SAT Scores Hit New Low; Boy Goes Overboard, Dad Charged
COSTELLO: Good morning to you. It is Thursday, September 15th. This is your A.M. WAKE-UP CALL. Good morning. I'm Carol Costello, joining you live from New York. It is just about half past the hour. I just want to update you now on this earthquake in southeast Cuba, a 6.0 magnitude. Apparently, it was offshore. We know of no damage to the mainland and there are no tsunami warnings. So, it seems like the damage has been limited to out in the ocean where there's nothing but Rob will have much more for you on this when we hit the weather segment of our program. Let's catch you up on some of the wildfires, too, raging across the country. In Minnesota, cooler temperatures, calmer winds and a bit of rain helped firefighters there yesterday. Still, some 100,000 acres have burned covering the region in a smoky haze.</s>JAMES SCHUGEL, REPORTER, WCCO: This fire actually started way over there in the west. And then it headed through this area where we are. And you see all the smoldering areas right here, and then it headed east. Take a look right there in the distance, five or six miles away, you see the hazy sky and smoke, and that's where the fire is right now.</s>COSTELLO: In Texas, at least 35 new fires started in the past couple of days, burning some 10,000 acres. Since Labor Day, more than 1,900 homes have been destroyed, but there is progress. That huge Bastrop complex fire near Austin is now 70 percent contained. The SAT scores are in for 2011 for the graduating class, and they're not so great. Scores on every measure, reading, writing, and math fell. As a matter of fact, their reading and writing scores were the lowest ever, and only 43 percent of those taking the exam met the S.A.T. readiness benchmark. A California father who allegedly threw his seven-year-old son from a tour boat is now charged with felony child abuse. Sloan Briles claims he and his son were just joking around last month when he says the boy jumped into the water. Authorities say Briles had been drinking and threw his son overboard after an argument with his girlfriend. He faces up to six years in prison if convicted. White House party crasher, Michaele Salahi is assuring investigator she was not kidnapped as her husband suspected. It turns out the "Real Housewives of D.C." star ran off with Neil Shawn, the guitarist for the band Journey. The Warren County, Virginia sheriff's office says Salahi is just fine and is apparently where she wants to be.</s>SHERIFF DANNY MCEATHRON, WARREN COUNTY, VIRGINIA: Ms. Salahi advised that she did not want Mr. Salahi to know where she was. Mr. Salahi advised (ph) that she was very sorry that the sheriff's office had to be involved but did not want to go home right now.</s>COSTELLO: Salahi's husband reported her missing on Tuesday. The couple gained notoriety when they crashed a White House state dinner back in 2009. We have some pretty amazing pictures to show you this morning.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): Check out what happened inside this California bicycle shop. Police say an elderly woman -- oh! You can see she drove her car at full speed through the front door and narrowly missed several customers. Watch it again from a different -- oh! Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. Police believe the driver may have confused the gas for the brake or the brake for the gas. You know what I'm saying. Wow!</s>COSTELLO (on-camera): New technology can be tough, fiddling around with new gadgets, not quite knowing what you're doing. So, we feel for Bruce and Ester Huffman. Their grandparents who unwittingly (ph) recorded a video of themselves while trying to figure out how to work their webcam.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that monkey.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did it capture? I put it on capture.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (singing) Hello my darling. Hello my baby.</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): This goes on for a full three minutes. The couple's granddaughter took the video and posted it on YouTube. A clip called webcam 101 for seniors. It has more than a million and a half views so far.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was eight years old, my uncle paid me five cents if I'd make a monkey face.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's doing it very well.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I've been working out all these years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never knew it would make you famous.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never knew it'd make me famous. He's up and head and he'd be amazed at what's going on right here, right now.</s>COSTELLO (on-camera): Seems the Huffmans are good sports about their accidental fame. Stocks ended the last session sharply higher. So, will the rally hold today? That's coming your way in 60 seconds. It's 33 minutes past the hour.