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American Morning

The New Court; Road to Recovery

Aired September 30, 2005 - 09:31   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-one minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, a historic day for everyone at the Supreme Court. A new chief justice, John Roberts, coming to work today. A live report from Washington just ahead.
But before that, let's hear from Elizabeth Cohen who is on the USNS Comfort in New Orleans.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

I'm here on the flight deck. Let me tell you a little by about this ship. Its first mission was to the first Gulf War, and then they were in Haiti, and then for 9/11, they were in New York, and then they were in the current Iraqi conflict just recently.

And now for the first time, civilian and military doctors are working together. They've taken in their first few patients from New Orleans just this morning.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. Back with you very shortly.

Let's get a check of other headlines that we are following this morning.

Kelly Wallace here with that. Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. And hello, everyone.

Here are some of those stories now in the news. "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller at a federal courthouse in Washington D.C., where she is expected to name her source before a grand jury this morning. This is all concerning the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity. Miller was released from jail Thursday after serving 85 days. She says she has received permission from the confidential source to testify, and that source is apparently Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Some congressional Democrats are calling on former Education Secretary Bill Bennett to apologize. At issue, remarks Bennett made on his radio program, linking the crime rate with the abortion of black babies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL BENNETT, FMR. EDUCATION SECY.: I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, Bennett spoke out last night. He said his comments were misinterpreted. He said his point is to show how morally reprehensible to support abortion to reduce crime.

Gregory Olsen getting ready for the ride of his life. The American scientist turned businessman is set to blast off to the International Space Station tomorrow. He will become only the third tourists to visit the site. Olsen spent $20 million in two years preparing for the trip. And he'll stay on at the International Space Station until October 11th.

Out West now, fire officials say they hope cooler temperatures and lighter winds will help them contain a raging wildfire outside of Los Angeles. More than 2,000 buildings are being threatened, mandatory evacuations are under way. Thousands of firefighters are on the scene. And your looking at pictures there, using every possible resource to contain that blaze. So far, 21,000 acres have reportedly been destroyed.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: John Roberts, America's new chief justice, is preparing to take the lead of the Supreme Court a day after being worn in. Joe Johns is live at the Supreme Court.

Joe, what's ahead for Chief Justice Roberts? There's first time I've said that, Chief Justice Roberts, and as we look ahead toward the first Monday in October?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Miles. The new chief justice is expected to show up here at the Supreme Court, if only to start setting up his office. He will have to hit the ground running, of course. As you said, the court's new term begins bright and early on Monday morning. He was sworn in down at the White House after a vote here in the United States Senate, 78-22. He talked to the audience at the White House after the swearing in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. CHIEF JUSTICE: I will try to ensure in the discharge of my responsibilities that with the help of my colleagues I can pass on to my children's generation a charter of self government as strong and as vibrant as the one that Chief Justice Rehnquist passed on to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: It will be a busy fall for the newly-constituted Roberts court. Among the issues they have to face, parental notification in abortion cases and assisted suicide -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Joe, tell me about the -- there's another vacancy, although Sandra Day O'Connor will be showing up, because she said she would until somebody replaces her. The White House says the window of opportunity for announcing that nominee is open now, right?

JOHNS: It is open, and it will remain open, obviously, until the president names whoever he wants to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. She will stay on the court until her replacement is, in fact, confirmed. Of course, it's all up to the president, and after that it's up to the Senate, however long it takes them to get this person through -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: So she might not want to book any retirement travel escapades just yet. Got to wait until that all happens, right?

JOHNS: That's for sure. I mean, there could always be a fight, and that is the big question. You know, the person who is named will be vetted very carefully, investigated very carefully, also by Democrats, and the question's whether there will be a fight.

O'BRIEN: Joe Johns at the Supreme Court, thanks much.

Let's get back to Elizabeth Cohen, who is on the good ship Comfort.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Good morning, Miles.

I'm on the USNS Comfort, here on the flight deck, where on this ship 633 personnel getting ready to take care of patients from New Orleans who need their help. They've already taken in the first few patients this morning.

And I'm here with Commander Teresa Fahlgren, a registered nurse, and you run the operating room. And how many people do you have with you?

CMDR. TERESA FAHLGREN, HEAD O.R. NURSE, USNS COMFORT: We have eight nurses, and we have 15 surgical technicians.

COHEN: How many surgeons do you have?

FAHLGREN: We have about 40 surgeons.

COHEN: Forty surgeons. Of all different specialties?

FAHLGREN: That's right.

COHEN: Wow.

And so tell me a little by about the surgeries, how many surgeries you can do at any one time on this ship.

FAHLGREN: Well, we have 12 operating rooms that are fully functional at this time.

COHEN: And so you can do 12 surgeries at one time? You're ready to do that?

FAHLGREN: We have the staff right now to run five operating rooms simultaneously.

COHEN: And when things get crazy here, they must really get crazy.

FAHLGREN: I think the adrenaline starts rushing in, and everybody is very excited to do the trauma surgery.

COHEN: And right now you don't have many patients, but what kinds of things are you expecting once patients come in?

FAHLGREN: I think some of the surgeries we're expecting is, like, orthopedic surgeries, maybe falls, maybe car accidents, as people in New Orleans start to repopulate.

COHEN: Now this ship has been in Haiti, it was in the first Gulf War, the second one. Are you expecting similar kinds of illnesses and casualties coming in?

FAHLGREN: I don't know if the trauma will be exactly the same, but I think some of the fractures of the other type of surgeries will be similar.

COHEN: You'll probably see some differences than in wartime, I would imagine.

FAHLGREN: Yes, I don't believe we'll be seeing some of those injuries.

COHEN: Right. Have you been training over the past few days, training for what might happen when folks come into the hospital?

FAHLGREN: We certainly have. We've done several in-services on our orthopedic power and some of our other rooms getting ready for emergency C-sections, general surgery cases, as well as orthopedics.

COHEN: You probably don't see many C-section in wartime, I wouldn't imagine.

FAHLGREN: I wouldn't think so.

COHEN: This is a little bit different.

Tell me a little bit about once things get going, what is your day like? How do you spend your day?

FAHLGREN: My day basically is we have a group session this morning, every morning at 7:30. After that we communicate back and forth with casualty and receiving area and prepare the O.R.s for surgery if something should arise. COHEN: Now you've obviously worked in hospitals on land, as well as on this ship. Are there differences, or is this really pretty much the same?

FAHLGREN: When we're fully business and operational, it's pretty much the same.

COHEN: Pretty much the same. Now, when you -- when people come in here from New Orleans, when civilians come in, will it be a bit different, because you're used to having other military personnel coming in for care.

FAHLGREN: Right, right. And here we'll be seeing the civilians, not as much scheduled surgery, but more trauma surgery and last-minute type surgeries.

COHEN: Now, as people go into their homes and try to rescue what they can from their homes and try to rebuild, are you expecting to see some injuries from that?

FAHLGREN: Definitely, definitely. People potentially falling from roofs as they try to fix their houses and things like that. So, yes, I definitely think that we'll see some of those injuries.

COHEN: Could you also possibly see some problems from food poisoning or problems with the water?

FAHLGREN: Or inhalation or different things like that, yes.

COHEN: OK. Well, Commander Fahlgren, thank you very much.

Miles, back to you now.

O'BRIEN: Lots on their plate there on the Comfort. Thank you very much, Elizabeth. Still to come, a walking tour of the new New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Molly's has always been a great bar, but I don't think I've seen it quite so successful as I have in the last three weeks. It's run like every good Irish bar should be and on that note...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Got to like a woman who drinks them from a long neck bottle. A good friend who is also a good friend of the Crescent City will join us with a fascinating video journal. Julie Reed is with us next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In some parts of New Orleans, folks are coming home and learning how to adapt to the city's new version of normal. Julia Reed is a regular contributor to "Newsweek" and "Vogue," and she takes us on a walking tour of the city she now calls home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA REED, "NEWSWEEK" CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: This is my buddy Bob Ruse (ph). It's a rug shop. As you see here, here are some rugs. He never left the city, so every time I come back in town, he asks me to bring him ice and chicken. One day it was ice and garlic powder. Today it's ice and chicken.

Hello, my friend. You're welcome. You got a lot of wet rugs out there on the sidewalk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a lot of smelly rugs out there.

REED: I wish I had one, wet or dry, in this fine establishment.

We're on Canal Street, which used to be a grand avenue, but not in many, years. You saw a lot of footage of looters streaming out of these broken windows with stuff. And that's why this street is not looking quite as clean as a lot of the other streets.

And there are racks of clothes just trashed everywhere, but nobody wanted the dorky little college cheerleader there, with his rep (ph) tie and his megaphone and his college football blanket for -- his stadium blanket.

There's the Pearl Oyster Bar. It will be a long time before we have any oysters here, I'm afraid.

And this is Napoleon House, which is a great old bar. They are famous for their pimscrubs (ph) and their muffalota (ph) sandwiches, which is a great Italian sandwich.

This is my friend Allen (ph) from the Royal Orleans...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rib room. Real famous rib room.

REED: ... who runs the world famous rib room, where I spend a lot of quality time, conveniently located a half a block away from the Napoleon House.

When are y'all opening?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need people like you to keep us open.

REED: When are you opening?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as possible. But the problem is, as you have and we all have is we need busboys, we need dishwashers, we need waiters.

REED: I will volunteer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have chefs and the cooks and everybody.

REED: This is Fadish Shallot (ph), who owns this building and this restaurant. He's been cooking almost every night since the hurricane, haven't you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About three weeks.

REED: Tonight's spaghetti and meat sauce out here. I like the decorations, the table decorations. Very nice.

Molly's has always been a great bar, but I don't think I've seen it quite so successful as I have in the last three weeks. It's run like every good Irish bar should be. And on that note.

You know, there's a continuity here that doesn't exist anywhere else, and I'm glad to see everybody pulling together and coming back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And Julia Reed with us now live. That was fascinating, Julia. And I feel like I've had a virtual pub crawl of New Orleans.

REED: I did show you all some things besides bars, I promise.

O'BRIEN: But, all right, away from that -- I mean, you purposely set out to show us where things are good, and I thought what caught my ear there was we'd love to open up, but we don't have any staff, no busboys, no nothing. And that's going to be a hard problem to solve, isn't it, because many of the people at that end of the socioeconomic ladder have left and may not come back.

REED: Well, I think enough folks are coming back to get these places up and running. Last night, one heart-warming thing was a restaurant called August, which is in the central business district, had a dinner for law enforcement officials and from St. Bernard Parish, who, as you know, have been working very hard. And they invited some of (INAUDIBLE) folks over there. And they had enough of a staff to get up and going. The gentleman from the Royal Orleans that I was talking to, Allen, he said, you know, they're lucky enough to have a hotel so they can house people in the hotel.

I mean, I think people are going to be camping out for a while. I mean, a good friend of mine uptown has opened up a restaurant. She's just going to put people to sleep in parts of her restaurant. People are so desperate to get up and running, I think they'll take -- I mean, you heard me offer to volunteer, I may do so, because it's a lonely city. And the sooner these old folks, you know, these old establishments, get back up and running, the better it will be.

O'BRIEN: Now let's talk about what's going to be happening in some of these neighborhoods this morning in those zip codes where they're good to go. It's got to be tough for some people. It's going to be a mixed bag. Some places will be intact. Your house is pretty much intact, right. And yet, there's going to be a lot of others there where they have a really grim story.

REED: Well, yes, there are -- most of the zip codes that are open are not so grim. But it's still -- it's a weird place to come. I mean, I got electricity yesterday...

O'BRIEN: Congratulations, by the way.

REED: ... but it was a dark, dark neighborhood last night.

O'BRIEN: That's a big moment for you.

REED: I know, it was a pretty big -- it was a huge moment. But it's still strange to be there, because...

O'BRIEN: That's time to open up one of those long necks, I think, when you get the electricity going, right?

REED: Don't think I didn't fire up refrigerator right away. But it's a dark place, because most of the people that live in my neighborhood have kids and they won't be able to come back, you know, for at least one semester, maybe two, because the schools aren't open. So it's still a little bit of a ghost town. It's still a little strange.

I almost ran into a police car head on this morning coming over here, because the law enforcement guys an the federal workers are so used having the town to themselves they go the wrong way down, you know, one-way streets and stuff. So the folks on the Comfort may be seeing more car accident victims than they're prepared to.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, I know even our crews have kind of gotten in the habit because, in some cases, you have to get around the debris. But as things return to normalcy, you sort of have to get ahold of all that stuff that's been going on. There's going to be a lot of, perhaps literally and figuratively, a lot of bumps in the road ahead. What are you most concerned about right now?

COHEN: Oh, I'm just -- you know, I still wish that we had some leadership that would give us some real guidance, you know, from a resident's point of view. The mayor keeps saying, come back and make an informed decision. We don't have any information. I'm -- one of the guys we were talking to yesterday in the quarter was a former health director for New Orleans and he said, oh, the water's fine. And he's been bathing in it.

The desk clerk at the -- one of the hotels that's open in the quarter said, yes, well, I wouldn't bathe except from the neck down in this water. So, I mean, it's sort of -- you know, you still get mixed signals about what's going on and what's safe to do and what's not safe to do. I mean, most people are coming back and taking their chances.

But it would be -- I think, behoove this city to have some kind of information line, Web site, whatever. I mean, small business owners have been clamoring for that and they're not really getting answers.

O'BRIEN: Well, what do you think it is? Do you think, Julia, do you think they don't know? Do you think they're confused, or are they just unable to communicate it clearly?

REED: I think we-- you know, what we've seen from the very beginning in this city, from the day the hurricane hit and, well, actually a couple days before, has been massive disorganization. And I just -- you know, you still don't see the mayor out there.

I mean, I hate to keep using the Giuliani comparison, because everybody has, but you know, you don't see him. I mean, he keeps saying come on back, but you don't see him walking the streets. I'm happy to give you all my pub tour, but you know, you don't see the mayor out there, talking to people, welcoming them back, saying this is what you should do, you know, come eat at this place.

I mean, I know so many people trying to get their restaurants up and running. Because there is a huge population here to feed now. Everybody from insurance adjusters to people sucking out water out of buildings. And they don't -- they're not told when they're going to have electricity, what their water situation is like. Can we wash the dishes with this water? Can we not?

If I were like the hurricanes are, which I'm obviously not, I would have a little task force to help these folks get off the ground. It would be nice if I didn't have to keep bringing poor old Bobaroo some ice. He could go get it at the store.

O'BRIEN: Here's what you need to do, Julie, you need to become self-appointed, de facto hurricane czar. You can gather the information as well as anybody. Open up a Web site. Just do it. You should start it.

REED: All right. And I'll hit the streets around welcome people back.

O'BRIEN: There you go. And then, what is it, February is the election. We'll see you running for mayor, who knows.

REED: I don't think you'll see that, but anyway.

O'BRIEN: All right, Julia Reed, best of luck to you there. Check in with us frequently, will you?

REED: Thank you. It's great to be back.

O'BRIEN: Always a pleasure.

REED: CNN LIVE TODAY is coming up next. Daryn, what have you got working today?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a really busy packed day. Thank you, Miles.

Firefighters still battling a huge blaze in Southern California. We'll take you there live.

Bill Nye "The Science Guy" will join me to explain how those Santa Anna winds are helping to fuel those flames.

Also saving energy equals saving money. And with winter heating costs on the way up, we have a must-see top-five tips on how to bring your bills down.

For now, Miles, back to you for a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Daryn.

Still to coming on our program, Disney and Mickey Mouse are getting a new big cheese. You like that one? That's what we call clever writing here. We're "Minding Your Business," just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, we're back now. And this has been the long goodbye. Michael Eisner announced his departure back, what, 20 years ago now and he's finally getting out...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Other people were looking forward to it.

O'BRIEN: A little hyperbole there.

Andy Serwer is here. Yes, he sort of, you know, got a little bit of a push from certain corners.

In any case, the Eisner era is over.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's true. Let's talk about the stock market first of all, though, Miles. Go down the Big Board and take a look and see what's going on on Wall Street. Down 22 points, the last trading day of the quarter. That's 22 points on the Dow Jones Industrials. Now, the Dow is up two percent or so for the quarter, but it is down for the month of September. Seven years in a row now it's been down this month, in September and October, often tough months for the stock market. Nasdaq is doing well.

Updating a story about the Small Business Administration we told you about earlier, the program, that they've only had given out one loan out of 28,000 application force loans in the Gulf Coast region. We called them up, and they said they didn't know who they gave the loan to, but they were going to check it out. So we're going to keep calling them and try to find that out.

O'BRIEN: Remember, there having computer problems.

SERWER: They are. So no doubt.

O'BRIEN: They may not be able to find him.

SERWER: Yes, that's probably the case.

Let's talk about Michael Eisner, the CEO of Walt Disney. In fact, today is his last day on the job, handing over the reins to Bob Iger. There he is. He came in in September of 1984. And you know, people forget he's had so many difficulties, so embattled recently with Ovitz, and Katzenberg and Roy Disney. The first 10 years of his tenure were actually very, very positive. He turned the company around. In fact, the stock price is still a huge winner over those 20 years. Up 20 fold. That's more than three times the overall stock market. But on the other hand, it's down 40 percent over the past five years, which is where he got in some of these problems. So it will be interesting to see if his name continues to pop up on the radar screen. He's only 63, so he may be around still.

O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, we have a few seconds left, and before we say goodbye, let's check back in with Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cohen, who is on the Naval hospital Ship Comfort.

Good to see you, Elizabeth. You did a good job today. I'm just curious.

You've been really in New Orleans since the start, a few stints at home, and you've talked a lot about -- talked a lot about the loss of the hospitals, charity in particular. The Comfort being there is to fill that gap. How long before they have real hospitals up and running in New Orleans? Has anybody even contemplated that yet?

COHEN: You know, Miles, they don't know. Very slowly you hear about one hospital maybe opening up an emergency room for part of the time. But right now, there is no plan written in stone. Now, this ship plans on being here for about another two weeks. But they say that they will stay here for as long as it takes.

O'BRIEN: OK, and it might be longer, though; as people come in and they encounter all kinds of difficulties back at their homes, it might end up being a little bit longer.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much, in for Soledad today.

Great work on there on the deck of that ship.

That's all we have for AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday. We hope you have a good weekend. Daryn Kagan at the CNN Center, and she takes it away from here.

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