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American Morning
Senate Votes Today on Immigration Bill; Bush, Blair Friends in Arms; Amtrak Train Service Disrupted
Aired May 25, 2006 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bob Franken in Washington. Will the House-Senate conference committee on immigration reform become a confrontation committee? We'll discuss that likelihood in a moment.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Henry at the White House, where the president is getting ready for a primetime press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Will they call for troop cuts in Iraq? That story coming up.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: House Speaker Dennis Hastert demands a retraction. A TV report that links him to a criminal case prompting investigators into an unusual response.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: They are still digging and dismantling in Michigan, but still no Jimmy Hoffa. But folks in the town of Milford, well, they're digging the attention. We'll talk to the township supervisor.
S. O'BRIEN: And a new "American Idol". The soul patrol, in effect, 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.
The U.S. poised to weigh in on immigration, and the bill likely to be passed this afternoon does little to settle the raging debate over those illegal border crossings. It has three major components: border security, including funds for 370 miles of fencing along that 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border; a guest worker program that would allow one to three million workers in this country illegally to be eligible for work visas; and it offers a path to citizenship for about seven million people if they stay employed, pass background checks, pay fines and taxes, and learn English.
Of course, much of this offers a counterpoint to the immigration bill passed by the House. It calls for mass deportations of illegals. So, it's anyone's guess how the two chambers will reach a compromise that will lead to a new law.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Bob Franken in Washington to set the stage for the debate today -- Bob.
FRANKEN: Well, I want you to listen very closely. And if you do, and go to the House side of the Capitol, you'll hear the sound of members digging in their heels.
This is going to be a very, very tough conference committee, which, of course, is designed for the two houses of Congress to try and reconcile differences. Well, reconciliation looks like it may be exceedingly difficult. The Senate is passing legislation that it characterizes as tough, but it does have that path to citizenship in it, the three-tier path to citizenship.
The House has passed legislation, to use technical terms, that is way tough. And the members are not particularly inclined, we're being told, to lighten up a little bit.
So that means that the climate going into the efforts of compromise is a very, very negative climate. The question will become, if somebody is a clever enough negotiator to try to bridge the gap in a way that will prevent political problems as we get close to the election -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: So will there be a new law?
FRANKEN: So, we don't know.
M. O'BRIEN: In a nutshell. It's interesting here. The Senate legislation matches very closely with what the president has been pushing for. So its passage today should be viewed as a victory for the White House, but in a way it's kind of a victory for Republicans, isn't it?
FRANKEN: Well, it is, because now it sets that up confrontation with the House. And the president has really staked a lot of his prestige on this, a lot of the power of his office. If they're not able to come up with legislation that, A, passes, and B, doesn't antagonize the conservative base that the Republicans need, then the president and his party could be in trouble in November.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting stuff. Bob Franken, watching the politics for us in Washington, as always.
Thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Also happening in Washington this morning, a report out that the FBI wants to question top leaders of Congress as part of its investigation into just who leaked details about the NSA wiretapping program. Only a select group of congressmen and women were briefed about the existence of the program.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert wants ABC News to retract a story that said he was under investigation in the Abramoff corruption scandal. The Justice Department states for the record that Hastert is not under investigation. ABC says it's sticking by its story.
There is word this morning that Vice President Dick Cheney could be called as a prosecution witness in the upcoming trial of his former chief of staff, Lewis Libby. That word comes in a court filing by the special counsel investigating the leak of the identity of the former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby is charged with lying in that case.
And growing anger on Capitol Hill over the FBI's search of Congressman William Jefferson's office. House leaders called the search unprecedented and a violation of the constitutional separation of powers. They and Jefferson are demanding that the Justice Department stop inspecting any material that's seized and return the material to him. Jefferson is the subject of a federal corruption probe -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: War-time allies, George Bush and Tony Blair, are holding a summit at the White House today. They both face declining political support and growing discontent with the war in Iraq that they championed. But don't expect them to announce a timetable for bringing U.S. and British troops home.
CNN White House Correspondent Ed Henry with more.
Good morning, Ed.
HENRY: Good morning, Miles.
Friends in need, friends indeed. These two leaders practically holding each other up. At one time they were riding high together at the beginning of the war, but now they're struggling together to regain their credibility and popularity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice over): At their first big meeting in February 2001 at Camp David, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair immediately bonded.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we both use Colgate toothpaste.
(LAUGHTER)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: They're going to wonder how you know that, George.
HENRY: Little did they know how much closer they would become.
BUSH: I can assure you that when either of us get in a bind, there will be a friend on the other end of the phone.
HENRY: They're both in a bind now, joined at the hip, defending a war that has sent their popularity plummeting.
BUSH: The progress we've made has been hard fought and has been incremental. There have been setbacks and missteps, like Abu Ghraib.
HENRY: When Baghdad fell in April 2003, 49 percent of the British people were satisfied with the job Mr. Blair was doing. Today, it's just 28 percent.
An even steeper drop for Mr. Bush. His approval rating, 70 percent when Saddam Hussein was removed, has plunged to 36 percent.
That's why this week the two leaders will try to pivot off the formation of a new Iraqi government to urge Iraqis to take a greater share of the burden.
BUSH: A watershed event that took place this weekend in Iraq.
HENRY: A theme the prime minister picked up Tuesday during a visit with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
BLAIR: This a new beginning. And we want to see what you want to see, which is Iraq and the Iraqi people able to take charge of their own destiny and write the next chapter of Iraqi history themselves.
HENRY: Maliki released a written statement Wednesday declaring Iraqi forces will be able to take over security by the end of 2007.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: But White House officials insist Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush will not make a major announcement tonight at this primetime press conference together about a timetable for withdrawing U.S. and British troops. Instead, they will talk more about getting U.S. and British troops in a position where they're just aiding the Iraqis. But still no talk about a pullout -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Iran for just a moment. These two leaders undoubtedly are going to talk about that.
It's interesting. As the two leaders were involved in the run-up toward the Iraq war, there was a kind of go-it-alone attitude that many viewed. In this case, the idea, it seems, is to have a diplomatic coalition bringing pressure to Iran.
HENRY: That's right. Absolutely.
President Bush has tried to make it seem like he has learned a lesson from the situation in Iraq, has been stressing over and over the word "diplomacy" in terms of Iran, and that he wants a lot of friends, he wants to build an international coalition against Iran to stop them from getting nuclear weapons. But if -- and it's a big "if" -- we ever need to build a coalition to go to war with Iran, there obviously will be a lot of tough questions for Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush about that case for war given all the questions about the case they made for the war in Iraq and whether or not they twisted intelligence -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House.
Thank you very much. CNN's live coverage of the Bush-Blair news conference begins with Wolf Blitzer at 7:00 p.m. in "THE SITUATION ROOM". These are Eastern times, by the way. The actual news conference begins at 7:30 Eastern, and a special edition of "PAULA ZAHN NOW" follows an hour later.
We hope you'll tune in -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: It looks like Amtrak is having a big power problem affecting really the Northeast Corridor. We're getting some information about power problems, service being disrupted. The CNN producer who was joining us just a moment ago said that they -- actually, around 8:00 this morning, a little before, the doors never closed and everybody had just basically got off of the trains, and had been milling around.
You can look at live pictures there. I believe those are New Jersey Transit trains. And as you might know, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains share the same tracks in at certain points. So it's obviously affecting New Jersey Transit, as well, and New Jersey Transit's Web site is reporting that all Northeast Corridor service is currently suspended. They've got a plan though that will have the New Jersey transit buses (INAUDIBLE), and other buses will be honoring and cross-honoring the New Jersey Transit rail lines.
So it looks like a major problem, and you can see right now at this point, these are live pictures coming to us from our affiliate WABC, where some of the workers are trying to figure out the extent of the problem that's affecting the Northeast Corridor for Amtrak and also how to fix it as quickly as possible.
Obviously, we're right in the heart of the big, heavy commute time. So a big problem for Amtrak and everybody else -- everyone else who uses those lines this morning to tell you about.
Let's get to the forecast. Chad Myers is at the CNN Center for everybody who is sitting outside waiting for their train to depart.
Chad, how's the weather looking?
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Do you have a question for us today?
MYERS: Are you married?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes. It's time to tell everyone, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: We are married. Not to each other, though.
S. O'BRIEN: When you say that it confuse people.
M. O'BRIEN: I know. It does confuse people.
MYERS: That's on the e-mail all the time.
S. O'BRIEN: I know.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we do it once a week. We have to do it.
S. O'BRIEN: We spend more time together than we spend with our respective spouses. So we're kind of married.
M. O'BRIEN: Further exacerbating the rumors.
In any case, AM@CNN.com is the place to send your questions about anything to do with our program and how we do our job here. And we'll answer some of them during the Miles Cam segment on Pipeline -- CNN.com/pipeline. Pipeline is a great place to check out even when I'm not there.
It's got other stuff.
S. O'BRIEN: You're so modest, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: There's other things. Much better things there.
S. O'BRIEN: A little bit of uncertainty after that, though. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he's willing to put National Guard troops on the border with Mexico. What does that all mean for his re-election bid? We'll take a look at that just ahead this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: If you're a parent, you no doubt know about Ferberizing your baby. Well, we'll talk with the man behind that baby sleep boot camp idea. There's a kinder, gentler approach now.
S. O'BRIEN: And the FBI tears down a barn, still looking for Jimmy Hoffa's remains. All the commotion has brought a lot of attention to a small town, Milford, Michigan. We'll tell you how life has changed there just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: We're following a developing story for you this morning. A big power problem means some big problems for Amtrak, certainly the Northeast Corridor service.
Let's get right to Dan Stessel. He's in Newark this morning. He is the spokesman for New Jersey Transit, which, of course, has been affected by this power outage, in addition to those Amtrak trains.
Dan, thanks for talking with us.
DAN STESSEL, N.J. TRANSIT SPOKESMAN: Sure, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: What have you been told the range that's being affected here, the distances?
STESSEL: Well, our understanding is that this is affecting Amtrak's overhead power lines that power the trains from New York, all the way down to Washington. It's certainly affecting everything in New Jersey, which is, of course, the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor.
So our Northeast Corridor line in New Jersey, as well as the north Jersey coastline, are suspended right now. And our midtown direct service that normally operates into Penn Station, New York, is being rerouted to Hoboken, where customers can find alternate transportation.
You see on our screen, where we're able to do so, we're evacuating some trains where it's safe to do so. Other trains are standing in between stations, but we're communicating. We're in communication with every train that's out there and keeping customers advised and informed as to the length of this with whatever information we know.
S. O'BRIEN: We've heard that there is a CNN producer among many others who's trapped inside the tunnel. Stuck inside the tunnel maybe is a better way to put it. I'm not sure if that's a New Jersey Transit train or what, but I'm curious to know what the strategy for getting people out when they're not being able to be evacuated, as we see in these live pictures, but instead that need to be moved through at tunnel.
STESSEL: Right. This a multi-layered response. So, you know, we have responders that are heading to those trains in the tunnel right now just to assess the situation while we also work on a separate track to determine how long this going to be.
Amtrak is currently working to isolate the power problem, identify exactly where it is, and then get powered restored just as quickly as possible. In the event that they're unable to do that, or this goes on for an extended period of time, longer than the hour it's already been, then we'll need to look at other options. And those are currently being discussed right now.
S. O'BRIEN: Any clue as to where the power outage is centered right now?
STESSEL: No. We did hear earlier that it might not even be in New Jersey. But beyond that, the Amtrak folks are currently working to identify it. And we haven't gotten the latest update from them yet.
S. O'BRIEN: Have they given you any word on what might have happened to those overhead power lines, if that seems to be where the problem is?
STESSEL: I have nothing on that yet. We are -- we, of course, are in minute-to-minute discussions with Amtrak in real time in the control center in New York, and working to identify it to the extent that we can. But at this point, we just don't know how long it's going to be.
S. O'BRIEN: How many trains are we talking about? How many people are we talking about? We're looking at live pictures, I should mention, as you were telling us, people being essentially evacuated off those trains that are clearly not going to go anywhere, walking alongside the tracks, and at least getting back to some kind of safety off the tracks there.
How many people are we talking about here affected?
STESSEL: Well, our service is easily tens of thousands of customers. The Northeast Corridor for us carries 60,000 customers on a typical weekday. But that's just one line. We also have the north Jersey coastline, which is, you know, more than 10,000 thousand on. And midtown direct service, which is several more thousand.
So easily tens of thousands of customers just in New Jersey affected by this. Several dozen trains that were -- that are standing. So it is a very large operation.
We have New Jersey Transit police deployed across the entire system. Our emergency response teams, they're mobilized across the system to respond to these trains and keep customers as comfortable and safe as possible.
S. O'BRIEN: As the camera pulls out, we can see what they're doing is taking folks off the trains. That live shot there. And they're just basically moving down the stairs. These are people who, either that train just pulled into that station or that train never left the station this morning.
How -- what are they telling you about how long this could potentially take? And what's the plan if it takes more than the hour or so, as you mentioned, it's been going on?
STESSEL: Well, you know, the image that you see on the screen is unique to that. Not unique to that train, but it is situational. And it will depend.
Our response to each train will depend on its location. That train probably glided to a stop once the power went out at that location, conveniently located next to a set of stairs, where it's safe to take customers off the train and bring them down into that parking lot, where I'm sure we have buses responding.
Depending on the train's location will determine our response. But like I said, you know, the Amtrak folk are currently working to isolate the situation, and hopefully they'll get this power back in New Jersey as soon as possible.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, certainly hope so.
Dan Stessel is in Newark this morning. He is the New Jersey Transit spokesman. And, of course, New Jersey Transit has been affected by this massive power outage that's affecting the Northeast Corridor of Amtrak trains.
Thanks very much, Dan. Appreciate your time this morning -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now willing to try and terminate illegal border crossings with the help from the National Guard. He had voiced opposition to the idea when the president first floated it, but now he's a believer.
The question is why? Well, at least part of the answer is he's up for re-election.
CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider joining us from Los Angeles with more on that.
Why the turnaround, Bill?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he is up for re-election, and this is a state with an awful lot of immigrants, legal and a lot of illegal immigrants, and a lot of people who support illegal immigrants. And he had met with a lot of criticism as a result of his initial stand, where he said that he was unwilling to -- he thought it might not be a good idea to send the National Guard to the border.
Now he says he's willing to send Guard troops to the border, but he wants to know from the federal government how long this will be, will it be temporary, what's the end date? And who's going to pay for it? He wants the feds to pay for it because the president ordered it.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's listen to what he had to say, as a matter of fact, for just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Congress must pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders and allows for a temporary working program. I will discuss also President Bush's plan for using the national troops to help the Border Patrol on a temporary basis. And I will make it clear to President Fox that I oppose the using of military for law enforcement duties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: OK. A little bit of a walk on the tightrope there. I oppose the military from enforcement duties, but I'm going to support this for a short-term period, provided they're not -- you know, they're doing the support role.
So there is a nuanced view here, isn't there?
SCHNEIDER: Well, there is, but it's not really different from what the president talked about, a temporary role, though the president did not give an end date. And the president said they would not be used actually to enforce the border, they would be used for support purpose until more Border Patrol could be -- could be hired. And then, of course, the National Guard would be relieved of that duty. So he's more or less in line with the president here.
M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of the type of criticism, how heated it was when he said I don't want to send troops down there?
SCHNEIDER: Well, there was a lot of criticism from other Republicans. This is a state, like many border states, where there's a sharp division on the issue of immigration.
If you distinguish the border states from the rest of the country, I would say that the border states like California are really more intensely divided. It's a bigger issue here, you have more sympathizers. A lot of people know immigrants and illegal immigrants. They do at lot of work in people's homes and in people's farms and factories.
And at the same time, there's a lot of criticism over illegal immigrants, a lot of backlash, a lot of minutemen here in California. So you have a big division. So it's not surprising that Schwarzenegger first took one position and then very cleverly moved to the other position, because there really are people on both sides.
M. O'BRIEN: I guess some might call that a flip-flop.
SCHNEIDER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting that as they does this, announces his support, he's going to show up -- or he showed up at a naturalization ceremony. Tell us about that.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, he did. And at the naturalization ceremony this week, he told people, you know, "I studied English. I think you should study English."
M. O'BRIEN: Hey, that was pretty good, by the way. Not bad.
SCHNEIDER: He urged the immigrants to be part of the fabric of American life. And even that was a controversial statement, because the Congress has recently -- the Senate has recently passed a bill that would declare English to be the official language of America, and Schwarzenegger, more or less, endorsed that idea.
M. O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider, a man who always pumps us up.
We appreciate it. Thanks for dropping by from L.A. this morning.
SCHNEIDER: You're welcome.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: The two of you are scaring me.
Ahead this morning, we're going to update you on what's happening with Amtrak. As we've been mentioning all morning, the -- you can see there live pictures. Big problem on the northeastern transit line there for Amtrak.
There's a power outage. They haven't exactly identified where the service has been disrupted, but the Northeastern Corridor now, service shut down. It's a overhead power line problem. That is all that we know at this point.
We're going to update you on what's happening there.
Plus, oh, sleep is such a big issue for anybody who's a new parent, anybody who's an old parent, too. We're going to talk to the doctor who really wrote the bible on children and sleep, Dr. Ferber. Is he changing his tune in his new book? We'll take a look at that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Dr. Richard Ferber is the Dr. Spock, so to speak, of sleep. His 1985 bestseller schooled a generation of parents on how to get their crying babies to sleep.
Now, 20 years later, his popular and sometimes controversial book called "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" has been expand and revised. And Dr. Ferber joins us.
It's nice to see you.
DR. RICHARD FERBER, "SOLVE YOUR CHILD'S SLEEP PROBLEMS": Thank you. It's great to be here.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us. Thank you so much.
Have you been surprised that your book 20 years ago has become this bible really for parents when it came to figuring out how to get their baby to sleep?
FERBER: I am. But what wasn't surprising, we learned very early that sleep problems were very common.
Family after family were suffering at night because their child was up and they didn't know what to do. And I knew when we started seeing patients at our center that we could help them. We could find out why their child was awake and give them a way to get that child to sleep, and I knew that that interest was all over the country.
S. O'BRIEN: Is it an individual problem? I mean, every child is different. Or is it there sort of a general overlapping theory? Because many take "Ferberizing" to mean let the baby cry it out.
FERBER: The real theory was to first understand what the problem was, and then tailor the solution to fix that specific problem in a way that works with that individual child's needs and with the individual family's philosophy. Now, very often that means no crying at all. Very often that means eliminating crying that's there. Very often that means just simply fixing a schedule that's inappropriate.
S. O'BRIEN: Should you co-sleep with a baby or no?
FERBER: All children must learn that they are born into a loving, caring world. Most of that gets communicated during the day when the child's awake. When they're asleep, of course, they don't know even know where they are.
We have learned that if your child has a happy bedtime, a pleasant bedtime, looks forward to going to bed, sleeps well at night, it doesn't make any difference where the child sleeps.
S. O'BRIEN: I know. But as a parent, I'm sitting here saying, when my 5-year-old gets out of my bed and crawls into my bed and I'm just too tired to pick her up and carry her back to her bed, bad for me to let her sleep in my bed? Fine for me to let her sleep in my bed? Love her, nurture her, whatever, all that, absolutely, whether she's in my bed or her own bed.
I think parents want to know what do you do?
FERBER: Well, first of all, is that something you like and do you want to have continue? If you do, and it's no problem for you...
S. O'BRIEN: Not the waking up part.
FERBER: OK. Well, then --- then, that's where the problem comes. So if that is a problem, then you want to put a stop to that. A 5-year-old is very different, of course, than a younger child. And this is probably just a habit the child has developed. And if you're strict enough, it will stop.
S. O'BRIEN: Do you feel that you had to revise the book because there was such -- sometimes I think between really mothers more than fathers hoopla and dissension, or is it just 20 years later, it's time?
FERBER: It's really more the latter. There's been so much learned about sleep in the last 20 years. We know so much more about how the body's clock controls sleep. We had to revise the recommendations for sleep requirements based on what we've learned. We've learned all kinds of new problems that cause sleep difficulties, and they each have to be treated differently.
S. O'BRIEN: Dr. Richard Ferber is the author of the book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems," now revised. Thanks. Nice to see you. Appreciate it.
FERBER: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: It is rush hour, and a holiday rush hour at best. And we have been telling you about a how much power outage affecting rail travelers along the northeastern corridor, New York heading down toward south, toward Philadelphia. Amtrak, as well as New Jersey transit reporting complete outages along the electrified lines there.
Joining us on the line is one of the stranded passengers, Richard Herskovitz, who is on the Acela train, which is the Amtrak high-speed train which connects New York, and Washington and Boston as well, about 20 minutes south of Newark.
RICHARD HERSKOVITZ, COMMUTER: Richard, tell me first, if you will, how did it begin for you? Did it kind of slow down slowly? We were northbound, and we just lost power, because I had my computer on, and I noticed that it went dark. And we just started coasting until we told we had to come to a stop. They were told they had to stop the train, and then we sat for about 10 minutes, and then were told that there was some kind of a mechanical problem.
And then about every 10 minutes, Amtrak has been very good coming on the intercom telling us what's going on. About 20 minutes ago, they said they're going to resume in about a half an hour, and they just made an announce that they're putting the ladders down, and they told us we're going to go off the train. So we're sort of getting two messages, but Amtrak's been pretty good about it.
M. O'BRIEN: Mixed messages indeed at this point. Ladders are coming down. Clearly in the next 10 minutes or so, it doesn't look like you'll be moving. Has anybody told you what might be the cause?
HERSKOVITZ: No, they just said it was a mechanical problem with the cashmering (ph), which is sort of carries the power, on account of its electrical, and they said the whole thing is out from Philadelphia to New York, as far as they know.
M. O'BRIEN: Just to be clear for people who are not familiar, this portion of the rail line is electrified. It's not a diesel electric locomotive. And so that's why you had this huge kind of outage.
HERSKOVITZ: That's correct. Every train has been affected.
M. O'BRIEN: OK, and just give us a sense of --- I assume it was a pretty full train.
HERSKOVITZ: It's a full train. It's a normal commuter train. I take it fairly often. And people are calm. People are on their cell phones, work on their computers. They opened up the cafe car and they gave away whatever you wanted for free. If you just went up there and you wanted water, you wanted a bagel, they gave it to you for free. And everybody's been very good natured about it, and except for being late, we're OK.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll see what happens when the cell phone and laptop batteries die, then it could get ugly, I guess.
HERSKOVITZ: Exactly.
M. O'BRIEN: Are you trying to get to New York?
HERSKOVITZ: Trying to get to New York City.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. So at this point, what do you think? Do you think you're going to make it today?
HERSKOVITZ: I think we'll make it today. I hope we can get home from there obviously, and I think they're going to try to get us off here. And I don't know what the deal is, but assuming we get off the train by ladder, we're going to walk to somewhere where they'll bus us, let's hope.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Richard Herskovitz is an architect and a commuter trying to get to New York City. Good thing he's got his cell phone, because he's able to call us and continue being productive there while you wait. Let's hope for the best as that big outage affecting the Northeast, Amtrak New Jersey transit, leaving commuters, thousands of them, stranded this morning.
(NEWSBREAK) M. O'BRIEN: And now to Milford Township, Michigan, population about 16,000, a place known for its peace and quiet, but no longer. Milford is now a possible final resting place for one James Riddle Hoffa. Riddle indeed. Since the Teamster boss disappeared 30 years ago after meeting some mobsters at a restaurant in suburban Detroit, his whereabouts have remained a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. And in Milford, where the FBI is digging, and dismantling, as you see there at a horse farm, pursuing the latest hot Hoffa tip, they're finding a silver lining. The Milford Township supervisor is Don Green, and he joins us now.
Mr. Green, good to have you with us.
DON GREEN, MILFORD TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR: Good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: I understand you have a T-shirt with us. Why don't you just show it to us, so we can get a flavor of the tone in Milford right now. Hold it up for folks so they can see it. There we go. "The FBI digs Milford. Do you?" Right?
GREEN: That's what they say. There's a few other ones up, being printed right now, too.
M. O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of what else they're saying around the T-shirts?
GREEN: We have one that said "Meet Me in Milford," with a picture of Jimmy Hoffa that's being printed rights now. And there's another spin on this one, where it says, "The FBI digs Milford. I Do, Too."
M. O'BRIEN: So Milford is suddenly in ways you may or may not have expected on the map.
GREEN: We're on the map, definitely.
M. O'BRIEN: I understand you have a nice very quaint little village there in Milford, and the marquee on the theater has a little statement as well.
GREEN: The marquees on even the restaurant and bars and the Dairy Queen are changing daily.
M. O'BRIEN: Like what?
GREEN: There's a new footwear in town, cement shoes. Look up Jimmy Hoffa under cement in the Yellow Pages.
M. O'BRIEN: They're having a little bit of fun with this. "Hoffa, a mile down the road. Experienced diggers wanted," at one of the marquees for the restaurant there.
GREEN: Yes, definitely.
M. O'BRIEN: People having a little fun with this, but this is of course very serious business. We are, after all, talking about someone who was killed. Are you at all uncomfortable with it?
GREEN: I'm not uncomfortable at all with it the only problem I'm going to have is s when they find him, then the legend is gone. The mystique is gone, you know.
M. O'BRIEN: The mystique is gone, but that horse farm will certainly be a destination, won't it?
GREEN: Oh, definitely. They'll probably end up changing the road to something in regards to "Hoffa Way" or "Half Way There" or (INAUDIBLE) Hoffa, or something along that nature.
M. O'BRIEN: Now they've called for volunteers. Have you been out there doing any digging yourself?
GREEN: I haven't been doing any digging. But I've been there, and I looked at the facility that they're tearing down now.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, tearing down. By the way, that's -- the FBI comes in and tears down your barn that would upset me. What's the general thinking about that there?
GREEN: Well, the individual had to sign the demolition permit to allow the FBI to tear it down anyway.
M. O'BRIEN: Right, but I can't imagine they're very happy about. The FBI has a way of kind of persuading.
GREEN: Well, they're going to rebuild a new barn for them at a cost of about 162,500.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. There you go. That will be a nice new barn, won't it? What do you think? This has been rumored, as I understand it, in that part of the world for quite some time. The FBI apparently just getting wise to the rumors. Do you think it's likely that Jimmy Hoffa is in fact on that horse farm?
GREEN: Well, there's been two rumors in Milford Township in regards to Mr. Hoffa. One was the horse farm itself, and the other was the landfill, because shortly after Mr. Hoffa's disappearance, the landfill was closed, too.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, really? So -- But we don't know of any plans to dig there, do we?
GREEN: Not at present, no.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that could make the story continue. Milford Township in the limelight in ways you couldn't have possibly imagined. The supervisor of the Township is don green. Thanks for being with us.
GREEN: Thanks, Miles. Appreciate it.
M. O'BRIEN: And we dig, you, too.
GREEN: Thank you.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" up next. Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.
Two Internet giants join forces. Starbucks joining forces, too, with Meryl Streep. We'll tell you about that coming up.
S. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Look forward to that. Andy, thank you.
Also ahead this morning, something fishy happening in New Orleans. And it's a good thing. We'll take a look at how New Orleans aquarium is back, and playing a big role in the city's recovery. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're back after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Update now on that big power outage along the northeastern corridor. What you're seeing there clearly is a diesel electric locomotive. It doesn't need the power lines that are out, that power things like the Acela train and many of the New Jersey transit commuter trains. So that does not mean necessarily good news, unless they can get a bunch of those diesel electric locomotives out, start pulling those trains, and that's an unlikely scenario. So we show this not to mislead you, but it does look like he's going to giving that guy a nudge. He's giving him a push.
SERWER: Yes, the little engine that could.
M. O'BRIEN: That's exactly what it is, the little engine that could.
Thousands of commuters right now.
S. O'BRIEN: And lots of trains.
M. O'BRIEN: And lots of trains as well.
SERWER: It's going to be a busy day for that engineer.
M. O'BRIEN: He's got a long day ahead. Make sure there's plenty of diesel fuel onboard. In any case, we're watching what appears to be a commuter rail meltdown in the Northeast on the cusp of the holiday weekend, I might add.
S. O'BRIEN: Going to be ugly.
M. O'BRIEN: So could get ugly. As the commuter we just we spoke with, he said, everybody is fine on their cell phones and laptops. Once those die...
SERWER: He'll be mad. And once it gets a lot warmer today, too.
M. O'BRIEN: There's that, too. There's that, too.
SERWER: Yes, no A/C.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure the problem will be all managed at that point, and there will be no panicked passengers, one would hope.
Let's talk about New Orleans, another step in the recovery of that city to tell you about this morning. The Aquarium of the Americas. You'll remember it was just devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We did some of our live reports from there. Finally now, though, ready to reopen. New fish have been brought in, some animals as well were there before the storm.
CNN's Sean Callebs is live for us inside the aquarium.
Sean, I thought you'd be in a wet suit by now. What's going on, man?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, this guy is about as dangerous as I'm going to get. And I'll show you in just a little bit. This is Patience. Guess how old patience is?
S. O'BRIEN: Twenty
CALLEBS: Twenty-three.
S. O'BRIEN: Really? Wow, that was a wild guess.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, you know your penguins, girl.
S. O'BRIEN: No, I just made that up.
CALLEBS: That was very good. She's really mellow now, but in a minute, I'll show you why. These ladies can get really worked up. Fannie is down there swimming in the water.
Well, maybe we'll put her down. She's probably had enough of me for a little bit.
They're really amazing. Now, what they do, when these things have eggs, they have to go through and get the eggs. They can't have anymore, because basically -- these things are in 40 different aquariums around the country, so they don't want to hurt the gene pool anymore. So this is a fake egg. This isn't real. They go in and take the real egg. But it does not like this glove, because it knows what's going on. I probably should quick taunting the penguin at this point.
But if you can see up here, there's some of the damage from the hurricane. One of the few windows actually blew out in this aquarium. It actually did very well in terms of its windows, but it lost power, and that was really the death knell for so many. Here you see some video of the penguins being evacuated out. They were flown out Monterey Aquarium, chartered a plane to take them out. So they flew out to California. They stayed out there for a number of months. They just came back here this week.
And David Grant, who's one of the handlers here, told me that you could tell these things loved being back in their natural environment. This where they feed them everyday. So immediately the penguins all went to the regular feeding place. Look at those three over there. Those are actually called rock hoppers, with the yellow feathers in their hair. And they're nicknamed the "Three Tenors," because they hang out by themselves, not very social. But the rest of them are black-footed African penguins. They are from South Africa. So 17 different species of penguins, and they are all -- I'm sure Miles and Soledad both know this -- all below the equator.
S. O'BRIEN: I know penguins aren't particularly nice, you know, warm fuzzy animals, but they're really cute. We thought for sure you would be in the tank with the sharks.
CALLEBS: Yes, maybe later on. Just keep watching.
S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Sean.
CALLEBS: We've got 24 hours.
S. O'BRIEN: That's right, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Put the glove back on. I want to it.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Sean.
M. O'BRIEN: Don't tease her or anything. You're going to get people upset.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
M. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn Kagan is here with a preview. Hello, Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Miles, how are you?
"LIVE TODAY" has two little old ladies in big trouble with the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure enough, the same two little old ladies, Olga (ph) and Helen (ph), were doing the same thing then.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she seemed to have a lot of money.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very sweet, I thought she was, but kind of crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Police say these sweet grandmas bought life insurance on homeless men, and two of those men have turned up dead.
A mother says her newborn son was stolen from her arms. The boy is found. Two women face charges in a Texas courtroom this morning.
And then, there is this peculiar story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I looked at him and I said what in the hell are you doing?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Yes, there is toe licker on loose in Tulsa. I'll walk you through the details of this bizarre assault.
Granny stories, the top stories. We cover them all, when "LIVE TODAY" begins for this Thursday.
M. O'BRIEN: I would call that was a very complete news diet...
S. O'BRIEN: A toe licker!
M. O'BRIEN: From head to toe, you got it covered there.
SERWER: Toe licker.
S. O'BRIEN: I've met foot fetishists, but I've never even heard of the toe licker.
SERWER: He's crawling around out there somewhere.
S. O'BRIEN: Literally!
M. O'BRIEN: He's a real heel, as I understand it.
Coming up in the program, the Soul Patrol beats Andy's McPheever. You still got a little McPheever this morning, don't you?
SERWER: She's going to sell some CDs, though.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh yes, she is. Taylor Hicks, though, is the official "American Idol." His life is going to change a little bit, don't you think? We'll look at that in just a few moments. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A huge power outage along rail lines in the northeast causing a big headache for thousands of commuters. Trains stranded all along this corridor right here, from Washington to New York and perhaps beyond. We're still trying to get a handle on all this. These are lines that are trains operated under electric wires. And you see there, that's a diesel electric motor engine. And it is pushing one of the commuter lines into a station, or wherever the case may be, to get people off of it.
But these are -- the trains that are down connect to electrical power lines above what you can see there, not unlike a streetcar or a trolley would, that kind of thing. And that's -- apparently the power is out on this whole long stretch, and as a result, any train that relies on that electrical current is currently not doing anything at all. And passengers are wondering when they might be moving.
Dan Brucker is with the Metro-North commuter rail service, which is in the tristate area, as they say, goes north of New York City into Connecticut. Dan, can you tell us, first of all, does the outage extend the full length of your lines, as well?
DAN BRUCKER, MTA METRO-NORTH RAILROAD: No, even though we are on the northeast corridor, it does not affect Metro-North trains. We are -- we've got electric power, we are operating. We're operating on time. Now Amtrak trains are discharging their customers at one of these three stations, where they do operate over our lines at one of our stations, which would be either New Haven, Stamford or New Rochelle.
What we are doing is taking their customers with their tickets, gratis, aboard Metro-North trains, bringing them into Grand Central terminal. They can make other arrangements from there. Sometimes they need to go into New York City. We're only about a 15, 20 minute walk from Penn Station. Or they can take buses to their ultimate route if necessary.
However, we do have to get those Amtrak trains out away from our trains on our lines. So either we're holding them north of New Haven -- because we don't operate further north than that -- or if they are in Stamford or in New Rochelle, we are then taking them, those trains, and putting them out to ancillary tracks and storage tracks in Pelham Bay, which is the Bronx, in order to get them out of the way.
M. O'BRIEN: Help me understand, Dan. You share lines with Amtrak there?
BRUCKER: Yes, they operate on our route from here -- basically from 135th Street all the way up to New Haven.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, but their -- and their trains are unable to move, but yours can?
BRUCKER: No. We can. But obviously, their trains are not going to be able to make it either into their yards or into Pennsylvania Station. So we don't want to have them just idling on our tracks because we won't be able to get through. Therefore, we're taking their trains and putting them on storage yards.
M. O'BRIEN: In other words, the final hurdle is what you're concerned. The Amtrak trains are moving in your part of the world, but they're not going to get to their ultimate destination, New York, unless they switch over to the MTA, Metro-North product, at those various stations.
BRUCKER: Yes, at those customers. And we will take them into New York City and into Grand Central terminal.
M. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Well, good job pinch-hitting. And I hope it works out well for some of these commuters. I hope the word gets out to them. Dan Brucker is with Metro-North.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: We only have a few seconds to get to Karina Romero. She's in Washington, D.C. She's a spokeswoman for Amtrak. Karina, thanks for being us. Pinpoint for me where the problem is. Do you know yet in those overhead power lines?
KARINA ROMERO, AMTRAK SPOKESWOMAN; We don't yet know. We're still investigating. Our priority right now is to remove several trains from tunnels outside New York and Baltimore. I can tell you that we have removed one Amtrak train from the BMT tunnel outside Baltimore, and one New Jersey transit train from the Hudson River Tunnel. We're using diesel locomotives to pull those trains from the tunnels.
S. O'BRIEN: How have the evacuations been going? Are you taking people off of the trains as they were doing with New Jersey transit? We heard that a little while back.
ROMERO: If they're in a station and we're able to deboard, we're doing that. If not, some customers are still sitting aboard trains, and we're working as quickly as we can to restore power.
S. O'BRIEN: People who are trying to figure out if they're not on the trains now, but they're expecting to take an Amtrak train at some point, either today or over the long holiday weekend, what should they do?
ROMERO: They should call 1-800-USA-RAIL or check Amtrak.com to check the status of their specific train. We don't have an estimated time yet as to when those things will be able to restore service, but are working on it as quickly as possible.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, and the updates will be on your Web site. Karina Romero in Washington, D.C. She's a spokeswoman for Amtrak. Katrina, obviously, thanks for talking with us. Certainly has her hands busy today as people are trying to get information. It couldn't happen at a worse time, because it's the start of the holiday weekend, and that means a lot more travelers will be on Amtrak over the next couple of days.
M. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. Hopefully by this afternoon when it really will be critical, that people in -- you know, beginning their weekend, hopefully will have that rectified. Anyway, we'll keep you posted. Stay with CNN all day, and we'll let you know how that all comes out.
But we're out of time for AMERICAN MORNING. And we're glad you dropped by this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center. Hey, Daryn, good morning.
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