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CNN Live At Daybreak
Baby Rescue; Graner Court Martial; Money For College; Grave Task
Aired January 11, 2005 - 05:30 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.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning to you, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Kelly Wallace in for Carol Costello.
"Now in the News."
Insurgents target Iraqi police in a deadly attack this morning. It happened in the northern city of Tikrit. Six police officers were killed when a car bomb exploded near their station.
Part of a major highway remains closed this morning because of this fiery wreck. A tanker truck hauling diesel fuel rolled over and burst into flames on Interstate-95 in North Carolina. The driver was killed.
Floodwaters collapsed a mobile home. Just look at that. Captured on tape. It is just a taste of what people are facing in southern California. They have been soaked by heavy rains for days and more rain is on the way today.
Checking in again with Chad Myers in Atlanta.
And, Chad, talking to our producer, Chad, here, he says southern California just never really gets this type of rain.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not this kind of stuff. Remember we were talking before the Rose Bowl, how the Rose Bowl was going to be all sloppy because it was raining? That was last year, and it's rained almost every day this year so far. A couple days with breaks in between storms, but that's just it. It's not like they've had a break, it's just in between the next storm as they've been lined up.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: All right, Chad, we'll look forward to that.
MYERS: All right.
WALLACE: We're sticking with, though, Chad, the heavy rains in southern California, which triggered a deadly mudslide in the coastal community of La Conchita. At least three people are confirmed dead, up to a dozen remain unaccounted for this morning. Authorities fear they may be trapped under the muddy debris. The search for more victims was suspended overnight as more heavy rain fell on the unstable mound of mud. Authorities plan to resume searching this morning. The massive mudslide also engulfed homes. More than 15 of them have been destroyed or heavily damaged.
The relentless rain has turned calm rivers into walls of raging water. The flooding nearly killed a baby boy in Los Angeles County, but fighters came to the rescue.
Reporter Dave Clark of CNN affiliate KCAL brings us the story of one dramatic rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE CLARK, KCAL-TV REPORTER (voice-over): There's the rescued baby, safely in the arms of a brave firefighter after the baby and his mother became trapped by the rushing waters. But this was the second time this baby was rescued.
Earlier, rescuers had the baby in a lifeboat and harness until the boat tipped over. Let's look at that again in slow motion, as the boat tips over, tossing the baby and the rescuer into the raging waters.
Another firefighter, without a safety harness, bravely runs into the water to his partner. Clutching the baby, a firefighter walks with it through the water.
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: Station and get the baby out of the clothes.
CLARK: Now in fresh warm clothing and covered up, the baby heads for medial attention. Again crossing a mountain stream where an ambulance and paramedics were waiting to take care of him.
(on camera): And as you saw, it was a happy ending in San Dimas Canyon.
I'm Dave Clark reporting for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: Turning now to "The Fight for Iraq."
A new CNN-"USA Today" Gallup Poll finds Americans are just about evenly divided over the job Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is doing. Forty-eight percent say they approve of the way he's doing the job, while 46 percent disapprove. In December, 50 percent disapproved of the way he was running the Pentagon. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
At 6:30 a.m. Eastern, Gallup's Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport will join us live with a look at how President Bush is doing.
Turning now to another issue, jurors expected to see taped testimony by Iraqi detainees today in the court martial of Army Specialist Charles Graner. Graner is accused of being the ringleader behind abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti has more from Fort Hood, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Specialist Charles Graner, upbeat and jaunty, walked into his court martial, he stopped to say...
SPEC. CHARLES GRANER, CHARGED WITH PRISONER ABUSE: You're going to find out how much of a monster I am today, and we're going to go fight the alligators, so.
CANDIOTTI: A man with a sunny smile, but dark moments in his past, Graner, a Reservist, was sent to Iraq and put in charge of the toughest cell block at Abu Ghraib because he had been a prison guard in Pennsylvania. What the Army didn't know: Graner had been sued by a Pennsylvania prisoner who said Graner put a razor blade in his food. That suit was dropped.
But back at Graner's home, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, with its proud military history, court records describe a husband with a violent temper in a bitter divorce, ordered to stay away from his ex- wife after she said he grabbed her by the hair and banged her head against the floor a year after their divorce.
As the trial began, Private Jeremy Sivitz, the first Abu Ghraib guard to plead guilty, described two dozen of the now notorious photos for the military jury. Just after this picture was taken, Sivitz said, Graner punched another detainee in the head.
Then the seven naked Iraqis suspected of leading a prison riot were stacked in a human pyramid. That's Graner signaling thumbs up. Sivitz said Graner did not arrange this scene of sexual humiliation. Another guard did. But he said the other MPs were -- quote -- "pretty much laughing like they were enjoying it, having a good time."
The defense blames military intelligence for the atmosphere of abuse. Three intelligence operatives can be seen at the right of this photo taken on another night. Graner's lawyer claimed that some of the Abu Ghraib prisoners were terrorists and admitted it in videotaped testimony.
GUY WOMACK, CHARLES GRANER'S ATTORNEY: We had three high-valued detainees admitting that they were insurgents from other countries, that they came into Iraq to fight a battle that was not theirs, to kill Americans and to kill coalition forces and create instability in Iraq.
CANDIOTTI: The ranking sergeant in the cell block area, Ivan Fredericks, who is serving eight years, testified military intelligence did give orders to soften up detainees, but not what the photos show.
(on camera): Fredericks may have helped the defense when he acknowledged asking intelligence agents how far the guards could go with prisoners and got the answer "just don't kill them."
(voice-over): Graner was pleased.
GRANER: I think things went a lot better than expected.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Why do you think so?
GRANER: Just in my heart.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): He said he will testify in his own defense.
(on camera): Are you expecting to take the stand?
GRANER: Me?
CANDIOTTI: Yes.
GRANER: Yes, ma'am.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): He is likely to be the final witness probably toward the end of this week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And that was Susan Candiotti reporting.
We will talk live to Susan in the second hour of DAYBREAK.
Coming up next here, torrential rains pound the West Coast, and it looks like Mother Nature is not done. In four minutes, meteorologist Chad Myers gives us the forecast.
Plus, paying a college tuition or two is no easy task. In seven minutes, we'll give you some tips on how to get the most financial aid possible.
And a shakeup at CBS over a National Guard snafu. It leads us to our e-mail "Question of the Day," should more CBS executives take the fall?
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: And welcome back.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's just about 45 minutes after the hour, and here is what is all new this morning.
A massive mudslide crushes several homes in southern California. You're looking at those pictures there. At least 3 people are dead, 12 others still missing. The mudslide was triggered by days of heavy rain. In money, oil prices are steady above $45 a barrel this morning. Traders are concerned about colder weather in the Eastern United States and global supply disruptions.
In culture, Florida's Gulf Coast is getting a Trump tower. Developer Donald Trump is building a $220 million high-rise in Tampa, Florida. It will be the tallest residential building on the Gulf. And you'll only have to shell out between $700,00 to $5.5 million to live in it.
In sports, Randy Moss' antics in Green Bay have the NFL considering a fine. Moss made like he was mooning the fans. And that, you can say, has upset some folks. Yes, you see it there.
Turning now to Chad in Atlanta with a look at the weather.
And, Chad, a lot of our friends out west very much wanting to hear what you have to say...
MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: ... about what they can expect on this Tuesday.
MYERS: Yes, finally ending out there from Los Angeles down to San Diego. Still a couple showers this morning in the overnight hours, but it's just about done.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: All right, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes. Thanks so much.
So your child got into the college you were hoping for, that is the good news. The first day of college is still eight months away. The tougher news, though, if you are not prepared, you could spend all that much time just filling out all those financial aid forms.
Have no fear, DAYBREAK contributor Ali Velshi has worked through it all, and he's got some advice on how to get the most money from the college of your choice.
Ali, great to see. What's the best advice for people?
ALI VELSHI, CNN DAYBREAK CONTRIBUTOR: The best advice is do not take financial responsibility for anything that eats. You can't win this game. College financing is a very expensive game.
WALLACE: So what do you do?
VELSHI: Well, first of all, to get any kind of college financing, you have to fill out what's called the FAFSA form -- F-A-F- S-A. That's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It is a daunting, intimidating, not-so-much-fun-to-fill-out form, but it is the starting point for all state and federal loans. In fact, the colleges you apply to design their aid package around the information that is in that form. Now some private schools will want an extra form from the College Board, which is called the profile. But between these two forms, it's everything you ever needed. Half of all students get some form of financial aid. And people should apply, because as daunting as this exercise is, there is money to be had out there.
WALLACE: Some people might think my parents make too much money, I'll never, ever, ever get financial aid.
VELSHI: Right, a mistake to make, because in the FAFSA form, what it does is it wants to know how much money you have and you make as a student, how much money your parents have and your parents make. It weighs the student's assets much, much more heavily than the parents' assets.
Now these forms are accepted as of January 1 and aid is given out on a first come, first serve basis in most cases. Most colleges have spring deadlines, and you can file these FAFSA forms on-line. But you know what, take the time to do it now because some stuff might come out of it.
WALLACE: And what do people need? You know we've all got to get our paperwork together, what's the most important paperwork to get together?
VELSHI: Yes. The same stuff you need to file your tax return. You need your W2, you need your assets, you need income statements, you need your bank statements, your investment statements. In fact, it's, in many cases, more than you need to fill out your taxes.
You remember that the student's assets count for more, so you may want to have the student buy some things that they're going to need for school out of their own money. That's entirely legal. They will verify the information in your form. And the government will check to see whether male applicants have registered for Selective Service. Remember that, if you haven't done that this is one way the government is going to get on to you, so just a piece of information to remember.
WALLACE: And more information coming up in the next hour?
VELSHI: Yes, in the next hour, I'll talk about once you have applied for it what happens if you don't get a satisfactory result.
WALLACE: All right, Ali Velshi.
VELSHI: Good.
WALLACE: And you're coming here with responses at the e-mails.
VELSHI: We'll talk about the e-mail shortly, yes.
WALLACE: Yes, pointing the finger of blame that's what Ali is looking at those e-mails about. CBS getting a black eye, the fallout from the snafu over the dubious documents about George W. Bush's National Guard service. We will take your e-mails straight ahead. That e-mail address again is DAYBREAK@CNN.com. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Time for "Health Headlines" on this Tuesday morning.
Flossing versus rinsing. A judge has ruled that Listerine is wrong to say that the mouthwash is as effective as dental floss. So now Pfizer, the drug company that makes Listerine, is having to spit out $2 million to get rid of the claim.
You may some day protect your skin from the sun by popping a pill instead of rubbing on lotion. Massachusetts doctors say an extract of a plant grown in Central America protects the skin from ultraviolet radiation damage that can cause skin cancer. The fern extract is taken by mouth. Doctors say making it into a pill would offer total body surface protection.
And there is more evidence today linking sleep and weight. That is right. A new study has found that people who sleep less tend to be fat. I hate to pass that news along to our colleagues here at DAYBREAK. Experts say it is time to find out if more sleep will fight obesity.
Digging up the bodies and putting names to the victims, that is what officials in Thailand are doing more than two weeks after the tsunami disaster.
And as CNN's Aneesh Raman reports, the massive job is only beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than two weeks after the tsunami hit, the search for missing now taking place in mass graves. Thai authorities are exhuming hundreds of bodies buried in the immediate aftermath for DNA testing. The grizzly task to make sure every victim is identified and all foreign tourists are accounted for.
KRISTI MARIE AASAND, FORENSIC EXPERT: You have a person, a known missing person, and then I collect the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and dental records from back home and fill in in the same kind of computer system like we do so they can match it together.
RAMAN: It is a global effort bringing forensic experts from around the world setting up a massive disaster victim identification center. The task at hand demands nothing less.
JEFF EMERY, CENTER COMMANDER: It's certainly a world's first to set up a center of this magnitude, to be using special staff and experts from all around the world to work as one team, to work together to try to identify these victims.
RAMAN: The death toll in Thailand stands at 5,300, but well over 3,000 people remain missing. Over the weekend, Thai officials dramatically increased the number of unidentified corpses. Initial identifications, they say, did not prove reliable.
(on camera): Here in the capital city, questions are being raised about the speed with which those bodies were buried. At the time, an attempt to keep away disease, but now it could take months for the DNA sampling to be complete and months for the families of the missing to find closure.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And be sure to log on to our Web site for the latest information on the tsunami disaster. You can get first-hand accounts from survivors, images of the earthquake aftermath and information on how tsunamis form. That address is CNN.com/tsunami.
And we will be right back to read some of your e-mails concerning the fallout at CBS.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Four staffers get the boot at CBS over the report on President Bush's National Guard record. The network has fired a producer and asked three other news executives to resign. An independent review found the staffers rushed the story onto the air. The panel, though, did not find evidence of a political bias against the president. Fired producer Mary Mapes insists the story was not her fault, nor misleading.
Time to read some of your e-mail this morning, should more CBS news executives take the fall?
Ali Velshi joining me here.
Ali, what are you seeing so far?
VELSHI: A real flavor of exactly how the story has unfolded. There were some allegations of politics involved in this whole thing, as you know, having covered the election.
I've got an e-mail from Gary (ph) who says I don't think more CBS executives should be punished for the reporting error. If you go by the philosophy that the buck stops at the top, then why shouldn't the Bush administration be punished for unsubstantiated weapons of mass destruction claims or the prison brutality scandal or performing a less than thorough background check on the last Homeland Security nominee?
The obvious answer to that, of course, is that you do get to vote for the administration at some point, you don't get to vote for the head of CBS.
I've got another one here from Mike (ph) that says listen, what happened was a mistake, let it go. WALLACE: You know it's so interesting you say, Ali, because it looks like a lot of the e-mails talking about the issue, the political issue. Because you have one e-mail here Sarah K. (ph) for CBS saying -- quote -- "the firings at CBS send a clear message, don't mess with Bush or else."
But then you have Kenneth Warner (ph) who basically says because a minimum of 20 were not fired at CBS, including both the head of news and Dan Rather, it has given the green light to the news media that they can manufacture the news, show bias, lie about the sitting president and show liberal prejudice. CBS delivers fiction and not news.
VELSHI: Well we've got one from David (ph) that says I'm currently working for an organization where I am the supervisor of 35 people and I'm accountable for what they do. If they do something horribly wrong that I know about, I'll be disciplined just as they are.
Keep them coming. These are fantastic, well thought out responses to what is a complicated issue.
WALLACE: Exactly. We'll be looking at more throughout the hour here.
VELSHI: Good.
WALLACE: Thanks so much, Ali.
And the next hour of DAYBREAK begins right now.
Floodwaters threaten to take a young life and firefighters struggle to save it. We will show you the dramatic story straight ahead on DAYBREAK.
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 January 11, 2005 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning to you, and welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Kelly Wallace in for Carol Costello.
"Now in the News."
Insurgents target Iraqi police in a deadly attack this morning. It happened in the northern city of Tikrit. Six police officers were killed when a car bomb exploded near their station.
Part of a major highway remains closed this morning because of this fiery wreck. A tanker truck hauling diesel fuel rolled over and burst into flames on Interstate-95 in North Carolina. The driver was killed.
Floodwaters collapsed a mobile home. Just look at that. Captured on tape. It is just a taste of what people are facing in southern California. They have been soaked by heavy rains for days and more rain is on the way today.
Checking in again with Chad Myers in Atlanta.
And, Chad, talking to our producer, Chad, here, he says southern California just never really gets this type of rain.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not this kind of stuff. Remember we were talking before the Rose Bowl, how the Rose Bowl was going to be all sloppy because it was raining? That was last year, and it's rained almost every day this year so far. A couple days with breaks in between storms, but that's just it. It's not like they've had a break, it's just in between the next storm as they've been lined up.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: All right, Chad, we'll look forward to that.
MYERS: All right.
WALLACE: We're sticking with, though, Chad, the heavy rains in southern California, which triggered a deadly mudslide in the coastal community of La Conchita. At least three people are confirmed dead, up to a dozen remain unaccounted for this morning. Authorities fear they may be trapped under the muddy debris. The search for more victims was suspended overnight as more heavy rain fell on the unstable mound of mud. Authorities plan to resume searching this morning. The massive mudslide also engulfed homes. More than 15 of them have been destroyed or heavily damaged.
The relentless rain has turned calm rivers into walls of raging water. The flooding nearly killed a baby boy in Los Angeles County, but fighters came to the rescue.
Reporter Dave Clark of CNN affiliate KCAL brings us the story of one dramatic rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE CLARK, KCAL-TV REPORTER (voice-over): There's the rescued baby, safely in the arms of a brave firefighter after the baby and his mother became trapped by the rushing waters. But this was the second time this baby was rescued.
Earlier, rescuers had the baby in a lifeboat and harness until the boat tipped over. Let's look at that again in slow motion, as the boat tips over, tossing the baby and the rescuer into the raging waters.
Another firefighter, without a safety harness, bravely runs into the water to his partner. Clutching the baby, a firefighter walks with it through the water.
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: Station and get the baby out of the clothes.
CLARK: Now in fresh warm clothing and covered up, the baby heads for medial attention. Again crossing a mountain stream where an ambulance and paramedics were waiting to take care of him.
(on camera): And as you saw, it was a happy ending in San Dimas Canyon.
I'm Dave Clark reporting for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: Turning now to "The Fight for Iraq."
A new CNN-"USA Today" Gallup Poll finds Americans are just about evenly divided over the job Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is doing. Forty-eight percent say they approve of the way he's doing the job, while 46 percent disapprove. In December, 50 percent disapproved of the way he was running the Pentagon. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
At 6:30 a.m. Eastern, Gallup's Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport will join us live with a look at how President Bush is doing.
Turning now to another issue, jurors expected to see taped testimony by Iraqi detainees today in the court martial of Army Specialist Charles Graner. Graner is accused of being the ringleader behind abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti has more from Fort Hood, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Specialist Charles Graner, upbeat and jaunty, walked into his court martial, he stopped to say...
SPEC. CHARLES GRANER, CHARGED WITH PRISONER ABUSE: You're going to find out how much of a monster I am today, and we're going to go fight the alligators, so.
CANDIOTTI: A man with a sunny smile, but dark moments in his past, Graner, a Reservist, was sent to Iraq and put in charge of the toughest cell block at Abu Ghraib because he had been a prison guard in Pennsylvania. What the Army didn't know: Graner had been sued by a Pennsylvania prisoner who said Graner put a razor blade in his food. That suit was dropped.
But back at Graner's home, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, with its proud military history, court records describe a husband with a violent temper in a bitter divorce, ordered to stay away from his ex- wife after she said he grabbed her by the hair and banged her head against the floor a year after their divorce.
As the trial began, Private Jeremy Sivitz, the first Abu Ghraib guard to plead guilty, described two dozen of the now notorious photos for the military jury. Just after this picture was taken, Sivitz said, Graner punched another detainee in the head.
Then the seven naked Iraqis suspected of leading a prison riot were stacked in a human pyramid. That's Graner signaling thumbs up. Sivitz said Graner did not arrange this scene of sexual humiliation. Another guard did. But he said the other MPs were -- quote -- "pretty much laughing like they were enjoying it, having a good time."
The defense blames military intelligence for the atmosphere of abuse. Three intelligence operatives can be seen at the right of this photo taken on another night. Graner's lawyer claimed that some of the Abu Ghraib prisoners were terrorists and admitted it in videotaped testimony.
GUY WOMACK, CHARLES GRANER'S ATTORNEY: We had three high-valued detainees admitting that they were insurgents from other countries, that they came into Iraq to fight a battle that was not theirs, to kill Americans and to kill coalition forces and create instability in Iraq.
CANDIOTTI: The ranking sergeant in the cell block area, Ivan Fredericks, who is serving eight years, testified military intelligence did give orders to soften up detainees, but not what the photos show.
(on camera): Fredericks may have helped the defense when he acknowledged asking intelligence agents how far the guards could go with prisoners and got the answer "just don't kill them."
(voice-over): Graner was pleased.
GRANER: I think things went a lot better than expected.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Why do you think so?
GRANER: Just in my heart.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): He said he will testify in his own defense.
(on camera): Are you expecting to take the stand?
GRANER: Me?
CANDIOTTI: Yes.
GRANER: Yes, ma'am.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): He is likely to be the final witness probably toward the end of this week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And that was Susan Candiotti reporting.
We will talk live to Susan in the second hour of DAYBREAK.
Coming up next here, torrential rains pound the West Coast, and it looks like Mother Nature is not done. In four minutes, meteorologist Chad Myers gives us the forecast.
Plus, paying a college tuition or two is no easy task. In seven minutes, we'll give you some tips on how to get the most financial aid possible.
And a shakeup at CBS over a National Guard snafu. It leads us to our e-mail "Question of the Day," should more CBS executives take the fall?
But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: And welcome back.
Your news, money, weather and sports. It's just about 45 minutes after the hour, and here is what is all new this morning.
A massive mudslide crushes several homes in southern California. You're looking at those pictures there. At least 3 people are dead, 12 others still missing. The mudslide was triggered by days of heavy rain. In money, oil prices are steady above $45 a barrel this morning. Traders are concerned about colder weather in the Eastern United States and global supply disruptions.
In culture, Florida's Gulf Coast is getting a Trump tower. Developer Donald Trump is building a $220 million high-rise in Tampa, Florida. It will be the tallest residential building on the Gulf. And you'll only have to shell out between $700,00 to $5.5 million to live in it.
In sports, Randy Moss' antics in Green Bay have the NFL considering a fine. Moss made like he was mooning the fans. And that, you can say, has upset some folks. Yes, you see it there.
Turning now to Chad in Atlanta with a look at the weather.
And, Chad, a lot of our friends out west very much wanting to hear what you have to say...
MYERS: Yes.
WALLACE: ... about what they can expect on this Tuesday.
MYERS: Yes, finally ending out there from Los Angeles down to San Diego. Still a couple showers this morning in the overnight hours, but it's just about done.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WALLACE: All right, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes. Thanks so much.
So your child got into the college you were hoping for, that is the good news. The first day of college is still eight months away. The tougher news, though, if you are not prepared, you could spend all that much time just filling out all those financial aid forms.
Have no fear, DAYBREAK contributor Ali Velshi has worked through it all, and he's got some advice on how to get the most money from the college of your choice.
Ali, great to see. What's the best advice for people?
ALI VELSHI, CNN DAYBREAK CONTRIBUTOR: The best advice is do not take financial responsibility for anything that eats. You can't win this game. College financing is a very expensive game.
WALLACE: So what do you do?
VELSHI: Well, first of all, to get any kind of college financing, you have to fill out what's called the FAFSA form -- F-A-F- S-A. That's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It is a daunting, intimidating, not-so-much-fun-to-fill-out form, but it is the starting point for all state and federal loans. In fact, the colleges you apply to design their aid package around the information that is in that form. Now some private schools will want an extra form from the College Board, which is called the profile. But between these two forms, it's everything you ever needed. Half of all students get some form of financial aid. And people should apply, because as daunting as this exercise is, there is money to be had out there.
WALLACE: Some people might think my parents make too much money, I'll never, ever, ever get financial aid.
VELSHI: Right, a mistake to make, because in the FAFSA form, what it does is it wants to know how much money you have and you make as a student, how much money your parents have and your parents make. It weighs the student's assets much, much more heavily than the parents' assets.
Now these forms are accepted as of January 1 and aid is given out on a first come, first serve basis in most cases. Most colleges have spring deadlines, and you can file these FAFSA forms on-line. But you know what, take the time to do it now because some stuff might come out of it.
WALLACE: And what do people need? You know we've all got to get our paperwork together, what's the most important paperwork to get together?
VELSHI: Yes. The same stuff you need to file your tax return. You need your W2, you need your assets, you need income statements, you need your bank statements, your investment statements. In fact, it's, in many cases, more than you need to fill out your taxes.
You remember that the student's assets count for more, so you may want to have the student buy some things that they're going to need for school out of their own money. That's entirely legal. They will verify the information in your form. And the government will check to see whether male applicants have registered for Selective Service. Remember that, if you haven't done that this is one way the government is going to get on to you, so just a piece of information to remember.
WALLACE: And more information coming up in the next hour?
VELSHI: Yes, in the next hour, I'll talk about once you have applied for it what happens if you don't get a satisfactory result.
WALLACE: All right, Ali Velshi.
VELSHI: Good.
WALLACE: And you're coming here with responses at the e-mails.
VELSHI: We'll talk about the e-mail shortly, yes.
WALLACE: Yes, pointing the finger of blame that's what Ali is looking at those e-mails about. CBS getting a black eye, the fallout from the snafu over the dubious documents about George W. Bush's National Guard service. We will take your e-mails straight ahead. That e-mail address again is DAYBREAK@CNN.com. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Time for "Health Headlines" on this Tuesday morning.
Flossing versus rinsing. A judge has ruled that Listerine is wrong to say that the mouthwash is as effective as dental floss. So now Pfizer, the drug company that makes Listerine, is having to spit out $2 million to get rid of the claim.
You may some day protect your skin from the sun by popping a pill instead of rubbing on lotion. Massachusetts doctors say an extract of a plant grown in Central America protects the skin from ultraviolet radiation damage that can cause skin cancer. The fern extract is taken by mouth. Doctors say making it into a pill would offer total body surface protection.
And there is more evidence today linking sleep and weight. That is right. A new study has found that people who sleep less tend to be fat. I hate to pass that news along to our colleagues here at DAYBREAK. Experts say it is time to find out if more sleep will fight obesity.
Digging up the bodies and putting names to the victims, that is what officials in Thailand are doing more than two weeks after the tsunami disaster.
And as CNN's Aneesh Raman reports, the massive job is only beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than two weeks after the tsunami hit, the search for missing now taking place in mass graves. Thai authorities are exhuming hundreds of bodies buried in the immediate aftermath for DNA testing. The grizzly task to make sure every victim is identified and all foreign tourists are accounted for.
KRISTI MARIE AASAND, FORENSIC EXPERT: You have a person, a known missing person, and then I collect the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and dental records from back home and fill in in the same kind of computer system like we do so they can match it together.
RAMAN: It is a global effort bringing forensic experts from around the world setting up a massive disaster victim identification center. The task at hand demands nothing less.
JEFF EMERY, CENTER COMMANDER: It's certainly a world's first to set up a center of this magnitude, to be using special staff and experts from all around the world to work as one team, to work together to try to identify these victims.
RAMAN: The death toll in Thailand stands at 5,300, but well over 3,000 people remain missing. Over the weekend, Thai officials dramatically increased the number of unidentified corpses. Initial identifications, they say, did not prove reliable.
(on camera): Here in the capital city, questions are being raised about the speed with which those bodies were buried. At the time, an attempt to keep away disease, but now it could take months for the DNA sampling to be complete and months for the families of the missing to find closure.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And be sure to log on to our Web site for the latest information on the tsunami disaster. You can get first-hand accounts from survivors, images of the earthquake aftermath and information on how tsunamis form. That address is CNN.com/tsunami.
And we will be right back to read some of your e-mails concerning the fallout at CBS.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALLACE: Four staffers get the boot at CBS over the report on President Bush's National Guard record. The network has fired a producer and asked three other news executives to resign. An independent review found the staffers rushed the story onto the air. The panel, though, did not find evidence of a political bias against the president. Fired producer Mary Mapes insists the story was not her fault, nor misleading.
Time to read some of your e-mail this morning, should more CBS news executives take the fall?
Ali Velshi joining me here.
Ali, what are you seeing so far?
VELSHI: A real flavor of exactly how the story has unfolded. There were some allegations of politics involved in this whole thing, as you know, having covered the election.
I've got an e-mail from Gary (ph) who says I don't think more CBS executives should be punished for the reporting error. If you go by the philosophy that the buck stops at the top, then why shouldn't the Bush administration be punished for unsubstantiated weapons of mass destruction claims or the prison brutality scandal or performing a less than thorough background check on the last Homeland Security nominee?
The obvious answer to that, of course, is that you do get to vote for the administration at some point, you don't get to vote for the head of CBS.
I've got another one here from Mike (ph) that says listen, what happened was a mistake, let it go. WALLACE: You know it's so interesting you say, Ali, because it looks like a lot of the e-mails talking about the issue, the political issue. Because you have one e-mail here Sarah K. (ph) for CBS saying -- quote -- "the firings at CBS send a clear message, don't mess with Bush or else."
But then you have Kenneth Warner (ph) who basically says because a minimum of 20 were not fired at CBS, including both the head of news and Dan Rather, it has given the green light to the news media that they can manufacture the news, show bias, lie about the sitting president and show liberal prejudice. CBS delivers fiction and not news.
VELSHI: Well we've got one from David (ph) that says I'm currently working for an organization where I am the supervisor of 35 people and I'm accountable for what they do. If they do something horribly wrong that I know about, I'll be disciplined just as they are.
Keep them coming. These are fantastic, well thought out responses to what is a complicated issue.
WALLACE: Exactly. We'll be looking at more throughout the hour here.
VELSHI: Good.
WALLACE: Thanks so much, Ali.
And the next hour of DAYBREAK begins right now.
Floodwaters threaten to take a young life and firefighters struggle to save it. We will show you the dramatic story straight ahead on DAYBREAK.
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