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Firefighters Recover More Bodies from Mudslide, Share Story of Rescue; Bush Announces Plan to Expand No Child Left Behind

Aired January 12, 2005 - 11:00   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: The U.S. has quietly ended the physical search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. An intelligence official tells CNN that the man who headed search, Charles Duelfer, returns to the U.S. to work on his final report. To date, no significant stockpiles of weapons have been found in Iraq.
A group in Iraq claims to have three million supporters, says it will withdraw from the elections this month. The Patriotic Front for Iraqi Tribes had asked for the vote to be delayed for six months. The group cites concerns about security and fairness.

And we're looking at 11 a.m. straight up on the East Coast, 8 a.m. for those of you drying out in the West. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again, I'm Daryn Kagan.

RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: And I'm Rick Sanchez.

All right. Here we go. It's a race against time for rescue crews at the scene of that massive mudslide in California. They're using sophisticated listening devices and even their bare hands to try to search for survivors. So far, the discoveries this morning have been grim.

Our Rusty Dornin is in La Conchita. She's in California now with the very latest for us.

Rusty, what is the situation there?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, very sad story this morning. A woman and her three children, their bodies were recovered this morning. You might have heard the story about Jimmy Wallet, who went to get ice cream for his family when the mudslide occurred.

He came back to the scene and desperately began digging with firefighters, trying to dig out his family. The bodies of his family were recovered this morning, his three daughters ranging in age from 2 to 10.

This is still a rescue operation. Of course, the hope is dwindling at this point. But the stories of how they get to these victims, these people who have been trapped, are fascinating.

And we are here right now with Ventura firefighter Mark Pina, who rescued someone from the rubble Monday night.

Tell us, how did you know she was there? How long had she been there? How did you get to her?

MARK PINA, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, we have -- we were lucky to find a fiance who knew that she was home, knew that the house -- the roof and some -- some stuff inside the house looked like his. So we were calling and calling.

We had everyone shut down. It was quiet. We tried to get her to speak. And as we tried to talk through the roof, through the flooring, we were able to hear noises. So we found out that she was about eight feet below us.

DORNIN: You began tunneling literally by hand to get to her. Tell us about that.

PINA: We did. Our urban search and rescue team with some paramedics from our department, were able to get in there, get underneath the roots. We ended up having to go through a second roof that it collapsed on, two floors, two walls, a bathroom, an office.

And we were pulling debris out that that gentleman who was -- the fiance, was telling us, "OK, this is part of the bathroom. This is part of the office."

And as we're going down, we're going eight feet down. We had about 11 people from our department getting in there, and we tunneled to her.

DORNIN: How big was the space that she was -- was in?

PINA: It was -- when we got to her, it was about 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot. It was a little box. And she was just in that little void space.

DORNIN: Now, as you get farther back in the rubble, are those voids smaller and smaller?

PINA: You know, we're trying our best. We're hoping that there's some other void spaces, and we're going to continue to work the best that we can to find anyone we can.

DORNIN: OK, Mark Pina.

That's from the Ventura firefighters who are desperately searching, still, with listening devices, with search dog, with big machinery, trying to find any other survivors here.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected in about an hour. He'll be doing an aerial tour, as well as a ground tour.

Also displaced residents will be talking to firefighters south of here in Ventura about what they can do, what they can expect, in the days and weeks to come -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: So the theory is that the mud fell on the homes but there could still be some air pockets underneath all this mud, and that's where they're hoping to find people? DORNIN: That's right. And the edges of the air pocket, the ones closest to us are the ones that have the largest air pocket. Those are the ones most likely to find survivors.

As they move farther back into the slide, it's more compressed. It's deeper. There is -- it's less likely that they will find survivors. But if there is a void, people have been known to survive, anywhere from four, five, even six days.

SANCHEZ: Wow, amazing, especially as you look at the pictures, as we're showing it to our viewers now.

Rusty, thank you so much. Rusty Dornin, following that story out of La Conchita. We'll be checking back with you from time to time -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Of course, people up and down the west coast, also parts of Ohio, very concerned with what the weather looks like today. Jacqui Jeras keeping an eye on that for us -- Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: All right, Jacqui. Thank you for that.

SANCHEZ: As we follow these stories out of California, we're seeing some stories of heartbreaking loss, harrowing danger. Emerging from these storms in California, we've seen dramatic rescues like the mother and her baby pulled from the raging floodwaters, for example.

Our Miguel Marquez gives us the inside story from the firefighters involved in the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's about as scary as a rescue gets. A mother, clutching her 2-month-old son, both are swept down a river, raging with water, tree, boulders, and mud.

RICH ATWOOD, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: It was as shocking as anything I could ever imagine. I did not think we were going to go swimming that day. I really did not.

MARQUEZ: Rich Atwood, a Los Angeles urban search and rescue firefighter, was in the raft with the mother and son. He says he was responsible for their safety.

When that raft flipped what did he feel?

ATWOOD: For that short period of time, the terror in my heart, you know, my heart just being torn apart, thinking, you know, I have two small kids at home.

You know, how would you feel? How would you feel? Just brutal.

We had over half the boat flooded. And in a matter of seconds, less than that, we're in the water, swimming. You go under water. I pop up. My first thing is, where's the mother? Where's the child?

MARQUEZ: The firefighter was immediately separated from the mother and son. Atwood had to now concentrate on saving himself, while Collins made the split second decision to run along the river, tracking the mother and son, until he had an opportunity to act.

CAPT. LARRY COLLINS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: I was seeing this as do or die, get them now, especially get the baby now, before another wave comes -- wave or flood surge comes in and washes her off that sand bar.

MARQUEZ: Captain Larry Collins was in charge of the entire operation. He finally got to the mother and the boy after they washed up on a sand bar.

COLLINS: This baby was crying pretty vigorously: weakly, but vigorously. He was very cold and shivering. He was, you know, clearly hypothermic. He was kind of a gray pallor.

MARQUEZ: The baby can be heard crying as he's carried to a waiting ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... were in the water.

MARQUEZ: The baby's cries are music to firefighter's ears. The team that specializes in rescues almost saw one go very badly.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Dimas, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: CNN is going to take an in depth look at nature's wrath, from the mudslides to the floods, this horrific tsunami to the record numbers of hurricanes and tornadoes this last year. Tune in to "EXTREME WEATHER." It's a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN." It's tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.

KAGAN: Right now, though, we want to move on to Washington politics. President Bush is telling students in Virginia something they probably do not want to hear this morning, more standardized tests, as he tries to expand No Child Left Behind.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House this morning with more on how the president thinks that would work.

Good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

That's right. Well, today, this is part of President Bush's larger effort to lay out his domestic agenda, as you said. Today, the focus is on high school education. The president is pushing initiatives that he believes will make high school graduates more competitive in the workforce.

The president choosing as his backdrop, J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church in Northern Virginia. In 1997, this was the lowest performing high school in its county, in Fairfax County. But last school year, it met its academic goals under the No Child Left Behind law, which requires testing.

Well, the president says that more testing at the high school level will make young people better prepared to compete globally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Testing is important. Testing at high school levels will help us to become more competitive as the years go by. Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the 21st Century. Testing will allow teacher to improve their classes. Testing will enable schools to track. Testings will make sure the diploma not nearly a sign of endurance, but the mark of a young person ready to succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, the current No Child Left Behind law requires national math and reading progress tests in grades four and eight. It's intended to raise achievement among poor and minority children.

But the proposed changes that the president is looking at, are giving states $250 million annually for two more years of tests in high schools.

Also, the president would like to establish a $200 million fund for states to develop high school plans. These would be for students who are entering high school.

And the president would also like to increase annual funding for the advanced placement program to nearly $52 million.

Now critics, even those who supported the No Child Left Behind law and helped President Bush get it passed, say that, while they welcome these initiatives at the high school level by President Bush, they also say that in the lower grades, they are not being funded, some of these initiatives. They would like to see that taken care of.

There you see President Bush, a live picture from Falls Church, Virginia. He has just finished delivering remarks there.

But critics, again, taking a very close look, Daryn, at the numbers, saying that it is necessary to fund those lower grades before moving on to the high school level -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Elaine Quijano, at the White House, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Remember the hunt for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Well, the word out today is that the hunt -- it's over. It's ended.

KAGAN: What did they find? SANCHEZ: That's right. Well, they say they haven't found much. The latest on that from the Pentagon is coming up.

KAGAN: Plus, rebuilding Banda Aceh and how that city has changed. We'll show you the footage before and after the tsunami hit.

SANCHEZ: Also is Michael Moore trying to change his image? It appears the controversial filmmaker has changed his style.

KAGAN: Hubba, hubba.

SANCHEZ: Our Jeanne Moos is going to have more with -- more details on this. This is one you ought not miss. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: To Iraq now where attacks, five people were killed today in two incidents, one in the north, the other in the south.

A car bomb explosion near Mosul left two Iraqi National Guard members dead and two others wounded. And south of Baghdad, insurgents struck two trucks that were transporting Iraqi money. The burned bodies of three security contractors were found inside one of the vehicles.

KAGAN: There is this important development coming out of Iraq today. You might recall it was the primary reason that was cited for the invasion of Iraq almost two years ago. What are we talking about? Weapons of mass destruction.

Well, now the Bush administration has quietly ended the search for weapons of mass destruction.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now.

So where does this leave us, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, it's not really a surprise to anybody who's been following this story. Because, of course, for months now investigators have reported to Congress and said publicly there's been no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or WMD programs inside Iraq.

It's a little more official now. The Iraq Survey Group, the group of government officials which has been conducting those searches over in Iraq, has pretty much come to the end of the road on physical searches at facilities, at site in Iraq, for that WMD. Those physical searches are now over, essentially.

Officials will still look at thousands of pages of documents they've collected. And they say if they get any good leads, they will go back and look. But they're really focusing on other priorities now, as they have for some time, and that, of course, is mainly the insurgency movement in Iraq. Because if there is a weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, the insurgency is viewed as it. Of course, hundreds of U.S. military personnel and hundreds of Iraqis dead at the hand of these insurgent attacks.

So the 1,700 members of the Iraq Survey Group are now largely focusing on providing intelligence support, providing information about the insurgency to the troops in Iraq so that they can go after them. That, now, considered a much higher priority, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you, because you mentioned, Barbara, some reports. The last report I remember reading was the Duelfer report, which seemed to indicate that most of the weapons had been done away with in the late '90s, prior to second invasion of Iraq. So does that then become the official word, the Duelfer report?

STARR: Well, Charles Duelfer, who was, really, the top intelligence official leading this hunt, if you will, for weapons of mass destruction, indeed is now back in the United States and working on his final report, if you will. And it is expected to say pretty much the same thing -- no evidence of programs, recent programs, and no evidence of any recent stockpiles.

They do continue, of course, to interrogate officials of the former regime. But many of the former regime leaders, of course, have escaped Iraq or are in other places. And they just say that they don't have any indication at this point two years after the invasion that there was current WMD or current WMD programs or stockpiles.

But again, it's not really new. That had been the groundwork that had been laid for some time. The open question, perhaps, Rick, is still, why was the intelligence about all of that so off the mark?

SANCHEZ: Yes, but like you said, it puts an official seal on it, as far as the investigation is concerned.

Barbara Starr, reporting to us from the Pentagon, as usual. We thank you, Barbara, for bringing us up to date on that.

STARR: Thanks Rick.

KAGAN: Let's check out other world news.

Boats being tossed around like toys and trees toppling around Scotland. There are the pictures.

Several storms are also pounding -- we have pictures? All right. Well, we'll just talk about it. There they are. OK. They're pounding Northern Britain, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland. Three people are dead as the area sees some of its worst weather in several years. Over 120 mile per hour winds are being recorded. Sixty thousand people without electricity in Scotland.

Australia also feeling the wrath of Mother Nature. Fire -- look at those, Rick. Fire crews in the south are still battling a wildfire that's already burned more than 350,000 acres.

SANCHEZ: They're in the water.

KAGAN: That -- well, yes, I guess they are.

SANCHEZ: They got into the water to avoid the...

KAGAN: Look at the color of the sky.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KAGAN: At least nine people are dead, including eight people who burned to death in their cars as they tried to flee from the fire. Another six are missing. It's Australia's most deadly wildfire in over 20 years.

SANCHEZ: There's some positive news out of the Middle East. The word, congratulations was uttered. Why is it important? Because, well, this is why. It's a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Sharon phoned Abbas to congratulate him on winning the Palestinian presidential election, something he never did to Yasser Arafat. Abbas will be sworn in Thursday. Both men have expressed a desire to continue their dialogue.

KAGAN: The process of rebuilding. A close look at Banda Aceh and the city, what it looked like before the disaster hit, and how it looks now.

SANCHEZ: Also this hour, the government announces a new dietary guideline. What will it change in the way you eat? This is that whole carb, protein, fat thing. On CNN LIVE TODAY, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Well, now, a developing story out of the United States Supreme Court, mind you. Federal sentencing guidelines ruled unconstitutional in part this morning.

And what does it mean? CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in Washington to help us out.

Jeffrey, how are you?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Good, good. Listen, try and break this down for people. I guess what it means is if I'm convicted of a crime and the jury says, "Rick Sanchez, you get 10 years."

And a judge comes along and says, "No, 12 years, by sentencing guidelines," he can't do that now, can he?

TOOBIN: Well, that's really the gist of it is. Is that the federal sentencing guidelines have been in effect since 1986. When I was a federal prosecutor, I dealt with them every day. They are the lifeblood of the federal criminal justice system.

What this decision says today is that many of the people who have been sentenced over past almost two decades were probably sentenced in an unconstitutional way. And there could be wide resentencings going on.

And looking forward, it is not at all clear how the sentencing guidelines will work in the future. But you're right. The gist of it is, judges have to do less and juries have to do more.

SANCHEZ: I remember as a reporter in south Florida 17 years ago when they came out with these sentencing guidelines, they said this is the perfect situation. From now on, everything is going to be uniform. What happened?

TOOBIN: Well, see I mean, it really does make sense. In the old days, before 1986, you had a system where, in the same courthouse, if you drew an easy judge, you might be sentenced to one thing. If you had a tough judge, you might be sentenced to something else, for exactly the same crime. So understandably, they wanted to make a uniform system.

So what they did was they created this system with a point -- it's a point system. Each crime has a certain point, you know, level. And you get a certain sentence for that point level.

The problem is, the points can be adjusted by a variety of factors. And it's really the judge who makes the determination of where the final point level is.

What the Supreme Court is saying is that if you want to increase those points, it's got to be the jury that makes the decision, not the judge. And that's a big, big change.

SANCHEZ: So what you're saying is the problem lies in the interpretation, which becomes something subjective, right? The judge can -- one judge can see it differently than another judge. We're back to the same problem we had 17, 18 years ago.

TOOBIN: And that's exactly -- that's exactly it, is that, in the desire to create uniformity, they handed too much power to the judge, according to five justices of the Supreme Court.

And now the problem is, how do you undo these problems? Because you have thousands of people being sentenced under this system. Sixty-four thousand people a year are sentenced in federal court. Not all of them will have their sentences changed.

But you can be sure they're going to be a lot of jailhouse lawyers writing letters, saying, "Hey, judge, you did it wrong. Let's get -- let's do this again."

And the Supreme Court seemed to say today -- they don't analyze all of the implications of their decision -- is that some of those prisoners are going to be right and they are entitled to resentencing. So federal judges are going to have, frankly, a nightmare interpreting this and resentencing all the people who are entitled to it.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for preparing us for that. CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin, as usual, helping us get it. Thanks, Jeff.

TOOBIN: OK, Rick. See you.

KAGAN: We have the latest on the California mudslides coming up. We'll talk with an L.A. weather expert who has been covering the storms and the L.A. weather so well. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 12, 2005 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CO-HOST: The U.S. has quietly ended the physical search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. An intelligence official tells CNN that the man who headed search, Charles Duelfer, returns to the U.S. to work on his final report. To date, no significant stockpiles of weapons have been found in Iraq.
A group in Iraq claims to have three million supporters, says it will withdraw from the elections this month. The Patriotic Front for Iraqi Tribes had asked for the vote to be delayed for six months. The group cites concerns about security and fairness.

And we're looking at 11 a.m. straight up on the East Coast, 8 a.m. for those of you drying out in the West. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again, I'm Daryn Kagan.

RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: And I'm Rick Sanchez.

All right. Here we go. It's a race against time for rescue crews at the scene of that massive mudslide in California. They're using sophisticated listening devices and even their bare hands to try to search for survivors. So far, the discoveries this morning have been grim.

Our Rusty Dornin is in La Conchita. She's in California now with the very latest for us.

Rusty, what is the situation there?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, very sad story this morning. A woman and her three children, their bodies were recovered this morning. You might have heard the story about Jimmy Wallet, who went to get ice cream for his family when the mudslide occurred.

He came back to the scene and desperately began digging with firefighters, trying to dig out his family. The bodies of his family were recovered this morning, his three daughters ranging in age from 2 to 10.

This is still a rescue operation. Of course, the hope is dwindling at this point. But the stories of how they get to these victims, these people who have been trapped, are fascinating.

And we are here right now with Ventura firefighter Mark Pina, who rescued someone from the rubble Monday night.

Tell us, how did you know she was there? How long had she been there? How did you get to her?

MARK PINA, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, we have -- we were lucky to find a fiance who knew that she was home, knew that the house -- the roof and some -- some stuff inside the house looked like his. So we were calling and calling.

We had everyone shut down. It was quiet. We tried to get her to speak. And as we tried to talk through the roof, through the flooring, we were able to hear noises. So we found out that she was about eight feet below us.

DORNIN: You began tunneling literally by hand to get to her. Tell us about that.

PINA: We did. Our urban search and rescue team with some paramedics from our department, were able to get in there, get underneath the roots. We ended up having to go through a second roof that it collapsed on, two floors, two walls, a bathroom, an office.

And we were pulling debris out that that gentleman who was -- the fiance, was telling us, "OK, this is part of the bathroom. This is part of the office."

And as we're going down, we're going eight feet down. We had about 11 people from our department getting in there, and we tunneled to her.

DORNIN: How big was the space that she was -- was in?

PINA: It was -- when we got to her, it was about 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot. It was a little box. And she was just in that little void space.

DORNIN: Now, as you get farther back in the rubble, are those voids smaller and smaller?

PINA: You know, we're trying our best. We're hoping that there's some other void spaces, and we're going to continue to work the best that we can to find anyone we can.

DORNIN: OK, Mark Pina.

That's from the Ventura firefighters who are desperately searching, still, with listening devices, with search dog, with big machinery, trying to find any other survivors here.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected in about an hour. He'll be doing an aerial tour, as well as a ground tour.

Also displaced residents will be talking to firefighters south of here in Ventura about what they can do, what they can expect, in the days and weeks to come -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: So the theory is that the mud fell on the homes but there could still be some air pockets underneath all this mud, and that's where they're hoping to find people? DORNIN: That's right. And the edges of the air pocket, the ones closest to us are the ones that have the largest air pocket. Those are the ones most likely to find survivors.

As they move farther back into the slide, it's more compressed. It's deeper. There is -- it's less likely that they will find survivors. But if there is a void, people have been known to survive, anywhere from four, five, even six days.

SANCHEZ: Wow, amazing, especially as you look at the pictures, as we're showing it to our viewers now.

Rusty, thank you so much. Rusty Dornin, following that story out of La Conchita. We'll be checking back with you from time to time -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Of course, people up and down the west coast, also parts of Ohio, very concerned with what the weather looks like today. Jacqui Jeras keeping an eye on that for us -- Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: All right, Jacqui. Thank you for that.

SANCHEZ: As we follow these stories out of California, we're seeing some stories of heartbreaking loss, harrowing danger. Emerging from these storms in California, we've seen dramatic rescues like the mother and her baby pulled from the raging floodwaters, for example.

Our Miguel Marquez gives us the inside story from the firefighters involved in the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's about as scary as a rescue gets. A mother, clutching her 2-month-old son, both are swept down a river, raging with water, tree, boulders, and mud.

RICH ATWOOD, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: It was as shocking as anything I could ever imagine. I did not think we were going to go swimming that day. I really did not.

MARQUEZ: Rich Atwood, a Los Angeles urban search and rescue firefighter, was in the raft with the mother and son. He says he was responsible for their safety.

When that raft flipped what did he feel?

ATWOOD: For that short period of time, the terror in my heart, you know, my heart just being torn apart, thinking, you know, I have two small kids at home.

You know, how would you feel? How would you feel? Just brutal.

We had over half the boat flooded. And in a matter of seconds, less than that, we're in the water, swimming. You go under water. I pop up. My first thing is, where's the mother? Where's the child?

MARQUEZ: The firefighter was immediately separated from the mother and son. Atwood had to now concentrate on saving himself, while Collins made the split second decision to run along the river, tracking the mother and son, until he had an opportunity to act.

CAPT. LARRY COLLINS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: I was seeing this as do or die, get them now, especially get the baby now, before another wave comes -- wave or flood surge comes in and washes her off that sand bar.

MARQUEZ: Captain Larry Collins was in charge of the entire operation. He finally got to the mother and the boy after they washed up on a sand bar.

COLLINS: This baby was crying pretty vigorously: weakly, but vigorously. He was very cold and shivering. He was, you know, clearly hypothermic. He was kind of a gray pallor.

MARQUEZ: The baby can be heard crying as he's carried to a waiting ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... were in the water.

MARQUEZ: The baby's cries are music to firefighter's ears. The team that specializes in rescues almost saw one go very badly.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Dimas, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: CNN is going to take an in depth look at nature's wrath, from the mudslides to the floods, this horrific tsunami to the record numbers of hurricanes and tornadoes this last year. Tune in to "EXTREME WEATHER." It's a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN." It's tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.

KAGAN: Right now, though, we want to move on to Washington politics. President Bush is telling students in Virginia something they probably do not want to hear this morning, more standardized tests, as he tries to expand No Child Left Behind.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is at the White House this morning with more on how the president thinks that would work.

Good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

That's right. Well, today, this is part of President Bush's larger effort to lay out his domestic agenda, as you said. Today, the focus is on high school education. The president is pushing initiatives that he believes will make high school graduates more competitive in the workforce.

The president choosing as his backdrop, J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church in Northern Virginia. In 1997, this was the lowest performing high school in its county, in Fairfax County. But last school year, it met its academic goals under the No Child Left Behind law, which requires testing.

Well, the president says that more testing at the high school level will make young people better prepared to compete globally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Testing is important. Testing at high school levels will help us to become more competitive as the years go by. Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the 21st Century. Testing will allow teacher to improve their classes. Testing will enable schools to track. Testings will make sure the diploma not nearly a sign of endurance, but the mark of a young person ready to succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, the current No Child Left Behind law requires national math and reading progress tests in grades four and eight. It's intended to raise achievement among poor and minority children.

But the proposed changes that the president is looking at, are giving states $250 million annually for two more years of tests in high schools.

Also, the president would like to establish a $200 million fund for states to develop high school plans. These would be for students who are entering high school.

And the president would also like to increase annual funding for the advanced placement program to nearly $52 million.

Now critics, even those who supported the No Child Left Behind law and helped President Bush get it passed, say that, while they welcome these initiatives at the high school level by President Bush, they also say that in the lower grades, they are not being funded, some of these initiatives. They would like to see that taken care of.

There you see President Bush, a live picture from Falls Church, Virginia. He has just finished delivering remarks there.

But critics, again, taking a very close look, Daryn, at the numbers, saying that it is necessary to fund those lower grades before moving on to the high school level -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Elaine Quijano, at the White House, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Remember the hunt for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Well, the word out today is that the hunt -- it's over. It's ended.

KAGAN: What did they find? SANCHEZ: That's right. Well, they say they haven't found much. The latest on that from the Pentagon is coming up.

KAGAN: Plus, rebuilding Banda Aceh and how that city has changed. We'll show you the footage before and after the tsunami hit.

SANCHEZ: Also is Michael Moore trying to change his image? It appears the controversial filmmaker has changed his style.

KAGAN: Hubba, hubba.

SANCHEZ: Our Jeanne Moos is going to have more with -- more details on this. This is one you ought not miss. We'll be back.

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KAGAN: To Iraq now where attacks, five people were killed today in two incidents, one in the north, the other in the south.

A car bomb explosion near Mosul left two Iraqi National Guard members dead and two others wounded. And south of Baghdad, insurgents struck two trucks that were transporting Iraqi money. The burned bodies of three security contractors were found inside one of the vehicles.

KAGAN: There is this important development coming out of Iraq today. You might recall it was the primary reason that was cited for the invasion of Iraq almost two years ago. What are we talking about? Weapons of mass destruction.

Well, now the Bush administration has quietly ended the search for weapons of mass destruction.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now.

So where does this leave us, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, it's not really a surprise to anybody who's been following this story. Because, of course, for months now investigators have reported to Congress and said publicly there's been no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or WMD programs inside Iraq.

It's a little more official now. The Iraq Survey Group, the group of government officials which has been conducting those searches over in Iraq, has pretty much come to the end of the road on physical searches at facilities, at site in Iraq, for that WMD. Those physical searches are now over, essentially.

Officials will still look at thousands of pages of documents they've collected. And they say if they get any good leads, they will go back and look. But they're really focusing on other priorities now, as they have for some time, and that, of course, is mainly the insurgency movement in Iraq. Because if there is a weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, the insurgency is viewed as it. Of course, hundreds of U.S. military personnel and hundreds of Iraqis dead at the hand of these insurgent attacks.

So the 1,700 members of the Iraq Survey Group are now largely focusing on providing intelligence support, providing information about the insurgency to the troops in Iraq so that they can go after them. That, now, considered a much higher priority, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you, because you mentioned, Barbara, some reports. The last report I remember reading was the Duelfer report, which seemed to indicate that most of the weapons had been done away with in the late '90s, prior to second invasion of Iraq. So does that then become the official word, the Duelfer report?

STARR: Well, Charles Duelfer, who was, really, the top intelligence official leading this hunt, if you will, for weapons of mass destruction, indeed is now back in the United States and working on his final report, if you will. And it is expected to say pretty much the same thing -- no evidence of programs, recent programs, and no evidence of any recent stockpiles.

They do continue, of course, to interrogate officials of the former regime. But many of the former regime leaders, of course, have escaped Iraq or are in other places. And they just say that they don't have any indication at this point two years after the invasion that there was current WMD or current WMD programs or stockpiles.

But again, it's not really new. That had been the groundwork that had been laid for some time. The open question, perhaps, Rick, is still, why was the intelligence about all of that so off the mark?

SANCHEZ: Yes, but like you said, it puts an official seal on it, as far as the investigation is concerned.

Barbara Starr, reporting to us from the Pentagon, as usual. We thank you, Barbara, for bringing us up to date on that.

STARR: Thanks Rick.

KAGAN: Let's check out other world news.

Boats being tossed around like toys and trees toppling around Scotland. There are the pictures.

Several storms are also pounding -- we have pictures? All right. Well, we'll just talk about it. There they are. OK. They're pounding Northern Britain, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland. Three people are dead as the area sees some of its worst weather in several years. Over 120 mile per hour winds are being recorded. Sixty thousand people without electricity in Scotland.

Australia also feeling the wrath of Mother Nature. Fire -- look at those, Rick. Fire crews in the south are still battling a wildfire that's already burned more than 350,000 acres.

SANCHEZ: They're in the water.

KAGAN: That -- well, yes, I guess they are.

SANCHEZ: They got into the water to avoid the...

KAGAN: Look at the color of the sky.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KAGAN: At least nine people are dead, including eight people who burned to death in their cars as they tried to flee from the fire. Another six are missing. It's Australia's most deadly wildfire in over 20 years.

SANCHEZ: There's some positive news out of the Middle East. The word, congratulations was uttered. Why is it important? Because, well, this is why. It's a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Sharon phoned Abbas to congratulate him on winning the Palestinian presidential election, something he never did to Yasser Arafat. Abbas will be sworn in Thursday. Both men have expressed a desire to continue their dialogue.

KAGAN: The process of rebuilding. A close look at Banda Aceh and the city, what it looked like before the disaster hit, and how it looks now.

SANCHEZ: Also this hour, the government announces a new dietary guideline. What will it change in the way you eat? This is that whole carb, protein, fat thing. On CNN LIVE TODAY, when we come back.

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SANCHEZ: Well, now, a developing story out of the United States Supreme Court, mind you. Federal sentencing guidelines ruled unconstitutional in part this morning.

And what does it mean? CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in Washington to help us out.

Jeffrey, how are you?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Good, good. Listen, try and break this down for people. I guess what it means is if I'm convicted of a crime and the jury says, "Rick Sanchez, you get 10 years."

And a judge comes along and says, "No, 12 years, by sentencing guidelines," he can't do that now, can he?

TOOBIN: Well, that's really the gist of it is. Is that the federal sentencing guidelines have been in effect since 1986. When I was a federal prosecutor, I dealt with them every day. They are the lifeblood of the federal criminal justice system.

What this decision says today is that many of the people who have been sentenced over past almost two decades were probably sentenced in an unconstitutional way. And there could be wide resentencings going on.

And looking forward, it is not at all clear how the sentencing guidelines will work in the future. But you're right. The gist of it is, judges have to do less and juries have to do more.

SANCHEZ: I remember as a reporter in south Florida 17 years ago when they came out with these sentencing guidelines, they said this is the perfect situation. From now on, everything is going to be uniform. What happened?

TOOBIN: Well, see I mean, it really does make sense. In the old days, before 1986, you had a system where, in the same courthouse, if you drew an easy judge, you might be sentenced to one thing. If you had a tough judge, you might be sentenced to something else, for exactly the same crime. So understandably, they wanted to make a uniform system.

So what they did was they created this system with a point -- it's a point system. Each crime has a certain point, you know, level. And you get a certain sentence for that point level.

The problem is, the points can be adjusted by a variety of factors. And it's really the judge who makes the determination of where the final point level is.

What the Supreme Court is saying is that if you want to increase those points, it's got to be the jury that makes the decision, not the judge. And that's a big, big change.

SANCHEZ: So what you're saying is the problem lies in the interpretation, which becomes something subjective, right? The judge can -- one judge can see it differently than another judge. We're back to the same problem we had 17, 18 years ago.

TOOBIN: And that's exactly -- that's exactly it, is that, in the desire to create uniformity, they handed too much power to the judge, according to five justices of the Supreme Court.

And now the problem is, how do you undo these problems? Because you have thousands of people being sentenced under this system. Sixty-four thousand people a year are sentenced in federal court. Not all of them will have their sentences changed.

But you can be sure they're going to be a lot of jailhouse lawyers writing letters, saying, "Hey, judge, you did it wrong. Let's get -- let's do this again."

And the Supreme Court seemed to say today -- they don't analyze all of the implications of their decision -- is that some of those prisoners are going to be right and they are entitled to resentencing. So federal judges are going to have, frankly, a nightmare interpreting this and resentencing all the people who are entitled to it.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for preparing us for that. CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin, as usual, helping us get it. Thanks, Jeff.

TOOBIN: OK, Rick. See you.

KAGAN: We have the latest on the California mudslides coming up. We'll talk with an L.A. weather expert who has been covering the storms and the L.A. weather so well. That's coming up.

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