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American Morning
Hurricane Season Starts: Are Pumps and Levees Ready in New Orleans?; Tuberculosis Scare: Breach in Border Security?
Aired June 01, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Who let him in? Questions about a border agent who waved in a man with drug resistant tuberculosis, knowing his passport was flagged.
Plus, the patient's family speaks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT COOKSEY, INFECTED MAN'S FATHER-IN-LAW: My son-in-laws TB did not originate from myself or the CDC labs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The startling connection to the CDC and a leading TB researcher.
And a new defense about the patient's globe trotting travels on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning to you. It is Friday, June the 1st. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
Some of the stories "On Our Radar" this morning.
Detailed plans for the new embassy that's going to be under construction in Baghdad. They, obviously, probably wanted to keep those under wraps. Well, they appeared online yesterday. It was a breach of security surrounding the sensitive project. We're going to talk about just how serious a problem it is. It's removed now, obviously, but who knows who was able to copy it when it was online.
ROBERTS: You've got to figure, a couple of days, the guy with TB gets in across the border and then the plans for the U.S. embassy go up on the Internet. Some people are asking, what is going on.
Extreme weather in Kansas. Drivers probably pulling dents out of their car this morning. Take a listen to this as the hail comes down. It was like being outside of a driving range or being in the middle of on there. Golf ball sized hail coming down. We'll check the threat for any more extreme weather today.
And how about that spelling bee? It wrapped up last night with a young fellow winning on the word serrefine. We'll meet the big winner later on. And there was also some funny moments there. Proof that the word sardoodledum (ph) is pretty funny. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sardoodledum.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Sardoodledum, by the way, is described as plays having a contrived, melodramatic plot.
CHETRY: He is so adorable also. These kids were great. I mean, you know, a little moment of levity under a lot of pressure for these young kids. And we're going to actually speak with the winner of that spelling bee coming up in just a couple of minutes.
But first, new developments, today, in this story that has captured the attention of the nation. Intrigue and just some very, very strange, new developments in the public health scare caused by this man infected with a potentially deadly strain of TB. The man has now been identified. He is 31-year-old lawyer Andrew Speaker. And he's speaking out this morning from his Denver hospital room, apologizing to the patients who flew with him. But his father says that he did not ignore orders not to fly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED SPEAKER, INFECTED MAN'S FATHER: He specifically asked if he was not permitted to go. They said, no, we prefer you not to go, but we're not saying you not to go. They knew that he was getting married and they knew the arrangements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Speaker is also claiming that he has recordings of those conversations with CDC officials showing, proving, he says, that he was never told not to fly.
Also, Speaker's father-in-law, just to add to the strange nature of this case, works for the CDC, actually works with tuberculosis, and is saying it didn't come from me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT COOKSEY, INFECTED MAN'S FATHER-IN-LAW: I do not have TB, nor have I ever had TB. My son-in-law's TB did not originate from myself or the CDC labs which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And then there's another new detail about this, this morning. A lot of people asking, how did he get back into this country if there was word put out that his passport was flagged? Well, it was a border guard who stopped Speaker at the U.S./Canada border. He's now been placed on administrative duties. That agent saw Speaker's passport, saw that it had been flagged, but he allowed him to enter anyway because he "looked healthy."
So how did Speaker slip through the cracks at the border? Later this hour, we're going to speak with the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee who wants to know that exact thing.
And also, while your chances of contracting TB while flying are obviously pretty rare, what other germs are circulating throughout the cabin? We're going to take a look at just how clean the air on planes really is. That's coming up in about 10 minutes.
ROBERTS: Could this year bring a Katrina-sized hurricane disaster? The season starts today. Forecasters say that we could see up to 10 storms this year. Are we prepared for that? We've got correspondents across the country today to answer that question. Sean Callebs is in New Orleans. Levees in the city have been rebuilt, but will it be enough. Chad Myers is in Punta Gorda, Florida. The area that was hit by Hurricane Charlie, a category four storm three years ago. They are still recovering there. We'll be checking in with Chad in just 10 minutes time.
A shift for the Bush White House. The president is now asking the world's biggest polluting countries to voluntarily cut greenhouse gas emissions. President Bush has come under fire for resisting mandatory caps and for refusing to join other countries in the so- called Kyoto Protocol. He is now pressing leaders of G8 nations to negotiate a new agreement by 2008, but he's coming under a lot of criticism from environmental groups for still not doing enough.
Should vegetarians get tax breaks. PETA thinks so. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Congress to approve the measure. The group sent a letter to the House and Senate majority leaders saying that vegetarians, vegens, produce fewer greenhouse gases and are better toward the environment than meat eaters are. As to how the government would be able to prove that a taxpayer is a vegetarian, PETA says, well, food receipts or Congress could come up with its own system of verification.
CHETRY: Yes, that would work out great.
Meantime, tragedy hanging over graduation day at Enterprise High School in Alabama. Two chairs were left with only caps, gowns and deployments at yesterday's ceremony. They were for the two seniors that were killed when a tornado hit Enterprise back in March. You may remember eight students died when a wall collapsed at their school. The kids finished the year in another building. The community rallied to repair enough of the damage so that they could graduate on school grounds.
ROBERTS: To Lebanon now where tanks are on the move in the streets in a nearly two-week old battle to root out terrorists in the region. The Lebanese army launching a major assault on a suspected Palestinian refugee camp. Dozens of Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda are believed to be holed up there. And the U.S. is backing Lebanon, sending new shipments of military supplies. This is the worst internal fighting in Lebanon since the end of that country's civil war back in 1990. CHETRY: A video released just this morning shows a BBC reporter kidnapped by Palestinian militants. It shows that he's in good health. On the tape, Alan Johnston says he is being treated well. He was kidnapped in Gaza more than 80 days ago. His captors have tried to trade him for a Palestinian cleric with ties to al Qaeda.
ROBERTS: Well, the State Department is trying to close a security breach over its Baghdad embassy. The embassy that's still under construction there. Plans for the massive secure compound were posted online by the architectural firm working on the project. For a brief time yesterday, anyone could see 10 images, including a diagram of the overall compound. They were quickly taken down off of the net, though.
U.S. strategy in Iraq now includes negotiating cease fires with insurgents. The number two American commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno says, 80 percent of insurgents might be able to be brought into the political process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. RAY ODIERNO, CMDR., MULTINATIONAL CORPS-IRAQ: We have refocused our commanders at all levels. I'm empowering them and trying to give them some tools to reach out. Because there are insurgents reaching out to us, which is the most important thing. So we want to reach back to them. And we're talking about cease fires and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: General Odierno says that he's also reaching out to the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. So far, al-Sadr isn't interesting. He also suggests that some members of al Qaeda might be persuaded to change their ways.
CHETRY: There's a travel warning in effect at this hour. The State Department telling all Americans to think twice before going to Venezuela. Officials say ongoing demonstrations there pose a serious danger to visitors. Rioter police are out in force using tear gas, water canons, even plastic bullets to break up the crowds. Protesters are angry after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shut down an opposition TV station. The network opposes the Chavez government. Police say one person has been killed.
ROBERTS: A tribute to America's pastor. Hundreds on hand for the Billy Graham Library dedication on Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, including former Presidents Bush, Clinton and Carter. And President Bush got choked up when he spoke about the evangelical leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're gathered here today because Billy Graham, the man, the preacher, the humble farmer's son who helped changed the world is a spiritual gift to all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The $27 million complex features 40-foot tall crosses as doorways. Graham is 88 years old, suffers from prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. He was the first preacher to have a presence in 11 consecutive administrations, Democratic and Republican. The museum opens next week. And admission will be free to the public.
CHETRY: So, quick, can you spell serrefine? A 13-year-old from California could. He is now the National Spelling Bee champ.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVAN O'DORNEY, SPELLING BEE WINNER: Serrefine. S-e-r-r-e-f-i-n- e.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are correct for the champion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He had a muted reaction. He just kind of smiled. Didn't jump up and down or go crazy, like some of them have done in the past. It's Evan O'Dorney. He says he knew how to spell the winning world. It's a noun describing small forceps. He says he knew it as soon as he was asked to spell it. He wins $30,000 in cash, a $5,000 college scholarship and a few other things for winning the 80th Annual Scripps Howard Spelling Bee. And, of course, bragging rights, right? Evan says that he won despite missing what had become his pre- spelling bee ritual, which was eating a tuna fish sandwich from Subway. You know, with the fish oils, I guess they help -- they were brain food.
ROBERTS: Brain food, absolutely.
CHETRY: Exactly.
He's going to be joining us in the 8:00 hour live to talk more about how he feels the day after victor. There he is.
ROBERTS: The secret to his success could be his way of practicing. His mother quizzes him on spelling questions as he walks around the house juggling.
CHETRY: That's right. A lot of these kids are home schooled. A lot of the winners, they are home schooled and they spend an awful lot of time learning these different words. Wonder if there's a Subway endorsement, by the way, in the future for him?
ROBERTS: It paid off for him.
A trademark tug of war kicking off. Some "Quick Hits" this morning. It's Martha Stewart versus a residents of Katonah, New York. The domestic guru was trying to trademark the name Katonah for a line of furniture. The town launched a "Nobody Owns Katonah" campaign. American Indian leaders say the application is offensive. Stewart says she is just trying to honor the town.
And a fueling frenzy at a San Francisco gas station. Hundreds of drivers filled up their tanks for less than $3 a gallon. Look at that. Under $3 a gallon gasoline I guess is a big thing in San Francisco these days.
CHETRY: Oh, of course.
ROBERTS: The station dropped its prices to $2.99 for its last day of business. One guy says he waited three hours before being told that they were out of gas. The same Shell station made news earlier this year when the owner set the highest prices in California at $4 a gallon.
The TB scare rattling air travelers and sparking all kinds of questions. So how clean is the air in an aircraft? We'll take you under the microscope next on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: On the road in a hail storm. Your "Quick Hits" now. A massive storm system dumping hail in northwest Kansas. You can hear it and you can see it all over the roads. It's just covered with the stuff.
And you can certainly see that in the sky. That same storm and the same storm chasers catching this amazing video of a funnel cloud, both near the town or Norton.
Also a small tornado knocking things around in Connecticut. The National Weather Service sending a team to check things out on the ground. They say that a horse barn took a beating. Some trees and power lines were also knocked down. Hail also hitting the area and a funnel cloud spotted.
Florida's Lake Okeechobee is burning. Firefighters battling spectacular fires spread across the lake's exposed bottom. Drought's dropping water levels to a record low. That lake should be around 13 feet above sea level this time of year, but right now it's about four feet lower than that. Lake Okeechobee is the main backup water supply for 5 million people who live in south Florida.
Well, it may be dry in Florida now, but hurricane season could quickly change that. Forecasters are predicting three to five major storms this season. The people of Punta Gorda know what a storm like that can do. Hurricane Charlie, a category four when it hit them three years ago. Chad Myers saw the damage firsthand and he is back there to join us today to talk more about it.
Hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
I stood right in this exact spot with Anderson Cooper a little less than three years ago and the destruction was everywhere. So we decided to come back here today, come back here yesterday, and see what happened. See what it looked like.
These of some of the pictures of what we were seeing just a short three years ago. And we are hearing all of the stories about how the Katrina victims are -- well, some are getting back on their feet and some are not. So let's go back to another category four storm, Charlie. And we did.
And when we were on the ground that fateful day, here's what we saw.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: This place that we're in right here, according to some of the owners, they're going to have to level it. There's not one mobile home in here that they can salvage. Here is the thing we've got today. It's been a hot one. Yes, look at this. Look at the sunshine. Just -- it's been ugly all day. The folks trying to get -- and it's like 93 and they're trying to do work outside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MYERS: But there's some good news. Here is what that same area looked like yesterday as we walked through. Well, not every building was leveled. Most of them were. Eleven out of 13 mobile homes had to go and they were replaced by much stronger modular homes on stilts. Yes, there are still some for sale. Some people don't want to come back. But many people, most of them, 75 percent, are back here in this mobile home park. And around Punta Gorda, the place is a shining example of people getting down, working hard and putting their lives back together. This place looks amazing compared to what it looked like just three years ago.
CHETRY: Wow. Great news to report. Chad Myers, we'll check in with you a little later as well about the upcoming hurricane season. Thanks.
ROBERTS: That traveler with tuberculosis has us all thinking more about the air we breathe when we're on an aircraft. Just how clean is it? For some answers, let's go live to CNN's Jason Carroll at Kennedy Airport.
So, Jason, what did you find out? You know, we talk about sick building syndrome. Is there such a thing as sick airplane syndrome, as well?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There very well may be. Because, you know, the passengers we spoke to were very vocal about this, John. In fact, they believe -- all the passengers we spoke to believe that the air on board these aircraft is not clean. But airline analysts tell us that there are filters in place to ensure that the air is fresh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL, (voice over): It's a top complaint among air travelers.
JULIE NEGRELLI, AIR TRAVELER: I think the air is disgusting.
CARROLL: Long lines, delayed flights and the feeling the air circulating on planes is unhealthy.
MIKE ACEVEDO, AIR TRAVELER: I usually come out of here sniffing, coughing and stuff like that.
NEGRELLI: It smells funny sometimes. You know, definitely my eyes get all itchy.
CARROLL: Concerns go far beyond the fear of catching the common cold. Questions of air quality onboard commercial flights made headlines four years ago during the SARS scare in Canada. Now, more concerns since a man with a rare form of tuberculosis took flights in the United States, Canada and Europe. And passengers are asking just how clean is the air you breathe on board? None of the major airlines we contacted would comment. But a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman told us, U.S. airlines are required to "provide a sufficient amount of uncontaminated air." Most newer planes do that with high efficiency particulate filters, hepa filers for short. They are also used in hospitals. And federal officials say they remove 99 percent of airborne contaminates. Dr. David Streitwieser helps airlines handle medical emergencies and says the reality is there have been few cases of diseases transmitted on board. But the risk is there. It's small, but it's real.
DAVID STREITWIESER, MEDAIR: I think our access to easy travel will make an airborne, contagious disease, like avian influenza, when and if that ever comes, that will make it much more of a threat. It will spread more rapidly and we have to be prepared for that.
CARROLL: The FAA funded a study to develop a new sensor, seen here in this animation, which should identify a passenger carrying an airborne virus. This red cloud shows how this sensor tracks the animated passenger. It's still years away from development. For now, travelers like the Hendrix (ph) say they worry most about the common cold.
So do you have a cold?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I sure do.
CARROLL: You sure do, don't you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's annoying.
CARROLL: What, that your mom has a cold?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It's been annoying us the whole time. It's like, stop coughing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Airline officials tell us that the air on board these flights is actually recycled every three minutes and that they believe that the air on board is actually cleaner than the air that you might find in an office or in a news room.
John.
ROBERTS: Well, we do know that the air inside a news room is just terrible. I would hope so.
Jason Carroll, thanks very much, at JFK Airport this morning.
CHETRY: Well, hot in there. Hot air in there as times, too, as well in the news room.
Well, Dr. Kevorkian back on the streets. Some "Quick Hits" now. The man known as Dr. Death will be released from prison today in Michigan after serving more than eight years of a 10 to 25 year sentence. He says that he helped at least 130 people end their lives from 1990 to 1998. Kevorkian says he'll never again help another person in an assisted suicide. He's expected to hold a news correspondence next week.
And hiding some pot with hard candy? Well, police in St. Paul, Minnesota, say they seized a ton of marijuana inside of a 21-ton shipment of jaw breaker candies. Cops says it's their biggest pot bust ever. The stuff, worth about $3 million on the street. The truck driver was pulled over for going too slow.
And replacing Rosie O'Donnell. Lots of names being thrown around. So who is the odds on favorite? We're going to run down the list and take a look at who might come out on top.
Also backlash over the immigration plan. The GOP calling donors and getting an earful instead of pledges for cash. Now the phone banks are folding. What's going on with this? Well, we're going to have much more on that story when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-five minutes now after the hour.
The magic kingdom is getting some powerful, magical competition. Some "Quick Hits" for you now. Universal Orlando Resort is opening a "Harry Potter" theme park. When it's finished in 2009, kids will be able to go to Hogwart's and many other famous places in the "Harry Potter" books. Author J.K. Rowling says fans will not be disappointed.
And a real life spider-man strikes again. French daredevil Alain Robert scaled the world's fourth tallest building yesterday. The 88- story Jin Mao Tower in China. No swinging away to escape for him, though. He was arrested just as soon as he climbed back down. He has now climbed over 65 buildings.
And a surprising twist in the theory of how human beings learn how to walk. A team of British scientists say humans may not have walked on their knuckles before learning to stand upright. They studied orangutans and found that walking upright may have started in the trees and then knuckle dragging evolved later to move across forest floors.
CHETRY: All right. We've got to keep that in order, knuckle dragging happened later after the tree climbing.
Well, the seat's barely cold and already people are buzzing about who is going to take Rosie O'Donnell's place at the head of the table over at "The View." So we're going to talk about some of the potential contenders. AMERICAN MORNING's Lola Ogunnaike joins us now with a short list.
Hi. Good to see you this morning.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, too.
CHETRY: So if we run down the names, you can tell us who's getting a lot of buzz. Whoopi Goldberg. That's who Rosie said I would like to replace me is Whoopi?
OGUNNAIKE: Exactly. That's Rosie's choice. And Whoopi has sat in a few times and she's done really well. And, again, Rosie -- she's really outspoken. Following in Rosie's footsteps. Not afraid to say anything. Not afraid to be controversial about the war. So, hey.
CHETRY: What did Whoopi say, though? Didn't she say she wasn't interested or is she changing her mind?
OGUNNAIKE: I don't think she said that she wasn't interested. She's been there and she's happily hung out and she's fit in really well. So she could be one of the leading contenders.
CHETRY: Then we have Kathy Griffin. She's the red-headed, fire cracker comedian.
OGUNNAIKE: Yes, Kathy Griffin. Yes, a card sharing member of the d-list (ph).
CHETRY: That's what she claims.
OGUNNAIKE: Loves to take down celebrities. Any celebrities. Again, she's also very fearless. Whether or not she'll be able to handle the dynamics of, you know, throwing to the next person and allowing everybody to chime in and not sucking up all the air like Rosie did remains to be seen. That might be her drawback.
CHETRY: OK. That also might be Roseanne Barr's drawback, because she loves to be the center of attention.
OGUNNAIKE: Well, Roseanne has made it clear that she wants the job. But Roseanne says that she probably won't get it because she cannot be controlled.
CHETRY: That's funny. Wanda Sykes. She's hilarious. Hilarious.
OGUNNAIKE: Wanda Sykes. "Curb Your Enthusiasm," really hysterical. "Monster-in-Law," great. And she's got that great nasally voice. But, I don't know, she has a thriving film career right now. She may not want to put that on hold and dedicate that day in and day out time to "The View."
CHETRY: And, you know, the other interesting thing is they haven't even replaced Star Jones.
OGUNNAIKE: Exactly.
CHETRY: There's two seats.
OGUNNAIKE: There's two open seats left. And people are saying that Sherri Shepherd, who sits in there regularly, she's on there for weeks at a time, may be the one to fill in for Star Jones. The two look exactly alike. If you blink, you think you're looking at Star Jones.
CHETRY: Right. There she is.
You also had a chance to fill in on that guest seat. How was it?
OGUNNAIKE: I sure did. I had a blast, actually. I had a really good time. I sat in last October, a month after Rosie arrived. So they were still in their honeymoon period. So I saw no drama. No drama backstage, no drama on stage. But apparently things have changed.
CHETRY: Things have changed. That's right.
Lola, thanks so much.
OGUNNAIKE: Thank you.
ROBERTS: It's all about drama now.
Twenty-eight minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi here "Minding Your Business."
You know earlier this week we had that landmark Supreme Court decision about wage discrimination having to happen in the first six months of the infraction occurring. Now, a lawsuit against General Electric.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've got a lawsuit against General Electric. A lawyer for General Electric, 13 year veteran of the company's transportation unit is suing the company for gender discrimination, saying that General Electric underpays and under promotes women. The lawyer's name is Lorene Schaffer. She works with the transportation unit. She has named 13 officers, including the chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt. And the interesting thing, she's seeking class action status on behalf of 1,500 to 1,700 women.
Now GE strongly denies this and says that 27 of the company's top 186 employees are women. I'm not sure that's the stat I would have put out, but that's what they did.
Another lawsuit against another very big company, Wal-Mart, which has its annual meeting today in Arkansas, it was a ruling in New Jersey yesterday, the supreme court ruled that a case can go ahead against Wal-Mart for workers who have been working off the clock. The interesting thing about this case is the court says it can be a class action case that represents nearly 80,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers. The allegation is that managers made workers work off the clock and not get paid for it. Wal-Mart has disagreed with the ruling and says the company's policy is to pay every associate for every hour they work.
We'll follow both of these cases closely.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll see you in a half an hour.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROBERTS: Ali Velshi, thanks very much.
Hurricane season begins today and New Orleans says it is prepared. But is it? There may already be problems with the city's new levee system. We're live on the scene next on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
It is Friday, June 1st.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you.
I'm John Roberts.
Can you believe June already?
CHETRY: It's going fast.
ROBERTS: Life is just flying by. The foot is on the accelerator all the way to the floor.
Stories "On Our Radar" this morning.
The Atlantic hurricane season kicks off today. Is the Gulf Coast ready? Some serious concerns about pumps and floodwalls in New Orleans.
We're going to have a live report on that straight ahead. So stay with us.
CHETRY: Also, this is interesting. They're talking about a grassroots rebellion of sorts when it comes to GOP donors, people from the phone bank soliciting money, calling up, and they're hearing an earful from almost everybody they talk to, angry about the immigration bill.
So we're going to talk more about this story a little bit later in the show.
ROBERTS: And we'll get an earful on the immigration bill from Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk show host who's going to be joining us in our next hour as well.
We begin, though, with more intrigue in the public health scare caused by the man infected with a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis. The man, now identified as a 31-year-old attorney, Andrew Speaker, he is speaking out this morning from his Denver hospital, apologizing to the passengers who flew with him. But his father says he did not ignore orders to not fly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED SPEAKER, INFECTED MAN'S FATHER: He specifically asked if he was not permitted to go. They said, no, we would prefer you not to go, but we're not saying you're not to go. They knew that he was getting married and they knew the arrangements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Speaker claims that he has recordings of conversations with CDC officials which prove that he was never told not to fly. And Speaker's father-in-law, who, oddly enough, works for the Centers for Disease Control and works with TB, says it didn't come from him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT COOKSEY, INFECTED MAN'S FATHER-IN-LAW: I do not have TB, nor have I ever had TB. My son-in-law's TB did not originate from myself or the CDC labs which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And then there's this detail new this morning. The border guard who stopped Speaker at the U.S.-Canada border has been placed on administrative duties. That agent saw Speaker's passport had been flagged -- it came up on his computer -- but he allowed Speaker to enter the United States because he looked healthy to him.
So how did Speaker slip through the cracks at the border? In just a few minutes, we're going to speak with the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee who wants to know the same thing and will be holding hearings on it next week.
CHETRY: Well, hurricane season starts today, and once again a lot of attention turned toward New Orleans. Specifically, a new set of levees and flood gates that may already be showing problems.
CNN's Sean Callebs is live now in New Orleans to show us the extent of those potential problems.
Hi, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. It's really hard to talk about the start of hurricane season without talking about this city. Really, it's become a metaphor for misery.
We're standing in front of the new floodgates and pumps that went up at the 17th Street Canal. None of this was here when Katrina hit. Part of the hundreds of millions of dollars that has been pumped into this area to shore up this area.
We're actually standing on the deck right now of a group of condos right across the street from the canal that has been condemned by the Army Corps of Engineers. In hindsight, it's really staggering that people were allowed to build this close to the canal.
The big question, how safe will this area be? Well, some scientists say that it could be swamped by a prolonged Category 2 hurricane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS (voice over): A winding, twisting mass of pipes and metal, it looks like something Dr. Seuss may have designed. But this is one of the new pump systems in New Orleans, and residents here have little choice but to hope these new floodgates, as well as repairs to 225 miles of levees, protect the city.
JOHN KITE, HOMEOWNER: And I think there's a lot of oversight that may not have been around the last time, a lot of people looking over their shoulders. I think they're doing the best they can do.
CALLEBS: The Army Corps of Engineers received $5.7 billion to strengthen and rebuild floodwalls and levees, but is it enough? Will it stand up to a Category 3, 4 or 5?
COL. Jeff BEDEY, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, I'm not going to try to even begin to try to measure in terms of category of protection. What I will tell you is this system is stronger today than it was pre-Katrina. And I think that's a powerful statement.
CALLEBS: But Ivor Van Heerden, an engineer with the LSU Hurricane Center, has a different assessment.
IVOR VAN HEERDEN, LSU HURRICANE CENTER: The problem is, there are still weak links. And as we all know, it takes one hole to sink a ship.
CALLEBS: Critics say the problems are widespread. These new pumps at the 17th Street Canal haven't worked properly. The corps, however, believes they have the problems under control.
And another major flooding threat persists. This area, calls the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, or MR-GO, was carved out of marshland to create a shipping channel. But everyone now admits it created a funnel, allowing a storm surge to flood the city.
Just weeks ago, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed damming up MR-GO. And repairs to the floodwalls in the Lower Ninth Ward are already showing problems. The channel is 40 feet deep, but pilings for the floodwalls go down into the soil 19 to 23 feet.
The Corps of Engineers says there's no problem.
VAN HEERDEN: And what we see is this damp spot.
CALLEBS: A sign, Van Heerden says, that water is seeping through.
VAN HEERDEN: Because this is a potential site where you could have significant piping and potential blowout.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Boy, scary stuff that there could be seepage already in that area.
We have a couple of cameras up here live. There's some work again at the 17th Street Canal going on around the clock.
Kiran, the corps says they know that everybody in this area wants an absolute that it's going to be safe, but the start of hurricane season, they cannot provide that -- Kiran.
CHETRY: That is just so many variables, unfortunately.
Sean Callebs, thanks for that report.
ROBERTS: Two former aides to Senator John McCain are speaking out today about McCain's efforts to reach the religious right. In interviews with "U.S. New & World Report," the two aides say that they were ignored by the campaign, which was more interested in collecting church directories to help organizing efforts.
One of the staffers says, "In the end, he came away with a strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community." The campaign denies the charges and says the aides were fired back in April for performance reasons.
CHETRY: And some drastic action from the Republican National Committee, firing all 65 of its telephone solicitors. There's reportedly been a 40 percent drop-off in small donor contributions to the party following a grassroots rebellion of sorts over President Bush's support for the immigration plan. The RNC insists that the anger from potential donors has nothing to do with the firings -- that the phone system is simply old and would cost too much to update.
Legalizing civil unions in New Hampshire. Time now for your "Quick Hits".
New Hampshire governor John Lynch signing a law allowing same-sex couples to apply for the same rights as married couples. That law takes effect in January. New Hampshire will be the first state to embrace same-sex unions without a court order or the threat of one. A bomb scare and a commuter nightmare. Commuters in Pittsburgh using three major tunnels this morning, but last night they were not able to. Rush hour, a nightmare.
Police had to close down those three tunnels because of a bomb threat. One hundred thousand drivers use those tunnels every weekday.
And a blunder at the border, and now the government wants answers. How did a border guard just let a man infected with a dangerous strain of TB slip on through?
And we're across the country today for the first day of hurricane season.
BILL WOOD, REPORTER: And good morning. I'm Bill Wood, reporting live from southwest Florida in Fort Myers, in Lee County, in fact, where we are ready for day number one of the hurricane season with this back here.
This is our brand-spanking-new mobile response unit. Come on inside. I want you to see it. This is a million-dollar RV which is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, ready for a hurricane. Speaking of state of the art, Fred is ready to drive this wherever it may need to go.
How many miles you got on this baby so far, Fred?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Approximately 3,000 miles.
WOOD: And it is ready to go anywhere?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
WOOD: And what can it do, Jay Stackenberg (ph) -- who's in charge of all of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, it can do anything that a major operation center can do. We can make plans, we can coordinate efforts.
WOOD: All right. They used to say that in southwest Florida, this is where God has a condo in case of hurricanes. We hope that's the way it is this season, but just in case, we're ready.
I'm Bill Wood, reporting for CNN.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back right after this.
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CHETRY: An arrest in the cabbie crime spree. Your "Quick Hits" now.
Police in New York City have nabbed the man that they say held up eight taxis over the last two weeks. Police say they also recovered the weapon, which was a very realistic looking fake .9 millimeter handgun.
Also, look over your e-mails very carefully today. The IRS is warning everybody about a computer virus buried in an e-mail that has an official-looking IRS logo. If you click on a link in the e-mail, it actually launches a virus that can take over and destroy your hard drive -- John.
ROBERTS: A blunder at the border. The guard who failed to detain and isolate a man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis has been removed from border duty.
Thirty-one-year-old Andrew Speaker was allowed back into the country at a Canadian border crossing. Officials say the guard ignored a warning to stop Speaker because he seemed healthy.
Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson wants some answers. He's chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and he joins us now from Jackson, Mississippi.
Good to see you, Congressman. Thanks for being with us.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me.
ROBERTS: What are your thoughts here, first of all, about the fact that Speaker did get in across the border when there was a flag out to stop him?
THOMPSON: Well, I think it speaks to the operational and performance of our agency. Clearly, they failed the test. And what we want to do with our committee hearings is see exactly what happened.
ROBERTS: Well, Congressman Thompson, what does it say that after 9/11, after all the money that's been spent, after all the focus on border security, anti-terrorism measures, after the creation of the enormous Department of Homeland Security, that one man who is on a watch list with a potentially communicable disease, potentially dangerous disease, could just walk right across the border?
THOMPSON: Well, it says that our system, although it's supposed to be infallible, that human error can in fact produce a vulnerability. But what we want to do is look at that.
I'm outraged at the fact that we knew the individual. The individual had been contacted. But we couldn't stop the individual.
That should not have happened. Our committee will look at it, and I assure you, at the end of the day, whatever gaps that occurred in this situation will be corrected.
ROBERTS: Congressman Thompson, we had Julie Gerberding, who's the head of the Centers for Disease Control, on the other day.
I want to play you a little bit of what she said and get you to respond to it. Take a quick listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: It was a holiday weekend here and in Europe, so it took some time to get all the pieces together. I think everyone was working very hard. We haven't been in this situation for 40 years, so we've kind of had to make up a plan as we went along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Let me ask you about that, Congressman. She says, "We had to make up a plan as we went along."
What about pandemic flu? What about SARS? What about the threat of bioterrorism? I think most people in America thought that there was a plan.
THOMPSON: Well, I don't accept that. We have plans in place. There are protocols. Our committee would like to know why they weren't followed.
If CDC knew this situation, when did they contact the Department of Homeland Security? What did Homeland Security do after that? Why the Canadian government did not receive information in real time.
We have the capacity. The system didn't work. Our committee will look at it. And I assure you, at the end of the day, we'll fix it.
ROBERTS: All right. When are you holding those hearings, Congressman Thompson?
THOMPSON: This Wednesday, 10:00 a.m., 311 Cannon Building.
ROBERTS: We will be watching.
Congressman Bennie Thompson joining us from Jackson, Mississippi, this morning.
Thank you, sir.
CHETRY: Rescue at sea. Some "Quick Hits" now.
The Coast Guard saving six people, including two children, from a 65-foot yacht in Miami. They don't yet know why it started to sink. They say no one was hurt.
And take a look at this odd lobster. There it is. It looks like it was half cooked.
ROBERTS: Oh, come on.
CHETRY: This is real.
The two-tone crustacean was caught by fishermen. Ooh, look at that. He's trying to hit him with his tail there.
It was caught off Newport, Rhode Island, by the way. It's alive, so obviously they didn't half cook it.
ROBERTS: Is there a nuclear power station near there?
CHETRY: Oh, I don't know. I wonder how great...
ROBERTS: That's unbelievable.
CHETRY: Look at that, right next to the other one.
Well, what would your kids do? Would they love to hang around with SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer? The popular characters could soon be coming to a resort near you.
Ali Velshi explains. He's "Minding Your Business" coming up next.
(END VIDEO CLIP) O
ROBERTS: Fifty-two minutes now after the hour.
Forget throwing another log on the fire -- in southern California, anyway. Air quality management officials say that they want to ban wood-burning fireplaces in all new homes to reduce air pollution.
And researchers may have figured out what makes la vita, or life, so dolce, or sweet, in Rome. They have found traces of cocaine and pot in the eternal city's air. The researchers don't know how the stuff got into the air. They point out that the findings don't necessarily mean that Romans are heavy users of either drug.
CHETRY: All right. Good news.
Fifty-two minutes past the hour right now. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business".
And if you love Mickey Mouse and Disney World for your kids, there could be something new.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This about getting slimed.
Have you ever been slimed?
CHETRY: No, and I was...
VELSHI: Are you getting slimed? Yes.
CHETRY: When you asked -- told me you were doing this, I just looked up to make sure you didn't already put a bucket above my head.
VELSHI: Well, Bill Marriott, who's the head of Marriott, got slimed yesterday. I think we've got some video of this.
Marriott and Nickelodeon are joining hands to create a chain of resorts. That's him on the left there.
CHETRY: There it is. Ooh.
VELSHI: That looks gross.
CHETRY: He got off easy. They didn't even get him on the head.
VELSHI: They're -- taking it in good humor next to SpongeBob.
But Nickelodeon and Marriott are teaming up to come up with some resorts. They're going to be called Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott.
The first one's going to be in San Diego, opening up in 2010. They'll feature Nickelodeon characters.
But the target audience here, interestingly enough, is people who were the first generation of Nickelodeon viewers. Nickelodeon started 28 years ago, so some of those first-generation people have their own kids who also watch Nickelodeon, which is a Viacom company.
So the one they're building in San Diego is going to be 650 rooms. It's going to have a 100,000--square-foot water park and, you know, all sorts of entertainment. The kind that you typically find at these kinds of places.
They're going to -- Nickelodeon is going to deal with the marketing and the characters and all of that. Marriott will handle the properties. They're looking at having 20 of these resorts around the world by 2020. So, within a 10-year span they'll have gotten all these sorts of resorts.
Maybe some competition for Disney and the like.
CHETRY: Something new to do with the kids.
VELSHI: Something new to do with the kids. Exactly.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks so much, Ali.
ROBERTS: It looks like the Loch Ness monster may be back. Check out this video of what could be the legendary Scottish creature caught on tape by a man who says he couldn't believe his eyes.
Do you believe yours? Veteran Nessie watchers say they're going to review the tape and analyze it. There have been many sightings over the years, of course. The most famous picture taken by a vacationing surgeon back in 1930.
CHETRY: How long does has this thing lived, though? I mean, it's been around for years.
ROBERTS: Well, since the 1930s at the very least.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Which would make it at least 77 years old. CHETRY: Unless it had Loch Ness babies and there are many of them around there.
ROBERTS: You never know. There would have to be another Loch Ness monster, then, wouldn't there?
CHETRY: Yes, maybe. They just haven't caught him on tape yet.
Well, coming up, the latest on the public health scare caused by that man infected with this tuberculosis. The border security breakdown that actually let him move in and around the country, how did that happen?
We're going to talk more about that on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning here on CNN.
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