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CNN Live Today
More Funerals Planned Today for West Virginia Miners; Cheney Back Home After Brief Hospital Stay; Gadgets and Family Life
Aired January 09, 2006 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin getting ready to hold a news conference on last week's coal mine tragedy. He's expected to update the state's role in the investigation.
We have live coverage just ahead.
Vice President Dick Cheney made a brief visit to a Washington hospital this morning after suffering what's described as shortness of breath. The problem is believed to be related to medicine Cheney is taking for a foot ailment. The vice president returned home after spending about four hours in the hospital.
We'll get a live update just moments from now.
In Jerusalem, doctors say they're seeing more positive signs in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition after they started weaning him off of drugs that have kept him in a coma. They say the Israeli leader started breathing on his own and he slightly moved his right hand and leg. But he remains in serious condition.
A live update from Jerusalem on the half-hour.
Doctors in Atlanta are performing surgery on Baby Noor this morning. She's the Iraqi infant who's suffering from a severe form of Spina Bifida. In the procedure, surgeons plan to reposition the spinal cord and then close the hole in her lower back.
American troops found Baby Noor several weeks ago during a raid on a house near Baghdad.
Well, good morning to you on this Monday morning. Let's check some of the time around the world.
Just after 11:00 a.m. in Charleston, West Virginia; same for right here in Atlanta; and just after 6:00 p.m. in Jerusalem.
From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.
One week after the tragedy at the Sago Mine, the search for answers and the solemn good-byes. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin holding a news conference this hour, discussing what the state is doing in the aftermath of the accident. The explosion trapped 13 miners underground, killing all but one. We'll have the latest information from the governor's news conference for you as soon as it is available.
This is another day of mourning for family and friends of the 12 miners who died. Three more private funerals are planned today. And we have new information about the investigation into the tragedy.
CNN's Gary Nurenberg joins us from Upshur County in West Virginia.
Gary, hello.
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
We've just learned that acting Assistant Secretary of Labor David Dye, essentially in charge of Mine Safety and Health, has announced that the federal government, the Labor Department will conduct a joint investigation into the accident here last week that killed those miners. It will be conducted jointly with state mining authorities here in West Virginia and will include a public hearing, presided over by both federal and West Virginia meaning authorities. That had been a demand from many of the people in the area.
It is a solemn time here in West Virginia. Six miners' funerals were held yesterday. Hundreds of mourners attended them. Many of those mourners going from funeral to funeral home to pay their last respects to other miners. There are three funerals scheduled here today for 39-year-old Thomas Anderson, 61-year-old Jim Bennett, and Marshall Winans, who's also being buried today.
In addition to those funerals yesterday, there were a number of services throughout the area where mourners remembered the miners in sermon and in prayer. Everyone, it seems, in this community either knew someone who died or was related to someone who died. If you didn't know them personally, we're told, and lived in this area, someone in your family did.
Among those presiding at a service at St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Philippi, Father Andy Kranyc, who was actually at the Baptist church on Tuesday night when first the good news and then the bad news came. He called it the best and worst night of his life. He said it is something he will never forget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. ANDY KRANYC, ST. ELIZABETH CATHOLIC CHURCH: There were four or five people around me that passed out. There was one elderly lady, I don't know if she had a heart attack or she when into serious shock or something.
There was a fireman next to me who just collapsed right in the mud. And I helped him to sit up. And he just sat there, staring with a blank look on his face for about half an hour, just completely out of it. And there were several people around that night that were like that, just in complete shock.
There were state troopers who fell to their knees and were sobbing like babies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NURENBERG: Father Kranyc said he was particularly concerned about a young girl who grabbed a knife at that church and went running away, saying she was going to kill herself so she could be with her grandpa. They caught her and calmed her down and avoided that happening.
He said it is one of the most tragic nights he has ever experienced -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And Gary, what about the other miners in this community? The mine is shut down. That's their livelihood as well. Are they having to move on or just stand by and wait for their work to resume?
NURENBERG: Good question, Daryn.
There are 145 miners involved here who would normally be in the mine. But it is now closed, as you know, while that poison gas is vented out so that inspectors can go on and do their investigation.
This week they are on payroll. The company says it may try to reassign them to other mines in the area and will meet over the weekend to determine what the long-range plans will be.
KAGAN: Gary Nurenberg in West Virginia.
Thank you for that.
So doctors are saying that the sole survivor of the mine explosion is showing more signs of improvement, but they stress that Randy McCloy Jr. still has a long way to go. In an update this morning, doctors said McCloy developed a fever, which is common among intensive care patients. But they say he is breathing on his own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LARRY ROBERTS, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: He is breathing spontaneously now. The ventilator to which he is still hooked up is no longer actually giving him mechanical breaths. He's doing all the work on his own. But he's deriving the oxygen and a little bit of pressure from the machine, and that's how the ventilator works at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: As the sedation decreases, doctors say McCloy is moving his arms and legs. They plan to begin physical therapy today to increase and exercise his muscles.
A health scare for Vice President Dick Cheney. He's back home after being taken to the hospital overnight, suffering what's described as a shortness of breath. The problem is believed to be associated with medication the vice president is taking.
Our Elaine Quijano is at the White House and she has the latest.
Elaine, hello.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Good morning to you, Daryn.
And that medication is for a recurring foot problem, we're told by the vice president's office, that the vice president has been dealing with. The president -- vice president spent about four and a half hours at George Washington University Hospital early this morning after he experienced shortness of breath. His doctors determined that he was retaining fluid as a result of the anti-inflammatory medication that he'd been taking for his foot.
Doctors treated him by giving him a diuretic. And at last word, he was home.
Now, President Bush this morning, before taking part in an education event, was asked about the vice president's condition. And here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Doing fine. I talked to him this morning. His health is good. Should be coming into work a little later on today. Thanks for asking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, the president was first told about the situation involving the vice president this morning by the president's doctor before the president made his way to the Oval Office. And we understand he then spoke to Mr. Cheney after that Rose Garden appearance with Judge Samuel Alito, his Supreme Court nominee.
Now, the vice president was already at home at that point, said he was doing fine. And you heard the president say that he plans to come into the White House this afternoon to do some work and have some meetings.
Now, the vice president has had a history of heart trouble. He's had four heart attacks, but again, the word from his doctors through his office is that this had to do with his foot medication. Last Friday, of course, we saw the vice president using a cane to walk. And at that time, his office said that it had to do with an old injury to his Achilles heel.
They said that that was a condition that would go away usually within a day or two, but he was, Daryn, taking anti-inflammatory medication apparently that led to his hospital visit today -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Elaine Quijano live at the White House.
Elaine, thank you.
President Bush is marking the four-year anniversary of his major education initiative. Mr. Bush is visiting an elementary school in Maryland at this hour, discussing the No Child Left Behind law. The school says it has closed the achievement gap between black and white students. That's one of the cornerstones of No Child Left Behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I think the No Child Left Behind Act is one of the most significant accomplishments in education in a long, long time. I want to thank both the Republicans and Democrats who worked together back then to get this piece of legislation passed. It is a really important piece of legislation that is working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: The president signed the measure into law in January 2002.
And the president gives Samuel Alito a breakfast sendoff this morning. We just have received this White House photo.
Confirmation hearings open on Capitol Hill next hour for the Supreme Court nominee.
So, after breakfast at the White House, President Bush stepped into the Rose Garden to praise Judge Alito as a man of dignity, class and intellect. If he's confirmed, Alito would replace -- who is a conservative, who would replace a moderate, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Her vote has been critical in affirming the court's position on such controversial social issues as abortion.
Wolf Blitzer heads into "THE SITUATION ROOM" early for CNN's special coverage of the Alito hearings. You can join Wolf at the top of the hour, noon Eastern.
And if you're stuck in your office away from your televisions, follow the hearings on cnn.com. Pipeline will have live, streaming coverage all week long.
Some prominent criminal cases are on the docket today across the U.S. Let's go ahead and check our "Legal Briefs."
Jury selection is being held today in the trial of several white South Carolina teenagers accused in a vicious attack on an African- American teenager. Sixteen-year-old Isaiah Clyburm (ph) was beaten last June while walking along a country road near Gaffney. Prosecutors charged the suspects under the state's lynching law.
In Houston, Texas, Andrea Yates is back in court for the first hearing since her capital murder convictions were overturned. Yates is retried in the drowning deaths of three of her five children. She had been serving a life term before an appeals court through out her convictions last year. Yates' attorney says she will again plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
In New York, the pilot of the Staten Island ferry that crashed more than two years ago and his supervisor face sentencing today. The pilot, Richard Smith, passed out at the helm before the ship slammed into a concrete pier at full speed. The crash killed 11 people and injured dozens more. A pre-sentencing report recommends that Smith and his co-defendant, Patrick Ryan, each be sentenced to less than a year in prison.
So, is your SUV going to protect you during a crash? There's new safety information to share with you this morning. We're talking about the biggest vehicles on the road and whiplash injuries.
And are you plugged in to work when you're at home and plugged in to your kids when you're at the office? We'll see what kind of wear and tear your wireless habits are doing to your family life.
Plus, new year, new you. Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to the participants. Check out how the buddy system will help them achieve their goals.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Well, it looks like we can't lick those rising postal rates. It now costs two cents more. It's 39 cents to mail a first- class letter. Another rate boost is likely next year. The rate hike went into effect yesterday.
So, with this extra two cents, maybe Susan Lisovicz can give us her two cents from Wall Street.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and talk safety on the road. Many people buy SUVs thinking that these are bigger and are safer cars. Well, there's a new study released. It finds four out of five sport utility vehicles and pickups do not provide adequate protection against whiplash.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested seat and head restraints in 44 SUVs and pickups that are currently in production in the U.S. Only six of the vehicles earned good overall ratings for whiplash protection in low-speed rear-end collisions.
They are the Ford Freestyle; the Honda Pilot; the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Land Rover LR3; Subaru Forester; and Volvo XC90. The study gave poor ratings to the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, the Ford Explorer and the Toyota 4Runner, the Chevrolet Silverado pickup and some seats in the Ford F-150 and dodge Dakota pickups.
So, you know who you are. Are you answering the cell phone at work to deal with stuff at home? And when you're at home, are you answering it to deal with stuff at work?
A new study on what that is doing to your family life, as if we didn't need to tell you. That's coming up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: All right. Gather round. We're going to have a little electronic confessional right now.
Are you a gadget cowboy, walk around with a BlackBerry in one hand, a cell phone, maybe a pager as well strapped to your hip? Well, a new study shows the devices that are supposed to make our lives so much easier -- as I check to see if I have an e-mail -- inevitably work, beeps at home usually about the time that the microwave beeps and dinner is ready. So, in the case of some parents, grape juice spills and sibling squabbles invade the office in a wireless way, of course.
Wisconsin sociology professor Noel Chesley led the study. And she joins us now, of course, on the phone.
NOELLE CHESLEY, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY: Hi there.
KAGAN: Professor, are you on a cell phone right now?
CHESLEY: No, I'm actually on a regular old-fashioned phone.
KAGAN: Oh, good. It makes me feel better there.
So what's going on here? Your study showed that women are getting it both places, men are more getting the calls at home from work?
CHESLEY: OK.
KAGAN: Yes?
CHESLEY: Here's what the study shows. I interviewed working men and women who are living in upstate New York, OK, about their technology use. And the data showed that working men and women who regularly use a cell phone and/or a pager over a two-year time period also experienced an increase in psychological distress and a decrease in family satisfaction over that same time period. And that's compared with people who didn't use the technology or used those technologies pretty intermittently.
KAGAN: This is called spillover.
CHESLEY: Well, so, what explains that relationship between those problematic outcomes in technology use is this increase in this phenomenon spillover. And the idea there is that job worries or concerns are spilling over from work to home, and the technology is facilitating that. So for both working men and women, it looks like steady cell phone/pager use is providing another point of access that allows these job concerns and worries to infiltrate other parts of life, including family life.
KAGAN: But Professor, this was all supposed to make our life simpler, free us up.
CHESLEY: Well, I mean, it may be making life simpler for some people. I think it's really important to note that the people in this study were in dual-earner families. So these are families where both the men and women and the couple had jobs. Now, this isn't a nationally representative sample of all technology users. So it's possible that you see other patterns in other populations. What this study...
KAGAN: Well, let's talk about some possible solutions here. First of all, cut off the phone when you're at home to work. Say, work, you've got to -- you have to have some boundaries here.
CHESLEY: That's right. I mean, I think to the extent that you can put boundaries in place, that's really important. And maybe at the workplace this is something that we all need to talk about a little bit, is what the expectations are for accessibility after hours. How, you know, are we going to be expected to answer our phones during the dinner hour, you know, to follow up on your example?
KAGAN: And tell the kids, call your father.
(LAUGHTER)
CHESLEY: That's the other thing. So the study also showed that for women, one of the other things going on here is that problems at home, home concerns and worries, are invading the workplace. But this is only for women.
And it may be that moms are just always the point of contact. And if moms and dads could share that a little bit more, it might make life a little bit easier for women, anyway.
KAGAN: Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you on a regular landline phone. I'm glad we weren't interrupted....
CHESLEY: OK.
KAGAN: ... by any calls from home.
Professor Noelle Chesley from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
Thank you.
CHESLEY: OK. Thanks so much.
KAGAN: These days it might seem like people are experiencing a lot of stress. And no surprise, they have excuses to avoid exercise and healthy lifestyles. Well, no more. It's a new year. We're looking at a new you. A look at this year's participants coming up next.
And later, doctors say that Ariel Sharon exhibits some slight movement. He's responding to pain stimuli. We'll go live to Jerusalem for the latest on the ailing leader's condition.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: This just in to CNN. Andrea Yates will go on trial again on March 20. She had a pretrial hearing today. She has been jailed since 2002 for drowning her children. She's been held in an east Texas prison since her capital murder convictions were overturned last year.
She, once again, did plea, just like the first time around, not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defense lawyer, George Parnham, has pointed out that he believes that Andrea Yates needs psychiatric help and not a prison term. But there will be a trial beginning March 20.
So we were just doing that e-mail and BlackBerry segment. Now I'm starting to get e-mail from people so that my BlackBerry's filled, including from David Waters at News 13 in Orlando.
Thank you for the greetings. Appreciate it.
Jacqui, you have two kids at home. Are you guilty of doing the phone and the...
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: My nanny did call me this morning at work, yes.
KAGAN: Is everything OK?
JERAS: Everything's OK. There was just no school today. I thought there was school. One more day left.
KAGAN: Mom, got to get the schedule down.
JERAS: I was a little disappointed. I know. I swear they said today they were back.
KAGAN: Tomorrow.
JERAS: Anyway, she'll be happy tomorrow.
KAGAN: Yes.
JERAS: What do you do?
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: It is a yearly ritual. Come January, you promise to eat healthier, exercise some more, lose weight, get in great shape. Well, our "New You" resolution may be just the inspiration you need. And this year, it's all about the power of pairs.
Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to this year's participants.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): First, from our nation's capital, they have lobbied to join the "New You." Frank Purcell, a lobbyist, and Donna Brighthaupt, his assistant, they may have opposite personalities, but they have two things in common. They're both going to school and both are balancing work and family.
Finding time for exercise is extremely tough. To make matters worse, they both love ribs and office candy.
From D.C. to New York, enter twin brothers, Washington attorney Mark Rasch and New York Dr. Stuart Rasch. Stuart does overnight ER duty and Mark travels constantly. Their sibling rivalry should make for an interesting race to a healthier life.
To Cheyenne, Wyoming, where we meet Pedro and Denise Rampolla, husband and wife serving their country. Pedro just returned from service in Iraq. He and Denise are both crushed for time. With a family of four young children, the Rampollas want to learn how they and their children can all eat healthy.
Tune in tomorrow for a closer look at Frank and Donna, our D.C. co-workers.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, for the "New You" resolution.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And you can learn more about our "New You" participants and the "New You Resolution." Just log on to our Web site at cnn.com/newyou. And you can follow along in the buddy blog as the "New You" pairs discuss their struggles and their triumphs.
Still ahead, the baby you've come to know, little Noor, has surgery this morning. But she's not the only Spina Bifida patient in need. We'll tell you how you can help others like her.
And a reminder. CNN's coverage of the Alito confirmation hearings begins at the top of the hour. Tune in for a special early edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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