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American Morning

Your Calling Records; $70 Billion Cut; Nun Slaying Trial

Aired May 11, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tracking every phone call you make or receive. New details this morning on the federal government's massive database of phone records.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Henry at the White House, where the president is celebrating a tax cut victory that he hopes will help Republicans in November. But Democrats charge it's a giveaway to the rich.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Chad Myers in Atlanta. Severe weather in the Carolinas. And the wind chill factor right now at International Falls is 14 degrees.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A small town in New York is fighting high gas prices with a controversial proposal that some say is only hurting the little guy.

I'm Alina Cho. I'll have that story coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And an expanded role for Edward Norton. It goes beyond just acting in his newest movie. He's going to tell us all about that on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us this morning.

A super-secret spy agency knows who you are calling and who's calling you. "USA Today" reporting the National Security Agency is secretly collecting massive amounts of phone call records. It's being called the largest database anyway -- anywhere, ever.

The program's been up and running since 9/11. Why, you may ask? The spy agency says it is to detect terrorist activity.

Lesley Cauley is the business reporter for "USA Today" who broke the story. I spoke with her a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLEY CAULEY, BUSINESS REPORTER, "USA TODAY": That's the big question. It would be open to debate. No doubt, NSA and the Bush administration would argue it certainly is. ACLU and others and the civil libertarian side of aisle, however, would probably have a different point of view

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. And the question I asked her was, is it legal? Here are the details.

The report does say the program does not involve listening to your phone calls, just keeping a log of who you're calling and the calls you've received. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, all the big ones, are part of the program. Qwest refused to participate.

The paper says the NSA program is far broader than what the White House has ever acknowledged.

Now, here's the NSA spokesman with -- Don Weber, with a statement in response.

"Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible for to comment on actual or alleged operational issues. Therefore, we have no information to provide. However, it is important to note the NSA takes its legal responsibilities seriously and operates within law."

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

S. O'BRIEN: Your tax bill is on the agenda in Washington today. The Senate is expected to pass that $70 billion tax cut package. The White House has made it a high election year priority.

CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry joins us from Capitol Hill this morning.

Hey, Ed. Good morning.

HENRY: Good morning, Soledad.

The key piece of this tax cut plan the president is celebrating keeps the tax rate on capital gains and dividends down to 15 percent for another two years. That was set to expire at end of 2008. It also will extend for this year. Only changes to the alternative minimum tax.

That's targeted towards higher-income -- higher-income, middle class families, trying to help them out a bit. But the liberal group Tax Policy Institute is charging, when you look at this entire package it really is helping the rich, and when you look at the numbers, a lot of people will not really see their wallet getting fat.

For those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 per year, a tax cut of just $9. If you make $50,000 to $75,000, a tax cut of $110. If you make $100,000 to $200,000, a tax cut of almost $1,400.

But listen to this. If you make more than $1 million, a tax cut worth nearly $42,000. Democrats are pouncing all over that disparity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. STENY HOYER (D), MINORITY WHIP: This blatantly unfair and grossly irresponsible legislation represents the last gasp of the Republican's Party's failed economic policies which have only caused greater disparity in America and driven our nation into the fiscal ditch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Many Democrats also charging that at a time of war and record budget deficits, now is not the time to be cutting taxes, and that any benefit for people, small or large benefit they may feel from these tax cuts, will be negated by high gas prices -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think that the White House is counting on this to boost the low poll numbers that the president's been seeing consistently for a while now?

HENRY: Well, the honest answer is that one event is not going to turn those low numbers around because they are so low. But I think what the White House is hoping for is, when you look beyond the overall low numbers of about 31 percent approval rating, the most worrisome part for this president is the fact that conservatives, he's losing support among that base that was with him for so long.

Tax cuts is something that will really get conservatives excited. So it at least can have a minor impact, get them a little bit fired up heading into these midterm elections -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Ed Henry at the White House for us.

Ed, thanks.

HENRY: Thank you.

Two Australian miners tapped -- trapped 320 hours underground after an earthquake, feeling great and looking great, too. Todd Russell and Brant Webb spoke publicly for the first time in our last hour. They took the podium to thank the rescue teams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANT WEBB, RESCUED MINER: And to our mates who each say said good-bye to their families and loved ones, every shift to put their lives on the line for us, and worked in dangerous and stable conditions to bring us here, we owe our lives to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: The men also pledged that they will do everything they can for the family members of their colleague who died. Larry Knight (ph) did not make it out of that gold mine. The gold mine where the men were trapped is still closed -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A jury in the murder trial of a Roman Catholic priest resumes deliberations in just a little while. The priest is charged with killing a nun 26 years ago in a chapel at a hospital. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is following the story for us.

Good morning, Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

And if everything is on schedule, the jury should have started deliberations today, just a few minutes ago. During the four hours that the jury was out yesterday, they made just one request. That for a witness list. And all of this came after closing arguments which focused on evidence, a priest, a nun, and the bible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM (voice over): In a murder trial, it's unusual for a prosecutor to quote scripture to show holy figures are not infallible.

DEAN MANDROS, LEAD PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Three times St. Peter lied to keep himself out of trouble.

OPPENHEIM: But in this Toledo courtroom, the question before a jury is whether one servant of the church killed another. Father Gerald Robinson is believed to be the only priest ever in the United States who had been charged in the murder of a nun, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Closing arguments portray two very different versions of what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Father Robinson is not guilty.

OPPENHEIM: It was in 1980 that the body of the 71-year-old nun was found in the chapel of Toledo's Mercy Hospital. She'd been strangled and stabbed. Prosecutors said the murder appeared to be a ritual killing and claimed Father Robinson made some of the stab wounds in the shape of an inverted cross.

MANDROS: To degrade her, to mock her, to humiliate her, to bring her down to the lowest point he possibly could.

OPPENHEIM: At the time, Father Robinson was a hospital chaplain. Because of a lack of evidence, the case went cold for 24 years and was reopened when investigators believed they found a match between a bloodstain at the crime scene and a dagger-shaped letter opener belonging to Father Robinson.

MANDROS: This case is about perhaps the most common scenario there is for a homicide. A man got very angry at a woman, and the woman died.

OPPENHEIM: Prosecutors weren't required to provide a motive, but they said the priest and nun were at odds and suggested he was tired of being pushed around. The defense argued the case against the priest was based on a false presumption, that his letter opener was used to kill the nun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This thing doesn't fit all of the way in. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not the murder weapon. OPPENHEIM: And they charged that not one strand of DNA found at the crime scene links the defendant to the victim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that DNA excludes this man and points somewhere else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM: Depending on how things go, these jurors might be working for a while. The judge's plan is to keep the jurors in deliberations up to 8:00 p.m. every night and into the weekend if necessary.

Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Keith, tell us about the sentencing options. This is an old case, before there was a death penalty option. So what are the options for the jury?

OPPENHEIM: There's really only one. And if he is convicted, that means a mandatory life sentence. And that sentence, again, if he's convicted, could come immediately once -- once the deliberations are over.

M. O'BRIEN: Keith Oppenheim in Toledo.

Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Happening "In America" this Thursday, in California, someone stole 700 pounds of dynamite from a mining company. It happened about eight days ago. About 200 pounds, though, were returned and left outside of a fire station in Riverside on Wednesday.

No sign, though, of the rest of the dynamite. There's now a $25,000 reward for information about the explosives

Noted journalist A.M. Rosenthal has died. Rosenthal, who was more commonly known as "Abe," was executive editor of "The New York Times" for nine years beginning in 1977. He began at the paper in 1943 as a part-timer. A.M. Rosenthal was 84 years old.

A follow-up on a story we told you about yesterday. The prom is going to happen for six seniors in Massachusetts whose prom dates were at first denied after criminal background checks. Officials from the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District say they can't finish the investigation in time before Saturday's prom, so they've decided they're going to reverse course and let those dates attend.

And coming soon to the Grand Canyon, take a look at this, a new way to see the Grand Canyon. It is not for the easily scared, though. It's a horseshoe-shaped Plexiglas bridge. That's kind of the artist's rendition of it. It's going to extend out from the canyon rim about 4,000 feet above the Colorado River.

Scary. A unique celebration to tell you about for Allentown, Pennsylvania. Really a landmark there. What they did was make a 75- foot-long steak sandwich. The Brass Rail Restaurant.

They have pretty good food there, too. I've eaten there. They've been serving up their famous steak sandwiches for 75 years -- hence the 75 feet. This one, though, has a little bit more of everything: seventy pounds of steak, 15 pounds of onions, and five gallons of their special sauce.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh.

S. O'BRIEN: Yummy.

M. O'BRIEN: Yummy.

S. O'BRIEN: I wonder how many people that feeds.

M. O'BRIEN: Good...

S. O'BRIEN: The town, pretty much.

M. O'BRIEN: Probably the entire town. And they'll probably all be there. All right.

Chad Myers in the weather center.

MYERS: I logged on to their Web site.

M. O'BRIEN: You did?

MYERS: For $48, plus shipping and handling, you can get a dozen cheese steaks shipped right to your house.

M. O'BRIEN: What a great idea.

MYERS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, that is another benefit of the computer age, isn't it?

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, let's do that. Should we try them out?

M. O'BRIEN: I think we should -- you know what? Let's do that today.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's do that for tomorrow, yes.

MYERS: Before the computer you'd have to call them, you know?

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, so old-fashioned.

MYERS: I know. Exactly -- the rotary phone.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Back to you guys.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Chad.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, a good cheese steak, there is no better food, by the way, Chad, than a good cheese steak.

S. O'BRIEN: Good and good for you.

M. O'BRIEN: Doug Pernot (ph), our writer, said, oh, he gets them, too. They come packed in dry ice. So now I'm getting hungry.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, he -- I didn't realize that Doug (ph) gets them sent to him.

MYERS: Yes, they come on dry ice.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, they get them all sent.

All right. Fantastic. If we could figure a way to have them come out your computer printer, that would be great. That would be really wonderful.

All right. It's "Ask Miles" -- Miles Cam Day, Thursday...

S. O'BRIEN: What's the weirdest question you've been asked on "Ask Miles Day"?

M. O'BRIEN: The weirdest question?

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, the weirdest. The most uncomfortable. The one you felt sorry you had been asked.

M. O'BRIEN: I think that was it. You just asked it. That's it right now.

AM@CNN.com is the e-mail for your questions, your queries to be sent there. The answers will be there. And the shot you see there, that's my office. And at 10:30 Eastern Time, an hour and 20 minutes from now, I'll be on CNN.com/pipeline, which is a place you want to check out regardless of Miles Cam, although it's one of the many features you have on CNN.com pipeline, but we want you to check it out.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a small town taking aim at big oil, but it looks like in the process they're really hurting some neighborhood businesses. We'll explain what happened just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, Soledad, all that green tea you're swallowing (ph) not what it's cracked up to be. We'll have a fact check for you. You'll want to listen.

S. O'BRIEN: And later, actor Edward Norton joins us. He's got a new movie out. He plays a cowboy with a very dark secret.

M. O'BRIEN: Bad secret? You mean the gay cowboy thing or is it something else? S. O'BRIEN: No, different. Not that. "Down in the Valley" is -- this is not "Brokeback Mountain". This is "Down in the Valley," and it's a deadly secret. It's a good movie. We'll tell you all about it coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

M. O'BRIEN: I'll bet some of those cabbies wish they were driving down "Electric Avenue" right now, because they're paying $3 and change per gallon. And those Crown Vics, what do they do, a dozen miles per gallon in the city maybe?

S. O'BRIEN: Better than your SUV, but not much.

M. O'BRIEN: Not much. Not much better.

So, with that in mind as we look at the traffic on Columbus Circle, let's go to the pump. And survey says... $2.89 average for unleaded regular. Last month, $2.69. One year ago, $2.18.

A hundred years ago, it was 2 cents. I don't know. I don't know what it was a hundred years ago.

Gas prices might make you want to mimic that scene from the movie "Network". You know, people screaming out the window, "We're mad as hell! We're not going to take it anymore!"

But beyond that, what can we do? What could we really do? Could we be doing something, in fact, that might cut off our nose to spite our face?

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho with a report from Hamburg, New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): Take a drive around Hamburg, New York, with Councilwoman Kathy Hochul, and she'll tell you she's hopping mad about gas prices. She is not alone.

KATHY HOCHUL, HAMBURG COUNCILWOMAN: From the single moms are practically in tears when they go to fill-up their gas tanks. They're not if they can afford it. The trucking business, the small delivery business -- it's hit everybody.

CHO: So many so, Hochul recently introduced a resolution, calling on Hamburg residents to boycott ExxonMobil stations. That's because ExxonMobil announced a record $36 billion in profits. And its chairman got a $400 million retirement deal. All the while, gas prices in Hamburg remain above $3 a gallon.

HOCHUL: As the local government, we're closest to the people. And when they're hurting, we feel that as well. And we thought it was our responsibility to send a message that we can't take it anymore.

CHO: That message was meant for Big Oil, but Joe Enser, the owner of an ExxonMobil station here in Hamburg, is the one who's feeling it.

(on camera): When you first heard about this boycott, what did you think?

JOE ENSER, EXXON-MOBIL STATION OWNER: What I thought it that it would hurt the small guy.

CHO: Enser has owned a gas station since 1971. He's worked for all the major oil companies. When he started, gas was selling for about 30 cents a gallon. Today the price of gas is 10 times that. But he's making a much smaller cut, between five and six cents a gallon.

ENSER: After 30 years of trying to build a name and a reputation, it was kind of like a slap in the face. Thirty years of service and you get boycotted? It made me upset.

CHO: Along Main Street, longtime resident Joe Gambino said the boycott is a good idea.

JOE GAMBINO, HAMBURG RESIDENT: If all the gas stations can arbitrarily set prices, why can't people arbitrarily say, let's not go there.

CHO: Lucky for Enser, most residents stuck by him, his business did not suffer. A few miles away at this ExxonMobil, business was off by 14 percent. A company spokeswoman told CNN, "Generally, boycotts of this nature don't work." It certainly didn't in Hamburg. And on Monday, the town council rescinded the resolution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The call for the boycott was wrong.

(APPLAUSE)

CHO: Now the council is asking drivers to conserve in other ways -- take public transportation, walk, or ride a bus.

Alina Cho, CNN, Hamburg, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Don't worry, consumers. Congress is going to fix it for you. They open a second day of hearings on Capitol Hill on high gas prices and supply today. We'll be watching it for you.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, an "American Idol" shocker that left Paula Abdul in tears -- she does cry a lot -- but Simon Cowell speechless. We're going to tell you which contestant got the boot.

Lots of folks talk about the health benefits of green tea, but is it really going reduce the risk of cancer or heart disease? We separate fact from fiction coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In "House Call" this morning, the government's red light for the makers of green tea. Just how heart healthy is green tea? Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us this morning from the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Hey, Elizabeth. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Soledad, many people have probably heard by now that green tea is good for you, but the FDA said not so sure. As a matter of fact, we don't think it can prevent heart disease.

One of the major makers of green tea asked the FDA for permission to put right on the label that green tea can prevent heart disease. And the FDA looked at 105 studies, they said they were not convinced, and they said, no, you cannot put that on the label.

This maker of green tea, Ito-En, which is a large maker of green tea in Japan, said, "Like many fruits and vegetables, green tea contains important antioxidants which research has shown can play a significant role in an individual's well-being." So they still think that it's good for your heart and they're going to continue doing their research.

Now, a while back, a different green tea maker asked the FDA for permission to put on their label that drinking green tea can help prevent cancer. And the FDA said that it was actually highly unlikely that green tea could actually help prevent cancer -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: But no one is arguing that it is an antioxidant, right? I mean, it's still healthy and maybe even healthier for you than some other options, right?

COHEN: Well, what -- the way to look at it is, is that if you enjoy drinking green tea and you like it, go ahead. And if you think, if you've looked at some of the science or you've looked at some of the information and you think that it's going to be good for you, go ahead, go ahead and drink it.

Perhaps it is. Perhaps some of those scientists are right. So it's certainly not going to hurt you to go ahead and drink green tea.

S. O'BRIEN: But it tastes yucky. I mean, you only drink it because the scientists have said it's good for you.

COHEN: Not necessarily. I drink it. I like it.

S. O'BRIEN: Really? You do? Well, maybe I should add more sugar in mine.

COHEN: But I don't drink it because I think it's going to keep me from getting heart disease. I drink it because I enjoy it. S. O'BRIEN: Really? I drink it because I hope it's going to keep me from getting something.

Elizabeth Cohen at the CNN Center.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: If you load in the sugar and a lot of cream...

S. O'BRIEN: Is that the secret?

M. O'BRIEN: ... it may be defeating the purpose.

S. O'BRIEN: I've got to find out what Elizabeth's drinking, because mine's...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... mine's...

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe it's a brand issue.

S. O'BRIEN: ... nasty.

M. O'BRIEN: Questions you might have, brands of green tea that Soledad likes, those are the kinds of questions we'll be willing to entertain on the old Miles Cam. CNN.com/pipeline is the place we answer them 10:30 Eastern Time. There it is, live shots of my office, coming up in an hour.

In the meantime, send us your questions, AM@CNN.com. We'll take them all. High ones, hard ones, curveballs, we can take them.

Coming up, actor Edward Norton in the house. We'll ask him about his new movie. It's called "Down in the Valley." He plays an old school cowboy with a thing for a teenage girl. But he still has a dark secret.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us this morning.

Carol Costello has some headlines for you -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

An emergency response exercise turns into a real-life emergency. We're just getting these picture into CNN. Take a look.

This is a Russian helicopter that hits the water. It tries to gain flight again, but one of its blades actually tips the copter nose first into the sea. You see it there. It caused it to capsize and then it exploded.

One of the 13 people on board died. When we get more information on this, of course we'll pass it along.

It's being called the largest database ever assembled in the world. The National Security Agency is reportedly collecting the phone call records for tens of millions of Americans. The agency isn't checking into what you say, just who you're saying it to.

"USA Today" reporting the program was launched shortly after 9/11. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth all said to be taking part. The NSA says it's within its legal rights.

The first round-the-clock baby TV channel is debuting today. That's right, a 24/7 program aimed at infants.

It comes amid criticism from the American Academy of Pediatrics that babies should be kept away from television altogether. But an executive says it's a way for parents and babies to interact. It's called "Baby First TV," and it's available through DirecTV for about $10 a month.

So you can talk to your baby while your baby is watching TV, I guess.

Did you see it? A shocking cut on "American Idol". Chris Daughtry is out. The other contestants shocked. All of three judges absolutely speechless. Even Simon Cowell.

Chris sang Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" on his way out.

(MUSIC)

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