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American Morning

Firefighters Racing to Stop Tahoe Fire; Big Oil Quits Venezuela: Chavez Pushes Out U.S. Oil Giants; Kids & Chronic Illnesses

Aired June 27, 2007 - 08:00   ET

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

(WEATHER REPORT)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters on the line right now trying to save hundreds of homes from the Lake Tahoe fire. Firefighters are racing to stop the wildfire before the winds pick up.

They're making their stand on Highway 89. It separates the fire from nearly a thousand homes.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Chris Lawrence is live for us, south of Lake Tahoe, in Meyers, California.

And Chris, this is going to be a critical day for firefighters?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Depending on how that wind blows, John. I think this gives you an idea of just how hot it gets when that fire starts getting close to some of these homes and why these families only have literally minutes to get out of their neighborhood.

Now, the firefighters saw what happened to these folks a few days ago. So when that wind picked up yesterday and that fire changed direction, they got thousands of people out of the way ahead of time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice over): Firefighters set backfires themselves to keep the main blaze from reaching more homes. But when one jumped across a highway, it sent 2,000 residents running from their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All residents, this is the California Highway Patrol. This is a mandatory evacuation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CHP. Mandatory evacuation.

LAWRENCE: These families already saw what happened to their neighbors.

JULIE WOODS, RESIDENT: With the winds picking up, we just really -- you know, you just really don't know, you know, when you're in a wooded area like this.

LAWRENCE: First, smoke and ash engulfed the area, but when the fire changed direction, Joe Dahila ran home to rescue his dogs. JOE DAHILA, RESIDENT: We have the door shut because of the smoke. We don't want them breathing in the smoke. So, if something happened they can't get out of the house. We don't have a dog door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll save our water unless there's some active fire here.

LAWRENCE: Firefighters made tough calls and kept building the fire lines that can stop a fire while it's small.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you let it get too big out here and it catches a tree, we're in trouble.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Yes, the firefighters just kept talking about what they had to do in advance of these winds picking up later today. It's going to be a real indicator whether they really will be able to get this fire contained by Sunday or whether this fire will continue to cut through this mountain community -- John.

ROBERTS: Chris, when you joined us yesterday morning, you showed the amount of smoke that was there in the Meyers area, smoke that was inhibiting their ability to be able to attack this fire from the air.

What is it looking like today?

LAWRENCE: It's still hazy. It still is smoky here, but not as bad as it was yesterday. I mean, our eyes were burning. At one point, you just could barely see anywhere down. It's hazy out here, but not quite as bad as yesterday. Possibly because those winds whipped up a little bit yesterday afternoon and blew some of it out.

ROBERTS: Well, certainly those firefighters could use a bit of a break today.

Chris Lawrence from Meyers, California.

Chris, we'll check back with you. Thanks.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Hugo Chavez is pushing big U.S. oil companies out of Venezuela.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Ali Velshi is following that story for us today.

Hi, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran.

This is a story that's interesting to Americans because we get so much our crude oil from Venezuela. What's happened is Hugo Chavez has sort of followed a trend that he has followed in the past with telecom companies and energy companies. He decided to nationalize the energy companies, the energy sector.

And the American companies that do work in Venezuela were sort of given until this week to come to some terms about how they would hand over their facilities or negotiate terms with the government. That didn't work out. So at least a couple of them, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips, are pulling out of Venezuela.

They can now either try and negotiate with the government for recovery of the assets that they have got there, or they can sue the Venezuelan government. But the bottom line is, those are two companies that sell a lot of oil from those -- from Venezuela to the United States. There's some fear that oil may not be available to Americans now.

Venezuela, which has really had a lot to say about the U.S. administration in the last few years, does hold some leverage because the U.S. consumes so much oil and imports so much of it. So this is a bit of a concern.

Unclear as to how this plays out but, but for the moment, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are going to be pulling out of doing business in Venezuela. We'll have to see how that impacts flow of oil into the United States -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Ali, we'll check in with you a little later. Thanks.

ROBERTS: Troubling new numbers are coming in about dramatic increases in childhood chronic illnesses. Doctors are especially concerned about the consequences for health care as these kids grow into unhealthy adults.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now from Atlanta.

This epidemic of chronic disease, Sanjay, what are we talking about here?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, this was one of the most sobering stories I've seen in a while. The numbers that you're talking about in terms of chronic illness in children, two things you don't normally associate together, the numbers have actually quadrupled since the 1960s.

There's three things, really, three specific chronic illnesses, are asthma, obesity and mental health-related conditions that appear to be the top three. And as far as causes, I mean, some of the ones you might guess, lack of exercise, lack of good food choices, and too much visual stimulation, especially television, are probably to blame to some extent here.

That you probably already knew. What's a little bit more alarming is that you're starting to see very high rates, for example, of Type 2 Diabetes in children, and Type 2 is typically something you associate with adults. But that can cause heart problems, that can cause kidney problems, that can cause blindness later in life. We're talking about people growing into their 20s and 30s and having heart attacks that early in life. That's what happens when you have chronic illness as a child.

ADHD another problem, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. About 50 percent of children that had that as children will actually have that as adults as well. The asthma, about 25 percent of those children will continue to have asthma later in life.

So, you're worried about now in terms of quality of life issues, but these are going to turn into major medical problems as these children grow into adults -- John.

ROBERTS: So this suggests, Sanjay, that the way that some of us grew up with a healthy diet and lots of exercise is the way to go?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, go figure, right? I mean, we know a lot of that works. And I guess this is now more proof of that. But also, I think we're going to see more of a sea change, John, in terms of the way we approach the whole medical establishment.

So much of the focus is on treatment right now. Over 80 percent of our treatment goes towards treating disease. The children and the chronic illness issue is going to make us go more towards prevention. Hopefully more and more of our budget towards preventing a lot of these diseases in the first place.

ROBERTS: All right.

Sanjay Gupta for us.

And by the way, if you've got a question for Dr. Gupta, we'd like you to e-mail it to us. Go to cnn.com/americanmorning and just click on the links. The doctor will be in to answer questions from the mailbag tomorrow, as he does every Thursday here on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: The CIA coming clean about the skeletons in its closet and revealing some of the dirtiest secrets of its past. And all of it happening online.

Jacki Schechner is watching that for us on the Web.

So what are some of the juiciest tidbits that we're finding out from the spy agency?

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Oh, this is really juicy, Kiran. It reads like a diary of bad behavior for the CIA for 25 years, from the '50s to the '70s, released to the National Security Archive yesterday. All posted online, 700 documents.

You can take a look for yourself.

Some of the information on here is stuff like spying on journalists like the famed Jack Anderson. There's also information in here about how the CIA went through mail that was going from JFK airport to the Soviet bloc. They would photograph the mail, then they would go through it when nobody was watching.

Other information, for example, about John Lennon and how he was funding anti-war efforts and helping out with that, and the CIA was keeping an eye on him.

There's all sorts of information on here. Again, 700 pages. Really juicy stuff. And you can dig through it for yourself -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Sounds good. By the way, why is the CIA releasing this now?

SCHECHNER: They say it's an idea to go back and take a look good look at themselves, self-examination, recollection. This was a Freedom of Information Act request that has basically been pending for 15 years. But they say it's a very different CIA now, and they want people to be able to take a look at what it was like then and then take a look at what the CIA is like now -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. You know, I mean...

SCHECHNER: John is laughing. I can hear that.

CHETRY: He is laughing, because, what, a month ago, didn't we take a quiz to figure out if we would be good spies?

SCHECHNER: We did. We did. I was an adventurer or something like that.

What were you?

CHETRY: I forget. But I know that we both liked the -- liked our vehicle of choice to be some sort of underwater vessel that we could fly around in.

Thanks, Jacki.

SCHECHNER: No problem.

ROBERTS: We've got some amazing video out of Iraq this morning showing what it's like to live through a roadside bomb. Take a look here.

Soldiers from Fort Richardson, Alaska, were driving in their Humvee south of Baghdad when it happened. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING we talked to the man who was behind the camera here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPEC. RANDALL TOWNSEND, SURVIVED ROADSIDE IED ATTACK: 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 ear plugs, and gloves and extra equipment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Still, all very, very fortunate that none of the soldiers was injured.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour now, and AMERICAN MORNING is following the latest developments right now in a severe weather situation that's taking place. Here is a quick look at the radar.

And as you can see, in some of these areas severe pockets of weather. We have bad, heavy rains and thunderstorms that is leading to some very, very troublesome flooding that's taking place in areas around Texas, specifically in the Austin area. Also, about 50 miles southwest of Dallas, as well, we're getting reports of people waiting on the roofs of their homes.

There's a picture right now coming to us from News 8 in Austin, Texas, waiting on the roofs of their homes to be rescued. Water chest deep that could rise even more. People are using anything they can, boats, jet skis, anything else that can float, they're saying, is the quote to try to help their neighbors get out of these situations. And all they can do today is sit and expect more rain, unfortunately.

Chad Myers is keeping us up to date.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Fred Thompson is shaking up the Republican presidential race today, even though he is not officially in it. He is making his first big campaign-type appearance in South Carolina.

Our senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley, is live in Columbia, South Carolina, and joins us this morning.

Candy, a new Mason-Dixon poll down there has got Fred Thompson at 25 percent, in the lead, ahead of the pack. His popularity, is it a product of his power as a candidate or dissatisfaction with the other candidates?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, with one change of words. It's not so much dissatisfaction. You know, there is a lack of going around and coming around one candidate by the conservatives, the core of the party. There's not a lot of excitement about it.

It's not so much that they're dissatisfied, as no one candidate has really gotten them excited, except for Fred Thompson, who remains sort of officially outside the race. But the big surprise here would be if he didn't run.

ROBERTS: Frank Luntz, who is a Republican pollster, does a lot of dial polling, said, "Fred is a concept, not a candidate. He's a vessel for what people want to believe in."

I've got to wonder, and some other people are wondering the same thing, is he this election cycle's Wesley Clark? Remember back in 2000, people were saying, wait until Wesley Clark jumps into the race. And his poll numbers prior to him getting in were huge, and he got in and he tanked almost overnight.

CROWLEY: Well, and that's the problem here. It's the heavy burden of great expectations.

So many people see what they want in Fred Thompson, but he remains unscrutinized. His record remains largely unlooked at.

It includes time as a lobbyist. Obviously, he had eight years as a U.S. senator. So there have been a number of things that he has done which, when he gets in this race, will be scrutinized.

And at the same time, the expectations are so high that he'll get in and he'll have this great campaign and the apparatus will all be in place and he'll be able to raise money, and that is a little hard to live up to.

ROBERTS: Does he have a real record, Candy, of political achievement? Some of his detractors have suggested that there was a pattern of laziness during his time in the Senate.

CROWLEY: Interesting. I think it was the AP that did an interview with Fred Thompson not all that long ago and asked him to list his major accomplishments in the Senate. And he said, "Well, you know, sometimes what you block is as important as what you pass." The fact of the matter is, one of the main pieces of legislation that he helped push through was campaign finance reform which, as you know, has not endeared John McCain to the base of the party.

ROBERTS: Mitt Romney will have something to say that that.

Hey, speaking of John McCain, that same Mason-Dixon poll showed him in fourth place now in South Carolina with seven percent. Some other polls just a couple of months ago had him leading the state.

Are we witnessing a collapse of the McCain campaign?

CROWLEY: It's struggling, John. I mean, there's no other way to say this at this point.

When you talk to the McCain camp, they say, look, we are full steam ahead, we still believe we have the structure in place in both Iowa and New Hampshire, particularly in New Hampshire. South Carolina, of course, was the beginning of the end of John McCain's hopes in 2000. So this has always been a tough state for him in some ways, even though there is a large number of retired military here in South Carolina. But there is no way you can not look at these polls in South Carolina and elsewhere and not say the campaign is struggling.

Having said that, the campaign staff is very quick in pointing out that there are other polls that show he has greater strength than what's apparent in this poll.

ROBERTS: Candy Crowley, thanks very much for that from Columbia, South Carolina, this morning.

Candy will be continuing to follow the Fred Thompson story all day today.

And don't forget, we will be going back to Charleston, South Carolina, on July the 23rd for our next debate. This is the CNN- YouTube debate with the Democrats, and then we will be looking up the Republicans sometime in September -- Kiran.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 26 minutes after the hour. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: It's 26 past the hour now. And speaking of time flying...

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Seriously.

CHETRY: ... 40 years ago the first ATM came around?

VELSHI: Yes. And we're talking about the iPhone today. Forty years ago we got our first ATM.

Some guy in Britain says he was sitting in his tub and he was thinking about a chocolate bar dispensing machine.

CHETRY: Too much information.

VELSHI: Yes. I don't think this is true.

I do really believe that he invented the ATM. But I don't know if I like the story that much. He's sitting in the tub thinking about a chocolate bar dispensing machine, and says, "Why can't I use one of these things to get cash? And he conceives of a cash-dispensing machine while in the tub.

CHETRY: That's how a lot of things happen.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: I don't know. I think people say a lot of things happen in the tub.

CHETRY: Well, I used to wish that if you press the water fountain, that out would comes Kool-Aid.

VELSHI: All right. Well, this guy had a similar idea and he made it into a cash machine. Can you believe that?

So, the first one showed up in Britain. This was -- the guy was in Britain, north of London, in 1967. I've been sort of looking around at this. There's some evidence that there might have been one in New York in 1939 from the Bank of New York, but nobody took to it and they removed it.

CHETRY: Right, there was a person sitting back there handing money through the slot. So that wasn't really the ATM.

VELSHI: They also -- the numbers as you can see on the screen there indicate that there are 1.6 million cash machines worldwide. Again, a number I can't confirm. I would have thought there was sort of 500,000 in New York alone. So that number seems low to me.

CHETRY: Yes.

VELSHI: But the point is, we really -- I'm surprised when I see new bank branches come up, as I've been seeing lately, because I don't understand who actually goes in banks.

CHETRY: We forget the times though. It may have come around 40 years ago, but people didn't start using it as part of their everyday life.

VELSHI: Right. Well into the late '70s, and they started to appear. And then the '80s, when it took off and people started using it, and then fully trusted them. And yes, I think it's kind of neat.

CHETRY: I still remember when my parents didn't necessarily trust it. It's like, what happened -- you're $20 short.

VELSHI: Yes. Don't go...

CHETRY: I mean, should we really trust this little machine?

VELSHI: How long did it take you to sort of glom on to these things? Because you're -- you know, you want to see that they all work. Were you one of those guys who thought they were going to take your money?

CHETRY: He's still a mattress guy.

ROBERTS: I'm the sort of guy that tries out the beta version of everything.

VELSHI: OK. All right. So you were probably right in there.

ROBERTS: I throw my lot (ph) in early.

VELSHI: So you'll be in that lineup for the iPhones maybe after work?

ROBERTS: No way. I don't want one.

VELSHI: Oh, OK. Fair enough.

ROBERTS: If I did, I'd be there.

CHETRY: He is trying to use reverse psychology on people.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: Why would I want one of those?

VELSHI: I'm going to walk in on Friday morning and there's going to be one on his desk.

CHETRY: All right, Ali. Thanks so much.

And we're continuing to follow the heavy rains and flooding in Austin, Texas. We have reports now of people being plucked from the roofs of their homes, people in waist-deep water there. And we saw it for our very own eyes when Chad Myers showed us the radar picture. He is going to be bringing us a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Right we are joined on the phone now by Leslie Pogue, spokesperson for the fire department in Liberty Hill, Texas, about 30 miles northwest of Austin.

Leslie, thanks for being with us this morning.

LESLIE POGUE, LIBERTY HILL FIRE DEPT.: Thank you.

KIRAN: And we are just getting in those first pictures, as we saw, of the South San Gabriel River. The tributary and major highways closed around 183.

What is the status right now of your efforts to make sure you don't need to continue with these rescues?

POGUE: Kiran, right now we believe that we've got to everybody in that was in trouble. There either air support or water teams. Since midnight we've had probably 12 to 15 inches of rain. We've rescued 25 to 30 people that were in homes, surrounded by the rising waters. We've evacuated about a hundred homes around the North San Gabriel River.

The rain has lightened up at this time and we're kind of in between storms, so all of our emergency services have met back at the command center, at the fire station and are awaiting the next round storms to come through.

KIRAN: So as we talk about evacuating a hundred homes and you're trying to get people to safety to make sure they don't end up needing to be rescued, how are they getting out of there with all of that water?

POGUE: We've used our own vehicles to transport. Mainly it's the North Gabriel is rising up into homes that are on that river bank. And these people were not in immediate danger, but we had them evacuate because the river did come up. And most of them drove out and/or were taken out by either fire department people or sheriff's department vehicles.

KIRAN: What are the recommendations now for people in terms of when they should leave and when they may be able to return, given the fact you guys are expecting yet another heavy, heavy downpour?

POGUE: Well, my recommendation is that if you haven't left home, you need to stay at home today. We have several rivers and streams that have washed out major roadways into the city. 183 is closed on the South San Gabriel riverside.

And I've just been given word that the Texas Department of Transportation is working on the integrity of that bridge at this time. We do have another bridge that was washed out on Ranch Road 1869 by the same river, and it is closed from what I understand, to the Burnett County Line.

KIRAN: All right, you guys have a long day ahead of you for sure. Hopefully people will heed that advice so you don't need to continue with these rescues. Twenty-five to 30 people rescued from their homes and vehicles so far today.

Leslie Pogue, the public information officer with the Liberty Hill Fire Department, thank you.

ROBERTS: We also have an eye out west where they desperately need some water. The Lake Tahoe Wildfire, you can see in this live picture, one of more than 270 buildings and cars outside of them that have been burned there in Northern California. About a thousand more are in path of the wildfire. The fire jumped a containment line last night. Residents had to run for it sometimes with just what they were wearing on their backs.

CHETRY: AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is joining us right now. She has new information, and bizarre really details in the deaths of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, as well as his wife and his young son. Police are giving a little more indication of exactly how they believed this happen, and also the timeline, which is quite a long one for a double murder.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it really didn't take very long, Kiran, for these disturbing details to come out. You know, just a day after we told you about the deaths of Chris Benoit and his family, we are learning that Benoit apparently asphyxiated his wife Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel. Authorities said he placed bibles next to their bodies, and waited up to a day before hanging himself with a pulley on a weight machine in his basement.

Now Benoit was known as the Canadian Crippler, one of the stars of professional wrestling, and a family man, interestingly enough. Authorities found his body and those of his wife and son on Monday afternoon.

Police went to Benoit's home in Fayetteville, Georgia after he missed two world wrestling entertainment events. Authorities told CNN they found a lot of prescription drugs in the home, including anabolic steroids.

Authorities also say the son, who may have had some form of dwarfism, was taking growth hormones. Authorities show all three died of asphyxiation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BALLARD, FAYETTE COUNTY D.A.: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Authorities are looking into whether Benoit lashed out as a result of taking steroids.

But the WWE released a statement, saying there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that, and took the media to task for speculating that the deaths could be the result of so-called 'roid rage.

But, Kiran, a source very close to the investigation tells CNN that Benoit actually did purchase on the Internet shipments of anabolic steroids and growth hormones from a clinic in Orlando, but again whether it played a role in all of this is still an open question.

CHETRY: Yes, and may not get answers out of it. They've done the autopsies.

The other thing that's so curious is they believed he killed his wife on Friday night, but he was still making excuses apparently on Saturday, saying I can't show to this event because my wife and my son have food poisoning.

CHO: The timing, from what we understand, is he may have killed his wife on Friday, may have waited a day to kill the son, and then up to another day to kill himself.

Those text messages, we believe, were sent somewhere, obviously, after he killed the wife, maybe after he killed the son as well. But he sent a series of text messages to coworkers, possibly even acquaintances. Most of them dealt with his address. But there was at least one that said that the dogs were in the pool area and that the garage side door was open. So a lot of bizarre details about this case coming out.

CHETRY: Right, and they're the ones who actually alerted police, because he apparently made a phone call to one of his coworkers, and said I love you, which the coworker said this is not really in context here. So just very bizarre and really sad actually.

Alina, thank you.

(NEWSBREAK) ROBERTS: It's a scene we've seen before. You know the old joke enough about me -- what do you think about me? Is it a problem? When it's in the doctor's office, it could be. Dr. Sanjay Gupta fills us in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: And we're following breaking news in central Texas right now. A series of rainstorms have caused major flooding, that's led to evacuations, people having to be rescued, some 25 to 30 people near the South San Gabriel river, and that is where our Chelsea Hover is from our affiliate News 8 Austin. She's on the scene.

Tell us, give us an update Chelsea. What's going on?

CHELSEA HOVER, NEWS 8 AUSTIN REPORTER: Good morning.

We're here on Highway 183 in northwest Williamson County, which is north of Austin, and this bridge has been completely closed down.

(INAUDIBLE) San Gabriel River. It's flowing quite rapidly, and this river has been cresting over the bridge since about 3:00 this morning. Emergency crews have been out here since about midnight.

I just saw some particles, it looks like, of houses going by in that river.

They've closed down this bridge, which is a highly traveled highway. (INAUDIBLE). We're just south of Liberty Hill, near Leander in Texas. And people have been turned around, and it seems like most people are not heeding the warnings that emergency crews have been giving to just (INAUDIBLE) you see the high waters to turn around.

As you mentioned there have been several high-water rescues and flash-flood warnings and damage. People have been rescued from the tops of their homes, from the rooftops of their homes, and also tops of their cars. They've been stranded. And if that happens, we're warning people to just get out of your car and seek higher ground. Do not wait around. Do not try to stay in your car by any means. There is some serious flash flooding going on here.

We've had heavy rain here this morning and all through the overnight hours.

And now, as you can see, the river has gone down a little bit, but we're still -- the road is still closed, because any time the rain picks up, it's just cresting over the top. So emergency crews here are just trying to be careful -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Deadliest weather phenomenon. We think about hurricanes, we think about tornadoes, but it's the flash-flooding situation. What are the recommendations in terms of evacuations? Are they telling people to stay in their homes, or to get out in those areas?

HOVER: Absolutely. Everyone that is in their homes in this area should be leaving. They said to please, you know, check the roadways on our Web site first before you leave to make sure the roads are open, because several roads have been closed here in Williamson County. But in the meantime, everyone is warned to play it safe and heed the warnings, and just either stay put or if you're in those high-water areas to evacuate.

CHETRY: Yes, well, a real mess. You guys have a break in the storms but it's going to get worse this afternoon.

Chelsea Hover of our affiliate News 8 in Austin, thank you.

ROBERTS: Forty-six minutes after the hour now.

The end of an era in Britain -- Tony Blair has just left Buckingham Palace where he tendered his resignation to Queen Elizabeth. He is now a free man, I guess you could say, after serving 10 years as Britain's prime minister, the second longest serving. Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady, served about the same length of time. Gordon Brown, chancellor, the exchequer, going to take over as British prime minister, but it's not off to the golf links, or the beach or the retirement home for Tony Blair. He'll be taking over as the chief Middle East envoy for the Quartet which, of course, is made up of the United States, the E.U., Russia and the United Nations, trying to solve the thorny issue of Middle East peace.

So Tony Blair gone after 10 years in power.

So how many times have you gone to the doctor and ended up listening to the doctor talk about him or herself? It happens a lot more than you might think, and has some researchers sounding the alarm.

We're Paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's live in Atlanta.

So what is this all about, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I don't know about me doing this story, John. I'm a doctor who does television. I'm probably the worst offender of all doctors who talk too much.

Look, there's a study came out in "The Archives of Internal Medicine," looking specifically at this issue at whether doctors might, in fact, be sharing too much with patients during patient visits.

Some interesting statistics came out of this. They found that doctors talk about themselves more than a third of the time. Sixty percent of those personal disclosures happen when the patient start relaying their own concerns. You have back pain, I have back pain, that sort of thing I guess. About 85 percent of the time they had nothing to do with the reason the patient came in the first place. So obviously some concerns. I'm not sure if it's sounding the alarm necessarily.

I think what happens, John, is doctors want to develop a relationship with patients, and vice versa, and sometimes the conversation that takes place during these oftentimes too short visits -- John.

ROBERTS: So this study found that type of banter was not helpful and didn't give anything to the patient. So what should a patient do if the doctor lapses into you've got I have back pain, I've got back pain, too, or you should of seen what I shot in my golf game last week.

How can the patient just, you know, in a very gentle way say enough about you, we're here about me?

GUPTA: Right. And it's a good question, especially since the average patient visit is about 10 minutes long, so there is very little time there. You want to try to get the most out of the doctor visit. One is you can certainly say to the doctor, I want to make sure we get back to the following issues.

I think one of the most important things -- and I talked about this a lot with my patients -- is to really have a sense what you want to talk to the doctor before about you get there, so have a list of your specific concerns. Sometimes take someone with you if you can have somebody go with you to the doctor's office, go with you as well to sort of keep you both on track so you make the best use of that 10 to 12 minutes.

ROBERTS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: Someone who doesn't talk too much, yes.

ROBERTS: Someone who never talks at all.

GUPTA: And if you want to have Sanjay Gupta, by the way, answer questions about you, as opposed to questions about him, go to cn CNN.com/americanmorning and click on the links there and go to Sanjay's mailbag. The doctor will be in to answer questions from the mailbag tomorrow, as he do every Thursday here on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: Well, now that more states are giving gay couples the right to marry or join in civil unions, what happens when those couples start having kids? That new legal frontier next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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CHETRY: CNN is devoting the day to Uncovering America, a look at people and stories that are changing the nation. And today's focus is on gay Americans. A new CNN opinion poll has just been released. It shows 56 percent of those polled say that homosexuals cannot change their sexual orientation.

And more gay couples are getting married. States allowing for civil unions, and now there's a new legal landscape that's shaping up for gay couples who decide to have children.

AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho joins me with now more on that. Hi, Alina.

CHO: Hey there, Kiran. Good morning.

You know, more and more gay couples are getting married, having children together, so this is really a landmark case that we're talking about in Vermont. It's the first of its kind. And most important, it sets a precedent for gay couples who get married, enter into a civil union or domestic partnership, have a child, break up and fight over custody.

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CHO (voice-over): Samuel David Cheney and his smiling grandparents. Missing from the picture, his two moms. Mary Cheney and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are raising the baby together. In Virginia, Mary is Samuel's only legal parent because she is his biological mother. Heather has no legal parenting rights.

But they may be able to change that, thanks to a recent court case affecting gay couples who marry in Massachusetts, or get civil unions or domestic partnerships in six other states. The case involves Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, who moved from Virginia to Vermont to enter into a civil union. They had Isabella in 2002.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am Isabella's mom. I did conceive her. I birthed her. I'm raising her.

CHO: But when Janet and Lisa split up, Lisa took the baby back to Virginia where civil unions are not recognized.

This would not be happening if this was a heterosexual marriage with a divorce and custody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Janet sued. And after three years of court battles a judge in Vermont awarded Janet the right to see Isabella, ruling gay couples who join in civil unions in Vermont should get equal custody rights over their children, just like heterosexuals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The court was willing to treat children born to a couple in a civil union in the same way as children born to people who are married.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you have now is Vermont declaring we've set policy on what a family is and the rest of the country has to listen to it, no matter what your state laws say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Well, now since last month's court ruling, Janet, the nonbiological mother who won visitation rights, has seen baby Isabella twice. Isabella, who is now 5 years old, hadn't seen Janet for three years, so she calls her by her name now, where before she called her mom.

Now the baby will continue living with the biological mom, Lisa, in the Virginia. But Janet, who lives in Vermont, will get custody every other weekend and alternating holidays.

Now the court also ruled that Janet and Lisa's civil union will be dissolved, and, Kiran, that will take effect officially in 90 days.

CHETRY: So in this case, you talk about the mother, the biological mom, moved to Virginia, because Virginia law doesn't recognize these civil unions. It sort of highlights how because each state each has a different policy it's tough to figure out how to navigate it.

CHO: That's absolutely right You know, remember, they entered into the civil union in Vermont. She moved to Virginia with the baby, basically, some say, to get around the law. And her argument was, listen, I live in Virginia, this state doesn't recognize civil unions. I should get to keep custody of my biological child. Well, the court said, no, wait a minute. You entered into a civil union in Vermont; we're going to recognize Vermont law. And by the way, Lisa, the biological mom, Kiran, is appealing this decision.

CHETRY: Keep us posted, Alina. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Here's a quick look now at what the CNN NEWSROOM is working on for the top of the hour.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM: A thousand homes and other buildings now in danger. The Lake Tahoe Wildfire jumps a fire line.

New flooding in Oklahoma and Texas. Rescuers pull motorists to safety.

After 10 years Britain's Tony Blair turning over the prime minister's office to Gordon Brown.

And a 23-year-old landing in the record books this morning, the youngest pilot to circle the globe. NEWSROOM just minutes away at the top of the hour on CNN.

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CHETRY: That's going to do it for us here on AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks so much for being with us today.

ROBERTS: We hope to see you again tomorrow. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.

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