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American Morning
NTSB Head Updates Findings in Bridge Collapse; Poison Baby Bottles?
Aired August 06, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, a look at some of the stories you can't miss. Here is one. A concern about the plastics, babies drink out of baby bottles. Oftentimes they are plastic. We don't use glass bottles as much anymore. But there are some concerns about some of the materials in that plastic.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: This is a story that has been around for a long time. A lot of studies done on this but just recently some scientists came out with new concerns about this and the potential problems that it could create. We will be looking at that story coming up.
Also, the NTSB chairman, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker is going to be joining us with the latest on the I-35 bridge investigation. So stick around for that.
CHETRY: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): Early warning? Did construction workers feel the bridge wobbled days before it collapsed. We talk to the lead investigator this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ROSENKER, NTSB CHAIRMAN: And that is what we are particularly interested in, taking a look at the superstructure which in fact is in the water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And caught on tape. A community fights back against a confessed pedophile. Their extreme measures to keep their kids safe and whether they'll hold up in court on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And good morning and welcome back. Thanks very much for joining us. It's Monday, the 6th of August. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We begin with some intriguing clues into what may have caused the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. Investigators are turning their focus now to the bridge's north side. They have been interviewing construction workers who were resurfacing the bridge. This morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that those workers claim to have felt the bridge wobbling as they broke up the old surface. Navy divers, four cranes and two barges could be brought in to begin bringing up pieces of the wreckage.
If fact, they are set to start that today barring any lightning strikes in the area. And hopefully it will bring peace to families who believe that their loved ones are buried underneath that rubble and wreckage. So 1,400 people gathered for an interfaith service last night to mourn the five known victims and to pray for those still missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: We're here tonight to prayerfully remember, to restore and to rebuild. We certainly remember those who lost lives. We remember those who are still missing. We remember those who are badly injured. And we remember those and are thinking of those who grieve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CNN's Susan Roesgen is live in Minneapolis for us with the latest this morning. Hi, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. You may be able to see over my shoulder some of the workers here back on this collapsed bridge. They are getting ready as the state prepares to bring in some heavy equipment to start removing the debris.
Now, the search isn't over for those eight missing people. Divers will be back in the water again today doing the very tricky search trying to negotiate the very dangerous undercurrents and visibility that is next to zero. But they'll be back at it again today, checking those submerged cars. And in the meantime, the state above ground will be bringing in the equipment that is needed to start removing the chunks of concrete, the metal, the wreckage of the cars all still being very aware that this is a recovery mission still. It is not over -- Kiran.
CHETRY: One of the other parts about this is that heavily traveled nature of this bridge. It was one of the busiest bridges in Minneapolis. And today's Star Tribune talks about the morning commute. It says "be prepared or be annoyed." They're trying to tell commuters you may just have to -- despite some of the things they are trying to do, you may just have to be prepared to have a very long commute.
ROESGEN: That's certainly true. The city is trying to help. They've mapped out a couple of alternate routes. They're even changing some of the traffic signals to try to speed up the flow in areas around this bridge, but this was the main artery for most people coming from the northern suburbs into the city. And without it, it is going to take a lot of patience and hopefully not much frustration -- Kiran. CHETRY: Yes. They're encouraging people to carpool and offering some free bus trips hoping to help ease what is going to be a tough commute. Susan Roesgen, thanks so much. We are also going to get the latest on the investigation in about 10 minutes from the NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker, just joining us live in a few minutes.
ROBERTS: President Bush has signed a law into effect to give the government unprecedented power to monitor the calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens in the name of fighting terrorism. Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve has got the latest for us. She joins us now live from Washington.
Jeanne, a big victory for the president, particularly considering that Democrats just basically rolled over on this one.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is something the administration badly wanted and pushed extraordinarily hard to get. The president issued a statement yesterday when he signed the legislation saying it closes a dangerous gap in our intelligence gathering activities that threaten to weaken our defenses.
Specifically, the revision to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the attorney general or the director of national intelligence the authority to approve surveillance of suspected terrorists overseas, rather than keeping it with the special FISA court. It also gives the administration greater power to force telecommunications companies to cooperate with government spying operations.
Some Democrats and some civil liberties groups are condemning the new law, saying it has the potential to allow the government to listen in on Americans making calls overseas. The American Civil Liberties Union went so far as to accuse the president of fear-mongering, and said the Democratic Congress had allowed itself to be strong-armed here.
ROBERTS: How do the telcos feel, Jeanne, about being able to be forced to give up this information?
MESERVE: They don't like it. And according to The New York Times this morning, some of them are threatening to take this law to court to challenge it.
ROBERTS: And it's only in effect for six months' time. What happens after that? Is the president hoping to get new legislation by then or will he just seek of renewal of this?
MESERVE: Well, it will sunset unless is there a renewal. But the president wants something much larger. He wants a much broader overhaul of the FISA law which he says has been outdated by technology. Democrats also want to take a second look at this, at least some of them do. There is a feeling by some of them that they were indeed forced into taking action because of the August recess. They want to go back and consider this more carefully -- John.
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us live from Washington this morning, Jeanne, thanks.
MESERVE: You bet.
CLAMAN: And an update now on the hunt for Osama bin Laden from the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, visiting President Bush at Camp David right now. He is pressing for more U.S. help in beating back the Taliban, telling CNN that U.S. forces are no closer to finding Osama bin Laden than they were a few years ago.
Presidents Bush and Karzai will be holding a joint news conference. It will take place this morning, 11:25 Eastern is when it is scheduled for. CNN will carry it live.
ROBERTS: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is standing by statements he made about using military force but not nuclear weapons to hunt down terrorists in Pakistan. Obama defended the remarks while campaigning in Nevada last night, saying everybody knows that you would always use conventional weapons in those circumstances.
Fellow Democrats like Hillary Clinton and several Republicans said leaders should never take the nuclear option off the table.
CHETRY: Mitt Romney, in a YouTube moment, gets in a heated exchange over his religion. Romney on the presidential campaign trail in Iowa sat down for a radio interview with conservative talk show host Jan Mickelson last week. According to Mickelson, the Mormon Church doesn't support abortion and Romney wasn't following that teaching when he was governor of Massachusetts.
Well, Romney, who has changed positions and is opposed to abortion, clearly resented being lectured on his own religion. And in this off-air exchange that was captured on camera, Romney rejected an offer to do another interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope we can do this so we can spend some quality time on here rather than the soundbite ...
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I don't like coming on the air and having you go after my church and me and my...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going after your -- I agree with your church!
ROMNEY: I know, that's right. But I'm not running as a Mormon. And I get a little tired of coming on a show like yours and having it all about Mormon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, I don't mind it being about that.
ROMNEY: Yes, I do. I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with the ethics of your church, for pete's sake.
ROMNEY: So do I. So do I.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Romney defended his change of position on abortion again at the GOP debate in Iowa yesterday.
ROBERTS: New this morning. There is word today of an earthquake overnight in Utah. It's reported at a magnitude 4.0 centered in the Huntington Canyon area that is about a hundred miles southeast of Salt Lake City. No reports of injury or damage so far. Magnitude 4 is strong enough to rattle dishes and crack some walls.
Montana under a state of emergency right now. Several wildfires are burning and they are worried about the winds roaring back today as they did over the weekend when the fire near Missoula doubled in size. A fire information officer describes the situation as "zero containment." And the governor has urged residents to get out of the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRIAN SCHWEITZER (D), MONTANA: Pack up. Get out. It's time. We're serious this time. We've pulled the ground crews off. At this moment, you need to evacuate and everybody in Montana, say a prayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: About 200 homes have been evacuated in the area northeast of Missoula.
Shots fired today across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The South Koreans say the north fired first. No casualties reported in the incident. Cross-border incidents are rare. But there was one last summer. The border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily armed in the world.
And there is a new many in the driver's seat at Chrysler. The announcement expected today that former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli will be Chrysler's new chairman and CEO. Nardelli was forced out at Home Depot back in January after heavy criticism over his enormous salary and compensation package. This time, Nardelli's starting salary at Chrysler will be $1 a year. His compensation is tied to Chrysler's performance -- Kiran.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Well, there's a new reason to worry for parents this morning. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. The problem is a certain chemical that apparently is found in a lot of baby bottles.
Hi, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. It's found in baby bottles and it's found in all sorts of things. In fact, you, me, probably everyone has this bisphenol A in their bodies. That's because the chemical is used to make baby bottles, water bottles, some plastic microwave-safe dishes, all sorts of things.
And now a group of 38 scientists from around the world have written a consensus statement. And they say stop, something needs to be done. We need to look into this further. They're concerned that this chemical can be linked to everything from ADHD, childhood obesity, autism and type 2 diabetes, prostate and breast cancer, and other kinds of diseases.
They say that the conventional thinking has been that this chemical is in such low levels that it's OK and won't make you sick, but they say that the levels that are inside our bodies have made lab animals sick and could make us sick, too. They are particularly concerned about exposure to developing fetuses and to infants -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Are they making recommendations about how you can avoid this type of plastic if we find it in so many things?
COHEN: No. They're not there yet at all. They are not there yet at all. They are just now saying we need to do more research on this. We need to look into it. And in fact, starting today it is a three-day meeting at the National Institutes of Health.
CHETRY: Keep us posted. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Parts of the Asian subcontinent are under water this morning. The heavy flooding caused by monsoon rains. In India, the Ganges River has risen above its banks, cutting off thousands of towns and villages. Even the largest cities have felt the effects.
The situation is the same close by in Bangladesh, 32 districts in the north, northeast, and central parts of the country have been hit by severe floods. Thousands have been forced to evacuated their homes and head for higher ground. About 20 million people live in the affected areas.
And thousands of miles away in Nigeria, flash flooding in the country's largest city, Lagos, has forced thousands of families from their homes. The floods followed days of heavy rain and have left more than a hundred homes under water. Six people are missing.
CHETRY: Well, in Brazil, they've cleared the way for a memorial site for the victims of a plane crash at the Sao Paulo airport. Authorities imploded the TAM Express building nearly three weeks after a plane sped off the runway and crashed into that building. The site will be made into a memorial for the 199 people who died. ROBERTS: A little boy's fall from a Ferris wheel tops your quick hits now. The 3-year-old fell 25 feet, hitting the pavement in Union City, Ohio, this weekend. His skull was fractured, but he is said to be recovering. The state checking out how the boy fell from that Ferris wheel.
And a thief picked the wrong guy to attack on Long Island. He knocked down 87-year-old John McMullen, a retired cop who had just cashed his Social Security check. The thief hit McMullen in the head and then took off running. McMullen got up and gave chase. The man was eventually cornered in an apartment building and eventually arrested. McMullen was taken to the hospital with minor cuts and bruises.
Well, we've been talking about these reports that construction workers felt the I-35 Bridge wobble underneath them as they worked to it, this just days before the bridge went down. Coming up we'll talk with the man leading the investigation, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker. We'll ask him what he makes of those reports exclusively here on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. The countdown is on. The countdown to what? Well, the Olympics topping your quick hits now. It's one year to go and China can hardly wait for the games to start. They've started a countdown clock that ticks off every second until 8:00 p.m. August 8th, 2008, that's when the summer games come close to Beijing.
And China also cracking down on counterfeit souvenirs. Fake Olympic merchandise already widely available usually for about a third of the price of the official stuff. The Beijing Olympic Committee plans to set up more officially licensed stores.
The military had to be called in in Ontario, Canada. A woman who was walking her dog came across two anti-tank landmines. The mines were defused. No one sure yet though who planted them in the first place.
ROBERTS: Eighteen minutes after hour now. Potential new clues this morning in the collapse of the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis. There are now reports that construction workers noticed that the bridge was getting a little bit wobbly as they took up the concrete to resurface it. NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker is in charge of the investigation. He joins us now live from Washington, D.C.
Mark, thanks very much for being with us. What do you make of these reports of wobbling by these crews who were resurfacing the bridge. And they suggested that as they took up more and more concrete, the wobble grew?
ROSENKER: Well, certainly we're going to be looking at that entire area where the construction was being done. We're going to be taking a look at the weights of the aggregate. We're going to be taking a look at the weights of the actual equipment and where it was placed. All of this data will be brought to our computer model in our laboratory and we will be then doing some failure analysis.
Actually, we're going to be starting to do some of that this afternoon. I'm going out to that laboratory with two of our investigative engineers.
ROBERTS: Mark, do you know if the bridge was designed to handle a load in anything other than a completed form? That is, if you were to take up some of the concrete and expose some of the metal, would the bridge still have the same structural integrity?
ROSENKER: Well, those are some of the things that we're going to actually look at in our computer models. So all of that data is going to be very important to us when we begin our failure analysis.
ROBERTS: What is the investigation telling you so far? My understanding is, is that you've surmised at least to some degree that the collapse probably did not start on the south side of the bridge.
ROSENKER: Well, we've looked at the south side this afternoon. Actually, this morning and this afternoon, we will be doing some visual analysis of the parts of the northern side of the bridge through our helicopter and a high-definition type of camera which is going to give us an opportunity to get a little closer view. It's a very challenging area up there. We can't get to it as we were able to get to the southern side.
ROBERTS: Right.
ROSENKER: But we're waiting also, of course. The removal aspects of the debris are going to begin very, very soon and that is going to be helpful so that we can get to the actual concrete, look at the concrete where the construction was being done. Then once that is removed, also take a look at the superstructure which is in the water in the area of where the construction was being done.
This is going to help us a great deal. All of this data will then come back to Washington, be put into that computer for additional failure scenarios.
ROBERTS: Mark, you said over the weekend that it's crucial for you to have an accurate depiction of what the bridge was like at the exact moment of failure. Do you have that?
ROSENKER: Not yet. We still have to take a look at what the superstructure looks like, which is in the water. And that, unfortunately, could be a number of weeks away. But, still, progress is being made in this investigation. And we're particularly pleased that the FBI and the Navy are in there doing the recovery of those that perished. That is going to speed up our ability to get a little more of the data that we need.
ROBERTS: Any early theories, Mark, on how the bridge could have weakened to the point that it collapsed? Might weather have had something to do with it?
ROSENKER: Well, weather we're going to look at. All of those elements are put into our scenarios and into the computer model so that we get an accurate depiction of what was actually going on own and what that bridge was like and the environment in which it was operating in during the moment of collapse.
ROBERTS: Right. Well, we look forward to following you doing that. The NTSB is famous for being able to get back and determine the cause of just about anything. Mark Rosenker, the chairman of the NTSB, thanks very much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
ROSENKER: It's good to be with you, John. Thank you.
CHETRY: A spectacular crash at the Firestone Indy 400. The driver of a car you're about to see, you'll see it, believe me, belonged to the husband of film star Ashley Judd. We're going to show you the whole scene and see how everyone made out when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Looking for David Beckham? Check the bench. The soccer legend missed his official opener with the L.A. Galaxy against Toronto over the weekend because of that sore ankle. It's likely to cause him to miss not only the next Galaxy match but team England's exhibition game against Germany. Since joining the Galaxy, Beckham has been on the field about 16 minutes. What an investment, 16 minutes at $250 million a year. What does that calculate out to?
CHETRY: I don't know, but they are getting record ratings so maybe he is having an effect anyway, even though he's not being able to bend it.
ROBERTS: And there's the moment where he hurt it.
CHETRY: Ouch. Well, there's an update now on another ouch. Remember this one? The skateboarder we showed you last week. Jake Brown from Australia. This was during one of the hardest, hardest categories of the X-Games. He fell so hard. He took a 40-foot fall, fell so hard that his sneakers literally flew off and his helmet smashed.
Well, he is doing pretty well. He didn't want to go to the hospital when this first happened. He ended up having a bruised lung, a bruised liver, a broken wrist, a broken vertebra. But he is out of the hospital resting in his hotel room. He said he blacked out after the crash, that's why you saw him laying there for so long after it happened.
Amazingly, though, he was able to walk away. He said walking off that ramp was, "tough." By the way, he ended up placing second in that competition based on previous stunts.
ROBERTS: OK. Stop, enough. The banner at the very bottom covers it, but I was looking at this with my kids over the weekend. When he lands, he just flops. And it reminded me of when Evel Knievel fell off the bike jumping the fountains at Caesar's Palace and he's just like a rag doll inside his leather suit. That's what this guy looked like.
CHETRY: I thought you were going to say it reminded you of the bear and the trampoline, some of your favorite video.
ROBERTS: No, I wasn't going to spring that on you this morning.
CHETRY: Jake, doing all right, though.
ROBERTS: We'll save that one. A spectacular crash during Sunday's Firestone 400 in Michigan. Take a look at this. Drivers Dario Franchitti and Dan Wheldon battle for the lead, wheels touch, Franchitti goes airborne, takes flight, lands upside-down. He is hit by two other cars, skids to a stop upside-down. Incredibly, you know, you think, oh my God, he's done, toast. He walked away from the wreck. Franchitti, you'll recall, won the Indy 500 earlier this year. He is also married to Ashley Judd, the actress, which is, I guess, is a good motivation for staying alive.
CHETRY: She has officially bitten off all of her fingernails now, all 10, poor thing.
ROBERTS: Look at that, that is unbelievable.
CHETRY: Well, here is another story that you can't miss coming up. The latest move to stop a confessed pedophile from getting near kids. Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main thing, I just think they're cute. They're a lot cuter than women. I admit there is kind of erotic arousal there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Confrontation caught on tape, lawyers for parents in a restraining order against him.
CHETRY: But will it hold up in court?
ROBERTS: Yes, is this thing legal? Will it survive any kind of a court challenge?
CHETRY: Well, we are going to talk about that story when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: There we go. What a beautiful shot this morning from WFAA, Dallas, Texas. The sun coming up over some of the high-rises.
ROBERTS: It looks like the sun, it's actually the beginning the furnace there, right?
CHETRY: Yes, well, sun/furnace. Exactly. Some of the morning mist burns off you're looking at a high of 97 degrees in Dallas. Go ahead. Say your line. It's a dry heat.
ROBERTS: No. In Dallas, it's not a dry heat, unfortunately. But for "Chronicles of Riddick" fans they'll know it's like a planet Crematoria there today.
CHETRY: Exactly, and in many places around the country we will have your forecast coming up with Rob Marciano.
In the meantime, welcome back. It's Monday, August 6th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
Update on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, from the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai is visiting President Bush at Camp David right now. He's pressing for more U.S. help in beating back the Taliban, and tells CNN that U.S. forces are no closer at finding Osama bin Laden than they were a few years ago. CNN's Elaine Quijano is live at the White House for us this morning.
How much of a part will discussions over Pakistan and President Musharraf's response to the growth of the Taliban and Al Qaeda along those tribal regions bordering Afghanistan play in today's meetings?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, no doubt privately that will be a big part of the discussion.
As you know, back in September when Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai was here along with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, meeting with President Bush, the tension between the two leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan was palpable. The White House, at the time, tried to downplay those tensions.
But basically you had each country essentially pointing the finger at the other saying each was not doing enough in the war on terrorism. What has happened since then? We saw the failure of that agreement that General Pervez Musharraf made with those tribal leaders, along the border with Afghanistan. We saw that essentially collapse. The U.S. has pretty much said that that agreement did not work. Would not be surprised in private there might be a little I told you so on the part of President Karzai.
But in public, anyway, the Unite States Afghanistan's interests do coincide. It is in each country's interest to see Afghanistan succeed, to see the security situation in Afghanistan stabilized, so if there is going to be any kind of criticism of Pakistan and the United Sates signing on to Pakistan' agreement with those tribal leaders, certainly it will likely be kept in private -- John.
ROBERTS: Now, Hamid Karzai is asking for more help to beat back the Taliban. Do you think he is going to ask the president for more troops and if he did what would the White House's response be?
QUIJANO: It could very welcome to that but, at the same time, Hamid Karzai has been under a great deal of domestic pressure. Why? Because of the civilian casualties. The toll has continued to mount and that has been a source of great difficulty for Hamid Karzai. His credibility has been challenged over this. And the United States has taken pains to try to address that concern.
Whether or not we see some sort of commitment later today, additional commitment, remains to be seen; but certainly both leaders, President Bush and President Karzai looking for signs from each other that, in fact, the United States and Afghanistan can find some way forward, and work closer together when it comes to battling terrorists in the Taliban.
ROBERTS: Big challenge ahead of them. Elaine Quijano at the White House for us this morning.
Elaine, thanks.
A reminder Presidents Bush and Karzai are hold ago news conference this morning from Camp David at 11:25 Eastern Time. CNN will carry it live.
CHETRY: New this morning. Only halfway through monsoon season yet the toll is heavy. Big rains bringing devastating floods to India, and the Asian subcontinent. Here you see thousands of people, including children, running. They're clamoring for relief supplies like food, being dropped from the air. The river Ganges has risen above its banks. It cut off thousands of towns and villages, even the some of the area's largest cities have been left stranded.
No breach of biosecurity. A British lab that manufactures a vaccine for foot and mouth disease says it's not to blame for a recent outbreak. The facility is close to the farm that reported these new cases. Great Britain reacted by banned livestock, meat, and milk exports. Foot-and-mouth disease devastated the British farming industry six years ago, when an epidemic led to the slaughter of 7 million cattle.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. That meeting taking place within the last two hours. They're laying the groundwork for an international peace summit that will held in the U.S. in November.
ROBERTS: As early as today, Navy divers, as many as four cranes and two barges could be brought in to begin bringing up pieces of the wreckage of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. Investigators, meanwhile, are turning their focus to the bridge's north side interviewing construction workers who were resurfacing the bridge. This morning's "Minneapolis Star-Tribune" said the workers felt the bridge wobbling as they broke up the old surface.
A state of emergency is in effect right now on Montana. Several wildfires are burning. They are worried about the winds roaring back today as they did over the weekend when the fire near Missoula doubled in size. A fire information officer describes the situation as, quote, "zero containment". And the governor has urged residents to get out of the way. About two 200 homes have been evacuated northeast of Missoula. Well bloggers want a union. Bloggers are hoping to get health insurance and other benefits. Some say it might mean less freedom to post what they want online, but as is the nature of the business they can't seem to agree on whether they should create a new union or simply join an existing one.
CHETRY: There's a startling new development in a story we first brought you last week, it got a major reaction out of many of our viewers who saw it. We introduced you to Jack McClellan, a self- described pedophile who photographs children. He even posts their pictures online and even rates them, based on how attractive he finds them. Here is what he said about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK MCCLELLAN, SELF-DESCRIBED PEDOPHILE: I just think they're cute, a lot cuter than women. I admit there is a kind of erotic arousal there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Sickening, right? The problem is none of the behavior is really a crime. Law enforcement had its hands tied, that is until our next guest stepped in. Anthony Zinnanti, a California lawyer. He joins us live from Los Angeles this morning. Physically serving McClellan with a temporary restraining order to stop him from getting near places where children gather.
Anthony, good to see you. Thank you for being with us this morning.
ANTHONY ZINNANTI, TAKING ON PEDOPHILE IN COURT: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: A lot of our viewers, when they saw this story, had that type of visceral reaction, just disgusted by it. But you actually took it a step further and took action. What made you decide to do that?
ZINNANTI: There needed to be order put in place, because the furor that Mr. McClellan was creating was really causing a lot of panic in the community, and people were very frustrated about lack of ability to do something through the system.
CHETRY: And so, as it turns out, you went to a judge on to seek this. You were actually going narrow in your scope. Santa Clarita, California, a place where he has admitted to gathering before and taking photos, but what did the superior court judge end up doing?
ZINNANTI: Well, I did my homework. I gave the judge quite a case to work with. The evidence was compelling. And, you know, if I can just point a few things out. This order was not issued because Mr. McClellan is simply a pedophile. This order was issued because Mr. McClellan blogged about his thoughts about luring children into his car. And, furthermore, his smuggling of drugs onto an international flight. You know? One of his blog entries he closes with, "I, expletive, took a calculated risk and won."
We put two and two together with the risk he posed to children, and the judge was repulsed by it. And we were asking for simply the city of Santa Clarita. He gave us the entire state of California.
CHETRY: It's gotten a big reaction from the community. What has been like?
ZINNANTI: I received both positive and negative. I received a lot of thanks from the community. I'm not looking for a pat on the back. I'm looking to instill order. However, on the other hand, the so-called free speech community has labeled me a Nazi and a fascist, and a Kafkaesque individual. And you know, you don't want to disagree with the free speech community because they hate disagreements. It's been a mixed reaction.
CHETRY: Right. You know, you also describe having anecdotal evidence. I don't know if you are going to get some of these mothers to testify. But you talk about a situation on June 4th where someone apparently caught -- a mother caught him trying to put a camera into her daughter's dressing room after a dance recital?
ZINNANTI: Is there a new development in this case. I was approached by a witness yesterday who called me. This witness checks out. It's chilling. She was at a dance recital for her daughter. And the kids were on the stage, the kids were not in the dressing room. But this was a restricted dressing room, that was just for the little girls, not even dads could go into the dressing room because, you know, it was a girl's dressing room.
The mother came back into the dressing room to get something. And when she walks in, who is there but Mr. McClellan? And she recognized him based upon the reports, later. She was dumbfounded, of course. She was saying he was putting a camera into his bag as she confronted him. He said, oh, I'm sorry. I'm leaving. And he bolts out of the room. He is brazen.
CHETRY: You're going to present this evidence on the 24th of this month. You head back to court to see if you make this temporary restraining order for all of California permanent, as it relates to McClellan.
Anthony Zinnanti, thank you for joining us.
ZINNANTI: Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: So how unusual is this? And what are the legal implications? Will this hold up in court? CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin joins us now to talk more about this.
First of all, the judge's decision to have this not only apply to the narrow city of Santa Clarita, but all of California. Will that hold up in court?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: I think it will actually. I think what Mr. Zinnanti did was actually very clever. What McClellan did was not a crime. And there is no way he could be prosecuted and put in jail for what he did. There was no criminal offense here.
However, in a civil context, the analogy I think is to a domestic violence situation. Where a judge says look, I see trouble brewing I'm going to order you two, or one spouse stay away from the other. That's what he did here. The judge said, look, this situation is dangerous enough. I'm going to order McClellan stay away from little kids. And given the evidence, it seems like a reasonable order statewide.
CHETRY: Let's hear what McClellan, himself said when asked about whether or not what he was doing was illegal.
All right. Apparently, we don't have that right now.
But one of the things he said is, "I'm not doing anything illegal at these things." Meaning he would go these gatherings where he knew small children would be. He said, "I mean if they pass a law saying you can't go to these things to admire kids, I guess I would have to follow that."
But it looks like this lawyer is trying to get together a case showing that he has taken action, that does break the law. He's trying to get this mother to testify that she felt he was trying to videotape her child.
TOOBIN: The whole purpose of an injunction is to stop a bad thing from happening whether it's a husband attacking a wife, or a man hurting a child, before it happens. So the fact that he hasn't done it yet, doesn't mean that he's free and clear. A judge could look at all of the circumstances -- and the circumstances here are beyond creepy -- and say, look, I am going to just take this precaution and order you to stay away from kids.
CHETRY: One UCLA law professor says this is more or less house arrest for this gentleman. Saying that he can't go to the store. He walk down the street. He can't go to court to challenge this. How can you be sure you can stay away from anyone 17 or younger? So, is this -- this even though this guy -- I mean, most people view him as very sick for what he does and taking pictures of kids and putting them on the Internet. How do you enforce that?
TOOBIN: The one part of the order that really is problematic is the part that says he can't come within 15 yards of a child. Now, walking down the street purely accidentally, you could come within 15 yards of a child. I think that kind of restriction may be overbroad.
When the order is made permanent, I think what they may change it to is put in some sort of intent requirement. You can't intentionally go within 15 yards of a child. That would take care of the accidental contact. But given these circumstances, I could see a judge saying, look, this is an unusual enough situation -- fortunately, we don't have a million people like Jack McClellan out in the world --
CHETRY: Hopefully.
TOOBIN: That I'm going to take this step. CHETRY: All right. Jeff Toobin, always great to see you. Thanks.
TOOBIN: OK.
ROBERTS: A new concept car tops your "Quick Hits" now. The car is equipped with a seriously high-tech system that can tell if someone is drunk. It is being made by Nissan. It includes an odor sensor in the seat that checks for breath alcohol, a detector in the gearshift that examines sweat. And camera that examines eye movement to see how alert the driver is. If the driver fails any of the tests the car can sound an alarm or even lock up the ignition.
Some people like to be alone in the bathtub to relax. Other people like to race in their bathtub. In Germany it's the Fifth Annual Bathtub Race. They call it a Bath Tub Race, it looks more like rafts with bathtubs on top of them. As long as it doesn't have a motor, though, it's OK.
A father leaves his wife and seven sons to go off to war. It's a story that Kiran first brought to us. Now there's a homecoming to show you. The touching update next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Think its hot where you are? Imagine being at the Sauna World Championships in Finland. Temperatures start at about 230 degrees, and more water thrown on the rocks every 30 seconds to make it even hotter. The winner is the last person sitting, literally.
The winning female braved 10 and a half minutes in the sauna. The male winner stayed in for 12 minutes, 26 seconds.
Temperatures are pretty close to that in parts of this country. Rob Marciano tracking dangerous heat, particularly in the country's mid section.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: We want to update you, by the way, on a family we first told you about in April, during our "Children of War" series. It was the Snell family. Seven boys, and their mom, left alone to raise them by herself while her husband, Joe, did his second tour in Iraq.
Major Joe Snell now back home. It's the only thing his children were hoping for and praying for. And they were able to reunite at a welcome home ceremony at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJOR JOE SNELL, U.S. ARMY: You going to take Daddy home to see your brothers? Yeah? Take Daddy home to see mommy? Yeah? What are we going to do when we get home? What do you want to do when we get home? Huh? Want to play?
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: That was little Jonathan. He is only three, he was under two-years-old when his dad went to his second tour. And the mom, Teki (ph), said that even sometimes they have trouble remembering, and the memories with her dad because they were so young when he went away. I was just thinking the only thing they need now is a little girl to make it number eight! He's back!
ROBERTS: Let's hope that he doesn't go back for tour number three first.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: You know, for a girl.
CNN "Newsroom" just minutes away. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center with a look what is ahead.
Good morning, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hi there, John. Good morning to you.
Developments on the Minneapolis bridge collapse on the CNN NEWSROOM rundown. Divers in the water today looking for eight people still missing. Next hour we'll have Minnesota's governor live.
Also, we will hear live from Presidents Bush and Karzai this morning. The war in Afghanistan. The search for Osama bin Laden.
And a five-year-old Oklahoma boy, fishing with his grandfather, hit in the hit by a stray bullet. A police officer aiming at a snake. You'll have to see it to believe it. All the morning's breaking news. Tony Harris joins me at the top of the hour right here on CNN.
ROBERTS: Wow. That is a bizarre and tragic story.
COLLINS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Heidi, thanks. We'll see you real soon.
COLLINS: OK.
ROBERTS: And AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: An update now on a story we told you about last week. Juan and Alex Gomez, teenagers, born in Colombia, one of them an honor student, who had just graduated near the top of his class. Well, they were rounded up along with their family at an immigration raid in South Florida and thrown in different detention centers. Their friends came to the rescue.
Juan and Alex had lived in the U.S. since they were here in the United States since toddlers. They spent a week in a Miami area detention center before being spared from deportation, at least for now. Thanks, in part, to the tireless help of their friends.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUAN GOMEZ, FACING DEPORTATION: I think to myself, OK, who are the people I trust most in the world, and those are my friends.
CHETRY (voice over): Ripped from his home in an immigration raid last month, separated from his parents, and brother, Juan Gomez turned to his best friend Scott for help. Sending a text message. Scott called in reinforcements to save Juan and Alex. Within days, 10 teens were in Washington, D.C., lobbying lawmakers to save their friends from being deported.
SCOTT ELFENBEIN, SAVE JUAN AND ALEX: It's unfathomable to me that this country, of mine, that is so tolerant and so giving could be so intolerant and ignorant and uncaring, when it comes to immigration -- our immigrant population.
CHETRY: On his Facebook page Scott urged classmates to get involved. More than 1500 signed up in support. Their grassroots movement caught fire, even making it here to AMERICAN MORNING.
ELFENBEIN: Originally, we only planned on creating this small Facebook group to let our friends that were in college know that our best friend got picked up. And it's kind of evolved and exploded into this major news story.
CHETRY: Later that very same day, the Gomez brothers were given a 45-day reprieve from deportation.
J. GOMEZ: If you just blindly look at it as a law, and people breaking the law, and never question the laws, then this country wouldn't be what it is now. We would still have women who can't vote, we could still have segregation. So you always have to question the laws in order to better them. Because they're not perfect.
CHETRY: Alex and Juan's parents overstayed a visa more than 15 years ago. Their local congressman is backing a bill that would keep Juan and Alex in the U.S. But not their parents, saying the brothers should not be punished for their parents' mistake.
J. GOMEZ: It's like saying, accusing a child, in the baby carriage, for jaywalking when the mom takes them across the street. It's just we had no say in it. We had no control over where we lived. What we did have control over was going to school, working hard and making friends.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: The Gomez family has to report back to immigration officials September 14th. History, though, is not on their side. During the last Congress there were 177 private bills filed on behalf of immigrants and not one of them passed.
A quick look at what CNN "Newsroom" is working on for the top of the hour. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM (voice over): See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Minneapolis bridge collapse: Rush hour commuters facing new traffic detours this morning.
Presidents Bush and Karzai talking with reporters about the war in Afghanistan.
A dangerous heat wave from St. Louis to Dallas to Charlotte.
And a thug mugs the wrong guy! An 87-year-old retired policeman fights back. "Newsroom" just minutes away at the top of the hour on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: How about this? You thought it Americans were bad when it comes to pampering their pooches. This trend in Germany is putting the dog in a whirlpool bath to get him clean. Supposedly this helps better than just a typical bath because the bubbles push up their fur. Apparently, the dogs like it.
ROBERTS: Yeah, 15 euros for 20 minutes, for your dog there. Doesn't look like it's worth 15 euros, though. I don't know. Looks like a little agitation in the water there. But the dog seems to like it. Golden Retrievers like everything, though.
CHETRY: They love being in water. That's what they love. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.
ROBERTS: CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: I'm Heidi Collins. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM, live on this Monday morning. It's August 6th.
Here's what's on the run down. Back in the water. Divers searching for eight people missing in the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Minnesota's governor will be live, with us, here in just a few minutes.
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