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American Morning
O.J. Simpson Expected in Court This Morning; New Tool in Fight Against Cancer
Aired September 19, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is actually truly a cloud inside the silver lining, John. We'll be up to talk about it more throughout the course of the show.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: That coupon may not be worth what you thought it was. Ali Velshi for us this morning from Chicago, Ali thanks very much. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
The case against O.J., the witnesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM RICCIO: I didn't set anybody up. He was supposed to go in there, give them the option of calling the police or turning the stuff over to him.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The lawyer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that he's got a very substantial chance of being acquitted on these charges.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The new claims about secret memorabilia sales.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We signed autographs about every day for a year and a half.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The felony charges he's facing today that could put Simpson behind bars for life.
Plus, underwater danger. Why can't the state close lakes known to harbor a deadly bug?
And the battle of the bands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just came in, you know, with the attitude of a champion.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: An exclusive with the undisputed hip-hop champ, Kanye West, on this AMERICAN MORNING. Will 50 Cent give up his recording career?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sure there's a caveat.
ROBERTS: Questions we're asking, want to have answers today. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING, thanks very much for joining us on this Wednesday, the 19th of September. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Well it's not the trial of the century yet but it could be. O.J. Simpson could end up being put away for the rest of his life because of this situation that happened in a Las Vegas hotel room. He's expected in court this morning to be arraigned on 11 counts connected to that armed robbery in Las Vegas. 10 of them are felonies and among the charges, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery, and two counts of assault, all involving the use of a deadly weapon. One of the men in the Las Vegas hotel room that might, Thomas Riccio, says that Simpson took things too far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS RICCIO, RECORDED ALLEGED ROBBERY: He was supposed to go in there, give them the option of calling the police or turning the stuff over to him. That's it. That's all that was supposed to happen. All of this other stuff I can't answer why he would feel compelled to do that.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There are some questions about Riccio's past as well that need to be answered. AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence has it all for us live in Las Vegas. And we're also hearing from Simpson's lawyer this morning as well Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. His lawyer says eventually he expects his client to be acquitted. This hearing today isn't going to do much to prove or disprove O.J. Simpson's guilt or innocence but it will determine whether he walks out of prison and is released or is held without bond. In about four hours from now the guards are going to bring O.J. Simpson through an underground tunnel, take him from jail to the courthouse right here. He's expected to be wearing his prison jump suit and have his legs and arms in cuffs. Now, again, his attorney will ask for bail. The judge expected to make her decision. Late last night, CNN caught up with O.J. Simpson's attorney after he had talked with his client, and he pointed out some of what he sees as potential problems with the prosecution's witnesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YALE GALANTER, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: Based on the conflicting media reports, the conflicting interviews that each and every one of these people has given to you guys, that's definitely fertile ground for any defense lawyer. We will examine it and we're going to be going over all the tapes, all the interviews. We'll be comparing it to what they initially told the police. Obviously the stories changed. You guys have been discussing that for the past two or three days. We'll go through it and do the appropriate things with it.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: O.J. Simpson now facing 10 felony charges. Prosecutors say they added those kidnapping charges because one of the men with Simpson pointed a gun at one of the alleged victims and they say Simpson himself grabbed the cell phone out of the hand of Bruce Fromong and refused to let him call 911. One big potential problem for the prosecution, that same man, Bruce Fromong, one of the two prime witnesses in this case is right now in intensive care in a Los Angeles hospital, after suffering a major heart attack. Kiran?
CHETRY: A lot of element to this story, and we'll continue to follow it this morning. Chris Lawrence live in Las Vegas for us, thanks.
ROBERTS: Stocks are soaring worldwide this morning. Overnight Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's blue chip index have both gained more than 3 percent, other stock markets have also shown jumps. All of this following the fed's interest rate cut yesterday that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocket yesterday. A rare editorial by vice president Dick Cheney is in today's "Wall Street Journal." He's answering former fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and charges made in his book that the Bush administration's tax cuts and increased spending are irresponsible. Cheney writes the tax cuts are pumping up the economy, bringing in more tax dollars and that spending had to increase after 9/11.
And typhoon Wipha is slamming into China's east coast. At least two million people south of Shanghai had to evacuate. At least two people have been killed. It could be the worst storm to hit the region in 10 years. Schools and factories are shut down. Kiran?
CHETRY: Also new this morning, the president of the University of Florida is calling for a state investigation into the tasering incident that was caught on tape. Happened Monday at a campus forum with Senator John Kerry. Let's take another look.
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ANDREW MEYER: I didn't do anything. Don't tase me, bro. Don't tase me! I didn't do anything!
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Two officers involved have already been placed on leave. Andrew Meyer is the student here. His attorney also spoke out yesterday saying he welcomed the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GRISCTI, ATTORNEY FOR ANDREW MEYER: The University itself to a committee or an investigatory group that will include faculty, as I understand it, will be conducting an investigation internally. I think the university is doing the right thing by doing that, and by requesting help.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Meyer was charged with resisting arrest with violence, which is a felony. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace. Some of the officers also giving their account in some published reports in Florida papers saying that he told them "you guys didn't do anything wrong. You were just doing your job." John?
ROBERTS: A judge is coming down hard on Britney Spears in her custody battle, he is ordering the pop star to undergo random drug and alcohol testing twice a week. According to court documents, Spears and her ex-husband Kevin Federline must spend eight hours a week working with a parenting coach. The couple has agreed to share joint custody of their two sons and Federline is asking a court to allow him more time with the kids. Since leaving rehab there have been accusations that Spears is still drinking and using drugs.
The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial says he may give the jury a lesser charge to consider today, involuntary manslaughter, after the jury said it couldn't reach a unanimous verdict on a second- degree murder charge. The jury split 7-5. Spector was charged after actress Lana Clarkson was found dead in his mansion that was back in February of 2003. Kiran?
CHETRY: Tuberculosis is back in the news but some good news on that front this morning. This man that we're about to see here in a second, Robert Daniels, he's the one standing over the brick overhang says he's no longer contagious. He's gone home from the hospital now but he spent more than a year fighting an extremely drug-resistant form of TB. There's also new research just out on a break-through that could help shorten his treatment. For that we talked to CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center. Now it's interesting this man possibly more contagious than the one we heard all about, Andrew Speaker.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You remember that case where he was walking around without a mask and this was in Arizona they decided to put him in a county jail at that point. To sort of follow that story along he was subsequently sent to Colorado where they have a tuberculosis specialty treatment center, he's being told that he's not contagious and being sent back to Arizona. He's going to still need to remain on medications for some time but good news for him at least that he's not contagious, good news for people that he may have infected as well or concerned about being infected. Look, when we talk about tuberculosis, whether it's a drug resistant or the multiple drug resistant, there are lots of cases of it around the world, about 400,000 cases of the drug resistant tuberculosis. This is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world. We've talked about it more because of this case and the case of Andrew Speaker. There's about 8 million active cases every year, new cases of tuberculosis and about 2 million people will actually die of it in any given year as well. You get a sense of the impact, Kiran, around the world. It can be difficult to treat, but there is unprecedented amounts of money actually going in to trying to figure out vaccines, diagnostics and other treatments. The Gates Foundation recently put in almost $300 million, $280 million toward some of those things. So, more research is certainly being done.
CHETRY: The other interesting thing is that, as you said, because of all this money and some new breakthroughs, they have made strides but still it takes a long time to treat. What is the average treatment time for TB?
GUPTA: It can be about six months, and that's just for the regular tuberculosis and it typically takes three to four drugs. What happens Kiran as you might guess, is a lot of people just stop taking the medications and that can be the worst possible scenario, because you get resistant bacteria, start to develop. There has been some new breakthroughs which you sort of alluded to, Brazilian researchers actually in a study of about 170 people found by adding one more medication called Moxifloxacin can actually reduce the duration of treatment down to about four months which can be significant. You can get more people treated in a shorter amount of time and more likely to stay on their medications. Obviously, that was a rather small study but they're going to expand that to a few thousand people later on this year. These are the sort of things that are happening, trying to reduce that duration. Kiran?
CHETRY: Why, because people feel better so they think they can stop taking the medication and they have to stick with it. All right, Sanjay Gupta, great to see you. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Condoleezza Rice to Mohammed Elbaradei(ph), mind your own business. Your quick hits now. Elbaradei, the head of the UN's nuclear inspection team, is recommending the U.S. back off talk of more sanctions and give Iran time to settle questions about its nuclear program. Secretary of State Rice says that Elbaradei's agency is technical and should not be in the business of diplomacy. It took almost 30 years but one of the architects of the infamous Khmer Rouge is now under arrest. Police in Cambodia surrounded the home of (INAUDIBLE) and served him with a warrant. The charge, crimes against humanity. (INAUDIBLE) who is now 82 helped Khmer Rouge leader Paul Pott come to power some 45 years ago and eventually killed 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge's rein of terror back in the 1970s.
Sign it and sell it. O.J. Simpson's old sports memorabilia agent is speaking out about hiding his fortune and about whether the stuff inside the hotel room really did belong to Simpson.
If the Reverend Al Sharpton gets his way, 40,000 people will descend on the small southern town of Jena, Louisiana tomorrow in the wake of the Jena six case. Is this town in need of a massive civil rights rally or is this an overreaction? The details ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Some of the best shots of the morning in your quick hits now. This one is a cat perched on top of a pole, she matches the pole, it's kind of cute actually. A viewer from Arkansas sent in the picture after her rat terrier named Pete chased Vampire the cat up there. Well she says Vampire sat perched on the top of that telephone pole for four hours but came down all by himself. That's better than what happened to another cat who had to be hosed down by the fire department when he wouldn't come out of a tree.
The next shot is a giant beehive on wheels, a semi truck that was carrying nearly 500 hives and over 13 million bees ended up rolling over. There you see it, it happened on I-94 near Billings, Montana. Police say that just a few of the hives spilled open. That was certainly enough to let thousands of bees loose and workers were in swatting mode as they ran away. We're going to see a shot in just a second of the workers trying to get away from that overturned truck. There they are trying to protect their heads as best they can from the swarming bees. They say they were able to round them all up and then continue on to California. Braver than we are around here.
How about this one, this is disturbing, a gun in one hand, a toddler in the other, this is a shocking screen grab of an armed robbery, this took place in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Police say the suspect took a 2 1/2-year-old boy hostage, during a holdup. He's seen here and the robber has the gun pointed to the head of this little boy. He left the boy there. He is doing ok. The thief, though, took off with thousands of dollars, and is still on the run today. John?
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 16 minutes after the hour. The small town of Jena, Louisiana is bracing for a very big civil rights rally. Yesterday an appeals court ruled that it's too soon to consider a motion to let Mychal Bell out of jail. The Reverend Al Sharpton says he'll meet with Bell later on today and lead a march of possibly 40,000 people through Jena tomorrow. CNN's Susan Roesgen joins us live now from Jena with more on this. Susan, you had a chance to talk to Sharpton. What's the plan for tomorrow?
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I did. The plan for tomorrow is still this big rally. We don't know how many people yet, John. Some people are suggesting 5,000, some people are suggesting as many as 40,000 or 50,000, but you know Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena six to go on trial has been locked up in jail here in LaSalle Parish in Jena, Louisiana, since last December. And Reverend Sharpton told me that he made a promise to Bell back in June that he would form a national movement to support him. He told me that he's going to talk to Mychal Bell around 11:00 here local time and ask Bell to give him a statement that the reverend can read to the rally to the crowd here tomorrow. And you know, John, I asked Reverend Sharpton why even have this rally, now that the convictions against Mychal Bell have been thrown out and it looks much better for him legally? He told me well we need to keep in his words "the outside pressure" on the local legal system not only for Mychal Bell but for the other five students who are also accused in this case. John?
ROBERTS: Bell is in jail after a fight that sent Justin Barker, a white student there in Jena, to the hospital for a day. What's Barker up to these days?
ROESGEN: Well you know I actually talked to Barker last night, and he's angry. He is a very angry and frustrated young man, John. He says you know this wasn't really a fight. I was attacked. I was hit from behind and knocked out. He says he never even got a punch in. He's so frustrated and he says that his family has received death threats, he's gotten hate mail. I asked him where he's going to be on Thursday and he said well nowhere near this rally. He also has dropped out of school, John. He should have been a senior this year and he said one of the reasons he's dropped out of school is partly because of what's happened here.
ROBERTS: The town of Jena is about 3,000 people, give or take. 40,000 people converging on that town tomorrow, are they prepared to handle that?
ROESGEN: You know, they are trying to be prepared. The Red Cross is bringing in portable toilets and water. There simply isn't an infrastructure here for really even 5 or 6,000 that would be twice as many people who live here, marching two miles along the streets of this town. The local schools are closed, most businesses are closing, John, partly because they're afraid of possible property damage and partly because the marchers have promised to boycott local businesses. They say they won't buy anything in this town so there's going to be apparently limited water, limited shade, it's very hot here in Louisiana still, it can get in the upper 90s here, so we hope that nobody gets hurt and there's no real problem tomorrow for the marchers or for anybody else.
ROBERTS: All right, Susan Roesgen for us this morning in a very quiet Jena, Louisiana. Could be completely different this time tomorrow morning though. Be sure to watch tomorrow night. Does justice have two colors? Catch a CNN Special Investigations Unit report "Justice in Jena", it airs tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Well you may remember her, Lisa Nowak, the astronaut, she's back in court. Lisa Nowak was accused of trying to kidnap her romantic rival. She has a hearing today. Her lawyers are trying to get the judge to throw out her statement she made to police and evidence recovered from her car.
And there's more encouraging news for injured football player Kevin Everett. A family member said that Everett could be transferred to a Houston hospital, as the next step of his rehab. Everett has been able to move his limbs, after doctors initially feared that he would never be able to walk again.
Interest rates slashed and stocks soared after that announcement. So will it help the mortgage mess as well? Ali Velshi is "minding your business," he's going to give us a look coming up.
ROBERTS: Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, killer lakes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's lurking like some deadly thing in the water which can take our children's lives and we all have to be aware.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: What lies beneath the surface in this Orlando lake is responsible for the death of three children? Could this silent killer be in a lake near you? Find out what it is and how to protect your family, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A satellite that can zoom in on an object just 18 inches across is now in orbit around the earth that tops your quick hits. The world view one satellite was launched from Vanderburgh Air Force base in California yesterday. It is owned by digital globe and promises to provide incredible new high resolution digital imaging of the earth, and they're sort of partnering with Google Earth. Watch for it on a computer near you very soon.
Call it a marvel of sanitation engineering. A new unmanned drone is now patrolling the waters around the Hawaiian Islands. It's a new high tech move to fight ocean pollution. The plane transmits a digital video image back to a ship that will pick up any garbage that happens to pop up on the image.
If you're heading out to face the traffic you're not alone. A new study from Texas A&M University says the average urban traveler is spending 38 hours a year, nearly a full work week stuck in traffic. Make that 72 hours a year if you live in Los Angeles, 60 hours in San Francisco, Washington and Atlanta.
CHETRY: You wonder why there's so much road rage. A lot of time stuck in the car.
ROBERTS: Actually, I thought it would have been a lot more than that.
CHETRY: Did they break it down, stuck in traffic versus actually commuting, maybe just stopped.
ROBERTS: We'll have to double check that.
CHETRY: 24 minutes past the hour now. Ali Velshi is "minding your business" this morning from Chicago. So you could have taken the loop and you wouldn't have to worry about any traffic.
VELSHI: I love the city. It's a great walking city. The reason I'm here in fact is because we were covering this fed rate cut yesterday, and I was doing it from the trading bond pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, that's where a lot of people's mortgages, the adjustable rate mortgages are decided. I was standing around there just moments before the fed decision and the guys were saying to me, this is a done deal. Everyone knows the fed's going to cut 25 basis points, no surprise, that's a quarter of a percent and all of the sudden the fed cuts 50 basis points, a half a percent. That brought the fed rate down to 4.75 percent, the first cut in more than four years. How does that affect you? Well two ways, one is it brings the prime rate down to 7.75 percent. The prime rate is always three percentage points higher than the fed rate and that's the rate that's connected to so many of your car loans, your personal loans, your home equity loans, things like that. So a lot of Americans got a discount right there. The other thing is that as those fed interest rates come down, bond interest rates tend to come down, too, that's what those traders in Chicago are doing, they're trading bonds. That means adjustable rate mortgages that were set to adjust if you were going to adjust higher you also got a bit of a break on that yesterday. So all in all, a good picture for people with debt, which is a good picture for business, and that's why we saw stocks surge. We saw the Dow gaining almost 3 percent yesterday, all of the major indices did very well. The Dow had its strongest percentage gain since 2003 and its strongest point gain since 2002. I'll be back to tell you more about specifically how you can get in on this action in about half an hour. John and Kiran?
CHETRY: Sounds good Ali.
ROBERTS: You think he'll be that excited when it goes down 500 next week?
CHETRY: No, not at all. But let him enjoy his little ride right now.
Here's a story coming up that you can't miss. We told you yesterday and there was a lot of outrage about this deadly bug, amoeba in many lakes in Florida. Three boys were killed this summer after they got this infection from swimming in a lake.
ROBERTS: Apparently it enters through the nose, it doesn't affect everybody, just the odd person. It's extremely rare but it seems to have been an epidemic of it almost this past summer. We told you about the story yesterday, now questions are being raised about what's being done to prevent this from happening again. They closed beaches. Why aren't they closing the lakes? We'll speak to the mayor of Orange County coming up. Those stories ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: All right, here's a beautiful shot this morning of New York City off in the distance there. The George Washington Bridge. By the way, at least according to traffic.com, they have 25-minute delays on the George Washington Bridge this morning, speaking of traffic headaches. It is 56 degrees in New York and it is shaping up to be 74 and sunny, not too shabby, this morning and welcome. It's Wednesday, September 19th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you, I'm John Roberts.
New this morning, O.J. Simpson's attorney is speaking out. Simpson is expected in court this morning on 10 felony counts including kidnapping and armed robbery, all connected to a suspected break in last week at the Palace Station Hotel in Las Vegas.
Simpson has insisted that he was the one performing a sting operation to get back some sports collectibles that he claims were his in the first place. Everyone involved seems to have their own version of what happened and there's no shortage of people speaking out. His attorney says that could give the country a major case of deja vu.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YALE GALANTER, O.J. SIMPSON'S ATTORNEY: I think he's got a very substantial chance of being acquitted on these charges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: One of his suspected accomplices has come out and said he thinks it was all a setup. So did Simpson have a claim on all of that memorabilia in that hotel room and why was it so important to him? CNN's Thelma Gutierrez talked with the man who used to manage Simpson's memorabilia business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Almost every single day for a year and a half, back in 1995, Mike Gilbert said he visited O.J. Simpson at the Men's Central Jail and each time he says took thousands of pieces of memorabilia for the fallen football star to sign. Simpson autographs brought in money, big money and Gilbert, Simpson's marketing agent for nearly 20 years brokered the deal.
MIKE GILBERT, SIMPSON'S FORMER AGENT: His income from commercials and endorsements and so forth were probably $1 million a year plus. His memorabilia marketing, he could make four appearances a year, for about $200,000 a year.
GUTIERREZ: Gilbert says Simpson memorabilia continued to sell after the criminal trial, that Simpson made tens of thousands of dollars in cash deals for his signature.
GILBERT: The first thousand we sold in about 30 days for $250 a piece, that's a quarter of a million-dollars in a month.
GUTIERREZ: When the family of Ron Goldman was awarded $30 million in wrongful death civil suits against Simpson; Gilbert says he and others helped O.J. hide his valuables, including Tiffany lamps, Persian rugs and sports memorabilia.
GILBERT: I know where O.J. had lockers in different people's names to hide things from the Goldmans.
GUTIERREZ: Mike Gilbert says he also had a locker filled with Simpson memorabilia and says recently, someone raided it, that some of the items ended up in that Las Vegas hotel room where Simpson is accused of stealing it. He mentions Mike's name on tape several times.
(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE) O.J. SIMPSON: Give me my stuff. You're stealing my stuff. You think you can steal my stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike took it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You against the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wall.
O.J. SIMPSON: I know (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Mike took it.
(END AUDIOTAPE)
GILBERT: There was autographed books, there's photos, there's jerseys, there's helmets, there's game balls and just a litany of items that were there.
GUTIERREZ: If you were to put a value on those item, what would you say that it would be? What's the street value of some of that memorabilia?
GILBERT: Maybe, gosh, anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000.
GUTIERREZ: Gilbert says Simpson was looking for something else -- the suit he wore on the day of his acquittal.
GILBERT: I have his suit. He'll never, ever get the suit back. He gave it to me the day after the verdict.
GUTIERREZ: The suit's price tag? He says he's been offered $25,000.
GILBERT: I made him a lot of money, and I made money. It was my job.
GUTIERREZ: In the end, Gilbert says he regrets helping Simpson that he always believed he was guilty of killing his wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman; even from the day his own wife broke the news.
GILBERT: She said, "Michael, you need to get to Rockingham. Nicole's been murdered and O.J. is in handcuffs." First words out of my mouth were "he finally did it." One day, I've never gone to Nicole's grave and said I'm sorry, you know, so one day, I'll do that, and then I think I'll maybe have that peace I've been looking for.
GUTIERREZ: Gilbert said he would now like to help the Goldmans identify memorabilia and other valuables they may be entitled to. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Fresno, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And of course we'll be covering that court hearing today on CNN as it happens. But if you're not in front of your television you can still watch the O.J. Simpson arraignment from your computer. It's 11:00 a.m. Eastern on CNN.com. Just follow the links to the live event.
And we want to hear from you, do you think O.J. Simpson was set up? It's our question of the day. Go to our web page at CNN.com/am. Click on "Quick Vote" to cast your vote. Right now, 65 percent of you say yes O.J. was set up and 35 percent say he wasn't.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Also, new this morning, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is in London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He's also going to be meeting with former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. Giuliani will also be meeting with CNN's John King. You can see that one-on-one interview a little bit later today. It will be in the "SITUATION ROOM."
Well, there are new orders for U.S. government civilians in Iraq now. They may not leave the green zone in Baghdad, orders coming as a direct result of the shootout involving Blackwater, one of the private security contractors that protect American diplomats in Iraq. And very different versions about what happened during that shootout are coming out today. Leaks of a preliminary Iraqi report says Blackwater operatives fired first, attacking a car that did not stop when told to by an Iraqi policeman. Blackwater said it started shooting in response to a roadside bomb attack.
Speaking of roadside attacks, here's an i-Report video of a roadside bomb inside of Iraq. This happens to an attack on a supply convoy somewhere between Baghdad and Tikrit in 2005. And there you see just, you know, a flash and a fireball and the cracked windshield. This was sent to CNN's i-Report by a private security contractor who did not give his name, for fear of retribution by his employer. He says he doesn't work for Blackwater and as bad as it looks, no one was hurt, no injuries reported in that attack.
ROBERTS: Remember the science fiction thriller "The Andromeda Strain"? Well, Peruvian officials are investigating whether a meteorite that crashed in the countries southern Andian (ph) might be making the local population sick. Officials say some 200 villagers began vomiting and complaining of headaches and dizziness after the space object struck on Saturday. Fumes from the massive crater are so strong, one scientist reported feeling irritation in his nose and throat, even though he was wearing a mask. Ooh.
CHETRY: We have an AMERICAN MORNING follow-up for you right now. Remember yesterday we brought you this story of the deadly swimming hazard that seems to be going on in Orlando, Florida. Three young boys died this summer after swimming in lakes. They contracted what's called an amoeba infection of the brain. It rarely happens but doctors say that people can get sick if amoeba-filled water is forced up the nose. Those organisms can then get to the brain, flu-like symptoms and then usually it is fatal. This story has prompted tons of questions, what is being done to keep people safe and is enough being done?
Richard Crotty, the mayor of Orange County which includes Orlando, agreed to join us this morning from a beach in Orlando in Orange County, where some of these warning signs have been put up. Mayor, thanks for joining us this morning.
RICHARD CROTTY, MAYOR OF ORANGE COUNTY: It's good to be with you today.
CHETRY: You know, one of the things when we had our reporter out there yesterday, John Zarrella, that really caught our attention was the fact that none of these lakes have been closed despite the fact that there have been three deaths linked to the amoebas in the lakes. Why haven't they been closed?
CROTTY: Well, when you look at the issue, it's not a Central Florida issue solely. Obviously, this has happened around the country and in fact, it was reported on your show yesterday that there were two deaths in L.B.J. Lake in Austin. And we have reports of it happening literally on a worldwide basis. There have been 24 recorded deaths over the past 20 years, but when I learned of this, I happened to be out of town, and it was a family from Orange County and that family is a good family, and they've lost a loved one. So what i did immediately was looked at the access points, the public points of access to our lakes in Orange County and ordered that warning signs be put up in English and Spanish, because we have a large Hispanic population here, warning people that there could be dangers there. That's the first thing that was done. Secondly, we have increased public awareness by taking the message out there through the interviews like this, wanted to let people know there are some potential dangers. Finally --
CHETRY: The thing is -- mayor, let me just ask you about this. Your health department is not recommending closure at this point. They're saying if Floridians or visitors assume the risk of swimming in freshwater during the summer then we're urging the proper precautions like wearing nose clips. As we've seen all over the country, when there are things in question, let's say unsafe levels in beaches or even medical waste washing up, beaches are closed. In this case why can't the lakes be closed?
CROTTY: Well, just so that your viewers have the facts, it's not my health department. It's the State of Florida Health Department. About half the lakes in the state are owned by the state of Florida.
CHETRY: What about the Orange County Health Department, is that under your purview?
CROTTY: Well, no. The Orange County Health Department is under the purview of the state of Florida.
CHETRY: OK. Their statement yesterday was that they didn't have the jurisdiction to close down the lakes which is why they couldn't doing it, citing there were, a) too many and b) it wasn't within their purview. So, whose job is it, I guess, to protect swimmers, three little boys are dead because of the unsafe levels of this amoeba in the water?
CROTTY: Well as I was trying to explain, we are trying to protect swimmers by posting warning signs, by increasing public awareness, and then as I was going to say -- thirdly, we're going to roll out, each spring we have a drowning prevention task force and we're going to work with the Sellars family and others to include other water safety measures that will let people know what's going on. The legal question that you're asking me, however, really is very complex. I do not as mayor of the county have the authority to close the lakes. The state health department at Orange County, which is referred to as the Orange County Health Department, I don't believe has that authority either so it's something that has to be worked through the legal process; but what you have to know is that we have some 80 recreational lakes here in Central Florida, countless retention ponds and beaches. And there is a lot of exposure here, so what's really important is to get the word out and that's where we've placed our focus.
CHETRY: You know, the other thing is it sounds a little like passing the buck though saying that you guys don't have the ability to close the lakes and that the state doesn't have the ability to close the lakes. We understand that it has been referred to the CDC. What about getting people involved at the federal level?
CROTTY: We're doing all those things. It is clear that I don't have the authority to close the lakes. The state has indicated that there's some question there. It may be that going to the feds and talking to CDC is something that needs to be done. We are open to pursuing all those things. One of the statements that I made, when the health department was talking about swimmers using nose plugs and so on, was viewed as a very bold statement, at the time which I told people, 'look, if you're concerned about this, just don't swim in the lake.' This very park that we're in today, the very weekend after we posted this warning sign, this is usually a very crowded beach, and there was nobody here. So people did pay attention. They did take heed, and we're taking all the measures that are appropriate, and working our way through that process; but be sure that it's not something that's going to end with this swimming season. It's something that next spring we'll have to focus on in terms of appropriate notification to our citizens.
CHETRY: All right, Mayor Richard Crotty, from Orange County. Thanks for being with us this morning.
CROTTY: It's good to be with you.
ROBERTS: There is a new tool in the fight against cancer. It's a high tech computer chip, smaller than a dime that can literally sniff out cancer. We're paging Dr. Gupta for details. He joins from us Atlanta this morning. This sounds incredible, Sanjay. What's it all about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. It is pretty remarkable. And I actually got my hands on one of these chips. I don't know if you can see that there. I'm actually holding it in a pair of tweezers here. It's called an ACuRay chip. We have an image on the screen as well. It is very small but it's actually made up of 140 tiny electrodes, and these electrodes are sort of bound together by the zinc oxide. The theory is John that you can actually take a sample of your blood and wash it over this particular ACuRay sample and determine whether or not you have some cancer molecules actually present in your blood. You don't swallow this or insert it underneath your skin. You use it as a tool in the laboratory. I think we have some images of how it might be used specifically. You could imagine someone actually go and give some of their blood. It gets washed over this particular device and what happens is if you have any cancer molecules, even just molecules present in your blood, it's going to bind to the device in such a way that it's going to give off a certain resonance, a certain frequency that can be measured; and the researchers, the doctors, whoever is studying it can say, you know what we don't know where the cancer is or even what specifically the cancer is at this stage but we know that there are some cancer molecules present and this is a very good effective early screening tool. It's not ready for prime time yet but you can envision a day where you have little devices like this in doctor's laboratories, in doctor's offices and when you give a blood sample you can immediately be told whether or not you have early signs of cancer. John.
ROBERTS: I know a professor up at Cornell who was trying to develop this nanotechnology to search out bugs like E. coli in foods. So, that's a whole field that's exploding around this new type of technology. How soon will it be ready for prime time?
GUPTA: Well, that's a good question. And I think it could be a long time at least based on some of our early investigative talk to some of the researchers. It's sort of the holy grail of cancer research, try and find cancer before you see it on a CAT scan or an MRI, to try and find it when it's still just a few molecules. But as far as for this particular device for it to be specific enough, to say not only is it cancer but this specific type of cancer. I think that it's probably years, if not decades away still. And you bring up an interesting point, John, because it may ultimately not just be for cancer. It could be for infectious diseases as well. So, people who are at risk for infection disease but haven't gotten sick yet, you might be able to tell with a device like this, that they have some of the specific molecules in their bloodstream and do something about it.
ROBERTS: Interesting stuff. Sanjay Gupta this morning with that. Sanjay, thanks. Will see you soon.
By the way, if you got a question for Dr. Gupta, e-mail it to us. Go to CNN.com/am. Sanjay will be here to answer your questions tomorrow when he pays us a house call right here in the studio.
CHETRY: And it's 44 minutes past the hour. Our Rob Marciano here in the studio as well covering what could be some storms for Florida?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's been storming there pretty good. By the way, this is all your stuff. I know how John is all nice and neat freak.
CHETRY: He is a neat freak.
MARCIANO: And you're all over the place.
CHETRY: I know. It's just, I feel like there's so much to learn and so much to do. He calls me Elaine. MARCIANO: There's something I learn every time I come to visit you guys in New York. Good to see you. We were watching storms in Florida. You saw the interview earlier in Orlando, rain coming down pretty good there. Look at this cloud pattern, that swirl, you know, gets a little bit nervous this time of year during hurricane season. This is a not a tropical system yet but if it becomes a little bit more warm, it gets over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, we think that's going to happen. We're certainly watching this and folks who live along the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, and even northwest Florida are going to want to pay close attention to this as we go through the next couple of days. Florida -- you're already getting the rain. Orlando -- eve as far southwest as Tampa, Jacksonville, some heavy rain had been falling through there through Cape Canaveral and south towards Melbourne as well. We have wind gusts along the Florida Keys yesterday of over 40 miles an hour and more rain, that's the forecast for the next day which will bring in even more rain across areas. Actually, they kind of need it. John pointed that out they kind of do need the rain.
CHETRY: Just not all at once.
MARCIANO: We'll keep the flooding to a minimum.
ROBERTS: All right.
CHETRY: Sounds good.
ROBERTS: Anything to fill the lakes and reservoirs back up will be welcome. Thanks, Rob.
It's a hip-hop head to head supposedly with careers hanging in the balance. Who came out on top, Kanye West or 50 cent? Lola Ogunnaike catches up with Kanye, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: It is a hip-hop head-to-head and it's been going on all week. Kanye West and 50 cent are battling for chart supremacy and there may already be a winner. Lola Ogunnaike spoke exclusively with Kanye at the GQ 50th Anniversary party. Have a listen.
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LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So how are you feeling tonight? It turns out that you actually did win; the sales are in, over 950,000, huh?
KANYE WEST, RAPPER: 955,000.
OGUNNAIKE: To be exact.
WEST: There's no time to beat around the bush. You know, on the super serious side, you know, just a tremendous blessing that in this day and age, people talk about the recession, we both sold all that much. You know what I'm saying, you know, 50 has sold the second highest album this is year. That's a lot of albums. 690 is still an incredible number. It's great.
OGUNNAIKE: Not as incredible as 955.
WEST: 955 was greater. Back to the math. I've had a lot of ups and downs and you know, i get mostly negative press, so just to think, You know, that with all the negative press that I get and like all the controversial stuff that they try to conjure up, for me to be able to sell 955,000, it's overwhelming. The fans are focusing on music, stronger, gets used to the good life, and connecting with them. I think we made an album that is going to last for a long time.
OGUNNAIKE: Do you think you'll actually retire? I have to ask you that question.
WEST: You know, I can't speak for any other individual other than myself. You know, I'll tell you what I'm going to do tonight.
OGUNNAIKE: What are you going to do tonight?
WEST: I'm going to pop some champagne. I'm going to try out different types of champagne. Any type of champagne, I'm hip hopping. I might even drink for style tonight.
OGUNNAIKE: Any messages for 50?
WEST: Thank you. God bless you. Good night.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Not like he's keeping specific count of the numbers here. But the whole controversy was that 50 cent said that if Kanye outsells me I'm going to quit the music business. Have we heard from his side?
OGUNNAIKE: His side? Yes, we've heard from them. They're saying that they cannot confirm nor deny whether or not 50 is going to retire but the truth of the matter is that Kanye did outsell him and really outsold him. This was a swift and assured defeat. 957,000 copies, versus 691,000 copies, and Ken Chesney, actually people thought that he would be the dark horse that won. Not even close John. He only sold 380 something copies so he was a distant third.
ROBERTS: Poor Kenny, crying poverty.
OGUNNAIKE: But that was, you know, his 11th album. So, we should all be so lucky.
ROBERTS: You saw Kanye perform last night at the GQ 50th Anniversary Party. How was it? Did he did deserve to win?
OGUNNAIKE: He deserved to win. He brought the house down and the mood in the room, everyone was rooting for him. He really was the underdog going into this. Keep in mind, 50's last album sold 1 million copies in over a week and so his first album, I mean, his first album was the biggest selling album of that year. So he had the numbers in his favor, but for some reason, the fans were rooting for Kanye and Kanye, actually, I believe, I've been listening in both albums this week; Kanye actually did put out a better album.
ROBERTS: Yes. Hey, it's all over for 50 cent. Only 600 and how many?
OGUNNAIKE: 691,000 copies. But as we know in hip-hop, people never really retire. They always come back. He may come back as 55 cent. We don't know.
ROBERTS: Te double nickel, there you go. All right. Lola, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, another celebrity actress adopts a child. Mary Louise Parker adopting a little girl from Africa. She already has a 3-year-old son. Parker was nominated for two Emmy awards for her role in "Weeds" and also in a brand new movie with Brad Pitt.
And Alicia Silverstone would rather go naked than eat meat. The "Clueless" star is going to be appearing naked in a new TV ad for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She talks about the benefits of being a vegetarian. The ad begins airing in Houston, because that city is high on the list of the cities with the worst eating habits.
With the fed rate cut, confident investors worldwide but how can you cash in from the rate cuts? Ali Velshi will tell us. He's "Minding your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Some incredible pictures this is morning. Take a look at this, how would you like to be living in this dorm? Because those things flying around well they're not bugs, mosquitoes or moths, they're bats. The students in the dorm may have been exposed to rabies after bats, hundreds of them were found in their dorm. Internet video shows students trying to kill them with brooms, tennis racquets. They swarm all around. One student says he alone killed dozens of bats. More than 200 students have been relocated to hotels. Health officials of Houston will determine if any of the students need to go through that series of rabies vaccinations.
CHETRY: Well, it is not pleasant by the way. Not that I've ever had to do it. Thank goodness. 56 minutes past the hour.
Ali Velshi "Minding your Business" right now from Chicago. And you had a little bear analogy earlier, can you do anything with bats or should we just get right to business?
ALI VELSHI, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": I can do it. You see, I was in Chicago because I was following this fed rate cut at the Chicago Board of Trade. And we talked a lot about debt so far but i was mentioning that the bears were kind of chased into the woods on the market. Let's talk about that for a second. We know you got a discount on your interest payments yesterday. Let's talk about what it is for your investment.
The Dow is up 10 percent year-to-date. Now, that's pretty good. Over history, a well-diversified portfolio of investment should give you 10 percent or 11 percent a year. If you get 15 percent in a year, you double your money in five years. Let's take a look at what some of the leaders on the New York Stock Exchange did yesterday. First of all, there were eight stocks up for every one stock down. Take a look at J.P. Morgan, it was up 5.6 percent. Remember, 10.6 percent is good for a year. 5.60 in one day for J.P. Morgan. Citigroup 5.08 percent. GE up 3.73 percent to a 5-year high and Procter & Gamble hitting an all-time high yesterday. The one thing that you got to worry about today is we have earnings from the financial companies. We just heard from Morgan Stanley, and their earnings are down 17 percent. We're waiting for Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns that could affect market stay but all in all futures pointing to a positive open. John.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much, Ali. Will see you next hour.
Good bye summer, hello ragweed. Just because summer is coming to an end doesn't mean that allergy season is. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to offer release for the millions of fall allergy sufferers. Will have that for you coming up.
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