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Power Companies Face Growing Anger; Firefighting C-130s Grounded; More Blistering Temps; American Mauled By Chimps in S. Africa; GlaxoSmithKline Hit with $3 Billion Fine; Restoring Power in Virginia; Romney Reaches Out to Evangelicals
Aired July 03, 2012 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes you want to sit down and cry.
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It sure does. We're in day four of the summer swelter this hour asking top power officials from Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., when's the power coming back on?
Take a look at that. Buckling in the heat. The extreme heat causing this road to buckle creating a ramp in the middle of the street and sending an SUV flying through the air.
A drug war ramp-up. A new report saying President Obama will pivot to finding America's addiction to drugs in his second term. Marijuana, cocaine, and cartels all in laser focus, so what's Obama's battle plan?
And was it a scientology boot camp for Suri? Overnight reports that Katie Holmes didn't want her 6-year-old daughter in an intense religious training program. So was scientology to blame for her split with Tom Cruise?
NEWSROOM begins right now.
And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with us today. We begin this hour with the western wildfires, growing in size and claiming more lives. So far, 1.9 million acres have burned. That's equivalent to an incredible 3,000 square miles.
To give you an idea of just how huge that is, it's roughly the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.
And then there's the human toll. Two crew members are confirmed dead in the weekend crash of an air tanker in South Dakota. CNN affiliates say two other firefighters aboard that C-130 were also killed. One victim identified by family members spoke to affiliate WBTV just before the doomed flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LT. COLONEL PAUL MIKEAL, U.S. AIR FORCE PILOT: It's very exciting. I mean, it's -- you know, adrenalin is flowing. We're ready to go. Like I said, hopefully when we get there, we'll be ready to go right when we get there. And if they need us to start dropping today, we can start dropping on the fire and start helping out. We've been watching the news and seeing all the -- everything that's going on out there, and so we've just been waiting for the call. As soon as we got it, we're ready to go.
We're all experienced so we've been through it before. And -- but the biggest thing is we're thinking, you know, if we can do our job and do it right, then we'll be able to stop it, and you know, hopefully wherever we put the retardant down that's where the flames will stop and they won't go any farther. And if it works out right, then a forest -- it will burn itself out.
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MORGAN: That was Paul Mikeal, sadly dead this morning fighting those fires. He was aboard that C-130 that crashed. That crash does underscore concerns about the ageing fleet of those C-130s equipped to fight fires. Today the Air Force has grounded all of them.
Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence joins us now to tell us more.
Good morning, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, this is taking a major weapon out of the inventory, so to speak, when it comes to fighting these wildfires. These C-130s were patrolling over four states. Wildfires raging over four states. They can drop about, you know, 3,000 gallons of water in about five seconds, you know, or I should say the fire retardant.
So this is an amazing capability that some of the forest officials have to call on when they are attacking these big wildfires over large areas. Now one has crashed. Seven more have been grounded. Now you have to put that in some perspective. That only leaves about 14 federally contracted planes out there, because the number has dwindled so much in the last 10 years or so.
There was a privately owned C-130 that crashed about 10 years ago. That led to really an overhaul, a review, of how old some of these systems were, how safe they were. And the inventory dwindled from about 44, you know, down to what we see now. So now that these eight are out of commission, and are under investigation, you've only got 14 federally contracted planes, and you've got wildfires raging over a good part of the western U.S.
COSTELLO: You sure do. Chris Lawrence reporting live for us.
And keep in mind we don't know what caused that C-130 to crash, but there is a news conference scheduled in about an hour and a half from now. And of course we'll monitor that and we'll get you any information coming out of that about why that plane crashed. Of the six states battling wildfires, some of the most harrowing stories are emerging from the ashes in Colorado. The Waldo Canyon Fire is now considered the most destructive in state history. Nearly 350 homes are destroyed. And countless lives derailed.
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SHEILA CASTILLO, COLORADO SPRINGS RESIDENT: It looks like a bomb dropped on our neighborhood.
CHRIS CASTILLO, COLORADO SPRINGS RESIDENT: You get the sense of the power of that fire, of just how fast it came down, and how devastating it was.
S. CASTILLO: Each lot has an individual pile or hole filled with nothing. But ash and debris, metal. It was like Armageddon. It was the most horrible thing we'd ever seen in our life.
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COSTELLO: Martin Savidge is live in Colorado Springs this morning.
Good morning, Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we wanted to bring you some good news, a couple of things actually. This fire is 70 percent contained. Of course, contain is a long way from beating this out. We're outside of the ICP. That stands for Intimate command post. It's the headquarters from where this fire has been fought ever since it's begun.
But let me show you something that is nice. And that's what's happening here. It is a crowd of people that have gathered. This is a daily ritual now in Colorado Springs, and it is the people of Colorado Springs that are showing up and as every fire crew either returns from the line or heads out, in this case in the morning, they wave, they cheer, they salute. But most of all, they say thank you very much.
You can just see there's some crews that are starting to head out. This is shift change actually. You have the night crews that were coming in. Yes, they were out there fighting the fire all night long. And then there is the dayside crew that is starting to head out. Fifteen hundred firefighters at the peak were out on the line.
Let me introduce you to somebody. This is Lora Lantz.
And you are the woman who got this going, right?
LORA LANTZ, ORGANIZER: Yes, yes. I just gathered some friends. Used Facebook. And I work at Core Power Yoga. And we have a lot of people that are really grateful, but they're -- you know, that their homes are safe. And we want to say thank you.
SAVIDGE: This sort of started as a family thing, right? LANTZ: Yes. My brother-in-law is a firefighter for the forest service. And he was in fort Collins fighting the Hyde Park Fire. And I asked, you know, what matters? What can we do? And he said people cheering, you know, just being there to say thank you.
SAVIDGE: Is it -- is it hard to get people to come out?
LUNTZ: No. Well, some people don't want to get up this early. And then I remind them of who we're cheering for. And it's -- guilt works nicely.
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SAVIDGE: It does. Lora, thank you very much.
We should point out, Carol, that they are here not only when the crews depart, but there's another group that gathers here when the crews come in. And it's either very early or very late that they work. But it is the community saying thank you. They do feel that these firefighters have literally saved their town. And they just come out to say thanks -- Carol.
COSTELLO:
COSTELLO: That is so awesome. Martin Savidge, thank you. Kudos to them. That's awesome.
For millions of other Americans, this will be another miserable day of blistering temperatures. Heat warnings in place across nearly a dozen states from South Dakota to Kentucky. Over the past week or so, the record books have been rewritten across the country.
To give you an idea of just how historic this heat wave is, new record highs have been set more than 2200 times, 2,200 times. If you want a different measure of just how blistering this heat wave is, keep your eye on the right side of your scream. And SUV on a Wisconsin highway goes airborne. See it there?
That's because part of the road buckled because of the heat. The driver and the passenger have possible neck and back injuries. The westbound section of Highway 29 was fixed, and it was later reopened.
For nearly two million people, the Heat is downright dangerous, though. They have no electricity. Few ways to keep cool. The outages are scattered across 11 states and Washington, D.C. For some, this begins day five of sweltering misery and relief could still be days away.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a pool. And we have a generator. But a lot of these people don't have nothing. I just want -- it makes you want to sit down and cry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very, very hot. And we're not getting no relief in the liquid form. And people are in dire straits really.
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COSTELLO: CNN's Sandra Endo is in Arlington, Virginia, where people are equally as miserable this morning.
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty miserable, Carol, because they are without power here, joining the 1.4 million people without power across 11 states. But that's a little bit of progress than we heard in the past. It was 1.8 before. So clearly, they are making some headway in terms of getting power back on. But take a look at the scene here.
Because the devastation is still very real in a lot of these communities. You can see the downed power lines right here in front of this house. Tree limbs just tossed about because of this violent storm. You can see that massive tree trunk right there, smashing a car right here in front of their house. It's just in their driveway. So clearly, a lot of work yet to be done. And with the soaring temperatures, that is going to add to the troubles for a lot of these power companies and utility workers who have to come and try to restore power in a lot of these communities.
As well as residents here who are without power. They are saying that the toughest part for them is really just dealing with the heat. No air conditioning. And obviously, their food has spoiled. So they are trying to get into cooling centers. Some areas have cooling buses that are just parked in the street for people to get some AC for a little bit.
Also we're hearing from a local report that a lot of people are going to community pools and also libraries and malls just to stay cool for the time being. But it's getting hard as the days go on. All of these people still without power, and not knowing when the lights will come on -- Carol.
Sandra Endo reporting live from Arlington, Virginia.
Power companies, they're facing some heat of their own from customers who say their response has been woefully inadequate. Customers say they are in crisis and power companies are not recognizing the urgency.
Joining us by phone is Robert Gould, the vice president with Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, Welcome, sir.
ROBERT GOULD, V.P., BALTIMORE GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY: Yes, good morning Carol.
COSTELLO: Mister Gould, Baltimore's mayor is taking BGE to task, saying it's putting the elderly and the poor at risk because it's restoring power more slowly in Baltimore City than elsewhere. The mayor said in the Baltimore sun, quote, "we might be annoyed and hot as heck. We can get over that. But if we lose a vulnerable citizen, we can't get over that. End quote.
So why not restore power to, let's say, nursing homes first?
GOULD: Well, it's always a challenge. We have our public safety priorities, and we always go after those first. Those are 911s centers and water treatment plants and pumping stations. And we spent the better part of the first day and half to two days doing those very tasks. But when you get into aspects of life like nursing homes, beyond that type of public safety, you then start to get into a position of so which is more important? What are the priorities?
And if you begin to do begin to do individual customers or individual segments of the population, then you really do elongate potentially the overall restoration. I think with respect to the mayor, we've been working very closely with her as well as the other local leaders in the counties and cities that we serve. And at the end of the day, all of us are working together to try and get the power restored.
COSTELLO: The AARP is also criticizing you, saying you're providing 80 vague, the customers can't make contingency plans. Look, if you tell someone, hey, your power might be restored by Wednesday or maybe Friday, that's really not helpful. In a practical sense for those people without power.
GOULD: Well, what we're doing is we're reacting to what was historic and epic storm. Very unique and unusual storm. Typically when we have a hurricane or a tropical storm approaching our region, we usually have about 800 to 1,000 out-of-state linemen and other folks that are ready to respond and restore power. And that gives us better visibility on the problems that we have.
Here we had just a horrific storm of 70 to 80 mile an hour winds that came through. And behind it were typically in a hurricane you would have weather that clears now we still are left with the high heat. And we're also left with the potential and the very real threat of thunderstorms. In fact, we had some more storms come through a couple of days ago that lost us 12,000 customers. And what the point there is, is that we don't want to give our customers false expectations.
It does no good to say we're going to restore X percent or individually we're going to restore your power by X only to find out that because of the circumstances we can't control, we dash your hopes, we can't meet that deliverable. And that only creates more frustration and more anger with the utility companies and everybody else involved.
I understand your way of thinking. But if I'm a customer without power, and I'm not going to have power for a week over a holiday weekend, nothing you will say to me will make me feel any better. The only thing you could say to me is, hey, your power is going to be back on in 10 minutes.
GOULD: No, you're right. And we know. We're not -- certainly not certainly not tone deaf to the customers' concerns. Many of our own employees and their families are without power as well. The fact is, in this case, we have restored power to more than half a million people within three days. And so not to say that that's any solace because in our case for the 164,000 remaining customers without power, you don't care about that number. You only care about when am I getting my lights back on.
COSTELLO: You've got that right.
GOULD: We've got to be very careful not to create situations where false hopes and false deadlines are simply put out there and then we don't meet them. It's really a matter of trying to be as transparent and honest. This is a massive, massive effort. And frankly it's going to take some time.
COSTELLO: Last question. Will you give customers any sort of refund for their week without power?
GOULD: No. This is something that was definitely an act of God. Amy of these situations, we work very closely with our regulatory agencies and we are very prudent with the costs. We are sparing no expense. We are sparing no effort. But at the end of the day, this is an act of god, and we all have to work together to get the power back on as safely and quickly as we can.
COSTELLO: So bottom line, no refund?
GOULD: Bottom line, no refund on this. And this is an act of god. And this is the way that all utilities around the country work. This is -- this is not something that's unique to any part of the country.
COSTELLO: Mr. Gould, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
BANFIELD: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Maryland, of course, not the only state dealing with power problems. In Washington, one in every four residents in the district is still without power. Many traffic lights are still out, making driving an absolute nightmare. Public transit is available, however, the metro is up and running.
In West Virginia, more than 400,000 homes and businesses are still without power. Power companies say their crews are working around the clock to restore electricity. But some areas could stay in the dark until Sunday. Even more are without power in Ohio, 428,000 in all. Franklin County, that's where Columbus is, and the central part of the state, that's the hardest hit area. Ohio's governor has now declared a state of emergency.
Our last stop, Virginia, 340,000 residents are without power but most should have their lights back on by tonight. Power should be fully restored by Saturday.
An American graduate student attacked by two chimpanzees in South Africa now clings to life after spending six hours in surgery. We're going live outside of his hospital room for an update.
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COSTELLO: Eighteen minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now.
The U.S. Air Force grounds its firefighting C-130 planes after two crew members died in a crash in South Dakota. But there's some encouraging news out of Colorado. Wet weather is helping crews get more control over the deadly Waldo Canyon Fire. That fire described as the most destructive in state history. The fire is now 70 percent contained.
In weather, get ready for another scorcher. Extreme heat warnings are up for parts of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan. The National Weather Service is warning of temperatures near or above 100 degrees.
The CEO of Barclays, one of the world's largest banks, is out. Bob Diamond's resignation is effective immediately. American and British regulators fined Barclays $450 million last week for rate fixing during the height of the global financial crisis. Barclays is one of several banks facing lawsuits over the scandal.
And a wild police chase ends with a woman being drag out of the vehicle by police by her hair. For some reason, she tried to get back into her vehicle after appearing to surrender to police our affiliate reports that the chase started when police responded to a call about a bizarre acting woman. She hit at least two cars, a power pole and a fence before she was cornered and arrested.
In South Africa, U.S. graduate student Andrew Oberle is recovering in a hospital after being mauled by two chimpanzees. What we know is that Oberle was leading a tour at a sanctuary for abused animals when he ended up in a restricted area. For whatever reason he ended up there, it almost cost him his life.
CNN asked Oberle's friend if the chimpanzees were provoked.
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ANTHONY REIMHERR, FRIEND OF CHIMP ATTACK VICTIM: I don't really know the full story about what happened in that aspect. But Andy had been working with chimps and studying them for a very long time, and he knew what he was doing out there. So without knowing all the details, it's really hard to say.
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COSTELLO: Nkepile Mabuse is live outside Chimpanzee Eden. That's what it's called. It's in South Africa. She has the latest on Andrew's condition.
Good morning.
NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Carol.
Behind me, the sanctuary has been closed since that tragic incident happened last week, Thursday, when two male chimpanzees attacked Andrew Oberle, causing very extensive damage. Today, we were hearing from the hospital about his -- the latest regarding his condition.
He is still in the intensive care unit, heavily sedated, and with bandages all over his body. We understand he sustained injuries to his head and almost to his entire body. The chimpanzees attacked him for what the management here say was about 15 minutes. And the manager of the sanctuary saying they were in a war-like state, defending their territory.
It is believed at the moment that they felt that Andrew -- the chimpanzees, that is -- they saw him as an intruder. We understand that he may have wanted to try and remove a stone that was underneath a fence that he thought one of the chimpanzees would pick up and throw at a visitor. Of course, we haven't spoken to Andrew. He is still in ICU and we'll only really get a full picture once he's out.
Of course, his parents flew out from the United States. They are here by his side. They have not yet spoken to the media.
But this is what the spokesperson of the hospital said about how they are doing.
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ROBYN BAARD, MEDICLINIC NELSPRUIT SPOKESWOMAN: His parents are well. They are quite traumatized at this point in time. And we shall be consulting with them a little bit later as to the way forward with regards to speaking to media and to journalists. And they have yet again asked and requested the privacy and really we respect that, and that of the patient as well. And his confidentiality to the extent of his injuries will not at this point be divulged.
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MABUSE: Carol, at preliminary investigation has been conducted by the tourism and park agency here, they have found that the sanctuary -- so far, they haven't any negligence that they can blame on the sanctuary. They are concluding, their preliminary investigation saying this was as a result of human error. But, of course, they still have not spoken to all of the people that witnessed this incident, including Andrew Oberle, who is lying in hospital right now, Carol.
COSTELLO: Nkepile Mabuse, live in South Africa for us this morning -- thank you.
We are asking you to talk back on one of the big stories of the day, and that would be the blistering heat in much of the country, at least much of the east coast. Two million people in several people remain without power. They have been without power for days.
So what, if anything, can be done about it? Should the power companies be held accountable? That's today's talk back question.
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COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should utility companies be penalized for prolonged power outages?
Hey, we've all been there. A monstrous storm, trees down, power out, our friends in 11 states from Indiana to Washington, D.C., experienced that over the weekend. And still 1.8 million are without power this morning. And they are angry. No, they are furious.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's ridiculous. It's really ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. It's not very much longer, I tell you, I cannot go without water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me and my husband went and rented a motel room in order to get a bath last night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The D.C. area power company says that half of those who lost power in Friday's freak storm already have it back, and 90 percent will have restored by this Friday. What's that, you said? I said by this Friday.
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MAYOR VINCENT GRAY, WASHINGTON: This is not the first time. This has happened repeatedly. We've had power outage after power outage in the District of Columbia. And frankly, the people are just fed of it.
KEN MALLETTE, DIR., MARYLAND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We need electricity. We have zero tolerance. We want that power back on yesterday.
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COSTELLO: In Ohio, where some 400,000 are still without power, officials say things could have been worse if utilities hadn't buried their power lines after the destruction of hurricane Ike.
But that's the consolation when you're living life in the dark blistering heat with no air conditioning. I mean, how long is too long to be without power? Should you have to pay for electricity you're not getting? Or are we coming down too hard on utility companies? After all, who can control Mother Nature's wrath and all those trees?
So the talk back question for you today, should utility companies be penalized for prolonged power outages? Facebook.com/CarolCNN, Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.
Marketing depression drugs to minors and withholding important safety information from the government. Hear more of the violations that led to a record fine against a big pharmaceutical company.
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COSTELLO: Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. It's now 30 minutes past the hour.
Here is the view of the opening bell of New York Stock Exchange. In case you're wondering, that is Sean Connolly of Hillshire Brands ringing the bell this morning. Not everyone is exactly happy to hear that bell ringing this morning, especially drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. We'll hear how investors are reacting to the company's $3 billion settlement.
But, first, it is another hot day out there. Nearly a dozen states under extreme heat warnings and advisories and no one feeling it more than the 1 million people scattered from Indiana to Maryland who are still without power after severe storms hit over the weekend.
And Navy officials say it's highly unusual to have both engines on an F-18 fighter jet go out at the same time, but that's what happened moments before an F-18 crashed into an apartment complex back in April. No one was killed in that accident.
So let's talk about that pharmaceutical giant hit with a $3 billion fine for fraudulent marketing of drugs. We're talking about targeting an adult anxiety drug to children and adolescents and promoting an anti-depressant drug as a weight loss aid.
Alison Kosik is at the New York bureau today to fill us in with the -- this is incredible.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So here's what the government says that GlaxoSmithKline did, Carol. The government saying that the company marketed a bunch of drugs off label, and when they talk about off label, that's when a pharmaceutical company markets the drug as a treatment for conditions that are different from what the FDA has approved.
Now, what the government says Glaxo did was market Paxil to children, and Wellbutrin as a weight loss drug. Now, this comes out to be the biggest fraud settlement not just for pharmaceutical company but in U.S. history.
And there are a bunch of other popular drugs involved there too. You see them there, Advair, Lamictal, Imitrex. And these drugs that you see there weren't just marketed off label, Carol, but they also had kickbacks to doctors to prescribe a lot of these drugs -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Have other companies been caught doing this type of thing before?
KOSIK: Surprise, surprise. You know what? It's more common than you'd think. Companies like Merck, Novartis, Pfizer -- these are all companies that have taken part in this kind of fraudulent markets. They also have to pay up pretty big as well. They had big fines.
Still, we went out and talked to some people, though, who were surprised to hear about this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't realize drugs were being marketed that way. But the question is, who's going to enforce the laws? And until some system comes to that, and I never -- if there's teeth behind the regulations. Otherwise, it just has no power. Of course, it shouldn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And GlaxoSmithKline's CEO came out and said although it happened during a different era for the company, he says I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learned from the mistakes that were made. In fact, Glaxo sales agents, they aren't allowed to be paid on their sales targets anymore. And some of these Glaxo executives, they may have to actually forfeit their bonuses.
But a consumer group says, until these penalties are more meaningful and the heads of the companies responsible for this go to jail, they question whether this will continue. And we see that in the history of all of these big drug companies that have done this in the past -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You hear about a $3 billion fine. And initially you say, wow, that's a huge fine. But when compared to the profits these companies make, maybe it's not such a big fine.
KOSIK: And that's why that consumer group says, you know, when these penalties really have to be more meaningful. That maybe you have to give more than just a slap on the wrist. Maybe some of the heads of the companies need to go to jail for some of these activities.
And they say until that happens, you're going to see this repeated over and over. I mean, besides Glaxo having the biggest penalty there, $3 billion -- Pfizer had the second biggest at $2.3 billion, which is pretty close. But still, even after Pfizer had to pay that $2.3 billion, here is Glaxo doing the same thing. So when will they learn?
COSTELLO: Alison Kosik live at the New York bureau today.
How big a role that scientology play a role in the TomKat divorce? There are reports that their daughter, Suri, was being recruited for a hard core scientology boot camp. The latest reports on the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes split.
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COSTELLO: More drama in the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce. The Church of Scientology denies it's tracking Holmes' every move in New York City and that's not all.
Nischelle Turner has the latest from Los Angeles. Ooh, this could get really ugly.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN SHOWBIZ CORRESPONDENT: It could.
But Carol, first of all, we have to say happy birthday to Tom Cruise, because he turns 50 years old today. And I'm sure he's not in much of a mood to celebrate, right, because of the new reports that issues over raising 6-year-old Suri in strict scientology is what drove Katie Holmes, who was raised Catholic, to file for divorce.
Now, these divorce documents are not public. But Web site TMZ is quoting unnamed sources saying that now that Suri is of school age, Katie feared Tom's intention on sending her away to a rigorous and controversial Scientology training program for young people, described as a boot camp for Scientology.
Now, TMZ is also saying that Scientology officials are denying that the little girl would ever be a candidate for the program, saying she would have to be 16 years old to participate in that. Meantime, though, for Katie, the show is going on in New York City. She is reportedly enrolled Suri in a Catholic school in Manhattan.
Now, Monday, she was spotted for the first time since announcing she wants to end the marriage, and there were pictures that showed she wasn't wearing her wedding ring. Now, photographers chased her around as she kept a commitment to appear as a judge at a taping of Lifetime's "Project Runway All-Stars" in the city.
And, you know, it's not just reporters that is also tailing her. TMZ is reporting that Holmes has claimed that Scientology has people following her. Now, this is something that the site says that Scientology vehemently denies.
COSTELLO: Wow. Nischelle Turner, reporting live for us from Los Angeles this morning.
A T-Mobile customer clearly was not happy with the service he was getting so what did he do? He took out his anger by trashing a store.
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COSTELLO: Yes. Passers-by pulled out their cell phone cameras and caught 42-year-old Jason Codner yanking displays off the walls and setting off fire extinguishers. Workers in the store in Manchester, England, told CNET he did not get a refund and he just went ballistic. Codner was arrested, as you might expect. He is due to appear in court on July 31st.
With Election Day getting nearer, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is hoping to win over a key group of the GOP base. What his campaign is doing behind the scenes. That's just ahead.
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COSTELLO: For nearly 2 million people, the heat is downright dangerous. They have no electricity and few ways to keep cool. The power outages caused by heat driven storms are scattered across 11 states and Washington, D.C. In Virginia, tens of thousands of residents are still without power. Most should have their lights back on tonight, and power should be fully restored by Saturday. Keep in mind, for many of those people, the power went out Friday.
Ken Barker is the vice president of customer solutions for Dominion Virginia Power. He joins us now on the phone from Herndon, Virginia. Welcome.
KEN BARKER, V.P. CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS, DOMINION VIRGINIA POWER (via telephone): Carol, thank you for having me this morning.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. I know it's a tough day for you because you guys are getting hammered by customers, by politicians. I know you're making headway. But still, some customers won't have power for days.
In your mind, how long should someone be without power and not blame their utility company?
BARKER: Well, I think what we're trying to do is work with customers and explain what we're up against. Again, we've restored about 85 percent of our customers through the day.
But yesterday, I was out with customers walking some neighborhoods. And when I took the customers to where some of our rebuilding our facilities are, I think they started to get a better appreciation of the force of these winds and the trees coming down on our facilities and literally having to rebuild the facilities back in these neighborhoods.
So I definitely get that the customers are frustrated and understand the heat. What we are trying to do is give customers information and trying to explain our process of getting the power back on.
COSTELLO: But in your mind, I'm asking the question again, is there a reasonable time we should expect to have our power back on? Is it three days? Is it a week? Is it two weeks? What is it in your mind?
BARKER: Well, I think that's really a tough thing to put an equation around a power outage. I think with the force of this storm, this storm was the biggest restoration we've had in our 100-year history, not counting hurricanes.
So I think when customers start to understand and actually see the force that our facilities saw, they understand that it's going to take more days to get the power back on.
COSTELLO: Big part of the problem, trees came down on the power lines. Why do we have overhead power lines anymore anyway? Why not bury the lines?
BARKER: Well, we do bury our lines. About 1/3 of our lines is buried.
If you look at the way the circuitry is, you always have to have some overhead facilities. All of our transmission facilities basically are overhead.
So I think you'll see more and more distribution underground. But, again, it's just the way circuitry is. You're always going to see some lines having to be overhead.
COSTELLO: Any refund for customers without power for a week?
BARKER: You know, the last thing on our mind is money right now. We're putting all of our energy into restoring power. We know that every customer wants to be the special customer and get their power back on. So, you know, money right now is -- it's all about getting resources in here to get the power back on.
COSTELLO: You know customers are going to be asking you after this is over.
BAKER: Well, we'll tackle that when we get through this. But what customers want is us to be focused on restoration, and that's what we're doing right now.
COSTELLO: Ken Barker. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
Checking our "Top Stories" now at 45 minutes past the hour, a wildfire leaves a Colorado Springs neighborhood in piles of rubble. The fire destroyed nearly 350 homes and damaged dozens more in the city; 3,000 people are still under a mandatory evacuation order. Forestry officials say it could be the middle of the month before the Waldo Canyon fire is fully contained.
In Benghazi, Libya demonstrators vow to stay on the streets until this weekend's national elections. Many said -- many say they are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect polling centers. On Sunday, dozens of people attacked the electoral commission headquarters of the city. This Saturday's vote to choose a Congress is Libya's first nationwide election in more than four decades.
Look closely because there's a bear in that tree. The black bear cub was spotted on the University of South Florida campus early this morning. The bear then moved on to an area outside of the Bush Gardens Theme Park. Wildlife officers got close enough to tranquilize the bear, and they are taking Mr. Bear to a national forest.
Mitt Romney is taking a break from the trail but his group is busy reaching out to a key group of the GOP base. This (inaudible) of pictures by the way of Romney and wife Ann jet skiing in New Hampshire where the family is spending all week with the rest, I guess there's 30 family members in all spending time on -- on their property up in New Hampshire. Then they are having a little bit of fun, respite, from the busyness of the trail.
But there are campaign workers working behind the scene and they're reaching out to Evangelicals. Joining me now David Brody the chief political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. Good morning.
DAVID BRODY, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, CBN: Hey Carol it's good to be with you.
COSTELLO: It's good to be with you. I thought that Mitt Romney had won over Evangelicals.
BRODY: No. It's still a work in progress, Carol. There's a lot behind-the-scenes outreach going on. Look, Mitt Romney has been on the phone the last few weeks with Rick Warren. Look, he is not a political player as much as he is a guy that's a respected -- obviously, a respected pastor in this country.
They are trying to schedule a meeting right now with Dr. James Dobson, formerly with focus on the family. Of course he is a big Evangelical -- respected member of the Evangelical community as well.
And look there's been a lot of outreach with phone calls, weekly meetings with many Evangelical leaders. So really, Carol, what you have going on here is you have a behind-the-scenes outreach campaign, if you will. And then in front of the camera, how many events will Romney do a faith-based events? That's still under consideration. There are a couple being talked about. No details at this point.
COSTELLO: You mentioned Rick Warren. He has a close relationship with President Obama. Has he switched over?
BRODY: No. I don't think there's any sense that he switched over or he would even term it switched over. I mean, look, he -- obviously, he never came out for President Obama in 2008. And he was -- he was kind of a straight shooter then. And there's no sense that Rick Warren is going to play any sort of active role in this campaign like he did in 2008 when he had that big faith forum out at Saddleback Church in California.
COSTELLO: The other question I had, the health care law, as you know, was upheld by the Supreme Court. And there's this big controversy going on about whether the mandate is a tax or not. Mitt Romney's guy came out and said, Mr. Romney doesn't think it's a tax. Many conservatives think it's a tax. Evangelicals, do they have a strong feeling about that?
BRODY: I think they're in the Tea Party camp. You know as you know and you've had me on before about talking about this new book of Evangelicals that I have out and it talks about this idea that Evangelicals and the Tea Party are very much simpatico on the tax issue.
And of course, if you know where the Tea Party stands on this of course, they think it's a tax and most Evangelicals -- conservative Evangelicals definitely believe it's a tax too.
Look, I have coined -- I have decided, Carol, I have coined a new term. It's not the five-hour energy drink for this Tea Evangelical voters it's the five-month energy drink because it's five months between now and November. And this group is on steroids big time.
The injections are happening left and right. The President with that health care ruling and John Roberts and everything that went down it could be potentially the worst day of his presidency. It's something I have written about.
COSTELLO: Well, if you put it this way --
BRODY: It's counterintuitive.
COSTELLO: Well, you can look at it another way, right? So conservative Evangelical voters, they are not so happy with the President's health care plan. But Mitt Romney has a similar health care plan in Massachusetts. And his guy came out and says, hey, we don't think the mandate is a tax. It's not a tax. It's a penalty, right? I agree with President Obama.
How does Romney get around that and energize conservative voters to go to the polls and vote for him and not against President Obama when the Romney camp is giving conflicting messages?
BRODY: No, it's a good point. And it's something where he has obviously may make an appearance on "Dancing with the Stars" this November for sure because he's going to have to dance around this a little bit.
Look, but I think the best course of action for Romney at this point at least if you listen to the Teavangelical audience is you use the federalism card, the state's rights card. This idea that look, what's good for Massachusetts might not be good for Arkansas or might not be good for Maine and you know he's going to -- he's going to make the case like he did in the GOP primary that this is a states' right issue and that will play well with the Teavangelicals.
The danger for Romney is that he wants to be careful but he doesn't have a "don't tread on me flag" behind him in a photo op because many Independents might not necessarily see that as a positive.
Having said that, the fine line here, Carol is -- is that if he could actually have a "don't tread on me flag" in the background, he could mobilize this Teavangelical base big time.
COSTELLO: David Brody, thanks so much for your insight. We appreciate it.
BRODY: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sometimes you have to be a little creative if you can't take the oath of office in person. One mayor did just that.
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COSTELLO: Ok. We have a bit of news to share with you right now, and it concerns Barclay's Bank. As you know their CEO resigned yesterday because the big bank was accused of rate-fixing during the height of the financial crisis.
Well, the -- the bank's COO has now resigned. What this means for the bank, we're going to get Alison Kosik on that right away, but so far two very big people have resigned from Barclay's, the CEO yesterday and the COO today. We'll get you more information.
Alison Kosik is already working on it.
We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning. "Should utility companies be penalized for prolonged power outages?"
This from Todd. "Aren't they already penalized by our not using their electricity? The people who should be penalized are the ones who keep preventing us from improving and updating our infrastructure."
This from Corey. "This is a wild world. Nothing is promised. Self-reliance is as close as it gets."
This from Mike. "So they should be punished when they have all of their crews and outside crews trying to restore power? (Shaking my head.)"
This from Randy. "Penalized? Absolutely. Their customers are penalized for being late on payments, aren't they? Why should only one side be expected to uphold their end of the bargain?"
Keep the conversation flowing; facebook.com/carolcnn. I'll read more of your comments in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
If you're on a family vacation in Hawaii but need to be sworn in as mayor in Anchorage, what do you do? Well, you take the oath of office through a live broadcast, of course. A live link from city hall in Anchorage was connected to a law office in Honolulu.
Daniel Sullivan's (ph) long distance inauguration was a small ceremony but not his first. He says he's honored to serve a second term, even though he wasn't at home to kind of do that.
Does having more money make people act less humane or put another way does it dehumanize people? In about 45 minutes I'll ask James Burnett, news editor of "New York" magazine. He published a story on that very topic. It's interesting.
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COSTELLO: Oh, so disappointing. JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: And so close. So, so close.
Perhaps one of the greatest woman -- if not the greatest woman swimmer of all time just missed out on going to a sixth Olympic games, carol. One of the greatest swimmers of all time. Dara Torres, 12 Olympic medals. She has been fantastic. For 28 years, and last night she tried to make a sixth Olympic games at the age of 45.
The Olympic trials, this is the 50-meter freestyle. She came up just short, less than a tenth of a second away from making the Olympic team. Her family watching on. You know, she was very gracious. She was very happy for the swimmers who did make it. She's done. She said afterwards her career is over, no regrets.
An incredible career that started in the 1984 Olympic games, a great career for Dara Torres.
Wimbledon now, and revenge sweet for Sabine Lisicki. Last year she lost to Maria Sharapova in the semi. Yesterday she knocked her out in the fourth round. Lisicki had become known as a giant killer. She defeats women who've just won a major title. Sharapova just won the French.
Lisicki had support from another great German athlete, NBA star Dirk Nowitzki. Sharapova said flat out, quote, "She did things -- many things better than I did." There you go.
Long-time National League patsies, the Pittsburgh Pirates; they are fighting for the N.L. central lead. Watch Jerry Jones deep and off the foul pole. Why isn't it called the fair pole, I've never known. But it's a two-run homerun. The very next batter is Neil Walker. And he does -- not only does he also hit a home run, he also hits it off the foul pole.
COSTELLO: Wow.
FISCHEL: I don't think I've ever seen that. Stats (inaudible) said the last time there were back-to-back home runs were off a foul pole was in 2000. I wouldn't have even believed it ever happened before. Meanwhile, the Pirates, they look like they could be in contention for the playoffs. They've been so bad. They haven't had a winning season in 20 years. So congrats to the Pirates. Looking like a team.
COSTELLO: That's a beautiful stadium too.
FISCHEL: It is. It's fantastic.
COSTELLO: Wow. Thank you Jeff.
FISCHEL: Ok.
