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American Morning
Shooting at Delaware State University; Tornado Hits Florida Overnight
Aired September 21, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Breaking news: A tornado strikes central Florida, and a storm on the rise in the Gulf.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ain't nobody staying here in these trailers.
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ROBERTS: The latest forecast and live reports.
Making a move.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to take a good look at it.
ROBERTS: Should Mideast companies get a stake in the Nasdaq? A key senator fights back, live this morning.
And what's for breakfast? How eating less -- a lot less -- helps you live a lot longer. Is it worth it? On this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning. Thanks very much for joining us on this Friday, September the 21st. I'm John Roberts. We'll have that and a whole lot more for you this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: That's right, it may be worth it, but is it as fun? Is your life as fun?
We're starting out with some extreme weather doing some serious damage in central Florida. There are reports of at least one tornado touching down overnight, this Lake County. Here are some of the images coming in of the damage, especially in the town of Eustis. This is north of Orlando. This twister tossed an RV on top of a car. Witnesses say as many as 20 homes were destroyed, many others sustaining severe damage. One couple told us about their roof being ripped right off their home.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I seen the roof come off the house. That was really about all, after the roof come off, then I seen the debris flying through the living room and by that time, I already had my wife drug through the hallway, going to the bedroom to get into a closet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What were you thinking while this was going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got to get to my husband. I was scared. I didn't really know what was going on. I heard the wind really pick up and woke me up out of a dead sleep, so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reporter: you folks are pretty much homeless tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, you could say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There are no injuries. There are no reports actually of serious injuries or deaths, but there are some reports of people slightly hurt. The tornado watches are still in effect. Rob Marciano, in fact, tracking the extreme weather in Florida.
Do people still need to be concerned this morning, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kiran, the action has shifted a little bit farther to the north and west, across Big Bend area. But this is the radar last night. A lot of action off of the Gulf of Mexico. This is all associated with the low that we've been watching, and it continues to spread thunderstorms and now across Lake County, across Eustis there. There were several storms that rolled through, but looks like the tornado touched down between 10:00 and 11:00 last night.
Here is the current radar. Most of the action moving toward the north and west, satellite showing that spin in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Tallahassee, Apalachicola, you'll still see some showers and thunderstorms that could become severe. We'll watch that for you. But officially the tornado watch has just, right now, expired. You see that red box go off your screen.
Watching that area in the Gulf of Mexico because that could very well spin up into a tropical storm. Had a hurricane hunter aircraft ran in there yesterday. They said it's not tropical yet but very warm waters there. Have another plane headed there right now. We'll hear back from them in the next hour or two to see what's going on.
But it's very close to land. It could go toward New Orleans. It could go into northwest Florida and it could strengthen further. So, we'll have to watch all of those things. In the meantime these type of systems, this time of year, Kiran, can spawn tornadoes and we certainly saw one last night.
CHETRY: And still the potential today for some more dangerous weather. Rob Marciano tracking it all for us, thank you.
We also want to share some of the pictures and videos from the storms though and these were sent to I-Report@cnn.com. We'll show you some of them on the air later and we'll also post them on the web. So if you were there and have some pictures of extreme weather in your area, please send them along to us. We're also following another breaking story this morning, the campus of Delaware State University is on lockdown right now, after a shooting involving two people there. Campus security saying a male and female were shot overnight, that it happened in the school's main quad, in an area that appears to be under renovation. It happened around 1 o'clock in the morning, Eastern time.
A spokesperson for the university says they are still actively looking right now for this gunman. Just a few moments ago he talked a little bit more about that, giving people advice. Saying that classes are canceled today. Nonessential employees are being told to stay home, as Delaware State University police continue to hunt for this gunman.
Also the conditions, the university spokesperson said that the male who was shot is in stable condition, but that the female who was shot is in much more serious condition. We're going to continue to update as we get new information out of Delaware State University later today -- John.
ROBERTS: New Orleans is on alert for that tropical disturbance that Rob talked about a couple of minutes ago. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency last night. Ambulances, evacuation shelters, the National Guard, all standing by, ready to go at a moment's notice.
Forecasters say the weather system could develop into a tropical storm, and then start moving westward toward Louisiana. Some areas could see as much as six inches of rain and they're worried what that could do to the levees.
More than 100 firefighters are battling a wildfire that's burning in Washington State. Four expensive homes overlooking the Columbia River have been destroyed. You can see them try to dump water on it there, and try to tamp down the flames. Crews say 50 to 60 other homes are in danger today.
And there are tornado watches this morning in Minnesota after a deadly storm brought torrential rain and large hail, killing a 13- year-old. Police say the teen was playing with friends in a swollen creek when he was swept away. Police also reported that a funnel cloud touched down -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, there is a hearing in Jena, Louisiana, about four hours from now, happened after the huge rallies there a day ago. One of six black teens accused of attacking a white classmate, this boy, Mychal Bell, could be released today. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s son speaking out about the issue; saying the justice system is not applied the same to all crimes.
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MARTIN LUTHER KING III: Justice for the six young men and even justice for the victims.
BOB NOEL, MYCHAL BELL'S ATTORNEY: The big problem in this case is it's a manipulation of the system. Obviously they wanted this child to be tried as an adult.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How old is he?
NOEL: Charged initially with an enumerated offense, and then they, prior to trial, they amended it to an aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery, which under our law you can't try a juvenile for.
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CHETRY: An appeals court last week overturned Bell's conviction. Right now he is still in jail.
Also, new this morning a NATO convoy carrying French troops hit by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. NATO says one solder was killed and eight Afghan civilians hurt. That attack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least one vehicle on fire.
ROBERTS: President Bush is slamming on ad that attacked his top general in Iraq. It was published last week in "The New York Times". The Left-wing organization, Moveon.org, mocked General David Petraeus as General Betray Us. During a White House news conference President Bush fired back at MoveOn and at the Democrats.
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I GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military. And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. Most Democrats are afraid of irritating a Left wing group like Moveon.org -- or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military.
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ROBERTS: MoveOn responded by saying it's disgusting that the president has more interest in political attacks than in developing an exit strategy -- Kiran.
CHETRY: The welcome mat has been rolled out, or rolled up, rather, at ground zero for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He had requested to pay a visit there. It is being rolled out though at Columbia University and it's causing a lot of controversy. It's where AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is right now with more.
Hi, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Kiran. Good morning.
You know, Columbia University has come under harsh criticism for inviting the Iranian leader. Remember, Iran is part of the so-called axis of evil. But Columbia University's president is defending his decision, citing free speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHO (voice over): New York City police firmly rejected the Iranian president's request to visit ground zero, but just a few miles away, Columbia University is rolling out the welcome mat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regardless of what you think about his policies, he's one of the most important people in the war right now. And I would love the opportunity to hear him speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think definitely he should be given a platform. Whether you agree with his politics or not he still should be given the right to speak.
CHO: Columbia professor and Iran expert Richard Bulliet handled negotiations for the visit with the Iranian government. He calls Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming exchange with students a unique educational dialogue.
PROF. RICHARD BULLIET, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Here we have an opportunity, in a situation where there's potentially another war, to hear directly from the president of the country that we could find ourselves at war with.
CHO: But it marks a turnaround. Just last year, Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger withdrew an offer for Ahmadinejad to speak, saying his views were repugnant. This year, Bollinger uses the term "odious" and says he plans to personally challenge the Iranian president, who denies the Holocaust ever happened and has called for the destruction of Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we should legitimize his powers at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I find his views to be absolutely offensive.
CHO: Free speech at Columbia has been challenged before. Just last year, students stormed the stage during a speech by an anti- immigration activist. And Senator John McCain got this reaction from Columbia students protesting his support for the war in Iraq.
And with Ahmadinejad on the way, there will likely be more protests on Monday.
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CHO: Now, Ahmadinejad will be arriving in the U.S. to address the General Assembly -- U.N. General Assembly, rather, on Sunday. The event here at Columbia University is closed to the public, only students, faculty and staff are allowed. And the 600 tickets that were made available were snapped up in an hour.
In fact, Kiran, we are hearing that the university is already making accommodations for overflow.
CHETRY: Wow. All right, Alina Cho, live on this latest controversy with the presidential of Iran. Thank you. ROBERTS: Can counting calories add years to your life? There's a whole group of people who are going to extreme dieting measures to try to slow down the aging process.
CHETRY: Does it work, though? CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta paying a house call.
Great to see you, by the way, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, good to be here.
CHETRY: The whole thinking behind this is if you severely restrict your calories you can actually extend your life and be healthier?
GUPTA: That is exactly the theory. And it's a theory that has been out there for a long time, for about 70 years. People believing initially insects, worms and eventually primates, as well, that simply restricting calories could do several different things to your body. For a long time they believed it would actually decrease the number of free radicals. These sort of damaging cells that circulate throughout your body.
But now interestingly they have stumbled onto something else, which I find very exciting, these longevity genes. Actual longevity genes in your body and they figure by restricting your calories you can actually turn those genes on. They haven't proven this yet, certainly not in humans. But this is the sort of prevailing theory.
Let me show you, because this is a question we get all the time: What does caloric restriction mean? It's not necessarily fun. We have two breakfasts here. This is some yogurt, a bagel with cream cheese, orange juice and coffee. About half a typical Kiran, breakfast, by the way.
ROBERTS: That's the appetizer.
GUPTA: That's the appetizer?
But this is a caloric -- that's about 800 calories, incidentally. This is about 120 calorie, a half a cup of low fat yogurt, that's some psyllium husk on there, K C.
CHETRY: Yum!
GUPTA: Apple, and then just a half a cup of tea, with some sweetener. That's about 120 calories, so greatly limited. But this is the sort of breakfast that you'd eat if you were on one of the diets.
ROBERTS: So what are these longevity genes and how does caloric restriction turn them on?
GUPTA: They're not exactly sure why this is happening, but this is sort fascinating. This whole idea that somehow causing a stress in the body, causes the body to react in some way that protects itself, it's a protective mechanism. It may do things to sort of enhance the body's overall longevity.
We know, for example, this is true with wine. Resberytrol (ph), that's a substance that is released as grapes are exposed to stress. Grape growers will throw a tarp over their grapes, or they'll withhold water. The idea is to bring out more of the resberytrol (ph), which is also incidentally thought to be this sort of longevity substance.
It may be the same mechanism, but remember these names, Cert 3 and Cert 4. Because people believe these are the longevity genes that may hold the key to our own longevity, not only living longer but also looking younger.
CHETRY: We're learning something new every day. Grapes have to suffer for to you have a glass of wine. They have to go through enormous amounts of stress.
ROBERTS: And in order for you to live longer, I think you should give back half your breakfast right now.
CHETRY: You know, this is more like -- I'm going to need to fit in an Academy Awards dress, people realistically -- I mean, people that follow this, what is your quality of life like if you are restricting yourself?
GUPTA: I think there's two ways of looking at that. I incidentally had a meal with a couple of people who follow this diet pretty strictly. They measure everything. And that's actually a brownie. It wasn't a very good brownie, I'll tell you that. They measure everything. And I ended up having Tilapia, some tomato salad, about 690 calories for dinner, a lot of food if you look at that, but very water-dense food.
Lot of people will say you're not really living longer, it just seems like it if you're on one of these caloric restriction diets. Other people say, look, if you get rid of all the processed foods, you get rid of all the refined foods, you'll ward down your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, a lot of the big killers. So, in fact, you have a healthier way of life as well. So, it depends on how you look at it I guess.
CHETRY: So, you did it for one meal. Could you do it for a month?
GUPTA: I tend to eat pretty healthy but I don't think I'll go down to the 1,600 or 1,500 calories a day that is required for a man, and about or 1,300, 1,400 for a woman. I think that's too few, but -- look, there's a huge movement out there of people who are doing this.
ROBERTS: No pain, no gain, right?
GUPTA: That's right.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thank you.
CHETRY: Good to see you.
By the way, coming up, you were able to scrub in on Youssif. The little Iraqi boy, burned, his surgery.
GUPTA: One of the most fascinating procedures I've seen. We're talking about a very cosmetic area of the body, here. How do they do that? It was really remarkable. I'll show you some of the things that I saw.
CHETRY: We look forward to that. We're going to check in with Sanjay, in the next hour. Thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you, guys.
ROBERTS: Great.
Should Dubai get a stake in an American company? Senator Charles Schumer is raising some red flags. We'll talk with him, next, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
A violent cell phone store robbery and all of it caught on tape. This is surveillance video that shows one suspect yanking the clerk away from her five-year-old son. Here you see it happen. Then beating her, another suspect stabs two employees in the back with a screwdriver. Unbelievably, though, apparently they didn't manage to really do much harm, even though they were attempting to do the stabbing, because no one was seriously hurt according to police. After the video aired on TV, police were able to get their hands on two suspects, they are under arrest today.
Blaming Blackwater, Iraq says the private security firm fired an unprovoked barrage of bullets on Iraqi civilians, killing at least eight people. Iraq kicked Blackwater out of the country. Blackwater and its employees have not left yet and say the contractors were ambushed.
A crowd of about 200 students at the University of Wisconsin- Madison protested Halliburton's presence at a school career fair yesterday. The students sat in front of the company's booth, singing anti-war songs, virtually blocking access to their recruiters. The campus's anti-war network accuses Halliburton of profiting from the war in Iraq.
ROBERTS: There is concern this morning as a foreign government wants a significant stake in a leading American stock exchange. The Treasury Department is reviewing a proposed deal between the Nasdaq and company owned by the government of Dubai. And here are the details.
Dubai's government would take an almost 20 percent stake in the Nasdaq. Dubai becomes Nasdaq's largest single shareholder and Dubai is limited to only 5 percent voting rights. The deal has resurrected national security concerns similar to the Dubai Ports deal that collapsed over a year ago.
New York Senator Charles Schumer is calling for greater scrutiny of this proposal. He joins me now live from Capitol Hill.
Senator Schumer, under this deal, Dubai would become the first Middle Eastern government to own a substantial stake in U.S. financial markets. What's wrong with that from your perspective?
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: First it's not really that it's a Middle Eastern country. It's any government. There are two things that raise some questions about this deal, that doesn't mean we should oppose it, but we should ask questions before rushing to judgment.
The first is that it's a foreign government. Let's say France bought the New York Stock Exchange. That would certainly involve scrutiny, not a shrugged shoulder. And that is because governments have not just economic considerations, but political considerations. If this were a private company in Dubai, just run by shareholders, it would be different.
And second, it's because they're buying a stock exchange, not a company. Exchanges are part of our infrastructure. They reflect the warp and woof of how securities, and other futures, indexes, options are traded. It's sort of like a utility. We have separate rules on who can take over a utility, which is part of infrastructure, than we do for a company that just manufactures, or puts out a service.
ROBERTS: Now as we said at the beginning this brings to mind the Dubai Ports World deal that collapsed, some people are saying this is similar. Nancy Pelosi doesn't think so. Take a listen to what she said.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think it's quite a different issue than the ports issue because that really was a security issue. This is a marketplace issue.
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ROBERTS: So is it a security risk, in your estimation?
SCHUMER: I'm not sure it's a security risk, as I said, if Britain or France or another country took over one of our exchanges, you'd still ask some questions, even if they weren't security. Obviously, this is not a controlling interest, but just a partial interest. Nonetheless, I think questions have to be asked.
People do pay attention to their shareholders. The idea that it's the same as Dubai Ports World, where there was some -- it was involving shipping and transactions and terrorism could have been part of it, it's not the same. That doesn't mean we shouldn't ask questions. I want to ask questions. And I'll say this: One major difference between this in the Dubai Ports World is that both the company involved, Nasdaq, which is a very fine New York company -- and --
ROBERTS: Right. I've --
SCHUMER: And the government, have decided to put this through the CFIUS review. I asked for that to happen yesterday and they said they would.
ROBERTS: Something else, I have to ask you about, Senator Schumer, you yesterday voted against the Cornyn measure, which would have condemned Moveon.org, by association for it's attack on General Petraeus. You voted for his confirmation last January. Why did you vote against the measure, and why are Democrats afraid to take on Moveon.org?
SCHUMER: The bottom line is we had a side -- we voted all for condemning what was said about General Petraeus. There was a Democratic resolution alongside of it. We just condemned what was done to Max Cleland, a veteran who lost his arms and legs. You don't do this in a one-sided political way. We should condemn all attacks on the unfair attacks on generals and on soldiers, veterans, et cetera. So just about every Democrat voted to praise General Petraeus, but also to condemn what happened to Max Cleland, and others. We did vote to condemn what happened.
ROBERTS: But again, if I could ask you, just very quickly, why are Democrats afraid of taking on Moveon.org?
SCHUMER: No one's afraid of telling somebody they're wrong when they're wrong, you know? But it's an organization that does a lot of good as well. And that's the bottom line here. This should not attacking an organization. This should be attacking an action, if that action was incorrect. The action condemning General Petraeus was incorrect. The action condemning Max Cleland was incorrect.
ROBERTS: All right, fair enough. Senator Charles Schumer, from New York. Thanks for being with us. It's always good to see you.
SCHUMER: Likewise. Good to be with you.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: Still ahead, a cell phone pic of O.J. Simpson, well it got the phone owner in a heap of trouble. We'll tell you why, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 26 minutes past the hour now. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business".
And we were just discussing in the break, what exactly is the impact of Dubai, a government really, a government of the country, owning a majority stake in a company like Nasdaq?
ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was listening carefully to Senator Schumer to see, his tone was very different than it was about the Dubai Ports World deal last year.
He's absolutely right, anybody wanting to buy into any world exchange should be scrutinized. But the government of Dubai, the investment arm of the government of Dubai -- this video shouldn't even be on here, this was from the opening of Dubai bourse, two years ago -- it's not relative to this story.
The government of Dubai has a very good history of running its companies and keeping them independent. Emirates Airlines is an entirely independent company that was not funded beyond one, 30 years ago when they bought their first planes. The government of Dubai knows how to create a climate that fosters business.
ROBERTS: Right.
VELSHI: These exchanges, I was at the Chicago Board of Trade for the Fed decision. For 100 years the Chicago Board of Trade and the Merck were at war with each other. Now they're one exchange. That's what happens. There will be five or 10 exchanges in the entire world, and whoever can run them better should run them.
ROBERTS: But Nasdaq, the Dow and all those, S&P and all of that, is supposed to be private enterprise. Governments, you wouldn't think would be involved.
VELSHI: In fact, they're moving toward being entirely public companies. But they are regulated. You want these companies to be the ones to keep an eye on -- you want these exchanges to keep an eye on companies. Because in the end, what you want are exchanges that are efficient, and that keep your investments safe; that they monitor the companies who are members of them.
That's all you need out of this. It makes no difference whatsoever owns these exchanges. They are board members of a company. These things run like companies. There's no threat to it. It should be reviewed, because investments should be reviewed.
And I think Senator Schumer's tone was reflective of what people are going to say. Let's review it. The government has said that they'll review this deal. If nothing's found to be wrong you'll see this as one of the big deals happening.
CHETRY: I understand there's also limitations on this voting shares?
VELSHI: Yeah, they won't be able to take the thing over. It's 20 percent of the Nasdaq. They won't be able to increase their stake for 10 years. And if someone's got more money to offer, they can buy it out.
ROBERTS: So, bottom line what does it mean for investors?
VELSHI: It means it's part of a trend toward exchanges becoming bigger and theoretically more efficient. It means your trading will be more efficient and cheaper.
ROBERTS: All right. Ali Velshi for us, thanks very much.
Breaking news this morning, all kinds of it. A shooting at Delaware State University, a big tornado in Florida. We'll have the latest on that when we come back on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING 7:30 a.m. Eastern on this Friday, September 21st. I'm Kiran Chetry. We're following a lot of breaking news today.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We certainly are. I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
We have breaking news out of Dover, Delaware this morning, the campus of Delaware State University on lockdown right now after two students were shot early this morning. A spokesperson updated the situation there just a few minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLOS HOLMES, DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY: I don't want to get into the injuries right now. I might have an update on them later on but I need to be clear on that myself, and I don't feel comfortable talking about that right now until I'm clear on it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The victims families have been notified, I assume?
HOLMES: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parents if they haven't heard, it's not their kid.
HOLMES: Yes, yes, the parents have already come here, and they're at the hospital, from what I understand. So yes, if you have not received a phone call from us, it's not your child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Classes there are canceled today. Employees told to stay home. The university is having a news conference beginning any minute. We'll try to bring you that live if we can.
Meantime, Akousa Afiririyieshwegie (ph) joins us on the telephone now. She is a junior. She lives in the University Village Apartments. Akousa, thanks very much for being with us. How close are to you Memorial Hall, the gymnasium, which is near the site of the shooting?
AKOUSA AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE, JUNIOR STUDENT: I'm quite close, within walking distance from where I live.
ROBERTS: Right. And what have you heard about this? I know it happened late at night. It happened about 1:00 this morning. When was the first that you heard about this and what did you hear? AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: I heard about it yesterday. One of my friends called me and they told me that there'd been a shooting and that the suspect was still at large.
ROBERTS: And how was that word spread?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: Mostly by phone. I've been following it on the news as well and they've been updating the website.
ROBERTS: Right, and what have they been telling you to do today?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: Basically they told to us just remain indoor and not go anywhere at all until further notice.
ROBERTS: We're looking just for point of reference for our viewers at home; we're looking at a map of the area of the Delaware State University campus. The number four and five joined together as Memorial Hall, gymnasium. Akous, how are people reacting there on campus? Because we remember that not too long ago it didn't happen on campus but three Delaware State University students were killed execution-style in Newark. I'm sure that had a tremendous impact in the campus. What's this doing to folks there?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: People are really worried, and basically some people are trying to figure out whether things are connected or not, but on the most part they don't think it is, but mostly people are worried and trying to figure out what's happening and what people are doing to try to rectify the situation.
ROBERTS: Right. Not that we want to you to mention any names, but are you aware of who might have been involved in the shooting?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: I haven't heard any names released about who was involved or who the suspect is.
ROBERTS: And there's no talk there on the campus either?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: No, not that I'm aware of.
ROBERTS: What are they telling to you do now today? Are you going to have to stay in your dorm for the entire day? What can do you?
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: Yes, everybody was told to just remain indoors and not go anywhere at all.
ROBERTS: All right.
AFIRIRIYIESHWEGIE: Just stay in their rooms.
ROBERTS: Akousa Afiririyieshwegie, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate you being on the telephone with us. We hope everything is all right where you are. I know how dramatic this can be, junior on a big university campus. And it looks like they got the word out quickly. Akousa, thanks very much. Kiran. CHETRY: We are also following extreme weather doing some serious damage in central Florida. At least one tornado touching down overnight in Lake County. These are live pictures right now from the helicopter doing an aerial surveillance of some of the damage. Some areas far worse than the others. But you see the downed power lines and you see some homes overturned. You see roofs ripped off. We can see trees literally uprooted and just littered along the road. Looks like a camera crew is standing there getting some pictures of the chopper shot. We should zoom out a tiny bit we can see what looks like either a mobile home or something, yes, two different homes there up-ended, one of them the roof torn off, and you can see people, everyone trying to get photos, either print or video photography to try to document some of this. I'm sure they're going to be contacting their insurance companies as well to get some read on when and how much help they're going to get with this situation. It's an area that is no stranger to just how tough Mother Nature can be. This was back in February of 2007, where an area in this same county was devastated by another tornado as well.
Our Rob Marciano has been tracking the path and what was going on in the situation and even yesterday morning he said that there was a system moving through that area, a lot of the residents report hearing little warning, and then just the proverbial sound of what sounds like a freight train rolling through. Some of them describe it being over in five or six seconds but as you can see from the helicopter shot, a lot of damage. And it's almost haphazard how it happens.
There you see two homes on the left that look like they're okay, at least one of them and then just a little bit further away, roofs ripped off and a home looking like it's flattened, like just a whole entire bag of sticks, if you will. So. we're continuing to follow this. This is coming to us from WFTV in Eustis, Florida, a little bit north of Orlando. This town was really ground zero for this tornado that ripped through overnight. In terms of injuries, though, some minor injuries, not much in terms of that, luckily no one was killed in this. Back in March and February of last year, we had dozens of fatalities related to tornadoes hitting in that area.
Let's listen as one couple told us what it was like, they were surveying he damage of their home after getting out unharmed last night.
(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I seen the roof come off the house. That was really about all, after the roof come off, then I seen the debris flying through the living room and by that time, I already had my wife dragged through the hallway, going to the bedroom to get into a closet.
REPORTER: What were you thinking while this was going on?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got to get to my husband. I was scared. I didn't really know what was going on. I just heard the wind really pick up and woke me up out of a dead sleep.
REPORTER: So you folks are pretty much homeless tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you could say that.
(END AUDIOTAPE)
CHETRY: So we heard from them as well and they said they did the right thing. They immediately ran into the bathtub, I mean, and shut the door. They heard glass shattering all around them but they ended up being OK. Tornado watches expiring I believe about 20 minutes ago. Rob said we are going to keep an eye on that area though. There's possible tropical weather developing there and into the Gulf of Mexico. But again this tornado rolling through and the first live pictures as the sun came up there, and we can see a lot of devastation in that town.
So we'll update you as soon as we find out more about how folks are coping there and with the emergency personnel is saying about getting power up and running and getting those power lines restored and helping with the cleanup. John.
ROBERTS: Details of international intrigue coming out this morning, linking Syria and North Korea in a possible nuclear effort. Israel sharing intelligence about it with the United States as well. Reports came out of Syria three weeks ago about an Israeli air strike but none of the parties is saying very much about it. In fact, President Bush was asked about it at yesterday's news conference and just shut it down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GREGORY, NBC NEWS: I wonder if you could tell us what the target was? whether you supported this bombing raid and what do you think it does to change the dynamic in an already hot region in terms of Syria and Iran and the dispute with Israel and whether the U.S. can be drawn into any of this?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to comment on the matter. Would you like another question?
GREGORY: Would you support it in.
BUSH: I'm not going to comment on the matter.
GREGORY: Would you comment on your concerns that come out of it at all about the region?
BUSH: No, saying I'm not going to comment on the matter means I'm not going to comment on the matter.
ROBERTS: Very unusual at a press conference that President Bush has got nothing to say about certain things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CNN's Ben Wedeman is live in Jerusalem. Ben, there's this growing intrigue about what happened. What are they saying there in the middle east?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, they're saying lots of things and I think we have to take it all with quite a lot of salt at this point. The latest of course is this "Washington Post" report. That the target of this Israeli attack was a nuclear site, not specified exactly what, that was set up with the North Koreans. So at this point, it really is not clear. We've also seen other reports the target of the Israeli strike was target of the nuclear site not specifically what that was set up with the North Koreans. So, at this point, it really is not clear. We've also seen other reports that the target of the Israeli strike was an Iranian shipment of weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. At this point, we really don't know and a lot of these sources we have to approach with a good deal of suspicion, these in some cases are the same sources that claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. So lots of mystery and not a lot of answers at this point.
ROBERTS: Just as looking specifically at the nuclear theory, some people believe that North Korea may have been sharing technology to help Syria get a nuclear program up and running?
WEDEMAN: That's one of the theories that, in fact, North Korea, which has recently agreed to shut down its nuclear program, is shipping some of its excess equipment to Syria. Now, this certainly would be quite a departure from the past. It's well-known that Syria has delved into chemical weapons and to some extent biological weapons but by and large it's understood that it never really got involved in the development of nuclear weapons because it's too complicated and too costly. But that is one of the theories. John.
ROBERTS: But Ben when you look at everything that happened, the fact that according to some reports, the Israeli pilots weren't told about their mission until they were well on their way, that Syria is not saying much about it, saying they dropped a couple of bombs, I think the initial reports were they didn't even explode. I mean, that would be characterized as an act of war in many circles. And the fact that other Arab nations aren't saying too much about this is all fuelling these conspiracy theories.
WEDEMAN: Yes, and you have to remember that Syria is in a rather precarious position in the region. On the one hand, of course, it's got decades of animosity between it and Israel. On the other hand, because of the situation in Iraq and Iran's growing strength in the region, Syria is seen as the odd man out of the Arab consensus, the main Arab consensus of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries, is that they are opposed to the growing power of Iran and therefore, of Syria as well. So there hasn't been much condemnation coming out of the Arab regime. The pro-western Arab regimes as a result of this attack which took place on the 6th of September.
ROBERTS: That's all very intriguing and certainly worthy of a deeper look. Ben Wedeman for us this morning from Jerusalem. Ben, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, there's a health alert in one of the most ironic of places, the state of California gave out more than 50,000 lunch bags to promote a healthy diet. Well, now they say these lunch bags have increased levels of lead. They were made in China. They say eat fruits and vegetables and be active. There you go.
ROBERTS: To say that you are what you eat and it turns out it's true. Unfortunately, it also turns out that we're full of corn, we're like walking corn chips or maybe even corn cobs.
CHETRY: Yes, this is strange. I thought we were 70 percent water. Now, I find out we're all corn? CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was tested for corniness as well and we're not talking about his jokes at the office parties.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You were working all morning on that, aren't you?
CHETRY: No, it just came to me. The corn apparently that I'm ingesting. He has been on a special assignment that he has been doing. It's going to be very interesting. I can't wait to watch this, "Fed Up, America's Killer Diet." And apparently (inaudible) we don't realize how much corn we're ingesting?
GUPTA: This was really surprising and pretty remarkable. As you already sort of alluded to, I was surprised at my own results as well. But corn is in just about everything we eat especially in the United States -- meat, ketchup, ice cream, there's a lot of corn out there and a lot of it is turned into this substance known as high fructose corn syrup. It is low nutrition, high calorie stuff and probably why there's an obesity epidemic in this country, at least part of the blame goes there.
The question is, just how much corn do we have in our bodies and can we investigate that? Well, it turns out that there's a carbon molecule that sort of specific to corn. So, there is a way to test how much corn is in your given body and we actually had Todd Dawson, whose a Berkeley professor and plant biologist, show us how the test is done. You're looking at it there. They just take a strand of your hair and analyze how much corn is actually in your body. Now, this is stunning but the average American has 65 percent to 70 percent corn in their body. Pretty remarkable. Like I said, I got myself tested, my result was 69 percent.
ROBERTS: This is 60 percent of these remaining percentages, not water, right?
GUPTA: That's right. That's right. Out of the substance, out of the food that we eat, 69 percent of what I am ingesting is corn.
CHETRY: Well, do you eat a lot of corn?
GUPTA: Well that's sort of the amazing thing. I don't think that I do. I don't think I eat a lot of corn per se, and I don't eat a lot of processed foods, at least, I didn't think so but I must be eating a lot more than I think I do. And if you know, if you go to the grocery store and you turn over any label in the grocery store of any product, you're going to see fructose corn syrup in just about everything. It's amazing to me. ROBERTS: We can't be alone on this either because there are so many countries, particularly in the developing world where corn is a real staple of the diet.
GUPTA: Yes, you know and this is interesting. So Mexico for example, is going to have high concentrations of corn, although far less processed corn. Todd Dawson the same guy we were just talking about, told me something pretty remarkable. He went to Italy and lived there for three months, and tested himself again after being there for three months. His results dropped from in the 60 percent range to 5 percent.
ROBERTS: Really?
GUPTA: We eat a lot of corn.
CHETRY: Right, was he all wheat.
GUPTA: Right, there are other products but corn in and of itself isn't bad. The problem is processed corn, it's this high fructose corn syrup. And it is just so ubiquitous in our diet. We also corn- fed beef here, much more so than grass fed beef, for example, in European countries. So there is a difference in a lot of the products that we eat over all. But corn in and of itself again isn't bad. It's when you get this high, high calorie low nutritious stuff that I think is in part causing the obesity epidemic. Let me say just one more thing because I find this really fascinating but 85 percent of the farm acreage, you know in the farm belt in this country makes corn up two products -- corn and soy beans. We make a lot of corn in this country and as a result it gets into us and I'm thinking partly causing this obesity problem.
ROBERTS: And increasingly getting into our cars as well.
GUPTA: That's right.
CHETRY: And so the interesting thing is what do you want to strive for? You want to be more balanced in your percentages of what you're made up of or what?
GUPTA: Well, I think this is more of a reflection of this high fructose problem. I don't think anyone's trying to indict corn specifically, assuming a lot of corn farmers watching us and saying hang on a second, this is our living here. That's not the problem. The problem is what we're turning this corn into and maybe it's a question of using the corn in more of its raw state as opposed to turning them into the high fructose stuff or as you say, getting more of a balance with some of the other substances.
ROBERTS: All right.
CHETRY: That's fascinating.
GUPTA: It is. We could test you, guys, if you'd like.
ROBERTS: Yes, I'd like to do that. CHETRY: Scary.
ROBERTS: I'll give you my hair right now. Sanjay, thanks. We'll see you soon. And don't forget, be sure to catch up Sanjay's special "Fed Up! American's killer Diet" that airs on Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. We'll be right back in just a moment.
CHETRY: That's right. Following all the breaking news this morning -- people in central Florida waking up after a stormy night, and we have the first live pictures from the air coming in, confirmation that a tornado indeed did touch down there. Our Rob Marciano tracking all the extreme weather, a look at what's ahead today as well for this area, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: All right these are the first live pictures coming to us from Eustis, Florida, just north of Orlando. Where at least one tornado did touch down overnight this is in Lake County and we're getting a look at some of the damage there. You see a resident who seemed to be just sitting outside, a few residents sitting outside. They're in a tough situation right now. They're probably waiting to find out more about the damage estimates. 20 homes destroyed. Considered uninhabitable. At this point, 50 others sustaining damage. Only one person with injuries which is amazing which is amazing when you take a look at some of the damages specially because a lot of these power lines were down in the area. They ended up shutting electricity off to make sure no one accidentally step on a live wire. Rob Marciano is here following the latest and when you look at the pictures, it's always fascinating when a tornado rips through is you can see one house flattened to a bunch of sticks and another standing next door.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What's encouraging about that is that it tells us that it was a relatively small tornado. What we saw say in Kansas in the spring (ph) and Greensburg, a huge tornado that flattened an entire town. This is a tornado that spun up from a system that's kind of spinning in the Gulf of Mexico. And this time of year, they're they'll get it from tropical systems, from hurricanes. We're actually below where we've been the last couple of years because we haven't had much in the way of tropical storms heading into Florida.
But this is a system in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico which could become a tropical storm over the next day or two, maybe as soon as today. But of more immediate concern is the fact it has spun off these storms which came through the area across central Florida last night and at least one of which dropped a tornado. They are dispatching a storm survey team out of Melbourne, Florida. That will be in the area later this morning and they'll do a complete survey to determine just how strong that storm was but you saw the video.
A concern now across parts of Apalachicola and Tallahassee, Pensacola, you folks may be dealing with storms as we go on through the day and potentially a tropical storm as well. Speaking of, here's Hurricane Ivan there in the Pacific, talked about it yesterday. It has winds of 80 miles an hour. It will be making landfall across the Baja. It will be weakening. And that's good news.
On top of all of this going on, we have an unusually strong system that's dropping down across the west coast and believe it or not, there are winter storm watches that are posted for the Southern Sierras in eastern California, could see over a foot of snow there. So, typically when we get wacky weather, we get in all parts of the country, one area of the country will react to the other one weather- wise and that's kind of what we're seeing there and of course watching the system in the Gulf of Mexico. ReCon plane out there right now. They'll be sending back information to us to determine whether or not this will become a tropical storm.
CHETRY: So possibly a foot of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range for September, strange?
MARCIANO: Very strange. I mean, they typically don't get storms in southern California until the end of October, beginning of November when their rainy season starts. So that's definitely unusual.
CHETRY: Right. Rob, thank you. John.
ROBERTS: A Las Vegas court officer is apologizing to O.J. Simpson's attorneys for a camera phone picture taken by an employee. A court reporter apparently snapped the picture when Simpson left the hearing this week on robbery, kidnapping and assault charges. The picture was deleted before it could be distributed. In a letter to Simpson, Attorney Yale Galanter, the officer said the behavior "is an aberration and will not be tolerated."
ROBERTS: For the first time since 1976, the Canadian dollar catches up to the U.S. dollar. Will it go higher? What it all means to consumers and manufacturers. Ali Velshi "Minding your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Four minutes to the top of the hour. Ali Velshi here "Minding your Business." We have something in common that we both used to live in Canada. We can remember the time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American dollar.
ALI VELSHI, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": The only thing I can remember about 1976 was that I had hair.
ROBERTS: Well, everything old is new again.
VELSHI: Yes. Definitely. The hair remains off of my head, this is the luni, the Canadian dollar. It is now for the first time since 1976 the same value as an American dollar. 1:1, it cost you more than $1.40 to buy a euro right now. The U.S. dollar is at one of the lowest points it has been in a long time. I can talk to you about all the technicalities about it but really what matters is the fact that it's going to get more expensive to travel, more expensive to go to Canada. it's going to become more attractive for people around the world to come to the United States which tends to be good for tourism. Our exports which get cheaper, which tends to be very good to our manufacturing industry. It's going to be less interesting to buy imported goods in the United States. It's going to force Americans to spend more of their time at home and spend money here and buy American made things so despite all of you who think this is a terrible thing, a low currency is actually remarkably good in many cases for a country's economy, particularly one that's trying to come back from a big setback in manufacturing.
So, on a lot of levels a low American dollar is not a bad thing. This is very closely tied to the cut in the fed rate. Money moves around the world based on what interest rates are offered on bonds and as a result, when one country cuts its major interest rate, the currency tends to go down. So we'll have to see how this pans out around the world. Because other central banks may do similar things and currency floats in that fashion. This luni was worth at one point worth 60 cents and now it is worth $1. Of course, this is going to present some problems for Canada, which until recently is the U.S.'s largest trading partner. We'll keep talking about this. In fact, I'm also going to talk about it on the weekend show "Your Money." We're talking about money, jobs, investment, housing and mortgages on a special edition of "Your Money" Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
CHETRY: We look forward to it.
ROBERTS: Yes. Ali, thanks.
CHETRY: Coming up, it's the king of all junk food, the sultan of snack cakes, we're talking about the twinkies. What the heck is really in a twinkie? Well if you're listening to Dr. Gupta I guess corn. He's going to break it down for us with a warning. Do we want to be warned about twinkies?
ROBERTS: No!
CHETRY: We'll find out ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: What's not to know?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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