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American Morning
Explosion in the Heart of New York's Times Square; Oil Prices Hitting a Record High; Call for Millions of Votes in Florida and Michigan to Count
Aired March 06, 2008 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Cities where they're paying $4 and $5 a gallon for gasoline.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And with gas now over $105 a barrel, you can imagine where the price of oil up there at the high. You can imagine where the price of gas is going to go particularly when they get into those spring reformulations, when it always goes up anyways.
CHETRY: And the busy summer travel season. So, unfortunately, bad times ahead. And we're going to try to hammer that out, figure out whether there's anything that can be done. In fact, we're going to be talking a little later with one of our guests about that issue.
ROBERTS: All right. Breaking news, though, that we begin with this hour.
An explosion in the heart of New York's Times Square. It was a small one. The target, a military recruitment center. No one was hurt, thankfully, but the FBI is assisting the city's police department in the investigation of the bombing. The blast took place at a traffic island at 43rd street, right there where it crosses Broadway and 7th Avenue.
People in the area say they heard a very large bang. Some even felt the explosion. Our own Alina Cho is In Times Square with details of a suspect that police are looking for in connection with this incident.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran, good morning.
FBI agents, as you mentioned, are on the scene. The Department of Homeland Security is closely monitoring the situation. The truth is, any time you hear the word bomb and New York Times Square in the same sentence, people are bound to get scared. They're bound to get jittery.
But even though Times Square was under lockdown for a couple of hours this morning, we are happy to report that traffic is once again flowing. Subway service has been restored and that is very good news for the tens of thousands of people who are heading to work in America's largest city.
Now, here is what happened. New York City police tell CNN that around 3:45 this morning somebody threw a small incendiary device at an army recruiting center. We should point out that this center has been the site of several anti-war protests over the years since 2003 -- since the start of the Iraq war. But it is too early to tell if there is a connection there.
There was some damage to the building. The windows were blown out, but there are no injuries to report. Police are also, we should mention, searching for a suspect at this hour. Nobody in custody just yet. People in the area say they heard a loud bang, even felt the explosion. One woman said she felt it from the 44th floor of her hotel.
But, again, the headline being, 3.5 hours after this incident, things appear to be pretty much back to normal here in Times Square, but for the television cameras, but for the helicopters buzzing overhead. Of course, Kiran, there is a full-scale investigation under way and the FBI is searching anybody with information about this incident to contact them right away.
Kiran?
CHETRY: It's a one place where you probably see business as usual, regardless of what was going on down there. Alina, thanks so much.
You know and as we are just hearing, police actively searching for a suspect this morning in that explosion. CNN confirming that the suspect is a male wearing a hooded garment on a bicycle. That's all we know right now and that's what who police are looking for. So what kind of charges could that person face? Joining us now is our AMERICAN MORNING legal analyst Sunny Hostin.
Is there anything unique to the fact that this was on U.S. military recruiting center?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, absolutely. I mean, now you're defacing or destroying government property. This makes it a federal crime. This is why you're seeing pictures of the FBI there and Department of Homeland Security is involved. They're taking it very, very serious. We don't know yet if it's domestic terrorism. We've seen these types of things happen before.
People have been indicted. They have been put in jail for this type of action. Is it domestic terrorism? Are there more people involved? If there are, they could be looking at conspiracy to levy war against the United States government. This is a serious matter and now it's a federal crime.
CHETRY: The other thing that you think about when you're trying to conduct some sort of investigation in the situation is where do you begin? I mean, I know they have video cameras in that area, but a very crowded place. A place that is opened 24 hours a day and this happened at 3:00 in the morning. And as we judging from that description, they don't really necessarily have a good idea of exactly who this person may be.
HOSTIN: Sure. And this is where investigators start all the time. I'm an investigator. I do this every day. The bottom line is they're going to put the pieces together. They're going to be speaking to witnesses. They are going to be trying to find who did this. They're going to be looking at videotape, because there should be videotape all around.
I live in New York. I've walked by this all the time. There are video cameras there. And so they're going to be piecing this information. You see ATF is there. These are the top-notch investigators of the federal government. They are going to try their best to solve this crime.
CHETRY: It's also interesting, because there were a couple other situations where these small explosives were thrown in different places. I believe one was the Mexican consulate in New York back in October.
HOSTIN: Right.
CHETRY: Still, no suspects in that case. I mean, in a situation where no one's heard and it happens, you know, in the middle of the night. It's a hard one, isn't it, Sunny?
HOSTIN: It's a hard one, but this is New York City. This is the middle of Times Square. This is a very -- again, I can't express enough, how serious this is. You know, the First Amendment really does protect freedom of speech and if this is someone that wants to protest the war, this is not the way to do it.
Freedom of speech has nothing to do with throwing a bomb into a recruiting station. There are 1,700 recruiting stations all across the United States, and really these places have to be protected. And so we're not looking at freedom of speech. We're looking at a federal crime.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we'll see if they get any closer to figuring out who's behind it. Sunny, great to see you. Thanks.
HOSTIN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning. This is more bad news. Oil prices hitting a record high of $105.97 a barrel. In early trading this morning, it's dropped back a little bit on the (INAUDIBLE) max. It's now $105.38. Obviously, going to be a volatile day, though, in terms of oil prices.
It comes after yesterday's news of a surprise drop in crude supplies in the United States. Also, OPEC said it would not boost production in an effort to control skyrocketing prices. And if OPEC will not increase its production, does that mean they were going to see even more record highs over the next few months? We're going to ask an oil analyst all about that coming up.
What's it going to mean for you as we head to this reformulated versions of gasoline at the pumps that usually come out as we turn to spring here.
Turning now to politics and a call for millions of votes in Florida and Michigan to count. There is talk of a possible do over in those primaries. Here's what's at stake, 210 delegates in Florida, 156 in Michigan.
The Democratic National Committee banned them from attending the convention as punishment for the state's moving up the dates of the primaries. We should also mention that on the Republican side in Florida, they were stripped of half of their delegates.
In our last hour, I spoke with the chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean. He said that Florida and Michigan knew what the rules were and went ahead and broke them anyways.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD DEAN, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: We've got to play by the rules. If you don't do that, then the half of the people in the Democratic Party whose candidate doesn't win this nomination are going to go away believing they've been cheated. I've got to run a process where everybody believes this is an honest result. And the only way to do that is to stick to the rules that were agreed to by everybody at the beginning.
ROBERTS: Governor Crist is suggesting that he might be open to the idea of holding another primary down there in Florida, but he is not willing to foot the bill. He's saying if anybody should put the bill, it's the Democratic National Committee. Are you're willing to open up your pocketbook and pay out what some people estimate could be as much as $25 million for?
DEAN: We actually offered to help the Democratic Party in Florida a long time ago and they turned us down. Now, unfortunately, that time is gone. We've got to focus our resources on winning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Governor Dean also suggested that it's difficult to find an honest broker here because Governor Crist of Florida, the Republican, would want to see John McCain elected. Republicans say they would rather run against Hillary Clinton than John McCain. And Jennifer Granholm, who is the governor of Michigan who wants to see her delegates count is also an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton.
CHETRY: That's right. And we did speak to Governor Crist and he said, you know, according to our polling, they both run about the same against McCain. And that he wants to represent all Florida voters. So he tried to pour cold water on that this morning. He also weighed in a little bit more about the situation, this impending fight.
I asked him if his state should be held responsible for moving up the primaries against the National Committee's rules and whether or not that means they have to just accept the consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: Moving up the election is the right thing to do. Democracy is always the right thing to do. And giving our people the opportunity to be heard is exactly what I'm supposed to fight for, what the Florida Senate and the Florida House are supposed to fight for.
CHETRY: You know what's ironic, though, right now is that your state voters may not be heard when if perhaps you guys would have waited. I mean, hindsight 20/20. It might have made a much bigger difference, given how close the delegate counts are between the two candidates.
CRIST: The reality is that people's voice should be respected, and the irony is that here's one party who says that every vote should count. Well, if they want every vote to count, they ought to count them and they ought to seek the delegates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, the Florida Democratic Party says that the new primary could cost as much as $25 million if they were to hold another one. They don't think that state taxpayers -- at least Governor Crist, does not think the state taxpayers should have to foot that bill.
Meanwhile, there's still counting Tuesday's caucus results in Texas. Only 40 percent of precincts reported. And right now, Barack Obama is leading with 66 percent to Hillary Clinton's 44 percent. There are 67 delegates that hang in the balance as a result of the caucus votes.
Precincts in Texas say they are overwhelmed by Tuesday's voter turnout. Our Ed Lavandera is live in Dallas this morning.
You know, they met up a while ago. I guess its two days and counting now. When do they expect to have all the numbers in?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, a lot of these sign-in sheets that people signed at the caucus are still being sent in to the Democratic state offices across the state. You know, so you're still have the caucus counting continuing. Both sides are declaring victory and even the Clinton campaign is talking about filing a lawsuit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: I want to say it one more time, clear this airway now. Move!
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Police officers were hauled into this Houston School to control the crowd. Frustrated voters who waited until 3:00 in the morning, eight hours, to finish the caucus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all feel that our vote doesn't count and they're not worried about our vote.
LAVANDERA: Across Texas, there were scenes of chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got people walking off and leaving. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's disorganized and people are getting frustrated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now that is not right. Alternate one. No, no, no. That's not right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Extremely confusing. No one seems to be in charge.
LAVANDERA: Clinton and Obama supporters also accusing each other of playing games with caucus rules.
TRACEY CARTER, VOTER: They told us, at first, there's just it wasn't enough writing material. So just sign your name and then you're free to go. And then after people had signed their names and they had left, then we get someone else that comes in and says, OK, if you leave, then your vote doesn't count.
LAVANDERA: Then, there's the story behind these pictures of Clinton supporting precinct captain leaving a caucus site with sign-in sheets. Several witnesses claimed she refused to take 27 sheets with Obama supporters' signatures. And that's when Dallas Democratic Chairwoman Darlene Ewing was called in.
DARLENE EWING, DALLAS COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CHAIRWOMAN: So they kind of got into a chase, a little bit of a car chase over the sign-in sheets.
LAVANDERA: A car chase?
EWING: Well, they all ended up in the police station and they called us. And we went out this morning at 1:00 and took possession of the paperwork.
LAVANDERA: Texas Democratic officials say several incidents of voter fraud will probably be investigated but that these were isolated incidents. Especially considering there were more than 8,000 caucus sites statewide.
HECTOR NEITO, TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY: When you put a million people across the state into caucuses, of course you're going to have some problems.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Now, we're also told that the state Democratic officials here in Dallas have also passed along to the state party asking them to investigate incidents of a New York man, an Obama supporter who had come down, somehow made himself a precinct captain and took control of the sign-in sheets.
And Clinton supporters at that precinct are saying that the sign- in sheets with all the Clinton supporters names on them have mysteriously disappeared. Nothing has been proven or verified in that incident, but we understand it is something that's being investigated at this point -- Kiran? CHETRY: Wow and as you said, the Texas two-step with two left feet. More problems that they anticipated this morning. Ed Lavandera, thanks.
ROBERTS: What was it that Will Rogers said? I belong to no organized party. I'm a Democrat.
Well, for the Republican nominee in waiting, John McCain is full speed ahead to the fall campaign after getting the president's blessing. McCain met with the president at the White House yesterday where he received a formal endorsement. President had high praise for McCain and said he'll do whatever is needed to get him elected.
Breaking news on oil prices this morning. As another price spike has as near as $106 a barrel. How high could it go? We're going to ask an oil analyst coming up and what it's going to mean for the summer driving season.
And do school buses need seat belts? Several recent bus crashes have once again raised the issue of your kids' safety on the way to school. Take a look at what happens inside a bus when it rolls over. Our Greg Hunter, looking out for you and your kids, and that's all coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Oil hitting a new record this morning. Actually, I just got word from my producers it's now at $105.14 a barrel. What's causing the price spike and what can be done to stop it, if anything? Energy analysts Jim Lacamp join us now to explain what we can expect in the coming up.
Good morning, Jim. Great to see you.
JIM LACAMP, ENERGY ANALYST: Thank you, Kiran.
CHETRY: These are the months when you're dealing with the cost of high heating oil and then, of course, we're moving into the busy spring and then summer driving seasons. So, of course, there's never a good time to see these prices high. But what are the main reasons that we're seeing oil closing. Last night at an all-time high of $104.52?
LACAMP: Kiran, there's really four factors impacting the price of oil and gas. And none of them are good. It's a perfect storm and unfortunately we're going to have to all batten down our pocketbooks.
The first thing is global demand. We've seen a big increase in demand from emerging markets and economies like China and the fitter countries to China, Malaysia, Singapore. Then you move around the globe, Latin America, India, Russia. So we're seeing a big increase in demand from these areas.
They're modernizing and industrializing and unfortunately the supply comes from areas that aren't exactly models of stability. You've got Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Angola, Nigeria. These are troubled spots in many cases and they've disrupted supplies on many occasions.
Then you have a weak dollar. You know, the Feds cutting interest rates, our economy has been kind of weak, that's driving down the value of the dollar, but we're having to compete with all these global areas with our dollars to buy this oil. So it means the price has gone up.
And finally, Kiran, it's the speculators and investors that are seeing all these factors take place, and the stock market hasn't been doing that well. So, all of this investment money has been moving into the price of oil and gas. So, all of these four factors have really pushed prices higher.
CHETRY: One of the buzz phrases that we've been hearing on the campaign trail is energy independence and the importance to move towards energy independence. Is that a realistic notion for us as country? We take in a certain amount of oil and we use a far larger amount of oil and gas, and we need to get it from somewhere.
LACAMP: Well, it's a very important issue and unfortunately, we're not anywhere near that and we don't have enough promising technologies that even suggest by the time these populations explosion areas really are going to be using this oil and gas, ten years from now, 20 years from now. We don't have any technologies that are close enough to get us to the point of energy independence by that time.
And then that creates all sorts of issues, including national security. If you look at the areas that we're having trouble with, militarily, Iraq and places like that, I don't know that we'd be having those troubles if we didn't need the oil from those regions. And so we really do need to focus on this.
I know Exxon is planning on spending about $30 billion, but it's really for new oil exploration. We really need to be developing alternative energy sources so that we don't have this dependence on foreign oil.
CHETRY: Right now, we're looking at the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded, it's $3.19. About a year ago, it was $2.50. As we approach the summer driving season, what are you anticipate we can expect?
LACAMP: Unfortunately, higher prices, because this is the time of year where we need to build our inventories so that we can have the amount of oil and gas available for this summer travel season. And usually, we do build inventories this time of year. But the supply, the supply inventories that came out yesterday suggest that we've been using too much, demand is too high, and it's really going to put a squeeze on the travel season.
So right now, we're at about $3.19 nationally, gasoline. I think you can see 10 cents to 20 cents by the time summer starts. And by the time summer ends, you may see even $4 at the pump.
CHETRY: You also talked about the impact of refineries and the need for all these refineries to be up and running. The ones that we have, I mean, many argue we actually need more. What's the situation with those?
LACAMP: Kiran, that's a real big problem. It may be our biggest problem. We haven't built a new refinery in this country in over 31 years. Yes, they've expanded, refinery capacity, but guess what? If the refinery's down, it's down. It doesn't matter how much it can produce.
So we need new refineries and unfortunately, nobody wants them in their backyard, because they stink. And secondly, the EPA restrictions are ridiculous. So it's very, very difficult to get a refinery built in this country anymore. And I think that would be one of our best solutions for at least the short term price at the pump is the ability to create new refineries and we just haven't been able to do that.
CHETRY: Energy analyst Jim Lacamp, senior vice president of RVB world management. Thanks for being with us this morning.
LACAMP: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Well, he was good. He really laid it out there exactly, you know, what's behind the price increase and where we're going.
CHETRY: At least, you know, if you're going to pay a lot of the money, and there's absolutely no control over it, does it help to at least know why?
ROBERTS: Yes. Sometimes it does, you know. Sometimes knowing why you're feeling so bad make you feel just a little bit better. We'll have to get him on more. He's terrific.
Dramatic video. Kids thrown around like rag dolls when a school bus crashes. Should seat belts be required when you're children are brought to or form school? Our Greg Hunter is looking out for you and he joins us next AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-three minutes after the hour. Eating breakfast isn't just a good idea to jumpstart your day, it may make you leaner, unless you have the type of break that Kiran eats of course and more likely to exercise.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us this morning.
Sanjay, what's the science behind it all?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's very interesting. It turns out, mom, maybe grand mom for that case, was right about eating breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day. There is a lot of science behind it, John, in terms of how you make dietary choices throughout the rest of the day and the amount of energy that you have. If you eat breakfast, it turns out that it kick starts your metabolism. It does give you more energy and it also makes you eat less throughout the day. This was based on a study of about 2,000 teenagers. They followed them along, divided them into groups of people who ate breakfast, didn't eat breakfast. What they found was interesting.
Over time, what they found, the people who ate breakfast tended to weigh less, they exercise more and they ate healthier foods overall. Now, they did sort of figure out what were the best breakfast choices as well, John, when it came to lots of different choices in the morning. So what's the best, grade A breakfast, oatmeal with skim milk, half ounce of nuts, berries, orange juice, that's gives you enough protein and enough of those good ingredients to help you really kick start the day.
You have to eat about at least 500 calories as well. People eat very small breakfasts and if they do that they tend to pick throughout the day. They tend to grace food and they eat a doughnut here, eat a much bigger lunch, and eat a much bigger dinner.
If you wake up in the morning and you're not hungry, it probably means that you're eating too much at night. So you may want to eat less at night or maybe pull back your dinnertime a little bit so you get that good breakfast -- John?
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay for us this morning with some good tips on breakfast. And stick around, because Sanjay is answering your questions that were sent in to his mailbag over the last week. That's coming up in our next half hour here.
And Kiran, there you go. Tuck in to a big breakfast. It's good for you.
CHETRY: See? That's something I'm working all along. All right.
Well, imagine turning on nearly 2 million garden hoses all at once. It's happening right now near the Grand Canyon in Paige, Arizona. Scientists are halfway through a 60-hour experiment. The intention to save endangered species in the Colorado River.
Well, CNN's chief technology and environmental correspondent Miles O'Brien tells us not everyone is happy about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They opened the floodgates at the Glen Canyon Dam with fanfare and a lot of talk about saving the Colorado River.
DIRK KEMPTHORNE, INTERIOR SECRETARY: We are the stewards. It is our turn.
O'BRIEN: But environmentalists aren't buying the rhetoric.
NIKOLAI LASH, GRAND CANYON TRUST: It's doesn't go far enough.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Here's the problem, when they dammed this river 45 years ago, it ended the natural ebb and flow downstream and it took much of the sediment out of this water, which flows right into the Grand Canyon National Park.
JOHN HAMILL, USGS: The Colorado River means red. It used to run as thick as mud.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Scientist John Hamill studies the river for the U.S. Geological Survey. He says the increased water flow will kick up some mud and spread it around the river nourishing beaches and sandbars, rejuvenating lost habitat for some now endangered fish and offering rafters a nice place to stop and savor the view.
HAMILL: What we're trying to do with a fairly small amount of water over a short period of time, what Mother Nature used to do over an extended period of time.
O'BRIEN: They've done this twice before, mandated by Congress in 1992 to operate the dam while avoiding adverse impact to the Grand Canyon National Park. The man-made floods worked but because the experiments were short lived the sandbars quickly washed away.
STEVE MARTIN, NATIONAL PARK SCIENCE: It's very important that we listen to the science and take some action.
O'BRIEN: Steve Martin is the superintendent of the Grand Canyon National Park. He's speaking out, because this single experiment will be followed by five more years of study, and he says that could lead to irreversible damage.
MARTIN: Do the experiments provide an opportunity to delay taking action? Yes. And that's one of our concerns.
O'BRIEN: Is reclamation stalling.
KERRY MCCALMAN, BUREAU OF RECLAMATION: No, we're not stalling.
O'BRIEN: Jerry McCalman is with the Bureau of Reclamation which runs the Grand Canyon Dam generating power for nearly 6 million customers. Here's the rub. Increasing the flow like this means less water to turn the big turbines, less power produced, less money made.
The big question is how much water can you afford to give up?
MCCALMAN: That is a big question.
O'BRIEN: But while we wait for an answer, environmentalists worry the federal government may be studying this precious river to death.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Paige, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHETRY: Well, over the next year, scientists will be tracking the progress of their experiment at the 100 monitoring stations along a 250-mile stretch of the Colorado River.
ROBERTS: 28 minutes after the hour and you're watching the most news in the morning here on CNN. We're following breaking news for you today. A news conference expected from New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and potentially New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the explosion in New York Times Square this morning. A live report on that just ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We're following breaking news right here in the heart of New York City today.
CHETRY: That's right. Just getting word now that there's going to about press conference, in fact a few minutes away, as police try to figure out who was behind an explosion in New York's Times Square. The target, a military recruiting center and there you see some of the video early today. There were, still are, this is video from a little bit earlier of FDNY, New York Police as well as the joint terror task force out there trying to figure what happened.
No one hurt. The building was empty at the time. They think this happened just before 4:00 a.m. but the blast was powerful enough to shatter the windows of this military recruiting center.
It happened on what's known as one of the traffic islands in Times Square. We're going to get a Google map right now. This is near 43rd Street and Broadway. It's right where Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersect there in the heart of Times Square.
Our own Alina Cho is in Times Square with more on this developing story. This is a traffic island that houses not just this military recruiting center, Alina, but also a police station, a very well-known police station and also a huge hub, if will you, for the New York subway where many of those train lines intersect.
CHO: That's absolutely right, Kiran. In fact, for people who are familiar with this area of Times Square, it happened essentially right under the Jumbotron. It happened around 4:15 in the morning according to New York City police.
Here is the very latest. In fact, CNN has just gotten confirmation in the Pentagon in the past couple of minutes that an e- mail alert has been sent to all 1,650 army recruiting centers across the country so they are aware of what happened right here in New York City.
FBI agents are on the scene. The Department of Homeland Security is closely monitoring the situation. The truth is, that any time you hear the word bomb and Times Square in the same sentence, people are bound to get scared.
Times Square was under lockdown for a couple hours this morning. As you can see behind me, traffic is now flowing. Subway service has been restored. That is very good news as we head past the 8:30 a.m. eastern hour and for all the people who are heading to work in America's largest city.
Now, here is what happened. According to New York City police, at around 4:15 a.m., pre-dawn, somebody threw some sort of small incendiary diffuse at that army recruiting center in the heart of Times Square. For those of you familiar with the area, once again, right under the Jumbotron.
There was some damage to the building. The windows were shattered, but no injuries to report and police at this hour right now are searching for a suspect who they would describe as a male on a bike wearing some sort of hooded garment. Again, still searching for a suspect.
People in the area say they heard a loud bang. They even felt the explosion, they say. One woman said she felt it from the 44th floor of her hotel.
But a little more than 4.5 hours after this happened, the FBI has launched a full-scale investigation. They are urging anyone with any information about this to contact them right away and, Kiran, as you mentioned, the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and the police commissioner, Ray Kelly, are due to hold a news conference in the next couple of minutes. We are going to be watching that very, very closely and we'll have much more at the top of the hour -- Kiran?
CHETRY: And you know we did get word about this as well that it looks like the military's going to be informing other recruitment stations across the country, again, that this incident did happen, just so that they are aware that this took place at one of the most popular and busiest recruiting stations in the country.
Alina, thanks.
ROBERTS: We are also following breaking news overseas this morning. Three men accused of plotting to bomb a number of embassies in the Philippines including the U.S. embassy, they under arrest there. Security officials in the Philippines say the men were targeting the U.S., British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Manila. Authorities believe the three men may have links to an Indonesian-based terror group.
Oil prices over $105 a barrel right now. That's after hitting a record high of $105.97 earlier this morning. The key factor sending oil higher, a report showing a drop in U.S. crude oil supplies and the refusal of OPEC nations to increase production.
A major security threat avoided at a high school in New Jersey. Police in Warren County say an adult and a 17-year-old student were planning to stage a military-style attack in June. Investigators say the plotters staked out the school's security guards and picked out escape routes. Authorities say they were also working to obtain weapons. The adult has been charged. The student now undergoing psychological counseling. And Patrick Swayze is battling pancreatic cancer. Doctors say the actor best known for his roles in "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and "Roadhouse" as quote "a very limited amount of the disease and is responding well to treatment." His publicist denies a tabloid report saying the actor has just weeks to live. However, pancreatic cancer is a particularly aggressive form of cancer and the mortality rate is extremely high. Swayze is said to be continuing his normal schedule, which includes working on upcoming projects.
CHETRY: Well, some drama this morning in the Democratic race for the white house calls for either new primaries and caucuses or some sort of way for those votes to count in Florida and Michigan. The delegates are banned from this summer's convention. That was a ruling by the DNC because the state held their primaries too early, which violated party rules.
Well, lawmakers from both sides met on Capitol Hill late last night to discuss possible re-votes and earlier this morning we spoke with both the Democratic National Committee chair, Howard Dean, as well as Florida Governor Charlie Crist, both of them with very different views on this ballot battle and both standing their ground this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD DEAN, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Governor Crist that moved the primary up. I have a lot of respect for Governor Crist. He's done good thing force Republicans in Florida, but the fact ever the matter is, you cannot violate the rules of the process and then expect to get forgiven for it.
GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: The reality is that the people's voice should be respected. And the irony is that here's one party who says that every vote should count. Well, if they want every vote to count, they ought to count them and they ought to seek the delegates.
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CHETRY: So here's what's at stake, 210 delegates in Florida; 156 in Michigan. Hillary won both of those states. In fact, Barack Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan. Both of the candidates had signed pledges not to campaign in Florida.
It brings us to our morning "Quick Vote" question. If they were to hold these new elections on the Democratic side in both Florida and Michigan, who should pay, the states or the Democratic National Committee? Well, perhaps Howard Dean put forth a more convincing argument, because this number has flip-flopped from an hour ago.
Fifty-seven percent saying the states should pay, 43 percent saying the Democratic National Committee should foot the bill if they redo these elections. Again, a total turnaround from about an hour ago. But hey, there's still one. We're going to get one more check of the "Quick Vote" coming up at the end of the show. Please cast your vote, CNN.com/am. ROBERTS: Maybe people didn't know Governor Crist signed off on the bill that moved the primary up. You're right, a dramatic turnaround there in the voting.
CHETRY: Well a routine physical is one of the keys to staying in good health. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have more on that and your other medical questions. He is opening up his mailbag. We're pulling out some of the questions coming up.
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ROBERTS: Forty-one minutes after the hour and a live picture there this morning of Times Square in New York as reporters are getting ready here, putting their microphones up on the podium because very soon Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will be addressing the city to talk about this morning's incident, happened at about quarter to 4:00 this morning here in New York where somebody threw an incendiary device at an armed forces recruiting center.
So they'll be talking about the latest in the investigation and whether or not they have managed to apprehend that suspect who's been at large since the time of that attack this morning.
Hey, every Thursday our Dr. Sanjay Gupta makes a mail call and Sanjay, we may have to break away from this, if we do see that press conference start. So I hope you'll bear with us this morning.
CHETRY: Yes but in the meanwhile, let's try to get into it. We'll dig into the mailbag and answer some of the questions. The first question comes to us from Theresa in Boston. She writes, Sanjay, is there some type of brain scan that shows autism or is it just a best-guess diagnosis?
GUPTA: Well, it's really neither one ever those. There's not any particular definitive test for autism, like a brain scan or a blood test specifically but it's more than a best guess, to be fair. There is a spectrum of disorders which doctors will look at to determine if a child in fact has autism.
As you know, John and Kiran, we were talking about this morning in a case, an announcement 11:30 today on the steps of the federal courthouse about a nine-year-old girl, who thought a vaccine may have contributed to her autism symptoms. So there is new evidence coming out every single day and we're certainly going to bring that to you.
But to answer your question, no specific brain scan or blood test to diagnose it.
ROBERTS: Our next question this morning comes from William in Montana. Here's a guy who's obviously concerned about his health. He says I'm a male in my mid-40s and would like to know what tests I should be getting to stay a step ahead of any potential health issues?
GUPTA: William, the fact that you're even asking that question probably means that you're already a step ahead, which is very important. We obviously encourage people to always be thinking about their health issues.
As man in your mid-40s probably, you're probably going to get your blood pressure checked. You're going to get your heart rate, things like that, that are just your basic vital signs but also your cholesterol and certain lab work. Doctors may do an EKG, if there's some history of heart disease in your family and check some specific bloodwork to see if you have any particular risk factors.
You're going to start needing to think about cancer screening as well. No one likes to think about that, but prostate cancer screenings, colon cancer screenings are going to become important for you over the next few years as well.
CHETRY: If you're wondering what's on the other side of the screen, besides Sanjay, we are awaiting a press conference from the NYPD and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg regarding this explosion at a military recruiting center in the middle of the night.
Meanwhile, Sanjay, let's try to get in another question. Lisa in Texas writes I've read that children may need chicken pox booster shots. Why and at what age?
GUPTA: Great question, and you know this is something we've looked into quite a bit. Here's the bottom line on this. Typically, what the recommendation is sometime between 12 months and 12 years, as long as they're three months apart, children need two shots. It's sort of a two-shot inoculation or vaccination.
If you've had both shots or the child has had both shots, they don't need any kind of booster shot. So keep that in mind. If they have not received two, you got the first but you didn't make it back to the doctor's office for the second, then you're going to need a booster shot in that case.
CHETRY: Can I ask just a quick follow-up about that. There was some talk, does that work throughout your life then, or as an adult, you know people used to expose their children to chicken pox. Then they came out with a vaccine. Later on in life can you still get the chicken pox?
GUPTA: Well you know, later on in life, if you've had chicken pox and it comes back, sometimes it comes back in the form of something known as shingles, something that we've talked about as well on your program. This is still the chicken pox virus, the same virus that lies dormant in your body. And for some reason, it comes up again. And there's a vaccine for that as well.
CHETRY: All right, Sanjay, thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. And if you've got a question for Dr. Gupta, e-mail it to us. Go to CNN.com/am. Sanjay answers your questions every Thursday here on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're still watching that live picture coming to us from Times Square. That's out in front of the army recruiting center. That's a local reporter who's there just doing some sound checks, I believe. Or is that a city official?
CHETRY: It looks like she directing people about where to stand. They are getting ready to hold that press conference. Even the pigeons are there waiting.
ROBERTS: Yeah. So we're going to keep watching this shot. Just to recap what happened, it was about, whoa, 3:45 this morning that we heard somebody riding a bicycle through Times Square threw some sort of incendiary device at the armed forces recruiting center there in Times Square. It did some property damage. It shattered the front window of the recruiting center.
Thankfully, even though there was a police officer standing by, there were no injuries that we know of. Police locked down the area. They did not allow any pedestrian or vehicle traffic in or out.
There's a look, a still photo of that recruiting center. You can see on the left-hand side there where the window is blown out and a closer shot of it. They shut down the subway as well but reopened it just before 6:00 to allow traffic through the area.
It looks like things are a little bit delayed here. It was supposed to happen a minute ago.
So we'll go to Tony Harris at the CNN Center who's got a look at what's coming up on "NEWSROOM" this morning.
Tony, what are you looking at besides this Times Square stuff?
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. John, if that news conference slips to the 9:00 hour Eastern Time, we'll of course bring to everyone here in the "NEWSROOM."
Also on the rundown for you this morning, will Florida and Michigan's disqualified delegates count at the Democratic convention? Democrats consider primary do-overs.
And Baghdad's only school for the blind, some of the children there are real characters. Kyra Phillips reporting live from Baghdad.
Also, new questions today about childhood vaccines and autism. You're in the "NEWSROOM" just minutes away, top of the hour right here on CNN.
John, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to. Thanks.
A silent killer, it's known as DVT, deep vein thrombosis, a condition that claimed an NBC correspondent's life. Whether you're at risk, that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Ten minutes now to the top of the hour. Of course, we're watching that press conference. We'll bring it to you just as soon as it happens.
But right now, it's a condition that you may not even know you have but it's one that could kill you. It's called deep vein thrombosis, otherwise known as DVT.
A friend of mine, NBC News correspondent, David Bloom, died while covering the war in Iraq after suffering a pulmonary embolism that was brought on by DVT. His wife, Melanie, has made his condition her crusade. She is the national patients spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent DVT. March is DVT awareness month and Melanie Bloom joins us this morning.
It's great to see you. Thanks for being here. So as many as two million people will develop this condition every year and 300,000 will die from it but we still don't really hear a whole lot about it. Why is that?
MELANIE BLOOM, WIDOW OF DAVID BLOOM: That's exactly right. I'd never heard of DVT until I got the call David died and he was covering a war so of course we braced ourselves for something along those lines and I couldn't wrap my mind around this blood clot. What is this? How does it happen? And then I learned that this condition takes more lives each year in our nation than AIDS and breast cancer combined yet I had never heard of it. 74 percent of Americans had never heard of it.
ROBERTS: I remember being in Iraq that morning. I think it was a Sunday morning. I was checking in to see what was going on and somebody said you know David Bloom? And I said yes, I know him well. I used to work with him in Miami. He said he died. I actually took a moment and put my head down in the front of our Hummer and cried and thought, if he can die, all of us could die. It's incredible.
BLOOM: That's exactly right. David was 39 years old, fit, healthy. People need to know whether or not they can be at risk for DVT.
David, we learned, had four risk factors, the long haul flights; you've heard of economy class syndrome where you sit too long.
ROBERTS: Yes because he was traveling back and forth across the ocean.
Yes, they call this economy class syndrome, and not say it's because people can only afford economy, because you sit in one position, in this cramped position for so long and the blood kind of pools a little?
BLOOM: That can be in a car, at your computer desk. You need to keep the circulation moving in your legs.
Our Web site, preventdvt.org, has a risk assessment tool so people can see what level of risk do they have. Dehydration is a factor, age, people with cancer. People laid up with a hospital injury who aren't moving their legs enough. It can strike anyone at any time with the right conditions, and so I'm hoping that people will be pro active and learn about DVT. It can be prevented and can be treated.
ROBERTS: Not only was he flying all those long flights but he was also traveling through Iraq in that cramped up little tank was sleeping with legs up like this.
BLOOM: Dehydration.
ROBERTS: But he had some symptoms that I guess he knew were a concern but sort of left them unchecked for a while.
But let's put up some of these symptoms so that people can know. And this particularly affects the calf, the lower part of the leg and the upper part of the leg, if you get pain. It's pretty extreme pain as well, as I understand; swelling, tenderness to the touch, discoloration or redness of the affected area or skin that is warm to the touch as well. People may have these but they don't necessarily know what it is they're feeling.
BLOOM: Well, that's exactly right. David called two nights before and said his leg felt crampy. That was it. I mean we tend to always bow off or not take seriously little aches and pains in our body.
Fifty percent of the time, there are no warning signs of symptoms. So people need to be aware if they have a risk condition. David was lucky in that he had the leg pain but very unfortunate, in that he did not know that was a warning sign.
ROBERTS: Right. And the real problem here is not so much the circulation in the leg that gets blocked but when a piece of that thrombosis, that blood clot, breaks off, travels to the lungs. That's what happened to him.
BLOOM: Yes and can be instantly fatal, as in David's case. Out of the 600,000 blood clots that hit the lungs, half of those people will die each year in our nation.
ROBERTS: So the coalition to prevent DVT is declaring this March, DVT awareness month. You're encouraging people to get out there on the 19th I believe is the date to get screened.
What sort of preventive screening or early warning screening might there be? This isn't like arthrosclerosis or heart disease where it builds up over time. This can happen very quickly.
BLOOM: It can happen very quickly and that's again, that's the risk factors. Women are at greater risk if they're on the pill or hormone replacement therapy, people who are traveling a lot, laid up in the hospital. And the risk assessment tool is a simple, few questions if there's a family history of clotting in your family background. There are some simple questions that can be asked to determine whether or not you fall into the risk category. And then in terms of having some pain in the leg, if you speak to your physician, a simple ultrasound will reveal whether or not there's a clot there.
ROBERTS: Right. You've also got these socks that you brought in this morning.
BLOOM: We have socks.
ROBERTS: Tell me a little bit about this and there's also a kit here as well.
BLOOM: Yes. A kit. So part of our efforts are to raise awareness at hospitals. This is the number one cause of preventable hospital death in our nation.
ROBERTS: Hold this up there to this camera there.
BLOOM: We've been going around to hospitals across the nation and bringing them these kits and they can have DVT initiatives in their own hospital decorating socks to draw awareness to the lower leg where the clot usually forms. And it's a bit of a light-heart approach to a very, very serious condition.
So this has been CVT awareness by design. We design our own socks and our three daughters have had fun designing their own socks and working as little mini spokespeople to try to prevent this tragedy from striking another family.
ROBERTS: Well, it's a very important issue and god bless you for the work that you're doing to get the word out and again, such a loss, what happened with David. I'm so sorry for you and your family, but the great to see you putting your efforts into such a great cause.
Melanie Bloom, thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you.
BLOOM: Thank you.
ROBERTS: For more information, by the way, go to prevent DVT.org. Great Web site there. They've got all kinds of information.
Kiran, so important for people to watch for these things, because, as Melanie was saying, it can turn, you know leg pain can suddenly turn instantly fatal. So make sure you keep an eye on those warning signs.
CHETRY: Absolutely. John, thanks.
Right now we want to take a quick shot at Times Square again where we are awaiting a news conference to find out more details on what happened this morning. Some sort of explosion taking place at the U.S. armed services career center. Really a military recruitment site there in the heart of Times Square. Someone threw an explosive device at that building around 4:00 a.m. We're still awaiting word. We're going to hear from Mayor Bloomberg as well at New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. They are due to speak any moment and we'll bring it to you live.
First though, a quick look at what "CNN NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
HARRIS: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM"
Explosive device tossed at a military recruiting station in New York.
Democrats consider a due-over vote in the Florida and Michigan primaries.
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Mississippi today. Barack Obama at home in Chicago.
Police say they have headed off a military-style attack on a New Jersey high school.
And we visit Baghdad's only school for the blind with CNN's Kyra Phillips.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, four, five! Six, seven, eight!
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HARRIS: "NEWSROOM," top on CNN.
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