New Jersey Lawmakers may be Nearing Agreement to End Government Shutdown; President Engaged in Vigorous Outreach Over South Korea
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to track new developments out of New Jersey. Still some hopeful news at this hour. We're getting reports that lawmakers may be nearing an agreement that could end the dispute that shut down many state services. CNN's Mary Snow has the latest from Trenton.</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we should know definitively within the next two hours, Governor Jon Corzine's press secretary saying that the governor does plan to a make a statement later this afternoon. Of course, everyone monitoring that and all the movement in and out of his office, Lawmakers have expressed optimism that perhaps they reached a deal and could effectively end a government shutdown that is now in its sixth day. It has hurt some 45,000 state workers alone. They were furloughed. You might see some of them behind me. Earlier today there was a rally. A few hundred people showed up trying to put pressure on lawmakers because they have been out of work since this government shutdown began. Some are staying behind, saying that they are hopeful they will hear the news that they want to hear, that they can get back to work. Many said they didn't even have the money to pay bills this week, including rent and utility bills. And, also, it's not just the state workers. Yesterday we saw the effect of the casino industry being hard-hit. Atlantic City in New Jersey has 12 casinos. That industry employs thousands of people who are not state workers, but are affected by that industry, have also had to be effectively laid off because there is no business down there. So the governor today, earlier this morning, told lawmakers that each hour the state is digging itself further into a financial hole, certainly digging these workers into a financial hole and we expect some kind of news, definitive news within the next couple of hours -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be watching and waiting. Thanks so much. Mary Snow in Trenton. Breaking news at this hour. We have a winner in Mexico's election. Just minutes ago, on the left of your screen is conservative Felipe Calderon. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is vowing to challenge the results in court. So far we are learning that after a couple of different recounts, Calderon now wins. Well, she allegedly hoped to gain $1.5 million for herself and a for a couple friends, but so far the woman trying to sell soda pop secrets is out, 25 grand for bond. Joya Williams will be released from court or she was in court recently. Rusty Dornin was also in court to get a close watch at the proceedings. What happened?</s>RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks like, as you said, Joya Williams, who was the executive assistant to some unnamed high level Coca-Cola executive assistant, she will be released on $25,000 bond. She's charged with wire fraud and also stealing and selling trade secrets. The other men involved and that that are accused in this plot, they will be held until next Tuesday when there will be a preliminary hearing. We also did learn that, indeed, Ms. Williams has been fired from Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola attorneys also asked the judge to extend a protective order so that during court proceedings none of these trade secrets do become public. So that protective order will apply during the court proceedings. Now, remember, these three are accused of plotting stealing secrets from Coca-Cola and trying to sell them to Pepsi. Pepsi was the one who alerted Coca-Cola to this scheme. Coke involved the FBI and after a series of clandestine meeting and exchange of documents and money, the FBI did arrest the three yesterday. So it looks like Coca-Cola may be the real thing in this case, but Pepsi did the right thing.</s>WHITFIELD: That's very nice. Neither one's bubbles will be bursting over this. All right, Rusty Dornin. Thanks so much. Last hour at the White House, President Bush met with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. Mr. Bush thanked the ambassador for his service and also had words of encouragement for the Iraqi people.</s>GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... to assure the Iraqi people that when we give our word, we'll keep our word and we intend to work closely with the government and to help defend the people until this government is more capable of defending itself.</s>WHITFIELD: And a reminder, Mr. Bush plans a news conference tomorrow in Chicago. It is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Eastern. CNN will have live coverage of that. When it comes to the White House stance on North Korea, the words to use are cautious, measured, rallying the allies, and push diplomacy, diplomacy and more diplomacy. Press Secretary Tony Snow took reporters questions earlier this afternoon. Our White House correspondent, Ed Henry, was there. Ed?</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Fredricka. White House press secretary, Tony Snow, saying the president is really engaged in vigorous outreach at this point. Late last evening the president calling his counterparts in South Korea, Japan, getting them on board for tough action against North Korea because of these missile launches. This morning the president also calling President Hu in China, calling President Putin in Russia, getting agreements that they want to try to get North Korea back to the table for six-party talks. But Russia and China so far are not on board for tough sanctions against North Korea, a stumbling block in this diplomatic effort so far for the United States. The president today himself had a press availability with the Canadian prime minister, Mr. Harper, Stephen Harper. The president did stress, as you noted, diplomacy and more diplomacy, perhaps mindful of the fact that he has been accused of not going the extra diplomatic mile before the war in Iraq. Here's what the president had to say.</s>BUSH: We're dealing with a person who was asked not to fire a rocket by the Chinese, the South Koreans, the United States, the Japanese and the Russians, and he fired seven of them, which then caused the secretary of state and myself to get on the phone with our partners and reminded them of the importance of speaking with one voice.</s>HENRY: You can hear the president there stressing the effort for an international coalition he is trying to build against North Korea to take some tough action first, before the United Nations Security Council. The president will have another effort to really press the case face-to-face with the leaders of china and Russia next week when he heads to the G8 summit in St. Petersburg -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Henry at the White House. Thank you so much.</s>HENRY: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: North Korea's missiles may not have threatened the U.S. this time. Well, what about next time or the time after that? Here's our national security correspondent, David Ensor.</s>DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not surprisingly, on North Korean television, the announcer said nothing about the missile firings and nothing about the failure of the Taepodong-2 long-range missile within 40 seconds of launch.</s>JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: This backfired. This blew up in Kim Jong-il's face.</s>ENSOR: Said one U.S. official, "It sounds like they are thinking about how to play this.</s>BUSH: One thing we are learned is that the rocket didn't stay up very long, it tumbled into the sea.</s>ENSOR: U.S. officials and analysts say it clearly did not go as planned.</s>CIRINCIONE: We had six scuds and one dud fired. All of them landed in the Sea of Japan, all of them thousands of miles away from America's shores.</s>ENSOR: U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon have been watching the Taepodong launch pad for weeks with spy satellites, aircraft and surveillance ships. Officials say North Korea has more Taepodongs, though their reliability is now in question.</s>DAVID KAY, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The most interesting sidebar story is going to be what happens in Pyongyang. Who vouched for the reliability of this missile and what are the consequences now that it failed?</s>ENSOR: That will be hard for American intelligence to know. North Korea is an extraordinarily difficult society to penetrate. While South Korean intelligence likely has agents in the North, most of the assessment of Kim Jong-il's motives and intentions must be educated guesses and nothing more. On that basis, some analysts say the goal was less to test missiles, more to make a statement.</s>JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, MIT: The fact that they shot off another, what, six other short-range missiles that had nothing to do with sort of verifying or collecting data shows that it really is about politics, less about security.</s>ENSOR: But other analysts and intelligence officers say don't assume Kim Jong-il's missile launches were foolish, from his point of view. (on camera): The North Korean scientists will learn from the failure of the Taepodong and from the other tests. And Kim has reminded the world how serious the risks of war with North Korea would be and how limited the military options are. David Ensor, CNN, Washington.</s>WHITFIELD: He served a year of dangerous duty in Iraq by mistake. Straight ahead, how a clerical error caused one man to leave the comforts of home to enter a war zone.