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American Morning
In Times of Crisis; Letterman Stalker; Dog's Reunion
Aired December 28, 2005 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a lot to cover this morning. Let's do it.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We do. Let's do it.
Right to the headlines. A developing story to tell you about.
Gusty winds and dry conditions are fueling massive wildfires across parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Flames devouring homes and outbuildings. The governor has declared a disaster, calling in the worst fire threat in five years.
In Oklahoma, thousands of acres of grassland have been scorched. Water-dumping helicopters will be used today if the winds die down. Gusty conditions prevented them from flying on Tuesday.
We showed you this dramatic video on Tuesday, a man in New Orleans waving a knife confronted by police. Now increasing criticism of the police response.
Officers say they shot to death 38-year-old Anthony Hayes after he lunged at them with that knife. The police superintendent is standing behind his officers, saying their lives were in danger. Superintendent Warren Riley is our guest in the next hour.
A serial rape suspect who escaped from jail will stay behind bars until trial. Reynaldo Rapalo was denied bail on the escape charge. He's accused of sexually assaulting seven women and girls. Rapalo was awaiting trial for that when he escaped last week. He was recaptured on Monday.
We could soon know more about the political views of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. The National Archives is set to release 17 documents related to Alito. They'll include memos and notes he wrote during the past 25 years. The records are set to be opened in less than three hours.
And an identity theft alert now. Marriott International says it is missing important backup computer tapes. The tapes contain credit card information and Social Security numbers for more than 200,000 customers. It's mostly time share owners and employees.
Marriott officials say it's not clear if the tapes were lost or stolen. They've been missing since mid-November. So far, no one has reported any misuse.
And Houston Rockets star Tracy McGrady had somewhere more important to be during last night's game. His fiancee was having their baby. Here's McGrady, number one in the action against the Utah Jazz. He scored 21 points before he left at halftime. The Jazz went on to win 82-74.
McGrady's fiancee gave birth to a baby boy named Laymen Lamar.
Laymen Lamar McGrady -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Laymen? That just sets you up for mediocrity. Doesn't it?
COSTELLO: Maybe it's a family name, Jacqui.
JERAS: Perhaps. Laymen Lamar, it's got a good ring to it, doesn't it?
COSTELLO: Nice alliteration.
JERAS: Exactly, like Jacqui Jeras, Carol Costello.
COSTELLO: Right.
JERAS: Miles doesn't have it. Oh well. Too bad, so sad.
(LAUGHTER)
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: Coming up, is the economy heading for another recession? Not if I have anything to do about it.
O'BRIEN: You're taking care of it single-handedly, I think.
And later, remember that dog we rescued after Hurricane Rita? One of our producers took her home. But there's a new twist to this story. It is a happy ending, at least for the dog.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Thousands of people are living in tents in Pakistan. They are victims of that October earthquake that killed more than 70,000 people.
Among those helping, a U.S. Army MASH unit. It happens to be the last MASH unit in the Army.
Our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, tells us how they are helping in times of crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the mountains of Pakistan, you need two functioning legs to survive. They tell me anything less, and like an animal, you die. In other words, to lose a leg here is a death sentence.
That's why they worry about 10-year-old Abita Danon (ph). She now has only one leg. The other crushed when the walls and roof of her school buckled all around here.
CAPT. JOHN FERNALD, MASH PEDIATRICIAN: One of the true disasters in pediatrics is all the schools that collapsed. So, you know, every (INAUDIBLE).
GUPTA: Abita (ph) was one of three children to survive out of more than 200. But she is considered lucky.
(on camera): It's hard to believe that this was actually a school once. These are actually tables over here, a bench for the students over here.
This is where they studied. You have notepads still lying on the ground, pencils all still standing just the way it was on October 8.
I also couldn't help but notice some of these signs around the room. This one in particular, "Out of the frying pan, into the fire," with the Urdu translation underneath. How eerily true.
Then over here, just a whole collection of papers and books. Someone came back and wrote on this chalkboard in Urdu afterwards. It reads, "On October 8, 2005, the earth shook and wreaked havoc." And it certainly did for so many students in this school and so many members of this community.
(voice-over): It was also a description of what happened to Abita Danon (ph). She was so fragile, so badly injured, simply moving her meant it would take over a month to get her to the hospital. If she could get there at all. By the time she did arrive, she was infected and nearly dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bones were sticking out of the skin for 30 days before they were treated and the infection is just persistent. And, you know, it requires a lot of trips to the operating room.
GUPTA: Nine operations so far. It would take all the resources of the U.S. Army's 212th MASH unit to coax her leg and life back to health.
A MASH unit. Remember? A Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. And this is the last MASH in existence. After it's gone, MASH will be disbanded in favor of smaller, more nimble units. But here, in northeastern Pakistan, 200 patients a day are lucky MASH is still open for business.
Here, a young boy with scabies. This man simply can't sleep. A woman who's lost all feeling in her hand. And some of the stories are just too much to bear.
Dr. Mohammed Haque from New York City is volunteering. A Pakistani-American doctor and a Muslim. He took care of Americans after 9/11. DR. MOHAMMED HAQUE, VOLUNTEER PHYSICIAN: (INAUDIBLE) baby starts crying.
GUPTA: No matter how hard he works, he can never bring back a young girl's mother.
This woman was carrying her baby that morning. And even though she broke her arm trying, she could not save her baby's life.
My own daughter is six months old. These stories so incredibly hard to hear.
And this is just one day. All of this pain and grief in just 24 hours.
At the MASH unit, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: You can see more of Sanjay's report on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," weeknights, 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.
COSTELLO: And coming up, the latest on that restraining order against David Letterman. Can a New Mexico woman prove he used code words on TV to harass her?
That story's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: We're rocking here, rocking the casbah.
Carrie Lee is here to tell us what's going on on Wall Street.
It's the end of the year. You've got a loss, you sell, right?
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: End of the year, loss, sell.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
COSTELLO: A developing story to tell you about now.
Massive wildfires engulfing parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Grass fires have destroyed nearly two dozen homes. Water-dumping helicopters will be used today if the winds die down. Gusty conditions have kept them grounded so far.
In Texas, smoke hanging over farmland and some roads. The governor has declared a disaster, calling in the worst fire threat in five years.
The New Orleans Police Department launching an investigation into that deadly shooting in the city's Garden District. Officers say they shot to death 38-year-old Anthony Hayes after he lunged at them with a knife. Now increasing criticism of the police response. The police superintendent is standing behind his officers, saying their lives were in danger. Superintendent Warren Riley will join us in the next hour.
In New York City, transit workers are one step closer to a new contract. The union's executive board has approved a tentative deal five days after it ended a crippling bus and subway strike.
The new deal drops management's demands for pension cuts, makes workers contribute a bit more to health care, and gives workers three to four percent pay raises during the next three years.
And for years he made us want to eat the doughnuts. Michael Vale, the "Time to make the doughnuts" guy has passed away. His family says he died of complications from diabetes. Vale paid the Dunkin' Donuts pitch man for 15 years. He also starred in 1,300 other TV commercials.
Michael Vale was 83 years old.
I used to love those commercials -- Jacqui.
JERAS: You know, I still quote them now and then.
COSTELLO: Oh, yes.
JERAS: Don't you find yourself, "Time to make the donuts? Time to make the travel cast." Time to make the -- you know.
COSTELLO: It's true. It went into the lexicon of our culture.
JERAS: Oh, yes. He was so loveable.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: It seemed like legal lunacy, and perhaps upon further review a judge in New Mexico agreed. He lifted the restraining order he granted to a woman in Santa Fe. She had accused David Letterman of harassing her through secret codes delivered during his TV show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLEEN NESTLER, CLAIMS LETTERMAN STALKED HER: He has intentions with me. He has plans, I should say. "Plans" is a better word than "intentions." And I want nothing to do with this individual.
COSTELLO (voice over): To hear Colleen Nestler tell it, talk show host David Letterman has stalked her for years, using his late- night TV show to communicate with hand gestures, eye expressions and code words.
DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: Please welcome Oprah Winfrey.
COSTELLO: In an unusual court filing, the New Mexico woman claimed words like "Oprah" conveyed Letterman's desire to marry her and train her to be his co-host. Earlier this month, the New Mexico judge hit Letterman with a temporary restraining order, ordering him to stay away from the apparent stranger.
Letterman's lawyers said, hold on, the suit has no merit and Letterman must protect his reputation.
Nestler admitted she could not prove her allegations, so on Tuesday the judge reversed himself and through out the restraining order.
Nestler's initial complaint came with a six-page typed letter accusing Letterman of mental cruelty and asking the judge to "Think of me and release me from his mental harassment and hammering." After losing the court's protection against Letterman, Nestler said, "He has access to me. He can actually come for me or send people. He has many accomplices."
"I know this sounds crazy. I was crazy to have listened to him in the beginning."
This is just the latest in a series of strange incidents involving the late-night legend. Margaret Ray (ph), you might remember, was arrested for routinely trespassing on Letterman's Connecticut property before she committed suicide. And earlier this year, a man who used to work on Letterman's Montana ranch was charged with plotting to kidnap Letterman's son.
As for this current case, while the restraining order was no laughing matter, Letterman just couldn't resist.
LETTERMAN: By the way, that wasn't a joke. It was a coded message.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: So be careful what you say. I'm afraid to say "Oprah" now, because who knows.
COSTELLO: I know. Ms. Nestler might come after you next.
Letterman apparently is not alone in speaking of Nestler. She claims other TV personalities -- not you, not yet.
O'BRIEN: No, OK. Good.
COSTELLO: Like Regis Philbin and Kelsey Grammer have secretly spoken to her over the public airwaves.
O'BRIEN: How did this get that far? That's all I want to know.
COSTELLO: That's an interesting question, because your taxpayer dollars paid for that court case.
O'BRIEN: Yes. If nothing else, it's entertaining, I guess.
Coming up, an update on a story we brought you a few months ago. Remember the dog we found in the wreckage of Hurricane Rita?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA GARRETT, CNN PRODUCER: Honestly, if she had had arms to hug me she would have. She just crawled up and pressed against me and was just so sweet. And I really just fell in love with her immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That's our producer Dana Garrett as she adopted the dog. But that is not the end of this special pooch's incredible tale. She loved the dog so much, she had to set her free.
That's more -- more on that on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Be sure to check out our Web site, CNN.com, for the latest on this morning's top stories, including, of course, those big wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma. And Oklahoma is really bad.
In fact, fires in parts of Oklahoma have actually jumped over roadways and spread. They're hoping they can dump some water by air on these fires today, but it all depends on the wind.
Also on CNN.com, the most popular stories, including this one: Canada is blaming the United States for gun violence. They had a terrible shooting there at a shopping mall, where a 15-year-old girl was shot and killed, other bystanders were injured, when a guy went on a rampage. And Canada is now blaming illegal guns coming in from the United States for their violence problems.
So I guess that "South Park" song, you know, "Blame Canada," it's the other way around.
And if you're -- and if you're about to head out -- it's always the United States fault, isn't it? Don't you just get sick of that? But I digress.
If you're about to head out the door for work or school, you can stay in touch with CNN and AMERICAN MORNING by logging on to CNN.com and our pipeline video service. You can catch live, commercial-free news updates. It's all there at CNN.com/pipeline.
O'BRIEN: And now the story of the poor, pitiful pup and the producer who loved her. In September, you saw the rescue. And now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice over): It was the morning after Hurricane Rita. We had just weathered the storm at the police station when shortly after dawn we heard a whimper amid the wreckage of a storage shed.
(on camera): There we go. There he is. Oh. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. He's OK. He's just scared and wet.
(voice over): It was a spontaneous moment which later provided some grist for Jon Stewart.
(on camera): And we'll make sure that the dog gets back to its rightful owner.
JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": This story has a happy ending. Miles O'Brien was adopted by a nice family in Baton Rouge.
O'BRIEN (voice over): The truth is, for producer Dana Garrett, it was love at first sight.
GARRETT: When she came out of that crate she was so forlorn looking. And she just crawled into my lap. And honestly, if she had had arms to hug me, she would have. She just crawled up and pressed against me and was just so sweet. And I really just fell in love with her immediately.
O'BRIEN: No tags, no phone number on the crate. And police said if the owner did not materialize soon the dog would be put to sleep.
GARRETT: Especially having rescued her, I just thought, you know, I can't let that happen.
O'BRIEN: A week passed. No one came forward. Dana and the dog left town together to Dana's home in New York. She named her Sunny. She made fast friends, canine and human alike.
It was a happy ending. Or so it seemed.
MISTY MCCOURTNEY, RESCUED DOG'S OWNER: Hey, is my mom there?
O'BRIEN: Enter Misty McCourtney, the dog's rightful owner. The 17-year-old adopted the puppy when she was only 4 weeks old, named her Nevaeh. That's heaven spelled backwards.
MCCOURTNEY: We end up taking her home the first night we got her. She couldn't eat on her own, so we bottle-fed her.
O'BRIEN: Misty had been frantically trying to track the dog down. She finally got the story from police. And six weeks after we rescued the dog, Dana got the call she feared.
GARRETT: I knew at that point that I was so attached that I wasn't going to be able to just put her in a crate and put her on a plane and ship her back home.
O'BRIEN: So Dana drove her back 1,300 miles to Misty's new home with her dad in Nebraska.
Here she is.
MCCOURTNEY: Nevaeh, hi there, baby. Oh my god. Oh, you're getting me all dirty, but I don't care. GARRETT: She saw Misty and she was happy. But then it kicked in, and you could see when she really realized who it was. And she got so excited and just started whimpering and scampering around. And it just made me feel so good that she recognized her and was really happy to see her.
MCCOURTNEY: I just feel really, really excited that she's here. And I want to thank you so much for bringing her back. I'm really happy you brought her back.
O'BRIEN: A bittersweet end to the tale of the pup-struck producer, the grateful owner and a well-loved pooch.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: So Nevaeh is doing well with Misty and Dana's thinking about adopting another animal now.
COSTELLO: Oh, god. That story made me cry.
O'BRIEN: Yes. It's sweet, isn't it?
COSTELLO: I'm so embarrassed, but it's really nice.
O'BRIEN: Well, seeing that dog with her rightful owner reacting that way I think helped Dana quite a bit, because obviously there's love there. Yes.
COSTELLO: Well, good for Dana. Everybody's such -- I can't even speak. So let's go to the weather center and talk to Jacqui.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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