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American Morning
Death by Muscle Cream; Inside L.A.'s Crowded Jails; Operation Smile: Cindy McCain's Work for Children
Aired June 11, 2007 - 07:59 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): Crushing attack. Explosives take down a bridge in Iraq, killing three American troops.
Plus, details on a dangerous new strategy: arming Sunni insurgents to rub out al Qaeda.
And the great taxi challenge. Hybrids go head to head with gas- powered cabs in New York City. The test drive gets in gear on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning to you. It is Monday, June the 11th. Good to have you with us today.
I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
Some stories "On Our Radar" this morning.
It was a security scary for Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. It was actually an attempt on his life. But listen and take a look at how he handled it.
There it was, the sound of a rocket buzzing by the building where he was speaking. We're going to tell you how all of that ended coming up.
ROBERTS: Literally did not even flinch.
A young athlete dies after using a muscle cream like Bengay or Icy Hot. How is something like that possible? And what do you need to look out for?
We'll tell you coming up in just a couple of minutes.
CHETRY: Also, Paris Hilton getting some weekend visitors. Of course, as you know, she's back in jail again after the judge overrode the sheriff's deputy and said she's got to get back into jail. Well, now she has her sister visiting and her old boyfriend, I believe Stavros Niarchos.
How do I know that? That's depressing.
ROBERTS: It just rolled off your tongue like that. CHETRY: But what are conditions like...
ROBERTS: It's frightening.
CHETRY: ... in that county jail in L.A.? Well, our Chris Lawrence was there. So he's going to show us a bit later.
ROBERTS: All right. Look forward to that.
President Bush wraps up his eight-day European trip with a stop in Bulgaria today. The president met with Bulgaria's president this morning and spoke of America's stalled immigration reform bill. He vows that that bill will be revived.
The president heads back to Washington today and plans a visit to Capitol Hill tomorrow to do some more lobbying for immigration reform.
CHETRY: And also, the Senate today planning to debate and then deliver a symbolic vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The White House planning to ignore it. The president also telling reporters in Bulgaria this morning that the vote has no bearing on Gonzales's future as attorney general.
But could this -- as we know, Gonzales taking heat for the firing of federal prosecutors. Well, now there are questions about how immigration judges were chosen.
This morning's "Washington Post" is reporting that at least a third of the immigration judges picked by the attorney general in the last three years were loyal Republicans or White House insiders. It goes on to report that half of them were inexperienced in immigration law.
ROBERTS: In Iraq today, reports that three American soldiers were killed when a suicide bomb collapsed a highway overpass south of Baghdad. The soldiers were operating a checkpoint underneath the bridge. Bridges have become an increasingly popular target for insurgents recently.
A new U.S. strategy in Iraq may be about to expand. American commanders say they have successfully tested arming Sunnis who promise to use the weapons to fight militants linked with al Qaeda. The problem is that the Sunnis have also been liked to violence against U.S. troops in the past. Also, critics say the plan could lead to arming both sides of a civil war in Iraq.
CHETRY: Gas prices are down. That's right. The national average price now dropping seven cents in the past three weeks.
It's now $3.11 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey. Chicago, meantime, has the nation's most pricey gas at $3.61 a gallon for regular unleaded. In Jackson, Mississippi, it's the cheapest at $2.87.
CHETRY: Three minutes after the hour now. An ingredient in over-the-counter muscle creams is being blamed for the death of a high school athlete in New York City. Seventeen-year-old Arielle Newman died in April after her body absorbed a lethal amount of the chemical methyl salicylate. It's found in Bengay, Icy Hot and Tiger Balm, among others.
Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now from Atlanta.
And Elizabeth, I think it would be a surprise to most people that there is even a compound in these creams that could potentially be lethal.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. Most people think of this as just like any other cream, just nothing that actually causes you problems. But the ingredient in Bengay and other sports rubs is called methyl salicylate. Sometimes people also call it oil of wintergreen. And it can be toxic when ingested.
The Food & Drug Administration is very clear that it can cause breathing problems, it can cause convulsions, it can cause fever. However, it is very, very unusual, doctors tell us, to have any kind of toxicity when it's just used at the skin.
So, this seems like a very rare case, this horrible occurrence that happened to Arielle Newman -- John.
ROBERTS: So do we know how much of this she used?
COHEN: You know what? We really don't.
The medical examiner used the term "excessive". Her parents said she used it. The word they used was "occasionally". It's not known how much she used it. It's also not known -- maybe she had some kind of pre-existing condition that made her more vulnerable to the toxicities of this ingredient.
There's a lot that we don't know.
ROBERTS: Well, is this the sort of thing that people should worry about? I mean, people get aches and pains all the time, they rub a little bit of this stuff on. They rub a little more on.
COHEN: Right. It's important to remember two things. One, it's important to remember to use this as directed.
And Johnson & Johnson, which makes Bengay, was very clear. They issued a statement after Arielle's death that said, "Bengay should be applied to the affected area not more than three or four times daily, and stop use and see a doctor if the condition worsens or symptoms persist for more than seven days."
So the two key things there, three to four times daily, at the most. And after seven days, stop using, because this can build up. So, after seven days, stop use and see a doctor.
Another issue, John, is that sometimes people will use double doses of this without knowing it. They will use a cream, and then they'll also use a patch that also has methyl salicylate. So, if you're using two things, look at what's in them.
ROBERTS: Now, what if you were to take aspirin in combination with that as well? Because it says salicylic acid.
COHEN: That's apparently not as much of an issue. You want to really -- what the -- what the maker warns about is using two products with methyl salicylate.
ROBERTS: OK.
Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta.
Thanks very much for that update.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Very shocking news for a lot of people.
CHETRY: Well, Paris Hilton's parents are going to be reportedly visiting her in prison -- or in jail tomorrow. Yesterday was her sister Nicky, who stopped by, as did an ex boyfriend, Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos.
Paris has apparently settled in, saying she's not going to appeal her 45-day sentence. She's being held in downtown L.A. at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.
So, what are conditions like in the jails in Los Angeles County?
AMERICAN MORNING'S Chris Lawrence is there to check it out for us.
Hi, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
Yes, I don't know if Paris is exactly an arbiter of how conditions are for most women. She probably will serve out the remainder of her sentence right here in the medical ward, in a room where she's being held by herself. She probably will not go back to the women's jail where her experience was anything but ordinary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice over): Paris Hilton was immediately assigned a cell at Lynnwood Jail.
Quantrell Johnson wasn't so lucky.
QUANTRELL JOHNSON, FMR. LYNWOOD INMATE: I mean, I was down there for five days until I got a bed. Five days before I got a bed and one shower.
LAWRENCE: While Hilton was being kept isolated from other prisoners, Johnson slept on a reception center floor. Surrounded.
(on camera): Were there a lot of other women in the same room with you?
JOHNSON: In the same room. They put like maybe 35 women. It's one toilet and one little sink. And all...
LAWRENCE: In that space?
JOHNSON: In that space. And all of you guys would be crushed up in there like a sardine.
LAWRENCE (voice over): L.A. County is not supposed to hold more than 20 inmates at this reception center for more than a day. The sheriff is under federal orders to reduce overcrowding. In the past year, Lee Baca says he's had 52 other inmates with a sentence similar to Hilton's.
SHERIFF LEE BACA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: And I can assure you with this policy, most likely most of the 52 didn't serve any time at all in the county jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Dr. Prison Radio.
LAWRENCE: Prison expert Steve Scholl (ph) has never heard of an inmate getting locked up, sent home, and brought back in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are kind of playing her as a ping pong ball.
LAWRENCE: But Baca didn't release Hilton solely due to overcrowding. He sent her home to deal with psychological problems. Inmates typically wait up to a week to see a doctor.
And Johnson says they are only let out on a stretcher for serious medical conditions.
JOHNSON: Other than that, you are in there. You are in there.
LEONARD LEVINE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I have never had a client actually get out of jail because of medical reasons. But again, it hasn't been necessary in a case like this because they already would have been out after serving a few days, just because of the overcrowding.
LAWRENCE: In fact, 32 counties in California release inmates early, with Los Angeles leading the way. In less than four years, the county has released 150,000 inmates. Some of them violent offenders.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Paris Hilton was immediately assigned a cell. Johnson wasn't so lucky.
LAWRENCE: And just last month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an $8 billion bill to help relieve some of this overcrowding. It will help pay for more than 50,000 new beds -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And I understand there's some questions about Hilton's grandfather's donation. Paris' grandfather donating money to the sheriff's re-election campaign last year.
LAWRENCE: Yes. Last year Paris Hilton's grandfather donated $1,000, which is the maximum allowed by law, to the sheriff's re- election campaign. Now there's some grumbling, actually some people calling for the sheriff to be recalled, accusing him of some quid pro quo because he initially ordered her to serve out the rest of her sentence at home.
The sheriff's office said there's absolutely nothing to it, and that since his campaign raised about a million bucks, in that context $1,000 is pretty small -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right.
Chris Lawrence, thank you.
ROBERTS: Nine minutes after the hour now. And a space walk tops your "Quick Hits".
Atlantis astronauts are planning to venture out later on this morning to attach a solar array to the International Space Station. NASA is also working on a fix for the shuttle's thermal blanket.
Look here. A little corner of it peeled back on liftoff on Friday. It could be a danger when the shuttle returns back to Earth.
Seven suspects are under arrest today for an assassination attempt on Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Listen to this and you can hear rockets firing as Karzai was speaking yesterday.
Wow. He was cool under pressure, didn't even flinch. President Karzai went on with the speech, telling the audience not to be afraid, that nothing is happening. Obviously it was, though.
No one was hurt in the incident. The Taliban claimed they fired the rockets.
Preparing for a second White House bid. What could Cindy McCain do as first lady? We'll ask her about the charity work that she says changed her life.
Plus, Reynolds Wolf here with the forecast.
Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right.
And this morning we have some potential flooding in parts of the central and southern plains. And later on today, maybe strong storms in the Southeast.
We'll bring you the full weather story coming up on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes after the hour. A twister in New Mexico tops your "Quick Hits" this morning.
The National Weather Service says it touched down twice south of Santa Fe yesterday -- or Saturday, rather. Then it started hailing, hail the size of golf balls. State police had to shut down part of Interstate 25.
In China, four straight days of violent rainstorms are drenching the country. Officials say more than 65 people have been killed and more than 150,000 now homeless. Landslides destroyed homes, crops and a railway system.
And heavy rains in Australia are cutting off towns and farms. Farmers say they had two swim their horses and cattle out to dry land. At least 5,000 people were evacuated after fears that the Hunter River northeast of Sidney would break through its levees.
Well, we're not quite that bad here in the United States, but certainly we've got some pockets of extreme weather.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Well, Cindy McCain is not only the wife of Arizona senator and presidential candidate, John McCain, but she also volunteers for Operation Smile. It's an organization that brings life-changing medical help to children born with facial deformities.
Cindy McCain is just back from a mission. Actually, Vietnam, to help some children there. And she joins us from Phoenix this morning.
Thanks for being with us.
CINDY MCCAIN, OPERATION SMILE: Oh, thank you. Good morning.
CHETRY: Good to see you.
Why Operation Smile of all the issues you could be involved in? Why did you pick this one.
MCCAIN: Well, as many of you know, we have a daughter with a cleft palate. And so my introduction to cleft palates and to all the things that it takes to repair one was through my own daughter. And so when I stumbled upon Operation Smile, I realized that it meant more to me than just an organization that helps children. We're deeply involved in it because of that reason.
CHETRY: And Cindy, you know, here in the U.S. sometimes we can take for granted that we can afford this type of surgery. However -- and there's a picture of you holding up a little baby. In many countries, children just live their lives with that deformity, when it actually is relatively easy to fix.
MCCAIN: It is. It is an easy procedure in the scheme of things. And there are many cases that do come across our path of adults that have cleft, as you know, in countries like Vietnam, and we can repair those as well. It is a mere $250 to repair these kids' cleft palates. That's all. It really is something that is very easy to provide.
CHETRY: Wow, when you think about it, $250...
MCCAIN: It's nothing.
CHETRY: Is this a preview of what you'll be focusing on if you become first lady?
MCCAIN: Absolutely. I don't like to talk in the future at all, but I'm not going to change anything that I would do. These things mean a great deal to me, the organizations and the nonprofits that I have volunteered for and helped through the years. They're personally and deeply part of me, and I don't intend to change that.
CHETRY: You know, switching gears, talking a little bit about your husband's campaign, you're taking part in all of this volunteer work. At the same time, I mean, you've been out there. And boy, it must be exhausting at a lot of these campaign stops and events around the country.
One of the things that we read a little bit about is some of the trouble courting the important evangelical vote for the GOP candidate. Do the two of you talk about religion, and do you make decisions about your faith and family based on your religion?
MCCAIN: The decisions we make for our family we make because of our family. And certainly our faith is involved in that. But quite frankly, when I get to see my husband, we don't talk about the evangelical right. We talk about things we need to talk about regarding our family.
CHETRY: No, I hear you. But, I mean, it's an important vote for anyone who becomes the GOP nominee. And it seems like they've questioned your husband's faith in a way.
MCCAIN: You know, I've not seen that. If they're questioning my husband's faith, they don't know them. There is no stronger man of faith than my husband. He survived a prison camp because of his faith.
CHETRY: In fact, I was reading a story about one of his jailers at the time when he was in Vietnam. I think it was Christmas...
MCCAIN: Yes.
CHETRY: ... briefly making a cross in the sand. Tell us more about that.
MCCAIN: Well, he was -- he was outside and he was sweeping, and one of his jail guards came up, and with his sandal made a cross in the sand and left it there for a while. And then came back over and just quietly rubbed it out. But it was for my husband's benefit in front of my husband that he did it.
CHETRY: Your sons are both in the military, one of them off to Iraq soon.
MCCAIN: Yes.
CHETRY: What do you say to each other to remain calm and to find strength when you know you have to send your children into a very dangerous place?
MCCAIN: Well, both my husband and I believe in what -- in what they're doing. I mean, we have encouraged this service in all our children.
What we do now is we've joined the ranks of millions of other parents in the United States that will wait, worry and pray about their children. I'm very proud of my sons. I'm very proud of all of my children, but my sons will be serving, yes.
CHETRY: And if people want to know more again about what you're doing with Operation Smile, it's operationsmile.org. I think you can also link to it at johnmccain.com.
MCCAIN: Yes, you can.
CHETRY: But thanks so much for talking to us about that today.
MCCAIN: Well, thank you. I appreciate you taking time to talk about a great organization.
CHETRY: Sure thing.
Wife of senator John McCain, Cindy McCain.
Thanks.
MCCAIN: Thank you.
ROBERTS: An emergency landing on a crowded beach tops your "Quick Hits" now.
Police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, say a single-engine plane lost power and landed nose down in the sand, awfully close to a family with some young kids. Nobody hurt, though.
And a blackout left a dozen roller-coasters riders hanging upside-down 150 feet above the ground for a half an hour at an amusement park in Arkansas. Officials say the X-Coaster's two cars were at the peak of a loop when the power failed. One rider went to the hospital with neck pain. No one was seriously hurt, though.
They're all an inch taller, though.
Speaking of up and down, there's a new report just out this morning about real estate that buyers and sellers will want to here next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: It's back to school. Topping your "Quick Hits" now, the Connecticut teen who had been missing for a year returns to school today. As we told you, she was found last week locked in a tiny storage room in a West Hartford home. She still remains in the custody of the state.
A manhunt under way right now in Montana for two escaped prisoners, including one who tried to kidnap David Letterman's son. He escaped with another inmate while working at the prison ranch.
And some six months after disappearing, this basset hound named Fred turned up, but 430 miles from his home in California. They found him in Flagstaff, Arizona, thanks to a micro chip that was implanted in Fred. So now he's been reunited with his shocked but very happy long lost family.
And you can't really ask how the heck that happened.
But it's been a buyer's market for a while. And this morning we have a clearer picture of the overall housing market, about why we're in a slump and what might pull us out of it.
For all of those answers, CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis is here to talk more about it.
This is an annual report that came out from Harvard that you're sort of breaking down for us.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Exactly. Good to see you, Kiran.
Good morning.
You know, we've got an additional half-million of homes on the market. That's the inventory problem we've got right now. And that's what this report details. A half a million more in 2006 than 2005. It's no wonder the market is having trouble.
Nick Retsinas has told me more about this housing report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLAS RETSINAS, JOINT CENTER FOR HOUSING STUDIES: Surprise, surprise. Builders overbuild. Lenders over-lend. And we have too much inventory. Add that to what is clearly a changing psychology, people now waiting for prices to go down rather than go up, it tells us that over the near term this slump is going to continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIS: So, the slump is going to continue, obviously. But he expects recovery by the end of the year for existing home sales. For new home sales, Kiran, believe it or not, that's not going to be into recovery until next summer or next fall.
So we have got a long time to wait before the housing market really sees substantial change. He says we're going to sort of tread water. No huge improvements for a while.
CHETRY: So he's reporting the bad news on the sales front.
Any other big points from that report?
WILLIS: You know, there were a couple of interesting things.
First of all, Harvard very interested in the issue of affordability. They say a record number of households, 37.3 million households, spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing. And that is the basic guideline. If you're spending more than 30 percent...
CHETRY: They call it house poor, right? Is that the term they use.
WILLIS: That's absolutely right. House poor, you're spending too much.
The other interesting news, even with the minimum wage increase -- you remember that from a couple of weeks ago -- even so, if you're making minimum wage in this country and you're the head of household, you're still stretching for housing, having a difficult time, even buying -- even renting, that is, a two bedroom apartment. You can't do it anywhere in the country.
So big problems there.
CHETRY: And they say because of that the commutes are getting longer as well, because people have to go further out to the suburbs or wherever they can afford it.
WILLIS: Right, exactly. People are loading up. You know, more people living in a single household, you bet.
CHETRY: All right, Gerri. We're out of time. But we want to remind people not to forget to catch Gerri on "OPEN HOUSE," 9:30 a.m. Saturday mornings, right here on CNN.
Thanks.
WILLIS: Thank you.
CHETRY: On CNN.com right now, explosion rocks downtown Nairobi. One person was killed, 31 others injured in this explosion.
Police say a man carrying something suspicious was stopped at a restaurant just before this bomb went off. The last bombing in Nairobi was the U.S. Embassy back in 1998.
And on the most popular list, "The Boys of Summer" pulling in some big bucks. "Ocean's Thirteen," a high roller at the weekend box office, bringing in a cool $37 million in its debut weekend. That sank "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". It dropped to the number two spot.
Well, a change is coming to New York's famous taxi fleet. They're going hybrid. But how much will that save?
Well, two New York cabbies are going head to head to find out. We're going to meet them on AMERICAN MORNING coming up in just a few minutes.
The most news in the morning is here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And welcome back. It's Monday, June 11th.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning. I'm John Roberts, down on the streets of Manhattan.
On our radar this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued an edict that by the year 2012, all New York cabs have to be hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles like this one here. It's a Lexus R400h. It's a real high-end hybrid. It's a double H, high-end hybrid. We're going to be talking with a couple of cab drivers, the fellow who drives this car as well as one who drives a regular gasoline-powered vehicle without the electric component to find out is it really cheaper to drive a hybrid. And will this plan that Bloomberg has save money and pollution for New York City in the long term, Kiran? So we'll be back down here in just a couple of minutes to check all that out.
CHETRY: The taxicab challenge. I can't wait to see it. It should be great.
Also "The Sopranos" series finale. It was full of suspense, a lot of suspicious characters. But what ends up happening? Because many people thought their cable went out last night when the end just happened so abruptly as they were sitting at that diner. We've gotten e-mail. Most of them quite disappointed. But other saying, hey, you know what? That's fitting for the end. We're going to take a look at the final scene that everyone has been talking about today.
We begin though in Baghdad. Reports that three American soldiers were killed when a suicide bomb collapsed a highway overpass. There you see the smoke and the aftermath. The soldiers were operating a checkpoint under a bridge. Bridges have become an increasingly popular bombing target for insurgents of late.
Also a suicide bomb at a police building in Tikrit kills 15 people and wounds nearly 50. There's also a new U.S. strategy in Iraq that may be about to expand. And it's American commanders who have said that they have had some success testing -- arming Sunnis who say they will use the weapons to fight militants linked with al Qaeda. The plan, though, of course, loaded with risks. We talked with the Baghdad bureau chief of The New York Times, John Burns, earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN BURNS, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Some of these groups, possibly most of them, are Sunni insurgent groups that have previously fought the Americans. So giving them weapons, number one problem, will they be used against the Americans? Number two, will they use the weapons against the should the Shiite-led and dominated Iraqi forces? Number three, will they use them in the broader Sunni fight to topple the new Shiite government of Iraq? So fraught with risk is probably an understatement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: But they say, again, that they've successfully tested this. Although critics say the plan could amount to the U.S. arming players in an all-out Iraqi civil war.
President Bush wrapping up his eight-day European trip with a stop in Bulgaria. President Bush is going to be meeting with Bulgaria's president -- actually he met with him this morning. And they talked about America's immigration reform bill. He said the bill will be revised. He's heading to Capitol Hill tomorrow to lobby for it.
And the Senate today plans to debate and then deliver a symbolic vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The White House planning to ignore it. President Bush also telling reporters in Bulgaria this morning the vote has no bearing on Gonzales' future as attorney general -- John.
ROBERTS: The price of gasoline has gone down a few pennies in the last couple of weeks. It's now at a national average is $3.11 a gallon. But still, that's pretty expensive. And it's part of what has led Mayor Michael Bloomberg of the City of New York to issue a decree that by the year 2012, all cabs in New York City have to be hybrid vehicles.
It's not only the cost of gasoline, but also the effect on the environment. The theory being that hybrid vehicles use less gasoline, therefore, they pollute less. But is this whole thing going to work? We thought that we would put it to the test.
We have got a regular gasoline-powered cab here this morning, and we also have a hybrid vehicle. We're going to put the two vehicles to the test with their drivers to find out which one is less expensive to run, which one uses less gas, and therefore might be more environmentally-friendly. Erhan Tuncel is the first driver we're going to talk to.
Good morning to you, Erhan.
ERHAN TUNCEL, NYC CAB DRIVER: Good morning.
ROBERTS: You're driving a regularly fueled vehicle. What have you got here?
TUNCEL: I've got a Toyota Siena. I bought it in December of 2006. I'm very happy with it personally. ROBERTS: How much gasoline are you putting in this car every day?
TUNCEL: Daily, about $25, $30.
ROBERTS: Twenty-five to $30?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: That would be about oh, 10 to 12 gallons, right?
TUNCEL: About, yes.
ROBERTS: And let's check out the inside of the cab. What kind of space do you have here? Because people do explain that the hybrid vehicles are kind of small. So this is a nice little minivan. These are very popular in New York City. You have got quite a bit of space here. You have got two seats in the front here that are split and then you've got another seat in the back.
So how many people can you put in this cab?
TUNCEL: Well, it's four maximum. But I do make exceptions for five people -- like, I can take five people.
ROBERTS: Do you like this vehicle?
TUNCEL: I love it.
ROBERTS: Now if this came in a hybrid version, would you buy it?
TUNCEL: I would definitely consider it, yes.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, Erhan, hang there. And we're just going to go visit Cliff Adler now, who is the owner of this lovely Lexus RX400h.
Good morning to you, Cliff. How are you?
CLIFF ADLER, NYC HYBRID CAB DRIVER: Good morning. How are you?
ROBERTS: Good. How long have you had this vehicle for?
ADLER: Just over a year.
ROBERTS: How do you like it so far?
ADLER: Excellent. It has been very good as far as saving gas (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Now as we said, this is a pretty high-end hybrid. The price of these is upwards of $40,000, is it not?
ADLER: Yes. But it was more than I wanted to pay. But the vehicle I wanted to get I couldn't get because it was too long a wait. So I could get this within a couple of weeks and I went for a few extra dollars to get it. I borrowed it from the credit union anyway.
Erhan Tuncel was saying he puts $25 to $30 worth of gas in his car every day. He likes to top it up at the end of the day, even if he doesn't use a full tank. How much gas are you going through?
ADLER: About maybe five or six gallons a day, so depending where I gas up.
ROBERTS: So that's about 30 to 40 percent less than what he's using.
ADLER: More. I think it's -- I know I'm saving 50 percent of the gasoline bill I used to have as far as like number of gallons is concerned for work.
ROBERTS: Let's take a look inside the car again because one of the complaints that some people have are that these hybrids are a little bit smaller. This is the same size as the normal fueled Lexus, is it not?
ADLER: That's correct, yes. It is.
ROBERTS: So you can only put two, maybe three people in here.
ADLER: Three people in back, one in front. But very comfortably.
ROBERTS: Whereas Erhan can put as many as four people, looked like he could probably squeeze five in there.
ADLER: He can put four in two rows back there. I can just put three in the back, and one in front. So it's still -- you know, it's four people.
ROBERTS: A little bit smaller. Leather seats. Nice, plush ride.
Hey, Erhan, come on over here. Because we want to outline this challenge here. You folks are just starting your shift right now.
ADLER: Yes.
ROBERTS: Correct?
TUNCEL: Yes.
ROBERTS: And how long are you going to work until today? It is now 8:35 Eastern time.
ADLER: 7:00, we were saying.
ROBERTS: So about an 11-hour day?
TUNCEL: Probably yes, about 11, 12.
ROBERTS: How many fares would you typically have during a day? ADLER: You never can tell. I mean, if you get an airport ride, you decide to stay at an airport, you could sit for two hours or three hours.
ROBERTS: And what about you, Erhan?
(CROSSTALK)
TUNCEL: Same thing. And about 20, 25 I guess.
ROBERTS: OK. So what we would like you folks to do is go about your day here. At the end of the day, fill up with gasoline, bring the receipts back to us, come back here tomorrow, we'll compare how much gasoline you put in the vehicle, how many miles you drove as well, how many fares you picked up, and we'll make a sort of rough calculation here as to what is better in terms of fuel mileage and potentially better for the environment as well.
ADLER: The hybrid is definitely better for the environment.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, the challenge -- the gauntlet has been thrown. Erhan, we'll see you tomorrow morning. Cliff, we will see you tomorrow morning as well.
So the great hybrid versus normal gasoline-powered New York cab challenge is on, Kiran. We'll be back here tomorrow at the same time to find out how they do.
CHETRY: Oh, we'll be watching. It's going to be great. All right. See you back up here, John. You have got a few minutes to run back up for the rest of the show.
Meanwhile, we have some quick hits now on a very, very upsetting story at a Disney World. A couple kidnapped, robbed and then beaten. They say gunmen forced them into their car, made them take money out of an ATM and then drove them to a remote spot and beat them up. Luckily, though, the tourists got away and they were not seriously hurt.
Space Shuttle Atlantis astronauts are now starting, preparing for a spacewalk. It's coming up in the next hour. They're going to be attaching a solar array, as they call it, to the International Space Station. NASA also working on a fix for the shuttle's thermal blanket, because a piece -- we have seen this before, has peeled back off -- peeled back on lift-off about four inches. Happened on Friday. And it could pose a danger when the shuttle returns to Earth.
Well, is it more important to support your country or to support your family? Up next, we're going to meet a woman who had to make that difficult decision and almost paid a very high price for her choice. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning, is on CNN.
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CHETRY: Well, Broadway honoring its own last night. The Tony Awards. Your quick hits now. Most went to two shows. "Spring Awakening" won eight awards, including best musical. And "The Coast of Utopia" won seven, including best play.
Check out this video, this is a hail storm in Nebraska. Marble size hail pelting down in western Nebraska. Part of a storm system that was moving through the state late last night. And it's 41 past the hour.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Well, what's more important, your obligation to your child or to your country? A New Hampshire mother who was serving in Iraq was faced with that decision when she came home to take care of her daughter. Army National Guard Specialist Lisa Hayes joins me now, as well as her lawyer, Linda Theroux. They are with us this morning to explain why it was important for Lisa to stay home rather than return to Iraq to fight the war.
And thanks to both of you for being with us. Explain to us your story, Lisa, as it relates to how you needed to find someone to care for your 7-year-old daughter.
LISA HAYES, AWOL DURING CUSTODY BATTLE: Actually, I learned of domestic violence and my ex-husband physically slapping my daughter across the face after three weeks of trying to get a hold of him to notify him that I would be coming home on R&R. I found this out because I called the police department and they informed me on what had been going on at the household.
I immediately said, oh, my God, what am I going to do? I'm in Iraq, I'm pretty much a world away. I asked to go home. And I was going home on two weeks of R&R. So I did actually make it home. We petitioned the court for an ex parte hearing. That was denied. The other party needed to be present. So I went back to Iraq for a week- and-a-half. And then I got a Red Cross message telling me that I had court, that I needed to come home.
CHETRY: So you made to make a difficult decision to leave your daughter with your ex-husband anyway because your husband is also serving in Iraq.
HAYES: That is correct.
CHETRY: So both of you were out of the country. And it was probably a tough call, but you did leave your 7-year-old with your ex- husband.
HAYES: I did.
CHETRY: In terms of what happened next, it looks you got AWOL and desertion charges among other things, and even people at Fort Dix were saying that they thought it was a little bit strange that this happened. Why do you think your commanders were so insistent and didn't understand your unique circumstance?
HAYES: I don't think they looked at all the paperwork. And I really think that it had a lot to do with the fact that a National Guard commanders was in charge of me and he didn't do his job. I think it was his negligence. Because if you look at all the paperwork, it was three regular Army captains who looked at the paperwork and could see plainly the fact that I really had a case that needed to be taken care of and addressed and I needed a hardship discharge. And without them, this really would have been even worse.
CHETRY: How did you paint the case for them to understand that she did need this discharge, Linda?
LINDA THEROUX, ATTORNEY: Well, it was mainly pointing out the areas of the court order where the court found an impermissible risk to leaving the child in the situation. And it was really pointing out there was alcoholism in the family. There was an admission of slapping the child across the face and there was an arrest and conviction.
CHETRY: Now there have been some who complain that there are a lot of single parents out there who do make the necessary arrangements for child care. Have you felt any backlash of others saying, you know, I'm in a similar boat, and I don't want to be stuck in Iraq either?
HAYES: No, I really haven't. I think pretty much everybody has been sympathetic and understands the circumstances. I think there again it was one National Guard commander who didn't.
CHETRY: And you ending up getting a good outcome, because you got an honorable discharge.
HAYES: Correct, I did.
CHETRY: That means you continue to get your benefits.
HAYES: Right.
CHETRY: And meantime, what's your husband's situation like? How long until he is able to return?
HAYES: Late September. And you know, the morale over there is very, very poor for that unit. It has been since they deployed.
CHETRY: Why is that?
HAYES: The commander, he doesn't do his job. Plain and simple. He's a finance commander. He doesn't really know how to run a company. And this situation just shows that he's very negligent.
CHETRY: Anything to add?
THEROUX: No. I think she covered it. And we do have the right outcome and the media had a lot to do with it.
CHETRY: All right. Well, I'm glad that you're with your 7-year- old. And thanks for coming in to share your story. We appreciate it.
HAYES: Thank you.
CHETRY: Lisa Hayes, as well as her attorney, Linda Theroux, thanks.
HAYES: Thank you.
THEROUX: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Coming up to 47 minutes after the hour, CNN "NEWSROOM" is just minutes away now. Tony Harris at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead.
Hey, Tony.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, John, good morning to you. We have got these stories in the "NEWSROOM" rundown for you this morning. He is serving 10 years for a crime now considered a misdemeanor. Will Genarlow Wilson be freed today, a judge's decision expected this morning.
Gonzales under fire. President Bush has confidence in his attorney general. Does the Senate? A vote today.
And an Iowa woman accused of stealing toilet paper. Justice can't spare a square? She could be looking at some serious prison time. Heidi is with me in the "NEWSROOM." We get started at the top of the hour right here on CNN.
John, back to you.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Tony. We will see you then, just 12 minutes away.
An unforgiving Church of England tops our quick hits this morning. The church is threatening to sue Sony over the video game, "Resistance: Fall of Man." The church called violence in the game "sick" and says images of an English cathedral appear without permission. Hundreds of people are killed in the cathedral during a virtual shootout.
In Detroit, a baseball game looks more like a Hitchcock movie. For almost the entire game between the Mets and the Tigers, birds were camped out in the outfield and in the infield. One even walked in front of the pitcher's mound. But unlike a famous game in Toronto decades ago, no birds were hurt by any flying balls.
The series finale of "The Sopranos" left a lot of people saying, did my cable go out? Is it over? We'll tell you what else people have been saying about the episode, next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Fifty-one minutes after the hour now. A weapon of war inspires a bidding war. In France a gold-encrusted sword that Napoleon took into battle more than 200 years ago sold for nearly $6.5 million at auction Sunday. That's four times its estimated value. And it wasn't a bang, it was a whimper, it just stopped. That was the non-ending fade to black that had some fans seeing red last night.
CHETRY: That's right. Here to talk about how the critics are reacting this morning, Lola Ogunnaike. Also down in Washington, Jacki Schechner, because I'm sure the blogs are going crazy this morning as I understand it. Even some fans sites -- some fans angry at the outcome, e-mailing, HBO actually shut down their site.
But first to Lola to ask about the ending, and The New York Times reviewer says: "There was no good endings for 'The Sopranos' left off without one." It seems the consensus today is that it fell short.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Some good reviews, but for the most part, it has been largely negative. People have been underwhelmed. We have a quote here from The L.A. Times. "David Chase, faced with deciding between a bang and a whimper, chose neither. Instead, the creator of 'The Sopranos' decided to fool millions of Americans into believing their cable had gone out."
And everyone did think their cable had gone out. It was the biggest practical joke ever played on Americans in television.
ROBERTS: Either that, or as Tom Shales in The Washington Post points out today, it was, "an ingenious ending because it left you hanging. " You didn't know what happened to them. Did they die? Did they go on to live for years and years and years?
OGUNNAIKE: Exactly. And David Chase has always been an innovator and never gone the conventional route at all. I mean, the show is about mobster who's in therapy.
ROBERTS: You know, Jack Schechner has been monitoring the blogs this morning, checking them out to see what people are saying.
And is there any kind of consensus, Jacki? Or are opinions all over the map?
JACK SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: All over the map, actually. You know, when I started to go through these, I was trying to take out some of the ones I could show you, but the language was Jersey, Soprano-like. So I stayed away from that. We'll just show you the main screen.
Just on hbo.com alone, by the way, a total mixed bag. People saying, first of all, they did think their cable went out. They were angry at David Chase for not being better. They also said this is classic David Chase. That he leaves things, really loose ends untied. So this was totally typical. Other people saying that we as the audience got whacked and that's why everything went to black.
You know, there is a whole bunch of theories. People are taking the song, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, and how it ended, and dissecting the lyrics, saying that definitely meant something. So they're using the online community to figure it all out. Some definitely angry, but other people saying this is exactly what he wanted. It was a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" ending.
ROBERTS: Yes. I think somebody coined the phrase, "Soprano'd," right?
CHETRY: Yes. They said, "we got Soprano'd." And the definition would be "to raise expectations only to disappoint in the end." However, our AMERICAN MORNING viewers -- many of them wrote in that they used the term "brilliant" and "perfection" describing what Jacki said where people were left wondering. But it was almost what they could figure out for themselves.
Lola, do you think all of this is leading down to the silver screen?
OGUNNAIKE: I absolutely do, in fact. I think David left it purposely open-ended because there could be a movie in the future and maybe some of these answers that are left outstanding will be answered. Two-hour feature length film, who knows?
ROBERTS: But how do you -- again, as we made the point last week, with Christopher gone, with Bobby Bacala gone, with Phil Leotardo gone, with all of these people gone, how do you do a movie? There is nobody left.
OGUNNAIKE: Prequel meets sequel.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: But you could have killed off Tony and still done a prequel?
OGUNNAIKE: Yes. But "Godfather II" also had both elements as well, of prequel/sequel, so. And I think they want -- they want Gandolfini. He's the strength of the film. So you don't want to kill him necessarily. I don't think they have the heart to do it at the end. Forget about it. They chickened out.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Some people are wishing they could this morning. Lola Ogunnaike and also down in D.C. for us, Jacki Schechner, thanks.
ROBERTS: Here's a quick look now what CNN "NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS (voice-over): See these stories in the CNN "NEWSROOM." An old law changed. Now a new chance at freedom for a young man some say has more than done his time. It is decision day in a controversial case.
Under fire. Now senators going on the record. Should Alberto Gonzales keep his job? A symbolic vote on Capitol Hill today.
And autism. Families blaming vaccines. Next hour they take their claims to court. All that and much more just minutes away in the CNN "NEWSROOM."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Some quick hits now. Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama has actually been getting some foreign policy advice from Colin Powell.
ROBERTS: The former secretary of state says the two had met twice so far. Powell served in two Republican administrations but said it was too early to decide who he would support for president next year.
CHETRY: Well, if there is anything worse than naked bike riders, it's global warming, or maybe it should be the other way around.
ROBERTS: In 70 cities around the world, bicyclists took to the streets with little more than a helmet and many of them weren't even wearing those...
CHETRY: And some backpacks, how about that?
ROBERTS: ... to protest the excessive use of gasoline-powered vehicles. I don't know why they had to be naked, but that's what...
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes, then you got the naked rollerbladers thrown in just to shake things up a bit as well.
Well, talk about a big move, to get a half-ton beluga whale from Chicago to Tacoma, Washington, hey, you have definitely got to move there. The aquarium chartered this DC-8. And there you can see, I guess it had a little -- he had a sling of some sort.
ROBERTS: The old beluga whale swing. Six-year-old Qannik, which means snowflake in Inuit, flew to the Tacoma Aquarium where he is going to join a 14-year-old male beluga named Beethoven. The two of them both make beautiful music together.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes, apparently. All right. Well, that's it from here on this AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks so much for being with us today.
ROBERTS: We'll see you again tomorrow morning. CNN "NEWSROOM" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
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