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American Morning

Another Sizzler Across Much of United States; '90-Second Pop'

Aired July 26, 2005 - 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: This morning, we're going to talk a little bit about emotions in the Muslim community, being pulled, really, in lots of directions. Community leaders have been asked to do all they can to help find the terrorists. Those same leaders, though, have lots of concerns of their own. We're going to talk to the first British-born Muslim who's been elected to parliament. Right now, though, we're going to get to Miles. He's at the Kennedy Space Center this morning.
Hey, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

So far for NASA the trains, if you will, are running on time. The countdown going off without a hitch. Haven't heard of a single problem. We focused an awful lot on the event which lead to the 13- day delay. If you'll recall 13 days ago, the countdown stopped abruptly two hours and 20 minutes before intended liftoff when a fuel- gauge sensor acted improperly, did not act according to the plan, and this was something that was considered, something that you could not fly without. Today, no such problems. Let's take you out to launch pad 39A and give you a sense of what's going on there right now. The crew is inside. The hatch is closed, or actually in the process of being closed right now. Nothing happens quickly when you're getting ready to go into space.

Here's the irony. Something that goes Mach 25, everything done very deliberately on the ground before you unleash that tremendous power, as the close-out crew makes sure there are no leaks at all in the seal of that hatch. The -- there they are, live pictures, 195 feet above the deck, as they go through their checklist there. Pretty soon that jetway-like ramp will be swung away, and they will make their way to a safer location, about where I am right now, and basically, they'll be the seven astronauts strapped in to the shuttle and an emergency-response team in what amounts to an M-113 personnel carrier about a mile away, and other than that pretty much they'll be on their own talking back and forth as they go through this countdown.

As we say, no technical problems to report, and as you look at this beautiful sky behind me here, not a cloud in the sky. Take a look at the shot looking up at the space shuttle and that blue sky. The weather, forecasters are now saying there's only a 10 percent chance that weather will be a problem. I'm going to hazard a guess that really what they mean is, weather is not going to be a problem today. I'm just going out on the limb on that one, because I don't see anything on the horizon that could cause a weather problem, either here or at the emergency landing sites on the other side of the Atlantic. So we'll keep you posted. The launch now about an hour away, if all goes well.

In the meantime, let's check headlines with Carol Costello in New York -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I always knew you could translate NASA speak. Now I know for sure.

Thank you, Miles.

Now in the news, some 220 passengers aboard a London-bound plane remained at Boston's Logan Airport this morning, just sitting on the runway. A United Airlines flight was headed from Los Angeles to London when it was diverted because of three suspicious passengers. The aircraft was searched. Nothing was found. Three passengers were questioned and then they were released. That's all we know.

A Colorado woman who told police she wanted to become, quote, "a really cool mom" could spend 60 years behind bars. Sylvia Johnson pleaded guilty on Monday to charges including sexual assault. She was accused of having sex with high school boys at parties where she supplied the alcohol and the drugs. Sentencing is set for September.

The parents of two-week old twins pleading her life-saving organ donations. Nicholas and Nathaniel were born with a rare condition that makes their hearts too weak to pump blood. Without transplants, the boys are not expected to live more than one year. The twins parents hope their story will help raise the public's awareness about the need for organ donors.

And a wild police chase. Where else would it be? It was in Los Angeles this morning. These are new pictures we just got in. The LAPD says the officers were patrolling this area when they noticed a wanted license plate number. You can see that white car. It's speeding away. A police car is chasing it, and then the police car runs into the side of a building. The suspect was eventually arrested. Police say he may be wanted for murder and attempted carjacking. No one was seriously hurt here and, of course, that is the good news.

It is -- we're going to talk about the weather now. It's going to another sizzler across much of United States today, especially on the East Coast, where some areas expect triple-digit highs.

Kimberly Osias is live in Washington. Kimberly -- I'm becoming affected by the heat myself, Kimberly.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's easy to do.

COSTELLO: How are you dealing with it?

OSIAS: Well, I'll tell you, you know, folks here are hydrating, staying inside, doing whatever they can, Carol. And you see a lot of intrepid souls behind me braving the elements, cuing up to take tour of the Capitol. Of course that is, in fact, indoors. Temperatures right now inching up toward that 90-degree mark. But later this afternoon we're anticipating temperatures about 105 or 110 degrees, when that heat factor, heat index, kicks in. And of course, here in D.C., with the humidity, it can make for a very oppressive situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA CORTEZ, TOURIST: I think we're going to be calling it a day early just because we've had enough with the heat.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jessica and Gonzalo (ph) Cortez came to the nation's capital to see the sights. It's the first trip for 4-year-old Katie (ph) and new brother Max (ph). But those plans got a bit derailed when the mercury soared toward the triple digits.

CORTEZ: Oh my goodness, we're boiling today.

OSIAS: So they dipped their feet, fanned their faces, sought shade, along with many suffering on the East Coast, anything to get relief.

STEVE O'BRIEN, AMERICAN RED CROSS: You have to think ahead. You have to plan ahead your day and what the weather is going to -- how that's going to affect what you do.

OSIAS: The National Weather Service has a heat advisory in place in Washington. In the South, it's a scorcher, too. In Tennessee, record power demands for four straight days. In Louisville, the highest temperature on record, 105 degrees. St. Louis has endured the sizzling temperatures for one straight week. For the past two days, triple digits.

The main concern in the heat is cooling and hydration. So in many areas, they passed out water and help the homeless find shelter. Children and elderly are especially vulnerable. They may not know or recognize the signs of heat exhaustion. So parents, like the Cortezes, need to be extra careful.

CORTEZ: That's a nice breeze.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OSIAS: Boy, when those infrequent breezes do blow, they are so welcome. Good news, Carol. There is some relief in sight. Tomorrow, some rain is expected.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, I'll speak with an American pioneer. Former astronaut, former Senator John Glenn will join us live. He'll share his thoughts on today's launch, the Columbia disaster and the future of the space program. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Oh, the markets are up and running this morning, like the bulls of Pamplona, you said?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Sort of like that.

COSTELLO: Andy Serwer is here, "Minding Your Business." Plus you say we have to say goodnight to the fresh sheets that you get at hotels?

SERWER: Yep. Yep. We'll get to that in a second.

Let's do the markets, first of all. Not quite at exciting as those bulls, although we have a bit of a rally this morning. Up two points. That's a very little rally. A couple of stories here we're following this morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: That's like a cow.

SERWER: That's -- yes.

First of all, want to talk about a story involving Union Pacific, the giant railroad based in Omaha, Nebraska. A federal judge ruling recently that the company illegally discriminated against female employees by barring prescription contraceptive medicines, even as it underwrote the cost of Viagra and drugs for male pattern baldness. Here's how the railroad defended the itself. Listen to this. Because fertility is normal, contraception is not medically necessary.

COSTELLO: What?

SERWER: If you can figure that out, please, e-mail us.

Let's talk about hotel sheets here. We're doing it very fast this morning.

COSTELLO: (INAUDIBLE) kind of segue there.

SERWER: Yes, well, it's a very -- yes, it is kind of an interesting segue. This is about short-sheeting customers, perhaps. Hotels, always looking to cut costs, are now cutting back on the number of times they're changing your sheets. This is a story in "USA Today." Here are some of the big hotel chains. A Hyatt has gone to -- instead of every day, every four days. They did that last year. Marriott, every three days, recently. And look at Econo Lodge.

COSTELLO: Daily.

SERWER: Daily, as opposed to some of those higher priced chains.

COSTELLO: Do they tell you that they're not going to change the...

SERWER: I don't think they announced that.

COSTELLO: I didn't know that.

SERWER: No, they don't announce that. But you can still request daily changes if you want.

COSTELLO: It just makes me kind of sick. SERWER: What's the world coming to?

COSTELLO: I don't know. Nothing good.

SERWER: Right.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Let's head back to London and Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thanks.

Here in London, lots of fear and anxiety among members of the Muslim community. Muslims are being encouraged to step up and help police catch those who are responsible for the terror attacks, as well.

Shahid Malik is the first British-born Muslim elected to Britain's parliament, and he joins us to talk a little bit more about that. It's nice to see you, thanks for talking with us.

You know, there's been a lot of tension, and kind of finger- pointing, I think, between British authorities and Pakistani authorities, frankly, with the Pakistanis saying London should be doing more, too. Don't just blame the Pakistanis. Do you think they have a point?

SHAHID MALIK, BRITISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: I don't think that anybody ought to be getting into the kind of blame culture thing. The reality is that terrorism is a global problem and we've got to take collective responsibility, and it doesn't help when one side is blaming the other. So I think we're getting to that position now where people are recognizing that this isn't helping. We've got to take collective responsibility. And that will give confidence to people to support the effort against terrorism.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you think the Muslim community should be doing that maybe it's not doing? Because at the end the day, it's your community that gets a lot of the backlash and suffers equally, certainly, in a bombing.

MALIK: Well, I think firstly, I think perhaps we've been in a state of denial about the extremism that did exist. But certainly, the extremism that did exist, nobody could have contemplated for a second that it would lead to the carnage that we saw in 7/7. And then, of course, we had 21/7. And the fear is, where does it go next? So it's a big wake-up call. It's a profound challenge. And with profound challenges come profound opportunities.

S. O'BRIEN: What specifically do you have to do, do you think?

MALIK: Well, I think inside the mosques, imams have got to be very clear about what is permitted and what isn't. Already we've seen mosque leaders, imams, theologians, coming together to get a fatwah against suicide bombings. First time ever in the history of this country.

I think also outside the mosque, quite often there are individuals who are handing out leaflets. They need to be challenged by people in that local community. The government is taking action in terms of introducing new legislation that will help to curb some of the kind of evil rhetoric that we hear.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Shahid Malik. Thank you for talking with us. I know you've got a bunch of high-profile meetings with the Pakistani High Commissioner and you've also come off other meetings with us. Sir Ian Blair, certainly. So you sort of had a busy time of negotiations and discussions. Thanks for talking with us. He, of course, is a member of the British Parliament.

And let's throw it back to Miles, who is at the Kennedy Space Center. Hey, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Soledad. Now 49 minutes away from the intended launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. We've entered the final hold, the T-minus nine minutes and holding. That's a 40-minute hold, as we say. After that, the computers take over and if all goes well, the Space Shuttle Discovery, a crew of seven, will be on their way towards space. It's a beautiful day here. The shuttle on the pad. No technical problems.

And I bring to you a man who needs little introduction when it comes to matters relating to space, and for that matter, a man who is a national hero and icon. Former astronaut, former Senator John Glenn, joining us from Washington. Senator, good to have you with us.

JOHN GLENN, FORMER ASTRONAUT: Glad to be with you, Miles. I was sorry I'm not down there in person. I was planning to be there, but our airplane got canceled out. So I'm sorry I'm not there with you.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we sure do wish you were here. We remember back in October of '98, when you were strapped into the shuttle, STS- 95. And what an event that was to see you go into space, becoming the oldest person ever to fly. Do you remember what you were thinking in this point of the countdown?

GLENN: Oh, just anxious to get going. I'm sure they are today. I've talked to some of the crew. Steve Robinson's a good personal friend. He was on Discovery with me in '98 and we remained in touch and good friends ever since. And they're just anxious to get going. You know, they've trained -- this crew's been in training for almost four years. A long, long time. And so they're just anxious to get going right now. They're going through all the count and the people in the mid-deck are mainly listening to what's going on up on the flight deck and just anxious to get going.

M. O'BRIEN: It's been a very emotional, difficult two-and-half years, coming off the loss of Columbia. What are your thoughts on how well NASA has come back from that? Has the agency met the challenge?

GLENN: I think they've come back well from that, and I think, studying some of the new goals and things, I question some of the scheduling about when the shuttle was supposed to be phased out and what's going to will fill in in the meantime to complete the space station. That's the objective right now. The station's only two- thirds complete. Want to get back to some of the research that was planned for that.

Some of the funding, I hope, gets restored up on Capitol Hill will restore some of the research that was going to be done on the International Space Station. You know, we've spent something like, I don't know, $55 or $60 billion on that and our allies have spent another $15 billion or so. And now we're talking about only using it for just the research. It would apply to going to the moon and to Mars.

Now, I hope we can get funding to go ahead and put the research back on that scientists and corporations and colleges, universities, all over this country have planned for all of these years and worked their way up and then sort of had that canceled out on them. I'd like to get back to that, because that's the type of research that's going to do good for the American people all through this time period while we're on the way to Mars.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you mention that, and you talk about the shuttle. But the concern is that spending the money it requires to fly the shuttle and complete it as intended -- complete the space station -- will take away from ideas like this one, which we talked about a little earlier, which could be, essentially, a capsule not unlike the one you flew on Mercury, or similar to the Apollo on top of the solid rocket booster. And the point is, in order to make -- to move on to the next generation, to the moon and to Mars, the idea is to scale back on the shuttle sooner rather than later. Would you not agree with that approach?

GLENN: A cutback on the shuttle to get the money to do some of these things, yes, but not at the expense of cutting back on the research on the station. You know, we've spent all of this time and we have 15 allies involved with us on the space station, and it was built to do long-term research. And I just would hate to see that cut back. And I don't -- I think we can do both. I don't think it's one or the other. It needn't be, because the expense of doing research on the station is fairly small compared to what's already been spent.

I think the five-year saving on that was $1.2 billion, to cut out all of the research on the station as opposed to just putting it into -- what they're planning now is put all that research into just the moon and Mars effort. And I think the -- I think we can do both. That's a tiny, tiny amount compared to the potential benefits that are going to get back here for all the American people. I believe in that one.

M. O'BRIEN: Quick thought. We're out of time. But if you had the chance today, would you strap in and take a flight again?

GLENN: Absolutely. If they had something I wanted to look into on my body, I'd be down there tomorrow morning. But I think upcoming flights, of course, should go -- if they have some older folks going up, it should be somebody else so we build a database of a number of people. Right now our example in this age bracket is just one, that's me. But -- and to mean something scientific, they would need different people up there. But I'd like to see that followed through on. We had some good things going then.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Senator John Glenn. He's tanned, he's rested, he's ready, NASA. Maybe in the next flight. Thank you very much.

GLENN: Thank you, Miles.

Back with more AMERICAN MORNING in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That's Kelly Osbourne, for those of you not in the know. Time for "90-Second Pop" where our panel of experts races the clock to stay ahead of pop culture. Here are Amy Barnett of "Teen People," Jessica Shaw of "Entertainment Weekly" and Andy Borowitz of borowitz.com.

Welcome to you all.

Shall we start with Lance Armstrong? He's won his seventh Tour De France. He's quite popular. Nobody in the world knows any other biker, except Lance Armstrong. So what is his appeal?

ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZ.COM: Well, I mean, what's not appealing about this guy? I mean, he wins constantly. In America, we like anybody who wins. If you win a hand of poker.

COSTELLO: We don't like the losers.

BOROWITZ: Yes, we don't like the losers. Exactly.

So we worship the fact that he wins so much. He's a cancer survivor. He's got the rock start girlfriend, of course, Sheryl Crow.

The only downside of all this is that you see, like, in New York on the weekend a lot of times guys on bicycles trying to dress like Lance Armstrong, you know, wearing like the tight yellow jerseys and the bicycle pants.

COSTELLO: The very tight bicycle pants, and perhaps some should not do that.

BOROWITZ: They look like dorks. It's sad. That's the downside.

AMY BARNETT, "TEEN PEOPLE": Well, the thing is, you've got to compare them to Lance Armstrong, because he's actually hot. He is a really -- he's a talented athlete obviously, the rock star girlfriend, the cancer survivor, but he's a really attractive guy.

COSTELLO: More importantly, he's hot. JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": Do you know how many of those yellow "live strong" bracelets there are out there floating in the either -- 50 million.

BOROWITZ: Wow.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the big movie this weekend, because everybody thought the island was going to do well, but it really didn't.

SHAW: No, it did not. It opened badly. It opened at number four, which is pretty lame. "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" opened well again, or it did well, and, of course, "Wedding Crashers," which is going to be one the great big successes of the summer.

COSTELLO: The thing about "The Wedding Crashers" though, it's kind of a silly movie, but there's some controversy involved in the movie. It's about these two guys who crash wedding receptions to try to pick up girls. But let's look at it bit of the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I got us covered, purple hearts. You won't have to pay for a drink all night.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, yes, perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We are going to have tons and tons of opportunities to meet gorgeous that are so ladies aroused by the thought of marriage, they're going to throw their inhibitions to the wind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Veterans groups are upset saying, how can you make fun of such a thing when we have, you know, active military people getting killed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

SHAW: This moment when they want to get free drinks at a wedding, so they put on a purple heart, it's in the movie for all of, I don't know, what, three seconds? With all due respect to people with purple hearts, really, it's a joke, and it should not be taken seriously.

BOROWITZ: I mean, this movie may be an insult to veterans, but "Dukes of Hazzard" is an insult to everyone. And I think let's just choose our battles.

COSTELLO: I just can't even believe they remade that into a movie, can you? but, anyway...

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: maybe so. Well, that's for another day. Let's talk about "Hustle and Flow," because that did very well, even though it opened at only 1,000 theaters across the nation. BARNETT: Which I don't understand. How come it opened at a third fewer theaters than "The Bad News Bears?" I'm mystified because the buzz started at Sundance. It won the audience award. It won the award for cinematography. All of which was deserved. I mean, this was not just a story about a pimp who wanted to be a rapper. This is a really complex and interesting story about a poor, intelligent man who was really looking for opportunities in a place where there weren't very many.

SHAW: There's actually a great backstory to the movie, though. I mean, this movie was offered to Paramount, Paramount passed on it. John Singleton had to finance it himself. He goes to Sundance. It's the huge buzz of Sundance. There's a huge bidding war over the movie, and Paramount ends up buying it back for $9 million.

COSTELLO: Wow.

Andy Borowitz, Jessica Shaw, Amy Barnett, thank you so much for joining us for "90-Second Pop" today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

And that wraps it up for us at Paddington Station in London, and also in New York as well. But AMERICAN MORNING isn't over quite yet. Miles continues with the special coverage of the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. That's coming right up. And I'll see you tomorrow in New York.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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