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American Morning
Baton Rouge Overflowing With People; 'Minding Your Business'; 'New You' Checkup
Aired October 13, 2005 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Your iPod and sit there on the whole flight and watch them. So, you know, it's a good start.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I think it's cool. And I think I'm in. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: Yes. Get you one for Christmas, right?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Will you? You're so nice.
SERWER: We'll see.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.
Coming up next, your "New You" checkup coming up in our next half hour. Stay with us. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Same shot from yesterday. Another really yucky day here in New York City.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's our green room. Today it's kind of a gray room, isn't it.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.
MILES O'BRIEN: You know, I've just decided, if I ever get in trouble in New Orleans, I'm calling Frank DeSalvo (ph).
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That was an interesting interview you had with him. He, of course, is the attorney who's representing the police officers who've now I guess they're suspended.
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, yes. They've been suspended. They're facing battery charges. No word on how serious those charges will be yet, whether they elevate up to the district attorney level. But, you know, it's interesting how people can look at a tape and see something so different.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And he explained it well, I must say. I mean, I was sort of buying into his argument. He was very good.
And so were you.
MILES O'BRIEN: Not what that's not what I was asking.
COSTELLO: But it was interesting, you know, the two different points of view were really pointed out to the audience. I mean, that was good.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You can see where he's going to go when this all goes to court.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And, I you know, you hey, I think he has a point. You don't see them hitting him in the face, in at least a lot of the tape that we have seen so far, and yet there's lot of blood on his face.
COSTELLO: The one thing that I was wondering about the alleged victim in the case, and I don't know if you know the answer to this, but he said he hadn't had a drink in 25 years. But wasn't he in a bar that night?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Coming out of his hotel room.
COSTELLO: OK, so he was not in a bar.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: So, I don't know if he was ever at a bar but the word was coming out of his hotel room, went to get a pack of cigarettes. Went over to ask the cop what's the curfew. I've heard 8:00. I've heard 10:00. I've heard midnight. I want to make sure I'm not on the street. This is his story.
COSTELLO: Right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And then he got . . .
COSTELLO: And then all that went down.
MILES O'BRIEN: But does it really the question is, does that matter? Does it really matter? Rodney King was on PCP. Did it really matter? The point is, does that justify what you saw?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's kind of the $64,000 question.
MILES O'BRIEN: Maybe a little more.
COSTELLO: And it will come out in court.
MILES O'BRIEN: Maybe a little more.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We're looking at that this morning and other stories too.
What are you starting with this morning?
COSTELLO: I'm starting with the winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature because it has just been announced. Seventy- five-year-old British playwright Harold Pinter has received the honor. The announcement coming down within the past half hour. Pinter is one of Britain's best known playwrights. Among his more popular works, "The Birthday Party" and "The Caretaker." He's also known for campaigning for human rights. So, congratulations.
President Bush is set to address U.S. troops overseas this morning and he'll do so from the White House. The president will speak to American forces stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, through a video conference hookup from Washington. We'll have live coverage of that. It starts at 9:45 a.m. Eastern.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has reportedly been subpoenaed to turn over personal records in connection with his July stock sale. Sources cited by "The Washington Post" say the Securities and Exchange Commission issued the subpoena within the past two weeks. Authorities want to know if Frist had any inside information about the stock. Its price fell just days after he sold it. Frist denies any wrongdoing.
CNN has learned that the Bush administration is set to bolster the role of CIA Chief Porter Goss. A formal announcement is expected to today. Goss will be given the title national human intelligence manager and will oversee the day-to-day decisions of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Experts say the move could restore some of the prestige lost by the CIA when Congress created the director of national intelligence or, you know, the czar.
Five days after that devastating earthquake in South Asia, relief supplies are starting to get to residents in some of the harder to reach areas. At least 23,000 were killed in Saturday's quake. Pakistan says it will set up tent villages for the thousands left homeless by the disaster. A strong aftershock rattled some people and some buildings today. No damage was reported.
And Romanian officials confirming the first cases of the bird flu virus in Europe. A strain of the Avian flu has now been detected in some ducks there. Authorities are testing the samples to find out whether it's the same deadly strain affecting parts of Asia. As a precaution, the European Union has banned the import of poultry from Romania and CNN has confirmed that same type of bird flu dangerous to humans has now been found in the country of Turkey.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It's really making its way. No question about that.
COSTELLO: It is.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And hopefully the vaccines will be able to keep up with it.
Carol, thanks for the update.
You know, we've been talking about what's been happening in New Orleans and the recovery efforts there. But what about all those cities that took in all those evacuees? For example, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Take a look at how that city's capabilities are really being pushed to the limit now. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is live for us in New Orleans this morning. Hey, Alina, good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Just after Hurricane Katrina, you may recall that a quarter million people left New Orleans for Baton Rouge. At the time it was thought that most of those people would eventually leave. But it turns out 100,000 people decided to stay in Baton Rouge permanently and city officials will say that has created a major problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO, (voice over): The traffic alone is still a nightmare. Then, there's the overflowing schools and the crowded supermarkets. Six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, Baton Rouge is a city bursting at the seams.
MAYOR KIP HOLDEN, BATON ROUGE, LA.: Drives that would normally take about 10 to 15 minutes are taking up to 90 minutes right now. At the same time, the interstate is bumper to bumper. It's become a parking lot.
CHO: Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden says he needs to build more roads. He's asked FEMA for help but says the federal agency has not responded.
HOLDEN: We're saying, S.O.S. Send help.
CHO: Holden says he needs $176 million to fund city projects. FEMA officials say reimbursing the city will take time. Time East Baton Rouge School Superintendent Charlotte Placide says she doesn't have.
Are you stretched to the limits?
CHARLOTTE PLACIDE, EAST BATON ROUGE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: Well, I'm not going to say I'm stretched to the limits, but I'm doing a lot more than I was doing in August.
CHO: Post-Katrina, there are 6,000 extra students in the school district. Placide says that has forced her to hire 154 more teachers. With salaries and benefits, the cost is $8 million.
That's staggering.
PLACIDE: That is. And it can't continue for a long period of time.
CHO: You're running out of cash?
PLACIDE: We will be soon.
CHO: And she still needs more bus drivers and more classrooms. Baton Rouge realtor Carol White says she needs more sleep.
How busy are you? CAROL WHITE, REAL ESTATE AGENT: Busy enough that I probably lost weight, busy enough that it's enjoyable when I get the opportunity to see family. We have been inundated.
CHO: Larry Wink is her client. The former New Orleans resident lives in Baton Rouge now and is also moving his company here. He's bought 34 homes in Baton Rouge to house his workers and his business.
LARRY WINK, BUSINESS OWNER: In my view, Baton Rouge has become a miniature Houston.
CHO: Mayor Holden says, if that's the case . . .
HOLDEN: The federal government has to step in and provide some help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Now just some personal observations. I was in Baton Rouge about a month ago, just after the storm hit, and I can tell you, going back there yesterday, that I noticed the traffic has gotten marginally better. The checkout lines seemed to be slightly shorter. But the mayor will tell you, Soledad, he does still need federal help to handle the big crowds there.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Alina, is there any upside to, you know, massive fast population growth?
CHO: Well, there is. There are no hard figures, but I can tell you, again as I mentioned, having been there a month ago, that the chamber of commerce told me that with 250,000 people there at the time, they were pumping $10 million into the economy on a daily basis. On a daily basis. That is incredible. The mayor will say that there is an economic benefit to this population boom, but again, he still needs federal help.
MILES O'BRIEN: That's a lot for a city to handle. I guess it's a two edge sword, isn't it?
Alina Cho, thank you very much.
Let's check back on the weather. The weather's an important story, particularly in the northeast this morning. Chad's watching it very closely for us. And if you're under a big white blob you're in trouble. And that's us, isn't it?
(WEATHER REPORT)
MILES O'BRIEN: Ahead, Andy, "Minding Your Business." AOL has a couple of new suitors. Andy will tell us who's in line to buy a piece of the giant under which we operate.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta's back. We continue with our "New You" checkup. Remember the nail biter, Jonathan Karp. Well, it looked like he was going to be able to kick that habit eight months ago. But then the wedding, the stress, what do his nails look like now? What do his nails look like now?
MILES O'BRIEN: It's a cuticle story.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's ahead. Stay with us. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Good news for AOL and I guess anybody who owns AOL stock. Rival Internet companies are competing for that company's attention. Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business" this morning. Of course, it's our corporate brother or sister.
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Because we're all under the umbrella of Time Warner.
SERWER: That is correct.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: This is some good news for AOL finally.
SERWER: I think it is. It's good new for Time Warner. And it's interesting developments in the technology sector as well.
You know, AOL, an unloved child for the past couple years, nobody really seemed to pay much attention to it or care about it, and now it's the most popular kid in the class. Why is that? News that Google and Comcast are interested in buying a big stake in this company. And, of course, this follows reports from just a couple of weeks ago that Microsoft was interested in doing a similar deal.
So now you have a situation, Soledad, where Microsoft is interested in partnering with AOL and Google at the same time.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kaching (ph).
SERWER: Can you say bidding war possibly?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Kaching.
SERWER: Kaching. And, of course, this is really kind of a proxy battle for Microsoft and Google, which have become huge rivals.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What does that mean?
SERWER: Well, both of them are competing for people on the Internet. And this is a way for them to continue that battle. Google apparently is most interested in Web sites and IMing, those parts of AOL. Not necessarily the dial-up business. That still has 20 million customers. But it's a declining business as more and more of them move to free broadband services.
Still, 112 million visitors went to AOL just in the month of September, for instance. More or less the same level as Yahoo!. So a big battle potentially heating up in the on-line space, as they used to say.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Do you have time to talk about the markets quickly?
SERWER: I do very quickly. And I want to do it very quickly because stocks were down yesterday. We don't want to spend a whole lot of time there.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Nothing to dwell on.
SERWER: That's right, nothing to dwell on there. You can see some red ink. Some weakness actually in Apple which reported results which were slightly disappointing. They didn't sell enough iPods, if you can imagine. And this morning, though, futures are looking flat to up. So we'll see that what that brings soon.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: A lot of red arrows.
SERWER: Yes. We're going to do better today.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, we are. I feel it.
SERWER: Yep.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, back with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and a "New You" checkup. We're following the infamous nail biter, Jonathan Karp. Remember him? We'll see if he really broke that habit for good. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Well, this next story's a real nail biter, as they say. In January, five brave souls came to our show to participate in the "New You" revolution. So far it's been a fairly good report card.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, pretty good.
MILES O'BRIEN: We've got to give them (INAUDIBLE) overall.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes and that's hard to do.
MILES O'BRIEN: Absolutely.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: To pick a habit, break a habit and stick with it with cameras following you around. That's hard.
MILES O'BRIEN: I'd like to pick a bad habit and see if I could pursue it. Can we do that?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's a different show on a different network, isn't Sanjay? We're talking (ph) about eight months now and we're talking about Jonathan Karp today. I love this guy.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And can I just say that Miles picks many bad habits and pursues them as far as I can tell.
MILES O'BRIEN: That's right. So you can follow me any where you like and I'll pick up smoking or something.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: It would be good TV.
GUPTA: That's right.
Good morning, everybody.
At the end of those two months, talking about Jonathan Karp, at the end of those two months of the "New You" revolution, Jonathan was gearing up for a wedding, that was the big plan there, with a clean set of nails. So has he kept up his manicure?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA, (voice over): Since we last meet whim his back in March, Jonathan Karp has been on a sweet ride. In June, he married his sweetheart, Erika (ph).
Long before the wedding, Jonathan knocked the nail biting habit. By the time the big day rolled around, he was concentrating on more important things.
JONATHAN KARP: My nails were great. You know, it was my last concern. I was more concerned about my tuxedo and making sure I looked good.
GUPTA: His secret, keeping his fingernails well manicured, eliminating any rough spots with a nail file instead of with his teeth.
KARP: And now it's like, you know, I don't really care if they do, you know, see my nails now because they're fine. It's not really, you know, on the front page anymore for me.
GUPTA: Stress was a primary reason Jonathan bit his nails. Stress from his high pressured sales job and planning for the wedding. But now he's found his own way to cope with the stress and to cool down and take his mind off the urge to nibble.
KARP: Coming home, you get on the bike, you may take the long way home and really, once I get home, I'm really not thinking about anything else. It really unwinds me completely.
GUPTA: Jonathan said he's conquer the nail biting habit. As far as the rest of his checklist, well Jonathan's motoring right along.
KARP: Got the girl, got the job, got the bike. Need the house and kids and then the yacht.
ERICA KARP: And the yacht. (END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: So he traded in his nail biting for motorcycle riding, maybe, but with a helmet as well.
You know, a couple important points here. Nail biting's a bad habit, obviously, but nail biting also spreads germs to your mouth, so it can be dangerous to your health as well. So congratulations, Jonathan.
Tomorrow we're going to meet with former aerobics instructor Sandra Garth. And, Soledad, I've got to tell you, Sandra Garth asks about you all the time. She absolutely . . .
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I love her.
GUPTA: She is terrific. And at the end of the eight weeks, she had gotten back into an exercise routine. And now after eight months, you guys are going to be shocked at what you see tomorrow. Really.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I bet she . . .
MILES O'BRIEN: Good shock?
GUPTA: I'll just say good shocked, yes. It's just amazing.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: She is so mentally tough, that lady. I mean immediately she did she's tough and strong.
Can I ask you a quick question about Jonathan Karp, Sanjay?
GUPTA: Yes.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Because I would imagine, for other people it's the same thing. Once he conquered his nail biting, it was amazing to me how like his world kind of fell into place. You know, he started working out again, he started eating better, all the things that had nothing to do with nail biting.
GUPTA: That's right. And, you know, for so many people, nail biting is just a manifestation or symptom of anxiety about other things in your life. And he had a lot of anxiety about his job and the upcoming wedding and all that sort of stuff. And once he conquered the anxiety, all of those things sort of fell into place for him.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: And now he wants to have kids.
GUPTA: That's right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Jonathan, wait for that.
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, it all pieces together.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: What we'll talk about next year, you know, January's predictions (ph). GUPTA: Yes, we're going to sort of mix it up for next year a little bit. We're looking for three couples, three pairs, three duos of some sort who want to get fit and get healthier together in the new year. So, for example, if you and your roommate want to lose those dreaded freshman 15 or you and your spouse want help with their combined weight it decline. If you want to think about if you think you have what it takes to be one of our featured twosomes for the next year challenge, simply go to cnn.com/am. Sign up with your partner and join our "New You" resolution.
MILES O'BRIEN: Do co-anchors qualify?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: We do.
MILES O'BRIEN: Are we in?
GUPTA: I know you guys had mentioned it. But you've got to send in your application. We'll have to take a look at it.
MILES O'BRIEN: Send in . . .
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Oh.
MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, we'll consider your application. What is this FEMA?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That is so cold.
GUPTA: That's a whole different story.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: He just told us we had to apply.
MILES O'BRIEN: Please apply in triplicate. We'll get back to you.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Our own show.
MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Sanjay.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right. I'm going to apply.
Get on that, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, let's do it. Let's get on that application right now.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Come on. Get to that.
MILES O'BRIEN: All right.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to talk about the latest in Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination. President Bush is now touting her religion as a strength. And that's bringing up even more controversy. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: The northeast soaked again with a seventh straight day of rain. As much as half a foot more expected in some places and already deadly flooding and dangerous situation, they're getting much worse. We've got a complete forecast ahead.
Fear and desperation in Pakistan. More aftershocks in the capital today. And an enormous job finding food and shelter for 2.5 million people left homeless by the earthquake. We've got a live report from there ahead.
And, did the White House go too far discussing the religious briefs of Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers? A political strategy. Could it backfire. A look at that on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
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