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First 100 Hours; MLK Papers; Fierce Storm System Spawns Tornadoes Near Atlanta; Stunting Growth
Aired January 07, 2007 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Happy faces and puffed out chests. Guess who is in charge?
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president's coming to us. He's going to ask for billions and billions of dollars. We do have the power of the perks.
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SANCHEZ: Pull up a chair as the Democrats and the Republicans duke it out over your taxes, prescription drugs, and troop levels in Iraq.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...this is like a freight train.
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SANCHEZ: Rolling down a mountain and pinned in a car upside- down. How they made it out alive.
Ethical or selfish? Why this little girl's parents are pushing to stunt her growth.
Plus, textbooks, a theater, and 200 thread count sheets, but it's not without controversy. Our CNN Africa correspondent walks hand in hand with Oprah. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
This is it, maybe the most important decision, the most important announcement when it comes to the war in Iraq. It is, by definition, a pivotal moment that will occur this week. And that's why we're topping our news with it. I'm Rick Sanchez. Let's get started.
Gunshots and chants. This is Iraq just days before President Bush is set to announce his new war plan. Hundreds of people across Sunni territory still protesting the execution of Saddam Hussein. And this is also Iraq. The aftermath of a car bombing in a crowded market in Hilla. There, a woman was killed. In another car bombing, three U.S. airmen were killed.
So will the president do? And when will he do it? Word from Washington is that he'll make an announcement mid-week. And what he'll say is more troops, not fewer. Then there's the Democrats, who now have a big say in this. What will they do? What will they say? Here's CNN's White House correspondent Elaine Quijano.
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ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): President Bush hasn't announced his retooled Iraq plan yet. But Democratic leaders are already warning they could use the power of the purse to hold the president accountable, if he decides to increase the number of U.S. forces in Baghdad.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If the president wants to expand the mission, that's a conversation he has to have with the Congress of the United States. But there's not a carte blanche, you know, a blank check for him to do whatever he wishes there.
QUIJANO: Democrats are seeking to cast a surge as an escalation of the unpopular Iraq war. But a senior Bush administration official says the White House views a potential surge as part of a broader political and economic strategy, a sentiment meant to answer concerns expressed by some skeptical fellow Republicans.
SEN. TRENT LOTT, (R-MI): I want a plan. I want to know how the surge will occur. What will be the numbers? What will they do? What do they hope to achieve?
QUIJANO: Adding to the debate, President Bush's decision to change military leadership in Iraq. Some Democrats charge the president is replacing his generals there, John Abizaid and George Casey because they disagree with him on a troop surge.
SEN. BARBARA BOXER, (D-CA): Looking at it from my perspective, it looks like the president went shopping for a general who agreed with him.
QUIJANO: The White House calls that inaccurate. Some Republicans agree. Saying Lieutenant General David Petraeus is the right man to lead in Iraq.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-SC): General Petraeus represents the best hope of this country to start over. He believes that a surge in troops will be effective and necessary when co-joined with political realignment, and new efforts by the Iraqi government.
QUIJANO (on camera): Though administration officials continue to say President Bush has not made any final decisions yet, the president is still expected to announce changes in a prime-time address to the nation this week.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, White House.
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SANCHEZ: So let's go over the details now of what the president may have in the works, what we may expect. "The New York Times" is reporting that he'll call for up to 20,000 more U.S. combat troops in Baghdad over a period of five months. The paper cites U.S. officials who say the extra push would probably last less than a year.
Iraqis would reportedly try and match the troop increase by U.S. forces by sending in more Iraqi brigades as well.
Well, what's really different now, as opposed to what's happened since the beginning of the Iraq War, is that the Democrats are now in charge of Congress. That's very different. So what is their role going to be? That's what I asked our senior political analyst Bill Schneider.
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BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They don't want to lay themselves open to the charge that they're cutting off funds for American troops. That would be politically devastating.
But they could talk about limiting some of the spending and demanding more oversight on any new forces that go over there. They could impose some conditions. And of course, they will be holding hearings.
But the bottom line here is this is an ongoing military operation. It is very difficult for Congress to control that kind of operation. But they have told the president in no uncertain terms, you build up forces in Iraq, and we will not be friendly or cooperative on that or on anything else. It's kind of a warning.
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SANCHEZ: Senior political analyst Bill Schneider.
So there it is. Now what we want to is find out what you think of this. Do you think that we should send fewer troops or Iraq or more troops to Iraq? Just give us a call at 1-800-807-2620. Again, 1-800-807-2620 to find out what you say and cast your vote. We'll air some responses later this hour.
Let's bring you up to date now on something that's been going on in the southwestern portion of Atlanta. This is an area you may know of. It's in Coweta County in Noonan (ph). We've been getting reports throughout the course of the evening that there have been tornadoes that have hit the area. We're told that for a while there may have been some people, possibly a 14-year-old, trapped inside of a home. We were told that several houses lost their roofs.
Now we're getting the very first pictures and you're looking at them. These are coming in to us right now as we speak. There you see one of the homes -- tough to tell exactly what part of the home it is. But as you can see, there is significant damage.
Our own Gary Tuchman has now gone to the scene. We should be hearing from him shortly to bring us up to date on exactly what's going on. But when last we checked with authorities, fire officials there in Coweta County, they said that their sources on the scene could confirm that several homes had been destroyed, and that there may have been some people that they couldn't get to, in fact possibly a 14- year-old, as I mentioned, trapped in a home. As we get Gary to the scene, we'll hear from him shortly.
Nervous moments in Miami. An 18-wheeler had to be stopped this morning at the city's port. IDs were missing. Paperwork was out of order. And for a while, there were fears of possible terrorism.
CNN's Susan Candiotti walks us through this tense time.
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LT. NANCY GOLDBERG, MIAMI-DADE POLICE: After a thorough investigation, we are here to tell you that the Port of Miami is safe.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A truck driver, without the right port issued ID, threw security into overdrive early Sunday morning. But in the end, the driver, his brother, and another relative, one of two who carried no identification at all, were cleared by federal Homeland Security. And their cargo...
GOLDBERG: The contents matched the manifest. The 40-foot container was in fact transporting electrical automotive parts.
CANDIOTTI: Authorities say the driver told a guard at the port's entrance he was alone, but other law enforcement sources say that may have been a miscommunication. Turns out two other men were in the back of the cab, apparently out of view. The truck's cargo passed an x-ray inspection and one other step.
JOSE RAMIREZ, U.S. CUSTOMS & BORDER PATROL: We also inspected the container using a device called a radio isotope identification device, a RID. And that device was used to determine if there was any radioactivity emanating from the container. And there was not.
CANDIOTTI: The three men are legal U.S. residents from Iraq and Lebanon. Two have Michigan driver's licenses. Sunday is a busy day for cruise ships coming and going, but none of that traffic was affected, nor were cargo operations thrown off.
In the end, authorities say, their security procedures worked. And it started with catching an improper ID.
GOLDBERG: What in the past would have taken us three to four days has taken your federal, state, and local law enforcement community a few hours to investigate and resolve.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): For good reason, this container got a thorough going over using the latest technology. But because of a squeeze on time, equipment personnel, and the cost of doing business, this kind of scrutiny is generally given to only 10 percent of all U.S. cargo at every U.S. port every day. And port security critics say, that needs to change. Susan Candiotti, CNN, at the Port of Miami.
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SANCHEZ: As you have come to expect, CNN security keeps you up to date on all the incidents like this one. It's what we do. Stay tuned day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Boy, that vicious weather that we've been telling you about tonight, these are the pictures. We just started to get some of these pictures coming in. There, you see people embracing, who have seemingly survived the storms, the thunderstorms that whipped up in that area just southwest of Atlanta in an area known as Coweta County. The county seat there is Noonan (ph), by the way. It's uprooted some trees. It smashed some homes. Here's one woman's story.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so scared, especially driving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it move your vehicle? What did it feel like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It felt like I was going to get blown off the road.
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SANCHEZ: Again, this is video just now coming into us. I'm look at it at the same time you are. Our producers are -- have been trying to get this video into us throughout the evening. And it's coming in just now.
Gary Tuchman is getting to the scene, we understand, as well. He's in the middle of some of the worst of this damage. And we'll hooking up with him shortly as soon as they let us know he's ready.
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SEN. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: For these children, our children, and for all of America's children, the House will come to order!
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SANCHEZ: In with an historic bang, the newly formed Congress is in the starting blocks for its first 100 hours in session. Democrats now in charge. They say they have a pile of legislation ready and won't ask any Republicans what they think about it. First session Tuesday. A full preview at the half hour.
Mario Donello, 21-years old and a standout place kicker for USC. Tonight, he is dead. His body was found at the bottom of a rocky cliff in Los Angeles. And police believe he either fell or jumped.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just such -- what a tragedy. What a tragedy. Can't even fathom what the family is going through at this moment.
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SANCHEZ: Big trouble for this lady. She's the biological mom of twins who failed to return the kids to their adoptive parents over the holidays. She fled to Canada instead and was arrested in Ottawa. She's expected to return to the U.S. Monday. The FBI, they have questions.
And if your new year's resolution was to spend less for gas, this won't help. Prices are up about three cents a gallon over the last three weeks. But now we're being told, they're expected to drop again. Promises, promises. The national average for a gallon of self-serve regular $2.32.
Ski trip that ends off the slopes and off the road.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We popped upside down.
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SANCHEZ: Two survivors of Saturday's avalanche relive their near-death experience.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to put in the context of what we were committed to.
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SANCHEZ: If you stay with us, you'll see the CNN exclusive. Our Soledad O'Brien and an emotional Andrew Young, as you can see there in that interview, they go through Martin Luther King's papers.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She cannot walk or talk. She's fed through a tube.
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SANCHEZ: You think it's an easy decision, but wait until you hear all the facts. Parents are using surgery to try and keep their child short. And the medical debate that's now behind this story. It's up in 30 minutes.
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SANCHEZ: From the looks of this picture, you no idea what's about to happen. Moments later, it's a massive snow slide. Barrels down a mountain highway near Winter Park, Colorado.
It happened Saturday. And a passerby was there taking these photos. Two cars, no time to react. The avalanche scoops them up. Suddenly, it pushes them over a guardrail and 200 feet down a slope.
Imagine, you're driving down a highway and suddenly that happens to you. It buried eight people inside of their vehicles, the snow did. People stopped to help. They're using ski poles, their hands, anything. Anything they can do to try and dig these victims out.
And it worked. The eight victims, survivors, really, no one seriously hurt. And despite wind gusts of up to 100 miles an hour today, the road is now cleared off and open again to traffic.
Beyond that, crews spend the day deliberately triggering more controlled slides, like mini avalanches. Locals say this is one of the biggest avalanches, though, that they have ever seen.
But their account doesn't hold a candle to what the eight survivors have to say. Dave Boone, his wife, and the teenage son of a family friend were in one of the cars. And we got a hold of him today, spent the day talking to the people like myself. He takes us back to the moment, when we had a conversation just before the slide, and describes how to happened.
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DAVID BOON, AVALANCHE SURVIVOR: We were totally surprised, from the moment we saw the blast of powder, to when it hit us was just a fraction of a second.
There was no warning. Nothing we could have done. We had the windows up, the defrosters were on, there was some music playing. We didn't hear anything.
Normally, CDOT, Colorado Department of Transportation does a really good job of blasting those avalanche chutes and clearing it. And they had done it, I think, earlier in the week. And there had just been some additional buildup, probably unexpected.
SANCHEZ: By the way, Dave, how's your wife doing?
BOON: She's doing fine. She was actually -- her head was wedged between the headrest and the roof of the car. And we dug out the snow around her face and had to call to get someone to bring us down a knife to cut her loose.
But she's doing well today. Gary and I, we're all very grateful to be alive and very grateful that we really have no serious injuries. Just a few cuts and a lot of bruises and some aches and pains.
SANCHEZ: That is unbelievable. And Gary, I imagine you've got a lot of stories to tell when you go back to school, right? I imagine your friends are already calling you.
GARY MARTINEZ, AVALANCHE SURVIVOR: Some of them, I called some friends to tell them what happened. Some of them didn't believe me, but now I think they are.
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SANCHEZ: We asked for your pictures to get stories like the one shared by those two. And now the i-Report inbox is getting filled with extreme weather items like this one.
This one's from Patrick Brauge. He's driving down I-70. Sends us this. He wanted to know what it was like exactly to be driving in Colorado yesterday while this avalanche was taking place. There it is. Nighttime conditions, blowing snow, making it very difficult. You can the see winds whipping across the highway. Patrick said it took him over an hour to drive just 15 miles.
From avalanches to tornadoes. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is work on our forecast. If you plan on traveling this week, there's some surprises in store.
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OPRAH: They will be the future leaders. I have no doubt in my mind.
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SANCHEZ: Opening doors and welcoming young minds. In 35 minutes, one man describes the impact that Oprah Winfrey is making on his continent.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But behind the scenes, a security nightmare was unfolding.
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SANCHEZ: Barbara Starr, she was there, an exclusive trip to Africa. Will U.S. troops be deployed there as well? You're going to find out, next.
And don't forget tonight's last call. We want to know, given that the president may announce 20,000 more U.S. troops, about Wednesday, what do you think? More troops or less, should we send? Give us a call. 1-800-807-2620. We want to hear from you. 1-800- 807-2620. We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Chaos in Somalia. Not a new development, really. It's been a state of anarchy for over a decade, but now the stakes are higher.
Al Qaeda's number two man this week called for Muslims to make Somalia the next front in al Qaeda's holy war. Meantime, Ethiopian forces with quiet U.S. support marched into Somalia recently and rallied Muslim fighters. Will U.S. forces get involved? As of now, no. And the memory of "Blackhawk Down" lingers. That's the 1993 Mogadishu incident where 18 U.S. soldiers were killed.
Well, despite the chaos in Somalia, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa wanted to visit the capitol today, but it didn't happen. CNN's Barbara Starr has the story. She's the only network television reporter incidentally that's traveling with this U.S. official.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): Mogadishu, often called the most dangerous city in the world, U.S. Diplomats and military officials were going to visit.
Thirteen years after the U.S. military left in the wake of the Black Hawk down disaster. This trip had to be kept a secret. The government was still fighting the Islamic militia. Jendayi Frazer, the highest ranking diplomat for Africa led the team. Rear Admiral Richard Hunt was providing security. CNN was the only television network on the trip.
First, public stops in Ethiopia and Yemen. But behind the scenes, a security nightmare was unfolding. Hunt, the top commander in Africa, carefully chooses his words about the debate that burned up phone lines between Washington and East Africa.
REAR ADM. RICHARD HUNT, CMR., TASK FORCE HORN OF AFRICA: We clearly took a look at the different options, a variety of sources, U.S. sources, our intelligence, our security assessments.
STARR: Gunfire was continuing to erupt across the city. In the U.S., there are long memories of Somalia. The Pentagon was not going to put Americans on the ground without a way to rescue them. The team had cash to pay for the loyalty of local gunmen. But if there was trouble, the proposed rescue plan was a nightmare.
Two F-15s would fly overhead. Rescue helicopters were on standby, and ready to fly again into Mogadishu. Heavily armed U.S. troops would have been there to shoot their way out of town.
But the night before, just as Hunt was saluting the flag at sunset, word leaked.
JENDAYI FRAZER, U.S. ASST. SECY, AFRICAN AFFAIRS: Unfortunately, that plan was fairly, broadly exposed in the newspapers. We had gotten the aircraft necessary to go in, but, again, when you start saying they'll be on the ground for four hours on this day, it just became impossible.
STARR: Riots and shooting had broken out again in Mogadishu. Ayman al Zawahiri was calling for attacks on foreigners. Hunt knows he would have been the highest-ranking U.S. officer in Mogadishu in over a decade. He is aware of the memories of dead Americans dragged through the streets. But says it's time to help the Somalia of today.
HUNT: They have had 16 years of anarchy in Somalia, and it goes back to the Black Hawk down time frame. And this is the best opportunity that they have had to rise above that.
STARR (on camera): Time does move on. When the trip got canceled, Somali officials came here to Kenya to meet with the U.S. delegation, in part to ask the Bush administration to send troops to Somalia, in order to help train their security forces. Barbara Starr, CNN, Nairobi.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ...a hysterectomy, the removal of her breast buds, and a lengthy course of estrogen treatment, all designed to keep Ashley small.
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SANCHEZ: Designed to keep Ashley small. Sounds like something out of the dark ages, right? But it is happening now, surgery to keep a child small. Details and the debate on this in 20 minutes.
Also, speaking of ethics, does Capitol Hill have any? Just one of the topics the legislatures going to tackle in this first 100 hours, as many are calling it. We take a closer look, next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was new in the community and he had no enemies yet. And so, he was sort of a consensus candidate just because he was young and fresh. And it was clear that he was smart.
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SANCHEZ: Andrew Young gets real, gets emotional. Surprises, sorrow, and strength all contained in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., the words and meaning behind them. CNN has exclusive access to these papers. We're going to give you a sneak peek in about 10 minutes. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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SANCHEZ: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM once again. I'm Rick Sanchez.
Whether you make minimum wage, pay college loans, or take prescription drugs, you should pay close attention to Capitol Hill this week. The Democrats say it's been 12 long years and now it's their turn. Their to turn the country around.
The first 100 legislative hours as the new majority begins Tuesday. The Democrats already have vote-ready legislation, they say, to raise the minimum wage, expand stem cell research, and boost competition to drive down Medicare prescription drug prices.
They also say they plan to cut interest rates on student loans, implement homeland security recommendations from the 9/11 Commission, and curb tax breaks and other subsidies for oil companies. All of this before the president's State of the Union Address at the end of the month.
On top of it all, the Democrats are also trying to push through a new package of ethics rules in the Senate. But as CNN's Joe Johns tells us, their push to clean up Congress could be a double-edged sword.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First things first. Democrats say they want to fix Congressional ethics.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Our first order of business is passing the toughest Congressional ethics reform in history.
JOHNS: No secret that it's been ugly here -- scandals, indictments, golf trips, favors for official acts, charges of bribery, corruption. Members of Congress, staffers, lobbyists, mostly Republicans, all got sucked in over the last year. And the House Ethics Committee, which is supposed to handle all this stuff, was asleep at the wheel.
Congress has a hangover now. Call it public disgust. And Democrats, who ran the last campaign against what they call the culture of corruption, are now in the position of having to do something about it, with a plan to ban gifts from and travel paid for by lobbyists. Prohibiting use of corporate jets and full disclosure before members' slip pet projects, known as earmarks, into spending bills.
A former senior aide to Republican Tom DeLay, who, under a cloud of suspicion and lawsuits, stepped down as majority leader then actually gave up his House seat, said this is all a good start, but keeping them honest, this kind of thing cuts both ways.
STUART ROY, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: The real danger in any sort of ethics reform is that no party has cornered the market on ethics and morality. And if you try to use ethics as a partisan sword, you're liable to find the blood on the sword will be your own.
JOHNS: Don't forget, Democrats have their own members with pending problems, like Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana, nicknamed "Dollar Bill," who got caught with $90,000 of FBI bait money in his freezer and a bribery investigation. Jefferson denies wrongdoing, hasn't been charged and was, in fact, reelected.
So how are the Democrats planning to deal with that?
REP. RAHM EMANUEL, DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS CHAIRMAN: The whole thing we must do is to make sure that this Congress operates different, a different set of standards and different ethical standards than the past. And we're going to fulfill our obligations.
JOHNS (on camera): Experts say Democrats need outside, independent review of ethics matters to help Congress police itself. There could be a fight over that. And they need some real enforcement.
(voice-over): Still, history on the Hill suggests there's no way to stop someone in Congress in either party from behaving badly if they really want to do it, which leaves some to simply to appeal to a higher authority.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Remember "The Lord's Prayer": "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."
JOHNS: Temptation for the Democrats. They're now in power and power and money are the ultimate magnets of corporation.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
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SANCHEZ: CNN is going to be keeping a close watch over these first 100 hours. Will the new Congress accomplish anything meaningful? And what's going to be the impact on all of us as citizens?
Stay tuned as we keep track of those first 100 hours all day Tuesday. The best political team on television will be all over it.
It has been nearly two months since ground was broken at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. But it's not a done deal. At least not yet.
Civil rights activists and King confidante Andrew Young says the $100 million project is short $30 million. Young says he hopes the memorial will be completed by sometime next year.
Well, when it comes to Martin Luther King, his words will no doubt live forever. They were moving, they were inspiring. But what's the story behind the words? Words like "I have a dream."
Here's CNN's Soledad O'Brien with a never-before-seen look at King's private library and the words that changed a nation.
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SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: He had a real ability to read the crowd. And so, for example, when he was delivering his speech, he had been given nine minutes to deliver the speech on the march of Washington. And so, they're all sitting around how to figure out how to get, you know, the most punch out of this nine minutes they've been given, and they work on a speech which is called not "I have a Dream." It's called "Normalcy, Not Now."
And the whole gist of the speech is that the Negro has been delivered a bad check by the -- by the cupboard country and deserves to have the rights redressed. And so in the middle of this speech, Martin Luther King looks out on the crowd, and someone says, as the story goes, "Tell them about the dream, Martin." And he takes the copy of his speech and turns it over.
Now he's winging it. He's going off copy. And his friends tell us the story of how their hearts sink.
They're watching him -- oh, now he's off the copy. And he says, "I have a dream." And no one remembers "Normalcy, Not Ever." What speech is that? But that was the name of the speech.
Everyone rembers "I have a dream," and that part was completely adlibbed. However, for years we can see in his documents and his letters and the things that he underlines in the books that he had been reading for years he had been working out in his head the thought about "I have a dream, and this is why I'm involved in the movement." "I have a dream that things can be better for people."
So, to trace through his writings and through the things that he was reading and circled, the things that impacted him, is just absolutely fascinating to have access to these documents. It's so riveting. And, then, of course, to have people who were there at the time like Dorothy Cotton, like Andrew Young, to sort of fill us in and fill in the gaps, it's absolutely riveting.
SANCHEZ: You spent some time with Andrew Young. And you spoke earlier about him being moved as well.
Is he still moved to this day?
O'BRIEN: As we're talking about that fateful day, he was one of the inner circles, so he's there on the day that Martin Luther King is shot and killed. He started to cry during our interview, 39 years, 39 years, later.
ANDREW YOUNG, FMR. U.N. AMB.: Everything I do I have to put in the context of what we were committed to.
SANCHEZ: I can only imagine that you would think it's important for all Americans to see something like this.
O'BRIEN: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a story -- it's not just a story. I mean, the civil rights movement, sometimes people think, well, it's a story for black Americans.
It's not. It's a story for all Americans. It's a big part of our history of our nation.
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SANCHEZ: So why weren't the words "I have a dream" written into the speech to begin with? Well, this is -- this is part of what you're going to find out this week on the "MLK Papers: Words that Truly Changed the Nation," all this week on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
By the way, we're tracking severe weather in the southeast for you. We've been tell you about this throughout the course of the evening. There's some of the pictures from different parts of the country, but it's the southeast that's the most serious tonight. Our Gary Tuchman is going to be joining us very shortly. He got to the scene, has been checking it out for us.
Also, Jacqui Jeras is going to join us in 90 seconds.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What all these cases have in common is an intention to help their child.
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SANCHEZ: A young girl undergoes surgery so she won't grow. It's called Ashley's Treatment, but is it ethical? There's a live debate that's coming up in eight minutes.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We do have some reports of some damage to the south and west of the Atlanta metro area, into Coweta County, a town called Moreland there. And we're going to go over here now to our own Gary Tuchman, who is live on the scene.
And Gary, some significant damage there?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jacqui, there is one thing we've learned in years of covering hurricanes and tornadoes. Don't ever seek shelter under a gas station canopy. They come down pretty quickly.
This is Coweta County, like you were saying, Jacqui, the town of Moreland, Georgia, a small town about 40 miles south of Atlanta. And this is a remarkably unlucky place, because this is the month of January. This is when they get ice storms a lot, snowstorms every once in a while. It's very rare this type of thing has happened, and it's happened twice now in three days.
A small tornado came through here on Friday, caused some damage. And today they don't know if it's from a tornado, but there were very heavy winds, up to 70 miles per hour, and according to officials, at least 20 homes have been damaged and hundreds of trees are down. And you can see this business I'm standing at also damaged.
The good news, nobody killed and no injuries, serious. There may be a minor injury or two at this point, but there are no serious injuries. Two people were taken to the hospital, but only because officials say they were excited and scared about what happened.
And that is the good news. And they're very lucky, the folks here, because many of the homes have trees through them, but according to fire officials, the houses that were the most severely damaged had no people in them at the time the trees came down. But some people were home, and they realize now how lucky they were.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got in the center room in the house. It was the bathroom. We all -- all of the walls caved in except those four.
I felt like I had God's hands over that ceiling. There was nothing else there. Everything's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Lucky guy. Lucky family.
Now, officials here know that they were under a tornado warning when the worst damage occurred. But no one actually saw a funnel cloud hit the ground here in Coweta County today like they did last Friday. But they'll learn more tomorrow. They'll also learn the extent of the damage, because it's very dark right now. It's hard to see.
But at this point, at least 20 homes damaged, hundreds of trees down in this heavily wooded area south of Atlanta, Georgia.
Jacqui, back to you.
JERAS: Thanks, Gary.
(WEATHER REPORT)
SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks a lot, Jacqui.
Great to see Gary Tuchman, as usual, hustling out to get to the scene to find out firsthand exactly what's going on for our viewers.
Meanwhile, talk about your insane weather, 72 degrees today -- 72 degrees in New York City. That smashes all records for January.
The West Coast got clobbered last week. And tonight, a line of ferocious storms raked the Deep South.
We're going to be following all those stories throughout the course of the evening as we continue to follow what's go on with the weather.
Meanwhile, it's the latest debate in the medical world, but it sounds like a bizarre question. Should parents limit their children's growth so mom and dad can keep caring for their child while they're still small?
Well, it's being called Ashley's Treatment, and these two doctors that we are going to be talking to in 30 seconds will debate it for us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: The parents of a 9-year-old girl say they didn't want her to develop physically into a young woman, and they have a very good reason, they say, for that -- Ashley's severely damaged brain, a condition that developed shortly after her birth.
Now, her parents say she can't walk, talk, sit up or roll over. So, two years ago, they approached doctors at Children's Hospital in Seattle. Remember, they're the ones who have to take care of her, and the parents told them, the doctors, that allowing her to develop breasts, have monthly cycles and grow any taller than she is would only cause her serious discomfort and make it real difficult for her parents to be able to then take care of her.
The ethics committee went ahead and agreed with the parents. Ashley had a hysterectomy, her breast buds were removed, and she began hormone treatments to literally stunt her growth.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this case, being short is a benefit to the child. There's other parents who make decisions to make their children taller because that may be a benefit to the child. And so, I think what all of these cases have common is an intention to help their child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The first question obviously that comes to mind is, is something like this ethical? Should it be done?
For some answers, in Seattle, bioethicist and doctor, Benjamin Wilfond, who also saw that piece and reacted to it. And in Albany, in New York, Dr. Glenn McGee, a bioethicist from Albany Medical College.
Dr. McGee, let's begin with you. Is this something that you can look at and say, it was necessary, it's OK to do it?
DR. GLENN MCGEE, BIOETHICIST: Well, I think, first, you have to walk a mile in the shoes of this family. They have done a lot for us in writing a 9,000-word blog entry. So we know a lot about what they thought. And I think anyone would have to feel compassion for the choices that they've made.
SANCHEZ: All right. Give us the headline, if you would.
MCGEE: Well, I don't know about the headline, but I can tell you that, when the decision was made at 6 years of age that she should have a hysterectomy, that both of her ovaries should be removed, that her breast buds should be removed, I think the family had started down a dangerous slope, and it's a slope that does not bode well for lots of children with lots of conditions around the world.
SANCHEZ: So you think this could set a precedent and it's something that should not be done?
MCGEE: I think it absolutely sets a precedent. And unfortunately, one of the things that's being trumpeted about this case is that an ethics committee agreed with it or even promoted the idea, which I think is probably an exaggeration. But, you know, it's a question of balancing.
SANCHEZ: Let's go to Dr. Benjamin Wilfond.
He says -- Dr. McGee says this is territory that we should not stepping into. You say what?
DR. BENJAMIN WILFOND, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Well, I think it's very difficult for us to make judgments about a case that we're seeing from a distance. And, in fact, the physicians and the ethics committee and the parents spent many months before making a decision. And I think it's very difficult to generalize from what they did to what other families ought to do.
SANCHEZ: Do you think that this is something that should be considered at any time, for children in cases like this?
WILFOND: I think in t depends on the circumstances. In this particular case, maximizing her adult height did not offer her any particular benefit, and there might have been particular advantages for her to be otherwise shorter than she might have been.
SANCHEZ: Dr. McGee, let me come back to you.
Look, the parents are saying, if she gets too large, we won't be able to move her, we won't be able to carry her, we won't be able to give her the care that is necessary. It would be impossible for us to be able to take care of her in the manner in which we're taking care of her now.
That's a big part of their reason. Can you understand that?
MCGEE: I can understand it. And I can sympathize with it.
It's just that I look around me and I see lots of people about whom the same sort of thing could be said. It's clear that there's a difference between maximizing height or giving growth hormone, as my friend talked about earlier in the taped segment that led up to this, and doing what's going on here.
Here we're talking about not so much whether or not it's in the interest of Ashley to grow up, as whether or not in the long run what's being done is actually in her interest or just in the interest of the parents. And what we're trying to do here is make it easier to care for people with disabilities. How far are we willing to go? I hope we're not willing to go this far.
SANCHEZ: That's a great point. Let's take it over to Dr. Wilfond.
Dr. Wilfond, what about it? We're doing things here because it really would make it easier for the parents, and the parents seem to be loving parents that really want to take care of their child. But what about the child's needs? Even though she's not able to articulate them, should they somehow be taken into account?
WILFOND: Absolutely. And I think in this case her needs and her parents' needs are completely convergent.
SANCHEZ: But how do we know that if we can't actually interview her or talk to her or find out what she wants?
WILFOND: Because you can -- because her parents are able to pick her up and give her a hug, which would be a lot harder for them to do if she's much bigger. That strikes me as being an incredibly fundamental need. That you don't even need to talk to a person to appreciate the value of that.
SANCHEZ: Tough call. Boy, I'll tell you.
Dr. Benjamin Wilfond, Dr. Glenn McGee, we thank you both for this conversation and for the debate.
We appreciate it.
WILFOND: You bet.
SANCHEZ: Monday, Paula Zahn brings us this most unusual medical controversial out in the open. "Compassion or Convenience?" "PAULA ZAHN NOW," 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I was looking for the girls whose life has not already taken them down.
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SANCHEZ: So Oprah makes sure she lifts these girls up.
In under three minutes, I'm going it talk to the man who attended the grand opening of Oprah's school in Africa right here.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINFREY: It is a -- it is a complete full circle moment in my life. It is -- I feel like it's what I was really born to do. And that's what all of that fame and attention and money was for. It feels like the complete circle of my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: This is a story that's captivated a lot of people in this country, even though it's happening in another continent. What an emotional time for Oprah Winfrey. Her dream project finally a reality in South Africa, a leadership academy for girls. It opened last week near Johannesburg.
Oprah gave CNN's Africa correspondent, Jeff Koinage, a tour of the school. And for him, this story's a ray of hope after a dozen years of covering the continent's conflicts and famines and their victims. And Jeff is good enough to join us now from Johannesburg.
Good to talk to you again, my friend, Jeff. How are you?
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rick. Good to talk to you.
SANCHEZ: Tell us about what this was like. How was she received in South Africa?
KOINANGE: Like a hero, Rick. That's the only way I can put it. It was incredible.
There was one moment when Oprah was walking out of the building, accompanied by about a dozen of the girls in their nice beautiful green uniforms which Oprah picked herself, and there was a ribbon- cutting ceremony. And there was such a poignant moment where you could see Oprah was overcome with emotion, tears were coming down her face. And it was incredible.
There was a flag-raising ceremony. Lots of Hollywood stars on the ground. This beautiful project, the school that she -- the dream she had six years ago made after a promise to former South African president Nelson Mandela. An amazing moment right there, a dream coming true -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Make us understand -- in fact, let's do this -- make those who have criticized Oprah, because they say something like this should happen in the United States, this is where she made her money, this is where she -- make them understand, if you would, why it's important, why it's beneficial for her do this in Africa -- as a correspondent there.
KOINANGE: I'll tell you what -- yes -- yes -- real simple, Rick. These girls would never have had this opportunity anytime in their lives.
This was a moment where their lives literally turned around. They would never have gotten this kind of education, never would have gotten this kind of opportunity.
Oprah came along, pumped this money, and the school, despite the $40 million-plus it's cost, you know how much it's going to cost to run this school every year, Rick? It's close to $10 million.
She's still pumping her money into this. It's not a -- it's not on a whim. She didn't think of this overnight. It wasn't a whim kind of situation.
She's planned this, she's committed to this. And this school is going to run for the next 100 years, according to experts here on the ground. No matter what happens to Oprah, this school will run. And these girls' lives will change forever.
SANCHEZ: What impression did she make on you? How did you find her?
KOINANGE: Oh, Rick, I tell you, we were walking -- she was giving me a tour of the school and showing me the library, which is one of her most favorite buildings, she was show me the kitchen, the dining room with the marble tabletops, the dormitories. And you could see Oprah was really, really overcome.
And there was a moment there where she says, "You know what? I am so excited. This is better than anything I have ever done in my life. It's come together, it's full circle."
And hen she turned around and said, "You know what, Jeff? This is maybe why I never had children. This was what was meant to be.
"These children" -- these ones which are committed to -- there's going to be 450 of them in the coming years -- "these are all going to be my children. Maybe that's why I never had children, because I was meant to help children like these."
SANCHEZ: Jeff Koinage, a fellow correspondent, a good friend.
We thank you so much for your time. Always good to hear your voice.
KOINANGE: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right.
He spent an incredible amount of time with Oprah last week, as you heard. In fact, she told him the opening of the school was like getting married.
Be sure to watch "AC 360." This is Monday night, as she explains why, in her own words. "Oprah's Promise: Building Hope in South Africa." Again, Monday night at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific. That's Anderson Cooper's show, only on CNN.
Well, every day we bring you latest out of Iraq. And as we close, we have got a -- there's a lighthearted moment from U.S. troops.
Everybody's either Florida or Ohio State, right? I happen to be from Florida, I'm pulling for the Gators. But not in Iraq.
These are folks from Ohio. They're troops over there. And with all the controversy and everything else going over there, this is what they're thinking about.
Yes, that's right. Go, Buckeyes. Look at the hair. You can tell which guys they want to win.
Now your responses to our "Last Call" question. More or less troops in Iraq? What do you think? Fewer troops that we need or more troops?
We know what the president is probably going to say. Here's what you had to say.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely no more troops over there. They need to stand up and start -- they need to want their democracy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need fewer troops, we need to bring what troops we've got over there back as soon as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mary Carbonaro (ph), Lakeland, Florida, and I do not think we should send any more troops abroad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more troops. Get the troops we have out of there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Janet Carper (ph), Cornish, Maine. We should have fewer troops. We should get out altogether as quickly as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Brewer (ph), in Barrington, Illinois, and I'm against sending any more troops to Iraq. Let's bring them home gradually.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Robert Bior (ph), Ogden Spring (ph), New York. Fewer troops.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
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