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American Morning

Another Mining Disaster; A New Hurricane Season; Bush and Blair to Meet

Aired May 22, 2006 - 09:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to Monday, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Let's check some headlines now, Carol Costello in the news room has the headlines now -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hello Miles, good morning to all of you. We are following a developing story out of the Middle East right now: Violence in Gaza. At least one person has been killed after a gun battle near the Palestinian parliament building. The fire fight broke out between Hamas militia and Palestinian police loyal to Fatah. A passenger inside a Jordanian diplomat's car was killed. Tensions have been on the rise between Hamas and Fatah in recent weeks.

The trial of Saddam Hussein has now been adjourned until Wednesday, but boy was there drama today, a session full of fireworks. A defense attorney for Saddam Hussein was tossed out of the courtroom. She had first refused to leave and then threw the robe toward the lead judge. Guards had to escort her out. The incident triggered a shouting exchange between Saddam Hussein and the judge.

President Bush on his way to Chicago, now. These are new pictures of the president leaving Andrew's Air Force Base, they'll be making a speech on the global war on terror and is expected to applaud the new Iraqi cabinet. That cabinet was approved over the weekend. President Bush says the formation out new government means a new day for the people of Iraq.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro has comes through nearly six hours of surgery, but the thoroughbred is still not out of the woods yet. The horse broke three bones in his right hind leg during the running of the Preakness in Baltimore. The surgeon who operated on Barbaro told Miles, just a short time ago, that it will take months for rehabilitation. Conditions still 50/50.

Seven-year-old Braxton Bilbrey of Glenville, Arizona, ready to hit the water. This second grader is swimming, this morning, from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco's Aquatic Park. This is no easy task and if he does it, he will be the youngest person to make the 1.4 mile swim through choppy and cold water. His coach and two other adult swimmers are going along with him, you know, for safety sake. Chad, how old will that water be?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fifty-six. COSTELLO: Oh man.

MYERS: It doesn't get down to 56 in Phoenix where he's from. You know?

COSTELLO: Oh man, my body's going numb just thinking about it.

MYERS: Exactly. Good luck to him. Obviously, you're going to have patrol boats and all that around him. He will be safe.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Sounds pretty good, by Friday, at least. All l right Chad, thanks.

Another tragedy to tell you about in the mines, another community in grief. Five miners were killed on Saturday after a deadly explosion in an Eastern Kentucky coal mine. Officials say it looks as if three survived the initial explosion, but then later died of poisoning. Sixth miner survived. The cause is under investigation. Already though, being compared to the Sago Mine explosion which, of course, happened in West Virginia. Davitt McAteer is the lead investigator on the Sago Mine tragedy, he's also a former director of the mine's Safety and Health Administration. He's in Washington this morning.

Nice to see you, thanks for talking with us.

DAVITT MCATEER, FMR. DIR. MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMIN.: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Lots of similarities I think it is fair to say. Would you agree with that?

Oh, absolutely. The fact that the explosion occurs in a sealed area, the fact that there's questions about the CSRs, the rescuers' oxygen devices not working, all of these are facts that you just have to be -- to shake your head at and say how unfortunate this has to be for those families.

S. O'BRIEN: I read that both were involved in bottom mining. What exactly is bottom mining?

MCATEER: Well, bottom mining is a process where you take -- the seam of coal is taking and then a seam below it, and in fact, have a larger area that's mined out so that you, instead of having a room that's maybe five foot high or seven feet high, you have a room that's maybe 12 to 15 feet high. We don't know what the impact of that has on the -- these explosions. It's certainly an area of inquiry that we need to make and one that we need to be looking at quite seriously because we have 10,000 or so sealed areas in the mines of this country. And if we are -- I mean, if there's something we're doing now that is causing accident or explosions to can you are in these, we need to find out very quickly.

S. O'BRIEN: Thirty-one miners have died in the first five months of the year alone, I mean, 22 people died in all...

MCATEER: Of last year.

S. O'BRIEN: ...of last year. What explains those numbers, do you think?

MCATEER: It's hard to know. I mean, the facts are we're going in the absolutely wrong direction and we're having more incidents than we've had in the past five years. And so, it's very difficult to suggest an answer. And I think that's one of the things that is we need to look at from a standpoint of both enforcement but also from the standpoint of operations, mine companies and miners and the mine government agencies need to look very hard at how do we prevent the things from happening. How do you reverse did trend?

S. O'BRIEN: Yeah really. I mean, there are questions again about the breathing apparatus, the men apparently surving, as we mentioned, the explosion but then dying from lack of oxygen. Is it really that difficult to send in or set up a system where you could have oxygen down below ground? I mean, or to bring in breathing apparatus that would last, not just for one hour, but two or three, you know, or some reasonable amount of time to make an escape?

MCATEER: There are ways to get the oxygen there. I think the fact that these -- the men had problems with the device underground and the working of the mines emergency situation suggests to us that we need to take a dramatic step right now and to sample across the country a representative number of these devices and ask miners voluntarily to don their devices and wear those devices out. Because what it's suggesting is that the device may well work in the laboratory, but when you put it in a crisis situation underground, either the device has a problem or else the miners -- the training has problem. And I can tell you from firsthand experience and unless you don it, unless you breathe it yourself, that you really don't have the sensation, the feel that occurs when you put that on from the training, without putting it on. An I think that we need to look at ways to get more miners to have experience with putting it on and donning it and wearing it.

S. O'BRIEN: Are you telling me when they do the training, they don't have to do sort of the dry run of an emergency and put it on and breathe with it?

MCATEER: Well, they put it on, but they don't breathe with it. It's not -- you insert the mouthpiece and you take the -- take the device apart. And then it's suggested that you put the mouthpiece in and then to start it, but because it -- you would use up the chemical bed if you pit it in, most companies don't have them put it in and use it. It is simply a dry run that takes the thing apart and then you don't actually sample the breathing because that breathing is much different under stress and much different underground than the breathing that you and I would normally have.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, of course, when you're concerned, you know, that you -- your moments might be ticking away.

MCATEER: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: What's going to make people change? What point? What's got to happen before they say, these are major changes that needs to be instituted in this industry?

MCATEER: Well, I think the industry itself has to come to grips with it and say, look, we need to make these changes and if we need to buy different devices that are used for training, then we need to purchase those devices or if we need to, as I say, sample one percent of the population, out there, and have them take a walk through with this, and then interview those and have those interviews be transmitted to the other miners in the mines, I think some way we have to urge the -- sort of make a dramatic statement that this needs to be changed.

S. O'BRIEN: Davitt Mcateer, is a former director of Mine Safety and Health Administration, thank you for talking with us this morning, certainly appreciate it.

MCATEER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Tonight on "Paula Zahn Now," Paula has a better than average discussion with a self-described medium. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA ZAHN, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": When you're getting what you think is a communication from a spirit, are you hearing that spirit? Are you seeing a dead person?

ALLISON DUBOIS, PSYCHIC MEDIUM: Sure.

ZAHN: What's going on?

DUBOIS: I'm hearing it. I'm seeing it. Sometimes you're smelling cigars. So I'll know that they smoked cigars. Sometimes I'm feeling like a punch to the chest because that's what a heart attack feels like. So, that's how they let me know that's how they died.

ZAHN (voice-over): Her first psychic connection, DuBois says, was when she was 6-years-old and her great grandfather appeared at foot of her bed after his funeral.

DUBOIS: He said, tell your mom I'm not in pain anymore and that I'm still with her.

ZAHBN: DuBois claims she's been able to communicate with the dead ever since. Six years ago, DuBois discovered her knack for psychic profiling while interning at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix.

DUBOIS: It was my job to sorted the crime scene photos. And while I was sorting it, I starting seeing flashes of things that were happened before the person was killed. (END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: That's tonight at 8:00 Eastern on Paula Zahn now -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy is minding your business -- "Minding Our Business," coming up next. What is going on?

ANDY SERWER, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: That's right, Soledad. Some not so charitable accusations about the United Way. Plus, Rolling Rock's old Latrobe brewery in trouble -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, waiting for that. Thanks, Andy.

Also ahead this morning, the "da Vinci Code" slammed by the critics, didn't hurt it at the box office, though. We'll crunch the numbers for you, just ahead this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: This word just in to CNN, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is going to visit with President Bush at the White House later this week. Let's get right to CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry, joining us live. Hey, Ed. Good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. That's right, CNN has confirmed the prime minister will be coming to Washington later this week. We don't have a specific day yet. The prime minister made a surprise visit today to Baghdad. Prime Minister Blair, the first world leader to visit Iraq since that unity government, the new government, was formed. The cabinet officially approved before the weekend, but also significant is the fact that some British officials, traveling with the prime minister, have just said that they believe because of this progress in Iraq, all foreign troops may be out of Iraq within four years. As you know, the White House has been steadfast about not putting a timetable on any U.S. troop withdrawals despite any good news coming out of Iraq. The president, right now, as we speak heading to Chicago for a speech on the war on terror expected to pounce on these developments from over the weekend, tout the new good news coming out of Iraq, but no timetable on a troop withdrawal -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Nope, not yet. All right, Ed Henry for us this morning. Ed, thanks.

HENRY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Floridians making their lists, checking them twice. We're about 10 days away from the start of the hurricane season. It's time to stock up, boys and girls. And let's do it tax free. Shall we? CNN's John Zarrella joining us live from the Home Depot in Miami, he's trying to decide how many kilowatts he needs, right now. How many jerry (ph) cans; how much tarp. All that stuff. This is a man who's -- who lost -- you lost your pool enclosure, right? At least. JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Right. Yeah, pool enclosure, some portions of my roof. I ended up -- and it was all about $60,000 worth of damage and it was really all just cosmetic, nothing really substantial but, you know, Miles, what's interesting is we were out of power for eight days and there were a lot of things you don't think about. I had plenty of gasoline, I had gas cans, has gasoline, but I didn't think I needed to store up lots of engine oil for the generator.

M. O'BRIEN: Ah, that's a little thing you wouldn't think about.

ZARRELLA: And I couldn't find it.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go.

ZARRELLA: No. And I couldn't find it. But you're right, tax free days here in Florida until June 1. Last year, Floridians saved $10 million. This year, they expect that Floridians buying items like generators, like gas cans, oil, any kind of tie-down system, even carbon monoxide detectors, important if you have generators. Any of those kinds of items this year you're going to save $41 million here in Florida, is the estimate, because of the fact that generators and aluminum shutters are included.

Here in the Home Depot, you can see it, it's absolutely stocked up. Walls and walls of generators, down in the distance, four packs of five gallon cans for gasoline. And now is the time, Miles, for people to do it. And the irony here is every study we're seeing, news studies, even despite what happened last year, 50 percent of people from Maine to Texas, still don't have a hurricane plan. Figure that out -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: What is the deal with that? Why do people -- denial is a powerful thing, obviously. Why is that, do you think?

ZARRELLA: Yeah. It's people just want to procrastinate, they don't believe that it's going to hit them. That's always what we hear after the fact. I never believed it would be us. But, after last year, you think that they would -- they would come to their senses a little bit -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask one quick thing. Like, things like the oil, is there a place people can go to get a list of little details like that that, that you might forget?

ZARRELLA: Yeah. Lots of little things You definitely have to have the oil, you definitely have to make sure you have enough gasoline to run your generator for three days. We couldn't find gasoline for three days. Make sure you stay away from candles, because candles get knocked over in the wind during the hurricane, you end up setting your house on fire, you might be perfectly safe otherwise. So, get flashlights, get those break sticks that you can buy. Little things like that. One of these -- we'll probably get into more stuff as the hurricane season goes by, I'm sure.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. ZARRELLA: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John Zarrella, by all means don't fire up those generators indoors. That's a big one.

ZARRELLA: No.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you sir, appreciate it. Good luck shopping there -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Our Business." Rolling Rock beer?

SERWER: Rolling Rock beer being sold on the block and that's big news for a small town in Pennsylvania. I want to get to that in a second, though. We're going to talk about the markets. First of all I want, I correct something I said earlier. Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting in 1996, not 1986. My bad there.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead of your time. So to speak.

SERWER: Way ahead of my time so to speak.

M. O'BRIEN: It's hard to believe it's 2006.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: It's tough. It's tough.

SERWER: Let's go down to Wall Street and see the sell-off progressing, because, well, it's not so bad. It's only down 24 points, these Dow Jones Industrials could be worse.

You know, we talk a lot about scandals at public companies, obviously, all kinds of headlines about that. But what about nonprofits? Problems there are -- well, particularly at United Way. You may remember back in 2003, the former chief executive of that charity resigned in a scandal that he stole over $500,000. He went to prison. Now the "Washington Post" is reporting that the CFO, the chief financial officer, brought in to clean up the mess at the United Way, has resigned, saying that problems are beyond control, apparently, and saying that the nonprofit is still in trouble. Exaggerating how much money it has been raising. Also, the head of marketing, at United Way, has resigned, too, this according to the "Washington Post."

Now, let's talk about that brewery story that Soledad mentioned. You might have heard this that Rolling Rock is sold to Anheuser Busch for $82 million, but they're buying only the brand, not the brewery itself which is in, of course, Latrobe, Pennsylvania. And the question is what's going to happen to this brewery? Right now it is going to operate until July 31. After that, who knows? So, it's very interesting when Anheuser Busch buys this company, they're really buying the logo, the trademark. It's unclear whether they're buying the recipe. One would hope they're buying the recipe and they're going to make it elsewhere. Meanwhile, there's some workers at the brewery very anxious about their future. They say it's modernized, that facility, so hopeful that someone will be buying it.

M. O'BRIEN: You got to wonder how much the water has to do with the taste.

SERWER: They always talk about the water.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's what they say. And there's that -- what's that cryptic thing on the bottle?

SERWER: The 33.

M. O'BRIEN: Yeah, what's that all about?

SERWER: It's very unclear. I was just looking into that and it's unclear where that comes from. There are all these rumors. The company says it's was a mistake that a printer on the bottle. No one believes that.

M. O'BRIEN: But it stays.

SERWER: Yes, it stays.

M. O'BRIEN: Presumably, Anheuser Busch will keep that.

SERWER: I hope so.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. "CNN Live Today" is coming up next.

Daryn, what are you working on?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Big two hours, Miles. Thank you. "Live Today," will bring you a news filled Monday. The class of Katrina graduates far from home. I'm going to talk with one young man. He was the only graduate in this class, the difficult school year ends with hope and promise.

And politics sometimes can be personal and physical.

Whoa. The slap heard around the world. I ask you, is this any way to run a campaign?

And Sir Elton's latest tirades. Between the bleeps he slap it is media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIR ELTON JOHN, ENTERTAINER: I'm talking to you (BLEEP) waste.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN: (BLEEP) intolerable position. Shut it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Can't we all just get along and talk nice? Live today begins at the top of the hour. Back to you. M. O'BRIEN: It sounds like an angst-filled couple of hours, but I will be tuning in. Thank you very much.

KAGAN: You got it.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on "AM Pop" I guess you can all this the revenge of the albino monk. The critics canned it, but you, many of you out there, decided to shell out your hard-earned cash, nonetheless. We will check in on the "da Vinci Code" at the box office up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Movie reviewers have preached against "da Vinci Code" but audiences packed theaters on opening weekend like church on Easter Sunday. CNN's Sibila Vargas has our story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Witness the biggest cover-up in human history.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dan Brown's best selling novel the "da Vinci Code" translated into best seller at movies its opening weekend, taking in $77 million in U.S. ticket sales and $224 million worldwide. That's a second best worldwide debut in history, and the best weekend opening in the U.S. so far this year.

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN, PRESIDENT EXHIBITOR RELATIONS: This movie No. 1 in Italy, No. 1 Spain, No. 1 or two in South America. Across the board, worldwide, it was a global phenomenon.

VARGAS: Like the book it's based on, religious groups around the world attacked the film for its fictional assertion that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were lovers, possibly married and gave birth to a child.

(on camera): Some church leaders threatened boycotts, others legal action, but in the end, audiences who decided "da Vinci's" fate.

DERGARABEDIAN: And I think it's very interesting that a lot of religious groups were against the film, but it shows you that even though you may have an opinion against the movie, you really kind of need to see it if you're going to talk about it.

VARGAS (voice-over): Early reviews of the film, following its premier in can (ph), were less than stellar, but didn't seem to matter to audiences.

RON HOWARD, PRODUCER: Talk to 10 different people you get 10 different reactions to the novel that's the way it's been with the movie. And I really expected that.

VARGAS: The only mystery left to solve now is whether one of the year's most talked about and most controversial films will hold on to audiences long enough to make it a bona fide long-term success.

DERGARABEDIAN: If it already in three days had done $224 million worldwide, this certainly has a shot to be one of the bigger worldwide grosses of all time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sermons, code, monks, da Vinci.

VARGAD: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, Barbaro's surgery. Three broken bones, the Preakness dash hopes for the Triple Crown. Doctors say now survival is a coin toss.

And Madonna mixes politics and religion on her Confessions tour. Queue the protesters. We'll explain ahead. On AMERICAN MORNING, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time. Let's send it right to Daryn Kagan, she's at the CNN Center, going to take you through the next couple hours on "CNN Live Today."

Hey Daryn, good morning again.

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