[Fredricka Whitfield, Cnn Anchor:] Well, the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
[Don Lemon, Cnn Anchor:] Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
[Whitfield:] And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips. It's a dilemma for parents everywhere. Should children diagnosed with ADHD go on medication? New FDA guidelines only seem to further complicate the question.
[Lemon:] Well, everyone made it out alive, but now the U.S. military says it probably wasn't a hard landing that brought down their chopper in Iraq. Evidence points to enemy fire.
[Whitfield:] And sickening pictures from a place that's supposed to heal wounded soldiers. The grim reality of Building 18, that's straight ahead in the
[Newsroom. Lemon:] It is the top of the hour, and we start with new details in the Anna Nicole case. A Florida judge presiding over the tug of war over Anna Nicole Smith's body says he will make a decision soon. In the meantime, more emotional testimony, and family and friends took a look at Anna Nicole's body not long ago. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti has the latest from Fort Lauderdale Susan.
[Susan Candiotti, Cnn National Correspondent:] And the latest is this, Don. During the lunchtime recess, they saw her remains, possibly for the last time. They include Anna Nicole Smith's mother and the two men who claim to be the father of her daughter, Dannielynn, in the Bahamas. That would be Howard K. Stern, and ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead. From start to finish, they spent about 45 minutes at the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office this visit made possible by the judge, the probate judge, in this case. Under normal circumstances, families are not allowed in the same room as the body. They must watch through a window or on a camera monitor. We don't know exactly how the visit went this time. No one is saying, and no statement from the medical examiner's office. Now, for two hours this morning, Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, testified that, in her view, her daughter should belong to her to go back to Texas to be buried. She wants to hear nothing about her daughter going back to the Bahamas, where Howard Stern says Smith wanted to be buried, next to her son, Daniel. And then she became very emotional, when she talked about the loss of her grandson, Daniel, and how she feels about Howard K. Stern.
[Virgie Arthur, Mother Of Anna Nicole Smith:] My grandson did not overdose. Howard was there when he died. And Howard was there when my daughter died.
[Unidentified Male:] Your Honor, I would move to strike this as being nonresponsive.
[Arthur:] And he has my granddaughter now, and it's not even his child. And I'm afraid for her life as well.
[Candiotti:] Any time now, testimony will resume Howard K. Stern expected to take the stand again, before flying back to the Bahamas. And, as you indicated, Don, the judge has said he expects to reveal his decision on Friday about who gets final custody of Anna Nicole Smith's remains back to you.
[Lemon:] And you know what, Susan? It's going to be very interesting to watch that testimony, after they have just left the morgue viewing her body, both the mother and Howard K. Stern. So, it's probably going to be some interesting developments a little bit later on.
[Candiotti:] Indeed, yes. And they were described as being visibly upset when they left the medical examiner's office, understandably so, of course, described as holding their faces in their hands as they sat in their vehicles when they left the M.E.'s office Don.
[Lemon:] All right, Susan Candiotti, thank you so much for that. And we want to remind you that CNN's Pipeline service is streaming those proceedings in Florida live. Just go to CNN.comPipeline to start watching.
[Whitfield:] And now a developing story it involves the use of some popular medications used to treat ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with a little bit more on that. Pretty alarming.
[Elizabeth Cohen, Cnn Medical Correspondent:] It is alarming. But you have when you look at the numbers, it's not quite as alarming as it sounds.
[Whitfield:] OK.
[Cohen:] But we really are talking about some very, very popular drugs that millions of people take, drugs like Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera. What the FDA has found is that a number of deaths and illnesses have been linked or have been possibly linked they're not saying 100 percent, but have been possibly linked to these drugs. Let's look at these 27 sudden deaths reported among children and teens, and that one in 1,000 patients develops serious psychiatric problems. Those are two separate problems. The psychiatric problems, they're talking about people who became manic, talking about people who became very suspicious. When we talk about the 27 sudden deaths, those were sudden deaths due to cardiovascular issues. And about half of those people had problems already. So, these this is the numbers they're spelling out. What's important to remember is that millions of people take these drugs. So, while they are concerned enough to put out warnings they're going to be in pamphlets when you go to the pharmacy to get the drugs it's still a relatively small number, compared to the millions of people who take them.
[Whitfield:] So, what do you do if you are taking any one of these drugs or you know someone who is? The very thing you want to do is talk to your doctor. And you want to make sure of one thing in the beginning. Do not go off these drugs immediately. That would be a big mistake. You could actually cause more problems. So, don't go off of them immediately. Ask your doctor to screen you for heart problems. If they find an underlying heart problem you didn't know about, which which could happen, you really want to seriously think twice about taking these drugs. Also, use the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time. Some people stay on these for years and years, and maybe they don't need to. And maybe they can lower their dose. Also, ask doctors about alternatives. For some people whose ADD is not terribly severe, they can do things like, for example, write out a schedule for themselves every day. Yes.
[Cohen:] And that could go a long way. Things like that can go a long way towards helping. But, if your disease is really horrible, and you have ADHD so badly that you're having problems functioning...
[Whitfield:] Yes.
[Cohen:] ... you may be willing to take these risks, because it gives you your life.
[Whitfield:] Right. Bottom line, still consult your doctor...
[Cohen:] Absolutely.
[Whitfield:] ... just to make sure you're doing all the right things.
[Cohen:] Do not go off these drugs, right.
[Whitfield:] All right, thanks a lot, Elizabeth.
[Cohen:] OK. Thanks.
[Whitfield:] Well, something else that might be making a lot of people sick, tainted peanut butter. And now, apparently, it has also claimed a life. A Pennsylvania family is suing ConAgra Foods, make the maker of Peter Pan peanut butter, claiming a family member died after eating it. Well, federal officials have linked the peanut butter to a salmonella outbreak nationwide. The family's lawyer says they bought four jars of Peter Pan last fall, and he says the mother became violently ill and died last month. Her husband and daughter were also sickened. ConAgra has issued a recall.
[Lemon:] Another U.S. military helicopter is apparently shot down in Iraq. The UH-60 Black Hawk, with nine people on board, went down today in what a general calls a tough area. All on board survived, and are safe. The general tells CNN all indications point to small- arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades fired from the ground. This makes eight U.S. helicopters downed in Iraq since January 20. The Pentagon is promising some intensive care, amid embarrassing reports about appalling conditions at an outpatient facility at Walter Reed Army Hospital. CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre got an exclusive interview this morning with Walter Reed's commanding general. He joins us now live Jamie.
[Jamie Mcintyre, Cnn Senior Pentagon Correspondent:] Well, Don, the Pentagon's response to these embarrassing disclosures about substandard housing at outpatient facilities at Walter Reed is to promise a quick fix and to quickly admit their failures. In fact, two separate Army generals today took full responsibility for the mess. But I sat down with the top commander at Walter Reed, and he insists, the buck stops with him.
[Major General George Weightman, Commanding General, Walter Reed Medical Center:] Jamie, 100 percent of it falls on me. I'm responsible for everything that does happen or does not happen here at Walter Reed. And it was obviously a failure on my part to reach down and touch those soldiers and find out directly from them.
[Mcintyre:] Do you understand the outrage that people felt when they began to hear about what was going on in some of these buildings?
[Weightman:] Oh, I absolutely do. And I felt that same outrage because we take our care for wounded warriors very seriously here, and we have a reputation at Walter Reed for being a world-class medical center. And then these allegations that we were not taking care of that hurt us all, as far as that reputation goes.
[Mcintyre:] Is this a resource problem? Is it a bureaucracy problem? Is it simply that you're overwhelmed? What explains it?
[Weightman:] Well, I think it's not a resource problem. I think, now that we are aware of the problem, we have the resources both within Walter Reed and made available to us from the Department of the Army to fix that. I think the issue is that we had to identify those problems earlier, and we didn't.
[Mcintyre:] And that, the general says, is a failure of leadership. One of the things the Army is doing at Walter Reed is, they're putting more senior commanders in charge of this Building 18 that's had some of the problems, as well as some other facilities. But they again, you heard, they insist it's not a question of money. It's a question of of making the living conditions for wounded veterans the top priority that it should be Don.
[Lemon:] OK, Jamie, that's what they're doing at Walter Reed. And, you know, sometimes this will lead to investigations and changes at other facilities. What about other military facilities or hospitals?
[Mcintyre:] Well, the main place where wounded veterans are treated are both at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital. They are going to get the initial scrutiny. But it is true the military has facilities in other places, in fact, around the world. And now the Army is going to take a look at all of those to see what the living conditions are there. They don't want to face another series of embarrassing disclosures, having, you know, perhaps correcting a problem at Walter Reed, only to discover they have got another situation someplace else. So, they're going to take a look at everything.
[Lemon:] Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre, thank you so much. Drawdown in Iraq many British troops may soon be coming home. Is Prime Minister Tony Blair reexamining his commitment to the war and to President Bush? That's ahead in the
[Newsroom. Whitfield:] Some love it. They say it gives urban America a voice. Others really, really hate it and claim it's ruining kids' lives. Ahead in the
[Newsroom:] the hullabaloo over hip-hop.