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American Morning

Jimmy Carter: Bush Administration Worst in History; Whale Watch: Humpbacks Headed Back to Pacific Ocean; 'Cutty Sark' Burns

Aired May 21, 2007 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Sticker shock. Gas prices hit an all-time high. More than $4 a gallon in spots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate to be driving my SUV.

ROBERTS: Are high-end hybrids the answer?

Plus, Romney rising.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you see he's actually working with voters.

ROBERTS: And a candidate America can relate to.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: I think the way I dress, maybe. I'm always battling with my weight.

ROBERTS: New movement in the race for president on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: And good morning to you. It is Monday, May the 21st.

I'm John Roberts in Washington.

CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.

Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Some stories on our radar today.

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: The White House, meanwhile, is firing back at former president Jimmy Carter after the Georgia Democrat called the Bush administration "the worst in history" in regard to international relations. The White House called his comments "sad," Carter "bordering on irrelevancy". When Carter was in office he faced a lot of heat over the Iran hostage crisis, which basically sunk his re- election campaign.

John Dickerson is the chief political correspondent for slate.com. He joins me now live in Washington. Jimmy Carter, is he in a very strong position here to be criticizing the Bush administration on foreign policy?

JOHN DICKERSON, SLATE.COM: No. You know, he left office with one of the worst approval ratings in modern memory. And it's sort of -- it's quite rare for ex-presidents to criticize their successors, and then to use words like "worst". That's really -- really something new.

ROBERTS: Were you surprised that the White House fought back as sharply as it did as well? Usually, you know, the first rule in politics is don't punch down.

DICKERSON: That's right. They were quiet at first, but then they came roaring back.

They say two things. One, this is extraordinary. He not only attacked President Bush, he attacked Tony Blair.

And secondly, they don't mind being in a fight with Jimmy Carter. You know, they look at all of their enemies on this, and they don't mind defining their enemies as Jimmy Carter, who's unpopular even with some Democrats.

ROBERTS: You know, we had that little sound bite from Nancy Pelosi talking about the war spending bill, saying that she has full confidence it will get done in the next five days. That's a tall order.

DICKERSON: It's a very tall order. She's got to deal with the war supplemental, and plus immigration is being debated. It's pretty unlikely that these -- both of these things are going to happen. On the war supplemental in particular, there is a breakdown over this question of benchmarks, and the White House doesn't look like it's going to budge.

ROBERTS: If they don't get it done by Memorial Day, do Democrats suffer politically for it?

DICKERSON: Well, this is the great question. You know, everybody goes back and celebrates the veterans, and it looks like the Democrats might. And they suffer in two different ways.

One, they look -- perhaps Republicans can paint them as not defending the troops. And also, their liberal base is angry that they're not getting done what they want them to get done, which is get America out of Iraq.

ROBERTS: And what about immigration? It didn't get done the last time. Does it have a hope of getting done this time when you look at all the complaints from the left and the right?

DICKERSON: A lot of people hate this immigration bill, and sometimes that's a good thing in Washington, because it means actually it might do some good as a piece of legislation. But we'll really know for sure when all the senators come back and have a talk about this from their being home over the weekend. But it looks pretty difficult, and there's no way it's going to get done before the Memorial Day.

ROBERTS: Yes. All right.

John, thanks very much for that. Always appreciate your analysis and perspective -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Well, two stranded humpback whales dubbed "Delta" and "Dawn" are now headed back to the Pacific Ocean after taking a wrong turn swimming inland last week. But are they in the clear?

CNN's Dan Simon is live near the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California. That's where we want to eventually see them headed. They covered about 20 some miles yesterday.

What is the status, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, at this point, things seem to be going smoothly. At this course they will probably reach the Golden Gate Bridge some time this afternoon.

You know, Kiran, this story has become an obsession for a lot of people here in northern California, and it's really easy to understand why. At its very essence, here you have a mother and her baby whale, her calf, both lost, both injured. And a lot of people here hoping for a successful conclusion. And it looks like you're going to have one at this point.

It's believed the whales are about a third of the way here. So, again, as I said, you'll probably see the whales perhaps in this area some time this afternoon.

To make sure that the whales went on the right course, they were escorted by none other than nine Coast Guard vessels. These vessels were out there just to make sure they didn't deviate. Those efforts were suspended overnight, but as soon as you have daylight here in a few hours, those boats are going to be back out just to make sure that those whales are still going in the right direction.

There's also going to be some helicopters up there to see if they can't pinpoint the whereabouts of these particular whales -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Dan, that's interesting. So you think by later today, or even this afternoon, you might see the whales making their way to the Golden Gate Bridge. That's a lot of ground to cover, or water in this case.

SIMON: No question about it. You're talking about 90 miles. But if they're going on their present course -- and it's believed they're going somewhere between five and 10 miles an hour -- if you do the math, that means they'll be there some time this afternoon.

CHETRY: Wow. That is really exciting. And really quickly, before we let you go, Dan, do they believe it was playing those humpback whale sounds from the tugboat that finally got them going the right direction?

SIMON: You know, no one really knows what prompted the whales to get going. Perhaps the sound of the tugboats is what motivated them.

Last week they used what's called a hydrophone. This is an underwater device, where they piped in various whale sounds. That did not get them going. There was the thought that perhaps they would have to use more aggressive tactics this week, but they didn't need to, after all, because at 3:30 in the afternoon yesterday those whales just started going on their own -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Great news.

Dan Simon in Marin County, where those whales -- hopefully you'll be meeting up with them quite soon.

Thanks, Dan.

ROBERTS: Nine minutes after the hour now.

It's the namesake and image of one of the world's most famous scotches. Now the scene of a mystery in London this morning. What caused a huge fire on the Cutty Sark?

It's been in dry dock on the bank of the Thames Rivers for the last half century. It was once one of the world's fastest tea clipper ships.

This is the Cutty Sark before the fire. Now caretakers are worried that much of its original timber and iron could never be replaced.

CNN's Phil Black is live near the Cutty Sark, just outside of London.

Phil, do they have any idea yet on how the fire started?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, no word on that. And for that reason, this fire is being treated as suspicious.

The fire was a bit challenging for firefighters this morning. There was lots of old, dry timber on the ship, and that fueled the flames and it burnt very quickly.

Now, the damage was very extensive, but we're told it could have been much worse. Because this ship was currently undergoing restoration, as much as 50 percent of it was actually already stripped away and placed in storage. That includes the planking, the mast, the deck houses. That's good news. But, three decks aboard the Cutty Sark were burned away. And crucially, the damage to the ship's frame is still to be determined, and that will decide whether this historic sailing clipper can be saved -- John. ROBERTS: Now, Phil, we've always heard these stories about how there are so many closed-circuit television cameras in and around London, that crimes can be solved fairly quickly in many cases. Is that the case there, as well?

BLACK: Police have confirmed that closed-circuit television is one of the things they'll be looking at here around this dry dock area. They're also looking for a silver car that was seen in the area and could provide some clues.

But yes, certainly there is closed-circuit TV. What it shows remains to be seen -- John.

ROBERTS: Phil Black for us in London.

By the way, the Cutty Sark was supposed to be reopen 2009, after its restoration. That date obviously well up in the air -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Wow. What a waste.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Check out these pictures. This is in Arizona. They are reporting progress, though, even though it still looks like a mess out there on the wildfires burning around the country.

This is a fire near Payson, Arizona. It's northeast of Phoenix. And they have it 90 percent contained this morning. They're allowing everyone back home.

This fire started last Sunday.

In southern California, firefighters are expecting to contain a wildfire that forced thousands of campers to leave the Angeles National Forest over the weekend. Twenty-five hundred acres burned there.

And also the fire in southern New Jersey is under control this morning. National Guard officials think that it was a flare dropped from a jet that sparked it. More than 17,000 acres of New Jersey's pinelands scorched.

And they needed rain in Florida, but maybe not like this, and really not here. This was in Miami-Dade County yesterday. Seven inches drenching Miami, flash flooding on the roadways. Most of it fell on the coast, not where it was really needed inland, as we know.

We've also been tracking the wildfire fight in Florida. And Chad Myers here at quarter past the hour to talk more about that.

(WEATHER REPORT) ROBERTS: New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is going to officially announce that he is running for president today. That makes eight Democrats going for the White House. Richardson, even though he hadn't officially declared, was in that Democratic debate.

I asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi what she thought about the Democratic field, two candidates in particular, when we sat down this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: The 2008 presidential campaign, Madam Speaker, is already well under way, far earlier than anybody could have anticipated.

Have you picked a horse in this race yet?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: No, I won't -- I probably won't.

ROBERTS: Is there any way that the first woman speaker of the House could not support the first woman candidate for president for the Democratic Party?

PELOSI: Well, there's a way, because I have a -- as much as I admire all the Democrats, I have a responsibility to win the House for the Democrats and for the American people. And that's my responsibility. It's what I do.

Whoever the nominee is, we'll all work very hard to make sure that person is the president.

ROBERTS: Is Hillary Clinton electable?

PELOSI: Oh, I think so. Absolutely, no question. No question. I think all of the -- I think any number of the Democratic candidates is electable.

ROBERTS: Does Obama have enough experience?

PELOSI: Certainly. Absolutely. He has enough experience. And, in fact, his, his advantage is that he's new. And that's what young people want to see -- new, fresh, free of the past leadership.

ROBERTS: Tomorrow on Capitol Hill, Madam Speaker, you're hosting the National Summit on America's Children. What's that all about?

PELOSI: Something I'm very proud of. When I became speaker, as you may recall, I was surrounded by children. In the Congress, I always -- when they ask me the three most important issues facing the Congress, I always say the same thing -- our children, our children, our children -- their health, their education, the economic security of their families, a healthy environment in which they can live, and a world of peace in which they can thrive and succeed.

This summit is something that is based on what we have been learning over time, and including most recently about science and the impact of early childhood development.

ROBERTS: What are you seeking to do?

PELOSI: What we're seeking to do is to change the environment in which the decisions about America's children are made. Right now, leading up until now, the administration has been making cuts in the very initiatives that we should be increasing.

We just already passed our Head Start program, which is about early head start. We know from science that 80 percent of a child's brain development takes place in the first three years. But most education begins after that. And we want every child in America to have the same opportunities that my grandchildren have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: That's the Summit for America's Children tomorrow on Capitol Hill. And of course we'll be following that here on CNN.

And Speaker Pelosi also told me that she does expect to get the war funding bill to the president's desk this week before the Memorial Day weekend.

And by any measure, Kiran, that is going to be a real challenge.

CHETRY: It sure is. All right. Good job, John, with that. Very interesting to hear from the speaker.

Well, it's being called the first of its kind, a new birth control pill that would stop a woman's menstrual cycle indefinitely. The FDA is expected to announce approval for Lybrel tomorrow. And analysts are predicting there will be a tremendous demand. There are, though, some concerns about whether blocking periods is actually safe to do long term.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to break it down for us.

Good morning. Nice to see you.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Nice to see you.

For some women this could be a dream. No more periods. And in fact, Wyeth, the company that makes this new pill called Lybrel, they've done it in a very simple way.

What they've done is they've taken two hormones that are commonly used in birth control pills already, used a very low dose. But a woman takes the pills all the time. They don't take that one week vacation every month from pills like you do with traditional birth control pills.

Now, Wyeth says that these pills are safe and effective, but as Kiran mentioned, there are some concerns. One concern is kind of a general concern. Some doctors say, you know, having a period is natural. That's the way Mother Nature intended for women's bodies to work. What are the long-term effects of never having a period?

Another concern is a bit more logistical, if you will. They say -- some of the critics say, you know, not getting a period is a sign that a woman should pay attention to. If you skip a period, you could be pregnant, you could have a health problem. But if you're not getting your periods, you would never know if you're skipping one -- Kiran.

CHETRY: OK. So that's interesting. I mean, they have been getting closer and closer to this, because they've been offering some of these other pills where you can skip a period for a certain number of months and then get it, with the Seasonale and I think some of the other ones.

So, does this work, this new pill? Does it stop periods for all women who took it?

COHEN: You know what? It doesn't. And that's something that is important for women to know.

In fact, when they did the studies, about one out of every five women dropped out of the study because they had breakthrough bleeding and spotting. So, for them, apparently it didn't work. So that's something that's important to remember. This doesn't mean no periods for absolutely everybody.

CHETRY: All right. Very interesting. And we'll keep checking on it, Lybrel. And it looks like they're going to approve it tomorrow.

Elizabeth, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

ROBERTS: One of CNN.com's most popular stories right now, actor Sylvester Stallone formally convicted today and paying the price for bringing human growth hormone into Australia. He was ordered to pay more than $10,000 in fines and court costs. The judge ruled Stallone failed to show a valid prescription for the vials that were found in his luggage back in February.

And a green ogre takes on a giant spider at the box office. So who was crowned the box office champ? We'll run it all down when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: He's still a crowd pleaser. "Shrek the Third" racked up $122 million at the box office this weekend. The biggest opening ever for an animated film, and the third biggest opening of all time.

"Shrek" bumped "Spider-Man 3" out of its number one position, down to number two, followed by "28 Days Later," "Disturbia," which continues to hang in after all these weeks. "Georgia Rule" rounding out the top five.

CHETRY: There it is, 26 past the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business".

I'm sure you didn't -- you didn't drive to see "Shrek" this weekend.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No.

CHETRY: Not because you didn't want to see "Shrek". Because you can't afford it.

VELSHI: I was out of a car. You know, you never learn your lesson.

Between gas prices and Manhattan traffic -- you know, on the weekends they have all these street fairs. I couldn't get anywhere.

But, you know, I'm a one-trick pony, I'm a two-trick pony. It's either a record on the Dow or a record in gas prices.

What is it, the eighth or ninth record in gas prices? We're now looking at it's above $3.19 for a gallon of unleaded self-serve gasoline across the country. There is the trend.

Look at that. On the 13th, we crossed over and passed the existing record, which was from the time of Hurricane Katrina, $3.05 a gallon. And look at where we've been going.

Now, a fuel gauge report, which is AAA, where they track 85,000 gas stations a day, is predicting that it's going to hit $3.25 in the next 60 days. Now, if this trend continues, it's going to hit it in the next 60 hours, probably, because we haven't even gotten to Memorial Day Weekend, which is -- obviously which kicks off the summer driving season.

So, we've got a bit of a problem on the gas prices. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that these gas prices are not moving in lockstep with gasoline. If they were -- with crude oil.

CHETRY: Crude oil, yes.

VELSHI: If they were, the price of crude oil right now should be $100. It's around $65.

So, this is about the refining problems that we've got, and they're not likely to stop any time soon. We've got refineries that are out, they're of commission. This is supply and demand. We're using a lot of gas, and we tend to use way more over the course of the summer.

So, this is a good time to make alternative plans.

CHETRY: Now, historically, do we see gas prices peak at Memorial Day, or continue to get higher?

VELSHI: No, they sometimes get higher after Memorial Day, because that demand continues until Labor Day, in fact. So, you don't generally see gas prices go substantially lower over the summer. It's not a given, but...

CHETRY: All right.

VELSHI: ... you're not going to get any big discounts if it does peak at Memorial Day.

CHETRY: And some solutions, we are going to talk hybrid vehicles. Does it make sense to get one of these?

VELSHI: Whatever the solution is, the solution lies on our end, the consumption end, because we can't fix the refineries with any speed. So, you've got to consume less, whether it's hybrid cars or car pooling, or doing something different.

CHETRY: All right. Got to make some changes, that's for sure.

VELSHI: Yes.

CHETRY: Ali, thank you.

ROBERTS: Twenty-nine minutes after the hour. The top stories of the morning are coming up next.

Half Anglo, half Latino. From the West, lived in the East. Struggles with his weight. Could he be the candidate that most broadly reflects America?

The chance is ahead for Governor Bill Richardson as he officially joins the race for president.

And one of London's most famous landmarks goes up in smoke. What happened on board the Cutty Sark early this morning?

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Picture of the White House early on this Monday morning where President Bush is hoping to get his war spending bill for Iraq some time this week. The Democratic leadership in Congress pledging that he will, but there are still so many differences between the two sides. You got to wonder how it's possible. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's the 21st of May. I'm John Roberts in Washington. Good morning, Kiran.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, John. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. It'll be interesting as we talk about who will be sitting inside that White House and calling it home in just a couple of years and we have interesting news about another candidate making it official. He is Latino. He's from the west. He admits that he's battled his weight. He has a well-known resume and you would think that he would have an inside track, but maybe not. Candy Crowley is going to be talking about bill Richardson's uphill climb to the nomination as he eats a French fry, did he just say he has trouble with his weight.

ROBERTS: He'll eat anything. Dramatic fire at the historic clipper ship "Cutty Sark" overnight. The "Cutty Sark" obviously compared to how it used to look, not looking that way for years because it's been in the restoration phase. Some 50 percent of its crucial timbers and other superstructure were actually off of this dry dock where it caught fire in a spectacular blaze last night but it has thrown into question the entire future of the "Cutty Sark." Will it be able to remain one of England's biggest tourist attractions or is it gone forever? We'll check in with our correspondent in London about all that.

CHETRY: Incredible picture right there.

One teenager with quite a resume, she going to get to add to it. She just scaled Mt. Everest 29,000 plus feet. She's unstoppable. She made it to the top of the world's seven highest peaks. We're going to meet her a little bit later and there's a little bit of a debate going on. Is she the youngest to ever climb Mt. Everest at 18 years old?

ROBERTS: That's a pretty extraordinary story regardless, if she is or if she isn't though is it?

CHETRY: Sure is. They also say, well, we're excluding natives, like the sherpas. There's one girl I believe just 15 years old who actually climbed to the highest peak there. So we're going to find out a little bit more, but 18 years old and quite an accomplishment under her belt.

ROBERTS: Look forward to it.

To Iraq now and an update on the search for those missing soldiers. The battalion commander who's running the search believes that all three soldiers are alive. He says that if any of them were dead, he would have heard about it. CNN's Arwa Damon is embed with the troops conducting the search. She checked in with us just a short time ago on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The battalion has established a number of informers, enforcers on the ground here throughout their deployment here thus far and he says if one of his soldiers had been killed, information would have trickled out. He says he knows the way the enemy operates in this area quite well and is certain that if anything had happened to his men, he would have heard about it from rumors going around in the various circles and as of now, he says that he still believes that his three men are still alive and that is in fact his hope among all of the soldiers there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: The battalion commander went even further than the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus said over the weekend he believes he knows who kidnapped the soldiers last weekend and that two of them are still alive, at least two.

Israel is stepping up its assault on targets in Gaza. An air strike today killed four Islamic militants traveling in a car in northern Gaza. The attack comes one day after a strike on the home of a Palestinian lawmaker. He was not at home at the time, but eight people were killed. Israel says it was targeting an area that was firing rockets across the border.

A siege in Lebanon is growing more violent today. Army tanks are shelling a Palestinian refugee camp. More than 60 people, including civilians have been killed in heavy fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda.

CHETRY: Some dramatic moments early this morning at a world famous London landmark. A huge fire raging on the "Cutty Sark" which has been in dry dock on the banks of the river Thames for the last half century. It was built to make tea runs between England and China in the 1800s. Here's a picture of the ship before the fire. Caretakers are worried that much of its original timber and iron can never be replaced. The "Cutty Sark" was closed for renovations. They still don't know how that fire started.

ROBERTS: The White House is firing back at former President Jimmy Carter after Carter called the Bush administration quote the worst ever in foreign policy. The White House says that Carter's comments are quote sad and that he is increasingly irrelevant.

New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson is going to formally announce his intentions to run for president today. He was in it unofficially. He actually appeared at the first Democratic debate, but he's not going to be making this announcement in his home state of New Mexico. What is that all about? Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is here now. Not unusual for some candidates to make an announcement in different state, John McCain for example did it in South Carolina, but Bill Richardson is just so associated with New Mexico.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He is, but he would tell you that he was born in California. As he said, I was there for about three minutes. Nonetheless, he has a tiny bit at stake but he'll be surrounded today by Latinos and there's a message in that. Bill Richardson, as you know, has a Mexican mother, an American father and so he's hoping that those roots in a Latino population that is increasingly important in the political sphere, he is hoping that that will give a little bit of an edge.

ROBERTS: Let's look at look at what you got on him here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, guys, sorry we're late, we got stuck in the snow. I actually helped push, look. CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is March in Iowa, Bill Richardson's first trip here. He embraces the obvious.

RICHARDSON: Do I have thousands of advisors? No, I got one. I try to fire him every day. He's back there not even listening.

CROWLEY: This is not your rock star campaign.

RICHARDSON: I was called inelegant recently, maybe that's adequate.

CROWLEY: I'd love to know the definition of inelegant. How did you take that?

RICHARDSON: Well, I think, I think the way I dress maybe, I'm always battling with my weight.

CROWLEY: The average Joe patina masks what is arguably perhaps indisputably the best resume in the race, congressman for 14 years, ambassador to the UN, secretary of energy, governor, diplomatic trouble shooter in North Korea, Sudan, Iraq, helping negotiate the release of hostages.

RICHARDSON: I've actually done some of these things that everybody talks about. I've engaged in cease-fires with bad guys, I've released American prisoners, American servicemen.

CROWLEY: He's an Energizer bunny-type known more for pragmatism than vision, a problem fixer with an aggressive style.

LESLIE LINTHICUM, ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL: He's been dinged for his, sort of his demeanor, which is kind of like king Bill. Sometimes he kind of acts like, you know, the ruler of New Mexico.

CROWLEY: He was re-elected with 69 percent of the vote. Richardson is the son of a Mexican mother and American father, as Latinos are a growing voice in American politics. A New Mexican at a time his party is making in roads in the interior west, but it's a struggle to find national limelight, though he believes time and resume are on his side.

RICHARDSON: Keep an eye on me and keep your (INAUDIBLE) I'm going to be around a lot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Now, they see some signs of progress in the Richardson campaign. The new "Des Moines register" poll has him at 10 percent. Not much, but he's up.

ROBERTS: Regardless of where your politics lie, Bill Richardson is a very likable type of fellow. But will that likability break through when you've got these other rock star candidates like Hillary Clinton, like Barack Obama out there and like John Edwards with his huge campaign machine going. CROWLEY: I think if - I saw you watching this piece, the fact of the matter is, he thrives on that. I'm just like an average person. They believe that the American voter is looking for authenticity and they believe the American voter will respond to someone who is quote normal as he put it.

ROBERTS: Well, he is pretty (INAUDIBLE) no question about that. Candy, thanks very much, always good to see you. We'll see you back in just a little while, some more political topics, appreciate it.

CHETRY: Well, the two hump back whales are finally headed back to the ocean after a week-long detour of sorts in Sacramento. Delta and Dawn, as they've been named, nicknamed turned around and they've started swimming back towards the open waters. We spoke earlier with Lieutenant Robert Bixler of the Coast Guard. He says the whales should continue making progress today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF LT. ROBERT BIXLER, U.S. COAST GUARD: We're hoping that they continue on their southerly course. They're making almost five miles per hour throughout the course of the swim yesterday. We're hoping that they will continue to do that. The concern now is that the whales might run upon a sand bar, which occurred seven times during the Humphrey case 22 years ago. We just don't want to stress the whales. We want them to pace themselves and continue down on their own pace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And CNN's Dan Simon tells us their own pace is about five miles per hour or so. Not too bad. He also mentioned the Humphrey case and in that case it was 27 days that the whale was in those waters before finally getting a chance to turn around. In this case, they're covering ground a lot quicker. So of course, we'll continue to keep you updated on the fate of both mother and baby, both of them injured but heading in the right direction. Ten boats by the way are going to be trailing behind to make sure they don't reverse course.

Well, just 18 and she already reached her peak, so to speak. What one California teen is bragging about today. Her story after the break here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Eighteen-year-old Samantha Larsen is believed to be the youngest person anywhere to have scaled Mt. Everest. Samantha has been climbing some of the world's most challenging mountains since she was 13 years old. In fact, she has now ascended the tallest peaks on all seven continents. She climbed Everest with her dad blogging all the way and after reaching the top she says she feels great. She delayed her freshman year of college to train for climbing Everest, but some are disputing whether in fact she is the youngest person to ever reach the top.

CHETRY: Well, congrats to her, anyway. And it's funny, of course, she's blogging, 18 years old and blogging the entire way up the mountain. They've probably never seen that one before.

It's 45 minutes past the hour. Chad Myers joins us. You have no interest in climbing Mt. Everest.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I can't make it to the base camp.

CHETRY: Unless you take a helicopter there.

MYERS: Exactly.

CHETRY: But we're going to get a look, a little bit of a preview to hurricane season this year.

MYERS: Yes. Tomorrow, the hurricane center, we've talk about Dr. Gray all the time. Dr. Gray is the guy at Colorado State with Dr. Glosback (ph) and they put their own forecast together. Tomorrow is actually the official one that comes out of the National Hurricane Center, comes out of NOAA. We'll see what that says and we already had the first named storm, wasn't really a tropical storm, it was a subtropical storm, go figure. Whatever. Here are the names, though, that (INAUDIBLE) today for this year, Andrea, already happened. Then Barry, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix and Gabriel, Humberto, love saying that. Then we go all the way down to Lorenzo, Melissa and then the last time we did get to Rebekah. We did get to Sebastian and then we did get to Tanya, but that's it. Hopefully we don't go any farther. I'd love to see -- they recycle every six years, made for the National Weather Service by the weather meteorological organization in Europe. They recycle every six years. You'll see the same names if the hurricane or tropical storm didn't hit anything, did hurt anyone. There will never be another Andrew. There will never be another Katrina. They'll never be another Rita. Those names get retired and are replaced by something else.

CHETRY: All right, so there was one year I guess two seasons ago where we went through all the names and we had to resort to the Greek alphabet.

MYERS: Alpha, beta, remember that. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

CHETRY: Let's hope so. All right, Chad. See you in a couple minutes. Thanks so much.

Gas prices at a record high and new hybrid cars are now zooming to the market, pushing six figures, over six figures in some cases for the newest luxury brands. Are they worth it? Would you buy them? Are they the answer to America's gas prices? We're going to take a look, show them to you coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We're checking the CNN gas gauge right now, if you dare. It's not good news this morning. According to AAA, the national average for self-serve regular is now at $3.19. It's up from $2.86 last month, $2.89 a gallon last year and the market for hybrid cars is expanding. There are some new high-end hybrids and electric cars are being released. But the question is, would you pay $124,000 for a car that could, down the road, save you money at the pump? We wanted to talk about the new hybrids and whether they'll fly with Americans. Csaba Csere is editor in chief of "Car and Driver" magazine. Thanks for being with us this morning.

CSABA CSERE, EDITOR IN CHIEF, CAR AND DRIVER: My pleasure.

CHETRY: Taking a look at the research. We have 250 million cars and trucks on the road, yet 200,000 only are hybrids. With gas prices going up, why haven't we seen hybrids catch on a little more with the American people?

CSERE: It isn't strictly a function of them catching on. Hybrids are fairly new technology and the manufacturers can only build so many of them. That's one thing. The other thing is that hybrids have now been on the market for about six years and the demand for them increases when gas prices goes up and when gas prices pull back a little bit, the demand really slows down. Until the manufacturers are convinced that gas prices are going to be high forever, they're not going to gear up to build millions of hybrids.

CHETRY: You're saying that the demand is not there. There were some things they tried to do. They tried to give you tax relief for example or some rebates if you were to go hybrid. Did that help?

CSERE: It absolutely helped. That was a Federal piece of legislation that passed about a year and a half ago and it definitely reduced the cost of the hybrid because the other part of it is that right now for a popular, small hybrid, you might pay a $5,000 higher price to get a hybrid and you're only saving $400, $500 per year in fuel costs so economically it's not that big of a deal and that's why you needed the tax incentive.

CHETRY: Right and it also looks like they still need to figure things out technology wise. They can't make a cheap battery at this point, a lithium battery that's strong enough and, so, that's one thing that's kind of not working either.

CSERE: Well, the future hybrids are going to have the lithium ion batteries and there's a technology called a plug-in hybrid that uses a really big battery and in that one you plug in the car overnight. You charge the big battery and you run on electric power for up to 40 miles. So a lot of people could do their entire commute solely on electric power and that's a really good idea and you still have the gasoline engine that kicks in if you need to go a longer distance than that. Right now nobody knows how to build a battery inexpensively enough to bring that to market.

CHETRY: $10,000 at this point for just the battery alone. They're trying to bring that down to a grand. Let's look at some of the high end, the luxury if you will of hybrids that we might be taking a look at. Tell us about the Lexus. This is the LS 600h.

CSERE: Yes. This is the top of the line, most expensive Lexus ever built and it's a hybrid version of the Lexus LS, which is their big four-door luxury car. CHETRY: There it is.

CSERE: In this case, they're not using the hybrid strictly for fuel economy. They're also adding power with it. This is more powerful than any other version of this car. In this class, you're not talking about strictly saving pennies because if you can afford the car, the price of gas doesn't matter. It's almost more about soothing your conscience a little bit and saying, yes, I've got a lot of money. I buy this big, expensive car, but it isn't a gas guzzler like most of the other big expensive cars so I'm better than you.

CHETRY: You got it right. What about SUVs? People say, I would buy a hybrid car, but I need an SUV.

CSERE: There's a few of them out on the market, too. Lexus has the RX400h that they've been selling for a couple of years and, again, that's the same thing. It's a powerful hybrid, but it gets better mileage than the regular one. The Ford Escape, small hybrid, has been on the market for about three years now. I's doing very, very well and GM is going to be doing some new hybrids at the end of this year like the Tahoe, which is their big giant SUV with the new hybrid power train that should get at least 25 percent better fuel economy.

CHETRY: Maybe with the talk of the gas prices reaching record levels, we might see a little more interest maybe Csaba Csere, editor in chief of "Car and Driver" magazine. Thank you.

CSERE: My pleasure.

ROBERTS: Still to come this morning, frogs invading a town in California. Why folks are jumping at the chance to see these creatures. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, The most news in the morning is on CNN.

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ROBERTS: Fifty eight minutes after the hour. Thousands of people showed up for the jumping frog jubilee in California this past weekend. The annual Callaveras (ph) County tradition was born from an old story by Mark Twain. Four thousand frogs and their owners took part this year. The winner Lisa Cando (ph), who jumped 21 feet 4 1/4 inches. That's just an inch and a half short of the all-time record. Frogs have been jumping and croaking in Callaveras for almost 80 years. It always looks like everybody has a lot of fun.

ROBERTS: Sure does, except for the frogs, of course.

Two minute before the top of the hour, Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business." You heard a little bit of that interview so we talked about hybrids and why they haven't caught on more and it just seems in some cases he's saying it just doesn't make sense for car companies to make so many because the demand's not there, how can you change that cycle?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tom Lasorda at Chrysler said this a couple of years ago. We build big trucks because Americans like to buy them. It's expensive to be green, unless you're Shrek. It does cost more and you probably sold hybrids to pretty everybody who is willing to pay a premium to buy a hybrid car. The rest of us it's got to be an economic decision. When gas gets too expense and you start saying, I'm actually going to save money by buying a hybrid. Congress could solve a lot of this by a very clear understandable a tax break.

CHETRY: And they're not doing it. In fact the ones that are happening now are actually expiring soon.

VELSHI: That's right. If you're getting a Prius or something, you're going to run out of your tax breaks. That's something Congress can look at and they can convince people to buy more things.

CHETRY: Meanwhile, some changes for Macy's.

VELSHI: Macy's, they're going to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "M" which is interesting because people thought that was going to be saved for Microsoft. Macy's as you know, has bought out pretty much all of the regional department store chains, Marshal Field's in Chicago, Kaufman's (ph) in Pittsburgh, Filene's in Houston, Strawbridge's (ph) in Philadelphia, Foley's in Houston, Famous Bar in St. Louis and then the May group, (INAUDIBLE) Bon Marche, Rich's (ph) and Lazarus. Those names are all changing. These are all becoming Macy's department stores across the country. That is an interesting strategy. We'll have to see how that works out. Folks who grew up with those department stores in parts of the country not altogether too happy with that. We'll continue to follow that story for you.

CHETRY: Ali thanks so much.

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