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American Morning
Bhutto Under House Arrest Again; Brooklyn Police Shooting; Gas Prices Rise Again
Aired November 13, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome once again. And thanks so much for joining us. It's Tuesday, November 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
Breaking news out of Pakistan to tell you about, more chaos for a key ally in the war on terror. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says it's time for President Pervez Musharraf to go. For the first time, she called on 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 emergency rule.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENAZIR BHUTTO, FORMER PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: We feel that to focus the police force on containing the democratic constitution in Pakistan is leading to the neglect of the real threat to Pakistan which comes from the terrorists and the militants. This police force should be concentrating on investigating and finding Osama Bin Laden, it should not be used to detain political leaders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Bhutto had planned to lead a 185-mile march from Lahore to the capital city Islamabad. State Department correspondent Zain Verjee is in Pakistan with the latest developments for us from Lahore. Good morning, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMETN CORRESPONDENT: John, the rally was really a bust. It fell flat. There were no masses out on the street marching or supporting Benazir Bhutto. Instead, there were clashes in and around Lahore, on the outskirts of the city of Karachi and Benazir Bhutto supporters also blocked the main highway between Lahore and Islamabad. Police sources say there was tear gas and there were some clashes there. Some people burned tires on the street. Behind me is Benazir Bhutto's home a few blocks around that way. She is barricaded by barbed wire, by armed guards and security forces carrying heavy arms, trucks as well. We really can't go anywhere near that home. It's a difficult situation for her but she is out there increasing her hardening of position. Today she says no way she wants to deal with general Musharraf or have a government or any kind of cooperation with him. She thinks that he should leave and leave not only as president, but also take off his uniform and leave as chief of the army staff. Also, deputy secretary of state CNN has learned John Negroponte will be in Pakistan later this week. It was an already scheduled visit on U.S. and Pakistan cooperation but, obviously, this situation is delicate and precarious both for Pakistan and the United States will be the priority.
ROBERTS: The crisis in Pakistan not over yet. State Department correspondent Zain Verjee, live via broadband from Lahore for us today. Zain, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: We're following breaking news coming in to us now from the Philippines. Local media there in the Philippines reporting an explosion in the capital city of Manila. Initial reports saying the blast happened inside the Philippines House of Representatives. The Associated Press saying it happened at an entrance to that building. We're told several people have been injured. We're keeping a close eye on this story and we will bring you an update and the first pictures as soon as we get them.
Meantime, border tensions flare between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in Iraq. Iraqi officials say that Kurdish helicopter gun ships attacked abandoned villages inside of Iraq. Now it is the first major action against Kurdish rebels since Turkey's prime minister met with President Bush earlier this month.
ROBERTS: Signs of the so-called surge or signs rather the so- called surge may be getting the job done in Iraq. A brigade, 3,000 to 5,000 troops are starting to head home to Ft. Hood, Texas. The Pentagon says its strategy has cut sectarian violence and see if a smaller force can main the level of security and if so cut the current force to 169,000 troops down to 145,000, that will be by next July.
U.S. commanders also report a sharp drop-off in roadside bombings, rocket and mortar attacks. They say some of the drop can be explained by the thousands of ammunition caches that they have discovered.
Breaking news in New York 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 thought the teen had a gun but witnesses say it was just a hairbrush. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is live in Brooklyn where neighbors are outraged and are demanding answers from the NYPD. Good morning, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. Keep in mind the shooting happened a little more than 12 hours ago, so the details are still sketchy, at best. At this point, police are not talking. But here is what we know. 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 some reports say that the 911 operator could even hear a man in the background yelling "I've got a gun, I've got a gun!" Police responded, either way. Once they got here, eventually, the young man, remember, just 18 years old, climbed out of the first floor apartment window and eventually crossed the sidewalk toward police, that's according to initial police report. Unclear whether police actually shouted a warning before firing and also unclear just how many shots were fired. Witnesses say as little as ten, possibly as many as 20. What is clear is that police say the young man was carrying something in his hand when he climbed out that window and had his hand in his pocket at the time. Witnesses say that object was not a gun, but a hairbrush.
TYRONE JONES, HEARD SHOTS FIRED: 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!
W. TAHARKA ROBINSON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: The young man did not have a weapon. There was no weapon found. He did not brandish a weapon. He did not act as if he was going to engage in an active shooting with the police.
CHO: As police have continued their investigation, the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network was opened its own investigation. We should mention, John, that representatives of the National Action Network will be holding a news conference not far from where I'm standing later this morning.
ROBERTS: Alina, are we expecting to hear from the New York City Police Department today?
CHO: Not today. It could happen. What we've gotten from a sergeant from the police department within the past hour is that when police talk, it will be at the highest levels, the New York City police commissioner, Ray Kelly. And what they're telling us, according to the sergeant, they are not worried about time, they're worried about accuracy as they continue this investigation.
ROBERTS: Alina Cho for us live this morning in Brooklyn, Alina, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: There's some new information this morning on the San Francisco Bay area's biggest oil spill in nearly two decades and more questions about why the public didn't know 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 with a 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 within that unified command knew the amount what 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. The bridge ripped a 12-foot wide, 200-foot long gash in its side.
220 cruise ship passengers in Hawaii sick with the neuro virus. It's on the Norwegian cruise liner Pride of Hawaii. The ship returned home yesterday after a seven-day cruise around the island. Passengers who felt sick were quarantined in their cabins for 24 hours. Doctors say that patients can go from feeling fine to severe vomiting in a very short period of time.
Children trapped and firefighters making dramatic rescues as a fire burned out of control inside of a Boston home. Eight adults and six kids were injured including a 2-year-old boy in serious condition. A firefighter found him inside of a room filled with thick smoke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard a faint cry and feeling around in there and I heard the baby on the bed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just trying to get him out. We know what to do, it's a matter of having enough time to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Very brave firefighters saving lives. The firefighter actually put his own mask on the child and passed him out the window. A Boston Fire spokesman says a short-circuit is what sparked that fire.
ROBERTS: Nine minutes now after the hour and time to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning.
New home foreclosure numbers with cities in California and Michigan hit the hardest. Ali Velshi at the business update desk with that this morning. Not good news.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Stockton in fact in California taking the number one spot in the home foreclosures over the last three months. 1 in 33 homes in Stockton is in foreclosure. That means various things. It means you could get the notice or it could be foreclosed on. Detroit, number two. 1 in 33 homes. Riverside, San Bernardino, California, 1 in 43 homes and 1 in 48 for Ft. Lauderdale and Las Vegas which is you know a significant jump from that point. 77 of the top 100 metro areas reported in this report by Reality Track say they have more foreclosures in this past three-month period than the previous one. So still an up trend in those, John.
ROBERTS: Las Vegas number five is where the democratic candidates will be this Thursday and maybe we'll get a chance to ask them about that.
VELSHI: That's right. That would be good.
ROBERTS: Ali Velshi this morning. Thanks, Ali. We'll see you soon. Jacqui Jeras is at our weather update desk this morning for Rob Marciano. She's tracking extreme weather in the Midwest this time. Hey Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have upward trend, too and that has to do with the wind speed. That powerful storm that slammed into the Pacific Northwest yesterday is now bringing extreme winds from Montana all the way over to Minnesota. Let's go ahead and show you the storm system and talk about what kind of impacts you can expect. This is really a dry storm for the most part. You're not going to see a lot of rain ahead of it but expect to see wind gusts 50 to 60-mile-per-hour and critical fire danger conditions back there behind the system into the Dakotas. Elsewhere across the country today, we're expecting some low clouds and fog all across the northeastern corridor and bringing you light rain from the overnight to the early morning hours and when you see a situation like that, as advertised, we told you the airport delays will start to add up and we're really starting to see them now. Take a look at this. A ground stop in Boston until 9:20; Houston Inter Continental also until 9 and Philadelphia looking at ground delays about 30 minutes. So pack your patience with you.
ROBERTS: It's one of those Tuesdays. Jacqui, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks. There are more questions this morning about the sudden death of hip-hop star Kanye West's mother. Reports are now surfacing that Donda West, 58 years old, died after complications from cosmetic surgery. Here to shed some light on this is CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Thanks for being with us. There are reports that she actually visited one plastic surgeon who wanted her to go through some sort of health clearance with a doctor to get the okay. Is that a routine thing for certain patients?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty routine. I think most patients after they get over a certain age or if they have certain health conditions will get the sort of clearance. Basically the surgeon will say we're going to have the internist check EKG, check a chest x-ray and make sure a patient is ready for surgery. Let me say just not the surgery, but the anesthesia itself, just putting a patient under general anesthesia is a risk to the body. They have to make sure the body is going to be able to tolerate that. Having these sorts of complications or problems with plastic surgery is pretty unusual, about 1 in 50,000 people have some sort of problem but these are some of the risks. Blood clots for example can develop. You've heard of this. Women, fro example, who are on birth control pills or some sort of hormones are especially at risk. Breathing problems, again due to the anesthesia. Some sort of heart problem that had never been a problem in the person's entire life suddenly may come to light under anesthesia. Allergy to medication, infections, these are the sort of things but really thinking about both the surgery and the anesthesia.
CHETRY: Would you say plastic surgery is more or less risky than any type of other surgery that you have to undergo? GUPTA: I wouldn't but I've talked to a lot of people about this. I will say one thing. And that is that we did some investigating into this yesterday. Out of 50 states, only nine states have laws mandating that the facility where this sort of operation is performed be accredited. Again, nine states out of 50 have laws that say the facility where some of these procedures are being performed is accredited. That means 41 states don't. You have to be a vigilant customer here so to speak and check out your doctor and anesthesiologist and the facility. What are they going to do if you have an emergency? What are they going to do if something goes wrong? Do they take you to the hospital? Do they have a team that start your heart again? How does that transpire? That's something you need to check out.
CHETRY: I asked that because if you're going in for surgery, let's say you have to have, usually your doctor is going to recommend a surgeon that, you know is highly accredited and that they trust. Oftentimes, with plastic surgery, you know, you can search the internet and find, you know, deals almost for different things and so it did raise the red flag.
GUPTA: You hear about things people performing certain procedures in shopping malls and things like that. I think the most prudent customers will say that obviously raises some red flags. What is amazing to me people do home work on children and schools and neighborhoods and you have to do that with your doctor as well. Board certified or board eligible is something to look for and make sure the facilities are accredited to.
CHETRY: It is a tragedy for the family of Donda West. Thanks a lot.
GUPTA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Coming up on 15 minutes after the hour now. A plant from the Clinton camp. A college student given a prepared question is telling all this morning and the inside scoop how campaign workers prepped her. That's coming up. And raising a child with Down syndrome. Many parents these days choose not to but one congresswoman accepted the challenge. Why she decided it was the right thing to do. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A college student who asked Hillary Clinton about global warming at a campaign appearance in Iowa says she was given the question by Clinton's staffers. The college student says she wanted to ask about energy policy, but was given a question on climate change instead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURIEL GALLO-CHASANOFF, WAS GIVEN SCRIPTED QUESTION: On the way over there in the car, they asked me if I would ask the senator a question. I said, sure, you know? I'd love to ask her a question. And when we got there, we were there a little bit early. They brought me to one of the senior staffers and he asked me if there was any question I wanted to ask. And I kind of thought about it and IED, yeah, can I ask how her energy plan considers to the other candidates energy plan? He said, well, I don't think that is a good idea. He said I don't know how familiar she is with her plans. He showed me in his binder, he had piece of paper with typed out questions on it and the first one was planned specifically to a college student, said like college student. When I asked him how it worked, he said raise your hand when she asks for questions, raise your hand and she'll call on you. So, I mean, I don't know for sure that she knew in advance but there were like 200 people there and everyone is raising their hand. I was 1 out of 4. That doesn't seem random exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Not exactly random. The Clinton campaign admits the staffer encouraged the question but insists that Senator Clinton wasn't aware of it, though she called on the student, 1 out of 4, she said.
The family of former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in the news. She retired from the Supreme Court to care for her husband who has Alzheimer's disease. This morning's "USA Today" reported that John O'Connor has now forgotten about his wife, Sandra, and has fallen in love with another woman at the nursing home where he lives. O'Connor's son says his father's new found happiness is actually serving as a relief to his mother. Experts say this a scenario is quite common along Alzheimer's patients. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, approximately 5,000 babies are born each year with Down syndrome according to the national Down Syndrome Society. Yesterday we introduced you to baby Cole who was born last April to Washington State Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and her husband, Brian. We talked about receiving the news that their son had Down syndrome. Today how the news is changing how she does her job in Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS, BABY SON HAS DOWN SYNDROME: People have just been tremendous and when I returned after some maternity leave, I brought Cole with me that first night to the house floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little Cole Rogers is here with his mother.
RODGERS: A very special moment for all of us.
CHETRY: You're in a unique position because of your visibility to be able to bring attention to Down syndrome and possibly even legislation to help children and, of course, families who are living with children who have Down syndrome. Is that something that you have found an interest in?
RODGERS: It wasn't that long ago, 40, 50 years ago that babies with Down syndrome would be put into an institution and through the years, not only have we brought hem out of constitution institutions, we have them in schools and now one of the next steps is to really help them become more independent and I'm excited about being a part of that.
CHETRY: Has this experience caused to you change your mind at all about new advancements involving embryonic stem cells or other medical advances that could make a difference for people like your son?
RODGERS: No. Because my opposition to embryonic stem cell research is based upon my opposition to destroying what could, you know, a human life. There's a lot of different types of stem cell research in that it's not just embryonic, but that some of the really major breakthroughs are coming in the other lines of stem cell research.
CHETRY: Hi! You like the ladies. Hello. Can you imagine a time in your life when he wasn't there? He has only been here for six months but in terms of everyday life?
RODGERS: He brings us so much joy every day. I believe that we've only seen a glimpse of the positive impact that Cole's going to have on our lives, as well as this world.
CHETRY: And joining us now is Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Not to sugar coat it but it is obviously difficult when you're trying to care for and raise any child that has developmental problems and challenges. But what are the long-term prognoses for people with Down syndrome?
GUPTA: Certainly with Down syndrome you can have a happy, healthy life, as you reported there. There are some medical concerns. For example, about half children with Down syndrome will have some sort of heart abnormality. Sometimes diagnosed early in life and sometimes later in life and sometimes it could be devastating heart problems and could lead to a shortened life. Dementia is common in people with Down syndrome as they get older but not a person with normal brain development. They may develop early, for example. The heart problems are something I think doctors pay the most attention to and screen if that and try to dying nose -- diagnose those early.
CHETRY: I've had many friends who have told me they came up with the warning signs or markers of Down in the early testing. How accurate is this testing?
GUPTA: A great question. You will get slightly varying responses but let me just point out a couple of things. Something known as the first trimester screening which a lot of women and men know about. They do an ultrasound and check markers and basically trying to find any signs of Down syndrome or markers for it. It has about a 5 percent chance of false positive which says it is positive and it isn't. And a 13 percent chance of false negative. The numbers will vary there a little bit. Ultrasound is dependent on the ultrasound. Some do ultrasounds better than others. You can have errors in both directions.
CHETRY: The other questions or complications or indications are we looking at a time in a general radiation or two there aren't any babies born with any abnormalities to people who can afford the type of testing? GUPTA: It's such an interesting issue and it's remarkable what we will able to do. Pretty soon, I talked to my friend about this and he says the in the next few years we will be able to screen for asthma, cancer.
CHETRY: Where do you draw the line?
GUPTA: People are going to make decisions based on those markers and that is getting into a whole new territory and uncharted world so to speak but it's happening to some extent and to the 80 to 90 percent of families that have -- find their child has Down syndrome will choose to terminate that pregnancy which, you know, leads to all sorts of obviously other ethical decisions. Doctors are taught to be value neutral in medical school, meaning we don't assign value to these things, we inform the patient this is what we have found, you've had such and such risk factors but what parents and families decide to do that will be very, very controversial lots of ethical issues there.
CHETRY: Sure is. Thank you for talking with us about it. John.
ROBERTS: He is a suspect in the current wife's disappearance and the body of his previous wife is being exhumed about her death with new questions about her death. We will talk with friends of Drew Peterson ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A look at a story coming up on the next half hour you can't miss. Much of the southeast is under a drought warning. So why is one local homeowner using more water than literally dozens of homes combined some?
CHETRY: That is the estate and a ton of water usage. But is there anything local officials can do about it? Does being charged more discourage people from using more? We'll have that story and the headlines when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: Breaking news to tell you about. An explosion in Manila, in the Philippines. It's Tuesday, the 13th of November. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
And we are getting new information about that. An explosion taking place at the House of Representatives in the capital city of Manila. The Associated Press is reporting that blast ripped through an entrance in the building and that several people have been injured. They say at least two members of Congress, as well as several other people, according to one congressperson, as well as local radio reports, the explosion is said to have happened as they were wrapping up a legislative session. Right now, police are sealing off the area around the House of Representatives. We're going to have much more on this story as soon as we get any more information or pictures for you. In the meantime, also breaking at this hour. Police in Laurel, Maryland on the hunt for an escaped prisoner. Believed to be armed and dangerous. Looking at the shots of the continuing search coming to us from WJLA in Laurel, Maryland. 39-year-old (Kamara) Mohammed at a hospital being guarded by a state trooper. The two are said to have gotten into a fight and the prisoner managed to grab the state trooper's gun, firing several shots and taking off running. No one was hit. Mohammed was then last seen running down the road barefoot and in a hospital gown. Police say he was picked up yesterday for stealing a car but then taken to the hospital after complaining of chest pains.
Also new this morning. Questions surrounding the death of Donda West, the mother of rap star Kanye West. West's publicist is now denying an earlier statement that said Donda died after undergoing cosmetic surgery. "Access Hollywood" though tracked down Dr. Andre Aboolian, one doctor who said he met with Donda over the summer about getting plastic surgery and also talked to her about some health concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANDRE ABOOLIAN, COSMETIC SURGERY: 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 is called a medical clearance, which is just about anybody over the age of 40 is required to have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: An autopsy will be performed tomorrow in an attempt to figure out the cause of her death.
ROBERTS: As the search goes on for his missing wife, Drew Peterson is now a suspect and police believed that Stacy Peterson may have been murdered. Meanwhile, the body of Peterson's previous wife, Kathleen Savio is being exhumed right now. Here's some live pictures coming to us from WGN in hillside, Illinois helicopter shot, just outside of Chicago where workers are in the process of exhuming the body of Kathleen Savio. They want to take a closer look at her death in 2004 where she drowned in a bathtub. Steve Serrano is Drew Peterson's friend and neighbor. He was the person who found Kathleen Savio in that bathtub. Steve Carcerano joins us now from Chicago. Steve, let me ask you first of all about Kathleen Savio. We're seeing pictures of her body being exhumed there. How is it you were the one that went into the house and found her that night?
STEVE CARCERANO, FRIEND OF DREW PETERSON: I was actually on my way home that evening from work and entering the subdivision coming down my street, Drew pulled up next to me in the police car, which so happened that we were on the same street and he asked me to go to the house within the next 10 to 15 minutes. He had a locksmith coming there, as well as her best friend, and I pulled up in the driveway, went next door and got her best friend and we walked over to the house. ROBERTS: Right, you just said he pulled up in a police car because he is a police sergeant. Why did he want you to go into the house? Did he suspect that something had happened to Kathleen?
CARCERANO: He said he was trying to drop off the kids for like the last day and a half and she wasn't answering the door.
ROBERTS: Right.
CARCERANO: That wasn't like Kathleen not to do. If he was a couple minutes late, she would be right on the phone with the police department.
ROBERTS: So you into the room, into the house, you entered the room, you looked around and you found her in the bathtub. I know you're not a trained investigator but was there anything suspicious about the scene that struck you when you found her?
CARCERANO: No, not at all. I was in shocked right away. When you see a dead body, it's not something you see every day.
ROBERTS: And what was Drew Peterson's reaction?
CARCERANO: He came after her best friend came into the bathroom, I yelled out her name a couple times. She starred screaming and that is when Drew came running up the stairs right into the bathroom, upon looking at her, you know, he did check her pulse and then started screaming out what am I going to tell my kids?
ROBERTS: I want to ask you about the depth of his reaction here. Because earlier on today, we had Sue Doman, whose a relative of Kathleen Savio's, on and here is what she said about that moment. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN DOMAN, SISTER OF KATHLEEN SAVIO: 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? 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Is that true, Steve, it was only a brief moment of emotion?
CARCERANO: That's absolutely incorrect, John. Sue, as well as her other sister, weren't even there that night. The state police did the investigation in my house that evening.
ROBERTS: Right.
CARCERANO: I think that lasted until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. But that is absolutely incorrect.
ROBERTS: Do you still support him? I mean, the fact he is a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson?
CARCERANO: Absolutely, yes, I do.
ROBERTS: Because one of his friends, Rick Mims, initially said he would stick by him but now admits he's got some doubts about the whole thing.
CARCERANO: I didn't know Rick myself. I do understand they knew each other for 20 plus years but for him to turn his back on a friend, I disagree with that.
ROBERTS: Are you surprised that Drew Peterson is a suspect?
CARCERANO: I'm not surprised, of course. You know, him being a police officer and now everything that is happening with Stacy, of course, I think everybody knew that he would be a suspect.
ROBERTS: All right. As we said, the body of Kathleen Savio being exhumed even as we speak. Steve Carcerano, friend of Drew Peterson and a neighbor, thanks very much for being with us this morning.
CARCERANO: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it. Kiran.
CHETRY: Scary moment in Israel. This video tells it all. It was an explosion at a basketball game. There you hear the explosion going off. TV and security cameras show a security guard diving on the explosive and an Israeli paper is reporting that doctors have reattached three fingers of that security guard lost in the blast. A fan confessed to throwing the explosive from the stands.
ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING. As Georgia literally dries up, this Atlanta home takes in as much water as dozens of home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all the pressure on everybody not to use water and to conserve, for somebody to do that, I think it's ridiculous.
ROBERTS: Residents outraged. A city cuts back as this house fills up. What can be done about it. Find out ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
The water wars now being raged over the extreme drought in the south. The governor of Georgia is asking lawmakers and ministers to join him on the steps of the state capital today to help him pray for rain. Also take a look. This is a mansion you're about to see. There it is, in Georgia. Water conservation officers in the county it's in. This is in Cobb County, say that it used an average of 390,000 gallons of water over the past six months and last month alone it used enough water to fill a thousand hot tubs and Cobb county says it will start charging these so-called water hogs double for using more than their share but many say they don't think the at that tactic will work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHY NGUYEN, WATER CONSERVATION OFFICER: We face a real resource issue. A lot of people say that that's just the cost of doing business for me. It's more important that I use this water than it is I worry about reducing my use.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And that's not the only battle waged over water. Some say the city of Atlanta is using more than its share. CNN's Ed Lavandera explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN, CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Construction booms in Metro Atlanta. New buildings needed for the 630,000 people who have moved to this area in the last seven years but some say poor planning and greedy developers are threatening the region's water supply.
SALLY BETHEA, UPPER CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVERKEEPER: There is an attitude that more growth is better, any kind of growth is the way to go. Instead of looking at quality life for the people who are here and for future generations.
LAVANDERA: Sally Bethea heads up an environmental advocacy group called the Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper. She says part of Atlanta's water problem is caused by new construction that eats up green space allowing water to escape unused and that leaky pipes across the area waste a lot of water every day, despite being four years into a water sewer replacement project but they also points to new home landscaping requiring too much water.
BETHEA: In Metro Atlanta, there has been sort of a chronic addiction to a type of development over the past decades that we have got to change if we are going to have a sustainable water source into the future.
LAVANDERA: Developers say the biggest problem isn't the amount of water being used in Atlanta. It's the amount of water the area is forced to release downstream to neighboring states.
MICHAEL PARIS, COUNCIL FOR QUALITY GROWTH: The growth and development industry is an easy target because we're a visible target.
LAVANDERA: Michael Paris represents Atlanta's developers, he says, developers want to conserve water but doesn't think slowing down the development is the answer.
PARIS: I don't think slowing down development is frankly possible in the atmosphere we're in so I think we need to work hard at doing a better job of long-range planning and using the resources we have properly.
LAVANDERA: So, the battle between what some call greed versus need continues. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Atlanta.
CHETRY: And CNN NEWSROOM is just minutes away. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center now with a look at what's ahead. Good morning, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS: Good morning there, Kiran.
That's right. The Pakistan crisis is on the NEWSROOM rundown for Tuesday morning. And police barricade Benazir Bhutto, stopping her protest march with her new tough line in a CNN phone call.
And a New York teenager killed by police. They reportedly thought he had a gun or was it just a hairbrush? We'll tell you more about that.
Fred Thompson's sluggish presidential campaign set for a big boost this morning. Find out who is backing his bandwagon. Spend your day in the NEWSROOM and stay up-to-date. We get started at the top of the hour right here, on CNN. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Heidi, thanks a lot.
ROBERTS: A disturbing new study on drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD) and the long-term effect on the brain. CNN's chief medical correspondent, our resident brain surgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. What did people find out here?
GUPTA: Well, it's interesting. We're learning a lot more about ADHD. One of the big things I think, more than anything else. There seems to be more of a delay than a flaw is how "The New York Times" put it and researchers put it as well. I thought a picture was worth a thousand words. In terms of what is happening at the brain. First of all, notice the age, this is age 6 on the left is an ADHD brain. On the right a healthy control brain. Look at all the colors sort of appearing in the front of the brain by age 10. If you compare that with an ADHD brain, you notice some changes here the brain on the left, the ADHD brain, appears to be maturing slower, not differently but just slower than the healthy control brain here. If we're going to reverse that and show that again, you'll see what I mean, basically the control over her showed that the maturing process is sort of laying down of more particular brain matter actually changes faster in a healthy brain versus the ADHD brain.
ROBERTS: Is that a function of the disorder itself or are drugs being used to treat it delaying that development?
GUPTA: Great question, that was sort of the focus of this research article. The answer is they still don't know for sure because so many people who have ADHD take the medications. So, it's just a function of the medications actually causing the clay or is it must the ADHD itself? Unsure but this does appear to be happening. What's so important about this is a lot of parents of elementary school children say these problems are just going to get worse. Well, the resounding message today is in fact just the opposite. These problems are going to get better as this brain catches up, as more of this brain sort of lays in here, you'll see it actually start to look normal like a healthy brain just a couple of years down the road.
ROBERTTS: Right. Is that an average? Can some kids take longer, some faster?
GUPTA: Absolutely. Every brain is going to be little bit different, and one of the questions a lot of people ask already as well. Let's get this scan for my kid right now and figure out where they are. The problem is everyone's brain is a little different what you're seeing here, what we've compiled for you today. John, our averages over lots of different brains and this is what you see as you sort of aggregate a lot of these data. But there is no test still, exact clinical test for ADHD.
ROBERTS: Fascinating though that you could actually map, you know, with a certain degree of certainty the progression, the development of the brain here.
GUPTA: I think this is good news ultimately saying that it's going to happen. Just give it a couple of years.
ROBERTS: All right. You brain surgeons come up with good news.
GUPTA: I love this stuff.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: Right.
ROBERTS: If you have a question for Dr. Gupta, by the way, e- mail us, not just about this but other things as well. Go to CNN.com/am. Sanjay answers your questions on Thursdays when he opens up his mailbag here on AMERICAN MORNING. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, unfortunately for us, what goes up can go higher when we're talking about gas prices. They are expected to climb another 20 cents in the next few weeks. The government's top energy forecaster says pump prices have not fully reflected the jump in crude oil costs and those gas prices will be catching up.
Plus, it's a whole new world for CNN. We're heading into second life. Our Veronica de la Cruz shows us what news is like in a virtual world ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Well, welcome back to the most news in the morning. Don't feed the pigeons. Your "Quick Hits" now. A New York City lawmaker wants to get rid of the city's pigeons. Among the measures being considered right now is putting the pigeons on birth control, bringing in hawks to scare the pigeons away and instituting a thousand dollar fine, a thousand dollars, for anyone caught feeding the pigeons.
Virginia is for lovers and for vanity license plates. About 10% of the more than 9 million vanity plates in America are all registered in Virginia. 10% of them. Virginia charges only ten bucks extra to a vanity plate while other states charge much more. New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada and Montana also have a lot of vain drivers, I guess. Texas, the lowest percentage of vanity plates. No one wants to be caught dead with a vanity plate in Texas.
An anonymous donor giving $100 million to charity in Erie, Pennsylvania. This a town of about 100,000 people. The head of the Erie foundation is in charge of giving out the money. He's not giving any information though about this anonymous friend, still good news though, 46 charities including a food bank, a homeless shelter as well as three colleges will all be splitting that money.
ROBERTS: It's 52 minutes after the hour. You know that CNN is very much into the internet. Our website is one of the best web sites anywhere. Gets an awful lot of traffic. Well, CNN has opened up a new hub.
CHETRY: That's right. Also, the youtube debates, we were the first to do that as well, and now we are joining the second life as it's called. Our Veronica de la Cruz has been following this world. We're confused.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: But I guess, a lot of people are. You guys aren't the only ones.
CHETRY: What is this "second life"?
DE LA CRUZ: What is "second life"? Kiran was just asking. Well, second life is a virtual world on-line that functions much like a 3D video gram. You can think about like maybe myspace or Facebook if you're confused. It's a place to hang out on line and chat with friends. Only everyone is represented by character and he live in an entirely different world. You can see it there as a virtual world, a 3D world. If you want to get started, you have to download the second life software and then create your persona, better known as an avatar. There you see an avatar right there. Mine is called Guji Reina.
CHETRY: Is that you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That isn't Gugi Reina. You know, Ali Velshi is sitting next to me now and he's playing on "second life."
ALI VELSHI, CNN, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS:" I'm steering the second life bus here. And if you can see this, I'm playing with it and I think we might be able to get a shot of this. On the right of the screen here, we're going to push into that.
VELSHI: That's Gugi Reina.
DE LA CRUZ: There I am and there is Ali Velshi.
VELSHI: And there is me. I'm somewhat text savvy but I have not been able to close my avatar so he is in white tights.
Ali prefers to be in his white tights.
And he likes it. I really, I would of preferred to have been clothed but I can't seem to achieve that so I'm sitting next to Veronica. Now, I'm going to stand up and I'm going to walk around. This is the second life world. I think we are being punked because all sorts of things going on here and folks know. We see these are people so I can sit next to this person and just get to know them. The issue you can run your entire life in second life.
DE LA CRUZ: You can have an entirely different life. We are asking people to send us i-reports through second life that you can look at in the real world. So, you can log on to CNN.com and you can check out i-reports in a virtual world.
ROBERTS: This is pretty incredible stuff.
VELSHI: You can buy property, you can meet friends, you can go to parties if you never get invited to a party.
CHETRY: But I can't even do this in the real world.
ROBERTS: How difficult is the interface to use?
VELSHI: It's not difficult. It's memory intensive.
DE LA CRUZ: It's very cumbersome.
ROBERTS: OK. It's easy, it's cumbersome.
CHETRY: You can't get dressed in anything but tights and she says it's cumbersome but it's great.
ROBERTS: It's great.
VELSHI: I ended up spending far too much time in the past 24 hours on "Second Life," trying to meet people. You go up to meet people and you ask stupid questions like do you come here much? So, there is me and I don't know who this character is. But there, you know, it's kind of funny, you just navigate your way around.
DE LA CRUZ: Say hello to Ali. He's is Sailing Shore, I'm Gugi Reina. If you're interested grab a pen because CNN's first training session will be held this Tuesday, November 13th at 5:00 p.m. Eastern at the i-report hub. You know, you can stop by, you can say hello to all the CNN anchors and reporters and producers on hand that teach you how to take an i-report and send it and submit it so it's a whole another world for CNN.
ROBERTS: that means we've got a day to learn how to do this?
DE LA CRUZ: Yeah.
VELSHI: I'll be good at it by then.
ROBERTS: Yeah, lovely.
CHETRY: So Ali, get back to us when you get your three-piece suit and I know you're getting somewhere then. Veronica, thank you.
CHETRY: Well, it's called a Tupperware party but for tasers women in Arizona hosted the batch, they served cheese and apple cider and then a police officer demonstrates how to safely use your taser. Small enough to fit in a purse. Some women say it's a modern must have to protect your family especially if you have a home where you don't want to have guns but you have a way to protect yourself if you run into trouble. Taser parties instead of Tupperware parties. I love that.
Here is a quick look at what the CNN NEWSROOM is working on for the top of the hour.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN, ANCHOR: See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest and calling on Pakistan's president to step aside.
New York Police opened fire on an unarmed teenager. Reports say police mistook a hairbrush for a gun.
Record high gas? Experts say it could happen just in time for thanksgiving travel.
Hurricane-like gusts cut power to thousands of people in the Pacific northwest. NEWSROOM top of the hour, on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Ever have a close encounter of the third kind, apparently a lot of our viewers have. We asked the question in our "Quick vote" today. Do you believe in UFOS. Last count, 85% of you who e-mailed us this morning say yes. 15% no. We want to say thanks to everyone who voted and the next time you see one, take a picture.
ROBERTS: Well, maybe if they haven't had a close encounter of the third kind maybe they are looking forward to one, as they believe it.
After 65 years in the Las Vegas strip, the Frontier Hotel and Casino went out with a bang literally. Just a few hours ago, the hotel was imploded, true to her Las Vegas style. The company that bought the property is demolishing it so they can build a luxury resort modeled after New York's plaza hotel and it's going to open in 2011 and what do you want to bet that will cost three times as much?
CHETRY: OK. The frontier was the first place that Elvis Presley performed in vegas.
ROBERTS: Yes, it was an icon on the Las Vegas strip. That's going to do it for us. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. See you again tomorrow.
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