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Courthouse Shooting; Discovery Home Safe; Dana Reeve's Cancer

Aired August 09, 2005 - 14:02   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There you have the president taking one final question on the economy. And that's the reason he was meeting with his economic advisers today to talk about the economy. But much of the conversation, as you heard, was spent on where things stand right now with Iran and Iran's desire to restart its nuclear program.
The concern is that most of the countries, certainly Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States, are not keen on the idea of Iran starting its -- restarting its nuclear enrichment program. The concern is what Iran really wants is not a civilian peaceful energy program, nuclear program, but that what it really wants is a program that would ultimately lead to the production of a bomb.

The president learned and shared that he believes that Iran is willing now, having heard from the president, the new president of Iran, that Iran is willing to talk more about this issue, but at least right now Germany, France and Great Britain are taking the lead on this issue.

We will continue to follow this story and bring you more developments as we get them.

One's a convicted felon roughly two years into a 35-year prison term. The other is a suspected killer, having allegedly gunned down a prison guard just this morning. They're on the lam, presumably together, presumably armed and dangerous, presumably somewhere in the southeastern United States, and they're husband and wife.

At this hour the FBI, a Tennessee S.W.A.T. team, local police all are on the lookout for George and Jennifer Hyatte after a daring and desperate shootout at the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee.

Authorities tell us Jennifer Hyatte opened fire from an SUV on the corrections officers who were escorting George, serving 35 years for aggravated assault and burglary, into a van. One guard was shot in the stomach and died a short while later.

Police suspect at least one of the Hyattes is wounded, too, having found blood in an abandoned SUV. They pair is now believed to be in a gold Chevy van.

Stay with LIVE FROM for the latest developments as they happen.

Jennifer Johnson is on the phone with us right now from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations.

And Jennifer, what can you tell us about the state of this investigation, where things stand at the moment.

JENNIFER JOHNSON, TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS: Well, we just arrived here. The TBI''s mobile command post is on its way here.

Really, the role of our agency in this from this point forward is in the manhunt, in trying to find George Hyatte and Jennifer Hyatte. We have certain areas of the state that we're focusing our attention on, and obviously we're looking for this Chevy Ventura van. And hope that anyone who sees this van or either of these people -- we have received some information that one or both of them may be injured, so if anyone sees someone fitting their descriptions, obviously we'd like for them to call us at 1-800-TBI-FIVE.

HARRIS: Jennifer Hyatte, what -- does she have any criminal past?

JOHNSON: You know, I'm not that familiar with Jennifer Hyatte's past. Our agents certainly have that information and are working that as we speak.

The -- you know, our energy at this point is focused in the air. We have a plane in the air doing aerial searches. We also have a crime scene team here at the parking lot where all this unfolded this morning.

HARRIS: Yes.

JOHNSON: And so they're trying to sort through exactly what happened and trying to piece together some of that information.

HARRIS: And Jennifer, I asked that question because it sounds in this description of what went down that she was very much an active participant in this escape.

JOHNSON: It does seem that way. She definitely had a gun that she showcased for the correctional officer. You know, at that point, shots broke out. It was somewhat of a chaotic scene, as you can imagine. And that's what we're trying to figure out now, is how did it all happen?

HARRIS: Yes.

JOHNSON: Did she fire shots? If so, how many? And all the details.

HARRIS: OK. Jennifer Johnson with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations.

Jennifer, thanks for taking the time.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

HARRIS: Pitch black, but picture perfect. The return of space shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle mission post-Columbia, and the last for the foreseeable future. Discovery came down safe and sound, a day behind schedule, 2,300 miles from its scheduled destination, but did we mention safe and sound?

CNN's Sean Callebs is at the Kennedy Space Center, where relief is in the air and disappointment over this morning's detour is ancient history -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, without question, I think. You don't want to bury the lead there. You're exactly right, safe and sound out on the West Coast. And in less than an hour we should be hearing from the seven astronauts, exactly how they felt their 14-day mission went, how they felt during the launch, and also any jitters upon re-entry.

But let's take you back about seven hours to what happened this morning out on the West Coast. A predawn landing, and basically just played to perfection by Commander Eileen Collins, coasting the orbiter down out on the long runway out at Edwards Air Force Base.

After the chute came out and the shuttle came to a stop, the astronauts had a chance to exit the shuttle a couple of hours later, and got their first chance to look at the shuttle up close to see how it fared during those 14 days in space, the 290-plus orbits, and also take a look at just how the tiles held up. There was some concern there were some nicks on the bottom of the tiles, but certainly NASA thought certainly nothing that could jeopardize the crew.

And NASA, the latest word from the agency is this mission has them on the right track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think naturally it does give us -- it gives us momentum. It's a beginning for us. It's a new beginning. It's a fresh start. It's an important beginning for us. It's an important mission for us.

It's an important milestone in the human space flight endeavor. And so we're going to -- we're going to take advantage of this very successful test flight, and we're going to do what we do in this business, which is learn everything that we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: Indeed, NASA had a little more than a nanosecond to rest on its laurels. Right now, focusing on how to get the shuttle from California back here to the Kennedy Space Center.

You're looking at some live pictures. Some preparation work already being done on Discovery. It is being towed away from Edwards Air Force Base. And tomorrow morning, about 170 NASA employees from Kennedy Space Center will be boarding a charter flight, heading out west to do about a week's worth of preparation on the orbiter.

And then it will fly on piggyback on a 747 across country. That flight will take probably a couple days. So in nine to 10 days, the shuttle should be back here at the Kennedy Space Center. And then they will begin tackling the problem full force how to correct the problem with the external fuel tank.

They had the difficulties again. At least five pieces of foam larger than NASA deemed safe fell off during launch. And so all shuttle flights are grounded for the foreseeable future until they can get this problem corrected.

Now, we know that Michael Griffin, NASA administrator, says he doesn't believe this is going to be the problem that holds the space agency back for months and months and months. But when pressed would there be a flight in the near future, he wouldn't take the bait. Simply didn't answer the question, said maybe by the end of the year -- Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Sean Callebs. Sean, thank you.

Strength, courage and the ability to defy the odds. The widow of Christopher Reeve describes her late husband as the ultimate example of those qualities.

Now Dana Reeve says she'll need them in facing her own challenges. She announced today she has lung cancer, the same disease that claimed the life of Peter Jennings just two days ago.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick is following the story in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana Reeve has been so much in the public eye, fighting for stem cell research on behalf of her late husband, actor Christopher Reeve. Today she asked for privacy as she fights her own fight battling lung cancer.

Now, the 44-year-old mother and actress is undergoing treatment. She says that she and her doctors are optimistic about the prognosis. It is not clear when she began treatment or how long it will last.

"The National Enquirer" broke the story yesterday. The reason Dana Reeve put out a statement this morning was that so she could put out her own information.

And in a statement, she says, "I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery. Now more than ever I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge. As always, I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities."

According to a report, Reeve's mom had ovarian cancer and died earlier this year following surgery complications.

Now, Dana Reeve was an actress and was taking roles. She was also beginning to sing cabaret. She heads the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.

Her husband, actor Christopher Reeve, became famous after his role as "Superman." He died last year, nine years after being paralyzed in a horseback riding accident. The couple does have a 13- year-old son.

Now, the head of the couple's foundation also released a statement today, and in that statement it says, "We are certain that Dana will tackle this challenge with the grace, courage and determination that have become her hallmark."

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Defending America from attack deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. Kyra Phillips reports live from NORAD. You'll see it only on CNN.

And also ahead, more on Dana Reeve's lung cancer. We'll talk with a doctor about why women are affected differently than men by the disease.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its decision on interest rates any minute now. I'll have the full report coming up on LIVE FROM. So stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Federal Reserve policymakers are due to announce a decision on interest rates any minute now. For a look at what's expected, Kathleen Hays joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: As Kathleen just mentioned a moment ago, rising crude oil prices are a major concern and are leading to pain at the pump for motorists across the country.

CNN Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff is checking out the prices at a gas station in New York.

And I know those prices in New York, Allan, have to be off the charts.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Tony, you know, they're off the charts for almost everything here in Manhattan. And, of course, gasoline, no exception at all.

This is as bad as it gets, $2.81 a gallon here on the west side of Manhattan. That compares to a national average of $2.37, as calculated by the Energy Department.

So certainly a massive difference over there. Part of the reason is the simple fact that gasoline taxes are very high here in New York City. But also, this is a fancy gas station, if there is such a thing.

It's in a fashionable neighborhood, the meat packing district of Manhattan. Prices sky high over here. More typical, about 20 cents lower, maybe $2.60, $2.65, around Manhattan.

Nonetheless, prices very high. And New Yorkers, as I said, love to complain about the cost of living. Now they're complaining about the cost of driving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Along with everything else that's going up, I resent -- I resent it very much. I -- my husband and I are professionals. And still, you know, we're taking a big hit in gas, in food, in our -- you know -- you know, housing costs in New York are always -- have always been horrendous.

We pay child care. You know, we have children. It's a lot. It's a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: And prices are likely to go even higher. The reason, it's pretty much being driven by the crude oil market.

Traders in the pits just a mile south of where I'm standing. They have been very worried about supply disruptions to crude oil. That's had them bidding up the price of crude oil, and gasoline usually follows right afterwards.

So the price may keep going up. How high? Well, nobody really knows, but there is one Internet site that's now taking bets.

Will the price of gasoline in New York or L.A. get to $3 a gallon for regular by the end of the year? The odds right now, 30-1.

Tony, I'm not a gambling man, but if I were, I think that's a pretty good bet to take.

HARRIS: Oh, nice. Turn it into a game now. All right. Allan Chernoff in New York. Allan, thank you.

CHERNOFF: What does the skyrocketing price of oil and what we all pay at the gas pump mean for the giant oil companies' bottom line? Is the record price for oil biting into their profits, or does it mean more money for company coffers?

Well, we were wondering just how much profit these big oil companies are making, so we decided to check the quarterly reports they released for Wall Street. Here's what we found.

ExxonMobil posted record-setting profits in the second quarter of this year. Surprise, surprise. $7.64 billion. That's up from last year's second quarter income of just under $5.8 billion.

Exxon is not alone. Royal Dutch/Shell announced its record earnings for the second quarter at nearly $5.25 billion, up from just about $3.9 billion in profit for the same period last year.

And finally, Conoco-Phillips posted second quarter profits of $3.13 billion, up from just over $2 billion last year. Oh brother.

LIVE FROM continues straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: As we have been reporting, Christopher Reeve's widow, Dana, announced today that she is being treated for lung cancer. While many people associate the disease with men, lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer combined.

Dr. Jennifer Garst is the founding member of Women Against Lung Cancer and an assistant professor of oncology at Duke University.

Doctor, good to talk with you.

DR. JENNIFER GARST, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Thank you, Tony, for shedding some light on the lung cancer epidemic.

HARRIS: Well, that's what we have you for. And thanks for being with us.

Some general questions to get out of the way here. Women -- are women more susceptible to lung cancer than men?

GARST: We think that they actually might be. We don't understand exactly why, but women are at risk to develop lung cancer after having less overall tobacco exposure than men. And women are much more likely to be nonsmokers and develop lung cancer than men with lung cancer.

HARRIS: How do we explain that?

GARST: Well, we don't really know the answer to that, and that's what's sort of frightening about this.

HARRIS: Yes.

GARST: We're seeing a rise in the number of young women diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. It may be that women's bodies don't neutralize poisons in the environment, like secondhand smoke or air pollution, the way that men's bodies are able to.

Women's lungs are in general smaller than men's lungs. And so these toxins may actually concentrate in the delicate lung tissue.

And there have been some interesting studies looking at the effects of different hormones in women's bodies, as well as genetic implications and inherited malignancies in certain families where lung cancer runs rampant. These are frequently hard to tease out because frequently many of those patients smoke, and families smoke, and children are exposed to secondhand smoke.

HARRIS: Yes.

GARST: But women seem to be more susceptible in those specific families.

HARRIS: Dr. Garst, I'm curious, are the treatment protocols the same for women as men?

GARST: Well, they have been up until recently. Just in the past several years, we've gathered new information about targeted therapies.

These are pills. And you mentioned one of them, Arissa and Tarceva. These are smart bombs that target the lung cancer cells themselves. And it seems that women tend to express the receptor protein for the smart bomb more than men do, and these drugs seem to be particularly effective in women.

HARRIS: OK. Let's see if we can say that a different way. Is it true then that women who contract their -- who aren't smokers, but end up with lung cancer are responding better to some of these treatments?

GARST: Yes, to some extent. The profile of the patient who will respond best to these oral lung cancer pills are women, nonsmokers, with a particular type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. And also, the Japanese population tends to respond well to these lung cancer pills.

HARRIS: Well, doctor, the real issue seems to be the diagnosis, getting it early. Is there any help in the pipeline, maybe CAT scans, that will help us detect the tumors at an earlier stage?

GARST: Well, Tony, I certainly hope so. We know that yearly chest x-rays, at least in the past, have not shown to improve survival for people diagnosed with lung cancer. There are currently national and international studies looking at special spiral CAT scans of the chest so that we can pick up tiny nodules, hopefully before they have a chance to get into the bloodstream and spread.

HARRIS: Dr. Garst, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

GARST: Thank you so much, Tony. I really appreciate the attention to lung cancer. And I want to thank my patients and colleagues for all their support and work trying to figure out better treatments for people with lung cancer and in raising research funding for lung cancer.

HARRIS: Wonderfully said. Thank you for your time again.

GARST: Thank you.

HARRIS: Ahead on LIVE FROM, a fascinating look inside NORAD with Kyra Phillips -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First, a live picture outside Cheyenne Mountain. This is how it looks, how you get into the tunnel, how you get into this command center deep within the mountain. Coming up next, you're going to come inside that command center for the very first time live on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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