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CNN Live At Daybreak

Senate Showdown; Earthquake Victims; Remembering Rosa Parks; Bird Flu 101

Aired November 02, 2005 - 05:29   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK.

Coming up in the next 30 minutes, the life and legacy of Rosa Parks, a look at what we have learned from this simple and strong woman.

And later, just what is the Avian Flu? Just ahead, we'll give you the nuts and bolts of this deadly virus and if you really have to worry.

But first, "Now in the News."

Australia's prime minister warns that he has received intelligence information about a specific terror threat to his country. But John Howard is refusing to give details about the threat, citing security concerns.

Police are looking for these fugitives. Jimmy Causey and Johnny Brewer escaped from a maximum-security prison in Columbia, South Carolina, by hiding in a dumpster. A trash truck drove off the prison grounds with them inside.

The first "Tonight Show" bandleader Skitch Henderson has died. Henderson was a Grammy winning conductor who worked with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby before founding the New York Pops. He died of natural causes. He was 87.

To the Forecast Center and, Jacqui, good morning.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Carol.

COSTELLO: I like the sound of that.

Thank you, Jacqui.

Now to the showdown in the Senate. Democrats accuse Republicans of failing to answer questions about prewar intelligence on Iraq. Republicans accuse Democrats of hijacking the Senate. So the battle lines are drawn.

Here is CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The political battle over prewar intelligence has officially spilled over on to the Senate floor.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: Mr. President, enough time has gone by. I demand, on behalf of the American people, that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted. And in accordance with Rule 21, I now move that Senate go into closed session.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I second the motion.

TODD: The Senate's Democratic leader triggering a closed session of the full Senate to pressure the Republican leadership to conduct an investigation into the handling of prewar intelligence, a probe the Republicans had promised but had not yet started. Democrats threatened that until that investigation gets under way, they would push to close the Senate chamber every day.

Republicans were furious.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: I'll have to say, not with the previous Democratic leader, or the current Democratic leader, have ever I been slapped in the face with such an affront to the leadership of this grand institution. Every other time, and again, we'll have to go back and look at the history, there has been at least consideration for the other side of the aisle before a stunt, and this is a pure stunt that is being performed by Senator Reid, Senator Durbin and their leadership.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So after all of that, the senators did reach a compromise. Following the showdown, senators agreed to review that status of the investigation by November 14. Three Republicans and three Democrats are to report back to Senate leaders on that date, the 14th. Democrats are calling the move a victory for the American people. The closed session lasted about two-and-a-half hours.

We're going to talk more about this with Bill Schneider in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

In Pakistan, it's now almost a one -- it's now almost been one month since that powerful earthquake devastated South Asia. Now with the brutal Himalayan winter closing in, the U.N. says aid donations to earthquake victims are down to a trickle. Relief workers still have not been able to reach an estimated 200,000 people cut off by the earthquake. The U.N.'s World Food Program lacks the money to mount an around-the-clock operation into the winter. It is another disaster in the making.

Our Stan Grant made the 10-hour trip from Pakistan's capital to the Kashmir Mountains to bring you this crisis up close.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When there is nothing left, they at least have each other. The desperate, the homeless huddled together. High in the mountains of Pakistan- controlled Kashmir where the temperature is dipping below zero, the survivors of the quake share a fire and their pain.

My future is bleak, this woman tells me. I lost my husband. I have no home, no blankets, no tent and the snow is coming. I'm worried about my children.

Another had two children die. She now has her baby and a young boy with a broken arm that needs attention. She tries not to think of her dead children, she says. She tells me her thoughts now are for the living.

For now, they make do. They cook what food they have, some chicken, some corn. It's not enough, they tell me, but enough to share.

There are 200,000 people, like these, right across the earthquake region. Those receiving little or no aid. More than three million, according to the Pakistan government, remain homeless.

Since the earthquake, life has been just about survival, each day a victory in itself. But for these people, there is always the fear of what tomorrow might bring.

Javed Rathore has come home to try to bring relief to his people. He now lives in the United States, but his heart is in his devastated village of Chambor (ph).

JAVED RATHORE, PAKISTANI: I don't have a word to explain. It's horrible. It's terrible. It's devastating. It's painful. It's painful.

GRANT: Javed is urging the Pakistan government and the international community to do more. He fears, as all fear, the coming winter. The first snow could come any day.

RATHORE: So they have nothing now. They are just here under the open sky. They don't have a place to sleep. They just sleep on the ground, you know. We are trying to do something, but we can't do it without the help of international help.

GRANT: Out here, 8,000 feet above sea level, the mountains touch the stars. The people can only cling to each other.

Stan Grant, CNN, Chambor, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: If you want to help, here's where you can go. Log on to CNN.com/special/2005/Asia.quake. I know that's a really long Web address. Just log on to CNN.com and put in what you want to find where you know it asks you. They have those little boxes. Anyway, you can click on to that site and donate. And remember time is running out for these people and they do need your help.

In the meantime, back here in the United States, President Bush has named a point man to oversee the government's Gulf Coast recovery efforts. Donald Powell is his name. He'll give up his post as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to take on the challenge. Lawmakers from the Gulf Coast region had pushed for a federal official to oversee reconstruction projects.

One of President Bush's allies in Texas is aiming more sharp criticism at FEMA. Republican Governor Rick Perry says FEMA's poor planning and inaction are putting tens of thousands of hurricane victims at risk. More than a quarter-million evacuees were relocated to Texas after Hurricane Katrina. Perry says FEMA is also preventing law enforcement from knowing which evacuees are dangerous criminals.

In other news "Across America" this morning, the judge who was to preside over Tom DeLay's trial has been removed from the case. DeLay's attorney asked that District Judge Bob Perkins be removed because of his financial contributions to a liberal group that's been highly critical of DeLay. The former House majority leader is charged with money laundering and conspiracy in an alleged campaign finance scheme.

It's one of the largest Medicaid settlements in history. Tennessee-based King Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay the federal government $124 million to settle allegations of overcharging Medicaid and other federal program. The penalty result claims that King underpaid Medicaid from 1994 to 2002.

A chief medical examiner in Georgia says the death of Atlanta Hawks' center, Jason Collier, was due to heart abnormalities. Collier's autopsy showed he had an abnormally large heart and a sudden heart rhythm disturbance. No drugs or chemicals were found in his system. Collier died on October 15 at the age of 28.

All it takes is one person to stand up, or in this case, to sit down. The far-reaching legacy of Rosa Parks is next.

And stripping away all the feathers and getting to the facts behind the Bird Flu. How much of a threat is it really? Do you really need to panic?

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Civil rights icon Rosa Parks will be buried today. Just about 20 minutes from now, her body will begin a journey from the Charles Wright Museum of African-American History to the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit and there funeral services will be performed.

Many Americans, black and white, credit Parks with changing their lives.

CNN's Dan Lothian looks back at her legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN DELIDOW, CHEF: I know, if you need a Thai chicken, I got one started.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steven Delidow never met Rosa Parks. But this white, Jewish, Motown native says his life is different today because of what Parks started 50 years ago.

S. DELIDOW: If we could all do one small act that could quite possibly change the world we'd be living in utopia.

LOTHIAN: Delidow, a chef and restaurant owner, is married to an African-American woman, and they are expecting their first child in about a month. Their relationship once would have not only been taboo but illegal in many states.

GINA DELIDOW, EXPECTANT MOTHER: I mean a life without Steven you know is saying that it would be illegal for our relationship, it's just too much.

LOTHIAN: While there is still plenty of what she calls recycled hatred, much has changed.

G. DELIDOW: Well there is more understanding and there is more compassion and there is not so much I see this color of your skin.

LOTHIAN: By refusing to surrender her seat on a bus to a white man, Rosa Parks ignited the flame that sparked a Civil Rights Movement and shattered many racial barriers. She never imagined how far reaching that one act would be.

ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER: No, I didn't know what would be the outcome of my taking this stand.

LOTHIAN: Even today she continues to inspire.

CYNTHIA BAKER, MOURNER: We appreciate all that she did and what she represented.

LOTHIAN: Cynthia Baker joined tens of thousands of people, young and old, who lined up for hours to pay their last respects, a public viewing, a final farewell at this museum of African-American History in Detroit.

Not far away, Detroit educator and social worker Cleophus Roseboro peered out the sliding glass doors of his 20th floor apartment and reflected on the woman he met several times, the woman who changed his life. CLEOPHUS ROSEBORO, EDUCATOR: What she did was to enview (ph) me with a can-do attitude that I'm not going to let anything stop me from doing what it is that I need to do.

LOTHIAN: Her passing, he says, while sad, may present new opportunities.

ROSEBORO: Perhaps this, her death, may be another spark that will take race relations further.

LOTHIAN: Maybe not utopia, but for this couple, a better, more tolerant world for their new child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Dan Lothian reporting.

Again, Rosa Parks will be buried today. CNN will bring you parts of the funeral service live beginning this morning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:45 Eastern. Here is what's all new this morning.

Democrats are declaring victory after a sudden move to take the Senate into a rare secret session. It was a dramatic attempt to speed up an investigation into prewar Iraq intelligence. Senators have agreed to review the status of the probe by November 14.

In France, dozens of vehicles were torched last night in poor Paris suburbs as police continue to clash with angry youths. Officials say the clashes broke out last week after two teenagers of African origin were electrocuted while apparently fleeing police.

In money news, the Fed raised a key short-term interest rate another quarter of a percentage point. It's the 12th consecutive quarter point rate hike by the central bank since June of 2004.

In culture, parents may need to do closer research on some G- rated films. A Harvard study confirms violence and veiled sexual references have steadily increased in the seemingly innocent world of cartoons.

In sports, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs began the season the same way they ended the last one, with a win. Last night, the Spurs got both their NBA championship rings and a 102 to 92 win over the Denver Nuggets.

To the Forecast Center and -- Jacqui.

JERAS: A lot of points.

COSTELLO: Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Carol.

COSTELLO: I'll take it.

Thank you, Jacqui.

Don't go away, because it is time to read some e-mail. And we've been getting a lot this morning.

JERAS: A lot, a lot. I think people have some very strong opinions about some of these.

Our question was should teacher pay be based on student performance? And we've got a lot of comments.

This idea is a good beginning to solving some real problems, but the question remains, how will you determine if students are having academic success, through standardized tests? Won't teachers be tempted to teach to the test? Is this real quality learning? I'm a teacher and have discussed these kinds of reforms for education in many of our classes. It will be interesting to see how Denver (ph) deals with this in the years to come. That's from the Burnetts (ph).

Joseph F. Kenny (ph) writes in, no, all that will do is motivate teachers to inflate grades, preventing students from receiving accurate assessments. This is just like facing the amount of government money school districts receive on their results. It just further serves as a handicap from improving the situation.

I don't believe a teacher should be paid on a based student's performance. I believe that although teaching skills are important, that every child, to a certain extent, has the ability only to learn at their own pace as well. That's from Suzanne (ph) in Kingston in New York.

And Cline (ph) from ClineWire3 (ph) at Comcast says I think teachers should get paid million-dollar contracts, just like sports stars.

COSTELLO: Yes, the day that happens I think we'll be living like on another planet.

JERAS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thanks for your comments this morning. We appreciate them.

We have all heard about it, now the president is committing lots and lots of money to fight it. The Avian Flu, that's what we're talking about. Just ahead, a so-called primer on the Bird Flu and whether a pandemic can be stopped in its tracks or are we all just panicking? I don't know. Is Chicken Little involved in this? We're going to explore that issue when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The president has a pandemic plan. President Bush's plan to protect us against a possible Bird Flu pandemic includes money to help other countries detect and contain any outbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A flu pandemic would have global consequences. So no nation can afford to ignore this threat. And every nation has responsibilities to detect and stop its spread. Here in the United States, we're doing our part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The current Bird Flu found in Asia and Europe has caused millions of birds to be destroyed. Sixty-two people have died from the virus. That's half of the number of people who have been infected.

There are three key elements to this U.S. $7 billion plan, worldwide detection, stockpiling vaccines for healthcare providers and promoting work on developing new vaccines. The president's plan is pretty ambitious.

Last week, the Senate passed its own $8 billion plan to fight a possible pandemic.

But reactions were mixed when we asked you if the federal government could handle the task? A CNN-"USA Today"-Gallup Poll shows 52 percent are confident in the government's ability, but 75 percent of you say you aren't even worried about becoming a victim of the Bird Flu. Twenty-four percent say they are actually worried.

So now we know the president's plan to deal with the possible Bird Flu pandemic and we know what people think about the threat. But what exactly is this disease and how does it spread?

Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Avian flu, or H5N1, has infected more than 120 people so far in at least 6 countries.

ROBERT WEBSTER, ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: The virus in Asia is killing more than 50 percent of humans infected. If this virus learns to transmit human to human and maintains that level of killing humans, we've got a global catastrophe.

COHEN: Under an electron microscope, flu viruses look like spiky creatures akin to tiny hedgehogs. H5N1 may seem unassuming in the lab, but to be sure, it has the ability to cause a public health crisis.

In fact, experts say that H5N1 resembles the strain responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic. That strain mutated to spread between people and ultimately killed as many as 50 million around the world.

Today, there have been a handful of human-to-human transmissions of Avian influenza. Symptoms so far have included sudden high fever, coughing, sometimes with blood, difficulty breathing, and diarrhea.

Avian Flu certainly does not spread easily, but scientists warn that H5N1 could change to become an explosive killer. It could mutate on its own, like the 1918 flu did, or it could combine with the common flu that circulates every year.

Let's say this chicken farmer has the regular flu, which always spreads like wildfire from person to person. Then he gets infected with H5N1 from one of his chickens. Now both viruses are in his cells, where they exchange some of their eight genes. It's called reassortment. If they shuffle the genes just right, the H5N1 strain can pick up the gene that would help it pass from person to person, like the winter flu does. That's the biggest fear of all.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Existing supplies of the antiviral drug Tamiflu could be expanded to the use of a generic drug, if there is a widespread outbreak. The journal "Nature" reports the cheap, readily available drug Probenecid (ph) slows the removal of many drugs, including Tamiflu, from the blood by the kidneys. Neither the FDA, nor the World Health Organization, has weighed in on this idea.

So, should we even be panicking about this whole thing? The threat is real, for sure, but how likely is a Bird Flu pandemic? We're going to get some answers from a public health expert in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

And it's a good thing, because in "The New York Post" this morning, people are flocking to get their flu shots for this flu season and they think they will be protected against Bird Flu. So we're going to ask the doctor all sorts of questions about whether you should be worried. And, no, the flu shot you get this year will not protect you from the Bird Flu. And there's not even a case of that in the United States.

Coming up on DAYBREAK, this will be the season when you get that extra job, but will their be holiday jobs for people and businesses that need them? We'll get some answers.

And a character amid the murder and mayhem on television tells us all about her real life battle with diabetes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Time for our DAYBREAK "Eye Openers."

It looks like a mysterious crime scene, but no charges will be filed against an Arkansas man for killing a deer that crashed through his daughter's bedroom window. Wayne Goldsberry (ph) woke up to find the White-tailed deer tearing up the bedroom. After a brief struggle, he finally subdued the deer by breaking its neck and killing it.

Zoo Atlanta is celebrating a rare birth. Cushi (ph), a 21-year- old female western low land gorilla, gave birth to twins late Monday night. Their gender not known yet and they have not been named. Officials say there have been six incidences of twin gorilla births recorded in North America in zoos. Since 1966, only three sets have survived.

Sotheby's New York is auctioning some very rare collectibles of imperial significance these days, including a diamond necklace believed to have been made for Catherine the Great. The necklace is expected to fetch a couple of million bucks.

The next hour of DAYBREAK begins in one minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is Wednesday, November 2.

Prewar intelligence is under fire and the gloves are off. Senate Democrats say they want some answers about the war and they made their point in a big way. The Republicans are furious.

A presidential panel proposes changing income taxes. Good news, it's simpler, but say bye-bye to most tax breaks.

And a final farewell to a lady whose simple gesture changed the fabric of America. In fact, you're taking a live look at Detroit. Rosa Parks' body being moved to her final resting place.

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