Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Exit Strategy; More Troops Heading Home; Pakistan Turmoil; Oil Spill Investigation Going on; First Picture of Lakshmi
Aired November 13, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
Exit strategy. Troops leaving Iraq. Violence on the decline. Is the war turning a corner?
A record jump at the pump. A shocking government report, sky high prices in the weeks to come.
Plus, a dramatic recovery. Our first look at the remarkable little girl born with eight limbs after her life-changing surgery on this AMERICAN MORNING.
She's doing well. It certainly is amazing.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty extraordinary stuff.
CHETRY: And welcome back once again. It is Tuesday, November 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. Thanks very much for being with us. I'm John Roberts.
We begin this morning with big news in the Iraq war. A homecoming in the making for hundreds of military families. The Pentagon is pulling a brigade out of the country. It could be the first of many to follow. So what's this really mean for the war?
CNN's Barbara Starr working the story from the Pentagon. She joins us now live. Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. Well, with attacks down across the border in Iraq, of course, the troop surge that we've been talking about for so long, now officially is in reverse gear. They are bringing some of the troops home. They're trying to bring it down from about a troop level of 169,000 to 140,000, 145,000 by July.
In the latest move, members of the 1st Cavalry Division are going to be headed back home to Fort Hood, Texas. That announcement has been made. Some very happy families there. We have already seen some members of the 10th Mountain Division of the 82nd Airborne on their way home. The troops are very happy, obviously about this, John.
ROBERTS: Barbara, a lot of people are talking about progress here in Iraq, but progress comes at a price. STARR: Well, it really does. There has been a price paid, certainly by U.S. troops and by Iraqi civilians, of course. I think that people are focusing on two issues here when they talk about the price paid for success.
The Maliki government. You're not hearing the Bush administration talk very much lately about pressuring the Maliki government to work on that reconciliation. That is because the U.S. has really shifted policy. It's putting its chips now with local citizens, with local groups. You're hearing an awful lot about that.
The question, of course, will be when they have all these local groups really armed, when they're working as security forces in their areas, will they be armed militias once the U.S. leaves? And, of course, sectarian violence is down. That's another thing that's talked about as a measure of success.
But you and I have talked a lot about the fact that the price for that is ethnic cleansing. Baghdad now a divided city, one side Shia, one side Sunni. And, of course, so many Iraqi refugees now living outside their own country. So all of this really does come at a very significant price, John.
ROBERTS: Still some huge problems there. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning. Barbara, thanks -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Breaking news from Pakistan and more chaos for the key ally in the war on terror. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says it's time for the country's president to go. And for the first time, she called on Pervez Musharraf to resign as president and military commander.
She made that demand early this morning after hundreds of riot police surrounded her home and tried to crush another planned protest against the emergency rule. State department correspondent Zain Verjee is just a few blocks from Benazir Bhutto's house in Lahore, Pakistan.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Benazir Bhutto tried to hold a rally for the second time. And for the second time, the masses have not come out onto the streets. She's being held under house arrest in her home a few blocks down that way. She's been ringed by hundreds of police and security forces like these, heavily armed.
According to police sources, about 3,500 of her supporters have been arrested. As this clampdown goes on, Benazir Bhutto's rhetoric has also hardened. She says that General Musharraf should resign as army chief, and he should no longer be president even.
CNN has also learned that Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will be in Pakistan a little later this week. He was actually already scheduled to be here, but obviously, the current situation is precarious. The U.S. is concerned. And this is going to be top of his agenda. Zain Verjee, CNN, Lahore.
ROBERTS: It's also breaking news here in New York City to tell you about this morning. A mother's frantic 911 call ends with her 18- year-old son dead on a Brooklyn Street reportedly shot repeatedly by police. Officers apparently thought the teen had a gun, but witnesses say he only came out of his house with a hairbrush in his hand.
Alina Cho is live in Brooklyn, where neighbors are demanding answers this morning from the NYPD.
What are they asking for, Alina?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, good morning. You know, the shooting happened almost exactly 12 hours ago. So the details are still sketchy at best. The community is up in arms here.
Here's what we know at this hour. Around 7:00 last night, police responded to a 911 call made by the victim's mother. According to several reports, that mother said that her son was threatening her with a gun, and, in fact, some reports say that the 911 operator could even hear a man yelling in the background, "I've got a gun. I've got a gun."
Either way, police responded here in the Brooklyn area of New York. The young man eventually climbed outside the first floor apartment window, crossed the sidewalk toward police, unclear whether police shouted a warning before firing and also unclear just how many shots were fired. Witnesses say as little as 10, possibly as many as 20.
Now, what is clear is that police say the young man, just 18 years old, remember, was carrying something in his hand when he climbed out that window and that he had his hand in his pocket. Witnesses say what that object was was not a gun but a hairbrush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw him jumped out the window. He dropped the brush, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. That's how everything happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a brush in his hand. Come on. No matter how the police came to the scene of this incident, no matter what happened when it came to the scene, he did not have a weapon, period. He had a brush in his hand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: This is just the latest in a series of very high profile New York City police shootings involving unarmed men. The most recent one came almost a year ago to the date. Now what's key going forward, critical piece of evidence will be that 911 tape, John. And if, in fact, the mother does mention a gun on that call, it will go a long way toward explaining just what the officers' frame of mind was as they rushed to the scene.
ROBERTS: Yes, I guess the critical issue here will be the perception of deadly threat when they approached that young man. Alina Cho for us this morning in Brooklyn. Alina, thanks -- Kiran? CHETRY: We have some new information this morning on the San Francisco Bay area's biggest oil spill in nearly 20 years, and more questions about why the public wasn't told sooner that 58,000 gallons of oil had spilled into the waters around San Francisco. The Coast Guard says it found out how bad the spill was hours before it told the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. CRAIG BONE, U.S. COAST GUARD: There's no excuse for the four-hour gap between, when we knew what the amount was and when notification should have been made to the city officials. I want to make sure folks know the unified command and anyone in that unified command knew the amount when we knew the amount.
However, the gap became in the conversation and in the notification specifically to the entities of the city officials.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose district includes San Francisco, demanded to know why it took four hours for the Coast Guard to alert local officials, saying the time gap is very important especially, let's say, your grandchildren were playing in the water or the sand at the time.
The vessel slammed at the Bay Bridge last week in thick fog. It ripped a 12 foot wide, 200 foot long gash in the side of the ship. Investigators want to know whether or not the ship pilot initially downplayed the damage.
Well, the White House has been ordered to save its e-mails. A federal judge ruled yesterday that the executive office of the president must preserve copies of all e-mails, a move Bush lawyers have been fighting.
The judge's order comes in response to two lawsuits by private groups alleging that the White House destroyed archives of old e-mails in violation of federal law. The White House says the e-mails were not automatically archived and is looking into the matter.
And Senator John McCain got a new campaign ad out. It attacks Congress for not getting money to the troops. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN NEW CAMPAIGN AD)
ANNOUNCER: While brave Americans sacrifice in the war on terror, many in Congress played politics with our soldiers' lives, withholding support for our troops, so they can push their own political agenda and pork barrel spending.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Democrats want to send the president a combined defense and education spending bill. Now they'll split those budgets into two different bills. And there's a health warning for men who take an herbal alternative to Viagra and other impotency pills. According to an investigation that was conducted by the Associated Press, those pills can be deadly for men on heart and blood pressure drugs.
Doctors say the so-called "all natural" products mixed with nitrates and cause blood to flow dangerously slow, leading to heart attacks or stroke in some cases. The products sold under the name Stamina Rx and Vigor 25 and Work because they contain unregulated versions of the same medicines that they're supposed to replace -- John?
ROBERTS: Well, Rob Marciano is off this week. Jacqui Jeras at the weather update desk for us this morning tracking extreme weather for us. And lots of rain in the northeast here, making for just a wonderful commute this morning.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Lovely, isn't it? It's ugly out there. One of those mornings where you just want to roll over and hit the snooze button once again because the dreary start out there. A lot of rain all across the northeast, not just in New York city, where you've got some fog and mist to go along with it.
But really, from northern Maine extending all the way down to Jersey, you're getting hit with a shower. It's pretty light. You're getting about 0.1 inch, but it's enough to get the roadways wet and enough to cause some delays at the airports, we think a little bit later on this morning. Right now, no official delays. But, you know, when you got the low clouds go along with all of it, that tends to be the case.
We also have some heavier showers here across the Cincinnati area, particularly heavy on the south side of town and moving in along the I-71 corridor. In addition to the rain, we also have some fog to deal with.
Low visibility, less than a mile in the Houston area. That should be clearing up along the I-10 from Houston all the way over to New Orleans by about 9:00 or so this morning. More on extreme weather in the west. That's coming up a little bit later this morning. Back to you, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Jacqui, thanks very much. We'll see you soon.
CHETRY: Oh, this is the story that captured the hearts of people around the world. And we're getting our first look now at the new baby Lakshmi. These pictures just in within the last hour of the 2- year-old girl from India, who just last week had an operation to remove what were four extra limbs.
ROBERTS: It really is an extraordinary story, and doctors just briefed the public about her condition. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta here with us now. How's it looking?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It looks good. And I just got off the phone with Dr. Patil as the lead surgeon on this. It was a fascinating discussion. He's obviously elated at how things have gone, but also very cautious, I think as well. As you know, there's still a lot that needs to be done for her.
She's, by no means, out of the woods. I mean, we have a little bit of an update, though. Wednesday is when the operation was performed. As you remember, Friday is when she regained consciousness. Saturday and Sunday, she wiggled her toes of these now four limbs that she had instead of the eight. And her parents that you saw actually able to hold her, which is a big deal, within a week actually of being able to do that.
It's a pretty, pretty remarkable, fast recovery for her, but the risk of infection is still there. The risk of still problems overall with the surgery. Blood loss is still there. She may have to have some of these organs repositioned. She had a parasitic twin.
Everything but the head was essentially attached to this girl. Think of it like that, and they had to remove all of that -- extra organs, extra limbs, the spine. It was a big operation.
I asked the doctors, "How do you prepare for this?" He said, "Well, there is no book." He said they spent a month just going over the operation over and over and over again before they did it, but it looks like it worked.
CHETRY: Wow, that's unbelievable. So her prognosis -- I mean, we saw in one of the pictures she's moving her -- she's moving her arm already, which is unbelievable as well.
GUPTA: Yes, moving her arms. It looks like they had to actually choose the limbs that they're going to preserve. Sort of a weird decision that you have to make, but they -- sounds like they picked the right ones, according to the doctors that I spoke to now.
One thing that's sort of interesting is there's little things that will still come up. For example, her feet are club feet, which are very difficult to walk with. So, you know, she may need to have operations on that in the future so she can actually walk. So little things like that may seem small as compared to the big operation, but without fixing those, it could be a huge deal.
Also, the kidneys are not exactly in the right position because they actually kept one of the parasitic twin's kidneys. They may have to move that later on down the line.
ROBERTS: Yes. It's just extraordinary what they've been able to do so far. Maybe she faces a lifetime of surgery.
GUPTA: Yes. This is in Banglore, India, one in 200,000 chance of this happening and they were able to fix it.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay, thanks for the update.
GUPTA: Yes. ROBERTS: What happened inside that holding cell? Your "Quick Hits" now. A private pathologist says Carol Anne Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself on her shackles while in police custody at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. But Dr. Cyril Wecht also blamed police for leaving her alone and for roughing up the 45-year-old mother of three, who was flying from New York to an alcohol treatment center in Tucson.
Two universities are rethinking pre-game rituals after the deadly North Carolina beach house inferno. Clemson announced that students at the school will not burn the University of South Carolina's mascot and effigy before their football game.
South Carolina officials also said they're considering whether to hold the traditional Tiger Burn this year. Six of the students killed in the October fire went to South Carolina. One was from Clemson.
Cleanup and questions. The investigation into a 58,000 gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay. Should people have known about it sooner?
And a new focus in the case of a missing mother in Illinois. The body of her husband's previous wife being exhumed. What might it reveal about her death? We'll talk with Kathleen Savio's sister ahead on AMERICAN MORNING."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, a quick look at some of the shots you have to see this morning. How about this one? After 65 years on the Las Vegas Strip, the famed Frontier Hotel and Casino is no more. An implosion brought it down. There you see the spectacular sight of it falling to the ground, perfectly executed implosion, by the way.
It's going to make room for a $5 billion mega resort. The hotel became famous after it hosted Elvis Presley's debut in Sin City. The new luxury resort is set to open in 2011.
ROBERTS: Aggressive cleanup efforts continue in San Francisco after a container ship hit the Bay Bridge last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into the water. Senator Dianne Feinstein had this to say about the possible cause of the spill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: If I've learned anything in 30 years, it is not to say things until you've got all the facts. And the facts can only be gathered through the investigation. So I think we have to wait. I just reinforce again. Everything I heard in there indicated to me that this incident never should have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Joining us now to talk about the investigation is Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board. She's the person from the NTSB in charge of the investigation out there locally.
Debbie, any idea at this point? Any closer idea to how this crash actually happened?
DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB: Well, good morning. We arrived on scene about three days ago, and we've begun our investigation. The important things that we found yesterday, we had the opportunity to interview the pilot of the vessel at the time of the accident. And we've also obtained the voyage data recorder, which is something like a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder for the vessel.
ROBERTS: So the person who was actually piloting the ship at the time, this pilot that you speak of, is Captain John Koda. He's a local guy, knows the waters. What were the conditions like at the time that might have led a local pilot to accidentally slam this tanker into the Bay Bridge?
HERSMAN: Well, we know that the pilot arrived at the vessel about 6:00 that morning. At the time that they were scheduled to depart, there were some concerns about the visibility and the weather. They actually waited about an hour and a half before they departed. And at the time of departure, he estimated, when they left the berth, the visibility was about a quarter mile.
As they got out into the water, into the channel, the visibility deteriorated. He then went inside and began using the radar to navigate. He told our investigators that he had some concerns about the radar, and he thought that some of the returns were distorted. And he began using the electronic chart for primary navigation.
ROBERTS: Now, my under --
HERSMAN: There were some conversations --
ROBERTS: My understanding of it is that the Coast Guard had radioed Captain Koda to say that it looked like, according to them, he was off course. He disagreed with them, though. He thought he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
HERSMAN: Well, the conversation between the Coast Guard and the pilot was actually more a discussion of -- a query from the Coast Guard asking him to state his intentions.
ROBERTS: Yes.
HERSMAN: He stated his intentions and confirmed that he intended to go through the bridge in the opening between the D and E towers. He confirmed that, and they read it back to him.
ROBERTS: Right. There was a delay in terms of the Coast Guard informing local officials and the public as to how large this spill was. Are you looking into that aspect of the investigation as well? Did the Coast Guard respond too slowly to this disaster?
HERSMAN: Well, the NTSB is here to determine the probable cause of this accident. We're looking at the safety aspects of this accident, as well as the immediate response. Our focus is really on how to prevent something like this from happening again, and any lessons learned that we can make recommendations in order to do that. That's our purpose here, to improve transportation safety.
ROBERTS: Yes. Any early indications of what needs improving at this point?
HERSMAN: Well, we haven't ruled anything out. We're still looking at all of the issues. As usual, I know that you're familiar with our investigations.
ROBERTS: Yes.
HERSMAN: They're very comprehensive and exhausting. We're really in the early fact-gathering stages.
ROBERTS: All right. Debbie Hersman of the NTSB, the chief investigator on the scene, joining us this morning from San Francisco Bay. Thanks for being with us. Good to see you. We'll check back with you a little bit later if we could, too. Thanks -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Well,there are some new developments and new questions now into the death of an Illinois woman back in 2004. She was getting ready to divorce her husband, an Illinois police officer.
Now, that same officer's current wife is missing too, and the family of the third wife who died under mysterious circumstances is speaking out today. We're going to have more on that coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Stories of real-life close encounters. A group of former pilots testified in Washington about what they've seen in the skies, and they asked the U.S. government to reopen an investigation into UFOs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It disappeared in about 10 to 20 seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you'd been here 10 years ago and standing out here and looking up there at the lights and the view, you would have been astounded. You would have been amazed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Another retired Air Force pilot says he once saw a triangular craft in a clearing in the woods that took off at a speed impossible by earthly standards. The feds, though, closed the book, as we said, on UFOs more than 30 years ago. Maybe they'll reopen it. Who knows?
But it brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. Do you believe in UFOs? Cast your vote at CNN.com/AM right now. We have 86 percent of you saying yes. Unbelievable that you have -- that you believe in them, whether or not you've seen them yourself is a different story. And 14 percent saying no.
But if you think you've seen one or you have a picture, tell us about it. Send your story to AM@CNN.com. We have received a few this morning already. Our Veronica De La Cruz. Don't laugh, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I just can't believe you're inviting this.
CHETRY: Well, read some of them in the next half hour.
ROBERTS: Who knows. Maybe we'll hear from Dennis Kucinich.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Or Jimmy Carter.
VELSHI: You're asking for trouble. Oh, OK.
ROBERTS: From UFOs to UFPs, Unencumbered Fuel Prices.
VELSHI: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Gas prices going up. Right now, the Department of Energy has actually said, surprise, surprise, the gas prices are going to go up 15 to 20 cents in the next two weeks.
Now, you've already seen those rises. Remember when oil prices were going up and people were saying, see, there's some kind of disconnect. Oil prices are going up, and gas prices aren't. No-ah. Gas prices are $3.10 a gallon right now.
As a national average across the country, that's a gain of 34 cents in a month. Add 15 to 20 cents, you've got $3.25 to $3.30. The record -- take a look at gas prices over the last few years.
Back in May 2000 and this year, May 2007, we hit $3.22. But look at where we've gone. Look at those peaks and valleys. We're now set to break a new record on the price of gas. And folks, it is November, not spring. This isn't the summer driving season. We have got gas prices coming. I know John doesn't want to hear it. We're looking at oil prices going down after next spring, probably about $80 in next summer, but we're going to see prices like this for a while.
ROBERTS: You know, I don't have my wallet with me. I was about to pull out a $20.
VELSHI: Yes. We'll keep the wager going. How are you doing?
ROBERTS: Yes. The story coming up in the next half hour that you just can't miss. We brought in Sanjay because a lot of you may have noticed that he's got a big boo boo on his hand there.
GUPTA: Ali is very rough in the green room.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: You guys are messing with me about oil prices.
CHETRY: No, but actually --
GUPTA: Yes. I said $79 a barrel. He said --
ROBERTS: Wow.
CHETRY: Actually, I was with Sanjay right after it happened. It was in San Diego at the wildfires, and we're going to explain what happened to his hand. We have an x-ray of how it went.
GUPTA: Yes.
CHETRY: You actually had to have surgery.
ROBERTS: Hold it up so they can see it.
GUPTA: Actually, yes. This is my broken hand. And I thank you for all the e-mails, by the way, from the folks at home. I'll explain what happened here. It was really interesting. I learned a lot actually about broken hands and how they fix these things, and I'll show you how they do the surgery as well. Don't try it at home, John.
ROBERTS: Any of those e-mails from future surgical patients?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing, doc?
ROBERTS: We'll have that story and the day's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: Not a very nice day in the nation's capital today. It's in the high 40s and raining. It's only going to go up to a high of 64 today. And there will be lots of rain. Probably why the president is getting out of town. He's going to Indiana today, where hopefully it's not raining.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's November the 13th, a Tuesday. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We start with a story just breaking in Maryland. Police in Laurel, Maryland, on the hunt for an escaped prisoner believed to be armed and dangerous. Now, he was apparently at a hospital being guarded by a state trooper, a female state trooper. The two got into a fight, and the prisoner managed to grab her gun. He fired several shots and took off running. No one was hit. The prisoner was last seen running down the road barefoot in a hospital gown. Police say he was picked up yesterday for stealing a car but was taken to the hospital when he complained of chest pains. There you go. This is live aerials right now. As we said, this is coming to us courtesy of WJLA, the ABC affiliate there in Washington. Chopper shots from Laurel, Maryland. And I'm assuming this is some of the search area where they were looking for this person who escaped. So, we're going to continue to follow the latest developments because they do believe this person could be armed and dangerous, was under the watch of a deputy and was able to escape.
Also new this morning, questions about the death of Donda West, the mother of rap star Kanye West. West's publicist now denying an earlier statement which says Donda died after undergoing cosmetic surgery. Access Hollywood though tracked down Dr. Andre Aboolian. He is a plastic surgeon who said that he met with Donda about getting work done over the summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANDRE ABOOLIAN, COSMETIC SURGEON: She was interested in some cosmetic procedures, and we had discussed that in order for her to go through with the procedures, which she was a good candidate for, she needed what's called a medical clearance, which is just about anybody over the age of 40 is required to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, an autopsy is going to be done tomorrow, and it will possibly be able to determine the exact cause of death.
ROBERTS: An important debate in the nation's capital today about a ruling that could put 20,000 convicted drug dealers back out on the street. It's over the U.S. Sentencing Commission's decision to reduce jail time for crack dealers. The move was made to address a disparity in sentencing guidelines that some groups consider racist because the penalty is much tougher for those convicted of dealing crack rock as opposed to powdered cocaine.
Last night on "Out in the open," one federal judge who will testify today told our Rick Sanchez that it's fundamentally unjust.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE REGGIE WALTON, U.S. DISTRICT COURT, WASHINGTON: There are a significant disproportionate number of African-Americans who are affected by the disparity between crack and powder.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN, ANCHOR: Yes, most of the people who use crack are African-Americans. Most of the people who use cocaine are not African-Americans. They are white. You get a slap on the wrist if you use cocaine, whites, and you get the book thrown at you if you use crack and you happen to be black. On its face, that doesn't look right.
WALTON: Well, I think the perception is not a good perception. And I think, as a result of that, there has been, you no, an outcry in the African-American community about the unfairness of the disparity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But the Justice Department is warning of dire consequences if the new sentencing guidelines are applied retroactively, which would release thousands of prisoners across the country.
More talk about guns expected today in the O.J. Simpson preliminary hearing. Two men testifying today will reportedly say that Simpson was the one who suggested bringing guns to the hotel room to retrieve memorabilia Simpson said was his.
And if you have missed seeing Simpson in court over the past 12 years, we got some good news for you. You can watch today's hearing. CNN.com will be streaming the hearing which begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. Kiran.
CHETRY: The desperate search continues for a missing mother of two, Stacy Peterson disappeared from her suburban Chicago home more than two weeks ago. Police have called her husband Drew Peterson now a suspect and consider her a possible murder victim. And because this case has gained national attention and the circumstances are quite mysterious and puzzling, police have now reopened the investigation into the death of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. They now called the circumstances surrounding Savio's 2004 bathtub drowning "suspicious." Her body is now expected to be exhumed this week perhaps as early as today. Kathleen Savio's sister Susan Doman, joins me live. Thanks for being with us this morning.
SUSAN DOMAN, SISTER OF KATHLEEN SAVIO: Thank you.
CHETRY: Susan, I know it's difficult for your family to be going through all of this again. Yet at the same time, you say that at the time you guys felt this was not an accident, and they basically told you back in 2004, sorry case closed.
DOMAN: Exactly. We never felt that it was an accident. She always told us that, whether it was a premonition or not, she always said it would be an accident. And to take care of her children. He was going to kill her.
CHETRY: So your sister was convinced that Drew Peterson was going to take her life. They were in the last stages of finalizing this divorce. What does your family think happened to your sister Kathleen?
DOMAN: We believe that Drew was involved with this, the death of my sister. We always believed that.
CHETRY: The way that your sister was found, she was found by a neighbor. She was in a dry bathtub, and investigators at the time theorized that the water had drained. As they get ready to exhume her body, what do you think they're going to be looking for?
DOMAN: I think they're going to be, going to be very thorough on the investigation as far as my sister. Possibly x-rays, possibly marks on her. Re-examine the marks that she did have on her because, as the previous autopsy was, there was a lot of bruising on her ankles, her arms, cuts, scratches. So I think that they will be, you know, looking at these again very, very closely, and we are very happy that they are doing that. CHETRY: You know, a little bit later in the show, we're going to be talking to the neighbor, Drew's neighbor, the first person to find your sister's body, and he described Drew as distraught, worried, saying, what am I going to do? How am I going to tell the children? Is that the husband that you knew your sister had?
DOMAN: No. Not at all. And I actually do not believe that. I have people that have told me it was a very brief sadness in him. His remark was what am I going to tell the children? And for one second, and that was it. And he was back to normal. So that is not true that it was a big crying scene or anything.
CHETRY: And you know, when you heard about the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, what went through your mind? And now after this two- week long search for his missing current wife, what do you think happened to her?
DOMAN: When I first heard about Stacy, I said, oh, my god. I hope nothing happened to her. But now with her being gone so long, I believe that there was definitely foul play involved.
CHETRY: At any point did your sister consider just leaving the house? I know they were going through this divorce and it was very tough. She was fearful of him. There had been some police reports filed. Did you guys just say to her, just get out?
DOMAN: Well, we did, and she also thought about that too, but she was also very concerned about her children, the school, and the environment. She wanted to stay there for the children. When this was going to be coming down in two weeks, she was going to be selling the house and moving far away from him.
CHETRY: Unfortunately, the situation took a very different turn. We're going to find out more. A judge signing an order to exhume the body of your sister, Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. Susan Doman, thanks for being with us this morning.
DOMAN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Extreme weather in the Pacific northwest to tell you about. High winds knocking over trees and taking down power lines. We'll have some of the pictures for you coming up.
And we're going to see a side of Dr. Sanjay Gupta that we have never seen before, the inside. Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again. A lot of questions about my hand. I'm going to try to answer some of those. We use this as an opportunity to try and educate people about health issues. I want to do that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We have some extreme weather hitting the Pacific northwest. Winds of up to 90 miles per hour blew across Oregon and Washington state. In fact, here's a look at some of the aftermath. In Oregon, the winds blew off the roof of a firehouse. 125,000 people lost power after winds blew branches onto power lines.
It's 42 minutes past the hour. Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN extreme weather center tracking this for us. Hopefully, they'll be getting a break today at least in the Pacific northwest, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, break today, but new storm moves in for tomorrow, and even really by Wednesday night and into Thursday, they're going to be seeing some real ugly weather again out in the Pacific northwest. In the meantime, they're trying to clean up today. There was a lot of damage. Our i-reporters got some incredible pictures we want to show you. Michael Eads from Canon Beach, Oregon, was one of those thousands of people you mentioned without the power. He reports wind gusts between 80 and 85 miles per hour. He says nobody was in this car at the time that the tree fell on top of it. He claims that summers are very beautiful there in Canon Beach but very brutal in the wintertime. And that brutal storm is now making its way into Saskatchewan and causing some incredible winds now from Montana all the way over towards Minnesota. There you can see that curl of the storm system as it begins to pull away and move out of the region. So we're looking at extreme weather once again today, but this time focus across the nation's midsection and those strong winds and very dry conditions behind this front bringing in a critical fire danger area across the Dakotas.
The northeast is looking at some low overcast conditions today. We've been seeing a lot of rain showers from Boston down towards New York City. And even those of you that aren't getting the rain, it's kind of cloudy and misty. And you know, when you get those low clouds in the morning, what that generally means. Yes, we've got airport delays to talk about out there. Right now, not too bad. Just reporting Philadelphia with the ground delay of about 30 minutes. But we do expect them to pick up and kind of spread out. Likely the New York City Metros will be picking up. You know, one thing we haven't mentioned about these storms, by the way, guys, that have been moving into the northwest, these are our first best chance in a really long time as the storms move across the country to make their way across the southeast. We could get some rain in those drought stricken areas probably by late Wednesday and into Thursday. And did you know that Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia is going to be holding a prayer for rain today at 11:45 a.m. Eastern time.
CHETRY: Jacqui, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: It's coming up to 45 minutes after the hour. We all know him as our favorite doctor, but recently Dr. Sanjay Gupta was our favorite patient after severely breaking a couple of bones in his hand. Sanjay is here with us now to tell us how it happened and how he was treated. This was at the fires in California a few weeks back.
GUPTA: Yes, I was covering the fires in San Diego. Kiran was actually the first person to see me after it all happened. I'd just like to point out as well, I know this, but John wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. He's been diagnosing me. I showed him the pins in my hand, which I'm not going to show you at home because maybe a little bit much for morning television. But there are a couple of pins sticking out of my hand. I'll show you the next best thing though which exactly what happened. I actually learned a lot, you know, I think a lot of people who have ever had a broken bone will appreciate this. John, you picked it out right away, but this is obviously an x-ray of my hand. I'm thinking of a close enough view of that but you can basically tell right in here is where the fracture is.
ROBERTS: Oh, yeah, look at that.
GUPTA: That's a two-dimensional image. You can see the fracture line right in there. What you can't tell from the two-dimensional image is the bone is broken and then rotated.
ROBERTS: This is called the spiral fracture.
GUPTA: It's called the spiral fracture. Imagine a pole and you get a spiral pattern sort of going up the pole. The same thing happened to my hand. And that's right about here. That's actually in my hand, it's called the metacarpal bone. My finger, as a result of that, John, was really badly deviated. Kiran was sort of looking at me funny the entire morning that this happened. I didn't actually know that it was broken at the time. What the doctors decided to do, I ended up having surgery on this, was they put a couple of pins in there to sort of stabilize it. I think we have an image of that as well to show you. These pins are going to stay in my hand for about six weeks, and then they're basically just going to come out. There you see it there. So the fracture, first they actually reduced the fracture. That involves, John, just what you might think, just grabbing the finger and sort of yanking it back into place. Feels great. And then basically you see the fracture line there, and they've got a couple of pins just holding it in place. That bone is going to fuse across there over time. And that's obviously looking at my hand sort of flat on. We have an image looking at it from the side as well. Again, you'll be surprised at how different angulation the pins are there. But they're doing their job basically holding it in place. And I also hold my hand up just like this, as you can see John. Basically, it's in a 90-degree angle. That's the best angle to sort of allow a fracture like this to heal.
ROBERTS: Yes, because you also broke a little bone over here too.
GUPTA: Correct, near the wrist. And that one.
ROBERTS: So when are you going to be back in the O.R.?
GUPTA: I think about four to six weeks. My physical therapist told me yesterday that I was one of the best patients she'd ever seen. So, I've really been working a lot on my therapy.
ROBERTS: That's extraordinary for a doctor. You usually don't listen to anybody except yourself.
GUPTA: All the time. A lot of time on airplane rides. It's going well. I appreciate the e-mails from the viewers at home. I can't get back to them because of the tough break. I need a hand, John.
ROBERTS: I'm sure you will, soon enough. All right. Sanjay, it's good to see you.
GUPTA: Thanks, sir.
ROBERTS: See you in a little bit. If you've got a question for Dr. Gupta as well by the way, e-mail us, not just about his hand but some other things as well. Go to cnn.com/am. Sanjay answers your questions in his mail bag every Thursday here on AMERICAN MORNING. Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, I tell you it was scary when Sanjay showed me. His finger was literally like this, and he goes, I think it's just sprained. And all of us we're like, you've got to get to the hospital. I don't think it's just sprained. But you're on the road to recovery. How about that? It doesn't take a brain surgeon.
There are some new questions today about the sudden death of Kanye West's mother. Investigation under way right now after reports that she died possibly because of complications from a cosmetic procedure. We're going to have more on that.
Plus do you believe in it UFOs? Send us an e-mail to am@cnn.com. It is our question of the day. Our Veronica de la Cruz is actually getting e-mails about this. Some of our viewers may have had a close encounter of the third kind, and they're telling us all about it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Nine minutes to the top of the hour. If you're just joining us, here's a look at what's making headlines this morning. The Pentagon reporting successes in the so-called surge strategy in Iraq. They're bringing a brigade about 3,000 to 5,000 troops home to Ft. Hood, Texas, home of the 4th infantry division and reporting a sharp drop in roadside bombings, rocket mortar attacks as well.
News from Pakistan overnight. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says it's time for the president to step down. She made that demand for the first time. Police placed her on house arrest for the second time. Bhutto has been banned from leading a massive protest against President Pervez Musharraf and his decision to suspend elections.
Here in New York, a mother's frantic 911 call ends with her 18- year-old son dead on a Brooklyn street, reportedly shot up to 20 times by police. Officers thought the teen had a gun, but witnesses say it was only a hairbrush. We'll have a live report from the scene coming up at the top of the hour. Kiran.
CHETRY: Answer to the age-old question are we alone may be no. In fact, more people seem to be convinced of it. In fact, yesterday in Washington, a group of former pilots asked the U.S. government to reopen the investigation into UFOs. AMERICAN MORNING's Veronica de la Cruz has been sifting through e-mails because we asked you to e-mail us if you think there is extraterrestrial life first of all and if you've actually seen it yourself. What have people been saying?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: A lot of interesting e- mails. Some people saying they've been abducted by aliens, as a matter of fact. Other people not really believing. Let's go ahead and start with this one from Ron Ryan from Texas, he says, "I want to believe, but visual sightings aren't enough to convince the expert skeptics. Most sightings are actually natural phenomena or classified air vehicles of governments."
This is from Matt in California who says, "my mother and I observed a bright green light hovering motionless about a thousand feet over downtown San Bernardino. I'm not sure I want to meet another civilization if it's advanced enough to reach this planet." I kind of feel the same way. This one made me laugh Kiran from Jeremy Lamb from Youngstown, Arizona. He says "if something is in the sky and you don't know what it is, then it's a UFO." Makes sense, right? "I will reserve my judgment for tiny green space men when they knock on my door." You know, checking that "Quick Vote," 86% of people do believe in UFOs. You guys were talking about it earlier so kind of surprising, don't you think?
CHETRY: Well, you know, when you have a bunch of pilots telling the government let's reopen it. We've seen things in the air that we just don't have any idea about, does makes you wonder, doesn't it?
DE LA CRUZ: Do you believe?
CHETRY: Yes, I think I do. How about you?
DE LA CRUZ: I don't know. I don't know what to think. But maybe like Jeremy said, when they come knocking on my door, little green men, I'll change my mind.
CHETRY: All right. Or maybe there will be an i-report that will change Veronica's mind. Send one in to us at cnn.com, and we'll see. Thanks, Veronica.
ROBERTS: So, Kiran, do you believe?
CHETRY: Yes, I think I do.
DE LA CRUZ: She does.
CHETRY: I'd like to see more visual evidence.
ROBERTS: We'll see if we can find some.
Raising a child with Down's syndrome. Kiran sits down with a congresswoman who's facing that challenge and receiving an outpouring of support from her colleagues.
And Donda West, the mother of rap star Kanye West died after reportedly undergoing cosmetic surgery. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the dangers of cosmetic surgery ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Well, it's bigger than a bread box but just barely. Americans are apparently in love, though, with the new generation of subcompact cars, the smart car. Company executives say they received 30,000 reservations to buy one of these smart cars. The fuel economy and ease of parking may outweigh any safety concerns. Eight feet, eight inches long. Gets 40 miles to the gallon. Tops out at 90 miles an hour although the speedometer goes up to 120. I drove one around. It will be on display by the way next week a little bit later this week actually at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It looks like they're set to come online early next year. And already, you have to put down a $100 deposit online. 30,000 people so far.
ROBERTS: Wow, amazing. Obviously, with gas prices going up a lot of people looking to better their fuel economy.
ALI VELSHI, CNN, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": If you look in any European city, right, you see little cars, not that small but smaller than we drive. The smart car was introduced in Canada several years ago. So, there's some sense of how it works in a North American urban environment with wider roads and bigger cars around you. There's some sense that Americans don't want to drive these little cars because everyone else is driving the big cars. And so these have done very well in Canada. And of course, with gas where it is, $3.10 a gallon is the national average. But look at how gas has gone over the last several years, and let's see if that trend has actually worked. We've seen gas in this range a few times in the last few years. The first set was right around Hurricane Katrina. The second set was in 2006. And then early this year in May, we saw it peak out at $3.22 a gallon. You absolutely do see people changing their habits. But initially you see them moving from those massive SUVs and trucks into regular vehicles. If we sustain gas at over $3 a gallon for several months, you might actually see that behavior changing.
ROBERTS: Sales of the Prius were up 50% last month. They sold almost 20,000 hybrids total alone last month.
VELSHI: It's gone from sort of an unusual green thing into being a smart decision in one that makes you look like you're, you know, in the right place in the environment. So, I definitely think this trend. You'll probably see these very quickly in the streets of L.A. and New York, mainly for the parking , more than the gas.
ROBERTS: Yes, you can park it in your living room for Pete's sake.
CHETRY: And you can parallel park perpendicular.
VELSHI: When you tried it on, you can actually do that and it doesn't stick out that (inaudible)
CHETRY: It's long and some of those SUVs are wide.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Thanks, Ali.
ROBERTS: I wonder if the police would accept that though? The ticket for improper parking.
VELSHI: Don't tell that you hear it here.
ROBERTS: Next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
