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Congress Feuding Over Gas Prices; Earthquake Hits L.A.; British Honeymooners Shot in Antigua Hotel Room; Israeli Prime Minister to Step Down
Aired July 30, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The pictures are dramatic, but can you really put out a wildfire with airplanes? Smoke and mirrors P.R. for politicians? We'll try and clear the air this hour.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Barney Frank wants to clear the haze out of federal drug laws by decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. The Democratic congressman makes his case right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips live in New York. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Help is on the way for struggling homeowners, but a plan to bring down gas prices will have to wait. President Bush today signed a housing bill that will provide government-backed loans to homeowners facing possible foreclosure, while bolstering the giant government- sponsored mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The president says Congress also needs to act on energy legislation. He wants it to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Time for action is now. This is a difficult period for millions of American families. Every extra dollar they have to spend because of high gas prices is one less dollar they can use to put food on the table or to pay the rent or meet their mortgages.
The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of Democratic leaders in Congress to enact common-sense solutions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Democrats say that offshore drilling is beside the point. They insist the real problem is speculators.
CNN's Brianna Keilar is in Washington.
And Brianna, we know those speculators came under investigation, as well.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They sure have, and Democrats are looking at that as possibly a solution into lowering gas prices.
But of course, yes, Republicans, by and large, agree with the president that the drilling off the coast of California and Florida and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one solution to bringing prices, gas prices down.
But Democrats, as you said, vehemently opposed to that, by and large proposing to cut down again on oil speculation they claim drives up oil prices. They also want, though, to release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and increase research of alternative energy sources.
But that said, there is a bipartisan group of House members introducing a bill today that would include offshore drilling. Here is Congressman Neil Abercrombie, Democrat from Hawaii.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NEIL ABERCROMBIE (D), HAWAII: The people of the United States are completely frustrated and disgusted with the fact that the Congress has done nothing to respond. We can't pass a bill. We can't pass the House, can't pass the Senate. It's not working.
So we determined that, on a nonpartisan basis, that everybody would bring their best efforts to the table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, I should also say that, while Democrats are opposed to opening up protected land, they say that oil companies can go ahead and just drill on the leases they already have. Just don't open up those lands.
But in the Senate, Democrats have proposed legislation. Republicans are feeling like they don't have enough input. And then in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi have vows not to allow a vote on oil drilling, which has stalled things there.
But even with pressure from Americans who are frustrated with gas prices, it's looking like Democrats and Republicans are content to just play a blame game that we're seeing here on Capitol Hill, Kyra, until they leave Washington for their August recess. That is at the end of this week, and then they're gone for almost a month.
PHILLIPS: The pressure's on. Brianna Keilar, live there in Washington, D.C.
Thanks, Brianna.
LEMON: Well, Delta's making more changes that will cost you. Like its rivals, Delta's struggling with sky high fuel prices. So as of tomorrow, it's raising baggage charges on new domestic bookings.
Your first checked bag, it is still free, but your second will cost double, $50, up from $25. A third checked bag will cost you $125. Your overhead for overweight and oversized luggage also going up, as well. Same for a specialty stuff such as surfboards and skis.
So let's see whether you'll be making any money, enough money to help pay for all of those bags. Check on the big board now, up 43 points, and it's just past 1 p.m. Eastern on the East Coast. Our Susan Lisovicz live in about 15 minutes with a full market update and analysis.
PHILLIPS: Southern Californians are no doubt going over their emergency plans after what happened yesterday. Even Judge Judy was rattled with a 5.4 magnitude quake as it jangled nerves all around Los Angeles. Buildings swayed as far away as San Diego.
The quake triggered almost 100 aftershocks, but not too many injuries.
CNN's Kara Finnstrom is at Cal Tech in Pasadena, where scientists monitor every move the earth makes.
What are they saying today, Kara? And how is it affecting cell phone use today?
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, yesterday those cell phones were all locked up. And today we're hearing from the cell phone companies that that's because there was an overload. They anticipate that more people will get on those phones shortly afterwards to call their loved ones. But it was even more than what they had planned for yesterday.
Cell phones working today.
Right now, we're coming to you from Cal Tech, and this is where a lot of the planning goes on, a lot of the studying of earthquakes and planning for the big one.
Joining us live here, we have Dr. Thomas Heaton. I'm going to bring him in in just a moment. But as we talk, we want to roll some video for you that we got from the taping of a reality show, "Big Brother," which really got a dose of its own reality yesterday. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do I do? What do I do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ground's moving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FINNSTROM: Dr. Heaton, as we're looking at these pictures, talk to us about the force of the earthquake we had here yesterday.
DR. THOMAS HEATON, CALTECH SEISMOLOGIST: Well, the earthquake itself was under the Chino Hills. Probably took about a second. As earthquakes go, it was maybe one-ten-thousandth the size of our biggest earthquake in Southern California. So it was only sort of a moderate earthquake for us. But if you were right there right next to the earthquake, it didn't feel so moderate to those people. It felt like that very sharp, violent shaking. Not very large amplitude in terms of the ground displacement, but it definitely got people's attention.
Throughout the rest of the basin, people felt it as a milder shake and sort of a long rolling motion, due to the fact that the Los Angeles Basin is full of sediments that kind of shake around almost like a swimming pool after you disturb it.
FINNSTROM: We've got a large map behind us here, this is kind of a simulation of the quake as it hit yesterday. Talk to us about -- you said it would really take a much larger quake to cause structural damage here in this area. Talk to us about that type of quake. And what does this mean as far as future quakes?
HEATON: So this 5.4 is something that happens fairly commonly in Southern California. It's been pretty quiet for the last ten years. But often these happened, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Our building codes are such that it's pretty easy to design buildings to handle this type of shaking, once you know what you're doing, of course. And so our buildings did very well yesterday.
But when we talk about an earthquake that is significantly larger, six plus, if we put it in the same place, there would have been larger displacements of the base of buildings. And there are certain styles of buildings that we recognize would be in grave danger, especially older concrete buildings. Buildings built prior to 1975, about half of those buildings have some very severe deficiencies that could result in the types of collapses that we saw coming out of China.
FINNSTROM: Wow. Well, thank you for joining us. We know you all are busy today.
And, Kyra, one of the interesting things is they put some instruments in some of these buildings that they'll actually be taking some videotape from. They'll actually see some of the shaking and some of the stresses that it caused on these buildings later on today. And that should teach them a little bit more about planning for future quakes.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what, Kara, you and I grew up in that area. I don't ever remember 100 aftershocks. Do you ever remember experiencing that many?
FINNSTROM: No, but you know what, Kyra? I didn't feel any of them in the Pasadena area or the Hollywood area yesterday. So I think, you know, so many of them are so small that we just don't even know they're taking place.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Great inside look there to operations. Thanks so much -- Don. LEMON: In the air and on the ground. Almost 4,000 firefighters are pouring everything they have on the fire near Yosemite National Park. That is east of San Francisco. Rugged terrain and drier timber are making it an uphill battle. Twenty-five homes have burned, another 4,000 are threatened. We're keeping a close eye on that, and so is our Chad Myers. We'll check in with him in just a little bit.
The so-called Telegraph Fire is 20 percent contained, and Yosemite is still open, although some visitors are packing up early because of the smoke and ash.
We have some developing news. We told you about that oil spill in the Mississippi. It happened last week. Last Wednesday there was a collision between a barge and a tanker. And that tanker spilled some 400,000 gallons of fuel into the -- fuel oil into the Mississippi.
We're being told now by our affiliate, WWL, which is getting us these pictures -- we appreciate that -- that the Mississippi River has been shut down since 10 a.m. this morning. And I would imagine if it's WWL, they're on central time, so that's an hour behind us, 11 a.m. Eastern, for more oil recovery work.
The shut-down is in Algiers -- the Algiers Point area between mile marker 93 and 95. If you're out on the water, you know that. But it's expected to shut down for a few hours, and that's according to the port of New Orleans. Other parishes in the area, of course, affected by that. They're trying to reroute the traffic.
But again the Mississippi River has been shut down since 10 a.m. Central this morning in Louisiana. We're going to update you on this as soon as we get more information right here in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: In North Carolina, police say that an Army sergeant accused of killing a pregnant soldier admits that he's the father of her unborn child.
Edgar Patino, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was arrested last night and charged with first-degree murder. The body of Specialist Megan Touma was found last month in a motel room near Fort Bragg. She was 7 months pregnant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TOM BERGAMINE, FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, POLICE: Last night at approximately 6 p.m., the police department homicide detectives arrested Edgar Patino, age 27, of 3704 of Larry Gate Lane (ph), Fort Mills. He's been charged with first-degree murder of Megan Touma.
Patino is a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, assigned to the JFK Special Warfare Training Center. The defendant is also the father of the unborn child.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Patino is due before a judge next hour. Touma is one of three women military service members, rather, killed in recent months near military bases in North Carolina.
LEMON: Well, the economy, of course, still dominates the race for the White House. And right now John McCain is visiting with workers at a Colorado company that rents and sells construction equipment.
You're looking at live pictures now of where he is, and that's Aurora, Colorado. He is there, and when he gets in front of the cameras, we'll bring that to you, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
This company, again, rents and sells heavy construction equipment. And you see some of it right there, those two tractor-like devices, book-ending our screen there.
The Republican candidate will attend a fundraiser in Kansas City, Colorado, and Missouri, are both toss-up states. Later McCain heads to Milwaukee.
Meantime, Barack Obama is also in Missouri today. On his schedule, two town-hall meetings and a barbecue. The Democratic candidate spoke a short time ago in Springfield, comparing John McCain to President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we've got a choice in this election. We can either choose a new direction, or we can keep on doing the same things that we've been doing. We can keep on doing the same things we've been doing.
Now, my opponent, John McCain, thinks that we're basically on the right track. He does. He's said that our economy has made great progress in the last eight years. He has embraced the Bush economic policies and promises to continue them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Leading our political ticker, big relief for John McCain. Doctors say the mole-like growth that was removed from his face Monday shows no signs of cancer. The Republican presidential hopeful has had four malignant melanomas removed in the past.
Indicted Senator Ted Stevens will face a judge tomorrow in his corruption case. Arraignment is scheduled for federal district court in Washington. For now, though, the powerful Alaska Republican is back at work on Capitol Hill, insisting he did nothing wrong.
Stevens is accused of lying on financial disclosure forms about work done on his home and gifts that he accepted from a major oil contractor. Authorities say the take added up to more than $250,000.
The 84-year-old Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, by the way, is up for reelection in November. Check out all of our political ticker, news. For the latest campaign information, just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.
LEMON: Well, how do you spend your leisure time is none of the federal government's business, right? Well, that's according to Congressman Barney Frank, who wants to drop -- listen to this -- drop federal criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana, pot, dope, whatever you want to call it.
The Massachusetts Democrat is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate penalties for the possession of up to 100 grams of pot. It also would decriminalize the nonprofit transfer of up to an ounce of marijuana. State laws would not be affected by that.
And you know what? We want to hear from you. We want to hear your thoughts. Should the feds turn a blind eye to limited pot use by responsible adults? E-mail us at CNNnewsroom@CNN.com, and we'll read your responses a little bit later on in our show.
PHILLIPS: No happily-ever-after, after -- well, for this British couple. Newlyweds encounter a nightmare on their honeymoon in paradise. We'll have the horrifying story.
LEMON: And then imagine yourself on this highway driving along when, suddenly, huge rocks come crashing down. Look at that pile of rocks right there. You're just driving and that happens.
PHILLIPS: Air drops over fire, are they really necessary? Or a P.R. stunt? We'll hear from a reporter with "The Los Angeles Times."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, if you're flying American Airlines, a bit of bad news for you right now. This is coming to us, actually, from the spokesperson for American Airlines, confirming they're having some baggage issues at JFK.
This is what the statement says. Some -- it looks like American Airlines is currently having problems with a conveyer belt in the bag room at JFK. That's John F. Kennedy Airport just outside of the city here of Manhattan. The problem is affecting the airliner's ability to get bags onto the planes and, subsequently, has delayed about eight to 10 flights.
Here's the exact quote from the spokesperson: "We have a conveyer belt problem in our JFK bag room. We've had about eight to ten flights delayed by an hour to an hour and a half. We're sorting the bags manually, but a lot of the bags are just not making it onto the flights before departure. So we're announcing the issue to passengers and allowing them to choose whether they want to go on that flight or not. Once we have the issue resolved, we'll get the bags that are left behind on their way to the customers destination and delivered to them."
Then I have an update here. Mary Snow is actually on her way to JFK to bring us more information. But it says here that about 10 to 20 percent of the bags are actually making it onto the flight. So FYI, if you're flying out of JFK on American Airlines, issues with the conveyer belt. Our Mary Snow bringing us more information -- Don.
LEMON: All right. Be patient, as well. OK, Kyra. Thank you.
It was a honeymoon in paradise, but a British couple's stay on the Caribbean island of Antigua ended in a shocking attack that left the bride dead and her husband on life support.
Police say at least one intruder entered the couple's room Sunday and shot both of them in the head. Three people are being questioned now, and reporter John Irvine is in Antigua with the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, ITV REPORTER: The authorities here on Antigua are in crisis mode, for they know that this island's reputation as a holiday idyll is under threat, thanks to the monstrous crime that took place here early on Sunday morning.
The island's entire police force is dedicated to trying to find the men or man responsible for the shootings of the honeymooners from Britain.
We're being told that Ben Mullany, the husband in this case, is in fact, brain dead. He's lying in a hospital here. His parents arrived from Britain yesterday. They've been to his bedside on a number of occasions, as you would expect. They presumably now have an agonizing decision to make.
The authorities are shaking the tree, as it was, in terms of finding the perpetrators. By their own admission, the police are spreading the net fairly wide, speaking to the usual suspects, if you will. That may be a tactic that works on a small island like this. But the police commissioner himself has admitted right now he's got no firm suspects.
But this island's reputation is on the line right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. That was John Irvine reporting for us. And the couple was married on July 12. Antigua, which attracted almost 97,000 visitors last year, is said to be a favorite of British tourists.
PHILLIPS: The mystery of a missing little girl. Police in several states following leads and alleged sightings of 7-year-old Reigh Boss and her father, believed to have snatched her over the weekend.
Massachusetts authorities say that Clark Rockefeller fled with his daughter during a supervised visit on Sunday.
One woman tells police that she drove the pair to New York City. Police are working a reported sighting of them in Delaware now. A social worker says that Rockefeller, who's in the middle of a divorce, allegedly jumped into a black SUV while carrying Reigh. Police believe that he may try to flee the country in a yacht called Serenity.
And police in Florida still dealing with their missing little girl case, 2-year-old Caylee Anthony not seen since early June. Her mother, Casey Anthony -- in jail, charged with neglect and obstruction -- didn't report the girl missing for more than a month.
The missing girl's grandmother is standing by her daughter's claim that she is innocent. And last night on CNN Headline News, someone close to Casey Anthony said that she cannot believe the charges against her friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: What do you think has happened to Caylee?
HOLLY GAGNE, FRIEND OF ANTHONY FAMILY: I can tell you what I don't know. And I can tell America what I know about Casey as a mother. The mother that I know, the friend that I was neighbors with and that I've known for over six years, believe it or not, in all this craziness, is -- was and is a loving, caring mother.
Now, she's not a ditzy mother. She never portrayed being a young mother, what you'd think of a teen. She was very -- just detailed, reading to her child. When I would baby-sit her, down to little things.
GRACE: So a good mother, a great mother?
GAGNE: Well, I have a pretty high standard of being a mother. I'd say she was a good mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Caylee's mother says that she left her daughter in a babysitter's care, and that was the last time that she saw her.
LEMON: Back now to Aurora, Colorado. And Wagner Equipment, this company makes heavy equipment, and you see John McCain speaking in front of one of those tractors right now. We're going to listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... That's who I work for.
As you may recall, I spoke up against this administration for their mistakes in Iraq. I fought for the surge strategy that's going to bring our home -- our troops home with honor and victory. I spoke up against my party for out-of-control spending. And I spoke up against this administration in Congress, who just gave us another energy bill with more giveaways to big oil, but nothing, nothing to free us from our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
Joe just told me their costs -- and you know this very well -- up 52 percent over last year, just because of the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel. That's -- that's tough. And all of you know that.
My independence hasn't always made me friends in Washington. I was not elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate again this year. Time and again, time and again I've heard politicians, pundits, and pollsters warn me, warn me that my position on this or that issue would cost me the presidency. But I don't answer to them; I answer to you. And you will always know exactly where I stand. And that no matter what, I'll always do what I believe is right for our country.
We need to change the way that government does almost everything: from the way we fuel our economy to the way we prepare our children for tomorrow's opportunities. From the way we respond to disasters, to the way we run our air traffic control system. Anybody been to the airport lately? And from the way we secure our country against today's threats, to the way we anticipate the threats of tomorrow.
All these functions of government were designed before the rise of the global economy, before the information technology revolution, and before the end of the Cold War. We have a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do, and to get it done, we're going to have to have the strength to really change Washington and change the way we're doing business.
I know that you know Senator Obama is an impressive speaker, and the beauty of his words has attracted many people, especially among the young, to his campaign. I applaud his talent and his success. And Americans, all Americans should be proud of his accomplishment.
My concern with Senator Obama is that, on issues big and small, when he says -- what he says and what he does are often two different things. And he doesn't seem to understand that the policies he offers would make our problems worse and not better.
Senator Obama says he's going to change Washington, but his solution is to simply make government bigger and raise your taxes to pay for it. And I want to look you in the eye. I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it.
He wants to raise your taxes to pay for bigger government. We've been doing that for years, and it hasn't worked. In the few years that he's been in the Senate, he's requested nearly $1 billion in pork-barrel spending. That's about $1 million for every day that he's been in office. I've never asked for a single pork-barrel project or earmark for my state, and I'm proud of it. And I promise you I will veto every pork-barrel bill that comes across my desk. You will know their names, and I will make them famous.
We will stop this corrupt practice in Washington, D.C., which has caused former members of Congress to reside in federal prison. It's wrong, and I'll fix it, my friends, and I know how to fix it. We'll stop wasting your tax dollars. You will not any longer spend $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. I don't know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue, but we're not going to do it anymore, my friends. We're going to stop it.
You know, Ronald Reagan used to say, "Congress spends money like a drunken sailor, only I never knew a sailor, drunk or sober, with the imagination of Congress." And that's kind of a funny line, and I use it fairly often.
I'm not making this up when I tell you I got an e-mail from a guy that said, "As a former drunken sailor I resent being compared to members of Congress." Can't blame him.
Senator Obama says he'll only raise taxes on the rich. But in the Senate, he voted for tax hikes that would have impacted those making just $32,000 per year. He's proposed tax increases on income taxes, capital gains taxes. By the way, capital gains taxes, that's 100 million Americans. Dividend taxes, pretty much anything you can tax, he wants to tax more.
On Social Security, he wants to raise Social Security taxes. I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes. That's a debate that we should have openly in good faith.
But we need to sit down together, my friends. You expect us Republicans and Democrats to sit down and fix Social Security so that future generations of Americans can have the same benefits that present-day retirees have.
My friends, I know how to work across the aisle. I've reached across the aisle to Joe Lieberman, my favorite Democrat, Russ Feingold, Ted Kennedy, and others. I know how to do that.
And you want us, Americans want us to sit down together. This has all got to do with not being Republicans, not being Democrats, but being Americans and putting our country first. I promise you I will always put my country first.
PHILLIPS: Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, speaking to employees there at Wagner Equipment in Aurora, Colorado talking mainly about the economy and energy and the workforce. We'll follow it. If you want to go to CNN.com and see it in its entirety, you can see it streaming live right now.
Meanwhile, there's developing news out of the Middle East. We want to get straight to Atika Shubert in Jerusalem. Word that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may be offering his resignation.
Atika, I'm assuming this is surrounded by the controversy of those corruption charges pending against him.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly it. He made a very dramatic, if not -- it's not necessarily surprising announcement for many Israelis. He basically said just a few minutes ago that he will not contest the primaries for his political party, Kadima. That means that he will step down as prime minister once a new chairman of the party is elected in mid-September. So basically, he has announced that he is on the way out; it's just a matter of when.
And he made it very clear in his statement that he would step down immediately after a new chairman was elected so that the new head of the party could form a new government and put together a new prime minister.
So that was, again, the dramatic announcement. Not surprising news for many Israelis, because they had wanted him out because of all of those corruption allegations, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Atika Shubert. We'll follow all the developments throughout the afternoon. Thank you so much.
Meanwhile, straight ahead. You see this at almost every major wildfire. Air tankers dropping fire retardant. Are they doing any good? Or is it all for show? Julie Cart, reporter at the "L.A. Times" standing by to tell us what she has discovered in her investigative reports.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: 1:33 Eastern time. Here's some of the stories that we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
A 27-year-old Army sergeant makes a court appearance today to face charges that he murdered a pregnant soldier near Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Police say that Edgar Patino has admitted being the father of Specialist Megan Touma's unborn baby.
Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens back on Capitol Hill today despite his indictment on charges that he accepted unreported gifts. Stevens denies the accusations. He's due in federal court tomorrow.
You can expect to pay even more if you check a second bag on a domestic Delta Airlines flight. Delta says that its second bag charge will go up from $25 to $50. The charge is effective tomorrow on travel beginning next week.
Disorder in the court. Yesterday's earthquake sent Judge Judy and others in her television courtroom scrambling for cover. Today, a lot of people in Southern California are looking hard at their emergency plans. The 5.4 magnitude quake caused buildings to sway from L.A. to San Diego. We've seen little damage or injury, but folks are still on edge after almost 100 aftershocks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEATON: It does remind us all that we live in earthquake country. And L.A. has been very quiet for the last 10 years or so. So for all of us, we've kind of grown comfortable with the way things are. But when earthquake sequences get happening, things can get exciting. And there's a chance we'll see a bigger earthquake (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Other seismologists say that yesterday's quake should be seen as a drill.
LEMON: CNN's weather expert Chad Myers keeping an eye on that and the fires, as well, still burning in California.
I want to ask you if there's any relief in sight for the fires. But you know what, Chad? It was weird because this earthquake, what did it go from a 5.8 down and kept going lower and lower and lower?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. Well that's because the original number is computer generated immediately before a seismologist can actually look at it. And once they look at it, they look for a moment, they don't look for just the shaking that the computer does. And so they got it back down to where they thought.
Now, there was some pretty brutal, rough shaking very close to the epicenter and then more of a rumbling as you got away. But people say it was jolting and that because there is a large rock mound (ph) under there, rather than the L.A. Basin which is a little bit soft.
Let's go to the fires now here. I want to show you some of the latest pictures out of NASA. The smoke heading into Yosemite. Here is Yosemite that you know about -- this right here. That's all the half dome and such. And then we take you out to the west and here's L.A. -- or here is San Francisco all the way down to San Jose.
Some of the pictures, though, that are coming in, I want to take you to this from the "L.A. Times" that we -- we picked this up. This is the half dome from out there near Glacier Point. And it's just an amazing shot of the smoke down in the valley. Now come back to me and we'll take you down into our Microsoft Virtual Earth and we'll show you what this looks like actually on Virtual Earth now -- a rival to Google.
Look at that, you can spin all the way around right through half dome and then back down to the other side and there's the valley, which is Yosemite, and that's where the smoke is right now, Don. And people there now getting a little bit of a handle on it. They're saying only 25 percent contained but there is less smoke today by far than there was yesterday.
LEMON: By far. By far. OK, well, less smoke is good, right?
MYERS: Yes it is.
LEMON: All right. Chad Myers, we appreciate it. We'll check back with you. Thank you.
Well it's known as the sea to sky highway. It's near Vancouver, British Columbia. Today, it is a very rocky road. And we mean that literally. A big chunk of cliff slid on to Highway 99, and it could take a couple of days for crews to dig and blast through that. Highway 99 connects Vancouver and Whistler, a great place to ski, a popular ski area. A huge construction project is underway on that road. But authorities say no work was going on near the slide.
PHILLIPS: At many wildfires you can look up and see fire retardant and water being dropped from the sky. Most of the time it's from helicopters. And I had a chance to experience that firsthand during the big San Diego fires last October.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): We're airborne and over the fire lines with the California National Guard.
(on camera): (INAUDIBLE) ... buckets hold about 670 gallons of water and right now they are scooping the water out of Lake (INAUDIBLE) and within two hours they'll make about 20 drops on the (INAUDIBLE) fires right here in San Diego.
(voice-over): And it happens fast. Low-level flying with unpredictable wind force. Constant communications with ground and air crews. Buckets fill up and pilots make their drops. All in less than a minute.
(on camera): We're about 250 feet above the wildfire and the smoke is intense. You can even smell the burning brush. But we're also seeing firsthand how these water drops are helping firefighters on the ground fight these flames.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, sometimes air tankers are also called in, but some people, including firefighters, wonder whether that's appropriate or just for show.
Reporter Julie Cart who has been with the "Los Angeles Times" for 25 years has been investigating this. She's on the phone with us now.
Your article came out yesterday and I found it very interesting compared to what I experienced firsthand, Julie, and seeing also what you reported.
Why don't you tell me first what you discovered about the abuse of air assets to fight these fires.
VOICE OF JULIE CART, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, my colleague Patina Boxil (ph) and I have been working for a year to put together a series of five stories about wildfires, which -- yesterday's was the second day.
What we explored was, somewhat, the effectiveness of tanker and helicopter drops, but more so how often they can be misused. We're looking at people in positions of authority, either elected officials, powerful local officials, who put pressure on incident commanders to use aerial assets in situations where they'll either be not effective or be very dangerous to the pilots. PHILLIPS: And you actually point out in your article, talking about the deadly 2003 Cedar Fire that was raging through San Diego County and you talk about Representative Duncan Hunter whose home in Alpine was going to burn to the ground and that he made phone calls to the U.S. Forest Service, even to other high-powered officials like the head of the National Guard saying, bring in those airplanes to fight these fires.
What did you discover about those communications and that political power? Did he abuse his power and bring those assets in just to try and protect his home and also look good as a politician?
CART: I don't think he in any way did -- made the phone calls he made to protect his home. What he told me in our interviews was that this is his job. He saw a vacuum, he didn't see the large tankers or the C-1 military C-130s in the air over what was extremely deadly fire and thought that he would use his contacts and connections in Washington to make that happen.
So, he called the Joint Chairman of the Chief of Staff and said, you know, what can we do about this? And he got it done.
The issue -- I'm not here to judge whether that was right or wrong. What we did was ask the fire commanders, is this appropriate? There's a protocol and a format for ordering in planes. And I don't get to do it and he doesn't get to do it, it's the incident commander who gets to do it. So he went around the system. In his mind, and probably to his constituents, this was a great thing. The incident commander said this is the wrong thing and we couldn't use these planes when they got here and when we did use them, they were not effective.
PHILLIPS: OK. And you point that out in your article about skirting the rules and sort of finessing it to work to the way they want it to work. And we're actually going to talk with Duncan Hunter in just a moment. He is on the line with us, he's listening to this segment. So we'll get to him in just a second.
Let me get back to your investigation then, Julie, if you don't mind. With the right amount of aviation assets, you can make or break a fire quickly with an all out aerial assault. And I saw that firsthand. When I flew with the Guard, I was able to see how these air drops were protecting firefighters on the ground. Firefighters were looking up at the helicopters giving the thumbs up like thank you, you're helping us move through this fire and fight it on the ground.
So what's the point you're trying to make -- that this can be effective but that political power many times is abused because citizens think, well if you don't have the air assets, everything's going to burn?
CART: Air attack on fires can be hugely effective, particularly in what firefighters call initial attack, the first few hours, the first couple of days of the fire. Absolutely, without question. What we're exploring is the extent to which there is either political pressure or folks with economic interests in a community who make phone calls and pressure the fire professionals to bring aviation on to a fire because, as you suggested, it is the thing we see. We don't see the ground pounders, we don't see the people who are actually on the ground putting out fires. And there's, as you might have noticed, the expression is a CNN drop -- it's very visible, it's extremely dramatic, and it reassures the public and the media have a role to play in this, as well, that they're actually taking this fire seriously.
So to the extent that it does happen, there are two issues. One is foremost, safety, as you suggested in the piece that you did on our fires in Southern California. The air above a wildfire is extremely dangerous.
PHILLIPS: And the visibility, Julie. We couldn't see, you know, our hand in front of our face.
CART: Absolutely. They are -- these are incredibly skilled pilots and crews. And California fires tend to be wind-driven, Santa Ana fires, so it's later in the season. You cannot -- we're told by aviation folks on fires, you simply cannot put planes up, or even helicopters, in those conditions. So that's the first thing -- is safety.
And the second just has to do with the use of taxpayers' money. I don't think I should be the one to make that decision. I'm not qualified. And so what the fire professionals told us is let us make the decisions.
PHILLIPS: And just to point out, you did have a number of numbers in your article. An air tanker -- $14,000 a day just on standby, $4,200 per hour when it's in flight. Those are for air tankers. Then heavy duty helicopters, $32,000 a day on standby, $6,300 per hour in flight. Extremely costly to the taxpayer.
Julie Cart, investigative reporter there for the "L.A. Times." So appreciate you joining us on the phone.
I want to get right to Representative Duncan Hunter, since he is mentioned in your article.
Congressman, I appreciate you joining in on the conversation here. Let's just first get right down to the point that I asked Julie about in the article. It does mention you under the section about skirting the rules and it does have a quote from you about this conversation with Lieutenant General Steven Blum, he was the head of the National Guard at the time that you called in for these air assets, asking him for help. And he said he was willing to send those planes, that he had them, but that we would call it a training mission, he said.
So let me ask you, did you feel that that was unethical in any way, that you sort of skirted the rules to get those military assets out there? VOICE OF REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Not at all. I call that bureaucracy busting.
Where Julie has it wrong is this, all I did was get the planes to California. I did not make the air incident commander put those planes in the air. I got it to California. And the answer from the National -- or the Cal Fire bureaucracy that says we didn't want to get the planes to California because it was too windy to use them disregards the fact that it takes about two days or more to stand up these National Guard 130s. We brought them in from Colorado.
So I got the planes from Colorado to California and got them stationed at Point Mugu so that Cal Fire could use them when the winds went down. Now, the idea that you're going to let this -- you're going to wait for the winds to go down before you even start this two- day process is the height the bureaucracy.
Secondly, when I asked the National Guard Commander, General Blum, I said, let's get those doggone planes to California. The governor of California had already requested the planes -- he put the request in. It goes first to the office in California, then it goes to Boise, Idaho, then it goes to Northern Command. It goes through this long bureaucratic chain so Governor Schwarzenegger had requested the 130s already, he said we've got to have them, bring them in. And the request was stuck in the system.
So I called up the National Guard commander who is a great combat commander. He said, let's get them out there, let's get the fire out.
Now with respect to the California bureaucracy -- you know this Mr. Quintero who is head of the air operation --
PHILLIPS: Correct, and he's quoted in the article. He's quoted in the article, the conversation between him and you.
HUNTER: Yes. When I called him the first time and I said are you using the your military assets? Here's what he said. He said, Congressman, we can handle this one without any outside help from the military. Now, 3,000 burned-down houses later, it was very clear that I was wrong and Mr. Quintero -- I was right on that and Mr. Quintero was wrong on that.
And right now, we have used no now -- we've used those C-130s from -- incidentally not just from Colorado, but also from Wyoming and also from North Carolina. We have done over 1.3 million gallons on California fires. And we've got those units out there on the fires right now. But the idea that the California bureaucracy is going to say it's too windy so we won't even bring the planes to California until the wind goes down is absolutely the height (ph) of bureaucracy.
And what we really see here is an exercise in a bureaucracy that is paralyzed, that moves very slowly in the build-up. It does exactly the opposite of a military operation, which is the chairman of armed services and is now the ranking member, I understand. In those operations, you go in heavy with your effectiveness, with your big assets, you go in heavy, and you try to put it out before it spreads. In this case, 3,000 houses went down while Cal Fire was calculating what it would take to put it out.
PHILLIPS: Well you bring up a very interesting point because U.S. Northern Command, that is, of course, with the military assets, the state does have to call in for military help. And you're right, I've actually watched that bureaucratic process go forward and things do suffer in that process. But that's a whole other animal you would have to take on. And I see what you did to kind of try to cut through that.
At the same time --
HUNTER: I succeeded. We did bring the planes out. We saved lives and properties.
PHILLIPS: Yes, you did.
But don't you think it's important to put out too that these air assets don't put out fires, they assist and help? So crews on the ground, those boots on the ground, are the most important thing to have when fighting a fire. And then, there is -- you have to find a balance where those air assets complement that because it's not an all out aerial assault that's going to completely put those fires out.
So how do you find that balance? Is it bringing in more firefighters and then trying to work the air assets to complement that?
HUNTER: Well, obviously you want to have a balance. You want to have both people on the ground and you want to have aerial assets.
In fact, Cal Fire put out a statement today saying we use both assets. And of course you do. But of course, you bring those assets into California -- bringing the planes from Colorado to California means you have to put out a call for the National Guardsmen to leave their homes, to get out, to get ready. You've got to get the fire retardant ready. We base our fire fighting assets at (INAUDIBLE) just north of Los Angeles (AUDIO GAP) bring the fire that they weren't (ph) even going to bring the planes into the state of California until the wind went down is absolutely ludicrous.
I told that to Julie. And (AUDIO GAP) too windy. It's never too (AUDIO GAP) to bring to California and be ready as soon as that wind dies, you hit the air with those assets.
PHILLIPS: Congressman, I apologize. We're having a little difficulty your cell phone. But I think our viewers can get the gist of what's taking place here. It's all about being prepared, of course, and trying to fight red tape, but also economically protect the taxpayer. It's It's a fine line to try and balance.
Congressman Duncan Hunter, appreciate your time. Also, to investigative reporter Julie Cart there with the "L.A. Times." Interesting discussion.
Don, we'll take it back to you.
LEMON: Absolutely. OK, Kyra, thank you very much.
A prominent cancer doctor is concerned about kids and cell phones. Here's the question: Should you be worried?
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LEMON: All right. Well you've heard about cell phones, holding them to our ear, cell phones and cancer. For years we've heard about that. Is it true? We've heard about concerns of a possible link there. But few people have given up their trusty cells because of it. Last week's warning from a cancer specialist, though, seems to have resonated more though, particularly the bit about children only using cell phones for emergencies.
Should you be worried? That's the question. Here's the 411 from chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well this becomes a pretty complicated argument to make because there's not a lot of the data to show that cell phones are dangerous. A part of the problem is there is not a lot of data to show that they are safe either. And herein lies the problem.
Sometimes they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at some of these images here. The brain on the left, that is of a 5-year-old child. It gives you a sense of how much radiation is absorbed in that brain -- a young person's brain -- 10-years-old, a little bit less. But compare that to an adult, they just don't absorb very much of this electromagnetic radiation, as compared to a child.
Now admittedly, this is not ionizing radiation. That's the sort of stuff you see in X-Rays. Everyone agrees that's bad for you. This is non-ionizing radiation. No one really knows what this is going to do in the long run, not to mention the amount of heat that is also generated by these phones. And keep in mind, the kids are going to use these phones for 60, 70, 80 years. We just don't know the impact. We just don't have the data on that.
Now, the wireless industry released a statement saying the, "Overwhelming majority of studies show that cell phones, wireless devices, don't pose any kind of health risk."
But the question for a lot of you is, well what to do about this if you are really, truly concerned or if a study comes out tomorrow showing some sort of link. Your best bet is still an ear piece of some sort, probably a wired ear piece. Actually putting that cell phone, that radiation source away from your head, away from your body as much as possible, trying to limit the amount of phone -- especially for kids and text message maybe if you can, as much as possible.
Again, no evidence to show that there is an actual link between cell phone usage and brain cancer. But this first formal advisory coming out from the University of Pittsburgh about this very topic. And obviously a lot of people talking about it and concerned. There is going to be a lot more on this in the days to come. We'll have it for you when we get it. Back to you from now.
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PHILLIPS: All right. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- thanks so much.
Should the penalties be eased for possessing small amounts of marijuana? Earlier we asked you what you think. Our Josh Levs has been looking at your responses. He's going to tell us what he has learned later in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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LEMON: The buzz is building as the Democrats and Republicans get closer to their national conventions. Who will John McCain and Barack Obama pick as their running mates? We'll take a look at some of those believed to be on the short lists.
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