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High Winds Breathe New Life Into Raging California Wildfire; War Support Eroding; Dangerous Immigrants Looking for new Life in U.S.
Aired June 27, 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: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
Developments keep coming into the NEWSROOM.
Here's what's on the rundown.
The rain just won't stop. A foot and a half of water falls on parts of Texas overnight. Flash floods trap people on rooftops, bridges wash away.
HARRIS: Lake Tahoe firefighters take a stand and they hope a highway can keep a massive inferno from invading yet another neighborhood. Hundreds of homes in danger this morning.
COLLINS: Sexual orientation, do you choose it or are you born with it? The debate is part of our focus, "Uncovering America: The Science of Sexuality" -- in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: And at the top, let's take you to Los Angeles. And this is how a high-speed chase ended in south Los Angeles this morning, wreckage, a crash scene. At least four cars involved. A brutal ending in which one person has been killed, several other people injured.
This all happened near Century Boulevard on Vermont Avenue. It is not clear -- we certainly can't tell from this picture -- which of the four vehicles was being pursued. We understand a perimeter has been set up in the area, although it is not clear if any suspects are still at large. We will keep an eye on this scene for you
COLLINS: We are following a dangerous weather situation in central Texas this hour. In the Austin area, heavy rains have flooded creeks and rivers, sending people on to rooftops, even into trees in some spots. Rescue boats and helicopters on the job.
At nearby Marble Falls, crews had to call off a helicopter rescue because of unsafe conditions there. Boats are moving into that area to help the stranded people.
(WEATHER REPORT) HARRIS: And on the West Coast, high winds breathe new life into a raging inferno. Right now the big wildfire just south of Lake Tahoe in California threatens more homes. The flames jumped a fire line. Mandatory evacuation orders are now in place in several more neighborhoods.
The latest now from CNN's Kara Finnstrom in Meyers, California.
Kara, good morning to you.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I actually just got off the phone with the U.S. Forest Service, and they tell me they are on edge today. There's a red flag warning out. Those winds really caused this wildfire to get new some life yesterday, and they are worried what may happen with even more fierce winds out here today.
They just gave me some new numbers. They tell me that there are about 950 additional homes that they feel could be threatened by this fire, and another 325 commercial properties, with another 300, what they call outbuildings, or other buildings.
There also are some concerns about firefighters. Yesterday, two firefighters got trapped as this wildfire got some new life. And they actually had to deploy -- we have some of these with us, because we actually take them into the field, what are called emergency shelters.
This is something that you use in a last resort. And the U.S. Forest Service tells us if they didn't have these -- they come out and they're actually -- we can't deploy it now, but they come out, and they're large silver blankets that you wrap around yourself and you kind of huddle down. And the U.S. Forest Service tells us if these firefighters didn't have these in place yesterday, they probably would have died while trying to get back this new part of the fire that emerged.
Now, where we are now, this is the area, one of the areas that was hardest hit. Most of this community was completely destroyed. And the concern is, if these flames pick up again today, that there could be other areas of Lake Tahoe that could see similar devastation.
HARRIS: Boy. CNN's Kara Finnstrom for us.
Kara, thank you.
COLLINS: We want to take a moment to get back to the situation we brought you a little bit earlier, and these live pictures once again coming in form our affiliate KABC. This is south Los Angeles. All of this happening as a result of a high-speed crash.
We now have more information coming in from the L.A. County Sheriff's Office. We do, according to them, that one civilian was killed when all of this happened. There with was a carjacking, and the police took off after the person who stole the car. Now, this is the intersection of Century and Vermont, in case you do know the area. But apparently, what happened was, the speeds just got too high, too dangerous. So the sheriff's department backed off.
But still, the suspect crashed the vehicle. It hit a civilian. That is the person who was killed in all of this.
We also know that the driver is still on the loose. The sheriff's department has, as we said earlier, set up a perimeter trying to find him.
The passenger in that vehicle, who was not injured, has been taken into custody. So still one suspect at large. And yes, a civilian was killed in this high-speed crash.
So we'll continue to watch that story for you and bring you any information should we get it.
(NEWSBREAK)
HARRIS: Eroding support for the war in Iraq. Prominent Republicans are breaking ranks with the White House, and public support slips to an all-time low.
CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider has details.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): President Bush's Iraq troop build-up is in place.
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY WHIP: The final surge just was completed about -- in the last 10 days.
SCHNEIDER: What happens now?
LOTT: Come September, we'll have to see how they're doing and we'll have to make an assessment.
SCHNEIDER: The public is already making an assessment, and it's not good. In the latest CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll, 69 percent of Americans believe things are going badly in Iraq. Public support for the war has reached a new low -- 30 percent. Two thirds of Americans are opposed. Most Americans no longer believe U.S. action in Iraq is morally justified.
When Congress voted in April to impose a timetable for withdrawal, only two Republicans in the House and two in the Senate voted for the bill. Two hundred and forty Republicans voted against timetables.
We are beginning to see some cracks in the Republican wall of support.
SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R-IN), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I speak to my fellow senators when I say that the president is not the only American leader who will have to make adjustments to his or her thinking.
SCHNEIDER: Senator Lugar's assessment?
LUGAR: Our focus on Iraq has diverted us from opportunities to change the world in directions that strengthen our national security.
SCHNEIDER: The Senate Democratic leader said Lugar's remarks may be turning point, depending on whether more Republicans start following Lugar's lead.
Are they?
Their constituents seem to be.
Among Democrats over the last four months, opposition to the war has been nearly unanimous -- over 90 percent.
About two thirds of Independents have also held steady against the war.
This month, anti-war sentiment among Republicans suddenly increased -- 38 percent now say they oppose the war.
(on camera): Sixty-three percent of Americans are ready to withdraw at least some troops from Iraq. Forty-two percent of Republicans agree.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HARRIS: And some dramatic new video out of Iraq. Soldiers traveling in southern Baghdad when their Humvee is hit by a roadside bomb. Take a listen.
The soldiers in the Humvee survived the attack. The Army specialist who was behind the camera was on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPEC. RANDALL TOWNSEND, U.S. ARMY: We were so fortunate that we were in an up-armored Humvee that was probably able to absorb the majority of the blast. We had our body armor on, our Kevlar on. I know we were all wearing our eye -- our protective glasses, our earplugs, and gloves and extra equipment. We were just fortunate to have all that stuff on when we were out there. We wear it every time we go, but it's just a good thing to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And the soldiers are from the 1st Squadron 40th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Richardson in Alaska.
COLLINS: Still ahead, is being gay in the DNA: Some people say they are born gay. Others say it's a choice.
The signs of sexuality ahead.
HARRIS: Also, the search for a missing mother of three. Now a body found at the bottom of a lake. Find out whether police think it's her.
COLLINS: Police chase. A hard-charging suspect on foot. You have to see this, the ending of this one. You can believe it, that's for sure.
HARRIS: And escaping to America. Illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes now hiding out in the U.S., but the government is on the hunt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It is official. Mr. Blair is out. Mr. Brown is in.
Britain's Tony Blair just a short time ago ending a decade as prime minister. He is now expected to be appointed special envoy to the Middle East. Treasury chief Gordon Brown takes over the prime minister's job. He just wrapped up a visit to Buckingham Palace, receiving the queen's official blessing.
COLLINS: The Senate moving ahead with the immigration debate. Part of that debate may center on illegal immigrants accused of serious crime south of the border. Immigration officials say there are dangerous criminals looking for new life in the U.S.
CNN's Gary Tuchman takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The argument about what to do with illegal immigrants is heated, but it's less complicated when it deals with people like Laura Garrido Hernandez (ph).
At the border fence between California and Tijuana, Mexico, the 20-year-old woman is being handed over by U.S. agents to Mexican agents. As Hernandez (ph) crosses the fence, she might be saying goodbye to U.S. soil forever.
JIM HAYES JR., DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES FIELD OFFICE, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: She's wanted by Mexican law enforcement authorities for questioning of her involvement in the brutal rape, mutilation and murder of a 10-year-old girl.
TUCHMAN: Among the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, the great majority come here for work, but Laura Hernandez (ph) and others are accused of being dangerous criminals, trying to escape justice in their home countries.
HAYES: We're talking about people, they have been accused of murder, rape, theft, burglary, narcotics trafficking, narcotics possession. TUCHMAN: So, the people with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, have ramped up a program to send alleged violent criminals back home. Wearing bulletproof vests, ICE and other federal agents conduct an early-morning raid east of Los Angeles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federal police. Open the door.
TUCHMAN: The moments are tense, as nobody answers. Agents are looking for this man, Almarez Reveles Gonzalo. The Mexican government has charged him with murdering his 74-year-old uncle.
Agents hear noise at the back door and are let in by the suspect's wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gracias.
TUCHMAN: The murder suspect was asleep.
DERRICK TAYLOR, SUPERVISORY DEPORTATION OFFICER, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: It was an infant, I guess maybe less than a year-old, in bed with him.
TUCHMAN: Within minutes, Gonzalo gives himself up, but U.S. agents only tell him this is an immigration arrest. They say it's up to Mexican authorities to inform him about the murder charge once he's sent back.
We are told, if we wanted to witness the raid, we can't tell him about the murder charge either. Gonzalo says, "I don't know. Honestly, that's the truth."
He's brought to an ICE office, where the process of kicking him out of the country begins right away. It's the same journey taken by other high-profile suspects, Odilon Carlos-Marquez, charged with murdering a Mexican state police officer, Alfredo Galiana (ph), an alleged killer, kidnapper and bank robber who escaped from a Mexican prison more than two decades ago.
And then there's Moidin Ahmed (ph), accused of participating in a 1975 coup in Bangladesh that led to the assassination of Bangladesh's prime minister. ICE doesn't know how many illegal immigrants there are in this country who have been accused of violent crimes in other countries.
But the agency does say there are more than 632,000 illegals in the U.S. who are accused of breaking some type of law while they have been here and are sought as fugitives.
(on camera): Gonzalo is given a choice by ICE agents: Go to jail in California, or we will send you back here to Mexico. Because agents in the U.S. have not told Gonzalo he will be charged with murder, this sounds like the better choice, coming here, because he assumes he will be free. But he will assume wrong.
(voice-over): Just hours after the raid, Gonzalo is brought to the border fence and handed over to the Mexican authorities. His identity is verified. And he will be put on a plane and flown to the state of Zacatecas, where he allegedly shot his uncle.
But the Mexicans hadn't yet told him he's being charged with murder. However, now that we're no longer in the U.S., we mention it.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Did you kill your uncle?
ALMAREZ REVELES GONZALO, MURDER SUSPECT: No.
TUCHMAN: It's no verdad? You don't kill your uncle?
GONZALO: No.
TUCHMAN: You don't kill your uncle?
GONZALO: No.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gonzalo will now tell it to a judge in Mexico -- his attempt at a new life in the U.S. foiled.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Tijuana, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: So, are we born straight or gay? We explore the science of sexuality in the NEWSROOM.
Is being gay a matter of biology or behavior? An intriguing look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: We are continuing our ongoing series on diversity, "Uncovering America". Today the network looks at issues at the gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
For the first time ever, most Americans believe gays and lesbians can't change their sexual orientation even if they want to. The CNN- Opinion Research poll says 56 percent believe that to be so, compared to only 36 percent less than a decade ago.
Should gay and lesbian couples be allowed to marry? Twenty-four percent of all Americans said yes. A slightly larger percentage approved of civil unions for gays and lesbians, but more than four in 10 Americans were against either gay marriages or civil unions.
The poll also found a majority of Americans believe gays and lesbians have the legal right to adopt.
COLLINS: Are people born gay or do they choose their sexual orientation? Well, no shortage of opinions on that question, as I'm sure you know. But what about the science behind sexuality?
Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joining us now, part of CNN's "Uncovering America" series.
Elizabeth, I know you have some home videos that try to explain this type of research.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, that try to get to that question of nature versus nurture. Are you born gay or do you learn to be gay?
So, you have to watch these videos. Look at this child. Do you think that he grows up to be gay or straight?
COLLINS: Come on.
COHEN: You know what? I'll explain. And this little girl here, does she grow up to be gay or straight?
Now, we'll tell you the answers in a minute. But when researchers show these videos and many more to just ordinary observers, just ordinary people, they actually guessed with great accuracy.
They said, "I think that little boy grows up to be straight. I think that little girl grows up to be straight." "This boy is gay." Or whatever.
They were remarkably accurate at guessing people's sexual orientation from videos when they were 3.
COLLINS: OK. So what exactly do the videos have to do with the actual science of sexuality?
COHEN: Well, the researchers at Northwestern University, they say it has a lot to do with the science of sexuality.
They say that if a 3-year-old is demonstrating so-called gay behavior, then that tells you that perhaps that it's inborn. If you at age 3 are demonstrating certain kinds of behavior, you were likely born that way.
Three-year-olds don't really learn that kind of thing. So for the researchers who did this, they say that it shows that it's not a choice that you make. You are either born gay or you are born straight.
COLLINS: What are some of the behaviors that they are talking about, the gay behaviors? What do they look for?
COHEN: Well, observers, I think instinctively -- people call it gaydar sometimes. So people instinctively sometimes will look at other people and say that person looks gay or that person doesn't look gay.
Now, here's a really interesting one here. We are going to show you some video of people walking with lights on.
OK. This is crazy, but that's a person with lights strapped to them. A researcher is going to show these videos to observers and say, can you guess the sexuality of this person just by the way they are walking? And they think that people are going to be able to figure it out with great accuracy.
Now, if you want to learn more about these lit-up people, you can read an article I have right now on CNN.com/health. And you can look at the lit-up people and try to figure out if they are gay or straight.
COLLINS: OK. All right. So that's some of the other research that's out there. Right?
COHEN: Right.
COLLINS: So then back to the very beginning, when we showed the video of the little boy and the girl. Who grew up to be gay and who grew up to be straight?
COHEN: OK. Well, we're going to show it to you again. We're going to see if you got it right.
The little boy who we showed you, that boy right there, he grew up to be straight. And observers who watched this video were, by and large, correct, that he grew up to be straight.
The little girl that we showed you, she grew up on to be a lesbian. Now, I know this sounds a little strange, but people, again, were very accurate when they were asked, does this little girl grow up -- does this little girl demonstrate masculine or feminine tendencies? They said masculine tendencies, and she, indeed, did grow up to be a lesbian.
Now, if you want to learn more about these videos and see more of them, you can watch "PAULA ZAHN NOW" tonight. I'll be on talking about this very issue, are we born with our sexual orientation or do we learn it? Is it a choice or is it our DNA?
COLLINS: All right. CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
We will be watching tonight at 8:00. Thank you.
HARRIS: A New Hampshire traffic stop turns deadly. We showed you these pictures yesterday. Very disturbing video. But it is not the first time this particular motorist and the police officer who was killed squared off.
History of a deadly confrontation right here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody, 11:30 Eastern Time.
I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Welcome, everyone, back to the CNN NEWSROOM.
As we have been reporting this hour, a dangerous weather situation bearing down on the southern plains. Central Texas feeling the worst of it.
Take a look at this scene this morning in the Austin area. Fast- moving water, and people trapped on roofs, in treetops, and on top of their vehicles.
Helicopters and boats are on the job in Oklahoma City. Heavy rains prompted this dramatic rescue. Cameras rolled as firefighters used a raft to free 16-year-old twin sisters from their flooded car. More rain expected there today.
Heavy rains flooded roads, creeks and rivers in the Dallas area. High water also forced the evacuations of at least 50 homes southwest of the city. And in the town of Garland, a 13-year old boy died after being washed down a flooded creek.
COLLINS: Tragedy there, Chad Myers joining with now us more of this massive weather picture that we are seeing, kind of carrying straight through the center of the country.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right from south of Kansas City through and east of Wichita, Oklahoma City and now down to about San Antonio, although, the rain is breaking up and that's typical of the cooler part of the day. I know it is starting to warm up, but this is still the bottom of the day compared to the 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 at night. Take a look at San Antonio. You are under the gun for a big old front coming by you. And it broke up and now it is beautiful, kind of. You know what that's doing? That's heating up the ground again. The sunshine is going to warm up your ground again and storms are going to fire up again because of that later on today. Thanks to our affiliate there.
The rain is now shifting a little bit farther to the north as well, into Wichita, north of Tulsa, into parts of Kansas. For the next 48 hours, this is going to be a battle zone of a front that won't move. You have moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and a front that stalls right here. Where that front doesn't move, that's just enough of a coagulation of the moisture that it goes up in the air because it can go down. The ground is in the way. It goes up in the air and then you get the showers and storms to pop up during the day and during the afternoon. Then they fire all day long and then they finally die out at night. That's going to happen again today.
But Oklahoma City, over to Tulsa, on up maybe even towards Enid, we are talking about areas that could see another seven inches of rain just by itself in the next 48 hours. You saw the flooding yesterday. Where's the rain going to go now? It is going to run off and it is going to be more flooding. You need to make sure that your kids are ready for this and you are ready for this because more people die from flash flooding than lightning or anything else and it is avoidable. Stay out of the water. Stay away from it if you see it coming up.
COLLINS: Yeah. We were talking to the mayor a little bit earlier from Marble Falls, Texas anyway. He said he didn't even know it was raining because it was happening in the middle of the night. He was sound asleep. MYERS: Hold on, hold on just a second. I'm going do something. I wrote these numbers down a little bit ago, Georgetown, not that far from Marble Falls, at 2:00 in the morning, 4.3 feet. That was where the level of the river was. By 4:15, 21 feet by 7:00, 29 feet. Talk about not being able to get out of the way.
COLLINS: Unbelievable. I thought you were going to get one of your weather radios. If you have one of those, you will learn more in the middle of the night. That is for sure. All right, Chad, thanks so much. We actually have more information in the Oklahoma area. Trapped in their car on a flooded bridge. Teenage twin girls are safe today. Rescued by daring fire fighters. Mark Okrand (ph) of CNN affiliate KOCO has the dramatic story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK OKRAND, KOCO CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twin sisters Lindsey and Lauren Penn (ph) say they did not know how high the water was when they tried to drive across Silver Lake dam.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Started floating. (INAUDIBLE)
OKRAND: The water rising and rushing into the car, they were stuck. One of the girls immediately called their father.
DAVID PENN, FATHER: It just didn't register how much trouble (INAUDIBLE)
OKRAND: Neighbors called 911 and yelled at the girls to stay inside the car. Firefighters put a boat in the water with man on each side, maneuvered it to the end of the car. One by one, they pulled the girls out the back window, took them back to shore. Embrace with their father says a thousand words. They were shaken by the ordeal but safe in dad's arms.
PENN: I don't know if can get them to drive again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Oklahoma City has had more than its share of rain in recent days. The National Weather Service has recorded rain in the city every day since June 13th.
HARRIS: A stunning end to a police chase in Denver. A bank robbery suspect fleeing police in a stolen car. He takes off on foot. Police officer chases him, as you can see, takes him down. And then there you see what happened next. Wow. Unmarked police car hits them both. The suspect was thrown several feet. The officer went up on the hood there. The good news here is that everyone is OK.
COLLINS: You have seen the tape and it is very disturbing. A New Hampshire man's deadly confrontation with the police officer. But we are learning it wasn't the first time they clashed. Much more of their explosive story and their history caught on dash cam. CNN's Dan Lothian reports
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a dirt lot off a country highway, a four-year feud between New Hampshire police officer Bruce McKay and motorist Leko (ph) Kenny ends in about six seconds. A dose of pepper spray. then at least seven shots fired from a 45 caliber handgun all captured on officer McKay's dash camera. This deadly encounter last month in Franconia, New Hampshire, started about a mile and a half down the road with a traffic stop for speeding. Kenny takes off. He's pursued and then cornered and pushed back by Officer McKay who doesn't seem aware that his life is in danger.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: He probably thought that OK, I will handle it this way. I know this kid. . LOTHIAN: Mike Brooks, CNN law enforcement analyst.
BROOKS: My initial thought when I saw the officer walk up and spray inside the car and then turn his back and walk away, I was going wait a minute, when you think about officers' safety and survival, that's not the way you would go about approaching a car.
LOTHIAN: Off camera Officer McKay is hit five times. Then Kenny and his passenger drive off. And according to a witness, they run over the officer twice. He dies a short time later. This disturbing and dramatic story then takes another deadly turn. A witness, ex- Marine, ex-felon, Gregory Floyd who is seen driving up to the scene decides to intervene. As he later tells authorities in a police interview, he uses the officer's gun to shoot and kill Kenny when the suspect refuses to put down his weapon.
VOICE OF GREGORY FLOYD: I shot once. I know I shot once. It could have been twice.
LOTHIAN: The feud between McKay and Kenny began in 2003 during another traffic stop caught on camera.
KENNY: Do I have to give you my driver's lines?
BRUCE MCKAY: Either that or you can be arrested for failure to identify yourself.
KENNY: Why do I have to? Don't shine the flashlight in my lights.
LOTHIAN: The confrontation escalates as other officers arrive.
KENNY: Stop touching me! Stop touching me! Let go of me! Let go of me! My neck (INAUDIBLE)
LOTHIAN: Some people in the small ski resort town had been aware of the bad blood between Officer McKay and Kenny who happens to be a cousin of Olympic skier Bode Miller.
CONNIE MCKENZIE, NEW HAMPSHIRE RESIDENT: I just feel the whole thing (INAUDIBLE) it is unfortunate and could have been avoided.
LOTHIAN: Floyd will not be charged for shooting Kenny. The state attorney general says his deadly force was justified. Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: As you know, we have been following the Genarlow Wilson case here in the NEWSROOM, the case here in Georgia, the young man serving a 10-year prison sentence for what was determined to be consensual oral sex with an under-aged girl. One judge, as you know, has indicated that Wilson should be freed. That decision was appealed by prosecutors and the attorney general's office here in Georgia. We have just received word that a Douglas County superior county judge says Genarlow Wilson is not eligible for bond in his child molestation case. This is a new development that could keep Wilson behind bars for several months to come pending an appeal in this case.
Now, yesterday we told you that a New York investment manager and 10 others had volunteered to post a $1 million bond to free Wilson from prison while the appeals process plays itself out. But the prosecutor says that Wilson is not eligible again for that public bond because of the crime. And now a Douglas County superior court judge appears to agree with that decision. Again, it is a new development that could keep Wilson behind bars for several months as the appeals process plays itself out. There is a hearing I should tell you scheduled on this case, this bond request next month and to the best of our knowledge, that hearing is still on. We will continue to follow developments in the Genarlow Wilson case for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Disturbing new details this morning about the death of popular pro wrestler Chris Benoit and his family. Investigators say he killed his wife and son before taking his own life. Here's CNN's Rusty Dornin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fayette County officials revealed some of the circumstances surrounding the death of the Benoit family and why they called them bizarre. Investigators say that they believe Chris Benoit sometime Friday night strangled his wife and then early Saturday morning asphyxiated his young son and then perhaps late Saturday night went into the basement where his weight room was and hung himself. Investigators say it was the way the bodies were found that was strange.
SCOTT BALLARD, FAYETTE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I will tell you that the wife was bound on her feet and I think also on her wrists. There was some blood under her head. As far as I know, those were the only signs of a struggle.
DORNIN: The Fayette County district attorney says that the legal prescriptions of anabolic steroids were discovered in the home but he would not say where. One piece of disturbing news apparently the young son was found with needle marks in his arm and investigators do believe perhaps that Chris Benoit was giving his son who suffered from some kind of dwarfism human growth hormone. Toxicology reports on just what drugs were found in Chris Benoit's system will probably not be released for least another week or two. Rusty Dornin, CNN, Fayetteville, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: He flew around the world and could land in the history books, 23-year-old Barrington Irving says he's the youngest pilot to fly around the world alone. The 27,000 mile journey lasted three months before ending this morning in Florida. Irving is an aerospace student. He built his plane from $300,000 in donated parts and he's right here in the NEWSROOM tomorrow. You won't want to miss our interview with Barrington Irving. Live pictures now. There is the a young man and he will be here tomorrow in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: He's used to chewing up the competition. But now this competitive eating champion may have to try another profession. We will tell you why.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. When NEWSROOM returns, I will tell you about a famous billionaire who is looking for reform for the tax code. He wants to pay higher taxes. The name and numbers next. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The CIA's dirty little secrets. Secret operations from another era revealed for the first time. CNN's Jeanne Meserve takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 1960, Cuban President Fidel Castro targeted for assassination. According to newly declassified documents, the CIA recruited two of the nation's most wanted mobsters to take Castro out with six poisoned pills. The plot was eventually scrapped but one of the mobsters later tried to blackmail the agency. These revelations and more part of the so- called family jewels, 700 pages of CIA documents that show an agency with few limits in the '50s, '60s, and '70s.
THOMAS BLANTON, EXEC. DIR., NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE: Black bag jobs, wiretaps, you name it. All it took was orders from on high. If the president was mad, sic the CIA on these people. If the president wanted to get rid of some obnoxious foreign leader, sic the CIA on them and there didn't seem to be any serious congressional oversight.
MESERVE: According to one memo Howard Hunt, an ex-CIA agent, called his former contacts at the agency looking for an accomplished lock picker apparently to assist with the Watergate break-in. Other documents revealed the CIA provided a safe house of equipment for Secret Service surveillance of the 1972 Democratic and Republican conventions. Spy satellites and Soviet subs were among the subjects of Michael Getler's reporting in the 1970s. The CIA put him and other journalists under surveillance to uncover their sources.
MICHAEL GETLER, FMR WASHINGTON POST REPORTER: They have no charter to carry out domestic law enforcement which is what they were doing. And they were way out of line in doing it.
MESERVE: Some say CIA abuses like these could not take place today.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, FMR. ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: Today's structure for supervising the CIA is radically different and so I don't think Americans today need to look at these documents and say oh, my God. What are they doing now?
MESERVE: CIA Director Michael Hayden says the agency now protects Americans within a strong framework of law and review. The documents, he said, provide a glimpse of a very different era, a very different agency. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: One of the world's richest men says he has dirty secrets. His taxes are lower than yours. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange. Tell us the latest from the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Hi there Susan.
LISOVICZ: Hi Heidi. To state the obvious, this isn't something you hear every day from the wealthy and Warren Buffet is that and more. He says he's ashamed about the amount of taxes that he pays and he's calling for higher taxes on big businesses and wealthy folks like himself. Buffett made his comments at a fundraiser for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who is running for president, of course last night in New York. He's not endorsed her but he chose to endorse a new tax policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN BUFFETT, CHMN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: I'm a member of this club, didn't ask to join it. They drafted me. It is called the "Forbes" 400. And we don't have a secret handshake. We don't have a secret tree house we meet in. No. None of that stuff. We do have this secret. The 400 of us I will bet pay a lower tax rate to the Federal government, counting payroll taxes, than our receptionists do or maybe even our cleaning lady.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LISOVICZ: Buffett based those comments on a survey that he did in his own office in Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett says he makes $46 million a year in salary and is taxed less than 18 percent. He offered $1 million to anyone in the room who could shows that one of the wealthiest individuals in the U.S. is taxed more than his or her subordinates. No one has come forward just yet Heidi.
COLLINS: I can't wait to hear who that person is and who they come up with. But as you said, he is the oracle of Omaha. What are other observations did he have?
LISOVICZ: A lot because it was a Q&A session. Buffett also had harsh words for the private equity firms, said that their taxes should be higher, too. Overall, he was upbeat on the economy saying as long as interest rates and unemployment rates remain steady, the troubles in the housing market should be contained. A lot of folks hope that this is certainly the case. That's something the Federal Reserve will be looking at over the next two days. Tomorrow afternoon we get the Fed's interest rate decision. Analysts widely expect that the key rates remain unchanged. Ahead of this decision, stocks remain mixed. The Dow right now still on the negative side down 21 points. The Nasdaq hanging in there up three. That's how we are looking, not big moves and kind of split and volatile.
COLLINS: Split and volatile, but you say it with a smile on your face. (INAUDIBLE)
LISOVICZ: Ride it out.
COLLINS: Susan Lisovicz. Thank you.
HARRIS: It is where America's treasures are kept but was the man in charge of the Smithsonian more interested in filling his own treasure chest?
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COLLINS: Quickly update that story that we have been following this morning out of south Los Angeles. According to the L.A. County sheriff's department, there is now a suspect in custody. It all began as a high-speed chase after someone carjacked a vehicle. That, of course is the suspect who is now in custody. He has been on the run for a while. But the sad news in all of this, you still see the horrible damage there on the roadway, one civilian was killed. It happened early this morning in the middle of all of that because the carjacking took place. Police were following him. They backed off for some amount of time because it had just gotten too dangerous for traveling and heavily occupied areas. But still that crash happened and killed a civilian that was there, involved about four cars. We now know that the suspect is in custody.
HARRIS: He ran the Smithsonian Institution's vast kingdom while getting the royal treatment. CNN's Joe Johns is keeping them honest.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The vast Smithsonian Institution has a billion dollar budget and you, the taxpayers, pay most of it. And evidence is mounting that this guy, Lawrence Small, who ran all of it from a castle-like Smithsonian building was actually operating like a king.
CHARLES BOWSHER, FMR. U.S. CONTROLLER GENERAL: He came out of Wall Street, keep that in mind. They live this kind of life up there. You know, limousines all the time, going first class.
JOHNS: Not to mention private jets, lavish parties and a salary that far exceeded the compensation of people who held the job before him. Small started out seven years ago making $536,000. By the time he resigned he was up to $915,000, including perks according to a new report examining his royal treatment. (on-camera): One of the perks Small got for taking the job was a six-figure housing allowance, allowing him to use this house, his personal residence for official Smithsonian hospitality. In the year 2000, that housing allowance started out at about $150,000 a year. By 2007, it was up to almost $200,000. The report says Small rarely used his house for entertaining, that the allowance was actually a way to increase his pay. Why such a big salary? His bosses, the Smithsonian board, thought with Small's street connections, he'd be a fund-raising superstar. That report said with Small, private fund-raising actually went down, not up.
All of the controversy comes down to money. Not only what the Smithsonian paid him but from what he earned elsewhere at the same time. Small also earned almost $643,000 in cash, $3.5 million in stocks and another $1.8 million in stock options by serving on two corporate boards. So how could Small do all of this while ruling the Smithsonian kingdom? By taking time off, of course, 64 days of leave to work for the boards and that's apparently in addition to the 10 weeks of vacation he took almost every year he worked at the castle.
PABLO EISENBERG, GEORGETOWN CTR. ON NON-PROFITS: He was disrespectful of the fact he had a public trust. I think he tried to be greedy and get every penny he could serving on two outside corporation boards, not spending sufficient time at the Smithsonian.
JOHN: But like any good story about royalty, there is a twist. It appears all of Small's actions were allowable under the deal he had with his bosses, the Smithsonian's board of regents and as it happens, one of them was on Capitol Hill today trying to explain how they let this happen.
There has been a lot of talk about the board in the past being asleep at the switch. But I haven't heard the response.
ROGER SANT, SMITHSONIAN BOARD OF REGENTS: I think we said we were. We -- we agreed. When we saw the evidence of some of the things we missed, we just said yeah, that's an appropriate title. Nonetheless, we feel like it is our responsibility to change that.
JOHNS: Lawrence Small didn't return our calls. He did say in his resignation letter that accusations about his compensation were baseless and he suggested he was leaving because of congressional meddling at Smithsonian. But keeping them honest, that kingdom where America's treasurers are kept, is now taking a long hard look at who gets the crown next time. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Texas community hit hard this morning by high water. A new round of flooding a developing story we are on top of for you.
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