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Rick's List
Hurricane Targets East Coast; Earthquake Strikes New Zealand
Aired September 03, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everybody.
As we get going, I have got to let you know that there's a couple of big stories that we're following for you, three, as a matter of fact, once again.
We're going to bring you the very latest now on what actually happened inside the lobby of the Discovery Channel building. The 911 tapes have just been released. I haven't heard them myself, but I was just talking to one of our researchers downstairs here at the world headquarters of CNN. And he said they're strong. They're very strong.
Meanwhile, what's going to with Hurricane Earl? We're on it. Just got the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Chad has got that. And he's going to be sharing it with us in just a moment. I see him walking over here.
And, by the way, just to give you a sense of what's going on right now in New Zealand with that earthquake, take a look at this. Before we go to the beginning of the show, take a look at this right here. Turn that around, Mark, if you possibly can. We continue to get these from people in New Zealand reacting to these aftershocks after that huge earthquake they had down there earlier today. Well, that was a violent aftershock. That's a big part of our newscast as well.
Here we go. This is what is in RICK'S LIST.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): It's prime time, Friday. Here is what is making RICK'S LIST.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up the hill, up as far as we can go to get away from the -- in case there's a tsunami.
SANCHEZ: Look at what's left of this town in New Zealand, news still coming in from there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears to me that the aircraft was losing (INAUDIBLE) some of the engines were -- were working pretty hard.
SANCHEZ: A U.S. cargo plane crashes in Dubai.
On our political list, there's more to this. QUESTION: Why wouldn't you recant the comment you made earlier about the beheadings in the desert?
QUESTION: That's a serious question, Governor.
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: Well, this was an interesting evening tonight.
SANCHEZ: If you're mad about bailouts here at home, wait until you hear what President Hamid Karzai's brother wants you to do for him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you having done today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm having Botox on my right eye.
SANCHEZ: Why are so many teenagers doing Botox?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right, we're going to begin with Earl right away. Hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.
The very first thing I want to show you is what's going on with this hurricane. And by the way, it is about -- let me put it to you this way. The closest strip of land to Earl is Montauk, New York. Those of you in the Northeast, those of you in the New York area are familiar with this area.
We have some shots coming in from Montauk as we speak. There it is. These are some of the very first pictures that are coming in from this area right now. And a little while ago we had some shots that would have really impressed you because it was showing a building that was getting hit by these waves.
Now, this just looks like a beach shot, really totally unimpressive as hurricanes go, to be perfectly honest with you. There ain't nothing going on here. This looks like South Florida on any given day.
Let me bring Chad Myers right now.
If Montauk is the closest land that it's to right now, eventually, I understand, it's going to get closer to the cape around Massachusetts. What is going to be the impact there?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, they get hit get the hardest with these big waves. And these waves could be 15, 20 feet still. That's big.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: And it's a peninsula so it sticks out.
MYERS: Yes. And they don't have the reef offshore like North Carolina does to break a lot of these waves offshore. These things are going to hit these break walls and splash and hit homes and take away dirt, and if those homes are built on the dirt, take away homes. This is not the Category 4 storm, though, that it was.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: We're going to watch this. And as it moves forward, some of it is going to happen during this hour. We will see some of the movement.
The pictures that we have been showing so far, sometimes, we look up and we go, oh, my goodness. Look at that. Other times, we look up and it looks like the ones that I just showed a little while ago. It looks a lot of waves on the beach on any given day. You could be just about anywhere else.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Right. Let's go body-surf.
SANCHEZ: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: I know.
SANCHEZ: So we will stay on top of it. We will be as transparent as we possibly can.
This is the big story that we have been following throughout the course of the day. There has been a huge, really, a huge earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. And I want to take you through this now.
It was about -- it registered about 7.0. That was the original register, by the way.
MYERS: Correct.
SANCHEZ: Power is out, we understand. Roads are damaged. Two people reportedly seriously injured as a result of this.
There is a state of emergency that has been declared at New Zealand's city of Christchurch. And all throughout the day we have been getting all these different pictures. Let me take you through some of these, if we possibly can. Now, take some of these full as we show these. This is from New Zealand TV.
And you can see some of the different sides of the damage that we have been getting thus far. And they continue to come in, by the way. This happened at 4:00 in the morning there. So, it is just now, as we have been getting the very first pictures from daylight that we see how much damage took place in the city.
I asked someone today, a doctor who was there, right after it had happened, if you had to categorize this from one to six, one being nothing but maybe some cracks on the wall and 10 being total devastation, every building destroyed, he said somewhere between a five and a six, which gives us a pretty good sense of what's going on.
MYERS: Wow.
SANCHEZ: John Carter is joining us now. He's the civil defense minister on significant earthquake damage that has taken place there.
Here's what he has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN CARTER, NEW ZEALAND CIVILIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: At the moment, of course, that we're getting information fed into us to assess the response that's necessary.
The most important thing that we can tell anybody at the moment is please don't panic, that things are being properly managed and as you have just been told, people need to conserve water, that we will be arranging for water supplies to be available where necessary.
Check out your -- safety of your friends and your neighbors and just make sure everybody is safe. Try not to overuse the cell phone system and the communications system because otherwise it might collapse. And so, there is a whole number of messages we just want to get out to people.
Please don't panic. Be sensible. Be safe. And we will work our way through this as we go forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: As we have been following this story, I should tell you that we have been getting a lot of different tweets and different messages from people.
New Zealand immediately -- we started following the story as soon as we got word of it. And we started following and sending messages back using our own Twitter account here to those people. And now we have established contact with some of them. And that's how we have been communicating with them as we follow this breaking story.
This is what we do here. We go beyond 140 characters by actually reaching the people who we have taken off our Twitter board.
One of those is Jimmy Le Comte. He is joining us now live, I understand. And he has been sending us some of his own TwitVids and Twitpics. And we're going to be able to share some of those with you.
Mr. Le Comte, are you there, sir?
JIMMY LE COMTE, EARTHQUAKE EYEWITNESS: I am there, yes.
SANCHEZ: What is the situation right there now as we look at some of these first videos? I'm going to try and see if we can get some of your pictures up. Did you just send us some videos or some stills?
(CROSSTALK)
LE COMTE: ... a lot of the cracks in the roads and the flooding.
SANCHEZ: Say again, sir?
LE COMTE: I just sent a lot with the cracks in the roads and all the flooding.
SANCHEZ: There's flooding?
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Well, that's interesting, because we hadn't heard of any flooding before. Tell us more about this flooding.
LE COMTE: Well, the flooding I think is because where the main damage is, and apart from in the city, is out at New Brighton, which is down near the beach. And that particular area, apparently, sits on what they call (INAUDIBLE) sort of soil or something.
And what's happened is, the roads have all cracked down there and the sand and everything and water has come up from underground.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
LE COMTE: It isn't coming through -- from the sea or from the river or anything, but it's coming up from underground. And in some places, it is right up to your knees deep there. And I believe a lot of it is caused also through broken water mains and things like that.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Mr. Le Comte, just hold on for just one moment. I'm going to talk to my executive producer who is standing by right now inside the control room and just ask her for my own sake, Angie, are we going to be able to turn around any of Mr. Le Comte's pictures? We're working on getting those. OK. All right. Take your time. I thought maybe we might have them.
Chad, can you explain to us what is -- we want to make this perfectly clear, because at the very beginning of this story, some folks started wondering, and there may have been some preliminary reports about the possibility that there was some kind of tsunami warning out there. But this is not a tsunami because this thing was nowhere near the water, right?
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: But you could still get the ground under the ocean to move on an earthquake that is onshore, because, well, everything moves.
SANCHEZ: Oh, really?
MYERS: The whole planet kind of moves in a 7.1. But the thing about this quake is, this was not on a fault. This was not on a known fault.
The reason why most of that damage is there, because they weren't really preparing for a 7.0 earthquake when they were building those buildings. This is some kind of a shooter fault that was pretty much unknown to the people that were building around this area. They have had four big earthquakes in I would call recent history, in the past 800 years.
That's it, four, four earthquakes. They get a bunch of earthquakes in New Zealand -- don't get me wrong -- 100 a year, but nothing like a 7.
SANCHEZ: Well, we understand, Mr. Le Comte, that you guys have been getting a lot of aftershocks in the last several hours. Could you describe to us how many, if so, and what it is like being there right now?
LE COMTE: Well, the last one we had probably was about half-an- hour ago. There have only been sort of small ones, but you still tend to be a bit scared, because you don't know how big it might come. But they have been sort of off and on all the time.
And you always think perhaps you might begin to have another big one again. But apart from that, you wouldn't believe. It is a beautiful fine day here in Christchurch.
SANCHEZ: Well, what do you do after one big earthquake that has done the amount of damage that we see there, and then all these other aftershocks? Most people listening to the sound of your voice would think the last thing I would do is go under any roof. I would stay outside. I would sleep outside. But you have got some 380,000 people who live in your town. What are they doing?
LE COMTE: Well, I think a lot of them actually have probably been rubbernecking and looking -- going out in the streets to have a good look around.
But we actually feel quite safe in our own home, because we have an got old wooden house. And I think the most buildings that have been collapsing are old brick ones and that. So, we're pretty safe where we are.
But it's been quite (INAUDIBLE) because I was -- when it actually happened, I was up just about 4:15 this morning. I was sitting in the kitchen and had a cup of tea.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Mr. Le Comte, I'm going to stop you for just a moment, because I was just told by a producer that we have got your photos ready to go. And I want to show those with the viewers.
OK. There we go. There's a classic picture right there. We're looking at a street that seems to have a crack going right through the middle. Right?
LE COMTE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: What road is that?
LE COMTE: That's a road that leads what we call the sewage (INAUDIBLE) where our sewage treatment station is. It goes right through the roads there.
And there is a big bridge down that way which has all been closed off because the roads have all cracked through that area. But that's an area that goes through where our sewage treatment station is.
SANCHEZ: That's a classic earthquake crack as we look at them. And yet there's another one right down the middle of the road.
Isn't that something, Chad?
MYERS: Well, and this is very indicative of a very shallow quake. This was only three miles deep. Many times, you will get a big quake like this, but you would have any surface features whatsoever because it is so deep. This man took these pictures because this was so shallow.
Now, I think we're seeing a lot of rubble on the roadways, a lot of brick stuff.
SANCHEZ: Well, it is an old city.
MYERS: This is what you were talking about, how the brick structures didn't hold up very well, right?
SANCHEZ: Yes.
MYERS: Mr. Le Comte?
LE COMTE: Yes.
MYERS: Yes, the brick structures didn't do very well, did they?
(CROSSTALK)
LE COMTE: No, they were -- yes. No, they didn't do very well at all.
SANCHEZ: That's interesting.
LE COMTE: And I think we were lucky really that it happened that time. If it had happened about two or three hours later, when people were around, I think we would have had a lot of serious injuries and deaths, because I mean, the bricks, a lot of them (INAUDIBLE) right across the road.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Well, Mr. Le Comte, I want you to stay safe. We're going to be in contact with you throughout this newscast. I know the signal at least here was breaking up a little bit. We were able to get pretty much the gist of everything you were sharing with us and we appreciate, sir, you taking time to take us through this. Please, stay safe. We will stay in touch with you throughout the course of the night and we will bring you the very latest on this story as it moves forward.
Chad and I are going to be here taking you through this story, as well as Earl, by the way.
You're looking once again. Let's go to the picture from Nantucket. Do we have the Nantucket shot? All right, I guess it switched now. There is Allan Chernoff. He's standing by in Montauk.
Again, anyone watching us from the East Coast and especially if you live in New York, you're very familiar with Montauk. That's that kind of ritzy area actually that sticks out there. But they're going to get a little bit of a hammering tonight, but not as bad as what they're going to get around Massachusetts. We are going to be taking you through that.
There we go. There's that video I was telling you about. That's the point off of Nantucket where some of the surf is really roaring. Just how much of a tidal wave going to they get, if any part -- a tidal surge, I should say? Probably about three to four feet, right?
MYERS: Oh, sure, at least.
SANCHEZ: At least.
All right, stay with us, folks. We are going to take you through all of these developing stories.
And as we go to break, let me remind you that we have just received the 911 tape from what happened inside the lobby of the Discovery Channel shooting. And we're going to turn that around for you. We haven't seen it yet, but we're getting it ready.
And when we come back, hopefully, we will be able to share that with you.
Stay with us. A lot going on tonight once again. I'm Rick Sanchez. This RICK'S LIST.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: OK. Still waiting for that one video of that 911 tape that we told you about.
We're continuing to monitor the very latest that's coming to us out of New Zealand.
And I want to bring you the very latest information on Earl as well.
Chad, hold on just a moment. Let's bring in, you and I, Allan Chernoff. He's standing by in Montauk. That's about 120 miles east of New York City.
And how far is it from the hurricane right now, from any of the winds?
MYERS: I would say it is 50 miles from an eyewall, what's left of an eye wall, because there is not much of an eye left, but yes.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Allan, take it away. Show us what you have got. Show us what the concerns may be out there tonight.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: All right, Rick, check this out.
Have a look at this massive log. This log and three others just like it were not on this beach three hours ago. They came from over there. Yes, the waves brought them in, the massive waves. And I will tell you, all afternoon they have been pounding this beach.
Yes, the wind is picking up. We have got some rain but the story here in Montauk all afternoon long has been the waves just crashing down. I saw many that were definitely well over 10 feet high.
And the marine patrol here, the officers, they have been spending the entire day just keeping tourists away from the beach, everybody, people who live around here. They want to make sure nobody steps foot in that water. It is awfully, awfully dangerous.
You see behind me over here yet another of those massive logs. Rick, that's just one example of the power of Mother Nature that we're seeing right now here.
SANCHEZ: Yes, no, I can only imagine. And we're probably going to see a little bit more of that as it moves further up north, especially in the area of Martha's Vineyard in Nantucket.
In fact, have we got it? Yes.
Andrea York is standing by now, right? Andrea York is good enough to call in tonight, lifelong resident of Cataumet Village.
Did I get that right? Cataumet Village. Thank you so much.
ANDREA YORK, MASSACHUSETTS: There you go.
SANCHEZ: Lifelong resident of Cataumet Village. And that's right there on the cape.
Ms. York, are you there?
YORK: I'm here.
SANCHEZ: Are you staying put tonight? YORK: Yes. We're all staying put tonight, I think.
SANCHEZ: Are you concerned at all?
YORK: Well, you know, we spent the last couple of days preparing. Everybody was out hauling boats, people working together, putting everything that could possibly move into some interior space, battening down hatches, plywooding up the windows, taking in the window boxes and the trash barrels.
But we have been watching the weather. And of course, it is predicting that it is downscaled a little. So, we're glad we did it, but we will be glad if we don't have the intensity that we thought.
SANCHEZ: No, listen, we understand. I want -- for our viewers' sake, I want Chad to do something for us. We're talking to her. She is in Nantucket.
Can you create a visual script for people at home of what Nantucket looks like? I think it is like a little island. Can you find it on your map?
MYERS: She is on the cape. Right?
SANCHEZ: OK.
MYERS: And then you have these islands that are off the cape. And Nantucket would be one of them, obviously.
SANCHEZ: Because it sticks out like a finger, right?
MYERS: Sure. That's the cape that is Cape Cod. And then you would have Orleans and then you would have -- all your little towns go up the cape. And then way up on top is the National Seashore.
And all along is basically the seashore, too. It is hard, very difficult to go take a live truck and drive it to the beach, because there is just so many dunes between where you can park and where the beach is.
So, there is not much of a live shot location even all the way down here. And then you would go along and you would be down toward Barnstable and then you have our islands chain. And the islands are -- no bridges at all to the islands. You literally have to take ferries back and forth to those islands.
And we do have reporters out there on those islands and those waves are at least 10 feet right now...
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: Allan Chernoff out here on Montauk, that is part of Long Island.
SANCHEZ: There is no question as I look at that storm, that she is going to be feeling -- Mrs. York is going to get much more of the brunt than where Chernoff is, for example?
MYERS: Well, sure, and that probably a good five or six hours away before the winds get the biggest for her.
SANCHEZ: Are you staying there with your family, with friends, Ms. York?
YORK: Well, where I live, we're in what called Buzzards Bay. And I think your meteorologist maybe has a map, could show you. It is a little bit more protected than the outer cape areas.
SANCHEZ: I see.
YORK: And the islands are even less protected. So, I know -- I have relatives on Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard has a curfew I think after 3:00. They wanted no one going anywhere.
I have a nephew who works for a major tent company on the vineyard. And I'm sure it was a big wedding weekend, so I can't even imagine how crazy that whole picture would be. You can't kind of decide at the last minute you're going to have a wedding. But I think in general, people felt really well prepared.
I have to say, I really feel this time the media did a great job of being informative, but not inflating the situation. And I think people were able to make great choices. I didn't see the hype this time, you know, crazy people just buying hundred packs of batteries and water for weeks.
But, on the other hand, the cape is very wooded. We think it's big National Seashore, but it is tremendously -- interior is all wooded. And when the rain comes and the wind blows and the waves come, we have a lot of power outages just due to trees falling on power lines.
SANCHEZ: Well, and you know what? That's the least of it though. If in the end all you have to do is be without power for a day or two, I think we can all walk away and say, OK, we can get the power back up.
What we obviously are concerned about is those rising waters that may cause other problems, like we have seen that with other hurricanes in the past. But you're right. It is our job to just tell you what's going on. And that's what we're going to do. And we will be checking back with you and other residents as we move forward.
Thank you so much, Ms. York.
OK.
We have just been told -- I have just been told that the 911 tape from that shooting in the lobby of the Discovery Channel is in.
And we are -- yes, we're ready to go with it as soon as we come back from a break. We should be able to load that up and you will see it. So, stay right there. In two minutes, we're coming back. We will be able to let you see that 911 tape or hear that 911 tape, I should say.
Once again, there's a lot of news going on. I'm reading your tweets as I go to break as well. I will be sharing some of them throughout the newscast.
This is RICK'S LIST. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: All right. You know the story. And we have got the 911 tape now.
Let me give you a setup. A man walks in, James Lee is his name, into the Discovery Channel building in Montgomery County, not far from Washington, D.C. This is in Maryland. He goes into the lobby of the building where he apparently is wearing something that looks to at least police like he has explosives on him. He is also waving a handgun, according to police.
Suddenly, the entire building is on lockdown. They immediately try and isolate him, contain him, evacuate the building. They do. These are some of the people being taken away. Police arrive at the scene. And then there is this long four-hour negotiation that takes place between federal agents, police agents, and police officers there in that municipality and in that county.
While this is going on, people outside are trying to figure out what to do.
Here now, what you're going to hear is one of the very first 911 calls that came in that has just been released by police from someone trying to tell authorities what is going on inside the Discovery Channel building.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Sir, now, the man that saw him fire the shot, did he say what he looked like? What was he wearing?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is wearing a black -- he is wearing a black (INAUDIBLE).
911 OPERATOR: OK. A black backpack?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: Are the police...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is coming out of building. He is coming out of building. He's waving his gun at the people. Yes, he just waved his gun at the people. He is wearing like -- I don't know if it is explosives, but -- I don't know if it is explosives. I think he is wearing a suit. But the cops are on the scene.
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir. Now, are the cops there with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No, the cops are at the entrance of the building, because he came out of building and wave a revolver at the people and tell them to move.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: All right, that's just one of the very first ones that we have been able to turn around.
I should let you know that there are some others that are going to be coming up here in just a little bit. We're just now getting in these 911 calls. They have just been released. We have just acquired them. And as we move forward and as we're able to turn them around, you will be able to hear them with us as we put them on the air.
In the meantime, I want you to know that we have got our lists ready to go as we bring you every night. We have just moved them down a little bit because of all the breaking news.
And speaking of breaking news, these are the two big stories that we're following for you tonight, two developing stories.
One -- and we have split the scene so you can see it there -- on the left, Hurricane Earl and everything that it represents, and on the right, still more aftershocks after that massive earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
All over both stories, as you would expect. We are going to continue to follow it for you, as RICK'S LIST continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Yes, we're keeping up with your tweets. Many of these tweets are coming to us right now from parts of Massachusetts. Many of you are letting us know what's going on. Some of these tweets are also coming in as you might expect from parts of New Zealand where people have been communicating with me all day long. As a matter of fact, here's one now.
"What a crazy day. I woke up screaming and still a bit shaky. So many aftershocks. Could go on for 48 hours and up to 6 on the scale. Can you imagine? Aftershocks registering 6.0. Well, that's what they're dealing with right now in Christchurch, New Zealand and we are following their story with videos, with tweets and with as many interviews as we possibly can from the people who are down there and are talking to us.
Now, we do lists on this show as you know and here's a list of the people who are making news on this night. Ben Roethlisberger. The Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback will be under center sooner than expected. The two-time Super Bowl champion's suspension was reduced from six games to four games. The NFL commissioner made a decision today after making with Roethlisberger. The star quarterback was suspended for how he behaved with a 20-year-old woman in the bathroom of a bar in Milledgeville, Milledgeville, Georgia, even though he wasn't officially charged with sexual assault.
Here is number two. Jerry Lewis, watch out Lindsay L Lohan. Lewis is looking to straighten you out. That's right. That Jerry Lewis. The comic legend is warning the troubled young star and it's not just a verbal warning. Listen to what the 84-year-old Lewis told "Inside Edition."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERRY LEWIS, COMEDIAN: I would smack her in the mouth and be arrested for abusing a woman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you say to her?
LEWIS: I would say you deserve this and nothing else. Whack! And then if she's not satisfied, I'd put her over my knee and spank her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: By the way, this weekend, Lewis is hosting his 45th telethon to raise money for muscular dystrophy.
So who is number one on our "People" list tonight? What is it about Fidel Castro that makes people watch whenever he is on? And as we go to break, I invite you to take a look at the process by which we put this newscast together every morning. Here is our daily "Rick Vid" which you can view for yourself on my blog. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. It doesn't matter. I think this story just kind of needs to be told.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That told me that starting at 4:00, our Boston affiliate will start doing their --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Ben Roethlisberger?
SANCHEZ: I'm sitting here. I've got 40 votes and I've got to put them all up. I've got four hours to get it done. I'm a little busy. But I'll stop and talk to you.
Focus. Despite that fact that it's Friday, we need to focus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Topping our list tonight of people in the news, Fidel Castro in uniform. The former Cuban president spoke at a rally in Havana today, sounding less forceful than usual, wearing his trademark green fatigues and cap. That's what he looks like. Back in uniform. The 84-year-old spoke for 44 minutes and he had a very specific topic. Castro urged students at the University of Havana to do their best to prevent nuclear war. This is, by the way, the first time Castro led an open air rally since a near death illness four years ago.
All right. Now, it is time for our political list.
Number three. A little bump for the president. A bump our CNN poll released today. It puts Mr. Obama's approval rating at 50 percent. That's up three points from last month, by possibly due to the final withdrawal of the combat troops from Iraq and the speech thereof.
Now, listen to this. The August jobs report came out today and it shows the private sector added jobs. It's not a lot of good news but it's good news. The overall unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent because of a loss of public sector work.
Here's the real news. Mr. Obama signed today. He is about to unveil a new growth package.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will be addressing a broader package of ideas next week. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction. But we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that's needed so desperately all across the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Will this actually be a second stimulus? We're going to keep asking and we'll be watching for you next week.
Here now, number two. Something afoot in Colorado surrounding Republican Dan Maes, the Tea Party's choice for governor. Late this afternoon, Maes announced that he's staying in the race despite being abandoned by prominent supporters, among them, Ken Buck, the Tea Party-backed Republican nominee for Senate. Why would they oppose each other? In a statement this afternoon, Buck said, quote, "It is clear to me that Dan is struggling to determine the best path for his campaign, his family and for Colorado. I have decided that I can no longer support his candidacy for governor of Colorado."
What is going on? Maes has had to pay a record fine for violating campaign finance laws and also was caught exaggerating his record as a law enforcement official. Politico.com is reporting that the Colorado Republican chairman was to meet today with Maes to present damaging evidence that would further undermine his candidacy. Again, what's going to with Dan Maes? But as we said, Maes announced a short time ago that he's not quitting. He's staying in the governor's race.
So what is the number one political story on our list? Could it have something to do with bodies being found without their heads in the Arizona desert? We have the facts. The newest on this story. The good, the bad and the ugly coming your way.
And as we go to break, I want you to know that we have two developing stories that we're following on this night. One of them having to do with the earthquake in New Zealand. That's right there on the right of your screen. More aftershocks, more pictures coming in. We're going to be able to take you through.
And also, the worst of the storm is now heading its way toward Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and we are there to follow it for you. Stay right there.
RICK'S LIST continues in two.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. Did you see what's going on again in Arizona? Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says no more debates. She is done. Not a bad call, right? Given her performance Wednesday. This is the number one story on our "Political" list.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: We have done everything that we could possibly do. We have -- did what was right for Arizona.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: It's tough to watch. That was the opening statement in her debate. Brewer said today that the only reason she attended Wednesday's debate was to qualify for close to $2 million in public campaign financing, but she did not even want to really go. She also said today that she was wrong. She was wrong last time when she publicly claimed that Arizona law enforcement authorities were finding beheaded bodies in the desert. Now, she had so far refused to retract that claim during and after Wednesday's debate. In fact, take a look at this. Hit it, Dan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why wouldn't you recant the comment you've made earlier about the beheadings in the desert?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seriously, that's a serious question, Governor.
GOV JAN BREWER (R), ARIZONA: Well, this was an interesting evening tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, please answer the question about the headless bodies. Why won't you recant that? Do you still believe that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop crying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, Governor. BREWER: OK, thank you all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor, what do you make --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The whole thing was really strange and still sending aftershocks in the political communities and beyond in Arizona. Quote, right. She said today that she handled it poorly. Quote, "All you guys were doing and talking were beheadings, beheadings, beheadings. That is something that has stuck with you all for so long and I just felt we needed to move on." Brewer now says her original claim of beheadings in the desert was actually a reference to violence in Mexico.
SANCHEZ: We've got some brand new tape coming in. Here we go, more breaking news.
We've been telling you that we have these 911 tapes that are coming in. As we get them, we share them with you. We're trying to clear as many of them as we possibly can.
Again, the situation. Man walks in. James Lee. He's got these crazy ideas about saving the planet. And as a result, he puts people's lives at risk, takes hostages. Police move in. Suddenly, police start getting calls about what's going on and here is one of the 911 call. Let's listen to it. Dan?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the guy still in the lobby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got somebody in the lobby. He's got something strapped in a box like canisters. We need to close down. We need to shut down Georgia in front of Discovery and Wayne. All pedestrian traffic.
(INAUDIBLE) we're going to go and back up a little bit. This guy has got civilians in the lobby. We can't tell what he has.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a commander, but I need a fast action response team to come right here to Georgia Wayne and suit up and let's see what we have. We've got four units here right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) we've got a man inside with a vest strapped on him. Some kind of device in his hands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. We need to shut Georgia Avenue down, Wayne Avenue. We need to notify -- we need to notify SWAT. Get somebody over to the side of the building also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: All right. Those are the tapes that show the traffic, the police traffic. What they are actually saying to themselves as they communicate with each other as these tapes come in, we'll share them with you. They may give us clues as to what the process was as this was going on as James Lee threatened to kill people with both explosives and a handgun until finally police took him out instead.
Next, number one on our controversy list. Why does this cartoon, that cartoon right there have people in Mexico up in arms? They are calling it desecration of their flag. How would you behave? How would you respond, they are asking, if they did this to the American stars and stripes?
Interesting question. Interesting controversy. That's why it's number one. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: So what is the number one story on our controversy list tonight? Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rick Sanchez. It involves something that makes people mad no matter what country you're from. We as Americans don't like it when somebody desecrates our flag and neither do Mexicans.
Case in point, this political cartoon. Take a look at this. The cartoonist is a man named Daryl Cagle. Look what he drew.
This is a Mexican flag. You see it's all shot up, riddled with bullets, right? And then there's a bullet hole right in the chest of the Mexican symbol, the eagle. And you could see the blood that's underneath the head of the eagle as he's turned upside down.
Well, some people in Mexico are saying this is ridiculous. They shouldn't do something like this. It's disrespectful, it's desecration. He's gotten a bunch of responses on his blog and, by the way, so have we.
Just checking our own tweets here on CNN on our own Twitter board, "No, Rick, that's not right. It's not right at all. People shouldn't deface anybody's flag, even left wingers when they do it to the American flag. Killing any flag, why won't people in this world realize you should never treat people that way."
So this is a serious topic. By the way, I want you to hear now as we're going through some of our own tweets what Mr. Cagle said himself. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARYL CAGLE, POLITICAL CARTOONIST: The mail I've been getting from readers has been pretty evenly split. Some of them think the cartoon portrays their feelings and half of them think it's insulting to national symbol of Mexico. I get a lot of mail from people saying that I should treat symbols of other countries with the same respect that I would a religion, and I wouldn't draw the prophet Muhammad so I should treat the Mexican flag the same way as the prophet Muhammad, which I think is ridiculous because I do have a lot more respect for religion than I do for nationalist symbols. And it's the job of an editorial cartoonist to criticize nations and governments.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Rafael Romo is joining us now. He's our chief Latin affairs correspondent. This is interesting. You talked to him, right?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: Does he give you any send of remorse over what he's done? Because there's a lot of people who say, look, you shouldn't do that to people's flags.
ROMO: Not necessarily. He says I was just doing my job. The job of a cartoonist is to try to convey a message with no words or very few words and tell people about a reality and that's what he says he was doing here.
SANCHEZ: It doesn't matter if it's offensive. That's interesting. Well, let's listen to what else he said. Here's another sound bite we got that you offered up for us. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARYL CAGLE, POLITICAL CARTOONIST: Political cartoonists are kind of like poets. We strive to make cartoons that are simple and use visual metaphors that are people are going to understand in a very simple statement, hopefully with no words. The best cartoons have no words. And all I was looking to do here is make a statement that the violence in Mexico is terrible and make it visually compelling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: If you're Hispanic American, especially Mexican these days, you do feel perhaps more put upon than Hispanics have been in this country in quite a long time. Does he understand why some people south of the border might be a little bit defensive about this at this particular time?
ROMO: I think that it's very difficult to see exactly what the Mexican flags mean to Mexicans. When you grow up and people tell you that it's almost sacred, you don't touch it.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMO: You don't wear it. It's the symbol that you're supposed to salute. It's not something that you put on papers. But then at the same time, I see his point that the reality is that more than 28,000 people have died in Mexico because of the drug wars in the last four years.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMO: So there is a problem and the reality is that it's there. We cannot hide it.
ROMO: That's an interesting point of view. Thanks so much for doing that interview with us. We appreciate it. That is a very controversial story. And I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it as well. Thanks, Rafael.
Meanwhile, we're keeping an eye right now Hurricane Earl. Have you been hearing about this? It seems to be heading for the area of Massachusetts.
Now look at these pictures. Right? This is just from an off the coast of Nantucket. And the storm is still a little bit away. More advisories coming here from the National Hurricane Center. I see Chad over there diligently working, trying to get us the very latest information. And as he does, we will share it with you.
And then in New Zealand, more aftershocks. We're hearing about these just as we were going on the air tonight. A 7.0 earthquake there. And we are talking to the folks there. We're receiving tweets, we're receiving videos, twit vids and twit picks. And we'll continue to share them with you. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back to RICK'S LIST, everyone. So glad you're here. The story we can't take our eyes off tonight, now they're going through the rubble, searching for fatalities.
And this is the latest video that we've been getting in. Remember, this happened at 4:00 in the morning when it was very dark. Since daybreak, they've got all the officials from New Zealand out there looking through this rubble and through this debris. And there you see the dogs that they're using for this search. This is a very significant story, wasn't it, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was. 7.0., they don't get earthquakes here. This is not an earthquake zone. Fifty miles from the nearest fault so they're really not prepared for this. They think now that they have found a new fault, clearly that they didn't know about.
SANCHEZ: Geez.
MYERS: And wow, here you go. This is what you get.
SANCHEZ: It's amazing.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Well, you know, we hope they -- right now, we understand there are some injuries, some serious injuries but as far as we know, there are still no fatalities and obviously we don't know until --
MYERS: And people were in the street. There would be hundreds of people in the hospital right now.
SANCHEZ: Why is that?
MYERS: Because all the buildings fell down.
SANCHEZ: Oh, because --
MYERS: But they were asleep.
SANCHEZ: Right.
MYERS: Could you imagine if those people were walking those streets there with all that rubble? All that brick and mortar falling on them?
SANCHEZ: Well, they keep getting all these aftershock. One of them was at 0.6 -- or 6.0, I should say.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Hey, before we go to break, before we lose all our time here, we've got about a minute left and we got to hit Larry. But a lot of folks watching us here in the states want to know what's going to with Earl.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Apparently heading -- give us a line. Give us the timing on this one.
MYERS: You know what, dude? I think what you see is what you get. I'm going to walk over here because I can better show what's going on on the wall.
Here's Cape Cod. Nantucket. And there's Long Island. Look at this storm now. This thing is just -- like you said, it could be a wobble. I don't think so. I think this is going this way. Not going to get any closer to land.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
MYERS: Certainly not going to do that at this point in time. Let it go out to sea. OK, the waves are going to be six, eight, ten, feet. Let it go. We're done.
SANCHEZ: You know what? That's good news. I like the way you handle that, Chad.
By the way, as we go, we follow you, we connect to you. Here's a tweet we got just a little while ago and I want to share it with you again.
This is from someone in New Zealand. I've been connecting with people in New Zealand for the past five hours as they've started telling me about this earthquake. And I've not only been checking their messages but also their pictures. Here's the last batch of pictures we got from this tweet and she was nice enough to send us the shots. Most of them were before daybreak but these are the newest. As we go to break, we're going to Larry King. Let's go out on these pictures. As a matter of fact, don't even come back to me, Dan. Stay on the story of the day.
Here now, "LARRY KING LIVE."
