Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Severe Flooding, Tornadoes Leave Much of Midwest Disaster Area; Surgeons Give Hearing to Child Born With One Ear

Aired May 25, 2004 - 13:32   ET

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

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


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Checking the headlines at the half hour, angry Iraqis blaming American troops for damage today to the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. The U.S. says it's not responsible.
In Baghdad, a car bomb and rocket fire caused several explosions and a number of injuries. In the Dominican Republic, conflicting reports putting the death toll from torrential rains anywhere between 100 and 270. Two days of heavy rains have devastated much of the country. Some of the worse damage is on the Haitian side of that island, where many people were swept away by rushing waters.

Flooding is causes havoc as well in the nation's midsection. Torrential rains in northern Illinois sent the De Es Plaines (ph) River bursting over its bank and into the town of Gurnee. The worst of it is still to come tomorrow, we're told, when the river is expect to crest more than five feet above flood stage.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: The severe flooding coupled by tornadoes have left much of the Midwest a disaster area. Tornado damage reported into five states. Many of those states will likely count on federal money to rebuild. We also have fires in the West.

Joining me now, Michael Brown, the undersecretary of emergency preparedness and response at the Homeland Security Department.

Mr. Brown, thank you for joining us.

You coordinate a lot of these relief efforts domestically. Right now, we've got tornadoes, we've got floods, we've got fires in New Mexico. How are we handling the situation?

MICHAEL BROWN, U.S. DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, we're handling the situation. And what you just described is exactly why the Department of Homeland Security was create by the president, so that FEMA is able to handle all types of disaster, everything from the fires, that you have up in Conyers, Georgia right now, all the way from wildfires, and the tornadoes and floods you talked about.

GRIFFIN: We also at this time talk about an extensive fire season, which looks like it could be pretty bad, because it starting early. We've got forecasts for hurricanes. Do we have enough money and manpower, given the fact that a lot of our nation's first responders are in Iraq, or being pulled off duty?

BROWN: Well, President Bush has really committed all the resources we need and can ever hope to ask for to support the first responders, to support the firefighting community, and in addition, he has told me that whatever resource we need to respond to disasters, he'll make available to us.

GRIFFIN: Right now, the news looks pretty bad today. Is the system being taxed. Are you volunteers, and workers and employees, you know, at the breaking point?

BROWN: They're not, because we have a great mutual aid system among the different states. So if we need to pull resource from one region to another, President Bush has authorized us to do that. So I feel we're in very good shape right now.

And heading out into the summer, where we have the G-8 Summit here in Georgia, we've got the two political conventions, and Homeland Security always has terrorism on the back of their mind,what can we expect as citizens? Will we see elevated levels of alert? Will we see more security than usual?

BROWN: Well, I think you'll see more security than usual. But Secretary Ridge today talked about all the preparedness activities the department has done in cooperation with state and local governments.

And I just must say that all of the employees in the Department of Homeland Security are doing every single thing they can, not only for these natural disasters, but for the upcoming special events that you talk about. This country is ready. We're ready for any eventuality.

BROWN: Mike Brown, thank you very much for joining us, from Homeland Security. I was going to say FEMA. Thanks a lot.

PHILLIPS: Well, in today's medical report, surgeons give hearing to a child born with only one ear.

As Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, their innovative technique took less time than traditional reconstructive surgeries, and was less invasive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Until now, 6-year-old Edmund Hobb's was something he always had to explain.

SANDRA HOBBS, EDMUND'S MOTHER: Kid would come up and say, what happened to your ear? Where is your ear? And he would just look at them straight in the eye and say, I was born that way. Let's go play.

GUPTA (voice-over): You see Edmund was born with only traces of a left here. All he had was a small flap of skin no ear canal. His condition is called single-sided microsia, which effects about one in 8,000 children. For Edmund, not having an ear meant not being able to fully to appreciate basic things, like music.

HOBBS: He's such a bright child, and I know he has a place somewhere in society, and I hate to see him lose that because of something that he was born with. GUPTA: Edmund's family had been prepare for his ear replacement since he was born, but the risks seemed too great. Traditional ear replacement is painful, and lengthy. It usually involves six operations and removing a rip to whittle it into the shape of an ear. Not all doctors like that option.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This doesn't make sense to me, why we would leave it there and use rib graft. There's got to be some compatible implant we can use to eliminate taking these kids' chest and cutting them up like that.

GUPTA: A new technique allowed doctors to fashion a new ear for Edmund in two steps instead of six, so he could finally hear in stereo. Surgeons first pulled back the tissue above the ear, and positioned an artificial ear framework where Edmund's ear should be, then they cover the new surface area with skin from the groin. In a second operation, the ear lobe is repositioned, and a permanent earring aid is placed just under the skin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've taken a six-stage operation and taken it down to two.

GUPTA: Two steps in two months, compared to 18 months of surgery after surgery. And for the first time, Edmund can hear out of his left here and he can wear sunglasses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, dude?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: What is it like to be in a fierce battle against insurgents in Iraq?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When me and my friend were on the medevac out of there, he grabbed me with his good hand and said, somebody's praying for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Some of the soldiers who have been in some of the fiercest fighting give us the anatomy of a firefight. Also ahead, as painful as those gasoline prices are, they might not be as painful as you think. Come on. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Some U.S. Marines are telling harrowing war stories from their tour in Iraq. They fought in last month's major offensive against insurgents in Fallujah. PHILLIPS: CNN's Beth Nissen chronicles the firefight in an Iraqi flash point. Word of caution though, her report includes some disturbing images from war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April 26, Fallujah, among the units deployed here, Echo Company 2nd Battalion 1st Marines. With them, a network pool camera crew and a "Los Angeles Times" photographer documenting the day's mission, to secure two houses near a Marine perimeter to keep close watch for armed insurgents, snipers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see any targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't either.

NISSEN (on camera): What were you watching for especially?

CPL. JOSHUA CARPENTER, U.S. MARINES: Pretty much just bad guys with guns.

NISSEN (voice-over): Insurgents had been on the offensive for days. But with U.S. military commanders trying to establish a cease- fire, Marines were under orders to leave themselves to defensive operations. The Marines were frustrated, edgy.

LANCE CPL. BRYON CURNUTT, U.S. MARINES: You never know what to expect. But you know every day you're going to get mortared. Somebody is going to be taking potshots at you or sniper fire.

NISSEN: Marines took incoming fire almost as soon as they occupied the two houses, fire that appeared to be coming from a minaret nearby. Marine units were ordered on to the rooftops.

CARPENTER: We were on the roof and we started getting hit pretty hard with mortars and RPGs and small-arms fire.

CURNUTT: The next thing I know, some of the guys in the building said they were throwing rocks at us. I turned to look and that's when the explosion went off.

NISSEN: The rocks were grenades.

CARPENTER: A grenade landed on top of the roof that I was on. A piece ricocheted I guess off the top of the roof and hit me in the eye.

CURNUTT: I just heard screaming, looked around, had blood squirting out my neck. I put my hand on that. I saw a lot of smoke. I could see RPGs coming out from other buildings. I saw another Marine looking at his arm screaming really loud.

NISSEN: That Marine was Lance Corporal Zach Fincannon.

LANCE CPL. ZACH FINCANNON, U.S. MARINES: I a heard a loud pop. And I looked over to my left and I see that my arm was dangling. NISSEN: The blast took off his left hand, shredded his forearm.

FINCANNON: It's like a nightmare kind of thing. It was like, man, this can't really happen to me.

NISSEN: The Marines did buddy aid on each other, put pressure bandages, tourniquets on the wounded. Several were hurt. Someone radioed for the Navy combat medics.

CURNUTT: We were under heavy fire. RPGs are slamming into both buildings. Navy Corpsman did an excellent job. They drove right into the fight from our defensive positions and pulled us out of there. We owe our lives to those guys.

NISSEN: Within minutes, the wounded were at a nearby battalion aid station. Within hours, they were medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the big Army hospital in Germany.

CURNUTT: When me and my friend were on the medevac out of there, he grabbed me with his good hand and said somebody is praying for us.

FINCANNON: I feel very lucky to be alive. And I'm very glad that a lot of my fellow Marines are alive.

NISSEN: A lot, but not all. One of the Marines sent to the rooftop to replace the wounded was hit with machine gunfire. Lance Corporal Aaron C. Austin, age 21, died in a stairwell.

Hours later, after tanks fired rounds at the minaret, after the firefight ended, Echo Company had time finally to collect itself, to mourn the fallen, to pray for the wounded, pray for Lance Corporal Curnutt.

CURNUTT: I have I think three four pieces of shrapnel in my face, a piece in each of my legs and some scrapes and bruises.

NISSEN: Pray for Corporal Carpenter.

CARPENTER: The worst case is, I won't be able to see. So...

NISSEN (on camera): What have you thought about that?

CARPENTER: I still got my left eye.

NISSEN (voice-over): Pray for Lance Corporal Fincannon.

FINCANNON: My left arm was blown off. They are going to have a prosthetic hand on there. And I got huge shrapnel wounds in my left side. Other than that, I'm fine.

NISSEN: Like most of the war wounded, these Marines have no regrets, except that they are unable to go back to their units back to Iraq.

CURNUTT: That's where my brothers are. The rest of my team is still there. That's where the fight is. Until every Marine and soldier is out of there, the fight is not over.

NISSEN: The war goes on one firefight after another.

Beth Nissen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: American's may be singing the gas pump blues, but here's some words of consolation: gas prices are not as high as they could be. Our Tom Foreman explains that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FORMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the tourist season starts in Washington, George Muhawi's cab fills with extra passengers, his pockets with extra money. But high gas prices this year are costing him an extra $70 a week.

(on camera): What have these prices done to your business?

GEORGE MUHAWI, TAXI DRIVER: It really hits home, I mean, you know, because your investment is your time and your money. And seriously, when you work all day and you need a little extra gas, really, it hurts to go back to the gas station. So you might as well go home.

FORMAN (voice-over): Or to an economist, because economists will tell you if, since, say, the 1960s, the cost of gas had risen as fast as everything else, we would probably be paying $3 or $4 a gallon by now. Even AAA agrees.

MANTILL WILLIAMS, AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION: We are seeing a record level high gas prices right now. But if you factor in for inflation, the record would be in 1981, when we were paying $2.79 in today's dollars. Unfortunately, the motorist sees that $2 a gallon gasoline and he has to budget for that.

FORMAN: It could be worse. Europeans already pay $4 to $5 a gallon, although AAA points out that includes a lot of taxes. Drag racers here pay $18 a gallon for fuel and burn a gallon every half second. And that latte Americans love with their commute? That's about $30 a gallon. Maybe George has the right idea.

MUHAWI: I am mad, but what is the use of hitting your head against the wall?

FORMAN: Tom Forman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MARKET UPDATE) PHILLIPS: After also a year of long and arduous work, Michelangelo's towering tribute to nude male beauty is gleaming once again.

GRIFFIN: Restorers have completed work on the statue of David just months shy of its 500th anniversary. CNN's Alessio Vinci shows us how it was done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One expert compared the cleanup of Michelangelo's David to performing appendicitis surgery on the president of the United States, not a complicated matter, but the nature of the patient makes the work unique.

CINZIA PARNIGONI, RESTORER (through translator): I'm really satisfied. It seems to me that today the David is more beautiful than usual. He definitely has a more luminous light. For a statue 500 years old, he carries his age well.

VINCI: Even after his first cleanup in 130 years, David's old age and imperfections remain clearly visible. Experts point out it is not possible to make him look like he did in the 16th century. But the year-long project was marked by controversy over how the statue should be washed.

A first restorer, seen here at work in 2002, believed a simple brush and dry cloth were enough to remove century-old dirt spots. But she was replaced because gallery officials believed distilled water and mineral spirits would be necessary to bring the statue's traditional white color back to life.

CRISTINA ACIDINI, DIR., RESTORATION LABORATORY: Needless to say, the David is now the most investigated monument of the Western Civilization. We have been carefully guided during the restoration process by the result where we're constantly updated. And so I'm perfectly satisfied with the procedure that we followed.

VINCI: Recent extensive research and close scrutiny also revealed that the statue's ankles appear to be too fragile to support the six ton weight of the 16-foot masterpiece. There is no risk of collapse, at least for now, but gallery officials say the lower part of the statue will undergo more tests.

More than 1 million people visit Michelangelo's David each year and some residents have voiced concern about why so much attention to be devoted to just one statue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm very happy that I have cleaned the David but they have just concentrated on the David. If you look around, they haven't cleaned up other monuments that need to be cleaned.

VINCI: And if you plan to visit the newly restored statue soon, keep in mind the one outside is just a replica, which may need a bit of a cleanup as well.

Alessio Vinci, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 25, 2004 - 13:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Checking the headlines at the half hour, angry Iraqis blaming American troops for damage today to the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. The U.S. says it's not responsible.
In Baghdad, a car bomb and rocket fire caused several explosions and a number of injuries. In the Dominican Republic, conflicting reports putting the death toll from torrential rains anywhere between 100 and 270. Two days of heavy rains have devastated much of the country. Some of the worse damage is on the Haitian side of that island, where many people were swept away by rushing waters.

Flooding is causes havoc as well in the nation's midsection. Torrential rains in northern Illinois sent the De Es Plaines (ph) River bursting over its bank and into the town of Gurnee. The worst of it is still to come tomorrow, we're told, when the river is expect to crest more than five feet above flood stage.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: The severe flooding coupled by tornadoes have left much of the Midwest a disaster area. Tornado damage reported into five states. Many of those states will likely count on federal money to rebuild. We also have fires in the West.

Joining me now, Michael Brown, the undersecretary of emergency preparedness and response at the Homeland Security Department.

Mr. Brown, thank you for joining us.

You coordinate a lot of these relief efforts domestically. Right now, we've got tornadoes, we've got floods, we've got fires in New Mexico. How are we handling the situation?

MICHAEL BROWN, U.S. DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, we're handling the situation. And what you just described is exactly why the Department of Homeland Security was create by the president, so that FEMA is able to handle all types of disaster, everything from the fires, that you have up in Conyers, Georgia right now, all the way from wildfires, and the tornadoes and floods you talked about.

GRIFFIN: We also at this time talk about an extensive fire season, which looks like it could be pretty bad, because it starting early. We've got forecasts for hurricanes. Do we have enough money and manpower, given the fact that a lot of our nation's first responders are in Iraq, or being pulled off duty?

BROWN: Well, President Bush has really committed all the resources we need and can ever hope to ask for to support the first responders, to support the firefighting community, and in addition, he has told me that whatever resource we need to respond to disasters, he'll make available to us.

GRIFFIN: Right now, the news looks pretty bad today. Is the system being taxed. Are you volunteers, and workers and employees, you know, at the breaking point?

BROWN: They're not, because we have a great mutual aid system among the different states. So if we need to pull resource from one region to another, President Bush has authorized us to do that. So I feel we're in very good shape right now.

And heading out into the summer, where we have the G-8 Summit here in Georgia, we've got the two political conventions, and Homeland Security always has terrorism on the back of their mind,what can we expect as citizens? Will we see elevated levels of alert? Will we see more security than usual?

BROWN: Well, I think you'll see more security than usual. But Secretary Ridge today talked about all the preparedness activities the department has done in cooperation with state and local governments.

And I just must say that all of the employees in the Department of Homeland Security are doing every single thing they can, not only for these natural disasters, but for the upcoming special events that you talk about. This country is ready. We're ready for any eventuality.

BROWN: Mike Brown, thank you very much for joining us, from Homeland Security. I was going to say FEMA. Thanks a lot.

PHILLIPS: Well, in today's medical report, surgeons give hearing to a child born with only one ear.

As Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, their innovative technique took less time than traditional reconstructive surgeries, and was less invasive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Until now, 6-year-old Edmund Hobb's was something he always had to explain.

SANDRA HOBBS, EDMUND'S MOTHER: Kid would come up and say, what happened to your ear? Where is your ear? And he would just look at them straight in the eye and say, I was born that way. Let's go play.

GUPTA (voice-over): You see Edmund was born with only traces of a left here. All he had was a small flap of skin no ear canal. His condition is called single-sided microsia, which effects about one in 8,000 children. For Edmund, not having an ear meant not being able to fully to appreciate basic things, like music.

HOBBS: He's such a bright child, and I know he has a place somewhere in society, and I hate to see him lose that because of something that he was born with. GUPTA: Edmund's family had been prepare for his ear replacement since he was born, but the risks seemed too great. Traditional ear replacement is painful, and lengthy. It usually involves six operations and removing a rip to whittle it into the shape of an ear. Not all doctors like that option.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This doesn't make sense to me, why we would leave it there and use rib graft. There's got to be some compatible implant we can use to eliminate taking these kids' chest and cutting them up like that.

GUPTA: A new technique allowed doctors to fashion a new ear for Edmund in two steps instead of six, so he could finally hear in stereo. Surgeons first pulled back the tissue above the ear, and positioned an artificial ear framework where Edmund's ear should be, then they cover the new surface area with skin from the groin. In a second operation, the ear lobe is repositioned, and a permanent earring aid is placed just under the skin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've taken a six-stage operation and taken it down to two.

GUPTA: Two steps in two months, compared to 18 months of surgery after surgery. And for the first time, Edmund can hear out of his left here and he can wear sunglasses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear me, dude?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: What is it like to be in a fierce battle against insurgents in Iraq?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When me and my friend were on the medevac out of there, he grabbed me with his good hand and said, somebody's praying for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Some of the soldiers who have been in some of the fiercest fighting give us the anatomy of a firefight. Also ahead, as painful as those gasoline prices are, they might not be as painful as you think. Come on. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Some U.S. Marines are telling harrowing war stories from their tour in Iraq. They fought in last month's major offensive against insurgents in Fallujah. PHILLIPS: CNN's Beth Nissen chronicles the firefight in an Iraqi flash point. Word of caution though, her report includes some disturbing images from war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April 26, Fallujah, among the units deployed here, Echo Company 2nd Battalion 1st Marines. With them, a network pool camera crew and a "Los Angeles Times" photographer documenting the day's mission, to secure two houses near a Marine perimeter to keep close watch for armed insurgents, snipers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see any targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't either.

NISSEN (on camera): What were you watching for especially?

CPL. JOSHUA CARPENTER, U.S. MARINES: Pretty much just bad guys with guns.

NISSEN (voice-over): Insurgents had been on the offensive for days. But with U.S. military commanders trying to establish a cease- fire, Marines were under orders to leave themselves to defensive operations. The Marines were frustrated, edgy.

LANCE CPL. BRYON CURNUTT, U.S. MARINES: You never know what to expect. But you know every day you're going to get mortared. Somebody is going to be taking potshots at you or sniper fire.

NISSEN: Marines took incoming fire almost as soon as they occupied the two houses, fire that appeared to be coming from a minaret nearby. Marine units were ordered on to the rooftops.

CARPENTER: We were on the roof and we started getting hit pretty hard with mortars and RPGs and small-arms fire.

CURNUTT: The next thing I know, some of the guys in the building said they were throwing rocks at us. I turned to look and that's when the explosion went off.

NISSEN: The rocks were grenades.

CARPENTER: A grenade landed on top of the roof that I was on. A piece ricocheted I guess off the top of the roof and hit me in the eye.

CURNUTT: I just heard screaming, looked around, had blood squirting out my neck. I put my hand on that. I saw a lot of smoke. I could see RPGs coming out from other buildings. I saw another Marine looking at his arm screaming really loud.

NISSEN: That Marine was Lance Corporal Zach Fincannon.

LANCE CPL. ZACH FINCANNON, U.S. MARINES: I a heard a loud pop. And I looked over to my left and I see that my arm was dangling. NISSEN: The blast took off his left hand, shredded his forearm.

FINCANNON: It's like a nightmare kind of thing. It was like, man, this can't really happen to me.

NISSEN: The Marines did buddy aid on each other, put pressure bandages, tourniquets on the wounded. Several were hurt. Someone radioed for the Navy combat medics.

CURNUTT: We were under heavy fire. RPGs are slamming into both buildings. Navy Corpsman did an excellent job. They drove right into the fight from our defensive positions and pulled us out of there. We owe our lives to those guys.

NISSEN: Within minutes, the wounded were at a nearby battalion aid station. Within hours, they were medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the big Army hospital in Germany.

CURNUTT: When me and my friend were on the medevac out of there, he grabbed me with his good hand and said somebody is praying for us.

FINCANNON: I feel very lucky to be alive. And I'm very glad that a lot of my fellow Marines are alive.

NISSEN: A lot, but not all. One of the Marines sent to the rooftop to replace the wounded was hit with machine gunfire. Lance Corporal Aaron C. Austin, age 21, died in a stairwell.

Hours later, after tanks fired rounds at the minaret, after the firefight ended, Echo Company had time finally to collect itself, to mourn the fallen, to pray for the wounded, pray for Lance Corporal Curnutt.

CURNUTT: I have I think three four pieces of shrapnel in my face, a piece in each of my legs and some scrapes and bruises.

NISSEN: Pray for Corporal Carpenter.

CARPENTER: The worst case is, I won't be able to see. So...

NISSEN (on camera): What have you thought about that?

CARPENTER: I still got my left eye.

NISSEN (voice-over): Pray for Lance Corporal Fincannon.

FINCANNON: My left arm was blown off. They are going to have a prosthetic hand on there. And I got huge shrapnel wounds in my left side. Other than that, I'm fine.

NISSEN: Like most of the war wounded, these Marines have no regrets, except that they are unable to go back to their units back to Iraq.

CURNUTT: That's where my brothers are. The rest of my team is still there. That's where the fight is. Until every Marine and soldier is out of there, the fight is not over.

NISSEN: The war goes on one firefight after another.

Beth Nissen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: American's may be singing the gas pump blues, but here's some words of consolation: gas prices are not as high as they could be. Our Tom Foreman explains that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FORMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the tourist season starts in Washington, George Muhawi's cab fills with extra passengers, his pockets with extra money. But high gas prices this year are costing him an extra $70 a week.

(on camera): What have these prices done to your business?

GEORGE MUHAWI, TAXI DRIVER: It really hits home, I mean, you know, because your investment is your time and your money. And seriously, when you work all day and you need a little extra gas, really, it hurts to go back to the gas station. So you might as well go home.

FORMAN (voice-over): Or to an economist, because economists will tell you if, since, say, the 1960s, the cost of gas had risen as fast as everything else, we would probably be paying $3 or $4 a gallon by now. Even AAA agrees.

MANTILL WILLIAMS, AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION: We are seeing a record level high gas prices right now. But if you factor in for inflation, the record would be in 1981, when we were paying $2.79 in today's dollars. Unfortunately, the motorist sees that $2 a gallon gasoline and he has to budget for that.

FORMAN: It could be worse. Europeans already pay $4 to $5 a gallon, although AAA points out that includes a lot of taxes. Drag racers here pay $18 a gallon for fuel and burn a gallon every half second. And that latte Americans love with their commute? That's about $30 a gallon. Maybe George has the right idea.

MUHAWI: I am mad, but what is the use of hitting your head against the wall?

FORMAN: Tom Forman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MARKET UPDATE) PHILLIPS: After also a year of long and arduous work, Michelangelo's towering tribute to nude male beauty is gleaming once again.

GRIFFIN: Restorers have completed work on the statue of David just months shy of its 500th anniversary. CNN's Alessio Vinci shows us how it was done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One expert compared the cleanup of Michelangelo's David to performing appendicitis surgery on the president of the United States, not a complicated matter, but the nature of the patient makes the work unique.

CINZIA PARNIGONI, RESTORER (through translator): I'm really satisfied. It seems to me that today the David is more beautiful than usual. He definitely has a more luminous light. For a statue 500 years old, he carries his age well.

VINCI: Even after his first cleanup in 130 years, David's old age and imperfections remain clearly visible. Experts point out it is not possible to make him look like he did in the 16th century. But the year-long project was marked by controversy over how the statue should be washed.

A first restorer, seen here at work in 2002, believed a simple brush and dry cloth were enough to remove century-old dirt spots. But she was replaced because gallery officials believed distilled water and mineral spirits would be necessary to bring the statue's traditional white color back to life.

CRISTINA ACIDINI, DIR., RESTORATION LABORATORY: Needless to say, the David is now the most investigated monument of the Western Civilization. We have been carefully guided during the restoration process by the result where we're constantly updated. And so I'm perfectly satisfied with the procedure that we followed.

VINCI: Recent extensive research and close scrutiny also revealed that the statue's ankles appear to be too fragile to support the six ton weight of the 16-foot masterpiece. There is no risk of collapse, at least for now, but gallery officials say the lower part of the statue will undergo more tests.

More than 1 million people visit Michelangelo's David each year and some residents have voiced concern about why so much attention to be devoted to just one statue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm very happy that I have cleaned the David but they have just concentrated on the David. If you look around, they haven't cleaned up other monuments that need to be cleaned.

VINCI: And if you plan to visit the newly restored statue soon, keep in mind the one outside is just a replica, which may need a bit of a cleanup as well.

Alessio Vinci, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com