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Alberto Gonzales Controversy; Phoenix News Helicopter Crash; Iraq Takes Asia Cup
Aired July 29, 2007 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: for a few hours today. Their national soccer team gave them a respite from war. But there is death even in celebration.
We're also take you live to San Francisco. Bated breath with every Barry Bonds at-bat as he nears one of the most coveted records in sports.
Hello, I'm Ftedericka Whitfield, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Reports out of Phoenix say two news choppers both were functioning normally before they collided on Friday. That's based on a series of witness interviews with federal crash investigators. The ""Arizona Republic Newspaper" reports authorities now believe that one of the choppers was hovering and was struck by the other. They also say the tragedy would have been far worse had the choppers not crashed where they did. A hospital, roadways, neighborhoods all are near the park where the choppers went down together.
All four people on the helicopters died. It was a tragedy televised live. Here now is CNN's Rick Sanchez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, oh, my good, Channel 15 to Channel 3, they just had a mid-air collision. They're in the park. Oh, man!
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The horror in his voice really tells the story, the pain of watching colleagues die. He is a chopper pilot for TV station KSAZ, a lucky one, one who survived. But seems tortured by what he saw.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... collision over here at the park, two helicopters -- two helicopters down. Oh, my God!
SANCHEZ: Five news choppers were tracking this police chase over Phoenix's crowded skies. They describe the stolen car, the car getting ditched, the suspect getting out. Then on live TV the story suddenly change changes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Scott, we are going to have to turn it back around and get away from this. We do have two helicopters down during this ...
SANCHEZ: Two news helicopters crash into each other. They fall about 500 feet into a city park and explode into flames. Witnesses say one seemed to get sucked in by the other. DAVID WLSON, WITNESS: I heard like a loud gunshot and then about two seconds after that there was a real loud, like, huge bang. And then just two helicopters coming straight down. Falling in about two different areas, bursting into flames and debris is all over the place.
SANCHEZ: There was a pilot and a photographer onboard each helicopter. All four were killed. Jim Cox and Scott Bowerbank work for KTVK, Craig Smith and Rick Krolak work for KNXV. On the ground no one was killed but it was raining helicopter parts.
SCOTT CHEALANDER, NTSB: A rotor blade came off of one of the helicopters and hit it a truck, it was a delivery truck, and it hit the front windshield of the truck just in front of the driver. But then embedded itself in the asphalt.
SANCHEZ: Piece after piece fell into the pond in the city park. Investigators are draining it, looking for clues. Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And a short time ago we spoke about the status of the crash investigation with reporter John Faherty of the "Arizona Republic" newspaper. He said investigators have listened to one of the two pilot's taped transmissions made right before the collision.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JOHN FAHERTY, "ARIZONA REPUBLIC": There's still actually some confusion about that. The radio transmissions that were immediately before the collision, one helicopter is clearly asking, where's Channel 3, where's Channel 3? And the Channel 15 pilot is saying that he's over him, but it's still unclear as to exactly where they were. Obviously they were too close.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Killed on the Channel 3 chopper were pilot Scott Bowerbank and photographer Jim Cox. Their families will hold a joint memorial service Tuesday. Pilot Craig Smith of Channel 15 will be remembered at a service on Thursday. And a service for the fourth victim, photographer Rick Krolak, is scheduled for Saturday. All four memorials will be held in the Phoenix area.
As for the car chase suspect, 23-year-old Christopher Jones, well he's being held on a million dollar bond. Preliminary charges include theft, resisting arrest and aggravated assault. Jones could eventually face charges connected to the deaths of those in the helicopter crashes.
An air show in Dayton, Ohio, resumed today after the tragic crash of a stunt plane there. Medical officials say veteran pilot Jim Leroy died instantly when his biplane crashed at some 200 miles an hour. Thousands of spectators watched this in horror as the plane slammed into a runway across from the viewing area. Tragedy struck another air show, one of two pilots died on Friday when two vintage warplanes collided while landing at the Air Venture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The second pilot received only minor injuries.
And a patient who had survived a car wreck, survived a second brush with death when a medical chopper crashed. The crash happened Saturday morning as the chopper was taking off from the hospital the Quitman County Hospital in Marks, Mississippi. None of the four people involved was seriously hurt. Or none were hurt, I should say.
Celebration in a country that doesn't get much of it.
The reason for all of these cheers and fireworks, well, Iraq's national soccer team won its first Asian Cup championship today. They beat three-time champ Saudi Arabia 1-0. Fans went wild all across Iraq. CNN's international correspondent Dan Rivers reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were really quite remarkable scenes here in Iraq as thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate Iraq's victory in the Asian Cup, beating Saudi Arabia, 1-0.
The sound of celebratory gunfire was deafening around Baghdad and around where I'm standing as the results came through. Thousands of people took to the streets, not only here but in cities around the country, both Kurdish, Shiite, Sunni. For once the sectarian divisions seemed to fade away as everyone was united behind the soccer team, waving the Iraqi flag, singing and dancing.
But, and there is a big but, people are still nervous these celebrations, which are still ongoing right now, could still be marred by violence. Already the authorities say they have found one car bomb and arrested one, they describe as an al Qaeda suspect holding a detonator attached to that car bomb in the eastern Baghdad district of Zayouna (ph).
(on camera): They say that was in an area where people later went to celebrate the victory. Clearly if that car bomb had gone off, it could have caused bloodshed and mayhem just as happened last Wednesday when people were celebrating the semifinals here.
But for now, so far the peace seems to be holding and the gunfire is still ringing out across the city, not for once in conflict but in celebration that Iraq's soccer team has won the Asian Cup. Dan Rivers, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And reaction now to the Iraqi soccer victory. On CNN's LATE EDITION, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and current U.S. ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR UN: They were truly united, unlike the government and the political process where the unity that exists is very much hedged. This unity was truly a united effort by the team that produced results and I hope the Iraqi politicians will learn from the soccer team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: However, marring the celebrations in Iraq, the deaths of four Iraqis from celebratory gunfire in Baghdad. Another 17 people were wounded.
So Britain's prime minister is making his first official visit to the United States. Gordon Brown is expected to arrive at Camp David within the hour for talks with President Bush. It is their first face-to-face meeting since Brown took office a month ago. The British prime minister says he plans to use the visit to strengthen what he calls his country's most important bilateral relationship. The crises in Darfur and Iraq are topping the agenda.
So when Barry Bonds steps up to the plate camera flashes still up the stadium. And that's the case today, right Dan Simon?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Fredricka. From my perspective you don't have to guess when Barry Bonds is up because you see all of those flash bulbs going off. Barry Bonds now two home runs from breaking the record. We're here watching. We'll have more coming up, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Dan.
Also coming up, imagine this in the backyard next door. One person sees green, the neighbor sees red. The windmill debate.
Plus, you can buy almost anything on craigslist, even a hooker these days. Egads! The story later right here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Other news across America right now. Authorities in Dallas have found a large, real large marijuana field p growing near the intersection of I-20 and state route 480. They say it's larger than last week's discovery of 5 million plants. And at that time that was considered the largest in Texas state history.
Police in suburban Chicago are investigating an armed robbery at the home of New York Knicks forward Eddy Curry. No one was hurt. The robbery comes a little over two weeks after Miami Heat forward Antoine Walker was robbed at gunpoint at his Chicago townhouse.
A co-defendant in the dog fighting conspiracy case against Michael Vick is heading back to court. The 34-year-old Tony Taylor will have a plea agreement hearing tomorrow in Virginia. There is speculation that Taylor to withdrawal his not guilty plea and accept a plea bargain deal to testify against the Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.
More and more Americans are going green these days and looking for cleaner energy alternatives. A New Jersey man has found a way to do just that. He powers his home with wind. But his backyard windmill, well it is also generating plenty of controversy as our Jim Acosta reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this breezy town on the New Jersey shore, when the wind is blowing, Michael Mercurio is thinking about saving money on energy.
MICHAEL MERCURIO, WINDMILL OWNER: My bill was running for gas and electric about $340 to $370 a month. And now I have a $9.50 bill a month.
ACOSTA: He built this 35-foot windmill in his backyard last year a long with the solar panels on his roof, Mercurio has not only cut his energy costs, he sent power back to the local grid, especially when it's running at full speed, seen here in this home video.
MERCURIO: The more power we can generate in our homes, the more free energy we have. It's there for this country to use. It declares energy independence for this country.
ACOSTA: He had hopes of turning this trail-blazing idea into a business, building backyard windmills for homeowners across the country.
MERCURIO: I guess I'm a pioneer and I've got a lot of hours in my back (ph from it.
ACOSTA (on camera): Not long after wind power came to Long Beach Island did a storm start brewing, it was the forces of nature versus the forces of not in my backyard.
BILL KELLY, WINDMILL OPPONENT: It's an eyesore and I think more importantly it's the noise that it makes.
MERCURIO: That's false because it's no more noisy than air conditioner.
ACOSTA (voice-over): One of Mercurio's next door neighbors sued the local township, claiming the windmill exceeds height and noise ordinances.
GEORGE CAFARELLI, NEIGHBOR'S ATTORNEY: Our claim against the township is that they are not or were not enforcing their own ordinances allowing this thing to be built.
ACOSTA: The town ordered Mercurio to turn off his windmill until the matter is settled in court, a decision that environmentalists say blew them away.
SUSAN LITA LIOU, ENVIRONMENT NEW JERSEY: We want to see tests like this all over the country. We should be testing what our potential is for clean energy and knowing mike, I don't think he'll be deterred.
ACOSTA: They see Michael Mercurio as a modern day Don Quixote.
MERCURIO: My answer to "not in my backyard" is it's in my backyard and I want to keep it there.
ACOSTA: Instead of tilting at windmills, he's trying to save one. Jim Acosta, CNN, Beach Haven Terrace, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Hot, dry conditions in one part of the nation, heavy rains elsewhere, right, Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we have got a lot of lightning, too. Right now my radar is lit up. We'll show you where the worst areas are coming up in just a few minutes.
WHITFIELD: All right. Look forward to that. Thanks so much.
And take a look at your two national front-runners for presidential nominations. The story is a bit different when you go to Iowa, however. New poll surprises coming up next.
Plus, it's not your ordinary 100-yard dash. No way. Try this in high heels. Ouch, that smarts. Something you've got to see when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Hot, windy weather, bad combination out West where it's fuelling dangerous wildfires. This fire near Missoula, Montana shut down a major interstate. Another blaze near Glacier National Park is within a mile of a lodge there and guests have been evacuated.
And then there are two troubling fires in Idaho, this one in the northern part of the state. It closed a highway and it forced some residents to evacuate there. And there is a second fire in southern Idaho and northern Nevada which has charred 1,500 square miles. Officials say it could be fully contained today or tomorrow.
And the battle against this blaze in Washington State, well, it it's pretty slow going. It has burned more than 50 acres and is spreading pretty quickly. Dangerous wildfires out there. Seems like we've had a lot this year, right, Jacqui?
JERAS: Yeah. We have though we haven't quite met last year so at least we're doing a little this go around but it's more on the active side, say, when you take a look at the 10-year average. There were about 138 new wildfires that started yesterday but over all this weekend, firefighters have been making a lot of progress and a lot is due it all the moisture in place. Look at that. We have got showers stretching all the way up into Montana right there. Relatively light. You can see all of the lightning strikes down here into Arizona, into New Mexico, Utah and over to Colorado.
It's whenever we see that we worry about it a little bit. But most of the thunderstorms that we've been seeing are wet thunderstorms. The ones that are producing rain and not the dry thunderstorms that, unfortunately, the rain evaporates before it ever reaches the ground. You get the gusty winds to go along with it and it's a big mess.
So no critical fire weather areas across parts of the West. We also have flood watches in effect across northern Arizona, into New Mexico and central and southern parts of Texas. That rain coming down very heavy and moving very, very slowly.
Also a lot of pop-up showers and thunderstorms here across the Southeastern quarter. We are looking at some travel delays because of the thunderstorms across the Southeast and into the Northeast. Great I-Report to show you. Ready to say wow. Take a look at this picture. This is from Mo Dixon from Savannah, Georgia. She took this picture yesterday mid-afternoon as she was just chilling, as she said in her house.
We got to talk to her last hour. She said it only lasted maybe five to seven minutes. Her husband got to see it develop and dissipate. Did not hurt anybody, thankfully. Send us your I-report, cnn.com/ireport.
Fred?
WHITFIELD: All right, Jacqui. On to a more serious matter. Let me see your kicks today.
JERAS: Kicks?
WHITFIELD: Your shoes, kicks.
JERAS: There you go.
WHITFIELD: Got some heels.
JERAS: These are the tallest heels that I have ever owned.
WHITFIELD: Oh really?
JERAS: I normally have flats.
WHITFIELD: Do you walk well?
JERAS: I have bad ankles.
WHITFIELD: OK, that's a little extra information I didn't think I get ...
JERAS: You didn't really ask me that question.
WHITFIELD: So you walk well in them. What about running?
JERAS: Not so much.
WHITFIELD: All right. Take a look at this. Ladies, those of you who like to wear heels, would you do this? These women are trotting. They're getting down there on the track. One hundred mile dash -- oh, I really meant get down. Oh, poor child right there. I don't know, it's kind of the lesson of trying to run 100 meters or 100 yards in high heels.
JERAS: Is there a height requirement there?
WHITFIELD: You said what?
JERAS: Is there a height requirement?
WHITFIELD: Right. And you see that there's a shorts requirement too.
JERAS: Of course.
WHITFIELD: Because you've got to be able to move. This is a popular sport, apparently in Moscow. These ladies are taking it really seriously because in the end you could get a $4,000 gift certificate ...
JERAS: To buy shoes?
WHITFIELD: I would think so. I was going to say to get replacements on those heels that are probably broken or maybe even an appointment with a podiatrist. Go figure. Jacqui, there are stranger things than that happening in this day and age. Why would you do that? I don't get it.
JERAS: I don't know. Do you wear heels?
WHITFIELD: I do but I don't go running in them.
JERAS: Hi?
WHITFIELD: No. I would say three inches has got to be the highest for me. Yeah. There we go. Our little kicks chat. Thanks a lot, Jacqui. Thanks for playing.
Well, coming up, standing by his man despite the growing course of resignation requests. The president is still supportive of his attorney general.
Plus, craigslist, you might use it to find cheap furniture or maybe to find some vacation rentals. Well, somebody else has gotten rather creative with craigslist. And now we're looking at a little jail time perhaps, or perhaps a bust or to. We'll explain why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. Happening right now, a Cinderella story for a country that hasn't had too many lately. Iraq's soccer team won the Asian Cup championship today, sparking celebratory gunfire back home. The underdogs beat Saudi Arabia 1-0.
President Bush will host the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tonight at Camp David. It will there be their first sit down together. A spokesman for Mr. Brown says Darfur and world trade talks will be high on their agenda.
NTSB investigators say they're already finding clues in the wreckage of two news helicopters that collided Friday in Phoenix. A preliminary report is expected by Friday, but the official findings will likely take months.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is being urged to correct what are being called mistakes in his testimony before Congress. This or risk a perjury investigation. At issue, testimony on whether there was internal dissent over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PAT. LEAHY, (D) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIR: I've given the attorney general a week to look at his -- his answers and to make changes in the transcript, if he wants to. If he doesn't, then -- then we'll go from there. I do this with all witnesses. Every witness that comes before the committee, they're given an opportunity to review their testimony. If they want to go forward, then we go from there. Frankly, I feel a number of the answers the attorney general gave were incorrect. I hope he takes this opportunity to give correct answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So, will the pressure eventually get to Gonzales and maybe even force him out, or will President Bush continue to stand by his man? Joining us now, political strategist Matt Towery. Good to see you.
MATT TOWERY, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: How are you?
WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good. All right. Here we go again with Alberto Gonzales kind of in the hot seat, this time over what some are saying are misstatements or going far enough to say contradictions in his testimony about the wiretapping. So what exactly is at issue? What can he say now that he didn't say then?
TOWERY: Well, the issue is whether there was dissent or not. That's the big question, was there dissent among the parties with regard to whether or not the surveillance should continue. This is a political issue as much as it is legal issue.
WHITFIELD: Isn't it more so a political ...
TOWERY: Well, it's a legal issue. There's no question about it. But the fact is this president is going to stand by his man. We've seen this over and over again.
Now I will tell you much to the chagrin of many inside the Republican Party, including a growing number in the Senate because they've seen this happen over and over again. The problem that continues to grow.
Immigration, for example, was a problem that just continued to grow. The White House didn't hear anything about it until it was too late. I mean, there's some on Capitol Hill right now, very concerned is this going to grow to become a major issue.
WHITFIELD: Well, grow meaning the pressure for President Bush to respond to Alberto Gonzales because over the whole firing of federal prosecutors, President Bush said it's at the discretion of the White House and so is the job of the attorney general.
And so no one's going to be touched. But now we're talking about a whole another issue. And again the White House is being asked to do something, say something as it relate to the attorney general.
TOWERY: It really just comes down to, is it another brick in the wall? There has been so much -- we've seen it in terms of polling, we've seen it in the results that we've seen from Americans where they've been asked the question how they feel about the president, and certainly his approval ratings.
It's just another brick in the wall in terms of the credibility of the White House. And this is a year in which presidential candidates are trying desperately to not be mired in the concept that there are scandals or there are problems, much less a war that's going on.
So I think you're going to have to see this continue to bubble up on Capitol Hill. It's been an inside the ball game -- inside the Beltway sort of battle until now.
WHTIFIELD: But then some say there is going to be a ripple effect.
TOWERY: There will start to be.
WHITFIELD: Yes, and you have to wonder if for President Bush is it really more an issue of his legacy, you know, his actions versus trying to appease or appeal to the Republican Party as a whole at this point, with just a year and a half left of his tenure.
TOWERY: The insiders in Washington will tell you on the Republican side especially; this White House doesn't care about appeasing the Republicans at all. I mean, they barely tried to appease the Republicans on the immigration bill.
It's going to have to come down to a point where the pressure is so overwhelming that he moves. Otherwise you're going to see this continue to be a stalemate.
The way we have the situation with Congress right now, yes, the Democrats can take certain action, but it takes the executive branch to do something with regard to a special prosecutor. It's a standoff. And it's one that none of these political candidate who are running for president wants to have on top of every other standoff they've dealt with in the last year or so.
WHITFIELD: All right, Matt Towery, good to see you. Thanks so much.
TOWERY: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, they are not exactly underdogs. But they're not frontrunners either. Unless you're looking at poll numbers in Iowa. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider looks at the surprising new political poll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The front runners in the national polls are Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. But there isn't any national primary. The race starts in Iowa. And national trends don't mean much in Iowa, where caucus goers are famous for not being trendy. Remember what happened in 2004 to national front runner Howard Dean in Iowa?
HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: Take back the White House!
SCHNEIDER: A new poll of Iowa Democratic caucus goers taken this week shows John Edwards in the lead with Clinton second and Barack Obama third. Both Clinton and Obama have dropped six points since the last Iowa poll in May. What happened? Here's one theory -
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Two good people, Democratic candidates for president, who have spent their time attacking each other instead of attacking the problems that this country has faced. And we -- we need to be doing -- we need -- I got your attention with that one, didn't I?
SCHNEIDER: If Clinton and Obama are down in Iowa, who is up? Undecided is up the most. Plus Bill Richardson, whose dogged campaign may be beginning to pay off.
In the Republican race, national front runner Rudy Giuliani is coming in third in Iowa. Giuliani's now slightly behind Fred Thompson, who is not even a declared candidate yet. Mitt Romney is making a strong pitch to conservatives and now leads the Republican field.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The most encouraging experience is going into a roomful of people, having that room somewhat skeptical as you walk in, but have a number of folks come up afterwards and say, you know what, I'm on your team now.
SCHNEIDER: If Romney is up in Iowa, who is down? John McCain. McCain was leading the field in May. Now he's coming in fourth.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SCHNEIDER: If Hillary Clinton loses Iowa, it will nick her image of inevitability. She'll have to rely on New Hampshire to make her the comeback kid, just like it did for her husband.
If Romney wins Iowa and New Hampshire, where she's also ahead, he will then face a big test in South Carolina. Will Evangelical Christians vote for a Mormon candidate? Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
WHITFIELD: Well, perhaps you saw it. It's the debate everyone is still talking about. Well, maybe you missed it. Well, CNN's groundbreaking interactive YouTube debate is getting an encore. You can watch it tonight, encore presentation airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Don't miss it.
And we have a story for you tonight that's almost unimaginable. You're in surgery, on the table, but guess what? You can see and feel just about everything. And the pain, many patients say it's unbearable. But you can't scream and you can't move. How could this be happening in this age of modern medicine? That story coming up.
Plus, something you probably didn't know that that you could buy on Craigslist. The story next in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Internet prostitution. It hasn't gotten the attention of its notorious cousin Internet porn, but authorities are starting to take notice. Just this week, police in Oregon arrested two people on suspicion of promoting prostitution on Craigslist. More now from reporter Anna Song of CNN affiliate KATU in Portland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA SONG, KATU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is video from the search warrant executed at the home on Park Avenue in Milwaukee. The center of operations, deputies say, for an Internet prostitution ring. Inside the home, deputies found drug paraphernalia and cash. John Rouse lives next door.
JOHN ROUSE, NEIGHBOR: Yeah, I've seen that on Craigslist, you know, they've got some -- they put their pictures on -- on the Internet.
SONG: You never imagined it would be right next door.
ROUSE: I'm 54. Nothing surprises me anymore.
SONG: Detectives say the ads on Craigslist, a free online classifieds Web site, made no attempt to hide what was being sold. This ad listed a 22-year-old woman named Brandy, touting she's ready to play all day, offering full services at $125 an hour.
DET. JIM STROVINK, CLACKAMAS CO. SHERIFF'S OFFICE: It's my understanding that these gals would rent a room for several days at a time, along McLaughlin Boulevard, then they would set up these business arrangement and have their customers respond to that location, as many as nine a day.
SONG: Here's the real Brandy, actually Randi Jo Goodwin and the man authorities say was running the operation, 41-year-old Jimmy Varner.
Both were arrested at Varner's home Wednesday in Milwaukee, both charged with promoting prostitution and both have bailed out. Clackamas County detectives say the problem goes far beyond prostitution. Rather the ripple effect of this alleged behavior on those who were innocent.
STROVINK: She was leaving, it's my understanding, her three children under the ages of five in the custody of a 14-year-old teenager while she was gone for several days at a time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And that was Anna Song of CNN affiliate KATU reporting.
Much more ahead from the NEWSROOM straight ahead with Rick Sanchez. Lots on tap.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: How are you?
WHITFIELD: As always, I'm fine, how are you?
SANCHEZ: Well, there's something interesting going on that we're going to be talking about at 7:00, and it has to do with folks who are in this country who want to become legal, but they're going to have to pay to do so. And it's going up for them. As a matter of fact, citizenship fees are going up tomorrow from $330 to $675. That's a lot of pesos.
WHITFIELD: Cash, dinero.
SANCHEZ: Dinero. Most people would say you want what comes along with being a resident of the United States. Tough, pay the money, right?
And a lot of the folks, at least that I've talked to, when I've done stories, talking to a lot of immigrants they say, look whatever it takes. If I have to pay, whatever it is for the honor of living in this country legally, I'll do it.
But there are some people who are fighting this and we're going to be talking to them. There's, you know, Eduardo Saleto (ph). He's a Mexican immigrant himself. He has one of the highest rated radio programs out in L.A. and he's saying, no, they shouldn't do this, it's the wrong move.
We'll get in a little bit of an argument with him, most likely, about this. And then, you know, the south and you live here, right?
WHITFIELD: I do. SANCHEZ: It's gotten very Republican. I mean, it used to be if you were a Republican in the south, you were kind of an oddball because it used to be very Democratic. Well, it's now changed.
It there a possibility the south will rise again for the Democrats, who've really been getting lambasted in this area when it comes to elections? The guy to talk to about this is Senator Lamar Alexander, because he was a southern Republican before it was cool to be one. He's our Sunday spotlight and that's just one of the topics we're going to be talking about. Also Iraq, and a couple of other things.
WHITFIELD: OK.
SANCHEZ: Does that sound good? I've got nothing on Britney Spears, by the way.
WHITFIELD: Where did she come from?
SANCHEZ: I knew you were wondering about that.
WHITIFELD: Oh yes, I was.
SANCHEZ: There go the bloggers.
WHITFIELD: All right, look forward to it all. Thanks a lot, Rick.
Well, you can't move, you can't talk. Can you imagine? But guess what, you can hear, you can see, you can feel the pain of surgery. Anesthesia awareness, a device could prevent it. So why does only one in five Ors actually use it? That story coming up.
Plus, we'll take you live to San Francisco where the chase for perhaps the most honored record of all sports is one home run away. At least tying is one home run away. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Medical experts say some surgeries are overused and alternative solutions are worth a look. First the hysterectomy. Women in the U.S. undergo twice as many hysterectomies per capita a British women.
Next is episiotomy, which doctors say should no longer be performed routinely on mothers-to-be. And doctors also say angioplasty, lower back surgery and heartburn surgery are overdone. They say people suffering these ailments should consider non-surgical alternatives. And you can see the complete article on CNN.com/health.
Well it's a risk of surgery that's not often discussed, patients who remain wide awake and paralyzed when doctors cut them open. It's more common than you actually think and doctors have known about it for decades. A victims' group says it knows of a simple way to prevent it, so why is it still happening? Here's CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We know how it's supposed to work. We go in for surgery, the anesthesiologist puts us to sleep, and then we wake up after the surgery is done.
This is what happens when things go wrong.
TODD WHITLOCK, EXPERIENCED ANESTHESIA AWARENESS: There was a pain. There was a pain that you cannot deal with.
DIANA TODD, EXPERIENCED ANESTHESIA AWARENESS: It just goes and on. And you're screaming inside your head.
MATTINGLY: These former patients went under the knife, but did not go under. They heard, they felt, they remembered everything.
ERIN COOK, EXPERIENCED ANESTHESIA AWARENESS: I just kept praying God, please knock me out. Just knock me out. Let somebody know that this hurts so bad.
MATTINGLY: Victims call it anesthesia awareness, a condition that occurs when anesthesia paralyzes the body but through some error does not render the patient unconscious.
(on camera): A 2004 study estimates it happens to one to two out of every 1,000 patients. That's potentially thousands of people every year who go into surgery and come out with some memory of what happened.
COOK: I was startled awake, because I could feel the doctor cutting me open.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Erin Cook went in to have an ovary removed in March. She emerged with vivid memories of searing pain, feeling trapped in her body, unable to move or speak. The experience left the young mother psychologically scarred and in need of therapy.
COOK: The fear of dying has become something that I live with every day.
MATTINGLY: Victims say they're frequently unable to sleep and filled with anxiety.
In 2006, Sherman Sizemore, a Baptist minister from West Virginia, took his own life after his family claims he was conscious for 16 minutes during abdominal surgery.
(on camera) Have any of you ever thought about suicide?
WHITLOCK: The thought entered our minds when we were there on that table and they were cutting into us with a pain that was beyond description. The first thought comes to your head, "Dear God..."
TODD: Take me now. WHITLOCK: "... take me now, because I can't deal with this."
MATTINGLY: A victims' group called the Anesthesia Awareness Campaign says many cases could be prevented by a device in more than half of the nation's O.R.s, a machine that monitors brain activity.
But the largest manufacturer of these devices reports they were used last year in only 17 percent of general anesthesia surgeries.
"Keeping Them Honest", we went to the American Society of Anesthesiologists and found that organization stopped short of recommending monitor use, leaving that decision up to the doctor.
(on camera) You say that one case of awareness is too much. Could these devices prevent that one case?
DR. MARK LEMA, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS: That's what we're studying and that's what I'm trying to emphasize, that as a society, as a medical specialty, as medical scientists, we need data to show that.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Society president Mark Lema says his organization is only beginning to study the reliability of brain activity monitors and questions claims that there are thousands of victims a year.
LEMA: We've known this to be a rare side effect of anesthesia since I've trained in the '70s and before that. The incidents that we've seen on reports that have come to the ASA have been maybe a few cases a year.
MATTINGLY: But critics say that's because, historically, anesthesiologists rarely track their patients.
(on camera) Any idea how often an anesthesiologist actually is able to follow up with the patient and ask them, "Did you have any awareness during that surgery?"
LEMA: I can't answer that question.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Anesthesia awareness has been making headlines at least since 1994. A decade later, an ASA president questioned his own organization's fact gathering. He asked, "Will patients be denied the potential benefits of innovation because of a deadly perfectionism?"
WHITLOCK: What happened to us can't happen to other people.
TODD: Your whole existence becomes that pain that you're in. There's nothing else. It is the total measure of your existence for that time.
MATTINGLY: Before their surgeries, these patients had never heard of anesthesia awareness. Now, they say, there's no escaping it.
David Mattingly, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And if you're facing surgery and you're concerned, you should talk to your anesthesiologist and your doctor about your risk and what precautions you might be able to take.
Back now to our top story. A community in Phoenix collectively mourning the loss of four people after two news choppers collide. We're joined live by Peter Busch of CNN affiliate KPHO. What's the latest?
PETER BUSCH, KPHO CORRESPONDENT: All right Fredricka. I don't know if the families of the four victims of this crash have had a chance to come by and see the memorial, but once they do, if they do, they're really going to be touched.
It's been quite an outpouring of support from the community here in Phoenix. They're not only flowers and candles, but really heart- felt notes. I've been reading them.
I kind of feel proud to say that I guess there's a special connection between Americans and television and of course the people that appear on their television. A lot of the folks around here felt like they knew the four people that died in this horrible crash. And you know, they're just getting their chance to say good-bye, I guess. You can see one woman right here just sort of walking along the flowers and just taking it all in. It's very difficult for all of us.
As for the actual investigation, NTSB says that they have removed the majority of the wreckage as of this morning. They feel like now they can start to piece together exactly what happened on Friday in that horrific crash.
That's really something we're all looking forward to hearing so that, you know, we can sort of have some closure on all this and know what went wrong and what not to do next time. You know, obviously that's where we are right now with the investigation, the full investigation will take a while. But they will have a preliminary idea of what happened within a week. And in the meantime, it's just time to remember those who died.
WHITFIELD: All right, Peter Busch, thanks so much. Tough for the community and certainly tough for the families there. We'll be right back with more of the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Let's get a quick check of the weather picture outside with Jacqui Jeras.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Well, could this be the night? He's chasing history and a major league milestone. Will San Francisco Giants slugger Barry bonds break, if not at least tie, Hank Aaron's record before a home crowd tonight? The Giants are playing the Florida Marlins in San Francisco right now and our Dan Simon is outside the picturesque stadium. How's it going?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going well. I don't think we're he's going to do it tonight, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: No?
SIMON: We're at the bottom of the seventh, he hasn't done anything yet. He still may have one or two more times to step up to the plate and hit a home run.
The magic number to tie is 755. He needs two more to break the record, one more to tie.
Of course, so much excitement. The stadium is sold out. You can see all of the kayaks in McCovey Cove trying to get that record- winning ball, which will no doubt go for a lot of money on eBay.
But you know, when you have this conversation about Barry Bonds breaking the record, you have to talk about the steroid allegations that have dogged Barry Bonds for some time.
Giants fans trying to put that all aside, trying to concentrate on him winning the record. Here's what some of those folks had to say. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to see him break the record. You know, still takes some skill to hit round ball, round bat. Steroids aren't going to help that. You've got to have skill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're the biggest fans of Barry Bonds in San Francisco. That's why he needs to do the record here in town. You know what, it's history in the making. People don't want to cheer it, that's their loss and our gain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man has hit 754 home runs. I mean, however you hit them, you hit them, you know? Put the man in the record book. It's a done deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: Well, he won't quite get those kind of sound bites in Los Angeles. That's where the San Francisco Giants are headed next. Fierce rivals, the Giants and the Dodgers. So perhaps Barry Bonds will break the record in Los Angeles. If he does, you're not going to hear many cheers. Fredricka?
WHTIFIELD: Although I'm sure a lot of those San Francisco fans are going to make the road trip to L.A. if they can get a ticket.
SIMON: No question about it.
WHTIFIELD: All right, Dan, thanks much. Thanks so much.
On the other side of the coast, along the east coast at Camp David, new pictures right now of the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown there with the president.
This is their first face to face meeting since Gordon Brown took the helm last month. Among the topics they're expected to discuss, if not tonight then over the next couple of days, Iraq, of course, and Darfur.
New pictures right now of Gordon Brown there at Camp David meeting with the president of the United States.
Still much more ahead here on CNN. Up next on "LOU DOBBS THIS WEEK," a federal judge delivers a defeat to communities across the country fighting the illegal immigration crisis. Then at 8 Eastern on "CNN SIU," the story of one of one of the worst aviation disasters in history. "CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT," details, decades of miscalculations and flawed assumptions about airline safety. Could it happen again? Don't miss "CNN SIU: TWA 800: No Survivors."
And at 9, an encore presentation of the debate everyone is still talking about, the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate in its entirety. That's tonight at 9 Eastern.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "LOU DOBBS THIS WEEK" starts right now.
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