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Ethics Troubles for Democrats; Countdown to Static Kill; Chelsea Clinton Weds in Private Ceremony; More Than 1,100 Dead in Pakistan Floods, Tens of Thousands Left Homeless; Monsoons in the Four Corners Region and Tropical Depression Developing in the Atlantic; Growing Probe in War Log Leak; UAE to Ban Blackberrys in October; Ethics Troubles for Democrats; Firefighters Laid Off; Heat Waves Here and Abroad

Aired August 02, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, guys. Thanks for that.

Good morning, everybody. Here's what we're working on this morning.

Double trouble for congressional Democrats. Two veteran reps, two possible ethics trials. And we're 90 days until the midterm elections. Will voters clean House?

In Russia, an inferno. We're going to show you what it's like to drive into the heart of a forest-wide fireball.

Take a look at this. Clinging for life in a deluged Pakistan. Cope (ph) with floods, mudslides, monsoon rains, now fears of disease.

It's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. I'm Drew Griffin in for Kyra Phillips today. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Midterm elections just three months away. Democrats might be giving Republicans a pair of political gifts. Gifts named Rangel and Waters. New York Democrat Charlie Rangel, 40 years in the House. He's charged with 13 ethics violence, things like improper solicitations to companies that did businesses with the government.

Rangel is accused of trying to get money for a public policy center at the City College of New York that is name after him. Rangel in return was in a position to return favors to anybody donating.

And potential gift number two. Her name is Democrat Maxine Waters of California. Twenty years in the House. Accused of being involved in a meeting between a bank that she's linked to and the Treasury Department. The bank ultimately got billions in federal dollars.

Waters says she's planning to fight ethics charges in a House trial.

The bigger price might be paid at the polls by the whole Democratic Party, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, well, she says she's not nervous about November. That she is actually making good on her promise to clean up corruption in the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I said we'll drain the swamp, and we did. We had passed the most sweeping ethics reform in the history of the Congress. Any personal respect and affection we may have for people makes us sad about the course of events, but we have to hold high of the standard.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The thing is Democrats are the ones getting drained from that swamp right now. Bad timing perhaps in a tough election year.

Let's bring in our congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar.

Brianna, I mean, how do Democrats feel about all this? Do they feel the speaker and the ethics panel is piling on at just the wrong time?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they certainly feel the double whammy here. And the people who are really feeling it, Drew, are the rank and file Democrats who are so vulnerable. You know they are in these kind of swing districts, and they're already looking at such a tough election year.

So between Rangel and Maxine Waters -- and let's not also understate how significant this is. I mean, we haven't seen an ethics trial, right, since 2002? And now we're looking at two of them looming here in the fall. And so you've got a lot of these vulnerable Democrats who are just really worried, certainly, about the timing of this -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: You know, one of the big knocks against this ethics panel has been that they haven't done anything in a long time. Well, now Nancy Pelosi perhaps is saying, look, we are draining the swamp. We're making good on our promises, but is that -- is that going to be enough for her to say to those Democrats and those tough races?

KEILAR: You know I think -- it's hard to tell because this process is so secretive. And when we ask leaders they certainly don't want to go out there so much about it, but what she said is the process is working out.

And one of the things the Democrats have done and that you hear them talk about, Drew, is that they establish a sort of independent office, an Office of Congressional Ethics, which is something that is looked into not just reports from members of Congress, but also press reports, which is where a lot of the issues that Waters and Rangel are facing right now.

That's where they came from. And that's where these preliminary investigations started. So if you talk to Democratic leaders, they will tell you, well, look, we did something and this is what came of it. But certainly the timing now politically is so detrimental to them.

GRIFFIN: Brianna, Maxine Waters says she's going to fight this, but last week you recovered possible deals with Rangel getting less than stunning support from President Obama who kind of eluded the fact that, you know, Charlie needs to move on and retire after 40 years basically is what he's saying.

Anything new this morning with this week that we might be able to expect for any resolution in either one of these matters?

KEILAR: You know at this point it is recess, right? The House left on Friday. And the way you're hearing Maxine Waters, what's coming from sources familiar with the ethics situation, is that she's saying she wants her day in court. That she's not going to settle.

That she was basically told, look, you know, here's the situation. And that you're going to be -- that you're basically going to be found that you violated something. And she said, no. You know, I want to have my day in court.

Are there going to be other options perhaps for settlement? You know we don't know. It seemed like last week that was sort of exhausted and now you see the Ethics Committee and all members in Congress out of town. And at this point we were expecting that the processes of at these ethics trials -- at least at this point -- are set to begin when Congress returns.

GRIFFIN: Wow. OK, Brianna Keilar, the slow drip, drip towards the election. Thanks a lot. We'll see you later.

Moving on now. Only a trickle of U.S. troops will be heading home from Afghanistan next year. That's according to the Defense Secretary Robert Gates. We'll have more than 100,000 troops in the country by the end of the summer.

They are slated to start leaving a year from now, but Gates says the pace of the drawdown will depend upon the security conditions. These remarks come as the Taliban says it's pouring over a trove of secret military documents. The Taliban is looking at the documents posted on the whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, I'm not sure anger is the right word. I just -- I think mortified, appalled, and if I'm angry, it is because I believe that this information puts those in Afghanistan who have helped us at risk.

It puts our soldiers at risk because they can learn a lot. Our adversaries can learn a lot about our techniques, tactics, and procedures from the body of these leaked documents. So I think that puts our soldiers at risk.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says the Pentagon is looking into just how much leak is impacting our operational security in Afghanistan.

Nearly 700 National Guard soldiers from Massachusetts are now bound for the Afghan war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Everybody here volunteered, folks. You're here to make a difference -- to keep our country safe.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Massachusetts' new senator there. The new stadium in Worchester transformed into a sea of fatigues and American flags as thousands of supporters rallied to give the First Battalion 181st Infantry Regimen a proper sendoff.

This is the state's largest deployment of National Guard troops since World War II. They'll be providing security for reconstruction teams while helping officials develop a government infrastructure.

Day 105 of the Gulf oil disaster. The temporary cap holding and the permanent sealing of the well could be within reach as early as tonight. Crews could begin pumping mud into -- and cement into the well from above like you're seeing there. That's phase one of the static kill. Phase two likely some time next week.

Once the relief well intercepts the ruptured line, the bottom kill maneuver can get under way.

Today Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is in New Orleans. She's going to meet with officials over the way the spill has been handled. The review comes in a blistering criticism over the use of chemicals dispersants.

Democratic Congressman Edward Markey says the feds ignored limits on the potentially toxic chemicals and BP, quote, "carpet-bombed the ocean with these chemicals." That's according to Markey.

Let's take a closer look at these latest developments. CNN's Jim Acosta is in New Orleans.

Jim, what's the timeframe for the static kill operation? When are they going to be able to both start and finish?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, we could be looking at the beginning of the end. Or at least everybody hopes so down here. You know, yesterday Thad Allen gave a briefing via conference call and was saying that this thing could start late today.

And then Doug Suttles, the COO of BP, held a briefing of his own later in the day and said Tuesday. So we're looking at the next 24 hours or so. We might see the beginnings of the static kill operation.

Just want to show you sort of a crude rendering of this because, you know, just understanding it, you know, yourself, you almost have to draw it. And so we got this dry erase board. Apologies to Tim Russert. We want to at least take a look at what all of this is going to look like.

Essentially, you know, here's the bottom of the ocean. Here's the cap that's on the blowout preventer over the well. And essentially, what we're going to see, we're just going to start seeing that mud and cement to start pouring in through a line that goes right into the cap.

And then they're going to start filling that ruptured well that has been sealed so far with that cap, with that mud and cement. That's going to happen over the next several days. And then they hope at some point that they're really going to get a handle on this. That this might actually kill this well.

If not, five to seven days after the static kill operation is over, they are going to start something called the bottom kill. And as we all know, they've been drilling those relief wells into the ruptured well in the hopes that they will be able to pump more mud and cement through that relief well.

And that this one-two punch will come together and finally kill this well once and for all. And Doug Suttles, at his press briefing yesterday, you know, reminded folks that, you know, they've done this sort of thing before, not at this depths, but they've done this sort of thing before and that -- in his words, he is confident that this is going to work -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Jim, I don't quite understand how they're going to be able to put that mud and cement into the cap without basically opening up that cap to the pressure that has been building under it.

ACOSTA: Well, you know, this is sort of the difference between the static kill and the top kill, right? During the top kill there wasn't that containment cap on top. And they weren't able to, you know, keep good pressure readings monitored by the engineers who were looking at all of this.

So with the cap firmly in place, they feel like they will be able to pump that mud and cement through that cap, through that blown-out preventer and down into the well during this procedure.

And then -- as the procedure is going on, those engineers are going to be taking pressure readings. This is going to be happening minute by minute throughout the course of the night, throughout the next 24 to 48 hours, and they are hopeful that as they do this they're not going to see any burps, any leaks of gas or oil out of this well, out of this containment cap.

And if all goes according to plans, and those pressure readings stay intact, they are reasonably confident that this is going to work.

GRIFFIN: All right, Jim, thanks for watching that for us and explaining to us. Good drawing, by the way.

We're also keeping a close eye on the oil spill in Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Both Michigan's governor and the head of the environmental agency reporting significant process in the cleanup. More than 19,000 barrels of oil flowed from that pipeline before it was stopped on Tuesday.

Since then less than a third has been recovered. The spill has traveled 25 miles and crews are trying to keep it from reaching Lake Michigan.

Well, it was picture-perfect and paparazzi-free. Chelsea Clinton's dream day came true as she tied the knot Saturday in a top secret high-dollar wedding. How it all went off without a hitch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GRIFFIN: I bet they didn't play that tune at the reception, I'm just guessing. Chelsea Clinton, all grown-up and married now. The former first daughter tied the knot with her long-time boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky. Saturday was private. Paparazzi-free, thanks to the FAA. Described as picture-perfect.

Lifestyle expert and event planner Collin Cowie joins us live from New York with a look at what some are calling, I guess, Collin, America's version of a royal wedding. Is that fair?

COLLIN COWIE, LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Drew, I think it is as royal as it gets over here. I think we've all watched Chelsea grow up in the White House. I think this was a wonderful opportunity for her to make her statement of style. I love the way she got to do this privately and as quietly as she did. But there's clearly been a very, very big fascination with this wedding.

GRIFFIN: You have been tweeting a little bit this morning. Everybody in your business is trying to figure out what the details are. Why the big secrecy about the details? And also, why the big fight to try to find out what the details were?

COWIE: I think that, you know, Chelsea really wanted to keep this as quiet and as private as possible. Maybe it's because of the fact that the press didn't treat her family so kindly throughout her earlier years, and that's maybe why she wanted to keep it so private.

But we always want to find out what we can find out. And I find it amazing to think that they really have done an incredible job of keeping this absolutely private. We know very little about this wedding. Not even the guests are talking.

GRIFFIN: You do a lot of high-profile events. Have you had events where guests need to sign confidentiality agreements?

COWIE: No, but we've had events where guests have been asked to hand in their cell phones so they don't tweet, so they don't take pictures. I believe this was not the case at the wedding. The only people that really did sign the non-confidential -- the confidentiality agreements were the vendors and those who worked on the wedding itself.

So they really did a really good job of keeping it under wraps. And as you said in the intro, the fact that we never got to see anything that was shot from air because they closed down the air space, this means we never got to see anything. Because usually helicopters and local press would be all over this type of tactic to see what we can see. The fact that they are able to close it down has really kept the locks down.

GRIFFIN: I bet you wish you had that kind of pull for your clients, Collin.

COWIE: I've tried it many, many times, and it's never worked before. It was really great for our industry. I think it was amazing for our industry that the Clintons went out there and threw this wonderful, lavish wedding for their daughter. It was very well- deserved.

GRIFFIN: All right. Thanks, Collin. Thanks for joining us.

COWIE: Thanks, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Speaking of this wedding, the dress, the high-profile guest list and presidential parents. Tonight at 9:00, the latest on Chelsea Clinton's weekend nuptials. Kyra Phillips is going to be in for Larry King. She supposedly has the dish and reaction. That's tonight at 9:00 Eastern Time, right here on CNN.

And Chelsea wasn't the only famous bride walking down the aisle, or the pier, or wherever it might be, Saturday night. Singer Alicia Keys married music producer Swizz Beatz in a private residence overlooking the Mediterranean. Keys wore a Grecian-inspired, one- shoulder Vera Wang gown.

I'm really reading this? OK, here we go. Swizz Beatz and Keys have been friends for several years. They worked together on one song on her current album. They've worked on something else, apparently, too. They are expecting a baby together.

Lindsay Lohan is a free woman. It looks like she spent a vacation in prison. The troubled actress was released from the Lynwood Correctional Facility in California early this morning. She served hard time, about 13 days of a 98-day seasons sentence for violating probation in her 2007 DUI case. Lohan was sent directly to her next destination, which is a treatment center. Her sentence reduced for good behavior. And the sheriff has a long-standing policy of releasing nonviolent offenders early due to severe overcrowding.

Actor Charlie Sheen expected to appear in an Aspen, Colorado courtroom today over his domestic assault charges. They stem from a fight he had with his wife, Brooke Mueller, Christmas Day. Sheen charged with felony menacing and criminal mischief. He could be going to jail.

More than 2.5 million people affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan. And now, more rain is coming. Our reporters just got back from a tour of the hardest-hit areas. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Checking our top stories now. Ethics charges against two long-serving house Democrats could give the GOP ammunition ahead of the midterm elections. A House subcommittee recommending Charlie Rangel be reprimanded for over 13 violations of House rules. Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California says she will face a House ethics trial regarding a meeting she arranged between a bank and treasury officials.

A computer hacker says two MIT students helped WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning. One of the students allegedly told hacker Adrian Lamo they gave encryption software to Manning and taught the Army private how to use it. Pentagon officials say Manning is the prime suspect in last week's leak of thousands of field reports from the Afghan war.

And it's day 105 of that Gulf oil disaster. A move to seal the ruptured well could begin tonight. The so-called static kill involved pouring mud and cement into the well from above.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And there's a couple of thunderstorms percolating over the well site right now, and also percolating out in the Atlantic. The potential of the next tropical depression or tropical storm. I'm Rob Marciano. Week weather details coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: This is a terrible story reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina underway. A massive rescue and relief operation in Pakistan, where more than 1100 people have died in flooding. Tens of thousands of people stuck on their rooftops or higher ground. And the effort to reach them becoming tougher with more rain on the way.

CNN's Reza Sayah, just back from a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas. He joins us by phone. Reza -- Oh, you're actually not by phone. There you are. You just flew over these areas. How bad is it?

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, I'm here. Yes, just like Katrina, Drew, you said it. That's how serious the destruction was, but take Katrina and multiply it by ten, maybe more. That's how vast the destruction was.

This was our first look at the devastation and the flood damage in northwest Pakistan from up above. The Pakistani army taking us on a helicopter tour of the hardest-hit areas. Vast devastation down below. We saw at times entire villages under water.

Keep in mind, these floodwaters were at their highest some time Friday morning. That was three days ago, several days have passed, so you can imagine what they looked like then. The Pakistani government says 1.5 million people have been impacted by these floods. More than 1,000 people killed. Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless.

The military and the government are telling us they're doing all they can to get help to these flood victims as soon as possible. On the tour today, they took us to a relief camp to show us some of the work that they're doing. But what we're hearing over and over again from flood victims that we're speaking to directly is, "We're not seeing the help."

And that seems to be the challenge for not only the Pakistani government, but for private aid organizations. We spoke to one aid organization who told us, we have the food ready, we have relief goods ready, what we can't get a hold of is some choppers. And choppers are necessary in this relief work because many of these areas are remote, mountainous. Ridges have been destroyed. The only way to get there, Drew, is by chopper.

GRIFFIN: The pictures are just amazing, Reza. The areas that you flew over, I guess you were a guest of the military there. Did you fly over areas where people were literally stranded and no help on the way?

SAYAH: No. We didn't fly over those areas. That's probably no surprise. This was a trip with the Pakistani military and the government wanting to send a message to deflect the criticism that they are getting the job done.

But over the past couple of days, we went to some of the areas surrounding Peshawar by ourselves. And in those locations, we didn't see a single relief crew, whether it be from a private aid organization or the government. We saw tens of thousands of people, some heart-breaking scenes, walking in the street, sometimes barefoot, covered in mud, with very few of their belongings, not knowing what tomorrow is going to bring.

Keep in mind, this region has been hard-hit by diversity over the past several years. This is the same region that's been plagued by the Taliban, militancy, several military operations. Now you have these floods, you have monsoon rains forecast for the next several weeks as well. So a very difficult time for these people, Drew. One military official today described this as "unfolding misery."

GRIFFIN: All right. Reza Sayah live from Pakistan this morning. Thanks, Reza.

Turning now to our own weather problems. I guess we'd call it severe weather, Rob. But after those pictures, a little heat, a little storms doesn't seem like too much.

MARCIANO: Yes, exactly. But we do have some flash flood warnings that are being posted right now for parts of southwest Missouri -- Minnesota. And as Drew mentioned and implied, definitely nothing like what they're seeing in Pakistan. And that monsoon season, or monsoon flow will continue out there.

A bit of a monsoon flow of their own right across the Four Corners region. Arizona, parts of New Mexico, southern Utah, southwestern parts of Colorado. Today, you'll see thunderstorms as well. They could be heavy at times, but the hazy, hot and humid conditions are going to persist across much of the South.

Some showers and thunderstorms across parts of Wisconsin, we mentioned, and through parts of Iowa and Minnesota. And also a couple thunderstorms beginning to percolate right around the well site here. So that may slow things down as they prep for that static kill operation later tonight or tomorrow.

As far as what kind of heat we saw yesterday, 105 yesterday in Monroe, Louisiana, 102 in Gulfport. These are record highs, in some cases all-time record highs. Unbelievably warm there.

All right. What else is heating up? The tropics. This is the central Atlantic, pretty far away from the Caribbean at this point, by at least five or even seven days. But this is a tropical wave that could become our next tropical depression or next tropical storm. We'll see if it closes out its circulation. At this point, nothing doing, but maybe by the end of today.

That would be the favorite area of seeing development this time of the year. In the month of August, we see things come off the continent of Africa. We call them Cape Verde storms, Drew. Now that we're into August, that is the time of year for that. In general, the tropics tend to start heating up right around now. Drew?

GRIFFIN: Absolutely. August is the month, Rob. Thanks.

MARCIANO: All right.

GRIFFIN: Well, how bad is the housing market right now? So bad in Florida, you apparently can get a condo cheaper than a Toyota. More on that coming up. Plus, a new era has begun in air travel. An era of paying for your carry-on bag.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: The web of intrigue growing in the league of tens of thousands of secret Afghan war documents. Investigators now reportedly following the trail all the way to a prestigious university. We'll lay out the players for you. Julian Assange is the editor of the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks. That site published the probe of war logs. The prime suspect as the source of the leak is a private first class named Bradley Manning. The army intel analyst is now in solitary confinement in Virginia.

Authorities were tipped off about Manning by a former computer hacker, Adrian Lamo. Now, Lamo is saying that two students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave Private Manning the software and the knowledge he needed to get a hold of the secret war documents. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. Good morning, Barbara. This is really starting to spread out like a mystery that they're unveiling there. All along, a spy novel kind of a thing.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It's really becoming a jigsaw puzzle, Drew. And every day it appears to be expanding. So, right now, we have the army's criminal investigation division leading the investigation. We know the FBI and the justice department have been brought in. Sources telling us this morning now the Department of Homeland Security also is looking into this. They are trying to keep track of what accomplices may be out there, who out there in the civilian world, including people at MIT, may have helped Manning.

Important to say, of course, all these are allegations. It is only Manning that is facing charges from a previous disclosure of classified information. All of this remains to be proven in a court of law, but nonetheless, Lamo, the hacker, is saying that two men at MIT told him they tried to help Manning. They gave him encryption software, at least one of them. Now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is offering perhaps the real bottom line here. The clue about how he thinks this may have all happened, how one person in the U.S. military could have downloaded tens of thousands of classified documents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Had he tried to do this or had whoever did this tried to do it at a rear headquarters overseas or pretty much anywhere here in the U.S. We have controls in place that would have allowed us to detect it. But one of the changes that has happened as we have fought these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been an effort to put as much information and intelligence as far forward to the soldiers as we possibly can, so that at a forward operating base, they know what the security risks are to them, and they also have information to help them accomplish their mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And Gates says that now he's looking to see what can be done. He wants to kind of close this loophole, so it can never happen again, but he doesn't want to close it so much that the soldiers out on the front line who need this intelligence can't get their hands on it and are out their blind, so to speak. So, this is the challenge now for the Pentagon prosecuting this case, but also making sure that soldiers can still get the intelligence information they need to do their jobs -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Barbara, Justice Department and FBI are now involved. The case seems to be expanding if we're listening to, Lamo, the hacker, to the MIT campus. What are the chances the military could go after some of the civilians that are involved here, like the WikiLeaks founder?

STARR: I think Gates has pretty much been saying at this point, if there are going to be civilian prosecutions, that will be in the purview of the justice department and the FBI. And that may well be why they were brought into this case really within a couple of days of it erupting. The military, the army's criminal investigation division, the military can go after any military members, but civilian prosecutions will take place in civilian courts of law. Nonetheless, the two sides obviously are trying to work very closely together on this.

GRIFFIN: All right. Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. Thanks, Barbara.

STARR: Sure.

GRIFFIN: The housing market bust is making owning a home a lot more affordable. Get this. In some distressed markets, you can buy a nice condo for less than the cost of a nice car. That's right. Some cities have dozens of condominium listings selling from $50,000 down to $25,000. That means some are selling for less than a new Toyota Camry, for instance, which can go for about $26,000. The housing bust took the National Median Condo price down 25 percent since 2007. That's according to the National Association of Realtors, by the way.

What's not cheap is the cost of carry-on luggage if you fly on Spirit Airlines. It now costs $30, and that's if you pay in advance by phone or online. The carry-on fee, carry-on, folks, fee went into effect yesterday, and some travelers were not happy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We left for our trip and came back. And now, I guess, today, there are all these new rules and regulations. We've heard a lot of people yelling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: If you wait until you get to the gate, you're going to have to pay $45 to carry on your bag. Interesting, huh?

The United Arab Emirates will ban the web operations of more than a half million Blackberry users. The country is citing security concerns, so it will suspend Blackberry mobile services like e-mail and text messaging beginning on October 11. However, the UAE government officials hope to work out the issues. The Emirates are in a long dispute with smart phone's producer research in motion over the Blackberry's highly encrypted data system.

On the run from a wildfire. Four Russians tried to escape the fire threatening their village by driving literally right through the flames. They made it out, but others have been killed.

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GRIFFIN: Former Vice President Dick Cheney may be leaving the hospital later this week. That's what his daughter, Liz, tells Fox News at least. Cheney is out of intensive care in Washington-Area Hospital. He had a heart booster pump implanted in his chest to help circulate blood last month. Cheney has had a history of heart problem, as you all know, including five heart attacks going all the way back to 1978.

Here's one way to address House ethics charges waged against you. Use your Twitter account. Congressman Charles Rangel audio tweeted for 54 seconds about the accusations telling his supporters that I just won't stop fighting. Rangel says he hopes the ethics committee process moves forward without a rush to judgment and that he's discovered some of the mistakes that he's made. We'll talk about all this with David Brody. He's the White House correspondent for the Christian Broadcast Network. David, any way for Rangel to wrangle out of this mess?

DAVID BRODY, CBN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I love the play on words, Drew. It's going to be tough. I got to tell you, when he's starting to audio tweet, which by the way, what a wonderful invention there, that audio tweeting. I love that. I got to try that. And he says he's -- I mean he's going to fight this, and he's going to continue on. Can you imagine the reaction by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and the folks on the Hill? I mean, they just want this thing to go away.

The last thing they need, Drew, right now in this November midterm elections is for this to be some sort of episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians." I mean, this thing, if it continues to play out and we're seeing CNN breaking news alerts in September over Charlie Rangel, that's a real problem for the Democrats.

GRIFFIN: David, here's what I don't understand because now we also have Maxine Waters as well. This House ethics panel really has not done a whole heck of a lot of work in years. I don't understand why they just didn't wait since they're pretty much democratically controlled until after the election to do all this?

BRODY: Sure. I mean, I think that is a dynamic in play, but you know, the Hill has different ways of working, and the timing also is very unusual. There are a lot of moving parts here, you know. It was interesting because Nancy Pelosi just over the weekend talked about how she's out of the loop on all of this. I mean, that's kind of hard to believe for some, may be even hard to stomach the fact that she's literally out of the loop on this type of stuff.

So, look, I mean, you know, I think there is a timing to everything, and once again, getting back to the moving parts, I mean, it's hard to kind of do this lock-step, and I think, especially we have Charlie Rangel, and now, we understand a Maxine Water who's going to fight what's going on in her situation. It's a mess.

GRIFFIN: Yes. I'm going to raise a little intrigue with you, and maybe you don't want to answer this, but it almost seems like there's something else at play here. These are two stalwart Democrats from the old school Democratic Party, right? They are both in safe districts, so the Democrats are not going to lose those districts and yet they both seem to be getting pushed from the inside out.

BRODY: Well, you know, obviously, it's going to -- we'll go down the speculation road there, but sure, there -- there may be potentially something going on that -- that we all don't know about. What a shock that that might be going on, on Capitol Hill.

But look, what -- what this poses right now is just simply a problem for the Democrats. You know, they already have some issues, to put it mildly, going into November 2010. You add this on top of it. There is a danger here real quick, Drew, for Republicans here.

If they decide to bring up Rangel and Maxine Waters and really make this an issue. And I don't mean just by press release, I'm talking about McConnell or in the House, Boehner and others really going to the microphone on this quite a bit, then do we start to hear about the Mark Foleys, the Jack Abramoffs?

All of the GOP stuff that was back in 2006 and that gives Democrats a chance to say, look, I understand we've got issues with Rangel and Waters, but do you really want to go back to the GOP Abramoff years if you will. So -- so I mean, this is something that the GOP, it could come back to haunt them to a degree.

GRIFFIN: Yes, I think they will keep a lot of Republicans now quiet on this.

Speaking of Republicans, Sarah Palin who is not elected to anything right now and isn't running for anything still continues to get a lot of ink. She is making comments that the Arizona government -- governor -- excuse me has -- this is a quote, right -- has more cojones than President Obama on immigration.

I mean, it sounds outlandish, but she probably strikes a chord with a lot of her Republican-minded friends.

BRODY: Well, Drew, I mean, that's it right there. I mean, the strike, literally strikes a chord because this is why Sarah Palin, is popular with her base here in America -- you know, flyover country.

I mean, look, one of the things about Sarah Palin, love her or hate her, the bottom line is she tells it like it is -- at least in her view, in her world, but that resonates a lot because you know what? She's saying what a lot of people are sitting at home on the couch thinking. And she's actually using the language, cojones --

GRIFFIN: Yes.

BRODY: -- to back it up.

GRIFFIN: David, let me, let me --

BRODY: And so this is part of it.

GRIFFIN: So -- so that -- so that we're not accused of manufacturing these sound bites as we sometimes are, I want to play exactly what she said -- here she is.

BRODY: Right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have to look out for all of Americans, not just Arizonans, but all Americans in this desire of ours to secure our borders and allow legal immigration to help build this country, as was the purpose of immigration laws. If our own president will not enforce the federal law, more power to Jan Brewer. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: There she said it right from her own backyard up there in Alaska, David. And like you were saying, this is exactly what her followers want to hear from her.

BRODY: Well, that's right -- and by the way, nice inflection. I mean, she -- she kind of had it right there. Look, look -- here's a difference -- let's -- let's just be straight about it here, Drew.

Here is the difference between a Sarah Palin and a Mitt Romney, for example, in a GOP.

Look, Sarah Palin is using that word and she is using other sort of words that some may be made up, but there are certain words out there.

What would Mitt Romney do in this case? He'd probably bring it out with a PowerPoint presentation. I mean, there's a different set of ways that both of these GOP candidates will handle themselves.

And I think that's going to be up to in 2012 for the GOP primary voters to figure it all out.

GRIFFIN: David, great talking with you. Thanks for joining us this morning.

BRODY: Thanks, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Well, pictures that look something out of a movie; four Russians, trying to escape a fire threatening their village by driving right through flames. They made it out. Others have been killed.

We'll have the story right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: San Jose, California -- a grim sign of the times, 13 firefighters turn in their gear. Watch their fire station get shut down as the city deals with sobering budget cuts. In all 50 firefighters are losing their jobs, walking away with only the T- shirts that show their former role as life savers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAWTON, LAID-OFF FIREFIGHTER: This is our - yes, what we have left. And I'm still proud to wear it. I will always be proud to wear it.

RANDY SEKANY, UNION PRESIDENT: If there was a fire in that community right across the street today where they would have yesterday enjoyed a response sign of two to three minutes, you will now see seven or eight minutes in my estimation.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFIN: Well, the firefighters union still negotiating a new set of concessions in hopes that the city will rehire some of these guys that were laid off today.

There are also fewer uniforms on the street in East St. Louis, Illinois; a budget crisis forcing the city to gut nearly a third of its police force and one-fourth of the fire department. Some residents wondering if their safety is now being put at risk?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But now, when we make a phone call, if somebody's in another area, we may not get a response for too long of a time for people to really feel safe.

ALVIN PARKS, MAYOR, EAST ST. LOUIS, ILLINOIS: We hope that they will all come to the table at that point and let's discuss some solutions and see if we can bring everybody back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Mayor Parks says the cuts could have been avoided if the unions had agreed to take furlough days. That offer which would have amounted to a pay cut of 15 percent was rejected by the unions.

And remember those city officials in tiny, poor, Bell, California, who resigned after people found out how much money they were making? The story apparently is not over. It turns out people in places like Glendale, Simi Valley and Ventura will get stuck paying for the former Bell officials big, fat pensions, and we mean big, fat pensions.

"The Los Angeles Times" reporting a big chunk of Bell's former city manager's pension will be spread among 140 communities; the pension, $600,000 a year.

Let's take a look ahead at what we're working on in the next hour. We begin with Suzanne Malveaux; she is at the White House -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey Drew, President Obama is headed to Atlanta. He's going to be addressing a group of veterans -- disabled veterans. And he's going to be announcing that the end of the combat mission in Iraq is soon coming to a close. He's going to make what announcement later today. I'll have more of that at the top of the hour.

PATRICIA WU, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Patricia Wu in New York. Could your Facebook posting cost you a home loan? We know it's happened. What red flags are lenders looking for and what are the rules when it comes to using info on social media? We'll break it down in the next hour.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta. If you find yourselves trying to make up for lost sleep on the weekend by taking naps or sleeping late, can you really make up that sleep deficit from a busy workweek? I'll have that at the top of the hour.

GRIFFIN: Too late for me.

Also, next hour, CNN's Dan Simon takes us inside a house divided, a large Hispanic-American family in Arizona. Some members are all for the state's tough new immigration law, and others dead set against it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: These are four Russians, desperately trying to escape a fire that surrounded their village. They successfully did get out of that danger zone but 28 other Russians have been killed in some of the country's worst ever wildfires.

Five hundred towns in Russia under a state of emergency and many of these nearly 700 separate fires have started accidentally. It's been a record hot summer in one of the coldest places on earth, Moscow, hitting 102 degrees last week.

Of course, that's not the only country facing a heat wave. We are, too. Our meteorologist, Rob Marciano keeping a track of all the hot weather we're having -- all across the world.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Northern hemisphere, obviously, it's our summer so yes. Places like Moscow -- places that are cold certainly in the wintertime, Drew, have been remarkably hot and for a long period of time.

It has cooled down maybe by 10 or 12 degrees in Moscow, but the temperatures last week certainly eye popping. A couple of days ago, 102, as Drew mentioned, all-time record high there for Moscow. In other spots up north, in Scandinavia, Joensuu got up to 99 degrees Fahrenheit a day before that.

Farther down to the south and typically places that are hot yes, but now this hot, in Qatar, 123 degrees on July 14th, for an all time record high there -- and then back in through parts of Iraq. Basra seeing 126, as measured in the shade -- unbelievable.

And then Central Chad, which is in Central Africa, 118 degrees.

So there you go, there's a wrap of the Northern Hemisphere.

Let's talk about the northeast. The month of July, these are day time highs. This is a departure from normal. New York was over 6 degrees above average, Baltimore 6.8 degrees above average and almost 6 degrees above average in places like Washington D.C.

As far as yesterday goes, the first day of August, Monroe, Louisiana, 105 degrees, again, measured in the shade without humidity. Gulf port, 102; Mobile Alabama, 101; New Orleans seeing 100 degrees as this (INAUDIBLE) and heat indices are up and over 105, 110, maybe 115 degrees again today. We have about 16 states that are either under a heat advisory or under a heat warning across the mid South and parts of the deep South as well. Dallas expecting to get up to a high temperature of about 106 degrees today -- they're not under a heat advisory. Go figure. A little bit tougher there in the big D, I suppose.

But the heat continues as we get into the first week of August. The West Coast, thankfully, though, has cooled down. Southern California seeing those fires get under control because of that. Back to you.

GRIFFIN: All right. Good news, Rob. Thanks for that.

MARCIANO: You bet.