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CNN Live Sunday

Midwest Being Hit by Heat Wave

Aired July 24, 2005 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SUNDAY: Fears of a tsunami circulated for a while today following a 7.2 earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean. The tsunami warnings were lifted a few hours later. The quake was centered near the Nicobar Islands in the same region as last December's huge tsunami generating quake. There have been no reports of casualties on the Nicobar Islands.
In London, a third person has been arrested in connection with last Thursday's failed attacks on the transit system. A live report from London is just ahead.

And at the gas pumps, modest signs that relief may be on the way. The latest Lundberg survey of filling stations reports a half cent decline over the past two weeks. The national average is now $2.30 per gallon. Adequate supply means the price could start going down a bit.

At this hour, parts of the nation's heartland are sweating out a triple-digit scorcher. And with afternoon temperatures now topping out, health officials are scrambling to prevent people from dying. With a high of 102 expected in St. Louis, there's a brisk business today in bottled water coolers and lots and lots of ice. And in Chicago, a sweltering day like this one has city officials swinging into action to help those most at risk. Mary Francis Bragiel reports from CNN affiliate CLTV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY FRANCES BRAGIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's another busy day for the city's department of human services. This morning a well- being check is made on a 105-year-old man who reportedly does not have a fan or window unit. Upon arrival, case workers discover the man does, in fact, have a fan, but he hasn't turned it on. After reminding him to do so and leaving information, the city employees leave satisfied.

JOE MOSLEY, CHICAGO HUMAN SERVICES DEPT: From observation, he seemed to be OK, you know. He seemed to be able to communicate his needs and he does have a grandson staying with him.

BRAGIEL: Blocks away, the case workers expect to conduct the same drill only to discover the address called in to human services does not exist.

MOSLEY: OK, HS, there is no such address. Over.

BRAGIEL: So they move on to the next location. Since it became known that the heat index could potentially reach 115 degrees today, the city has gone into overdrive, opening cooling centers, handing out water and warning residents about the potential dangers.

CARMELO VARGAS, CHICAGO HUMAN SERVICES DEPT: A few hours of air condition relief can make a big difference for someone who is suffering from the hot temperatures.

BRAGIEL: That is why the city has opened seven cooling centers. This one at Madison and Kedzi (ph) will be open around the clock. The others have extended hours, all providing water and juice. Lessons learned, the city says, after the heat wave in 1995 that killed more than 700 people.

DR. WILLIAM PAUL, CHICAGO DEPT OF HEALTH: The most susceptible people are seniors living alone and the number one protective factor is air conditioning. And so those are the lessons. You know, it's not always an easy and straightforward thing to convince a senior to leave their apartment and get into air conditioned comfort for a few hours.

BRAGIEL: The city's commissioner for the department on aging says heat stroke affects senior citizens 15 times more than other adults, which is why the public is encouraged to check on the elderly. Police and fire personnel recently adopted a plan that allows them to remove a senior they believe is at risk.

JOYCE GALLAGHER, CHICAGO DEPT. ON AGING: It is for the senior's well-being and they will return. But in order -- you can't just say, well, we're going to leave you here and then move on because if they are at risk, then generally it could be death.

BRAGIEL: The city of Chicago is also working with the homeless by supplying water as well as persuading them to come to cooling centers. Now, dehydration is an issue on this type of day. People suffering from symptoms such as dizziness and lightheadedness and nausea should seek medical attention. In east Garfield Park, Mary Frances Bragiel, CLTV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: How long will the heat wave last? Well, standing by live with the answer, Jacqui Jeras in the CNN weather center. Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, METEOROLOGIST: Well, it depends where you live. For Chicago, today will be the last day of it and certainly the most brutal day, 101 right now in Chicago. But it feels more like 110 degrees in this area, 102 in St. Louis, 98 in Dallas. This heat is going to be shifting eastward. Your temperatures are going to be cooling here, but still above average. High temperature in Chicago tomorrow should be about 93 degrees.

The heat index, extremely brutal even Green Bay, Wisconsin, it feels like 104. The effects of the heat and humidity making it feel like 107 now in Des Moines, 106 in Kansas City. Also 106 in Omaha area. Across the great lakes, 108 in Chicago, 102 in Detroit. Cleveland, 87. And you can really see the demarcation line here between the real heat, the real high humidity and where the more comfortable conditions are. High pressure has been controlling the northeast, but that's only lasting through today. Early part of next week is when the real heat is going to begin. And that's going to last at least until Wednesday if you live into the northeast.

The southeast continuing to bake here. Tomorrow likely a hotter day than what you're seeing right now. Heat index, 94 in Atlanta, 100 in Nashville. It feels like 107 at this hour in the big easy. High temperatures tomorrow, here's some significant heat relief. Check out Minneapolis, only 81. Denver doing a lot better. Phoenix doing better at 104 and 93 degrees in Salt Lake. So the west is certainly seeing a lot of relief here.

Parts of the upper Midwest getting a bit of a break, anyway. But the heat from St. Louis over to Kansas City on southward staying very strong and then pushing into the mid-Atlantic. In fact, excessive heat watches are in effect for Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia for tomorrow. Here's the form of relief, a cold front dropping on through. It will be bringing in some showers and thunderstorms. So unfortunately tomorrow, even though the heat is going to be gone or at least reduced a bit, you may be dealing with some severe thunderstorms. Lisa?

SYLVESTER: Jacqui, what can you tell us about a sandstorm that is heading toward the U.S.?

JERAS: Yeah, parts of south Florida, probably not until Tuesday, could be seeing a little bit of dust moving your way. You'll see a little bit of haze into the atmosphere. What happens this time of year, we get tropical waves that move through parts of the Atlantic. A lot of them kicking up off that dust from the Sahara desert coming in off of Africa. This is a satellite picture from NOAA.

And this is the Caribbean here. There you see the Leeward Islands. There you can see Puerto Rico and Hispanola and then there's Cuba. And check out all this yellow-looking haze or kind of fuzz on the map. That is dust that got kicked up from one of these tropical waves from Africa. It's been transported by the upper-level winds and should be arriving in southern parts of Florida. We think probably on Tuesday. Basically you're going to see some beautiful sunrises and beautiful sunsets. A lot of red color in the sky, could possibly cause some respiratory problems, if you have issues with that. Lisa?

SYLVESTER: All right. Thank you very much for that report, Jacqui.

Turning now to the London terror attacks, there have been new developments today in the investigation including the arrest of another suspect. CNN's Jonathan Mann is in London with all of the latest.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lisa, this is a very big city, and it is seeing one of the biggest manhunts in its history under way right now. But the police have had most success in a relatively small corner of south London, an area just a few miles across. We learned today that they made an arrest in a neighborhood called Tulse (ph) Hill, their third arrest in just a few miles' area in connection with the botched bombings of earlier this week.

Three men are now being held for questioning under the terrorism act in a high-security police station, once again, in connection with the second set of attacks, the attacks this week. Could there be a link between the work that was done that day and the suicide bombings of July 7th that took 52 lives? That's an important question that police are looking into.

Now, already British newspapers have published photos of two of the earlier suicide bombers, men who are now dead but who were very much alive and, in fact, who went whitewater rafting in June. They went together and that picture has been widely seen. But could there be a connection between them, that whitewater rafting center and the people who were involved and who are still at large who carried out the botched bombings?

Well, that whitewater rafting center may, in fact, be the link. Police say that in one of the backpacks, at least one of them that was found after the explosives did not go off, they found evidence linking the bombers to that rafting center. And so an investigation that really is making a lot of progress in south London is extending as far north as the rivers of Wales as police try to figure out if, in fact, there was a link between the two cells that carried out these two very different attacks.

Another investigation that's under way on a different subject. And that is into the death of a Brazilian electrician, an entirely innocent man who was mistaken for a terrorist and fatally shot by British police. His name is Jean Charles de Menezes. He was 27 years old when police happened upon him. They said his behavior, emerging from a house under observation and not responding to their commands, was suspicious enough that they tried to get him to stop. He didn't. They wrestled him to the ground and they shot him to death in front of stunned onlookers.

That is something that continues to attract a lot of attention here. It has forced the police to try to explain their rationale. People were marching in the streets. They were not happy about it. But right now London as a whole has a much bigger problem that we alluded to at the very outset. There are four would-be suicide bombers who tried earlier this week to carry out a deadly attack who are still at large. Lisa?

SYLVESTER: Jonathan Mann, thank you very much for that complete wrap-up.

In Egypt, tourism is the latest victim of the devastating terror bombings. Early yesterday at a popular seaside resort, streets normally bustling with people are now deserted. A bombed-out hotel is hidden behind this canvas curtain. Witnesses say a vehicle rammed into the lobby at high speed and then exploded. This was the second of the three blasts. It was taken by a Polish tourist who was videotaping the old market just as the area's nightlife was at its peak. All told, 84 people died in the blasts including one American.

Switching gears now, America's Lance Armstrong has done it again confirming his place as one of the greatest athletes ever. The invincible Texan capped his cycling career today with a seventh straight triumph at the Tour de France. We have the story from Paris from CNN's Jim Bittermann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every summer for the past seven years, the American anthem has echoed down the Champs- Elysees (ph) in Paris. Seven times Lance Armstrong has taken top spot on the podium in a race many say is the most grueling sporting event on earth. This time his kids were with him. They weren't even born the first time he won. But this time will be his last time. He wanted to end his career as he so often lived it, in control and at the top.

As hard as it's been along the way, in the end, he told tens of thousands of fans on the avenue Parisians like to think is the most beautiful street in the world, that he had come to love the bicycle race that's been the focus of his life for more than a decade.

LANCE ARMSTRONG: This is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event. And you should stand around and believe, you should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. And I'm a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live, and there are no secrets. This is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. Vive le Tour forever. Thank you.

BITTERMANN: Such is the reflected glory from a star like Armstrong that dozens of well-known personalities were in the stands to witness his victory. Who wouldn't want to be on the side of someone with such a storybook life, who struggled and beat cancer and went on to win at everything he tried. His mother thinks he can do just about anything now.

LINDA ARMSTRONG-KELLY, LANCE ARMSTRONG'S MOTHER: Media TV material. He's cute, too.

BITTERMANN: A politician thinks he's so attractive, he might even become a Democrat.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: Anybody would love to see him in their party. You know, that's not what this is about right now. And I think he wants to have a different kind of life for a while.

BITTERMANN: A (INAUDIBLE) thinks Armstrong is the perfect role model.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's that dedicated athlete and that dedicated kind of human being that we all have to look up to.

BITTERMANN (on-camera): From here, Armstrong, girlfriend Sheryl Crow and his three kids are headed for a beach in the south. August is not a bad month to relax in France. And from there, well, the champ says there's nothing specific. But whatever it is, you can be sure it will include winning. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: I think he earned a little rest time there now.

So was Lance Armstrong born a winner? Still to come, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why there's more to the cyclist's amazing feats than just round the clock training.

Up next, are some Iraqis who are being trained to fight the insurgency actually part of the problem? I'll speak with a "Time" reporter about a disturbing new government report.

Plus, they refuse to suffer in silence. But is the world listening? Coming up at the bottom of the hour, what can the western world do to prevent another genocide in Africa?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLVESTER: In Baghdad today, a suicide bomber triggered a massive explosion for the country's deadliest terror attack in nearly a week. Some 500 pounds of explosives went off when the bomber drove a truck into a sandbag barrier outside a police station. More than two dozen vehicles erupted in flames. And Iraqi police put the number of dead at 25 with 33 wounded.

Also today the military says an American soldier was killed and two were wounded in an attack on a base north of Baghdad. That follows yesterday's death of a U.S. Marine and a bombing near the city of Rutbah in western Iraq.

Now a progress report on the effort to get Iraq to stand on its own two feet. With continuing questions about Iraq's armed forces, a Pentagon assessment of the country's police services is raising more red flags. The assessment was obtained exclusively by "Time" magazine. Joining us now to tell us about it is "Time" reporter Doug Waller. He's in Washington. So I understand that there's an inspector general's report that will be coming out this week. Give us a brief look into this report.

DOUG WALLER, TIME MAGAZINE: This is an inspector general's report by the Pentagon and the State Department. The bottom line is that the effort to train the Iraqi police service is badly behind schedule and it suffers from a number of problems. One of the most important of which is that many of the recruits that are being brought in either have mental aptitude problems, physical problems, criminal records or even more seriously, they are insurgents trying to infiltrate into the police service as recruits.

SYLVESTER: Give us some insight. How does this vetting process, the screening of Iraqi police officers, work now?

WALLER: Well, that's an issue. In the past, it was the vetting was done by coalition forces, U.S. and other coalition forces. And the ministry of interior, the Iraqi ministry interior, was critical of this and demanded that it be given the role of vetting these new recruits, for the logical reason that it would have a better sense of who is legitimate and who isn't that's coming in. So that function now has been turned over to the ministry of interior.

SYLVESTER: And how many insurgents are we talking about here that possibly may have made it onto the police force?

WALLER: No one really knows for sure, but they're worried about the problem. In fact, the ministry of interior has held up 900 applications to the police service for the moment to revet them, to screen them one more time. But even the ministry of interior has its own problems of ghost employees now. These are people that are on the payroll but aren't showing up for work.

And how is the U.S. military reacting to this news? Are they disputing any of this information?

WALLER: No. They agree that this is a problem. And, in fact, if you look at the testimony that the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Peter Pace, gave last month at his confirmation hearings to be chairman of the joint chiefs, he admitted that the Iraqi police service, that only about a half of the police battalions are capable of going out and operating in the field. And even so, they have to operate with U.S. help.

SYLVESTER: And briefly, what kind of fallout are you expecting in Washington when this official report hits this week?

WALLER: Well, it's one of several reports that have been coming to the Congress recently. Last week there was another report the Pentagon finally coughed up that talked about the state of the insurgency and the state of the training of Iraqi forces. In fact, that one has left a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill fuming because it doesn't have the numbers or the figures in it in the public version of it that give them -- would give the public an idea of how strong the insurgency is or how far along they actually are in training the Iraqi forces.

SYLVESTER: Doug Waller from "Time" magazine, thank you very much for that report. And congratulations on that good get for you.

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the U.S. military turns to an old-fashioned forum of defense to fight the insurgency. We'll tell you if it's working at the bottom of the hour.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Democrats continue to show restraint over President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court. But could there be a dispute over documents brewing? I'm Elaine Quijano live at the White House. I'll have more on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLVESTER: Welcome back. Shortly Supreme Court nominee John Roberts will face Senate confirmation hearings. And Democrats want to check out documents he drafted when he served in two previous Republican administrations. Will the White House release them? Our Elaine Quijano is live in Washington with some insight. Elaine.

QUIJANO: Hello to you Lisa. Well, the Justice Department has indicated that it will take a look at requests for documents on a case by case basis. Now, that said, the White House has, at the same time, sent out some strong signals that it will not accommodate any such requests. Now, Judge John Roberts was the main topic of discussion today on the Sunday talk shows. Democrats continuing with their civil tone in their comments, but also expressing caution.

Some say Congress needs to know about Judge Roberts' judicial philosophy, and the way to do that they say might be to ask the administration for Roberts working papers. Now these are confidential documents Roberts wrote during his days as deputy solicitor general in the first Bush White House. He also worked in the Justice Department and in the White House counsel's office during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The current Bush administration has indicated it considers those communications protected by attorney-client privilege.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. SENATOR FRED THOMPSON, (R) TENNESSEE: The administration's been pretty consistent on that. In fact, I think very consistent. In that those things will not be forthcoming. Roberts is the attorney in this case. It's the client's privilege to waive. It's basically up to the White House. But the White House is going along with what all living solicitors general have taken a position on and that is this is a bad idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, Democrats dispute that. They say that other nominees have given up their confidential writings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: There is so much precedent for that. It's a total red herring to say, oh, we can't show this. And of course, there is no client -- lawyer-client privilege. Those working in the solicitor general's office are not working for the president. They're working for you and me and all the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, why is all of this so important? Well, because this is the same issue that came up a few years ago with the nomination of Miguel Estrada. He was President Bush's nominee in 2001 to a Federal appeals court. Democrats then demanded files from Estrada's tenure in the solicitor general's office. The White House didn't give them up. Democrats filibustered, and Estrada ultimately withdrew his name from consideration. Now in the case of John Roberts, the White House has made clear it does not want to see the same thing happen again. Lisa?

SYLVESTER: Thanks, Elaine Quijano at the White House.

An entire generation is being scarred by what some call a genocide. So why isn't the world paying more attention to the crisis in the Sudan? I'll speak with a survivor of the genocide of Rwanda about how she's turning her past horror into hope for the future. And still to come...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had to write off the hope of being rescued because it was killing my survival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Lost for days in a massive lava field in Hawaii. Find out how the Texas man beat the odds and made it home alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLVESTER: Now in the news, Scotland Yard announces a third arrest in connection with Thursday's attempted bombing of London's transit system. A man was arrested south of London near Stockwell. That's where two other men were arrested Friday. The attempted attack did not work. Four bombs partially detonated exactly two weeks after a series of transit bombings killed 52 people plus four bombers.

Four major labor unions will boycott this week's AFL-CIO convention in Chicago. The union's represent about a third of the AFL-CIO membership. Leaders of the boycotting unions have been critical of AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney. They say he's put more money into political campaigns at the expense of organizing labor.

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