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American Morning
Dow Tumbles; Drunk In Space; Astronauts Impaired?; Sports Scandals; Greyhound Bus Crash; Gonzales Under Fire
Aired July 27, 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: Asia seeing red. Overnight, stocks tumble overseas. Will it trigger another big sell-off on Wall Street today? And what can you do to safeguard your money?
Capitol grill. Democrats in Congress demand an investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Did he lie to lawmakers? And can he survive?
Plus, the sports world storm of scandal. A quarterback in court. A ref betting on games. And sluggers and cyclists under suspicion for drug use. Are there any sports heroes left, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning. And thanks very much for joining us. Good to see you. It's Friday, July the 27th. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry.
And a lot of us yesterday just watched the Dow go down, down, down, wondering how low been can it go.
ROBERTS: And I'm very glad that we didn't invest when it was 14,000.
CHETRY: Yes, exactly.
Well, we begin the hour with the global market jitters happening this morning after Wall Street suffered one of the worst losses of the year yesterday. Dow Jones plunging more than 300 points, causing stocks overseas to tumble as well. Our Ali Velshi is tracking what is happening right now.
And how are things looking today?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you this, Kiran, I'm going to grow a full head of luxurious hair like Roberts before I can convince him that it's not all bad right now. We had a 311 point loss on the Dow yesterday. That makes it the second worst day this year.
But there was a recovery toward the end of the day. And when you look at what happened overnight, we've got fairly heavy losses in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but we've got -- we've also got losses in Frankfurt. That's still open. And London and Paris are in, fact, higher right now.
So the question is, what happens today? I'm going to be talking a lot about what's expected today. The futures are pointing to a positive opening today. Yesterday morning we you knew there was going to be a triple digit loss.
But I'm also going to talk to you as the show goes on about what you should do about this, how you handle your investments in light of this very volatile market. Because whether the market goes up or down today, we have seen triple digit gains and losses in the last couple of weeks and that's not likely to stop any time soon. So I'll be on that story for you through the course of the morning.
CHETRY: We look forward to it.
Ali, thanks.
ROBERTS: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is at the center of a major, new controversy this morning, raising new questions about whether he can survive. In dramatic testimony to Congress yesterday, the FBI chief directly contradicted a claim that Gonzales made to Congress earlier in the week. Robert Mueller said Gonzales' 2004 visit to then Attorney General John Ashcroft's hospital room was, in fact, about the president's domestic spying program. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The discussion was on a national -- a NSA program that has been much discussed. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Here's the big problem, though, for Gonzales. On Tuesday, the attorney general told lawmakers the complete opposite story. He said the White House' controversial eavesdropping program never came up at that meeting with Ashcroft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The reason for the visit to the hospital, senator, was about other intelligence activities. It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Four democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are already calling for an investigation into whether Gonzales committed perjury in that testimony. The White House is downplaying those claims, saying Gonzales and Mueller are talking about two completely different intelligence operations. We're going to take a closer look at all of this with our legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, coming up here on this AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, charges dropped today against a suspect in the failed British car bomb attacks. Dr. Mohammed Haneef was arrested trying to leave Australia three days after those failed attacks in June in London, but the case against him fell apart when prosecutors found out that their main piece of evidence, a cell phone memory card that was found in the burning Jeep you see there at the Glasgow Airport, didn't belong to Haneef. Haneef's cousin was one of the men in that jeep.
Late last night, the Senate approved a homeland security bill that's based on the 9/11 Commission's recommendation. It sends more money to high-risk cities and states and it also requires that within five years all ship containers must be scanned for nuclear devices before heading into the United States. Now that bill also proposes screening of all cargo on passenger planes within three years.
An explosion at an airport in California's Mojave Desert kills three people, critically injures three others. This blast happened at the Mojave Air and Space Port. It occurred during a rocket motor test involving nitrous oxide. The site is used by an aerospace firm that built the first private manned rocket that was sent into space.
Investigators say pilot error caused last summer's Comair crash in Lexington, Kentucky. The National Transportation Safety Board says the two pilots were not paying attention and failed to notice obvious signs that they were on the wrong runway. They crashed after trying to take off on a shorter, unlit runway. Forty-nine people were killed. The co-pilot was the only one who survived, and he has said he does not remember what happened.
And a sacred bull at the center of a three-month legal fight has apparently been slaughtered in England. The trouble started when Shambo tested for tuberculosis, meaning he would have to be put down. A Hindu monastery launched a campaign to save him, saying that killing him violated their religious rights. Police had to cut through chains and drag away protestors to seize the bull. Reports out of London say he was killed by lethal injection late last night.
ROBERTS: Coming up now to five minutes after the hour.
There are other important stories that we're following for you this morning with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents. Rob Marciano at the Weather Center in Atlanta, watching flooding in Texas and more storms today in the Midwest.
Good morning to you, Rob.
(WETHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Shocking accusations this morning at a NASA behavioral study of heavy drinking by astronauts before going into space. CNN's John Zarrella is live at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
John, what is this all about?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, later today, NASA is expected to address the allegations that some of its astronauts may have had, if you can believe this, too much to drink before launch. I'll have that story later in the hour.
John.
ROBERTS: All right. John, do we have any idea what kind of a time frame we're talking about here? Is this recent or does this go way back maybe to the mercury program?
ZARRELLA: Well, we believe it's during the shuttle program, but right now NASA has not commented at all on these reports that came out in a health study that is actually supposed to be released today, but was leaked and reported yesterday by "Aviation Week." They said we're going to all have to wait till today to find out the details. But we do not know if any astronauts will be named or whether a time frame will even be put on any of this.
John.
ROBERTS: All right. John Zarrella for us at the Kennedy Space Center.
And later on this morning we're going to be talking with a former NASA flight surgeon about all of this.
Right now, here's Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, there's dramatic, new video this morning of a police chase in Jacksonville, Florida, that ended with a fiery crash and rescue. Here's the video right now. You see the car spinning out.
Police say it was a stolen SUV. The driver was pulled over in a parking lot. He spun it around several times before taking off again. And there you see the crash.
Police finally caught up to the vehicle. It had crashed into a brick wall. Looks like a tree as well or a lightning -- or some sort of pole. Electric pole. Or telephone pole, perhaps. Anyway, it burst into flames. The driver on duty says that he pulled the guy out of the burning car with just seconds to spare. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My right ankle is (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your hand or you're going to burn to death. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Wow. That 18-year-old suspect suffered only minor injuries. He was charged with attempting to elude a police officer, grand theft, as well as DUI. And that officer put his life on the line for this suspect, trying to get him out of that burning SUV. He's OK this morning as well. Well, we also have a dramatic rescue caught on tape. KPHO, covering -- a news crew covering flooding problem around Phoenix -- happened to be rolling when that pickup truck hydroplaned, as you see there, skidded off the road. That's where it ended up, rolled over and landing upside down in a drainage ditch. And you can see from all the flooding, that's a drainage ditch.
Two teenagers and two toddlers were trapped inside. Witnesses jumped in the water and there you see one of the babies being carried to safety on the right of your screen. And there's another one being pulled out right there. They got the door open and these passerbys were able to rescue everyone and get them out. Police say everybody was wearing seat belts. Good thing. No one was seriously hurt.
ROBERTS: That's the worst one of those that I've seen since the morning after Hurricane Katrina when the guy drove into that underpass and that big, big lake that was in there. Thankfully . . .
CHETRY: And you saw how fast it happened. He just skidded off the road and the next thing you know, flipped.
ROBERTS: Zoom, yes. Right.
Sports scandals have been popping up all over the place recently. Drugs, gambling, criminal cases, you name it. So we've been asking ourselves this morning, where have all the sports heroes gone? It sure doesn't look like the old days. A closer look at all of that coming up here on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: And welcome back to the most news in the morning. Eleven minutes past the hour. Your "Quick Hits" now.
The TB patient who sparked a global health scare is now free from hospital isolation and in Georgia this morning. Doctors say that Andrew Speaker is not completely cured, but that he is no longer contagious. They say, though, he will have to continue antibiotic treatment for about two years. Speaker had surgery 10 days ago to remove the part of his lung that contained that infection. In fact, our Sanjay Gupta was invited to sit in on the surgery in the O.R. to observe that rare operation.
ROBERTS: NASA will be holding a press conference later on today to address a new behavioral study that was leaked yesterday. Among the findings of that study, that there was heavy drinking on a couple of occasions, at least a couple of occasions, involving astronauts before space flights. How is all this possible? CNN's John Zarrella at the Kennedy Space Center has been looking into it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): In the aftermath of astronaut Lisa Nowak's February arrest for attempted kidnapping of another astronaut's love interest, NASA set up a panel to study the space agency's medical and psychological screening process. In its investigation, the panel apparently turned up some serious allegations.
According to "Aviation Week" magazine, which obtained a copy of the report, two astronauts were allowed to fly even after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so intoxicated they posed a flight safety risk. The panel also found, according to "Aviation Week," "heavy use of alcohol " by astronauts within 12 hours of launch. Thursday, following a briefing on the next shuttle flight, NASA's deputy administrator said he had never dealt with safety issues involving inebriated astronauts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's not been a disciplinary action or anything I've been involved with regarding this type of activity.
ZARRELLA: Two former shuttle astronauts we spoke with found the allegations "mindboggling." One told me he was not aware of anyone "unduly using alcohol prior to launch." The others said "not a chance." This former commander said he would have "thrown the person off the crew." It's not known on what flights these incidents supposedly took place or whether the names of the astronauts involved will ever be released. Another NASA official spoke to the Associated Press saying the allegations of pre-launch drinking are based on anonymous interviews and are unsubstantiated.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And we do expect to hear more from NASA about all of this later on today. John Zarrella, also at the Kennedy Space Center, will be back in just a little while to tell us more about it.
NASA is fixing a computer sabotaged by one of its workers. The computer is going to the International Space Station on board the shuttle that's schedule for launch in 11 days. A worker for a subcontractor allegedly damaged the computer by cutting some wires. NASA did not name the subcontractor, though. They may have more to say at that news conference this afternoon.
CHETRY: Well, some health concerns topping your "Quick Hits" now. Food products that were recalled last week because they may contain the bacteria botulism have not been pulled from store shelves. Health officials say that large grocery stores removed the products, but that some smaller drug stores in markets may not have actually pulled it and are still selling it. So state and federal inspectors are now visiting stores to check for the products and make sure that retailers are complying.
Well, not so good news if you enjoy smoking marijuana. There's a British study out today . . .
ROBERTS: Ah. Where's all the fun going?
CHETRY: Wow. You have something to admit here this morning at 6:14 a.m.?
There's a study that says even infrequent marijuana users can raise their risk of psychosis, sometimes by 40 percent. This study says that if you're a heavy pot smoker, you can increase your risk from 50 to 200 percent. Marijuana is one of the most commonly used illegal substances in many countries. In some cases 20 to even 40 percent of -- well, 42 percent of America's high school seniors say they've tried it at least once. They talk about these psychotic problems because it can throw off the balance of neurotransmitters in your brain.
The overseas markets stumble overnight after a very bad day on Wall Street, down 300 points yesterday. So are we in for another big sell- off today? And is there anything that you can do to keep your money safe? Ali Velshi breaks it all down for us coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Some breaking news now. And these are pictures coming to us from our affiliate in Montgomery, Alabama, WFFA, of a deadly bus crash. A Grayhound bus crashing on Interstate 65 in Montgomery, Alabama.
We're hearing from the local paper there that at least, according to the police department, that one person was killed and that 10 to 15 others are hurt. Mostly described as minor injuries except for that fatality. They're saying that this happened on southbound Interstate 65. That a Grayhound bus and an SUV collided sometime overnight.
According to the local police department, there was -- the person in the SUV was trapped. There you see what looks to be a pretty mangled SUV there. Right now they're saying that only one person was killed, but that 10 to 15 others could have been hurt and that they were trying to pry open the doors of the Grayhound bus to make sure they could get everybody out OK. They say that passengers from the bus were standing outside awaiting pickup and to be taken away from that scene right now.
The cause of this accident is still not known, but we're going to be contacting Grayhound, as well as Montgomery Police Department, to find out more details. But, once again, a fatal bus crash overnight on Interstate 65 in Montgomery, Alabama.
John.
ROBERTS: Coming up now on 22 minutes after the hour.
And here is an issue that we're going to be taking a look at in-depth this morning. It used to be that there was no shortage of sports figures for kids to look up to -- Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Unitas, Larry Bird, Billie Jean King. They might not have been perfect, but they did have an impact on their sport and on the country.
But today it seems sometimes that scandal rules. The NFL's Michael Vick is in court answering charges of federal dogfighting charges. In baseball, Barry Bonds is chasing the home run record, but all the talk is about drug use. And in the NBA, it's gambling and a referee charged with betting on games that he called.
And scandal is nothing new, of course, at the Tour de France. But this year it seems to really be coming apart. One local paper even declared it dead, refusing to post daily results until it's over.
Is it all just a sign of the times? Joining us now to talk more about it is Steak Shapiro from Atlanta's 790 The Zone. He's at the Atlanta Falcons training camp. And Damon Bruce joins us from San Francisco's KNBR 680.
Good morning to you, gentlemen.
What are you hearing on the street, what are your listeners saying to you about all this?
Steak, why don't you start us off.
STEAK SHAPIRO, 790 THE ZONE: Well, in Atlanta, I can tell you, it's as ugly a few weeks as they've had. You know, the biggest sports figure in the history of Atlanta sports, you know, in the history of this town, think about it, Michael Vick, number seven, who's everything. Every game has been sold out since he arrived here. He was the face of the franchise. One of the faces of the National Football League.
He's walking into federal court yesterday to face charges. He's in his suit. Behind me, the team's starting training camp. That image alone for the sports fans of Atlanta, combined with the federal indictment if you read through it, are two of the more horrific images that sports has seen in a long time. It's been awful and people here are very upset.
ROBERTS: Yes, I mean, you could see it yesterday at the Atlanta Falcons training camp. There was one of those little planes towing a banner, flying over the head. The banner said, hey, new name for the team, "dog-killers."
And there were also protests on the street. People saying, get Michael Vick off the field. We don't want him there.
Let's go quickly to San Francisco and ask Damon, what's the reaction there from fans to Barry Bonds? I mean, here is a guy who's about to break the all-time home run record held by Hank Aaron. But also, at the same time, here's a guy whose hat size has gone from a 7 to an 8, and his shoe size from a 10 « to a 13 and people are saying, well how the heck did that happen?
DAMON BRUCE, KNBR 580 RADIO HOST: Well, you know, there's no doubt in Atlanta where they're becoming new to controversy, we're used to controversy out here. Our superstar is seemingly in and out of federal court all the time. So it's something that we're used to.
As far as the home run chase is concerned, I mean, a lot of people are definitely waiting for three more home runs and some people after that would like to see him fade away. And a few other people after that are still going to stand and cheer. It's amazing and he's a polarizing figure.
And everybody in this town has an opinion one way or another. And to think that everyone in San Francisco is pro-Bonds is ridiculous. It's, you know, this is too smart of a city for that to happen.
ROBERTS: Right.
Steak, are there any real sports heroes left? Or is everyone some how under suspicion because of all this? You know, you can have your favorite sports star, but do you ever really know?
SHAPIRO: Well, you never really know. But this notion that athletes aren't role models now, this notion now that this, you know, this smirches all of sports.
There's 1,500 players in the National Football League. They're making millions and millions of dollars. Take any industry with that many millionaires and that many people that have been given great opportunity and tell me you're not going to have a level of scandal, whether it's a corporate level scandal or drug scandal so something.
So I don't buy that. You know, to me, the biggest star in the NFL is Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and guys like LaDainian Tomlinson. These are absolutely guys that can be sports heroes.
Look, it is a microcosm of life. You don't want to be too cliche. But to have a few incidents play themselves out, these are very, you know, popular, wealthy individuals that have been given great opportunities. But to say that sports in general has no heroes left, I don't buy that. I think there are plenty of heroes left in sports.
ROBERTS: Well, Damon, what about this idea? Sports is going to weather this storm, no question. I mean, this is not the end of sports by any means. But is its reputation and its credibility chipped away at a little more with each episode that we see?
BRUCE: It's one thing to have players being suspected of these, you know, terrible things. It's one thing for a league to be questioned. And this is the first time ever that we're really doing that.
I mean, the Vick story is spectacular and grotesque and, you know, everyone has an opinion on that. To me, the NBA story is the story in all of sports right now, only because it's one thing when players cheat the game. It's another to -- when the game seemingly cheats players and fans. And I think that that's what's really disturbing.
Look at the way, you know, we quickly have taken a sport like Tour de France. Cycling may never have been popular in the United States, but never did we just dismiss this as some sort of ridiculous, you know, bike race through the mountains. It was always respected. And now that there is all this controversy and steroids and blood doping, people lose confidence quickly. When the confidence is gone, the sport's in trouble.
ROBERTS: All right. Damon Bruce, Steak Shapiro, thanks very much for that. I really appreciate you guys coming in this morning.
And a little bit later on this morning, Olympic star, nine-time gold medal winner Carl Lewis is going to be joining us to talk to Kiran about all of this. Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, we look forward to that.
Also "On Our Radar" this morning, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport making news again. We're going to show you this picture right now. That dog is somewhere it's not supposed to be. Let's put it that way. We'll tell you how it ended for the pooch. Look at him go. Coming up when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING on this Friday, July 27th.
I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.
We've got some breaking news that we're following for you this morning out of Alabama. A Greyhound bus and an SUV collided early this morning on southbound Interstate 65. At least one person was killed. We understand there are a number of injuries as well.
Joining us now on the phone is Mayor Bobby Bright of Montgomery. He's at the scene of the crash.
Mayor Bright, thanks for joining us.
What can you tell us about what you see on the scene there?
MAYOR BOBBY BRIGHT, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: Well, we've pretty much transported all the passengers from the scene and, of course, as you say, there was one fatality. It was in the late model SUV that was traveling northbound in the wrong lane and collided head-on with a greyhound bus.
We have transported all of the passengers and the driver of the Greyhound bus to the hospital to be treated or to be evaluated at this point in time. And now what we are doing is just directing traffic, making sure everybody gets safely through the site.
ROBERTS: Any passengers in the SUV, mayor, or just the driver?
BRIGHT: Just the driver. He -- he was -- he was pinned in. We had to get him out of the vehicle and transport him to the hospital. And he expired at the hospital.
ROBERTS: And what's the nature of the injuries of the people on board the bus?
BRIGHT: Well, varying injuries -- broken bones, bloody noses, cuts, abrasions, bruises, and just general pain and aches from the trauma.
ROBERTS: Nothing -- nothing...
BRIGHT: Some of them moderately serious and others have minor injuries.
ROBERTS: Anything life-threatening at this point?
BRIGHT: Not at this point, but you really don't know until you get them to the hospital and get them evaluated. But right now we -- and we transported 13 of the passengers immediately upon available emergency personnel arriving on the scene. And so, at this point in time, I've been on the scene all night, and I really don't know at this point in time what their condition is at the hospital.
But they were serious -- somewhat serious -- moderately to seriously injured. And hopefully they'll be OK, but we don't know until we get them there to check them out.
ROBERTS: All right. Quickly, Mayor, do you have any idea how this accident happened?
BRIGHT: We think, without having the investigation complete, we think that something caused the driver in the SUV to get in the wrong lane. What caused that, we don't know at this point in time.
But there's no question that the point of impact was in the southbound lane, and the southbound lane was the proper lane for the Greyhound bus to be traveling in. So, we -- now we have to complete our investigation, find out why the SUV was traveling north in the southbound lane.
ROBERTS: All right. Mayor Bobby Bright from Montgomery, Alabama.
Thanks very much. We appreciate you being with us this morning, Mayor. I know you're very busy.
Just to recap what the mayor told us, an SUV traveling northbound in the southbound lane of I-65 collided head-on with a Greyhound bus. It happened about 2:00 this morning.
The driver, who was the sole occupant of the suv, was killed. Thirteen people on board the bus were transported to hospital. Some of them had significant injuries that included bone breaks, but nothing life-threatening at this point. And, of course, police down there in Montgomery continue to investigate this crash.
I-65 appears to remain closed, at least southbound at this point. We'll keep following it for you. We'll get you an update just as soon as we can.
New this mornings, charges dropped today against a suspect in the failed British car bomb attacks. Dr. Mohammed Haneef was arrested trying to leave Australia three days after the failed attacks in June, but the case against him fell apart when prosecutors find out that their main piece of evidence, a cell phone memory card found in the burning jeep in Glasgow, did not belong to Haneef. Haneef's cousin was one of the men in that jeep.
And another deadline has come and gone with no word on the fate of 22 South Koreans being held hostage in Afghanistan. The Taliban kidnappers had threatened to kill the hostages if Taliban prisoners were not released by 3:30 this morning. One hostage was killed earlier this week. He was the pastor and leader of the church group. They were kidnapped last Thursday while doing volunteer medical work.
An AMERICAN MORNING update for you now. The body of a missing University of Wisconsin student may have been found.
Twenty-one-year-old Mahalia Xiong disappeared two weeks ago after a night out with friends. Yesterday, police pulled a car out of a river near downtown Green Bay. The car matches the one that Xiong was driving. The medical examiner says it looks like an accidental death, and there appear to be no signs of foul play. An autopsy and toxicology tests will be conducted today.
And 60 families in Helena, Montana, have been told to pack up and get out fast. Fire crews say a massive wildfire is burning right now within a mile and a half of the properties.
The new evacuation orders coming just one day after dozens of people nearby were asked to leave the area. By late last night, the fire wiped out more than 4,000 acres. Forecasters say dry, windy weather is expected to fan the flames.
CHETRY: Well, speaking of stormy weather of a different kind, storm clouds gathering over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this morning because the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, is now contradicting, it appears, claims that Gonzales made to Congress earlier this week about the president's warrantless wiretap program. Now Democrats are throwing around the term "perjury" and calling for an investigation into Gonzales, and it's raising the question, can his career survive?
Joining me now to talk more about all of this is senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Thanks for being with us.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
CHETRY: Good to see you this morning.
You know, he certainly has weathered a lot...
TOOBIN: That's an understatement, yes, indeed.
CHETRY: ... as an attorney general under fire because of the support, the unconditional support, it seems, of the president.
What's different today?
TOOBIN: What's different today is there's the realistic prospect that he might be under criminal investigation. And now it's all up to Paul Clement, who is the solicitor general, the number three person in the Justice Department. He's the person who now has to decide whether to seek an outside counsel, a special prosecutor, to look into whether Gonzales committed perjury, and there is at least a circumstantial case that he did commit perjury. CHETRY: Let's talk a little bit about that. We are going to go back a bit. He's been accused of going to former attorney general John Ashcroft's bedside at the hospital in 2004 when he seemed to be coming out of sedation to get him to reauthorize the warrantless wiretapping program, the highly controversial program.
Now, on Tuesday, Gonzales testified that the subject of that program did not come up at the hospital bedside meeting; however, yesterday, FBI Director Mueller contradicted that testimony. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The discussion was on a national -- an NSA program that has been much discussed, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: How significant is that, that Mueller is contradicting what Gonzales testified to?
TOOBIN: Well, it does seem fairly significant, because all of this goes back to earlier testimony that Gonzales gave where he said, look, there was no controversy. That this whole thing was not controversial, this warrantless wiretapping program.
Then his former -- the former deputy attorney general, James Comey, comes out and tells this extraordinary story about the bedside visit and the fact that large numbers of people in the Justice Department were threatening to resign over it. Now they come back, the senators come back to Gonzales and say, what do you mean it wasn't controversial? You had people threatening to resign.
The one thing Gonzales may have going for him in this whole controversy is that because these matters are so highly classified, what exactly they're talking about may not have been precisely clear. You know, which programs? Since these programs have not been defined in detail in public, which -- which one they're talking about is potentially a source of confusion. But, I mean, certainly several senators, including a Republican, Arlen Specter, think that Gonzales has zero credibility at this point.
CHETRY: So, has the president held onto him for too long? Is he a liability? And how is he affecting the Justice Department?
TOOBIN: I think morale is awful at the Justice Department, but the president has made clear that he is not going anywhere. The only way they're going to get rid of him, I assume, is to impeach him, which is not going to happen, unless there is a prosecutor. Then it may really be untenable for him to stay. But anything short of a criminal investigation, Gonzales stays.
CHETRY: Jeff Toobin, always great to see you. Thanks.
TOOBIN: All right.
ROBERTS: Another legal drama that's playing out in Washington. Michael Moore broke some news last night on "The Tonight Show" stemming from that trip to Cuba that he took in his movie "Sicko".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: I was just informed when I was back there with Jay that the Bush administration has now issued a subpoena for me, going after me for helping these 9/11 rescue workers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Except, in certain situations, U.S. citizens aren't allowed to travel to Cuba. Moore had tried to get the rescue workers treatment at Guantanamo Bay but was quickly turned away. They eventually did get treatment through Cuba's medical system.
Thirty-nine minutes after the hour.
All right, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea, it's time for your celebrity gossip. You have got to hear it to believe it.
This morning we are hearing the 911 call that led police to arrest Lindsay Lohan. Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're being followed by a GMC. The gentleman jumped out of the car.
9/11 OPERATOR: OK. Ma'am, what did he do?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh, sir, they're following us. We need help.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The call was made by the mother of Lohan's personal assistant, who thought that she and her daughter were being chased by a mysterious car. She didn't realize that Lindsay Lohan was driving that mysterious car. Police showed up and arrested Lohan on misdemeanor drunk driving and felony cocaine possession charges.
And actress Nicole Richie could be the next Hollywood celebrity heading to jail. Richie is expected in a California courtroom today to answer drunk driving charges. She is expected to cop a plea that would send her to jail for five days. The 25-year-old Richie was arrested back in December for driving the wrong way on an L.A. freeway.
CHETRY: All right. Well, how about this story? Chaos at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.
A US Airways jet was diverted as it came in for a landing, not because of anything but that little guy. Poor thing. You know how scared he must have been? Did you see how close that plane came?
A dog running loose on the runway. Air traffic controllers told one of the pilots to circle around a few times so crews could get the dog. Well, he wasn't stopping anytime soon.
He ran across both runways. There you see him. He's so fast, he's almost keeping up with the airport vehicles there.
Well, airport security was finally able to nab him. They say that the dog was a stray.
How about this one? An airport employee who volunteers with an animal rescue just happened to have a dog collar and leash in her car, so she took him. And this dog will be now available for adoption from animal care and control if an owner doesn't come claim him within 72 hours. So they say, hey, you know, if you have a lot of wide open spaces where the dog can run, why not give it a home?
ROBERTS: And you're going to name him "Jet"?
CHETRY: I like Jet. I like Jet. That's pretty good. Joan Jet if it's a girl.
Well, a bizarre robbery attempt caught on tape. A would-be robber stormed into a convenience store and jumped over the clerk. The clerk ended up fighting back.
How police got their man, next, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, a would-be crook in Gloucester, Massachusetts, picked the wrong convenience store clerk to try to hold up. Check out this surveillance video.
The robber throws the lottery machine to the ground, lunges at the clerk, but he's waiting with a hammer, hits him. Then puts him in a headlock.
Then you see a customer come in and say, hold on, let me help this guy out. He jumps in.
Hold on. Going to do it in a second. Jump in and help. There he comes around the side.
ROBERTS: Kind of sauntering back there, isn't he? No sense of urgency there
CHETRY: Yes. Or maybe -- or maybe the surveillance video showed a different -- look how old the clerk is with his long beard. He just got thrown back there.
Well, anyway, the story gets even better, because then when police arrived on the scene -- when police arrived on the scene, they found a dog waiting outside with a leash still attached to its collar. They followed the dog home. It turns out that led them straight to their man, the suspect.
ROBERTS: Duh.
CHETRY: Whoops, we don't always say they're the brightest bulbs, right?
ROBERTS: No. Sometimes people are too stupid to be robbers, too.
CHETRY: Exactly. Forty-four minutes past the top of the hour.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: The case of the missing pool tops your "Quick Hits" now.
A homeowner wants to know how someone managed to steal her above- ground pool. Police say there's no evidence that the water was ever drain out of the thing, but the pool and the 1,000 gallons of water are gone. The homeowner said, "I wonder what they did with all the water."
And a toddler just might have saved his family in Tampa. Police say the 2-year-old woke up in the middle of the night crying and feeling sick. When his mom went in to check him, she smelled car exhaust and rushed everyone out of the house.
It turns out a car was left idling in the garage. Everyone is doing OK this morning.
Overnight losses in the overseas stock markets and a big sell-off yesterday on Wall Street. So, what should you do with your investments? Buy, sell or just hang tight?
We'll put that question to Ali Velshi. He's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: An online auction tops your "Quick Hits" now.
I don't know if either one of you are in the market for a jet, but all it will take is a $5,000 refundable deposit. And you can participate in this online auction. That's what you'll get. It's one of Eclipse Aviation's twin-engine jet planes.
ROBERTS: Isn't that cute?
CHETRY: It is. How about it?
How about this? A lesson in irony, perhaps?
A Polish bus driver is now out of a job and out of a paycheck because he tried to win money at Contest Jackpot (ph). He ended up sending 38,000 text messages from his company phone, costing his employer $34,000. He's been fired. What was it, $1,000 per text message? How could it cost that much?
Anyway, he's in trouble.
ROBERTS: A little less than 10 minutes before the top of the hour, Ali Velshi here now "Minding Your Business".
Last week the Dow was riding high, everything was looking fantastic. Today it's in the tank.
What's going on?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nothing changed, John. And this is the frustrating part about this. And even when you read about this, to those of you out here it must get really annoying to hear that it's all about the subprime and the credit crunch and all of that.
Nothing has changed. There's not a new credit crunch. It's all about the fact that money has become a little more expensive.
We've gotten used to a world where it's been easy to borrow money, it's been inexpensive, and we've been able to borrow money basically against our homes. Well, it's harder to get that money, it's a little more expensive, our home values have not increased over the last couple of years. So, when you need more money, you can go back to the bank.
And when Americans can't spend more, well, they don't support America's companies, they don't shop. And we've been really depending on consumers continuing to shop.
Well, take that entire example and move it to corporate America. What have been we reporting on over the last year? Corporate takeovers, takeover, takeover, takeover. Private equity companies buying other companies.
These private equity companies don't use their cash. They leverage and they borrow, too.
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: So, the same thing is happening to the average consumer -- you can't go back and refinance your house and do a renovation or buy a new car -- corporations could be facing that, too. We're all facing it.
That's the credit crunch. And if everybody stops spending, the economy starts to slow down. That's the fear. If the economy starts to slow down, stocks don't go up. And that's why people started bailing.
CHETRY: Well, can I ask you one question? If I'm online looking at my 401(k) and I see my...
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: ... amount of the pot shrinking right now because it is a 300-point drop, what should I do?
VELSHI: Yes. Look at the returns that we have had so far on the markets right until now, from January until now.
On the Dow, even after all of these losses, we've seen a return of 8 percent. On the S&P 500 -- I'm pretending that there's something in front of me that I'm referring to, but maybe you can see it and I can't. But the S&P is still up 4.5 percent, and the Nasdaq is up about 7.6 percent.
That's not bad, considering in an average year you get about 10 or 11 percent return on the broader market. It's only July. We've got lots of time to make that up.
So, one shouldn't be too panicked. What you should do is check.
CHETRY: I did. I checked. And that's depressing.
VELSHI: You should be checking your 401(k) at least four times a year. And if you are not doing at least what the markets are doing, you know, it might be time to talk to your financial advisor and say, am I -- am I invested in the right things? But please, if you've had a whole lot of winnings, take a few of them off the table and buy things.
And if you're John Roberts, buy things anyway. Because he's not getting anything, so it's going to go down. He's absolutely right.
CHETRY: How about the jet?
VELSHI: The market will go down again.
ROBERTS: And then it will go back up again.
VELSHI: And then buy the jet.
ROBERTS: But, I mean, typically, this part of year, summer into early fall, is soft.
VELSHI: It's soft, it's volatile. We -- you know, you can't make decisions based on a day. So while I'm happy to tell you what I think is going to happen today, and that makes good news, we have to be careful. You're not investing for today, and you shouldn't be.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks very much.
VELSHI: OK.
ROBERTS: Exxon Mobil is trying to figure out how it accidentally sent a customer 2,000 credit cards. A Manhattan man requested a new card to replace his expired one.
He was shocked when he got a box containing 1,000 cards, all with his name and account number on them. He shredded those cards, but soon after he got another box of 1,000. He called Exxon, but the company refused to take them back. The customer, not surprisingly, is furious.
CHETRY: Yes. How do you shred all those cards? It must take you all day.
Well, we've heard of some odd punishments, but you have to stick around to hear about the one sentence that this judge in Ohio handed out to people who were soliciting prostitutes. You're not going to believe this one. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A Painesville, Ohio, judging handing out an unusual sentence to three men convicted of trying to solicit sex. He's making them wear a chicken suit and hold a sign that reads, "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville." It is a references to a famous brothel in Nevada.
The judge borrowed the suit from a woman who wears it around a local hospice to cheer up patients. So there...
ROBERTS: I don't think they're going to be soliciting any more sex after that.
CHETRY: No, and I don't understand how that suit could cheer up anybody.
ROBERTS: I don't know. The San Diego chicken, though, remember, he was quite cheery.
So, you told me something this morning that will never have me looking at an e-mail from you the same way ever again. We'll leave that, we won't tell you exactly what it was, but people are wondering, is there really a CrackBerry addiction or basically an e-mail addiction, right?
CHETRY: Yes, apparently, there is a new addiction, and it's the e- mailers. How do you find out if you're doing it too much? How often do you check your e-mail if you have one of those handheld devices?
ROBERTS: There are some warning signs, right?
CHETRY: Yes, there are some warning signs, including if you just can't put it down in certain places or certain areas or certain bathtubs that you're in, it's apparently a problem. Who knew?
We're going to talk a little bit about what cities rank highest for BlackBerry/e-mail addiction and whether or not it's different depending on whether you're a male or female.
ROBERTS: Who would you think it would be worse for? I mean, I can just tell you anecdotally that I think women are worse at it.
CHETRY: See, I would think guys were.
ROBERTS: Well, let's find out.
CHETRY: All right. We are going to find out coming up in the next hour.
AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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