Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

At Least Four Dead in Plane Crash in California; The Alito Vote; Levee Warning in New Orleans

Aired January 24, 2006 - 10:59   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."
Firefighters and medical crews are at the scene of a plane crash in San Diego County in southern California. Officials say a small plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a storage building at an airport in Carlsbad. The FAA says at least four people were killed.

And gunfire inside of a Maryland daycare center this morning. Police say an 8-year-old boy brought a gun in his backpack and it accidentally went off when he was playing with it. A 7-year-old girl was wounded. She is said to be OK.

The Bush administration continues its defense of its controversial domestic spying program. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaking right now at Georgetown Law School as we look at live pictures. He calls the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program lawful, and he says Congress was aware of its scope.

More on that story just ahead.

On Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote at any time now on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, as we look at California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Ten Republicans members and eight Democrats. The panel is expected to forward the nomination to the full Senate. Supporters are hoping for a final confirmation vote by the end of the week.

At the White House this hour, President Bush is meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Aziz. The prime minister appears to be downplaying recent tensions with the U.S. over an airstrike on a Pakistani village. Aziz says he's sure the Washington visit will bring the two nations to what he calls a higher plain.

We'll have a live report on that meeting just ahead.

Good morning and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY.

Checking some of the time around the world, just after 11:00 a.m. in Washington, D.C.; just after 4:00 p.m. in London.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm Daryn Kagan.

Let's get right to our breaking news story out of southern California. A small plane crashing, and a number of people dead.

Our Kathleen Koch working the story through her sources from Washington, D.C.

Kathleen, what have you been able to learn?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, the FAA tells us that this deadly crash occurred just after 6:30 this morning as a plane that had departed from Sun Valley, Idaho, was trying to land at an airport in Carlsbad, California. And what happened is, as this aircraft was coming in to the McClellan-Palomar Airport, it landed, skidded off the west end of the runway, and apparently then crashed into a building.

FAA spokesman Laura Brown (ph) says it was an equipment storage shed for storing aircraft navigational equipment. And four people, says Ms. Brown (ph), were killed in the accident.

This airport is about 30 miles north of San Diego. It serves private planes, business jets. It also has a couple of commuter aircraft lines that run in and out of there, America West Express and United Express. We still haven't found out just who this Citation aircraft belonged to, but again, Daryn, four people dead in the crash.

KAGAN: Kathleen Koch, live from Washington, D.C.

Thank you on that.

We'll bring you more information as it becomes available.

On now to the Supreme Court. Conservative Judge Samuel Alito moving closer to a lifetime seat on the high bench today. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a vote on his nomination soon, perhaps this hour, maybe early this afternoon.

We are covering it with Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry on Capitol Hill, and Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin is in New York City.

Ed, let's start with you.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, in fact, there's really not much drama here, as you set the scene. The Republicans have the majority in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is very likely to be a party line vote today, 10-8 in favor of Judge Alito. That will move it on to the Senate floor where a debate will begin tomorrow.

But there's an old saying up here that applies. Everything pretty much has been said, but just not everyone has said it yet. And that's why we're still seeing some passionate speeches on both sides, mostly focused on the hot-button issue of abortion.

Probably best summed up by the Republican chairman, Arlen Specter, who's a supporter of Alito, and Democratic opponent Pat Leahy.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: This is a nomination that I fear threatens the fundamental rights and liberties of all Americans now and in generations to come. The president is in the midst of a radical realignment of the powers of the government and its intrusiveness, its intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans. And I believe this nomination is part of that plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: His statements about Roe as settled law were very, very similar to what Chief Justice Roberts had to say. Chief Judge Roberts said Roe was settled and beyond, but he left room for stare decisis and precedence to be changed. And so did Judge Alito, as I think any nominee must.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, Republicans clearly have the 51 votes they need for confirmation on the Senate floor. They may fall short of the 60 votes needed to break off a filibuster, but Democrats privately admitting that really won't matter.

They don't have much hopes of sustaining a filibuster, so they're unlikely to even launch one to begin with. They realize it may backfire on them politically.

A final vote on Alito expected perhaps later this week or early next week, just in time for the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night where, in fact, we may see Justice Alito sitting in the audience -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ed, thank you.

A quick question for you, Jeffrey Toobin. What are some of the first issues Judge and then Justice Alito should see on the Supreme Court?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the biggest issues, on March 1, the Supreme Court is going to take up the issue of the Texas congressional redistricting. This was engineered by Congressman Tom DeLay. His -- Tom DeLay's indictment in Texas regards fund-raising for this redistricting.

The Supreme Court, to the surprise of some people, has taken up the cause of whether that -- the redistricting was constitutional. It meant the addition of six additional Republicans in the House of Representatives, which is, of course, closely divided between Democrats and Republicans.

If they uphold or set aside the Texas redistricting, that could have big implications for who controls Congress in the next election. And that's probably the biggest case he'll get right away.

KAGAN: Jeff, Ed, thanks to both of you.

Now let's go to our breaking news story out of San Diego County in southern California, a plane crash at the Palomar Airport in the northern part of San Diego County.

On the phone with me right now, Bill Polick -- or Polick.

BILL POLICK, SAN DIEGO COUNTY DEPT. PUBLIC WORKS: Good morning.

KAGAN: Hello -- from the San Diego Department of Public Works.

What can you tell us about this accident?

POLICK: Well, at this point, what I can tell you is we had a small jet go off the west end of our runway about 6:40 this morning and crashed into an industrial structure. Right now the airport is closed to all flights, including our commercial airlines, and airspace around the airport is restricted.

KAGAN: And we are hearing four people dead?

POLICK: I've heard that from Carlsbad Fire Department. I'm just pulling up to the scene right now. And I'll be able to confirm that in a little while.

KAGAN: OK. So it's too early for you to speculate about cause of the crash?

POLICK: I don't know what the cause of the crash is right now. The weather is sunny and clear with very little wind. And it was apparently so at the time of the crash.

KAGAN: All right. Bill Polick with the San Diego County Department of Public Works.

Thank you. We'll go back to you as there might be more information available.

Right now let's go back to Washington, where the Bush administration again today is vigorously defending its use of warrantless wiretaps. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales making the case this hour at Georgetown Law School.

Gonzales insists the program is what he calls focused and limited. Officials must have reasonable belief, he says, that one party to a phone conversation is linked to al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: No one is above the law. We are all bound by the Constitution. And no matter the pain and anger that we feel from the attacks, we must all abide by the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And you can watch the attorney general on -- live. He's on CNN Pipeline right now.

Gonzales will go to Capitol Hill in about two weeks for more explanations on the administration's warrantless wiretaps.

Once again, Pipeline, cnn.com, and click on "Pipeline."

To world news.

In France today, a preliminary but damning report on allegations of U.S. torture. Investigators found what they call a great deal of coherent evidence that the Bush administration had a practice of "outsourcing torture." The findings come in a report to the Council of Europe.

The document indicates the CIA looked the other way while others did the "dirty work." Still, investigators admit that they have no irrefutable proof of secret prisons for torture. Investigators say more than 100 people passed through Europe on CIA flights to alleged prisons. Poland and Romania are among the countries reported to have hosted those facilities.

No government has confirmed the existence of the alleged prisons. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been emphatic that the U.S. does not torture.

Back here in the U.S., it was a hypothetical disaster exercise that warned of the real-life devastation for Hurricane Katrina. Documents from that exercise showed that government officials were warned about the threat of levee breaches a day before Katrina hit New Orleans.

A Senate panel is holding hearings on those findings.

More now from Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, who is in Washington.

Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman says that the White House has given the Senate investigation into Hurricane Katrina only a small portion of the documents that have been requested, opposed efforts to interview White House personnel, and hindered the Senate's ability to get information from other federal agencies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: My staff, on this investigation, believes that the Department of Homeland Security has engaged in a strategy of slow-walking our investigation in the hope that we would run out of time to follow the investigation's natural progression to where it leads. I hope they're wrong. But at this time, I cannot disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Documents that the committee has received appear to contradict statements by the president and the secretary of Homeland Security that no one anticipated that the levees in New Orleans would fail. An analysis written the day before Katrina made landfall by the Department of Homeland Security said that a Category 4 storm "will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching, leaving the New Orleans metro area submerged for weeks or months."

The analysis was sent to the White House Situation Room.

In addition, the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee has released some documentation from a FEMA briefing two days before the hurricane predicting that Katrina would be more severe than the fictional Hurricane Pam, the centerpiece of a preparedness exercise in 2004. The committee exploring today why more lessons of Hurricane Pam were not implemented before Katrina -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jeanne Meserve from Washington, D.C.

Jeanne, thank you for that.

I want to show new pictures that we're getting in now from southern California from Carlsbad. These are live pictures from our affiliate KUSI -- actually, pictures -- they are not live pictures -- taped pictures that we're just getting in.

You can see the small plane that crashed early this morning. It was about 6:30 a.m. local time in the northern part of San Diego County. A small plane that was coming in from Idaho crashed at the McClellan-Palomar Airport.

It skidded into a storage facility. Early reports say that four people were killed in this crash. The cause or if all four of the dead were on board the plane or anybody on the ground, we're not exactly sure at this point.

More information as that becomes available.

The tragedy in the West Virginia coal country are leading to changes in the law. Coming up, what's being done to make mining safer? And hear from one miner who narrowly missed being a victim in the latest disaster.

Plus, is it mutiny on the Mary? A luxury liner has some fuming first-class guests. We'll hear from the cruise line's president on what's being offered to calm them down.

And later, the side-effects sound miserable, but Alli may soon be available at your local pharmacy. Hear what you may or may not want to do after popping this diet pill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Vroom, vroom, vroom. Could there be a sushi bar in Talladega's future? America's favorite good old boy network is getting some foreign competition.

Japanese automaker Toyota is budding up to NASCAR, joining the circuit's top racing series. Toyota will enter its Camry model in the Nextel Cup and the Busch racing series beginning next year.

The last time a foreign automaker competed in NASCAR's top series was a half-century ago. That's when Jaguar took part in several races.

Some NASCAR drivers opposed the move, saying Toyota could inflate the cost of racing with its financial might. But the drivers say, bring it on.

Those NASCAR drivers, they're a tough group. They can handle it.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's get to this disturbing story out of Maryland, a shooting at a daycare center. Early reports saying an 8-year-old boy brings a gun to the daycare center and a 7-year-old girl was shot earlier today.

Our Gary Nurenberg on the scene in Germantown, Maryland, with more.

Gary, what have you been able to learn?

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Daryn.

This is taking place not so far from the police headquarters that you covered so extensively in October of 19 -- 2002, rather, when you were here covering the sniper investigation. This is only several miles from there. It's a daycare center in a townhouse complex.

At 6:59 this morning, police got a phone call from the daycare center that a 7-year-old girl had been accidentally shot by a gun that was in a backpack being carried by an 8-year-old boy. Earlier reports are that the 8-year-old boy was playing with that gun in the backpack when it went off.

Police say that there is no early evidence of an aggressive nature here of an attack, but that it appears to be an accident. The girl was struck in the upper part of her body and has been taken to Children's Hospital, where her injuries are described as not life- threatening.

This is the jurisdiction of the county police who told us a few minutes ago that the investigation is in its earliest stages, that no charges have yet been brought.

We asked prosecutors here if that was likely. They deferred to police. We asked for some guidance on when those decisions might be made. They said, "We wish we could tell you it would be by the end of the day, but we don't know for sure."

At this point, the investigation centers on where that 8-year-old boy actually got the gun and, presumably, whether there was negligence involved on part of the gun owner, letting the 8-year-old have access to it.

That's the early report from this daycare center. The good news is that the girl apparently does not have life-threatening injuries and is expected to survive -- Daryn.

KAGAN: The only saving grace there. A lot of questions with that story.

Gary, thank you.

All right.

Have you heard about the cruise passengers who are steaming mad? Mechanical problems on the Queen Mary II disrupted their vacation plans. Now some passengers are threatening mutiny.

I'll have a chance to talk with the president of the cruise line coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And now a message from ship to shore. Passengers on board the Queen Mary II are taking to the Internet to complain about a change in the itinerary. If you've been following the story, you know that the three stops on the 38-day cruise were canceled because of engine damage. That left many passengers angry and ready to mutiny. Some are threatening to stay on board at the next port of call in protest.

Cunard Line, which operates the Queen Mary, is offering about a thousand of the passengers a 50 percent refund, but the passengers say -- some say -- that it's not enough. They say they've paid big bucks for a trip of a lifetime and what they got fell well short of that.

I want to bring in Carol Marlow. She's the president of the Cunard Line, and she joins me now from our London bureau.

Ms. Marlow, hello. And thank you for joining us.

CAROL MARLOW, PRESIDENT, CUNARD LINE: Hello.

KAGAN: First of all, the problems with this particular cruise started when the ship was leaving Port Everglades, Florida. Engine trouble, correct?

MARLOW: Well, we had a problem leaving Port Everglades. We actually sustained some damage to one of our propulsion motors. So the engines are fine. It's one of the propulsion motors of which we have four.

KAGAN: OK.

MARLOW: So this just means one out of four has been damaged. We've decommissioned it. And that means unfortunately we can't go as quickly as we had hoped.

KAGAN: And so something has to go, so some of the ports of call have gone. Tell me how you came up with the formula to offer 50 percent off the cruise, or a 50 percent refund?

MARLOW: Well, because we couldn't go quite as quickly, and because we had to spend some time in Ft. Lauderdale, inspecting the damage and understanding what was -- what was wrong. That meant we had less -- less time.

So, three ports of call, as you've said, had to come out of the itinerary, and a shortened call in Rio. We looked at -- clearly the full duration of this sector of the voyage, which is 12 nights, we looked at the ports that had to come out. We also weighed out the fact that our guests would have 12 days on the Queen Mary II in the luxurious ship surroundings that we have, and we felt that a 50 percent refund of the cruise fare was fair and appropriate.

KAGAN: I'm sure you're familiar with some of the angry passengers there, some of the e-mail that's been sent to the BBC, including one from a woman in Coventry, England. She writes, "This is not a cruise. It is a high-speed passage from New York to Rio. We paid to see the Caribbean and Salvador, and we have seven days on a ship. We want all of our money back!"

Another passenger writes, "We have been lied to and misled. Many guests are on a once-of-a-lifetime holiday, and I have seen several in tears."

What do you say to those passengers?

MARLOW: Well, I'm deeply distressed that they are distressed, clearly. It's not our intention to change our itineraries at any time. But when something like this happens, we have to accommodate it, and we have to accommodate it safely.

Clearly, we're talking to our passengers. We're continuing to talk to them. And, you know, if they are still concerned that we aren't giving them compensation which is sufficient, we need to keep talking.

KAGAN: Real quickly, I think Thursday's the day when they're supposed to get off the ship. What if these passengers who refuse to get off don't get off? What are you going to do?

MARLOW: Well, it's Friday, and we sincerely hope it doesn't come to that. We believe in having happy passengers. That's obviously what we need. And so we'll continue to work with them to make sure that it doesn't come to that.

KAGAN: Well, hopefully there can be a good resolution for all, for your cruise company, for your Cunard Company, and for the passengers as well.

Ms. Marlow, thank you.

MARLOW: We sincerely hope so. Thank you.

KAGAN: Thank you, ma'am.

Some more now about the Queen Mary II. When it was unveiled for its inaugural cruise in January of 2004, the QM II became the largest cruise ship in the world. It can hold 2,620 passengers. Over 40 years, it's estimated that the Queen Mary II will travel the equivalent of 12 trips to the moon and back.

That is one big ship.

Coming up, we'll check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta's hard-working "New You" participants. The Rampollas get a family food makeover.

And later, a dietician tells us about the pros and cons of Alli. That's the diet pill the FDA is considering for over-the-counter sales.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: This just in to CNN, news of the creation of a new television network. It's coming from the folks at Warner Brothers and CBS.

They're getting together, they're actually combining the WB and UPN. They're going away. There's going to be a new network called the CW network. That announcement coming from CBS's Les Moonves just a short time ago.

Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LES MOONVES, CBS CHAIRMAN: This will be the new fifth broadcast network, and it will draw upon programming distribution and executive assets from the WB and UPN, both of which will cease operations in September.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And once again, we should make our business relationship clear. Time Warner owning CNN, just to put it in perspective our business reporting there.

So it's going to be called the CW network, Jacqui.

The WB, wasn't that the one with the frog? Or UPN? Anyhow...

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes.

KAGAN: ... WB, UPN, yes, going away. And it's going to be called the CW network. CBS, Warner Brothers, I guess that's where that kind of comes together.

JERAS: Do you think you'll find that all on the same channels and everything?

KAGAN: Perhaps. We'll see.

JERAS: Probably. Not sure.

KAGAN: It's new. It's breaking.

What's breaking on the weather?

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Thank you.

JERAS: Yes.

KAGAN: Let's check on what's happening right "Now in the News."

First to southern California.

The FAA says at least four people died when a small plane crashed this morning in California. Officials say the plane skidded off the runway after touchdown, crashed into an equipment building and burst into flames. It happened at the airport in Carlsbad, about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego.

There was gunfire this morning inside of a Maryland daycare center. Police say an 8-year-old boy brought a gun in his backpack, it accidentally went off when he was playing with the gun. A 7-year- old girl was wounded, but she's said to be OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com