Lawmakers Confront Recess Health-Care Protests; Sotomayor Takes Oath as Supreme Court Justice; Budget Cuts Threaten Sick Girl's Care
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hello, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING, looking out over downtown Atlanta. What a beautiful site with all the lights. The sun will be coming up very shortly. It is August 9, and we do appreciate you joining us. Hello, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, the days are getting shorter already.</s>NGUYEN: I know.</s>MARCIANO: I think this time a month ago we'd maybe see a little bit of daylight already. But...</s>NGUYEN: Already, huh?</s>MARCIANO: Yes. Summer's almost over, my friend.</s>MARCIANO: Hey, I'm Rob Marciano, in today for T.J. Holmes. It's 6 a.m. here in Atlanta; 3 a.m. in Chino, California. Overnight, we've learned a fourth body has been found in the Hudson River after a tourist helicopter and a small plane collided. We'll have more on that.</s>NGUYEN: Also want you to take a look at this fire. It is inside a California prison where we are getting information about inmates rioting. Plus, the health-care debate.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I read the House - the House health-care plan and have found that much of what they're telling me is not true.</s>NGUYEN: Members holding health-care town-hall meetings are getting an earful. But let's start with a developing story out of New York. That tragedy over the Hudson River and the search for victims. Nine people are believed dead after a tourist helicopter and a small plane collided.</s>MARCIANO: Three bodies have been pulled from the water. The body of a fourth victim in the wreckage of that chopper has not yet been removed. The search for the missing resumes this morning. CNN's Susan Candiotti has more.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the sun set, divers who could barely see in the murky waters of the Hudson promised to resume work in the morning, painstakingly looking for victims and wreckage in up to 50 feet of water.</s>COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: The ability to see is - is - is very limited, two to three feet at most.</s>CANDIOTTI: On a bright, sunny day, it was hard to understand why a small plane and sightseeing helicopter should collide over the Hudson River.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just very shocked. I think I was screaming for a few seconds, and then two of us, we start calling 911.</s>CANDIOTTI: The small plane with one pilot and two passengers, including a child, took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, and turned south over the Hudson. At the same time, five Italian tourists lifted off for a sightseeing tour in a helicopter.</s>COLIN RICH, WITNESSED CRASH: There was a plane, a small plane like a Cessna, cutting back towards the New Jersey side, the helicopter heading southbound, about 1,100, 1,200 feet. The plane rolled into the helicopter, hit the side of it. The helicopter went straight down into the water. There was, like, a poof of smoke, and like a bang. And the plane went further down, hit the water.</s>CANDIOTTI: Italian tourists who stayed behind waiting for their friends and family were stunned.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They told me that they had some relatives, not friends, but relatives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But - so they're inside the wall right now?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, but we don't know anything. Because we asked, what - if they are alive.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. But what did they say?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No bodies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were they crying? Were they...</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no. They are very sad, but they are not crying.</s>CANDIOTTI: The NTSB says that just before the accident happened, another pilot on the ground saw the plane approaching and tried to radio a warning to the helicopter pilot.</s>DEBBIE HERSHMAN, CHMN., NATL. TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: There was no response from the pilot. He stated that he saw the right wing of the airplane contact the helicopter. He saw helicopter parts and the right wing fall, and both aircraft descended into the Hudson River.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): Because of darkness and a strong current, the search for more victims has been called off for the night. Two debris fields and a possible third have been located, as investigators try to find out why this horrific accident happened. Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.</s>NGUYEN: All right. So we are told that all three of the recovered bodies were onboard that small plane. They've been identified as Steve Altman (ph), the owner and the pilot; his brother Daniel (ph) and nephew Douglas (ph).</s>MARCIANO: We're going to have a live report from Susan Candiotti in the next hour of SUNDAY MORNING. All right. Our iReporters also staying on top of this hour. This story - Jim Davidson sent us these photos from the scene. He leaves just a few blocks from the river on the Jersey side, and he says he heard what sounded like a car backfiring or - or some fireworks. He says he didn't think much of it at the time, until someone called to tell him about the crash. If you are an eyewitness to news, send us an iReport. Our address, to remind you, is iReport.com.</s>NGUYEN: Well, hot weather and some hot tempers. It is a make-or- break for health-care reform, and for once, the battleground isn't in Washington. In fact, it's right in your own backyard.</s>MARCIANO: Yes, lawmakers are holding town-hall meetings back home during the congressional recess. Some, mostly Democrats, are finding angry crowds ready to pounce over their plans to reform health care. Arizona, Texas, Iowa, Tennessee - states across the country with similar scenes yesterday.</s>NGUYEN: Yes. Town-hall meetings are usually quiet affairs. But now, it is hard for some lawmakers to even get a word out, as Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin found out yesterday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reads like something that was brought up in the early 1930s in Germany. It is not</s>NGUYEN: All right. Well, it was standing-room only for Harkin at a Des Moines medical center. And while reform opponents weren't the only ones in the crowd, they were perhaps the loudest.</s>MARCIANO: Yes, Harkin repeated the Democrats' line on these disruptions, that they're a coordinated effort by reform opponents. Conservatives have encouraged people to come out, but the Republican Party denies any responsibility. Many in the crowd will tell you they just want their voices heard.</s>JOHN KURR, HEALTH-CARE-REFORM OPPONENT: I think he heard that there is a lot of people out here angry that Congress proposes bills, doesn't read them. And then when the people out here read them, Congress gets angry that we're reading the bills.</s>SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: I think when people get the right information, and they know what we're trying to do and how this is going to all wash out - I'm not saying 100 percent of the American people will be for it, but I think the vast majority of the American people will see this as a good thing, to change the system that we have.</s>NGUYEN: Well, for the most part, town halls are going much smoother for Republicans. But Democrats who think they can skip these scenes all together might find protesters waiting for them in other spots. Mm-hmm. Jared Dillingham from our affiliate KTVK tells us why there may be no escaping the health-care debate.</s>JARED DILLINGHAM, KTVK CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The group outside Representative Harry Mitchell's office was there to protest the current health-care bill.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just mad as hell.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disdain for the health-care bill.</s>DILLINGHAM: They say the reform is too expensive and too intrusive.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are Americans and we should be able to make the decisions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm afraid that Obama's going to bankrupt the country.</s>DILLINGHAM: Others demanded Mitchell host a forum so they could air their concerns in person over the health-care bill.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he might be leaning towards voting for it, but I - I don't know for sure. I'm just asking him to please listen to the people here and understand that we do not want this.</s>DILLINGHAM: Republican Representative John Shadegg did hold a town-hall meeting in Scottsdale.</s>REP. JOHN SHADEGG (R), ARIZONA: Good morning. Wow.</s>DILLINGHAM: Right off the bat, Shadegg warned the crowd, any disruptive behavior would not be tolerated. They listened, and many got to speak out against health-care reform.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But to fight against it with everything you have.</s>DILLINGHAM: The mostly conservative crowd remained civil for the Republican congressman, unlike the crowds who've confronted and disrupted similar town halls hosted by Democrats in Arizona and across the country over the last few days.</s>NGUYEN: Wow, they're all in each other's face. Well, another tense scene in Memphis, Tennessee yesterday at a town-hall meeting with Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen. Police were called in for extra help to handle the crowd of about 500. Social Security and veterans benefits were supposed to be the topics, but health care wasn't even on the agenda. Still though, it was the only thing discussed in the end.</s>MARCIANO: Well, President Obama is heading south of the border for a summit meeting. He's leaving this afternoon for Guadalajara, Mexico. He'll meet with Mexican and Canadian leaders today and tomorrow. Tuesday, he holds a town-hall meeting on health-care insurance reform, this time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. And on Wednesday, the president hosts a White House reception for new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.</s>NGUYEN: Well, Justice Sonia Sotomayor took the associate-justice oath yesterday. And here's part of that.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Sonia Sotomayor, do solemnly swear...</s>SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Sonia Sotomayor, do solemnly swear...</s>ROBERTS: ...that I will administer justice without respect to persons...</s>SOTOMAYOR: ...that I will administer justice without respect to persons...</s>ROBERTS: ...and do equal right to the poor and to the rich...</s>SOTOMAYOR: ...and do equal right to the poor...</s>NGUYEN: Justice Sotomayor's mother held a bible while her daughter was sworn in as the nation's 111th Supreme Court justice. Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath in one of the high court's conference rooms. And it was the first time the court has allowed TV coverage of a swearing-in ceremony.</s>NGUYEN: Look at all those cheers. Well, this is a viewing party in New York's Spanish Harlem. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and only the third female to serve on the court. For Latino Americans, they are having an impact on our nation's politics, business, culture, many other areas as well. And coming up in October, CNN looks at that in our "LATINO IN AMERICA" special. It's only on</s>CNN. MARCIANO: And we continue to follow the helicopter and plane crash over the Hudson River, including more eyewitness accounts. I mean, can you imagine driving along and seeing debris from a plane landing right in front of you on the highway.</s>NGUYEN: Also this though: A tornado hits the Midwest, and Reynolds Wolf is tracking the storms for us on this Sunday. Hey there, Reynolds.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: ...the chance of rough - some - some rough weather again today in parts of the Midwest and the Ohio Valley. And of course, in the Pacific, we've got Hurricane Felicia. We're going to give you the very latest on both coming up in a few moments, right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. See you in a few.