richard lui is in albertville, alabama. jacqui jeras is here in the severe weather center tracking all of this nasty weather that has swept across the country this weekend. let's get started with ed lavandera. he's actually joining us on the phone. you're seeing the worst of the damage where you are, ed. you've been hiking through mississippi really trying to tra version this state that was hit so hard by this tornado. give me an idea what you're witnessing. >> reporter: >> all right. therein lies part of the problem. the devastation that has hit much of the southeast, communication is spotty, very difficult to get confirmation, sometimes, of being able to reach out to people. we'll try to reach back out to our ed lavandera momentarily when we can. meantime, let's go to albertville, alabama, where we find our richard lui there. the devastation is quite widespread there as well. richard, give us an idea. >> reporter: yeah, fred. you talked about utilities and difficulties there. surely that is the case here in albertville wh

call or click today. >>> richard lui.e has cleared the way for what can be a landmark case for the rights of incapacitated patients. it centers around a brain damaged woman who has not seen her triplets since she was 1. her parents want her to get visitation rights and her ex-husband says it's not in the best interest of the kids. her brain damage was caused by complications she had giving birth to her triplets. a year after it happened her husband dan told her parents he wanted a divorce. they agreed to that. today, dan live in california. now, when this case goes to trial next month abbey's parents will be fighting for visitation rights for their daughter. they say dan dorn has not agreed to send videos or let the children see their mom via web cam. they disagree with their belief that abby is incapable of interacting with their kids. dorn is also asking for child support for the triplets. we'll have more later, natasha. >> all right, richard, thank you so much. tough, tough story to hear about. >>> okay, so we're movin

correspondent richard lui the family says the boy was violent.egally, where does the whole case stand? >> it's confusing. we'll break the details down. this emotionally-charged situation is in legal limbo. the mom put a note in the boy's backpack saying's is mentally unstable and has severe psychopathic issues. she says the russian orphanage lied to her about the boy. a tennessee sheriff saying he talked to a u.s. state department employee who could not find any federal laws the mom may have broken. >> i asked him this morning, i said do you not feel that this is a little bit over the sheriff department's head? you know, we deal with other things, other than child adoptions and in a foreign country, and he said, well, the problem is, sheriff, there is no federal law that we can find that there's no statute that we can find to charge anybody with on this, so guess what? tag, you're it. >> the sheriff has asked russian authorities for medical information now, natasha, about the boy, as well as some, any records that may allege that the boy may have

correspondent richard lui has the details. such a familiar story. you're young, you go to the big city, but what happens? >> in this one we talk about it. she had just moved to the big apple five months before she disappeared. her family says her smile could light up a room. we're told her brothers were very protective of them and when she told them she wanted to move to new york city for the love of dancing her brothers did not approve but they knew they couldn't stop her. >> i didn't want her to leave, and like every person has goals, she wanted to accomplish it. i couldn't tell her no. i support her 100%. >> well, then, after she disappeared, her brothers went to new york and held a vigil outside the nightclub where she disappeared. as i mentioned her dream was to certainly be a professional dancer. a family spokesman saying she had just become an assistant manager in a shoe store before she disappeared. she was last seen leaving a club with a convicted sex offender, michael mayhelemelee. he has not been charged but police say he is a suspect. he

correspondent richard lui is digging further into this story. eams, how do you prep for these missions that could be so dangerous, yet, you want to find the trapped miners, richard. >> 32 rescuers, we believe, are on their way right now. what they do is they train with fake fire and fake smoke, as well. it's designed to disorient them and prepare them for what could be the worse as they go through these projects. it happens at mine simulators run by the federal government. basically what happens with them is they maneuver around obstacles and crawl through tunnels, it could look like this. on your screen, you see how difficult it could be to see. the chambers designed to teach rescuers to feel their way around and communicate and fight fires. in training the rescuers are tethered together, as well, on a lifeline rope that is about five feet from each other. >> then you think about when they really go in for real, you're talking miles underground. you have the details about these rescue chambers that are deep inside the mine. that's the first plac

we are going to begin for richard wolfe and a call from san luis obispo, california. this is -- let me see if i can find it. you are on the air. >> caller: hi. >> host: good morning. >> caller: i have a question about, we did not have political presidents until lincoln. you guys in the media act like we have always have them. can you address this because i think that is so bogus that for the first tender gears we did not have a political president. now the past hundred years we have had these political bass string it out. you guys don't address that. >> host: of right. >> guest: i am not sure exactly how he means we don't address it other than in the news business we are not talking very often about the era before abraham lincoln in the 1860's. i guess it is true. >> host: do you agree with this analysis that we did not have political presidents before lincoln? >> guest: well, i am not that great a student of the first 15 presidents. i imagine i am not going to quarrel with the fact that, perhaps, things were less -- a think what he means is that things were less argu