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American Morning
Agency or Overhaul?; Gas Gauge; Hunt for Insurgents; Video Game Violence
Aired April 27, 2006 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Carol Costello. The Senate recommendation is out, scrap FEMA and do it now. More on this story in just about 45 seconds.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're paying more for gas and oil companies are raking in record profits. Just how much money are they making? We've got some staggering numbers just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The mission is a quick snatch and grab of a suspected bomb maker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That's our Arwa Damon, embedded with the U.S. Army, hot on the trail of insurgents in Iraq. We're going to take you along on a very dangerous mission that's become all too common.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington. Are video game ratings accurate? Congress doesn't think so. I'll tell you what they plan to do about it in 15 minutes.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And beautiful weather through much of the nation today. However, there is the potential for some flooding into the weekend. More on that coming up.
S. O'BRIEN: Plus, there he is on the left there, our favorite high school basketball player. Remember J-Mac? Well, he got to meet Magic. And now the two of them are teaming up to tell his inspirational story. We've got that story ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
I love that kid. Really, we could cover J-Mac every single day.
M. O'BRIEN: Love that kid. He's the best.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: If we could do it every day, we would.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll talk about that story just ahead this morning.
Also tell you about a bank robber nabbed. And we'll tell you why cops made him strip to his skivvies.
First, though, a major announcement comes out of Capitol Hill this morning, it's a plan for the future of FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's mistakes. The call is for the agency to be scrapped. Some say it's kind of strange timing, considering that hurricane season is just five weeks away.
Let's get right to Carol Costello. She's live in the newsroom this morning.
Hey, Carol, good morning.
COSTELLO: And, Soledad, that's what the White House is saying, scrap FEMA. Hurricane season starts on June 1. But according to the Senate panel, FEMA is so dysfunctional it would not be able to adequately deal with another major disaster anyway.
Now this Senate panel has been hearing testimony for eight months. It's bipartisan. And, boy, does it have harsh words for everyone, everyone, it seems, including the president of the United States.
The lead chair on the committee, the Democratic chair for Hurricane Katrina said "the president failed to provide critical leadership when it was most needed and that contributed a grossly ineffective federal response." That comes from Joe Lieberman.
As for the White House, reporters peppered the president's spokesman about that proposal to scrap FEMA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Most Republicans are debating whether to keep FEMA under Homeland Security or to return it to an independent status. What's the administration's current thinking?
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Our view hasn't changed and we support it being where it is. And there's a number of steps I think that you will want to go back to the Department of Homeland Security has taken to strengthen FEMA and improve its response efforts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But according to the Senate committee, not enough.
Let's get specific. If you scrap FEMA, what do you do? Well FEMA would be replaced by a new National Preparedness and Response Authority, it would not be FEMA anymore, and it would be headed up by different people.
The agency chief would still work inside the Department of Homeland Security, but the director would have the ability to go directly to the president and send people out, instead of going to the Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff to do that. And that supposedly would make things flow faster and get things done quicker.
We're going to know more about this plan at about 10:00 Eastern Time this morning. So a lot of questions still to be answered. Hopefully those questions will be answered at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. But you know how could they get things moving that quickly, hurricane season, as I said, June 1?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. It is strange timing, Carol. I've got to agree with you on that one. Thanks.
The announcement, as Carol mentioned, is going to come in just a couple of hours and CNN plans live coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Well some members of the Senate are highlighting the failures, as you just heard, during Hurricane Katrina. President Bush today is going to be talking about the progress that's been made since the disaster.
The president is heading back to the Gulf Coast later this morning as part of National Volunteer Week. He's planning stops in Louisiana and Mississippi, too. The president has requested more than $19 billion in new funding for hurricane reconstruction. The bill, though, is right now bogged down in a congressional fight -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: With soaring gas prices front and center on the minds of you this morning, we are going to keep some tabs on what it's costing you to fill up. Gas gauge time, AAA's daily fuel gauge report. An average gallon of regular now $2.92. A year ago, you paid $2.22 for the same thing. To drive in Hawaii, once again, you're losing out, $3.27 a gallon there. California not far behind, $3.17 a gallon the average in California.
Rising gas prices fueling a lot of political rhetoric on Capitol Hill this morning. It is an election year, after all.
Here is congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Just as some of our nation's largest oil companies release their first quarter profits, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley of the Finance Committee have written a letter to the IRS asking it to release these companies' tax and financial records.
Also today, the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, is going to appear before the joint economic committee. Listen for both senators and congressmen to ask Bernanke how he sees the soaring prices at the pump impacting both the short-term and the long-term for the U.S. economy.
Today, House Republicans, led by Speaker Dennis Hastert, will be taking their message on the road, so to speak. They'll be visiting a local gas station to talk about their vision for how they can turn around the soaring gas prices.
On Wednesday, Democrats did just that, also going to a gas station. We can watch them today to have a press conference talking about how they see the rising gas prices affecting Republicans at the polls this November.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: So, how would you like a gas rebate? Of course you would, right? Republican senators are pushing for a hundred-dollar rebate check for every American. A vote could come as early as today.
But of course it's not quite as simple as it sounds. What is in Washington? It's a small part of a big Republican energy bill that includes, among other things, opening part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration. And that, as you know, is a very highly controversial issue -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, is back on the stand in the CIA leak investigation. At issue is just who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Rove testified on Wednesday before a federal grand jury. It's his fifth time on the stand. No word yet on any specifics of his testimony. His lawyer, though, says that Karl Rove is not a target of the investigation.
Other stories in America this morning.
A deadly crash on Interstate 69 in Indiana, five people killed when a semi trailer crashed right through a median, slammed into a van. Take a look at these pictures. It happened last night. Most or all of the victims are believed to be students from Taylor University. And a prayer service is planned for today.
Take a look at the scene in Denver, Colorado, 17 middle school students sent to the hospital after their school bus, you see it right there, crashed into a house. Now, according to one student on the bus, the driver was reaching for her sweater when she hit a parked car and then ran into the house. Nobody, fortunately, was seriously hurt.
Some shocking home video from an out-of-control brawl could eventually help police find everybody who was involved. So far, more than a dozen high schoolers are charged in the incident in Greenville, South Carolina. Police say the fight started as -- in a park during senior skip day. The videotape shows at least one knife being drawn. There are reports, too, that shots were fired. Amazingly, again, nobody was injured in this.
And southeast of L.A., police wait to enter a bank. It's in Baldwin Park. A suspected bank robber was locked in by a quick- thinking employee. What the cops did? Well, they made the suspect disrobe. There he is. Yes, he's in his underpants, because they stripped him down to his underwear. They wanted to make sure he didn't have any hidden weapons when they brought him out. The standoff lasted just about four hours. M. O'BRIEN: Kind of an ignominious conclusion to that one, you might say.
S. O'BRIEN: File under maybe not the sharpest tack in the tack box when the employee can do that.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: But, hey, good for them. It ended without any violence.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, boxer day afternoon on that one.
Time for a check of the forecast, Reynolds Wolf joining us this morning. Chad Myers is in Myrtle Beach.
How's Myrtle Beach looking for Chad, first of all?
WOLF: You know, I've got to tell you, Miles, well they had some rough weather there last night. It looks like they're getting a few scattered showers out there. Poor Chad, trying to get some vacation time and he's dodging the raindrops.
(WEATHER REPORT)
Back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Reynolds, thanks a lot.
WOLF: You bet.
S. O'BRIEN: Turning to Iraq this morning, at least four coalition troops are dead after a roadside bomb hit their convoy in Nasiriya. Roadside bombs are the biggest danger to the coalition forces.
And CNN's Arwa Damon is embedded with U.S. soldiers. This morning, a look at the hunt for a suspected bomb maker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're going down to a suspected bomb maker down south and we're going to check it out real quick.
DAMON (voice-over): A tip and they are off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.
DAMON: Roadside bombs are the number one killer of U.S. forces.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our little -- our battery itself, we've been hit 12 times.
DAMON (on camera): The platoon is moving along the bumpy back roads leading to the target house. The mission is a quick snatch and grab of a suspected bomb maker that they just received intelligence on, but they also suspect that it might be a trap.
(voice-over): As they are approaching the house...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just had a vehicle run from us, a black car that we were looking for earlier.
DAMON: The chase moves up a notch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they caught him.
FIRST SGT. ART CONNER, U.S. ARMY: We were coming up to the house, there was like five good cars, they all went different directions. They just finally caught this one. He's not telling us the truth on everything, so he's going back to the house to find out.
DAMON: He is allowed to leave and the men move on to the farmhouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you have no idea where he went to?
DAMON: But no one will talk. And then a twist, the main suspect calls and says he's been kidnapped.
CONNER: They say he's kidnapped and they want us to pay them 50,000 because he's bad.
DAMON: But something is just not right about this scenario.
CONNER: Somebody is watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There's a house around here somewhere.
DAMON: More bomb-making books are found inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talking about the physics of it, the explosive energy of the plates.
DAMON: They move on to the next house. Everyone here is related to the suspect, but no one seems to know where he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, you tell me the truth.
DAMON: This raid was based on a tip from suspected insurgents these soldiers had detained here the day before. They were found to have a variety of bomb-making material. One of the detainees had talked, saying the main cell leader would be at this location at 2:00 p.m.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Short, fat fellow behind us is the one that just got married.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's the fat guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he's the one that just got married. He does not look happy.
DAMON: But all the troops find are family photos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have to come back again in a couple of days and wait for the guy to show back up. He will show up. These guys are not going to tell you all -- the whole truth.
DAMON: One tip, one mission. For these men, it's just another day on the ground.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Dujail, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: You could see what a tough job that is. I mean, look at that and then multiply it by all the other...
M. O'BRIEN: It's just one raid from that guy.
S. O'BRIEN: One person, one raid and it didn't even really end that conclusively.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, would a tougher warning on video games make a difference? Could it make teenagers less violent? One lawmaker thinks so. We'll tell you why.
M. O'BRIEN: And it's only taken four-and-a-half years, but finally new plans at the World Trade Center site in New York City are moving forward. We'll tell you what it's going to look like.
S. O'BRIEN: And then remember this guy, our friend J-Mac? Beautiful shot. Was it 20 points in 4 minutes is what he made?
M. O'BRIEN: Sweet, nothing but net.
S. O'BRIEN: Teenager. He's autistic. He came off the bench, showed everybody that he had, like, a wicked hot hand.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, he did.
S. O'BRIEN: Well the magic continues. And I say Magic, because that's the -- a new guy in his life, Magic Johnson. We'll tell you.
M. O'BRIEN: He's meeting all kinds of fun people, isn't he?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he certainly -- he has a new project going. We're going to tell you about that just ahead this morning.
Also, a look at what else is making news on this Thursday morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Top stories this morning. A Senate panel says it's time for FEMA to be closed down. The lawmakers want a new agency to handle disasters. The recommendation is coming with the new hurricane season just five weeks away.
Another Gulf Coast visit for President Bush today. He heads to Louisiana and Mississippi to highlight National Volunteer Week.
And ExxonMobil releases its first quarter earnings this morning. Analysts expect it will be around $9 billion, just short of the record they set in 2005. Industry experts say that as a percentage of sales, profits are in line with other sectors.
Oil down a smidge overnight, but the price is still, well, you know what the price is.
CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Where?
S. O'BRIEN: A smidge is not going to work.
M. O'BRIEN: You know.
S. O'BRIEN: A smidge is not going to do it at this point.
M. O'BRIEN: A dollop won't do it either, will it?
S. O'BRIEN: Carrie Lee with us this morning.
LEE: Oil lower than it was. A record a few weeks ago, we saw that $75-a-barrel record.
S. O'BRIEN: Ever the optimist.
LEE: Trying. Trying.
But oil now below $72 a barrel, falling again this morning. And you know government data is showing that demand isn't as strong as it used to be, at least for gasoline. Gas inventories, meanwhile, fell for the eighth straight week and demand rose only three-tenths of 1 percent during the month. This compares to a 1.5 percent increase last year, again, we're talking about gasoline, when prices were 68 cents a gallon cheaper. So that is the latest on energy.
Americans do seem to be adapting a little bit to these higher prices. We're hearing anecdotally people carpooling more, riding their bikes, things like this. Some cities even getting involved. Atlanta has a program, Clean Air campaign it's called. They actually pay people who don't drive their cars individually. So that's an extra incentive for some people.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and I think it's more than anecdotal. I think that there is actually evidence. I mean Bob was talking about that yesterday where people are -- you know there are just higher numbers, apparently.
LEE: Yes, people trying to...
S. O'BRIEN: The breaking point, we've reached it.
LEE: ... do what they can, environmentally and to save money. So that's what's happening on energy.
Lower oil prices yesterday and some upbeat profit reports. We got an upgrade on General Motors, helped stocks yesterday. The Dow finished higher by 71 points. You can see a breakdown there.
Today, investors will be watching profits, once again. As you both were talking about, ExxonMobil reporting this morning, Microsoft out after the bell.
And then of course we have the latest in the Enron trial. Ken Lay still on the stand, not the affable man we saw a few days ago...
M. O'BRIEN: Really?
LEE: ... now that the prosecution is weighing in. Yes, a little more hard hitting.
Prosecution accusing him of witness tampering. Remember there was a risk analyst in Enron, a former Enron employee who took the stand. His name is Vince Kaminski. He was on the stand nine days ago. Well the prosecution says why -- asking why did he try to contact him before Kaminski took the stand? What was he trying to maybe possibly collaborate? Lay denies that, but that's what the accusations...
S. O'BRIEN: Denies that he was trying to reach him or denies that he...
LEE: Denies that he was trying to collaborate a story. He said, yes, he did try to reach him.
S. O'BRIEN: Just wanted to wish him good luck in his testimony...
LEE: Exactly. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... about me.
LEE: So Enron continues this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Could be that, maybe not, but could be.
LEE: A lot of eyes watching that.
S. O'BRIEN: All right.
LEE: OK.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, -- Carrie Lee.
LEE: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Carrie. If you're a parent grappling with what video games to allow in your home, we want you to listen up. As you already know, they're getting more and more violent and your kids are getting more and more insistent that they get that latest version of "Grand Theft Auto" or "Halo" or whatever it is. And what is a parent to do? Stay back, Carrie Lee, stay back. One thing we rely on those ratings, but do they tell us enough about what is inside?
Brianna Keilar live now in Washington.
Hello, -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Good morning, Miles.
Some politicians say that parents don't actually know what their kids are experiencing when they play these video games and they place the blame for that on the billion-dollar video game industry. We must warn you, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): In 1997, Evan Ramsey went on a shooting spree at his Alaska high school.
EVAN RAMSEY, SCHOOL SHOOTER: I based a lot of my knowledge solely on video games. You shoot a guy in "Doom" and he gets back up.
KEILAR: But the school's principal and one student shot by Ramsey never got back up.
It's scenes like this that has one congressman taking aim at the video game industry.
REP. JOE BACA (D), CALIFORNIA: And it's about profit making and it's not about the future of our children.
KEILAR: California Representative Joe Baca says the video game industry improperly markets violent and sexually explicit material to children. He points to a recent study by Harvard Professor Kimberly Thomson that found disclaimers on games with the mature rating are incomplete.
KIMBERLY THOMSON, HARVARD PROFESSOR: But we found 81 percent of the games that we played in our random sample contains content that was not indicated by the content descriptors.
KEILAR: Thomson says some violence and blood was left off ratings and substance abuse was almost always ignored on the packaging.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board, the industry group in charge of game ratings, says it encourages parents to monitor the games children play, but issued a statement critical of the study's finding. Saying, "Their philosophy would litter game packaging with descriptors for every type of content possible encountered in a game, no matter how fleeting or insignificant the impact on the playing experience may be."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Representative Baca is calling for the gaming industry to police itself or the government may have to step in.
Miles, back to you.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Brianna Keilar in Washington -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, why the government is trying to keep certain evidence from 9/11 families.
And this...
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington. Karl Rove goes before the grand jury, again. We'll have a report on that in about 10 minutes.
AMERICAN MORNING continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, remember these shots? We could play them over and over again. Magical moment, once again, for our friend J-Mac, Jason McElwain. You'll remember that performance which drew national attention.
Do we have any audio for this? Let's -- come on, let's enjoy it. We have no audio. That's too bad.
All right, well he threw six three-pointers, as you saw there. Imagine the crowd screaming now. And then -- and got a two-pointer. So he hit 20 points in just a matter of minutes. He had been on the bench and...
S. O'BRIEN: Would you like me to provide the audio behind you?
M. O'BRIEN: Would you mind doing that? Excellent. That's...
S. O'BRIEN: The crowd goes wild.
M. O'BRIEN: You know it's amazing how silent it's just as not as much fun, anyway.
S. O'BRIEN: Go J-Mac. Go J-Mac.
M. O'BRIEN: That's good. That's good. Keep it up.
So now enter in basketball legend Magic Johnson. And we might hear from him, we may not, given the way things are going here. They're going to bring his story to the screen and Magic is going to co-produce it. And he explained what has lured him to the J-Mac story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAGIC JOHNSON, FMR. NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER: I think it would give a lot of young people hope, and not young people just living with autism, but all young people. Every shot they were hugging and jumping and high fiving and low fiving. And sometime God blesses us with a special person who can handle big jobs, and we have that special person right here.
JASON MCELWAIN, AUTISTIC HOOPS STAR: If I could release a name, you want me to -- no, I don't -- I don't care who plays me as long as he's good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: I think he almost spilled the beans there. He was -- they were -- they asked him who should play you?
S. O'BRIEN: Right, right, right.
M. O'BRIEN: Right. And I think he knows, obviously, and he was probably under...
S. O'BRIEN: He was on the verge of saying.
M. O'BRIEN: I think they are finalizing a contract, perhaps, and he just...
S. O'BRIEN: Ix-nay on naming the actor.
M. O'BRIEN: Ix-nay on the ame-nay (ph) of the actor.
S. O'BRIEN: God, I love J-Mac.
M. O'BRIEN: He's great.
S. O'BRIEN: Love that kid.
M. O'BRIEN: He's great.
S. O'BRIEN: That was good.
M. O'BRIEN: Hot hand, warm heart.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: We love him.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
S. O'BRIEN: The morning's top stories are straight ahead, including this one, FEMA no more?
Carol Costello is covering the story for us this morning from the newsroom. Hey, -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I certainly am, Soledad.
A Senate committee has spoken, ax FEMA, get rid of it. More on this story in about four minutes.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alessio Vinci in Rome. Italian troops under attack in Iraq. Will this change the timetable for their withdrawal?
AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Checking our top stories this morning.
Hurricane Katrina could claim another victim, FEMA. A Senate panel today will recommend that the agency be replaced with a stronger emergency response organization.
Oil giant ExxonMobil reveals its quarterly earnings today. Analysts predict profits of about $9 billion. Yes, billion, that's with a B, billion. Drivers, of course, we all know this one, getting pinched at the pump.
And this morning, construction crews head to ground zero in New York City to begin work there on the new Freedom Tower. The move comes after a deal finally reached for rebuilding on the former World Trade Center site.
Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
A big headline this morning, with hurricane season bearing down on us, lawmakers say they have the solution to what ails FEMA, get rid of it. Really?
Carol Costello has more on this from the newsroom.
It seems like an odd time to be bringing this up, doesn't it, -- Carol?
COSTELLO: It does. But is this really a surprise? The Senate committee says scrap FEMA, get rid of it. The once proud agency is so dysfunctional it could get the ax.
A Senate bipartisan committee has heard testimony for seven months now. And even though, as you say, Miles, hurricane season is weeks away, they say creating another agency is the only answer. The Senate committee blames mistakes made during
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