Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
General Motors and United Auto Workers Union Agree on Tentative New Contract; Search for Madeleine McCann
Aired September 26, 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: And the video you can't forget. What really happened the night she got tasered, over and over? Hear her side of the story when she joins us live on this AMERICAN MORNING. A lot of breaking news on this AMERICAN MORNING. We will break it down, tell you what it all means. Thanks very much for joining us. It's Wednesday the 26th of September. From Washington D.C., I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.
And we start the hour with breaking news. Well, it is a deal. General Motors and the United Auto Workers union agreeing on a tentative new contract. That deal was reached just hours ago. As we know, they've been walking the picket lines for two days now, couldn't come to an agreement about health benefits and retirement benefits, but it looks like they've made some significant progress, deciding to end that strike.
Ali Velshi joins us with details. Hi, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. You're right, significant progress. And it'll be interesting to anybody in the United States who either is a member of a union or works for a company that controls its retirement health benefits, the benefits you get once you retire.
Let me tell you what we think is in this deal. And I have to underscore we do not have this confirmed as of yet, but this is what we're hearing. The union will control the retiree health trust fund. That's the $50 billion fund that's been in question that General Motors has not been fully contributing to. General Motors is going to contribute 70 percent of the fund in stock or property in some fashion, but the fund is the one that covers all of the retirees, and right now, there's 340,000 retirees and their spouses. Remember, they're only 73,000 active GM workers. So that's where the problem comes in, not enough money to fund the health care of those who retired.
Also, workers at GM will get a lump-sum payment. I'm guessing that this is in lieu of the job security that the union had been wanting, but we don't have that information yet. Let's also look at what happens next in this deal. The strike is in recess until the workers vote. We're expecting that to happen this weekend. The president of the UAW did say if they vote against it they might go on strike again. That's not likely. And the contract is going to set the pattern for negotiation with Ford and Chrysler. We don't know which one is next. The UAW will set the next negotiation target company on -- it says Tuesday, but it's actually going to be Thursday, so in two days. That's what's happening next. So it's worth paying attention to if you're a unionized worker or if your company controls your health care retirement benefits. This might be a model that other companies want to look at -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Very interesting. And what any type of effect? Did any of us feel the affect of a two-day strike?
VELSHI: Yes, hopefully not. GM had enough cars on the slot not to slow things down. There might be a few blips, but they do have more than two months' worth of inventory available to go to dealers. So it doesn't look like it'll slow things down. They may add a couple of shifts here and there make up for any lost time.
CHETRY: All right, Ali Velshi following this breaking news for us this morning of that deal reached between the United Auto Workers and General Motors. Thanks.
VELSHI: OK.
ROBERTS: Developing now overseas, the search for Madeleine McCann. Authorities say they are looking at a picture of a little girl that looks a lot like Madeleine. Here's the picture. Take a look for yourself. A Spanish couple says they took it while they were on vacation in Morocco, about a month ago. It shows a local woman carrying a child on her back. Now here is a side by side comparison of the two photographs. Of course the one taken in Morocco is pretty fuzzy, but it does look similar to some pictures that we have seen before.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, a family spokesman said they're staying positive about this development.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARENCE MITCHELL, MCCANN FAMILY SPOKESMAN: It is quite possible, because North Africa is only a short ferry ride away from southern Spain. If she had been abducted from Portugal, as we believe, driven across the Spanish border to a ferry port, the ferry can only take about half an hour. The Mediterranean area is very narrow, and it is quite possible that she could have been taken by an abductor, for whatever reason, and brought to North Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Our Emily Chang is live in London for us this morning. Emily, what's the level of confidence that this is a credible photograph?
EMILY CHANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well according to the family spokesperson, it seems this woman has given the photo to authorities in good faith. She says she traveling in northern Morocco with a companion. She was taking pictures of everything, of landscapes, of buildings, of people, and she happened upon this group of people, a seemingly nomadic group of people, and saw an elderly woman carrying a blonde child on her back. She took a photo of it. At the time she thought of Madeleine, but thought it was probable impossible and thought nothing of it. And the recently when sighting of Madeleine were made public in Morocco, she went back to that picture and realized that it does bear a striking resemblance to Madeleine. So she handed that photo over to Spanish police, who have, in turn, handed it over to Interpol.
We're also told British police, Portuguese police, and Moroccan police are looking at it. The photo has also been given to the McCann's lawyers. So we can assume there are also some private organizations looking at this photo, and everyone seems to want to know how much of a resemblance forensically the child in this photograph bears to Madeleine -- John.
ROBERTS: Are they just going to, Emily, look at the photograph, or might they actually send some personnel to Morocco to kind of sniff around?
CHANG: Well, as I said, there are several agencies, we believe that could be looking at this photograph. The family won't comment on any kind of private investigators they might have in Morocco. The family doesn't have any plans to return to Morocco any time soon, and we can assume in a number of hours we could know forensically, using forensic recognition techniques, how much of a resemblance this child bears to Madeleine.
ROBERTS: All right, Emily Chang for us in London this morning with the latest on Madeleine McCann. Emily, thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: A brand new CNN/WMUR New Hampshire presidential primary poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows that Hillary Clinton is pulling away from Barack Obama among Democratic voters. Joining us now to talk more about this, what it all means and what it could portend for the presidential race, CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger.
Good morning to you, Gloria.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POL. ANALYST: Good morning.
ROBERTS: Good to see you. We're finally back in the studio.
BORGER: Nice to see you.
ROBERTS: We used to work at CBS together, so it's old home week for us here.
Let's take a look at the presidential preference numbers. Hillary Clinton now with 43 percent of the vote, compared with Barack Obama with 20 percent. Look at the difference, too, from July, when Hillary had 36 and Barack had 27.
They look like breakaway numbers for Hillary.
BORGER: They do.
ROBERTS: Does this tell the whole story?
BORGER: No, it really doesn't, John. Because if you also look at this CNN poll, what you see is that 55 percent of the Democrats are still completely undecided, so while we're covering this race every day, they're still taking a look at the voters out there, and they're saying, you know -- I mean at the candidates out there, and they're saying, you know what, we're not quite sure. So it good news for Hillary Clinton, can't deny that, but overall, there's still a lot of room for a lot of change in this campaign.
ROBERTS: Unlike the Republicans, Democrats are pretty much satisfied with the crop of candidates that they've got to choose from?
BORGER: Democrats are much more satisfied. More than half of the Republicans are not satisfied with their candidates.
ROBERTS: Here's an interesting number to take a look at. Look at this here. Who is more likable among the candidates? Hillary Clinton's got the top number of presidential preference, but Barack Obama leads in the likability factor, 39 percent. John Edwards second with 27 percent. And Hillary Clinton running third with 15 percent.
How important, Gloria, is likability to winning the nomination?
BORGER: That is a bad news number for Hillary Clinton, because I believe that a presidential vote is the most personal vote you ever cast. This is somebody you're voting on and saying, do I want this person to send my son or daughter to war? You really have to like a presidential candidate, but in this particular year, Democrats are so into winning, and so into beating the Republican, that they might say you know what, I don't like her, but maybe she's electable and maybe she's the most likely to bring change, and that is really what they want, so they're going to have to weigh those.
ROBERTS: In fact in the change thing, she was No. 1 by 12 points over Barack Obama.
BORGER: It's very, very interesting, because he is trying to say that he's the change agent, that she's the old inside Washington person, but she seems to be winning that fight.
ROBERTS: Hey, one other topic that's really big news here in Washington, the House last night voted to authorize this new children's health insurance program, $35 billion additional funding over five years, the Senate's going to take it up in the next couple of days. President Bush is vowing to veto it, why? Is that going to hurt him and Republicans as well?
BORGER: Well, Republicans I'm talking to are saying, why is he picking this particular fight for a veto? This is only his third veto, John. If he had done 100 vetoes before NEVILLE: is, maybe he could make the case about big government spending. But it's very difficult for them make that case, and any time you hear about an increase in program money for children's health, that's supposed to be a good thing, and not a bad thing. So Republicans are probably going to desert him, but he'll still probably still get enough votes to sustain this.
ROBERTS: Bottom line in this fight, Will the children still have health insurance?
BORGER: I think they will. I think the Democrats don't have their strategy together about how they're going to get it, because his veto probably will be sustained.
ROBERTS: All right, Gloria Borger, it's great to see you. We'll be seeing lots of you as the political season starts to heat up -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, well, a school bus slap. A mother decides she's going to take disciplining someone else's kid into her own hands. Jumped on a bus, confronting a kid she said was bullying her own. The camera was rolling the entire time. Is she in trouble? Where was the bus driver? We're going show you what happened, coming up.
Also, they said that he would never walk again, if he even survived the hit. But the Buffalo Bills' Kevin Everett has made significant progress. Will he be able to walk out of the hospital after a devastating spine injury? Our Dr. Gupta on the prognosis and why it just got a little more positive. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING. '
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
CHETRY: Well, there is major progress to report right now for the injured Buffalo Bills' tight end Kevin Everett. Chief medical correspondent is here, and you brought with you -- did you fly on the plane with this thing from Atlanta?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I did. It gets a lot of looks for sure.
CHETRY: How about it. I can't imagine how you can get through airport security.
But this does give us a good look at the spine. And exactly where was Kevin Everett injured and what type of injury did he have?
GUPTA: What we heard, and this is, again, from his doctors who took care of him, that he had an injury sort of near the top of his spine here. There's several bones that made up the cervical spine. Between the third and fourth bones is where we understand he injured his spine and subsequently his spinal cord as well. What we're hearing now, Kiran, is at the time we were told, look, he has a spinal cord injury, he may never walk again, and now we're hearing he's able to move his legs. He's starting to move his arms a little bit. His legs came back first, now his arms. So all pretty good news.
What's fascinating to me -- and we've been investigating this quite a bit -- this sounds very much like what's known as a central cord syndrome. Basically think of it as sort of a bruising on the cord as opposed to constant pressure on the cord. Much better prognosis. Over 90 percent of those patients tend to walk again and have some significant degree of recovery. Exactly what it's going to be for him, hard to say exactly when that will come back. Also hard to say.
But if, in fact, he has central cord syndrome, which it sounds like, this is good news for Kevin Everett.
CHETRY: You know, it's interesting -- this is what the team doctor said last week after the surgery. He said, "Walking out of the hospital is not a realistic goal, but walking may be." So what exactly did he mean by that in your best medical interpretation?
GUPTA: I think what he means is when the spinal cord gets bruised like that, a quick hit to the spinal cord, based on everything we know, we have pretty good reason to believe that the spinal cord will recover.
The question is, how long will it take? Given that Kevin Everett's 25 years old, given that he's a young, healthy guy otherwise, he has a pretty good chance of making a recovery. It's just a question of timing. Is it going to be six weeks from now? Is it going to be eight weeks? When, and we is he going to get out of the hospital? Sounds like he's recovering quickly, so they may send him to a rehabilitation center, where he's going to make more gains.
But based on all of the data of looking at lots of patients who had this sort of injury, about nine in 10 of them do walk again.
CHETRY: That's great news.
GUPTA: Great news for him.
CHETRY: Sounded so bad at the beginning.
GUPTA: The doctors very much made it sound at the beginning that there was a good chance he wouldn't walk again, which didn't really jibe with all the data, because we know central cord syndrome patients do, more likely than not, do tend to walk again.
CHETRY: Sanjay, thanks.
GUPTA: Thank you.
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: Guilty as charged. A man worshipped by thousands is now an accomplice to child rape. We'll talk to a woman who found her way out of a life of oppression and abuse under his rule.
And what's wrong with this picture? a photograph in Elton John's art collection got seized by police. We'll tell you why, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up now to 23 minutes after the hour. A man who claimed he spoke directly to god could now spend the rest of his life in prison. A jury in Utah convicted Warren Jeffs for being an accomplice to rape, guilty of forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry and then have sex with her 19-year-old cousin.
Flora Jessop escaped Jeffs community 15 years ago, and she joins us now from Phoenix.
Flora, you were a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints for so long. You lived under Warren Jeffs' oppression. You saw your sister married off at the age of 14. What's your reaction to the verdict yesterday?
FLORA JESSOP, FMR. FLDS MEMBER: Absolute relief, and validation for so many victims that have come forward. It's been difficult fighting this, because of no one listening, and it's just his conviction is a validation of all the victims that have stepped forward.
ROBERTS: Give us some idea, Flora, if you could, of what it's like to live in that world?
JESSOP: It's chaos. It's a nightmare to not have a voice, and any time you try and stop the abuses or stand up for yourself, you're punished. No one believes you. They do character assassinations on the women and children that try and get out. It's a horrible, horrible situation that needs to be addressed.
ROBERTS: What is the hold, other than these character assassinations, what is the hold that FLDS leaders has on these women that prevents them from getting out?
JESSOP: When you take a child, and you raise a child as a calf in a stall, you can eventually open the door to the stall and the child never -- they won't leave the stall, because that's all they know, that's all that's safe. And when you hold the power of god and the eternal damnation over them, that's even more of a hold.
And these people take away the voice of a child. They teach their babies not to cry, because Warren says that crying babies are offensive. You can teach a child not to cry one two of ways. You repeatedly slap their faces or you hold their faces under running water.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
JESSOP: You own that child. ROBERTS: Elissa Wall, flora, who you know well, because she was married off on the same age, on the same day as your sister, was the star witness for the prosecution. Here's what she had to say following the reading of the verdict, to other women who may be within the control of the FLDS. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELISSA WALL, VICTIM: I pray they will find the strength to step back and re-examine what they have told to believe, and follow their hearts. You do you not have to surrender your rights or your spiritual sovereignty. I know how hard it is, but please, stand up and fight, fight for your voice and power of choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Flora, do you expect that this verdict is going to empower others to get out as you did. I mean, will they even hear about it?
JESSOP: I think that this is going to send a strong message to those who are still trapped inside, that have been waiting for a chance, somebody that will protect them, and I think that it's going to plant a seed of hope in their hearts, where there hasn't been one for decades. I do expect to see more young women seeking help to get out and get safe.
ROBERTS: Well we hope that you're right, and we know, Flora, that you do a lot of good work with victims who managed to escape the FLDS. And I that's probably got to be difficult for you, 15 years removed, to keep hearing about all of this, and your story just never ceases to be compelling.
Flora Jessop for us this morning -- go ahead, Flora.
JESSOP: I want to say thank you to you and everyone else that's given a voice to the victims in this, because without you guys, our story still would not be being heard. So thank you.
ROBERTS: Well, it's a story that needs to be heard. Flora Jessop in Phoenix this morning. Flora, thanks -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. Powerful stuff, John..
Well, another story coming up that you can't miss. This video really caught the attention of a lot of people. It's a woman who was tasered over and over again outside of a bar. She was -- the police were called to try to get her out of a bar. She had been drinking that night. Police say she ignored orders to stop. And there you see the video.
ROBERTS: The question that goes on and that surrounds this whole thing, as we see the officer almost leading her around like a dog, only he's giving her electric shocks, was it excessive force? Don't forget the officer was put on paid administrative leave. She's going to be joining live in a few minutes to talk about it. We'll have that story when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It is Wednesday, September 26th. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.
JOHN ROBERTS, CN ANCHOR: And good morning from Washington, D.C.. I'm John Roberts. All kinds of breaking news this morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: That's right.
Including an end to the two-day strike. General Motors and the United Auto Workers Union have a deal that now ends that strike. The tentative contract agreement was announced several hours ago. Ali Velshi joins us now with more, with what's in this deal, and what is next for both the rank and file as well as the company. Hi, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Yes, a very quick settlement to the strike that started at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time on Monday. Overnight we got an announcement that the strike is over. They're expecting the second shift today which is sometime mid day to be fully staffed. Now, they're asking everybody to go back to work. The strike according to United Auto Workers is in recess, that's the term they're using until the workers can see the agreement and vote on it toward the end of the week.
Let me tell you what is in the deal right now, the United Auto Workers will take control of the retiree health trust fund, about a $50 billion fund and it provides retirement benefits to some 340,000 retirees and their spouses. This is the part that's important to all of you who don't work at GM but might be a unionized worker or might work for a company that controls your retirement health fund. General Motors contribute most of the money to the fund -- 70 percent of the money will be money or stock or some other assets. Workers will get lump-sum payments on an annual basis, and that seems to have been in lieu of the thing that caused the workers to go out on strike in the first place, job security.
Let's look at what is next. The next thing as I mentioned is that the workers will have to ratify the vote, until then, it is in recess. This contract, if it is ratified will set the pattern for the UAW's negotiations with Ford and Chrysler. There are another 100,000 workers still having to have their contracts worked out with those two companies. We don't know which one they're going target for negotiations next. We understand that they will make that decision on Thursday so it will be either Ford or Chrysler. So this story will continue to develop through the course of the week, Kiran; but at the moment they're going back to work.
CHETRY: All right. Ali, thank you.
VELSHI: OK.
ROBERTS: Brand new this morning in the search for Madeleine McCann, authorities are looking at a picture of a little girl that looks an awful lot like her. Take a look and judge for yourself. A Spanish couple says they took it about a month ago while on vacation in Morocco. It shows a local woman carrying a blonde child on her back. The McCanns have been through this before but earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, a family spokesman said it's possible that it could be Madeleine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARENCE MITCHELL, MCCANN SPOKESMAN: It is quite possible that she could have been taken by an abductor for whatever reason and brought to North Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Apparently, it's very easy to get from Portugal to North Africa. It's about a five-hour car ride to a ferry terminal and then only 30 minutes across the Mediterranean Sea. Experts are now looking at the picture but there is reason to be skeptical. There had been several Madeleine sightings since she vanished in May in Morocco and in other countries as well. Coming up in just a couple minutes, we're going to be talking with a former commander of Scotland Yard's infamous and famous Flying Squad to get his take on what this all could mean to the investigation.
Also new this morning, President Bush is in New York. He is going to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai this morning. Last night, the president attended a dignitary-filled dinner at the U.N. and praised the leadership of Ban Ki Moon in his first year as secretary general.
Iran's president is taking by his statement that there are no homosexuals in his country. A reporter asked him to elaborate on his remarks that drew a lot of laughs at Columbia University.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mentioned that there is no such phenomenon in Iran as homosexuality. Could you please elaborate on that? I know a few myself.
PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (through translator): Seriously, I don't know of any. Of course homosexuality, I don't know where it is. Give me an address so we are also aware of what happens in Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Monday during his speech at Columbia, Ahmadinejad called homosexuality a phenomenon that doesn't exist in Iran. Some human rights groups say hundreds of gay people have been executed in that country. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, it's caught on tape, a mom and a big sis taking matters into their own hands on a school bus. The woman slapped a 13- year-old boy who she says punched her son the day before, take a look. The girl in the front with the white pants and black shirt on is said to be the 15-year-old sister of the boy who is supposedly being bullied. She also got a couple of shots in before the driver kicked both of them off the bus. Police in St. Petersburg, Florida, say, they are each facing a battery charge.
Well a battle over free speech and where to draw the line on college campus is all over this one-line editorial that was in a Colorado State newspaper that read "Taser this, f Bush" but the entire word was spelled out. Today, the paper's editor is going have to defend himself before the school's communications board. He spoke to AMERICAN MORNING on Monday telling us that the paper was only trying to spark a dialogue on campus.
And a piece of art owned by Elton John seized by police in England over fears that it might be child porn. The photograph shows two young girls, one with her legs uncrossed. The image was to be on display in a gallery. Police though removed it before the exhibit opened. The photographer who took it, Nan Goldin, is known for her shots of young semiclothed girls. Elton John has been a long admirer of her work and is also said to be a close friend.
ROBERTS: Just coming up now to 36 minutes after the hour. Bill Clinton's big apple business of giving, we'll show you who show up and just what solutions come out of the annual Clinton Global Initiative.
And her videotape arrest has lots of folks buzzing about stun gun laws. Her story when she joins us live, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN. A wet and wild high-speed chase in Southern California to tell you about. Police say a suspect drove a tractor-trailer off road and into the Santa Ana River. He then jumped out into the water and ducked into the thick brush on the other side. Reports say that the truck was stolen. The passenger was arrested but the driver is still on the run.
Charles, Camilla and Diana, all in the same room? The Duchess of Cornwall was revealed at the famous Madame Tusseau's Wax Museum in London. The museum says though that they placed her as far away from Princess Di as possible.
And even the vice president has to wait in line. Here's Dick Cheney at Borders with a couple of books and a magazine and looking pretty happy about it, too. Kiran, you know who else used to love to go to book stores?
CHETRY: Karl Rove?
ROBERTS: Bill Clinton, but he never waited in line.
CHETRY: Never had to wait in line. Well, we're speaking of Bill Clinton. That's interesting that you brought him up. The former president trying to help solve some of the world's biggest problems -- health, environment, poverty and ethnic and religious conflict. All of the agenda as VIPs gather for the annual Clinton Global Initiative, which is hosted of course by the former president. AMERICAN MORNING contributor Polly Labarre is here to explain what the initiative is all about, just how much of a success it has been. Hi Polly, good to see you.
POLLY LABARRE, AMERICAN MORNING CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you. It's the ultimate scrum of do-gooders descending on New York right now. We got all these world leaders and Nobel prize winners and corporate executives and what they do actually is that they're members of the Global Initiative and their responsibility as members is not just to talk about the world's problems but to actually do something about the world's problems.
CHETRY: Part of that is through monetary donations, right? They have to pledge a certain amount and then they have to stick with it or they get booted out.
LABARRE: And it's not just money, it's matching capabilities with ideas and resources and it's really about, they call it a commitment. They have to make a public commitment to actually doing something from year to year or they don't get invited back.
CHETRY: So, tell us who some of the people are and what exactly they're doing.
LABARRE: Sure. Last year, probably the most dramatic headline- grabbing commitment was Richard Branson pledging the next ten years of profits of its transportation group to renewable energy sources and R&D. That's $3 billion worth of investment in renewable energy sources, a really big-ticket deal. Wal-Mart's CEO Lee Scott pledged to make all of their packaging on all of their products less wasteful, more environmentally friendly. That's 160,000 products sold to 184 million customers every week. So, big, big impact and over the last year, they've actually created a whole supplier scorecard and they're really holding their suppliers' feet to the fire so they've made lots of progress.
CHETRY: And one of the things that people point to, some of the frustration about trying to solve global problems is that you know what the answer is and know what the solution is but getting people together to actually make it happen is the challenge, and it looks like this initiative has made a big difference when it comes to helping with preventable diseases and childhood diseases that claim the lives of children.
LABARRE: Yes. Well, this is exactly the point. It's about the interesting partnership. They think of it as sort of the ebay of philanthropy. How do you put someone who is running a small NGO on the ground in Africa together with someone who has really the monetary resources and other abilities to get things done? So, there are really some great numbers here, as you say, by the end of this year the initiative will have treated 34 million people for neglected tropical diseases. More than 857,000 children under the age of 5 have been reached. Just the numbers are staggering in terms of what's been accomplished over the last couple years.
CHETRY: They really are when you think about these children who would have died because they couldn't get medical treatment for life- threatening diseases that are saved. So, it's very interesting that they actually have a built-in way to hold people to their commitment.
LABARRE: Well, and they're very serious about it. They have a full time commitment staff; a dozen people who spend the year tracking, following up, troubleshooting and you don't get invited back, even if you're a friend of Bill, if you don't follow through on your commitment.
CHETRY: Very interesting. Polly, thanks for telling us more about it.
LABARRE: Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: A tragic end to a fishing trip in Florida. Authorities suspect that a 22-year-old man drowned in the Suwannee River. He fell off of a boat after his friend swerved to avoid a sturgeon that had jumped out of the water. The fish are a big threat, capable of jumping several feet out of the water, weighing more than 100 pounds as well.
And you decide if this was excessive. A 91-year-old man in Florida is out of jail this morning. He spent eight days after he apparently threatened a caregiver at his nursing home, all over whether the man could go for a walk. Police were called out and say they arrested the man after he refused to obey orders. He was bailed out by a stranger who heard about his story. The guy even took him into his own home.
And does the person next to you at work take a lot of mental health days? It turns out it could be something more serious than you think. What some companies are doing to keep employees happy.
And a number of police tasing incidents making news in the last week. Are officers too quick to use the weapons? One woman thinks so. We'll have her story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN. Time for more of your "Quick Hits."
For the first time in 29 years someone is looking to build a new nuclear power plant in the United States. A company has filed paperwork to build the plant in south Texas. It would cost more than $5 billion and serve 2 million homes. Still going to be awhile before they break ground though. The approval process alone could take two years but it might be quicker than in the past. Many environmentalists have dropped their opposition to nuclear power saying it's far more friendly than coal-powered plants are. An investigation of two nooses planted at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The first was found in the bag of a black cadet that was back in July. Then in August, another noose turned up in the office of a white officer. She was conducting race relations training in response to the first incident. Now Congressman Elijah Cummings is calling for a military investigation of the whole thing.
It's back to normal today on campus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Authorities there spent the night looking for a man they say was suicidal and trying to provoke a shootout with police. He was on a work release program for armed robbery but stopped showing up to jail earlier this month. This morning, they say that he is only a danger to himself and not the community.
More breaking news in the search for Madeleine McCann. Authorities say that they are looking at a picture of a little girl that looks an awful lot like her. Take a look for yourself here. This photograph was taken by a Spanish couple about a month ago while they were on vacation in Morocco. It shows a blonde woman, a little blonde girl rather, being carried in the back of a local woman. The McCanns have been through this before. There has been other sightings of a person who looked a lot like Madeleine, but they're holding out hope that this time around it really might be something. Let's find out more about this investigation, the photo and where it all could be headed. John O'Connor joins us now from London. He is a former member of Scotland Yard's famous Flying Squad. John, you've seen this picture. What's your take on it?
JOHN O'CONNOR, FORMER SCOTLAND YARD COMMANDER: Well, I have to say that when I first saw it, it did look as though it might have been staged. It didn't look to me as though the picture of Madeleine was genuine. I may be entirely wrong on that and that of course is one of the issues there; but once they do a computer enhancement of the picture itself, we'll be able to say whether or not it's Madeleine but then of course it comes to the question as to how did that picture get there? I think one's got to look at it, there's a number of potential obstacles before anybody could go down the path and say this picture is genuine, and this is genuinely Madeleine McCann. There's a lot to overcome. I think by the mere fact that the providence of the photograph, I think, has been more or less proven.
Somebody has come forward who is the person who took the picture and that person seems to be a very good witness. So they should be able to get to the exact location of where it was taken and they should be able, with using local investigators down in Morocco, they should be able to identify this family of travelers or gypsies or whatever. There can't be that many people that can live a life out on the road and not be known by other people. I think they'll be identified. I think they will get to the bottom of it.
But the two forensic issues are one, the computer enhancement and secondly to see if that picture is in any way been altered. And then there's another technique that will undoubtedly be used which is called facial mapping where you actually look at the picture, and you take critical dimensions of the picture and come to an assessment as to whether that is a true representation of the person that it reports to be. So, there are a number of issues to go through and I think it will take some time before it can be resolved. But I do believe with the information that they've got particularly having the providence of that picture that they will be able to get to the bottom of it. But I personally wouldn't put too many hopes on it at this stage.
ROBERTS: All right. John O'Connor, former Flying Squad member of the Metropolitan Police Department out of Scotland Yard there in London, a lot of expertise mind that analysis and we thank you for being with us this morning sir. Good to see you.
O'CONNOR: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. John, this is another story that certainly gotten a lot of attention. An Ohio woman who was tasered by a police officer, over and over again is now calling for state and federal investigations into the incident. Here's a look once again of what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands behind your back! Get down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands behind your back! Get down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: This happened outside of a bar in Warren, Ohio. The whole thing was captured by the dashboard camera of the police cruiser. 38-year-old Heidi Gill was tasered numerous times. Police say that she was assaulting them while resisting arrest. Heidi Gill joins us now along with her attorney, Mark Hanni. Thanks to both of you for being with us.
We should mention that that officer has been put on administrative leave, paid administrative leave. He says that he believes that his taser was misfiring, which is why he continued to do it. Do you believe that, Heidi?
HEIDI GILL, TASERED BY POLICE: Absolutely not. I felt that pain the whole entire time. I was screaming the whole entire time.
CHETRY: Walk us through what happened. You were out after a wedding. You had been drinking. You don't deny that. You were at a bar with some friends and why were police called?
GILL: There was a verbal disagreement with an employee, a bartender, so I was asked to leave. I was completely complying. I left, being walked out with the employee, and as I was leaving, then I was approached by the police officer. He did come up to the vehicle that I was in, waiting for a friend, and it all started just the tasing immediately.
CHETRY: Now, is there some sort of confusion as to whether or not you were sitting in the wrong car initially?
GILL: I believe --
CHETRY: It's among the charges; one of them has something to do with trespassing in a vehicle or something like that.
GILL: Yes, I believe by accident I might have gotten in the wrong vehicle, but it was a friend of mine's car and told me that, you know, to go get in the car. I was just sitting there waiting.
CHETRY: Okay so as we look at the video, what was going on? Why was he continuing to taser you, and what were you thinking as you were trying to get away and he's screaming "stay down, stay down"?
GILL: I was just thinking that I needed to continue to live just to get away from him. At one point, you can see me crawling on the ground. I was just grasping for grass, rocks, anything that I could just crawl away from him. Just trying to get away and trying to survive. I've never been electrocuted. I didn't know what this was. And I really didn't think this pain was ever going to stop. It was nonstop.
CHETRY: There is also some video that shows you in the back of a police car. You are hand cuffed. You're kicking the police, the window of the police car. What was going on at that time?
GILL: At this point, I had been tased for so long, and just dragged around by my handcuffs. I was terrified of this man. He was no longer a police officer to me. I was thrown in the back seat of a vehicle and I just wanted away from him. I was screaming, "help" or "please" to anyone, it was the only thing that could come out of my mouth at this time. I needed to get away from him so that I could live.
CHETRY: And Mark, let me ask you about this because the Warren, Ohio Police Department are saying that if you disobey a police officer and they're claiming that she wasn't listening when they told her to do various things, to stop and then to move out of one police car into another is a good enough reason to taser an officer, do you agree with that?
MARK HANNI, GILL'S ATTORNEY: No, I don't. As a matter of fact, federal law dictates that there's a balancing test. You look at the severity of the crime. I don't think there was a crime committed prior to his approaching her. So there was no crime whatsoever, let alone the severity of the crime, and what kind of a threat did she pose to the officer and the public? She had no weapon. 5'6", 120, 125 pounds versus an officer who's fully equipped, big man, you can see on the video, he looks well over 250 pounds. I can't see any threat whatsoever that she supposed to anyone.
CHETRY: Heidi, you say you're still feeling the effects of this physically. What's going on? GILL: My vision is still impaired. One of the doctors that I'm going to is saying that it might be a swelling around the brain. I'm not really sure what's going on. I have so many MRIs. I can't drive my son around. I can't -- I have a 4-year-old, that's my life. So my life is kind of at a standstill now, just trying to function every day. It's a little difficult with the pain and the vision problems.
CHETRY: And on top of that, the legal charges you're still facing.
HANNI: That's correct.
GILL: Oh, sure.
CHETRY: So you have a legal fight ahead of you as well?
GILL: Sure.
CHETRY: Thanks for coming in to share your story. I know it was difficult to see that video again, but we appreciate it, and Mark, thanks for coming out as well.
HANNI: Thank you, Kiran.
GILL: Thank you.
CHETRY: Right now, we're going to turn to the man who will end up prosecuting this taser case, Gregory Hicks. He is the law director for the city of Warren, Ohio, and he joins us now. Thanks for being with us, Gregory.
GREGORY HICKS, WARREN OHIO LAW DIRECTOR: My pleasure.
CHETRY: You had a chance to hear what Heidi said. She says she knows you as well. Do you think that your officer was out of line as you had a chance to talk to Heidi and see the video?
HICKS: We haven't had a chance to talk to Heidi. Obviously, the video is reviewed. I think what's missing here is the fact that our office was the one who brought this video to the office of professional standards of the police department and to the attention of the mayor. We're also the ones who called the Ohio BCI to ask for full and complete investigation of this matter, to review it from a number of angles. Both the criminal as well as the policies and procedures, so you know, while it's too early for me to comment on all of the propriety of what happened here, it is something that needs to be looked into. We understand that.
CHETRY: So, is that because you think that perhaps something wasn't right or do you do this with every case, with every arrest?
Well, when my prosecutors were reviewing this in preparing for the prosecution, they brought it to my attention that they thought there were some areas here that again needed to be reviewed. Again, I can't get into whether it was all correct or not. That's what the investigation is going to tell us. CHETRY: The other question then is, why is this officer put on administrative leave? Are there some questions about whether you guys believe what he was saying about thinking the taser was malfunctioning?
HICKS: Well, we'll know more about the taser malfunctioning because it will be sent to the lab for analysis. It has a memory in it and will tell us how many times it fired, whether it made actual contact when it fired, what kind of charge went out, et cetera, so the number of times, while they seem to know exactly on their side, we don't know until the taser's been analyzed. Again, the investigation is going to tell us exactly why everything happened and how it happened, hopefully. As a matter of fact, we're hoping that some of the individuals there who were witnesses to this, maybe even had their cell cameras on, would contact us at our office to help us thoroughly understand exactly what happened that evening.
CHETRY: I got you. Will you be speaking with Heidi then? She says she has a pair of pants that have 32 burn holes in them from the taser?
HICKS: I can tell you that the special agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification will be contacting her when she gets back into town. They do want to talk to her. They do want to see any amount of evidence that she may have available to show us. They're going to thoroughly want to investigate it. They're going to want to have all the medical records of her injuries, as well as any other things that will help us understand again what happened that day.
CHETRY: All right. So the investigation ongoing, Gregory Hicks, the law director for the city of Warren, Ohio. Thanks for coming on and talking to us about this case.
HICKS: My pleasure. Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Possible E. coli contamination prompts the recall of frozen hamburgers that were distributed nationwide. The details ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
