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American Morning
Firestarter; President's Pick for Attorney General Struggling Over Definition of Torture
Aired October 31, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Even a small amount of excess body fat can put you at risk for six different types of cancers. Elizabeth Cohen is going to explain that in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING, starts right now.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Firestarter. A kid playing with matches admits sparking a devastating wildfire in California.
Letting loose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It does not mean changing positions whenever it's politically convenient.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Rival Democrats take aim at the front-runner. Can Hillary take the heat?
Plus, flyer frustration, endless delays, crowded flights. We're airing their biggest travel nightmares and looking for solutions in the skies, on this AMERICAN MORNING. Who hasn't had a flying nightmare? I had one just Sunday afternoon. It's Wednesday the 31st of October. Thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. We encourage people to go ahead and e-mail us and let us know about those travel nightmares as well.
ROBERTS: Hold nothing back, too. Let it all flow out.
CHETRY: I'm sure...
ROBERTS: It will be a cathartic experience.
CHETRY: I'm sure you need to get blogging now about it. In the meantime, we're going to bring you the latest on a fire that burned more than 38,000 acres. Now there are some new developments this morning; 21 homes destroyed, two firefighters injured trying to stop spreading the flame and saving lives.
And police say it was all the work of a young boy. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says the young boy admitted to playing with matches and starting the so-called Buckweed Fire accidentally. It began October 21, in the Santa Clarita area, about 30 miles north of downtown L.A.
Alina Cho has the latest developments live from the NEWSROOM. So what do we know about this young boy, Alina?
CHO: Well, Kiran, good morning, we don't know much. Authorities aren't saying who he is or just how old he is. They are saying, though, that arson detectives found him and he admitted he was playing with matches, and accidentally started the fire. He is back in his parents' custody, we should mention.
As to whether he'll face charges, earlier on in American morning we will spoke to an L.A. County sheriff's deputy who says the case has been referred to the D.A.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY MOORE, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: They'd look at the total destruction and everything, but they'd also look at it as far as the legal standards, and whether or not it fits those standards to bring charges against the juvenile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: No, remember, this is the so-called Buckweed Fire, we're talking about, near Santa Clarita, about 30 miles from downtown L.A. It started a week ago Sunday and quickly spread, in part, because of these feisty Santa Ana Winds. The fire burned more than 38,000 acres, destroyed 63 structures, including 21 homes.
Now, not including this boy in this latest case, authorities have arrested a total of five people for arson in the most recent Southern California fires.
As of yesterday, we should tell you 18 of the 23 wildfires have been fully contained. The rest are nearly contained, but not before doing a lot of damage, Kiran, more than 500,000 acres and about 1,600 homes destroyed.
And in the latest case we should tell you investigators knew pretty quickly that the fire was the work of an arsonist, and they moved fast. They were able to find this little boy within a day.
KIRAN: Oh, wow. Alina Cho, thanks so much.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: Northern California was rocked by the strongest earthquake to hit the area in nearly 20 years overnight. A magnitude 5.6 quake hit the San Francisco Bay area last night. It's epicenter was about nine miles northeast of San Jose. Residents say that they felt shaking and rolling as far east as Sacramento. One report says it was felt as far north as Oregon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy. It's mayhem. We were all just chilling here, we were doing our thing and next thing, you know, boom, boom! Windows started shaking.
PAM BIRDSELL, FELT EARTHQUAKE: All of the sudden everything just started shaking. At first it didn't seem like it was that bad, but then it just got a little stronger and then it just quit. Some people started panicking when it really started going, but then everything calmed down after that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The quake rattled homes, sent things flying off of shelves and drove people and their pets running outside. But so far, thankfully, no reports of any major injuries or property damage. Of course still a couple of hours before the sun comes up and they really get a measure of what happened there -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, South Florida on alert this morning for Tropical Storm Noel. High waves pounding beaches and the storm could pass near the Florida coast over the next few days.
Meantime, in Haiti, more than 40 people were killed in floods and landslides, triggered by Noel as it barrelled across the Caribbean, as much as 20 inches of rain falling across parts of Haiti, as well as the Dominican Republic.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: And on Capitol Hill the president's pick for attorney general struggling over the definition of torture. Michael Mukasey was pressured on the issue of waterboarding, and so far has not given Senate Democrat what they want.
Elaine Quijano is at the White House with more on this, this morning.
Elaine, is the White House afraid that they could lose this nomination?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, unclear at this point whether or not the votes are not going to be there for Judge Mukasey. Certainly they, of course, had not necessarily anticipated, based on what we saw a couple of weeks ago, the glowing praise that some Senate Democrats were heaping on Judge Mukasey.
But the nomination could certainly be in jeopardy. Democrats had been looking for a direct answer from Michael Mukasey on the question of whether waterboarding amounts to torture, and is therefore illegal.
But a four-page letter to Senate Democrats, Mukasey explained, as he did before, that he has not been briefed into the techniques that interrogators use. He did, however, call waterboarding repugnant, but he went on to say that hypotheticals are different from real life.
Now, Democrats, including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, says that the answer has them concerned. So Mukasey's nomination, again, John, that has him almost a sure thing a couple of weeks ago certainly running into a much more bumpy road ahead -- John.
ROBERTS: I guess Senator Schumer, who supported him at the beginning, still has his support behind him, but the fact that the chairman, Patrick Leahy, is starting to waffle a little bit could be an indication he may not survive.
What else did Mukasey lay out to the letters as to why he struggled with the definition of torture as it related to waterboarding?
QUIJANO: Yes, well, he gives a couple of reasons, in addition to not being briefed on the programs involved, Mukasey says he doesn't want anything he says to necessarily be used against interrogators, so he's very well aware, of course, it's a very tricky sort of fine line here. He doesn't want to necessarily give any ammunition to people who may be saying that people he says to necessarily be used against interrogators, so he's very well aware of course it's a very tricky sort of fine line here. He doesn't want to necessarily give any ammunition to people who may be saying that people who've used waterboarding in the past conducted illegal torture. He's very mindful of that. We're not just talking about interrogators from this point forward. We're talking about anything that interrogators may have done in the past.
And finally, John, he also talked about the fact that he doesn't want to give the enemies of the United States the U.S.'s playbook when it comes to techniques.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll be watching where this goes this morning. Also next hour we'll speak with White House counsel Ed Gillespie about all of this. Elaine Quijano at the White House this morning.
Elaine, thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: The federal reserve board is meeting on this Halloween. Will they have a trick or a treat for Americans?
Ali Velshi at the Chicago Board of Trade with more on that this morning. Which way do you think it's going to go, Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's going to be a treat, John, because it's not just Halloween. What the treat is going to be is that it's going to be a big discount for the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Why? Because right now the Federal Reserve, their Fed Funds Rate, stands at 4.75 percent. That means the prime rate is 7.75 percent, and so many of your loans, your adjustable loans, are tied to prime. That means if the fed cuts by a quarter percentage point as expected and brings its rate down 4.5 percent, the prime rate will go down to 7.5 percent. Now that's going to happen.
Meanwhile the reason I'm here at the Chicago Board of Trade, is this is where bonds are traded. When the fed cuts rates the bond traders who are going to be coming to work, who are starting to trickle in now, are going to trade the bonds and that's where the mortgage rates are set. So your mortgages, your adjustable-rate mortgages, your consumer loans, your credit cards, some car loans, all of that stuff is likely to start to get cheaper by the end of the day.
In fact, within about an hour of hearing of the fed rate cut at 2:15 Eastern, we'll start to get word from the major banks that they're cutting their prime rate. It's a big if, it's not a for sure that it's going to happen, but it's likely to happen in about seven hours -- John.
ROBERTS: All right, Ali, we'll keep checking back with you this morning from Chicago. Thanks -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, there's some important news for your health this morning about the link between what you eat and your cancer risk.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at our medical update desk with more on this.
Good morning, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Kiran, everyone is worried about cancer, as they should be. It's a terrible disease, but what people don't always know is that they have the power to try to prevent cancer. There is something you can do besides obviously not smoking. And that is, stay slim, and eat the right foods, and if everyone did that in this country we could prevent as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of all cancers.
All right, the staying slim part everybody knows what I mean. But what do I mean when I say, try to eat the right foods? We have a list five foods that you should do -- or five things that you should do to prevent cancer. Eat a plant-based diet. If it comes up from the ground, that's good. You want to eat it. If people have tinkered with and processed it, it's not as good. Maintain a healthy body weight. Drink less alcohol. Good for your heart, but not so good for cancer. Red meat intake, keep that to 10 percent of your diet. So really try to keep your red meat intake down and try to keep your fat intake down. It should only be about 15 percent to 30 percent of your diet. And the saturated fat that you find in red meat, that's going to put you much more at risk; something like the fat that you find in fish, that's a much better idea -- Kiran.
CHETRY: These are things that we all know, but of course sometimes find it hard to live by. Is there any, you know, cheap system where you can do it most of the time and then sometimes have a little fun?
COHEN: Certainly. You know, you can sometimes have a little fun and sometimes treat yourself, of course. And what you want to think is big picture -- big picture, what did I eat this week? Don't worry about this afternoon or today. Think big picture, what did I eat today? Did I eat more fish than red meat, for example? Most of the foods that I ate, did they come from the earth, rather than being processed? Think big picture. That's always a good idea.
CHETRY: Right. And another thing, you said to stay away from alcohol, because we always hear about different studies, about certain amounts of alcohol that may be helpful.
COHEN: Right, certain amounts of alcohol are indeed helpful for your heart. For cancer, not quite as good, especially when you're talking about liver or breast cancer. So you want to keep alcohol to a moderation. For a woman, that's one drink a day. For a man, that's two drinks a day. That kind of drinking isn't going to put you at much risk, and that kind of drinking will help your heart. So that's probably the good number to remember -- one drink a day for women, two drink a day for men, at most.
CHETRY: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Fifteen minutes after the hour. Playing with fire -- what next for the kid who admitted starting one of those devastating wildfires in California? Charges? Jail time? Fines? We'll take a look.
And remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't tase me, bro! Don't tase me! I didn't do anything!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: He may have won the Oscar for viral video star of the year, all because of those three-and-a-half words. Well, he said a whole lot more in the police car and with his one phone call. The tape that you haven't seen or heard. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't tase me, bro! Don't tase me! I didn't do anything!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It turns out this fellow says a lot more than "don't tase me, bro." The University of Florida student who was zapped during a Q&A with Senator John Kerry was also apparently caught on tape after the incident on a police dash-cam, and in his jailhouse phone call, Andrew Meyer told his father Senator Kerry could have tried to stop it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDREW MEYER: I just want to ask you the question. He said all right, all right, ask me the question. And I asked him the question and then the cops took me off. He could have, at any time John Kerry could have been like, hey, leave that kid alone. After I asked him the question he wasn't so friendly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: He's been cleared of criminal charges related to the "don't tase me, bro" incident after he profusely apologized for his conduct -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, back to our top story this morning, and that is a young boy being blamed today for igniting a devastating wildfire in California. Apparently he was playing with matches, and the result: 38,000 acres burned, more than 60 buildings destroyed, 21 of them homes. Three people and two firefighters hurt.
So what does he face in terms of legal issues? AMERICAN MORNING legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us now.
This is in connection with the Buckweed Fire, which was in northern L.A. County, and they say that it looks like a young boy who was playing with matches, admitted that to police. Is that arson if it's not intentional?
SUNNY HOSTIN, AMERICAN MORNING LEGAL ANALYST: Well, no, arson is the intentional setting of a fire. But the fact that he's a juvenile makes a big difference here. Juveniles are treated very, very differently. Criminal intent, the age of criminal intent, is different, so the prosecutors -- we don't know how old he is. If he's 7 years old then that's going to different from a 15-year-old or 17- year-old.
CHETRY: So in this case, they say charges are pending. What does that mean?
HOSTIN: Well, it basically means they're trying to figure out what happened. They're trying to investigate. He's saying it was an accidental fire. Juveniles, again, are treated very differently. They're not tried. They're adjudicated. There are no real jury trials. They go in front of a judge, all sorts of nuances. And so I think they're going to be very, very careful. So we know that the governor came out and said whoever did this is going to be prosecuted and treated very, very harshly, so I think that there's a big weighing process going on now in California.
CHETRY: We'll see what happens, because I think the age will be the biggest factor.
HOSTIN: Absolutely. Absolutely.
CHETRY: Whether he knew what he was doing.
Moving on to another legal story -- yesterday the Supreme court granted a stay of execution for Mississippi Earl Wesley Barry (ph). This was 15 minutes before he was scheduled to die from lethal injection. So what does the stay mean for the future of the death penalty in this country?
HOSTIN: This is a fascinating case. And you're right, all of the drama is there, 15 minutes before he was set to die the Supreme Court issued the stay. The Supreme Court really has been grappling with the issue of lethal injections, whether or not it's cruel and unusual. We know this cocktail is now used. You have an anesthetic. You also have a paralyzer. And then finally something that stops your heart. Well, inmates are challenging that, they're saying it's very, very painful. And people forget, doctors are not performing this; doctors can't perform executions because of their oath, so you have medical, not medical professionals doing it, and people really are suffering.
And so I think if the Supreme Court says this is cruel and unusual, what is going to happen? We know now, no hangings, no firing squads, not really electric chair. This is supposed to be the most humane way of killing people. I think, as a society, perhaps now we're moving towards the fact that perhaps killing by the state is not humane at all.
CHETRY: So this would effectively halt executions, since lethal injection is the most common way that these execution punishments are carried out.
HOSTIN: That's right. That's right.
CHETRY: Is this political? Does this have a political tilt to it, or is this true concern about whether or not the procedure needs to be tweaked?
HOSTIN: I think it's true concern. If you look at the Supreme Court's sort of reasoning right now, they're grappling with not the constitutionality of the executions, but the method of execution. But as you mentioned, if lethal injection is supposed to be the most humane, what are we left with, and hopefully we're not left with anything, because cruel and unusual is sort of a swinging, changing evolution of the decency of our society, and if we can't hang people anymore, and don't kill people by firing squad and now lethal injection is inhumane, perhaps our society is moving away from executions.
CHETRY: Sunny Hostin, great to see you, thanks.
HOSTIN: Thank you.
(NEWSBREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the skinny on eating out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like getting grilled chick within a side of vegetables and 10 packs of butter. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: How eating just one meal at your favorite restaurant can fill you with enough calories for an entire day. Greg Hunter unlocks the secret to decoding restaurant menus, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: There's a shot this morning coming to us from WFOR, Broward County, Florida. It looks like traffic really getting under way there. As we know tropical storm Noel causing some problems for Florida. Our Rob Marciano is actually in Hollywood, Florida this morning. So we're going to get an update on the weather situation from him a little bit later.
Meanwhile, welcome. Thanks for being with us. It's Wednesday, October 31st. It's Halloween. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, I'm John Roberts.
New this morning, an announcement overnight from the fires of southern California. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says a young boy admitted to playing with matches and started the so-called Buckweed fire near Santa Clarita. The fire burned 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes. Deputies did not reveal how old the boy is or what charges he could face.
Further north in the state, nature struck again last night. This time a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook homes and sent people running in the Bay Area. Its epicenter was nine miles northeast of San Jose. It was the strongest since the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. That was the one that shook the World Series. So far there are no reports of major damage or any severe injuries. Just a little bit of a mess as you can see from pictures in the convenience store. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Democrats on the attack over Blackwater, reported yesterday the State Department struck a deal with the private security guards of that affirm who were accused by the Iraqi government of killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy called the White House the amnesty administration saying "that goes equally for misconduct and for incompetence. If you get caught they will get you immunity. If you get convicted they will commute your sentence." But the State Department says no senior official signed off on the immunity deal. The White House spokesman says the matter is still under review.
Some serious doubts about the integrity of major league baseball's drug testing program this morning. Baseball teams reportedly given advanced notice before players are tested for any performance-enhancing drugs. The "New York Times" reporting the team officials know the testers are coming up to two days in advance because the testing company has to ask for parking space at the ballpark. The union though is saying that players don't get advanced warning. ROBERTS: Iraq and Iran dominating the debate among democratic presidential hopefuls last night in Philadelphia, and it seems all the candidates had something to say about front-runner Hillary Clinton's stand on both countries.
CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley is live in Philly with this morning's play by play. The theme of the night, Candy, was really target Hillary.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. But you know, anyone expecting a full frontal assault by Barack Obama against Clinton did come away disappointed. It was not the brawl a lot of people anticipated but they did push hard against Clinton, they questioned her credibility and her consistency and the unkindest cut of all, they said sometimes she talks like a republican.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: She voted for a war to authorize sending troops to Iraq and then later said this was a war for diplomacy. I don't think that -- now that may be politically savvy but I don't think it offers the clear contrast we need.
FMR. SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you believe combat troops should remain stationed in Iraq and if you believe there should be no actual timetable for withdrawal, then Senator Clinton's your candidate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Now, Clinton acted like the front-runner she is, totally ignoring the charges by her democratic rivals. She had her sights set outside that realm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: On every issue from health care for children to an energy policy that puts us on the right track to deal with climate change and make us more secure I've been standing against the republicans George Bush and Dick Cheney and I will continue to do so and I think democrats know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Other notable hits from Senator Dodd who said, given that 50 percent of Americans say they won't vote for Senator Clinton it is fair ball to bring up the question of her electability. It was again not over-the-top stuff, John, but at one point Governor Richardson felt the need to jump in and defend her, saying it sounded personal to him.
John.
ROBERTS: You got to wonder if Richardson keeping his options open for a possible running mate status here. And Candy, do you think this marks a turning point in the campaign now? You know, the challengers to Hillary Clinton know that the window of opportunity is narrowing. Is it do or die for them now in terms of compare and contrast?
CROWLEY: Well, absolutely. The truth, is though John, they've been trying to do this for some time, John Edwards more aggressively than Obama. Nothing has worked so far but they don't seem to have any other options at this point, but to say to voters, listen here, there are differences between Hillary Clinton and myself. They say of course, that Clinton has been very good at sort of blurring those distinctions as she kind of sets her sight on the general elections.
ROBERTS: And on the issue of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in New York State, some of the candidates were complaining she was all over the place, contradicting herself within the space two of minutes.
CROWLEY: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Candy Crowley for us this morning. Thanks, Candy. We'll see you again soon. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, we all have horror stories of course about the hassles and the delays and the overall nightmare that it is to fly in this day and age. We wanted to hear your flyer frustrations. AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence is at New York's La Guardia Airport. Chris, it happened as your producer was flying here to work on this story, she actually lived out a real life horror story when it came to flying.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara (ph) certainly had a tale to tell as well as more than 100 other passengers who were right there on the flight with her. You know, this wasn't an isolated incident. Take the month of August, for example. American, United, Delta, Northwest, all had at least 30 percent of their flights arrive late. The airlines and the FAA both blame bad weather, old air traffic control technology, just too many planes in the air.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: One out of every four domestic flights arrived late this year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got to Chicago at around 5:00 and then waited and waited, and waited until 10:15.
LAWRENCE: Not surprising, when you consider Chicago and New York area airports make up half of the ten most delayed. The CNN crew discovered on a recent Friday night flight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The flight to La Guardia is full; every seat has been given out.
LAWRENCE: The original 6:00 p.m. flight was canceled so our crew was put on the 7:00 out of O'Hare. That flight didn't take off until 8:30 and half way to New York the pilot was ordered to hang back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We appreciate your patience. Unbelievably, we've been holding up here for a few hours.
LAWRENCE: La Guardia's backed up and there's no place to land. The pilot has to fly in circles for so long the plane starts to run out of fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we're heading in to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to get some gas.
LAWRENCE: It was an eight-hour ordeal that didn't end until Saturday morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Florida. Your local time approximately 2:10.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just spent six hours, seven hours on the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told my husband I felt like I'd flown to Europe, I'd been on the plane for so long.
LAWRENCE: Some passengers complained about going hungry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought the honey granola bar was excellent, filled me up, I haven't eaten in like ten hours.
LAWRENCE: Others praised United's flight crew. They're not alone. Earlier this year at JFK, Jet Blue passengers were trapped on the tarmac for eight hours. In both cases, bad weather and an overcrowded airport were to blame.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: We had our taste of bad weather up and down the eastern seaboard. Aviation officials are considering forcing the carriers to cut their schedules or pay more to fly during those peak travel times. Kiran.
CHETRY: I also understand places like JFK they're trying to cap how many flights are allowed to take off and land in a day. Is that what we're going to start seeing around the country?
LAWRENCE: Yes, that is possible. The only thing is, if you force the carriers to pay more to fly during a certain amount of time, eventually you know who is going to pick up the cost for that, you and me. Sometimes it could be trying to be aware of certain times to avoid. You don't want to fly into Dulles between 9:00 and 10:00. You don't want to flying into La Guardia between 6:00 and 7:00 or JFK any time between 6:00 and 9:00, those are some of the worst times to arrive at the airports.
CHETRY: Are you talking in the morning or evening?
LAWRENCE: In the evening, all of these are arrival times in the evening. Certain times you just want to avoid at certain airports.
CHETRY: Yes, and La Guardia, they have a major, it doesn't matter, you can get the earliest flight of the day, it's just there are too many planes trying to get into the sky and not enough runway to take off from. Very frustrating. That was just happenstance your producer caught all of that on tape. Chris Lawrence, thanks a lot.
ROBERTS: Can I tell you? You don't want to fly in or out of La Guardia at 6:00 a.m. or 11:00 p.m., it's a nightmare there. We want to hear your travel nightmares, too. E-mail us am@CNN.com. We'll put some of them on air. We're also going to start a blog where people can go on and they can talk about their travel nightmares, little interactive things so we can all feel like we're part of the same abused community.
How much fat is in a plate of spaghetti and meatballs? A lot more than you'd think and that's why two Italian restaurants chains are getting grilled ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: An alert for you now, we're just getting word out of Madrid, Spain, this morning, that the first of 28 suspects in the 2004 Madrid train bombings has been found guilty of murder, and other charges by his Spanish court. There is a live look right now. The first defendant has been found guilty of the commuter train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800, more than three years ago.
Our Paula Newton is actually live there, listening to these verdicts, and she's going to bring us more detail and information, but again, at least according to CNN this morning, the first of the 28 defendants guilty of murder in connection with those Madrid train bombings of 2004.
ROBERTS: Coming up on 15 minutes to the top of the hour, south Florida on alert today for Tropical Storm Noel. High waves are pounding beaches, causing dangerous rip currents. The storm could pass near the Florida coast over the next few days. More than 40 people were killed in floods and landslides, triggered by the tropical storm, as it barreled across the Caribbean. Our Rob Marciano is in Hollywood, Florida long the beach there, where the winds started kicking up earlier today. Rob, what's it looking like from where you are now?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well John, just seconds ago a transformer blew out across the street from here so the winds here certainly enough to do damage and Florida Light and Power is prepared with extra crews on standby. Winds have been relentless. We are on the beach. Now the sun is coming up, you get a sense of where the water is. Right now, pretty much it's high tide. Obviously, the lifeguard station is closed; rip tides, rip currents very dangerous. This is beyond where the water typically is for high tide, and right now we're at low tide. The water will come all the way up here this afternoon as the high tide approaches. They did a huge beach reclamation project several years ago, spent millions of dollars bringing in beach, sand, palm trees and a lot of that is being stripped away, this is happening up and down the coastline. Take a quick look at the radar, show you what's going on. There's not a whole lot of rain coming in yet. Obviously a lot of wind and in this spot a lot of sand. You get a sense for the circulation. It's all off the ocean. Here's why. Two reasons. One, we've got an unusually strong area of high pressure north and east of here and two, you've got an unusually strong low pressure, being it tropical storm Noel. It's weak right now but coming off the shoreline. The difference in pressure giving us the wind, it's been going on for days so you get a long fetch, a loft wind and waves pounding this area and subsequent storm surge. Even though we're not going to see a direct hit from the system, the combination this time of year is creating havoc along the beach. It will strengthen somewhat.
It looks like it will go into the Bahamas over the next 24 hours and there you see most of the action well to our north and east, big time problems obviously across Hispaniola and into Cuba. You won't see a whole lot of rain, John, most of it will be east of the system. We're getting our own batch of wind with the combination of the two systems and not a good deal for folks who live on the beach in Florida. Back up to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob Marciano for us from Hollywood, Florida; Rob, thanks. We'll check back in with you later on. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, another outbreak of the drug resistant staph infection called MRSA or the Superbug. A community college in Virginia is closed after a school worker got infected. It follows the death of a high school student, a seventh grader, and other outbreaks that have schools and hospitals on alert right now. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta with the update for us. Hi, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Kiran, on alert is the right word. There's one hospital that will start testing everyone who comes in to see if they have the Superbug. Once the bug is on the loose, it can be very, very bad news. You mentioned this news the school in Virginia just 40 miles away, a high school student died, and then in Brooklyn, New York, a 12-year-old boy lost his life, and his mother did all the right things. She realized that he was ill, and she took him to the hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AILEEN RIVERA, MRSA VICTIM'S MOTHER: He said no thanks, everything is okay, everything is okay. Saturday, my son took a shower, Sunday my son passed away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Mrs. Rivera says the hospital released her son without any property treatment. Now, why is this bug so powerful? There are really two reasons, one, antibiotics are powerless against it or most antibiotics are powerless. The ones that doctors usually try don't work. By the time they get to one that does a lot of time can pass and also doctors, it's just not on their radar screen, especially if they were trained many years ago, you see an infection, you think it's one of the infections like most infections that can be just treated with any antibiotic. They don't immediately think of a Superbug. Kiran.
CHETRY: And so they can do a test that then says it's the Superbug?
COHEN: You can do a test. You could culture each and every infection that comes your way, as a doctor to see what it is but really the reality of how medicine is practiced is that someone comes in with some kind of infection, you try to the kind of antibiotics that work 90 something percent of the time. There's no reason to suspect that every single time it is one of these terrible Superbugs but unfortunately, sometimes it is. So that leads a lot of the prevention in the hands of just regular ordinary people.
So what you can do? You can wash your hands a lot, so that if you shake hands with someone who has this, you can wash it off. Don't share towels with people, keep wounds covered. If you've got some kind of a wound, you don't know what it's infected with. You don't want to infect other people, keep that wound covered and this one is possibly the most important one. If you have some kind of pimple that isn't looking right or some kind of little boil on your skin, don't just put a band-aid on it and figure it will be okay. Go to see a doctor and mention to the doctor, doctor, I know this sounds paranoid but could it be a Superbug. It's not going to hurt everyone if you sound paranoid. Say I've heard about this, is this what it could be?
CHETRY: You've got to be your best advocate sometimes. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Coming up now on ten minutes to top of the hour, more problems in space. NASA now dealing with two issues at the International Space Station that could put future shuttle missions on hold. We'll explain, coming up, and there's this. NASA dealing with two issues at the international space station that could put future shuttle missions on hold. We'll explain, coming up, and there's this.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING," the skinny on eating out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like getting grilled chick within a side of vegetables and ten pats of butter.
ANNOUNCER: How eating just one meal at your favorite restaurant can fill you with enough calories for an entire day. Greg Hunter unlocks the secret to decoding restaurant menus, ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 53 minutes after the hour. If you're just joining us, here's a look at what's making headlines this morning. Just in, the first of 28 suspects accused of masterminds and carrying out the Madrid train bombings in 2004 have been found guilty. Judges in Spain are announcing the verdicts in all 28 cases. Three of the eight main suspects so far have been given the maximum sentence, but one of the accused masterminds, Ausman, was acquitted. More than 1,800 injured, 191 killed. We're monitoring the verdicts. Paula Newton is at the court. We'll go live to her in the next few minutes. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Two of America's most popular Italian restaurant chains under fire for not informing diners about what's really on their plate. We're talking about the heaping portions of meat, cheese, pasta and cream sauces that can sometimes serve up 3,000 calorie gut bombs. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter is here with details and he brought the evidence with him this morning.
ROBERTS: Lovely way of putting it.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have the skinny.
ROBERTS: Belly busting gut bomb.
HUNTER: There are lots of calories going on here. The skinny is the fatty in some of the foods you get at these restaurants. Prime rib or fettuccini alfredo, which has more fat? Answer, they're equal, 1,100 calories and 53 grams of saturated fat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The difference is you can see it on the meat.
HUNTER: They analyzed two dishes. The Olive Garden and Romano's Macaroni Grille. One of the big easylink problems is the lack of available information.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no numbers that tell them they're splurging.
HUNTER: Spaghetti and meatballs from both restaurants, Olive Garden, 1,200 calories, 19 grams of saturated fat, equal to three quarter pounders. Macaroni grille, 2,400 calories and 57 grams of fat, equal to six quarter pounders action more calories than the FDA says most of us need in a day and three times the daily requirement of saturated fat.
They're giving you your money's worth, huh?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Let's hope you save up your money. You may need it for the cardiologist.
HUNTER: The calorie count, a Macaroni Grille spokesman told us, they're happy to modify most menu items to fit the dietary needs of its guests, for example, substituting side items or getting sauces and dressings on the side. CSPI says customer choice can make a big difference.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is like grilled chicken within a side of vegetables and ten pats of butter.
HUNTER: Check out skinny chicken from macaroni grill with half the calories.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of their sensible fare items, great dish.
HUNTER: In response to the findings, Olive Garden told us "Our menu has something from everyone from traditional favorites to lower fat garden fare items."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: I brought with me some food here on the table, and we'll start with a couple of dinner choices here, this is the lasagna classico right here, and it has over 1,000 calories, 28 grams of fat. These things weigh about the same, the shrimp primavera, without all of the cheeses and fatty meats, it's a much better choice and weighs about the same, makes about the same size. They say that's a better choice.
ROBERTS: The supreme over here looks like a good choice.
HUNTER: Olive Garden, a dietary deal, buckets of salad, all of the salad you can eat. Try to fill up on salad as opposed to the breadsticks. If you have bread, go for the brown instead of the white bread, and you could also cut down on other things.
ROBERTS: It's always nice to hear from center force disease and public interest.
CHETRY: It's just eye-opening, six quarter pounders is the size of what you get in a plate of spaghetti.
HUNTER: I would never order that, six quarter pounders but I might tackle that plate of spaghetti. One last thing, if you have a story idea, you've been a victim of fraud, get a hold of me at lookingout@CNN.com. Thanks for sharing.
CHETRY: Thank you for bringing the food.
ROBERTS: It will be gone by the end of the show.
CHETRY: Sure will.
Halloween is a Candyland for kids. Some parents concerned about what's been put in their kids' bags. While you may not want to hand out Baby Ruths or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and how you make sure your kids don't eat all of that sugar in one sitting. More about that when we come back.
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