Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
JetBlue Resumes Full Flight Schedule; Dramatic Rescue on Mt. Hood; Southern Comfort: Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Aired February 20, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: New promises today from JetBlue after those disastrous flight delays that enraged passengers. JetBlue's CEO answers your questions in our studio.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Survival story. Three stranded climbers alive this morning thanks to a black Labrador named Velvet and a pile of your tax dollars.
O'BRIEN: And satellites collide. XM and Sirius Radio are hoping to merge. We'll tell you what it could mean for listeners. And we'll tell you why the government could shoot down the deal.
Those stories and much more on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. It's Tuesday, February 20th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts, in for Miles O'Brien.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
Do you think that Oprah and Howard Stern could exist in the same satellite universe?
O'BRIEN: Like this, two peas in a pod. No, never that.
ROBERTS: It would be like matter and antimatter.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, maybe they'd just keep them in separate studios.
ROBERTS: I think so.
O'BRIEN: That's how it would work.
We start this morning, though, with JetBlue. They're trying to gain some altitude this morning. They're hoping to resume their full flight schedule today. And you can see right there in those pictures, that's what it looks like at the ticket counter at Kennedy airport this morning. JetBlue's also rolling out a major public relations campaign, trying to win back some of its angry passengers.
Greg Hunter's live for us this morning at JFK airport.
Greg, good morning. How are the passengers that you're talking to feeling about JetBlue this morning?
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I talked to about a dozen passengers this morning. I was really taken aback about how loyal they were.
One lady swore her allegiance to JetBlue. She says she had been canceled and rebooked three different times, and that's -- and that's the headline here. People are pretty loyal.
Here's what some other woman said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON KOTCHEK, JETBLUE PASSENGER: I think JetBlue is great. They helped me out a lot in December.
I almost missed my flight. They ushered me through. Ten people took care of me, and without them, I would have missed my flight. So I really am very happy with JetBlue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTER: Now, I talked to a few nervous people as well. They're like, "If they screw up this time, I'll never fly them again." But most people are very, very optimistic, they feel like they're going to fly. And the lines are really flying.
If you take a look here, almost every counter where a ticket agent is behind the counter, there must be 25 ticket agents behind the counter. Of course, you can also check into the kiosk as well. But if you need help here, all hands on deck.
The folks here at JetBlue say they have their A-game on. I looked on the departure flights. There was one flight 10 minutes late. That's it. Every other flight is on time today. I'd say that's their A-game.
Back to you guys.
O'BRIEN: Yes, they usually have terrific customer service, with a big asterisk next to that mistake. We're going to be talking, Greg, with JetBlue's CEO, David Neeleman. He's going to be talking with us in about 10 minutes. Going to tell us what exactly what went wrong, and he'll tell us about JetBlue's new passenger bill of rights, see if it's enough to get some of those travelers that are holding out on JetBlue back on board -- John.
ROBERTS: Now to the dramatic rescue on Oregon's Mt. Hood. Three climbers, two women and a man, and their dog, a black Lab named Velvet, all checking out OK this morning. We're learning just how they survived on the frozen mountain.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Chris Lawrence is live from Mt. Hood. He was at Mt. Hood back in December covering the tragedy on the mountain.
This one turned out much differently, Chris, thankfully. CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. There were some key differences between that incident back in December where those three climbers disappeared, and this one, where the three climbers were rescued. One woman with a minor head injury, the dog Velvet had some minor cuts from the exposure. But otherwise, they all came down the mountain under their own power.
In that case -- in this case, they were on a less treacherous side of the mountain. The weather, as bad as it is right now, wasn't quite as ferocious as it was back in December when you had 70 and 80 mile-per-hour winds. But most of all, they were able to huddle together for warmth with the dog, and they had a mountain locator which sent an electronic signal.
That meant the rescuers got to them much earlier. And when the weather is this bad, there is only so long you can last out here exposed to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB ALEXANDER, PORTLAND MOUNTAIN RESCUE: It wasn't pleasant. There was certainly the high winds, visibility was really poor. We had to put in a line of wands (ph) to follow on the way back out. So, yes, it wasn't a nice day on the mountain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE: Yes, not at all. I mean, when you get up in this elevation, just the winds alone -- you can imagine what it's like to spend an entire day and night just huddled there waiting for the rescue team to get there.
The rescue teams say they really credit that electronic signal that got them there very quickly. And there was a push from some Oregon legislators to make those electronic devices mandatory for climbers coming up the mountain. The climbers say it would take away some of their freedom, which is what they enjoy about the sport -- John.
ROBERTS: Chris, how do they explain that, that it would take away some of their freedom? Carrying a mountain locating unit, to me, seems like it would only ever be used if they were to get in trouble and wouldn't take away any of the thrill or the danger of going up the mountain. It would only aid if they got into trouble.
LAWRENCE: Yes. I should clarify. It's not that the climbers say they absolutely don't want to carry them. They say, yes, it is a good idea to carry them. They don't like being told they have to carry them.
You have to look at the type of personality. These are really risk-takers, people who want to take a chance with their life, want to do a very extreme sport.
They like the challenge. Not people who enjoy being told what to do. And that's their point here. They don't want to be dictated to, to be told they must carry it. Of course, a lot of legislators say, hey, when you've got these entire communities involved in these rescue efforts, it's not just you, it's everybody that's going to have to get involved.
ROBERTS: Right, exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these legislators start to compromise to say, OK, fine, you don't have to carry it, but if you get lost, you're paying for the rescue.
Chris Lawrence, thanks very much. Appreciate it. We'll see you soon -- Soledad.
(NEWSBREAK)
O'BRIEN: It's Mardi Gras today, bringing bigger crowds and more business to New Orleans this year. It's one day of revelry in the city's long road to recovery.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Sean Callebs is in the middle of it in New Orleans for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bourbon Street is once again packed, and that means that Mardi Gras has come to the Big Easy. And it's a big celebration and a big economic windfall at a time when the city can use both.
The city's 30,000 hotel rooms are filled to about 90 percent occupancy rate, according to the tourism board here. And while it's all about the beads and boas for the tourists, it's all about money for the city.
The big parades that wind their way through the city characterized by the outlandish floats and the various celebrities. It's been a 10-day or so party here. But there's also been a very sobering aspect to Mardi Gras this year -- the recent state of violence that's plagued the city, the killings, the violent crimes.
Police are out in force doing everything they can to keep that under control. And for the 700,000 or so people expected to attend Mardi Gras, it doesn't seem to bother them at this point.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: And later this hour we're going to take a look at Mardi Gras through the eyes of some special young people from our special series "Children of the Storm" -- John.
ROBERTS: Coming up in just a couple of minutes, we're going to talk live with the CEO of JetBlue and get his take on the airline's P.R. disaster. Things going a lot better today than they were last week.
Plus, clearing the air. XM and Sirius Satellite Radio want to hook up, but there are some big hurdles in the way.
We'll take a look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Well, nearly a week after that Valentine's Day meltdown, JetBlue is looking to win back some of its hearts. Passengers trapped on planes for hours, more than 1,100 flights canceled. You know the story, holiday weekend plans wrecked.
The first really bad reviews for what was once a favorite small airline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no power and it was hot. There was no air.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on my experience today, I'd never fly JetBlue again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the CEO of JetBlue is watching, I'd like to say, either your resignation should be tenured or you should implement a new dynamic within JetBlue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Well, David Neeleman is JetBlue's CEO. He joins us this morning.
Nice to see you. That guy right there was just calling for your resignation.
How are things going today?
DAVID NEELEMAN, CEO, JETBLUE: Better. And we do have a new dynamic. He's right. And, you know, we -- that was a defining moment in our company, and things are going to be different.
I mean, it's -- it was -- it was a very, very difficult weekend for our customers and our for our crewmembers. And, you know, we felt them, and we're going to fix it. And we're going to be better than ever.
O'BRIEN: Explain to me what went wrong. I mean Southwest canceled flights, American canceled flights. JetBlue said, we're going to fly, put people on planes, and then everybody sat on the tarmac.
Why not cancel the flights from the get-go? NEELEMAN: Well, yes. I mean, Southwest, I read a report they canceled a thousand flights, too. The difference is that their event was over in a couple of days and ours continued.
You know, it was -- when you have weather and ice storms, it's a judgment call. People really want to go to where they're going. They don't want to be canceled. And so we've always -- for seven years, we've led the industry in the least amount of canceled flights. We get our customers where they want to go, and that's why we have such a great reputation.
On that day, on Wednesday, we canceled 279 flights. We had a thousand crewmembers that were displaced, and it took us longer than it should have to put those crewmembers back with their airplanes for their next flight.
We've identified the problems that we had. We have solutions. Some of them already have been implemented. Some of them will be implemented in the next coming days. And we have this laser beam result to make sure that that never happens again.
O'BRIEN: Hopefully you'll win back some of those very angry passengers you heard about.
NEELEMAN: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Here's something that I don't understand. And I know you know a lot of these details -- I mean, some people were laying them out. A woman described having to rip up T-shirts so she could make diapers for her baby on that flight when she was sitting on the tarmac.
NEELEMAN: Sure.
O'BRIEN: You know, there were toilets overflowing, there was no food, you couldn't get drinks on the plane. Maybe a good idea on that front.
But for planes that were sitting out there for 10 hours, why could you not rescue -- if that plane was on fire, people would be out there like that, obviously, to rescue them.
NEELEMAN: Sure, absolutely.
O'BRIEN: How come port authority wasn't called to get them off the plane?
NEELEMAN: Well, eventually they were.
O'BRIEN: Kind of late.
NEELEMAN: Yes. There was a coating of ice that had covered everything, which made it difficult. There is no excuse.
We learned a huge lesson. That will never happen again at JetBlue. We will have provisions to be able to take people off airplanes. You know, we have -- our new bill of rights today talks about what we are responsible for that will keep us focused.
O'BRIEN: What are you going to do? Tell me about the new bill of rights. I know...
(CROSSTALK)
NEELEMAN: Well, the new bill of rights has all kinds of things. It has -- and it's going to be a work in progress. We're going to be able to add things to it and be able to move forward.
But if you're on an airplane, and, you know, you arrive in a city and you can't get off that airplane, within 30 minutes you get compensation, starting at 30 minutes. And if you get to two hours, you get the full credit on your trip back. If you're departing, there is obviously a little bit of a different situation.
If we're in line with a bunch of airplanes, you start getting compensation at, you know, three hours. Then at four hours, you get a free ticket, full credit, and then we have to take you off that airplane within five hours.
So you know, there are things that are built in, because, you know, a lot -- what's interesting about departing flights is that people want to go, they want to get there. They don't want to be canceled. They don't want to be taken off a flight. When you arrive, it's a completely different situation.
O'BRIEN: Although there is a point where you're like, this is ridiculous.
NEELEMAN: Yes, absolutely.
O'BRIEN: I mean, honestly, if I were sitting on a flight with my four small children four hours, I mean, you couldn't pay me enough money, honestly, to wait. I mean, no reimbursement's going to pay for that.
NEELEMAN: Yes, absolutely. But when you're in line with 120 airplanes and you're out all on the runway and there is a thunderstorm that's closed the airport for a few hours, and then it takes -- or two hours, and it takes two hours just for everyone to take off, that's just air travel, unfortunately. But when you -- what happened on Valentine's Day is completely unacceptable and we take responsibility for that and we'll fix it.
O'BRIEN: You said you're not going to fire anybody. Why not? I mean, you know, as you -- there was a guy there calling for your head. I mean, why not say, listen, these people did not do their job, and because of that, we suffered, certainly PR-wise, and our passengers suffered a lot?
NEELEMAN: Right. Well, you know, I think that we had -- we had a certain weakness, and that was putting crews back together with airplanes. And we have a solution for that. It was something that, you know, failed us on that particular instance. We have a solution for it. Instead of firing people, I want to add to our management. We've got, you know, some people that we're going to add in key places that will help us in the future.
We have -- just remember one thing, JetBlue has been around for seven years. We have a tremendous reputation. Those people that are in those positions have built this airline to be the best airline out there.
You know, one event doesn't really ruin someone's career. We had a weakness, we're going to fix it, we're going to be better than ever.
O'BRIEN: It looks like there are some big lines at the airport. We had our reporter at JFK this morning. He says everybody's getting on the planes.
NEELEMAN: Everybody's going. Everything...
O'BRIEN: Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, I would imagine you're feeling today, sir.
NEELEMAN: I hope so.
O'BRIEN: Mr. Neeleman, David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue, thanks for talking with us.
NEELEMAN: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: John.
ROBERTS: More straight talk just ahead. They might want to consider adding this woman to their management roster -- Kate Hanni. She's the California woman pushing Congress for a passenger bill of rights for air travelers. She'll tell us what she thinks of JetBlue's plan.
Plus, serious merger talks between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio. What's standing in the way?
We're "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, you just heard a moment ago that apology from the CEO of JetBlue. How are the passengers going to take it?
Katie Hanni and her family were stuck on a runway on an American Airlines flight back in December for more than eight hours. There she is smiling, oh, but she really wasn't smiling for much of that non- flight.
Ever since then, she's been pushing Congress to pass a passengers bill of rights, and she's in San Francisco this morning.
Katie, nice to see you again. Thanks for talking with us. You heard from the JetBlue CEO. What did you think of what he said? KATE HANNI, WANTS PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS: Well, he's a very likable gentleman. And, you know, for face value, I like what he said.
The problem is that the airlines, since the Northwest incident in 1999, have been making idle promises to us about how they're going to adapt levels of the prior bills of rights that were proposed and nearly legislated, and they made commitments to us, and those commitments turned out to be predictions. And they summarily dismissed every element of them, and...
O'BRIEN: But isn't there a theory, Katie, that says -- you know, especially in the JetBlue case -- listen, maybe passengers are going to give them another chance, and if they don't get their act together, they're going to walk. You know, they're going to vote with their wallets and just say forget, it we're not flying you anymore, if you can't manage to keep up your end of our passenger-owner relationship?
HANNI: I think to some degree there's some truth to that, but I also think that passengers are not just flying on JetBlue. They're flying on many other airlines, where we're having incidences like what happened with JetBlue and like happened to our family, three incidences this year. And these incidences are turning people's lives upside down, and they're putting their health and well-being at risk.
The tarmac rage that my husband and I and my two children witnessed from our tarmac on December 29th, people being arrested on planes because they couldn't tolerate being held on them anymore, that should never, ever happen again to people. And without Congress legislating it, there is no guarantee that these rules and guidelines that JetBlue is stating that they're going to put into effect now won't either be relaxed or simply disappear later when it's convenient for them. Whatever they put into place, they can take away.
O'BRIEN: Now, I know you're heading to D.C. today. You're going to try to lobby Congress to get your version of the passenger bill of rights, not the version we just heard from -- by the CEO a minute ago.
HANNI: Yes.
O'BRIEN: What do you think realistically -- I mean, you talked about this not passing in the past. What are your chances, do you think?
HANNI: I think they're very good.
O'BRIEN: Really? Why this time?
HANNI: Well, ever since the JetBlue incident -- we had about 3,500 signatures on our petition before this last incident, and now we have almost 12,000 in the last few days. And for every one person that has signed our petition, there's 100 more that are e-mailing me directly. And they're talking about their -- their horrible situations that have happened, both medically and in other ways with the airlines, and flight delays and baggage issues, and critical, critical incidences that have happened. We have hit the tipping point.
O'BRIEN: So the more bad news...
HANNI: People are fed up.
O'BRIEN: ... the better it is for you, to a large degree.
Katie Hanni, good luck...
HANNI: Not that I wish it on anyone.
O'BRIEN: Oh, hey, we all travel, right? Not that we wish it on anybody.
NEELEMAN: Yes. No.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking with us this morning. Appreciate it.
HANNI: Thanks so much, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: My pleasure -- John.
ROBERTS: Hey, we should just point out, too, that that Northwest incident back in 1999 was sort of the first incident where people were stranded eight hours, no food, no water, toilets overflowing.
O'BRIEN: Yes. It was really a surprise, I think, after that to think that that would ever happen again.
ROBERTS: And it happened again in December, American Airlines.
O'BRIEN: Because many people thought it was so bad that it would never happen again.
ROBERTS: Which was her flight.
O'BRIEN: And yes, then her flight.
ROBERTS: Well, maybe things will change.
It's 25 minutes now after the hour.
Howard Stern and Oprah could soon come together, on the radio, at least.
Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" this morning.
What's up, Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, we are looking at this proposed merger of XM and Sirius Radio. Until now, for subscribers of Sirius Satellite Radio, you chose probably based on which -- who you wanted to listen to. So if you liked Howard Stern or Martha Stewart or NBA or NFL or NHL, or NASCAR, you went over to Sirius. If you liked Oprah or Major League Baseball, you went to XM.
They both charge about $13 a month. Now they want to get together. And what's that going to do for you?
Well, it's about a $11.5 billion merger, and it's being called a merger of equals because both Sirius and XM will own 50 percent of the company. The current chairman of XM will be the chairman of the company. The current CEO of Sirius, Mel Karmazin, who used to run Viacom, will be the CEO of the new company.
Now, the deal is supposed to be done by the end of 2007. What's unclear is what this is going to mean for subscribers.
You'll probably have to get a new device if this deal goes through to catch both satellite providers, or whatever the new satellite provider is going to be. But the FCC is going to take a very close look at this to see whether the ability to get all of these stations is going to end up costing the consumer more, as opposed to the $12.95 that they're paying for each service right now.
Bank of America this morning in a research note says that it gives it a less than 50 percent chance of happening. Merrill Lynch is saying it's possible, but the National Association of Broadcasters is opposing this.
Really, the market tends to be the first better on these things, and both stocks are up in premarket trade. We'll see how that develops. Obviously, premarket trade isn't as robust as trade that starts at 9:30 Eastern, when the stock market opens.
So we'll be following that. This story's been out for a few days. We'll see how the market reacts to it once it opens.
Back to you guys.
O'BRIEN: Want to put some money on it? I'm going to guess consumers pay more.
VELSHI: Oh, I think you're probably right. The money -- whether the deal goes through, I think consumers are going to pay more any way -- any way you cut it.
O'BRIEN: Well, that I don't know. But if it does, consumers are going to pay more.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Could they continue to broadcast on the two different systems, just with the same content?
VELSHI: There's a lot of overlap on those systems. So the names that I mentioned, the sports and the Oprah and the Howard, those are the distinct things. The overlap is in the rest of the stuff, the country music stations and things like that.
ROBERTS: Keep watching it for us, will you? VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks.
The top stories of the morning are coming up next. A happy ending on Mt. Hood today. We'll talk with one of the crew who helped bring home three climbers and a black Lab named Velvet.
Plus, a harsh assessment from Senator John McCain about former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. We'll hear it in his own words.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
O'BRIEN: And JetBlue's trying to come back this morning. Just heard from JetBlue's CEO. He's got high hopes now that his airline is going to be able to get back on track today. They've got a full flight schedule planned and lots of customers inside JetBlue's terminal at Kennedy Airport this morning. The CEO told us about the plan to win over even more passengers.
And Greg Hunter's live for us at JFK this morning.
The passengers, at least the ones you've been talking to, seemed more or less impressed, right?
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The passengers seemed upbeat, impressed, and very, very loyal. I couldn't believe how loyal some of these people were.
The other thing I couldn't believe, when you were interviewing David Neeleman, how candid he was. Listen to what he said. It's worth hearing again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID NEELEMAN, JETBLUE CEO: We've identified the problems that we had. We have solutions. Some of them have already been implemented, some will be implemented in the next coming days. We have this laser beam result to make sure that that never happens again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTER: And part of their resolve is to have a customer bill of rights that they came up with themselves. Just a few of the highlights -- they're going to penalize themselves for things like when they are delayed, ground delays, anywhere from $25 to a free round-trip ticket.
Now, those ground delays have to be something that JetBlue has some control over. It can't be weather or something, you know, tower problem or something like that. It has to be something that JetBlue has control over. That sounds fair enough.
Also, they're going to be giving out -- or giving back money, refunding tickets, a very good ticket refund policy. And finally, if you get bumped off a flight -- listen to this -- you get $1,000 if you're bumped off a flight that's overbooked. So they are putting their money where their mouths are. So let's hope JetBlue does well, they don't have to pay out a lot of money.
Back to you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see, Greg, if other airlines follow suit. Greg Hunter for us this morning at JFK International Airport. Thank you, Greg -- John.
ROBERTS: Neeleman looked awfully tired this morning, looked like he'd been up a long time.
Republican contender John McCain is making headlines with some harsh words for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Listen to this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: McCain, who had actually had praised Rumsfeld back at the end of the year when he resigned, now says the former defense secretary never put enough troops on the ground in Iraq. But McCain says the U.S. can succeed in Iraq with plans to send more troops in.
Some more notes from the campaign trail for you now. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is on a southern sweep, heading for Miami today. She is also denying accusations that her campaign traded a $10,000 contract with an influential black politician in South Carolina in exchange for his support.
Barack Obama goes Hollywood today, appearing at a rally in Los Angeles this afternoon. And following that up with a high-profile fund-raiser in Beverly Hills, hosted by Steven Spielberg and his Dreamworks partners, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. And of course all the day's political news is available on the CNN.com news ticker. Anytime of the day or night, just click on CNN.com/ticker -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: It's a crisis of faith and cash, too, for the Catholic Church. The San Diego diocese may be the fifth in the country to seek bankruptcy protection, buried under the weight of priest sex scandal lawsuits. The lawyer for many of the plaintiffs say these victims deserve their day in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IRWIN ZALKIN, REPRESENTS VICTIMS OF PRIESTS: I think their tactic is to stop the trials, No. 1. First and foremost, they do not want the public to know what happened here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Well, now the church is taking a closer look at its financial books.
AMERICA MORNING's faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher has more for us this morning.
Good morning.
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH & VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at some of these cases that are really, I mean, kind of crazy. You've got in Virginia the details of a priest who stole approximately $600,000. What do we know about this case?
GALLAGHER: Yes, allegedly he worked in two different churches, he was kind of a transient priest. He didn't come through the ranks of the diocese. You know, usually priests are trained and know their bishops and so on. He kind of knocked on the door of the Richmond diocese and was taken in, because of course there is a shortage of priests. He worked in two different churches, set up a separate bank account, filtered some money through there, allegedly. And also, according to court records, is married with three children.
O'BRIEN: Ah, yes, that would be against the Catholic Church.
GALLAGHER: Well, you can see the corruption goes quite deep there.
O'BRIEN: Yes, where do you start on that one? Father Rodney Rodis is his name. Then you've got this case in Delray Beach, $8 million stolen over 42 years, allegedly.
GALLAGHER: Yes. More money there, a longer period of time. But similar circumstances in that these are priests that have come from outside into a diocese. So maybe not necessarily as well-known, as well-vetted, and giving money to supposed girlfriends or wives. In that case, quite notoriously, this pastor gave $134,000, allegedly, to a girlfriend, spent some $275,000 on a rare coin collection, allegedly bought $500,000 in beachfront property in Florida. So you know, quite extravagant kind of sort of spending.
O'BRIEN: Wasn't so into that vow of poverty that priests usually are supposed to be taking. Now how do they discover all these embezzlement? I mean, the second one, 42 years went by before anybody had any clue.
GALLAGHER: Right. And I think that we should put this into context and say this is not just a problem in the Catholic Church. It in indeed a problem in other churches and indeed a problem in nonprofit organizations, and, as we know, also in for-profit organizations. However...
O'BRIEN: And government, too, we could throw them in. But were they investigating the sex issue and the sex crimes issue?
(CROSSTALK)
GALLAGHER: That led to a little bit more transparency in certain instances. But moreover, the question is about the structure of these churches and how they're run. Because the pastor, the priest, is very much independent there. He can really run his church, and he is the person taking it from the basket to the bank, as it were. You know, he's the CFO. So in many cases, they have a finance committee and they will be made up of maybe lay people, parishioners that oversee that, but they may be hesitant to come forward and say, our pastor is corrupt. So there is this possibility within the structure of the church.
O'BRIEN: We'll see if more are willing to do that now. Eight million dollars over 42 years, in a small parish. That's appalling. Delia Gallagher is AMERICA'S MORNING's faith and values correspondent.
Thanks, Delia -- John.
GALLAGHER: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Soledad.
Coming up, feeling fine? You might be, but doctors say there is new reason to make sure you get regular checkups.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta stops by to tell us why.
Plus, Mardi Gras through the eyes of young people. The first pictures are in from our special series "Children of the Storm," ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Now a look at our special series children of the storm. We asked 11 students from around New Orleans to document their lives as their city tries to come back. What better way to do it and what better time to do it than Mardi Gras?
Here are three of our young correspondents in their own words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, my name is Cornell Carney (ph). I am 16 years old. I live in New Orleans. I'm from Chalmette, Louisiana. I go to a school in New Orleans, called Old Perry Walker High School.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, my name is Britney Ruaz (ph). I am a tenth grader at Chalmette High School.
Before the Hurricane, I just went to the parades just to have fun. Now you go to parades to actually meet with family, meet with long friends you haven't seen in a while, and to show that we are here and we are standing strong for the place that we love and live.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am Jerell Edison (ph). I'm 15 years old. I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, and attend Donna Berry (ph) Senior High School.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, 3-5!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you guys!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Hold the camera a little more steady. They're noticing big crowds at the parade this year. Jerrell was saying that as well. And basically the crowds, in fact, are bigger than before Hurricane Katrina. What we saw last year we saw a lot of people feeling like this was an opportunity to reconnect, plus it was a draw for tourists, too, to come and spend money.
ROBERTS: And it's interesting too, the idea of this now being the focus of community filters all the way down to young children...
O'BRIEN: Right, not just a party.
ROBERTS: ... who would normally seeing it as they were saying, a chance to just have a good time. Everybody's grown a social conscience down there.
O'BRIEN: Good. Good. And all over the world would be a great thing. All right. My little plug.
Director Spike Lee, who's been helping us on this project, helping hand out the cameras and giving the kids some tips for shooting and becoming really filmmakers, we have a little congratulations in order for him today. His documentary, called "When the Levees Broke," has won the George Polk Award, which is one of the top prizes in journalism. It showed the government's failed response to Katrina. If you haven't seen it, you should really run out and get it. So a big congratulations to Spike Lee for this honor.
Good work, Spike!
ROBERTS: Way to
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: One of the tiniest babies ever born is going home from the hospital today. Doctors say Amillia Sonja Taylor is the first baby known to survive a pregnancy shorter than 23 weeks. She was only 22 weeks when she was born. She spent the last few months in the NICU. That's the neonatal intensive care unit at the Baptist Children's Hospital in Miami. Amillia was just 9 1/2 inches long and weighed less than 10 pounds when she was born. She had breathing and digestive problems, but they are not expected to pose long-term risks.
I mean, look at those little feet. They're like two gummy bears in somebody's hand. Just incredible.
O'BRIEN: She's 4 1/2 pounds, 17 weeks old. So she's, you know, look at that.
ROBERTS: She's doing really well.
O'BRIEN: And a cute baby to boot.
ROBERTS: You know, they say that preemies are destined to do good things because they're just anxious to get into the world.
O'BRIEN: They're little fighters, right?
ROBERTS: And yes, they're tough, no question about that.
O'BRIEN: That's a cute baby.
"CNN NEWSROOM" is just a couple of minutes away and Tony Harris is at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead for them this morning.
Hey, Tony.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: She's got work to get to.
O'BRIEN: Out!
HARRIS: Exactly. Good morning, Soledad. Good to see you.
We've got these stories in the "NEWSROOM" rundown this morning. JetBlue vowing to operate at 100 percent today. The budget airline planning a passenger bill of rights for inconvenienced travelers.
Three climbers resting warmly now. They spent a cold night trapped in a Mt. Hood snowstorm. We will talk live with the man who led the search-and-rescue effort.
Australia pulling the plug on the traditional light bulb? What's this about? Those new-fangled, twisted energy-savers light the continent after 2010. What would Thomas Edison say?
Betty joins me at the top of the hour here in the NEWSROOM right here on CNN -- Soledad.
All right. We'll see you then. Thanks, Tony.
HARRIS: OK.
O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning on AMERICAN MORNING, new guidelines for the female heart and a new warning that affects almost every woman. We'll have specifics for you, straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: In this morning's House Call, don't wait until you're sick to see a doctor. New research confirming just how regular checkups are a key to good health.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us from Atlanta.
Sanjay what's this all about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, John. Imagine this -- people don't want to always go see their doctor. That's something that people have known for some time, but it sort of strikes at an important issue, I think, with regard to preventive care versus essentially disaster management. Our health care system in so many ways that's become sort of a fireman, you know, sort of rushing to the scenes of disaster without actually taking the time to be able to prevent some of these diseases from happening in the first place. And I wanted to find out all the reasons why.
One of them is that people don't get routine health screenings, a routine physical exam, if you will. We do this when we're kids, but it seems to slow down as we grow older.
The question was, does it make a difference? And That's what researchers from Johns Hopkins tried to put to the test. They looked at 21 studies over the period of about 30 years, finding answer from questions about whether or not routine health screenings make a difference.
I'll boil it down for you. First of all, they said one significant benefit was that it led to less patient worry, less patient concern throughout the year. But more importantly, more preventive services were actually received. These preventive services, which can be of significant cost savings later on. Some of the examples, for example, for women, they were 65 percent more likely to get pap smears, 45 percent more likely for both women and men to get colon cancer screenings.
I want to put that one in perspective for you. It costs about $2,000 for a colon cancer screening. It costs about $200,000 to treat stage-four colon cancer. Also get you things like cholesterol check more often. You might get quizzed about depression, about family history, about smoking cessation, about weight-loss management, all these sort of things that fall into this realm of preventive medicine. It's a movement that's beginning, John. It's still some ways to go, though, if people don't go see their doctors.
ROBERTS: But, Sanjay, how far should people take this? For example, doctors say come in regularly and I'll run some standard tests on you, but they don't recommend things like whole-body CTs, which could, on some occasions, find insidious diseases at the very earliest stages when they're easiest to treat.
GUPTA: It could, and this is something that's been the subject of considerable debate. The bottom line nugget is the American College of Radiology that sort of oversees this says the costs are not worth the actual implementing of full-body CT scans for the general population. You don't get enough feedback back from these scans. And a lot of times what you find, is you found these what are called incidental findings. They don't mean anything, but they lead to more tests, they lead to a lot of patient concern and you don't seem to get enough of the benefits to sort of outweigh those risks.
ROBERTS: Well, still some debate out there, but interesting information. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks much.
GUPTA: Go see your doctor, John.
ROBERTS: I will, this afternoon. Thanks, Sanjay.
Here's a quick look at what CNN's "NEWSROOM" Is working on for the top of the hour.
HARRIS: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM": JetBlue coming out with a passenger bill of rights for fliers who never get off the ground.
India searching for a pair of suspects in a train attack. More than 60 dead in the fire.
New guidelines today to help women prevent heart disease.
Just 22 weeks in the womb, baby Amillia goes home today.
You're in the NEWSROOM, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
