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American Morning
Southeast Storms; Airport Screeners at San Francisco Airport Facing Accusations They Cheated on Tests; Race for '08
Aired November 16, 2006 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Fury from the sky. Tornadoes roar across the South. Homes destroyed, power lines snapped. And a group of preschoolers with an amazing survival story.
We'll tell you about it.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: O.J. Simpson is sparking outrage with his new book. His publisher says it's a confession.
We'll take a closer look this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: A contender? Arizona senator John McCain taking the first step toward a 2008 run for president.
We'll tell you who else has an eye on the White House on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning, Thursday, November 16th.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
Let's begin this morning with that round of deadly late storms in the South. From Louisiana, to the Carolinas, tornadoes, heavy rains, high winds and more severe weather warnings are out today.
We're going to get the forecast from Chad in just a few minutes.
First, though, we want to go to CNN's David Mattingly. He's in Montgomery, Alabama, where they have a pretty remarkable tale to tell today.
David, good morning.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
You look at this building behind me and all the twisted wreckage that's in it, you have to wonder, how did anyone get out of it alive? In fact, I'm going to step out of the way here and we're going to push in close so you can take it in as I tell you what was going on inside.
At the time the storm hit yesterday morning, there were 31 preschoolers in there, in a daycare center. The youngest, just weeks old. And the kids in there were being taken by the administrators of the building who, whenever a storm comes up, they take them to a reinforced part of the building, and that's what they had done, and that is what apparently had saved all of their lives, because when you look at it, that concrete block and steel frame was just completely smashed.
In fact, very few of the kids were even seriously injured. Most of them got scrapes and bruises. Only two had to be admitted to the hospital for treatments. One had some lacerations, required some stitches. Another had a broken bone. But so many parents today counting their blessings and thanking the administrators in that daycare for doing what they needed to do in keeping those kids safe -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: David Mattingly for us this morning.
Thanks, David.
And there are more storm watches and warnings in effect this morning. Let's get right to Chad. He's got an update for us on that.
Hey, Chad. Good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning, Soledad.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you very much.
Coming up at the bottom of the hour, we're going to talk live with the survivor who helped lead dozens of those little children out of that collapsed daycare center. What an incredible story. That's straight ahead this morning -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Airport screeners at San Francisco Airport facing accusations they cheated on tests designed to see if they were doing their job.
Jeanne Meserve has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Screeners at San Francisco's airport cheated when undercover inspectors tried to test. That's according to whistle-blower Gene Bencomo.
GENE BENCOMO, FORMER AIRPORT SCREENER: We would take physical descriptions of the auditors at the airport. For example, what they were wearing, how tall they were. The rest of the checkpoints throughout the airport were tipped off to look for these individuals.
MESERVE: Now the Department of Homeland Security inspector general confirms covert testing at San Francisco was indeed compromised in 2003 and 2004. A new report says undercover auditors, once identified, were tracked through the airport with surveillance cameras and on foot. Investigators are now checking out allegations about a second airport.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS), HOMELAND SECURITY CMTE: I had a similar situation in my home airport in Jackson, Mississippi, where workers were tipped off that the red team would come and what they would be wearing, what kind of shoes, those kinds of things.
MESERVE: Covenant Aviation Security, which employs the screeners in San Francisco, did not return our calls. The TSA refused our request for an on-camera interview. But a TSA spokesman says the problem at San Francisco is a rare one and has since been fixed.
A man who once oversaw undercover audits, however, believes cheating is more widespread.
CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: It's just human nature for ever airport to want these results to be as good as they possible can be. And in these particular instances where there are private contractors running the screening process, it's in their interest to have good results so that they can keep the contracts and get future contracts.
MESERVE (on camera): In fact, the private firm that hires the screeners in San Francisco has just been granted a five-year extension of its contract.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
New this morning, President Bush in Singapore, speaking out this morning. The president says he will be strong on open trade and containing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
And the president had a message for critics back home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In this new century we see threats like terrorism and proliferation and disease that have the potential to undermine our prosperity and put our futures in doubt. Amid these challenges, we hear voices calling for us to retreat from the world and close our doors to its opportunities. These are the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and America must reject them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Up next, the president travels to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Here at home, here's a look at what's new.
Senator John McCain takes the step to officially toss his hat into the 2008 presidential race, joining the former Health and Human Services secretary, who's also intending to form an exploratory committee.
And today the White House will vote on a bitter leadership battle. Democrats John Murtha and Steny Hoyer are waging pretty much a knock-down, drag-out battle for the number two post of House majority leader.
Candy Crowley in Washington, following all of this for us this morning.
Candy, if John McCain is running for president again, what do you think his big obstacles are?
Good morning.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. A couple of them.
First of all, the Senate is pretty much a soft launching pad for presidential bids. To go straight from any place on Capitol Hill to the Oval Office has always proved difficult. Ask John McCain, ask Bob Dole. So there's that.
There's also his age. He would be the oldest president to take office, should he win.
He has a certain amount of trouble with the conservative base of the Republican Party, who looks sort of askance at his maverick status. They don't think they can quite trust him on some of their pet issues, which includes judges and the like.
But, you know, all in all, as you know, he's got huge name recognition. He seems to be able to raise a lot of money. He's obviously a top contender.
S. O'BRIEN: Tommy Thompson, he's the other guy who is putting his hat into the ring, so to speak. Do you think he really realistically has a shot in 2008?
CROWLEY: Look, 2008, despite the fact we're talking about it already, is a long way away. Tommy Thompson is talking about forming his own exploratory committee in January.
A lot of people and a lot of presidents that have taken office have been governors. Tommy Thompson has been -- for 14 years was governor of Wisconsin. He put in place a welfare-to-work program that became the national model.
He has cred here. Does he have the kind of name recognition that Rudy Giuliani has or that John McCain has? The answer is no. But that's what this is all about, is getting your name out there, seeing if you can find the donors.
Very rough competition for him, but, you know, everybody's got a dream. Everybody thinks at this point they can do it. S. O'BRIEN: Then you have this battle between two Democrats. You've got John Murtha and Steny Hoyer. And what's coming out now, as you well know, is this tape from the 1980s where an FBI agent offers Jack Murtha a bribe.
Listen to this tape from back then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're telling me that that's not what you -- you know, that that's not what...
REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I'm not interested, sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
MURTHA: At this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
MURTHA: You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: How much is this going to be a problem for Jack Murtha, do you think?
CROWLEY: Well, first of all, as Murtha himself points out, no charges were ever brought. He was found guilty of nothing. He's been through many campaigns since then, and he has been reelected to his seat.
Still, this is a speaker to be, Nancy Pelosi, who has said, I'm going to run the most ethical, the most straightforward House that's ever been. So this is a problem. In Washington, as you know, sometimes perception becomes reality.
I would suggest that this is a problem for him, because there is this question out there, regardless of the fact sometimes the facts get ignored when the perception is out there. So I think it does hurt him around the edges.
Does it hurt him enough to cost him some votes? Maybe. But they voted in secret. So we never really get to know about that.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. I guess we'll just have to watch and wait.
Candy Crowley for us this morning.
Thanks, Candy, as always.
And of course the day's political news is available on the CNN Political Ticker. Any time, day or night, just click on CNN.com/ticker -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, 13 more deaths in the latest round of violence in Iraq. Several bombings reported this morning in various parts of Baghdad, including a roadside bomb that killed one person and injured six in the eastern part of the city. The deadliest attack occurred at a bakery in the same neighborhood when gunmen opened fire and killed nine people.
Strong words for the president and the secretary of state about disarming North Korea. Condoleezza Rice said North Korea must be ready to put action behind words and give up its nuclear weapons. Her words echoed by Japan and Australia.
This morning, in Singapore, President Bush again urged allies to stand firmly against a nuclear North Korea and enforce United Nations sanctions.
An out-of-this-world golf shot planned for Thanksgiving eve. During a spacewalk on Wednesday, space station crewman Mikhail Tyurin of Russia will take a hit of a golf ball off a specially-designed tee. In theory, it's a shot that will never stop. It's a P.R. stunt bought and paid for by a Canadian golf club maker -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Can I ask you a question about that?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: So how does the ball stay down?
M. O'BRIEN: They have -- I have it in my office. I'll bring it up. It's like a spring, and the ball kind of gets lodged in the spring and he'll hit it outside of the spring.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. The tee would be a problem. A conventional tee relies on gravity, doesn't it?
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. That would be a big old problem.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: That's going to be really interesting.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: I think that's going to be a great commercial.
M. O'BRIEN: We'll see.
S. O'BRIEN: Startling and surreal, too, people are calling this -- O.J. Simpson's new book. You've heard about this, obviously.
M. O'BRIEN: Outrageous.
S. O'BRIEN: Outrageous is another way to describe it...
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: ... where he hypothetically describes how he would do it, how he would murder his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. It claims it's not a confession. His publisher says, though, she thinks it is.
We've got the story straight ahead this morning.
Plus, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano live on the west side of Manhattan, on the Hudson River, on an Army Corps of Engineers boat, next to a Navy ship, the USS Intrepid.
It's been here over 20 years. They tried to move it a week and a half ago, and it's stuck. They're trying to dig it out, but they are making little progress. They're digging and digging.
We'll show you what it's all about on AMERICAN MORNING.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Welcome back, everybody.
Happening "In America" this morning, a brawl broke out in an Ohio courtroom. Take a look at these pictures.
Yes, that's a fist fight between a murder suspect and family members of the victims. The suspect, Jason Howard, is accused of killing his girlfriend and three of her children. The cousin and the brother of the girlfriend is the guy who's lunging at Howard, when they saw him for the first time, punching him, as you can see in that videotape, over and over again.
The judge had to clear the courtroom and cancel the hearing.
In Wales, Wisconsin, an explosion in a fireworks factory injured three people. It gut the building at the factory, too. Investigators are still trying to figure out what exactly happened there.
And you've heard of sit-ins. Well, take a look at this. These are nurse-ins.
Yes, nursing mothers. They're picketing an airline ticket counter in Burlington, Vermont. The moms not only held up signs, they breast-fed their babies, too.
That would be so hard to do, to both breast-feed your baby and hold up a sign at the same time.
The moms were upset about the treatment of a passenger. Apparently, they had kicked a passenger off the flight because she was nursing her baby on board. That's so ridiculous.
Take a look at these pictures, too. Listen. You can feel it all over. I love Emmitt Smith there, former Dallas Cowboy. And light on his feet.
It's a crazy outfit, but I think I like it. He's with his partner there, Cheryl Burke.
M. O'BRIEN: That's a good outfit.
S. O'BRIEN: And he is the big winner. Yes, Cheryl's got a hot outfit, huh?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Big winner of "Dancing with the Stars."
Actor Mario Lopez actually had the same score. And if you were watching them as they were waiting for the final verdict to come in, Mario Lopez had a look on his face like he thought he was going to win. Did you guys see that?
Oh, he was so confident. But nope, the viewers voted, and Emmitt Smith...
M. O'BRIEN: The viewers put him over the top.
S. O'BRIEN: ... wins the big win.
M. O'BRIEN: A crowd favorite.
S. O'BRIEN: You know, a little Stevie Wonder will never do you wrong, is what I say.
Good for him. Congratulations. He can move. Look at that. He can move.
M. O'BRIEN: He's got it. He's got it.
And it's not true that he spiked (INAUDIBLE), right?
S. O'BRIEN: No, you were joking when you said that.
M. O'BRIEN: That didn't happen.
S. O'BRIEN: I got that joke, yes.
M. O'BRIEN: OK. Thank you.
Flying with gels and liquids is not so easy anymore, but a couple of plastic bag makers are offering a solution for you. Hefty offering more than a million one-quart zip-top bags in airports around the country for travelers trying to put their gels and lotions in during the holiday travel season.
Glad is also chipping in with bags as well because they've got to keep up with Hefty, right? Well, this marks the first major holiday since the new regulations were imposed by the TSA. Still can't figure out how the plastic bags make us safer on the planes, though.
S. O'BRIEN: It makes no sense, but it's nice to have the freebies, because I always forget them and I have to throw all my stuff out at the airport.
M. O'BRIEN: I think we should just have a giant liquid exchange, you know...
S. O'BRIEN: At every airport.
M. O'BRIEN: ... at every airport.
S. O'BRIEN: It actually makes a lot of sense.
M. O'BRIEN: Just leave some shaving cream, pick up some shaving cream. Leave the toothpaste, pick up -- you know, just have -- that's just a thought.
Chad Myers is checking the forecast for you about 17 minutes past the hour.
Hello, Chad.
MYERS: Hey. Good morning, guys.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thank you very much for watching that.
It is as startling, really, as it is surreal, this new book out by O.J. Simpson in which he describes killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and also her friend Ron Goldman. He says it is not a confession.
Randi Kaye has our story this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: On Monday, November 27th, the interview that will shock the nation.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shocking yes, and chilling, an interview with O.J. Simpson, acquitted of double murder in a criminal trial, held responsible for those murders in a civil court. Now he says he's speculating, asking, "What if?"
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You wrote, "I have never seen so much blood in my life."
O.J. SIMPSON, AUTHOR, "IF I DID IT": I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood. KAYE: It's O.J., the author, pitching his provocative new book, "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," placing himself metaphorically at the center of what was called the crime of the century: the vicious murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, a young waiter who happened to be in the wrong place at the worst possible time.
It was the night of June 12, 1994, when the sound of a barking dog brought a neighbor to 875 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood, California. He made a gruesome discovery. Two bodies, stabbed, nearly decapitated, left in the driveway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a horrendous crime.
KAYE: Police collected the now very familiar evidence at the scene: a bloody glove, a blue wool cap, and found a trail of blood leading away from the scene of the crime. And though they didn't call him a suspect, they searched for Nicole's ex, O.J. Simpson.
COMMANDER DAVID GASCON, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Obviously, we're not going to rule anyone out. We will pursue whoever we need to until we bring the party to justice.
KAYE: Four days later, an arrest warrant was issued for O.J., but he wouldn't go easily. He led police on this now infamous slow- speed chase on the L.A. Freeway, in a white Bronco, carrying his passport, a fake mustache, a pile of cash, and a gun.
His murder trial, which began more than seven months later, was the quintessential media circus, televised for all the world to see. Police said Simpson killed Nicole in a jealous rage, then killed Ron Goldman, who had come to her home simply to return a pair of glasses.
They said Simpson then returned home, changed his clothes, met his driver, and hopped a flight to Chicago.
But Simpson's lawyers said it was instead a case of police racism, crime lab incompetence and falsified evidence, which the so- called Dream Team whittled away.
JOHNNY COCHRAN, ATTORNEY FOR O.J. SIMPSON: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
KAYE: The trial would take more than eight months, but the jury took less than four hours to render its verdict.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.
KAYE: O.J. was acquitted and now he's back, not with a confession, but a book and a TV special with a title that can only further taunt police, prosecutors, and the grieving families of two victims. "If I Did It", but so far he hasn't revealed how.
Randy Kaye, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Ron Goldman's father, Fred, was on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night. Take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRED GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S FATHER: Appalled. I don't know other -- there were a lot of other words, but none of them we want to use on TV.
It was amazing to me that this whole thing has gotten as far as it's gotten. Nothing would surprise me that this SOB would do. But the fact that someone is willing to publish this garbage, that FOX is willing to put it on air, is just morally despicable to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: You can catch Larry every night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Tornado terror descends on Alabama, but one daycare stands as a story of survival that is truly amazing. We're talking to the owner of that daycare center coming up.
And from the courtroom to the jail cell, we'll check on some of America's most well-known corporate criminals. It sounds like a concept for a TV show.
Ali Velshi joining us with "Minding Your Business" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Time now for a corporate crime update. And we think we need music and a special branding for this, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And big handcuffs.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, handcuffs...
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: I should be fair. Not everything I'm talking about here is crime. Some of it is just stuff going on.
But back in the day, you know, five, six years ago, when it was earnings season, we would all wait for Dell to report, because that was the thing. Dell was the bellwether. If Dell's reports, earnings reports were good, it would be great.
Now, Dell was supposed to come out with its earnings today.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Is today Thursday? Today -- after the bell -- delaying them, which is very serious. Dell is delaying these things. They're also saying that the SEC has begun a formal inquiry into Dell. Dell says that the investigation is not tied to the delay of the earnings. But when a company delays its earnings, I mean, you've got to do this four times a year. You've got to come out and tell everybody what you earned. So that's a big issue.
M. O'BRIEN: SEC looking at an options issue or something that we know?
VELSHI: Dell has not said what it is.
M. O'BRIEN: They're not saying.
VELSHI: So we're going to have to wait to find out what it is. Something is going on at Dell.
Now, something was going on at HP, as you know. Former chairman -- chairwoman Patricia Dunn yesterday pled guilty to four charges of felony I.D. theft and fraud. Each one of those charges carries a maximum $10,000 fine and up to three years in prison.
This is, of course, a very sad case, because it wasn't a matter of people enriching their own pockets, but it was certainly an issue of HP doing things it shouldn't have done.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Is that the -- is that the end of it for her legally? I mean, now that she's pled?
VELSHI: No. Well, she's pled not guilty. So she's going to have to go to trial.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, I'm sorry.
VELSHI: Yes, not guilty. So she's going to have to go to trial on that unless some deal gets made. Now...
S. O'BRIEN: How's her health? She has -- she's got ovarian cancer, right?
VELSHI: She's not -- yes, she's -- and she's -- it has recurred, and she has started treatment for it again.
S. O'BRIEN: And a late stage, isn't it?
VELSHI: A 53-year-old woman, really worked her way up in the industry. It's definitely sad to see someone like that going through this.
S. O'BRIEN: It's got to be tough, the trial.
VELSHI: They made tough -- they made bad decisions, but no one wishes that on Patricia Dunn.
Richard Causey was the third guy who was going to stand trial with Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. He pled out just before the trial started. He was the chief accounting officer at Enron. He has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison yesterday.
And finally, Bloomberg has been reporting -- Dennis Kozlowski is in prison. It is his 60th birthday today. And, of course, that was way back when, when he got nabbed for not paying tax on a painting. And that was the end of that.
S. O'BRIEN: How many years did he get?
VELSHI: He got 8.5 to 25.
M. O'BRIEN: A not-so-happy birthday.
VELSHI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: And soon-to-be ex-wife...
VELSHI: That's correct, his wife has filed for divorce.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Ali Velshi, thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the Intrepid, shall we? The Intrepid has had its own problems. And we could kind of add that to the mix there.
You know, it's faced some tough enemies over the years, but it may finally have met its match in the Hudson River. Or really the mud in the Hudson River. We're going to be out with the Navy and the Army engineers, trying to figure out how to get that Intrepid moving again.
That's straight ahead this morning.
And Michael Jackson is back on stage. It was billed as a comeback performance, but we'll let you be the judge straight ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Survival story, a tornado rips through a pre-school full of children. We'll talk to the people who lived through the terror and also kept dozens of little kids safe.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano, floating on the Hudson River next to the USS Intrepid, which they tried to move last week. But it's stuck. We'll tell you how they're going to dig her out coming up.
M. O'BRIEN: And are looking to unlock inner bliss. Well who isn't? Dr. Sanjay Gupta goes into the MRI machine to get a few pearls of wisdom from one very happy monk. That and more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you, Thursday, November 16th. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
(NEWS BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: In the midst of those deadly tornadoes in the south, an amazing frightening tale of destruction and survival, we're glad to tell you about. In Alabama, a tornado tore through a skating rink. There you see it. It collapsed and inside a day-care with 31 pre- schoolers. Thankfully everyone survived.
Some heroic efforts as a result of that to make that story be true. Liberty Duke owns the day care center. She joins us now from Montgomery Alabama, with a few of her friends that were involved in the rescue operation that's Sharon Ware, Elaine Edwards and Jeannie Moore. Ladies, great to have you with us. We're glad this is a happy tale to tell. But first of all, I want to start with you Liberty. What was it like when this storm came through?
LIBERTY DUKE, STORM SURVIVOR: It was very quick. It was instant. And as you can imagine, chaotic. You know, when you have that number of babies and that amount of damage.
M. O'BRIEN: Must have been a tremendous amount of noise and a lot of crying kids. How did you cope with all of that?
DUKE: Believe it or not, our babies were really good. I think they were more calm than a lot of our adults. I was really proud of my staff and my team. They all did what they were supposed to do. And simply because the children were calm and the teachers were calm, we were able to do what need to be done there.
M. O'BRIEN: As the building collapsed all around you, had to keep track of 31 little ones. Keeping track of 31 little ones on a good day is not so easy. It must have been incredible to make sure everybody was safe. How long did it take before you knew everybody was okay?
DUKE: You know, I woke up this morning still questioning if everyone was okay. I don't know that you ever really know that. You're getting wrong head counts from people. You know, that are involved in telling you that some children are here, some are there, so it took a little while for all of us to get in one spot and to get all of the teachers in, and to account for everyone. So it took a little while. I don't know how long. It felt like forever, but it took a while.
M. O'BRIEN: You must have thought the worst initially. And I know among the children was your son, right? And what was that like?
DUKE: Yes. I think the first thing is that as a mother, you want to know that your baby's okay, which is what all the other parents were wanting to know. Second to that is, the rest of those kids are ours, too. You know, we love them. And to see each and every one of them as we were pulling them out and to be able to know that one's accounted for, a lot of my team has been with us for 10, 12 years. So they're family. And to find Miss Lois, all those things, it was very important. M. O'BRIEN: And briefly tell us about the efforts to try to save everybody you and your team that speak on behalf of your fellow workers there.
DUKE: Well, Sharon and Elaine did a tremendous job. Sharon was left with actually the younger ones. And Elaine came with me to get our pre-K program, which was actually in the skating part, where the wall had fallen over them out. And then we had some people, I don't even know who they were. They were there so quick helping us move things and get the little ones out. Miss Jeannie and her husband Mr. Billy were doing inventory, counting our kids, counting our teachers, making sure everyone's there, getting them all in one place. I can't tell you enough that Sharon and Elaine just, they did everything right.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
DUKE: Our babies did everything right.
M. O'BRIEN: A wonderful tip of the hat to you. Are you going to reopen or not?
DUKE: I don't think I'm doing it again. We're going to go talk with someone about finding a place for our staff and our kids. They do need to stay together, all the little ones. Their concern last night was where were their friends, where was their teacher. So, I think it's important to them immediately to have a place together. Just to let them get over everything. They've been through a lot.
M. O'BRIEN: Liberty Duke, along with Sharon Ware, Elaine Edwards and Jeannie Moore. A heroic team. Ladies, congratulations. We're glad it's a happy ending -- Soledad.
DUKE: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: The Hudson River mud still doing what Japanese kamikazes could not do years and years ago -- stopping the Intrepid. The aircraft carrier turned museum supposed to be in Bayone, New Jersey for a face lift. But even the biggest tugboats could not move it. CNN's Rob Marciano is on the Hudson right next to the Intrepid with more on what's happening next. Hey Rob, good morning.
MARCIANO: Good morning, Soledad. I think the USS Intrepid just wants a little bit more publicity. It's well deserved. This ship has been through a couple of wars and served America mighty fine. It's been parked here on the west side of Manhattan for over 20 years as a museum and visitors from around the world have come to check it out. They tried to move it a week and a half ago, one of the many tugs down there, they tried to pull this thing out, but it's about 15 feet from where it started.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO (voice-over): This majestic ship served heroically in World War II. Launching air offenses and surviving fiery kamikaze attacks. Then it served in Vietnam. It even used to recover space ships for NASA. But last week the mighty USS Intrepid met its match, a big pile of mud.
BILL WHITE, USS INTREPID PRESIDENT: As you can see behind us, you've got a big barge that's undergoing dredging operations right now to remove the silt underneath the Intrepid.
MARCIANO: After 24 years as a dockside museum, the Intrepid was due for renovations and was to be towed five miles down the Hudson River. But more than two decades of accumulating silt put a snag in the plan.
WHITE: We need to plow the driveway to get her out into the federal channel.
MARCIANO: And that might take awhile considering the size of the ship. Tip to tail, it measures 906 feet. That's almost as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall. From the bottom of the keel to the top of the mast, it's 17 stories high. It drafts 28 feet, meaning it needs about 30 feet of water to float.
MARCIANO (on-camera): Right here, the stern of the boat, how deep is the water?
MICHAEL HERB, U.S. NAVY: Right now, based on some of the sound, it varies, but it varies anywhere from 35, there are some spots that are 15, 12 feet.
MARCIANO: So not deep enough?
HERB: Not right now. But that's why we're digging.
MARCIANO (voice-over): Michael Herb is in charge of freeing the stuck ship. His Navy salvage team is dredging around the clock and he says it could take as long as five weeks. I asked the member of the Army Corps of Engineers how this ship got stuck in the first place.
LEONARD LAW, MAJ., ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: The problem that they ran into is with the propellers, which, you know, caught into a little bit of the mud at the bottom, and as they tried to pull it out, pushed up a large enough pump of mud to stop the ship from moving further.
MARCIANO: Although the Intrepid is stuck for now, there's no doubt with its history, this will be a battle it will eventually win.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Still not moving here at the USS Intrepid. They've raised it about two feet by releasing some water from its ballast. But that still hasn't made much of a difference, it's still stuck in the mud. Those big propellers, about 16 feet high, they actually kind of acted as like a scoop, a plow and just building that mud up. And that's the biggest problem. Because right there where they're digging, it's still only about 15 feet deep. So, they still have a lot of digging to do.
They're taking about five to six of those barges full of river silt out every day, and the guy in charge of this operation says it's not just, you know, sand, light stuff, it's actually compact, almost like a liquid cement. Quite a job ahead. It could take several weeks. And Soledad and Miles, it still hasn't moved. I can report that to you. All morning long it hasn't moved at all.
S. O'BRIEN: Live on the scene. Rob Marciano.
M. O'BRIEN; It's got to be like watching paint
S. O'BRIEN: Still has not moved.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, this may seem like a stupid question, but there's still planes on the deck. Why wouldn't they take the planes off to lighten its load a little bit? It's just a thought.
MARCIANO: You know, I'll suggest that to them Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, why don't you do that. Pass it along.
MARCIANO: I don't have that -- I'll ask them about that.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks.
MARCIANO: I know the planes are pretty much empty and probably don't have that much weight.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, they're pretty light by comparison, I know, but every bit counts, I would think, anyway I think.
MARCIANO: Come on down here and we'll muscle them up.
M. O'BRIEN: I will. I'll ride my bike down a little later, come see you.
All right. Meditate on this -- what can Buddhist monks teach us about happiness. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have an answer for us in just a minute.
And Jacko's backo, a look at the comeback performance last night. He always plays well in Europe, doesn't he.
S. O'BRIEN: Always.
M. O'BRIEN: Big hit there. We'll have some morning-after reviews of Michael Jackson in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: This morning in part four of our series on happiness, a look at what we can all learn from Buddhist monks about finding joy. Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN center in Atlanta. Good morning to you Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. I've got to tell you, I loved putting this piece together because I knew very little about meditation. I wanted to find this guy, Barry Kerzin. He was a physician at the University of Washington, who decided to give a lot of that up to become a monk. He gave up a lot of the perks of modern-day life and he's teaching neuroscience a lot about what happens in the brain when you're truly happy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): Few exert more power to shape their emotional state than Buddhist monks.
BARRY KERZIN, AMERICAN BUDDHIST MONK: There's so much happiness and joy and bliss, you almost don't know what to do with it.
GUPTA: Inside this MRI scanner, American Buddhist monk Barry Kerzin meditates with such focused attention that he can actually generate his own bliss. His good feelings show up in an area of the brain where researchers think happiness lives. The left pre-frontal cortex. Negative emotions such as fear and anxiety show up on the other side of the brain.
Now, any of us can try to elicit happiness like his. But the feelings we typically generate disappear in less than half a second. Kerzin meditates up to 12 hours a day. Somehow, he and others well practiced at meditation can manipulate the feelings to last for minutes, and minutes, and minutes sustained over time.
KERZIN: It kind of has a little bit of a blissful feeling. It feels nice. It feels lovely.
RICHARD DAVIDSON, MIND-BODY CONNECTION EXPERT: They will tell you that they are in a state of deep and genuine happiness all the time.
GUPTA: Kerzin, who was a doctor before becoming a monk, is collaborating with Dr. Richard Davidson, one of the world's leading experts on the mind/body connection. Davidson calls Buddhist monks the Olympic athletes of meditation, making them ideal candidates for research on how a positive disposition affects our health.
Already, Davidson has found that people who are upbeat have a stronger immune response when they are given a flu vaccine. That means a positive outlook actually makes you less likely to get the flu. And population studies have shown that optimists live about seven years longer on average.
DAVIDSON: In general, there are data showing better health outcomes among optimists compared to pessimists on a number of different measures.
GUPTA: Meditation won't make you happier necessarily Davidson says, but even beginners can reduce the levels of stress hormone in the body and improve their immune response. Perhaps like the monks, all of us should think of happiness as a skill.
(END VIDEOTAPE) GUPTA (on-camera): And we have really learned that there is a surprising connection between happiness and your health. And to be fair, Barry Kerzin didn't reject modern medicine. In fact, when he met with the Dali Lama, he was told he should continue to practice medicine, but he has given up things like a car, a television, a microwave oven. He says he's never been happier Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: That's nice to know. What does he think about when he's meditating? Clearly not his car or his microwave.
M. O'BRIEN: How he wants one.
GUPTA: No, he's not thinking about that either. I don't know what he thinks about specifically, but what people typically are told when they are practicing or being taught this, is that they don't think about nothing, they usually think about one thing. It might be a word. For example when I tried this, I thought of the word gentle. And you are just focusing on that one word over and over again, and really letting everything else around that word go.
S. O'BRIEN: What if you're a Buddhist, or you don't meditate?
GUPTA: Well, you know, there is this question about how much religion has an influence there. And I do think there are -- based on all the studies that we've read that there is an impact of being religious, it doesn't need to be Buddhist, you can be Christian or whatever, but 43 percent of people who are religious say they're very happy as compared to 26 percent of people who aren't, saying they're very happy.
When it comes to actually combining the two, I don't think that religion actually has an impact on the changes that are actually happening in the brain. You can meditate without being religious and still activate that left pre-frontal cortex.
S. O'BRIEN: Interesting stuff. Sanjay, thank you. And of course, you are going to wrap it all up tomorrow with a look at laughter. Looking forward to that Sanjay.
GUPTA: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: This week's series leads up to Sanjay's hour-long Sunday night special. Called "Happiness and your Health." Takes a look at the surprising mind/body connection. That's Sunday, 10:00 p.m. eastern, right here on CNN. And of course, you can go to the special website which has been set up at CNN.com/happiness.
M. O'BRIEN: CNN "NEWSROOM" just minutes away. Heidi Collins at the CNN center with a look at what's ahead. Hello, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there Miles. That's right. Here's some of the stories that we're looking at in the NEWSROOM this morning. Family feud, Democrats sit down to crown Nancy Pelosi House Speaker this morning, but they are squabbling over her top lieutenant. Get the results when the vote happens.
And Osama bin Laden, is the terror mastermind losing his grip on a new generation of jihadists. We explore that.
Plus, gamers lining up waiting for the new high-def PS3. That goes on sale at midnight. Miles, I know you love that one.
Also, we're going to be talking with the president of the USS Intrepid. He's got some critical new information about how much money is going into the project there, the vessel itself and some of the dangers that are involved, Miles, with the way that the ship is sitting so precariously right now. So, we're going to have coming up. We get started at the top of the hour right here on CNN.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Heidi, thank you very much. We'll be looking for that.
"ANDERSON COOPER 360" airs weeknights at 10:00 p.m. eastern time. Here's Anderson with a preview on what's on the program tonight?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, tonight on the big show, he went to Iraq to make a movie. He landed in Abu Ghraib prison accused of terrorism. 53 days in solitary confinement, an American citizen, why did it take so long to free an innocent man? Find out tonight 360, 10:00 p.m. eastern -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: It's a really big show. The thriller is back or is he? Up next, Michael Jackson takes the stage again, and some say he under-performs. Stay with us for a review.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson's out of hiding, hitting the stage again last night in London, for the first time in more than a year in what was to be a tribute to one of his greatest hits, and really, the greatest music video maybe of all time, "Thriller." But was it a Thriller.
CNN's Mallika Kapur has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAPUR (voice-over): The awards ceremony was billed as Jackson's comeback. It's the first time he's performed in public since he was cleared of child molestation charges last year. Earlier in the evening, he received the Diamond Award, given to artists who sell more than 100 million records.
MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: I love you. And God has answered my prayers, 25 years later, "Thriller" has become the biggest selling album of all time, with 104 million sold. I thank God, and you, for the success.
KAPUR: Forty-two years in the entertainment business, and he's still hitting the right note, at least with some fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was crying. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was crying, the most amazing thing I have ever, ever seen in my life.
KAPUR: Fans were expecting Michael Jackson to sing his megahit Thriller at the World Music Awards in London, but it appears the King of Pop changed his tune, singing just a few lines of this instead -- before being thrown off by a few audio glitches.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He sang about two sentences, and you couldn't really hear him, and his voice wag crackling. That wasn't the Michael Jackson we wanted to see. Big letdown. Big letdown.
Mallika Kapur, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: "The London Times" this morning is reporting that Jackson had a severe case of stage fright, and was only able to come out with the help of his friend, the singer Beyonce Knowles.
M. O'BRIEN: I didn't see Beyonce on the stage.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, she was there. She was stage, I guess, what's that, left of him, and really cheering him on.
M. O'BRIEN: If Beyonce was there, I would have followed her, too.
S. O'BRIEN: She looked good, yes. Yes, you would have.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, Iraq, some reports that hostages, those hostages we've been telling you about, have been tortured or killed. We'll have an update on the mass kidnappings at these offices you're seeing there.
And it's a season for toy shopping, of course. Gerri Willis will stop by to make sure you play it safe.
AMERICAN MORNING's back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A brief moment to mention the Miles-cam product.
S. O'BRIEN: It's Thursday -- it must be Miles-cam day.
M. O'BRIEN: Naturally. Milescam@CNN.com -- milescam@cnn.com is the e-mail location. The place to see it, CNN.com/pipleline, which I invite you to check out anytime, a fine way to become your down TV producer, 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. I watch it every Thursday.
M. O'BRIEN: And every other day, too.
S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time on this AMERICAN MORNING. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
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