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American Morning
President Bush Tries to Save Immigration Bill; Letterman Kidnap Plot: Inmate Escapes, at Large
Aired June 13, 2006 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Executive sales pitch. President Bush determined to push a controversial immigration plan through the Senate against long odds.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The real question is, do you want to address the problem?
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: This bill is flawed, fatally.
CHETRY: Plus, road test. The results of our taxicab challenge. Will the hybrid roll over its gas-powered competitor when it comes to savings?
On this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: A big question on this Tuesday, June 12th.
Thanks so much for being with us.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.
I'm John Roberts.
Other stories "On Our Radar" this morning.
(NEWSBREAK)
CHETRY: Well, we start on Capitol Hill this morning, where President Bush is making a very rare trip today to attempt to revive the immigration bill. He's going to be joining Senate Republicans at a policy lunch. The last time he did that was five years ago.
Dana Bash is on the Hill this morning with a preview.
Good to have you with us again, Dana.
And I want you to take a listen to what Senator Jeff Sessions said in the last hour, one of the GOP senators who will be meeting with the president today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SESSIONS: I think the president is wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard after we've demonstrated the flaws that are in it. He needs to help us write a better bill and not push a bill that so many of us can't support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It sounds like it will be an uphill battle for the president as he heads to talk to those GOP senators today.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. And Senator Sessions also said this morning that the president should back off, back off. That is from a Republican senator, certainly one of the most ardent opponents of this immigration bill. But he -- Senator Sessions, Kiran, is from probably one of the reddest, most Republican states in this country, Alabama.
And that really is telling as to the hard, cold fact that President Bush is going to be facing when he comes here to Capitol Hill, and that is that his political influence has really diminished, especially on this issue of immigration. Because so many conservatives really think he is flat-wrong on this issue, especially the core of it, which is allowing illegal immigrants to have legal status or even citizenship in the U.S.
CHETRY: Which is why it was curious, the optimism from Tony Snow. I spoke to him as well in our 6:00 Eastern hour. And he said, look, they're going to talk, they're going to agree to some time to discuss some of these amendments that they're going to let the GOP put into it, and then it will pass.
BASH: Well, he is being optimistic. Look, anything is possible in the U.S. Senate. That is for sure. Because there certainly is bipartisan support for this.
But as we saw last week, there is also significant bipartisan opposition. And what the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate is saying, is that, sure, he'll bring this back up. But he said, look, Mr. President, it's up to you. You've got to deliver the Republican votes on this.
It might not be that easy for him to do, because at its core right now, this is a procedural tug-of-war between opponents of this bill and supporters, because opponents say we want to have more chances, really unlimited chances to change what we don't like about this bill. And the Democrats are saying, no, you've got to limit that. That is the kind of detail that the president is going to have to try to convince Republicans of. It's not going to be easy.
CHETRY: Yes. It also seems like it's the political hot potato. I mean, Hairy Reid doesn't want to be the one accused of effectively ending it. Last week when it happened, it seemed a lot of the blame was on the shoulders of the president.
BASH: And that is -- that was precisely where Democrats are trying to put it, right on the soldiers of the president. But, you know, just to be fair, this obviously is now a Democratic Congress. Democrats do need to show that they can accomplish things as well.
So, that's why it's not as simple to say that this is perhaps just the president's problem. But this is the number one issue on the domestic side for the president right now, it is something that President Bush has pushed since day one in office, immigration.
CHETRY: Right.
BASH: So, this really is a critical thing for President Bush to try to get accomplished, especially with only 18 months left in office.
CHETRY: That's right.
Well, we'll all be watching today, including you, I'm sure, Dana. Thanks so much.
BASH: Thank you.
CHETRY: We're going to talk to one of the bill's authors. Republican Senator Jon Kyl coming up in just 15 minutes.
And they are supposed to protect the border, but some National Guardsmen were busted for doing just the opposite. Two Guardsmen from Texas charged yesterday with smuggling 24 people across the border, allegedly making several trips in uniform and pocketing up to $2,000 per person. They were stationed on the border to back up Border Patrol agents as part of Operation Jump Start.
ROBERTS: I wonder what Lou Dobbs is going to have to say about that today.
CHETRY: I don't wonder. I know.
ROBERTS: A "no" on the no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Despite the backing of seven Republicans, it never made it to the Senate floor last night. Republicans blocked it in a procedural vote.
The non-binding resolution didn't have legal weight, but Democrats were hoping it would push Gonzales to resign. Republicans call it just a political stunt.
The prosecutor in the Scooter Libby case filed papers early this morning asking the judge to send Libby to jail pending his appeal. Libby is sentenced to 30 months in prison. His attorneys say he should be free while he appeals his conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says Libby's appeal is not likely to result in his conviction being overturned, and so the law says he should make his case from behind bars.
CHETRY: The state of Georgia fighting a judge's order to release Genarlow Wilson. He's the young man at the heart of that controversial case. Wilson was sentenced to 10 years for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17. Wilson's mother celebrated yesterday when the judge voided the 10-year sentence. He called it cruel and unusual. Then the state prevented Wilson from being released because it's appealing.
I spoke earlier with Wilson's attorney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B.J. BERNSTEIN, WILSON'S ATTORNEY: I just hope Genarlow -- because he had heard through the media, word had already gotten through the jail that he was going to be released. And then I had to have a phone call with him and tell him, no, he was spending more time in jail even though an order said he should get out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That law ended up being changed, partly because of this unusually long sentence that Wilson received.
ROBERTS: Well, this is becoming a favorite insurgent tactic. For the second time in as many days, insurgents have hit a bridge in Iraq.
This morning, a truck bomber hit a span on a highway south of Baghdad. The bridge wasn't badly damaged. The bomber was killed, but nobody else was hurt.
Yesterday, though, a completely different story. Insurgents bombed an overpass, collapsing it, killing three U.S. soldiers who were manning a checkpoint underneath.
Afghani officials this morning say U.S. troops killed seven Afghani policemen in an apparent case of friendly fire. Those officials tell The Associated Press that the police were under attack by the Taliban and fired on the Americans when they came to help.
U.S. troops returned fire, killing the policemen. This all happened in the dark last night in the northeastern section of Afghanistan near its border with Pakistan.
CHETRY: Well, a huge manhunt is under way in Montana right now for two escaped convicts, including the man accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son. Investigators are releasing some new information about the pair. They're saying the men may be armed. They may have food, as well as other supplies.
David Letterman's security team has actually been warned.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho is outside of Letterman's studios in New York City with more on this story for us.
Hi, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran. Good morning.
You know, as they say in the business, the show must go on. And so it did.
Last night, David Letterman taped not one, but two shows. And Letterman, who is intensely private and rarely talks about his family, made no mention of the news, but spoke at length about his son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK HOW HOST: My son comes up to me and he says, "Daddy, would you like to rough-house?"
CHO (voice over): For those who don't know what's going on in David Letterman's personal life, last night was just another show, wrinkled with stories about his son.
LETTERMAN: Wam! And I take a knee to my nose.
CHO: But more than 2,000 miles away, in Montana, authorities are searching for 45-year-old Kelly Frank and another inmate. Frank was arrested back in 2005 for plotting to kidnap Letterman's son Harry. He came to know the family while working as a painter at the talk show host's Montana home. At the time, Letterman mentioned the ordeal on his show.
LETTERMAN: But I want to just take a second here to thank some people.
CHO: On Friday, Frank and the other inmate took off in a truck while working on the prison's minimum security ranch under little supervision.
MIKE MAHONEY, MONTANA STATE PRISON WARDEN: We do believe that these two individuals may be in possession of a weapon. In addition, the complication is our intelligence indicates that Mr. Frank is very familiar with this area.
CHO: Local authorities are getting help from the feds, including a Black Hawk helicopter. Montana authorities are also in touch with Letterman's security team.
MAHONEY: He was just concerned if our intelligence indicated the Letterman family should be concerned about being at risk, if this guy had -- if we had any intelligence that he would have an agenda.
CHO: Letterman's family is not believed to be in danger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Now, both CBS, which broadcasts "The Late Show," and Worldwide Pants, Letterman's production company, had no comment.
Meanwhile, if you're wondering just how these two guys got away, they were under what the prison calls limited supervision. Now, that means they were not considered a danger. So during daylight hours they were essentially allowed to roam freely on a 40-000 acre ranch on prison grounds, where, in some cases, they were only checked on about every two hours or so. Another interesting point, Kiran, to make is that Kelly Frank was actually up for parole in just three months. And last night the warden told me he couldn't believe that he tried to escape, and, in fact, he called it a bad choice and a dumb decision -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, no doubt. All right. We'll keep everyone posted on the results of that manhunt as they continue to look for these two this morning.
Alina, thanks.
ROBERTS: A deadly fire in Pittsburgh tops our "Quick Hits".
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: There is an arrest in the beating and robbery of an elderly woman topping our "Quick Hits" now.
Surveillance tape showing two men attacking a 72-year-old woman in Cincinnati, Ohio, punching her in the face and stealing her car. One suspect was picked up yesterday, and last night police arrested a second man.
A Vatican visit for Tony Blair. The British prime minister will be meeting with Pope Benedict XVI before he steps down later this month. The trip is fueling speculation that Mr. Blair may convert from Anglican to Roman Catholicism once he leaves office. His wife Cherie is Catholic.
And the border officer who ignored a warning to stop globetrotting TB patient Andrew Speaker is taking early retirement. The unidentified inspector had been on leave and under investigation. Speaker has a dangerous form of tuberculosis.
ROBERTS: A rescue mission under way right now in Bangladesh. Mudslides triggered by monsoon rains burying bamboo and straw shacks. The death toll reached 107 today . Eleven of those people were killed by lightning.
Forecasters say more than eight inches of rain fell in just three hours, flooding some areas with four feet of water.
And Bangladesh isn't the only place in this world with four feet of floodwaters. Flooding a major problem in this country today.
Parts of Oklahoma completely under water. Dozens of people in the town of Dewey had to evacuate their homes, with the water in some spots rising to four feet deep. Firefighters had to deal with one flooded home that was engulfed in flames.
Fourteen minutes after the hour now. Reynolds Wolf is here for Chad Myers with a look at our weather forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT) CHETRY: Well, President Bush makes a rare visit with GOP senators on Capitol Hill today, trying to salvage the immigration bill. The proposal stalled in the Senate last week.
So, is there a chance that it can be revived?
One of the main architects of the bill is Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. He joins us now from Washington.
Senator Kyl, thanks so much for being with us.
SEN. JON KYL (R), ARIZONA: You bet. Good morning.
CHETRY: Well, as we start this debate yet again, you're facing a lot of criticism from your own party for your support of the bill. In fact, the chairman of your state's Republican Party saying, "I've had people walking in the door ripping up their Republican registration cards and throwing them on the floor." Obviously a lot of emotion surrounding this.
So, is this plan the one that you still think is best to solve our immigration crisis?
KYL: Yes. We have one good opportunity to pass immigration reform, and it's within the next few weeks in the U.S. Congress. I think all of the experts agree that thereafter we get into the presidential political season. Next year it's not going to be possible.
It takes both parties. Neither one of us can do it by ourselves. If we could, I'd write the perfect bill. And it wouldn't have a lot of the things that some of my friends object to in it. But the other side gets to write its part of the bill, too.
And we think that under the circumstances, the agreement that we have reached here represents the best set of principles to move forward to solve a problem that really can't wait any longer to be solved. And if you just think about the number of people crossing the border every day illegally in my state, you just can't sit by and do nothing.
CHETRY: Why is it that we can't at least try to enforce some of the laws that are already on the books when it comes to cracking down on the border? I think one of the biggest criticisms is, let's just take care of that before we start...
KYL: Yes.
CHETRY: ... worrying about what's going on with people who are already here.
KYL: That's the best question, because unfortunately, neither the previous administration, nor this administration, nor the Congress has done a good job of enforcing the border. And so it's a legitimate question for people to ask. We have looked at the history and tried to write this legislation with that knowledge in mind, that this time we have to write a bill that's enforceable, that is funded, and that can do the job. And we've really done that here.
But stop and think about this. The key is employee verification. If you don't have a system that will separate out those who are employable and those who are illegal, then you're never going to have a system that works.
And the system today that we have is broken. It's a joke. It cannot be enforced.
So when you say let's try to enforce the law, unfortunately, some of the laws have to be changed.
CHETRY: You wrote the bill with Senator Kennedy, which has gotten you a lot of heat as well from some your constituents. But then you voted against the motion to cut off the debate on it.
Why?
KYL: Well, because I believe that my colleagues, who disagree with me, but nevertheless, they have a right to have their amendments heard. And we need to get about 10 or 12 more amendments up. I think we can get that list of amendments today, get it over to the majority leader. And I think then he'll be able to find a slot in the calendar where he can plug this debate and discussion in.
We can finish the bill in a couple of days. And I think that history will record that taking that couple of extra days to get this important job done was worth doing.
CHETRY: Yes. And I think that's the question a lot of people have as well, is why does it have to be rushed at this point?
I mean, this has been a problem for such a long time. Why does the debate have to be rushed?
KYL: Well, it's not exactly rushed. We've been now at it for three weeks. And as I said, as you pointed out, I voted against the motion that would have stopped the debate.
CHETRY: Yes.
KYL: And so we can have a few more days. And I think the majority leader recognizes that Republicans needed just a few more days to have all of their amendments heard, and then we can bring the debate to a close and have a vote. And that will have been about a three-week process. So hardly being rushed.
CHETRY: Well, we can ask Lou Dobbs about that later. I'm sure he doesn't agree.
But Jeff Sessions earlier said on our show basically to the president, back off. He is coming to speak at this lunch today with the GOP senators.
What, if anything, can he say to change minds?
KYL: I think the president understands this is really our last best hope to get legislation through, that we cannot sit by and do nothing. As I said, we have thousands of illegal immigrants pouring across the borders every day, and we have a system that cannot identify whether they are legally employed or not.
That cannot be enforced. We have to get that fixed. This legislation does that.
CHETRY: OK.
Well, Senator Jon Kyl, good luck today.
KYL: Thank you.
CHETRY: We hope to figure out how everything goes a bit later with this meeting with the president. Thanks for your time.
KYL: You bet.
ROBERTS: Twenty minutes after the hour now. And some "Quick Hits" for you.
Lance Schilling, a former New Orleans cop charged in a videotaped beating, has apparently committed suicide. He was set to go on trial later this month for allegedly beating 64-year-old Robert Davis, a retired school teacher who had returned to check on his property after Hurricane Katrina.
Mississippi's attorney general is suing State Farm Insurance again, claiming the company failed to honor a settlement reached back in January. That deal called for State Farm to pay at least $50 million to some 35,000 policy holders in hurricane-ravaged Mississippi.
It's one of America -- one of Africa's rather, most important ecological treasures, one of the world's most important for that matter, but it's vanishing at a frightening rate. Are greenhouse gases a half a world away to blame?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes to you Lake Chad coming up.
Plus, there they are, the cabs from our great New York City Taxi Challenge. Did the hybrid, the one in the front there, roll over its gas-powered competitor when it came to savings? We'll add up the gas receipts, total the mileage ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up to 24 after the hour, strange religious ritual is once again drawing attention to a tiny town in Spain, a place where they jump babies. Every year at the end of the Corpus Christi Festival, mothers line up their babies, and grown men, like this fellow here, jump over them. The men represent the devil and it's believed that they take the evil from the infants as they pass over them. Supposedly the guys doing the jumping have never missed sticking a landing.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, man!
ROBERTS: They'd have a baby stuck to the bottom of their foot.
CHETRY: The poor things, they have no idea what's going on, and that's a good thing.
Twenty-four minutes past the top of the hour now.
Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business." You're not jumping any babies.
VELSHI: No, I'm not jumping any babies. I'd love to be jumping some lines at airports. Friday would have been the worst travel-delay day of the summer -- except it's not summer yet. Friday, June 8th went down as the worst day so far this year for delays. Just look at what Fridays -- this is O'Hare Airport.
CHETRY: It was wind only. It was wind that ended up causing this 400 flights being canceled, and so all these people were stuck...
VELSHI: It's remarkable. Take a look at how the airlines stacked up on Friday in terms of on-time performance. U.S. Airways way down below the others. It's had a lot of problems recently with its whole system. But 36 percent of flights arrived on time with U.S. Airways, then Delta, Northwest, American, Southwest. Continental was way up there with 69 percent on time.
In the first four months of this year, nearly 25 percent of domestic flights have arrived late. That's the worst record in 13 years, according to the Transport Department.
CHETRY: That's unbelievable. U.S. Airways, 36 percent only arrive on time.
VELSHI: Well, you know, ever since they did the merger with America West they've had problems with their reservations, with their check-ins. I mean there are just a lot of problems at U.S. Airways. They say now that they're moving on and they're trying to fix, but they're sort off the charts in terms of what some of those problems have been. But this has been a really bad year. Of course that JetBlue thing on Valentine's Day kicked some of this off.
Weather is going to be one of the big reasons for this. Plane- capacity reduction. You'll have noticed that planes are flying fuller, and they're flying smaller planes to domestic locations, while the bigger planes are going on the money-making routes which are overseas.
FAA technology needs to be updated, and private jets taking up air traffic control. There are 8,000 private jets in America, about the same as commercial jets, but, you know, you need the same amount of traffic controllers to land a jet with six people on it as you do with one with 200. So these are all problems. It's not summer yet. It's going to be a busy, busy summer for travelers, and expect a lot of delays.
CHETRY: And the air rage continues.
VELSHI: And the air rage continues. People have lots of reasons to get angry.
And by the way, because you have to check more and carry less onboard, there's further luggage delays, too. We'll have a lot to talk about.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks for all of that. You're always a ray of sunshine.
We're going to be back in just a moment with more AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the great A.M. taxicab challenge, hybrid versus gas powered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hybrid's definitely better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Is the hybrid really worth all the hype? the results of our head-to-head taxi challenge is next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Oh, there you are looking at a picture this morning from WFTV, our affiliate in Cocoa Beach, Florida. An overcast day they're looking at on the Atlantic Coast.
If our theme song wasn't so loud you could almost hear the sound of "I Dream of Jeanie." it was set in Cocoa Beach.
Welcome back. It's June 12, here in New York City. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
You know, I always saw them inside the house, so I didn't even really know where it was. But, I loved Jeannie's outfit.
ROBERTS: He was the astronaut, Cocoa Beach, Florida. That's where they lived.
CHETRY: He was the astronaut.
Well, of the stories on our radar this morning, there is a big medical conference devoted to sleep. I don't have to ask you if you get enough. I already know the answer, which is, no. But there was interesting headlines about how your ability to sleep well after a traumatic event can be profoundly impacted and also some guidelines on how much little kids need to sleep every night. Chances are your little ones aren't getting enough sleep either.
ROBERTS: We're going to head outside our studios this morning, here in Manhattan to crunch the numbers in our Great New York City Taxicab Challenge. You'll remember the Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued an edict a little while ago all cabs in the City of New York by the year 2012 must be hybrid vehicles, combination of gas and electric. That's the hybrid vehicle on the right. That's a typical gas-powered cab on the left.
We had a couple of cabbies here yesterday, we sent them out in the streets to pick up fares, drive around, fill up with gas. We'll do our head-to-head comparison of who is getting better gas mileage? Which might be better for the environment? And economically, does it make sense?
CHETRY: It's interesting because on that shot every third car that goes by is a taxi. Those are two fine-looking cabs, though. I've never ridden in one that nice.
ROBERTS: You know, Bloomberg's got this idea of easing congestion in New York City by charging people to go downtown. I think if you got rid of a few of the cabs you'd ease congestion. But then people would drive their cars, so I guess you're back to square one.
We start on Capitol Hill this morning in a late effort by President Bush to save the immigration bill. The president will have lunch today with the very same Senate Republicans who rejected the bill just last week. Earlier, on AMERICAN MORNING, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told us, he is confident the bill will survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What now is going to happen, we think, is that Senate Republicans will get together on a series of amendments, they'll present them to Harry Reid, who has given us the belief that he'll permit that debate, after they finish debating an energy bill that comes up today. And if that's the case, we are confident it will pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But not long after Tony Snow made those comments Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican, came on AMERICAN MORNING and said he wished the president would back off on this bad bill. The last time the president made a similar trip to the Hill was five years ago. That one probably went a lot better than this one will.
CHETRY: A no on the no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And despite the backing of seven Republicans it never made it to the Senate floor last night. Republicans blocked it in a procedural vote. The non-binding resolution didn't have legal weight, but Democrats were hoping that it would maybe push Gonzales to resign. Republicans called it a political stunt.
The prosecutor in the Scooter Libby case filed papers early this morning asking the judge to send Libby to jail pending his appeal. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison. His lawyers say he should be free while the appeals process takes place on his conviction of perjury and obstruction of justice.
The Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says Libby's appeal is not likely to result in his conviction being overturned. And so the law, he says -- so the law says that he should make his case from behind bars.
ROBERTS: One of Africa's most important environmental treasures is disappearing. The question though -- can a mysterious shrinking lake be traced back to global warming? Our Sanjay Gupta is in Africa, right now, to take a look as part of CNN's Special Series, "Planet In Peril".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning from Nigeria, Africa. We're here investigating climate change. To start off with, it was over 113 degrees here today. Here's something maybe you didn't know. One of the world's largest lakes actually exists just south of the Sahara Desert, but it is shrinking, rapidly.
What happens in the United States and other parts of the world could be having a direct impact.
(Voice over): It may be hard to imagine, but what you're looking at used to be one of the world's largest lakes. Its very existence in the middle of Africa, just south of the Sahara Desert with no apparent supply or run-off, a mystery. Today it's merely a maze of sand, marshland and shallow puddles.
ANADA TIEGA, LAKE CHAD BASIN COMMISSION: The biggest tragedy is really the impact of the lack of water on the human health. This is mainly because of the shortage of food. Over 70 percent is due to planet change.
GUPTA: To be fair, if you ask 100 different people the cause of water loss, you'll get 100 different answers. Irrigation damns, poor government planning, human consumption -- and, yes, climate change. The impact is the same.
Less nutrition means people are vulnerable to illness like malaria, yellow fever and other diseases. As the temperatures get hotter, millions of people have to learn to adapt.
You see, Lake Chad spans the borders of four central African countries -- Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger. Take a look at water levels back in 1963. In just 45 years the lake has shrunk to a mere one-tenth of what it was; 90 percent of the water is gone.
(On camera): What we learned is that the people who live in the fishing villages are the most dramatically affected. Tomorrow I actually jump in the lake to investigate what's really happening. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Well, looking forward to that. Lake Chad, by the way, provides water to more than 20 million people. Be sure to watch our continuing series "Planet In Peril" on "Anderson Cooper 360" weeknights at 10:00 Eastern.
CHETRY: Fixing the shuttle Atlantis in orbit, tops our "Quick Hits".
NASA is sending an astronaut on a space walk. He'll try to tuck in a loose corner of the thermal blanket. NASA says the fix is pretty simple and it will save damage to the shuttle on the way back. The mission has been extended by two days, not because of that but so that the crew can get more accomplished.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson makes a big campaign promise to L.A. He says he'll help end traffic headaches. The Democratic contender for the White House says he wants to build a light rail system that would help untangle the mess along L.A.'s freeways. He says mass transit is the best way, and the cleanliest way, to get the city moving. It also, as a side effect, may cut down on some of these celebrity DUIs.
Well, sleep matters. New research says that a good night's sleep is crucial for your child when it comes to being able to learn. But how much sleep do they really need? We'll have more on the new guidelines.
Also we're tallying up the gas receipts. Is it really cheaper to drive a hybrid around the big city compared to a gas-powered taxi? The result of our New York City Taxi Cab Challenge ahead on AMERICAN MORNING
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It is 39 minutes past the hour right now. Reynolds Wolf is here tracking some weather for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: So, are you getting enough sleep, or are you one of the more than 70 million Americans who suffer from some sort of sleep disorder? Doctors are saying that sleep deprivation can actually lead to a whole bunch of physical and psychological problems.
In fact, researchers say that victims who survived the Hurricane Katrina disaster, two years ago, are still suffering from sleep problems today. We're joined now by CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth, thanks for being with us. The interesting part of this study is apparently there was a big difference between men and women in this study. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was very surprising, Kiran. They expected that after Katrina, that women would be more likely to seek out help for sleep problems, because that's usually the case. Usually women are more likely to ask for help with sleep issues. But after Katrina, it was the men who were more likely.
Now this was very curious to the doctors. They weren't sure why and still aren't sure why. One theory: perhaps the men were the ones who were more responsible for the cleanup and as they were cleaning up, they were the ones who became more traumatized. That's one theory.
CHETRY: Also, it seems like you suffer a trauma, it would be understandable that you'd have trouble sleeping and probably feel a general sense of anxiousness. How do you know when that is supposed to go away, naturally, and if it doesn't when you're supposed to seek some professional help?
COHEN: Right. The sleep doctors we talked to say if you've experienced a trauma, having trouble sleeping for days, weeks or a few months is normal and you don't necessarily need to seek out help. However, if your sleep problems persist month after month, many months, then maybe you're suffering from depression, maybe you're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and that's the time you need to seek help.
Now, a trauma can be something like a Katrina, it can be a divorce, it can be losing your job, it can be many different things.
CHETRY: Absolutely. How about when it comes to the kids? I know this first hand, it is very hard sometimes to get your kids to take naps when they need to, get them to go to bed when they're supposed to. And that can lead to some very cranky children, but more problems than just crankiness, if they don't get enough sleep, Elizabeth?
COHEN: Right. What these doctors found is that it can actually -- it could possibly mean that your child will develop ADHD. Now, parents know this intuitively, if your kid doesn't get enough sleep, the next day they'll have trouble paying attention. These doctors did two things. They looked to sleep-deprived children and they observed them then the next day. Voila, no big surprise, these sleep-deprived kids had trouble paying attention.
But then they actually measured the kid's brain waves. And they found abnormalities in the brain waves that have to do with attention. So they could see scientifically that kids who don't get enough sleep have trouble paying attention. This is part of a growing body of evidence, Kiran, that says that kids who have ADHD, maybe many of them are just sleep-deprived and all they need to do is get more sleep.
CHETRY: Quickly, before we go, what qualifies as enough for kids?
COHEN: What qualifies as a nap?
CHETRY: As enough sleep. COHEN: Oh, I'm sorry. Enough sleep, I thought you said what qualifies as a nap? Enough sleep for kids, pre-schoolers need 11 to 13 hours of sleep, and school-aged children need something around 10 to 11 hours of sleep. But really each child is different. So you need to pay attention to your kid.
CHETRY: I got you. I still ask myself what qualifies as a nap, as well, on this show. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHETRY: CNN NEWSROOM is just minutes away. Heidi Collins is at CNN Center, right now, for a look at what's ahead.
Good morning, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hi there, Kiran.
That's right. These are the stories that we are working on in the NEWSROOM rundown today.
Can he get a stalled immigration bill moving? President Bush heads to Capitol Hill to lobby Republicans. We'll see what is said there.
And military stretched thin. For just a second time since World War II, the 82nd Airborne Division is fully deployed. What does that mean?
And, he calls his carving a gift from god. A formerly homeless man's creation is presented to the Pope. Fascinating story. Join Tony Harris and me in the "Newsroom". We get started at the top of the hour, Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, Heidi.
A major school overhaul topping our "Quick Hits" now. Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenti took over the schools as of midnight. According to "The Washington Post" he is firing the school superintendent and will announce the replacement coming up in less than an hour. Among major urban districts, D.C. does not have a good record, ranking among the highest in spending, and lowest when it comes to good results.
Also Washington's former mayor and current Council Member Marion Barry goes on trial today on traffic charges. He's accused of driving under the influence, misuse of temporary tags, and operating an unregistered vehicle. He says the charges are unfounded. He served time on misdemeanor drug charges back in 1990 and was re-elected as mayor after he got out.
John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, yesterday we launched our Great New York City Taxi Gasoline Challenge. Hybrid versus gas-powered vehicles. Which one comes out on top in terms of fuel efficiency cost, and which one is better for the environment? We've got our cabs here, our cabbies are here. We'll bring you the results coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the Big Apple to become the Green Apple. The latest stage of his plan is to heat city buildings with bio-fuel made from corn and soy beans, starting next year. Recently he also announced a plan to gradually convert the city's taxi fleet to hybrid vehicles, which brings us right to our Taxi Cab Challenge right now.
Outside, is John.
ROBERTS: Hey, Kiran, as you know, Mayor Bloomberg has said that by the year 2012, all cabs in the City of New York City have to be hybrid, combination of gas and electric. This is a hybrid vehicle right here. This is a Lexus RH -- this is a Lexus 400-H, it's a pretty high-end hybrid. It goes for probably about $50,000. We also faced it off against a Toyota Sienna, which is a typical gasoline-powered vehicle.
Now, Cliff Adler, here, is the owner of the hybrid vehicle. And Erhan Tuncel is the driver of the normally powered vehicle. We sent you out yesterday, to go about your business, pick up fares, drive around the City of New York. At the end of the day we asked you to fill up with gasoline.
Erhan, how much gas did you use, how much did it cost you?
ERHAN TUNCEL, ALL-GAS CAB DRIVER: I used a little over eight gallons, 8.126, to be exact. And I spent $29 for it.
ROBERTS: OK, $29. So, 8.126 gallons and you drove about 130 miles. That would be 16 miles to the gallon.
What about, Cliff?
CLIFF ADLER, HYBRID CAB DRIVER: I did 92, 92 miles and --
ROBERTS: And 4.2 gallons of gas.
ADLER: Yes, 4.2 gallons of gas. Right, for $14.00.
ROBERTS: Total cost of 14.62.
ADLER: That's it.
ROBERTS: Now, I took the liberty of bumping you up to the same mileage that Erhan did. You drove about 72 percent of what he did. You add in the extra 28 percent, it comes to 5.4 gallons of gas that you would have used, for a total cost of $19.06, and a total of 22.14 miles per gallon.
Sounds like you're driving with a little bit of a lead foot here; 22 miles to the gallon with a hybrid?
ADLER: We did a fair amount of sitting for a while, with the air conditioner on full yesterday. If you're not moving at all, and the engine goes on and off, naturally you're going to be using some gas.
ROBERTS: Now, what was the cost of the vehicle? Because these are quite expensive.
ADLER: This cost me over $46,000 to buy the vehicle.
ROBERTS: So is it worth it for that savings in gas? You would have saved, if you had driven the same amount of miles, you would have saved $10.
ADLER: There were a couple of reasons, one -- I wanted to get a hybrid. Two, I wanted to stick with a SUV. OK? And this was the most -- this was the easiest one to get, the quickest to get. I could get within a couple of weeks, with black leather interior, which I couldn't get on the others. Rather than have to wait a few months I could get it within a couple of weeks.
ROBERTS: It is a luxury automobile. Cliff's driving a luxury cab here.
What about you, Erhan? Are you sold on this idea of hybrid technology yet?
TUNCEL: I must say, I am. But my only concern with the hybrids right now -- except Cliff's car, perhaps -- it has quite a bit of leg room in there, most of the hybrids that are out there right now are just too small. And that's actually why I did not purchase one at the time of this purchase.
ROBERTS: You've got quite a bit of space in here. You could comfortably fit four people, five in a pinch, right?
TUNCEL: Yes.
ROBERTS: You're going to have to buy a hybrid though under the edict issued by Mayor Bloomberg. So, what are you going to be looking at?
TUNCEL: OK, at this point, I'm hoping that the hybrid industry will come up with a decent size car and I'll be glad to buy. For example, if Toyota came out with a Toyota Sienna, I wouldn't have any problem buying it.
ROBERTS: Look, how many cabs in New York City, do you know?
ADLER: Just over 13,000.
ROBERTS: So, 13,000 hybrid vehicles driving around the City of New York, great advertisement for hybrid vehicles. You'd think some auto manufacturer will come up with an idea for one that would work well.
Does driving the hybrid, as well as saving you money on gasoline, make you feel better?
ADLER: Absolutely. Because it's a super-ultra low emissions vehicle. Right? That's the bottom line.
ROBERTS: You wanted to do your part for the environment, here?
ADLER: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, Cliff Adler, and Erhan Tuncel, thanks very much for taking part.
So, at least we've got, on a financial scale when it comes to putting gas in the tank, the hybrid is the better deal. But don't forget, great disparity in price here, Kiran. Is it economically a better deal? I think the jury is out on that. At least we know for sure by 2012 there will be hybrid vehicles, yellow ones, running all around the city of New York, no two ways about that.
CHETRY: That's right. And they're not changing the color to green. So, you're right, they'll still be yellow.
John, thanks.
Here's a quick look at what CNN's "Newsroom" is working on for the top of the hour.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: See, these stories in the CNN "Newsroom".
He prosecuted the Duke lacrosse case. Now Mike Nifong faces charges.
Tucking in a blanket, in space. Shuttle astronauts have an important chore.
A pair of sixes, sextuplets born in two states.
And lizard on the loose. A Chicago tourist has his an iguana incident.
You're in the "Newsroom" in minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All this year CNN has been introducing you to people making a difference in their communities. We call them "CNN Heroes". Today we take you to Kabul, Afghanistan, where a world renowned makeup artist has returned home to help build the women of his country, and help them build a better future for themselves. Matin Maulawizada is today's "CNN Hero".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Explain to me everything you want to explain.
MATIN MAULAWIZADA, "COMMUNITY CRUSADER": Afghanistan offered me a lot and I wanted to bring a little something back. It is a tiny project but I wanted to really make sure to bring something. Afghan woman survived years of war, years of suppression. Still they prevail. To me the strength of Afghan women are just remarkable, and I wanted to work with them.
Widows in particular rely on the mercy of their families, so they kind of become servants to them. I wanted to kind of change that one person at a time, if I could.
My entire point was to make sure that widows and women be able to proudly work and be proud of their work, and work outside their house. And provide wealth for their families.
It is just amazing, it sells itself. Really.
They read and write equivalent of fourth grader now. Mentally they're prepared to go to work. They know how to take measurements, they know how to write measurements, once they learn enough, they will basically be business women.
And look at their embroidery on this. I'm hoping I would send them to courses that they could actually manage a business, grow a business. My whole dream is for them to basically have the confidence, to see the beautiful objects that they are making, and know people are enjoying and appreciating them.
They are doing the work. All I am offer is basically an opportunity for them to show what they have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Got my cardio in this morning.
CHETRY: You sure did. You had to race up from the street. That's the new thing, forget taxis, just run around the city.
ROBERTS: Doing OK.
CHETRY: Like everyone.
Well, check this out, good thing you weren't at this soccer game, anyway. Fans gone wild at a match over the weekend in Columbia.
ROBERTS: Look at this, at least two dozen people were hurt when a brawl erupted between fans of two opposing teams. Riot police were called in to calm things down.
CHETRY: Yes, it was a real mess. And doctors at a local hospital said that most of the people injured where hurt because of sharp objects. It would seem, though, that many of them would have been trampled. It is unbelievable not more were hurt.
ROBERTS: Sharp objects? What were they poking each other with other with?
CHETRY: Who knows?
That's all here, for AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for being with us. We will see you back here same time, same place tomorrow.
ROBERTS: All right. CNN "Newsroom" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins, begins right now.
HARRIS: And good morning everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins good morning to you, everybody.
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