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American Morning

Political Polls; Minister's Wife Charged; Gold Digger; Beverly Hills Hazard?

Aired June 15, 2006 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening this morning.
Some smoking gun documents could mean big trouble for al Qaeda in Iraq. Iraqi security forces say they recovered a treasure trove of information after the bombing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi.

In Afghanistan, a bus bomb attack in Kandahar. Ten workers killed on their way to a U.S. military base. The attack comes just as coalition forces mount a major security offensive.

And Arizona National Guard troops reporting for duty at the Mexican border today. They're part of President Bush's Operation Jumpstart. They'll do mainly office jobs, freeing up border patrol agents for law enforcement.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

After weeks of bad news, some good news out of Iraq. Is it making a difference for the president in the polls, though? Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider's in Washington, D.C. with an explanation for us.

Hey, Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You know, the president's had a good week and you could tell in that press conference yesterday he knows he's had a good week. He was practically giddy at some points of that press conference. But you didn't get that "mission accomplished" tone that we have seen in the past. Why not?

SCHNEIDER: Well, the president knows that this is a turning point, or hopes it's a turning point, in Iraq. He didn't want to be triumphant. The polls are showing that there's not a lot of bounce out of the elimination of Zarqawi. But the president's trying to turn this into a new departure. To say to the American people, something important has happened and things are going to get better. They're tired of being on the defensive for month after month.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: When you look at the polls it's important to note that there are some big things sort of missing in the questions because, of course, the polls that go from the 9th to the 11th, or in one case the 12th of June, that doesn't cover Karl Rove's being cleared in the investigation, that doesn't cover the president's surprise trip to Baghdad, that doesn't cover the news conference yesterday. Really what it's covering is Zarqawi being killed. Take a look at the polls for me.

SCHNEIDER: OK. Well, we have a poll from "USA Today" and Gallop that shows Bush with a 38 percent approval rating, up two points since early June. Now, keep the 38 in mind. Here's the NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll that shows Bush at 37 percent. That's up one point since April. And then in the third case, we have a poll from CBS News, Bush in that poll is 33 percent, down two points since the middle of May.

The bottom line here is, no real bounce as a result of the elimination of Zarqawi. Americans are under no illusions about what's happening in Iraq. And all these polls show that they do not expect the violence to diminish or the situation to radically improve immediately, at least, as a result of Zarqawi's elimination.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We'll have to see how this week's news affects the polls later on. Let's talk about Congress because the numbers for Congress, wow, bad. I mean even worse than what we see for the president there. If you look at an NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll, 23 percent approve of the job that Congress is doing. Twenty- three percent? There should be a number on that graphic there buts it's not rolling. Sixty-four percent disapprove. You take a look at the CBS News poll, approval is at 26 percent, disapproval of Congress is at 60 percent. What are the implications of that?

SCHNEIDER: The implications are that Congress is on the ballot this year, not President Bush. They're going to be voting for members of Congress. Most of the incumbents who are up for re-election are Republicans and they're very nervous about those numbers because, most strikingly, you just saw these figures.

Republicans are even more critical of the Republican Congress than Democrats are. What the voters out there are seeing is a Congress that isn't getting very much done. They can't do anything about gas prices, except for that $100 rebate, which was treated widely as a joke. They can't pass an immigration bill. They can't keep spending under control. They couldn't pass an amendment to deal with same-sex marriage. Corruption has become a big issue in Congress. And people are very, very angry. And it's not a partisan issue, it's a problem for the Republican base just as much as Democrats are angry.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, let's throw that poll number up again because we kind of zipped through it pretty quickly. Republicans, 62 percent, when you break it down between Republicans and Democrats, 62 percent blame Republicans, 56 percent blame Democrats.

OK. So the question really is, Bill, how do you translate the good week that the president's had into good poll numbers? I mean, obviously, he's been out a lot. The news conference was a good example of that, trying to rally up support. But it is going to be, at the end of the day, what happens on the ground -- you could hold a million press conferences -- what happens on the ground is all that's going to matter?

SCHNEIDER: Certainly in Iraq that's true, Americans want to see the casualty rate diminish and they want to see American troops at least begin to come home. The White House strategy is very simple, same as in football, the best defense is a good offense. They have been on the defensive now for months.

This bit of good news, and significant news about the elimination of Zarqawi, they want to treat it as a turning point. They're going on the offensive. They sent Karl Rove to New Hampshire to attack the Democrats.

There's going to be a debate today, starting today, in the House of Representatives which will challenge Democrats on the issue of Iraq. The issue that's going to be debated is whether there should be a date certain for American troop withdrawal. That could divide Democrats. Republicans on every front are trying to throw Democrats on the defensive because they're tired of being on the defensive.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider, senior political analyst. As always, thank you.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: In Tennessee, the woman accused of killing her minister husband, arraigned yesterday on first-degree murder charges. And now we know more about Mary Winkler's side of the story. Here's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Now indicted by a grand jury, accused murderer Mary Winkler pleaded not guilty through her attorneys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're Miss Winkler, ma'am?

MARY WINKLER: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have counsel representing you, is that correct?

WINKLER: Yes, sir.

CANDIOTTI: Winkler spoke only briefly in court. But since her arrest in March, the minister's wife has apparently opened up to her attorneys. Winkler's lawyers say she admits to shooting her husband in the back but insists it wasn't premeditated. Police say Winkler confessed to planning the whole thing.

STEVE FARESE, WINKLER ATTORNEY: Just because they interpret a statement as being one thing, we don't necessarily interpret it as being the same thing.

LESLIE BALLIN, WINKLER ATTORNEY: Confession, to me, denotes an indication of guilt. As Steve has referenced, we've seen a copy of the statement. Not a confession to me.

CANDIOTTI: But why remains a mystery. Winkler's attorneys will only tell CNN it wasn't one thing that pushed their client over the edge, but a series of troubles that led to a tragic set of circumstances. And infidelity wasn't one of them. In late March, the seemingly picture-perfect minister's family unraveled in quiet Selmer, Tennessee. After allegedly shooting her husband, Winkler fled with her children. They were found the next day in Orange Beach, Alabama. Every day, Winkler writes her three daughters from jail and sends them stationary to answer her.

FARESE: The hardest thing that's been on her has been the fact that she's been separated from her children, her family, her friends, and her church.

CANDIOTTI: Just before this hearing, Winkler received the first letters from her two eldest daughters since she was jailed in March. They told her "we love you and we miss you," but so far their grandparents won't let Winkler see them.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The why in that story is the big mystery.

Let's turn to Montclair, California, now. A man who was digging for gold in his front yard said, yes, he certainly got a little bit carried away. Look at this huge pile of dirt. He's got a big problem with authorities, too. Reporter Jane Yamamoto from our affiliate KTTV has our story this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE YAMAMOTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Dirt, lots of it, piled high. The homeowner digging, hoping to strike it rich.

CHIEF TROY AMENT, MONTCLAIR FIRE DEPARTMENT: The resident claimed he was looking for some gold.

JORDY BOLANOS, NEIGHBOR: We're friends, you know. He's a cool guy.

YAMAMOTO: Did he ever tell you he was digging for gold?

BOLANOS: He just said he was digging.

YAMAMOTO: The digging began ten days ago after the homeowner's metal detector went off in his front yard. Apparently he got a big carried away, hiring day laborers to help and this is how far they got, a hole 60 feet deep. That's equivalent to a six-story building. And it was a sophisticated operation. AMENT: A 24-foot extension ladder that went down to a ledge that they created when they dug. The workers would climb to that ledge where they would hook onto a rope and then they were lowered from that point down and then buckets were lowered to them with a make-shift pulley system.

YAMAMOTO: And that's not all. They put a garden hose in the hole to give them air.

AMENT: Yes, there was a big concern that this would collapse. Our concern was for the life safety that was in the hole. We stopped them from allowing people to go in the hole.

YAMAMOTO: A chain-link fence was put up around it and now it will be up to the homeowner to fill in the hole.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: And we thank KTTV and Miss Yamamoto for that report.

Let's check back on the weather.

Chad Myers, if there was gold in your yard, would you start digging it up? You bet, right?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Of course you would, right? I mean I sort of understand it, but I guess, you know, when you get to about the 40- foot level, maybe you stop. I don't know.

MYERS: Yes. Or you take the metal detector down there to see if it's still working, to see if it's still detecting it.

MILES O'BRIEN: Apparently he was still getting the readings.

MYERS: Or was it the metal pipe that came into your house above you that brings the water, you know. I don't know.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, exactly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hey, Chad?

MYERS: Yes, ma'am?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did you know that Beverly Hills High School's got an oil derrick on it?

MYERS: Well, you can't tell it's that. It kind of looks like a bat tower or something.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, they sort of painted it. Ahead this morning, we're talk about that. People want to know if that tower's causing cancer. Activist Erin Brockovich is now involved. It's her latest crusade. She'll talk about that.

MILES O'BRIEN: Nice job trying to camouflaging it.

All right, braces for adults. Yes, that's not new. But if you're in your 30s, 40s and 50s, you're probably thinking about straightening out your smile. But there's also other reasons, non- cosmetic reasons, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta will fill us in on that in a little bit.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Plus, Golfer pro John Daly's got a new book out. Boy, that's a guy who's had a lot of demons in his life. Makes for a fascinating read, though, I'll tell you. We sit down with him just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Erin Brockovich, at it again, working to uncover what she believes is a huge health hazard hiding in a very unlikely place, downtown Beverly Hills. Anderson Cooper has our report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): At age 21, Lori Moss was hit with devastating news.

LORI MOSS, BEVERLY HILLS HIGH GRADUATE: You're not supposed to get cancer at that age, so it's just -- it's something you hear of when you're older. And it just, it's very frightening.

COOPER: Diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, Moss was in and out of hospital with chemotherapy and radiation. And then, in 2001, at the age of 27, she was told she had thyroid cancer.

MOSS: And it was just hard to believe, two cancers in my 20s.

COOPER: Moss thought she was simply unlucky until in 2001 she met environmental crusader Erin Brockovich at a book signing.

MOSS: She asked how I was and I said, you know, I had just, you know, came from the hospital . . .

ERIN BROCKOVICH, INVESTIGATOR, MASRY & VITITOE: And then I said, oh, were you sick? And she said, well, I have cancer. And I was really pretty taken back because she's very young.

ANDERSON: Not long after their encounter, Brockovich came across a possible reason for Moss' condition.

BROCKOVICH: I believe it was a 2001 EPA newsletter. It talked about the oil industry and how they had found a clever way to mask their oil operations amid the glamour, example, Beverly Hills.

COOPER: Their clever way, an oil derrick covered with bright flowers painted by terminally ill children and named the Tower of Hope, sitting right on Beverly Hills High School's campus. BROCKOVICH: And then I thought, how could that be? At a public high school. You have basically an onshore oil platform and nobody knows it's there? That's really kind of what initially set me off because nobody had a clue. Nobody knew.

COOPER: But this Tower of Hope has 18 operating oil wells underneath the school's athletic field, which provide the city and school district millions of dollars in royalties, pumping out about 450 barrels of oil a day.

BROCKOVICH: Straight in front of you, it looks like a big retaining wall with some white stripes on it and equipment on the top. That's Sempra. Most people don't know that behind that wall is Sempra's power plant.

COOPER: Brockovich set out to investigate, researching and testing the air quality of the school and hired Columbia Analytical Services, a network of laboratories that specializes in environmental testing. The company found abnormal amounts of toxins in the air admitted from the derrick and the power plant's cooling towers. Brockovich says this puts innocent students, teachers and residents at risk.

BROCKOVICH: These facilities emit chemicals, poisons, cancer- causing agents, benzene, proben-6 (ph) and dioxin, and they sit right on top of a public school. They're more than close, they're on it. They're there.

COOPER: Brockovich claims it was those toxins that resulted in a cancer diagnosis for more than 400 people who either went to the school or lived near it between 1978 and 1996. They are among roughly 800 plaintiffs in lawsuits filed in 2003 against the city of Beverly Hills, its school district, eight oil companies, and Sempra Energy, a gas and electric utility and production company, all which deny liability. Sempra Energy, which just sold the office building, heating and cooling plant next to the school, declined to comment on the allegations.

Beverly Hills city and school officials declined our request for an interview but did release a statement saying, "the safety of our children and all of the children in our community is our highest priority. The school district and the city hired an internationally respected environmental testing firm. That firm was unable to find any unusual conditions at the high school. The state's air pollution control agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, found nothing unusual. Even the testing performed under the direction of the plaintiffs' lawyers showed the air quality at the high school is typical for Los Angeles."

Despite studies that show no link between pollution from oil wells and the types of cancers the lawsuit focuses on, Brockovich says you can't ignore the numbers.

BROCKOVICH: I'm just that ordinary person that tells you common sense is kind of kicking in here for me somewhere. You've got an unusual number of kids, in my humble little opinion, with cancer. COOPER: But one cancer epidemiologist contacted by CNN says certain types of cancers are increasing in young adults everywhere, most likely because diagnostic techniques have improved. The controversial case is expected to go to court in October. Brockovich says no matter which experts the court sides with, she hopes people will have the awareness to push for change.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Anderson's got a look now at what's coming up on his program tonight. Here it is.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, tonight from San Francisco, desperate for an organ transplant. Americans driven to a place where human organs are sold and life is cheap. Organs taken from condemned prisoners without consent, sometimes when they're still breathing. It is a problem hiding in plain sight. We're in San Francisco tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: That's best-selling author Anderson Cooper.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's right.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good for him.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Top of the list.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I know. Number one in "The New York Times" best seller.

MILES O'BRIEN: Not bad at all.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Go, Anderson.

Yesterday, only four days after she returned from Namibia (ph), Angelina Jolie sat down with Anderson Cooper. She looks good for just having a baby, come on now. It's her first in-depth interview since then and in this "A.C. 360" exclusive, Angelina talked to Anderson about her passions, which included, of course, helping refugees around the world and her role as a U.N. special ambassador and her new baby. And we hope some questions about Brad Pitt. Next Tuesday night as part of CNN's "World Refugee Day" coverage. You can see the whole conversation. A special edition of "Anderson Cooper 360" begins at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

MILES O'BRIEN: Boy, Anderson, when you're hot, you're hot. Top of the best-seller list and Angelina.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And she's hot, too. MILES O'BRIEN: That too. Yes, you might say that.

Andy Serwer, hello. How are you?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: He's hot, too.

SERWER: Oh . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: You could say that.

SERWER: Following up. Thank you very much.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're a stud.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad. That's right.

Some business news coming up to tell you about. First of all, Google. The company is buying its own Googleplex. And you won't believe how many job openings this company has.

Plus, friends, Romans, CNN viewers, I've come to tell you about a new website devoted to the bar (ph). We'll tell you about that, you guys.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I like that.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, alas, poor Andy, we hope we'd do you well.

SERWER: Oh, here we go. Yes.

MILES O'BRIEN: Speaking of that, how do you get from that to John Daly? Not easily.

SERWER: Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: I doubt he's been on Shakespeare. Anyway, he's made millions of dollars in the PGA tour, but, as you know, he has a very interesting personal life and makes no apologies. We'll talk to him about his book, his life, and that amazing swing coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Friends, viewers, and countrymen, lend me your ears. Andy Serwer is here to tell you about Google and Shakespeare.

SERWER: Yes. And you wouldn't think they're necessarily connected, but they are. Let's start off with another Google story, though, Miles.

The high-flying Mountain View, California, company is buying its own headquarters, which might surprise you because you might think it has a headquarters, which it does, but it's been renting since 2003.

MILES O'BRIEN: But certainly had the jack to buy it. SERWER: It's a site near a former garbage dump, by the way.

MILES O'BRIEN: Erin Brockovich could be by.

SERWER: And, yes. $319 million they're going to pay. They're adding about a dozen new jobs a day at this company. A dozen new employees per day, I should say -- 7,000 employees and they've got 1,800 job listings -- job openings.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, you have to have a PhD, I think, or close to it, right?

SERWER: Almost. Well . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: And there's this incredibly complicated mathematical riddle that you have to figure out in order to do it. So, in other words, you an I, we're not applying.

SERWER: (INAUDIBLE) for, you know, as a janitor for goodness sakes I mean the way the stock's going, let me tell you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

SERWER: And now another Google story to tell you about. Google has just rolled out the most comprehensive Shakespeare site known to man. Just go to google.com/shakespeare and you can search through Shakespeare, all the plays, the tragedies, the comedies, I think we're doing it right now.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, we are.

SERWER: "Hamlet," "To be or not to be." And so it's very, very cool stuff.

MILES O'BRIEN: So you can almost hear the high school students out there cheering saying, no need to buy Cliffs Notes anymore.

SERWER: Yes, I mean, you just do that, search it, put it up and it's like Cliff Notes on steroids.

MILES O'BRIEN: Where for art thou . . .

SERWER: Indeed.

MILES O'BRIEN: On Google.com.

What's next?

SERWER: Next we're going to talk about Ben Roethlisberger. You know, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback. He missed a very important TV commercial this week because of his motorcycle accident. And we'll tell you about that.

MILES O'BRIEN: The business side of that bad, scary wreck. All right. Back with more in a moment.

Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: Thanks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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