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American Morning
14 U.S. Troops Killed in Helicopter Crash in Iraq; Dean Not Done: Mexico Bracing for Second Hit; Adults, Kids & High Blood Pressure
Aired August 22, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Rising waters and daring rescues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the urban environments, the biggest hazards have turned out to be power lines. Just the wind in itself plays different off the buildings.
CHETRY: Deadly storms swamp the Midwest with a new threat of extreme weather today.
Disorder in the court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I genuinely love children.
CHETRY: A legal loophole allows a self-described pedophile out of jail. Who dropped the ball?
And sticker shock. Why sex is getting more expensive on college campuses across the country on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And welcome. Thanks so much for being with us once again. It is August 22nd, Wednesday.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hump day, right?
I'm Rick Sanchez, filling in for John.
We've got a lot of news to bring you today, including the weather stuff that we were telling you about in Mexico. That isn't done yet, but really, the real serious weather is right here in the United States.
CHETRY: Yes, the Midwest, plains states, dealing with some unbelievably damaging flooding.
We have that all for you, but we begin with breaking news from Iraq now.
Reports within the last couple of hours about the crash of an American Black Hawk helicopter and the deaths of 14 U.S. troops. The U.S. military is saying that that chopper went down on a night operation in northern Iraq.
CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.
Are they giving more information about -- about the crash and the people involved, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Yes, very sad news to report. There were actually two Black Hawk helicopters on a nighttime mission over northern Iraq. One of them did crash. All 14 on board killed -- four crew, 10 passengers. No indication of their units or their home towns at this point. But the military is saying they have no indications of hostile fire.
Why would they be saying that this early on? Well, by all accounts, the wingman flying alongside in that second helicopter saw no indications of hostile fire, and they believe at this point it was mechanical failure. But make no mistake, it's all under investigation, and they will look at the wreckage and come to a final determination about this tragic event -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. And for the families, it's certainly no less tragic if it was mechanical failure versus enemy fire.
Barbara checking out the details for us.
Thank you.
President Bush will be talking about the war today in Kansas City. The White House says he plans to use Vietnam's legacy to defend the Iraq war in a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. He is expected to talk about how millions of Vietnamese civilians suffered after the U.S. left. The president also expected to cite a quote from Osama bin Laden and make the argument that withdrawing from Vietnam 30 years ago emboldened today's terrorists -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: Hey, Kiran, this is what you and I were talking about just a little while ago. Remember yesterday we were talking about all that weather situation with a Category 5 hurricane down in Mexico. Today, it's here in the United States.
I mean, take a look at that picture right there behind me. That's like mud that they're trying to get out of the streets in an area in Ohio.
The numbers here are pretty amazing. Twenty-two people have been killed. This is in several states, in what officials say is some of the worst flooding that they've seen in, like, three decades.
This is from a tropical storm and a tropical depression, folks. That's parts of Erin that are left over.
Thousands of homes damaged in Minnesota. And damage is topping $38 million in Wisconsin as well. Now, I want to show you what happens when you have weather like that. See those folks right there? They're being rescued. In fact, Kiran is talking to some of those guys who were involved in that rescue that you're looking at right there.
The Coast Guard happened to come in. They couldn't get them out by boat. They couldn't get them out any other way, so they had to call in the Coast Guard. More dramatic pictures are coming in from Ohio like that one that we're going to be following up on as they try to get some of the people out there.
And the man who's following all this for us, there he is, Reynolds Wolf.
Boy, you've got your hands full, because you've got this -- you know, we can't forget about what is going on with Dean down in Mexico. That thing could regenerate and it could hit an area where the terrain is more susceptible to real problems, real flooding, even landslides, right?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, no question about it. We've got problems both north and south of the border. And here at home, we're having all kinds of those issues, especially the flooding that you were referring to.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WOLF: You want to talk about some serious rain? Let's head south. We were talking about this as well.
This, of course, is what's left of Hurricane Dean, still a Category 1 storm expected to make landfall by 2:00 in the afternoon with winds around 90 miles per hour. Then, when it comes onshore, north of Veracruz, it should be making even more of a weaker -- weaker storm.
We're looking at a tropical storm with winds of 45 miles an hour, but still a huge rainmaker as we get to early Thursday morning. And then by Thursday evening, still a depression and pushing farther back into northern Mexico.
That is the very latest on your forecast.
As Rick mentioned, Kiran, it is a very, very busy morning, but we'll keep you posted throughout the morning and the day.
Back to you.
CHETRY: Thank you. And as you're talking about, Hurricane Dean not done yet. It made landfall as the strongest hurricane seen in the Atlantic since Andrew hit back in 1992. Well, now the storm is setting its sight on Mexico's major oil posts and the mainland.
Rob Marciano is live in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, 40 miles south of where Dean first made landfall.
Hi, Rob. What does it look like today?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kiran, it's a whole other day, that's for sure. Much more quiet. It looks like the sun will come up. It's still pretty rough by Caribbean standards, but much more tranquil today than it was yesterday.
The wall I'm standing behind, waves were crashing up, right up to this wall. In some cases, up and down this beach, breaking this wall and shattering it as if it were made out of sand or foam.
Down -- a little bit farther down, this area completely under water. We had a surge of at least 12, if not 15, feet here. And we were well over a hundred miles from the storm. And you can see damage from docks and walkways on this resort, and that is echoed as we go up and down the Mayan Riviera, all the way to the southern tip of the Cancun hotel zone.
Where is this storm going next? Well, as you mentioned, in the Bay of Campeche right now.
There's a few slices of good news out of the National Hurricane Center. For one thing, it's a Category 1 with winds of 80 miles an hour. For another thing, they do expect it to strengthen, but probably not as vigorously as they once thought for a couple of reasons.
It looks like it will continue to scoot quickly across the Bay of Campeche. It's kind of south, so it doesn't have a whole lot of water to work with. It looks like it will remain a Category 1 when it makes landfall later on today.
Also, the hurricane hunter aircraft has said that the eye wall has kind of collapsed, so that means that it's a little bit more difficult for it to strengthen. But it will have a tremendous amount of rain and it will have winds likely to 90 miles an hour or better.
And the hurricane winds still extend 80 miles out. So even though when these things kind of collapse or weaken, sometimes the wind field can spread out and affect even more people.
So, we have a 70-mile-an-hour wind field by hurricane standards, and 200-mile-an-hour -- 200 mile radius for a tropical storm field. And the main concern with this is going to be rainfall as it makes landfall around 2:00 or 3:00 later on today, near -- near where Ed Lavandera is. And then rainfall in the mountains could be vigorous. We will watch out for the potential for mudslides.
That's the latest on Hurricane Dean, Kiran. Back up to you.
CHETRY: Rob Marciano, thank you -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: What is going on with a lot of these mines all over the world? Not just here. Remember the story we're following in Utah, but listen to this story that's taking place in China that we've been following for you and will continue to do so. China says it was a natural disaster that caused the flood in a mine that trapped 181 workers underground, 181 workers trapped underground. A local mine company is under fire this morning for failing to anticipate the flood threat after heavy rains weakened a nearby dike.
They say they should have done something about it. Now questions are being raised about the decision to send the men in after the mines were closed in the area to begin with. And it looks like they're going to be staying down there. They can't get them out.
The owner, meanwhile, of Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah says mining work should resume and that it would be safe to do so. Outraged family members of six miners still trapped are asking, OK, if it's safe to continue the mining, then why isn't it safe to continue digging for our loved ones? You can't have it both ways.
Now, the rescue, as you know, has been on hold since a collapse killed three rescuers last week. We're staying on top of that one.
And then, Senator Barack Obama's campaign is taking issue with how reports have described the comments that his wife Michelle made on the campaign trail. This is one of those she said/she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, BARACK OBAMA'S WIFE: One of the most important things that we need to know about the next president of the United States is, he somebody that shares our values? Is he somebody that respects family? Is a good and decent person?
So our view is that, if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: If you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House. Think of those words.
Some are saying that when they thought about it, it sounded like Michelle Obama was taking a shot at Senator Hillary Clinton, but Senator Obama says his wife's words had nothing to do with Mrs. Clinton and what happened in the White House with Monica Lewinsky and on and on. She says that what she was talking about is the importance of family, contextually speaking.
Well, it does, though, seem like candidates wives are making a lot of news these days. In some cases, more than their husbands.
Take the case for Elizabeth Edwards, for example. That's what we're going to be doing. We're looking into this and also the case of Elizabeth Edwards. That's coming up in the next half hour.
Kiran, to you.
CHETRY: We're looking forward to talking to her, for sure. Well, it's a good idea to know your numbers when it comes to blood pressure. And parents, you need to know your kids' numbers as well, because according to a new study, many doctors are missing it.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is at the CNN Center with details.
And it's interesting. You have to worry about kids' blood pressure as well.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you do. You know, it's interesting.
There's about two million children -- we're talking between the ages of 3 and 18 -- who have hypertension. High blood pressure in children. That's an alarming number in and of itself.
Even more alarming, perhaps, in some people is about 75 percent of them are walking around right now and don't know they have this hypertension problem. So, this is something, obviously, for kids, as well as their parents, to really think about.
There's a couple of reasons really for it, as study authors sort of investigated this. One is, it's a little bit more complicated to figure out normal values as a child is growing up. But I think the bigger concern here and what they really pointed to is that we really don't think of hypertension as being a child's problem.
We think about this in adults. We typically think about it in adult males. So when a child has hypertension, this is something that's considered unusual, maybe not so much.
Add to that, Kiran, another study that came out that actually said the number of adults with hypertension actually growing. It's about a billion worldwide. And they tried to figure out the reasons for that as well.
The obesity crisis obviously is a problem in certain countries as far as why the hypertension is increasing, but also specific dietary choices. Sodium, for example, is something that's pointed to often.
Our body requires about 500 milligrams of sodium a day. We get anywhere between 10 and 20 times that typically on any given day, and that certainly could contribute to hypertension as well.
The biggest message coming out of these studies is you've got to get it checked even if you feel healthy, even if you look healthy, even if you're a kid -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. I'm taking actually my floor manager Bruce's blood pressure as we speak. We have these home monitors, Sanjay, these manual blood pressure monitors. And I know he's alive because he is here doing the show, but I'm having a little bit of trouble getting a reading right now.
But I did my own just a minute ago -- 114 over 73. Is that OK? GUPTA: 114 over 73 is a good number, Kiran. I get mine checked as well. It's 110 over 70.
I mean, you look healthy -- 120 over 80 is considered prehypertensive, just to give you a frame of reference. It's going to be a little different person to person, but 120 over 80, you don't want to get above that.
140 over 90 -- 140 being the upper number, 90 being the lower number, is considered hypertension. So that gives you sort of a rough scale of reference.
Those monitors, by the way, are pretty good, you know, for at- home testing. You don't want to completely replace trips to your doctor's office to get the blood pressure checked, because not only will you get a good reading, you also will get a plan as to what to do about it.
CHETRY: Right. Some good ideas.
Thanks so much, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thank you.
CHETRY: By the way, if you have a medical question for Sanjay Gupta, send it to his mailbag --- CNN.com/americanmorning. Sanjay is here every Thursday and he will answer your questions -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: He'll even take your blood pressure. In fact, he says he'll take mine later on, but I've got to get back down there to Atlanta for him to do it.
AMERICAN MORNING -- not reading. "Quick Hits".
One in four adults polled in AP-Ipsos says that they didn't read any books last year. Women and seniors read the most. And religious books and best-sellers are the most popular, according to our research.
Elvis' gun has returned to the building. A handgun stolen from a display case during last week's commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death has been found. A man hired to clean the portable toilets behind the exhibit hall -- a man hired to clean the portable toilets -- says he found the gun at the bottom of one of them.
And a troop surge in Iraq a hot topic among the candidates eying the White House in '08. Hillary Clinton's positive assessment is putting her at direct odds with fellow Democrats and how they plan to use it to their advantage.
Also, water and mud up to rooftops. Take a look at this.
Deadly floods across the Midwest. These are those pictures we were showing you a little while ago.
That's mud down there, folks, a lot of it. Choppers have come into the rescue as well.
Severe damage and the cleanup, all of this is taking place there. And we're going to be all over it for you. It's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Here are some of the pictures. I mean, these were homes, these were businesses, these were buildings, and now they're literally swamped under water. Even using bulldozers to try to get the mud away from some of these communities.
The high water now claiming 22 lives across the heartland and the plains states. Flash flooding filling the streets of Ohio, sending people to their rooftops. As we talked about in the last hour, rescues taking place, helicopters plucking people off of rooftops and using rafts, anything they can do to get people to safety and to higher ground. A real mess.
Shannon O'Brien of affiliate WOIO is live in Shelby, Ohio, this morning for us.
We see behind you the roads look a little bit drier, but what is the aftermath of those unbelievable pictures we saw yesterday, Shannon?
SHANNON O'BRIEN, REPORTER, WOIO : Well, it's going to be devastation here, Kiran. We are out here in Shelby, but I'm 5'5" tall. Yesterday, the water was six feet tall, right here in the heart of downtown Shelby.
The Black Fork River is behind me. It runs through the middle of downtown. When it overflowed, these streets turned into reorganize rapids. And it was so bad, the currents were so bad, they couldn't get fire boats through here to rescue people at one point.
Many businesses were flooded out. Homes evacuated. Two schools, the Shelby Middle School and Central Elementary, are located right downtown. They were set to open on Monday, but those children will have to be relocated because the schools were so badly damaged, they may not be able to reopen at all.
The last time flooding was bad here in Shelby was 1987, and this flood, everyone tells me, is much worse. There are four bridges in Shelby, one of them right behind us on the Black Fork River. Police are guarding those bridges because they are unsafe at this point until they can get some engineers in to make sure that they are still stable, because if these bridges crumble, it could be a bigger disaster here in Shelby.
Business owners and homeowners returning to their places today to exactly see how bad the devastation is here what they're going to need to do to recover.
Reporting live in Shelby, Shannon O'Brien, WOIO, 19 Action News.
Back to you, Kiran.
CHETRY: And Shannon, you know, we covered Hurricane Dean yesterday as it made landfall as a Category 5 in Mexico. They had no deaths along the Yucatan, yet in the Midwest, in Ohio alone, I think there were six deaths.
Was there enough warning? Or why did this storm end up costing so many lives?
O'BRIEN: Quite frankly, I think it's because people do not heed the warnings. We had flood warnings here in northeast Ohio, but a lot of people just decided to stay in their homes and businesses, and they don't realize how fast the water is going to rise and that they can't get out.
CHETRY: All right. Shannon O'Brien, WOIO.
They say it time and time again, to listen to those warnings, to not attempt to drive, and unfortunately, as she said, it can cost lives when people don't heed those warnings.
SANCHEZ: Yes. A serious situation. We'll be following up on that.
Let's talk politics now.
The Clintons, the Obamas, the Edwards, not just the candidates making news these days. Their spouses as well.
Joining us now to discussion that and other hot political topics this morning is CNN's chief national correspondent, John King.
John, how are you doing this morning?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Doing great, Rick. Good morning.
SANCHEZ: The first question to you. Obama, he's talking about possibly lifting the Cuban -- or the U.S. embargo on Cuba. I mean, that could turn into a real controversial issue, couldn't it? Why is he saying this?
KING: Well, Rick, you know the passions of this issue firsthand from your work in Miami. He is not saying lift the embargo just yet, but what he is saying, what he would do in the short term is lift the restrictions on Cuban-Americans. Let them travel back to see their families on an unrestricted basis as much and as often as they wanted to.
Obama says he would do that. He also says he would allow them to send as much money back as possible.
There are tight restrictions in place right now in the Bush administration. And you're right, many are saying, why would he want to stir up this very passionate issue? Already, one of the Republicans, Mitt Romney, says it shows he's making unilateral concessions to a dictatorship, it shows Obama to be weak. And on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton says, this is absolutely the wrong time to be talking about any changes at all in U.S. policy because of Fidel Castro's failing health.
So, once again, Rick, we'll find out why in the days ahead, but Obama has stirred another foreign policy controversy.
SANCHEZ: But to be fair, you know there's a lot of Republicans, especially along the farm belt, that have been saying the same thing for a long time. They say lifting that embargo, going in that direction, would be good for the American farmer, good for Americans in the end.
KING: No question about it. If you step back from presidential politics, there is a broad bipartisan consensus to do something to lessen the embargo, to allow more agricultural trade, to allow more food and medicine to go back and forth.
It is at the presidential level because of one thing, the small but very powerful Cuban-American population in the Miami area that could put state of Florida, could tip the state of Florida in a presidential election. So, presidential politics when it comes to Cuba are very different than the rest of the country's politics when it comes to Cuba.
SANCHEZ: Strong-willed lobbies work.
I want you to watch something. Here is a comment yesterday by Michelle Obama. We'll talk about it on the other side.
Here it is. Play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: So our view is that, if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: "If you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House."
Now, apparently, the Obama people are saying, hey, this is just somebody talking about the importance of family and keeping things together at home. Other people are saying, no, that was a shot perhaps at the Clinton, perhaps at others, maybe Giuliani.
KING: Well, it's certainly taken inside the Clinton campaign as a shot directly, again, at the Democratic front-runner, Senator Hillary Clinton.
Rick, Senator Obama says no. As you put it, Michelle Obama was just talking about the values and family. But this is yet another example with so many states voting so early, the spouses are more important than ever as they campaign across the country.
We saw this a few weeks ago with Elizabeth Edwards throwing some sharp elbows in Hillary Clinton's directions. Many in the Clinton campaign think this is yet another example of that. But no matter -- whatever her motives, the spouses are more and more important, and Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Edwards are not shy.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Getting a lot of camera time and getting a lot (INAUDIBLE).
Well, John King, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
KING: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Kiran is going to be talking with Elizabeth Edwards, by the way, right here at 8:15 Eastern. Look forward to that.
CHETRY: Me too.
Well, a lot of crocs topping our "Quick Hits" now. Not the shoes, but actually real crocodiles.
Police in Mexico say they found almost a hundred crocodiles in small swimming pools in a guy's back yard. Some of them were six feet long. He now has five days to prove how he got them.
Take a look at this sinkhole in east Cleveland, Ohio. We should take a bigger shot of this so you can see it.
It's at least 40 feet wide and getting bigger because of heavy rain in the Midwest. The family who lives there is saying they're not going to stay in the house. Neighbors are worried, though, that it will eventually expand even more and swallow their homes as well.
SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, lake front property, right? Fill it up.
CHETRY: Well, we've been talking for weeks about the mortgage crisis. A lot of people losing their homes and now thousands lose their jobs.
We're going to explain next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-six minutes past the hour now. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business".
And we're talking about yet another casualty because of the troubles with the subprime mortgages.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this is a good example because it's bigger than one casualty. This is a company called First Magnus. It is the 16th largest mortgage lender in the country, filing for bankruptcy, laying off 6,000 people yesterday.
This is the notice on its Web site this morning. "In light of the collapse of the secondary mortgage market, First Magnus will not fund any future loans. It is no longer accepting any mortgage loan applications."
Now, the layoffs here add to what we've seen in the last few days. Just in the last three business days, we have seen 8,640 cuts in the mortgage industry, some 20,000 cuts this month in the financial services industry, and almost 90,000 so far this year.
We've seen Countrywide cutting jobs, Capital One at its GreenPoint loans department, Bear Stearns cutting jobs. So, it is a rough, rough month in the industry. It is a rough month for people whose mortgage companies are closing down, because the requirements are getting tougher.
We talked earlier about the fact that it's not just people with subprime credit. Those loans, jumbo loans, $417,000 or greater, even if you have good credit, people are paying premiums on those loans now.
We spoke to one CEO of a mortgage company who said that you need to have a credit score of above 700 now, have 15 to 20 percent to put down on your mortgage. And don't miss any payments at all.
SANCHEZ: Yes, or you're not going to be able to get a mortgage at all.
VELSHI: It's going to be tough.
Now, a lot of people say that's the -- that's sort of the cleaning out of the mortgage industry, making sure the people who shouldn't have been getting loans are not tempted to do so. That may be flying economically. It's a lot tougher when you're actually looking at a house.
CHETRY: It's just so ironic. They put the tough sell on people and they make them believe that they can't afford it.
VELSHI: Of course, yes. I mean, they bought it, they signed it, they got their mortgages.
CHETRY: And then a year later, whoops.
VELSHI: It's not like people -- there may be a very small percentage of people who swindled. Most people signed and got their mortgage.
SANCHEZ: Is your sense that this thing has peaked or that it's about to peak, or that we're still going to be in some rough waters?
VELSHI: Our best sense is that the housing market doesn't come back until at least the middle of next year, if not longer. The mortgage crisis we may have seen the worst of it now, but there are going to be foreclosures and there are still readjustments.
So, if you're in a position to go from one of these adjustable rate mortgages into a fixed-rate mortgage, do that now. And as we discussed last week, don't miss your mortgage payments.
SANCHEZ: Well, all right.
CHETRY: Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: OK.
SANCHEZ: Some not so good times ahead.
Here is a look now at some of the stories that you just can't miss.
First of all, Michael Vick. This thing has exploded. I expected it would, but then, again, you know, I'm kind of a jock, I've played football all my life, been watching this story.
CHETRY: Right, but even if you're not -- even if you're not a follower of football or the NFL, this story has so many facets. I mean, when it comes to the animal abuse, when it comes to all of it...
SANCHEZ: Well, how about this, $130 million contract -- $130 million contract. You'd think that would help you make wise choices in your life, or at least would keep you from doing something that, whether you think what is happening to Michael Vick is wrong or right, I've yet to meet a person who doesn't think what he did was not stupid.
CHETRY: Right.
We've been getting a ton of e-mails here at CNN.com and we're going to break it down once again and talk more about it. What should the punishments be for Michael Vick? How will he be punished by the government? How will he be punished by the NFL?
Is this the end of his career? A lot of people are weighing in, and Rick is going to bring more fire to this debate coming up ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
SANCHEZ: Look forward to it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: There it is, Central Park, looking nice. What is the weather out there they say today? Because I know you were freezing last night.
CHETRY: Yes. Time to bring out the down comforters in August. Very strange, 60 degrees shaping up to be a high of 69. Cloudy out there but at least it's going to be 10 degrees warmer than it was yesterday when Manhattan broke a record. New York City hasn't seen that temperatures that cold in August since 1911.
SANCHEZ: And it's the week I come up and I have got nothing but shorts and T-shirts.
CHETRY: That's right. Well, you needed a break from the "Hotlanta" weather, right?
SANCHEZ: Wednesday, August 22nd, I'm Rick Sanchez, sitting in for John.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks so much for being with us. New this morning, speaking of weather, devastating flooding spreading across the Midwest and Plains states, 22 people now reported killed. Muddy water by the foot, filling the streets in Ohio. In fact, they brought in bulldozers to dig out some of the mess.
Coast Guard rescuing victims from rooftops, by choppers. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we talked to a man who was rescued. He had a message for the officer who saved his life. He said, you know, he just wanted to be able to say thanks.
And of course, the petty officer that we spoke with was so humble about it, he just said, you're welcome, this is what we're trained to do. But really, putting their own lives at risk, trying to get to as many people to safety as possible. And they did save a lot of lives in that mess of the weather there yesterday.
CHETRY: Well, we've got an I-Report this morning we want to show you. This is in South Dakota. The problem there, hail. These were sent by Megan Cimpl in Dante, South Dakota. Megan says that the hail broke windows, even skylights. She also reports plenty of damage to homes and cars in the area. There you see a sky light just busted out because of that hail, softball-sized hail.
All of this follows weekend storms that brought heavy rain and flooding and actually forced the governor to declare...
SANCHEZ: There is a softball!
CHETRY: ... a state of emergency. There you see it.
SANCHEZ: It's the one that broke the window, by the way. The latest now on Hurricane Dean. We've been following this thing for quite a while. And things are changing somewhat. But it is expected to make landfall again. Sounds like a broken record, doesn't it? It's going to happen sometime this afternoon, 1:00, 2:00, something like that.
Of course, it depends on whether it slows down and bobbles. People are being urged to hurry their preparations right now, as a matter of fact. Dean is a Category 1 hurricane now. Big difference from what it was yesterday as Category 5. Still, though, it might get stronger and it's going into a part of Mexico where the terrain is different and it could cause mudslides and landslides.
Mexico has shut down oil in its major oil production facilities. It has evacuated thousands of workers from offshore rigs. So far, no reports of any casualties as a result of Dean's path across the Yucatan yesterday. That's essentially because it hit an area that was not so populated.
SANCHEZ: This is a bird's eye view now I want to show you. The storm from CNN producer Eric Marrapodi. He flew over Hurricane Dean last night in the Air Force Reserve's Hurricane Hunter. And that's part of what makes it interesting. I've taken that flight myself a couple of times. It's amazing. There are scientists with all kinds of gadgets.
And when they get to the very heart of the hurricane, Kiran, what they do is they take out this tube and they throw it in there. It sends a signal back to the pilot and it tells it exactly what the winds are and all of the other readings from the hurricane. And it's very bumpy, by the way.
CHETRY: Yes. And technology has made some major strides in our ability to predict weather and save lives but we still see problems as we saw yesterday with the unpredictability of the rains, where they're going to go.
By the way, we want to talk about some of the dangers of the flooding across the country, everything from the risk of drowning to disease. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in Atlanta.
You know, when you see these homes covered all the way to the rooftops with dirty water, you don't know if sewers have been knocked out, what is in all of that water? So even if you are not -- your life isn't immediately at risk from drowning, after the fact, it seems that there are so many other dangers out there.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, there certainly are. I mean, just first of all, the water alone. I mean, you talk a lot about wind when it comes to these hurricanes, but the flooding, as you guys have been talking about all morning and yesterday, could be a significant concern as well.
Twenty-two people have died as a result of these storms across Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, 4,200 affected homes. You're seeing some of the images there. There are 475 homes that are still inaccessible.
The major cause of death in a situation like this, you may not be able to guess this, but it's actually because of people trying to drive through water, getting stuck or getting their cars swept away. You remember, for example, with Hurricane Floyd back in 1999, 57 deaths, 32 of those were people actually in their cars who subsequently got swept away.
So that's the biggest concern immediately after this flooding occurs -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta, some tips on how people can protect themselves from the flooding. Thank you -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right. If you have any more questions, by the way, about -- for Dr. Gupta, just please, send them on in and he will help you out. Maybe he will even take your blood pressure once a month.
He was one of the NFL's brightest stars and now Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is expected to plead guilty to dogfighting charges. This is an amazing story. Talk about a fall from grace. A lot of people on both sides of this question. Should Michael Vick, for example, be allowed to play professional football if he somehow gets cleared of this, which would be a miracle? Got a sampling -- a flood of opinions have been sent to cnn.com.
Since this went on cnn.com yesterday, it has been amazing, the response. People have been very heated in their responses to this. Joining us now, Ryan Smith, he is a former counsel for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
By the way, are you surprised at all that this thing has taken on a life of its own?
RYAN SMITH, SPORTS ATTORNEY: Not at all. He is one of the most polarizing figures in sports anyway, so it doesn't surprise me that this would take on a big, big controversy.
SANCHEZ: What an amazing athlete, to watch this guy play. I mean, no one has ever been able to play the quarterback position like him, whether you think he is good or not, he can throw the football while running at 4.3 speed, which is really an amazing thing.
SMITH: Right. He is one of the greatest -- he was supposed to be the new kind of quarterback. He was supposed to revolutionize the position. He is the first guy to ever rush for a thousand yards from the quarterback position so an amazing talent.
SANCHEZ: One hundred and thirty million dollars and now -- I mean, he may lose this. First of all, he had to plead. Why do you think he copped a deal?
SMITH: Well, he had to plea just because three people had already come in, and basically his co-defendants had come in and gone against him. They already had corroborating witnesses. This investigation was going so fast. He was hoping he would have more time.
But it was going so fast. They were going to put additional charges on him. He had to make a move.
SANCHEZ: So he's in big trouble. Now the Falcons can actually say now, we want the bonus money back that we paid you, and we are not paying you another dime because of what you've done, right? This guy could be in serious financial trouble from being on top of the heap.
SMITH: This is when it gets interesting. Now they paid him tens of millions in bonus money. They can ask for a portion of that back if he gets suspended. They can say he defaulted on his contract. But, but the problem is they're not ready to suspend him just yet. The NFL is still making its determination as to what happens to him...
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Yes. Because they're going to sit back and they're going to wait to see what the courts do. SMITH: Exactly. Exactly.
SANCHEZ: And by the way, speaking of the courts. He might do what? Two, three years?
SMITH: They're talking 12 to 18 months right now, even more.
SANCHEZ: In a federal penitentiary?
SMITH: Yes, yes.
SANCHEZ: Oh, my.
SMITH: So you never know how long it's going to be. Now that is the really crazy thing. If he spends 12 months in jail and he starts that in January, and he spends the full 12 months, he misses this season. He might miss next season. And you're talking about a guy coming back after two years out of the league, tough to do.
SANCHEZ: How could he do something so stupid? Because, look, he's a finely-tuned athlete, but it seems -- OK, fine, he has got the athletic stuff done, maturity-wise, career-wise, in every other way, he just didn't get it, did he?
SMITH: You know what it is? Guys -- when they are coming up, they are enabled the entire way through. Elementary school now, high school.
SANCHEZ: Enabled, what do you mean?
SMITH: Enabled, meaning they have people around them telling them how great they are, telling them we will do anything for you. Telling him, you can do anything you want.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Having 30 guys hanging out at his -- imagine if I told my wife all my homies, the guys I went to high school with, they're going to be sleeping over for the next month.
SMITH: Well, this is how you have lived your entire life. I know, it's crazy.
SANCHEZ: It's stupid!
SMITH: But this is how you've lived your entire life. And a lot of people think, well, now that he has got $130 million, he is going to change his ways. Remember, he is thinking, that's how I got there. I got there by having these guys in my corner.
SANCHEZ: So basically what you're saying is, this is a guy who never grew up?
SMITH: This is a guy who had some issues with maturity, I think. And I think he didn't realize that he can't just do anything. He can't just live whatever life he wants to live. And that was evidenced to me by the fact that he basically told everybody when this first came out, I didn't do it, I had nothing to do with it. And now he is changing his story. That tells you a lot.
SANCHEZ: You almost feel bad for the guy. Ryan Smith, thanks for being here.
SMITH: Absolutely. Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: Amazing story. It really is. Kiran, over to you.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, guys. Well, a false alarm in New York City topping your quick hits now. Several large financial firms received greeting cards from Connecticut, each containing a baggy full of White Powder. It turns out it was nothing dangerous and police are not saying who those baggies were sent to.
The news just keeps getting worse for many homeowners. The group RealityTrac says that foreclosures rose 9 percent between June and July, 93 percent from July of 2006, meaning last year. Nevada, Georgia and Michigan posted the highest number of property foreclosures. California and Florida also high on that list.
CHETRY: Well, it's college week on AMERICAN MORNING. And the price of birth control going up on some college campuses. It's linked to, of all things, the Deficit Reduction Act. We're going to explain coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And good morning, everyone. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning. Now the power is back on in the Gaza this morning. The European Union suspended fuel shipments to power plants over the weekend, charging Hamas rulers were skimming profits from that power plant. The E.U. relented overnight citing humanitarian concerns. Nearly 1.5 million people left without power and air-conditioning for days with temperatures topping 95 degrees.
Also this story we're following on this morning. A man in Massachusetts still recovering this morning after being attacked by a police dog. You see that? The problem here was that the guy was not the suspect. He was walking home from a party when police were chasing somebody else and set the canine loose. Police say it's very rare, but that the dogs are unpredictable and can get confused during the chaos and excitement at the end of a pursuit. The man says he does intend to sue.
Also criminal charges could be filed in a fire near Ground Zero. Two New York City firefighters died in a high-rise inferno. The Manhattan District Attorney's office announced that it has reopened this investigation. The city says the section of the standpipe was lying on the floor inside the abandoned Deutsche Bank Building. So firefighters, they didn't even have enough water to try to put this out in case they needed to. That's a big part of the investigation this morning -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, this morning, a notorious self-proclaimed pedophile is back on the streets. Jack McClellan, who once blogged about his attraction to young girls, even taking photos of them in public places and then posting them on a Web site with a rating system of how cute he thought they were, well, he was arrested earlier this month near the Child Development Center on the UCLA campus.
It came just days after a Los Angeles judge issued a court order to keep him away from children. Now, a technicality has set him free. Joining me now is attorney Anthony Zinnanti, he served McClellan with the restraining order.
You're the one that originally brought all of this to light. What do you make of the new developments from the L.A. city attorney's office, saying that the judge acted improperly by failing to comply with a notice and hearing requirements for issuing a three-year order?
ANTHONY ZINNANTI, SERVED PEDOPHILE WITH COURT ORDER: I am absolutely frustrated and disappointed with the city attorney's office for two reasons. Number one, their failure to take any action. And number two, their affirmative misrepresentations to the public.
What they're stating to the public as the basis for not doing anything is wrong, legally and factually, and they know it.
CHETRY: Well, this is what they said. They said that when you're issuing a three-year restraining order, because he was ordered to stay at least 30 feet away from every person under 18 in California for a three-year period, that that you have to do is have an additional hearing. You're saying that's not true?
ZINNANTI: No, it's absolutely not true. Everyone, everyone in the media has known that there is a forthcoming hearing on August 24th that would lead to the preliminary injunction in this case. The city attorney, I walked them through this. They had the paper work. It was crystal clear and they still chose not to act on the matter. This is...
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Well, what is your opinion about their motivation for letting this guy out then?
ZINNANTI: The city attorney is very, very arrogant. Their whole office, it transcends the entire office. I'm not surprised that the city attorney would play an us-versus-the-public role here. I tried to speak to Supervisor Brown (ph) at the court where McClellan was released.
And this is a guy who won't even talk to you. He has just made up his mind, the judge is wrong, that's it.
CHETRY: So what are the legal options for you guys, for people like you and other parents who want to try to do everything to keep this self-proclaimed pedophile off the streets?
ZINNANTI: What I am going to do is I will be serving McClellan with a citation for contempt. And I will trying him privately in the civil court on contempt. And when I convict him on contempt, based on the valid court order, then I will seek to put him on probation. CHETRY: And what is your personal stake for doing this and for spending so much of your time? Clearly, it is something you're passionate about.
ZINNANTI: When I saw -- you know, this all begins years ago with a little girl named Samantha Runnion who was right in our backyard and what happened to her with this creep who abducted her and murdered her. And I'm turning the tables around. We're tired of this and we're not going to sit back and wait for something to happen. And I hope that he experiences a little bit of the terror that he inflicts on the victims of such abuse.
CHETRY: All right. Anthony Zinnanti, not giving up the fight. You are the one who originally served the restraining order. And let us know how it goes when you guys are back in court next week.
ZINNANTI: Will do. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: It's hard to disagree, because you know, look, I've got four kids. And I think about this all of the time. I know the guy hasn't really committed a crime yet per se, but what would you do with a guy who is going around saying, I'm a murderer and I want to hang around, or I'm a bank robber and I'm going to hang around banks. I haven't robbed a bank yet, but at any moment.
I mean, it's a ticking time bomb. We're talking about kids. If a guy is going around saying, I'm willing to do something like that to children, what do you do with him?
CHETRY: Right. And...
SANCHEZ: Tough call.
CHETRY: And that is why people like Anthony, as well as parents, have made it their own personal crusade, literally videotaping this guy, getting shots of him with a cell phone camera and putting all of this information on the Web site because the more people know and the more people see his face, the less chance that he can sneak up and do anything. Even though as you said, he has not yet.
SANCHEZ: I would too. Imagine if he's in your neighborhood and you've got kids running around. It's bizarre.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: Location, location, location. Having a hard time finding a mate? Well, maybe you're in the wrong city. According to Forbes seventh annual "best cities for singles," San Francisco is the place to find love. The city, up from fourth place ranked first for culture and night life. Jacksonville, Florida, did you know? Buffalo, New York, and Memphis also said to have a real good dating scene. There you go.
Also, you hate your boss? Well, groups in several states are now pushing laws that would make it easier for employees to sue their bosses for essentially just being a jerk. Have you ever watched "The Office"? Under the proposal in New Jersey, employees -- I knew I would get a snicker out of you on that one. Employees could get as much as $25,000 if they can prove their boss created an abusive environment.
And it's college week on AMERICAN MORNING. How in the world could the Deficit Reduction Act have anything to do with coeds having sex on campus? Thinking about it? We'll explain. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And there's a shot of the big wall. We welcome you back. Good morning, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez here on AMERICAN MORNING."
College week, and it's hard to imagine that some people call the Deficit Reduction Act would have anything at all to do with the sex lives of college coeds. But it does. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen now live at Columbia University in New York, also her alma mater, by the way, which means she is a smarty pants, that's an Ivy League school. She is standing by now to explain this to us.
How do you put these two together?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You put it together when you start talking about birth control. Rick, when I was a student here at Columbia, birth control it was cheap and plentiful, well, not anymore. When students hit this campus next week, they are in for some sticker shock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): When students return to campus for fall semester, they'll have sticker shock, not because of the price of books, tuition, or even beer.
(on camera): They're in for quite a surprise.
STEPHANIE DAVIDSON, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Yes, they really are.
COHEN (voice-over): The surprise? The price of birth control is up. Way up. At the University of Iowa, for example, students used to pay $16 a month for a popular brand of birth control pills. Now they'll have to pay $52 a month. At Michigan State University, the patch used to cost $20 a month. Now it's $50.
Stephanie Davidson, a senior at Columbia University, counsels students on sexual health.
(on camera): Thirty dollars more a month, $40 more a month, is that a lot for college students?
DAVIDSON: An extra $30, $40 a month for many college students makes a significant difference. And it's going to be the difference between using oral contraceptives and not using oral contraceptives. COHEN (voice-over): Changes in a huge federal budget law have driven the costs up. Some lawmakers say the change was an oversight. Representative Carolyn Maloney is trying to change the law to reinstate the federal subsidies for college students. But that won't happen overnight. And in the meantime...
REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: It will mean that more college women will become pregnant in an unwanted pregnancy during their college student years. It will mean that many will have to drop out of school or face an abortion. It is a difficult situation to put college women in.
COHEN: The American College Health Association says two-thirds of college students are sexually active. Davidson worries that these students will have to choose between food, books, and birth control.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now colleges have banded together and tried to get the federal government to change this law so that birth control on universities could once again be subsidized, but so far, those appeals have not worked. -- Rick.
SANCHEZ: That's an interesting story. By the way, you were like a straight A student when you went to Columbia, right?
COHEN: Oh, no. I tried, but oh, no.
SANCHEZ: So the rumors aren't true, then? Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much. You're still a smarty pants in my book. Appreciate it.
Kiran, over to you.
CHETRY: Well, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the five things every diabetic -- or if you have a diabetic as one of your loved ones, needs to know. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on that now.
Hi, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Good morning, Kiran. It's the sixth biggest killer in the United States, 20 million people have diabetes. But it's also one of the most manageable diseases out there if you know five of these tips here. I'll have those for you next hour of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. One of the stories coming up that you just can't miss. Elizabeth Edwards is going to be joining us in about -- you were so excited you almost went to run after her.
SANCHEZ: I was getting back into frame over here because I saw that she was in the room and I got all excited.
CHETRY: Well, she is the -- of course, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but she is certainly an inspiration to many in her own right. She has a new book out, "Saving Graces," and she is going to be talking to us about life on the campaign trail.
SANCHEZ: The Elizabeth Edwards who was the wife of the guy who was wanting to be vice president is very different from the Elizabeth Edwards of today. Have you noticed?
CHETRY: Is she.
SANCHEZ: More spunk, more attitude, more just about everything.
CHETRY: Is she, or are people just listening to her more lately? We'll find out. We're going to talk to her about it.
SANCHEZ: That's a good question.
CHETRY: Coming up, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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