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American Morning

Execution on Hold in California; Bush's Energy Policy; Mudslide Search in Philippines; Mardi Gras Rolls On

Aired February 21, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rob Marciano, in for Miles. He's taking a couple of days off.

O'BRIEN: Lucky guy.

Execution on hold. It's one of the stories we're telling you this morning. A moral problem with lethal injection has now left the state of California looking for some other options in dealing with an inmate.

We'll explain ahead.

MARCIANO: And rescue crews still searching for signs of life in the Philippines, but bad weather now threatens to make search efforts more dangerous.

A live report ahead.

And both time and hope may be running out for the rescuers in Mexico. They still haven't been able to reach dozens of miners trapped now for two days.

O'BRIEN: A problem for the president? Some tough questions today about last-minute energy spending. Was it necessary or was it just a P.R. ploy? We're going to take you live to the White House this morning.

MARCIANO: And the ladies hit the ice tonight for the marquee Olympic moment. But who will emerge as the next ice princess? Live to Torino ahead.

O'BRIEN: Maybe Sasha Cohen, right there.

MARCIANO: Could be. She's very elegant.

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

Let's start with this story, an execution called off at the last minute over questions about cruel and unusual punishment. Michael Morales was scheduled to die by lethal injection early this morning in California. The prison spokesman says now, though, that two anesthesiologists backed out because the procedure could violate their medical oath. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VERNON CRITTENDON, SAN QUENTIN SPOKESMAN: Any such intervention would clearly be medically unethical. As a result, we have withdrawn from participation in the current process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: He's talking about the anesthesiologist who withdrew; therefore, putting all of this right back in kind of legal jeopardy.

Let's get right to Priya David of our affiliate KTVU. She's covering the story for us in San Quentin, California, this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRIYA DAVID, REPORTER, KTVU: Right now I'm standing outside San Quentin's prison gates where death row inmate Michael Morales is once again scheduled to be executed at 7:30 tonight, but by a different method. Here's what the problem was. The lawyers for Michael Morales had gone to a judge and said it is cruel and unusual punishment to put someone to death by lethal injection because the inmate can actually feel the pain of the execution.

The judge said, OK, we'll put two anesthesiologists in with Morales to make sure he's unconscious and doesn't suffer at all during the execution. Now, this was brand new, never been done before in the state of California.

At the last minute, the anesthesiologists balked. They said, no, they won't do it. And that caused the delay overnight.

Now, folks outside the prison gates were visibly very happy and excited by the news. The family, however, of the girl that Michael Morales killed in 1981, Terri Winchell, was very upset by the news, of course. Morales himself was relieved.

He will be executed at 7:30 tonight using a different method. Using a fatal overdose of barbiturate instead of the lethal injection, which will mean that no anesthesiologists need to be on hand at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Fascinating legal case. That was Priya David of our affiliate KTVU reporting for us from San Quentin Prison in California -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Soledad, skepticism in Colorado this morning about the president's commitment to alternative energy. President Bush will visit a federal research lab in Colorado in just over an hour. He's promoting the plan he talked about in his State of the Union speech. But that lab laid off dozens of workers in the weeks after the speech.

Monday, the money for those jobs was restored. Now workers are wondering about the timing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA LARNEY, ADMIN. ASSISTANT: I'm still questioning why the budget cuts even happened or why the layoffs had to happen in the first place. Like, how it can happen that two, three weeks later they can restore the money to the budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: With some insight, Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House this morning.

Suzanne, what's the administration saying about all of this?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rob, it's interesting, because the presidential visit certainly does help one's cause. The president is going to be touring that facility, that lab, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, later today.

The interesting back story, of course, just a couple of weeks ago some 32 employees there got laid off, essentially, saying that there was a $28 million shortfall in their budget. Well, the Energy Department got to work, they found out about this.

The Energy secretary, Sam Bodman, even releasing a statement saying that he found at least some of that money, $5 million, to allow all of those workers to come back. The statement saying, "The action we are taking today will allow the dedicated employees to continue their work that will bring us great innovation in renewable energy technologies."

The Energy Department saying they found it from other projects and different places and they were able to transfer those funds. They say this is part of the president's commitment, of course, to his energy initiative. Also part of the president's larger goal, that is to cut by 75 percent imports from the Middle East oil in the next 20 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These countries know we need their oil and that reduces influence. It creates a national security issue when we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Rob, I talked to the energy spokesman, Craig Stephens (ph), this morning, asked him, quite frankly, "Skeptics saying, look, is this a P.R. stunt? Talk about the timing of this."

He said of course it's important the president is promoting the people, the good work they do here. It was important for them to get their jobs back. Not a P.R. stunt, but he did say that of course it helped the bureaucracy move a little bit faster, the fact the president was essentially on their heels to visit this facility -- Rob. MARCIANO: And at least now they won't actually -- they won't kick them out. A little bit more of a warm welcome when he arrives there later today.

Suzanne Malveaux.

Thanks very much, live from the White House.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

MARCIANO: CNN is going to carry that speech, the comments from the president on his energy policy, live as it happens. That should be around 11:30 Eastern Time.

O'BRIEN: We are following two developing stories this morning. First, that deadly mudslide in the Philippines. More than a thousand people are missing in one village on the island of Leyte.

The search for possible survivors goes on. The head of the Philippine Red Cross said today, though, that the agency is now shifting its focus to taking care of the living.

Let's get right to CNN's Hugh Riminton. He's got more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this hospital corridor and in the wards to the left and right are the few, the very few, the survivors, 16 of them, in this hospital. There were 21 pulled out of the rubble in the first few hours. None since.

Two of those have subsequently died. Three others have been flown off for emergency help in other more sophisticated hospitals.

And that leaves these. We have spoken to them. They have different stories. The testament to randomness, there's no pattern for their survival. They include the physically strong, but also the elderly.

The eldest, 72. The youngest, a child of just one year old.

Among them is a little girl, 6-year-old Rosemary Sabunga (ph). Television cameras saw her being pulled out of the wreckage and being brought out from being entombed. She was lucky because on that particular day she was too sick to go to school and so did not suffer the fate of her three siblings and her mother.

Also here among the survivors, Irinia Valasca (ph). She also was seen being pulled out of the mud. She was buried for five hours.

Now, these people, these survivors, share a number of things in common. The stories of their survival might be different, but they say they have a bond between them. Whatever happens in the future, they want to stay together, to be resettled somewhere where this bond can be sustained. This is the hospital in which they are trying to make their recovery, while up on the hill the search continues for all the members of these people's families who are still missing. And, in fact, that brings on the question of luck.

These might be deemed the lucky ones. Many of them don't see themselves that way. One woman told me she doesn't feel lucky. She would happily give her life for the seven grandchildren who are still mussing in the rubble.

Hugh Riminton, CNN, in Ahawan (ph) Hospital, the Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: Another developing rescue story this morning. This one out of Mexico.

Search crews there battling the odds against saving 65 miners trapped underground since Sunday. Desperate relatives huddled around bonfires throughout the bitter cold night praying for a miracle.

Correspondent Morgan Neill is on the phone from the site, about 85 miles south of the Texas border.

Morgan, where do we stand with the rescue efforts?

MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rob, the rescue effort hasn't let up since the blast went off Sunday. But the latest that we've heard, and this is an update that we got late last night, was that they're still a good ways away from where they believe those miners were when the blast went off. And the rescue teams, the biggest challenge they are facing is they've got to find a way in and then make sure that they can make their way back out again.

Now, there is a team that has been specially equipped with oxygen to go into the most dangerous parts that haven't been ventilated. At the same time, the ventilators have been running around the clock. What we don't know is if that ventilation is reaching anyone. In any case, the going has been very slow to this point -- Rob.

MARCIANO: What's the feel, Morgan? I mean, are we really holding out some hope here, or they starting to talk more of a recovery than an actual rescue, sadly?

NEILL: Well, we haven't heard that specific talk, Rob, but if you talk to officials and, to be honest, with some of the family members, very few people are optimistic. They're very realistic. These are people that live around the mines, the mining community, and they are very well acquainted with the dangers that come with that profession.

MARCIANO: Certainly a dangerous business. Again, Morgan Neill reporting live for us from Mexico. Sixty-five miners still trapped underground.

Let's go to Carol Costello now with a look at other stories making news this morning.

Hello again, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello Rob.

Good morning to all of you.

A fight is brewing over port security. Two Republican governors are threatening legal action to block an Arab company from taking over operations at six of the largest ports in the United States. They say they may try to cancel port lease arrangements because of the deal. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is defending the deal, saying the administration went through an extensive review process.

The attorney for Andrea Yates is asking the court to ban any and all photographs of her children during her retrial. Yates faces capital murder charges in the drowning death of her five children. She was sentenced to life in prison, but that conviction was overturned. Yates is now in a mental hospital. Her new trial is set to begin on March 20.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says he wants Hamas to recognize peace deals with Israel. Hamas is expected to meet again with the Hamas prime minister and give him a letter granting him the power to form a new government.

And will the Powerball winner or winners please stand up? They have yet to claim the record jackpot worth $365 million.

The ticket was sold in Lincoln, Nebraska. We know that. A news conference has been tentatively scheduled for tomorrow in the hopes the winner will show up.

A lot of hoaxes going back and forth, because remember yesterday we were interviewing the folks at the store where the ticket was purchased?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And they got a call from a man they said sounded credible as the winner. It turned out it was a radio station. It was a hoax.

O'BRIEN: Yes, the "sounded credible" part. They checked it out, which is good.

COSTELLO: Yes.

O'BRIEN: You know, good that they checked it out. And then, of course, it turned out not to be the case.

So who is holding the winning ticket?

COSTELLO: I'm dying to know.

O'BRIEN: Gosh, aren't you -- $365 million. Seriously, what would you do with the $6 million a year for 30 years, Carol?

COSTELLO: You know, I wouldn't go public. I would just take my ticket and my winnings and go.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Hey, Carol, we might notice.

COSTELLO: Well, OK, I might tell you.

O'BRIEN: When she starts pulling up in her Mercedes limousine every day...

MARCIANO: Carol...

O'BRIEN: ... and the entourage, we might notice that. But whatever.

Thanks, Carol.

Let's get the forecast now. Bonnie Schneider at the CNN Center.

Hey. Good morning again.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: All right, Bonnie. Thank you.

MARCIANO: Thanks, Bonnie.

O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to take you to Turin or Torino, as they like to call it, for an Olympic update. Women's figure skating starts today.

There is Sasha Cohen. She is one of the medal favorites.

MARCIANO: You like her.

O'BRIEN: You know, I like her, and I like Emily Hughes. She was the -- someone did -- they did a book, a children's book about Emily Hughes that my daughters read and love. And she's such a sweet girl. So I hope she does well, too.

MARCIANO: You're a homer. There are some, you know, other countries that are going to do well.

O'BRIEN: Well, yes, I'm rooting for the U.S. Why not?

MARCIANO: OK. Good. Like to be patriot around here.

We're going to talk about "Morning House Call." There's -- why cell phone bans in hospitals may be a risk to patients' safety. Interesting little tidbit there. We're going to have that full story on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Look at the pictures. The crowds might be a little bit thin. But you know what they say, let the good times roll. That's what Mardi Gras is all about.

So far, it seems that the scaled-down celebrations are going pretty smoothly. Still a big challenge, though, for the city.

Joining us this morning from New Orleans is police superintendent Warren Riley.

Nice to see you, Police Chief. Nice to have you with us this morning, as always.

How have things been going? How has the security been?

SUPERINTENDENT WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Security has been fine. The first weekend went very well. As you stated, we did have small crowds, but very vibrant, enthusiastic crowds. And we think it went very well.

O'BRIEN: Of course, you know, the big celebrations are what is coming up, what is ahead. Do you feel confident that you're going to have the manpower to handle what is expected?

RILEY: Yes. We have over 1,400 officers, 700 or 800 will be on the route. We have 150 state troopers here and some assistance from the National Guard. We feel confident about our ability to handle this situation.

O'BRIEN: I was going to ask you about federal help. Have you asked for federal help? And what kind of help are you getting?

RILEY: Well, we did ask for federal help. What we do have are some ICE agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that are coming in this weekend to assist us. Other than that, I'm not sure. We're still waiting to find out, but we have requested some additional federal help.

O'BRIEN: But you're feeling confident going in.

You know, I was just in New Orleans last week. Actually, last Wednesday. And you still obviously have a lot of problems there.

One of the big problems you have maybe in the middle of a big celebration is that you don't have a level one trauma center when you have a lot of tourists coming, you have a big celebration coming. How worried are you about that?

RILEY: Well, certainly that's a major concern. We have some contingency plans that we can implement in the event of an emergency.

We're able to handle a reasonable amount of incidents. For instance, in the past, during a big weekend it's normally 3,000 incidents, types of people that go for service at the hospital. I think they are capable of handling up to 1,000 right now. And with the reduced crowds, we think that we'll be OK.

O'BRIEN: So you think you're going to be all right on that front.

You know, it was interesting. I spent a little time in Mississippi and kind of got around last week when I was on vacation. And the people in Mississippi actually said that thought it was very inappropriate to be having a Mardi Gras celebration.

They literally would point around to all the devastation and say, "What the heck is there to celebrate? And explain to me why they are having a big party." And I've got to say, I saw their point.

RILEY: Well, it's twofold. I mean, there are people within this community who want to move forward, who want -- who realize the devastation but feel the need to continue to live life and enjoy life and to move forward. There's also a lack of revenue coming into the city. So this should be a big boost to the city as far as revenue.

And then there are people here within this city who also wonder why we're having Mardi Gras, why there is a Mardi Gras. So there are even people here. So -- but you can't make everybody happy, but you still have to move forward.

O'BRIEN: Interesting.

Let me ask you a quick final question about the housing of some of your officers. We know that they have been on these cruise ships, and sometimes I know that sounds like, ooh, fabulous. But actually, a lot of families really crowded in these one rooms.

It's not so nice. We've taken little tours of some of those rooms.

Now they are going to be evicted off these cruise ships. What happens to the officers? Is FEMA giving you help in putting -- putting them -- you know, in trailers that would fit the families?

RILEY: Well, FEMA is offering assistance. They are -- excuse me -- providing some hotel rooms, as well as some travel trailers.

Now, we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens. We're a little bit disappointed. We did have a meeting on the ship last night. We're a little bit disappointed that some of these officers and their families will go from a crowded room on a ship to a 250 square foot travel trailer. A 10 by 25 foot area for a family is totally unacceptable.

Now, there are a significant number of officers who have, in fact, left the ship, who on their own have purchased homes, who on their own have went out and obtained apartments for their families. But due to the limited amount -- availability, rather, of homes and apartments, we still need that assistance from FEMA. So we'll have to wait and see what happens over the next few days. But we're a little bit disappointed about the meeting from last night.

O'BRIEN: I know you're an understated kind of guy. So I know when you're say, "We're a little bit disappointed," you're sort of severely annoyed about the lack of help from FEMA.

And when we talk about travel trailers, I mean, those are -- I've spent a lot of time in these little trailers. These are really, really small. What are you going to do if FEMA doesn't give you more help?

RILEY: You know, we've talked to a number of officials from FEMA. There are over 10,000 motor homes that are 1,000 square foot, two, three bedroom motor homes sitting in Arkansas. I think that we have some -- had some discussions on that last night. And hopefully sometime after March 1 we can work that out and get some of those 1,000 square foot trailer homes down here and start some trailer communities for these first responders.

O'BRIEN: I have a feeling you and I are going to be talking about this some more.

New Orleans police superintendent Warren Riley.

We're going to see you next week. We're coming in for Mardi Gras. Hopefully we'll get a chance to chat face to face.

Thanks for talking with us this morning, sir.

RILEY: Sure. Thank you. Look forward to it.

O'BRIEN: Rob.

MARCIANO: Soledad, coming up in "House Call," most doctors aren't allowed to use cell phones in hospitals because of safety reasons. But that may actually be putting patients at risk, as well. We'll tell you why on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: In hospitals across America, many doctors are told not to use their cell phones. Use pagers, they're told, because cell phones can interfere with sensitive medical electronics. But now in an article in the Medical Journal says using pagers over cell phones can be bad for patients.

Dr. Roy Soto of New York's Stony Brook Hospital surveyed more than 4,000 doctors. He joins us live with the results of his survey.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Soto.

DR. ROY SOTO, STONY BROOK HOSPITAL: Thank you.

MARCIANO: What did you find, 4,000 doctors, and how many were actually using cell phones? And were they griping about it?

SOTO: Well, it's an interesting question. The majority of the physicians that we talked to were using pagers as their primary means of communication, and a smaller number were using cell phones. What we found was that those that were using pagers as their primary means of communication had a higher incidence of communication delay-related medical error or injury.

In other words, if you had the ability to communicate rapidly with the cell phone, you were less likely to see a communication- related medical error.

MARCIANO: Well, that's just -- that's just common sense. You would more rapidly respond to those.

SOTO: I agree.

MARCIANO: What has been the science or the mythology behind not being able to use the cell phones? And is that changing as the technology changes?

SOTO: That's how we initially approached this. We thought that it seemed like common sense that if you could communicate more efficiently you could improve patient safety.

So, what we decided to do is to look to see what the science really was. And if you looked at the literature, we found that there really was no evidence that modern medical devices, when they were around cellular phones, had anything wrong with them.

For instance, modern cellular phones use digital technology, very, very low power output. All medical devices nowadays are shielded against interference. And so the myth, as you said, of interference between medical devices and cell phones just really doesn't bear out in science.

MARCIANO: I did read somewhere that there was problems with ventilators. Is that not true?

SOTO: There was -- there have been a number of methodical studies that have compared multiple different cellular phone technologies with multiple different devices. And one of the studies found that if you answered a cellular phone within three inches of the on-off switch in the back of one particular model of ventilator it would turn itself off.

And so, as a result, many hospitals -- Massachusetts General Hospital is one of the hospitals that we cited in our study -- has a policy that says you can use these devices in hospitals as long as you stay an arm's length away, or about three feet away from a medical device. And in that instance, there's really no chance of any interference happening.

MARCIANO: Well, it sounds like this makes more sense to use cell phones. Is there going to be a change in policy? Do you see that coming? SOTO: It's a good question. I'm the lead author in this article, and my hospital doesn't allow me to use cell phones. And so it's a good question whether this will drive policy change.

Hopefully it will, because, again, our goal in medicine is to drive -- to improve patient safety. And if you can improve communications and, thereby, improve patient safety, I think you're going to have a real impact.

MARCIANO: The other issue that patients might say, well, if we allow cell phones, you know, I can't get my sleep. So they would have to obviously cater to them as well and maybe do a "doctors can use them but family members can't."

SOTO: Right, the second part of this is, if physicians and nurses can use cell phones, well, should every patient in the hospital be allowed to? I think if you restrict it to non-patient sensitive areas, intensive care units, operating rooms, emergency rooms for the patients, I think that will alleviate some of the annoyance factor of everybody talking on their cell phone.

MARCIANO: Well, it's certainly an interesting study. But for right now, you still can't use your cell phone when you go to see people in the hospital.

SOTO: Correct.

MARCIANO: All right.

Dr. Soto, thanks very much for the insight. Interesting topic.

SOTO: Thank you very much.

MARCIANO: Coming up, women's figure skating gets under way in Torino. What are Sasha Cohen's chances for gold? We're going live to Torino for a preview.

And later, Queen Latifah will join us live in the studio. Her latest project has nothing to do movies or music. We'll talk about what she is doing to honor everyday women who are making a difference.

"AM Pop" is ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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