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American Morning

Immigration Nation

Aired April 10, 2006 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love this country. We don't want to go back to Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Hope and anger are fueling more immigration protests. Today the biggest demonstrations yet in dozens of cities around the nation.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A breach of security at the White House. One man accused of jumping the fence, get this, for the fourth time.

S. O'BRIEN: An attorney for a Duke University lacrosse player says he's got pictures and they tell a different story in that rape case. We're going to explain just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Communities across the southeast cleaning up this morning after strong storms. Tornadoes tore through several towns Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Severe weather possible again tomorrow, at least a little bit, but really the next five days tranquil compared to what we've seen.

AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. Welcome to another week. I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Happy Monday, everybody.

We start this morning with the fervor over immigration reform. Major rallies are expected today in cities across the country, including New York, in Washington and in Los Angeles. Several hundred thousand people showed up for a huge demonstration on Sunday in Dallas. The rally, look at all these folks. The rally a protest of a tough House bill on immigration that would make it a felony to be in this country illegally.

Now farm workers staged a similar march in Oxnard, California. They praised a Senate compromise bill that has a provision that would push for citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.

And a small but vocal group in Tucson, Arizona, take a look at this, protested the influx of immigrants. They burned the Mexican flag in front of the Mexican Consulate there Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Talk of a U.S. strike against Iran is ill-informed. That is the White House response to a report the U.S. is planning military action to take out Iran's nuclear sites. They say the president's priority is to find a diplomatic solution. But "The "New Yorker" magazine reporting the administration has not ruled out tactical nuclear weapons.

Seymour Hersh wrote the story. He tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer the Pentagon seems to be past planning and into an operational stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: What you're saying here is that there are American forces clandestinely already inside Iran?

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER: That's what I'm saying.

BLITZER: You want to elaborate on that?

HERSH: Well, I'll tell you one thing that's very interesting to me about it, they are not special forces, they're regular military. And that's part of the Rumsfeld notion that all military guys are potentially special forces. And I think it's fraught with danger. But they are there.

And we're not saying any more specifically about where they are or what they're doing. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt, but they are there and the American public should know it because I assure you the Iranian government knows it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: The man who once was in charge of Central Command, Anthony Zinni, also appeared on the program. And he talked about the serious consequences of a U.S. strike on Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. ANTHONY ZINNI (RET.), FORMER CENTCOM COMMANDER: Any military plan involving Iran is going to be very difficult. We should not fool ourselves to think it will just be a strike and then it would be over. The Iranians will retaliate.

And they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions, to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted, to a tax on Israel, to the conduct of terrorism. There are a number of actions they can take in response to that. So when we take military action in that case, we're going to have to be prepared to, in effect, go all the way, whatever that means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: "LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER" can be seen 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sundays. We'll talk live with Seymour Hersh who broke that story on Iran. He'll be a guest in our 8:00 hour, two hours from now. That's Eastern Time Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Turning to Iran now, Sunni members of the new Parliament today are asking the Shiite majority to come up with a new nominee for prime minister. The Sunnis remain opposed to a second term for Ibrahim al-Jaafari. And that call comes amid more violence. Insurgents struck several government buildings in Ramadi, which is west of Baghdad. U.S. forces closed bridges and roads into the city.

An internal report by the U.S. embassy and military command in Baghdad provides a pretty sobering province-by-province look at Iraq's political, economic and security situation. The report rates the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces as serious and one critical. Only in the Kurdish region in the north is considered stable.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq says sectarian violence has certainly increased but that the country is not in a civil war Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: That CIA leak case is now leading to a fracture inside the Republican Party. A top GOP lawmaker calling on the president to come clean and explain why administration staffers outed a CIA operative in the run-up to the Iraq war. Senator Arlen Specter made that call yesterday after the White House confirmed the president ordered Iraq intelligence be declassified in 2003.

The administration denying he authorized release of the information to reporters, however. The former chief of staff to the vice president, Scooter Libby, faces perjury charges after identifying CIA operative Valerie Plame to reporters. Her husband, Joe Wilson, seen here, offered public criticism of the war.

If nothing else, he is persistent. A man accused of jumping the White House fence Sunday has a date with a judge today, again. His name is Brian Lee Patterson (ph). He jumped the fence at least three times before. A judge issued a court order for him to stay away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He is charged with violating that order. President Bush was inside the White House at the time.

S. O'BRIEN: The much anticipated DNA test results could come as early as today in the Duke University rape investigation. On Sunday, protesters gathered outside the home where the alleged attack took place. They say they are going to keep coming back until there is a conclusion in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP JOHN BENNETT, CHURCH OF THE APOSTOLIC REVIVAL: Why would any community that has any kind of sense would allow persons that are accused of rape, accused of rape, freelance and walk the streets like nothing happened?

(END VIDEO CLIP) S. O'BRIEN: Meanwhile, an attorney in the case told The Associated Press that he has some important photographs, that's what he's calling them, showing the alleged victim was already injured and impaired, those are his words, before she arrived at the party. She told police she was later sexually assaulted in a bathroom at the party. No charges have yet been filed in this case.

Pretty outrageous story to share with you, a young boy, 5 years old, dismissed by a 911 operator when he called because his mother needed help. Five-year-old Robert Turner, there he is, home alone when he found his mom unconscious. He did exactly what he was taught to do, he called 911.

An operator, though, thought it was a prank and told him to stop playing around. By the time police arrived hours later, Cheryl (ph) Turner was dead.

Listen to some of the 911 calls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911, what is the problem?

ROBERT TURNER: My mom has passed out.

911 OPERATOR: Where's the grownups at?

TURNER: (INAUDIBLE).

911 OPERATOR: Let me speak to her.

TURNER: (INAUDIBLE).

911 OPERATOR: Let me speak to her before I send the police over there.

TURNER: She isn't in no good place (ph).

911 OPERATOR: I don't care. You shouldn't be playing on the phone. Now put her on the phone before I send the police out there to knock on the door and you gonna be in trouble."

TURNER: Ugh!

(HANGS UP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Well the union that represents the dispatcher says that about 25 percent of phone calls to 911 are pranks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY HARRIS, LOCAL UNION PRESIDENT: That operator could have had five prank calls, kids calling prior to that call. And please don't you know think that I'm trying to make an excuse, you know, that was a tragedy. I know that operator. I know that she is a very good operator. She is very thorough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Well the family's attorney says they are now filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the Detroit police today.

Coming up this morning at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, we're going to talk to that little boy, Robert Turner, and his older sister who he is living with now, and his attorney as well Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: In parts of the southeast they'll be firing up the chainsaws again this morning. It is the long cleanup after yet another batch of killer storms.

In Tennessee, a dozen killed, seven in Sumner County, after a tornado packing 170-mile-an-hour winds swept through. Tornadoes hit 10 Tennessee counties in all. Hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed.

In Atlanta, four tornadoes reported there. No deaths, no serious injuries, but lots of damage, the worst in eight years.

Alabama and South Carolina also cleaning up debris from weekend storms this morning. Lots of work to do in all those parts.

Chad Myers, a look at the weather for us this morning. Any more severe weather on the horizon Chad?

MYERS: A little bit on Tuesday. I had a chainsaw in my hand over the weekend, as well, guys, yes. It had...

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

MYERS: Yes, I was.

Sixty reports of tornadoes now. The numbers will go up and down because some tornadoes are the same tornadoes just looked at from a different direction, but 60 so far. And the one that actually hit Galion, Tennessee, with the eight fatalities, that was an F3. They went out and looked at it, but they said, wait a minute, it could be bigger, we'll have to keep looking. But 200 miles per hour the one that moved through just to the north and northeast of Nashville there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Back to you guys.

S. O'BRIEN: A little time off for Chad this week, all right.

M. O'BRIEN: A little bit.

S. O'BRIEN: Rest up, Chad.

MYERS: All right.

S. O'BRIEN: Rest up.

M. O'BRIEN: You still have got to come in though, sorry, Chad.

MYERS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Did you watch any of the Masters this weekend? Did you watch?

M. O'BRIEN: No, but I was wearing my green blazer nonetheless. No.

S. O'BRIEN: Empathy and sympathy. Take a look at this. This is Phil Mickelson doing it again. Look at that putt, just a formality. He did so well.

M. O'BRIEN: Good for him. The monkey is off his back in a big way, isn't it? He's on a roll now.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. And his wife comes running over and hugs him and kisses right there. The girls come running over. It's so cute to see. He walked away with a two-shot win. Second Masters title.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MICKELSON, 2006 MASTERS CHAMPION: When I won in 2004, it was a great feeling of relief that I finally broke through and won a major. But this week it feels like a great sense of accomplishment. And to be able to beat guys like Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Fred Couples when they're playing their best, it's a great feeling of accomplishment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: That jacket feels so good, doesn't it? Mickelson not only gets the green jacket, of course, he also gets more than 1.25 million bucks. Tiger Woods, who you saw putting the jacket on Mickelson, won last year's Masters of course. He finished tied for third. His putting was atrocious. His putting is worse than my putting, Tiger's yesterday.

M. O'BRIEN: But, yes, it's drive for show, putt for dough they say. And in this case that proved to be ever so true.

S. O'BRIEN: It was fun to watch. A lot of fun.

M. O'BRIEN: It's a beautiful thing.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the University of Colorado campus reeling this morning after a student is found dead in a dorm room. We'll tell you the latest on this story coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: And what you're paying at the pump. New information on how long these high prices might last.

But first, here's a look at what else is making some news this Monday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Top stories this Monday morning.

Dozens of cities expecting major immigration rallies today. Protests planned from New York to Atlanta to Los Angeles.

The Bush administration downplaying the saber rattling aimed at Iran. There's a report the administration is making plans to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities and have not taken nuclear weapons off the table. The administration insisting diplomacy is the first response.

And residents across the southeast are cleaning up today in the wake of strong storms. Tornadoes in Tennessee left a dozen dead Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well all New Yorkers will feel the impact of today's immigration rallies, that's at least what one immigration leader is saying about the planned protests here today in New York.

Lisa Colagrassi of our affiliate WABC is live for us at New York's City Hall.

Hey, Lisa, good morning to you. When do we expect to see the protesters and also how many protesters do you estimate are going to be there this day?

LISA COLAGRASSI, WABC-TV REPORTER: Well, I'll have an easier time answering the second question, actually, of when they're expected to be here. There are going to be three marches preceding the rally. They will all wind up here at New York City Hall around 3:00, maybe a little bit before, and then the rally goes until 7:00.

As for how many, that remains to be seen. This is probably likely going to be the largest rally we've had so far, but no one is really expecting the numbers like they had in Dallas where they had a half million people, simply because New York City's immigrant population is so diversified. It's been tough coordinating all of these different groups, but more than 100 organizations, labor groups and religious institutions are heading up today's rally.

Yesterday on Long Island, several hundred protesters were outside the office of Republican Congressman Peter King. He is a co-sponsor of some of the toughest anti-immigration legislation out there. He certainly wants to see a toughening of the requirements to become a citizen, so demonstrators were out there yesterday.

Also, earlier this month in New York City, about 10,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge for immigrant rights. And up until this point, that was really the largest demonstration we've seen so far.

So at this point, it's going to be tough to call the numbers. Everyone is really anticipating a pretty good turnout and certainly the biggest demonstration so far. Soledad, back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and the pretty good weather, of course, probably increases that turnout.

COLAGRASSI: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Lisa Colagrassi for us this morning from our affiliate WABC.

Thanks, Lisa Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well we don't need to tell you this, but you're getting socked by higher gas prices all across the country. The national average for a gallon of gasoline is now $2.69. That's up almost 17 cents over the past two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey.

If you live in Salt Lake City, you're paying the lowest prices in the country, $2.28. If you're in Honolulu, you're paying $2.88. And if you're in Honolulu right now, go back to sleep. But the good news is experts do expect it to drop soon.

I saw gas over $3 in New York City...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Something like this. What's this about?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

LEE: I know. I know. And it's still pretty high, really, relatively. Why is it always so cheap in Salt Lake City?

M. O'BRIEN: These are questions we cannot answer at least.

LEE: I should know that, right?

M. O'BRIEN: You're the business person.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Disney.

LEE: Don't ask a question you can't answer on the air, right?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, right. Yes.

LEE: Walt Disney and the Web coming together. "Wall Street Journal" reporting this story out this morning. The Walt Disney Company is going to offer a lot of its television shows available online for free. They're going to start on April 30 testing out shows like "Lost" and "Alias," eventually moving on to other names like "Desperate Housewives." And they're going to expand to programs on other networks, like Disney Channel and ABC Family, eventually, as well.

Now the shows can be paused, rewound or fast forwarded. You know there's a catch here somewhere, right? Commercials cannot be skipped. And the idea of the commercials here, a little bit different, it's almost going to be like sponsored shows.

There are going to be three commercials per hour and they'll all be represented by say Ford or Procter & Gamble. These are some of the names that have already signed on with Disney. And you really have to watch those. So of course they have to make money on this somewhere and that's where the cash comes in.

M. O'BRIEN: But only three per hour, so it's not like incessant commercial breaks?

LEE: Exactly. Exactly. So kind of an interesting idea here as far as the commercial differences. And also they're going to have some interactive commercials as well if you want to get involved and maybe play around with the commercials as well.

S. O'BRIEN: It's been so interesting to see...

LEE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... like people trying to rejigger the whole advertising model.

LEE: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: And this is the time when it's well, you know we're in the middle of the transition right now.

LEE: So much is changing so quickly and some executives say this could really spur sales of media-rich computers and also devices that really seamlessly get some of these programs from your television to the Web. And the fact that it's free, well this could really blow the lid right off of this whole concept.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

LEE: So, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Carrie Lee.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carrie.

LEE: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: Have a good Monday.

Still to come in the program, an orbiter with a view. New pictures this morning from the surface of Mars.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, I'm Carol Costello in the CNN newsroom, as you can see. After reading through about a dozen newspapers this morning, I came up with the best headline of the day. What do you think your boss makes per year? How about $280 million. No kidding. I'll expound on that topic right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: A look at the stories on CNN.com this morning.

If you're just waking up or if you're at the gym already at the treadmill, we've got a little walk through the papers for you this morning, bring you up to speed on what's happening. Carol has got that.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning, Soledad. And good morning to all of you.

I have been looking through the papers this morning and the most interesting article did appear. This one is from the "International Herald Tribune." You know the big Easter Egg Roll at the White House is coming up next Monday where all the kids go to the White House lawn. Laura Bush hosts the party. I believe we have some video of that. Cute little children.

Well it's going to be kind of controversial this year, because according to "The Herald Tribune," some 200 gay families are planning to attend the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll to showcase themselves to the nation and to President George W. Bush. I don't know if they're going to give it a shout out to the president. I don't know if they're going to get close enough.

But already some people are saying, hey, you're really politicizing this Easter Egg Roll and you should not be doing this. But the White House says you know all families are welcome to attend provided they comply with the rules. So you have two parents and one kid, you can go to the Easter Egg Roll. So we'll keep you posted on that.

In "he Washington Post" this morning, it's kind of an interesting article on the Christian Coalition, once headed by Pat Robertson. Remember how powerful it was in the '80s and the '90s? Well it's not so powerful anymore. I'll just read you an excerpt from the article.

The once mighty Christian Coaliion founded 17 years ago by Pat Robertson is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors, lawsuits and it's struggling to hold on to some of its state's chapter. The budget has shrunk from $26 million to only $1 million. It has lost most of its political clout.

And the most shocking article comes from "USA Today." They did this big survey on what some of the top men in business are making. And I say men, because they're pretty much all men, as you can see. But I just want to run down what they're making each year so that you can be as depressed as I was.

At number five, Arthur Levinson from Genentech made $109 million. That's with stock options and salaries and perks and all included R.S. Fuld Jr. from Lehman Brothers, $120 million in just one year. Henry Silverman from Cendant, $133 million. Bruce Karatz, KB Home, $164 million. And the top wage earner last or for the year, Richard Fairbank from Capitol One Financial, $280 million. Unbelievable!

The median pay of the top 100 CEOs soared 25 percent to 17.9 million. The typical American worker or our wages only rose an average of 3.1 percent. So there you have it.

A look at the morning headlines this morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Richard Fairbank, holy cow!

COSTELLO: It's crazy.

S. O'BRIEN: What's in your wallet? Apparently a lot of money is what's in his wallet.

All right, Carol, thanks.

Hey, have you seen the animated film? You haven't.

M. O'BRIEN: I haven't seen it. No, I haven't seen it yet.

S. O'BRIEN: Your kids are old for that. I'm going to see it I think this weekend.

M. O'BRIEN: No, they'll go see that.

S. O'BRIEN: Really?

"Ice Age II: The Meltdown" it's tops again at the box office. Big winner. Came in...

M. O'BRIEN: We loved the first one. So the sequel has got to be good.

S. O'BRIEN: I never saw the first one. So the squall is supposed to be great. I know people who have seen it. Came in first, second straight week in a row for the newcomers. The movie adds $34.5 million just this weekend alone, so now it's come in at over $100- some-odd million.

M. O'BRIEN: Ching.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's pretty good.

M. O'BRIEN: "The Benchwarmers" came in second with $20.5 million and "Take the Lead" came in third with $12.8 million. "Inside Man," "Lucky Number Slevin."

S. O'BRIEN: Slevin, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: "Lucky Number Slevin."

S. O'BRIEN: It's about a guy named Slevin who's not so lucky.

M. O'BRIEN: I've got to work on getting in the loop on that one. It came out in the top five movies only Slevin.1 million for them.

S. O'BRIEN: Josh Hartnett stars in it. I'd like to see that, actually.

Still to come this morning, the future bling of England. Take a look at Prince William. Can we show that tape? Do we have it? There we go. Well you can't really tell, but ahead we're going to show you his new duds. Bling is the right word there. We're live in London on this story.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Bob Franken in Washington where hundreds of thousands are expected to protest tougher immigration laws. That story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Get the latest news every morning in your e-mail, sign up for AMERICAN MORNING Quick News at cnn.com/am.

Ahead this morning, is disaster looming in California? Rivers and levees are pushed to the limit, one of the rainiest months ever and there is much more to come. We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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