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One Escapee Caught, Two on the Run; Turkish Women & Domestic Violence; BP COO Suttles Discusses Dispersants
Aired August 01, 2010 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: For Pakistan, a disaster on a national scale. Floodwaters have swept away thousands of homes, schools, businesses, government buildings and bridges. The death toll right now: at least 1,100. Rescuers are trying to reach tens of thousands of other people who are still trapped. In all, more than 1 million people in Pakistan are feeling the impact of the floodwaters.
Coming up: there are changes in the way you need to perform CPR. We'll tell you the new rules for saving a life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: One escaped killer has been caught, but two others remain on the loose. Police caught 36-year-old Daniel Renwick in Rifle, Colorado, today. He had been serving a 22-year sentence for second- degree murder before breaking out of an Arizona prison with two other inmates on Friday.
Renwick's accomplices, Tracy Province and John McCluskey, are believed armed. Police say a female friend of one of the inmates may have helped them escape.
Province and McCluskey are accused of abducting two truck drivers and hijacking their rig at gunpoint. The truckers were released unharmed. One of them describes his ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRABHJEET BAINES, TRUCKER CARJACKED: The two guys and the one female that pulled us over at the gunpoint, and they tried to kill us. So finally they drove us over here, from Kingman to Flagstaff. So, finally they changed their mind, they didn't kill us. They left us over here and we are good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: The escapees dumped the semi yesterday at a truck stop in Flagstaff, Arizona. Police believe they could be headed to Mexico.
Joining me now by phone from Phoenix is Charles Ryan. He's the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Thank you for joining us, Mr. Ryan.
First, can you tell us any details on how Daniel Renwick was captured?
CHARLES RYAN, DIR., ARIZONA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: Well, based on an alert that had been made by the department, looking for a brown Blazer with Arizona plates, believed to have been provided by Casslyn Welch, his vehicle was spotted in Rifle, Colorado, by a very alert police officer. They pursued him, shots were fired. He was -- he was captured and taken into custody and he is in a county jail in Rifle, Colorado, awaiting interrogation by the U.S. Marshal Service.
KAYE: And I understand that you said there was a woman who had signed in to visit one of these men, one of the convicts, before the escape. Do you have any idea which one she was visiting and how she might have helped them get out?
RYAN: Well, that's under investigation. Her name is Casslyn Mae Welch and she was a visitor of inmate John McCluskey.
KAYE: Ad the two that are on the run, how dangerous are they?
RYAN: They should be considered extremely dangerous, as well as armed. Both are serving 44 years for murder, and that is or -- excuse me -- one is doing a life sentence, who is Tracy Province, and McCluskey, not quite as long, but he would be in prison until well into 2022.
KAYE: And how -- I know you've said that you believe they're headed to Mexico. For what reason and have there been any sightings of them?
RYAN: I don't believe I stated they were heading for Mexico. The U.S. Marshal Service has a -- be on the lookout nationwide for these people. We do have additional information that should be made public and that is: we believe they bought a 2002 Jetta Volkswagen, Arizona license plate 334 DAN. And there's a sticker on the car believed to say "Watch the car."
So, if anyone sees this vehicle -- it's a silver four-door Jetta -- they should report it to 911 or call the Arizona Department of Corrections at area code 602-542-1212.
KAYE: Mr. Ryan, if you could, could you help us understand how they were able to get out exactly? I mean, what are the details? How were they able to get away?
RYAN: The investigation of escape from the Management Training Corporation private prison is under investigation. Obviously, there were some serious operational security problems and that's being evaluated at this time.
KAYE: And what changes might you expect to make in terms of security there?
RYAN: I'll be meeting with the officials from that corporation tomorrow or the next day, and we'll present some of our findings to them.
KAYE: All right. Charles Ryan with the Department of Corrections in Phoenix -- thank you.
And we do just want to remind our viewers if anyone sees the 2002 Jetta that he was speaking about. Jetta Volkswagen, the license plate Arizona plate 334 DAN, that could be two of these escaped convicts. So, take caution because they do say they are armed.
We want to go now to Jacqui Jeras and check in what she's working on related to the Tropics -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Randi.
This is the time of year where things really start to get active. And there's this tropical wave which is still in the middle of nowhere right now, but it certainly bears watching. We want to show you this on satellite and put it in perspective for you.
Here's Africa, here are the Cape Verde Islands. And there you can see the United States way over here. And this is the area that we're talking about over here. There we go -- pan over to the red box. And it's showing signs of some circulation.
The National Hurricane Center has now upgraded the risk of this becoming our next tropical depression, probably our next tropical storm, and potentially, a hurricane as well down the line. So, they're saying an 80 percent chance this is going to develop within the next 24 to 48 hours.
The big question is, of course, well, where is it going to go and is this something we should really be concerned about. And the answer is yes. However, it's too early to tell whether or not this will have an impact on the U.S.
You can see the computer models being run on this, very good agreement, bringing it up toward the west-northwest, towards the Windward Islands as we get into Thursday. So, if it is going to approach the United States, that wouldn't happen until probably the early part of next week. So, we're talking over a week from now.
Now, if we take a look at climatology, the Bermuda High will sit in this area and winds will rotate around that high. Sometimes, depending on its position, it will bring it away from the U.S. and become a fishing storm or it could be bringing winds up this way and bring it more towards Florida and potentially into the Gulf of Mexico. And being that wind patterns will be very changeable in the upcoming days, it's just too early to say which way.
Now, as we head into the month of August, things do get more active in the central and eastern parts of the Atlantic. It really the big change, climatologically speaking, compared to what we will see in the month of July. And the reason why this is a concern, when we start to see development in this area, is that the vast majority of major hurricanes, the categories three, four and five, develop in this area.
You remember Hurricane George. You remember Hurricane Floyd. You remember Hurricane Ike. All of those were Cape Verde-type storms. And there you can see the typical tracks that they do tend to take.
So far, we've already had two named storms in the Atlantic. We had Alex and we had Bonnie. So, our next named storm will be Colin.
And the National Hurricane Center is predicting that this is going to be a very active season. We have very warm water, we have light winds and things are really becoming favorable now for development. So, we'll be tracking this tropical wave which could become a tropical depression potentially even before the night is over -- Randi.
KAYE: All right. Thank you, Jacqui, very much.
Saving a life: What you need to know about new rules for CPR.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Brazil's president has offered an asylum to an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, that according to Brazil's state- run media. The report quotes President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva as saying he wants Iran to send the woman to Brazil. The 43-year-old mother of two is facing possible death by stoning after being convicted of adultery in 2006. Brazil helped broker a deal this year that would provide Iran with uranium for medical research.
Meantime in Turkey, women's rights activists say there's an epidemic of domestic violence. A recent study says four out of 10 Turkish women in Turkey are beaten by their husbands.
Ivan Watson has the story of a young mother brutally tortured and the hunt for her abusive husband.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hamide Yeni is on a hunt, pounding down the dirt roads of this remote village in eastern Turkey, looking for the man who Turkish authorities say beat his wife and put her in the hospital twice in less than 12 months.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON: "Have you seen Faruk?" she asks the village mayor's daughter. "He disappeared with his car."
"No one has seen him," the woman replies.
The man Yeni is looking for is Faruk Platin, filmed here several months ago with his two children and his 30-year-old wife, Sidika. This was Sidika outside a hospital last September, almost unrecognizable because of bruises and the bandages that doctors put on her ear after part of it was sliced off.
A court sentenced Sidika's husband to 15 months in prison for assault, but officials say he did not serve any jail time because he, quote, "showed remorse." Sidika also dropped the charges against him. So, after two months at a state-run women's shelter, the prosecutor sent her and her children back to live with her husband.
Women's rights activists, like Hamide Yeni, say they watched helplessly as Faruk took his wife back to his village.
"This kind of thing is happening in every village," Yeni tells me. "There are thousands of women like Sidika out there."
In fact, according to a 2009 government report, 42 percent of Turkish women surveyed say they have been victims of either physical or sexual abuse by their husband or partner. Despite progressive laws to combat domestic abuse, activists point out: there are only 52 state-run shelters for battered women in the entire country.
PINAR ILKKARACAN, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Because there's a lack of will on the part of the government to implement the laws, to have a program, a coordinated action program to stop violence against women, and also training -- training for judges and prosecutors, which is missing.
WATSON: Not long after Sidika moved back home, neighbors and one village official say there were fresh signs of trouble.
(on camera): Social services workers, security forces and volunteers repeatedly came here to Sidika Platin's house to answer reports that she was being repeatedly beaten. And in nearly every case, her husband ordered them off his property and frequently denied them access to his wife.
It wasn't until she was hospitalized for the second time in two years that doctors found such extensive wounds across her body that they believe she was tortured.
(voice-over): Doctors say she arrived in the hospital on July 15th in a catatonic state, covered with fresh bruises and burns.
Sidika's mother has little hope her daughter will ever recover.
"That man has been beating my daughter since the day she put on her wedding dress," she says. "I wish he killed her long ago to save her all of the suffering."
Turkish police now have an arrest warrant out for Sidika's husband. But activist Hamide Yeni says that just isn't good enough.
"The state is guilty, the system is guilty," she says, "because it failed to protect the victim."
Ivan Watson, CNN, Kapikoy, in eastern Turkey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Checking top stories now.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he's appalled by the leak of sensitive documents on the war in Afghanistan. Seventy-six thousand documents appeared on the WikiLeaks Web site this week. Gates says it puts the lives of those who helped U.S. forces in danger. The Justice Department will decide if anyone will face criminal charges. The Army private accused of leaking the documents is being held in solitary confinement.
NASA is deciding on the next step after a cooling pump failure set off the alarms on the International Space Station, but they're stressing that the three Americans and three Russians on board are in no danger. They may have to make a couple of space walks this week, though, to fix the problem. The problem forced NASA to shut down some of the communication and position units aboard the station.
Chelsea Clinton is a married woman and the pictures of the wedding have been released. The former first daughter wed investment banker Marc Mezvinsky Saturday or yesterday, I should say, in Upstate New York. Journalists and onlookers gathered in the small town of Rhinebeck just to get a glimpse of the dignitaries and celebrities on hand for that big event.
You could save a life. It could happen anywhere at any time. Someone falls to the ground in apparent cardiac arrest and needs CPR. Two new studies say skipping the mouth-to-mouth part may be helpful in saving lives.
Josh Levs is here with an expert who's going to talk us through it -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm here with the Benjamin Karp, who's the founder and president of Georgia CPR. He's actually going to talk to us about what these new rules are on CPR because it could happen to any one of us, as you were just saying, any day. And we have the help of, course, what you need when you're learning CPR, a dummy. And this one is really cool because it has lights telling you if you're doing it right.
So, Ben, thanks for being here.
BEN KARP, PRES., GEORGIA CPR: Thank you very much for having me.
LEVS: All right. So, let's first talk quickly about the study so we understand. The idea here is that what these two new studies say is that sometimes if you skip -- that if you are skipping the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the numbers are showing you probably have just as good a chance of saving a life.
KARP: Yes. The studies suggest it's all about the compressions. It's all about the compressions. If you're uncomfortable doing the breaths, do the compressions only. If you witness an adult collapse, immediately call 911 and start pressing on the chest hard and fast.
LEVS: It's all about the compressions.
All right. Now, there are some exceptions, we'll talk about that. If it's a child drowning victim.
Let's get right to this dummy because I want you to teach me how to do this right. KARP: OK. Absolutely. So --
LEVS: We're going to get down, but one thing that I find interesting is you're actually aiming for the sternum, right? You're not trying to figure out where the heart is, right?
KARP: Absolutely. You're going to trace a line between the nipples. Put the heel of your palm -- go ahead, you can take your right hand, whichever hand you like.
LEVS: So, I'll use my right hand here, right in the middle of the chest, right?
KARP: Absolutely. Now, take your under hand, interlace your fingers.
LEVS: OK. Interlock my fingers.
KARP: Yes, absolutely.
LEVS: OK.
KARP: And don't be too shy. It's not going to hurt you.
LEVS: OK.
KARP: OK. Lock your elbows.
LEVS: Lock my elbows.
KARP: And scoot up your shoulders directly over your hands.
LEVS: Directly over my hands like this.
KARP: Yes, lock your elbows.
LEVS: Because you want -- the idea here is you want to give it as much vertical downward pressure as you possibly can, right?
KARP: Absolutely. You want to use your weight to do the work.
LEVS: OK. And there's a certain rhythm you're supposed to do.
KARP: Absolutely.
LEVS: -- which is "Stayin' Alive," cue the music.
KARP: Absolutely.
LEVS: All right. Now, I'm saying, you're supposed to go
KARP: Absolutely. But we're going to have to do it a lot harder. That's the key. So, you're going to see the light flared up.
LEVS: Push way hard down.
KARP: Absolutely.
LEVS: So, you're not worried breaking a rib cage. So, give it all the pressure you've got?
KARP: Yes.
Here we go. Boom, boom, boom.
LEVS: Every beat?
KARP: Absolutely. See how fast? A little faster. Faster.
(CROSSTALK)
KARP: Correct. Faster. Harder. There you go.
LEVS: OK. So, now, how do I know if I'm doing it right?
KARP: Well, the person is not going to do anything. Unfortunately, CPR is a holding pattern until we get a defibrillator on the scene. In this particular mannequin, you're going to get two green lights if you're pushing hard enough and fast enough. So, that's the important thing about the training.
LEVS: All right. Now, traditionally, when I was growing up, I first learned CPR. The idea was that you do a certain number of these and then you go switch to breaths.
KARP: Certainly.
LEVS: If we're talking about doing compressions only, what do you look for? How do you know if it's even helping? Will an eye open? Will something move? Will you feel something? Will there be breath?
KARP: Probably nothing, unfortunately. Without a defibrillator, what we're trying to do is keep the brain alive. We're priming the heart for the shock of the defibrillator. This is really important, but not in the way it's portrayed on TV. We're not going to see anything going on.
So, once you start -- the really important thing -- once you start pushing on the chest, don't stop until they say, "Ouch, get out of me."
LEVS: Really?
KARP: Show an obvious sign of recovery.
LEVS: You mean, just keep doing this continuously.
KARP: Keep doing it. There's no break.
LEVS: OK. I'm going to keep doing this.
KARP: OK. LEVS: I'm going to show you all afterwards where you can see this yourself. So, the idea is boom, boom.
KARP: Faster, faster. Yes.
LEVS: Our Elizabeth Cohen with our medical unit, she told me you can also do it to the beast of "Another One Bites the Dust," which is an ironic title.
(CROSSTALK)
KARP: You probably don't sing that out lout in an emergency.
LEVS: Right. That's the last thing anyone wants to hear.
OK. So, the idea is you're giving it all the pressure, vertical pressure you can. You want to get it moving again. And statistically now, what we're seeing is that even without the mouth-to-mouth, you still have as good a shot in many cases.
But there are exceptions, let's talk about those.
KARP: Yes.
LEVS: Because you don't want to leave it hanging this is always best.
KARP: Sure.
LEVS: If it's a child, right? If it's a drowning victim, tell me these exceptions.
KARP: OK. So, if it's a child, a drowning victim, choking, asthma, the key to the hands-on is if you witness an adult collapse, the hands-on is really for that. Or if you're really unsure about the breaths, the hands-on are way better than doing nothing at all.
LEVS: What if you don't witness it? What if, you know, you're in a restaurant, someone screams, "Does anyone know CPR?" You come around and the person is already on the ground. You don't know if they're asthmatic. You don't know if they got something --
(CROSSTALK)
KARP: Absolutely.
LEVS: Should you still do in your view, you still be doing mouth-to-mouth?
KARP: Right. It's not my view. According to the American Heart Association, if you're trained and you're OK, you're confident on the breaths, go ahead and do the breaths.
LEVS: OK.
KARP: If you're not, if you're unsure, apprehensive like a lot of us are, which is fair, just do the compressions only.
LEVS: OK. While, I'm doing my best here, you're the expert -- before we go, I want all of you are viewers to see you do it.
KARP: OK.
LEVS: Get in position and he's going to give it all the vertical pressure he can.
KARP: Absolutely.
LEVS: Hands interlocked, boom, go. OK. OK. No time to talk. All right. I can feel the beat right there.
KARP: OK. You got it.
LEVS: Now, I want all of you to know, you can actually get a step-by-step guide to how to do what he's doing, it's all up at CNNHealth.com. And, seriously, there's the possibility we know as we talk to you all right now, one of you might be seeing this, might learn it, and might ultimately save a life. In the end, that is the goal.
Thank you so much, Ben Karp.
KARP: Thank you very much. I appreciate you having me.
LEVS: All right.
Randi, back to you.
KAYE: Josh and the Bee Gees saving lives. I love it.
LEVS: Well, that song.
KAYE: Love that. That's great. Nicely done.
We are still awaiting the press conference with Doug Suttles, BP's COO. It was supposed to happen, oh, about an hour ago. He was touring Venice, Louisiana, today -- probably taking a look at how much surface oil there still is. As soon as it happens, we will bring it to you live right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Dutch troops are pulling out of Afghanistan. The Netherlands becomes the first NATO ally to do that. The U.S. is scheduled to start withdrawing some troops next summer. It's becoming an increasingly unpopular war and a more deadly one. Sixty-six U.S. troops were killed just last month. The president's war strategy is fueling a lot of talk and getting praise from a prominent Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Here's what I worry about: that there are some Republicans who are not going to take a, you know, do-or-die attitude for Obama's war. There are some Republicans that want to make this Obama's war. You saw some of Michael Steele's comments.
There will be some Republicans saying you can't win because of the July 2011's withdrawal date, he's made it impossible for us to win, so why should we throw good money after bad? Why should more lives be lost in a hopeless cause because Obama screwed it up?
You've got people on the left who are mad with the president because he is doing exactly what Bush did and we're in a war we can't win.
My concern is that, for different reasons, they join forces and we lose the ability to hold this thing together. Do I think the president has the stomach for it? Yes, I do. He's got a political problem. But we've got a national security problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: Earlier today on CNN, a powerful Democrat said he sees the planned troop drawdown as a psychological boost to the Afghan people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: The most important thing that's happening as far as I'm concerned is that the Afghan army is well respected, is now going to be taking the lead. And these are very important words for the American public to understand, that in this effort that's going on right now near Kandahar, the valley, that the Afghan troops are in the lead there. And when their own people see that, it is going to make a difference. And when the Taliban sees that they're not able now to just paint this as a foreign -- a lot of foreign troops present in Afghanistan, but now it's their own Afghan army, a popular, respected army, that they are taking on more and more during this next year, that that's going to make a difference. That is a real nightmare for the Taliban to be up against an Afghan-led effort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And beginning Monday, injured soldiers, critical care, now the journey home. In a CNN exclusive, Barbara Starr shares amazing stories of wounded Americans returning home from Afghanistan. "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer starting Monday at 5:00 Eastern is where you'll find those stories.
Political wrangling will take center stage in Washington this week. There's plenty of big issues on the table as Congress gets ready to take a break. But there's also a few political road shows worth watching. We get the rundown from CNN deputy political editor Paul Steinhauser.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Randi. Election fever heats up again this week as four states, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Tennessee, hold primaries. Keep an eye on competitive Republican gubernatorial contest in Michigan and a tough GOP senate battle in Kansas. With three months to go until November's midterm elections, both parties are picking up the pace and raising big bucks. President Barack Obama plays the role of fundraiser in chief this week, headlining an event in Atlanta on Monday for the Democratic Party and he's the main attraction at a bash for his birthday on Wednesday in Chicago which is doubling as a party fund- raiser.
This is the Senate's last week before summer recess. Senators are expected to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court and James Clapper as director of national intelligence. Democrats will also try to pass a scaled-down energy bill and funding for states to pay for Medicaid and prevent teacher layoffs. But it's likely these bills may fail due to Republican opposition. And finally, Friday the most important number right now in politics. We'll find out July's unemployment rate as the Labor Department releases the monthly jobs report. Randi?
KAYE: Thank you, Paul.
STEINHAUSER: It could be months before we know how the legal battle over Arizona's new immigration law is resolved. Earlier this week, a federal judge blocked key provisions of the controversial measure. A hearing on an appeal of that injunction is scheduled for November. Meanwhile, those for and against the measure are speaking out. Listen to what Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said today on CBS's "Face the Nation."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: I think the court's decision was wrong. The governor and legislative leaders have talked about possibly tweaking, to use their phrase, the law to see if they can obviate the concerns the judge expressed. I don't think they can because her decision was very sweeping. I think it more likely that Congress could act to actually fix the problem both by reaffirming that it is Congress's intent that the law be enforced rather than having the administration decide that they don't want to thoroughly enforce the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: As you can imagine, the head of the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund took a different view.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS SAENZ, MEXICAN-AMERICAN LEGEL DEFENSE FUND: I think that whenever you enact something that requires police officers as SB-1070 would have done, to engage in stereotyping, to engage in racial profiling, acting on what they understand to be the undocumented profile, that's going to result in discrimination against Latinos and others who may appear to be foreign or may appear to be immigrant immigrants. So in that very practical sense it is an anti-Latino law.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KAYE: The debate over Arizona's SB-1070 is also taking place within Hispanic families in Arizona and they're not all on the same page. Our Dan Simon talks to one family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 33 years, the Kingery Family has made Friday night taco night. All seven of Josephine and Ed's grown children try to be here each week, along with 11 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
IDA KINGERY, DAUGHTER: And we also bring our friends over so they can meet our family. And there's a lot of people that aren't Hispanic that are our friends that come and they see how tight we are with our family.
SIMON: But on this night, there is division.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got five for it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And if you're against it, raise your hand.
SIMON: This large Hispanic-American family finds itself split on the anti-illegal immigration law that has rocked this state.
Eddie marched this week with the protesters.
(on camera): You're worried it's going to lead to a lot of racial profiling?
EDDIE KINGERY, AGAINST SB 1070: I do. I mean, honestly, I do. I think it happens -- I mean, it's so easy to see the color of skin. The color of skin is just such an easy way to say, hey, they're probably here illegally.
I. KINGERY: It's going to be a little bit rough going. But, you know, I just feel that it's going to be the best thing for Arizona.
SIMON (voice-over): Ida Kingery is the oldest siblings. Racial profiling? Maybe, she says, but something needed to be done.
(on camera): How do you think it is going to help? How is it going to solve the immigration problem?
I. KINGERY: I think that once the law is passed, it will give a little bit of ease, you know, for the people that are non-Hispanic. It's going to make them feel a little more comfortable because right now they think that all the immigrants that are coming in are coming in as criminals, and they're not all criminals.
SIMON (voice-over): For those here on the pro side, their arguments turned to health care and education. Liz says she's concerned how tax- supported services can be overwhelmed by illegal immigrants. LIZ KINGERY, SUPPORTS SB 1070: Current immigration problem is affecting the state of Arizona's economy, the medical and benefits for social security and our education.
SIMON: On the other side of the table --
E. KINGERY: It's really turned the Mexican people into being like the villains. Like, they're blaming us for the economy or blaming them for the, you know --
L. KINGERY: But it is affecting the economy.
E. KINGERY: It is but, it's not --
L. KINGERY: It's the medical they're getting that may not --
(CROSSTALK)
L. KINGERY: -- the education, all of it.
SIMON: But no matter how heated their arguments get, they'll always be back the following Friday for taco night and the family celebrations that have made this evening special for more than three decades. Dan Simon, CNN, Phoenix.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Coming up, the hottest videos on the Internet. Josh Levs is back with those. What do we have today, Josh?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Randi, people in the music industry always looking for ways to stand out, right? So how about this guy? He pretty much takes any dare, including rapping while jumping out of an airplane. That's coming up.
Plus, we've got an adorable video of babies and lemons that I know you're going to love.
And did you know that there is now robotic parking on both coasts of the United States? I'm going to show you all that right after this.
(COMMERCIAL REAK)
KAYE: Here's an update on our top stories right now. A new congressional report on the Gulf oil cleanup says the Coast Guard let BP use an excessive amount of chemicals. Congressman Edward Markey says the company carpet bombed the Gulf with the dispersants. Responding to the report, the Environmental Protection Agency says the chemicals have helped limit the disaster's impact.
Police have captured one of three escaped killers from an Arizona prison. Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Renwick was caught early this morning in Rifle, Colorado. He and Tracy Province and John McCluskey escaped from the prison Friday. Province and McCluskey are still on the run tonight. They are believed to be driving a silver Volkswagen Jetta. And if you're flying on Spirit Airlines, get ready to pay more if you have a carry-on bag. That's right, as of today, it costs Spirit passengers 30 bucks to put a carry on bag in the overhead bin and that fee goes up if you don't plan ahead. If you wait to pay at the gate for that bag, you'll have to pay $15 more, 45 bucks.
And now the moment I know I've been waiting for all weekend long. It's time for "Viral Videos" with Josh Levs. Yes.
LEVS: As soon as I saw you were coming, I was OK, what can I pull out for Randi? I've been saving one for you.
KAYE: All right, let's see it.
LEVS: I know that you are a fan of the adorable. I mean, who isn't, right? Number one viral video I've got to show you today, babies tasting lemons for the first time. Take a look. You've got to see this thing. Let's watch.
KAYE: That one is great.
LEVS: People are loving this. It's from actually youtube.com/grandparents, which gives you this website, grandparents.com. They have all this awesome videos. The reactions are varied but pretty much you can tell it looks like lemons are an acquired taste. Of course the music, "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verge.
KAYE: Yes, very cool. I like it.
LEVS: I knew you'd like it. All right. Score so far. check it out, more than 140,000 viewers on this one since it posted last September.
KAYE: I love the eyes. Right away they squint the eyes, very cute.
LEVS: Well, it kind of makes you want to go home and feed my baby a little bit of lemon.
KAYE: I don't know why they're feeding them lemon though.
LEVS: OK, so here's something that you're never going to see. That you could see, a kid tasting lemon. Here's something you'll probably never see. You want to see a dog driving a lawn mower?
KAYE: Sure.
LEVS: All right, take a look. Who wouldn't love that, right? Here it is. Watch what happens.
KAYE: Oh, boy. Whoa!
LEVS: All right, it sounds like we've got to pull out of some of these awesome videos because I believe we have that news conference we've been waiting for. KAYE: We do. Doug Suttles, COO of BP right there in Venice, Louisiana.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: And every day is getting better. There's still a lot to do. There's still a lot of activities. Here in Venice alone, we have over 2,000 people working on the response right now. And there still are areas to clean. There's still oil on the water to pick up. And I just stress we're going to be here doing that until the job is completely done. Once that's done, we've got to focus on the restoration activities. We're going to be here for a very, very long time. I know people are worried about that, now that the well has stopped flowing, will we pack up and go? And the answer is clearly no, we're not going to do that.
Offshore we continue to make progress. We're running the casing in the relief well just now. We'll be cementing that casing later on tonight and into tomorrow. We've got the equipment all hooked up to perform the static kill. And once we get the casing run and cemented, we'll actually perform that operation. Once we get also the go ahead from Admiral Allen, so right now the current forecast is, is we'll do that activity on Tuesday.
After that, we still have to finish the relief well. We'll still have to go and intercept this well bore. That's on track for about the middle of August. Clearly we had some setback from Tropical Storm Bonnie, but I think all along we've said sometime in the first half of August, and it still looks like we'll achieve that. So overall it is encouraging to see out there. There's still a lot to do and there's a lot of activity. We still have tens of thousands of people working on the spill. We have thousands of boats and almost 100 aircraft still working on this because there's still a lot of activity.
But clearly we're almost three weeks actually since the last oil came out of this well into the ocean and that is making a difference. And the efforts by all the people you see working here and right across the Gulf Coast are also making a big difference. And I just want to thank them, because you guys know what it's like. This is summertime in the Gulf Coast and it's hot out here. And the folks who are responding to this spill are doing this every single day out in the heat. So with that I'll just stop and happy to take any of your questions.
QUESTION: Are you going to begin the process of shutting the well down permanently on Monday or you're going to start it on Tuesday?
SUTTLES: Well, the current forecast on the static kill is that that operation -- it can't begin until we get the casing run and cemented in the relief well and that's ongoing as we speak. Once that's finished, we'll be ready to do the static kill. The current forecast it looks like is Tuesday right now.
QUESTION: Can you guarantee them there's not any environmental effects from the dispersants?
SUTTLES: Well, you know, the use of dispersants, it's been a really important tool in the fight but clearly it's created a lot of concern as well. Ourselves, EPA and others have been taking samples in the water column. It's part of the protocols when we use these to see if there are any negative effects to these thing, any issues about toxicity, for instance.
I'll also remind you that we set up this Gulf research initiative, which is $500 million spent over a decade to look at the long-term impacts from the spill. So we'll have efforts there to not only look at the short term but the long term. And so we're going to keep doing that. We're going to keep doing that. Right now we haven't seen anything that causes -- that shows us to be concerned, but we're going to keep looking.
QUESTION: Can you guarantee the people that it's going to be safe?
SUTTLES: Well, I can't guarantee that because I don't know. What I can guarantee is we're going to look for it, we are going to study it and we're going to look at the impacts. We're going to see if we find it in the water column and if it's creating problems in the water column. And if it is, we'll have to do something about that.
QUESTION: The congressman in Massachusetts basically said that BP carpet bombed the ocean with the dispersants and did so with working hand in hand with the Coast Guard. Your reaction to that, did you guys do too much despite what the EPA said?
SUTTLES: Well, you know, we worked very, very closely in unified command, and that includes the Coast Guard, BP, people like the EPA, NOAA, other agencies on what the right response was.
Dispersants were only one tool. There were very, very rigorous protocols we had to follow. We had to apply for permission to apply them. It was based on surveillance data. The federal on-scene coordinator, the Coast Guard, has to formally approve those. Some days they approved our request, other days they didn't and they reduced our request. The EPA actually as you know asked us to try to do everything we could to minimize it. I think we reduced the volumes by almost I think over 70 percent in fact.
So I think we all worked hard to not use any more than we could to, but I would say it was a very effective tool in helping fight the spill. These are all trade-offs and one of the things we didn't see happen was it reach the shoreline and dispersants were effective in that.
QUESTION: So your reaction to the congressman saying you all basically carpet bombed them?
SUTTLES: What we did is what ourselves and the unified command coast guard and others felt was the appropriate amount. And we continue to modify that approach as we went. QUESTION: Mr. Suttles, just to follow up on the dispersant issue, as you know just the last several days Louisiana has opened its coastline to commercial fishing. I'm just curious, would you eat the seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico given the volume of oil and volume of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico? Would you allow your loved ones to eat seafood coming out of there?
SUTTLES: I absolutely would. There's been a tremendous amount of testing done by NOAA and the state agencies and the FDA and others. They're not going to open these waters to either sport fishing or commercial fishing if it's not safe to eat the fish. I have a lot of confidence in those agencies and I trust their agencies and I would eat their food, the seafood out of the Gulf here and I would feed it to my family.
QUESTION: You don't think this industry is permanently damaged?
SUTTLES: I don't believe so. And we want to do everything we can to help them. I hope that we're slowly on the road to recovery. We've got to finish the response. We want to get this place back where it was before the spill.
QUESTION: Are you working in timing with the opening of the fishing as well as -- to make sure fishermen don't get large numbers before they have a situation --
SUTTLES: Well, the vessels of opportunity, one thing everyone should know, they have been a real important part of the response. They have been out there helping us fight the fight. They do everything from transport goods to do medical runs. They actually help rescue wildlife, they skim for oil, they collect boom, they set out boom, they do many, many important tasks in here.
Of course one of the reasons you like to use that program is because these are people impacted by the spill and it helps them offset the impacts. The other thing, of course, these are people who know these waters. We have a very strong bias to use commercial folks first because it's affecting their living, but they're also professional mariners as well.
What we want to do is if we have a chance between a vu vessel and a commercial vessel, we want to use a vu vessel because that's the right thing to do here. Our vu program has always been driven by the operational requirements. It's gone up, it's gone down and it will continue to do so but clearly like everyone I want to see the waters open to fishing as soon as we can and I know these people want to get out and fish again and I hope they can.
QUESTION: Is it difficult to find oil on the surface since the temporary cap went into place but there's still concern about the oil underneath the water. You don't have an estimate at this point on the amount of oil that's still unacted for?
SUTTLES: No, I don't have an estimate on how much might be down there but we're looking for it. We haven't found any real indication of anything in quantities. We're taking water samples offshore all the way down to up to 5,000 feet in the water column. We've set out materials near shore down through the water column near shore to see if we see any oil there. So we are looking for it. Right now we're not seeing much. I know it's a big concern and we need to actually search for it. And if we find it, we'll have to figure out what to do with it but so far we haven't found much.
QUESTION: With regards to the bottom kill that you expect to start mid-August, how confident are you that it's going to work? Is there anything that keeps you up at night, even that concerns you? I mean, this is something that hasn't been done at this depth before. Something you all have said since the very beginning. So can you say with absolute certainty that it's going to work and that you won't have to try something else?
SUTTLES: Well, what we've got is we've got the very best experts in the industry helping us with that relief well and doing that intercept. We've done a tremendous amount of planning, the precision we're using, the care we're taking in this last section of the well, we'll only be drilling about 20 feet at a time and then measure and 20 feet and measure. So we're doing everything we can. We also have the second relief well standing by if we need it. But I actually have a lot of confidence we're going to intercept that well and we're going to be able to see if we need to do any sort of pumping operation once we do that. So I do have a lot of confidence we'll be successful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have time for one more question. Go right ahead.
QUESTION: Can you tell me why are there more people working here and there doesn't seem to be oil than there are up in Myrtle Grove where there's a lot of oil and very few people picking up.
SUTTLES: Well, I didn't go to Myrtle Grove today. I did check and ask how many people are working there. We have something like 150 people over there today and we have 20-some odd vessels over there working today. What we actually do and in fact I just met with the team inside the building here, we have reconnaissance activity, we have a situation unit, we have a planning team and these people actually look and see what we observe every day and dispatch our resources based on that.
And in the situation it does move from day to day. We have oil show up in some places. If you're near the marsh, sometimes as it warms up like it is now, some of the oil that's in the marsh will come out on the tide and we have to be there to get it so we allocate our resources. In fact Fred and the commander do that every single day. They map out what they see and put the resources where the oil is.
QUESTION: If you say you're looking --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much. Ma'am, I'm sorry, we have to go.
QUESTION: If you say you're looking for the oil, do you have a clear plan?
(END OF COVERAGE)
KAYE: And there you have it. You've been listening to Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer for BP, addressing the issue of dispersants, which we've been telling you about all afternoon here on CNN.
He says he understands there is a concern about it, they have been taking the samples and checking the negative effects. He was questioned about whether or not BP had used excessive amounts of the dispersants. He said they're looking at the short and long-term impact. He certainly didn't sound very concerned about it today. He said they reduced the amount of dispersant by about 70 percent or so. He does believe that the dispersant has helped keep the oil off the shoreline and that they have used, quote, his words, "the appropriate amount."
He also talked about oil. There has been some discussion as to whether or not the oil is even still out there. He says that they haven't received any indication of anything in quantities below the surface, which has been a concern. They're looking for it, he said, but they haven't seen much. Related to the static kill, which is the kill that will finally put this well to bed, it is scheduled for Tuesday, as he said. They're laying the casing right now and then on Tuesday they do plan to pump cement and mud from the top, from the surface down into that well. He said he's confident it will be successful.
That is it from Venice, Louisiana, for today and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: One more time we'd like to update you on that top story of the day. The dispersants that have been used in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil spill by BP, you just heard from Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, once again telling reporters there after a tour in Venice, Louisiana, that he's not very concerned about dispersants. They have been taking samples, checking the negative effects. They are looking at the long-term impact as well.
So far he says he hasn't seen anything to be concerned about. He does believe that the dispersants have worked, reducing the dispersant by 70 percent, he said, as well, that they have been doing that. He does believe that the dispersant has kept the oil from the shoreline and that they have used the appropriate amount. This really is in response to Edward Markey, the Coast Guard -- he said that the Coast Guard has actually allowed BP to use an excessive amount of the dispersant and he says that the Representative Edward Markey says that BP has, quote, "carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals," so that was BP's Doug Suttles responding to that today.
He also said they have been searching for oil. He did not find any oil in quantities, were his words, beneath the surface. They're looking for it, they haven't seen much. As far as the static kill, it is still set for Tuesday, which could kill the well. Now we want to turn it over to Don Lemon.
