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American Morning

Frontier Airlines Files for Bankruptcy; Record High Prices for Gas; Is a New Vaccine Needed for Mumps?; How To Save on Gas

Aired April 11, 2008 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The "Most Politics in the Morning" now. The candidates are hitting the campaign trail today. Hillary Clinton is in Philadelphia, just 11 days before that all-important Pennsylvania primary. Barack Obama is in the middle of a three-day bus tour of Indiana, and presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in Lubbock, Texas, for a rally and fund-raiser today.
And a dramatic shift in the presidential race to tell you about. A new "Associated Press"/Ipsos poll out today shows McCain gaining ground on the Democrats. McCain and Obama are dead even now at 45 percent apiece. Back in February, he was behind by 10 points. And a matchup with Hillary Clinton, he trails 45 to 48 percent. But that's a statistically tie because of a three-point margin of error in that poll.

John McCain changing his position on the mortgage crisis. He now says the government should help struggling homeowners. His plan calls for the government to back new mortgages for people facing foreclosure. The estimated cost would be between $3 billion and $10 billion. Barack Obama criticized the McCain plan calling it similar to the George Bush solution. Obama wants to create a $10 billion fund to bail out homeowners who are experiencing mortgage trouble.

Senator Hillary Clinton reemphasized her opposition to a free trade agreement with Colombia, a deal that her husband supports. While campaigning in Pennsylvania, Senator Clinton was asked by CNN about a possible conflict of interest. You see, her husband earned nearly $1 million giving speeches for a group that supports the free trade deal, and Senator Clinton has dipped into the family pocketbook to pay her campaign bills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In fact, in the trade deal, your husband received $800,000 for four speaking engagements essentially for the trade deal or by a group that supports the trade deal. You've given your money to your campaign. Is that a conflict of interest?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, and how many angels dance on the head of a pin? I have really nothing to -- how do you answer that? I am against the Colombia free trade deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Earlier in the news conference Clinton said of her husband's support of that free trade deal she is against, "Everyone is free to express their opinion."

And this Sunday night, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will face questions on faith and politics. Campbell Brown leads the CNN special event, "The Compassion Forum." That's Sunday night 8:00 Eastern.

Now, Alina Cho is here with other stories new this morning. Good morning to you, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. And good morning, everybody. New this morning.

We have new details on that recent raid of the polygamist compound in Texas. The sheriff is now defending the timing of the raid. He says he was working for four years with an informant who was feeding him information about life inside the sect, but authorities say they decided to wait until last week to raid the compound because they had no concrete evidence of any wrongdoing.

Investigators say they found dozens of beds in the group's temple where they believe men had sex with underage girls just after getting married. Four hundred sixteen children were removed from the ranch after a 16-year-old girl tipped off police saying she had been beaten and raped by her 50-year-old husband.

Eight Florida teenagers could face life in prison for a violent videotaped attack on a classmate. The victim was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion. The sheriff says the attackers posted the video on YouTube, and YouTube says it's pulling that video now. The suspects are all between the ages of 14 and 18 years old. All of them will be tried as adults. They face kidnapping and battery charges.

We've got some extreme weather to tell you about this morning. Heavy storm pounding Oklahoma. Hundreds of homes damaged. At least two people were killed. Rescuers say dozens of drivers ignored high water warning signs, and it took a crew with a boat to reach a 74- year-old man who was stranded on top of his pickup truck. Rob Marciano, of course, watching all of the extreme weather. He's going to update us on where the storms are headed today. That's coming up.

New overnight. The price of gas hit another record high. AAA reports the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $3.36. That's up 0.08 of a cent from yesterday.

Then there was this. Guys, listen. One driver called it a gift from God. Gas, as in premium gas, for 35 cents a gallon. 35 cents. People traveled miles. They waited in long lines behind pump number four at a gas station in Wilmington, North Carolina, all for the deal of a lifetime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have just been in about five minutes. I've been in line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long are you willing to wait?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to wait until I get some.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is pumping to get at the gas because gas is high, and this is a blessing from the Lord above. We need gas!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: All they can thank is a station employee for causing the glitch. The station later shut down all of the pumps and called police. I don't know what the cops are going to do about it. Owners say they lost $1,500 on the day and for the short time that it was 35 cents a gallon, it was the cheapest gas in the area since 1969.

ROBERTS: You know, with gasoline prices changing so quickly, that has happened in several places.

CHO: It has.

ROBERTS: My brother-in-law up in Canada got gas not for 35 cents, but like $1.29.

CHO: Well, you know what's interesting is they -- apparently, it was a worker who typed in 35 cents instead of $3.35, right? It happened at 9:00 a.m. They didn't catch the problem until 6:00 p.m.?

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Why so long? There are long lines.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Because this is the problem. People paying with their credit card, so no one is there to actually say, hey, how come the average transaction is like $2.50?

CHO: Who's going to tip --

ROBERTS: And here's the thing, 35 cents is the daily price of gasoline in Venezuela. That's what people pay there.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: So maybe that's what it is.

CHO: Yes.

VELSHI: The weather was warm. It felt like Venezuela all of a sudden. CHO: Or in Sri Lanka.

VELSHI: Yes.

CHETRY: But you do feel bad for the independent gas station guy.

VELSHI: Yes, you do.

CHETRY: They're the ones that are getting squeezed. VELSHI: Right, and they do get squeezed. And, you know, the thing about what I do is because I just can't deal with three numbers after a decimal point, I only update gas when the price moves a full cent. So today's increase isn't really an increase.

ROBERTS: You're not telling the whole story there because every time you go to a gas station it's 3.349.

VELSHI: No, nine or six. You're absolutely right.

CHETRY: It's always nine.

VELSHI: Absolutely right. Well, listen.

CHETRY: We're talking about problems on the road. How about in the air?

VELSHI: And in the air.

CHETRY: Another airline filing for Chapter 11.

VELSHI: Another one. Frontier Airlines is filing for bankruptcy. It's joining a long list of others. I'm going to come back and tell you about Frontier and the other airlines. Those that are in bankruptcy and that have stopped flying and those where you can still keep on flying. Stay with us. AMERICAN MORNING is coming right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Ali Velshi. Let's talk about the airlines. We have another bankruptcy.

Frontier Airlines has said that it is going to stop flying planes. I make that distinction -- I'm sorry, it is going to continue flying planes, but it's going to bankruptcy. The distinction is it's the fifth airline we've heard from in terms of bankruptcy in the last few weeks, and the others aren't flying. Let's take a look at these, first of all.

Frontier, just to correct myself, is going to continue flying, but Aloha, ATA, Skybus, Champion, and the last couple of weeks, we've heard from all of these airlines which are discontinuing operations. Frontier's situation is a little different. Unexpectedly its credit card processor started withholding money from them earlier this week which put them into financial trouble. And now, they say, they can't pay their bills so they filed for bankruptcy protection.

Meanwhile, we've been talking extensively about American Airlines grounding those MD-80s for inspections. They're not going to be back online until sometime this weekend. American's CEO has once again apologized to consumers, flyers. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERARD ARPEY, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: I want to once again, as I did in a press conference yesterday in Los Angeles, apologize to our customers impacted by the continued inspections on our MD-80 fleet. We are doing everything we possibly can to re-accommodate our customers impacted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And they are going to. They said they're going to take care of customers who have had to stay over, had accommodation problems, rebooking problems. Bottom line, though, is if you're stuck in one of these problems, you are stuck in it for the next couple days. It's going to be a tough time getting home.

And we've all -- obviously, when you have these many flights, we've all have heard from or know people who have not been able to travel as a result of it. So thank you for the apology, but it's a tough situation.

CHETRY: It is a tough situation, and there are articles saying this is the worst time for the airline industry in terms of money troubles since after 9/11.

VELSHI: That's right.

CHETRY: So what do they -- I mean --

VELSHI: And fuel, by the way, is a big part of that.

CHETRY: And the Feds gave them billions then.

VELSHI: Yes, this has been forever a tough industry to be in. Publicly traded airline companies have just -- it's a hard time for them to be healthy.

ROBERTS: Or are there too many of them?

VELSHI: Yes, you know, there's an old joke in the airline industry that, you know, the worst day for the airline industry is when the Wright brothers actually got the thing to fly because it's just not been profitable largely from long periods of time since then.

ROBERTS: One way to put it. Ali, thanks very much.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROBERTS: We're following extreme weather this morning as well. Oklahoma slammed with heavy rains overnight as rescuers raced to reach drivers who were trapped in rising floodwaters.

Our Rob Marciano is tracking the storms. He joins us now. Good morning, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. Those rains should begin to taper off, but the snow is going to continue and it's the middle of April. It's a monster storm. We're going to talk about it after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Rob Marciano. Take a look at some of the video coming out of the Midwest. Big-time storm creating all sorts of problems. First off, tornado damage or this is actually some flooding issues across parts of Arkansas. Look at that. These folks can't catch a break.

In the last couple of months, they've seen snow, they've seen tornadoes and flooding that just will not quit. Here are some of the rainfall totals from this storm. Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, all of these areas have tributaries that feed into the Mississippi. So what that means, we're going to have -- continue to have flooding problems in through the Mississippi and all the tributaries there, including Arkansas. The Black River, the White River, and also the Mississippi itself. There you can see some of the flood warnings.

This is a monster storm. Look at the satellite picture overlay. Look at this huge comma shield of clouds. That is just a mature beast. And I tell you what, things could have been a lot worse severe weatherwise, and we'll be thankful for that.

Folks across the northern tier saying hey, where's spring? My goodness, we're getting blizzard conditions again today. Blizzard warnings are posted. Louisville to Lexington, back to Nashville, you're seeing heavy rain this morning. Nothing severe there, and some of that rain at least east of Nashville will be beneficial.

There is a severe weather threat today across parts of Michigan and the Ohio Valley and also an isolated threat for severe weather across the southeast, and then the snows continue across the northern plains. We'll be happy when we're rid of this storm, guys. It should happen later tonight just in time for the weekend. Back to you in New York.

CHETRY: All right, Rob. Thanks so much.

You're watching the "Most News in the Morning." It seems gas prices hitting new records almost daily and hitting your wallets pretty hard. But is your car part of the problem? A lot of people are saying, you know what, maybe if I buy another car I'm going to try to go hybrid or do something. How to get the most out of your tank. We're going to take a look at some of the cars out there.

ROBERTS: And what was behind the biggest outbreak of mumps in the United States in decades. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is coming up to tell us. Good morning, Liz.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. John, the answer about what was behind that big mumps outbreak, the answer might be autism worries overseas. We'll have that and more when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Are the mumps making a comeback? A study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" reports this week that there were more than 6,500 cases of mumps in 2006. Most of them occurring in the Midwest. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with the reasons behind them.

Elizabeth, let's start off by asking this question. Aren't kids routinely vaccinated against mumps? Why are they getting the mumps?

COHEN: They are routinely vaccinated against mumps, John, but unfortunately, the vaccine is not 100 percent effective. You can vaccinated and still get the mumps. It doesn't happen very often that all, but it can happen.

And the reason behind this big outbreak in 2006, many experts think that there is a connection between a big outbreak in England at the same time where 70,000, that's right, 70,000 people became sick, and that outbreak is blamed in large part because many people in England are choosing not to vaccinate their kids against the mumps because of fears that the vaccine will give their child autism.

So germs, of course, know no national boundaries. They can skip from England to the United States. And let's take a look at what happened in 2006. here are the numbers.

It was quite a big outbreak. People were infected in 40 states. It was mostly people in colleges; 6,584 people got the mumps, 85 were hospitalized. Fortunately, there were no deaths -- John.

ROBERTS: So, if people are eschewing this vaccine because they're worried about a possible autism connection, what can be done to prevent another outbreak of mumps?

COHEN: Well, doctors here are talking about whether they need to come up with a better mumps vaccine in this country. In this country, by and large, people do get vaccinated, but as I said it's not perfect. So do they need to come up with a more perfect vaccine and also, do they need to give more boosters as children get older?

ROBERTS: Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth, thanks very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Kiran?

CHETRY: All right. Time for a little Friday fun. There's a photo, you know, that was actually put on the White House Web page, and it's causing quite a stir on the Internet.

It was posted on the Web site showing Vice president Dick Cheney, and it was a caption that said he was fly fishing on the Snake River in Idaho. But the bloggers got a hold of it. They say if you look closely at the reflection in the sunglasses it looks eerily like a naked woman. Well, the rumbling on the blogs got to be so much that the White House actually came out to dismiss the idea saying clearly the picture shows a hand casting a rod.

So it's Friday, and our "Quick Vote" question, do you agree with the blogosphere? Do you think it's a naked woman in the reflection?

Right now it's 50/50. Fifty of you say yes, it is. Fifty percent of you say no. You can still cast your vote at CNN.com/am. That's where you can also go to e-mail us. We've been getting some good ones. A couple of people have already written in, Robert from Fairmont, West Virginia, said it's Monica Lewinsky.

ROBERTS: Yes, that was too easy. Be more creative. Come on.

CHETRY: Jane from San Francisco says it's clearly Larry Craig, and there --

ROBERTS: That's a little better.

CHETRY: There is another one who says it's Eliot Spitzer holding a glass of champagne in a dark suit. There you go.

ROBERTS: I could say we're having fun with this this morning. So, if you don't think it's a naked woman that's being reflected in his glasses, as many in the blogosphere do believe, what do you think it is? E-mail us at CNN.com/am this morning, and we'll read some more of your e-mails coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, the price of gas hit another record high this morning. We're going to check out the AMERICAN MORNING gas gauge. Right now, it shows the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular now $3.36. Up 0.8 of a cent since yesterday. Last month, it was $3.24. And a year ago today, it was 56 cents cheaper.

So is there anything you can do to beat the high prices at the pump? CNNmoney.com writer Peter Valdes-Dapena is live from the Fairlane Town Center Mall, this is in Dearborn, Michigan, to help us out with this. Peter, thanks for being with us this morning.

PETER VALDES-DAPENA, WRITER, CNNMONEY.COM: Good morning.

CHETRY: I know you do a lot of writing about these subjects. Do you think in general people are maybe more willing than they were even let's say six months ago or a year to consider a hybrid as their next car purchase?

VALDES-DAPENA: They definitely are, absolutely. Also, not just hybrids. People are looking at smaller cars, too, but definitely consideration of fuel economy is coming way up. It used to be somewhere down below cup holders in terms of priorities seriously. And now, it's coming way up in people's minds.

CHETRY: I think that even people that I have talked to in my circle of friends have said next time I may do a hybrid. When you're trying to figure out what works for you and what's best, let's go through some of them.

Let's talk about the Prius. This was one of the first and also one of the most popular hybrids. What do you think about the Toyota Prius?

VALDES-DAPENA: Well, it's still one of the most popular hybrids and the dirty little secret with the Prius is that people who buy this car really aren't sacrificing anything. I mean, this car has really been popular, not just because -- it gets great fuel economy, but also it's got the interior space of a Toyota Camry, plenty of storage space, it's comfortable. The performance is pretty decent. It is not a slow-underpowered car.

So there's a lot more going on than just the funky looks and the fuel economy. Of course, actually you got a lot going for it. And even now that you could no longer get a tax credit on a Prius anymore, but they're still selling. It's by far the number one selling hybrid in the country.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, if you're getting 46 miles to the gallon, I guess it could be like a tax credit, right? You have to fill up less than half the time.

You know, there are others who say, you know, I would get a hybrid but I have a family. I have two, three kids. I don't know if I can fit, you know, everybody in it. Are there SUV or bigger options that still get that fuel economy?

VALDES-DAPENA: Well, there are a couple. There are some hybrid SUVs out there. The Ford Escape-Hybrid SUV is very popular right now. Unfortunately, Ford is not upping production so people are saying they're having a hard time finding it in dealerships easily. Some waiting lists going on, but it's very popular and it's actually a pretty decent SUV.

Another option also in low production right now is the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid SUV. It's a mild hybrid, but, you know, don't let that worry you. The fuel economy on that is actually as good as a four-wheel drive Ford Escape-Hybrid SUV. So there are a couple out there. There's also the Toyota Highlander-Hybrid SUV if you, you know, want to spend some more money. A little bit bigger, three rows of seats, a little bit nicer inside.

CHETRY: Yes. There's also -- we test drove here on the show the Chevy Tahoe which claims to be the first full-sized hybrid SUV as well, but it will cost you, I think it's about 50 grand or so for that model of SUV.

VALDES-DAPENA: Yes.

CHETRY: But again, you have to fill it up half the time. If you're not looking for a hybrid, if you're saying to yourself, you know what, maybe it's not for me, I'm just not sure yet, but I do want to try to save gas. Is there anything else you can do?

VALDES-DAPENA: Right. Or if you just don't want to pay that kind of money, the Toyota RAV 4, which is, if you remember it, Toyota has actually redesigned it last couple of years, made it a little bit bigger. You can even get an optional third row of seats in that. Very good fuel economy. Not expensive. So that's it. You know, that's one more other good option you can have.

CHETRY: Wow, and that is an SUV as well, right? The RAV 4 that you just showed.

VALDES-DAPENA: Right.

CHETRY: One other quick question that I was wondering about. Are dealerships and mechanics, are they able to repair and maintain hybrids as well?

VALDES-DAPENA: Yes.

CHETRY: I mean, it sometimes seems like it's a little bit of a new technology. But are you sacrificing anything in terms of servicing your car?

CHETRY: Not at all. I mean, obviously the dealerships that sell them have to be trained to work on them, and really there's a lot of stuff in a hybrid car that's really no different from a regular car. The brakes are the same. There's a gasoline engine that's just the same. There's an electric motor, but really electric motors have been around as long as gasoline engines have been around or longer.

So there's not a lot of really new, new technology in there. If it gets to the more complicated stuff, you know, the dealerships that sell these, they've been selling them now for a while, so they have people who are trained to work on them.

CHETRY: I'm sure the conversation that's happening in more and more living rooms, honey, should we get a hybrid?

Peter Valdes-Dapena, thanks so much for being with us this morning. You can also find out more information about gas prices and how you can save money at CNNmoney.com.

ROBERTS: You know, the conversation that goes on in my household quite often and my wife can tell you this, too, is honey, why didn't we get a hybrid?

CHETRY: That's true as well.

ROBERTS: Yes. Also new this morning, word that Vice president Dick Cheney and other senior administration officials approved harsh interrogation tactics for suspected terrorists. "The Associated Press" is reporting that they did so after getting the Justice Department to endorse their legality.

The "AP" quotes a former senior intelligence official as saying the White House approved waterboarding and other interrogation methods at meetings in 2002 and 2003. Senator Ted Kennedy calls the "AP" report "an astonishing disclosure." No comment yet from the White House on it.

Democrats are taking aim at President Bush's plan to put holds on troop withdrawals after July. Party leaders are accusing of president of trying to hand the war off to the next commander in chief. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The president has taken us into a failed war. He's taken us deeply into debt, and he's taken -- that debt is taking us into recession. We want the president to manage this war better. And again, I agree with leader Reid, he is just dragging this out so he can put it at the doorstep of the new president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are calling the war a failure saying the American people have had enough. Republican John McCain says pulling out of Iraq too soon would be a disaster -- Kiran.

CHETRY: American Airlines canceling close to 600 more flights today while it scrambles to comply with FAA regulations. Nearly 3,000 flights have been grounded this week. Hundreds of thousands of passengers left with nowhere to go as they check for wiring in the wheel wells of the MD-80 jets. Now, American estimates that a lot of these people have been affected. They have been apologizing profusely, but still, passengers we talk to, not happy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody seems to want to help us as far as their mistake is concerned. We need to get home. We can't afford to be stuck in Chicago any longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: American is staying it expects all MD-80s to be back in the air by tomorrow night.

Outbreaks of measles reported in two states as well as Canada. Ten confirmed cases in Tucson, Arizona, and health officials there say as many as 500 people may have been infected at a hospital. Four cases also reported in Milwaukee. That's the most Wisconsin has seen in years as well, and Toronto's Public Health Department says the city had five cases in the last month.

Scientists say they've created a drug that could prevent one serious side effect of cancer treatment radiation damage. You know, radiation often used to kill cancer cells at the same time it damages healthy tissues. Well, this new drug, which has been tested in animals only so far, apparently switches on a biological mechanism that can help the healthy cells survive. The findings are published in the "Journal of Science."

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: We want to get more on the breaking news this morning. Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean captured about 120 miles west of Mexico City apparently as he wandered up to a roadblock. We got some brand new video this morning of the suspect in cuffs and shackles. U.S. authorities have now handed this over to the State Department to try to figure out extradition of Laurean. He's the main suspect in the death of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach. She was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in December. Her charred remains and the remains of her unborn child were found buried in Laurean's backyard. Joining me now is Captain Rick Sutherland of Onslow County, North Carolina Sheriff's Office. He's in Jacksonville, North Carolina, this morning. Captain, thanks for being with us this morning. You got to feel pretty good that you got this fellow in custody this morning.

CAPT. RICK SUTHERLAND, ONSLOW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We are excited and relieved that he's been apprehended, that he's in custody, and that this part of the investigation is over.

ROBERTS: Right. How long did it take you to close in on this fellow? Obviously, he's been on the run since earlier this year, but when did you get wind of where he might be?

SUTHERLAND: A couple weeks ago we developed some information that allowed us to generate some new leads and the FBI began closing in geographically on where they thought that he might be, and just this week we were able to really focus our resources on one specific area of the country, and then earlier yesterday evening authorities were able to take him into custody.

ROBERTS: He was hiding out in a Morelia which is a small town about 130 miles west of Mexico City, a little farming town. Apparently, it was an anti-kidnapping squad that got a hold of this guy? Do you know how that all unfolded?

SUTHERLAND: The FBI has been communicating with me and with the agents down there in Mexico and sharing information back and forth. Any of the specific details about the capture I would let the FBI release those when they feel that they have them confirmed to the point where they're willing to disseminate those. We just know that he was apprehended in that geographical area and that he was taken into custody without any law enforcement officers being injured.

ROBERTS: Captain, what about the case that you have been building against him. I understand that recently you seized a computer that was being used by his wife to communicate with Laurean. Can you tell us more about that?

SUTHERLAND: We've been working on the criminal case since this was first reported to our office and our homicide investigators have never stopped gathering evidence and preparing a case for trial. In the fugitive case, since he disappeared about three months ago, we've been doing a lot of things, some of the details have not yet been released yet, and we're trying to communicate with all parties involved and to formulate what information will be released and the most important thing we want to do right now is not compromise the criminal trial that will proceed at some point in the future. So there are certain details that we cannot release yet, but we have been able to discover new evidence in the last month or so that allowed us to focus in on where he might be.

ROBERTS: So if you can't talk about the details of what the computer was being used for or what you found in that computer, can you confirm that his wife was indeed cooperating with the investigation?

SUTHERLAND: We've said all along that his wife has been a cooperating witness, and that status has not changed at all. She has been cooperating with us when we've asked for information or for her to help us in certain ways, and as to what that cooperation was exactly, at this point we're not prepared to release that information.

ROBERTS: Do you have any idea, Captain, as to the length of time that this extradition process might take?

SUTHERLAND: I've heard several different things and I know our district attorney's office has been communicating with the State Department and really and truly, that's something that our office does not deal with a lot, so we're going to rely on the district attorney's office and the State Department and we're waiting to hear details from them about how exactly it will proceed.

ROBERTS: And have you had a chance to speak with the family of Maria Lauterbach yet about this arrest?

SUTHERLAND: When we were first notified last night by the FBI and they were able to confirm that it was, in fact, Caesar Laurean, Sheriff Brown reached out to Maria's family to let them know that he had been captured and that information would be forth coming, and he was able to have a conversation with the family sometime last night around 8:00.

ROBERTS: And what was their response?

SUTHERLAND: I don't know. The sheriff called me back to let me know he had been able to contact them and they were relieved, and anything specific beyond that I'm not aware of.

ROBERTS: All right. Captain Rick Sutherland for us this morning. Thanks for joining us.

SUTHERLAND: You're very welcome. Have a great day.

ROBERTS: We appreciate you coming on. Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, the economy, issue number one. And there's nothing more important to you than your job. When it comes to making a living, of course, and taking care of your family. But what can the government do to boost job creation? Going to take a look.

And they taped an extremely brutal attack on their high school classmate. What should happen to them? Sunny Hostin is here to talk about the legal consequences of this gang of teens attacking their friend. All of it caught on tape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up on 38 minutes after the hour. Breaking news this morning, French President Nicolas Sarkozy say hostages held by pirates off the coast of Somalia have been freed without incident. The 30 hostages were being held aboard a French tourist yacht since it was seized a week ago. They included 22 French citizens. France had dispatched commandos to try to the region to try to free the captives. Apparently, everybody all right this morning.

CHETRY: Well, Ali Velshi here "Minding your Business" right now. Boy, we're talking about a lot of different things, one of them is job creation. Is there anything that the government can do to create more jobs?

ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, when we talk about the recession that we could be in, there's housing, there's inflation, gas prices, but there's jobs. We've lost more than 200,000 jobs just this year alone. Last recession we had, we lost 3 million jobs. So these candidates are out there talking about job creation, but what exactly can government do to create jobs? What can a candidate say that they're going to do to create a job.

Creating a job is a complicated thing for the government. Let's take a look at this. You can encourage people to spend money, which is what the stimulus bill is meant to do. When people spend money, it creates demand and stores have to hire more people or factories have to hire more people. The other thing, small businesses are the biggest employers in the country. That's where the job growth comes. So, you can give tax breaks to small businesses. You can give tax incentives to company directly to employ workers, either to employ them here in the United States as opposed to somewhere else or just to create new factories.

Kiran, you were talking about making a little factory or something like that. and you can encourage trade agreements with other countries. The other thing you can undertake, and it's not so fashionable but Hillary Clinton announced one of these a few days ago, major infrastructure projects, building of roads, fixing of highways and certainly...

CHETRY: We need that a lot.

VELSHI: Right. And you know, in the last year or so, we've heard things about roads that need fixing. So, there's work to be had. We don't tend to think in a free economy like this that most jobs should be created by the government. It doesn't tend to contribute to the whole market system, but the government can invest in those kind of things.

ROBERTS: Remember Mike Huckabee's idea, rebuild the i-95 corridor.

VELSHI: Right. And that's part of what Hillary Clinton actually has been talking about, the i-95 corridor, the bridges that are in danger or need repair.

ROBERTS: Lay some new track between New York and Washington so we have a true high-speed rail service.

VELSHI: Yes. I mean, these are the kind of things. So, there are a bunch of things. And what we're going to be looking for is for these candidates to be coming forward with fairly specific suggestion that will say how do you create a job. FYI, it's a lot easier to prevent way more job loss that to create because create means a policy that gets put into place, then companies have to figure it out how it works for them. There's a lag. So, we really don't want to lose too many more jobs.

CHETRY: All right. Ali Velshi, thanks.

ROBERTS: Extreme weather is moving through the Midwest. A look now at some of the damage done by a powerful series of storms that swept through Oklahoma and our Rob Marciano is tracking all the extreme weather. He's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. 42 minutes past 7:00 here on the east coast. And Rob Marciano is tracking extreme weather for us this morning.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kiran.

CHETRY: Hi, Rob. Waiting for you to pop up there.

MARCIANO: Here I am. Popping up last night and yesterday were some tornadoes. 16 reports of mostly in and around the perimeter of Missouri. These are the list of the reports there. All caused by this area of low pressure, big one, look at the size of this thing with rainfall stretching all the way to the east coast and the northeast. Cold air wrapping behind this thing and then even more convection firing to the south. We start you with the cold air, which is creating more in the way of snow north of Minneapolis back through parts of eastern South Dakota, and this is the area that's still again under the gun today. For more in the way of winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings with winds gusting over 40 miles an hour at times and 6 to 12 inches of snowfall possible again today.

Here is a list of some of the snowfall tallies yesterday. In many cases over a foot. Yampa and Mullen, Nebraska, Whitman, Nebraska, a foot. And Ridgeway, Colorado, just over 10 inches. And Laramie, Wyoming, seven inches of snow. Rainfall from Kentucky back to Tennessee. Nashville again getting hit with showers and thunderstorms, nothing too severe at the moment. There's a line of pencil-thin line of convection fire, that's the cold front. So, most of the convection yesterday was ahead of the cold front. That's the actual leading edge of the chilly air. 72, Jackson, 52, 53 degrees in Dallas. So, obviously, some cooler air behind this system.

We do have the threat for seeing severe weather today, slight risk of that. I think some of that will be right up here around what we call the triple point, the three fronts that's coming together there through Michigan, parts of Ohio. Might see some later in the day. Atmosphere pretty juiced down here across parts of the south. Huntsville, Alabama, 80 degrees. Finally, that's one of the latest times they've seen 80 since 1994. Here in Atlanta we have yet to see 80, might set it today. It's been an unusually cool spring. Of course, I don't need to tell you guys that in New York. Yesterday was your first real taste of it. And judging from the map, winter doesn't want to give up across parts of the northern plains with more snow there today.

CHETRY: Yes, we feel for them because it was certainly glorious yesterday around the -- in the northeast part of the country.

ROBERTS: Very nice day here yesterday, Rob.

MARCIANO: Glad you enjoyed it.

ROBERTS: Thanks very much.

MARCIANO: All right.

ROBERTS: Time for a little Friday fun here and we're only having fun with this. OK. There's a photo from the White House that's actually posted on the White House Web site that causing quite a stir on the Internet. Here it is, take a look. The photo was posted in the White House Web site, as we said, and it shows Vice President Dick Cheney with a caption that said he was fly fishing on the Snake River in Idaho. But take a close look at the reflection in his sunglasses. There's a whole buzz on the blogosphere right now of people who claim it looks eerily like a naked woman. The rumbling got the blogs to be so much that the White House had to come out dismissing the idea saying "it clearly shows a hand casting a rod.

So, here's our Friday "Quick Vote," do you agree with the blogosphere and think that it's a naked woman in the reflection? Right now, 55 percent of you say yes, 45 percent say no. Cast your vote at cnn.com/am and we'll continue to tally your votes throughout the morning. As I said, just having a little fun with this morning.

We've also been asking for your e-mails, asking, well, if it's not, what some people purport it to be. What do you think it is? Ken, who is serving overseas says "That's funny. I think it's a fish. But the thought of him giggling over a naked woman is hilarious to me."

CHETRY: That's right. And (Jimry) from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, writes in "the image in Cheney's sunglasses appears to be a man smoking a cigar with his head turned to the side. See there, she had her mind out of the gutter this morning."

ROBERTS: Anthony from Torrington, Connecticut says "I think the reflection in the VP's eyeglasses is Hillary trying anything to get into the White House."

CHETRY: All right. So we have a few others that are certainly poking fun at various other political scandals. So we'll get to some of those a little bit later as well.

ROBERTS: All right.

It was sheer brutality, a gang of teens carefully planned an attack on a classmate. Police say they lured her into a house, pummeled her for a half hour, knocked her out cold, and taped the whole thing. Now, they're going answer as adults. What they can expect in court. That's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, eight Florida teenagers could face life in prison for a violent videotaped attack on a classmate. The victim was knocked unconscious, she suffered a concussion. We had her mother on the show a few days ago and she says her daughter still has vision loss and hearing loss because of the attack. The suspects are between 14 and 18 years old. All of them now will be tried as adults.

AMERICAN MORNING legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins us now. When we last talked about this with you a couple of days ago, that was still up in the air but now it looks like they're all going to be charged as adults, even the 14-year-old.

SUNNY HOSTIN, AMERICAN MORNING, LEGAL ANALYST: That's right. That's what it looks like. And that's significant, Kiran, because if they're looking at kidnapping charges, which is what we're hearing, and battery charges, they're looking at up to life in prison. Will they get life in prison, probably not. But they're still very serious charges, especially if they're going to be charged as adults.

CHETRY: So how does the video help make the case then when it comes to "a," trying them as adults but also trying to establish intent.

HOSTIN: I have to tell you, without the video. I don't think there would be a case. The video is everything. Prosecutors want that sort of thing. We've all been looking at it. It shows the brutality. It shows the viciousness. The video combined with the statements of the victim and perhaps one of the other defendants who will probably turn state's evidence is going to be everything in this case. I mean, look at this.

CHETRY: You know, the other thing I was wondering is, at least for the three minutes that are released, I mean, apparently they're claiming or alleging this attack took place for 30 minutes.

HOSTIN: For 30 minutes and they knocked her unconscious apparently.

CHETRY: You see one girl - I mean, let's just put it this way, is the one girl who is prominently featured doing the beating in the video going to - is everybody going to turn against her or - I mean, if you were there but you're not seen on tape doing anything more than shouting --

HOSTIN: Sure.

CHETRY: Can you face the same amount of time and the same punishment?

HOSTIN: You can, absolutely you can, but I think there wasn't only one girl that you see. You see two girls. One I think had a pink shirt -- both of them had pink shirts. And so you see two people prominently but what happened before then because the victim is going so say she was knocked unconscious and then the videotape started rolling. And so it's going to be a combination, Kiran, of the victim's testimony and her recounting of events as well as the videotaped and always in these kind of cases the prosecutor is looking for someone to turn on everyone else and testify from a defendant's perspective as to what happened.

CHETRY: All right. Boy, this turns very serious. A lot of the kids thought this was just a prank or a joke and now we're talking about serious charges, possible life in prison.

HOSTIN: Absolutely.

CHETRY: Thanks, Sunny.

HOSTIN: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning, a fugitive marine captured three months after a pregnant marine was found dead. What is next for him now?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Church and head of state.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I take my faith seriously and very personally.

ROBERTS: The candidates get ready for a faith-based forum. And why it matters to voters.

The fair housing act, 40 years later. One of Dr. King's most lasting legacies made law a week after his death. Would he be proud of it today?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Some breaking news to tell you about this morning. A fire destroyed Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters in Terra Haute, Indiana. According to reports, the fire started early this morning about half past midnight and when firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out of the top of the building. Two women were inside when the fire broke out, but both made it out safely. We're chasing down some video. We understand there is some. We'll bring it to you just as soon as we get a hold of it.

Hillary Clinton locked in a tight race with Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary which is now just 11 days away. John Dickerson is CNN's political analyst and chief political analyst for slate.com joins us now from Washington.

John, if you look at the latest poll of polls that CNN has analyzed, they are now within the margin of error in Pennsylvania. Just a week ago, Hillary Clinton was ahead of Barack Obama by double digits. What's going on there?

JOHN DICKERSON, CNN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Barack Obama has put a lot of advertisements on the air. He did a six-day tour of the state. So he's closing in on her, and he's making this a really close race, which is tough for Hillary Clinton. She needs to win pretty decisively in Pennsylvania to be able to continue on.

ROBERTS: Hillary Clinton is coming out today with a speech on a $4 billion crime plan that she would like to unveil, and part of that plan calls to put 100,000 police officers on the streets. Sounds very similar to a plan that her husband pushed when he was president.

DICKERSON: That's right. She's in west Philadelphia today, and this is the same number of cops her husband promised as a part of his 1995 plan. She wants to bring up echoes of that. Crime was the number one issue in the mayoral race in Philadelphia last year, so it's an important issue, and the wedge she's driving on Obama is that Clinton wants to say, you know, I have solutions that will help people in their daily lives, and Obama's solutions are more attenuated than that, and that's what she's trying to do is really deal with an issue that people worry about day-to-day.

ROBERTS: We got an interesting event coming up on Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It's what we're calling the compassion forum. Hillary Clinton will be there, and Barack Obama, John McCain has been invited. They will spend some time answering questions in front of faith leaders. How important is it? Because faith is typically for the most part been the purview of the Republican party, how important is it for Democrats to grab a slice of that issue?

DICKERSON: Well, as a general election matter, this is an important issue and interesting issue. It's been the purview of Republicans in part because the press focuses on evangelical leaders who have been loud and in the news over the last 20 years or so. But there are lots of faith, about 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans say they believe in some religion. And there are, if you look at evangelicals, the group that the press is always focused on, about 30 percent, according to the poll, consider themselves moderate. So there are lots of religious voters out there for Democrats to pick up, and this race is also interesting because you have two Democratic candidates, whichever of them gets the nomination, in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who are both easily conversant with the issues of faith. They are both very religious people, and then you got the Republican John McCain who is not an evangelical the way George Bush was. So you got both candidates coming at this group in a different kind of way in this election.

ROBERTS: Yes. I was lucky enough to attend a dinner a couple weeks back with Colin Powell and Bill Gates. They were talking about issues that they'd like to see the candidates talking about in this campaign. And Colin Powell said that the next president of the United States really needs to sort of reassert America's moral leadership in the world in terms of compassion and benevolence. The America he says that people used to remember. How important an issue might that become in the campaign going forward?

DICKERSON: I think in the general election it becomes very important in part because these value voters, and that's a tricky phrase because voters vote on a whole mix of issues, not just values, but a Democrat, for example, might talk about AIDS across the world, talk about poverty, talk about America's moral leadership on issues that have this kind of values aspect to them and that are not just about national security and national interests.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, maybe we'll be hearing a lot more about that. and don't forget that Compassion Forum coming up Sunday night from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, right here on CNN. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama so far have agreed to attend, an invitation out there to John McCain. CNN's Campbell Brown hosts the Compassion Forum. It's going to be 8:00 Eastern here on CNN. You can also watch it on cnn.com/live. John Dickerson for us from Washington this morning. John, good to see you. Thanks very much. Kiran.

CHETRY: Following some more breaking news this morning. The FBI capturing marine corporal Cesar Laurean in Mexico. Now, you may remember he's the main suspect in the murder of a fellow marine, 20- year-old pregnant Maria Lauterbach. The latest, because Laurean was caught in Mexico, he will not face the death penalty. Now, if he fights extradition, it could also take up to two years for him to return to North Carolina to face those charges.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck has followed this story since day one. He has details from Jacksonville, North Carolina, for us today, including the strange circumstances under which Mexican authorities got their hands on Laurean.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. Law enforcement officials here in North Carolina are hoping that not too much time will pass before Laurean will be extradited back here to Onslow County. Officials here are giving more details about the circumstances surrounding his capture in Morelia state in Mexico. They say that they had a general idea of where he was in Mexico for quite some time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. RICK SUTHERLAND, ONSLOW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: A couple weeks ago we developed some information that allowed us to generate some new leads and the FBI began closing in geographically on where they thought that he might be, and just this week we were able to really focus our resources on one specific area of the country, and then earlier yesterday evening authorities were able to take him into custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITBECK: As you say, Kiran, because Laurean was caught in Mexico and will be extradited by Mexico to the United States, he will not face the death penalty. That is one regret prosecutors here are expressing today. Kiran.

CHETRY: And the other question is, we just talked about it, could possibly take up to two years if he fights extradition. Do we have any word on how likely that is or whether or not he's just cooperate? WHITBECK: We have no idea. He was asked by local press in Mexico last night what his next steps would be. His response was "it seems that I don't have much of a choice." So, if he believes that then one would think that he would not fight the extradition process.

CHETRY: Harris Whitbeck following the latest developments on this throughout the day for us. Thank you.

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