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Garrido Investigation Widens; Paying To Fight Fires in California; Swine Flu in Schools
Aired September 01, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was something you can't even describe, being, you know, stuck in a house with the flames and laying on the floor and the fireman looking at you, just telling you to stay down, don't move, and embers being forced through the cracks in the windows and the cracks in the door. And every window you look out is just solid wall of flame. It was like a tornado of - like a tornado with fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, oh boy. It is rough in California. In fact, a fast moving California wildfire takes some people by surprise and many more evacuate in time. What will they return to?
Officials admit the fire is doing whatever it wants right now. 53 structures including dozens of homes destroyed. Others are in jeopardy. Residents around 10,000 homes are being told to get out.
Our Reynolds Wolf is joining us now live from Tujunga, California this morning. Reynolds, what's the very latest?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Complete and total devastation for many homes. We got, let's see, 53 homes that have been leveled by this storm, this fire. That's been raging through these hills. Let me show you what this has done. To give you an idea of what 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit can do in an automobile. This is a '76 Country Squire. You can see everything has just been blasted out because the heat caused all the glass to get knocked out. Of course, the siding is gone.
I'm with CNN photojournalist John Torigoe. John, take a shot of this down here. Look at this. Molten steel all melted out. Take a look at that. That's what happens when you have this extreme heat. And what's even more troubling is you take a look at this stuff. See these sticks? If you were going to start a fire you would want this kind of stuff. Well, these hills are filled with dead wood like this. We're talking about four decades of foliage that's just been sitting up here and drying in these extreme temperatures.
So when the fires come through, it's got plenty of fuel. The thing is we're talking about a fire that's 120,000 acres. And with temperatures today still expected to be fairly warm, we're going to have a lot of issues. It's not only that though, Heidi, take a look at the terrain we've got up here on the hills. You know, unlike fires you'll have in parts of say, Oklahoma or in Texas where things are relatively flat. That certainly is a tough endeavor but it's just unthinkable what these guys can do to really battle the blaze in conditions like this.
And with very limited ability to see because of the smoke rising and not getting blown away, a lot of these houses are kind of left on their own. Although this particular three-bedroom home never really had a chance when flames came right through here. And what's funny about fires is they really move at the speed of the wind.
If you have strong winds around 50 miles an hour, that's how fast these flames can move up the hillside or through a valley like we are here. For this particular home, total loss. You see a few of the walls still standing. A couple of the corners. The chimney there in the distance. But it is going to be a scene that many people are returning home to. And as we wrap things up, this scene is probably going to play out a bit more.
The fire increasing, let's see, around 15,000 acres burned initially overnight. They still have a tough handle on it, doing everything they can to battle this blaze. But it's going to be certainly a tough proposition as we make our way through the day, tomorrow and possibly the rest of the week and into the next one.
COLLINS: Yes.
WOLF: Let's send it back to you, Heidi.
COLLINS: No kidding. And as we are looking at you, we're also looking at some of the video coming in from our affiliates. Just stunning the amount of fire and flames still going on. Reynolds Wolf, sure do appreciate that from California this morning. In fact, triple digit temperatures are just making it that much harder for firefighters to get a grip on this fire.
Our Jacqui Jeras is joining us now from the severe weather center with a little bit more on that. We've been talking about the winds and what a blessing it is that they don't have these Santa Ana winds that can fight the fires from the skies but that also creates some complications of its own. Because you don't know where it's going.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. You take that path of least resistance. Any kind of little ebb or flow with the wind can change the direction of where the fire is burning. So it is still problematic. And we could see some gusty winds. Let's talk a little bit about what we're seeing out there right now.
You know, we're looking at very calm conditions. It's early in the morning. But this afternoon, we might see a little bit more movement. Here's the biggest change that we're seeing in the forecast for today. Is that our winds are starting to come in a little bit more southwesterly. And look at this on the map. That looks like rainfall, does it.
It is actually what we call Virga. So it's precipitation. It's actually raining in the mid levels of the atmosphere, but the lower layers are so dry that it evaporates before it ever reaches the ground. But what we're worried about is that as this pushes in here in the next couple of days, we could get more instability in the afternoon and it could create thunderstorms and thunderstorms might sound good but they produce lightning, which could spark more fires and then thunderstorms also have what we call downdraft winds in them. So winds can become erratic and stronger and blow all over the place with these unfortunately.
The air quality is something else, Heidi. We really got to talk about that. Because it is impacting millions of people. The air quality unhealthy in Los Angeles and Ventura County. This is a picture from Mt. Wilson Observatory out there. You can see just all of that haze and that thick smoke. Lots of particles in the atmosphere today.
COLLINS: Yes, boy. Such a mess. All right. Jacqui, we'll stay in close contact with you as well. The station fire is just the latest of several fire causing damage in the state over the past month. So we wanted to know how is a state in dire financial straits paying for the thousands of fire fighters on duty round the clock? We're going to get to that in just a few minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUY HEINZE, JR.: My whole family is dead.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Tell me what is going on?
HEINZE: I just got home from - I was out last night. I got home just now and everybody's dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: You just heard the anguished cry for help from a Georgia man who came home and found his entire family massacred inside their home but the man who made that call is now under arrest. Police are not calling him a suspect. Why is he still sitting in jail?
CNN's Sean Callebs has been following the story for us. He is joining us now with some answers from Flynn County, Georgia.
Sean, good morning to you once again.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. We can tell you that 22-year-old Guy Heinze Jr. remains locked up at this hour. He's been charged with possession of drugs as well as tampering with evidence. We don't know exactly what happened but we do know that he made that very frantic, very rambling call to 911. And here's a little bit more about what he said when he came home and found "his entire family dead."
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GUY HEINZE, JR.: I just got home and my whole family is dead.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Tell me what is going on, sir, what...
HEINZE: I just got home from - I was out last night. I got home just now and everybody's dead.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CALLEBS: And authorities are calling it just a horrific crime scene. In that 911 call, Heinze went on to say that it appears that his family members had been beaten to death. We now know the identities of those who were killed here on Saturday night. They include a father, four of his children, that makes five, then uncle, we're up to six, and then two family friends who were also in that mobile home.
That mobile home park just behind my shoulder. Authorities have been extremely tight-lipped. They have not said if they have a suspect. They've given no possible motive. And that's certainly wearing on the people here in this small coastal area of Georgia. A lot of people say they're not overwhelmed with fear but certainly the frustration is building.
COLLINS: Yes, such a major crime obviously in a small community. What's the feeling there? I mean, as we are looking at some of the video right next to you now, Sean, I wonder how close those mobile homes are? I mean, if we're talking about beating deaths it would seem that somebody would have heard something.
CALLEBS: Yes, that's exactly the question I think a lot of us want to know. We're not allowed back in there. I can't tell you how close they are. But we all know those walls are basically paper thin. So you're talking about eight people savagely beaten, you would suspect that somebody would have heard something.
We don't know anymore. Authorities had scheduled a news conference here for today at 3:00 Eastern time but they actually sent us an e-mail and that's been canceled as well. We don't know if that means maybe they're moving in the right direction and they want to work some leads or does it mean they simply have no new information and the last thing people here in this area want to see is the cops standing here saying we can't tell you anything else because people want some answers for this. They want to know if they're safe.
COLLINS: All right. Sean Callebs working the story for us in Brunswick, Georgia, this morning. Sean, thank you.
He is now accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl, keeping her captive for 18 years and fathering two children with her. And authorities want to know if Philip Garrido can be linked to any other crimes. A search has turned up a bone fragment near Garrido's home and now tests could determine if that bone was human.
CNN's Kara Finnstrom joining us live from Antioch, California, now, with more on the investigation. Kara, what do we know at this point?
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, for the better part of four days, investigators searched this property just behind us. The Garrido home. The backyard. They brought in cadaver dogs. They took away trailer loads full of evidence. They also searched the property next door which you just referred to.
Garrido actually served as caretaker for that property for a while and that's where they found that bone fragment. Not clear at this point whether that bone fragment is from an animal or from a human. They are having it tested. At this point the search is complete but they are widening their investigation into Garrido. They believe he may possibly be linked to other unsolved crimes.
They're looking into a string of murders from the 1990s and in those cases the victims were prostitutes. Some of the bodies were found near a park where Garrido had worked. And they are also looking into two disappearances from the 1980s. Also two young girls. The cases that were never solved.
One of them involves a nine-year-old Michaela Garecht. She disappeared from Hayward which is about 20 miles away from here. In that case, police noted the striking physical similarities between Dugard and this young girl. They also say there are some striking similarities between Garrido and the suspect in that case or a sketch of a suspect that they have.
CNN did talk with the mother of that other missing girl. And she described for us the day that her daughter disappeared.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON MURCH, MICHAELA GARECHT'S MOTHER: She went with her friend to the neighborhood market on a Saturday morning. They rode scooters up there. And when they went inside they their left scooters outside the door. When they came out, one of the scooters was not where they left it. Michaela spotted it in a parking lot next to a car and went to get it and when she bent over to pick up the scooter, a man jumped out of the car and grabbed her from behind, threw her into the car and took off with her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FINNSTROM: And Heidi, they are also looking into another case. A 13-year-old that disappeared also about 20 miles away from here.
COLLINS: Wow. Certainly investigating a lot. Kara Finnstrom for us this morning from Antioch, California. Thanks, Kara.
Message from Iran. It wants to talk about its nuclear program now. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator says Tehran has updated the stance on its plans and it will be presented tomorrow in Germany. Representatives from the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom will be there. No word on what the updated program involves. Its leaders have said Iran only wants to generate nuclear power. Western nations suspect though it wants to develop nuclear weapons.
A U.S. service member died in Afghanistan today after being wounded by a roadside bomb. Military officials say the attack happened yesterday. It is the first death in September and it follows the deadliest months for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion began. 48 U.S. service members died in August.
California is making critical budget cuts trying to offset a crippling financial crisis. Money was set aside though for emergencies. But now the raging wildfires are threatening to drain those reserves.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We, of course, have been talking a lot about the station fire this morning in California. It's burned more than 120,000 acres now around Los Angeles already. And it's not even close to being contained. Thousands of firefighters are in fact working around the clock but they are facing tough terrain, harsh winds and high temperatures.
This latest fire is just adding to the big firefighting costs already racked up by the financially-strapped state. California has had to get creative as it deals with a $26 billion budget deficit. And that included the plan to release prisoners early.
California Congressman Adam Schiff is joining us now, live from Los Angeles this morning to talk a little bit about it. Congressman Schiff with us. We just want to get an idea about what you know at this point about the situation. I know you have been able to speak with the governor, the mayor and some fire officials in the area (INAUDIBLE), I believe you said. Tell us what you know.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, as of this morning, 127,000 acres are affected now. Over 50 structures have been destroyed. As you know, worst of all we lost two firefighters the other day in just a devastating accident during the fire. And I think no one can see at this point where the end is. And we keep hoping every day that the next day will be better. We were benefited by some high humidity last night but that may bring on some thunderstorms today and add new fire locations.
So it's really unbelievable. Hundreds of my constituents have been evacuated and wondering if they have homes to go back to.
COLLINS: Sure.
SCHIFF: Schools throughout Los Angeles in this part of the area are closed and everyone is being affected by the air quality, which is terrible. You wake up in the morning all congested. It feels like you had a fire in your fireplace and someone didn't use the (INAUDIBLE) properly. There's smoke everywhere.
COLLINS: Yes. I have been in Colorado where there was some major wildfires a few years ago. And I know what's that like. It's painful to breathe. People, you know, they can't tell that from looking at the stunning pictures that we have and how difficult it is hour to hour specifically for the firefighters who are working so hard. I know there are thousands of them out there. How concerned are you about funding this firefight?
SCHIFF: Well, we're very concerned. The state has about $180 million set aside for the fires for the whole season. They've burned through half of that already. And as you know we're in crisis here in California. At the end of the day though we're going to make sure that the firefighters have everything they need. It's been designated a federal management assistance grant area.
So the federal government will be paying 75 percent of the costs. But that's after the fact costs. The state has to apply for it after they expend the money and as you know, we have a cash crunch in California. My fear is that the ones that ultimately are going to get hurt the most are the local communities because the state will apply, it will get reimbursed. The local governments, the local fire departments, they're going to have to apply to the state.
That's going to take some time. But at the end of the day we're going to make sure that we have all of the resources we need. And Heidi, this is one of the things that is of greatest concern - this is just the beginning of the fire season. This is much earlier than we usually see this kind of aggressive fire activity. We got a long way to go here.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. Hey, I know it's probably fast forwarding a bit too quickly, but people who have lost their homes already and there will likely be more of them, is there going to be any money to help rebuild because we're already tapping into a significant chunk, you know, looking forward. It will likely be pretty challenging.
SCHIFF: There is assistance for people who have been devastated both homes and businesses. I think there's an SPA program for the businesses that have been affected that has already kicked in depending on whether there's a federal declaration, there may also be assistance much greater assistance for homeowners and I think there is some assistance available through the FMAG process as well but we'll do everything that we can.
We obviously hope that people had good private insurance that will carry the bulk of the losses. But you know, we're going to be ready for our constituents and I think we're going to see as well a number of health problems as a result of these fires. People already have weakened respiratory systems so we're not through this. And one last thing, Heidi, is when the rains come, when the fires are gone and when the rains come, we could have some very serious problems as well.
COLLINS: Flooding. Yes. Boy, it's going to be tough. It's a long haul. That's for sure. Well, we appreciate your time updating us. Certainly, Representative Adam Schiff of California this morning. Thanks so much.
SCHIFF: You bet.
COLLINS: We, of course, have been getting a lot of pictures from the station fire from our i-reporters. They show us the devastation caused by this fire. We're going to take you through the best of those I-reports coming up in about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, quarantined on the first week in college is not exactly what most freshman expect when they go to school. But the H1N1 virus seems to have a particular affection for college campuses.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Time now for a check of our top stories.
Vermont's same-sex marriage law officially went into effect at the stroke of midnight. Some people just couldn't wait to tie the knot though. Vermont is one of five states allowing same-sex marriages. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others.
President Obama meeting with top officials today to talk about the H1N1 virus. The government is making plans to start vaccinations by mid October. Right now the president and his aides will talk about efforts to prevent the spread of the illness and how ready our nation is to deal with it.
Swine flu is back and it is coming down hard on college campuses. One campus in the cross fire, the University of Kansas. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen takes us inside a dorm room where two students hit with the virus are waiting out their illness in confinement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Swine flu seems to like college campuses and especially the University of Kansas where there are nearly 350 suspected cases. Freshman (INAUDIBLE) is one of them. When she first got swine flu...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Am I going die?
COHEN: Ariel (ph), of course, didn't die but she was pretty sick. Her temperature climbed to 101 degrees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything hurt. You just lay in bed and your body aches and you're coughing and your chest is burning.
COHEN: Cold comfort but Ariel wasn't alone. Her roommate Caitlin Perry (ph) contracted the virus, too. So they were ordered into isolation together in their dorm room.
(on camera): We decided to go in and talk to them to see how they're feeling but before we go into their room, we decided we better make a call to the CDC.
Hi, Dr. Jernigan (ph). How are you?
DR. JERNIGAN: I'm fine.
COHEN (voice-over): The doctor at the CDC tells me two things. One, I don't have to wear a mask but the sick students do. Two, I should stay at least six feet away from them at all times. I joined the dorm staff who are delivering food to the sick, young ladies.
Thank you.
(on camera): What's it like being cooped up in here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so boring. We've watched so many movies.
COHEN: Is it scary for the first time in your life on your own and you get sick?
Yes, because you're like - mom and dad are going to come in and wake you up every three hours to take your medicine. Make sure you take that and your fever doesn't (INAUDIBLE). Like you're on your on and what happens if you don't wake up early or if you sleep through your alarm clock. I mean, I've been checking on Caitlin (ph) and she checks on me. So -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do.
COHEN: College campuses, students living with each other 24/7 often in close quarters are breeding grounds for swine flu. So far 19 campuses across the country have reported cases.
The university is following the CDC's guidelines that says if infected students are without a fever for 24 hours, they can leave isolation. So with fingers crossed, Caitlin and Ariel (ph) take their temperatures.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 98.7. I don't have a fever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 98.2! Yes! No fever.
COHEN: Hours later, Caitlin and Ariel (ph) are free from their confinement. Able to leave their dorm room and finally begin life at college.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Joining us now from New York, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. So Elizabeth they were put in isolation but did they ever go see a campus doctor? How does that work?
COHEN: No, Heidi. And this is kind of interesting and I think will surprise a lot of people. The Student Health Services is telling students who have suspected H1N1 to stay away. We don't want to see you. If you have terrible complications like your fever gets really high or you have trouble breathing, then you do need medical attention but they are telling them to stay in their dorm rooms. We don't want to see you at this point. And that's not unusual. Several universities are telling people that.
COLLINS: OK. All right. Elizabeth Cohen, appreciate it. Thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
COLLINS: Millions of people use it as a shortcut to information but Wikipedia has its share of mistakes, rumors and outright lies. How the encyclopedia anyone can edit plans to solve its credibility issues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A little more evidence the U.S. housing market could be turning around. Pending home sales rose more than expected in July to the highest level in more than two years. The National Association of Realtors reports sales contracts and previously owned homes were up 3.2 percent. That's the sixth straight monthly increase.
President Obama is reducing pay raises for federal workers next year to two percent. The president says the national unemployment rate and the size of the federal payroll demand it. He says he does not believe this would affect the government's ability to attract or keep employees.
If you're looking for a job, how is this for a posting? Get paid to work from home by Google, the company that "Fortune" calls the fourth best employer. If it sounds too good to be true, it's because it is.
Personal finance editor Gerri Willis joining us now live from New York with more on this. So what exactly is going on here, Gerri?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, OK. So what we found with the help of your intrepid producers, I should say, is a story on the web that says Google is going to hire thousands of Americans to work from home. Now, all you have to do to get started is get a Google startup kit. It costs you a little bit of money. Your job is to post links on the Web site.
Now, the story goes on to say that you only need to work one to two hours a day and you can up to earn $1,500 a week. We contacted Google; we haven't heard back from them. But let me tell you, the Better Business Bureau is telling us this is suspicious, and according to the Federal Trade Commission that we talked to today, scams using the name Google are everywhere...
COLLINS: Sure.
WILLIS: ... and the FTC recently brought charges were brought against a company called Google Money Tree, whoever that is, for perpetrating such a scam and implying it was affiliated with Google when it wasn't affiliated at all.
COLLINS: Yes, I guess when you get to be a company that big, or at least with a household name like that, you are at risk for these type of things. What are red flags for consumers?
WILLIS: Number one, these ads or stories typically say you don't need any special skills. Do you think you'll get paid thousands of dollars a week for having no special skills? Not really, right? Sense of urgency in this case. They say, "We have a limited number of kits to get started. You need to get involved now." What's more, you have to pay for the kits. It's not the two bucks but more like 80 that you end up paying each and every month if you get involved.
Look, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Testimonials mean nothing and can be made up. A lot of these scans have logos from legitimate media companies. I have seen a CNN logo on many Web pages. It doesn't mean that it is legitimate. CNN certainly has not signed on to backing any of this stuff.
COLLINS: Yes. We're kind of into getting people in trouble today. Busting the bad guys. What do you do if you come across one of these scams?
WILLIS: Well, again, we're going to report it, right? We'll call the Better Business Bureau or go to their Web site at bbb.org or contact FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, at ftc.gov.
Whatever you do, don't give away your personal information to these companies. Never give a credit card, debit card, checking account number, to any person or company that promises employment in these ways. Look, if you want to work from home, get a regular bricks-and-mortar company to pay you to work from home, but likelihood that you'll make money off one of these things, slim and none.
COLLINS: All right. Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, thank you.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
COLLINS: It's one of the biggest sources of information in the world. Can you trust it? We're talking about Wikipedia, which is planning a pretty big change. Our Josh Levs is here to show us.
We talk about Wikipedia a lot, what to believe and not believe.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you can't know. Because -- in case people don't know, the deal with Wikipedia is that anyone at all can go on and change the information that's there. The folks at PC World put together a great list of the top Wikipedia blunders. Take a look. I got some pictures for you. Their favorites of all- time.
Let's just go to these graphics. This first one, it actually appeared on Wikipedia. Robby Williams eats domestic pets in pubs for money. We got a couple that are a little gross here. This actually appeared. Paul Rieser allegedly being dead. Again wrong. And this third one, I think you'll like. David Beckham was a Chinese goalkeeper, Heidi...
COLLINS: Really?
LEVS: ... in the eighteenth century.
COLLINS: I did not know that.
LEVS: If you're going to go by the world according to Wikipedia -- in fact, one of my favorite articles from the satirical publication "The Onion." Let's zoom right back over here. "Wikipedia celebrates 750 years of American independence." And they explain how independence happened over here. "According to the entry, the American Revolution was in fact instigated by Chuck Norris, who incinerated the Stamp Act by looking at it then roundhouse-kicked the entire British army into the Atlantic Ocean."
COLLINS: Wow. That's good history right there.
LEVS: That's just "The Onion" having some fun with the fact that Wikipedia does work that way. Anyone can write in.
So, here's what they're doing now. They create this color-coded system. We can go to it over here. The basic idea -- let's go to this one. It doesn't look great at this stage. But what they're doing is they're putting the most recently added text into yellow. You can see parts of it highlighted yellow there. They are tracking who actually put that information in, and they're looking at that person's history.
So, the way it will work is if someone goes in and adds something to a Wikipedia page, people will be able to look back at that person's history of adding information, and then they'll use that color-coded system to say whether to trust or not trust the person. If that person has gone to 100 sites and added a whole bunch of crazy stuff, Wikipedia will have kind of a color signal for you saying, you know what? Don't put faith into what this person said.
COLLINS: All right. Interesting. Obviously, this is just one of many steps they're taking to make it more trustworthy.
LEVS: They've got some more applications. Yes, we'll see what they do.
COLLINS: All right. Very good. Josh Levs, thank you.
LEVS: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: We hear a lot these days about banks not lending, but a bank in Atlanta is not only offering money, it's trying to help the environment. Midtown Community Bank is offering 0 percent, 12-month loans to buy bicycles. It's called Bucks for Bikes. The purpose is to encourage more people to get out of their cars and help the environment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES PARKER, MIDTOWN COMMUNITY BANK: We buy bicycles from $350 to $2,500 with no interest and no loan fee.
VOICE OF MICHAEL MILLS, MIDTOWN COMMUNITY BANK CUSTOMER: One of the things you hear is that banks aren't giving. They aren't lending. This is a prime example that they are. They are being a little more creative, I think, to bring community people in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The catch? All you have to do is open a checking account.
You may not think fast when you think of electric cars, but believe it or not, people are already drag racing them. Sometimes they're even beating the gas-powered hot rods. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow spent a day at the races.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People love their gas cars. All of the noise and the smoke and the flames and everything. People love that stuff. So, they're not going to go away.
VOICE OF UNIDENTIED MALE OVER LOUDSPEAKER: Right now, I need the Warrior Pontiacs to lane one, please. Warrior Pontiacs to lane number one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think electrics are here to stay as well.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN MONEY.COM (on camera): Instead of putting gas in here, you put a plug in...
DAVE COVER, CONVERTED PONTIAC TO ELECTRIC: Plug it right in here
HARLOW: ... and that used to be the gas tank.
COVER: That used to be the gas tank. That's right.
HARLOW (off camera): What got you hooked on electric cars?
COVER: The fact that my kids will have to inherit the world we live in, and I want to make it a better place for them. We needed a change.
This is the brains, and this is the brawn.
HARLOW (on camera): We think of Porsche, and we think expensive. All in, what'd you buy the car for, and how much money did you put into it?
COVER: I paid $2,500 for the car. I put less than $10,000 into the project all together.
HARLOW: Less than $10,000?
COVER: Less than $10,000.
(SOUNDS OF ENGINE REVVING)
HARLOW: But then there are some pretty impressive new electric cars. Like the Tesla. The pickup in this thing is amazing. They're very expensive, about $100,000.
TOM JAMISON, TESLA OWNER: No one came out and said let's do a high end sports car and make it electric before the Tesla guys.
HARLOW: And who thought, even a few years ago, you would be drag racing in the middle of Maryland in an electric car? We're used to these kind of drag racers right over here.
What's about to happen is two electric cars are going to drag race against one another right here. The difference between them and all of the other cars here, it's absolutely silent. Take a look. I'm not kidding when I say you can even hear crickets right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Poppy Harlow joining us now from New York with more on this. So, Poppy, just how fast do the cars go? They can really beat the muscle cars as we know them?
HARLOW: They can, Heidi. That's where we got the idea for a story because there were electric cars beating the big muscle cars. It didn't happen at that race on Sunday in Maryland. They didn't beat them. What we saw, Heidi, is that those Tesla electric cars that are, again, over 100 grand. They were topping 100 miles an hour going a quarter mile in less than 12.5 seconds.
So, I asked folks is this the future of drag racing? Honestly, Heidi, the fans like to cover their ears. They like the noise. It was very cool to see what folks are doing with electric cars right now. And there's an extended version on CNNmoney where we see an electric car that was built 20 years ago at MIT. Amazing to see technology we've had for a long time.
COLLINS: Cool. That one didn't cost 100,000 bucks, did it?
HARLOW: No. No, they made it pretty cheaply. It has bicycle wheels, believe it or not.
COLLINS: Really? I'll tell you. All right. Poppy Harlow, thank you.
HARLOW: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Back now to the firestorm in California. What some of you are seeing and hearing. You don't want to miss these special iReports coming in.
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COLLINS: A look at our top stories right now. A wildfire near Los Angeles is still burning out of control this morning. It has now scorched 120,000 acres, or 187 square miles. Fifty-three buildings are destroyed, including dozens of homes. Emergency officials are ordering the evacuation of more than 10,000 homes in the fire's path.
We've been getting a lot of incredible pictures and video from those of you right in the middle of these fires. Our Josh Levs has been getting a look at them and is joining us now to share a couple. Hi there, Josh. Unbelievable pictures.
LEVS: Unbelievable pictures. And we're going to show you some iReports. I'll emphasize at the top that no one goes to danger to take these. We do check them before we put any on the air that no one has gone to any danger. I want to zoom in to show you powerful images that people are sending to us through iReport, which has been very busy.
This one is from one of our frequent iReporters. She goes by Suzanne WK. Look at this one over here from Tom Deune (ph), one of our iReporters, who says "Did a volcano just erupt in L.A.?" Talking about sounds he heard and smoke he could hear in the distance, and a lot of people have been visiting these online at iReport.com. He also has some video here.
Heidi, also, one of our iReporters spoke with firefighters about the loss of two fellow firefighters. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just a form (ph) -- this is from our fire chief to inform that two firefighters have been lost in the station fire.
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LEVS: You can see more of that on iReport.com. Talking about that loss.
Also, many people sending us pictures of smoke. In some cases, the pictures of smoke are even more stunning than we've been seeing from the fires. In fact, this is a time lapse iReport video sent to us by Brandon Riza there. What we see over time, Heidi, is that this -- I don't want to make the fires sound worse than they are, but this kind of smoke looks apocalyptic. It is so huge from that far away it fills the entire sky. It's a tremendous, tremendous image for people to see.
Obviously, the smoke is a concern for a lot of people who are in that area. Let's end on these pictures. There is stunning photos that we have gotten from Mike, who is another one of our frequent iReporters there. You know what? Let's go through these. You can feel the crackling as you see these images there. I spoke with him earlier. He was in a safe place to take these. He's not worried about his own home.
But you know, Heidi, so many people in that area are able to see this kind of thing right now. Obviously, everyone hoping that it can be stopped before it spreads too much further.
COLLINS: Yes. That time lapsed one looks like an explosion, doesn't it?
LEVS: It does. And well, because it is. It's a continuous series of explosions as smoke increases.
COLLINS: We're watching it closely. We've got correspondents on the ground, too, so Josh Levs, thank you for that.
An acquaintance of the suspect in the Jaycee Dugard case is speaking out about him and those he allegedly held captive. Cheyvonne Molino (ph) says the two girls Phillips Garrido allegedly fathered with Dugard were always groomed and never showed signs of living in a backyard compound.
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ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "AC 360": Her daughters, Angel and Starla, attended your daughter's sixteenth birthday party a couple weeks ago. What were they like?
CHEYVONNE MOLINO, PRINTING CLIENT OF GARRIDO: The girls were fine. They're being portrayed in the media like they were little girls that lived -- Jungle Janes that lived in a dungeon. The one thing the authorities have not allowed us to know is what were the living conditions of that 4,000 square foot house.
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COLLINS: Molino also talked about Garrido's surrendering to authorities.
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MOLINO: On Wednesday, he walked in by his own free will to that police station, and he told them what was going on. And all these years he's been talking about, "I have a phenomenon that once I tell the world what's been going on with me, I will get the word's attention." We all thought he was talking about, you know, the heavens opening up. Not that he had a deep dark secret he was ready to reveal.
And the police agencies in our small town -- they had many opportunities to investigate him and because of the sources of complaint, they chose not to do so. Now they'll blame every single unsolved mystery on him as a way to - "Now we'll do the hard work."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Next hour, Katherine Callaway Hall tells her story. She was kidnapped and raped by Philip Garrido. Her case sent her to prison. Hear her story in her own words in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.
There's a really good discussion going on right now on our blog. It's something that we've been asking you about. Yesterday, actually we started doing this. Wondering if you thought the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18.
We've gotten a million responses. Maybe not a million, but more than we've ever gotten on any other question before. I want to read a couple to you now. Over to the Heidi Mac now.
This one says, "If they are old enough to die for our country, they're old enough to drink. The U.S. government says they're mature enough to sign and die. Give them a Bud, please."
And this one says, "Given the incredible lack of responsibility that the young people are displaying today, I think anything that can keep them away from alcohol and a steering wheel is absolutely needed, and the longer, the better."
And finally this one for you. "The human brain continues to develop until age 25. Alcohol can inhibit this development, so if anything, the drinking age should be raised." Again, just some of the comments that came to us. CNN.com/heidi. We love when you weigh in. We got lots of responses on that question.
Imagine missing your credit card payment, Netflix has canceled your account and your family seems to have missed your birthday. Then you find out your mailman is sitting on your bills, DVDs, and birthday cards, along with 20,000 other pieces of mail.
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COLLINS: Jacqui Jeras standing by in our Hurricane Headquarters, because, of course, Jacqui, we're dealing with this huge fire in California. But then something weird to the south of that is a hurricane we're looking at teetering on Category 5. Is that right?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It actually just weakened a little bit, Heidi. That is good news. Any weakening we can get we'll take, right? This is Hurricane Jimena. There you can see the updated status over there. The winds down about 10 miles per hour. 145 miles per hour now for maximum sustained. It's still a very, very powerful Category 4 storm.
Just because it weakened a bit doesn't mean it can't strengthen as well. We often get these little fluctuations in intensity with storms like this. Less than 150 miles away now from Cabo San Lucas. The cone shifted once, just a smidge though, off to the west. You can see that Cabo is out of it. This is the resort area.
The area right now where it is expected to make landfall, somewhere in here, is much less populated. About 10,000 people have been evacuated from this area. We'll continue to monitor Jimena for you.
Here you can see the Atlantic now. Here's the Leeward and windward Islands. This is potentially our next storm that could become a tropical depression or Tropical Storm Erica. Right now, we think it will track north of the Caribbean, which is good news for those of you into the Gulf.
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COLLINS: Lovely. Lovely.
JERAS: Gorgeous.
COLLINS: A little golf, right?
JERAS: Let's go. I'm done.
COLLINS: All right, Jacqui. Thank you.
We trust them to bring our bills, cards and catalogs, but one postal worker in Warren, Michigan, is accused of stealing the mail he was supposed to deliver. Twenty thousand pieces of it, in fact. James Stempnick (ph), Jr. faces federal charges after authorities found the mail in his home and car.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At this time, it looks like nothing was taken from the mail. It was just the mail itself was being held in his home and in his vehicle.
The oldest mail they found dated back in August of 2008, but most of the mail was from the last three to four months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Another postal employee tipped the authorities off. The post office has started to return the stolen mail.
A test that caused students the most stress. The SATs. Would you like to get rid of it for good? Some schools are doing just that.
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COLLINS: It's a test most high school students dread more than any other. The SATs. For years, some people have talked about doing away with the tests all together. As our Carol Costello found out, many colleges don't even consider SAT scores that important anymore.
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never has one test caused so much angst, that's A-N-G-S-T, a feeling of anxiety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you nervous? Are you excited?
MCKENNA BASKETT, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Oh, I'm so nervous.
COSTELLO: Hence, this class, designed to beat the test.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's enough to get D over E.
COSTELLO: Parents pay the Princeton Review and other organizations anywhere from $600 to $8,000 for special classes or private tutors so their child can literally beat the SAT.
Sixteen-year-old McKenna Baskett from Missouri is spending her summer in SAT class. BASKETT: I'm really a bad test-taker and they're really hard questions. So, I'm just -- I'm hoping I can get through it.
COSTELLO: Imagine, all of this A-N-G-S-T for a test that many say doesn't even measure how smart you are.
ED CARROLL, THE PRINCETON REVIEW: There's a whole word list you can do.
COSTELLO: Ed Carroll tutors students to take the test.
CARROLL: There are people who think naturally and incorrectly that the SAT is a measure of intelligence. It never was. The only thing that the SAT is really good at is predicting how well you do on the SAT.
COSTELLO: Carroll says it's not that students need to take special courses to ace the SAT, but once the student realizes there are patterns involved, sort of like Sudoku, it's a whole lot easier.
CARROLL: A squared plus B squared equals C squared foot. It's Pythagorean Theorem. On this test, the numbers that you'll see most frequently, three squared plus four squared equals five squared. So, if I tell student, three, four, five, that's what you need to know. You don't need to know the whole Pythagorean Theorem.
LAWRENCE BUNIN, THE COLLEGE BOARD: That's just wrong.
COSTELLO: Lawrence Bunin oversees the SAT for the College Board.
BUNIN: The SAT is a test of the basic skills that one needs to succeed in college.
COSTELLO (on camera): Does it show you how smart a kid is?
BUNIN: Well, it shows you how much they've learned in school.
COSTELLO (voice-over): But many universities are now saying the SAT says very little about what a student can do. Some 800 of them have now made the SAT optional for most applicants, including eight this year -- some of them highly selective, top tier liberal arts schools.
(on camera): Would you like to see the SAT go away?
SHAWN TOLER, PRINCIPAL, KIPP UJIMA VILLAGE ACADEMY: I would love to see it go away.
Am I clear?
COSTELLO: Shawn Toler, the principal at the KIPP school in Baltimore for inner city kids says the deck is stacked against lower income children. They're generally not able to attend elite high schools or afford expensive tutors. According to the College Board's own stats, in 2009, kids whose parents make up to $20,000 a year scored an average 1321 in a scale of 2400. If a kid's parents makes above $200,000 a year that score shoots up 381 points to an average of 1702.
LAURENCE BUNIN, THE COLLEGE BOARD: What you're really seeing is that the playing field isn't fair. It is not the SAT that's the problem. It's any measure of educational achievement is going to show the same thing.
COSTELLO: But if the playing field isn't fair to begin with, educators like Principal Toler wonder why a perfect 2400 on the SAT seems to matter so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Again, that was Carol Costello reporting. I'm Heidi Collins. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.
