Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Missing Boy Scout; Vietnam Tech

Aired June 21, 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 morning, everyone. I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello. Thanks for joining us.
Coming up in the next 30 minutes, why companies are setting up shop in Vietnam.

And later, can Tom Cruise take a joke? Our Jeanne Moos looks at how some celebs deal with pranksters.

But first, here are the stories "Now in the News."

A bombing today in Beirut killed a former official of the Lebanese Communist Party. George Hawi was the second anti-Syrian figure to die in an explosion this month. Police say a bomb planted beneath the passenger seat in his car apparently was detonated by remote control.

A father and son arrested in a terrorism investigation in Lodi, California head to court today. The two will be arraigned in federal court in Sacramento.

Coming online, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children unveiling a Public Service Announcement today aimed at protecting children from sexual predators. The Web site offers important advice for parents to recognize potential sexual exploitation.

And Cosmos 1 is on course to become the first spacecraft ever flown using solar sails. The Planetary Society and private space enthusiasts plan to deploy the revolutionary vessel this evening from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea.

And remember, you can view more CNN reports online, just visit CNN.com and click on Watch to check out the most popular stories in a range of categories, like politics, sports and entertainment.

Time for another check of the weather, Chad in Atlanta.

Chad, what is it looking like for all of us today?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Summer.

WALLACE: We're happy.

MYERS: Happy summer.

WALLACE: It's actually my half birthday, so I always know when summer and winter begin. Summer on my half birthday,...

MYERS: Really?

WALLACE: ... winter on my birthday.

MYERS: So you're a solstice girl? If you ever become a band, that's your name, the solstice girls.

WALLACE: I like the name. All right, forget Kelly Wallace, I'm changing it.

MYERS: Right. Good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: All right, good advice, Chad, thanks. We'll talk to you in a few minutes.

MYERS: All right.

WALLACE: We are turning now to the case of a missing Boy Scout in Utah. The Summit County sheriff says he's opened a criminal investigation into the boy's disappearance. He made that announcement while admitting that he didn't really suspect foul play. Meanwhile, volunteers continue to help search for the Scout.

CNN's Ted Rowlands gives us the latest from Summit County, Utah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along with hundreds of volunteers, Toby and Jody Hawkins spent another day searching the Utah wilderness for their 11-year-old son Brennan. Described by his parents as shy, but experienced in the outdoors, Brennan hasn't been seen since Friday evening.

JODY HAWKINS, MOTHER: (INAUDIBLE). The days stretch on to eternity and always there's nightfall (ph). You learn to hate the moon and (INAUDIBLE).

ROWLANDS: Brennan Hawkins was last seen near a climbing wall at a Boy Scout camp high in the Uintas Mountains, about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City. Brennan is the second Scout in less than a year to vanish from this area.

Last August, 12-year-old Garrett Bardsley disappeared about 15 miles from where Brennan was last seen. Garrett has never been found. His family is now helping to look for Brennan.

KEVIN BARDSLEY, GARRETT BARDSLEY'S FATHER: When I got the call at 6:30 in the morning, we were on the road within a half-hour. We were gone. We were moving. And all of my friends were in place and moving the same way. ROWLANDS: Authorities hope that Brennan Hawkins is lost, but they fear he may have gotten caught in the nearby Bear River or they believe he may have been kidnapped.

SHERIFF DAVID EDMUNDS, SUMMIT COUNTY, UTAH: There's always hope. And every day we have that renewed hope and that's why we get out in the woods and we do what we do.

ROWLANDS: The Hawkins, too, say they remain hopeful but very worried. When he was last seen, Brennan was wearing shorts, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes.

TOBY HAWKINS, FATHER: We actually have had reservations about doing an activity like this for fear of something like this happening. He doesn't like the cold. He's particularly temperamental about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And that was Ted Rowlands reporting from Summit County, Utah.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office is asking for help from anyone who might have information on the case. The number for them is area code 435-615-3600 or you can call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. That's 1-800-843-5678.

More news "Across America" this morning.

We have been showing you this video of a warehouse fire in Detroit. It is incredible and worth seeing again. The block-sized warehouse was home to the original Studebaker auto plant. Firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to another historic landmark in the Motor City, the plant where Henry Ford's Model T was built. It is under control, but has been burning for almost seven hours now.

The jury in the trial of former Ku Klux Klan member Ray Killen will try again today to reach a verdict. The jury in Philadelphia, Mississippi told the judge Monday they were divided six to six on whether to convict Killen of three counts of murder. The victims were civil rights workers. They were killed 41 years ago today.

More strife between Terri Schiavo's husband and her parents, Michael Schiavo had his wife's ashes buried in a Clearwater, Florida cemetery. Terri Schiavo's parents did not attend because they say they weren't notified in advance. Schiavo had the words -- quote -- "I kept my promise" inscribed on the grave's marker. The marker also says she -- quote -- "departed this earth in 1990" when she suffered massive brain damage.

Well Vietnam's prime minister makes a historic trip to Washington today. He will be meeting with President Bush at the White House. The two leaders are expected to discuss trade issues, as well as efforts to account for American soldiers who are still missing in Vietnam. It is the first time a Vietnamese prime minister has traveled to the United States in 30 years. Vietnam is becoming a popular destination for American companies looking for inexpensive labor. That may be because outsourcing to Vietnam can save more than 50 percent over outsourcing to India.

CNN's senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy has the story from Ho Chi Minh City.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I need some training for the newcomers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So what kind of training do you need?

MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's English-only day at TMA Solutions. None of the workers allowed to speak Vietnamese. Just one way TMA is trying to maintain its edge as the leading high-tech outsourcing company in Vietnam.

DR. NGUYEN HUU LE, TMA SOLUTIONS: These are the greatest assets that Vietnam has in terms of young people.

CHINOY: Dr. Nguyen Huu Le runs TMA. Now an Australian citizen, he left Vietnam at the height of the war 36 years ago and spent 22 years working for Nortel before coming back.

NGUYEN: I was lucky again to have the opportunity to come back to Vietnam, applying the experience that I got from overseas and help to build something that I hope that would be a legacy for my family and also for my people as well.

CHINOY: TMA's 400 code writers and engineers develop and test software for a half-dozen American firms, including Lucent and Nortel. The average wage, $500 a month, a fortune here.

Vietnam's universities are turning out 20,000 IT graduates every year to fill these jobs. Disciplined, well trained, with ambitions for themselves and their country.

"When I graduate, I'm going to work for a foreign high-tech firm," says Ho Chi Minh City University senior Tran Kong Lin (ph). "Then I'll set up my own company and use high-tech to serve Vietnam."

So attractive is Vietnam's outsourcing potential that Nortel reportedly plans to make it one of its main overseas software testing locations.

NGUYEN: The outlook, the potential is really, really great. So for TMA, for example, we are looking at continuing doubling, you know, the business every year.

CHINOY: For now that means building a new nine-story operation center in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

(on camera): In a matter of months, there will be 500 new programmers working in this building, but that's not enough. And already the company has plans for a new facility to accommodate 3,000 more.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Time now to read some e-mail, Chad in Atlanta.

Chad, what do you see there so far?

MYERS: You know, Kelly, it's kind of back and forth, depending on what side. There's not really too much gray here. And that's pretty typical of our questions, and that's why we write them that way.

From Nicholas (ph) in Omaha, it is OK for me as long as our information doesn't get stolen, like our credit card info does.

Here's the "Question of the Day": "Secure Flight." It's all about some information that was gathered on passengers, personal information, back in June of 2004. If you flew June 2004, you probably had this private company -- three, actually, three private companies dig up some data on you. And they were doing this test to see if they could actually match these names up with the no-fly list. Is that an invasion of privacy or protection from terrorists? DAYBREAK@CNN.com is the place you want to e-mail that stuff off.

From Caitlin (ph) in Skokie, first of all, it seems people at the TSA should actually be thrown in jail for contempt of Congress for doing what they were specifically told not to and they promised not to. Second off, nothing is going to make us safer because the government decides to keep records on people. Scan checked bags for explosives, run people through metal detectors so no firearms are found, OK, but nothing that happens at the airport is going to make anybody else feel safer about flying.

WALLACE: Yes, Chad, as you said, both sides here.

Dave (ph) from Grand Rapids saying,...

MYERS: Yes, go ahead.

WALLACE: ... you know since I have nothing to hide, this doesn't bother me.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: It is part of the price we have to pay to hopefully prevent another September 11.

But then, as you said, on the other side, people say this is an invasion of privacy.

MYERS: We'll read more later.

WALLACE: Keep the e-mails coming. Still to come here on DAYBREAK, the world's most expensive city, is it New York, San Francisco, maybe London, maybe not? You've got to tune in. The answer after the break.

But first, here is a look at what else is making news this Tuesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Time now for a little "Business Buzz."

Tokyo topping the world again when it comes to being expensive. It is the world's costliest city, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. The survey looked at things like housing, food and transportation. And you guessed it, the most expensive city in the United States, no surprise there, New York, right here. It ranks number 13 worldwide.

Well this is better than magic. The new Harry Potter book is already making the best seller list even though it won't be out until next month. Barnes & Noble say there are 750,000 pre-orders for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." And the CEO predicts pre- orders will top a million.

Walgreen's now being sued for racial discrimination. Current and former employees of the drug store chain say the company steers African-American employees to stores with mostly black or lower-income workers. The plaintiffs, from seven states, also allege they're denied advancement and bonus opportunities because the company directs them to low-profit stores. Walgreen's says it has zero tolerance for discrimination.

Well, Chad, you're helping us out here. I know you are a big college basketball fan.

MYERS: True.

WALLACE: But I know you follow the NBA as well.

MYERS: I do. I do.

WALLACE: I understand the NBA and the Players Association are back at the negotiating table. A big issue here is the issue of the draft.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: The minimum age that someone can be in terms of entering the NBA. And I understand is it 18 or 19?

MYERS: It's 18 going to 19. Well that's what the league wants.

Remember the LeBron James and all those guys that came out from high school. They don't want that to happen anymore. They want the guys to be a little bit more mature, maybe get through a couple of years of college, something to get them between their high school senior year and the NBA.

And this could be a sticking point for you. They certainly don't want this to turn into what happened to the NHL this year, which may take 10 years for fans to come back in the way the NHL had them for a while. A lot of fans of the NHL, being canceled this year, are furious and are going to take it out on the NHL teams by not going to games and not watching it on TV.

WALLACE: Chad, just quickly, I mean how likely could this change take place?

MYERS: I think the teams are going to figure it out. These guys are smarter, maybe, than some of the guys that were there working on the NHL deal. These guys are going to figure it out. They're going to know what's good for the team, they're going to know what's good for the NBA and they're going to get it done before the deadline.

WALLACE: All right, Chad.

This goes in the category of criminals might not always be very smart. Because in Washington, D.C., police are looking for a stolen car, but not just any stolen car. Get this, it belongs to Police Chief Charles Ramsey.

MYERS: Nice.

WALLACE: Yes. The unmarked 1999 Ford Crown Victoria was taken over the weekend from near his home. So picture this, Chad, the person who takes the car opens the glove compartment and finds the owner's name printed on some papers and says yikes.

MYERS: No kidding.

WALLACE: And so now, if you live in Washington and you see these plates, that's right, they're putting out the license plate, there it is, call the police chief.

MYERS: Wish the police chief could afford more than a '99 Crown Vic, though, don't you think? They should pay you more than that.

WALLACE: I guess so. Big, big surprise there. So on the streets of Washington, D.C., look out for the police chief's car.

All right, Chad, talk to you in a few minutes.

Still to come here on DAYBREAK, how would you handle a pie in the face, better than these celebs? That story still to come this hour.

You're watching DAYBREAK. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Checking "Health Headlines" for you on this Tuesday.

A painkiller made from marijuana has gone on sale in Canada. The painkiller is Sativex. Canada is the first nation to approve its use. The drug is used to relieve pain from multiple sclerosis patients and comes in a spray prescription only.

Do you know someone who's tried to quit smoking and had a hard time of it? Most of us probably have. Now research at the University of Pennsylvania hinting that nicotine affects the brain the same way as heroin and other opiates. The same research raises the possibility of using so-called opioid-blocking drugs to treat a smoker's nicotine addiction.

And if you are worried about losing a few brain cells as you get older, try eating more oranges, strawberries or dark green leafy veggies, foods with folic acid. A study out of Holland shows that taking twice the recommended daily U.S. dose of folic acid protects a person's brain and improves memory in older adults.

Chad, I hope you're taking your folic acid every day.

MYERS: I am not, yes.

WALLACE: You better start doing that.

MYERS: I need to. I need to start...

WALLACE: Not that you need to, because you're so very smart, you know everything, but still.

MYERS: ... saving some of these brain cells.

Good morning, Kelly, I've got a couple of good ones here for you.

From Mark (ph) in Washington, if I understand this article correctly, the information given to the TSA is the data that could be found in any U.S. telephone book. However, one has to wonder, if Congress told the TSA not to collect personal data, what part of no didn't the TSA understand? And will anyone be held responsible? Can we change the rules if we want to anytime? Probably no.

I feel violated and lied to says Darrell (ph). For four years I've watched our civil liberties being eroded in the name of keeping us safe. How far will this go?

And then do we have more time one more or not?

WALLACE: One more, yes.

MYERS: And this one seems like a no-brainer, the TSA lied, big surprise, from Kevin (ph) in Vermont. As a kid growing up in the '50s and '60s, the big horror of communism had the following characteristics. They keep dossiers on people. Travel was limited. Papers were required. People disappeared into secret prisons. The government spied on the citizens. The government told blatant lies. Seems like only the names have changed -- Kelly.

WALLACE: People concerned, Chad, very concerned out there. All right, Chad. Keep those e-mails coming, everyone, and Chad will read some more in the next hour. And all new in the next hour of DAYBREAK, Congress is looking at slashing funding for PBS. Is this an issue of money or political backlash? We will be joined live by PBS Senior Vice President John Wilson and Accuracy In Media report editor Cliff Kincaid.

More DAYBREAK after this, don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: It is Tuesday, June 21.

Fire destroys an entire city block and a piece of American history. The birthplace of the Studebaker goes up in flames and threatens another automobile birthplace.

Also, what do Cheetos and Raisin Bran have to do with Saddam Hussein? A peek into life behind bars for a former dictator.

Good morning, everyone, I'm Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for waking up with us. We will have much more on those stories in just a moment.

Also ahead, millions of dollars could be cut from public broadcasting. Is it time for a change anyway?

And the money you spend on prescriptions could be leveling off.

But first, the stories "Now in the News."

A block-sized fire in Detroit today. It began about seven hours ago and is still burning. The building formerly housed the plant where the Studebaker auto was built. Firefighters, though, stopped it from burning the original Ford Model T plant.

The search for a missing Cub Scout in Utah resumes later this morning. Only 600 volunteers helped with the search yesterday. That is down from around 3,000 over the weekend.

A car bombing in Beirut kills a former Communist Party official this morning. He was known as a harsh anti-Syria politician. The blast coming a day after an opposition leader's anti-Syrian camp declared victory in Lebanon's parliamentary elections.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com