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Police Believe Three Shootings In West Virginia Were Done By One Man; Water Safety Still Issue In Ohio; Deadly Heat Wave Subsiding In France

Aired August 16, 2003 - 15:00   ET

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

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


CHRISTI PAUL, HOST: Police say they believe the same individual is responsible for three separate fatal shootings this week at convenience stories in the Charleston area.
More top stories at the bottom of the hour. NEXT@CNN begins right now.

PAUL: Happy Saturday, everyone. Today on NEXT@CNN, the bright lights of Broadway are burning again, and so are the questions about what caused the biggest blackout in U.S. history. We'll get an update and some insights.

Also, back to school means back to the computer store. But what's the best choice for your student? We will take a look at what computers do and what they cost.

And President Bush says volunteerism is the ticket to saving America's national parks. But critics aren't so sure. We'll hear both sides.

First, in New York, Governor George Pataki said today that essentially 100 percent of power has been restored to New York State. That's just further confirmation that the end is in sight for the worst blackout in North American history, which, at its peak, left 60 million Americans and Canadians without electricity.

So how did this happen?

Jason Carroll joins us now from the streets of Manhattan with the very latest. Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good afternoon to you.

Some progress being made in the -- in this investigation. Investigators now say they know where their problem started, but they still can't say why it started. They have traced the problem to three transmission lines in Ohio. Those lines failed, but they can't say at this point if those lines failed because of a technical issue, or if those lines failed because of a human error.

Also, investigators can't say why that failure triggered a massive power failure along the Eerie loop that you're looking at there. That's the power grid which runs through several states as well as portions of Canada. Officials say at one point, heavy surges of power flowed in the wrong direction, counterclockwise, and that's what caused generator plants to shut down, apparently before anyone could stop them. A computerized system was put into place apparently to stop this type of chain reaction from happening. That obviously did not work.

Government officials say they are working on finding a reason why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER ABRAHAM, ENERGY SECRETARY: President Bush and Prime Minister Chretien spoke. They have designated my counterpart, Herb Dollywall, and I to jointly head an international task force that will have as its responsibility the full and comprehensive investigation of the reasons for the outages, for the reasons that the problem cascaded, as well as recommendations as to how to make sure it does not happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Obviously they are going to be working on this for some time. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham also saying that there is a risk at this point of rolling the blackout over the next few days. Energy officials are asking people to conserve power as much as they can over the next few days, in order to prevent something like that from happening.

At this point, a status check here in New York City. Virtually 100 percent power back here in New York City. The subways, the trains, again, are running on weekend schedules. The lights are on in Times Square, business as usual here, restaurants up and running again, trying to recoup some of the business lost over the past few days. New Yorkers that I have talked to basically taking things in stride, getting back to normal.

Back to you.

PAUL: All right, Jason, I know that officials have continued, though, to warn about possible rolling blackouts. Are New Yorkers there and the visitors using electricity sparingly at this point, or are they back in full force again?

CARROLL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, it really depends upon who you talk to. There's definitely some New Yorkers who -- that I talked to, as soon as the power went back on, they were right at the air conditioner, turning it on, turning the lights on, things like that.

But no one wants to see a repeat of what happened on Thursday. And so, at least in the building that I live in, you know, the people who were there were saying, you know, If you don't have to turn on a light, don't it on. If you don't have to use the television or radio, don't use it.

And that, of course, is the message that energy officials want to get out to those who are in the Midwest as well as portions of Canada as well.

PAUL: OK, Jason Carroll, live in New York, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Meanwhile, power is back on for the most part in Detroit, though the mayor is urging residents to conserve energy and water there as well. The governor has ordered emergency gasoline shipments from western Michigan to the Motor City, where service stations have been unable to pump gas. Thirteen counties in southeastern Michigan were affected by Thursday's blackout.

Clean water is a big issue in Ohio, where boil alerts continue into this weekend. The Cleveland area is also under scrutiny as the possible ground zero of the blackout.

John Zarrella has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every indication here in Cleveland today that things are beginning to get back to normal. Even the fountain in the park behind me is working. Plenty of water. The only problem with the water here in Cleveland right now is that people are being told they really need to still boil it before they use it. That boil-water order is going to be in effect until Sunday at about noon.

The problem is that although the water is flowing once again, concern that there might be contamination in the lines, and city officials just want to don't take any chances at all with that.

The other thing that we are beginning to see is a focus on Ohio as, perhaps, where all this problem with the blackout began. The Public Utilities Commission says there are indications that, in fact, the blackout did begin somewhere in the Ohio area. They have begun an investigation. Other investigations by utility companies are also beginning into where the blackout began and how it began.

But as far as the folks of Cleveland are concerned, the water is back on. Have to boil it until Sunday at noon. And the power is also back on. So life returning to normal here in Cleveland.

I'm John Zarrella, reporting from Cleveland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Well, now that the power is largely back on, the question of what went wrong is certainly taking center stage. And if one thing is clear at this point, it's that the operation of the power grid is both complicated and fraught with potential vulnerabilities.

Joining us now to help us get a handle on how the grid works is Larry Makovich. He is senior director with Cambridge Energy Research Associates and an expert on North American electrical power.

Thank you so very much. We appreciate you -- seeing you with us today, Larry.

Talk to me about this system and how it works, and what potentially went wrong.

LARRY MAKOVICH, CAMBRIDGE ENERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: Well, I think one of the things people are coming to realize, as they see how fast this system collapsed, and how difficult it is to trace back the fault, that this is a very, very complicated and a highly interdependent electric delivery system that we take for granted and rely on day to day.

But behind the scenes, as people are starting to get a sense, there's an awful lot of very highly technical control and management that's necessary to keep this system working right.

PAUL: OK, Larry. I know it's been about 48 hours now since we actually had this blackout occur. Why is it taking so long to find that origination point?

MAKOVICH: Well, this will be a lot like the "Challenger" disaster. You know, once that happened, people saw on film that piece of foam come off. But it took many, many months to get back to the data and really analyze if that could indeed have been the root cause.

And I think we are in a similar situation right now. We've got some early indications now about Ohio and some transmission lines. But the bigger question is, why did a failure like this, why was it allowed to propagate and cascade and bring down such a big part of our supply system?

PAUL: I think, if I understand it, it was nine states within nine seconds that lost power in certain areas. Can we expect more of this? Is there -- were you surprised to see this happen?

MAKOVICH: Well, it of course is surprising to see this happen, because obviously this doesn't happen that often, although we have had this happen before. Twice in 1996, the Western grid in the United States collapsed. One time it was eight states, one time it was 15 states.

But our concern was that we've seen a very troubling trend over the past several years of very low levels of investment in the transmission network, and a lot of change in the people that operate these systems, the computer systems, and the management and control.

PAUL: How outdated are our systems?

MAKOVICH: Well, I think that's being overplayed quite a bit now as a result of this problem. We do have a -- we certainly don't have a third world transmission grid, as some people have suggested. We certainly have a modern transmission grid.

As I said, investment has been low over the past five years if not longer. There are some significant needs here. But as I think we are starting to see, the focus of this blackout is going to be more and more on the management and control problems, and much less on the hardware itself.

PAUL: All right. Larry Makovich, we appreciate your insight on this. Thank you so much.

MAKOVICH: You are welcome.

PAUL: Absolutely.

Well when we come back, France's deadly heat wave. It is easing, and now the fingerpointing begins. We'll have an update.

And today was the day a computer worm was supposed to attack Microsoft. We will find out what happened, what didn't, and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Back, everyone.

Europe is recovering from a massive natural disaster today. A week ago in the British Isles, temperatures topped 100 degrees for the first time ever. But on the Continent, the killer heat wave cost more lives than the U.S. lost two years ago in its September 11 disaster.

CNN's Chris Burns joins us live from Paris, where the heat is now on the French government. Of course, I understand the temperatures now somewhat back to normal there in France?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Christi. The temperatures have gone down to about the 80s, upper 80s now. It used to be in the 100s for about nine days. But now, of course, there is still the heat from the anger, and also from the grief across this nation, as they count their dead.

The government says that as many as 3,000 people died during that nine-day heat wave. And that could be much higher. Some doctors say it could go to 5,000 or even more, most of those people 85-plus years old. These are people who were born as -- during the First World War, survived the Second World War, and succumbed to this heat wave, many of them in the halls of hospitals, not even able to be admitted in the wards themselves. Hospitals were overflowing.

And now the government is having to deal with trying to dispose of the bodies.

Plenty of criticism from the opposition Socialists, some of them calling for the resignation of the health minister. They're also asking for an investigation. The government's shooting back, saying, Well, look, it was during the Socialist time they brought in the 35- hour work week. That's why we don't have enough people working in the hospitals and elsewhere to deal with this crisis.

Now, at the same time also, nuclear power plants have been allowed to generate more hot water to prevent them from overheating and shutting down. And that has caused also a lot of criticism from environmentalists, who say that is really dangerous for the environment, Christie. PAUL: All right. Chris Burns, thank you so much. We hope you stay cool there, sir. And best of luck to you and everyone there. We appreciate it.

Well, checking some of the stories making news on our beat this week, it now it appears tropical storm Erika is never going to make it to hurricane status. Good news. The National Hurricane Center canceled hurricane and tropical storm warnings for the U.S. coast this morning. The Mexican coast is under a tropical storm warning.

Erika came ashore in northeastern Mexico near Brownsville, Texas, early today. The hurricane center says flash floods and mud slides from heavy rain could still be a problem.

A new satellite launched this week will monitor the earth's ozone layer. The Canadian space agency satellite went into orbit on a Pegasus rocket dropped from a plane. It will orbit the earth 15 times a day, carrying two instruments that study the chemical changes associated with ozone loss.

A high-tech wheelchair that can climb stairs got approval this week from the Food and Drug Administration. The iBot (ph) wheelchair uses sensors and gyroscopes to go up and down stairs smoothly. It can also lift a rider up to standing height. The wheelchair is so complicated to operate, though, that it requires a doctor's prescription and some special training. The iBot was invented by Dean Kamen. You may remember him. He also invented the Segway scooter.

The computer worm known as Blaster or Lovesan has infected more than 350,000 computers worldwide since Monday. It instructed those computers to attack Microsoft's support site, beginning today.

So is Microsoft wounded?

Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here to explain what didn't happen and why. Good news, I guess, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is, for a lot of people. Thanks, Christi.

Earlier this week, some people were anticipating mayhem on the Internet today, especially here in the U.S. So why did Blaster misfire?

Well, joining us now to discuss the tactics that were used to thwart this worm is Chris Rouland from Internet Security Systems.

Chris, first off, what is Blaster or Lovesans, as it's known?

CHRIS ROULAND, INTERNET SECURITY SYSTEMS: Sure. Blaster is a Internet worm that takes advantages of recent flaws found in the Windows NT, XP, and 2000 operating systems, that basically is designed to break into end users' computers and then continue to propagate itself.

SIEBERG: So the attack that was scheduled to begin on the 16th of the month, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we should say that that's, of course, today here in the U.S., but it started earlier elsewhere, was a denial of service attack. What can you tell me about a denial of service attack?

ROULAND: Sure. A denial of service attack is designed to overwhelm a Web site with traffic from hundreds or thousands of computers. In the case of Blaster, it would have been hundreds of thousands or even perhaps close to a million computers launching an attack against a single site.

SIEBERG: OK. We have a graphic here that is going to help to illustrate what you're talking about. Is data being sent to the Microsoft Web site, and it's overwhelmed, essentially, once it's trying to send all this data back to all these computers that are trying to affect it.

What we're also seeing right now, that was a quote from the writer or the creator of the worm, sort of poking at Microsoft.

Now, why didn't this work, though? Because it -- last time I checked, the Internet is OK.

ROULAND: You know, the -- fortunately Microsoft was a very good Internet citizen and corporate citizen. And what they did is effectively unplugged a component of their Internet domain. So by eliminating the target, if you will, for the attack, there was no place to attack, and the Internet stayed healthy over the last 24, 48 hours.

SIEBERG: All right. We got a chance to talk to someone at Microsoft the other day. And I just want to have you listen to what they told us.

ROULAND: OK.

SIEBERG: I'm not sure if we have that sound bite, Chris. But what he was telling us was essentially what you were saying, that they pulled the plug, that they took down this domain name that the service attack was aimed at. So who wins in this case? Because Microsoft is taking down a domain, but the Internet is still OK.

ROULAND: Well, in this case, I think the hackers did win. They did not achieve their end goal of perhaps taking down the Windows Update site to disable updates to allow more hacking. However, Microsoft had to give up some turf, if you will, on the Internet. And most corporations don't want to be in that position.

SIEBERG: What about variants of the worm other hackers out there might decide to create something that's potentially more damaging? Is there a concern about that right now?

ROULAND: We have seen two new variants of the worm. Given the propagation of the first worm, most ISPs have actually put into place blocking to help stop the propagation. So further iterations of Blaster won't be as successful. SIEBERG: All right. Well, Chris Rouland from Internet Security Systems, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this worm Blaster and Lovesan.

So Christi, in a sense, dodged a bullet here, we'll just have to wait and see what comes in the future.

Back to you.

PAUL: Good to know. All right, Daniel, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Well, when we come back, we will look at what it would take to fix the aging power grid, and whether that would prevent another big blackout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Welcome back, everyone.

In the last two days, you've seen all kinds of pictures of the big blackout that turned out the lights from New York to Toronto to Detroit. Well, here are some aerials. These are amazing. They're taken from a few hundred miles above the Eastern seaboard, of course. These are before-and-after photos taken by got satellites.

Now, the after picture, dim lights are noticeable on New York's Long Island. We're going to show you here. There it is. And then Canada's largest city, Toronto, look at this, it was seemingly swallowed by the darkness.

Once it's there, the next moment you can see on the right hand of your screen nothing. Absolutely amazing.

So that gives you a good clarification of just how massive this really was.

Now, the blackout brings to light some long-standing problems with the nation's power grid.

Kathleen Koch reports on how the U.S. power system came to be in such bad shape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty years ago, plants generated power for a local area. Today, they pump electricity clear across the country, over lines that weren't built to handle that much power.

LLEWELLYN KING, PUBLISHER, "ENERGY DAILY": Suddenly these interconnects became very, very, very stressed, and they remain stressed. But they're inadequate for the amount of power that is being moved, and they don't have any new technology in them.

KOCH: Deregulation opened the floodgates, and power companies now facing increased competition, are loath to spend on infrastructure improvements like updated transmission lines. Rising natural gas prices have even made power plants using that clean fuel risky investments.

JAMES LEWIS, ENERGY POLICY ANALYST: You find yourself in a position where it's harder and harder to make money. And, in fact, you aren't even sure about the supply of natural gas.

KOCH: Finally, new power lines and plants are tough to build. No one wants them in their backyard, and there are no guarantees the power they generate will stay local.

(on camera): Congress and the power industry say nothing will change unless the federal government steps in.

THOMAS KUHN, PRESIDENT, EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE: Well, I think you need to have incentives for investment in the transmission system and in generating plants.

REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: The free market does not work for electricity transmission reliability. Only the government can mandate a national standard which protects the strongest, the most anticipatory states and systems from the weakest laggards that refuse to make the investment.

KOCH: President Bush is backing power investment and research in his energy plan, but officials insist...

KYLE MCSLARROW, DEPUTY ENERGY SECRETARY: There's a lot more that can be done. But the private sector, principally, has to be able to step up to the plate and know they are going to get a return on their investment.

KOCH: So blackout concerns remain. The latest assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Council prophetically said potential trouble spots this summer were southwestern Connecticut, New York City, and Long Island, and that it had concerns about Ontario and Michigan. It's also worried about Wisconsin, California, and states in the western and southeastern grids. All vulnerabilities in a power grid showing its age.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Coming up in our next half hour, some people barely notice when there's a blackout in their area. We'll find out how they get along just fine without the power company.

SIEBERG: Also, back to school often means a good deal on getting a new computer. Coming up, we're going to show you how to get the best bang for your byte.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, NEXT@CNN continues in just a minute after a check of what's going on at this hour.

Now, as you can see from the lights of Broadway last night, the power is indeed coming back on from America's largest blackout ever. Most of the 60 million residents, from New York to Cleveland, Detroit, and Toronto, are resuming normal routines as power returns. Concerns over spoiled food, disrupted air service, and potentially contaminated water supplies, however, all those remain.

And former Ugandan ruler Idi Amin died this morning in Saudi Arabia, where he'd been lying -- living since he was ousted from power in 1979. Amin is considered one of the most brutal dictators of his time. He's blamed for as many as half a million deaths during his eight-year rule.

It's not quite a washout. But this is about as bad as it got in Texas from tropical storm Erika. The storm came ashore early today across the border from Brownsville. Forecasters now say it will not reach hurricane status, as they had predicted, and it should break up over Mexico today or tomorrow.

More top stories at the top of the hour, now back to NEXT@CNN.

PAUL: Well, as many of you parents know, summer is almost over, and children around the nation are heading back to school. At the top of many shopping lists is a new computer. What with computers getting cheaper and faster all the time, parents have a lot of a great choices.

CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here now to help process some of those options.

I have to tell you, Daniel, I never had to go through this...

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah...

PAUL: ...this problem and my parents are probably grateful, don't you think yours are, too.

SIEBERG: Oh, probably, yeah. My first computer was a VIC-20, back in the day.

PAUL: Yeah.

SIEBERG: About 20 years ago. But, they've come a long way since then, and these days, you have your books, your backpack, maybe some pens and pencils, and probably a new computer on that list. So, joining us now, to help us -- guide us through the hype, in sense, of all these sales that are out there right now, is Brian Cooley a VP with CNET.

Brian, first off, is this time of year a good time to look for a new computer.

BRIAN COOLEY, VP, CNET: You know, Daniel, I tell people it's always a good time to look for a new computer, the way the industry has been so cut-throat the last couple of years, it's been a tough market out there. The prices keep coming down, the power and capacity keeps going up. Are there some back to school sale? Yes. Right now is the time, later in August it will eat up even more.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's look at some computers that we have in our studio, starting with this Dell Dimension desk top. What can you tell us about this one, Brian?

COOLEY: The nice thing about Dell you need to keep in mind, is that they're highly configurable. So, here is a machine where you're going to go to Dell, you're going to order this box, and you'll be able to get a lot of options exactly the way you want. So, flexibility is a big point with Dell. Second point is, this is not the cheapest PC you can buy, but our reviewers really like the way it works...

SIEBERG: OK...

(CROSSTALK)

SIEBERG: It comes with everything, right? It comes with the speakers and the monitor we see here, the Dell Dimension?

COOLEY: Yeah, nice bundle. I mean, look at what you get. You're ready to roll. When you get home -- you know, you power up and you're going. And again, the performance is very good, thought, it's a going to lead the pack, it's just a good sweet spot machine.

SIEBERG: All right, about $600 for that one, and then for the Compaq we've got here, it comes with everything, I as I understand, including the paper for about $500 after the rebate. Is that comparable to the Dell?

COOLEY: That's a little bit cheaper, and they are getting aggressive on this one, considering they have bundled everything in, as you mentioned even et paper; the ink is in the printer, it's all ready to go.

Remember, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, which is one company now, Hewlett-Packard makes, probably, its best home run financially by selling ink. So, when they sell you a printer, it's not a "gimme," it's a get me. They want you to go back and buy more cartridges for that printer all the time, so there's a reason you're seeing printer and paper with that one.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, we're going to move from the desktops to a couple of laptops, here, one from Dell and one from Sony. The Sony, as I understand, is -- offers wireless with the Centrino card. What can you tell me about these two?

COOLEY: The Sony you've got there, it's a VAIO Z series, it's one of the hot rods you've gone on the whole table, there. This is a device with Intel's Centrino technology. What that means is really three things, one, very slim, as you can see very thin case; two, great battery life; and three, it's ready to go as a wireless computer. That's the three-headed message of what Centrino means. That's a very good machine if you're going to be mobile. You're going to pay for that, though. That's around a $2,400 computer, far and away the most expensive we're looking at.

SIEBERG: And the Dell, what about the Dell, is that a little cheaper?

COOLEY: The Dell's a lot cheaper and the thing about the Dell is also, you're looking here at a chunkier machine, as you can see, that's -- that's got a lot more girth around it, you're not getting the stealth sexy case that Sony is so well-known for. You're going to pay a lot less, try about $999 for that, compared to the $2,400 we just saw on that Sony. Good machine, the Dell, not a Centrino machine, so it's not wireless ready and super-great battery life. We're very fond of that one, it's a real solid, good buy.

SIEBERG: All right, we've got less than a minute left, Brian, so we're going to whip through some Apples, here. Speaking of expressive, how about this iMac. It's a high-end computer?

COOLEY: You gotta love the iMac. This is Apple's, of course, now it's no longer their entry level, which it use to be, it's a mid level machine with great performance. The nice thing about the iMac is the form factor -- very neat and tidy. The downside of that is, when you add things, you're starting to add a snarl of cables to it. So, as you expand this machine, you may want to think it's not the best expansion machine, you might want to get a desk top.

SIEBERG: All right, some fancy speaker, there, as well.

What about the eMac. This was pushed for education purposes a lot, wasn't it?

COOLEY: eMac was only supposed to be for schools when it came out and Apple had to relent and offer it to consumers because a lot of folks are still in love with that original iMac all-in-one CRT-style design, which you see there, and so it is on the Markey, very cheap -- $799. Good little machine I wouldn't downgrade it at all.

SIEBERG: All right, so even though Apple's just a few percent of the Markey, we did want to point those out, as well. There are a couple of laptops, here -- the iBook and the PowerBook, but those are definitely on the higher end, so that's a great wrap, I think, Bryan, of some of the back to school computers that are out there. Thanks so much for joining us. Bryan Cooley, VP with CNET.

Thanks so much for joining us.

COOLEY: Thanks, Daniel.

SIEBERG: All right, Christi, there's a sampling, an idea of some of the computers that area out there on the market. But again, shop around, an you know, sometimes you can even get a second hand computer or even last year's model and it will do the trick.

PAUL: Daniel, how did we ever survive without them?

SIEBERG: I know, isn't it amazing?

PAUL: I know, pat ourselves on the back, maybe, that we did it without the computers. Or, our paper just could have been a lot better.

SIEBERG: Right.

PAUL: Thank you very much.

When we come back, U.S. National Parks, they're in trouble, but is the answer more government regulation, or less? We'll have a debate when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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volunteers and he newe campaign promise he made to pu repairs of build, and trailed in th tom Kiernan,n the s, and angeles smitacoiv enterprise grwhheks market solutions to environmeal le for joining us. goodo se you both. ifld,, start with you, if you were and pridt Bush was the a h performance. I know he has renewed his pledge to fix those parks. does that make you feel better?

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TOM KIERNAN, NATL. PARKS CONSERVATION ASSN.: ...pledged to clean up air quality in the parks. He has pledged to eliminate the backlog of projects in the parks and unfortunately his staff are not fully -- following through on some of those pledges.

PAUL: So, you kind of put that back onto the staff as opposed to him?

KIERNAN: Well, so far when you look at the numbers, the administration has put some money into the parks, unfortunately it's basically a continuation of the funding that was already coming to the parks, it was not a significant increase in funding for the parks. So, as a result, the backlog per the GAO's recent report, from this last January, the backlog of projects in the parks is still roughly 4, 5 or perhaps even $6 billion, so the administration has not really been able to reduce the backlog, much less eliminate the backlog, as the president pledged two years ago.

PAUL: OK, Mr. Smith, everybody agrees, of course, the parks are beautiful, some of the facilities however, there, they've certainly fallen on some hard times. Is this a problem that will actually be fixed by throwing 5 billion of our tax dollars at it?

R.J. SMITH, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INST.: Well, I think it'll be a great start. I think everybody who cares about the quality of the nation's parks and the crowned jewels should be applauding the legacy program of President Bush and Secretary Norton and Director Manila (PH), because we've had these problems with the decay of the parks, the continuous build-up of deferred maintenance and buildings are falling apart, bridges and trails are unsafe, trails are unsafe, water supply is shaky and risky in areas, waste water, sewage, and so on. 65 percent of the roads in the parks are in bad condition, and we have known about this for decades. I mean, Secretary Jim Watt under Reagan tried to do something about it, he said no more land accusation until we take care of what we have, but we've been very, very difficult to do that, because the greens are continuously pushing to just add more land, expansion forever, keep expanding the parks, rather than take care of the parks that we have and now we have a president who is committed to doing something about this 5 or $6 billion backlog of maintenance. I mean, it's so big nobody even knows what it is, and begin to start to reduce it, that's his plan to take care of what we have, to make the parks safer, cleaner, healthier, and take care of the ecosystems in the park and that should be the first priority and not anymore expansion in the parks.

PAUL: OK.

SMITH: I mean, the greens seem to say expansion forever and forget about the quality of what we have.

PAUL: All right, Tom, lets talk about those, back in the 2000 campaign when candidate George Bush first promised to fix the parks, he was very critical of President Clinton saying, he spent too much money to acquire new parks instead, and we're talking about this, instead of fixing the ones they've already got. Can we do both? Fixing what's wrong with established places like Yellow Stone and Yosemite, while fixing new places that obviously need that protection?

KIERNAN: We absolutely can. We have to remember that our National Park system tells the American story, and the American story is not stagnant story. New events are occurring, new history is being created, and the National Park system needs to commemorate and protect and celebrate that history. So, there need to be new units, but I do need to point out, that the $5 billion for the backlog of projects is only part of the solution, and the administration is not focusing on the needs of the annual operating budget of the park service. What is happening is the administration, if you will, is focused on fixing a roof or replacing a roof in a building, but is not giving the park service the funding to clean out the gutters in all of the other buildings in the parks, I'm just using that a as an example. Point being, the annual operating budget of the park service is down -- is down and is short by about 600 million, and the administration has not pledged any additional support -- any real support for the annual operating budget of the park service, and in fact, this administration's increases for the total park service budget on average has been about 1 percent per year, versus the previous administration was giving them 9 percent increases her year. The previous administration was ramping up funding much more quickly then this administration.

PAUL: All right. Mr. Smith, would you like to respond? SMITH: Well, I think one of the things that's going on now, that's going to be very good is that the more and more of the recreation fees -- the fees that are collected in the parks are beginning to stay with the parks. So, instead of going into the federal treasury they're in those parks and they take care of the problems that are in those parks and help those parks manage. And, after all, it's not just the president; it's also the Congress who decides what all of these budgets are going to be. But, clearly we've had an example, and we've seen with the Clinton administration, there was just this continuous effort to expand parks, to add new parks, to acquire more private lands, to force inholders off their lands, to take multiple use of public lands and turn them into national monuments. I mean, it seemed like it's a policy of -- more of rural cleansing than actually taking care of the crowned jewels and that's what we need to do

PAUL: OK.

SMITH: We need to prove we can take care of what we have before we have more.

PAUL: OK. Mr. Kiernan, why don't you give us your final thoughts on this.

KIERNAN: The administration has made some good symbolic gestures, but we're still looking for significant increase in funding, both the backlog and the annual budget, but also things like the clean air in our parks. The administration's policies, unfortunately, will worsen the clean air in many our National Parks these are other components of a experience that we want to have in our parks, the administration's not fully funding nor fully protecting the parks so that visitors, when they're in the parks have the experience that they all deserve and really want to have and love to have.

PAUL: Mr. Smith, your last word.

SMITH: Well, I think we're on the way, with this administration, to finally taking care of the crowned jewels that all the world looks to, and America looks to, and I think this is what would need to do to show that we can take care, that we can be good stewards of what we have and I think that is this administration's mantra to be stewards of the resources we have.

PAUL: Well, it's no doubt; you visit any of them and fall in love.

All right, thank you so very much, R.J. Smith and Tom Kiernan. Thanks for your thought, we appreciate it.

SMITH: Thank you.

KIERNAN: Thank you very much.

PAUL: Absolutely.

Still ahead, we'll tell you how a baby snow leopard named "Biscuit" is helping to save his species.

And, we'll talk to a man who generates his own power about what it's like to live off the grid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SR. EDITOR: Historically most software has been developed by a company to sell. Open source software is a whole new kind of software that has emerged in the last couple of decades that is, essentially, free software put out, generally on the internet, to a community of volunteers to modify and improve.

The most important open source software out there, now, is the Linux operating system, which is rapidly becoming adopted as a major part of the infrastructure of business, today.

Even though open source software still has its limitations, it has turned out that Linux is extremely effective in enterprise infrastructures for things like website hosting, and because it's free, and because the company that uses it can modify it at will, to fine tune it for its particular needs, that has made it very popular. It's also simply a matter of maturity, I mean, most open source products are still relatively new, so they're still kind of getting their sea legs. But, open source is creeping up the food chain and it really is an unknown, how far it's going to go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: A happy ending for a young bald eagle in Maryland, Thursday. He was freed to the cheers of onlookers after a policeman found him in a river tangled in wire. The vet, who treated the eagle, says the bird was a male 2 or 3-years-old and was probably the offspring of a pair of young eagles nesting in that area.

And this cute cub is helping the Bronx Zoo mark the 100th year of its Snow Leopard Breeding Program. "Biscuit" is the 93rd snow leopard born at the zoo. The Bronx Zoo is the first in the Western hemisphere to exhibit a snow leopard. They are beautiful. Biscuit lives in a natural rock habitat with his parents. In the wild, snow leopards are an endangered species, living in the mountains of Central Asia.

This week's massive blackout was a huge inconvenience for most residents of the affected areas, but across North America some people have opted to keep the power in their over hands. Some live totally off the grid, others opt for an integrated system that combines alternative energy sources with public power.

Joining us on the phone is, from his home off the grid, in Tennessee, is Thomas Tripp. He's a designer of alternative energy systems.

Thomas, thanks so much for being with us, we appreciate it.

THOMAS TRIPP, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SYSTEMS DESIGNER: Hello, Christi.

PAUL: Good. Good to hear from you.

OK, so talk to us about what living off the grid entails, Do have any appliances?

TRIPP: Absolutely.

PAUL: You do. OK, talk to us about it.

TRIPP: We have all the creature comforts, refrigeration, hot and cold running, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fans, computers, stereos, TV.

PAUL: OK. So, you live, as I understand it, in a remote part of the Tennessee Mountains. How do you provide for your home?

TRIPP: Well, the solar electric equipment produces all the power, here, on Big Frog Mountain, from the sunshine; it comes in on the roof.

PAUL: Why did you choose solar?

TRIPP: Well, it's reliable, there's no moving parts. It's built to last longer than a human being, so there you have it. There's no fuel cost involved.

PAUL: True, some very good points. Talk to me about types of alternative energy sources that are available for home use.

TRIPP: Well, for folks that have property in areas where there's good wind, and there's wind generation systems, for the few that are fortunate enough to have a good source of falling water, then they may be able to put in some kind of a micro hydro-type generating system, but most people are in the world are blessed with just tons and tons of sunshine.

PAUL: So, do you think that that's the most practical to choose from, if you want to live totally off the grid?

TRIPP: If -- if you are in an area that doesn't have good wind -- average wind speeds, then, the solar electric equipment is absolutely reliable and if you're in an area that has good wind speeds, part of the year then sometimes a system that has both wind and solar is the answer, if you're in an area with has tons of wind, then you may not need the solar.

PAUL: OK. So, some homes, I know now, have alternate energy, like solar power and then couple that with retaining some access to the public power. Talk about these integrated systems for me.

TRIPP: That's what we put together a lot, these days, for folks that are inside the city areas. These type systems, they will take solar electricity power from the sunshine landing on the panels, and turn that into utility-grad power, so that during the day, these systems will actually be helping to support the utility grid, helping to keep their voltage up, which can benefit the utilities tremendously.

PAUL: And, are you finding that these integrated energy systems are working better? Are they more common -- becoming more common, I guess I should say?

TRIPP: Absolutely. Ever since -- and even before the California energy crisis, these systems have been going in more and more every year.

PAUL: All right, and why did you decide to move forward with this?

TRIPP: I've been building remote power systems since back in the early 90s, and late 80s and that -- this type of equipment has developed, now, to the point where that there's a good application for almost every situation and due to the nature that we need so much energy, it's a good solution for the nation.

PAUL: OK, Thomas Tripp of the mountains of Tennessee. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. Have a good Saturday.

Well, that's all the time we have for today. But, of course, Next will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Among the stories we'll be coving then: What killed the iceman? New questions about a prehistoric man found frozen in a glacier in the Italian Alps. A 5,000-year-old mystery -- maybe a murder mystery. That story and more coming up tomorrow, hope you'll be watching then. And, thanks so much for joining us today.

Ahead on CNN, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" coming up at the top of the hour. We're going to take your calls and e-mails about what to teach your children about money in the "Dollar Sign" segment, that's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time, with profiles of Lisa Marie Presley and Kevin Costner. And, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" at 6:00 Eastern: Who's up and who's down in the California governor's race? A new poll has some surprises. First, though, a quick break and we'll tell you what's happening this hour. Stay close.

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By One Man; Water Safety Still Issue In Ohio; Deadly Heat Wave Subsiding In France>


Aired August 16, 2003 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTI PAUL, HOST: Police say they believe the same individual is responsible for three separate fatal shootings this week at convenience stories in the Charleston area.
More top stories at the bottom of the hour. NEXT@CNN begins right now.

PAUL: Happy Saturday, everyone. Today on NEXT@CNN, the bright lights of Broadway are burning again, and so are the questions about what caused the biggest blackout in U.S. history. We'll get an update and some insights.

Also, back to school means back to the computer store. But what's the best choice for your student? We will take a look at what computers do and what they cost.

And President Bush says volunteerism is the ticket to saving America's national parks. But critics aren't so sure. We'll hear both sides.

First, in New York, Governor George Pataki said today that essentially 100 percent of power has been restored to New York State. That's just further confirmation that the end is in sight for the worst blackout in North American history, which, at its peak, left 60 million Americans and Canadians without electricity.

So how did this happen?

Jason Carroll joins us now from the streets of Manhattan with the very latest. Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good afternoon to you.

Some progress being made in the -- in this investigation. Investigators now say they know where their problem started, but they still can't say why it started. They have traced the problem to three transmission lines in Ohio. Those lines failed, but they can't say at this point if those lines failed because of a technical issue, or if those lines failed because of a human error.

Also, investigators can't say why that failure triggered a massive power failure along the Eerie loop that you're looking at there. That's the power grid which runs through several states as well as portions of Canada. Officials say at one point, heavy surges of power flowed in the wrong direction, counterclockwise, and that's what caused generator plants to shut down, apparently before anyone could stop them. A computerized system was put into place apparently to stop this type of chain reaction from happening. That obviously did not work.

Government officials say they are working on finding a reason why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER ABRAHAM, ENERGY SECRETARY: President Bush and Prime Minister Chretien spoke. They have designated my counterpart, Herb Dollywall, and I to jointly head an international task force that will have as its responsibility the full and comprehensive investigation of the reasons for the outages, for the reasons that the problem cascaded, as well as recommendations as to how to make sure it does not happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Obviously they are going to be working on this for some time. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham also saying that there is a risk at this point of rolling the blackout over the next few days. Energy officials are asking people to conserve power as much as they can over the next few days, in order to prevent something like that from happening.

At this point, a status check here in New York City. Virtually 100 percent power back here in New York City. The subways, the trains, again, are running on weekend schedules. The lights are on in Times Square, business as usual here, restaurants up and running again, trying to recoup some of the business lost over the past few days. New Yorkers that I have talked to basically taking things in stride, getting back to normal.

Back to you.

PAUL: All right, Jason, I know that officials have continued, though, to warn about possible rolling blackouts. Are New Yorkers there and the visitors using electricity sparingly at this point, or are they back in full force again?

CARROLL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you know, it really depends upon who you talk to. There's definitely some New Yorkers who -- that I talked to, as soon as the power went back on, they were right at the air conditioner, turning it on, turning the lights on, things like that.

But no one wants to see a repeat of what happened on Thursday. And so, at least in the building that I live in, you know, the people who were there were saying, you know, If you don't have to turn on a light, don't it on. If you don't have to use the television or radio, don't use it.

And that, of course, is the message that energy officials want to get out to those who are in the Midwest as well as portions of Canada as well.

PAUL: OK, Jason Carroll, live in New York, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Meanwhile, power is back on for the most part in Detroit, though the mayor is urging residents to conserve energy and water there as well. The governor has ordered emergency gasoline shipments from western Michigan to the Motor City, where service stations have been unable to pump gas. Thirteen counties in southeastern Michigan were affected by Thursday's blackout.

Clean water is a big issue in Ohio, where boil alerts continue into this weekend. The Cleveland area is also under scrutiny as the possible ground zero of the blackout.

John Zarrella has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every indication here in Cleveland today that things are beginning to get back to normal. Even the fountain in the park behind me is working. Plenty of water. The only problem with the water here in Cleveland right now is that people are being told they really need to still boil it before they use it. That boil-water order is going to be in effect until Sunday at about noon.

The problem is that although the water is flowing once again, concern that there might be contamination in the lines, and city officials just want to don't take any chances at all with that.

The other thing that we are beginning to see is a focus on Ohio as, perhaps, where all this problem with the blackout began. The Public Utilities Commission says there are indications that, in fact, the blackout did begin somewhere in the Ohio area. They have begun an investigation. Other investigations by utility companies are also beginning into where the blackout began and how it began.

But as far as the folks of Cleveland are concerned, the water is back on. Have to boil it until Sunday at noon. And the power is also back on. So life returning to normal here in Cleveland.

I'm John Zarrella, reporting from Cleveland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Well, now that the power is largely back on, the question of what went wrong is certainly taking center stage. And if one thing is clear at this point, it's that the operation of the power grid is both complicated and fraught with potential vulnerabilities.

Joining us now to help us get a handle on how the grid works is Larry Makovich. He is senior director with Cambridge Energy Research Associates and an expert on North American electrical power.

Thank you so very much. We appreciate you -- seeing you with us today, Larry.

Talk to me about this system and how it works, and what potentially went wrong.

LARRY MAKOVICH, CAMBRIDGE ENERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: Well, I think one of the things people are coming to realize, as they see how fast this system collapsed, and how difficult it is to trace back the fault, that this is a very, very complicated and a highly interdependent electric delivery system that we take for granted and rely on day to day.

But behind the scenes, as people are starting to get a sense, there's an awful lot of very highly technical control and management that's necessary to keep this system working right.

PAUL: OK, Larry. I know it's been about 48 hours now since we actually had this blackout occur. Why is it taking so long to find that origination point?

MAKOVICH: Well, this will be a lot like the "Challenger" disaster. You know, once that happened, people saw on film that piece of foam come off. But it took many, many months to get back to the data and really analyze if that could indeed have been the root cause.

And I think we are in a similar situation right now. We've got some early indications now about Ohio and some transmission lines. But the bigger question is, why did a failure like this, why was it allowed to propagate and cascade and bring down such a big part of our supply system?

PAUL: I think, if I understand it, it was nine states within nine seconds that lost power in certain areas. Can we expect more of this? Is there -- were you surprised to see this happen?

MAKOVICH: Well, it of course is surprising to see this happen, because obviously this doesn't happen that often, although we have had this happen before. Twice in 1996, the Western grid in the United States collapsed. One time it was eight states, one time it was 15 states.

But our concern was that we've seen a very troubling trend over the past several years of very low levels of investment in the transmission network, and a lot of change in the people that operate these systems, the computer systems, and the management and control.

PAUL: How outdated are our systems?

MAKOVICH: Well, I think that's being overplayed quite a bit now as a result of this problem. We do have a -- we certainly don't have a third world transmission grid, as some people have suggested. We certainly have a modern transmission grid.

As I said, investment has been low over the past five years if not longer. There are some significant needs here. But as I think we are starting to see, the focus of this blackout is going to be more and more on the management and control problems, and much less on the hardware itself.

PAUL: All right. Larry Makovich, we appreciate your insight on this. Thank you so much.

MAKOVICH: You are welcome.

PAUL: Absolutely.

Well when we come back, France's deadly heat wave. It is easing, and now the fingerpointing begins. We'll have an update.

And today was the day a computer worm was supposed to attack Microsoft. We will find out what happened, what didn't, and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Back, everyone.

Europe is recovering from a massive natural disaster today. A week ago in the British Isles, temperatures topped 100 degrees for the first time ever. But on the Continent, the killer heat wave cost more lives than the U.S. lost two years ago in its September 11 disaster.

CNN's Chris Burns joins us live from Paris, where the heat is now on the French government. Of course, I understand the temperatures now somewhat back to normal there in France?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Christi. The temperatures have gone down to about the 80s, upper 80s now. It used to be in the 100s for about nine days. But now, of course, there is still the heat from the anger, and also from the grief across this nation, as they count their dead.

The government says that as many as 3,000 people died during that nine-day heat wave. And that could be much higher. Some doctors say it could go to 5,000 or even more, most of those people 85-plus years old. These are people who were born as -- during the First World War, survived the Second World War, and succumbed to this heat wave, many of them in the halls of hospitals, not even able to be admitted in the wards themselves. Hospitals were overflowing.

And now the government is having to deal with trying to dispose of the bodies.

Plenty of criticism from the opposition Socialists, some of them calling for the resignation of the health minister. They're also asking for an investigation. The government's shooting back, saying, Well, look, it was during the Socialist time they brought in the 35- hour work week. That's why we don't have enough people working in the hospitals and elsewhere to deal with this crisis.

Now, at the same time also, nuclear power plants have been allowed to generate more hot water to prevent them from overheating and shutting down. And that has caused also a lot of criticism from environmentalists, who say that is really dangerous for the environment, Christie. PAUL: All right. Chris Burns, thank you so much. We hope you stay cool there, sir. And best of luck to you and everyone there. We appreciate it.

Well, checking some of the stories making news on our beat this week, it now it appears tropical storm Erika is never going to make it to hurricane status. Good news. The National Hurricane Center canceled hurricane and tropical storm warnings for the U.S. coast this morning. The Mexican coast is under a tropical storm warning.

Erika came ashore in northeastern Mexico near Brownsville, Texas, early today. The hurricane center says flash floods and mud slides from heavy rain could still be a problem.

A new satellite launched this week will monitor the earth's ozone layer. The Canadian space agency satellite went into orbit on a Pegasus rocket dropped from a plane. It will orbit the earth 15 times a day, carrying two instruments that study the chemical changes associated with ozone loss.

A high-tech wheelchair that can climb stairs got approval this week from the Food and Drug Administration. The iBot (ph) wheelchair uses sensors and gyroscopes to go up and down stairs smoothly. It can also lift a rider up to standing height. The wheelchair is so complicated to operate, though, that it requires a doctor's prescription and some special training. The iBot was invented by Dean Kamen. You may remember him. He also invented the Segway scooter.

The computer worm known as Blaster or Lovesan has infected more than 350,000 computers worldwide since Monday. It instructed those computers to attack Microsoft's support site, beginning today.

So is Microsoft wounded?

Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here to explain what didn't happen and why. Good news, I guess, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is, for a lot of people. Thanks, Christi.

Earlier this week, some people were anticipating mayhem on the Internet today, especially here in the U.S. So why did Blaster misfire?

Well, joining us now to discuss the tactics that were used to thwart this worm is Chris Rouland from Internet Security Systems.

Chris, first off, what is Blaster or Lovesans, as it's known?

CHRIS ROULAND, INTERNET SECURITY SYSTEMS: Sure. Blaster is a Internet worm that takes advantages of recent flaws found in the Windows NT, XP, and 2000 operating systems, that basically is designed to break into end users' computers and then continue to propagate itself.

SIEBERG: So the attack that was scheduled to begin on the 16th of the month, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we should say that that's, of course, today here in the U.S., but it started earlier elsewhere, was a denial of service attack. What can you tell me about a denial of service attack?

ROULAND: Sure. A denial of service attack is designed to overwhelm a Web site with traffic from hundreds or thousands of computers. In the case of Blaster, it would have been hundreds of thousands or even perhaps close to a million computers launching an attack against a single site.

SIEBERG: OK. We have a graphic here that is going to help to illustrate what you're talking about. Is data being sent to the Microsoft Web site, and it's overwhelmed, essentially, once it's trying to send all this data back to all these computers that are trying to affect it.

What we're also seeing right now, that was a quote from the writer or the creator of the worm, sort of poking at Microsoft.

Now, why didn't this work, though? Because it -- last time I checked, the Internet is OK.

ROULAND: You know, the -- fortunately Microsoft was a very good Internet citizen and corporate citizen. And what they did is effectively unplugged a component of their Internet domain. So by eliminating the target, if you will, for the attack, there was no place to attack, and the Internet stayed healthy over the last 24, 48 hours.

SIEBERG: All right. We got a chance to talk to someone at Microsoft the other day. And I just want to have you listen to what they told us.

ROULAND: OK.

SIEBERG: I'm not sure if we have that sound bite, Chris. But what he was telling us was essentially what you were saying, that they pulled the plug, that they took down this domain name that the service attack was aimed at. So who wins in this case? Because Microsoft is taking down a domain, but the Internet is still OK.

ROULAND: Well, in this case, I think the hackers did win. They did not achieve their end goal of perhaps taking down the Windows Update site to disable updates to allow more hacking. However, Microsoft had to give up some turf, if you will, on the Internet. And most corporations don't want to be in that position.

SIEBERG: What about variants of the worm other hackers out there might decide to create something that's potentially more damaging? Is there a concern about that right now?

ROULAND: We have seen two new variants of the worm. Given the propagation of the first worm, most ISPs have actually put into place blocking to help stop the propagation. So further iterations of Blaster won't be as successful. SIEBERG: All right. Well, Chris Rouland from Internet Security Systems, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this worm Blaster and Lovesan.

So Christi, in a sense, dodged a bullet here, we'll just have to wait and see what comes in the future.

Back to you.

PAUL: Good to know. All right, Daniel, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Well, when we come back, we will look at what it would take to fix the aging power grid, and whether that would prevent another big blackout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Welcome back, everyone.

In the last two days, you've seen all kinds of pictures of the big blackout that turned out the lights from New York to Toronto to Detroit. Well, here are some aerials. These are amazing. They're taken from a few hundred miles above the Eastern seaboard, of course. These are before-and-after photos taken by got satellites.

Now, the after picture, dim lights are noticeable on New York's Long Island. We're going to show you here. There it is. And then Canada's largest city, Toronto, look at this, it was seemingly swallowed by the darkness.

Once it's there, the next moment you can see on the right hand of your screen nothing. Absolutely amazing.

So that gives you a good clarification of just how massive this really was.

Now, the blackout brings to light some long-standing problems with the nation's power grid.

Kathleen Koch reports on how the U.S. power system came to be in such bad shape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty years ago, plants generated power for a local area. Today, they pump electricity clear across the country, over lines that weren't built to handle that much power.

LLEWELLYN KING, PUBLISHER, "ENERGY DAILY": Suddenly these interconnects became very, very, very stressed, and they remain stressed. But they're inadequate for the amount of power that is being moved, and they don't have any new technology in them.

KOCH: Deregulation opened the floodgates, and power companies now facing increased competition, are loath to spend on infrastructure improvements like updated transmission lines. Rising natural gas prices have even made power plants using that clean fuel risky investments.

JAMES LEWIS, ENERGY POLICY ANALYST: You find yourself in a position where it's harder and harder to make money. And, in fact, you aren't even sure about the supply of natural gas.

KOCH: Finally, new power lines and plants are tough to build. No one wants them in their backyard, and there are no guarantees the power they generate will stay local.

(on camera): Congress and the power industry say nothing will change unless the federal government steps in.

THOMAS KUHN, PRESIDENT, EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE: Well, I think you need to have incentives for investment in the transmission system and in generating plants.

REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: The free market does not work for electricity transmission reliability. Only the government can mandate a national standard which protects the strongest, the most anticipatory states and systems from the weakest laggards that refuse to make the investment.

KOCH: President Bush is backing power investment and research in his energy plan, but officials insist...

KYLE MCSLARROW, DEPUTY ENERGY SECRETARY: There's a lot more that can be done. But the private sector, principally, has to be able to step up to the plate and know they are going to get a return on their investment.

KOCH: So blackout concerns remain. The latest assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Council prophetically said potential trouble spots this summer were southwestern Connecticut, New York City, and Long Island, and that it had concerns about Ontario and Michigan. It's also worried about Wisconsin, California, and states in the western and southeastern grids. All vulnerabilities in a power grid showing its age.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Coming up in our next half hour, some people barely notice when there's a blackout in their area. We'll find out how they get along just fine without the power company.

SIEBERG: Also, back to school often means a good deal on getting a new computer. Coming up, we're going to show you how to get the best bang for your byte.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, NEXT@CNN continues in just a minute after a check of what's going on at this hour.

Now, as you can see from the lights of Broadway last night, the power is indeed coming back on from America's largest blackout ever. Most of the 60 million residents, from New York to Cleveland, Detroit, and Toronto, are resuming normal routines as power returns. Concerns over spoiled food, disrupted air service, and potentially contaminated water supplies, however, all those remain.

And former Ugandan ruler Idi Amin died this morning in Saudi Arabia, where he'd been lying -- living since he was ousted from power in 1979. Amin is considered one of the most brutal dictators of his time. He's blamed for as many as half a million deaths during his eight-year rule.

It's not quite a washout. But this is about as bad as it got in Texas from tropical storm Erika. The storm came ashore early today across the border from Brownsville. Forecasters now say it will not reach hurricane status, as they had predicted, and it should break up over Mexico today or tomorrow.

More top stories at the top of the hour, now back to NEXT@CNN.

PAUL: Well, as many of you parents know, summer is almost over, and children around the nation are heading back to school. At the top of many shopping lists is a new computer. What with computers getting cheaper and faster all the time, parents have a lot of a great choices.

CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here now to help process some of those options.

I have to tell you, Daniel, I never had to go through this...

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah...

PAUL: ...this problem and my parents are probably grateful, don't you think yours are, too.

SIEBERG: Oh, probably, yeah. My first computer was a VIC-20, back in the day.

PAUL: Yeah.

SIEBERG: About 20 years ago. But, they've come a long way since then, and these days, you have your books, your backpack, maybe some pens and pencils, and probably a new computer on that list. So, joining us now, to help us -- guide us through the hype, in sense, of all these sales that are out there right now, is Brian Cooley a VP with CNET.

Brian, first off, is this time of year a good time to look for a new computer.

BRIAN COOLEY, VP, CNET: You know, Daniel, I tell people it's always a good time to look for a new computer, the way the industry has been so cut-throat the last couple of years, it's been a tough market out there. The prices keep coming down, the power and capacity keeps going up. Are there some back to school sale? Yes. Right now is the time, later in August it will eat up even more.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's look at some computers that we have in our studio, starting with this Dell Dimension desk top. What can you tell us about this one, Brian?

COOLEY: The nice thing about Dell you need to keep in mind, is that they're highly configurable. So, here is a machine where you're going to go to Dell, you're going to order this box, and you'll be able to get a lot of options exactly the way you want. So, flexibility is a big point with Dell. Second point is, this is not the cheapest PC you can buy, but our reviewers really like the way it works...

SIEBERG: OK...

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SIEBERG: It comes with everything, right? It comes with the speakers and the monitor we see here, the Dell Dimension?

COOLEY: Yeah, nice bundle. I mean, look at what you get. You're ready to roll. When you get home -- you know, you power up and you're going. And again, the performance is very good, thought, it's a going to lead the pack, it's just a good sweet spot machine.

SIEBERG: All right, about $600 for that one, and then for the Compaq we've got here, it comes with everything, I as I understand, including the paper for about $500 after the rebate. Is that comparable to the Dell?

COOLEY: That's a little bit cheaper, and they are getting aggressive on this one, considering they have bundled everything in, as you mentioned even et paper; the ink is in the printer, it's all ready to go.

Remember, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, which is one company now, Hewlett-Packard makes, probably, its best home run financially by selling ink. So, when they sell you a printer, it's not a "gimme," it's a get me. They want you to go back and buy more cartridges for that printer all the time, so there's a reason you're seeing printer and paper with that one.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, we're going to move from the desktops to a couple of laptops, here, one from Dell and one from Sony. The Sony, as I understand, is -- offers wireless with the Centrino card. What can you tell me about these two?

COOLEY: The Sony you've got there, it's a VAIO Z series, it's one of the hot rods you've gone on the whole table, there. This is a device with Intel's Centrino technology. What that means is really three things, one, very slim, as you can see very thin case; two, great battery life; and three, it's ready to go as a wireless computer. That's the three-headed message of what Centrino means. That's a very good machine if you're going to be mobile. You're going to pay for that, though. That's around a $2,400 computer, far and away the most expensive we're looking at.

SIEBERG: And the Dell, what about the Dell, is that a little cheaper?

COOLEY: The Dell's a lot cheaper and the thing about the Dell is also, you're looking here at a chunkier machine, as you can see, that's -- that's got a lot more girth around it, you're not getting the stealth sexy case that Sony is so well-known for. You're going to pay a lot less, try about $999 for that, compared to the $2,400 we just saw on that Sony. Good machine, the Dell, not a Centrino machine, so it's not wireless ready and super-great battery life. We're very fond of that one, it's a real solid, good buy.

SIEBERG: All right, we've got less than a minute left, Brian, so we're going to whip through some Apples, here. Speaking of expressive, how about this iMac. It's a high-end computer?

COOLEY: You gotta love the iMac. This is Apple's, of course, now it's no longer their entry level, which it use to be, it's a mid level machine with great performance. The nice thing about the iMac is the form factor -- very neat and tidy. The downside of that is, when you add things, you're starting to add a snarl of cables to it. So, as you expand this machine, you may want to think it's not the best expansion machine, you might want to get a desk top.

SIEBERG: All right, some fancy speaker, there, as well.

What about the eMac. This was pushed for education purposes a lot, wasn't it?

COOLEY: eMac was only supposed to be for schools when it came out and Apple had to relent and offer it to consumers because a lot of folks are still in love with that original iMac all-in-one CRT-style design, which you see there, and so it is on the Markey, very cheap -- $799. Good little machine I wouldn't downgrade it at all.

SIEBERG: All right, so even though Apple's just a few percent of the Markey, we did want to point those out, as well. There are a couple of laptops, here -- the iBook and the PowerBook, but those are definitely on the higher end, so that's a great wrap, I think, Bryan, of some of the back to school computers that are out there. Thanks so much for joining us. Bryan Cooley, VP with CNET.

Thanks so much for joining us.

COOLEY: Thanks, Daniel.

SIEBERG: All right, Christi, there's a sampling, an idea of some of the computers that area out there on the market. But again, shop around, an you know, sometimes you can even get a second hand computer or even last year's model and it will do the trick.

PAUL: Daniel, how did we ever survive without them?

SIEBERG: I know, isn't it amazing?

PAUL: I know, pat ourselves on the back, maybe, that we did it without the computers. Or, our paper just could have been a lot better.

SIEBERG: Right.

PAUL: Thank you very much.

When we come back, U.S. National Parks, they're in trouble, but is the answer more government regulation, or less? We'll have a debate when we come back.

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volunteers and he newe campaign promise he made to pu repairs of build, and trailed in th tom Kiernan,n the s, and angeles smitacoiv enterprise grwhheks market solutions to environmeal le for joining us. goodo se you both. ifld,, start with you, if you were and pridt Bush was the a h performance. I know he has renewed his pledge to fix those parks. does that make you feel better?

Well, first of all, we do applaud the president's trip tease the parks, and his personal support for parks, encouraging American tesz come out and volunteer. that's a great effort the president is putting forward. our main concern is he has

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TOM KIERNAN, NATL. PARKS CONSERVATION ASSN.: ...pledged to clean up air quality in the parks. He has pledged to eliminate the backlog of projects in the parks and unfortunately his staff are not fully -- following through on some of those pledges.

PAUL: So, you kind of put that back onto the staff as opposed to him?

KIERNAN: Well, so far when you look at the numbers, the administration has put some money into the parks, unfortunately it's basically a continuation of the funding that was already coming to the parks, it was not a significant increase in funding for the parks. So, as a result, the backlog per the GAO's recent report, from this last January, the backlog of projects in the parks is still roughly 4, 5 or perhaps even $6 billion, so the administration has not really been able to reduce the backlog, much less eliminate the backlog, as the president pledged two years ago.

PAUL: OK, Mr. Smith, everybody agrees, of course, the parks are beautiful, some of the facilities however, there, they've certainly fallen on some hard times. Is this a problem that will actually be fixed by throwing 5 billion of our tax dollars at it?

R.J. SMITH, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INST.: Well, I think it'll be a great start. I think everybody who cares about the quality of the nation's parks and the crowned jewels should be applauding the legacy program of President Bush and Secretary Norton and Director Manila (PH), because we've had these problems with the decay of the parks, the continuous build-up of deferred maintenance and buildings are falling apart, bridges and trails are unsafe, trails are unsafe, water supply is shaky and risky in areas, waste water, sewage, and so on. 65 percent of the roads in the parks are in bad condition, and we have known about this for decades. I mean, Secretary Jim Watt under Reagan tried to do something about it, he said no more land accusation until we take care of what we have, but we've been very, very difficult to do that, because the greens are continuously pushing to just add more land, expansion forever, keep expanding the parks, rather than take care of the parks that we have and now we have a president who is committed to doing something about this 5 or $6 billion backlog of maintenance. I mean, it's so big nobody even knows what it is, and begin to start to reduce it, that's his plan to take care of what we have, to make the parks safer, cleaner, healthier, and take care of the ecosystems in the park and that should be the first priority and not anymore expansion in the parks.

PAUL: OK.

SMITH: I mean, the greens seem to say expansion forever and forget about the quality of what we have.

PAUL: All right, Tom, lets talk about those, back in the 2000 campaign when candidate George Bush first promised to fix the parks, he was very critical of President Clinton saying, he spent too much money to acquire new parks instead, and we're talking about this, instead of fixing the ones they've already got. Can we do both? Fixing what's wrong with established places like Yellow Stone and Yosemite, while fixing new places that obviously need that protection?

KIERNAN: We absolutely can. We have to remember that our National Park system tells the American story, and the American story is not stagnant story. New events are occurring, new history is being created, and the National Park system needs to commemorate and protect and celebrate that history. So, there need to be new units, but I do need to point out, that the $5 billion for the backlog of projects is only part of the solution, and the administration is not focusing on the needs of the annual operating budget of the park service. What is happening is the administration, if you will, is focused on fixing a roof or replacing a roof in a building, but is not giving the park service the funding to clean out the gutters in all of the other buildings in the parks, I'm just using that a as an example. Point being, the annual operating budget of the park service is down -- is down and is short by about 600 million, and the administration has not pledged any additional support -- any real support for the annual operating budget of the park service, and in fact, this administration's increases for the total park service budget on average has been about 1 percent per year, versus the previous administration was giving them 9 percent increases her year. The previous administration was ramping up funding much more quickly then this administration.

PAUL: All right. Mr. Smith, would you like to respond? SMITH: Well, I think one of the things that's going on now, that's going to be very good is that the more and more of the recreation fees -- the fees that are collected in the parks are beginning to stay with the parks. So, instead of going into the federal treasury they're in those parks and they take care of the problems that are in those parks and help those parks manage. And, after all, it's not just the president; it's also the Congress who decides what all of these budgets are going to be. But, clearly we've had an example, and we've seen with the Clinton administration, there was just this continuous effort to expand parks, to add new parks, to acquire more private lands, to force inholders off their lands, to take multiple use of public lands and turn them into national monuments. I mean, it seemed like it's a policy of -- more of rural cleansing than actually taking care of the crowned jewels and that's what we need to do

PAUL: OK.

SMITH: We need to prove we can take care of what we have before we have more.

PAUL: OK. Mr. Kiernan, why don't you give us your final thoughts on this.

KIERNAN: The administration has made some good symbolic gestures, but we're still looking for significant increase in funding, both the backlog and the annual budget, but also things like the clean air in our parks. The administration's policies, unfortunately, will worsen the clean air in many our National Parks these are other components of a experience that we want to have in our parks, the administration's not fully funding nor fully protecting the parks so that visitors, when they're in the parks have the experience that they all deserve and really want to have and love to have.

PAUL: Mr. Smith, your last word.

SMITH: Well, I think we're on the way, with this administration, to finally taking care of the crowned jewels that all the world looks to, and America looks to, and I think this is what would need to do to show that we can take care, that we can be good stewards of what we have and I think that is this administration's mantra to be stewards of the resources we have.

PAUL: Well, it's no doubt; you visit any of them and fall in love.

All right, thank you so very much, R.J. Smith and Tom Kiernan. Thanks for your thought, we appreciate it.

SMITH: Thank you.

KIERNAN: Thank you very much.

PAUL: Absolutely.

Still ahead, we'll tell you how a baby snow leopard named "Biscuit" is helping to save his species.

And, we'll talk to a man who generates his own power about what it's like to live off the grid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SR. EDITOR: Historically most software has been developed by a company to sell. Open source software is a whole new kind of software that has emerged in the last couple of decades that is, essentially, free software put out, generally on the internet, to a community of volunteers to modify and improve.

The most important open source software out there, now, is the Linux operating system, which is rapidly becoming adopted as a major part of the infrastructure of business, today.

Even though open source software still has its limitations, it has turned out that Linux is extremely effective in enterprise infrastructures for things like website hosting, and because it's free, and because the company that uses it can modify it at will, to fine tune it for its particular needs, that has made it very popular. It's also simply a matter of maturity, I mean, most open source products are still relatively new, so they're still kind of getting their sea legs. But, open source is creeping up the food chain and it really is an unknown, how far it's going to go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: A happy ending for a young bald eagle in Maryland, Thursday. He was freed to the cheers of onlookers after a policeman found him in a river tangled in wire. The vet, who treated the eagle, says the bird was a male 2 or 3-years-old and was probably the offspring of a pair of young eagles nesting in that area.

And this cute cub is helping the Bronx Zoo mark the 100th year of its Snow Leopard Breeding Program. "Biscuit" is the 93rd snow leopard born at the zoo. The Bronx Zoo is the first in the Western hemisphere to exhibit a snow leopard. They are beautiful. Biscuit lives in a natural rock habitat with his parents. In the wild, snow leopards are an endangered species, living in the mountains of Central Asia.

This week's massive blackout was a huge inconvenience for most residents of the affected areas, but across North America some people have opted to keep the power in their over hands. Some live totally off the grid, others opt for an integrated system that combines alternative energy sources with public power.

Joining us on the phone is, from his home off the grid, in Tennessee, is Thomas Tripp. He's a designer of alternative energy systems.

Thomas, thanks so much for being with us, we appreciate it.

THOMAS TRIPP, ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SYSTEMS DESIGNER: Hello, Christi.

PAUL: Good. Good to hear from you.

OK, so talk to us about what living off the grid entails, Do have any appliances?

TRIPP: Absolutely.

PAUL: You do. OK, talk to us about it.

TRIPP: We have all the creature comforts, refrigeration, hot and cold running, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fans, computers, stereos, TV.

PAUL: OK. So, you live, as I understand it, in a remote part of the Tennessee Mountains. How do you provide for your home?

TRIPP: Well, the solar electric equipment produces all the power, here, on Big Frog Mountain, from the sunshine; it comes in on the roof.

PAUL: Why did you choose solar?

TRIPP: Well, it's reliable, there's no moving parts. It's built to last longer than a human being, so there you have it. There's no fuel cost involved.

PAUL: True, some very good points. Talk to me about types of alternative energy sources that are available for home use.

TRIPP: Well, for folks that have property in areas where there's good wind, and there's wind generation systems, for the few that are fortunate enough to have a good source of falling water, then they may be able to put in some kind of a micro hydro-type generating system, but most people are in the world are blessed with just tons and tons of sunshine.

PAUL: So, do you think that that's the most practical to choose from, if you want to live totally off the grid?

TRIPP: If -- if you are in an area that doesn't have good wind -- average wind speeds, then, the solar electric equipment is absolutely reliable and if you're in an area that has good wind speeds, part of the year then sometimes a system that has both wind and solar is the answer, if you're in an area with has tons of wind, then you may not need the solar.

PAUL: OK. So, some homes, I know now, have alternate energy, like solar power and then couple that with retaining some access to the public power. Talk about these integrated systems for me.

TRIPP: That's what we put together a lot, these days, for folks that are inside the city areas. These type systems, they will take solar electricity power from the sunshine landing on the panels, and turn that into utility-grad power, so that during the day, these systems will actually be helping to support the utility grid, helping to keep their voltage up, which can benefit the utilities tremendously.

PAUL: And, are you finding that these integrated energy systems are working better? Are they more common -- becoming more common, I guess I should say?

TRIPP: Absolutely. Ever since -- and even before the California energy crisis, these systems have been going in more and more every year.

PAUL: All right, and why did you decide to move forward with this?

TRIPP: I've been building remote power systems since back in the early 90s, and late 80s and that -- this type of equipment has developed, now, to the point where that there's a good application for almost every situation and due to the nature that we need so much energy, it's a good solution for the nation.

PAUL: OK, Thomas Tripp of the mountains of Tennessee. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. Have a good Saturday.

Well, that's all the time we have for today. But, of course, Next will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Among the stories we'll be coving then: What killed the iceman? New questions about a prehistoric man found frozen in a glacier in the Italian Alps. A 5,000-year-old mystery -- maybe a murder mystery. That story and more coming up tomorrow, hope you'll be watching then. And, thanks so much for joining us today.

Ahead on CNN, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" coming up at the top of the hour. We're going to take your calls and e-mails about what to teach your children about money in the "Dollar Sign" segment, that's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time, with profiles of Lisa Marie Presley and Kevin Costner. And, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" at 6:00 Eastern: Who's up and who's down in the California governor's race? A new poll has some surprises. First, though, a quick break and we'll tell you what's happening this hour. Stay close.

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By One Man; Water Safety Still Issue In Ohio; Deadly Heat Wave Subsiding In France>