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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Firefighters Begin Getting Control of California Fires; Is U.S. Prepared for Terrorist Attacks?

Aired October 31, 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.
Every picture tells a story, they say, and in several places tonight pictures, those stills we love so much make their presence felt. The first comes from the fires, a picture of one home left standing in a neighborhood that was otherwise devastated. It spoke to the randomness of the fires and the misery that they've caused.

The other pictures, 1,500 of them, speak to the country itself, one week photographing America. It is Friday of a long week for everyone, a night that begins out west again with the fires of Southern California. I'll get it, stay with me.

CNN's Frank Buckley starts the whip off, Frank a headline.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, firefighters here are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but also tonight questions are being raised about why helicopter pilots were not allowed to drop water on the largest of the California fires before it began to burn out of control -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, thank you.

Even before the flames are out, people are learning why some houses made it and others did not, CNN's Gary Tuchman on the phone with that, Gary a headline.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, in Simi Valley, California a wall of flames raged right next to a subdivision but most of the residents never left their homes, the reason confidence in their strict building codes -- Aaron.

BROWN: Gary, thank you.

And after two wars, two years, and drill after terrorism drill, how prepared is the country for another attack, CNN's Mike Boettcher covering that tonight, Mike a headline.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, when Topoff 2 was held about last May it was the largest counterterrorism exercise ever in the history of the world. Now a report card is due out soon. The question is what grade did the United States score? We'll have that later.

BROWN: Mike, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Friday edition of NEWSNIGHT we'll talk with the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency about getting help for the fire victims in California.

We'll also look at the apparent end of one of the longest criminal investigations in the country, the Green River killings in Seattle in King County, Washington. One man prepared to plead guilty to 48 murders.

Later, we head to the Grove in Oxford, Mississippi for some pre- game rituals, never seem to change, and our own ritual of sorts the rooster and a check of your morning papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with the fires and a growing sense that a corner has been turned, not that the fires are out or that the destruction is over but rain and fog and cooler temperatures are doing their part allowing firefighters some breathing space to do theirs.

They've been plowing berms and fire breaks around neighborhoods still in jeopardy but as they do hard questions are being asked about why the largest of the fires wasn't stopped when stopping it would have been relatively easy.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): It has consumed more than 275,000 acres, killed 14 people, destroyed more than 1,600 homes and San Diego County Sheriff's Department helicopter pilots Dave Weldon (ph) and Gene Pollo (ph) say they could have dropped water on the blaze soon after it started before it became this monster blaze.

It was only 50 square yards in size. Weldon spotted it and called dispatch for a water drop but he says he was told that U.S. Forest Service rules prohibited such a drop after sunset hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were told that it was -- they would not be responding because of the cutoff time. It was too close to sunset.

BUCKLEY: Forest Service officials say their rules are designed to protect firefighters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is our professional judgment that they would not have made a difference and I'm glad they didn't take the risk. Something might have happened and they could be dead.

BUCKLEY: Questions are also being raised about the actions of federal officials in this fire in San Bernardino County that killed four people and destroyed more than 850 homes.

FEMA officials declined a request from Governor Gray Davis last spring for $430 million to remove dead trees from forests that were likely to burn. Governor Davis and Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared together at a FEMA Disaster Assistance Center and both said it was not time to ascribe blame for the fires.

GOVERNOR-ELECT ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: One thing I can guarantee you that I will be back in Washington as many times as possible to collect money so that we have more money the next time.

BUCKLEY: FEMA officials defended their decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not in a position to say the funding was too late or too little. The fires came along and wiped out everybody's plans for an orderly fuel reduction.

BUCKLEY: Meanwhile, residents of burned out mountain communities who hoped to see their homes for themselves were turned away. Roads are still being cleared. Burned out trees still pose a hazard so many people continue to stay in shelters nearly a week after evacuating their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm in a numb stage. I don't know if I should be happy or if I should cry or if I should just be screaming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: And it's been a very difficult week, Aaron, for many people. At the end of the day from all of the fires throughout California more than 100,000 people have been displaced, 745,000 acres have burned, more than 2,800 homes have been lost -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, talk for a minute just how the last -- how different the last 48 hours must feel out there. Forty-eight hours ago we were dealing literally with the death of a firefighter. Today all of our reporting really has to do with the effects of the fire, not so much the fire itself. What's it like on the lines?

BUCKLEY: Well, I think you said it best early on when you said that this fire has turned a corner, at least that Californians feel like we've turned a corner. There's a sense that with the weather changing the firefighters have been able to take the offensive, as one fire captain told us.

They're no longer on the defensive waiting for the fire to come. They're actually able to take some steps so from their point of view they've been able to change their tactics.

For homeowners, for other Californians, there's a sense that these fires are starting to die down and maybe some of those 100,000 people who are displaced will finally get to go home.

BROWN: Do most of -- is it your impression, you can't know this for certain, is it your impression that most of the people who have lost homes know they have lost homes now?

BUCKLEY: You know it's a very good question because some of the people down at the evacuation centers they just don't know. They know that obviously certain communities have been hit by fire but they haven't been able to go up to find out. They have a sense that, well, I live in the Cedar Glen neighborhood so many homes here burned so there's a good chance that my home burned.

But the few people who have been able to come up here to Cedar Glen, most people have not been able to come up, but the few who have been able to get through the police lines in some instances they've been surprised. They've come up and found out that their cabin or their home has survived. So, some people have the sense that their homes have burned but they really won't know until they get up here.

BROWN: Frank, thank you for your work tonight and your work this week, you and your crew, nicely done.

A picture on the front page of the "Washington Post" caught our eye this morning. It shows a neighborhood in San Diego, Scripps Ranch, as seen from above. Two things will take your breath away. One that 27 homes have been utterly incinerated; and two, that down among them just one home, a single home in that neighborhood survived.

Remarkably enough, though, this is not the only street in the neighborhood with just one home left standing, here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One street in a suburb of San Diego destroyed by fire. Forty-eight homes used to stand here on Pine Castle Street in Scripps Ranch. Now they're gone all but one, Steve Hummell's (ph) home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we left here it was like the end of the world was going on. It was dark and it was -- the fires, the flames were coming over the top and we ran for it and we didn't think with what we left where we were running from that there would be anything at all left down here, least of all our house.

CARROLL: Hummell gave us a tour, showing how close the flames came to burning his family's home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the only damage and that will power wash off to the house.

CARROLL: He stopped at times to greet neighbors, one next door who lost her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?

CARROLL: And the neighbor who lives behind him, her house also destroyed by fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is so lucky. I am so happy for him.

CARROLL: Why is the Hummell's house still standing? His daughter has no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no rational reason for why my home is here. It's just a miracle and I mean I'll forever be asking, you know, why did our house stay and no one else and, you know, what can I do for everyone else who didn't and I mean obviously guilt comes with that even though it shouldn't but I don't know it's just a blessing from God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that it was, you know, kind of a miracle. It's as if someone was just standing there saying not this house, so that's why I say I think it's God's message, you know, to have hope.

CARROLL: Maybe the house is still here because of a concrete- style roof installed just about a week ago or maybe it was a message, Hummell faxed to his house when the fire was at its worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took a piece of paper and I wrote a message on it and I said now put that in and she put that in and she hit the button and it went and we got a confirmation and that fax was still sitting on my fax machine when I walked into the house.

CARROLL: It reads: "God bless this house and the firemen who protect it." One man believes his prayer was answered.

Jason Carroll CNN, San Diego, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Answered prayers, well we'll never know. The concrete roofing probably didn't hurt, no leap of faith needed there. Cedar shingles burn, concrete doesn't, just one of the many choices being looked at tonight that can make a difference between a house that makes it and one that does not.

Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They had watched TV news coverage of the lives lost and the houses destroyed and then the fire came to them. The Ghrist family of Simi Valley, California, had to make quick decisions.

How close did the fire ultimately get?

GAIL GHRIST, SIMI VALLEY RESIDENT: A hundred feet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About 50 feet.

G. GHRIST: Fifty to 100 feet, yes.

TUCHMAN: Fifty to 100 feet from your house.

G. GHRIST: Just right here. It's at the top of this slope.

TUCHMAN: This is what that slope looked like this past Sunday on this home video shot by Gail Ghrist as she prepared to evacuate her home. Here's the fire 100 feet from your house and you asked the firefighters is it time to evacuate and what did they say to you?

G. GHRIST: He said you can either leave or you can go inside your house.

TUCHMAN: And you said, go inside your house, there's a fire 100 feet away and he said what?

G. GHRIST: He just, he said the way these -- he said no these homes are built very well and there won't be a problem with it. He said it will go right on by and we'll be right here taking care of you.

TUCHMAN: And that's exactly what happened in this city with some of the most stringent building codes in California.

So, would you go as far as to say that perhaps property and lives were saved because of your strict rules in Simi Valley?

GADDIS FARMER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, BUILDING DEPARTMENT, CITY OF SIMI VALLEY: I would say absolutely.

TUCHMAN: Gaddis Farmer is the deputy director of the Building Department in this city of 120,000 people where thousands of acres of land have been destroyed but where only four structures suffered damage.

(on camera): How is this roof different than a roof that most people would build?

FARMER: This roof is different in that it's non-combustible material.

TUCHMAN: So, no wood at all?

FARMER: No wood. We will not accept nor will we authorize wood components on a roof system.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Is that what they're doing, setting back fires?

TUCHMAN: Outside walls are required to have special plaster for fire protection, windows dual glazed to reduce heat radiation and in fire vulnerable areas so-called greenways are built to create a buffer before flames cascade onto homes.

FARMER: It's watered. They use plants that are more prone to retain water and the homeowner's association maintains that on a regular basis.

TUCHMAN: Simi Valley's building codes were implemented in the 1980s. They make the homes in this well-to-do city even costlier but considering what the last days have brought most here see it as a very prudent investment.

Gary Tuchman CNN, Simi Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: President Bush plans to travel to California on Tuesday, those plans subject to change depending on the circumstances. With us now the president's point person on such thing, Michael Brown is the head of FEMA. He joins us from San Diego. We're pleased to have him with us tonight.

What is the federal government's role right now? How do you help individual citizens?

MICHAEL BROWN, UNDERSECRETARY, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE: Good evening, Aaron. Primarily right now we're trying to help the state, county and municipal governments do all the coordination to continue to fight the fires.

As your earlier reports indicate, while things seem to have calmed down, the fires are not all that well contained. The weather is breaking in our favor but we still have fires to fight so we're still in a response mode and we are, of course, now beginning to take care of the victims.

BROWN: And to what extent do federal dollars end up in victims' pockets here?

M. BROWN: Well, for example, we now have currently opened four disaster recovery centers, have a couple of those mobile where they'll actually go into the neighborhoods. People are now beginning to register via the toll free number 800-621-FEMA.

And, as of about five o'clock Eastern time tonight, we had over 4,800, almost 5,000 victims who have registered and we've already cut the first checks and made the first transfers of money to those victims to help them find housing and shelter, food, and some personal belongings.

BROWN: So, basically what the federal government's role here in terms of an individual is to sort of bridge the gap between today or tonight and the time they deal with their insurance companies?

M. BROWN: Aaron, that's exactly right. We're primarily concerned about making certain that people have places to stay and that they have food on the table and that they have the resources to help them get back to work. They need clothing. These people have suffered tremendously.

The president's admonition to me is to make certain that they have the necessities of life to kind of get back on their feet and get their lives started again.

BROWN: I know you're aware of this question about what FEMA did or didn't do before the fires.

M. BROWN: Right. BROWN: Let me just ask broadly a question here. FEMA is essentially in my experience, you may want to disagree with this, a reactive agency. It moves in after something has happened and helps people out. Does the agency need to rethink that to some degree to become more proactive?

M. BROWN: I think that's a popular misconception. One of the -- FEMA has a very robust, we call it the Mitigation Department, and the role of that department is to put money into the hands of states and local communities to mitigate against disasters before they occur, flood insurance.

We have, for example, in Oklahoma we have built literally hundreds, if not thousands, of tornado shelters, so we do a lot of proactive things to help mitigate and reduce the effects of disasters before they occur.

BROWN: Well, I guess a tornado shelter helps people if there's a tornado. I think the issue here is should money have gone to try and eliminate the possibility of a fire? Those are very different kinds of situations.

M. BROWN: Well, they are very different kinds of situations and the good news is that there was a lot of federal money already coming into California to do that very thing. There was well over $40 million coming into the state just this past spring and summer to help clean out some of these forests, so federal dollars was going into California for that purpose.

BROWN: Your sense of the situation tonight in terms of the human toll that the tragedy, this disaster has taken, does it seem worse on the ground than it seemed back in Washington.

M. BROWN: And it is worse on the ground. Of course we're now going through the phase of this disaster where people are beginning to go back into their neighborhoods, see these destroyed homes, realize they have nothing but the clothes they have on and so they're going to be coming -- they will start going through the process of typical grief.

They will become angry. They will become frustrated and so we have community relations people out in the field. We have crisis counselors available for them and we want to give them the bare necessities to get back to work, get back to their normal routine to help them through that process.

BROWN: How long does that take? How efficient do you feel like, this is a complicated situation where federal agencies are involved, state, counties, municipalities, everyone has to sort of work together. Does everyone seem to know the drill?

M. BROWN: They do know the drill. Secretary Ridge and I went through one of these resource centers this afternoon and the good news here is that in addition to all the federal agencies we've developed such a good relationship with the state of California and, for example, the city of San Diego and the county out here that we have tax assessors.

We have the American Red Cross, charitable organizations, the insurance companies, the utility companies all in one center so that we can provide them anything. If we can't do something we can find somebody else in the room that can do something for them. It's a grand effort to pull out all stops to help these victims.

BROWN: Busy days ahead for you and the people who work with you. We appreciate your time tonight, Michael Brown head what is FEMA, now part of the Department of Homeland Security. Good to see you, sir, thank you.

M. BROWN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT is America prepared? A review of the recent drill suggests we may not be ready for the next terrorist attack if there is one.

Later in the hour we head to Oxford, Mississippi, the Deep South, where Saturday football means a lot more than just a game.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Afghanistan that time.

Given all the effort and the political capital the billions of dollars devoted to improving homeland security it's only reasonable to expect that some of it in the end actually makes us safer.

Measuring the improvement, though, is more art than science. The fact that there hasn't been a successful attack on this country in this country since 9/11/2001 doesn't necessarily settle the issue, after all there have been box cutters on planes and guys in cargo containers on airplanes too and all the rest and only raising a lot of awkward questions.

So, does a recent drill in fact; reporting for us, CNN's Mike Boettcher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): Ambitious in scope, Topoff 2's imaginary scenario scripted two simultaneous terrorist assaults last May, a nuclear dirty bomb explosion in Seattle and a bioterror attack in Chicago. Eight thousand emergency workers responded in real time as did top U.S. officials, thus the name Topoff.

But "The Wall Street Journal" in Friday's edition reported that some officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, believed Topoff 2 was a test that the government did not pass. It quoted a FEMA draft report on the exercise that observed Topoff 2 was plagued by confusion, uncertainty over the chain of command and a lack of information sharing. The Office of Homeland Security, which FEMA now reports to, didn't comment publicly. Officials there say the final report on Topoff 2 isn't finished. They insist it wasn't a pass/fail test but an exercise meant to expose weaknesses. CNN National Security Analyst Ken Robinson, who helped design the first Topoff exercise three years ago, spoke to homeland security officials off camera.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They purposely put into the exercise enormous friction points because they knew that there were problems with the new emerging Department of Homeland Security.

BOETTCHER: Homeland Security had only been a department 70 days when the exercise was held. They say they knew there would be problems in the new command structure.

ROBINSON: Within the federal government there are still communication problems between departments and agencies. There are also problems that exist between certain regulations. They identified enormous problems in just the area of public information. What do you tell the public to do? What universal precautions should they take? Should they stay at home? Should they leave the affected area?

BOETTCHER: What changed then from Topoff 1 staged back in 2000 to the most recent Topoff, 9/11.

ROBINSON: One of the things that we've gotten better at is everybody now gets it. The issue now is to find a way forward where each department and agency still communicates effectively together, shares intelligence together and gives way together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER: You know, Aaron, I covered the first Topoff exercise from the beginning when it was planned to when it was finished and the whole thing was designed to cause pain, to see what mistakes were made and you really, really can't offer a grade for something like that. They believe they learned from their mistakes in this -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, I hope they did. On the other hand, when he says everyone gets it clearly that's not the case because if everyone gets it there aren't communications problems for one.

BOETTCHER: No. You know I disagree with you on this, Aaron.

BROWN: That's fine.

BOETTCHER: I think that if everyone -- if you had a Homeland Security Department had just taken over the whole restructuring of the United States national response to a terrorist attack had been changed 70 days before so they had to find out what was going on.

It wasn't, you know, the main thing was I can tell you the change from the exercise back in Topoff 1 to now was that back then I can remember people saying this is not going to occur. This is a waste of time. No one talks like that anymore. They do get it. BROWN: That I think they get, Michael, thank you very much always.

BOETTCHER: You're welcome.

BROWN: Good to have you on the program tonight.

A couple more items before we go to break, both from the same courthouse in Southern California. In the first case, a judge threw out a conspiracy charge against actor Robert Blake and his friend Earl Caldwell.

The judge, however, did let the murder charge against Mr. Blake stand. As you'll remember he's accused in the shooting of his wife outside a local restaurant a little more than two and a half years ago. And, as he was going into court, a bizarre scene was unfolding outside between a lawyer and a gunman.

(PLAYING OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The lawyer who was shot is Gerald Curry (ph). The gunman policy identify as William Striler. Reportedly he is the brother of a woman Mr. Curry represented in a probate case. "That's what you get for stealing my money," witnesses heard him shouting as he put his gun in the bag and calmly started walking away.

(PLAYING OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: He's being held tonight on charges of attempted murder. The lawyer, Mr. Curry, did suffer a number of gunshot wounds but just think about what that was -- what was playing out in front of you and keep in mind he is in stable condition tonight. He's a lucky man.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT is a decades long murder spree at an end. After 48 killings, the Green River killing is finally behind us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We actually remember, at least we think we remember, the day the Green River killings began. Seattle was home in those days and the killings and the investigation would become as much a part of the news there as the clouds and the rain. Twenty years later it seems the case is almost over.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Serial killings rarely seem that way at first. Back in August of '82 no one in Seattle imagined the bodies found hear the Green River south of the city would become the first of more than 40 victims of a man who became known as the Green River killer.

KATHLEEN LARSON, GREEN RIVER SPOKESWOMAN: There's four women that continue to be missing.

BROWN: Many more would turn up missing, invisible victims in many ways, prostitutes and runaways. Eventually a task force of local, state and federal agencies was formed but always there was the suspicion that the killer had stopped, the killer had fled or perhaps just gone back to a faraway home.

CAPT FRANK ADAMSON, TASK FORCE COMMANDER: We may not be the agency that literally puts their hands on the Green River killer, but we'll assist some agency somewhere in the country in solving this investigation.

BROWN: Over two decades, the task force received 40,000 tips -- and, in all that time, nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we've given up our daughter, in so many words, then we're not going to allow him to take more from us.

BROWN: Then, in '91, a DNA test on material found more than a decade earlier led to a suspect. The case, perhaps the worst in the country's history, was broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your true name Gary Leon Ridgway?

GARY RIDGWAY, DEFENDANT: Yes, it is.

BROWN: Gary Ridgway was arrested and charged in seven of the Green River cases. He pled innocent and has been dealing to save his life ever since. And the deal is simple, according to sources. Ridgway is telling investigators of every killing, some investigators didn't even know about; 48 families will learn the truth and Ridgway will be spared the death penalty. He will get life without parole. It is a deal the long-serving King County prosecutor vowed he would not make.

NORM MALENG, KING COUNTY PROSECUTOR: The policy of this office is not to plea bargain with a death penalty, period.

BROWN: But, in the end, it seems, the plea bargain served everyone's interests best. The families now know what happened. The county's 20-year investigation will finally end. And the worst serial killer of our time will be locked up forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Tomas Guillen joins us now. Mr. Guillen was a reporter at "The Seattle Times," if my memory is right, covering the killings 21 years ago. He has written the book, literally, on the case, co- authored it. And he joins us from Seattle tonight.

It's nice to see you.

How did they have Mr. Ridgway's DNA?

TOMAS GUILLEN, CO-AUTHOR, "THE SEARCH FOR THE GREEN RIVER KILLER": Well, in 1987, they went after him, after numerous tips about him being a suspect.

And, essentially, they couldn't find anything on him, but they did take a saliva sample from him. And, as the years went by, DNA became a better tool, more refined. And, recently, they compared DNA on the saliva and DNA on some of the victims. And it matched.

BROWN: How did they come to believe he was a suspect back then?

GUILLEN: Well, essentially, I think there were several reports. One of them, I believe a former wife contacted officials, saying she had suspicions.

I believe he was caught once in the woods assaulting a woman. And I think he even contacted law enforcement officials at one time, saying that he might know something about the case.

BROWN: Well, that was a pretty foolish move on his part. Were there other suspects along the way?

GUILLEN: There were quite a few, some visible, some very much behind the scenes. But he was one of the prime suspects for many years. He's been the prime suspect for a long time.

BROWN: So, going back to '85, they thought maybe they knew who was -- who had done this. And, in fact, he was still, if we believe the reporting -- and I do -- he was still committing murders.

GUILLEN: Well, Aaron, that's -- I think it's a travesty here.

I think police dropped the ball. I think they went after Ridgway in 1987. Police have always said that the case ended in 1984, that there were no more killings. After Ridgway, they did some investigations, but then they didn't do very much. The task force was disbanded. They stuck to their guns that the killer stopped in 1984.

And, as now we've seen, he's killed into 1998, when there was no investigation going on. So, obviously, there were some mistakes made here.

BROWN: What's the reaction in town, in the city and in the county to the deal itself? Here you have got a guy who is about to plead to 48 homicides and he's not going to get the death penalty.

GUILLEN: Well, it's mixed.

Obviously, those families who have their loved ones, their daughters, obviously feel that he should get the death penalty. And, obviously, those who have not gotten their daughters, they haven't found them, believe that there might be a deal. I think, overall, a lot of people think that this might be the best thing. It brings closure. He might have died in prison anyway.

Right now, the way things are developing, the case appears to -- it's going to go beyond 48 49, 50. And it might go up to 60 or 70 victims, as I understand it. There are a lot of names being thrown out and a lot of people who are not on the list of victims are being added. So this case is growing by the day.

BROWN: I saw that, literally, he had been moved out of the King County jail into a cell, I gather, of some sort in the task force office or among the police who are investigating, cleaning this all up, and that they're going out in the woods every day looking at stuff.

GUILLEN: They have been searching very frequently the last few months. They have found several skeletal remains, four, to be exact. They have identified three as some of the Green River missing. They have one they have not identified. And she has been added to the list.

BROWN: I don't want to say this has owned your life for 21 years. It hasn't. But you spent a lot of your professional life, your reporting life working on it and writing the book and thinking about it. Does it seem, I don't know, odd that this thing appears to be days away from coming to an end?

GUILLEN: Yes. I have spent 21 years, too much time. I think I've ignored the family sometimes.

And I'm elated that it's coming to a conclusion, basically. I thought that I might die and I would never know this mystery, just like Jack the Ripper or the Zodiac case. And I'm very happy it's coming to a conclusion. I too have mixed feelings, whether he should get the death penalty or not. And the list is growing every day. So those who thought he should provide closure may start thinking that he's more of an animal than he was and are starting to change their mind.

BROWN: Yes. It's pretty horrendous. And however it ends, we're glad it's finally ending.

It's nice to see you. Thank you.

GUILLEN: Nice seeing you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you very much.

Tomas Guillen now is a professor of journalism at Seattle U.

NEWSNIGHT continues, a week in the life of America. We'll talk to the man behind an extraordinary new book. This is very cool. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And lots more NEWSNIGHT ahead, including a visit to the Grove. We'll check morning papers, too.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the day comes that still pictures taken by talented photographers of telling moments lose their power to move us, it will be time for this program, at least, to hang it all up. Fortunately, it's hard to imagine that happening, as long as pictures like the ones you're about to see are still being taken.

For a week in May, people in cities big and small across the country were asked to pick up digital cameras and capture moments that show the world what it is to be an American. More than 25,000 photographers, most of them amateurs, took part. The best of their efforts are collected in "America 24/7," a creation of David Elliot Cohen and Rick Smolan.

And pleased to have him with us tonight.

It's nice to see you. The book is fabulous.

RICK SMOLAN, PROJECT DIRECTOR, "AMERICA 24/7": Thank you.

BROWN: But first, you got to tell me, why did it matter that it was digital cameras?

SMOLAN: Well, this is the first year that digital cameras are outselling film cameras for the first time. And we thought it was really important to kind of mark this turning point. There's also something else which is -- do you use a digital camera yourself?

BROWN: No.

SMOLAN: Well, I started using an Olympus camera.

BROWN: Yes.

SMOLAN: And I find that, when I take pictures with my Olympus, all of my pictures get sent to my friends that night. And, all of sudden, I have got 40 friends that I have spent the weekend with. And they have the pictures immediately. When I take my film to a one-hour lab, I never get around to making reprints.

BROWN: Let's talk about -- you've done a number of these books. This one is truly grand. And we've got a number of pictures, obviously. But I want to talk with this stunning child on the cover.

SMOLAN: Actually, I just went trick-or-treating with her tonight.

BROWN: This is yours?

SMOLAN: No, no. Actually, it's very funny, because, in fact, my nanny keeps complaining. She said, you have a 3-year-old, but you put somebody else's 3-year-old on the cover of your book. This is Bailey Lewis (ph).

BROWN: There we go.

SMOLAN: And just a wonderful little girl, 3 1/2 years old. It's really hard to figure out one image to represent a whole book.

The whole point of "America 24/7" was to create a time capsule of what everyday ordinary life is like. I think a lot of Americans, particularly since 9/11, have been very frustrated with the way the American story is being told by Hollywood, by Madison Avenue, by the media, by the government. And we said, if you would like to tell the world directly what it's like in your town, your community and your family, take digital pictures and upload them to us. And people shot over one million pictures during this week.

BROWN: Let's just -- go ahead and just -- I don't know what order you have. This one came from New Orleans.

SMOLAN: Yes, New Orleans. This is just wonderful. It's a pachyderm pedicure. We were sort of stunned by the fact that -- we hired 1,000 of the best photographers in America. But 25,000 other moms and dads and students signed up to take pictures.

BROWN: Put up -- David, go ahead and cycle through some of these. This is New York.

SMOLAN: Yes, this is an extraordinary picture. This is one of my favorites. This guy is not wearing any harness at all. He's just out there on the edge of

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Amateur or professional photographer?

SMOLAN: Professional.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Underwood, Minnesota.

SMOLAN: Yes, I love this. This was an amateur picture. This is just a fantastic photograph. There are so many images in this book that are sort of extraordinary pictures of everyday ordinary life.

BROWN: There's a great story. This one came out of Corvallis, Oregon. There's a wonderful story here about a mother and her kids and what it takes to keep them calm.

SMOLAN: It turns, like a lot of parents, she found that, when the kids were around something noisy, near a refrigerator or in the back of car, they fell asleep. And whenever her husband mowed the lawn, the kids would always fell asleep. So one day, he was away. They were screaming. And she decided she would strap them both on and mow the lawn at the same time. I love the picture.

BROWN: This is out of Charlotte, North Carolina, I think, right?

SMOLAN: Yes, first communion.

Those of your viewers who are in New York City, there is a wonderful exhibit right now on the walls of Bryant Park, the first time they've allowed anyone to do this. And there's a company called Digital Pond that made these extraordinary, huge blowups that line the fence. This is an amazing picture.

BROWN: Out of Chicago. And this is from "The Sun-Times." SMOLAN: Yes, this was a professional photographer. We call this "Stairway to Heaven."

BROWN: How do you top this, in a sense? This is the country, in 20 seconds.

SMOLAN: Well, you know what? We decided that, in addition to all the things that this book represents, we would allow anyone who wants to, to upload their own photographs. So when my nanny was complaining, I actually put my own daughter Phoebe (ph) on the cover of the book. Anybody can come to our Web site. And for $6, they get a wraparound cover that puts your family and your friends on the cover of the best-selling book in America.

BROWN: If that ain't the most brilliant marketing thing in a long time.

SMOLAN: It looks cool.

BROWN: Nice to meet you.

SMOLAN: Thank you.

BROWN: It's a wonderful book. We're not in the business of selling books, but this is a great coffee table book.

SMOLAN: It's a real conversation piece. Show it to your kids. They will not talk talking about it.

BROWN: Good for you. Nicely done.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: time for tailgating, Ole Miss style. Decades-old traditions change ever so slowly.

We'll take a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tomorrow, down in Oxford, Mississippi, the Ole Miss rebels face the Gamecocks of South Carolina. While being in first place in the Southeastern Conference is no tradition for the Ole Miss football team, there are plenty of other traditions there firmly in place.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If college football is, as they say, a religion in the South, then this is one of its most majestic cathedrals, the campus of Ole Miss, home of the rebels, and, in particular, this tree-filled expanse near the stadium called the Grove.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing like it, Saturday football in the Grove. BURKHARDT: The game is really just an excuse. The real action is in the Grove, acres and acres of party tents in the shade of old magnolias and oak trees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got here this morning about -- well, I got my tent here about 3:15.

BURKHARDT: That's in the morning. It's the way the Ole Miss faithful have been doing football Saturdays for generations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very first day in the Grove.

BURKHARDT: More food than anyone could possibly eat and maybe a little bourbon, too, if it's hidden well. After all, this is a -- a dry campus. It is a snapshot from the '50s, pretty young coeds dressing up for a football game, the boys, too, traditions, like hating Alabama, today's opponents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think that Alabama can go to hell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, because we don't like them. We almost hate them as many as LSU.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, Rebels!

BURKHARDT: And traditions like the walk of champions. The team parades through the adoring crowd on the way to the stadium, led by quarterback Eli Manning. Talk about traditions. It was Eli's father, Archie Manning, now worshipped in these parts, who brought glory to Ole Miss some 30 years ago. The speed limit on campus, 18, Archie's old number.

But today, he's a proud father, along with a proud older brother, Peyton, who took a day off from his NFL job to come watch. But other traditions around here are more complicated, mixed up with symbols, symbols of the old South.

DON COLE, OLE MISS ASSISTANT PROVOST: Symbols are very powerful. And symbols mean a lot of things.

BURKHARDT: To Don Cole, now assistant provost at Ole Miss, the Confederate flag was a symbol. As a student in 1969, he was expelled for protesting racial policies. Now he is the Grove, partying where once only whites were welcome.

Another symbol is Colonel Reb, the Ole Miss mascot who was banished from the sidelines this season by the university.

PETE BOONE, OLE MISS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR: We thought that it would be a great thing to kind of upgrade and move on with mascots.

BURKHARDT: But students disagreed, and not just the white students. It is a different campus now than the one James Meredith integrated back in 1962. On this campus on this Saturday, it's not just the whites who are Rebels.

For many of the younger people here, it seems, the past, with apologies to William Faulkner, really is past. And Colonel Reb was just a lovable old mascot, the only one they had ever known.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BURKHARDT: Another Manning touchdown pass. Though beating Alabama has not been a tradition around here, they did so convincingly on this day, and they did it without Colonel Reb on the sidelines. Instead, Peyton and Archie looked on. Old times, they're not forgotten.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Oxford, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Nice Friday story, that.

We'll check morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Which could -- what -- I knew you'd come to me eventually. What could possibly be better than a Friday edition of morning papers? Don't answer.

"The Sun," we'll start with the newspaper of San Bernardino County, California. We appreciate a lot them getting us the paper. It's a very early deadline for them. So this is great. "Weather Helps Cage the Beast. Cold, Foggy Day Holds Back Wildfires. Mountains Awash in Ashes. Evacuees Await Return." And a neat picture on the front page of tomorrow's "Sun" in San Bernardino, California. The air quality is moderate, so another sign things are getting a little bit better.

Here's how "The San Francisco Chronicle" headlines the fire. "Heading Home to Carnage. Coldness Stalls Fire. Many Eager to Move Back." I'll bet they are. And they also front-page "Ban on Abortion Method Tested." Three lawsuits filed today against the bill the president will sign that outlaws the procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion.

A couple of newspapers that are a little more politicized than others, if you will.

"The Guardian," which is a British paper writing from the left, I would say: "Revealed: How The Post Office Plans to Break the Strike. Managers Urged to Spy on and Photograph Activists." Got a little wildcat postal strike going on over there.

"The Washington Times," the other paper in Washington, writing a little bit from the right, I think that's fair to say. This has become a big flap. "Friends Are Furious With Reagan Series." This is a miniseries that CBS is doing on the former president starring James Brolin. And the head of the Republican National Committee today asked to screen the series. I don't know about that. Anyway, it's become a big deal.

How much time did you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-four

BROWN: Forty-four.

"The Hartford Courant," Hartford, Connecticut. "Hefty Tuition Hike Sought. Connecticut State University Students Could Pay Up to 20 Percent More." That is hefty, isn't it? A story you first heard on NEWSNIGHT several months ago. That's the only reason I did it.

Thirty seconds. "'I Turned to God,' Says Rescued Coal Miner" in "The Miami Herald," some of whom-- or most of whom, I think, were rescued. That's a pretty good take on what I suspect was a slow news day.

We'll end it with "The Chicago Sun-Times." "Sheriff Pulls Rank." I have no idea what that story is about. I'll read it after the program. Sometimes, they don't even include the story. It says something about fish. Honestly. I'm not making it up. The weather tomorrow is "uninspired" -- there, but not here.

We'll wrap it up for the night in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go, a brief recap of our lead story tonight, our lead story every night since Monday, in fact.

A lot accomplished in just a few days. Officials now expect the largest of the fires, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, to be contained by the middle of next week. It and others have taken 20 lives, burned about three-quarters-of-a-million acres, destroyed 2,700 homes at least, and spared a few in places you would imagine nothing could survive. This one made the front pages today.

We see you again on Monday. Among the stories, candidates saying the darndest things in their political attacks, not vicious or negative, just very, very silly, at least as seen by Jeff Greenfield. That's Monday.

Our international viewers get "World News" next, the rest of you, "LOU DOBBS."

We'll see you again on Monday. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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





U.S. Prepared for Terrorist Attacks?>


Aired October 31, 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.
Every picture tells a story, they say, and in several places tonight pictures, those stills we love so much make their presence felt. The first comes from the fires, a picture of one home left standing in a neighborhood that was otherwise devastated. It spoke to the randomness of the fires and the misery that they've caused.

The other pictures, 1,500 of them, speak to the country itself, one week photographing America. It is Friday of a long week for everyone, a night that begins out west again with the fires of Southern California. I'll get it, stay with me.

CNN's Frank Buckley starts the whip off, Frank a headline.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, firefighters here are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but also tonight questions are being raised about why helicopter pilots were not allowed to drop water on the largest of the California fires before it began to burn out of control -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, thank you.

Even before the flames are out, people are learning why some houses made it and others did not, CNN's Gary Tuchman on the phone with that, Gary a headline.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, in Simi Valley, California a wall of flames raged right next to a subdivision but most of the residents never left their homes, the reason confidence in their strict building codes -- Aaron.

BROWN: Gary, thank you.

And after two wars, two years, and drill after terrorism drill, how prepared is the country for another attack, CNN's Mike Boettcher covering that tonight, Mike a headline.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, when Topoff 2 was held about last May it was the largest counterterrorism exercise ever in the history of the world. Now a report card is due out soon. The question is what grade did the United States score? We'll have that later.

BROWN: Mike, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly.

Also coming up on this Friday edition of NEWSNIGHT we'll talk with the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency about getting help for the fire victims in California.

We'll also look at the apparent end of one of the longest criminal investigations in the country, the Green River killings in Seattle in King County, Washington. One man prepared to plead guilty to 48 murders.

Later, we head to the Grove in Oxford, Mississippi for some pre- game rituals, never seem to change, and our own ritual of sorts the rooster and a check of your morning papers, all that and more in the hour ahead.

We begin tonight with the fires and a growing sense that a corner has been turned, not that the fires are out or that the destruction is over but rain and fog and cooler temperatures are doing their part allowing firefighters some breathing space to do theirs.

They've been plowing berms and fire breaks around neighborhoods still in jeopardy but as they do hard questions are being asked about why the largest of the fires wasn't stopped when stopping it would have been relatively easy.

Here's CNN's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY (voice-over): It has consumed more than 275,000 acres, killed 14 people, destroyed more than 1,600 homes and San Diego County Sheriff's Department helicopter pilots Dave Weldon (ph) and Gene Pollo (ph) say they could have dropped water on the blaze soon after it started before it became this monster blaze.

It was only 50 square yards in size. Weldon spotted it and called dispatch for a water drop but he says he was told that U.S. Forest Service rules prohibited such a drop after sunset hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were told that it was -- they would not be responding because of the cutoff time. It was too close to sunset.

BUCKLEY: Forest Service officials say their rules are designed to protect firefighters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is our professional judgment that they would not have made a difference and I'm glad they didn't take the risk. Something might have happened and they could be dead.

BUCKLEY: Questions are also being raised about the actions of federal officials in this fire in San Bernardino County that killed four people and destroyed more than 850 homes.

FEMA officials declined a request from Governor Gray Davis last spring for $430 million to remove dead trees from forests that were likely to burn. Governor Davis and Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared together at a FEMA Disaster Assistance Center and both said it was not time to ascribe blame for the fires.

GOVERNOR-ELECT ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: One thing I can guarantee you that I will be back in Washington as many times as possible to collect money so that we have more money the next time.

BUCKLEY: FEMA officials defended their decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not in a position to say the funding was too late or too little. The fires came along and wiped out everybody's plans for an orderly fuel reduction.

BUCKLEY: Meanwhile, residents of burned out mountain communities who hoped to see their homes for themselves were turned away. Roads are still being cleared. Burned out trees still pose a hazard so many people continue to stay in shelters nearly a week after evacuating their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm in a numb stage. I don't know if I should be happy or if I should cry or if I should just be screaming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUCKLEY: And it's been a very difficult week, Aaron, for many people. At the end of the day from all of the fires throughout California more than 100,000 people have been displaced, 745,000 acres have burned, more than 2,800 homes have been lost -- Aaron.

BROWN: Frank, talk for a minute just how the last -- how different the last 48 hours must feel out there. Forty-eight hours ago we were dealing literally with the death of a firefighter. Today all of our reporting really has to do with the effects of the fire, not so much the fire itself. What's it like on the lines?

BUCKLEY: Well, I think you said it best early on when you said that this fire has turned a corner, at least that Californians feel like we've turned a corner. There's a sense that with the weather changing the firefighters have been able to take the offensive, as one fire captain told us.

They're no longer on the defensive waiting for the fire to come. They're actually able to take some steps so from their point of view they've been able to change their tactics.

For homeowners, for other Californians, there's a sense that these fires are starting to die down and maybe some of those 100,000 people who are displaced will finally get to go home.

BROWN: Do most of -- is it your impression, you can't know this for certain, is it your impression that most of the people who have lost homes know they have lost homes now?

BUCKLEY: You know it's a very good question because some of the people down at the evacuation centers they just don't know. They know that obviously certain communities have been hit by fire but they haven't been able to go up to find out. They have a sense that, well, I live in the Cedar Glen neighborhood so many homes here burned so there's a good chance that my home burned.

But the few people who have been able to come up here to Cedar Glen, most people have not been able to come up, but the few who have been able to get through the police lines in some instances they've been surprised. They've come up and found out that their cabin or their home has survived. So, some people have the sense that their homes have burned but they really won't know until they get up here.

BROWN: Frank, thank you for your work tonight and your work this week, you and your crew, nicely done.

A picture on the front page of the "Washington Post" caught our eye this morning. It shows a neighborhood in San Diego, Scripps Ranch, as seen from above. Two things will take your breath away. One that 27 homes have been utterly incinerated; and two, that down among them just one home, a single home in that neighborhood survived.

Remarkably enough, though, this is not the only street in the neighborhood with just one home left standing, here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One street in a suburb of San Diego destroyed by fire. Forty-eight homes used to stand here on Pine Castle Street in Scripps Ranch. Now they're gone all but one, Steve Hummell's (ph) home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we left here it was like the end of the world was going on. It was dark and it was -- the fires, the flames were coming over the top and we ran for it and we didn't think with what we left where we were running from that there would be anything at all left down here, least of all our house.

CARROLL: Hummell gave us a tour, showing how close the flames came to burning his family's home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the only damage and that will power wash off to the house.

CARROLL: He stopped at times to greet neighbors, one next door who lost her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?

CARROLL: And the neighbor who lives behind him, her house also destroyed by fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is so lucky. I am so happy for him.

CARROLL: Why is the Hummell's house still standing? His daughter has no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no rational reason for why my home is here. It's just a miracle and I mean I'll forever be asking, you know, why did our house stay and no one else and, you know, what can I do for everyone else who didn't and I mean obviously guilt comes with that even though it shouldn't but I don't know it's just a blessing from God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that it was, you know, kind of a miracle. It's as if someone was just standing there saying not this house, so that's why I say I think it's God's message, you know, to have hope.

CARROLL: Maybe the house is still here because of a concrete- style roof installed just about a week ago or maybe it was a message, Hummell faxed to his house when the fire was at its worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I took a piece of paper and I wrote a message on it and I said now put that in and she put that in and she hit the button and it went and we got a confirmation and that fax was still sitting on my fax machine when I walked into the house.

CARROLL: It reads: "God bless this house and the firemen who protect it." One man believes his prayer was answered.

Jason Carroll CNN, San Diego, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Answered prayers, well we'll never know. The concrete roofing probably didn't hurt, no leap of faith needed there. Cedar shingles burn, concrete doesn't, just one of the many choices being looked at tonight that can make a difference between a house that makes it and one that does not.

Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They had watched TV news coverage of the lives lost and the houses destroyed and then the fire came to them. The Ghrist family of Simi Valley, California, had to make quick decisions.

How close did the fire ultimately get?

GAIL GHRIST, SIMI VALLEY RESIDENT: A hundred feet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About 50 feet.

G. GHRIST: Fifty to 100 feet, yes.

TUCHMAN: Fifty to 100 feet from your house.

G. GHRIST: Just right here. It's at the top of this slope.

TUCHMAN: This is what that slope looked like this past Sunday on this home video shot by Gail Ghrist as she prepared to evacuate her home. Here's the fire 100 feet from your house and you asked the firefighters is it time to evacuate and what did they say to you?

G. GHRIST: He said you can either leave or you can go inside your house.

TUCHMAN: And you said, go inside your house, there's a fire 100 feet away and he said what?

G. GHRIST: He just, he said the way these -- he said no these homes are built very well and there won't be a problem with it. He said it will go right on by and we'll be right here taking care of you.

TUCHMAN: And that's exactly what happened in this city with some of the most stringent building codes in California.

So, would you go as far as to say that perhaps property and lives were saved because of your strict rules in Simi Valley?

GADDIS FARMER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, BUILDING DEPARTMENT, CITY OF SIMI VALLEY: I would say absolutely.

TUCHMAN: Gaddis Farmer is the deputy director of the Building Department in this city of 120,000 people where thousands of acres of land have been destroyed but where only four structures suffered damage.

(on camera): How is this roof different than a roof that most people would build?

FARMER: This roof is different in that it's non-combustible material.

TUCHMAN: So, no wood at all?

FARMER: No wood. We will not accept nor will we authorize wood components on a roof system.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Is that what they're doing, setting back fires?

TUCHMAN: Outside walls are required to have special plaster for fire protection, windows dual glazed to reduce heat radiation and in fire vulnerable areas so-called greenways are built to create a buffer before flames cascade onto homes.

FARMER: It's watered. They use plants that are more prone to retain water and the homeowner's association maintains that on a regular basis.

TUCHMAN: Simi Valley's building codes were implemented in the 1980s. They make the homes in this well-to-do city even costlier but considering what the last days have brought most here see it as a very prudent investment.

Gary Tuchman CNN, Simi Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: President Bush plans to travel to California on Tuesday, those plans subject to change depending on the circumstances. With us now the president's point person on such thing, Michael Brown is the head of FEMA. He joins us from San Diego. We're pleased to have him with us tonight.

What is the federal government's role right now? How do you help individual citizens?

MICHAEL BROWN, UNDERSECRETARY, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE: Good evening, Aaron. Primarily right now we're trying to help the state, county and municipal governments do all the coordination to continue to fight the fires.

As your earlier reports indicate, while things seem to have calmed down, the fires are not all that well contained. The weather is breaking in our favor but we still have fires to fight so we're still in a response mode and we are, of course, now beginning to take care of the victims.

BROWN: And to what extent do federal dollars end up in victims' pockets here?

M. BROWN: Well, for example, we now have currently opened four disaster recovery centers, have a couple of those mobile where they'll actually go into the neighborhoods. People are now beginning to register via the toll free number 800-621-FEMA.

And, as of about five o'clock Eastern time tonight, we had over 4,800, almost 5,000 victims who have registered and we've already cut the first checks and made the first transfers of money to those victims to help them find housing and shelter, food, and some personal belongings.

BROWN: So, basically what the federal government's role here in terms of an individual is to sort of bridge the gap between today or tonight and the time they deal with their insurance companies?

M. BROWN: Aaron, that's exactly right. We're primarily concerned about making certain that people have places to stay and that they have food on the table and that they have the resources to help them get back to work. They need clothing. These people have suffered tremendously.

The president's admonition to me is to make certain that they have the necessities of life to kind of get back on their feet and get their lives started again.

BROWN: I know you're aware of this question about what FEMA did or didn't do before the fires.

M. BROWN: Right. BROWN: Let me just ask broadly a question here. FEMA is essentially in my experience, you may want to disagree with this, a reactive agency. It moves in after something has happened and helps people out. Does the agency need to rethink that to some degree to become more proactive?

M. BROWN: I think that's a popular misconception. One of the -- FEMA has a very robust, we call it the Mitigation Department, and the role of that department is to put money into the hands of states and local communities to mitigate against disasters before they occur, flood insurance.

We have, for example, in Oklahoma we have built literally hundreds, if not thousands, of tornado shelters, so we do a lot of proactive things to help mitigate and reduce the effects of disasters before they occur.

BROWN: Well, I guess a tornado shelter helps people if there's a tornado. I think the issue here is should money have gone to try and eliminate the possibility of a fire? Those are very different kinds of situations.

M. BROWN: Well, they are very different kinds of situations and the good news is that there was a lot of federal money already coming into California to do that very thing. There was well over $40 million coming into the state just this past spring and summer to help clean out some of these forests, so federal dollars was going into California for that purpose.

BROWN: Your sense of the situation tonight in terms of the human toll that the tragedy, this disaster has taken, does it seem worse on the ground than it seemed back in Washington.

M. BROWN: And it is worse on the ground. Of course we're now going through the phase of this disaster where people are beginning to go back into their neighborhoods, see these destroyed homes, realize they have nothing but the clothes they have on and so they're going to be coming -- they will start going through the process of typical grief.

They will become angry. They will become frustrated and so we have community relations people out in the field. We have crisis counselors available for them and we want to give them the bare necessities to get back to work, get back to their normal routine to help them through that process.

BROWN: How long does that take? How efficient do you feel like, this is a complicated situation where federal agencies are involved, state, counties, municipalities, everyone has to sort of work together. Does everyone seem to know the drill?

M. BROWN: They do know the drill. Secretary Ridge and I went through one of these resource centers this afternoon and the good news here is that in addition to all the federal agencies we've developed such a good relationship with the state of California and, for example, the city of San Diego and the county out here that we have tax assessors.

We have the American Red Cross, charitable organizations, the insurance companies, the utility companies all in one center so that we can provide them anything. If we can't do something we can find somebody else in the room that can do something for them. It's a grand effort to pull out all stops to help these victims.

BROWN: Busy days ahead for you and the people who work with you. We appreciate your time tonight, Michael Brown head what is FEMA, now part of the Department of Homeland Security. Good to see you, sir, thank you.

M. BROWN: Thank you, Aaron.

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT is America prepared? A review of the recent drill suggests we may not be ready for the next terrorist attack if there is one.

Later in the hour we head to Oxford, Mississippi, the Deep South, where Saturday football means a lot more than just a game.

This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Afghanistan that time.

Given all the effort and the political capital the billions of dollars devoted to improving homeland security it's only reasonable to expect that some of it in the end actually makes us safer.

Measuring the improvement, though, is more art than science. The fact that there hasn't been a successful attack on this country in this country since 9/11/2001 doesn't necessarily settle the issue, after all there have been box cutters on planes and guys in cargo containers on airplanes too and all the rest and only raising a lot of awkward questions.

So, does a recent drill in fact; reporting for us, CNN's Mike Boettcher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): Ambitious in scope, Topoff 2's imaginary scenario scripted two simultaneous terrorist assaults last May, a nuclear dirty bomb explosion in Seattle and a bioterror attack in Chicago. Eight thousand emergency workers responded in real time as did top U.S. officials, thus the name Topoff.

But "The Wall Street Journal" in Friday's edition reported that some officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, believed Topoff 2 was a test that the government did not pass. It quoted a FEMA draft report on the exercise that observed Topoff 2 was plagued by confusion, uncertainty over the chain of command and a lack of information sharing. The Office of Homeland Security, which FEMA now reports to, didn't comment publicly. Officials there say the final report on Topoff 2 isn't finished. They insist it wasn't a pass/fail test but an exercise meant to expose weaknesses. CNN National Security Analyst Ken Robinson, who helped design the first Topoff exercise three years ago, spoke to homeland security officials off camera.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They purposely put into the exercise enormous friction points because they knew that there were problems with the new emerging Department of Homeland Security.

BOETTCHER: Homeland Security had only been a department 70 days when the exercise was held. They say they knew there would be problems in the new command structure.

ROBINSON: Within the federal government there are still communication problems between departments and agencies. There are also problems that exist between certain regulations. They identified enormous problems in just the area of public information. What do you tell the public to do? What universal precautions should they take? Should they stay at home? Should they leave the affected area?

BOETTCHER: What changed then from Topoff 1 staged back in 2000 to the most recent Topoff, 9/11.

ROBINSON: One of the things that we've gotten better at is everybody now gets it. The issue now is to find a way forward where each department and agency still communicates effectively together, shares intelligence together and gives way together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER: You know, Aaron, I covered the first Topoff exercise from the beginning when it was planned to when it was finished and the whole thing was designed to cause pain, to see what mistakes were made and you really, really can't offer a grade for something like that. They believe they learned from their mistakes in this -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well, I hope they did. On the other hand, when he says everyone gets it clearly that's not the case because if everyone gets it there aren't communications problems for one.

BOETTCHER: No. You know I disagree with you on this, Aaron.

BROWN: That's fine.

BOETTCHER: I think that if everyone -- if you had a Homeland Security Department had just taken over the whole restructuring of the United States national response to a terrorist attack had been changed 70 days before so they had to find out what was going on.

It wasn't, you know, the main thing was I can tell you the change from the exercise back in Topoff 1 to now was that back then I can remember people saying this is not going to occur. This is a waste of time. No one talks like that anymore. They do get it. BROWN: That I think they get, Michael, thank you very much always.

BOETTCHER: You're welcome.

BROWN: Good to have you on the program tonight.

A couple more items before we go to break, both from the same courthouse in Southern California. In the first case, a judge threw out a conspiracy charge against actor Robert Blake and his friend Earl Caldwell.

The judge, however, did let the murder charge against Mr. Blake stand. As you'll remember he's accused in the shooting of his wife outside a local restaurant a little more than two and a half years ago. And, as he was going into court, a bizarre scene was unfolding outside between a lawyer and a gunman.

(PLAYING OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The lawyer who was shot is Gerald Curry (ph). The gunman policy identify as William Striler. Reportedly he is the brother of a woman Mr. Curry represented in a probate case. "That's what you get for stealing my money," witnesses heard him shouting as he put his gun in the bag and calmly started walking away.

(PLAYING OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: He's being held tonight on charges of attempted murder. The lawyer, Mr. Curry, did suffer a number of gunshot wounds but just think about what that was -- what was playing out in front of you and keep in mind he is in stable condition tonight. He's a lucky man.

Coming up on NEWSNIGHT is a decades long murder spree at an end. After 48 killings, the Green River killing is finally behind us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We actually remember, at least we think we remember, the day the Green River killings began. Seattle was home in those days and the killings and the investigation would become as much a part of the news there as the clouds and the rain. Twenty years later it seems the case is almost over.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Serial killings rarely seem that way at first. Back in August of '82 no one in Seattle imagined the bodies found hear the Green River south of the city would become the first of more than 40 victims of a man who became known as the Green River killer.

KATHLEEN LARSON, GREEN RIVER SPOKESWOMAN: There's four women that continue to be missing.

BROWN: Many more would turn up missing, invisible victims in many ways, prostitutes and runaways. Eventually a task force of local, state and federal agencies was formed but always there was the suspicion that the killer had stopped, the killer had fled or perhaps just gone back to a faraway home.

CAPT FRANK ADAMSON, TASK FORCE COMMANDER: We may not be the agency that literally puts their hands on the Green River killer, but we'll assist some agency somewhere in the country in solving this investigation.

BROWN: Over two decades, the task force received 40,000 tips -- and, in all that time, nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we've given up our daughter, in so many words, then we're not going to allow him to take more from us.

BROWN: Then, in '91, a DNA test on material found more than a decade earlier led to a suspect. The case, perhaps the worst in the country's history, was broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your true name Gary Leon Ridgway?

GARY RIDGWAY, DEFENDANT: Yes, it is.

BROWN: Gary Ridgway was arrested and charged in seven of the Green River cases. He pled innocent and has been dealing to save his life ever since. And the deal is simple, according to sources. Ridgway is telling investigators of every killing, some investigators didn't even know about; 48 families will learn the truth and Ridgway will be spared the death penalty. He will get life without parole. It is a deal the long-serving King County prosecutor vowed he would not make.

NORM MALENG, KING COUNTY PROSECUTOR: The policy of this office is not to plea bargain with a death penalty, period.

BROWN: But, in the end, it seems, the plea bargain served everyone's interests best. The families now know what happened. The county's 20-year investigation will finally end. And the worst serial killer of our time will be locked up forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Tomas Guillen joins us now. Mr. Guillen was a reporter at "The Seattle Times," if my memory is right, covering the killings 21 years ago. He has written the book, literally, on the case, co- authored it. And he joins us from Seattle tonight.

It's nice to see you.

How did they have Mr. Ridgway's DNA?

TOMAS GUILLEN, CO-AUTHOR, "THE SEARCH FOR THE GREEN RIVER KILLER": Well, in 1987, they went after him, after numerous tips about him being a suspect.

And, essentially, they couldn't find anything on him, but they did take a saliva sample from him. And, as the years went by, DNA became a better tool, more refined. And, recently, they compared DNA on the saliva and DNA on some of the victims. And it matched.

BROWN: How did they come to believe he was a suspect back then?

GUILLEN: Well, essentially, I think there were several reports. One of them, I believe a former wife contacted officials, saying she had suspicions.

I believe he was caught once in the woods assaulting a woman. And I think he even contacted law enforcement officials at one time, saying that he might know something about the case.

BROWN: Well, that was a pretty foolish move on his part. Were there other suspects along the way?

GUILLEN: There were quite a few, some visible, some very much behind the scenes. But he was one of the prime suspects for many years. He's been the prime suspect for a long time.

BROWN: So, going back to '85, they thought maybe they knew who was -- who had done this. And, in fact, he was still, if we believe the reporting -- and I do -- he was still committing murders.

GUILLEN: Well, Aaron, that's -- I think it's a travesty here.

I think police dropped the ball. I think they went after Ridgway in 1987. Police have always said that the case ended in 1984, that there were no more killings. After Ridgway, they did some investigations, but then they didn't do very much. The task force was disbanded. They stuck to their guns that the killer stopped in 1984.

And, as now we've seen, he's killed into 1998, when there was no investigation going on. So, obviously, there were some mistakes made here.

BROWN: What's the reaction in town, in the city and in the county to the deal itself? Here you have got a guy who is about to plead to 48 homicides and he's not going to get the death penalty.

GUILLEN: Well, it's mixed.

Obviously, those families who have their loved ones, their daughters, obviously feel that he should get the death penalty. And, obviously, those who have not gotten their daughters, they haven't found them, believe that there might be a deal. I think, overall, a lot of people think that this might be the best thing. It brings closure. He might have died in prison anyway.

Right now, the way things are developing, the case appears to -- it's going to go beyond 48 49, 50. And it might go up to 60 or 70 victims, as I understand it. There are a lot of names being thrown out and a lot of people who are not on the list of victims are being added. So this case is growing by the day.

BROWN: I saw that, literally, he had been moved out of the King County jail into a cell, I gather, of some sort in the task force office or among the police who are investigating, cleaning this all up, and that they're going out in the woods every day looking at stuff.

GUILLEN: They have been searching very frequently the last few months. They have found several skeletal remains, four, to be exact. They have identified three as some of the Green River missing. They have one they have not identified. And she has been added to the list.

BROWN: I don't want to say this has owned your life for 21 years. It hasn't. But you spent a lot of your professional life, your reporting life working on it and writing the book and thinking about it. Does it seem, I don't know, odd that this thing appears to be days away from coming to an end?

GUILLEN: Yes. I have spent 21 years, too much time. I think I've ignored the family sometimes.

And I'm elated that it's coming to a conclusion, basically. I thought that I might die and I would never know this mystery, just like Jack the Ripper or the Zodiac case. And I'm very happy it's coming to a conclusion. I too have mixed feelings, whether he should get the death penalty or not. And the list is growing every day. So those who thought he should provide closure may start thinking that he's more of an animal than he was and are starting to change their mind.

BROWN: Yes. It's pretty horrendous. And however it ends, we're glad it's finally ending.

It's nice to see you. Thank you.

GUILLEN: Nice seeing you, Aaron.

BROWN: Thank you very much.

Tomas Guillen now is a professor of journalism at Seattle U.

NEWSNIGHT continues, a week in the life of America. We'll talk to the man behind an extraordinary new book. This is very cool. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And lots more NEWSNIGHT ahead, including a visit to the Grove. We'll check morning papers, too.

This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: When the day comes that still pictures taken by talented photographers of telling moments lose their power to move us, it will be time for this program, at least, to hang it all up. Fortunately, it's hard to imagine that happening, as long as pictures like the ones you're about to see are still being taken.

For a week in May, people in cities big and small across the country were asked to pick up digital cameras and capture moments that show the world what it is to be an American. More than 25,000 photographers, most of them amateurs, took part. The best of their efforts are collected in "America 24/7," a creation of David Elliot Cohen and Rick Smolan.

And pleased to have him with us tonight.

It's nice to see you. The book is fabulous.

RICK SMOLAN, PROJECT DIRECTOR, "AMERICA 24/7": Thank you.

BROWN: But first, you got to tell me, why did it matter that it was digital cameras?

SMOLAN: Well, this is the first year that digital cameras are outselling film cameras for the first time. And we thought it was really important to kind of mark this turning point. There's also something else which is -- do you use a digital camera yourself?

BROWN: No.

SMOLAN: Well, I started using an Olympus camera.

BROWN: Yes.

SMOLAN: And I find that, when I take pictures with my Olympus, all of my pictures get sent to my friends that night. And, all of sudden, I have got 40 friends that I have spent the weekend with. And they have the pictures immediately. When I take my film to a one-hour lab, I never get around to making reprints.

BROWN: Let's talk about -- you've done a number of these books. This one is truly grand. And we've got a number of pictures, obviously. But I want to talk with this stunning child on the cover.

SMOLAN: Actually, I just went trick-or-treating with her tonight.

BROWN: This is yours?

SMOLAN: No, no. Actually, it's very funny, because, in fact, my nanny keeps complaining. She said, you have a 3-year-old, but you put somebody else's 3-year-old on the cover of your book. This is Bailey Lewis (ph).

BROWN: There we go.

SMOLAN: And just a wonderful little girl, 3 1/2 years old. It's really hard to figure out one image to represent a whole book.

The whole point of "America 24/7" was to create a time capsule of what everyday ordinary life is like. I think a lot of Americans, particularly since 9/11, have been very frustrated with the way the American story is being told by Hollywood, by Madison Avenue, by the media, by the government. And we said, if you would like to tell the world directly what it's like in your town, your community and your family, take digital pictures and upload them to us. And people shot over one million pictures during this week.

BROWN: Let's just -- go ahead and just -- I don't know what order you have. This one came from New Orleans.

SMOLAN: Yes, New Orleans. This is just wonderful. It's a pachyderm pedicure. We were sort of stunned by the fact that -- we hired 1,000 of the best photographers in America. But 25,000 other moms and dads and students signed up to take pictures.

BROWN: Put up -- David, go ahead and cycle through some of these. This is New York.

SMOLAN: Yes, this is an extraordinary picture. This is one of my favorites. This guy is not wearing any harness at all. He's just out there on the edge of

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Amateur or professional photographer?

SMOLAN: Professional.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Underwood, Minnesota.

SMOLAN: Yes, I love this. This was an amateur picture. This is just a fantastic photograph. There are so many images in this book that are sort of extraordinary pictures of everyday ordinary life.

BROWN: There's a great story. This one came out of Corvallis, Oregon. There's a wonderful story here about a mother and her kids and what it takes to keep them calm.

SMOLAN: It turns, like a lot of parents, she found that, when the kids were around something noisy, near a refrigerator or in the back of car, they fell asleep. And whenever her husband mowed the lawn, the kids would always fell asleep. So one day, he was away. They were screaming. And she decided she would strap them both on and mow the lawn at the same time. I love the picture.

BROWN: This is out of Charlotte, North Carolina, I think, right?

SMOLAN: Yes, first communion.

Those of your viewers who are in New York City, there is a wonderful exhibit right now on the walls of Bryant Park, the first time they've allowed anyone to do this. And there's a company called Digital Pond that made these extraordinary, huge blowups that line the fence. This is an amazing picture.

BROWN: Out of Chicago. And this is from "The Sun-Times." SMOLAN: Yes, this was a professional photographer. We call this "Stairway to Heaven."

BROWN: How do you top this, in a sense? This is the country, in 20 seconds.

SMOLAN: Well, you know what? We decided that, in addition to all the things that this book represents, we would allow anyone who wants to, to upload their own photographs. So when my nanny was complaining, I actually put my own daughter Phoebe (ph) on the cover of the book. Anybody can come to our Web site. And for $6, they get a wraparound cover that puts your family and your friends on the cover of the best-selling book in America.

BROWN: If that ain't the most brilliant marketing thing in a long time.

SMOLAN: It looks cool.

BROWN: Nice to meet you.

SMOLAN: Thank you.

BROWN: It's a wonderful book. We're not in the business of selling books, but this is a great coffee table book.

SMOLAN: It's a real conversation piece. Show it to your kids. They will not talk talking about it.

BROWN: Good for you. Nicely done.

Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: time for tailgating, Ole Miss style. Decades-old traditions change ever so slowly.

We'll take a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Tomorrow, down in Oxford, Mississippi, the Ole Miss rebels face the Gamecocks of South Carolina. While being in first place in the Southeastern Conference is no tradition for the Ole Miss football team, there are plenty of other traditions there firmly in place.

Here's CNN's Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If college football is, as they say, a religion in the South, then this is one of its most majestic cathedrals, the campus of Ole Miss, home of the rebels, and, in particular, this tree-filled expanse near the stadium called the Grove.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing like it, Saturday football in the Grove. BURKHARDT: The game is really just an excuse. The real action is in the Grove, acres and acres of party tents in the shade of old magnolias and oak trees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got here this morning about -- well, I got my tent here about 3:15.

BURKHARDT: That's in the morning. It's the way the Ole Miss faithful have been doing football Saturdays for generations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very first day in the Grove.

BURKHARDT: More food than anyone could possibly eat and maybe a little bourbon, too, if it's hidden well. After all, this is a -- a dry campus. It is a snapshot from the '50s, pretty young coeds dressing up for a football game, the boys, too, traditions, like hating Alabama, today's opponents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think that Alabama can go to hell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, because we don't like them. We almost hate them as many as LSU.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, Rebels!

BURKHARDT: And traditions like the walk of champions. The team parades through the adoring crowd on the way to the stadium, led by quarterback Eli Manning. Talk about traditions. It was Eli's father, Archie Manning, now worshipped in these parts, who brought glory to Ole Miss some 30 years ago. The speed limit on campus, 18, Archie's old number.

But today, he's a proud father, along with a proud older brother, Peyton, who took a day off from his NFL job to come watch. But other traditions around here are more complicated, mixed up with symbols, symbols of the old South.

DON COLE, OLE MISS ASSISTANT PROVOST: Symbols are very powerful. And symbols mean a lot of things.

BURKHARDT: To Don Cole, now assistant provost at Ole Miss, the Confederate flag was a symbol. As a student in 1969, he was expelled for protesting racial policies. Now he is the Grove, partying where once only whites were welcome.

Another symbol is Colonel Reb, the Ole Miss mascot who was banished from the sidelines this season by the university.

PETE BOONE, OLE MISS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR: We thought that it would be a great thing to kind of upgrade and move on with mascots.

BURKHARDT: But students disagreed, and not just the white students. It is a different campus now than the one James Meredith integrated back in 1962. On this campus on this Saturday, it's not just the whites who are Rebels.

For many of the younger people here, it seems, the past, with apologies to William Faulkner, really is past. And Colonel Reb was just a lovable old mascot, the only one they had ever known.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BURKHARDT: Another Manning touchdown pass. Though beating Alabama has not been a tradition around here, they did so convincingly on this day, and they did it without Colonel Reb on the sidelines. Instead, Peyton and Archie looked on. Old times, they're not forgotten.

Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Oxford, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Nice Friday story, that.

We'll check morning papers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(ROOSTER CROWING)

BROWN: Which could -- what -- I knew you'd come to me eventually. What could possibly be better than a Friday edition of morning papers? Don't answer.

"The Sun," we'll start with the newspaper of San Bernardino County, California. We appreciate a lot them getting us the paper. It's a very early deadline for them. So this is great. "Weather Helps Cage the Beast. Cold, Foggy Day Holds Back Wildfires. Mountains Awash in Ashes. Evacuees Await Return." And a neat picture on the front page of tomorrow's "Sun" in San Bernardino, California. The air quality is moderate, so another sign things are getting a little bit better.

Here's how "The San Francisco Chronicle" headlines the fire. "Heading Home to Carnage. Coldness Stalls Fire. Many Eager to Move Back." I'll bet they are. And they also front-page "Ban on Abortion Method Tested." Three lawsuits filed today against the bill the president will sign that outlaws the procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion.

A couple of newspapers that are a little more politicized than others, if you will.

"The Guardian," which is a British paper writing from the left, I would say: "Revealed: How The Post Office Plans to Break the Strike. Managers Urged to Spy on and Photograph Activists." Got a little wildcat postal strike going on over there.

"The Washington Times," the other paper in Washington, writing a little bit from the right, I think that's fair to say. This has become a big flap. "Friends Are Furious With Reagan Series." This is a miniseries that CBS is doing on the former president starring James Brolin. And the head of the Republican National Committee today asked to screen the series. I don't know about that. Anyway, it's become a big deal.

How much time did you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-four

BROWN: Forty-four.

"The Hartford Courant," Hartford, Connecticut. "Hefty Tuition Hike Sought. Connecticut State University Students Could Pay Up to 20 Percent More." That is hefty, isn't it? A story you first heard on NEWSNIGHT several months ago. That's the only reason I did it.

Thirty seconds. "'I Turned to God,' Says Rescued Coal Miner" in "The Miami Herald," some of whom-- or most of whom, I think, were rescued. That's a pretty good take on what I suspect was a slow news day.

We'll end it with "The Chicago Sun-Times." "Sheriff Pulls Rank." I have no idea what that story is about. I'll read it after the program. Sometimes, they don't even include the story. It says something about fish. Honestly. I'm not making it up. The weather tomorrow is "uninspired" -- there, but not here.

We'll wrap it up for the night in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Before we go, a brief recap of our lead story tonight, our lead story every night since Monday, in fact.

A lot accomplished in just a few days. Officials now expect the largest of the fires, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, to be contained by the middle of next week. It and others have taken 20 lives, burned about three-quarters-of-a-million acres, destroyed 2,700 homes at least, and spared a few in places you would imagine nothing could survive. This one made the front pages today.

We see you again on Monday. Among the stories, candidates saying the darndest things in their political attacks, not vicious or negative, just very, very silly, at least as seen by Jeff Greenfield. That's Monday.

Our international viewers get "World News" next, the rest of you, "LOU DOBBS."

We'll see you again on Monday. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.

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