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Remembering Merv Griffin; Tragedy in Rural Missouri

Aired August 12, 2007 - 22:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: From big band singer, to talk show star, to game show king, tonight, we remember Merv Griffin. And we speak to actor Steve Gutenberg, who thought of Merv as a mentor.
Also, a breaking story out of rural Missouri. Someone opens fire in a church with deadly results. We will have the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY: Underground, it has not gone well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Keep prodding the ground and sending down cameras, but still no signs of life. And it's been nearly a week that those. Could the trapped coal miners still be alive? Tonight, a new drilling effort is underway. We will tell you what they're finding.

Plus, four grandmothers getting their hair done become victims of a violent crime. What the robber did was downright sadistic. He is a man who takes pictures of young girls and doesn't apologize for it. Our affiliate confronted him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More and more violent here if I continue to talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: He's mad, all right, but what will make you angry is this. Parents may be helping him out.

And your stocks are sliding, the home buying market is a mess. Just how worried should you be? And what can you do to stay on solid ground? We will put a financial whiz in the hot seat. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And just in to CNN tonight, we've learned that Republican presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson has dropped out of the race. He had a poor showing this weekend in the Iowa straw poll. Here's some tape of Thompson talking about his decision earlier today. We will let this roll just a bit and then we will talk about it with our political editor Mark Preston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TOMMY THOMPSON: Something happened between the 50 yard line and the goal line. And they pulled a reverse on us. And we didn't see it coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think it was? I mean, was it the low turn-out, or the heat, or just certain issues?

THOMPSON: I think, you know, there's no sense of looking back. You know, you lost. I mean, you can look back and say if I did that or if somebody else did this. It would have been different. You know, it is what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It is what it is. So what does this mean for the rest of the pack? Let's bring in CNN political editor Mark Preston. Mark, good to talk to you. Before we get to that question of who this might benefit, what were Tommy Thompson's expectations in Iowa this weekend? He didn't expect to win, did he?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: No, well, Tony, he actually did expect to win or at least he expected to come into second place. Obviously, that was not what happened. He came in sixth place out of 11 candidates. He really was banking everything on his presidential bid on winning Iowa or at least coming in second place, hoping that would at least propel him on the national stage. And of course, it didn't happen.

HARRIS: Hey, what were his issues? Why did get into this race in the first place?

PRESTON: You know, Tommy Thompson talked a lot about health care on the campaign trail. And he was critical of his opponents saying that they didn't seem to offer any answers or any solutions. He really talked about his days as the Wisconsin governor, as well as his efforts in the first Bush administration - excuse me - the first term of President Bush's administration when he was the HHS secretary. So health care was clearly his front issue.

HARRIS: Yes. If those are your issues and you want to fight for the issues, why get out of the race after what is largely, let's be honest about this, a symbolic event in Ames, Iowa?

PRESTON: Well, it is a symbolic event. But you know, historically it is one of events that tends to help winnow the field a little bit.

I tell you, candidates after Ames have to really kind of reflect on themselves, especially someone like Tommy Thompson, who really was investing so much in the state. At some point, it cost a lot of money to run for president. And I'm sure Tommy Thompson doesn't want to be paying bills, you know, two or three years from now.

HARRIS: Yes. Mark Preston, CNN political editor tonight. Mark, appreciate it. Thank you.

PRESTON: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Now an awful story from Missouri. Sunday services in a small Ozark town. This is not supposed to happen in a house of worship. Gunfire, hostages, and violent death. We're still gathering the details tonight from Neosho, Missouri. Let's bring in Todd Higdon. He is with the local newspaper there, "The Neosho Daily News."

And Todd, good to see you. Thanks for your help throughout the evening on this story. You've been asking questions. Look, what have you learned?

TODD HIGDON, NEOSHO DAILY NEWS: Basically what I've learned right now is that about 50 people were in the church. And a lone gunman entered shortly before 2:00, about 1:54 is what authorities are saying. We have three confirmed dead, several injured. And after the police stormed the building itself, the lone gunman surrendered about five or ten minutes after which.

HARRIS: What are you hearing about a possible motive?

HIGDON: Motives in the description, the names have not been released. Tentatively a press conference has been set up for about 11:00 tomorrow morning.

HARRIS: Has anyone -- we understand that there were three firearms found. Any descriptions of those weapons? Handguns? Automatic weapons?

HIGDON: Actually, I have three guns itself, two, let me get my notes here actually.

HARRIS: Sure, take your time.

HIGDON: One was a nine millimeter semiautomatic with a large magazine. The other were two small handguns.

HARRIS: OK, you've got three dead, and several badly injured. Any description on the injuries sustained by those who were wounded?

HIGDON: No, none at this time, actually. About four to six were what we've got as injured right now.

HARRIS: Yes.

HIGDON: There may have been some others. They actually fled from the church itself. And a local entrepreneur that owns Sam's Cellar, which is about 150 feet away, took the hostages in, provided them water...

HARRIS: Yes.

HIGDON: ...bandages, itself.

HARRIS: Well this is a horrible story. And we appreciate your work on this, Todd Higdon for us this evening. Todd, thank you. HIGDON: Thank you, sir.

HARRIS: And from tragedy in rural Missouri, to a place where nobody's using the word tragedy just yet, even the most pessimistic exhausted rescuer is holding on to hope that six coal miners are still alive far below ground in central Utah. That after yet another discouraging development today.

Our national correspondent Gary Tuchman is in Huntington. And Gary, good to see you this evening. Two holes drilled and no sign of life. What else to do other than just keep digging holes?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's precisely what they're doing, Tony. There's a camera in the ground right now. No sign of any miners alive or dead. There's a microphone in the ground. No sound for any miners.

But the hope here is that these miners found a small area where they've gotten into, that they can't yell in response to the signals they're getting. And they can't be seen. So if they're not being disingenuous, these rescuers, they're going to keep on looking. They're building out a third hole, drilling in to the ground. It will take three, four, even five days.

They have to get a camera in another area to look at. So they're going to keep on working, but this could go on for a while.

Now as the search continues to the six men, and it's almost at the one week point, we've learned that there were some serious structural damage to this mine five months ago. We've been provided some papers from a source. And these are papers from an engineering mining company to the mine. It's just some correspondence back and forth. And it talks about an early March 2007. There was an incident in the mine in which a large bump resulting in heavy damage occurred to a specific area.

The bump is referring to a mountain bump. A mountain bump is when the coal pillars that support the mine. So much pressure from the weight above, in this case, the mountain they literally explode. And they shake the mine. And they often cause significant damage, which they apparently did in this case.

Now in this particular case, according to these documents, part of the mine was abandoned. And that's a part of the mine not far from where this incident occurred. Now we are not saying whatsoever that what happened five months ago in March is any relation to what happened now. However, it's something to keep in the back of our mind.

Now according to the mining engineering firm, they provided a plan to fix up the mine. Keep the employees there, they said. Federal authorities do not say you should keep employees out of the mine because of this. So today, we talked to the owner of the mine. And we asked him if he felt comfortable keeping his employees in the mine after this incident occurred?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY, PRES., CEO, MURRAY ENERGY CORP.: I've been doing this for 50 years. I would never put anyone whose life I'm responsible for and I take that very seriously, and to bed with me every night, into any kind of condition we thought was unsafe. This is a natural disaster that happened from seismic activity that has never been recorded in this area before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: And that introduces me to a very important point. Bob Murray says that has nothing to do with this at all. He still says it was an earthquake that caused the mine collapse, the mine a mile and a half behind me, and that subsequent movements of the earth have been aftershocks from that earthquake.

Now scientists aren't so sure it was an earthquake. They think it may have been one of these mountain bumps that caused this disaster and that subsequent earth movements have been mountain bumps. But either way, we have a situation here where a very interesting document -- the relationship it has to this, we don't know. But the owner still thinks it was an earthquake.

HARRIS: Hey, Gary, didn't you and your team capture one of these bumps when you were down in that mine last week?

TUCHMAN: Yes, I'd like to show that to you. I mean, we were down in the mine three nights ago. I think it's the first time, as far as we know, that a news camera has been in a mine during a disaster. And while we are there, we want you to see and hear what a mountain bump looks and sounds like.

As we know, a news camera has been in a mine during a disaster. While we are there we want you to see and hear what a mountain bump looks and sounds like.

What was that?

We were taking pictures of a vehicle that was helping to clear the coal to rescue the miners. There have been two bumps last night and today. And one of those bumps, Tony, was so serious that they had to move all the workers out of the mine to safety. It was a very frightening experience being there for a few second. I looked in the eyes of the miners, who were down there. And I thought part of the mine was collapsing.

HARRIS: Man, that is scary to see. All right, CNN's Gary Tuchman for us. Gary, appreciate it. Thank you.

And new tonight from Minneapolis, 11 days after the sudden and deadly collapse of that I-35W bridge, recovery workers pulled more human remains from the wreckage and rubble-filled Mississippi River today. Officials aren't saying how many remain to remove from the scene. So until they do, the official death toll remains at eight. Five people had been missing. More than 50 cars and buses are still in the river. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERV GRIFFIN: I just hope I entertain the most people and they had fun with it and stuff. And my tombstone will read I will not be right back after this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Merv Griffin, the consummate performer, died this morning at age 82 in a along hospital of prostate cancer. Of course, we all remember the Merv Griffin show. It was on the air for more than 20 years.

But what you might not know is Griffin started his career as a big band era singer. Also "Jeopardy" and "The Wheel of Fortune" game shows were his brain child. Here's a taste of one of his talents, singing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERV GRIFFIN: (SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Griffin inspired a lot of young actors, including Steve Guttenberg. I spoke with him earlier tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE GUTTENBERG, ACTOR: When I first met Merv, it was probably about 1977 or 1978. He had me on his show. And there was another guy from Massapequa, Long Island who was on the same show. Jerry Seinfeld.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

GUTTENBERG: And I just remember Merv as being such a kind and loving and giving guy at that time. It was one of my first talk shows. And before the show, he came to my dressing room and he sat me down and he gave me some points and some tips. Because he did sort of a theater in the round sort of deal.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUTTENBERG: And he was just so wonderful and giving for such a guy who is so successful. That's what blew me away about him. And all his life for the rest of the time I knew him, which I guess about 30 years, I just found him every time I saw him he was totally giving and loving. And he was actually great to my mother and father. We visited him at his hotel, the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUTTENBERG: And he had us come down to his club. He gave my dad a great cigar and brought him to the cigar room. He actually sang my mom a song. I think he brought her up on stage. He danced with my mom. He had great values and great manners, which is just a rare commodity today and especially a rare commodity among the rich and famous.

HARRIS: Give me another story. That was a great story. Give me something else that you'll always remember about Merv.

GUTTENBERG: Well, one of the great things I remember about Merv was when I went to San Anita racetrack.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUTTENBERG: I was sitting there. And he saw me from across the field. I guess he had his field glasses. He came over and he said hello to me. And we were both food lovers. We loved to eat.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUTTENBERG: And at that time, I loved pizza. But they didn't have pizza at the San Anita racetrack. And he ordered out from a pizza delivery place, had it brought in. And I was sitting in my seat. And there's a pizza delivery guy. And he said that was compliments of Merv Griffin.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUTTENBERG: And then Merv came down and we had the pizza together. He' was a guy who remembered things. He remembered my mom's birthday. I remember a couple of times, my Mom was born on January 1st, New Year's Eve. And he remembered that. And he remembered the values of parents. And he just - he was just a really terrific guy for someone so successful, who didn't have to take the time of day.

And I'll tell you something else that happened.

HARRIS: Sure, sure.

GUTTENBERG: I was sitting in his hotel. And every time I went to the hotel in between interviews, his place was a great place to have lunch. And I'd always knock on his door and say I'm there. And he'd come down and have lunch with me.

I'm sitting at this booth and in walks Greg Peck.

HARRIS: Wow, OK.

GUTTENBERG: And Gregory Peck was across the room, came over to the table, and said, hey, Merv, how are you, hello Steve, how are you doing, I did a movie with Greg so I knew him. And he said I'll be sitting over there. And I said to Merv do you want to go sit with Greg? And you know, it's OK. He said, no, no, no, I'm sitting with you. You know, just because a bigger star came in the room...

HARRIS: Yes, that's terrific.

GUTTENBERG: ...doesn't mean that I have to go over there. So I just thought that was great. HARRIS: You know what I love. You're telling these stories and you're telling them with a smile on your face that just gives us a real indication that he touched your life in a meaningful way. Steve Guttenberg, it's great to see you.

GUTTENBERG: Tony, it's great to see you. And we got to celebrate Merv's life, because he's one of the rare guys. He was a talent. He was a businessman. And he had a heart as big as the universe.

HARRIS: Well said. Steve, great to see you.

And still to come in the NEWSROOM tonight, Los Angeles International Airport still in a crunch. A computer system failed. International passengers were stranded on a tarmac for hours. We will follow up tonight and hear firsthand what they had to go through.

Plus, hammer attack -- an outrage story out of Pennsylvania. Four grandmothers, yes, fall victim to a brutal robbery. The full story in just a couple minutes.

And well look at this. Did anybody say meow? More than 100 street cats. What's with all the fur? We'll show you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TIME STAMP: 2218:52

HARRIS: Hey, welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM. I want to take a moment to show you some of the hottest clips into the CNN NEWSROOM this hour. This is from an i-report sent into us from Jeff Hunter. This is Tama, Ohio, which is very near Dayton, Ohio. And you're looking at a - wow, grain elevator explosion and fire. Pretty dramatic video, as you can see here. The best news in all of this -- no one injured but pretty dramatic scene there in Tama, Ohio.

We want to take you to an area just south of Los Angeles. Look at this. A plane, small commuter plane, crashes into a house on its back on the roof there. A couple of pieces of good news here. No one inside the home at the time. So no injuries on the ground. Can you believe this? The pilot was pulled out of that plane without any injuries. No gas explosion there and no real threat to other homes in that neighborhood.

Let's take you to India right now. Take a look at this boulder, part of a landslide as you can see here. It's caused all kinds of problems in India. A lot of heavy flooding and rains over the last couple of weeks or so really loosen the earth there. So you have this kind of activity going on in various parts of India. Hundreds of people just have not been able to get around because of road closures. So that's the real problem there in India.

Let's give you one more piece of really popping video right now. OK, take a look at this. Russia, cats, everywhere. This woman, her two-bedroom apartment filled with you guessed, 130 cats. You're wondering what feeding time sounds like in that apartment. Oh, take a listen to this. It's pandemonium, it's bedlam. But there you go. So if you're in Russia and you're missing a cat, you have a pretty good idea now of where it is.

Just minutes ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, well they ought to know, but seniors are getting a birds and bees lesson in New York City. You won't believe this story. It's coming up for you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TIME STAMP: 2222:43

HARRIS: Four grandmothers getting their hair done become victims of a violent crime. What the robber did is downright sadistic.

He is a man who takes pictures of young girls and doesn't apologize for it. Our affiliate confronted him. He's mad all right, but what will make you angry is this. Parents may be helping him out. And your stocks are sliding, the home buying market is a mess, just how worried should you be? And what can you do to stay on solid ground? We will put a financial whiz in the hot seat. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

For a little outrage this evening. He walked in with a hammer, beat up four grandmothers, and left with less than 90 bucks. Yes. You got to be kidding me here, to Wilksbury (ph), Pennsylvania. The ladies were at a barbershop getting their hair done when a hammer- wielding man stormed in and demanded cash. No one, absolutely no one put up a fight, but the women were beaten any way. Two of them pretty badly. Police got a tip. And after a ten-hour manhunt, they arrested the 41-year-old suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. FRANK HACKEN, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: A son was responsible for killing a mother, father, and a brother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Can you believe this? Laceyville, Pennsylvania, it was probably the one person few people suspected. 31-year-old Steven Colegrove is in jail tonight, accused of killing his father, mother, and older brother. Police say the motive was money that Colegrove did it to collect his inheritance. He is due in court on Wednesday. The town's former fire chief, wife, and son will be buried Tuesday. They were much loved in this close knit community of 400.

In Colorado, he walked onto the field a backup college kicker. He walked off a convicted felon. Prosecutors say Mitch Cozad was becoming northern Colorado's starting punter. So much so, he plunged a knife into his rival's kicking leg. He'll have about five years in prison to think about his mental meltdown. This week, a jury convicted Cozad of second degree assault. He was originally charged with attempted murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN BUCK, WELD CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The message is that in America, we take sports too damn seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, maybe it's a sign of the times. A Florida business owner says he is being evicted for speaking English. Tom Mckenna has less than a month to move. He's rented this spot for seven years, but just got a letter from his landlord saying he only wants tenants who will serve the Spanish community. McKenna's water treatment business just doesn't fit in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM MCKENNA, FLORIDA BUSINESSMAN: Now that's just a kick in the face to me. Like what am I, just really been a bad tenant for like the last seven years?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK, nothing like saying it with flowers, especially when the love note comes with a lawsuit. Yes, in Houston, there is a problem. A man sends his girlfriend a bouquet. The florist faxes the receipt to his estranged wife. Oops. Well, he is now suing 1-800- FLOWERS for $1 million for the little snafu, claiming mental anguish. And what was this likely to cost him in his divorce.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the people, you know, thought well, that was just hilarious. But you know, I just feel like that if you have a pet, you need to take care of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. Come on. If you're a dog named Mac Daddy, well, you got to be cool, right. But as temperatures soared into triple digits this week in Greensboro, North Carolina, being cool wasn't so easy. That's when Ira Godwin went to work. He hooked up a window unit and Mac Daddy's dog house. And tonight, Mac Daddy is one cool hip cat.

OK, we will keep you up to date on the latest news out of Neosho, Missouri. We will have another live report from the scene of a deadly church shooting. More details just moments away.

Plus, a computer glitch at Los Angeles Airport makes the trip to America miserable for hundreds of international passengers. You will hear what they went through straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

And then let's talk about sex, baby, or should I say, granny. Some interesting news about seniors and sex. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TIME STAMP: 2228:08

HARRIS: Computer meltdown, two words you don't want to hear at the airport. Well, passengers at Los Angeles International were hearing that and more over the last 24 hours. The trouble started when a security system crashed. Screeners couldn't access information. And they weren't sure which international passengers to actually let into the country. And then things got even worse if you can imagine it. Just ask Adam Reider. He was flying home from China. And he joins us tonight from Los Angeles. Well, it's good to see you. You're not on the land line. I get to see your face. Adam, good to see you. Good to talk to you.

ADAM REIDER: Good to see you, Tony. I know we were talking on the phone. I think I was in the bathroom of the airplane.

HARRIS: Is that where you were in the bathroom? No, you weren't.

REIDER: I was. I was calling at my office so I could talk to you and not be distracted by all the mail.

HARRIS: Your office. Nice. Hey, how long, actually, come from start to finish, were you actually on that plane?

REIDER: I was on the plane - well, it was a 12-hour flight, 11.5 hour flight. Five hours then once we landed. So I guess we'd call that a 15.5 hour flight...

HARRIS: Are you kidding me?

REIDER: ...and then there's baggage claim.

HARRIS: Are you kidding me? Why didn't they just fly you to another airport?

REIDER: Well, you know, actually, and that -- you would actually brought that to our attention, too. We had talked on the phone yesterday. And you'd said, you know, why don't you guys ask them to direct you to another airport?

HARRIS: Yes.

REIDER: I talked to some passengers. And we were like, should we go to another airport? Should we even like start that whole conversation with the airlines?

HARRIS: Yes.

REIDER: And a loft people had connections and stuff. So people were worried that you know, they wouldn't make those connections if we went to let's say Ontario or what not.

HARRIS: Hey, did you send us some pictures?

REIDER: My friend Peter did. HARRIS: Oh, OK.

REIDER: My friend Peter and Jessica. They sent some photos to you of what happened.

HARRIS: OK. So we're going to look at a couple of those photos. But tell me, all right. What did you do all that time? What - come on, you're sitting on the tarmac all those hours. What do you do? What do you do?

REIDER: Well, first -- one of the reasons we were so bored, we decided to call CNN because we wanted to keep reaching out there that was actually kind of turning into like an unacceptable situation. It was like hour two.

HARRIS: Yes.

REIDER: We didn't have much information. So we thought we'd call CNN...






ADAM REIDER, TRAVELER: And when we saw the cookie and Oreo cart come in we knew it was trouble and in for a long ride.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well it looks like at least they opened the doors for you so able to sort of walk around. I don't know if you were allowed to leave the plane. At least you were able to get some fresh air in there.

REIDER: We walked out to the ladder area. It was like a ladder. Then we got to see all the other planes. Probably about nine planes out there. We realized that this is probably a bigger problem and all those planes are waiting, too. Kind of dawned on us this could be a really, really long wait.

HARRIS: What did they give you, a gazillion frequent flyer miles? What do they give you when they keep you on a plane for all these hours?

REIDER: They didn't give us anything. They gave us soda and cookies and crackers and not much information and there were a lot of people freaking out that had flights on other airlines. Rumors going around that they weren't going to reimburse. I don't know what happened with those people but they were definitely concerned.

HARRIS: Safe and sound. There he is. Adam, great to see you. Thanks for talking to us last evening and again giving us this update.

REIDER: Thanks, Tony. Thanks for everything.

HARRIS: Sure thing.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM the latest on a deadly shooting in a Missouri church. Gunfire, blood, chaos a live report from the small town of Neosho. Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

Plus, 10 and 12-year-old girls in bikinis or less posing in front of a camera. Their pictures all over the Internet put there by the photographer, shocking but legal. The full story in just a few moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Just in to CNN tonight we have learned that republican presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson has dropped out of the race. He had a poor showing this weekend in the Ongar (ph) Straw Poll. Here is some tape of Thompson talking about his decision today.

TOMMY THOMPSON: I'm out of the race. I told everybody, if I couldn't do first or second I didn't want to prolong it. And I wanted to do what do the best, that's retail politics and I went over the state, I worked, as you know, you traveled with me. You know how hard I worked, that's life. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't. And this was one of those times, you know, that the votes weren't there but my ideas, I am positive will continue.

HARRIS: And remember you can get all of your political news at CNN, the home of the best political team on television.

More now on tonight's shocking and deadly church attack in southwest Missouri. It's the town of Neosho at the foot of the Ozarks. That's where one man with at least three guns interrupted a worship service and started shooting. It's an act of violence that has stunned this town of about 11,000 people. Let's go to Neosho and talk to August Skamenko. He is with our affiliate KOMU in Columbia, Missouri.

August, good to see you. What have you learned this evening?

AUGUST SKAMENKO, KOMU: Tony, what we can tell you at this point this midday church service that was interrupted by the gunman killing three people. Three killed inside this church, six to ten others that were injured and thereafter that shooting he engaged in a hostage situation. The police here were able to defuse that about ten minutes after it began. But while it went on there were people there in the pews of this church still inside, between 20 and 50 of them that were held hostage. We know that when he entered the church he had three weapons, and what we're hearing is a high ammunition like type clip, 9mm handgun and then a number of others.

The why, as to this shooting here is still unknown but we hear that it's possible that there was some sort of confrontation that began last night that carried into today and that's why he entered the church. Of course he's in custody here in the Neosho, Missouri.

HARRIS: Just very quickly, has he been charged? Formally charged?

SKAMENKO: No, what we believe that's going to come sometime in the morning and so we will wait for that and keep you updated when that -- as we get closer to when that happens here.

HARRIS: OK. August Skamenko for us from Neosho, Missouri this evening. August, thank you.

A young girl in provocative poses, half naked posted on line. It looks illegal but apparently it's not. Our CNN affiliate out of Orlando WFTV and reporter Steve Barrett went after the guy who is posting them but the photographer says he's not working alone. You won't believe who is helping him out.

STEVE BARRETT, ORLANDO WFTV: David Hardman is angry with channel 9 for continuing to expose this, little girls in thong bikinis and sexy poses. Hardman calls it modeling. Since we first expose add website we won't name, Hardman has photographed even younger girls just 10 and 12 years old now. The photo spreads are so reveal we won't even show most of the pictures. Girls in bathtubs, lying in beds and it's all just barely legal. Are these kids victims?

KEVIN GILLICK, GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER: I think so.

BARRETT: Kevin Gillick's a long-time children's advocate. He publishes the Guardian Newspaper, a free quarterly that outs pedophiles.

GILLICK: These are obviously salacious seductive, sexual pictures. Children in thongs. 13 year olds in latex. This is a sexual fetish. This is pedophilia and no matter what way you stack it up, that's the way it is.

BARRETT: Most shocking for Gillick, the website describes parents attending the shoots. For a $500 fee little girls get their own DVD sold on line for $39.

GILLICK: So if you're going to have your daughter do this kind of modeling and you're going to take money for it, no. That even though it's legal, you're having your child promoted for sex.

BARRETT: Law enforcement can't do much about it as Hardman seems carefully not to cross the legal line. Since our first report last year, he says his neighborhood has turned on him.

DAVID HARDMAN: No, I said all I'm going to do. I'm going to get more and mire violent here if I continue to talk.

HARRIS: OK. That was reporter Steve Barrett from our Orlando affiliate WFTV.

You know, I had my first date when I was 17 years old. Hi, how are you, nice to meet you. Want to go for a soda? Boy, have things changed since then for some reason most of us don't think what it's like for the generations before us. Case in point, New York is spending a million bucks on free condoms for seniors. It's all about HIV/AIDS. Not exactly the demographic you think of until now. Here is CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Along with a nutritious lunch at a senior center in Flushing, New York, are free condoms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take it all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not with me, baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?

CHERNOFF: Courtesy city hall, official NYC subway logo condoms.

FRANK GARCIA, CITY RESIDENT: I look on the logo and it says NYC. Is it limited to the city limits?

CHERNOFF: A joke to some but it's more than a laughing matter for women and men who are frisky well past their 50s.

ROSE CRESCENZO, NYC RESIDENT: If they ask you to dance they want to go to bed with you right away. So you've got to be very carefully.

CHERNOFF: New York City is spending $1 million for seniors' AIDS education this fiscal year partly because drug cocktails mean those already infected are living longer and drugs like Viagra increase sexual options for many seniors.

CARYN RESNICK, NYC DEPT. FOR THE AGING: We are now at a point where 32 percent of those infected with HIV or AIDS are people over the age of 50. We wanted to raise awareness among the senior population.

CHERNOFF: The educators are seniors who are HIV positive like this 66-year-old, Myron Gold, a regular speaker at retirement centers.

MYRON GOLD, AIDS EDUCATOR: When I presented them with a bowl of condoms they were grabbing them and saying to me, it's not for me, it's for my son or for my grandson but the director told me that they are having unprotected sex, the people in the 80s, men and women, were having sex.

CHERNOFF: Gold and Brenda Lee Curry who has had AIDS for eight years say their message needs to be reinforced by physicians. When a senior goes to see their doctor, this is not really something that comes up. BRENDA LEE CURRY, HIV/AIDS EDUCATOR: No. He's too embarrassed to ask her. This is like asking your mother or Aunt Sara, ma, are you having sex? No, he's not going to ask an older woman that when he should.

CHERNOFF: The Centers for Disease Control says seniors aged over 65 accounted for just two percent of HIV diagnoses in 2005, the latest year on record but researchers say as people with HIV age sexually active seniors face a growing risk of infection. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait a minute. Josh, this is a segment about how much sex older folks are having. Is that what this segment is about?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what we're watching.

It's 10:42 in the evening. It's on you now.

LEVS: This is good to know. Thank you. Not going to give me a transition into this. Come on, people. When does Rick come back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a month. You're stuck with me and bad transitions.

LEVS: I do love this guy. What we want to do is follow up what you just saw with some numbers. That's where I come in. You know me if there's a number out there I'm determined to find it and there is a survey about how often the elderly seniors in America are having sex. They are having sexual intercourse. We want to show you some numbers here. There's study from the AARP conducted in 2004 and it has basically the interest that you're looking for here. I think does our control room have this? Take a look. This shows you the breakdown right there. If you look at the ages, if you're in the 60s or in the 70s. I want you to notice something. See men 36 percent. Women 24 percent. Then the next decade and beyond men 22 percent women at 14. But you might think men substantially more than women. There's a reason for that. Men actually as a rule die before their wives more often therefore women are left without their male sex partners. You're going to find that in overall numbers men still have the female sex partners, women don't. So really to understand how much sex seniors are having we need to show you this which is the next graphic here which is specifically the number of people who have sex partner whose are having intercourse. Do we have that one guys? It's about the same thing. You're going to see the percentages are about the same. People who are above retirement age, older than 65, when in they're 70s and 80s men and women intercourse on a regular basis about 34 percent. So about one-third of people at that age who are in the seniors, retired, usually and have the time of their lives say they are having sexual intercourse on a regular basis at least once a week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That sounds like all encouraging news to me. You brought nothing but good news here.

LEVS: It might be increasing so by the time you and I get there maybe it will be more. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me sooner than you.

LEVS: A little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM the money woes of last week over? Or will things get worse when the markets open tomorrow. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got your mind on your money and your money on your mind. Stocks are sliding, the home buying market is a mess. What can you do to stay on solid ground? This guy knows the answer. Russell Pearlman senior writer for Smart Money Magazine. I want to get to the end and the beginning. What are your thoughts on the open tomorrow? Up, down, another rocky day?

RUSSELL PEARLMAN, SENIOR WRITER FOR SMART MONEY MAGAZINE: Probably a lot more volatility. People have to remember for the past three years the volatility which is a measurement of how fast stocks move up or down has been at lows for the past 20 years. Now we're kind of just getting back to the normal norm when it comes to volatility even with all the ups and downs last week.

If you go from Monday to Friday of last week with all the manic swings and Pepto-inducing volatility, the S&P 500 was actually only down less than one percent last week even with all the swings. You could have turned off the TV at 4:00 last Friday, gone to sleep for a week and woke up at 4:00 this past Friday and see the market only moved less than a percent, no big deal. Right? Which is the moral of this story is unless you're a trader, the markets day to day moves really back and forth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to believe that but I got to tell you watch everything this perch it's the best reality TV on TV to watch the market the last couple of weeks here. Psychologically, I want to believe you but I don't like this. I don't like all the volatility. I'm wondering it may not impact you now but it might impact me soon, 401(k), mutual fund, everything safe for now?

PEARLMAN: Well, certainly some degree of concern to the declining U.S. housing market. Everyone in their mother and father tried to get mortgages. Mortgage lenders want to give them mortgages. You had all the people who were taking on mortgages that they perhaps could afford when interest rates were very low. But now interest rates are much higher. And they are adjustable rate mortgages are now switching. They are raising. 60 percent of all the adjustable rate mortgages that were issued between 2004 and 2006 are going to be readjusted over the next couple years at 25 percent higher rate.

HARRIS: But you know what Russell, the reality is I have got A-1 perfect credit. If I need to, a home equity loan, because of this credit crunch, because of the practices of these practices of these lenders, you know I am going to be penalized for the mistakes of these companies the money just isn't going to be as cheap as it was say three or four months ago.

PEARLMAN: That is very true. We have seen even the folks with the best of credit have credit lines, you used to be able to get interest rates at six, six and a half percent. Now that the jumbo loan it's going to be seven percent, seven plus percent if you can get a jumbo mortgage at all. That's a relatively short term phenomenon.

HARRIS: You think so?

PEARLMAN: Financial institutions are going to be able to figure out after this initial gut reaction where they cut back credit for everyone, they are going to be able to loosen up restrictions soon enough. Because they do need to issue mortgages from time to time. But I will say the big thing that a lot of people need to watch is over the next year or 18 months, as all these mortgages start to reset, and people who can't afford the mortgages now, a year and a half from now, when their interest rates are much higher we're going to see are they going to be able to still afford their house along with the higher gasoline bill, and their higher grocery bill.

HARRIS: Everything else is going up. You know what, I'm going to get a little liquid and sit on the sidelines a little bit. Russell Pearlman, good to see you Russell. Thanks for your time this evening.

PEARLMAN: Thank you.

HARRIS: Still to come in the NEWSROOM the world is built for medium-size people. Do you know who says that? This man, the world's tallest man his story a little later.

Look at the mountain gorillas is saving them is the job for a hero CNN style. We'll be right back.

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HARRIS: A majestic species almost to the point of extinction but one man is helping to turn that around. He is from Rwanda and fighting to protect the threatened mountain gorilla. Tonight's CNN hero.

When we come back the world's tallest man. He's proud of his Guinness world record but he is prouder of the birthday gift from his hometown. We will introduce you to him coming up in the NEWSROOM. Why oil when we have all these other alternatives? Our whole economy and the world economy is based on transportation. We constantly consume all this energy. Nobody's talking about where we're going to get the next source of energy. The transition from oil to another alternative source is, um...is a must.

If you would like to help him protect mountain gorillas or nominate your own hero for special recognition go to CNN.com/heroes.

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HARRIS: Hey, take a look at this. This man just entered the Guinness Book of Records under the title World's Tallest Man. Leanit Statnick (ph) is eight feet four inches tall but his height hasn't brought him many benefits. He lives in a tiny village with his mother in Ukraine and he battles a range of health problems related to his extraordinary height.

I'm Tony Harris. We have had a lot of news over the last hour and we're not done yet. Stay tuned for the Sago mine tragedy.

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