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American Morning
Foley Fallout; Page's Family Speaks; Scandal Strategy; Split Over Iran Nukes; Rice Kurdish Trip; N.C. Hazardous Fire
Aired October 06, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, it's Friday, October 6. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
Here is a look at what is happening this morning.
Investigators in the Mark Foley e-mail scandal moving into high gear now. The House Ethics Committee approving four dozen subpoenas already. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert weathering the storm so far, vowing once again not to step down, and taking a call of support from President Bush.
S. O'BRIEN: Near Raleigh, North Carolina right now, a fire is burning out of control at a hazardous waste facility. It spread to a nearby gasoline storage facility, too. As many as 15 -- 16,000 people have been evacuated as a precaution.
M. O'BRIEN: A fifth victim in that shooting at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to be laid to rest today. Four other girls killed in the attack buried yesterday. Another girl wounded now in grave condition. She may be taken off of life support.
S. O'BRIEN: Sanctions against Iran are the main topic of a high- level meeting in London just going to happen in just a few hours. Representatives from 6 nations, including China and Russia and the United States, are trying to decide what to do next in response to Iran's nuclear program.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will head to London for that meeting when she is done touring northern Iraq. Secretary Rice, who you see arriving here in Baghdad yesterday, is meeting with Kurdish leaders today.
M. O'BRIEN: Chad Myers is off, Rob Marciano is in.
Good morning, -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles. Hi, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you guys in New York.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Rob, see you in a bit.
MARCIANO: You bet.
M. O'BRIEN: In Washington today, the investigations and the damage control now moving at lightning speed in the Mark Foley page scandal. The House Ethics Committee is issuing subpoenas and the Republican speaker is offering an apology and a vow not to resign.
CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It has been one week now since the Mark Foley scandal first rocked Washington, and Republican leaders are still searching for a way to clean up the political damage both to them personally and GOP candidates out on the campaign trail.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert tried a new approach. He called a press conference back home in Illinois to say he is sorry, he takes responsibility and he says the buck stops with him. But he also insists he did nothing wrong and he won't resign. And Mr. Hastert is even stepping up his attempt to shift the blame on Democrats and the news media for engineering the Foley scandal so close to the election, but that is something he has offered no proof of.
Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee launched its full-fledged investigation of the Foley matter. They approved four dozen subpoenas, which they'll issue for documents, as well as witnesses, that includes lawmakers. Democrats and Republicans on the committee insist they will follow the evidence wherever it leads them.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: The family of a former page who reported those e- mails from Congressman Foley is responding for the first time in the scandal.
CNN's Sean Callebs has details for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We know the name of the page from northern Louisiana involved in this scandal, but we are going to respect the family's wishes and keep that name private. In a five paragraph statement from the family that CNN received, they characterize the young man as a hero, someone who had the courage to come forward and question the intention of the e-mails that he received from Congressman Foley last summer.
Now in the prepared statement, they go -- praise Congressman Alexander, who is from this area, for his efforts in helping protect the family. They say, "In the fall of 2005, as soon as Congressman Alexander became aware of e-mails received by our son, he called us. He explained that his office had been made aware of these e-mails by our son and that while he thought the e-mails were overly friendly, he did not think, nor did we think, that they were offensive enough to warrant an investigation. Rather, we asked him to see that Congressman Foley stop e-mailing or contacting our son and to otherwise drop the matter in order to avoid a media frenzy. He did so. If we had any other knowledge or evidence of potential impropriety, we would have asked for the matter to be treated differently. For instance, we were not aware of the instant messages that have come to light in the last few days."
The instant messages, something that happened a year prior, were much more lurid, much more explicit. The young man involved in this only received e-mails saying when is your birthday, what would you like for your birthday and could you send me a picture of yourself? Despite all of this, the family says the page did enjoy his experience in Washington, D.C. And if he had the chance to do it, he would be a page once again.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in Monroe, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Embattled House Speaker Dennis Hastert is getting a vote of confidence from the president.
More from White House correspondent Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a delicate dance. First step, distance the White House from the Foley scandal on the Hill.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're not getting into telling the House how to do its business.
KOCH: Step two, build in wiggle room in case an investigation shows more wrongdoing or a cover-up.
SNOW: We don't know what happened. You have to find out who knew what and all those sorts of details and I don't know them. It's one of the reasons why there's an investigation.
KOCH: Step three, reiterate President Bush's insistence that Hastert not resign.
SNOW: In absence of full information, we'll stick with what we got.
KOCH: Punctuating the dance, sharp condemnation of Congressman Mark Foley's behavior.
SNOW: It's hideous. It's unacceptable, period.
KOCH: A clear re-choreographing of Monday's characterization.
SNOW: It's not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.
KOCH: But the White House couldn't dance around the fact that President Bush's message was being drowned out by the furor over the scandal.
SNOW: You guys write about the Foley scandal morning, noon and night. It seems to me that -- talking about things that matter. I mean, here we are, we've got news on North Korea and Iran and other places.
KOCH (on camera): The White House says Thursday evening, for the first time since the scandal broke, President Bush called Speaker Hastert and thanked him for -- quote -- "coming out and making a clear public statement in which he and the House leadership took responsibility and said that they are accountable to the American people," an important gesture of support from an administration eager to move beyond the damaging scandal.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Some poll numbers out this morning offering plenty for the GOP to worry about. A "TIME" survey finds that only 16 percent of Americans approve of the GOP's handling of the scandal. Two-thirds believe Republican leaders tried to cover it up. A quarter of those polled say the scandal makes them less likely to vote for a Republican candidate in November. Overall, 54 percent say they're more likely to vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections. And the poll shows Americans are split over whether Hastert should resign over his handling of the Foley matter.
Thousands of protesters in the streets of New York and Washington yesterday upset over a laundry list of Bush administration policies. It was billed as a national day of protest on everything from global warming to the war in Iraq. In New York yesterday, the streets surrounding the United Nations clogged. In front of the White House, protesters held up yellow police tape for a three block stretch. They call Bush administration policies criminal.
At the United Nations, a stern, but vague, warning for North Korea not to test a nuclear bomb. The U.N. Security Council agreed yesterday on a Japanese drafted statement that warns of unspecified consequences if the communist North conducts a nuclear test. The North Koreans say they could explode a bomb underground as soon as this weekend.
And Iran's nuclear ambitions prompting a summit in London, but no agreement on how to punish Iran as it continues its drive for a nuclear program.
CNN European editor Robin Oakley joining us from London with more.
Good morning, -- Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Good morning, Miles.
Well, this is a long, long running saga now. There have been talks going on, probably for three or four months now, between Javier Solana, the European Union's International Policy Chief, and Ali Larijani, the chief negotiator for Tehran, to see if they can solve this problem by diplomatic means.
Basically, Iran defying the U.N. deadline saying that it must halt its uranium enrichment program and the E.U. and the U.S. saying that they are willing to talk to Iran if it will suspend enrichment and offering a package of encouraging measures for Iran to do that. Iran has defied those encouragements, carried on with the enrichment program.
Now basically the six countries mostly involved here, the U.N. Security Council Five, plus Germany, which has been involved in the E.U. negotiations, having to stir up their courage and decide what they are going to do in the face of Iran's defiance. Are they going to press forward now with U.N. Security Council sanctions? If so, how tough will those sanctions be?
Meeting in a few hours time with the six powers, probably not going to produce a final result in itself, but maybe giving a sense of direction to political directors from the six countries to start shaping some form of low-grade sanctions at least -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Robin, you could look at this and see the Iranians sort of just playing the rest of the world like a fiddle here, playing for time. And they seem to be playing into that pretty well, don't they?
OAKLEY: Yes, they've played this kind of game very effectively. They keep spinning out for time and of course they keep insisting that their nuclear program is purely one for civil nuclear energy, that it has nothing to do with weapon making.
But of course what they know is that the -- those powers who might be willing now to press for sanctions are also having to court world opinion. Because if all this leads on to big, big trouble between the West and Iran and could, in the end, involve military sanctions of some kind, then nobody wants to be carrying the blame for being the difficult one.
So the Iranians keep saying we're happy to talk, but we're not going to suspend. The other side says we're happy to talk, too, but you must suspend if we're going to make -- get anywhere meaningful in those talks. And it's a standoff and the Iranians have, so far, I think, probably edged the diplomatic game -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Robin Oakley in London, thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Iraq in a search for a solution to end the violence. We'll get a progress report on her trip just ahead.
Plus, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Hello, Soledad.
Hewlett-Packard's once informer Chairman Patricia Dunn goes to court and that soaring stock market coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to head off a growing movement in the Kurdish northern portion of Iraq to break away from the rest of the country. Her efforts are hampered by the killing of a Kurdish Member of the Parliament.
CNN's Arwa Damon joining us live from Baghdad with more, -- Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
That's right, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here yesterday. The purpose of her trip was to show U.S. support for the Iraqi government. However, she has adopted a hard line with senior Iraqi politicians that she is meeting with saying that the current level of violence is not something that can be tolerated and that now is not the time for debate.
The Iraqi government is at a very critical time, she said, although many Iraqis here will probably say that that is putting it mildly. There is an increase in the violence, an increase in sectarian violence. The government here is viewed by many on the street as being weak, recently forming four committees to deal with the violence. Iraqis here saying that forming a committee is not what is going to bring an end to the problems here.
She arrived in Baghdad yesterday, met with senior politicians here, to include both the president and the prime minister, and traveled up to the north, to Erbil, to meet with Kurdish leaders up there -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. Arwa, can you give us a little more of a sense of what is going on in the Kurdish north? When they talk about breaking away, they, for many years, had a semi-autonomous region. This is something that the U.S. has to contend with here.
DAMON: Correct. That's right, they did, and the Kurds in the north have the luxury of living in that autonomous region. They have not had to deal with a lot of the violence that is seen throughout the rest of the country. It is a very oil-rich center.
And we also have the issue of Kirkuk to deal with. Kirkuk is home, and the region around Kirkuk is home to about 80 percent of Iraq's oil. That is one of the main issues that the Kurds have and that the Iraqi government is facing right now who is going to control the oil? Who is going to control the income from oil revenues? This is an incredibly big sticking point for the Iraqi government here, and it is one that is leading to many debates within the government and in fact, in recent times, led to the Kurdish north even threatening to break away from Iraq -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon in Baghdad, thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Following a story developing out of North Carolina this morning, hazardous chemicals are burning out of control near several petroleum storage tanks. Overnight, authorities told 16,000 people they had to evacuate their homes on the east side of Apex, which is a suburb of Raleigh.
Let's get right to reporter Ann Forte of our affiliate News 14 Raleigh. She joins us live this morning.
Good morning.
ANN FORTE, NEWS 14 RALEIGH-TV REPORTER: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Bring us up to speed on what's happening there this morning.
FORTE: Well right now officials don't know how bad this fire is. They haven't gone in overnight. It was just too dangerous in the dark. These chemicals were pretty serious. They didn't want to risk anybody's safety going in, so they're waiting until daybreak to really get a look and see what they are dealing with here.
And again, we're about six-and-a-half miles from the fire. We were moved several times overnight away from the area.
Now this all started around 10:00 p.m. last night. Somebody called a 911 call. There was a plume of smoke in the air that turned out to be chlorine gas.
Now since last night that cloud has expanded and moved. And, as you said, there have been several evacuations. They've asked about half of the town to evacuate, and that's about 16,000 people. So right now we're just waiting until daybreak to get an idea of how serious this fire is and what needs to be done to control the fire.
Now officials also tell us that they're not recommending putting water or any foam retardant on the fire. They say that that can cause some chemical spill up. So again, we're waiting until daybreak to see the latest on this fire -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Have you had a chance to talk to any of the people there, what are they telling you? Are they panicking? Do they seem that things are at least in control?
FORTE: From the people that we have talked to who have evacuated, they seem relatively calm. They seem glad to be out of the danger zone, obviously. And they want to go back home. But again, officials can't give them a definite answer at this time. They don't know how serious this fire is. They have no idea how long it will take to put out or how long it will burn.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, thanks for joining us with an update on what is happening there this morning. We were talking about the town of Apex, which is right near Raleigh. Thanks for the update. Obviously we're going to continue to follow it this morning.
Let's get a check of the forecast now. Rob Marciano at the CNN Center, he's got a look at the weather there, which of course is going to affect all of that.
How does it look, -- Rob?
MARCIANO: Yes, absolutely. And want to show you Google Earth, which will give you a little bit of perspective as to where exactly Apex is and the surrounding area. Right now we're looking at North Carolina. We'll zoom in just a little bit, Raleigh right here.
And as we zoom in, Apex just down to the south and west of Raleigh. And the actual plant itself, or the facility, is just to the south of Apex proper, and in a fairly industrial area. Fifty-five the state highway, we're getting word that it's going to be tough to pass, and that is south of the area, mostly because of the winds that are going to be shifted here.
So this is an industrial area, but just to the west there is some neighborhoods that could very well be affected. And right now the winds are out of the east, but the winds are going to be shifting, so that's going to be the on-going issue. As luck would have it, there's a developing storm pretty much right over the Raleigh area.
Want to show you the radar and we'll talk more about this. We're going to get some rain with this. And we're also going to, if we can go to the wall, we're also going to get some shifting winds, which is obviously the issue here. Raleigh here on the bigger scope, this line of showers now coming off the Appalachians and heading towards I-95, not a tremendous amount of heavy rain with this, but certainly enough to affect how they fight this particular fire.
Zooming in a little bit more, what we've put on here are estimated winds. And where you see the arrow are where the winds are coming from. So earlier today, right here in Raleigh -- and here's Apex again -- they were coming out of the east. Now they're starting to shift out of the north and northwest. So we've gotten a low right here that is developing and moving this way.
So not only are they battling this toxic fire, but they're also battling winds that will be shifting throughout the morning as the sun comes up today. So certainly a situation that could be better as far as Mother Nature cooperating.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Soledad, back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Rob, thank you.
And of course as reporter Ann Forte was telling us, we'll be watching that story to see how those winds are shifting.
Rob, maybe we'll continue to check in with you to see how that's looking as the sun comes up.
Still to come this morning, more than 12,000 union workers at Goodyear walk off the job. The company now says its survival is at stake.
And actress Eva Longoria injured on the set of "Desperate Housewives."
Stay with us. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: About 12,000 Goodyear union workers at 16 plants on strike this morning. The union and Goodyear can't agree on a new contract, despite months of talks. The union says Goodyear's latest proposal calls for boarding up two plants. Goodyear says the union refuses to agree to help it remain competitive.
And now more news in the HP scandal, it gets even more interesting.
Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business" with that.
Good morning, -- Andy.
SERWER: Good morning. As if that's possible.
Ousted HP Chairman Patricia Dunn appeared in court yesterday. There she signed an agreement that she would appear again on November 17 at an arraignment. There she is. That's in Santa Clara County courthouse. She actually signed an autograph there and then whisked over to the sheriff's office where she was fingerprinted, photographed and booked and then released.
There is speculation that there may be more charges brought to bear in this case. Legal experts say that in particular the three private investigators who were charged may end up working out agreements with the feds, and that would be used to go after additional individuals of Hewlett-Packard, for instance, perhaps the general counsel and even the CEO.
M. O'BRIEN: So wait a minute, so the people who actually did the pretexting may end up cooperating?
SERWER: That's right. They may end up cooperating in exchange for a lesser sentence or no sentence to go after other people. So we've seen that. That's a time-tested strategy.
S. O'BRIEN: Seen that before, yes.
SERWER: Exactly.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it works.
SERWER: Let's talk about oil. Six weeks ago there wasn't enough oil on this planet and now today there's too much, at least according to OPEC. And that's why the oil-producing nations are looking to cut production by one million barrels a day. OPEC does about 29 million barrels a day. This, of course, as oil prices plunge. OPEC is looking to support prices. Price of oil is down 23 percent since July. Stocks of oil are at a seven-year high.
And finally this morning, hey, friend, do it again. The Dow Jones industrials on a three-peat. How about this? And, like I said, nothing makes stocks go up like higher stocks, right? I mean they keep going...
M. O'BRIEN: People jump in.
SERWER: People jump...
M. O'BRIEN: They're diving in!
SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Not even going to say...
SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... what I'd like to say, which is...
M. O'BRIEN: Which is what?
S. O'BRIEN: ... my Dow 12...
SERWER: Twelve -- 12,000.
S. O'BRIEN: You know the last time and then everything reversed.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Yes, that's right.
S. O'BRIEN: So.
SERWER: Well you're looking for a cake or something like that,...
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, we get...
SERWER: ... because we do celebrate on this program.
S. O'BRIEN: I forget what we agreed to. Yes. We have to wait a little bit.
SERWER: Diamonds, was it?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: No, something like that?
S. O'BRIEN: Try putting that on your expensive account. I don't think that works.
SERWER: Yes, no, that's not going to happen.
So that's what we've got this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: What's next?
SERWER: Next we're going to be talking about Wal-Mart. Remember that discount drug program we told you the company was going to roll out, apparently they're accelerating that. So we'll talk about that in a little bit.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
S. O'BRIEN: Great.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks, -- Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.
A little Hollywood news for you, actress Eva Longoria expected to be back on the set of her hit TV show "Desperate Housewives" just as scheduled. She was taken to the hospital earlier in the week. Her publicist said she slipped on the stairs coming out of her trailer, she bruised her ribs. All is fine. She's OK. The filming will not be delayed.
SERWER: Thank goodness!
S. O'BRIEN: In case you were worried.
SERWER: Yes, right.
M. O'BRIEN: Beside myself.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles was concerned earlier, so I just wanted to lay that concern to rest.
SERWER: He sure was.
M. O'BRIEN: I was desperate, you might say.
S. O'BRIEN: And then J.Lo, Jennifer Lopez, facing a little legal action. Private jet company says she's late on payments for two charter jet flights that she took earlier in the year. The company says she owes nearly $35,000. Apparently it costs about $16,000 each time she flew to Puerto Rico or wherever.
SERWER: And the jet companies hate that, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, you know what,...
SERWER: You know.
S. O'BRIEN: ... people...
M. O'BRIEN: They like you to pay. They do.
S. O'BRIEN: ... hate when you don't pay up. That's the way it works.
SERWER: Those little people, right?
S. O'BRIEN: The morning's top stories are straight ahead, also including that massive chemical fire that's now forcing thousands of people out of their homes in the town of Apex, North Carolina. We'll update you on the situation there.
Plus, no resignation, but an apology from the House Speaker Dennis Hastert, talking about the Mark Foley sex scandal.
That's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, more turmoil for the Republican House leadership over the page scandal. The House ethics panel approving nearly 50 subpoenas.
Speaker Dennis Hastert refusing to budge on resigning his leadership position. The president calling Hastert to say he supports him.
Still, the scandal damaging to Republicans. A "TIME" magazine poll finds two-thirds of the people familiar with the scandal say Republican leaders tried to cover it up.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gets the red carpet treatment today in the Kurdish portion of northern Iraq. She is urging the Kurdish leadership to work with the rest of Iraq in managing the nation's oil wealth.
Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
We're continuing to following those developments out of North Carolina. There's an out-of-control fire at a chemical plant burning near several petroleum storage tanks.
The latest, overnight authorities told 16,000 people they had to evacuate their homes. It's happening on the east side of Apex, which is a suburb of Raleigh. There is a cloud, apparently, of noxious gases that's hovering over the area.
Let's get with our reporter Ann Forte of the affiliate News 14 Carolina with more on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANN FORTE, REPORTER, NEWS 14 CAROLINA: Apex officials are calling this disaster the worst in town history. Now, more than 10,000 people have been evacuated. Officials have asked half the town's population of 32,000 to evacuate.
This all started at about 10:00 last night at a plant called EQ. And that's a business that takes -- disposes of hazardous materials.
Now, fire officials were called downtown at about 10:00 last night there. There was a plume of smoke over downtown Apex. That plume of smoke turned out to be chlorine gas. A fire subsequently started.
Now, that cloud of gas has expanded and moved, and that's why the evacuations are in order. Fire officials are waiting until this morning to really assess the fire and get an idea of how they're going to treat it. They tell us they can't use -- they can't use water or foam retardant on the fire because that could cause some chemical spilloff, which could be dangerous.
Now again, about 16,000 people have been evacuated to shelters in the area. They're told to get out of here. They say it's very dangerous to breathe in this chemical. We have reports that 10 police officers have had to be decontaminated and treated for some respiratory ailments, as well as one firefighter.
That's the latest from Apex. Ann Forte from CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Ann Forte with our affiliate News 14 Carolina.
We've got Sharon Brown on the phone. She is a Wake County emergency management expert. She's joining us from Raleigh this morning.
Sharon, thanks for talking with us. Sure appreciate it.
Give me a little background here. How did this fire start, do we know?
SHARON BROWN, WAKE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We do not know. We only know that around 10:00, an explosion occurred and then gases escaped from the explosion.
Firefighters and hazmat crews and rescue folks started emerging on the scene at that moment in time. The mayor and town manager also started to evacuate the town. And as you said, from between 10,000 and 16,000 people were asked to leave -- mostly the entire downtown area of Apex, and some outlying areas in the county.
We have opened emergency shelters and more than 400 people went there. Others went to relatives, friends and family. Some people were evacuated to local hospitals but were not in any grave danger, or didn't suffer really difficult physical ailments.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well that's good news there. Let me...
BROWN: Some law enforcement folks were on the scene and did -- because they were there for a while, did suffer breathing problems.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question, Sharon. We heard from our reporter, Ann Forte, that you can't really use water, you're concerned about the retardant as well, because that could actually spread the chemicals.
What's the strategy for fighting this fire?
BROWN: At this point, the hazmat teams and the other fire and rescue teams have been monitoring the fire all night and letting it sort of consume itself. They plan to go in at daybreak and take a look and see how close they can get to sample, to try to assess what the chemicals are, and what the best way of battling the fire is.
S. O'BRIEN: We know that Apex is a suburb of Raleigh. Tell me how far Apex is, and how many -- you know, are there more people you're concerned about having to evacuate? The fire, from what we can see, looks massive.
BROWN: The fire does look massive, and it is over a large area. They are watching, of course, the prevailing winds and any kind of weather changes this morning, because that might expand the evacuation area to other nearby municipalities.
They're very carefully monitoring that. They probably have two dozen fire rescue hazmat air quality monitors, and it's both state, local and county government public safety officials.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you know what kind of damage chlorine gas can do when you -- when you breathe it in or when it gets into the environment?
BROWN: I am not an expert on that, and I really can't say. But it's very noxious, suffice it to say, and no one needs to be in that area.
So we are asking everyone to stay out of the area, and no one will be allowed back into the area. Seven schools are closing in that area -- elementary schools, high schools -- and no traffic in or out. Also, we are going to open another shelter at 9:00 this morning, anticipating that people may be concerned and have questions and just be anxious about it, and we would rather be safe than sorry.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet -- I bet you would, absolutely.
Sharon Brown is with Wake County emergency management team.
Thank you for talking with us, Ms. Brown. We certainly appreciate it.
M. O'BRIEN: For House Speaker Dennis Hastert, no retreat. He's apologizing for how the Mark Foley scandal was handled but denies he did anything wrong and will not resign because of it. The House Ethics Committee, meanwhile, has launched its investigation into the former congressman's contacts with male teenage pages.
We're hearing now from the family of a former page who reported lurid e-mails from Congressman Foley.
CNN's Sean Callebs has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know the name of the page from northern Louisiana involved in this scandal, but we are going to respect the family's wishes and keep that name private. In a five- paragraph statement from the family that CNN received, they characterized the young man as "a hero," someone who had the courage to come forward and question the intention of the e-mails that he received from Congressman Foley last summer.
Now, in their prepared statement, they praise Congressman Alexander, who's from this area, for his efforts in helping protect the family. They say, "In the fall of 2005, as soon as Congressman Alexander became aware of e-mails received by our son, he called us. He explained that his office had been made aware of these e-mails by our son and that while he thought the e-mails were overly friendly, he did not think, nor did we think, that they were offensive enough to warrant an investigation. Rather, we asked him to see that Congressman Foley stop e-mailing or contacting our son and to otherwise drop the matter in order to avoid a media frenzy. He did so."
"If we had any other knowledge or evidence of potential impropriety, we would have asked for the matter to be treated differently. For instance, we were not aware of the instant messages that have come to light in the last few days."
The instant messages, something that happened a year prior, were much more lurid, much more explicit. The young man involved in this only received e-mails saying, "When is your birthday? What would you like for your birthday?" And "Could you send me a picture of yourself?"
Despite all of this, the family says the page did enjoy his experience in Washington, D.C., and if he had the chance to do it, he would be a page once again.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in Monroe, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Before we get to what's happening "In America" this morning, we want to take you to downtown Memphis, Tennessee, where you can see a fire is lighting up the night sky there. These are live pictures.
Apparently, the fire is burning at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Memphis. And look at that. I mean, it's not even a close picture and you can see just how devastating that fire is certain to be. We're going to update you on what's happening there as we follow that news out of Memphis, Tennessee.
In Idaho, it turns out now that a 2-year-old boy died from E. coli-tainted spinach. Kyle Algood became sick after he drank a smoothie his mother blended for him. Apparently, it contained that tainted spinach.
Now officials (ph) confirm that in fact the spinach was traced to three counties in California. So this becomes officially the second death attributed to E. coli-tainted spinach. The first, of course, was that adult in Wisconsin.
Classes are in session this morning in Culpeper County, Virginia. Remember yesterday we told you about that bomb threat that was shutting down the entire school district. Public schools and private schools, too, canceling classes for more than 7,000 students. Well, police searched the buildings yesterday, using bomb-sniffing dogs. They found absolutely nothing.
In California, John Karr walked out of a Sonoma County courtroom a free man. A judge dismissed the child porn charges against the former suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. A computer that contained key evidence of child porn was lost, so now this guy, who certainly was in the news for a long time, walks out a free man.
In California, same-sex marriage advocates are vowing an appeal this morning. An appeals court upheld a same-sex marriage ban. Justice William McGinnis (ph) says changing the state law to recognize those kinds of unions should be left up to the legislature. Massachusetts now is the only state that allows same-sex couples to marry.
M. O'BRIEN: Also in Massachusetts, Harvard may soon require all undergraduates to study religion. School president Lawrence Summers also proposing mandatory classes in ethics and U.S. history. If the proposal is enacted, it would be the first major curriculum change at Harvard in 30 years.
Former presidents Bush and Clinton honored for their humanitarian efforts with the 2006 Liberty Medal. The two men put politics aside, helping raise more than $1 billion for disaster relief efforts after the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and after Hurricane Katrina.
In New York City, a setback for the transit union. Fines imposed on the union after last December's three-day transit strike upheld by an appeals court. The union now has to pay the city more than $2.5 million.
Let's get a check of the forecast now. Chad Myers off today, Rob Marciano is in.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come in the program, what to do about Iran. The latest on a high-level meeting in London aiming to answer that very question.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Here's a look now at stories that CNN correspondents around the world are covering today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: I'm Robin Oakley, reporting from London, where today ministers from six key powers meet to discuss the next steps on Iran's nuclear program, following Tehran's defiance of a U.N. deadline on halting uranium enrichment. Weeks of talks between Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief negotiator, and the Javier Solana, the EU's international policy chief, have failed to produce a result.
Now the U.S. and U.K. want to shape U.N. security councils (ph) against Iran, but France and Germany remain reluctant to abandon diplomatic efforts. And Russia and China are still opposed to going down the sanctions route.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jaime FlorCruz in Beijing, where Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will visit this weekend. China and Japan have a love-hate relationship. They love to do business with each other, but they also quarrel on many things, including trade and territorial disputes.
They do agree on one thing. They do not want to see a nuclear North Korea, and they want to stop North Korea from conducting a nuclear test. That's why Prime Minister Abe's visit to Beijing is even more urgent and important.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Rivers in Thailand, where the authorities are engaged in a real battle to try and save this ancient monument of Ayutthaya. The river here has been swollen by heavy floodwaters. Every day it's rising by about this much. They've put this temporary dam in place, but they don't know if they can stop the waters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: For more on any of these stories or any of our top stories, go right to the Web site at CNN.com. M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the congressional page at the center of the Mark Foley e-mail scandal. He's hired a high-profile attorney and he may soon be hearing from the FBI. We'll tell you what we know about him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Just who is the teenager who's at the center of the Foley scandal? CNN will not release his name at the family's request, but Brian Todd reports on what we're learning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): June 2002, then Congressman Mark Foley steps up on the House floor to address the departing class of pages.
REP. MARK FOLEY (R), FLORIDA: Above all, cherish your families. Let them know how much you appreciate them giving you this chance. And let them know how much you appreciate their love to make you the people you are.
TODD: He goes on to name about a dozen pages he had gotten to know during that term. One of them may be at the very center of the unfolding scandal.
On its Web site, ABC News reported a lurid instant message exchange between one sender, identified as Foley, and another person whose moniker was redacted. Redacted, except on one line that ABC mistakenly left up, but we have blocked out.
From Maf54, ID'd by ABC as Foley: "Your in the boxers, too?"
The reply: "Nope. Just got home."
Maf54: "Well, strip down and get relaxed."
Once a blogger found that conversation, various news organizations, including CNN, traced the young person's moniker through Internet search engines and matched it with the name of a former House page who now says he works for the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Congressman Ernest Istook of Oklahoma.
Istook's office would not confirm that the young man works there, but Istook later said this to a CNN affiliate...
REP. ERNEST ISTOOK (R), OKLAHOMA: Now, media reports have claimed that someone who is currently on my campaign staff is a victim of Mr. Foley's misconduct. Whether that is true or not, the point is we're talking about a victim, not an offender. This is a young man who is bright, he is hard-working, he does not deserve the public embarrassment that he's facing right now.
TODD: CNN is told the FBI wants to interview this young man. If and when he is interviewed, the young man may have a high-profile lawyer by his side. The "Daily Oklahoman" newspaper reports he's hired Stephen Jones, the attorney who represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
(on camera): Our repeated calls to Stephen Jones were not returned. Jones did confirm to the newspaper that he had been hired, but he did not say why.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Up next, Andy, "Minding Your Business".
Good morning, Andy.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Miles.
What happens when you stand up to headquarters? The publisher of the "LA Times" just found out.
And MySpace shows a little gray hair -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll find out about that.
Also ahead on the program, where does the U.S. government go for help with disaster plans? The answer may surprise you.
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Well, Wal-Mart's drug plan, cheap drugs, such a popular notion that they're going to offer it up sooner.
Andy Serwer is here to tell us more.
SERWER: Yes, Miles.
Wal-Mart announced this $4 per generic prescription plan in Tampa two weeks ago. They rolled it out just in the Tampa Bay area at their stores there, where you would only pay $4 for a prescription of a generic drug. And it's been very, very, very successful. Not a surprise.
M. O'BRIEN: People flying to Tampa.
SERWER: Yes. The -- in fact, the prescriptions there in those stores up 19 percent over this period. And now they're going to roll it out throughout the state, and they're going to have more drugs, up from 291 to 314 prescriptions.
And you know, this is what we talked about, was this going to be a jumping off point for Wal-Mart and other companies? We said that Target was actually doing this as well. And wouldn't this be something if it rolled out across the country?
I think there's going to be pressure. I mean, can you imagine what's going on in north Georgia? You know, people will cross the border, as you said.
M. O'BRIEN: Why limit it to Florida? Why not just roll it out...
SERWER: Well, I think they're -- you know, they're just doing it incrementally, but, you know, I think you have to believe that they'll make it go bigger than just that one state.
M. O'BRIEN: They don't want to overdose.
SERWER: I think that's also a way of putting it.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Now, what happens when you stand up to headquarters and you don't do what they tell you? Well, you know what could happen to you.
Just ask Jeff Johnson. He's the publisher of the "LA Times". "LA Times" owned by the Tribune Company out of Chicago way. And they said, Jeff, you need to make some cutbacks to the paper, and he stood up and said, no, we don't. And then they said, well, then, you're going to have to go.
He lost his job.
M. O'BRIEN: Is he surprised?
SERWER: No, but he made a stand. And...
M. O'BRIEN: News flash.
SERWER: ... sometimes you have to do that.
M. O'BRIEN: Right.
SERWER: And then finally, MySpace. We talk about it all the time, the social networking Web site.
All about kids, right? Teenagers, young people, in your 20s, in high school, in college. Actually, that is not the case.
In fact, only 30 percent of the people on MySpace are under 25, and, in fact, the demographics are getting older and older and older. Now, it might seem kind of strange for, say, a middle-aged person to have a MySpace page, but why not? In fact, maybe all the publicity that they're garnering on cable news programs is sort of introducing older people to these sites.
M. O'BRIEN: Nothing wrong with it. Why not?
S. O'BRIEN: It makes sense to me.
M. O'BRIEN: Why not?
SERWER: I'm not sure what I'd put on my MySpace page. M. O'BRIEN: We could come up with something.
SERWER: Likes, dislikes.
S. O'BRIEN: Pictures. Come on. You can do it.
SERWER: Pictures of my kids and wife. OK. Yes, we'll have to get into that in a little bit.
M. O'BRIEN: What's next?
SERWER: We're going to be talking about the strike at Goodyear and what's going on in that situation. That's a big story we'll be covering for you.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: Thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: It's time for a check of the forecast, too. Rob Marciano in for Chad. He's got the day off.
Good morning.
MARCIANO: Hi, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Rob.
A major fire is sending a toxic cloud into the sky near North Carolina's capital city this morning. Thousands of people are being evacuated.
CALLEBS: And the family of the page at the center of the controversy involving former congressman Foley breaks its silence. What they have to say about the page program may surprise you.
I'm Sean Callebs. We'll have that story.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reacting to North Korea's threats of a nuclear test, but does the intelligence community know what North Korea is really up to?
OAKLEY: I'm Robin Oakley in London, where I'll be reporting through the day on the talks between six key powers on what they do about Iran's nuclear program. Are they going to (INAUDIBLE) their courage and go for sanctions? Or is it going to prove yet another rubber deadline?
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