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CNN Live At Daybreak
Jamaica Prepares for a Hit by Ivan; New Book on Bush Family by Kitty Kelly
Aired September 10, 2004 - 06:00 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Ivan is coming. Will everyone be ready if it hits Florida?
It is Friday, September 10.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, on the eve of the third anniversary of 9/11, new threats from al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant appears in a tape airing on the Arab television network Al Jazeera. Ayman al- Zawahiri threatens Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has an update on the war on terror. Rumsfeld is speaking at the National Press Club in Washington today. His speech is titled, "Three Years Later: A Progress Report On the Global War On Terror."
Police in Indonesia say at least one suicide car bomber is responsible for that deadly blast in Jakarta. At least nine people died in the explosion outside of the Australian embassy. More than 180 people were wounded.
People across Jamaica are hunkering down, getting ready to get smacked by hurricane Ivan. The monster storm is expected to hit the island later tonight. The hurricane's current path might, just might, put it over the Florida Keys by Monday -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Certainly, yes. And, Carol, in 15 minutes I'm going to show you where all the models are actually taking the storm. At this point in time, they are all taking it over Jamaica. It's already this close and it's headed right there. But then it gets to Cuba. Then they diverge a little bit. And I'll have to show you, some go right, some go left and some go in the middle.
But there's the storm right now, 145 miles per hour. Forecast to get a little bit stronger and then forecast to get a little bit weaker, because as soon as it hits land, it loses its energy; 145 miles per hour right now, gusting to 180.
The storm drives itself right over Jamaica today, very, very close, right there, to Kingston, and that's very damaging there. 2.7 million people live in Jamaica. I'm not sure all of them are going to get out of the way.
Winds 155, gusting to 190 as it gets south of Cuba. And then it goes over Havana again. This is so Charley-esque, I can't tell you, making a right hand turn right over, just so that maybe to the west of Key West, over maybe Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas and then somewhere between, again, Tampa and Fort Myers.
Most of the computer models, Carol, have been pushing the storm a little bit farther to the west, every hour. But some are actually turning it farther to the east, taking it from Key West and then through the big cities of southeastern Miami. I'll tell you about that in 15 minutes.
COSTELLO: Yes, and, Chad, you just told us where Ivan is now. Jamaica preparing for the absolute worst.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Stay with me now while we check in with Karl Penhaul.
He's live in Kingston this morning -- Karl, are there enough safe places for people to go there?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If only the government would tell us that, Carol. And overnight and yesterday afternoon, the government did begin an evacuation program. The government calculates that about 500,000 people living in lower lying areas or in Kingston and around Kingston could be at risk from tidal surges once hurricane Ivan hits. And so they were being moved out as of 4:00 p.m. yesterday on government sponsored buses to a number of shelters, government sponsored shelters, but also churches and state schools, and even the national stadium has been pressed into service for use as a shelter.
Now, initially yesterday when we spoke to the weather experts here on Jamaica, they were saying at this time, at 5:00 a.m. local time, the hurricane should already be being felt on the southeast edge of Jamaica. But so far there's no sign of that. And, again, checking on the latest information it seems that the calculations have been put back a little and so we're not expecting to hear, feel those hurricane force winds for a few hours yet.
And right now there's no sign of rain. There's no wind. And that is not going to be too helpful for ordinary Jamaicans, because we have had the sense since we've been here that they're leaving everything until the last minute. So I expect that when they're beginning to wake up over the next few hours, they're going to say no hurricane and they're going to scale back their preparations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, Karl, that would be awful, because it's expected to be a category four hurricane. And Chad, you just ran over to check, how strong would the wind gusts be in a category four, Chad?
MYERS: In the gusts, Carol, yes, the sustained winds of this storm are 145. With gusts now, already gusting to 170. Yesterday, when a hurricane hunter aircraft actually flew through this storm, there was a wind gust at 300 feet up, not at the surface, but at 300 feet up, of 210 miles per hour. And you think oh, well, that's up in the air. Well guess what? Jamaica is up in the air, as well. I mean Blue Mountain up on there is almost 7,000 feet. So these people are going to be feeling the brunt, obviously, on this island.
COSTELLO: So, Karl Penhaul, we were wondering, these shelters that these people are being sent to, are they sturdy enough?
PENHAUL: There certainly are a number of sturdy structures. A lot of the state schools are very solidly built. A lot of the churches that are being used as shelters are very solidly built. But it's the ordinary houses that we look at and we don't see any of the kind of preparations that we saw at this stage last week in the Bahamas, for example.
When I was in Freeport last week, we were seeing people boarding up the windows with plywood. There was a run on plywood. You couldn't get plywood anywhere here on the island.
Here in Jamaica, however, people are just seeming content to put packing tape across the windows and hoping that that will stop windows caving in and glass shattering. And there is no real indication that this storm, being much stronger than the one that hit Freeport last week, that they really do need hurricane shutters. They need ply board on that windows and there's no sign of that, Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul live in Kingston, Jamaica this morning.
Thank you.
We begin our campaign coverage this morning with the vice presidential candidates.
Dick Cheney campaigning in Wisconsin again today. Yesterday in Cincinnati, the vice president talked up the economy, saying national employment figures often miss many people making money on eBay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy is changing, you know? It's -- somebody pointed out to me today that something like 400,000 people make some money trading on eBay, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can that be?
CHENEY: Well, they didn't say their whole living. I mean they've got various businesses and so forth and they come and spend part of their time on eBay and generate some income that way. And that's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards was quick to pounce on that, saying Cheney's statement shows how out of touch he is with the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Dick Cheney said well, now wait a minute, the economy is actually doing better than most people in the country are aware of because there are a lot of people selling things on eBay. You know, I'm here to tell you, if we include the lemonade stands and the bake sales, this economy is roaring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, word of the economy may be pushed off the agenda altogether today. She's back. Kitty Kelley. Some call her a muckraker, others a best-selling author. Actually, that's what she is.
This morning, well, he's no muckraker, but he does write our political grind on cnn.com.
Our political analyst John Mercurio live on the line with us this morning -- good morning, John.
JOHN MERCURIO, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine.
Let's talk about this Kitty Kelley book. There's already been some spin control coming out of the White House.
MERCURIO: Absolutely. Well, the book comes out on Monday. She's already booked, I think, on NBC for three days. And I think she's tentatively booked on several networks.
The charges are already out there, as you said. The Bush campaign and the Bush White House are already fighting back.
I think in this environment -- she's written several other books. The Reagan book; the, you know, the book on the British royal family; the Jackie Onassis book; lots of sort of wild charges. I think in this campaign season, though, she's going to face sort of a different climate and I think a lot of the media in the past that she's looked to to help her get her book across is really going to be tentative about airing the charges, notwithstanding all these interviews that she has next week.
COSTELLO: Yes, but John -- John, her book hasn't even come out yet and it's number six on Amazon.com.
MERCURIO: But don't you think -- I mean I think that as the campaign -- as the Republicans start to fight back, you're going to see a media that's already sort of focused on this National Guard scandal and you already see Sharon Bush, who's the former son-in-law of the president, the former wife of Neil Bush, the president's brother, sort of backing off the charges that are in the book. I mean I think ultimately people are going to have to look at the book, question what's in it and question whether or not it's really legitimate to go forward as a source, you know, for sort of these scandalous allegations.
COSTELLO: OK, you mentioned the documents. Let's talk about them. Documents uncovered by CBS that attest the president may not have served his time in the Air National Guard may be doctored.
Give us some insight into that.
MERCURIO: Yes, another new twist in this story that just never stops twisting. Yes, this morning or yesterday we learned that the possibility exists that there were some -- that these documents included several features, suggesting they were generated by a computer or by a word processor, a word processor that wouldn't have been available during the Vietnam War era when these documents were supposedly created.
Now, the widow of Jerry Killian, who's the National Guard officer whose signature is at the bottom of the documents, also disputed their authenticity. CBS stands by -- CBS News stands by the documents, their authenticity and they were reporting they have a source who was the immediate supervisor to Jerry Killian who claims that they were authentic.
You know, the Kerry campaign, I think, at this point, is pretty...
COSTELLO: Yes, yes, but John, isn't CBS conducting some sort of internal investigation now?
MERCURIO: Yes. Yes, that's my understanding, as well. You know, I think at this point the Kerry campaign is wise, though, to sort of distance themselves from these documents, to distance themselves from this entire scandal, at least until they believe, A, that these documents are authentic; and B, that this scandal is taking hold with the public and they actually care and want to learn more about it and think that it's relevant to the campaign.
At this point I don't think they're convinced it's relevant to the campaign yet. That could happen any day now, though.
COSTELLO: We'll see.
John Mercurio, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
MERCURIO: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Cnn.com. You can catch his column, "The Political Grind."
Do you think Osama bin Laden will ever be caught? Coming up, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson joins me with the latest on the hunt for America's most wanted terrorist.
Plus, the victims of another act of terror. Hear Georgi's story, a 10-year-old boy who survived that Russian school siege.
And racing away from Ivan. We'll get a live report out of the Florida Keys as tourists and residents alike pack up and get the heck out of there.
And then shopping for a car? We'll separate fact from fiction with "Consumer Reports."
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Wall Street will open mixed this morning.
The Dow down 24 points.
The Nasdaq up 19.
The S&P 500 up 2 points.
Time for a little business buzz now.
Are you confused by the new overtime rules? Well, you are not alone. And now the House votes to block the measure.
Carrie Lee has more on that live from the NASDAQ market site -- good morning, Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
The House of Representatives defying President Bush yesterday, voting to block the administration's controversial new overtime regulations for white collar workers. Now, the House is approving a Democratic amendment that would deny funding to administer the regulations. Foes say the new rules would cost an estimated six million workers their overtime pay.
Well, Republican leaders are rejecting those claims. The administration says only about 107,000 Americans would lose overtime protection, all earning more than $100,000 a year. So Republicans are vowing to strip this amendment from the bill and the president is threatening a veto.
You know, Carol, there's been a lot of controversy about this. When these overtime rule changes first came out, you had the book in your hand, the rules in your hand, very thick, very complicated.
COSTELLO: Yes.
LEE: This is the latest.
COSTELLO: Oh, my.
Thank you.
Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 6:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Russian police say they've now I.D.ed 10 of the more than 30 attackers that seized that school in Beslan. They say at least six of them were from Chechnya. More than 350 people died in that stand-off, mostly children.
John Ritter's family has filed a wrongful death suit against the Burbank hospital where he died. The suit contends that doctors misdiagnosed Ritter's heart condition, which contributed to his unexpected death. The 54-year-old actor died last September, during surgery for a torn aorta.
In money news, Home Depot will open its first store in Manhattan today. The three story shop will cater to a more urban crowd, focusing on more upscale, fashionable home items and promising same day delivery.
In culture, fans of the novel "The Da Vinci Code" can now book specialized tour packages to the evacuation locations mentioned in the book. Ooh, we can go to the Louvre. It's similar to the tourism boom in Savannah, Georgia after the novel "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil" became a best-seller.
In the world of sports, boxing great Muhammad Ali is calling on Congress to create a U.S. boxing commission. Ali says a national governing body is needed for the sport to protect boxers from injury and exploitation -- Chad.
MYERS: And good morning, Carol.
This obviously very dangerous hurricane, Ivan, here in the Caribbean Sea, headed to Jamaica this morning. We have all these computers that we use all the time. And we want to show you what the computers are actually saying here.
There's a Web site you can actually dial up and you can see this thing. The lines, we call them the spaghetti lines, if you will -- there's the Web site. You actually have to pay for it, but it's an excellent site, rightweather.com. They have about 10 computer programs on here. It shows the path of where the storm is, way back here right now right under my finger. And now moving over Jamaica. All of the computers taking it over Jamaica.
And all of the computers taking it right to Cuba. Then, here's what happens. One goes this way, one goes this way and then the rest of them kind of go up the middle. So we have to watch, because this is why we say, you know, the first 24, 48 hours we're pretty good. We know where this thing is going to go. After that, all these models diverge. And this is that what we call error cone, Carol. So we don't know where it's going after it gets over Cuba. COSTELLO: I know you'll keep your eye on it, though.
Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: It's one of those things that ladies get and men don't -- the need for shoes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY")
DR. SUZANNE LEVINE, INSTITUTE BEAUTE: It's the one clothing item that you can put on if you're 10 pounds overweight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I know, Chad. Are your heels healthy or would casual be better for your bunions? The science, Chad, the science behind the perfect pair of shoes.
MYERS: Rubber soles.
COSTELLO: Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's Fashion Week in New York. That's why we're doing this story. That's why we thought of this. If you absolutely love shoes, like I do, you'll want to listen up here.
Our medical correspondent, Holly Firfer, is focusing on your feet and high fashion heels.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It used to be Jimmy who? And now it's Jimmy Choo a girl can't live without thanks to four single shoe addicted gals in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, these are pretty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking for comfortable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I'll try these for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIRFER: But comfort isn't key for the girls of HBO's "Sex and the City," who have footed a fetish for a stunning stiletto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, lover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you're feet are the new face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIRFER: So how far would you go for that strappy sandal? Would you shorten a toe, shave down a bone, inject collagen into your heel? Did you even know there was such a thing as toe cleavage?
LEVINE: I think there's a psychology that goes with wearing high-heeled shoes. It makes you feel good immediately. It's the one clothing item that you can put on if you're 10 pounds overweight.
FIRFER: A Gallup poll survey showed 37 percent of women said they would continue to wear heels, even if they were uncomfortable. Using restulin (ph) injections to cushion the balls of the feet at $500, lightening nails for $250, injecting Botox to prevent sweating, about $480, and performing surgery to shave down bones for the perfect peds, the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons more than half of its members have treated patients with problems related to cosmetic foot surgery.
DR. KIMBERLY EICKMEIER, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF FOOT & ANKLE SURGEONS: Performing surgery solely for the purpose of changing the appearance or size of the foot or ankle carries with it medical risks.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: I just can't believe many people get surgery to make their foot into some cone-shaped, abnormal kind...
FIRFER: They do.
COSTELLO: Oh, come on!
FIRFER: You have to have the perfect toe cleavage these days.
COSTELLO: Really?
FIRFER: Yes.
COSTELLO: So I mean flocks of women are getting this surgery to alter their feet?
FIRFER: Yes. Well, and, you know, and not so much that, but a lot of people now have foot problems. Forty-three million people in the U.S. have problems with their feet. That's one in six people. And it can be anything from bunions to corns to an ingrown toenail. But there are problems that we have with our feet, not just all for cosmetic purposes.
COSTELLO: Well, do they all come from shoes like stiletto heels?
FIRFER: That's probably most of it. Let me show you some of the shoes.
Now, this lovely shoe, as you can see, Carol's shoe this morning. And this shoe, my favorite shoe, not such great shoes to wear. The pointy heel and the high heel, the pointy toe, I'm sorry, and the high heel, you want to kind of stay away with.
Something like this a little better. But you have to be careful, the back, the orthopedic surgeons will tell you that you can have some problems with heels and your ankle if you slip off this.
This...
COSTELLO: Because there's no support back there?
FIRFER: Exactly.
This kind of shoe, the best kind of shoe. It is a flat heel, wide toe. So that's what you want to look for.
COSTELLO: It's so unattractive though.
But can't the wrong kind of tennis shoes also cause problems for your feet?
FIRFER: Absolutely. And they do recommend you exercise a lot. Runners, every 200 to 300 miles to replace your tennis shoes. Usually about, somewhere about 250 miles, you have to start looking to help, you know, your feet a little bit. Six month in or, if you don't, you know, log it by miles. Because you can get a lot of problems with your joints and do a lot of damage to your feet. So you really should replace them.
COSTELLO: Thanks for the advice on this Fashion Week.
FIRFER: No problem.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Holly.
FIRFER: Sure.
COSTELLO: For the third time in a month, Florida is on hurricane watch. We're going to update you on just how threatening hurricane Ivan might be to an already battered state.
And it's been nearly three years since Osama bin Laden became the most wanted man in the world. So why hasn't he been caught? Nic Robertson will try to find some answers for you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Storm battered people in Florida brace for their third hurricane in a month. Ivan is making its way north.
It is Friday, September 10.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. Now in the news, President Bush is campaigning today in West Virginia and in the State of Ohio. In the meantime, the "Washington Post" says questions are being raised about how authentic some documents are relating to Bush's National Guard service. Those documents appeared on a "60 Minutes II" program on CBS and some experts think they were generated by a computer and not by a Vietnam War-era typewriter.
John Kerry is looking for votes today in Missouri and Pennsylvania. The latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll gives Bush a lead of 14 percentage points among likely voters in Missouri.
And the "New York Times" reports the Transportation Security Administration will pay $1.5 million to 15,000 airline passengers. They claim items in their checked baggage may have been stolen or damaged.
Hurricane Ivan, a category four with top winds of 145 miles an hour, is on track to hit Jamaica today. The story you're seeing, the selling out of supplies. It's in Montego Bay.
Let's check in with Chad in the forecast center -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
We talked to Karl Penhaul just a little bit ago in Kingston and he said they were taping the windows. That's not going to do any good at 145 miles per hour. Trust me on this one. This is a monster. Still now a category four. To be a category five you have to get all the way up to 156 miles per hour. But the Weather Service hurricane hunter aircraft just picked up a wind speed here of 172 as it was flying around in the storm.
So this thing is not getting any weaker. The eye wall not as -- I wouldn't say, not as defined this morning as it was yesterday. But here you go. These are the latest numbers -- 15.9, 74.2, a category four, winds to 1.5. Coming over Jamaica and actually it gets a little stronger as it exits Jamaica, winds to 155, gusts to 190 miles per hour. Yesterday there was a gust to 210 found in the aircraft. That's just an amazing, an amazing wind speed.
Moving over to Key West and maybe very close to Fort Myers and, could we even say the words Punta Gorda again, Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh.
All right, well, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: We'll get back to you.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: Many of the tourists have already left the Florida Keys, a possible weekend target of hurricane Ivan. Keys residents have been told to leave on a staggered schedule beginning less than an hour from now.
Our veteran hurricane reporter John Zarrella is in Key Largo.
He joins us by telephone.
So, will the evacuation be more ordered this time?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you certainly hope so. And if the early morning signs are any indication, it hasn't really gotten started yet.
Last night as we drove in here, a few vehicles leaving the Keys, a pretty steady stream of traffic, in fact. That was for residents and non-residents and tourists ordered to leave yesterday. This morning, the Lower Keys, the evacuation starts in about 30 minutes. And that's folks living from the Seven Mile Bridge south and then the Middle Keys it goes into effect starting at noon. This is called a phased evacuation. And then the Upper Keys, which is where we are, in Key Largo, this area the evacuation order will start at about 4:00 p.m. this afternoon.
So, of course, the idea is to try and get everybody out of the Keys. The question is: Will everybody leave? Probably not. Most people will, but there are some, the old-timers who just don't want to get out of here. It's happened in the past. During Hurricane George in 1998, a lot of folks didn't leave, Carol. So that's the question. Are people going to roll the dice again?
COSTELLO: Well, you know, that's hard to believe with all of the damage that's already occurred due to the last two hurricanes. You would think that the example set by that would force people to get the heck out of there.
ZARRELLA: You would certainly think, and I'm sure that as we've seen certainly during the Frances evacuation that with what has transpired the last month in Florida that more people than normal will get out of the Keys.
But I have to tell you, this morning the traffic is still very, very light on U.S. 1, which is the only road leading out of the Keys. I would suspect that by later this afternoon we may see some major traffic jams coming out of here, which is just typical because this is the only way out of the Keys. It's one way in and one way out. So, it will clog up.
And, of course, the nightmare, if you're here, is all you have to have is one accident, and it just backs things up for miles and miles.
COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding. John Zarrella live in Florida this morning in the Florida Keys, thank you.
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 September 10, 2004 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Ivan is coming. Will everyone be ready if it hits Florida?
It is Friday, September 10.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello.
Now in the news, on the eve of the third anniversary of 9/11, new threats from al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant appears in a tape airing on the Arab television network Al Jazeera. Ayman al- Zawahiri threatens Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has an update on the war on terror. Rumsfeld is speaking at the National Press Club in Washington today. His speech is titled, "Three Years Later: A Progress Report On the Global War On Terror."
Police in Indonesia say at least one suicide car bomber is responsible for that deadly blast in Jakarta. At least nine people died in the explosion outside of the Australian embassy. More than 180 people were wounded.
People across Jamaica are hunkering down, getting ready to get smacked by hurricane Ivan. The monster storm is expected to hit the island later tonight. The hurricane's current path might, just might, put it over the Florida Keys by Monday -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Certainly, yes. And, Carol, in 15 minutes I'm going to show you where all the models are actually taking the storm. At this point in time, they are all taking it over Jamaica. It's already this close and it's headed right there. But then it gets to Cuba. Then they diverge a little bit. And I'll have to show you, some go right, some go left and some go in the middle.
But there's the storm right now, 145 miles per hour. Forecast to get a little bit stronger and then forecast to get a little bit weaker, because as soon as it hits land, it loses its energy; 145 miles per hour right now, gusting to 180.
The storm drives itself right over Jamaica today, very, very close, right there, to Kingston, and that's very damaging there. 2.7 million people live in Jamaica. I'm not sure all of them are going to get out of the way.
Winds 155, gusting to 190 as it gets south of Cuba. And then it goes over Havana again. This is so Charley-esque, I can't tell you, making a right hand turn right over, just so that maybe to the west of Key West, over maybe Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas and then somewhere between, again, Tampa and Fort Myers.
Most of the computer models, Carol, have been pushing the storm a little bit farther to the west, every hour. But some are actually turning it farther to the east, taking it from Key West and then through the big cities of southeastern Miami. I'll tell you about that in 15 minutes.
COSTELLO: Yes, and, Chad, you just told us where Ivan is now. Jamaica preparing for the absolute worst.
MYERS: Yes.
COSTELLO: Stay with me now while we check in with Karl Penhaul.
He's live in Kingston this morning -- Karl, are there enough safe places for people to go there?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If only the government would tell us that, Carol. And overnight and yesterday afternoon, the government did begin an evacuation program. The government calculates that about 500,000 people living in lower lying areas or in Kingston and around Kingston could be at risk from tidal surges once hurricane Ivan hits. And so they were being moved out as of 4:00 p.m. yesterday on government sponsored buses to a number of shelters, government sponsored shelters, but also churches and state schools, and even the national stadium has been pressed into service for use as a shelter.
Now, initially yesterday when we spoke to the weather experts here on Jamaica, they were saying at this time, at 5:00 a.m. local time, the hurricane should already be being felt on the southeast edge of Jamaica. But so far there's no sign of that. And, again, checking on the latest information it seems that the calculations have been put back a little and so we're not expecting to hear, feel those hurricane force winds for a few hours yet.
And right now there's no sign of rain. There's no wind. And that is not going to be too helpful for ordinary Jamaicans, because we have had the sense since we've been here that they're leaving everything until the last minute. So I expect that when they're beginning to wake up over the next few hours, they're going to say no hurricane and they're going to scale back their preparations -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, Karl, that would be awful, because it's expected to be a category four hurricane. And Chad, you just ran over to check, how strong would the wind gusts be in a category four, Chad?
MYERS: In the gusts, Carol, yes, the sustained winds of this storm are 145. With gusts now, already gusting to 170. Yesterday, when a hurricane hunter aircraft actually flew through this storm, there was a wind gust at 300 feet up, not at the surface, but at 300 feet up, of 210 miles per hour. And you think oh, well, that's up in the air. Well guess what? Jamaica is up in the air, as well. I mean Blue Mountain up on there is almost 7,000 feet. So these people are going to be feeling the brunt, obviously, on this island.
COSTELLO: So, Karl Penhaul, we were wondering, these shelters that these people are being sent to, are they sturdy enough?
PENHAUL: There certainly are a number of sturdy structures. A lot of the state schools are very solidly built. A lot of the churches that are being used as shelters are very solidly built. But it's the ordinary houses that we look at and we don't see any of the kind of preparations that we saw at this stage last week in the Bahamas, for example.
When I was in Freeport last week, we were seeing people boarding up the windows with plywood. There was a run on plywood. You couldn't get plywood anywhere here on the island.
Here in Jamaica, however, people are just seeming content to put packing tape across the windows and hoping that that will stop windows caving in and glass shattering. And there is no real indication that this storm, being much stronger than the one that hit Freeport last week, that they really do need hurricane shutters. They need ply board on that windows and there's no sign of that, Carol.
COSTELLO: Karl Penhaul live in Kingston, Jamaica this morning.
Thank you.
We begin our campaign coverage this morning with the vice presidential candidates.
Dick Cheney campaigning in Wisconsin again today. Yesterday in Cincinnati, the vice president talked up the economy, saying national employment figures often miss many people making money on eBay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy is changing, you know? It's -- somebody pointed out to me today that something like 400,000 people make some money trading on eBay, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can that be?
CHENEY: Well, they didn't say their whole living. I mean they've got various businesses and so forth and they come and spend part of their time on eBay and generate some income that way. And that's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards was quick to pounce on that, saying Cheney's statement shows how out of touch he is with the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Dick Cheney said well, now wait a minute, the economy is actually doing better than most people in the country are aware of because there are a lot of people selling things on eBay. You know, I'm here to tell you, if we include the lemonade stands and the bake sales, this economy is roaring.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Well, word of the economy may be pushed off the agenda altogether today. She's back. Kitty Kelley. Some call her a muckraker, others a best-selling author. Actually, that's what she is.
This morning, well, he's no muckraker, but he does write our political grind on cnn.com.
Our political analyst John Mercurio live on the line with us this morning -- good morning, John.
JOHN MERCURIO, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Good morning, Carol.
How are you?
COSTELLO: I'm fine.
Let's talk about this Kitty Kelley book. There's already been some spin control coming out of the White House.
MERCURIO: Absolutely. Well, the book comes out on Monday. She's already booked, I think, on NBC for three days. And I think she's tentatively booked on several networks.
The charges are already out there, as you said. The Bush campaign and the Bush White House are already fighting back.
I think in this environment -- she's written several other books. The Reagan book; the, you know, the book on the British royal family; the Jackie Onassis book; lots of sort of wild charges. I think in this campaign season, though, she's going to face sort of a different climate and I think a lot of the media in the past that she's looked to to help her get her book across is really going to be tentative about airing the charges, notwithstanding all these interviews that she has next week.
COSTELLO: Yes, but John -- John, her book hasn't even come out yet and it's number six on Amazon.com.
MERCURIO: But don't you think -- I mean I think that as the campaign -- as the Republicans start to fight back, you're going to see a media that's already sort of focused on this National Guard scandal and you already see Sharon Bush, who's the former son-in-law of the president, the former wife of Neil Bush, the president's brother, sort of backing off the charges that are in the book. I mean I think ultimately people are going to have to look at the book, question what's in it and question whether or not it's really legitimate to go forward as a source, you know, for sort of these scandalous allegations.
COSTELLO: OK, you mentioned the documents. Let's talk about them. Documents uncovered by CBS that attest the president may not have served his time in the Air National Guard may be doctored.
Give us some insight into that.
MERCURIO: Yes, another new twist in this story that just never stops twisting. Yes, this morning or yesterday we learned that the possibility exists that there were some -- that these documents included several features, suggesting they were generated by a computer or by a word processor, a word processor that wouldn't have been available during the Vietnam War era when these documents were supposedly created.
Now, the widow of Jerry Killian, who's the National Guard officer whose signature is at the bottom of the documents, also disputed their authenticity. CBS stands by -- CBS News stands by the documents, their authenticity and they were reporting they have a source who was the immediate supervisor to Jerry Killian who claims that they were authentic.
You know, the Kerry campaign, I think, at this point, is pretty...
COSTELLO: Yes, yes, but John, isn't CBS conducting some sort of internal investigation now?
MERCURIO: Yes. Yes, that's my understanding, as well. You know, I think at this point the Kerry campaign is wise, though, to sort of distance themselves from these documents, to distance themselves from this entire scandal, at least until they believe, A, that these documents are authentic; and B, that this scandal is taking hold with the public and they actually care and want to learn more about it and think that it's relevant to the campaign.
At this point I don't think they're convinced it's relevant to the campaign yet. That could happen any day now, though.
COSTELLO: We'll see.
John Mercurio, thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
MERCURIO: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Cnn.com. You can catch his column, "The Political Grind."
Do you think Osama bin Laden will ever be caught? Coming up, CNN correspondent Nic Robertson joins me with the latest on the hunt for America's most wanted terrorist.
Plus, the victims of another act of terror. Hear Georgi's story, a 10-year-old boy who survived that Russian school siege.
And racing away from Ivan. We'll get a live report out of the Florida Keys as tourists and residents alike pack up and get the heck out of there.
And then shopping for a car? We'll separate fact from fiction with "Consumer Reports."
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Wall Street will open mixed this morning.
The Dow down 24 points.
The Nasdaq up 19.
The S&P 500 up 2 points.
Time for a little business buzz now.
Are you confused by the new overtime rules? Well, you are not alone. And now the House votes to block the measure.
Carrie Lee has more on that live from the NASDAQ market site -- good morning, Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
The House of Representatives defying President Bush yesterday, voting to block the administration's controversial new overtime regulations for white collar workers. Now, the House is approving a Democratic amendment that would deny funding to administer the regulations. Foes say the new rules would cost an estimated six million workers their overtime pay.
Well, Republican leaders are rejecting those claims. The administration says only about 107,000 Americans would lose overtime protection, all earning more than $100,000 a year. So Republicans are vowing to strip this amendment from the bill and the president is threatening a veto.
You know, Carol, there's been a lot of controversy about this. When these overtime rule changes first came out, you had the book in your hand, the rules in your hand, very thick, very complicated.
COSTELLO: Yes.
LEE: This is the latest.
COSTELLO: Oh, my.
Thank you.
Carrie Lee live from the NASDAQ market site.
Your news, money, weather and sports.
It is 6:14 Eastern.
Here's what's all new this morning.
Russian police say they've now I.D.ed 10 of the more than 30 attackers that seized that school in Beslan. They say at least six of them were from Chechnya. More than 350 people died in that stand-off, mostly children.
John Ritter's family has filed a wrongful death suit against the Burbank hospital where he died. The suit contends that doctors misdiagnosed Ritter's heart condition, which contributed to his unexpected death. The 54-year-old actor died last September, during surgery for a torn aorta.
In money news, Home Depot will open its first store in Manhattan today. The three story shop will cater to a more urban crowd, focusing on more upscale, fashionable home items and promising same day delivery.
In culture, fans of the novel "The Da Vinci Code" can now book specialized tour packages to the evacuation locations mentioned in the book. Ooh, we can go to the Louvre. It's similar to the tourism boom in Savannah, Georgia after the novel "Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil" became a best-seller.
In the world of sports, boxing great Muhammad Ali is calling on Congress to create a U.S. boxing commission. Ali says a national governing body is needed for the sport to protect boxers from injury and exploitation -- Chad.
MYERS: And good morning, Carol.
This obviously very dangerous hurricane, Ivan, here in the Caribbean Sea, headed to Jamaica this morning. We have all these computers that we use all the time. And we want to show you what the computers are actually saying here.
There's a Web site you can actually dial up and you can see this thing. The lines, we call them the spaghetti lines, if you will -- there's the Web site. You actually have to pay for it, but it's an excellent site, rightweather.com. They have about 10 computer programs on here. It shows the path of where the storm is, way back here right now right under my finger. And now moving over Jamaica. All of the computers taking it over Jamaica.
And all of the computers taking it right to Cuba. Then, here's what happens. One goes this way, one goes this way and then the rest of them kind of go up the middle. So we have to watch, because this is why we say, you know, the first 24, 48 hours we're pretty good. We know where this thing is going to go. After that, all these models diverge. And this is that what we call error cone, Carol. So we don't know where it's going after it gets over Cuba. COSTELLO: I know you'll keep your eye on it, though.
Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: It's one of those things that ladies get and men don't -- the need for shoes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY")
DR. SUZANNE LEVINE, INSTITUTE BEAUTE: It's the one clothing item that you can put on if you're 10 pounds overweight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I know, Chad. Are your heels healthy or would casual be better for your bunions? The science, Chad, the science behind the perfect pair of shoes.
MYERS: Rubber soles.
COSTELLO: Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's Fashion Week in New York. That's why we're doing this story. That's why we thought of this. If you absolutely love shoes, like I do, you'll want to listen up here.
Our medical correspondent, Holly Firfer, is focusing on your feet and high fashion heels.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It used to be Jimmy who? And now it's Jimmy Choo a girl can't live without thanks to four single shoe addicted gals in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, these are pretty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking for comfortable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I'll try these for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIRFER: But comfort isn't key for the girls of HBO's "Sex and the City," who have footed a fetish for a stunning stiletto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SEX AND THE CITY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, lover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you're feet are the new face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FIRFER: So how far would you go for that strappy sandal? Would you shorten a toe, shave down a bone, inject collagen into your heel? Did you even know there was such a thing as toe cleavage?
LEVINE: I think there's a psychology that goes with wearing high-heeled shoes. It makes you feel good immediately. It's the one clothing item that you can put on if you're 10 pounds overweight.
FIRFER: A Gallup poll survey showed 37 percent of women said they would continue to wear heels, even if they were uncomfortable. Using restulin (ph) injections to cushion the balls of the feet at $500, lightening nails for $250, injecting Botox to prevent sweating, about $480, and performing surgery to shave down bones for the perfect peds, the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons more than half of its members have treated patients with problems related to cosmetic foot surgery.
DR. KIMBERLY EICKMEIER, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF FOOT & ANKLE SURGEONS: Performing surgery solely for the purpose of changing the appearance or size of the foot or ankle carries with it medical risks.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COSTELLO: I just can't believe many people get surgery to make their foot into some cone-shaped, abnormal kind...
FIRFER: They do.
COSTELLO: Oh, come on!
FIRFER: You have to have the perfect toe cleavage these days.
COSTELLO: Really?
FIRFER: Yes.
COSTELLO: So I mean flocks of women are getting this surgery to alter their feet?
FIRFER: Yes. Well, and, you know, and not so much that, but a lot of people now have foot problems. Forty-three million people in the U.S. have problems with their feet. That's one in six people. And it can be anything from bunions to corns to an ingrown toenail. But there are problems that we have with our feet, not just all for cosmetic purposes.
COSTELLO: Well, do they all come from shoes like stiletto heels?
FIRFER: That's probably most of it. Let me show you some of the shoes.
Now, this lovely shoe, as you can see, Carol's shoe this morning. And this shoe, my favorite shoe, not such great shoes to wear. The pointy heel and the high heel, the pointy toe, I'm sorry, and the high heel, you want to kind of stay away with.
Something like this a little better. But you have to be careful, the back, the orthopedic surgeons will tell you that you can have some problems with heels and your ankle if you slip off this.
This...
COSTELLO: Because there's no support back there?
FIRFER: Exactly.
This kind of shoe, the best kind of shoe. It is a flat heel, wide toe. So that's what you want to look for.
COSTELLO: It's so unattractive though.
But can't the wrong kind of tennis shoes also cause problems for your feet?
FIRFER: Absolutely. And they do recommend you exercise a lot. Runners, every 200 to 300 miles to replace your tennis shoes. Usually about, somewhere about 250 miles, you have to start looking to help, you know, your feet a little bit. Six month in or, if you don't, you know, log it by miles. Because you can get a lot of problems with your joints and do a lot of damage to your feet. So you really should replace them.
COSTELLO: Thanks for the advice on this Fashion Week.
FIRFER: No problem.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Holly.
FIRFER: Sure.
COSTELLO: For the third time in a month, Florida is on hurricane watch. We're going to update you on just how threatening hurricane Ivan might be to an already battered state.
And it's been nearly three years since Osama bin Laden became the most wanted man in the world. So why hasn't he been caught? Nic Robertson will try to find some answers for you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Storm battered people in Florida brace for their third hurricane in a month. Ivan is making its way north.
It is Friday, September 10.
This is DAYBREAK.
And good morning to you.
From the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello. Now in the news, President Bush is campaigning today in West Virginia and in the State of Ohio. In the meantime, the "Washington Post" says questions are being raised about how authentic some documents are relating to Bush's National Guard service. Those documents appeared on a "60 Minutes II" program on CBS and some experts think they were generated by a computer and not by a Vietnam War-era typewriter.
John Kerry is looking for votes today in Missouri and Pennsylvania. The latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll gives Bush a lead of 14 percentage points among likely voters in Missouri.
And the "New York Times" reports the Transportation Security Administration will pay $1.5 million to 15,000 airline passengers. They claim items in their checked baggage may have been stolen or damaged.
Hurricane Ivan, a category four with top winds of 145 miles an hour, is on track to hit Jamaica today. The story you're seeing, the selling out of supplies. It's in Montego Bay.
Let's check in with Chad in the forecast center -- good morning.
MYERS: Good morning, Carol.
We talked to Karl Penhaul just a little bit ago in Kingston and he said they were taping the windows. That's not going to do any good at 145 miles per hour. Trust me on this one. This is a monster. Still now a category four. To be a category five you have to get all the way up to 156 miles per hour. But the Weather Service hurricane hunter aircraft just picked up a wind speed here of 172 as it was flying around in the storm.
So this thing is not getting any weaker. The eye wall not as -- I wouldn't say, not as defined this morning as it was yesterday. But here you go. These are the latest numbers -- 15.9, 74.2, a category four, winds to 1.5. Coming over Jamaica and actually it gets a little stronger as it exits Jamaica, winds to 155, gusts to 190 miles per hour. Yesterday there was a gust to 210 found in the aircraft. That's just an amazing, an amazing wind speed.
Moving over to Key West and maybe very close to Fort Myers and, could we even say the words Punta Gorda again, Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh.
All right, well, thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: We'll get back to you.
MYERS: All right.
COSTELLO: Many of the tourists have already left the Florida Keys, a possible weekend target of hurricane Ivan. Keys residents have been told to leave on a staggered schedule beginning less than an hour from now.
Our veteran hurricane reporter John Zarrella is in Key Largo.
He joins us by telephone.
So, will the evacuation be more ordered this time?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you certainly hope so. And if the early morning signs are any indication, it hasn't really gotten started yet.
Last night as we drove in here, a few vehicles leaving the Keys, a pretty steady stream of traffic, in fact. That was for residents and non-residents and tourists ordered to leave yesterday. This morning, the Lower Keys, the evacuation starts in about 30 minutes. And that's folks living from the Seven Mile Bridge south and then the Middle Keys it goes into effect starting at noon. This is called a phased evacuation. And then the Upper Keys, which is where we are, in Key Largo, this area the evacuation order will start at about 4:00 p.m. this afternoon.
So, of course, the idea is to try and get everybody out of the Keys. The question is: Will everybody leave? Probably not. Most people will, but there are some, the old-timers who just don't want to get out of here. It's happened in the past. During Hurricane George in 1998, a lot of folks didn't leave, Carol. So that's the question. Are people going to roll the dice again?
COSTELLO: Well, you know, that's hard to believe with all of the damage that's already occurred due to the last two hurricanes. You would think that the example set by that would force people to get the heck out of there.
ZARRELLA: You would certainly think, and I'm sure that as we've seen certainly during the Frances evacuation that with what has transpired the last month in Florida that more people than normal will get out of the Keys.
But I have to tell you, this morning the traffic is still very, very light on U.S. 1, which is the only road leading out of the Keys. I would suspect that by later this afternoon we may see some major traffic jams coming out of here, which is just typical because this is the only way out of the Keys. It's one way in and one way out. So, it will clog up.
And, of course, the nightmare, if you're here, is all you have to have is one accident, and it just backs things up for miles and miles.
COSTELLO: Oh, you're not kidding. John Zarrella live in Florida this morning in the Florida Keys, thank you.
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