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Missing Georgia Boy; Gonzales Rejects Calls to Resign as Attorney General; President Bush Wraps up Latin America Tour
Aired March 14, 2007 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: At the top of this hour, let's get you an update on that missing Georgia boy, 6-year-old Christopher Barrios.
In the past hour, we've learned of new arrests.
Fredricka Whitfield is here now with an update.
Fred, what do you have for us?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Tony.
Well, the search for 6-year-old Christopher Barrios intensifies now. He has been missing since Thursday. So, six days now into this search, police are now focusing on a wooded field.
Why this wooded field? Because the information that they've received from what at first they believed to be persons of interest, now they're calling them suspects, led them to this location. They have not found any evidence of the little boy, but the information they gathered from these persons of interests now have led them to these arrests of George Edenfield, as well as his mother, Peggy Edenfield.
George Edenfield is a convicted child molester. He has been charged with probating -- violating his probation because of his alleged contact with a child under the age of 18. He does say, according to police, that he had contact with this little boy.
And then, Peggy Edenfield, the mother, as well as Edenfield's father, David Edenfield, have both been taken into custody. They have been charged with interfering with a criminal investigation.
Then after receiving a number of bits of information from these suspects, they then -- police did -- focused their attention on yet another suspect.
Let's listen in to Glynn County police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF MATT DOERING, GLYNN COUNTY, GEORGIA, POLICE: Well, that led us to the name of a friend, a Donald Dale (ph), that we picked up, took him in for questioning. We questioned him, and then he gave a statement as to having personal knowledge about his involvement in the disappearance of Christopher. That then led to -- not only do we have personal knowledge of it, but we actually know where he is. They told us to look back there. That's what's going on now. Last night -- that we would expect to find Christopher back here buried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So, with that information, they are now focusing on that field. Again, they have found no evidence of 6-year-old Christopher Barrios. The search intensifies -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Fredricka Whitfield following that story for us.
Fred, appreciate it. Thank you.
COLLINS: Drama on the high seas, or at least under them. A U.S. military submarine and its crew found to be safe and sound this morning. The nuclear-powered USS San Juan lost communications overnight and a rescue flare was spotted in the area. That led military officials to fear it sank off the coast of Florida.
The concerns came as a surprise to the crew this morning when they resumed contact. An investigation is under way to explain what happened.
Prosecutors fired, their former boss finding his own job on the line. This morning, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejecting calls for his resignation. Critics say his firing of eight U.S. attorneys may have been politically motivated, and Democrats in Congress are demanding answers. They may issue subpoenas for officials in the White House and Justice Department.
Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," we spoke with Gonzales.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Why don't you give us a self- evaluation. How do you think you did your job through all this?
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, obviously, I think that there were mistakes made here. And I think that part of the problem is...
O'BRIEN: I was asking not mistakes made. That's passive. The question is, how did you do your job? Do you feel like you did a good job?
GONZALES: I think that I did make some mistakes. And we're going to -- we're going to take steps to ensure that doesn't happen again.
But ultimately, I work for the American people, and I serve at the pleasure of the president of the United States. And he'll decide whether or not I continue to serve as the attorney general. I'm focused on identifying mistakes that were made here, correcting the mistakes, and also I'm focused on doing the work for the American people and protecting neighborhoods, protecting kids.
O'BRIEN: Should -- is it time, when you couple all this together with some of the other issues, the Patriot Act, transgressions in the FBI's office, and other issues that your critics would talk about, is it time for you to step down?
GONZALES: I don't know what Patriot Act transgressions you're referring to. If you're referring to...
O'BRIEN: I'm talking about the Federal Bureau of Investigation overstepping their bounds in use of the Patriot Act, going after private citizens and their records, in some cases, they admit, illegally.
GONZALES: NSLs, national security letters, were around long before the Patriot Act provisions came into place, and reauthorization of the Patriot Act actually included numerous safeguard protections for civil liberties and privacy rights.
O'BRIEN: But the question is, Mr. Attorney General, is, do you feel it's time for you to step down?
ALBERTO GONZALES, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: That will be a decision for the president of the United States to make. I think if you look at the record of the department...
O'BRIEN: But should you tender -- should you offer your resignation? Is it time for you to offer your resignation?
GONZALES: That is -- that is a decision for the president of the United States to make. I'm going to be focused on identifying what went wrong here, correcting those mistakes, and focus on doing good for the American people.
O'BRIEN: But the decision on whether to offer your resignation is yours, is it not?
GONZALES: I'm focused on doing my job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: We should say investigations into the firings of the U.S. attorneys are ongoing. Also, investigations into the national security letters of 2005 also ongoing. The inspector general's report has found no criminal wrongdoing.
HARRIS: They've been up and down and back up again. We are tracking the markets and taking stock of your money after yesterday's plunge on Wall Street. The opening bell sounded, oh, about an hour and a half ago.
CNN's Susan Lisovicz is watching the numbers, and she joins us from the New York Stock Exchange.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
COLLINS: President Bush wrapping up his five-nation Latin American trip today in Mexico.
CNN en Espanol's Juan Carlos Lopez is in Mareda, Mexico, with the very latest.
Juan Carlos, as the trip comes to an end now, what was accomplished?
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's too soon to tell, Heidi, but what experts are saying, what people who have been following the visit are saying, is this is a first step, and it might lead a path to a more open policy towards Latin America. And that was the purpose, the White House announced, when the president came to this five-nation trip.
So, this is just the beginning, but it's a beginning that will be followed very closely, because the president has said that it was not true that he had neglected the region. And in these two years, the question is, what will be accomplished?
Will immigration reform pass through Congress? Will it be signed by the president? What's going to happen at the border? Many things that depend on this trip that will happen in the following months -- Heidi.
COLLINS: We do know that there were a number of protests in Latin America, but sometimes it's difficult, Juan Carlos, to get a good sense from the way that the cameras are shot to understand how many people were really protesting.
Is that anger the feeling of many people, or just -- just a few?
LOPEZ: Well, if we look at the numbers, they weren't large protests. They weren't massive protests. But they were there, they were loud, and in many cases, violent.
Merida yesterday, Mexico City yesterday was violent. And so even -- the White House anticipated protests would come, the host countries anticipated they would come, probably. They probably didn't happen in the numbers that they thought they would see. For example, Sao Paulo in Brazil, a city of almost 19 million people, they had between 6,000, 7,000 people come out to the streets.
So, it was part of the trip. It was expected. And there are people who are unhappy with U.S. policy towards the region. But obviously, if you look at the numbers, it wasn't a majority of people.
COLLINS: We do know next hour that the president will be addressing the media there. Any idea, Juan Carlos, what he will say?
LOPEZ: Well, it's going to be interesting not only what he says, but how he says it. And I mention this because, in Guatemala, the president of Guatemala had been very critical of U.S. raids and deportations of illegal aliens, many of them Guatemalans. And President Bush came out very strong and said in the press conference that deportations weren't going stop, that raids weren't going to stop, that the U.S. was enforcing its own laws. So, we're going to see how President Bush reacts to what President Calderon has said in the previous days and what they probably spoke about yesterday and today. He was very critical about the lack of immigration reform in the U.S. He was critical about the U.S.' role in the war on drugs. So, we're going to see how President Bush comes out and what, if anything, comes out of this meeting.
COLLINS: CNN en Espanol's Juan Carlos Lopez coming to us from Mareda, Mexico, today.
Thanks, Juan Carlos.
HARRIS: The political battle over the war in Iraq -- Senate Democrats try again today to begin debate on a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home. The debate going on right now. And this time Republicans may agree to talk about it. What's changed?
Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel joins us live from Capitol Hill.
Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.
Well, you're right, any minute now we're expecting a vote on a procedural motion to clear the way for a vote for the first time on what would be binding legislation that the Senate would have the potential to pass here, setting a deadline, a goal of March 2008 for all U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
We expect the procedural motion to pass. And just within the last hour, we heard two of the leading voices on Iraq in the U.S. Senate, both of whom happen to be running for president -- John McCain, Republican from Arizona, and Joe Biden, a Democrat from Delaware. Each of them defending very, very strongly their respective positions regarding this legislation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Iraq is not Vietnam, Mr. President. We were able to walk away from Vietnam. If we walk away from Iraq now, we risk a failed state in the heart of the Middle East, a haven for international terrorists, an invitation to regional war in this economically vital area, and a humanitarian disaster that can involve millions of people. If we walkway from Iraq, we will be back, possibly in the context of a wider war, in the world's most volatile region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Our troops don't lose war. Bad policy, bad leadership loses wars. This -- we should have the courage to stand up and tell the administration they have had a god-awful policy. They have put our troops in a position that, in fact, has made it virtually impossible for them to succeed at the outset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: Now, after this procedural vote, we expect a day-long debate on this binding legislation. I'm told by a Democratic leadership aide that vote could happen later this evening.
Tony, they do not expect this motion to pass, this binding legislation to pass. Although a majority of Democrats seem to support it, it's hard to tell just how many Republicans, if any, will vote to support it. And that, to answer your initial question, is why most believe Republicans have finally agreed to let this debate happen today.
HARRIS: Got you.
Our congressional correspondent, Andrea Koppel, for us.
Andrea, thank you.
COLLINS: New Orleans and new problems after Katrina. Word of defective flood control pumps installed despite the warnings about them. Details from an Associated Press investigation in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: He lost five children in the fire, but his wives survived. Both wives. A tragedy sheds light on an immigrant's way of life in the NEWSROOM.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New barriers, new paint, new signs at the scene of a very deadly bus accident in Atlanta two weeks ago. Is it going to be enough to make other people safer? We'll talk about it in the NEWSROOM coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Changing the lanes after a deadly crash. This hour, work is under way on an Atlanta freeway. New safety measures after that bus crash that killed seven people this month.
CNN's Greg Hunter joining us now live.
So, Greg, tell us how much longer the crews are going to be on site.
HUNTER: Well, the GDOT crews are working now. If you look down here, down the end of the ramp, that's where the bus entered its deadly path, at the end of that ramp.
They had the ramp closed down. They're working on the signage. They're going to repaint the actual pavement.
You know, that bus came right up this ramp. And one of the things it missed at the top of the ramp was this stop sign. This stop sign used to be right here. They have replaced this stop sign with something quite a bit bigger. It looks like this on the back side, but it is a stop sign in front. And many people are wondering if this is going to be enough. Well, one expert we talked to says they can and should do more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER (voice over): On the I-75 HOV ramp in Atlanta where the fateful accident occurred, the word "Exit" will be added to the HOV diamond. The "Stop Ahead" signs will be bigger and painted on the road.
But one safety expert says drivers should be warned earlier they won't be exiting on the right.
FRED HANSCOM, TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CORP.: Drivers don't expect left-hand exits.
HUNTER: Fred Hanscom, who's worked on highway safety issues for state agencies, including the Georgia DOT, says there should be a yellow left exit sign a half-mile before the ramp, not just the HOV diamond, and the I-75 sign that's there now.
HANSCOM: It's confusing in that it conveys to a driver, you just follow this and you don't have to worry about a left-hand exit.
HUNTER: And going into the ramp, what Hanscom says is the most badly mismarked of all the signs.
(on camera): This lane should be marked I-75 with the diamond over here.
HANSCOM: And that sign should be right over the lane. It does go to I-75, which is right where my pencil is.
HUNTER: And this sign should say "Left Exit" or "Exit Left" in yellow...
HANSCOM: Correct.
HUNTER: Background with black letters, and there should be an arrow pointing right down here?
HANSCOM: That's correct.
HUNTER (voice over): Georgia's Department of Transportation insists the current signs already meet safety standards, but is making the signs bigger and more visual to avoid another horrible accident.
HAROLD LINNENKOHL, GEORGIA TRANSPORTATION COMM.: We've realized the need that, OK, there's some of our system that has been in place for a long time, that we could even do more.
HUNTER: What's needed, says Hanscom, is more and better signs that drivers can see early enough to avoid serious accidents. He also says sometimes it takes a big accident like this before authorities act to improve sign safety.
(on camera): In your opinion, it's been mismarked for years?
HANSCOM: It has indeed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: The Georgia Department of Transportation has not committed to doing the things that Fred Hanscom said they should in that piece. However, I did talk to a GDOT spokesperson this morning, and he told me they are certainly looking at all those things and they are studying those things, and they may be doing them in the future. But it will be a little bit more of an engineering project than just simply changing the signs and repainting the pavements -- Heidi.
COLLINS: But Greg, as far as we know, with the improvements that are going, or the changes, I should say, behind you, how long will all of that take?
HUNTER: According to the GDOT spokesperson I talked to this morning, he said they're going to get most of it done today, maybe tomorrow. There's rain in the forecast down here in Atlanta. So, by -- at least by the weekend they'll be done, but they're shooting for today or tomorrow to have these initial changes finished.
Then, of course, the other changes that may occur with the signage actually over the lanes, with the arrows pointing down, as Fred Hanscom talked about, that's more of an engineering project. They have to have bars and arms going out over the highways. And GDOT says they are certainly studying and considering that -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Interesting. It still seems, though, Greg, like there's a little bit of a disagreement about whether or not the original sign was, in fact, incorrect.
HUNTER: According to Fred Hanscom, incorrect. According to GDOT, it met all safety standards.
We shall see.
COLLINS: Yes, we shall.
All right. Greg Hunter for us this morning.
Thanks, Greg.
HARRIS: Well, you know the brand names -- Ambien, Lunesta. There are plenty of others. Just a short while ago, the FDA calling for stronger warning labels on sleep aids.
The government says the drugs can cause allergic reactions such as facial swelling, and odd, even dangerous behavior such as sleep driving and sleep eating, even making phone calls while asleep. No response yet from the drug manufacturers.
COLLINS: Car running, shots fired. A shootout caught on the dash cam -- in the NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Problems with the pumps. A report says new ones installed after Katrina don't work properly and engineers knew it. Another New Orleans outrage in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Flooding warnings up around Texas today. The heavy rain keeps on coming. Meteorologist Chad Myers with this extreme weather coming up right here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Severe thunderstorms across parts of Texas. Rain, hail and flashfloods. Look at that.
The Austin and San Antonio areas got the worst of it. In south Texas, high winds ripped the roof off a metal shed. Two people were killed in the flooding and one is actually still missing. We see the video here.
HARRIS: New Orleans, and new problems after Katrina. Word that defective flood control pumps were installed around the city, despite warnings they didn't work properly.
Reporter Rich Lenz has details. He is with our affiliate WDSU.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICH LENZ, REPORTER, WDSU (voice over): You are looking at the only four pumps out of a total of 40 at the 17th Street Orleans and London Avenue canals that are currently operating at full capacity.
COL. JEFFREY BEDEY, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Over the course of the next 60 days, all of the remaining pumps will be brought back in line.
LENZ: That's 36 pumps that still need to have their hydraulic motors overhauled.
BEDEY: Rest assured, those pumps will all be in the water for the start of hurricane season.
LENZ: Mike Allen is not resting and he's not assured.
MIKE ALLEN, NEW Orleans RESIDENT: "Oh, we'll fix it," you know. "Oh, there's a problem now, but it will be taken care of later." Well, later is here now. It should have been taken care of by now.
LENZ: Mike has rebuilt his house, located just four blocks from the 17th Street canal breach. What bothers him most is knowing the corps knew the pumps had design flaws before they ever left the factory.
BEDEY: We made the solution to take the 80 percent solution in the factory and come and put it here in the field, install the pumps, and then complete our testing and commissioning here in the field.
LENZ: Colonel Bedey says that decision allowed at least some pumping capacity in time for last year's hurricane season. Additionally, the corps is withholding final payment to the company awarded the $28 million contract until all 40 pumps are working properly.
ALLEN: We have to have some degree of confidence. And that degree of confidence is very quickly ebbing away.
LENZ: Rich Lenz, WDSU, News Channel 6.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: He lost five children in a fire, but his wife survived. Both wives, in fact.
A tragedy sheds light on an immigrant's way of life. We'll tell you about it in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Searching a field for a missing child. Did the boy find danger just a few doors from home?
Georgia search. We will update this story in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: A coin that doesn't have a head, a tail, or even a face? What happened to George Washington?
The search is on ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: From CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: An update now on a story we're following for you here in the NEWSROOM this morning. Four suspects, but still no sign of a missing Georgia boy.
Six-year-old Christopher Barrios was last seen on Thursday. CNN has just learned police have made four arrests, including a neighbor who is a convicted sex offender. The neighbor's parents and a family friend also arrested, accused of hindering the investigation. Stay tuned for more on this story as it develops.
COLLINS: Drama on the high seas, or at least under them. A U.S. military submarine and its crew found to be safe and sound this morning. The nuclear-powered USS San Juan lost communications overnight. A rescue flare was spotted in the area. That led military officials to fear it sank off the coast of Florida. The concerns came as a surprise to the crew this morning when they resumed contact. An investigation is under way to explain what happened.
HARRIS: The nation's top attorney making the case that he should keep his job. This morning, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejecting calls that he resign. His critics suggest partisan politics were behind his firing of eight U.S. attorneys and Democrats in Congress are demanding anwers. They may issue subpoenas for officials in the White House and the Justice Department.
Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," we spoke with Gonzales and one of the prosecuters he fired.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUD CUMMINS, FIRED U.S. ATTORNEY: Evidence now seems abundantly clear that some of these decisions were made for other reasons that may not be too attractive, political pressure from outside the department by politicians and party people, just the desire to place friends and acquaintances that wanted to be U.S. attorneys in U.S. attorney positions and the attempt to create the vacancies to do that.
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: U.S. attorneys, I value their independence, their professionalism, what they do in the community and this was not -- these decisions were not based for political reasons.
We made an evaluation. I directed an evaluation within the Department of Justice. I charged my chief of staff to look to see where we could do better in districts around the country. The decisions were not based in any way on retaliation, were not based in any way to interfere with an ongoing public corruption case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Gonzales concedes his department mishandled those dismissals, it is worth noting that there's no mention by any critics of criminal misconduct.
COLLINS: America as a melting pot with each ingredient maintaining its flavor. In one case, the unique differences were revealed in a tragic circumstance.
CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was emotionally difficult to watch this man as he prayed in a mosque after losing five of his eleven children in a Bronx New York house fire. Moussa Magassa, still in the state of disbelief, which made his kindness and graciousness so noteworthy when we talked with him about New Yorkers.
MOUSSA MAGASSA, LOST CHILDREN IN FIRE: I appreciate what they have done for me, from the governor, mayor, everyone. I thank everybody for their (INAUDIBLE).
TUCHMAN: Magassa, who went through his destroyed home today and is from Mali, one of tens of thousands of West Africans who have immigrated to the United States, mostly in the New York City area.
This tragedy has opened a window and a way of life not always understood in the west.
TUCHMAN (on camera): How are your wives doing? MAGASSA: She's doing fine, she's doing fine.
TUCHMAN: You have two, right?
MAGASSA: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Are they both doing fine?
MAGASSA: They're doing fine. They're doing fine.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Like many Muslims, Magassa has more than one wife. Both women survived the fire. Five of his wife Mafia's (ph) seven children died and four children of his wife, Isa (ph), all survived.
There was a huge outpouring of support at the funeral, including some of the city's top politicians.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: Let us pray that this never happens again. (INAUDIBLE).
TUCHMAN: Polygamy is illegal in the United States, which has made many worry these grieving family members could find themselves in legal turmoil. But polygamists have not been prosecuted in this country for decades unless the marriages involve underage girls, like those allegedly arranged by Fundamentalist Mormon leader, Warren Jeffs.
Columbia University's Gregory Mann is an expert on West Africa.
PROF. GREGORY MANN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Malians have always had polygamist households, as far back in history as we can tell. And of course, Islamic law allows for polygamy as well.
TUCHMAN (on camera): In your country, you're allowed to have two wives. Not in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have four.
TUCHMAN: You have four wives?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Really?
Maudo (ph) is from Gambia. He has lived in this Bronx neighborhood for 19 years.
TUCHMAN: Is it complicated? Is it hard?
MAUDO: It's not hard. If I don't know how to take care of them, I'm not going to do it, whether I know how to take care of them.
TUCHMAN: I would think it's very hard. I don't think I could take care of four wives.
West Africans are often described as hardworking, gregarious, generous and grateful.
SHEIKH MOUSSA DRAMMEH, GAMBIAN IMMIGRANT: America is probably the best place to practice your own religion. The constitution gives everybody the right to practice what you believe. Even a Muslim country, you may not have as much freedom to practice Islam as you have here in America.
TUCHMAN: In this country, this family's lifestyle and culture are not very well understood, but their grief sure is. West African or not, this is an American tragedy.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Check on your neighbors. It may be the moral to this next story. Eighteen months ago, Hurricane Rita ravaged Beaumont, Texas. Many people left before the storm hit. Later, residents rebuilt and but some stayed away for good. And that's what people felt happened to Larry Euglon (ph). They were wrong.
The mummified remains of the 51-year-old were recently found in his home. Relatives say he cut ties with the family. Still, the community wonders how his disappearance could have gone unnoticed for so long.
Investigators believe Euglon died of natural causes, but can't pinpoint it happened before or after Hurricane Rita.
COLLINS: Certainly some severe weather here, Austin, Texas. People swept away in the flood waters there. Workers from a utility company managed to reach the couple. But the fast-moving waters forced them apart. A short time later, the woman was pulled to safety, but the search goes on for her husband. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital. We'll keep our eye on that story for you.
Meanwhile, Chad Myers is keeping an eye on the weather situation. Boy, I certainly hope they find him.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know, I mean, but at this point in time, hopefully he's just somewhere down there holding on to a branch. ANd that's the problem at this point, you know. We have so much water on the ground, so much water came down overnight in some spots, like six inches.
Here's the map, actually. Here's the radar estimate of what actually came down. Usually your radar, you look at it and say oh that's where it's raining. But the radar can now calculate if it was raining there for 15 minutes, it rained this much. If it rained there for four hours, it rained this much.
And here are the numbers here. This is the orange and the red area, and if you look, that's six, seven inches right through here on over 48 hours there. That is a lot of rain in a lot of places. And obviously now it's all kind of running down.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Thank goodness. I am really behind if it is. All right.
Chad Myers, thanks.
MYERS: I always buy those big ones that are ready to go in June, you know. Shove them in the ground.
COLLINS: I like the faux plants a lot too.
MYERS: I have them out.
COLLINS: Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: All right, see you tomorrow.
HARRIS: We've all heard of the blank check, right? What about a blank coin? A Colorado couple tells the Associated Press they found the new presidential dollar coin without anything on either side. A closer look now on the left what the coin is supposed to look like with the George Washington on it.
On the right there, the nation's first president is MIA. The coin does have the words "In God We Trust" stamped on the edge. The U.S. Mint says it is still looking into the matter. Experts say -- this is the kicker here -- if the coin is found to be authentic, it could be worth thousands.
COLLINS: Treating breast cancer. Does a new drug offer new hope? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a closer look coming up in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Controversy brewing, is it a tempest in a coffee pot? American culture versus imperial history. Order up in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: News just in to CNN, the cloture vote in the Senate has just wrapped up. That cloture vote to break a filibuster by Senate Republicans blocking debate over a Democratic resolution which sets March 2008 as a goal -- again in quotes here, a goal to end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq.
Again, this was a procedural vote to launch the full Senate debate. Senate Democrats needed 60 votes to break the filibuster. Yes votes, 89. No votes, 9.
Andrea Koppel is following developments from the Hill for us and we expect to hear shortly from Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. We'll keep an eye on that for you.
Road crews out this hour. The focus is the site of that deadly bus crash in Atlanta. They're making changes to the commuter lane exit and several others like it. Bigger signs, brighter stripping on the ramp, new safety measures after that accident killed seven people almost two weeks ago.
Now authorities believe the bus driver mistook the commuter lane exit for an interstate lane. The vehicle went up the ramp and plunged off an overpass. The driver and his wife were killed along with five baseball players.
A new breast cancer drug gets FDA approval. The drug is for patients with an aggressive form of the disease.
CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Today's news makes a bit of a splash. A new drug called Bicurb (ph) to address specifically those women, women who do not tolerate Herceptin really well.
Unlike Herceptin, which is an IV medication, this is an oral pill. Again, it is for women who have the specific positive marker on their tumor or two. It has modest side effects, some rash, some diarrhea perhaps. It also doesn't have any of the heart problems.
Herceptin could sometimes cause significant heart problems, heart failure even. This medication Bicurb, at least initially, does not seem to have any of those heart problems as well.
So, potentially exciting out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline says this drug will be available in two weeks and cost about $2,900 a month.
To get your daily dose of health news online, log on to our Web site, you'll find the latest medical news. The health library, informational guide, the address CNN.com/health.
These are not your father's war protesters. Demonstrators getting up close and personal with members of Congress. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.
Car running, shots fired. Shootout caught on the dash cam. That story coming up in the NEWSROOM.
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COLLINS: Anti-war groups still hold mass demonstrations, but they're also trying other tactics now to get their message across.
CNN's Bob Franken with the story.
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BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anti-war demonstrators barge into the offices of Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski. Mikulski says she's against the war, but apparently not enough for the protesters. They want her to vote to withhold supplemental funding for troops in Iraq.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also normally a champion of these groups, but last weekend, there they were, camping out in front of her home in San Francisco.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D) HOUSE SPEAKER: I understand the frustration they have with the war that appears to be without end. I believe that what we are doing here will bring that war to an end. They don't understand that yet.
FRANKEN: Anti-war demonstrators say it's the Democrats who miss the point.
GORDON CLARK, PEACE ACTION: They claim to vehemently oppose the war, they very regularly criticize the war, and yet they continue to vote for funding for the war.
FRANKEN: Congressman Rahm Emmanuel (ph) who led his Democratic Party to victory in the House by making Republicans defensive about Iraq found himself on the defensive on the same subject.
Many Democrats are not taking well to this at all, like David Obey, long the liberal's who was caught on tape confronting a protester, and probably wishing that YouTube had never been invented.
REP. DAVID OBEY (D), APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRMAN: The liberal groups are jumping around without knowing what the hell is in the bill.
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HARRIS: More on that story, we're following that.
Don Lemon is here! You're back in the NEWSROOM in about an hour and 10 minutes from now.
Don is here with a preview. Good to see you, Don.
LEMON: Tony Harris, thank you for the introduction.
HARRIS: Well, yes.
LEMON: It's very nice.
HARRIS: You've earned it, come on.
LEMON: Alright. We're going to talk about this a little later on. A day late and a dollar short. Try a month late and many millions short. Mortgage lenders say the number of overdue house payments is skyrocketing and so are foreclosures. What's the credit crunch mean for you? Gerri Willis has information that's not just for homeowners.
Plus, is there a moving day in Alberto Gonzales' near future? Gonzales says he's not stepping down in the wake of the so-called prosecutor purge. But is the White House considering a new tenant for the Attorney General's office? We're working on that and all the day's top stories and of course we'll join you at 1:00 p.m. when you join us, 1:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
COLLINS: It will be interesting to see what those numbers will do on Wall Street.
LEMON: Oh, we're going to be watching that all day.
Good to see you, too, Heidi, as well.
COLLINS: Thanks. You, too. We'll see you at 1:00.
HARRIS: Thanks, Don.
COLLINS: Thanks, Don.
HARRIS: A traffic stop, an everyday occurrence. But after pulling over, this driver pulled away and opened fire.
Reporter Charles Benson of our affiliate WTMJ picks up the story from Milwaukee.
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CHARLES DUNSON, WTNJ REPORTER (voice-over): From the moment Robert Brown jumped out of his car, he started shooting.
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DUNSON: Officer Brian Miller fired back and called for help.
BRIAN MILLER, POLICE OFFICER: Shots fired! Shots fired! 33. 1078.
DUNSON: After a tense 10 seconds of silence, more shots are fired.
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MILLER: Let me see your hands! Come out!
DUNSON: The suspect now hiding off to the left continues shooting as bullets ricochet off nearby homes.
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DUNSON: Officer Miller hit the suspect once in both arms, but that didn't stop the shooting. Police believe the suspect knew what he was doing.
LT. RON BARTHOLOMEW, KENOSHA POLICE: The only thing that makes any sense is that he was trying to get the officer down a dead-end road.
DUNSON: Dash cam shows the officer pulling Brown over for a broken taillight. After a brief stop, Brown pulls away and leads the officer down the dead-end road where the shootout started.
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HARRIS: That's insane. Officers eventually caught up with the suspect. They say he dropped his gun, but refused to surrender. He was tasered, taken into custody and now faces an attempted homicide charge. Officer Miller's actions have been cleared by a police board.
COLLINS: Controversy brewing. Is it a tempest in a coffee cup? American culture versus imperial history. Order up in the NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: Man, I really want you to watch the podcast that we do every day. I'm not kidding you. It's really good. Heidi Collins, unbelievable, in the NEWSROOM every morning. In the podcast, as the kids say, off the charts. Weekday mornings, you know to catch us 9:00 to noon right her in the NEWSROOM. Log on, get us on your podcast, on your iPod, alright. Every day. On your iPod, 24/7. The CNN NEWSROOM podcast available to you on that iPod gadget of yours.
COLLINS: I'm having a hard time following.
HARRIS: Well, because I'm all over the place, as usual.
COLLINS: Can a popular American business keep its place at an imperial Chinese shrine, or will it be a Starbucks takeout? CNN's John Vause reports.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the sprawling grounds of China's Forbidden City, once home to the imperial palace of the Ming and Ching dynasties, one small shop is in the midst of a brewing controversy -- Starbucks, that poster child for American mass marketing and a growing number of Chinese want it banished.
"The Forbidden City should preserve its uniqueness," says this woman.
VAUSE: Ever since it opened more than six years ago, Starbucks has been a contentious presence in one of China's most revered historical icons.
DAVID SHAMBAUGH, POLITICAL ANALYST: Some of these symbols of Western cultural influence, Starbucks is just the tip of the iceberg, do rub up against Chinese nationalistic sensibilities. That's what we are seeing. It's that simple.
VAUSE: Earlier this year, the trademark green sign was removed to reduce the store's visibility after Rui Chenggang, an anchor on state- run television, began an online campaign to have the coffee shop closed for good.
RUI CHENGGANG, ANTI-STARBUCKS CAMPAIGNER: You can still tell it is a Starbucks. And when you tour around the Forbidden City, you see hundreds of cups with the big Starbucks logo on it, you know, all around. To me, it spoils the fun.
VAUSE: And now, complaints of latte imperialism have reached the National People's Congress, the annual session of parliament. "As long as it stays in the imperial palace, it poses a challenge to our traditional culture," says lawmaker Jiang Hongbin, who submitted the motion to congress to have Starbucks closed.
This is much more than a storm in a coffee cup. With almost 200 stores already in China's big cities, Starbucks is aiming to make this country its largest market, and bad publicity is bad for business. The company says it's aware of the complaints but adds, "Many tourists find our respectful presence a welcome place of rest."
(on camera): Over the years, the rent from stores like Starbucks have helped cover the costs of the upkeep and renovations to the almost 600-year-old Forbidden City. But, soon here, it could be one Starbucks to go.
John Vause, CNN, in the Forbidden City, Beijing.
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COLLINS: CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.
HARRIS: "YOUR WORLD TODAY" is next with news happening across the globe and here at home, including a live coverage of President Bush's news conference with Mexico's president. That is coming up shortly.
I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. Have a good day everybody.
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