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Fire Danger Slows Down; Jimena Batters Baja Peninsula; Dark Secrets of a Rapist; Afghan Intelligence Official Killed; Caution Signs on Wall Street; Fears of 2nd Credit Crisis Looms Among Regional Banks; Obama's Approval Rating Falling

Aired September 02, 2009 - 09:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Fire crews make progress in their battle against a southern California wildfire, but the fight is far from finished.

Recession not on the ropes. One expert says small banks could slip a sucker punch to the economy.

And the president's losing points. We'll tell you who is driving his ratings down.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It is September 2nd, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. A whole lot going on in the NEWSROOM, in fact, this morning.

We have our crews and our eyes on the California wildfires, and also a dangerous hurricane that is nearing landfall. In fact, CNN's Reynolds Wolf is actually covering the most dangerous of the fires. They are taking place in Los Angeles County, so we'll get to him.

We will also get to Jacqui Jeras, who's taking a look at the firefighters, how they got a bit of a break yesterday, but what could be in store for today. That will be important to know. We'll head to the severe weather center.

And also, CNN's Betty Nguyen is actually on Mexico's Baja Peninsula as Hurricane Jimena closes in. We'll get to all of it this morning.

First off, we want to get the hard work by thousands of firefighters that are working around the clock. It's certainly paying off this morning.

Weather has also played a big part in knocking down the Station fire just north of Los Angeles. It has now consumed around 200 square miles.

There is some good news for homeowners in the area as well. The progress by fire crews has brought the end to evacuation orders for thousands of people. But not everyone. So we'll get you an update on that.

At this hour, though, several communities are still in danger. Firefighters may be gaining ground but as you can see from this map there is still a long way to go. Reynolds Wolf is live in Lake View Terrace, California this morning. So that's what everybody wants to know, Reynolds. What are we seeing this morning and what about evacuations?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, I'll tell you what we're seeing this morning. We're getting some new information that just came just moments ago from incident commander, Mike Dietrich. You see him right over my shoulder here.

He was telling us moments ago that just overnight they got some new information telling us the fire did grow as expected, anywhere from 140 to even 150,000 acres. Right now the fire, about 22 percent contained. See, last night the weather really did help. The higher humidity made a great deal of difference.

The firefighters are still out there on the line doing everything they can to battle the blaze. And although it is 22 percent contained there are parts of the fire that continue to grow, mainly parts to the action -- some of the fire action moving a bit more to the east to an area called Devil's Canyon. Devil's Canyon.

So the latest we have here in terms of the number of homes. Number of homes destroyed still about 62 or so. But as the fire spread there's no doubt that we could see more of that. One of the incidents that we're having, one of the issues is over near Mount Wilson. As we've been telling you the last couple of days, that's the communication hub for the city of Los Angeles.

COLLINS: Yes.

WOLF: What Incident Commander Dietrich was telling us a bit ago is that firefighters battling around parts of Mount Wilson were having some serious issues not only with the flames that are moving slowly but also in just trying to communicate with additional crews.

A lot of interference up there with the different broadcasting towers up there, with all the transmissions, a lot of things were scrambled. Very tough to communicate from one crew to another. So they're hoping to weed that out today.

Now in terms of your forecast, Jacqui is going to give you a much better idea of what they can anticipate here, but I can tell you the humidity last night made a big difference. We still have a chance of some thunderstorms, dry thunderstorms, in the coming days and the temperatures, well, Jacqui's going to let you know that coming up in mere moments.

Let's send it back to you.

COLLINS: All right, Reynolds Wolf, thanks so much. Appreciate the update. In fact, we should let you know five other active fires are burning in California right now. Mandatory evacuations for thousands of people remain in effect around the Oak Glenn fire. Homes are also being threatened by the smaller Pendleton fire, also in San Bernardino County. The big Medal fire has destroyed more than 5,000 acres around Yosemite National Park. The blaze near the California Oregon border is 85 percent contained right now. There's also another fire in Los Angeles County. The Morris fire has charred around 2100 acres.

There are also others now considered totally contained but firefighters do remain on duty, of course, in case there are hot spots that can flare up.

A sigh of relief this morning from resort towns along the southern tip of Baja, California. They have escaped the worst of Hurricane Jimena, mainly it's just a lot of wind and rain for them. But what about farther up the coast?

CNN's Jacqui Jeras is tracking the storm and joins us now. Good morning to you, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, good morning, Heidi. Good morning, everyone.

Hurricane Jimena has now made landfall and it's in a sparsely populated area. In fact, we checked in on the -- Santa Margarita, which is right about here and it doesn't look like it's anything but some mountains and just a beach in that area.

So good that it kind of missed the very populated areas in southern parts, but still this is a category 2 storm, 105-mile-per- hour winds, and it's going to continue moving north-northwesterly, so this is going to continue, move up the coast up toward Cabo San Lazaro and then kind of stall out a little bit.

And that's our next big concern outside of the wind impact and some of the storm surge is that this thing is going to be slowing down. The main thing I want you to notice is look at the time stamps on this. This is tomorrow, this is Sunday. It doesn't move a whole heck of a lot.

So, even though it's going to weaken it's going to just dumb incredible amounts of rain. You've got the mountainous terrain, so that's going to enhance that rainfall. And we're concerned about flash flooding as well as the threat of mudslides so we've got a while to go.

I've got some pictures that I want to show you, too, by the way. Go ahead and let's roll these. This just came in from Mexican television station and this is a reporter who just did a live shot moments ago. And there you can see those bands just lashing him along with those winds.

This is a very large and a very powerful storm, some really incredible pictures that you can see there coming in.

We're going now to our CNN Betty Nguyen who's about 150 miles or so south of where the storm made landfall. But Cabo San Lucas did feel some impact.

Betty, what kind of night did you have there? What have you experienced?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, it was a hurricane that wasn't here in Cabo San Lucas. As you know, Jacqui, when we first started watching Hurricane Jimena it looked like it was a category 4, bordering on category 5. Well, it has weakened tremendously as you mentioned, making landfall right now as we speak, 150 miles north of where I'm standing in Cabo San Lucas.

But look at this resort area right now. It's completely empty. There's not a single soul out. The winds aren't blowing, the rain -- well, it came a little bit yesterday but no real downpours that lasted any length of time.

So really, you know, the folks here dodged a bullet but the people in the resorts here, tourists and whatnot, they had to go into hurricane shelters last night to escape what they thought could have been a powerful storm. In fact, we were even told to evacuate our rooms and go to what is called a convention center at this particular resort which is a certified hurricane shelter.

The biggest concern, though, Jacqui, were people living in, you know, these shantytowns that really don't have any type of shelter that could withstand that type of wind. There's about 10,000 of them and over 1,000 of them did make it to a shelter last night. There's really no major damage to report and no injuries so that is the good news right here in Cabo San Lucas.

JERAS: Betty, what are you hearing from the people there? Are people concerned? Have you heard about evacuations, you know, north of you?

NGUYEN: Not really. I mean, I think north of us there is a lot of wait and see. But as you mentioned, as it is making landfall right now, it's in a sparsely populated area so there's not a lot of people who live there. But indeed, the Mexican government overnight was urging everyone to take shelter because there was really unknown exactly how powerful this storm would be and where it was going to make landfall.

So precautions were made, shelters were set up in schools and resorts and other areas like that. People did heed the warnings because when we first arrived a couple of days ago there were long lines at the grocery stores to get food and water and all of the supplies needed to ride out this storm.

The good news, it is hitting in an area where not a lot of people live so I think at this point it seems like a lot of folks here in the Baja Peninsula have escaped any injury caused by Hurricane Jimena.

JERAS: OK. Great news. Thanks, Betty Nguyen, reporting live from us near Cabo San Lucas.

And you know, it really was kind of a close miss in that area. You know the peninsula is very, very narrow, only about 28 miles across. So you just go west of there and that made for a nice miss for those resort areas. Now we're also watching the tropics here in the Atlantic. There you can see the Leeward Islands. Tropical storm warnings have been put in place for St. Kitts, St. Martin and several other of the islands here.

The winds, the maximum sustained winds only 45 miles per hour, so it's a weak tropical storm right now. And it has been encountering some wind shear. So we don't think that a lot of strengthening is going to take place over the next couple of days but certainly has its threat.

And notice the timeline on this one, too. This is, you know, overnight Sunday into Monday morning, still outside of the Bahamas so if there is going to be any U.S. impact on this storm, that won't be until early next week.

COLLINS: OK. Very good.

JERAS: Heidi.

COLLINS: Obviously, things changing all the time. Jacqui Jeras, sure do appreciate that. And, obviously, Jacqui, when we talk about hurricanes, we always talk about the wind.

One of our iReporters, in fact, sent us this from Cabo San Lucas. Take a listen.

Talk about powerful. IReporter Jack Duffy tells us the rain when it came was pretty intense. And the surf washed away a lot of the beach but he is still managing to enjoy his 40th birthday.

Remember, if you see news happening even if it is your birthday, send us your picture or videos to iReport.com.

A powerful underwater earthquake shakes southern Indonesia. At least 13 people are reported killed in various cities on the island of Java. The quake registered 7.0 and was so intense it shook buildings 150 miles away in Jakarta. Several homes in Java were destroyed and at least one building collapsed. No word on how many people may be hurt.

Tracking a convicted rapist. Is the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard 18 years ago tied to any other abductions? Well, police are looking at some unsolved cases.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now back to the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Quickly want to let you know we're going to have our top stories coming up. You can see the countdown clock there on the bottom of the screen. In a little bit more than six minutes from now so make sure you stick around for that.

Meanwhile, the man who called 911 after eight people were killed at a Georgia mobile home is due in court this hour. Guy Heinze Jr. faces drug possession, tampering with evidence and lying to police.

Police say Heinze is not a suspect in the killings of several of his family members. They do say he has not been ruled out. Heinze's chilling call on Saturday led police to the grisly scene. Seven people were dead, an eighth died later at the hospital.

We will have a live report coming in from the Glenn County, Georgia courthouse in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

Searching for victims. Solving old crimes, as Jaycee Lee Dugard gets readjusted to life with her family. Police in northern California try to determine whether Phillip Garrido is tied to other abduction cases.

CNN's Dan Simon with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Phillip Garrido fantasized about raping women. One of the startling admissions he made during his 1977 rape trial.

In court documents obtained by CNN Garrido also testified during that case that he used LSD and cocaine as sexual stimulants and masturbated in public places, "At the side of school, grammar schools and high schools, and in my own car while I was watching young females."

Garrido made these confessions while on trial for raping then 25- year-old Katherine Callaway Hall who told Larry King that Garrido raped her after she offered to give him a ride.

KATHERINE CALLAWAY HALL, VICTIM OF PHILLIP GARRIDO: Just turned around the corner and pulled over and he slammed my head into the steering wheel and pulled out handcuffs. He took my keys out, threw them on the floor, and pulled out handcuffs and handcuffed me, and said I just want a piece of ass, if you be good you won't get hurt.

SIMON: Does Garrido have other dark secrets in his past that had not been revealed? Police confirmed they are investigating Garrido as a possible suspect in the disappearance of two young girls in the area, including then 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff who went missing 20 years ago while walking home from school.

(on camera): What do we know in terms of how she was abducted?

MIKE MISHELOFF, FATHER OF MISSING GIRL: The only thing that we know, we know that she was last seen at an intersection very close to here.

SIMON (voice-over): Misheloff's father tells me that Jaycee Dugard case has given him renewed hope even if it turns out Garrido's not involved.

MISHELOFF: It shows that somebody can be found after all these years. You never know what can happen. And so whether it is re- enforced the hope that perhaps Eileen is still alive and we'll find her.

SIMON: And take a look at this. This is a composite sketch of the suspect who abducted 9-year-old Michaela Garecht outside a store in 1988. Police say they think it resembles Phillip Garrido, though it's tough to tell with the passage of time. Michaela's mother tells CNN there are other similarities.

SHARON MURCH, MOTHER OF MISSING GIRL: The method of kidnapping was the same. They were both dragged into cars. The description of the cars was very similar. The girls look very much like each other. There have been points in the past where the investigations have crossed with the same suspects.

SIMON: Police searched Garrido's home for several days but have not revealed if there is evidence linking him to other abductions. Garrido and his wife have pleaded not guilty to rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment charges.

Cadaver dogs, meanwhile, found a bone fragment on a neighbor's property that authorities say Garrido lived on at one time but say it could take weeks to determine if it's from an animal or human.

(on camera): Authorities are ending the speculation on one aspect of this case. They've investigated Phillip Garrido as a possible suspect in the murders of several women back in the 1990s, prostitutes. They say they looked at the evidence and determined that there is none.

Dan Simon, CNN, Antioch, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: A deadly suicide blast in Afghanistan, a key intelligence official and 22 other people are killed outside a mosque.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Time now for today's "Top Stories." Our new poll shows a growing dissatisfaction with the war in Afghanistan. 57 percent of those who responded to a new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll are opposed to U.S. military involvement there. That's up 3 percentage points since July and a double-digit increase since April.

And as news of another deadly attack in Afghanistan, the deputy director of the country's intelligence service was killed in a suicide blast in eastern Afghanistan. Twenty-two other people were also killed.

CNN's Atia Abawi is live for us now from Kabul this morning.

Good morning to you, Atia.

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Twenty- three people were killed when that suicide bomber ripped through a mosque in (INAUDIBLE) Province. That's about 60 miles away from the capital city. The deputy director of the intelligence department in Afghanistan was killed in that attack, as were four other officials but again, the suicide attackers killing more civilians than their intended targets -- Heidi.

COLLINS: So why -- there are a lot of people who may be saying now, after being there as long as American forces have, why should America care about this war at this point?

ABAWI: Well, I can tell you why the international officials here want their people back home whether it be America or Europe, they care about the war here. They're seeing the situation continuously deteriorate even with this new focus on Afghanistan. We're seeing more and more deaths. It's been the bloodiest summer.

Again, that comes with sending more forces into Afghanistan, but the forces have come to secure and hold certain areas but that's when we see the insurgency rise as well. When you talk to the normal Afghan on the street they don't know who to trust right now. They don't know if they should trust the coalition forces, they don't know if they should trust their own government.

And some of them actually turning to the insurgency because they feel like they're being protected by them. And when you see that happen we've seen the results in the past when insurgents have taken over Afghanistan and it will be a devastating future for Afghanistan, for the Afghan people and the world. Heidi?

COLLINS: All right. Atia Abawi for us reporting live from Kabul, Afghanistan this morning. Atia, thanks for that.

We also want to tell you about this from Afghanistan. Now the U.N. says opium production in the country has dropped and prices are the lowest they've been in a decade. Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world's opium and cash from drug sales is used to fund insurgency groups. Now the U.N. says part of the drop in production is because of the aggressive new drug fighting tactics.

President Obama leaving this morning for a long weekend at Camp David. He's keeping health care on his mind. A senior White House aide says the president is considering giving a major speech on what he'd like to see in a reform bill. Now that speech could come next week even though no decisions have yet been made.

In fact, take a look at this if you would. A new CNN poll out today shows 90 percent of Democrats approve of the job President Obama is doing, but 85 percent of Republicans disapprove. As you can see for yourself that is quite a divide. Pretty bipolar, if you will.

So we were wondering, our question for our blog today, do you think that the country is more divided now under President Obama than ever? We would love to hear your response on that and also tell us why or why not.

All you have to do is go to our blog on CNN.com/heidi, and find my picture there, click on it, and go ahead and send us your thoughts. We'll tell you what everybody is thinking in just a few more minutes.

We just got an update now that we want to share with you on the Los Angeles County wild fire. Fire officials say the fire did grow overnight and is now burned more than 140,000 acres. Crews have gotten 22 percent containment on the fire. Yesterday it was 5 percent so that is obviously some improvement there. But more than 60 buildings have so far been destroyed.

Singer Chris Brown avoided jail time for assaulting former girlfriend Rihanna but people are still talking about what happened. And that could derail a promising career. Although a court order separates them, Brown admits he still loves her and he talks more about how he lost it that night in an exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": When you look at this, you feel like you're looking at someone else?

CHRIS BROWN, SINGER: Yes. From the outside looking in. When you see on TV, when they're saying this, when they're saying that...

KING: Well, you punched her a number of times, you threatened to beat the blank out of her. When you got home, also said, you warned you were going to kill her. You bit her on the ear and finger -- now you hear all that.

BROWN: Yes.

KING: Obviously this is always -- (INAUDIBLE), you don't appear like a violent person at all. In fact, you appear rather calm. Rather nice. So what happened to you? Do you think?

BROWN: Well, I just have to say I guess that night is just one of the nights I wish I could just take back and I really regret and I feel totally ashamed of what I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: You can catch the full interview on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight 9:00 p.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

Job cuts slowing down, housing and manufacturing numbers picking up. But just when it looks like the economy is heading out of the woods a second credit crunch could be on the horizon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.

COLLINS: Economic fears took down stocks on Wall Street yesterday. The major averages each tumbled about 2 percent.

Stephanie Elam is in our New York bureaus this morning with a preview of what to expect today. I fear, Stephanie, it's going to be more of the same.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we know, Heidi. We had that nice run-up of over a week of gains on the Dow and...

COLLINS: Yes.

ELAM: That seems like a distant memory at this point. Stocks are definitely set for a slightly lower opening this morning. Investors showing some caution following yesterday's sell-off and ahead of Friday's big jobs report. We're looking at August numbers.

While we wait for that government report, we are getting some clues about what to expect. A survey from payroll services firm ADP says 298,000 positions were cut last month. Now Wall Street was actually expecting fewer number but it's still the smallest amount of cuts since September of last year.

The latest company to lay off workers, well, American Airlines. The carrier will eliminate more than 900 flight attendant positions, the bulk of the cut will be made at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

And we have another bank talking about TARP. In an interview with Bloomberg News, the CEO of Wells Fargo said the bank plans to repay the government shortly. That's the word he used. No other specifics were given because an agreement depends on talks with the Federal Reserve.

In case you're wondering, Wells Fargo got $25 billion in bailout money. So there we have it. We just had the bell on Wall Street, on the New York Stock Exchange. And I can tell you right now that we are off to the red. The Dow off 16 points, 9294. NASDAQ off 9 at 1959, and the S&P 500 off about a quarter of a percent, but Heidi, as always, I'll be keeping my eyes on it for you.

COLLINS: I know you will. All right, Stephanie Elam, thanks for that.

The economy may be showing some signs of recovery but while the big guys got a lot of help from the bank bailout, as you just heard Stephanie say, the little guys could draw us into a second credit crisis. At least according to Peter Morici, professor of international business at the University of Maryland. He's joining us now live from Washington.

Go Terps. Got to say it every time that you come on. We both went to school there. Professor, explain to us these problems because the Main Street banks, the smaller banks, the little guys that we're talking about really seem to be facing some tough times. How did all of this come about?

PETER MORICI, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Well, we had the housing crisis and people stopped spending money. When that happened people stopped going to the stores and the stores started failing. Remember Circuit City, it closed. The guy that held the lease he isn't getting paid, his loan is on foreclosure and the banks are weighed down by lots of commercial real estate. Essentially mortgages on shopping centers that aren't being paid.

COLLINS: Yes, because it seemed like a lot of these smaller banks loaned money to the retail sector and also commercial real estate. So now they are having to pay for that are they not? Why are we just hearing about this now? It doesn't seem like it really should be too much of a surprise.

MORICI: Well it shouldn't be too much of a surprise but it is. It's about $700 billion. It came late in the cycle. You see, the retailers failed this year whereas mortgages on houses failed last year. And this is a lag in all of this. So now we have 83 banks that have failed. Another 400 that are on the watch list at the FDIC, the FDIC has promised to cover losses up to $80 billion by the banks that have taken over the 83 but it only has about 15 billion left in its reserve fund. So the FDIC is on the verge of going broke.

COLLINS: We've actually been talking about that here. You say the struggling of these smaller banks could actually knock down the economy as a whole all over again.

MORICI: Yes, we want people to spend again and that's starting to happen. People are buying technology. But moderate size businesses that create most of the jobs need credit to grow. They go to the bank to buy the computer and so on. Not only are these 400 banks in trouble but banks generally don't have enough funds because of this problem. S they can't loan businesses money to hire people. So we're getting a small time credit crunch in Peoria after we had the big time credit crunch in New York.

COLLINS: Yes, obviously that is exactly what we're talking about here. It's a flow of credit. Has the Obama administration so far done anything that can really help out the Main Street banks? And why should they?

MORICI: This is where they have really come up short. Its part of the big plan that they had they were supposed to create some sort of contraption like the resolution trust. It wasn't quite called that, kind of a bad bank to sweep up all these assets and work them out. Instead they've saddled the FDIC with dealing with this problem one bank at a time so it really hasn't addressed the problem. What's more, there were a lot of management practices at these regional banks that are highly questionable which makes the big New York banks like JP Morgan reluctant to loan them money.

COLLINS: Yes, understood. What can they do now at this point specific to stave off a possible -- the second sort of slash in the economy?

MORICI: I think we have go back to Sheila Barron's suggestion at the FDIC to create a bad bank to remove these assets from their books, and then we have to start looking at some of the practices of the banks. They've become involved trading securities, basically buying commercial mortgage-backed securities among one another just like Lehman Brothers, it's kind of a small version of what happened in New York. We need to get these guys back to banking, making loans and getting repaid and being trustworthy again. COLLINS: Absolutely. All right always love your perspective, Peter Morici from the University of Maryland, thanks so very much.

MORICI: Take care.

COLLINS: Some people who live near Los Angeles are being allowed back in their homes this morning now that firefighters are getting ahead of the so-called station fire. I want to show you the area that we're talking about here. Fire officials releasing new numbers this hour saying 140,000 acres of mountains and residential communities are destroyed. Let's take a look at these amazing pictures showing just how close the flames have come to some of those communities, unbelievable. At least 62 homes have burned. Firefighters are also battling other blazes around the state, in fact at least five active fires are burning right now. But none nearly as big as the station fire.

Let's go ahead and bring in Mike Bryant, he's a deputy fire chief for Los Angeles County, he's actually helping to lead this big battle against the station fire. Thanks for being with us. Listen, Mike, I'm wondering, a forest official said yesterday that he feels a lot more optimistic about all of this. Because I know we were at about 5 percent containment, now we're up to 22 percent containment. Without getting bogged down in those numbers, how is everybody feeling out there on the front lines?

DEP. CHIEF MIKE BRYANT, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, good morning Heidi, thank you. We're doing pretty well right now. We've had a lot of progress in the last 24 hours, and we're looking for additional progress today. The weather conditions, it's a little bit of reduced heat. A relative humidity has come up. And fortunately, as you're familiar with out here in southern California, we haven't had any of our Santa Ana winds on this fire, so as long as those weather elements hold for us, we're looking for additional containment today.

COLLINS: Yes, and its great news hearing you say that the temperatures are going to be down a bit, because I can't imagine how difficult it is for all of the firefighters who are there to battle this thing. If we can, let's talk about Mt. Wilson for a moment, the observatory where all the TV and radio towers stand. How confident are you that the firefighters are going to be able to - actually looking at some pictures of it right now, keep the flames away from there. I know that you guys were talking about a bit of a success story here as well.

BRYANT: Well, we're extremely confident today. We've had 36 hours of preparation and Heidi, we're able to get in and do a lot of mitigation. We have class A foam, we do a lot of fuel mitigations, we do a lot of things in the incident to prepare for that oncoming fire. You know, Mt. Wilson has a tremendous amount of infrastructure and telecommunications that supports a lot of the Los Angeles area and many other areas throughout our country. It's definitely a priority today. It's been a priority in the last three days that we've been planning for, and I'm extremely confident today that we have about 200 personnel up in that area right now. Many of those are Los Angeles County fire resources ready to as that fire progresses up there we're ready to take that fire on this morning.

COLLINS: OK, very good. I know one of the weapons that you guys have been using and this is really interesting to me, the 747 supertanker, the evergreen I think is what you're calling it. How has that been used? Has that been successful?

BRYANT: Yes, it has been. That is an important piece of fire fighting equipment and we're very fortunate to be able to use that. We will use that air resource along with our ground folks that are in there prepping and taking care of that infrastructure to protect it today.

COLLINS: Great, very good. Very quickly, any idea on the cause of this fire?

BRYANT: No. We don't have a cause yet, Heidi. We have our investigators from multiple agencies with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the Angeles National Forest. Like any incident, we are gathering the facts, looking into all possible leads. But we do not have any cause yet. Once we do, we will make that announcement.

COLLINS: Of course. I know your work is very difficult. All right we appreciate your time, deputy fire chief Mike Bryant, thanks so much for taking time out for us.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the fires now from space, very interesting. Last week we were talking about the smoke causing health concerns in Los Angeles. That's only about 10 miles away. Now the effects from that same smoke are being felt as far away as 800 miles. Take a look at Denver. This is a towercam from our affiliate KUSA. The same story in Las Vegas. And people in Minnesota are preparing to have the haze later this week. It's not expected to cause any health problems.

You have been helping us tell this developing story with your iReports, pictures and video. So we're putting together the very best of those for the rest of you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Time for today's top stories. Police in California are now saying Phillip Garrido is not a suspect in the killings of young women during the 1990s. Garrido was charged last week with the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard who had been missing since 1991. Authorities are looking to see if Garrido can be tied to other crimes. Test results on a bone fragment found near Garrido's home may not be ready for weeks.

The husband of a woman whose wrong way accident killed her and seven others wants her body exhumed. A police report following the July accident found Diane Schuler's blood alcohol more than twice the legal limit. But Daniel Schuler believes an examination will show she wasn't drinking. An attorney for Schuler says Diane Schuler may have suffered stroke-like symptoms and a fire after the accident could have turned blood sugar into alcohol. A white supremacist is scheduled to appear in court this hour on charges of killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Eighty-nine year-old James Von Brunn, who was shot in the face by other museum guards has not been seen in public since the June attack. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

President Obama has 76 percent approval right after he got into office. In the seven and a half months since his rating has dropped 23 points. But it's not conservatives who are driving those numbers down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Let's head over to Jacqui Jeras now who is tracking hurricane Jimena. A lot of the other weather. Mother nature really giving the old one-two punch.

JERAS: Thank goodness it's quiet in the lower 48 (INAUDIBLE) from the fire conditions.

COLLINS: Absolutely.

JERAS: I know, we just wouldn't have time for it, now would we. I'll give you the latest here on Jimena. This is still a category two storm, 105-mile-per-hour winds. Landfall has taken place. We haven't heard the official word from the National Hurricane Center but we're going to call it here at the CNN Weather Center and tell you it was right around Santa Margarita, a very small and populated island here off the coast. Some weakening is going to be taking place now. As it continues to move north and by the way, this could get back over open water into this area but let me show you real quickly why we're not all that worried about it. These are the water temperatures right now in the Pacific.

I'll try and open that up for you just a little bit and take a look at this area. Look at all of that blue. You know blue means cool. Those water temperatures just really not warm enough to help sustain that storm or help it get any stronger either. With the track on this, show you the biggest concern once we get through this wind and rain event right now is that the rainfall in the coming days is just going to be incredible. Five to 10 inches, locally heavier amounts, maybe even up to 15 as the storm system stalls out, look at how far it moves. This is the location of the storm or what's left of it, by the way on Sunday. So we're real concerned about mudslides and that type of thing and those flooding rains.

Other tropical conditions, we've got Erika out there. A weak tropical storm 45 miles per hour maximum sustained winds, it's undergoing a little bit of southwesterly shear and that's why you can kind of see this side of the storm is breaking down just a little bit. So very little strengthening can be expected over the next couple of days. No huge help for the fires that continue to burn in California, Heidi. A little more humidity in that area today. We'll watch out for the threat of thunderstorms this afternoon. If we get those we worry about lightning strikes starting new fires, and we worry about those gusty winds in the downdrafts. COLLINS: Boy, I hope not. All right, Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much, we know you're watching all of it for us, thank you. Our iReporters in fact have sent in stunning images too of the wildfires raging in California. Our Josh Levs has been gathering all of those up and gosh, every time I see some of these I just can't believe it.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing. It is amazing. I'm going to say again at the top, people that we're showing their photos here they have not gone to any danger to take these but these images are amazing. Let's zoom in for a second, cnn.com has all sorts of photos. Our iReport page has been very busy. One of the ones that's getting a lot of traffic comes from Tommy Yune who asks: Did a volcano just erupt in L.A.?

Tommy is with us now. Are you there Tommy? Hey Tommy, can you hear me? It's Josh.

TOMMY YUNE, CNN IREPORTER (via telephone): Yes, I can hear you, Josh.

LEVS: Thanks for joining us. Take a look at some video you sent us. Tommy, I want you to talk to me about this. What was it like for you to be there and see that fire that close?

YUNE: It was absolutely amazing to see this unfolding in the hills above our community. It was -- it hit the maximum of its fiery appearance last night when firefighters had set backfires, these back burns, to intercept the fire that was coming down hill.

LEVS: Tommy, I'll tell you a lot of people are visiting your pictures on our page. You said it looks like a volcano. When you were there, is that what it felt like? Did you feel that kind of heat, too?

YUNE: Yes. I mean, I had actually once been to Volcanic National Park in Hawaii and this is what it reminded me of. It even reminded me of that old Tommy Lee Jones movie.

LEVS: Right, I know you were mentioning that earlier. We have to go, but quickly, you were evacuated from your home for a time. As I understand you are now able to go back to your home, right?

YUNE: Yes, I am. And I asked a local sheriff deputy and he actually said that they think the worst is over now.

LEVS: Wow, for your area we know it is. Tommy, thanks so much for joining us. Obviously a lot of people are still very concerned about this fire and where it might go. Lots more photos coming in at i-Report.com. We encourage you if you are in a position to take some safely, share your images with us, it's really easy to load up. Heidi, we'll continue to follow these for you throughout the day and in the coming days.

COLLINS: Yes, very good. All right Josh, thank you.

Americans sounding off. The CNN Express is on the road, and we're asking questions about the economy and health care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: I thought the Doobie Brothers are on board the Election Express along with Ali. No, CNN Election Express is on the road again. Ali Velshi traveling across the Midwest, talking to the good people about the economy and health care reform. So, Ali, where exactly are you today?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is one of those things, what happens when you let me choose where I'm supposed to be. We're on the South Side of Chicago, I'm in front of a place called Jim's Original Polish Sausage. It's an institution, it's been here for 70 years. We're on the South Side of Chicago. You know, Heidi, most times when we talk about the South Side of Chicago, unfortunately it's because of the high crime rate around here. It's a lovely area.

There are some really nice gentrified areas, but there are some very impoverished areas, and it is a high crime rate, a high jobless rate. So, we thought we'd come here and talk to people about health care and the economy. We ran into one gentleman this morning, just around the corner, who had really falling on some hard times. He was as he said involved in a bad life. But he says the key to turning things around is getting more jobs. Listen to it in his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things just to help the South Side, period. That's why you have all of these people out here just doing what they're doing. You know a lot of crime. The economy is so bad, man. People is getting hungry, you know, I mean hungry. Speaking for me, you know, I'm not afraid to tell you that I experience the lifestyle before but you can always come out of that lifestyle. But it's hard to come out when you can't find a job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Heidi, it's interesting to note that first of all the South Side of Chicago has always had a problem in terms of crime and unemployment. Unemployment is higher here. Unemployment amongst African-Americans tends to be much higher than that of the general population. This is not an area that was necessarily substantially harder hit by the recession, but it has been harder hit as a result of the fact that it was already struggling.

We're in this parking lot. I ran into a gentleman, Johnny Hollis, who was on his way back from work. He's a forklift operator. He works for a freight company, which of course is a good indicator of what's going on in the economy because you were busier a lot longer ago. How do you think things are now? What's your sense of how this economy is going?

JOHNNY HOLLIS, FORKLIFT OPERATOR: Things have slowed down a lot, like I was saying. We were busier. Pretty much every freight company is slowing down. Overtime was plentiful, but now basically it's down to like 40 hours.

VELSHI: You were getting 80 hours a week?

HOLLIS: Yes, pretty much, yes.

VELSHI: Are you seeing an up trend, are you seeing things picking up like some of the economists are saying?

HOLLIS: It's like up and down. You know pretty much one day it will pick up then the next day it will be down. Then one week it's up, then the next week it's down. It's getting better but it's not like how it used to be. I guess it's going to be a while before it gets back to how it was in the first place.

VELSHI: Johnny, you picked yourself up a polish sausage here?

HOLLIS: Yes, polish sausage from Jim's, yes, pretty much. I pick up polish sausage every once in a while.

VELSHI: Enjoy it. We stopped you from eating your lunch. Johnny, thank you very much for joining us. See that's the story, we're here talking to people and just getting their sense of what's going on in the economy and health care and we'll be bringing it to you all day.

COLLINS: All right, very good. CNN's Ali Velshi with the CNN Express, South Side of Chicago today. Thank you Ali.

There's also a lot going on this morning in the NEWSROOM. Our CNN correspondents are ready to break it all down for you as usual working hard. Let's begin with Reynolds Wolf on the California wildfires. Reynolds, good morning.

WOLF: Good morning. Coming up, we're going to give you the very latest on this fire, 22 percent contained. Over 140,000 acres scorched and it's not over yet.

JERAS: And I'm CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras in your hurricane headquarters. Jimena may have made landfall but the worries aren't over yet. Now we're worried about flooding rains, details on that and tropical storm Erika are coming up at the top of the hour.

COLLINS: Sean Callebs for us in Georgia where a mass murder happened last weekend. There's a court appearance today. He'll be covering that for us. Just to let you know obviously a little bit of audio trouble there.

Meanwhile also, soldiers committing suicide. It's happening more than you may know. Next hour, we'll tell you what the army is doing about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Independent voters helped President Obama win the White House but he must not be keeping them very happy. Jessica Yellin explains how independents are driving his approval rating down. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Health care deadlock. A ballooning deficit. And President Obama is taking it on the chin. A new CNN Opinion Research Poll shows the president's approval rating is now at 53 percent down three points in the last month, down 13 since April. Driving the slide? Independents. CNN polling shows for the first time a majority of independents, 53 percent, do not approve of the way the president is doing his job, 43 percent approve. Should the president blame those falling numbers on his top issue, health care reform?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Passing a big bill like this is always messy.

YELLIN: Well, yes and no. Fifty three percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of health care reform but guess what? The numbers are just as bad on general economic issues. When it comes to the president's handling of the deficit, only 36 percent approve. Break it down and only 25 percent of independents approve. On taxes, 45 percent approve. Only 35 percent of independents approve. Those numbers have been on a downward slide for months. There is one group that's holding strong for the president, democrats.

OBAMA: Thank you so much for your unbelievable dedication. It's good to be here.

YELLIN: CNN's polling shows in recent weeks the president has actually gained some support among democrats.

KEATING HOLLAND, CNN POLLING DIRECTOR: That indicates that we may see the same pattern of polarization that we saw during George W. Bush's administration reasserting itself.

YELLIN (on camera): The issues on which the president is polling the lowest are the same issues the republicans have targeted, health care, the deficit, taxes. This could be a sign that the republican PR machine is working or it could be the inevitable. Most president's poll numbers do fall as they get further into their first year in office.

Jessica Yellin, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)