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American Morning
Gas Passes $4; Eight People Dead in Deadly Midwest Storm; Gas Trickles Down and Raises Prices on Everything; Obama's Race Sparks a Debate; President Bush's New Plan to Fight World Food Crisis; Major Crime Crackdown in D.C.
Aired June 09, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: But we begin kicking off a week devoted to "ISSUE #1," your money misery, and adding to it today, gasoline prices going up another 2 cents after cracking that dreaded $4 a gallon threshold on average across the country.
Some analysts say that it could be $4.15 by the end of the week. This comes after a triple whammy of bad economic news, the biggest jump ever in the price of oil, a dramatic increase in the unemployment rate, and a 400-point dive for the Dow on Friday afternoon.
Our senior business correspondent Ali Velshi, watching all of the numbers for you this morning. And how are we looking today? Any better?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, no, not really. With oil prices have eased up a little bit you can see the barrel behind me $139.12. That's how high oil got on Friday afternoon. Remarkable. We watched that increase in oil all day.
Now you can see at the bottom corner of the screen, gas $4.02 is the national average. But take a look at what oil did on Friday.
Now, Thursday, was what we thought was a record day, with oil over $5 in one day, up over $5. By Friday, it was up $10.75 to $138.54 a barrel, and then it got worse. That's why we see that $139.12 over my shoulder.
Now, John, if you recall, I made some comment about how around June 8, we're going to see the end of these highest gas prices. Guess what? That's not the case. The highest gas prices in the country right now are looking at $4.45. That's in California. Connecticut has gas at $4.32, and Alaska at $4.30.
The lowest gas prices in the country -- well, they don't look like much of a relief either. The lowest is Missouri, $3.82, South Carolina $3.83, and Oklahoma $3.84. We're going to follow this and everything else to do with your money very, very closely today. In fact, we'll be dipping into "ISSUE #1" all through the day. Make sure you tune in all day, "ISSUE #1" coverage on CNN, "America's Money," because these are your concerns. I'll be back in half an hour with maybe a little bit better news for you.
ROBERTS: Quickly, how are the markets looking today? VELSHI: Markets are actually looking OK. Right now, we're looking at a stronger open. We had a 400-point dip on the Dow on Friday, so there might be some bargain hunting in there.
ROBERTS: Ali, thanks. Looking forward tomorrow on that -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As we're talking about, we're also watching extreme weather this morning from the Midwest to the East Coast. Excessive heat warnings and advisories are in effect in the east. Parts of Virginia could hit 100 degrees, and a fast-moving lightning storm also killed one person on a beach in Connecticut.
Now, flood warnings are in effect for several states in the Midwest until tonight. Six twisters touched down south of Chicago damaging homes and snapping power lines. Meantime, severe thunderstorms and flooding killed at least seven people in Michigan and Indiana.
Susan Roesgen, now live in Columbus, Indiana, with more. Hey, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra. You know, one of the people who was killed was a person who was driving here in Columbus in the car, and was swept away by the floodwaters. That's how high the water was here over the weekend. They got 11 inches of rain.
And you talk about 100 degrees, they're talking about a 100-year flood in this area. So most people now are hoping that as fast as the water went up, it will go down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at all this debris in the air.
ROESGEN (voice-over): A CNN I-reporter spotted this tornado as if it had spun right out of the "Wizard of Oz." But this was near Chicago and Dorothy didn't have to deal with what came next.
In dozens of cities and towns, the weekend storms brought more water than wind. Near Indianapolis, what could have been a fun school field trip was instead a real life evacuation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a lot of destruction here.
ROESGEN: Homes, businesses and farmer's fields seem to sink beneath rising rivers and lakes. Staying at one of the shelters, Oscar Legan thinks the flood took everything.
OSCAR LEGAN, STORM VICTIM: I think it pretty much did because the water was nearly to the ceiling.
ROESGEN: Those who have homes to go home to are cleaning up now in Nebraska and Michigan and Wisconsin. But in the small town of New Hartford, Iowa, the fight to hold back a flood is over. The entire town, 650 people, finally gave up and they're all getting out. J.D. LUND, NEW HARTFORD FIRE DEPT: (INAUDIBLE) One side of town is lower than their surrounding. We did sand bag that a little bit, but that's pretty much a lost cause.
ROESGEN: Other people aren't giving up yet. They're getting around as best they can, waiting for the water to give back what lies beneath.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: Now, we're here in the Holiday Inn parking lot. And, Kyra, you got to wonder how many of the cars behind me will start when the owners come out here because the water mark on those cars, the muddy mark, is well above the door. So I don't know how many of them will start.
Also, about 1,000 people in this town spent the night in a shelter. A lot of those folks, we're told, were in trailers, mobile homes, and they don't have any homes to go back to -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, rough start of the week. Susan Roesgen, appreciate it -- John.
ROBERTS: New this morning, President Bush embarks on what is likely to be his farewell European tour. The first off in his eight- day trip would be Slovenia to attend the European Union Summit. He's expected to make a statement on the first lady's surprise visit to Afghanistan before he departs just about an hour from now.
Laura Bush visited U.S. troops at Bagram Air Base and met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Her trip was designed to highlight the progress being made in stabilizing the country.
Iraq's prime minister trying to ease fears among Iranian leaders that the U.S. could use Iraq to launch attacks against them. Nouri al-Maliki meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials in Tehran. It comes as the United States and Iraq try to reach an agreement on how long the U.S. military will remain in Iraq and what role it will play in the country's security. Tehran says it's concerned that the deal would lead to permanent U.S. military bases on its doorstep.
PHILLIPS: Also new this morning, Hillary Clinton urging her supporters to rally behind her one-time rival Barack Obama after officially suspending her campaign. Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, told CNN that she's not campaigning for the number two slot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD WOLFSON, CLINTON COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: She has said and she said this during the campaign, that is solely Senator Obama's decision. He needs to make the best decision for him based on whatever he thinks he needs to do to get elected and govern. Senator Clinton had said she will do whatever she is asked to do to elect Barack Obama. She's not seeking the job and it's Senator Obama's decision, solely his decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Wolfson also defended Clinton's decision to wait until Saturday to make her concession speech, saying it would be unfair to end 18 months of campaigning just in one night.
And the first proposed presidential town hall debate getting a thumbs down from Barack Obama and John McCain. Both campaigns rejected an offer by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ABC News saying that they don't want the event limited to one network. McCain challenged Obama to a series of 10 informal town hall debates last week with no high profile moderators, by the way, just questions from the audience.
ROBERTS: Well, now that he is the presumptive nominee, there are new questions about Barack Obama's race. Is he the first African- American nominee or the first bi-racial candidate? Or is the United States entering a post-racial era. All things that we'll talk about this morning.
Fuel surcharges showing up everywhere. The high price of gasoline even getting tacked on to your sandwich of all things. We'll show you how one small business is being hurt by fuel costs. That's all ahead.
PHILLIPS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the world food crisis threatening American farmers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys in the Midwest that rely on the export market, it may hurt them a little more than us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Could helping others in need hurt us here at home?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People need to eat. People need to survive, and we're all the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Our Zain Verjee heads to a farm to see firsthand ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Not just $4, but $4.02. That's how much it is per gallon this morning. But those high prices are taking a toll not just at the pump. Pretty much everywhere.
ROBERTS: Allan Chernoff visited a popular deli on Long Island, New York, where high gasoline prices are hurting the owner and being passed on to customers.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kyra, it might seem that store owners who don't have to travel all that much aren't being hit too hard by soaring gas prices. But think again, they are definitely feeling the gas price squeeze.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Delicatessen owner John Killoran is reminded of soaring gas prices every time he looks at his refrigerator cases, because suppliers have been tacking on fuel surcharges.
JOHN KILLORAN, TUDOR VILLAGE DELICATESSEN: It's expensive, you know. I mean, you got deliveries six, eight times a day, 10 times a day, $5 a piece.
CHERNOFF: At the same time, some customers feeling the gas pinch are buying fewer salads and sandwiches.
CHRISTINE MALAUSEENA, DELI CUSTOMER: Those are things that I at least used to buy that I don't buy anymore. I can't afford to.
CHERNOFF (on camera): The deli held off on raising its prices but when gas hit about $3.90 a gallon here, the owners say they had to raise sandwich prices, up by 25 cents.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): More than 40 percent of small businesses in the northeast have raised prices in the past three months and more than a third in other regions of the country, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
WILLIAM DUNKELBERG, NATL. FED. OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS: Profits are hurt unless they can pass these costs on in the form of higher prices.
CHERNOFF: The deli suppliers who haven't raised delivery prices yet say they're hurting. Greg Bartnicki (ph) now often works alone on his truck without the assistance he always had.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got forced to cut back on help.
CHERNOFF: The Tudor Village Deli is still on the black (ph) but if gas prices keep rising at this rate, John says he'll be put out of business.
CHERNOFF (on camera): If this continues?
KILLORAN: Oh, man, if this continues, forget about it. You know, lock up the doors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Before that happens though, you'd better believe that John will be raising his prices again, which is with small businesses across the country are likely to do -- Kyra, John.
ROBERTS: Allan Chernoff for us this morning, and more on "ISSUE #1" all morning long here on CNN.
Meantime, a pen, a camera, invisible ink. This sounds like something right out of a spy novel, right? They're real though. We're going to find out about them from the CIA's former gadget guy.
PHILLIPS: Plus, dangerous and deadly storms across the Midwest. Record heat in the east. We sure felt it here.
Rob Marciano, is tracking all the extreme weather. Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kyra, and you're going to feel it again today. Heat will crank up today and tomorrow. It's the first big one of the season, plus more storms expected to rip through the Midwest. Details coming up when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's coming up on 15 minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano escaping the heat of Atlanta to be with us here in New York.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: Then took up the heat of New York.
MARCIANO: I tell you what, sometimes it can be hotter in the northeast than it can be in Atlanta especially at this time.
ROBERTS: And they call Atlanta "hotlanta." What can we call New York?
MARCIANO: It's definitely steam me up (ph).
ROBERTS: New scorch or something.
MARCIANO: Well, listen, right now, it's definitely the first heat wave of the season. So just try to stay cool there.
We have that, plus we have the Iowa floods and Michigan storms. A whole bunch of stuff going on not only over the weekend but this week, and we're going to have -- the problems in Iowa are going forward. Five inches of rainfall especially across the northern part of this state so a number of flooding issues there.
Look at that. That -- I think it looks like something out of a cartoon. I didn't realize that was going to be our video, but so much rain that the sewer lids are actually popping there in Des Moines, Iowa.
Iowa City, there's so much rain that the reservoir is threatening to overflow there and then as Susan Roesgen reported, about 1,000 people have been displaced.
All right, let's talk heat from the floods. We go to the records here. That looks -- if you live in the northeast, that looked like pretty refreshing, but you had to go to the beaches for sure. The beaches across Massachusetts and Cape Cod, Long Island, down through Maryland, everybody trying to get rid of the hot stuff yesterday with temperatures well into the 90s. And I think today we'll see temperatures that will also get into the 90s. In many cases, we'll see record-breaking heat much like what we saw yesterday.
Already this morning temperatures are 82 degrees in Philadelphia. An excessive heat warning there. Temps easily getting into the mid to upper 90s, could touch the 100 mark in places like Philly, maybe down to D.C., where Reynolds Wolf is in through New York City.
Here's some of the record heat high temperatures from yesterday. Richmond, Virginia, 100, Macon, Georgia -- there you go -- it's close to Atlanta, 100 there. New Bern, North Carolina, that's close to the ocean actually. And Columbus, Georgia, 98 degrees, 95 degrees in Philadelphia.
Here's what's happening as far as why this is happening, why there are so many storms across the Midwest and the front is stalled.
So the heat will persist across the northeast and the fronts will continue across of that frontal boundary, so more flooding rains expected I think mostly south of Iowa but into parts of Michigan where they're also having flooding problems there yesterday. Unfortunately, there were some fatalities there. Also lightning strikes in Connecticut yesterday from the storms that rolled through and obviously the heat created some of that as well.
But I don't think we're going to see many thunderstorms across the northeast today and cool you guys off when you go home.
ROBERTS: I think that happened en masse and sent a bunch of people at a barbecue?
MARCIANO: They were in a state park near the beach and unfortunately a lightning struck and four people were injured and one person lost their life. So be careful out there if you're playing in the sun.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks.
MARCIANO: All right.
PHILLIPS: Is he black or bi-racial? The debate over Barack Obama's race and why it could be an issue for voters in the general election.
Also, tech tricks from the height of the Cold War. CIA's former gadget guy shows us some spy toys. How it even scared a few people here in the building. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Barack Obama taking some time off for a bike ride with his family this weekend, as he prepares for his general election battle against John McCain. For much of the 17-month long campaign, Obama has tried to make the issue of race irrelevant in his quest to be the nation's first African-American president. But his historic victory in the Democratic contest has sparked an unusual racial debate.
CNN's Jason Carroll joins us now with the story. First, he's not -- OK, first he's black.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
PHILLIPS: Then he's not black enough. Now, this issue of he's bi-racial. OK, do you talk about the white part of your family, the black part of your family? I mean, it gets --
CARROLL: You really have to. And, you know, and there are also some people who'll say that Barack Obama is post-racial. In other words, that he transcends race. But the reality is some people see him simply as an African-American, but he's just as much white as he is black. His identity forcing the debate over what it means to be bi-racial in America.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): Last Tuesday, Senator Barack Obama made history as the first African-American or first black presumptive nominee for a major party. Depending on the headline, he is the first, that's not disputed. The question, is it accurate to call him black?
MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC: First of all, he can't say I'm a white guy named Barack Hussein Obama. You know, no one -- no one's going to buy that. We're not ready for that.
CARROLL: In his speech on race, Senator Obama made clear he hails from a bi-racial family.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: I'm a son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather.
CARROLL: Despite that heritage, Obama identifies himself as black, in part because that's what people see.
DAVID MENDELL, AUTHOR, "OBAMA: FROM PROMISE TO POWER": When he walks into a room, people do not see someone who is white or bi- racial. They generally see someone who looks African-American.
CARROLL: Obama explained it on "60 Minutes."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CBS'S "60 MINUTES")
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRES. NOMINEE: When I'm walking down on the South Side of Chicago and visiting my barber shop and playing basketball in some of these neighborhoods, those aren't questions I get asked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think you're black?
OBAMA: As far as they can tell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Jen Chau knows the debate all too well. Her father is Chinese, her mother white. She founded a bi-racial support group called Swirl.
JEN CHAU, FOUNDED BI-RACIAL SUPPORT GROUP SWIRL: You'll have mixed race people who will say like we have -- we're a mixed race. And then you'll have mixed race people who identify with one over the other.
CARROLL: The Swirl members we spoke to support Obama's choice to call himself black.
LYNDA TURETO, MBR., BI-RACIAL SUPPORT GROUP SWIRL: That's our racial reality in the United States. I myself am a woman who is half white, but I would and could never identify as a white woman.
ANDRES JACKSON, MBR., BI-RACIAL SUPPORT GROUP SWIRL: I wonder if we'll just get to the point where these labels won't be necessary. It's hard for me to see, you know, a future where the labels won't be there. But what I do hope is that there will be much less importance placed on those labels.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Another interesting point here, you know, Kyra, it was just in 2000, all the way up until 2000, that was the first time on the census that people were actually allowed to mark more than one race. So you can imagine all those people for all this time, you know, who had ideas about their own sort of sense of identity. It wasn't just until 2000 that people could mark more than one race.
PHILLIPS: You know, we're actually going to talk about this more in the next hour. We're going to debate it. And a lot of people are wondering or asking the question, OK, if he would have emphasized the white part of his family more, maybe that would have brought in those blue collar white voters because it would have justified, OK, I'm not really voting for a black man but he's white --
CARROLL: But the reality is, as you've heard there, he looks African-American.
PHILLIPS: Right.
CARROLL: He identifies as African-American. So while not denying who he is in terms of his white background, but it's what people see. It's how he identifies himself.
PHILLIPS: When are we ever going to become color blind? That's the question.
CARROLL: You know, I wish we would. I wish we would. PHILLIPS: I mean that's the next discussion.
Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
CARROLL: All right, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to have more on Obama's race debate in our next hour as I mentioned, with two guests with very different opinions, Miami Herald blogger James Burnett and also Lynette Clemetson from TheRoot.com. They're going to join us about 7:24 Eastern time -- John.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.
New plan to battle the world food crisis and save money, but not everyone thinks it's a great idea. We'll tell you why just ahead.
And a major crime crackdown after eight people were killed in one weekend. People forced to pass through checkpoints just to get home in one part of our nation's capital. Critics say it may be martial law, but is it already a war zone in D.C.? The debate ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's a glimpse into the high-tech world of the CIA, James Bond and spy gadgets, like instructions written in invisible ink, and many cameras hidden in pens. They're all featured in a new book titled Spycraft." It's co-authored by Bob Wallace, a 32-year veteran of the CIA and former director of the agency's Office of Technical Service.
Bob joins me now with a look at some of the gadgets. You were the Q (ph), I guess of the CIA?
Let's start with the way that they used to photograph documents. This is the spy camera that we all know when, you know, we'd see Steve McQueen sneaking into a building, doing this sort of thing. But this was a little too, I guess, clumsy for you?
ROBERT WALLACE, AUTHOR, "SPYCRAFT": We fixed it in the early 1970s by a concept that we called the T-100 (ph). And the T-100 was a very small camera that could fit inside a common fountain pen and unscrew this end, which you didn't see had a (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: A camera in the end of it.
WALLACE: If you will hold this camera in that fashion...
ROBERTS: There is the document.
WALLACE: ... above the document.
ROBERTS: Like this?
WALLACE: Yes, and push down on the top, you will feel the film advance and pictures being taken. So we could take 50 to 100 photos of a full page document.
ROBERTS: Tiny little camera, tiny little film. This is my favorite. What is this?
WALLACE: This is -- this, in fact, is a rat. This is a concealment device, again, developed in the 1970s, a freeze-dried rat, and the agent would come by to pick it up and he would open its belly and inside the belly is --
ROBERTS: The camera from the pen?
WALLACE: The camera that goes for his pen.
ROBERTS: So this is just a dead drop. Concealment is obviously very important in "Spycraft" and here we have what looks like a normal briefcase.
WALLACE: Yes. This is a standard briefcase. Again, Cold War vintage briefcase, and anyone could be carrying that around. If you had some secret documents that you wanted to transport, there's a secret compartment in here.
ROBERTS: Where's the secret compartment?
WALLACE: Well, if I just do this --
ROBERTS: That doesn't look that secret.
WALLACE: Well, it's not, because that's not the secret compartment. Here is the secret compartment.
ROBERTS: Ah ha. The lining comes off.
The rat was a very creative dead drop, but here's another one.
WALLACE: Espionage is about being unobtrusive and not being seen. Now James Bond flashy assassination, seduction, all of those things. Real espionage is communications, you know, covert activity.
So we don't want anybody to know what we're doing. So one of these is in fact an espionage bolt, which one?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: With a hidden compartment in this...
WALLACE: With a hidden compartment.
ROBERTS: ... inside of it.
I've already done this so I know it. People on the crew thought it was the big bolt.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: That's right because there's a whole lot of room. ROBERTS: Larger, more room for a compartment. It's actually the smaller one. And from the outside when you take a look at this, it looks like just a typical bolt until you take the cap and turn it counterclockwise.
WALLACE: That's correct.
ROBERTS: And off comes the top of the cap. And what do we have inside?
WALLACE: And inside -- whoa, it looks like there might be a message.
ROBERTS: You got your dead drop, you've got the message on bolt...
WALLACE: That's right.
ROBERTS: ... somebody's coming after you...
WALLACE: That's right.
ROBERTS: What are you going to do with it?
WALLACE: What are you going to do with it?
ROBERTS: Eat it?
WALLACE: Eat it. I don't know whether I would eat it but if I had a glass of water nearby I might tear it up and drop it in the water and kind of see what happens here almost instantly.
ROBERTS: Look at that.
WALLACE: It's gone. Well, but these are text. It's not really gone because you can still see some clouded things in there.
ROBERTS: It's just as all then you would drink the water?
WALLACE: Go ahead.
ROBERTS: Does it taste like lemonade?
WALLACE: I thought that would be -- been a great development for us, if we would have made flavored paper.
ROBERTS: It's a fascinating book all the ways that the CIA used to engage in clandestine operations. Bob, it's great to see you.
WALLACE: John, it's my pleasure.
ROBERTS: Thanks for coming in.
WALLACE: Thank you. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, just crossing at the half hour now, our top story this morning. "ISSUE #1," the economy.
We're now watching gas prices get closer to $5 a gallon. The average price for a gallon of regular gas jump another two cents today after cracking the $4 mark for the first time over the weekend.
Well, arsons suspected in the fire of the historic Texas governor's mansion. Federal investigators will arrive in Austin today to try to figure out who set it. Police say there's no indication that the blaze was intended to target Governor Rick Perry or the first lady, rather. And no one was hurt in that fire, by the way.
The mansion was undergoing extensive renovations and a lot of the art work, furniture and historical items were being stored elsewhere.
At least seven people are dead after flooding across the Midwest. Six people were killed in Michigan, one in Indiana. Close to a foot of rain fell in Central Indiana. Forecaster says that some of these areas haven't seen flooding like this in about 100 years.
And excessive heat warnings and advisories are in effect in the East. Temperatures could top 100 degrees in some spots today. Beaches in Massachusetts packed with people using the water to escape the heat, obviously. And cooling centers were also set up across Baltimore.
The forecast for today's Yankee game in the Bronx, 101 degrees. That won't stop the fans, though.
Reynolds Wolf is watching the extreme heat this morning. He's live with the nation's mall in Washington, D.C.
And of course, I should have expected you to have the temperature gauge. OK, bring it to me.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: Alina Cho, with more stories new this morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot going on.
ROBERTS: What do you got for us?
CHO: Hey, good morning, Monday morning to you guys. And good morning, everybody.
New this morning, damage control after an Israeli official said over the weekend that Israel will have no choice but to attack Iran if it doesn't halt it's nuclear weapons program.
Well, Israel's former military Chief and Defense Minister issued that warning in a newspaper on Friday. It created an uproar. Now a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is backing away from the comment, but not totally rejecting it. Critics say the minister made the comments because he was trying to sound tough for political reasons. Here at home, an important consumer health warning involving raw tomatoes and salmonella poisoning. The FDA says an outbreak of Salmonella has been linked to red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes. The outbreak has spread to 16 states. As many as 150 people are sick.
Health officials have not yet identified the source of the problem. Wanted Election Day workers. Recruiters say some two million poll workers are needed because there could very well be record voter turnout for the November election. 25,000 are needed in Los Angeles County alone.
And get this more than 40 states say you don't even have to be old enough to vote. 16 and 17-year-olds can work at the polls. They're also looking for people who can speak foreign languages or help voters with disabilities. To sign up, you can call 1877-the vote.
And the wildly popular iPhone is getting a faster and much cheaper brother today. The much anticipated second version will be announced today by Apple's CEO Steve Jobs. We're told it will be a bit thinner than the first generation. You've just seen there on the video.
But the big news, it will make use of AT&T's faster Internet network. That's something that a lot of current users have been complaining about. The best thing about it, though, may be the cost -- $200. Down from the current $400 and $500 price tags. And you'll recall when the first one came out, it was $600.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) big discount a couple of months later.
CHO: That's right. Yes. A lot of people mad.
ROBERTS: Maybe now it's time to buy it?
VELSHI: You know, I decide, I can't change over. But for people who like the new thing, it's definitely very sexy.
(CROSSTALK)
CHO: (INAUDIBLE) because I don't want to learn a new system.
VELSHI: It is sexy. It's sleek. I mean, I look at that thing every time and I said -- wow, what is that? And I know it's an iPhone but it's -- and then I pull out my Blackberry that looks like, you know, --
PHILLIPS: A Polaroid camera.
VELSHI: There you go.
ROBERTS: By the way, hairless profit of doom here this morning with his finger on the pulse of the nation. VELSHI: Well, we do have -- this is the thing. We call it issue no.1 when you talk about money for a very good reason because new polling indicates that you out there do think that the economy is issue no.1. But you know what, you're not as doom and gloom as sometimes we think you are.
Stay with us. After the break, I'm going to tell you what you think about the economy right and in the year ahead.
PHILLIPS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the world food crisis threatening American farmers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys in the Midwest that rely on the export market, it may hurt them a little more than us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Could helping others in need hurt us here at home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People need to eat. People need to survive. And we're all the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Our Zain Verjee heads to a farm to see firsthand, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Ali Velshi. We're telling you what you tell us about the economy. We refer the things that are having to do with the economy. It's issue no. 1 out here. But we didn't just invent that. It's because you told us.
Take a look at the newest CNN Opinion Research Poll. Once again, you confirm, month after month after month in a row that the economy is the number one issue to you.
42 percent of voters said it's number one. 24 percent said Iraq is number one. Then health care, terrorism, and immigration in that order.
Now let's talk about what you think about the economy compared to what you thought about it in previous months. Right now, 22 percent of you think economic conditions are good -- 22 percent. In March, it was 25 percent. In January, it was 40 percent and in September it was 54 percent.
So the number of people who think the economy is good is dropping. We've also asked you what you think about the future. And here's where there's a little bit of good news. Right now, 22 percent of you think it's good. But 52 percent of you think the economy will be good a year from now. 78 percent of you think the economy is poor right now. But 46 percent of you think it will be poor a year from now. So, it looks like most people think the economy is going to get better a year from now.
Now we're going to have a conversation with the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific, on "ISSUE #1."
We're going to ask him what he knows and what he thinks and what specifically can be done to fix this economy a little bit sooner. So, you want to stay tuned for that. We got a whole day of issue number one coverage coming along, different reporters in different places covering all the things that are important to your money.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. Ali, thanks so much.
If you plan to help fight the world food crisis, but could it hurt farmers here in the United States?
PHILLIPS: Also, a major crime crackdown in D.C. Police setting up checkpoint in a neighborhood where gun violence is out of control. It's sparking a new debate over safety and privacy.
ROBERTS: And as Ali was saying, issue no. 1 -- the economy. With the Democratic race behind him, Obama is kicking off a two-week tour to highlight his economic plans. We'll have a preview for you coming up at the top of the hour.
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PHILLIPS: President Bush has a new plan to fight the world food crisis. His idea is to help people overseas and it could actually hurt farmers, though, here in the U.S. Zain Verjee has the story.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, John, the U.S. provides half the food aid around the world. That's one-and-a- half billion dollars. President Bush now wants to try a new way of delivering food that goes faster to the hungry around the world. But the plan could hurt some farmers here at home.
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VERJEE (voice-over): Chip Bowling and his family have farmed the fields of Maryland for over 60 years.
CHIP BOWLING, MARYLAND FARMER: We're putting about 180,000 seeds per acre.
VERJEE: He grows corn, wheat and soy -- crops that have skyrocketed in price 47 percent on world market, crushing 800 million people already hungry. Instead of shipping all U.S. food aid, President Bush wants to spend 25 percent of U.S. aid dollars to buy food produced overseas, closer to where it's needed.
BOWLING: I think that no matter where the food comes from, they have to have it as quickly as possible.
VERJEE: The whole process takes four months for food from a U.S. port to reach a drought victim in Africa, for example, Ethiopia. If bought in the region, it takes about three weeks.
GAWAIN KRIPKE, POLICY DIRECTOR, OXFAM AMERICA: It costs probably 50 percent more to buy food here and ship it rather than buying it in Africa or closer to where the food is needed.
VERJEE: Some farmers could take a hit.
BOWLING: Guys in the Midwest that rely on the export market, it may hurt them a little more than us.
VERJEE: Chip's not worried. He sells most of his grain in Maryland and says world demand is high. But food companies think the Bush plan is a bad idea because it's untested, not because they stand to lose money.
PAUL GREEN, FOOD COMPANY SPOKESMAN: The food aid program is such a minuscule part of the market of most food companies and most grain- trading companies. This is less than one percent of their sales.
VERJEE: Plus, American shipping companies could get squeezed.
MORI DIANE, INTERNATIONAL. SHIPPING BROKER: This is business that nobody, you know, our industry would have handled. Shipping is not going to necessarily stop. Possibly decrease, yes.
VERJEE: For Chip it's not about the money.
BOWLING: People need to eat. People need to survive. And we're all the same.
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VERJEE: Some members of Congress are worried about sending food aid dollars into parts of the world where corruption is a huge problem. The President didn't get the roughly $375 million he wanted. Instead, Congress has approved about $60 million just to test the idea of buying food closer to where it's needed in emergencies.
Kyra, John?
PHILLIPS: And more on U.S. aid in your "AM Extra" now. More than 100 countries worldwide receive economic assistance. The United States is the world's largest food aid donor, providing about half of all food aid to populations across the globe.
Now for the 2007 fiscal year, the U.S. provided more than 2.1 million metric tons of commodities worth $1.54 billion and reaching 32 million people throughout the world.
John?
ROBERTS: With Hillary Clinton finally out of the way, Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail, and he'll be talking about issue no. 1 -- the economy, coming up.
And, an unlikely bond forged by violence. The victim of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, finding friendship in Kaczynski's brother. Their story, coming up in our next hour.
PHILLIPS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, neighborhood on lockdown.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To the best of our ability, we're going to lock it down and we're going to implement checkpoints.
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PHILLIPS: Does Washington's crime crackdown go too far?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should really be in a position that they need to be checked or surveyed or scrutinize.
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PHILLIPS: Privacy versus prevention. The battle over community checkpoints, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Checkpoints and roadblocks. Getting in and out of an extremely dangerous neighborhood. It's not Baghdad; it's our nation's capital. Police say it's necessary to stop spiking murders there. But civil rights groups are watching to see who is being turned away.
CNN's Kate Bolduan, has got the story.
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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even after the funeral, Anthony Mincey's family cannot believe it's real.
TAWANDA MINCEY, VICTIM'S SISTER: This belief, still hoping he's going to come in, (INAUDIBLE) just to hear his voice and I still think he's here. It's just unbelievable that he's gone.
SHIRLEY MINCEY, VICTIM'S MOTHER: He's just a straight outgoing guy, was never no problem to no one.
BOLDUAN: The 35-year-old son, brother and entertainer was shot and killed in the northeast Washington just over a week ago. He was one of seven people killed in a 24-hour period. D.C. police are scrambling to stop the bloodshed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to just lock that area down. To the best of our ability, we're going to lock it down and we're going to implement check points. BOLDUAN (on camera): The checkpoints are road blocks. Anyone driving into this neighborhood must have what police call a legitimate purpose. They live here or visiting a friend or attending a community event. If not, police will turn them away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will very quickly know when someone pulls up to the checkpoint. It's a resident that lives in the neighborhood versus somebody who has may be been scanning the area, but we're looking for anything that doesn't look right.
BOLDUAN: Police have used similar tactics in other high crime areas in New York. Some civil rights activists say the measure borders on martial law and violates resident's privacy rights.
MARK THOMPSON, NAACP POLICE TASK FORCE: Nobody should really be in the position. That when they come home in the evening or when they go, to and from, or when their friends and relatives want to come visit them, that they need to be check or surveyed or scrutinized.
BOLDUAN: The American Civil Liberties Union is considering legal action to fight the D.C. check points. But Anthony Mincey's family supports the initiative, saying something must be done.
T. MINCEY: This will be with me until I'm buried in my grave, that the way they took my brother. He's now a statistic.
BOLDUAN: Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.
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ROBERTS: Issue no. 1, Barack Obama brings his economic message to working voters in a two-week red state swing.
Plus two wars -- a food crisis and surging oil prices, all on the table. The president speaks live before his final trip to Europe.
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Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the Unabomber's brother and an unlikely bond.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have learned things that no other, you know, victim of these set of crimes will ever know. And it's because of that relationship, I mean, I have been able to see things.
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PHILLIPS: A brotherhood born out of tragedy.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a lot of pain for me with the word brother, a lot of emotion. But I see, Gary, as my brother. I know that, you know, this friendship is for life. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: A riveting story of reconciliation ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm looking forward to meeting with our friends and allies. We've got strong relations in Europe, and this trip will help solidify those relations. And we got a lot to talk about.
First, I'm looking forward to talking about the freedom agenda with the European nations. Got a lot of work to do in Afghanistan. And the countries I'm going to have committed troops to Afghanistan. And, of course, want to thank them, and remind them there's a lot of work to be done.
I talked to Laura yesterday, who, as you now know, took a trip to Afghanistan. I want to thank her for going. She gave me a good assessment about what she saw. She saw progress, but she also saw there needs to be a lot of work to be done -- there's a lot of work to be done.
And so she's going to go to the Paris Conference, along with Secretary Rice, on our behalf to ask nations to contribute to the development of Afghanistan, which will mean they'll be contributing to peace.
And then, of course, we'll be talking about the economy. A lot of Americans are concerned about our economy. I can understand why. Gasoline prices are high. Energy prices are high. I do remind them that we have put a stimulus package forward that is expected to help boost the economy. And of course, we'll be monitoring the situation.
We'll remind our friends and allies overseas that we're all too dependent on hydrocarbons. We must work to advance technologies to help us become less dependent on hydrocarbons.
I'll also remind them, though, that the United States has an opportunity to help increase the supply of oil on the market. Therefore, taking pressure off gasoline for hardworking Americans, and that I've proposed to the Congress that they open up ANWR, open up the Continental Shelf, and give this country a chance to help us through this difficult period by finding more supplies of crude oil, which will take the pressure off the price of gasoline.
These are global issues we'll be discussing. Secretary Paulson will be also discussing issues at the G8 -- the G8 ministers in Japan this week.
As well, I'll talk about our nation's commitment to a strong dollar. A strong dollar is in our nation's interests. It is in the interests of the global economy. Our economy is large and it's open and flexible. Our capital markets are some of the deepest and most liquid. And the long-term health and strong foundation of our economy will shine through and be reflected in currency values.
U.S. economy has continued to grow in the face of unprecedented challenges. We got to keep our economies flexible. Both the U.S. economy and European economies need to be flexible in order to deal with today's challenges.
I'm looking forward to my trip and I'm looking forward to seeing Laura. Thank you.
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ROBERTS: President Bush there about to head for a six-nation trip to Europe. Some people are calling this a wrap up trip. He's going to start in Ljubljana, Slovenia which is where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 2001.
From there he goes on to German, then he'll be in Italy. He also visits Vatican City. He goes to France and the UK. As well, he's going to be meeting with Queen Elizabeth this time around. So quite a trip that the president's got planned.
Our Ed Henry is with us on the south lawn of the White House as the President gets into the helicopter there.
And Ed, he's going to -- hopefully for him, at least, meet a little more of a friendly audience than he had the last time he was in Europe with some new leaders there in Germany and in France, as well as his old friend, Berlusconi, back in power in Italy.
ED HENRY, CNN White House CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Certainly, Anglo-American in Germany as well as Nicolas Sarkozy in France. A much more amenable to this president. A much better relationship for him in Europe right now. But it's obviously in the waning days of his administration.
He hopes to use those relationships to try to keep NATO allies in particular on board with the mission in Afghanistan. You heard him talk about how the First Lady was there yesterday. A surprise trip only on the ground for nine hours because of the security situation in Afghanistan.
He spoke about progress in Afghanistan. But the fact is the U.S. is not satisfied with President Karzai in Afghanistan, not pushing hard enough there on the ground in dealing with the violence, dealing with the drug lords and others.
And so the president realizes his allies in Europe are getting frustrated with the mission in Afghanistan. They're not willing to put up the troops as much as the U.S. is. That war still dragging on. So he has a tough mission there. And it's quite interesting, frankly, that the First Lady took this trip, going into a war zone, that's rare. But as you know, she's been taking on a larger foreign policy portfolio, in part because she's much more popular around the world that he is.
