American Morning
WalMart fires four after disarming shoplifter
Four WalMart employees were fired a week after disarming a man who was attempting to smuggle a laptop computer out of the Utah store. WalMart says the employees were terminated because they violated company policy.
Shawn Ray and Lori Poulsen were two of the four employees who lost their jobs and they talk to American Morning's Kiran Chetry about the incident.
Eliot Spitzer: 'This is your grandfather's mob'
New York (CNN) - In one of the largest single-day operations against the Mafia in FBI history, federal agents working with local law enforcement fanned out across Italy, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island to arrest 127 people allegedly involved in organized crime, officials said.
Alleged members from the five prominent New York families - the Gambino, Colombo, Bonanno, Genovese and Lucchese families - were arrested Thursday, based on 16 indictments in four different jurisdictions, Attorney General Eric Holder said during a news conference in New York.
"Today's arrests and charges mark an important step forward in disrupting La Cosa Nostra's illegal activities," he said, referring to the criminal organization by its Italian name.
Ninety-one members and their associates, including one in Italy, were charged with federal crimes that include conspiracy, arson, extortion, narcotics trafficking, illegal gambling, labor racketeering and murders that date back as far as 1981, according to a U.S. Justice Department statement.
Eliot Spitzer is a former prosecutor and the co-host of CNN's "Parker Spitzer." He talks about the arrests with Kiran Chetry and T.J. Holmes on American Morning.
Kidnapped at only 19 days old, a 23-year-old girl reunited with mother
(CNN) - In 1987, an anguished, trembling Joy White pleaded for someone to help her find her infant daughter.
"I hope she's all right," the heartbroken mother told reporters at the time before collapsing in tears.
Now, 23 years later, White is crying tears of joy as the decades-long mystery of her missing daughter reached a happy ending.
The saga started on August 4, 1987, when White took her sick baby, Carlina, to a Harlem hospital because of an extremely high fever, a New York police official said.
Carlina was admitted in the hospital and White went home to rest. When the mother returned, Carlina was gone.
Years passed as White searched for her daughter, all the time holding onto a photograph of a baby girl she had only held for three weeks.
On January 4, White's phone rang.
The woman on the other end of the line said she was Carlina, and she sent White a picture taken in 1987.
American Morning's Alina Cho reports on the amazing story of Carlina White being reunited with her mother after 23 years.
Loughner's attorney known for 'tireless' defense of notorious clients
Jared Lee Loughner, accused of killing six and injuring 13 in the Jan. 8 attack in Tucson, awaits federal trial in the coming weeks. Defending him is well-known public defender Judy Clarke.
Clarke keeps a low media profile, but has defended some of the country's most infamous criminals in recent years. Among her former clients are Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Susan Smith, who was convicted of drowning her two children in 1994.
Today on American Morning, Todd Letcher, a retired FBI agent, shares his personal dealings with Clarke with AM's Kiran Chetry. Letcher says Clarke is ideal for defending clients like Loughner. "She's smart and knows the law, particularly adept at navigating federal cases with the death penalty," he said on AM. " She puts together a good team that surround her and she's a tireless advocate for her client."
Watch the full interview here.
Detecting and treating the warning signs of mental illness
On May 25, 2007 31-year-old police officer Jason West was responding to the report of a large fight on Altamont Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. When he arrived at the scene, one of the young men, Timothy Halton Jr., fired multiple shots at West before attempting to shed his clothes and flee the scene.
Timothy Halton Jr., then 29 years old, is now serving a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Jason West that day.
And similar to the story we hearing this week with the case of Jared Loughner and the shooting in Tucson, Arizona...the warning signs were there. Halton had a prior convictions. He was convicted of assaulting a police officer. He had displayed violent behavior in the past, convicted on domestic violence charge. But he was also mentally ill, suffering as a paranoid schizophrenic. If Halton had been accurately diagnosed and comprehensively treated from the beginning, could a tragedy have been prevented?
Jeannette Halton-Tiggs is the mother of Timothy Halton Jr. and Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, is the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. They talk to Alina Cho.
Were warning signs missed with Jared Lee Loughner?
Jared Lee Loughner is the accused gunman in this weekend's shooting in Tucson, Arizona that killed six and left 14 injured.
But the question remains, could this tragic attack have been prevented? As you have been hearing on American Morning, the warning signs were there. Teachers and students at Pima Community College, where Loughner attended class, reported erratic behavior including outbursts in class. Loughner was suspended from school and eventually withdrew. How can you tell if a person is a violent individual? How can you identify a problem before it happens? Dr. Jeff Gardere, a clinical psychologist and a contributor with HealthGuru.com, and Paul Callan, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, discuss with T.J. Holmes.
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