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Chicago Teen Beaten To Death; Responding to Iran; Flooding in the Philippines; U.S. Evaluating Afganistan Strategy
Aired September 28, 2009 - 9:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Here now is a look at some of the stories happening right now.
White House official says President Obama will travel to Copenhagen to push for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The president will join the first lady and administration officials in lobbying the International Olympic Committee on Friday. No U.S. president has ever attended an IOC vote.
A dispute continues at this hour between Brazil and Honduras' defective government over the fate of ousted president, Jose Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy for days. Now Honduras says it will be forced to take measures against Brazil if Brazil does not define its position on Zelaya. Brazil has rejected the request, saying it does not recognize the de facto government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't understand how 15, 17-year-old kids, how you can stand over someone's body and just constantly beat them and stomped them to death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A 16-year-old beaten to death in Chicago by other teenagers. We do have to warn you, it was caught on tape, and the images are very graphic. A whole group of attackers swarming Darrion Albert. It happened in broad daylight, not far from his school.
As reporter Jae Miller from affiliate WGN tells us, police are looking for suspects and a reason why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CMDR. EDDIE WELCH, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Investigations ongoing right now. We are still conducting interviews. We are still trying to put some pieces together right now.
JAE MILLER, WGN-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chicago Police asking for the public's help in identifying the group of people who savagely beat 16-year-old Derrion Albert Thursday in the Roslyn neighborhood. The Fenger High School junior was on his way home from school when a group, armed with 2 x 4s, attacked him near this community center in a 300 block of west 100 and 11th street.
WELCH: It's still too early to talk about suspects and things of that nature right now.
MILLER: The honor roll student was beaten with wooden planks, punched and kicked. He later died of his injuries. Classmates of Derrion say dozens watched and did nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I don't understand how 16, 17-year-olds kids how you can stand over someone's body and just constantly beat them and stomp them to death.
MILLER: Amateur video capture from the scene has helped authorities identify some of the attackers.
DEP. CHIEF JOE PATTERSON, CHICAGO POLICE: The other two detectives have been canvassing the area, reviewing video and evidence and conducting interviews.
MILLER: Police aren't saying whether Thursday's attack was gang related however family members say the teen was targeted because he refused to join a gang. Today, a makeshift memorial at the scene appeared to have been torched, leaving even more questions as to whom had that much hate for Derrion and why.
ROSE BRAXTON, AUNT: To go and burn a memorial after such tragedy that speaks for itself what kind of people they are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: The family there, as you can imagine, beside themselves over the Derrion's death. By the accounts we have heard, he was a good kid with a promising future. His grandfather can't understand why anyone would target him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH WALKER, VICTIM'S GRANDFATHER: He was in Bible class. He was in church on Sunday, I have no trouble whatsoever. The thing that happened to him is so horrific that we just don't know what we're going to do. We lost a really dear friend in my grandson. He was a blessed child. I don't know where all of this anger come from these people today. That's just too much anger for someone to have in their heart. All I can do is I'm going pray for these people, pray for forgiveness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Albert's school is holding a vigil this afternoon. Security is beefed up on campus. We're going to have more on the Derrion Albert case coming up a little bit later this hour when we talk with Chicago councilwoman Carrie Austin.
Iran flexes its military muscle and raises concerns around the world. For two days now it has been test firing missiles capable of short, medium and long range strikes. Long range missiles could allow Iran to hit targets within the region, like Israel and even hit parts of Europe. The launch has come amid rising international tensions, and stakes that seem to be growing ever higher. So what can the White house do to diffuse the potential crisis?
CNN's Elaine Quijano takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iran's missile test comes just days after the U.S., France and Britain called out Iran for building secret nuclear site.
SEN. KIT BOND (R), MISSOURI: Today's action in firing the missiles is really a poke in the eye to those who think that diplomatic efforts and agreements and inspections are going to change the way that Iran is going.
QUIJANO: But on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" with John King, defense secretary Robert Gates he believes there's still room for diplomacy.
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: To see if we can leverage publicizing this and additional illegal facility and activity to leverage the Iranians to begin to make some concessions.
QUIJANO: And the U.S. wants those concessions within weeks, according to Obama administration officials. They include giving international inspectors unfettered access to the newly revealed nuclear site, providing access to the people who helped build the facility, and providing a time line of the site's construction.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Words are not enough. They're going to have to company and demonstrate clearly to the international community what they're up to.
QUIJANO: What Iran is up to, the U.S. has long believed, is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and these dramatic, new satellite images obtained by CNN could help explain why. Outside the city of Qom, eight months ago, what appears to be beginning of construction, including tunnels into the hillside.
Now in that area a building and those same tunnels appeared to be covered up. While it's not clear whether this is the newly revealed nuclear site, lawmakers fear the worst if Iran develops a nuclear weapon.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: If they are successful, the Sunni Arab States in the region will want a nuclear weapon. Israel becomes much at risk, and we're walking down the road to Armageddon.
QUIJANO: Ahead of key nuclear talks Thursday, the Obama administration believes it has the upper hand.
GATES: The Iranians are in a very bad spot now because of this deception, in terms of all of the great powers, and there obviously is the opportunity for severe additional sanctions.
QUIJANO (on camera): That possibility raises the stakes for a critical meeting Thursday in Geneva. That's when Iranian diplomats will sit down with officials from the United States and the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, to discuss Iran's nuclear program.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: So how should the United States and the international community respond to Iran now? You can call the "Hotline to Heidi." We want to know what you think. That number on your screen. 1-877- 742-5760. Obviously, this is a story that we'll be covering all week long. And we will be airing your responses throughout the week.
Now to the Philippines where at least 140 people are dead in the terrible flooding going on there. Hundreds of thousands of people forced out of their homes.
Our Dan Rivers is actually joining us now live from Manila with more on this. Again, Dan, as we continue to look at these pictures just really, really stunning.
DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. One point, Heidi, they were saying that perhaps up to 80 percent of this city was underwater and this isn't a small city. It's a huge, sprawling metropolis of 12 million people. So that gives you an idea of the kind of scale of the flooding at its height. And what's actually pretty remarkable is the speed with which the waters are disappearing already.
On the weekend, it was completely under water several feet under water. Now many of the areas that were badly affected, some of the areas in those pictures, now almost completely free of floodwaters. So the last remaining suburbs are being tackled by the emergency services. But the situation is rapidly improving.
And as waters recede obviously we're beginning to get a picture of the scale of the damage and unfortunately the scale of the casualties.
COLLINS: Yes, Dan, one thing that we're not able to see a lot of in this video, and of course it's a situation they are dealing with as we speak, what about help for residents there? What - I imagine there's probably quite a bit of difficulty getting aid in to the people.
RIVERS: Yes. I mean, to begin with over the weekend, I think there's been quite a lot of criticism there wasn't a speedy enough response from the authorities. But to be fair, I mean, this was a massive disaster, helicopters were unable to take off, even today helicopters were being turned back because the wind and the rain are still pretty severe at times here.
Now, we have seen in the areas we've been to, quite a coordinated response, the Army were out with boats, searching some areas. And amphibious vehicles, food is being handed out. It seems fairly orderly that the situation is under control now but they are coming into criticism in those early, precious first hours.
COLLINS: Wow. All right. We know you'll stay on top of this for us. Thanks so much. We sure do appreciate that. Dan Rivers this morning. I want to get over to Rob Marciano who's been following this. I remember, when we first talked about this, didn't really expect - always very hard to predict, of course, Rob - but that it would get this bad.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, it wasn't necessarily moving slowly and it wasn't necessarily a strong storm, but these tropical systems can hold a lot of moisture and dump a lot of moisture over a short period of time over, you know, in this case, an area that's very, very populated, Manila.
The Philippines gets hammered by typhoons and tropical systems all the time. But the fact that the main focus point of the precipitation went over that highly populated city is one of the reasons you've got that sort of damage and an ongoing human strife there.
All right, 105-mile-an-hour-winds now. It actually is stronger now than it was 12 or 24 hours ago. It's a category 2 hurricane, for the most part. And its movement is toward the west at about 10 miles an hour. So that means over the next 12 to 18 hours it will be making landfall, or in this case a second landfall. This time as a stronger storm across the northern coast of Vietnam, I figure about 18 hours from now, probably as a category 1 typhoon or as a category 1 hurricane.
Remember typhoons and hurricanes are the same thing, the only difference is that a typhoon occurs on the other side of the international dateline. It is still even with this storm, Heidi, it's still been quite year for tropical cyclones across the globe. Unfortunately for the folks in the Philippines, they're feeling the brunt of it. Back over to you.
COLLINS: Typhoon Ketsana.
MARCIANO: Ketsana. Yes.
COLLINS: OK. Very good. All right. Rob, thank you.
And as a reminder here, there are many national and local organizations that are stepping in to help people affected by this typhoon. If you need their services or would like to get involved, please visit our Impact your World page where you will find more details there. That's at cnn.com/impact.
An exit strategy for Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates explains why it would be a strategic mistake.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Terror-related cases across the United States for you. Tomorrow, an Afghan-born Colorado man will be arraigned in New York. Najibullah Zazi is charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Elsewhere, the man accused in a Dallas terror plot will be in court again October 5th. Hosam Smadi is accused of planning to blow up a skyscraper. In Illinois, the Associated Press says Michael Finton is awaiting a grand jury, he is accused of trying to bomb a Springfield federal courthouse, but it was all a sting.
"360" tonight at 10:00, homegrown terror. A founding member of a radical environmental group turns the tables on others accused of domestic terrorism. Why did he do it? "360" gets the chilling details in his first ever TV interview. "360" tonight, 10:00 Eastern on CNN. You can see it right here.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says any decision about U.S. troop increases in Afghanistan will have to follow a strategy review now under way. But Gates said any additional troop call-up probably could not begin before January. Now the topic of setting timetables for troops to leave Afghanistan, Gates told CNN's "State of the Union" that would be a mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GATES: Failure in Afghanistan would be a huge setback for the United States. Taliban and Al Qaeda, as far as they're concerned, defeated one super power. For them to be seen to defeat a second, I think would have catastrophic consequences, in terms of energizing the extremists movement, Al Qaeda, recruitment, operations, fund-raising and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States.
COLLINS: The other superpower Gates was referring to was the Soviet Union's failed campaign of the 1980 in Afghanistan.
Besides bringing in more U.S. troops what other options are out there for winning in Afghanistan? CNN's Chris Lawrence takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A secret meeting at a secured military base in Europe, that could help decide the fate of up to 40,000 American troops. CNN has learned that General David Petraeus and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs flew to Ramstein, Germany for a face-to-face meeting with the Afghanistan war commander, the goal to better understand the troops and equipment General Stan McChrystal needs in Afghanistan.
But those added troops are based on fighting President Obama's current strategy, a counterinsurgency against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Officials tell us, the administration was taken aback by General McChrystal's assessment of Afghanistan's problems and the sheer number of troops needed to fix them.
GEOFF MORRELL, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: There's a discussion taking place about whether to continue the strategy or whether adjustments should be made.
LAWRENCE: President Obama says he only support expanding the counter insurgency if it's proven to ultimately defeat Al Qaeda. Another consideration is a more limited goal of ensuring Al Qaeda doesn't operate in Afghanistan. Analysts Michael O'Hanlon who monitored the recent elections in Afghanistan, he says there's a third option on the table, besides immediately sending more troops or scaling back the mission.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I think the leading alternative contender is a blend of trying to negotiate more with the so-called moderate Taliban, trying to await improved Afghan government performance before we add more resources, trying to do what Senator Levin's say and trying to think how we can use the Afghan security forces all the more assertively and American forces a little bit less.
LAWRENCE (on camera): O'Hanlon says holding off on the troops could give the U.S. more time to pressure the Afghan government. To say, look, we're not going all in here until you clean up your own corruption. As for negotiating with the moderate Taliban, the problem is a senior defense official told me that Taliban believe they're winning and a lot of Afghan people believe they're winning. So he thinks it's going to be hard to co-op them right now because who wants to jump ship if you think you're already on the winning side?
Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: The U.S. and other NATO nations are supporting - showing support, I should say, for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "The Washington Post" reports NATO foreign ministers believe Mr. Karzai will continue as president, whether as a legitimate winner of the disputed August election or through a run-off. NATO also plans to work with the Afghan president on an expanded campaign to turn insurgents loosely tied to the Taliban away from them. A similar policy was successful in turning Suni tribes against Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Still ahead, guess who's coming to dinner. The Congressional Black Caucus breaks bread with the nation's first African-American president.
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COLLINS: Quick check of our top stories now.
Pope Benedict wraps up a three-day visit to the Czech Republic with an open air mass. The Pope told worshippers the world needs god-fearing people prepared to follow the ethical principles of Christianity.
Movie director Roman Polanski has reportedly hired a Swiss attorney to help him fight extradition to the U.S.. Polanski was arrested in Switzerland over the weekend on a decades-old U.S. warrant related to a rape charge of a teenage girl. The victim is now 45 years old and a mother of three. She filed court papers saying "every time the case is brought to the attention of the court, great focus is made on me. That attention is not pleasant.
So we've been asking you about this story all morning long. What do you think? Should Roman Polanski be extradited and actually face a sentence in the United States or should the victim's feelings here be taken into consideration? We've been getting a lot of responses. We'd like to get some more. Go ahead an send them into Cnn.com/heidi, and we'll read some of them a little bit later on right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Four more years for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She is staying in office after winning this weekend's election. Merkel is taking on Germany's foreign minister. She is expected to form a government that leans center right. President Obama called Merkel yesterday to congratulate her.
Back in the United States, the nation's first African-American president appears before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. The president used his Saturday night speech to rally support for health care reform.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of all the barriers still standing in 2009, few are more unjust, few are more entrenched, few are more inhumane than the barriers to a healthy life and a good education. Barriers that constrain the dreams not only of African- Americans but of all Americans. Barriers that can and must and shall be overcome.
For the sake of every American living together and for the sake of every American yet to be born, we must bring about a better health care system in this country, not in 10 years, not in five years, not in one year, this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The president also told the dinner crowd that the economic recovery plan is working and has helped pull the economy back from the brink of disaster.
Parents, listen up, new research shows there may be hidden dangers from widely used medicines. Each year more than a half million children in the U.S. need medical treatment for bad reactions and side effects. Research shows kids under five are the most commonly affected. Bottom line of the study, parents need to pay close attention when they give their children a medicine for the very first time.
Well, I bet you've probably noticed you're paying less at the pump. The recession's role in help you save a few pennies on gas.
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COLLINS: The recession, as you know, is being blamed for a lot of bad news but it can also be credited for saving you a little money at the gas pump. Our Christine Romans is joining us now from New York with more on that story. Yes, that's good but if demand is down, is that good?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, demand is down because people are carpooling, they are taking public transportation because they simply can't afford to fill up the gas tank as much as they did before even though prices are lower and because if you don't have a job, you're not commuting to work and so that means demand declines.
So you have the recession, the rising unemployment that are keeping a lid on some of these big commodity prices like oil. And gas prices are down. Gas prices are down, Heidi, seven cents in two weeks. It's a two-month retreat for gas price because, as you said, there's plenty of supply. But demand is desolate. That's according to Toby Lindberg (ph) who follows these sort of numbers.
You know, compared with a year ago, it's about $20 less, at least, to fill up the tank. So think of that. $20 less to fill up the tank because of the difference in energy prices. The difference in oil prices. Last year, of course, was just hellish this time, right now, and we're talking about these really high gas prices, about was $3.66 a gallon and that really hurt people. It was the beginning of the recession. I mean, it was really tough but those prices are cooling off now and so that is a little bit - a little bit of a respite at the pump here.
COLLINS: Yes, definitely. What about a Roman numeral today?
ROMANS: Well, the number is 63 percent. And I really wanted to show you just how the recession has really bit people. This is the percentage of consumers who say they will change forever how they spend and save because of the recession. Think of this.
63 percent of people say that forever they are going to change their savings and consumption. And I think the reason that number is still high, Heidi, is because when you are living on the edge, like so many people are, and gas prices are going up and down and it's affecting whether you can fill a prescription or whether you can heat your home or whether you can buy something important, a new pair of shoes for school.
People are so concerned about how scarred they are by just living so close to the edge and watching gas prices and the recession. It means so much, that extra $20 can be so important, people are going change forever how they spend their money. And I mean, I would say that's a good thing in many cases.
COLLINS: Yes, in many cases. All right. Christine Romans, thank you.
ROMANS: Sure.
COLLINS: Have stocked jumped the gun on an economic recovery? That's what many investors seem to be wondering. And this week, it could be the tipping point on whether the six-month run-up for the market continues. Susan Lisovicz watching all those numbers for us at the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Hey there, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Well, the market rally, as we noted at the opening bell, finally hit some resistance last week. The Dow ended lower in four out of five sessions. In fact it was the worst week in nearly three months. What happens this week could determine whether the run-up continues. We're expecting lots of reports, home prices, personal income and spending, consumer confidence, a final look at second quarter GDP. But all of that is, well, that's secondary, compared to what we get on Friday, the September jobs report.
We are expecting a loss of 180,000 positions this month. Compare that to the January jobs report, a loss of 600,000 jobs. So obviously, it's a huge improvement, but it's still a loss. Every one of those numbers represent a person in distress. And remember for an economy to be considered healthy, we should be creating about 100,000 jobs each month at least.
Well, what we are creating in the first hour of trading Heidi, is a nice bounce back -- the DOW right now up one a quarter percent. The NASDAQ is up nearly two percent. S&P is up about one and a percent. So nice rally, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, yes a nice rally. But a lot of concerns it seems be that the rally we've been seeing in that's been so big, it happened really fast.
LISOVICZ: That's right.
I mean, this is quite unusual that we've seen a rally for six and a half months. We talked about this in some of the dark moments of the winter that the stock market, a leading indicator it would react first when things started to improve, whether it was less bad, actual improvement, call it what you will.
And the economic news, now at this point, has been slowly improving. No, of course, coincidence that there's an extraordinary amount of fiscal and monitor stimulus, whether it's "Cash for Clunkers"...
COLLINS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...the Fed trying to keep mortgage rates low.
The fact is, it has been working somewhat. And you can see it in the market numbers. I mean, since bottoming at 12-year lows back in March, the DOW is up nearly 50 percent. The NASDAQ is up 65 percent. The S&P up better than 50 percent.
The timing of the run-up is interesting, Heidi, because I remember this quite vividly. Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the DOW's biggest one-day point loss ever, 777 points.
COLLINS: Oh, let's not go there.
LISOVICZ: Yes, that was when the House rejected the billion dollar -- $787 billion bailout plan. That's a Romans numeral.
She wouldn't have had enough room for it...
COLLINS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: ...on the screen.
COLLINS: Yes, no, she didn't want to talk about that today. We left that up to you.
LISOVICZ: Yes, now wait -- it's a year ago. It's in the past.
COLLINS: It's a year ago, that's right.
LISOVICZ: We're pushing forward. Yes.
COLLINS: All right, very good. Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
COLLINS: This recession, as you also know, has been marked by job losses; even people who aren't out of work have been hit by pay cuts. But now we're starting to see a new trend.
CNNmoney.com Poppy Harlow has today's breakdown for us this morning. So do we have some good news here, Poppy?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes finally, Heidi, some good news this Monday. Susan said that the market getting a big boost. But what about Main Street? Of course, we've seen stocks gaining ground after more than six months, way off those lows been but Main Street is getting some welcome news.
A growing number of companies are reversing their pay cuts, believe it or not. Let's talk about some of them. Computer chipmaker AMD, they cut their pay for their workers up to 20 percent back in January. This December they're going to roll those cuts back.
Talk about a struggling company. General Motors cutting their salaried workers' pay by up to 10 percent last May. They reinstated the previous higher pay this month.
Overall Heidi, we've got 44 percent of employers that had cut pay reversing that trend, that's all according to a consulting firm Watson Wyatt (ph). So that is very welcome news, this Monday.
COLLINS: Yes, yes certainly for some people. What about all of the other cuts that employers have made like cutting back...
HARLOW: Yes.
COLLINS: ...on 401(k) matches?
HARLOW: That's a great question. What we've seen is these employers rolling back other cost-cutting measures but of them, 24 percent that had slashed that 401(k) matching program, they say over the next six months they're going to reinstate it.
Also not everyone had a pay cut. A lot of employees have managed to keep their jobs faced salary freezes. Now, 33 percent of those employers that froze salaries are going to unfreeze them, Heidi.
So again, we're starting to see a reversal here of some very, very harsh cuts that were made before turning around now.
COLLINS: Yes, yes -- so are these actions a sign that corporate America is starting to feel like its back on its feet?
HARLOW: I wish it was a sign of that that was certainly happening. Some are getting there. Some companies are doing better -- we're seeing better earnings in recent quarters. But mainly this is due to cost cutting, not necessarily because the underlying fundamentals of the companies are improving.
FedEx may reverse pay cuts; they're waiting for their sales to turn around for us. We're going to have to wait and see. But some good news from Main Street this Monday, more on this story on CNNmoney, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, very good, Poppy Harlow, thank you.
HARLOW: Sure.
COLLINS: Targeted by gang members or in the wrong place at the wrong time? Earlier we showed you a graphic video of a teenager beaten to death in Chicago. Now, we're looking for answers from a member of the city council there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Iran flexes its muscle and raises concerns around the world. The country says it's fired long-range missiles today and shorter- range missiles yesterday. The launches come amid rising international tensions.
Iran now admits it has been secretly building a uranium enrichment facility South of Tehran. The main concern, that site could be used for producing nuclear weapons.
And at least 140 people are dead in the Philippines and today there's fear of even more flooding. Hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes. Floodwaters have actually been receding after a weekend of downpours but a tropical depression in the Pacific could bring more rain today. Aid is coming to victims but not fast enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOURDES ALBANO, FLOODING VICTIM (through translator): The authorities just passed by here with a loud siren but they don't give us anything. It's just us back here, our neighbors who gave us food; we have only a few stock of items.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Well, the capital of Manila was 80 percent under water at one point yesterday.
Many national and local organizations are trying to step in to help those affected by the typhoon. If you need their services or would like to get involved, please visit our Impact your World page where you'll find more details. And that could be found at CNN.com/impact.
A warning, once again, the video you're about to see is extremely graphic. Captured on camera: a Chicago teenager beating another teenager to death, a whole group of attackers swarming Derrion Albert. Police are using this video to track down suspects. It happened Thursday not far from Derrion's school.
Today, security is beefed up on that campus. And joining us on the telephone now is Carrie Austin a Chicago City Council member. Carrie, I'm just wondering, we know that Finger High School is back open today. They actually closed the school on Friday because of what happened late Thursday.
How are the kids doing?
CARRIE AUSTIN, CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL MEMBER (via telephone): I think this has affected more than just the kids. I mean, I know it's traumatic to them, but for our kids to have been in such ---- involved in such a horrific act, it's very disturbing.
For those that were onlookers, I hope that they will assist also in identifying who these attackers were.
COLLINS: Yes, tell me what you know at this point. I know you're directly involved in this whole incident. What is known about these kids? Did they go to that school?
AUSTIN: We have many different stories. Naturally, Derrion did. But some of the other kids, from my understanding, come from Argyle Gardens (ph) and from other schools. So as to say how many went to Finger, I don't really now how many went to the other school.
It's a disservice to Finger High School for the kids to have taken an incident so far away and not try to find some kind of resolution to it.
COLLINS: Well, I guess there would be people who would say, it doesn't matter where the kids came from, what school, but you know the issue is clearly the extent to which they went to make whatever point it was they were trying to make. Just an absolute tragedy.
Talk a little bit more about that, as far as what's going on in the community.
AUSTIN: That doesn't normally happen in our community. I mean, there are many ills in our community, true enough, but this is one that is really truly out of the ordinary. For kids to have went to the degree that they have in order to hurt somebody, they have no respect for life.
So for those that actually did this, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever, none whatsoever, because whatever your anger was it did not have to get to that degree.
COLLINS: Does anybody know who shoot this actual video?
No, I don't. I'm not aware of it at this time. Maybe perhaps the police department does.
I'm looking for answers from my superintendent; hopefully today we'll get more answers from him.
COLLINS: Yes. Pretty disturbing as well. What needs to be done about the violence when we see incidents like this?
AUSTIN: Well, I think that we cannot sweep something like this under the rug. We have to get more involved in issues of these kids. We have to give them more of our own personal time to try to look into their own lives of why are they -- why do they allow their anger to get to the degree that it did, what, did I step on your gym shoes? Did call you a bad name? How did you let it escalate to that degree?
We have to become more involved, as well.
COLLINS: Yes, obviously. And waiting to hear a lot more about what motivation there could have been, if any, and how it makes sense anyway.
Carrie Austin, Alderman with the 34th Ward there in Chicago. We sure do appreciate your time. Thank you.
AUSTIN: Surely.
COLLINS: Director Roman Polanski ready to fight extradition to the United States. The Oscar winner hired a Swiss attorney to represent him. Polanski is in custody now for a rape case he's been ducking since the 70s.
Morgan Neill tells us now Swiss authorities caught up to him on his way to a film festival.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: it was meant to be an homage to his life's work but the guest of honor was nowhere to be found.
CHRISTIAN FREI, SWISS FILMMAKER: As a Swiss filmmaker, I feel deeply ashamed because Mr. Polanski was supposed to be honored this evening. We were supposed to speak about his work, his career, and his outstanding films; now he's being arrested in Switzerland.
NEILL: Swiss police detained the 76-year-old Polanski when he arrived at Zurich Airport Saturday. Authorities say he's being held based on a U.S. arrest warrant pending tradition proceedings.
The warrant was issued in 1978 after Polanski pleaded guilty to committing sexual acts with a 13-year-old girl. The director of "Chinatown" who won an Oscar for 2003's "The Pianist" fled the United States before sentencing. He's lived in France ever since.
The victim, Samantha Geimer (ph), now 45 years old, has said she wants to see the case dismissed. Polanski friend Otto Weisser he had gotten an update from the director's lawyer. OTTO WEISSER, POLANSKI FRIEND: This lawyer who is the only person who can speak to him, said he didn't lose his humor. And this is already a good thing, you know? He's a strong person.
NEILL: Not everyone was so sympathetic. This man carried a sign saying, Polanski's past was catching up to him and U.S. prosecutors would love to do the same. They say it would be a miscarriage of justice to drop charges against a man they say drugged and raped a 13- year-old child.
But that's clearly not the sentiment here at the Zurich Film Festival where other filmmakers have said they're shocked and appalled by the arrest of the man, many of them came here to honor.
Morgan Neill, CNN, Zurich.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: We have been asking what you think about all of this. Should Roman Polanski be extradited and face a sentence or should his victim and her thoughts be taken into account? Of course, we want to head over to the Mac and read you some of the comments that have come up on the blog, CNN.com/heidi is where you need to go if you'd like to register a comment.
Greg says this, "I think that the time has come for the entire matter to be dropped and the parties involved be allowed to move on with their lives, all of them."
And this one, "Of course, he should be prosecuted. First of all, I believe he was indicted and if the victim doesn't want him prosecuted who is to say she was never compensated. Because of his stature or her unwillingness to prosecute should have nothing do with him coming to justice."
Then this one, "He needs to serve his time here in the U.S. and also breaking the law by fleeing the country."
And finally, "The issue should have been dropped ages ago for the sake of the victim and for the family of Roman Polanski."
As usual, it is no the too late to send your comments in. Just go ahead and do that at cnn.com/heidi.
And we want to take a moment to check out the weather situation. Rob Marciano has been watching all of the weather across the country. Apparently there's going to be some cold fall football-like temperatures coming our way, yes?
ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: You know a lot of people embrace this.
COLLINS: Love it.
MARCIANO: We certainly do in the south after sweating it out for a few months and that's what we're going to see. The main line of cooler air is now pressing east and south. Let's check it out on the radar scope. Actually, we'll talk more about it in just a little bit Heidi.
CNN NEWSROOM is coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Let's head over to the Severe Weather Center now. Rob Marciano joining us. We have to talk about all this flooding in the Philippines. It is unbelievable the amount of water that they're having to deal with.
MARCIANO: Yes. You know they saw about 20 inches of rainfall in about 12 hours so that's going to do it and right over this populated area of manila.
The Philippines gets hammered by tropical cyclones all the time. But for Manila to get that kind of water in that short period of time, it certainly didn't bode well for them.
This is heading towards the coastline of Vietnam. Now it's a typhoon. It was actually only a tropical storm when it went through the Philippines.
Let's talk about a little bit more about what's going on here at home. We have a little cool front that's pressing eastward towards the New York City area. A little bit of showers and thunderstorms with this. But I think the bigger story will be what's behind it.
The low itself is backed up around Detroit. And strong northwest winds right now are cruising across Chicago. Here's a live shot for you -- there it is, the magnificent mile, looking good there. Winds gusting to over 30 miles an hour at this time; wind advisories are up and we could see some winds gusting to 40 or 50 miles an hour with this system over the next 12 hours.
That may very well be enough to take down at least some branches and tree limbs and maybe knock down some power.
All right.
Forecast for this thing, press all the way down to the south. This is a pretty strong cold front. As it moves south towards the I-10 corridor, it will bring for them the coolest air of the season. So the eastern two-thirds of -- actually eastern half of the country is going to experience the coldest air of the season.
Still kind hot across parts of southwest and that expected to continue into tomorrow. 104 degrees expected in phoenix.
Strong cool front moving across the Pacific Northwest; only 56 tomorrow in Seattle; only 55 tomorrow in Chicago; and 71 chilly degrees in Atlanta. You could see temperatures dropping in the 40s in some spots across the south overnight tonight and tomorrow night.
COLLINS: I love it. I can't get enough of the fall temperatures. I wish it would stay like this year round. I don't have control.
MARCIANO: No, we don't.
COLLINS: Rob, thank you.
MARCIANO: All right. You bet.
COLLINS: In southeast Texas, an oil spill closes a three-mile stretch of the Houston ship channel. More than 10,000 gallons of oil have gushed from the ruptured fuel tank of a vessel when it collided with another ship on Friday. There were no injuries in the accident thankfully but crews are now scrambling to clean up the mess and reopen the ship channel.
Cargo traffic also slowed on the Ohio river this morning because of damage to the Markland lock, that happened 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky. The Army Corps of Engineers will use an underwater sonar device today to locate a locked gate that fell to the bottom of the river. They don't know when things will be back to normal.
But to everyone watching though, in case you haven't heard of this type of thing before, a lock is a section of canal or river that's closed off by gates which control that water level so that boats can be raised or lowered as they pass through it. It's quite a system actually. More than 50 million tons of commodities pass through the Markland Locks each year.
MARCIANO: And here I thought a lock was something that lets you in and out of the building every day, something I'm concerned about every time we do one of these little segments together up here.
COLLINS: Well, they're just locks around like the weather department where they keep you locked in there.
For our "Hot Shots" today I have to eat some crow because back when Brett Favre, now of the Vikings, retired and came back and then retired again or however that whole PR deal went, I said, I don't like Brett Favre. Then he came to the Vikings and I said I didn't like him.
Now I take it all back. Brett Favre, if you are watching, here's the deal. Kind of like what you did last night, quarterback, of course, Brett Favre there, as you see, making a lot of people eat their words this morning. Number 4 he still comes through in the clutch because what he's celebrating...
MARCIANO: Yes, it was a nice performance.
COLLINS: The Vikes trailed 49ers with 2 seconds left and then Favre threw 32-yard touchdown to Greg Louis for the win.
MARCIANO: He still got it. Still got it.
COLLINS: He totally still got it. I take it all back.
MARCIANO: He looks good in purple as well.
COLLINS: He does, doesn't he? I hated green.
MARCIANO: Let's talk about another comeback on the East Coast, the Philadelphia Eagles.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: Vick took a few snaps yesterday. He wasn't a game changer by any means.
COLLINS: No.
MARCIANO: He didn't turn the ball over. He didn't complete a pass. But nonetheless he was great.
COLLINS: He was great though. This is the story you wanted to do. I didn't want to do this one.
MARCIANO: We're not talking about the Lions. I mean they snap 19 game...
(CROSS TALK)
COLLINS: The Lions is a story too, that's true. Maybe we should have our own sports breakdown.
MARCIANO: I love sports every Monday. Let's make that decision.
COLLINS: All right.
MARCIANO: Let's see if it happens next week.
COLLINS: Rob, nice to have you up here, and out of your locked doors over at Severe Weather Center.
I want to mention this too, it's a town where some unemployed residents find work only after moving hundreds of miles from home.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: People in Mississippi say the recession came late there, but its grip is now so strong it taking the life out of one small town. CNN's John King took a trip to Fayette.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jefferson County hugs the mighty Mississippi. It is rural, remote, and dotted with tiny churches. Fayette is the county seat; its monument to confederate soldier a tribute to the past that seems very much at odds with this community's present.
Nine in ten residents are black, the highest percentage of African- Americans of any county in the United States. The shuttered store front are a sign of a less desirable distinction, 18.6 percent unemployment, the highest jobless rate of Mississippi's 82 counties.
ANGELA SHELVY, UNEMPLOYED: It hasn't always been like this -- this has not always been this way.
KING: Angela Shelvy has been looking for six months.
There's nothing out there?
SHELVY: Nothing.
KING: Shelvy is a single mother of three who quit a job as a teacher's assistant to join a union that provides workers for nuclear power plants. Twice the pay but the work was sometimes as far away as Arizona. While her parents took care of the children, the strain became too much especially for her 4-year-old.
SHELVY: I'm like, you have granny. He's like, no, I don't want granny. I want you to hold me. I just decided I couldn't go back.
KING: But since March, no luck. Despite searching as far as 90 minutes away.
SHELVY: And they're not hiring. They either say they're not hiring or I'm not qualified. I don't have enough years of experience. We'll call you later. Get back with us. And it's been stressful for me.
BRENDA BUCK, COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR: It becomes very depressing to some people who are trying to struggle, and it is a struggle, day to day.
KING: Finding jobs is county administrator Brenda Buck's obsession. She knows the struggle firsthand, with no jobs around her here her husband works at moment, 900 miles away in Indiana.
BUCK: Right now, he's employed with a company that's been going into a lot of the car plants doing refabrications. We have four kids but he's here basically maybe two months out of the year.
KING: Most of Buck's time with county supervisor is spent on economic development. No luck so far winning federal stimulus money to improve the roads.
This work site is also part of the county's Washington wish-list. At the moment, ten employees, each making about $100 a day; cutting and packaging firewood. General manager Paul Southerland says the noise often attracts others down on their luck.
PAUL SOUTHERLAND, GENERAL MANAGER, RELIABLE MAT: I see a lot of people come by here looking for jobs.
KING: Southerland's main products is these giant woodmats (ph) used in oil and gas field. Orders are suddenly hard to come by.
SOUTHERLAND: Mississippi's always last to feel the effects of a recession. Most of the time it's always the last to pick back up, it hit us about June. It really hit us hard, too.
KING: Still Southerland hopes to expand, if the county secures a federal grant to buy a bigger saw mill.
SOUTHERLAND: That's what it's all about, if we are have that sawmill we'll be able to add eight or ten more folks.
KING: Eight or ten jobs might not sound like much. But in a place so remote and so poor, progress is measured a little differently.
BRENDA T. BUCK, ADMINISTRATOR, JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI: If you can just imagine eight men making $10 to $11 an hour could actually come home and be at home at night with their families, the impact that it would make not just from the economical standpoint, but from the social standpoint of that father's presence there in that household, and not having to travel so far, I mean, you have a double whammy. It's a win-win situation for any family.
KING (voice-over): John King, CNN, Fayette, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Heidi Collins.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.
