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Paula Zahn Now
President Bush Getting Political Groove Back?; Children Playing With Fire; Permanent Jet Lag; Office Spouses
Aired March 21, 2006 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening, everybody. Thanks for joining us tonight. Paula has the night off.
A full-court press from a president determined to rescue what may become his lasting legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (voice-over): The president tries to turn the tide, at home and in Iraq.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I see progress. We're going to succeed.
COLLINS: Can he build support for the war or tell us when the troops will come home?
BUSH: That will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.
COLLINS: "Outside the law" -- playing with fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just like the color of the flame. It's all the different colors.
COLLINS: Troubled children drawn to the flame.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you poured gasoline on to an animal and set it on fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude, you scare me.
COLLINS: An amazing story about a dangerous fixation with fire.
And "Mysteries of the Mind" -- the incredible body clock blues. Imagine getting up before dawn every day of your life, and having to go back to bed before sunset every day of your life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you feeling?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very tired.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: What's behind the fascinating disorder that gives some people permanent jet lag?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: We're starting with something that is pretty unusual. President Bush called a surprise news conference this morning, where he conceded that the final decision about withdrawing forces from Iraq will probably be left for a future U.S. president.
But even if there's no end in sight to the war or to his falling approval numbers, it doesn't seem to be getting the president down. Today's news conference was just as remarkable for its style as for its substance. Is the president getting his political groove back? He certainly seems to be trying.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: Good morning.
COLLINS (voice-over): He said it again: He doesn't pay attention to the polls. But at this morning's news conference, an unusually animated and upbeat President Bush had answers for all of the issues that are dragging him down, starting with Iraq.
BUSH: Secondly, I am confident -- or I believe; I'm optimistic we will -- we will succeed. If not, I would pull our troops out. If I didn't believe we had a plan for victory, I wouldn't leave our people in harm's way.
COLLINS: The president concedes, there will be more tough fighting and more deaths, but he doesn't think Iraq has fallen into civil war.
BUSH: I believe the Iraqis -- this is a moment when the Iraqis had a chance to fall apart, and they didn't. And that's a positive development.
COLLINS: The president's advice to nervous Republicans in an election year, and to the voters, look beyond the daily images of violence; he has a plan for victory: Get the Iraqis to form a unity government, train Iraq's security forces, and give democracy time to take root.
BUSH: These are clear objectives. And they're achievable objectives.
COLLINS: On other issues, the president knows there are calls for him to shake up his White House staff. He would rather not.
BUSH: Look, I'm -- I'm satisfied with the people I have surrounded myself with. We have been a remarkably stable administration.
COLLINS: Should he get rid of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?
BUSH: I don't believe he should resign. I think he has done a fine job. COLLINS: On the domestic spying issue, the president was asked about Democratic talk of censuring or even impeaching him, because he has authorized wiretaps without getting court warrants. His answer was to turn the question back on his opponents.
BUSH: They ought to take their message to the people and say, vote for me; I promise we're not going to have a terrorist surveillance program.
COLLINS: The president was asked if he still had the political capital he claimed he had after the 2004 election.
BUSH: I say I'm spending that capital on the war.
COLLINS: How about Social Security reform, which the president once called a priority for his second term?
BUSH: Social Security, yes. That -- it didn't get done.
COLLINS: The day's big headline will be the president's answer to one question: Will there come a day when there are no American forces in Iraq?
BUSH: That, of course, is an objective, and that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.
COLLINS: For the first time, the president conceding that stabilizing the situation in Iraq could drag on beyond the end of his term, in January of 2009.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Will the president's upbeat news conference turn around his political misfortunes?
Well, many things he says these days bring some people to the boiling point.
And joining me here in New York is Randi Rhodes of the liberal Air America radio network. And, in Washington, is CNN contributor and conservative activist Bay Buchanan.
Ladies, thanks for being here tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Randi, the president is low in the polls, the lowest he has ever been, in terms of approval rating -- today, though, upbeat, optimistic, candid. Is this really a president under pressure?
RANDI RHODES, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: It doesn't seem like anything bothers him. It doesn't seem like, you know, he is involved in anything, really. If it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. If he has a news conference, it's a surprise news conference.
Listen, he -- when the president tells you he doesn't pay attention to the polls, he's saying he doesn't pay attention to the people. We are the people that they poll. And nobody approves of the way that he's handling, not handling, this whole war.
The -- the idea that we went there on a -- you know, on many, many lies, I think, is well accepted now. But he doesn't seem engaged. He doesn't seem to want to change the defense secretary. He doesn't want to change the strategy. He doesn't want to do anything, except use our soldiers as props, which is...
COLLINS: OK.
RHODES: ... what he did in Operation Swarmer.
COLLINS: Well, Bay, you give him an A for performance, but what about substance?
BAY BUCHANAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think he did a really good job. You have got to give the man real credit.
Heidi suggests he doesn't follow the poll; he doesn't listen to the people. I -- I don't agree.
COLLINS: Randi -- Randi suggested that, Bay.
BUCHANAN: I -- I apologize. Randi.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: That's OK.
BUCHANAN: I apologize.
And -- and I think he does an excellent job, because what he is saying is: Look, I believe this is the right policy. And I'm going to -- I understand what the people are saying. There's great concern and there's problems in Iraq. But I believe that we are on a good path. We had more troubles than we expected, but we have a plan here. And we are going to move ahead.
RHODES: What is it, Bay?
BUCHANAN: Well...
RHODES: What is the plan?
BUCHANAN: Well, clearly, the plan is to continue to train these people over there, so they can police and arm themselves, protect and defend themselves.
RHODES: Bay, Bay, while...
BUCHANAN: And he has done...
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Randi -- Randi, let Bay finish. Finish up, Bay.
BUCHANAN: And -- and -- and in addition to that is to make sure we have got the kind of support for that government, while these people are being trained. They did a pretty good job after that -- that shrine was bombed last month.
COLLINS: OK.
BUCHANAN: They did a pretty good -- the Iraqi people are doing a good job. They are engaged in their own attempt for self- determination.
COLLINS: Randi, the president admitted, for the first time, that American troops will be in Iraq until at least 2009. Is he really leaving it up to the next president to get this job done?
RHODES: He's leaving a mess for everybody.
He's leaving a mess for the middle class. He's leaving a mess for the soldiers. He's billing them for their body armor when they come home. He hasn't changed the strategy. While he was talking in this surprise news conference today, this -- these matinee appearances that the president gives, which, by the way, are for us. It's for news -- us in the news. It's for us in the media to watch him and then comment on him at night, when people are likely to be watching your show.
Nobody sees these matinee things, except for Bay and me and you, Heidi. And...
BUCHANAN: You know, you...
RHODES: It's -- it's for the media.
So, the president is -- is absolutely not changing the strategy.
BUCHANAN: You -- you know...
RHODES: He's -- while he was giving this surprise news conference, the police station in Iraq was mortared, and there were 100 dead Iraqis...
COLLINS: Bay, I'm going to...
BUCHANAN: You know...
RHODES: ... while he's...
COLLINS: I'm going to have to step in and...
RHODES: .... doing happy news.
COLLINS: ... give you the last word.
BUCHANAN: Liberals really... COLLINS: Bay, last word now.
BUCHANAN: Liberals make a real mistake. They underestimate the man.
His message is one because he believes it's the correct one. That is the verbal message. His nonverbal message is one of confidence, of comfortable. He's in the midst of the press, a group that really has not shown him respect or -- or -- or any kind of support whatsoever, are really the enemy, if you like.
And -- and he's completely in control of that press conference. He's sending the message to the American people: Listen, I know there's a problem...
RHODES: Oh, Bay.
BUCHANAN: ... but I am on top of this.
COLLINS: Ladies...
BUCHANAN: And I'm moving it in this direction.
COLLINS: I'm going to have to call it quits.
BUCHANAN: You underestimate...
(CROSSTALK)
RHODES: Helen -- Helen Thomas...
COLLINS: We are out of time. I appreciate...
RHODES: Helen Thomas asked him a question about Iraq.
COLLINS: I appreciate your time, ladies.
RHODES: And the answer was Afghanistan.
COLLINS: Bay Buchanan, Randi Rhodes...
BUCHANAN: Take it easy.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: ... thank you very much, ladies. We will talk to you again next time around.
A few days ago, in Ohio, a man called 911 and made a startling confession.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just killed a kid.
UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR: You just killed a kid? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED OPERATOR: OK. What happened?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COLLINS: A lot of you want to know what happened. It's one of the most popular stories on CNN.com today. Coming up, we will hear more of the tape and tell you the full story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alarm clocks are not only electronic. They're also in the human body, that internal rhythm that tells you when to get up. Tonight, you're going to meet people with an unusual condition that gets them up at 4:00 every morning.
I'm Keith Oppenheim in Liberty, Missouri -- that story is coming up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And next, it used to be part of growing up, but, these days, isn't anyone teaching their kids not to play with fire?
First, our countdown of the top 10 most popular stories on CNN.com. More than 18 million of you went to our Web site.
At number 10, Army Sergeant Michael Smith has been convicted of using his military dog to torment prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. A photo of his dog just inches from a prisoner's face was among the pictures that led to the exposure of the prison abuse scandal.
And nine -- Russia and China say more diplomacy, not U.N. sanctions, is best way to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. fears, Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons -- number eight and seven coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Many people were stunned when three college students were arrested last month, charged with setting fire to nine Baptist churches in Alabama. Those three remain in jail tonight, facing federal and state charges. But here's another shocker: More than half the people arrested for arson are children. And the cost in lives and property is frightening.
So, what drives kids to set fires?
National correspondent Susan Candiotti spoke with some children to find out for tonight's "Outside the Law."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It began innocently enough. (on camera): Where does this gate lead?
To -- back to the nature trail.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Eleven-year-old Michael and his friends were goofing around after school in the woods, when they decided to set fire to a turtle. The flaming saw grass and dry brush quickly got out of control.
(on camera): You were trying to put the fire out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but it just, like, spread worse.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The boys panicked, even used their clothes, trying to stomp out the flames -- too late.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this smoke was around me. We just ran, and, then, my friend just called 911 then. And then that -- we called all of our -- all of our parents.
CANDIOTTI: With one eye on a rambling housing development right nearby, firefighters got the blaze out, just in time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't wake up, you, you and you are headed for prison.
CANDIOTTI: The incident landed Michael, his friends and their parents in a court-ordered juvenile fire center intervention program.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These can be more dangerous than a loaded gun.
CANDIOTTI: This class at West Palm Beach, Florida, is one of many nationwide aimed at getting to kids as soon as they get into trouble -- with good reason. In a single year, fires set by kids were responsible for 950 civilian fire deaths, 2,300 injuries, and more than $1 billion in property damage.
(on camera): Juvenile fire-starters, ages 3 to 18, generally fall into four categories. And the experts break it down like this: first, curiosity seekers, those who like to experiment with fire; next, those who are going through some kind of crisis -- maybe there's stress or anger in their lives -- next, juvenile delinquents, mainly teenagers, usually in the habit of getting into trouble with the law; and, finally, those who are psychologically disturbed.
PAUL SCHWARTZMAN, AUTHOR, "THE FIREPROOF CHILDREN HANDBOOK": Clearly, fire is something that puts us all at risk.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Mental health counselor Paul Schwartzman studies juvenile arson.
SCHWARTZMAN: A lot of times, the primary motivation is control and -- and power. And what's more powerful and available to young people than -- than fire? It's, you know, readily available at their fingertips, and brings all kinds of lights and sirens and fear and reaction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have got a choice right here, tonight.
CANDIOTTI: Intervention instructors don't try to make nice. Michael gets a taste of being trapped in handcuffs for over an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you poured gasoline on to an animal and set it on fire?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude, you scare me.
CANDIOTTI: Still another boy is chastised for setting frogs on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically wanted to kill frogs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's 14 common traits of serial killers in this country. You display two of them. That's a fascination with fire and the torture of animals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It only took seconds for Gordon's fire to be completely out of control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: They're shown what burn victims look like. Michael and the others stare at the painful injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody like me, who spent time in jail...
CANDIOTTI: The final speaker: a young man sent to prison for almost two years at age 17 for attempted arson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was your age, I didn't care.
CANDIOTTI: Michael Andre (ph) says he started playing with matches at age 6, setting toothpicks and paper plates on fire, a fascination he couldn't shake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just liked the color of the flame. There are some times it would be blue, green, red, yellow, orange.
CANDIOTTI: His compulsion unchecked, Andre (ph) got caught setting trash fires in a public bathroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, bud.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it, man.
(APPLAUSE) CANDIOTTI: He says jail taught him, playing with fire wasn't worth it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can reach one kid, or even one parent, to have them realize that their son or daughter needs help, then I'm still going to do it.
CANDIOTTI: For young Michael, help to turn him around came quickly.
(on camera): You can still smell the burn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I have -- I have felt -- I -- I have been smelling it while I was -- for, like, a week.
CANDIOTTI: What warning would you give to other...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never -- never play with fire, because it can get out of control, and you can't handle it, and somebody could possibly die.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Susan Candiotti, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And there's this: If your child plays with matches, it doesn't necessarily mean have you a potential arsonist in the house. The ATF says signs of trouble could show up in behavior changes, diary entries, e-mails, Web postings and the like, as well as scorch marks in the house.
Well, they have just made an amazing discovery at the Brooklyn Bridge. What's in the stash of emergency supplies from a half-century ago? And who put it there?
First, though, the hour's top stories from Erica Hill at Headline News.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Heidi. Nice to see you.
Like the president, Vice President Cheney zeroing in on the war today, telling a military audience in Illinois that critics are too eager to call it quits in Iraq.
Meantime, near the Iranian border, masked insurgents stormed a prison, killing at least 18 Iraqi police, and freeing dozens of prisoners. An American soldier was killed near Baghdad.
Iran's supreme leader says he is ready to talk with the U.S. about Iraq. But Ayatollah Khomeini says he won't stand for what he called bullying from Washington. And Lionel Tate will fight charges of robbery in Florida. Now, you may -- may remember the name. Tate was sentenced to life in 2001, after beating a playmate to death. He was later released, but has had several run-ins with the law since then. And, in this latest case, the now 19-year-old says the problem here is, he just didn't fully understand a plea bargain, Heidi, so not the last we have heard of that one.
COLLINS: Probably not.
Erica Hill, we will talk to you again soon. Thank you.
People spend so much time at work these days, are their most meaningful relationships at the office? Does a member of your family have an office husband or an office wife?
And is your body clock out of synch with the rest of your life? Why do some people have permanent jet lag?
First, though, eight on our CNN.com countdown -- the investigation into yesterday's plane crash in Branson, Missouri -- four people on board killed when it plowed into a building and exploded. Officials say mechanical failure may have caused that crash.
And, seven -- in Ocala, Florida, prosecutors say, today, they dropped charges against a former teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy, after he refused to testify.
Stay with us -- numbers six and five coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: How much time do you spend at work, compared to how much time you spend at home? Well, it's pretty one-sided for a lot of us these days. And consequence of husbands and wives spending so much time apart is that men and women at work are getting a lot closer than ever before.
Rusty Dornin has tonight's "Eye Opener."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LORRAINE WILDERMAN, OFFICE SPOUSE: I'm hungry. I want to eat.
MIKE O'REAR, OFFICE SPOUSE: Me, too.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They like the same things.
M. O'REAR: Let's go to the Chinese restaurant.
WILDERMAN: OK.
DORNIN: Like where to eat.
M. O'REAR: Let me get the door for you, like I always do.
WILDERMAN: Thank you.
DORNIN: Mike and Lorraine have built a close relationship on banter.
WILDERMAN: Mikey, Mikey, Mikey...
(LAUGHTER)
JESSICA NETTLES, OFFICE SPOUSE: Be patient.
WILDERMAN: ... you know the routine.
M. O'REAR: I'm sorry.
WILDERMAN: You got to let the tea bag sit in there for a while.
DORNIN: A longtime married couple out for lunch? Hardly.
WILDERMAN: Hey, Mike.
DORNIN: How about co-workers? Mike O'Rear and Lorraine Wilderman met when she joined the faculty at Chattahoochee Technical College in Georgia. Over eight years, they have become part of a new phenomenon, office spouses.
WILDERMAN: Mike has a lot of the same traits as my husband does. And, when I'm at work, it's like, where's Mike?
(LAUGHTER)
WILDERMAN: Help, I need something.
DORNIN: In a national survey by the research company Vault Inc., 32 percent of workers say they have an office spouse.
Advertising executive Tina Chadwick recently wrote a magazine article defining this new kind of relationship.
TINA CHADWICK, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, MATCH INC.: When you get particularly close to someone or, in -- in terms, click with them, that starts to develop a spouse relationship, where you rely on them; you ask for their advice.
WILDERMAN: Mike, do you have a -- do you have a pocket knife or...
M. O'REAR: No.
WILDERMAN: ... a pair of scissors? Can you open that for me?
M. O'REAR: Got some scissors.
CHADWICK: There's a synergy that develops that can be quite energetic, you know, and quite enlivening, rather than just the drudgery of work.
WILDERMAN: You can hand me two at a time, if you want.
M. O'REAR: My other hand's busy.
(CROSSTALK)
WILDERMAN: Put your water down...
(LAUGHTER)
WILDERMAN: ... and hand me some, or we are going to be here...
M. O'REAR: Yes, ma'am.
WILDERMAN: ... until the cows come in.
DORNIN: As they grew closer over the years, Mike and Lorraine started relying on each other for much more than business.
WILDERMAN: If he has even had a bad weekend or something has happened to one of his grandchildren, I can almost tell by the expression on his face.
M. O'REAR: There's always problems you're going to have. That's just part of life. But if you have someone you can share it with, it -- it makes it a little bit better.
DORNIN: Tina Chadwick says she has had several office spouses over the years. Her colleagues Jason Turner (ph) and Jeff Stewart (ph) say that long hours and business trips with co-workers make it part of modern life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they become your best friends, basically, because you're spending, you know, every day with them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're with them longer than you're with, like, your wife or your spouse or whoever. So, yes, I kind of -- a line could possibly get crossed, mentally, but not really physically.
DORNIN: But whether it's to 9:00 to 5:00 or 9:00 to midnight, if things begin to border on the inappropriate, business experts say step back.
CHADWICK: You have to decide, OK, I'm at my boundary with this person, and I need to kind of start drawing that line in what I say and what I divulge.
DORNIN (on camera): How important is it to -- to take your relationship home and tell your spouse about this other person?
M. O'REAR: I tell Dianne everything. If you don't lie, you don't have to remember what you have told.
(LAUGHTER)
M. O'REAR: So, you won't get caught.
DORNIN (voice-over): Mike is open, not only with his wife. He likes to shock people by introducing his wives.
M. O'REAR: This is my first wife, Dianne.
(LAUGHTER)
M. O'REAR: This is Lorraine Wilderman, my office spouse.
WILDERMAN: We don't know which one I am, two, three.
M. O'REAR: And Jessica Nettles, my second office wife.
Yes.
DORNIN: Oh, yes, there can be multiple office spouses. Jessica Nettles is Mike's other, other woman. He befriended her four years ago, when she was new to the college.
NETTLES: I can't finish his sentences yet. I haven't known him that long. But I can walk by him and kind of know what he's thinking.
DORNIN: Business management expert Chris Riordan says close relationships in the workplace can make people happier on the job, but she doesn't like the word spouse.
CHRIS RIORDAN, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT EXPERT, NEELEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: It's a sexy term, you know, even in -- in -- in the idea of having a spouse in the work environment. But...
DORNIN (on camera): But that's a negative?
RIORDAN: It is. It is absolutely a negative. Friendships are very powerful. And you don't want to diminish the power of those friendships by coining it or calling it an office spouse.
DORNIN (voice-over): And there's always the very real danger of an office relationship going too far.
RIORDAN: If you engage in flirting type behavior, that is going to make other people uncomfortable. If you become so interdependent that you're not necessarily thinking on your own, if you're making decisions because of the other person, rather than for yourself, those might be danger signs.
DORNIN (on camera): Could you ever see a relationship like this, though, maybe negatively affecting people in an office?
M. O'REAR: I guess, if it crossed the line, it probably could.
DORNIN: But what is crossing the line?
M. O'REAR: I don't know. I have never been there.
(LAUGHTER) DORNIN (voice-over): In fact, these three don't even socialize outside the office. And Mike's real wife, Dianne O'Rear, doesn't worry about her husband's professional polygamy.
DIANNE O'REAR, WIFE OF MIKE O'REAR: A spouse is someone you share things with, you discuss things with, and you share a bond with. And there's a bond they have that does not infringe on what Michael and I have.
DORNIN: This daytime husband and his office wives appear to have found the right balance.
WILDERMAN: Wait a minute. You asked us if you could talk about your haircut.
NETTLES: And we said no.
M. O'REAR: And I assumed -- I assumed yes.
WILDERMAN: We both said no.
O'REAR: Let me just.
(LAUGHTER)
DORNIN: Comfortable, familiar, but within very well defined limits.
WILDERMAN: OK.
M. O'REAR: I will see you then.
WILDERMAN: I will see you there. Bye.
M. O'REAR: Bye.
DORNIN: Rusty Dornin, CNN, Marietta, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: One more thing: Experts say office marriages should be between peers, because, just like dating your boss or dating an employee, it could raise questions about favoritism.
Well, the next time you're on the highway, a national crisis may be in the next lane. Is the driver of that huge truck awake or asleep at the wheel?
And do you wake up too early or fall asleep too soon? Is there any way to set your body clock to fit your schedule?
And, 50 years ago today, what did people think was necessary in case of an emergency? And why did they stash it in the Brooklyn Bridge?
Right now, number six on our CNN.com countdown. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTTIE COLVIN, CAT OWNER: He's coming to help you, honey.
RODNEY COLVIN, CAT OWNER: Oh!
S. COLVIN: Rodney, Rodney, Rodney, Rodney!
Oh. OK. OK. OK. OK. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Oh. That was how Piper finally came down, after eight days in a tree in South Carolina. The 80-foot fall -- oh, God -- there it is again -- didn't seem to hurt. Her owners say she's doing fine.
Oh.
Number 5 -- in New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin says residents should be allowed to rebuild anywhere, as long as they do so at their own risk. But he warns, low-lying areas could flood again, if another hurricane hits -- number four next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: In tonight's "Mysteries of the Mind," just think how frustrating your life would be if no matter how hard you try, you fall asleep just after sunset and you wake up just before sunrise, every day, completely out of sync with the world. You're about to meet a family struggling with that challenge because of a rare sleep disorder.
Here's Keith Oppenheim with tonight's "Mysteries of the Mind."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 3:00 in the afternoon in Liberty, Missouri. Bethany McQuerry is playing piano for her high school jazz band. At the same time, her father, Clay, is close to finishing up his day at a company that manages employee benefits.
CLAY MCQUERRY, SLEEP DISORDER PATIENT: There may be another step in there for me to give them access to it, but let me see.
OPPENHEIM: By 3:30 he's out the door, just 15 minutes away ...
C. MCQUERRY: How was your day?
OPPENHEIM: ... from picking up his children. And by 4:00 in the afternoon, everyone's home. Early enough that you might think there's plenty of time left in their day. Not for these two. Unlike Clay's wife Janel, and his son, Casey, who sleep at conventional times, Clay and Bethany are on a different schedule. By 5:00 in the afternoon, they're running out of gas.
(on camera): How are we feeling now with the light of day as it is at the moment?
BETHANY MCQUERRY, SLEEP DISORDERS PATIENT: I'm starting to get a little tired, yes. I'll be yawning every once in a while.
OPPENHEIM: Now? What about you?
C. MCQUERRY: Yes, when the sun starts going down, I'll start yawning or start getting a little bit tired.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Clay and Bethany McQuerry have what's known as Advanced Sleep Disorder Syndrome or ASPS. Doctors say it's like permanent jet lag, a genetic condition where the body clocks are moved forward, in their case, by about three hours. Both of them say they've been like this since birth. As a baby, Bethany would get up really early.
JANEL MCQUERRY, WIFE/MOTHER: And she'd get real, real, fussy probably about 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon and I didn't know why. You know, and she was real little.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gracious God, thank you for this food that I'm made to enjoy ...
OPPENHEIM: These days, pretty much right after dinner and around 7:30, Clay and Bethany hit the hay. Then in the early morning ...
B. MCQUERRY: I'll wake up around 3:30 to 4:30.
OPPENHEIM (on camera): And you're up around the same time?
C. MCQUERRY: Yes, 4:00 easily. For sure by 4:00.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): It's a sleep pattern that seems to follow the sun.
(on camera): The McQuerry's say they sleep more in winter, less in summer. And when the sun starts to go down, so do they. And as far as they can tell, living somewhere else wouldn't make much of a difference.
C. MCQUERRY: Our body clocks just don't -- they don't care what time zone you're in. Eventually, it will adjust to where you're still getting up early. That's the way I've experienced it.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): To see what they experience, we lent the family a video camera to capture the overnight routine. At 8:00, Clay and Bethany went to bed. At 4:16 a.m., Clay is awake. At 4:37, Bethany. And when they are up, they are up.
C. MCQUERRY: It's hardly even worth trying to go back to sleep because you really can't, so that's why we just get up.
OPPENHEIM: First thing, Clay reads the Bible and writes sermons for a church where he does some pastoring. Bethany meditates and finishes homework. Clay gets a few minutes on the treadmill. By 5:05 a.m., dad is making pancake batter, daughter is putting away last night's dishes.
C. MCQUERRY: Most people that know us probably don't even know that we have sleep disorders. The one thing that they may know is that they'll get e-mails from me at, you know, 4:00 in the morning.
OPPENHEIM: 5:45 a.m., Clay and Bethany are chipper as ever in the grocery store getting a few extras.
C. MCQUERRY: We normally come early like this, but this is our best time of the day.
OPPENHEIM: After a fast stop at the car wash, they head home. At 6:35 a.m., Clay goes to work while Bethany, her mom and brother eat breakfast. By the time Bethany is playing the flute in first period band, she's already been up for three to four hours. It's a routine both of them actually like.
C. MCQUERRY: We basically -- if you look at it, we've had two hours of quality time as a father and daughter every day for 16 years.
OPPENHEIM: But there are downsides. Clay has to take precautions so he doesn't fall asleep behind the wheel.
C. MCQUERRY: I would take a caffeine pill, NoDoz or something like that, in order to ...
OPPENHEIM: Just drive home.
C. MCQUERRY: Just drive home and feel good or safe doing that.
OPPENHEIM: Bethany misses out on evening events.
B. MCQUERRY: I would like to have a treatment, you know, to keep -- maybe postponed it, to be able to stay up a little later.
OPPENHEIM: This summer, Clay and Bethany will go to Chicago to Northwestern University's Sleep Disorder Center to take part in research.
(on camera): What do you want to find out?
C. MCQUERRY: I'd like to find out if they really know the source of our sleep patterns and what's causing it to be different, you know, why we are different than other people.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Doctors at Northwestern say they don't have all the answers, but with ASPS, they do know genetics, hormones, physical activity and the light of day play a role in changing sleep patterns. DR. PHYLLIS ZEE, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: In this case, where light in the evenings -- they're getting exposed to more light in the evenings such as in the summertime, that's a signal for that clock to delay a little bit. And this is what they need. They need to delay a little bit because they're too far ahead. They're a little too advanced.
OPPENHEIM: One way to change that is exposure to light in the evening if the form of light boxes or illuminated glasses.
(on camera): This is just one of the tricks of the trade to give people more light perhaps at the end of the day so that they might go to sleep a little bit later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit later, correct. So they can sit and watch television with these on, read a book.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Keep in mind, Bethany and her father have adapted to ASPS so well, they often don't see their disorder as a disorder. They're unlike people with the opposite more common condition, Delayed Sleep Disorder Syndrome which can be more disruptive because people who get to sleep late may get to work late. Still, these early birds want to have more control over when it is time to call it a night.
(on camera): Right now it is 7:07.
B. MCQUERRY: Yes.
OPPENHEIM: How are you feeling?
B. MCQUERRY: I'm very tired. Yes, you'll probably see me yawn a couple times. My eyes are getting about a fourth of the way heavy.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Like the doctors who want to study them, Clay and Bethany want to know more about their internal clocks and what's making them tick.
Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Liberty, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And there's this. We think Clay McQuerry is watching this, but we can't be certain because, as you know, it's way past his bedtime.
Well, as we've just seen, sleep problems can be inconvenient, but they can also be dangerous. Is anything being done to get sleepy truck drivers into bed instead of behind the wheel?
And later, it is almost like Rip Van Winkle waking up at the Brooklyn Bridge. What's in a stash of emergency supplies from 50 years ago?
And number four on our CNN.com countdown. In Australia, Cyclone Larry leaves an estimated 7,000 people homeless. The storm hit early Monday, sparing lives, but not much else. Good, clean water, and generators are being delivered to the region.
Number three, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The next time you're driving and you see a giant 18 wheeler closing in on you, ask yourself whether the truck driver could be dangerously drowsy. Hundreds of people are killed and thousands injured every year because of truckers who are too fatigued to drive. It's one symptom of a chronically sleep deprived nation. We're looking at that problem all week. Senior Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta digs into the danger of tired truckers and what some are doing about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When trucker Paul Chapman heads out to deliver his freight, he watches the road, but inside his rig an experimental device is watching him.
A ghost like scan of infrared light that warns him when he's too tired to be driving. Chapman installs the fatigue monitor each night before he hits the road, a quick and easy chore to lessen the risk that something terrible might happen.
PAUL CHAPMAN, TRUCK DRIVER: There's so many accidents where drivers fall asleep and crash and I sure don't want that to happen. I have a great family at home.
GUPTA: When those accidents do happen, they are often horrific. Like this one in Colorado last year. The truck driver responsible for the crash hadn't taken a break in 20 hours when he slammed into a police car.
And this one in Florida this year, a truck collided with a car. Seven children died. The accident remains under investigation, but the National Transportation Safety Board said the truck driver had been awake for more than 30 hours. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 375 people were killed and 7,500 others were injured each year over a four-year period between 1997 and 2000 because of accidents caused by tired truck drivers.
This crash prompted New Jersey to criminalize drowsy driving. The trucker involved hadn't slept in 30 hours. A college student died in the crash. Out on the road, Chapman, who drives a Pitt-Ohio Express, says he pulled over recently when the driver fatigue monitor's alarm sounded.
CHAPMAN: That set me back a little bit there. This thing knew I was getting tired.
GUPTA: The device measures how heavy eyes are becoming by monitoring the eyelids. If they cover the eyes for three or four seconds several times in a minute, an alarm sounds. Richard Grace invented the driver fatigue monitor. RICHARD GRACE, INVENTOR, DRIVER FATIGUE MONITOR: We're not trying to keep them awake. We're giving them information that will encourage them to stop and do the right thing.
GUPTA: Other technologies are also being tested to warn truckers of dangerous drowsiness. Like this from Assistware Technology, a device that sounds an alarm when the truck begins changing lanes erratically. No cause for alarm on this night though.
CHAPMAN: I had a pretty good trip. I didn't get tired. A nice easy trip. I got a lot of sleep yesterday. So I only yawned about three times last night.
GUPTA: Chapman finishes his shift at 2:30 in the morning safely, 364 miles, eyes wide open. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Join us Sunday as Sanjay explores how we sleep and how the lack of it affects our health on, "Sleep," a Dr. Sanjay Gupta special Sunday right here on CNN.
They've just found a 50-year-old stash of emergency supplies in The Brooklyn Bridge. What kind of food did somebody leave? Is anything still good? Jeanne Moos goes exploring and tasting in a minute.
(BIZ BREAK)
COLLINS: "LARRY KING LIVE" gets started at the top of the hour. Hi, Larry, who are you going to have with you tonight?
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Hi, Heidi. It's so much fun being in the same city with you.
COLLINS: I know. You're just right over there, right?
KING: Right over there. We've got a good show. Don an Diedre Imus, one of the most famous radio personalities and television personalities in America along with his wife. His wife has a line of products. And he has a good line of spiel on just about everything. The Imuses join us at the top of the hour with your phone calls.
COLLINS: It is going to be a good one, Larry. Thank you and see you at the top of the hour.
Coming up, emergency supplies for a nuclear war that never came. What was hidden at The Brooklyn Bridge? Would it have helped anyone in an emergency?
First, number three on our CNN.com countdown. Comedy Central says South Park's Chef will live on. Even without musician Isaac Hayes, who decided to leave the show over a dispute about religion. He was the voice of the chef. So far though, still no word on who will supply Chef's new voice.
Number two when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: In New York City, officials have made a chilling discovery, a huge 50-year-old stash of emergency supplies set aside in case of nuclear war. Food, water, medicine, all of it ready if the Soviets attacked. It adds up to a pretty scary reminder of life during the worst of the Cold War. Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): If the atomic bomb explodes, duck and cover.
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than half a century later, duck and cover was dust covered. It was as if a fall- out shelter had fallen out of a time capsule.
(on camera): We are hot on the trail of the Cold War.
(voice-over): In a dark, dirty, arched chamber under the Brooklyn Bridge, workers stumbled on barrels of evaporated drinking water, paper blankets, medical tags for the injured.
(on camera): So they actually tie these people's toes?
(voice-over): The water barrels were to serve double duty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To be used as commodes.
MOOS (on camera): I was going to ask if there was a restroom.
(voice-over): No rest room, but plenty of crackers, 350,000 crackers manufactured in October 1962.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is how it looked in October 1962.
MOOS: The Cuban Missile Crisis, the country was freaking out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What this thing is?
MOOS: So they filled bomb shelters with bandages.
(voice-over): Put other side next to wound.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duck and cover. Atta boy, Tony. That flash means act fast.
MOOS: But Tony couldn't have acted fast enough. Historian Mike Wallace says evacuation plans and fallout shelters were propaganda designed to make Americans feel safe.
MIKE WALLACE, AUTHOR: It's a colossal placebo. You know, it's like this effort to convince us that it's just four or five days, and then you'll come up and you'll take a bath, you'll wash off the radiation and, you know, you'll have a few crackers and you're home free.
MOOS: As for those crackers, what would they taste like after 44 years?
(on camera): Should I? This probably is going to get me faster than the radiation would have.
(voice-over): New York City's transportation commissioner concurred.
IRIS WEINSHALL, COMMISSIONER, NYC DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION: This is the worst tasting cracker I've ever tasted in my life.
MOOS: When it comes to 44-year-old crackers, duck and spit. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: I don't know, they sounded crunchy to me still. Who knows though, 50 years from now, someone will dig up a dusty old stash of duct tape and plastic sheeting, I bet.
Now to No. 2 on our CNN.com countdown, if you've got a tip for the FBI, you may not want to e-mail it. The bureau's top official in New York says it's too expensive to give all agents e-mail addresses. But a spokeswoman in Washington says the problem's being worked on and agents should have e-mail by the end of the year.
Coming up, the most popular story today on CNN.com and the chilling 911 tape that goes with it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES MARTIN, KILLED NEIGHBOR: Kid's just been giving me a bunch of (bleep), making the other kids harass me in my place, tearing things up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, so what did you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I shot him with a (bleep) shotgun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: What led to the final blow up? Back, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: No. 1 on our CNN.com countdown, a terrible crime of passion in a Cincinnati suburb. Meghan Mongillo of our affiliate WXIX has the story that began with a shotgun blast and a chilling 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEGHAN MONGILLO, WXIX CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday afternoon around 3:30, 66-year-old Charles Martin snapped. He admits in a dramatic 911 call. MARTIN: I just killed a kid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just killed a kid?
MARTIN: Yes, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, what happened?
MARTIN: It's been something going on for five years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's going on?
MARTIN: It's just -- you know, I've been being harassed by him and his parents for five years and just today just blew it up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What your name, Sir?
MARTIN: Charles Martin.
MONGILLO: Martin had filed a complaint with Union Township police in 2003, but Lieutenant Scott Gaviglia said it was nothing specific.
LT. SCOTT GAVIGLIA, UNION TOWNSHIP POLICE, OHIO: I do not believe it was against the victim in this instance. It looks like he had come to the police department, wanted to speak to an officer, was seeking advice about neighborhood problems.
MONGILLO: The problems ended tragically Sunday. Police say Martin and Larry Mugrage first had an argument. Then an hour later when the 15-year-old went back across Martin's lawn with friends, he became a shooting target.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened, tell me what happened, Charles.
MARTIN: Kid's just been giving me a bunch of (bleep), making the other kids harass me and my place, tearing things up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, so what did you do?
MARTIN: I shot him with a (bleep) shotgun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mugrage was transported by ambulance and died at the hospital. As for the shooter, police say Martin surrendered calmly.
MARTIN: I'm going to unload the gun, I'm going to lay it on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, I want you to stay on the phone with me.
MARTIN: I'll be outside. You know, I don't want the cops thinking I'm going to take anything to them. I'll be outside, I'll be unarmed. MARTIN: The 66-year-old has been divorced and lived alone for years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: That's Meghan Mongillo of our affiliate WXIX. And one more thing, Charles Martin faces a judge in court tomorrow.
Well that's all for us tonight. Thanks for joining us everybody, I'll see you tomorrow right back here at 8:00. For now, "LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
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