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CNN Saturday Morning News

Delaware State University Shootings; More Nooses Found; Mychal Bell Still in Jail; Zimbabwe's Economy Failing; Mattel Apologizes to China

Aired September 22, 2007 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, everybody. From the CNN Center right here in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm Betty Nguyen. Welcome to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Rob Marciano in for T.J. Holmes.

NGUYEN: Glad to have you, Rob.

MARCIANO: I'm having a great time.

Take a look at this. A customer tries to keep a robber from getting out of a store and ends up getting shot. But there is much more to this story when the man looks for help. Stay with that.

NGUYEN: And you might see something to smile about on your credit card statements this fall. Your personal finance editor Gerri Willis has all those details.

MARCIANO: From the red carpet to the hospital ladies listen up, actor George Clooney is hurt in a motorcycle accident. We'll have that story.

NGUYEN: I'm sure there are plenty of women out there ready to nurse his injuries.

But up first, we'll talk about this, something much more important, the investigation into that shooting at Delaware State University. Two students were wounded in Friday's campus attack. Police say they have interviewed two students that are considered persons of interest in this case.

CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us now live from Dover, Delaware with the latest. What are the new developments, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, the new developments are just what you said there, that Delaware State University spokesman Carlos Holmes does confirm to CNN this morning that campus police have, indeed, questioned two persons of interest, spoke to them both yesterday, talked to them and released them. But the gunman himself who is responsible for the shootings is still at large. Police are downplaying the circumstances of the shooting that occurred early Friday morning.

Just before 1:00 am when they say a group of eight to ten students was leaving a campus cafe. They say they made their way to a pedestrian mall area where then a gun was produced, four to six shots were fired, hitting two 17-year-old students from the D.C. area.

The "Washington Post" has identified them as Chaletha (ph) Middleton and then Samuel Pugh (ph). Now Middleton was shot twice in the abdomen, she is in serious conditions. Pugh (ph) shot once in the leg and ankle, he is in stable condition. University officials, as I said, are downplaying this saying this is, in their opinion at least, a case of Delaware State University Students making, "incredibly poor choices."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JAMES OVERTON, DELAWARE STATE UNIV. POLICE: I would like to try to put this incident into perspective. This was not an act of terrorism. This was not a crazed gunman who found his way onto the campus. What our investigation is telling us is that it was a student involved in this incident, a Delaware State University student, that caused this incident and once captured will have to face the consequences of his actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, classes are canceled here on this 300-acre campus again today. Students are being allowed on only students for sporting events. And university officials say they hope to resume classes soon, but they haven't yet made a final decision on that -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Kathleen Koch joining us live today with the latest on the situation there. Thank you, Kathleen.

MARCIANO: New this morning, more nooses reportedly found at a school, this time in North Carolina. Administrators say four nooses were found hanging from a tree yesterday at Andrews High School in High Point. School officials mindful of a similar incident in Jena, Louisiana wasted no time in bringing police and said such actions won't be tolerated. For now, extra security has been called in and students can get counseling if they need it.

NGUYEN: Well, in Jena, Louisiana, the so-called Jena six defended Mychal Bell remains in jail this morning. Yesterday a judge refused to release Bell even though his conviction in the beating of a white student was overturned by an appeals court. It's not known exactly what happened in the courtroom because legal proceedings involved juveniles are generally sealed from the public.

And we want to know what you think this morning should hanging or displaying a noose be considered a prank or a hate crime. E-mail us your thoughts the address WEEKENDS@CNN.com.

MARCIANO: And you can see, an encore presentation of "CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: Judgment in Jena" tonight at 7:00 Eastern only on CNN.

NGUYEN: The six suspect arrested in the O.J. Simpson robbery investigation has been release on bail. Charles Ehrlich traveled from Florida to Las Vegas to turn himself in yesterday. Here's a picture. He is accused of being one of the men involved with O.J. Simpson in the alleged robbery of sports memorabilia items at this Las Vegas casino hotel last week. His attorney says Ehrlich will plead not guilty.

And a bit of a break this morning for people along parts of the Gulf Coast. An expected tropical storm never quite gained strength. People did pull their boats out of the water and in some areas shelters were opened up in anticipation of that severe weather. Good news is it didn't play out the way many had expected.

MARCIANO: Let's bring in Reynolds Wolf right now tracking what is left of this tropical depression. Good news with this, right?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're absolutely right. We've been talking forever it seems about the lack of rainfall in parts of Alabama, Georgia, even into Mississippi and Louisiana. And that is changing this morning. Although not as heavy as people would like. A half inch of rain in Doeten, Alabama. We are seeing some scattered showers right along the I-10 corridor, back into Mississippi as well. Some places could see anywhere from say three to six inches of rainfall. No big watches or warnings in effect as we speak, which is certainly wonderful news.

Meanwhile, I'm going to step out of the way for a moment so you can get a better view of this, we're going to see some of that rainfall begin to drift its way off towards the west, back over just south of Jackson, over near Biloxi and Hattiesburg as well, that is where the center of circulation is located. We're going to continue to see the rain as far north as Meriden, maybe even Columbus, before the day is done.

Something else we are going to be dealing with, farther back out to the west, not rain but we are looking at snowfall, heavy snow in fact for parts of the High Sierra where they could see up to a foot of snowfall in spots like Mammoth Lake, Mammoth Mountain, big ski resort. Happy times there, no question. This storm coming a little bit earlier then what we normally see this time of year.

Also, we're seeing some scattered showers from San Francisco southward to Seaside, places like Monterey, even Caramel, some rain drops this morning. That's going to be pretty much a constant companion with you if you happen to be on Highway 101 this morning. The rain will be pretty steady at times.

Something else we're seeing, plenty of sunshine across much of the Midwest. High pressure setting in, it is a big powerhouse high. It is going to keep you nice and dry from Chicago back up to Minneapolis. Southward to St. Louis, where high temperatures today are going to stay mainly into the 70s, and into the 80s. Detroit, lovely day for you with a high temperature warming up to 75 degrees, 91 in Memphis, 86 in Atlanta. New York and Boston into the upper 70s with a chance of showers.

That is your forecast, let's send it back to you at the news desk.

NGUYEN: All right. Reynolds, we do appreciate it. MARCIANO: Thanks, Reynolds.

Folks along the Gulf Coast were planning ahead for this tropical depression, forecast to be a tropical storm and for the expected severe weather. Kara Finnstrom will join us live next hour from New Orleans, and later today in the CNN "NEWSROOM," Susan Reosgen will be live with reports from Biloxi, Mississippi.

NGUYEN: Well Rob, that severe weather also caused damage to South Florida. The system dumped more than an inch of rain in the Albany, Georgia area. Forecasters say the water was much needed in a region that has been suffering under months of drought. The system is also meaning cooler temperatures.

MARCIANO: Moving to Iraq now, a return to normal operations for Blackwater USA. The State Department confirming that the private security company is back at full strength today. Blackwater is used by the State Department in Iraq to protect diplomats. The company was sidelined earlier this week over accusations that guards killed Iraqi civilians. Now new allegations, federal prosecutors in the U.S. are investigating whether Blackwater employees smuggled weapons into Iraq. We will get a live report from Baghdad coming up at the top of the hour.

NGUYEN: A continent in crises. This time more than a dozen African nations coping with massive flooding. More than 200 people have died. Up to a million people have been affected across central and eastern Africa. The U.S. plans to send $100,000 to Uganda, one of the hardest hit countries. More money is on its way from European nations. In addition to destroying homes, those floods are ruining crops and outbreaks of malaria as well as other diseases.

MARCIANO: Ironically, another African nation is in the midst of a major drought and financial collapse.

CNN's Jonathan Mann has more on why Zimbabwe's economy is failing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What does it take to crash, I mean, really crash an entire economy? Well, it takes both bad luck and bad decisions and Zimbabwe had them both. In the most important place in the country on its farms. Zimbabwe is a primarily agricultural economy that depends on crops and crops, of course, depend on rain. It has been years since the last good rains.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The brought this year in parts of Zimbabwe is very, very bad. The government has just declared 2007 a drought year and there's talk that Zimbabwe might only produce a third of its annual needs from 2007-2008. And this is about the sixth year where Zimbabwe will have had a poor harvest.

MANN: Drought is an old enemy in Zimbabwe, we have a chart of rainfall. Now it is measured in millimeters, but forget the units, just look at the trend. See how it goes down and up, and down and up? Imagine an entire country's income doing just that.

Well, it is doing just that. Economic growth followed the rains up and down in Zimbabwe. We can watch it there. That's been going on for years and years and years. In the 90s, they parted company. Economic growth started going down even as the rainfall improved. And by the year 2000, even good rainfall didn't help.

The economy literally right off the charts. What happened? Well, bad decisions made the bad luck worse. The government destroyed commercial farming by allowing landless poor people, war vets with no large scale farming experience to seize the biggest and best farms in the country. After that, commercial agriculture crashed.

Subsistent agriculture crashed too. One in five adults in Zimbabwe have HIV or Aids and dying people don't farm. Things spiraled down from there. When farming collapses, factories are next in Zimbabwe because its factories use raw materials like cotton that come from farms. Farms and factories can't pay back their loans. Who would want to give them new loans?

Well, banking collapses next. The best other source of money dries up as well and that is international investors who pull out because who would want to invest in a place like that? Well, that place is Zimbabwe today.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Thanks, Jonathan.

The economic meltdown and drought are hitting people hard. If you're looking for a way to help, go to CNN.com/impact to learn how you can become part of the solution.

NGUYEN: Faulty cribs lead to the death of three children and now a major recall. What you need to know. That is coming up on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

MARCIANO: And a heinous crime is caught on tape. An elderly woman attacked, but she didn't give up without a fight. Video you don't want to miss. That's after the break.

NGUYEN: Also, a major move this week on the economic front. But what does the Federal Reserve rate cut mean for you? Gerri Willis breaks it down. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back.

If you've got a baby at home, listen up. About a million Simplicity and Graco cribs are being recalled this morning. There's a design flaw. You actually put the drop side of the crib on backwards and infants have gotten trapped and suffocated. The cribs that are listed here on the screen were made in China; they were sold from 1998 until May of this year. If you have one of these cribs and want more information or want to get a repair kit, contact Simplicity.

NGUYEN: All right. We're going from cribs to another round of the blame game over unsafe toys. This time Mattel points the finger at itself.

MARCIANO: Apparently Mattel says its own design flaws are to blame for some of the recent recalls.

CNN's Christine Romans, she has more on this story, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Mattel's CEO in Washington this week apologizing to Congress and the American people for a summer of toy recalls.

ROBERT ECKERT, MATTEL CEO: Our standards were ignored, and our rules were broken.

ROMANS: Apparently not by the Chinese. A senior Mattel executive was in Beijing apologizing to China.

THOMAS DEBROWSKI, MATTEL EXEC. V.P.: Mattel takes full responsibility for those recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys that were manufactured.

ROMANS: In a choreographed and carefully worded apology, Mattel's vice president of worldwide operations, Thomas Debrowski told China's product safety chief Lee Chang Jang (ph) ...

DEBRIWSKI: The vast majority of the products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China-run factories.

ROMANS: The very public apology highlights just how critical China is for Mattel, 65 percent of Mattel's toys are made there. Mattel reeling from toy safety scandals apologizing for damaging China's reputation. And Mattel also said it recalled more toys than necessary, something a stern-looking Lee called unacceptable. To many, the whole event seemed an effort to appease Beijing.

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS, (R) TEXAS: They're doing what they have to protect their ability to do business in that country. I would really like to see them extend some effort on doing business in this country.

ROMANS: Mattel has apologized to American consumers in full-page ads and before Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were let down and we let you down.

ROMANS: Now Mattel doing its best not to let China down.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Fighting back. An elderly woman attacked in a parking lot. But she doesn't go down easily. Check this out. You're going to see more of this dramatic video coming up after the break.

NGUYEN: One sided right now but she comes back.

Also, the first rate cut by the Federal Reserve in years. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, what does it really mean to homeowners? Well, Gerri Willis takes a look.

MARCIANO: And more bad news for Britney Spears. She could be the next star to spend time behind bars. Find out when.

Veronica De La Cruz joins us for hot topics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: A 19-year-old M.I.T student is out on bail after being arrested for wearing a fake bomb into Boston's Logan International Airport. You thought kids that went to M.I.T. were smart. Simpson was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and with a felony count of carrying a hoax device Friday. Heavily-armed police responded when called to the airport. Officers say they spotted Simpson wearing a small circuit board attached by wires to a battery. The woman called her outfit art.

NGUYEN: Well, no threat here. That's what the FBI is saying this morning about reports of suspicious activity aboard an American eagle flight last night. A flight attendant reported suspicious activity by two passengers on a flight from Jacksonville, Florida, to Raleigh, North Carolina. And after interviewing the passengers and crew the FBI determined it was nothing more than a miss perception.

Check this out, though. No miss perception here. It is caught on tape. An elderly woman being mugged in San Diego. A surveillance camera out side a store captured the dramatic pictures Tuesday as a robber attacked the woman. She did, though, put up a fight but was no match for the young purse snatcher. She came out without her money but apparently not seriously hurt. That's the good news. No word on what happened to the robber. Wow.

MARCIANO: I love that she was swinging.

NGUYEN: You've got to try.

MARCIANO: You've got to give it a try.

A similar incident in Dallas. A man unknowingly walked into a robbery in progress at a telephone store. Surveillance video shows him quickly slamming the door shut to keep the robber inside. But there you see the robber fired through the glass and hit the man. The robber then made his get away but later we see the shooting victim stumbling outside the store and eventually he gets help from a nearby shop. So far police have made no arrests in connection with that incident.

NGUYEN: Well, the Feds, they cut interest rates this week, but what does that mean for you? Gerri Willis takes a look.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hi, Betty.

In the wake of the Federal Reserves rate cut, many people are asking, is this the time to refinance my mortgage? Fist off, whether or not you should refinance depends on what kind of mortgage you have and what the terms are.

In general, if you're stuck in an adjustable rate mortgage where your rate is resetting higher, the move won't make much difference for you. That is because lenders have already anticipated much of what the Fed has done. If you want an adjustable rate mortgage that you want to get out of, now is a good time to lock into a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Rates are still below their long term average of 8 percent. Some experts believe that fixed rates will creep up over time and locking in now will allow beating that move.

Good there are some news in terms of credit cards. A majority of credit cards carry variable rates and the Feds move will help many credit card holders. Any adjustments will show up in the next few billing cycles. Those lower rates will allow you to pay off your debt faster.

Student loans which tie to prime will also see an improvement in their payments. But savers will get little help from the Feds' move. Interest on CDs and money market funds are likely to fall.

Coming up on "OPEN HOUSE" at 9:30, we're going to examine the Fed cut and how that affects your mortgage with our panel of experts.

We'll also tell you how to decode those real estate ads and car repair scams you need to be on the lookout for. It is all coming up on "OPEN HOUSE" at 9:30 -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Thank you, Gerri.

Veronica De La Cruz joins us now with a look at what's on the Web. This is an amazing story Veronica. I wish I would have thought of this.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She started with a loan from her mom for $8. Today, Betty, she is a millionaire. Who we are talking about here a 17-year-old girl who made millions building MySpace Web pages. One of the most popular stories on CNN.com this morning. We're going to take a closer look next, and it's all coming up from the dotcom desk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: And tropical depression continues to die on the Gulf Coast. But still bringing some scattered showers much needed rainfall for parts of the Gulf Coast. Let's go to the weather computer and as we do so. On the far left hand side of the screen you can still see that rotation from the storm bringing some rainfall back to Mobile Bay, and to Fairhope, as far south as Dolphin Island. Farther out to the west, just north of Biloxi east and south of Hattiesburg, we're going to see this rain continue through much of the day. Possibly some stronger storms as we get through to the late day hours. For the latest on your forecast and so much more keep it here on CNN.

MARCIANO: Thanks Reynolds.

NGUYEN: People do that.

WOLF: We'll do that.

NGUYEN: We are definitely keeping it here. But there are folks clicking on CNN.com this morning, Reynolds.

WOLF: I went away.

DE LA CRUZ: You do want to know what people are clicking on CNN.com.

NGUYEN: All right. Let's go to it.

DE LA CRUZ: I got a special treat for Betty over here and for all the ladies. Because we are talking abut George Clooney this morning.

NGUYEN: Show the video.

DE LA CRUZ: We are talking about George Clooney. Because ladies, we know that you think that he is hunkalicious. He was hurt in a motorcycle accident but don't worry women because we're told that he was wearing a helmet so his pretty little face wasn't messed up.

NGUYEN: That's the good news.

DE LA CRUZ: That is the good news. The bad news is that Clooney's new girlfriend Sarah Larson was on the back of the bike. She suffered a broken foot, Clooney broke a rib. But the good news again, they are both OK.

Also popular this morning on CNN.com, a story that is the exact opposite of everything you have ever been told about staying in school. This Michigan girl Ashley Quall (ph) quit school to play on her computer. But her mother's cool with it. Because Qaull's (ph) has gotten rich. She makes MySpace pages for friends that she does for free. But she now has so many ads on her Web page that she's become a very wealthy girl.

NGUYEN: How wealthy?

DE LA CRUZ: To the toon of millions. She has made at least a million dollars.

MARCIANO: You don't need high school, kids.

DE LA CRUZ: Finally, Britney Spears headed to jail. The troubled pop star was just charged in an August hit and run accident. She is also charged with driving without a valid license. She faces six months in jail and a thousand dollar fine for each charge. The arraignment is October 10th and this comes just days after a Los Angeles judge orders Spears to undergo drug and alcohol testing as part of her custody battle with her ex-husband Kevin Federline.

I'm sorry, I try to avoid to the celebrity news, George Clooney was OK. To me, the Britney stuff, you've got to get it in there.

MARCIANO: I'm glad you brought it up. She's never looked better.

NGUYEN: Really?

MARCIANO: I think she looks great. Why are these celebrities not having other drivers drive them around?

NGUYEN: That is what I say. You have plenty of money to hire someone. Take an cab if you have to.

Coming up at the top of the hour, police in Chicago looking for a missing woman.

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