L.A. County Releasing Jail Inmates Early; Bush Touts Iraqi Cabinet as Progress Amidst Steady Sectarian Daily Body Count
RAY NAGIN, MAYOR, NEW ORLEANS: It's time for us to stop the bickering. It's time for us to start measuring things in black and white and yellow and Asian. It's time for us to one New Orleans.</s>CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well winning the election is easy compared to what Mayor Ray Nagin needs to do now. Complete live coverage of this historic race next. And he won the Kentucky Derby, but right now, Barbaro is fighting for his life. He's been in surgery in the last few hours and we're going to hear what his doctors have to say. Check this out, why did this man turn himself into a human torch? And why you don't have to worry about him. This is CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Carol Lin, let's catch you up on the big headlines now. New Orleans stays the course. Mayor Ray Nagin has won re- election and the change to rebuild New Orleans. We've got full coverage coming up in just a moment. A suicide bomber kills 13 people at a Baghdad restaurant. Three people were killed when a roadside bomb blew up at a crowded Baghdad market. Iraq's new prime minister vowed maximum force today against terrorism. And a horrible scene today in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Police say a gunman entered a church and shot four people dead and then kidnapped his wife and three children. One other person was hurt, and later the wife was shot to death. But the children are safe. The alleged killer is in custody An arrest in the Netherlands. And what does that have to do with missing Natalie Holloway? Well, a source says the person knows Joran Van Der Sloot. He was the last person to her alive last year. It is the eighth arrest so far, but still no charges. And the champion racehorse Barbaro in surgery today. The Kentucky Derby winner suffered three life-threatening breaks to his rear leg at the start of yesterday's Preakness. "The Da Vinci Code" is a world-wide hit. The movie has grossed more than $220 million this weekend alone. Our top story, New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin, after his narrow re- election yesterday over Mitch Landrieu, he's promising big things for his city today. The work resumes in earnest tomorrow. But as for Nagin, it's fair to say he seems confident, calm, even at peace with the challenge ahead. We're going to start in New Orleans with our Gulf Coast correspondent Susan Roesgen -- Susan.</s>SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the mayor is in good spirits today. He says he only got about six hours of sleep last night and then he was just getting out of the shower this morning when the White House was on the line, a call from President Bush, offering congratulations. So, quite a way to spending the morning. And then like any good politician on the Sunday after Election Day, the mayor went to church, he went to his church, a Catholic church, where the priest joked that usually the mayor likes to sit in the back of the church, but today, he and his wife and his 6-year-old daughter were in the front pew. And I don't know if you can see it in our video here, but as the choir started to sing, I saw the mayor actually wipe away a tear. Today, he thanked God for his victory. He thanked the voters for the victory, and he thanked Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu for being a very gracious challenger.</s>MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: It was a hard-fought battle, and I want to reiterate my thanks to Mitch Landrieu for running a very good campaign, and we stayed on the high road, so, I think that was pretty unusual for New Orleans, because, you know, everywhere we would go, people were saying, when are you all going to mix it up a little bit more? And we decided to kind of stick with the issues, since people were dealing with so many tough issues.</s>ROESGEN: And some of those tough issues that people are dealing with here are rebuilding neighborhoods and the city's evacuation plan. The mayor admitted today that he can't really count on having trains and buses take people out of the city if he doesn't know yet where they are going to go. Not a single shelter outside of New Orleans has been identified yet. So that is something the mayor certainly has to work on. So what do people here in New Orleans think of the new old mayor? Here are some thoughts.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a good man. He runs a beautiful city, and I'm so proud of him. Go Ray Nagin.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope he can bring the city up to standards, where we can get large companies to come back in town.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was looking for Mitch, because I go way back with his father, Moon Landrieu. And he was a good mayor -- his dad was a good mayor during those days.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People of New Orleans, united with Nagin, can definitely move our city forward.</s>ROESGEN: Now, Carol, I'll be back with more on the election, and what people think of it the day after in about 20 minutes.</s>LIN: Susan, let me ask you this right now. Why do you think people backed Ray Nagin again? Why did he get a second chance from folks there?</s>ROESGEN: I think you were asking me about why people backed Ray Nagin or why he was elected, you hear lots of different reasons. One of the ones that I heard most often in this city was, well, he was here. He stayed. He didn't leave in the middle of the hurricane. The other reason that I hear is that he was overwhelmed, and any politician would be overwhelmed, that he faced this great crisis. And we have to give him a break, because he was simply overwhelmed. And he didn't do anything badly. It is just that it was a very tough situation. And finally people say that before the hurricane, they thought he was doing a pretty good job. Those are the people that voted for him. But as you know, Carol, you watched it last night with me. It was a very, very close race.</s>LIN: Very close. Very exciting. Susan, thank you so much. We have got much more on this big story out of New Orleans. Susan Roesgen is going to be back with us later. And we're also going to hear from New Orleans political analyst Silas Lee. And there's plenty more coverage on the New Orleans election and where the city goes from here at cnn.com. In the meantime, the FBI has finished an overnight search of the D.C. offices of Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, and court documents show federal agents found $90,000 cash when they searched his Washington home last year. Now, Jefferson is under investigation for bribery, and he says he is innocent.</s>REP. WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D), LOUISIANA: I will take full responsibility for any crimes that I committed, if that were the case. But I will not plead guilty to something I did not do, no matter how things look and no matter the risk.</s>LIN: Well, the Justice Department is investigating Jefferson's relationship to some telecommunications deals, the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation last week. Well, some of the worst criminals in L.A. County are back on the streets, the reason? There's no place to put them. Kareen Wynter investigated.</s>KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Friday afternoon in Los Angeles, California. And at the county jail, it's time to hit the streets.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, G?</s>WYNTER: Inmates like Rudy Shane count on getting an early ticket out.</s>RUDY SHANE, INMATE: The judges, they should give us more time, they should be more harder on us.</s>WYNTER: Shane was sentenced to one week for a drug parole violation and he still got out early. (on camera): You described it a slap on the wrist.</s>SHANE: It is a slap on the wrist, because time ain't nothing to us in there. I mean, it's easy for us, you know, we are totally thinking criminal thoughts once we get out. I have seen people come back in for murder after a couple of hours.</s>WYNTER (voice-over): L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca says his jails have become meaningless in stopping crime: too many criminals, not enough cells.</s>SHERIFF LEE BACA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: We have a criminal justice system that is severely broken.</s>WYNTER: The county's early release program for low-level offenders began nearly 20 years ago, a stopgap measure to ease overcrowding. But today, roughly 40,000 of the county's inmates are released early each year. That's 10 percent of the jail population. The remaining 90 percent are state prison transfers and those awaiting trial.</s>BACA: I've been basically handcuffed from doing the things that I know are the most important, and that is to keep people in jail.</s>WYNTER: The sheriff says the crunch began in 2002, when a multimillion dollar budget deficit forced jail closures, jamming existing facilities beyond capacity wasn't an option. A federal court ruling in 1988 stopped the common practice of allowing inmates to sleep in hallways, on floors, where ever they could find room.</s>BACA: If there were no court order, I would have everybody in the jail serving full sentences.</s>WYNTER: What started as a temporary fix became a troubled tactic, put some offenders back on the streets to free up space.</s>ROCKY DELGADILLO, L.A. CITY ATTORNEY: It makes our job harder to try to keep the streets safe.</s>WYNTER: L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo fears shaving sentences will boost crime. (on camera): So these inmates are figuring out a way to beat the system?</s>DELGADILLO: Yes. For some of them, as I have said, it's the cost of doing business.</s>WYNTER (voice-over): Darrell Derrick (ph) was a homeless man living in the alleys of Los Angeles. He was murdered in 2004 by an inmate who was released early. Derek's mother, Gladys says she often wonders about the murderer.</s>GLADYS DERRICK, SON MURDERED: If they had kept him in for his time, he wouldn't have been out there killing, Darrell would still be alive.</s>WYNTER: It's Rudy Shane's third release from jail. He can't wait to get home to his 3-year-old daughter, Brianna (ph). But if he has to come back, he says, it's easy time.</s>WYNTER: Sheriff Baca hopes voters approve a $500 million bond measure that will be on the November ballot to fund jails. But, Carol, he says even if this passes, there's still a long way off from turning around a broken system.</s>LIN: Yes, because it would be years to be -- before can you build another jail. I mean, isn't there any kind of agreement between other counties, Ventura County, San Bernadino County, to transfer some of these inmates until trial?</s>WYNTER: Well, Baca says that that's really not an option right now. That is -- he's basically putting this responsibility also, Carol, squarely on the shoulders, believe it or not, of voters. They've defeated previous measures when it comes to improving the jail system. So it's going to be a wait and see game. I asked him if he could look ahead, how much support is this getting right now, he said it's really hard to say. So November will be very important month when it comes to the future of the jail system and the county as we know it.</s>LIN: Kareen, all we can do is shake our heads. Thank you very much. Now, in Washington, President Bush is thrilled Iraq finally made an official government. Ed Henry is at the White House. Ed, finally, the president has some good news to talk about.</s>ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good evening, Carol. You know, with the war dragging the president's poll numbers down to historic lows, he's pouncing on that opportunity to try to tout some good news out of Iraq.</s>HENRY (voice-over): With the first lady at his side, President Bush delivered some rare Sunday morning remarks, touting good news out of Iraq.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom.</s>HENRY: The president was celebrating the Iraqi parliament's approval of most of a new cabinet.</s>BUSH: I fully understand that a free Iraq will be an important ally on the war in terror, will serve as a devastating defeat for the terrorists and al Qaeda, and will serve as an example for others in the region who desire to be free.</s>HENRY: But violence on the ground still threatens to overshadow formation of a new government with more Iraqis killed Sunday in a spate of attacks in Baghdad.</s>SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Sectarian violence over the last three months has been higher than at any time in the last couple of years. The Iraqi police, we saw stories about this today, clearly doesn't have things under control.</s>HENRY: Critics also note the new Iraqi government has still not filled three of its cabinet posts, including the critical slots of defense and interior which oversees the police.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I don't want us to get too optimistic. We have still got a couple of important posts to fill. But it's certainly a significant step forward, and now let's hope they start governing.</s>HENRY: That caution explains why the president made no mention of bringing U.S. troops home.</s>ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: If we withdraw our forces from Iraq before the Iraqis can take care of their own security, the consequences for the region and the world would be indeed very grave.</s>HENRY: And with rumblings in Italy and Japan that they may start bringing their troops home soon, U.S. boots on the ground may be needed in Iraq now more than ever -- Carol.</s>LIN: And, Ed, when the president talks about continued American support, what does he mean? More tax dollars going to the effort?</s>HENRY: Oh, absolutely. It's billions upon billions of dollars. And, you know, what the president has continued to say is that he's not going to let the mid-term elections or election, frankly, dominate this decision. He's going to let commanders on the ground make that decision about when these troops start coming home. Obviously we still have more than 130,000 U.S. troops on the ground -- Carol.</s>LIN: Ed Henry, live at the White House, thank you. Ed Henry, part of the best political team in television news. And in fact, that team is going to be on "LARRY KING LIVE," his guests, a special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" tomorrow at 9:00 Eastern. Now, we are on the scene of that Kentucky mine explosion up next. And also, "Da Vinci" dominates. Looks like the Catholic Church ban isn't working.</s>SIR ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: I'm talking you (expletive deleted).</s>LIN: Yes, that's what Elton John has to say, as his song says, "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting." Elton John fights with the press, when CNN LIVE SUNDAY continues.