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Search for Soldiers; Murdered Soldiers: Mistakes Made; Food Safety
Aired May 17, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Thursday morning, the 17th of May.
Here's what's on the rundown.
Big reward. So far, cash not leading U.S. troops to three GIs missing in Iraq.
Also this morning, new findings on a grisly and strikingly similar incident in Iraq last June.
HARRIS: Britain's Tony Blair on his farewell visit to the White House as prime minister. We are live this morning for his news conference with President Bush.
COLLINS: A Florida couple claim they won big. The state says oh, no, you didn't. The half-million-dollar misprint in the NEWSROOM.
The search for missing soldiers in Iraq now in its sixth day. The effort is intense, massive and exhaustive. But troops refusing to stop until they find three of their own.
CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with the searchers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Pushing themselves to the limit, some soldiers are collapsing from the oppressive heat. But the hunt continues, defined by long hours and glimmers of hope.
They've trudged across miles and miles of fields and farmland, navigated the harsh terrain to avoid the roads and the bombs. They even drained this canal parallel to the attack site to look for clues.
LT. COL. JOHN VALLEDOR, U.S. ARMY: Yesterday, our soldiers, those in the brigade, physically walked the canal, and on both sides to make sure -- you know, make sure that, you know, that there isn't anything in here related to our -- to our missing soldiers. DAMON: They've said the same thing hundreds of times since Saturday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any information will help us.
DAMON: Information that leads to the missing soldiers is worth $200,000, and they have been receiving tantalizing tips. But none have panned out. It's a hunt for three men in an area about 330 square miles.
COL. MIKE KERSHAW, U.S. ARMY: A piece of U.S. equipment which we think could possibly be from the soldiers that were abducted or could have been just equipment abducted from the site.
DAMON: Nothing is taken for granted or left to chance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in here almost every day, so this is -- this is kind of a -- just covering all the bases. We're out -- we're just making sure, we're checking every house again.
DAMON (on camera): It's day five in the search for the missing soldiers. These men have been out for about seven, eight hours now. They are both physically and mentally exhausted, but no one is even talking about giving up.
(voice over): These men have been fighting out here in an area better known as the Triangle of Death for nine months now.
KERSHAW: This sector is historically one of the most lethal in Iraq, and there are some very capable insurgents out there. And we do not underestimate them.
DAMON: The military doesn't underestimate them, but it is determined to defeat them.
CAPT. DAN HURD, U.S. ARMY: All the motivation they need is what they're going after. You know, we talk about the soldiers and, you know, they know who -- they know who they're looking for. They know their names.
And that's as much motivation as they ever need. And every time they get tired, they think of that and keep going.
DAMON: All these soldiers have sworn never to leave a man behind.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Yusufiyah, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: In fact, Arwa Damon just now became available for us to talk with here. As she said, she is near Yusufiyah.
I wonder, Arwa -- you mentioned how tired the troops are in the same sentence with the word "determination". Tell us what you're noticing today as they continue to look for these three missing soldiers.
DAMON: Well, Heidi, it is lot of the same. I have to tell you, though, the conditions have drastically changed since yesterday. It's actually raining right now. And I'm at a slightly different location.
I am currently with the company, Delta Company. That is the company that the soldiers were kidnapped and killed from. And here again, though, we're seeing that same thing, the utter exhaustion, yet the determination to keep going.
In fact, I was talking to a young medic who was one of the first responders on the scene when they were able to navigate through the roadside bombs and finally reach the burning Humvees, and he was just speaking about the utterly traumatizing images that he saw, the sense of helplessness that he felt, that he wasn't able to help those men who had died at the scene.
And he said though he was currently in go mode, and that is the sense that you get from a lot of the men here. Right now, their focus is on the missing. They're on the go. However, he did say that his concern right now is that when he went home, the demons that he confronted here would come back to haunt him -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Completely understandable. And we of course wish them the very best of luck.
Arwa Damon coming to us live this morning near Yusufiyah.
Arwa, thanks for that.
And you can stay in the CNN NEWSROOM for the very latest on the missing soldiers. Throughout the program, we do expect to hear from officials at their base. That was Fort Drum, New York. Just about two hours from now, they will be holding a news conference at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
You of course can see it live right here on CNN.
HARRIS: U.S. soldiers kidnapped and slaughtered nearly a year ago in the same area of Iraq. This morning, there are new developments in that investigation. A report points to serious -- and I mean serious -- mistakes in the mission.
Live with details, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.
Barbara, good morning to you. Fill us in. It seems the bottom line on this is poor force protection.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Very difficult news, Tony. It seems extraordinary, but we are talking about an incident that is very close to the area where Arwa Damon was just reporting from, and an incident that is eerily similar.
Last year, three soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division came under attack at the end of a bridge near Yusufiyah. That's where Arwa is today. When it was all over, one of the soldiers killed on site, but two of them kidnapped, taken away, and found several days later mutilated and murdered. It seems extraordinary that we may be in those circumstances of that kind of situation potentially yet again.
The investigation report now done, and here is what the military found about the whole incident, especially the kidnapping and murder of privates Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca. These three men, as well as Specialist David Babineau, were in one vehicle guarding the end of a bridge. What the investigators found is that observation post being staffed only by three soldiers overnight, not enough force protection, not enough firepower.
Three soldiers left out there basically on their own. They were left too long to be alert at the site. Their tour there was just too many hours.
The force protection measures were inadequate. There was no immediate fire support available. Rescue forces were 15 minutes away. And overall, they say, that unit of the 101st Airborne Division had suffered so many casualties in battle, the unit basically was not operating at peak performance -- Tony.
HARRIS: Barbara, what happened to the commanders?
STARR: Well, what we know now is that no judicial punishment, no criminal charges were filed, but indeed, the platoon leader and the company commander were relieved of duty. But the bottom line in this incident a year ago, Tony, is that investigators have now found and published their results that there was inadequate planning, supervision, and execution of this mission, and when it was all over, three U.S. soldiers dead -- Tony.
HARRIS: That's horrible.
Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr for us this morning.
Barbara, thank you.
A final visit from a steadfast foreign policy friend. With just weeks left in his tenure, Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, wrapping up his farewell visit with President Bush this morning. Mr. Blair is the president's closest ally on the Iraq war. It cost him his popularity at home, that's for sure.
The two leaders plan a joint news conference at the White House. That's scheduled for 11:25 Eastern Time.
You will see it right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins.
Months after the E. coli outbreak in spinach, how safe is the food on your plate?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been covering some contamination concerns. Everybody likes to know about this, of course. For his new special, he went straight to the first line of defense, a farmer's field.
Sanjay joining us now.
Boy, I remember when the spinach thing happened. It was so hard and took a really long time for them to do this food investigation, almost like an autopsy, going back and back and back, trying to figure out the source.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And they were saying it could be in these fields, now we've narrowed it down to here. And then it was just bagged spinach, remember? And they just went back and forth.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: And, you know, even since we started working on the documentary which airs this weekend, you heard about salmonella in peanut butter, you heard about the melamine, obviously.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: Lots of concerns about food safety. We wanted to go to the source. We wanted to go to the place in California where the actual spinach outbreak started to try and find out, is it any safer now than it was last year?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice over): Rod Braga Farms, this 800-acre ranch in Soledad, California, it's nestled in the Salinas Valley. Since 1995, more than 20 outbreaks stemming from the deadly E. coli 0157-H7 toxin have originated in California, contaminating leafy green crops. Most recently, spinach.
(on camera): You take a look at this spinach, which looks beautiful. What are the particular vulnerable points here?
ROD BRAGA, SPINACH GROWER: Making sure we don't have any intrusion by animals or people that aren't supposed to be here.
GUPTA (voice over): When you look around here in what's called the world's salad bowl, you realize just how huge, how vast it really is. Keeping an area this big safe seems like an awesome task.
(on camera): You do have a fence here.
BRAGA: Right.
GUPTA: So, this does two things. It keeps potentially animals, but if something did break through, you're going to know about it.
(voice over): Many E. coli outbreaks begin at cow pastures, which in the Salinas Valley often neighbor produce fields. Cows carry the deadly strain of E. coli 0157 in their intestinal tract.
MICHAEL DOYLE, UNIV. OF GEORGIA CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: And the cattle feces somehow would then have to get into the growing fields.
MANSOUR SAMADPOUR, PRESIDENT, IEH LABORATORIES: You could have, for example, field birds feeding on animal fecal material that has E. coli 0157, they land somewhere in the field, they contaminate a small area.
GUPTA: Only a few E. coli 0157 cells can taint an entire crop. One parcel of spinach tainted by E. Coli, harvested, processed and mixed with other spinach, then shipped around the country could potentially poison thousand, even millions of people.
Farmers like Braga are abiding by stricter rules and safety programs to curb the area's sobering track record.
BRAGA: I know that we're doing everything we can, following every food safety and good agricultural practice to make sure that everything is safe.
GUPTA: The question this season: Will that be enough?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: It was one of the most eye-opening things that I've worked on this, this documentary. Since we started doing this story, we learned so much about this. And that one question, is the food any safer now than it was last year? It's remarkable that they could not give me a definitive answer on that.
COLLINS: Really? Well, I mean, I guess, I don't know, it takes a while to see the results, some of the safety precautions that they have put into place. And I guess it's understandable.
GUPTA: True. But a couple of things to keep in mind.
They are voluntary safety precautions, so they don't have to abide by these. And sometimes they offer economic disincentives. You know, you're actually asking people do things.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: But also just the science of it. How far do the cows, which could be the potential spreaders of this E. coli, how far do they have to be from these pastures, from these crops?
We don't know. They don't know the answer to that.
COLLINS: Right.
GUPTA: If you have water run down, for example, from various pastures around the farms, how far does the water supply have to be? How often does it have to be tested?
They still don't know the answer. So even the science -- it's, like, even if you said, OK, we're going to do everything we can, they still don't know exactly what to do. Which, you know, we're not talking about just last fall.
COLLINS: Oh, sure.
GUPTA: I mean, there's been 20 outbreaks over the last decade or so. So, I mean, this is something that's been ongoing.
I'll tell you one thing, though. This was happening in cattle for a long time.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: You'll remember the Jack in the Box thing. This was a cattle problem, and the cattle industry was getting slammed so hard financially, they said, we're going to fix this because we can't -- we can't continue on the way we are, and they fixed it. The same thing probably has to happen in the produce industry. That's the thing that kept coming out, but that was...
COLLINS: Sure.
GUPTA: ... one of the most eye-opening things for me in making the documentary.
COLLINS: Well, and just when you look at these pictures, it's so vast. I mean, we're talking about -- this isn't like, you know, a hundred head of cattle -- and not that that's a small amount, either. But, I mean, when you talk about produce, look, I mean, acreage and acreage that you really have to be able to maintain and keep safe.
GUPTA: Rod Braga's farm -- I should point out that the spinach outbreak did not originate on his farm.
COLLINS: Sure.
GUPTA: He's doing a lot of things to try and keep his farm safe. But it is, you know, lots and lots of acres.
If one animal gets in there, do you have to basically scrap that entire area? I mean, that's sort of what the -- what the science might suggest, you have to assume that that's all contaminated. That's a huge liability economically.
COLLINS: And you're talking about wild animals.
GUPTA: Wild animals, right.
COLLINS: Yes.
GUPTA: So they're just running around -- pigs, cows. One of the people we interviewed said even birds sometimes can carry it as well. It is remarkable. You know, and I have kids, and I worry about this, as well, just feeding them spinach. I mean, is this something that is safe? You know, it was really surprising to me as we made the special.
COLLINS: Yes. Spinach, it's supposed to be good for them.
GUPTA: A health food. That's right.
COLLINS: Yes, that's right.
All right.
GUPTA: Hope you get a chance to see it.
COLLINS: Yes, we will. And that will be coming up.
I want to remind everybody about it. For more information on food safety, you can go to cnn.com/poisonedfood. You will find the latest news.
And after you log on, of course tune in to CNN for Sanjay's special investigation, "Danger: Poisoned Food". That will air Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
HARRIS: And still to come this morning in the NEWSROOM, from a few hundred thousand dollars to millions, what are they worth?
Checking the pockets of the presidential candidates ahead.
Also, her debt led to her death. The only problem, she's still alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to have proof of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You have to have proof that I'm not dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And now she's haunted by financial ghosts.
Her story ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And no-show in Iraq. A change of plans for Britain's Prince Harry.
Royal re-deployment in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A quick reminder for you now. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair plan a joint news conference at the White House. We're going to carry that for you, 11:25 Eastern. You'll see it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: If you've ever wondered how much the presidential candidates are worth, well, we've got the answers.
CNN's Mary Snow looks at some of the financial disclosure forms.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Republican Rudy Giuliani turned his experience as New York City mayor during the 9/11 attacks into lucrative speaking fees. Last year alone, he made roughly $9 million in paid speeches. His candidacy in the '08 race has prompted him to stop taking those fees. Along with his firm, his assets are estimated to be worth between $13 and $45 million.
Financial records show John Edwards earned $479,000 last year at a hedge fund that has been the target of scrutiny. That's because Edwards said he worked at Fortress Investment in 2006 to learn about financial markets and the relationship to poverty. The Edwards camp points out that in that same year, the family donated $350,000 to charity. And on the campaign trail, the Democratic presidential hopeful has been defending his commitment to helping the poor.
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been doing a whole variety of things, and I think if you put all those things together, it's very difficult to question my commitment to low-income families and to the poor.
SNOW: The reported assets for John and Elizabeth Edwards are estimated to be $29.5. million.
For Senator Barack Obama, writing is paying off. His financial disclosure report shows he made about $572,000 last year from royalties from one book and an advance on another. Obama's 2006 tax return shows he and his wife reported income of $991,000 last year, including the book money.
What does it say about his wealth?
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It will say that I'm not one of the wealthiest candidates in this race.
SNOW: The wealthiest candidate appears to be Republican Mitt Romney. Advisers estimate his worth to be between $190 million and $250 million. Plus, a blind trust for his children and grandchildren worth at least $70 million. Details of his fortune are yet to come since Romney filed an extension on his financial disclosure report.
So did Senator John McCain. Much of his family's millions are tied to the beer distribution company founded by his wife's family.
Also filing for an extension, Senator Hillary Clinton. She is expected to report her husband earned roughly $10 million in speeches alone last year. Full details of their financials are due in the next 45 days. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Overwhelmed by violent crime. What can be done to stop it? That's ahead, coming up in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: A siren song of the seas. Will underwater audio lead these whales home?
We've got a live picture. I think that was from yesterday.
Rescue efforts ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Bottom, bottom, bottom, bottom, bottom -- bottom of the hour.
Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM -- hi, Heidi.
COLLINS: Hi.
How are you?
HARRIS: I'm just being playful.
I'm Tony Harris.
Good morning.
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
HARRIS: Grief and uncertainty for the families of the ambushed soldiers. Three of the dead have been identified. The three missing soldiers and one of those killed are still listed as "duty status: whereabouts unknown."
They are Specialist Alex R. Jimenez, 25 years old, from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Sergeant Anthony J. Schober, seen here in a yearbook photo. He's 23 years old, from Reno, Nevada. Private First Class Joseph J. Anzack, Jr. 20 years old, from Torrance, California. And Private Byron W. Fouty, 19 years old, from Waterford, Michigan.
Stay with CNN for the latest information on the missing soldiers.
We expect to hear from officials at their base at Fort Drum in about two hours. They're holding a news conference at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. See it right here live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: A disturbing story out of Iraq this morning. Word of a young girl in love with a boy and paying for it with her life. The killing captured on cell phone cameras. And we warn you, some of these images are very disturbing.
CNN's Phil Black explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT
(voice-over): We don't know much about Dua Khalil, this 17-year- old girl from Iraq's Kurdish region. But we're told she ignored local custom and fell in love with a boy from a different religion.
This was her punishment.
(CELL PHONE VIDEO OF STONING)
BLACK: As security forces look on, Dua Khalil is dragged from her home.
(CELL PHONE VIDEO OF STONING)
BLACK: Reports from the region say many men participated in stoning her and many others stood by and watched.
(CELL PHONE VIDEO OF STONING)
BLACK: No one appears to help, but many are seen capturing the moment on their cell phone cameras.
HOUZAN MAHMOUD, ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN'S FREEDOM IN IRAQ: How a young girl is going through so much pain and so many men are actually enjoying her being killed in public in such brutal way.
BLACK: Dua was a member of the Yezidi religious sect, which generally does not approve of mixing with people outside the faith. The crime was falling in love with a Sunni Muslim boy.
This story of young love and horrific violence inspired a vigil in London's Trafalgar Square. It was a so-called honor killing. They're considered common through Iraq and parts of the Middle East, especially the Kurdish region.
But an Iraqi female rights activist said this one was different. It was a very public murder.
MAHMOUD: It's new in nature in Kurdistan or in Iraq, generally speaking. But, in reality, this tells us a lot -- that the climate, the political and social climate is such that people can do that in daylight and that the authorities do not intervene.
BLACK (on camera): The Kurdish regional government changed laws that were sympathetic to honor killings in 2002.
But here in London, Amnesty International's world headquarters says this incident confirmed something they've long known -- there remains a powerful cultural sympathy. And that means women are still dying and little is done to prosecute those responsible. (CELL PHONE VIDEO OF STONING)
MALCOLM SMART, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: That people could stand by and see such an atrocious act committed and take no action, I mean that's complicity.
BLACK (voice-over): Complicity in the murder of a teenaged girl who dared to choose who she loved.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Wow!.
It's hard to move on after that one.
Facing his critics while trying to save face -- World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz could find out if he's staying or going today. The bank board meeting again this morning. Wolfowitz accused of breaking conflict of interest rules. He handled his girlfriend's transfer from the bank to the State Department and she got a hefty pay increase.
Wolfowitz has been working on a resignation deal.
A senior bank official says Wolfowitz wants the World Bank to accept some responsibility for the controversy.
HARRIS: What do you say we get another check of weather this morning?
Chad Myers in the Severe Weather Center for us -- Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST
Good morning, guys.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Trouble in Toronto with Canada's tallest office building. Take a look.
See that missing panel there?
Well, it's where a 300-pound slab of marble used to hang out. It broke loose, falling 51 stories to a third floor mezzanine roof. No one was hurt.
But police closed off streets surrounding First Canadian Place as a precaution. It makes sense. Traffic tie-ups still a problem today. Engineers now checking the other slabs.
Good idea.
COLLINS: Abigail Parks was to graduate from Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine in just three days -- a promising future cut short.
She was killed yesterday in a horrific crash on a suburban Atlanta interstate. Now police are sorting out how it happened and they're asking for help.
Kevin Ross of CNN affiliate WXIA has details.
KEVIN ROSS, WXIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no semblance of an automobile in this wreckage. You're looking at the twisted remains of only a portion of a Honda Civic. Other parts of the vehicle were scattered across I-75.
The first vehicle it hit was an SUV that rolled over. The driver was not hurt seriously in that vehicle. The second vehicle it struck was a boom truck driven by Deano Nesbitt.
DEANO NESBITT, WITNESS: When I seen that car flying across the median, that's when I just said, oh, god, you know?
And I jerked and tried to -- tried to get out of the way the best I could. But it happened so fast. She came across there so fast.
ROSS: Nesbit and a passenger in his truck, Matthew McClure, said the Civic split in two -- half of the car crushed by a tractor-trailer that was behind them.
The driver of the Civic, 27-year-old Ava Parks of Clayton County, was killed.
MATTHEW MCCLURE, WITNESS: She hit us. She was still in the car, but she got flung from the car after she hit us.
ROSS (on camera): After hitting you...
MCCLURE: Yes.
ROSS: And before going up under the tractor-trailer?
MCCLURE: Yes.
ROSS: A tough thing to watch, huh?
NESBITT: Yes. It wasn't a pretty sight. So -- I just pray for their families.
ROSS (voice-over): When the Georgia State Patrol and Cherokee Sheriff deputies got on the scene, they saw the debris scattered on the roadway, which included several children's items, like car seats. But, fortunately, there were no children in the vehicles at the time of the crash.
Witnesses told the State Patrol that an older model Mustang, red or orange in color, may have caused the Civic to swerve off of the northbound roadway.
TROOPER LARRY SCHNALL, GEORGIA STATE PATROL: And we encourage anyone in the public who saw or witnessed anything in regards to the Mustang is encouraged to call the Georgia State Patrol and report back.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HARRIS: Still to come this morning in the NEWSROOM, his last official call on the White House. Britain's Tony Blair meeting with President Bush.
You will see their news conference live this morning, 11:25 Eastern, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Don't know much about history?
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett concerned about your kids. We'll tell you why, coming up. He's live in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: OK. You're looking at a ticket to riches -- or a ticket to a lawyer's office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE CURCIO, LOTTERY PLAYER: And if your numbers match, win that prize. My numbers matched.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Match or misprint?
The half million dollar dispute this morning in the NEWSROOM.
COMMERCIAL
HARRIS: OK. Sorry. Wrong number.
No, that's not a misdialed phone call. It is a legal defense. A state lottery refusing to pay out a half million bucks to an apparent winner.
Details from reporter Stephen Stock.
He is with CNN affiliate WESH in Orlando.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
J. CURCIO: I know I won. It's a 1.
STEPHEN STOCK, WESH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Curcio and his wife Anne Marie have owned this car dealership outside Ocala for a decade. They say when they make deals with customers, they stick to the deals.
Now, they say, the State of Florida isn't sticking to the deal it made with them when they bought this lottery ticket on Sunday for $20.
ANNEMARIE CURCIO, LOTTERY PLAYER: Listen, if I make a mistake in anything, I say, listen I made a mistake. I'm going to eat the mistake. I owe these people. I'm going to pay these people. That's the way we are.
And I expect that from the State of Florida, too.
STOCK: Joe says it's clear to anyone who can see that the 1s on his lottery ticket match and that under the second 1 is the amount of winnings -- a half million dollars.
J. CURCIO: The ticket says match your number on top with the numbers on the bottom. Thousands -- hundreds of thousands of people play these every day. If your numbers match, win that prize. My numbers match.
STOCK: Florida lottery officials say it's all a misunderstanding, a misprint, and that the top 1 should have been a 13, and that the letters T and H written under the mistaken one at the top show that.
Lottery officials say they print 500 million tickets a year and that mistakes can happen.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: A siren song of the seas -- will underwater audio lead these whales back home?
Rescue efforts coming up, right here in the NEWSROOM.
COMMERCIAL
COLLINS: This is a little segment we call pod cast it.
Sell it?
Pod cast it.
HARRIS: Work it, work it, work it.
COLLINS: We'd like to invite you to go ahead and download our program.
HARRIS: Uh-huh.
COLLINS: You can go to cnn.com/podcast and watch the programs.
It's a great little thing we report after we're done with this show. Definitely worth checking out...
HARRIS: Come on.
COLLINS: Stuff that you won't see on CNN.
HARRIS: It's different.
COLLINS: Completely different. HARRIS: All right, so let's talk about this pain -- the pain we're all feeling at the pump.
Gas prices rising each time you fill up and even higher prices expected for the peak summer driving season.
Consumer groups say American households are spending $1,000 more on gas annually than they did five years ago.
But drivers are staying on the road. AAA predicts more people will travel by car this Memorial Day holiday weekend than last year.
AAA holds a news conference next hour. We will have some highlights for you.
When you pay up at the pump, you may wonder who's making money.
CNN's Josh Levs has this Reality Check.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOSHUA LEVS, CNN REPORTER: The prices are being steadily driven up, prompting promises of action -- again.
REP. STENY HOYER (D), MARYLAND: I'm pleased that we have scheduled seven hearings in the House between now and Memorial Day.
LEVS: Meanwhile, where is your money going?
Here's the breakdown.
Federal and state taxes take $0.15 to $0.20 of every dollar you spend at the pump.
Distribution and marketing takes about $0.5 to $0.15. That's money for the gas station.
Next, refining, where the big oil companies make a lot of their profits. Refining takes as much as a quarter of every dollar.
These amounts vary, but what generally stays the same is the biggest percentage of all -- crude oil, which takes more than $0.50 of every dollar.
The price of crude oil is affected by supply and demand, and set largely by OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's oil and puts a production limit on its members to keep prices at a target level.
The most prominent member is Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer. Oil has long been at the core of U.S.-Saudi relations.
Among the 12 countries that make up OPEC -- Iran and Venezuela, whose leaders are political enemies of President Bush. OPEC has condemned terrorism. Still, some U.S. lawmakers worry about what happens with the money. REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: But the money which is then spent is used by many of these countries to finance the terrorism.
LEVS (on camera): It is a mammoth sum of money we're talking about. Americans, each year, use about 140 billion gallons of gasoline.
Josh Levs, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: A rescue effort underway now. The call for help underwater.
This hour in California, biologists are blaring audiotaped whale sounds into the Sacramento River. They're hoping to lure this pair of wayward humpbacks back to safety.
Here to explain more about it, reporter Suzanne Phan of CNN affiliate KCRA.
Beautiful sounds that the humpback whale makes.
SUZANNE PHAN, KCRA CORRESPONDENT: Definitely.
And it's going to be an interesting day, to see whether or not that that plan is going to work.
We should show you very quickly, there are dozens of people out here this morning. This is one man out here hoping to catch a glimpse of the whales.
Now, behind this is the turning basin in the Port of Sacramento, where the whales have been spotted several times today and over the past day or so.
Now, out there is the U.S. Coast Guard. The Marine Mammal Center is expected to be out there today, as well, with biologists.
They're all trying to lure these animals, as you mentioned, with the recordings of humpback whale sounds. Now, those songs will be played as the tide goes out using underwater microphones, as well as speakers.
Now, if that doesn't work, then they'll go to Plan B. And they'll herd the animals using a platoon of boats.
These two whales, a mother and a calf, had made it to the Port of Sacramento from San Francisco. That is a 90 mile journey. Now, both of them are hurt by a boat propeller, but those injuries are not life- threatening.
Now, the scientists are hoping to get those animals back to the ocean so that the saltwater can help those animals heal. Now, as we had mentioned, it's going to be a very interesting day -- a very long day for the biologists. They will, once again, try and pinpoint where the animals are, and then try and use those underwater sounds.
Now, if successful, it will take about six hours or so for the whales to swim south out of the channel and then into the Sacramento River. And then, once again, they're going to have to go down the river and eventually, hopefully, make it back out to the Pacific Ocean.
A very big day, indeed.
COLLINS: Yes. And interesting, too. I'm very curious to see if this is going to work or not.
All right, Suzanne Phan, thanks so much for your reporting on that.
Let us know if it's working.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: We'll check back with you.
Thanks.
HARRIS: And still to come in THE NEWSROOM this morning, from the Deep South to the Garden State, an update on brutal wildfires.
Are crews finally getting a break?
Find out in the NEWSROOM.
Search for the missing -- the U.S. military trying both the carrot and the stick approach in finding three of their own.
That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Hair changes in your 30s, 40s, and 50s -- what causes them?
Chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How you all doing tonight?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Beyonce has it. So does McDreamy. And Farah still has it. We're talking about hair -- lots of it.
Yet as we age, even someone with beautiful locks can start to see changes in their hairline. DR. LYNN MCKINLEY-GRANT, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER: Hair reflects a lot of -- it reflects your heredity. It reflects your health. It reflects what you do externally to your hair in terms of maintaining it.
GUPTA: In our 30s, we begin to notice damage from drying, processing, dyeing and perming. Hair becomes thinner, more brittle. And a bad diet can damage hair follicles, stunting hair growth.
Thirty-year-old Thandi Warner is a professional stylist. She sees all kinds of problems, from dandruff to split ends.
But Thandi has her own hair issues -- it isn't growing in properly.
THANDI WARNER, HAIR SPECIALIST: It's thinning in as recently as, you know, around the front. And my back just takes off and it grows like a weed. And the front stays like, you know, it just doesn't grow.
GUPTA: The cause?
Thandi isn't eating well and has lots of stress. Her dermatologist suggested a diet full of vegetables and fruits.
MCKINLEY-GRANT: You need a certain amount of protein in the hair. You do need water. You need vitamins to grow a healthy head of hair.
GUPTA: In our 40s, we get more gray. That's because we begin to lose a pigment in our hair called melanin. It gives hair its color.
MCKINLEY-GRANT: There's not a pill that will get it back. There are things in bottles that will help, yes.
GUPTA: Some people, like "American Idol" Taylor Hicks, and Anderson Cooper, are prematurely gray. Doctors say it's hereditary, along with premature baldness.
In our 40s and 50s, we begin to lose hair faster. More than 50 percent of men over the age of 50 have male pattern hair loss. And once they reach menopause, 40 percent of women will experience hereditary hair loss.
But there is medical help for bald spots.
Also, in our 50s, some people begin to take prescription drugs that affects the hair. Those on high blood pressure and cholesterol medications have thinner hair.
Some doctors recommend changing medications if it's making your hair unhealthy.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Good morning, everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.
Huh?
COLLINS: It's in the hair.
HARRIS: Stay informed in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Here's what's on the rundown for you this morning.
Day six -- U.S. troops searching for three missing comrades in Iraq. An update from the soldiers' home base, Fort Drum, New York, live.
COLLINS: A White House farewell for the British prime minister. President Bush says goodbye to friend and war ally Tony Blair. Both men answering reporters' questions, and you'll see it live.
HARRIS: Sky high gas prices -- will they keep you at home this summer?
AAA out with its summer driving forecast.
Go ahead. Just floor it.
It is Thursday May 17th and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Unfolding this hour, intense and unrelenting -- the massive search for three U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq now in its sixth day. The military hopes money will bring them crucial information.
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