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American Morning
California Wildfires Slow Down; U.S. Journalists Share Details on Arrest in North Korea; Documents Reveal Garrido's Sexual Obsessions; Tracking Hurricane Jimena; Government on Front Lines for Possible H1N1 Comeback
Aired September 02, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And a very good Wednesday morning to you. It's September the 2nd. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. We're following several big stories for you this morning. Here's a look at the breakdown coming up in the next 15 minutes.
There are now new mandatory evacuation orders outside of Los Angeles as the huge wildfire there burns dangerously close to some new homes. Also, new concerns that gusting winds and dry thunderstorms with possible lightning strikes could give a boost to the fuel of those flames later today. We are live on the fire line.
ROBERTS: Brand new this morning, the two American journalists recently released from captivity in North Korea are sharing their story for the first time. Euna Lee and Laura Ling revealing new details about the events leading up to their violent arrest back in March. We'll bring those to you.
CHETRY: Also newly released court documents this morning are revealing some disturbing new details about the man accused of sexually abusing and abducting Jaycee Dugard. Phillip Garrido testified during his 1977 kidnapping and rape conviction that he pleasured himself while looking at girls as young as 7, that he prowled neighborhoods, playgrounds as a peeping tom and had strong rape desires. Police are looking at other kidnappings, possibly linked to Garrido.
We're going to be speaking to the parents of a girl who wonders if Garrido could be linked to their missing daughter's case.
ROBERTS: OK. We begin with morning with the developing news from outside of Los Angeles. And right now, firefighters are starting to get a hand on portions of that massive wildfire that has already torched an area the size of Chicago. But pockets of fire are still growing and pushing dangerously close to neighborhoods. The big concern right now, the wind. There is a chance it could pick up later on today and ignite a whole new set of problems.
Our Rob Marciano is live in Lake View Terrace, California this morning. Just how big a threat is that weather today, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Much like it was yesterday, John. Again, this is not a Santa Ana wind-driven event. What we had yesterday were actually some clouds, kept temperatures down and there were a couple of showers which you'd think would be good news but there was not enough of rain really to help. And all of those showers did was create downdrafts which kicked up by the wind. We could see that again today.
So yesterday that was an issue. It changed things on a dime and fire crews had to react quickly to the changing conditions as the battle for the home front continues.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): Noel and Marta Rincon had to evacuate their home.
MARTA RINCON, HOME OWNER: Just keep praying that everything is going to be OK. That's all we can do.
MARCIANO: Noel grew up in this house, married his high school sweetheart, then together they raised their children here.
M. RINCON: That's our daughter, Amanda, and her boyfriend. This is my son, Christopher. He's 16 now.
MARCIANO: And now, the station fire is knocking at their door.
What were your emotions going through your head last night when you were told to get out?
NOEL RINCON, HOME OWNER: I'll be here. I thought we could visit our home.
MARCIANO (on camera): The fire's backing down this canyon from several spots. One up there, you can see the smoke really billowing at times. The flames popping up over the top of that ridge, also spotting from that ridge. Then around this corner, that's where the main fire is. They expect it to drain down this canyon and head towards the Rincon home. This is the street they're here to protect.
JIM SCHILLER, ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA FIRE DEPT.: When you walk over it up there and just take a peek at that little knob and see what it's doing there. The inversion is lifting. That means, you know, we're going to get some wind increase and the fire activity is probably going to increase.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Fire crews get ready as the flames accelerate down the hill.
SCHILLER: We waited seven hours for the fire to get to where it is right now. And in the last 40 minutes, it's traveled the same distance that it did in seven hours.
MARCIANO: Hot shot crews march out to work the line, a bulldozer moves in to clear heavy brush. But the fire begins to turn the corner. The cavalry arrives. The sky crane slows the fast-moving fire, dousing the flames before they reach Noel and Marta's home. M. RINCON: It's very scary but the captain always kept assuring us that our house is very savable and that we're going to be fine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: It is amazing to watch these fire crews work, the confidence they have in predicting where these fires could go and even when the fire takes a turn that they don't expect. Boom -- they have a reaction to it and they can bring in those sky cranes and they are -- they are certainly impressive to watch.
The containment of this fire has grown. That's the good news this morning, 22 percent containment. Still 120,000 acres burned. They got over 4,000 firefighters on this, but still there are over 10,000 homes that are threatened, only 62 have been lost so they've been doing an incredible job battling this fire and we are here as the sun comes up this area, will get a little bit more active as fire crews make their shift change and once again when the sun comes up they'll get those aircraft in the air, John and Kiran, and continue to beat back these flames and hopefully any showers or dry thunderstorms that pop up don't gust up those winds anymore.
There's just a slight chance of that. We have seen the humidity raised a little bit. That's always good news but that's all. So it gives you a little more oomph to see those thunderstorms develop. And as you've been reporting back in the weather center, the hurricane's not going to help here so we just have to fight it the old-fashioned way.
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: You know, that 747 tanker they've got up there, if that's the old-fashioned way that's pretty impressive, too.
MARCIANO: Yes.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much for that. We'll check back in with you.
CHETRY: Also brand new this morning, we witnessed their emotional tear-filled homecoming from North Korea. Well now, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are telling their story, sharing new details about their arrest and also how they were treated by the secretive state. Alina Cho is following the story for us and she joins us now.
A lot of people wanted to hear from them right after this happened, after witnessing it.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, sure.
CHETRY: And they just said they needed just some time to be with their families before they were going to talk about it.
CHO: That's right. I mean, as you can imagine, they save themselves the emotional scars, the psychological wounds are slow to heal. But now, they are speaking out, guys.
Good morning. Good morning, everybody. You know, this is the first time that Euna Lee and Laura Ling have spoken about that fateful day back in March when they were captured and ended up prisoners of the North Korean government. And they are telling their story in a letter published in today's "Los Angeles Times." In it they admit to crossing into North Korea for "no more than a minute" but they say that minute was one they deeply regret.
Now this all started back on March 17th. The journalists were shooting a documentary for Current TV, the network founded in part by Al Gore. They were shooting that documentary on human trafficking, and they were actually following the route that North Koreans take to cross over from North Korea into China, along a frozen river right along the border. Now Lee and Ling were working with a guy who told them his associates in the North could show them a village, essentially a safe house where North Korean defectors gather before sneaking out of the country.
They write, "We had no intention of leaving China but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him, we did, eventually arriving on the North Korean side of the riverbank." They point out there were no signs, no fences marking the border, but they immediately became nervous and within 60 seconds ran back to the Chinese side."
Of course, we all know by now it was too late. Armed North Korean guards chased them down. Two colleagues got away, but Lee and Ling were captured. And they write, "We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back to North Korea and marched us to an army base."
Now over the next four and a half months, Lee and Ling say they were isolated from one another. They were repeatedly interrogated and eventually sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. They say they were so cut off from the outside world that they actually thought they were off to a labor camp on the very day that guards brought them to a room where President Clinton was waiting to take them home. So imagine their surprise.
Now, we all remember that tearful reunion when that plane touched down in California. Lee and Ling have been back with their families for about a month now. They say they know that people want to hear more about their experience in captivity but what we have shared here, they say, is all we are prepared to talk about.
As I mentioned earlier, guys, the wounds they say are very slow to heal and what they want to do instead, they write, is redirect the media's interest into the story they originally went there to cover, which is the plight of North Korean defectors, which they say they leave one horror in North Korea, frankly for another in China, and to follow their plight. And they hope that the media will take on that story.
CHETRY: All right. Very interesting to hear from them, though, and exactly how that happened. CHO: Yes. And we hope certainly that in the coming months they speak up more about it.
CHETRY: Alina Cho, thanks.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: It's now coming up on eight minutes after the hour. President Obama considering a potentially game-changing moment in the make or break debate over health care. Administration officials say the president may take a more hands-on approach by delivering a nationally televised speech suggesting for the first time the president could put in writing his goals for overhauling health care. To date, the president has relied on Congress to write the legislation.
CHETRY: Hurricane Jimena has lost some of its punch but still has enough left to cause problems along Mexico's Baja, California peninsula. Resort areas there have been battered by the high winds and also the driving rain which may cause life-threatening flash flooding as well as mud slides. Jimena is now a strong Category Two storm winds near 110 miles per hour.
We have Jacqui Jeras. She is tracking the path of this hurricane, and we'll check in with her in just a few minutes.
ROBERTS: And did you have trouble checking your g-mail yesterday? Google's e-mail service down for almost two hours affecting a majority of its users. Google blames the outage on overloaded servers. About 149 million people use that service.
CHETRY: There are some newly-released court documents about Phillip Garrido's case back in 1977 when he was convicted of raping and kidnapping then. He talks about what he did and some of the ways that he was attracted to very, very young girls even back then, nearly 40 years ago. We're going to talk more about how that could relate to potentially other cases of missing children today.
It's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 11 minutes past the hour right now.
Could a Supreme Court pick soon be added to President Obama's to- do list? There's speculation now growing that Justice John Paul Stevens could be ready to retire. Stevens has hired fewer law clerks than usual. You remember Justice David Souter's decision not to hire law clerks was the first sign that he was getting ready to step down. At 80 years old, Justice Stevens is the oldest member of the Supreme Court.
ROBERTS: It was some heavy-lifting for astronauts even in the weightlessness of space. Overnight after a six-hour spacewalk, two astronauts successfully removed an old ammonia tank. They'll be replacing it with another one tomorrow during a spacewalk. The 1,800- pound tank is critical for cooling systems on the space station.
CHETRY: Also a Wisconsin state lawmaker has some explaining to do after this video came out. It's from a city bus and there you see an SUV hitting a bicyclist.
Well, this is Representative Fred Clark apparently running a red light. He hit the bicyclist. The accident happened last month. Clark told police he wasn't paying attention, got a ticket for running a red light. And the cyclist, fortunately, was not seriously hurt. Looking at that video you'd think maybe he'd be badly hurt.
ROBERTS: Yes. You would think he would at least have broken a leg. Wow, he got slammed.
This morning, there are disturbing new details about Phillip Garrido's apparently sick and twisted history. Garrido and his wife are now charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard over an 18- year period, during which Garrido fathered Dugard's two daughters. Just released court records reveal Garrido's sexual obsessions going back three decades.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in Antioch, California with that part of the story and he joins us now.
Good morning, Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. We know it's clear that Phillip Garrido has managed to elude authorities for 20 years and the close scrutiny of parole officers even though he was a registered sex offender and held a victim kidnapped and sequestered allegedly here in his house in Antioch, California. Investigators are looking for clues anywhere to get a better understanding of how his mind works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Newly released court documents offer a glimpse into Phillip Garrido's mind, details from his 1977 trial where he was (INAUDIBLE)
Garrido's first wife, Christine Murphy, speaking out for the first time, describes him as a monster.
CHRISTINE MURPHY (ph), PHILLIP GARRIDO'S FIRST WIFE: I just wanted my life to be the way it used to be -- before Phillip Garrido.
LAVANDERA: Garrido also testified in that 1977 trial that intense drug use stimulated his sexual addictions. He says he cruised neighborhoods as a peeping tom, driving around town exposing himself in public places, including schools. He also testified that he often fantasized about raping women, but he says after turning to God, he started to feel ashamed of his actions. Murphy says sex issues caused her marriage with Garrido to fall apart.
MURPHY: I never got pregnant, and always thought he couldn't have children. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened to your marriage?
MURPHY: Well, it fell apart because of his neediness for sex.
LAVANDERA: Investigators now say they have found no connection between Garrido and a string of murders back in the 1990s that happened near his workplace. But authorities are still looking into whether Garrido is responsible for the disappearance of two young girls near Antioch, California.
Several of Garrido's neighbors are raising disturbing questions about what happened in Garrido's backyard. Mike Rogers lives behind Garrido. He says grown men often partied in the backyard prison where Jaycee Dugard and her two daughters lived in tents. Knowing what he knows now, it's troubling to think of what was happening.
(on camera): What exactly did you see these guys doing?
MIKE ROGERS, PHILLIP GARRIDO'S NEIGHBOR: They were like drinking, sharing their beers and high fiving and getting crazy, you know. Screaming and hollering. It was, you know, I thought maybe they were partying back there, doing who knows, you know. I mean, he just, you know, I hollered at them, they didn't even look at me.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Antioch investigators tell CNN they've heard those stories but still don't have any evidence that other men might have abused Jaycee Dugard and her two daughters in that backyard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: And, John, now, the close scrutiny is to what exactly happened during all those years that Phillip Garrido was on parole. The California Department of Corrections is now announcing that it's launching an internal review -- -- John.
ROBERTS: Pretty troubling story. Ed Lavandera in Antioch, California, this morning. Ed, thanks so much.
CHETRY: And speaking of a troubling story, we all remember the horror at hearing the story of a mother driving with her kids and her nieces the wrong way up a New York parkway, then killing them, herself, and three others in another car. And even more shocking, the police report that she had large amounts of vodka and pot in her system.
Well next, her husband talks to Larry King about why he doesn't believe any of it.
Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We're following the latest this morning on Hurricane Jimena. The storm now a Category Two, about 105 mile-an-hour winds as it bears down on Mexico's Baja, California, peninsula. The strong winds spraying sand, knocking down trees and forcing a state of emergency in many spots.
This morning the resort town of Cabo San Lucas is on alert. The area could see dangerous coastal flooding as well as mudslides.
Our Jacqui Jeras is at the weather center in Atlanta tracking this storm for us this morning. So yesterday, we're talking perhaps Category Five strength, today down to two.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
CHETRY: But still causing quite a mess over there.
JERAS: Oh, yes. And, you know, this is a big storm, too, Kiran, so you know the larger the storm, the greater the threat often that you'll get with this. And it's been weakening for a couple of reasons, but mostly it's moving towards some much cooler water so we think the further weakening trend is going to continue but still probably hurricane status when it makes landfall. And, you know, it's not too far away from that just now.
There you can see that eye just away from the coastline, so this is going to be happening we think later this morning or into the afternoon hours. A hundred five miles an hour so that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, and one of the big things that we're really worried about is going to be the threat for flooding.
Take a look at the forecast cone and noticed the date. So here you can see potential landfall later today and then maybe even another one here. And this forecast position, that's not until Sunday. So this is going to really, really slow down, not to mention we talked a little bit yesterday about the mountains in this area. That's going to enhance the rain so five to ten inches, locally heavier amounts up to 15. So we're going to see some mudslides and potentially some landslides as well.
Now we're also monitoring our latest storm in the Atlantic. This is Tropical Storm Erica (ph), maximum winds 50 miles per hour. We do have some tropical storm warnings which are in place now for parts of the Antilles here, St. Pestle (ph). So into Antigua, Barbuda, it does not expect to strengthen a whole heck of a lot over the next couple of days but the U.S. east coast in particular needs to stay on high alert.
Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: All right. Still an active hurricane season, not over yet.
JERAS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: Jacqui Jeras for us this morning, thanks.
ROBERTS: The husband of the woman who drove her mini van the wrong way on a New York parkway killing eight people, including four children is speaking out and defending his wife. Appearing last night on CNN's "LARRY KING," Daniel Schuler continued to deny that his wife had a drinking problem and detailed exactly what happened in the hours before the crash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": You're wrapping up a few days vacation with the family at a campground. What sort of mood was everyone in that morning?
DANIEL SCHULER, DIANE SCHULER'S HUSBAND: Very good, very nice. We were looking forward to going home to beat the traffic. Everybody was happy and doing good.
KING: You left in separate vehicles, right? She had several children with her. Why separate cars?
SCHULER: Everybody wouldn't fit in my truck, so we had to take another car.
KING: Who went with you?
SCHULER: My dog.
KING: Did you have any concerns about them at all?
SCHULER: Absolutely not. They were with my wife. They were in safe hands.
KING: And she stops at a McDonald's along the way, left there about 10:45 a.m., and according to everything we've been able to find out, she's OK, right, at that point.
SCHULER: Absolutely.
KING: You know your wife well. If something were happening to her, something strange, why didn't she pull over?
SCHULER: I don't know. She probably thought she was fine.
KING: Yes, but other people are reporting she's not. She's not sounding right, something's wrong. Wouldn't someone, wouldn't her own intelligence tell her to pull over?
SCHULER: Maybe medically she was messed up with whatever was going on.
KING: What was the vodka bottle doing in the car?
SCHULER: My wife packed all the bags that day in the camper and leaves them by the door. I carried them from the camper to the trucks. I'm very surprised that the vodka bottle was in there. I have no idea.
KING: Well, why does it give you -- does it give you pause to think that maybe, just maybe she was a drinker and you didn't know it?
SCHULER: I've been with her for 13 years, absolutely not.
KING: Daniel, did you ever see your wife drunk?
SCHULER: No.
KING: No. Did you ever have a party where you may have all had drinks together?
SCHULER: Sure, a drink or two at a family barbecue.
KING: Was she drinking the night before?
SCHULER: No.
KING: So this is a total mystery to you?
SCHULER: Absolutely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: There you go. And his attorney also said something like he thinks she may have had a stroke and then they said they don't believe the reports about marijuana in her system.
ROBERTS: Yes. He wants to have the body exhumed for further testing, so we'll see where this case goes from here, but what a tragedy. Wow, eight people dead. It's unbelievable.
CHETRY: It certainly was, and boy, a lot of people still talking about it.
Still ahead, preps for swine flu. How is our country and government gearing up for helping protect people as swine flu is expected to resurge this fall? There's already a bunch of schools that are dealing with this already. Colleges having to separate kids who have it.
So, what about the vaccines? Will they be ready? We're going to be talking about that coming up.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Be prepared but not alarmed -- that's President Obama's message about the swine flu.
In a brand new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 39 percent of Americans are worried that someone in their family will get the H1N1 virus. That's up from 17 percent back in May. At the same time, 59 percent polled say they are confident the government can prevent an H1N1 epidemic. Forty percent not so optimistic.
So what's being done to keep you and your family safe? Our Jason Carroll joins us now with more on that.
Good morning, Jason. JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot being done. Most notably a vaccine is out there. The government says it will be available, it will be ready.
Also, you know, there are several ways to prevent catching or spreading the H1N1, but many medical experts agree if an outbreak occurs there's no one set way to deal with it. So there are a lot of different plans in place to try and tackle this potential problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): With children across the country back in school, or heading back, parents have concerns about another H1N1 or swine flu outbreak, and what is being done about it. The short answer? It depends on where you live.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: A key goal this fall will be to keep schools open and in session, even if some students come down with the flu.
CARROLL: Closing schools this fall a last resort in New York City, where H1N1 forced a temporary closing of 57 schools this past spring. Now the city's back to school plan includes free vaccinations for elementary school students.
BLOOMBERG: Our current plan is to offer them to students in every elementary school in the city, public and private.
CARROLL: Free vaccines will begin in October, once medical shipments arrive. The city will also open flu centers to help ease hospital overcrowding.
In the spring outbreak, city health officials estimate nearly one million people came down with the illness. Bracing for the next wave, the president says vaccines are on the way nationwide and urged state health officials to do their part.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need state and local governments on the front lines to make anti-viral medications and vaccines available.
CARROLL: Also hit by H1N1, Texas, 34 deaths. In California, 128. San Francisco has a plan similar to New York's. Flu clinics will be set up to vaccinate high-risk people including school children, in October.
By mid-November, free vaccinations will be available on site in schools. In Houston, Texas, no plans for flu clinics at this time or free shots. Houston's health department anticipating "immunizations will happen through private providers." If necessary, clinics will be set up.
So why not a standard response for all states? The Centers for Disease Control says influenza and H1N1 are so unpredictable, it's best for states to develop their own responses. Some medical experts say city health officials are in a better position. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They know the city best and they know the experience that happened in the spring with H1N1 best.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, one area medical experts agree is preventative measures. The Centers for Disease Control suggests washing hands frequently. School staff should routinely clean surface areas and if feeling sick, stay home and seek immediate treatment. These are some of the things that you can do no matter what city you live in.
ROBERTS: At the moment now, it doesn't appear that there's much of a risk but experts say as we get into fall it's going to hit us hard. We'll see what happens.
CARROLL: Yes.
ROBERTS: Jason, thanks so much for that.
CARROLL: You bet.
ROBERTS: Stay with us, by the way, because if you've got students heading back to school and are concerned about what's being done to contain the H1N1 virus, we'll get some answers when we talk to Education Secretary Arne Duncan. That will be at 8:10 Eastern here on the Most News in the Morning.
CHETRY: It's 30 minutes past the hour now. Checking our top stories.
The U.N. report says Afghanistan's opium production fell 10 percent last year, suggesting that supply is starting to outpace demand and that the bottom might be starting to fall out of the world's largest opium market. Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world's opium supply. The crop has helped finance insurgent attacks and also helped to fuel government corruption in that nation.
ROBERTS: The FAA is extending a deadline for Southwest Airlines to replace unapproved parts that were installed on dozens of aircraft. Southwest now has until December the 24th to fix the problem. A maintenance company hired by Southwest installed the parts on more than 80 commercial jets. Those parts are designed to deflect hot engine exhaust away from the wings.
CHETRY: And a newly released court document this morning revealing disturbing details about the man accused of abducting and raping Jaycee Dugard. Phillip Garrido testified during his 1977 kidnapping and rape conviction that he pleasured himself by looking at girls as young as 7, that he prowled neighborhoods as a peeping Tom and had strong rape desires. Police are looking at other kidnappings now possibly linked to Garrido.
And the Jaycee Dugard case is a ray of hope for parents of other missing children. As we just mentioned, authorities are now searching for evidence that could perhaps tie Phillip Garrido to at least two other kidnappings. Yesterday we spoke with a mother whose daughter may have been his victim, and this morning we're talking to the parents of Ilene Misheloff. Ilene disappeared while walking home from school in Dublin, California back in 1989. Ilene's parents, Maddi and Michael Misheloff, join us now from San Francisco.
Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
MADDI MISHELOFF, DAUGHTER DISAPPEARED 20 YEARS AGO: Thank you, Kiran.
MICHAEL MISHELOFF, FATHER OF ILENE MISHELOFF: Thanks for having us.
CHETRY: You know, of course, this Jaycee Dugard case has certainly brought to light the plight of people like you who also lost children under similar circumstances in nearby vicinity and around the same time. When you heard about the Jaycee Dugard situation and the fact that 18 years later she's found alive living there, what went through your mind?
MADDI MISHELOFF: Well, we initially, I felt, just this pleased shock that a child had been found 18 years later, exhilaration for the family, and for our own case, for anybody that had ever looked at us or questioned our continuing to hope that we would get our daughter back. This is proof positive for us, it can happen.
CHETRY: Yes, and in the case of Jaycee, it certainly did. And Michael, explain for people watching today how Ilene vanished.
MICHAEL MISHELOFF: Ilene was walking home from school, and she was walking about -- the path was about two miles. Most of the way was along a busy commercial street, and but close to our house. She actually took a shortcut that we were unaware of and went through a secluded area. And she crossed a creek, which was dry, and that was pretty close to our house. And she was seen along the commercial street at various points along the street, and was -- the last place she was seen was at an intersection, and she never made it home.
CHETRY: And all of this happened about, what, 25, 30 miles from where Jaycee was then abducted. Have you had any contact with police? Have they spoken to you about your case in light of what they started to discover and learned more about the Jaycee Dugard case, Maddi?
MADDI MISHELOFF: We've spoken to our investigator, our lead investigator on the case. And as in times past, there has not to date been any information connecting the two cases.
But the Dublin Police Department is beyond the best. They consider this an open, active case until it is resolved. And if they discover any information -- right now, we don't have any timeline. They don't have a timeline putting this person in our area at the time Ilene was taken. But if that should come to light, they will let us now.
CHETRY: Right. and Michael, what is your gut instinct telling you about whether or not there could be a connection? MICHAEL MISHELOFF: Well, there always could be a connection, but we've seen cases before. There were a number of cases in the area at that time. And there were people who tried to make a connection between some of the cases, and most of those did not turn out to be true, that they were -- the ones that were solved, there were a couple that have been solved, were, in fact, done by different people. And there were two cases which weren't connected in anybody's mind and which were separated by 10 years, and those were perpetrated by the same person. So, the speculation at this point is something that is really a mistake.
CHETRY: And I understand that you guys have not given up hope. You maintain a Web site. As you said that your Police Department, the Dublin Police Department considers this still an active investigation. They have a $95,000 reward out there for information as well.
You obviously have read and heard a lot of this Phillip Garrido case. As you know, he was sentenced to 50 years for this rape and kidnapping back in 1977 and then released after 10. And he was being monitored by parole officers, yet they missed time and time again that he was holding somebody hostage in his backyard. And actually the allegation is that he then fathered children with this person.
What as a parent of a missing child goes through your mind when you hear about how it seems on many levels this man was able to slip through the cracks, game the system?
MADDI MISHELOFF: Well, while we know that the law has changed since the time that Jaycee was taken, it truly is unconscionable to me that a man who has been proven to be a danger to others, particularly a danger to children, I don't understand how he could be let out of prison, how he could be paroled and put back on the streets, where he could do more harm. There's clearly something wrong with the system that was in place at that time that allowed this to happen. It shouldn't happen. Children shouldn't have to be exposed to people that are going to harm them.
CHETRY: I know you guys were not giving up hope. We just put the number up, by the way. If anybody has any information about Ilene, they're urged to call the Dublin police. I know you guys aren't giving up hope, and so others out there shouldn't either.
Maddi and Michael Misheloff, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
MICHAEL MISHELOFF: Thank you.
MADDI MISHELOFF: Thanks so much for helping us. We really appreciate it.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
Well. also coming up in our next hour, 7:10 Eastern, we're going be speaking with attorney Gilbert Maines. He is the person now, the lawyer who's been appointed to represent Nancy Garrido. That is the wife of Philip Garrido. He is now her public defender. He had a chance to sit down and talk to her for an hour. He's going to join us with more on what she told him and any possible defense in this case.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. That will be really interesting.
So, the Internet, it's part of our daily lives now. We use it for so many things, and of course how it raises the risk of cyberattack. And cybersecurity is an issue. But should the President be allowed to take control of the Internet in the case of a national emergency?
That's a question a lot of people are asking because there is a bill in Congress that would give him the power to do at least part of that. We'll talk about it. Thirty-eight and a half minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. In the 1960s, it was the stuff of science fiction, connecting the world through personal computers. Forty years ago today the Internet was born and since then it has transformed our lives with tweets, e-mails, blogs and a whole lot more.
But it's gross -- growth is also put our security at risk. Just about everything is plugged in these days, and Washington's efforts to beef up cyber security has some critics concerned. Joining me now is Nick Thompson, the senior editor at "Wired" magazine.
NICHOLAS THOMPSON, SENIOR EDITOR, "WIRED" MAGAZINE: Good morning, John.
ROBERTS: So the story is out there, the Congress is fashioning a bill that would give the president the power to take over the Internet. Now, of course, any suggestion that the government could take over the Internet just drives people who have, you know, the libertarian view of the World Wide Web crazy.
THOMPSON: Absolutely, and there are a lot of people who have the libertarian view of the Internet, and if the government really were going to take over the Internet, it will be a terrible idea. You can imagine a situation where there is a coup d' etat and they take over the Internet. Well this scent (ph) is supposed to spread on the Internet, so it will block the people's opportunity to protest against the government. It would be just awful.
ROBERTS: OK. So, there is a bill in the Senate. Jay Rockefeller's committee is writing it. It did have some language in it that was troubling to people earlier this year when it said, quote, "That it would give the president the power to order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic."
Since then, the bill's been rewritten somewhat. Now, it would just give the president the power to declare a cyber security emergency, do what's necessary to respond to the threat. But really, does it give the president the power to take over the Internet? THOMPSON: No, absolutely not. The early version was probably -- came out in April 1st. It looked like a bad April for fool's joke. The new version, it's so bland. It says, "If there's a cyber emergency, the president may, if he thinks it's necessary, direct to the response in coordination with the private detectives," -- there are about five edges built into it. It basically gives the president no additional powers than he already has, and in fact, Obama has been very clear that he does not want to take over private networks.
ROBERTS: You know - obviously, cyber security is a huge problem, though. There are thousands and thousands of attacks and we saw this denial-of-service attacks, people trying to hack into DOD computers, I think, most recently back in June or July - July -- had happened.
THOMPSON: We don't know who did it.
ROBERTS: How big a problem is cyber security?
THOMPSON: It's a serious problem, and it's particularly a very important problem for the United States. United States is a powerful country. Cyber attacks are a tool in a conflict of the weak against the strong, because the weak can relatively easily organize a cyber attack. So, there's something that we need to be extremely organized about and extremely worried about, and we don't even know who attacked us in July. So, there's a lot of work that needs to be done.
ROBERTS: And that's part of the problem isn't it? You don't know where these attacks are coming from, so how do you begin to prosecute them?
THOMPSON: You don't know how to begin to prosecute them. You don't know how to fight back against them. There's a lot we need to do better.
ROBERTS: So, the president already has a lot of power dealing with the national emergency, as we saw after 9/11, the shutdown of all air traffic across the country, grounded every plane, just you know, got out there and said, "everything that's in the sky on the ground now."
THOMPSON: Right.
ROBERTS: So, is this bill really necessary?
THOMPSON: Well, I don't -- the bill is necessary in that if provides for all sorts of infrastructure training, scholarships for people. There are a lot of useful things in the bill. The clause that everybody is angst-ridden about, no, it's not necessary.
So, why does it exist? Well, it probably exists for one of two reasons: one, people may be concerned that in a time of crisis, power will be given to the DOD and the NSA, and they're much more secretive than the Obama administration has. So, in fact, it maybe sort of a sideways effort to open this up. And then secondly, everybody knows cyber security is a big issue. So, everybody in the Senate wants to have the major cyber security bill under their name. So, all these different committees are fighting over it, and they are writing bills quickly, and they are trying to define the problem in a way that will give their committee jurisdiction over it. So, this particular bill is coming from the Commerce Committee. So, they are defining it in a way that puts the authority under the Commerce Committee so that they can have the bill under their name and structure it.
ROBERTS: There's also a little provision in the bill that would require certification for people who are involved in cyber security infrastructure protection. Is that just adding another level of unnecessary bureaucracy? Because people who are involved in that, whether they are government-certified or not, certainly have a tremendous amount of expertise.
THOMPSON: Right. Absolutely. And there lots of very smart people. Bill Gates is an example -- who don't even have college degrees. You're going to ask him to get another degree to be able to work on this particular problem?
ROBERTS: Bill Gates needs a certification from the government...
THOMPSON: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: ... Commerce Department certification.
THOMPSON: That's probably a silly part of the bill, but there are a lot of very interesting and useful parts of the bill, too, I think.
ROBERTS: All right. We will see where this goes. Nick Thompson, it's great to talk to you this morning. Thanks for joining us this morning.
THOMPSON: Thanks for having me here.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We're talking about ways to protect players in the heat, especially high school players that are playing football out in the heat.
Well, there are new heat sensors on helmet. How do they work and are they really making the kids safer? We are going to take a look. It's our "Edge of Discovery." Forty-six minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. High school football coaches now on trial in Kentucky. He's accused in the death of one of his players.
Prosecutors are saying that what he did was recklessly endanger a 15-year-old boy's life by letting him practice in 94-degree heat. Well, this case is now drawing a lot of criticism and raising a lot of questions about the risks of tough practices in hot weather.
In this morning's "Edge of Discovery" Gary Tuchman found a device that could potentially save lives in these situations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High school football is back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hit!
TUCHMAN: A big concern for players and coaches this time of year, sweltering temperatures which can increase the risk of heat stroke, and in some cases, death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that cloud cover, we'll be all right.
TUCHMAN: To beat the heat, a Georgia company has developed these dime-sized sensors worn inside players' helmets.
JAY BUCKALEW, HOTHEAD TECHNOLOGIES: What we're trying to do is to just give that early warning alert system that that athlete is getting dangerously close to heat stroke.
TUCHMAN: The sensors constantly monitor the body temperature of a player on the field. Every ten seconds, updates are sent to a small device carried by coaches or trainers. and if a player exceeds 102.5 degrees from more than 30 seconds, an alert sounds.
PRESTON BAZEMORE, BLESSED TRINITY ATHLETIC TRAINER: We want to prevent the injury before it happens. This is another tool in our little back pocket that we can use to make sure these kids are participating safely.
TUCHMAN: A few high schools and colleges are using the system this season. It costs about $100 per player. The technology could also be used by firefighters and military personnel. For these players, it's safety first, then Friday night lights.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Well, after leaving it up to Congress, is President Obama about to take the reins on health care reform? Is it a horse he can ride? We'll find out coming up on our next hour here on the Most News in the Morning. It's now 51 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. And time now to fast forward to stories that will be making news later on today.
At 10:00 this morning, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be here in New York. She is kicking off a new nationwide push urging businesses and families to create a plan in case of any national disaster, one of those better safe than sorry messages.
We're also keeping an eye this morning on health care town halls across the country. At 1:00 this afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will give a keynote address on national health care reform at an event in San Francisco. And at 5:30 p.m. Eastern, Virginia Congressman Jim Hines will host a forum as part of his health care listening tour.
And more down time, in a way, for President Obama. He'll be spending a long weekend at Camp David. This morning at 11 o'clock eastern, he departs Washington scheduled to return on Sunday. But, no doubt, he'll probably have a lot of reading to do, maybe on a new White House plan on health care reform - Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, meanwhile there's dueling bus tours, I guess you could say, when it comes to debating health care. Our Jim Acosta is taking a look at what feels like being back on the campaign trail. It's 55 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's not an election year, but it might seem like one. Two different bus tours are hitting the road, all part of a make or break push on health care reform.
On the make side, Democrats are touring in support of reform under the label organizing for America. And on the break side, it's the tea party express. Our Jim Acosta is tracking the battle of the bus tours live this morning from Columbus, Ohio.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. That is right. And, you know, the Obama campaign did not die. It is now a wing of the Democratic party called Organizing for America. Well, this week the group is trying to counter some of those rowdy town hall meetings with a bus and a mission: health care.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): It looks like an Obama campaign flashback, except for one thing: no Obama. Instead of a candidate to sell, there's a message scrawled on the side of this bus: Health insurance reform now.
The president's former campaign now rolled into the DNC and called Organizing for America is driving coast to coast looking for people like podiatrist Tenicia Richmond (ph), a doctor who, get this, doesn't have her own health insurance. Her practice is so small, she says, she can't afford it.
TENICIA RICHMOND (ph), PODIATRIST, DOESN'T HAVE OWN HEALTH INSURANCE: Well, I opted out because I couldn't afford to pay for my medications, my doctor's visits and then also pay the premiums for the health insurance.
ACOSTA: We boarded the Organizing for America bus to find a small team of political operatives led by Obama campaign veteran Jeremy Bird. He insists the campaign is different this time.
JEREMY BIRD, OPERATIVES LEADER, ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA: When you compare the campaign to organizing for America or this, it's apples to oranges. We're talking about...
ACOSTA (off camera): Really, even with the Obama logo on the bus, barackobama.com on the bus? Really?
BIRD: Yes. Because what you're talking about is working on an issue in an off-year. And it shouldn't be compared to the campaign.
ACOSTA (voice-over): And there's something else about the bus. It says insurance reform, not health care reform. And there's no mention of the public option, the reform proposal that would give Americans the choice of joining a government insurance program.
BIRD: The public option is one component. But what we want to focus on is the whole package, which is we're going to cut costs. We're going to cut costs for small businesses. We're going to cut costs for individuals, for families.
ACOSTA: Organizing for American is in a race of dueling buses. The conservative Tea Party Express is crossing the country with its own rallies against the reform plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want to make us a socialist state.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're the sleeping giant that has been awakened. And we're the silent majority that is no longer silent.
ACOSTA: The Democrats contend there is another sleeping giant that's just waking up, the one that put President Obama in the White House. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio argues the fight is far from finished.
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: I think the president needs to step forward, be more specific, more aggressively fight for a strong health care bill with a strong public option. I think he's going to do that.
ACOSTA (off camera): Can you support Democratic efforts for health care reform without a public option?
BROWN: I don't know.
ACOSTA: You're not sure?
BROWN: I'm not sure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Today the Organizing for America bus will be in Pennsylvania, another campaign battleground state. And just like during the election, Democratic staffers are keeping an eye on turnout. The bigger the crowds, they hope, the more pressure there will be on members of Congress to pass health care reform.
And, John, we were at that event last night in Columbus right here in the capital of Ohio, thousands of people on-hand. It was a surprisingly large and boisterous turnout for that campaign bus, John.
ROBERTS: It's an important issue, Jim. And we're bound to hear a lot more about it, particularly with this news that maybe the president is going to weigh in himself on a new White House health care plan. So we'll see where all of this goes.
Jim Acosta this morning in Ohio. Jim, thanks so much for that.
