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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tragedy on Lake; DeLay Indicted for Second Time In a Week; Energy-Saving Tips; Giant Google

Aired October 04, 2005 - 06:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us. Chad will have your forecast in just a minute.

Also coming up this half-hour, making the most out of less. We've got some ways for you to save money on heating your home.

And the Google universe expands. We've got a look at the latest venture for the growing Internet powerhouse.

But first, "Now in the News."

There are concerns today about those delicate levees in New Orleans. Two canals near the Ninth Ward are closed as a precaution. Engineers fear strong winds and higher tides could create problems and lead to renewed flooding.

The U.S. military backed by Iraqi security forces launches two new operations today in Anbar Province. Operation River Gate involves more than 2,500 U.S. troops. The other offensive, Operation Mountaineers, targets the southern district of Tammin. It involves 500 U.S. service members.

Just minutes ago, the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Physics were announced in Stockholm. Americans John L. Hall, Roy J. Glauber, along with German Theodor Heinch (ph) were named -- Hansch, I apologize, Theodor. They were named winners of the physics prize. They were cited for their work in optics.

To the forecast center now and Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: The investigation into Sunday's tour boat accident in Upstate New York is in full swing. Twenty people were killed when the Ethan Allen capsized in the waters of Lake George.

Authorities have already taken some action against the company that owns the doomed boat.

Susan Lisovicz joins us from Lake George. She has the latest.

Good morning -- Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

That's right. We've heard from a lot of folks in the hours since the Ethan Allen capsized and sank Sunday afternoon, and TSB, the Warren County Sheriff's Department, congressmen, governors, everyone talking about this investigation and the efforts that it would never happen again.

The company, the people we haven't heard from, is Shoreline Cruises, the company that actually owns the Ethan Allen. They're scheduled to hold a noontime news conference. And, of course, we'll be there.

The only thing we've actually heard from them so far is an outgoing voice message on the company line that says, they're deeply saddened, offering their condolences and saying that they're cooperating fully with authorities.

But in the meantime, the New York State Parks Department has suspended all of the boats in the Shoreline Cruises fleet, five in all, because of a regulation requirement that required an additional crew member aboard the boat on Sunday for a party of that size. Remember, a 40-foot boat, 48 people, including the captain.

So, apparently Shoreline Cruises was not in -- was not adhering to regulations when it took that party of senior citizens out Sunday afternoon.

And right now, all of its boats are suspended -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know, Susan, I'm still trying to figure out how a wake from another boat, no matter how big, could flip this thing over. Could it have been something mechanical?

LISOVICZ: Absolutely. And I think no one is on the record saying that it was a wake. In fact, there are a lot of conflicting reports, people who were out there boating nearby who say that they saw the accident and saying that it was calm. That is why there was such an emphasis on raising the Ethan Allen successfully yesterday intact, because it's really exhibit A in the investigation to figure out exactly what happened. How a boat that had a good safety operating record, a captain with years of experience and who is liked very well and is highly regarded, could be involved in an accident that tragic.

COSTELLO: Susan Lisovicz reporting live from Lake George, New York, this morning.

More trouble for Tom DeLay. The Texas Republican has been indicted again, but this time it was by a different grand jury that was seated just hours before reaching their decision. DeLay calls it the legal equivalent of a do-over, while prosecutors call it money laundering.

CNN Radio's Dick Uliano joins me now from Washington to try and sort this out.

So, how did this come down?

DICK ULIANO, CNN RADIO: Well, it is a surprising new indictment against Tom DeLay. And I think, you know, for purposes of clarification, Carol, we should point out that it's not a new case against DeLay. This is the same case in which a grand jury indicted him last week on conspiracy to violate Texas' campaign finance laws.

Now, DeLay's lawyers say this new indictment is the result of a motion that DeLay's lawyer filed yesterday to dismiss that case, arguing that the conspiracy count was not covered by state election laws at the time. And within hours of the lawyer filing that motion, a new grand jury brought this new indictment apparently to buttress the case against DeLay, a new count of money laundering.

COSTELLO: So, why didn't prosecutors come up with this before?

ULIANO: Well, that's a good question. But the prosecutor's office, according to sources, is saying, look, Ronnie Earle, the Travis County prosecutor, always said the investigation was still open. And that's why you have this new count.

But DeLay's people are saying, no, Ronnie Earle panicked here, realized that the first count wouldn't stick, so came up with another.

The bottom line here, Carol, is this is really beginning to look like an old-fashioned Texas showdown in the streets, you know, with the cowboy boots kicking up the dust. Neither side is going to back off here. Republican Tom DeLay on one side, who has lost his leadership post in Washington, against the Democrat prosecutor, who is going after DeLay on these counts, that basically changed Texas politics a little. It changed the makeup of the state legislatures.

COSTELLO: Through redistricting.

ULIANO: Right.

COSTELLO: Dick Uliano reporting live from Washington this morning. Thank you.

Capitol Hill heavyweights are letting their thoughts be known on President Bush's Supreme Court nominee.

Soledad O'Brien joins us now for a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."

Good morning -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Carol, good morning to you.

We're going to have much more on the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court this morning. Miers, as you well know, is already drawing fire from some of the president's supporters. They're worried she may not be conservative enough.

We're going to talk to presidential counsel, Dan Bartlett, about that. And also Senator Orrin Hatch. He sits on the judiciary committee. He's going to meet privately with Miers this morning. We'll ask him what he is expecting from that meeting.

Also, Miles has the day off, but Rob Marciano is helping us out. He's reporting this morning from Lake Charles, Louisiana, which, of course, is another town hit pretty hard by Hurricane Rita. That storm shut down the city's casinos. The question now: Just how long is it going to take to get the town and the gambling industry back on its feet? We'll take a closer look at that this morning as well.

Those stories are all ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING" at the top of the hour -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, we'll see you in 20 minutes. Thank you, Soledad.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, with energy prices on the rise, we'll look at some simple ways to keep your bills in check.

And later, Google is an Internet giant, and it's about to get bigger. We'll tell you how.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This news just in to CNN. We have learned a car bomb has exploded near the Green Zone in Baghdad. As you know, that's where all of the government offices are and where all of the uppity ups in the military are housed.

CNN correspondents could hear the blast of that car bomb. They could see the smoke rising from the area, as you can see it right there. And it looks to be a massive car bomb.

We don't know about casualties. We don't know about damage yet. Our correspondents are just getting to the scene. When we get more information on this, we'll let you know.

But, again, a car bomb going off in Baghdad near the Green Zone.

Let's take a quick look now at how the international markets are trading. Tokyo's Nikkei up 213 points, the London FTSE down 12, the German DAX is up 20 points.

Let's talk money now, your money. We're already feeling the pinch from high gas prices. But wait until it gets cold.

The Energy Department warns natural gas and heating oil costs are expected to rise and rise in a big way because of those back-to-back hurricanes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL BODMAN, ENERGY SECRETARY: Because of the increasing demand for energy and the damage that has been inflicted on America's energy infrastructure in the Gulf Coast region by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Americans can expect to see higher energy costs, higher costs to heat and power our homes, our schools, as well as our places of business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In fact, heating bills could double.

Here to talk about what you can do to conserve energy and save money is Alvin Ubell, an energy saving expert.

And you've come with props.

ALVIN UBELL, ENERGY-SAVING EXPERT: Yes, I come with things here.

COSTELLO: I love that. I do. Let's go down the list very quickly, because your first bit of advice for people is put on a sweater.

UBELL: Well, yes. You get a sweater. If you're in the house and you put a sweater on, you could save at least 1 or 2 percent on your energy bill, because you'll lower the thermostat, because you will be warmer naturally.

COSTELLO: OK. I'm going to be a whiney homeowner. What are you talking about?

UBELL: Well...

COSTELLO: Lowering your thermostat?

UBELL: Well, here, I've got a thermostat here, which is really -- I just want to let everybody know how it works. And open it up, and there it is. See that thermostat? Can we get a camera on that?

COSTELLO: Yes, we're getting a camera.

UBELL: Right.

COSTELLO: There it is.

UBELL: That's it really. What a lot of people think is that if they turn up the thermostat, and they push it all the way up to the top, the heat will come up faster. It's not a throttle, you know, like a car. You can make it go faster like that. What happens is, if you put it on the right temperature at 70 degrees, and it's a little cold, push it up only a half-a-degree. And then let the heat come up, and then push it down a half-a-degree if you're too warm. Don't go up and down.

A thermostat is no different than a light switch. It just turns the heat on, and it turns the heat off. But the most important thing to understand that...

COSTELLO: Now, hold on before we go on, because, you know, Chad is the biggest penny pincher on the face of the planet. And he has a question for you.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yesterday, we heard from, and I read something from Energy Star, you know, you see that star on all of the appliances. If everybody takes an incandescent light, a 100-watt light bulb, out of their screw bulb there and puts one of those fluorescent lights in there, those instant-on fluorescent lights, if everybody does that and the whole country does that one bulb, that would be like taking one million cars off the road. Are those bulbs that efficient? Is it really that good?

UBELL: Yes, it is. Those are fluorescent kind of bulbs. They use less energy. They use a transformer in order to convert into higher voltage in order to have the fluorescent light work. The thing is that they do save energy.

But the biggest energy-saving thing is insulation, really. People -- the three most important things about saving energy is insulation, insulation, insulation. You wouldn't do out into the outside world with a threadbare sweater. You'll freeze. It's cold. That's why the Eskimos go in 50-degree below zero, and they're able to conserve energy. And they've know about this for literally hundreds and hundreds of years.

COSTELLO: Because they're dressing in layers.

UBELL: Yes.

COSTELLO: When you talk about insulation, though, how much should you put in your home extra?

UBELL: It depends upon where in the United States you happen to be. Here in the Northeastern part of the United States, you should have R36 or something like that, like 12 or 13 inches of insulation. As you do down further in the South, you could use less insulation.

But insulation not only helps you for the wintertime, but it also helps you in the summertime. It keeps the cool air in that building, and that's what it's all about.

A thermos bottle. You put hot water in it, it stays hot. You put cold water in it, it stays cold. If you think about a house is the envelope of that house and you insulate that house, you don't need an efficient heating system.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk specifically about money. So, let's say that I usually set my thermostat at 73 degrees, because I like it warm.

UBELL: You're cooking. About 71.

COSTELLO: OK, I'm cooking. But I'm going to turn it down to 70. So, how much money would I save?

UBELL: Well, for every degree you lower the temperature, you save to 2 to 3 percent of your energy bill. So, if you lower it again and again. If you wear a sweater, you could lower it even more. And...

COSTELLO: To 68. UBELL: Well, if you go to 68, you'll save quite a bit of electricity -- energy. But you save it only for that period in which you save the energy. It's not for the whole day. It's just for that period.

If you go to work during the day, turn the thermostat way down. You don't have to heat up the house for the cockroaches and the mice. That house should be nice and warm when you come home. And you should buy a clock-type thermostat, which sets the thermostat up maybe an hour or two before you come home. And that's where you'll save energy.

The other thing is what we have to do in the United States is we have to think about putting what are called solaboltaics (ph). That could save -- if every house in the United States put in solaboltaics (ph) on every house, you would save 1.3 billion barrels of oil a year.

COSTELLO: Wow!

UBELL: And that would put a hole in the Saudi's pocketbook. I'm telling you.

COSTELLO: But...

MYERS: Yes, I've got one more question, Carol.

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Chad.

MYERS: Can I jump in here real quick?

UBELL: I'll give you two questions.

MYERS: I see that insulation you have there, and that's still the old fiberglass. Is there nothing more high-tech?

UBELL: Oh, fiberglass is more high-tech than you can ever get. First of all, insulation, fiberglass or mineral wool or rock wool or, say, vermiculite, that goes into your house. It stays there forever. You don't have to lubricate it. You don't have to adjust it. It does the work forever as long as that house stays up. And that's so magnificent about insulation.

COSTELLO: You got that, Chad?

MYERS: I do.

COSTELLO: This is good stuff.

MYERS: It is.

UBELL: Well, if people want more information, I have an energy audit that I give away for free of charge. What they can do is they can punch up on the Web site, www.accuratebuilding.com, and you'll see a little icon there, "energy audit." Punch it up. Take it down. And go through that energy audit. I guarantee you can save 20 percent of your energy bill if you follow what that energy audit tells you to do. COSTELLO: Yes, I'm going just because of the way you said it. Alvin Ubell, thank you for joining us this morning.

UBELL: My pleasure.

COSTELLO: You've been terrific.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, Google's domination of the Internet. What sets them apart from everybody else?

But first, it's time to say happy birthday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Doesn't it seem like Google is taking over the world? After all, it's one of the few words that serves as a noun and a verb.

Look at this political cartoon, the Democrat, you know, the donkey there. In Googling President Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, Ms. Miers, not coming with much on Google. But this cartoon does point out how pervasive Google has become. And it's about to get even bigger.

The company is now offering to provide free WiFi Internet access for the whole city of San Francisco. And Google is going to China as well. Local media reports the company is looking recruit 50 college graduates for the development center it will be opening there.

Our guest knows all about the power of this online phenomenon. John Battelle is the author of "The Search," and he joins us this morning from Kentfield, California.

JOHN BATTELLE, AUTHOR, "THE SEARCH": Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, look at what Google is doing. I mean, it's going to open a facility in China. It's going to offer WiFi service to all of San Francisco. Why is it doing this?

BATTELLE: Well, it's only getting started. Google is an organization that's driven by thousands, literally thousands of extremely bright people, who have a platform of -- a computer platform which is really extraordinary, hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.

And once you have a platform like that, which, of course, was built by its original search application, there are any number of other things you can run over that platform. And they're busy dreaming up as many as they can come up with.

COSTELLO: But what benefit do they get from offering WiFi to San Francisco?

BATTELLE: Well, that's, you know, speculated over a lot. And I think one of the answers is advertising. They have a very large advertising network with hundreds of thousands of advertisers. And with a local WiFi network, why, you can pinpoint exactly where a person is, which means that you can give them advertising that's very, very directed at, for example, you know, knowing exactly where they are.

COSTELLO: Oh.

BATTELLE: And the local advertising business is a very, very big business. The Yellow Pages is a $15 billion business, for example.

COSTELLO: Interesting. OK. So, I get that now. They're also collaborating with NASA. They're going to build a research complex. So, why are they doing that?

BATTELLE: Well, there are a number of reasons. One of them is that, you know, folks in Silicon Valley have a love affair with space, you know, and NASA-ings (ph) is one of the original research areas that helped the U.S. win the space race.

But also, any company that gets to a certain size and scale, whether it's Google now or Microsoft or IBM or other companies like it, really needs to focus on pure research on, you know, creating an environment where new ideas that might change the world can be cooked up. And this is certainly going to ensure that that occurs.

COSTELLO: That's kind of frightening, because you say changed the world, and Google has certainly done that. And when you think about, you know, how it's changed our dating life, because, you know, if you get a new date with a guy, you Google his name to find out more about him, right?

BATTELLE: Absolutely. You are who the index says you are. And even if that's not a complete picture, that's who people think you're going to be. And when they put your name into Google, they judge you by what they see, which means that increasingly we in this society are going to get -- need to get used to the idea of controlling our image through the index of Google.

COSTELLO: John Battelle, thank you so much. Author of "The Search." Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.

BATTELLE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And especially for getting up so early out there in California.

When we come back, we're going to give away a mug. This is DAYBREAK for Tuesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Chad, our good friend, Tom, just sent us the average price of a gallon of gas.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: It has edged up very slightly, $2.94 a gallon. On Sunday, it averaged $2.93. MYERS: You know, I find a lot of gas stations here in Atlanta that don't have gas period, or don't have some grades or something like that. And that's the same problem we had right after Katrina, and that's kind of shocking.

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: Because you would think that by now it's fixed, but clearly it's not.

COSTELLO: It's not.

MYERS: Let me show you the mug winner for today. How many states have legalized same-sex unions and marriages? That would be three -- Massachusetts, Vermont, and this month now, Connecticut. And what's the name of that spicy beer, that Mexican brew? That is called Michelada.

COSTELLO: Oh.

MYERS: I'm not sure about that one.

The winner is from South Dakota, and she's going to need this mug, because the morning lows are going down in the teens. Jackie McPherson, Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, our winner from yesterday. You still have a chance to win, though, for tomorrow.

The music industry is blaming what for the decline in CD sales? And which moon phase actually causes the tides to rise the highest?

Go to CNN.com/daybreak, and give us your answers there. Where are the highest tides, what moon phase?

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

"Now in the News."

Just minutes ago, a car bomb went off near the Green Zone in Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers. Four other people were injured. The Green Zone is a highly-secured area, where U.S. military officials and many international diplomatic officials are located. Reuters is reporting the car was among a convoy that entered the Green Zone. You can see heavy smoke pouring from it now. More on "AMERICAN MORNING."

The U.S. military backed by Iraqi security forces launches two new operations today in Anbar Province. Operation River Gate involves more than 2,500 U.S. troops. The other offensive, Operation Mountaineers, targets the southern district of Iraq. It involves 500 U.S. service members.

Just about 60 minutes ago, the winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Physics were announced in Stockholm. The committee announcing the winners seen here. Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber, also along with German Theodor Hansch, They'll share the prize. They were cited for their work in optics.

From the Time Warner center in New York, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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