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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Air Force Accused of Forcing Pilots to Take Medication; Police Suspect Foul Play in Case of Missing Modesto Woman

Aired January 02, 2003 - 17:00   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.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, GUEST HOST (voice-over): A stones throw from the DMZ. Allegations against the Air Force. Are pilots under pressure to take pills?

Home on the range. President Bush...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning everybody...

O'BRIEN: President Bush takes us on a tour of his Texas ranch.

BUSH: That grows right on the ledge.

O'BRIEN: And trapped in the snow for two days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I have to get home because there's people that love me.

O'BRIEN: A survivor's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: It is Thursday, January 2, 2003. I'm Miles O'Brien in for the vacationing Wolf Blitzer.

He's a United States senator, but he was Dr. Frist first. And when Senator Bill Frist saw an SUV that had overturned on a Florida highway, he knew just what to do.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A violent New Year's Day accident on a remote stretch of a highway crisscrossing the Florida everglades. A driver of an SUV loses control and flips over several times, ejecting some passengers. An 11-year-old girl is dead at the scene. Five others injured, some critically.

Among the half dozen or so passersby who stopped to help, in- coming Senate majority leader and thoracic surgeon, Bill Frist, vacationing in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His medical training was obvious to us.

CANDIOTTI: Frist never identified himself as a senator, though some investigators recognized him. He called 911 and fed rescue personnel invaluable information as they rushed to the scene, even administering medication at the request of medics. Air Rescue Captain Ken Kronheim.

CAPTAIN KEN KRONHEIM, AIR RESCUE: Basically he would have to connect the needle to the syringe, take the cap off and pull the medicine out. Not as easy as a lay -- I wouldn't trust a layperson to do that.

CANDIOTTI: Along with Frist, a nurse and an off-duty paramedic among the good Samaritans impressing emergency workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were familiar with the equipment. They were familiar with the procedure and they were familiar with the anatomy that we were dealing with and what needed to be done.

CANDIOTTI: In this case, passersby who got involved may have made the difference between life and death for some of the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see people from all walks of life stopped, did the right thing, and we need more of that in our society.

CANDIOTTI: Florida Highway Patrol investigators are examining one of the SUV's tires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a Firestone Wilderness AT tire. Doesn't necessarily mean that that's the cause of the crash.

CANDIOTTI: Investigators confirm the tire was not part of a federally ordered recall of Firestone tires.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: However, at this time investigators say they are not close to nailing down exactly what went wrong. As far as Senator Frist, this is certainly not the first time he's been in the right place when things go wrong. You remember, Miles, back in 1998, that Capitol Hill shooting when he attended to both the shooter as well as the victims. And then once helped Senator Strom Thurmond when he took ill in the senate -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN Susan Candiotti reporting from Broward County.

And in addition to that, Senator Frist has been involved in some other efforts to help people out who need help. Back in 1995 he administered CPR to a tourist who had a heart attack in the office of a Senate colleague. And as Susan just mentioned to you, just to recap, when a gunman went on a shooting spree inside the Capitol in '98, he saved -- he aided both the victims and the gunman, and then, of course, he came to the aid of Senator Strom Thurmond when he fell ill in the Senate chamber in 2001.

Let's turn now to some people who were there and know a lot more about the situation in Florida, including someone who was a witness to the whole thing. Lieutenant Allison DeMarco, she joins us along with Todd LeDuc, who is Broward County's chief. We appreciate you both being with us. Thank you for joining us.

Lieutenant DeMarco, you first, what did you see and when did it become apparent to you that it was just not your average doctor who was on that road there?

LT. ALLISON DEMARCO, BROWARD FIRE & RESCUE: Well, on arrival at the incident, we found a rolled over SUV with multiple patients that had been thrown from the vehicle. The initial patient that I came across needed to have an airway established on that patient.

We started assisting him, my partner and I, along with another medical crew, and as soon as we began, a gentleman came over and just started assisting us. He was basically just helping us with everything that we were doing. And it just became apparent that he obviously had some medical training.

Once we attempted to get the airway, he was very helpful in doing that, one of the captains on the scene asked him if he had any medical training, and at that point he identified himself as being a thoracic surgeon.

O'BRIEN: And at that point I assume he was given a fair amount of responsibility. What sorts of things did he do to assist in assisting those people who were injured at the scene?

DEMARCO: Well, apparently he had been assisting other patients prior to our arrival. When he was assisting us, he helped us with suctioning the patient's airway, and then after an advanced airway had been established, he helped us with ventilating the patient until the patient was transferred over to the helicopter.

O'BRIEN: Chief LeDuc, how did this story in its full entirety and the fact that who you were dealing with become known to you?

TODD LEDUC, BROWARD FIRE & RESCUE: Basically we often times, Alligator Alley is a very remote stretch of West Broward County, so from time to time because it does take a good amount of time for us to get resources out there, we'll have bystanders stop.

But as soon as I talked to our crews on the ground, folks like Lieutenant DeMarco and others, they had nothing but praise for not only the senator's help, but the entire group of good Samaritans. It was about six or so folks ranging from a nurse to paramedic and firefighter that also stopped and having been in that position, along with our crews that were out there previously many times before, when you're alone and you have that many critical patients, having trained hands that are willing to become part of the team are just an invaluable resource.

So to us, this is a tragedy no matter how you look at it. We -- very tragic incident, start the New Year off. But his efforts, along with the others, really helped us immensely and helped the victims.

O'BRIEN: How common is it for Samaritans who we wouldn't necessarily know about as a household name to participate this way and to pitch in?

LEDUC: I think and certainly Lieutenant DeMarco can speak to this as well, but we see from time to time people, you know, call 911 when there's a need. We see people point us in the right direction oftentimes. But to go to the level of commitment and actually the extent of involvement that both the senator, as well as the other Samaritans -- I want to make that clear. There was a good six or so folks that actually rolled up their sleeves and helped us.

And again, when you're the treating paramedic that's on scene and you've got such critical patients battling for their lives, when we have those type of skilled hands and skilled bystanders that have medical training, we certainly just -- really are just pleased to have that. It's a Godsend for us.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant DeMarco, just a final thought. Did all of those good Samaritans, Senator Frist included, did they save some lives today and what are the conditions of those who were injured?

DEMARCO: I haven't been updated on the conditions of the patients at this time. I do know that they were all transported to area hospitals and they were in critical condition. We haven't gotten any updates at this point on what their condition is. We did stop and thank all the bystanders personally that were still there when we were done cleaning up for all of their help. We really did appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Do you feel they saved lives?

DEMARCO: Yes, I do. I do. I believe that they were very instrumental in helping us in this tragic scene.

O'BRIEN: Broward County Chief Todd Leduc, Lieutenant Allison DeMarco, thanks very much for all the things you do to help out people every day...

LEDUC: Thank you...

O'BRIEN: ... in Broward County...

LEDUC: ... thank you and our condolences to the family.

DEMARCO: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: And just a footnote to you, they didn't have the condition report, but we've just heard that one of the victims, 14- year-old boy, died in the hospital, we're told.

Let's move along. It's a particularly bad time to get seriously ill or injured if you live in northern West Virginia. More than three dozen surgeons there have effectively gone on strike to protest malpractice insurance costs. And that's forcing some hospitals to transfer patients. CNN's Whitney Casey has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're walking into an empty E.R. Physicians, physician's assistant and nurses, but no surgeons like yourself. That's kind of an emergency in an emergency room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have a crisis...

CASEY: Meet Dr. Robert Zaldeski, a West Virginia doctor who refuses to work.

You took an oath of ethics. How does that play out for you? You're not performing surgery. If somebody comes in here and there's an emergency, what do you do?

DR. ROBERT ZALDESKI, SURGEON: I have been pushed to the limits of affordability and availability. At present, my malpractice runs $150,000 a year and it looks to be worsening. I frankly cannot afford that.

CASEY (voice-over): Affordability and availability, two sentiments echoed by doctors across the country. Doctors say their malpractice insurance is sometimes costing them more than they make, and more recently surgeons that deliver babies, do brain, heart or even orthopedic surgery say they're having trouble getting or renewing insurance because the supply of insurers is swiftly dwindling.

So what are the doctors going to do about it? In addition to West Virginia, doctors in Las Vegas back in July walked out of their E.R for 10 days. In eastern Pennsylvania Wednesday, doctors threatened to walk out, but were bailed out by their governor-elect. The doctors want lawmakers to put a cap on malpractice lawsuit payouts. They say no caps are the reason insurance premiums are sky high.

THOMAS FOLEY, ATTORNEY: They are looking for caps because they want immunity from lawsuits.

CASEY: The doctors' main opposition, trial lawyers with ads like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: If your child was born with brain damage, a birth defect or cerebral palsy, you have surely asked yourself, was it something I did or just the will of God? Your child's injuries may be the result of the hospital's failure to perform a timely C-section, thus depriving your baby of oxygen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLEY: Persons have been sometimes seriously and irreparably harmed and we think that their rights should be protected. CASEY: Many still support the doctors. These billboards along the highway paid by community groups plead to get doctors back. In West Virginia, this woman waiting in the hospital says she overwhelmingly supports the protesting doctors but when I asked her -- how old is your daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Victoria (ph) is almost 18 months.

CASEY (on camera): OK, Victoria is 18 months. Something horrible happens, you guys have to rush her to the E.R right now. There are no surgeons working. Now how do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then, in that situation I'd probably be upset...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: So we are in an active E.R right now. As you can see, that there are quite a few doctors in here and there are quite a few nurses, but there are no surgeons. And if you know anything about an E.R, an E.R without surgeons is a very debilitated E.R. Case in point, this morning, early this morning about 1:45 a.m., a woman needed emergency surgery. So they had to send her about an hour and a half away from here to get that surgery. That is their contingency plan.

So if anybody comes into the E.R and needs emergency surgery, they have to send them away. They will be out as long as they can. In Las Vegas, as I said, they had 10 days out before the legislature then enacted some laws. These doctors say they will do the very same.

So it's a very sticky wicket here pitting doctors against lawyers. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel because doctors have always been pitted against lawyers. But it is the patients in the end that will suffer -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Whitney Casey, Wheeling, West Virginia, thank you very much.

President Bush did a walk and talk with reporters today at his Texas ranch. Some of that was tough talk on some tough issues, including the economy, Iraq and North Korea. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is with the president in Crawford, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Good morning everybody.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yes, that's the leader of the free world.

BUSH: At least somebody's walking up here with me. I...

BASH: Pointing out the wonders of nature at his 1600-acre Texas ranch, giving reporters a brief glimpse of the place he says he comes to get away from it all. BUSH: That's all (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all the way up to the very top of those cliffs.

BASH: But for a president dealing with crises brewing around the world, there's only so far you can get. On North Korea, Mr. Bush says he still seeks a diplomatic solution, shrugging off suggestions allies in the region like South Korea and Russia are reluctant to pressure Pyongyang.

BUSH: They may be putting pressure on. You just don't know about it. But I know they're not reluctant when it comes to the idea of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.

BASH: On Iraq, more tough talk, restating his pledge to lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein if he has to.

BUSH: For 11 long years the world has dealt with him and now the -- now he's got to understand his day of reckoning is coming and therefore, he must disarm voluntarily. I hope he does.

BASH: Then there's the homefront, mindful of the perception his father focused on Iraq and not jobless Americans a decade ago, this President Bush says he'll unveil a plan next week aimed at jumpstarting the economy.

BUSH: What I'm worried about is job creation. And I'm worried about those who are unemployed. I am concerned about those who are looking for work and can't find work...

BASH: That economic package White House and congressional aides say is likely to include taxcuts on dividends for personal investors, tax breaks for businesses, and a taxcut targeting lower income Americans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And help for those on the lower end of the tax bracket could blunt criticism from Democrats who say that the president, the White House is focused on the wealthy and not the needy. The president will give what aides say will be a very detailed speech next Tuesday in Chicago -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Dana Bash near Crawford, Texas. Thanks much.

In just a few minutes, we'll take a more extensive tour of the ranch. Western White House it's called. Follow us to a place where we in the media are seldom invited. And while you wait for that, our Web question of the day is on the president and your pocketbook. What do you think will help the economy, we asked. Cutting taxes? Balancing the budget? Creating jobs? Or all of the above? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. We invite you to vote at cnn.com/wolf.

And while you're there, we'd like to hear from you. Send your comments. We'll try to read some of them at the end of the program. That's also, of course, where you can read Wolf's daily online column. I managed to put a few words there myself today. That's cnn.com/wolf.

Five weeks, 200 inspections. The evidence so far against Iraq's war making machinery. Baghdad by the numbers, when we come back.

Also, flying high? A disturbing charge against the U.S. Air Force. We'll get the lowdown from someone who knows.

And the search for answers in the disappearance of a pregnant woman in California in just a few moments, but first a news quiz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Which presidential property is the largest? President Bush's Crawford ranch? President Johnson's Texas ranch? President Reagan's Rancho del Cielo? Or Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Plantation?

The answer coming up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: As the U.S. continues a military buildup in the Persian Gulf, U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq continue to hunt for a smoking gun. But Iraqi officials insist they'll never find one. We get the story from CNN's Rym Brahimi in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At least five sites inspected today by teams of U.N. weapons experts, two of them had to do with Iraqi Air Force, one, a warehouse, another one a state company that builds drones for the Iraqi Air Force.

Now General Hossam Amin, who's the head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, the body that's the interlocutor of the U.N. weapons inspectors here on the ground briefed reporters earlier on and told them that in the five weeks that the inspectors had been going about their work here, and they have conducted some 230 inspections, well, they had found nothing. He said that this proved that claims by the U.S. and Britain that there were still weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

GEN. HOSSAM MOHAMMED AMIN, IRAQI NATIONAL MONITORING DIRECTORATE: Organizations visited all the sites that had been accused by those two administrations -- sorry -- and we think that now they are thinking that those accusations are baseless, and they were lying on this issue.

BRAHIMI: General Hossam Amin also told reporters that chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was expected in Baghdad on the third week of January. That will be a little bit before he has to address the U.N. Security Council and report on the findings of his U.N. weapons experts on the ground here. Now, earlier on in the day, Vice Prime Minister Tariq Aziz spoke to a Spanish peace delegation. He told them that the consequences of a war in Iraq would be catastrophic.

Rym Brahimi, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As North Korea's neighbors join the U.S. in searching for a diplomatic solution to the current nuclear showdown, U.S. troops on the frontline in South Korea are casting a wary eye across the border, as they have for years.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon reports from just outside the DMZ.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here at Camp Greaves, home of the most forward deployed battalion of the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division part of the 37,000 U.S. troops deployed here in South Korea. We're very close to North Korea at this point. Just over my shoulder, just over the hill, about three kilometers less than two miles away, is the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone.

Over that zone, the North Korean million-strong Army has 70 percent of its troops deployed near the DMZ ready to spring into action if conflict were to occur. The mission here of this battalion is specifically in the event that a conflict were to occur, to secure the safety and help to evacuate diplomats who would be on the border line of the demilitarized zone trying to negotiate a solution with the North Korean side. The assumption being that diplomacy would be used up until the very last minute.

Rebecca McKinnon, CNN, Camp Greaves, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Is the Air Force pushing its combat pilots to pop pills? That charge comes from a lawyer for one of two pilots who may be court-martialed for last April's accidental bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The lawyer says their judgment may have been impaired by the amphetamines which the Air Force says are used as a fatigue management tool.

Joining me now from Tucson, Arizona is CNN military analyst retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, a man who's flown many combat missions on many types of fighters. General Shepperd, good to have you with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Good to be here, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How common are these so-called go-pills?

SHEPPERD: Very common, Miles. It makes great headlines, but there's no mystery about this. This is something that's gone on for years. I've taken them myself on very long missions. You have pills that help you manage your rest cycle. The idea is to stay rested especially when you're on high stress missions.

Manage your sleep with sleeping pills, if necessary, and also make sure you stay awake with go-pills, if necessary. This has gone on for a long time. There's been a lot of research behind this. And this issue is part of a lawyer seeking to basically provide the best defense he can for his clients who face the possibility of very serious charges.

O'BRIEN: All right, but from a layman's perspective, General, the thought of somebody at the hands of a supersonic war machine who is so fatigued that he has to take a pill, he or she has to take a pill in order to stay alert is a bit disquieting. Should we be concerned at all?

SHEPPERD: No, I don't think you should be concerned at all. Basically, you should be concerned that people are put in these situations in combat by situations beyond their control. But worse than that is a person that is asleep at the controls. Basically these fighter missions that these people are going on from the Gulf to Afghanistan, eight, nine, 10 hours alone in a cockpit. You have to stay hydrated.

You have to manage your eating cycle. You have to manage your sleep cycle. And you want those people awake. You can take one of these things 30 minutes before you think you really need it and be wide awake at those times. And again it's not unusual. I've done it myself.

O'BRIEN: All right, General Shepperd, let's read a quick statement or an excerpt of a statement from the Air Force. And I want to get you to comment on this. The authorization for their use, referring to these so-called go-pills, Dexedrine, is time and or mission-specific. When authorized, they are only used with the air crew members informed consent after appropriate ground testing for adverse effects, and their use is completely voluntary at the discretion of the air crew member, and they also add the standard does is about 10 milligrams.

The allegation of the attorney is that these pills are essentially forced on to the pilots. If they don't take the pills, they don't get the mission.

SHEPPERD: I don't know what the current rules and situation are, but the time I was on active duty and the times that I took these pills, it was voluntary. We were pre-tested. It was explained what they were good for, what the cautions were. They're prescription medicines. You had the advice of a flight surgeon available to you at all times. And nobody was ever forced to take them. I can see people being heavily encouraged to take these in times of great stress or on long missions rather than go to sleep, but nobody ever forced us to take them, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, and the final point here, it does seem odd to some of us, once again, nonmilitary types, to have a live fire exercise under way in such close proximity to actual combat missions.

SHEPPERD: Yes, that is reportedly part of the defense of the pilots by the lawyer, saying that these pilots were not aware of the live fire exercise underneath them, had not been informed by the chain of command. Again, what's happening is charges have been proffered. Anyone can proffer charges after an investigation. Now, a Title 32 investigation is taking place to see if these people should be subjected to a court-martial where they would meet a jury of their peers, people that have been in combat, people that have flown, even some people perhaps that have taken these pills. It's a very fair justice system, Miles, lots of steps to go before these people are -- meet their ultimate fate in the justice system.

O'BRIEN: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks for helping us on this. And we'll keep you posted as this continues through the military justice system. Thanks for being with us, as always.

SHEPPERD: You bet.

O'BRIEN: Time for us to take a break. She is eight months pregnant, has been missing since Christmas Eve, and police say they do suspect foul play. We'll get the latest from California when we come back.

And later, he's a paraplegic missing for two days in the cold and snow of Canada. We'll have his amazing story ahead.

And we were browsing through a new edition of the World Almanac, and we found a little surprise. The initials are the WB, and we're not talking about a TV network.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More than 800 tips and a $500,000-reward have done nothing so far to bring investigators closer to solving the case of a missing California woman. Twenty-seven-year-old Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant, disappeared Christmas Eve on a walk with her dog.

CNN's Ed Lavandera following the case in Modesto about 90 miles east of San Francisco -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles. Here authorities are just a short time away from a daily press briefing here as to what the latest information is involving this case. But authorities saying this morning that they fear that as more time continues to pass since Laci Peterson was last seen alive, that they're starting to fear the worse.

To be quite honestly, they've had about 1,000 tips that have been called in to authorities here to help out in this investigation. They have about 100 officers working this case. Many of those officers meeting several times throughout the day earlier this morning comparing notes and trying to get everyone on the investigative team on the same page. But clearly this case drawing the vast resources of the Modesto Police Department, in helping out trying to find Laci Peterson. They do believe strongly now that foul play is involved. They had sent a team of bloodhounds out to Laci Peterson's house and the indications they got from those dogs was that perhaps the last time she was in that area that she had gotten into a vehicle.

Her husband says that she last saw her -- he last saw her at 9:30 on the morning of Christmas Eve and that her plans were to walk the dog and then do some last minute shopping. About an hour later that dog was found with its leash on just wandering through a park a short distance away from her house. So, authorities here now starting to believe that clearly foul play is involved.

And they continue to try to urge the public to call in any information that they might have, but authorities here are quick to say that they just don't have any clear hard evidence that points them in any solid direction at this point -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ed Lavandera in Modesto. We'll be checking in with him as he monitors that news conference expected to begin very shortly.

The FBI today stepped up the search for a man on the run posting a $50,000-reward for the capture of Edward Morris. The Oregon man is accused of killing his pregnant wife and their three children about five days before Christmas. Their bodies were found in Oregon's Tillamook State Forest. The FBI says Morris was spotted in Oregon and Washington. Today his father made a desperate plea for him to surrender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MORRIS, FATHER OF SUSPECT: Edward, Marie (ph), Heather (ph), Derek (ph) and I would like to make an appeal to you to immediately surrender yourself to the closest authorities. We want you to know that we love you and we will stand by you regardless of what happens. We ask you to call 911 at the nearest phone and surrender yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: So far 600 tips have poured in. No big break, however. Authorities consider Morris armed and dangerous.

He's 17-years-old and accused of being one of the D.C. snipers. Now John Lee Malvo may have some law students and a famous teacher standing beside him. Talk about a class project. Some insight on that in a moment.

All the story of a paraplegic who went for a drive, ended up in a ditch and is now lucky to be alive. The story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. I'm Miles O'Brien. coming up, help for one of the D.C. sniper suspects, but it's not your most experienced team of legal eagles. But first some other stories making news in our "News Alert."

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: The FBI is still hunting for five men who may have entered the country illegally last week. Now one of those apparently pictured in the nationwide alert is talking.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been tracking this story. She joins us live from Washington. What's the latest -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the resemblance between the FBI photo and the photo of a Pakistani jeweler is striking. Even a senior FBI official says it sure looks like him. But Asghar says he has never been in the U.S. certainly not on Christmas Eve when U.S. authorities believe five men may have tried to enter the country illegally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ASGHAR, PAKISTANI JEWELER (through translator): I was in this very market December 24. The other shop keepers will vouch for me that I was here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: FBI agents are there trying to establish whether the photo is of Asghar or not. If it is, they'll try to figure out how it showed up in their investigation. One possibility, he admits to having once obtained false travel documents, and an individual involved in forgery and smuggling was the source of the FBI photo according to an administration official. The man's name Michael John Hamdani (ph) picked up in Canada two months ago. A problem for the FBI, does this cast doubt on the other four photos it has distributed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKIP BRANDON, FMR. FBI COUNTER TERRORISM OFFICIAL: The public may tend to view the rest of the looking for the other four as it were, or looking for all five with one bad picture as -- the public may tend to view this all as bad information. I have to think that that probably is a big mistake. I do not think that we would have gone public on a national and international basis without a lot of the information being vetted and carefully considered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Despite questions about the photo the FBI is still operating on the assumption that five men may have entered the country illegally. They still don't know how, but one law enforcement says there is a quote, distinct possibility they were smuggled in through the Saint Regis Indian Reservation which straddles the New York/Ontario border. There is no concrete proof, however, that that was the root -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN,'s, Jeanne Meserve covering homeland security for us from Washington, thank you very much. Gun injuries cost America hundreds of millions of dollars a year. That is according to a study in the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine". And it says in 1997 the most recent year with complete figures, hospital charges for treating gun shot wounds topped $800 million and one-third of the victims were uninsured.

The teenage suspect in the Washington area sniper case is getting a help with his defense. A law professor and several students from Washington and Lee University have joined the defense team for 17- year-old John Malvo. Malvo and his alleged partner in the sniper slayings are both face capital murder charges in Virginia. Professor Roger Group says he opposes the death penalty in all cases. J. Albert Johnson known trial attorney who has defends among his clients Patty Hearst, F. Lee Bailey, joining us from Miami to talk to us about this case.

Johnson, good to have you with us.

J. ALBERT JOHNSON, ATTORNEY: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How would you defend John Malvo? Lot of forensic evidence linking him to the crime.

JOHNSON: It was a terrible, terrible heinous crime. You know, we live in a country of laws and not of men. Miles, as you well known, the presumption of innocence is one of the most valued segments of our legal justice system. This guy needs every bit of defense he can get. Even the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, rebutted his presumption of innocence by saying that he deserves the most serious of all punishment, the death penalty.

O'BRIEN: That's a tough job. That's a tough case. Would you want it?

JOHNSON: It's a terrible job. Frankly, I would not want it. Primarily because the negative pretrial publicity is probably one of the worst I have ever seen in the United States. I think this guy's chances of prevailing for a fair trial even just to get a fair trial, is very limited. I think he's got a tough road to even to get a fair trial. No juror who proclaimed any lack of knowledge of this case, if a juror said, look, I can decide impartially the guilt or innocence of Malvo, he'd be a liar. Because anybody with any sense at all who had not heard about this case at this time and who had not formed conclusions about his guilt or innocence after all the publicity is simply not telling the truth.

O'BRIEN: Professor Group and the law students rushing to the aid of Malvo harkins back to -- and this was famously depicted in the movie "Reversal of Fortune" Dershowitz and some Harvard law students who got Clause Van Buerlo (ph) exonerated on appeal. I supposed, I guess it's a bad assumption to say law students won't be able to come up with novel approaches.

JOHNSON: Every lawyer needs a lot of assistance during the course of preparation for trial, and during a trial. A lawyer is not supposed to know the law, he's supposed to know how to find the law. That's what these law students will do.

They will come up with novel or maybe not so novel defenses for Malvo and it's very, very important to have the proper investigative tools and the proper research tools in order to do the job the right way.

So this guy Malvo needs not only two law students, but he needs 22 law students in order to provide the necessary research and investigation to defend him, if he is to be defended properly.

O'BRIEN: And, of course, in this case the price would be right for their time?

JOHNSON: Well, that's correct. The difficulty here is everybody's made up their mind already as to whether or not this guy is guilty or innocent. And something has to be done with the court to convince the court that this case either ought to be continued until the publicity has subsided and becomes less onerous in the minds of the public or the jurors. Or that the venue ought to be changed and I think that's silly. But certainly that the jury should be sequestered in this case.

O'BRIEN: Quickly, would you try to go for some kind of plea deal?

JOHNSON: There's no question about it. In this particular case, based upon what I know, which is no more than what has been publicized in the media, I certainly would try to plea bargain in this case. I think a trial in this case under the circumstances, which I am aware of, would be very, very difficult insofar as the forensic evidence is concerned. And if you believe the material which has been disseminated throughout the press. There is a confession. It's a very, very difficult case. He needs tall help he can get if we are to preserve the presumption of innocence.

O'BRIEN: Attorney J. Albert Johnson, thanks for the free advice. Appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Happy New Year to you.

In a moment, to the great white North we go. A paraplegic driving his pickup truck vanishes on a dark and snowy night. The bone-chilling and ultimately heart warming story lies ahead.

And to the hills of Texas we go for a guided hike down on ranch, better known as the Texas White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A blast of wintry weather had parts of Indiana socked in. The snow started falling and turned treacherous in Indianapolis where a mixture of sleet and freezing rain slicked up the roads caused a few fender benders. Much of the area remains under a snow advisory with up to 5 inches expected. The same storm system is forecasted to move into the Northeast tomorrow. Stay tuned for that.

Now the story of a 40-year-old man who endured two freezing nights in the middle of nowhere when his van got stuck in snow on a rural road. The almost victim had no cell phone and he's a paraplegic. Jason Matity of CTV News has this amazing survivor story from Saskatchewan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy new year.

JASON MATITY, CTV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm welcome for a cold brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you, buddy.

MATITY: Mike Brady was on his way home to Regina Sunday night after visiting a friend. The weather got stormy. Mike became disoriented and slid into the ditch on this rural grid road. He had only his dogs, two suckers for food and a keepsake from his niece.

MIKE BRADY, SURVIVOR: When I touch this, I thought I have to get home because there's people that love me.

MATITY (on camera): After two days of searching on the ground and in the air, Mike Brady still wasn't found. That is until one local farmer decided to look on the lesser traveled roads.

(voice-over): Larry Menke found Mike's van in the ditch in this purree (ph) trail but found Mike almost a kilometer away as he dragged himself in his wheelchair up and over the rolling hills.

LARRY MENKE, RESCUER: First time in my life time that I had an opportunity to help some fellow man.

M. BRADY: I started wheeling up that hill. I heard a truck behind me. I turned around and then started to cry.

WARNER BRADY, FATHER: I could kiss him.

MATITY: Mike's father searched for more than 24 hours for his son, an experience he's still dealing with.

W. BRADY: I got the call, I started bawling worse than a baby. I just -- out of my head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here he comes, guys.

MATITY: Mike was taken to hospital, then released. He made it home just in time to be crowned king of this New Year's party.

M. BRADY: I'd like to thank everyone that drove and flew and phoned and cared and prayed. Every year that I get to see that I wasn't sure if I was going to get to see or not.

MATITY: Warren Brady plans to buy his son a cell phone and padlock it to his steering wheel. But for now the Bradies are taking in 2003, a new year that's already better than the last.

(CHEERING)

MATITY: Jason Matity, CTV News, Regina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Now that's a New Year's celebration.

Strap up the boots, put on the hat. When we come back, we'll take a walk on the ranch with the ranch hand-in-chief, President Bush.

Also, who in the world is in "The New World Almanac?" We'll give you a clue. He often sits in this seat.

First some other stories making "News Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Death in the Middle East. Israeli troops kill three Palestinian teenagers scaling a fence around some Jewish settlements. The boys were carrying a knife and two cutters. And a relative said they dreamed of staging attacks on Israelis.

Production prediction. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his country's oil industry will be back at full production within 45 days. Venezuela is dissent with a crippling general strike. Chavez is asking Brazil to help by sending replacement workers.

High hopes. China says it plans to put a man into space by the end of the year. Beijing has had an active space program for some time, but manned flight would put China into an exclusive club with the U.S. and Russia.

Treacherous travel. UNICEF is using donkeys to carry school books and stationary to remote Northern Afghanistan. The materials will be used to educate the children of Afghan nomads who have moved to the mountains for winter.

Emperor's greeting. Despite being diagnosed with prostate cancer last week, Japan's emperor, Akihito, made his traditional public appearance to wish his people a happy new year. The 69-year-old is supposed to have surgery this month, but doctors say he has a good chance of a full recovery.

Cheaper by the dozen. Talk about togetherness. At least 20 couples tied the knot at a mass marriage in Northwestern India. Mass weddings are being promoted to low-income Indian couples as an alternative to the dowry system which requires the bride's parents to make large payments to the bridegroom. And that's our look "Around the World."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN (voice-over): Earlier we asked which presidential property is the largest? The answer, Monticello Plantation with 5,000 acres. President Bush's Crawford Ranch comes next with 1,600 acres.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: President Bush continuing his vacation at the ranch in Crawford. As we reported earlier he took reporters for a little tour today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Let's go. Tell you what we'll do. We'll walk about three, four miles, then we'll end up having coffee. Mrs. Bush wants to say hello to everybody.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's his home away from the White House. You won't find a rose garden here.

BUSH: It's a little muddy.

O'BRIEN: But then again this is winter at the ranch in Crawford. The president, who runs six minute miles, slowed his pace when talking with reporters, but not his enthusiasm.

BUSH: It's part of the fun to be outside working. I really enjoy it. All right. Retreat. I'll show you some more country.

O'BRIEN: On the nearly 1,600 acres the Bushes call home, there are fields, woods and waterways, some the president had to fix up when he bought the property in 1999.

BUSH: Put these crossings here so that we could drive across. I put some fish in here farther up where there's a big deep pool. It's fun to come down here and fly fish.

The issue of research involving stem cells derived from human embryos...

O'BRIEN: America has seen snapshots of the living quarters. During his famous stem cell address, he spoke from the home they still call the Governor's House, where guests now stay.

And when he hosted Crown Prince Abdullah, we saw the front of the ranch, finished right around the election in 2000. It's ecologically friendly, complete with a tin roof that captures rain water used to irrigate the property.

This serene land offers the president some time to reflect and be a normal pickup-driving rancher. He routinely clears brush, a la Ronald Reagan. Normally President Bush keeps the place to himself and his family.

BUSH: Are you going to come and have coffee or you write your stories?

O'BRIEN: We in the media far beyond the barbed wire. And who can blame him?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Well on the nature trail we're sorry we didn't get a glimpse of President Bush's cows, Ophelia, Ellie and Logan. They are named after Bush's staffers when he was a governor. You can see a picture of Ophelia on the White House Web site. We are assuming having a cud-chewing, lethargic animal named after you is a compliment down there in Texas.

There's an interesting entry in this year's "World Almanac and Book of Facts" and we wanted to share it with you. On page 303, look it up in a list entitled "Widely Known Americans of the Present," there's a familiar name, one Wolf Blitzer.

We suspect that if Wolf were in his regular spot hosting his program today, he'd be too modest to toot his own horn. But since he's on vacation, we'll do it for him. I'm not too humble to tell you that I have been listed in several phone books.

Time's running out for your turn to weigh in on "Our Question of the Day." What do you think will help the economy? Cutting taxes, balancing the budget, creating jobs, all of the above? Log on to cnn.com/wolf to vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Back now to the story we told you at the top of the newscast, the disappearance of Laci Peterson Christmas Eve. Police in Modesto, California, still searching for clues. Had a briefing just a few moments ago. They said they were continuing their pursuit of known sex offenders in the area. Indicated some other investigative techniques and then told reporters to use the media for their -- to provide assistance.

Offering a few pieces of information about Scott Peterson, Laci's husband. His statement was that on Christmas Eve he went fishing 85 miles away off the coast of California. And the police are interested in finding out if anybody saw his pickup truck or his boat. Let's listen in to the Lieutenant Doug Ridenour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. DOUG RIDENOUR, MODESTO POLICE: What we're asking the community and the media to do is get the description of this pickup and boat trailer out to the community to find out if anybody has seen the pickup or boat between Sunday, December 23 until through Christmas. And if they have, they can contact the police department because we need additional information regarding the whereabouts of the pickup and trailer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. So we'll keep you posted on that. Police in Modesto, California, asking the public to provide them any information about that pickup truck and that boat. We'll keep you posted on that.

Now, here's how you're weighing in on "Our Web Question of the Day." Remember, we've been asking you this: what do you think will help the economy? Eleven percent of you say cutting taxes, 20 percent say balancing the budget, 25 say creating jobs and 44 say do all the above. This is not, of course, a scientific poll.

That's all the time we have for today. Please join us tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. And don't forget "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" weekdays at noon Eastern. Until then thanks very much for watching. I'm Miles O'Brien in for Wolf Blitzer. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" up next. Kitty Pilgrim sitting in for Lou.

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





Police Suspect Foul Play in Case of Missing Modesto Woman>


Aired January 2, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, GUEST HOST (voice-over): A stones throw from the DMZ. Allegations against the Air Force. Are pilots under pressure to take pills?

Home on the range. President Bush...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning everybody...

O'BRIEN: President Bush takes us on a tour of his Texas ranch.

BUSH: That grows right on the ledge.

O'BRIEN: And trapped in the snow for two days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I have to get home because there's people that love me.

O'BRIEN: A survivor's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: It is Thursday, January 2, 2003. I'm Miles O'Brien in for the vacationing Wolf Blitzer.

He's a United States senator, but he was Dr. Frist first. And when Senator Bill Frist saw an SUV that had overturned on a Florida highway, he knew just what to do.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A violent New Year's Day accident on a remote stretch of a highway crisscrossing the Florida everglades. A driver of an SUV loses control and flips over several times, ejecting some passengers. An 11-year-old girl is dead at the scene. Five others injured, some critically.

Among the half dozen or so passersby who stopped to help, in- coming Senate majority leader and thoracic surgeon, Bill Frist, vacationing in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His medical training was obvious to us.

CANDIOTTI: Frist never identified himself as a senator, though some investigators recognized him. He called 911 and fed rescue personnel invaluable information as they rushed to the scene, even administering medication at the request of medics. Air Rescue Captain Ken Kronheim.

CAPTAIN KEN KRONHEIM, AIR RESCUE: Basically he would have to connect the needle to the syringe, take the cap off and pull the medicine out. Not as easy as a lay -- I wouldn't trust a layperson to do that.

CANDIOTTI: Along with Frist, a nurse and an off-duty paramedic among the good Samaritans impressing emergency workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were familiar with the equipment. They were familiar with the procedure and they were familiar with the anatomy that we were dealing with and what needed to be done.

CANDIOTTI: In this case, passersby who got involved may have made the difference between life and death for some of the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see people from all walks of life stopped, did the right thing, and we need more of that in our society.

CANDIOTTI: Florida Highway Patrol investigators are examining one of the SUV's tires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a Firestone Wilderness AT tire. Doesn't necessarily mean that that's the cause of the crash.

CANDIOTTI: Investigators confirm the tire was not part of a federally ordered recall of Firestone tires.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: However, at this time investigators say they are not close to nailing down exactly what went wrong. As far as Senator Frist, this is certainly not the first time he's been in the right place when things go wrong. You remember, Miles, back in 1998, that Capitol Hill shooting when he attended to both the shooter as well as the victims. And then once helped Senator Strom Thurmond when he took ill in the senate -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN Susan Candiotti reporting from Broward County.

And in addition to that, Senator Frist has been involved in some other efforts to help people out who need help. Back in 1995 he administered CPR to a tourist who had a heart attack in the office of a Senate colleague. And as Susan just mentioned to you, just to recap, when a gunman went on a shooting spree inside the Capitol in '98, he saved -- he aided both the victims and the gunman, and then, of course, he came to the aid of Senator Strom Thurmond when he fell ill in the Senate chamber in 2001.

Let's turn now to some people who were there and know a lot more about the situation in Florida, including someone who was a witness to the whole thing. Lieutenant Allison DeMarco, she joins us along with Todd LeDuc, who is Broward County's chief. We appreciate you both being with us. Thank you for joining us.

Lieutenant DeMarco, you first, what did you see and when did it become apparent to you that it was just not your average doctor who was on that road there?

LT. ALLISON DEMARCO, BROWARD FIRE & RESCUE: Well, on arrival at the incident, we found a rolled over SUV with multiple patients that had been thrown from the vehicle. The initial patient that I came across needed to have an airway established on that patient.

We started assisting him, my partner and I, along with another medical crew, and as soon as we began, a gentleman came over and just started assisting us. He was basically just helping us with everything that we were doing. And it just became apparent that he obviously had some medical training.

Once we attempted to get the airway, he was very helpful in doing that, one of the captains on the scene asked him if he had any medical training, and at that point he identified himself as being a thoracic surgeon.

O'BRIEN: And at that point I assume he was given a fair amount of responsibility. What sorts of things did he do to assist in assisting those people who were injured at the scene?

DEMARCO: Well, apparently he had been assisting other patients prior to our arrival. When he was assisting us, he helped us with suctioning the patient's airway, and then after an advanced airway had been established, he helped us with ventilating the patient until the patient was transferred over to the helicopter.

O'BRIEN: Chief LeDuc, how did this story in its full entirety and the fact that who you were dealing with become known to you?

TODD LEDUC, BROWARD FIRE & RESCUE: Basically we often times, Alligator Alley is a very remote stretch of West Broward County, so from time to time because it does take a good amount of time for us to get resources out there, we'll have bystanders stop.

But as soon as I talked to our crews on the ground, folks like Lieutenant DeMarco and others, they had nothing but praise for not only the senator's help, but the entire group of good Samaritans. It was about six or so folks ranging from a nurse to paramedic and firefighter that also stopped and having been in that position, along with our crews that were out there previously many times before, when you're alone and you have that many critical patients, having trained hands that are willing to become part of the team are just an invaluable resource.

So to us, this is a tragedy no matter how you look at it. We -- very tragic incident, start the New Year off. But his efforts, along with the others, really helped us immensely and helped the victims.

O'BRIEN: How common is it for Samaritans who we wouldn't necessarily know about as a household name to participate this way and to pitch in?

LEDUC: I think and certainly Lieutenant DeMarco can speak to this as well, but we see from time to time people, you know, call 911 when there's a need. We see people point us in the right direction oftentimes. But to go to the level of commitment and actually the extent of involvement that both the senator, as well as the other Samaritans -- I want to make that clear. There was a good six or so folks that actually rolled up their sleeves and helped us.

And again, when you're the treating paramedic that's on scene and you've got such critical patients battling for their lives, when we have those type of skilled hands and skilled bystanders that have medical training, we certainly just -- really are just pleased to have that. It's a Godsend for us.

O'BRIEN: Lieutenant DeMarco, just a final thought. Did all of those good Samaritans, Senator Frist included, did they save some lives today and what are the conditions of those who were injured?

DEMARCO: I haven't been updated on the conditions of the patients at this time. I do know that they were all transported to area hospitals and they were in critical condition. We haven't gotten any updates at this point on what their condition is. We did stop and thank all the bystanders personally that were still there when we were done cleaning up for all of their help. We really did appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Do you feel they saved lives?

DEMARCO: Yes, I do. I do. I believe that they were very instrumental in helping us in this tragic scene.

O'BRIEN: Broward County Chief Todd Leduc, Lieutenant Allison DeMarco, thanks very much for all the things you do to help out people every day...

LEDUC: Thank you...

O'BRIEN: ... in Broward County...

LEDUC: ... thank you and our condolences to the family.

DEMARCO: Thank you very much.

O'BRIEN: And just a footnote to you, they didn't have the condition report, but we've just heard that one of the victims, 14- year-old boy, died in the hospital, we're told.

Let's move along. It's a particularly bad time to get seriously ill or injured if you live in northern West Virginia. More than three dozen surgeons there have effectively gone on strike to protest malpractice insurance costs. And that's forcing some hospitals to transfer patients. CNN's Whitney Casey has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY CASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're walking into an empty E.R. Physicians, physician's assistant and nurses, but no surgeons like yourself. That's kind of an emergency in an emergency room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have a crisis...

CASEY: Meet Dr. Robert Zaldeski, a West Virginia doctor who refuses to work.

You took an oath of ethics. How does that play out for you? You're not performing surgery. If somebody comes in here and there's an emergency, what do you do?

DR. ROBERT ZALDESKI, SURGEON: I have been pushed to the limits of affordability and availability. At present, my malpractice runs $150,000 a year and it looks to be worsening. I frankly cannot afford that.

CASEY (voice-over): Affordability and availability, two sentiments echoed by doctors across the country. Doctors say their malpractice insurance is sometimes costing them more than they make, and more recently surgeons that deliver babies, do brain, heart or even orthopedic surgery say they're having trouble getting or renewing insurance because the supply of insurers is swiftly dwindling.

So what are the doctors going to do about it? In addition to West Virginia, doctors in Las Vegas back in July walked out of their E.R for 10 days. In eastern Pennsylvania Wednesday, doctors threatened to walk out, but were bailed out by their governor-elect. The doctors want lawmakers to put a cap on malpractice lawsuit payouts. They say no caps are the reason insurance premiums are sky high.

THOMAS FOLEY, ATTORNEY: They are looking for caps because they want immunity from lawsuits.

CASEY: The doctors' main opposition, trial lawyers with ads like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: If your child was born with brain damage, a birth defect or cerebral palsy, you have surely asked yourself, was it something I did or just the will of God? Your child's injuries may be the result of the hospital's failure to perform a timely C-section, thus depriving your baby of oxygen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOLEY: Persons have been sometimes seriously and irreparably harmed and we think that their rights should be protected. CASEY: Many still support the doctors. These billboards along the highway paid by community groups plead to get doctors back. In West Virginia, this woman waiting in the hospital says she overwhelmingly supports the protesting doctors but when I asked her -- how old is your daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Victoria (ph) is almost 18 months.

CASEY (on camera): OK, Victoria is 18 months. Something horrible happens, you guys have to rush her to the E.R right now. There are no surgeons working. Now how do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then, in that situation I'd probably be upset...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY: So we are in an active E.R right now. As you can see, that there are quite a few doctors in here and there are quite a few nurses, but there are no surgeons. And if you know anything about an E.R, an E.R without surgeons is a very debilitated E.R. Case in point, this morning, early this morning about 1:45 a.m., a woman needed emergency surgery. So they had to send her about an hour and a half away from here to get that surgery. That is their contingency plan.

So if anybody comes into the E.R and needs emergency surgery, they have to send them away. They will be out as long as they can. In Las Vegas, as I said, they had 10 days out before the legislature then enacted some laws. These doctors say they will do the very same.

So it's a very sticky wicket here pitting doctors against lawyers. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel because doctors have always been pitted against lawyers. But it is the patients in the end that will suffer -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Whitney Casey, Wheeling, West Virginia, thank you very much.

President Bush did a walk and talk with reporters today at his Texas ranch. Some of that was tough talk on some tough issues, including the economy, Iraq and North Korea. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is with the president in Crawford, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Good morning everybody.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yes, that's the leader of the free world.

BUSH: At least somebody's walking up here with me. I...

BASH: Pointing out the wonders of nature at his 1600-acre Texas ranch, giving reporters a brief glimpse of the place he says he comes to get away from it all. BUSH: That's all (UNINTELLIGIBLE) all the way up to the very top of those cliffs.

BASH: But for a president dealing with crises brewing around the world, there's only so far you can get. On North Korea, Mr. Bush says he still seeks a diplomatic solution, shrugging off suggestions allies in the region like South Korea and Russia are reluctant to pressure Pyongyang.

BUSH: They may be putting pressure on. You just don't know about it. But I know they're not reluctant when it comes to the idea of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.

BASH: On Iraq, more tough talk, restating his pledge to lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein if he has to.

BUSH: For 11 long years the world has dealt with him and now the -- now he's got to understand his day of reckoning is coming and therefore, he must disarm voluntarily. I hope he does.

BASH: Then there's the homefront, mindful of the perception his father focused on Iraq and not jobless Americans a decade ago, this President Bush says he'll unveil a plan next week aimed at jumpstarting the economy.

BUSH: What I'm worried about is job creation. And I'm worried about those who are unemployed. I am concerned about those who are looking for work and can't find work...

BASH: That economic package White House and congressional aides say is likely to include taxcuts on dividends for personal investors, tax breaks for businesses, and a taxcut targeting lower income Americans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And help for those on the lower end of the tax bracket could blunt criticism from Democrats who say that the president, the White House is focused on the wealthy and not the needy. The president will give what aides say will be a very detailed speech next Tuesday in Chicago -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Dana Bash near Crawford, Texas. Thanks much.

In just a few minutes, we'll take a more extensive tour of the ranch. Western White House it's called. Follow us to a place where we in the media are seldom invited. And while you wait for that, our Web question of the day is on the president and your pocketbook. What do you think will help the economy, we asked. Cutting taxes? Balancing the budget? Creating jobs? Or all of the above? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. We invite you to vote at cnn.com/wolf.

And while you're there, we'd like to hear from you. Send your comments. We'll try to read some of them at the end of the program. That's also, of course, where you can read Wolf's daily online column. I managed to put a few words there myself today. That's cnn.com/wolf.

Five weeks, 200 inspections. The evidence so far against Iraq's war making machinery. Baghdad by the numbers, when we come back.

Also, flying high? A disturbing charge against the U.S. Air Force. We'll get the lowdown from someone who knows.

And the search for answers in the disappearance of a pregnant woman in California in just a few moments, but first a news quiz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Which presidential property is the largest? President Bush's Crawford ranch? President Johnson's Texas ranch? President Reagan's Rancho del Cielo? Or Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Plantation?

The answer coming up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: As the U.S. continues a military buildup in the Persian Gulf, U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq continue to hunt for a smoking gun. But Iraqi officials insist they'll never find one. We get the story from CNN's Rym Brahimi in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At least five sites inspected today by teams of U.N. weapons experts, two of them had to do with Iraqi Air Force, one, a warehouse, another one a state company that builds drones for the Iraqi Air Force.

Now General Hossam Amin, who's the head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, the body that's the interlocutor of the U.N. weapons inspectors here on the ground briefed reporters earlier on and told them that in the five weeks that the inspectors had been going about their work here, and they have conducted some 230 inspections, well, they had found nothing. He said that this proved that claims by the U.S. and Britain that there were still weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

GEN. HOSSAM MOHAMMED AMIN, IRAQI NATIONAL MONITORING DIRECTORATE: Organizations visited all the sites that had been accused by those two administrations -- sorry -- and we think that now they are thinking that those accusations are baseless, and they were lying on this issue.

BRAHIMI: General Hossam Amin also told reporters that chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was expected in Baghdad on the third week of January. That will be a little bit before he has to address the U.N. Security Council and report on the findings of his U.N. weapons experts on the ground here. Now, earlier on in the day, Vice Prime Minister Tariq Aziz spoke to a Spanish peace delegation. He told them that the consequences of a war in Iraq would be catastrophic.

Rym Brahimi, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As North Korea's neighbors join the U.S. in searching for a diplomatic solution to the current nuclear showdown, U.S. troops on the frontline in South Korea are casting a wary eye across the border, as they have for years.

CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon reports from just outside the DMZ.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here at Camp Greaves, home of the most forward deployed battalion of the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division part of the 37,000 U.S. troops deployed here in South Korea. We're very close to North Korea at this point. Just over my shoulder, just over the hill, about three kilometers less than two miles away, is the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone.

Over that zone, the North Korean million-strong Army has 70 percent of its troops deployed near the DMZ ready to spring into action if conflict were to occur. The mission here of this battalion is specifically in the event that a conflict were to occur, to secure the safety and help to evacuate diplomats who would be on the border line of the demilitarized zone trying to negotiate a solution with the North Korean side. The assumption being that diplomacy would be used up until the very last minute.

Rebecca McKinnon, CNN, Camp Greaves, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Is the Air Force pushing its combat pilots to pop pills? That charge comes from a lawyer for one of two pilots who may be court-martialed for last April's accidental bombing of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The lawyer says their judgment may have been impaired by the amphetamines which the Air Force says are used as a fatigue management tool.

Joining me now from Tucson, Arizona is CNN military analyst retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd, a man who's flown many combat missions on many types of fighters. General Shepperd, good to have you with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Good to be here, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How common are these so-called go-pills?

SHEPPERD: Very common, Miles. It makes great headlines, but there's no mystery about this. This is something that's gone on for years. I've taken them myself on very long missions. You have pills that help you manage your rest cycle. The idea is to stay rested especially when you're on high stress missions.

Manage your sleep with sleeping pills, if necessary, and also make sure you stay awake with go-pills, if necessary. This has gone on for a long time. There's been a lot of research behind this. And this issue is part of a lawyer seeking to basically provide the best defense he can for his clients who face the possibility of very serious charges.

O'BRIEN: All right, but from a layman's perspective, General, the thought of somebody at the hands of a supersonic war machine who is so fatigued that he has to take a pill, he or she has to take a pill in order to stay alert is a bit disquieting. Should we be concerned at all?

SHEPPERD: No, I don't think you should be concerned at all. Basically, you should be concerned that people are put in these situations in combat by situations beyond their control. But worse than that is a person that is asleep at the controls. Basically these fighter missions that these people are going on from the Gulf to Afghanistan, eight, nine, 10 hours alone in a cockpit. You have to stay hydrated.

You have to manage your eating cycle. You have to manage your sleep cycle. And you want those people awake. You can take one of these things 30 minutes before you think you really need it and be wide awake at those times. And again it's not unusual. I've done it myself.

O'BRIEN: All right, General Shepperd, let's read a quick statement or an excerpt of a statement from the Air Force. And I want to get you to comment on this. The authorization for their use, referring to these so-called go-pills, Dexedrine, is time and or mission-specific. When authorized, they are only used with the air crew members informed consent after appropriate ground testing for adverse effects, and their use is completely voluntary at the discretion of the air crew member, and they also add the standard does is about 10 milligrams.

The allegation of the attorney is that these pills are essentially forced on to the pilots. If they don't take the pills, they don't get the mission.

SHEPPERD: I don't know what the current rules and situation are, but the time I was on active duty and the times that I took these pills, it was voluntary. We were pre-tested. It was explained what they were good for, what the cautions were. They're prescription medicines. You had the advice of a flight surgeon available to you at all times. And nobody was ever forced to take them. I can see people being heavily encouraged to take these in times of great stress or on long missions rather than go to sleep, but nobody ever forced us to take them, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, and the final point here, it does seem odd to some of us, once again, nonmilitary types, to have a live fire exercise under way in such close proximity to actual combat missions.

SHEPPERD: Yes, that is reportedly part of the defense of the pilots by the lawyer, saying that these pilots were not aware of the live fire exercise underneath them, had not been informed by the chain of command. Again, what's happening is charges have been proffered. Anyone can proffer charges after an investigation. Now, a Title 32 investigation is taking place to see if these people should be subjected to a court-martial where they would meet a jury of their peers, people that have been in combat, people that have flown, even some people perhaps that have taken these pills. It's a very fair justice system, Miles, lots of steps to go before these people are -- meet their ultimate fate in the justice system.

O'BRIEN: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks for helping us on this. And we'll keep you posted as this continues through the military justice system. Thanks for being with us, as always.

SHEPPERD: You bet.

O'BRIEN: Time for us to take a break. She is eight months pregnant, has been missing since Christmas Eve, and police say they do suspect foul play. We'll get the latest from California when we come back.

And later, he's a paraplegic missing for two days in the cold and snow of Canada. We'll have his amazing story ahead.

And we were browsing through a new edition of the World Almanac, and we found a little surprise. The initials are the WB, and we're not talking about a TV network.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: More than 800 tips and a $500,000-reward have done nothing so far to bring investigators closer to solving the case of a missing California woman. Twenty-seven-year-old Laci Peterson, eight months pregnant, disappeared Christmas Eve on a walk with her dog.

CNN's Ed Lavandera following the case in Modesto about 90 miles east of San Francisco -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles. Here authorities are just a short time away from a daily press briefing here as to what the latest information is involving this case. But authorities saying this morning that they fear that as more time continues to pass since Laci Peterson was last seen alive, that they're starting to fear the worse.

To be quite honestly, they've had about 1,000 tips that have been called in to authorities here to help out in this investigation. They have about 100 officers working this case. Many of those officers meeting several times throughout the day earlier this morning comparing notes and trying to get everyone on the investigative team on the same page. But clearly this case drawing the vast resources of the Modesto Police Department, in helping out trying to find Laci Peterson. They do believe strongly now that foul play is involved. They had sent a team of bloodhounds out to Laci Peterson's house and the indications they got from those dogs was that perhaps the last time she was in that area that she had gotten into a vehicle.

Her husband says that she last saw her -- he last saw her at 9:30 on the morning of Christmas Eve and that her plans were to walk the dog and then do some last minute shopping. About an hour later that dog was found with its leash on just wandering through a park a short distance away from her house. So, authorities here now starting to believe that clearly foul play is involved.

And they continue to try to urge the public to call in any information that they might have, but authorities here are quick to say that they just don't have any clear hard evidence that points them in any solid direction at this point -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ed Lavandera in Modesto. We'll be checking in with him as he monitors that news conference expected to begin very shortly.

The FBI today stepped up the search for a man on the run posting a $50,000-reward for the capture of Edward Morris. The Oregon man is accused of killing his pregnant wife and their three children about five days before Christmas. Their bodies were found in Oregon's Tillamook State Forest. The FBI says Morris was spotted in Oregon and Washington. Today his father made a desperate plea for him to surrender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MORRIS, FATHER OF SUSPECT: Edward, Marie (ph), Heather (ph), Derek (ph) and I would like to make an appeal to you to immediately surrender yourself to the closest authorities. We want you to know that we love you and we will stand by you regardless of what happens. We ask you to call 911 at the nearest phone and surrender yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: So far 600 tips have poured in. No big break, however. Authorities consider Morris armed and dangerous.

He's 17-years-old and accused of being one of the D.C. snipers. Now John Lee Malvo may have some law students and a famous teacher standing beside him. Talk about a class project. Some insight on that in a moment.

All the story of a paraplegic who went for a drive, ended up in a ditch and is now lucky to be alive. The story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to WOLF BLITZER REPORTS. I'm Miles O'Brien. coming up, help for one of the D.C. sniper suspects, but it's not your most experienced team of legal eagles. But first some other stories making news in our "News Alert."

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: The FBI is still hunting for five men who may have entered the country illegally last week. Now one of those apparently pictured in the nationwide alert is talking.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been tracking this story. She joins us live from Washington. What's the latest -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the resemblance between the FBI photo and the photo of a Pakistani jeweler is striking. Even a senior FBI official says it sure looks like him. But Asghar says he has never been in the U.S. certainly not on Christmas Eve when U.S. authorities believe five men may have tried to enter the country illegally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ASGHAR, PAKISTANI JEWELER (through translator): I was in this very market December 24. The other shop keepers will vouch for me that I was here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: FBI agents are there trying to establish whether the photo is of Asghar or not. If it is, they'll try to figure out how it showed up in their investigation. One possibility, he admits to having once obtained false travel documents, and an individual involved in forgery and smuggling was the source of the FBI photo according to an administration official. The man's name Michael John Hamdani (ph) picked up in Canada two months ago. A problem for the FBI, does this cast doubt on the other four photos it has distributed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKIP BRANDON, FMR. FBI COUNTER TERRORISM OFFICIAL: The public may tend to view the rest of the looking for the other four as it were, or looking for all five with one bad picture as -- the public may tend to view this all as bad information. I have to think that that probably is a big mistake. I do not think that we would have gone public on a national and international basis without a lot of the information being vetted and carefully considered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Despite questions about the photo the FBI is still operating on the assumption that five men may have entered the country illegally. They still don't know how, but one law enforcement says there is a quote, distinct possibility they were smuggled in through the Saint Regis Indian Reservation which straddles the New York/Ontario border. There is no concrete proof, however, that that was the root -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN,'s, Jeanne Meserve covering homeland security for us from Washington, thank you very much. Gun injuries cost America hundreds of millions of dollars a year. That is according to a study in the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine". And it says in 1997 the most recent year with complete figures, hospital charges for treating gun shot wounds topped $800 million and one-third of the victims were uninsured.

The teenage suspect in the Washington area sniper case is getting a help with his defense. A law professor and several students from Washington and Lee University have joined the defense team for 17- year-old John Malvo. Malvo and his alleged partner in the sniper slayings are both face capital murder charges in Virginia. Professor Roger Group says he opposes the death penalty in all cases. J. Albert Johnson known trial attorney who has defends among his clients Patty Hearst, F. Lee Bailey, joining us from Miami to talk to us about this case.

Johnson, good to have you with us.

J. ALBERT JOHNSON, ATTORNEY: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: How would you defend John Malvo? Lot of forensic evidence linking him to the crime.

JOHNSON: It was a terrible, terrible heinous crime. You know, we live in a country of laws and not of men. Miles, as you well known, the presumption of innocence is one of the most valued segments of our legal justice system. This guy needs every bit of defense he can get. Even the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, rebutted his presumption of innocence by saying that he deserves the most serious of all punishment, the death penalty.

O'BRIEN: That's a tough job. That's a tough case. Would you want it?

JOHNSON: It's a terrible job. Frankly, I would not want it. Primarily because the negative pretrial publicity is probably one of the worst I have ever seen in the United States. I think this guy's chances of prevailing for a fair trial even just to get a fair trial, is very limited. I think he's got a tough road to even to get a fair trial. No juror who proclaimed any lack of knowledge of this case, if a juror said, look, I can decide impartially the guilt or innocence of Malvo, he'd be a liar. Because anybody with any sense at all who had not heard about this case at this time and who had not formed conclusions about his guilt or innocence after all the publicity is simply not telling the truth.

O'BRIEN: Professor Group and the law students rushing to the aid of Malvo harkins back to -- and this was famously depicted in the movie "Reversal of Fortune" Dershowitz and some Harvard law students who got Clause Van Buerlo (ph) exonerated on appeal. I supposed, I guess it's a bad assumption to say law students won't be able to come up with novel approaches.

JOHNSON: Every lawyer needs a lot of assistance during the course of preparation for trial, and during a trial. A lawyer is not supposed to know the law, he's supposed to know how to find the law. That's what these law students will do.

They will come up with novel or maybe not so novel defenses for Malvo and it's very, very important to have the proper investigative tools and the proper research tools in order to do the job the right way.

So this guy Malvo needs not only two law students, but he needs 22 law students in order to provide the necessary research and investigation to defend him, if he is to be defended properly.

O'BRIEN: And, of course, in this case the price would be right for their time?

JOHNSON: Well, that's correct. The difficulty here is everybody's made up their mind already as to whether or not this guy is guilty or innocent. And something has to be done with the court to convince the court that this case either ought to be continued until the publicity has subsided and becomes less onerous in the minds of the public or the jurors. Or that the venue ought to be changed and I think that's silly. But certainly that the jury should be sequestered in this case.

O'BRIEN: Quickly, would you try to go for some kind of plea deal?

JOHNSON: There's no question about it. In this particular case, based upon what I know, which is no more than what has been publicized in the media, I certainly would try to plea bargain in this case. I think a trial in this case under the circumstances, which I am aware of, would be very, very difficult insofar as the forensic evidence is concerned. And if you believe the material which has been disseminated throughout the press. There is a confession. It's a very, very difficult case. He needs tall help he can get if we are to preserve the presumption of innocence.

O'BRIEN: Attorney J. Albert Johnson, thanks for the free advice. Appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Happy New Year to you.

In a moment, to the great white North we go. A paraplegic driving his pickup truck vanishes on a dark and snowy night. The bone-chilling and ultimately heart warming story lies ahead.

And to the hills of Texas we go for a guided hike down on ranch, better known as the Texas White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A blast of wintry weather had parts of Indiana socked in. The snow started falling and turned treacherous in Indianapolis where a mixture of sleet and freezing rain slicked up the roads caused a few fender benders. Much of the area remains under a snow advisory with up to 5 inches expected. The same storm system is forecasted to move into the Northeast tomorrow. Stay tuned for that.

Now the story of a 40-year-old man who endured two freezing nights in the middle of nowhere when his van got stuck in snow on a rural road. The almost victim had no cell phone and he's a paraplegic. Jason Matity of CTV News has this amazing survivor story from Saskatchewan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy new year.

JASON MATITY, CTV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm welcome for a cold brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you, buddy.

MATITY: Mike Brady was on his way home to Regina Sunday night after visiting a friend. The weather got stormy. Mike became disoriented and slid into the ditch on this rural grid road. He had only his dogs, two suckers for food and a keepsake from his niece.

MIKE BRADY, SURVIVOR: When I touch this, I thought I have to get home because there's people that love me.

MATITY (on camera): After two days of searching on the ground and in the air, Mike Brady still wasn't found. That is until one local farmer decided to look on the lesser traveled roads.

(voice-over): Larry Menke found Mike's van in the ditch in this purree (ph) trail but found Mike almost a kilometer away as he dragged himself in his wheelchair up and over the rolling hills.

LARRY MENKE, RESCUER: First time in my life time that I had an opportunity to help some fellow man.

M. BRADY: I started wheeling up that hill. I heard a truck behind me. I turned around and then started to cry.

WARNER BRADY, FATHER: I could kiss him.

MATITY: Mike's father searched for more than 24 hours for his son, an experience he's still dealing with.

W. BRADY: I got the call, I started bawling worse than a baby. I just -- out of my head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here he comes, guys.

MATITY: Mike was taken to hospital, then released. He made it home just in time to be crowned king of this New Year's party.

M. BRADY: I'd like to thank everyone that drove and flew and phoned and cared and prayed. Every year that I get to see that I wasn't sure if I was going to get to see or not.

MATITY: Warren Brady plans to buy his son a cell phone and padlock it to his steering wheel. But for now the Bradies are taking in 2003, a new year that's already better than the last.

(CHEERING)

MATITY: Jason Matity, CTV News, Regina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Now that's a New Year's celebration.

Strap up the boots, put on the hat. When we come back, we'll take a walk on the ranch with the ranch hand-in-chief, President Bush.

Also, who in the world is in "The New World Almanac?" We'll give you a clue. He often sits in this seat.

First some other stories making "News Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Death in the Middle East. Israeli troops kill three Palestinian teenagers scaling a fence around some Jewish settlements. The boys were carrying a knife and two cutters. And a relative said they dreamed of staging attacks on Israelis.

Production prediction. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his country's oil industry will be back at full production within 45 days. Venezuela is dissent with a crippling general strike. Chavez is asking Brazil to help by sending replacement workers.

High hopes. China says it plans to put a man into space by the end of the year. Beijing has had an active space program for some time, but manned flight would put China into an exclusive club with the U.S. and Russia.

Treacherous travel. UNICEF is using donkeys to carry school books and stationary to remote Northern Afghanistan. The materials will be used to educate the children of Afghan nomads who have moved to the mountains for winter.

Emperor's greeting. Despite being diagnosed with prostate cancer last week, Japan's emperor, Akihito, made his traditional public appearance to wish his people a happy new year. The 69-year-old is supposed to have surgery this month, but doctors say he has a good chance of a full recovery.

Cheaper by the dozen. Talk about togetherness. At least 20 couples tied the knot at a mass marriage in Northwestern India. Mass weddings are being promoted to low-income Indian couples as an alternative to the dowry system which requires the bride's parents to make large payments to the bridegroom. And that's our look "Around the World."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN (voice-over): Earlier we asked which presidential property is the largest? The answer, Monticello Plantation with 5,000 acres. President Bush's Crawford Ranch comes next with 1,600 acres.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: President Bush continuing his vacation at the ranch in Crawford. As we reported earlier he took reporters for a little tour today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Let's go. Tell you what we'll do. We'll walk about three, four miles, then we'll end up having coffee. Mrs. Bush wants to say hello to everybody.

O'BRIEN (voice-over): It's his home away from the White House. You won't find a rose garden here.

BUSH: It's a little muddy.

O'BRIEN: But then again this is winter at the ranch in Crawford. The president, who runs six minute miles, slowed his pace when talking with reporters, but not his enthusiasm.

BUSH: It's part of the fun to be outside working. I really enjoy it. All right. Retreat. I'll show you some more country.

O'BRIEN: On the nearly 1,600 acres the Bushes call home, there are fields, woods and waterways, some the president had to fix up when he bought the property in 1999.

BUSH: Put these crossings here so that we could drive across. I put some fish in here farther up where there's a big deep pool. It's fun to come down here and fly fish.

The issue of research involving stem cells derived from human embryos...

O'BRIEN: America has seen snapshots of the living quarters. During his famous stem cell address, he spoke from the home they still call the Governor's House, where guests now stay.

And when he hosted Crown Prince Abdullah, we saw the front of the ranch, finished right around the election in 2000. It's ecologically friendly, complete with a tin roof that captures rain water used to irrigate the property.

This serene land offers the president some time to reflect and be a normal pickup-driving rancher. He routinely clears brush, a la Ronald Reagan. Normally President Bush keeps the place to himself and his family.

BUSH: Are you going to come and have coffee or you write your stories?

O'BRIEN: We in the media far beyond the barbed wire. And who can blame him?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Well on the nature trail we're sorry we didn't get a glimpse of President Bush's cows, Ophelia, Ellie and Logan. They are named after Bush's staffers when he was a governor. You can see a picture of Ophelia on the White House Web site. We are assuming having a cud-chewing, lethargic animal named after you is a compliment down there in Texas.

There's an interesting entry in this year's "World Almanac and Book of Facts" and we wanted to share it with you. On page 303, look it up in a list entitled "Widely Known Americans of the Present," there's a familiar name, one Wolf Blitzer.

We suspect that if Wolf were in his regular spot hosting his program today, he'd be too modest to toot his own horn. But since he's on vacation, we'll do it for him. I'm not too humble to tell you that I have been listed in several phone books.

Time's running out for your turn to weigh in on "Our Question of the Day." What do you think will help the economy? Cutting taxes, balancing the budget, creating jobs, all of the above? Log on to cnn.com/wolf to vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Back now to the story we told you at the top of the newscast, the disappearance of Laci Peterson Christmas Eve. Police in Modesto, California, still searching for clues. Had a briefing just a few moments ago. They said they were continuing their pursuit of known sex offenders in the area. Indicated some other investigative techniques and then told reporters to use the media for their -- to provide assistance.

Offering a few pieces of information about Scott Peterson, Laci's husband. His statement was that on Christmas Eve he went fishing 85 miles away off the coast of California. And the police are interested in finding out if anybody saw his pickup truck or his boat. Let's listen in to the Lieutenant Doug Ridenour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. DOUG RIDENOUR, MODESTO POLICE: What we're asking the community and the media to do is get the description of this pickup and boat trailer out to the community to find out if anybody has seen the pickup or boat between Sunday, December 23 until through Christmas. And if they have, they can contact the police department because we need additional information regarding the whereabouts of the pickup and trailer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. So we'll keep you posted on that. Police in Modesto, California, asking the public to provide them any information about that pickup truck and that boat. We'll keep you posted on that.

Now, here's how you're weighing in on "Our Web Question of the Day." Remember, we've been asking you this: what do you think will help the economy? Eleven percent of you say cutting taxes, 20 percent say balancing the budget, 25 say creating jobs and 44 say do all the above. This is not, of course, a scientific poll.

That's all the time we have for today. Please join us tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. And don't forget "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" weekdays at noon Eastern. Until then thanks very much for watching. I'm Miles O'Brien in for Wolf Blitzer. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" up next. Kitty Pilgrim sitting in for Lou.

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Police Suspect Foul Play in Case of Missing Modesto Woman>