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American Morning
Gas Gauge Challenge; Political Hot Topics
Aired May 29, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: AMERICAN MORNING exclusive. The store clerk, who blew the whistle on the Fort Dix six and their plot against U.S. soldiers, tells his story for the first time right here.
English outrage. The flight to protect Princes' William and Harry from a new documentary, showing graphic photos of the crash that killed their mother, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And welcome. Thanks for being with us. It is Tuesday, May 29th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you.
Good morning to you as well.
CHETRY: Nice to see you this morning.
Got a lot going on. An exclusive interview. This is the guy who may have saved the lives of countless soldiers at Fort Dix and he's going to be speaking to you a little bit later in the show..
ROBERTS: Yes, he's been recognized by law enforcement as being a person who potentially saved maybe as many as 100 lives in the Fort Dix plot.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: So it will be great to get him here and ask him about how this whole thing went down.
CHETRY: Yes and exactly what he saw on that videotape that made him alert authorities.
Also there's cheap, new option for fueling cars and trucks using vegetable oil. Used vegetable oil right out of your fryers, collected from restaurants and refined into fuel that's actually cleaner than your standard diesel. Sean Callebs is going to be showing us how all of that works.
ROBERTS: Now you know what to do with your old french fryer oil.
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: The fall from grace at the Miss Universe competition. Miss USA, Rachel Smith, couldn't quite handle the high heels and the long gown. She fell during the evening gown competition. And as if she didn't hurt her pride enough during the fall, later on during a press conference she got booed by the Mexican president (ph) in attendance.
CHETRY: Yes, but she popped right back up again. She popped right back up again like it didn't happen.
ROBERTS: She almost bounced back up.
CHETRY: Yes, poor thing.
Well, also, Rosie O'Donnell. She opens up -- you know, she has a habit of speaking her mind at times and she actually blogged on her blog about her fight on the view with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. And we're going to show you more of the video that she makes.
ROBERTS: Oh, more from Rosie.
We start, though, with some dramatic pictures this morning of extreme dangers in Florida. Strong easterly winds whipping up deadly rip currents all along the Atlantic coastline. On Cocoa Beach, it was a busy Memorial Day for lifeguards. More than 200 rescues in a space of just three hours. No fatalities reported yesterday, but at least two men died over the weekend. One in Cocoa Beach. Another in Fernandina Beach, who drown while trying to pull his son out of a rip current.
Chad Myers is at the Weather Center.
And, Chad, are the winds going to keep up in Florida today and are we going to see more of these rip currents up and down the coast?
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Delta and Dawn, the mom and the baby whale who ended up in the Sacramento Delta three weeks ago, are now about 45 miles from where they need to be, from the Pacific Ocean. They stopped in a holding pattern in a busy part of the Sacramento River yesterday. Scientists say it's not clear why the pair seemed to hover around bridges, but they do. At least, though, they're in a better surrounding right now with saltier water around them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD MCINNIS, NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC & ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN.: Everything that's happened, is that the whales are now within water that has a higher salt content than they've -- then they had up at the Rio Vista area. It's giving an opportunity for them to -- their wounds to heel a little bit better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, again, some good news. They were also given antibiotics. The vets were able to inject them with the antibiotics and it looks like they are doing much better, making good progress. They traveled 24 miles in 24 hours and scientists say right now the calf appears more active, which is a good sign. ROBERTS: Researchers say that blood taken from humans bird flu survivors helped to neutralize a deadly strain of the disease in laboratory mice. The Swiss study offers promises of a new way to treat bird flu infections in people and another potential weapon against a pandemic of Avian Flu.
CHETRY: President Bush heading south today, stumping for immigration reform. He'll be touring a facility in Georgia where border patrol agents are trained. The White House says the president's trip highlights the border security provisions in the bill that's before the Senate now. Many senators also using this week off to gauge their constituents' support for that bill.
And the president is also expected to step up pressure on Sudan today to end violence in the Darfur region. He'll announce new economic sanctions and seek an expanded arms embargo. Senior officials in Sudan this morning calling the sanctions unjustified. More than 200,000 people have died in years of fighting and millions more have been displaced.
ROBERTS: Israel special forces are now on the ground in Gaza. Two Hamas militants were killed in a gun fight, four others were arrested, including a member of the Palestinian parliament. Until now, the two-week old Israel offensive has focused mainly on air strikes. Fifty Palestinians and two Israelis have died so far in that conflict.
And former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak fell short of winning his labor party's top spot today. He's going to face a runoff next month against former Security Chief Ami Ayalon. Critics have called on Olmert to quit for his handling of last year's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
CHETRY: Well, this morning, we're learning new details about the so-called Fort Dix six. They are the men accused of plotting a mass killing of soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix. Turns out police were called to a home that was shared by three of the suspects 10 times over complaints raging from loud parties to farm animals on the property. But officers apparently never saw any plans for a terror plot.
The FBI eventually pursued the men after a video store clerk tipped them off. He saw something on the tapes that they wanted him to dub the DVD that really got him wondering whether or not something bad was going to happen. So this morning, that clerk will be joining us live for his first ever interview. He tells us what he saw on the tape that prompted him to contact authorities. Stick around. The exclusive conversation coming up in our next hour.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.
Here's a quick roundup of what the presidential candidates are up to today. Democratic Senator Barack Obama says he will unveil his health care plan today as he campaigns in Iowa. In New Hampshire, for Memorial Day, Obama said -- he talked about getting more mental health professionals to treat the troops. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton is in New Hampshire today. According to her campaign, she's going to deliver a "major policy address." One of her recurring themes in New Hampshire has been taxes and bloated government.
Republican Mitt Romney also making stops around New Hampshire today. He spent yesterday talking with veterans about his plan to increase the size of the military and spend it (ph).
And a reminder, two big debates are heading your way here on CNN. The Democratic presidential candidates square off this Sunday. That's the 3rd of June. The Republicans go at it two days later, Tuesday, June 5th.
CHETRY: Well, it looks like Lindsay Lohan headed back to rehab, but not before one last night on the town. Check this out. This is what she looked like early yesterday morning, less than 48 hours after being arrested on suspicion of DUI. An officer also found what they called a usable amount of cocaine in her car. There she is in the picture with her head back, seemingly oblivious to the paparazzi that were, of course, recording every second of this. She says now she's going to be checking into the Promises facility in Malibu, according to reports. It's the same one Britney Spears went to after shaving her head. This will be Lohan's second stint in rehab this year.
ROBERTS: Walking in high heels can be a real challenge, even if you're Miss USA. Rachel Smith, representing the United States in the Miss Universe Pageant, fell during the evening gown competition. Looks like she hooked her heal on the back of the dress. She picked herself up and finished fifth behind the new Miss Universe, which went to Miss Japan this year.
CHETRY: All right. Miss Japan, beautiful, by the way, so congrats to her.
Well, here's some "Quick Hits."
Tens of thousands of high school athletes in Texas could face mandatory random steroid testing come this fall. The legislature passed the steroid testing bill Monday. Governor Rick Perry expected to sign that bill.
Also a powerful storm ripping the roof off of this stable at a Connecticut horse farm. Witnesses say it looked like a tornado. None of the horses in the stable were hurt.
Also come up, if you're looking for an alternative to high price gasoline, how about looking on your dinner plate or maybe the oil in the fryer that you use to make the french fries? Perhaps that could one day power your car.
Also, Rosie O'Donnell taking her TV rant off the air but taking it to cyberspace now. She's firing back at critics and she's also blasting Elizabeth Hasselbeck. We're going to listen to more about what Rosie's saying now. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning here on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Some "Quick Hits" now.
Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, says she's giving up her anti-war fight. She no longer wants to be the face of the anti- war movement. In an online posting, she says that the movement puts personal egos above peace and human life. She also said her son died for nothing. She complained about the smears directed at her by liberals since she renounced her ties to the Democratic Party writing, "I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party."
The body of New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill was found Monday in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain a day after he was reported missing following a jet ski accident. A woman was rescued in that incident. The Coast Guard says that neither were wearing life vests.
The Duke lacrosse team's comeback season ended just short of a title. The blue Devils losing to Johns Hopkins 12-11 in the NCAA men's lacrosse championship game yesterday. This comes a little more than a year after their 2006 season was canceled following the false rape charges against three of the players.
ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes now after the hour. The rising price of gasoline has prompted some folks to try and turn grease into gold using old vegetable oil to create a new clean-burning biodiesel fuel. And if you're cooking with grease, no better place to go than New Orleans. That's where CNN's Sean Callebs found some entrepreneurs who are giving it a go. He joins us now live.
Good morning, Sean. What did you find out?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Interesting story, John. Interesting story. No shortage of grease, you're exactly right, with all the restaurants down here. We're here at a place called Novi (ph). This is a make-shift refinery, if you can believe it, with these facilities here.
This is what they take. This is used vegetable oil. They can get it at any restaurant in town that uses it for cooking. And they put it in these drums, they add a little methanol, a catalyst and they come up with this. This is the clean burning fuel. It is called biodiesel.
To give you an idea, this truck right -- we're in front of is powered by waste vegetable oil. It is owned by Toper Mira (ph). He's one of the people running this facility. And usually people pay a green premium for this. It means it would be about 20 or 30 cents more a gallon than regular diesel fuel. But Toper's start-up business, he's trying to make it as economical as possible. And yes, this just came right out of that drum. You can pour it in the truck. And it is going to work. It is going to work fine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS, (voice over): Would you think foloffel (ph) could be a fuel source? It isn't, but the old cooking oil is. And that's what attracts Toper Mira to the Lebanon Cafe in New Orleans.
TOPER MIRA: This is premo vegetable oil. The better the dining, the better the fuel.
CALLEBS: You heard right, fuel.
MIRA: This is very good oil.
CALLEBS: Mira turns vegetable oil into a clean burning fuel called biodiesel. He, and business partner Eileen Bell (ph), formed a company called New Orleans Biodiesel initiative and say they crank out a modest 80 gallons of the diesel alternative a day.
MIRA: Well, we're just two young entrepreneurs trying to get it done, you know.
CALLEBS: Mira goes all over the city collecting waste vegetable oil. Back at what can only charitably be called his refinery, they mix 80 percent vegetable oil with 20 percent methanol and then add ly for a catalyst and heat the concoction. This is the end result.
MIRA: Well, you can see how it's really clear and nice.
CALLEBS: And the biodiesel industry says it burns 73 percent cleaner than diesel. If it's so great, why haven't we heard more about it? It's arguably in its infancy with only 105 real production plants in the United States. And since most vehicles don't run on diesel, demand is limited. But it is renewable and it's an attractive alternative.
JOE JOBE, NATIONAL BIODIESEL BOARD: It's actually growing our nation's fuel supply. And one of the main reasons that we have high fuel prices right now is because of the lack of refinery capacity.
CALLEBS: Mira says they have one contract with the Orleans Parish School District to fuel one bus twice a week, not nearly enough to make a living, but it's a start.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: And Eileen and Toper have big plans for this company after this start. They want to build a facility in a couple of months that will basically turn out a quarter million gallons of this biodiesel every year.
This is the waste product, if you will, the byproduct. It's called glycerin, John. And I don't know if you've ever watched the movie "Fight Club," but this is the kind of stuff they can take and turn into soap. So that is their goal with this byproduct.
John. ROBERTS: Sean, do the cars and vehicles have to be specially modified to run that or can you just dump it into an diesel that you're running?
CALLEBS: Nope. Dump it into any diesel engine. The truck I put it in runs on what they call B-100. Meaning biodiesel 100 percent. Now the school bus that you saw in the story runs on what's called B- 20. That means they put 80 percent regular diesel fuel, and then top it off with this biodiesel. But they could pump in the biodiesel if they wanted to and run the truck off that just as well.
ROBERTS: So unlike ethanol vehicles, which have to be specially modified, any diesel, just take your old grease and dump it in and off you go.
CALLEBS: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Very cool.
CALLEBS: It seems incredibly simple, doesn't it?
ROBERTS: It does.
Sean Callebs in New Orleans for us this morning.
Sean, thanks very much.
Seventeen minutes after the hour. This just in to CNN. We're getting reports of three foreigners, potentially Americans kidnapped from the finance ministry in Baghdad. Reports say, and CNN has confirmed these kidnappings, that the people were over there, they were lecturing the officials at the finance ministry when gunmen, one witness says, led by a police major, burst in, shouting where are the foreigners, where are the foreigners. Three people were taken captive and spirited out of the building, along with their foreign personal protection details. That would be their bodyguards.
So we're looking into this. Again, three foreigners kidnapped from the finance ministry in Baghdad today, potentially Americans. We've got our Baghdad bureau running it down right now. We'll get to them just as soon as we can.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Just fascinating and unbelievable when you hear led by a police major and the fact that they were wearing police uniforms.
ROBERTS: Well, you know, there were so many reports of death squads that have been led by police commandos. I'm not saying that this falls under that particular category, but certainly there has been a lot of infiltration of these police forces by militias. And don't know if that's the case in this particular incident, but we've seen that in the past.
CHETRY: We've also seen more than 200 foreigners taken hostage in Iraq. ROBERTS: Yes, absolutely.
CHETRY: So we'll, of course, keep you posted on this. We'll check in with our Baghdad bureau in a couple of minutes on this developing news.
Meantime, public anger boiling over in Britain over plans to broadcast graphic pictures of Princess Diana in the final moments of her life. There is a campaign to stop Britain's Channel 4 from showing pictures taken after the car wreck that killed her back in 1997. One of them shows Diana slumped in the back of her car. When the picture was published in an Italian magazine last year, her sons, Princes William and Harry, said it "caused them great hurt."
ROBERTS: Some "Quick Hits" for you know. Firefighters in south Miami-Dade, Florida, saved nearly 40 cats and five dogs from a house fire. Some were given masks. But despite firefighters best efforts, six of the animals died. Investigators say that the fire started from a candle. The home has not had electricity since Hurricane Katrina blew through.
Six people hurt in Harlem when a car came crashing into a Popeyes Chicken. Police say the driver told them she got a leg cramp and couldn't break in time. The driver, a passenger and four restaurant patrons were hurt.
And Rosie's off "The View," but she's not out of sight. Here how she's now letting loose on her blog, when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Some "Quick Hits" now.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is taking his name out of the running for World Bank president. Frist served two terms in the Senate and reportedly wanted a break from government work. The search is still on for a replacement of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
A death sentence today for China's former drug regulator. He was fired two years ago for taking almost a million dollars in bribes to approve medicine that was never tested. At least 10 people died as a result.
And hundreds of people waited to be the first inside the Creation Museum in Cincinnati on its opening day yesterday. Dozens protested across the street. The $27 million museum tells the creation of the creation of earth in six days. It includes dinosaurs, which it says were created on the sixth day.
John.
ROBERTS: She might be done with "The View," but Rosie isn't done talking. She posted a candid video on her Web site talking about her exit from daytime TV. Internet reporter Jacki Schechner has been looking into this one. She joins us now live from Washington.
What does she say, Jacki?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Yes, she's been known to video blog from time to time and answer questions from people on her blog. Here she's talking about the aftermath of what she's calling "Nuclear Wednesday," when she had it out with Elisabeth Hasselbeck on the view. Take a listen to what she has to says about whether or not she's spoken to Elisabeth since.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSIE O'DONNELL: Send you apologies. She called and Kelli and her spoke for a long time. And I haven't spoken to her. And I probably won't. And I think it's just as well. And I wrote her an e- mail and she wrote me back and there you have it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHECHNER: Kelli being Rosie O'Donnell's partner. And she's pretty candid in this video. She goes on to talk about how she's never tried harder to be friends with anybody than she did with Elisabeth and it's probably just as well. She talks about how the split scene that they showed during that dust up (ph) was really the end of it for her. That it looked a lot like Jerry Springer. She talks about her producer, Jannette, and how she allegedly defaced a poster of Elizabeth, saying that it was a magazine cutout. It was just one. It was not several. She drew a moustache on it.
So she's pretty honest here about what we've been hearing over the last few days. And one of the things, John, is that the last couple of days the show has been on tape. So you may have seen Rosie, but today's the official day that it's live and she's not on the show.
ROBERTS: She drew a moustache on Elizabeth?
SCHECHNER: One of her producers leaving the building drew a moustache on a magazine cutout of Elizabeth.
ROBERTS: Can you imagine?
SCHECHNER: Yes, the third grade calls . . .
CHETRY: Where do they fly the paper airplanes. I mean, gosh, they're grown women.
SCHECHNER: Yes, it was not exactly the most mature thing in the world.
ROBERTS: Yes.
SCHECHNER: But they say that everybody has to let off a little steam. That's how Jannette did it. ROBERTS: I assume, based on the level of conduct, that it was written in crayon, was it?
Jacki, thanks.
CHETRY: It's just so funny. I mean, she beat up on Elisabeth for months and then they have one blowout where Elizabeth stood up for herself and she leaves the show. Unbelievable.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You better be nice to me.
CHETRY: I was just draw hair on your cutouts out there. No offense. I love you, Ali.
VELSHI: Good morning to both of you.
CHETRY: Good to see you.
VELSHI: One of the best parts about being me is I track the price of aluminum. And if you've noticed, the price of aluminum has shot up over the last few years because it's used in construction. It's used all over China and India. And that makes the companies that make aluminum very attractive to mergers and acquisitions.
So as we come into the shortened week on the stock exchange, one of the things traders are going to be watching is the heating up battle for Alcan, which is the aluminum company of Canada. It's the second largest aluminum company in the world. Alcoa, which is the largest, launched a hostile bid for this company earlier this month. It was rejected. Now five other potential bidders are in the game and there's some talk that Alcan might actually launch a bid for Alcoa. The bottom line here is, whoever merges of these big players will then be the biggest aluminum company in the world, which is a big deal these days.
There are a couple of other deals that people are looking at. Coke acquired Glaceau, which has VitaminWater and SmartWater and FruitWater and all that, $4.1 billion. And that is the biggest acquisition Coke has ever made.
And Ford is looking to sell Volvo, which is part of its premier automotive group. You know, it already sold Aston Martin earlier this year. The premier automotive group is Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. BMW is a possible buyer in that one. We'll keep an eye on all of these potential deals.
We'll be back in half an hour talking about what Google and Double Click mean for your privacy.
CHETRY: A billion dollar buyout there, too.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: All right, Ali, thanks so much.
John. ROBERTS: Some more "Quick Hits" for you now.
Hawaii is getting almost $38 million in federal aid to recover from an earthquake last October. Most of it is going to fix roads on the big island and also on Maui.
The president of the University of Colorado is recommending firing controversial professor Ward Churchill. Churchill called some of the victims of September 11 th little Eichmanns. Comparing them to Nazi Adolf Eichmann who helped carry out the holocaust. The university says it can't fire Churchill for his comments because that would violate his rights of free speech. Instead, they're going after him on allegations of plagiarism. Sort of like Al Capone. Couldn't get him on gangsterism, so you get him on income tax evasion.
We're hitting the road for day two of our gas gauge challenge. Greg Hunter has made his way to Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hey, Greg.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John.
Is it cheaper to drive or is it cheaper to fly? We're navigating that question as AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to CNN, the most news in the morning. It's Tuesday, May the 29th. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
We have new developments now on a story that we've been following that just broke this morning out of Iraq.
ROBERTS: We told you just a few minutes ago, reports of three people kidnapped from the Finance Ministry in downtown Baghdad today. There are conflicting reports, but according to the Reuters news agency, gunmen dressed in police uniforms burst into the ministry demanding to know where the foreigners were.
They described the kidnapped victims as Westerners. Some reports have said possibly Americans. Other reports now say potentially Germans.
We're running down this story with our Baghdad bureau. We'll get you the latest information just as soon as we possibly can.
CHETRY: And another developing story. A strong earthquake hitting eastern Indonesia. Early reports have this quake at a magnitude 6.0. No damage or injury reports yet. No tsunami warnings at this point. Indonesia lost more than 160,000 people in December of 2004 after that earthquake and tsunami.
President Bush is expected to make a statement this morning, increasing the pressure on Sudan to end violence in the Darfur region. He'll announce new economic sanctions and also seek an expanded arms embargo. Senior officials in Sudan already this morning calling the sanctions unjustified. More than 200,000 people have died in years of fighting in Darfur, millions more have been displaced.
The president set to speak on the issue at 8:00 this morning Eastern Time from the White House. And we will have live coverage.
President Bush is also heading south today, stumping for immigration reform, touring a facility in Georgia. Border Patrol agents there are trained. The White House says the president's trip highlights the border security provisions in the bill that's before the Senate now. Many senators are also using this week off to gauge their constituents' support for that bill.
ROBERTS: Time to check in on the CNN "Gas Gauge Challenge".
The national average for gasoline now $3.20 a gallon, according to AAA. That's down a couple of pennies.
Our intrepid reporter Greg Hunter is midway through his three-day road trip from Columbus, Ohio, to Myrtle Beach, seeing how much it would cost to drive the 600 miles or so, or if it would be cheaper to fly.
Greg is in Greensboro, North Carolina, this morning.
Greg, how long were you on the road yesterday?
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ten hours, John. It was quite a -- quite a long time with the family in the van.
Well, I'm in front of the Carolina Theater. It's on the national register of historic places. You can see it's beautiful, it's ornate. It was built in 1927. They still use it today.
And now on to our minivan -- nice transition -- built in 2007, and you can see it's kind of loaded down here. But if you look back here, you can see why it's loaded down. We have bags and plenty of TV equipment, of course.
We have our photo journalist, who is behind the camera right there, and our -- my esteemed colleague, Ronny Burke (ph), the producer. And we've got about 19.5 miles to the gallon with the minivan. Not bad for how much weight it has, and it's over 1,000 pounds with us and the bags and everything.
But anyway, we do have a few things to help us out on the road. Of course, we have some low tech -- a map -- and we have high tech. I wouldn't leave home without this, this is a Garmin satellite navigation. And I still got lost, but it was operator error.
So, here is what our trip looked like leaving from Columbus, Ohio, yesterday -- beautiful rolling hills, wonderful countryside. Just beautiful rivers, trees, hills. Those hills turned into mountains in West Virginia, and that's when we decided to take a break and get on some go-carts. The go-carts turned into bumper cars as we were slipping and sliding away. But we got back on the road. But we needed a little break, right, for the family? And so we got on the road, we filled up about 150 miles from Greensboro.
We got a deal on the gas. It was below the national average, about more than 20 cents below the national average. But it was still painful. We took on 15.5 gallons.
So, here is what our totals look like.
Two-day total, 431 miles driven. That's two-thirds of the trip. Hours driven, 10, as I told you earlier.
The amount of money we spent is -- gas, $46. That's why it was kind of painful. Food, $49.08. Hotel, $290.90. That's for three people, two rooms. Extras, including the ice and the cooler and the go-carts, $24.42.
A grand two-day total of $479.66. And we're going to find out whether it's cheaper to drive or fly.
ROBERTS: Hey, Greg, we did some math and we found out that if you were to fly instead of drive, the round trip from Columbus to Myrtle Beach, family of three, connects through Washington, would cost you $732. So, based on your calculations and your expenses so far, driving a slightly better bargain at this point. Still another day to go, right?
HUNTER: Still another day to go. We're going to add up all the costs. But you know, flying also has a rental car on the other end. How do you get to the airport?
But we'll total that all up tomorrow in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We're about 205 miles away.
We'll see you tomorrow.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Greg. We'll see you then.
CHETRY: Not counting the go-cart rides, he's 205 miles away.
All right. Well, now some "Quick Hits".
Researchers say that blood taken from human bird flu survivors helped neutralize a deadly strain of the disease in lab mice. That Swiss study offers the promise of a new way to treat bird flu infections in people, and another potential weapon against the pandemic of avian flu.
Delta and Dawn, the mom and baby whale who ended up in the Sacramento Delta three weeks ago, are now about 45 miles from the Pacific, making progress. But they actually stopped in a holding pattern in a busy part of the Sacramento River.
Rescuers say they've seen this before, that when they're in an area with a lot of traffic and bridges, they seem to stop. They're concerned though that the pair will encounter large ships. They are happy though that they're in water that's saltier, hoping that will help heal their wounds.
President Bush headed to Georgia today to sell the immigration bill. When we get back, Bill Bennett is going to be weighing in from his radio show.
Also, the parents of missing 4-year-old Madeleine McCann are speaking out. They're releasing heartbreaking video of their little girl. So, are police any closer to finding her? We have the latest on the investigation coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Thirty-nine students doing OK. They're heading back to Rhode Island after their bus flipped over south of Quebec City on Monday. The bus landed in a ditch. One of the chaperones is in a hospital in Canada and is expected to be all right.
Also, I don't know if you saw this video yesterday, but, boy, it was shocking to see. The Cincinnati Reds center fielder, Ryan Freel, is getting checked again today after a frightening crash in the outfield. He was down for 13 minutes.
It looked like he hit his head with his teammate, Norris Hopper's elbow. But there were a lot of people that were very scared before he ended up being OK.
But there he is again in slow motion. You can see it. And he is just out, doesn't move for 13 minutes.
On Cocoa Beach, lifeguards rescued more than 200 people in just three hours from strong rip currents. No one was killed yesterday, but at least two men died over the weekend. One in Cocoa Beach, another in Fernandina Beach.
It's 40 past the hour now, and we toss to Chad Myers to get a look at what we can expect.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Forty-one minutes after the hour now.
President Bush will be in Georgia today making a sales pitch for the new immigration bill. And the Senate bill has attracted critics from both sides of the political aisle.
Bill Bennett is a CNN contributor. He's also the host of "Morning in America," his radio show, and joins us now from his studio in Arlington, Virginia.
Good morning to you, Bill.
BILL BENNETT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, John. Were you on your motorcycle yesterday?
ROBERTS: I wasn't on it yesterday. And actually, I didn't ride in the Rolling Thunder on Sunday. But did go out on the weekend and went for a little ride with the White House chief of staff and some other folks on Saturday evening. So that was a lot of fun.
BENNETT: Oh, that's great. That's right. I guess Sunday was the big ride, wasn't it? Yes.
ROBERTS: It was, correct.
Hey, listen, as the president's down in Georgia today touting the immigration bill that's trying to make its way through the Senate, the members of Congress are back out in their home districts. What are they hearing on the immigration front this week from their constituents?
BENNETT: They're hearing a lot of things. The level of intensity and volume is, I think, surprising. We've talked to a number of Republican senators, and they confess to being surprised by the reaction.
I know some of the senators, even southern senators, went to state conventions and were booed when they were introduced. Saxby Chambliss, and it's happened from Georgia, and it's happened to some others. People are very, very negative about this plan. And, you know, I think -- I think they're justified when you look at the details, when you look closely at it.
This is the big issue right mow.
ROBERTS: If you look at the nationwide numbers, though, it seems that the majority of Americans, at least people who were quoted in a "New York Times"-CBS News poll recently, were moderate on this idea of immigration. They like the idea of a guest worker program. They like the idea of a merit system for immigration to this country.
But are we finding these members of Congress are finding pockets of resistance, particularly in these border states, where they don't necessarily reflect the national sentiment on immigration?
BENNETT: I don't think it's pockets. I think it's a wave.
One of the interesting things is we took apart that poll. I know the poll. We used it on the show last week, John. And then we went back to the poll itself and looked very closely.
Yes, people are for a path to citizenship if and when they are sure that the border is secure, that no more illegals are coming through, that people have a record of paying taxes, they will pay back taxes. On and on and on, a series of conditions, which "The New York Times" story, I have to say, didn't make plain from the -- from the polls. So, it's not that the American people are being ungenerous. They just think that they are being fair and insisting on certain conditions being met before there's a discussion about a path to citizenship.
The other thing is Democrats are just about where Republicans are at the grassroots in terms of opposition to it. This thing, I think, has been consistently misreported.
ROBERTS: There are some conservatives, Bill, who are suggesting that this immigration plan, if it goes through as written, and particularly if the Democrats have their way in adjusting some of the provisions, it could spell the end of the Republican Party, because these immigrants will beholden to the Democratic Party, they're likely to vote Democratic, anyway, and you could have a Democratic dynasty that survives for the next two decades.
What do you think about that?
BENNETT: I think you think you could have a cism on the right, a very serious cism on the right, John. Of course, at the same time, you may be seeing something of a cism on the left.
You noticed that Cindy Sheehan left yesterday. She's abandoned the Democrats. And there's a fury on the left side of the Democratic Party about the support of the Iraq resolution, the funding resolution.
But yes, not to get off -- away from your question, I think it could be a very serious break. People are not reading this right. People in the House tell me they think they're going to defeat this, though, and that you're not going to see this comprehensive reform.
ROBERTS: Right. You know, there was an article in the "New Yorker" recently that suggested, as well, that the GOP is imploding.
I think it was Newt Gingrich who said we don't have a good shot at winning in 2008. It's going to take six years to rebuild.
You have got to wonder, is Newt Gingrich going to lead another Republican revolution? If not in 2008, in the year, perhaps, 2012?
BENNETT: I don't know. He's talking about getting in the race in September, which is too late, I think, for Newt or anybody else to get in. It looks like Fred Thompson may get in, in June.
But there is a lot of unhappiness. There's no doubt about it. We'll see what happens.
The months coming up, I mean, we've got these presidential debates, we've got this situation in September here with General Petraeus coming back. I mean, there's -- as you know, that's going to be vary, very important time. But yes, politically things -- there are -- there are major tensions in both parties.
Now, who wins the 2008 election? I don't know, because if Hillary Clinton runs, there is a way in which she can unify Republicans, conservatives and many moderates like no one else can against her candidates. These books, for example, that we see out there.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, still early on in the race. Lots of time for things to change.
Bill Bennett, host of "Morning in America," thanks for joining us. Always good to see you.
CHETRY: Some "Quick Hits" now.
Democratic Senator Barack Obama promising to unveil his health care plan today. His presidential campaign begins in New Hampshire this morning, then moves on to Iowa.
Also coming up, we have new details about the disappearance of 4- year-old Madeleine McCann. What a family friend says she saw the night the little girl went missing, and why she's now wracked with guilt and why it took so long for Portuguese authorities to release that information to the public.
Could this search have been over long ago?
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news on the morning is here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
New developments now in the search for 4-year-old Madeleine McCann. Gerry and Kate McCann, her parents, releasing this new cell phone video of their little girl boarding the plane on their way to Portugal for their vacation.
And a family friend is now saying that she passed a man who was carrying a blonde girl in pink pajamas the night Madeleine disappeared walking quickly. She said at the time, she just thought it was a guy with his own kid, but then realized after the fact it was probably Madeleine.
She says she reported that sighting to police immediately, but in keeping with Portuguese law, they did not release the description of the man until this past week. Now thousands of people have called in tips.
Madeleine's parents are also speaking out, though, saying that they're grateful for those who are helping in the search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRY MCCANN, MADELEINE'S FATHER: We would like to give thanks that thousands, if not millions of people, who are doing lesser things in their own way, either, you know, making donations to the fund, distributing posters, taking posters on holiday, anything that people are doing to raise the awareness of Madeleine's disappearance, you know, we thank them from the bottoms of our hearts. And we believe this will make a difference in the search for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Madeleine has been missing for three weeks, when she was taken from her bed while vacationing with her family in Portugal. Her parents are actually going to be hoping to meet with Pope Benedict tomorrow.
ROBERTS: This morning, we are learning new details about the so- called Fort Dix Six. They're the men accused of plotting a mass killing of soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix.
It turns out police were called to a home shared by three of the suspects 10 times for things like loud parties and even farm animals in their backyard. Officers apparently never saw any plans for a terror plot, though, even given the number of times that they were out there.
The FBI eventually pursued the men after talking to a store clerk who saw video of them shooting guns and calling for jihad. This morning, that clerk who worked at Circuit City is going to join us live for his first-ever interview coming up in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: Syria announcing today that President Bashir Assad won a second seven-year term in office. Not really surprising since he ran unopposed. Assad took over the leadership of Syria after the death of his father seven years ago.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas announcing today they will meet next week. Israeli warplanes have been pounding Palestinian positions for two weeks in response to Palestinian rocket attacks near Gaza.
Well, coming up, what would you do if a leopard hopped into bed with you? We're going to tell you about one man who wrestled a giant cat. See who won.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And it's 55 minutes past the hour now. Ali Velshi joins us, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good to see you.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
Talk about minding your business, Google is in the business of minding your business.
CHETRY: Yes. VELSHI: In April, it announced that it was buying Double-Click. Now, Double-Click is one of a handful of companies that actually tracks what you do online. It's used by the advertising companies to see how you look for ads, when you use them.
So, Google announced that it's buying this company for $3.1 billion. The Federal Trade Commission has decided that it's investigating this.
Now, that's typical in a deal this size. A government agency does usually review the deal. It doesn't mean that it's not going to go through. But there are a couple of concerns.
One of those concerns is from Google's competitors, AOL, Microsoft, AT&T, saying that this gives Google sort of dominance over the search and advertising world.
CHETRY: Yes, but Microsoft tried to get in on it, too.
VELSHI: Right. They're all trying to get in on that.
CHETRY: They got outbid (ph).
VELSHI: So that's not the concern that we're most worried about.
There are concerns from privacy groups, as well. And this one is a little more interesting.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group has said that this deal would give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world. Now, if you want to split hairs, Google has already got sort of that kind of information. So it's unclear how much more they get, but it's the idea that Google knows where you search, they know what you search for. They actually know from the advertising end where you search, so they've got all ends of the deal sewn up on this, and that's what some of the privacy concerns are.
CHETRY: Is there any way to block it? Can they -- can you block people knowing what you're searching?
VELSHI: You can. You can set your computer -- if you look at the cookies on your computer, most of them, many of them will be Double-Click.
You can set your computer to not allow cookies, but try searching for anything. That's the problem. It's next to impossible.
ROBERTS: That will drive you nuts.
VELSHI: I don't know what you'll actually be able to get on the Internet, because everybody employs these services. So if you set your computer not to have these cookies, these little software bits implanted on your computer...
(CROSSTALK) ROBERTS: You'll also get that little message every three seconds that says, "The web site that you've contacted is trying to send a cookie to your computer. Allow, disallow?"
VELSHI: Yes. So -- yes, not a fun experience.
ROBERTS: Slow your browsing right down.
Thanks, Ali.
VELSHI: They know everything.
VELSHI: Some "Quick Hits" for you now before the top of the hour.
The second most popular video on CNN.com today, a four-foot-long, 80-pound Monitor lizard is on the loose in Casselberry, Florida. It evaded police, even after an officer shot it twice.
Residents are afraid to let their children and pets play outside until the lizard is caught. Monitor lizards can cause infections if they bite.
And I'm sure they can probably swallow a small cat or two.
CHETRY: And if you've heard that a leopard can't change its spots, well, maybe it can't. But check this out. It can jump through a window and climb into bed with you.
Maybe the poor leopard was just cold. But Arthur Demosh (ph) says it happened to him in his home in Jerusalem, Israel. He jumped out of bed, he actually wrestled with the leopard, held him there for 20 seconds until park rangers arrived to take the leopard away.
I hope that's just euthanized. Yes or no?
ROBERTS: Well, I would think anesthetized.
CHETRY: You mean killed?
ROBERTS: No. Anesthetized. Euthanized would be killed.
CHETRY: Oh, OK. You're right. I hope they just hit it with a tranquilizer dart and did not euthanize the leopard.
ROBERTS: I would think so.
ROBERTS: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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