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American Morning
Bill Richardson Endorses Obama; Breach in Obama's Passport Files; Deadly Deluge: Disaster in Illinois Counties; Dads and Diets; States Creating Jobs: Where the Jobs Are
Aired March 21, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. It's the top of the hour. I'm Rob Marciano in for John Roberts. Tons of news breaking overnight in the last 12 hours alone.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. I'm Kiran Chetry, and we have it all for you today, including a big political endorsement that happened overnight. And that was the big endorsement for Barack Obama.
Just a few hours ago, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced that he is supporting his former rival. Now, Richardson is the nation's only Hispanic governor. He is also a former cabinet member of the Clinton administration, and he's been someone who's been heavily courted by both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton since he dropped out of the race himself. When I spoke with him about a month ago, Richardson told us at the time he was not ready to decide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: I'm trying to decide. I have, as I said, enormous respect for both candidates. I know Senator Clinton very well. I've gotten to know Senator Obama well. Both candidates have exceptional qualities.
With Senator Clinton, you get tremendous experience, tremendous knowledge. With Senator Obama, he's a transformative figure. And as I've been talking to him on the phone lately, quite a bit, I get to know them better. But I'm not quite ready yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, now he is. He e-mailed supporters this morning saying, "My affection and admiration for Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton will never waiver. It is time, however, for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we'll face against John McCain in the fall." Richardson will be with Barack Obama to announce the endorsement at a campaign event in Portland, Oregon, this afternoon.
CNN's Jessica Yellin joins us now on the phone to talk a little bit more about the impact of this endorsement. First of all, for Barack Obama, where will this help him?
ON THE PHONE: JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. Well, in two ways. First, it sort of stems the tide of some bad news for the last few weeks. Barack Obama, after riding a wave of nonstop, positive news, has been sort of buffered by a series of stories that have hurt his campaign. So this could sort of stop the hemorrhaging in that sense, change the momentum.
And then the big question is, does this impact other superdelegates, because Richardson is a superdelegate, to say you know what, like Richardson, I think it's time to throw my hat in the ring on one side or the other and say this is time to end this fight. And so, what kind of pressure this puts on other superdelegatees will be interesting to watch in the coming days.
CHETRY: What type of impact does this have on Hillary Clinton, especially given the fact that they had a close, personal relationship, a friendship, really? He even watched the Super Bowl with former President Bill Clinton.
YELLIN: You're right, Kiran, and, you know, I heard one staffer describe him once, Richardson as Hamlet. He just couldn't make up his mind in this race who he is going to endorse and that was enormously frustrating to the Clintons, who made him U.N. ambassador and Energy secretary, and felt that there had to be some personal loyalty there.
So I think it will be a personal blow, sort of in terms of morale. And then, Senator Clinton's whole focus right now is to keep other superdelegates, the undecideds, from making any decision until these next major states have voted. And to the extent that this puts more pressure on those other superdelegates to decide before more voters go to the polls, it could be very bad news for Senator Clinton. But I should caution that as we know, endorsements like this don't tend to influence the voters that much. The big question, again, is how it will influence other superdelegates.
CHETRY: Right. Because, I mean, as we see this neck-and-neck race in terms of the pledged delegates, it's those superdelegates that will be so key. In terms of the type of sway that Bill Richardson has among them, does his endorsement mean it's going to be, you know, sort of like a falling of the dominoes, if you will, and others are going to decide one way or the other?
YELLIN: Not necessarily. It depends. It has to do with timing. Some people will want to jump on when they see it's inevitable. If people perceive this as an inevitable change of the tide toward Barack Obama, this means he'll be the nominee. If they think that, then people might want to jump in so that they can have some influence with the candidate down the road.
You want to, you know, people want to use it their chits to their own political benefit in the end. But for those who really want to stand back, like the leaders of the party, I don't see the leaders of the party necessarily following at this very moment. Something else has to turn or happen before the top members of the Democratic Party could necessarily follow suit -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Very interesting development, no doubt, this morning. Jessica Yellin for us on the phone, thanks. MARCIANO: And there has been a breach involving Barack Obama's passport files. Security breach. The State Department says it's trying to figure out whether three contract workers had a political motive for looking at Barack Obama's file three times this year. Each incident happened within hours or days of a primary contest.
Two of the government employees have been fired. A third suspended. Obama's campaign is demanding a full investigation for what it calls an outrageous invasion of privacy.
CNN's State Department correspondent Zain Verjee is live in Washington, D.C., this morning. Zain, the first incident happened over two months ago. Is the State Department saying why it took so long for them to find out?
ZAIN VERJEE, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question everyone is asking about and wondering what was going on there. Senior management at the State Department say that they were only made aware yesterday afternoon, even though the incidents happened on January 9th, one on February the 21st, and a third on March the 14th.
What happened was that a reporter called the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, to ask about this story, about Obama's file being breached, and the State Department then looked into it and confirmed that it actually had happened. They told us yesterday in a conference call that it was dealt with at a really low level, and it was just never sent up the chain.
The State Department acknowledged to us that this was a total failure. What they did straight away was to inform Senator Obama's office over on the Hill immediately. And top State Department official today, Patrick Kennedy, will be going over to the Hill to meet with Obama's staff in person.
MARCIANO: All right. And an investigation has been ordered, I assume. What are the steps going forward?
VERJEE: Well, the State Department is saying that there's already an ongoing review, but they're really not giving us any details. What they told us is that they've reached out to the acting inspector general, and he's going to take whatever steps that he decides are appropriate. The State Department saying it's really up to professional investigators to decide whether records, notes, or hard drives, things like that need to be preserved. They have reached out to the legal department, and they've said that that will be protected.
The State Department though, Rob, is treating this as sort of a step-by-step methodical process, and they're also treating all three instances as cases by these individuals of what they're calling imprudent curiosity, saying they're not just being dismissive of the whole thing. They're not ruling any ulterior motive out, but the Secretary of State wants a full investigation and the State Department's telling us that they're committed to it. MARCIANO: We'll also be certainly be watching to see if there was any sort of political motivation. CNN's State Department Zain Verjee live for us in D.C. Thanks, Zain.
CHETRY: All right. Now, we check in with Veronica De La Cruz. She's following updates now on other stories new this morning. Hey, Veronica.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you, Kiran. Good morning to you, Rob. And good morning to all of you out there.
We begin in the upper Midwest where a busy Minnesota bridge over the Mississippi River has been shut down. It was closed to traffic after structural problems were found. Inspectors say plates that connect to steel beams supporting the span were starting to bend. The bridge sits about 60 miles from the I-35 Interstate that collapsed last August. You might remember, 13 people were killed when that bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River.
A New York City inspector faces up to four years on charges he lied about inspecting a construction crane that collapsed last week, killing seven people. Investigators say Edward Marquette never inspected the site on March 4th, though prosecutors charge he filed a report saying he checked the crane and found it was erected according to plans. The crane was inspected one day before the accident. Authorities say it is unlikely Marquette could have stopped the tragedy, even if he had followed up on the March 4th complaint.
Also new this morning, a federal immigration agent accused of sexual blackmail. A 22-year-old Colombian woman says she secretly recorded a meeting in a car in Queens, New York, where she says the agent pressured her for sex in return for a green card. Here's part of that recording, which was first reported by "The New York Times."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FEMALE: I don't know. Tell me. We going to be friends, or?
MALE: Be friends. I want sex, one or two times. That's all. You get your green card. You won't have to see me anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DE LA CRUZ: The agent, 46-year-old Isaac Baichu, was arrested and has not pleaded guilty, or has pleaded not guilty.
And brand new information I want to tell you about now on a story from yesterday. Two South Carolina State troopers have now gotten the Fed's attention for using their cruisers as battering rams. Prosecutors say they are reviewing two incidents caught on tape. In one video, the trooper slams into a man, then weaves his patrol cars through trees, apartments, dodging children in his path.
In a second video, a trooper plows into a suspect who tries to cross in front of his patrol car. The officers involved were given two to three-day suspensions and remain on duty.
Finally, Good Friday services going on right now at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI leading the Commemoration of Passion. Tens of thousands of the faithful from all over the world expected to make the pilgrimage to the Vatican this weekend.
And that is what is new this morning. I'll send it back now to Kiran. And if I don't have a chance to tell you, Happy Easter.
CHETRY: You, too. Thanks so much, Veronica. Let's head over to Rob now tracking more extreme weather for us today. Hey, Rob.
MARCIANO: Hi, Kiran. Yes, extreme weather across the Midwest, flooding, as a matter of fact, in Kansas. The rains have stopped, but the water is still very, very dangerous and continue to rise. In Calico Rock, this home swept from its foundation, then carried downstream. Look at that. The current so swift, the roof actually sheared off by a bridge.
And two days of county rain pushed levees to their breaking point in Missouri. Southwest of St. Louis, the swollen rivers there now smashing through small levees, flooding downtowns and swamping streets and homes. And it looks the same in Illinois. There are urgent calls this morning for volunteers to help sandbag. Nearly two dozen counties there declared disaster areas.
Reynolds Wolf is at our weather update desk in Atlanta tracking all these extreme weather. Reynolds, what can you tell us?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the latest we can tell you is that we still have flooding issues. You know, as you mentioned, the odd thing about this, the rain is all gone. It's completely gone, but right now we're dealing with the saturated ground and all the run-off and we've got some major issues to deal with.
As we take a look at Google Earth at this point, you'll notice we've got all these river gauges that are popped up almost in a triangle pattern, extending from parts of Texas into the Ohio Valley and even into portions of the Midwest. All these spots, especially where you see the purples and the reds, indicate that flooding is not just going to have --- I mean, it's imminent. It's definitely going to take place, especially in spots along the Meramec River in Eureka, where we do expect the river to crest on say right around Saturday afternoon into Sunday, up to 43 feet.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is extremely high. That is extreme flooding. And the reason why we've had that kind of action is due to the heavy rainfall. Some places in Missouri well over a foot of rain, but that's not the only spot, of course. Arkansas over a foot, Evansville around seven inches. Same story in Mount Vernon, Indiana, and Hamilton, Ohio. They've had 4.9 inches of rainfall.
Now the big story is mainly frozen precipitation. We're talking about some snowfall. We've got a swathe that's coming through parts of Minnesota, back into the Great Lakes. We're going to see a combination of rain farther to the south in Peoria, but in Chicago to Milwaukee, anywhere from four to eight inches of snowfall, could see some major delays there.
Already, we've got watches and warnings that are popping up across that part of the map. However in parts of the northeast, the story is also some snow. We've got blizzard-like conditions up near Presque Isle and Maine. And back to New York, we've seen some scattered snow showers this morning. We might see some snow flurries out by Columbia Circle. We've seen most of the snow now moving out over parts of Long Island.
That is the latest on your forecast. Let's send it right back to you in New York.
(CROSSTALK)
MARCIANO: All right, thanks.
CHETRY: Oh, sorry.
MARCIANO: Actually I'm all done. Chime in. Thanks, Reynolds.
Kiran is so excited to talk, talk to you.
CHETRY: No. We weren't going to bring up the snow, you know, because we didn't want to get people in a tizzy. You know, it was just -- I only saw the snow come down for a couple minutes this morning, right?
MARCIANO: I think you're a little freaked out because Easter is so early this year and --
CHETRY: Of flurry. Yes.
MARCIANO: You know, to have someone --
CHETRY: You don't expect it to be snowing on Easter.
MARCIANO: Oh, yes. You don't want that to happen on your Easter egg hunt.
CHETRY: Exactly. It's so much harder to find the white egg.
Well, when it comes to having a healthy baby, we hear about a lot about the importance of a mom's diet. Now, there's a new study, though, that says it is very important for dads to eat their greens.
Elizabeth Cohen is following this from the medical update for us this morning. What does it say about a father's diet or a father-to- be's diet in the risk of birth defects, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, this study links a father's diet to a whole host of reproductive problems, things that I think people usually associate with mom's diet. So let's take a look at the list of things that seem to be associated at least in this study, with dad's diet.
Failure to conceive in the first place. A lot of times when couples can't conceive, they often look at the mom. Well, it maybe what the dad's actually eating. Also, miscarriages were linked to poor diet for dad. Down syndrome, Turner's syndrome, which is a chromosomal abnormality that occurs in baby girls, and Klinefelter's syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality that affects baby boys.
Now, when they looked at the dad's diet and broke it down to the exact nutrients, what they found is that dads who ate a lot of folic acid had less of a chance of having these problems. Now, folic acid may sound familiar. Moms-to-be are told to take folic acid supplements. Well, now that nutrient may play a role also for the dads -- Kiran.
CHETRY: If you're trying to conceive, is it a good idea for men to supplement with some sort of vitamin that contains like many moms- to-be do?
COHEN: You know what, doctors aren't up to making that. They're not at the point where they're making that recommendation right now. They wouldn't do that based on one study. But certainly, there's nothing harmful about taking a multivitamin that has folic acid in it or trying to get enough folic acid in your diet. It's certainly not going to hurt you.
CHETRY: Very interesting. Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning on dad's diets. Puts the pressure on them every now and then.
COHEN: Right.
CHETRY: Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
MARCIANO: Take it easy on the dads.
Well, why did three State Department employees bust into Barack Obama's secret passport file? That's what the Democratic front-runner wants to know. Two of those workers now fired. We'll talk with a former State Department inspector general about that controversy.
And with job growth slowing in most parts of the country, there are still a few industries that are actually adding workers. Ali Velshi is going to tell us where those jobs are. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: We're following breaking news this morning about Barack Obama's passport file. The State Department's inspector general is investigating three contract employees after the file was accessed three times in the last two months. Two workers have been fired and one disciplined. Each incident happened within hours or days of a primary contest, but the Obama campaign was only notified yesterday.
CNN security analyst Clark Kent Ervin was the State Department inspector general from 2001 to 2002. He joins us now live from Washington. Good morning, Clark. Let's start right off with, you know, this was your job to inspect this kind of stuff. So how do you go about figuring out what happened?
CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Rob, if I were still the inspector general, I'd have a number of questions. Of course, the obvious one is why were these employees accessing these files? Was it merely imprudent curiosity as the State Department put it last night, or was there an ulterior political purpose?
The fact that you just noted that these files were accessed close to primary dates, and the fact that according to the State Department anyway, the senior management learned about it last night or yesterday, yesterday afternoon from a reporter, suggested there was a political motive, but certainly that's one of the questions.
Another is, did any other employees access these files? And if so, when and for what purpose? Why did management, if this is in fact the case, learn about it just yesterday? So a number of questions, and I'm sure the inspector general is pursuing this aggressively today.
MARCIANO: Well, let's talk about this. Here's a statement, Clark, I want to read to you from the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack. He said, "As soon as the State Department senior management knew about this this afternoon, we briefed the Obama campaign."
Well, as you mentioned, this happened over two months ago. Why do you think it would take so long for this to shake down?
ERVIN: It should not have taken this long. After the first incident, it should have been made known immediately to senior management in the State Department, and the employees in question should have been disciplined, fired. They should have immediately been turned over to the inspector general for investigation, and the Obama campaign should have been promptly notified. Had that happened in January, presumably, the incidents in February and last week would not have happened.
MARCIANO: This happened to Bill Clinton back in 1992. What happened to the people that were accused of accessing his files?
ERVIN: Well, ultimately, the inspector general -- by the way, the secretary at the time promptly referred that incident to the inspector general. The inspector general conducted a thorough investigation, and a special prosecutor, Joe DiGenova (ph), was ultimately involved. Ultimately, the special prosecutor did not prosecute anyone. No charges were filed, but it was serious enough for the Department of Justice to start and to pursue a criminal investigation.
MARCIANO: What's your feeling from what you know about what has transpired in the last couple of months? With this case, could there possibly be criminal charges brought upon these people?
ERVIN: Well, it depends upon the reason why these files were accessed. If, in fact, there were political motivations -- and again, the fact that the State Department apparently learned about this from a reporter, the dates in question suggest to me, anyway, that there was a political motivation, then certainly, there would be cause to refer this to the Department of Justice if the State Department inspector general confirms that, and there might well be prosecution of the three employees and anybody else who was involved in this, the contract employees.
MARCIANO: Do you think -- you think management was involved? I mean, these guys -- the lower echelons were promptly fired. Is it possible that management may have been on it?
ERVIN: Well, it certainly is possible. As I said, I would want to know who in management knew about this and when. It's also interesting to me that two of these contract employees were fired, and the other one was just disciplined. Why the difference in those cases?
Also, why were contract employees involved in this? This is so sensitive, accessing passport files of prominent people. You would have thought that it would have been permitted to be done only by employees. And there are two contract companies involved here. Which were those companies and were there any political connections between those companies and the administration, the State Department? These are all questions that need to be aggressively pursued by the acting inspector general.
MARCIANO: Lots of questions, for sure. Clark Kent Ervin, our CNN security analyst, thanks for your insight, Clark.
ERVIN: Thank you, Rob.
CHETRY: We've been talking about issue number one, the economy. A lot of gloom and doom news lately, but several states are actually creating jobs. Ali Velshi will explain where those jobs are, just ahead.
Also, many cities and towns in the Midwest hit with record rainfall and now reeling from a new danger. We're going to take you to where the waters are rising and rising fast, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: Oh, big game last night. March Madness kicked off, and we almost saw a major upset. What a game this was. Number two seed and perennial powerhouse Duke was trailing Belmont, lowly Belmont, by a point late in the game, but Duke's Henderson took over. He grabbed the ball and sprinted down, sliced and diced, and made his way to the basket for the game-winning lay-up. Duke beats Belmont 71- 70.
That's one of the reasons I'm tired this morning from watching that game. By the way, I know you're concerned. My Cornell Big Red, they lost last night.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, sorry to hear that.
CHETRY: That's why I didn't watch.
VELSHI: We are talking about jobs this morning. One of the things that we're concerned about in this economy is jobs, so I wanted to take a really hard look at where the jobs are. This assumes that you're looking for work and you've got some degree of mobility. You can go around to a different place in the United States.
Now, the average -- we have two ways of measuring jobs in the country. The unemployment rate, which is 4.8 percent, that's relatively low. That's not really the problem, but it's measuring the number of people who are actively looking for jobs or in the workforce. So that's not the best gauge. What we look at is job growth, how many jobs are we growing or losing.
The average rate for 2007 was 0.89 percent. That's how many new jobs were created, less than one percent new jobs. So we wanted to look at states that had lower than average unemployment rates and higher than average job growth rates. And let's start with Texas.
Texas has three times the national average in terms of job growth. So there are more jobs growing there. It's got a lower than average unemployment rate. There is growth in professional and business services, trade, transportation, and utilities, and leisure and hospitality. These are job categories decided on by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They tend to be fairly broad, but you can go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and look at it.
Wyoming is another state, again, with lower than average unemployment and more than three times -- 3 1/3 times the national average in job growth. Again, professional and business services, trade transportation and utilities. Transport, by the way, will show up in every state as a growth area, just as manufacturing won't.
And construction. There are construction jobs in Wyoming, believe it or not. That's another area we've been shedding jobs across the country. So if you're mobile and you are trained in transportation, truck driving, construction, that's a place to go.
And North Carolina, finally, was a bit of a surprise. The unemployment rate, again, lower than the national average, and the job growth rate more than two times the national average. Jobs there are in the professional and business services, which is a very broad area, education, which is definitely one of the higher growth areas in the country, and government jobs.
Number three is of a little bit of concern because you don't tend to want to depend on government jobs for job growth. But those are three states, Texas, Wyoming and North Carolina that are worth considering in your job -- if you're looking for a job and you think you might be interested in moving somewhere.
We'll keep on bringing you that sort of information over the course of the next week because it's part of issue number one, the economy. CHETRY: Absolutely. And it's a little bright spot...
VELSHI: A little bright spot. Exactly.
CHETRY: ... in some of the doom and gloom that we've been bringing people. All right, Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: OK.
MARCIANO: Well, you're watching the most news in the morning. Volunteers desperately trying to fight back rising floodwaters in the Midwest. We'll take you there live to where the rivers are now quickly spilling over their banks.
And you're looking at live at one of the most graceful creatures of the sea, an eagle ray, blamed for a deadly freak accident in the Florida Keys. How could it happen, and could it happen again? The story and today's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARCIANO: Live picture of the White House there. Forty-one degrees. Should be a good-looking day. Flag flapping, and Kiran telling me that the cherry blossoms are often difficult to predict. But we're going to try to give you that news as it breaks in the next couple weeks.
CHETRY: Right. Well, a gorgeous sight around the Tidal Basin and there are some years when you feel like you blink and you miss it depending on the weather. You know, the wind and the rain, but a gorgeous sight.
MARCIANO: It is a gorgeous sight. Good morning everybody. It's the first full day of spring. I'm Rob in for John, who's on vacation.
CHETRY: First full day of spring and snow flurries in New York City at 3:30 in the morning. Welcome. I'm Kiran Chetry and we're following breaking political news that happened overnight. Senator Barack Obama picking up the endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson says that Obama can unite the nation and would be a quote once in a lifetime leader. The formal announcement comes at a rally this afternoon in Portland, Oregon. CNN's Jessica Yellin joins us now with more on the timing of this, why Governor Richardson wanted to finally endorse. We had him on the show many times and couldn't pin him down to who he was backing and then he does it today. What about the timing, Jessica?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kiran. One staffer described -- of one of these campaigns -- described Bill Richardson as Hamlet, trying to weigh, weigh and decide who he wanted to endorse for the longest time, beginning when he left the race on February 10th. He said he was courted by both campaigns assiduously on a daily basis. In a statement overnight, he says he endorsed for two reasons. First, he says it is time for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves and to prepare for the tough fight we will face against John McCain, essentially saying it's time to start uniting the party behind one candidate and he thinks that should be Barack Obama, clearly.
He also said that he was inspired by Obama's speech on race this week, saying that he asked us to rise above our racially divided past and as a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. The big question now is what kind of impact this endorsement will have. Certainly, it will lead some positive momentum to Barack Obama's campaign after a few weeks of drip, drip, drip of bad news for his campaign. Maybe it will stop that tide for him and start changing the topic to more positive things for Barack Obama. And then also, the big question remains, will this prompt other super delegates who remain undecided to say it's now time to cast their lot with Barack Obama, rather than waiting to see how these next states play out?
Very bad news for Senator Clinton because her message right now to these undecided super delegates is wait, let's see how the voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana, where I am and other upcoming states decide before any super delegates make a decision for them. And also, on a personal note, I should say, this must be quite disappointing to the Clintons. They made Bill Richardson UN ambassador and Energy secretary. He was a personal friend. So it has to be a morale blow to the Clinton campaign. Kiran?
CHETRY: Jessica Yellin for us this morning in Indianapolis, thank you.
And we are tracking breaking news involving Senator Barack Obama's passport file as well, where the State Department will be releasing more details this morning about how three contract employees who accessed that file did it and why. Two of them were fired, one suspended. CNN's political analyst John Dickerson joins me from Washington now. First, just a bit about the endorsement of Richardson for Barack Obama. You know, this is a good friend of both Hillary and Bill Clinton, former member of the cabinet, as we just heard from Jessica Yellin. What message does it send if he's saying I know them, I'm great friends with them, but I'm not necessarily sold on Hillary for president?
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's not a great message for Hillary Clinton, to be sure. I think that the big message it sends is as super delegates who are still on the fence weigh what to do -- and you know, they can play a role here and kind of cut short this building debate inside the Democratic party about what to do. Barack Obama has the lead in the pledged delegates. He will go into the convention in Denver this summer and there are many people who say something needs to be done to kind of short-circuit what could be a big problem in the party and that's essentially what Richardson said in his letter to supporters about why he was backing Barack Obama. He said the party needed to come together behind its nominee and then confront the Republicans. So that's a tough message, because as Jessica quite rightly pointed out, Hillary Clinton has been telling people just like Richardson, hold your fire, wait. You know, I'm going to make my case for why I should be the nominee.
CHETRY: Let's talk a little bit about this breach in terms of the State Department, Barack Obama's passport information accessed by at least three contract employees. What is the political fallout from that?
DICKERSON: Well, we don't know quite yet what the political fallout is. It makes the Bush administration look a little goofy and it is quite curious that there were three of these breaches, that three people would be similarly curious all at these important political times. It's odd that a reporter had to bring this to the attention of the State Department. So there are a lot of unanswered questions here.
For Barack Obama, it, frankly, it helps him shift the story from some of these other stories that aren't so great for him in the last couple of weeks. So as a political matter, that's probably not bad for him, but it's only sort of when we get more of these questions answered will we have any sense of whether this has any long-term political implications for Obama. It may just be bad for the State Department.
CHETRY: Politically though, what would they be trying to find out? Any speculation at this point, because this happened to Bill Clinton back in 1992, right? And there were questions about draft dodging and that's why it came out that they were looking into his passport files?
DICKERSON: That's right. With Bill Clinton, it was a question of whether he tried to apply for citizenship in another country to avoid the draft. Who knows what's going on in this case. I don't have any speculation on that front. All we know at the moment from the State Department is that this was curiosity. So perhaps, it could have just been, oh, here's a famous person, let's check out his record. You know, there have been lots and lots of rumors floated about Barack Obama and his origins and where he's lived, all of them false. And so perhaps there's a link to that, but I should quickly add that that's me guessing, nothing that we actually know at this moment.
CHETRY: But you're right, it is a question on some political minds this morning, for sure, what the possible political point would be to try to look into his files. John Dickerson, good to see you, as always, thanks.
DICKERSON: Thanks.
MARCIANO: Well, this morning days of rain pushing swollen rivers over their banks. Floods are overwhelming 250 communities and at least a dozen states, blamed for least 16 deaths. Federal disaster areas have been declared. Homes and businesses surrounded by water that are still on the rise. Members of the National Guard are working around the clock and officials say it may still be days before water levels return to normal. Reynolds Wolf is at the CNN weather center tracking all the extreme weather. Good morning again, Reynolds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Posting $200,000 bail for 40 total strangers. Why one businessman decided to get hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants out of jail and the controversy that move is causing.
The eagle ray, a normally passive sea creature, this time a killer, leaping from the water and killing a woman in a boat. Was it a freak accident or could something like this happen again? We are live with the rays just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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MARCIANO: This morning we are uncovering America, looking at people and stories that are changing our nation. A businessman said he saw reports on the news of an immigration raid separating families, so he took it upon himself to post bail for 350 people. But as CNN's Dan Lothian reports, he's now facing critics for what he thought was a good deed.
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DAN LOTHIAN,CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lots of wealthy businesspeople give money away, but to people accused of breaking the law?
ROBERT HILDRETH, BOSTON FINANCIER: It is an obligation, if you have the choice to be philanthropic.
LOTHIAN: Last March, Federal immigration agents raided a factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts and detained more than 350 suspected illegal immigrants. Some were split up from their families and shipped to Texas. That caught Robert Hildreth's attention.
HILDRETH: It struck me -- these people are in jail. How are they going to get out? They need bail money. Looking at National City right now.
LOTHIAN: Hildreth, who made his riches in finance, started writing checks, with one condition --
HILDRETH: I wanted the families to put up some of the money so that everybody involved would understand, it would be a very heavy price for jumping bail.
LOTHIAN: Hildreth says he's funded other immigrant causes, but never posted bail for anyone until now, when he shelled out $130,000.
HILDRETH: And by God, 40 people ended up being thrown back to Massachusetts with bail.
LOTHIAN: What motivated this? Why did you decide to do this?
HILDRETH: I have a long record of helping these people. I saw this as a front line of the fight over immigration.
LOTHIAN: Aren't you just helping people who are breaking the law?
HILDRETH: What I did was I allowed these 40 people to have their day in court. Some of them have already been deported. Their day in court has happened and they have been sent back. I'm OK with that. LOTHIAN: Harvey Kaplan is an immigration lawyer who represented some of the factory workers who got Hildreth's bail money.
HARVEY KAPLAN, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: There are a lot of people out there, I'm sure, who will give him a lot of flack.
LOTHIAN: Like Ken Pittman, a New Bedford conservative radio host.
KEN PITTMAN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I just wish that he had that sort of compassion for the Americans that are displaced that are competing for the limited funds.
LOTHIAN: Hildreth says he doesn't mind the criticism. His wealth has allowed him to do what he thinks is right, even if it's not always popular. Dan Lothian, CNN, New Bedford.
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MARCIANO: The factory raid last March was one of the largest in the nation in recent years. The factory's owner was arraigned in August in Federal district court in Boston on charges of harboring and recruiting illegal immigrants.
CHETRY: You may have heard the tragic accident that happened off the coast of Florida. An eagle ray six feet wide with the wingspan and 75 pounds leaps from the water, slams into a woman on a boat, killing her. How dangerous are these graceful creatures? We're going to take an up-close look at eagle rays, next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. You know, the eagle ray -- you're seeing some video right now of these rays. Known as one of the most graceful creatures of the sea, a protected species and not known as very aggressive, but known to be quite a jumper, in fact, able to leap out of the water. Its wingspan sometimes more than five to six feet. And as we said, not typically known as a species that will attack, yet it was an eagle ray that was responsible for a woman's death off of the Florida keys yesterday.
MARCIANO: Investigators say a 75-pound ray jumped out of the water and slammed into a woman who was just hanging out on the boat. You may remember, back in 2006 crocodile hunter Steve Irwin was killed when the barb of a stingray pierced his heart. Well, are these simply freak accidents or is there something more to them? Ray Davis is a senior vice president of zoological operations at the Georgia aquarium. He joins us live from the aquarium's stingray and shark touch tank. Ray, that's a very popular exhibit there. Give us your reaction when you heard about this news.
RAY DAVIS, GEORGIA AQUARIUM: Well, good morning, everyone. It was such a tragic event to hear about this and the first impression is that we need to understand that this was just a tragic accident and people enjoying the ocean. And the spotted eagle ray doing its normal behavior, probably evading a predator or possibly trying to dislodge parasites and it's not uncommon to see spotted eagle rays jumping in the Florida keys.
CHETRY: I mean, you would think because they are used in a lot of these hands-on exhibits where people can interact with them, feed them, and that's also popular if you're around the Caribbean and visiting some of those places. So how common is it for them to leap out of the water like that? Do you experience it there at the aquarium?
DAVIS: We don't see that behavior here at the aquarium. I myself in traveling around the world and seeing many of these coastal areas have seen spotted eagle rays and their relatives jumping out of the water. There are places in the Florida keys where it's more common than others, where there are predators, such as the bull shark, that would chase the spotted eagle ray. So there are places that this will happen more commonly, but to have it timed such that it would hurt a person, it's really something that is just a tragic, tragic event.
MARCIANO: Ray, what can you tell us about the different species of rays? There's obviously small ones there in your tank. There's larger ones out in the wild. T There's the kind that tourists will actually swim with. Break them down as far as which ones are which and who's more aggressive than the other, or are they all about the same?
DAVIS: Well, we need to understand that the barb that everyone is most concerned about is a defensive weapon for the stingrays. There are over 175 types of rays that could be termed a stingray that have a barb at the base of their tail. I have a barb here to show you. It's a serrated defense weapon. It is made of a very rigid -- it's a modified scale and sometimes it is dislodged. Of all these species that you're talking about here that occur in the coastal zones, people need to be aware of the fact that they are there and there are ways to defend yourself, that you're more at risk from a dog bite than you are from the stingrays. The rays that you see behind us --
MARCIANO: Are those stingray barbs poisonous or are they just act like a knife?
DAVIS: Well, there's a sheath of tissue surrounding this barb and that sheath has the toxin in it, and the invenomation can be quite painful and depending on the species more so and also the location. And the treatment, first aid for this is to take care of the wound. And as hot of water as the victim can stand without scalding the flesh will neutralize that venom. Then seek first aid treatment at a hospital and further care, because sometimes with the barb dislodged, it can move around inside the tissues.
CHETRY: Well, that's what we saw with Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, who was killed because of the location of where that barb hit, which was in his heart. Should people be concerned if they're swimming, if they're enjoying water activities in some of these areas? Should they be avoiding areas where stingrays may be or is this something that is just not really a concern?
DAVIS: Well, everyone needs to develop that sense of respect and understanding, and it's a great opportunity when you go to the beach or have a great time with the family in the ocean, to take a look at how these animals behave. Understand that when you walk into the near shore, into that shallow water, sandy beach area, shuffle your feet, because there are a variety of stingrays. One, the little, round stingray that occurs down in Florida and other areas, only about nine inches around. They'll burrow down into the sand. If you shuffle your feet and kind of do a sting ray shuffle, that makes noise, fluffs up the sand a bit and gives them a warning. They'll move off.
The challenge that you face then is when you're out there swimming, if a large group of stingrays come through -- and they do travel in large schools, like the cow nose rays can be into the tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands -- it's best to go ahead and move out of their path, only because you don't want to startle them. It is a defense. I would not expect these animals to go -- they're not going to attack you. It's the normal behavior. They're going around foraging for things like clams and shrimp.
CHETRY: Right. Thank you for giving us an up-close look this morning, Ray Davis, senior VP of zoological operations down there at the Georgia aquarium. Thanks.
DAVIS: Have a nice day.
So, on this busy travel weekend, you know, the Easter weekend and holy week, an airline takes several jets out of service. What's keeping them grounded? Take a look, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back. It is five minutes before the top of the hour, before 8:00 here on the east coast. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business." We're talking about yet again whether some of the key minds in economics think we're headed for a recession and whether or not it's filtering down into people's behavior.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. We've been hearing increasingly from a lot of economists about the fact that we are either in or headed for a recession. There is one organization called the Economic Cycle Research Institute, which takes all the numbers that come out every week, whether it's jobs or inflation and all the statistics that come out there and they chart it. The managing director of that group is a man named Lakshman Achutah who yesterday told us that their numbers show that we are now headed for a recession, if we're not in one already. Listen to what he told me.
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LAKSHMAN ACHUTAH, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ECRI: So recession is unavoidable at this point. So if policymakers had been quick in stimulating the economy say late last year, we could have had a nice pause in this slowdown, which might have given us some time to avert the recession.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: He's talking about the Fed cutting rates and he's talking about things like the stimulus package, which he thinks are a good idea, but feels that it's taken the government too long from the time they decided to do that to get the checks out. Let's take a look at the chart that Lakshman uses to make that call that we're headed into a recession. That goes back to 1974. And as you can see, those areas that go down below that middle line are where we have a recession. There is -- you'll notice that over time there is more space between those recessions. The average length of recession, the last few have been about eight months long. Average length is about 10 months. You can see right at the right of your screen, in February, the indicator just started going way down. That's why he says there's a recession is coming.
MARCIANO: How far leading is that? I mean, it shows us now -- I mean, that's pretty --
VELSHI: About half the economic indicators we get are current and/or past and some of them are leading. This is a combination of all of them. So he's charting February. When we get new data for March -- we haven't got jobs data. We haven't gotten inflation data or things like that - that will then -- his estimation is that there is nothing indicating that that line is going to go back up again any time soon. So he says we won't know until afterwards, but if we're not in it now, we're going there, we can't escape it.
MARCIANO: Encouraging news.
VELSHI: Well, it is encouraging news on one level, because if you can get past the discussion about whether we're there or not, you can actually start doing the things that have to be done, like job creation, like more stimulus if we need. We don't have to have the debate about whether or not we're headed for a recession, we can just fix it.
CHETRY: Good point. Thanks, Ali.
MARCIANO: We've been talking about extreme weather, heavy rains leading to massive flooding in the Midwest. CNN's Jacqui Jeras live in Eureka, Missouri, one of the many spots that is just overridden with water and the boats are out behind you, Jacqui. Good morning again.
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