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American Morning

Busted in Bali; Fuel Fears; Teen Risk; 'Minding Your Business'

Aired August 24, 2005 - 08:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another young Australian is facing a harsh sentence after an arrest on drug charges in Indonesia. And it's not the first time. Are Indonesian authorities singling out their Aussie neighbors?
Zain Verjee has our report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She makes her living posing for cameras, but Michelle Leslie, who models under the name Michelle Lee, did not want to show her face this time, she was detained on the resort island of Bali on Saturday after police raided a dance party. Officials say they found two ecstasy tablets in her Gucci bag. If charged and convicted, the 24-year-old Australian could face a maximum of 15 years in jail.

SYDNEY ROSS HILL, LAWYER: I've spoken to Ms. Leslie directly, and she's holding up as best she can in the intended circumstances.

VERJEE: With surprise raids and on the spot drug tests, one after another young Australians traveling in Indonesia have been nabbed by police and accused of drug possession.

Twenty-one-year-old teacher Graham Payne was arrested on Saturday for allegedly having more than 2,000 ecstasy pills on him. He could be sentenced to death by firing squad if he's convicted.

Eight Australian men and one woman, known as the Bali Nine are set to go on trial next month for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

In a case that got enormous attention, Australian Schapelle Corby was sentenced to 20 years in prison in May for smuggling marijuana into Bali.

Indonesian authorities insist they are not targeting Australians in their drug raids, saying instead we're "those who violate our anti- drug laws, whatever their nationality, will be treated equal before the law."

Australian officials acknowledge the tough Indonesian drug laws and are warning their citizens.

PERTH ALEXANDER DOWNER, AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: Going into Asia with drugs, being in possession of drugs in Asia, or trafficking drugs in and out of Asia or between countries in Asia is an enormously serious criminal offense.

VERJEE (on camera): Under Indonesian law, there's no provision for bail, so everyone is held in police cells until the investigation is complete and those accused are either charged or released.

Zain Verjee, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Right now 10 Australians face the death penalty if they're convicted. The Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called Australians caught carrying drugs into Asia stupid. Told them not to expect the government to save them.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well lots of folks are feeling the pinch at the pump, and so are a lot of businesses. The question is when will the cost be passed along to you? We'll ask some small business owners who are feeling it in just a moment.

AMERICAN MORNING continues after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody, lots to cover this morning.

Let's get right to the headlines with Carol Costello, starting with Iraq, of course, breaking news there.

Good morning -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, breaking news ongoing.

"Now in the News."

A bit more news about those coordinated insurgent attacks in western Baghdad. Insurgents are targeting Iraqi checkpoints. They're using rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. We just got these pictures in. As you can see, they show the Baghdad skyline with smoke rising from the sea. And of course it's not clear if that smoke is related to the clashes, but most likely it is. The fighting broke out just about an hour ago. Police say a car bomb was also detonated. Iraqi police are now calling for backup.

President Bush will be focusing on Iraq today as he wraps up a short trip to Idaho. The president is expected to deliver a speech to members of the military and their families. That will happen near Boise. He's expected to repeat his stance about staying the course in Iraq. And will also meet privately with some families who lost loved ones in the war. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address at 1:15 Eastern.

In the meantime, military mom Cindy Sheehan is heading back to Crawford. She has spent the past several days away from Camp Casey to be with her sick mother in California. Sheehan has asked to meet with the president. The convicted sex offender suspected of kidnapping Shasta and Dylan Groene and killing their family could face the death penalty. Joseph Duncan was arraigned Tuesday on six charges of murder and kidnapping. He was silent as pleas of not guilty were entered. Duncan will face federal charges for the crimes against Shasta and Dylan when the state case is over. The trial is set to begin in January of next year.

It's now Tropical Storm Katrina. It's the 12th storm, right -- Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It is the 12th depression. Katrina is actually the 11th storm. We had Tropical Depression 10. That ended up not turning into anything, and this one kind of took over its identity. So, Carol, yes, there it is.

Nassau, moving on up here, Tropical Storm Katrina. Now just new in from the Hurricane Center, 40 miles per hour. That's what it takes, above 39, to get to a tropical storm strength. And it is forecast to move right over south Florida. Still could be right or left of that line, remember that, but it certainly could be a much stronger storm than 40 by the time it gets there.

About 42 to 48 hours worth of work here in very warm water, and warm water is what a tropical storm uses to become a hurricane. We have to keep watching that. And eventually it exits Florida, moves into the Gulf of Mexico. Then we'll see where it goes. Talk about warm water, there's more down there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you, guys -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

Gas and diesel prices may have dropped slightly for a second day in a row, but they remain at record highs. Companies are taking the hit, as we all are, I guess. At what point, though, will they start passing on those extra costs to you and me?

This morning, we check in once again with three cities around the country to see how businesses are dealing with the soar in prices. The average cost for a gallon of gas in Chicago $2.81, New York $2.75, in Washington it is $2.69.

And checking in back once again from those cities, in Chicago, Matt Callopy runs Shoreline Sightseeing, tour boat and water taxi service; New York, David Donen, Residential Sales Manager for Oz Moving Company; and from Washington, Jim Quirk with the United States Postal Service.

Good to have you back, guys.

Matt, when last we left you, you said you weren't raising ticket prices and that you probably could get through this season. I'm curious what you're doing right now, though, to try to trim some costs.

MATT CALLOPY, V.P., SHORELINE SIGHTSEEING: Right now we're trying to schedule the vessels more efficiently and run them more efficiently. One thing we are doing, we used to let the boats idle a little more. Now we'll fire the boats up in the morning, warm up the engines and park them, let them hold the heat all day and just start the vessels and use them when we need them rather than allow them to idle.

M. O'BRIEN: I don't suppose there are vessels out there that offer you better, you know, mileage or whatever, right?

CALLOPY: No, you know, we keep the engines and do proper maintenance and try and keep everything in the right state of tune and just do the best we can. There are more modern engines, and that, of course, is a big capital expense, and we'll probably be looking at that in the future as well.

M. O'BRIEN: There are fuel cell engines for ships on the horizon, something like that?

CALLOPY: You know I don't know. I think that's probably a good long ways away, but just more modern electronic diesel engines are considerably more efficient than some of the older engines we have.

M. O'BRIEN: You're not going to do nuclear power anytime soon, right?

CALLOPY: No, I wouldn't -- you won't see that.

M. O'BRIEN: David Donen, in your moving trucks, I assume you're not doing nuclear power there, but I assume also there are more efficient trucks out there. What else are you doing short and long term right now to think about trimming your fuel costs?

DAVID DONEN, OZ MOVING AND STORAGE: Well we use a GPS tracking system. Oz was the first company, I think, in New York to really equip our trucks with a GPS. And that really helps in any kind of mistakes, wrong turns. We're live kind of interactive with the road, so we can see exactly where we're going with the correct direction seeing what we're doing. Fuel, as far as tuning the trucks up, we have a mechanic now 24/7 just to keep the trucks efficient.

M. O'BRIEN: Really, and that's worth it to have somebody on all the time just to keep them properly tuned, huh?

DONEN: And you know we have 27 trucks full time, so it's a full time job.

M. O'BRIEN: I should say. All right.

Jim Quirk, when you talk about fleets, it's hard to imagine a much bigger fleet than the Postal Service. A lot of times I see those smaller postal vehicles. They can be powered by natural gas, for example. Do you have a lot of alternative fuels in the mix? Of course natural gas is no bargain, either, right? JIM QUIRK, POSTAL SERVICE SPOKESMAN: Yes, sir. We have been a leader in alternative fuel vehicles. We have about 20,000 alternative fuel vehicles and we're working with General Motors on a hydrogen cell vehicle.

But the real solution for us has been managing our costs. We're taking about nine billion out of our systems, our operation system, and our managers of transportation have put more of the mail over the road and taken it out of the air. So it's really been a management challenge and our folks have done a great job.

M. O'BRIEN: Well does that mean, Jim, that letters won't be getting to their addresses quite as quickly? Is that the downside of all of this?

QUIRK: Absolutely not, sir, we wouldn't do anything to change the service standards. And the good news, too, also, for the American public, is they can save gas by going to USPS.com and do click and ship. They can contact us and have a carrier pick up parcels. So they can save gas by going to our Internet site.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Jim Quirk, David Donen, Matt Callopy, we'll check back in with you in a little bit as we continue our gas price morning here on CNN AMERICAN MORNING -- Soledad.

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

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, teenagers and smoking, it's a big problem. But second-hand smoke is also very dangerous for teens. We're going to tell you more about something that's called Metabolic Syndrome.

Then, if you ever walked into the Gap and said I can't wear this, I'm too old for these clothes, well, think again. We're "Minding Your Business" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A recent study suggests that teenagers are almost five times more likely to develop Metabolic Syndrome if they're exposed to second-hand smoke.

We spoke to Dr. Pamela Peeke recently to help understand just what Metabolic Syndrome is and explain that connection. She's an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and also the author of "Body for Life for Women."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Nice to see you again.

PAMELA PEEKE, UNIV. OF MARYLAND: Hey, you.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about Metabolic Syndrome.

PEEKE: Yes. S. O'BRIEN: I've never even heard of that. What is it?

PEEKE: Well you know it's a constellation of things. Too much fat inside your belly underneath that abdominal muscle wall and combined with an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes and certain forms of cancer. You have too much of the good form of -- or you have too little of the good form of cholesterol and you have high blood pressure, for instance. And it's all about that fat deep inside the belly, too.

S. O'BRIEN: And then of course there's this link to second-hand smoke that we'll get to in a moment.

PEEKE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so what they list as sort of Metabolic Syndrome, just to recap, is you have to be overweight, low levels of the good cholesterol, high blood pressure. Are you surprised that you're seeing these things in teenagers?

PEEKE: You want to know something, I never wanted to see it as a physician. This is terrible. What we're seeing is that second-hand smoke increases the risk of a deadly syndrome. Something that I, as a physician, would really think of diagnosing after the age of 50. But, no, we're seeing it in teenagers. And you don't even have to smoke yourself, just be exposed to that second-hand smoke.

S. O'BRIEN: You've got some pretty remarkable CAT scans. Show -- throw them up on the screen here. What are we looking at?

PEEKE: OK. The first thing you're looking at is a CAT scan sort of cut right around your belly button. And what you see there is a very special kind of CAT scan highlighting fat. See all that white? That's fat.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so this is a...

PEEKE: And that's just someone who is a normal person who's got a little extra fat onboard. All right. Now look inside that abdomen, normal amount of fat. Now look at this one, huge amount of fat deep inside the belly. You are looking at the Metabolic Syndrome, too much fat underneath that abdominal muscle wall. That person is now exposed to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. This is happening to teenagers.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you cure this? Is this just a matter of that person needs to lose 50 pounds?

PEEKE: No, it's more than that. I mean it's how they do it. By definition, if you smoke, you could lose weight, too, get it? So you have to do it with healthy lifestyle. The most important thing for teenagers right now is get off those refined sugars, get off the couch, move, but you've got to get that fat out of there and that second-hand smoke, get out of there. A lot of kids say, mom, dad, I don't smoke; yet they go to places where everybody is smoking. They might as well be smoking. S. O'BRIEN: Are they seeing similar things in adults as well?

PEEKE: Absolutely, no question. I diagnose this all day long in adults. Breaks my heart to see this in kids. This is terrible.

S. O'BRIEN: Something has got to be done.

Dr. Pamela Peeke, nice to see you. Thanks for those pictures are pretty remarkable.

PEEKE: Absolutely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Well you just never know what you're going to see in a magazine these days. Wal-Mart and Target, as they say in my household.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Target has got it. They've got it nailed, because...

M. O'BRIEN: Target. Ali Velshi in for Andy Serwer. And this is interesting. This is -- I've never heard of this before.

VELSHI: This is the current issue of "The New Yorker" magazine. Average income of the people who read this magazine $85,000 and up, depending on who listen to. Every ad in this issue Target, Target.

M. O'BRIEN: Every ad.

VELSHI: Every single ad. Target has been upscaling.

M. O'BRIEN: Many thousands of dollars...

VELSHI: Many hundreds of thousands of dollars probably.

M. O'BRIEN: And making an attempt to fit the New York with style, as I see here.

VELSHI: Yes. Yes, they're not blatant ads. They're sort of artistic ads.

Now what's happened here is Target has been doing better than its competitors in the discount arena. It's got Miss Rahe (ph), it's got Todd Oldham (ph). It's got all these different brands. And Wal-Mart, meanwhile, is saying its target, its core customer is getting hurt by gas prices and things like that. So Wal-Mart is making an effort to upscale and they have taken for the first time...

M. O'BRIEN: Look at how thick that magazine is.

VELSHI: This is "Vogue," 800 pages or something like that.

M. O'BRIEN: What is that thing like the fall fashion preview or something like that?

VELSHI: Yes, yes, yes. And Wal-Mart has got eight pages of ads in "Vogue."

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. So Wal-Mart in "Vogue" versus Target in "The New Yorker." Which is the bigger departure, would you say?

VELSHI: This is the bigger departure. This one seems to make more sense. Wal-Mart doesn't have the offerings to upscale its clients at the moment. Target has been developing this for years. So we'll have to see how this pans out. But you know, when Wal-Mart goes for something, it usually goes big.

Now the trend, I was talking to people this morning who said that the new trend, the new black is black in fact, which is something that has been going around the industry, the fashion industry. I've never heard of it, in a sense.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm not following it, but again, I'm all ears.

VELSHI: The new trend in clothing?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

VELSHI: The new trend in clothing, forget black is older. Thirty-nine percent of all women's clothes last year were bought by women 41 and up -- 41 years older and up.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

VELSHI: But when you go to a mall, what do you see, all you see is kids stores.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

VELSHI: The Abercrombie & Fitch and all that sort of thing. So the Gap today is launching a new store called Forth & Towne meant to target that older group of women.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

VELSHI: And it's going to compete with Chicos, Ann Taylor (ph)...

M. O'BRIEN: By the way, don't call them older to their face.

S. O'BRIEN: Ouch!

M. O'BRIEN: OK, don't do that.

VELSHI: Older in a retail sense.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

VELSHI: Older in a retail sense.

M. O'BRIEN: So it's kind of a demographic gap...

VELSHI: Its' a demographic. M. O'BRIEN: ... that they're going after? The Gap has had some difficulty in recent years...

VELSHI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... as the Abercrombies of the world have moved in.

VELSHI: The boomers grew up on Gap,...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, right.

VELSHI: ... but they haven't followed it through. So now the Gap is going to compete with the Chicos of the world, the Banana Republics, Ann Taylor. This new place, Fourth & Towne, is going to have four different ranges of clothes, larger model size, so their clothes will be -- Soledad is going just...

M. O'BRIEN: You're calling them old and large now, pal, you're in trouble.

VELSHI: She'll throw a spitball over here in a second.

S. O'BRIEN: You know I was cheering it, because I thought this is such great news, finally someone like designing clothes for women in my age range.

VELSHI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: You were, OK.

S. O'BRIEN: The young youthful.

M. O'BRIEN: So you didn't mind the old...

S. O'BRIEN: No, no, then he said...

M. O'BRIEN: ... and large part?

S. O'BRIEN: ... the older problem. No,...

VELSHI: That's an industry term, it's not mine.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Mature and...

S. O'BRIEN: We'll deal with you later.

VELSHI: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Mature and sophisticated.

VELSHI: I may not be back on this show. It's been great.

M. O'BRIEN: Good run, Ali, thank you.

Well see you back in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

There have been some stories in the news that we felt deserved an extra word or two this morning. Want to chat about them.

You know the front page news for the last couple of days, at least in the tabloids here in New York, this nanny story, the baby nurse story. Baby -- you're looking at the covers here of the last couple of days. She...

COSTELLO: It's terrible.

M. O'BRIEN: An awful story.

S. O'BRIEN: Did you see...

M. O'BRIEN: And this is a mother's nightmare.

S. O'BRIEN: A baby nurse, Noella Alec (ph) is her name, now under arrest for shaking a baby, a newborn baby. The baby is now 3 months old. Shook her just a couple of days apparently after she was born. Baby now has brain damage and the baby nurse has allegedly admitted to the shaking. Baby has brain damage, broken ribs, broker her collar bone in two places. This is a 5-day-old baby.

COSTELLO: And she shook the baby because the baby wouldn't eat or I mean it was very simple.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and you know her claims are that she was really just trying to shake the baby to see if she was awake. But the baby now...

M. O'BRIEN: As a parent, what do you do, you know, to guard against that, you put video cameras all throughout your place or I mean?

S. O'BRIEN: You know, as we were talking earlier in the break, I had a babysitter who was hitting my kid. I didn't know until someone told me.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow.

S. O'BRIEN: Someone told -- a contractor who was working at my house told me. And that opened my eyes, because this is a person who had been at our house for a long time. And it's a parent's nightmare whether it's a baby nurse. You don't know. People can seem incredibly nice and you just don't know. And I just thought, God, this is a scary story for any mother or father who has anybody taking care of their kids. It breaks your heart. We got rid of her. We have somebody great now.

COSTELLO: I bet she was out of there like in minutes.

S. O'BRIEN: Like you can't even imagine how fast.

COSTELLO: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well mine isn't quite as close to home. The story that caught my eye, this is the lead story in "The New York Times" today. We don't have this story just yet. We're working on getting it, but it's an interesting story. Nine northeastern states in the absence of a U.S. federal plan to cap greenhouse emissions and curb global warning, nine northeastern states going to do it themselves. They're going to cap utility emissions.

S. O'BRIEN: But does it work if you do it yourself?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, no,...

S. O'BRIEN: I mean isn't it...

M. O'BRIEN: I mean we're talking about a global problem.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: And it's going to take a long time to solve and doesn't happen quickly. But the point is this is led by George Pataki, Republican Governor of New York, who is you know laying the groundwork for a presidential run. And is trying to differentiate himself from the Bush administration, which has said no to the Kyoto Accords, which would have capped all kinds of emissions from utilities and so forth.

COSTELLO: So he believes in global warming?

M. O'BRIEN: Well you know, let's face it. The scientific jury is in, folks, the planet is getting warmer and we're making it worse. And the fact is the Bush administration has not made this a priority. The states may ultimately force this.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

S. O'BRIEN: If you get more than nine and if they all agree.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: And then of course...

M. O'BRIEN: Well there are other states, too. But anyway, all right.

Carol, what do you got?

COSTELLO: OK, in the world of sports, this is what caught my eye, because you know I love sports. Rafael Palmeiro...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Who you also love.

COSTELLO: I did love him, but I was so...

M. O'BRIEN: Totally.

S. O'BRIEN: Right, right.

COSTELLO: I may have formerly loved Rafael Palmeiro, but he was suspended for 10 days for steroid use. Well Frank Robinson, the manager of the Washington Nationals, Hall of Famer, has come out and said you know what, maybe his stats should be wiped out. He said why let Major League Baseball determine all of this, why not just wipe out his stats because he doesn't deserve to be there if he was on steroids. That's what he's intimating.

M. O'BRIEN: Well what about Barry Bonds? Think about that, you know.

COSTELLO: Well they didn't ask about Barry Bonds.

M. O'BRIEN: The allegations there. But I mean the point is you open up a huge can of worms there.

S. O'BRIEN: Right, a slippery slope story there.

M. O'BRIEN: What do you think?

COSTELLO: Yes. I think that's true if you're -- but you know they have to find you were taking the steroids. I think that's very important.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

COSTELLO: And once they do that, then everything you've done becomes suspect. You can't help that. And do you belong in a Hall of Fame? Frank Robinson is in the Hall of Fame. He's sixth on the all- time hits list. And of course Rafael Palmeiro is ninth now. So, Frank Robinson's words carry a lot of weight.

M. O'BRIEN: I -- he is a man with a lot of clout and a lot of respect in baseball.

COSTELLO: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: At some point, someone has to clean it up, because I think just overall whether you're talking about the Hall of Famers or whoever, the end of the day fans say who cares if people are on drugs, who cares about these stats, it means nothing.

M. O'BRIEN: Well that is true.

COSTELLO: That's exactly -- well Congress is looking into it still, you know.

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

COSTELLO: And they're looking at all of the stuff from Major League Baseball that Rafael Palmeiro has voluntarily turned over, so they're investigating it. We'll see what happens. So they're taking care of it, who knows.

S. O'BRIEN: As Jack Cafferty would say, Congress is now handling it.

COSTELLO: Oh no.

M. O'BRIEN: All is well.

S. O'BRIEN: All is well.

All right, coming up in just a moment, here's a question for you, has the fast food industry found a new way to target kids? A new study says it has to do with location, location, location. We've got a closer look just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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