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Countdown to Democratic National Convention, Drug found to slow down progression of Alzheimer's Disease

Aired July 19, 2004 - 13:30   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.


Now in the news, a New Jersey man is due in court right now, charged with the murder of a 16-year-old straight "A" student. Jack Fuller (ph) is being held on $1 million bail in the death of Brittany Gregory (ph) of Brick Township (ph). Her body has not yet been found.
A dramatic live event set for an hour and a half from now at 3:00 p.m. Eastern with a statement from Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun. He's back at a base in Virginia after going missing for three weeks in Iraq and turning up in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marines say Hassoun will read a statement but won't take any questions. We'll bring it to you live.

In a White House statement last hour, President Bush says the U.S. is investigating whether Iran may have played a role in the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Bush also says the CIA has not found any evidence of a direct link between Iran and the 9/11 hijackings. The 9/11 commission is expected to release its final report later this week.

O'BRIEN: The Democrats take center stage when the curtain rises on their convention one week from today in Boston. I know you all have goose bumps. CNN's Judy Woodruff, she's close to Boston. She's in New Hampshire homing in on her target. She has a political preview for us. Judy, good to see you.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS": Hello there, Miles. Yes, we are in New Hampshire. We're in Concord, the state capital, and heading to Boston tomorrow.

O'BRIEN: You probably come to Concord this time of year just to wipe away the memories from primary time, right, when it's 20 below in Concord, and that kind of thing. Let's talk about John Kerry and his arrival at the convention. That's always a discussion, since we can't talk about who is number two on the ticket anymore because that's taken away. Let's talk about the whole sequence of events in his revival. Anything unusual there that we should be taking note of?

WOODRUFF: Yes, it is a little unusual, Miles, because what the Kerry campaign is doing is they are literally doing a cross-country tour. John Kerry is starting in Colorado, the state where he was born, in an army hospital. He likes to point out, in an effort to undermine those Republican charges that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he starts in Colorado, works his way across the country hitting battleground states, including Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Florida and interestingly, they're including Virginia among the states where he's stopping. Typically this is -- in the last presidential elections Virginia's been reliably Republican but the Kerry campaign seems to think they may be able to make some headway there. He's stopping there. Finally in Pennsylvania before reaching Boston, really not until the night before his acceptance speech. It's really unusual, maybe unprecedented for the nominee to get into the convention city so late.

O'BRIEN: Especially since it's his hometown. You'd think he would be watching it on TV on Beacon Hill or something. He runs the risk of raining on his own parade.

WOODRUFF: That's a question I have. I'm going to plug "INSIDE POLITICS" right now so please forgive me. I'm interviewing former New Hampshire governor Jean Shaheen in a little while on "INSIDE POLITICS." She's one of the co-chairs of the Kerry campaign and frankly, one of the questions I have is, aren't they competing with their own story? The entire press corps will be gathered in Boston next week. John Kerry's going to be making his way across the country. I think it remains to be seen how that's going to play out.

O'BRIEN: Is this perhaps an admission, just a slight admission by the parties that there really isn't a lot of news going on at these conventions?

WOODRUFF: Well, let's be very honest. What this convention is all about this year is reintroducing John Kerry to the American people and frankly introducing him to those people who either haven't made up their minds yet about him or say they don't know enough about him to decide that they're going to vote for him.

So whatever they can do in the coming days starting this Friday and concluding a week from Wednesday night as he arrives in Boston to fill out that picture, to make him look like somebody who is not only acceptable, somebody who passes the acceptable test, but who is actually an attractive candidate, somebody Americans can envision voting for for president. Those are the kinds of things they're going to be trying to fill out, talk about what he believes in, you know, what he thinks the nation's economy should look like, jobs, the middle class squeeze, and so forth, and obviously talking about keeping America strong.

O'BRIEN: Judy Woodruff, a woman whose plugs are always welcome on LIVE FROM... because they come with excellent information. Always a pleasure seeing you...

WOODRUFF: Likewise.

O'BRIEN: And welcome back to New Hampshire. Enjoy the nice New Hampshire summer weather which is just rain. By the way, you can watch "INSIDE POLITICS" in case you didn't get the plug fully across to you, immediately after this program, CNN goes way upscale. Judy Woodruff takes the air from us, 3:30 Eastern. We invite you to tune in -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Takes it up a tremendous level.

Here's another level we're going to. They're pint sized and they're too young to vote but apparently what they have is what it takes to cover the Democratic convention. Two 12-year-old young girls have been given the assignment of their lives to report on the convention for "TIME" magazine for kids.

One of those aspiring young writers is Lilly Wasserman. She joins me now live from Boston. Hi, Lilly.

So I'm curious, I'm assuming now that you find politics interesting. Tell me why.

LILLY WASSERMAN, "TIME FOR KIDS" REPORTER: Well, I think that a lot of people don't realize how much it affects kids and even though it's mostly adults that are taking charge of it, with kids, a perfect example is testing in schools, because that affects kids more than it affects anyone else. It takes a large part of their school time to prepare and take the tests and it just -- I don't think -- I think that if kids got more involved then they could really make more of a difference than they think they could.

PHILLIPS: Wow! Well, I'm going to get a little deeper into that then with that. I'm curious, do you believe politicians? Do you believe what they say?

WASSERMAN: I believe them sometimes. I think that -- I don't know. I think it kind of depends.

PHILLIPS: Do you just kind of get a vibe, you kind of feel them out, is it during the interview where you kind of get a read on them in

WASSERMAN: I guess, yes.

PHILLIPS: Do you pay attention to all of the politicians when they have their news conferences and write their articles and come out and speak?

WASSERMAN: I try to pay as much attention as I can. I watch the news, and I read a lot, and I just try to keep up with it as much as I can and stay on top of it.

PHILLIPS: Do you have a favorite politician?

WASSERMAN: Um, not at the moment, no.

PHILLIPS: I heard you're dying to interview Hillary Clinton. Is that true?

WASSERMAN: I think that she's really interesting, definitely.

PHILLIPS: Why do you find her interesting? Why would you want to interview her?

WASSERMAN: Well, I thought that she might run for president and I thought that was really interesting when she was thinking about that and if she still is.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there should be a female running for president?

WASSERMAN: I think there definitely should because there hasn't been yet and I don't think that they're any different than men.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me how you prepared for this assignment to cover the convention.

WASSERMAN: Well, for me, I mostly have just been keeping up with the news as much as I can and learning about the process and the candidates, and I've also been practicing a little bit of writing for it.

PHILLIPS: How do you do that? How do you practice the writing?

WASSERMAN: Well, sometimes I'll read an article and then kind of write down what I've learned from it. I'll write a little summary of something like a really short summary of the candidate or something like that.

PHILLIPS: So let me ask you this. You talked about how the elections affect young people, young people can affect the elections. What do you think about Bush's daughters coming out and sticking up and speaking on behalf of their father and what do you think of Kerry's kids coming forward and traveling with him?

WASSERMAN: I think that's really good because I think it will inspire a lot of kids.

PHILLIPS: Now why? Why do you think it's important for kids to be inspired by politics and get involved at such a young age?

WASSERMAN: Because I don't think that they realize how much of a difference they can make and that people will really listen to them, if they just put their minds to it and are really persistent.

PHILLIPS: What's going to be your big exclusive? What's the byline we need to be looking for in "TIME FOR KIDS" magazine?

WASSERMAN: At the convention, we'll probably be keeping a journal of what we do and we'll just try to interview as many people as we can.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be watching you and we'll be reading your stuff, Lilly.

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, it was supposed to be a nice relaxing day at the track but for little E, things got a little hot. We'll get the lowdown on just how racing's finest keep the flames at bay from a friend of LIVE FROM..., Number 49, Kenny Schrader.

And looking for a fast way to slow down a horrible disease? Putting the brakes on Alzheimer's when LIVE FROM... continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Health news. A drug currently on the market is showing promise of slowing the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Joining us to talk about it is CNN medical correspondent Holly Firfer. Hello, Holly.

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Recently at the new conference, Ninth International Conference on Alzheimer's, a new study was unveiled and found that a drug called Dinepozil (ph), you might be more familiar with its brand name Aricept (ph) was able to slow the progression of Alzheimer's Disease in those who had mild cognitive impairment or MCI.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic looked at 769 patients who were diagnosed with MCI and gave them either Aricept, Vitamin E or a placebo over a three-year period. They found those who took Vitamin E or the placebo nothing happened. But those who took the Aricept were able to slow the onset of Alzheimer's.

Now here's the caveat. Although they could slow the progression of the disease, they only saw that over the first 18 months of the study and even then the Aricept only gave patients about six months of a so-called reprieve, somewhere within that first 18 months. So by the end of the three years all of the patients were at the same place with the disease so at the end of the three months, those patients who would go on to develop Alzheimer's, had developed Alzheimer's.

O'BRIEN: So what do you take away from this? Is there something in there that they can extend perhaps in order to get long-lasting results?

FIRFER: That's what they're hoping. Researchers are hoping that what this will tell them is can Alzheimer's be slowed or stopped eventually?

20 percent of those who develop or have MCI will not develop Alzheimer's. 80 percent of those with MCI will develop Alzheimer's. So they're trying to figure out at what point can you maybe stop or slow the progression of the disease.

1.7 million Americans take Aricept now so they're wondering could they have stopped it earlier and when they develop more drugs will they be able to give it to patients earlier when they show the first signs of mild cognitive impairment to prevent that disease.

O'BRIEN: Mild cognitive impairment. I think most days Kyra accuses me of that. But it's obviously more serious than that. So why don't you tell us what that's all about.

FIRFER: There is a distinction. You go into a room and you wonder what am I doing in this room? What am I here for? Where did I put my keys? What was I going to ask you? That's a normal sign of a healthy aging brain but when you have more serious warning signs like forgetful -- frequent forgetfulness, all the time you're wondering, where am I going, what am I doing, who are you? Difficulty with learning, trouble remembering old information, those are the signs of MCI, but the difference between that and Alzheimer's is you can still perform daily activities. You still can make certain decisions. You can understand what people are telling you. You really can still think. You do not need help every day. That's the difference between MCI and Alzheimer's, but 80 percent of those people will go on to develop Alzheimer's. That's the problem.

O'BRIEN: OK. All right. Thank you very much, Holly Firfer. Appreciate it.

FIRFER: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Take a look at this. The pictures are terrifying. NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. engulfed in flames following an accident yesterday in Sonoma, California. But even more amazing, Little E escaped with only moderate burns to his chin and legs. How is that possible? Well, racing great Ken Schrader sure knows. He's been on fire and he survived the flames.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Ken, take us back to Pocono (ph) Raceway 2003 and tell us what happened.

KEN SCHRADER, RACE CAR DRIVER: Well, I went down in the turn and the car lost all brake pedal and got it turned around so I could hit backwards because the back end of the car is quite a bit softer and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) absorb more energy. Although you know that the chance of fire is greater when you hit backwards but our cars, the way NASCAR constructs them, a lot of times you have a big fire and then it will start to put itself out pretty quick. So I just knew that would be the easiest way to hit.

PHILLIPS: So did you know the car was on fire or did you not realize it until you were getting out of the car?

SCHRADER: No, first off you look in the mirror and see it and you're sitting in there in your cocoon and the fire starts wrapping around. It's like as soon as this thing gets stopped now would be a pretty good time to get out.

PHILLIPS: You saw the flames, and you thought, "that's it I'm outta here."

SCHRADER: Right.

PHILLIPS: How many seconds did you take to get out of the car and do you practice escaping out of your vehicle if indeed a fire starts?

SCHRADER: I don't practice escaping out but you get in and out of it so many times over the course of a weekend, you know what you have to do. It's a regular routine to get out and in an emergency you know what you need to do to get out quicker. So it probably didn't take five, six seconds.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. And did you get any burns from that fire?

SCHRADER: No, no burns whatever, but because of all of the protective gear that we wear, you know, two or three-layer nomex uniform, the helmet that's nomex-lined, underwear underneath it that's nomex, nomex shoes, nomex gloves.

PHILLIPS: Explain nomex for those that don't understand what that is.

SCHRADER: That would be hard for probably me to do. They've got all different materials now that are just real fireproof. From what I've been told, when you're clothed properly with the right equipment on, you can potentially be in the fire somewhat for around 45 seconds to a minute, and burns would be very, very minor.

PHILLIPS: With all of this nomex and this would probably be your next sponsor, Kenny, but with all of the nomex materials on, when you did catch fire, do you remember, did you feel heat? Did you actually feel the flame? What do you remember from what you felt?

SCHRADER: All you're thinking is get out as quick as possible. No, I did not feel any heat. But you were just worried about getting out real quick. What we saw the other day in Dale Jr.'s deal, he was actually surrounded. He was in the bulk of it, and looked like it woke him up and he got out real quick then.

PHILLIPS: That's true. What do you do if you're knocked unconscious? How does your crew respond? What's the proper procedure safety-wise?

SCHRADER: Well, you know, if you're knocked unconscious, unfortunately, there's nothing you can do and your crew, being on pit road, there's nothing that they can do, but NASCAR has and it's one of the things why we slow down so quick now, we don't race back to the yellow so they can get the emergency equipment to the scene of the accident as quick as possible. They can't send the guys out in the pickup with all of the fire fighting gear when the cars are still going 200 mile an hour, but now we slow down instantly, they send that crew out there real quick and that's really made things quite a bit safer.

PHILLIPS: Kenny, what about the car. Take us inside your car. I realize all of the stuff you have on your body. What about the seat and the bars and the padding on the bars?

SCHRADER: We've actually got padding that is fire-resistant. It used to be we had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) get injured a few years ago where the roll bar padding for his head melted and dripped down on his neck and gave him some pretty healthy burns. We've changed it to nomex, changed the padding on the bars. Some of the seats now have fire- resistant material on them so while you're sitting in your nomex uniform, your seat doesn't catch on fire. So just so many -- your seatbelt is the same way, so many things that NASCAR and all the racing organizations have done throughout the years to keep trying to make these cars safer and safer.

PHILLIPS: All right, when can we watch you again and watch you set your record on fire, Kenny?

SCHRADER: Record on fire?

PHILLIPS: In a good way. We want you to win.

SCHRADER: Yes, OK. Well, we're going to take the Schwann's car along with the whole Nextel series up to Loudon (ph), New Hampshire for a race this Sunday. Looking forward to that.

PHILLIPS: I know you'll be on fire on the racetrack, not necessarily in the car. Kenny Schrader, I know you've been up since 4:00 a.m., stuck around to do this just for us. Really appreciate it.

SCHRADER: Thanks for having us on.

PHILLIPS: All right, good luck, Ken.

We'll race on over to the New York Stock Exchange and find out what's happening in business after a quick break. More LIVE FROM... after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Wildfires, erratic winds, dry conditions and hundreds of homes threatened. It's a firefighter's nightmare in southern California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought we were going to die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we were going to get killed or get hurt.

O'BRIEN: A wild ride. A family outing in a hot air balloon or was it helium, not sure which, turns into a dangerous dilemma.

PHILLIPS: The 9/11 commission connection. The relation between the al Qaeda terrorists which struck America and Iran.

O'BRIEN: And brain food. A new study shows why all of us should eat our vegetables. Listening kids? From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: I'm listening to you, Miles. I'm Kyra Philips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

O'BRIEN: We begin this hour on the trail of the California wildfires from Yosemite to San Diego. More than 40,000 acres of Golden State brushland are burning, blackened, or threatened while hundreds of homes sit deserted but certainly not forgotten.

Hundreds of firefighters are having varying degrees of success against varying combinations of flames and terrain and weather. We get the latest from CNN's Miguel Marquez on the fringes of a fire that was started by an unlucky hawk who tangled with a power line -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what the officials here are saying is that the official cause of the foothill fire is about 25 miles north of Los Angeles. It was a hawk that hit two wires at the same time. You know, those birds they land on wires all the time. They hit one, they're fine. They hit two, this hawk burst into flames, fell to the ground, and started this fire...

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 July 19, 2004 - 13:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
Now in the news, a New Jersey man is due in court right now, charged with the murder of a 16-year-old straight "A" student. Jack Fuller (ph) is being held on $1 million bail in the death of Brittany Gregory (ph) of Brick Township (ph). Her body has not yet been found.
A dramatic live event set for an hour and a half from now at 3:00 p.m. Eastern with a statement from Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun. He's back at a base in Virginia after going missing for three weeks in Iraq and turning up in Beirut, Lebanon. The Marines say Hassoun will read a statement but won't take any questions. We'll bring it to you live.

In a White House statement last hour, President Bush says the U.S. is investigating whether Iran may have played a role in the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Bush also says the CIA has not found any evidence of a direct link between Iran and the 9/11 hijackings. The 9/11 commission is expected to release its final report later this week.

O'BRIEN: The Democrats take center stage when the curtain rises on their convention one week from today in Boston. I know you all have goose bumps. CNN's Judy Woodruff, she's close to Boston. She's in New Hampshire homing in on her target. She has a political preview for us. Judy, good to see you.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS": Hello there, Miles. Yes, we are in New Hampshire. We're in Concord, the state capital, and heading to Boston tomorrow.

O'BRIEN: You probably come to Concord this time of year just to wipe away the memories from primary time, right, when it's 20 below in Concord, and that kind of thing. Let's talk about John Kerry and his arrival at the convention. That's always a discussion, since we can't talk about who is number two on the ticket anymore because that's taken away. Let's talk about the whole sequence of events in his revival. Anything unusual there that we should be taking note of?

WOODRUFF: Yes, it is a little unusual, Miles, because what the Kerry campaign is doing is they are literally doing a cross-country tour. John Kerry is starting in Colorado, the state where he was born, in an army hospital. He likes to point out, in an effort to undermine those Republican charges that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he starts in Colorado, works his way across the country hitting battleground states, including Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Florida and interestingly, they're including Virginia among the states where he's stopping. Typically this is -- in the last presidential elections Virginia's been reliably Republican but the Kerry campaign seems to think they may be able to make some headway there. He's stopping there. Finally in Pennsylvania before reaching Boston, really not until the night before his acceptance speech. It's really unusual, maybe unprecedented for the nominee to get into the convention city so late.

O'BRIEN: Especially since it's his hometown. You'd think he would be watching it on TV on Beacon Hill or something. He runs the risk of raining on his own parade.

WOODRUFF: That's a question I have. I'm going to plug "INSIDE POLITICS" right now so please forgive me. I'm interviewing former New Hampshire governor Jean Shaheen in a little while on "INSIDE POLITICS." She's one of the co-chairs of the Kerry campaign and frankly, one of the questions I have is, aren't they competing with their own story? The entire press corps will be gathered in Boston next week. John Kerry's going to be making his way across the country. I think it remains to be seen how that's going to play out.

O'BRIEN: Is this perhaps an admission, just a slight admission by the parties that there really isn't a lot of news going on at these conventions?

WOODRUFF: Well, let's be very honest. What this convention is all about this year is reintroducing John Kerry to the American people and frankly introducing him to those people who either haven't made up their minds yet about him or say they don't know enough about him to decide that they're going to vote for him.

So whatever they can do in the coming days starting this Friday and concluding a week from Wednesday night as he arrives in Boston to fill out that picture, to make him look like somebody who is not only acceptable, somebody who passes the acceptable test, but who is actually an attractive candidate, somebody Americans can envision voting for for president. Those are the kinds of things they're going to be trying to fill out, talk about what he believes in, you know, what he thinks the nation's economy should look like, jobs, the middle class squeeze, and so forth, and obviously talking about keeping America strong.

O'BRIEN: Judy Woodruff, a woman whose plugs are always welcome on LIVE FROM... because they come with excellent information. Always a pleasure seeing you...

WOODRUFF: Likewise.

O'BRIEN: And welcome back to New Hampshire. Enjoy the nice New Hampshire summer weather which is just rain. By the way, you can watch "INSIDE POLITICS" in case you didn't get the plug fully across to you, immediately after this program, CNN goes way upscale. Judy Woodruff takes the air from us, 3:30 Eastern. We invite you to tune in -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Takes it up a tremendous level.

Here's another level we're going to. They're pint sized and they're too young to vote but apparently what they have is what it takes to cover the Democratic convention. Two 12-year-old young girls have been given the assignment of their lives to report on the convention for "TIME" magazine for kids.

One of those aspiring young writers is Lilly Wasserman. She joins me now live from Boston. Hi, Lilly.

So I'm curious, I'm assuming now that you find politics interesting. Tell me why.

LILLY WASSERMAN, "TIME FOR KIDS" REPORTER: Well, I think that a lot of people don't realize how much it affects kids and even though it's mostly adults that are taking charge of it, with kids, a perfect example is testing in schools, because that affects kids more than it affects anyone else. It takes a large part of their school time to prepare and take the tests and it just -- I don't think -- I think that if kids got more involved then they could really make more of a difference than they think they could.

PHILLIPS: Wow! Well, I'm going to get a little deeper into that then with that. I'm curious, do you believe politicians? Do you believe what they say?

WASSERMAN: I believe them sometimes. I think that -- I don't know. I think it kind of depends.

PHILLIPS: Do you just kind of get a vibe, you kind of feel them out, is it during the interview where you kind of get a read on them in

WASSERMAN: I guess, yes.

PHILLIPS: Do you pay attention to all of the politicians when they have their news conferences and write their articles and come out and speak?

WASSERMAN: I try to pay as much attention as I can. I watch the news, and I read a lot, and I just try to keep up with it as much as I can and stay on top of it.

PHILLIPS: Do you have a favorite politician?

WASSERMAN: Um, not at the moment, no.

PHILLIPS: I heard you're dying to interview Hillary Clinton. Is that true?

WASSERMAN: I think that she's really interesting, definitely.

PHILLIPS: Why do you find her interesting? Why would you want to interview her?

WASSERMAN: Well, I thought that she might run for president and I thought that was really interesting when she was thinking about that and if she still is.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there should be a female running for president?

WASSERMAN: I think there definitely should because there hasn't been yet and I don't think that they're any different than men.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me how you prepared for this assignment to cover the convention.

WASSERMAN: Well, for me, I mostly have just been keeping up with the news as much as I can and learning about the process and the candidates, and I've also been practicing a little bit of writing for it.

PHILLIPS: How do you do that? How do you practice the writing?

WASSERMAN: Well, sometimes I'll read an article and then kind of write down what I've learned from it. I'll write a little summary of something like a really short summary of the candidate or something like that.

PHILLIPS: So let me ask you this. You talked about how the elections affect young people, young people can affect the elections. What do you think about Bush's daughters coming out and sticking up and speaking on behalf of their father and what do you think of Kerry's kids coming forward and traveling with him?

WASSERMAN: I think that's really good because I think it will inspire a lot of kids.

PHILLIPS: Now why? Why do you think it's important for kids to be inspired by politics and get involved at such a young age?

WASSERMAN: Because I don't think that they realize how much of a difference they can make and that people will really listen to them, if they just put their minds to it and are really persistent.

PHILLIPS: What's going to be your big exclusive? What's the byline we need to be looking for in "TIME FOR KIDS" magazine?

WASSERMAN: At the convention, we'll probably be keeping a journal of what we do and we'll just try to interview as many people as we can.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be watching you and we'll be reading your stuff, Lilly.

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, it was supposed to be a nice relaxing day at the track but for little E, things got a little hot. We'll get the lowdown on just how racing's finest keep the flames at bay from a friend of LIVE FROM..., Number 49, Kenny Schrader.

And looking for a fast way to slow down a horrible disease? Putting the brakes on Alzheimer's when LIVE FROM... continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Health news. A drug currently on the market is showing promise of slowing the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Joining us to talk about it is CNN medical correspondent Holly Firfer. Hello, Holly.

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Recently at the new conference, Ninth International Conference on Alzheimer's, a new study was unveiled and found that a drug called Dinepozil (ph), you might be more familiar with its brand name Aricept (ph) was able to slow the progression of Alzheimer's Disease in those who had mild cognitive impairment or MCI.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic looked at 769 patients who were diagnosed with MCI and gave them either Aricept, Vitamin E or a placebo over a three-year period. They found those who took Vitamin E or the placebo nothing happened. But those who took the Aricept were able to slow the onset of Alzheimer's.

Now here's the caveat. Although they could slow the progression of the disease, they only saw that over the first 18 months of the study and even then the Aricept only gave patients about six months of a so-called reprieve, somewhere within that first 18 months. So by the end of the three years all of the patients were at the same place with the disease so at the end of the three months, those patients who would go on to develop Alzheimer's, had developed Alzheimer's.

O'BRIEN: So what do you take away from this? Is there something in there that they can extend perhaps in order to get long-lasting results?

FIRFER: That's what they're hoping. Researchers are hoping that what this will tell them is can Alzheimer's be slowed or stopped eventually?

20 percent of those who develop or have MCI will not develop Alzheimer's. 80 percent of those with MCI will develop Alzheimer's. So they're trying to figure out at what point can you maybe stop or slow the progression of the disease.

1.7 million Americans take Aricept now so they're wondering could they have stopped it earlier and when they develop more drugs will they be able to give it to patients earlier when they show the first signs of mild cognitive impairment to prevent that disease.

O'BRIEN: Mild cognitive impairment. I think most days Kyra accuses me of that. But it's obviously more serious than that. So why don't you tell us what that's all about.

FIRFER: There is a distinction. You go into a room and you wonder what am I doing in this room? What am I here for? Where did I put my keys? What was I going to ask you? That's a normal sign of a healthy aging brain but when you have more serious warning signs like forgetful -- frequent forgetfulness, all the time you're wondering, where am I going, what am I doing, who are you? Difficulty with learning, trouble remembering old information, those are the signs of MCI, but the difference between that and Alzheimer's is you can still perform daily activities. You still can make certain decisions. You can understand what people are telling you. You really can still think. You do not need help every day. That's the difference between MCI and Alzheimer's, but 80 percent of those people will go on to develop Alzheimer's. That's the problem.

O'BRIEN: OK. All right. Thank you very much, Holly Firfer. Appreciate it.

FIRFER: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Take a look at this. The pictures are terrifying. NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. engulfed in flames following an accident yesterday in Sonoma, California. But even more amazing, Little E escaped with only moderate burns to his chin and legs. How is that possible? Well, racing great Ken Schrader sure knows. He's been on fire and he survived the flames.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Ken, take us back to Pocono (ph) Raceway 2003 and tell us what happened.

KEN SCHRADER, RACE CAR DRIVER: Well, I went down in the turn and the car lost all brake pedal and got it turned around so I could hit backwards because the back end of the car is quite a bit softer and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) absorb more energy. Although you know that the chance of fire is greater when you hit backwards but our cars, the way NASCAR constructs them, a lot of times you have a big fire and then it will start to put itself out pretty quick. So I just knew that would be the easiest way to hit.

PHILLIPS: So did you know the car was on fire or did you not realize it until you were getting out of the car?

SCHRADER: No, first off you look in the mirror and see it and you're sitting in there in your cocoon and the fire starts wrapping around. It's like as soon as this thing gets stopped now would be a pretty good time to get out.

PHILLIPS: You saw the flames, and you thought, "that's it I'm outta here."

SCHRADER: Right.

PHILLIPS: How many seconds did you take to get out of the car and do you practice escaping out of your vehicle if indeed a fire starts?

SCHRADER: I don't practice escaping out but you get in and out of it so many times over the course of a weekend, you know what you have to do. It's a regular routine to get out and in an emergency you know what you need to do to get out quicker. So it probably didn't take five, six seconds.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. And did you get any burns from that fire?

SCHRADER: No, no burns whatever, but because of all of the protective gear that we wear, you know, two or three-layer nomex uniform, the helmet that's nomex-lined, underwear underneath it that's nomex, nomex shoes, nomex gloves.

PHILLIPS: Explain nomex for those that don't understand what that is.

SCHRADER: That would be hard for probably me to do. They've got all different materials now that are just real fireproof. From what I've been told, when you're clothed properly with the right equipment on, you can potentially be in the fire somewhat for around 45 seconds to a minute, and burns would be very, very minor.

PHILLIPS: With all of this nomex and this would probably be your next sponsor, Kenny, but with all of the nomex materials on, when you did catch fire, do you remember, did you feel heat? Did you actually feel the flame? What do you remember from what you felt?

SCHRADER: All you're thinking is get out as quick as possible. No, I did not feel any heat. But you were just worried about getting out real quick. What we saw the other day in Dale Jr.'s deal, he was actually surrounded. He was in the bulk of it, and looked like it woke him up and he got out real quick then.

PHILLIPS: That's true. What do you do if you're knocked unconscious? How does your crew respond? What's the proper procedure safety-wise?

SCHRADER: Well, you know, if you're knocked unconscious, unfortunately, there's nothing you can do and your crew, being on pit road, there's nothing that they can do, but NASCAR has and it's one of the things why we slow down so quick now, we don't race back to the yellow so they can get the emergency equipment to the scene of the accident as quick as possible. They can't send the guys out in the pickup with all of the fire fighting gear when the cars are still going 200 mile an hour, but now we slow down instantly, they send that crew out there real quick and that's really made things quite a bit safer.

PHILLIPS: Kenny, what about the car. Take us inside your car. I realize all of the stuff you have on your body. What about the seat and the bars and the padding on the bars?

SCHRADER: We've actually got padding that is fire-resistant. It used to be we had (UNINTELLIGIBLE) get injured a few years ago where the roll bar padding for his head melted and dripped down on his neck and gave him some pretty healthy burns. We've changed it to nomex, changed the padding on the bars. Some of the seats now have fire- resistant material on them so while you're sitting in your nomex uniform, your seat doesn't catch on fire. So just so many -- your seatbelt is the same way, so many things that NASCAR and all the racing organizations have done throughout the years to keep trying to make these cars safer and safer.

PHILLIPS: All right, when can we watch you again and watch you set your record on fire, Kenny?

SCHRADER: Record on fire?

PHILLIPS: In a good way. We want you to win.

SCHRADER: Yes, OK. Well, we're going to take the Schwann's car along with the whole Nextel series up to Loudon (ph), New Hampshire for a race this Sunday. Looking forward to that.

PHILLIPS: I know you'll be on fire on the racetrack, not necessarily in the car. Kenny Schrader, I know you've been up since 4:00 a.m., stuck around to do this just for us. Really appreciate it.

SCHRADER: Thanks for having us on.

PHILLIPS: All right, good luck, Ken.

We'll race on over to the New York Stock Exchange and find out what's happening in business after a quick break. More LIVE FROM... after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Wildfires, erratic winds, dry conditions and hundreds of homes threatened. It's a firefighter's nightmare in southern California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought we were going to die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought we were going to get killed or get hurt.

O'BRIEN: A wild ride. A family outing in a hot air balloon or was it helium, not sure which, turns into a dangerous dilemma.

PHILLIPS: The 9/11 commission connection. The relation between the al Qaeda terrorists which struck America and Iran.

O'BRIEN: And brain food. A new study shows why all of us should eat our vegetables. Listening kids? From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: I'm listening to you, Miles. I'm Kyra Philips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

O'BRIEN: We begin this hour on the trail of the California wildfires from Yosemite to San Diego. More than 40,000 acres of Golden State brushland are burning, blackened, or threatened while hundreds of homes sit deserted but certainly not forgotten.

Hundreds of firefighters are having varying degrees of success against varying combinations of flames and terrain and weather. We get the latest from CNN's Miguel Marquez on the fringes of a fire that was started by an unlucky hawk who tangled with a power line -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what the officials here are saying is that the official cause of the foothill fire is about 25 miles north of Los Angeles. It was a hawk that hit two wires at the same time. You know, those birds they land on wires all the time. They hit one, they're fine. They hit two, this hawk burst into flames, fell to the ground, and started this fire...

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