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Fire at Stern Oil Company; Snow Hits Colorado; Border Fencing Act; The Fight for Iraq; Florida School Lockdown; The Newly Poor in New Orleans

Aired October 26, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody, I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris.

Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and stay informed. Here is what's on the rundown.

Securing Baghdad, a goal for U.S. troops. But can that be accomplished in a city at war with itself?

COLLINS: The Fed said keep rates right where they are. What the decision means to you. Your mortgage and your wallet.

HARRIS: And we love this story. An incredible story of survival. Debbie Johnson's car was crushed under a runaway beer truck. She joins us live to tell us all about it.

It is Thursday, October 26th and you are in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: We want to begin by taking you directly to a story that's happening in Council Bluffs, Iowa. An oil company on fire. Quite an explosion there. Fredricka Whitfield is standing by at the news desk to give us the very latest on this.

Fred, what do we know.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a very big fire and its been burning since about 4:30 a.m. Council Bluffs, Iowa, time. And you're seeing the live pictures right there.

This is taking place at Stern Oil Company. It's a warehouse that stores motor oil and air filters. It is a dangerous fire because it is so sizable. But the good news out of this, no employees were injured. But one firefighter has been treated for smoke inhalation.

This fire burning very aggressively. They're trying to contain it as best they can. But the notion here, because it is involving motor oil and air filters, they just might be trying to burn a lot of itself out. But you see at the bottom right-hand side of the screen, some water hoses are being used there. But right now, the good news, again, no serious injuries being reported here. Still burning very aggressively there in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Heidi. COLLINS: Certainly very lucky that nobody was there in this facility, probably due to the early morning hour. They're also saying, Fred, I think something about they don't load their trucks until about 9:00.

WHITFIELD: And that's good news, too. But again, you know, there were some people that were in the proximity, but no reported injuries, just that one firefighter. And a different angle right now from this warehouse. Obviously, destroyed. That isn't the most paramount of concern, though. It's the lives, of course. And the good news is, no one seriously injured.

COLLINS: Absolutely. And after we see those live pictures, this is back to tape now, but it's amazing to think, at least what I'm reading over here, is that because they don't do those loadings until about 9:00, which is about the time right now, Central Time, that everything is going to be delivered as usual today. That's what I'm reading.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, that's good news.

COLLINS: We'll have to check on that. All right. My goodness, 30 feet in the air, those flames. Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Fred, thank you.

COLLINS: So we're going to talk to Chad Myers here in just a second, but we want to show you some pictures out of -- Michael, let's see these pictures out of southern California, Riverside County, of the brush fire burning right now, close to first light out there in Los Angeles, in southern California. Oh, 7:00 a.m. in southern California. This is a fire that began burning in the overnight hours. Started about midnight. Firefighters are certainly going to have their hands full today.

Chad, let's talk about the conditions right now fueling this fire.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Winds are out of the north and the northwest at about 18 to 22. And this is a red flag warning area. It's been very dry. The relative humidity this afternoon will probably get to 7, 8 percent. And when the winds are blowing like this, it is really a significant fire. We're talking about really bad -- and off a little bit farther to the east.

Here are some of the winds now. San Bernardino, Riverside, 19, 20 miles per hour. And I'm going to kind of flatten the map out and we're going to kind of fly you into -- this is the Inland Empire. And this is actually the mountain range or the hills that all of this fire activity is going to. Right on Google earth. It's even a little bit more spectacular because now we're seeing, as the I-10 goes right through, you've got Cabazon, and then you've got the Marino (ph) Valley.

This area here now, with the winds blowing, will be blowing this wind, blowing this fire -- I mean sparks at 40 miles per hour. Sparks are going to go crazy there. We're going to have to continue to watch that fire. It's 800 acres now and I bet it will double in 30 minutes because the size of that fire is just going to go crazy with that much fuel and that much now air blowing in. They could use some precip.

Look at this. This is the snow from Boulder, down into Denver, all the way down to Colorado Springs. The Air Force Academy now, 10 inches of snow. Breckenridge, 15.5. They'll take it in the mountains, they just don't want it over here in the plains. This is not a mountain snow storm. This is a plains snow storm. This is high plains. This is high plains desert. From Boulder, to Denver, right on down to Colorado Springs, going to pick up a foot of snow probably in many areas and the winds are blowing at 40.

Tony.

HARRIS: Boy, all right. Chad, appreciate it.

HARRIS: Let's bring in Jonathan Freed. He is in Colorado Springs.

Jonathan . . .

COLLINS: He's snowier than I last saw him.

HARRIS: He is a little, isn't he.

Jonathan, give us an update. Well, we can see for ourselves what conditions are like where you are.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, before I get to the update, I would just like to respectfully -- if you could relate to Chad for me. Tell him that he used to be in my will, but not so much anymore.

HARRIS: Very nice.

MYERS: Now I'm on your list.

FREED: Not so much anymore.

HARRIS: Consider it done.

COLLINS: Look at how warm and toasty he is there in the studio.

HARRIS: Yes, right.

FREED: It is still snowing horizontally here. It has been doing that for the last couple of hours. We've got about four inches of snow accumulating. The wind is picking up. For a while it looked like the snow was backing off a little bit, but the wind has picked up so it's probably splitting the difference here now.

We've been listening to local reports here in town and, as you would expect, schools are closed. People are being advised to stay off of the road. We're hearing that Interstate 25, because there's some traffic on it, there's some tracks being burned into the snow, if you will, so there is some, some access there. But the side roads are really not in great shape. It's very slippery underneath and people are basically being asked to just stay inside.

HARRIS: Oh, my, goodness.

COLLINS: You know, I . . .

HARRIS: Yes, Heidi.

COLLINS: If I could just ask a quick question about the hat that our good friend Jonathan Freed is wearing.

HARRIS: Sure.

COLLINS: Do we not have any stocking caps that say CNN?

HARRIS: This is CNN. Come on. This is . . .

COLLINS: Just a little baseball hat?

FREED: You know . . .

HARRIS: This is the worldwide leader. Can't we do better than this?

FREED: We were talking about that earlier. I mean, frankly, I have to tell you, because we know that the executives are watching, I happen to find it -- it's a very handsome hat. It truly is.

COLLINS: What was that, about $1.99?

HARRIS: Yes.

FREED: But you know, if they could come up with wool version of it, it might be nice. I would like to go for a walk with you now, if we still have the time.

HARRIS: Yes, please, please.

FREED: And see if I can improve -- let's see here. No, it doesn't help. I walked a little bit and you can't see Pike's Peak. It's about 14,000 feet there. And we just can't see it. So . . .

HARRIS: Whiteout conditions all over the place.

FREED: We're toughing it out, guys

HARRIS: Jonathan, well . . .

COLLINS: You're a good sport, Jonathan.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: Thank you, Jonathan.

HARRIS: Thank you. FREED: Thanks, guys.

COLLINS: If you build it, they won't come. At least that's the idea behind building 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S./Mexican border. President Bush signed the measure just last hour. Republicans hope it gives them an edge with voters on the immigration issue. Our Kathleen Koch is joining us now live from the White House with details on this.

Good morning to you, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

And the measure is called the Secure Fence Act. The president, this morning in the Roosevelt Room, praised it as an important step toward immigration reform that he said would help protect the American people and to keep our southern border secure. Of course, it would require the erection of about 700 miles of fencing. That protecting roughly a third of the U.S./Mexico border.

Critics, though, point out that the measure the president signed this morning doesn't provide any money, though, to build the fence. Now there was some $1.2 billion, a sort of a down payment, that was included in the Homeland Security bill that the president signed a few weeks ago. But that money can also be used for other improvements, such as better lighting, vehicle barriers along the border, high tech equipment to help secure the border.

The president, while he was touting the Secure Fence Bill, he also talked about the centerpiece of his immigration reform policy that's right now stalled on Capitol Hill, and that is the guest worker program. And then also a measure that would give some illegal immigrants who are already in the U.S. a shot at citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must face the reality that millions of illegal immigrants are already here. They should not be given an automatic path to citizenship. That is amnesty. I oppose amnesty. There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant and a program of mass deportation. And I look forward to working with Congress to find that middle ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Though Congress right now, at least a handful of House Republicans, are not very interested in working on that middle ground. They right now are blocking any debate on a compromise with the Senate, which did pass an immigration reform bill that did include the president's measures.

The president, right now, is getting ready to head out on a campaign swing through the Midwest. Obviously campaigning for Republicans who are working very hard to hold onto the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. Back to you, Heidi.

COLLINS: Hey, Kathleen, before we let you go, a quick question for you. I had asked it a little bit earlier. Kind of put it out there. What is the reaction to this fence south of the border? We know that the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, had referred to this fencing project as the Berlin Wall.

KOCH: Indeed. The Mexican officials are very upset about it. They call it shameful. And, as a matter of fact, right here in Washington, D.C. yesterday, they mounted a protest, made a deceleration that the Organization of American States expressing "deep concern about the project." They say they consider it a "unilateral measure that goes against the spirit of understanding between the two countries," Heidi. So they're none too happy about it.

COLLINS: All right. We'll try to figure out more about what they will do as far as enforcing any of it. Thanks so much, Kathleen Koch, at the White House this morning.

Want to go ahead and give you an opportunity to see exactly what this project is all about. If we could put the map up, you could have a better idea of where this 700 miles will go. It would stretch across parts of four states that you see there. It would extend from a California border town, through areas of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The red lines that you see. The president signed this bill today, although, as Kathleen mentioned, no money exactly for the fence project. That separate bill signed earlier this month provides $1.2 billion down payment on it, though. The fence is going to cover one third of the roughly 2,100-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico. The bill also calls for the use of sensors, satellites, cameras and other technology.

HARRIS: Five more American troops killed in Iraq, one still missing. The October death toll nears 100. Live now to the Pentagon and Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

Well, you know, it was just a week ago that Major General Bill Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, was talking about the violence as being disheartening and saying that the security patrols in Baghdad simply weren't having the effect that the U.S. military wanted. Today, a little bit of a different story. General Caldwell updating reporters, saying that now, with the end of Ramadan, he says, there is a bit of a downturn in the violence in Baghdad. Just a little bit of one. But we are still hearing, of course, a good deal of concern about the situation and some indications that the U.S. military now, in terms of shifting tactics, may be focusing more on death squad activity. Here's a bit of what the general had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ: Baghdad remains the center of gravity here in Iraq. The security situation is complexed and layered problem that involves an active insurgency, al Qaeda, sectarian violence, criminal activity and militias. The violence is focused along Sunni-Shia ethnic fault lines, predominantly outside the cleared focus areas. With the end of Ramadan, we have seen a decrease in the levels of violence, but this has only been in the past few days and we'll have to wait to see if this decrease proves to be a trend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Tony, the general went on to list a number of recent operations where U.S. forces had worked with Iraqi forces, again, to go after the death squads, after the militias. It's going to raise perhaps with some people some interesting questions about whether U.S. troops now have the mission of stepping between the Sunni and Shia militias and death squads to try and stop that sectarian violence. And if that is a mission for U.S. military troops, certainly that's what seems to be on the table now.

Tony.

HARRIS: Barbara, any update on the missing soldier?

STARR: Very little is, indeed, being said about that. They are continuing to look for him. A number of raids and missions going on in Sadr City, in Baghdad, over the last day and in some other places. But to be clear, Tony, while this man is still out there, still at risk, very little being said by the U.S. military.

HARRIS: And the defense secretary taking part in the Pentagon briefing this afternoon, correct?

STARR: Indeed. About 1:15 Eastern Time, the secretary is expected to be on that podium in the Pentagon press room and we'll be there

HARRIS: Barbara Starr, appreciate it. Thank you, Barbara.

STARR: Sure.

COLLINS: And we've got some news just in to us here at CNN. Want to get over to Fredricka Whitfield for a school lockdown in Florida.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: That's right. And not for the reasons that we've been hearing reportedly in other recent school lockdowns. This one taking place in the Fort Myers area of Florida because a bear or two was seen in the area of the Immokalee Middle School and high school areas. And so while the lockdowns are taking place, the students are all being asked to stay indoors -- about 1,100 students in the middle school of Immokalee Middle School and about 1,400 students at the Immokalee High School -- while investigators look for this bear or two that was seen in the area. No one is believed to be in danger as of yet, as long as they all stay indoors and where they're supposed to be. But they continue to look for these bears after the sights taking place. It took place around 9:30, a little over an hour ago. And so maybe kids are also kind of up against the windows looking to see if maybe they'll get a glimpse or two of these bears.

COLLINS: Yes, I'm willing to bet you're right on that one. But, you know, seriously, it is, obviously, a much better situation than a lot of the school lockdowns we've been talking about over the past few weeks.

WHITFIELD: Right.

COLLINS: But sometimes these black bears, I mean, they can be dangerous. They get very aggressive, looking for garbage. They've gotten it before from people, so they come back to the area. Definitely want to stay inside.

WHITFIELD: Absolutely. That's why they're making folks stay inside.

COLLINS: All right, Fredricka, thank you for that.

WHITFIELD: All right.

COLLINS: Well, it's a hot button issue sure to get even hotter. Same-sex marriage and a ruling by New Jersey's highest court. Details to this coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And newly poor in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'd like to think that if we do everything right, this won't happen to us. I'm sorry, folks, you're wrong, because most of our patients did everything right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Susan Roesgen reports straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Beauty or beast? Super model Naomi Campbell accused of more ugly behavior. Huh-oh. Details on that in the NEWSROOM coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's take you back to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and show you these live pictures now. This is an explosion that just sort of ripped apart this warehouse of the Stern Oil Company. And this is a company that is a distributor of motor oil, bulk oil, air filters.

Firefighters were called to this scene at about 4:30 a.m. Central Time. One firefighter treated for smoke inhalation. None of the employees on-site at the time, so no one was injured of the employees. Just a firefighter being treated for smoke inhalation. Is this a scene that we'll continue to watch for you.

But here's the interesting part of this. It looks like deliveries, the workday, will move forward as planned.

COLLINS: Apparently.

HARRIS: Yes. Just will move on and deliveries will happen as normal, about, oh, just a couple hours from now at 9:00 a.m. The employees show up, the deliveries move forward. Apparently it's -- the fire and all of the damage is to this one warehouse. So we'll continue to take a look at that.

COLLINS: Once solidly middle class, now newly poor in New Orleans. Katrina survivors struggle to rebuild their lives more than a year after the storm. CNN's Gulf Coast correspondent Susan Roesgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than a year ago, they had houses, jobs and health insurance. Now they line up by the hundreds to see the doctor and nurse at one of the few outpatient clinics in New Orleans. One of the very few where the health care is free.

DOROTHY DAVIDSON, CLINIC DIRECTOR: That's probably a good part of that numbness.

ROESGEN: Nurse Dorothy Davidson says most of the patients are people she calls newly made poor. Solidly middle class before Katrina, now they're like school teacher Darlene Hutchison, learning what it's like to have to ask for help.

DARLENE HUTCHISON, OPERATION BLESSING PATIENT: At first it was a little hard. But I understood I needed to come above, you know, rise above that and understand that what was the primary objective was to get the family taken care of.

ROESGEN: Since Katrina, the state of Louisiana estimates that about 125,000 people in the New Orleans area alone don't have health insurance. Even if they did in some areas, fewer than a third of the doctors have come back.

DR. DALE BETTERTON (ph): well, we'll keep you here and get your sugar down.

ROESGEN: Dr. Dale Betterton, Dorothy's husband, is the clinic's only full time doctor, seeing patients who have gone months without medicine.

BETTERTON: In the real word, a patient like this would go to the emergency room, be at least observed, probably admitted overnight to a hospital and that's not feasible and really not possible in New Orleans at this time.

ROESGEN: The clinic is funded by a religious charity called Operation Blessing and the Salvation Army. But it needs more doctors and more resources.

DAVIDSON: No vaccine. No flu vaccine.

ROESGEN: The state health department said it wouldn't spare the vaccine.

DAVIDSON: This could happen anywhere in the United States, and I think that's what America is missing, is we'd like to think that if we do everything right this won't happen to us. I'm sorry, folks, you're wrong, because most of our patients did everything right.

ROESGEN: More than a year after Katrina, some are still trying to heal a broken city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Susan Roesgen joining us now live, it looks like, from the very same clinic.

Boy, you know, Susan, if everything is free for these patients, I wonder how much longer the clink will actually be able to keep its doors open?

ROESGEN: Well, the clinic is scheduled to close, Heidi, next July. That's less than a year from now. And if the need is still as great then as it is today, they hope to have the clinic stay open under other management as a sliding scale clinic, letting people pay what they can.

I mean, today, it's as busy as ever. They will see generally between 80 and 90 people a day here getting health care. But they usually have to turn away between 30 and 40 people.

What they really need most of all right now, Heidi, is more volunteer doctors. You saw the one full time nurse, the one full time doctor, the husband and wife team. That doctor was a special forces medic in Vietnam and now this is the new war zone right here in New Orleans. Who would have ever thought it before Katrina. But it is still pretty bad in some areas and this is one.

COLLINS: Where have all the doctors gone, Susan? Have they just moved out of the area to rebuild their own lives?

ROESGEN: Some have evacuated and never come back. Some are back but they're trying very hard to rebuild their own private practices and they don't have time to spare to give a week here or a few days here at the clinic. They're just trying to get their own lives back together. And the hospitals don't want to lose them because they're trying to get going again as well. So what you've got here is a part of New Orleans that is still pretty devastated, still very desolate, yet people here trying to come back and they have no place to go. Their own doctors are gone. Their own records are gone. And as you saw in that report, their own health insurance is gone. At this clinic, nobody asks them for a dime. They come in and they get treatment

COLLINS: Yes, all right, well good for them. We appreciate the story. Susan Roesgen, thanks so much.

HARRIS: Heidi, I want to show you some new pictures, and everyone at home, some new pictures. We've been waiting for this, first light in southern California. Our friends in southern California waking up with us coming up on the half hour, 7:30, 7:25 Pacific Time.

COLLINS: Yes, these aerials really give you a better idea of how huge it is.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: Look at this.

HARRIS: What a mess for firefighters there in Riverside County. Evacuations have been ordered for folks living in Cabazon. The fire department out there reporting that 500 acres have already burned and there is a danger that the blaze actually could claim 25,000 acres before it's all done. A secondary blaze has actually sprung up and there's concern about that as well.

Look at these pictures. Our thanks to KABC, our affiliate in Los Angeles, for providing those shots. Man, that is something. So, clearly, this is a very fluid situation. As Chad has been telling us throughout the morning, the wind conditions are only going to pick up throughout the course of the day.

COLLINS: Yes, and probably more evacuations, looks like too.

HARRIS: Embers flying everywhere. So who knows where this could end up. We'll continue to watch it for you.

But straight ahead, are you planning a major purchase? Maybe you'll need to borrow to do it. Well, Gerri, did the Fed help you yesterday?

Good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Tony. Good to see you.

No, the Fed sat tight. They don't do anything at all. But we'll tell you what it means to your pocketbook. That's coming up next on "Top Tips."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins and Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Boy, an awful lot going on today weather wise. This is one of the things that is going on. Look at that. These are some aerial pictures, obviously, taken overhead of the situation in Cabazon, California. This is a brush fire that just went crazy because of the heavy winds pushing those flames forward and backward and all around. So it has certainly grown. Evacuations have taken place.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Want to go ahead and show you this now, the Dow Jones, look at that big board, 12,107. That's where we rest at this moment. Down 27, but still above the 12,000 mark, which we continue to see time and time again.

HARRIS: The Federal Reserve holds steady on interest rates. The decision yesterday comes after a two-year stretch of rate hikes. Joining us with a closer look at what this means to your wallet is CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis. She joins us from New York.

Gerri, good to see you.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, Tony, good to see you, as always.

HARRIS: Hey, Gerri, what does this all of this mean? I want to make a significant purchase, and I'm going to need to borrow to do that, so what's the landscape like for me right now?

WILLIS: You know, it's a confusing time for consumers, I think, because, you know, the Fed has stopped raising rates. But the question is when are they I going to cut them? So, if you own a home out there, it is time to analyze that adjustable rate mortgage if you have one and a lot of people do.

You know how these work. They have a fixed rate of interest for a set amount of time and then the rate resets to whatever the current mortgage rate is. Now this could mean hundreds of dollars more in monthly payments. If you have one, a three, six-month or maybe even a year arm, it's probably already reset, and you could probably be paying in the low 7 percent range.

Now if this has just been too much for you, now is a good time to refinance into a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. It's cheaper. However, Tony, if you can handle the increased cost for another six months or so, the economists out there are saying that the Fed is going to start cutting rates come 2007.

HARRIS: Oh.

WILLIS: Yes, right. But if you've got an adjustable rate mortgage with a really long term, five, seven years, you don't have to worry about it right now, because you're still paying those low, low rates.

HARRIS: So what if I have -- talk about the impact on me if I have one of these home equity lines of credit.

WILLIS: Well, this -- this can be scary. If you have a he lock, you've probably already taken a beating. Rates have been going higher for as long as Feds been raising rates. That's quite some time now. But you can get a new home equity line of credit, replace your existing one without refinancing your home mortgage loan. Pull out your paperwork and look at the details. If you're paying anything over prime right now, you may be eligible for a cheaper he-lock (ph). Look at the he-locks (ph) at prime or prime minus a quarter percentage point. It's competitive out there. They're really trying to get your business.

Of course, you should make sure there are no penalties for closing your original line of credit, because those can be expensive. Look at the terms on those.

HARRIS: That's a good tip. Hey, is this a good time to sort of lock in a CD rate?

WILLIS: You bet. You know, that -- good time to borrow, bad time to save. Lower interest rates may be good news for borrowers, not good for savers. Look, if rates go down, the rates on CDs and other investments will go down, too. Locking in a six-month or a one- year CD will give you an average interest rate of almost 5 percent. That rate is even better than the average that's on five year CDs. Think about it. So, it's a good time to lock in those rates that are available right now because they could be going down in the future.

HARRIS: Run, don't walk. Hey, Gerri, what's coming up? What are you working on for the big "Open House" show this weekend?

WILLIS: Big "Open House" show. Saturday morning, right here at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right on CNN. And we also air on Headline News, Saturday and Sunday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. We're going to be talking about the state of real estate. Real concerns out there about prices are going down in many markets. We're also going to get up close and personal with Andre Agassi, who is now a big real estate investor. He tells us all about it. It's fascinating.

HARRIS: He's hung up the rackets and now he's into real estate?

WILLIS: That's right. And he wants you to live in his tennis community. We're going to show you pictures of it. You'll actually see what it's going to be like to live Andre's life.

HARRIS: Wow. Transition, transition. The playing days are over. This is great. All right. And that's this weekend, "Open House," Gerri Willis. Gerri, have a great day.

WILLIS: You, too, Tony.

COLLINS: Hot button issue sure to get even hotter. Same sex marriage and the ruling by New Jersey's highest court. Details on that in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And a flattened car leaves a Minnesota woman flat on her back. Do you believe this? But she lives to tell the story of being trapped under a beer truck. We'll hear from her, live, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Want to get you back now to a story that we've been following from Florida here. A bear was loose, but loose enough or frightening enough, at least, to cause a school to be on lockdown. Fredricka Whitfield has an update on the story -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Two schools, in fact. But, you know, it was scary and exciting for a moment, but now apparently animal control has located this bear. They actually tranquilized it. It is right now under a portable classroom at either the Immokalee Middle or High School. Those were the two schools that were on lockdown because someone had seen this bear wandering in the area. They have tranquilized it, and then presumably it will be removed, and then returned to its natural habitat. No reported injuries, just a little bit of excitement there at the two schools this morning in the Fort Myers area.

COLLINS: Maybe he just got loose from bear country there in Disney World.

WHITFIELD: Yes, maybe it got a little disoriented, or like you said earlier, maybe he was just foraging, looking for food, or just maybe wanted a little action. He found it.

COLLINS: Yes, he wanted some attention.I mean, come on, if only we'd had the camera trained on it.

All right, Fredricka Whitfield, thank you.

COLLINS: All right.

HARRIS: The battle at the border. Within the last hour, President Bush signed a bill to crack down on illegal immigration. He says the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, but the border must be secured.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: The bill authorizes the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along our southern border. The bill authorizes more vehicle barriers, checkpoints, and lighting to help prevent people from entering our country illegally. The bill authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the use of advanced technology, like cameras and satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, to reinforce our infrastructure at the border. We're modernizing the southern border of the United States so we can assure the American people we're doing our job of securing the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, the bill the president signed today does not include any money for the fence. An earlier bill makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the cost.

COLLINS: Five more American troops killed in Iraq. That makes 96 this month alone. U.S. military officials say the latest troop deaths happened during combat operations in the volatile Anbar province. Also today a military spokesman says troops continue to search for a missing U.S. soldier. He is described as an Iraqi- American translator, who may have been abducted while visiting family in Baghdad.

And near Baquba, officials say at least 14 Iraqi policemen and an unknown number of insurgents were killed this morning in intense battles.

A deadly week for civilians in Afghanistan. Afghan government officials say at least 60 people were killed during NATO operations. If confirmed, it would be the highest civilian death toll involving Western forces since the 2001 invasion. NATO reports killing almost 50 militants in the country's volatile southern region. Supreme Allied Commander General James Jones tells CNN, NATO is winning the war.

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GEN. JAMES JONES, SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: I think we are. I think we're moving in the right direction, in certainly a lot of areas. If you look at the number of schools that are open, health care, I think the potential for success is very high. I'm not -- the renewed level of violence doesn't surprise me, because of where it is. But we need to make some -- clearly make some progress in the relatively near term on the cancer that is potentially eating that country alive, and that's narcotics, because it fuels everything, corruption, crime, the insurgency, and it keeps the economy from going in the right direction.

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COLLINS: General Jones says NATO strategy is to link military activities with strong reconstruction.

HARRIS: A controversial decision in New Jersey, the state's highest court saying same-sex couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples.

CNN's Carol Costello has details.

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cindy and Maureen and their two kids have been waiting for this decision for a long time. Together for 32 years, the couple's wish was to be married in every legal sense.

CINDY MENEGHIN, PLAINTIFF: Will you marry me?

COSTELLO: Wednesday, New Jersey's state supreme court put them on equal footing with married couples, but gave the state legislature six months to decide what to legally call their relationship.

MENEGHIN: I just want to say to anybody out there who is already married that they want it to be called anything else, our culture, our society understands what the word marriage means. They understand what it means to be married. And that's what we have lived for 32 years and that's what we want our legal agreement to be.

COSTELLO: Their attorneys have always maintained that New Jersey's Constitution guarantees liberty and equality and should grant them the right to marry. The court agreed, but said "The issue is not about the transformation of the traditional definition of marriage, but about the unequal dispensation of benefits and privileges to one of two similarly situated classes of people."

The issue of whether gays can marry has roiled American politics for more than a decade. Voters in eight states will decide November 7 whether to amend their state constitutions to ban gays from marrying. Court challenges in four states seek the right to marry.

The issue became all the more heated when Massachusetts became the first and only state to grant marriage rights to gays and lesbians. Six other states followed by granting them most marriage rights but calling them civil unions or domestic partnerships. But the political tide has mostly run in the other direction, 45 states and the federal government have adopted laws banning gays from marrying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ruling said that the legislature is now going to be forced under a court order to either create so-called gay marriage or create a parallel benefit scheme which is the same result in all but name.

COSTELLO (on camera): We should mention the Alliance for Marriage supports a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It says it's the only way to end this debate.

Carol Costello, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: As carol mentioned, the issue of same-sex marriage is on the ballot in eight states, Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Colorado, Tennessee and Virginia. The voters deciding whether to amend their constitutions to ban gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

Meanwhile, analysts say the New Jersey ruling could have an impact on mid term elections, which are just days away.

And we will hear more about the New Jersey court ruling on same- sex marriage tonight. Our Larry King will be joined by former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey. He came out and resigned after revealing he had an adulterous affair with another man. Tune in to Larry King tonight, 9:00 Eastern.

COLLINS: Beauty or beast? Supermodel Naomi Campbell accused of more ugly behavior.

HARRIS: I vote beauty.

COLLINS: You would.

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HARRIS: A flattened car leaves a Minnesota woman flat on her back, but she lives to tell the story of being trapped under a beer truck. We will hear from Debbie in just a couple of moments, live here in the NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: My goodness, a terrible crash and a woman with quite a story to tell. She survived after her car was flattened by a truck loaded with beer. Look at the car. And she jokes that she doesn't even drink.

Debbie Johnson shares her story with us this morning. She joins us from Minneapolis. Debbie, good to see you. And you're standing. I don't know why I'm surprised. You should be. But how do you feel?

Debbie, can you hear me?

DEBBIE JOHNSON, CRASH SURVIVOR: There are two different streams of sound.

HARRIS: So you've got a little...

JOHNSON: OK, now we got it.

HARRIS: Oh, we got it corrected? OK, just looking at pictures of the car, it is amazing that you survived at all. I don't know why I'm surprised to see you standing. You should be. But tell us about your condition and the kind of shape that you're in.

JOHNSON: It's pretty amazing. I have a few -- they're called compression fractures. Vertebrates in my back, upper back, upper to mid back. One of them is bad enough they thought they'd have to do surgery,, but I'm lucky enough not to have to. And I'm wearing this big, plastic brace, goes all the way up to here.

HARRIS: Wow. Take us back, if you would, Debbie. Where were you? my understanding is you were on the crosstown freeway, correct?

JOHNSON: Yes, that's right.

HARRIS: And at what point did you notice -- at what point do you notice the truck?

JOHNSON: I'm sorry, there are two streams of sound again, but...

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness.

JOHNSON: OK, there we go. What did you say?

HARRIS: At what point did you notice the beer truck? JOHNSON: OK. I was coming around the curve, getting onto 35W North in Minneapolis, and, you know what, I didn't notice it until it started falling.

HARRIS: Really?

JOHNSON: It was going that fast.

HARRIS: And, at one moment -- you're inside -- what was the impact like? How much of this do you actually remember? What was the impact like? And at some point, there's this liquid that starts to flow into your vehicle, and you start to freak out a little bit, don't you?

JOHNSON: Oh, yes, because, first of all, the impact was just crush, crush, crush. I thought, this is going to kill me right now. And I'm ready to go.

HARRIS: Yes.

JOHNSON: But it didn't. It landed basically -- the roof on my stomach. Now, the miracle of that is that -- it should have landed on my head and I should have been dead instantly. My seat slipped back by itself. I was feeling full of love when this whole thing happened, on my way to a spiritual seminar, Eckankar, and singing this ancient love song to God, just feeling full of love when it happened.

But I knew that I was going to stay or go. On the right hand side of my car, I saw this drip, drip, drip, and started feeling this wetness. And I said, well, you know, that wasn't me. So, it was -- and I started smelling gas, gasoline.

HARRIS: Right.

JOHNSON: And then I picked up -- I saw cans dropping in my car. I picked up a can and it said Bud Light. So I said, OK, there's alcohol and gasoline. And then I would feel like this crush -- like the "Thriller" movie coming lower and lower, like every, about, five minutes. And so I was either going to be crushed to death or burned to death. I had my choice.

HARRIS: So, Debbie, how did you -- so now you -- you're in the car and you -- when -- how were you able to signal to firefighters, help, anyone, that you were in the car?

JOHNSON: OK. So here's where this calmness comes in from practicing my spiritual tools, is that because I came -- got so calm -- first of all, I couldn't breathe. When I did start breathing, I started yelling for help. And when I yelled for help, I expected some response, especially after a few minutes -- took probably five, ten minutes. I waited for sirens, which I knew there had to be. And when I did hear sirens, I heard other commotion, but that was the Good Samaritan helping the other driver and driving off...

HARRIS: Gotcha. JOHNSON: They didn't know I was there. So when I heard the other sounds and the other people, must have been the firefighters, I yelled for help.

HARRIS: Right.

JOHNSON: They could not hear me. That was the scariest thing in the world.

HARRIS: So, Debbie, what is the tune that you played on the horn?

JOHNSON: So, yes, that's where my inner guidance said you need to honk your horn. And I reached over and it was a miracle that the horn worked. But they didn't hear that until I played a little tune. Some of us old-timers know it as "Shave and a Haircut."

HARRIS: Yes. How does it go?

JOHNSON: Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo!

HARRIS: And how many times did you have to do that before you got someone's attention?

JOHNSON: Just once. And somebody yelled, there's somebody in there, get them out!

HARRIS: Well, it is a tremendous story. We are so happy to see you.. By rights, I don't know that we should. But, I guess by faith, you're here today.

JOHNSON: Absolutely.

HARRIS: Debbie, great to see you.

JOHNSON: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: And recover quickly and recover well, all right?

JOHNSON: Thank you so much.

HARRIS: All right, Debbie. Debbie Johnson.

You are with us in the NEWSROOM. Stay informed. I'm Tony Harris.

HARRIS: And I'm Heidi Collins.

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