Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Mayor's Race in New Orleans; Need a Better Job?

Aired April 21, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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


CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, everyone.
I'm meteorologist Chad Myers.

Severe weather now moving through Houston. Significant wind and hail around the area. Now, really, the worst of it moving into League City.

We'll have details on the rest of the country coming up.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alina Cho in Durham, North Carolina, where we have new information in the Duke rape investigation. We now know what police were looking for and what they found in the dorm room of one of the suspects.

TARA BROWN, KODE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Tara Brown in Riverton, Kansas, where students were caught planning a Columbine style attack. Details coming up.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The mayor's race in New Orleans. With just one day to go until most people vote, the outcome is anyone's guess. We're live in New Orleans.

JOHN ROBERTS, SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Need a better job? We'll tell you which careers are the best bets for a better life.

NGUYEN: Happy birthday to you. Queen Elizabeth does her annual birthday walkabout. She doesn't seem to be slowing down, either, on her 80th birthday. Doesn't she look great? More on this ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ROBERTS: And what a lovely hat she was wearing, as well.

NGUYEN: I know.

ROBERTS: Yes.

Good morning.

Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm John Roberts in Washington in for Miles O'Brien today, who's a little bit under the weather.

NGUYEN: A little under the weather. A Friday under the weather.

Soledad is out, too. Hmmm, seeing a pattern here, don't you, John?

ROBERTS: Yes. I'll tell you, speaking of weather, we had the slightest sliver of sunshine here in Washington this morning...

NGUYEN: You can see a little bit behind you.

ROBERTS: ... as dawn broke, but the weather is going downhill quickly.

NGUYEN: Oh, no. Just in time for the weekend.

Well, good morning, everybody.

Happy Friday.

I'm Betty Nguyen in New York, filling in for Soledad this week.

We begin this hour with some dangerous weather. Speaking of weather, in parts of Texas and the South, severe weather expert Chad Myers is at the Center down in Atlanta to talk about this -- we see the map, we see the colors and we also heard you talk about grapefruit sized hail.

MYERS: Yes, that was in San Marcos, which was between Austin and San Antonio. Four inch hail yesterday at the Tanger Outlet. There's a bit outlet mall there. Four inch hail just smashed windows out of all of those cars that were in the parking lot, actually even went through a few of the aluminum roofs that keep that Tanger Outlet Mall all waterproofed. It wasn't waterproof yesterday.

Here's the weather now. From Houston, a big line of severe weather right on just about to get to Galveston. So in Galveston you still have a few minutes to prepare for this. But, boy, this rain just went right through -- the storms went right through Houston, right now into Baytown.

There's League City getting really hammered with lightning. Seven thousand lightning strikes in one hour with this line as it moved through Houston.

Things are going to get better for you in Houston, especially from the west side of the city eastward. But here you go, this is still going to charge across the lake and even in toward Port Arthur and Beaumont later on this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Well, we are watching some other developments, as well, today in the rape investigation at Duke University. Police have searched the dorm room of one of the two suspects.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho is live in Durham, North Carolina.

She joins us now with the latest -- good morning, Alina.

CHO: Betty, good morning to you. The grand jury will be back here in a little more than a week and could hear more evidence in the case. And there is new information this morning about exactly what police were looking for when they searched the dorm room of one of the suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHO (voice-over): Just hours after suspects Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann arrived at a Durham jail in handcuffs, police were searching Finnerty's dorm room on the Duke campus. A copy of the search warrant reveals officers were looking for photos or videos of the lacrosse party, clothing worn on the night of the alleged attack, even a white high-heeled shoe the accuser says she lost when she left the house.

What they seized, a news article and an envelope addressed to Finnerty from his girlfriend in Boston. It's not known how these items might be connected to the case.

Defense attorneys say Finnerty and Seligmann are innocent and were not at the off campus home at the time of the alleged rape.

A potential key witness, cab driver Moez Mostafa, who now says he made not one, but two trips to the home in the early morning hours of March 14th. His first trip, he says, was to pick up Reade Seligmann. Less than an hour later, around five minutes after 1:00 a.m. Mostafa says he was back to transport four other players. When he arrived...

MOEZ MOSTAFA, CAB DRIVER: I saw a bunch of people outside the house on the right side, on the left side.

CHO: Mostafa says he noticed what he called "some kind of trouble" and overheard one of the players talking about either the accuser or her friend.

MOSTAFA: But he, one guy, he said she's just a stripper.

CHO: News of the alleged rape has not stopped thousands of Duke alumni from returning to their alma mater. It's reunion weekend.

Bucky Fox went to Duke Law School. He's here for his 40th reunion and says he's not worried about how all of this will affect the university's reputation.

BUCKY FOX, DUKE ALUMNUS: I still get calls from parents and friends who want their kids to go to Duke and they want to know if I can help them in that process. So, that tells me that there are still an awful lot of kids who'd love to come to Duke.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

NGUYEN: Alina, let's not forget that there was another exotic dancer at that same party.

What is her side of the story? CHO: Well, Betty, a source close to the case tells us that that second exotic dancer initially believed that the accuser was not telling the truth, but that now she believes the suspects are guilty.

Defense attorneys say she is flip-flopping her story in order to get favorable treatment in another unrelated criminal case -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Interesting.

Calc in Durham, North Carolina, following all of this from the beginning.

Thank you, Alina -- John.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Betty.

Five Kansas teens arrested in an alleged plot to attack their high school. Police say they cracked the case when one of the suspects mentioned the attack on a popular chat site, MySpace.com. All five are expected in court as early as today.

For more on this story, we're joined by Tara Brown of affiliate KODE in Riverton, Kansas -- Tara, are things at the school getting back to normal this morning?

BROWN: You know, the sleepy town of Riverton, it seems like all is going just as normal. Teachers are arriving. Students are entering the school behind me.

But will all the students show up today?

That is -- remains to be seen, really.

I spoke to a few parents last night who really were quite concerned not only with their kids arriving today, but staying in this school, considering actually changing schools. A lot of fear really has been placed in parents and they're concerned about their children.

I do have an update for you, though. We do have word that this all really started on Monday. We -- we received reports that rumors were actually going around the school. Before anyone even found out about it, the kids seemed to know what was going on. Tuesday, then, parents got wind of it and it wasn't until Wednesday, actually, that authorities took action.

It actually started Tuesday. A threat had been posted on the popular Web site MySpace. Officials say the students made a hit list, including numerous names of classmates and staff. The Web site also made reference to Adolph Hitler and how this shooting would honor him on his birthday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that some of them were very racial and they just had a lot of hate for certain people. DANIEL KOUCKY, STUDENT: I guess that if there were two people that were going to bring to school -- a gun to school, they might make my list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And now just to bring you up to date, five arrests have been made. Of course, five teenage boys, two aged 16, two 17 and one adult age 18.

Now, a hearing is scheduled to take place some time today. And, of course, we will bring you the news as soon as we get it -- John.

ROBERTS: Terry, any idea what charges officials might be seeking against them?

BROWN: We do not have that information as of yet, no.

ROBERTS: All right, thanks.

Tara Brown from affiliate KODE reporting from Riverton, Kansas.

We'll have more on this case in just a few minutes' time and hopefully get some kind of an idea of what charges they'll face we will talk live with the Kansas attorney general -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Happening in America right now, a string of attacks in Las Vegas. Check out this new surveillance tape. Two people injured in Saturday's attack. Look there in the little white circle. Police say this mob at a Las Vegas Wal-Mart may be linked to other attacks.

Well, one of them is this disturbing beating of a security officer at the MGM Grand Casino. We first saw this police tape earlier this week. Remember that? One person was arrested but is now out on bond.

A police officer is attacked and it is caught on his dashboard camera. Look at this. It happened in McKinney, Texas. The man attacking the officer is an escaped convict from Colorado. Ouch! The officer called for help on his radio while being beaten on the head. A person down the street ran to help the officer and the two eventually got the suspect under control.

Well, a terrible spill in Kentucky at a horse race there. Race favorite -- look at that -- Up an Octave, rolled over, crushing the jockey beneath him. Amazingly, John Velazquez is expected to be OK to ride in next month's Kentucky Derby. But Up an Octave, the horse, it broke its leg and was euthanized on the track -- John.

ROBERTS: Oh, what a terrible crash.

NGUYEN: I know.

ROBERTS: And the poor horse.

Still to come, we're going to have more on that alleged plot to shoot up a Kansas high school. Just ahead for you, we're going to ask the Kansas attorney general what kind of charges the teen suspects could be facing.

NGUYEN: We will also go live to New Orleans for a preview of tomorrow's mayoral election. Will Mayor Ray Nagin get to stay in office?

ROBERTS: Plus, thinking about a new career? We've got "Money" magazine's list of the best jobs in America.

That's all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 13 minutes after the hour.

Another Columbine?

Some people in Riverton, Kansas this morning are asking could it have happened there?

Authorities say they prevented a plot by five teenagers to go on a shooting rampage at their school. They could be in court facing charges as early as today. Allegedly, the attack was planned for yesterday, which happens to be the seventh anniversary of the Columbine massacre.

The office of Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is going to prosecute the case.

And the attorney general joins us now live from Topeka.

Good morning to you, General Kline.

Thanks for being with us.

Appreciate it.

PHILL KLINE, KANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, John.

ROBERTS: Sheriff Steve Norman of Cherokee County says: "They were really going to do this."

Do you agree?

KLINE: Well, all I can say is that from the evidence that we've obtained in the investigation, that school officials and local law enforcement officials were justified in their actions. And one of the first aims of law enforcement is public safety and they have successfully accomplished that objective.

ROBERTS: You know, it's...

KLINE: The school is safe.

ROBERTS: It's stunning to many of us that it was just a -- just a couple of weeks ago we heard about this alleged plot at a New Jersey high school and now we hear about this plot here at Riverton. I don't want to say there's an epidemic of things going on, but is there something about the timing?

KLINE: Well, it is never premature to discuss nationally what might lead students to this type of activity. However, it is a little bit premature as it relates to the situation in Kansas. No charges have been filed yet. If I file charges, they will be filed this afternoon. And, of course, the kids are presumed innocent.

However, law enforcement and school officials, as it relates to the information they received, had to act in the manner that they did.

ROBERTS: Right.

KLINE: And I appreciate their leadership and dedication.

Yes, this is the anniversary of Columbine, or yesterday was, and unfortunately in the mass media society and all of the coverage that these things receive, some children, who are looking for a way to be relevant, unfortunately turn in the wrong direction.

ROBERTS: Right.

There's five teenagers who are in custody between the ages of 15 and 18.

General Kline, can you give us some kind of an idea of what charges you might be seeking today?

KLINE: Well, in Kansas, I know that there has been some speculation in the media about a conspiracy charge. In Kansas, we have to demonstrate an overt act toward the forwarding of that conspiracy under our law and that investigation is ongoing. And it requires a specific act. So it's a little bit premature. I'm getting reports right now as it relates to the investigatory activities through the night and we'll make that decision later today.

ROBERTS: Have you got anything in terms of a motive? Some people have been saying that, oh, there was some evidence of bullying against these teenagers, episodes of name calling?

KLINE: Well, it's -- it would all be speculative at this time. Certainly if we end up filing the charges that have been bandied around in the media, no motive justifies that type of activity.

ROBERTS: This first came to the attention of the authorities when a woman was on the Web site MySpace.com and saw a note posted about it. There seems to be -- and this is encouraging, at least -- a post-Columbine mentality where people take these things seriously.

KLINE: Well, you have to. When law enforcement receives -- and school officials receive a threat that it particular in nature, that indicates some evidence of planning, they have to act. And law enforcement and school officials did exactly the right thing here. They ensured that the other students at that school were safe and they are now safe and school is resuming.

So, in this environment, unfortunately, we have to take everything very, very seriously because we have learned from the past.

ROBERTS: And one more question, General Kline.

The fact that your office is heading up this case as opposed to county prosecutors, is that an indication of the seriousness of this particular incident, or alleged incident?

KLINE: Not necessarily. We routinely step in when requested by county attorneys. We're in partnership with them to prosecute such cases and sometimes just the complexity, the nature of the evidence, the number of witnesses and so forth. Those county offices are pretty small. They don't have a lot of the horsepower that we have in being able to initiate and complete an investigation and prosecution.

So we're working in partnership. I would not assign any particular relevancy to the fact that they asked us in...

ROBERTS: OK...

KLINE: ... to the nature of the charges.

ROBERTS: All right, well, we'll check back with you later on today and find out what you determine in terms of charges.

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, thanks very much.

KLINE: Thank you.

ROBERTS: And coming up in our next hour, we're going to ask a senior at Riverton High School all about this.

Coming up, political turmoil and constant violence in Iraq. How long will it be before U.S. troops can come home? We'll ask one U.S. congressman who is just back from Iraq.

And up next, America's best jobs. "Money" magazine's list of the best careers if you're looking for money and happiness.

All of that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It's a pretty day here in New York City.

OK, here's a question for you. So what makes a great job? The pay? The growth potential? The stress level?

"Money" magazine and Salary.com have ranked the 50 best jobs in America.

And Eric Schurenberg, managing editor of "Money" magazine, is here to tell us about those careers, the top ones that made the cut this time around. Thanks for being with us this morning.

ERIC SCHURENBERG, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: My pleasure.

Thanks, Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, let me ask you this before we get to the list.

What's the criteria that you use for this?

SCHURENBERG: Well, when you think about what makes a job really great, the thing that makes you want to get up in the morning and be happy about going to the job...

NGUYEN: Challenge? You know...

SCHURENBERG: Right.

Flexibility.

NGUYEN: Flexibility.

SCHURENBERG: You want to be able to have a life outside.

NGUYEN: And let's not forget money.

SCHURENBERG: Money is...

NGUYEN: Let's be honest here.

SCHURENBERG: Money is important, but it's not everything.

NGUYEN: It is not everything, because if you -- if you get a, you know, a large salary and you just hate your job, then what's the point, right?

SCHURENBERG: Yes. That's right.

NGUYEN: All right.

So let's go through the list.

SCHURENBERG: OK.

NGUYEN: And we're going to start with number 10, because we're going to keep the number one for a little bit later, keep you watching.

Psychologist is number 10 on the list.

SCHURENBERG: Psychologist.

NGUYEN: And then you have a pharmacist and a real estate appraiser. That's interesting.

SCHURENBERG: Well, remember, there's been a boom for about the last five years in real estate. It's created a lot of job growth.

NGUYEN: I see.

SCHURENBERG: And one thing about real estate appraiser that means that that job is probably going to continue is that you need an appraisal whenever there's a refinancing, whenever there's a tax assessment --

NGUYEN: Very true. Job security right there, right?

SCHURENBERG: You've got it right there.

NGUYEN: OK.

And then you have computer I.T. analyst at number seven, market research analysis, physician assistant.

I figured that would kind of be there somewhere.

But a human resources manager at number four?

SCHURENBERG: That's kind of surprising, isn't it?

NGUYEN: I find that very surprising.

SCHURENBERG: It's really about what's going on in the economy and in the job market.

NGUYEN: People are getting in trouble with human resources? Is that what you're saying?

SCHURENBERG: No. No, no.

NGUYEN: All right.

SCHURENBERG: There's a lot of churn in the markets.

NGUYEN: All right, all right.

SCHURENBERG: And a company's assets are its people and keeping those people happy and challenged, that's a big job now.

NGUYEN: That's -- challenge. I mean that's a big key to this, you want to be challenged. You want to feel like you've got a job with a purpose.

Financial adviser -- that's a job with a purpose.

And college professor. That's number two on the list.

SCHURENBERG: Yes. Now, there's a lot of growth there. You might not -- you might not think that, but there's a lot of growth in professional and technical schools. Again, think churn in the economy. People have to be retrained. They want to learn new jobs. So there's a lot of competition for jobs in business and medical, you know, where the growth areas of the economy are. NGUYEN: Yes.

All right, drum roll please, because we are down to the number one job on the list and it is a software engineer.

SCHURENBERG: Yes.

NGUYEN: This is where you want to be, right?

SCHURENBERG: That's right.

NGUYEN: Why?

SCHURENBERG: Well, it's not surprising. You need software in every part of the economy.

NGUYEN: Let me just tell you, I wear our I.T. guys out. I wear anyone who knows anything about computers out because I really don't know much about it.

SCHURENBERG: So you know how valuable those guys are.

NGUYEN: I know how valuable they are.

But what makes this job so great?

SCHURENBERG: Well, it scores high on all the things that really mattered to us when we did this ranking. Creativity -- you've got to be pretty good at math, but you also have to be creative.

NGUYEN: Yes.

SCHURENBERG: You have to find solutions to really tough problems.

NGUYEN: Because it's ever changing, isn't it?

SCHURENBERG: That's right. There's always something new to learn. And it's, you know, it's very satisfying when you create something that's complicated and really works. There's a lot of job flexibility. You can work wherever you want. Job security because there's such demand.

NGUYEN: Thanks to computers, again, yes.

SCHURENBERG: And there's pretty good money in this.

NGUYEN: Technology.

What about the pay?

How does it rank there?

How is the pay?

SCHURENBERG: Well, it's very good. The average salary is over $80,000.

NGUYEN: That's not bad.

SCHURENBERG: And if you're a relief software engineer, you know, which is really top ranked job, you can easily make a quarter million.

NGUYEN: Anything surprise you about these jobs? Any of the little perks in there that you thought wow, that makes for a great job?

SCHURENBERG: Well, I'll tell you, one of the things that a lot of people found surprising is that the really high paying jobs -- surgeon or lawyer...

NGUYEN: Right.

SCHURENBERG: ... didn't rank that high.

NGUYEN: Why is that?

SCHURENBERG: And that was because they have very stressful jobs. You have to go to school for a long time to get in them...

NGUYEN: Is the money really worth it? Yes.

SCHURENBERG: But the way we looked at it, things like creativity and low stress outweighed the high money.

NGUYEN: I'm not seeing my job on this list anywhere.

What's up with that?

SCHURENBERG: Well, Betty, I think the problem is that there just aren't enough openings.

NGUYEN: Oh, that's it.

SCHURENBERG: So it didn't make the initial cut.

NGUYEN: Yes, yes. It's kind of -- it's kind of tough in this world.

Well, we thank you for your time.

SCHURENBERG: My pleasure.

NGUYEN: And the list is great. It's out. So for especially those college kids looking for, you know, some direction, here you go. The list is here folks.

Thank you for your time.

SCHURENBERG: My pleasure.

NGUYEN: Eric Schurenberg from "Money" magazine.

And if you want to see if your job made the cut, go to cnnmoney.com/bestjobs.

Coming up, a preview of tomorrow's big mayoral election in New Orleans. It is the first one since Hurricane Katrina hit. We will go live to New Orleans and break down the frontrunners.

And later, how special technology found in millions of cars is helping the blind find a new outlook on life.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're always on the move, eight hours a day. Eight hours a day, 24-7. Our primary job is dealing with accidents, keeping the traffic flowing as quickly as possible. Cell phone, eating, not paying attention to the highway. All it takes is one improper lane change for the motorist to cause an accident on an interstate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the public just pay attention to what they doing, the way they drive, you know, I believe that travel would be safe for everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's a great goal, but it seems like a long way off. About 40,000 people die on America's highways every year. That's 109 people every day. But what if our cars could warn us of the dangers even before an accident occurred?

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Meet Jim Meisner, a transportation safety expert at U.C.-Berkeley. His goal? Simple -- to eliminate accidents.

JIM MEISNER: We focus on something called intelligent transportation systems, essentially putting technology into the roadside and into cars to make the road safer.

O'BRIEN: It's like your car's GPS navigation system beefed up and made interactive, with intelligent sensors mounted on the car and on the street, alerting you to unsafe intersections, blocked lanes or hazardous road conditions.

MEISNER: You can have intersections talking to a car, cars talking to the intersections. The cars, therefore, can communicate better to the drivers what's happening.

O'BRIEN: Meisner says the system could roll out as soon as 2010, with an end goal of George Jetson proportions.

MEISNER: In the end, we could have very safe cars that drive automatically. If you have a fully automated system, you have to have a lot of acceptance by drivers and by society for it to happen. (END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Strong storms sweeping across Texas this morning. We're going to check in with our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, to see where the storms may be headed next and how much trouble they're going to be.

NGUYEN: Full voting in the New Orleans mayor's race just a day away. Who will win is still anybody's guess. We're live with the latest on the vote.

And Brad Pitt trading his movie script for a shovel. The Hollywood heartthrob has some ideas on rebuilding New Orleans, of all things. That story straight ahead.

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday.

Happy Friday.

I'm Betty Nguyen in New York sitting in for Soledad today -- hi, John.

ROBERTS: Hey, how are you this morning, Betty?

NGUYEN: I'm doing good.

ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts in for Washington -- in for Washington. Look at that, already...

NGUYEN: It's a Friday, John.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com