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CNN Saturday Morning News

New York Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage; Deadly Train Accident in Reno; Firefighters Gaining Upper Hand in Arizona; Examining Recent Rash of Homegrown Terror Plots; FCC Busts Telephone Services For Wrongly Charging Customers Hundreds of Dollars; New Concerns Over Rupturing Breast Implants

Aired June 25, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

A major victory overnight for the gay rights moment. New York becomes the sixth state to approve same-sex marriage.

Also, we're going to need you to grab your phone bill because we're going to go through it with you. Why? You may be one of the estimated 20 million people out there paying some bogus fees.

I'm T.J. Holmes. It's 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia, at our world headquarters. It's 6:00 a.m. in Chicago, 4:00 a.m. in Reno, Nevada. Wherever you may be, we are glad you are right here.

The same-sex marriage is now legal in New York state. The bill passed the legislature last night to a wave of applause and cheers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ayes, 33. Nays, 29.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: This is the reaction you are seeing and hearing from the Senate gallery in Albany, New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed that bill a short time later, making New York the sixth state now where same sex marriage is legal.

More interesting is that this is the first time a legislature with a Republican majority in one chamber has passed a same-sex marriage law.

Let's turn to CNN's David Ariosto. He's live for us in New York this morning. David, what has the reaction been like overnight?

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., there's been celebrations all throughout the city here, down here at the Stonewall Inn where people call the birth right of gay movement more than 40 years ago. People were toasting champagne glasses and were celebrating throughout the night. Individuals we spoke to said they had plans to get married. It's really a moment in which many New Yorkers here were waiting for. There were several failed attempts to bring this bill out of assembly. It passed the assembly in years past, but just couldn't make it through the Senate.

Last night, it finally happens. And down here in New York and especially in Greenwich Village, the expectation, the reactions were evident.

Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen years in May. And we are already setting the day. New York did the right thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's such a relief to finally feel that we are treated as equals, you know, especially on that level, you know? It's great. Speechless really. I'm ecstatic. Everybody is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARIOSTO: Now those in opposition have often said there are the "unintended consequences" of a bill that redefines the legal parameters of marriage. They worry about the potential for lawsuits, potential litigation against religious organizations, pointing specifically to Catholic adoption agencies and other sorts.

There was a last moment amendment last night that was meant to allay those fears for bringing for opposition, excuse me -- for Republican leaders over in giving the amount of votes necessary.

But this is an issue that will always be difficult among religious groups who call the redefinition of marriage effectively wrong and something they will fight. And those voters who are in opposition to this say they will vote the opposition lawmakers that turned out and supported their Democratic colleagues in the next election -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. David Ariosto, for us. It was certainly a historic night last night in New York. David, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.

We turn now to Orlando, where the murder trial of Casey Anthony resumes. And just a couple of hours, Anthony's brother testified yesterday about stains in the trunk of his sister's car, said the marks were there long before his niece disappeared and police accused his sister of murder.

Prosecutors say Casey Anthony killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee and put the body in the trunk of her car. We will be bringing you some coverage of the trial live when it resumes in just a couple of hours.

Also this evening, on the CNN NEWSROOM, we have a special with our Don Lemon. He is taking a closer look at the day's testimony and what's next for the defense. Again, that's live on CNN tonight special, at 10:00 Eastern Time.

Well, a team from the National Transportation Safety Board is in western Nevada, investigating a deadly train accident. Two people were killed when a tractor-trailer rig struck an Amtrak train near Reno at a railroad crossing.

The train was heading from California -- to California from Chicago. Passengers, certainly, as you can imagine, shaken by this incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN RHINE, PASSENGER ON AMTRAK TRAIN: Next thing I know, you get hit by something. A big ball of fire comes in. You jump out the window.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You jumped out the window?

RHINE: Yes. It's on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just saw fire and the train was moving. It felt like it was going to tip over. And I saw people flying on the other side of the train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A number of people as well had to be taken to the hospital.

Well, this is good news to report. Progress is being made with at least one wildfire in Arizona. Another one is still growing in Oklahoma. Some of the people evacuated from Sierra Vista's fire are being allowed back into their homes now. These fires started June 12th, destroyed dozens of homes and businesses.

Meanwhile, as many as 80 families had to leave their homes in central Oklahoma yesterday. More than 10 wildfires are burning across the state. Thirty-three counties are under a state of emergency.

Also, 15 percent to 20 percent of Minot, North Dakota, is underwater right now. That is according to the National Weather Service. The river there has hit record levels at more than 1,500 -- reached record levels there. It breaks 130 year old record. The river is expected to crest late tonight or early tomorrow at nine feet above major flood stage.

We'll be taking you live to Minot later this hour and at 9:00 for the very latest on the flooding situation there.

Right now, let's say good morning to our Reynolds Wolf, keeping an eye on what could be some severe storms?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, possibly, and parts of the Northern Plains and Central Plains, especially in places like Minot, where they could have some additional rainfall. Also a chance of storms possibly in parts of the Southeast. Here in Atlanta this morning, a mix of sunshine and clouds.

I will let you know what you can expect for your forecast coming up in just a few moments. And then so much. See you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Nine minutes past the hour on CNN SATURDAY MORNING now.

Over here joining Reynolds Wolf.

Reynolds, we do want to make sure I wasn't overstating this -- but people were telling me that literally, this town was going to be wiped out by this flood water. That's not overstating it?

WOLF: It really isn't overstating it. And one thing we want to share with our viewers, like when you hear some of the numbers, it can get kind of confusing. Like when you hear, say, 1,500 feet. I want you to think that it's 1,000 feet above -- no, no.

What they do is they look at above sea level. That's going to be the situation.

T.J., here's what we have, plain and simple -- the expected crest could happen sometime later tonight. More than likely, I'm going to say right around midnight or so, possibly 1:00 a.m. on Sunday. And once it crests out, it should remain at that level for the next several days following. It could be roughly 6.5 feet above the record stage. Again, we are going back to 1881. So, it gives you an idea how long it's been since they've had this kind of flooding, all stemming from, of course, the heavy rainfall.

More importantly, from the record-setting snow fall we've had across parts of the north and Central Plains -- all that melting going right into the river system. Thus, the water continues to rise.

Today, we have the issue with rain. Of course, terrain not helping the situation whatsoever.

We have some rain forming right now across parts of the Central Plains, across Nebraska, now pulling out f the Central Plains. That's the good news.

Meanwhile, farther back to the desert southwest, we have an entirely different situation, that being not, of course, the flooding, but rather the fires. Very low humidity today and winds increasing in the afternoon may help fan some of the flames. And also the focus of fires leaving parts of the four corners and going into Oklahoma where they're battling several blazes there. Unfortunately, no rain in sight expected across much of the Central Plains and into the Desert Southwest.

Now, North Central Plains, that's where we're seeing the rain, that's also where we're seeing some cooler temperatures, 79 degrees towards Minneapolis, 87 in Kansas City. It seems probably high, a little bit too high. I'm thinking, I doubt they'll get to 87 due to some of that rainfall and the cloud cover; 93 in Memphis, 92 in Atlanta.

Over the last couple of days in Atlanta, we've had our high temperatures go up, then into the afternoon with only a few thunderstorms. That might happen again today -- 93 in New Orleans, 87 your expected high in Tampa, 75 in Billings, 87 in Kansas City and 87 also into Denver.

Let's talk more about the rain. Chance of storms in the north Central Plains across the Midwest, scattered activity into the Gulf Coast and into parts of Florida. For the Northeast, in New York, some rainfall possible for you also.

Back out to the West Coast, high pressure building in to the Pacific Northwest. That's going to be basically keeping a strong hold over the atmosphere through parts of Washington state and Oregon and into California and the Great Basin, not much in terms of rainfall, plenty of sunshine and a few scattered clouds as well.

All right. T.J., you're up to speed.

HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, appreciate you always, buddy.

And before I show our viewers this next video, let me reiterate that no animals were hurt in the making of this video. Well, not hurt too severely, we don't think.

But this is from the Tennessee Police Department. You see that? You see that little guy?

It was a deputy. He was completing his evening patrol. You know, they have cameras in the patrol car. As he was just driving down the road, and a little black bear runs out into the road and then he gets a little road burn. Hit him, knocks him some 30 feet.

And this is not funny, really. But still, the little guy is OK. From all accounts, the little bear is all right. But the officer is OK as well. Just a little something that caught our eye this morning, I wanted to share it with you.

It's 12 minutes past the hour. Whole lot more. Come back with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Fourteen minutes past the hour now.

A pair of cases this week shining the spot line of homegrown terror plots taking aim at the U.S. military.

CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve taking a look for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): War makes enemies and U.S. military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan is no exception. Just listen to Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, charged this week with planning an attack on a military recruiting station in Seattle.

ABU KHALID ABDUL-LATIF: They're even, the United States military soldiers are raping women and killing Muslims and they're not being held accountable for it. Take for example the U.S. kill team in Afghanistan. They went over there and slaughtered many innocent Afghans.

MESERVE: It may be reference to rogue elements within the U.S. Stryker Brigade unit charged with killing Afghan civilians. Court documents say Abdul-Latif intended to retaliate by striking Fort Lewis where the Stryker unit is based with machine guns and grenades. He later allegedly shifted his target to the recruiting center in this building.

JENNY DURKAN, U.S. ATTORNEY, SEATTLE: I think it's a sad commentary. Our military puts itself on the line and risks their lives abroad. They should be safe at home.

MESERVE: Since 2009, there have been attacks at Fort Hood and at a recruiting station in Little Rock, and purported plots against military facilities in Maryland, Virginia and New York.

Then there's the case of Yonathan Melaku, himself a Marine reservist who's accused of firing at multiple military targets in northern Virginia last fall before his arrest at the Pentagon last week, allegedly with bomb ingredients. Officials are not speculating on his motive, but a U.S. official says he apparently self-radicalized by visiting jihadi Web sites.

One expert equates the World Wide Web to the ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan.

FRANK CILLUFFO, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: The Internet is arguably the most undergoverned space, and it provides the opportunity for individuals not only to radicalize, but like-minded individuals to come together the world over from corners everywhere.

MESERVE (on camera): Cilluffo warns that no one should be misled by the similarities among some of the recent terror cases, not all plots are homegrown and they do not all involve military targets. The threats are many and the threats are varied. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Now, I want you to go grab your phone bill as we take a quick break, because up next, we're going to look at it together and figure out if you are one of the estimated tens of millions that the federal government says it being hit with unauthorized charges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Eighteen minutes past the hour now.

You -- you might be one of the estimated 20 million people being wrongly charged hundreds and hundreds of dollars, possibly, by your phone company. But, right now, you can stop it from happening. How? Look at your phone bill, folks.

Our financial analyst Clyde Anderson is joining me now.

Clyde, always good to have you here with us.

This is something that the Federal Communications Commission calls cramming. Explain what that term means in a first place.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Cramming is simple as having unauthorized charges show up on your phone bill.

HOLMES: That's it?

ANDERSON: That's it.

HOLMES: All right. Now, and it's key here that we are talking about landlines only.

ANDERSON: Yes, we are talking about landlines only. But it has popped up on cellular as well, wireless providers have gone and actually settled some lawsuits where they were doing this in the past.

HOLMES: OK. What is this stuff?

And I told people to pull out their phone bills.

ANDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: So, what are we even looking for? Sometimes we see stuff. Well, I assume that's supposed to be there.

ANDERSON: That's what happened to most people. They see these charges and they look official, usage charge, monthly service fee.

HOLMES: Usage charge? That's legit, right?

ANDERSON: No, no. I mean, your phone company, what happened is, it happened when actually FCC required people to start separating -- the phone companies to separate bills.

HOLMES: OK.

ANDERSON: In the past, they did not have to do this. And now, you see these charges that are bogus charges for the most part -- calling plan, monthly fee, other fees. You know, a lot of times, we'll see another fee and don't pay attention that said other fees. And it's taken as what it is.

HOLMES: USBI, what is that? ANDERSON: It looks official, right? You think it was official. Universal service. It's just really just these letters that they are putting in there and these third party companies are charging you and we are paying them because we don't want to take the time to call the company.

HOLMES: OK. Now, you call the company and they say, oh, yes, that's your service fee. Of course, that's in there. How can you argue that?

ANDERSON: Well, if that's service fee. A lot of times, they're going to tell you it's a third party charge. And that's what they have to do. And if you still feel that is a bogus charge, that's when you contact the FCC, because you're going to contact them first. And a lot of times, they're going to let you know if this is a third party vendor or not, or if this is a charge that's coming directly from your phone provider.

HOLMES: OK. They know what they are doing. Now, some of these can, you know, accidentally charge you, that's what's supposed to really be on your bill. Are they making a conscious effort to get at us?

ANDERSON: Well, some of them are legitimate charges. And what they're doing a lot of times is when you set --

HOLMES: no, this cramming thing. Are they legitimately and consciously doing this?

ANDERSON: Well, some of them, yes? They are targeting you. I mean, you think about it, it's a big business. You are talking about 20 million people being affected by this. And so, you are talking about charges that rank from $1 to $19.95. You are talking about $100 million plus business, that these people are making huge amounts of money.

HOLMES: Now, are we just -- I saw some -- I think four companies have been fined. But they were smaller companies out of Pennsylvania or somewhere. But are the big dogs doing this as well, the larger companies?

ANDERSON: I think we're going to see, you know, the FCC is working on something to really work with transparency. They're not really rolling come out the details yet. They really want some more disclosure and transparency to come out. So, in July, we'll kind of see what they're talking about and what companies they're going to target.

But, so far, it's been $11 million in fines handed down for this type of thing.

HOLMES: And we have seen some examples now. A fee might end up being a couple of bucks here, a couple of bucks there, but there have been some cases where people are going years not seeing this and you are costing yourself hundreds and hundreds. ANDERSON: Exactly. And also, when you set up the phone charge, when you set up your phone account, a lot of times, you have charges on there that you're not using the services. The phone companies are not going to call and say you're not using these services either. So, you need to check out as well while you're looking at your bill.

HOLMES: All right. Good stuff. I was looking for my bill before the segment. I couldn't find my bill. But I'm curious now, because I do -- I see a lot of those names, I say, OK.

ANDERSON: And we just pay.

HOLMES: Man, I'm a sucker. All right.

ANDERSON: Sucker no more.

HOLMES: All right. Clyde, that's good stuff. We appreciate you as always. Thank you so much.

ANDERSON: My pleasure.

HOLMES: All right. We turn from that to breast implants. Apparently, there is an expiration date. The FDA has now set a timetable for replacements and it is sooner than a lot of you might think. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. There is some new information now on potential dangers from breast implants. The FDA says they don't last as long as you may have thought.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the mantra used to be that once you got these implants, they were good for life. That's what you hear from plastic surgeons in the late '70s and early '80s. Well, that seems to not be the case anymore, at least according to the report from the FDA.

They broke women down into two groups, women who had the implants for augmentation and women who had it done for reconstructive purposes. And what they found is that the women in the augmentation group, about one in five of them had to have their implants either removed or replaced within 10 years. In the reconstructive group, it was much higher -- about one in two women needed to have the same thing done.

This is fascinating. You know, this is a 10-year study. They're going to do more studies, longer term studies, to really try and drill down on these numbers. But, again, surprising simply because this can no longer be thought of as a lifetime thing. This needs to be something that's monitored, evaluated as sort of constantly by the surgeons to see if there's any problems developing with these implants.

The concerns are the implant could rupture. It could deflate. It could cause scarring. It could cause dimpling of the skin. These are things that obviously can be seen by the surgeon and may even require MRI scans to evaluate these implants.

So, again, the big news here that there is some concern that these devices won't be a lifetime device. And that they have to be evaluated.

There's also a small concern about a rare form of cancer. There's about 60 cases out of 5 million to 10 million women who have this procedure done over the last several years, that they could develop this cancer. Again, a small link, but something that doctors are going to need to be mindful of as well and probably counsel their patience.

But the one thing that was notable in the FDA report was that the longer the implants seem to be in, the greater the concern. Again, the study is not completed yet. We're going to see more studies over the following years. But some new information to talk to your doctor about according to the FDA.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Sanjay Gupta. And as always, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." coming your way in just a few minutes here at the bottom of the hour.

But, first, New York becomes the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill signed. We'll tell you, though, when actually takes effect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Our top story today: New York has become the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the marriage equality act early this morning after the Republican- controlled state Senate approved the measure. The new law will allow same sex couples to marry within 30 days.

I'll be back at the top of the hour with more live news. But, right now, the state of New Jersey has been paying for an 11-year-old boy's physical therapy. Now, it may stop.

"SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." right now.