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Bush Calls on Justices to Speak for Miers; Votes Being Counted in Iraq Referendum; New Orleans Makes Slow Return to Normalcy; School Bus Crash Kills Five
Aired October 17, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Full-court press, President Bush pushing Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. We're live from Washington.
Constitutional vote. Will this election in Iraq make a difference? Will it put American troops closer to coming home?
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
New appeal for Harriet Miers. Having failed to win many hearts and minds by vouching for Miers' heart, President Bush is playing up the mind now: the expertise, acuity and legal credentials of his second nominee to the highest court in the land. Mr. Bush today conferred with some former justices of the Supreme Court of Texas while Miers continued her door-to-door diplomacy on Capitol Hill.
We get the latest on all of this now from CNN's Kimberly Osias in our D.C. bureau -- Kim.
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra.
Well, Congress was on vacation for a week for Columbus holiday and also the Jewish New Year's. Now back to full-court press on behalf of the administration.
And it's definitely a tactical turn on the part of the Bush administration, really hoping to make a difference in the beleaguered nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
Several former Supreme Court justices from her Texas home state coming to the White House this morning to stem the tide of criticism. President Bush standing by his choice, sending a clear message that Miers is qualified for the job and that his support is unwavering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're here to send a message here in Washington that the person I picked to take Sandra Day O'Connor's place is not only a person of high character and of integrity but a person who can get the job done. Harriet Miers is a uniquely qualified person to serve on the bench.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the man whose place Miers took in the White House counsel's office, is now coming to her defense, too. And, of course, many who have been following the process may recall at one point Gonzales' own name was on the White House list as a possible nominee to the high court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: My concern is that people are jumping to conclusions based upon incomplete information. That's what the hearing process is all about. It's to give the Senate Judiciary Committee an opportunity to ask her questions to flesh out her qualifications, to engage in a dialogue, to engage in a debate with Ms. Miers about her judicial philosophy, not to ask her questions about how she's going to decide cases. I think that's inappropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: For her part on what's being dubbed a pivotal day, Miers will be on Capitol Hill meeting with Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, who both voted against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Senator Feinstein has characterized Miers' nomination process as sexist, focusing on the difference in tenor between the nomination of John Roberts, now, of course, Chief Justice Roberts, and that of Miers. She also urged critics to hold their fire until the judiciary committee hearings start -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Kimberly Osias, thank you so much.
As Kimberly mentioned among the senators Miers is courting today, Dianne Feinstein, a judiciary committee Democrat who voted against John Roberts, who now, as you know, is chief justice of the United States. Well, Feinstein tells CNN Miers is a different case entirely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think what's happening to her is really rather tragic. I think the way she's being beaten up by the far right is very sexist. I do not believe they would do that to a man. It's true, she is not John Roberts, but then you don't want a court only of John Roberts. And I think what's necessary is for people to hold their fire, give her an opportunity to come before the committee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, for a profile on Harriet Miers and an interactive guide to the selection and confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice, log on to CNN.com/SupremeCourt.
Air strikes and conflicting accounts, 70 dead by U.S. estimation after a series of attacks against suspected terrorists in and around the Sunni Triangle town of Ramadi. But Iraqis say many of the dead were civilians, even children. U.S. officials say they have no such reports and point out pains are always taken to minimize harm to the innocent. They're still counting ballots from Saturday's referendum in which Iraqis almost certainly ratified themselves a constitution. CNN's Aneesh Raman brings us up to date information from Baghdad now -- Aneesh.
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the counting continues in the capital. It was delayed, though, today because a sandstorm descended upon Iraq. It prevented flight from coming from the north to the south of the country to the capitol with those ballot boxes.
But as you say government officials here expressing early optimism that this referendum passed, that Iraq does have now a new constitution. That despite early indications that at least two Sunni provinces mustered up enough votes to reject the constitution. There was that two-thirds threshold needed. It is all the reason why we're waiting for official results tomorrow. That will give us a better sense of the turnout but also the margin of either victory or failure.
Again, the expectations are that it did pass and the government is claiming Saturday's vote is a huge success and in terms of security they are correct. Very few isolated incidents in terms of insurgent attacks. It was relatively quiet throughout the country.
And also turnout is expected to be higher than 60 percent, when they give us the official number. That's a bit higher than we saw in January. And we're expecting that the Sunnis did turn out in good numbers and, of course, bringing them into this process is seen as bringing stability here.
The big question, though, Kyra, will be if this constitution does pass and if it does so despite the two provinces where the Sunnis vocalized opposition, will the Sunnis stay in the political process or will they feel that their voice wasn't heard and decide to disengage again? So that's what we'll deal with in terms of the political reality in the week ahead -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Aneesh Raman, thank you very much.
We talk about that week ahead. It's a big week. Wednesday brings the first of what may be several trials of the toppled dictator, Saddam Hussein. It's a crimes against humanity case from 1982, civilians allegedly rounded up, tortured and killed in the small town north of Baghdad where an attempt had been made to kill Hussein.
His lawyers say that the reprisal killings weren't a crime at the time and that the court that's trying him is illegitimate. They also say they need more time to prepare.
Well, supplies in, survivors out. A desperate cycle in earthquake-ravaged Pakistan where a U.S. diplomat estimates that a fifth of the worst off villages after nine days still have not seen any help from anywhere.
Helicopters are back in business after one more day lost to weather, but ground operations are being slowed by landslides. Government officials now estimate 54,000 people are dead in the northeast Pakistan and disputed territory of Kashmir. Maybe 80,000 people are hurt, millions more but with nowhere to live.
Rattled nerves, modest damage from a pair of earthquakes today in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece. The first measured 5.2, the second, 5.7. CNN reports a half dozen panic related injuries from the latter.
And then there's San Clemente Island. From 70 miles west of San Diego, a jolt with a magnitude of 4.9 was felt there yesterday, but we don't know of any damage or injuries at this point.
Finally, not to be left out, a quake centered 25 miles or so from Tokyo. That was also yesterday, magnitude 5.1. No reports of serious damage and no tsunami alerts.
Wilma makes 21, a record tying 21 named storms in the Atlantic hurricane season, which still has a month and a half to go. And at this moment Wilma is a minimal tropical storm southeast of the Caymans, but it could end up a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. That brings us to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. She's in our weather center -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Kyra.
Yes, it looks like a real good possibility that Wilma will become the 11th hurricane of the Atlantic season. Tropical storm right now with 45 mile-per-hour winds, and it has been strengthening a little bit today. It's been heading down to the south, but now it's starting to turn a little more westerly as we expected, but it's going to be some time before we see this thing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Right now tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches have been posted across the Cayman Islands region, and we also have a hurricane watch, which has been posted from the border of Honduras and Nicaragua extending over to Cabul (ph), Cameron (ph). So that means hurricane conditions are possible here within 36 hours or so.
Here's the forecast track of where we're expecting it to go, pushing westerly through the day today throughout much of tomorrow and then by Wednesday starting to curve a little farther up to the north. The hurricane center bringing it closer, or maybe even over the Yucatan Peninsula.
But check out all the red here on the map. This is basically the margin of error, so great five days out it almost encompasses the entire Gulf of Mexico. So it's still anybody's ball game as to where it's going to be going.
Could reach major hurricane status, but at this time we don't think that the water temperatures are going to be quite warm enough in the Gulf of Mexico to sustain a major hurricane so good news there. But it still could be a minimal hurricane, so all interests along the Gulf Coast really need to pay close attention by Wilma.
And also check out the time stamp. This is Saturday morning as it emerges into the Gulf of Mexico. So we still have a long way to go on this one and a lot of changes are likely going to happen -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. We'll keep checking in with you.
Well, return to normalcy for some in New Orleans. Two and a half months after Hurricane Katrina, that city is seeing signs of life in the business district and in school districts.
Here's CNN's Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here at St. Louis Cathedral Academy. It is the first school to re-open in the city of New Orleans.
About 100 students are here today. Most of them are children of relief workers. Only 12 are return students. But school officials say none of that really matters. The most important thing is that this school is back open and it is a big sign that this city is coming back.
(voice-over) Larry Moecklin admits it's not easy. Normally there are 20 people on staff at his bakery. Now there are four.
LARRY MOECKLIN, BAKERY OWNER: Currently, I'm the bookkeeper, cake baker, cake icer, cake decorator, floor sweeper, pan washer, doing it all right now.
CHO: Moecklin's family has been baking cakes for New Orleanians at the Swiss Confectionery since 1921. When Katrina hit, he was forced to shut down. Now he's filling orders again. Six weddings, countless birthdays and at least one welcome home.
MOECKLIN: You know, we've been in business here a long time, and I think a lot of people look to us to, you know, if they say, Well, we can get a Swiss cake, you know, for our kid's birthday," they kind of feel like they're normal again.
CHO: Upscale retailer Rubenstein's opened in 1925. The store, which will re-open on Tuesday, is on Canal Street, the heart of the city's Central Business District.
DAVID RUBENSTEIN, RETAILER: This is the ultimate identity, and it needs to get back so people can focus on it.
CHO: It's part of bringing New Orleans back to normal. People are focused on cleaning up and polishing the city's image.
Post-Katrina, many people think of this when they think of New Orleans. What some people may not know is that schools here are re- opening, mail service is back and buses are running, too. They're starting to fix the roof of the Superdome. Even the mayor is sweeping the streets.
For those who need pampering, the Bella Donna Spa is open, and on Friday it was fully booked.
KIM DUDEK, SPA OWNER: As promised, a commitment to my city. I said, "I just have to get it open. Have to do it."
CHO: Even the new shops are helping. Up the street the Savvy Gourmet opened two weeks before Katrina. Owner Aaron Wolfson originally wanted to make it a cooking school. That changed following the storm. The neighborhood now needs restaurants.
AARON WOLFSON, RESTAURANT OWNER: There were very few options to eat in the neighborhood. People were eating hamburgers and French fries for every single meal. So what we've tried to do is get fresh vegetables from local vendors. We've tried to provide some foods that are a little healthier.
CHO: Larry Moecklin says he's not getting rich baking cakes, but in some small way it's his contribution, showing residents it's safe; it's time to come back.
(on camera) Back here at the school, school officials say they have lowered the tuition to $200 a month. But no one will be turned away for not being able to pay it. The school's principal says how can you do that when people here have lost virtually everything?
So this is a school that is opening its arms to anyone who wants to attend. A high school in the city will re-open tomorrow.
Alina Cho, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, senator to the rescue. Rough seas, a rising tide, fishermen in trouble.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I came down here and with a friend went out there to try and urge these fellows to get off.
PHILLIPS: Senator Kennedy springs into action.
Later on LIVE FROM, principal cancels prom. The reason: he says parents and kids are out of control, and the school will not sponsor an orgy.
Also ahead, one family, three amazing stories in the aftermath of Katrina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got out to this area, and then I could see what made the hair stand up on my neck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the lord did answer my prayer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I can't get an answer from here.
PHILLIPS: Searching for answers after the storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: It's one of those nightmares that every parent worries about: a school sponsored event, a chartered bus and a sudden pile of twisted steel. Well, this wreck happened near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It left five people dead, a dozen injured, an entire community in mourning.
CNN's Soledad O'Brien has more on what happened and how a town is trying to come to terms.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TANIA RICHTER, STUDENT ON BUS: There was a lot of sirens. There was probably -- it looked like there was a ton of ambulances.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": It happened early Sunday morning on a Wisconsin interstate. A bus carrying Chippewa Falls High School students home from a marching band competition slammed into a tractor trailer that had just overturned.
CAPT. DOUGLAS NOTBOHM, WISCONSIN STATE PATROL: The driver attempted to correct, jack-knived the vehicle, and a motor coach that was also traveling westbound collided with the tractor trailer unit.
O'BRIEN: Five people were killed, including the band director, his wife, their granddaughter and a student teacher and the bus driver. More than two dozen others were taken to area hospitals. The community is in shock.
MIKE SCHOCH, CHIPPEWA FALLS SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: As the kids came back and we talked to them, we let them have access to counselors and medical folks took a look at them one more time before they were released.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This morning when I heard the news, I didn't even want to believe it was true, but once I watched it on TV, it hurts.
O'BRIEN: Seventeen-year-old senior Tania Richter was a passenger on the bus. She says almost everybody was asleep when the accident happened.
RICHTER: I was mostly in the back. I was a few seats from the back, and I had to crawl out of -- we opened up one of the windows. There was a rescue person down there. He had a ladder, and we had to climb out of the window and down the ladder to get out of there. Everybody had to have shoes on, because there was diesel fuel and glass and all sorts of stuff on the ground everywhere.
O'BRIEN: Soledad O'Brien, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And other news across America now.
Utility and road crews working overtime in the northeast, trying to repair damage done by some of the worst flooding that the area has seen in decades. More than a foot of rain fell in some parts. At least 12 deaths have been blamed on the heavy storms.
Quiet prevails in Toledo, Ohio, today. Violence erupted over the weekend in Toledo as members of a white supremacist group marched through a racially mixed neighborhood. Marchers said that they aimed to call attention to the issue of black crime. Toledo's mayor canceled their demonstration after scuffles broke out between members of the group and the protesters.
And in Hyannis, Massachusetts, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy and a friend pitches in to help six fishermen trapped by rising tides. They tried to reach the men using a 13-foot boat but were hampered by rough seas. Firefighters were eventually able to rescue the fisherman, who were treated for mild hypothermia.
In medical news now, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is in Jakarta, Indonesia, today. He's wrapping up his bird flu assessment and that tour he's taking throughout Southeast Asia. He's due to return to the U.S. later this week. Well, today Leavitt warned the nation to be properly prepared for a bird flu epidemic.
Meanwhile, Greek officials confirm that the first case of H5-N1 bird flu has been found at a local poultry farm. But Romania's agricultural minister says that today there's no new cases of bird flue and that they were discovered in tests on 400 more birds from the country's Danube Delta region. Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, appeared on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" and had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH: Pandemics are like earthquakes and tsunamis, they occur. We've had ten within the last 300 years. They date back to antiquity. There's nothing in our public health or medical toolbox that says we can stop them so, yes, we will have another pandemic. The real question is when will it occur?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And one step closer possibly to getting human embryonic stem cells and side-stepping ethical objections. Two new experiments on mice may point that way. Those researchers are trying to obtain the cells without destroying the embryos. Right now, scientists have to destroy the embryo to harvest the cells. The details are online in the journal "Nature."
Straight ahead, police call the death of a TV legal analyst's wife a homicide. Ahead on LIVE FROM, details on the investigation at the home of defense attorney Daniel Horowitz.
And just ahead, the future of Iraq. Will women have more freedom if this constitution passes? We're going to talk about it. You're watching LIVE FROM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MELISSA LONG, CNN.COM: Known for beautiful architecture, blues music and Cajun cuisine, what will it take to bring New Orleans' spirit back? We asked at CNN.com.
Remy of Louisiana says, "Let's clean up Jackson Square and the French Quarter and let the life, the music, the food, and the soul of the city do the necessary healing."
Cathy of New Hampshire says, "I'm not paying to rebuild the city of New Orleans with my tax dollars. The officials of that city knew that the levees were an issue."
And Melissa of Florida writes, "The businesses and homes should be rebuilt to reflect the special character and culture of the local people."
Now, what do you think about the government response to Hurricane Katrina? How should local, state or federal governments be restructured, if at all, to be more effective when responding to natural disasters? E-mail your thoughts at CNN.com/stories and read what others are saying.
For the dot com desk, I'm Melissa Long.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Now in the news, no comment from the president. When pressed again today, Mr. Bush would not say whether he expected any member of his administration to resign if indicted. He continues to say he won't prejudge an investigation into who may have leaked the identity of a CIA operative.
Twenty-three counts of criminal negligent homicide. Associated Press reports that Texas authorities have charged the man who was driving a bus packed with Hurricane Rita evacuees. That bus caught fire near Dallas last month. Twenty-three of the passengers, all nursing home residents, were killed.
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