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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Causes of Blackout Remain Unknown; Judge to Rule on Date of Recall Election Wednesday; West Virginia Terrorized by Sniper

Aired August 18, 2003 - 22:00   ET

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

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


AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
We found ourselves in a gentle disagreement with a viewer today over the blackout. "There is no blame. No one is at fault here. Things happen" the viewer said and in part we agree. Things to happen and it's likely no one person is at fault.

But failing to understand what actually happened last Thursday serves no one's interest and trying to understand what happened last Thursday has turned out to be a fair amount more difficult than just a lightning bolt in Niagara.

The search is where we begin the whip tonight with what we know about what happened, John Zarrella in Cleveland, Ohio, John a headline.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we may know less tonight than we did 24 hours ago, new reports emerging today that there were voltage surges or anomalies along the power grid at least three hours before those four transmission lines failed in Ohio. What, if anything, that has to do with the blackout is uncertain -- Aaron.

BROWN: Goodness, John that will get us going tonight.

The story that was pushed by the blackout for a few days at least, the California recall race, Dan Lothian in Los Angeles tonight, Dan your headline.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron the recall election will it happen in October or next spring? It's now in the hands of a federal judge who says he hopes to make a decision by Wednesday -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you. A disturbing headline considering the terror of last fall in suburban Washington, D.C., a throng of possible sniper attacks. Jeanne Meserve is in Charleston, West Virginia tonight, Jeanne a headline.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three shootings all at night, all at convenience stores, all involving a single shot to the head or neck, another sniper law authorities are trying to find out -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you. And finally, France and the number of dead revised upward today, a staggering figure of apparent victims of the heat wave, Chris Burns in Paris, Chris a headline.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, the government now says that up to 5,000 people could have died in that heat wave. The blame game has claimed its first official victim. The surgeon general in this country has resigned. We also saw some heartbreaking tragic scenes today of those who managed to survive this heat wave and the accommodations for those who didn't -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, how the murder of a Baylor University basketball player has become a consuming scandal for his former coach. We'll hear the allegations and some of the audio tapes that have surfaced over the last few days.

And, there's no blackout here as in news blackout, our nightly look at papers from around the country and around the world, that will end it all tonight but a long way to go before we get there, a busy hour ahead.

We begin with the blackout. Four days after the continent's worst power outage ever, two efforts took center stage today. The first one succeeded. The system made it through its first work day since the lights went out. The second effort to understand just why the lights went out in the first place remains very much a work in progress, though investigators have their suspicions.

At a rock concert over the weekend in Cleveland there was a woman in the audience wearing a tee shirt. "Blame Canada" it read. Chances are when the answer comes it won't be quite so simply and, in any case, the attention is being focused a bit closer to home.

We begin tonight with CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four transmission lines like these outside Cleveland, Ohio, may have been the first link to fail in the complex and massive electric grid. Investigators believe the sequence of key events began little more than one hour before the lights went out.

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator preliminary report shows the first transmission line near Akron tripped at 3:06 Eastern time. Twenty-six minutes later a second line in South Canton tripped. By 4:06 a total of three lines owned by Ohio's First Energy Corp. and a fourth co-owned line in South Canton went out. These line failures may have been the first physical sign of trouble but they may have been the consequence of other events.

First Energy says its investigation has uncovered abnormal power fluctuations in the grid as early as Noon Thursday. Soft Switching Technologies, another monitoring group, says there were fluctuations in transmission lines outside of Ohio, so it may be too soon to pin it all on the Ohio lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're part of an interconnected grid which works together so it's really the reliability of all of the interconnected utilities, the transmission lines, generators and loads that make up reliability not just a single utility.

ZARRELLA: But, once the lines went out other events appeared to follow. Investigators say at 4:08 power swings were detected in Canada and the eastern United States. Other lines began tripping. By 4:11 power plants were dropping off, Avon in Cleveland, Davis Bessie outside Toledo. The cascade of failures moved rapidly and during the next few minutes an area of 50 million people lost power.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: And despite these reports of power fluctuations, the consensus still within the industry is that Ohio may still end up, those four power lines, to be the cause and a larger question that still remains very unanswered this evening is why didn't safeguards built into the system isolate the problem area, take it out of the grid and allow the rest of the system to continue on -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, the system is designed to work around a power fluctuation, is that right?

ZARRELLA: That's right, Aaron. It should work around. If everything is working, if alarms are going off and information is being passed. Now, recall alarms did not go off at the plants and in this particular area in Ohio at First Energy so there was a problem with getting information relayed out as to what might have been happening.

So, that may end up to be a contributing factor as well but, yes, isolating the areas is part of the technology so that the rest of the system does not come down -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, John, John Zarrella in Cleveland, Ohio tonight.

Looking back we're struck that two grids, not one, were sorely tested in the blackout, electrical and human, one broke the other bent. People are just funny that way I suppose. They adapt.

Today for the most part in most places the machinery caught up with them, CNN's Jason Carroll now with that side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nation's largest transit system was back on track as thousands of commuters, like Deborah L. Hara (ph) headed back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We survived it. We're safe, thankfully. Thank God for all the lights.

CARROLL: New York's subways ran on time, so did commuter trains. The city's mayor is forming a task force to explore what didn't run so well during the outage, namely communications with EMS dispatchers.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: Nothing is ever going to work perfectly but you have to be able to spot a problem and then have a plan to go fix it.

CARROLL: New York health officials warn people to watch what they eat. A spike in food related illnesses may be linked to spoiled food. While in Detroit, contaminated water was the problem over the weekend, problem solved.

VICTOR MERCADO, DETROIT WATER AND SEWER DEPARTMENT: The water is safe to drink.

CARROLL: Businesses are just beginning to add up the cost of being left in the dark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll probably end up throwing about anywhere about $40,000 to $50,000 worth of product.

CARROLL: Some businesses in Cleveland were overcoming glitches and here water was still a problem.

MAYOR JANE CAMPBELL, CLEVELAND: The only remaining problem that we have is that the beaches are not safe to swim in because there was a sewer overflow as a result of the electrical system not functioning internally to the sewer treatment plant.

CARROLL: The beaches could remain closed for the next few days but people are likely to be talking about the blackout longer than that. Back in New York some say what happened is just part of life in the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a native New Yorker and this was a typical New York experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just another typical day in the life of New York.

CARROLL: And life it seems is getting back to normal.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, perhaps it wasn't quite typical.

Jeff Kluger is here. He's a senior writer for "Time." He writes about science. We're glad to see him again. A couple of quick things, then we'll get into the big issues. Can you explain to me what a line failure and a power fluctuation is?

JEFF KLUGER, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: A line failure is actually exactly what it sounds like. It's an absolute collapse of a portion of the system, even if it's just an infinitesimal part of the system. A power fluctuation is a surge. It's sort of the grid's equivalent of a pick up in respiration or blood pressure.

BROWN: Is it too many people turning on their air-conditioning at one time?

KLUGER: Well, that's always a part of it. That certainly is a big part of it. Remember the output system is responsive to the demands so the more we're pulling on it, the harder we're pulling on it the more the system works. Again, the analogy of the circulatory system is a good one. The heart rate picks up to feed the muscles when they need oxygen.

BROWN: But as we understand this now this is not a problem of supply. This is not -- we ought not get into a discussion about whether there are enough power plants generating enough electricity in the country because that's not what this was about, correct?

KLUGER: Exactly. That's exactly right. It's one of the few situations in the last 30 years since the first energy crunch in 1974 when the relevant question isn't do we have enough juice. There is enough juice.

The problem is do we have the systems in place to transmit that juice from one place to another and a lot of what's behind that is less scientific or less technological than it is political and regulatory.

The caps on investment dividend payouts for transmission lines have been at around 11 percent, regulated at 11 percent for the last ten, 15 years and, as a result, that's kept, that's taken the incentive off of building transmission systems.

BROWN: Let me play that back.

KLUGER: Sure.

BROWN: It is more profitable for me as an electricity boss to build a generating plant than it is to build a transmission line to deliver that juice to your home?

KLUGER: That's exactly right and the fact is since the 1990s the demand for power has increased 30 percent and the amount of power has increase commensurately but the delivery system has increased only about ten percent so we have a lot of juice coming down the lines and getting clogged in systems that can't handle it.

BROWN: And when we get into a discussion as we did on Thursday night about whether regulation or deregulation is in play here, in fact one part of the business is much deregulated the generation of power.

KLUGER: That's right.

BROWN: The other side is the distribution side.

KLUGER: Right.

BROWN: What's regulated is that right?

KLUGER: Exactly. That's what's highly regulated and the question is do you add a little regulation on the production end to bring it back into balance? Do you lower the regulation on the distribution end? There's a lot of questions involved in that but clearly there's a disparity and that was the key thing responsible for the meltdown.

BROWN: OK, now, assuming for a minute that everything we now know turns out to be in fact true.

KLUGER: Right.

BROWN: That there were these anomalies that went on an hour, three hours before this, that and another thing. Is it human error that failed in the end? Is the system set up so that if that line goes down in Canton, Ohio, somebody throws the switch in the Bronx and isolates the Bronx?

KLUGER: Right. Well, it's a very, very complicated question and the answer isn't neither yes nor no. It's sort of yes to everything. As test pilots will tell you there's no such thing as a single catastrophic failure that ever brings down an airplane.

It's 10,000 tiny little things operating sequentially all of which have to go wrong for the plane to crash. That's similar to what happened last week. There were 10,000 different system moments that sort of fell the wrong way in sequence.

BROWN: But once it starts is it possible to interrupt those 10,000 moments?

KLUGER: Absolutely.

BROWN: Or are they destined to all fall in line?

KLUGER: No, they're not at all destined. I think if we think of, you know, flicking out the middle domino of a cascading line of dominoes, if you get that out. Another analogy is a firebreak. If you build a firebreak you can stop it and that's what the system is designed to do.

You know they use the verb islanding when you island these sites that have problems or isolate the sites that aren't yet having problems. Basically, the idea is sequestering the problem or separating the problem and the area that's functioning in order to prevent a cascade.

BROWN: Did you do a lot of learning this week?

KLUGER: A great deal, became a temporary expert in 48 hours.

BROWN: We all did. Thanks for coming in.

KLUGER: Nice to be here.

BROWN: It's always good to have you on the program. Thank you, Jeff.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the recall in court, one more chapter in this crazy store why the election could be canceled or delayed. I think that's more likely.

And, candidate Bill Simon joins us as well, one of the Republicans running.

And, the heat wave in France claims another 2,000 victims, that's 5,000 now, that and much more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: With 50 days to go until the recall election in California, Governor Gray Davis got a major celebrity endorsement. It came from Sybil Shepherd. "The governor" she said "is a great kisser," at least he was 36 years ago on a beach in Hawaii when he was 24 and she was 16. Hey, this is important stuff, the governance of the country's largest state is on the line.

Lesser news was made in federal court, here again CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): After hearing some two hours of arguments, a federal judge says he may rule by Wednesday whether the recall election will go forward in October or be delayed until March. The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, says without more time eight million votes in six California counties will be disenfranchised. Their votes may not be counted.

MARK ROSENBAUM, ACLU: That's a violation of the most basic principle that everybody's vote counts in a democracy and everyone's vote is to be counted in a democracy.

LOTHIAN: The problem these certified punch card machines considered to be faulty must be used in the upcoming recall election. New technology mandated by court ruling won't be online by October. The ACLU says this is a case about political equality but the state argues concerns about problems are simply speculation. Recall advocates agree.

CHARLES DIAMOND, RECALL ADVOCATE: I think that's a phony issue. It was a phony issue to get into court and to try to make constitutional arguments that I don't think will carry the day.

LOTHIAN: As the judge weighs evidence the campaign trail heats up. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon hit the airwaves with a radio ad, attacking Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for remarks made by top economic adviser Warren Buffett. Last Friday Buffet said that California's Proposition 13 had lowered property taxes too much. Simon sensed an opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now, Arnold Schwarzenegger's team wants to triple our property taxes which just goes to show you don't send a liberal to do a tax fighter's job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Schwarzenegger quickly released a statement expressing his "unequivocal support for Prop 13." The actor is also preparing to hit the small screen as a politician. Sources familiar with the campaign tell CNN, TV ads are set to roll out in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Wednesday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: Aaron, now we wait to see what the judge will decide. If what happened in court is any indication it appears that the judge is leaning towards leaving that October date in place, why? Well, the judge seemed to have plenty of questions for the ACLU, peppering the ACLU with questions, having very few questions for the state -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you very much, Dan Lothian in Los Angeles tonight.

Consider now the plight of the non-Schwarzenegger candidates. Not only do they not have the spotlight shining on them all the time, they also have the burden of a record or a stand on real issues.

Bill Simon is one of them. He lost to Governor Davis last fall, the polls showing him in trouble again but he says he is in it to the end. At least we assume he will say that when we ask him that question in just a moment. We're pleased to have Mr. Simon with us tonight, nice to see you sir.

BILL SIMON (R), CALIFORNIA GOV. CANDIDATE: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Any pressure to get out of the race?

SIMON: No, not yet.

BROWN: Not yet but maybe?

SIMON: Well, we'll see but I'm staying in so I'm looking forward to running a good hard race, Aaron, until the very end.

BROWN: Who is it in Mr. Schwarzenegger's team that has suggested raising property taxes or tripling property taxes?

SIMON: Well, Mr. Buffett last week came out and made a statement to "The Wall Street Journal" that he believed that property taxes were too low in California and specifically used as an example his own home in Omaha, Nebraska versus the home that he owns in Laguna Beach, and when you look at the differential he would be suggesting something well in excess actually of three times.

It's interesting, Aaron, because at that point I was actually campaigning up north in Red Bluff and I was at a Subway shop, a sandwich shop, and a number of people came up to me and said can this be right? You have somebody suggesting that we should have higher taxes?

I mean I think our people in California have high enough taxes already. I think it's about time for the government up in Sacramento to tighten its belt as opposed to punishing our people one more time for their own mistake.

BROWN: How many -- let's talk about the problems in the state, at least broadly. How much of the budget deficit, the $38 billion, how much of the electric problem of a year ago, how much of that is actually the fault of the governor or the political machines in play in California and how much of that is either circumstance or business or the federal government or the economy generally?

SIMON: Well, Aaron, honestly you have to separate out that $38 billion deficit from the electric problem. The electric problem actually caused separately approximately a $10 billion on a cash flow basis for the state and then on a long term basis, meaning long term contracts entered into by the state cost the people of our great state about $25 billion.

The $38 billion deficit in an of itself is a spending problem meaning that the spending over the course of the last four years has increased at the rate of 40 percent approximately while the underlying rate of growth has increased at about 20 percent.

So, purely and simply, it's a problem of spending, 44,000 new employees hired during Gray Davis' administration, in fact 11,000 hired since he instituted a hiring freeze, some hiring freeze.

BROWN: Mr. Simon, I assume that some of those employees are public school teachers. Some of them are policemen and prison guards. Some of them are librarians, what have you. They're not people necessarily sitting around doing nothing so who are you going to fire?

SIMON: Well, look at it this way, Aaron, what I'm going to do my very first day is institute a statewide audit of state government. Every inch of government will be audited. We already have 35 instances of fraud, waste, and mismanagement.

We're not talking about teachers here or firemen or policemen, all of whom are essential to the well being of our great state. But, what we are talking about, for example, is the $7.8 million payroll at U.S. Merced. One thing U.C. Merced doesn't exist at this point, there is no campus.

BROWN: Well, you solved $7 million, $8 million of $38 billion. Can you honestly say to the people of California that you can solve a $38 billion deficit by simply cutting services?

SIMON: You know right now there was an agreement reached two weeks ago, Aaron, with respect to the $38 billion deficit. It was really more of a surrender than a solution. It was $17 billion in borrowing, some one time gimmicks and effects, some tax increases and very small $3 billion in actual cuts. Right now we're looking at a $9 billion structural deficit. Everybody agrees with that number and that $9 billion number is going to be in effect every single year now as far as the eye can see.

So, it's really a $9 billion problem that we have to solve right now and, yes, I believe we can solve that problem just with cuts, tightening the belt with a state audit looking for fraud, waste, and mismanagement.

And then on my first day, I will also call each and every head of every government agency into my office and say we've got to cut the size of your department. Please come up with a plan within 30 days.

BROWN: Final question is Mr. Schwarzenegger really a Republican in your view?

SIMON: We don't know. Aaron, honestly, we haven't heard much from Mr. Schwarzenegger in terms of where he stands on the important issues that face our state. You know we need to have a series of debates. We need to make sure that our people see where all their candidates stand, not just Mr. Schwarzenegger but Mr. Bustamante and others.

People know where Bill Simon stands, limited government, local in nature, school systems that teach our kids and that are accountable and a reliable and affordable quality of life with roads, water, and power that we can all be proud of out here in California.

BROWN: Sounds like a campaign speech, Mr. Simon. We enjoyed talking to you, hope you'll come back again, and we'll remind you that you're in it to the end, OK?

SIMON: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very much, Bill Simon from California tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, another possible sniper on the loose, three people dead in four days and 100 leads to track down, we'll get the details from West Virginia.

And, an amazing look at a group of soldiers you never knew existed, the combat artists, their story too on NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are moments when the headlines take on a Groundhog Day slant and rarely are they good ones. Tonight in Charleston, West Virginia, three people are dead, killed in the space of a week at gas stations or convenience stores in a fashion that is unmistakable, chillingly so. There is also a tough county sheriff and a task force and a terrorized public and one or more snipers possibly at work.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF DAVE TUCKER, KANAWHA COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: We have 100 suspects at this time and they're being interviewed as we speak now.

MESERVE (voice-over): Sheriff Dave Tucker is confident law enforcement is close to breaking this case. On the hunt for a heavy set White man and a dark truck, possibly a Ford F-150 spotted at the scene of one of three shootings that are apparently linked, all took place at night at convenience stores.

Bullets from two of the shootings are similar. The bullet from the third too damaged to be analyzed. While law enforcement investigates, the advice to the community go about your business but beware.

TUCKER: Be very cautious. Use good sense and don't stop what we're doing. I think this is important.

MESERVE: Spooked area residents are avoiding night time stops at gas stations and convenience stores gassing up during daylight hours. At one Charleston Go Mart (ph) where business was brisk a customer was shocked to hear this was the scene of the first shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, really? I didn't know that. I wouldn't have stopped here.

MESERVE: At the Central United Methodist Church right across the street they have offered prayers for the victims and the shooter but, as he took down tables, the pastor insisted the shootings have not rocked his community.

REV. GEORGE BRAMBLE, CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Yesterday, for example, we had a picnic here with 60 people here right out here on the front lawn while the news people were up across the street here. It never phased us one bit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Investigators have been trying to piece together the histories of the victims to see if there are any common threads. One law enforcement source tells me that they have found one.

All three went to the same high school but they're different ages, they went at different times and investigators aren't sure if they have a significant clue there or whether it's just a coincidence -- Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you, Jeanne Meserve in West Virginia tonight.

Still ahead on the program: what the former Baylor University basketball coach said about the player who was murdered, on tape.

A big break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Out of Waco, Texas, now, and a tragedy, a crime that has led to something else entirely, a scandal in college sports. It involves the murder of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy and allegations that his former coach was willing to smear this young man in order to protect his program and himself, prepared to accuse Mr. Dennehy of dealing drugs. And this is not some wild allegation. It was caught on tape.

Reporting the story for us, CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news that former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss was allegedly orchestrating a cover-up of NCAA rules violations started making headlines Saturday.

Richard Guinn says he was called early that morning by Bliss. Guinn's son, R.T., is a senior basketball player at Baylor. Bliss came to Guinn's apartment and met with both men for about 45 minutes.

Guinn said Bliss apologized for the way he's acted and his efforts to save the reputation of Baylor's basketball program.

RICHARD GUINN, FATHER OF PLAYER: Shocked, outraged, pissed, upset that anybody would do something like that to these boys. I mean, it just flabbergasted me.

LAVANDERA: The Baylor investigative committee looking into Dave Bliss's actions has uncovered they say are two cases where a player's tuition was paid for improperly. But the revelations of the taped conversations came as a surprise Friday to the investigative team.

KIRK WATSON, BAYLOR LEAD COUNSEL: They are very disappointed. They are very disturbing and it's evidence of a real betrayal, a betrayal of the university and significantly also a betrayal of those young people.

LAVANDERA: The conversations were recorded by assistant coach Abar Rouse. A transcript has been published by the "Waco Tribune- Herald," and some portions have been confirmed to CNN by the lead investigator, like this excerpt, where Bliss tells his assistant coach, quote, "We can get out of this. Reasonable doubt is there's nobody right now that can say that we paid Pat Dennehy. Because he's dead. So what we have to do is create the reasonable doubt."

Bliss resigned as head coach on August 8. That day he had said he had just been made aware of the violations within the program. But an investigator tells CNN Bliss's effort to convince some players to lie to investigators was in motion before then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they put into practice what they were told?

WATSON: We only had one instance where a player had actually followed the script, if you will. LAVANDERA: Patrick Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, says, if Coach Bliss is punished, he deserves whatever punishment he gets.

JESSICA DE LA ROSA, GIRLFRIEND OF PATRICK DENNEHY: I kind of had an idea that there was a cover-up going on, so I'm not surprised to hear about that. But just the nature of it and everything behind it and all that was concocted in it is very shocking.

LAVANDERA (on camera): CNN has made repeated attempts to reach Dave Bliss. But so far, he's not accepted our request for an interview.

Meanwhile, investigators say they are making copies of the taped conversations between Bliss and his assistant and that those copies will be made available to any law enforcement agency that wants to continue to investigate this matter.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Waco, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories from around the country making news tonight, beginning with a massive gasoline shortage in Phoenix, Arizona. It's left drivers with long lines and short tempers and higher prices, the shortage caused by a broken pipeline that's made fueling up in Phoenix an unmitigated nightmare. As one SUV owner on empty said today, "I never knew that gas was going to seem like gold."

On now to the Scott Peterson murder case. A judge has banned cameras from the courtroom at a hearing -- for a hearing next month where prosecutors will lay out their case against Mr. Peterson in the death of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child. The judge said -- quote -- "televising these passionate proceedings is not necessary to the process."

And IBM laid off 500 workers at its Vermont plant today; 3,000 more will have to take a week off next month without pay. One spokesman said this: "We're doing this because we've not seen a turnaround in our industry."

Still ahead tonight: Too little, too late. So say the French, as the death toll there rises to 5,000.

Also, an amazing group of soldiers that go into battle armed with pen and paper -- their story, too.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It seems like, sometimes, we focus too much on the extraordinary things in life, instead of the ordinary. When the lights went out last week, many of us thought terrorism, rather than some sort of technical breakdown. We focus on a new exotic disease like SARS, and yet far more people have died in one country in just 10 days from something a lot more mundane, something health officials ought to know how to handle: heat.

The latest from France tonight from CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Residents fill the dining room at a Les Efel (ph) retirement home in Paris, minus eight of their housemates, who perished in the heat wave. During 10 days of searing desert temperatures, it was too sweltering to eat here. One after the other, the elderly died in their rooms, too hot, too weak to move.

"Helpless," says 92-year-old Charlotte Helbert, when asked how she felt. An assistant manager, speaking off camera, says help from the government's health emergency declared a week into the heat wave was too little too late. She says it took sometimes several hours to get medical help, the result, a death toll estimated in ever-more staggering proportions. The government now acknowledges up to 5,000 could have died. Some estimate, it could go even higher.

DOMINIQUE DISSARD, PFG FUNERAL SERVICES: And on the total, August, it could be between, I would say, 5,000 and 7,000 more than normal.

BURNS (on camera): This is an absolute catastrophe, isn't it?

DISSARD: Absolutely, yes.

BURNS (voice-over): With funeral homes overflowing, the government requisitioned this huge refrigerated warehouse in the sprawling Regis (ph) food storage depot south of the capital. About 150 bodies have been stored here so far. Six temporary funeral parlors were built inside to accommodate grieving families. The smell of death hangs heavy in the cold air.

(on camera): Officials say this warehouse has the capacity to take in 2,000 bodies. And even with the cooler weather in recent days, officials say it will take up to two more weeks to bury the dead they have now.

(voice-over): The conservative government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is trying to fight off criticism the state-run health care system was overwhelmed. But as the estimated death toll mounted, the crisis took its first official casualty. Surgeon General Lucien Abenhaim, director of health services, resigned. Some officials say, enough of the blame game, that it's time to fix the system.

JUDITH BOURGEOIS, FRENCH RED CROSS: For some time, the government was reacting by trying to train more nurses and employ more nurses. But it's true that there is a problem.

BURNS: Little comfort for those who already lost loved ones and neighbors in a country that has long prided itself on its social services.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: And it's little comfort for the leftist opposition, which is asking for the head of the health minister and is also asking for a full-blown investigation of exactly what went wrong and who's to blame -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, thank you very much -- Chris Burns in Paris tonight.

A few more items from around the world. We start in Liberia. Marines coming ashore, government officials and rebels today signed an agreement to end 14 years of civil war. President Bush praised the deal and said the Marines will have a limited role in country, leaving by the 1st of October.

Iceland is getting heat for whaling. Three ships today harpooned the country's first whale in a decade. Icelandic authorities say it's for science to see what kind of fish the whales are eating. Iceland's economy pretty much runs on fishing. Environmental groups have a different take. They're worried today's hunt is intended to gauge public reaction before taking up commercial whaling again.

And a small miracle in southern Iraq: British soldiers were searching a house for weapons when they found her. She was hidden in an ammo box and appeared close to death. Her mother said the girl's father put her in the box. It is not clear why. He was arrested, mother and child taken to the hospital.

On now to the art of war: soldiers who go into combat armed with pencils and water colors. Their mission is to draw the first strokes of history, honoring the men and women who make that history on the battlefield, including the battlefield of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SGT. JACK CARRILLO, COMBAT ARTIST: The best I could draw was during the loud and bright explosions from the artillery fire.

BROWN (voice-over): The art he started on a battlefield, he finishes on his front porch.

CARRILLO: It's the human part of the military.

BROWN: Jack Carrillo is a combat artist, a Marine, just back from Iraq, where, in addition to his weapons, he carried an arsenal of water colors and charcoal pencils.

CARRILLO: I hopped out with my sketchbook, my pencil, M-16, and I just started working right there amidst everything, trying to capture like the tanks, the casualties, machine gun fire, smoke and all those other things right there in combat.

BROWN: Sergeant Carrillo is assigned by the Marine Corps to capture, through his art, glimpses of Marines at war, from the skies over Iraq, like these shaky lines drawn in flight, to the fields of Akut (ph), where a captain played "Taps" at a World War I grave site stumbled upon by Marines on patrol. Carrillo's sketchbook never left his side.

CARRILLO: I was drawing the entire time I was there.

BROWN: Of the handful of combat artists serving in the armed forces, Carrillo is one of only two in the Marines. The other is Staff Sergeant Michael Fay, whose first assignment brought him to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

STAFF SGT. MICHAEL FAY, COMBAT ARTIST: For me, personally, this is the most important piece from my experience over there. A young lance corporal just returned from a nine-day patrol outside of Kandahar. His skin is absolutely raw, sand-blasted, the cheeks sunken in and the profile and the sort of tired look off in the distance. As an artist, I want to bring back that sense of poetry of this very real-life experience.

BROWN: The Marine Corps combat art program began during World War I. And the Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington now houses over 7,000 works of combat art. From a memorial service in Danang to a Marine sniper in Somalia, whether working from photographs or memory or while on the front lines, combat artists follow few guidelines.

FAY: The Marine Corps does not say, Mike, Staff Sergeant Fay, this is what we want you to do. All they say is, you're an artist. Do art.

BROWN: Art, Fay believes, that is unique to his vantage point as a Marine.

FAY: I already bring a body of experience that relates me to any other Marine. I know what it is to have little sleep, to eat the MREs, to carry all that weight on your back. I've been in the field. I've flown in helicopters.

BROWN: The Vietnam War saw the largest number of serving combat artists. There were more than 70, many of whom where called to duty in the midst of their work.

FAY: Mike Gish (ph) went to Vietnam to do art for the Marine Corps. And, lo and behold, they needed him to be a pilot. Yet, this was something, art, that came out of that experience. A lot of emotion in this painting.

BROWN: From World War I to the war in Iraq, for combat artists, it is in the many faces of war that they find their most compelling subjects.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The combat artist.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the great blackout of 2003 one more time. Why? Because many of us couldn't see it the first time, I guess -- the photos of the blackout after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The roller coaster story is a horrible one, isn't it?

The evidence of the blackout, at least here in New York, seems to be disappearing pretty quickly. Stores are restocked. Restaurants are filling up again, the aches from walking up and down dozens of flights of darkened stairs going away. So how will we remember what was truly a remarkable scene? We've long thought on NEWSNIGHT that still photography has tremendous staying power.

So here's a look at some of the work of the photographers at "The New York Times."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY WEINSTOCK, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I'm Nancy Weinstock. I'm the special projects picture editor at "The New York Times."

As the day began to wear along and people realized the lights were not about to pop right back on, people began to try to make their way home. These people made their way to the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel on the New York side and held up their homemade placards to try to see if people would stop and take them along through the tunnel and at least get them over the other side to New Jersey.

It's very unnatural if you live in a big city to suddenly be able to see a truly darkening sky. And the buildings regain a certain monumental appearance that they don't have when they're entirely lit up. The massiveness of their physical form takes over the skyline in a way that it doesn't when all the lights are on.

Some New Yorkers decided to make the best of it by going out to the local taverns and staying out with fellow pedestrians who couldn't get anywhere anyway and trying to make the best of it and have a not very cold beer. People who chose not to walk any further began to camp out on the steps of the United States Post Office. So these people just made the steps their bed for the night.

You had people lying down in public spaces, pretty much behaving themselves in a very civilized and orderly way. And people were actually sleeping with knapsacks and suit jackets and newspapers rolled up under their heads.

People were hoping that, when the sun came up, the lights would come up along with it. But, in fact, we were still blacked out in a great deal of the city. Water and food became an issue fairly quickly. Many people who lived in tall buildings, as these people did, came down to the local playground, where the sprinkler was bringing water up from the pipes, and they filled whatever containers they had.

This particular supermarket only allowed people who brought their own flashlights with them to come into the store. New Yorkers are extremely resourceful. And if somebody wants to go out and get their grocery shopping done, they'll take their flashlight and they will find a way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The work of the photographers of "The New York Times."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Oh, how I missed that. And I'm sure you did, too.

Time for morning papers. Okeydokey, time for morning papers, newspaper headlines for tomorrow morning from across the country and around the world. Is that what I say?

If you're traveling, you'll find this at your doorstep at the fine hotel you're staying in, "USA Today." "Low-Carb Lifestyle Goes Mainstream." That's their big story. "Atkins diet, once considered an oddity, spawns stores, Web sites and imitators." There's a beer out, I think, now that's the no-carb beer. Also a story on Iraq. "In Iraq, a Comfortable 118 Degrees." That's a sense of humor, I guess, by the headline writers of "USA Today." If you're traveling, you'll get that.

If you're really traveling and you find yourself in London when you wake up in the morning, this is what you'll find. Well, I don't know that you'll find this, but you'll find something like it. "The Guardian." "Blair Was Told Iraq No Threat." This is a fascinating story. This is this ongoing investigation into what the government did or didn't know. In any case, the story is that an aide -- Mr. Blair's chief of staff said, well, yes, they're bad guys, but they're not going to hurt us. See how that plays there.

"San Francisco Chronicle." Imagine this in the California recall race. "Issues Replacing Hype in Campaign." That's, I guess, a promise. Mr. Schwarzenegger, "Schwarzenegger to Air Policies." I can't wait.

Also, down at the bottom here, we haven't talked about this story, but we ought to soon. "Support Weakens For Proposition 54, Poll Finds." It would ban state from collecting data on race and ethnicity. There's some question. That's one of those things that sounds terrific, I think, at first blush. It may be more complicated after you think about it for a while, or it may not, depending on your point of view. Anyway, that's on the front page of "The Chronicle."

How much time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got one minute 37.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness, about one minute 37, imagine that. I guess a little less now.

"The Detroit News," some advice: "Water's OK. Eat, Drink, Don't Worry." I like that. "Probe Focuses on Phone Glitch." I'm not sure what that's about. Anyway, down over here, "Poll: Half Favor Law Against Gay Marriage." I guess, arguably, that would mean half support such a law, doesn't it? Well, probably not, because polls don't work that way. But it is all in the way you phrase things.

"The Oregonian" out West in Portland, Oregon, almost completely a local front page. "Deadly Stretch of US-26 Defies Easy Answers"; 13 killed on that highway, and that made the front page, also a logging story. That's a big business out in the state of Oregon and in the Northwest.

A wonderful and actually tragic story in the "Detroit Free Press." Once again, this paper continues to impress. "Military's Failure Left Recruit to Die," the story of a young man, local kid, who died in Marine boot camp, 18 years old. It's very sad. It's part of an ongoing investigation in the "Detroit Free Press."

"The Dallas Morning News" has three stories on the Baylor basketball program down in Texas. "Ex Aide: Bliss an Angry Man." And then three other stories. So that's obviously a huge story in the state of Texas. That's "The Dallas Morning News."

And, well, we'll do this real quickly. Down here, "The Washington Times." There are a bunch of stories I wanted to mention, but I ran out of time. Isn't that weird? Because this segment felt like it went on for about an hour and a half, didn't it? "Simon" -- that's Bill Simon -- "Must Pass Three Mack Trucks." Anyway, he was a guest on the program.

That is the program. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00, if the power's on. Good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





of Recall Election Wednesday; West Virginia Terrorized by Sniper>


Aired August 18, 2003 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
We found ourselves in a gentle disagreement with a viewer today over the blackout. "There is no blame. No one is at fault here. Things happen" the viewer said and in part we agree. Things to happen and it's likely no one person is at fault.

But failing to understand what actually happened last Thursday serves no one's interest and trying to understand what happened last Thursday has turned out to be a fair amount more difficult than just a lightning bolt in Niagara.

The search is where we begin the whip tonight with what we know about what happened, John Zarrella in Cleveland, Ohio, John a headline.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, we may know less tonight than we did 24 hours ago, new reports emerging today that there were voltage surges or anomalies along the power grid at least three hours before those four transmission lines failed in Ohio. What, if anything, that has to do with the blackout is uncertain -- Aaron.

BROWN: Goodness, John that will get us going tonight.

The story that was pushed by the blackout for a few days at least, the California recall race, Dan Lothian in Los Angeles tonight, Dan your headline.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron the recall election will it happen in October or next spring? It's now in the hands of a federal judge who says he hopes to make a decision by Wednesday -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you. A disturbing headline considering the terror of last fall in suburban Washington, D.C., a throng of possible sniper attacks. Jeanne Meserve is in Charleston, West Virginia tonight, Jeanne a headline.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three shootings all at night, all at convenience stores, all involving a single shot to the head or neck, another sniper law authorities are trying to find out -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you. And finally, France and the number of dead revised upward today, a staggering figure of apparent victims of the heat wave, Chris Burns in Paris, Chris a headline.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, the government now says that up to 5,000 people could have died in that heat wave. The blame game has claimed its first official victim. The surgeon general in this country has resigned. We also saw some heartbreaking tragic scenes today of those who managed to survive this heat wave and the accommodations for those who didn't -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, thank you, back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up tonight on NEWSNIGHT, how the murder of a Baylor University basketball player has become a consuming scandal for his former coach. We'll hear the allegations and some of the audio tapes that have surfaced over the last few days.

And, there's no blackout here as in news blackout, our nightly look at papers from around the country and around the world, that will end it all tonight but a long way to go before we get there, a busy hour ahead.

We begin with the blackout. Four days after the continent's worst power outage ever, two efforts took center stage today. The first one succeeded. The system made it through its first work day since the lights went out. The second effort to understand just why the lights went out in the first place remains very much a work in progress, though investigators have their suspicions.

At a rock concert over the weekend in Cleveland there was a woman in the audience wearing a tee shirt. "Blame Canada" it read. Chances are when the answer comes it won't be quite so simply and, in any case, the attention is being focused a bit closer to home.

We begin tonight with CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Four transmission lines like these outside Cleveland, Ohio, may have been the first link to fail in the complex and massive electric grid. Investigators believe the sequence of key events began little more than one hour before the lights went out.

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator preliminary report shows the first transmission line near Akron tripped at 3:06 Eastern time. Twenty-six minutes later a second line in South Canton tripped. By 4:06 a total of three lines owned by Ohio's First Energy Corp. and a fourth co-owned line in South Canton went out. These line failures may have been the first physical sign of trouble but they may have been the consequence of other events.

First Energy says its investigation has uncovered abnormal power fluctuations in the grid as early as Noon Thursday. Soft Switching Technologies, another monitoring group, says there were fluctuations in transmission lines outside of Ohio, so it may be too soon to pin it all on the Ohio lines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're part of an interconnected grid which works together so it's really the reliability of all of the interconnected utilities, the transmission lines, generators and loads that make up reliability not just a single utility.

ZARRELLA: But, once the lines went out other events appeared to follow. Investigators say at 4:08 power swings were detected in Canada and the eastern United States. Other lines began tripping. By 4:11 power plants were dropping off, Avon in Cleveland, Davis Bessie outside Toledo. The cascade of failures moved rapidly and during the next few minutes an area of 50 million people lost power.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: And despite these reports of power fluctuations, the consensus still within the industry is that Ohio may still end up, those four power lines, to be the cause and a larger question that still remains very unanswered this evening is why didn't safeguards built into the system isolate the problem area, take it out of the grid and allow the rest of the system to continue on -- Aaron.

BROWN: So, the system is designed to work around a power fluctuation, is that right?

ZARRELLA: That's right, Aaron. It should work around. If everything is working, if alarms are going off and information is being passed. Now, recall alarms did not go off at the plants and in this particular area in Ohio at First Energy so there was a problem with getting information relayed out as to what might have been happening.

So, that may end up to be a contributing factor as well but, yes, isolating the areas is part of the technology so that the rest of the system does not come down -- Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, John, John Zarrella in Cleveland, Ohio tonight.

Looking back we're struck that two grids, not one, were sorely tested in the blackout, electrical and human, one broke the other bent. People are just funny that way I suppose. They adapt.

Today for the most part in most places the machinery caught up with them, CNN's Jason Carroll now with that side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nation's largest transit system was back on track as thousands of commuters, like Deborah L. Hara (ph) headed back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We survived it. We're safe, thankfully. Thank God for all the lights.

CARROLL: New York's subways ran on time, so did commuter trains. The city's mayor is forming a task force to explore what didn't run so well during the outage, namely communications with EMS dispatchers.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: Nothing is ever going to work perfectly but you have to be able to spot a problem and then have a plan to go fix it.

CARROLL: New York health officials warn people to watch what they eat. A spike in food related illnesses may be linked to spoiled food. While in Detroit, contaminated water was the problem over the weekend, problem solved.

VICTOR MERCADO, DETROIT WATER AND SEWER DEPARTMENT: The water is safe to drink.

CARROLL: Businesses are just beginning to add up the cost of being left in the dark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll probably end up throwing about anywhere about $40,000 to $50,000 worth of product.

CARROLL: Some businesses in Cleveland were overcoming glitches and here water was still a problem.

MAYOR JANE CAMPBELL, CLEVELAND: The only remaining problem that we have is that the beaches are not safe to swim in because there was a sewer overflow as a result of the electrical system not functioning internally to the sewer treatment plant.

CARROLL: The beaches could remain closed for the next few days but people are likely to be talking about the blackout longer than that. Back in New York some say what happened is just part of life in the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a native New Yorker and this was a typical New York experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just another typical day in the life of New York.

CARROLL: And life it seems is getting back to normal.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, perhaps it wasn't quite typical.

Jeff Kluger is here. He's a senior writer for "Time." He writes about science. We're glad to see him again. A couple of quick things, then we'll get into the big issues. Can you explain to me what a line failure and a power fluctuation is?

JEFF KLUGER, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: A line failure is actually exactly what it sounds like. It's an absolute collapse of a portion of the system, even if it's just an infinitesimal part of the system. A power fluctuation is a surge. It's sort of the grid's equivalent of a pick up in respiration or blood pressure.

BROWN: Is it too many people turning on their air-conditioning at one time?

KLUGER: Well, that's always a part of it. That certainly is a big part of it. Remember the output system is responsive to the demands so the more we're pulling on it, the harder we're pulling on it the more the system works. Again, the analogy of the circulatory system is a good one. The heart rate picks up to feed the muscles when they need oxygen.

BROWN: But as we understand this now this is not a problem of supply. This is not -- we ought not get into a discussion about whether there are enough power plants generating enough electricity in the country because that's not what this was about, correct?

KLUGER: Exactly. That's exactly right. It's one of the few situations in the last 30 years since the first energy crunch in 1974 when the relevant question isn't do we have enough juice. There is enough juice.

The problem is do we have the systems in place to transmit that juice from one place to another and a lot of what's behind that is less scientific or less technological than it is political and regulatory.

The caps on investment dividend payouts for transmission lines have been at around 11 percent, regulated at 11 percent for the last ten, 15 years and, as a result, that's kept, that's taken the incentive off of building transmission systems.

BROWN: Let me play that back.

KLUGER: Sure.

BROWN: It is more profitable for me as an electricity boss to build a generating plant than it is to build a transmission line to deliver that juice to your home?

KLUGER: That's exactly right and the fact is since the 1990s the demand for power has increased 30 percent and the amount of power has increase commensurately but the delivery system has increased only about ten percent so we have a lot of juice coming down the lines and getting clogged in systems that can't handle it.

BROWN: And when we get into a discussion as we did on Thursday night about whether regulation or deregulation is in play here, in fact one part of the business is much deregulated the generation of power.

KLUGER: That's right.

BROWN: The other side is the distribution side.

KLUGER: Right.

BROWN: What's regulated is that right?

KLUGER: Exactly. That's what's highly regulated and the question is do you add a little regulation on the production end to bring it back into balance? Do you lower the regulation on the distribution end? There's a lot of questions involved in that but clearly there's a disparity and that was the key thing responsible for the meltdown.

BROWN: OK, now, assuming for a minute that everything we now know turns out to be in fact true.

KLUGER: Right.

BROWN: That there were these anomalies that went on an hour, three hours before this, that and another thing. Is it human error that failed in the end? Is the system set up so that if that line goes down in Canton, Ohio, somebody throws the switch in the Bronx and isolates the Bronx?

KLUGER: Right. Well, it's a very, very complicated question and the answer isn't neither yes nor no. It's sort of yes to everything. As test pilots will tell you there's no such thing as a single catastrophic failure that ever brings down an airplane.

It's 10,000 tiny little things operating sequentially all of which have to go wrong for the plane to crash. That's similar to what happened last week. There were 10,000 different system moments that sort of fell the wrong way in sequence.

BROWN: But once it starts is it possible to interrupt those 10,000 moments?

KLUGER: Absolutely.

BROWN: Or are they destined to all fall in line?

KLUGER: No, they're not at all destined. I think if we think of, you know, flicking out the middle domino of a cascading line of dominoes, if you get that out. Another analogy is a firebreak. If you build a firebreak you can stop it and that's what the system is designed to do.

You know they use the verb islanding when you island these sites that have problems or isolate the sites that aren't yet having problems. Basically, the idea is sequestering the problem or separating the problem and the area that's functioning in order to prevent a cascade.

BROWN: Did you do a lot of learning this week?

KLUGER: A great deal, became a temporary expert in 48 hours.

BROWN: We all did. Thanks for coming in.

KLUGER: Nice to be here.

BROWN: It's always good to have you on the program. Thank you, Jeff.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the recall in court, one more chapter in this crazy store why the election could be canceled or delayed. I think that's more likely.

And, candidate Bill Simon joins us as well, one of the Republicans running.

And, the heat wave in France claims another 2,000 victims, that's 5,000 now, that and much more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: With 50 days to go until the recall election in California, Governor Gray Davis got a major celebrity endorsement. It came from Sybil Shepherd. "The governor" she said "is a great kisser," at least he was 36 years ago on a beach in Hawaii when he was 24 and she was 16. Hey, this is important stuff, the governance of the country's largest state is on the line.

Lesser news was made in federal court, here again CNN's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): After hearing some two hours of arguments, a federal judge says he may rule by Wednesday whether the recall election will go forward in October or be delayed until March. The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, says without more time eight million votes in six California counties will be disenfranchised. Their votes may not be counted.

MARK ROSENBAUM, ACLU: That's a violation of the most basic principle that everybody's vote counts in a democracy and everyone's vote is to be counted in a democracy.

LOTHIAN: The problem these certified punch card machines considered to be faulty must be used in the upcoming recall election. New technology mandated by court ruling won't be online by October. The ACLU says this is a case about political equality but the state argues concerns about problems are simply speculation. Recall advocates agree.

CHARLES DIAMOND, RECALL ADVOCATE: I think that's a phony issue. It was a phony issue to get into court and to try to make constitutional arguments that I don't think will carry the day.

LOTHIAN: As the judge weighs evidence the campaign trail heats up. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon hit the airwaves with a radio ad, attacking Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for remarks made by top economic adviser Warren Buffett. Last Friday Buffet said that California's Proposition 13 had lowered property taxes too much. Simon sensed an opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now, Arnold Schwarzenegger's team wants to triple our property taxes which just goes to show you don't send a liberal to do a tax fighter's job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Schwarzenegger quickly released a statement expressing his "unequivocal support for Prop 13." The actor is also preparing to hit the small screen as a politician. Sources familiar with the campaign tell CNN, TV ads are set to roll out in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Wednesday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: Aaron, now we wait to see what the judge will decide. If what happened in court is any indication it appears that the judge is leaning towards leaving that October date in place, why? Well, the judge seemed to have plenty of questions for the ACLU, peppering the ACLU with questions, having very few questions for the state -- Aaron.

BROWN: Dan, thank you very much, Dan Lothian in Los Angeles tonight.

Consider now the plight of the non-Schwarzenegger candidates. Not only do they not have the spotlight shining on them all the time, they also have the burden of a record or a stand on real issues.

Bill Simon is one of them. He lost to Governor Davis last fall, the polls showing him in trouble again but he says he is in it to the end. At least we assume he will say that when we ask him that question in just a moment. We're pleased to have Mr. Simon with us tonight, nice to see you sir.

BILL SIMON (R), CALIFORNIA GOV. CANDIDATE: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Any pressure to get out of the race?

SIMON: No, not yet.

BROWN: Not yet but maybe?

SIMON: Well, we'll see but I'm staying in so I'm looking forward to running a good hard race, Aaron, until the very end.

BROWN: Who is it in Mr. Schwarzenegger's team that has suggested raising property taxes or tripling property taxes?

SIMON: Well, Mr. Buffett last week came out and made a statement to "The Wall Street Journal" that he believed that property taxes were too low in California and specifically used as an example his own home in Omaha, Nebraska versus the home that he owns in Laguna Beach, and when you look at the differential he would be suggesting something well in excess actually of three times.

It's interesting, Aaron, because at that point I was actually campaigning up north in Red Bluff and I was at a Subway shop, a sandwich shop, and a number of people came up to me and said can this be right? You have somebody suggesting that we should have higher taxes?

I mean I think our people in California have high enough taxes already. I think it's about time for the government up in Sacramento to tighten its belt as opposed to punishing our people one more time for their own mistake.

BROWN: How many -- let's talk about the problems in the state, at least broadly. How much of the budget deficit, the $38 billion, how much of the electric problem of a year ago, how much of that is actually the fault of the governor or the political machines in play in California and how much of that is either circumstance or business or the federal government or the economy generally?

SIMON: Well, Aaron, honestly you have to separate out that $38 billion deficit from the electric problem. The electric problem actually caused separately approximately a $10 billion on a cash flow basis for the state and then on a long term basis, meaning long term contracts entered into by the state cost the people of our great state about $25 billion.

The $38 billion deficit in an of itself is a spending problem meaning that the spending over the course of the last four years has increased at the rate of 40 percent approximately while the underlying rate of growth has increased at about 20 percent.

So, purely and simply, it's a problem of spending, 44,000 new employees hired during Gray Davis' administration, in fact 11,000 hired since he instituted a hiring freeze, some hiring freeze.

BROWN: Mr. Simon, I assume that some of those employees are public school teachers. Some of them are policemen and prison guards. Some of them are librarians, what have you. They're not people necessarily sitting around doing nothing so who are you going to fire?

SIMON: Well, look at it this way, Aaron, what I'm going to do my very first day is institute a statewide audit of state government. Every inch of government will be audited. We already have 35 instances of fraud, waste, and mismanagement.

We're not talking about teachers here or firemen or policemen, all of whom are essential to the well being of our great state. But, what we are talking about, for example, is the $7.8 million payroll at U.S. Merced. One thing U.C. Merced doesn't exist at this point, there is no campus.

BROWN: Well, you solved $7 million, $8 million of $38 billion. Can you honestly say to the people of California that you can solve a $38 billion deficit by simply cutting services?

SIMON: You know right now there was an agreement reached two weeks ago, Aaron, with respect to the $38 billion deficit. It was really more of a surrender than a solution. It was $17 billion in borrowing, some one time gimmicks and effects, some tax increases and very small $3 billion in actual cuts. Right now we're looking at a $9 billion structural deficit. Everybody agrees with that number and that $9 billion number is going to be in effect every single year now as far as the eye can see.

So, it's really a $9 billion problem that we have to solve right now and, yes, I believe we can solve that problem just with cuts, tightening the belt with a state audit looking for fraud, waste, and mismanagement.

And then on my first day, I will also call each and every head of every government agency into my office and say we've got to cut the size of your department. Please come up with a plan within 30 days.

BROWN: Final question is Mr. Schwarzenegger really a Republican in your view?

SIMON: We don't know. Aaron, honestly, we haven't heard much from Mr. Schwarzenegger in terms of where he stands on the important issues that face our state. You know we need to have a series of debates. We need to make sure that our people see where all their candidates stand, not just Mr. Schwarzenegger but Mr. Bustamante and others.

People know where Bill Simon stands, limited government, local in nature, school systems that teach our kids and that are accountable and a reliable and affordable quality of life with roads, water, and power that we can all be proud of out here in California.

BROWN: Sounds like a campaign speech, Mr. Simon. We enjoyed talking to you, hope you'll come back again, and we'll remind you that you're in it to the end, OK?

SIMON: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you, sir, very much, Bill Simon from California tonight.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, another possible sniper on the loose, three people dead in four days and 100 leads to track down, we'll get the details from West Virginia.

And, an amazing look at a group of soldiers you never knew existed, the combat artists, their story too on NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: There are moments when the headlines take on a Groundhog Day slant and rarely are they good ones. Tonight in Charleston, West Virginia, three people are dead, killed in the space of a week at gas stations or convenience stores in a fashion that is unmistakable, chillingly so. There is also a tough county sheriff and a task force and a terrorized public and one or more snipers possibly at work.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF DAVE TUCKER, KANAWHA COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: We have 100 suspects at this time and they're being interviewed as we speak now.

MESERVE (voice-over): Sheriff Dave Tucker is confident law enforcement is close to breaking this case. On the hunt for a heavy set White man and a dark truck, possibly a Ford F-150 spotted at the scene of one of three shootings that are apparently linked, all took place at night at convenience stores.

Bullets from two of the shootings are similar. The bullet from the third too damaged to be analyzed. While law enforcement investigates, the advice to the community go about your business but beware.

TUCKER: Be very cautious. Use good sense and don't stop what we're doing. I think this is important.

MESERVE: Spooked area residents are avoiding night time stops at gas stations and convenience stores gassing up during daylight hours. At one Charleston Go Mart (ph) where business was brisk a customer was shocked to hear this was the scene of the first shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, really? I didn't know that. I wouldn't have stopped here.

MESERVE: At the Central United Methodist Church right across the street they have offered prayers for the victims and the shooter but, as he took down tables, the pastor insisted the shootings have not rocked his community.

REV. GEORGE BRAMBLE, CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Yesterday, for example, we had a picnic here with 60 people here right out here on the front lawn while the news people were up across the street here. It never phased us one bit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: Investigators have been trying to piece together the histories of the victims to see if there are any common threads. One law enforcement source tells me that they have found one.

All three went to the same high school but they're different ages, they went at different times and investigators aren't sure if they have a significant clue there or whether it's just a coincidence -- Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you, Jeanne Meserve in West Virginia tonight.

Still ahead on the program: what the former Baylor University basketball coach said about the player who was murdered, on tape.

A big break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Out of Waco, Texas, now, and a tragedy, a crime that has led to something else entirely, a scandal in college sports. It involves the murder of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy and allegations that his former coach was willing to smear this young man in order to protect his program and himself, prepared to accuse Mr. Dennehy of dealing drugs. And this is not some wild allegation. It was caught on tape.

Reporting the story for us, CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news that former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss was allegedly orchestrating a cover-up of NCAA rules violations started making headlines Saturday.

Richard Guinn says he was called early that morning by Bliss. Guinn's son, R.T., is a senior basketball player at Baylor. Bliss came to Guinn's apartment and met with both men for about 45 minutes.

Guinn said Bliss apologized for the way he's acted and his efforts to save the reputation of Baylor's basketball program.

RICHARD GUINN, FATHER OF PLAYER: Shocked, outraged, pissed, upset that anybody would do something like that to these boys. I mean, it just flabbergasted me.

LAVANDERA: The Baylor investigative committee looking into Dave Bliss's actions has uncovered they say are two cases where a player's tuition was paid for improperly. But the revelations of the taped conversations came as a surprise Friday to the investigative team.

KIRK WATSON, BAYLOR LEAD COUNSEL: They are very disappointed. They are very disturbing and it's evidence of a real betrayal, a betrayal of the university and significantly also a betrayal of those young people.

LAVANDERA: The conversations were recorded by assistant coach Abar Rouse. A transcript has been published by the "Waco Tribune- Herald," and some portions have been confirmed to CNN by the lead investigator, like this excerpt, where Bliss tells his assistant coach, quote, "We can get out of this. Reasonable doubt is there's nobody right now that can say that we paid Pat Dennehy. Because he's dead. So what we have to do is create the reasonable doubt."

Bliss resigned as head coach on August 8. That day he had said he had just been made aware of the violations within the program. But an investigator tells CNN Bliss's effort to convince some players to lie to investigators was in motion before then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they put into practice what they were told?

WATSON: We only had one instance where a player had actually followed the script, if you will. LAVANDERA: Patrick Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, says, if Coach Bliss is punished, he deserves whatever punishment he gets.

JESSICA DE LA ROSA, GIRLFRIEND OF PATRICK DENNEHY: I kind of had an idea that there was a cover-up going on, so I'm not surprised to hear about that. But just the nature of it and everything behind it and all that was concocted in it is very shocking.

LAVANDERA (on camera): CNN has made repeated attempts to reach Dave Bliss. But so far, he's not accepted our request for an interview.

Meanwhile, investigators say they are making copies of the taped conversations between Bliss and his assistant and that those copies will be made available to any law enforcement agency that wants to continue to investigate this matter.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Waco, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A few other stories from around the country making news tonight, beginning with a massive gasoline shortage in Phoenix, Arizona. It's left drivers with long lines and short tempers and higher prices, the shortage caused by a broken pipeline that's made fueling up in Phoenix an unmitigated nightmare. As one SUV owner on empty said today, "I never knew that gas was going to seem like gold."

On now to the Scott Peterson murder case. A judge has banned cameras from the courtroom at a hearing -- for a hearing next month where prosecutors will lay out their case against Mr. Peterson in the death of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child. The judge said -- quote -- "televising these passionate proceedings is not necessary to the process."

And IBM laid off 500 workers at its Vermont plant today; 3,000 more will have to take a week off next month without pay. One spokesman said this: "We're doing this because we've not seen a turnaround in our industry."

Still ahead tonight: Too little, too late. So say the French, as the death toll there rises to 5,000.

Also, an amazing group of soldiers that go into battle armed with pen and paper -- their story, too.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: It seems like, sometimes, we focus too much on the extraordinary things in life, instead of the ordinary. When the lights went out last week, many of us thought terrorism, rather than some sort of technical breakdown. We focus on a new exotic disease like SARS, and yet far more people have died in one country in just 10 days from something a lot more mundane, something health officials ought to know how to handle: heat.

The latest from France tonight from CNN's Chris Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Residents fill the dining room at a Les Efel (ph) retirement home in Paris, minus eight of their housemates, who perished in the heat wave. During 10 days of searing desert temperatures, it was too sweltering to eat here. One after the other, the elderly died in their rooms, too hot, too weak to move.

"Helpless," says 92-year-old Charlotte Helbert, when asked how she felt. An assistant manager, speaking off camera, says help from the government's health emergency declared a week into the heat wave was too little too late. She says it took sometimes several hours to get medical help, the result, a death toll estimated in ever-more staggering proportions. The government now acknowledges up to 5,000 could have died. Some estimate, it could go even higher.

DOMINIQUE DISSARD, PFG FUNERAL SERVICES: And on the total, August, it could be between, I would say, 5,000 and 7,000 more than normal.

BURNS (on camera): This is an absolute catastrophe, isn't it?

DISSARD: Absolutely, yes.

BURNS (voice-over): With funeral homes overflowing, the government requisitioned this huge refrigerated warehouse in the sprawling Regis (ph) food storage depot south of the capital. About 150 bodies have been stored here so far. Six temporary funeral parlors were built inside to accommodate grieving families. The smell of death hangs heavy in the cold air.

(on camera): Officials say this warehouse has the capacity to take in 2,000 bodies. And even with the cooler weather in recent days, officials say it will take up to two more weeks to bury the dead they have now.

(voice-over): The conservative government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is trying to fight off criticism the state-run health care system was overwhelmed. But as the estimated death toll mounted, the crisis took its first official casualty. Surgeon General Lucien Abenhaim, director of health services, resigned. Some officials say, enough of the blame game, that it's time to fix the system.

JUDITH BOURGEOIS, FRENCH RED CROSS: For some time, the government was reacting by trying to train more nurses and employ more nurses. But it's true that there is a problem.

BURNS: Little comfort for those who already lost loved ones and neighbors in a country that has long prided itself on its social services.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: And it's little comfort for the leftist opposition, which is asking for the head of the health minister and is also asking for a full-blown investigation of exactly what went wrong and who's to blame -- Aaron.

BROWN: Chris, thank you very much -- Chris Burns in Paris tonight.

A few more items from around the world. We start in Liberia. Marines coming ashore, government officials and rebels today signed an agreement to end 14 years of civil war. President Bush praised the deal and said the Marines will have a limited role in country, leaving by the 1st of October.

Iceland is getting heat for whaling. Three ships today harpooned the country's first whale in a decade. Icelandic authorities say it's for science to see what kind of fish the whales are eating. Iceland's economy pretty much runs on fishing. Environmental groups have a different take. They're worried today's hunt is intended to gauge public reaction before taking up commercial whaling again.

And a small miracle in southern Iraq: British soldiers were searching a house for weapons when they found her. She was hidden in an ammo box and appeared close to death. Her mother said the girl's father put her in the box. It is not clear why. He was arrested, mother and child taken to the hospital.

On now to the art of war: soldiers who go into combat armed with pencils and water colors. Their mission is to draw the first strokes of history, honoring the men and women who make that history on the battlefield, including the battlefield of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SGT. JACK CARRILLO, COMBAT ARTIST: The best I could draw was during the loud and bright explosions from the artillery fire.

BROWN (voice-over): The art he started on a battlefield, he finishes on his front porch.

CARRILLO: It's the human part of the military.

BROWN: Jack Carrillo is a combat artist, a Marine, just back from Iraq, where, in addition to his weapons, he carried an arsenal of water colors and charcoal pencils.

CARRILLO: I hopped out with my sketchbook, my pencil, M-16, and I just started working right there amidst everything, trying to capture like the tanks, the casualties, machine gun fire, smoke and all those other things right there in combat.

BROWN: Sergeant Carrillo is assigned by the Marine Corps to capture, through his art, glimpses of Marines at war, from the skies over Iraq, like these shaky lines drawn in flight, to the fields of Akut (ph), where a captain played "Taps" at a World War I grave site stumbled upon by Marines on patrol. Carrillo's sketchbook never left his side.

CARRILLO: I was drawing the entire time I was there.

BROWN: Of the handful of combat artists serving in the armed forces, Carrillo is one of only two in the Marines. The other is Staff Sergeant Michael Fay, whose first assignment brought him to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.

STAFF SGT. MICHAEL FAY, COMBAT ARTIST: For me, personally, this is the most important piece from my experience over there. A young lance corporal just returned from a nine-day patrol outside of Kandahar. His skin is absolutely raw, sand-blasted, the cheeks sunken in and the profile and the sort of tired look off in the distance. As an artist, I want to bring back that sense of poetry of this very real-life experience.

BROWN: The Marine Corps combat art program began during World War I. And the Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington now houses over 7,000 works of combat art. From a memorial service in Danang to a Marine sniper in Somalia, whether working from photographs or memory or while on the front lines, combat artists follow few guidelines.

FAY: The Marine Corps does not say, Mike, Staff Sergeant Fay, this is what we want you to do. All they say is, you're an artist. Do art.

BROWN: Art, Fay believes, that is unique to his vantage point as a Marine.

FAY: I already bring a body of experience that relates me to any other Marine. I know what it is to have little sleep, to eat the MREs, to carry all that weight on your back. I've been in the field. I've flown in helicopters.

BROWN: The Vietnam War saw the largest number of serving combat artists. There were more than 70, many of whom where called to duty in the midst of their work.

FAY: Mike Gish (ph) went to Vietnam to do art for the Marine Corps. And, lo and behold, they needed him to be a pilot. Yet, this was something, art, that came out of that experience. A lot of emotion in this painting.

BROWN: From World War I to the war in Iraq, for combat artists, it is in the many faces of war that they find their most compelling subjects.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The combat artist.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the great blackout of 2003 one more time. Why? Because many of us couldn't see it the first time, I guess -- the photos of the blackout after the break.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The roller coaster story is a horrible one, isn't it?

The evidence of the blackout, at least here in New York, seems to be disappearing pretty quickly. Stores are restocked. Restaurants are filling up again, the aches from walking up and down dozens of flights of darkened stairs going away. So how will we remember what was truly a remarkable scene? We've long thought on NEWSNIGHT that still photography has tremendous staying power.

So here's a look at some of the work of the photographers at "The New York Times."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY WEINSTOCK, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I'm Nancy Weinstock. I'm the special projects picture editor at "The New York Times."

As the day began to wear along and people realized the lights were not about to pop right back on, people began to try to make their way home. These people made their way to the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel on the New York side and held up their homemade placards to try to see if people would stop and take them along through the tunnel and at least get them over the other side to New Jersey.

It's very unnatural if you live in a big city to suddenly be able to see a truly darkening sky. And the buildings regain a certain monumental appearance that they don't have when they're entirely lit up. The massiveness of their physical form takes over the skyline in a way that it doesn't when all the lights are on.

Some New Yorkers decided to make the best of it by going out to the local taverns and staying out with fellow pedestrians who couldn't get anywhere anyway and trying to make the best of it and have a not very cold beer. People who chose not to walk any further began to camp out on the steps of the United States Post Office. So these people just made the steps their bed for the night.

You had people lying down in public spaces, pretty much behaving themselves in a very civilized and orderly way. And people were actually sleeping with knapsacks and suit jackets and newspapers rolled up under their heads.

People were hoping that, when the sun came up, the lights would come up along with it. But, in fact, we were still blacked out in a great deal of the city. Water and food became an issue fairly quickly. Many people who lived in tall buildings, as these people did, came down to the local playground, where the sprinkler was bringing water up from the pipes, and they filled whatever containers they had.

This particular supermarket only allowed people who brought their own flashlights with them to come into the store. New Yorkers are extremely resourceful. And if somebody wants to go out and get their grocery shopping done, they'll take their flashlight and they will find a way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The work of the photographers of "The New York Times."

Morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Oh, how I missed that. And I'm sure you did, too.

Time for morning papers. Okeydokey, time for morning papers, newspaper headlines for tomorrow morning from across the country and around the world. Is that what I say?

If you're traveling, you'll find this at your doorstep at the fine hotel you're staying in, "USA Today." "Low-Carb Lifestyle Goes Mainstream." That's their big story. "Atkins diet, once considered an oddity, spawns stores, Web sites and imitators." There's a beer out, I think, now that's the no-carb beer. Also a story on Iraq. "In Iraq, a Comfortable 118 Degrees." That's a sense of humor, I guess, by the headline writers of "USA Today." If you're traveling, you'll get that.

If you're really traveling and you find yourself in London when you wake up in the morning, this is what you'll find. Well, I don't know that you'll find this, but you'll find something like it. "The Guardian." "Blair Was Told Iraq No Threat." This is a fascinating story. This is this ongoing investigation into what the government did or didn't know. In any case, the story is that an aide -- Mr. Blair's chief of staff said, well, yes, they're bad guys, but they're not going to hurt us. See how that plays there.

"San Francisco Chronicle." Imagine this in the California recall race. "Issues Replacing Hype in Campaign." That's, I guess, a promise. Mr. Schwarzenegger, "Schwarzenegger to Air Policies." I can't wait.

Also, down at the bottom here, we haven't talked about this story, but we ought to soon. "Support Weakens For Proposition 54, Poll Finds." It would ban state from collecting data on race and ethnicity. There's some question. That's one of those things that sounds terrific, I think, at first blush. It may be more complicated after you think about it for a while, or it may not, depending on your point of view. Anyway, that's on the front page of "The Chronicle."

How much time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got one minute 37.

BROWN: Oh, my goodness, about one minute 37, imagine that. I guess a little less now.

"The Detroit News," some advice: "Water's OK. Eat, Drink, Don't Worry." I like that. "Probe Focuses on Phone Glitch." I'm not sure what that's about. Anyway, down over here, "Poll: Half Favor Law Against Gay Marriage." I guess, arguably, that would mean half support such a law, doesn't it? Well, probably not, because polls don't work that way. But it is all in the way you phrase things.

"The Oregonian" out West in Portland, Oregon, almost completely a local front page. "Deadly Stretch of US-26 Defies Easy Answers"; 13 killed on that highway, and that made the front page, also a logging story. That's a big business out in the state of Oregon and in the Northwest.

A wonderful and actually tragic story in the "Detroit Free Press." Once again, this paper continues to impress. "Military's Failure Left Recruit to Die," the story of a young man, local kid, who died in Marine boot camp, 18 years old. It's very sad. It's part of an ongoing investigation in the "Detroit Free Press."

"The Dallas Morning News" has three stories on the Baylor basketball program down in Texas. "Ex Aide: Bliss an Angry Man." And then three other stories. So that's obviously a huge story in the state of Texas. That's "The Dallas Morning News."

And, well, we'll do this real quickly. Down here, "The Washington Times." There are a bunch of stories I wanted to mention, but I ran out of time. Isn't that weird? Because this segment felt like it went on for about an hour and a half, didn't it? "Simon" -- that's Bill Simon -- "Must Pass Three Mack Trucks." Anyway, he was a guest on the program.

That is the program. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00, if the power's on. Good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





of Recall Election Wednesday; West Virginia Terrorized by Sniper>