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California Authorities Continue Arson Investigation; Georgia Supreme Court Orders Release of Genarlow Wilson

Aired October 26, 2007 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The long trip home, Californians going back to what's left, while some fires still rage on.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The superbug. A seventh grader in Brooklyn dies from staph. Is the bug spreading faster than once believed?

LEMON: And he's become a symbol for the fight for justice. Genarlow Wilson, prison for years for underage oral sex, now word he may be released this afternoon. We're following developments here in the NEWSROOM.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, for Kyra Phillips, who is on assignment. You're in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Here's the very latest now on the wildfire situation in Southern California. We have just gotten word that football fans in San Diego will have something to cheer about this weekend. The Chargers are heading home from Phoenix. There had been concern the team wouldn't get to play Sunday's game against Houston in San Diego, but the NFL has decided the game at Qualcomm Stadium is on. The arena is being shut down today as a shelter.

The situation across the region is still serious, but improving. More than half of the 23 fires in the region are fully contained. Lighter winds and cloud cover are making the battle easier. Arson investigations are under way in at least three counties.

In Orange County the reward in the Santiago fire investigation has ballooned to a quarter of a million dollars. Across the region, at least five people have been arrested in connection with arson, but right now those arrests are not believed to be linked to any of the major fires.

It is one of the more infuriating aspects of the California wildfires. There's evidence some of these devastating blazes were started deliberately.

CNN's John Zarrella joins us with the latest on the arson investigation -- John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Don, no question infuriating probably an understatement here, absolute outrage amongst the people we have talked to that anyone could do this.

One man we spoke to yesterday saying, listen, I would just like to get my hands on whoever did this alone for about 15 minutes. That's the feeling out here.

The investigation, of course, continuing. It's at full throttle right now -- state, federal, local arson investigators on the scene again today out at the site where the Santiago Canyon fire began looking for anything new, any new clues they can find. That reward, $250,000, is certainly helping shaking the trees, bringing in more tips. And the hope is that that will lead to some good information. So far, though, no arrests in the Santiago fire, but federal investigators say they are going to spare no expense in trying to find whoever did this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Methodically, systematically processing the arson scene, locating whatever evidence you can find in the scene, tips, interviews that you conduct, all those investigative efforts hopefully will lead you where you want to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Sources told us that Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, along with other arson investigators, spent some more time out there at those two sites today, expanding the search area, looking further out for any new evidence they might find, but, again, no arrests, no search warrants served in the Santiago fire, but they are promising that, if there's any way, they're going to get this guy -- back to you, Don.

LEMON: All right, CNN's John Zarrella -- thank you, John.

WHITFIELD: In Rancho Bernardo and many other parts of Southern California, people are looking over the charred remains of their homes, and trying to figure out what, if anything, can be salvaged.

CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has the story of something that was indeed saved. We love stories like this.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredricka.

Well, what you are looking at right now are the ashes of the home of Jim and Paris (ph) Noyes. They had saved for years in order to buy this property, and closed on it only two months ago. When they came back yesterday, the only thing that remained was a fireproof safe that was badly burned. Indeed, the lock had been burned off. We called the San Diego Fire Department and asked them to open it. Inside were important family documents, and Jim's most valued possession, a letter that his mother had written to his father on their wedding day 49 years ago.

That letter also contained a silver dollar. And we will explain the connection in just a moment. It meant just so much to him. Well, the San Diego Fire Department cut and sawed for more than 20 minutes, and finally they were able to open the safe and get inside. And Jim was just filled with gratitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM NOYES, HOMEOWNER: Thank you. Yes. Yes, that's what I wanted, right there. That was from my mom in 1958. She gave that to my dad on their wedding day. They said, take this coin and hold on it, and we will never be poor.

I never thought I would see that again. That's the most important thing to me, is that envelope right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: And the reason that it is so important to him, let me just read straight from that letter.

His mother wrote to his father: "May we always be as happy as we are today. May our love grow and grow. This silver dollar always keep, and we will always be avoiding bankruptcy."

She wrote this to her husband in 1958, a very, very touching letter, and indeed this is a perfect example of why some sentimental items are much more valuable than material things -- Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Yes, Allan, and a great endorsement for those fireproof safes that folks always seem to be a little trepidatious about having, because they're not quite sure if they really are fire- safe. Well, that's evidence that they are indeed. They work.

CHERNOFF: Jim says he's going right back to the store and getting a new one as soon as he rebuilds this home.

WHITFIELD: Wow. That's fantastic. All right, good news in the end. Thanks so much, Allan -- Don.

LEMON: Genarlow Wilson will soon be a free man. Wilson was a teenager when sent to prison for 10 years for having sex with a teenage girl.

The Georgia Supreme Court today ordered that Wilson be released. He's already served more that two years. The court in a 4-3 vote called his 10-year sentence -- quote -- "cruel and unusual punishment."

Wilson is expected to be released from prison within hours.

Our Rusty Dornin is in Forsyth, Georgia, with has an update for us -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, of course, this whole story, his tale has been very controversial, but -- and he's had a lot of support, but really this happened so quickly, none of his supporters have had time to really come out here and greet him.

But, as you can see, he does have a committee of reporters who will are going to here on hand. We understand that B.J. Bernstein, his attorney, is on her way with Genarlow Wilson's mother and his younger sister to pick him up.

Now, to show you, we have also got Orly Reis (ph), our photographer over here, who is going to be able to give us kind of a bird's-eye view. We will walk you over and show you just the way he is going to be coming out of this prison where he's been here for about two-and-a-half years.

Instead of coming out through the gates or this guardhouse and from behind this barbed-wire fence, he's going to be escorted on foot down that road you see. You see that "Do not enter" sign? He's going to be escorted by the guards walking down there, and then will be picked up by his attorney, by his mother.

And then of course we're hoping that he's going to step in front of the microphones here and give us a few words about what this whole experience has been like, all the roller coaster ups and downs he's been through for the last two-and-a-half years.

And then of course he will be taking off and hopefully going home for the first time. But right now we're just waiting for them to arrive. We're not really sure exactly the timing when he's going to be released, other than it will be some time later this afternoon -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Rusty, thank you very much for that report. We will check back with you.

The death penalty, that's what a Missouri jury is recommending for 39-year-old Lisa Montgomery, the woman found guilty of killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from her body. The same jury convicted her Monday. Bobbie Jo Stinnett was killed nearly three years ago at a house across the Missouri state line. Her baby survived the ordeal and is being raised by her father.

Lisa Montgomery's defense team argued she was the victim of a lifetime of sexual and emotional abuse.

WHITFIELD: Murder charges for a college student, the victim, her own newborn child, a baby girl. Police say 19-year-old Kathryn McCoy not only hid her pregnancy from her friends and family, but she also allowed the baby to die after giving birth in her dormitory bathroom.

McCoy attended small Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. Well, now she's in jail. The baby girl was reportedly born late Tuesday night. An autopsy shows that she was born alive and full term and that her death was consistent with drowning.

LEMON: On the CNN "Security Watch," a new warning about the potential threat of explosives hidden inside shoes. A new advisory from the FBI and the Homeland Security Department urges law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for explosives in shoes. It comes after an incident last month on a bus in Europe. Electric blasting caps were found in the soles of shoes packed away in luggage. Richard Reid, you will remember, tried to blow up a transatlantic flight back in December 2001 using explosives inside his shoes.

WHITFIELD: And now parents and health officials, well, they are on alert after a 12-year-old died from so-called staph superbug. What you need to know straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Can a one-day boycott get Washington's attention? One activist thinks so. He has got some big names to help spread the word. His quest and why he's doing it, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips live at Gillespie Airfield right here in El Cajon, California, just outside of San Diego, where you can see pilots and also firefighters gearing up to talk about the missions coming up to drop water on those wildfires just over that hill right there. The Black Hawk squadron just landed, California National Guard.

We're going to tell you where they're headed, what exactly they're going to do with those buckets of water. Also, you are going to hear firsthand from a battalion chief who just got off the lines after not sleeping for about 96 hours. He and his 21 firefighters are back. You will hear from them after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: From L.A. south to the Mexican border, nearly a half million acres and everything built or growing on them gone, incinerated by five days of roaring brushfires. One specialty firefighting team is staging at El Cajon, California.

And that's where our Kyra Phillips is.

Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Hey, Don. I'm just going to talk low for a minute, because Bob Alvarez (ph) is giving the brief to all the pilots right now, giving the assignments of where the hot spots are. He's been going off this aviation map right here. And he's actually been pointing out exactly where the fires are still burning.

And, so, these men, who are about to launch, you have got California National Guards. You have got U.S. Marines. You have private contractors. You can see right here -- Jonathan, why don't you just kind of give a look to all the pilots that are looking at the maps, listening to Bob, getting their assignments, because they're getting ready to go drop hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water on those wildfires that are still raging out there just on the other side of the hill.

Now, we had a chance -- these are the guys supporting those firefighters on the ground, helping them fight those blazes. And just a little while ago, I hooked up with a battalion chief and his 21 firefighters who just got off the lines. And he told me about how these guys have been helping them on the ground by dropping those gallons of water. It makes it easier for them when they're fighting these fires.

Here is what the battalion chief told me right there from the front lines. He just got off of them just about an hour ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK WEBBER, FIREFIGHTER: It's been long. It's been intimidating at times, and exhilarating at times, because the adrenaline certain keeps us going. We're up for days at a time, with maybe an hour, two hours in between of sleep.

And we just got off the line for 24 hours, and we're getting a quick breakfast and heading back out again. See, Sunday night, we were on this one area of homes, and there was flames probably 50 feet long, and they're blowing horizontal to the ground, straight at you. And the winds are blowing at 50 miles an hour. You see that, that's something you don't want to mess around with.

PHILLIPS: And what are you saying to your guys? How do you keep them in the fight? How do you keep going?

WEBBER: Safety. We talk about safety. We plan for safety. We plan escape routes. We plan -- just preplan everything, and make sure that, if it gets really bad and is not tenable, then we can pull out and get to a safe zone, or even fall back to an even safer zone. Then we will come back in and try to save what's salvageable.

PHILLIPS: What do you think? Are you getting containment?

WEBBER: We're getting there, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, as you heard, Don, from the chief there saying they're getting there, and they're getting there because of these airdrops that are being brought to you via Bob Alvarez, who just finished his briefing there on the map.

So, how those -- I'm going to let you listen in just for a second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're flying north up here, what you want to use for your rotary wing vectors, that 135, 575, if you're flying south up here up Highway 78, then you're on the 122, 225. OK?

PHILLIPS: There you go, Bob Alvarez right there giving the pilots the exact location of where those hot spots are. They're talking about how they are going to communicate on the radio.

It's like mental gymnastics. I think that's the best way to describe it. The pilots, they all have to be talking to each other. They all have to be coordinating, because they're launching out of here and having to coordinate who's dropping where and how much water they're going to drop. And they have to be talking to the fire crews on the ground to make sure that they made those drops.

And it was pretty awesome to kind of watch it in action yesterday and actually see the firefighters giving the thumbs up when these guys were able to drop the water right on the spots that they needed to help fight those flames, Don.

So, it's been a pretty fascinating experience just to watch the organization and how it's kind of played out. It's like the perfect ballet. Everybody knows what the steps are and what they have to do. And so far it's working. They feel pretty good about how they have contained the fires.

LEMON: Yes, there is choreography involved in all of that, Kyra.

OK. Come on home to your second home, and have a little, you know, drinkie-poo or something waiting for you when you come back.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: We're glad everything is OK.

PHILLIPS: All right.

LEMON: You did a great job out there, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks. We will see you back on Monday.

LEMON: All right.

WHITFIELD: Well, can a one-day boycott get Washington's attention? One activist seems to think so. He's got some big names to help spread the word. His quest and why he's doing it, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So, maybe you have seen this before. They're supposed to give your baby some comfort, but about a million Bumbo Baby Sitter Seats are being recalled. There have been 28 reports of youngsters actually falling out of them. Three of those babies got skull fractures. The seats are being pulled from shelves at stores like Target and Toys 'R' Us. Bumbo International says don't put the seats on tables or other elevated surfaces while your baby is actually in it.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, parents and health officials, they're all on alert, after a 12-year-old dies from the so-called staph superbug. What you need to know -- straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The latest now on the wildfire situation in Southern California.

We have just gotten word that football fans in San Diego will have something to cheer about this weekend. The Chargers are heading home from Phoenix. There had been concern the team wouldn't go to play Sunday's game against Houston in San Diego, but the NFL has decided the game at Qualcomm Stadium is on. The arena is being shut down today as a shelter.

The situation across the region is still serious, but it is improving. More than half of the 23 fires in the region are fully contained. Lighter winds and cloud cover are making the battle easier. Arson investigations are under way in at least three counties. In Orange County, the reward in the Santiago fire investigation has ballooned to $250,000.

Across the region, at least five people have been arrested in connection with arson. But, right now, those arrests are not believed to be linked to any of the major fires.

Firefighters are still battling flames in the Lake Arrowhead area east of Los Angeles.

And CNN's Ted Rowlands is there.

And, Ted, I understand that those super-scoopers have been dropping water off to you just moments ago.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, water and flame retardant all day, Don.

And you see it's a fairly small front of the this fire. They have been able to basically contain it throughout the day. They just want to make sure that it burns itself out. So, they have been hitting it on all sides and letting it basically consume the fuel.

There's another one on the other side of the ridge they have been attacking as well, but really good news today. The weather has been perfect for the firefighting from the air and on the ground. They have been making the drops throughout this region all day. This was the second-worst fire. The first -- the toughest ones were in San Diego County, but this was the second-worst region hit, almost 400 homes lost; 12,000 people are still evacuated. Some of them will get back here today, we're being told, on a limited basis.

Most people did heed the evacuation orders. You would expect that. There were flames coming, warnings coming. But fire officials say some people decided to just stay up here in this mountain community and fight the fire themselves, trying to save their homes.

Well, we met one of those people.

Here's what he says he did.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice-over): What kind of person would stay when a fire like this is coming at you?

SCOTT GARETT, REFUSED TO EVACUATE: You could hear it coming. I mean you could see it coming. And the roar -- it was sounding like a jet.

ROWLANDS: Scott Garett is a self-described survivalist living in the San Bernardino Mountains. He stayed behind with his next door neighbor as others evacuated and says the fire was like nothing he'd ever experienced or even imagined.

GARETT: And all the embers, then, started raining down. And it was roofing and stuffing from furniture and all this flaming debris was coming down.

ROWLANDS: Garett says he and his neighbor used simple garden hoses, buckets filled with water and shovels throwing dirt to fight the flames and they saved several homes. He says they battled for more than 12 hours.

(on camera): You could have been killed.

GARETT: No, no.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Garrett says he and his neighbor had an exit plan and could have escaped at the last second, saying they'd been planning this scenario for two years. Dozens of people around him did evacuate and ended up losing their homes.

Fire officials say what Garett and his neighbor did was foolish and that they absolutely could have been killed -- a downed power line, a wind shift, even an ember can easily kill or injure.

After going through it, even Garett acknowledges staying behind was more dangerous than he thought.

(on camera): Would you advise other people to do what you did?

GARETT: Absolutely not. No.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ROWLANDS: And there you see one of the choppers making a drop here on the front edge of this fire. This has been going on throughout the day. As for those two guys that stayed, they weren't the only ones that stayed behind. According to fire officials, a handful of people decided to risk their lives and do it. As far as they know, everybody who did stay did make it out alive, but they are quick to point out that the first guy to die in this fire, Don, was a guy in Malibu trying to save his house.

LEMON: All right, Ted Rowlands.

Thank you for your report, Ted.

WHITFIELD: Well, a child in New York City public schools has apparently died of a drug-resistant staph infection. It is another alarm bell for schools across the country that find themselves scrambling to avoid potential outbreaks.

His story now from CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Apparently, that drug- resistant staph infection, also known as the super bug, has struck again. And this time the victim is apparently a 12-year-old student here at John Wilson Junior High School in Brooklyn. His name, Omar Rivera. And just yesterday, parents and students were handed this letter by school officials, basically saying at the very beginning: "Sadly, a student at this school has died."

And that has raised all sorts of questions about the notification. Omar died on October 14th, but parents and students were not notified of this death and of this infection that basically struck down this student until the 25th -- some 11 days after Omar died. And while it's not clear what the school knew and when they knew it, students here -- classmates -- friends of Omar say they knew that he was very sick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, COURTESY WPIX)

ANDREW MCKENZIE, FRIEND OF VICTIM: I was at lunch and he had told me something about something that was on his leg. And he had like a whole bunch of stuff on his back. So then I didn't know what to do, so I just sent him to the nurse. And from then, I never saw him again.

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, NEW YORK CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER: There's no way to know how an individual person got the infection, but resistant staph is becoming increasingly common, especially in hospitals, but increasingly in the community. But an infection like this in a child is extremely rare. Fatal infections in children on the order of one in a million. It's a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: In the meantime, the school is open, although some parents did keep their kids home from school today. And we do understand from talking to the teachers union here in New York, that some teachers opted not to go to work today. Also, we can tell you that health officials say that this school was cleaned -- cleansed some time ago. We're not exactly how thoroughly that cleaning was, but health officials here in New York are emphasizing that they believe that the risk of this infection spreading is very low.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: So it got a lot of people's attention when the CDC reported that annual deaths from the super bug may actually exceed the annual deaths from AIDS. Well, for the record, the CDC puts the number of AIDS deaths at 2005 at 16,316. Super bug deaths the same year were higher by more than 2000. Keeping in mind those numbers are estimates, it is the freshest data that the CDC seems to have and is willing to release. LEMON: It's a march on Washington with a message to the government and a younger generation of Americans. Reverend Al Sharpton and others plan a November 16th march on the Justice Department to demand more federal action on civil rights and hate crimes. Sharpton said young people need to get involved because the cases making headlines these days involve their generation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: As we travel, a lot of young people are now clear that most of the cases we're talking about bringing to justice are people in the hip hop generation. Genarlow Wilson is the hip hop generation. Sean Bell, killed in New York, the hip hop generation. The young man at boot camp, the hip hop generation. The Jena 6, the hip hop generation. They understand that these are not old heads that are being mistreated in the courts and that are being ignored. It's them. I think that a lot of the artists better catch up with their fans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The march on Washington is being planned in conjunction with a one day economic boycott. The organizer says if everyone refuses to spend money on the same day, it will send a powerful message.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The time is here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your (INAUDIBLE)?

WARREN BALLENTINE, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What's up, truth fighters?

It is me, the people's attorney, Warren Ballentine.

Welcome to my courtroom today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): He is on 23 radio stations across the country and on X.M. Satellite Radio.

BALLENTINE: I'm drinking Red Bull and coffee. That tells you how much energy I require.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Warren Ballentine is also an attorney. But as a radio talk show host, he says he's on a mission to wake up America to a long list of important issues.

BALLENTINE: I just want social change man, you know?

There's so many things just going on in this country.

Will you take the challenge?

Will you step up? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballentine is calling not only on his three million daily listeners, but the entire nation, to a one day boycott -- a national blackout across the country where no one spends any money. The Friday, November 2nd protest is directed toward the leaders in Washington.

BALLENTINE: We hire the politicians. We gave them their jobs. We can take their jobs away from them.

We're asking for the blackout for the mortgage crisis, for the jobs being outsourced, for educational systems, for injustices in this country.

(VIDEO FROM PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Injustices like in Jena, Louisiana, the Genarlow Wilson case in Georgia and the Megan Williams rape in West Virginia, along with a rash of nooses being hung around America recently. He says if only African-Americans were to stop spending for one day, that would be $2 billion taken out of the economy. Ballentine, as the organizer, is depending on bloggers and e-mailers to spread the word and he is calling on his colleagues, too.

BALLENTINE: Because it's something we can't do it alone. You need the radio guys to come together, from Michael Baisden to Tom Joyner to Steve Harvey to Rickey Smiley to Howard Stern. Especially when you're dealing with something like this, when you're trying for a blackout that's affecting every American, not just one particular group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But not everyone is on board. Even some African-American business owners wonder if a blackout is a good idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an individual, it's OK, but as a business it could be detrimental to you.

BALLENTINE: All right, truth fighters. If you're just tuning in, just joining us, welcome to the second hour...

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON: Very interesting, because that's how they say they got all the folks down in Jena was the radio talk show hosts and people like that organizing it.

But you have to wonder, can -- how do you truly measure the blackout and what effect it has on the economy?

WHITFIELD: The effectiveness of it.

LEMON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: And so, primarily, the word is getting out by way of radio kind of advertisement and word of mouth, right?

LEMON: And e-mail. As a matter of fact, I got the e-mail and I did not know it was Warren Ballentine, because he's a contributor on this show from time to time. And I didn't know it was him. So I got a couple of e-mails, gave it to our producers and said hey, what's going on?

And so it's out there. We'll see if -- how many people shows up and how effective it's going to be. But it's definitely timely when you look at Jena, you look at Genarlow Wilson today and other things that were mentioned in the story that we did.

WHITFIELD: Right.

All right, we'll be watching November 2nd, Friday.

LEMON: Yes, absolutely.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're also going to look back at this week's fire coverage right here in THE NEWSROOM.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Paging Dr. Gupta -- the Dalai Lama and CNN's chief medical correspondent sit down to talk about science and spirituality and so much more in this week's Paging Dr. Gupta's pod cast. Just to go cnn.com and download and watch.

WHITFIELD: Well, he ran up and down the sidelines for more than two decades as the NFL referee. Well, now he's put down the whistle and he's retired -- sort of. It's this week's Life After Work.

CNN's Ali Velshi introduces you to a man who loves football so much he's spending his retirement days giving back.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JERRY MARKBREIT, FORMER NFL REFEREE: I worked 461 NFL games, eight championships, four Super Bowls.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 23 years, Jerry Markbreit roamed the gridiron as an official for the National Football League -- a black and white clad rule enforcer, touchdown signaler and occasional peacemaker.

But after retiring in 1998, he wasn't ready to leave the league or the life behind.

MARKBREIT: Everything I learned, I learned from other people. That's the way officiating goes. Now, I feel it's my duty -- and it's a pleasure -- to be able to give back all the things I got.

VELSHI: Markbreit is still giving back to the game every Sunday as head trainer for NFL referees -- traveling to games, taking notes and offering critiques to current referees.

MARKBREIT: I mean, I'm supposed to be retired, but I never got around to retiring. VELSHI: And 22 weeks a year, Markbreit gives back to fans, too, with some Q&A on football's Xs and Os. Along with help from his wife Bobbie, Markbreit writes a weekly online column for "The Chicago Tribune" called "Ask The Referee."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I should know all the rules by now.

MARKBREIT: OK. Let's go to the next question.

VELSHI: But now that he's free to choose sides, his favorite team remains unchanged.

MARKBREIT: I can't remember the last time I went to a football game to see a football game. I just can't do it. For me, the officials are the team on the field that I'm rooting for.

VELSHI: Ali Velshi, CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: What a terrifying week for millions of people across Southern California. A look back now at our coverage of this dramatic story in THE NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's worse than firefighters ever imagined -- and getting worse by the hour. Malibu is burning.

Let's start our coverage now in San Diego County California with CNN's Kara Finnstrom -- Kara?

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello.

We actually just moved, because this fire is spreading so quickly that the area we were reporting from earlier this morning, the fire had completely moved through, just torching that Earth.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Look at this -- the smoke the flames. So far in Malibu alone, just to give you a perspective of how big this thing is -- 20,000 acres burned.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Maria and I want to (INAUDIBLE) all Californians to send our thoughts and prayers to the families of those victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an emergency situation here in San Diego County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, a combination of people not leaving when they should have, but also people who are elderly and sick and can't leave and need assistance.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm seeing at least a couple of dozen homes in flames and not a firefighting truck in sight. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, what we do here is we see that every once in a while we'll get a little patch of smoke that clears and then we'll zoom in to see another home. So -- in fact, there's one right here. Just absolute devastation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You actually got trapped here earlier this morning. You couldn't get out because of the traffic.

DUANE HENRY, RANCHO BERNARDO, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: Yes, I came into the neighborhood and they had all the roads closed down and the streets were just packed. So I pulled in the parking lot down here and I've been trapped here ever since.

HOLLY CRAWFORD, OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES, SAN DIEGO: We have seven fires burning in the County of San Diego right now. I've just learned that one of the fires has jumped the -- Freeway 15 and is threatening the community of Fallbrook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: House after house after house -- and when you drive down the streets here, you see this everywhere. It is truly incredible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thousands are coming here to Qualcomm Stadium for refuge. There are 10,000 people who slept here overnight. There are 5,000 people out in the parking lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deja vu -- reminiscent of what we went through in the 2003 fires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fear was these three fires come together, creating a catastrophic wildfire that there would really be just no way to control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How agonizing has it been not knowing if your house is there or not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can imagine, it's quite frightening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we have to be careful, because these winds can gust up to 50 miles an hour at times unexpectedly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And everybody seemed much more prepared, much more cautious this time around. And we were told a lot sooner this time around about being evacuated.

LEMON: Live pictures coming from our affiliate, KCAL. And you can see just how quickly -- how quickly this happens. This is Running Springs, California. As you can see from these live pictures -- these pictures you're looking at there -- they a very long fight ahead of them.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Help From Above." The toll -- 500,000 evacuated, 300,000 acres charred, 1,300 buildings destroyed, "Help From Above."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, at least in Los Angeles County, there's a chance now to start to wind down, to get some of these firefighters off of this fire, get them back into the system so they'll be able to move them to other places where they're needed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are quite sure that this big fire, the Santiago Canyon Fire, was set by at least one arsonist -- if not more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wonder, frankly, if we didn't have this fire here, this arson caused fire here, how many of our resources might have been available to respond to other parts of the state and how many people might be alive today had our firefighters fighting a fire here been able to be in San Diego.

WHITFIELD: President Bush is in Southern California to see some of the devastation firsthand.

LEMON: That's the president there. You can see the mountainous regions above, most likely, San Diego County, Los Angeles County, all of these Southern California counties that have been so devastated by these fires. There he is there on the ground. This is new video of him in one of those neighborhoods.

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Many across our nation have been moved by the plight of the citizens who have lost their homes, lost their possessions -- and particularly those who have lost their life. It's very important for those who are wondering about their future to know there's a lot of good citizens all across America praying for your future. And the final reason I've come is to let you know we're not going to forget you in Washington, D.C., that we want the people to know that there's a better day ahead, that today your life may look dismal, but tomorrow life's going to be better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, if you're moved by what you saw, then take some action. You can help victims of the California wildfires through our Impact Your World initiative. Just go to CNN.com/impact to see how to help.

WHITFIELD: And now a little bit more on at least one arrest being made in connection with at least one fire that has been burning there in the Southern California area this week, the arrest of 41-year-old Catalino Pineda. We told you about the arrest yesterday. Well, today, he has officially been charged -- accused of starting a fire in the West Hills area on Wednesday. And eyewitness accounts put him at a location on that hillside actually starting the fire and then heading off to a restaurant where eyewitnesses then called police, police came, arrested him, etc. And now today have imposed a charge of arson. And if convicted, he faces up to six years in prison. And what we are glad to be able to report is that that fire was actually extinguished. We don't understand it to be any one of the big fires that actually destroyed a number of homes -- but, nonetheless, a lesson being taught for an alleged arson.

LEMON: Yes. That's very disturbing for someone to start -- yes. That's just -- here's something you don't see very often, and we'll talk about that. But we have this just in. We'll get to that story in a minute. This just in. The rapper known as TI has been released on a $3 million bond, but he must remain in home confinement until his trial on federal weapons charges. The 27-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, is charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Well, back to the story I was telling you about, something you don't see about very often this day -- a pumpkin hanging from a tree. It's not Halloween decorations, but we'll tell you how it got there, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

WHITFIELD: "THE SITUATION ROOM" right at the top of the hour -- hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Hi, guys.

Thanks very much.

Queen Rania of Jordan here in "THE SITUATION ROOM" speaking about Iran's nuclear program, the conflicts in her region and whether she thinks the U.S. should have invaded Iraq.

How low can it go?

A new poll shows how Americans feel about the job the U.S. Congress is doing and what it could mean for the future.

Plus, multi-million dollar homes spared from the wildfires.

How does it happen?

Would you believe private firefighters?

You're going to see how they work. All that and a lot more right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

LEMON: All right, we look forward to that.

All right, thanks, Wolf.

WHITFIELD: All right. Meantime, as Halloween approaches, you know, you're going to see some pretty strange things out there.

For instance, have you ever seen a pumpkin in a tree?

Well, last spring, 5-year-old Joseph Phillips threw some pumpkin seeds into a wooded area in his backyard in White Township, New Jersey. And look -- lookie here, lookie here, as they say.

LEMON: Ah! WHITFIELD: They wrapped themselves around a tree -- the seedlings did. And this is the result -- a 10 pound pumpkin hanging four feet above the ground, perhaps turning trick or treat into pick and treat.

LEMON: It sounds like a little Jack and the bean stalk caper.

WHITFIELD: That's fun look, huh?

Yes, that is a little Jack and the bean stalk.

LEMON: Did he climb up -- climb up and go into the clouds and all that?

WHITFIELD: He may have.

LEMON: Yes, all right.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's check in with Susan Lisovicz for the last time this hour.

LEMON: Time for a look at the trading day. And it's Friday -- Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Friday. We can taste it at this point. But, you know, I gave you a little tease before about a monster deal, about the green monster. I'm going to guess that the green monster is where the Boston Red Sox play.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

I would have gotten it wrong.

LEMON: Is it the wall -- it's a green wall, right?

WHITFIELD: It's a good thing I kept my mouth shut.

LISOVICZ: Yes, the green wall. Right now, they're ahead 2-0 against the Rocks. The Sox against the Rocks, the Colorado Rockies.

Well, there's a lot of interest in a monster deal that first came out in the Boston area in March. A local furniture store called Jordan's, which bills itself as the official furniture store of the Boston Red Sox, said that if the Red Sox went all the way, won the World Series, that anybody who bought furniture from -- like a sofa, a mattress, a bed, something like that, would get it completely refunded.

LEMON: Oh, really?

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Wow! That's better than a discount.

LISOVICZ: And guess what?

If you called the number -- if you called Jordan's right now, they're already saying, if you're calling for a rebate, please call after the 29th.

(LAUGHTER)

Like you go to their Web site...

WHITFIELD: Oh, man.

LISOVICZ: ...it's all about the monster deal, because -- well, there were 30,000 people who came in to buy furniture. And they were thinking they could get a free deal if the Red Sox prevailed this weekend. There could be a sweep.

I'm sure the Rockies intend otherwise, but there you go.

(CROSSTALK)

LISOVICZ: A lot of people are rooting for the Red Sox in Boston...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: ...one marketing deal.

LEMON: I know.

Isn't Mayor Giuliani rooting for the Red Sox?

LISOVICZ: Don't even mention that in New York.

LEMON: What is going on?

LISOVICZ: Well, he said he's, I think, for the American -- he's rooting for the winner -- for the American League. That did not wash with a lot of Yankees fans here.

LEMON: I can imagine.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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