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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with Jimmy Dean

Aired October 16, 2004 - 09:00   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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, October 16. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. It is 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, and if you're just waking up on the West Coast...

NGUYEN: Sleepy, 6:00 a.m.

HARRIS: ... it is early, 6:00 a.m. We will pull you out of bed and across that line. And good morning.

Here are this morning's headlines.

Bombers attack five Christian churches this morning in four Baghdad neighborhoods. No one was hurt, but the churches were damaged, some of them heavily damaged. Iraqi official says homemade bombs were used.

Other violence in Iraq so far today, an American soldier was fatally wounded in a car bomb attack in Mosul. An Iraqi government official was assassinated in Kirkuk. And two Iraqis were killed in Baghdad, one by a grenade and the other by a mortar round.

In Afghanistan, two American soldiers were killed and three others were wounded when their convoy rocked by a bomb explosion in a south central province. The attack occurred on Thursday but was not reported by the U.S. military until this morning.

And there's a new crew for the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the station this morning, delivering two new crew members. The Soyuz has been filling in for the U.S. space shuttle, grounded since February 2003 when "Columbia" burned up on reentry.

And keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: Here's what we have coming up for you.

On the road again, George Bush, John Kerry are back on the campaign trail. Up next, we'll visit both camps.

And the lines, well, they are long, but the supply, very short. A medical expert joins us in a few minutes to talk about the flu vaccine shortage. And later this hour, we will ham it up with Jimmy Dean. He is serving up a new cookbook.

In the meantime, 17 days until election day. President Bush and Senator Kerry are tied in the polls and trailing each other from one battleground state to another. Senator Kerry is campaigning in Republican territory in southern Ohio today.

CNN's Ed Henry joins us now from Xenia, where Kerry will have an event there. And that's going to get under way in just a couple of hours. It's now daybreak there. When we talked to you a little bit earlier, it was all dark behind you. Good morning to you, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Betty. That's right. It's been said many times in this election cycle that Ohio may be the new Florida, the premier battleground in this fight for the White House.

And this southern part of Ohio, as you mentioned, is ground zero in that fight for the 20 electoral votes in Ohio. President Bush won this state in 2000, but polls are showing that John Kerry may be edging ahead here. At the very least, it is completely up for grabs. Both camps know that.

President Bush has been here many times. Vice President Cheney's coming back Tuesday. John Kerry here today for a town hall meeting on health care right behind me. That will be starting in the next couple of hours.

And I can tell you, it's cold and windy here, but the parking lot is already full. There are people lined up around this high school trying to get in. And I'm sure the crowds have been just as large for the president as well. It just shows how much passion is on both sides here. This is a key battleground.

John Kerry is also here, as I mentioned, to talk about health care, the economy, jobs. This is his focus now in those final 17 days. And yesterday, while he was in Wisconsin, another key Midwest battleground, he sat down with my CNN colleague Candy Crowley, our chief political correspondent, and he spoke about his fight for the middle class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "PAULA ZAHN NOW")

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're on the stage where you just gave an economic speech. I want to bring it down to one person. Middle-aged guy, lives in Wisconsin, he doesn't have a job. John Kerry becomes president in January. His life changes February, March, April?

SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, his life will change very quickly, providing Congress responds. There are immediate things that I can do with respect to trade policy, immediate things I can do in the regulatory system that will help. But the most important thing is to lower the cost of health care and to raise incomes for middle-class Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: And John Kerry feels that message will resonate here in Ohio, which has lost 173,000 manufacturing jobs in the last four years. John Kerry after this town hall meeting will go on a bus tour through the southern part of Ohio. He's going to be harping on the fact that Treasury Secretary John Snow, this week in Ohio, in this very state, suggested that any charge that the president has a bad record on job loss, John Snow said that's a myth.

John Kerry is going to pounce on that in this bus tour, Betty.

NGUYEN: And is it going to be campaigning as usual as we head into the home stretch? Are you expecting any kind of surprises just to get that last bit of bounce for the Kerry camp, or even for the Bush camp?

HENRY: Well, the bottom line is, the Kerry camp feels, going into the third debate this week, the most important thing, perhaps, was not to make a mistake. So they really don't want any surprises. They want to keep an even keel.

They feel that their candidate was three for three in those debates, and the same thing on the stump. They want to stick very clearly to what he wants to do. They don't want any surprises. They want to stick to a clear message about the economy, health care, jobs, education, issues on the home front.

John Kerry feels in the final, in that final stretch, he needs to get it back to the home front. He's talked enough about Iraq. He will talk about it a little bit, but he wants to focus on the domestic issue. He thinks that is what will pull in undecided voters, Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Ed Henry. Thank you for that report.

Tony?

HARRIS: Stay with the Kerry family for a moment here. Senator Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, paid nearly $800,000 in taxes last year. Mrs. Kerry made the announcement yesterday after filing her final 2003 federal tax form.

A summary shows the heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune had a gross taxable income of more than $2,290,000. Most of that is from dividends and interest she receives from the Heinz family trusts. She paid $627,150 in federal income taxes and $171,670 in state income taxes. In addition to that, Mrs. Kerry is responsible for more than $4.6 million in charitable contributions.

NGUYEN: President Bush's campaign heads out for a three-city bus tour in Florida today. The president is expected to take a few jabs at John Kerry's vote on the $87 billion in aid for Iraq and Afghanistan. Tomorrow is the anniversary of that Senate vote. Meanwhile, the president was in Wisconsin yesterday hoping to gain ground on the domestic front.

Here's CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the post-debate world of sifting through what worked and what did not, the president's team put attacking John Kerry's health plan in the it- worked column. So he stepped it up in Cedar Rapids.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Studies conducted by people who understand small businesses concluded that his plan is an overpriced albatross. I have a different view. We'll work to make sure health care is available and affordable.

KERRY: God bless you all!

BASH: Bush aides know Kerry's constant reminders that millions lost health insurance or saw premiums skyrocket on the president's watch resonates with voters, but they say internal research shows labeling Kerry's health plan too costly strikes a nerve with swing voters.

The president later in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

BUSH: My opponent takes the side of more centralized government. There's a word for that attitude. It's called liberalism.

BASH: Plus, attacking the senator's plan, as one top aide said, is the perfect way to put some meat on the John Kerry is a liberal bone, a bone the president is throwing to his GOP base these final days to make sure they vote.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Let's face it. What the Bush campaign is trying do right now is to get as many voters up and out of their chairs and out of their offices, into the polls, on election day as they can.

BASH: Two thousand election results in Iowa and Wisconsin, the two states on this leg of the final sprint, show how critical that is. The president lost both by the narrowest of margins. The difference in Iowa, 0.3 percent, a mere 4,144 votes. In Wisconsin, 0.2 percent, just 5,708 votes.

(on camera): Right now, Iowa is still a dead heat. But polls show here in Wisconsin the president is losing some ground to John Kerry since the debates. So the question now here and in other traditionally Democratic states where Mr. Bush has invested extensive time and money is whether or not it's still worth it.

Dana Bash, CNN, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, let's turn our attention to this upcoming flu season. The FDA says none of the flu vaccine made by the Chiron Corporation in Britain can be salvaged. British health authorities pulled the plant's manufacturing license because of contamination. The FDA then inspected the plant in Liverpool and now says it cannot vouch for the safety of any of the vaccine made there.

We that know a lot of you are concerned about the shortage of vaccine, and we want to know just how concerned you are about this year's flu vaccine shortage. Drop us an e-mail at wam@cnn.com.

NGUYEN: Well, more violence in Iraq this morning. Five churches damaged by explosions on this second day of Ramadan. We'll get a live report from the region.

HARRIS: Plus, politics and the military. How do the presidential candidates rate among families of troops abroad?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I -- Tony, hi, Betty.

NGUYEN: Hi, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: Hi.

MARCIANO: Good to se you again. Talk a little bit about weather in about 10 minutes just to give you a little flavor of what's going on. Cold air mass is sliding across the Northeast and New York. You will feel it today. There's Central Park. Temperatures in the 50s. We'll get up into the 60s. Still a threat for showers. Those leaves start to change. The seasons are changing. Your forecast coming up in about 10 minutes.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We wanted to spend a little more time talking about this upcoming flu season and the concern about the shortage of flu vaccine. And the reason we're in this situation is because of a plant in Britain, the Chiron Corporation, that was to have supplied the United States with nearly half of the flu vaccine we will all need this upcoming flu season.

So now there's a major shortage, with price gouging and even vaccine theft reported in some places.

But is this all an overreaction?

Dr. Peter Beilenson is the city health commission in Baltimore, and he joins us now to talk about this.

Peter, good to see you. Good morning.

DR. PETER BEILENSON, BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Good to see you again, Tony.

HARRIS: And Peter, are you running in a marathon this morning?

BEILENSON: I'm running in the half-marathon in beautiful downtown Baltimore. But it's a little noisy here, because the marathon's going by.

HARRIS: Coming up in just a couple of minutes, you'll get going. Is that true?

BEILENSON: About 15 minutes.

HARRIS: Well, it's good to have a healthy health commissioner.

Well, what do you think, Peter? Is this an overreaction?

BEILENSON: It's a combination of actually true concern, because there are a significant number of people in the United States who are at really high risk for serious consequences of the flu, those being seniors, particularly those with underlying health conditions, those of other ages that have really serious underlying health conditions, and 6- to 23-month-olds, all of whom should get the vaccine, but many of whom will not.

However, it's also an overreaction, in that in any given year, about 20 percent of the entire population of the United States has the flu, and a tiny, tiny fraction of them have any real problem with it.

HARRIS: So Peter, what are you doing in the city of Baltimore, and how are you responding to people who are calling you, asking you if you have any shots available or for an update on the shortage?

BEILENSON: What we're doing, actually, we kind of predated what the CDC is now recommending. And because, as you mentioned, we only have about half of our normal doses, we are not -- instead of holding clinics, like we usually do, where basically you get healthy people walking in, instead we're contacting virtually every physician's office and community clinic that serves uninsured people, physicians' offices that serve elderly people who have underlying health conditions, and getting the vaccine to those at highest risk for serious consequences of the flu.

HARRIS: OK, Peter, clear up this issue of licensed and unlicensed vaccine. What are the steps involved in becoming a licensed distributor or producer of vaccine?

BEILENSON: One of the big, big problems with the way that pharmaceutical industry is run here in the United States and includes the vaccine issue is that because there's a very, very small profit margin in producing flu vaccine each year, the reason being that the vaccine is only good for one year, so there's not long-term profitability, very few companies get involved, because there's not much profit to be made.

And therefore, this year, we only had two companies involved, and if one of them has a problem, as Chiron did, we're left holding the bag, the public health sector and physicians in general. So that's a -- that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the big issue.

What we really need, I think, is some government subsidies, not necessarily government-run vaccine programs, but government subsidies that help encourage companies to produce this vaccine, which is actually very important for so many people here in the United States.

HARRIS: And Peter, give me a, are you concerned that there might be a black market developing for vaccine?

BEILENSON: Yes. There definitely is. First of all, to put people at rest, the vaccine that people get is very, very unlikely to be adulterated or contaminated. It's not that people are producing some weird vaccine, it's that some companies who actually had already purchased a sizable amount of vaccine are now selling it, either to unscrupulous brokers or themselves, for many, many more dollars per dose than should be being spent.

Here many Baltimore, we have not had that problem. But, in fact, we have had, as of yesterday, about 100 doses stolen from one clinic here in Baltimore. So that's also a bit of a concern.

HARRIS: OK. We'll watch that. Peter, thank you. Dr. Peter Beilenson, the Baltimore city health commissioner. Enjoy your run this morning. Thanks, Peter.

BEILENSON: Thanks. Nice to talk to you, Tony.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

Did John Kerry cross the line when he talked about Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter? Coming up at noon Eastern, the ethics guy, syndicated columnist Bruce Weinstein, gives us his take on this latest flap from the campaign.

And if you have a question about a situation at home or work that raises an ethical issue, send that question to the ethics guy. The e- mail address is ethics@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.

Here's a look at the morning's headlines.

U.S. officials confirm their earlier fears. The flu vaccine, as we've been talking about, that supply has been about half what they expected. Federal health officials say they cannot vouch for the safety of the vaccine made in Britain.

Attorney Steve Cochran has left Michael Jackson's defense team. The singer issued a statement thanking the attorney for the work he's done in his child molestation case.

The contenders are on the road today. President Bush kicked off a three-city bus tour in Florida today. First off, Fort Lauderdale. And John Kerry's day begins with a campaign swing in southern Ohio.

The military and politics. We'll hear from the families of troops serving in Iraq about who they're supporting in the race for the presidency and why. That's coming up.

HARRIS: In Iraq, this Saturday, Christian churches in Baghdad are the latest targets of insurgents. Explosions also rocked a hospital and a hotel. CNN's Karl Penhaul is monitoring events for us today in Baghdad. Good morning, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Tony.

That coordinated string of attacks on five Christian churches here in Baghdad took place shortly before dawn. The Iraqi interior ministry has said that, yes, there has been extensive damage, but so far, no reports of casualties. Also at this stage, there has been no claim of responsibility.

A short while ago, a CNN team returned from the site of one of those blasts, St. George's Church here in downtown Baghdad. When they arrived on the scene, the woodwork of that church was still smoldering, indicating that a heavy fire broke out after that blast.

U.S. soldiers were on the scene. They've been investigating the causes of the explosion. And they say an initial assessment that about 30 kilograms, that's about 60 pounds, of explosives were used in that attack.

Now, what are the motives for this attack? Again, so far, nobody has put their finger on it. But this does form part of a pattern that we've seen over the last few months, a pattern that has been largely obscured, as you'll understand, by the wider issue of the fighting between resistance fighters and the coalition military.

But about two weeks ago, seven Christians were killed as they came out of the jobs at a social club in Baghdad. And you may remember back in August, four churches here in Baghdad and one in the northern city of Mosul were targeted by car bombs. Those attacks were blamed on the Abu -- the al-Zarqawi terrorist network.

Now, why are these people being targeted? Well, the Christians are certainly a minority here, about 3 percent of the population, some 700,000 people are estimated to be Christians here. Also, in the minds of many of the Muslim hardliners, the Christians are associated with collaborating with the coalition military, working for them, perhaps, in some of the coalition-sponsored organizations, working for them, perhaps, as translators.

Also, it must be said, many of the liquor stores here in Baghdad are also owned and run by Christians. And that obviously falls afoul of the beliefs of the Muslim hardliners, Tony.

HARRIS: Well, Karl, let me ask you this quick question. Is it the sense on the ground there that these attacks will continue, that the attacks by the insurgents will continue, here at the beginning of Ramadan? Will they be stepped up

PENHAUL: Well, that, we initially -- that was a question that I had, as to whether these attacks may in some sense be linked to the start of Ramadan, which, as you know, began on Thursday night, Friday morning.

But in a sense, these attacks on these churches and also another series of attacks around Baghdad and further afield today, a couple of mortar attacks, a medic was killed, three emergency workers injured, there was an attack on a hotel here in Baghdad as well, but that's pretty much par for the course. Certainly that makes up the big picture of the last few weeks.

So no real sign yet of an upsurge in Ramadan violence, although obviously the coalition military authorities have been predicting that based on the experiences of last year, Tony.

HARRIS: It just continues to be very dangerous on the ground. Karl, thank you. Karl Penhaul reporting from Baghdad.

NGUYEN: Meanwhile, the curse, well, it continues at Fenway. What struck out last night's game, though? We'll have your playoff forecast just ahead, so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning, New York City.

Saturdays, Tony, they are for tag sales, and today in Central Park, you may not be interested, but Sarah Jessica Parker is auctioning off the shoes and clothes she wore in the hit series "Sex and the City," and now a lot of ladies are interested in that. And all the proceeds, well, they go to charity.

HARRIS: So, like, like a garage sale? A tag sale? Is that in the same neighborhood?

NGUYEN: It's way cheaper than retail.

MARCIANO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: In the same neighborhood?

NGUYEN: Let's just say that.

HARRIS: OK.

Meantime, in Boston, baseball fans could have used some charity from Mother Nature. A steady rain at Fenway Park postponed game three of the American League championship series between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The series is set to resume tonight. The Yanks lead two games to nothing.

And, Rob, we've got to get these skies cleared so we can get a ball game in here.

MARCIANO: Yes, they had 1.2 inches of rainfall yesterday.

HARRIS: Boy.

MARCIANO: Nice, steady rainfall. They didn't bother taking the tarps off.

NGUYEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). MARCIANO: They just said, Forget about it. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this time of year, owners hate to cancel games. I mean, I've been to...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) away, right?

MARCIANO: ... ball games where they just, it's raining and raining and raining, you know they're not calling it...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NGUYEN: Right.

MARCIANO: ... because they don't want to give all those rainchecks.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

MARCIANO: But I had no choice. I think they'll get the rain, the game in tonight, although...

NGUYEN: Oh, OK.

MARCIANO: ... won't be completely dry.

(NEWS BREAK)

MARCIANO: Quick shot of New York City. Leaves are trying to change there in Central Park. They'll have a better go of it over the next couple of weeks, typically peak out, oh, around the first or second week of November, and then...

NGUYEN: Sure is pretty, though, this time of year.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MARCIANO: Yes, I love fall. Love fall.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MARCIANO: Good to have you on board, Tony.

NGUYEN: Yes...

HARRIS: Oh, you're a good man.

NGUYEN: ... welcome aboard.

HARRIS: You're a good man. I paid you handsomely this morning. Thank you very much.

MARCIANO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NGUYEN: All right. The presidential debates, they are over. Did they change the minds of any undecided voters? Our Robert Novak puts himself into The Novak Zone to talk campaign 2004. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Military families speak out on the presidential campaign.

Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

That story is coming up.

But first, what's happening now in the news.

A top Iraqi government official is assassinated in Kirkuk. Officials say the man was driving in his car with his two children when three unknown gunmen pulled the car over, pulled the official out of the vehicle, and shot him to death as the children watched. An investigation is under way.

Iran will not stop its enrichment of uranium. Today the country says it will reject any deal to stop the process, which some feel is an attempt to build a nuclear weapon. The European Union is hoping to enlist U.S. and Russian support for a proposal that would offer Iran technical and economic assistance if the country stops enriching uranium.

In Afghanistan, two U.S. troops are dead after an attack on their convoy. Officials say the soldiers' convoy was hit with an improvised explosive device in a south central province. The military is investigating.

HARRIS: Three debates down, and just over two weeks to go on the campaign trail. George Bush and John Kerry are getting their last chance to sway voters. For a look back at the debates and a look ahead to the final stretch, we are joined now by Robert Novak in this week's edition of The Novak Zone.

Bob, good to see you.

NGUYEN: Hey, Bob, want to ask you, how are you feeling? How's that hip?

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST, "THE NOVAK ZONE": Well, it's getting better. It's my first time live on camera since I broke my hip, so it's nice to be with you.

NGUYEN: Well, you're looking good, and we are so glad that you're back.

NOVAK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: All right, let's start off. The race, a virtual tie. Who got the most bounce from all these debates, in your opinion?

NOVAK: Well, the only debate that had any kind of effect on the polls was the first debate. John Kerry was in bad shape going into that debate. He'd made some mistakes, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the perception was that he was a more effective debater. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he seemed to be more competent than Bush. And he brought the race into a virtual tie. And the impact of the next two debates was minimal.

HARRIS: Bob, are you surprised by the impact of that first debate and that performance on the polls, essentially bringing John Kerry back into the race?

NOVAK: Yes. That's very rare that a debate will have that impact. But it would indicate to me that the American people were, more than most of us suspected, were uncertain about these candidates. And the fact that Kerry looked more presidential than they expected, and the president looked less presidential than they expected, had an impact on him for that first debate.

NGUYEN: But historically, how much of a role do these debates really play in swinging voters?

NOVAK: Quite a bit, Betty, depending on the year. I think that -- of course, it's debatable, but I think Gerry Ford lost the 1976 election because of a blunder in the, in a, in one of the debates. I think that Jack Kennedy, in the first presidential debates, in the very first debates, won the election by showing he was certainly as much or more presidential than Nixon.

So these things can have a great impact, and I would say that debate in Coral Gables had an impact on this race and bringing it into the dead heat that it is today.

HARRIS: But, you know, Bob, the fact of the matter is, the debates are over. They're behind us right now. So how do these candidates -- I don't know, how do they get to these swing voters, these undecided voters, and what are the dynamics on the ground that change the race over the next couple of weeks?

NOVAK: It's very clear what they're trying to do. President Bush is trying to make clear to these persuadable or swing voters that Senator Kerry is too far to the left, out of the mainstream, to be president. And Senator Kerry is trying to convince them that the president can't be trusted, that he's not competent.

Of course, they'll be defending themselves. But you are going to see negative campaigning that you, that's, the likes of which you've never seen before. And, of course, there's always some strange little things that happen, as with the Cheney daughter incident in the last debate, that at the time seemed very minimal but could have an affect on the polls and on the outcome.

NGUYEN: All right. In true Bob Novak fashion, I have to ask you the big question, Bob. See, we even have the graphics for it.

All right, the big question, can we expect any surprises between now and election day?

NOVAK: Well, if I knew what the surprise was, I would tell you right now. It wouldn't be a surprise. The big surprise four years ago, which almost as -- made Al Gore president, I was traveling with Governor Bush at the time, covering him.

And they came up, the Gore people had hidden the fact that he had a youthful driving under the influence of liquor conviction years ago, and they put that out, just the most beautiful time. The -- Bush made a huge mistake in not preempting that and coming out with it.

Nobody expected that, certainly not the Bush people, and the Gore people had kept it secret.

Now, does either campaign have something like that? They might have. And you don't know what it is. Bush has alerted his supporters, he's told all, there's no secrets. It's hard to think what kind of negative stuff that you could have on Kerry that you haven't had. But then, of course, there's always the outside event.

And let me just repeat that when John Kerry, and I believe it was unscripted, mentioned the fact -- gratuitously mentioned the fact that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian, I think had an impact, at least temporary, on the race.

So the interesting thing about this, this is not like covering baseball, where there's a limited number of things that can happen. In politics, particularly in the last two weeks of a presidential race, anything can happen.

NGUYEN: Absolutely.

HARRIS: And Bob, who knows? Folks may actually take a moment and reflect and think about the issues in this campaign and make a decision based on that.

Bob Novak, thank you.

NGUYEN: Yes.

NOVAK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And you can see more of Bob Novak tonight on "THE CAPITAL GANG." "THE GANG" takes a look at the final stretch of the presidential race and at the post-debate spin. Now, that is "CAPITAL GANG." So set your TVs, make sure that you're there, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time or Pacific.

HARRIS: With the U.S. engaged in military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the presidential election holds special significance for the thousands of military families.

CNN's Ed Lavandera reports from Colorado Springs on the military votes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you call her?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 5:30 in the morning, and three soldiers' wives move through a crowd waiting to see George W. Bush at a campaign stop in Colorado. They're five hours early, but the president's arrival doesn't disappoint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States.

LAVANDERA: And neither do his words.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

LAVANDERA: Those words strike at the core of why Sarah Sadelmayer will vote for Bush. Her husband is an Army specialist who's been in Iraq since March.

SARAH SADELMAYER, BUSH SUPPORTER: When you want someone to be leading your country, your husband, his life is in this man's control, you want someone who believes in himself, who isn't going to be persuaded by being popular, isn't going to believe what's doing what is what's right. And to me, that's huge.

LAURA BERTSCH, KERRY SUPPORTER: This administration has not been honest with us.

LAVANDERA: Laura Bertsch is married to a Marine who served in Iraq. The experience convinced her to enlist in a John Kerry group called Military Moms on a Mission. Bertsch joins rallies like this one in New Hampshire, alongside Elizabeth Edwards.

BERTSCH: I don't believe that George Bush has supported me, I don't believe he's supported my husband.

LAVANDERA: Bertsch says many troops aren't getting the gear and equipment they need to protect themselves. She says her husband rode in a canvas-covered Humvee while on patrol in Iraq. She wonders why an armored vehicle wasn't used. Her husband recently returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq.

BERTSCH: By the second deployment, we were pretty disenchanted with how he had been treated as a Marine, and with what the goal was in the war against terror anyway.

LAVANDERA (on camera): The issue of equipment to preparing troops for combat comes up a lot when you talk to military families. Those who support Bush say troops are getting everything they need to fight the battle. Those who support Kerry say that's just not always the case.

NITA MARTIN, KERRY SUPPORTER: This Republican president have let me down.

LAVANDERA: That distrust fuels military families supporting Kerry, like Nita Martin, the mother of two Marines. MARTIN: I really fear for their futures, because I see an administration that is -- that has lied consistently about everything they were going to do for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President! Mr. President!

LAVANDERA: Back in Colorado, these soldiers' wives get the president's attention for a brief moment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, my husband's in Iraq. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

BUSH: E-mail him, God bless him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

LAVANDERA: The words of encouragement, she says, convince her President Bush will help bring her husband home safely. That's the kind of faith military families are putting into whichever candidate they support.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Colorado Springs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Other news across America now.

A daycare operator in Alice (ph), Texas, faces arraignment next week for allegedly restraining a 3-year-old boy with duct tape. The boy's grandmother found him bound hand and foot after receiving a tip. The owner reportedly told police she taped the boy's wrists and ankles because he was hyperactive. She is charged with injury to a child and negligence.

HARRIS: Investigators are seeking the cause of a small plane crash in the Oregon wilderness that killed three teenagers. The teens had been scouting hunting areas on Thursday but failed to return after a couple of hours. A logger spotted the wreckage yesterday in a wilderness area. The 18-year-old pilot was said to be very experienced.

NGUYEN: In Cordele, Georgia, a cautionary tale that alcohol and disaster flicks, well, they just don't mix. After consuming most of a 12-pack of beer while watching "The Day After Tomorrow," Charles Adams inexplicably set fire to pillows and burned down his mobile home.

HARRIS: And in Los Angeles, a long legal battle over Mo the chimp has ended with visitation rights for the couple who raised him from infancy. Mo is now in his 30s, fast approaching middle age. The couple has not seen much of him since he was taken from their West Covina home five years ago. Mo is at another facility, where his parents can visit him much more often.

NGUYEN: Good thing. HARRIS: He has been a singer and a songwriter and a sausage maker. Now the legendary Jimmy Dean, there he is, joins us live just in time for breakfast. CNN SATURDAY MORNING is back in just 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We have a check of some of the top stories this Saturday morning.

Insurgents have been targeting Christian churches in Baghdad. Bomb blasts rocked five of them this morning. There was damage, but no casualties.

And in the northern city of Mosul, a U.S. soldier has died from wounds suffered in a car bombing attack on a military convoy.

And you won't be seeing this flu vaccine in the U.S. this year. Health officials have confirmed that the vaccine, made at a British plant, is unsafe to use. Now that is cutting the expected U.S. flu vaccine supply in half.

And that leads us to our e-mail question of the day. Are you concerned about this year's flu vaccine shortage? Send us your responses, and we'll be reading those e-mails on the air. All you have to do is e-mail us at wam@cnn.com.

HARRIS: Oh, I'm looking forward to this.

Say Jimmy Dean, and one word comes to mind, sausage. But there's a lot more to the dean of pork products. Over the years, he has also been a country music singer, a Grammy winner, TV host, and savvy businessman. Now Jimmy Dean is serving up a new book titled "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham: Jimmy Dean's Own Story."

Jimmy Dean joins us from Richmond, Virginia, from his home there.

Jimmy, good to see you.

JIMMY DEAN, FOUNDER, SAUSAGE COMPANY: I wish you could see this studio.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), describe it to me. Is it OK? Is it up to your specifications?

DEAN: As my mother would say, you couldn't cut the cat without getting hair in your teeth. This is the smallest studio you have ever seen in your life.

HARRIS: We will do better by you the next time you're here. Good to see you this morning.

DEAN: Ah, thank you. Well, it's nice to be with you. Well, I'm not here yet. Jimmy Dean...

HARRIS: Well, let me ask -- No, go ahead. DEAN: Jimmy Dean will show up in about an hour and a half, I think. It's too -- you know, I'm up at the crack of noon every day, you know?

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), at the crack of noon?

DEAN: Yes.

HARRIS: Well, give us a sense of why you decided to write this book after all these years. I know people have been asking you to write it for a long time. So what finally got the juices flowing?

DEAN: My wife.

HARRIS: Really?

DEAN: She said you should do it. And then, people have sent people out to write, you know, and co-write and so on and so forth, and it just never left the paper. It just sat there. And I don't say that my life is exciting, but it hasn't been altogether dull.

So if you notice that my wife is the co-writer, and that's the truth, it's the two of us put it together. If you like it, we did it. If you don't like it, we did that too. But it was done right there at our kitchen table, that old table.

HARRIS: Tell us about this woman in your life as we show a picture of you guys together. And give us a sense of what she's meant for your life.

DEAN: What she's meant?

HARRIS: Yes, what has she meant for you?

DEAN: Well, she is the best friend I ever had. And I love her a lot. But I think I just wish everybody a friend like her. She's a piece of work. Besides that, she's good-looking, and I like sleeping with her.

HARRIS: Jimmy!

DEAN: You asked.

HARRIS: It's honest and truthful. I appreciate it. You had to think that your life was worth a book. Look at what you've done, TV host, singer, Grammy winner. You had to think it was worth a novel. And, well, we're happy you put it down.

DEAN: You know, I'll tell you, I -- till we got into this book, we worked on it for about two and a half years, just spare time, you know. I had forgotten how much stuff I had done, the people I worked with. You know, Elvis Presley and Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante and on and on and on. And the people I had met and learned to know and learned to love. It was a revealing experience after it started kind of flowing back to me.

HARRIS: Well, Jimmy, what was the most difficult thing to write about? I'm sure there were tough moments.

DEAN: I think Mom. My mom was a great lady. She was tougher than a back end of a shooting gallery, but she was a gentle soul. And I still miss her. That's been a long time.

HARRIS: We can hear it.

DEAN: But she was a great, great lady. And we need more like her. You know, she was one of those that believed you should stand on your own two feet and say, I believe in me, I can, I will. And we need some more like that around, because we got too many people now that are -- they're falling down before they get hit. And, you know, getting knocked down is part of life. But getting up is also.

And, so, what I -- there were a lot of sensitive moments when I talked about Mom.

HARRIS: Here's the book. Let me hold it up for everybody to see, "30 Years of Sausage... "

DEAN: You've got it?

HARRIS: ... "50 Years of... " I have it right here. "Jimmy Dean's Own Story," there it is for everyone to see.

DEAN: You're my squirrel if you never crack another nut.

HARRIS: All right. I'm so thrilled with you, Jimmy Dean. Thanks for being with us this morning. It's been fun.

DEAN: It's been my pleasure. And remember the words, if you will, the famous last words of the great philosopher Will Rogers.

HARRIS: Yes?

DEAN: When he said, Wiley, I think you put the patch over the wrong eye.

HARRIS: Jimmy, good to see you. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.

DEAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Bye-bye.

NGUYEN: Oh, I tell you what, he is a character, but he tells it like it is, doesn't he?

HARRIS: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: All right.

Well, we want to say good morning, Miami. Rob Marciano's got your complete weather forecast, that's about five minutes. But as you can see, sunny skies there over Miami.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Oh, and good morning, Miami. Boy, I came in a little hot on that one. You are looking live at over the city, the Sunshine State is gearing up for a visit from President Bush today. Both candidates are making their way through battleground states. John Kerry's in Ohio. The forecast for both of those swing states is coming up.

NGUYEN: But right now, we want to toss it over to Maria Hinajosa in Washington for "ON THE STORY." What is on tap for today? Good morning.

MARIA HINAJOSA, "ON THE STORY": Hey, there, Betty.

Well, we're "ON THE STORY" from here in Washington, to San Francisco, to northern Iraq. Suzanne Malveaux and Kelly Wallace were all over the campaign trail this week. I'm talking about tomorrow's CNN PRESENTS special, "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country." Kathleen Hays is "ON THE STORY" of how consumers shopped up a storm in September and helped plump up the economy. And medical correspondent Christie Feig (ph) is "ON THE STORY" of the flu vaccine shortage. All coming up, all "ON THE STORY."

NGUYEN: Now, that vaccine shortage is all the talk this morning. All right.

HARRIS: We're even dealing with it a little bit here. All morning long, we've been asking you for your thoughts on our e-mail question, and it's about the concern over the vaccine shortage. Are you concerned about the vaccine shortage this year? And we've got some e-mails we want to share with you.

"I think we are living in a time of fear, fear of not knowing, and I think a hysteria over the shortage is another example of this. If you are healthy, the flu won't kill you. This insanity is ridiculous." And that's from J.J. in the Bronx.

NGUYEN: All right. And Kay writes, "My husband is 80 years old, has a heart condition, and is a World War II vet. We have not been able to find a flu shot for him anywhere, including in Virginia. Just" -- all right, I'm sorry, "including at the VA. Just another way this country supports our troops?" question mark, says Kay David there.

HARRIS: We are concerned about the forecast in Atlanta and parts beyond.

NGUYEN: It's getting cooler outside and fast, Rob.

MARCIANO: Yes, lot of folks might be getting the sniffles as the seasons change just a little bit.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: That's the latest from here, Tony and Betty, back over to you. NGUYEN: Yes, it was a good time for me. This is your debut here.

HARRIS: Yes, hey, thank you.

NGUYEN: We have enjoyed it.

HARRIS: Thank you. Rob, thank you. And Betty, thank you, of course.

NGUYEN: And you're coming back tomorrow, right? You like us so much, you're coming back tomorrow.

HARRIS: I will be back.

NGUYEN: OK. We're counting on you. Well, that is all for us. "ON THE STORY" is next, after this check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired October 16, 2004 - 09:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you from the CNN Center. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, October 16. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. It is 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, and if you're just waking up on the West Coast...

NGUYEN: Sleepy, 6:00 a.m.

HARRIS: ... it is early, 6:00 a.m. We will pull you out of bed and across that line. And good morning.

Here are this morning's headlines.

Bombers attack five Christian churches this morning in four Baghdad neighborhoods. No one was hurt, but the churches were damaged, some of them heavily damaged. Iraqi official says homemade bombs were used.

Other violence in Iraq so far today, an American soldier was fatally wounded in a car bomb attack in Mosul. An Iraqi government official was assassinated in Kirkuk. And two Iraqis were killed in Baghdad, one by a grenade and the other by a mortar round.

In Afghanistan, two American soldiers were killed and three others were wounded when their convoy rocked by a bomb explosion in a south central province. The attack occurred on Thursday but was not reported by the U.S. military until this morning.

And there's a new crew for the International Space Station. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the station this morning, delivering two new crew members. The Soyuz has been filling in for the U.S. space shuttle, grounded since February 2003 when "Columbia" burned up on reentry.

And keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

NGUYEN: Here's what we have coming up for you.

On the road again, George Bush, John Kerry are back on the campaign trail. Up next, we'll visit both camps.

And the lines, well, they are long, but the supply, very short. A medical expert joins us in a few minutes to talk about the flu vaccine shortage. And later this hour, we will ham it up with Jimmy Dean. He is serving up a new cookbook.

In the meantime, 17 days until election day. President Bush and Senator Kerry are tied in the polls and trailing each other from one battleground state to another. Senator Kerry is campaigning in Republican territory in southern Ohio today.

CNN's Ed Henry joins us now from Xenia, where Kerry will have an event there. And that's going to get under way in just a couple of hours. It's now daybreak there. When we talked to you a little bit earlier, it was all dark behind you. Good morning to you, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Betty. That's right. It's been said many times in this election cycle that Ohio may be the new Florida, the premier battleground in this fight for the White House.

And this southern part of Ohio, as you mentioned, is ground zero in that fight for the 20 electoral votes in Ohio. President Bush won this state in 2000, but polls are showing that John Kerry may be edging ahead here. At the very least, it is completely up for grabs. Both camps know that.

President Bush has been here many times. Vice President Cheney's coming back Tuesday. John Kerry here today for a town hall meeting on health care right behind me. That will be starting in the next couple of hours.

And I can tell you, it's cold and windy here, but the parking lot is already full. There are people lined up around this high school trying to get in. And I'm sure the crowds have been just as large for the president as well. It just shows how much passion is on both sides here. This is a key battleground.

John Kerry is also here, as I mentioned, to talk about health care, the economy, jobs. This is his focus now in those final 17 days. And yesterday, while he was in Wisconsin, another key Midwest battleground, he sat down with my CNN colleague Candy Crowley, our chief political correspondent, and he spoke about his fight for the middle class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "PAULA ZAHN NOW")

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're on the stage where you just gave an economic speech. I want to bring it down to one person. Middle-aged guy, lives in Wisconsin, he doesn't have a job. John Kerry becomes president in January. His life changes February, March, April?

SEN. JOHN KERRY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, his life will change very quickly, providing Congress responds. There are immediate things that I can do with respect to trade policy, immediate things I can do in the regulatory system that will help. But the most important thing is to lower the cost of health care and to raise incomes for middle-class Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: And John Kerry feels that message will resonate here in Ohio, which has lost 173,000 manufacturing jobs in the last four years. John Kerry after this town hall meeting will go on a bus tour through the southern part of Ohio. He's going to be harping on the fact that Treasury Secretary John Snow, this week in Ohio, in this very state, suggested that any charge that the president has a bad record on job loss, John Snow said that's a myth.

John Kerry is going to pounce on that in this bus tour, Betty.

NGUYEN: And is it going to be campaigning as usual as we head into the home stretch? Are you expecting any kind of surprises just to get that last bit of bounce for the Kerry camp, or even for the Bush camp?

HENRY: Well, the bottom line is, the Kerry camp feels, going into the third debate this week, the most important thing, perhaps, was not to make a mistake. So they really don't want any surprises. They want to keep an even keel.

They feel that their candidate was three for three in those debates, and the same thing on the stump. They want to stick very clearly to what he wants to do. They don't want any surprises. They want to stick to a clear message about the economy, health care, jobs, education, issues on the home front.

John Kerry feels in the final, in that final stretch, he needs to get it back to the home front. He's talked enough about Iraq. He will talk about it a little bit, but he wants to focus on the domestic issue. He thinks that is what will pull in undecided voters, Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Ed Henry. Thank you for that report.

Tony?

HARRIS: Stay with the Kerry family for a moment here. Senator Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, paid nearly $800,000 in taxes last year. Mrs. Kerry made the announcement yesterday after filing her final 2003 federal tax form.

A summary shows the heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune had a gross taxable income of more than $2,290,000. Most of that is from dividends and interest she receives from the Heinz family trusts. She paid $627,150 in federal income taxes and $171,670 in state income taxes. In addition to that, Mrs. Kerry is responsible for more than $4.6 million in charitable contributions.

NGUYEN: President Bush's campaign heads out for a three-city bus tour in Florida today. The president is expected to take a few jabs at John Kerry's vote on the $87 billion in aid for Iraq and Afghanistan. Tomorrow is the anniversary of that Senate vote. Meanwhile, the president was in Wisconsin yesterday hoping to gain ground on the domestic front.

Here's CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the post-debate world of sifting through what worked and what did not, the president's team put attacking John Kerry's health plan in the it- worked column. So he stepped it up in Cedar Rapids.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Studies conducted by people who understand small businesses concluded that his plan is an overpriced albatross. I have a different view. We'll work to make sure health care is available and affordable.

KERRY: God bless you all!

BASH: Bush aides know Kerry's constant reminders that millions lost health insurance or saw premiums skyrocket on the president's watch resonates with voters, but they say internal research shows labeling Kerry's health plan too costly strikes a nerve with swing voters.

The president later in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

BUSH: My opponent takes the side of more centralized government. There's a word for that attitude. It's called liberalism.

BASH: Plus, attacking the senator's plan, as one top aide said, is the perfect way to put some meat on the John Kerry is a liberal bone, a bone the president is throwing to his GOP base these final days to make sure they vote.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Let's face it. What the Bush campaign is trying do right now is to get as many voters up and out of their chairs and out of their offices, into the polls, on election day as they can.

BASH: Two thousand election results in Iowa and Wisconsin, the two states on this leg of the final sprint, show how critical that is. The president lost both by the narrowest of margins. The difference in Iowa, 0.3 percent, a mere 4,144 votes. In Wisconsin, 0.2 percent, just 5,708 votes.

(on camera): Right now, Iowa is still a dead heat. But polls show here in Wisconsin the president is losing some ground to John Kerry since the debates. So the question now here and in other traditionally Democratic states where Mr. Bush has invested extensive time and money is whether or not it's still worth it.

Dana Bash, CNN, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, let's turn our attention to this upcoming flu season. The FDA says none of the flu vaccine made by the Chiron Corporation in Britain can be salvaged. British health authorities pulled the plant's manufacturing license because of contamination. The FDA then inspected the plant in Liverpool and now says it cannot vouch for the safety of any of the vaccine made there.

We that know a lot of you are concerned about the shortage of vaccine, and we want to know just how concerned you are about this year's flu vaccine shortage. Drop us an e-mail at wam@cnn.com.

NGUYEN: Well, more violence in Iraq this morning. Five churches damaged by explosions on this second day of Ramadan. We'll get a live report from the region.

HARRIS: Plus, politics and the military. How do the presidential candidates rate among families of troops abroad?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And I -- Tony, hi, Betty.

NGUYEN: Hi, (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: Hi.

MARCIANO: Good to se you again. Talk a little bit about weather in about 10 minutes just to give you a little flavor of what's going on. Cold air mass is sliding across the Northeast and New York. You will feel it today. There's Central Park. Temperatures in the 50s. We'll get up into the 60s. Still a threat for showers. Those leaves start to change. The seasons are changing. Your forecast coming up in about 10 minutes.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We wanted to spend a little more time talking about this upcoming flu season and the concern about the shortage of flu vaccine. And the reason we're in this situation is because of a plant in Britain, the Chiron Corporation, that was to have supplied the United States with nearly half of the flu vaccine we will all need this upcoming flu season.

So now there's a major shortage, with price gouging and even vaccine theft reported in some places.

But is this all an overreaction?

Dr. Peter Beilenson is the city health commission in Baltimore, and he joins us now to talk about this.

Peter, good to see you. Good morning.

DR. PETER BEILENSON, BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Good to see you again, Tony.

HARRIS: And Peter, are you running in a marathon this morning?

BEILENSON: I'm running in the half-marathon in beautiful downtown Baltimore. But it's a little noisy here, because the marathon's going by.

HARRIS: Coming up in just a couple of minutes, you'll get going. Is that true?

BEILENSON: About 15 minutes.

HARRIS: Well, it's good to have a healthy health commissioner.

Well, what do you think, Peter? Is this an overreaction?

BEILENSON: It's a combination of actually true concern, because there are a significant number of people in the United States who are at really high risk for serious consequences of the flu, those being seniors, particularly those with underlying health conditions, those of other ages that have really serious underlying health conditions, and 6- to 23-month-olds, all of whom should get the vaccine, but many of whom will not.

However, it's also an overreaction, in that in any given year, about 20 percent of the entire population of the United States has the flu, and a tiny, tiny fraction of them have any real problem with it.

HARRIS: So Peter, what are you doing in the city of Baltimore, and how are you responding to people who are calling you, asking you if you have any shots available or for an update on the shortage?

BEILENSON: What we're doing, actually, we kind of predated what the CDC is now recommending. And because, as you mentioned, we only have about half of our normal doses, we are not -- instead of holding clinics, like we usually do, where basically you get healthy people walking in, instead we're contacting virtually every physician's office and community clinic that serves uninsured people, physicians' offices that serve elderly people who have underlying health conditions, and getting the vaccine to those at highest risk for serious consequences of the flu.

HARRIS: OK, Peter, clear up this issue of licensed and unlicensed vaccine. What are the steps involved in becoming a licensed distributor or producer of vaccine?

BEILENSON: One of the big, big problems with the way that pharmaceutical industry is run here in the United States and includes the vaccine issue is that because there's a very, very small profit margin in producing flu vaccine each year, the reason being that the vaccine is only good for one year, so there's not long-term profitability, very few companies get involved, because there's not much profit to be made.

And therefore, this year, we only had two companies involved, and if one of them has a problem, as Chiron did, we're left holding the bag, the public health sector and physicians in general. So that's a -- that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the big issue.

What we really need, I think, is some government subsidies, not necessarily government-run vaccine programs, but government subsidies that help encourage companies to produce this vaccine, which is actually very important for so many people here in the United States.

HARRIS: And Peter, give me a, are you concerned that there might be a black market developing for vaccine?

BEILENSON: Yes. There definitely is. First of all, to put people at rest, the vaccine that people get is very, very unlikely to be adulterated or contaminated. It's not that people are producing some weird vaccine, it's that some companies who actually had already purchased a sizable amount of vaccine are now selling it, either to unscrupulous brokers or themselves, for many, many more dollars per dose than should be being spent.

Here many Baltimore, we have not had that problem. But, in fact, we have had, as of yesterday, about 100 doses stolen from one clinic here in Baltimore. So that's also a bit of a concern.

HARRIS: OK. We'll watch that. Peter, thank you. Dr. Peter Beilenson, the Baltimore city health commissioner. Enjoy your run this morning. Thanks, Peter.

BEILENSON: Thanks. Nice to talk to you, Tony.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

Did John Kerry cross the line when he talked about Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter? Coming up at noon Eastern, the ethics guy, syndicated columnist Bruce Weinstein, gives us his take on this latest flap from the campaign.

And if you have a question about a situation at home or work that raises an ethical issue, send that question to the ethics guy. The e- mail address is ethics@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.

Here's a look at the morning's headlines.

U.S. officials confirm their earlier fears. The flu vaccine, as we've been talking about, that supply has been about half what they expected. Federal health officials say they cannot vouch for the safety of the vaccine made in Britain.

Attorney Steve Cochran has left Michael Jackson's defense team. The singer issued a statement thanking the attorney for the work he's done in his child molestation case.

The contenders are on the road today. President Bush kicked off a three-city bus tour in Florida today. First off, Fort Lauderdale. And John Kerry's day begins with a campaign swing in southern Ohio.

The military and politics. We'll hear from the families of troops serving in Iraq about who they're supporting in the race for the presidency and why. That's coming up.

HARRIS: In Iraq, this Saturday, Christian churches in Baghdad are the latest targets of insurgents. Explosions also rocked a hospital and a hotel. CNN's Karl Penhaul is monitoring events for us today in Baghdad. Good morning, Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Tony.

That coordinated string of attacks on five Christian churches here in Baghdad took place shortly before dawn. The Iraqi interior ministry has said that, yes, there has been extensive damage, but so far, no reports of casualties. Also at this stage, there has been no claim of responsibility.

A short while ago, a CNN team returned from the site of one of those blasts, St. George's Church here in downtown Baghdad. When they arrived on the scene, the woodwork of that church was still smoldering, indicating that a heavy fire broke out after that blast.

U.S. soldiers were on the scene. They've been investigating the causes of the explosion. And they say an initial assessment that about 30 kilograms, that's about 60 pounds, of explosives were used in that attack.

Now, what are the motives for this attack? Again, so far, nobody has put their finger on it. But this does form part of a pattern that we've seen over the last few months, a pattern that has been largely obscured, as you'll understand, by the wider issue of the fighting between resistance fighters and the coalition military.

But about two weeks ago, seven Christians were killed as they came out of the jobs at a social club in Baghdad. And you may remember back in August, four churches here in Baghdad and one in the northern city of Mosul were targeted by car bombs. Those attacks were blamed on the Abu -- the al-Zarqawi terrorist network.

Now, why are these people being targeted? Well, the Christians are certainly a minority here, about 3 percent of the population, some 700,000 people are estimated to be Christians here. Also, in the minds of many of the Muslim hardliners, the Christians are associated with collaborating with the coalition military, working for them, perhaps, in some of the coalition-sponsored organizations, working for them, perhaps, as translators.

Also, it must be said, many of the liquor stores here in Baghdad are also owned and run by Christians. And that obviously falls afoul of the beliefs of the Muslim hardliners, Tony.

HARRIS: Well, Karl, let me ask you this quick question. Is it the sense on the ground there that these attacks will continue, that the attacks by the insurgents will continue, here at the beginning of Ramadan? Will they be stepped up

PENHAUL: Well, that, we initially -- that was a question that I had, as to whether these attacks may in some sense be linked to the start of Ramadan, which, as you know, began on Thursday night, Friday morning.

But in a sense, these attacks on these churches and also another series of attacks around Baghdad and further afield today, a couple of mortar attacks, a medic was killed, three emergency workers injured, there was an attack on a hotel here in Baghdad as well, but that's pretty much par for the course. Certainly that makes up the big picture of the last few weeks.

So no real sign yet of an upsurge in Ramadan violence, although obviously the coalition military authorities have been predicting that based on the experiences of last year, Tony.

HARRIS: It just continues to be very dangerous on the ground. Karl, thank you. Karl Penhaul reporting from Baghdad.

NGUYEN: Meanwhile, the curse, well, it continues at Fenway. What struck out last night's game, though? We'll have your playoff forecast just ahead, so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, good morning, New York City.

Saturdays, Tony, they are for tag sales, and today in Central Park, you may not be interested, but Sarah Jessica Parker is auctioning off the shoes and clothes she wore in the hit series "Sex and the City," and now a lot of ladies are interested in that. And all the proceeds, well, they go to charity.

HARRIS: So, like, like a garage sale? A tag sale? Is that in the same neighborhood?

NGUYEN: It's way cheaper than retail.

MARCIANO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: In the same neighborhood?

NGUYEN: Let's just say that.

HARRIS: OK.

Meantime, in Boston, baseball fans could have used some charity from Mother Nature. A steady rain at Fenway Park postponed game three of the American League championship series between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The series is set to resume tonight. The Yanks lead two games to nothing.

And, Rob, we've got to get these skies cleared so we can get a ball game in here.

MARCIANO: Yes, they had 1.2 inches of rainfall yesterday.

HARRIS: Boy.

MARCIANO: Nice, steady rainfall. They didn't bother taking the tarps off.

NGUYEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). MARCIANO: They just said, Forget about it. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this time of year, owners hate to cancel games. I mean, I've been to...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) away, right?

MARCIANO: ... ball games where they just, it's raining and raining and raining, you know they're not calling it...

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NGUYEN: Right.

MARCIANO: ... because they don't want to give all those rainchecks.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

MARCIANO: But I had no choice. I think they'll get the rain, the game in tonight, although...

NGUYEN: Oh, OK.

MARCIANO: ... won't be completely dry.

(NEWS BREAK)

MARCIANO: Quick shot of New York City. Leaves are trying to change there in Central Park. They'll have a better go of it over the next couple of weeks, typically peak out, oh, around the first or second week of November, and then...

NGUYEN: Sure is pretty, though, this time of year.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MARCIANO: Yes, I love fall. Love fall.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MARCIANO: Good to have you on board, Tony.

NGUYEN: Yes...

HARRIS: Oh, you're a good man.

NGUYEN: ... welcome aboard.

HARRIS: You're a good man. I paid you handsomely this morning. Thank you very much.

MARCIANO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

NGUYEN: All right. The presidential debates, they are over. Did they change the minds of any undecided voters? Our Robert Novak puts himself into The Novak Zone to talk campaign 2004. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Military families speak out on the presidential campaign.

Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

That story is coming up.

But first, what's happening now in the news.

A top Iraqi government official is assassinated in Kirkuk. Officials say the man was driving in his car with his two children when three unknown gunmen pulled the car over, pulled the official out of the vehicle, and shot him to death as the children watched. An investigation is under way.

Iran will not stop its enrichment of uranium. Today the country says it will reject any deal to stop the process, which some feel is an attempt to build a nuclear weapon. The European Union is hoping to enlist U.S. and Russian support for a proposal that would offer Iran technical and economic assistance if the country stops enriching uranium.

In Afghanistan, two U.S. troops are dead after an attack on their convoy. Officials say the soldiers' convoy was hit with an improvised explosive device in a south central province. The military is investigating.

HARRIS: Three debates down, and just over two weeks to go on the campaign trail. George Bush and John Kerry are getting their last chance to sway voters. For a look back at the debates and a look ahead to the final stretch, we are joined now by Robert Novak in this week's edition of The Novak Zone.

Bob, good to see you.

NGUYEN: Hey, Bob, want to ask you, how are you feeling? How's that hip?

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST, "THE NOVAK ZONE": Well, it's getting better. It's my first time live on camera since I broke my hip, so it's nice to be with you.

NGUYEN: Well, you're looking good, and we are so glad that you're back.

NOVAK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: All right, let's start off. The race, a virtual tie. Who got the most bounce from all these debates, in your opinion?

NOVAK: Well, the only debate that had any kind of effect on the polls was the first debate. John Kerry was in bad shape going into that debate. He'd made some mistakes, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the perception was that he was a more effective debater. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE), he seemed to be more competent than Bush. And he brought the race into a virtual tie. And the impact of the next two debates was minimal.

HARRIS: Bob, are you surprised by the impact of that first debate and that performance on the polls, essentially bringing John Kerry back into the race?

NOVAK: Yes. That's very rare that a debate will have that impact. But it would indicate to me that the American people were, more than most of us suspected, were uncertain about these candidates. And the fact that Kerry looked more presidential than they expected, and the president looked less presidential than they expected, had an impact on him for that first debate.

NGUYEN: But historically, how much of a role do these debates really play in swinging voters?

NOVAK: Quite a bit, Betty, depending on the year. I think that -- of course, it's debatable, but I think Gerry Ford lost the 1976 election because of a blunder in the, in a, in one of the debates. I think that Jack Kennedy, in the first presidential debates, in the very first debates, won the election by showing he was certainly as much or more presidential than Nixon.

So these things can have a great impact, and I would say that debate in Coral Gables had an impact on this race and bringing it into the dead heat that it is today.

HARRIS: But, you know, Bob, the fact of the matter is, the debates are over. They're behind us right now. So how do these candidates -- I don't know, how do they get to these swing voters, these undecided voters, and what are the dynamics on the ground that change the race over the next couple of weeks?

NOVAK: It's very clear what they're trying to do. President Bush is trying to make clear to these persuadable or swing voters that Senator Kerry is too far to the left, out of the mainstream, to be president. And Senator Kerry is trying to convince them that the president can't be trusted, that he's not competent.

Of course, they'll be defending themselves. But you are going to see negative campaigning that you, that's, the likes of which you've never seen before. And, of course, there's always some strange little things that happen, as with the Cheney daughter incident in the last debate, that at the time seemed very minimal but could have an affect on the polls and on the outcome.

NGUYEN: All right. In true Bob Novak fashion, I have to ask you the big question, Bob. See, we even have the graphics for it.

All right, the big question, can we expect any surprises between now and election day?

NOVAK: Well, if I knew what the surprise was, I would tell you right now. It wouldn't be a surprise. The big surprise four years ago, which almost as -- made Al Gore president, I was traveling with Governor Bush at the time, covering him.

And they came up, the Gore people had hidden the fact that he had a youthful driving under the influence of liquor conviction years ago, and they put that out, just the most beautiful time. The -- Bush made a huge mistake in not preempting that and coming out with it.

Nobody expected that, certainly not the Bush people, and the Gore people had kept it secret.

Now, does either campaign have something like that? They might have. And you don't know what it is. Bush has alerted his supporters, he's told all, there's no secrets. It's hard to think what kind of negative stuff that you could have on Kerry that you haven't had. But then, of course, there's always the outside event.

And let me just repeat that when John Kerry, and I believe it was unscripted, mentioned the fact -- gratuitously mentioned the fact that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian, I think had an impact, at least temporary, on the race.

So the interesting thing about this, this is not like covering baseball, where there's a limited number of things that can happen. In politics, particularly in the last two weeks of a presidential race, anything can happen.

NGUYEN: Absolutely.

HARRIS: And Bob, who knows? Folks may actually take a moment and reflect and think about the issues in this campaign and make a decision based on that.

Bob Novak, thank you.

NGUYEN: Yes.

NOVAK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And you can see more of Bob Novak tonight on "THE CAPITAL GANG." "THE GANG" takes a look at the final stretch of the presidential race and at the post-debate spin. Now, that is "CAPITAL GANG." So set your TVs, make sure that you're there, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time or Pacific.

HARRIS: With the U.S. engaged in military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the presidential election holds special significance for the thousands of military families.

CNN's Ed Lavandera reports from Colorado Springs on the military votes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you call her?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 5:30 in the morning, and three soldiers' wives move through a crowd waiting to see George W. Bush at a campaign stop in Colorado. They're five hours early, but the president's arrival doesn't disappoint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States.

LAVANDERA: And neither do his words.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

LAVANDERA: Those words strike at the core of why Sarah Sadelmayer will vote for Bush. Her husband is an Army specialist who's been in Iraq since March.

SARAH SADELMAYER, BUSH SUPPORTER: When you want someone to be leading your country, your husband, his life is in this man's control, you want someone who believes in himself, who isn't going to be persuaded by being popular, isn't going to believe what's doing what is what's right. And to me, that's huge.

LAURA BERTSCH, KERRY SUPPORTER: This administration has not been honest with us.

LAVANDERA: Laura Bertsch is married to a Marine who served in Iraq. The experience convinced her to enlist in a John Kerry group called Military Moms on a Mission. Bertsch joins rallies like this one in New Hampshire, alongside Elizabeth Edwards.

BERTSCH: I don't believe that George Bush has supported me, I don't believe he's supported my husband.

LAVANDERA: Bertsch says many troops aren't getting the gear and equipment they need to protect themselves. She says her husband rode in a canvas-covered Humvee while on patrol in Iraq. She wonders why an armored vehicle wasn't used. Her husband recently returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq.

BERTSCH: By the second deployment, we were pretty disenchanted with how he had been treated as a Marine, and with what the goal was in the war against terror anyway.

LAVANDERA (on camera): The issue of equipment to preparing troops for combat comes up a lot when you talk to military families. Those who support Bush say troops are getting everything they need to fight the battle. Those who support Kerry say that's just not always the case.

NITA MARTIN, KERRY SUPPORTER: This Republican president have let me down.

LAVANDERA: That distrust fuels military families supporting Kerry, like Nita Martin, the mother of two Marines. MARTIN: I really fear for their futures, because I see an administration that is -- that has lied consistently about everything they were going to do for us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President! Mr. President!

LAVANDERA: Back in Colorado, these soldiers' wives get the president's attention for a brief moment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, my husband's in Iraq. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

BUSH: E-mail him, God bless him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

LAVANDERA: The words of encouragement, she says, convince her President Bush will help bring her husband home safely. That's the kind of faith military families are putting into whichever candidate they support.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Colorado Springs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Other news across America now.

A daycare operator in Alice (ph), Texas, faces arraignment next week for allegedly restraining a 3-year-old boy with duct tape. The boy's grandmother found him bound hand and foot after receiving a tip. The owner reportedly told police she taped the boy's wrists and ankles because he was hyperactive. She is charged with injury to a child and negligence.

HARRIS: Investigators are seeking the cause of a small plane crash in the Oregon wilderness that killed three teenagers. The teens had been scouting hunting areas on Thursday but failed to return after a couple of hours. A logger spotted the wreckage yesterday in a wilderness area. The 18-year-old pilot was said to be very experienced.

NGUYEN: In Cordele, Georgia, a cautionary tale that alcohol and disaster flicks, well, they just don't mix. After consuming most of a 12-pack of beer while watching "The Day After Tomorrow," Charles Adams inexplicably set fire to pillows and burned down his mobile home.

HARRIS: And in Los Angeles, a long legal battle over Mo the chimp has ended with visitation rights for the couple who raised him from infancy. Mo is now in his 30s, fast approaching middle age. The couple has not seen much of him since he was taken from their West Covina home five years ago. Mo is at another facility, where his parents can visit him much more often.

NGUYEN: Good thing. HARRIS: He has been a singer and a songwriter and a sausage maker. Now the legendary Jimmy Dean, there he is, joins us live just in time for breakfast. CNN SATURDAY MORNING is back in just 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We have a check of some of the top stories this Saturday morning.

Insurgents have been targeting Christian churches in Baghdad. Bomb blasts rocked five of them this morning. There was damage, but no casualties.

And in the northern city of Mosul, a U.S. soldier has died from wounds suffered in a car bombing attack on a military convoy.

And you won't be seeing this flu vaccine in the U.S. this year. Health officials have confirmed that the vaccine, made at a British plant, is unsafe to use. Now that is cutting the expected U.S. flu vaccine supply in half.

And that leads us to our e-mail question of the day. Are you concerned about this year's flu vaccine shortage? Send us your responses, and we'll be reading those e-mails on the air. All you have to do is e-mail us at wam@cnn.com.

HARRIS: Oh, I'm looking forward to this.

Say Jimmy Dean, and one word comes to mind, sausage. But there's a lot more to the dean of pork products. Over the years, he has also been a country music singer, a Grammy winner, TV host, and savvy businessman. Now Jimmy Dean is serving up a new book titled "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham: Jimmy Dean's Own Story."

Jimmy Dean joins us from Richmond, Virginia, from his home there.

Jimmy, good to see you.

JIMMY DEAN, FOUNDER, SAUSAGE COMPANY: I wish you could see this studio.

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), describe it to me. Is it OK? Is it up to your specifications?

DEAN: As my mother would say, you couldn't cut the cat without getting hair in your teeth. This is the smallest studio you have ever seen in your life.

HARRIS: We will do better by you the next time you're here. Good to see you this morning.

DEAN: Ah, thank you. Well, it's nice to be with you. Well, I'm not here yet. Jimmy Dean...

HARRIS: Well, let me ask -- No, go ahead. DEAN: Jimmy Dean will show up in about an hour and a half, I think. It's too -- you know, I'm up at the crack of noon every day, you know?

HARRIS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), at the crack of noon?

DEAN: Yes.

HARRIS: Well, give us a sense of why you decided to write this book after all these years. I know people have been asking you to write it for a long time. So what finally got the juices flowing?

DEAN: My wife.

HARRIS: Really?

DEAN: She said you should do it. And then, people have sent people out to write, you know, and co-write and so on and so forth, and it just never left the paper. It just sat there. And I don't say that my life is exciting, but it hasn't been altogether dull.

So if you notice that my wife is the co-writer, and that's the truth, it's the two of us put it together. If you like it, we did it. If you don't like it, we did that too. But it was done right there at our kitchen table, that old table.

HARRIS: Tell us about this woman in your life as we show a picture of you guys together. And give us a sense of what she's meant for your life.

DEAN: What she's meant?

HARRIS: Yes, what has she meant for you?

DEAN: Well, she is the best friend I ever had. And I love her a lot. But I think I just wish everybody a friend like her. She's a piece of work. Besides that, she's good-looking, and I like sleeping with her.

HARRIS: Jimmy!

DEAN: You asked.

HARRIS: It's honest and truthful. I appreciate it. You had to think that your life was worth a book. Look at what you've done, TV host, singer, Grammy winner. You had to think it was worth a novel. And, well, we're happy you put it down.

DEAN: You know, I'll tell you, I -- till we got into this book, we worked on it for about two and a half years, just spare time, you know. I had forgotten how much stuff I had done, the people I worked with. You know, Elvis Presley and Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante and on and on and on. And the people I had met and learned to know and learned to love. It was a revealing experience after it started kind of flowing back to me.

HARRIS: Well, Jimmy, what was the most difficult thing to write about? I'm sure there were tough moments.

DEAN: I think Mom. My mom was a great lady. She was tougher than a back end of a shooting gallery, but she was a gentle soul. And I still miss her. That's been a long time.

HARRIS: We can hear it.

DEAN: But she was a great, great lady. And we need more like her. You know, she was one of those that believed you should stand on your own two feet and say, I believe in me, I can, I will. And we need some more like that around, because we got too many people now that are -- they're falling down before they get hit. And, you know, getting knocked down is part of life. But getting up is also.

And, so, what I -- there were a lot of sensitive moments when I talked about Mom.

HARRIS: Here's the book. Let me hold it up for everybody to see, "30 Years of Sausage... "

DEAN: You've got it?

HARRIS: ... "50 Years of... " I have it right here. "Jimmy Dean's Own Story," there it is for everyone to see.

DEAN: You're my squirrel if you never crack another nut.

HARRIS: All right. I'm so thrilled with you, Jimmy Dean. Thanks for being with us this morning. It's been fun.

DEAN: It's been my pleasure. And remember the words, if you will, the famous last words of the great philosopher Will Rogers.

HARRIS: Yes?

DEAN: When he said, Wiley, I think you put the patch over the wrong eye.

HARRIS: Jimmy, good to see you. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.

DEAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Bye-bye.

NGUYEN: Oh, I tell you what, he is a character, but he tells it like it is, doesn't he?

HARRIS: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: All right.

Well, we want to say good morning, Miami. Rob Marciano's got your complete weather forecast, that's about five minutes. But as you can see, sunny skies there over Miami.

CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Oh, and good morning, Miami. Boy, I came in a little hot on that one. You are looking live at over the city, the Sunshine State is gearing up for a visit from President Bush today. Both candidates are making their way through battleground states. John Kerry's in Ohio. The forecast for both of those swing states is coming up.

NGUYEN: But right now, we want to toss it over to Maria Hinajosa in Washington for "ON THE STORY." What is on tap for today? Good morning.

MARIA HINAJOSA, "ON THE STORY": Hey, there, Betty.

Well, we're "ON THE STORY" from here in Washington, to San Francisco, to northern Iraq. Suzanne Malveaux and Kelly Wallace were all over the campaign trail this week. I'm talking about tomorrow's CNN PRESENTS special, "Immigrant Nation, Divided Country." Kathleen Hays is "ON THE STORY" of how consumers shopped up a storm in September and helped plump up the economy. And medical correspondent Christie Feig (ph) is "ON THE STORY" of the flu vaccine shortage. All coming up, all "ON THE STORY."

NGUYEN: Now, that vaccine shortage is all the talk this morning. All right.

HARRIS: We're even dealing with it a little bit here. All morning long, we've been asking you for your thoughts on our e-mail question, and it's about the concern over the vaccine shortage. Are you concerned about the vaccine shortage this year? And we've got some e-mails we want to share with you.

"I think we are living in a time of fear, fear of not knowing, and I think a hysteria over the shortage is another example of this. If you are healthy, the flu won't kill you. This insanity is ridiculous." And that's from J.J. in the Bronx.

NGUYEN: All right. And Kay writes, "My husband is 80 years old, has a heart condition, and is a World War II vet. We have not been able to find a flu shot for him anywhere, including in Virginia. Just" -- all right, I'm sorry, "including at the VA. Just another way this country supports our troops?" question mark, says Kay David there.

HARRIS: We are concerned about the forecast in Atlanta and parts beyond.

NGUYEN: It's getting cooler outside and fast, Rob.

MARCIANO: Yes, lot of folks might be getting the sniffles as the seasons change just a little bit.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

MARCIANO: That's the latest from here, Tony and Betty, back over to you. NGUYEN: Yes, it was a good time for me. This is your debut here.

HARRIS: Yes, hey, thank you.

NGUYEN: We have enjoyed it.

HARRIS: Thank you. Rob, thank you. And Betty, thank you, of course.

NGUYEN: And you're coming back tomorrow, right? You like us so much, you're coming back tomorrow.

HARRIS: I will be back.

NGUYEN: OK. We're counting on you. Well, that is all for us. "ON THE STORY" is next, after this check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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