Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Second Rescue Attempt in Utah Mine; Kids Lured by Fast Food Wrappers?; Navy Sub Searches for Victims Of Bridge Collapse; Air Racing Offers Thrill Of Risky Competition

Aired August 07, 2007 - 07:59   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Desperate search. A new effort this hour to reach six men trapped in a Utah coal mine. Their families' anguished wait. And the mine's checkered safety record, were there obvious signs of trouble?
Plus, top gun, meet the American pilot on top of the world in this high-flying, high-speed, high stakes sport. We take you into the cockpit and into the skies on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And welcome. It's Tuesday, August 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us this morning. We begin in central Utah where a second rescue operation is under way right now to save six trapped miners. The men have been trapped for more than 25 hours now. There has been no contact with them.

Workers are hoping to reach them using a huge drill that will chew straight down through 1,500 feet of solid rock. It's a rescue mission with an awful lot of risks attached to it. Let's go to Dan Simon, he is near the mine in Huntington, Utah.

Dan, where do things stand this morning in terms of the rescue operations? How soon might that drill bit get up and running?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we're supposed to get a press briefing in about an hour-and-a-half from now so hopefully we'll have a better idea then. It's just before dawn here in Utah. It is very quiet where we are in this remote part of town. But crews in the mine had been working all night trying to dig to that particular area. They are digging right through solid coal.

At first, crews thought they might be able to go into a dormant mine shaft and reach the miners that way, but those efforts failed. There was just too much debris. It was too dangerous. So now they are taking these heavy machinery, these big drills, trying to go into the mine.

These miners are about 1,500 feet below the surface, and about three miles from the entrance to the mine. So some huge challenges ahead -- John.

ROBERTS: You know, back at the Cue Creek mine in Pennsylvania in 2002, we saw a drill finally reach down to those miners. And who could forget the pictures of the miners who had been trapped for some 77 hours coming up in that manlift. But they were only 240 feet under the ground.

Has anybody there got any kind of an estimate of how long it could take to bore down 1,500 feet?

SIMON: Well, what the owner is telling us, he's saying it's going to be a minimum of two days. And it could certainly be longer. The question is, is whether or not the drills are going in the right area. They think they have some idea where these miners are but they're not entirely sure so we'll just see what today brings -- John.

ROBERTS: Boy, I'll tell you, they've got to have that mine mapped out literally to the millimeter to drill down that far and hit a pocket where those miners might be. There has still been no communication with them, correct though, Dan?

SIMON: Absolutely no communication. And in terms of the conditions they're facing, obviously very treacherous. They can't really see down there. All they have are their flashlights and they have to be careful. They have to conserve the batteries, and, of course, they have no cell phones, no walkie-talkies. So they're not able to reach anybody in the outside world.

So if you're a family member and you got a loved one down, there that's what is so agonizing here because they truly don't know if they're alive or dead -- John.

ROBERTS: Got to be has to be so tremendously difficult. But the good news is if they did survive the initial collapse, they may have enough supplies to last them for at least a few days. Dan Simon for us a couple of miles from the mine there near Huntington, Utah. Dan, thanks.

CHETRY: And that's what we want to talk about right now, what kind of dangers do the miners face now that they're trapped? How long can they survive? CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with some insight for us about -- you know, and this is theoretical. We don't even know whether they survived the initial collapse, although four people were able to get out. So we're holding out hope that they have survived.

And if so, what are we looking at in terms of how much longer they can stay down there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is such a dynamic situation for the reasons you just mentioned, Kiran. What happened during this initial collapse? Were there any primary injuries at the time? That really dictates everything else in terms of the need for oxygen consumption, water consumption, and how long someone could actually survive after sustaining any sort of injuries.

So that's a big unknown, as Dan Simon was just talking about. We just don't have that information right now. But after the primary injuries, what is the likelihood of an explosion due to volatile gases building up? That's something that you always think about with mine disasters. Less likely in this case we're hearing because of the possibility of oxygen or air actually being able to seep in there so changing the mixture of the gases. Also, you remember the carbon monoxide poisoning that we talked about with regard to Sago? That is also less likely here as well because of this oxygen or air seeping in, so that's good news, I guess, if you had to find some good news in all of this.

But those primary injuries, what were they? That is really going to dictate everything else in terms of survival and need for resources -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Sanjay, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Other headlines new this morning, a new report about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and the warning that consultants had given to the state. This morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the most vulnerable parts of the bridge were also the toughest places for inspectors to see. The state highway department faced two choices. Reinforce the bridge or keep inspecting the cracks. The state chose to inspect rather than repair.

A potential international incident is brewing in the country of Georgia today. The Georgian government is accusing Russia of violating its air space and bombing a village just north of its capital. They say two Russian jets dropped a bomb that didn't explode. Russia denies all that though. Georgia is reportedly planning to issue an official letter of protest to the Russian ambassador.

And worries this morning that Madeleine McCann was murdered. A newspaper is reporting that Portuguese police found blood on in the wall of the apartment from which the 4-year-old girl was taken. Tests still have to be done on the blood. But in the three months since she has been missing, police have become more convinced that Maddie was killed and not kidnapped.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, Ali Velshi has been checking into the safety record in the mine in Utah where the six men are still trapped this morning. Rescue efforts still under way. And we're talking about more than 300 citations issued, ranging in severity over the past two years.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It is owned by Murray Energy Corporation out of Ohio. They've had 300 citations in the last three years of which 118 have been serious enough to be thought to be able to cause injury or death. Now there is only one death at this mine in 1997. But the rate of the injuries at this mine has actually been lower than the national average for that type of mine.

The interesting thing is that the last inspection was on July 5th and there were 11 violations -- I'm sorry, there were 12 -- six violations and another 12 issued. And six of those 12 were considered serious enough to cause injury or death, but no fines were levied as a result of it.

And in June, the CEO of the company testified at Congress that he felt that the new fines that the Democrats want to impose on mines that have safety infractions are going to put miners out of business. He said that the fines are outrageous and will take a lot of producers down because they can't pass the increases onto consumers.

The irony is that since the year 2000 the cost of the particular type of coal that this mine has produces has actually doubled. And those costs are being passed on to consumers. So it is a strange argument, but nonetheless this mine has had better safety record than comparable mines, even though it has a lot of citations.

CHETRY: Yes. I seem to remember after the Sago Mine disaster, they talk about, forget these fines, shut it down. I mean, when there's violations that put safety at risk, it has to be shut down until it's taken care of. Where are they with that?

VELSHI: Well, this is a big issue. The Sago Mine exposed the fact that the Mine Safety and Health Administration Agency is actually -- doesn't have the teeth it needs to deal with some of these issues. There is also this big issue about unionized mines versus non- unionized mines.

This was a non-unionized mine, and the union workers say that if they were unionized they would be able to do more about getting these safety infractions enforced. That's not clear where all that is and that is why there were these hearings at Congress which is where the CEO of this company was testifying against stronger teeth in enforcement laws.

So we're not there yet. We have not actually changed things. We are still doing hearings on them.

CHETRY: All right. Ali Velshi, following that for us. Thanks so much -- John.

ROBERTS: Extradition orders for the men accused of plotting to blow up Kennedy Airport, your quick hits now. A judge in Trinidad has agreed to extradite three men charged in the plot. The alleged ringleader, Russell Defreitas, is a U.S. citizen and has been in custody in Trinidad since June.

Who needs internal affairs when you've got Hello Kitty? Police commanders in Thailand have found a creative way to discipline disobedient police officers, making them wear a pink arm band adorned with the Hello Kitty cartoon. The idea is to shame the officers into behaving, but it's only for minor offenses and they don't wear it in public because not exactly the image the Thai police want to send countrywide.

A new poll is out this morning, and it might be a troubling trend for the Barack Obama campaign. We're talking about Roland Martin about what Obama might do next coming up on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: To politics now. There is a new poll out this morning and it shows Hillary Clinton going into tonight's Democratic debate in Chicago with a commanding double-digit lead. USA Today/Gallup poll has Hillary Clinton leading nationwide 48 percent, Barack Obama at 26 percent, and John Edwards at 12 percent. Now that 22-point gap between Clinton and Obama is almost double the gap that we found in a poll that was taken just last month.

Let's take a quick look at the Republican numbers as well from this same poll. The USA Today/Gallup poll for Republicans, this was conducted between August 3rd and 5th nationwide. Once again we have Rudolph Giuliani at 33 percent, Fred Thompson, once again, we said he hasn't declared, he is at 21 percent, John McCain with 16 percent, and Mitt Romney at 8 percent.

These are the national polls. And we should mention that the Iowa poll is very different. The Iowa poll that was taken within the past few days shows Mitt Romney as the frontrunner. Joining us now in New York actually, CNN contributor -- are you in New York or Chicago?

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Actually, I'm in New York for CNN, Kiran. And I broadcast from WWRL back to my radio show in Chicago on WVON.

CHETRY: Yes, that's what I thought. I'm thinking, did you sneak in the building and you didn't tell me you were here? Great to...

MARTIN: No, no, no.

CHETRY: Great to see you this morning, Roland. You know, we're talking about this double-digit lead. Hillary Clinton at 48 percent to 26 percent for Barack Obama. She looks unstoppable right now but it doesn't mean her opponents aren't trying to exploit any weakness. We had John Edwards and Barack Obama both hitting her on what they're saying is her status as a Washington insider.

Barack Obama at a town hall event saying, if you don't think lobbyists have too much influence in Washington then I believe you've probably been in Washington too long. Is that a good route for them to try to expose some weakness in her high poll numbers?

MARTIN: Well, of course she is. I mean, right now we are in what I call the positioning stage. And so -- and also the framing stage. Typically, campaigns don't kick off until after Labor Day. But this has been a completely different kind of deal. And so what you see with Obama and Edwards is that they've gotten beyond in terms of trying to be playing nicey-nice and playing nice when it comes to these debates.

Now it's a matter of going on the attack and trying to frame Clinton a certain way. But she is also doing the exact same thing. She is not even worried about John Edwards. I mean, he is lagging (INAUDIBLE). He is leading in Iowa, but he is lagging in some of the other polls behind Bill Richardson. So what she is trying to do is frame Obama as being weak on national security, being naive, but also inexperienced. And so that is why you sort of have this battle going on. And so it's going to heat up over the next several months as we get closer to the first primary in Iowa and New Hampshire.

CHETRY: Well, Barack Obama may be helping Hillary Clinton in that cause. Some of the things he said over the last few days have called into question his foreign policy. First saying that he would use U.S. troops in Pakistan to go after bin Laden, then saying that he would never use nuclear weapons to go after terrorists. And then of course, his comments in the last debate where he said that he would have meetings without preconditions with some of the world leaders like Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong-il.

Is this unwarranted criticism or should he be watching what he is saying?

MARTIN: Well, no, I mean, I think, first of all, he is taking a risk with what he is saying. Obama is running a campaign by saying, I'm a different candidate than what you are seeing. So the question is, are voters going to go for it? But what I find to be interesting, Kiran, is that what happens is you have the pundits, you have the political pros who say, oh my God, he is saying the wrong things.

But then when you go to some of the blogs and you see some of the comments, your everyday folks are saying, wait a minute, you know, I don't see a problem with this. My radio listeners say, look, I mean, it makes sense for him to say being president you want to meet with people who, frankly, you have been ignoring all of this time.

So it is a huge risk on his part but he really has no choice. If he says the same thing she says, well then, what makes him different? He is trying to say, I am the alternative to what you have seen in Washington, D.C. Very risky and so he wants to be able to see if it's going to have some kind of long-term impact versus what we have seen in the past seven days.

But also, Kyra, what I find to be interesting, Rudy Giuliani, in some ways, agreed with Obama in the debate just the other day.

CHETRY: I know. This -- I thought that was interesting as well. He didn't get hammered for it.

MARTIN: But it hasn't gotten a lot of attention.

CHETRY: But you know, he is going as a little bit more hawkish. He said, look, if all options were off the table, we couldn't get bin Laden any other way, yes, I would go in there with troops as well. But does it play to a different audience, a more hawkish audience?

MARTIN: Well, no, it plays to a hawkish audience, but here's what happened though. If you -- because look, like it or not, we in the media, we also frame a lot of these conversations. Coming out of the that debate, most of the stories we saw were Mitt Romney attacks Obama. We did not say, wait a minute, Giuliani agrees with Obama. And so I'm surprised that we haven't seen that and why folks have not said, well, wait a minute, if Rudy Giuliani, Mr. National Terrorism, you know, former U.S. prosecutor, former mayor of New York, riding 9/11, if he is saying that this makes sense, what he said was Obama could have said it differently, but bottom line is, they're both saying the same thing.

CHETRY: I picked up on that point and thought it was very interesting as well. Roland Martin, always great to see you, CNN contributor, host of the "Roland Martin Show" and broadcasting from New York today. Good to see you, Roland, thanks.

MARTIN: Thanks much.

ROBERTS: The draw of the Golden Arches, just how much power is actually in those wrappers? A new study with some surprising results ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, if you have children, you know the draw of McDonald's. It's like those Golden Arches and the wrappers have some sort of magical power over these kids.

CHETRY: Yes, well, apparently it works on adults, too, because when we found out were doing a story, everyone was quick to throw their order in. There is a new study that actually set out to test the effect of all the powerful marketing and the branding on kids. And some may be surprised, some may not, but it did yield some pretty curious results.

ROBERTS: AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has been looking into this one as well as retrieving breakfast for us.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

ROBERTS: For which we thank you.

CHO: Well, yes. I know you like hash browns and Egg McMuffins. We had the same order. Kiran had a little different order.

ROBERTS: So what did the study have to say?

CHO: Well, you know, it's pretty fascinating. Kiran, you alluded to the power of advertising. That is certainly the case. A new study says young children prefer food that is wrapped in McDonald's packaging. And not just hamburgers and french fries, but milk and carrots too. And get this, carrots aren't even available at McDonald's.

Now the research, which appears in this month's Archives of Pediatrics and adolescent medicine involved 63 pre-schoolers, 3 to 5 years old from San Mateo, California. Now the kids sampled hamburgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, even store-bought milk and carrots. They got identical examples of each food on a tray and the shocking finding, the samples wrapped in McDonald's packaging were the clear favorites.

Maybe no surprise here that 77 percent preferred McDonald's french fries. After all, McDonald's is famous for its fries. But listen to this one. A majority also favored McDonald's-wrapped carrots. The study's author said the kids perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding." The research also found significantly greater effects among children with more TV sets in their homes. Again the power of advertising.

And incidentally, those researchers chose McDonald's because it is the largest fast food advertiser in the U.S. We're trying to find out the exact numbers, but it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year that they spend.

CHETRY: And if the draw of the packaging isn't enough, they always throw in a toy in the happy meal and that draws the kids in, too.

CHO: Three-quarters of the parents said that they had toys -- McDonald's toys in their homes. It's really incredible.

ROBERTS: So it's really a case here of, if you think it tastes better, it probably does.

CHO: It probably does. And those packaging, the Golden Arches doesn't hurt. But you know, interestingly, it was very simple packaging. They did not put Ronald McDonald, which of course, the kids really respond to, on the wrappers. It was just very simple packaging and they still preferred the food.

ROBERTS: The hash browns are a little overdone this morning.

CHO: Sorry about that. I'll work on that a little bit later.

ROBERTS: Alina, thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: don't necessarily travel well. Thanks so much, Alina.

Well, this week the nation's brightest minds in science are looking into a chemical in plastic, it's called bisphenol A or BPA, and they're trying to figure out whether or not there is a real risk to the 99 percent of us who have the chemical in our bodies, how much should we be worried about when it comes to it Tupperware or even your baby's bottle. Well, here with a closer look now is chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The study was published by the journal of Reproductive Toxicology, and it talked about this chemical that we see in a wide variety of plastics, including baby bottles.

GUPTA: Yes. It's just about everywhere. This is one of those ubiquitous chemicals, as you mentioned, BPA, or bisphenol A, it is a hormone-like substance, which is of concern that it could be causing hormone or reproductive problems. It was in that journal about Reproductive Toxicology.

Look, there's over 500 studies on this particular topic, making it one of the more controversial things in the world of toxicology. The question is, what does it do to your body? How much of it is acceptable in our bodies? And is it leeching from a lot of plastics into our bodies? Is that where it's coming from?

And actually, right now there are hearings going on. There were hearings back in March, there were hearings again over the next three days trying to answer those questions and come to some conclusion about how we might be able to protect ourselves if, in fact, this is harmful. And again, a very controversial topic here.

CHETRY: Right. And it says, at least according to the study, a range of serious ailments. They talk about even low doses possibly having problems on prostate cancer, breast cancer, hyperactive learning impairment, other things like that. I mean, it's things that you certainly don't want to hear as a parent when you may be using these everyday bottles to heat up milk.

Do they have any -- given any indication of whether it becomes more dangerous when this plastic is heated?

GUPTA: Well, there is two things. They do talk about the fact that when the plastic is heated, that could potentially advance the leeching process. That has not been concluded yet, but that's a concern. The other thing they talk about is the fact that it might be more problematic in smaller people, in infants, people who are actually, you know, taking milk from those bottles that you just showed.

So those are two concerns. And part of the reason that they are having the hearings now is to address the baby bottles and baby products a little bit more specifically.

Again, there have been about 500 studies on this, maybe even more than that now. The vast majority of them, I will say, will show two things. One is that while BPA is present in a lot of these products and in our bodies, that it may not be getting there in the concentrations that causes significant problems.

And the other thing is that a lot of the studies have been done in laboratory animals, so now you're trying to extrapolate some of that data to humans and find out if, in fact, there is a problem. I will say if they expect to actually have some conclusions at the end of these hearings, I was looking at the NIH site, and they say that they actually expect conclusions, which is unusual. We will see if they actually arrive at any at this time.

CHETRY: You know, and parents want to know, I mean, while the results may not be conclusive, whether or not products that they are using have it. Is there a way that they can figure that out?

GUPTA: Well, there is a couple of sites that we've actually found as well where you actually look to see, A, learn more about bisphenol A. It's just called bisphenola.org. It's a pretty good site. It will tell you what these substances can do to you, but also what sorts of products have this substance in it, if it's something based on what you're hearing you want to avoid.

Again, there's nobody recommending that you avoid this necessarily but you can learn a lot more about it there.

CHETRY: All right. Sounds good, Sanjay, thank you. We're going to have much more when AMERICAN MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: A beautiful shot this morning of the Sin City. The city that's always going. It is from KVBC of Las Vegas. A picture of the Sunset Strip. I guess you would say.

What is the temperature like?

ROBERTS: More like the Sunrise Strip this morning.

CHETRY: I know.

ROBERTS: It's 79 right now, going up to 99 degrees today but that's typical for Las Vegas this time of the year, and a dry heat which is always good.

CHETRY: You couldn't wait to say that yet again!

ROBERTS: It's true.

CHETRY: Miami, bad, Vegas, good when it comes to --

ROBERTS: No, Miami, good. I used to live there. I like the place.

CHETRY: Last hour, you were saying that the heat felt like -- it was very oppressive.

ROBERTS: Oh, it's very -- you can hut the humidity with a knife there in the months of July and August.

CHETRY: Welcome back once again. Tuesday August 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you. We begin this morning in Utah, with a brand new effort to find six trapped coal miners. Here is the very latest.

Rescue teams are gearing up to position a massive drill on top of the mine near Huntington, Utah. The machine will try to chew down through 1,500 feet of rock to reach the men. It's the best chance for a rescue but it is also risky.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS O'DELL, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA: They're going to continue to drill to try to go in that way. And, of course, underground where they're trying to remove the rock and debris where the actual fall is, that's a long tedious -- and it can be very unsafe to do that as well. Have you to remove the rock and debris, support the top and protect the miners that are doing the rescue work as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Also, this morning new revelations about a checkered record safety at the mine. Since 2004 it has racked up about 300 safety violations including some for unmarked escape routes. We asked the mayor of Huntington about that record, earlier, on AMERICAN MORNING. She told us it wasn't something that people in town talked about every day. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR HILARY GORDON, HUNTINGTON, UTAH: Most of us are not aware of on a daily basis of the violations, perhaps unless their husbands work there. There's always small things that are going on within mines. And I'm sure if the men felt that it was safe enough to work there, that they felt comfortable being there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: As for today's unfolding rescue operation it could take several days to drill down to the men. Officials tell us the miners do have enough water to survive. Of course, that's assuming they survived the initial collapse. Stay with CNN all day for the latest on this continuing story.

CHETRY: Well, to Minneapolis now where the Navy and FBI are involved in the search for eight people still missing in the I-35W bridge collapse. Later this morning dive teams will be going back into the water for another day of exhaustive searching and they're getting some help with some high-tech tools. CNN's Susan Roesgen is live in Minneapolis this morning with the latest developments.

What type of tools are we talking about, Susan?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The tools we're talking about basically is an unmanned submarine. A small submersible, a robotic submarine that is equipped with very powerful underwater lights, Kiran, to be able to give the divers from the Navy, and the FBI, and the local sheriff's divers a better look at what they are trying to find under water. It also has a sophisticated sonar system so that they will be able to map the objects on the bottom of the river.

The local sheriff asked President Bush for that extra help when he was here over the weekend. The FBI specializes in forensic recovery, forensic evidence, and body retrieval. And the Navy divers specialize in salvage. So they are the people we think will be able to find those eight missing people now, Kiran.

CHETRY: What has prevented divers from this point from being able to locate the people still missing?

ROESGEN: Well, these divers are from the local sheriff's office. They're not used to this sort of search, this long-term search. And they're not able to find any bodies that might be pinned under the heaviest debris here. So that's really what has stopped them.

They were able to check the cars they could get to, sort of groping along underwater by hand. But they needed the extra help to find bodies that the divers believe are probably pinned under the heaviest wreckage under the bridge there behind me.

Also, tonight, Kiran, at 6:05 the mayor of Minneapolis is calling for a moment of silence here. That's the same time as the bridge collapsed a week ago Wednesday but they've decided to have this moment of silence in the city at 6:05 tonight local time Because that will coincide with National Night Out Against Crime and they think a lot of people will be out then. And it will be a good time then to remember the victims of the collapse.

CHETRY: Susan Roesgen, live for us in Minneapolis. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Some say the State of Pennsylvania has the dubious distinction of having a greater percentage of large bridges in disrepair. Critics say they would be able to fix those bridges if it weren't for pet projects like Interstate 99. U.S. taxpayers spent $699 million to build the I-99 in central Pennsylvania. You notice it doesn't really go anywhere. The largest city it will ever serve is Altoona, which has a population of about 50,000.

Standing on the side of I-99 is Steve Ellis. He's from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Steve, I wanted to ask you how that highway ever got built. And let me tease that by saying, it's also known as the Bud Shuster Highway.

STEVE ELLIS, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: That's exactly it, John. Bud Shuster was the chairman of the powerful Transportation Committee. He made sure he got every dime of the $699 million it took to build this highway in his backyard.

ROBERTS: Steve, why is money being spent on pet projects like that when according to a recent study there is $1.6 trillion in urgently needed repairs to our bridge and highway infrastructure system, over the next five years?

ELLIS: If you could ever call highway spend sexy repair is decidedly unsexy. Nobody gets to cut a ribbon. Nobody gets the name, it's the Bud Shuster Highway after them. It just sort of aggravates commuters driving through that they have to drive through the repair and have delays. And so, essentially, people would much rather lay new concrete than they would to actually repair what we already have.

ROBERTS: So, I-99 was a pet project otherwise known as earmark. Hugely controversial in Congress yet many members of Congress just can't get enough of these.

ELLIS: Well, yeah, John. In the Transportation Bill, the big omnibus Transportation Bill that passed in 2005 -- that had probably the most famous earmark of all, the bridge to nowhere in Alaska -- had more than 6000 earmarks -- more than 6300 earmarks, worth $24 billion. We're seeing still earmarks in all the appropriations bills going through. This is the way members of Congress are bringing home the bacon to their home districts.

ROBERTS: Are they just addicted to these things?

ELLIS: Yeah, unfortunately, John. It seems like this is something they know they can do to bring home to their home district and have a project named after them. They can have a road named after them like the Bud Shuster Highway. Unfortunately, we've seen this across the country. A variety of new bridges and other projects being spent, we're spending taxpayer dollars on instead of putting on money to repairs.

ROBERTS: Ted Stevens was pretty upset when he didn't get his bridge to nowhere, either. We should point out, the Taxpayers for Common Sense has a website called www.taxpayer.net. On which, you document the most wasteful pork projects. A couple of those projects you include is the Indian Street Bridge in Palm City, Florida costing $88 million; and the Ohio River Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, which will cost $640 million. Why shouldn't they those be completed?

ELLIS: Well, in both cases they're redundant of already existing bridges. You have -- you already have one bridge that's being built in downtown Louisville and they want to build another bridge further to the east that's going to be for more commuters and essentially opening up new territories. The idea behind it.

Same thing down in Martin County, Florida, at the Indian River bridge where you essentially are duplicating a bridge that is just a few -- less than a mile away. But people want this because they can cut a ribbon, they can name the bridge after them, or their friends, and they don't have -- and rather than putting money into repairs around this country.

ROBERTS: Steve, yes or no answer here. Democrats promised a new world when it comes to earmarks, after they were elected. Has the world changed?

ELLIS: A little.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTS: All right. Steve Ellis from Taxpayers for Common Sense. Thanks very much. Good to see you this morning.

ELLIS: Good seeing you. Thanks a lot, John.

ROBERTS: Kiran.

CHETRY: Thanks.

Well, when you think of cholesterol fighting statin drugs you don't normally think of kids but that all might be changing. We'll explain coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 19 minutes before the top of the hour. You think the triple-digit temperatures are bad? How about four-digit temperatures? It's 2000 degrees, we're talking about. This lava river is oozing out of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano. It the latest lave burst. It begin about three weeks ago. The volcano, of course, though, has been erupting off and on for two decades.

Won't be quite that hot out there in the Show Me State, but Rob Marciano says in City of St. Louis, at least, it is going to be hot, nonetheless.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Millions of middle-aged Americans take them but should your kids? We're talking about statins, prescription drugs to control cholesterol. There is a new study that says some kids may benefit. We're paging our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on this.

What kids besides the ones that love McDonald's advertising might we be talking about taking statins?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're actually not taking about those children, interestingly enough. But we are talking about children as young as eight years old who might actually suffer from a genetic problem known as familial hyper cholesterolymia (ph). That's where their cholesterol levels get really high. It's actually passed on from parents to their kids. It can be quite a problem.

Again, we're not talking about kids who are necessarily obese, because of eating habits or because of drinking too sugary soda. But a couple of things that were sort of interesting about this study. One is that you can actually see the onset of the disease in blood vessels very early on, even in young children. Their blood vessels-- the inner part of their blood vessels can actually get thick, can get these plaques on them.

What they found as part of the study, which, incidentally was founded by drug company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, was that you can see a somewhat of a reversal of some of these plaques by actually using some of the statin medications.

Again, there's no conclusion on this for sure. And eight years old is pretty young to be starting any kind of medication, but it's out there right now as a possibility, again, by this particular drug company.

CHETRY: Sanjay, thanks so much.

Also a reminder if you have questions for Sanjay Gupta, please send them to his mailbag at cnn.com/americanmorning. Drop us an e-mail and Sanjay will be answering your questions Thursday on AMERICAN MORNING.

ROBERTS: We are back in a moment with something for you adrenaline junkies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Voice over): Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING extreme air racing. Pilots dart, dash and dive through a slalom courses at speeds of 250 miles an hour. One American pilot is soaring above the international competition. We talk to him next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Last hour we interviewed the Harvard student who discovered that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's daughter Caroline belonged to a Facebook group that supported Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

We read you a statement responding to the story, attributed to the Giuliani campaign. That statement actually came from a spokesperson for Caroline Giuliani.

ROBERTS: CNN "Newsroom" just minutes away now. Tony Harris is at the CNN Center with a look at what is ahead.

Hey, Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning to you.

Trapped miners in Utah, certainly, on the NEWSROOM rundown for you this morning. Searchers hold a live briefing next hour. They're struggling to reach six workers trapped 1500 feet below ground.

Also, searching for the killers in New Jersey. Have you been following this story? Four young adults shot in the head execution style. Three are dead. We will speak with the county's top prosecutor and critics are outraged.

A 12-year-old girl follows liposuction and a tummy tuck with tummy restricting surgery. All of the mornings breaking news when Heidi Collins joins me in the NEWSROOM. We get started, oh, about 12 minutes from now, at the top of the hour right here on CNN.

John, back to you.

ROBERTS: We will see you then. Tony, thanks very much.

Air racing the dramatic high-speed, low-level flying through air gates has steadily developed a huge follow; 6 million spectators at only eight races in 2006.

CHETRY: Mike Mangold is the 2005 Red Bull Air Race World Series Champion and he is also on the hunt for this year's title as well. He joins us now.

Welcome.

MIKE MANGOLD, PILOT, RED BULL AIR RACE WORLD SERIES CHAMP: Hello. CHETRY: Thanks for being with us. I know you took the red eye from L.A. to get here.

ROBERTS: He didn't take the red eye -- he flew the red eye.

CHETRY: He flew the red eye!

ROBERTS: Because he is also a pilot for American Airlines.

MANGOLD: Yes, that's true. That's true. I had to work a little bit this morning but off right now, so.

CHETRY: How did you get involved in the air racing?

MANGOLD: Through friendships. Kirby Chambliss, the other American pilot is actually the one that got me involved. And the whole group of pilots we've known each other through our national teams, and world champion competitions.

ROBERTS: You were an Air Force pilot, too. And you got bitten by the bug at a very early age?

MANGOLD: Absolutely. I actually started with sky diving and that got me into aviation. But I went through the Air Force, the Air Force Academy, and then there's nothing like flying the fighters out there.

ROBERTS: What were you flying?

MANGOLD: F-4s, Phantoms.

ROBERTS: Oh, yeah.

CHETRY: You know, as we said, this has developed a huge following. We have millions of people following this. What is the appeal of air racing?

MANGOLD: Once you see this thing live and in person, what we offer is it's such a compact arena maybe a thousand meters across and we're flying at speeds at 400 kilometers, 200 miles an hour, pulling 10-Gs. We're, you know, five meters above the water. You know, it's in your face. And the video presentation is also what gives you the sense of being in the cockpit with us, as you see in some of these shots.

So, I like to watch -- when I see the other guys fly I sit there and watch it, that's how interesting it is.

ROBERTS: This is a time trial. It's not like the old races where you had a couple of planes going at each other head-to-head. Everybody is running against the clock here.

My question for you though, is because you have this extremely high-end aircraft, that is made out of composite materials, you have to spend a lot of time over there in Europe, flying an airplane that is expansive in anybody's book. This has to be one of the world's most expensive hobbies. MANGOLD: It sure is. It's not like golf and everybody complains about buying a set of clubs or a motor boat or something. I said I had that hobby. But this one -- like I said, we've gotten bit by it. It is something that we love to do, that we cherish.

ROBERTS: So, how do you afford it?

CHETRY: That's a NASCAR-like jacket with the sponsorships, that's how you afford it.

ROBERTS: Oh, yeah, but that's half -- that's a third of what you get in a NASCAR.

MANGOLD: For sure, there's a lot of organizations and little shops behind me. You can see the logos on my suit. So it's not just me. I'm the lucky guy that gets to drive the airplane. But I've got a good team behind me and we think we have a really fast airplane this year, and hopefully that is what's going to end up at the end of the year.

CHETRY: All right. When you look at these pictures I just have to ask how safe is this? Because you're going so fast and it looks like you are squeezing in these tiny little --

MANGOLD: Well, I say it's as safe as it can be. I think there is some risk involved. We understand the risk. But there are several things that we've done to keep it safe, both with the aircraft and especially with the air gates. We can hit these things and you fly right through them. They don't really damage the airplane. They don't really knock us out of the sky. The organization, Red Bull, has been able to create these fantastic air gates. So, I think that's the secret to the whole thing.

ROBERTS: You won your debut season 2004?

MANGOLD: Yes.

ROBERTS: You also the year after that, 2005.

MANGOLD: Uh-huh.

ROBERTS: You kind of tanked last year. What happened?

MANGOLD: Well, you know, it goes back to any type of motor sports and motor racing. You have to have a fast vehicle, a fast airplane. We brought a new airplane out last year, actually, this same white airplane. And it just wasn't performing like we thought it would be on the drawing board. So we've made some modifications. You can see them in the black wing tips and the nose cowling.

CHETRY: Wow.

MANGOLD: And we definitely have a faster airplane.

CHETRY: How do you prepare for a race like this? MANGOLD: Well, there's a lot of physical preparation for me, as a pilot, but as a team manager and owner, I have to make sure that the airplane is in place and the right location, that the engine is running, all of these things. So it's a big logistics undertaking.

ROBERTS: So, where is your next race? Any thought about bringing this over here?

MANGOLD: Yes, there is. Actually, I'll be in Budapest Monday, the 20th of August, is our next race. And we will be in San Diego September 22nd.

ROBERTS: Great.

CHETRY: John wants to know if he can ride along.

MANGOLD: Absolutely.

CHETRY: Can you bring along a passenger?

MANGOLD: We have a two-seater. We have a media airplane. We do media rides.

ROBERTS: Hey, this is the one you got to take up!

MANGOLD: Please, both of you. Come on out!

CHETRY: It looks fun. Scary, but fun.

ROBERTS: I'd love to see this up and down the Hudson River. That would be terrific.

MANGOLD: We would like to get East Coast venue, either up here around New York City or perhaps, Miami.

ROBERTS: Is the Hudson wide enough for it?

MANGOLD: Absolutely. Most of ours venues are river locations because we can get the crowds on both sides. And it also allows us to do this extreme flying out in the water where we're pretty much away from the people, yet you can still see it.

CHETRY: Good luck this year and be safe and hope you win.

ROBERTS: Michael Mangold, thanks very much.

MANGOLD: All right.

ROBERTS: All right.

CHETRY: We're going to taka a quick break. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Time for our "CNN Hero". People making a difference in their communities and today it's a man who is bringing a light to people in darkness. Mathias Craig is today's "CNN Hero".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATHIAS CRAIG, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: It's very difficult to explain to people how remote it is here on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. It's very remote. There are no roads, essentially anywhere, so all transportation is by boat.

Monkey Point has always been an abandoned community. They have a serious energy problem here. In these isolated communities only the wealthiest people have generators. Most people in the community will never have access to that power sources.

My name is Mathias Craig and I work to bring sustainable energy services to isolated communities.

It's gonna be good when we raise it.

We're really based around the wind turbine and then we have a power system with batteries, where we store the energy produced by the windmill.

This converts battery power to alternating current. This is what is being transmitted down to the school. The school also doubles as a community center.

Up! Up! Up!

Our interest is in delivering sustainable energy services so we wanted to build our systems from scratch here, and train local people here, through the process of building, people would learn how to service them.

(CHEERING, CLAPPING)

Beautiful!

It has a tremendous impact. Any path they choose pretty much requires electricity and clean water so by providing one of those basic services, you're opening up the whole new world of opportunities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We is living in a historical moment right now. Having electricity in Monkey Point, it's something great to have, to help in the development and the education level.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks all right to me. Yeah. What do you say, Boss?

CRAIG: My most satisfaction that I can receive is really getting a chance to be in the community and see how the energy is being used and seeing the benefit that it provides.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: For more information about Mathias Craig's organization or to nominate a hero of your own, visit our website, cnn.com/hero. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Just about a minute and a half before the top of the hour. You know that old belief after a time owners begin to look like their pets? For some cats the opposite might be true.

CHETRY: Scientists say as more people get obese so could do their feline friends. More than a third of cats are overweight, like this one.

ROBERTS: Whoa!

CHETRY: That's not mine. Is that your's?

ROBERTS: Fat tabby. No, I'm not a cat person.

CHETRY: There are five times as many cases of feline diabetes as there were 30 years ago. Just like our human diabetes rates are going up.

ROBERTS: How is it the cats are becoming a little super sized? Researchers say they are imitating the life style of people, eating more, and exercising less. So if you see a cat fast food restaurant, don't be surprised.

Look how fat that cat it is!

CHETRY: A cat doesn't go to its own cupboard, and open up the drawer. Use the can opener, open it's own can. It's the people overfeeding the cats, obviously.

ROBERTS: I can't believe how chubby those tabbies are.

CHETRY: I've never seen a cat exercise. Have you? I've seen dogs on a treadmill.

ROBERTS: No, no, no!

CHETRY: What do cats do for exercise?

ROBERTS: Well, they chase things around the house. They go outside. They climb trees. A lot of trees.

Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING, on this Tuesday. We'll see you again tomorrow. I'll see you, also, tonight for "360".

CHETRY: Get some sleep this afternoon.

Meantime, CNN Newsroom with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.

HARRIS: Good morning everyone, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris. HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM. Live now on this Tuesday morning, August 7. Here's what's on the run down.

Searchers update us on the progress in Utah in just a few minutes. They are scrambling to find six miners trapped by a collapse.

HARRIS: Newark's mayor under fire for out of control crime. Four young adults shot in the head, execution style.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com