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American Morning
Woman Accused of Killing Expectant Mother, Stealing Unborn Baby on Way to Federal Court; Temperatures Plunging Below Zero
Aired December 20, 2004 - 07:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The woman accused of killing an expectant mother and stealing her unborn baby, on her way to federal court this morning.
Temperatures plunging below zero, the coldest weather of the year, hitting like a hard slap in the face today.
Retailers threw up a holiday hail mary. Another round of sales, but will the customers respond?
And one car scoring the lowest for the front end crash. The safety winners and losers, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everybody, 7:00 here in New York. Starting a new week here. Kelly Wallace in for Soledad today. Nice to see you today.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you. Have you caught up? Jetlag still a factor, back from Tokyo, in Japan, last week?
HEMMER: Day by day. We had a great trip. Really a lot of fun.
WALLACE: You did a great job.
HEMMER: Well, thank you very much. Good to be home, and good to be home for the holidays.
WALLACE: Good to have you back.
HEMMER: Jet lag is a killer, by the way, as you well know.
In a moment here, Kelly, we're going to talk with the U.S. attorney for western Missouri about the horrific murder-kidnapping case. A lot of talk today on what the right charges should be, and which states should have jurisdiction. We'll get into the legal issues on that in a moment here in the latest on that investigation as well.
WALLACE: Also, Bill, today, the busiest mailing day of the year. If you want to get a package somewhere on time, this close to Christmas, who better to ask than the postmaster general? John Potter of the U.S. Postal Service will join us a little later with some much- needed advice. HEMMER: Best advice to do it yesterday, right, this time of year?
WALLACE: Exactly, it's getting late.
HEMMER: Yes. Here's Jack. Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, Bill. Thank you.
Is the stuff in your medicine chest safe? And are the mechanisms that are supposed to provide for that safety functioning as they should? Celebrex, a popular arthritis drug, linked to heart attacks and stroke last week, on the heels of Vioxx, another of a similar type of drug being pulled off the market a few weeks ago. There are questions about the relationship of the FDA to the big pharmaceutical companies. What kinds of safety mechanisms are in place? We'll take a look at this in a couple of minutes.
HEMMER: All right, good topic. Jack, thanks. Carol Costello is in the Time Warner Center with the news, top of the hour.
Carol, good morning over there.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, Bill.
Now in the news, Iraqi officials say dozens of suspects are now being questioned in connection with this weekend's deadly car bombings in Karbala and Najaf. Nearly 70 people were killed in yesterday's blast in the two Shiite holy cities. Officials have warned that violence in Iraq is expected to escalate ahead of the January 30th elections.
In California, opening statements are expected to begin in the next five hours in the Robert Blake murder trial. The former "Baretta" star is charged with killing his wife Bonny Lee Bakley more than three years ago. The trial was delayed earlier this month when burglars stole a computer from the house of one of Blake's attorneys.
A desperate search continues this hour in eastern Pennsylvania. Hundreds of volunteers have been looking for a 9-year-old autistic boy missing since Saturday. This is a picture of him. Authorities say Logan Mitcheltree cannot speak. Temperatures are below freezing, and police say the boy was not wearing a coat.
And some Florida commuters are being detoured this morning after a sinkhole ate a 225-foot chunk of a four-lane road. 20 homes had to be evacuated. The Florida fire chief said the sink hole could be 350 feet across before it stabilizes. That's a big hole.
Back to guys.
HEMMER: Yes, it is. Carol, thanks. See you over here in a couple minutes.
If you live east of the Mississippi, you know that you're feeling our top story this morning. Holiday travel weather now may be heating up as Christmas approaches. But it was an Arctic blast slamming most of the country. Snow, some of it heavy, falling from northern Alabama up through Maine. Forecasters predict a hard freeze and increasingly frigid temperatures. You can feel them here in New York. You can also feel them in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tony Gaskins, from our affiliate WWS in Garfield Heights.
Tony, good morning there. How chilly is it?
TONY GASKINS, REPORTER: Good morning, Bill.
As the song says, the weather outside is frightful. Fire would be very delightful now. We're seeing temperatures hovering right around 10 degrees here in northeast Ohio, suburb of Cleveland, Garfield Heights. Wind chill, we're talking minus 10, minus 20 degrees. So quite a bite to the skin if you're outside. And so there's a lot of warnings today about being outside and not being covered up as well as you should be.
As far as traffic goes, it's getting progressively better through the morning rush hour. We're looking at salt trucks making good headway among a lot of major arteries around Cleveland. Northeast Ohioans are a hearty bunch when it comes to the weather, Bill, but when this cold stuff came through, it was enough to paralyze even the most veteran drivers out here in northeast Ohio. But the thaw is progressing steadily, but very slowly, as weather starts to taper off, as far as flurries go. We're not seeing too much in the way of snowfall, but still flurries, and a lot of icy conditions still existing around northeast Ohio -- Bill.
HEMMER: Tony, hang in there. Minus 3 wind chill here in New York City. We can feel your pain this morning, WEWS, our affiliate there, and Tony Gaskins reporting.
Also, just each of Ohio, across the border in Pennsylvania, police are blaming poor visibility for a massive car pileup. The chain reaction accident on Interstate 80 involved about 70 cars. All starting when a tractor trailer jackknifed across the highway near whiteout conditions there, made visibility so poor that cars came crashing into it. Luckily no one killed, and the interstate has been reopened along I-80 there in western Pennsylvania.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Well, she is a caused of an unthinkable crime. Lisa Montgomery is due in federal court this morning to hear the kidnapping and murder charges against her.
CNN's Jonathan Freed is live in Kansas City.
Good morning, Jonathan. What's the latest from there?
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kelly. We are waiting for an initial hearing to begin a couple hours from now here at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri. That is where Lisa Montgomery will be in front of a U.S. magistrate judge, and two things are going to be decided here today. First of all, she will be set up with a public defender to represent her and the judge is also going to determine whether the initial case in Missouri begins here in Missouri, where the crimes happened, or across the river in Kansas, where she was caught.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERIFF BEN ESPEY, NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI: I've been in law enforcement 20 years, and 12 as sheriff, and this is one of the worst ordeals we've had to deal with.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The gruesome kidnapping and murder case has stunned even veteran members of law enforcement.
ESPEY: Nobody here could ever perceive this ever taking place, to have a fetus taken out of someone's womb, and then doing an Amber Alert and trying to find a child that -- it's inconceivable.
FREED: According to the FBI, Lisa Montgomery contacted the victim, 23-year-old Bobby Joe Stinnett, through an Internet chat room, pretending to be interested in the dog she bred. The two arranged to meet last Thursday at Stinnett's home in Skidmore, Missouri. Montgomery is accused of strangling Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and cutting the fetus out of her womb. Police issued an Amber Alert for a car a neighbor had seen outside the murdered woman's home.
ESPEY: We may not have ever recovered this little baby if the Amber Alert system was not put into place.
FREED: The 36-year-old Montgomery was arrested on Friday, and allegedly confessed to the crime. Neighbors in Melbourne (ph), Kansas say Montgomery and her husband were showing off the baby as their own.
After surviving the tragic ordeal, the infant has been united with her real father. Zeb Stinnett has named her Victoria Joe, in memory of her mother, and says she's truly a little miracle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREED: So, Kelly, Lisa Montgomery expected to appear in court for the first time in the next few hours. This will not be arraignment. No plea entered at that time. We are simply going to see a public defender appointed for her, and find out which state, Missouri or Kansas, the initial proceeding anyway, will begin. We are told by the U.S. attorneys' office, though, that regardless of whether or not a trial is initiated in Kansas, there will be one in Missouri as well, where the murder and kidnapping of the 8-month-old fetus took place -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Jonathan, we'll be watching what happens this morning. Jonathan Freed, reporting from Kansas City, Missouri. Thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Kelly, Todd Graves is the U.S. attorney from Missouri's western district. I asked him earlier today if the suspect was further questioned over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD GRAVES, U.S.S ATTORNEY: The investigation is ongoing. We got her charged late Friday evening, and from then until now, it's pretty much been procedural.
HEMMER: Procedural in what way? Does that mean she has been questioned, or has not?
GRAVES: Well, in the sense that she's been booked into a jail facility; we are scheduling her for first appearance this morning. And beyond that, I don't really have any more information to provide.
HEMMER: Has she shown any remorse?
GRAVES: You know, I'm not clear what has taken place this weekend in terms of her demeanor.
HEMMER: Some reports say she had a miscarriage, and that could have been the reason for her motivation. Is that the case, do you believe at this point?
GRAVES: Well, again, we're very early in the investigation. But I'm not clear that that actually took place. That's something we'll be looking into.
HEMMER: So you're saying she may not have had a miscarriage, or that may not have been her motivation?
GRAVES: Oh, I'm saying that I'm not sure that she had a miscarriage. Again, we're only a few hours into this investigation. We've got a lot left to cover.
HEMMER: It's my understanding they met online. Has her computer been confiscated?
GRAVES: I can't provide any information like that, but that would be a normal investigative procedure, would be to confiscate all the computers involved, and then break them down in our regional computer lab.
HEMMER: At this point, can you say whether or not there's any evidence on her own computer that may lead you in one direction or another?
GRAVES: No, I can't say anything about that right now.
HEMMER: At what point will you make a decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty in this case?
GRAVES: Well, that's something -- the federal government has a very strict procedure, and it's not something you enter into lightly. So we have to go through -- we have to do many steps before we make that decision. But I will say, in this district, we have a history of seeking the death penalty in the appropriate cases. It's something in the last few years that, with the state line in Kansas City, that we have confronted, and it's not something we would shy away from in an appropriate case, but we're still a ways away in that decision.
HEMMER: Do you believe she acted alone in this?
GRAVES: Again, we're very early in the investigation. We have a lot of work left to do, and that's one of the things we will be determining.
HEMMER: Has her husband, has he been questioned? Have you dismissed him, or would he still be considered under an umbrella of suspicion?
GRAVES: You know, everyone's presumed innocent until they're charged and convicted in court, so he would still be considered innocent. He is somebody that was questioned very early on, he is not in custody at this point, and can't really preview anything beyond that.
HEMMER: Is there any more evidence to suggest how long she had been planning this, or is there any indication that this may have been an on-the-spot, random act?
GRAVES: That certainly is something that would be relevant in this case, and those are questions that we'll be asking.
HEMMER: But no answers at this point, is that what you're saying?
GRAVES: Yes, no answers at this point.
HEMMER: Will the case continue in Missouri, or Kansas?
GRAVES: It will continue in Missouri. Of course we have state line very close by, but it's charged on the Missouri side, and the main body of what took place took place on the Missouri side.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Todd Graves from earlier today. In the next hour, we'll talk with an FBI special agent on that case, and also the church pastor from the suspect's community who met with the woman, her husband, and held the baby for a period of about 15 minutes this past Friday, will be our guest, next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
WALLACE: What a disturbing story. People talking about it across the country. Well, still ahead here, a new series called "They've Got the Good," people who've made an impact in 2004. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made headlines by allowing same-sex marriages, but how did he impact elections nationwide. We'll talk to him.
HEMMER: Also today, the latest crash test ratings are out. Which car tested so badly it's the worst rating in years? We'll tell you in a moment.
WALLACE: And Michael Jackson invites about 200 kids over for a party. How will affect the child molestation case against him? That's all ahead, here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Welcome back. This Christmas week begins with Michael Jackson's lawyers shopping for a dismissal. Another round of pretrial hearings in Jackson's child molestation case gets under way today.
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now to talk more about the Jackson case. Great to see you as always.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
WALLACE: Before we get to the legal arguments, let's talk a little bit about the scene on Friday, Michael Jackson inviting kids to his Neverland Ranch. There were cameras there. His spokesman said this had nothing to do with the case. Does it help hurt or help him?
TOOBIN: Was that creepy enough for you to see 200 kids...
WALLACE: Your words, not mine.
TOOBIN: It is so weird this guy is still surrounded by kids all the time. There you can see it. In a perverse way, I guess he has simply decided, look, I'm going to live my life, this is how I live my life, I am not going to pretend there's anything to be ashamed of.
I think it is basically a negative for him to display what seems to be an unhealthy interest in children. But Being under scrutiny and seeing all these kids, he's essentially saying, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and this is what I do.
WALLACE: Of course you always Have the court of public opinion, as well as what goes on behind closed doors.
TOOBIN: And it is not illegal to host 200 kids at your ranch, it is just weird, like everything Michael Jackson does.
WALLACE: Let's get to the arguments that Michael Jackson's attorneys are likely to present today. They're going to say that prosecutors really sort of overstepped their authority in these search warrants. They're calling for a dismissal, for the case to be thrown out, or at a minimum, a delay. Will they be successful?
TOOBIN: Well, I think they really do have a pretty good shot at delay. I think dismissal is virtually out of the question, but what is so weird among other things about this case, is that the prosecution continues to execute search warrants, continues to investigate this case more than a year after it was indicted. The trial is supposed to start January 31st. They're still doing search warrants in the last couple of weeks. They haven't turned over all the discovery material. This judge has said for a long time, I want this case to go on January 31st, I'm going to stick to it, but Jackson's lawyers made a good case that it won't go.
WALLACE: And as you know, prosecutors want to do something else as well, they want bring to court some of the evidence of these allegations that charges were never filed from 1993, allegation of previous child molestation. Now usually past criminal offenses don't get into a current trial. What will happen here?
TOOBIN: This is one of the big changes in the law. Because of the priest molestation cases, the California legislature changed the law so that previous conduct, even if you weren't convicted, can be brought in. So I think the prosecution's going to win this, that they will be able to prove -- use the evidence of the '93 incidents, where Jackson paid the out-of-court settlement; even though there were no criminal charges in that case, evidence will be allowed to be brought. Jackson's lawyers will argue that that event did not take place, that he paid for other reasons, but there will be essentially two trials here going on. There will be the '93 incident, which will be tried, and the charges against him.
WALLACE: We'll be watching. Jeffrey Toobin, always great to see you.
TOOBIN: We'll see when it starts.
WALLACE: Absolutely -- back to you, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Kelly, thanks. Back to Jack now and the Question of the Day.
How're you doing?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. I'm doing fine, thanks.
Two months after Vioxx was pulled from pharmacy shelves, last week we got word that Celebrex, another of what they call Cox-2 inhibitors, an arthritis painkiller linked to heart and stroke. There are questions now about whether the mechanisms designed to keep our pharmacy and our prescription drugs safe are working. The FDA takes money from the big pharmaceutical companies. This could be a problem, since the FDA is the one that's charged with regulating the industry. There is a difference between drugs that are rushed to market because of their potential life-saving ability, as in a cancer drug that might keep somebody alive longer, versus things like arthritis drugs, where there are other options available on the market.
There are people in Congress who are suggesting that the relationship between big pharmacy and the FDA's not helping, it needs to be overhauled. The third problem is, once these drugs get on the market, there's a lack of monitoring after they're on the market for potentially unknown side effects and some people are suggesting that has to be changed. Charles Grassley in Iowa says there should be an independent board to monitor the safety of these medications after they come to market. So here's the question, what should be done to improve prescription drug safety in this country? The email address is am@cnn.com. HEMMER: Ooh, a whole lot there, too, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes. The stuff we get from Andy is always good, though, you know?
HEMMER: Yes?
CAFFERTY: Those drugs are fine. The stuff Serwer brings in here for the staff.
HEMMER: Andy's up in a moment here. Thanks, Jack.
In a moment here, Christmas only five days away. How do you make sure your cards and packages make it there on time? We'll ask the U.S. postmaster general. They say today is the busiest mail day of the year. Back in a moment, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Some 20 billion pieces of mail are delivered between Thanksgiving and Christmas and right now this is crunch-time. Five days and counting, and the Postmaster General John Potter's with us this morning, live in our nation's capital, talk about this. Good morning to you.
JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: A little bit of delay there. My notes tell me it's the busiest day of the year today. Is that true?
POTTER: It's the busiest day. We'll deliver -- we'll receive 850 million pieces of mail today that would circle the globe four times.
HEMMER: 850 million. What's your best tip, then, on getting it there on time?
POTTER: My best tip is to make sure, first of all, that you used the right address. If you're going to mail a gift and you're using a used box, make sure you obliterate the old address and you have a good clean address on it. Make sure that you package your mail in a good sturdy box, use plenty of packing materials and get it in the mail today. You can use priority mail up until Wednesday. After Wednesday, you really should use express mail to make sure it gets there for Christmas.
HEMMER: Got it. So after Wednesday, is that when you consider it too late or not?
POTTER: Well, after Wednesday, if you really want to make sure it gets there by Saturday, we want you to use express mail. Because it will get there. And by the way, we're the only service that delivers on Christmas day. Our employees love to make sure those last-second packages get in the hands of the people that are going to receive them.
HEMMER: I bet they love working that day, too, don't they? Or they're not telling you, anyway.
POTTER: Some of them do. Well, they dress up like Santa Claus, a lot of them, and they really do enjoy getting out and greeting people and they have the mail delivered by noon and they get back to their homes in time to enjoy the day with their families.
HEMMER: What about overseas for U.S. military? Any special tips on that this late in the game?
POTTER: Well, it is a little too late, based on our published times. If you get it in the mail, we'll do our best to get it over there. We've flown over 650 flights just to Persian Gulf alone to make sure that the packages, cards and letters that are going to the military overseas get there. It's a little late, but we're going to do our best to get anything that gets in the mail today or up until Christmas there as soon as possible.
HEMMER: Well, I would think they'd take it better late than never working overseas. So...
POTTER: Oh, I'm sure they do.
HEMMER: Thank you for your time this morning. John Potter, our postmaster general. Good luck to you today, too. 850 million pieces of mail.
POTTER: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: You got it. We'll talk to you later. Here's Kelly.
WALLACE: Thanks, Bill. Well, retailers are hoping that people will spend and spend and spend over the next five days, hoping for this last minute buying blitz. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." So things not looking so good for retailers right now?
SERWER: Well, Kelly, I think the only way to put it, it's beginning to look a lot like a mediocre Christmas for retailers out there. This past weekend didn't seem to do the trick, so we're going to have some more discounting. That's good news for shoppers. Here's the Q.T. on numbers. Com is looking for Christmas sales to grow about four point five percent this year, at about 200 billion. It doesn't look like we're quite going get there, though.
Just to give you an idea, last year, sales grew over five percent and in 1999 and 1994, sales grew over eight percent. There are a couple bright spots. Luxury goods are flying off the shelves. Gift cards are doing very well. And that's actually somewhat problematic when you count, because retailers don't count those dollars 'til they're spent in the following year. So that's a lot more money in the pipeline. Also, online sales about five percent of total sales and growing. Music downloads, just buying clothes online, that's working, too.
Let's talk a little bit about markets, though, because we had a good week last week. Particularly the Dow did very, very nicely. You can see here, up over one percent, dragged down a little bit on Friday. Of course, Pfizer was the culprit there. Futures are up this morning. And here's an interesting one. With two weeks to go before we close the books on 2004, all the indexes up, the S&P and Nasdaq up about seven percent, the Dow only up about two percent, so maybe that's why the Dow's playing a little catch-up here, as we close out the year.
WALLACE: Good for our 401k's.
SERWER: That's right. You best believe. We need that Christmas money, too.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and candy. Thank you. In a moment, a Monday morning dose of "90 Second Pop" coming your way.
(MUSIC)
Could Jim Carrey find a fortune at the box office with "Lemony Snicket" or did "Ocean's 12" hit the jackpot again?
Also, why is Harrison Ford marching off to war?
Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 20, 2004 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The woman accused of killing an expectant mother and stealing her unborn baby, on her way to federal court this morning.
Temperatures plunging below zero, the coldest weather of the year, hitting like a hard slap in the face today.
Retailers threw up a holiday hail mary. Another round of sales, but will the customers respond?
And one car scoring the lowest for the front end crash. The safety winners and losers, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING, with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
HEMMER: Good morning, everybody, 7:00 here in New York. Starting a new week here. Kelly Wallace in for Soledad today. Nice to see you today.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you. Have you caught up? Jetlag still a factor, back from Tokyo, in Japan, last week?
HEMMER: Day by day. We had a great trip. Really a lot of fun.
WALLACE: You did a great job.
HEMMER: Well, thank you very much. Good to be home, and good to be home for the holidays.
WALLACE: Good to have you back.
HEMMER: Jet lag is a killer, by the way, as you well know.
In a moment here, Kelly, we're going to talk with the U.S. attorney for western Missouri about the horrific murder-kidnapping case. A lot of talk today on what the right charges should be, and which states should have jurisdiction. We'll get into the legal issues on that in a moment here in the latest on that investigation as well.
WALLACE: Also, Bill, today, the busiest mailing day of the year. If you want to get a package somewhere on time, this close to Christmas, who better to ask than the postmaster general? John Potter of the U.S. Postal Service will join us a little later with some much- needed advice. HEMMER: Best advice to do it yesterday, right, this time of year?
WALLACE: Exactly, it's getting late.
HEMMER: Yes. Here's Jack. Good morning.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, Bill. Thank you.
Is the stuff in your medicine chest safe? And are the mechanisms that are supposed to provide for that safety functioning as they should? Celebrex, a popular arthritis drug, linked to heart attacks and stroke last week, on the heels of Vioxx, another of a similar type of drug being pulled off the market a few weeks ago. There are questions about the relationship of the FDA to the big pharmaceutical companies. What kinds of safety mechanisms are in place? We'll take a look at this in a couple of minutes.
HEMMER: All right, good topic. Jack, thanks. Carol Costello is in the Time Warner Center with the news, top of the hour.
Carol, good morning over there.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, Bill.
Now in the news, Iraqi officials say dozens of suspects are now being questioned in connection with this weekend's deadly car bombings in Karbala and Najaf. Nearly 70 people were killed in yesterday's blast in the two Shiite holy cities. Officials have warned that violence in Iraq is expected to escalate ahead of the January 30th elections.
In California, opening statements are expected to begin in the next five hours in the Robert Blake murder trial. The former "Baretta" star is charged with killing his wife Bonny Lee Bakley more than three years ago. The trial was delayed earlier this month when burglars stole a computer from the house of one of Blake's attorneys.
A desperate search continues this hour in eastern Pennsylvania. Hundreds of volunteers have been looking for a 9-year-old autistic boy missing since Saturday. This is a picture of him. Authorities say Logan Mitcheltree cannot speak. Temperatures are below freezing, and police say the boy was not wearing a coat.
And some Florida commuters are being detoured this morning after a sinkhole ate a 225-foot chunk of a four-lane road. 20 homes had to be evacuated. The Florida fire chief said the sink hole could be 350 feet across before it stabilizes. That's a big hole.
Back to guys.
HEMMER: Yes, it is. Carol, thanks. See you over here in a couple minutes.
If you live east of the Mississippi, you know that you're feeling our top story this morning. Holiday travel weather now may be heating up as Christmas approaches. But it was an Arctic blast slamming most of the country. Snow, some of it heavy, falling from northern Alabama up through Maine. Forecasters predict a hard freeze and increasingly frigid temperatures. You can feel them here in New York. You can also feel them in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tony Gaskins, from our affiliate WWS in Garfield Heights.
Tony, good morning there. How chilly is it?
TONY GASKINS, REPORTER: Good morning, Bill.
As the song says, the weather outside is frightful. Fire would be very delightful now. We're seeing temperatures hovering right around 10 degrees here in northeast Ohio, suburb of Cleveland, Garfield Heights. Wind chill, we're talking minus 10, minus 20 degrees. So quite a bite to the skin if you're outside. And so there's a lot of warnings today about being outside and not being covered up as well as you should be.
As far as traffic goes, it's getting progressively better through the morning rush hour. We're looking at salt trucks making good headway among a lot of major arteries around Cleveland. Northeast Ohioans are a hearty bunch when it comes to the weather, Bill, but when this cold stuff came through, it was enough to paralyze even the most veteran drivers out here in northeast Ohio. But the thaw is progressing steadily, but very slowly, as weather starts to taper off, as far as flurries go. We're not seeing too much in the way of snowfall, but still flurries, and a lot of icy conditions still existing around northeast Ohio -- Bill.
HEMMER: Tony, hang in there. Minus 3 wind chill here in New York City. We can feel your pain this morning, WEWS, our affiliate there, and Tony Gaskins reporting.
Also, just each of Ohio, across the border in Pennsylvania, police are blaming poor visibility for a massive car pileup. The chain reaction accident on Interstate 80 involved about 70 cars. All starting when a tractor trailer jackknifed across the highway near whiteout conditions there, made visibility so poor that cars came crashing into it. Luckily no one killed, and the interstate has been reopened along I-80 there in western Pennsylvania.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: Well, she is a caused of an unthinkable crime. Lisa Montgomery is due in federal court this morning to hear the kidnapping and murder charges against her.
CNN's Jonathan Freed is live in Kansas City.
Good morning, Jonathan. What's the latest from there?
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kelly. We are waiting for an initial hearing to begin a couple hours from now here at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri. That is where Lisa Montgomery will be in front of a U.S. magistrate judge, and two things are going to be decided here today. First of all, she will be set up with a public defender to represent her and the judge is also going to determine whether the initial case in Missouri begins here in Missouri, where the crimes happened, or across the river in Kansas, where she was caught.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERIFF BEN ESPEY, NODAWAY COUNTY, MISSOURI: I've been in law enforcement 20 years, and 12 as sheriff, and this is one of the worst ordeals we've had to deal with.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The gruesome kidnapping and murder case has stunned even veteran members of law enforcement.
ESPEY: Nobody here could ever perceive this ever taking place, to have a fetus taken out of someone's womb, and then doing an Amber Alert and trying to find a child that -- it's inconceivable.
FREED: According to the FBI, Lisa Montgomery contacted the victim, 23-year-old Bobby Joe Stinnett, through an Internet chat room, pretending to be interested in the dog she bred. The two arranged to meet last Thursday at Stinnett's home in Skidmore, Missouri. Montgomery is accused of strangling Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and cutting the fetus out of her womb. Police issued an Amber Alert for a car a neighbor had seen outside the murdered woman's home.
ESPEY: We may not have ever recovered this little baby if the Amber Alert system was not put into place.
FREED: The 36-year-old Montgomery was arrested on Friday, and allegedly confessed to the crime. Neighbors in Melbourne (ph), Kansas say Montgomery and her husband were showing off the baby as their own.
After surviving the tragic ordeal, the infant has been united with her real father. Zeb Stinnett has named her Victoria Joe, in memory of her mother, and says she's truly a little miracle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREED: So, Kelly, Lisa Montgomery expected to appear in court for the first time in the next few hours. This will not be arraignment. No plea entered at that time. We are simply going to see a public defender appointed for her, and find out which state, Missouri or Kansas, the initial proceeding anyway, will begin. We are told by the U.S. attorneys' office, though, that regardless of whether or not a trial is initiated in Kansas, there will be one in Missouri as well, where the murder and kidnapping of the 8-month-old fetus took place -- Kelly.
WALLACE: Jonathan, we'll be watching what happens this morning. Jonathan Freed, reporting from Kansas City, Missouri. Thanks -- Bill.
HEMMER: Kelly, Todd Graves is the U.S. attorney from Missouri's western district. I asked him earlier today if the suspect was further questioned over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD GRAVES, U.S.S ATTORNEY: The investigation is ongoing. We got her charged late Friday evening, and from then until now, it's pretty much been procedural.
HEMMER: Procedural in what way? Does that mean she has been questioned, or has not?
GRAVES: Well, in the sense that she's been booked into a jail facility; we are scheduling her for first appearance this morning. And beyond that, I don't really have any more information to provide.
HEMMER: Has she shown any remorse?
GRAVES: You know, I'm not clear what has taken place this weekend in terms of her demeanor.
HEMMER: Some reports say she had a miscarriage, and that could have been the reason for her motivation. Is that the case, do you believe at this point?
GRAVES: Well, again, we're very early in the investigation. But I'm not clear that that actually took place. That's something we'll be looking into.
HEMMER: So you're saying she may not have had a miscarriage, or that may not have been her motivation?
GRAVES: Oh, I'm saying that I'm not sure that she had a miscarriage. Again, we're only a few hours into this investigation. We've got a lot left to cover.
HEMMER: It's my understanding they met online. Has her computer been confiscated?
GRAVES: I can't provide any information like that, but that would be a normal investigative procedure, would be to confiscate all the computers involved, and then break them down in our regional computer lab.
HEMMER: At this point, can you say whether or not there's any evidence on her own computer that may lead you in one direction or another?
GRAVES: No, I can't say anything about that right now.
HEMMER: At what point will you make a decision on whether or not to seek the death penalty in this case?
GRAVES: Well, that's something -- the federal government has a very strict procedure, and it's not something you enter into lightly. So we have to go through -- we have to do many steps before we make that decision. But I will say, in this district, we have a history of seeking the death penalty in the appropriate cases. It's something in the last few years that, with the state line in Kansas City, that we have confronted, and it's not something we would shy away from in an appropriate case, but we're still a ways away in that decision.
HEMMER: Do you believe she acted alone in this?
GRAVES: Again, we're very early in the investigation. We have a lot of work left to do, and that's one of the things we will be determining.
HEMMER: Has her husband, has he been questioned? Have you dismissed him, or would he still be considered under an umbrella of suspicion?
GRAVES: You know, everyone's presumed innocent until they're charged and convicted in court, so he would still be considered innocent. He is somebody that was questioned very early on, he is not in custody at this point, and can't really preview anything beyond that.
HEMMER: Is there any more evidence to suggest how long she had been planning this, or is there any indication that this may have been an on-the-spot, random act?
GRAVES: That certainly is something that would be relevant in this case, and those are questions that we'll be asking.
HEMMER: But no answers at this point, is that what you're saying?
GRAVES: Yes, no answers at this point.
HEMMER: Will the case continue in Missouri, or Kansas?
GRAVES: It will continue in Missouri. Of course we have state line very close by, but it's charged on the Missouri side, and the main body of what took place took place on the Missouri side.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Todd Graves from earlier today. In the next hour, we'll talk with an FBI special agent on that case, and also the church pastor from the suspect's community who met with the woman, her husband, and held the baby for a period of about 15 minutes this past Friday, will be our guest, next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
WALLACE: What a disturbing story. People talking about it across the country. Well, still ahead here, a new series called "They've Got the Good," people who've made an impact in 2004. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom made headlines by allowing same-sex marriages, but how did he impact elections nationwide. We'll talk to him.
HEMMER: Also today, the latest crash test ratings are out. Which car tested so badly it's the worst rating in years? We'll tell you in a moment.
WALLACE: And Michael Jackson invites about 200 kids over for a party. How will affect the child molestation case against him? That's all ahead, here on AMERICAN MORNING.
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WALLACE: Welcome back. This Christmas week begins with Michael Jackson's lawyers shopping for a dismissal. Another round of pretrial hearings in Jackson's child molestation case gets under way today.
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now to talk more about the Jackson case. Great to see you as always.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
WALLACE: Before we get to the legal arguments, let's talk a little bit about the scene on Friday, Michael Jackson inviting kids to his Neverland Ranch. There were cameras there. His spokesman said this had nothing to do with the case. Does it help hurt or help him?
TOOBIN: Was that creepy enough for you to see 200 kids...
WALLACE: Your words, not mine.
TOOBIN: It is so weird this guy is still surrounded by kids all the time. There you can see it. In a perverse way, I guess he has simply decided, look, I'm going to live my life, this is how I live my life, I am not going to pretend there's anything to be ashamed of.
I think it is basically a negative for him to display what seems to be an unhealthy interest in children. But Being under scrutiny and seeing all these kids, he's essentially saying, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and this is what I do.
WALLACE: Of course you always Have the court of public opinion, as well as what goes on behind closed doors.
TOOBIN: And it is not illegal to host 200 kids at your ranch, it is just weird, like everything Michael Jackson does.
WALLACE: Let's get to the arguments that Michael Jackson's attorneys are likely to present today. They're going to say that prosecutors really sort of overstepped their authority in these search warrants. They're calling for a dismissal, for the case to be thrown out, or at a minimum, a delay. Will they be successful?
TOOBIN: Well, I think they really do have a pretty good shot at delay. I think dismissal is virtually out of the question, but what is so weird among other things about this case, is that the prosecution continues to execute search warrants, continues to investigate this case more than a year after it was indicted. The trial is supposed to start January 31st. They're still doing search warrants in the last couple of weeks. They haven't turned over all the discovery material. This judge has said for a long time, I want this case to go on January 31st, I'm going to stick to it, but Jackson's lawyers made a good case that it won't go.
WALLACE: And as you know, prosecutors want to do something else as well, they want bring to court some of the evidence of these allegations that charges were never filed from 1993, allegation of previous child molestation. Now usually past criminal offenses don't get into a current trial. What will happen here?
TOOBIN: This is one of the big changes in the law. Because of the priest molestation cases, the California legislature changed the law so that previous conduct, even if you weren't convicted, can be brought in. So I think the prosecution's going to win this, that they will be able to prove -- use the evidence of the '93 incidents, where Jackson paid the out-of-court settlement; even though there were no criminal charges in that case, evidence will be allowed to be brought. Jackson's lawyers will argue that that event did not take place, that he paid for other reasons, but there will be essentially two trials here going on. There will be the '93 incident, which will be tried, and the charges against him.
WALLACE: We'll be watching. Jeffrey Toobin, always great to see you.
TOOBIN: We'll see when it starts.
WALLACE: Absolutely -- back to you, Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Kelly, thanks. Back to Jack now and the Question of the Day.
How're you doing?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bill. I'm doing fine, thanks.
Two months after Vioxx was pulled from pharmacy shelves, last week we got word that Celebrex, another of what they call Cox-2 inhibitors, an arthritis painkiller linked to heart and stroke. There are questions now about whether the mechanisms designed to keep our pharmacy and our prescription drugs safe are working. The FDA takes money from the big pharmaceutical companies. This could be a problem, since the FDA is the one that's charged with regulating the industry. There is a difference between drugs that are rushed to market because of their potential life-saving ability, as in a cancer drug that might keep somebody alive longer, versus things like arthritis drugs, where there are other options available on the market.
There are people in Congress who are suggesting that the relationship between big pharmacy and the FDA's not helping, it needs to be overhauled. The third problem is, once these drugs get on the market, there's a lack of monitoring after they're on the market for potentially unknown side effects and some people are suggesting that has to be changed. Charles Grassley in Iowa says there should be an independent board to monitor the safety of these medications after they come to market. So here's the question, what should be done to improve prescription drug safety in this country? The email address is am@cnn.com. HEMMER: Ooh, a whole lot there, too, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes. The stuff we get from Andy is always good, though, you know?
HEMMER: Yes?
CAFFERTY: Those drugs are fine. The stuff Serwer brings in here for the staff.
HEMMER: Andy's up in a moment here. Thanks, Jack.
In a moment here, Christmas only five days away. How do you make sure your cards and packages make it there on time? We'll ask the U.S. postmaster general. They say today is the busiest mail day of the year. Back in a moment, after this.
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HEMMER: Some 20 billion pieces of mail are delivered between Thanksgiving and Christmas and right now this is crunch-time. Five days and counting, and the Postmaster General John Potter's with us this morning, live in our nation's capital, talk about this. Good morning to you.
JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: Good morning, Bill.
HEMMER: A little bit of delay there. My notes tell me it's the busiest day of the year today. Is that true?
POTTER: It's the busiest day. We'll deliver -- we'll receive 850 million pieces of mail today that would circle the globe four times.
HEMMER: 850 million. What's your best tip, then, on getting it there on time?
POTTER: My best tip is to make sure, first of all, that you used the right address. If you're going to mail a gift and you're using a used box, make sure you obliterate the old address and you have a good clean address on it. Make sure that you package your mail in a good sturdy box, use plenty of packing materials and get it in the mail today. You can use priority mail up until Wednesday. After Wednesday, you really should use express mail to make sure it gets there for Christmas.
HEMMER: Got it. So after Wednesday, is that when you consider it too late or not?
POTTER: Well, after Wednesday, if you really want to make sure it gets there by Saturday, we want you to use express mail. Because it will get there. And by the way, we're the only service that delivers on Christmas day. Our employees love to make sure those last-second packages get in the hands of the people that are going to receive them.
HEMMER: I bet they love working that day, too, don't they? Or they're not telling you, anyway.
POTTER: Some of them do. Well, they dress up like Santa Claus, a lot of them, and they really do enjoy getting out and greeting people and they have the mail delivered by noon and they get back to their homes in time to enjoy the day with their families.
HEMMER: What about overseas for U.S. military? Any special tips on that this late in the game?
POTTER: Well, it is a little too late, based on our published times. If you get it in the mail, we'll do our best to get it over there. We've flown over 650 flights just to Persian Gulf alone to make sure that the packages, cards and letters that are going to the military overseas get there. It's a little late, but we're going to do our best to get anything that gets in the mail today or up until Christmas there as soon as possible.
HEMMER: Well, I would think they'd take it better late than never working overseas. So...
POTTER: Oh, I'm sure they do.
HEMMER: Thank you for your time this morning. John Potter, our postmaster general. Good luck to you today, too. 850 million pieces of mail.
POTTER: Thank you, Bill.
HEMMER: You got it. We'll talk to you later. Here's Kelly.
WALLACE: Thanks, Bill. Well, retailers are hoping that people will spend and spend and spend over the next five days, hoping for this last minute buying blitz. Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." So things not looking so good for retailers right now?
SERWER: Well, Kelly, I think the only way to put it, it's beginning to look a lot like a mediocre Christmas for retailers out there. This past weekend didn't seem to do the trick, so we're going to have some more discounting. That's good news for shoppers. Here's the Q.T. on numbers. Com is looking for Christmas sales to grow about four point five percent this year, at about 200 billion. It doesn't look like we're quite going get there, though.
Just to give you an idea, last year, sales grew over five percent and in 1999 and 1994, sales grew over eight percent. There are a couple bright spots. Luxury goods are flying off the shelves. Gift cards are doing very well. And that's actually somewhat problematic when you count, because retailers don't count those dollars 'til they're spent in the following year. So that's a lot more money in the pipeline. Also, online sales about five percent of total sales and growing. Music downloads, just buying clothes online, that's working, too.
Let's talk a little bit about markets, though, because we had a good week last week. Particularly the Dow did very, very nicely. You can see here, up over one percent, dragged down a little bit on Friday. Of course, Pfizer was the culprit there. Futures are up this morning. And here's an interesting one. With two weeks to go before we close the books on 2004, all the indexes up, the S&P and Nasdaq up about seven percent, the Dow only up about two percent, so maybe that's why the Dow's playing a little catch-up here, as we close out the year.
WALLACE: Good for our 401k's.
SERWER: That's right. You best believe. We need that Christmas money, too.
HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and candy. Thank you. In a moment, a Monday morning dose of "90 Second Pop" coming your way.
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Could Jim Carrey find a fortune at the box office with "Lemony Snicket" or did "Ocean's 12" hit the jackpot again?
Also, why is Harrison Ford marching off to war?
Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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