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American Morning
Wild Weather; Senate Expected to Sign on Tax Cut Later Today; Bountiful Ethiopia?
Aired May 11, 2006 - 06:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
A nighttime curfew now in place in Westminster, Texas. That's just north of Dallas. It follows those deadly tornadoes that hit late on Tuesday.
Thunderstorms brought lightning and rain to Florida. No relief from wildfires, though.
Let's get right to correspondent Tara Mergener. She joins us with more on both these stories.
Hey, Tara. Good morning.
TARA MERGENER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Soledad.
The storms have certainly left a trail of destruction. The question is, is the worst over?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MERGENER (voice over): Those who saw the twisters that ripped through rural north Texas say they were like thunderstorms gone crazy. This woman describes how her family survived the onslaught of a funnel cloud.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess they just both just fell down immediately. A pretty solid coffee table and a couch is what helped. The roof pretty much blew away instead of collapsing. So that helped, too.
MERGENER: The tornadoes, caused by a warm gulf stream colliding with a cold jet stream north, have killed three, injured 10, and destroyed at least 25 homes and buildings in a community north of Dallas. In Childress, it will be a while before this high school is back to normal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst of our damage was to our gymnasiums. We have two gyms, and the older is pretty well destroyed.
MERGENER: In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, about a thousand residents have now been forced from their homes after a sweeping brushfire scorched a thousand acres. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would just skip from one tree to the other, just whew, just like a -- just a firestorm. I said, "This is it. It's over."
MERGENER: The area saw less than an inch of rain in March and April. Now the fear is lightning could spark more trouble in areas where they were hoping for heavy rain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MERGENER: And a heavy cloud of smoke is affecting visibility on highways across Florida. The rain may clear some of that out.
Live in Washington this morning, I'm Tara Mergener.
Soledad, back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Tara Mergener for us this morning.
Tara, thanks -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: There is a $70 billion tax cut headed your way. The Senate expected to sign on later today. But before you spend that money, you better consider this: How will this affect you?
If you make between $20,000 and $30,000, your savings, 9 bucks. If you make $50,000, about $110. If you're in the $100,000 category, $1,400, or close to it than that.
And get this now, if you're more than $1 million, if you're fortunate enough to be in that category, you're going to save upwards of $42,000 on your taxes.
Dana Bash has details on all this from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Later today, the Senate is expected to pass and send to the president a $70 billion tax cut package that Republicans are already trumpeting as a much needed political victory. Now, last night, the House passed this by a vote of 244-185, and not surprisingly, that was largely along partisan lines.
Republicans say these tax cuts are crucial to keep the economy humming, but Democrats voted against it because they say that it is a giveaway to the wealthy and also fiscally irresponsible to spend that kind of money at a time of record deficits and also a time of spending for things like the Iraq war. But Republicans say they need this kind of legislative accomplishment, especially right now when they admit that they are wounded politically. And also, they're very worried about the Republican base being disillusioned with their leadership here in Congress, and in Washington in general.
So this issue, tax cuts, is really the mother's milk of the GOP, something that Republicans here hope can galvanize conservatives and moderates and help them in November.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Happening right now "In America," a former band manager sentenced to four years in prison for that deadly nightclub fire that happened in Rhode Island. Daniel Biechele set off the pyrotechnics that sparked the fire at the Station Nightclub back in 2003. One hundred people died in that fire.
Before the verdict was read, Biechele apologized to the victims' families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not believe that you pose a threat to society in the future.
DANIEL BIECHELE, DEFENDANT: ... what happened that night, so I can't expect anybody else to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: A tearful Daniel Biechele there. The case not over yet. The two nightclub owners are also facing charges now.
In Louisiana, the demolition of homes begins in St. Bernard Parish. Hurricane Katrina spared only four buildings in the entire parish. Demolition work is expected to take until the end of the year.
In Middlebury, Indiana, a 41-year-old woman, her 9-year-old daughter and her 7-year-old son were all killed in a highway accident. The children survived the crash of the SUV, then they were killed when a semi tractor-trailer couldn't stop in time to avoid the initial accident.
Three hikers had to be plucked from the side of a mountain in Utah. They unknowingly wandered into an avalanche danger zone. One of the hikers used his cell phone to call for help as soon as they realized that they were lost.
A unique celebration for an Allentown, Pennsylvania, landmark. It is a 75-foot-long steak sandwich. The Brass Rail Restaurant has been serving up their famous steak sandwiches for 75 years. This one has a little bit more of everything. About 70 pounds of steak, 50 pounds of onions, five gallons of yummy sauce.
I've eaten there.
M. O'BRIEN: Have you?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. I've been there, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
M. O'BRIEN: About 10 miles of heartburn there.
S. O'BRIEN: It's pretty good. The sandwich I had wasn't quite that large.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, 10 miles of heartburn, at least.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. That is a hoagie, for sure.
Still to come on the program, did British intelligence miss a chance to prevent the London terror bombings? We'll take a closer look at that.
S. O'BRIEN: And a report about the NSA collecting our phone records, all for the fight against terror. We're going to have that story just ahead.
And then this...
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Newton in northern Ethiopia. As the next deadly drought looms, people here taking matters into their own hands. Coming up, an inside look you'll only see on CNN.
S. O'BRIEN: And here's some of the other stories that are making news on this Thursday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: In Ethiopia, there is concern history could repeat itself with a big drought looming. In the 1980s, you may recall drought and subsequent famine killed a million people and prompted a refugee crisis. But this time there is some home they are better prepared as people take matters into their own hands.
Paula Newton joining us now from northern Ethiopia with a story you'll see only on CNN -- Paula.
NEWTON: You know, this has been a very good year for rain here, but having said that, they know they can very easily slip into drought. Really, it just takes a matter of weeks. What they really want here are the means to survive a drought.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON (voice over): For all it's rugged, unblemished beauty, northern Ethiopia is an unforgiving sort of place, easily scorched by drought in a blink, host to famine. For 70 years, Gebsiar Kiflionase (ph) was at its mercy until now.
He has more fruits and vegetables than he can count. His farm was nothing but a dustbowl just two years ago. His new bounty is downright biblical. He never imagined at his age he could feed seven grandchildren. (on camera): In Ethiopia, they say water is life. And they truly mean that. Drought brought this family close to death a few times, and the whole time the water they needed to survive was right beneath them.
(voice over): A pump, a deep well, such simple things that are revolutionary here. Most farmers always relied on rain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And god. But now, they got water under their area or under their crop. High-value crops are now planted.
NEWTON: What they've started to do here is harvest water. They're building mini dams, reservoirs, funneling the water, diverting it, digging thousands of wells, collecting the precious resource every time it rains, so when it doesn't they'll still manage.
TESFAY GEBRETSADIK, RELIEF SOCIETY OF TIGRAY: After they see the change, after they see the water, because water is life for them, they (INAUDIBLE), they have their own ground (ph), and they keep it wet.
NEWTON: All of this portrays the legacy of Tigray province as the epicenter of a cataclysmic famine in 1984, a place where drought triggered a flood of relief.
People here have worked hard to shake that stereotype. They are terracing the hillside as part of a program that could signal a new self-help approach to aid and development.
This is a work-for-food program run by a homegrown aid group, REST, and supported by U.S. aid. They pull together at a breakneck pace to rehabilitate their land, and they get food supplies in return.
MARIA STRINTZOS, RELIEF SOCIETY OF TIGRAY: Where in the world can you, if you like, mobilize thousands of people overnight to literally build dams and river diversions with their bare hands? You can't expect American farmers in this particular case to keep on producing food to feed Ethiopians.
NEWTON: This could be the end of giving away food and instead giving back the very resource so desperately needed here.
As the next drought looms, many Ethiopians say they aren't interested in another famine photo opportunity. They want to come through it all on their own.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: You know, in this remote village, Miles, what happened during the last drought, which was just two and a half years ago, is people had to pack up their belongings, take their families to another village to collect that food aid -- food aid. They don't want to have to go through that again. They want to be able to stay here and just live on what they've conserved -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Paula, if you could give us a sense of the logistics, how difficult is it to get that aid into Ethiopia where it is needed?
NEWTON: Well, you're dealing with at times, you know, very, very huge masses of population. The numbers are the first problem.
You know, in any given year, you can have almost half of Ethiopians dependent on food aid. You're talking, you know, trying to get bundles of wheat, bundles of vegetable oil, bundles of just the very basic necessities through rugged, rugged terrain. There are, you know, absolutely huge mountains behind me, impassable in many cases. A lot of people live in those remote areas, which is why a lot of times they actually have to go to the food -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Paula Newton in northern Ethiopia. A story you'll see only here on CNN.
Thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: A quick look now at some of the stories that are correspondents are following around the globe, from details of a terror attack -- of those terror attacks, rather, in London, to the oilfields in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Hancocks in London. British security services were ill-equipped to prevent the July 7th London bombing which killed 52 and injured 700 people. A report out this Thursday says what is to blame is a lack of resources in the security services. They say that there was a clear failure in intelligence that this attack took place, but not one single agency or individual is to blame.
In addition, they say the terror alert system in Britain should be changed. It was lowered just before this attack took place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Arwa Damon, embedded with the 101st Airborne in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. Now, this is known as the eternal flame. You can actually step on it, and the flames will not go out.
Legend has it that the flame has been burning for 2,000 years. However, the U.S. military told us that it is a product of natural gases burning 300 meters below the Earth's surface, creating a flame so powerful, it has broken through right here. A testimony to the natural resources that are located in this area.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: For more on these or any of our top stories this morning, you can go right to our Web site, which is CNN.com -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, an unusual case of alleged sex discrimination. It's in Wisconsin -- a teacher who says she was fired for being pregnant. We'll explain.
And later, one small town takes on big oil. We'll tell you why critics say it's only hurting the little guy.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: A look at our top stories this morning.
Driving through parts of Florida is getting tougher. The Florida Highway Patrol shut down a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 95 indefinitely. They're clearing falling trees from those raging brushfires.
Internet regulators are turning down a plan to create a red light district on the Internet. They reversed an earlier decision that approved a .xxx domain. Andy Serwer is going to have details coming up in just about five minutes.
And there's word the National Security Agency is secretly keeping tabs on your phone calls. Not what you're saying, just who you're calling. "USA Today" calls it the largest database ever assembled -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: In Toledo, they're still deliberating the fate of that priest accused of murdering a nun. Yesterday, the jury deliberated for just a few hours after lengthy closing arguments.
CNN's Keith Oppenheim is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In closing arguments, prosecutors boiled down the case of a priest accused of murdering a nun 26 years ago to this: they said it was simply about a man who got angry with a woman and a woman died.
Father Gerald Robinson sat at the defense table and listened as attorneys gave very different versions of an old case. It was in 1980 that Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found strangled and stabbed in the chapel of Toledo's Mercy Hospital.
At the time, Father Robinson was a hospital chaplain. He was questioned but never charged, not until 2004, when cold case investigators took another look and believe they found a match between a bloodstain at the crime scene and a dagger-shaped letter opener that prosecutors say is the murder weapon belonging to the priest. Defense attorneys tried to cast doubt that the letter opener is the murder weapon and instead suggested that the nun was killed with a pair of scissors.
Now a jury enters their second day of deliberations, and must decide if there's enough physical evidence from more than a quarter century ago to convict a priest of murder.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Toledo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: A short break. When we come back in just a moment, Andy Serwer minds your business, and we update you on the weather forecast.
That's in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer's with us. He's minding our business.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": Good morning, Soledad.
Talk about strange bedfellows. Conservative groups and porn Web sites joining forces to block a move to create a .xxx, triple x domain on a Web site -- on the Internet, I should say. And interesting story here.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- that's called ICANN -- was looking to do this .xxx. This is a little blurry, but I think that's intentional.
S. O'BRIEN: You know what? But not blurry enough, in my opinion. Let's kill that. There we go. Thank you.
My children watch this show in the morning before school. We don't need to see that.
SERWER: It was too blurry.
M. O'BRIEN: A lame attempt at blocking something we shouldn't see.
SERWER: They were trying to create this domain name so that all porn sites would be gathered in this one sort of so-called red light district, but conservative groups didn't like that because it would legitimatize the business, and porn groups didn't like it because it would make it easier to regulate and provide oversight. So it was blocked.
And it will be interesting to see...
M. O'BRIEN: So wait a minute. The conservatives didn't want it and the porn sites didn't want it. Who wanted it?
SERWER: Who wanted it?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Well, I think a lot of parents might have wanted it...
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, you take away... SERWER: ... because you could block all things with xxx.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
SERWER: So, anyway, two out of five people who use the Internet visit porn sites each month, according to one survey. Interesting there.
Another little thing to talk about here, if you go into chat rooms and you use a female screen name, you are very likely to get malicious messages. One hundred malicious messages over a 24 hour period, versus four for a male name, or 25 for an ambiguous name, like "Moonbeam" or "Flower Lover," or something like that.
So, please, this is obvious stuff.
Yahoo! is getting into the home sales business, hooking up with Prudential Securities. So home signs will have a little Yahoo! I.D. tag, and you will be able to go to their Web site and they'll provide you with all kinds of information.
This is all about buying and selling homes on the Internet. And that is going to be coming to pass very soon.
S. O'BRIEN: Huge. Absolutely. Absolutely.
SERWER: And I think that's about it. Do we have time for the Google guys? What do two guys look like who -- no, we don't have time for them. We'll show them later.
S. O'BRIEN: Ooh, that's sound interesting.
M. O'BRIEN: Ooh.
SERWER: Yes. They're looking kind of cool, and they're worth a lot of money. So we'll get to it later.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
SERWER: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: The latest on Sergey coming up later.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's check the forecast in the meantime -- Chad Myers.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, for a couple million dollars, even you can look cool.
M. O'BRIEN: That's true. That's true.
MYERS: You can go to Vegas and do a shopping spree.
M. O'BRIEN: Even me. Even me. MYERS: Good morning, everybody.
(WEATHER REPORT)
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