MacVicar, Daniel Sieberg, Chip Reid, Michelle Miller
xfdcb CBS-EVENING-NEWS-01
<Show: CBS EVENING NEWS>
<Date: November 12, 2009>
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<Time: 18:30>
<Tran: 111201cb.401>
<Type: SHOW>
<Head: EVENING NEWS for November 12, 2009, CBS>
<Sect: News; Domestic>
<Byline: Katie Couric, Don Teague, Dr. Jon LaPook, Jim Axelrod,
Sheila MacVicar, Daniel Sieberg, Chip Reid, Michelle Miller>
<Spec: Politics; Policies; Government>
KATIE COURIC, CBS ANCHOR: Tonight, the picture of the H1N1 epidemic is getting clearer. A lot more Americans have come down with it and died of it than we knew. Meanwhile, the British may have a better system for fighting that flu.I'm Katie Couric.
Also tonight, the president tells his war planners, go back to the drawing board. He's not happy with their proposals for Afghanistan and asks for more options-- meaning further delay.
What's left of Ida batters the East Coast, knocking out power to tens of thousands.
And surfing on the job. While some employers are cracking down, others say it's the new way to do business.
ANNOUNCER: This is the CBS EVENING NEWS with Katie Couric.
COURIC: And good evening, everyone.
It's a lot more widespread than they thought. Federal health officials today put out new numbers for the H1N1 flu. They showed 22 million Americans have come down with it so far, and nearly 4,000 have died, including 540 children. But the officials say the higher numbers do not mean the epidemic is getting worse, we're just getting a much more accurate count.
Here's Dr. Jon LaPook.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. JON LAPOOK, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Today's numbers are about four times higher than what the CDC reported just six days ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I know!
DR. ANNE SCHUCHAT, CDC: Our estimates, we believe, give us a better estimate of how much disease, hospitalization, and death there is.
LAPOOK: The government now believes roughly eight million children have come down with the virus. In addition to the 540 who have died, 36,000 have been hospitalized. Among adults 18 to 64, there were an estimated 12 million cases, 53,000 hospitalizations, and almost 3,000 deaths.
SCHUCHAT: What we are seeing in 2009 is unprecedented.
LAPOOK: But the agency insists the outbreak hasn't actually worsened. Instead, the numbers now include cases that previously had been missed.
MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: We have underreporting of cases for several reasons. Not all patients who actually die from this are detected, meaning they don't even realize, the hospitals, that's what they have. In some cases they suspect it, but can't confirm it because the right tests weren't done. Or third of all because of the fact that it just doesn't get into the system.
LAPOOK: Still, the 3,900 estimated deaths are only about one-tenth of what we usually see in a typical entire flu season.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAPOOK: The CDC said the supply of H1N1 vaccine continues to increase. As of today, almost 40 million dose are available. Katie?
COURIC: Dr. Jon LaPook. Jon, thank you.
Meanwhile, the East Coast is (AUDIO GAP). Remnants of tropical storm Ida hit the mid-Atlantic states with gail force winds, high tides, heavy rain and flooding. Roads were washed out, beaches washed away. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power and there could be worse to come. National correspondent Jim Axelrod is on the New Jersey shore tonight, and, Jim, this storm is really dangerous.
JIM AXELROD, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Katie, seven people have died so far in this storm, plus three commercial fishermen are missing off the coast here in New Jersey, where, despite what it looks like, the worst of the storm still hasn't hit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AXELROD: The Coast Guard is still searching for the fishermen, whose boat sank 20 miles east of Cape May, New Jersey. So far search teams have recovered an empty life raft. One of the missing men is 75.
LT. JOAN SNAITH, U.S. COAST GUARD: We'll continue to search as long as the possibility of survivability exists.
AXELROD: The storm is made up of remnants of tropical storm Ida, combining with a powerful nor'easter to give it a nasty kick as it moves very slowly up the East Coast.
DAVID BERNARD, METEOROLOGIST: While it's strengthening, it's also really not moving, so the same areas are getting pounded over and over again, and it doesn't look like it's going to move much for the next 24 to 48 hours.
AXELROD: Virginia seems hardest hit so far. The governor has declared a state of emergency there. Close to 200 roads are closed as well as several bridges, tunnels, and portions of a couple of interstates.
Wind gusts hit 67 miles per hour in Virginia, leaving 90,000 without power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty scary, actually. But cool at the same time.
AXELROD: Gusts up to 35 miles per hour knocked out power to more than 72,000 customers in North and South Carolina. Winds also hit 56 miles per hour near Ocean City, Maryland, and Delaware is expected to get gusts up to 60 miles per hour tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feels like it's a hurricane, 50 mile, 80 mile an hour winds, huh?
AXELROD: But the worst may actually come after the storm has swept through.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now I am getting nervous.
AXELROD: The winds may die down, but the heavy rains threaten to swell coastal rivers and bays and produce inland flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will probably rise yet. It's probably not done rising.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AXELROD: Here in New Jersey, the next high tide is expected a few minutes before 6:00 tomorrow morning. That's the one they're going to be watching most closely to see just how bad the coastal flooding and the beach erosion could get. Katie?
COURIC: Jim Axelrod reporting from the Jersey shore tonight. Thanks, Jim.
Turning now to the massacre at Fort Hood. The Army today brought murder charges against the alleged gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. And President Obama is ordering the FBI, the Pentagon, and other agencies to examine all the information they had about Hasan and whether it was handled properly. Don Teague is at Fort Hood tonight with the latest on the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON TEAGUE, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Today the bodies of those killed in last week's shooting rampage began returning to their home towns, even as officials announced charges against the alleged killer, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
CHRIS GREY, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION, U.S. ARMY: Has been charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder.
TEAGUE: Authorities have not filed terrorism charges against Hasan, but say the investigation is far from over.
GREY: We are aggressively following every possible lead.
TEAGUE: Including who Hasan communicated with, like the radical cleric in Yemen who exchanged up to 20 e-mails with Hasan and declared him a hero after the shootings.
Outrage continues to build that intelligence agencies intercepted those messages as early as last year, but took no further action. Meanwhile, published reports are painting a clearer picture of a man whose colleagues found so extreme in his Islamic views, some believed he could be delusional. But they worried taking action against him might be considered discrimination.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think we ought to make sure that political correctness never impedes national security.
TEAGUE: And what did Hasan do with his $90,000 annual salary? Video from inside his humble apartment shows he didn't spend it on creature comforts. But apparently, he did spend money on business cards with the letters SOA beneath his name, common initials among jihadist groups for soldiers of Allah. Though empty packaging reveals he may have recently bought a gun-mounted laser site like the one pictured here.
Still, even with a laser, Hasan was no match for two civilian police officers who stopped him, including Sergeant Mark Todd.
SGT MARK TODD: I got his attention, then he fired on me and then I neutralized him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TEAGUE: As for the intelligence review ordered by President Obama, that information is due to the White House by November 30. Katie?
COURIC: Don Teague in Killeen, Texas, tonight. Thank you.
Now the road ahead in Afghanistan. It appeared at the beginning of this week that President Obama had finally made up his mind. He was about to agree to a huge troop increase. But that has apparently changed. The president has rejected all the proposals his war planners have given him. Chip Reid in Tokyo is traveling with the president, and, Chip, this has really been a long, drawn out process.
CHIP REID, CBS CORRESPONDENT: You've got that right, Katie. The president has been agonizing over this decision for two months already, and now he's sending the Pentagon back to the drawing board.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REID: On the way to Japan today, the president stopped in Alaska to refuel and spend time with the troops at Elmendorf Air Force base.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Today we also send our thoughts and prayers to all those who at this very moment are serving on the front lines.
REID: The visit comes one day after the president told his war council he's not happy with any of the Pentagon's four options for sending between 10,000 and 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Sources say the president is especially concerned that the options fail to include an exit strategy and a timeline for turning over control to Afghan forces, fail to make clear the U.S. commitment is not open-ended, and fail to address mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai.
Concerns about Karzai took on new importance with reports that General Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, has expressed deep concern about sending more troops until Karzai shows he'll fight the corruption now crippling the Afghan government. Eikenberry, the top general in Afghanistan two years ago, has now joined Vice President Joe Biden in resisting General Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops.
The president has now held eight lengthy meetings in the situation room on Afghanistan. More are expected. And he's recently immersed himself in the agony of war, honoring the fallen at Dover Air Force base, and, on Veterans Day, walking through Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
That the president is so thoroughly researching such a critical decision is a good thing, according to CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate, but there's great danger, he says, if it looks like uncertainty.
JUAN ZARATE, CBS NEWS: It's the body language of indecision or the perception of indecision that may matter more in some ways. Matters in terms of how our allies view our sense of resolve in Afghanistan, how our enemies perceive our willingness to have backbone in whatever decision is made.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
REID: And there's another problem for the president. Instead of this being debated in the situation room, it's all over the front pages. Today Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he's appalled by the amount of leaking.
COURIC: And, Chip, when is the president expected to make his decision?
REID: Well, the earliest that we could hear this decision from the president is 10 days from now, when he returns from Asia. But we're told it could still be several weeks. Katie?
COURIC: Chip Reid reporting from Tokyo tonight. Thank you, Chip.
One more note on Afghanistan. A big effort is under way to provide better protection for U.S. troops against roadside bombs. They account for as many as 80 percent of the casualties there.
Today, Defense Secretary Gates visited the Wisconsin plant where the new M-ATV is being built. Like the MRAP used in Iraq, it's blast resistant, but the M-ATV is lighter and easier to maneuver and better suited for Afghanistan's rough terrain. The Pentagon hopes to have 5,000 of the vehicles there by spring.
Coming up next right here on the CBS EVENING NEWS, the Internet invades the workplace, and some employers say maybe they should embrace it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: More and more of our lives these days are spent on the Internet. Is that a good thing? It is for a New York teenager. He was arrested as a suspect in a Brooklyn robbery, but an electronic investigation found that at the time of the crime, he was on a computer miles away, updating his Facebook page. So, case dismissed.
What about the time we spend surfing the net at work, though? Is that good for business? Maybe. Here's science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CBS CORRESPONDENT: At this Dallas office that helps seniors decide where to live, accountant Allison Thomas is free to surf the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was definitely just a distraction that was always there.
SIEBERG: But every keystroke she makes can be seen by the company's technology officer, thanks to computer monitoring software.
STACEE HOWSE, DIRECTOR, NEW LIFESTYLES: I can see what Web site they're using, along with what Web site they are going to and how long they've been to that Web site.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's made me more aware of what I'm doing now that they can see every site I go to.
SIEBERG: While not popular with workers, the company claims productivity is up 30 percent in just seven months.
HOWSE: Some employees were using the Internet two to three hours a day for personal use. We've gone down to about 45 minutes to an hour a day.
SIEBERG: In the American workplace, two out of three have access to the Internet on the job. That's 65 million people. We spend an average of an hour and a half online during the work day, but many of the sites we visit don't seem very job-oriented. Eight of the top 10 most popular sites viewed during work hours include personal e-mail, like Gmail, and video sharing like Youtube.
But the overwhelming favorite is Facebook, where people chat and post photos.
JOSHUA-MICHELE ROSS, TECHNOLOGY ANALYST: They kind of are addictive by nature. They make you go back to them.
SIEBERG: Many businesses seem worried. A survey of 1,400 companies found that nearly 80 percent of them monitor employees or impose strict guidelines.
But a growing number of companies are finding that socializing online doesn't have to mean a drain on productivity. In fact, it can become a new way of doing business.
ROSS: My belief is that we're just starting to see the workplace productivity benefits from social technologies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's got to be a note issue going on.
SIEBERG: One company trying to capitalize is cable provider Comcast. A small team led by Frank Eliason (ph) gets paid to use sites like Twitter, which sends short messages between users, to answer customer complaints, even during our interview.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm actually writing to customers that have private messaged me via Twitter.
SIEBERG: Nearly 30,000 people follow what Eliason writes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It builds these personal relationships.
SIEBERG: Back in Allison Thomas' office, a ban on Facebook was recently lifted. A cautious experiment.
HOWSE: We just have realized it is something that kind of you have to do in this time and day and age.
SIEBERG: With more of our everyday lives tied to the Internet, it's further proof that the workplace needs to keep pace.
Daniel Sieberg, CBS News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: Now, when you come home from work, you can always play video games, and the latest Call of Duty war game is setting records. Since going on sale Tuesday, nearly five million copies have been sold in North America and Britain alone, $310 million in sales. The game is meant for adults. Players shoot their way through graphic, sometimes jarring war scenes.
In other news, has this ever happened to you? You make a small purchase with your debit card and accidentally overdraw your account. The purchase goes through, but the bank hits you with a big overdraft fee. Today, the government announced a new rule. Starting next July, banks won't be able to give you overdraft protection unless you authorize it.
Coming up next, H1N1 flu shots without the hassle and the lines. How do the British do it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: We want to go back now to the H1N1 flu because the CDC is expected to pull out a full report tomorrow on where the vaccine can be found. For many people, it's been a frustrating search, with supplies short and distribution left to a patchwork of state and local authorities. But across the ocean, Sheila MacVicar tells us Britain may have a better way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHEILA MACVICAR, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Across the United States, getting vaccinated against swine flu has meant the frustration of hours waiting on line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for waiting. You're in. Thank you.
MACVICAR: Contrast that with this, the quiet calm of a British doctor's office where it's vaccination by invitation only.
DR. CLAIRE QUIGGIN, GENERAL PRACTITIONER, CHATFIELD SURGERY: Of course we have to get the highest priority patients done first.
MACVICAR: Everyone here got a phone call from their doctor because they have an underlying medical condition. She is pregnant. He is diabetic. Jane Theophilos (ph) takes medication that depresses her immune system.
Why is getting this vaccine important to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It wasn't. I was told to come.
MACVICAR: The centralization of Britain's National Health Service, the NHS, means every at-risk person can be identified. Each NHS medical practice got 500 doses of vaccine, a first wave, to vaccinate the most vulnerable first. Dr. Steve Field is a British GP and a Harvard professor.
DR. STEVE FIELD: In the United States, I get the feeling often that it's about survival of the fittest, survival of those with money of those, perhaps, who don't have money. I just think the system here is much more equal for people.
MACVICAR: There's no panic about supply because there will be plenty to go around. For years, vaccines in Europe have included additives that enable a smaller amount of vaccine to make more doses.
DR. TARIT MUKHOPADHYAY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON: There will be enough vaccine, so we've now moved from an area of blind panic to almost one of complacency.
MACVICAR: For every one vaccine dose in the U.S., there are four in the U.K. Additives are not used in the U.S. because Americans worry about their safety. After a peak early this summer, Britain is also seeing the number of H1N1 cases decline, good news that's leading to a much more relaxed attitude. While some people are still getting very sick, for most, it's a relatively mild illness. After predicting 65,000 swine flu deaths in July, Britain's government has revised its worst-case scenario death toll downwards to 1,000, and that's lower than the toll from seasonal flu. Sheila MacVicar, CBS News, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: And coming up next, his life got off to a very rough start, but his story has a Hollywood ending.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: We end tonight with a young man who appeared to be on the road to nowhere. But Michelle Miller tells us a chance meeting along that road changed his life forever and took him places he never could have dreamed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE MILLER, CBS CORRESPONDENT: The story begins on the lonely streets of West Memphis and ends in the suburban mansion on the affluent side of town. But what happens in between is a story made for Hollywood.
MICHAEL OHER: Not too many people come out where I'm from.
MILLER: With a drug-addicted mom and a dad he'd never met, a homeless 16-year-old Michael Oher was struggling to stay in school. He had a .6 grade point average, but a strong will to make something of himself. Then came a brisk November day in 2002.
Where did you first see him?
LEIGH ANNE TUOHY, MOTHER: Actually walking down this street.
MILLER: When the shy teenager met the woman he'd eventually call mom.
TUOHY: It wasn't a fluke that Michael was on this street the minute we were driving down it. That's just fate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any place to stay tonight? come on.
MILLER: In the new movie The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock plays Leanne Anne Tuohy, the tough, no-nonsense mother of two who took Michael Oher under her wing. From that day on, Michael became part of the Tuohy family.
SEAN TUOHY, FATHER: He was the most obvious success waiting to happen. And still it wasn't going to happen.
MILLER: To ensure he would succeed, the Tuohys opened their home and found him a tutor. Michael was determined to graduate.
L. TUOHY: He had just been passed on from grade to grade with zero foundation.
MILLER: The 6'4", 300-pounder also began to tackle the gridiron.
HUGH FREEZE, FOOTBALL COACH: You very seldom see in the game of football a kid that has that size that can stay on his feet throughout plays.
MILLER: And as we see in the movie, Leanne always played coach.
L. TUOHY: Tony here is your quarter back, all right? You protect his blind side. When you look at him, you think of me, how you have my back.
MILLER: By his senior year, Michael became the most sought-after offensive lineman in the nation. He went on to Ole Miss, his parents' alma mater.
And in the spring of this year...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Baltimore Ravens select Michael Oher.
MILLER: ...he became a first round draft pick with a $13 million contract.
OHER: Every day, so -- it's a dream come true. I've always been a big fan of the NFL. I always, you know, it's always been important to me.
MILLER: And every day, Michael Oher is thankful the Tuohys took a chance on him.
OHER: I love them to death. Without them, I definitely wouldn't be where I am.
MILLER: Michelle Miller, CBS News, Memphis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: That story gives me the chills. And that is the CBS EVENING NEWS for tonight. I'm Katie Couric. Thanks for watching. I'll see you tomorrow, and for the very latest news, go to cbsnews.com. Good night.
END
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