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Laguna Beach Landslide; Deep Throat Named; Hurricane '05
Aired June 01, 2005 - 14:00 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: And take a look at this. The pipes made funny noises and then suddenly the homes started sliding down the hill. We're live from Laguna Beach, California.
Firing back. The secretary of Defense responds to a report calling the prison at Guantanamo Bay a gulag.
Attention online shoppers. You may know less than you think about saving money online.
And the shopper pushing this cart got more than he bargained for. It's all the buzz in Shreveport, Louisiana.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
The sky is blue, the soil is dry, yet the houses came tumbling down. Several so far. It's hard to know exactly how many in Laguna Beach, California -- landslide country, to be sure, but recently devoid of sinking, destabilizing rains.
Reporter Liz Habib is watching from a safe distance.
Liz, tell us what's going on.
LIZ HABIB, REPORTER: Well, right now we know that 12 homes are destroyed because they came down in this landslide. Significant, because 310 to 350 homes have been evacuated. And when you look at these homes up on the mountain up there, you're looking at homes that are over a million dollars.
The 12 homes completely damaged. The foundation just cracked, and they came sliding down the hill. And 15 homes damaged pretty good.
All of the people who have been sent out of the area by the police, and all of the people who have been evacuated, aren't going to be able to get back into those homes for at least two to three days. Power lines -- what happened early this morning, they were in their homes. I'll give you an idea.
Suddenly, people started hearing strange noises, they say. They couldn't decide, was someone walking on the roof, was there hail coming down? Then suddenly the cracking noises, noises like they've never heard before.
The transformer boxes on the top of the power poles started exploding. Sparks flying everywhere.
So people ran out of their homes. One lady ran out of her house in her bathrobe, stepped on a cactus and had to be evacuated out of there in an ambulance.
There have been some injuries, nothing real serious. It's the type of thing where older people have been evacuated, and the evacuation was a little too much for them to handle. So they were sent off to the hospital.
We have seen people -- just a chaotic scene -- walking down the hill with dogs, snakes. Medicine has been real important for people to get back up in there and get their medicine.
This is still a very fluid situation. If you're very close to it, you can sort of see the homes still shifting and coming down the mountain. But it's going to be hours and hours and hours before geologists get an idea when that hill is going to stabilize or if it's going to stabilize up there.
One man who lives right at the edge of the evacuation line, he's worried about thousands of dollars of antiques that are in his home. And he went up there to go get his medicine out of the home.
Laguna Beach is one of the more desirable areas in the country to live, for sure. Homes on the average here are $1.75 million. But these people are used to mudslides, especially in this area. There was a mudslide here, just across the street, basically, back in 1978 that took out all of the homes.
But there has been no rain this morning. There's just sort of a marine layer.
We had a very rainy winter. So there is a theory that the water seeped into the hillside, and once it's been settled in all of these months -- this was back in February when we had the rain -- it's now finally broken loose and brought down these million-dollar homes with it.
PHILLIPS: All right. Liz Habib, thank you so much. As geologists continue to study how that happened, we'll bring you the latest information as soon as we get it.
Now the gulag rebuttal. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is offering no leniency to Amnesty International, which recently dubbed the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay -- and we quote -- "The gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law."
Rumsfeld considers those fighting words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps. Or I suppose some might say that where Saddam Hussein mutilated and murdered untold numbers because they held views unacceptable to his regime. To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Rumsfeld pleads for context, citing 370 abuse investigations out of 68,000 detainees that the U.S. has handled since 9/11. But Amnesty isn't backing down. The group says it was attacking Saddam Hussein and Rumsfeld was courting him in the 1980s.
President Bush is holding court today with NATO's secretary- general. He met with him last hour. Mr. Bush was with him in the Oval Office, and we expect to bring in tape of that event momentarily.
I'm told we have it now. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Secretary- General, welcome. Thank you for coming.
It's been my pleasure to work with this good man. The secretary- general is a visionary leader of a very important alliance, and that is NATO. America is a proud member of NATO. We view NATO as our link, our transatlantic link to Europe.
NATO is a place where not only do we work to work on defensive measures to protect our respective people, but it's a place where we are proud to strategize as to how to promote values of -- universal values of democracy and freedom and human rights and human dignity. Under the secretary-general's leadership, NATO has been active in places like Afghanistan and training troops in NATO. And today we discussed the NATO mission in Darfur to help deal with human suffering in that -- in that part of the world.
So, Mr. Secretary-General I am proud to call you friend and proud to work with you as a president of a contributing member of NATO. Welcome.
JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: Mr. President, hank you very much, indeed.
I can -- I can echo what you said. NATO has always been and still is a value-driven organization. It's about values. The same values that we have defended in the Cold War, we're now defending in Afghanistan in the (INAUDIBLE) mountains. We are training the Iraqi security forces so that their country can stand on its own feet as soon as possible.
We're staying the course in Kosovo. It will have, as the president mentioned, the support for the African union in Darfur.
We have an antiterrorist operation in the Mediterranean. We'll stay the course. We'll stay the course.
We do that with the 26 NATO allies. Of course, first and foremost, with the United States of America. And we do it with our partners as well, with important countries of NATO like the Ukraine, like our partners in the Balkans.
So we'll stay the course. And I'm sure that NATO will also in the coming -- in the coming time will be an important political military organization, enhancing political dialogue within NATO. That's what it's -- that's what it's all about, staying the course militarily and staying the course politically.
Mr. President, thank you very much.
BUSH: You're welcome. Thanks for coming. I appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The president of the United States and the NATO secretary-general there meeting in Washington in the Oval Office, talking about antiterrorist operations around the world and NATO's mission, particularly in Darfur, Iraq and Kosovo.
Well, one day later, the nation is still abuzz about the deep dark secret that is no more, the news that former lawman W. Mark Felt was the Watergate informant known as Deep Throat. Now in California, and in apparent poor health, Felt was the number two official at the FBI at the time of the scandal that toppled President Nixon. The bombshell reported by "Vanity Fair" and later confirmed by "The Washington Post" caught us all by surprise, including "The Post."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID VON DREHLE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": We had no idea the story was coming. We learned of it yesterday morning.
Our top editors were at a corporate retreat. They had to rush back to "The Post." Bob Woodward had to read the story, figure out what was in it. He had been in contact with the Felt family for the past several years, trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Felt's wishes were and whether he was lucid enough at his advanced age to undo the agreement that had -- that they both had kept for so many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Mark Felt's identity was not necessarily a shock to many Watergate watchers. Through the years he had been named in several books as a likely candidate to be Deep Throat. He denied it in his own book in 1979, but why has he come forward now? CNN Senior Political Analyst William Schneider has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): Why did Mark Felt keep silent for the last 30 years? Bob Woodward told Larry King last year...
BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": And I think once people see who it is and exactly what happened, we'll understand why the super secrecy and the confidentiality.
SCHNEIDER: The "Vanity Fair" article quotes Felt's son as saying, "his attitude was, "I don't think being Deep Throat was anything to be proud of. You should not leak information to anyone." Remember, Deep Throat revealed secrets about a criminal investigation he headed and he could have been prosecuted. He told his daughter he was worried about "what the judge would think."
Another mystery, why did Felt decide to reveal himself now? O'Connor says Felt revealed the truth casually, almost inadvertently, to close friends and family members. He confided his identity to a social companion, who shared it with felt's daughter, Joan. He says, Joan confronted her father saying, I know now that you're Deep Throat. His response, "since that's the case, well, yes, I am."
The "Vanity Fair" article says family members wanted felt, now 91 and ailing, to come forward and establish his legacy. His son says . . .
MARK FELT, JR.: And we believe our father, William Mark Felt Senior, was an American hero. He went well above and beyond the call of duty, at risk to himself, to save this country from a horrible injustice.
SCHNEIDER: His daughter recalls telling Felt, we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids education. Let's do it for the family. Felt's response, that's a good reason. Though "Vanity Fair's" author says, the Felts were not paid for their cooperation.
Perhaps most important, according to his grandson, Felt feels that after 30 years all is now finally forgiven.
NICK JONES, GRANDSON OF W. MARK FELT: As he recently told my mother, I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal but now they think he's a hero.
SCHNEIDER: It sounds amazing to say this, given today's political environment, but there are no indications Felt ever had any partisan motives. He acted, he says, to protect the FBI and his own role in it from political interference.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Some of the former government officials convicted of Watergate crimes are questioning Mark Felt's honor today. We'd like to know what you think. Send your comments to LIVEFROM@CNN.com, and be prepared to have them read a little later.
And you'll want to catch this: Woodward and Bernstein tomorrow night, A Larry King exclusive. That's "LARRY KING LIVE," 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
Getting rid of your paper trail. A new law going into effect today means shredders will be working overtime.
And bees apparently get a buzz out of something in this shopping cart. We'll tell you what they are after just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You have been living in there all of this time?
MIRIAM CAROTHERS, HURRICANE CHARLEY VICTIM: Yes. Yes, sir.
ZARRELLA: How much longer are you going to have to -- I mean, hurricane season is here.
CAROTHERS: Tell me about it. I don't even want to hear about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And preparing for hurricane season while still rebuilding from the last one. Our John Zarrella goes inside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News "Across America" now.
A shocking turn in the investigation into last month's Cleveland fire that killed nine people, including eight family members. Officials there say the fire was no accident. Test results confirm the presence of an accelerant. That fire broke out during a sleepover party.
The mayor of Spokane, Washington, on the defensive. The city council has unanimously asked him to resign. Mayor James West is facing allegations he offered jobs to young men he met in gay online chat rooms, but West says investigations by the city and the FBI will exonerate him.
Now to the nation's capital. Live pictures. Well, for some it spells anxiety, fear and sheer agony. For others, just plain fun.
Let's listen in.
(APPLAUSE)
PHILLIPS: It sounds like she got -- oh, she's out. Oh. All right. We'll listen to the next one.
The National Spelling Bee is under way right now, 146 boys and 127 girls. Here we go. Let's see if she gets it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eviscerate. Language of origin please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Latin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definition please? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To take out the entrails of, to disembowel or gut is to eviscerate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eviscerate, E-V-I-C-R-A-T-E, eviscerate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eviscerate is E-V-I-S-C-E-R-A-T-E.
PHILLIPS: They come as far away as New Zealand, and taking part -- oh, that was rough.
Well, here is proof that when it comes to sodas, Dr. Pepper is the bees' need. A customer left a busted can of the beverage outside a supermarket in Shreveport, Louisiana. It wasn't long before hundreds of honey bees moved in. Beekeepers later moved them out.
Well, it's June 1, the official start of hurricane season. And down South, Florida is bracing for another round of storms that may be a little too soon for some residents of that Sunshine State. As John Zarrella reports, many people are still picking up the pieces from last year's wave of destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Wayne Sallade's message is simple: just try to relax.
WAYNE SALLADE, CHARLOTTE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER: We are sitting on a tinderbox of emotions in this state right now. Everybody is skittish.
ZARRELLA: The man who has been a Charlotte County emergency manager for 18 years delivered his sermon during one of three stops on his daylong hurricane caravan, preaching preparedness and dispelling myths.
SALLADE: Tornadoes is Dorothy in Kansas in "The Wizard of Oz," not in Hurricane Charley.
ZARRELLA: Sallade is focused on getting people ready for this hurricane season. The problem is many folks, like Miriam Carothers, are still living last year's nightmare.
Ten months after Charley and $16,000 later, all she has is a new roof and drywall. The rest of the house remains gutted. While she waits for work to be done she lives in a FEMA trailer right outside her bedroom window.
(on camera): You're living right out this window?
CAROTHERS: Right out that window. We wash and eat and cook over there.
ZARRELLA: So you have been living in there all of this time?
CAROTHERS: Yes. Yes, sir.
ZARRELLA: How much longer are you going to have to -- I mean, hurricane season is here.
CAROTHERS: Tell me about it. I don't even want to hear about that.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Carothers, a grandmother who has lived here for more than 20 years, is one of nearly 27,000 people in Florida still living in FEMA-provided housing. Many are in mobile home cities set up by the agency.
Affordable housing is scarce and is the biggest post-hurricane issue facing the state. Across Florida, blue tarps still cover thousands of roofs. Building materials are in short supply.
All people can do is try to be patient. Painting landscapes keeps Miriam Carothers' blood from boiling.
(on camera): Snow and -- it's not like a hurricane in Florida, is it? A little bit of a different setting, isn't it.
CAROTHERS: Yes.
ZARRELLA: I don't see you painting any of those.
CAROTHERS: No. I'm not.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): She doesn't use canvas either. Carothers paints on pieces of drywall left over from the work her contractor did finish.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That was our John Zarrella.
And experts are predicting a busy hurricane season. Colorado State University Professor William Gray predicts 15 named storms will form in the Atlantic Basin. Eight of those will reach hurricane strength. Four storms will have winds of at least 111 miles an hour.
Now the first man on the moon has had his last haircut at Max's Barbershop. Find out what the barber did that sent him into orbit on our next hour of LIVE FROM.
And just ahead, find out why "The Da Vinci Code" director, Ron Howard, and actor Tom Hanks are not welcomed at Westminster Abbey.
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, you can get an employee discount on a new car at General Motors, and you don't even have to work there. I'll have all the details next on LIVE FROM. So stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Stories ""Now in the News."
Devastation in Laguna Beach, California. A landslide has damaged or destroyed more than 15 upscale homes. Several more homes are on the brink of collapse. We're going to go live to the scene in just a minute.
Pollsters in the Netherlands predicting another defeat for the European Union constitution. Today's vote comes just days after France rejected the charter, plunging the EU's future into uncertainty. Polls close in about 30 minutes. Stay tuned to CNN for the results.
END
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Aired June 1, 2005 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And take a look at this. The pipes made funny noises and then suddenly the homes started sliding down the hill. We're live from Laguna Beach, California.
Firing back. The secretary of Defense responds to a report calling the prison at Guantanamo Bay a gulag.
Attention online shoppers. You may know less than you think about saving money online.
And the shopper pushing this cart got more than he bargained for. It's all the buzz in Shreveport, Louisiana.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is off. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
The sky is blue, the soil is dry, yet the houses came tumbling down. Several so far. It's hard to know exactly how many in Laguna Beach, California -- landslide country, to be sure, but recently devoid of sinking, destabilizing rains.
Reporter Liz Habib is watching from a safe distance.
Liz, tell us what's going on.
LIZ HABIB, REPORTER: Well, right now we know that 12 homes are destroyed because they came down in this landslide. Significant, because 310 to 350 homes have been evacuated. And when you look at these homes up on the mountain up there, you're looking at homes that are over a million dollars.
The 12 homes completely damaged. The foundation just cracked, and they came sliding down the hill. And 15 homes damaged pretty good.
All of the people who have been sent out of the area by the police, and all of the people who have been evacuated, aren't going to be able to get back into those homes for at least two to three days. Power lines -- what happened early this morning, they were in their homes. I'll give you an idea.
Suddenly, people started hearing strange noises, they say. They couldn't decide, was someone walking on the roof, was there hail coming down? Then suddenly the cracking noises, noises like they've never heard before.
The transformer boxes on the top of the power poles started exploding. Sparks flying everywhere.
So people ran out of their homes. One lady ran out of her house in her bathrobe, stepped on a cactus and had to be evacuated out of there in an ambulance.
There have been some injuries, nothing real serious. It's the type of thing where older people have been evacuated, and the evacuation was a little too much for them to handle. So they were sent off to the hospital.
We have seen people -- just a chaotic scene -- walking down the hill with dogs, snakes. Medicine has been real important for people to get back up in there and get their medicine.
This is still a very fluid situation. If you're very close to it, you can sort of see the homes still shifting and coming down the mountain. But it's going to be hours and hours and hours before geologists get an idea when that hill is going to stabilize or if it's going to stabilize up there.
One man who lives right at the edge of the evacuation line, he's worried about thousands of dollars of antiques that are in his home. And he went up there to go get his medicine out of the home.
Laguna Beach is one of the more desirable areas in the country to live, for sure. Homes on the average here are $1.75 million. But these people are used to mudslides, especially in this area. There was a mudslide here, just across the street, basically, back in 1978 that took out all of the homes.
But there has been no rain this morning. There's just sort of a marine layer.
We had a very rainy winter. So there is a theory that the water seeped into the hillside, and once it's been settled in all of these months -- this was back in February when we had the rain -- it's now finally broken loose and brought down these million-dollar homes with it.
PHILLIPS: All right. Liz Habib, thank you so much. As geologists continue to study how that happened, we'll bring you the latest information as soon as we get it.
Now the gulag rebuttal. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is offering no leniency to Amnesty International, which recently dubbed the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay -- and we quote -- "The gulag of our times, entrenching the practice of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international law."
Rumsfeld considers those fighting words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps. Or I suppose some might say that where Saddam Hussein mutilated and murdered untold numbers because they held views unacceptable to his regime. To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Rumsfeld pleads for context, citing 370 abuse investigations out of 68,000 detainees that the U.S. has handled since 9/11. But Amnesty isn't backing down. The group says it was attacking Saddam Hussein and Rumsfeld was courting him in the 1980s.
President Bush is holding court today with NATO's secretary- general. He met with him last hour. Mr. Bush was with him in the Oval Office, and we expect to bring in tape of that event momentarily.
I'm told we have it now. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Secretary- General, welcome. Thank you for coming.
It's been my pleasure to work with this good man. The secretary- general is a visionary leader of a very important alliance, and that is NATO. America is a proud member of NATO. We view NATO as our link, our transatlantic link to Europe.
NATO is a place where not only do we work to work on defensive measures to protect our respective people, but it's a place where we are proud to strategize as to how to promote values of -- universal values of democracy and freedom and human rights and human dignity. Under the secretary-general's leadership, NATO has been active in places like Afghanistan and training troops in NATO. And today we discussed the NATO mission in Darfur to help deal with human suffering in that -- in that part of the world.
So, Mr. Secretary-General I am proud to call you friend and proud to work with you as a president of a contributing member of NATO. Welcome.
JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: Mr. President, hank you very much, indeed.
I can -- I can echo what you said. NATO has always been and still is a value-driven organization. It's about values. The same values that we have defended in the Cold War, we're now defending in Afghanistan in the (INAUDIBLE) mountains. We are training the Iraqi security forces so that their country can stand on its own feet as soon as possible.
We're staying the course in Kosovo. It will have, as the president mentioned, the support for the African union in Darfur.
We have an antiterrorist operation in the Mediterranean. We'll stay the course. We'll stay the course.
We do that with the 26 NATO allies. Of course, first and foremost, with the United States of America. And we do it with our partners as well, with important countries of NATO like the Ukraine, like our partners in the Balkans.
So we'll stay the course. And I'm sure that NATO will also in the coming -- in the coming time will be an important political military organization, enhancing political dialogue within NATO. That's what it's -- that's what it's all about, staying the course militarily and staying the course politically.
Mr. President, thank you very much.
BUSH: You're welcome. Thanks for coming. I appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The president of the United States and the NATO secretary-general there meeting in Washington in the Oval Office, talking about antiterrorist operations around the world and NATO's mission, particularly in Darfur, Iraq and Kosovo.
Well, one day later, the nation is still abuzz about the deep dark secret that is no more, the news that former lawman W. Mark Felt was the Watergate informant known as Deep Throat. Now in California, and in apparent poor health, Felt was the number two official at the FBI at the time of the scandal that toppled President Nixon. The bombshell reported by "Vanity Fair" and later confirmed by "The Washington Post" caught us all by surprise, including "The Post."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID VON DREHLE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": We had no idea the story was coming. We learned of it yesterday morning.
Our top editors were at a corporate retreat. They had to rush back to "The Post." Bob Woodward had to read the story, figure out what was in it. He had been in contact with the Felt family for the past several years, trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Felt's wishes were and whether he was lucid enough at his advanced age to undo the agreement that had -- that they both had kept for so many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Mark Felt's identity was not necessarily a shock to many Watergate watchers. Through the years he had been named in several books as a likely candidate to be Deep Throat. He denied it in his own book in 1979, but why has he come forward now? CNN Senior Political Analyst William Schneider has some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): Why did Mark Felt keep silent for the last 30 years? Bob Woodward told Larry King last year...
BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": And I think once people see who it is and exactly what happened, we'll understand why the super secrecy and the confidentiality.
SCHNEIDER: The "Vanity Fair" article quotes Felt's son as saying, "his attitude was, "I don't think being Deep Throat was anything to be proud of. You should not leak information to anyone." Remember, Deep Throat revealed secrets about a criminal investigation he headed and he could have been prosecuted. He told his daughter he was worried about "what the judge would think."
Another mystery, why did Felt decide to reveal himself now? O'Connor says Felt revealed the truth casually, almost inadvertently, to close friends and family members. He confided his identity to a social companion, who shared it with felt's daughter, Joan. He says, Joan confronted her father saying, I know now that you're Deep Throat. His response, "since that's the case, well, yes, I am."
The "Vanity Fair" article says family members wanted felt, now 91 and ailing, to come forward and establish his legacy. His son says . . .
MARK FELT, JR.: And we believe our father, William Mark Felt Senior, was an American hero. He went well above and beyond the call of duty, at risk to himself, to save this country from a horrible injustice.
SCHNEIDER: His daughter recalls telling Felt, we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids education. Let's do it for the family. Felt's response, that's a good reason. Though "Vanity Fair's" author says, the Felts were not paid for their cooperation.
Perhaps most important, according to his grandson, Felt feels that after 30 years all is now finally forgiven.
NICK JONES, GRANDSON OF W. MARK FELT: As he recently told my mother, I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal but now they think he's a hero.
SCHNEIDER: It sounds amazing to say this, given today's political environment, but there are no indications Felt ever had any partisan motives. He acted, he says, to protect the FBI and his own role in it from political interference.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Some of the former government officials convicted of Watergate crimes are questioning Mark Felt's honor today. We'd like to know what you think. Send your comments to LIVEFROM@CNN.com, and be prepared to have them read a little later.
And you'll want to catch this: Woodward and Bernstein tomorrow night, A Larry King exclusive. That's "LARRY KING LIVE," 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
Getting rid of your paper trail. A new law going into effect today means shredders will be working overtime.
And bees apparently get a buzz out of something in this shopping cart. We'll tell you what they are after just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You have been living in there all of this time?
MIRIAM CAROTHERS, HURRICANE CHARLEY VICTIM: Yes. Yes, sir.
ZARRELLA: How much longer are you going to have to -- I mean, hurricane season is here.
CAROTHERS: Tell me about it. I don't even want to hear about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And preparing for hurricane season while still rebuilding from the last one. Our John Zarrella goes inside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: News "Across America" now.
A shocking turn in the investigation into last month's Cleveland fire that killed nine people, including eight family members. Officials there say the fire was no accident. Test results confirm the presence of an accelerant. That fire broke out during a sleepover party.
The mayor of Spokane, Washington, on the defensive. The city council has unanimously asked him to resign. Mayor James West is facing allegations he offered jobs to young men he met in gay online chat rooms, but West says investigations by the city and the FBI will exonerate him.
Now to the nation's capital. Live pictures. Well, for some it spells anxiety, fear and sheer agony. For others, just plain fun.
Let's listen in.
(APPLAUSE)
PHILLIPS: It sounds like she got -- oh, she's out. Oh. All right. We'll listen to the next one.
The National Spelling Bee is under way right now, 146 boys and 127 girls. Here we go. Let's see if she gets it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eviscerate. Language of origin please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Latin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definition please? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To take out the entrails of, to disembowel or gut is to eviscerate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eviscerate, E-V-I-C-R-A-T-E, eviscerate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eviscerate is E-V-I-S-C-E-R-A-T-E.
PHILLIPS: They come as far away as New Zealand, and taking part -- oh, that was rough.
Well, here is proof that when it comes to sodas, Dr. Pepper is the bees' need. A customer left a busted can of the beverage outside a supermarket in Shreveport, Louisiana. It wasn't long before hundreds of honey bees moved in. Beekeepers later moved them out.
Well, it's June 1, the official start of hurricane season. And down South, Florida is bracing for another round of storms that may be a little too soon for some residents of that Sunshine State. As John Zarrella reports, many people are still picking up the pieces from last year's wave of destruction.
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ZARRELLA: Wayne Sallade's message is simple: just try to relax.
WAYNE SALLADE, CHARLOTTE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER: We are sitting on a tinderbox of emotions in this state right now. Everybody is skittish.
ZARRELLA: The man who has been a Charlotte County emergency manager for 18 years delivered his sermon during one of three stops on his daylong hurricane caravan, preaching preparedness and dispelling myths.
SALLADE: Tornadoes is Dorothy in Kansas in "The Wizard of Oz," not in Hurricane Charley.
ZARRELLA: Sallade is focused on getting people ready for this hurricane season. The problem is many folks, like Miriam Carothers, are still living last year's nightmare.
Ten months after Charley and $16,000 later, all she has is a new roof and drywall. The rest of the house remains gutted. While she waits for work to be done she lives in a FEMA trailer right outside her bedroom window.
(on camera): You're living right out this window?
CAROTHERS: Right out that window. We wash and eat and cook over there.
ZARRELLA: So you have been living in there all of this time?
CAROTHERS: Yes. Yes, sir.
ZARRELLA: How much longer are you going to have to -- I mean, hurricane season is here.
CAROTHERS: Tell me about it. I don't even want to hear about that.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Carothers, a grandmother who has lived here for more than 20 years, is one of nearly 27,000 people in Florida still living in FEMA-provided housing. Many are in mobile home cities set up by the agency.
Affordable housing is scarce and is the biggest post-hurricane issue facing the state. Across Florida, blue tarps still cover thousands of roofs. Building materials are in short supply.
All people can do is try to be patient. Painting landscapes keeps Miriam Carothers' blood from boiling.
(on camera): Snow and -- it's not like a hurricane in Florida, is it? A little bit of a different setting, isn't it.
CAROTHERS: Yes.
ZARRELLA: I don't see you painting any of those.
CAROTHERS: No. I'm not.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): She doesn't use canvas either. Carothers paints on pieces of drywall left over from the work her contractor did finish.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: That was our John Zarrella.
And experts are predicting a busy hurricane season. Colorado State University Professor William Gray predicts 15 named storms will form in the Atlantic Basin. Eight of those will reach hurricane strength. Four storms will have winds of at least 111 miles an hour.
Now the first man on the moon has had his last haircut at Max's Barbershop. Find out what the barber did that sent him into orbit on our next hour of LIVE FROM.
And just ahead, find out why "The Da Vinci Code" director, Ron Howard, and actor Tom Hanks are not welcomed at Westminster Abbey.
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. Up next, you can get an employee discount on a new car at General Motors, and you don't even have to work there. I'll have all the details next on LIVE FROM. So stay tuned.
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PHILLIPS: Stories ""Now in the News."
Devastation in Laguna Beach, California. A landslide has damaged or destroyed more than 15 upscale homes. Several more homes are on the brink of collapse. We're going to go live to the scene in just a minute.
Pollsters in the Netherlands predicting another defeat for the European Union constitution. Today's vote comes just days after France rejected the charter, plunging the EU's future into uncertainty. Polls close in about 30 minutes. Stay tuned to CNN for the results.
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