each is saving $1200 - over an at&t iphone plan. - ( cash register dings ) together that's over $3 billion. - enough to open a dunkin' donuts in space. - ( walkie-talkie sounds ) from america's most dependable 3g network. bringing you the first and only wireless 4g network. get the palm pre from sprint. only on the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. traders at td ameritrade are a demanding bunch. in fact,they want it all. you know, when i place an order, don't just fill it. get me the bestavailable price. a better pricemeans more money in my pocket. that's why td ameritrade's proprietary order- routing technology consistently seeks the best available price. i've got quotes, charts, watch lists, just the way i want them. mission control...right here. sam: command center 2.0 lets you customize your trading space. no risk, no reward--but i need to know what the risk is. my secret? backtest. backtest. backtest. sam: strategy desk lets you backtest your trading ideas, to help you choose the best ones. and it's free. with superior tools like these, traders get what they want. it's trader heaven. sam: call or go to tdameritrade.com. independence is the spirit that drives america's most successful investors. announcer: trade commission-free for 30 days plus get $100 cash when you open an account. their dream of spending a year getting to know the united states of america is turning into a nightmare. four foreign exchange students were placed in unfit homes. drew griffin has been looking at this story. pretty shocking and very explosive allegations. >> reporter: absolutely. a criminal case under way. there's calls for an inspector general over at the state department. but more, wolf, this is becoming a big embarrassment for the u.s. state department. and when you see the conditions these kids were living under, you'll understand why. one was told he'd be living with a loving family. he ended in a second-floor apartment with a 72-year-old man and hardly any food. you're the guy that passed out in track? >> yeah. >> reporter: carlos villarreal came here from colombia for a year in high school. it cost his family $13,000. >> i ended up in a house living with a couple of ex-convicts with low amounts of food, which i lost a lot of body weight. and an unsafe environment. >> reporter: there was a drug bust on this street the week carlos moved in. his host, a local reverend who, according to the local prosecutor, also houses his drug-dealing grandson. did you starve him? >> huh? >> reporter: were you not feeding him? >> bull [ bleep ]. you think i would have a kid and not feed him? i have two of my own. he it a. i bought -- get that camera off me, will you, please? >> we signed up for a family that was going to transport us from our homes to school, that was going to feed us three times a day, and basically that was going to be a family. >> reporter: this norwegian girl, who doesn't want us to show her face, found herself in a sort of flop house and took pictures of the dog droppings all over the floor. the mother and her daughter slept in the couch, you slept in a bed and a man who stayed somewhere else in the house? >> in a three-room apartment. >> reporter: health officials in scranton actually condemned part of the house, and county officials say the girl and four other students were taken out of their host homes. what happened to these guests of the u.s. is now a criminal investigation. >> they expected to get certain degree of quality of life for the money that they provided and obviously weren't. that's one possible crime that we'd be looking at, as well. >> this is the local placement agent who placed youngsters in the homes of ex-cons and rooming houses and was paid $400 per student. she kicked a local television station out of her home and so far has not responded to calls and door knocks from cnn. she worked for a san francisco firm that takes in millions of dollars bringing students here with a state department approval. while local prosecutors are looking at charges against aspect and its placement director in scranton, there is a much bigger question going on in washington. >> it's inexcusable that our government didn't do a better job of oversight and it's inexcusable that this foundation hasn't done the job to provide basic protection for children. >> reporter: aspect gave conflicting responses to cnn. while calling the scranton situation deplorable, it also said based on its investigation and talks with county officials no student was abused, malnourished or dehydrated. that, county officials repeatedly told cnn, is just not true. aspect says it fired its local agent and two other of its officers that resigned. but that was after the fact. cnn has learned aspect knew about the problems in scranton way back in october, when a student sent photos and an e-mail pleading for help and the state department, which spends $34 million a year on exchange programs, well, it knew, too. >> i'm the father of four daught daughters, okay? i would never want my daughter, nor would any parent want their daughter or son exposed tho these kinds of conditions. >> reporter: senator casey says e-mails show the state department knew about the problems here since last october and did nothing for months. and then the state department allowed aspect, the agency that placed the students in these homes, to investigate itself. p.j. crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, says that was a mistake. >> i think in large respect because we put too much emphasis on the program agents to police themselves, we recognize that that has not worked properly. >> reporter: danielle, who had been tracking exchange student abuse for years, says the typical scenario is kids complain, the state department does nothing, and agencies around the country keep recruiting students. >> it's self-regulated, unmonitored, underreported, students becoming raped, placed in the homes of convicted felons, placed in the homes of registered sex offenders. come to the united states and lose 20, 30, 40 pounds. >> reporter: this student says despite the living conditions he loved his time in the u.s. >> all the people are good. >> reporter: he plans to come back but next time, he says, not to a home where he needs to wonder where his next meal is coming from. wolf, 30,000 students are on the way to the u.s. for next year. senator casey wants a full review of the state department to make sure nothing like this could possibly happen again. wolf? >> what a story. drew griffin, thanks very much for bringing it to us. disturbing news coming from capitol hill. the associated press reporting that police have sealed off some of the entrances to the u.s. capitol after reports of gunfire only a few blocks away. there were no immediate reports of possible injuries, although numerous emergency vehicles were visible in the nearby streets that were getting producers and reporters to this area to check out what's going on. but once again, police have sealed off parts of the sbran entrances to the various house and senate buildings on capitol hill because of reports of gunfire only a few blocks away. we'll update you on what we know as we get more information. stand by. it was the accident many believed sent michael jackson on the road to eviction, that infamous pepsi commercial where his hair caught fire. we have new video, amazing video, i should say, of that accident that few people have ever seen before. also, police called her a person of interest in the murder of a couple with 16 children. now that person has been located. so, we ask this question -- what might she know about the shocking crime? and we're counting down for the launch of the space shuttle "endeavour." scrubbed five times, will this finally be a successful attempt? supposed to take off at 6:03 p.m. eastern. that's only in a few minutes. not long ago, this man had limited mobility. last month, this woman wasn't even able to get around inside of her own home. they chose mobility. and they chose the scooter store! if you or a loved one live with limited mobility call the scooter store! no other company will work harder to make you mobile or do more to guarantee your complete satisfaction. if we pre-qualify you for a new power chair or scooter and your claim isn't approved, the scooter store will give you your power chair or scooter free. that's our guarantee. they were so helpful and nice. they filed all the paperwork, and medicare and my insurance covered the cost. we can work directly with medicare or with your insurance company. we can even help with financing. if there's a way, we'll find it! so don't wait any longer, call the scooter store today. . you are looking at live pictures of capitol hill right now as the "associated press" has reported that police have sealed off some of the entrances to the u.s. capitol after reports of gunfire a few blocks away. numerous emergency vehicles are seen in the nearby streets. cnn photographer kim yule is on the scene. what do you see? >> reporter: capitol hill police coming out around new jersey and louisiana avenue on capitol hill. an eyewitness was saying he saw, robert drum, said he saw a white mercedes flying down louisiana avenue heading west, took a left on new jersey. he heard a crash. him and his family are here on vacation. then, heard multiple shots fired, approximately ten and then all of the sudden, him and his family were pushed off. i came running to the building. we came over here and started speaking with this gentleman. he saw them put an african-american male in an ambulance. they took him away. we are waiting for more information. >> there are lots of emergency vehicles and police visible? >> reporter: yes. wolf, there are police all over the place and i can see at least 8 to 10 police cars and ambulances still hanging out, special operations vehicle, undercover cars and multiple media out here. >> so if you ran out of the russell center office building, this activity is going on closer to the senate side as opposed to the house side? >> reporter: correct, wolf. it is on the senate side. we were up doing live shots for the sotomayor live hearing and we got words of shots fired. i ran across the way, across the park. they pushed me out of the park. i ran without a camera, because we were doing live shots up there. this is where i ended up and found in eye witness. >> the sotomayor hearings, they have broken up for the day. that hearing took place in the hart senate office building, which is much further away from this activity that is going on near the streets of capitol hill. they are going to resume the hearings tomorrow morning, 9:30 a.m. eastern. the hearings have now broken up for the day. we are waiting to get more information on what's going on. kim, right now, it just looked like a lot of activity. law enforcement, emergency vehicles, and does it look like they are searching for someone or anything like that? >> wolf, from what i can see, i am looking down new jersey avenue. i am looking towards the capitol. you can see the white mercedes crashed about halfway down the block just south of c street and some cop cars around trying to figure everything out. i am not exactly sure if he was the person shot. that's what our eyewitness told us. that's who the eyewitness says they loaded into the vehicle, the ambulance. >> the "associated press" is getting more information, even as we speak. the 18-hour reporting that police have sealed off some of these entrances after this gunfire. unconfirmed reports of one injury. you saw someone or a tourist saw one individual taken away in an ambulance. i assume the tourist, according to a.p. is now being quoted, there were so many gun shots being fired, my family got down. the one victim, not wearing a police uniform, was taken away in an ambulance. we will continue to monitor what's going on on capitol hill. kim, if you get more information, let us know, kim uhl, our photographer who ran out of the russell center office building to this area on the capitol grounds to see what was going on. just want to alert you that the shuttle "endeavour," and we are going to show you live pictures from florida, it is now ago. all systems go. 6:03 eastern, 8 minutes and 15 seconds from now, the shuttle will, in fact, take off. the weather good enough for the launch. finally, they will in 8:00 unless there is some major change over the course of these 8:00 minutes. john, a lot of smiles right now that they finally got the go? >> a lot of people going, boy, it's about time. they haven't gotten this far in the count in any of those past five attempts to launch "endeavour." as far as they have gotten in the count, you can see some have of the pictures looking at the hatch. 7:30 before liftoff, wolf. all the systems on board the shuttle are working fine. there are no issues. so it appears right now headed towards an on-time liftoff at 6:03. >> how many astronauts are about to be launched into space and what's their mission? >> you have seven astronauts on board the space shuttle and six on the space station. you have 13 people who will be in space at one time once they dock with the international space station in a couple of days. that's the largest number of people who will have ever been in spa in space at the same time. a couple other milestones, the first time two canadians will be in space at the same time. you see the rotating arm there rotated back away from the space shuttle, another milestone towards getting it off the ground. another big part is the kibo laboratory, which means hope in japanese. that porch will allow astronauts an the cosmonauts on the international space station to put scientific experiments that need to be exposed to space out on that porch up to six, eight experiments at once can be on that porch and it will allow for major science to be accomplished there. so that's going to require five space walks. they are going to be using three different robotic arms. it really is going to be like a construction site out there if you are walking down the street and you see a building under construction and all those big cranes. the only difference here, wolf, is, instead of wearing hard hats, they are wearing space suits. >> they are getting ready to do the job. steam coming out of these engines right now. >> you have got the shuttle's three main engines and the two solid rocket boosters. once you ignite those solid rocket boossters, there is no turning back. you can't shoot them down. you can light the main engines and shut those down. you can shut down the three main engines but not those boosters. they come off at twop minutes into flight. you are looking at a vehicle that produces 7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff when all five of the three main engines and two solid rocket boosters are firing at the same time. >> i want to bring in a guess the, chris ferguson, who is, himself an astronaut. chris, thanks very much. 4:30 to go. walk us through what is happening right now. >> sure, wolf. right now, the pilot is getting ready to start the auxiliary power units which they do just inside 5:00 minutes of launch. they provide hydraulic power for the main engines. shortly, you will see the main engines going through a little test sequence to make sure they can point in any direction they need to. also, there is a little cycle of the flight controlled surfaces, to make sure they are all working properly, as well as the rutters. after that, that preprogrammed sequence, the orbiters should be just about ready to go. >> 3:40 to go from now. the fact, chris, that there were five delays, this is the sixth time that they are about to and they are in fact moments from now, 3:00 from now about to be launched. how frustrating is it for an astronaut to go through that and be told to go home? the anticipation gets pretty high approaching a mission. we understand it is florida and it is florida in the summertime. it is the lightning capital of the world. these kind of things happen. we have usually prepared a year, year an a half for these missions. while we are frustrated when we get a launch delay, we keep the big pick why your in mind and we know eventually the weather will clear and the skies will part tanned will be our turn as it is the turn for this crew here today. >> 2:50 to go. i want to just listen to nasa for just a moment, a few seconds, hear what they are saying. >> and we are completing the purge of the shuttle main engines. >> all right. well, that's it. let's bring back chris ferguson, himself and the astronaut john zarrella is with us as well. you have a question you want to ask chris, at a accepts tiff moment, a moment like this. >> chris, i was thinking a couple of things. you were commander of the rescue shuttle, if i'm not mistaken that would have had to go and rescue the crew of "atlantis" on the huble mission. right now, what goes through your mind as the commander at this point? you are now inside of a minute and a half. what are you doing right now? >> a lot of folks ask, what are you thinking in a couple of moments leading up the launch? the truth be told, you are very preoccupied with the health of the vehicle and making sure the crew is prepared and monitoring their status as well. you are right. this was the rescued vehicle, "endeavour" was, so it spent a fair amount of time outdoors. it was going to be the sts-400 rescue vehicle to launch on the northern pad after the huble crew returned successfully to earth. we are all fortunate that we did what we did and recovered that launch well and we didn't need to do it. >> chris ferguson is joining us under 1:00 before this launch. john zarrella is on the scene. let's listen in and see these final seconds as we get ready to see the "endeavour" launch. >> systems ready to start. the booster joint heaters are being deactivated. minus 50 seconds, transferring to orbital internal power. coming up on a guy at t minus 31 seconds. >> auto sequence start. >> t minus 37 seconds and counting. endeavor's on board computers have primary control of all the vehicle's critical functions. t minus 18 seconds. >> 15. >> the sound suppression water system has been activated protecting "endeavour." we are going for main engine start. we have main engine start. four, three, two, one, booster ignition and liftoff of "endeavour," fulfilling japan's hope for an out of this world space laboratory. >> roger, roll, "endeavour." >> this is michigan control to houston. "endeavour" is rolling. it is now going into a heads-down position flying at 400 mile per hour, one mile altitude and seven miles down range already from the kennedy space center. the orbiter passes through the area with maximum pressure on the vehicle. 50 seconds through the flight. >> "endeavour," go ahead, throttle up. >> throttle up. >> the three engines on board are throttling back up. "endeavour" flying at 1100 miles an hour, 10 miles altitude and 10 miles down range at liftoff the fully fueled shuttle boosters weigh 4.5 million pounds. 1:33 seconds into the flight. "endeavour" flying at 1900 miles per hour, 17 miles altitude and 16 miles down range. all systems continue to function well. three good main engines, three good power generating cells and three good power units for the hydraulic system. we will be standing by for burnout and separation for the solid rocket boosters. the twin boosters provide 5.3 million pounds of thrust to pore tr propel the orbiter towards space. >> there it is. the rocket boosteres just separated from the endeavor, moving towards space, 2:20 into this flight. it looks like everything is going the way it should go. craig ferguson, himself, an's stro naught and former commander of the "endeavour" is joining us on the phone as is john zarrella, our correspondent who has been covering the space mission for a long, long time. chris ferguson, so far so good? it looks like all systems go? >> this is great news. absolutely. we are glad to see them off the pad. you can see one of the views looking down from the external tang at the bottom of the ash bitter. that is a new view to inspect for any debris that may fall off the tank. so far, everything looks great. >> chris, the key is to make sure that there is no debris that could knock off even a tiny little piece of the "endeavour" of the space shuttle, is that right? >> absolutely wolf. as you know, we use very cold propel ants inside that external tank. they tend to form ice in the human environment in and around florida. we are very conscientious of ice that may come off. that camera provides an excellent view overall of what may come off the tank and pass in and around the shuttle, itself. >> john zarrella is watching all of this unfold. you have seen a lot of this. so far, it looks like a beauty? >> yes, as commander ferguson was saying, you are looking down where the connections are to the shuttle, to the space shuttle "endeavour." coming up on the next major milestone is mico, main engine cutoff, the separation of the shuttle from that external tank. that's the next major milestone they will be traveling more than 17,000 miles an hour. at that point, endeavor will be in space and that will come about eight minutes in when you have main engine cutoff. meco. coming up on five minutes in, so another three minutes of powered flight on those three main engines that are firing now. then main engine cutoff. the tank, which will fall away, i what fuels those engines. at that point, the shuttle "endeavour" and the seven-member crew will actually be in space. this is 23rd flight of the shuttle "endeavour" and the 29th of the international space station of the space shuttle. you are looking at seven flights to go after this liftoff to complete the international space station before september, 2010, which is the kind of soft cutoff date but a cutoff date nonetheless for the space shuttle program to come to an end. wolf? >> that's supposed to be the last one. we will see if, in fact, that is the case. chris ferguson, you were the commander of the "endeavour" the last time it took off back in november of last year. all these steps that are going on right now, are they computerized or do they just happen automatically or does the commander and his team, are they pushing all sorts of buttons right now? >> you can see the shadow passing across the bottom. that's actually the ash bitter performing a preprogrammed roll to what we call the heads-up attitude. the reason we do this is to regain or, should i say, acquire satellite communication. up to this point, we are communicating through one of the grounds sites. we are about to hand the communications and data transfer. that to heads up. some of this video will begin to get a little scratchy because those antennas are beginning to approach the horizon. we begin to lose some of the communication from them. we will probably keep the sectional tank antenna up through main engine cutoff and into perhaps darkness. it looked like a couple of times there were some debris or ice that seemed to move there, chris ferguson. did you notice anything unusual or is that just my imagination? >> you may have seen something, wolf. it is not uncommon to see a little speck or two fly by. we have very well-trained debris analysis teams who analyze this video. they will let us know whether it is anything to be concerned with. we are really concerned with a very sensitive period of time there that occurs somewhere between 2:00 and 3:00 minutes past launch, the debris sensitivity period where that debris could build up enough relative velocity to do any damage. there is a lot of criteria to meet. we will know tomorrow if there is anything of concern. to answer your question i did not see anything. >> did you point out earlier that this new shot was designed to be able to help nasa appreciate, if, in fact, there was any dangerous debris that might have chipped off parts of the space shuttle? >> absolutely, wolf. that was added the post "columbia" timeframe. we added a couple others. we don't get that individual joe until after we retrieve those bo boosteres and bring them back to florida. we are getting floos close to m >> explain what that means. >> meco, main engine cutoff. it occurs after 8:00 minutes of power flight when the engines shut themselves down. it is about five miles per second. we have actually jet sinned the external tank. >> what happens to the tang aft tank after it separates? >> it will reep ter the atmosphere and end up in the pacific ocean in 15, 20 minutes. >> it just took off and it will already be in the pacific ocean. >> a little traveling to do. it will re-enter the atmosphere very shortly. in order to keep the shuttle into orbit, we will light what's called the orbit tall maneuvering engines in another half hour. >> how long before the space shuttle gets to the international space station? >> well, the crew is going to go to bed here shortly, in about six hours or so. they have a lot of business to attend to to convert that orbiter into a spacecraft. they have to stow the suits and seats. tomorrow, they will wake up and do a complete head to toe inspection using that large inspection boom to take a real good look over the leading edge to the bottom of the orbiter to make sure we didn't incur any damage. on the third day, we wake up and get into what we call the ron de view checklist, a long series of preprogrammed and manual maneuvers. in 48 hours time on what we call flight day three, their third full day in space. >> we have the video of what we suspected was some debris and we have highlighted it. tell us if you think that was anything serious or not so serious. it just flashed right by. we will cue it up. >> i am not going to be able to comment ton. i'm sorry. i am looking at nasa tv. >> you are not seeing cnn right now? >> that's true. >> did you see what we just saw? there it is right there. >> no. i am seeing nasa tv. >> all right, so, never mind. >> i did see it, i did see it, wolf, as you said. you described it. i saw it when it happened in real time. i kind of saw the same thing. right there. something going by. i did see that same thing and said, what's that? it looks like little flakes or spe specks right there. we may get some questions about what that might have been that went by. it looks like a reflection, not anything that's hitting the vehicle, something along the side. it almost looks as if that's a reflection. >> we have been replaying. i don't want our viewers to think it happened ten times. we have been replaying it to appreciate what exactly it was. we are hoping it was obviously nothing. at what point, john, do they have that post launch news conference when the nasa authorities will be able to explain what's going on? >> it should come up in about 90 minutes, within an hour to 90 minutes after liftoff. they will hold the post-launch news and i'm sure that question is going to be asked. they may well say, look, as commander ferguson was saying, we are going to have to analyze that video, take a look at that before we can tell you what that is. they will look from the other camera angles. they have cameras on boosteres. they will have other camera angles they will be able to look at to get a hand on what, if anything, that was. >> john juzarrella watching thi for you. chris ferguson, thank you as well. we will stay in close touch with you and with john. we will try to get a better appreciation of what, if anything, that little -- looks like debris or ice that was flashing across the space shuttle "endeavour." we will try to figure out if it was anything significant or not. we will try to stay on top of this story. there is the other story that we are watching right here in the nation's capital, right here in washington, d.c. police sealed off entrances to the u.s. capitol after shots were fired on a nearby street. we have got on the phone dale lannigan of toledo, ohio. >> i was walking up what i think was louisiana avenue. i saw a white mercedes come flying by, about 60 miles an hour with two cop cars behind him. it looked like one driver in the car. looked like he had his left hand on the wheel kind of slouched over. i don't know if he was reaching for anything. it was not a normal position. he made a quick left-hand turn on to new jersey avenue. oh, maybe about 15 seconds later, i heard five quick shots and that was it. >> and what happened? the white mercedes stopped? >> there were about 20 police cars around, sat there for maybe 10, 15 minutes. nothing much happened. i saw them bringing a fellow out of the car, put him in the ambulance and all kinds of stories now floating around here about what happened to him. >> hold on a second, dale. brianna keeler is our congressional correspondent. >> reporter: we heard from kimberly snyder, the information officer from u.s. capitol police that this began as a routine traffic stop where capitol police were just stopping a man in a vehicle and he essentially fled from them, gave a bit of a chase. this was about a few blocks, i would say, north of the capitol. gave chase in this vehicle, was resisting verbal commands from police officers. at one point, struck a police officer, who was injured and then headed towards the capitol, ending about a block north from the capitol. at this point, the suspect, according to snyder, got out of the vehicle and pulled out a weapon, capitol police, she said ordered him to put it down. he didn't. they fired and it is their understanding that the suspect is dead. >> the suspect is dead. earlier, we heard that the suspect was taken away in an ambulance. these are live pictures coming in right now from our affiliate wusa here in washington, d.c. lots of activity. just to be precise, brianna, you know this area well. new jersey and louisiana, that's right on capitol hill, right near the senate side of the u.s. capitol? >> reporter: this is really about a block, not even, north of the capitol building, itself. it is about a block west of some of the senate side office buildings. it's really just steps from what's called upper senate park. so this is almost, it would seem as a tourist, that it would seem to be on capitol grounds between some park area very close to the capitol, wolf? >> is it fair to say, brianna, that the incident is now resolved, over with and they are dealing with the post incident? >> reporter: they certainly haven't said there is any other suspects. there is still a lot of activity going on, police tape, dozens and dozens of officers if not more than -- i don't want to speculate too much. dozens and dozens, i would say somewhere in the vicinity of 50 to 100 if not more. >> this incident was taking place just as the confirmation hearings for ss ss weewn sonya sotomayor were taking place. let's walk over to cnn over here at the magic wall for us. you have the drawings of the u.s. capitol. a lot of viewers in the united states and around the world have visited the capitol. show us where this went down. >> this is the capitol, wolf, as you mentioned. supreme court right back here. we had all these events going on today. the senate down here. if we move this way towards union station. >> those are the senate office buildings? >> yes. right back over here, if you move this way towards union station, this is all parkland, very relaxed with trees and everything. the distance from here to this end of the capitol is ruffle a quarter of a mile. as best we can tell, from what we are being told by the witnesses there on the grun, th this man was headed this way on this street. a lot of traffic merging in and out going to the capitol. coming down this way. right at this intercession is apparently where it all started coming apart, the intercession of "d" and louisiana. this is the area we are talking about. police now say they shot and killed this suspect in the white m mercedes after he is said to have bran dished a weapon. >> it would have been right on the edge of what a casual viewer would say is the grounds. >> a scare on capitol hill. stuff happens. we will get more information and bring it to our viewers. we will stay on top of this. we are watching the space shutt shuttle "endeavour." we will be bringing you new video of what we have just received of that emphasis pepsi commercial when michael jackson's hair caught fire. few people have ever seen this video before. we will show it to you and get you all the other news of the day right here in "the situation room." where getting a new vehicle is easy. because the price on the tag is the price you pay on remaining '08 and '09 models. you'll find low, straightforward pricing. it's simple. now get an '09 malibu 1lt with an epa estimated 33 mpg highway. get it now for around 21 thousand after all offers. go to chevy.com/openhouse for more details. if we don't act, medical bills will wipe out their savings. if we don't act, she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act, health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits for his employees. but we can act. the president and congress have a plan to lower your costs and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act. there's a big reason to lower high cholesterol... dangerous plaque that can build up in arteries. it's called atherosclerosis--or athero. and high cholesterol is a major factor. but crestor can help slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. go to arterytour.com and take an interactive tour to learn how plaque builds up. and then ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. along with diet, crestor does more than lower bad cholesterol and raise good. crestor is proven to slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. crestor isn't for everyone, like people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. you should tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of serious side effects. learn more about plaque buildup at arterytour.com. then ask your doctor if it's time for crestor. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. lots of stories unfolding. let's check in with fredricka whitfield. the investigation into an iranian passenger crash is underway. all 168 people on board were killed after it crashed shortly from tehran's international airport. they are searching for the plane's flight data recorders. a witness says the jet's tail was on fire as it circled before slamming into a field. homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the country needs more secure driver's licenses to prevent terrorism. if congress agrees, the new secure license called pass i.d. would replace the bush administration's real i.d. card. 13 states voted not to participate. napolitano says it is much less expensive and was developed with state governor's cooperation. nfl players are lobbying congress for support in a possible labor showdown with team owners. last year, the owners voted to opt out of the current agreement in 2011 raising the possibility of a work sp stoppage. the owners say the players are making too much, about 60% of team revenues. it has grown in 14% in each of the last ten years. they want to continue to get paid, wolf. >> they certainly do. all right, fred. thanks very much. stand by. to our viewers, you are in "the situation room." judge sotomayor is continued. >>al franken gets down to serious business as a new member of the senate. the growing speculation on what caused michael jackson's death. was the singer a victim of homicide? all of this plus the best political team on television. i'm wolf blitzer. you are in "the situation room." >> los angeles police are shooting down reports that investigators are now treating michael jackson's death as a homicide. they are telling cnn that the case is ongoing. let's bring in jim more. i want to get to all of that in a moment. i want to show you and our viewers some video that we have got a clip of from "us weekly." it shows michael jackson's hair catching fire during the filming back in 1984 of that pepsi commercial. let's watch it. jim, you are familiar with it. then, we will talk about it. january 27th, 1984. you saw that bald spot. you could clearly see the fire on his hair. it was a very, very sad moment. i have never seen that video before. give us some context. >> i actually covered that story as a local los angeles tv reporter. michael jackson and his brothers were shooting a pepsi commercial. this, i believe, was on the sixth take of that commercial. there were pyrotechnics. they went off too early when he was still at the top of the stairs. they weren't supposed to go off until he was down below. a spark hit his hair, ignited and then you saw he was clearly unaware that his hair was on fire for that entire way down the stairs. then, there was a tremendous bald area where the hair and the skin were literally burned off causing second and third-degree burns. wolf, this is significant, first of all, because we have never seen this video before. it has been under wraps for some 20, 25 years. this is the moment, perhaps, in michael jackson's life as being the beginning of the undoing, because michael jackson, as a result of those injuries, needed demerol for pain. we know years later he became addicted to demerol. when you look back on his life, that moment right there was a critical moment in michael jackson's life. >> very sad moment happening right around the peak of his career. he is doing this pepsi commercial and you see that fire in his hair. he didn't realize it until obviously it was way too late. >> i don't know if you were able to tell but meco brando. >> the son of marlon brando. >> he was the person who jumped on michael jackson and with his own hands try today put out the fire. clearly, there was so much damage already done. he was in a tremendous amount of pain as a result of that. we need to, again, stress, no one sets out to become a drug addict, certainly, michael jackson didn't. he needed demerol because of the severe pain. as a result of taking the demerol, he became addicted to it and that led to a number of problems for the entertainer. >> let's talk about the other story out there. supposedly, the lapd, there was a report, that they were effectively already assuming this was a homicide investigation, the death of michael jackson, although now lapd is saying that their investigation is still ongoing. that report may have been premature. we have been hearing for days now that there are serious allegations for some of the family members of foul play. >> there are serious allegations, wolf, you are right. the lapd isn't closing the door on a homicide investigation. they are simply not at this point committing to it. we heard clearly the chief saying they are waiting for evidence from the coroner to determine the cause of death. they are specifically looking at what we have been talking about for days to see whether diprivan, propofol, was the cause of death, a medication strictly used in hospitals and clinics, never for private patients, always with an anesthes anesthesiaolgist. then, you may open a homicide investigation. the police have not opened the door -- they have opened the door. they have not yet closed the door to that, wolf. >> we believe next week, the coroner's office is going to be releasing the toxicology report. >> the coroner said that report should be released. they are still gathering more evidence. they real lease it probably midweek, by next week. >> so we will know more. jim more helping us better appreciate what's going on. we will continue our coverage of this with you tomorrow. jim, thanks very much. he is a republican turned democrat. senator arlen specter was pretty tough on the supreme court nominee sewn na sonya sotomayor. police called her a person of interest. now, that person is being located with regard to the murder of this couple with 16 kids. what might she know? 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[ gun beeps ] [ laughs ] i feel so empowered. power to the people! ha ha! yeah! the option to name your price -- new and only from progressive. call or click today. >> a question president obama didn't ask and an answer sonya sotomayor refused to tell the senate on where she stands on the issue of abortion rights for women. the u.s. supreme court nominee was grilled on a wide range of topics. we are covering it live all day here on cnn. we will resume our coverage when the committee reconvenes at 9:30 a.m. let's check in with our senior correspondent, dana bash. she watched it all unfold. d dana, tell our viewers how it went. >> reporter: it was another long day here. the judge was asked a lot of questions about a host of issues she will face potentially. we didn't get very many details. the senators certainly tried, though. sonya sotomayor returned to face a slew of questions on one of the most divisive issues for any supreme court nomination, abortion. tom tom coburn gave several answers in his search for answers. let's say i am 38 weeks pregnant and we discover a small spina bifida sack on the lower sacrum, would it be legal in this country to terminate that child's life? >> i can't thaens question in the abstract. i would have to look to the state's law on that question. >> reporter: she deflected a number of attempts to elicit her position on abortion but did say the white house never asked. >> i was asked no questions by anyone, including the president, about my views on any specific legal issue. >> reporter: it wasn't just anti-abortion conservatives pressing sotomayor on the issue. her judicial record reveals so little that abortion rights activists wanted answers to. >> do you believe that this right to privacy includes the right to have an abortion? >> the court has said in many cases, and as i think has been repeated in the court's jurisprudence in casey, that there is a right to privacy that women have with respect to the termination of their pregnancies in certain situations. >> again, republicans asked over and over about her wise latina comment, pushing her on what they called contradictions. her promise now is to strictly follow the law but half a dozen speeches suggesting her gender and race could lead to better decisions. >> my rhetorical device failed. it was a bad choice of words by me because it left an impression that has offended people and has left an impression that i didn't intend. >> reporter: now, from same-sex marriage to executive power, these questions were asked over and over by senators. they probably knew when they were asking they weren't going to get answers. still, it did seem to frustrate some veteran sceptors like republican turned democrat, arlen specter, who was hoping that he would at least get some answ answers to questions. even so, both parties say they don't see anything to change what seems to be the inevitable. sewn sonya sotomayor does seem to be headed for questioning. >> joining us the members of the best political team on television, gloria borger, john king and candy crowley. what did you think, candy? >> i thought she showed more personality today in some ways. she got a little ticked off with arlen specter. she seemed more an diimatet. >> arlen specter, he praised her at the end of the statement but grilled her harder earlier on. >> i know that with some important issues, they want to make sure there isn't the proceed yural bar that would take away from whether this he are doing what they want to do. >> was there a proceed yurl bar? you had weeks because i gave you notice. >> i did mull this over. my problem is that without looking at a particular issue and considering the style, the discussion of a potential colleague as to the reasons why a particular issue should or should not be considered, the question about -- >> i can see you are not going to answer. maybe we will move on. >> he seemed frustrated a few times during the questions, in this half hour of q and a. there is no doubt he will vote to confirm her? >> i think so. he has some hobby horses. one is, why didn't the supreme court take up this case of terrorist surveillance? why don't they take more cases? why don't they clarify what is the role of congress versus what is the role of the courts? you see him speaking as a senator of many years who has gone up against the court on many issues and is saying to her, look, i would like in a way for the court to be more active, not necessarily activists but get to work? he also mentioned the fact that they take off three months in the summer and he would like to see them take up some more -- >> the aftermath of the robert bork unsuccessful confirmation. >> they will not answer anything they can say that's a case that could soon be before the court. ask them their name. if it is going to be soon before the court, they will say, i can't answer that question. on most other pressing issues, they say, i need to be very careful. she did say a couple of times, i have ruled in this particular case. this is what i have said in that case. i thought, wolf, the most interesting thing today in the second round was we saw a number of republican senators who are inclined to vote against her go back to the same points, the wise latina speech, gun rights, laying out an making their case that we will see in the press release in days or a week or so from now when they say i am voting against her and here is why. >> we saw al franken make his debut. he has been a sen fator, what, r about a week now. what did you think? >> seems like a pretty quick study. off the bat, he said, seems like judicial activism means that somebody is going to rule the way you don't want them to. what's your definition? she was unhelpful. he didn't get any more answers out of her than had seasoned veterans. he said he was coming to washington to be a normal person, to represent -- i think he asked normal person questions that if you were watching it, he was accessible in a way some of them citing case law might not have been. >> at the end when he cited her love as a little girl growing up in the bronx with perry mason, he said, you know what, i used to watch that show with my family as well. i loved perry mason as you do. >> he sort of struck a nice balance there because he wasn't afraid to sort of crack a joke and on the other hand he was very serious and asked serious questions about, for example, the future of the internet. >> let's look ahead to tomorrow. lindsey graham, at 9:30 a.m. eastern. we will have live coverage. he was exciting yesterday in his 30 minutes of questioning. he is going to have another 20 minutes tomorrow. set the stage for us. >> lindsey graham was a compelling back and forth, a conversation with judge sotomayor yesterday. lindsey graham left some seeds, planted some seeds. i want to talk more about abortion, executive power, more about perhaps affirmative action. he is a potential yes vote. he, like senator hatch, is among those that say even if i disagree with you, the president gets to make the pick. elections have consequences. he indicated he is inclined to vote for her. >> i would say pretty strong signals from him outside the hearing room saying, as you know shall as he said before, i think when a president is elected, they should pick a nominee and should get that nominee if they are qualified. oh, by the way, it doesn't change the balance of the court. >> do you think anybody's mind has been changed here? >> i don't think anybody's mind has been changed. i think they are laying out the reasons for why they are going to vote the way they are going to vote. one interesting thank lindsey graham said, her speeches outside the courtroom are edgy. the reason they are important is she tells us how she really feels when there is no precedence to follow. >> they would like more republican votes but they have enough to get it confirmed. they would like to change some republican minds but they are doing just fine right now. >> they have 60 democrats. they are in pretty good shape. see you all back here at 9:30 a.m. eastern tomorrow morning. we will continue our coverage. in the meantime, let's check in with lou to see what's coming up at the top of the hour. >> thank you, wolf. we will have complete coverage of what has been the third day of judge sotomayor's confirmation hearing. republicans say she has failed to provide clear answers to their questions. we will examine the judge's performance in our face-off debate tonight. also, president obama making a new effort trying to sell his controversial health care plan. chrisics say that plan would lead to crippling new taxes. we will have the latest for you on the investigation into the murder of a florida couple who adopted special needs children. police have located a woman who is wanted for questioning. the top law enforcement officer says this is a hum dinger. so far, it is proving to be exactly that. join us for that story, all the day's news and much more at the top of the hour. wolf, back to you. >> lou, thank you. we are also getting new details right now into the investigation, into the murder of that florida couple who adopted special needs kids. police say they have located a woman they are calling a person of interest who could provide some significant information about the crime. plus, president obama is taking some heat for his pants. his choice of jeans, to be he can act. what was he thinking? jeannie moo jeanne moos is on the story. here's the developments happening in the case of the murder of parents with 16 kids down in florida. let's go down ed lavandera. ed, what do we know now? >> authorities in pensacola are interviewing a many woman of interest who they say is perhaps the landlord, dealt in real estate in the pensacola area. authorities say she, perhaps has been in contact with the person who authorities say was the ring leader of these murders. leonard patrick gonzalez jr. and pamela laverne long had been in touch with him the days before and perhaps even the day of the murder. because of that, they want to speak with her. they found her shortly a short while after they announced they were looking for her. she was found in orange beach, alabama. which i'm told is 40 miles west of pensacola. we were told she is coming back here on her own driving with her attorney. we don't know the extent of what has happened during those communications between investigators of her at this point. we're waiting to hear the details on that. the other fascinating thing we're learning, even though authorities feel they found the seven people they believe were on the property the night the billings family was killed, authorities continue to look for people. now they say they're operating under the theory that perhaps there should have been another person involved, whose job it would have been to turn off the surveillance and camera system at the billings ar home and for some reason, they believe whoever was supposed to have done that backed out of it. these people went to great lengths to practice and rehearse this and don't understand why those cameras were left in tact. >> we're getting more information all of time. i know you're getting in touch of it. >> it's all in the president's jeans. fashion experts say he struck out at the all-star game last night. >> reporter: on the blogs he got hit up, mom jeans. >> they're mom jeans, yeah, for sure. if we don't act, medical bills will wipe out their savings. if we don't act, she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act, health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits for his employees. but we can act. the president and congress have a plan to lower your costs and stop denials for pre-existing conditions. it's time to act. take a look at some of today's hot shots on the black sea. u.s. sailors do training exercises. in afghanistan, vendors wait for customers as they sell bread. in belarus, the new army recruit is tossed into the air in a draft center and philadelphia, check it out a newborn baby sloth spends time with its mother over at the zoo. wow. some of this hour's hot shots, pictures worth 1,000 words. president obama knows how to sport a suit but in denim. not so dapper. cnn's jeanne moos over a most unusual flap that's going on over the president's jeans. >>. >> reporter: when president obama threw out the first pitch the other night. he already had one strike against him. . they're way too short. >> reporter: not his pitch -- >> and these look frump y. >> reporter: not his wind-up. >> looks like he has two big tree trunk words. >> reporter: critics summed it up in two words, mom jeans. nice mom jeans obama. but some blogs called them dad jeans. >> they're mom jeans. >> reporter: the kind mocked by "saturday night live." >> introducing mom jeans you'll love the 9 inch zipper. give her something that says i'm not a woman anymore i'm a mom. >> reporter: mom jeans have a song dedicated to them. >> every time i put my mom jeans on -- >> reporter: the attack on the president's jeans brought out the fenders. love it, perfect, he's adorable. they're pants, who cares? the huffington post did a poll of its generally obama-friendly readers who voted overwhelming for, he looks super cool but don't tell that to a celebrity stylist. >> they're terrible. nothing modern about them. >> reporter: robert verdict def huge fan. >> reporter: but this isn't the first time he's been accused of wearing mom jeans. >> there's a time he went bike riding. with helmet and jeans. last time we heard mom jeans mockery was directed at jessica simpson. >> jessica simpson in mom jeans. >> reporter: serious pair of mom jeans. >> she's wearing those mom jeans pants. >> reporter: somehow we doubting the president regrets not wearing designer jeans. >> want to know what becomes between me and my calvins? nothing. >> reporter: let's keep what comes between the president and his mom jeans a state secret. jean mi moose, cnn. >> mom jeans. >> reporter: new york. >> mom jeans. mom jeans. pitch wasn't so great but at least he reached the catcher at the all-star game last night. let me recap. tomorrow morning, 9:30 eastern, we'll be back here. we've have live coverage what is expected to be the final round of questioning by u.s. senators of sonia sotomayor before the senate judiciary committee. 9:30 eastern, o

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