Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Bush Gulf Coast Visit; Hollywood Hepatitis Scare
Aired March 01, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: March madness. Tornados in the heartland. Snow from the Northwest to the Rockies. Get ready for more severe storms today.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: School tip. President Bush to New Orleans today for an education push, but signs storm-battered schools are nowhere close to making the grade there.
S. O'BRIEN: And Asian flu. Stocks plunge again overnight in Shanghai. We'll tell you what it could mean for your money today.
M. O'BRIEN: And fender-bender, mind bender. A new study on the sky high cost of a low-speed crash. We're live from Hong Kong, New Orleans, Washington and New York City on this AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: And good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's March 1st, a Thursday. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.
S. O'BRIEN: You want to buckle up for a very rocky day today. Tornados are already touching down near Kansas City. It happened overnight. A threat of severe weather is bearing down right across a huge area of the country. Take a look at the radar there. You can see some of those intense storms that are now brewing. People in parts of Kansas and Missouri are waking up to twister and hail damage this morning. Heavy rain, flash flooding, trees down too. All that closed a stretch of I-35 in Kansas city. The storm's on the move, so let's get right to severe weather expert Chad Myers this morning.
Hey, Chad, good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Danger too in the Northwest and the Rockies. Heavy snow, ice, dangerous roads to tell you about this morning. Take a look at this. At least 50 cares and trucks piled up in Snoqualmie Pass, which is east of Seattle. Seven people were hurt, four of them actually seriously.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: The results are in this morning from Asia, and the third day was no charm. Stock markets all along the Pacific Rim, once again down today. In the city where it all began, Shanghai, the volatile market once again down. This time just shy of 3 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei lost about 1 percent of its value. Stocks in Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia also down. Another big loser, South Korea's KOSPI exchange. A 2.5 percent loss there. In Europe, stocks are up right now.
The big question we are watching for you this morning, what will it mean for your nest egg when trading begins here in the U.S. in just a few hours? The Dow opens up 12,386, up about 0.5 percent after Tuesday's big plunge. It was kind of a sluggish rally. Watching all the world markets for us this morning, CNN's Eunice Yoon. She's live from Hong Kong.
Eunice, what's the latest from there?
EUNICE YOON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, call it a market sell-off, a correction or the beginnings of a bear market, investors from the U.S. to Hong Kong are cutting risk out of their portfolio. And the first thing to go is exposure to volatile emerging markets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YOON, (voice over): What do Chinese banks, Taiwanese electronics firms and Japanese car makers all have in common? Stock prices, all caught in the steep and sudden slide in Asian markets. For a third straight day, stocks across the region ended lower.
The Shanghai index helped trigger the global sell-off by plunging nearly 9 percent Tuesday. A try at a recovery was wiped out with another 2 percent drop.
Japan's Nikkei dropped after its biggest decline in eight months the day before. Hong Kong and Australia both fell 0.5 percent.
The markets didn't get any help from Wall Street's rebound.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Concerns in the U.S. are rising about another down leg in growth.
YOON: Investors here took little comfort in Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that the U.S. economy is growing at a moderate pace. Some investors in Asia point to a string of weak U.S. economic data, durable goods, revisions in the fourth quarter gross domestic product, and a drop in new home sales and worry about the impact it could have on consumer spending habits.
But despite the large losses, analysts are unphased. They say market corrections around springtime happened here the past three years. Asian markets were up significantly the past year, and investors, flush with cash, looked for new places to park their money. But long-term, analysts say Asia's economies are strong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Chinese economy we think is doing quite well. And as we suggested that the market fluctuation in Shanghai market we saw had nothing to do with the fundamentals in the economy.
YOON: In fact, investors are still betting on the economic road story. Shares in China's second largest life insurer, Pingon (ph), debuted today, up over 50 percent. A sign that despite market jitters, the appetite for Asian shares is far from gone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YOON: And, Miles, in all of this skittishness, there's always someone who is looking for that buying opportunity.
M. O'BRIEN: I think it's out there if you're courageous enough.
Eunice Yoon, thank you very much.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is going to the Gulf Coast today for his first trip there in six months. He's going to visit a chapter school in New Orleans, a relative success story. But coming back from the storm is still a struggle for most of the schools across the city. We've been keeping tabs on what's been going on at O. Perry Walker High School and a student, who's one of our special "Children of the Storm" correspondents. His name is Cornell Carney (ph). CNN's Sean Callebs caught up with Cornell at his school.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Every day, Cornell Carney walks through the metal detector before going to class. This is part of student life at O. Perry Walter High School in New Orleans.
CORNELL CARNEY, O. PERRY WALKER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Pre- Katrina, about two years before Katrina, the school had a shooting here. And I was frightened. I was very apprehensive about coming to this school.
CALLEBS: But this charter school is actually considered one of the best. Administrators with a can-do attitude. Strict discipline. Textbooks. And essential school supplies.
CARNEY: And low and behold, it's the best school that I've ever been in. O. Perry Walker is an example of one of the many failing schools taken over by the state. It's become one of the rare post- Katrina success stories, an achievement gauchely (ph) acknowledged by the principal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, PRINCIPAL, O. PERRY WALKER HIGH SCHOOL: As citizens in this country, they have always been entitled to quality, free public education. Not just free education, quality education.
CALLEBS: But O. Perry Walker still has its problems.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, to see this place harmed (ph) like this, you know, it's really disheartening.
CALLEBS: The auditorium is still flooded and in obvious need of repair. The school is one of 56 city schools that have reopened since the storm. This, too, is the face of New Orleans schools. Mary Bethune Elementary (ph), one of 65 schools still closed. It's hoped it will reopen in the fall. New Orleans has told FEMA it will take $418 million to repair and renovate damaged schools, but officials say FEMA has only provided $13 million for the work so far.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're really beginning to panic, quite frankly, about how we'll continue to operate and continue to open schools and repair schools at the rate that we're going with getting reimbursed.
CALLEBS: And for a school system still in tatters, panic is not what anyone needs.
CARNEY: Schools are making a turn for the better. Everybody is trying to not go back to the pre-Katrina way. Everybody's trying to advance from the pre-Katrina.
CALLEBS: Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Cornell is part of our "Children of the Storm" series. There he is with the camera we gave him. We asked kids from New Orleans to videotape their lives since Hurricane Katrina struck. And you can see we're showing them how to use their cameras. We're going to be showing off the next episode of their work a week from tomorrow, on Friday, on March 9th, right here on AMERICAN MORNING. Our 11 students who are "Children of the Storm." We're just starting to get their tapes in. They're doing such amazing work. I can't wait to share it with you.
M. O'BRIEN: What did Spike Lee say, shoot, shoot, and then shoot some more. So I think they're doing that.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he said no rudyput (ph) something something. Don't do a half, you know what, job.
M. O'BRIEN: Tape is tea (ph).
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: This morning, John McCain is publicly admitting what had become obvious, that he will make a run for the Oval Office. And in keeping with the new world order of candidate announcements, the Arizona senator spilled the beans last night on Letterman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Are you running or are you going to announce that you're running?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: The last time we were on this program, I am sure you remember everything very clearly that we say . . .
LETTERMAN: Yes. MCCAIN: But you asked me if I would come back on this show . . .
LETTERMAN: Right.
MCCAIN: If I was going to announce.
LETTERMAN: Yes.
MCCAIN: I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States.
LETTERMAN: Oh, wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: But, wait, there's more. A formal announcement will come early next month. Once the undisputed GOP frontrunner, McCain is now trailing in the poles behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Happening this morning elsewhere.
A hard landing for a U.S. Army helicopter near Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. Two crew members slightly hurt. At least eight U.S. helicopters have crashed or have been shot down this year in Iraq. The latest one to go down is a Kiowa.
Famed historian and chronicler of Camelot, Arthur Schlesinger, is dead. The Pulitzer Prize winner was a close confident of John F. Kennedy. Served as an advisor while he was in the White House. Schlesinger suffered a heart attack while dining out at New York City. He was 89.
It is a prescription for a new kind of drug abuse. Pain killers, tranquilizers and stimulants are becoming the drugs of chose for people looking to get high. In fact, prescription drug abuse is about to exceed the use of illegal drugs like heroin and pot. The word comes from the International Narcotics Control Board, a global watchdog.
And former Congressman Bob Ney is telling people he's sorry as he prepares to trade that gray suit for prison khakis this morning. The six-term Republican is due to report to a federal prison in West Virginia. Ney pleaded guilty in October to accepting bribes from convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He faces two and a half years behind bars.
Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Some relief today if you're flying coach on American Airlines. Now you can go to first class for the bathroom. It used to be that only first class passengers could use the restroom in first class. The change now applies to domestic flights and international flights that are going out of t he U.S. But under the Federal Security rules, people who are flying into the U.S. still have to use the bathroom in their own cabins.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Severe weather rocks the heartland. Another dangerous day ahead. Chad Myers has all the warnings for us. So stay tuned for that.
Plus, in Hollywood, we all know there's plenty of room for the grits and the grams. What about the greens? It turns out the film industry is a big polluter. We'll tell you about that.
And a new crash test to tell you about. You're not going to believe the damage that comes out of a six miles an hour crash. We'll show you all about it coming up on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Los Angeles is a place well known for Hollywood and for the legendary smog that envelops that sprawling city. But did you know the two may be linked. And some wonder if it proves people in the movie business are green with hypocrisy. CNN's David Mattingly with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): With the glow of the Hollywood spotlight still warm, one inconvenient truth behind Al Gore's celebrated documentary could be a greenhouse gas problem that hits strangely close to home.
MARY NICHOLS, UCLA INSTITUTE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: I think a lot of people were shocked when they realized that because in Los Angeles, of course, we are very dependent on and very attune to the motion picture industry. But at the same time, we don't think of them as a heavy polluter.
MATTINGLY: It seems unlikely for an industry without smokestacks, but the people who make your favorite films and TV shows are one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases in the Los Angeles area. Last year, the UCLA Institute of the Environment determined the industry leaves a Godzilla sized footprint in the atmosphere. Tons of greenhouse gases comparable to L.A.'s aerospace industries.
This is the same industry that always seems to be at the forefront of environmental causes. Studios crank out big budget films with earth-friendly themes all the time. It's no secret in Hollywood that green sells. The question is, is Hollywood buying it?
MARSHALL HERSKOVITZ, PRESIDENT, PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA: The reality is, that a big movie production uses lots and lots of trucks and vans and trailers and generators and lights and that's how we make the movies that the entire world loves. We're not going to just throw that out.
MATTINGLY: Marshall Herskovitz is president of the Producers Guild of America. He says some solutions they're looking at include more energy efficient studios and using bio diesel to power generators. That emits less CO2. The producers of "The Day After Tomorrow," a disaster flick about the payrolls of a greenhouse future, went so far as to plant trees and spend hundreds of thousands to mitigate their carbon output. But few have followed that example.
GARY PETERSEN, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: It's a hit and miss. They're just learning how to do some of this stuff.
MATTINGLY: Gary Petersen used to work with studios to create recycling programs and reduce the industry's massive demand for raw materials. In the 21st century, the new cleanup target carbon emissions.
PETERSEN: Three years age they would have said, go away. A lot of them would have said, go away. I've got to get this thing out on time. But now they understand. They're understanding more. The education is coming across.
MATTINGLY: Education from a variety of sources. Sometimes from the stars themselves. Daryl Hannah is a board member of the Environmental Media Association.
You go to the producers and say, here is a way you could make this production greener.
DARYL HANNAH, ACTRESS: Yes, exactly.
MATTINGLY: What do they say to you when you do that?
HANNAH: Well, you know, in many cases, it's stuff that will actually save them money.
MATTINGLY: And that is the green where all change is possible. It's also good PR. Any screen writer will tell you, in Hollywood, the bad guy never win.
David Mattingly, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: About quarter past the hour. Chad Myers has his hands full this morning. Severe weather in the middle part of the country.
Chad, good morning. What's the latest?
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Hey, take a look at this. This is a good, old buzzer beater we want to show you. It comes to us from Westerville, Ohio.
Nice!
M. O'BRIEN: Sweet! Nothing but net.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that was Brad Bohus. The videotape was sent in to CNN from proud mom, Michelle Bohus.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Oh, beautiful. Beautiful.
S. O'BRIEN: That's her son Brad making that full court shot at the end of the first quarter. Brad's in the seventh grade on the team at St. Paul Catholic Schools. The game was against another team in that same school. Apparently he's watched this tape over and over and over again because he just can't believe it. Congratulations to Brad and to all the proud Bohus' today.
Hello, mom, did you win or not?
M. O'BRIEN: We don't know who won? This was only a first quarter shot.
S. O'BRIEN: She sent us all the information except for did the Rams win? So, Michelle, e-mail me back and let me know. And if you've got a photo or a videotape . . .
M. O'BRIEN: Can you Google that?
S. O'BRIEN: No, you can't because it's inside the school.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
S. O'BRIEN: Send us a photo or videotape. Go to cnn.com/ireport. We'd love to see what you have to send us.
M. O'BRIEN: What better i-Reports have been.
S. O'BRIEN: That's a great shot, right?
M. O'BRIEN: Great stuff.
Coming up, the stock market is a little shaky right now. Throwing some air balls there. But what about the housing market? We'll see if it's time to buy or sell. "Minding Your Business." Actually an ominous report there.
Plus this.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles. They did more than a dozen low-speed crashes here at the Institute for Highway Safety. And this one did pretty good in the front. But how well did it do in the back? Well, as you can see, not too well. What kind of speed caused this kind of damage? I'll tell you coming back on AMERICAN MORNING after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning is right here at CNN.
Did you know that even at just six miles an hour, car crashes can be very costly? New crash tests are in. They're conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And they show that even a little bump can cause major and costly damage. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter is live for us in Ruckersville, Virginia, this morning.
Hey, Greg, good morning.
HUNTER: Hey, good morning, Soledad.
I'm in the crash tunnel here at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Can you see all the way down there? It's 600 feet long. But we won't need 600 feet. And the reason why is because we're not going to be going 40, 50, miles per hour. We're only going to be going six miles per hour.
How fast is six miles per hour? Well, it's as fast as somebody like me walking just like this. So how much damage can happen at this speed? You'll be surprised.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER, (voice over): People generally think of a car crash like this. But the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says two-thirds of all crashes happen when a car is going just six miles an hour or less. It also says many of today's mid-size car bumpers don't protect them adequately when hit by other vehicles, especially SUVs. Look at the comparison between this Volkswagen Passat and this Nissan Ultimate.
DAVID ZUBY, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, VEHICLE RESEARCH, IIHS: It costs less than $1,000 to repair the little bit of damage that's here, compared to over $3,000 to repair the damage that's here.
HUNTER: Another IIHS test at just three miles per hour cost $1,400 worth of damage on the corner of a different vehicle.
ZUBY: Bumpers are intended to prevent damage to these expensive components. But the bumper on this vehicle is not wide enough to do it.
HUNTER: The Institute, funded by the insurance industry, says current bumper requirements are too lax. Not nearly as good as the bumpers on this 1981 Ford Escort, which was then required, by law, to with stand a five miles per hour crash without damage. The Escort, with a stronger bumper, faired well compared to its modern day counterparts.
This went through the same test this went through?
ZUBY: Exactly the same test.
HUNTER: No damage.
ZUBY: No damage. $4,500 to fix the damage on that car.
HUNTER: That's more than that car's worth.
ZUBY: That's right.
HUNTER: Pontiac tells CNN, its priority is protecting people. Nissan says its cars meet or surpass federal safety regulations and its repair costs are competitive. Insurers would like car makers to put wider and longer bumpers on cars to be able to withstand low impact cashes with less damage.
ZUBY: For the consumers, that will mean that when you have these minor kinds of parking lot or rush hour traffic type crashes, you can have a small impact, drive away with little or no damage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: So how fast is three miles per hour? This is how fast three miles per hour is. Can you believe that that damage happened, almost $1,400 on that vehicle, at just this speed? Three miles per hour.
Back to you guys.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, my gosh. That's ridiculous. That's, you know, that's like rolling into somebody in the supermarket parking lot. But I liked it better when you were kind of jogging at the six miles an hour, Greg. That was more enjoyable for us.
M. O'BRIEN: Hey, Greg, can you show us 12 miles an hour now, please?
S. O'BRIEN: We'd like to see 20, Greg.
Greg Hunter for us.
Thanks, Greg.
HUNTER: I'm good, but I'm not that good.
S. O'BRIEN: You can get complete details of the crash test report on our website at cnn.com/am.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Here's a car that had to be going a little faster than six miles an hour. Derby, Kansas, outside of Wichita is out date (ph) line. A car crashing through the wall of an elementary school gym.
S. O'BRIEN: Airborne.
M. O'BRIEN: How did it do in the crash test? Well, we'll find out. The driver says he pulled into the parking lot because he wasn't feeling well. He thinks he hit the accelerator when he blacked out. He was only slightly hurt and, fortunately, school was out at the time.
We've been talking about the rough week for the markets. You've heard a little something about that, haven't you? Asian markets down once again today. We're bracing to see what happens on Wall Street.
But, meanwhile, there's a report out that may factor in. About 25 minutes past the hour. Andrew Ross Sorkin is here to tell us about housing strikes, which is a big deal, not just for real estate, but for other things, like construction materials and a lot of other things, right?
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has broad implications and it's worse than we thought, really. Down 16.6 percent across the country. If you're in the West Coast, even worse, 37 percent.
I mean these are serious numbers. If you are trying to sell your house tomorrow, it's going to take you, on average, 4.8 months to get rid of it, which actually is a tough situation because you have a lot of people who actually have certain mortgages that they can't pay. This is what was actually hurting the market the other day. We're talking about sub prime lending, whether it's going to affect people who can't pay their mortgage. And so there are some serious issues.
And this is clearly reverberating around the industry. Not just in the housing market. Obviously, it goes to consumers, building, Home Depot, things like this and we saw the market take a tumble on Tuesday. Back a little bit as we saw yesterday, but after this news in Shanghai today, down 2.9 percent, I think today's going to be a tough one too.
M. O'BRIEN: And I think I miss spoke. It's not housing strikes, it's new home sales we're talking about.
SORKIN: Yes, it's new homes sales. It's new home sales.
M. O'BRIEN: Now let's talk about Alan Greenspan here for a minute. That man, no matter what he says, he moves markets. And he's not even in the job anymore.
SORKIN: He is not in the job anymore. Funnily enough, you know, on Tuesday, one of the things that really sent the market tumbling, besides what was going on in Asia, was these comments that Alan Greenspan supposedly made saying, we could see a recession. He has revised those comments a little bit.
I don't know if this is going to make you feel better or worse. He said this in Tokyo this morning. He said, "by the end of the year, there is a possibility, but not the probability, of the U.S. moving into recession." This guy has a way with words. You never know what he really mean.
M. O'BRIEN: I would think if he shared with the world his shopping list, it might move markets in one way or another.
SORKIN: We might have a better sense.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Andrew Ross Sorkin, thank you very much.
SORKIN: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: The top stories of the morning are coming up next, including a major weather alert in the Midwest for you. Chad's got the severe weather boxes up in parts of Missouri. Tornados overnight to tell you about.
Plus, this morning, we'll tell you about countless New Orleans schools who are still in need. And President Bush is coming to town today. Where is he going? What's it going to mean for the recover in the Gulf Coast. We'll take a look straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Extreme weather. Tornadoes touched down, and there's major damage in the Plains to tell you about as snow and ice snarl traffic out West. New storms are on tap for today.
M. O'BRIEN: Reading, writing and reality. Schools in New Orleans still struggling to get back on their feet after Hurricane Katrina. President Bush is in town again today. Will he help?
S. O'BRIEN: And it was a late night announcement. Senator John McCain telling David Letterman he's running for president. Not officially yet, though.
We'll explain it all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. It's Thursday, March 1st.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
Could be a rocky day today. Tornadoes touching down near Kansas City overnight. A threat of severe weather is bearing down right across a huge chunk of the middle section of the country.
Radar currently showing intense storms are brewing as we speak. People in parts of Kansas and Missouri waking up to twister and hail damage this morning already. Out buildings, like that old barn you see there, no match for a reported tornado in Linn County, Missouri. Heavy rain, flash flooding and trees down, too, closing a stretch of Interstate 35 in Kansas City.
The storm is on the move. Let's get right to it. Severe weather expert Chad Myers watching it for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: In the 18 months since Hurricane Katrina, the White House says it is frustrated by the slow pace of recovery. President Bush is going to get a first-hand look today when he visits the Gulf Coast region.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Bush is making his first trip to the Gulf Coast since the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That was six months ago.
The president is going to be visiting a charter school in New Orleans. He's also going to be meeting with grant recipients in Mississippi.
Now, President Bush has faced a great deal of criticism, the fact that he did not mention Hurricane Katrina in this year's State of the Union Address. Press Secretary Tony Snow defends the president's leadership, saying that he has convinced members of Congress to allocate more than $100 billion towards recovery. But as you know, billions of those dollars are unspent.
Snow says that that is best held in the hands of state and local officials. They know where that money should go. Those are officials President Bush is going to be meeting with today.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: And here's what the president is going to see today when he visits that charter school in New Orleans -- a relative success story. But recovery is an ongoing struggle for the city's entire school system. Sixty-five schools still haven't reopened since the storm, and New Orleans told FEMA it's going to take $418 million to try to repair and renovate those damaged schools. Now, the city says FEMA has only provided $13 million so far.
We're live from the schools in New Orleans for a reality check coming up in our next half hour this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: This morning, John McCain is publicly admitting what had become obvious, that he will make a run for the Oval Office. And in keeping with the new world order of candidate announcements, the Arizona senator spilled the beans last night on "Letterman".
DAVID LETTERMAN, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Are you running or are you going to announce that you're running?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: The last time we were on this program, I'm sure you remember everything very clearly that we say.
LETTERMAN: Yes.
MCCAIN: But you asked me if I would come back on this show if I was going to announce.
LETTERMAN: Right. Yes.
MCCAIN: I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States.
LETTERMAN: Oh, boy. (APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: There you have it. The formal announcement will come early next month.
Once the disputed GOP front-runner, McCain is now trailing in the polls behind the former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Health news this morning.
An early test that the first vehicles even for Hepatitis E is showing promise. Army researchers say the vaccine is more than 95 percent effective against the liver-attacking disease. Hepatitis E is a major problem in developing countries.
And a Hepatitis A scare is spreading in Hollywood. People who attended a party for "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue and a dozen other special events are advised to get Hep A shots immediately after an employee for a celebrity chef, Wolfgang Puck, was diagnosed with Hepatitis A.
CNN's Brooke Anderson reports on what it could all mean for the chef to the stars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): People in Hollywood are still talking about the "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue party two weeks ago. The guest of honor? "SI" cover girl Beyonce.
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck catered the invitation-only event. But the buzz isn't about the cover or the food. It's about hepatitis.
It turns out one of Puck's employees is suffering from Hepatitis A. Health officials urged anyone who attended that party and ate the food to get vaccinated.
Beyonce spent her time at the party signing autographs, and according to her publicist, didn't eat the food.
DR. JONATHAN FIELDING, L.A. COUNTY DEPT. OF PUBLIC HEALTH: There were 13 total of events, and the guest list, if you add them all up, total about 3,500 people. Fewer than that actually came, and I'm sure a smaller number actually ate the food.
ANDERSON: Though it declined CNN's request for an interview, Wolfgang Puck Catering issued this statement: "We will continue to work with the health department to bring a speedy and thorough resolution to this investigation." (on camera): But is it enough? In a town where reputation is everything, even an isolated incident could end up a P.R. nightmare for Wolfgang Puck's high profile catering business.
HOWARD BRAGMAN, HOLLYWOOD PUBLICIST: If you watched the Academy Awards and the pre-show, you saw him everywhere. He has many, many relationships with the media, which is a good thing and a bad thing.
ANDERSON (voice over): Wolfgang Puck has been a fixture in the Hollywood party scene for more than two decades and has famously catered the Governors Ball at the Oscars for nearly as long. The announcement about the catering employee's illness doesn't seem to have slowed down Puck's business, at least for now.
Brooke Anderson, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: In the Northwest and the Rockies, there's heavy snow and ice and dangerous roads this morning. At least 50 cars and trucks piling up on the Snoqualmie Pass, east of Seattle. Seven people were hurt. Four of them seriously.
Of course, we're watching severe weather that is brewing right in the center of the country right now. Quarter of the hour, Chad Myers has the latest.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a new addition to the popular Web site YouTube.
Also, food for thought for expectant moms. How what you eat while pregnant can affect allergies in your baby.
That's straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: America votes now. A look at the candidates vying for the White House in 2008.
John McCain making the obvious official, appearing on "Letterman" last night to admit he's running for president. He'll make a formal announcement in April after a trip to Iraq.
And former homeland security chief Tom Ridge will serve as co- chairman of the McCain campaign.
Mitt Romney's campaign dance card full today in New Hampshire, campaigning day and night in the nation's first state primary, visiting with students and business leaders.
Democrat John Edwards kicks off a college tour today with an afternoon rally in Denver. The former North Carolina senator taking his message to the nation's campuses. He's going to Berkeley, UCLA and Howard, among his first stops.
They may have geography and party affiliation in common, but Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer not showing any public displays of political affection. The New York governor says he's not ready to endorse the junior senator. Spitzer says it's too early.
And YouTube is getting into the ring in an official way. The presidential candidates can now post their own messages in one location on YouTube, free of charge.
YouTube already, of course, is an unofficial campaign player. Remember the "Macaca" moment?
All the day's political news available any time day or night for free. The CNN Political Ticker is at cnn.com/ticker.
S. O'BRIEN: Health news this morning.
Prescription drug abuse will soon be a bigger problem than illegal street drugs like heroin and cocaine. That's a warning from a watchdog group.
Right now, they say that has spawned a trade in knockoffs, fakes, counterfeit drugs that are sold online, sometimes in lethal doses. Painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin apparently are the biggest sellers in the United States.
According to a new study out of Germany, it says what you eat in your pregnancy could affect the allergies that your baby is born with. In the study, pregnant women who ate lots of margarine and vegetable oils during the last four weeks of the pregnancy had children who had higher rates of eczema. Mothers who ate a lot of fish late term seemed to guard against eczema in the babies.
Women who ate lots of celery and citrus fruits when they were pregnant tended to have children with food allergies. Mothers who ate a lot of deep-fried foods or raw sweet peppers and citrus fruits all seemed to be linked with breathing allergies in their babies.
That's weird.
A little wine might help men live longer. That's according to a new study out of The Netherlands. Researchers say they found that men who drank about a half a glass of wine every day lived about four years longer than any man who didn't drink at all.
I don't know any men who drink just a half of glass of wind. They say that the compounds in the wine could boost good cholesterol and help prevent blood clots. But they should really do it more on, like, two, three glasses.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's get real.
S. O'BRIEN: It seems counterintuitive, but believe it or not, summertime is when children pack on the most pounds. Yes. A new study shows that 5 and 6-year-olds are gaining three times more weight during the summer than during the school year. And researchers say it's because the kids aren't getting enough exercise during their vacations and they're spending too much time snacking and watching TV over the summer.
That study is going to appear in next month's "American Journal of Public Health."
M. O'BRIEN: If the weather is good, get outside, kids.
S. O'BRIEN: I know. Remember back in the day when you would run around?
M. O'BRIEN: We'll see you when the streetlights come on. Remember those days?
Still to come this morning, more money for Merck. The company behind that vaccine for cervical cancer, that virus, is expecting a big payday.
Also, the mind-bending reality of a fender-bender. How easy is it to bump your car and run up a huge repair bill? You may not be surprised, but it's pretty amazing anyway.
Plus, the video of the day, baby tigers and orangutans having a little fun. But they won't be together for long. I wonder why.
We'll tell you ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Steven Hawking getting ready for the ride of his life. The British theoretical physicist, paralyzed and speechless with Lou Gehrig's Disease, will fly on a plane that gives people 30- second doses of weightlessness by flying a roller-coaster pattern.
The flight on a plane owned by a company called Zero-G. I flew on it. See me there?
It's a lot of fun. It offers civilians a chance to do what astronauts do for about $3,500 a head.
Hawking will fly for free, as I did, because I brought my cameras along. It will happen at the end of the month out of Cape Canaveral. We hope to get a seat. It's a lot of -- that is a lot of fun.
But boy, what an experience for him. Anyway, we'll keep you posted on that one.
S. O'BRIEN: That's pretty cool, actually.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's fun. S. O'BRIEN: The drug company Merck says earnings should go up this year -- that's right, up. That's despite all the fallout over HPV vaccine Gardasil and some other news they've had, too, that hasn't been so great.
Fifty-six minutes past the hour.
Andrew Ross Sorkin is in for Ali. He's "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Kind of a shocker, I think.
SORKIN: Good news story for Merck. And this is not a company that has had any good news.
You look at Vioxx, we know too much about. Zocor, the cholesterol drug which made them $4.4 billion last year, they lost money on that drug.
So this is a company that historically in the past year has been such a dog. Now they're saying they're going to be doing much, much better this coming year, in part on the back of a new Type II diabetes drug that was supposed to compete with a similar drug by Navardis (ph). Apparently, Navardis (ph) is not getting its act together, is not going to have that drug out for another year. So people are saying that this drug is really going to get out in front of the rest of the business.
S. O'BRIEN: And so many people with diabetes, and that means...
(CROSSTALK)
SORKIN: Not a good thing, but yes, it is -- absolutely.
S. O'BRIEN: But that's how they make their money.
SORKIN: That's how they make their money.
So, it's an interesting story in a stock market that's not looking so good. This was a stock that was up about 2.5 percent yesterday.
The other stock to look at, keep your eyes on, Cablevision, the cable operator that also owns the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden and broadcasts us in parts of New York. You know, it posted a huge loss the other day, and it's really raising questions about what is going to happen to this company. And more importantly, what's going to happen to the cable industry broadly, because what you see happening is these digital cable boxes which have spurred the growth of the Comcasts of the world and everybody else, it's now finally starting to slow because so many people have already bought their new cable boxes.
So it's unclear whether these cable stocks are going to continue to keep going. So keep an eye on that.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. We'll watch it.
SORKIN: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Andrew.
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
S. O'BRIEN: It's march madness. Tornadoes in the heartland, dangerous snow and ice in the Northwest. The Rockies get ready for more severe storms today. Chad is watching it all.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
