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American Morning
Celebrating Thanksgiving; New Developments in the Natalee Holloway Case; Stocks Struggle Overseas; Ed Lavandera Arrives in New York on Time
Aired November 22, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking the case. New arrest but the same old suspects in the Natalee Holloway case. We're live with the prosecutor in Aruba.
Caught on tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Turn around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the heck's wrong with you? Don't...
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Stay on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help! Lauren!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Pulled over for speeding, then tasered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lauren! Help!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The dramatic roadside confrontation.
Plus we're talking turkey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to Butterball. For information on turkey preparation, press or say three.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Your cooking questions and the experts with the answers on this Thanksgiving AMERICAN MORNING.
That's right, Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for being with us on this Thursday, November 22nd. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. We begin in Aruba and startling new developments in the case of the missing teenager Natalee Holloway. The Alabama student disappeared on the island two and a half years ago while on her senior class trip.
Now prosecutors say they have new evidence against the three major suspects last seen with Natalee before she disappeared. Joran Van Der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were arrested again yesterday on suspicion of involvement in manslaughter.
CNN's Emily Chang is live in London with more now from our international update desk.
Good morning, Emily.
EMILY CHANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Well, the prosecutor won't say much about this new evidence. What we do know is that it involves, quote, "new material." Back in April, investigators visited Van Der Sloot's home in the Netherlands and dug up the area around it. What we don't know is what, if anything, they may have found.
Now Van Der Sloot is scheduled to appear in court in the Netherlands today. The Kalpoe brothers are expected to appear in court in Aruba tomorrow morning. Now all three of them were arrested shortly after Natalee Holloway disappeared. They were the last people seen with her as she was leaving a bar in Aruba that night.
All of them have consistently denied that they were involved and eventually they were all released due to lack to evidence. Now all of them are facing new charges that they were somehow involved in her death and attorney for one of them is now speaking out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE TACOPINA, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR JORAN VANDERSLOOT: This is not Joran Van Der Sloot. Anyone who knows Joran knows that that's not his character. He feels awful about the fact that something may have happened to Natalee. But he had no involvement in her disappearance is what he said repeatedly and, quite frankly, what the evidence seems to scream out as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANG: Now we're told authorities want to transport Van Der Sloot back to Aruba within days. Back in May, investigators also visited the home of the Kalpoe brothers. But we don't know if any of these new searches have anything to do with this new evidence. But clearly, they've been building this case in order to make these arrests that were made yesterday -- John?
ROBERTS: Do we know if and when Van Der Sloot will return to Aruba?
CHANG: Well, we're told they have eight days to transport him back. We've been getting conflicting reports. It could happen as early as today. But that will be decided at today's hearing in the Netherlands -- John?
ROBERTS: Emily Chang for us this morning from London. Emily, thanks.
We're also following another missing person's case here at home. The FBI now joining the search for Latasha Norman. She is a student at Jackson State University in Mississippi. She was last seen on November 13th in a classroom covering a story for the campus newspaper.
Latasha's father says his daughter would not just wander off and he is not leaving the state until he finds her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY BOLDEN, LATASHA'S FATHER: Latasha, if you can hear us, we want to let you know that we love you and that we're not going to stop until we know something.
ANDRELL HARRIS, LATASHA'S FRIEND: She is a quiet, sweet girl and she didn't mess with anybody on campus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Latasha vanished more than a week ago. She recently filed reports with campus police after someone slashed her tires and stole her license plate. The 20-year-old's ex-boyfriend is facing charges for punching her in the face in a restaurant parking lot. But police say at the moment they have no suspects in her disappearance -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Stocks struggle overseas. Asian markets dip sharply in volatile trading before closing slightly up. Now all of that happening in reaction to the Dow's big plunge, hitting a seven-month low on Wednesday. The culprit? The credit crunch and oil just shy of $100 a barrel.
Ali Velshi is at the business update desk with more on that this morning. Welcome back. Certainly don't have any good news to bring us on this Thanksgiving.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, sadly, I thought I could bring you good news particularly on Thanksgiving, but no, we had another triple-day -- triple-digit loss on the Dow yesterday.
Now before a holiday, it's always lighter trading and as a result these moves can be exaggerated. But look at that 200 points lower on the Dow, 34 on the NASDAQ, 22 on the S&P.
Take a look at it for the year, though. This is where it starts to become a little bit alarming. The S&P 500, the most, you know, varied of that bunch of investments, is now negative for the year. We've been sort of keeping above that point. The Dow is just a little above and the NASDAQ is six points higher. Now this is as we get into the holiday shopping season. That oil price you were talking about, $97.29, it got up to $99.29. It's really putting pressure on consumers and that's not what investors wanted to see as when we get into black Friday tomorrow, which we'll be covering extensively, Kiran, to see how people actually shop, whether this market and this housing crisis and these gas prices actually affect how they spend, and that's going to be the story for the next couple of weeks -- Kiran?
CHETRY: We'll be watching it. And Ali Velshi, thanks so much -- John?
ROBERTS: New this morning. Pakistan's Supreme Court clearing the way for President Pervez Musharraf to serve as a civilian president. The courts, stacked with Musharraf loyalists since emergency rules imposed earlier this last month, rejected a final challenge to his re-election.
Musharraf is expected to resign as army chief within days and swear a new of oath of office as a civilian for another five years.
A former top U.S. commander in Iraq is supporting a Democratic plan to bring soldiers home. Retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez is backing the $50 billion funding bill which carries the stipulation that combat end by next December.
General Sanchez said the sacrifices of American troops have, quote, "not been matched by a willingness in the party of the Iraqi leaders to work for peace." The Pentagon says if the Congress does not approve a bill that the president can accept, 200,000 civilian employees could be laid off.
An on-air confrontation caught on tape in Venezuela. The host of a morning news program slapped in the face repeatedly by Congresswoman Iris Varela. The politician slapped Gustavo Azocar in the face several times, even breaking his glasses. Varela is a supporter of President Hugo Chavez while Azocar is one of his most outspoken critics. But she says that her anger was not politically motivated. It stemmed from a book that the journalist wrote about her.
And a Utah state trooper could be in hot water after dash cam video shows him using a taser on a driver who refused to sign a speeding ticket.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around, put your hands behind your back now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the heck is wrong with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around. Turn around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the heck's wrong with you. Argh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay on the ground. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help! Help!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help! Lauren, Lauren!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lauren! Lauren!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down. Stay down. Stay in the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, the 10-minute video was posted on YouTube by the driver who got it by filing a public records request. His beef was that he hadn't quite reached a 40-mile-an-hour sign that the police officer had pulled him over for violating. The Utah Highway Patrol has since launched an internal investigation -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Wow.
We're getting a lot of folks ready to do some post-Thanksgiving shopping tomorrow, black Friday, traditionally a day of hope for retailers who want to try to bring their year-end profit margins out of the red and into the black.
Many chains like Kohl's and JCPenney are opening their stores as early as 4:00 a.m. hoping to lure customers by offering sale prices that are only good for the first few hours. Analysts say retailers should not bank, though, on deep holiday discounts after the weakest fall shopping season in a decade. They say retailers should be working on a recovery plan for 2008.
Well, they're cheering at Who-ville this morning. Dr. Seuss's childhood favorite "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is now back on Broadway. A Manhattan judge ordering everyone back to work saying, quote, "I think one Grinch in this town is enough."
The theater's owners were forced to reopen the doors despite the ongoing stagehand strike. The producers of the show say they got their, quote, "miracle on 44th Street." The Grinch returns to Broadway with an 11:00 a.m. tomorrow -- John?
ROBERTS: So Mary Lou Who will have a Christmas after all.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Time to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a New York tradition since 1924 and the balloons will be floating above the street behind us later on this morning.
Our Jason Carroll live on the parade route this morning with a preview.
Good morning, Jason. Looks like the balloons are all ready to go and the weather incredibly mild today.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you believe it? Do you remember it out here last year, John? It was raining, it was cold, it was windy. What a difference a year makes. Look at it now, it's warm, there's no wind. And these balloons behind me, they are definitely going to be flying a little bit later on.
That big purple blob that you see up there, that's one of the new giant balloon this year. That's going to be Abbey Cadabby, one of the three new balloons making their debut in the 81st Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The other two are Hello Kitty and Shrek, two popular figures.
Obviously, a lot of folks come out here early up to get a great seat. Joining me right now are (INAUDIBLE) from West Orange, New Jersey. We've got Arlene and Andy Brockman.
Arlene, I know you decided to come out this year, your first, because you decided you just weren't going to cook this year, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right. My mother said she was cooking and I said, "Good, I'm coming to the parade."
CARROLL: You're first time. Well, what's it been like for you so far?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it's been exciting. It's been a lot of fun. We went last night to see them blow up the balloons and it's been fun.
CARROLL: Now I know I heard that you're telling me last time, Mr. Brockman, that when you came out here it was impossible almost just to get up to see the balloons because there were so many people out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right, yes. We walked up Columbus and you had to walk north to cross the street to walk south to get on to 79th Street.
CARROLL: Yes. And just a quick question. Since you're not (INAUDIBLE), Thanksgiving dinner?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll just go to my parents. All we have to do (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
CARROLL: Sounds like a good idea, let them cook.
(INAUDIBLE), John, at about 9 a.m. but we're going to be out here all morning long giving you all of the updates from (INAUDIBLE). Back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Jason Carroll for us this morning out there where they're blowing up the balloons. Jason, thanks very much.
Got a lot of youngsters here in the studio, by the way, a little sleepy right now, but we'll wake them up for the parade because we've got an incredible vantage point right over Columbus Circle.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, looks like that the moisture will stay away. The question is, will the winds stay down. There's always a problem with the balloons if the winds get over 25, 30 miles an hour and there is a cutoff. I think it's a gust to 34. I don't think we'll get there but we're going to get close and certainly parade organizers are hoping that the winds stay calm like they are right now throughout the parade. Right around lunchtime is when things are going to get a little bit more active.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: And a big chill coming. But hopefully, Rob, the bad stuff will hold off until at least noon today and get that parade in.
Rob, thanks. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Reverend Al Sharpton, the target of a mail threat from behind bars. The FBI says that a prisoner from New York State sent letters containing white powder to Sharpton and a half dozen others, including the "New York Daily" newspaper. The initial tests indicate the substance was only talcum powder.
Well, thanks to a federal judge, Louisiana Senator David Vitter won't have to answer some very embarrassing questions. Vitter was subpoenaed to testify about his ties to a Washington, D.C. escort service. A judge ruled the hearing served no purpose in the criminal case against Debra Pal Free. She's the woman accused of running that prostitution ring.
Still ahead, how our troops in Iraq are spending this Thanksgiving holiday. We're going to take you live to the frontlines ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING on this Thanksgiving.
Some of the best shots today to show you. A train derailment in northeastern California. Eighteen hundred feet of track damaged when an 83-car freight train derailed. They still don't know the reason why that happened. Half of the cars were carrying hazardous material. Crews say none of it was released and no one was hurt. The derailment is not expected to affect passenger traffic today.
Well, check out these cuties just in time for Thanksgiving. The last of the Byler sextuplets of Wesley Chapel, Florida came home from the hospital yesterday. They were born on September 1st, five boys and a girl, and you can see there, she is in the middle wearing a shirt that says "I'm the little sister."
How cute. She's going to be spoiled for sure. Five boys and one girl.
Well, the Pace and Pena families decided to get into the holiday spirit for their flight from Oklahoma City to Denver. They dressed as pilgrims. There you see them there waiting for their flight. The expected Thanksgiving travel nightmare actually hasn't been all that bad thanks to pretty decent weather across much of the country -- John?
ROBERTS: Of course, on this Thanksgiving Day, as we gather together with family from across the country, our thoughts go out to the men and women of the military who are fighting overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And then there are those brave men and women soldiers and Marines who are injured and recuperating back here stateside and their thoughts on this Thanksgiving Day.
Our Barbara Starr from the Pentagon went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center recently to gather a few of the thoughts that our men and women injured coming back from duty overseas have got on this Thanksgiving Day. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPECIALIST JOSEPH MCCLASKY, U.S. SOLDIER: Hi, I'm Specialist Joseph McClasky (ph) from the 303rd Military Police coming here at Walter Reed Medical Center. I'm doing all right. I'd like to say happy Thanksgiving to my guys that just got back from Iraq. Hope they're doing all right and my friends that are still in Iraq, and I hope you guys are staying safe and happy Thanksgiving.
CORPORAL JEFF RAFNER, U.S. SOLDIER: Hi. This is Corporal Jeff Rafner (ph) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I want to say happy Thanksgiving to all the troops in Iraq and some of my fellow soldiers back here in the States, Jeff, and Parra (ph), and just happy Thanksgiving, guys. Sorry my voice is so hoarse. I was at the Springsteen concert last night.
LIEUTENANT RYAN MILLER, U.S. SOLDIER: Hi, my name's Lieutenant Ryan Miller (ph). I'm from 3rd Squadron 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment, and I just want to say happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Wolfpack soldiers still back in Iraq right now and to all the soldiers down range in Iraq and Afghanistan, period. Thanks a lot. Happy Thanksgiving.
CORPORAL JOSHUA BEN, U.S. SOLDIER: I'm Corporal Joshua Ben from the 82nd Airborne Division here at the Walter Reed medical facility. I just wanted to tell my family and friends back home and in Afghanistan that I'm doing fine and to go have a happy Thanksgiving.
SPECIALIST MARK HODGE, U.S. SOLDIER: Hey, what's up? This is Specialist Mark Hodge (ph) from 173rd in Italy. I want to wish everybody in the 2nd 503rd Iraq. Happy Thanksgiving. I wish you -- I wish everybody well, peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Still with their fellow soldiers in spirit at least.
The deadlines to send out those holiday presents are coming up fast. The U.S. Postal Service says cards and packages for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan should be sent by December 4th for Christmas delivery.
Mailed to other overseas spots should be sent by December 11th. And the Postal Service says about 20 billion cards, packages and letters will be delivered both overseas and here in the States between today and Christmas -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, a tree immortalized the "Diary of Anne Frank" -- immortalized in the "Diary of Anne Frank" gets a reprieve from a judge in Amsterdam. City officials were planning to cut down the diseased chestnut yesterday. But the judge's order forced the city to reconsider its plan and explore alternatives to prevent the 150-year- old tree from falling over. Anne Frank referred to the tree several times in her diary as a comfort while she and her family were hiding from the Nazis during World War II.
Today also marks the 44th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. The city itself does not acknowledge the day in any official way. But there is a new exhibit of Kennedy era home videos from his inauguration all the way to his death showing now at the sixth floor museum at Dealey Plaza.
German police bring a peaceful end to a hostage situation. A man held at knifepoint for two hours at a Berlin train station. We're going to have more on how that ended coming up.
First, though, it's time to test your Thanksgiving IQ. The question: where was the first Thanksgiving observed? Was it Jamestown, Virginia, Long Island, New York, Plymouth, Massachusetts, or Williamsburg, Virginia?
Take a guess and we'll have the answer on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Well, we asked you guys. It's time to test your Thanksgiving I.Q. Did you know the answer to this one? We asked: where was the first Thanksgiving observed? Jamestown, Virginia, on Long Island, New York, Plymouth, Massachusetts or Williamsburg, Virginia?
And the answer -- at least the common answer from the history book is Plymouth, Massachusetts back in 1621, although, as you pointed out, John, it's been up for dispute lately.
ROBERTS: Yes. And President Bush was down in Jamestown, Virginia not too long ago honoring what many people believe is the first Thanksgiving. The settlers in Jamestown who actually celebrated Thanksgiving before the pilgrims even left England so.
CHETRY: See that?
ROBERTS: Yes. Everybody is fighting for that little spot, you know.
CHETRY: Well, it's time for our "Quick Vote" question. Hopefully, this one will be easier to answer. It's Thanksgiving themed, of course.
If you have a choice, who would you rather have Thanksgiving dinner with -- Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
It's, of course, a political dinner, right?
Cast your votes, CNN.com/am. We'll have a tally of the first -- of the votes coming up later in the hour.
ROBERTS: So many metaphors you could use.
And now to the results of our AMERICAN MORNING travel experiment. We assigned our Ed Lavandera to travel coast to coast, Los Angeles to New York, to gauge the travel atmosphere this holiday season.
CHETRY: Happy to report Ed has arrived on time and in time for Thanksgiving. He's upstairs on our seventh floor balcony.
Ed, welcome to New York. Good to see you again. How did it go?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I feel like VIP treatment here. You know, great view of the city, it's -- the sun's coming up. It's beautiful. Completely jetlag. My eyes are bloodshot. I feel like a wreck. But what we did -- we did make in the news, actually, rather incredibly, you know, we set out on this adventure because the airline industry this year have been taking so many hits. It's been such a bad year for the airline industry.
But in the last few weeks, there had been some reports that the situations across the airports had been improving. And for the most part, we saw that over the last couple of days where lines at the security checkpoints were running pretty smoothly. There was only -- we arrived just hour delayed here last night in LaGuardia and considering what a difficult airport that is to fly into. You know, I'll consider that as success for the week.
CHETRY: That's right. We're seeing some pictures of you now. We understand you actually had to pick up your family at the last leg, right? So it's even more fun flying with the kids.
LAVANDERA: Yes, three of them. What a joy.
CHETRY: Hey, just in time. You have the prime viewing spot, by the way, for the Thanksgiving Day Parade, what, in about three and a half hours from now?
LAVANDERA: Right.
ROBERTS: Yes. It's just incredible. He's up on the balcony. Just to give you a lay on the land here. On the seventh floor of the Time Warner Center which overlooks Columbia Circle and Central Park.
So, I know you brought the kids with you. If you can grab that vantage point and stick with it, you're going to have an incredible view of the parade this morning.
LAVANDERA: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) names are up here but I'm not moving.
ROBERTS: I'm sure that they're only stuck there in tape. You can pull the tape off.
LAVANDERA: And it's an incredible view. You're above the tree line over Central Park.
ROBERTS: Yes.
LAVANDERA: The sun's coming up. It's absolutely tremendous.
ROBERTS: Fantastic.
CHETRY: And we're actually going to show our viewers that view a little bit later on the show.
Thanks, Ed.
LAVANDERA: Bye, guys, thanks.
CHETRY: We'll check in with you throughout the morning.
Also check out this bird being served at Richard Portnoy's (ph) house. This is our "Hot Shot" today.
He sends this I-Report picture of a 72-pound bird that he'll be serving this year. Now every year he competes with his father and sister to see who can find the biggest bird.
Isn't it strange that you pose with it and then you eat it later? Oh, I mean, I know where our food comes from but still.
This year, Richard definitely won the bird he calls Barry Bonds. Ha ha ha. He said he has to call a hotline to find out how long it would take to cook. It's going to take 16 hours in the oven so he started at 11:00 p.m. last night and it's going to be ready at 3:00 this afternoon.
ROBERTS: Wow. That's incredible.
CHETRY: I would like to see it already made instead of alive and smiling, having no idea what's going to happen to him next.
Well, if you've got a "Hot Shot," please send it to us. The address: AMHOTSHOTS@CNN.com. Be sure to include your name, where you're from, a little bit about the picture and video. And one more thing, make sure the image is yours and not someone else's.
ROBERTS: Still, here's a look at the story coming up in our next half-hour that you can't miss.
The army begins it's "Real Heroes" campaign. A new computer game puts a face on some of the exception soldiers on the frontlines.
CHETRY: And John had a chance to talk with the real-life action heroes. They are going to be the players in this video game. Pretty cool.
ROBERTS: Yes, it really is. They've also got their action figures, too. Forget G.I. Joes, now you can have real U.S. soldiers.
We'll have that and today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, there's a shot of dawn breaking over New York City. That's the Citigroup building there. Remember Lex Luther's lair in the first "Superman" release.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: It's in the 50s right now. But it's going to be beautiful for the early part of the morning going up to 63 today. It's completely clear. The wind is still.
CHETRY: Thank goodness.
ROBERTS: That'd be good for the Thanksgiving Day Parade here as they try to fly those balloons.
CHETRY: You remember last year, boy, it was windy, rainy, miserable.
ROBERTS: Oh, it's just -- it was awful. I was watching the parade on a rooftop in Broadway. Oh, just -- it was bad.
It's Thursday, November 22nd. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING and happy Thanksgiving. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.
New this morning, Asian markets closing up after a volatile day of trading. Japan's Nikkei average index up 1.1 percent but it bounced back from an historic low during the day. The Hang Seng ahead .4 percent. The Asian Markets reflected some economic jitters on Wall Street because of the Dow losing 211 points yesterday, closing at 1279 and that is a seven-month low. U.S. Markets are closed today for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Iran is holding firm on its nuclear program but is willing to talk. Iran hosted a conference with researchers from 12 European and Asian countries this morning. Iran's top nuclear negotiator will meet next week with EU's foreign policy chief. The U.N. though continues to insist that Iran stop enriching uranium, a step Iran's president has said he is not willing to take.
In Germany, police diffuse a hostage situation. A man held another man at knifepoint for more than two hours. This happen at a train station in Berlin. There you see, the police then moving in, they rushed the man, pinned him to the ground and got him into custody. He was not injured and neither was the hostage.
ROBERTS: Well, the date is set. New Hampshire will hold the nation's first primary on the 8th of January. It's going to come just five days after the Iowa caucuses on the 3rd. State officials announced the date yesterday, hours after Michigan was allowed to hold its primary on January the 15th. There had been a chance that New Hampshire might have moved its date into December but thankfully they left it in January.
Dozens of homeless in New Orleans are getting some shelter this morning. The nonprofit group Unity of Greater New Orleans provided hotel rooms for the less fortunate. They had hoped that 100 people will take the offer. But so far, only 61 showed up. Some homeless have said that staying in the rooms would hurt their chances of getting permanent housing. The city estimates that its homeless problems have doubled in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit a couple of years ago.
Internet harassment is now a crime in one Missouri City. Officials in Darden Prairie, that's suburb of St. Louis passed the measure yesterday after learning that it caused a local teenager to take her own life last year. 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide after she was tormented by an Internet user.
Her parents say, one of their neighbors, a mother created a fake profile of a boy on MySpace trying to see if Megan was gossiping about her daughter but the boy "turned on Megan" leading to her suicide. Megan's mother wants state federal leaders to push for more action against bullying but she is thankful for the local law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA MEIER, MEGAN'S MOTHER: No matter how hard I try, I can't bring her back, so obviously I 100 percent want justice for Megan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The Darden Prairie measure makes Internet harassment a misdemeanor, punishable by 90 days in jail and up to a $500 fine.
Is a keeping kid safe or violating civil rights? The town of Lexington, South Carolina, wants to ban all registered sex offenders. The plan would keep them from moving near places like schools and day care centers. But the American Civil Liberties Union calls it unconstitutional and a similar plan in Georgia was overturned by that state's Supreme Court -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, there are some stunning new developments in the Natalee Holloway case. Three men previously detained a suspect in her disappearance two and a half years ago are now back in custody. Holloway, you may remember, vanished on a school trip celebrating graduation to Aruba back in 2005. Joran Van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were the last people seen with Natalee Holloway. Prosecutors say there is new evidence in their involvement of her death.
Natalee's father, Dave Holloway, told "Headline News", this Nancy Grace show that he's encouraged by these new developments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: You know, all along we've known that they've been the three primary suspects or the three persons who were last seen with our daughter, Natalee. The Dutch and the prosecutor in Aruba, I think, you know, their on the right track and I think they're committed as well as we are to finding answers for Natalee, and getting justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The three men maintain they had nothing to do with Natalee Holloway's disappearance. And joining us now on the phone is Aruba's chief public prosecutor, Hans Moss. Thanks for being with us this morning.
HANS MOS, ARUBA'S CHIEF PUBLIC PROSECUTOR: Good morning.
CHETRY: Can you explain for us exactly what these new arrests mean? Because they were arrested before, held for a time and released.
MOS: That's correct. They were arrested about three and a half years ago and they stayed in custody for a few months. The two brothers a bit shorter than Van der Sloot. Then they were released because of lack of sufficient evidence at that time. Unlike the idea that was going on all around the world, but the investigation stopped, the Aruban police never stopped investigating this case. But we came to sort of a standstill in 2006 and we didn't see any more leads in this case.
And then there was a request from the Aruban authorities to the Dutch to help them out and see whether they could review the whole investigation and that's what happened last year, earlier this year, and during the last few weeks. And this investigation led us to new evidence that is so important that we think we should have arrested these three guys, which we did yesterday.
CHETRY: I know, you have to protect your case in this instance, but can you give us any word on what this new evidence may be?
MOS: That's a bit hard for me to do, because it's important that we confront the three suspects with this new leads in this case, this new evidence, and in the interest of the evidence, I am not to comment on that. CHETRY: I got you. Now, there are some different reports, because Joran Van der Sloot's mother is denying he's been rearrested. She says he's only been wanted for questioning.
MOS: Well, I can only say what I asked for to the Dutch, for the Dutch authorities, because he was in the Netherlands and I asked the judge here for an order to have him detained. The judge gave that order on the basis of the new evidence. We send that order to the Dutch authorities, the national prosecutor's office in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and they executed that by arresting Van der Sloot. And he will be brought over to Aruba, I guess, somewhere later this week.
CHETRY: All right, well, Hans Mos Aruba's chief public prosecutor joining us by the phone to talk more about the new arrest. Same people but new arrests in the disappearance of this teen, Natalee Holloway, from Aruba. Thanks for being with us.
ROBERTS: It would be fascinating to hear what the new evidence. He is playing it very close to the vest today until they get them down there.
CHETRY: Yes and he said he wants -- be able to talk to them about it and interview them about what they have to say before giving more information. He -- Joran Van der Sloot, by the way is not in country. He has about a week to eight days to get back over there.
ROBERTS: Yes, he's going to college in Holland, right?
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: If you don't want to deal with the mess at the malls, stick around. Some great holiday gift ideas that you can create right from your home.
At the army's real heroes campaign. A new computer game puts a face on some of the exceptional soldiers on the front lines. You'll meet one of them, a real life action hero, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMALA COX, BALAD, IRAQ: Hi, I'm Sergeant First Class Kimberly Diane Cox. I'd like to give a holiday greeting out to my son, my baby, Malik Cox. Hi, mom and dad. Happy holidays and I'll see you soon. Love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You know, here in New York City a lot of excitement because today of course is Thanksgiving and the big Thanksgiving Day parade taking place. We're going to show you some of the pictures right now. These are preparations, people starting a line up on both sides of Central Park West at 72nd street. The parade route starts at about 77th in the Central Park West and then it snakes down on Broadway, ending outside of the big Macy's at Herald Square.
There is another shot. A beautiful shot this morning. You see, Central Park on the right and boy, our building is not far from right there. This is about Columbus Circle and you see all of the police and fire trucks lined up, ready to go. They're also inflating, finishing up the last touches on those balloons. They started the inflating process last night and this year, there are some new giant balloons people will be looking at. Abby Cadabby from "Sesame Street", Shrek and Hello Kitty. By the way, this is a tradition that started back in 1924.
It's 41 minutes past the hour now. Rob Marciano keeping track of the weather for us. You know, this is one where they really, they need you today, Rob. Because they have to make sure the winds are in check. Last year a pretty messy rain, drizzle and wind for the Thanksgiving Day parade.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: On the other side of the world, troops in the Sunni triangle are eating turkey away from their loved ones this year. But there is some good news. The area is much quieter now than it has been in the past couple of years. A sign that the troop increase there may be succeeding. Still, many people are homesick. Our Morgan Neill is with members of the 3rd infantry division. He joins us live from Arab Jabour, Iraq.
Morgan, the soldiers there are celebrating Thanksgiving at a rather unusual place.
MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. This is not the kind of place, not your run-of-the-mill location to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. The patrol base that they set up here is actually an old vacation spot used by Saddam Hussein's sons. As you can imagine, conditions here are far from easy. This area just some five months ago was al Qaeda country.
But because of U.S. presence here, they've made a real difference here. And the army has gone to great lengths to make sure that they get their Thanksgiving dinner. As you can see, just over in this direction, troops are just now lining up, getting that Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, they had to send in the team to clear the route to lead the way, to get that meal here.
Also, going on today, there will be some special Thanksgiving services held tonight and if you can see just behind me over here, probably some of these soldiers are most looking forward to get a little football later on tonight. But, it won't start around noon like it does in states. They'll get it here around 8:30 p.m. Joining me is Lieutenant Todd Patterson with some of his men. Lieutenant, anything you'd like to say to your family back home?
TODD PATTERSON, IRAQ: Yes, I just wanted to say to all the families that have soldiers deployed here in Iraq and Afghanistan area, we would like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, safe trip to their destinations and your soldiers here are proudly serving their nation well, and are praying for our safe return back home to join you guys.
NEILL: John, there's a saying, you hear a lot around here in the army, every day is like a Monday, but today at least, that isn't the case. Back to you.
ROBERTS: Morgan Neill for us this morning with members of the 3rd I.D. in Arab Jabour, Iraq, and of course our best goes out to the families of those men and women down there in (INAUDIBLE). Morgan, thanks for that report. I appreciate it. We'll see you again soon -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Yes, and a little bit later, we're going to have a family reunited. Parents haven't seen their son since June and so we linked them up for Thanksgiving.
ROBERTS: And there's real life action hero as well. You'll meet a guy, he was one of the first people into Iraq during the war. One of those long range surveillance teams. They dropped them in by helicopter about 250 miles into Iraq. They were there by themselves for the better part of a week before the invasion started.
CHETRY: Now he's part of a video game.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: How about that.
Well, while many shoppers are getting ready to flood the malls, maybe you're thinking I want to do something little different this year. I want to make something and give it as a gift. I'm sure you're thinking that. Right?
ROBERTS: Yes, and sort (INAUDIBLE). Our Veronica De La Cruz is cruising the web to find ideas that can help you come up with a homemade gift for the holiday. Good morning to you.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you both. Happy Thanksgiving.
CHETRY: You, too.
DE LA CRUZ: We have a great Web site that we came across, a pretty cool Web site. It's called tastebook.com and helps you create your very own personalized cookbook. Now, here's how you do it. It's really simple. All you have to do is log-on to the site, tastebook.com. You can pick from 50-plus covers, for this cookbook. You can even pick you own title. You can add your favorite recipes using their template or you can put, pick from more than 25,000 different recipes from epicurius.com.
Now, I've got a present for you guys. We've actually made our very own cookbook here. It's called the American Morning Melting Pot Meal Cookbook. This is something that we made with all of our staffers in AMERICAN MORNING. I believe that, Kiran, has a recipe in there. I know that I have one myself. A lot of our producers have made them as well and you know, I can't cook, so... CHETRY: You can't cook. I just follow your recipe.
DE LA CRUZ: I had to use my mother's recipes and I wanted to show you, I have one here for my mom and, you know, I've taken some creative license and actually renamed it. She makes this fabulous pork chops and so I decided to call my mother's pork chops in this book, Veronica's Mom Dot-Com Pork Chops.
CHETRY: That is so cute. But these are edible. You said you can't cook but I can follow your recipe?
DE LA CRUZ: This is not a fake recipe. Also, Kiran, has Super Bowl Chili in this book and that's not a fake recipe.
CHETRY: I know. The Super Bowl Chili is always been a hit. The secret ingredient is beer. You put, I'm serious, one can of beer in the chili as it simmers up, it gives it a good flavor.
ROBERTS: Or if you drink enough yourself, it doesn't matter what the chili tastes like.
DE LA CRUZ: And, John, where is your recipe?
ROBERTS: You didn't want to see my recipe. No, because, these are supposed to be...
DE LA CRUZ: My mother's Filipino recipe.
ROBERTS: These are supposed to be edible dishes therefore I did not contribute.
CHETRY: No, actually, he's being modest. I heard from his wife that he made her this delicious lobster stuffed, was it flounder or halibut for her birthday?
ROBERTS: Crab-staffed halibut.
CHETRY: Crab-staffed halibut and she said it was awesome.
DE LA CRUZ: Did it have a name?
CHETRY: You should have put it in here.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, that's the thing is you can actually, this has a binder, snap open binder. You can always add more recipes as you go along. We only have like 40 recipes in here. You log on to tastebook.com and you can add you're recipes as you go.
ROBERTS: It's a beautiful presentation.
DE LA CRUZ: Isn't it?
ROBERTS: Really. It looks professional.
DE LA CRUZ: It does. So, a personalized cookbook for your loved one. You have the name right here on the front, also on the spine. So there you go, something nice to do for Christmas.
ROBERTS: You know, there's a Williams-Sonoma just downstairs. Maybe we should get that in there.
CHETRY: You're right. It looks so professional. Don't you think.
ROBERTS: You do the recipes, I'll do the marketing.
DE LA CRUZ: Will you do the cooking, John, because I can't cook.
ROBERTS: I'll do the marketing.
CHETRY: And stop saying you can't cook, I'm following your recipe. I need you to be able to cook, Veronica.
DE LA CRUZ: Tastebook.com is the Web site.
ROBERTS: OK. Veronica, it's a fantastic idea. Fantastic.
Well, it's time talk turkey here this morning. If you got some cooking questions, not just from your cookbook, e-mail us. We're dialing up the pros at the Butterball Turkey Talk hotline at Butterball U., that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Well, if you're waking up this morning, nervous about preparing the Thanksgiving turkily -- turkey.
ROBERTS: Turkily?
CHETRY: That's a new twist on it. Hopefully, it's defrosted in your fridge by now. You can relax and take a deep breath.
ROBERTS: Carol Miller is one of the supervisor's of the Butterball Turkey Talk-line. She's joining us now. She is here to answer your last minute questions about how to prepare the perfect bird. She's joining us from the butterball headquarter in Naperville, Illinois.
Carol, good to see you. So, you got 50 Turkey talk line experts filling last minute questions. What is the biggest concern that people generally have as they look toward this afternoon and getting that turkey ready?
CAROL MILLER, BUTTERBALL TURKEY TALK-LINE SUPERVISOR: Well, right this morning, people are going to the refrigerators, they're opening the doors and they're finding their turkeys are not completely thawed. It's important to thaw the turkey out. If you have time before you have to get it in the oven, you can put the turkey in some cold water, do a little speed thawing this morning. If you have to cook it frozen, it's OK. We'll give you some directions on how to do that.
CHETRY: All right, now just walk us through the most basic way to have a nice turkey that's not dried out, including what temperature we should set it in the oven.
MILLER: Actually, the butterball open pan method is the easiest way to roast a turkey. My husband can roast a turkey using this method. Shallow open pan and yes, he's no expert. Shallow open pan, just breast side up. You just want to give the turkey a little bit of basting that helps to protect the skin, just put it right into the oven.
What you need to do is to have a meat thermometer, and if you got an oven safe, meat thermometer, which this one is, you place it deep into the inner thigh. Now, what that does is, you cannot look at a turkey to see if it's done. You really need to know what the temperature is inside the turkey. 180 is the magic number for the thigh. About two-thirds into the cooking time, you wan to protect the breast. It cooks up a little faster, put this little tent on and if you have a stuffed turkey, make sure that you ought to take the stuffing temperature. 165, it will be a perfect turkey.
ROBERTS: What is the optimal temperature of the oven to cook at?
MILLER: Oh, I'm sorry, 325 is what we recommend.
CHETRY: 325.
MILLER: Nice and slow. 325.
CHETRY: That's the trick. So, you're basting it with olive oil I take it. You put olive oil or butter on it?
MILLER: You know, you can do either one. I just put a little vegetable oil. I actually sprayed the turkey with a little spray, it's easy, you don't have to wash the brush.
ROBERTS: Hey, Carol. We've got a couple of e-mails from our viewers, they want some tips from you here. One is asking about this idea of frying a turkey, which is getting more and more popular. It can be dangerous, too, though, as we'll tell you later on this morning. He says, it's Jeff in Nebraska. He says, "I'm curious about the best recommended cook time per pound and temperatures for using a turkey fryer."
MILLER: Right, you want a turkey that's not too big, about 12 to 14 pounds. It's about three to four minutes per pound, so you do have to be careful. I make everyone make the pledge that they will, you know, fry their turkeys outside, that they will stand by the fryer. It's really important. We've got information about that, so call 1-8- Butterball. We can walk you through some of those safety tips for frying it safely.
CHETRY: All right, one quick question that we also got this morning. What is the best way to cook a boneless turkey breast? If you're not going to cook the whole thing, you still want turkey on Thanksgiving?
MILLER: Right. Some people have just a small gathering and a small three-pound boneless Butterball turkey breast. Actually, a cook in about two hours, same oven temperatures, 325, shallow open pan, use the meat thermometer. The temperature is 170 when you take it out of the oven. Those are so great and so easy.
ROBERTS: Actually, great tips. Carol Miller from the Turkey Talk-line at Butterball this morning. Carol, thanks for those tips. We'll get back to you a little bit later on this morning.
And if you're the one whose cooking the big Thanksgiving feast this year and you need a little bit of help from the folks at Butterball, they're going to be here all morning. Drop us an e-mail, here's the address turkey@cnn.com. We'll do our best to answer your questions live on the air with Carol.
CHETRY: That's right. You can also call 1-800-butterball if you're in dire straits and has to know immediately.
Also, time for this morning's quick vote question. It's Thanksgiving theme of course. If you have a choice, which of the candidates would you like to have Thanksgiving dinner with? Some of the top candidates, Hillary Clinton for president, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney. And right now, 36 percent of you say Hillary Clinton. If you had to sit down with one of the presidential candidates. 10 percent Rudy Giuliani, 48 percent Barack Obama, Mitt Romney at 6 percent. We're going to continue to tally the votes throughout the morning.
ROBERTS: I wonder if those numbers are coming in from Iowa for Obama and Hillary, seems to reflect the preference there in terms of who they want to be the nominee.
The dangers of deep frying as we're talking about just a moment ago with Carol Miller. We want to tell you just how dangerous this popular way to cook a turkey can be and the safety tips that you need to follow to have a safe Thanksgiving, that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Holiday surprise. What we found on a coast-to-coast travel marathon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: How is it going for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, not great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Did you make it to grandmother's house on time?
And fryer beware.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A warning before you try deep frying your turkey today.
Plus giving thanks. And giving back. A one-woman army on a 20- year mission to help families in need, on this Thanksgiving Edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
I'm sorry we have some great stories to warm your heart as well on this Thanksgiving. Thanks for being with us. It's Thursday, November 22, I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts.
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