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Rescue Imminent for Trapped Miners; Health Issues Facing Miners; Emotional Toll on Miners; Countdown to Election Day; Kendrick Meek Not Backing Out; NYC Mayor: No Food Stamps for Sodas; Bullied to Death; North Korea's Future Leader; GOP Pulls Out West Virginia Ad

Aired October 09, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Celebrations in Chile as crews get one step closer to rescuing 33 miners trapped underground. We'll have more on that developing story in just a moment. But first, here are some other headlines.

A college party got out of control in Washington State. When police arrived, they found multiple students and other teens suffering from overdoses. They were all taken to the hospital.

And in Afghanistan, a rescue mission with a tragic ending. A British aid worker was killed by her captors as U.S. troops closed in. Two Taliban commanders also died in that raid.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, where the news unfolds live on this Saturday, October 9th. I'm Randi Kaye, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

A jubilant day in Chile where a rescue tunnel has finally reached 33 trapped miners. Now, the dangerous work of getting the men out of the mine and to the surface begins.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has been in Chile since it was first discovered the trapped men were actually alive. So, Karl, what work needs to be done now and just how dangerous is all this going to be?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE). I mean, this essentially breakthrough today, and you saw those great pictures of the -- the families celebrating. Just looking at those pictures really does say it all, doesn't it?

But now, after this breakthrough, what has to happen is that engineers will be putting a camera down that rescue shaft, which is 28 inches wide, as we know, and they will be checking what they call the integrity of that rescue shot. They'll be checking to see if the drill hole through that granite rock is solid enough or if there may be a risk of rock fall.

Now, if they think that there will be a risk of rock fall, they've got a solution for it. They'll put steel piping all the way down to the tunnel where the miners are, and then once that is in place, then the rescue cage, known as the Phoenix Capsule, will be brought slowly to the surface, with the miners onboard one by one.

But that, if they decide to go for that option, that could take anything up to 10 days before the miners are back here on the surface. But what engineers are hoping and also a mining consultant that I was speaking to this morning, he says he believes that the first 100 yards is the critical area of that rescue shaft, so that they might encase just 100 yards of this rescue shaft and then drop the Phoenix Capsule down into the depths of the earth to be able to bring those miners back.

And, of course, the question on everybody's lips, when -- how soon could that be? Well, the Health Minister Jaime Manalich, just told us that that could begin on Tuesday.

Again, it's a process that will take many hours to bring the 33 back to the surface, but, as I say, could begin as soon as Tuesday, Randi.

KAYE: Such a complicated operation.

Karl Penhaul for us, watching it all unfold there in Chile. Thank you.

These men, as you know, have been trapped deep inside the earth since August 5th. That's more than two months without direct sunlight or even fresh air. You have to wonder, what kind of shape are they in?

Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with CNN's T.J. Holmes earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): You think about the - the obvious things first. With regard to the oxygen, for example, that was down there, they were pumping in, for example, 22 percent oxygen. Not 100 percent oxygen because the air that we're breathing in right now, T.J., is about 22 percent oxygen.

They look at, obviously, the food, the - the water supply. They tried to make sure all those things were available in a way that would allow them to be more easily rescued. And, again, approximately what they were going to see when they get back on the ground, something that wouldn't shock their bodies.

Could they have skin infections from being in that sort of humid condition for some time? That might sound like a minor issue, but it could be major issue, depending on exactly how severe those skin infections are. And then just, you know, things like exposure to sunlight. Obviously, that's something that just - the effect on the eyes, but also the - the amount of vitamin D production in their bodies. The - how brittle their bones might be as a result of not having had that vitamin D.

Again, these are all things that maybe people wouldn't think of intuitively, but become very important in a situation like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: The miners' mental and emotional well-being is also a big concern. Joining us live from New York, Colonel Tom Kolditz. He's the head of the Behavioral Sciences Department at West Point.

And Colonel, you're an expert on - on the psychological impacts of life and death situations. You actually say that parallels can be drawn between the experiences of the Chilean miners and - and soldiers coming back from active duty.

COL. TOM KOLDITZ, U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT: That's absolutely true. Our soldier who come back from active duty have a - a time being when they have to reintegrate with their families and the process of reintegration that we would anticipate that these miners will undergo will have many parallels between that and soldiers.

KAYE: So - I mean, I know - I've talked to some soldiers that have come back from - for Iraq and Afghanistan, and - and, all of a sudden, they're tasked with taking out the garbage and things like that. I mean, after what these guys have been through, everything else, I would imagine, is going to seem pretty trivial to them.

KOLDITZ: Well, it could. And the process of their reintegration and moving forward into the - into the bright futures that they have will take some time. But, over time, they'll make that adjustment, and I have a - a great deal of optimism for these 33 people coming out of the mine.

KAYE: And it's not just about these - these miners, it's also about their families. What can their families do today, or - or in the next few days to start preparing for their homecoming?

KOLDITZ: Well, there are several things.

First of all, their families are our best source of information about how the miners went into the mine. And often, in traumatic and difficult experiences, how you go in will help determine how you come out.

And so, I would think the families would be a tremendous source of information for psychologists and others about who among the miners might - might be challenged more by this? Who may have gone in already feeling stress, already dealing with some kind of tragedy or difficulty?

Then, when the miners do come out, the families are going to be their source of support as they accomplish the process of reintegration, and that process includes both some emotional downtime, where they can process what they've done and come to understand it, and it also includes just putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward with their lives. And it'll be that back and forth in that process that will allow them to adjust and - and get back to the lives that they want to have.

KAYE: We talked so much about the trauma and the negative impact, but I would imagine there has to be some positive impact here. I mean, if the - if they all do survive this and come out of this, they're going to be a lot more resilient as a result. KOLDITZ: Absolutely. Never underestimate the resilience of the human spirit, and, in this case, a very interesting circumstance where for a number of days their futures were very uncertain. And then, after that, some - some hope, and, at the same time, their isolation has been muted by the fact that they are with 30 - 33 individuals together.

So, for the group, they've been very isolated. But, as individuals, they've actually had a tremendous amount of social support in that mine over time, and I think that's going to build their resilience and make it much more likely that they'll have a successful reintegration.

KAYE: And they also established a leader in the group early on. I mean, how important is that and what does that tell you about how they've been dealing with this down below?

KOLDITZ: Well, it's tremendously important. Leaders are dealers in hope, and they give groups like that purpose and direction, which helps them feel like there's some degree of control.

One of the biggest challenges they'll have emotionally is that they haven't had much control over their lives for the past 65 days. But leaders can give them projects. Leaders can focus their activities in constructive ways, and introduce feelings of hope into that group long before they're able to resurface.

So the leaders played a critical role there.

KAYE: All right. Colonel, I think you've given all of us a lot of hope that these guys are going to be OK. Thank you so much for your insight today.

Focusing on key battles in the midterm elections. Coming up, we'll take you to Pennsylvania, where the balance of power is in play.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Well, are you counting? There are now just 24 days until the midterm elections.

Pennsylvania is one of the big battleground states that could determine the balance of power in the next Congress. That's made it a must stop for President Obama.

CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is aboard the CNN Election Express in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania today. Paul, tell us what is on the president's schedule?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You're absolutely right. He's coming here to Pennsylvania tomorrow.

We're in Harrisburg, in the central part of the state. Tomorrow, the president and the vice president will be at a rally in Philadelphia, in the eastern part of the state. That is a Democratic stronghold, and the whole idea here is for the president and the vice president to try to excite and energize Democratic voters, the base voters, to get out and the go to the polls come November 2nd.

You know, this is such an important state for the Democrats and for the Republicans, because the Senate race here, Joe Sestak, the Democrats' Senate nominee, Democrats trying to hold onto the Senate seat. Republicans feel like they can win it back. Pat Toomey, another former congressman, is their nominee.

Democrats also worried about a bunch of House seats. The Republicans think that maybe four to six House seats that are currently controlled by the Democrats could go the Republican way in the midterms. Randi, if that kind of stuff happens here in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the Republicans have a pretty good shot at taking back the House and possibly the Senate.

KAYE: And let's talk about the - the enthusiasm gap, as it's called, between the Democrats and the Republicans. Lots of enthusiasm out there, but how does it break down? How big is this gap?

STEINHAUSER: Well, a great point, and that's exactly why the president is coming here tomorrow to a Democratic area, because the Democrats right now trail when it comes to enthusiasm, according to a lot of recent polls.

Take a look at ours. We put this out yesterday. This is from the CNN - the Opinion Research Corporation, a national survey. We asked Democratic voters and Republican voters, are you extremely or very enthusiastic about voting?

Well, look at that. By a 20 point advantage, Republicans are a heck of a lot more excited to vote. Democrats are going to try to close that gap between now and Election Day. If they don't, there could be a lot of trouble for the Democrats in the midterm elections, Randi.

KAYE: A lot of enthusiasm out there for sure.

Thank you, Paul. The three-way Senate race in Florida is getting more interesting after a report one of the candidates was dropping out. That would be Democrat Kendrick Meek. That's him on the right, right there.

To be fair, the most recent CNN/Time/Opinion Research poll has Meek running third, behind Republican front-runner Marco Rubio and Independent governor Charlie Crist. But Meek says he's not going anywhere, and he's definitely not endorsing Crist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUESTION: Sounds like you wanted to go full throttle ahead. "Wall Street Journal's" reporting you're going to drop out of this race.

KENDRICK MEEK (D), FLORIDA STATE CANDIDATE: You know something? It's interesting, the "Wall Street Journal", the last I checked, wasn't necessarily a - a publication that was on the side of - of Democrats or Independents or even identified with Florida. You know?

I don't know who they think I am. They probably think I'm Charlie Crist.

QUESTION: So you're not dropping out and backing Charlie Crist?

MEEK: Absolutely not. Why would I do that? After being validated by 150,000 voters placing my name on the ballot, being validated in a Democratic primary against a billionaire, and we won overwhelmingly. There are people that are very excited about my candidacy. And why would I do it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: You can see all three candidates debate live right here on CNN later this month. CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley moderates the Florida Senate debate. That is October 24th at 9:00 A.M. Eastern. Don't miss it.

There's a major gathering of Republican heavyweights in California today. It's called the Bakersfield Business Conference. Possible 2012 presidential candidates like Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are there. So are other party stalwarts like Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Dick Cheney.

A new battle in New York's war on obesity. The latest target for elimination - soda pop. Here comes the firestorm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Top stories now.

Cheers and hugging in Chile just a few hours ago. A rescue shaft has reached 33 miners trapped half a mile down since early August. A specially designed capsule will bring them to the surface perhaps as early as Tuesday. Until then, the rescue shaft must be widened and reinforced to accommodate the capsule.

A wild party went overboard in Central Washington. Police say they found multiple overdose victims at a party attended by Central Washington University students and other teenagers.

More than a dozen needed medical treatment. One is in critical but stable condition. Police say they also interrupted a possible sexual assault.

In Afghanistan a British aid worker held hostage was killed by her captors during a rescue attempt. Thirty-six-year-old Linda Norgrove was abducted just two weeks ago. Officials say she was killed by her captors yesterday as U.S. troops were closing in.

One programming note, CNN's Larry King will have an exclusive interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. That's Monday at 9:00 P.M. Eastern.

Some call it soda, others call it pop. Many dietitians think it's more like obesity in a can.

That a look at the top three sources of calories for Americans. This is from the journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Coming in at number one, there it is, baked goods -- cookies, cakes, pies. No shock there, of course. The runner-up, well, pizza - gooey cheese, buttery crust, pepperoni and sausage, if you're a meat lover. Again, not a big shock. Number three, here you go, soda. Imagine washing down a big pizza with free soda refills. That is some serious calories.

All those calories, zero nutritional value. That's why New York's mayor is cracking down. Michael Bloomberg doesn't want people using food stamps for soda. But some folks wonder, why is soda being singled out? Why not those baked goods or that pizza?

Both sides now from CNN's Mary Snow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If New York gets its way, buying soda or sugar sweetened drinks with more than 10 calories will be banned if you use food stamps. New York's mayor and state governor say they're trying to reduce obesity, and they're making their case to the federal government, which administers the food stamp program and currently only bans alcohol and cigarette sales.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), NEW YORK: For the government to make the decision that that should not include something else that the experts all tell you is very detrimental to your health, that is contributing to the number one public health issue remaining in this city and in this country that's getting worse. It's not unreasonable, and it's not picking on anybody.

SNOW: The city's Health Department reports that 58 percent of adults in New York City are either overweight or obese. Among public school children, that rate is close to 40 percent.

KRISTIE LANCASTER, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Soda is a huge problem.

SNOW: Kristie Lancaster is a nutritionist who's been working to reduce high obesity rates in Harlem. One big problem, she says, healthier food tends to be more expensive, leaving people with few options here, and soda doesn't help.

LANCASTER: Soda, of course, has more calories, and the more calories you drink, you don't compensate for them the same way as you do when you eat more calories.

SNOW: But not all public health doctors are applauding the city's move to ban soda for people on food stamps.

DR. CAROL HOROWITZ, MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL: Even if we could do it and it would work, is this the right thing to do?

SNOW (on camera): Is it?

HOROWITZ: I'm not so sure about that.

SNOW (voice-over): Dr. Carol Horowitz has also been working in Harlem to reduce diabetes, which is associated with obesity.

HOROWITZ: Food stamps still pays for a bucket of junk food and a bucket of unhealthy, high calorie food. They pay for things that are so full of processed chemicals that you really couldn't even call them food.

So, out of this whole bucket of things that food stamps covers, why are we picking out one thing? Why are we picking out soda?

SNOW (on camera): The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food stamp program, says it will review and consider New York's proposal. The city wants a two-year ban, and, in that time, it says, health officials can study the impact.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Now that the drill has made its way down to the trapped miners in Chile, what's next?

Jacqui Jeras is going to join us for a look at the challenges the rescue team faces before any of the miners are brought back to the surface.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Excitement and relief at the San Jose Mine in Chile today when the rescue drill broke through to the mine. It's expected to take several more days before the first of the 33 trapped miners is brought to the surface. That means we could begin to see rescues on Tuesday.

One member of the rescue team says the miners have been busy doing their part to help underground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAUL LYON, VICE PRESIDENT, GEO-TECH: They've been very helpful. One of the decisions that was made earlier on was that we would not get the cuttings to surface, so that we would drill and drop the cuttings to the bottom. So they've been very helpful in cleaning out the - the bottom with machinery, and also providing us with information on the cutting sizes, what was being cut, if anything fell down there. We've run some water through the hole just to prevent from any dusts to invade them, and that worked very well.

And there's been communication every day. They're - I think they're happy. They are in good shape. They are helpful, obviously, and, well, I can't wait to see the first one to come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Today's joyful exuberance has been a long time coming. The miners have been trapped underground for 65 days.

On August 5th, the main ramp of the San Jose Mine collapsed, trapping 33 miners half a mile underground. No one knew if they were even alive or dead.

Later that month, on August 22nd, rescuers lower probe 2,300 feet down. The miners tied a note to it, telling everybody the good news that they were alive. Their families, of course, were overjoyed.

Then on September 17th, the Plan B bore hole reaches the miners. It's one of three shafts the Chilean government is drilling, but it was only 12 inches wide and needed to be widened to accommodate the rescue capsule.

Then, earlier this month, October 1st, officials revised their own rescue timeline. Instead of November, they announced that the miners could be reached earlier, possibly by mid-October. And that estimate appears to be right on the money. The first of the miners could be brought out next week.

Now I want to bring in CNN's Jacqui Jeras, who has been watching this rescue effort. A lot of the celebrating happening today -

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KAYE: -- but still so much work to be done --

JERAS: Right.

KAYE: -- before we actually see these guys above ground.

JERAS: Right. And you want to be cautious about it and - and put it in to perspective, because this is not a sure thing. You know, there are still a lot of risks and there's still a lot of challenges to look forward to.

So the good news is, right, that we were able to drill on through here, get down that 2,000-plus feet. We'll put the animation. The Plan B is the one that worked on through and drilled all the way down and made it into the mine. Imagine than, you know? Such a small space, to be able to bore through all of this rock.

Now, keep in mind that this is not like drilling through something that is smooth. This is really tough rock, and it's so tough, in fact, it took them five drill bits to get through there. Yes, it broke four of them, to give you an idea of just how solid and - and hard this rock and this material is.

And so, when you bore through this, you don't get a nice, smooth line. This is not like a water slide, going all the way down to the bottom. This has bumps and rocks, and it doesn't go straight down, either. It goes at (ph) curves and bumps.

So they want to put in this capsule here. If we could stop that animation, you can see this little capsule they're expected to put in here.

Now, the miners are going to be receiving some explosives. They're going to be using some explosives to try and make this a little bit bigger, to give them a little bit more room. And then they're going to inspect this hole and they're going to try and determine just how much of this lining that they're going to need to put it through there.

It's like a - it's like a little capsule, like a sheet kind of a thing that's going to protect it so when the capsule comes in, it will be a little bit smoother on the way down, because every time, you know, you're going to feel those bumps, and it's going to put pressure on this.

All right. This is a look what the capsule looks like. This thing is only 21 inches around. They're calling it the Phoenix, and they're going to put oxygen supplies and communication equipment along with that, just to give you an idea. And it's going to take them - probably, they're expecting maybe an hour each.

So it will probably take anywhere between 24 and 36 hours to get all of these guys out. And that is after they get that seal in there.

Now, I want to walk and just kind of put it in perspective for you, Randi, and give people kind of an idea of how small this is. Now, a lot of those miners have lost some weights since being down there.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: They haven't been eating very much.

JERAS: About 20 pounds. And that's a good thing. Because take a look at this, this is it. Can you see it? This is all the bigger this is. And I'm not a small girl.

KAYE: That's about 24 inches or so.

JERAS: So, this is going to be really tight quarters, and it's a long ride up there. It's going to be probably the longest hour of their life trying to go up there in all of those conditions.

KAYE: Yes. So, it's actually a good thing then. I mean, at least they're getting nutrition, but if they were really eating well, then they might not be able to fit in that capsule and up that shaft.

JERAS: Right. They say that about nine of the miners would not have fit in this capsule when all of this started, 65 days ago.

KAYE: Wow. That really helps put it in perspective.

JERAS: It does.

KAYE: Yes.

JERAS: Yes. They've been claustrophobic though down in that place, you know, as it is, and very dark and so, they're going to be in tight quarters again on that ride on up.

KAYE: Well, we're looking forward to, what, maybe Tuesday, I guess, when they might start getting them up?

JERAS: Yes, that would be best case scenario depending how much of that casing they have to put in there. They think the first 100 yards is going to be the most critical. If they can get that encased, then they're going to decide if they need to do it all the way up to the top or not.

KAYE: All right. Jacqui, great explainer. Thank you very much.

JERAS: OK. Sure.

KAYE: A revealing photo, harassment from classmates and a suicide. Just ahead -- a tragic story of a middle school student named Hope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: CNN has been taking an in-depth look in bullying. I want to tell you about a case I investigated as part of our special series of reports "Bullying: No Escape." The story starts with a photograph and ends with a death of a 13-year-old girl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): Hope Witsell was a good student. About a year ago, Hope did something so unexpected, so out of character, it changed everything.

(on camera): Friends and family say it started in the spring of 2009, at the end of the school year, when Hope sexted a picture of her breast to her boyfriend. Another girl at school, they say, got their hands on that photo and sent it to students at six different schools in the area. Before Hope could do anything about it, that photo had gone viral.

DONNA WITSELL, HOPE'S MOTHER: Just loved everybody.

KAYE (voice-over): Hope's mother Donna says she warned her many times about the dark side of cell phones and computers.

(on camera): So, after all of those conversations, you never imagined that she would sext a photo of herself to someone?

WITSELL: No, no. No. Absolutely not.

KAYE (voice-over): The photo made Hope a target. She was in middle school, 11, 12 and 13-year-olds, and suddenly, bullies everywhere.

KAYLA STITCH, HOPE'S FRIENDS: They would walk up to her and call her the slut and whore and, like, they would -- sometimes they would, like, call her skank and like just be really, like, cruel to her.

KAYE: Hope hid her pain from her family and school officials. They knew about the photo but she never told them about the ridicule and she couldn't escape it. Online, friends say bullies wrote horrible things about Hope. On a MySpace page called "The Shield's Middle School Burn Book," anonymous bullies create add Hope hater page to taunt her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time I see it, I think back to Hope and what people were saying about her. KAYE: And it got worse. In school, friends formed a human shield for her.

ABBY HUDSON, HOPE'S FRIENDS: Those people would try to come by and like hit her or push her into a locker.

KAYE (on camera): So, you walked as a -- like a crowd?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KAYE: Protecting her.

LEXI LEBER, HOPE'S FRIENDS: She was, like, afraid to walk alone because she was afraid somebody was going to do something to her, or, like, verbally attack her, so we always -- he'd always have somebody come with her.

KAYE (voice-over): Her parents did not know what was going on.

(on camera): Did you see change in her behavior? Could you tell something wasn't quite right?

WITSELL: I could tell that she was struggling to overcome this mistake that she made.

KAYE (voice-over): On a Saturday, as school was starting last year, Hope helped her dad mow the lawn, ate dinner with her parents and then went upstairs to her room. Her parents turned on a TV show.

WITSELL: When we had finished watching the program, and I went upstairs to go in her room and kiss her good night, like I always do, that's when I found her.

KAYE (on camera): What happened when you walked in her bedroom?

WITSELL: I -- I screamed for my husband as I was putting her on the bed, and doing CPR.

KAYE (voice-over): It was to late. Hope was already dead. The 13- year-old hanged herself from her canopy bed. She used her favorite scarves.

(on camera): The day before she died, Hope met with a social worker at school. A spokesperson for the school said the social worker was concerned that Hope may have been trying to harm herself. So, she had her sign what's called a no-harm contract in which Hope promised to speak to an adult if she was considering hurting herself.

Her mother told me she was never told about that contract. She found it crumpled in the garbage in Hope's bedroom after she had died.

(voice-over): The school told us that the social worker had tried calling Hope's parents. But the parents say, the school dropped the ball. And still, incredibly, the bullying was not over. After Hope's suicide, her sister Samantha found more cruel comments posted on Hope's MySpace page. SAMANTHA BEATTIE, HOPE'S SISTER: There was people putting comments on there like, oh, my God, did Hope really kill herself? I can't believe that whore did that, you know? Just obscene things that I would never expect from a 12-year-old or 13-year-old.

KAYE: Obscene things written by children, so terrible, Hope Witsell thought there was only one way to escape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: This is National Bullying Prevention Month. You can see more of our reports at CNN.com, and tonight an "A.C. 360" special town hall discussion about how to protect your children and stop bullying. That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

(MUSIC)

KAYE: Checking top stories now:

There's jubilation in Chile where a rescue drill has broken through the roof of a mine where 33 men have been trapped for 65 days. Pulling the men to safety is still several days away. First, officials must determine if the rescue shaft needs to be reinforced for the monumental job ahead.

New toxic sludge fears in Hungary. Authorities have ordered more evacuations after finding new cracks in the aluminum plant reservoir that ruptured earlier in the week. Thousands of tons of toxic sludge inundated three villages on Monday. Seven people were killed. More than 100 others injured. The sludge has reached the Danube River, raising fears of wider contamination downstream.

A New Mexico teenager who admitted to killing his family when he was 14 got out of prison today. Cody Posy was sentenced as a juvenile offender back in 2004. He turned 21 today, winning his release. Posy admits to shooting and killing his dad, stepmother and stepsister and burying their bodies in a pile of manure. He claims he was abused. It happened on a ranch owned by newsman Sam Donaldson.

A massive military parade and rally will be held in North Korea's capital tomorrow. The occasion? The world's first and only communist dynasty is celebrating the accession of its new heir apparent. Kim Jong-un is expected to succeed his ailing father.

Until last week, practically nobody had heard of him. So, who is he?

Gordon Chang is an expert on North Korea. He's in our New York bureau.

Gordon, good to see you.

How much do we know about Kim --

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN: NORTH KOREA TAKES ON THE WORLD": Good to see you. KAYE: How much do we know really about Kim Jong-un? Nobody's even really, from what I understand, been able to determine how old he is, what his education has been?

CHANG: We think that he's 27, but he could be 28. We know that he's the youngest of Kim Jong-il's three acknowledged sons. He went to school in Switzerland, as you pointed out, but he was there as the son of the driver of the North Korean embassy, not as the son of the leader of North Korea. He idolizes Michael Jordan, just like his dad.

But the one thing we truly do know is that he is as ruthless and as calculating as his father. He's the one son who's got the dictator gene.

KAYE: So -- that's interesting. So, do you think that he would rule the same, or will rule the same way as his father?

CHANG: I think he probably would, because first of all, it's the North Korean system that's important. Not so much the person who is on the throne. Kim Jong-un has been exposed to the west. He likes things that are western, but so did his dad, and his dad is one of the most ruthless and most horrible tyrants at this time.

I think the problem is that the North Korean regime has its own logic. He's going to be in that regime. And in the beginning, he's not going to be very powerful, because he's just only 27, and there are a lot of older people.

You got to remember that the North Korean regime is a snake pit, and this kid is a hamster. He's not going to have that much affect on the way the regime goes.

KAYE: Some have referred to him, though, what I've read, as a, quote, "nobody." I mean, has he even accomplished anything?

CHANG: Oh, he's not accomplished anything. I mean, two weeks ago he was a civilian. Now he's a four-star general because they gave it to him? He's a top party leader?

Really, this is just a kid out of school. And the problem for him is that in the North Korean regime, there are a lot of people who want to sit on the throne. And he has not had time to consolidate his position. Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea, took two decades to prepare for the succession of Kim Jong-il, the current leader.

Kim Jong-il had only two years to prepare for the succession of Kim Jong-un. And that was only because he had a stroke in August 2008.

So, this is one of a haphazard planning for a transfer of power. It's probably not going to work.

KAYE: You describe him as ruthless, but I'm curious, what is the general feeling among North Koreans about this power transfer? Because some reports say that they're unhappy, but then I've also read that some say they have neither fear nor respect for him. CHANG: Well, Kim Jong-il is not revered in North Korea. And he'll be able to at least pass power to his son. At least for a little bit of time.

But we also know that the North Korean people, although they don't really have the means to resist the regime, are extremely unhappy with the way things are going. And we saw this, because of the protests, demonstrations and riots that occurred in December of last year when the regime tried to demonetize the currency and they botched it. So, there's a lot of latent discontent.

It may not show itself at any one particular moment, but I don't think that the regime is really that stable. It's extremely fragile. And we've got to remember one-man regimes like North Korea are always most vulnerable at a time transfer of power such as this one.

KAYE: So, what does all of this mean, this change in leadership? What does it mean for the U.S.?

CHANG: Well, you know, you think of North Korea as this destitute state, but it also has nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. It can destabilize North Asia. It can harm American allies, Japan and South Korea. And it could also draw that whole region into turmoil, such as it did in March when it sank a South Korean frigate with the loss of 46 lives.

North Korean regime is extremely dangerous. And now, at a time when you have uncertainty in Pyongyang, the capital, is even more so. So, this involves the United States, because we are very much a part of North Asia.

KAYE: And why Kim Jong-un? What was wrong with the other two sons? I mean, he's the third son. Why did he pick this son?

CHANG: That's a great question.

Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son, was caught going into Japan under a fake Dominican passport. And that sort of delegitimized him, not only in the eyes of his father, but also the generals who are very important in North Korea.

And the second son, Kim Jong-chul, who once was a favorite for at least six months, is said to be quite a feminine and really not fit to be the head of a terrible regime like North Korea.

Kim Jong-un is there, I guess, almost by process of elimination, but he does share those traits of his father, even though he is the youngest. And so, you know, I guess in a sense the generals who are very powerful in Pyongyang would feel more comfortable with the youngest son than with the other two.

KAYE: All right. Gordon Chang, I think we finally got some answers from you on just who Kim Jong-un is. Thank you so much.

CHANG: Thank you.

KAYE: Twenty-four days until midterm elections and Washington is casting a long shadow on a lot of local races.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe's not bad as governor, but when he's with Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He turns into Washington Joe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then Washington Joe does whatever Obama wants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we better keep Joe Manchin right here in West Virginia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Strong words, but that's not why the ad was pulled. We'll tell you why some Republicans are red faced today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: It's now just 24 days until the midterm elections. We're keeping an eye on all the latest headlines at CNNPolitics.com. Here's what's crossing the ticker right now.

Scott Brown is trying to help out another northeast Republican. The Massachusetts senator is in Connecticut today to support Republican Senate hopeful Linda McMahon. In the latest CNN/"Time"/Opinion Research Corporation poll, McMahon was trailing Democrat Richard Blumenthal by 13 points.

California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown is getting a key endorsement. The state's National Organization for Women announce they'll back the attorney general in his race against former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

Former President Bill Clinton is heading out on the campaign trail next week. He'll be in West Virginia to support Democratic Governor Joe Manchin. Manchin is in a tight battle to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Robert Byrd.

Time is short and the tone is ugly. But as we all know, bare knuckle tactics can backfire. Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A GOP ad aimed at many West Virginia voters' concerns about Democratic Senate candidate Joe Manchin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe's not bad as governor, but when he's with Obama --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he turns into Washington Joe. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Washington Joe does whatever Obama wants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Well, we better keep John Manchin right here in West Virginia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But get this: those men are not in West Virginia. They're actors 250 miles away in Philadelphia. Republicans paid a talent agency to hire them for the ad and the casting call obtained by CNN asks for a, quote, "hicky blue collar look. These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks."

(on camera): Not only that, it asked the actors to bring specific wardrobe items, including a trucker hat, not brand new, it says, preferably beat up. You see that there. Flannel shirt -- check. And dickie's type jacket with a t-shirt underneath. Well, here's the t- shirt.

(voice-over): A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee says they did not know about the cast and call (ph) language and pulled the ad.

The irony is: Republicans didn't have to use actors in Philadelphia to capture concerns about Manchin. We went to this real West Virginia diner this week and heard the sentiment unscripted.

NATHAN ROSE, FIRST CALL DINER CHARLESTON: I can see generally pretty happy here in the state. We had some people voting for senator. I'd be more voting for someone who's just going to straight up proposal on his agenda.

BASH: No trucker hat, no flannel. In fact, the real foul play with this ad seems to be stereotyping West Virginians.

TODD WEBSTER, DEMOCRATIC MEDIA CONSULTANT: Somehow they were hicks and rednecks.

BASH: Even Democratic ad makers admit both parties use actors.

WEBSTER: If you have to go to paid actors as a second or a third resort, then, you know, because of tight timelines, you may have to go -- you may have to go there.

BASH: Take this Democratic Senate ad now running against Missouri Republican Roy Blunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roy is the life of the party in D.C. His wife, great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That woman is an actress.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And that was Dana Bash reporting. And, of course, for all the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com.

Eight years ago, the nation held its breath, waiting as nine trapped miners were rescued from the Quecreek Mine in Pennsylvania. We'll hear what advice one of the survivors has for the trapped miners in Chile.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: With excitement building over the impending rescue of the trapped miners in Chile, a survivor of another mining disaster is speaking out. Tom Foy is one of the nine miners from the collapsed Quecreek Mine in Pennsylvania. That was more than eight years ago.

Listen to the advice and the encouragement he has for the miners in Chile.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wednesday night in 2002, when the accident happened, an engineer showed up on the farm very late at night with flashlights and I came up to see what was going on and he said there's been an accident in the mine and nine guys are missing, and we think they're trapped under your farm.

TOM FOY, RESCUED MINER: We were there with him the day we heard the drilling. I mean, that was our ticket right there we knew he was going to make it. But then the water kept coming up and we didn't know if he was going to make it or not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can remember it was very uneasy the whole time through the rescue. We had so many factors in this rescue that were not in our favor. We were fighting water. We were fighting air conditions. We were fighting extreme cold. We were fighting the fact we had no communications with the men.

So we had a lot of things not working in our favor that they do have working in their favor in Chile.

FOY: These guys over there got a little different situation. They've got a big room. And they've got -- it's not cold. It's 85 degrees there. Ours was 55 degrees and we were soaking wet. I mean, it was -- it was hell.

We didn't have too good a spirits out, we just wanted to try to keep warm. (INAUDIBLE) was a happy feeling. I was about 50 feet away from it when it broke. Best day of my life.

Just like being risen again. I mean, we came out, took us maybe 10, 15 minutes to get out, each one of us. I mean, you just came out and the lights were everywhere. They got us out and put us on a stretcher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fortunately, with the Chile mine rescue, there was enough time because of the long distance that they had to drill down, there was enough time that they could build a specialized capsule for that very unique kind of rescue. They built a capsule that they're calling the Phoenix, and hopefully, that will be used to bring 33 men back.

Certainly, the Quecreek rescue was one of the greatest rescues in recent history. And we would love for Chile to kind of take that banner from us and say that they've done one better.

FOY: Not sure how it's going to be for some of the guys coming out. Some guys are going to be all right, some guys are not. I mean, they just got to hang in their and do their best. I mean, don't quit, just keep on trucking is all you can do. No giving up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)