[Soledad O'brien, Cnn Anchor:] Welcome back, everybody. Exactly 9:30 here in New York.
[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] Coming up here, a firsthand account of what's happening in western Iraq. We'll talk by phone with one of the field commanders, leading Marines in that offensive against insurgents there. Four days in the running now for that operation, so we'll talk about it.
[O'brien:] First, though, let's get a look at the headlines with Kelly Wallace. Hey, Kelly, good morning.
[Kelly Wallace, Cnn Anchor:] Thanks, Soledad. Good morning again, everyone. Now in the news, more than 50 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a new wave of bombings in Iraq. In Tikrit, A Car bombing going off at a busy intersection where a crowd of Iraqi workers were gathering. Within hours, insurgents set off attacks in five other locations, including a car bombing outside a police station in southern Baghdad. No word on any U.S. casualties. The father of one of the two girls killed in suburban Chicago is set to appear at a bond hearing this morning. Jerry Hobbs is suspected of stabbing his 8-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old best friend to death on Mother's Day. Hobbs, once arrested for chasing family members with a chainsaw, led police to the girl's bodies. We're expecting to learn more detail on this case after this morning's hearing. The latest nuclear claim coming from North Korea: North Korea's news agency reported earlier this morning that officials successfully removed 8,000 fuel rods from its main nuclear complex. The step would allow North Koreans to make weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea kicked out international inspectors in late 2002, but the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency believes North Korea could have material for as many as six nuclear weapons. And an update on a story we've been following out of North Carolina. A Baptist minister accused of kicking out nine members of his congregation for their political beliefs has resigned. Reverend Chan Chandler said his comments had been taken out of context, manipulated and used in a manner that didn't express what he'd said. Some of the reverend supporters cried and vowed to leave the church with him.
[O'brien:] Well, a thousand U.S. troops are in the fourth day of a major offensive against Iraqi insurgents. Operation Matador in the Anbar province is one of the largest missions since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Marine Commander Colonel Stephen Davis told me by phone this morning just how the offensive is proceeding.
[Col. Stephen Davis, Commander, Marine Regimental Combat Team 2:] I think it's very effective. Clearly, there have been insurgents and foreign fighters staging in the area north of the Euphrates River and north of Al Qaim. We have all the intelligence that drew us this area, we have not been up there in a while, and we were successful in surprising that enemy, and dispatching of much of them and disrupting the rest of them.
[O'brien:] How many insurgents were killed? I've read the number's around a hundred. Is that accurate?
[Davis:] The number that's been reported of a hundred is accurate. We do not particularly count the bodies, if you will, because that's a bad metric, I think, to try and judge success by, but those numbers are accurate, and there is probably actually more, but we want to make sure that there is some credibility in what we report in that.
[O'brien:] There are reports that the insurgents are well prepared, that they seem to be well-equipped. Is that accurate? And can you give me some specifics?
[Davis:] Those reports are credible, particularly up in the town of Ubadi. There were reinforced positions. The enemy, as we expected, comes with a greater level of training, a sense of organization. Clearly they have rehearsed standard-operating procedures, and some of the buildings that we had to fight our way through, they were reinforced positions, well-constructed positions that would lend itself to what we would call a defense and depth. And other areas where we have fought with insurgents, we have seen the insurgents with body armor and a full array of modern gear.
[O'brien:] And all those things tell you what? That they're coming in over the border? They're foreign fighters?
[Davis:] They're clearly paths that transcend the border, that the foreign fighters are using to come into Iraq. I don't think it's limited to just Syria alone, but it's an expansive region, and there's just not a whole lot of people out here.
[O'brien:] Are there Iraqi forces fighting beside U.S. forces?
[Davis:] We have very few Iraqi forces with us in this particular fight. We are partnered with some units very, very closely. I am using those right now in other parts of my operations, but we have used the Iraqi forces extensively whenever we've been able to partner with them, and we look forward to doing that so very much more in the future. Their level of training increases, their capability increases relative to that, and they are very interested in contributing to getting their country back on its feet, getting control of their country and walking into the 21st century with the rest of the nations of this world.
[O'brien:] Marine Commander Colonel Stephen Davis talking with this morning. Thanks for your time.
[Hemmer:] We'll continue to follow that story out of Iraq throughout the day here. In the meantime, 23 minutes before the hour. I want to talk about a happy ending now. Giacomo was not the only winner in last Saturday's derby. Seven people won Superfecta bets on the race. Those are the bets that picked the first four finishers in the correct order. Each payout was worth more than $860,000, the highest in derby history, and if you placed one of those lucky bets, then you lost the ticket, how would your life be right now? For Chris Hertzog, luck struck twice for him, with some help from Brenda Reagan. Brenda not only sold him the ticket, but saved his life on Sunday morning. Both are with me now live in Phoenix. Good morning to both of you. How are you doing out there?
[Brenda Reagan, Found Lost Ticket:] Good morning.
[Chris Hertzog, Superfecta Winner:] Good morning.
[Hemmer:] Listen, in the interest of fair disclosure here, I was a skeptic on the story when I heard it yesterday. You know, you go to the track, you get your ticket, you have this great win and now the ticket's gone.
[Hertzog:] Well, it came up. It worked it out, man. It worked out fine.
[Hemmer:] I would say it did. Yes, Chris, take me back now. You picked the first four winners of this horse, right of this race rather, but that's a computer- generated, or did you go ahead and pick the horses?
[Hertzog:] No, no. It was super quick picks, that I just give me $100 quick picks, and the computer helped me out a little bit.
[Hemmer:] How'd you lose the ticket?
[Hertzog:] Well, actually it kind of fell behind the computer. I didn't really lose it. They got printed out so fast that the winning ticket, the 100th ticket, fell behind Brenda's computer, and she was lucky enough to find it the next day.
[Hemmer:] So you never had the ticket then, is that what you're saying?
[Hertzog:] Basically, yes. I thought I had it well, yes, exactly, I didn't have the ticket.
[Hemmer:] Now I read about, you know, after the race you went back around to the area you were sitting, and I guess, what, the janitor came through and cleaned everything up, is that right?
[Hertzog:] Well, no, not really. All some friends of mine who I was with and Jerry Sims and his management team, they helped to get all the trash bags in the second-floor clubhouse, and we took them down to the mechanical room and we had some assistance trying to go through the tickets, couldn't find it, and it came up the next day. So it all worked out, man.
[Hemmer:] How was Saturday night for you in the meantime? Because the word didn't come down until the next morning.
[Hertzog:] I rolled around in bed quite often, but I got some sleep.
[Hemmer:] Let me talk to Brenda. Brenda, where was this ticket? Help me understand this cash register and where you found it.
[Reagan:] It's actually a mutual telling machine, and the ticket had fallen out on the side of the machine because I'd punched out 100 tickets for Chris, and a couple of tickets apparently had fallen over to the side.
[Hemmer:] Is that common?
[Reagan:] It can happen, especially when you're doing multiple tickets like that. It has happened in the prior past.
[Hemmer:] So Sunday, what time did you show up for works are then?
[Reagan:] I'm sorry?
[Hemmer:] On Sunday morning, what time did you so up for work?
[Reagan:] I showed up about 10:30.
[Hemmer:] And did you know Chris had bought this ticket?
[Reagan:] I did. I knew as soon as the guys in the tote room had told me that I was the one who printed out the winning ticket, I knew automatically that it was Chris.
[Hemmer:] That is funny. So you found it. Were you ecstatic? What was your reaction?
[Reagan:] Well, first I was amazed, because I looked down and I was placing a bet for another customer, and I happened just to glance in the side of my machine and saw two Churchill tickets from race 10 and thought, wow, that's weird. So I picked up the tickets, and I turned around and asked my customers who exactly came in the Kentucky Derby, and they were telling me, and I started shaking and I said oh, my God, I found Chris's ticket.
[Hemmer:] Wow. So, Chris, I got to tell you, man, I think Brenda deserves a take in this.
[Hertzog:] Yes.
[Hemmer:] How much of the 860 grand are you going to give her?
[Hertzog:] Well, you know what, we worked something out, and right now we need to just that's between us right now.
[Hemmer:] OK. You've got three kids, right, Chris?
[Hertzog:] I have three beautiful young boys.
[Hemmer:] Yes. What are you going to do with that money?
[Hertzog:] Well, I'm going to go to Dallas and see my best friend Clayton Wiggly. Hi, Clayton. And also, I'm going to go to Montana and go fly fishing. I think I'm going to go fly fishing.
[Hemmer:] All right, enjoy that. Hey, good luck to both of you. And thanks for sharing your story.
[Hertzog:] Thanks. Have a good day.
[Reagan:] Thank you.
[Hemmer:] Chris Hertzog you do the same. Brenda Reagan out there in Phoenix. Here is one horse you will not bet on the next race, the Preakness. You will not see the derby-favorite Bellamy Road soon. Apparently he has an injured bone in his left front knee. He'll miss the Preakness, miss the Belmont. The injury not considered career threatening, which is good news for the owner, George Steinbrenner. Bellamy Road expected to be back in action by late August, but clearly a disappointment this past weekend Soledad.
[O'brien:] That ticket story is still an unbelievable story. Coming up in just a moment, meet the investigator who makes sure that "CSI Miami" stays true to reality. Sanjay goes behind the scenes in "House Call." Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.