Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Mining CEO Gives Update on Rescue Efforts; Mattel Toy Recall; Michael Vick Making Plea Bargain?

Aired August 14, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

RICHARD STICKLER, MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: On the rehabilitation work underground it continues to go slow. It's very difficult. We're putting in a tremendous amount of support, ground support, vertical support from the ground to the roof.
These are 40-ton water jacks that are being installed with chain- link fence behind the water jacks. The water jacks are set under pressure, approximately 1,100 psi. So we're putting in as much support there as we know.

We've talked to the MIOSH (ph) experts on ground control to confirm whether or not the procedures that we're using to provide ground support underground are the best for these conditions.

We have taken pictures, both on the mountain. Yesterday I was up with the photographers there, and also the mine operators, safety director, took pictures underground. These pictures are for the families. We're trying to be responsive in every way we possibly can.

And the pictures are helping the families understand the conditions underground and the work that's going on, and the enthusiasm of the workers underground, the hustle of the workers underground.

And the pictures on the surface show the steep mountain terrain, the very narrow roads. There's places where we've had to carve 10 or 12 feet of rock out of the side of the mountain and move that off to the edge of the cleft in order to have a roadway to move the heavy drill equipment and the material up and down the mountain.

These roads are very narrow. They're treacherous, and they're very steep. So the pictures that we showed down at the family meeting will be shown here. They were not taken for the purpose of the press. They were taken to -- for the purpose of helping the families. And to give them some -- some confidence and understanding of what we're into.

But since we have them available, we are going to share those here with the press. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Murray, and he will address that.

BOB MURRAY, CEO, MURRAY ENERGY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

As Mr. Stickler well said, the video and still pictures that we're going to show you this morning were prepared for the families. They're right up to the minute. They were taken underground last night and this morning and from the drill sites yesterday afternoon.

We've been focused on only two items for the last eight days: administering to the needs of the families, and pressing as fast as we can to rescue the trapped miners. We have spared nothing in our efforts to get to the trapped miners underground, and in the drilling to access the cavities where we think they may have been or are.

At this time, I will show you the videos and some still pictures. I would appreciate if you would allow it to play through. Make a note of your questions, and I'll be pleased to answer them. The videos aren't narrated.

And with that, I hope that this helps not only the families, but does explain to all of America the exhaustive efforts that have been going on in the rescue attempt and also the extreme difficulties that we've encountered both under ground and on the mountain terrain in carrying out our rescue plan.

Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: The ground conditions are extremely dangerous, as we advance towards the rescue of the miners. It does provide and install very, very elaborate ground control, rib protection and roof control program.

First, we send these pipes down. They're high pressure. They're set at 1,100 pounds with water and sealed. And improvised with a grate on the top with the water jack. Here they call them rock props. Very strong pressure against the roof.

After that, we install chain-link fencing back here. Chain-link fencing. That's to keep any sloughage (ph) that may come off the ribs held by this -- by this fencing.

Then we install these very large 6 by 8 timbers with a sort of a donut on the top to keep the pressure consistent on the roof and bottom. Then we wrap these water jacks and timbers with three strands of cable. We lock them together, as you can see here, so that if there is any rib movement or pressure from the rib, it will pull against enough of these jacks and timbers together, because they're tied together, as you can see, with these cables.

Now, this is in addition to the original roof support, which is already in place, and, of course, that's the roof holds and the wire mesh.

You can see here the seismic shock, the quake did not damage the roof. Only the ribs of coal blew out and blew coal out into the entry. And this is what we must clean up, and this is a very slow, a very costly process to get to where we believe the miners are trapped. But we must do it to protect the rescue workers.

In this rib, we use timbers and water jacks only on this rib. OK. As we advance to about 700 feet now towards the trapped miners, and the roof conditions have become even worse, we're going to exclusively rock props, and the rib conditions have also increased in terms of the amount of outburst.

So we set these rock props at 1,100 pounds of pressure, and with a head on them, we set them tightly against the roof. And we also set the chain-link fence to keep any sloughage from coming from the ribs. Then in addition -- then in addition we tie them together...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five seconds there, we'll be out of your way.

MURRAY: ... with cables so that if there is any outburst from this seismic activity and tectonic activity, that outburst will be caught by a number of these rock cuffs tied together and/or mesh.

And, of course, as you can see, we also do the same type of tying the rock props together on the other rib, as well. This results in very...

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: If you're just tuning, I just want to explain what's happening right now. This is Bob Murray. He taped this, actually, earlier. He's the head of Murray Energy, which owns the mine there in Huntington, Utah, where those six trapped miners are.

What he's trying to give us a perspective of is the type of support that the mine has, the walls and the roof. And he's explaining that not only is the drilling going on from the outside to try and find out where those trapped miners are, but on the inside, those rescue crews are trying to work their way through that rubble to those trapped miners.

He's basically showing us why it's taking so long, why it's a slow process. He said it's a costly process that they're trying to get through all of those mechanisms. Because as you can imagine, since there was some type of cave-in, there are all of these support systems and chunks of concrete and poles and et cetera they have to work their way through to try to get to those miners, and that's what's taking so long.

So Bob Murray, underneath, inside the mine there, trying to give us a visual of what they're up against to get to those six, trapped miners. I know it's sort of difficult to hear him, but we're just going to kind of stay with this for a few minutes to see what more he has to say.

I just wanted to set the scene for you.

MURRAY: As we have advanced, we install these new steel stoppings to provide good ventilation to the rescue workers. These stoppings, as you notice, are tied with chain to jack posts to further support the stoppings and keep them in flux.

Actually, we've had to do this three times. We've put them in twice before, and they were blown out by additional seismic activity. And it's settled down now, and the stoppage and the supports we've been putting in place have remained in place.

Here comes another ram car.

A roof holding machine that is used to serve these roof bolts in place, should we need to add any more support, such as right here. Right here. We keep it available. Actually, the rock props and the wire mesh that you see at the entry there, will keep things pretty well supported, but occasionally, we must insert additional roof bolts, and that's what this machine does for us. We keep it close to the working face.

We're now approaching towards where the continuous miner is advancing towards the recovery of these miners.

And here we are setting one of the water jacks or rock props that we use to support the roof. First they dig out into the solid bottom. And they can get down into solid rock.

Then they set a base under the prop. Then they hook a water line to the prop, set this prop in the base, put a head on top of the prop for the cap face, connect the water line to the prop, and inject water pressure of 1,100 pounds to force the pressure against the roof.

And you see the jack moving up now against the roof.

Now, once they get the jack set against the roof, they seal it by taking this hammer device and building the seal in, and it's now at 1,100 pounds, and now it's set. Then they bleed the water pressure off.

And they're going to set one more, so we'll watch the process.

Billy, I need you. Just a second here.

They dig out the bottom where they can get the solid rock underneath the coal.

Set the base, insert the prop in the base. Put the head piece and the wooden cap plate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: As you can see, this process is very, very slow, as we approach the trapped miners to protect the rescue workers. Our miners there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: When he reaches 1,100 pounds, he turns it off and bleeds the line. And then he -- he sets the jack in place.

Over here is the continuous miner. This is the machine that is being used to mine our way towards the miners. This is the back ends of it. You can see the cross cut right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MURRAY: You can see some real hustle from our miners. They're all working as fast as they possibly can.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: This is the firing unit. This bomb discharges into the ram car where the coal is pulled out to the belt and taken out of the mine as we advance.

This is as far as the advancement has gone. I -- I can't proceed beyond this point, because there's no real protection, but I wanted to point out that, as you notice here the gray in the face. When the seismic activity occurred, and the earthquake occurred, that rib of coal was blown out into this entry. Blown all the way out.

This gray material was back here against this rib, back beyond where the man is working. And with the outburst of the rib, it blew out and blew in this direction.

So you see the roof is solid, and it's been maintained. There's been no cave in. And that gives us encouragement that we will find the miners alive, if they were not killed in the initial concussion of the seismic activity.

The outburst from the ribs is what has caused our inability to access the miners. And if you are here right now, right at the furthest point that we have driven towards the trapped miners, a distance of about 700 feet from where we started and about 1,200 feet from where we think they're located.

Get over on here guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have to go back across that.

MURRAY: We can't stand here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we've got to go back. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: The miners are working diligently.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: The man power, more props, more materials to provide more support. It brings the props in. Then it will be bring the coal out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the damn rope stuck again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now you'll see the continuous miner that's actually digging the tunnel, loading in a shuttle cart. Or into the rim cart. This is the continuous miner here. That is the machine digging the entry towards the trapped miners.

Stop the track, right after this.

You see how confined the quarters are there, how close we were to the machinery. We're going to stop for a moment and allow the traffic to move through, and then we'll go to the mountain for the drilling.

Sheriff, proceed.

PHILLIPS: Bob Murray there, the head of Murray Energy that owns that mine where those six trapped miners are.

You just saw a videotape. It was a little confusing, kind of hard to understand. But basically, what he was trying to show us and give us a perspective of, is what those rescue workers are going through down in that mine.

What they're having to do to get through the walls and the concrete is actually build a support system. They have to create a wall and roof system as they dig so they themselves don't get trapped inside that mine.

So Murray was just trying to show how it's a very slow process, a difficult process, and that there are -- it's -- just basically, it's foot by foot, that they are dealing with as they bring this machinery to try to get to those trapped miners.

He believes the trapped miners could be 1,200 feet from where they are located right now, trying to whittle their way through. We're going to continue to follow this news conference. Once Murray starts taking questions, we'll come back to it.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This big story. And also another huge story today. A huge toy recall announced today. It is the second in two weeks involving millions of toys made in China. Are some of them in your house? It's a big question for you. We'll tell you what they are, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The owner of the mine talking about a new drill rig and how they're going over these trapped miners. Let's take a listen to the press conference.

MURRAY: That is the site they're on. Actually, the 585 feet is about an hour old. So I'm sure they're at around 700 feet now. They're working as rapidly as they can. Very difficult, steep terrain. But this is where the miners are, where we think they are, below there. So we have no choice as to where we're drilling.

There is Joe's Valley. There's a huge 1,000-foot offset fault through this valley. Now you can see the drill site on the side of the mountain. It gives you a better perspective as to the difficulty of building roads into the drill site and then actually drilling on this topography.

You can see where the original drill site was up there. Drill -- drill holes one and two, and the 1,300-foot road that we built winding down to the No. 3 drill site. See it all very well in one photo here. Right on the side of the mountain.

I've had five engineers camped up there all week. And MSHA has had two people that alternate in and out. We're in constant contact with them as they proceed with their work.

And our engineers' calculations have been perfect. They've drilled down almost 1,900 feet in the first two holes and hit precisely or very close to where they wanted those holes to be in the mine.

Now, we'll go down on the ground in a minute. And you'll get a better perspective to how steep the terrain is. We're going to fast forward now just a little bit so that we might get you on the ground.

Again, these were prepared for their families so that they can see everything being done in the rescue operation. We've met with them twice a day, and when we first started last week, I met with them four times a day. But as we've progressed with the effort the last several days, we've had two meetings a day, and we bring them as much information as we can.

This is the No. 3 drill hole, 8 5/8 inches. It will be 1,415 feet deep. This is the machine that also drilled the No. 2 hole to a depth of 1,886 feet.

Yes, it would be quicker to drill it with this machine as it was to drill the third hole with this machine, because we had to build 8,000 feet of roads to begin with, for the holes one and two. Then we had to build 1,300 feet of roads for hole No. 3, and we can have the fourth hole down quicker than with this machine than build the roads in and obtain another machine.

QUESTION: Bob, do you feel that third hole is almost like the last bit of hope in terms of...

MURRAY: No. No. 4, they could be where No. 4 is. What we had thought -- Jim, why don't we stop right now.

And if I can use this map here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you give us a second to -- sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can just put it on the table.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

MURRAY: When the seismic activity first occurred at 2:38 a.m. last Monday, the 6th, the men, we believe, were working right here. So we drilled holes one and two in this general area, which on a larger scale is this area right here, and, indeed, the holes came down right where we wanted them to. And you saw from the photographs that we showed you that we found evidence that the miners were working there, tool bags, belt conveyor and other items they would use in their mining, but we did not find any signs of human life.

The third place that the miners would go, based on the training that we give them, is to that location back there where it says, bore hole No. 3, and you see it marked there. And that is where we're drilling to right now, drill hole No. 3. They may have gone into that area and barricaded themselves to have good air that would support life.

There is a possibility in we don't find them there, we are going to drill in -- near the center of the panel here. They may have come this direction, and that will be our fourth hole, if necessary.

I'm hoping, however, that our drivage in this area -- and we started right here and we're 700 feet in, to about right here, right now, that we'll get to the miners, driving underground in this area quicker than we could drill the hole No. 3 setup and drill No. 4 back here. So this activity has been very slow, but it is progressing more rapidly now.

QUESTION: You're hoping to get there before bore hole three actually finishes?

MURRAY: Not before it finishes three, but I think we could be there before we finish bore hole four. It's a possibility. And the reason is the seismic activity has settled down. There is virtually none in there. I was in there for several hours last night, and there was none no seismic activity at all, which was encouraging, now that we can move much faster.

QUESTION: What are you thinking, another week, two weeks?

MURRAY: I won't speculate, as Mr. Stickler wouldn't either. It's very difficult when you're dealing with nature how long it could be, but you could do the math. We're in a third of the way 700 feet out of 2,000. We've been -- since we got mobilized and got it going, maybe seven days. We're going about twice as fast as we were. So if we're in a third of the way, in seven days, but going twice as fast, then another five to seven days, we ought to be there. Now that's just a mathematical calculation, but we may encounter conditions underground that would make that longer.

QUESTION: You said the conditions were the worst that you have ever seen.

MURRAY: That is correct.

QUESTION: Can you describe a little bit about what you're confronting out there, the rescuers?

MURRAY: Well, we're not confronting what we were. We were confronting aftershocks, seismic activity that continued hourly, shiftily, as we were conducting the rescue effort. And we must protect those rescue workers. They're my miners. They're employees of Utah American Energy, Murray Energy. We must protect their lives and, of course, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is totally committed to their safety as well.

LEMON: That's Bob Murray, the owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine, talking about exactly what they are doing in order to get the six trapped miners out of this. He's shown three different videos inside the mine, an aerial from above the mine, and then on the ground, showing a new drill rig that has been brought in to get these miners. This one where he's showing how they shore up the walls so that they can get to these miners. He's saying they've gotten about 700 feet in, and they still have a bit more to go. They're about a third of the way in to get these miners. So we'll continue to update you on this story that's been developing for over a week now. As soon as we get more information and continue to monitor that press conference for you -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: For the friends and families of the trapped miners, the last eight days must have seemed like an eternity. Nancy Cammans is a longtime friend of miner Don Erickson's family. She says that they're clinging to hope and one another. Nancy joins us now from Huntington, Utah. Thanks for being with us, Nancy.

NANCY CAMMANS, FRIEND OF TRAPPED MINER'S FAMILY: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Tell us how you know the family?

CAMMANS: The sister of Don has been friends of mine since ninth grade. I don't want to tell you how many years that has been. But we've been friends over the years and over the miles. She's the type of person that when we get together, a minute hasn't been lost between us.

PHILLIPS: Well, this is obviously tough time for friends like and you family, of course, but we want to know more about Don. Can you tell us about him and humanize one of the individuals that the rescue workers are desperately trying to get to right now.

CAMMANS: I wish I knew Don better than I do. I know him through his sister, and every time we get together, we recap the families. You know how deep friendships are that way. We care so much about their brothers and sisters, and Gaylene has always loved her brothers. She respects them greatly. When they had a son, her brother that went off to war overseas, I know the worry and concern their family had, and we kept in touch with her then, and then with Don through this time. We talked by phone, and I know that from what she -- from their life together, I know he's always been -- loves the area, loves the work that he does, and he loves his family, and Gaylene loves him. They've been a very, very close knit, tight family for as long as I have known her.

PHILLIPS: And you talk about the love within that family. I know there has been a lot of frustration as well, at this is a painstaking and slow process. We were able to talk a little bit with Don's brother, Terry. Gaylene's brother obviously, as well, too. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: What did they tell you, though?

TERRY ERICKSON, BROTHER OF TRAPPED MINER: Just what you hear.

QUESTION: What exactly, though?

ERICKSON: The same stuff that's on TV.

PHILLIPS: Same stuff over and over.

ERICKSON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: What did Bob Murray have to say?

ERICKSON: Same stuff. I'm getting tired of hearing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You can see Don's brother, Terry. Really frustrated. He says the same steps, and he gets tired of hearing that there's not much progress. How is the family keeping up hope and trying to stay focused on the positive?

CAMMANS: I think there's a few elements in that. From my conversations with Gaylene and their mother last week, I believe that they know that it is frustrating waiting and not hearing news is antagonizing for them. Deeply concerned for his well being. When he comes out of the mine, what kind of condition he's going to be in.

So I think it's very, very frustrating to know he's four miles down, they don't know how he is, they can't communicate with him, and they are believing in the miracles that have happened in this area in the past with coal mining.

PHILLIPS: Tell us about those miracles, Nancy. Tell us about them.

CAMMANS: I would love to. I had a friend, one of Gaylene's friends of mine and ours, we had a group of friends that we were very, very close, and still are. One of our friends was injured in a mine accident when we were all 21. A 750-pound cement slab fell on his head, crushing his vertebras, which they said, you know, it's a miracle he's still alive.

And Gary was such an incredible person. He lived through that, and I don't know how. And he was paralyzed, and they told him, you know, of course, he's not going to be able to have children, and he was able to have two children after that accident and live a happy life. He passed away about a year ago, and that created our whole group to get together again. And our friendship runs really deep.

But that miracle for Gary was something really special to us that helped us realize that all the brains in the world, all the research, all the frustration of wondering how this technique is working and what techniques should they be doing doesn't matter, because being smart does not create the miracles. It's hope and faith that creates the miracles that we have seen. PHILLIPS: Well, it just takes one miracle to believe in another. Nancy Cammans, thanks so much for sharing your story with us. All right.

LEMON: We're following some developing news here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get straight to the breaking news desk. Word of a possible plea deal in the Michael Vick case, T.J.?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, kind of surprising for some folks to hear this, Don. But according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper now reporting that yes, in fact Michael Vick and his attorneys are in plea negotiations with prosecutors involving these dogfighting charges. This comes after three of his co-defendants reportedly going to be entering plea deals. One has entered a plea deal, the other two expected to enter plea deals this week.

That would mean that he is surrounded by people who have cut deals with the prosecution who you could then expect those defendants to turn and give the prosecutors information on Michael Vick and now it appears, according to the AJC, that Michael Vick is entering plea negotiations with these prosecutors.

They have given him a deadline. There was a superseding indictment that was handed up against him, which means that the prosecutors said that they might go back later and add other charges to the indictment that's already been put in place against Michael Vick. So, he could have been facing more charges. So this might be a way, if true here and again, reported by the AJC. If that's the case, then maybe Michael Vick and his attorneys are now looking at going ahead and copping a plea so he wouldn't have to face other charges.

Now, what this means for him personally is one thing. But also, it means another thing for his football career, and if he's going to play football at all this year. Who knows? A lot of attorneys will tell you that they do not expect him to get out of this, plea or not, without having some kind of jail time. He was facing under this indictment, facing five years in prison, a $250,000 fine.

But that is some major news coming from the AJC is that Michael Vick appears to be negotiating a possible plea with prosecutors in this dogfighting case. A lot more to come on this story. It sounds like we're going to get a lot of news out of this this week, Don.

LEMON: Oh yes, you can absolutely bet on that one, T.J. Thank you for that, stay on top of it for us.

Another major toy recall announced today. It's the second in two weeks involving millions of toys made in China. Are some of them in your house? We'll tell you what they are, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Your child's toy chest could be a Pandora's box. Mattel is recalling about nine million Chinese-made toys, it's second recall this month. The names are familiar: it's Barbie, Polly Pockets, Sarge and Batman.

The holiday shopping season fast approaching, what do we need to know? Elizabeth Cohen, our Medical Correspondent here to give us some information on this. What do we need to know?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of things you need to do. And let's break it down into two different categories because really, the recall looks at two different types of problems.

One, the first one we're going to talk about, because it's really the more acute issue, is magnets in toys. Any parent knows that toys these days, you see it right there, I know that's a Polly Pocket shirt because there are about ten of those in my house. They have magnets on them and the clothes stick to the doll or whatever.

The problem is is that these magnets can sometimes fall out and especially, it is dangerous if the child ingests more than one. The magnets that are swallowed attract each other in the intestine. And so far, three children have had to have surgery because of intestinal perforations and the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received more than 500 complaints that these magnets have fallen out.

So that is the first thing that parents need to know is you need to go to CNN.com. Look at what's being recalled, and get those out of the house. Because you do not want your child swallowing these magnets.

LEMON: Magnets, and then, the high levels of lead.

COHEN: Right.

LEMON: So what if your pediatrician finds high levels of lead? What will he or she do then?

COHEN: Right, the first thing you want to think about with the lead is that this is more of a long-term issue. The magnets are more of an acute issue. I mean, these kids needed surgery. The lead is more of a long-term issue.

So if your child has been licking or chewing on these toys with lead, is it a good thing? No. Is something going to happen tomorrow because of it? Also no. So parents need to know that they should not be panicked. What you want to do is you want to call your doctor if you're afraid that your child has been spending a lot of time chewing on these toys, and ask for a lead test. It's a simple finger prick, it is no big deal.

Pediatricians often do it as regular parts of office visits for young children for regular checkups. Ask for that lead test. If they find high levels, there is something they can do, there's something called chelation (ph) therapy. So there is something they can do.

LEMON: OK.

COHEN: They only do that for very, very high levels. Most of the time, they don't need to do it.

LEMON: OK, so big picture, or maybe I should say bottomline. How concerned, or should parents be worried about this? What should they be worried about?

COHEN: Parent should be worried. They should be worried enough that they go to their playroom and they get rid of these toys, both the ones with the magnets and the ones with the lead paint. But you also need to put it in perspective. Is it good that children have been chewing on toys or sucking on toys with lead paint if it's happened in the past, there is nothing you can do about it? No, that is not a good thing.

But remember, you know, you and I, we're sort of -- a little bit older, we're not really old, but we're over 30.

LEMON: Shh.

COHEN: You and I probably chewed on lead toys as children.

LEMON: Yes, and ate lead paint?

COHEN: And ate lead paint.

LEMON: Yes, because it was ...

COHEN: Is it good? No. Are we alive and well? Yes.

LEMON: Not to mention those pencils we were all chewing ...

COHEN: Right, exactly, that too.

LEMON: ...on too, that has lead in it as well, if you remember that, OK. Thank you very much for that always valuable information, Elizabeth Cohen.

COHEN: Thanks.

LEMON: Let's take a look now at some of the other recalls involving Mattel toys in the last decade. 2.5 million Lift and Lock swings were recalled in 2000. Last year, 2.4 million Polly Pocket magnet playsets were recalled and earlier this month, a recall of 1.5 million toys from Mattel's Fisher-Price division. The concern there: lead paint. Those toys also were made China.

And you can read complete details about the toy recall at our Web site. Just click on CNN.com and toys are just a fraction of this story. If you want to know more, click on our SPECIAL REPORT. It's called "Made in China," and you won't believe what you'll see there. That address is CNN.com/madeinchina.

And you can bet, Kyra, a lot of people are sounding off about the toy recall on CNN.com.

PHILLIPS: Well, when you see the video and you see all the various toys that they're warning your child shouldn't be playing with, I mean, you do. You want to look into your toy -- I mean, think of all our friends that have ...

LEMON: Right.

PHILLIPS: ...hundreds of toys in their playrooms.

LEMON: All over.

PHILLIPS: A lot of people talking about it.

LEMON: So, you're expressing your fears and your frustration.

Brenda posted this. "I have granddaughters and boxes of Polly Pockets and hundreds of Barbies. How am I going to get returns for all of these?"

PHILLIPS: And Debbie writes that, "We trust companies like Mattel and pay more for the brand name only to find out how inferior their products are. In the long run, outsourcing is going to cost these greedy companies more due to lawsuits. Made in America is the only safe way to go."

LEMON: But buying American is leading to frustration for Emily who writes, "I will happily pay more for toys made in America. But where are these toys? How do we find them? A quick google reveals all the toys kids want to play with are made in China!"

And "Tired of Toys" has his own solution to the problem. He writes, "Maybe I will just go get my kids a cardboard box to play with." His name is Tired of Toys, now I get it. "To play with. At least then I will know that it doesn't contain any lead."

Now, if you want to sound off about the toy recall, go to CNN.com. We'll have more of your posts later on right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Remember, every time we moved, my brother and I loved to play in the big cardboard box. Come on, admit it, you did it, too.

LEMON: That, and then the record albums that we would break open and make like houses and little things. My parents were not happy about any of that.

PHILLIPS: Woo, going way back. Well, but it was safer.

LEMON: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right, straight ahead, bracing for the wind and rain, Hawaii prepares for a brush with Hurricane Flossie. We'll be talking about that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, Hurricane Flossie is stirring up trouble in paradise. The eye of this category two storm is expected to blow past by Hawaii in a matter of just hours, just to the south of the Big Island. And with heavy winds and flooding rains expected, folks are emptying store shelves, emergency shelters are open, and all schools are closed. The last hurricane to hit the island was 15 years ago.

LEMON: Well, I have to admit, Flossie is a pretty interesting name. Let's hope it doesn't cause that much damage. Apparently, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic want to get in on this act, too.

Chad Myers, Flossie, how do they pick these names again? I like that name.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, baking still from Colorado to the Carolinas. Chad's been talking about this. A heat wave is claiming more victims by the day. At least a dozen people in six states have died from the scorching temperatures, many of them elderly, who were found in their homes with the windows shut, the air conditioner turned off. And public school systems are taking extra precautions now, canceling outdoor recess and postponing football practices until dark.

LEMON: Outraged parents versus a self-described pedophile. This round ends with the man being arrested twice. He says it's all just a big mistake. The story, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com