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CNN Live Today

Western Storm; New Orleans Police Shooting; Father Killed By Son In California; Last-Minute Travel Deal Tips

Aired December 28, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And, you know, Dana Garrick (ph) really gets a tip of the hat. She did the right thing in this case.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: She did.

MILES O'BRIEN: It was very hard for her. She was so attached to that animal.

KAGAN: I know.

And Dana, just so you know, there are a lot of fantastic rescued animals waiting for you at your local animal shelter.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes. Exactly.

KAGAN: A big believer in that.

All right. I'll get you guys back one day, I promise.

OK. Speaking of things that are pouring, not only tears, there's a lot of weather out there. Fire and wind, rain and snow, the weather is causing a variety of problems across the U.S. We have it all covered for you this hour on CNN LIVE TODAY. Among those that we are working on, we have Rusty Dornin. We put her in the cold. She is getting drenched on the West Coast. Thank you, Rusty. You bundle up. Jacqui Jeras got the better end of the deal. She's staying dry in the CNN Weather Center. We have team coverage just ahead.

First, though, let's take a look at other stories happening right "Now in the News."

From the business world. Enron's former chief accounting officer is expected to plead guilty in a Houston courtroom this afternoon. Richard Causey is accused of knowing about or taking part in schemes to fool investors about Enron's financial health. The Associated Press quotes a person familiar with negotiations as saying that Causey has agreed to testify against his former bosses, Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Marriott is the latest big name company to suffer a breach or loss of personal data. More than 200,000 workers, timeshare owners and timeshare customers of Marriott Vacation Club International are at risk. Backup tapes that contained social security, bank and credit card numbers are missing from a Florida office.

An Iraqi prison was the scene of violence today. Police say a prisoner grabbed a guard's gun during morning exercises and started shooting. Other guards returned fire. Four guards and four prisoners were killed. Suspects accused of major crimes, including terrorism, are housed at this particular facility.

Good morning to you on this Wednesday morning. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.

Folks in the west, in the western United States, they are reeling from a powerful Pacific storm. And where you are will determine what you see. The storm is starting out wet and warm but it will turn to snow as it plows towards the east. A winter storm warning blankets the Sierra and the northern Nevada area. In much of rain soaked California, floods and mudslides are the concern. Rusty Dornin is in San Francisco. Hopefully she has her ark ready to go.

I hear it's been a little soggy there lately, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, it's been raining for more than a week anyway and now we're hearing about this new series of storms. And it was like, oh my God, not again. We got the first of it just over the last couple of hours and it was raining fairly heavily but now it's pretty much stopped.

Along with those winds and rain, though, are also high waves. We're expecting anywhere from 20 to 25-foot waves which, of course, is going to make the surfers in this area very happy. But we've had a few of these waves come up and nearly splash over the wall here. And they're concerned about tourists walking along this area at Fort Point near the Golden Gate Bridge, that people could be swept away. So if it gets bad enough, they end up closing this road off.

Up in Washington, they've been having a lot of problems with the snow up there in Snoqualmie Pass. Lots of traffic problems with trucks and cars and that sort of thing. And you go up into the Sierra, in the Sierra Nevada and California and Nevada, and also a lot of snowfall. Great for skiers. There's supposed to be two feet with this series of storms that are coming.

As I said, the first one hit this morning. We're supposed to have rain tapering off and there's supposed to be a big one on Friday. And that, of course, could cause problems for people stuck up in Tahoe that want to get home after the new year's weekend.

Also in effect right now, we've got some flood warnings for the Napa and Petaluma Rivers. And as you've said, as always, they are concerned about mudslides and local flooding.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. We'll keep an eye on it. And you keep an eye on those waves that are splashing behind you there, Rusty. Thank you. Be safe out there.

Weather indeed is shaping much of the news in the nation's mid section. Dozens of grass fires have been raising across the tinder dry plains of Texas and Central Oklahoma. In the lone star town of Cross Plains, about two dozen homes and structures have burned. The fires are blamed for one death in Texas. The governor there has declared a disaster and has activated national guard troops to help fight the fires. The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning across Northern Texas. That means a high fire threat there because of the high winds, low humidity and extremely dry conditions.

So now we move on to Oklahoma. There are fires burning there, as well. Evacuations have been just one step ahead of the flames in many parts of that state. Homes, cars and hundreds of acres have burned and windy conditions have prevented helicopters from reinforcing the firefighting crews on the ground. Forecasters say winds are expected to kick up again today.

Which leads us all to Jacqui Jeras to look at what the forecast brings us.

Jacqui, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: The top cop in New Orleans says his officers appear to have done the right thing in Monday's fatal shooting of a knife- wielding man. This is the first such police shooting in the stress filled months since Hurricane Katrina ravaged that city. Police Superintendent Warren Riley appeared on CNN earlier this morning and then held a news conference. CNN Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen takes a closer look.

Susan, good morning.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Chief Riley is trying to answer the basic question of why 16 officers on the scene of that shooting were not able to persuade a man with a knife to put the knife down. The chief says his officers tried to talk to the man, Anthony Hayes. You cannot hear any sound on the home video, so we don't know what was said. But the chief says that when Hays lunged at one officer, three others were forced to fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: What does an officer do when someone attempts to stab him? What type of training do we give these officers when they're four, five, six feet away and somebody attempts to stab them? So what kind of training do we give these officers? Do they run? We're not trained to. We're trained to go in when other people are running away and that's what we did. We were flagged down for assistance because of Mr. Hayes' erratic behavior. So we will look at additional training, but what do you do when your life is on the line?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGEN: Now, today, we still don't know very much about Anthony Hayes. Store owners in the area along St. Charles Avenue knew that he was a regular in that area. He was a loner. He may have had some kind of mental problem. The police chief today said that Hayes had a criminal record but he would not say what that record was.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And in talking about regular procedure, the chief saying that it was followed in this case?

ROESGEN: Yes, absolutely. He says that, for one thing, police officers are not trained to shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg. They are trained to shoot in the torso to bring a man down. And he says he believes they did the right thing. Though the shooting is under investigation and the three officers who actually fired their guns, Daryn, are on desk duty, which is standard procedure after a shooting.

KAGAN: And, Susan, on a personal note, I know you've been on board for about a month, but this is my first chance to welcome you to our CNN family. We're glad to have you on board.

ROESGEN: Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here.

KAGAN: Thank you, Susan.

Also under the microscope today, the Bush administration's policies on domestic spying and the use of wiretaps without court approved warrants. According to "The New York Times," defense attorneys in some high profile anti-terror cases will use the issue to make legal challenges. Specifically the lawyers want to know if illegal wiretaps were used against their clients, whether they were monitored by the National Spy Agency and whether the government withheld information or misled judges.

"The Times" reports that the first test will come next week in Florida involving two men charged in the Jose Padilla case. He's the first U.S. citizen accused of planning a dirty bomb attack in the U.S. The paper says another challenge will involve Iyman Faris who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting with al Qaeda to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge. The administration has cited that very case to defense the intelligence value of the NSA eavesdropping.

A question out of the west, did poor grades lead to murder? Ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, new information about a story we've been following for you. A young teenager accused of killing his father out of fear over a bad report card.

Also ahead, it's a mission like no other for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. They're trying to get this baby here to the U.S. for life- saving surgery. It's a CNN exclusive. You'll see it only right here.

And the army's M.A.S.H. units made famous in the television sitcom. The last one around is playing a critical role in aiding the injured in earthquake ravaged Pakistan. We will visit there when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Want to show you new pictures we're getting into here at CNN. Not the kind of excitement folks expected when they decided to go on a trip to Disneyland. But an early morning wake-up call for guests at one Disneyland hotel in Anaheim, California. A 35-foot artificial Christmas tree caught fire in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. So they had to evacuate 2,000 people at 3:00 in the morning. Everyone appeared to get out OK and the Anaheim Fire Department says the hotel sprinkler system kept that blaze from spreading.

On to Florida now. Authorities are investigating the death of a couple whose two-year-old son made the call to 911. Police say the boy answered the door and let them into the home in Ft. Myers yesterday. Neighbors tell our affiliate, WFXT, that the boy's clothes were stained with blood but he was unharmed. Police aren't saying how the couple died. They say the husband was a landscape architect and his wife was a nutritionist.

Well, we've been covering this next story since before school broke for the holiday vacation. A teenager out of Santa Clara, California, accused of killing his father to avoid showing him a bad report card. Well, we're now learning more about the boy who police say burned down his house to destroy evidence. CNN's Ted Rowlands is following the story of father and son.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Ryan Watts used to brag that his dad knew all about computers and cars. The 15-year- old boy and his father, John Bruener (ph), lived together in this suburban home in the northern California city of Santa Clara. Neighbors say father and son used to spend time together fixing up an old Mustang which still sits covered in the driveway.

On December 12th, Ryan Watts called 911 to report that his house was on fire. The fire was relatively small, taking less than a half an hour to put out, but it was fatal. The 350-pound body of John Bruener was found in a back bedroom. For rescue crews, it was a sad story, as a firefighter told the local press that the victim's 15- year-old son had been out of the house when the fire started.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he came back, there was smoke in the house.

ROWLANDS: Ryan Watts would go home with his mother, Leoni Watts, who says she had no idea what she was about to learn. Ryan would tell his mother that his father used to constantly yell at him and beat him. That he used a bamboo stick to hit Ryan on the legs.

LEONI WATTS, MOTHER OF RYAN WATTS: Did you cry, because I wanted to know how hard -- and he said, when I was younger and it was happening I did, but not -- not later.

ROWLANDS: A day after the fire, an autopsy revealed that John Bruener died of two gunshot wounds. Ryan Watts confessed to police that he not only killed his dad but planned it out. The reason, a bad report card. Apparently Ryan was so scared of how his father would react to the bad grades, he killed him. WATTS: And I said, honey, why. And he said, I couldn't do enough. I couldn't make him happy. There's no way to please him.

ROWLANDS: According to court documents, Watts told police that he took one of his father's 45 caliber handguns from the house where they lived. And on the morning of the murder, Watts said he left with that gun and a knife. But the 15-year-old says he didn't go to school. He snuck back into the house going through the backyard.

According to the documents, Watts says he went back into the house and shot his father twice while he was on the phone. Watts told police that he set fire to the bedroom, stashed the gun in a kitchen cabinet and walked to this Taco Bell to eat lunch before calling 911.

Ryan Watts is being charged as an adult, a decision prosecutors made in part because the murder was planned.

BRIAN MATTHEWS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He's a 15-year-old boy. Essentially, he is a child.

ROWLANDS: Brian Matthews is a public defender assigned to this case. He says charging this 15-year-old as an adult is too harsh.

MATTHEWS: He's just a good kid who's scared and who came out of a bad situation at home. He's just a good kid.

ROWLANDS: Leoni Watts says on a recent visit to the juvenile detention facility, Ryan told her he was having nightmares but felt a sense of relief.

WATTS: That tells me that his private hell was a lot worse than what's going on at juvenile hall. The fact that he had felt safe there finally.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors will not talk about the case. Watts, who made a court appearance last week, has yet to enter a plea. If convicted, the 15-year-old could spend the rest of his life in jail.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Clara, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We move on to the shopping beat. We are all looking for after Christmas bargains, but some are taking this to an extreme. Shoplifters coming up with their own new tricks in the effort to steal. They're not taking one or two, no, no, no, we're talking thousands of dollars in merchandise.

And, how does this look right now? Do you want to make it to a last-minute getaway paradise? We have "Top Five Tips" on getting away without giving away too much cash, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check out the markets. They've been open about 52 minutes. Both in positive territory. The Dow, you can see, is up 29, almost 30 points. And the Nasdaq in positive territory as well. It is up just over four.

So what's the possibility that you might be looking for a romantic way to ring in the new year without breaking the bank? How about going to a warm beach? Sounds good. And there are last-minute vacation deals out there and we can point the way with our today's "Top Five Tips." "Money" magazine's Donna Rosato is in today for the vacationing Gerri Willis.

Donna, good morning.

DONNA ROSATO, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing good.

Let's talk Mexico. A lot of people are afraid of Mexico right now because there was so much damage from Wilma.

ROSATO: That's right. A lot of people remember that Wilma hit areas like Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula pretty hard. But really more than 90 percent of hotels and resorts are open and ready for business. And Mexico is a really resort-rich area and it's a classic last-minute vacation value. So think Mexico when you're thinking about a winter getaway.

KAGAN: Let's expand our search. What are some good sites online that we can check out?

ROSATO: There are a lot of Web sites that specialize in last- minute travel. Think of site59, lastminutevacation.com, 11thhourvacations.com. In fact, I was looking at site59 yesterday and there's a great five-night package at a four-star hotel right on the beach. Airfare and hotel included for $200 a day.

KAGAN: Now you mention these packages where you take the airfare, the hotel and put it all together. Are those the best way to go in terms of saving money?

ROSATO: Yes, package deals will save you a bundle, no pun intended. On average, you'll save about 30 percent if you do a package deal rather than piecing the pieces together yourself. So definitely look at package deals. Places like pleasantholidays.com, go-today.com, flysouthvacations. Those are some places you can find them. But remember, if you bundle it today, look at an all inclusive, you're going to save a big amount of money on that last-minute vacation.

KAGAN: What about trying a new resort? Do you want to let other people experience some of the bugs before you get there?

ROSATO: That's true. When you stay at a new resort, you can often get introductory rates. If you're worried about it being new and not really being tested out though, check sites like tripadviser.com, which is sort of like a Zagat for hotels. You can look up and see people who have stayed there, even though it's new, and see what their review is.

KAGAN: And, finally, how can you let the Internet do the work for you.

ROSATO: That's the thing, there are a lot of deals out there, so automate the search. Can you go to sites like smartertravel.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and sign up for weekly travel alerts and they'll let you know right customized to the city that you're going to fly from travel deals. So automate the process and it'll be a lot easier to find those last-minute vacation deals.

KAGAN: Sounds good. Are you taking your own advice? Are you getting away for new year's?

ROSATO: Yes. My husband and I have not planned anything yet and we're going to get away actually in mid-January for his birthday. So we're doing a last-minute deal to Mexico.

KAGAN: Good girl. I was just there in November. Had a great time.

Happy new year. Thanks for stopping by.

ROSATO: Thanks very much.

KAGAN: Donna Rosato from "Money" magazine.

Well, some people may be headed for a winter vacation in jail. Professional shoplifters ripping off stores for tens of thousands of dollars often in just one trip to the store. A look at their slick tricks and what store owners are desperately trying to do to stop them. That's coming up.

And a mission to save a life. You will not want to miss this story. U.S. soldiers trying to help a little girl whose life is in the balance in Iraq. It's a heartfelt story you'll see only here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're close to the half hour. I'm Daryn Kagan on CNN LIVE TODAY. Here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

Photos of the tense moments inside an airliner when it lost cabin pressure and had to return to the Seattle Airport. Aviation officials say the foot-long gash was caused by a piece of equipment that struck the plane while it was still at the gate.

To Southern Lebanon. Witnesses say two Palestinian militants were slightly wounded in an Israeli air strike against the militants' training base. The air strike reportedly was in retaliation for a rocket attack yesterday on an Israeli town near the Lebanese border. No one was hurt in that attack.

And Interpol has issued a red notice for the head of al Qaeda in Iraq. That means Abu Musab al Zarqawi is subject to arrest if he is spotted in any of 184 countries. The International Police Organization added Zarqawi to its watch list at the request of Algeria in connections with the kidnaping and murder last summer of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq.

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