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Floodwaters Leave Devastation in Iowa; Pakistan Warns Afghanistan About Cross-Border Pursuits; Running on Empty: Saving Gas at the Sheriff's Department

Aired June 16, 2008 - 11:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Very quickly, off the top here, we want to get you back to the situation in California that we are following. Getting some live pictures in of a manhunt going on for this man right here, 35-year-old Marco Topete. He is a suspect in the killing of a sheriff's deputy. The deputy was shot on Sunday and apparently died overnight.
It all happened when the officers were responding to a call about an abandoned baby that was found in a car. That baby, we're told, is reported safe. But unfortunately, the officer, as I said, was gunned down and killed.

Now there is a -- there are reports that the officers are going house to house, and they are trying to locate this 35-year-old, Marco Topete. Once again, the search has closed down part of I-5, obviously a huge interstate there. And we're trying to look at some of these pictures now to see if we can get a better idea of how fast or urgently people seem to be moving around in this area.

Once again, pictures coming in from our affiliate KCRA in Yolo County. This is Woodland, California. So we will watch this story for you and let you know how it develops.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Heartbreak in the heartland. In northern Iowa, floodwaters crest, the Iowa River hits a record high, but falls short of the worst fears. That is small comfort at the University of Iowa, where water has swallowed about a dozen buildings.

In Cedar Rapids, floodwaters pulled back, and worried homeowners wait to rush in. Today, unsafe conditions are keeping thousands from their flood-ravished homes. Some homeowners have returned only to have their hopes crushed. Their homes and their belongings awash in mud.

Now let's go to the University of Iowa, where officials will assess their losses today. CNN's Sean Callebs is on the Iowa City campus.

Sean, good morning.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

Iowa City, a city of about 60,000, like so many around Iowa right now, under water. A lot of homes have been flooded. Hundreds of people have been moved out. But Iowa City brings something new to the equation.

This building here on campus behind me, the Museum of Art, stores hundreds of millions of dollars worth of priceless art, and they were able to get all of that out of the building before the floodwaters came up. And boy, what an amazing, scary few days it has been here on the campus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice over): It's been a weeklong battle on the campus of the University of Iowa. Sandbags and prayers trying to hold back the surging Iowa River, which is now at a historic high.

Allyson Schultz graduated last month and never thought she'd witness this.

ALLYSON SCHULTZ, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA GRADUATE: It's just crazy that it actually, like, got over the sandbags, and I just can't believe it right now.

CALLEBS: About a tenth of the buildings on the sprawling 1,999- acre campus flooded.

SCHULTZ: It's really upsetting to see al the buildings and everything under water, especially some of the newly-renovated buildings.

CALLEBS: If there is a silver lining, the university had time to remove its heralded collection of priceless art treasurers before the Museum of Art took on water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are safe in Chicago. They got moved in semi trucks. We did it very quietly, because, of course, we had to do it quickly. And they had to be crated up properly, and they had to taken out of here in semi trucks.

CALLEBS: The art is being stored in Chicago.

It took a long time for the Iowa River to crest. And it will take perhaps a week for it to recede. And leave it to the academics to act philosophical about the flood of '08.

PROF. GORDON MANNENGA, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA: We offended some of the river gods someplace along the line. I don't know where it was, but this is payback, I guess, for something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Well, the price could have been significantly high here. The school of music down there had about two dozen grand pianos. They were able to move all of those out in basically a heartbeat's notice as well. And that was all done safely.

And real quickly, Tony, I want to show you some of the works of art here by some of the world's most renowned artists: Picasso, Jackson Pollock, also Miro. So those are just a handful of the artists here.

And some more bad news, too. I talked to Sally Mason, the president of the university, and she says she believes the museum is so badly damaged, it will probably have to be replaced.

HARRIS: Boy. OK.

Sean Callebs for us this morning.

Sean, appreciate it. Thank you.

Save that art.

COLLINS: Neither the mystery nor the floodwaters are contained by Iowa's state boundaries. Our next stop: Grafton, Illinois. One man there says he's going to wait it out as the water rises.

The details now from reporter Erica Byfield. She's with CNN affiliate KMOV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA BYFIELD, REPORTER, KMOV (voice-over): Bill Weeds (ph) always liked living near the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out here last night for a while, fishing right here off the patio.

BYFIELD: But lately, the Mississippi River is getting a little too close for comfort.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifteen and a half inches now.

BYFIELD: Right now the water is encroaching on his property from all directions. So much so, we had a hard time figuring out where to park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (INAUDIBLE).

BYFIELD: Within the past 24 hours, he and family moved everything in the basement upstairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bed and dressers and refrigerators.

BYFIELD: In a spare bedroom and living room, you can see the evidence. One dresser stacked on the other.

Believe it or not, it's Weeds' plan to hunker down and wait out the rising waters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just hopefully don't get a bunch of rain up north, you know? If I did, we'd have another '93 deal.

BYFIELD (on camera): So you look at all of this water and may wonder, how deep is it? So we stuck this pole in. From the looks of it, it seems like this water is probably feet deep, because I'm 5'6" and it's probably up to here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I figure tomorrow night it will be on this patio.

BYFIELD (voice-over): Over the years, Bill Weeds says he's just come to the realization that no matter what you do, Mother Nature is going to win the flood fight. So until the water goes down, he's just going to make himself comfortable on his own little island.

In Grafton, Erica Byfield, News 4.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: If you are moved by what you are seeing, and specifically in the flood plain we've been talking about in the center of the country, in Iowa, and would like to help, go to CNN.com and impact your world. That's at CNN.com/impact.

HARRIS: New developments coming out of Afghanistan today. The country is threatening to send troops into Pakistan in hot pursuit of insurgents. Pakistan issues a warning: don't do it. Rising border tension and reports that the Taliban is moving into some Afghan villages.

A lot to cover here. Let's get to CNN's Barbara Starr. She joins us from the Pentagon with the latest.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. An awful lot going on.

I just got off the phone a few moments ago with a NATO military source in Afghanistan, and he confirms, first of all, on that prison situation in the South, in Kandahar, yes, both U.S. and Canadian forces today, as well as Afghan forces, on the move into the southern region. About 1,000 people escaped -- fugitives escaped from a prison in Kandahar late last week in this area around Kandahar.

The fear is that they are now on the move with these fugitives and moving into Afghan villages, trying to take them over. As many as 400 Taliban militants estimated to be on the loose. So troops are on the move trying to get that situation under control.

But as you say, Afghan president Hamid Karzai today saying Afghan forces would cross the border into Pakistan to deal with the rising tensions on the border, to deal with the attacks. Pakistani officials taking that possibility very badly, reacting very sternly to that, warning the Afghans not to cross the border. And even President Bush earlier today in London weighed in on the whole situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can help. We can help calm the situation down and develop a strategy that will prevent these extremists from -- you know, from developing safe haven and having freedom of movement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: All of this, Tony, the real bottom line, that safe haven on the Pakistani side of the border, you know, the U.S. gives Pakistan billions a year in aid with the caveat that they will crack down on the militants, but the new government in Pakistan, by all accounts, U.S. officials very much on the record saying they are not stepping up to that, that the new government, instead, has basically been cutting peace deals with the militants. And that is leading to them crossing the border into Afghanistan and causing a lot of these rising attacks and the rising violence.

And if you want to just consider how tough the situation is in Afghanistan right now, consider this: last month, more coalition troops lost their lives in Afghanistan than did in Iraq -- Tony.

HARRIS: You wouldn't think that. You certainly wouldn't think that.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.

Barbara, thank you.

STARR: Sure.

COLLINS: Cruisers to the curb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can turn on -- pretty much on a dime. You can cut little corners. You can actually take that inside buildings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't compare the costs to fill this up to a cruiser.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: High gas prices leave lawmen to look for other ways to get around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Running on empty. Skyrocketing gas prices have forced many of us to change our driving habits, but those changes can be even more drastic for police departments. After all, they too have to abide by the law, the law of supply and demand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS (voice-over): Cops on the beat? Try cops on the beat- down. Beaten down by the same thing that's probably making you wring your hands, too -- this: the per-gallon price of gasoline. Police cars run on the same fuel, police departments pay the same prices. You're cutting corners, and so are the men and women in blue. Cruisers to the curb.

You might be seeing some cops these days on two wheels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can turn on -- pretty much on a dime. You can cut little corners. You can actually take that inside buildings.

HARRIS: On two feet, or behind the wheel of an electric golf carts.

In Ohio...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't compare the costs to fill this up to a cruiser.

HARRIS: In Tennessee...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myself and 438 (ph) (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: ... anything to keep the gas-guzzling to a minimum.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are changing times. Gas prices are going to go up and departments need to find other ways to patrol the areas.

HARRIS: It is not the fastest, most secure. Or let's be honest about it -- most dignified way to patrol a town beat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It seems funny to see a policeman driving a golf cart.

HARRIS: But $4 gasoline makes the day a new day. And in most cases, only one or a few cruisers are parked at a time.

The uniformed officers walking it, or carting it, anything to keep their town's gas bills down with minimal impact on public safety.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: So let's talk to one lawman making the tough choice to conserve gas and budget money. Dave Phalen is the sheriff of Fairfield County, Ohio, featured in that piece we saw just a moment ago. He joins us this morning from Charleston, South Carolina.

Sheriff, great to see you. Thanks for your time.

SHERIFF DAVE PHALEN, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO: Good morning. Good to see you.

HARRIS: Hey, if you would, orient us a little bit. Where is Fairfield County in Ohio? What's your big city?

PHALEN: We are close to Columbus.

HARRIS: Oh, OK.

PHALEN: We are a county that adjoins Franklin. So we're kind of southeast of there.

HARRIS: How many people in your county?

PHALEN: We have 140,000 people in Fairfield County. A couple small cities and a number of villages.

HARRIS: So, Sheriff, what did you budget for gas, say, last year, and how much more will you spend this year?

PHALEN: Well, to give you an idea, last year at this time we were spending about $17,000 per month on gasoline. This year we're between about $27,000 and $28,000 a month, and the price continues to go up. So we are seeing quite an adverse impact.

HARRIS: A month? Are you kidding me?

PHALEN: That's correct. So we are way over...

HARRIS: Yes.

PHALEN: ... where we were last year at this time. And it's really stretching our budget.

HARRIS: Is the potential there to sort of bankrupt your department?

PHALEN: Well, I don't think -- I don't think it will bankrupt the department, but what we have to do is make some tough choices. It may mean we're not able to hire a deputy that would leave. It may be we have to hold another year to buy a car. It may be we have to postpone buying some bulletproof vests.

So there's a number of things that we have to do to maintain a balanced budget.

HARRIS: Well, I don't have to tell you, those are very serious tradeoffs. And you know that.

OK. So tell us about the pilot program in which you are incorporating at least, what is it, one golf cart at this point and maybe another one coming down the road?

PHALEN: Yes, we have one golf cart that we purchased. We're in the process of getting another one. And we're using them in small villages.

In other words, we have a number of villages within the county, around 1,200 people within the village. A couple square miles. And they make a lot of sense.

We can get up to 40 miles per gallon with a golf cart. The deputies like it. They can maneuver through areas you wouldn't be able to get through in a motor vehicle or a car, and they are able to go across parks, to go across the swimming pool lots.

HARRIS: Yes.

PHALEN: So it's good public relations. The deputies really seem to like it.

HARRIS: Really?

PHALEN: And again, we're getting a lot of bang for our buck with these. The deputy can get anywhere in the village in just a matter of a few minutes. So it really hasn't had an adverse impact on getting to the scene of a crime.

HARRIS: You're obviously talking about villages where there isn't a lot of crime and a lot of emergency calls.

PHALEN: That's right. They are relatively safe. That's correct.

They are -- they make sense. There's not a high crime rate there. We don't get a lot of problems. So they make sense.

The other thing we're doing is, every hour I have the deputies park their cars for 15 minutes, get out, meet and greet, walk and talk, and those types of things. And then, thirdly, we're trying to look at maybe is there some type of fuel-efficient vehicle that we could purchase in the future, maybe a hybrid or something like that. So we're going to be testing some of those types of vehicles here in the next months to come.

HARRIS: You know, very quickly, did you ever consider, as you were trying to figure out how to navigate the situation, did you ever consider a surcharge on your citizens for non-emergency calls?

PHALEN: Well, we really didn't do that. We have so many calls in the course of a day that I don't know that that would be practical.

HARRIS: Yes, I think you're right.

PHALEN: Just being able to track all those, being able to bill people. And again, there is a certain amount of public service that the taxpayers pay for within our counties.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

PHALEN: So it's probably nothing that I would seriously consider. So we're looking at other options.

HARRIS: OK.

PHALEN: In fact, one weekend we actually have one of mounted units do a neighborhood. And again...

HARRIS: Yes.

PHALEN: ... I don't know how -- that wouldn't be practical long term, but it was an alternative. We have a number of bicycles that we're going to be putting into the neighborhoods here in the next months to come.

HARRIS: Well, Sheriff, I'm going to wrap this, and you'll understand. We have got some breaking news on a law enforcement front, a story we've been following from California.

Sheriff Phalen of Fairfield County, Ohio.

Sheriff, thanks for your time.

PHALEN: Thank you.

COLLINS: We are learning from our affiliate reporting out in California, KCRA, they are telling us that the California Highway Patrol has apparently arrested a suspect. We've been telling you about what is happening in Woodland, California, to be specific, in Yolo County.

They have apparently arrested a suspect. This manhunt has been going on now for a while because a sheriff's deputy has been killed. Shot and killed, to be specific.

It happened yesterday when he was responding to the call of an abandoned baby that was found in a car. The baby is safe, just to be clear on that.

But once again, unfortunately, the deputy was killed. He was a 10-year veteran of the department, and now that manhunt has lead to the arrest of a suspect.

Not exactly sure that it is the suspect whose picture we showed you a little bit earlier, 35-year-old Marco Topete. He was apparently on patrol for assault with a deadly weapon. So, once again, not positive but that that is indeed the suspect that they have arrested, but nonetheless, an arrest has been made in the manhunt taking place in Woodland, California -- Yolo County.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The latest allies in the fight against cancer may be these four little puppies, believe it or not. A South Korean biotech company says they are cloned from a dog famous for sniffing out cancer cells.

Cute.

Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with me now to talk a little bit about this.

First of all, can dogs really sniff out cancer? I remember that story that we did, and I think there's probably still a lot of question about that basic fact. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. There is no hard evidence that dogs can sniff out cancer.

Now, the story you're talking about with a dog named Kobe (ph) that I did about a year or two ago, so cute.

COLLINS: A yellow lab.

COHEN: A yellow lab. And what they did was they would put out all these samples of different tissues, and one of the tissue samples was cancerous. And time after time, I saw Kobe sit down next to the cancerous tissue.

Now, that's just a suggestion that dogs know how to smell cancer. And that was just in a tissue sample. Could he walk up to someone with cancer and smell it in that person's body? Who knows?

So this is not hard and fast science. And another thing that's not hard and fast science is that, don't expect one of these dogs to be coming to a doctor's office near you...

COLLINS: Yes.

COHEN: ... because it is so hard to clone any kind of animal. There are so many things that can go wrong. When you think about Dolly, that was a successful clone, but Dolly died at a relatively young age.

So this whole thought that we're just going to keep cloning these fabulous animals that have these unusual skills is not that easy. There's miscarriages, stillbirths. It is a tough thing to do.

COLLINS: Yes. And then even to go a step further, if they really did clone a cancer-sniffing dog, would that dog then be as good as the mother?

COHEN: Not necessarily.

COLLINS: Yes.

COHEN: The mother in this case is named Maureen (ph), and who knows if the four babies are going to be as good as she is. You don't know because it's not just in the genes. Your ability to sniff out cancer is how you're trained, it's how you're raised, it's the kind of attention you get. A lot of question marks here.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely.

All right. Well, we'll continue to follow this one, because it's an interesting potential anyway, that's for sure.

COHEN: Absolutely. "Potential" is a good word.

COLLINS: Elizabeth Cohen -- yes, thanks so much.

And to get your "Daily Dose" of health news online, you can always log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library, and information on diet and fitness. That address, CNN.com/health.

HARRIS: You can't go home. Residents who evacuated one flooded Iowa City are now being kept from returning.

A live report straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Back to the breaking news we've been telling you about out of Yolo County in California.

A manhunt had been going on there trying to find the suspect in the shooting death of a veteran deputy there. It happened on Sunday, unfortunately after a call about an abandoned baby found in a car. The baby is fine.

This deputy was gunned down and later died. He died overnight.

The manhunt had been going on. They had to shut down parts of I- 5. And now this now just coming into us from the Yolo County Sheriff.

Apparently, this is the man they caught, 35-year-old Marco Topete. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF E.G. PRIETO, YOLO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: I am just thankful that we have this individual in custody. Again, you know, he's a parolee, he's sort of an individual that probably has gang affiliation. He's well-known in the Woodland area. He's not a -- and he's not a stranger to violence. He served 12 years for shooting someone else.

So, he's not a stranger to violence. And...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he has no regard for human life?

PRIETO: Oh, man, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And it will all come out in the trial, I'm sure. But when you see -- the fact that we have video cameras in our patrol cars and -- clearly depicts who is involved and who isn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff Ed Prieto, thank you so much --

COLLINS: So there you hear the reporter saying Sheriff Ed Prieto there in Yolo County, referring to the dashboard camera that obviously had some video of this man, 35-year-old Marco Topete. He was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. You heard the sheriff talk about former violence he had been involved in.

And this case, I'm sure, we'll continue -- we'll watch it for you should anything else develop out of California.

HARRIS: Misery in the Midwest. Three rivers pour out of there Iowa banks and swallow nearby towns. Even a college campus isn't spared. Floodwaters have swamped more than a dozen buildings at the University of Iowa, but it could have been much, much worse.

Students and faculty had spent days building sandbag fortresses. Today, a Cedar Rapids safety officials have blocked the return of worried homeowners. They say it's too dangerous for the thousands of evacuees to make their way back into the flood zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said it could be two weeks. They said it could be a week. They said it could be up to six weeks. So we're just kind of waiting and see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's really all we can do is just wait at this point, and see and pray that we haven't lost everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A lot of praying going on in that area, I'm pretty certain of that. CNN's Jim Acosta is following the evacuees and their efforts to return home. We want to get the very latest from him.

Hi there, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

That's right. Cedar Rapids officials have gone ahead and made the decision to suspend those checkpoints that were set up yesterday to allow residents to go back to their homes and check on their properties. The reason, as you can see, all around me, some of these neighborhoods are just too unsafe at this point and with everything that has happened in this town, and all of these people who are waiting, that is going to be very tough to enforce.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): It was a flood of frustration. As thousands of people stood in long lines at police checkpoints to reenter their neighborhoods. Men, women, even children were given wrist bands to quickly go home and carry out whatever they could in plastic bags.

Carla Morfore (ph) didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're safe. We got our kids. We got our pets.

ACOSTA: One detective admitted they are making it up as they go along.

DET. BRAD NOVAK, CEDAR RAPIDS POLICE: It's been compared to a 3,000-year flood or 2,500-year flood. And so something with that rarity of an event, there's no playbook to go by.

TRACY MURPHY, FLOODED HOMEOWNER: That's our (INAUDIBLE) house, right there.

ACOSTA: We gave the Murphy family a ride home. That is, what's left of it.

MURPHY: My whole entire life is gone. I don't know what we're going to do.

ACOSTA: Holding back tears, Tracy frantically grabbed all of the family photos she could find.

MURPHY: Everything can be replaced, but your photos can't.

ACOSTA: Like scores of other homeowners here, she was told she didn't need flood insurance.

Guess what the insurance company is telling her now?

MURPHY: They said that because it's a flood, that they are not going to help us.

ACOSTA (on camera): What's going to happen to this town?

MURPHY: I don't know. Is the government going to come in and buy all of these houses, knock them down?

ACOSTA (voice-over): There's going to be plenty to knock down and clean up from this grain silo that split open in the rising waters, to this fuel tanker pinned under a highway. But for many people who live here, it's the smaller things that matter most.

CANDICE RIBBLE, FLOODED HOMEOWNER: Your house, your home.

ACOSTA (on camera): But everybody is out safe?

RIBBLE: Everybody is out safe now. Now they are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And officials and engineers here in Cedar Rapids will be venturing back into these neighborhoods later today to determine just how soon residents and business owners can go back to their properties.

But you can just look all around me here right now, Heidi. And check this out. We're in the middle of this neighborhood right next to I-380, very close to downtown Cedar Rapids. There's an Enterprise Rent-A-Car behind me that is totally washed out, a tractor trailer that is rammed into the side of this Methodist church over here.

There is just a ton of debris and mess to clean up down here. It's going to take days and weeks to get back to normal in this community, and it is no wonder that people at those checkpoints are starting to get very upset and irate about how soon they are going to get back to their properties because who wants to wait and leave their properties sitting in the middle of all of this?

COLLINS: Absolutely.

All right. Jim Acosta for us, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Jim, thank you.

HARRIS: Towns across the Midwest completely submerged and our I- reporters are sending us pictures and video. Veronica De La Cruz joins us now with some of those.

Veronica, good morning.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony.

We've been continuing to dig through all of these I-reports we've been receiving. So I want to go and take a moment and show you the latest. We just got this video in from Carly Kanipe in Iowa City. She says this is the area around the Park Street Bridge, Tony. In the background you can see City Park. She says it's flooded. She describes the entire thing as you awe-inspiring but really sad to see a town that she loves so much being inundated by floodwaters.

Now, unfortunately when those floodwaters recede, this is what is left behind. Cherly (INAUDIBLE) took this picture of a washed-out roadway in Muscatine County, Iowa. Her husband, Tony, takes this road to work. She says that she was out with him yesterday searching for an alternate route.

And Todd Steinberg (ph) sent us a couple of shots from Des Moines, Iowa. This is the downtown area. He says that people were locking up their bikes, storing them which ever way they could because the bike rack was under water.

And then take a look at this. Another photo he sent us you can see that folks are in a row boat. He says this is the only way that you can get to the downtown area and the National Guard has been allowing business owners to reach their stores, their businesses, by boat.

And then in this shot, this is what is left of a little league baseball park. This is actually the diamond in what should be the dugout. Todd is guessing the water here is about eight feet high.

And then here's another shot of a road, this is Martin Luther King Parkway. This is one of the major thoroughfares in town and Todd says this is the road, Tony, that leads to the airport.

HARRIS: You know, as tough as it is to see those pictures out of Iowa, it's probably important to note here that other parts of the Midwest impacted as well by flood waters.

DE LA CRUZ: Yes, and that is the unfortunate thing.

Many parts of the Midwest are underwater. We were just looking at Iowa. So let's go ahead and take a look at Illinois. This is Stacey Wallace. He shot this video from Quincy, Illinois. He says this video was taken at Clat-Adams Park which is right on the Quincy River front. Unfortunately, it's a lot like the video we just saw -- the video in Iowa.

I want to remind you that you can always share your story by logging on to ireport.com. And if you want to help the victims of the flood zones, you can always log on to Impact Your World, that's at the CNN.com/impact -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Veronica, good to see you. Thank you.

COLLINS: Due in federal court this hour a Missouri woman accused of an Internet hoax that ended with a young girl's suicide. Police say 13-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself after receiving cruel messages on MySpace. They say Meier thought she was chatting with a teenage boy, but it was really Lori Drew, the mother of one of Meier's friends. Authorities say Drew used the MySpace page to try and find out why the girls were fighting.

Drew has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and unlawfully accessing protected computers. She has said she is innocent. She's expected to enter a plea today. The case is taking place in Los Angeles, where MySpace is based.

HARRIS: Presidential politics now. Now presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama campaigns in Flint, Michigan this morning before heading to a fundraiser in Detroit. Yesterday, he had a tough Father's Day message for some African-American dads.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: But if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that too many fathers are also missing. Too many fathers are MIA, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes. They've abandoned their responsibilities, they are acting like boys instead of men.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Republican John McCain will be in Texas raising money. He met yesterday with Iraq's foreign minister. The two talked about security.

Check our Political Ticker for all of the latest political news. Just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.

COLLINS: From partner to spouse. Gay and lesbian couples get hitched in California legally. We'll talk to the mayor of San Francisco about the same-sex ceremonies next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Portfolios with personality. Investing strategies that reflect your values. CNN's Christine Romans is Right on Your Money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If saving the environment is your passion, or if you simply want your money to match your morals, "Money Magazine"'s Jason Zweig says look into socially responsible investing or SRI funds.

JASON ZWEIG, SR. WRITER, MONEY MAGAZINE: An SRI fund invests according to ethical principles. Not just trying to do well, but also trying to do good. And the objective is not too purely to earn the highest return on your money, but also to return on your morals as well.

ROMANS: But investing with a clear conscience doesn't necessarily mean taking a big hit to your bottom line.

ZWEIG: If you compare SRI funds to conventional mutual funds, or the market as a whole, you'll find that they perform just slightly under the average.

ROMANS: Historically, SRI funds have been associated more with the Silicon Valley than traditional, big money stocks like oil and energy. But Zweig says regardless of your political or social beliefs, there are some SRI options for you. Just remember to do your homework.

ZWEIG: There's a great Web site called socialinvest.org where you're be able to learn about all of the funds that are available.

ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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HARRIS: The nation's two satellite radio broadcasters are one step closer to a merger. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission recommending approval of Sirius Radio's buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio, a $5 billion deal. But there is a catch. The "A.P." reporting FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants 24 channels for noncommercial and minority programming, and there is a three-year price freeze.

It probably won't come as it a shock to you that the cost of electricity is going up. But the reason behind some of the increases may surprise you. Let's get the story from Stephanie Elam who is at the New York Stock Exchange to explain.

Stephanie, good to see you. What gives?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony, good to see you too.

Everybody has been talking about gasoline prices over the last year, how they have been running up. And now, it looks like the cost of electricity, it could end up costing you more as well. That's because utilities across the country -- they are raising prices, some by as much as 29 percent because they want to cover the higher price that they have to pay for fuel. So it's that trickle down effect.

Electricity costs have actually risen 30 percent already in the last five years. And "USA Today" says even more drastic hikes -- yes, that could be coming this way too. Now here's a couple of examples. Public Service Company of Oklahoma hit customers with a 25 percent price hike on June 1. Move over to Virginia, Potomac Edison pushing monthly averages up from 70 bucks to $90 next month. And so obviously, that really does hit your wallet when you're dealing with that month to month out of your pocket there, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, I know that it takes energy to produce energy. But I'm just curious here, Stephanie. Is this all because of oil, or are there some other factors pushing prices up here?

ELAM: Well, we can put a lot of the blame on oil, but you can't put it all there. That's not the only culprit that we're dealing with.

The cost of building a power plant is actually doubled, actually more than doubled since 2000. So that's part of the issue here. South Carolina Electric and Gas, they want to boost rates more than 35 percent to cover the $10 billion price tag for two new reactors they are developing there.

Also, coal prices -- they have doubled in the past year. And coal -- it powers about half of U.S. electric plants. So that's a big deal. And coal prices could go even higher if legislation passes. That would force fees on plants that emit gases that cause global warmnig.

So a lot to watch there.

Now, while we're talking about all that electricity and all that energy, not a lot on Wall Street today.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: OK, Miss Stephanie, good to see you -- thanks.

ELAM: You too.

COLLINS: Wedding bells ringing in California. A proud day for many same-sex couples. We'll talk to a leader in their fight to say, I do.

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COLLINS: A big step in a nationwide struggle. Today is wedding day for dozens of same-sex couples. As of 5:01 Pacific time this evening, they can legally say, I do, in California. A state supreme court ruling last month legalized same-sex marriage. California is the second state now to allow it; Massachusetts the first. Four other states allow civil unions.

San Francisco's mayor, Gavin Newsom, has helped lead the fight for same-sex marriage in California. Today, he'll preside over one of the first legal weddings since the ruling. Mayor Newsom is joining us now outside of the courthouse in San Francisco.

Mayor Newsom, thanks for being with us.

What does this day mean to you?

MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM, SAN FRANCISCO: An enormous amount -- and obviously it reminds me, maybe it's my Jesuit education, that God's delays are not God's denials, that the march of equality that needs to include everybody, equally and fairly, is here, at least in California but that I recognize does not exist in 48 other states. It means that we have a lot of work to do.

COLLINS: This is a very big deal, at least as of now, for your state. But what is going to happen in November? There's another vote, another initiative that could, in fact, turn things around again.

NEWSOM: Yes. It's remarkable. Here we are with today -- celebration of life and affirmation of love where people are coming together, families across their differences, and celebrating their lives and that affirmation of their love. Yet, there's a desire to write discrimination into the Constitution in the state of California on the November ballot that we need to defeat. It's the exact same effort that George Bush led a number of years ago that Congress rejected, and even Senator McCain rejected. The idea that we'd be writing discrimination into a document that's been amended probably 17 times since the Bill of Rights, but only to advance people's rights.

In this case, amended to take rights away, is not, I think, consistent with the values of the great state of California. And I believe, though close it will be, I believe it will be rejected.

COLLINS: But of course there are some people who say, wait a minute, this is a little hypocritical with the gay community because for many different issues that affect them, they say that they really agree with the separation of church and state.

Will there be marriages that will be performed in churches? Will that be something that is forced upon churches?

NEWSOM: I'm sort of curious where this argument came from. It's a bit specious, and I imagine someone was throwing out some talking points today on the blogs or something.

This is about civil marriages, it's about state marriages, it's not about religious marriages. We're not telling our churches what to believe on abortion or what to believe on stem cell research or what to believe on divorce or, for that matter, birth control. We're not going to tell them what to do on the issue of marriage -- 40-plus percent of marriages in this country are performed in places like this, San Francisco City Hall, in city halls around the United States. They are civil marriages, separation of church and state.

We're not telling religious institutions what to do. They can continue to do what they've done. COLLINS: What about the constitutional amendment, though, of changing the definition of what marriage is, either between a man and a woman,or not. I'm sure you're very familiar with the Proposition 22 in the year 2000, which was defeated at 61 percent to 39 percent.

NEWSOM: Yes. Look, if we put the same vote up in 1967 on the issue of interracial marriage, 70 percent of Americans opposed interracial marriage --

COLLINS: Yes, but 1967 was a long time ago -- 2000 was just eight years ago.

NEWSOM: Exactly. The point being subjecting to the majority the rights of a minority is not an American tradition. That's why we have the courts, that's why we have the Constitution. We wouldn't have interracial marriage today if we submitted to a vote, even in 1967, in a racial marriage.

My point is only this -- that a number of years ago, the majority said no to the minority. That doesn't necessarily make it right. That's why we have a Constitution, and a Republican court adjudicated that the Constitution doesn't allow people to discriminate, that that law was unconstitutional. Now they are coming back to change the Constitution because they don't like the Constitution in the state of California, and the U.S. Constitution. And we think there's something right with our Constitution, and that's what we're going to fight for in November.

COLLINS: Something like 650 appointments that were made as of Friday over the next ten days or so to have these marriages take place. We appreciate your time there.

Gavin Newsom out of San Francisco for us. Thank you.

NEWSOM: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: Basketball star -- grew up in the Midwest, now on the Olympic team, of Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY HAMMON, WNBA PLAYER: I knew my patriotism was definitely going to come under attack.

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HARRIS: Why some are calling a popular player a traitor.

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HARRIS: And time to take a look at some of the most clicked on videos at CNN.com.

First, they're naked and they're angry. Nude cyclists take to the streets of Boulder, Colorado, to protest the high price of gasoline. Also, forget it tupperware. Try a taser party. Women all over the country are getting a jolt out of these self-defense demonstrations.

And the women's basketball star is labeled a traitor. Becky Hammon of the WNBA is an all-American girl, but she'll represent Russia in the 2008 Olympics. She says Russia asked first.

And for more of your favorite video, go to CNN.com/mostpopular. And of course, don't forget to take us with you anywhere on your iPod with the CNN Daily Newsroom podcast, available 24/7 right on your iPod.

COLLINS: And naked and angry just -- you don't want to be there, you know.

CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now.

"ISSUE #1" with Gerri Willis and Ali Velshi starts right now.