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American Morning

Deadly Prison Gunfight; Sharing the Road With Young Drivers; Military Meals

Aired June 22, 2006 - 08:32   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A formal investigation begins this morning into a deadly gunfight between FBI agents and a prison guard at a Florida prison. The story broke here on AMERICAN MORNING yesterday. When the shooting ended, the prison guard and a federal agent were dead.
CNN's Susan Candiotti live for us in Tallahassee this morning.

Susan, good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know that this kind of corruption case was being investigated at a federal prison. Unfortunately, it's not all that uncommon. But how it ended, with federal law enforcement officers shooting at each other, that's what's taken everyone by surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): It was designed to go down quietly inside a federal prison. The plan was to arrest unarmed guards suspected of trading drugs for sex with inmates, but something went very wrong.

MICHAEL FOLMAR, FBI SPEC. AGENT IN CHARGE: It just didn't go down exactly as planned.

CANDIOTTI: Not even close. As white-robed investigators combed the grounds for bullet casings, a federal agent was already dead, another federal investigator injured, and a prison guard, who allegedly shot at them, fatally gunned down. At the time, that guard was in the process of being arrested. It's unclear who shot whom and when.

FOLMAR: This arrest situation was done in a manner to be very controlled, in a situation where nobody would have any weapons and we could take this down so there wouldn't be any violence.

CANDIOTTI: Authorities say five other guards were taken down without violence, but the sixth used his personal gun.

A law enforcement official tells CNN the shooting started inside and ended outside near an exit. How the guard was able to get an unauthorized gun inside is not known. His lawyer claims guards are not screened at entrances like visitors. The FBI said it did not know whether guards go through metal detectors. All six guards had just been indicted on charges of trading drugs for sex with female inmates, paying off others with money orders to keep their mouths shut and intimidating still others by threatening to transfer them farther away from families.

The accused guard who was killed knew he was under investigation. The FBI told him so last year. He even gave a saliva sample for a DNA test, but his lawyer says they heard nothing more.

TIMOTHY JANSEN, ATTY.: My understanding, he denied it from the very beginning, and that he didn't give an interview. He denied it.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): And what did he deny?

JANSEN: He denied any inappropriate contact in the investigation.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): An FBI team will investigate the shooting. A law enforcement source says it's also looking into whether the guard who fired his gun was tipped off.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Now, that shooting review team will begin disconnecting exactly what happened this morning, and those five accused guards whose arrest did not end in violence will appear before a judge later today to ask for bond -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Tell us a little bit more about the federal agent, Susan, who was killed in the shootout.

CANDIOTTI: Only 44 years old, Soledad. His name is William Buddy Setner (ph). And for about 14 years, he worked for the Secret Service, protecting the president and vice president. He only took on this job not long ago and got married just last year, because he said he wanted to normalize his life, start a family, but it was not to be -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Oh, that is such sad news. Susan Candiotti for us in Tallahassee this morning, thank you -- John.

ROBERTS: Thirty-six minutes after the hour.

Sharing the road with young drivers can be dangerous. According to AAA, July and August are the deadliest months for 16 and 17-year- old drivers. But a new study just out today says limits on teen driving can actually save lives.

Peter Kissinger, head of the AAA foundation for traffic safety joins from us just off of the Capitol beltway in Alexandra, Virginia.

Good morning to you, Peter.

PETER KISSINGER, AAA FDN. FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY: Good morning, John. How are you?

ROBERTS: Good. Thanks for being with us.

Let's look at some of the statistics here, as detailed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On average, 100 16 and 17-year-old drivers die in crashes in July or August. Crashes the leading cause of death for teenagers. More than half of teen drivers in fatal crashes had passengers with them in the car under the age of 21.

Why is it so dangerous, driving in the summer, for 16 and 17- year-olds, Peter?

KISSINGER: Well, as you just said, it's important to remind parents that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in this country. And those risks are particularly high for the young novice drivers, particularly the 16-year-olds. Our study confirmed, for example, that the restrictions that are typically in place for graduated driver licensing systems in this country, namely restrictions on the number of passengers that can be in a car with a teenaged driver and driving at night, do work. These restrictions do reduce the risk of traffic crashes. For example...

ROBERTS: But Peter, just let me interrupt you if I could. Why so deadly during the summertime? Is it the fact that they're out of school, they're up later at night, they continue to have more social activities than they would during the school year? Is that what's behind this?

KISSINGER: I think it's a combination of all those factors. Basically in July and August, teens have more free time, so they drive more, and they put themselves in those more risky situations, which include driving at night and driving with other passengers in the car.

ROBERTS: So you mention these restrictive driving licenses, graduated driving licenses. They're prevalent in all 50 states, but the rules differ from state to state. What does AAA recommend in terms of these graduated licenses?

KISSINGER: Well, first of all, it's important to recognize that only 35 states actually have both a nighttime restriction and a restriction on the number of passengers that can be in a car when the teen is driving. AAA would like to see all 50 states have laws on the books that deal with those restrictions, and we'd like to have the best restrictions possible.

For example, we'd like to have nighttime restrictions start at either 9:00 or 10:00 in the evening and go all the way through 6:00 a.m. the next morning. Because we see that 30 percent of the fatal teen crashes involving 16 to 17-year-olds occur during that timeframe, but only a fraction of the driving does.

Similarly, we'd like to see...

ROBERTS: I'm sorry, I was just going to say, it's a lengthy legislative process that changed those graduated licenses in all 50 states, so help out parents who may be in a state that's less restrictive than others, like say South Carolina, which is very restrictive. What can they do to try to educate their teens to be safer on the road?

KISSINGER: That's a very good point. In fact, regardless of the law in your community, you as parents should take responsibility and impose restrictions on nighttime driving for your teen drivers and limit the number of times that they chauffeur other people in the car. Because again, we found that over 50 percent of the fatal teen crashes that occur have one or more passengers under the age of 21.

ROBERTS: And the AAA -- go ahead, sorry.

KISSINGER: We also found it was very key that when we looked at teens that remain crash-free, compared to teens that had a crash. One of the most significant findings was parental monitoring. When parents got involved and actively looked where their teens were driving, who they were driving with and so forth, we saw that that increased the likelihood that they remain safe.

ROBERTS: And we should point out as well, Peter, just before we let you go here, that in terms of helping parents educate their children about it, the AAA has got lots of valuable materials on its Web site at www.aaa.com.

Thanks for being with us, Peter Kissinger, head of the AAA Foundation...

KISSINGER: Thanks for helping us get the message out.

ROBERTS: All right, thanks very much -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Southern California may be due for the big one. That's according to a comprehensive new study on the southern section of the San Andreas fault. Scientists believe pressure is building up, since there hasn't been major quake there in more than 300 years. They admit, though, it's impossible to predict when a major quake can come, and the fault itself is more than 800 miles long.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Coming up, we normally don't do cooking segments on this show, right?

O'BRIEN: We never do cooking segments.

ROBERTS: Ah, but we're going to.

O'BRIEN: Ah. What are you making?

ROBERTS: The U.S. military -- I'm going to be making chicken pesto pasta.

The U.S. military tries to spice up the menu for the troops. We're going to our own little taste test of the new ready-to-eat meals this morning.

O'BRIEN: I'm not sure if it's a cooking segment when it comes in a little bag like that. ROBERTS: It is! I cooked it. I cooked it. It's warm. It was cold, and then it was warm.

O'BRIEN: Also, the star of "Baywatch" and "Night Rider," David Hasselhoff. He's got a new movie out. He's going to join us live in the studio to talk about that. He stars with Adam Sandler in a new movie called "Clicks." That's ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: MREs are the army's standard combat rations. It's stands for Meal Ready to Eat, but soldiers will tell you that it also stands for Meals Rejected by Everybody. So with that in mind, military chefs have cooked up some new, tastier MREs, like chicken pesto pasta in an air-tight pouch.

Gerry Darsch, who is the director of combat feeding for the defense department, is here to help us taste the new combat cuisine. I guess like a fine restaurant, you're always tweaking the recipe, you're always looking to improve, always looking to do something different.

GERALD DARSCH, DIR., DOD COMBAT FEEDING: We like to think MRE now stands for meals relished by everyone. And the reason we think that is that we've really focused our business philosophy, war fighter recommended, war fighter tested, war fighter approved. That's the only way an item gets in or comes out of our combat rations like the Meal Ready to Eat.

ROBERTS: Well, we should everybody -- this is really the heart of it. This is the pouch of the entree in the MRE.

DARSCH: That's correct.

ROBERTS: And this is the heater bag.

DARSCH: Mmm-hmm.

ROBERTS: Well, you tell us a little bit more about how the menu has been adjusted. Let me just show folks at home how you prepare this with just this heater bag and...

DARSCH: Little bit of water.

ROBERTS: And a little bit of water that you would take from your canteen or your pouch.

DARSCH: Exactly.

ROBERTS: So, in terms of adjusting the menu, you know, you said war fighter tested, war fighter approved...

DARSCH: Exactly.

ROBERTS: ... which sort of strikes me as who approved the chicken cavatelli and the chicken tetrazzini? DARSCH: Well, we may have had a war fighter asleep at the wheel, but it's probably unlikely. Again, it's very difficult when you have 1.2 million war fighters. And at some point in time, they're going to carry a weapon. So the last thing we want to do is antagonize them. So consequently, what we've done now is we've actually gone into the field. We do in every year. We survey war fighters.

We've even had the opportunity to go to southwest Asia and talk to war fighters personally, from Iraq, from Afghanistan, and determine what is it you'd like to go in and come out of the MRE? Bottom line, we put in about 185 new items into the MRE since about 1993. We've taken out about 100, and we'd like to say the...

ROBERTS: The chicken cavatelli and the chicken tetrazzini are gone.

DARSCH: Got the hook. Got the hook.

ROBERTS: I just want to point that this is already heating up with the little heater element that's in here, with the water. And we'll just leave that to heat up.

DARSCH: Good.

ROBERTS: So let's take a look at couple of the new ones you got. You got the chicken pesto pasta.

DARSCH: Exactly.

ROBERTS: And you've also got the vegetarian lasagna. Can we do a little taste test here?

DARSCH: That would be great. I would encourage it.

ROBERTS: So this is the pesto.

DARSCH: The pesto, probably we're seeing the most highest ratings from war fighters on the battlefield.

ROBERTS: Not exactly al dente, but still, very good.

DARSCH: But it isn't but it was quite good.

ROBERTS: That's tasty.

DARSCH: Isn't it good?

ROBERTS: That's really tasty.

DARSCH: Sun-dried tomatoes, a little olive oil.

ROBERTS: When I was at the Iraq war, my favorite was the beef stew. And I would always take the jalapeno cheese that you were supposed to put on your crackers and mix it in with the stew.

DARSCH: Correct. (CROSSTALK)

DARSCH: Exactly. But again, the war fighters, very, very innovative on the field. They will find ways to trade components, they'll find ways to mix components.

ROBERTS: That's part of the fun.

DARSCH: It is, it is.

ROBERTS: And we should point out here that we've had our chicken pesto pasta just sitting in the heater bag now for about two or three minutes.

DARSCH: Exactly.

ROBERTS: It's already warm. And all you would do is either take a scissors, or if you're out on the field and you don't have your scissors, you would just open up the top of that.

DARSCH: With the tier notch.

ROBERTS: Like this. And there you got your hot field ration.

DARSCH: What we can do is put the cookie there.

ROBERTS: Or I could just eat it right out of here.

DARSCH: That's a beautiful thing.

ROBERTS: Let's give this a test. I remember doing this in Iraq and it tasted so good when you would just get it out of the heater pouch. Mmm! That's not bad.

DARSCH: Isn't that great? It's good.

ROBERTS: Much better than the old sea rations that those poor folks in Vietnam had to make due with. Gerry Darsch...

DARSCH: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Department of defense, thanks very much, appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" coming up next. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Good morning, Soledad. We have the rich guys report coming up. Treasury Secretary designee Hank Paulson has to sell oodles of stock. Billionaire Larry Ellison (ph), meanwhile, welches (ph) on a huge pledge. We'll tell you about that, coming up next.

O'BRIEN: To Harvard, right?

SERWER: Mmm hmm.

O'BRIEN: Oh yes. Yes.

SERWER: Love that -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's not so good. All right, Andy, thanks, looking forward to that.

Also ahead this morning, actor David Hasselhoff will join us right here in the studio. He's playing Adam Sandler's tough boss in the new movie "Click." We're going to ask him about the movie and also his new -- his other role. He's a judge on "America's Got Talent."

SERWER: No kidding.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes. He's got a lot going on. Talk about all that, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Kind of an odd story out of Wales this week. A man caused several -- yes, we've been talking about Wales. Thanks, John. That's helpful. I'm trying to read hear -- here. Thank you.

Look at these pictures. A guy tosses several thousand dollars of pounds is what he tossed out of a car, but worth about $9,000. Security-camera footage here. Not exactly the mad scramble I think you would see if he had done it right in midtown New York. In fact, I think the onlookers actually didn't have a clue what was going on, but eventually they figured out eventually that that was cash money, $9,000 worth all on the ground and all bets were off.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MORRIS, SHOPKEEPER: Picking up money, and they're all -- they forgot their arthritis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: I bet they did. All that cash sure, you forget your arthritis. The unidentified money tosser ended up -- the guy was later was arrested for drunk driving. Police are asking, they're hoping that all those folks there will give the money back.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, right.

O'BRIEN: Because they're not sure where he got the equivalent of $9,000 to be throwing out his car window, and he had clearly been drinking, allegedly, so.

ROBERTS: I can understand the questions there.

O'BRIEN: You certainly can.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES) O'BRIEN: We'll look at the day's top stories after this short break. Stay with us.

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