South Korean Hostages Freed; Tropical Storm Felix
HOLMES: Well, it's a dream come true for at least four lucky people, neither of them sitting before you now, but these four have all hit the jackpot. Four winning tickets sold in last night's $330 million Mega Millions Lottery. A week ago, you'll remember, a single ticket won the $314 million power ball lottery.</s>LONG: The winning numbers 8, 18, 22, 40, 44, 11 being the mega ball number. And lottery officials say the winning tickets were sold in the states of Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Texas. Each winning ticket is worth about $82 million. Amazing, I think they're going to have a lot more friends this morning than they had yesterday.</s>HOLMES: And I will be signing up to be one of those friends.</s>LONG: Good morning on this Saturday from the CNN center here in Atlanta. I'm Melissa Long in today for Betty.</s>HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes. So glad you all could be with us this morning. First, a story that's been getting a lot of attention for the last couple of days, the senator and the sex scandal. Senator Larry Craig of Idaho expected to announce his resignation today. A live report from Boise in a couple of minutes.</s>LONG: Talk about odd jobs, how about a citrus colorer, perhaps alligator wrangler. I like that sense of adventure. We'll look at some of the more unusual ways to make a living on this Labor Day weekend. But first, a distinguished career, a distinguished political career coming crashing down today. Disgraced Senator Larry Craig expected to resign just a few hours from now. The Idaho Republican under fire from his own party following news of his arrest in a Minneapolis airport men's room. CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash is live in Boise, Idaho this morning. We're expecting really the culmination of an extraordinary couple of days. Hello, Dana.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is definitely true. The end of a dramatic weekend is going to end we are told with Senator Craig coming before his constituents, the constituents he has represented for 27 years and the cameras here and announcing that he is going to resign his seat in the U.S. Senate, effective September 30th. It was just four days ago, T.J., that he went before the cameras to defend his actions, trying to explain his actions in a Minnesota men's room. And at that point, he said, I believe I can still effectively be an effective leader for Idaho. That was just four days ago, and now he clearly does not believe that anymore. And that is no doubt because of the intense, intense pressure that he got from his own Republican colleagues who could not run far enough and fast enough from him and really issued statements that were probably among the harshest that I have seen from one party official to another and one colleague to another when it came to how they thought Senator Craig should handle this. And by and large, it was abundantly clear to him, it was made so in public and in private, that they did not think it was appropriate for Senator Craig to come back to the U.S. Senate.</s>HOLMES: You talk about that pressure, of course, that he got from D.C. and from fellow Republicans. We also know his paper out there in his hometown came out and said he should step down. What about just the day to day folks on the street there, his constituents? Have they had a loud voice in saying what they think should happen to him?</s>BASH: Well, most of the constituents that you talk to on the street, you hear on talk radio, they also thought, you know -- they were embarrassed and they were disappointed and angry in the senator they really had respected and admired for a long time. Many of them did think that he should do what he is apparently going to do today, which is step down. But what is interesting is, in terms of the Republican Party establishment here in Idaho, you did not hear one of them publicly say that the senator should resign. They instead just issued sort of mild statements talking about his distinguished career. They took a wait and see approach. But I can tell you none of them said that he should stay either and that was also telling.</s>HOLMES: All right. Dana Bash for us in Boise, Idaho, this morning. Dana, thank you so much. You can stay with CNN for coverage of the senator's statement coming up live from Boise, Idaho, today at 12:30 Eastern time, a picture here from Boise where the senator is expected to make that announcement. Again, stay with us right here. We will carry that announcement live. And we'll also have more on the Larry Craig situation tonight in a special edition of "Larry King Live." Larry and his guests will talk about the situation and who may be named as his replacement. That's 9:00 p.m. again right here on</s>CNN. LONG: This morning, Federal authorities are looking into a fiery plane crash that killed a family of six last night in southern California. The plane was attempting to land at the Kern Valley airport which is in Bakersfield. An FAA spokesman says the plane burst into flames after crashing. The airport manager talked about what she saw.</s>JELT.J.E NELSON, MGR., KERN VALLEY AIRPORT: I went in, and he landed -- tried to land</s>LONG: Officials say the family had flown from Santa Monica for a camping trip. In Utah, more disappointing news for the families of those six coal miners trapped for almost four weeks. Federal safety officials have indefinitely called off the search to find the men. That decision comes after a robotic camera that was dropped into the mine did not provide any new information. The camera actually got stuck in the mud and officials had to leave it there.</s>HOLMES: A bittersweet home coming in South Korea. The 19 South Koreans held captive in Afghanistan for two weeks are due to fly home today. They could be greeted with a lot of finger pointing, people blaming them for having their country negotiate with Taliban militants. CNN's Brian Todd reports.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Overjoyed at their release, terrified that two of their countrymen were killed as hostages of the Taliban, South Korean Christian missionaries are also apologetic.</s>SUH MYUNG-HWA, FMR. TALIBAN HOSTAGE (through translator): We caused so much anxiety to the people and our government.</s>TODD: Anxiety which may be felt well outside the South Korean government. The Taliban walks away from this six-week ordeal with an agreement from the South Koreans not to send other missionaries to Afghanistan. And Asian media reports the Koreans paid the Taliban $2 million for their release. The South Korean government denies it.</s>CHEON HO-SEON, S. KOREAN PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN (through translator): There was no additional agreement made except for what has been made public.</s>TODD: Experts say that statement may be for public consumption.</s>PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Given the fact that the Taliban didn't get the central demand which was for the release of Taliban prisoners, it seems to me that money probably was exchanged.</s>TODD: An exchange that according to experts, will likely have an immediate and deadly result.</s>MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Other people's lives are now at risk because the Taliban will use that money to buy weaponry.</s>TODD: And to buy fighters. Between hostage taking and opium trafficking profits, analysts say the Taliban can pay four times what the Afghan police can afford. The Taliban have a broader strategy in mind. South Korea was already going to pull its 200 troops out of Afghanistan and the Taliban may now have a stronger hand in forcing other U.S. allies to crack.</s>BERGEN: They want to find the weak links in the chain, countries like Germany whose citizens are not very happy about the German presence there. That's why we've seen attacks on German soldiers in the north of the country.</s>HOLMES: And the freed hostages are due to arrive back in South Korea tomorrow. Meanwhile, we'll turn now to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who's casting himself as a mediator in a long, drawn-out Colombia hostage crisis. Chavez says he's willing to meet with Colombian guerrillas to talk about a prisoner hostage swap. The Colombian rebel group, the revolutionary armed forced of Colombia, is holding some 45 hostages, including soldiers, politicians and three U.S. contractors abducted more than four years ago. The government is holding hundreds of guerrillas.</s>LONG: Once again on the Labor Day weekend, people in California are being urged to ease up on the thermostat over the holiday. A heat wave is expected to continue through the weekend. And those without A/C can head to one of the several cooling centers set up. Although the heat is expected to strain the state's electricity-generating capacity, we can report that no shortages are predicted.</s>HOLMES: No shortages predicted, but it's hot in a bunch of places right now. We're also keeping an eye on the heat, also a gentleman by the name of Felix.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. We've got Felix to deal with. The tropics have really been heating up and not just in the Caribbean, but also in the Pacific. We're going to show you the two big storms coming up in just a few moments. But first, let's begin with what's happening in the Caribbean. There's Felix, really easy to see, the storm now just passing through St. Vincent as well as Grenada, but full steam ahead right into the Caribbean where it's going to enter an area with very little shear which is -- some of those upper level winds can sometimes rip these storms apart. That's not going to be a big obstacle for this storm. Another thing that's lying in its path is very warm ocean water, which is like high octane fuel to an engine. So that's going to help the storm rev up a bit more as well. We're going to keep an eye on that for you with an update in just a few seconds. But let's talk about a few things closer to your home, some scattered showers that we have in parts of the southeast that may affect some of your plans this morning. Planning on going out and visiting some friends on the way to a barbecue, well, you may have to carry the umbrella while you're out there with the burgers, especially in parts of south Georgia, some storms right now near Savannah. Also near Houston, we're seeing some raindrops there as well from Baton Rouge, westward on I-10, splash and dash showers. But we're seeing some severe heat in parts of the west where the heat indices, the index, when you combine that heat with the high humidity, it's going to feel like it's about 110 degrees if not warmer in some spots out west. So by all means, be careful. Again, back to Felix, Felix now moving into the Caribbean, expected to strengthen to 60-mile-per-hour maximum sustained winds by 2:00 tomorrow morning, strengthen into a category one by Monday. By Tuesday, getting very close to Central America and then as we get to 2:00 a.m. Wednesday, coming on shore in Belize with winds of 105 miles per hour. But that's not it. We've got another storm in the Pacific. That one is Henriette and we're going to see this storm come very close to parts of Baja, California, which should remain just to the south and to the southwest as we get into Tuesday, you get into Wednesday, with the storm actually strengthening to, let's see by the time we get to early Monday morning, a category one storm and it should remain pretty much about that intensity before weakening as it enters cooler water as it pushes north. That's the latest on your forecast, again, a full plate in terms of your weather on this holiday weekend. Back to you.</s>HOLMES: All right, Reynolds, thank you. Just getting us started this first morning of a three-day weekend.</s>LONG: Labor Day weekend. We're going to focus on work or what work you aren't doing this weekend. We're going to focus on some odd jobs in America. Good morning, Josh.</s>LEVS: Hey, good morning to you. You know what, there are some odd jobs that pay surprisingly well. I'm at the dot com desk now. We're going to be taking a look at that this morning. Also, some great jobs if you're looking to switch careers or just getting into the work force. All that coming up from the dot com desk. T.J.?</s>HOLMES: All right. It sounds like some information I could use actually, Josh. Also, folks, take a look at this. Before you reach for the insecticide, you'll want to hear what these spiders have trapped inside.</s>LONG: And college football. Who's winning the big game ahead this morning on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.