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CNN Live Today
Not So Mobile; Power Hunting; The State Of Love In America
Aired February 14, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: He has been on a hunger strike for three days.
In Pakistan, Muslim rioting over cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad has now turned deadly. At least two people died earlier today in Lahore when protesters burned more than a dozen buildings. Muslims have been enraged by the cartoons which were first published in a Danish newspaper, then in other western publications.
There are some odd new twist to report on the case of Neil Entwistle, the British man accused of murdering his wife and baby daughter. Police in Massachusetts say that just before their deaths last month, Entwistle searched the Internet for ways to kill people. He also trolled websites that helped locate sexual partners. Entwistle is expected to be returned to the U.S. later this week.
And good morning to you. Happy Valentine's Day. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.
We're going to start this hour with a new sign in the road to recovery for the Gulf Coast. Tulane University Hospital reopens next hour, more than five months after being heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Repair costs topped $90 million with the flooded first floor being completely rebuilt. It's a partial reopening for the hospital. The emergency room, five operating rooms, four cardio labs and the pharmacy will be open, in addition to 63 of the 235 beds. Hospital officials say the E.R. is in a critical need in the city. There will now be two emergency rooms in Orleans parish treating adults. We're going to have a live report from Tulane Hospital in the next hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had been set to testify about the federal response to Katrina today. But Senate aides say the hearing was postponed due to floor votes. Chertoff is not off the hook, however. A House report due tomorrow is highly critical of the federal response. Chertoff is criticized for executing his responsibilities "late, ineffectively or not at all." For his part, Chertoff has announced new steps to improve disaster response. No word on when today's Senate hearings will be rescheduled.
More trailers, just like this one in New Orleans. Ten thousand more, in fact. Acting FEMA Director David Paulison says the federal government is buying that many additional trailers to relieve the homeless situation five months after Katrina. Might seem like an odd purchase in Hope, Arkansas, where thousands of trailers already purchased by FEMA sit empty. The story from our Gulf Coast Correspondent Susan Roesgen. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It looks like a mirage, nearly 11,000 mobile homes neatly lined up and ready to roll. Turns out it is a mirage of sorts. These are mobile homes but they aren't going anywhere. And the longer they sit, nearly six months already, the less mobile they get.
RICHARD SKINNER, HOMELAND SEC. INSPECTOR GENERAL: Since they were not properly stored, you can see from this second picture, the homes are sinking in the mud and their frames are bending from sitting on trailers with no support.
ROESGEN: Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner told the Senate what FEMA officials in Arkansas already knew. The soil under the mobile homes is so soft that every time it rains the mobile homes sink. Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross is fed up.
REP. MIKE ROSS, (D) ARKANSAS: If you can believe this, they're delivering something like 44,000 jacks to that cow pasture near the Hope Airport so they can jack up each corner of all 10,777 manufactured homes.
ROESGEN: Congressman Ross invited CNN to meet him last week at the Hope Municipal Airport but FEMA refused to let us see the mobile homes for ourselves.
ROSS: Is there any way that they can join us on the tour?
DAVID PASSY (ph), FEMA REP.: We're not allowed. We haven't allowed any public on the site because it is a secured federal facility.
ROESGEN: But the congressman has asked CNN to be his guest here today.
PASSY: Yes, I heard you. Thank you. So would you like to . . .
ROESGEN: So you won't allow us on the property?
PASSY: I just have -- excuse me one second.
ROESGEN: Bottom line, no. FEMA Rep David Passy wouldn't let us pass the gate and the guards. But later Passy showed us around inside one mobile home removed from the rest that FEMA uses as an office.
PASSY: So there's a living area, an eating area.
ROESGEN: It's big and roomie. Just the kind of place that an awful lot of evacuees living in tiny hotel rooms would love to have. According to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, they may never get the chance. Not only did FEMA spend more than $300 million in taxpayer money to buy these mobile homes, not only are they empty and immobile, but because they are sinking, they are falling apart and now these 11,000 brand new mobile homes may wind up in the dumpster.
SKINNER: In so far as many of these homes fail to meet FEMA specification requirement or FEMA has no qualified, prearranged site location to place them, they may have to be disposed of.
ROESGEN: Congressman Mike Ross says that's gross mismanagement.
ROSS: FEMA should have never purchased these homes. It's a failed policy. It's a failed plan. And it's just been a total disaster.
ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, Hope, Arkansas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Tonight, "Anderson Cooper 360" will take a closer look at this FEMA mobile home problem and government waste of your hard-earned tax dollars. That's tonight at 10:00 Eastern on CNN.
The federal government's handling of post-Katrina rebuilding is not winning a lot of support from the general public. The latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll asked people, "do you think the federal government is doing too much, doing the right amount or not doing enough?" Here are the responses. Eight percent says the federal government is doing too much. Just over a third of respondents saying the federal efforts are right on the mark. And a slight majority saying the government is not doing enough to rebuild the devastated areas.
In other new this morning. After two days of freezing temperature and winter weather, the big thaw is forecast for parts of New England. Warmer temperatures are expected today and tomorrow. That should help folks still trying to dig out from the weekends heavy snowfall. A record in places like New York City. But parts of the empire state are still seeing lake effect snow today.
Well, what does the weather look like across the country? Bonnie Schneider's here doing weather for us today.
Hi, Bonnie.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: Let's move on to the changing political landscape in the Mideast. First to Beirut. A massive rally to remember a slain leader and to keep a growing movement alive. Hundreds of thousands of people marked today's anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. That killing lead to the so-called Cedar Revolution, sweeping Syrian troops out of Lebanon.
A Hamas spokesman today blasted reported plans to derail a Hamas- led Palestinian government. "The New York Times" reported Israel and the U.S. have discussed ways to ensure that just elected Hamas officials fail, prompting a new vote. The Hamas official says the U.S. must respect last month's election results. And Iran today announced it has resumed small scale enrichment of uranium. That's the first step in making fuel for electricity or a nuclear weapon. Russia and France are calling on Iran to stop its nuclear work and fulfill the demands of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agencies.
So what do you think the U.S. should do right now to get Iran to shut down its nuclear program? We asked that question in our latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll. Fewer than one in 10 people thought a military option should be used now. More than two-thirds chose some type of economic or diplomatic action. Eighteen percent said nothing should be done now. About a third of those polled thought military action should be used in Iran only if diplomacy fails.
The Iranian nuclear dispute could come up before the U.N. Security Council next month. The U.N. is giving Iran some time now to reopen its facility to inspectors and head off possible sanctions. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared on CNN's "The Situation Room."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Iran should cooperate and cooperate fully. And I have urged them publicly to freeze the nuclear program to allow for negotiations to resolve this. I do not know why they constantly are meeting with the Russians. And if it is going to be rescheduled, (INAUDIBLE) indefinite, but I would urge them to pursue the option that the Russians have offered and work with the European trica (ph) and others to resolve this crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Under Moscow's proposal, Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium in Russia. You can hear more from newsmakers on CNN's "The Situation Room" weekdays at 4:00 Eastern. You can also watch "The Situation Room" weeknights at 7:00 Eastern.
No one was seriously injured, so some would say it's OK to poke a little bit of fun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction. It's Dick Cheney.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: That's just one of the many cracks on late night TV last night after the vice president accidentally shot a hunting partner. We will sample the late night shows ahead this hour.
And next, a look at the ranch where the shooting happened. It has a rich history of entertaining politicians.
And inside one of the most sophisticated crime labs in the country. It doesn't belong to law enforcement, though. It's run by one of the biggest store chains in the country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: To Texas now. Wildlife officials there say that Vice President Dick Cheney will not be fined for lacking the necessary paperwork on his ill-fated hunting trip over the weekend. That outing, of course, gained attention for the companion that he shot, not the quail that were the vice president's intended target. Under Texas wildlife rules, a quail hunter need as special game bird stamp for that prey. Cheney was issue a warning and his office says it will send off the $7 cost of that stamp.
While news of Cheney's shot traveled around the world, questions are being asked about the ranch where the rich and powerful gather to hunt. Our David Mattingly found out that the south Texas ranch has a history of forging political connections.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): To those who have been fortunate enough to get an invitation to the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, it was no surprise to learn a GOP vice president and an ambassador were hunting quail alongside a wealthy Republican attorney from Austin. Polly Sowell, the former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, has been a regular guest of the Armstrongs since the '60s.
POLLY SOWELL, FORMER TEXAS REPUBLICAN OFFICIAL: The only other family that I can think of that might be -- have been more influential would be the Bushs.
MATTINGLY: Among Sowell's photographs, memories of lunch under old oaks, lounging by the pool, open air safari like vehicles for hunting parties and, in this picture, a young Karl Rove after a successful day.
ROBERT ELDER, AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: It's a favored destination spot for this type of Republican with social connections, a fair amount of wealth. This happens quite frequently in the Armstrong Ranch.
MATTINGLY: The Bushs and James Baker have been among the guests treated to the abundance of well-managed game across the 50,000 acre ranch. But for many, an invitation to the ranch was prized for more than just the hunting.
ELDER: Certainly if you have access to the vice president, or other high level administration officials, corporate officials, it gives you really a unique opportunity to kind of relax, talk, and who knows what happens from there.
MATTINGLY: Anne and Tobin Armstrongs were Republicans in Texas decades before being a lone star Republicans was cool. Before his death in 2005, Tobin Armstrong was a rancher, a conservationist and an influential figure in the National Cattleman Beef Association. Vice President Cheney delivered a elegy at his funeral. Anne Armstrong was a member of the board of Halliburton when Cheney was CEO. Their ties go back to the Ford administration when she was U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. Together their hospitality became legendary as they cultivated the family ranch into a private getaway where they helped build a state Republican Party one relaxing weekend at a time.
SOWELL: They were certainly uniters. Of course, that's a politically charged phrase now a days. But they certainly were very good at bringing people together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And that was David Mattingly reporting from Texas. We are expecting an update on the condition of Harry Whittington at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and we will bring you the details as soon as we get them here at CNN.
Well, kind of expected this, the shooting proved too hard to resist for late night comedians. The fun they had with the story. We'll share it with you ahead this hour.
Also, a travesty in the making in London. Parliament threatening to snuff out the cigarettes for pub goers. Well, some think it's a tragedy. Some think it's a good health move. We'll saddle up to the bar live ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.
And let's go ahead and check the markets. They have been open about 47 minutes right now. You can see the Dow's up pretty strong. It's up 39 points. The Nasdaq in positive territory as well. It is up 11.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Here's one thing that is right with the world. When it comes to Valentine's Day spending, ladies are not really keeping up. The National Retail Federation survey shows, of the $13.7 billion that people will spend on objects of their affections, men will average $135. The women surveyed bring in that only half of that at $68.
So if you do get something today, what do you think it will be? The survey shows fewer men will buy flowers compared to last year. Instead, more will buy jewelry. Good work there, men. Close to half of consumers plan to buy candy for their sweetheart.
If you're single and looking to get hitched, we have some stats on the state of love in America right now. More than half of all adults in the U.S. are already married. The Census Bureau says 57 percent of men and 54 percent of women have tied the knot. That leaves about 90 million who are single and possibly looking for love. The majority of those folks have never been married. The numbers also show people are waiting longer to take the plunge for the first time. And our Tony Harris has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think marriage is sacred. It's lovely. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking to be complete. You know, right now I'm half. I'm looking for my other half.
TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Young love can certainly be romantic, but mature love is what's hot these days. Couples are getting married later in life.
KLAUS PLANTON, MARRIED AT 32: We got engaged in South Carolina.
COLETTE TETREAULT, MARRIED AT 32: In Charleston.
HARRIS: Colette and Klaus took the plunge when they were a mature 32 years old.
TETREAULT: I've always been somebody who wanted to know that I could stand on my own two feet before I made a life with somebody.
HARRIS: Since 1970, the age of first marriage in the U.S. has jumped from 21 to 25 for women, and 23 to 27 for men.
ELISABETH BURGESS, ASSOC. PROF. OF SOCIOLOGY, GSU: People are thinking marriage is something I'll do when I grow up. And that age of when I grow up keeps moving up.
HARRIS: Now, four years later, Colette and Klaus have two children.
TETREAULT: Here comes baby, Sebastian (ph). Here she comes.
After we got married and I knew we wanted to have kids right away. And I think it had been about six months and I said, well, you know, my eggs are coming down the tubes in wheelchairs. I don't know if they're going to make it.
HARRIS: Colette is busy keeping up with her two-year-old son Sebastian now. But in her 20s, she was climbing the pyramids in Guatemala and caving and snorkeling in Belize.
TETREAULT: I was kind of a nut and I was traveling and I wasn't ready for kids and dogs and cats and settling down. So when I had gotten through all that and experienced pretty much most of what I wanted to, you know, I was ready.
HARRIS: She completed a graduate degree in nursing at Georgetown University in D.C. Today she's a nurse midwife. Sociologist Dr. Elisabeth Burgess says Colette's typical of many women today. They've got a lot to accomplish in their 20s.
BURGESS: Nowadays it's a larger percentage of women who are in the work force, larger percentage of women who get bachelor's degrees, who go on to graduate work, who go on to professional schools, become doctors and lawyers and dentists.
HARRIS: A CDC report shows that after 10 years of marriage, younger brides are twice as likely to divorce or separate than older brides. Forty-eight percent versus 24 percent. Marriage Therapist Michael Chafin says older couples are usually better at working through conflict.
MICHAEL CHAFIN, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST: The older you get, the more you realize how much you don't know. And the more you realize about how much you don't know, then the more accepting you are of other people's differences.
HARRIS: Klaus says he's definitely reaping the benefits of maturity in his marriage.
PLANTON: I probably wasn't even quite ready for marriage at 25. So I had a little probably wilder time when I was single. Yes, in the 20s or mid 20s I was still not there yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And that was our Tony Harris reporting. We do have some more fun facts about love in America to mull over. Census numbers show more than 90 percent of women will get married in their lifetime. Seventy-five percent of women in the U.S. have been married by the age of 30. And half of those have lived with someone outside of marriage. And this last note. More than 2 million marriages take place a year. That's 6,000 marriages a day, if you are counting.
And this just in from Alexandria, Virginia. Zacarias Moussaoui has been, once again, removed from the courtroom. He is the only person here in the United States who has been on trial for anything in connection with the 9/11 attacks. This is the sentencing phase of his trial. And it has been a long and arduous four-year road. Once again, he has, at different times, tried to be his own attorney and has had outbursts in the courtroom. And this has happened again today. Our Kelli Arena is actually there and we will hear from her in just a moment.
Also ahead, a retail giant, believe it or not, is setting the standard for crime investigation. So much so that law enforcement is asking them to help solve cases. Inside one of the most sophisticating crime labs in the country when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: This just in to CNN. A breaking news situation from Pennsylvania. This is Fayette County, just southeast of Pittsburgh. As far as we know, we're being told this is a gas well explosion. No word on any injuries or the cause of the explosion. Our live pictures coming to us from our affiliate WTAE. We'll work on getting more information and bring you that and pictures as they are available.
Right now let's take a look at what else is happening right "Now in the News."
First, Florida, attorneys for child killer Joseph Smith are trying to save his life today. A Florida jury convicted and recommended the death sentence for Smith. Smith abducted 11-year-old Carlie Brucia outside of a car wash two years ago, then raped and killed her. Today is the second of a two-day hearing. The judge will sentence Smith next month.
The U.S. military report twos attacks on coalition convoys today. The attacks came an hour apart in separate areas of western Baghdad. A soldier was killed in one bombing. We don't know his nationality yet. Six other soldiers were wounded in the attacks.
I Beirut, Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Martyrs Square to mark the killing of a popular politician. A year ago today, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a bombing. And ongoing United Nations probe says evidence suggests that top ranked Syrian and Lebanese officials were involved in the killing.
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