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Quick Guide & Transcript: Presidential press conference, Bird flu
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CNN STUDENT NEWS(CNN Student News) -- October 5, 2005 Quick GuideWhat Bush Faces - Hear how the president feels about the challenges facing him in his second term. Avian Flu - Discuss whether there's any cause for alarm in the U.S. regarding bird flu. Rebuilding New Orleans - See some reasons why New Orleans' sanitation and public safety employees are exempt from city layoffs. TranscriptTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: You're midway through the week, and this is CNN Student News! I'm Monica Lloyd. A busy schedule: The president works to promote a Supreme Court nominee, assist in hurricane recovery, and encourage support for his foreign policy. A possible threat: Bird flu has not reached U.S. shores, but American officials are asking "what if," and taking steps to keep it grounded. And high feline fashion: A cat show in Lithuania proves looking your best can take more than a fur coat. First Up: What Bush Faces LLOYD: President Bush is calling on the Senate to vote on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, by Thanksgiving. Now Miers has no experience as a judge, but she doesn't need that experience to be confirmed. But while Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said he'd support Miers, some other lawmakers are hesitant to vote for someone without a proven judicial track record. And convincing them to do so is just one issue keeping the president busy. Suzanne Malveaux describes some of the other items on the president's plate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN REPORTER: Under fire from both the left and the right over his Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, President Bush defended his pick. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: She's a woman of enormous accomplishment, she is, she understands the law, she's got a keen mind, she will not legislate from the bench. MALVEAUX: A big concern among some conservatives who suspect Miers may tip the balance of the court. Mr. Bush repeatedly tried to reassure them that won't be the case. BUSH: She shares my philosophy that judges should strictly interpret the laws and the Constitution of the United States." MALVEAUX: The wide-ranging press conference was aimed at helping the president regain his political footing. Since his last one in may he's been hit with...rising gas prices, sinking poll numbers, and violence in Iraq. A Republican leadership charged with wrong-doing and scathing criticism over his own handling of Hurricane Katrina. Today, he gave mixed reviews for the ongoing recovery efforts and continued to hold himself accountable to the government's missteps. BUSH: I'll take all responsibility for the failures at the federal level. MALVEAUX: But he also expressed disappointment for the first time, that those failures may have affected his standing with the African American community, who his party had been courting heavily, especially during his re-election campaign. BUSH: I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African American community. I was. I've done my best to elevate people to positions of authority and responsibility. MALVEAUX: While Mr. Bush implored Americans to support his foreign policy in Iraq, he admitted the centerpiece of his domestic policy, reforming social security has stalled. BUSH: Social security, for me, is never off; it's a long-term problem that's going to need to be addressed. when the appetite to address it is---that's going to be up to the members of Congress." (END VIDEO CLIP) Fast Facts CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS REPORTER: Time for some Fast Facts! Avian influenza, or bird flu, mainly affects birds and pigs, though it can be transmitted to humans. The disease was first identified more than 100 years ago in Italy... But the first documented cases of human infection occurred in Hong Kong in 1997 and prompted authorities to destroy Hong Kong's entire poultry population. Human cases of bird flu are rare and not always deadly. Symptoms include fever, cough, and sore throat. Avian Flu LLOYD: ...but the birds that become infected can have a mortality, or death rate, as high as one-hundred percent. That's according to the World Health Organization, which monitors disease outbreaks worldwide. So far, there've been no cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu; the only way we could get it is through contact with infected birds. And though the disease hasn't turned up in the United States, Brian Todd shows us how U.S. officials are taking no chances. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER: A lethal strain that's killed roughly 5-dozen people in Asia, with no confirmed cure, no fully-developed vaccine, has the president openly discussing worst-case scenarios. What if the avian flu spread to the United States? U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you then enforce a quarantine? One option is the use of the military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. TODD: President Bush acknowledges, some governors don't like the idea. And the head of the American Public Health Association says quarantining one region, or even a community, would be, in his words, 'extraordinarily difficult.' DR. GEORGES BENJAMIN, EXEC DIR., AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION: The more likely thing is that the outbreak is going to be in multiple places at one time. The odds against you being able to get the whole community quarantined and containing infection in that way is probably not going to happen. TODD: And, says Dr. Georges Benjamin, the U.S. military's medical corps is stretched too thin to be effectively-deployed for a quarantine. Dr. Benjamin says the public health system should handle any U.S. outbreak, and he supports measures the administration has already taken: Bolstering research... stockpiling vaccines that are in development, and anti-virals for people who already have avian flu. World Health Organization officials say historically, quarantines have worked only to delay pandemics. But they say that delay could be valuable if a deadly-strain is on the move. DICK THOMPSON, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Suddenly a large group of people would become very sick, many of them requiring hospitalization. They could overwhelm health care systems in many countries. TODD: So far, according to the World Health Organization, human cases of avian flu are now confined to four countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. How close is this strain to spreading to the United States? Officials at the WHO and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say there's no way to know for sure. An official at the Centers for Disease Control says it's possible, but unlikely. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO CLIP) Shoutout AZUZ: Time for the Shoutout! Which geographic term best describes the country of Indonesia? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Isthmus B) Island C) Peninsula D) Archipelago You've got three seconds -- GO! Indonesia is an archipelago, which means it's made up of a group of islands -- not just one island. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout! Rebuilding New Orleans LLOYD: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says as many as 3,000 city workers will be laid off this weekend as a result of financial hardship caused by Hurricane Katrina. Public safety and sanitation employees will keep their jobs, for reasons explained by JJ Ramberg. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JJ RAMBERG, CNN REPORTER: Former president Bill Clinton visiting the Gulf Coast. He's spending two days meeting with victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as local officials to determine how best to spend the 100 million dollars raised by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What we tried to do is set up a system that will help people solve problems in the short run, that the government won't fund or can't fund, or help people that are fallen between the cracks. RAMBERG: As business owners continue to return to New Orleans, they face a number of hurdles -- lack of clean water, no electricity in some areas and finding people to replace employees who have been scattered across the country. JOEL DONDIS, THE JOEL COMPANIES: We put up the papers with pull tabs, you know, call here for a job, we've increased hourly rate, everything possible we can to find people, it has just be kinda tough. RAMBERG: Officials estimate they'll have to haul 22 million tons of trash out of New Orleans as residents come home and start the cleaning up process. That's equivalent to 200 football fields.. piled 50 feet high. ANTHONY JONES, TRASH WORKER: There's trash everywhere. RAMBERG: The Army Corps of Engineers has closed two canals near the Ninth Ward...Fearing strong winds and high tides could cause more problems. Other signs of progress here, more than a third of New Orleans now has power, and some neighborhoods may even have clean drinking water as early as next week. In New Orleans, for CNN Student News, I'm JJ Ramberg. (END VIDEO CLIP) Promo LLOYD: With all our coverage of hurricanes in recent weeks, we're sure you've got a few questions about them. Ever wonder about how hurricanes form, or why warm water makes them stronger? Send your question to our meteorologist Chad Myers, and we may answer it in an upcoming show! Just have your teacher submit your question at CNN.com/EDUCATION. You can use the "Ask Chad" link right on the front page! Be sure to include the name of your school in the e-mail! Before We Go LLOYD: Before we go... You cat lovers might have been to a show like this before. But did it feature this much kitty couture? The "modeling" category at this event in Lithuania, gave fashionable felines the chance to don some dapper duds down the catwalk. Of course, not everyone was purring over the idea; just 25 of the 160 competing cats, wore more than its fur. And some didn't even have that! But the winner, a Maine Coon cat from Poland, warmed hearts with its thick coat. Goodbye LLOYD: And that's the tail end of today's show. For CNN Student News, I'm Monica Lloyd. Headline News is just around the corner with more stories. 
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