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Judging Alito; Kentucky Mine Collapse; Road to Recovery; Plant Explosion; Bird Flu Outbreak

Aired January 11, 2006 - 06:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.

Samuel Alito back in the spotlight today. Senators squaring off with another day of questioning for the Supreme Court nominee. We are live in Washington.

S. O'BRIEN: In Pennsylvania, a huge factory fire forces residents to stay inside their homes. Details are just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Another mine accident, this time in Kentucky, one man is dead. We are live at the scene.

And new information about the Sago Mine tragedy, those miners may have tried to bulldoze their way out before they hunkered down. We'll have details for you ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: A daring casino robbery plays out on the streets of Las Vegas. The suspect is still on the run.

And Angelina Jolie confirms those rumors, she is pregnant and it's Brad Pitt's baby. Details just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: We are just a little more than three hours away from the next round of questions for Judge Samuel Alito, the nominee who may tip the Supreme Court to the right. So far, Judge Alito has walked a fine line, excuse me, through the minefields of abortion and presidential power.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken live on Capitol Hill.

Bob, what can we expect today?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know the boxer who swings and just can't hit his opponent and finally collapses from exhaustion, well that's probably how the Democrats will feel and that's when the hearings will end. The Democrats going to continue to land some punches.

About the only news that came out of it was at the hands of the Republican chairman of the committee, Senator Arlen Specter, when he asked the nominee about a memo he had written in 1985 saying there was no constitutional right to abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL ALITO, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOMINEE: And I would approach the question with an open mind. And I would listen to the arguments that were made.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: So you would approach it with an open mind, not withstanding your 1985 statement?

ALITO: Absolutely, senator, that was a statement that I made at a prior period of time when I was performing a different role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And, Miles, I think if I was a senator, I'd probably vote to confirm anybody who would say I'm going to keep a closed mind.

M. O'BRIEN: That would be a news item, wouldn't it?

FRANKEN: Yes, it would.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm going to have a closed mind. I'm not changing it.

Let's -- what are Democrats saying about this? Republicans are obviously very satisfied with the way Judge Alito has performed. Democrats, I think, wanted a little more, didn't they?

FRANKEN: Quite clearly they were quite exasperated a couple of times criticizing him. Of course it's become quite one of the way that one gets the nomination, particularly one that's controversial. The mantra is stay out of trouble.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, and walking that fine line is tough. Boy, they really -- they -- obviously a lot of preparation involved in all of that. Interesting though, Samuel Alito said no one puts words in my mouth. What we're not hearing as much about today, or yesterday, at least, is filibuster.

FRANKEN: No, we're not, and I think the Democrats are deciding that it's a real big political risk. I think everybody realizes that. Once these hearings are over this week, the Democrats are going to have to decide whether that risk is worth taking. And the way things are going right now this will probably end with the proverbial whimper instead of a bang.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Bob Franken, thank you very much. Back with you in a little while.

Live coverage of the hearings coming up at 9:30 Eastern, Wolf Blitzer with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" once again.

Also, Pipeline subscribers, excuse me, can view gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings, as well as replays of the highlights, at CNN.com/pipeline.

Expect more turmoil in Iraq in the coming year, but the president says that is freedom in action. Mr. Bush with another Iraq speech today. He'll be in Louisville, Kentucky on behalf of a Republican incumbent. The congressional seat is being challenged by a Democrat who served in Iraq and says the invasion was a mistake. Now yesterday, the president said voters will know the difference between honest critics and partisan critics of the war.

S. O'BRIEN: Investigators are already at the scene this morning of a deadly coal mine accident in Kentucky. One miner is dead following a cave-in at the Pikeville Mine just about a hundred miles away from Lexington.

And that's where we find CNN's Keith Oppenheim this morning.

Keith, good morning.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

The nickname for the mine is the Maverick Mine. It's about four miles from that gated entrance behind me. And today two Kentucky state agencies will be conducting an investigation as to what happened.

The miner who died, his name was Cornelius Yates. He was 44 years old, an experienced veteran, about 15 years down in these mines. And around 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, he was doing his job. He was what's called a roof bolter. And he was under the canopy of a roof bolting machine, which probably didn't give him much protection when a huge chunk of mine roof fell on him. The chunk was about 20 by 14 by 3 feet thick.

Then, a nine-member rescue team went inside the mine. And a member of that team described what the emergency crews found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRACY STUMBO, OFFICE OF MINE SAFETY & LICENSING: One of our inspectors went in first to kind of look the scene over and he came back out. And by that time we had all arrived. So we all, there was probably six of us, went in the second time. And like Mark (ph) said, we took the coroner in with us, and because part of him was visible, so they pronounced him dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: That team went into the mine, Soledad, about one hour after the accident happened. Yates apparently was leading a four-man crew inside the mine, but there were no other injuries -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What about the mine's safety record in the past?

OPPENHEIM: The -- one of the Kentucky newspapers, "The Herald- Leader" in Lexington, is reporting on this mine's safety record, saying that there have been 114 citations since November of 2004. Now not all of those citations, we understand, have been settled. But one of the most interesting came in 2005, November 2005, specifically pointing to problems with mine roof and side mine collapse as well. S. O'BRIEN: Keith Oppenheim with us this morning.

Keith, thank you for that update.

One of the big questions from the Sago Mine tragedy is could the miners have walked out instead of barricading themselves in? We're now hearing that they did in fact try to ram their way out in a mine car but got blocked.

The brother-in-law of the only survivor, Randal McCloy, is quoted in an Association Press story, and he says the mine company president told him about the escape attempt. He says there are footprints to prove it. And the governor's office says that is their understanding as well.

Meanwhile, Randy McCloy Jr. remains in critical condition. Doctors say they have seen lots of activity on both sides of his brain. They are unsure, though, how much damage was done by the lack of oxygen during the 41 hours that he was trapped in the mine.

M. O'BRIEN: In New Orleans, charges against two former police officers and a suspended one could get more serious. The case goes back to the beating of a man caught on tape. Sixty-four-year-old Robert Davis says he was in the French Quarter buying cigarettes when police beat him up. You remember the tape of course. Two officers fired, one suspended. The city charged them with battery. Now the state attorney general is going to investigate, and that could mean felony charges and possibly a trial by jury.

A key report is due today from the New Orleans Rebuilding Commission. Their recommendations could have a big impact on plans for the city.

CNN Gulf Coast correspondent Susan Roesgen takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm in one of the areas that's being debated, New Orleans East. It flooded and it's still pretty empty out here. This is also a low-lying area that's likely to flood again.

So the question for the city is should this area be part of the new New Orleans? Should it continue to get city services, like police and fire protection? And should the people who lived here be able to get help rebuilding?

Some political leaders in New Orleans say, yes, that's the answer, that the city should not abandon the mostly African-American residents who want to come back here. But others say the city has got to make some tough choices based on hard economic and geographic realities.

The mayor will get the commission's recommendation this afternoon, and he can either accept it or reject it. But either way there are some tough decisions ahead. Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: A little later on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll talk with a New Orleans "Times-Picayune" editor about what some of today's recommendations might be, what they could mean for the city's future and perhaps are they too ambitious?

Time now for a check of the forecast.

Chad Myers at the Weather Center.

Good morning -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: How about this winter?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's not much of a winter at all, really, is it? Yes. Yes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to Glen Rock, Pennsylvania. People there on alert this morning after a huge blast at an adhesives plant. Take a look at the pictures. Look at this, a huge fireball and clouds of thick smoke spewing from the blaze. People were told to stay indoors. Authorities were worried about potentially hazardous fumes.

Reporter Kevin Henry from our affiliate WHTM is on the phone this morning from the scene in Glen Rock.

Kevin, good morning. Give me a sense of how it looks and how much damage there is.

KEVIN HENRY, WHTM-TV REPORTER: All quiet right now, I can tell you that. We've got crews coming in and out. But for the most part, this fire is out. Just kind of in a wait-and-see mode right now, as far as seeing if anything like this happens again, because, as you know, this actually started early yesterday morning with an explosion. They thought the situation was taken care of. And then, of course, another explosion flared things up last night.

This is a plant that makes pressure sensitive tapes and coatings that is used in electronics and medical equipment, so there's a lot of chemicals in that building. And when this fire started going, as you can see by the pictures, a lot of flames, lots of smoke, lots of chemicals in the air. The Department of Environmental Protection monitoring the situation had advised people to stay indoors. But we can tell you this morning they have lifted that advisory, so people are free to come and go as they please.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow, those pictures are pretty dramatic. Nice to hear that they have made some progress and the fire is now out.

Kevin Henry from our affiliate WHTM joining us this morning by phone.

Ahead this morning, six months after the mysterious disappearance of a newlywed on his honeymoon cruise, his family is demanding answers. They want to know was it an accident or did the cruise line try to cover up a crime?

M. O'BRIEN: Also, high stakes drama in Las Vegas. We'll show you what happened in the moments after a daring casino heist seen there.

S. O'BRIEN: And great news if you're looking for a new car, one struggling carmaker plans to slash prices by thousands of dollars. We've got details ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well have you seen this man, kind of hard to make him out right there. Las Vegas police are looking for him, seen in these surveillance pictures robbing a casino on Tuesday. He's wearing a baseball cap and a wig. Police say he's about six-feet tall, in his late 20s. And, as you can see, as he fled, firing a handgun. Suspect fired several shot at the security team as he fled. One officer was hit in the leg. The suspect also dropped some money during his escape. Unclear how much cash he got away with.

S. O'BRIEN: It's like a movie. Look at that.

M. O'BRIEN: It's pretty dramatic stuff, yes. And notice...

S. O'BRIEN: Unbelievable!

M. O'BRIEN: We were talking yesterday about surveillance cameras tracking. Clearly somebody was following that as it was under way because they knew about the robbery being in progress.

S. O'BRIEN: Right. Pretty amazing videotape.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. So presumably they will get their man in Las Vegas.

Carol Costello is here with some headlines.

Good morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito back in the spotlight today, another round of questions in his confirmation hearings this morning. Starts up in a little more than three hours. On Tuesday, Alito was pressed on abortion rights. He says he'll keep an open mind if such a case ever came to him as a justice for the high court. Live coverage of the hearings coming up for you at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. That's with Wolf Blitzer in a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM."

President Bush is taking on his critics again today delivering another Iraq speech. He's been doing that a lot in these last couple of months. Made a speech on Tuesday in Washington. The one today is in Louisville, Kentucky, an important congressional district for Republicans.

Four hostages held at a Florida bank are fine this morning and talking. They say they were treated well by their captors. The four were taken hostage Tuesday at this Mercantile Bank in Kissimmee, about a mile from Walt Disney World.

The would-be robbers held them captive for nearly 10 hours. Three were released throughout the day in exchange for things like cigarettes. The suspects finally tried to escape using their one remaining hostage as a shield. The male suspect was shot dead by police. The female suspect is in jail this morning.

Didn't take San Francisco police long to track down a suspect. They have arrested a man in connection with an explosive device found in a Starbucks bathroom. The bomb scare caused an evacuation. Investigators say the device was powerful enough to kill or seriously hurt someone if it exploded. In the end, no one was injured in this incident. Right now police say the suspect, Ronald Schouten, is behind bars on an unrelated drug charge. As for why he allegedly did it, police don't know yet.

And it seems those swirling rumors are indeed true, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are indeed expecting a baby. Jolie confirms the pregnancy to "People" magazine. The issue is set to hit the newsstands on Friday, if you want to read a lot more about this. We're still waiting for Jolie to confirm the news to CNN. And I'm sure she's going to call in soon.

It seems Pitt will become a daddy one way or another. He's right now in the midst of trying to become the legal father to Jolie's two adopted children, Maddox and Zahara.

To the Forecast Center and -- Chad.

MYERS: There you go.

Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning -- Chad.

MYERS: Good morning travelers today.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: I like the way that sounds, because that means warm for us, too.

M. O'BRIEN: Sign me up.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: If you're looking for a new car, got a little hot tip for you, General Motors slashing prices.

Carrie Lee has some details in our "Financial News" this morning.

Good morning.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is really a revolution for General Motors. We know people have gotten so used to all of these incentives and price breaks. Well, GM is now lowering base prices on the majority of its vehicles. So these are going to be permanently lower prices, 80 percent of their vehicles. The average discount, you can see here, about 1,300 bucks. Some prices are going to be lowered by as much as $2,500.

And what GM is saying is we have spent too much time and money talking about incentives, we want more consistency. A lot of people go on the Net to do comparison shopping for cars. Those comparisons online don't always show incentive prices. So GM is basically trying to even out its sales numbers and of course boost its bottom line.

Take a look at this double page ad in "The Wall Street Journal," very colorful. They obviously spent a lot of money on it, saying an American Revolution. Here's a GM model car. Looks like maybe a corvette. So, obviously, they are taking this initiative very seriously.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow!

LEE: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: They didn't go back to the employee pricing gimmick?

LEE: That's exactly what they are trying to get away from. Now they are not saying we're going to eliminate incentives altogether, but stem the tide. What's going to be interesting is to see if Ford maybe follows in these same steps. If Ford continues with its incentives, well that could be very tough for General Motors.

M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

S. O'BRIEN: And if they follow,...

LEE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... yes, that'll be really tough.

LEE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. LEE: GM's stock price, by the way, down about 50 percent last year. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens there. Kirk Kerkorian, biggest individual investor, mogul in Las Vegas, trying to push GM to cut its dividend in half and also make some other corporate moves to save it money.

S. O'BRIEN: That's really what's spurring all of this, isn't it,...

LEE: Yes, exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: ... at the end of the day?

Carrie Lee, thank you very much for that update.

LEE: Hey, sure.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get back to Carol with a look at what's coming up on "Morning Coffee."

Good morning again.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

Coming up, how do you control unruly kids? Maybe you make laws outlawing such behavior. That's what Tony Blair is trying to do in Britain. But that's not the controversy, no, that came when Blair admitted to smacking his kids. We'll tell you more in "Morning Coffee" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Can you name it?

S. O'BRIEN: You're rocking out with "Morning Coffee." Who is this guy?

COSTELLO: I don't even care, it's...

S. O'BRIEN: Kylie Minogue, recovering from breast cancer.

M. O'BRIEN: Kylie Minogue.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: What's in your tea this morning?

S. O'BRIEN: Green tea today. I don't drink coffee.

M. O'BRIEN: Just tea? Nothing but tea?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: I don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: Just checking. Just checking. (CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: Just checking.

S. O'BRIEN: Green tea has a lot of coffee. But we're talking about "Morning Coffee."

Good morning. What you got?

COSTELLO: Yes, and maybe what's in some of your co-worker's coffee, because I know some of you have experienced this at work, the smell of alcohol on a co-worker's breath or that awful smell of stale booze clinging to your desk mate. Actually, you are not alone in your observations. Researchers say as many as 15 percent of people admit to either drinking on the job or coming in to work with a hangover.

M. O'BRIEN: That's low, don't you think?

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Especially the hangover part.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: This study also found that nearly one in five workers made that a monthly habit. They also found that most people who drink at work did so on their lunch break.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know...

S. O'BRIEN: Well, we're done by noon, so...

COSTELLO: So we're allowed to drink on our lunch break.

S. O'BRIEN: We're allowed to drink at work.

M. O'BRIEN: It's Millertime.

COSTELLO: Seems there is a big problem with unruly kids in Britain, so British Prime Minister Tony Blair was trying to promote respect for others and then he admitted to smacking his kids. That revelation came out during an interview with the BBC. He was promoting his war on yobish behavior.

M. O'BRIEN: Yobish.

COSTELLO: Yobish. I love Britain, British terms. Yobish behavior, saying unruly families could be evicted from their homes and some could be forced to take parenting classes.

As for the smacking thing, Mr. Blair did smack his kids, but notes there is a difference between smacking and abuse. If you leave marks on your kids in Britain, you face up to five years in prison. M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know what they do in the boarding schools there, they cane the kids. They cane them. They do, caning. It's -- you know that's part of the thing there, so.

COSTELLO: They do that in Britain?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, caning.

COSTELLO: Holy cow!

M. O'BRIEN: So I guess just a smack is no big deal, it's all relative.

S. O'BRIEN: Just so you don't get marks.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Yobish. Yobish.

Whole Foods has become the largest corporate windbag, and I mean that in a nice way. The company says it will buy enough wind power to power all of its upscale food stores. Yes, it's part of the chain's marketing strategy since Whole Foods specializes in organic products. It won't mean giant windmills outside the stores...

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say, because I live around the corner from Whole Foods. And I thought, my god, what does that mean for our neighborhood?

COSTELLO: I know, that was my vision too,...

S. O'BRIEN: And there's one downstairs.

COSTELLO: ... giant windmill. No, no, no. There's an energy company out in Colorado that makes wind-powered electricity. And Whole Foods will purchase the wind power from that company and it will be fed into the national grid and make its way to the store.

S. O'BRIEN: Make it the credit and that's how they can buy...

M. O'BRIEN: The windmills will power the vacuum, which sucks the money out of your wallet when you go to whole paycheck, I mean Whole Foods.

S. O'BRIEN: It's organic, I know, but it is...

COSTELLO: Or you pay five bucks for a tomato, I know.

M. O'BRIEN: But well worth it.

COSTELLO: Yes, sure.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Crime at the produce area (ph).

S. O'BRIEN: Very organic tomato.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: The morning's top stories are straight ahead. Plus, we'll tell you about a school district that just suspended hundreds of students. It's all because they treated their Christmas vacation, well, like a vacation. I guess you would call that yobish behavior, right? Is that yobish? I don't know. We don't know what yobish really means, do we? We'll explain that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail. Sign up for AMERICAN MORNING Quick News at CNN.com/am.

Still to come this morning, the mysterious disappearance of a newlywed on his honeymoon. Now six months later, still no answers. The family says the cruise line is covering up his murder. This morning we talk to an official with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and see what they say. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Senators reload with more questions for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito with another long day of hearings expected today.

Bird Flu fears increase overseas. A growing outbreak in Turkey threatens to spread even further. We're going to take you there for the very latest.

And a mysterious death on the high seas, was a young groom murdered on his cruise ship honeymoon? Details ahead.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Good to have you with us on this morning.

That Bird Flu outbreak in Turkey could get even worse. Experts now say the disease poses a serious risk to farms in neighboring countries. But just an hour ago, the World Health Organization told Europeans not to panic. Says the worst situation could be a panic.

This comes as around a hundred possible new cases are being investigated in Turkey. Fifteen cases already confirmed.

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