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American Morning
Scary Ride
Aired April 21, 2005 - 08:30 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get another check on the headlines, though, with Valerie Morris.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And thank you. And good morning again. And good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, U.S. military sources say nine people are dead after a commercial chopper was shot down in Iraq. A U.S. embassy official says the incident took place in the last four hours in the region between Baghdad and Tikrit.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing aimed at interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. He escaped without injuries. The statement has been posted on an Islamic Web site.
President Bush is expected to name Marine General Peter Pace as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace is a Vietnam veteran, and would be the first Marine to hold the military's top job. The Joint Chiefs chairman typically serves for two, two-year terms. Pace would replace Air Force General Richard Myers.
Meantime, lawmakers in the house are poised to approve an $8 billion energy bill today, that, among other things, allow drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge. The house has given the go-ahead for drilling there twice in the past four years, only to see that issue die in the Senate.
A legal dispute between Yahoo! and the family of a Marine who died in Iraq is now over. The family of Lance Corporal Justin Elsworth (ph) had sued to see his final e-mails. Yahoo! objected over privacy concerns. But after a judge sided with the family, Yahoo! has now turned over all access to the account.
And Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield is free and clear for his little scuffle with fans in Boston last week. Remember this? It was shown a lot. League officials reached their decision Wednesday, just a day after meeting with Sheffield, and they wound up praising Sheffield for showing what they called great restraint. You might recall two fans lost their tickets for the season and could face misdemeanor criminal charges. And that is the very latest news.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: From Vegas now, a wild and scary ride for two cousins. The two girls, ages 9 and 11, stranded on a thrill ride for more than an hour, almost 1,000 feet above the Vegas strip. Ericka McKinnon, Gabriella Ceniceros my guests now from Vegas.
And good morning to both of you.
GABRIELLA CENICEROS, STUCK ON LAS VEGAS RIDE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Nice to see you're doing OK.
Hey, Ericka, how windy was it when you went up in that ride that night?
ERICKA MCKINNON, STUCK ON LAS VEGAS RIDE: I couldn't tell you. It was really, really windy.
HEMMER: So you knew the weather before you got on the ride?
MCKINNON: Yes, I mean, it was pretty windy at that time, but it get worse and worse after that.
HEMMER: Did you realize what had happened? So I guess you're up there, and the ride pauses essentially because the wind's so strong. When did you realize that?
MCKINNON: Within like a minute, maybe two minutes of the ride. The ride just completely stopped at the end of the stratosphere, and we were just dangling there for the longest time. It felt like an hour and half. I couldn't really tell you.
HEMMER: You say you're dangling. Is that outside the ride, or is that in an enclosed area?
MCKINNON: It's outside of the ride pretty much.
HEMMER: Wow. OK, so you're stuck there for an hour, right?
MCKINNON: Yes.
HEMMER: What are you doing?
MCKINNON: Looking down, seeing how the police are blocking off the roads, just I was thinking so many things in my head at that time.
HEMMER: You didn't have a cell phone by chance, did you?
MCKINNON: Yes, I did. Thank God I did.
HEMMER: Yes, who did you call?
MCKINNON: At first I called my dad, and then after, you know, I saw that things weren't going as planned, like I said, it was taking a lot longer, I gave 911 a call to see if firefighters or somebody else can help us.
HEMMER: Who did your dad call?
MCKINNON: I don't know. HEMMER: You don't know if he called the casino or anything, do you?
MCKINNON: I believe he did. I guess they had hung up on him like twice.
HEMMER: Oh, that's not a good thing, is it?
MCKINNON: Made him worry a lot more.
HEMMER: Did you ever talk to the folks trying to rescue you?
MCKINNON: At the end, I tried to. I gave one of them a hug and I thanked them. But I didn't really get that many words out.
HEMMER: You're getting a little hey head of the story here. How did you get off that ride?
MCKINNON: They pretty much at the end, there was a man -- I didn't get his name, but he crawled across the top of the ride and attached a chain to us, and they just ended up pulling us in.
HEMMER: Wow, how is your cousin doing, by the way? She's sitting right there with you.
Hey, Gabriella, good morning to you.
CENICEROS: Good morning.
HEMMER: Hey, have you ever been on a ride like this before?
CENICEROS: No, not at all.
HEMMER: First time, huh?
CENICEROS: Yes.
HEMMER: Think you'll do it again?
CENICEROS: No.
HEMMER: You're not even going to consider it, are you?
CENICEROS: No.
HEMMER: How did you feel being stuck up there?
CENICEROS: It was, like, terrifying, because, like, you don't know, like, so many things are going through your head. You're thinking where you're sitting at is going to will fall down, and you don't know how many people are going to react to that, so...
HEMMER: How strong were the winds when you were hanging up there?
CENICEROS: It was pretty strong, where my whole body just went numb.
HEMMER: It went numb. Is that from the cold weather, or what?
CENICEROS: Yes, from the cold weather.
HEMMER: How you feeling now, by the way?
CENICEROS: I'm OK now.
HEMMER: All right, OK. Well, I know you won't go back up again, though. How about your cousin?
CENICEROS: I don't think she is either.
HEMMER: What do you think, Ericka? You want to answer that question?
MCKINNON: I love roller coasters and all, but this pretty changed my mind about them.
HEMMER: I got you. Well, listen, we're going to talk to the owner of the casino in a moment. Thanks, and good luck to both of you, that's Ericka McKinnon and Gabriella Ceniceros there out in Vegas.
Get a break here. On the other side of the break, a response from the company that runs that ride.
Also in a moment, the burning question in Hollywood, how did Ryan Seacrest get the star on the Walk of Fame. Carol has been trying to get an answer to this question all morning
COSTELLO: I want to know.
HEMMER: And she will get her answer a bit later.
Back after this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: More now on the thrill ride out of Las Vegas. The Stratosphere Hotel Casino owns the ride. It's blaming 55-mile-an-hour winds for triggering that safety mechanism that is designed to stop the ride, essentially pause it in the event of high winds.
Randy Fine's the senior vice president of American Casino & Entertainment Properties, the company that owns the hotel and casino. Randy, good morning to you.
RANDY FINE AMERICAN CASINO & ENTERTAINMENT PROPERTIES: Good morning to you, Bill.
HEMMER: Should this ride have been stopped, given the weather conditions?
FINE: Oh, absolutely. When the customers got on the ride, the winds were all right. They were within our normal operating practices, but they spiked, as the young lady said, shortly after they got on. They actually got over 60 miles an hour. That's why they got so cold.
HEMMER: That is some kind of wind. But shouldn't you have known that before it happened?
FINE: Well, this was unusual. We've operated rides at the top of the Stratosphere for more than eight years, and this is a relatively unique situation. Usually, we can predict when the winds are going to go up like this, but they went up quickly and then they stayed up. They didn't come back down like they normally do.
HEMMER: You say you can predict -- how do you predict? What kind of mechanism do you have?
FINE: We've got all sorts of technology and weather system, wind monitoring and wind prediction systems on top of tower.
HEMMER: Well, you're in a desert, you know, and oftentimes the conditions can change rapidly, but that's the reason why you have that equipment set up. Why did it not give you a true answer this time?
FINE: Because it happened very quickly. This the first time in eight years we've seen something like this happen. Went up -- and usually when the winds spike in Las Vegas, they come back down relatively quickly. It just didn't happen here. So we made a decision after few minutes, that rather than waiting for the winds to come back down and the ride automatically returning to the launchpad, that we would use our manual override to bring the girls back in.
HEMMER: You have a manual retrieval process, too, is that right?
FINE: That's right.
HEMMER: In the event that you need to rescue these -- in this case, these girls. It takes an hour normally? Is that...
FINE: We've never had to do this before. It took a little bit longer than we would liked, and that's one of the things we're committed to work on if we need to do this again in the future. But the girls were safe the entire time. I'm sure it was scary and we feel badly about the experience that they had, but there was never any risk.
HEMMER: You say you're going to review the retrieval process. How long should it take then, in your estimation, as opposed to an hour? If you could do the right way, it would be how long?
FINE: My guess would be 15, 20 minutes. I mean, the other issue that took a little bit long is that when we manually retrieved the ride, they're fighting the winds, so that the higher the winds, the longer it's going to take.
HEMMER: Have you been up in this thing, Randy?
FINE: I have. I rode it five times yesterday.
HEMMER: You did. Scary or not?
FINE: It's a scary ride. I mean, we think it's the most intense thrill ride in the world and I think the two girls that were on the show before probably could attest to that.
HEMMER: I think they agree with you. Thank you, Randy. Randy Fine, American Casino & Entertainment Properties, owner of the Stratosphere Casino and Hotel in Vegas. Here is Carol.
COSTELLO: Now my question will be answered. "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, and his nomination has some people asking about how the selection process works, because, you know, he's only been in the business for what, five years?
CNN's Sibila Vargas finds out for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Tom Cruise to Britney Spears and Steven Spielberg to Celine Dion, Hollywood's elite have been letting Tinseltown tourists walk all over them for decades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentleman, Ryan Seacrest.
VARGAS: The latest inductee to the Hollywood Walk of Fame is "American Idol" host and radio deejay Ryan Seacrest, whose nomination raised a couple of eyebrows.
RYAN SEACREST, ENTERTAINER: Look, the star is for 15 years in radio, and I've been doing that for quite a while. And when the city of Hollywood offers you this opportunity, it's not in your best interest to say no.
VARGAS (on camera): So how does one get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
(voice-over): To find out, we went to Johnny Grant, Hollywood's honorary mayor, who has unveiled 500 of the more than 2,200 stars that line the famous walkway.
JOHNNY GRANT, HONORARY MAYOR OF HOLLYWOOD: You have to be nominated. Then, in June, we have an annual meeting. There's five people, because we have five categories, radio, television, recording, motion picture and live performance. Then, we make that recommendation to the full board of the Hollywood Chamber, and then it goes down to the Board of Public Works, because it is a public sidewalk, and then, it goes before the full L.A. City Council. You are well-validated. It isn't just saying, let's go to lunch with old John.
VARGAS (on camera): You also have to pay for the stars, right? There is a price. GRANT: The celebrities don't pay for them, the studios or fan clubs pay for them.
VARGAS (voice-over): And they pay big, $15,000 in all, for what Grant says takes care of the ceremony, installation, upkeep and the star itself.
(on camera): And you don't necessarily have to be human, right, to get a star?
GRANT: Well, you don't necessarily have to be human to be a star.
VARGAS (voice-over): So while superstars like Julia Roberts and Clint Eastwood have passed on the opportunity, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and even Godzilla have been honored.
GRANT: Godzilla was celebrating 50 years. As a matter of fact, I danced with Godzilla up on the stage.
VARGAS: And for those who are still critical of the process, Grant has this message.
GRANT: It's a tourist attraction. This is not the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Yes, because Godzilla couldn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. Seacrest started his career in radio broadcasting at the age of 16. He only made it to the television airways recently.
By the way, our "90 Second Pop" panelists offered up their own expert opinions on Ryan Seacrest's introduction -- induction, rather -- on Wednesday. As usual, it was no-holds-barred.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARYN BRYANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He actually does a pretty good job in "American Idol," because that show...
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's a dork!
BRYANT: Listen, that show was supposed to appeal to all kinds of age groups. I think older ladies probably...
TOURE: He doesn't appeal to me. He doesn't appeal to you.
BRYANT: No, but I'm just saying...
COSTELLO: This is what we should do. I have an idea. We should submit Bill Hemmer's name. CNN can pony up $15,000, and we'll see what happens.
TOURE: Bill deserves one more than this dweeb Ryan Seacrest.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That's what I'm talking about.
COSTELLO: You do deserve one. If Godzilla has one and Lassie -- you, too. Anyway, Ryan Seacrest must have been watching, because he talked about "90 Second Pop" on his L.A. radio show on Wednesday morning. Toure even had to answer for calling Seacrest a dweeb.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEACREST: Can you give me one piece of advice so I can become less of a dweeb in your eyes?
TOURE: I can't even do it, man, you're right where you want to be. You're the new Dick Clark. You're doing your thing. You're palatable to red state America, blue state America, purple America. I mean, you know, I can't give you any advice at all...
SEACREST: This is a pointless conversation...all right, so there's Toure in his cape right now at CNN. Make sure you check out 270 seconds of him this week.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: So Toure didn't -- he didn't back up his words, did he, on that radio show?
COSTELLO: Well, he kind of did, because he made Ryan Seacrest seem so bland. He appealed to everyone...
HEMMER: You think so?
COSTELLO: Which is the definition of dweeb, don't you think?
HEMMER: I don't know. Toure's in here tomorrow, right?
COSTELLO: Yes. We'll ask him then. We have a special treat for you, though. Check it out. Lassie, Benji, Rin Tin Tin, Godzilla, Billy Hemmer.
HEMMER: Oh, Carol, you know you shouldn't have.
COSTELLO: I paid $15,000 for you.
HEMMER: Yes, you did.
COSTELLO: I'm with you.
HEMMER: Yes, you got that off the Internet.
Martha's Stewart's legal drama, practically made for TV. Fans are going to have to wait a bit longer for the TV movie, though. Andy tells us why in a moment after this.
COSTELLO: I can't wait to get the answer to that, either.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Martha's movie's been delayed. New Jersey's saying goodbye to an industry of its past.
With those stories and a look at the markets, here's Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack.
Let's talk about the markets, first of all. Another swoon day for stocks, Dow down 115 points yesterday. We could see here Nasdaq down as well. How about year-to-date? Just don't even bother opening your 401k statements, throw them right in the trash, I'm telling you, because stocks are down precipitously. Look at that, that's not good. Price of oil and consumer confidence kind of leading this sentiment among investors.
And let's talk about what's going on at GM. An end of an era in New Jersey yesterday. They closed down the last car plant in the state. As of 1970, there were 46,000 auto workers in the state of New Jersey. There are no more. This Lindon (ph), New Jersey plant, the last car to roll off was a Chevy Blazer. They made nine million cars there in 68 years. A really interesting story in "The Newark Star Ledger." I had a guy Ron Shirley (ph), 50-year-old inspector there. His father started at the plant in 1957. So his dad worked his whole career and this guy worked there most of his career, and now it's all over.
CAFFERTY: That's sad.
SERWER: It is sad. And you know, their manufacturing is going bye the bye in this state as well.
Now let's talk about Martha Stewart. You know, they were making this movie about Cybil Shepherd. She was in the first movie about Martha Stewart if you're keeping track. They were making a second one that was supposed to come out this spring.
Now apparently it's been put on hold. They want it to come out in fall apparently to match all of the hoopla when she is in the film about -- or in the new "Apprentice" thing. This the old one, I gather. Cybil's going to make a career out of this. Now what are they going to show instead of this? I love this. "Amber Frey," witless for the prosecution -- I mean, "Witness for the Prosecution" is the name of the thing they're going to show.
CAFFERTY: There's CBS upgrading again.
SERWER: Witless for the prosecution, don't you think they should call it that. CAFFERTY: Absolutely.
SERWER: Well, that's my report.
CAFFERTY: That's good.
Time for the "File." A lot of camels in the Middle East, but apparently there are not enough jockeys. Qatar's developing a robot to ride the camels in the races, replacing the children who normally jockey the camels around. The robot is called Kamel with a 'K,' takes command using a wireless remote control. A camel handler follows the rider on his camel in a vehicle and uses a joystick to drive the camel, if you know what I mean.
Human rights groups say that there are 40,000 boy jockeys, some as young as 4, and they're either bought or kidnapped from their parents and brought to the Gulf to compete in these racers. Qatar plans to use only the robotic riders being driven by joysticks by 2007.
The cost of an Ivy League education keeps going up. Tuition prices this fall will average, at an Ivy League school, $41,000 a year. Harvard raised its tuition by 4.5 percent -- $41, 675 bucks. It will cost you $41,000 to go Yale. That's up 5.5 percent. According to the College Board, the prices put the Ivies in the top four percent schools in terms of education costs. Colleges across the country boosting tuition and fees by an average of 5 to 6 percent a year since the mid 1990s, which is much higher than the rate of inflation.
SERWER: Yale's a bargain, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
A Vietnam veteran waited in line for 90 minutes in Kansas City, Missouri last night so he could spit tobacco juice in Jane Fonda's face. Fonda was signing copies of her book. Fifty-four-year-old Michael Smith called Fonda a traitor for her trip to Vietnam in 1972, where she was photographed laughing while sitting on a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun. Police said Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct. Smith insists he has no regrets about spitting on Fonda. Quote, "I consider it a debt of honor. She pit in our faces for years."
SERWER: Just a pinch between your cheek and gum is what they say.
HEMMER: Those wounds are still wide open for so many.
SERWER: It was vivid image.
HEMMER: No question about it.
COSTELLO: I guess her apologies aren't working. She's apologized for some of it.
HEMMER: And has again.
COSTELLO: And again and again.
HEMMER: I think it's high time Internet educations have to be pushed in this country. What are you going to do for so many Americans who can't afford the rising cost of tuition in some schools. I'm not saying you have to go to Harvard or Yale, but simple schools that I went to back in Ohio...
COSTELLO: Exactly. I couldn't afford to go, because I had to pay for it myself.
HEMMER: It's extraordinary now. You're going to have to find a way for middle America to afford this. And how do you do it? You do it online.
SERWER: Yes, who wants to sit in front of a computer when you can be out in the quad throwing a frisbee, though.
HEMMER: Well, I'm with you there, too,.
SERWER: That's what college is all about.
COSTELLO: Actually we're going to have a guest on later who's written a book, "Princeton Review," about how you can go to choice colleges and get the most bang for your buck.
SERWER: The best bargain schools. One of those the New Mexico School of Mimes. Seriously. It was number two. Probably a pretty good school.
COSTELLO: We'll ask them about that.
SERWER: Thanks, guys. In a moment here, Emmy Award-winning comedian Dennis Miller stops by the studio. His unique take on everything -- "Monday Night Football," the pope. What's coming up on cable.
Back in a moment here. Top of the hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 21, 2005 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get another check on the headlines, though, with Valerie Morris.
VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And thank you. And good morning again. And good morning to all of you.
Now in the news, U.S. military sources say nine people are dead after a commercial chopper was shot down in Iraq. A U.S. embassy official says the incident took place in the last four hours in the region between Baghdad and Tikrit.
Meanwhile, Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for a suicide car bombing aimed at interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. He escaped without injuries. The statement has been posted on an Islamic Web site.
President Bush is expected to name Marine General Peter Pace as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pace is a Vietnam veteran, and would be the first Marine to hold the military's top job. The Joint Chiefs chairman typically serves for two, two-year terms. Pace would replace Air Force General Richard Myers.
Meantime, lawmakers in the house are poised to approve an $8 billion energy bill today, that, among other things, allow drilling in the Alaska wildlife refuge. The house has given the go-ahead for drilling there twice in the past four years, only to see that issue die in the Senate.
A legal dispute between Yahoo! and the family of a Marine who died in Iraq is now over. The family of Lance Corporal Justin Elsworth (ph) had sued to see his final e-mails. Yahoo! objected over privacy concerns. But after a judge sided with the family, Yahoo! has now turned over all access to the account.
And Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield is free and clear for his little scuffle with fans in Boston last week. Remember this? It was shown a lot. League officials reached their decision Wednesday, just a day after meeting with Sheffield, and they wound up praising Sheffield for showing what they called great restraint. You might recall two fans lost their tickets for the season and could face misdemeanor criminal charges. And that is the very latest news.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: From Vegas now, a wild and scary ride for two cousins. The two girls, ages 9 and 11, stranded on a thrill ride for more than an hour, almost 1,000 feet above the Vegas strip. Ericka McKinnon, Gabriella Ceniceros my guests now from Vegas.
And good morning to both of you.
GABRIELLA CENICEROS, STUCK ON LAS VEGAS RIDE: Good morning.
HEMMER: Nice to see you're doing OK.
Hey, Ericka, how windy was it when you went up in that ride that night?
ERICKA MCKINNON, STUCK ON LAS VEGAS RIDE: I couldn't tell you. It was really, really windy.
HEMMER: So you knew the weather before you got on the ride?
MCKINNON: Yes, I mean, it was pretty windy at that time, but it get worse and worse after that.
HEMMER: Did you realize what had happened? So I guess you're up there, and the ride pauses essentially because the wind's so strong. When did you realize that?
MCKINNON: Within like a minute, maybe two minutes of the ride. The ride just completely stopped at the end of the stratosphere, and we were just dangling there for the longest time. It felt like an hour and half. I couldn't really tell you.
HEMMER: You say you're dangling. Is that outside the ride, or is that in an enclosed area?
MCKINNON: It's outside of the ride pretty much.
HEMMER: Wow. OK, so you're stuck there for an hour, right?
MCKINNON: Yes.
HEMMER: What are you doing?
MCKINNON: Looking down, seeing how the police are blocking off the roads, just I was thinking so many things in my head at that time.
HEMMER: You didn't have a cell phone by chance, did you?
MCKINNON: Yes, I did. Thank God I did.
HEMMER: Yes, who did you call?
MCKINNON: At first I called my dad, and then after, you know, I saw that things weren't going as planned, like I said, it was taking a lot longer, I gave 911 a call to see if firefighters or somebody else can help us.
HEMMER: Who did your dad call?
MCKINNON: I don't know. HEMMER: You don't know if he called the casino or anything, do you?
MCKINNON: I believe he did. I guess they had hung up on him like twice.
HEMMER: Oh, that's not a good thing, is it?
MCKINNON: Made him worry a lot more.
HEMMER: Did you ever talk to the folks trying to rescue you?
MCKINNON: At the end, I tried to. I gave one of them a hug and I thanked them. But I didn't really get that many words out.
HEMMER: You're getting a little hey head of the story here. How did you get off that ride?
MCKINNON: They pretty much at the end, there was a man -- I didn't get his name, but he crawled across the top of the ride and attached a chain to us, and they just ended up pulling us in.
HEMMER: Wow, how is your cousin doing, by the way? She's sitting right there with you.
Hey, Gabriella, good morning to you.
CENICEROS: Good morning.
HEMMER: Hey, have you ever been on a ride like this before?
CENICEROS: No, not at all.
HEMMER: First time, huh?
CENICEROS: Yes.
HEMMER: Think you'll do it again?
CENICEROS: No.
HEMMER: You're not even going to consider it, are you?
CENICEROS: No.
HEMMER: How did you feel being stuck up there?
CENICEROS: It was, like, terrifying, because, like, you don't know, like, so many things are going through your head. You're thinking where you're sitting at is going to will fall down, and you don't know how many people are going to react to that, so...
HEMMER: How strong were the winds when you were hanging up there?
CENICEROS: It was pretty strong, where my whole body just went numb.
HEMMER: It went numb. Is that from the cold weather, or what?
CENICEROS: Yes, from the cold weather.
HEMMER: How you feeling now, by the way?
CENICEROS: I'm OK now.
HEMMER: All right, OK. Well, I know you won't go back up again, though. How about your cousin?
CENICEROS: I don't think she is either.
HEMMER: What do you think, Ericka? You want to answer that question?
MCKINNON: I love roller coasters and all, but this pretty changed my mind about them.
HEMMER: I got you. Well, listen, we're going to talk to the owner of the casino in a moment. Thanks, and good luck to both of you, that's Ericka McKinnon and Gabriella Ceniceros there out in Vegas.
Get a break here. On the other side of the break, a response from the company that runs that ride.
Also in a moment, the burning question in Hollywood, how did Ryan Seacrest get the star on the Walk of Fame. Carol has been trying to get an answer to this question all morning
COSTELLO: I want to know.
HEMMER: And she will get her answer a bit later.
Back after this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: More now on the thrill ride out of Las Vegas. The Stratosphere Hotel Casino owns the ride. It's blaming 55-mile-an-hour winds for triggering that safety mechanism that is designed to stop the ride, essentially pause it in the event of high winds.
Randy Fine's the senior vice president of American Casino & Entertainment Properties, the company that owns the hotel and casino. Randy, good morning to you.
RANDY FINE AMERICAN CASINO & ENTERTAINMENT PROPERTIES: Good morning to you, Bill.
HEMMER: Should this ride have been stopped, given the weather conditions?
FINE: Oh, absolutely. When the customers got on the ride, the winds were all right. They were within our normal operating practices, but they spiked, as the young lady said, shortly after they got on. They actually got over 60 miles an hour. That's why they got so cold.
HEMMER: That is some kind of wind. But shouldn't you have known that before it happened?
FINE: Well, this was unusual. We've operated rides at the top of the Stratosphere for more than eight years, and this is a relatively unique situation. Usually, we can predict when the winds are going to go up like this, but they went up quickly and then they stayed up. They didn't come back down like they normally do.
HEMMER: You say you can predict -- how do you predict? What kind of mechanism do you have?
FINE: We've got all sorts of technology and weather system, wind monitoring and wind prediction systems on top of tower.
HEMMER: Well, you're in a desert, you know, and oftentimes the conditions can change rapidly, but that's the reason why you have that equipment set up. Why did it not give you a true answer this time?
FINE: Because it happened very quickly. This the first time in eight years we've seen something like this happen. Went up -- and usually when the winds spike in Las Vegas, they come back down relatively quickly. It just didn't happen here. So we made a decision after few minutes, that rather than waiting for the winds to come back down and the ride automatically returning to the launchpad, that we would use our manual override to bring the girls back in.
HEMMER: You have a manual retrieval process, too, is that right?
FINE: That's right.
HEMMER: In the event that you need to rescue these -- in this case, these girls. It takes an hour normally? Is that...
FINE: We've never had to do this before. It took a little bit longer than we would liked, and that's one of the things we're committed to work on if we need to do this again in the future. But the girls were safe the entire time. I'm sure it was scary and we feel badly about the experience that they had, but there was never any risk.
HEMMER: You say you're going to review the retrieval process. How long should it take then, in your estimation, as opposed to an hour? If you could do the right way, it would be how long?
FINE: My guess would be 15, 20 minutes. I mean, the other issue that took a little bit long is that when we manually retrieved the ride, they're fighting the winds, so that the higher the winds, the longer it's going to take.
HEMMER: Have you been up in this thing, Randy?
FINE: I have. I rode it five times yesterday.
HEMMER: You did. Scary or not?
FINE: It's a scary ride. I mean, we think it's the most intense thrill ride in the world and I think the two girls that were on the show before probably could attest to that.
HEMMER: I think they agree with you. Thank you, Randy. Randy Fine, American Casino & Entertainment Properties, owner of the Stratosphere Casino and Hotel in Vegas. Here is Carol.
COSTELLO: Now my question will be answered. "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, and his nomination has some people asking about how the selection process works, because, you know, he's only been in the business for what, five years?
CNN's Sibila Vargas finds out for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Tom Cruise to Britney Spears and Steven Spielberg to Celine Dion, Hollywood's elite have been letting Tinseltown tourists walk all over them for decades.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentleman, Ryan Seacrest.
VARGAS: The latest inductee to the Hollywood Walk of Fame is "American Idol" host and radio deejay Ryan Seacrest, whose nomination raised a couple of eyebrows.
RYAN SEACREST, ENTERTAINER: Look, the star is for 15 years in radio, and I've been doing that for quite a while. And when the city of Hollywood offers you this opportunity, it's not in your best interest to say no.
VARGAS (on camera): So how does one get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
(voice-over): To find out, we went to Johnny Grant, Hollywood's honorary mayor, who has unveiled 500 of the more than 2,200 stars that line the famous walkway.
JOHNNY GRANT, HONORARY MAYOR OF HOLLYWOOD: You have to be nominated. Then, in June, we have an annual meeting. There's five people, because we have five categories, radio, television, recording, motion picture and live performance. Then, we make that recommendation to the full board of the Hollywood Chamber, and then it goes down to the Board of Public Works, because it is a public sidewalk, and then, it goes before the full L.A. City Council. You are well-validated. It isn't just saying, let's go to lunch with old John.
VARGAS (on camera): You also have to pay for the stars, right? There is a price. GRANT: The celebrities don't pay for them, the studios or fan clubs pay for them.
VARGAS (voice-over): And they pay big, $15,000 in all, for what Grant says takes care of the ceremony, installation, upkeep and the star itself.
(on camera): And you don't necessarily have to be human, right, to get a star?
GRANT: Well, you don't necessarily have to be human to be a star.
VARGAS (voice-over): So while superstars like Julia Roberts and Clint Eastwood have passed on the opportunity, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and even Godzilla have been honored.
GRANT: Godzilla was celebrating 50 years. As a matter of fact, I danced with Godzilla up on the stage.
VARGAS: And for those who are still critical of the process, Grant has this message.
GRANT: It's a tourist attraction. This is not the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Yes, because Godzilla couldn't win the Nobel Peace Prize. Seacrest started his career in radio broadcasting at the age of 16. He only made it to the television airways recently.
By the way, our "90 Second Pop" panelists offered up their own expert opinions on Ryan Seacrest's introduction -- induction, rather -- on Wednesday. As usual, it was no-holds-barred.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARYN BRYANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He actually does a pretty good job in "American Idol," because that show...
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's a dork!
BRYANT: Listen, that show was supposed to appeal to all kinds of age groups. I think older ladies probably...
TOURE: He doesn't appeal to me. He doesn't appeal to you.
BRYANT: No, but I'm just saying...
COSTELLO: This is what we should do. I have an idea. We should submit Bill Hemmer's name. CNN can pony up $15,000, and we'll see what happens.
TOURE: Bill deserves one more than this dweeb Ryan Seacrest.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That's what I'm talking about.
COSTELLO: You do deserve one. If Godzilla has one and Lassie -- you, too. Anyway, Ryan Seacrest must have been watching, because he talked about "90 Second Pop" on his L.A. radio show on Wednesday morning. Toure even had to answer for calling Seacrest a dweeb.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEACREST: Can you give me one piece of advice so I can become less of a dweeb in your eyes?
TOURE: I can't even do it, man, you're right where you want to be. You're the new Dick Clark. You're doing your thing. You're palatable to red state America, blue state America, purple America. I mean, you know, I can't give you any advice at all...
SEACREST: This is a pointless conversation...all right, so there's Toure in his cape right now at CNN. Make sure you check out 270 seconds of him this week.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: So Toure didn't -- he didn't back up his words, did he, on that radio show?
COSTELLO: Well, he kind of did, because he made Ryan Seacrest seem so bland. He appealed to everyone...
HEMMER: You think so?
COSTELLO: Which is the definition of dweeb, don't you think?
HEMMER: I don't know. Toure's in here tomorrow, right?
COSTELLO: Yes. We'll ask him then. We have a special treat for you, though. Check it out. Lassie, Benji, Rin Tin Tin, Godzilla, Billy Hemmer.
HEMMER: Oh, Carol, you know you shouldn't have.
COSTELLO: I paid $15,000 for you.
HEMMER: Yes, you did.
COSTELLO: I'm with you.
HEMMER: Yes, you got that off the Internet.
Martha's Stewart's legal drama, practically made for TV. Fans are going to have to wait a bit longer for the TV movie, though. Andy tells us why in a moment after this.
COSTELLO: I can't wait to get the answer to that, either.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: All right, welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Martha's movie's been delayed. New Jersey's saying goodbye to an industry of its past.
With those stories and a look at the markets, here's Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Jack.
Let's talk about the markets, first of all. Another swoon day for stocks, Dow down 115 points yesterday. We could see here Nasdaq down as well. How about year-to-date? Just don't even bother opening your 401k statements, throw them right in the trash, I'm telling you, because stocks are down precipitously. Look at that, that's not good. Price of oil and consumer confidence kind of leading this sentiment among investors.
And let's talk about what's going on at GM. An end of an era in New Jersey yesterday. They closed down the last car plant in the state. As of 1970, there were 46,000 auto workers in the state of New Jersey. There are no more. This Lindon (ph), New Jersey plant, the last car to roll off was a Chevy Blazer. They made nine million cars there in 68 years. A really interesting story in "The Newark Star Ledger." I had a guy Ron Shirley (ph), 50-year-old inspector there. His father started at the plant in 1957. So his dad worked his whole career and this guy worked there most of his career, and now it's all over.
CAFFERTY: That's sad.
SERWER: It is sad. And you know, their manufacturing is going bye the bye in this state as well.
Now let's talk about Martha Stewart. You know, they were making this movie about Cybil Shepherd. She was in the first movie about Martha Stewart if you're keeping track. They were making a second one that was supposed to come out this spring.
Now apparently it's been put on hold. They want it to come out in fall apparently to match all of the hoopla when she is in the film about -- or in the new "Apprentice" thing. This the old one, I gather. Cybil's going to make a career out of this. Now what are they going to show instead of this? I love this. "Amber Frey," witless for the prosecution -- I mean, "Witness for the Prosecution" is the name of the thing they're going to show.
CAFFERTY: There's CBS upgrading again.
SERWER: Witless for the prosecution, don't you think they should call it that. CAFFERTY: Absolutely.
SERWER: Well, that's my report.
CAFFERTY: That's good.
Time for the "File." A lot of camels in the Middle East, but apparently there are not enough jockeys. Qatar's developing a robot to ride the camels in the races, replacing the children who normally jockey the camels around. The robot is called Kamel with a 'K,' takes command using a wireless remote control. A camel handler follows the rider on his camel in a vehicle and uses a joystick to drive the camel, if you know what I mean.
Human rights groups say that there are 40,000 boy jockeys, some as young as 4, and they're either bought or kidnapped from their parents and brought to the Gulf to compete in these racers. Qatar plans to use only the robotic riders being driven by joysticks by 2007.
The cost of an Ivy League education keeps going up. Tuition prices this fall will average, at an Ivy League school, $41,000 a year. Harvard raised its tuition by 4.5 percent -- $41, 675 bucks. It will cost you $41,000 to go Yale. That's up 5.5 percent. According to the College Board, the prices put the Ivies in the top four percent schools in terms of education costs. Colleges across the country boosting tuition and fees by an average of 5 to 6 percent a year since the mid 1990s, which is much higher than the rate of inflation.
SERWER: Yale's a bargain, huh?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
A Vietnam veteran waited in line for 90 minutes in Kansas City, Missouri last night so he could spit tobacco juice in Jane Fonda's face. Fonda was signing copies of her book. Fifty-four-year-old Michael Smith called Fonda a traitor for her trip to Vietnam in 1972, where she was photographed laughing while sitting on a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun. Police said Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct. Smith insists he has no regrets about spitting on Fonda. Quote, "I consider it a debt of honor. She pit in our faces for years."
SERWER: Just a pinch between your cheek and gum is what they say.
HEMMER: Those wounds are still wide open for so many.
SERWER: It was vivid image.
HEMMER: No question about it.
COSTELLO: I guess her apologies aren't working. She's apologized for some of it.
HEMMER: And has again.
COSTELLO: And again and again.
HEMMER: I think it's high time Internet educations have to be pushed in this country. What are you going to do for so many Americans who can't afford the rising cost of tuition in some schools. I'm not saying you have to go to Harvard or Yale, but simple schools that I went to back in Ohio...
COSTELLO: Exactly. I couldn't afford to go, because I had to pay for it myself.
HEMMER: It's extraordinary now. You're going to have to find a way for middle America to afford this. And how do you do it? You do it online.
SERWER: Yes, who wants to sit in front of a computer when you can be out in the quad throwing a frisbee, though.
HEMMER: Well, I'm with you there, too,.
SERWER: That's what college is all about.
COSTELLO: Actually we're going to have a guest on later who's written a book, "Princeton Review," about how you can go to choice colleges and get the most bang for your buck.
SERWER: The best bargain schools. One of those the New Mexico School of Mimes. Seriously. It was number two. Probably a pretty good school.
COSTELLO: We'll ask them about that.
SERWER: Thanks, guys. In a moment here, Emmy Award-winning comedian Dennis Miller stops by the studio. His unique take on everything -- "Monday Night Football," the pope. What's coming up on cable.
Back in a moment here. Top of the hour on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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