Bush to Address Iraq, War on Terror in Speeches Tomorrow
WHITFIELD: OK, the weather is a little hazy but the folks in Boston are rockin'.</s>HARRIS: Yeah.</s>WHITFIELD: They are ready.</s>HARRIS: What's the deal? There's some kind of a song and dance band playing?</s>WHITFIELD: Somebody called like the Stones, Rolling Stones. They're going to roll on into Boston.</s>HARRIS: Really?</s>WHITFIELD: Yeah.</s>HARRIS: Well, Jacqui, will this burn off?</s>JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's outdoors, right? Yes. I don't think the folks even care. If they've got ticket to the Stones they don't care. The diehards -- but lightning could be a problem actually.</s>WHITFIELD: Something tells me the diehards that they are, if there's a storm, they'll head under a tree.</s>HARRIS: Where is Jacqui? Is she there somewhere?</s>WHITFIELD: She's somewhere in the fog.</s>HARRIS: There you go.</s>JERAS: Little bit of wet weather moving into Boston, just off to the west right now, mostly west of I 95, this is all heading off to the east. This should be out of here, I think, by 9:00 Boston, but after 12:00 noon, showers and thunderstorms are going to be pushing back in. The other big story, even though things will be heating up in Beantown tonight because of the Stones concert, it's going to be cooling down big time over the next couple of days. In fact, high temperatures only in the 70s by the middle of the week. Can you believe it? Still hot, though, across parts of the south and southeast. Memphis, Tennessee, you had a record yesterday, 100 degrees, Charleston, South Carolina, 97, Vero Beach, 95, 91 in Cape Hatteras. Still a lot of heat advisories in effect from Dallas extending over to Shreveport and to Atlanta, Georgia, into Raleigh-Durham and even into Norfolk, expecting temperatures to be feeling like to your body, 100 to 110. So that's getting dangerous, looking for 95 on the thermometer in Atlanta, 94 in Washington, D.C., Boston up to 86, Minneapolis, 73, Chicago 82. The front's going to be pushing through the northeast, we think, later on tonight and into tomorrow, but the cool air is going to be a little bit delayed moving in there, so keep that in mind. Also the southeast should be getting a bit of a break. It's not going to be quite as dramatic though as the folks up to the north are going to be seeing. Tomorrow 73 in Chicago, Boston down to 82, check out St. Louis a lot better at 81, Dallas still at 102 but you will be in the middle 90s at best by the middle of the week. Philadelphia, how about this, 93 and thunderstorms today, 88 by Monday, Tuesday 79 degrees, so major improvements. Also want to take one quick check on the tropics. A couple of different disturbances to talk about. The main one I'm concerned about coming out of the Cape Verdes here. That one could possibly show signs of development over the next couple of days. Also a little area of thunderstorms here that's going to be moving into the Gulf of Mexico. We'll be keeping an eye on that and the remnants of what was tropical depression number 10, still bringing some showers and thunderstorms to Hispaniola for today and that possibly could be doing something over the next couple of days. So we've got three things out there to keep our eye on. Real quick, Fred and Tony, best concert you've ever been to?</s>HARRIS: Earth, Wind and Fire.</s>WHITFIELD: I'm going to say purple rain.</s>HARRIS: Prince?</s>WHITFIELD: Yes.</s>HARRIS: '84- '85.</s>WHITFIELD: I don't even remember what year. That was a good one. Earth, Wind and Fire, I don't know. I can understand.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: All right Jacqui, what about you?</s>JERAS: A lot of people say the Stones is the best. I'm going to have to say Prince. I just saw him last year ...</s>WHITFIELD: ... musicology. I was there too.</s>JERAS: I think I saw you right in front. That was me up on stage dancing.</s>WHITFIELD: That was you.</s>HARRIS: That should be the e-mail question. The best concerts you've ever seen. Thanks Jacqui. But instead, we decided on this because --</s>WHITFIELD: And then there's Tina Turner. The Rolling Stones -- we could go on, but instead we'll talk taxes.</s>HARRIS: OK and here's our question of the day. Does our tax system need an overhaul? Now, Neal Boortz, syndicated talk show host, muckety muck, big time radio guy, has written this book, "The Fair Tax Book." It's his proposal, along with a Georgia congressman. So Neal Boortz will be...</s>WHITFIELD: And people love it.</s>HARRIS: And they love it. Number one. So he is our guest in the 9:00 hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING. But the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING begins right now. Now in the news. San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Thomas Herrion has died. The third string guard collapsed in a Denver locker room last night just after a preseason game against the Broncos. No word on the cause of death. Herrion was 23 and weighed 310 pounds. We'll have more in just a moment. Hundreds of thousands of people greeted the pope this morning in his home country. Benedict XVI celebrated an open air mass in Germany to end World Youth Day celebrations. The week-long gathering of Catholic kids was created by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Discovery takes the last leg of its journey home to Florida's Kennedy Space Center this morning. A jumbo jet carrying the shuttle will take off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Stormy weather delayed the takeoff yesterday. The shuttle landed in California more than a week ago, and it's been carried piggyback across the country. And from the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING. It is August 21st, 8:00 a.m. at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in the heartland. And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.</s>WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Betty Nguyen. Thanks for joining us. The San Francisco 49ers are mourning the loss of a teammate this morning. Offensive lineman Thomas Herrion collapsed and died after last night's game. Joining us now to talk more about this, Steve Overmyer. And I guess what makes this so particularly complicated, that this is a young man, 23 years old, you would think he's in the NFL, first year, that he must be fit. How could this happen?</s>OVERMYER: This is really a tragedy right now that the NFL is, you know, I guess throwing their arms up and throwing their hands up. They don't exactly know what is going on right now. It's because the NFL is dealing with this tragic death of one of their players. 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion died not long after the 49ers game against the Broncos. He showed no signs of distress as he walked to the locker room, but he collapsed less than half an hour after the game ended. Before the team boarded the plane, Coach Mike Nolan addressed the squad, telling them that Herrion had passed away. The official cause of death has yet to be released, but like you were saying, he's 6'3", 310 pounds. But when he came to camp not long ago, he was 340 pounds. They told him to drop some weight. He apparently had dropped somewhere around 30 pounds in a short amount of time, and when you think about it, 6'3", 310 is not even the average weight of an NFL lineman. The offensive linemen right now average 315 pounds. Thomas Herrion was 310 pounds at the -- at 6'3". But again, as you say, in the prime of his life, cut down in the prime of his life at the age of 23.</s>WHITFIELD: And we don't know if weight was a factor, but we do know the NFL has been dealing with this very significant issue. While some athletes are being encouraged to be heavier, bigger, there's also the other end of the NFL, which is say we have got to crack down on this, because it is jeopardizing the health of too many athletes, and over the past 10 to 20 years, we've seen a 60 to 70 percent...</s>OVERMYER: Increase in size.</s>WHITFIELD: ... 60 to 70-pound increase in the average weight of the NFL player.</s>OVERMYER: Undeniably. But there, unfortunately, it's very difficult to put stipulations on how much a guy can weigh in the NFL. There's no way for them to regulate how much a guy should be able to weigh. Keep in mind that while these linemen are somewhere some of them up to 350, there are some defensive linemen in the 400-pound range -- there are some of these players who have their body fat percentage at less than 15 percent as an offensive lineman as well. They're in good...</s>WHITFIELD: Even with that kind of weight?</s>OVERMYER: Even with that kind of weight. They're in great shape, they're great cardiovascular shape, compared to, you know, compared to the average person walking on the street right about now.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. But again, we don't really know if weight was a factor here, or whether heat, any of those factors, even though it was something in the 60 degree range in Denver during this game. All right, thanks so much, Steve Overmyer.</s>OVERMYER: Sure.</s>HARRIS: Will Iraq finish its constitution on time? And how much longer will U.S. troops stay there? Those are two of the big questions this morning. Iraqi officials are burning the midnight oil in Baghdad. They are trying to finish a draft constitution by tomorrow night's deadline. They missed one deadline a week ago. Meantime, the Army's top general says plans are in place to maintain troop strength through 2009 if they're needed. After a week out of sight, President Bush takes a break from his Crawford vacation tomorrow. He will hit the road for a pair of speeches focusing on Iraq and the war on terror. Let's get the latest from White House correspondent Dana Bash, who is in Crawford. Dana, good morning.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. And the president will be back out to fill the vacuum that his aides understand some anti-war protesters have essentially had a week to fill. He'll give two speeches, as you said. First, in Salt Lake City on Monday. The president will speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. On Wednesday, he will go to Idaho. He will visit the Mountain Home Air Force Base. Men and women there played a leading role in the war in Afghanistan after 9/11. As a matter of fact, in the speeches, he will try to recapture waning support for Iraq by talking about it as a way to protect Americans from another 9/11. That's a link that critics call misleading, but in the weekend radio address, he previewed the speech.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, we must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission. We can be confident in the ultimate triumph of our cause, because we know that freedom is the future of every nation, and that the side of freedom is the side of victory.</s>BASH: Yesterday, some supporters of President Bush rolled through Crawford. Almost 90 motorcyclists from the American Legion came as counterprotesters of sort to the anti-war demonstrators that have been here for more than two weeks. Now, the symbol, the person that sort of started all of this, Cindy Sheehan, is still not here in Crawford. She is still back home in Los Angeles with her ailing mother. We don't think she's going to be here until at least mid-week. But tonight, the people who are -- who she left behind who are still here are trying to sort of carry out what she started outside the president's ranch are going to have some entertainment. Joan Baez is going to come and sing for them -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Dana, how did it go yesterday with Lance Armstrong?</s>BASH: Well, we're told that President Bush and Lance Armstrong rode for 17 miles, for about two hours on President Bush's 1,600-acre ranch, and they did stop, we're told, for about 10 minutes to look at a waterfall on the Bush property. A spokesman insists that Lance Armstrong, Tony, did follow what he called the first rule of riding with the president: You know what that is, right? Stay behind the president.</s>HARRIS: Yeah, yeah, you stay behind. OK. CNN's Dana Bash, in Crawford with the president. Dana, thank you.</s>BASH: Thanks, Tony.</s>WHITFIELD: Israel's withdrawal of settlers from Gaza is almost complete. Troops were met with blazing barricades, though, this morning. CNN's John Vause joins us now from Gaza's Katif settlement. And what's the latest there now? Is the service over in the synagogues?</s>JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty much, Fredricka. In fact, right now, very symbolic moment at the Katif settlement. Outside the synagogue, we can see a big crowd of people just behind me over there -- I'll get out of the shot -- because right now, the Torah scrolls are being brought out from the synagogue. A very symbolic moment, because in essence, it means that the synagogue will now be moving. This has happened at every settlement that's been evacuated so far. Even at Kfar Derom, where there were those violent confrontations between protesters and police late into the night, they removed the Torah scrolls, they brought them out of the synagogue, and paraded them around the settlement. You can probably just see it out there in the distance. And that is a symbolic moment. Everyone now has accepted the fate that this synagogue, which really is the center of this community, is now moving. It was a different story, though, this morning, not quite the solemn procession that you have here. This morning, when the Israeli police arrived and the soldiers arrived, there were, in fact, barricades on fire in front of the main gates, which were locked. Fire department was called in to put out that blaze, and then a front- end loader was used to smash through the gates, and also to clear away a couple of other barricades which were burning on the road into the main settlement. The situation now here at Katif, Fredricka, is that we've had the prayer service. That appears to be almost completed. From here, everyone, we are told by the police, all the settlers and the protesters have agreed they will get in their cars, get on busses, and they will leave the settlement. Many of them will head for the Western Wall in Jerusalem --Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. We'll see what happens. Thanks so much. We'll check back with you. John Vause in Katif. Ahead in "Faces of Faith," more than 12,000 people hang on his words every Sunday, but it's not your typical sermon. We'll introduce you to Pastor Rod Parsley. Also, kicking the habit and treating lung cancer. Dr. Sanjay Gupta makes a "HOUSE CALL" at the bottom of the hour. Good morning, Jacqui.