PSU Board Meets After Scathing Report
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much. Hello, everyone. I'm Fredericka Whitfield, in for Brooke Baldwin. Happening right now, major flooding in a major city -- Houston, Texas -- deluged by with three inches of rain in three hours. A flash flood warning is in effect right now. Reporter Tim Wetzel with affiliate KHOU is in that standing water.</s>TIM WETZEL, KHOU REPORTER: Hey, guys. The rain is starting to fall here in northwest Harris County. And this is something people do not want to see. You can see all the floodwaters just swallowing up this neighborhood I'm in here. Look at the water coming out of this nearby creek, just flowing over this sidewalk. And this very same body of water, this very same swollen creek, nearly took a man's life earlier today.</s>WETZEL (voice-over): But the water's rising and there's nowhere to go. Nearby, tow truck driver Archie Rains (ph).</s>ARCHIE RAINS, TOW TRUCK DRIVER: He can't swim. We called fire and rescue. They were taking too long. He was getting scared. So --</s>WETZEL: He's used to saving cars, but today he saved a life.</s>RAINS: Yes, the car was floating into the bayou. And waiting for the fire and rescue to show up or get the car.</s>WETZEL: Rains got into his tow truck and made it to Diaz (ph). He (ph) jumped into the water and helped the man to safety.</s>RAINS: Basically when he got down to the hood, I helped him down off the car, held his hand and hold his arms, carried him back towards my truck. We got him up onto my truck and he got in the backdoor of my truck and I drove him over here. Diaz, shaken and soaking wet, tells us in Spanish he didn't see the high water sign or hear the people warning him to stop.</s>RAINS: We all honked the horns at him. We all yelled at him. He had his window down. He just looked at us and smiled and just kept going.</s>WETZEL: After pulling some 50 cars out of the water today alone, Rains is hoping not to pull out any more people.</s>RAINS: Hopefully no one else goes in and does this.</s>WETZEL: And back here, where I'm standing, you can see sheriff's deputies have blocked off the road. They're trying to prevent people from going, at least in this neighborhood, down this street because it's just too dangerous. And now with this rain falling again, this is something people in this area do not want to see. In northwest Harris County, Tim Wetzel. Now back to you guys.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much. Tim Wetzel with affiliate KHOU. We'll check in with meteorologist Chad Myers in just a bit as well. All right, their school disgraced, their leadership questioned. The Penn State board of trustees is meeting right now, one day after hearing the results of a scathing independent report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Investigators lead by former FBI Director Louis Freeh took the board to task reporting this, quote, "the board also failed in its duties to oversee the president and senior university officials in 1998 and 2001 by not inquiring about important university matters and by not creating an environment where senior university officials felt comfortable," end quote, "and accountable." The trustees say they take full responsibility for those failings, but none of them actually plan to resign. Our Susan Candiotti is outside that meeting in Scranton, Pennsylvania. So, Susan, there are critics who don't think some of the board members should actually stay. What is being discussed right now in that board room?</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, remember, this is not being held, this meeting, in State College. This is, as you indicated, at a satellite campus in Scranton. And right out of the gate, the chairman of the board of trustees here immediately addressed the Freeh report. And Karen Peetz said that she acknowledged that Freeh report said that the people that were in very high positions here at Penn State University failed to confront a child sexual predator. And then without mentioning the names of those high officials named in the report, namely Former President Graham Spanier, Vice President Schultz, the athletic director, Tim Curley, and Coach Joe Paterno, she went on to say that there was a collapse in leadership, in her words, of a magnitude that should never be seen again. And then the president of Penn State University, Rodney Erickson, said that he was horrified by the report and said that already the board is starting to implement some of the recommendations made by former FBI Director Louie Freeh. But they have a long road ahead of them and a lot of fallout from this scandal. Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: And, Susan, you also spoke with one of the trustees on the way into the meeting. What was said?</s>CANDIOTTI: Well this is Anthony Lubrano. Anthony Lubrano is a brand new member of the board of trustees. And he ran on a campaign by saying that Penn State University should apologize to Joe Paterno's family for firing him. And not only that, he said that the board should name is football stadium after Joe Paterno. So naturally we wanted to ask him what he thinks now after getting a chance to look at the Freeh report and hear about it. I also asked him a question about what people are saying about what should be done now. Here's part of what he said.</s>CANDIOTTI: You know, there are calls today from Bobby Bowden himself, for example, to pull down the statue of Joe Paterno.</s>ANTHONY LUBRANO, PENN STATE TRUSTEE: Yes.</s>CANDIOTTI: What do you think of that?</s>LUBRANO: Well, as I think Karen Peetz said last night, or yesterday afternoon during the press conference, that's a Penn State community matter and the Penn State community will, you know, address it in due time. But you all know my feelings for Coach Paterno and as far as I'm concerned it's something that should stay.</s>CANDIOTTI: There are many calls to suspend the football program immediately.</s>LUBRANO: I have no comment on that.</s>CANDIOTTI: Now, I also asked him about some of the critical findings in the Freeh report. According to Louie Freeh, that Joe Paterno knew there were problems with Jerry Sandusky, who, as you know, was convicted of being a child sexual predator. Problems with him going back to 1998. Hard evidence presented by this report. Anthony Lubrano said he has not had a chance to digest the report, but whatever it says, he said, I will say this, it won't affect, in his opinion, the legacy of Joe Paterno, but he said he might have more to say about that after he thoroughly digests this report. Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. All right, more news happening right now. "Rapid Fire." Let's go. President Barack Obama's campaigning today in one of the southern states that he won back in 2008. Here's the president in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And here he is just a short time ago with a jab at his 2012 challenger Mitt Romney.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When somebody said, let's let Detroit go bankrupt, we said, we're going to bet on American workers and American industry. And now GM is back on top and Ford and Chrysler are selling cars because we believed in that American promise.</s>WHITFIELD: The president has a full afternoon in Virginia. He'll be campaigning later in Hampton and then this evening in Roanoke. Condoleezza Rice for vice president. The Drudge report says Mitt Romney has narrowed his candidates and Rice is near the top of the list. She also led the list of candidates favored by Republicans in an April poll, but Rice recently told CBS it's not going to happen.</s>CONDOLEEZZA RICE, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm saying there is no way that I will do this because it's really not me. I know my strengths and Governor Romney needs to find someone who wants to run with him. There are many people who will do it very, very well and I'll support the ticket.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, and a warning now, the video that you're about to see is disturbing. Police in Connecticut say they have arrested this group home worker seen here kicking a developmentally disabled adult in the stomach. Police say Anjelica Rivera (ph) turned herself in and admitted that she was the one in the video sent anonymously to authorities and the media. A state official told CNN the victim in the video is all right.</s>WHITFIELD: Rivera faces felony charges of unlawful restraint, cruelty and bias intimidation. All right, we've got a lot more to cover in the next two hours. Watch. Predawn crowds tired of the violence and tired of the deceit by the Syrian government. This one day after another massacre reportedly kills more than 220 people. A charity for reuniting military service animals with soldiers raising millions of dollars. Our Drew Griffin is keeping them honest. Where did the money go?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell us why you came on CNN and basically lied to our viewers about Ivey (ph) and Nugget (ph)?</s>WHITFIELD: He's a singer, an actor, and now Lenny Kravitz the interior designer.</s>LENNY KRAVITZ, MUSICIAN/DESIGNER: I think it just goes hand in hand with everything that I do creatively.