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American Morning
Kennedy Car Crash; Immigration Reform; Sago Mine Hearing
Aired May 05, 2006 - 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: Working toward a deal in Darfur. The largest of three rebel groups have accepted a peace agreement. Talks go on despite a missed deadline.
In England, meet a 63-year-old mom-to-be and her husband. Patricia Rashbrook (ph) already has two grown children. She had fertility treatments and she's due in two months. The woman is defending her right to be an older parent, says the decision to have another child was not taken lightly.
Wow.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, that's true a tough go at 63.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow. She's going to be very tired.
S. O'BRIEN: Definitely has the right, but do you want to do it. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: God bless her.
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Good Friday morning to you.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to one of the stories we're looking at this morning. Congressman Patrick Kennedy blaming his Capitol Hill car crash on the effects of medication. Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill Police are launching two investigations, one into the crash, the other into whether the congressman received special treatment.
CNN's Sumi Das is live in Washington with more on this story.
Hey, Sumi. Good morning.
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, Patrick Kennedy has already released two statements regarding the accident. We may hear more from him today, but for now he's pointing to prescription drugs as the cause. But some are saying his behavior suggested otherwise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAS (voice over): A predawn accident on Capitol Hill Thursday, a car crashes into a security barricade. The driver, Congressman Patrick Kennedy.
In a statement released Thursday, Kennedy said, "I was involved in a traffic incident last night at First and C Streets Southeast near the U.S. Capitol. I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake."
The head of the D.C. Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police who says he got information from police officials gave this account to CNN.
LOUIS CANNON, D.C. FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: The officers believed they detected a odor of alcohol about him, based on his appearance based on their experience.
DAS: The union official said no sobriety test was conducted. A second statement from Kennedy said he had taken prescribed amounts of Phenergan, an anti-nausea medication, and the sleep aid Ambien while at home Wednesday evening.
Then, around 2:45 a.m. Thursday, he drove to the Capitol complex believing he needed to vote. Kennedy says, "Apparently, I was disoriented from the medication." According to the FDA, Phenergan can cause severe drowsiness and reduce mental alertness. Kennedy says he has the utmost respect for U.S. Capitol Police.
REP. PATRICK KENNEDY (D), RHODE ISLAND: I never asked for an preferential treatment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think you received it, do you think?
KENNEDY: That's up for the police to decide. And I'm going to cooperate fully with them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAS: According to police labor union officials, two officers at the scene of the accident were ordered to drive Kennedy home afterwards -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Sumi Das for us this morning.
Sumi, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Crowds of immigrants expected back on the streets of the U.S. today. They'll be marking Cinco de Mayo with calls against proposed immigration policies. We're expecting protests in Montgomery, Alabama; Richmond, Indiana; Richmond, Virginia; and Santa Clara, California. President Bush used early Cinco de Mayo celebrations to reiterate his guest worker plan.
Elaine Quijano from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The calendar today reads the 5th of May, but President Bish celebrated Cinco de Mayo one day early because of a scheduling issue. In the East Room of the White House, the president used the opportunity to repeat his call for comprehensive immigration legislation.
The president reiterated his support for a guest worker program, but he also said that immigrants who want to become U.S. citizens must assimilate, must learn the English language, and must learn about American culture. His comments were aimed just not at immigrants, but also aimed at quelling conservative Republicans' anger over illegal immigration.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Three days of hearings looking into the Sago Mine explosion, family members still have many, many questions. It was an emotional period of time, and CNN's AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken live in Washington to tell us about those hearings -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
And what regulators here in D.C. and West Virginia hope to do is to build on the lessons from the Sago Mine disaster and from this remarkable set of interim hearings.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You owe us answers and the truth, and we deserve the truth. And when you go home to your families today, think about us not going home to our families.
FRANKEN (voice over): For three days in Buckhannon, West Virginia, the victims' families who suffered unimaginable grief in January got the chance to demand answers.
DEBBIE HAMNER, MINER'S WIFE: Can you tell the families what murdered our men? Nobody wants to respond to that?
FRANKEN: The mine's operator, International Coal Group, says it believes the disaster was caused by nature.
BEN HATFIELD, PRESIDENT, CEO, INTERNATIONAL COAL GROUP: ICG firmly believes that lightning created the ignition.
FRANKEN: Many of the family members made it clear they believed the cause was the company's disregard for safety.
ANN MEREDITH, MINER'S DAUGHTER: I don't believe that lightning had anything to do with this.
FRANKEN: Lightning is just a working theory, the company says.
HATFIELD: ICG has never taken the position that the investigation into the Sago Mine accident has been finished, or that we have made -- or that we have all the answers. FRANKEN: While the debate went on and on, one undisputable fact on display was that the families' searing pain has not subsided.
SARA BAILEY, MINER'S DAUGHTER: Why was my mother widowed at age 51, after 32 years of marriage? And why will I have to explain to my future children their grandfather is gone?
PAM CAMPBELL, MINER'S SISTER-IN-LAW: I believe it's unfortunate that it took this accident to make the coal companies listen. I think that technology is so far advanced that there was no reason for these miners to die in this explosion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: As you can see, many families have very strong feelings about where the blame should rest. And the regulators here and in West Virginia are going to have to decide what mistakes were made and what needs to be done about them -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Still a lot of loose ends here, Bob. If the families could redesign the mines, what would they like to see happen?
FRANKEN: Well, there is a consensus there has to be an improvement in the communication from the mine to the top. There has to be an improvement in the enforcement of safety regulations. There has to definitely be an improvement in the amount of oxygen that's available to miners that get trapped in a situation like this.
But, the finer points are the ones that are still being worked out. What this did do, however, was put a lot of onus on the regulators to improve conditions in the mines.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll be watching it. Bob Franken in Washington, thank you.
Coming up in the 8:00 hour Eastern Time, about an hour and a half from now, we'll speak with two family members of Sago Mine victims -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" right now, a deadly shooting outside of a Florida hospital. Officials say a man shot his ex-wife and two relatives in a Fernandina Beach parking lot. He then ran to a nearby elementary school, where he shot himself. The ex-wife and her brother were killed. The sister's in serious condition this morning.
In Long Island, New York, students were expecting a Coast Guard admiral to arrive. In fact, they were looking for his helicopter when another chopper literally fell right out of the sky. The chopper landed on its side in the high school's soccer field. That happened on Thursday.
Two people inside the chopper have minor injuries only, fortunately. No word yet on exactly what caused that chopper to lose power.
A new estimate for building the World Trade Center memorial in New York, and it is a whopper -- $1 billion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he has spoken with the governors of New York and New Jersey and they all agree the cost should not exceed $500 million.
And take a look at this, cattle herding. Yes, that's cattle there. Using police cars.
Oh -- oh, yes, that's not going to work too well. The cops had to play cowboy. This is happening in Oklahoma City, by the way.
A cattle truck overturned on an interstate ramp. It took the officers, in fact, a couple of hours to try to round up those wayward cows. A couple dozen more of those cows had to be let out of the truck bed as they were too badly injured.
M. O'BRIEN: I don't know if they're going to make it as cowboys.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, and take a look at this -- yes, stay police officers.
Look at this. Oh, cute, cute, cute. Baby day at the Bronx Zoo.
You're looking at the prized western lowland gorillas showing off some of their newborns for the very first time. Three baby gorillas have been born there over the past four months. Bronx Zoo's breeding program, tops in the country. Fifty-seven babies have been born there. Cute.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow. They are cute.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, so cute. So cute.
Then watch this amazing stunt.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow!
S. O'BRIEN: And he lands it nicely. A backflip. That happened over Caesar's Palace fountain in Las Vegas.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow.
S. O'BRIEN: The guy who's riding that bike is Mike Metzger, pretty much pulling off an Evel Knievel. Plus one.
M. O'BRIEN: Hey. What ever happened to Evel Knievel? What ever happened to Evel?
S. O'BRIEN: Well, he broke every bone in his body twice or something, remember?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: You'll remember, too, more seriously that Knievel almost killed himself when he jumped...
M. O'BRIEN: I remember this stunt.
S. O'BRIEN: ... over the fountain back in the late 1960s.
M. O'BRIEN: I do remember that.
S. O'BRIEN: The jump was 125 feet, and it was a backflip, just like that. And it broke the 108-foot record that was set before by a guy named Twitch. Which leads me to the question, what happened -- what accident did he have that his nickname became Twitch?
M. O'BRIEN: I wonder why. I wonder why. I don't know why. Why? Something about jumping.
S. O'BRIEN: We get it.
M. O'BRIEN: We've got to jump, Chad. Got to jump. Got to jump.
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Chad. Good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I didn't think there was enough room right there at Caesar's Palace.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: I remember when Evel Knievel used to do it...
S. O'BRIEN: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: ... he had to start in the parking garage underneath...
MYERS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: ... and finished in the parking garage on the other end.
S. O'BRIEN: Right. No, it's not optimal conditions.
M. O'BRIEN: It's not pretty.
MYERS: Yes. Well, now there's that outdoor bar there, and they've got that little pavilion, or whatever that thing there -- concerts.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: Chad, you've logged a few hours there. You know exactly -- yes, there's a table there. And there's a waitress standing here.
MYERS: I'm a friend of Caesar. Just put it that way.
Good morning, everybody.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Like we need that. All right, Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, a big shake-up in the British parliament. Tony Blair, facing some political losses, has to cut loose his foreign minister. This is a lot of political doings, and it all kind of goes back, in this case, to support for the Iraq war. We'll get you up to date on that.
S. O'BRIEN: Plus, we're going to check in on Elizabeth Smart. There she is, talking to Larry King. You'll recall, of course, she was kidnapped, then found. Well, she says she is moving on after her ordeal. Look how great she looks.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, she grew up, didn't she?
S. O'BRIEN: Oh my god. She is -- she's a big girl now. We're going to talk about her future as well, what she's saying the future holds for her.
That's just ahead. First, though, a look at some of the other stories that are making news on this Friday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: It's time to hopscotch the planet with our global team. This morning we take to you Russia, Iraq's border with Iran, and Great Britain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Moscow. The Russian media has reacted with shock at a controversial speech by the U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney, in which he accused the Russian authorities of backsliding on democracy and using its vast energy resources to bully and blackmail its neighbors. Talk in the press here of a new Cold War.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Arwa Damon, embedded with an American B.T. team, a border transition team working along Iraq's border with Iran. This is one of the Iraqi border posts located along the Iranian border nicknamed "A Castle" by U.S. forces.
Now, just behind this border post is the Iranian border post, less than three-quarters of a mile away. And both sides are constantly watching each other.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Robin Oakley, reporting from London, where Tony Blair is vigorously reshuffling his cabinet following a hammering in English council elections. The biggest surprise is the demotion of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, a close ally and personal friend of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and his replacement by Margaret Beckett.
Mrs. Beckett is one of the few veterans from a previous labor government and had been in the Blair cabinet since he came to power in 1997. She is a low-profile figure with a reputation as a safe pair of hands.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: For more on these and many other top stories, we invite to you head to our Web site. It's at CNN.com.
More AMERICAN MORNING is ahead. The defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, on the defensive, confronted with accusations that he lied in the run-up to Iraq war. A CNN "Fact Check" is coming your way.
S. O'BRIEN: And then later this morning, it's great work if you can get it. We're going to meet a woman who could help put NASA put an astronaut on Mars one day just by doing this, lying around in her bed all day
That's ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Checking our top stories.
Coming to a TV near you beginning today, the government's first public service announcements on the bird flu. Washington wants to ease people's fears about a possible pandemic.
A U.N. agency says child labor around the globe is declining. The agency says between 2004 and -- 2000 and 2004, the number of child workers fell from 246 million to 218 million. It still sounds like an awful lot of working kids. The decline is most prominent, however, in Latin America.
The U.S. military in Iraq mocking al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi in their latest insurgent video. An Army general says Zarqawi had trouble firing the weapon in that that video, which was released a week or so ago -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Smart's first live interview since she was abducted and held captive for nine months. A self-proclaimed prophet, as you'll recall, kidnapped Elizabeth from her Utah home back in 2002. He had said apparently that he wanted to make her his second wife.
Well, now Elizabeth Smart is 18 years old and talking to Larry King. And she says she's been able to leave all of that terrible time behind her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELIZABETH SMART, RESCUED AFTER ABDUCTION FROM HOME: It seemed very unreal. I don't know. I couldn't believe it, because my family's always been safe. My mom is always, you know, "Call me when you get to your friend's house." You know, "You need to be home by this time."
You know, I -- we've always been, like, a safe family. So I didn't know what was going on.
LARRY KING, HOST: Did you ever think during this time, Elizabeth, that you would be killed?
SMART: You know, when I first -- when -- yes. Yes, I did.
KING: When you were first taken?
SMART: Yes.
KING: After a while, though, did that not enter your thoughts?
SMART: No, I was -- it was always a possibility. One day my mom sat me down and she said, "You know, Elizabeth, you can either, you know, forgive them and move on and just forget that it ever happened to you, and just, you know, continue -- continue on in your life."
KING: Right.
SMART: "Or, you know, you can just -- I mean, yes, what they did to you was horrible, and no one -- you didn't deserve that, and no one should deserve that. And, you know, you can just sit there and be mad at them, but then your whole life is going to be wrapped up in it and you won't be able to move on."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Smart on "LARRY KING LIVE". You can watch Larry King, of course, every night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
What do you got?
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": I am, Soledad.
More evidence that Americans are having a difficult time paying for health insurance.
Plus, isn't it irritating when your favorite show gets canceled and you never get to see it again? Well, that may be changing. We'll explain how coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: The cost of health insurance is causing more workers to pass up signing on to the company health benefits. That's no surprise there. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business".
Good morning.
SERWER: That's right, Soledad. It's all about costs.
Apparently, employees are choosing less and less to participate in their company's health care plans. Here are the numbers.
1998, OK, we had 85 percent chose to participate. And then by 2003 only 80 percent. So a 5 percentage point drop. This is a survey obviously covering a five-year period going back a little ways, and it's possible that with the economy improving since '03 that more people would choose to get back in.
Premiums going up during this period from an average of $2,400 to -- or $3,400, a $1,000 increase. And, you know, again, no surprise to anybody. New Jersey, Nebraska and Wisconsin showing the biggest drops in employees participating in their company's plans.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, is this because they're increasing the amount that the employees have to pay? Is that what's happening?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: And less service, too. So why bother?
SERWER: It's a double whammy...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: ... they call it.
Now, let's move on to this TV show situation. And as I suggested a few minutes ago, it really is kind of a bummer where you get turned on to a TV show, and then it doesn't do that well and it gets canceled. And you never get to see it again, ever, ever.
And now CBS is going to be doing something about it. They're rolling out a broadband TV channel where they're going to be putting on some shows that got canceled. Who could forget "Love Monkey"? Well, maybe somebody can. "Love Monkey," that was canceled.
S. O'BRIEN: That was canceled?
SERWER: That was...
M. O'BRIEN: Right on the tip of my tongue.
SERWER: Yes. And how about "Fire Me, Please," the aptly named "Fire Me Please"?
They're also going to be putting on some shows, some original programming. I like this, a college reality show "From Greek to Chic". Boy, you can just imagine. And also, a behind-the-scenes "Survivor" show, sort of, you know, what goes on. I could see a lot of people wanting to watch that.
M. O'BRIEN: Surviving "Survivor" kind of thing.
SERWER: Yes. The director's cut, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: The making of "Survivor".
SERWER: The making of the making of. It could be fun. Again, TV channels, TV networks trying to get more audience on line.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
M. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer...
S. O'BRIEN: I think it's a brilliant move. All right. Thanks.
M. O'BRIEN: ... thank you very much.
SERWER: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's check the forecast. Chad Myers in the weather center.
Hello, Chad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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