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American Morning
Busy Travel Season; Intelligence Reform; 'House Call'
Aired November 22, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
President Bush is vowing to help get the 9/11 intelligence reform bill moving through Congress once again. We're going to hear from two of the 9/11 Commission's members in just a few minutes to talk about what's holding the bill up and what the parent -- what the president, rather, can do.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the holiday travel season starts this week. Struggling airlines, the higher fuel prices, the terrorism concerns, a lot of factors making this year different from years past. What can you expect in terms of waiting?
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: In terms of travel?
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: And the cash you'll spend.
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: We'll get to that.
O'BRIEN: But that's just a guess.
HEMMER: All right.
O'BRIEN: Let's get another check for us on the headlines, though. Carol Costello at our news desk.
Hello. Good morning again.
HEMMER: Good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning, everyone.
"Now in the News."
A small plane has crashed in Texas, killing all three people on board. The Federal Aviation Administration says the Gulfstream jet went down about a mile and a half south of Houston's Hobby Airport. It apparently clipped a light tower on its way down. President Bush is heading to Colombia to meet with the president there. That's his final stop on a three-day Latin American trip. The president and the first lady left Santiago, Chile, about three hours ago following this weekend's economic summit. Among the issues discussed: global trade and security concerns. The president promised to give U.S. immigration policy greater priority.
It looks like Iran is holding to an agreement with Europe and has suspended uranium enrichment and nuclear-related activities. The move keeps Iran from facing possible U.N. sanctions. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says he believes all activity has stopped. Mohamed ElBaradei says his group will know more definitively by Thursday whether Iran has kept its promise.
Back here in the states, the NBA Players Union is saying it will step in following Friday's brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. It's expected to appeal some of the harshest penalties. For example, Indiana's Ron Artest is out for the rest of the season. Teammate Stephen Jackson off the court for 30 games. Jermaine O'Neal out for 25. Six other players got lesser suspensions. And probably more punishment to come.
HEMMER: For now, though, a five-minute fight has cost them about $12 million.
COSTELLO: They deserve it. They do. It was just embarrassing.
HEMMER: Yes.
COSTELLO: It was embarrassing.
HEMMER: Ms. Grace. Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
HEMMER: The holidays are just around the corner. We know that's the season for crowded airports and busy highways, also for increased travel costs.
And Jason Carroll is live at LaGuardia this morning giving us a look at what's in store for the holiday traveler's wallet.
Hey, Jason, good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Bill.
Well, holiday travelers are definitely going to have to empty out their wallets a little bit more this season. But for right now, the crowds don't look too bad. Things are moving along pretty smoothly. But as each day passes it will get worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice over): The holiday travel season is always busy. But this year, expect the skies, roads and railways to be even more crowded. And expect some costs to be more, too. The Frost family found that out when planning their vacation to Honolulu.
CHERYL FROST, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: We shopped on the Internet, and we tried to get good prices and did comparison shopping.
CARROLL (on camera): You found that it was easier to fly just a little bit before Thanksgiving?
FROST: Right. And coming home a little bit later.
CARROLL (voice over): The Boscos found competitive prices to Orlando, but still a little steep for their budget.
NICK BOSCO, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: I thank God that I have frequent flyer mileage and stuff like that. So, I've put all of our tickets on (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CARROLL: AAA estimates 37.2 million Americans will travel during the holidays, 3 percent more than last year. And for the first time since 9/11, slightly more than those who traveled in 2000, a record year. One reason? Blame the calendar.
AMY ZIFF, TRAVELOCITY WORKER: The holidays, the way they fall both on a weekend, essentially it's not fabulous for travelers, because that's going to do the same thing to Christmas that happens on Thanksgiving, which is people want to fly and take those two weekends.
CARROLL: Travel experts say another reason for the increase is families feel more confident about security. Add to the equation, airlines cutting some prices to remain competitive.
But if you're driving, gas prices are much higher than last year; same with hotel prices. Heading to a top five destination -- New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver or Chicago -- it may cost more to get there and stay there than last year. Even so, customers keep coming.
GREG SAUNDERS, CHICAGO HYATT MANAGING DIRECTOR: We'll run the highest occupancy that we've run in the history of the hotel this year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: The West and the Southeast are expected to produce the largest number of air travelers at 1.3 million each. The largest number of car travelers are expected to originate in the Southeast as well, at 8.8 million out there on the roadways -- Bill.
HEMMER: Getting ready for Wednesday. Thanks, Jason, at LaGuardia -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: An intelligence bill that would have meant sweeping changes to the way the U.S. gathers, analyzes and disseminates information and who is in charge of all of it failed during a special weekend session of Congress. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, I spoke with John Lehman and Tim Roamer, two of the 9/11 commissioners who recommended the intelligence changes. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN LEHMAN, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSIONER: The intelligence community does not work. It's dysfunctional. Nobody's in charge. There is no quarterback. And that led to many of the failures that allowed 9/11 to happen.
Our recommendations were to put somebody in charge, to hold somebody accountable, to give him the power, or her, the power to coordinate, to put IT systems in that allow sharing, allow the right information to get to the president.
And both the House and the Senate passed bills that largely implemented that recommendation. But they take on the iron triangle, which is the permanent government, the permanent congressional establishment and the lobbyists on K Street.
O'BRIEN: Here are some of the names that have been listed, Commissioner Roemer -- the secretary of defense, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, Duncan Hunter, also the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jim Sensenbrenner. Do you think these gentlemen and maybe some more as we just heard a moment ago from Commissioner Lehman, are the ones who are really standing in the way of this?
TIM ROEMER, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Let me put it very simply, Soledad. We saw intelligence failures, FBI mistakes, border patrol and visa problems leading up to 9/11, and we lost 3,000 people.
How many more body bags are we going to need to see before the United States Congress and the White House reorganize and modernize our defense and intelligence systems that are in disarray out in Langley right now and modernize these...
O'BRIEN: But there's...
ROEMER: ... against the threat that we face.
Soledad, it was plain and simple what happened over the weekend. It was a political failure to pass widely supported bipartisan reforms...
O'BRIEN: But there is an argument...
ROEMER: ... that will modernize the system.
O'BRIEN: There is an argument that there should not be a rush to this. And we heard the argument, in fact, from Chairman Hunter, that it puts the troops in the field in danger. We heard the argument from Chairman Sensenbrenner...
ROEMER: Absolutely a false...
O'BRIEN: ... that there are some issues with immigration that still need to be addressed and in this legislation.
ROEMER: Absolutely false claims on all parts. First of all, the 9/11 Commission would not put the war fighter in harm's way. We want to make sure that war fighter in Falluja gets the right information in the right fashion and is protected.
O'BRIEN: A final question for Commissioner Lehman. Pat Roberts, a Republican senator, said that this could go all the way to the White House; that he thinks -- he implied that maybe the White House wasn't doing enough.
Do you agree? Do you think President Bush needs to be doing more?
LEHMAN: Well, I think the test is coming in the next two weeks. President Bush actually went pretty far. He was on the road in Chile. He made several calls. He thought he had it locked up.
But this is the classic confrontation you see in Washington that they can sell tickets for, because the president now has been challenged directly by the leadership of the Congress and by the lobbyists and by the bureaucracy.
Now, he's got to show who's in charge. And this -- there's no doubt he can pass this. He can get it passed if he chooses to use his political capital and to hold accountable any members that obstruct this passage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Former 9/11 commissioners John Lehman and Tim Roamer -- Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad we were talking about this a week ago, and a week later it is still coming down, the rain in Texas.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: In today's "House Call," what son or daughter doesn't get on a parents' nerves at some time or another? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN center this morning with the story of one mother who literally gave her nerves to help her son.
Hi -- Sanjay.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning again, Soledad.
We're talking about Bill Gibson. We've been following him for over six months now, an amazing story of recovery, of sacrifice, and of a rare operation, and also getting the nerves directly from his mother.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL GIBSON, NERVE TRANSPLANT PATIENT: This is where they cut me open, all the way to my palm.
GUPTA (voice over): It's been over a year since 19-year-old Bill Gibson mangled the left side of his body in a bone-crushing car accident.
B. GIBSON: I used to always say what's more important than your physical ability? Now look at me.
MICHELE GIBSON, MOTHER, NERVE DONOR: When you have a child that's hurt and you're helpless and you can't help them, that's the most awful thing.
GUPTA: Bill's mother, Michele, knew her son would no longer be as active or athletic as he once was.
DR. ANTHONY ELKWOOD, RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGEON, MONMOUTH MEDICAL CENTER: When we first saw him in the emergency room, the question is, can he keep his arm.
GUPTA: But doctors found a way for Bill's mom to help him. It's a rare procedure called a "living donor nerve transplant." Bill would use his mother's nerves.
B. GIBSON: There's, like, liver transplants and kidney transplants, stuff like that. I had never heard of nerves.
GUPTA: In a five-hour operation, surgeons take sural (ph) nerves from Bill and his mother. Bill's nerves alone weren't enough. These sensory nerves run along the calf, and removing them leaves small numb spots on the inner ankles.
That bundle of nerves is transplanted to Bill's arm and acts as a pathway for Bill's nerves to regenerate. The hope is that one day he will move and feel.
(on camera): At one millimeter a day, nerve growing is a slow business. And transplants like these are uncommon. In the past, the nerves came from cadavers or from the patients themselves. But now, nerves from living donors may dramatically increase the possibilities.
ELKWOOD: The conditions that you might use nerve transplantation in, typically it's accidents, tumors that might involve a nerve, for facial reanimation where we make the face move again.
GUPTA (voice over): It's been more than 154 days now since Bill's transplant. And his nerve has probably regenerated about 150 millimeters, or more than five inches. And with the help of physical therapy...
B. GIBSON: I do have more feeling. I have a little bit more movement in my hand. I can move my arm a lot more. My hand should start moving a lot more this month. So, we'll see what happens.
GUPTA: The full impact won't be fully measurable until next summer. But for Bill, it will be a practice in patience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And Bill is doing very well now. We've been following him along. Still doing physical therapy about three times a week. As you saw there, Soledad, driving on his own and able to live on his own. He didn't think he'd be able to do those things when he first had his injuries -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Good for him. All right, Sanjay, thanks. Great story -- Bill.
GUPTA: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you. A really good story, too.
In a moment here, budgeting that turkey dinner. Why the cost of giving thanks just keeps on giving. Not thanks, but cash.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Michael Jackson faces even more woes. The pop star's latest legal troubles up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Doesn't this make you hearken back to the days when Michael Jackson was not quite so odd as he is now? Welcome back, everybody. It's time now for the critically-acclaimed "90-Second Pop" with the AMERICAN MORNING idols. Andy Borowitz is ambassador of comedy at BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
Good morning. Let's play that again. I love that music.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: "Pretty Young Thing?"
O'BRIEN: Isn't that great?
BERNARD: Oh!
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: She likes it.
O'BRIEN: Oh, it hearkens back to eighth grade. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
BERNARD: How old was everybody when that song was a hit?
O'BRIEN: Oh, wait a minute. I was -- Michael Jackson is in the news, not for good reasons.
BERNARD: Again.
O'BRIEN: Not because "PTY" is such a great song. But because he's being sued by somebody else. What's the story?
BERNARD: You know, every week we learn something new about Michael Jackson. Last week it was that not only did he owe someone $3 million in unpaid loans, but he has terrible, home decorating skills. He bought from a store in Los Angeles giant Grecian urns, a bust clock, I mean, these Malachite tables, horrible, horrible stuff. And not only that, he still owes them $180,000. So, the owner of the store is suing him because he can't pay his bills.
TOURE: The guy is the best reality show going. And it's like the money is dwindling now.
BERNARD: I know.
TOURE: It's going to get even better.
O'BRIEN: It's going to get ugly.
BERNARD: You know what's really bad? The same day that that store filed suit, his greatest hits boxed set, which should have been, you know, a fantastic moment, came out on the same day. So that's Michael Jackson's life, right? The best thing and the worst thing.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I've got just one word for Michael Jackson: Ikea (ph).
BERNARD: Yes.
BOROWITZ: Really.
O'BRIEN: His bill from the furniture store was that all of this stuff was over $300,000.
BERNARD: right. And he managed to pay some of it.
O'BRIEN: You know, this is not the time to be buying furniture.
BOROWITZ: I don't know if his fans will stick by him through this.
O'BRIEN: His bad decorating taste?
BERNARD: I mean...
BOROWITZ: You know, we've been through a lot. I've been with him through everything.
BERNARD: The furniture? I mean...
BOROWITZ: But you've got pay your furniture bills, Michael.
BERNARD: He probably needs (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: But the Malachite, no, no, no.
TOURE: I don't even know what Malachite is. This is really...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: It's ugly. Don't worry about it.
BERNARD: It's bad.
O'BRIEN: Alexander, who knew he's gay? TOURE: Oh, my God. What a shocker. I mean, you know, this movie, you know, with Colin Farrell and his little gay scenes, the movie should do just fine. In the blue states, we understand, there's nothing wrong with being gay. I mean, like, this is part of the whole sort of referendum that the country is having right now. We are being tested on whether or not being gay is OK and you can be a full citizen. And right now, we are failing, but we'll get there.
O'BRIEN: Well, we just took a big political (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BERNARD: Well, what...
BOROWITZ: What was the topic? I'm lost.
O'BRIEN: That's the question. "Alexander" opens. Oliver Stone says he was openly bisexual.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: And what's interesting about that is some group of, I think, 25 Greek lawyers are actually threatening to sue Warner Brothers, because they want Oliver Stone to put a line at the end of the movie that says, this is a work of fiction; that it's not necessarily historically true. I mean, does he understand this is not a documentary? I mean, this is a movie.
O'BRIEN: Everybody has tried that. Every movie Oliver Stone makes, everyone is, like, it's not a documentary.
BERNARD: He never said he was going to do a documentary.
BOROWITZ: I mean, there was that whole bisexual thing in Nixon. I remember that.
BERNARD: Yes, that was...
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: It was an asexual theme.
BERNARD: Actually, I mean, the movie has an unbelievable heterosexual sex scene between Colin Farrell and Rosario Dawson.
O'BRIEN: No one is talking about that.
TOURE: Right, right.
BERNARD: No one is talking about that!
BOROWITZ: This is a date movie for everybody. That's what it is. It's going to rule.
O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thank you.
Bill -- back to you. HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.
In a moment here, it might be more than just your belt that busts this Thanksgiving. We'll explain that. Back with Andy and Jack after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. It's time for being thankful. But is it going to break your wallet?
Andy Serwer is back here "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. It's not going to break your wallet, no.
HEMMER: First the markets. What's happening?.
SERWER: Let's talk about the market. First of all, as advertised, as promised, stocks are trading down this morning, I'm sorry to say.
HEMMER: Well, you said it at 7:30 this morning.
SERWER: Believe it. Believe it.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Not very much.
SERWER: Oh, Jack's -- look, Jack's making things better all of the time. Jack is making things better all of the time.
Krispy Kreme is down. We've talked about them. There was a hole in their earnings story.
CAFFERTY: Oh!
SERWER: You're welcome, Jack. Then Apple Computer is up a whole lot, up $4.30 to $59. I think we've got another hot one now, maybe a la Google. Watch this thing towards Christmas. I mean, it is really moving. You know, it hasn't translated to Mac sales yet. We keep talking about the iPod.
HEMMER: True.
SERWER: Their share of computers is still the same; 56 million computers sold last year. They did about 2 million of them. That's not a whole lot.
The cost of the Thanksgiving Day dinner, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, is down a little bit this year. They do this thing. Dinner for 10, it's down to $35.68, down 60 cents. Turkey is down a little bit. This has got everything, this meal. It's got, you know, trimmings, stuffings, cranberry, none of that Jones soda, by the way. It does not have any of the Jones soda. In a separate study, just very quickly here, Purdue University says that's not true. The cost of a Thanksgiving turkey dinner is up because butter is up, milk is up and also beef is up.
Now, the University of Purdue, we usually serve turkey...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: ... on Thanksgiving, not meatloaf, not beef Wellington. No one cares. How do they calculate beef prices?
CAFFERTY: It's not a hamburger kind of holiday, you know.
SERWER: No. It's just -- I don't know. They've got to wake up there in Indiana. I don't know what's going on.
HEMMER: It's a good school.
SERWER: Boilermakers.
HEMMER: Boilermakers.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.
Jack has got the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: The stalemate over the 9/11 Commission report, Soledad. The House adjourned for Thanksgiving week without passing the overhaul bill calling for the overhaul of the intelligence system in this country.
We asked what you thought about that.
Justin in Fort Worth, Texas, says: "Nothing. I say we let it go, wait for the nukes to go off all over the globe, then hope that Mother Nature will make a smarter race somewhere down the line to replace us. Stick a fork in us, we're done."
O'BRIEN: Oh, that's a little depressing.
SERWER: Maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Allen in Hugo, Oklahoma: "The reason they can't pass an intelligence reform bill is they don't know what the first word means."
Al is referring to the word "intelligence."
SERWER: Got it.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we got that.
CAFFERTY: Teresa in New York: "I say we open all congressional sessions to the public, put those Detroit NBA fans front and center, serve them alcohol and popcorn, and if they don't like what they hear, let the beer fly."
HEMMER: Sure.
SERWER: That's good.
O'BRIEN: Can you just imagine that for a second, though?
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: If it was, like, congressional sessions were a spectator sport, and everyone could...
CAFFERTY: If they didn't do the public's bidding, watch out.
SERWER: It would be like the...
O'BRIEN: Even if you didn't like what they came up with?
SERWER: Right. Except the Coliseum in Rome to put the senators in.
CAFFERTY: They have -- don't they have legislative bodies elsewhere in the world where these partisan disagreements become physical fights.
HEMMER: Oh, we've seen them.
SERWER: Oh, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Interesting.
SERWER: It happened in the U.S. Senate, too.
HEMMER: Could you imagine the ratings for C-Span if that were the case?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: A long time ago it happened in our Congress.
O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, you guys, thanks. Coming up this morning on CNN, a disagreement over a hunting position leads to five deaths. A report from Wisconsin is coming up in the next hour with Betty Nguyen and Rick Sanchez on "CNN LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING is back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: We've got to run. Mark two dates on your calendar. Christmas Day. Imagine the ratings for that Detroit at Indiana game.
CAFFERTY: That's on Christmas Day again?
HEMMER: On Christmas Day. And then I think Indiana goes back to Detroit in March toward the end of the month.
SERWER: I didn't know that. That's unbelievable.
HEMMER: I hope TNT has that game. It would be great if Barkley was doing the game, too.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Yes, it would.
CAFFERTY: That's a perfect storm, isn't it?
SERWER: Put them all together.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) yelling.
SERWER: Very good. That's the perfect storm.
O'BRIEN: Sad but true. All right, we're out of time, everybody. Betty Nguyen and Rick Sanchez are over at the CNN center.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys.
HEMMER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Hi, guys.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Appreciate it. We're going to be talking about a lot. We're going to talk a little bit about the basketball event.
NGUYEN: A lot about the basketball.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
NGUYEN: Yes, everybody is talking about that today.
SANCHEZ: And we're also going to get into some of the things that happened on Capitol Hill this weekend, a lot of bizarre things as a matter of fact.
NGUYEN: So, let's get started. Here's what's happening "Now in the News."
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Aired November 22, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
President Bush is vowing to help get the 9/11 intelligence reform bill moving through Congress once again. We're going to hear from two of the 9/11 Commission's members in just a few minutes to talk about what's holding the bill up and what the parent -- what the president, rather, can do.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the holiday travel season starts this week. Struggling airlines, the higher fuel prices, the terrorism concerns, a lot of factors making this year different from years past. What can you expect in terms of waiting?
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: In terms of travel?
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: And the cash you'll spend.
O'BRIEN: Lots.
HEMMER: We'll get to that.
O'BRIEN: But that's just a guess.
HEMMER: All right.
O'BRIEN: Let's get another check for us on the headlines, though. Carol Costello at our news desk.
Hello. Good morning again.
HEMMER: Good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning, everyone.
"Now in the News."
A small plane has crashed in Texas, killing all three people on board. The Federal Aviation Administration says the Gulfstream jet went down about a mile and a half south of Houston's Hobby Airport. It apparently clipped a light tower on its way down. President Bush is heading to Colombia to meet with the president there. That's his final stop on a three-day Latin American trip. The president and the first lady left Santiago, Chile, about three hours ago following this weekend's economic summit. Among the issues discussed: global trade and security concerns. The president promised to give U.S. immigration policy greater priority.
It looks like Iran is holding to an agreement with Europe and has suspended uranium enrichment and nuclear-related activities. The move keeps Iran from facing possible U.N. sanctions. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says he believes all activity has stopped. Mohamed ElBaradei says his group will know more definitively by Thursday whether Iran has kept its promise.
Back here in the states, the NBA Players Union is saying it will step in following Friday's brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. It's expected to appeal some of the harshest penalties. For example, Indiana's Ron Artest is out for the rest of the season. Teammate Stephen Jackson off the court for 30 games. Jermaine O'Neal out for 25. Six other players got lesser suspensions. And probably more punishment to come.
HEMMER: For now, though, a five-minute fight has cost them about $12 million.
COSTELLO: They deserve it. They do. It was just embarrassing.
HEMMER: Yes.
COSTELLO: It was embarrassing.
HEMMER: Ms. Grace. Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
HEMMER: The holidays are just around the corner. We know that's the season for crowded airports and busy highways, also for increased travel costs.
And Jason Carroll is live at LaGuardia this morning giving us a look at what's in store for the holiday traveler's wallet.
Hey, Jason, good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Bill.
Well, holiday travelers are definitely going to have to empty out their wallets a little bit more this season. But for right now, the crowds don't look too bad. Things are moving along pretty smoothly. But as each day passes it will get worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice over): The holiday travel season is always busy. But this year, expect the skies, roads and railways to be even more crowded. And expect some costs to be more, too. The Frost family found that out when planning their vacation to Honolulu.
CHERYL FROST, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: We shopped on the Internet, and we tried to get good prices and did comparison shopping.
CARROLL (on camera): You found that it was easier to fly just a little bit before Thanksgiving?
FROST: Right. And coming home a little bit later.
CARROLL (voice over): The Boscos found competitive prices to Orlando, but still a little steep for their budget.
NICK BOSCO, THANKSGIVING TRAVELER: I thank God that I have frequent flyer mileage and stuff like that. So, I've put all of our tickets on (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CARROLL: AAA estimates 37.2 million Americans will travel during the holidays, 3 percent more than last year. And for the first time since 9/11, slightly more than those who traveled in 2000, a record year. One reason? Blame the calendar.
AMY ZIFF, TRAVELOCITY WORKER: The holidays, the way they fall both on a weekend, essentially it's not fabulous for travelers, because that's going to do the same thing to Christmas that happens on Thanksgiving, which is people want to fly and take those two weekends.
CARROLL: Travel experts say another reason for the increase is families feel more confident about security. Add to the equation, airlines cutting some prices to remain competitive.
But if you're driving, gas prices are much higher than last year; same with hotel prices. Heading to a top five destination -- New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Denver or Chicago -- it may cost more to get there and stay there than last year. Even so, customers keep coming.
GREG SAUNDERS, CHICAGO HYATT MANAGING DIRECTOR: We'll run the highest occupancy that we've run in the history of the hotel this year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: The West and the Southeast are expected to produce the largest number of air travelers at 1.3 million each. The largest number of car travelers are expected to originate in the Southeast as well, at 8.8 million out there on the roadways -- Bill.
HEMMER: Getting ready for Wednesday. Thanks, Jason, at LaGuardia -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: An intelligence bill that would have meant sweeping changes to the way the U.S. gathers, analyzes and disseminates information and who is in charge of all of it failed during a special weekend session of Congress. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, I spoke with John Lehman and Tim Roamer, two of the 9/11 commissioners who recommended the intelligence changes. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN LEHMAN, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSIONER: The intelligence community does not work. It's dysfunctional. Nobody's in charge. There is no quarterback. And that led to many of the failures that allowed 9/11 to happen.
Our recommendations were to put somebody in charge, to hold somebody accountable, to give him the power, or her, the power to coordinate, to put IT systems in that allow sharing, allow the right information to get to the president.
And both the House and the Senate passed bills that largely implemented that recommendation. But they take on the iron triangle, which is the permanent government, the permanent congressional establishment and the lobbyists on K Street.
O'BRIEN: Here are some of the names that have been listed, Commissioner Roemer -- the secretary of defense, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, Duncan Hunter, also the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jim Sensenbrenner. Do you think these gentlemen and maybe some more as we just heard a moment ago from Commissioner Lehman, are the ones who are really standing in the way of this?
TIM ROEMER, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSIONER: Let me put it very simply, Soledad. We saw intelligence failures, FBI mistakes, border patrol and visa problems leading up to 9/11, and we lost 3,000 people.
How many more body bags are we going to need to see before the United States Congress and the White House reorganize and modernize our defense and intelligence systems that are in disarray out in Langley right now and modernize these...
O'BRIEN: But there's...
ROEMER: ... against the threat that we face.
Soledad, it was plain and simple what happened over the weekend. It was a political failure to pass widely supported bipartisan reforms...
O'BRIEN: But there is an argument...
ROEMER: ... that will modernize the system.
O'BRIEN: There is an argument that there should not be a rush to this. And we heard the argument, in fact, from Chairman Hunter, that it puts the troops in the field in danger. We heard the argument from Chairman Sensenbrenner...
ROEMER: Absolutely a false...
O'BRIEN: ... that there are some issues with immigration that still need to be addressed and in this legislation.
ROEMER: Absolutely false claims on all parts. First of all, the 9/11 Commission would not put the war fighter in harm's way. We want to make sure that war fighter in Falluja gets the right information in the right fashion and is protected.
O'BRIEN: A final question for Commissioner Lehman. Pat Roberts, a Republican senator, said that this could go all the way to the White House; that he thinks -- he implied that maybe the White House wasn't doing enough.
Do you agree? Do you think President Bush needs to be doing more?
LEHMAN: Well, I think the test is coming in the next two weeks. President Bush actually went pretty far. He was on the road in Chile. He made several calls. He thought he had it locked up.
But this is the classic confrontation you see in Washington that they can sell tickets for, because the president now has been challenged directly by the leadership of the Congress and by the lobbyists and by the bureaucracy.
Now, he's got to show who's in charge. And this -- there's no doubt he can pass this. He can get it passed if he chooses to use his political capital and to hold accountable any members that obstruct this passage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Former 9/11 commissioners John Lehman and Tim Roamer -- Bill.
HEMMER: Soledad we were talking about this a week ago, and a week later it is still coming down, the rain in Texas.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: In today's "House Call," what son or daughter doesn't get on a parents' nerves at some time or another? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN center this morning with the story of one mother who literally gave her nerves to help her son.
Hi -- Sanjay.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning again, Soledad.
We're talking about Bill Gibson. We've been following him for over six months now, an amazing story of recovery, of sacrifice, and of a rare operation, and also getting the nerves directly from his mother.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL GIBSON, NERVE TRANSPLANT PATIENT: This is where they cut me open, all the way to my palm.
GUPTA (voice over): It's been over a year since 19-year-old Bill Gibson mangled the left side of his body in a bone-crushing car accident.
B. GIBSON: I used to always say what's more important than your physical ability? Now look at me.
MICHELE GIBSON, MOTHER, NERVE DONOR: When you have a child that's hurt and you're helpless and you can't help them, that's the most awful thing.
GUPTA: Bill's mother, Michele, knew her son would no longer be as active or athletic as he once was.
DR. ANTHONY ELKWOOD, RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGEON, MONMOUTH MEDICAL CENTER: When we first saw him in the emergency room, the question is, can he keep his arm.
GUPTA: But doctors found a way for Bill's mom to help him. It's a rare procedure called a "living donor nerve transplant." Bill would use his mother's nerves.
B. GIBSON: There's, like, liver transplants and kidney transplants, stuff like that. I had never heard of nerves.
GUPTA: In a five-hour operation, surgeons take sural (ph) nerves from Bill and his mother. Bill's nerves alone weren't enough. These sensory nerves run along the calf, and removing them leaves small numb spots on the inner ankles.
That bundle of nerves is transplanted to Bill's arm and acts as a pathway for Bill's nerves to regenerate. The hope is that one day he will move and feel.
(on camera): At one millimeter a day, nerve growing is a slow business. And transplants like these are uncommon. In the past, the nerves came from cadavers or from the patients themselves. But now, nerves from living donors may dramatically increase the possibilities.
ELKWOOD: The conditions that you might use nerve transplantation in, typically it's accidents, tumors that might involve a nerve, for facial reanimation where we make the face move again.
GUPTA (voice over): It's been more than 154 days now since Bill's transplant. And his nerve has probably regenerated about 150 millimeters, or more than five inches. And with the help of physical therapy...
B. GIBSON: I do have more feeling. I have a little bit more movement in my hand. I can move my arm a lot more. My hand should start moving a lot more this month. So, we'll see what happens.
GUPTA: The full impact won't be fully measurable until next summer. But for Bill, it will be a practice in patience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And Bill is doing very well now. We've been following him along. Still doing physical therapy about three times a week. As you saw there, Soledad, driving on his own and able to live on his own. He didn't think he'd be able to do those things when he first had his injuries -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Good for him. All right, Sanjay, thanks. Great story -- Bill.
GUPTA: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you. A really good story, too.
In a moment here, budgeting that turkey dinner. Why the cost of giving thanks just keeps on giving. Not thanks, but cash.
O'BRIEN: Plus, Michael Jackson faces even more woes. The pop star's latest legal troubles up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Doesn't this make you hearken back to the days when Michael Jackson was not quite so odd as he is now? Welcome back, everybody. It's time now for the critically-acclaimed "90-Second Pop" with the AMERICAN MORNING idols. Andy Borowitz is ambassador of comedy at BorowitzReport.com. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
Good morning. Let's play that again. I love that music.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: "Pretty Young Thing?"
O'BRIEN: Isn't that great?
BERNARD: Oh!
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: She likes it.
O'BRIEN: Oh, it hearkens back to eighth grade. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
BERNARD: How old was everybody when that song was a hit?
O'BRIEN: Oh, wait a minute. I was -- Michael Jackson is in the news, not for good reasons.
BERNARD: Again.
O'BRIEN: Not because "PTY" is such a great song. But because he's being sued by somebody else. What's the story?
BERNARD: You know, every week we learn something new about Michael Jackson. Last week it was that not only did he owe someone $3 million in unpaid loans, but he has terrible, home decorating skills. He bought from a store in Los Angeles giant Grecian urns, a bust clock, I mean, these Malachite tables, horrible, horrible stuff. And not only that, he still owes them $180,000. So, the owner of the store is suing him because he can't pay his bills.
TOURE: The guy is the best reality show going. And it's like the money is dwindling now.
BERNARD: I know.
TOURE: It's going to get even better.
O'BRIEN: It's going to get ugly.
BERNARD: You know what's really bad? The same day that that store filed suit, his greatest hits boxed set, which should have been, you know, a fantastic moment, came out on the same day. So that's Michael Jackson's life, right? The best thing and the worst thing.
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: I've got just one word for Michael Jackson: Ikea (ph).
BERNARD: Yes.
BOROWITZ: Really.
O'BRIEN: His bill from the furniture store was that all of this stuff was over $300,000.
BERNARD: right. And he managed to pay some of it.
O'BRIEN: You know, this is not the time to be buying furniture.
BOROWITZ: I don't know if his fans will stick by him through this.
O'BRIEN: His bad decorating taste?
BERNARD: I mean...
BOROWITZ: You know, we've been through a lot. I've been with him through everything.
BERNARD: The furniture? I mean...
BOROWITZ: But you've got pay your furniture bills, Michael.
BERNARD: He probably needs (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: But the Malachite, no, no, no.
TOURE: I don't even know what Malachite is. This is really...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: It's ugly. Don't worry about it.
BERNARD: It's bad.
O'BRIEN: Alexander, who knew he's gay? TOURE: Oh, my God. What a shocker. I mean, you know, this movie, you know, with Colin Farrell and his little gay scenes, the movie should do just fine. In the blue states, we understand, there's nothing wrong with being gay. I mean, like, this is part of the whole sort of referendum that the country is having right now. We are being tested on whether or not being gay is OK and you can be a full citizen. And right now, we are failing, but we'll get there.
O'BRIEN: Well, we just took a big political (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BERNARD: Well, what...
BOROWITZ: What was the topic? I'm lost.
O'BRIEN: That's the question. "Alexander" opens. Oliver Stone says he was openly bisexual.
(CROSSTALK)
BERNARD: And what's interesting about that is some group of, I think, 25 Greek lawyers are actually threatening to sue Warner Brothers, because they want Oliver Stone to put a line at the end of the movie that says, this is a work of fiction; that it's not necessarily historically true. I mean, does he understand this is not a documentary? I mean, this is a movie.
O'BRIEN: Everybody has tried that. Every movie Oliver Stone makes, everyone is, like, it's not a documentary.
BERNARD: He never said he was going to do a documentary.
BOROWITZ: I mean, there was that whole bisexual thing in Nixon. I remember that.
BERNARD: Yes, that was...
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: It was an asexual theme.
BERNARD: Actually, I mean, the movie has an unbelievable heterosexual sex scene between Colin Farrell and Rosario Dawson.
O'BRIEN: No one is talking about that.
TOURE: Right, right.
BERNARD: No one is talking about that!
BOROWITZ: This is a date movie for everybody. That's what it is. It's going to rule.
O'BRIEN: You guys, as always, thank you.
Bill -- back to you. HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks.
In a moment here, it might be more than just your belt that busts this Thanksgiving. We'll explain that. Back with Andy and Jack after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. It's time for being thankful. But is it going to break your wallet?
Andy Serwer is back here "Minding Your Business."
Good morning to you.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. It's not going to break your wallet, no.
HEMMER: First the markets. What's happening?.
SERWER: Let's talk about the market. First of all, as advertised, as promised, stocks are trading down this morning, I'm sorry to say.
HEMMER: Well, you said it at 7:30 this morning.
SERWER: Believe it. Believe it.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Not very much.
SERWER: Oh, Jack's -- look, Jack's making things better all of the time. Jack is making things better all of the time.
Krispy Kreme is down. We've talked about them. There was a hole in their earnings story.
CAFFERTY: Oh!
SERWER: You're welcome, Jack. Then Apple Computer is up a whole lot, up $4.30 to $59. I think we've got another hot one now, maybe a la Google. Watch this thing towards Christmas. I mean, it is really moving. You know, it hasn't translated to Mac sales yet. We keep talking about the iPod.
HEMMER: True.
SERWER: Their share of computers is still the same; 56 million computers sold last year. They did about 2 million of them. That's not a whole lot.
The cost of the Thanksgiving Day dinner, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, is down a little bit this year. They do this thing. Dinner for 10, it's down to $35.68, down 60 cents. Turkey is down a little bit. This has got everything, this meal. It's got, you know, trimmings, stuffings, cranberry, none of that Jones soda, by the way. It does not have any of the Jones soda. In a separate study, just very quickly here, Purdue University says that's not true. The cost of a Thanksgiving turkey dinner is up because butter is up, milk is up and also beef is up.
Now, the University of Purdue, we usually serve turkey...
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: ... on Thanksgiving, not meatloaf, not beef Wellington. No one cares. How do they calculate beef prices?
CAFFERTY: It's not a hamburger kind of holiday, you know.
SERWER: No. It's just -- I don't know. They've got to wake up there in Indiana. I don't know what's going on.
HEMMER: It's a good school.
SERWER: Boilermakers.
HEMMER: Boilermakers.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.
Jack has got the "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: The stalemate over the 9/11 Commission report, Soledad. The House adjourned for Thanksgiving week without passing the overhaul bill calling for the overhaul of the intelligence system in this country.
We asked what you thought about that.
Justin in Fort Worth, Texas, says: "Nothing. I say we let it go, wait for the nukes to go off all over the globe, then hope that Mother Nature will make a smarter race somewhere down the line to replace us. Stick a fork in us, we're done."
O'BRIEN: Oh, that's a little depressing.
SERWER: Maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Allen in Hugo, Oklahoma: "The reason they can't pass an intelligence reform bill is they don't know what the first word means."
Al is referring to the word "intelligence."
SERWER: Got it.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we got that.
CAFFERTY: Teresa in New York: "I say we open all congressional sessions to the public, put those Detroit NBA fans front and center, serve them alcohol and popcorn, and if they don't like what they hear, let the beer fly."
HEMMER: Sure.
SERWER: That's good.
O'BRIEN: Can you just imagine that for a second, though?
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: If it was, like, congressional sessions were a spectator sport, and everyone could...
CAFFERTY: If they didn't do the public's bidding, watch out.
SERWER: It would be like the...
O'BRIEN: Even if you didn't like what they came up with?
SERWER: Right. Except the Coliseum in Rome to put the senators in.
CAFFERTY: They have -- don't they have legislative bodies elsewhere in the world where these partisan disagreements become physical fights.
HEMMER: Oh, we've seen them.
SERWER: Oh, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: Right.
O'BRIEN: Interesting.
SERWER: It happened in the U.S. Senate, too.
HEMMER: Could you imagine the ratings for C-Span if that were the case?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: A long time ago it happened in our Congress.
O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, you guys, thanks. Coming up this morning on CNN, a disagreement over a hunting position leads to five deaths. A report from Wisconsin is coming up in the next hour with Betty Nguyen and Rick Sanchez on "CNN LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING is back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: We've got to run. Mark two dates on your calendar. Christmas Day. Imagine the ratings for that Detroit at Indiana game.
CAFFERTY: That's on Christmas Day again?
HEMMER: On Christmas Day. And then I think Indiana goes back to Detroit in March toward the end of the month.
SERWER: I didn't know that. That's unbelievable.
HEMMER: I hope TNT has that game. It would be great if Barkley was doing the game, too.
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: Yes, it would.
CAFFERTY: That's a perfect storm, isn't it?
SERWER: Put them all together.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) yelling.
SERWER: Very good. That's the perfect storm.
O'BRIEN: Sad but true. All right, we're out of time, everybody. Betty Nguyen and Rick Sanchez are over at the CNN center.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys.
HEMMER: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Hi, guys.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Appreciate it. We're going to be talking about a lot. We're going to talk a little bit about the basketball event.
NGUYEN: A lot about the basketball.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
NGUYEN: Yes, everybody is talking about that today.
SANCHEZ: And we're also going to get into some of the things that happened on Capitol Hill this weekend, a lot of bizarre things as a matter of fact.
NGUYEN: So, let's get started. Here's what's happening "Now in the News."
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