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American Morning

Vatican Makes Surprise Announcement; Base Closings; Commuter Concerns

Aired May 13, 2005 - 9:00   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: Less than an hour away from a decision that will affect millions of lives. The Pentagon unveils its plan to shut down military bases.
New Yorkers put to the test this morning after a landslide in Manhattan.

And the Vatican makes a surprise announcement. Pope John Paul II now on the fast track to sainthood on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What a day is it outside. Wow. Friday the 13th. Good morning, everybody.

Good morning to you as well.

O'BRIEN: Likewise.

HEMMER: In a moment here, we're going to go back to California, finding out whether or not Californians are ready to give up their police car chases after this man was shot and killed on live television earlier this week.

O'BRIEN: Yes, pretty remarkable pictures from there showing to you again.

All that, plus Mr. Cafferty coming up.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The guy came out of the car with a gun, right?

O'BRIEN: He did. You can see it go under the other vehicle.

CAFFERTY: And then he reached in his -- like his trouser leg, and it looked like he was getting -- trying to get another gun out.

HEMMER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: I mean, that's -- you know, these things happen. If you pull a gun on 50 cops, you probably get shot.

O'BRIEN: Yes. I think they're not talking about the shooting. We're going to talk about whether or not people should be watching it live on TV. CAFFERTY: Well, there's the thing on the remote that says "on- off."

O'BRIEN: And that will be in our section ahead this morning, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Want to talk about...

O'BRIEN: No. Anything you want to talk about?

CAFFERTY: Hillary Clinton and -- and Newt Gingrich, who'd have thunk it, but they're hanging out together, these two. They're working on health care, they're working on a Pentagon panel on military preparedness. But what are they really up to?

HEMMER: Capitol Hill crush, don't you think?

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, let's hope not.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: AM@CNN.com.

HEMMER: Here's the headline and Kelly Wallace, working for Carol today.

Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning again, everyone. Here are some of those stories "Now in the News."

A roadside bombing in Iraq to tell you about. This one targeting an American convoy. Video from the scene shows a Humvee ablaze. You see it there, its hood blown wide open. No word right now on any U.S. casualties.

Also, staying in Iraq, a bus bomb exploded near Baquba. This one targeting an Iraqi military convoy. At least two soldiers were killed, five others were wounded.

Back here in the United States, John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. meeting with lukewarm approval. A Senate panel voting yesterday 10-8 along party lines to send his nomination to the full Senate. But in an unusual move, the panel did not include a recommendation for approval. Lawmakers are expected to vote on Bolton's nomination sometime after next week.

The FBI has nabbed current and former soldiers and law enforcement officials in a drug sting. Eleven of the 16 have now pleaded guilty. Prosecutors saying those officers and soldiers accepted more than $200,000 in bribes to help move drugs past checkpoints.

And talk about a wild speed bump. Listen to this. A 14-foot alligator stopping traffic in the middle of downtown Miami. Police and animal experts rounded up the gator, lifting it onto a truck and taking it away. And that means people in Miami could go to work, tell their bosses, "Sorry, we're late. There was an alligator on the road" -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sure.

WALLACE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Bosses say actually they saw it on TV. Kelly, thanks.

Let's get right to some new developments at the Vatican this morning.

John Paul II one giant step closer to sainthood. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement this morning he will waive the five-year waiting period required before sainthood could be considered.

It was a wildly popular idea at Pope John Paul II's funeral a month ago. You can hear them there, the calls for immediate sainthood beginning right after Pope John Paul II's death on April 2.

Let's get to Jennifer Eccleston this morning. She's live for us in Rome.

Jennifer, good morning. What exactly does it mean to fast-track sainthood?

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, what it is, is they usually take about five years before they announce, after a pope has died, that they will begin the investigation into whether or not there is the necessary conclusions to determine that a pope will, A, be beatified -- that is, who will be blessed -- and then, B, a few years down the road will be declared canonized. And that is the official term for sainthood.

And what happens today is Pope Benedict XVI, following very much in the footsteps of his predecessor, said, we don't need the five years, we're going to o it now in a year. It's going to take a year for us to investigate the causes and his works, and possibly a miracle or two. And then they will determine whether or not that he will be beatified.

And this, of course, follows John Paul's lead, as I said, who changed the rules and allowed the Vatican to begin the saint-making process for Mother Teresa just one year after she died instead of the usual five years. And of course that process will begin for the late Pope.

Now, John Paul, as you know, beatified and canonized more people than any of his predecessors combined. And today, the cardinal in charge of the Office of Sainthood said today's decision was an extraordinary event for an extraordinary man. And he also said the new pope listened to the voice of his people in making this decision today -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: Jennifer, people obviously thrilled, many people. But was it a surprise?

ECCLESTON: Not really. I think as you alluded to earlier, there were calls from the tens of thousands of people, Soledad, who showed up for his funeral that "santo subito," which is the rough translation of "immediate sainthood." And they -- they were echoed even before, in the early hours after his death, and then the following days from his funeral. And then we went into the conclave.

And the cardinal today who's in charge of that office, speaking on Vatican radio, said one of the main reasons for that, that they were able to fast-track this, that they were able to come to the conclusion to fast track, is because this pope lived very much in the media world, in the world of 24-hour television, like CNN, that people around the world, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but, of course, mostly Catholics, were able to see the good works, the extraordinary works of Pope John Paul II, and were able to see that he was a living witness to holiness. And that very much affected their decision to speed up this process -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer Eccleston in Rome for us this morning. Jennifer, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Military towns across the country paying very close attention to a Pentagon news conference that will start in about an hour. The Pentagon brass announcing plans for closing bases and saving billions of dollars.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon watching this.

And the word will come out very soon, Barbara. Good morning there.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, again, Bill.

And you may notice we are in a different position in the briefing room because this room is now starting to fill up with reporters, media, television cameras, as the announcement is just about an hour and a half away. And, in fact, the list of base closures was just delivered to Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers getting an advance look at that. But in this room, the announcement will come at 10:30 Eastern Time, as towns and communities across the United States are watching very closely, very concerned about their bases being closed, the impact on jobs and local economies.

One of the issues in this base closure list, why it is so different. There hasn't been a base closure proposal in 10 years, and this time, it comes, of course, as there is a war on. A lot of concern on Capitol Hill, is this the right time for a base closure list in the middle of a war?

About 70,000 troops also planned to be returned from Europe and bases in Asia. They need somewhere to go. So a lot of concern looking at this very unique base closure list.

Of course, one of the big questions is money. In the past, the Pentagon says base closure has been a process that has saved a good deal of money. According to the statistics from the Pentagon, since 1988, they have closed 97 bases for a cost saving of $18 billion. But, Bill, it's cost them $22 billion to clean those bases up and shut them down.

What they tell us about this round of base closure is that it will eventually save nearly $50 billion. And after they pay for the cost of closing them down, they think over time they will save about $5 billion a year, simply by not having to close -- to operate those bases.

Two things to watch for in this base closure list, Bill, about an hour and a half from now, how many, if any, National Guard bases. The National Guard, of course, the Army National Guard playing a big role in the war in Iraq. How many of those bases, which technically may be under control of state governors, how many of those will be shut down? And how many of the military's arsenals, weapons plants, the sort of non-glamorous side of the military, where they turn out ammunition and other supplies, how many of those will be on the list -- Bill.

HEMMER: And if members of Congress are being briefed at this hour, quite likely that word's going to trickle out. We'll watch for it. Thank you, Barbara. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, some commuters here in the Northeast were waking up a little bit concerned about just how it would go today after that spectacular fire that engulfed a train trestle in New Jersey. It disrupted Amtrak service overnight, caused delays and cancellations. The rail company now saying, though, things are back to normal.

Then there was a pileup of at least six cars on the New Jersey Turnpike. It slowed things northbound -- traffic this hour.

And then in New York City, a cleanup under way after that landslide. It was caused by the collapse of that 50-foot retaining wall burying the northbound lanes of a major highway on Manhattan's upper west side.

Let's talk about all that this morning. That's where we find CNN's Jason Carroll in Manhattan.

Hey, Jason. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, as you know, emergency crews worked throughout the night trying to clear away the tons of dirt and debris. They'll be working throughout the weekend as well. The most important point here, no one was trapped in that slide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): It happened in an instant. First, a loud rumbling sound, then a sight more typically seen in California, not Manhattan. A massive section of earth and debris slipped on to the Henry Hudson Parkway, a major thoroughfare running along the city's west side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were standing here having lunch, and we just starting seeing the trees go down, and the whole facade went down into the Hudson Parkway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was facing where the trees were falling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around, and you feel that rumbling on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we started feeling the rumble rumbling.

CARROLL: The slide happened after a 50-foot stone retaining wall collapsed. Witnesses say the earth moved twice, first a small slide, then a much larger one. These firefighters among the first at the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were investigating it. The rest of the collapse came down. We were pretty -- we were pretty close. So we had to get out of there in a hurry.

CARROLL (on camera): What was that like for you guys, to see all of that earth coming down? What was that like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty scary.

CARROLL: Yes, I bet it was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tremendous rocks. They were big -- like I said before, as big as a car, some of these rocks.

CARROLL: How did you get out of there? What did -- what did you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just turned and started running the other way. Pretty much the way we came in is the way we went out.

CARROLL (voice-over): About a third of the 600-foot retaining wall gave way, several parked cars buried. Luckily, it appears no one was hurt or trapped. Rescue crews used K-9 teams and infrared imaging cameras for the search.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: Fortunately, it was before rush hour. Unfortunately, it happened. I don't know if that means you're lucky or unlucky. I think we should just all be very happy that nobody was hurt.

CARROLL: Still, it clogged traffic for hours. City crews evacuated an apartment building as a precaution. The wall, built in the early 1900s, had been worked on within the past six months. And just hours before the wall fell, a structural engineer on site had expressed concerns about the structure, but claimed it would stand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Obviously now, traffic a concern for a Manhattan residents who have to commute in and out of the area. We are told that the northbound lane of the Henry Hudson Parkway will be closed until further notice.

Also, an investigation under way, obviously, into how the -- how the -- the -- the wall in terms of the integrity of the wall was handled in the past. So an investigation on that part under way as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jason Carroll for us this morning. Jason, thanks.

Kind of a nice day here in New York City. Let's check back in with Rob Marciano, who's at the CNN Center with the latest for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Back to this car chase with the deadly end in California, re-igniting this longstanding debate of whether or not TV stations should air them live. We'll talk to a local news director in Los Angeles. He chose not to show this as it happened this week.

O'BRIEN: Plus, in one community, having no health insurance, it doesn't mean you can't get quality medical care. It's all thanks to the "Extra Effort" of the clinic's founders. We'll tell you their story.

HEMMER: Also, three television dramas seen week by millions. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta's back to tell us why the "CSI" effect is the real deal. That's ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A car chase broadcast live in Los Angeles on Wednesday ended with the suspect shot to death by police. CNN will only show this tape up to a point, before the man is actually killed. But many viewers saw the actual killing.

One station, though, did not take it live. Robert Long is the news director of KNBC TV. He's in Burbank, California, this morning.

Mr. Long, good morning. Nice to see you. Your competitors showed the tape. Why did you decide not to?

ROBERT LONG, NEWS DIRECTOR, KNBC: We don't do a lot of car chases as a general rule. This one was interesting, because the first report was -- was a murder suspect.

So we watched. He was going very fast in rush hour traffic in Los Angeles. The potential for disaster was high, and it looked to me like it wasn't going to end well. We decided to wait and see how things played out. O'BRIEN: Your competition argued that a car chase is newsworthy, that it's news, and also that they really didn't know that it was going to end badly. What do you make of their argument?

LONG: Well, everything's a judgment call. It looked like it was going to end badly for me, especially when he wiped out once and was surrounded by officers with drawn guns and just kept going. He clearly wasn't about to go easily.

And it is news, but it doesn't mean you have to carry it live. We reported it moments after (INAUDIBLE).

O'BRIEN: There was another deadly ending to one of these car chases. The guy was actually shot to death in front of Santa Monica High School, I believe. At that point, Chief Bratton asked for some restraint among the media. Did you see restraint after that?

LONG: No, I've never had a policy of, you know, indiscriminately broadcasting police chases. I think Channel 4 has consistently shown restraint.

O'BRIEN: He seemed to indicate that, when chases are carried live, that that, in and of itself, encourages the suspect to go faster and maybe be more reckless. Have you ever seen that?

LONG: I've never seen any evidence of that. It may be true. I -- there's no data on that. Nobody's interviewed these guys and asked them if they liked being on TV.

O'BRIEN: Or even if they knew they were on TV.

LONG: Even if -- even if they knew.

O'BRIEN: The ratings show that people want to see car chases, they want to see live car chases. Will you suffer, will your station suffer because of your decision not to show this chase live?

LONG: Not for very long. We were in first place at 5:00 p.m. the day before the chase. We were in second place the day after. We'll get that back.

These ratings are misleading. About a third of the people watching television, we believe, are just surfing. They're like sharks in the water. If they stop swimming, they drown.

They just surf all the time. And they accrete to stimulus like barnacles to a ship. And what you're getting is a spike of viewers that just accrete to this stimulus. These are not people who normally watch TV news, so it's an artificial number.

O'BRIEN: You would make the same decision if the same thing happened again today?

LONG: I would.

O'BRIEN: Robert Long joining us this morning. He's the news director of KNBC in Burbank. Thanks for being with us.

Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks.

While the rest of Washington was reacting on Wednesday to this scare in D.C., President Bush was working out. Why was he then left out of the loop? And was this the right way to handle it with the president? Our fast-talking pundits are back. 'Gimme a Minute" comes your way in a couple of minutes here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Here's Jack, "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Yes. "Question of the Day," Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton, who'd a thunk it?

They're hanging out together, working on health care, working on a military preparedness panel over at the Pentagon. They used to just like not like each other at all. Hatred might not be too strong a word.

It was -- it was Newt who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton. They became enemies, Hillary and Newt, over the health care during President Clinton's first term. But hey, you know, politics makes strange bedfellows. And you've got to remember, there's an old adage that politicians will run over their mothers to get their faces in front of the TV cameras.

So this is a good way for both of them to get noticed. They are. The question is, what are they up to?

Frank in Midway, Arkansas, writes, "Though it is a mindset that has always escaped me, good girls have always gravitated to bad boys." Yes. "What better way for both of them to turn the screw one last time on Bill."

Joe writes, "Could she be heading toward the altar to alter the political landscape as Hillary Rodham Clinton-Gingrich?"

Ron in Junction City, Kansas, "Simple, Jack. When it comes to a Clinton, it involves sex. When it comes to Gingrich, it involves giving away money. Right now they're just at the going out to dinner stage."

And Tanya in Pennsylvania writes, "It's too bad you've gotten and read so many cynical responses to the Gingrich-Clinton alliance question. Isn't it possible that these two have put their conflicts aside and united on an extremely important issue for the good of the country? Or am I just naive?"

Who knows.

HEMMER: How long does it last?

CAFFERTY: Who knows -- 2008 probably.

O'BRIEN: It would be nice if it were the real thing. It would be nice if it were the real thing, coming together for the good of the country.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Sure. Talk about bipartisanship.

CAFFERTY: I know. We always want to believe the good about these folks, and maybe this time we won't be disappointed.

O'BRIEN: Well, I do. I don't know about you. I think you're being completely sarcastic and cynical. But I do.

CAFFERTY: No! Moi?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

CAFFERTY: What do you think about that thing about good girls gravitating toward bad boys? Did you used to run after the bad boys, Soledad, in your youth?

O'BRIEN: No, never.

CAFFERTY: Oh.

O'BRIEN: I ran after the cute boys.

CAFFERTY: You missed something.

O'BRIEN: That's what I did -- yes.

I want to tell about a Cinderella story with an almost fairy tale ending. It happened on Wednesday during that evacuation of the Capitol after that small plane strayed into restricted airspace. As Capitol Police whisked Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi out of the building, she lost her shoe.

Yes. You see her there? She's barefoot. But the next day, Prince Charming came to her rescue...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: ... in the form of Congressman Reichert. Somehow found the shoe, handed it over, much to Pelosi's amusement. Sort of a sweet story, a photo-op.

Back to Jack's point.

HEMMER: So much love between Democrats and Republicans down there.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you can feel it. Spring is in the air. That's funny.

We want to tell you another story, though, this morning about a Colorado clinic that's a haven for the uninsured. Ahead this morning, you're going to meet two women who have made the "Extra Effort" to make sure that children are getting quality health care. We've got their story ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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Aired May 13, 2005 - 9:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Less than an hour away from a decision that will affect millions of lives. The Pentagon unveils its plan to shut down military bases.
New Yorkers put to the test this morning after a landslide in Manhattan.

And the Vatican makes a surprise announcement. Pope John Paul II now on the fast track to sainthood on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: What a day is it outside. Wow. Friday the 13th. Good morning, everybody.

Good morning to you as well.

O'BRIEN: Likewise.

HEMMER: In a moment here, we're going to go back to California, finding out whether or not Californians are ready to give up their police car chases after this man was shot and killed on live television earlier this week.

O'BRIEN: Yes, pretty remarkable pictures from there showing to you again.

All that, plus Mr. Cafferty coming up.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The guy came out of the car with a gun, right?

O'BRIEN: He did. You can see it go under the other vehicle.

CAFFERTY: And then he reached in his -- like his trouser leg, and it looked like he was getting -- trying to get another gun out.

HEMMER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: I mean, that's -- you know, these things happen. If you pull a gun on 50 cops, you probably get shot.

O'BRIEN: Yes. I think they're not talking about the shooting. We're going to talk about whether or not people should be watching it live on TV. CAFFERTY: Well, there's the thing on the remote that says "on- off."

O'BRIEN: And that will be in our section ahead this morning, Jack.

CAFFERTY: Want to talk about...

O'BRIEN: No. Anything you want to talk about?

CAFFERTY: Hillary Clinton and -- and Newt Gingrich, who'd have thunk it, but they're hanging out together, these two. They're working on health care, they're working on a Pentagon panel on military preparedness. But what are they really up to?

HEMMER: Capitol Hill crush, don't you think?

CAFFERTY: Yes, well, let's hope not.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: AM@CNN.com.

HEMMER: Here's the headline and Kelly Wallace, working for Carol today.

Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Bill. Good morning again, everyone. Here are some of those stories "Now in the News."

A roadside bombing in Iraq to tell you about. This one targeting an American convoy. Video from the scene shows a Humvee ablaze. You see it there, its hood blown wide open. No word right now on any U.S. casualties.

Also, staying in Iraq, a bus bomb exploded near Baquba. This one targeting an Iraqi military convoy. At least two soldiers were killed, five others were wounded.

Back here in the United States, John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. meeting with lukewarm approval. A Senate panel voting yesterday 10-8 along party lines to send his nomination to the full Senate. But in an unusual move, the panel did not include a recommendation for approval. Lawmakers are expected to vote on Bolton's nomination sometime after next week.

The FBI has nabbed current and former soldiers and law enforcement officials in a drug sting. Eleven of the 16 have now pleaded guilty. Prosecutors saying those officers and soldiers accepted more than $200,000 in bribes to help move drugs past checkpoints.

And talk about a wild speed bump. Listen to this. A 14-foot alligator stopping traffic in the middle of downtown Miami. Police and animal experts rounded up the gator, lifting it onto a truck and taking it away. And that means people in Miami could go to work, tell their bosses, "Sorry, we're late. There was an alligator on the road" -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sure.

WALLACE: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Bosses say actually they saw it on TV. Kelly, thanks.

Let's get right to some new developments at the Vatican this morning.

John Paul II one giant step closer to sainthood. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement this morning he will waive the five-year waiting period required before sainthood could be considered.

It was a wildly popular idea at Pope John Paul II's funeral a month ago. You can hear them there, the calls for immediate sainthood beginning right after Pope John Paul II's death on April 2.

Let's get to Jennifer Eccleston this morning. She's live for us in Rome.

Jennifer, good morning. What exactly does it mean to fast-track sainthood?

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, what it is, is they usually take about five years before they announce, after a pope has died, that they will begin the investigation into whether or not there is the necessary conclusions to determine that a pope will, A, be beatified -- that is, who will be blessed -- and then, B, a few years down the road will be declared canonized. And that is the official term for sainthood.

And what happens today is Pope Benedict XVI, following very much in the footsteps of his predecessor, said, we don't need the five years, we're going to o it now in a year. It's going to take a year for us to investigate the causes and his works, and possibly a miracle or two. And then they will determine whether or not that he will be beatified.

And this, of course, follows John Paul's lead, as I said, who changed the rules and allowed the Vatican to begin the saint-making process for Mother Teresa just one year after she died instead of the usual five years. And of course that process will begin for the late Pope.

Now, John Paul, as you know, beatified and canonized more people than any of his predecessors combined. And today, the cardinal in charge of the Office of Sainthood said today's decision was an extraordinary event for an extraordinary man. And he also said the new pope listened to the voice of his people in making this decision today -- Soledad. O'BRIEN: Jennifer, people obviously thrilled, many people. But was it a surprise?

ECCLESTON: Not really. I think as you alluded to earlier, there were calls from the tens of thousands of people, Soledad, who showed up for his funeral that "santo subito," which is the rough translation of "immediate sainthood." And they -- they were echoed even before, in the early hours after his death, and then the following days from his funeral. And then we went into the conclave.

And the cardinal today who's in charge of that office, speaking on Vatican radio, said one of the main reasons for that, that they were able to fast-track this, that they were able to come to the conclusion to fast track, is because this pope lived very much in the media world, in the world of 24-hour television, like CNN, that people around the world, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but, of course, mostly Catholics, were able to see the good works, the extraordinary works of Pope John Paul II, and were able to see that he was a living witness to holiness. And that very much affected their decision to speed up this process -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer Eccleston in Rome for us this morning. Jennifer, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Military towns across the country paying very close attention to a Pentagon news conference that will start in about an hour. The Pentagon brass announcing plans for closing bases and saving billions of dollars.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon watching this.

And the word will come out very soon, Barbara. Good morning there.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, again, Bill.

And you may notice we are in a different position in the briefing room because this room is now starting to fill up with reporters, media, television cameras, as the announcement is just about an hour and a half away. And, in fact, the list of base closures was just delivered to Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers getting an advance look at that. But in this room, the announcement will come at 10:30 Eastern Time, as towns and communities across the United States are watching very closely, very concerned about their bases being closed, the impact on jobs and local economies.

One of the issues in this base closure list, why it is so different. There hasn't been a base closure proposal in 10 years, and this time, it comes, of course, as there is a war on. A lot of concern on Capitol Hill, is this the right time for a base closure list in the middle of a war?

About 70,000 troops also planned to be returned from Europe and bases in Asia. They need somewhere to go. So a lot of concern looking at this very unique base closure list.

Of course, one of the big questions is money. In the past, the Pentagon says base closure has been a process that has saved a good deal of money. According to the statistics from the Pentagon, since 1988, they have closed 97 bases for a cost saving of $18 billion. But, Bill, it's cost them $22 billion to clean those bases up and shut them down.

What they tell us about this round of base closure is that it will eventually save nearly $50 billion. And after they pay for the cost of closing them down, they think over time they will save about $5 billion a year, simply by not having to close -- to operate those bases.

Two things to watch for in this base closure list, Bill, about an hour and a half from now, how many, if any, National Guard bases. The National Guard, of course, the Army National Guard playing a big role in the war in Iraq. How many of those bases, which technically may be under control of state governors, how many of those will be shut down? And how many of the military's arsenals, weapons plants, the sort of non-glamorous side of the military, where they turn out ammunition and other supplies, how many of those will be on the list -- Bill.

HEMMER: And if members of Congress are being briefed at this hour, quite likely that word's going to trickle out. We'll watch for it. Thank you, Barbara. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, some commuters here in the Northeast were waking up a little bit concerned about just how it would go today after that spectacular fire that engulfed a train trestle in New Jersey. It disrupted Amtrak service overnight, caused delays and cancellations. The rail company now saying, though, things are back to normal.

Then there was a pileup of at least six cars on the New Jersey Turnpike. It slowed things northbound -- traffic this hour.

And then in New York City, a cleanup under way after that landslide. It was caused by the collapse of that 50-foot retaining wall burying the northbound lanes of a major highway on Manhattan's upper west side.

Let's talk about all that this morning. That's where we find CNN's Jason Carroll in Manhattan.

Hey, Jason. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Well, as you know, emergency crews worked throughout the night trying to clear away the tons of dirt and debris. They'll be working throughout the weekend as well. The most important point here, no one was trapped in that slide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): It happened in an instant. First, a loud rumbling sound, then a sight more typically seen in California, not Manhattan. A massive section of earth and debris slipped on to the Henry Hudson Parkway, a major thoroughfare running along the city's west side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were standing here having lunch, and we just starting seeing the trees go down, and the whole facade went down into the Hudson Parkway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was facing where the trees were falling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around, and you feel that rumbling on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we started feeling the rumble rumbling.

CARROLL: The slide happened after a 50-foot stone retaining wall collapsed. Witnesses say the earth moved twice, first a small slide, then a much larger one. These firefighters among the first at the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were investigating it. The rest of the collapse came down. We were pretty -- we were pretty close. So we had to get out of there in a hurry.

CARROLL (on camera): What was that like for you guys, to see all of that earth coming down? What was that like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty scary.

CARROLL: Yes, I bet it was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tremendous rocks. They were big -- like I said before, as big as a car, some of these rocks.

CARROLL: How did you get out of there? What did -- what did you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just turned and started running the other way. Pretty much the way we came in is the way we went out.

CARROLL (voice-over): About a third of the 600-foot retaining wall gave way, several parked cars buried. Luckily, it appears no one was hurt or trapped. Rescue crews used K-9 teams and infrared imaging cameras for the search.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: Fortunately, it was before rush hour. Unfortunately, it happened. I don't know if that means you're lucky or unlucky. I think we should just all be very happy that nobody was hurt.

CARROLL: Still, it clogged traffic for hours. City crews evacuated an apartment building as a precaution. The wall, built in the early 1900s, had been worked on within the past six months. And just hours before the wall fell, a structural engineer on site had expressed concerns about the structure, but claimed it would stand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Obviously now, traffic a concern for a Manhattan residents who have to commute in and out of the area. We are told that the northbound lane of the Henry Hudson Parkway will be closed until further notice.

Also, an investigation under way, obviously, into how the -- how the -- the -- the wall in terms of the integrity of the wall was handled in the past. So an investigation on that part under way as well -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Jason Carroll for us this morning. Jason, thanks.

Kind of a nice day here in New York City. Let's check back in with Rob Marciano, who's at the CNN Center with the latest for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Back to this car chase with the deadly end in California, re-igniting this longstanding debate of whether or not TV stations should air them live. We'll talk to a local news director in Los Angeles. He chose not to show this as it happened this week.

O'BRIEN: Plus, in one community, having no health insurance, it doesn't mean you can't get quality medical care. It's all thanks to the "Extra Effort" of the clinic's founders. We'll tell you their story.

HEMMER: Also, three television dramas seen week by millions. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta's back to tell us why the "CSI" effect is the real deal. That's ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A car chase broadcast live in Los Angeles on Wednesday ended with the suspect shot to death by police. CNN will only show this tape up to a point, before the man is actually killed. But many viewers saw the actual killing.

One station, though, did not take it live. Robert Long is the news director of KNBC TV. He's in Burbank, California, this morning.

Mr. Long, good morning. Nice to see you. Your competitors showed the tape. Why did you decide not to?

ROBERT LONG, NEWS DIRECTOR, KNBC: We don't do a lot of car chases as a general rule. This one was interesting, because the first report was -- was a murder suspect.

So we watched. He was going very fast in rush hour traffic in Los Angeles. The potential for disaster was high, and it looked to me like it wasn't going to end well. We decided to wait and see how things played out. O'BRIEN: Your competition argued that a car chase is newsworthy, that it's news, and also that they really didn't know that it was going to end badly. What do you make of their argument?

LONG: Well, everything's a judgment call. It looked like it was going to end badly for me, especially when he wiped out once and was surrounded by officers with drawn guns and just kept going. He clearly wasn't about to go easily.

And it is news, but it doesn't mean you have to carry it live. We reported it moments after (INAUDIBLE).

O'BRIEN: There was another deadly ending to one of these car chases. The guy was actually shot to death in front of Santa Monica High School, I believe. At that point, Chief Bratton asked for some restraint among the media. Did you see restraint after that?

LONG: No, I've never had a policy of, you know, indiscriminately broadcasting police chases. I think Channel 4 has consistently shown restraint.

O'BRIEN: He seemed to indicate that, when chases are carried live, that that, in and of itself, encourages the suspect to go faster and maybe be more reckless. Have you ever seen that?

LONG: I've never seen any evidence of that. It may be true. I -- there's no data on that. Nobody's interviewed these guys and asked them if they liked being on TV.

O'BRIEN: Or even if they knew they were on TV.

LONG: Even if -- even if they knew.

O'BRIEN: The ratings show that people want to see car chases, they want to see live car chases. Will you suffer, will your station suffer because of your decision not to show this chase live?

LONG: Not for very long. We were in first place at 5:00 p.m. the day before the chase. We were in second place the day after. We'll get that back.

These ratings are misleading. About a third of the people watching television, we believe, are just surfing. They're like sharks in the water. If they stop swimming, they drown.

They just surf all the time. And they accrete to stimulus like barnacles to a ship. And what you're getting is a spike of viewers that just accrete to this stimulus. These are not people who normally watch TV news, so it's an artificial number.

O'BRIEN: You would make the same decision if the same thing happened again today?

LONG: I would.

O'BRIEN: Robert Long joining us this morning. He's the news director of KNBC in Burbank. Thanks for being with us.

Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks.

While the rest of Washington was reacting on Wednesday to this scare in D.C., President Bush was working out. Why was he then left out of the loop? And was this the right way to handle it with the president? Our fast-talking pundits are back. 'Gimme a Minute" comes your way in a couple of minutes here on AMERICAN MORNING.

Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Here's Jack, "Question of the Day."

CAFFERTY: Yes. "Question of the Day," Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton, who'd a thunk it?

They're hanging out together, working on health care, working on a military preparedness panel over at the Pentagon. They used to just like not like each other at all. Hatred might not be too strong a word.

It was -- it was Newt who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton. They became enemies, Hillary and Newt, over the health care during President Clinton's first term. But hey, you know, politics makes strange bedfellows. And you've got to remember, there's an old adage that politicians will run over their mothers to get their faces in front of the TV cameras.

So this is a good way for both of them to get noticed. They are. The question is, what are they up to?

Frank in Midway, Arkansas, writes, "Though it is a mindset that has always escaped me, good girls have always gravitated to bad boys." Yes. "What better way for both of them to turn the screw one last time on Bill."

Joe writes, "Could she be heading toward the altar to alter the political landscape as Hillary Rodham Clinton-Gingrich?"

Ron in Junction City, Kansas, "Simple, Jack. When it comes to a Clinton, it involves sex. When it comes to Gingrich, it involves giving away money. Right now they're just at the going out to dinner stage."

And Tanya in Pennsylvania writes, "It's too bad you've gotten and read so many cynical responses to the Gingrich-Clinton alliance question. Isn't it possible that these two have put their conflicts aside and united on an extremely important issue for the good of the country? Or am I just naive?"

Who knows.

HEMMER: How long does it last?

CAFFERTY: Who knows -- 2008 probably.

O'BRIEN: It would be nice if it were the real thing. It would be nice if it were the real thing, coming together for the good of the country.

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: Sure. Talk about bipartisanship.

CAFFERTY: I know. We always want to believe the good about these folks, and maybe this time we won't be disappointed.

O'BRIEN: Well, I do. I don't know about you. I think you're being completely sarcastic and cynical. But I do.

CAFFERTY: No! Moi?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

CAFFERTY: What do you think about that thing about good girls gravitating toward bad boys? Did you used to run after the bad boys, Soledad, in your youth?

O'BRIEN: No, never.

CAFFERTY: Oh.

O'BRIEN: I ran after the cute boys.

CAFFERTY: You missed something.

O'BRIEN: That's what I did -- yes.

I want to tell about a Cinderella story with an almost fairy tale ending. It happened on Wednesday during that evacuation of the Capitol after that small plane strayed into restricted airspace. As Capitol Police whisked Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi out of the building, she lost her shoe.

Yes. You see her there? She's barefoot. But the next day, Prince Charming came to her rescue...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: ... in the form of Congressman Reichert. Somehow found the shoe, handed it over, much to Pelosi's amusement. Sort of a sweet story, a photo-op.

Back to Jack's point.

HEMMER: So much love between Democrats and Republicans down there.

O'BRIEN: Oh, you can feel it. Spring is in the air. That's funny.

We want to tell you another story, though, this morning about a Colorado clinic that's a haven for the uninsured. Ahead this morning, you're going to meet two women who have made the "Extra Effort" to make sure that children are getting quality health care. We've got their story ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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