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STUDENT NEWS

Instability in Ukraine; Bostonians Preparing for Marathon While Remembering Last Year`s Terrorist Attack; Lunar Eclipses Causing Blood Moon Effect

Aired April 15, 2014 - 04:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, I`m Carl Azuz. It`s great to have you watching CNN STUDENT NEWS. This Tuesday, we are starting in Ukraine, a very unstable country. Some Ukrainians want closer ties to Russia. Others want to align themselves with Western Europe. The crisis is getting worse. Protesters aligned with Russia have taken over Ukrainian government buildings in certain cities. Ukraine`s government set deadlines for those demonstrators to leave or to be forced out by Ukraine`s armed forces. But these deadlines have passed without action by either side.

Ukraine and its allies including the U.S. blame Russia for stirring up instability. They`re concerned Russia may be trying to take over more of Ukraine after an annex the pro-Russian region of Crimea last month. Russia accuses Ukraine of war against its own people and says it`s the West that will determine whether civil war in Ukraine is avoided.

From Ukraine we are crossing land and sea, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a city shocked and in many ways strengthened after a terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon exactly one year ago. As runners and spectators prepare for the 2014 Marathon next Monday, CNN caught up with a runner who was affected by two terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A freshly painted finish line and with it a new beginning for 36,000 runners ready to cross it.

SALLY DUVAL, RUNNER: April 15th last year was the hardest day I`ve had since, you know, the fall of 2001, the emotions and feelings came crashing back.

FIELD: When the bombs went off at last year`s marathon, Sally Duval`s husband, a runner, had just reached mile 25. He was unharmed but she quickly became determined.

DUVAL: I knew pretty much right away after last year`s bombings that I was going to run no matter what and there was nothing that could stop me from being a part of it. It was such an emotional, crazy time.

FIELD: For Duval, it was all too similar to that September day almost 12 years before. Her brother, Teddy Maloney, who worked at the World Trade Center, never came home.

DUVAL: I think that I feel very strongly that they can`t keep us down, and these kind of events, these terrorist acts that keep happening, you know, we need to rise above them.

FIELD: This year, running the Boston marathon will still be a feat for the elite, but also a job for runners with unfinished business and an opportunity for anyone who saw the devastation and wants to help heal the heartbreak.

JOANNE POMODORO, CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER: This being my first marathon, I`m really thinking I`m overwhelmed at times, but then I say I have to practice what I preach so I`m healing myself.

FIELD: Joanne Pomodoro is a clinical social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital and a first time marathoner. She`s busy training, but also coaching other athletes for the mental hurdles they could face this year at every mile.

POMODORO: PTSD doesn`t come up until probably three months to six months after an event and many times if people don`t work on what the issue is, then they may re-experience it, so not being at the course, not training again on the course, and then all of that might become a flooding experience, with too many emotions.

FIELD: Putting one foot in front of the other, Duval has spent years learning how to move forward in the face of devastating loss. This year, she may help show others the way.

DUVAL: I think that you just have to stick with your routine and breathe in and breathe out every day, and the anniversary will come and be very, very emotional, but you move through it and you feel a sense of relief as you get past that day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Today, CNN STUDENT NEWS "Roll Call" is raving up in Dearborn, Michigan with the thunderbirds of Edsel Ford High School. From there, we are rolling east, at NHS school, Carlisle. We are saying hello to the bulldogs in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And in the Orange State, it`s all about the Eagles. Parkland, Florida is where Stoneman Douglas High has made our roll. Today is tax day in America. It doesn`t sound like a holiday, and it`s not. For a good reason. It`s the deadline for Americans to file their income taxes with the government. About 146 million people share this deadline. It can`t be extended, if needed, but if Americans don`t pay their taxes, they could get in trouble with the IRS at best. And worse, they could land in jail. The 16 Amendment gives the government the power to collect income taxes. And here is what it does with them. Nearly a quarter of the revenue goes to Social Security, 22 percent to health and medical care programs, 19 percent funds national defense, and 12 percent is for safety net programs that help the poor. Veterans programs, interests on the national debt, research and education all factoring as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for "The Shoutout." What is an ambra? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it a shadow, pigment, cover or bird? You`ve got three seconds, go!

An ambra is a shadow. You often hear about ambras during an eclipse. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.

AZUZ: Such as the one people in North and South America were able to see last night. It`s called the blood moon - that sounds kind of creepy. What happened is a total lunar eclipse, the Earth was between the Sun and the Moon, so the Moon was in the Earth`s ambra or shadow. The result, NASA says, made the Moon appear to be a burnt reddish orange color, hence - blood moon. Last night`s observers had to be up really late or really early. It wasn`t scheduled to start until around 2 a.m. Eastern time. The red color wasn`t expected until around 3 a.m., and that was supposed to last an hour, visible only if there were no clouds in the way.

If you missed it, no problem. You`ve got another chance. Though these things occur pretty randomly, by the luck of the draw, scientists expect we`ll see four blood moons over the next year and a half.

When you`ve seen news coverage of disasters, you`ve heard of assistance by the Red Cross, but you probably haven`t heard of Red Paw. You`ve seen shelters set up for people, but you probably haven`t seen one set up for pets. It`s something Jen Leary saw as a problem she could solve. She`s a CNN hero who`s helping people by helping their animals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEN LEARY, CNN HERO: I was firefighter in Philly for seven years. You get to a fire scene and the firefighters are there to put out the fire. The Salvation Army and the Red Cross assist the people once the fire is out. But there just wasn`t anyone there to help the other part of the family.

I would see how upset the people were about their animals. Now, where is my pet, and then where is it going to go? These are people`s children. They`ve just lost everything. They shouldn`t then be forced to lose their pets as well.

(on camera): We have a dog displaced by a fire, a Chihuahua. I`m headed to the scene now.

(voice over): We respond 24-7, 365 days a year. We do for pets what the Red Cross does for people.

Now, we went into the basement, found the dog hiding behind something.

Once the fire is under control, we are able to look for the animals and bring them out.

(on camera): Hi, baby. Come here.

(voice over): Red Paw headquarters is my house.

(on camera): High now.

(voice over): We`ve helped close to 1,000 animals. She`s been in my house, and the owner said she was pregnant. Everything that the animal needs .

(on camera): You are hungry?

(voice over): We`ll handle for free for them.

When we reunite the families, it`s a good thing. It`s like this void has now been filled.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, chocolate!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome home!

LEARY: My hope is that it`s a fresh start that they can move forward together. After going through such a sad thing, it`s so good to have a happy ending.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: You might have read about the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County, the Mark Twain classic. The race at this event in Alabama - not as safe. It`s a rattlesnake rodeo. They are not particularly fast at crawling, which is actually a good thing. They are sure not as safe to handle as frogs, but those who do handle them, say safety is key as is education. This event aims to teach people how to react if they have a close encounter with a rattler. So, this is a rodeo on a whole different scale. Maybe they didn`t all want to race, but there were no reports of a strike.

Onlooker thought it was really some fang else. Some might have even called it venomenal. Now that we`ve left our crawling card, we`ll sleep away from now and hope to see you Wednesday for CNN STUDENT NEWS.

END