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CNN Live Today
Security for Democratic Convention Includes Lots of Electronic Eyes; Discussion with 12-Year-Old Reporters
Aired July 26, 2004 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what is happening now in the news. It is Monday, July 26th. They are checking the lights and the mics as the Democratic National Convention gets ready to open less than five hours from right now. A live picture from Boston's FleetCenter. Tonight's headliners include former presidents Carter and Clinton, and 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore.
Democratic challenger John Kerry is holding a townhall meeting in Florida at this hour. He'll stop in Norfolk, in Philadelphia, before heading to Boston, to accept his party's nomination at the Democratic Convention.
In world news, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he's going ahead with his plan to pull out of Gaza, despite a sizable protests. Tens of thousands of opponents formed a human chain, linking Gaza with Jerusalem. That's a distance of about 55 miles, by the way. Sharon pledges to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza by the end of the next year.
And a gravity defying traffic accident shut the main road through the Florida Keys this morning. Yes, that is a tractor trailer hanging by a single wheel off the edge of a bridge. They had to bring in a crane to get the truck off of there, and then they had to go and check the integrity of the bridge after that. That stopped traffic going to and from the Keys for several hours.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
The extraordinary security for the Democratic Convention includes lots of electronic eyes to keep watch on the crowds. The surveillance has definitely gone high tech. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the thicket of security surrounding the parade of protesters in Boston, officers of the Federal Protective Service, some of them getting an assist from new technology. Handheld computers allow them to access 75 cameras arrayed on federal buildings around the city. And in some circumstances, even control them.
CNN was given exclusive access to the Federal Protective Service command center which monitors, records and in most cases, pans, tilts and zooms the cameras to see what and whom it wants. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be useful. It will allow us to see, for example, if the crowd was being dispersed and you had a leader and he decided to run around the corner here. We'd be able to see where he went.
MESERVE: The command center can feed these pictures, not just to its street officers, but to other law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and to its own mobile command post.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Demonstrators are on the outside of the perimeter of the fence line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very new for us and this is probably the first time that we're really going to put it through its paces.
MESERVE: In 1995, tapes from surveillance cameras at the Murrah Federal Building were destroyed when the building collapsed. If there were a similar tragedy in Boston now, images and possible clues would be captured elsewhere.
Officials dismiss privacy advocates' concerns.
RON LIBBY, FEDERAL PROTECTIVE SERVICE: If you're not doing anything wrong, these cameras should be of no threat to you. If you are committing a criminal act, then I would probably be concerned there is a camera watching you.
MESERVE (on camera): There wasn't much criminal activity for the cameras to capture on Sunday, only one protester was arrested. But demonstrations at the Fleet Center aren't the only things that require security. There are also events like free concerts, like the one held here. That's why the total tab for security is expected to exceed $50 million.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Two very special guests up next. They're not old enough to vote, but they still are invited to the party. Twelve-year-olds Avery Stone and Lily Wasserman are reporters. They are covering the Democratic National Convention for "Time for Kids" magazine. That is a sister publication of CNN, which targets children 5 to 12 years old.
Ladies, good morning. Thanks for being here with us. I am pleased to have my lady -- women reporters on with me.
Avery, I'm going to go ahead and start with you. You are a veteran of the campaign trail. You've already been covering Senator Kerry.
AVERY STONE, REPORTER, "TIME FOR KIDS" MAGAZINE: Yes, in New Hampshire.
KAGAN: Tell me what that was about. And what did you do? STONE: That was amazing. I would visit his campaigning site and follow wherever he was. One of the things I did was I went to one of the rallies that he performed at in Dairy, New Hampshire, and I actually got a question with him.
KAGAN: What was the question?
STONE: Well, I asked him, my generation has grown up with politicians kind of lying to us, and Senator Kerry, what would you do to make sure that -- to make my generation believe that you aren't doing the same thing? What could you do to ensure you aren't lying to us?
KAGAN: Excellent question, I have to say. And what was his answer?
STONE: His answer was a very complicated answer. The basic gist of his answer was to -- he asked us to take faith in his past experiences and his past accomplishments, and he also said to us, that you can't really be sure that he'll fulfill all his promises, and you can't be sure of what he will do, but he asked us to take faith in his experiences and his record and to promise us that.
KAGAN: Very interesting.
Lily, let's bring you in here. Now you and Avery, two exceptional young women. As I understand, you beat out 1,000 other kids who wanted to have this opportunity.
LILY WASSERMAN, "TIME FOR KIDS" MAGAZINE: Just about, yes.
KAGAN: So how did that happen?
WASSERMAN: Well, in 2003 over the school year and summer they had a contest. And to enter, you had to write an article about really anything you wanted. I wrote about the Boston Walk for Hunger. Nearly 900 people entered, and then they picked 30 finalists. The 30 finalists had to prepare a report about the first lady Laura Bush and a video about themselves. There were 16 kid reporters. Two were going to the Democratic Convention and two were going to the Republican Convention.
KAGAN: Ah, so this is your guys -- this is your big hurrah right now.
WASSERMAN: Definitely.
STONE: Yes.
KAGAN: Avery, I have to say, I really like the question you asked of Senator Kerry, and that leads to my next question, what do you think it is that kids want to know? And are you guys asking different questions than the grownup reporters are?
STONE: Well, I think that the questions Lily and I will are going to ask anyone that we interview are trying to target what our readers would be interested in. And our readers are mainly kids, around our age. And I think kids are interested in all sorts of different things. But mainly, I think, they're definitely interested in the war in Iraq, the safety and education are the main interests.
KAGAN: And, Lily, what about you? Do you agree with Avery? Or Are there other questions you would like to ask?
WASSERMAN: Well, I think that a lot of the questions that adult reporters are asking, kids care about, too. But definitely a lot of issues Avery mentioned, education, especially the testing in schools. I think kids really care about that. It takes up so much time of their school year. And another issue is the environment. A lot of kids care about that.
KAGAN: Well, I got to tell you, if you two are a sign of what is to come in journalism, then this field is going to be doing fine. Congratulations to you on this opportunity.
STONE: Thank you.
KAGAN: People can see your articles. Tell us the Web site where they can see what you're writing about.
WASSERMAN: It's timeforkids.com.
KAGAN: Very easy to remember. Avery Stone, Lily Wasserman, probably one day will have the job where I'm sitting right here. Good luck, ladies.
WASSERMAN: Thank you.
STONE: Thank you.
KAGAN: And check back with us. It looks like you have some good work ahead of you.
STONE: We will.
KAGAN: Thanks so much for being with us.
STONE: No problem. Thank you.
WASSERMAN: Thank you.
KAGAN: All right, well,they're not the only unusual ones. Not everyone who is keeping tabs on this week's convention works for a newspaper or a television organization.
When we return, we're going to take a live look at the Web of bloggers that are chronicling the Dems big party.
We are back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: A live picture from Boston, as the Democratic Convention will be getting under way just a few hours from now. This is going to be a different convention. 2004 ushering in the blogger convention. The Democratic Convention has credentialed 30 Web bloggers to report on the political happenings at the FleetCenter.
AOL online adviser Regina Lewis is in Boston this morning.
Regina, good morning.
REGINA LEWIS, AOL ONLINE ADVISER: Good morning, Daryn.
KAGAN: So this is the year of the blogger apparently.
LEWIS: It's sure looking that way. There are about 15 million blogs, or Web logs online, 15,000 new ones every day, many of them political. The DNC has credentialed about 35 bloggers to cover the action here.
They've clearly made a conscious decision that this is just too vocal a group to ignore, and frankly, they can't afford to, remembering that you don't raise $12 million in a month online, $3 million in a single day, without having an awful lot of people point or link to you. They even hosted an official blogger breakfast this morning.
KAGAN: A blogger breakfast.
LEWIS: Yes. We're getting word by Instant Message and e-mail that Howard Dean showed up. So you can imagine what a party that was.
KAGAN: Yes, a big Internet lovefest, I imagine.
LEWIS: Exactly.
KAGAN: So besides a breakfast buffet, what else are we learning from the bloggers so far?
LEWIS: Well, a lot of different things. One, the audience. First, influencers, political junkies, many of whom are here, want the play by play. It is a little analogous to the entertainment industry; you read "Variety" magazine and you live by it.
The second are activists, people who are laser focused on a single issue and want to advance the discussion online, be it around gun control or bringing the troops home. And the other is the media, who get tips, frankly, from bloggers and then go and substantiate. I know you feel strongly about this, fact-check stories, which bloggers are not famous for.
And the youth vote is really, really interesting here, because young people are very cyber-savvy. They're used to the more informal approach that bloggers tend to take. Hey, dude, I got in. I'm on my way. Here is who I sat next to on the plane. What some of the young bloggers, they're biggest issue right now, is while they're credentialed, they don't have the contacts to get into some of these parties. It will be interesting to see if that changes throughout the week. KAGAN: What kind of invites do you get?
LEWIS: Right, exactly.
KAGAN: But you bring up an interesting point, and that is about truth and fact. And that is the biggest criticism of bloggers, that anybody can just go online and start saying things, and that's how rumors start, and that's how things that aren't true are spread around the world.
LEWIS: That's certainly the danger. On the flipside of that, witness something like the Jon Stewart phenomenon. It is a way to reach young people, in particular. The other thing is the verdict is still out on how that translates into tangible things like turnout, notoriously low, particularly the percentages for young people.
I will say one thing. If anybody could make voting online as easy as secure as Steve Jobs has made downloading music, I think we'd see those numbers go way up. So this is probably the beginning of the beginning.
KAGAN: The beginning of the beginning. And you are there to tell us all about it. We'll be talking with you throughout the week and checking in on the bloggers.
Regina, thank you so much.
LEWIS: Thanks, Daryn.
KAGAN: You can follow our own CNN bloggers when you log on to CNN.com/election. Our correspondents will fill you in on the behind- the-scenes news from John Kerry's big show. We are back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check the market. Not having the best summer Monday. The Dow is down 30 points. The Nasdaq is also in negative territory. It is down 15 points.
Ten minutes to the top of the hour. Let's go ahead and turn to the case of the missing pregnant jogger. The search for Lori Hacking resumes in Utah this morning, just as police say they could be days away from an arrest. There is a report that a suspicious item has been found.
Our Ted Rowlands is in Salt Lake City with the latest on that.
Ted, Hello.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Many suspicious items have been reported to be found. Police have confirmed a few of them, including a clump of brown hair that was found in a dumpster about a block away from where Mark Hacking purchased a mattress just a half an hour before calling police to report that his wife was missing.
Police say that forensics will tell the tale in this one. They say if forensics come back the way they think they will, that an arrest warrant should follow. They also say -- they will not say that Mark Hacking is a suspect, but they continue to say that he is the only person of suspicion, person of interest in this case. He is the center of this investigation, but they have said because of his deception, anything that he has told them has been thrown out, and they say that the forensics will tell them what happened.
They are not commenting either way on a report that a blood- stained knife with hairs was found in the Hacking apartment. They say that they can't talk about the specific evidence.
It has been one week since Lori Hacking was reported missing by her husband. Last night, a very emotional candlelight vigil was held in Salt Lake City. Family members were joined by hundreds of people from the community. The family says they're well aware of the suspicion surrounding Mark, but they want to let detectives do their jobs, and they'll wait for the results.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT DUNAWAY, HACKING FAMILY SPOKESMAN: From the very beginning, the families -- both families -- have been open to every possibility in this. They've had many questions, the same questions that the public has had. We really don't know anything more than what you all know, and -- but the families continue to remain united. They love and support Mark. Both families feel that he is their son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Family members say that Mark Hacking continues to be hospitalized and is receiving, quote, "medical care." It is unclear what exact type of care he is receiving at this point. They won't elaborate on that. Meanwhile, search efforts are continuing today here in Salt Lake City -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, Ted, we started the report by saying the search efforts will get started again. Called off because of darkness, or any other reasons?
ROWLANDS: No, they were -- they stopped last night because of darkness, and they resumed at 8:00 here local this morning. The numbers are a bit, because of course it's back to the workweek. But there are still some people out there trying to help this family find Lori Hacking.
KAGAN: Ted Rowlands, bringing us the latest from Utah. Ted, thank you.
Time for weather. That's going to happen in just a minute. Right now, a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: And that's going to do it for me. It's Daryn Kagan. I'll be back here in this seat tomorrow morning. "WOLF BLITZER" begins right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 26, 2004 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what is happening now in the news. It is Monday, July 26th. They are checking the lights and the mics as the Democratic National Convention gets ready to open less than five hours from right now. A live picture from Boston's FleetCenter. Tonight's headliners include former presidents Carter and Clinton, and 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore.
Democratic challenger John Kerry is holding a townhall meeting in Florida at this hour. He'll stop in Norfolk, in Philadelphia, before heading to Boston, to accept his party's nomination at the Democratic Convention.
In world news, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he's going ahead with his plan to pull out of Gaza, despite a sizable protests. Tens of thousands of opponents formed a human chain, linking Gaza with Jerusalem. That's a distance of about 55 miles, by the way. Sharon pledges to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza by the end of the next year.
And a gravity defying traffic accident shut the main road through the Florida Keys this morning. Yes, that is a tractor trailer hanging by a single wheel off the edge of a bridge. They had to bring in a crane to get the truck off of there, and then they had to go and check the integrity of the bridge after that. That stopped traffic going to and from the Keys for several hours.
Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
The extraordinary security for the Democratic Convention includes lots of electronic eyes to keep watch on the crowds. The surveillance has definitely gone high tech. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the thicket of security surrounding the parade of protesters in Boston, officers of the Federal Protective Service, some of them getting an assist from new technology. Handheld computers allow them to access 75 cameras arrayed on federal buildings around the city. And in some circumstances, even control them.
CNN was given exclusive access to the Federal Protective Service command center which monitors, records and in most cases, pans, tilts and zooms the cameras to see what and whom it wants. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be useful. It will allow us to see, for example, if the crowd was being dispersed and you had a leader and he decided to run around the corner here. We'd be able to see where he went.
MESERVE: The command center can feed these pictures, not just to its street officers, but to other law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and to its own mobile command post.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Demonstrators are on the outside of the perimeter of the fence line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very new for us and this is probably the first time that we're really going to put it through its paces.
MESERVE: In 1995, tapes from surveillance cameras at the Murrah Federal Building were destroyed when the building collapsed. If there were a similar tragedy in Boston now, images and possible clues would be captured elsewhere.
Officials dismiss privacy advocates' concerns.
RON LIBBY, FEDERAL PROTECTIVE SERVICE: If you're not doing anything wrong, these cameras should be of no threat to you. If you are committing a criminal act, then I would probably be concerned there is a camera watching you.
MESERVE (on camera): There wasn't much criminal activity for the cameras to capture on Sunday, only one protester was arrested. But demonstrations at the Fleet Center aren't the only things that require security. There are also events like free concerts, like the one held here. That's why the total tab for security is expected to exceed $50 million.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Two very special guests up next. They're not old enough to vote, but they still are invited to the party. Twelve-year-olds Avery Stone and Lily Wasserman are reporters. They are covering the Democratic National Convention for "Time for Kids" magazine. That is a sister publication of CNN, which targets children 5 to 12 years old.
Ladies, good morning. Thanks for being here with us. I am pleased to have my lady -- women reporters on with me.
Avery, I'm going to go ahead and start with you. You are a veteran of the campaign trail. You've already been covering Senator Kerry.
AVERY STONE, REPORTER, "TIME FOR KIDS" MAGAZINE: Yes, in New Hampshire.
KAGAN: Tell me what that was about. And what did you do? STONE: That was amazing. I would visit his campaigning site and follow wherever he was. One of the things I did was I went to one of the rallies that he performed at in Dairy, New Hampshire, and I actually got a question with him.
KAGAN: What was the question?
STONE: Well, I asked him, my generation has grown up with politicians kind of lying to us, and Senator Kerry, what would you do to make sure that -- to make my generation believe that you aren't doing the same thing? What could you do to ensure you aren't lying to us?
KAGAN: Excellent question, I have to say. And what was his answer?
STONE: His answer was a very complicated answer. The basic gist of his answer was to -- he asked us to take faith in his past experiences and his past accomplishments, and he also said to us, that you can't really be sure that he'll fulfill all his promises, and you can't be sure of what he will do, but he asked us to take faith in his experiences and his record and to promise us that.
KAGAN: Very interesting.
Lily, let's bring you in here. Now you and Avery, two exceptional young women. As I understand, you beat out 1,000 other kids who wanted to have this opportunity.
LILY WASSERMAN, "TIME FOR KIDS" MAGAZINE: Just about, yes.
KAGAN: So how did that happen?
WASSERMAN: Well, in 2003 over the school year and summer they had a contest. And to enter, you had to write an article about really anything you wanted. I wrote about the Boston Walk for Hunger. Nearly 900 people entered, and then they picked 30 finalists. The 30 finalists had to prepare a report about the first lady Laura Bush and a video about themselves. There were 16 kid reporters. Two were going to the Democratic Convention and two were going to the Republican Convention.
KAGAN: Ah, so this is your guys -- this is your big hurrah right now.
WASSERMAN: Definitely.
STONE: Yes.
KAGAN: Avery, I have to say, I really like the question you asked of Senator Kerry, and that leads to my next question, what do you think it is that kids want to know? And are you guys asking different questions than the grownup reporters are?
STONE: Well, I think that the questions Lily and I will are going to ask anyone that we interview are trying to target what our readers would be interested in. And our readers are mainly kids, around our age. And I think kids are interested in all sorts of different things. But mainly, I think, they're definitely interested in the war in Iraq, the safety and education are the main interests.
KAGAN: And, Lily, what about you? Do you agree with Avery? Or Are there other questions you would like to ask?
WASSERMAN: Well, I think that a lot of the questions that adult reporters are asking, kids care about, too. But definitely a lot of issues Avery mentioned, education, especially the testing in schools. I think kids really care about that. It takes up so much time of their school year. And another issue is the environment. A lot of kids care about that.
KAGAN: Well, I got to tell you, if you two are a sign of what is to come in journalism, then this field is going to be doing fine. Congratulations to you on this opportunity.
STONE: Thank you.
KAGAN: People can see your articles. Tell us the Web site where they can see what you're writing about.
WASSERMAN: It's timeforkids.com.
KAGAN: Very easy to remember. Avery Stone, Lily Wasserman, probably one day will have the job where I'm sitting right here. Good luck, ladies.
WASSERMAN: Thank you.
STONE: Thank you.
KAGAN: And check back with us. It looks like you have some good work ahead of you.
STONE: We will.
KAGAN: Thanks so much for being with us.
STONE: No problem. Thank you.
WASSERMAN: Thank you.
KAGAN: All right, well,they're not the only unusual ones. Not everyone who is keeping tabs on this week's convention works for a newspaper or a television organization.
When we return, we're going to take a live look at the Web of bloggers that are chronicling the Dems big party.
We are back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: A live picture from Boston, as the Democratic Convention will be getting under way just a few hours from now. This is going to be a different convention. 2004 ushering in the blogger convention. The Democratic Convention has credentialed 30 Web bloggers to report on the political happenings at the FleetCenter.
AOL online adviser Regina Lewis is in Boston this morning.
Regina, good morning.
REGINA LEWIS, AOL ONLINE ADVISER: Good morning, Daryn.
KAGAN: So this is the year of the blogger apparently.
LEWIS: It's sure looking that way. There are about 15 million blogs, or Web logs online, 15,000 new ones every day, many of them political. The DNC has credentialed about 35 bloggers to cover the action here.
They've clearly made a conscious decision that this is just too vocal a group to ignore, and frankly, they can't afford to, remembering that you don't raise $12 million in a month online, $3 million in a single day, without having an awful lot of people point or link to you. They even hosted an official blogger breakfast this morning.
KAGAN: A blogger breakfast.
LEWIS: Yes. We're getting word by Instant Message and e-mail that Howard Dean showed up. So you can imagine what a party that was.
KAGAN: Yes, a big Internet lovefest, I imagine.
LEWIS: Exactly.
KAGAN: So besides a breakfast buffet, what else are we learning from the bloggers so far?
LEWIS: Well, a lot of different things. One, the audience. First, influencers, political junkies, many of whom are here, want the play by play. It is a little analogous to the entertainment industry; you read "Variety" magazine and you live by it.
The second are activists, people who are laser focused on a single issue and want to advance the discussion online, be it around gun control or bringing the troops home. And the other is the media, who get tips, frankly, from bloggers and then go and substantiate. I know you feel strongly about this, fact-check stories, which bloggers are not famous for.
And the youth vote is really, really interesting here, because young people are very cyber-savvy. They're used to the more informal approach that bloggers tend to take. Hey, dude, I got in. I'm on my way. Here is who I sat next to on the plane. What some of the young bloggers, they're biggest issue right now, is while they're credentialed, they don't have the contacts to get into some of these parties. It will be interesting to see if that changes throughout the week. KAGAN: What kind of invites do you get?
LEWIS: Right, exactly.
KAGAN: But you bring up an interesting point, and that is about truth and fact. And that is the biggest criticism of bloggers, that anybody can just go online and start saying things, and that's how rumors start, and that's how things that aren't true are spread around the world.
LEWIS: That's certainly the danger. On the flipside of that, witness something like the Jon Stewart phenomenon. It is a way to reach young people, in particular. The other thing is the verdict is still out on how that translates into tangible things like turnout, notoriously low, particularly the percentages for young people.
I will say one thing. If anybody could make voting online as easy as secure as Steve Jobs has made downloading music, I think we'd see those numbers go way up. So this is probably the beginning of the beginning.
KAGAN: The beginning of the beginning. And you are there to tell us all about it. We'll be talking with you throughout the week and checking in on the bloggers.
Regina, thank you so much.
LEWIS: Thanks, Daryn.
KAGAN: You can follow our own CNN bloggers when you log on to CNN.com/election. Our correspondents will fill you in on the behind- the-scenes news from John Kerry's big show. We are back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check the market. Not having the best summer Monday. The Dow is down 30 points. The Nasdaq is also in negative territory. It is down 15 points.
Ten minutes to the top of the hour. Let's go ahead and turn to the case of the missing pregnant jogger. The search for Lori Hacking resumes in Utah this morning, just as police say they could be days away from an arrest. There is a report that a suspicious item has been found.
Our Ted Rowlands is in Salt Lake City with the latest on that.
Ted, Hello.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
Many suspicious items have been reported to be found. Police have confirmed a few of them, including a clump of brown hair that was found in a dumpster about a block away from where Mark Hacking purchased a mattress just a half an hour before calling police to report that his wife was missing.
Police say that forensics will tell the tale in this one. They say if forensics come back the way they think they will, that an arrest warrant should follow. They also say -- they will not say that Mark Hacking is a suspect, but they continue to say that he is the only person of suspicion, person of interest in this case. He is the center of this investigation, but they have said because of his deception, anything that he has told them has been thrown out, and they say that the forensics will tell them what happened.
They are not commenting either way on a report that a blood- stained knife with hairs was found in the Hacking apartment. They say that they can't talk about the specific evidence.
It has been one week since Lori Hacking was reported missing by her husband. Last night, a very emotional candlelight vigil was held in Salt Lake City. Family members were joined by hundreds of people from the community. The family says they're well aware of the suspicion surrounding Mark, but they want to let detectives do their jobs, and they'll wait for the results.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT DUNAWAY, HACKING FAMILY SPOKESMAN: From the very beginning, the families -- both families -- have been open to every possibility in this. They've had many questions, the same questions that the public has had. We really don't know anything more than what you all know, and -- but the families continue to remain united. They love and support Mark. Both families feel that he is their son.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Family members say that Mark Hacking continues to be hospitalized and is receiving, quote, "medical care." It is unclear what exact type of care he is receiving at this point. They won't elaborate on that. Meanwhile, search efforts are continuing today here in Salt Lake City -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And, Ted, we started the report by saying the search efforts will get started again. Called off because of darkness, or any other reasons?
ROWLANDS: No, they were -- they stopped last night because of darkness, and they resumed at 8:00 here local this morning. The numbers are a bit, because of course it's back to the workweek. But there are still some people out there trying to help this family find Lori Hacking.
KAGAN: Ted Rowlands, bringing us the latest from Utah. Ted, thank you.
Time for weather. That's going to happen in just a minute. Right now, a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: And that's going to do it for me. It's Daryn Kagan. I'll be back here in this seat tomorrow morning. "WOLF BLITZER" begins right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
