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American Morning
New Developments in Times Square Bombing Investigation; Oil Prices Spike to New Record; New Twist in the Mortgage Meltdown
Aired March 07, 2008 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Pain at the pump. Above $106 a barrel overnight. Gas above $5 a gallon. We pulled over at one of the most expensive stations in the nation, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. That's right. We're going to go to a place where $5 a gallon is the norm. You know, you talk about getting squeezed. All of the different factors we've been talking about this morning, making for an economic headache for many people. Well, gas prices factoring in as well.
ROBERTS: That $5 a gallon a rarity now, but you got to wonder in the weeks ahead, will it be so much of a rarity?
Hey, new developments breaking this morning in the Times Square bombing investigation. Police are now throwing out one lead and taking a close look at another.
Law enforcement officials now say they're taking another look at a U.S.-Canada border stop that may be linked to the attack. The source says at least three people were stopped at the border crossing and were being questioned. At least one of them took off and left behind a backpack with a picture of Times Square in it.
New York City Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly talked about the evidence earlier on AMERICAN MORNING
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: It's being looked into by Federal officials. That stop did take place in Canada. Some pictures of Times Square, including a recruiting station were found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We are also learning that letters sent to Capitol Hill that appeared to be linked may be just an incredible coincidence.
CNN's Kate Bolduan is live on Capitol Hill with more on the letters this morning. And it seems to be incredible that you could have these two episodes on the same day and yet not have them linked.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, we've been talking about it all morning, John. How strange this really is. I mean, it was a bizarre twist in the story and now it's considered a bizarre coincidence according to a law enforcement source. The source says that there is no connection between the letters sent to Congress and the New York City bombing. Law enforcement earlier said there were as many as ten letters arrived at Democratic lawmakers' offices Thursday. And included in those letters was a picture of a man standing in front of the military recruiting center in Times Square with this statement, "We did it."
Now just minutes ago, Ray Kelly, the New York City Police Commissioner, did say on AMERICAN MORNING that that statement, "We did it" was referring to the 2006 Democratic victory and was not a claim of responsibility.
Of course, that's very strange coincidence, indeed. And the law enforcement source says this was an ugly coincidence that these two things happened pretty much at the same time. And that this man had mailed these letters to these congressional lawmakers in order to voice opposition to the war.
So now we're hearing that this case, the case of the investigation into these letters, is basically closed, because there's no connection between the letters and the New York bombing.
John?
ROBERTS: Wow. What an unbelievable coincidence.
BOLDUAN: I know.
ROBERTS: Kate Bolduan for us this morning. Kate, thanks very much.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Now, there's a new twist this morning in the mortgage meltdown. New numbers showing that a record number of Americans are losing their homes. And those who are keeping them are seeing new lows in the value of their home. All of this is happening as some of the big names in the mortgage industry head to Capitol Hill to try to defend their fat paychecks.
CNN's Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis is here.
Is this going to make people even more nauseated when they think, OK here we are struggling and here he was getting rich off of what's happening?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think nauseated is the nice word, actually. I think we're all just angry about this. Take a look at this. The House Oversight Committee is looking into CEO pay and where they're looking at mortgage industry titans. Some of them retired. They're focusing on Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, as you know, he was the biggest name in the industry, Stan O'Neal from Merrill Lynch, Charles Prince from Citigroup.
And a memo that you're seeing right here, the Committee itself says "The financial benefits realized by the CEOs as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded do not appear to have been aligned with the interests of the shareholders. Duh! Check this out.
So, the years that -- the last two quarters of last year, these guy, these three fellows made $460 million at the time the companies were losing $20 billion.
CHETRY: What does Congress want to find out from these hearings? What may come of them?
WILLIS: Well, I don't think you can expect a lot of change. People have been complaining about CEO pay for a very long time. But I want to walk you through Mozilo's numbers just for a minute so you can get a sense of just how much money this man was making.
First of all, he made $150 million in stock options that he sold at the end of 2006 and through 2007. $10 million in a pension replacement award. $36 million owed him in cash severance. Now, as you know, he forfeited some of this money, $37.5 million, but he's still walking away with $160 million.
And as you know, foreclosures in this country last year, 2 million. We may have as many again this year. It's just outrageous. And I know people will be watching us this closely today. We'll probably try to find him with our cameras and see if we can catch up with what's going on.
CHETRY: It's certainly a big outrage factor there that all of this money was being made and people were losing their homes and getting foreclosed upon some of these loans. Option that probably been offered in the first place.
WILLIS: Absolutely right.
CHETRY: Gerri, thank you.
WILLIS: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, stay with us for all the issues that matter to your money. Gerri as well as Ali Velshi and the rest of CNN's best money team for "Financial Security Watch" begin today. It's at noon Eastern Time. Are you guys taking calls again today in your show?
WILLIS: We're taking calls. Send us an e-mail. You know, tune in because we will be answering your phone calls a lot.
CHETRY: Yes. I bet you the phones are going to be ringing off the hook. A lot of people wondering what the best options are in these tough times. Thanks a lot, Gerri.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: So much distressing news out there.
To politics now. The next battleground in the thrilling race for president just hours away but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will campaign in Wyoming today, ahead of the caucuses there tomorrow. But there are 18 total delegates at stake that includes six super delegates.
Meantime, the counting drags on from the Texas caucuses on Tuesday. Results are in for only half of the voting sites. Barack Obama now has 56 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 44 percent. Tuesday's caucuses were so chaotic and overcrowded by record turnout that police had to be called in to some polling places. And we might not have a winner named until the end of the month.
It was something to do in the seven weeks before Pennsylvania. 67 delegates at stake there. Hillary Clinton won the Texas primary and captured -- which was designed to allocate two-thirds of the delegates there. A third of the delegates still standing in the caucuses.
A day away from the next contest in the Democratic battle. The candidates are firing hard. Senator Hillary Clinton took another shot at Senator Barack Obama's national security credentials. This time in front of military officers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have said that Senator McCain will bring a lifetime of experience to the campaign. I will bring a lifetime of experience, and Senator Obama will bring a speech that he gave in 2002. National Security will be front center in this election. We all know that.
And I think it's imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief thresholds. And I believe that I've done that. Certainly, Senator McCain has done that and you'll have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Meantime, the Obama campaign is apologizing about something that was printed in a Scottish newspaper. It claims an unpaid Obama aide named Samantha Power called Hillary Clinton a "monster" and that she is stooping to anything. Late last night, the Obama campaign issued an apology from Power and also condemned the remark.
On the other side of the coin, though, a Clinton aide likened Barack Obama to former prosecutor Ken Starr for saying that he was going to start focusing on Hillary Clinton's record. It's going back and forth. Pretty hard here.
We're tracking extreme weather right mow. A tornado watch still in effect for north Florida and southern Georgia. Our Bonnie Schneider in for Rob Marciano at the weather update desk.
It's a little better than it was just a short time ago because we actually had a tornado warning, Bonnie.
(WEATHER REPORT) CHETRY: That's right because we do spring forward this weekend. You turn the clocks one hour ahead, daylight saving time. We'll be losing an hour of sleep. It's bad news for parents with teenagers whose kids may already be getting too little sleep. But some parents say they're finding help in a pill in melatonin.
CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta is at the medical update desk with more.
Is this good or bad, to help kids who may be thrown off by a time change? In general, what's your take on it?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're going to be hard pressed to find a doctor who's going to recommend melatonin for a teenager, I think. Having said that, the sleep experts we talked to say they've seen a huge upsurge in the number of teenagers actually taking melatonin to try and get help with their sleep patterns.
Melatonin is a synthetic version. It's a dietary supplement. It's not a prescription pill and it's a synthetic version of a hormone that's typically made by the pineal gland. That's a gland in the brain, and this is a -- it's a hormone that regulates your sleep/wake cycles. As darkness falls your body makes more melatonin. So the thought was, you give melatonin, it may help somebody sleep. But that's sort of the gist of it.
But again, not a lot of studies or science for -- especially children under the age of 18. We do know, however, as you pointed out, Kiran, that teenagers need a lot of sleep. In fact, teenagers need more sleep than a 9 or 10-year-old siblings.
And if they don't get it, they have significant problems, which again, we've talked about before. They may have problems with test scores, for example. They may have problems with depression, ADHD in the long term. They even see an uptake in accidents, traffic accidents on the day after we spring forward. People are a little bit more groggy. But again, not a lot of science about the melatonin to recommend it, I think, Kiran.
CHETRY: They try to do this on a Saturday. So, you know, the thinking is I guess most people are off and so it doesn't disrupt a workday routine or a school day routine as much. But does that one hour really make that big of a difference in terms of your sleep patterns?
GUPTA: Well, it can. And in fact, people say it may take at least a day to catch up. So, you know, maybe -- so Monday, and you're still sort of feeling the repercussions of that. Best bet, obviously, is to try and go to bed an hour earlier. For people who do buy the supplement, they say no more than three milligrams and certainly nobody under the age of 10 should take the melatonin. But, you know, just try to get an extra sleep is your best bet.
CHETRY: All right, sounds good. Sanjay, thank you.
GUPTA: Thanks, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Oil spikes the new records. Gas prices expected to file a suit. But drivers aren't the only ones who are suffering from the high cost of crude. We've got that story coming up.
And watching one of the most heated races of all-time from the side lines. What to do about Florida and Michigan's Democratic delegates? Maybe a do-over? Could be? The debate live from D.C. next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's a neck-and-neck race to that magic number, 2025. 313 delegates could make a huge difference. But two states, Florida and Michigan are being shut up for breaking Democratic Party rules. Could there be a do-over and what might it mean for the upcoming races in Wyoming and Mississippi? Here now live in Washington, CNN political analyst John Dickerson.
So you're talking about this yesterday. They couldn't come to an agreement over money. They're going to go back at it again today. Where do you think this is all heading?
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it looks like it's headed towards a do-over. The problem is we can't figure out what the shape of that do-over is. As you said it, money is the problem. Democrats in Washington, Howard Dean, doesn't want to pay for it. State Democrats don't want to pay for it. In Michigan, the discussions about this broke down over a $10 million bill for this. But there is a sense of fairness here and this mess has to be figure out.
And so it seems, the reason it looks like it's moving towards a do-over is both campaigns seem to now be kind of embracing that idea. But still, the details have to be worked out.
ROBERTS: Oh gosh, you know, last night I was at this radio and television news director foundation dinner. So many people from the industry, so many people from politics here. That's all anybody was talking about. How do you do it? How do you make it fair? You split them up? Do you have a caucus? Do you have a primary? Who do you allocate them to? Do you take the initial results?
DICKERSON: The problem with this is that you have -- both of these two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have constituencies that are very solidly behind them and they are looking for any sign that either one is getting an unfair advantage.
And so you have this problem that in addition to the details of the modalities of this, you've got the fact that you may outrage half of the party, if you decided incorrectly.
ROBERTS: Yes. That's what Howard Dean is really worried about. Let's look at the campaign that's going on right now. Even though the big prize, Pennsylvania, is still seven weeks away. We've got Wyoming caucuses coming up on Saturday, Mississippi primary on Tuesday. The Clinton campaign taking aim at Barack Obama. Harold Wolfson in a conference call likening him to Ken Starr. That was prosecutor who went after Bill Clinton back in the 1990s because he says he's going to, you know, make Hillary Clinton's record an issue here in the campaign.
DICKERSON: It's a red flag. When you start throwing around Ken Starr's name that gets pretty rough. Essentially what the Clinton campaign is doing, is responding to a conference call that the Obama staffers have in the day after the Texas and Ohio primaries, in which they asset a very different tone. They came out talking about why Hillary Clinton had not released her tax returns and some of her other problems with disclosure.
Now, the Clinton campaign is happy in a little way that the Obama campaign is now talking about this, because Barack Obama has run his campaign as a kind of new politics. He's not going to go back to the old-style politics. Well, now the Clinton campaign is falling down and saying, oh, my gosh, look at how outrageous this is.
The questions the Obama campaign was raising were not terribly outrageous. But the Clinton campaign wants to get into a bit of a gutter fight here because in that kind of a fight, Hillary Clinton is running as a fighter, looks like a fighter. Barack Obama who is running as a kind of high-minded candidate doesn't look like such a high-minded candidate. So it's a problem for Obama.
ROBERTS: If they can make an accusation or characterization like Ken Starr stick, that's going to be a very powerful weapon. But is there big potential here for backfire as well?
DICKERSON: There is. Hillary Clinton has to tread very lightly as well. The Ken Starr line is a little out of bounds. And what she has to worry about is she's going to make a case to the Democrats that she should win by super delegates. There going to be a lot of Democrats who support Barack Obama who don't like that case. So I think it's underhanded even though it's within the Democratic Party rules. When she makes that case, she has to make sure she sort of on her best footing.
ROBERTS: Yes. It's a difficult case to make right now with him more than 100 ahead in the pledged delegates?
DICKERSON: He's ahead in the pledged delegates and he's ahead by some counts in the popular vote. And so he has the kind of momentum with him in terms of that argument. So she's going to be pushing against that. The polls also showed, in the exit polls this last Tuesday that voters think super delegates should go with the pledged delegates and what the pledge delegates had said.
So Hillary Clinton again is making this case and she's got some opposition. She needs to look like she's not done anything underhanded with Barack Obama by claiming he's like Ken Starr. That might, to some people, seem like it's a little underhanded.
ROBERTS: No end to the twists and turns in this long contest. John Dickerson for us this morning. John, thanks very much.
DICKERSON: Sure.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, how do you pay for it every time you go to the pump? It's costing more and more. Things are only going to get worse, it looks like. Coming up, we're going to take you to one of the most expensive gas stations in the nation.
Also, Southwest Airlines on the defense this morning. CEO spoke to, John, right here on AMERICAN MORNING. What did Southwest know about potentially unsafe planes being allowed to fly thousands of passengers? We're going to get more coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A live look this morning. Boy, if you're complaining about what you're paying at the pump, check these prices out. $4.20 a gallon for regular. All the way up to $4.46 if you use the good stuff. The price of oil is approaching $106 a barrel overnight.
How soon until we start seeing these sky-high prices make it to the pump? Well, in some cases, it already has. The national average for regular unleaded gas is now $3.19. It was $2.50 a year ago. Last month, it was $2.98. Some places are already the way above $4 a gallon. Some even $5 a gallon in places like California.
Gas station owners say that they are struggling, too. And one of them is Judy Schlafer. She's the owner of Schlafer's Automotive in Mendocino, California.
You're an independently-owned station. It's a Chevron station but you're independently owned. You now have to charge $4.20 a gallon for the price of regular unleaded gas. How has that affected your customers?
JUDY SCHLAFER, OWNER, SCHLAFER'S AUTOMOTIVE: Kiran, good morning. It's really affected my customers because up here we're depending on tourist trade and low wages. They are having a very hard time making ends meet.
CHETRY: Yes. You say...
SCHLAFER: So they don't come in.
CHETRY: Yes. You say that they're driving less. They're not even necessarily filling up all the way and at times you even send some of your workers home because there's just not enough business to even keep them there at work?
SCHLAFER: That's correct. Yes.
CHETRY: We talked to you a few months ago, Judy. I think it was about six months ago and we're in a similar situation. I believe it was last April or May, we saw prices really peaked nationwide. What do you think is driving the price of gas up so high right now?
SCHLAFER: Well, I think that we need to put a price control on things with our present administration. And I just -- you know, I can't buy it retail, and so it goes through a jobber and then it comes to me, as I told you last time, Kiran.
And, you know, they have to make money. I have to make money. And there's a lot of taxes that are put on the gasoline. I have about ten different taxes, and I have all kinds of fees coming from the county levels up through the state, the federal government, and I'm just -- I'm struggling.
CHETRY: Yes. You say you're not making any money right now. In fact, this has been in your ex-husband's family since the 1950s and now you have it up for sale?
SCHLAFER: That's correct. Well, yes. If someone would like to step into the -- what should I say -- the challenge of life, this would be the place to do it.
CHETRY: Yes. I think you had it up for sale last time we talked as well. You're making it seem like there's not many takers in that situation. Where do you see this going?
SCHLAFER: I see higher gas prices if someone doesn't step in and do something different. I'd like to see the car companies make a car for everyone that would be economy, and that would be also safe. They did have a carburetor out, or I know of one because I'm a semi- inventor that could get 200 miles per gallon. And I would like to see something like that.
If they're saying that we don't have oil. Why not put something like that out for everyone that makes it affordable or go off the grid and do a solar or some type of an energy thing. I don't think that making biofuel, I'm not against it, but I'm not really for it because then you're taking the corn product away from, maybe that's all we're going to have in the end to eat. I don't know where it's going, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, certainly, certainly tough times as you guys are looking at California and particularly looking at because of a lot of those fees and taxes that are on a lot of money. $4.20 now for a gallon of regular unleaded at your shop.
Good luck to you. I know it's been tough for you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
SCHLAFER: Thank you, Kiran. And good luck with your new one coming.
CHETRY: Thank you very much.
John?
SCHLAFER: OK.
ROBERTS: Let's hope that you've got more to feed for your baby than corn coming up in the future.
Hey, got some breaking news going on right now. Tornado warning in northern Florida. Let's bring in Bonnie Schneider. She's at the radar there.
What do we got, Bonnie?
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Bonnie, shout out to us if you hear anything more on that. Bonnie, thanks very much.
This just in to AMERICAN MORNING as well. The Federal Reserve has just announced that it's opening the floodgates, making another $100 billion available to banks that need to borrow from the Central Bank. The announcement has taken stock futures which were negative and pushed them into positive territory. Our Ali Velshi joins us in just a few minutes with more on this.
Also, waiting for new numbers on unemployment. Stay with us. We'll be back. There's a big news from the Fed this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: We can talk about the other thing --
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: We got some steam rising in front of the capitol this morning. Expecting not very good weather here in the nation's capital today or tomorrow for that matter. Lots and lots and lots of heavy rain. We got some heavy weather down in the south. Our Bonnie Schneider watching tornado watches and warnings down there, and now reports that a tornado may have dropped on the ground. I believe it's Chairs, Florida, as well. Bonnie watching all of that, Kiran, as we track extreme weather and all the other news that's breaking this morning.
CHETRY: I was going to say that shot looks like the opening scene from some sort of a mystery movie with all the smoke rising there from the Capitol.
ROBERTS: That's a perfect metaphor for Washington.
CHETRY: Yes. And for what we're talking about today. We have some breaking developments this morning in both, coming from the business front, the economic front. We're going to get to new numbers coming out in just a moment on job numbers for the month as well.
But first some breaking news in the Times Square bombing investigation. Law enforcement officials now say they're taking a closer look at a U.S.-Canada border stop that may be linked to the attack. Well, you're seeing a video of now, right now, of a surveillance camera capturing a person riding a bicycle up to that military recruiting site in Times Square. You see him riding right up to the front and then you see flash of light, That's when the explosion went off, police say. N.Y.P. Commissioner Ray Kelly talked about the evidence they have so far earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, N.Y.P.D. COMMISSIONER: It's being looked into by federal officials. That stop did take place in Canada. Some pictures of Times Square including the recruiting station were found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Kelly also said that the letters sent to Capitol Hill appeared to be linked but are just really a strange coincidence it looks like.
The Fed coming to the rescue. News just in that the Federal Reserve is making $100 billion available to banks to ease the credit crisis, and new numbers about unemployment are coming in right now as well. We're just seeing them flash across our screen. Ali, I know, you're right by the computer as well. Up first to these unemployment numbers. What do they show?
ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let's start with that. The unemployment rate in February in the United States has dropped from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent. Now, it was expected to go up to 5 percent. That's the good news and it sort of ends there. Because in February, we actually lost jobs in the United States. We lost 63,000 jobs. They've also revised the January numbers to show a loss in January of jobs.
So, we've now seen two straight months of straight job losses in the United States. Markets are reacting to that right now very poorly. Now, just ten minutes ago the Federal Reserve announced that it is making $100 billion available as a credit facility to banks which are running into financial trouble. It needs to come to the Fed to borrow money. This is not new money being put into the system. It's just being made available for banks to borrow. For a few scant moments, the futures soared on that news. Then went back down and this jobs number is not making anyone any happier.
So, that's what we're looking at. We still got oil above $105 a barrel. We have job losses coming in. Kiran, we said it many times. For all the things that happen in the economy, job losses are the most serious. That's the one that really gets people to stop spending, because they're worried about their future. We now have a 4.8 percent unemployment rate. That is still low by comparison to times in history and many places in the rest of the world, but the U.S. economy is now for certain shedding jobs. Kiran.
CHETRY: Back to this Federal Reserve announcement, though. So what really is the significance of this? I mean, if they're making billions more available to borrow.
VELSHI: Right.
CHETRY: It has to get paid back at some point. That's why we got in the subprime mortgage mess in the first place.
VELSHI: Exactly right, it's not free money. What this means about a week ago when Ben Bernanke was testifying in Congress, he said, we may see some small banks start to fail as a result of people not being able to make their payments on their mortgages. This is money for banks that are in trouble, to get. This keeps banks afloat. This is preventative measures for things that might be coming. This is not new money that is going into the system. It is, meaning if you have to borrow it, the terms and availability of that money have just become a little bit easier.
CHETRY: All right. So that news coming in and also news that our economy and employers slashed jobs to the tune of 63,000 in February and apparently the most in five years.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, Ali, stay with us. We're going to continue to check in with you on this and also the issues that matter to your money. Gerri, Ali and the rest of CNN's best money team on financial security watch today. It is noon eastern time. You don't want to miss it. They will actually be answering your calls and e-mails as well live during the show. John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, more breaking news to tell you about this morning. Reports of a tornado on the ground in the southeastern section of Tallahassee. Let's bring in Bonnie Schneider. She's at the extreme weather center in Atlanta. Hey, where exactly did this happen, Bonnie?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're getting reports of wind damage in terms of power lines down and homes down in Leon county, that's where most of the reports are coming in, according to the fire department there. They're reporting thunderstorm wind damage. But what 's more interesting to note in the past few seconds a second tornado warning had been issued. The first one we were talking about expires at 9:00 for Dixie, Lafayette and Taylor counties but the second one, if you could put up the query for that now, the second one goes for Dixie, Hillcrest and Taylor counties and that goes until 9:15 this morning.
So, we're watching for a threat of severe weather and tornadoes for a good portion of coastal Florida, not too far from Tallahassee to the south of the region. You can see the lightning strikes happening as well as a tornado watch and that encompasses quite a large area of Florida, including Jacksonville and then further out back to the south as well as and Gainesville. Severe weather in the region. The threat goes to noon. But the two tornado warnings go until 9:00 and 9:15. The wind damage and several homes we're talking about, within the Leon county area, and that is according to the fire department there. We're still getting those reports coming in, really moment by moment, John. As soon as we get more information we'll bring that to you live.
ROBERTS: It's all heading towards Gainesville there. Big college town and on into Jacksonville. We're you expecting a lot more problems in those larger metropolitan centers this morning?
SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. And if you live in the counties that are highlighted here or anywhere in this region, be prepared to take cover immediately. Another good idea is to have your no-weather radio turned on. Because of the force of these winds, we could see power outages. We've already seen power lines down in Leon County. We get the power outages and you lose power. You want to have to have the NOAA radio turned on, especially if you live in this watch zone. This weather is getting worse. So, we have to keep an eye on it throughout the morning, until at least the noon hour.
ROBERTS: Some big heads up to all the gators there in Gainesville. Be on the watch. All right. Bonnie, thanks very much. We know you're watching it for us this morning. Important news there in Florida and southeastern Georgia. Bonnie, thanks.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
ROBERTS: The CEO of Southwest Airlines is speaking out, under fire after a CNN investigation found that Southwest Airlines flew thousands of passengers on planes that were deemed by the FAA to be unsafe. According to congressional documents obtained by CNN, FAA inspectors say planes that should have been grounded flew for 2 1/2 years past government inspection deadlines. Earlier this morning, I spoke with Southwest CEO Gary Kelly. He says that at no time was Southwest flying planes that were unsafe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY KELLY, CEO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: In this particular situation, we identified a gap in our documentation. We voluntarily reported that to the FAA. We worked out with the FAA how to fix that problem, and we fixed it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Kelly said that Southwest immediately reinspected the planes in question and fixed any problems that were found.
37 minutes, almost 38 after the hour and to politics now. Now that John McCain has the Republican nomination wrapped up he is campaigning to get the party unified behind him. That means reaching out to the conservative wing of the GOP. Conservative Hugh Hewitt is host of the "Hugh Hewitt Show," and executive editor townhall.com. He joins me this morning from Irvine California.
Hugh, good to see you. Since clenching the nomination, many once reluctant Republicans are now reaching out to John McCain. What about conservatives and also folks in conservative talk radio? Are they ready to fall in love with McCain just yet?
HUGH HEWITT, HOST, "THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW": John McCain's done everything he has to do. Helped a lot to be with President Bush this week, who is still, as most polls show, extremely popular among the center right Republican base. Senator McCain was campaigning with Crist yesterday, Governor Crist in Florida. He's making a lot of outreach, has he sealed up the talk radio vote I think so. There are a few hosts out there aren't reconciled. But most of the callers to my program every day are saying, "OK, maybe I wasn't with McCain in the primaries, maybe it's driving me crazy in the past, the McCain/Feingold, but he is a lot better than either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton and they're getting behind him.
ROBERTS: One of those conservative talk radio show host that is not reconciled is Bill Cunningham. A lot of people call him "the Rush Limbaugh " of Ohio. Here's what he told us last week about the potential about the McCain presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CUNNINGHAM, TALK SHOW HOST: If McCain wins, we're going to have a ruined Republican conservative party for the next 20 years. So, I'd rather have short term pain for long term gain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Which means to you that he hopes that John McCain loses the Democrats, takes the White House, the Republican party has four years to regroup and come back in 2012. What do you say to talk like that?
HEWITT: Well, first of all, I've never heard of Bill. I'm sure he's a good talk show host but Rush Limbaugh is the Rush Limbaugh of Ohio, and the national host. The people who talked in 50 states like I do were Laura Ingraham, Bill Bennett, or Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and of course, Rush, and Sean, and all the other people, they are very, very sober minded about the war, and John McCain will fight the war to win. I'll give you seven reasons, John, why conservatives are going to get behind John McCain. Winning the war, six supreme court who are aged 68 or older. Those are all the seven reasons, real conservatives. Now, they're going to have a lot of pots and pan bangers out there that won't like McCain for this and won't like McCain for that.
As I said, I had huge disagreements with him, still do, but he is the best person left here in the race by far, and the best thing that's happened to him this week is the decision by Hillary Clinton to destroy Barack Obama. The decision to go after Barack Obama, the way the Clintons went after Ken Starr. And if you check out a Web site today called rezkorama, r-e-z-k-o-r-a-m-a, rezkorama.com, you're going to see what the Clintons are doing via Tony Rezko to Barack Obama. That's helping John McCain and certainly is bringing conservatives together at the same time.
ROBERTS: Hugh, you said you still have concerns about the issues with John McCain, but you also had some concerns about his electability, going back to February 5th when Mitt Romney was still in the race. And you're supporting Mitt Romney, you said "not only would McCain be overwhelmed by the volcano of money exploding for Obama, he can't match the Illinois senator on the small screen. The recognition of the mismatch looming is adding fuel to the Romney rally. Are you still worried about that? How McCain appears next to Barack Obama, and what about an Obama-Hillary matchup?
HEWITT: Of course, I'm still worried about that, because the age gap is significant and the charisma deficit. But I'll tell you this, it's very interesting to me, Barack Obama raised $55 million last month and the shine has now come off. You thought he could have clinched it with that kind of money. The fact that Hillary has brought him back into the race, got at least seven weeks to Pennsylvania. They're going to Denver, it's 5 1/2 months of sledgehammers on each other. This the best news yet for the G.O.P. and John McCain. It is a grudge match and it's getting much, much more difficult than the Republicans had even a month ago.
Yes, I like Romney and I think he would have been a better candidate, but McCain won. So McCain now, beating these other two is easy. The advantages that Barack Obama had even four weeks ago are beginning to fade away with the decision by the Clintons to leave no stone unhurled. Not unturned but unhurled at Barack Obama. And all that money he built up and all that goodwill, "Saturday Night Live" took a bit out of him and the Clintons are going to take him apart digit by digit.
Again, Tony Rezko, John. This is the name that people have to figure out. It's going to be what Clintons use to bleed Barack Obama for the next seven weeks. The fact that he's been so hammered in less than ten days tells me that Saint Obama is no longer Saint Obama and the real gloves have come off and John McCain doesn't have to do it. That's why the dynamics have changed.
ROBERTS: Hugh Hewitt, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for coming in early. Appreciate it.
HEWITT: Thanks, John. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Dr. Gupta introduces us to a man who lost 30 pounds and strengthened his relationship with his daughter a the same time. And all he had to do, climb one of the world's highest mountain.
Also ahead, we have breaking news right now in Florida. There is a new tornado warning issued just moments ago for three counties. We also have reports of power lines down. Trees damaged. There you see the areas in question there in that red watch box as they call it. Bonnie Schneider has all the details for us as well. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well for some trying to lose weight can seem as difficult as climbing a mountain. For one man, it was literally true. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with a father/daughter "Fit Nation" story. Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA: Good morning, John. I think it's a story that both you and I can relate to. Bill told us his big goal is to spend more time with his 12-year-old daughter before she decided she didn't want to spend much time with him any more. They got a project. They planned it. And he lost some weight in the process. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GUPTA: Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the highest peaks in the world. And outstanding achievement for any climber. For Bill McGahan, it was an unusual way to lose weight but also a way to spend time with his daughter.
BILL MCGAHAN, FATHER: Fathers who are about my age, mid-40s I think sometimes struggle to find things to do with their seventh grade daughters. They're typically the things they're not interested in.
GUPTA: After trolling the Internet for some ideas, dad and daughter settled on an ambitious plan.
MCGAHAN: We decided to we'd climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
GUPTA: Working out three times a week, running seven miles a day and building intense lower body strength together they scaled one of the highest peaks on the planet. Dad lost 30 pounds in the process.
MCGAHAN: We were about 100 yards to the top and knew we were going to make it. I put my arm around Sarah and I said, you know, you did it, Sarah. Even gets me a little misty now. She said, no, dad. We did it together. It's really, you know, one of the great moments of my life.
GUPTA: So what did it mean to Sara?
SARA MCGAHAN, DAUGHTER: At first, I was really nervous. I'm kind of freaked out about it. I love my dad. He's really funny, and I was glad that I took the climb with him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: They said that they had so much fun, John. They're actually going to climb one of the other seven highest mountains, Mount Elbrus, over Russia as well. Another chance for them to spend time together and get into good shape, John.
ROBERTS: Obviously, you got to spend a lot of time, getting in to something like, getting to climb that mountain or Mount Rainier here on the continent. And you got to set goals, but in setting goals, people have to be realistic, don't they?
GUPTA: I think they have to be realistic and I think they also have to be very specific, John. This is something that emerges as we've done the "Fit Nation" tour around the country. People may say look I have a plan to get in better shape in the spring. Or I plan on exercising on my free times. As a general rule, goals like that don't work. You need to say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00 I'm going to do x, y and z, and make it a priority, as important to one that is meeting with your boss for example, or something else like that. It has to become part of your life.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay, thanks very much. Great story there.
GUPTA: All right. Have a good weekend.
ROBERTS: All right. You too. Kiran.
CHETRY:. And again, we've been following extreme weather on the show as well. Breaking news right now out of Florida. New tornado warning issued, and Bonnie Schneider has been tracking this for us all morning. What can you tell us, Bonnie?
SCHNEIDER: Well, unfortunately, we're getting reports in, the Capitola area, Lon County, that we have two fatalities reported. And this is from likely a tornado, where foundations of homes were actually blown off the -- homes were blown off the foundations. The emergency management is reporting one person is missing and there are two suspected fatalities. Now, that is in and around the Tallahassee area. We're looking at the warnings, if we can clear these right now. We can show you, we have three tornado warnings up here right now for several counties in Florida.
If my weather producer, Sean, can query these for me, what you're looking at, are several counties under tornado warnings. And they're going to go until 9:00 to 9:15 tonight, and some them extended up to 9:30 some of them. On a wilder scale picture, what we're seeing is a tornado watch that is in effect until the noon hour across a good portion of northern Florida and southern Georgia. So, unfortunately, we're getting reports of some very serious injuries and possibly two fatalities reported in this region here south of Tallahassee where the storms have already rolled through, and we're watching for this area to continue.
Some of the tornado warnings that we're watching in and around just areas to the east or to the west rather of Gainesville, are really producing some very strong rotations. A serious situation if you live in Gainesville or Jacksonville, be prepared for this severe weather, Kiran, to move in throughout much of the morning.
CHETRY: Bonnie, we're absolutely going to keep our eye on this. I know you guys have been getting great stuff, getting us the latest information out of there. Thanks a lot, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, one man takes it upon himself to save a coral reef for generations to come. Just ahead you'll meet a new CNN hero. An ordinary person having an extraordinary impact on the live of others.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Updating you on the extreme weather. You can see that incredible storm system moves across the northern part of Florida there, towards Gainesville and Jacksonville. Right now, we got tornado warnings in effect for Hillcrest and Dixie County. Those are in effect until 9:15 this morning. In Taylor and Lafayette, Suwannee counties, we have tornado warnings that are in effect until 9:30.
So, keep a close ear to your television. Because we'll keep you updated on what's going on here or get a close ear to your radio or a weather radio even better still if you've got one, because there is very, very heavy weather. We already have reports of one tornado touching down southeast of Tallahassee and that extreme weather moving through the area, definitely going to cause a lot more problems. Stay with us here on CNN. We'll keep you updated on the latest developments. Right now, back to New York and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John.
And it's time to meet another CNN hero. An ordinary person making an extraordinary impact on the lives of others. Today it's a man who took it upon himself to help save dying coral reefs around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BARBER: Reefs are dying. Human activity around the world is impacting what's happening underwater. If we don't do something to save our coral reefs we will lose them all and the impact will be devastating for humanity.
In 1988, I was on a trip with my father, and we went to the Cayman Islands and were looking at a coral reef that I had been taking pictures of since I was baby, and the reef is gone. My heart sank. And I had a strong passion to try to do, to change that, and my father and I sat down one night and came up with the idea of how to fix it.
My name is Todd Barber, and I make reef balls used to restore reefs around the world. Reef balls serve as the base habitat for a natural reef to grow upon. They've been designed to that you can plant corals on them. Our goal was to mimic nature, not to dictate nature. Reef balls are made with the special cement that lasts over 500 years. They're portable, inexpensive and they're environmentally friendly.
I called this hatching a reef ball, me personally, satisfaction comes from diving and seeing one has been rehabilitated, and that the reef is actually there and our grandkids will be able to see the same thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Just another update for you now. Again, tornado warnings have been issued just moments ago for three, four counties now in Florida. We've got Hillcrest, Dixie, Taylor and Lafayette, Suwannee, Hillcrest and Dixie, the tornado warnings in effect until 9:15. in Taylor, Lafayette and Suwannee, up to 9:30 southeast of Tallahassee reports power lines down, trees damaged. We are tracking the extreme weather. We'll be back with more right after this. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Another look at weather radar there in the northern part of Florida. Tornado warnings in effect now for four Florida counties - Hillcrest, Dixie, Taylor, Lafayette, Suwannee. That weather, heavy weather moving eastwards towards Gainesville. That's weather, heavy weather moving eastward towards Gainesville, where the University of Florida is, and Jacksonville as well. So, stay very, very close to your television, your radio, your weather radio, because there could be some sirens coming your way. We've already had reports of one tornado on the ground in southeastern Tallahassee. Our colleagues in NEWSROOM coming up at the top of the hour, we'll keep a very close eye on all of the latest developments with this storm system. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. For sure, and meanwhile we want to get one last check of this morning's "quick vote" question. We talked about the story of an acknowledgement in some way that perhaps childhood vaccine led to a little girl who developed autism-like symptoms. Do you believe there's a connection between childhood vaccines and autism? 58 percent of you saying, yes, you do believe that. 42 percent saying no. To all of you who voted, thanks so much. And we want to thank you for being with us all week here on AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here next week.
ROBERTS: All right. Have a great weekend. And don't forget "Spring Ahead" Sunday mornings.
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