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American Morning
Russia Halts Military Action in Georgia; Nancy Pelosi Changes Course on Drilling; What's at Stake in the Georgia Pipeline?; General Motors Competing to Go Electric; Utah Closed on Friday for Four-Day Workweek
Aired August 12, 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: More on our other breaking story this morning. Russia's president now calling off military action inside Georgia, but the pain and suffering has not stopped. Russia is flexing its muscles in the northern part of Georgia in a way that we have not seen since the iron curtain came down. There are reports that tanks pushed deeper into the former Soviet Republic way past two disputed territories reportedly seizing a Georgian military base close to the city of Gori.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Moscow right now. He is the current head of the European Union and the point man for peace as the West tries to bring the crisis to an end. Georgia's president says that Russia's goal is clear. Quote, "The invasion, occupation and annihilation of an independent democratic country." President Bush says that is not an option.
Our State Department correspondent Zain Verjee is live for us in Washington. She's got the latest on the diplomatic maneuvers. Zain, what's going on?
ZAIN VERJEE, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: John, a senior U.S. official says the Russian invasion was actually planned for some time, suggesting that Russia could be retreating to its old Soviet ways.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE (voice-over): Russia advances inside Georgia showing off its power on the world stage. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appearing to dare the U.S. and the West to stop him. President Bush pushes back, warning Russia not to attack Georgia's capital, Tbilisi.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia.
VERJEE: Mr. Bush says Russia's bent on getting rid of Georgia's president.
BUSH: Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.
VERJEE: Unacceptable, but what can the U.S. do to stop it? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is working with world leaders, sending envoy Matthew Bryza to Georgia to get the cease fire. But the U.S. and NATO have made it clear they won't intervene militarily to defend their ally. One that President Bush has made a point of visiting and holding up as a beacon of democracy.
BUSH: The American people will stand with you.
VERJEE: Those close ties with the former Soviet Republic have angered Russia.
ROBERT HUNTER, RAND CORPORATION: This is a moment for the Russians to take a deep breath and say, are we going to be a real great power in the post Cold War era? Are we just going to go back and play stupid Jumanji games which frankly lead to their isolation over time?
VERJEE: And President Bush says Russia's actions have already damaged its standing in the world.
BUSH: And these actions jeopardize Russia's relations with the United States and Europe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Washington's been pushing the U.N. Security Council to act, but that's not likely to go anywhere because Russia has veto power there. The U.S. also, John, has to factor in that it needs Russia in the U.N. Security Council to help pressure Iran on its nuclear program -- John.
ROBERTS: What about humanitarian aid, Zain? What's the U.S. doing on that front?
VERJEE: Well, the embassy declared a disaster on the ground and its authorized $250,000. That's only in initial funding that's going to help about 10,000 people on the ground -- John.
ROBERTS: $250,000?
VERJEE: Yes. That's an initial funding. But what that does is it triggers an assessment on the ground. And once that occurs, it allows for more money to be opened.
ROBERTS: All right. Any idea how much more money will go there?
VERJEE: Probably a significant amount. I mean, Georgia is a key U.S. ally. President Bush called it a beacon of democracy in the region, and it's more than likely that the U.S. will put in a substantial amount of money to at least some humanitarian level and then to rebuild the destroyed parts.
ROBERTS: All right. Zain Verjee for us in Washington this morning. Zain, thanks.
CHETRY: Well, disturbing video caught on tape. A man in handcuffs punched in the face and kicked while he was down. This incident happened back in May. Police just releasing the video. The West Palm Beach Florida police chief says there is no doubt in her mind the officers used excessive force. One of them has since resigned. The others are on administrative leave, and the suspect was charged with robbery and aggravated assault on an officer.
The state capital is under curfew for 30 days after shootings at a parade killed one person and wounded six others including a 7-year- old and 15-month-old. This is at Hartford, Connecticut. The curfew starts Thursday.
Everyone under 18 must be in by 9:00 p.m. unless they're with an adult. Kids caught on the street after 9:00 will be brought to a community center and their parents have to pick them up. Police say the shootings were related to teen gangs.
ROBERTS: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may be in trouble again, this time for visiting his sister. Prosecutors say that could violate terms of his bail since he is on the witness list in his assault case. The visit happened on Saturday, the day after he got out of jail for violating bond in a separate perjury case. Kilpatrick's attorneys say that the magistrate had OKed contact with the sister.
A gun ban at the world's busiest airport stands this morning. A federal judge upheld the ban at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. He said having guns there could be a serious threat to public safety. A gun rights group sued the city arguing that a new state law allows them to carry concealed weapons in certain parts of the airport if they have a permit.
CHETRY: Still ahead, we're working on for you a little bit later in the hour. Nancy Pelosi changing her mind on a major policy issue that impacts your wallet. We'll tell you what the House speaker is saying.
ROBERTS: Also, electric cars of the future. Why you may soon be able to go 20 miles on 50 cents.
CHETRY: Sounds good to me.
Also, Oprah's endorsement impact. She threw her weight behind Barack Obama. We're going to find out her real impact in the polls. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi might have changed her mind on offshore oil drilling. With House Republicans protesting and demanding the Democrats come back from vacation for a vote, Pelosi told Larry King that she would be willing to consider that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: They have this thing that says, drill offshore in the protected areas. Well, we can do that. We can have a vote on that. But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and not just a hoax on them.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Would you vote yes on a package that includes drilling?
PELOSI: I would not. It depends on how the drilling is put forth, but that is not excluded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Pelosi says drilling would take too long to bring new oil to the market. She wants other measures which could help bring gas prices down now.
CHETRY: And one of the other things that's a little controversial that she's talked about is opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which you say is a very short term fix, right?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CHETRY: Thirty days long.
VELSHI: I mean, because you know that it ends. It's got 700 million barrels. That's a lot of oil. But in the end, we know how much there is and we do actually have to keep it as an emergency supply. So it may not be a very good answer.
CHETRY: How about -- you have other good answers?
VELSHI: Yes. John was asking a little earlier about why this oil pipeline in Georgia might be of relevance to us. I just wanted to show you on a map why it's relevant.
There is oil in the Caspian Sea that comes from the Caucuses Region of the world. But the Caspian is a completely landlocked sea so you can't get it out of there easily. So this pipeline starts in the Caspian Sea. Assume that's down there and comes out through Azerbaijan, which is here, and into the country of Georgia, you'll notice it completely skips Russia.
The war pipelines that went through Russia, but this one was built a few years ago to avoid going through Russia. It then goes into Turkey and ends at the Mediterranean. Now, that ships about 1 million barrels of oil a day usually to Middle Eastern or European markets. So while it doesn't affect the United States, if that oil doesn't get to those European or Middle Eastern markets, well, those people have to get oil from somewhere else. So it affects the price of oil.
And I should tell you before the trouble between Russia and Georgia started, there were Kurdish rebels who bombed a part of that pipeline that goes through Turkey. So that Turk pipeline is, in fact, out of commission right now and has been for some time. So while there are fears that the Russians have attacked this pipeline and damaged it, at the moment there's no oil going through it anyway. That's where some of the fears come in about. If you're hearing news reports about the pipelines being damaged, that's what we're talking about. It's a key pipeline to get oil, a million barrels a day, from the Caspian Sea to western markets in Turkey.
CHETRY: Are you saying it's already not happening?
VELSHI: Already not working. It wasn't working. When this thing -- when this stuff started a few days ago, there wasn't any oil going through it. It's been shut down. Probably going to be shut down for another week anyway because of damage that was done on the Turkish side of that pipeline. We don't know yet. We have not gotten confirmation if there's been further damage to it. But the Georgians have said that the Russians have deliberately attacked that pipeline.
ROBERTS: All right. Ali, thanks so much for that.
Extreme weather in the northeast. Heavy rains and high winds turning upstate New York into this. Rob is tracking the storms from the weather center. We're going to check in with him for your travel forecast right after the break.
CHETRY: The return of the electric car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL SIMCOE, GM NORTH AMERICA DESIGN: And I'll give you a little sneak peek.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: GM hopes to get a boost from the flashy volt. But, first, it's got one huge problem to solve. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning." Extreme weather. Flooding in Rensselaer, New York. This is just outside of Albany. Heavy rain fell all day and the ground just couldn't hold anymore water. Look at that. The water all the way up practically swallowing up cars.
It got so bad they issued a state of emergency. This morning they say the waters there are slowly receding.
Our Rob Marciano is tracking the weather for us with a look at the day ahead. But yesterday, boy, rough weather around New York. In fact, they were talking about a couple of funnel clouds spotted over Long Island Sound?
MARCIANO: Yes. There was one storm that came right up the Hudson and right over the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and midtown Manhattan. It was nasty. That area has now kind of shifted off to the east. This was just a cool pool of air that kind of sat over upstate New York. And you get that sun to heat things up and percolating things. It's doing that now across eastern parts of New England. Circulation, the center of which you can see just to the east of Boston. That's good. If we continue to this offshore we'll do all right.
But we had an overnight last night. We had winds gusting over 50 miles an hour on the Cape. We had frequent lightning and a couple of fires started in Plymouth and Bristol County because of some of that lightning. So the northeastern will be glad to see this go.
What it has brought is some comfortable temperatures; 80 degrees in New York City for a high temperature today. It will be 79 in Chicago. Let's take that. 84 degrees in Kansas City and 89 degrees in Denver.
So we certainly have seen much, much hotter weather this summer. We'll take the slight cool down. Heavy rain expected across parts of the southeast today. We could see anywhere from six to eight inches over the next 48 hours and the sliver that runs across Mississippi, Alabama, and in through Georgia, even in South Carolina. So we'll be wet down across the south.
Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Water, I guess, that's the word of the day for you. Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: 17 minutes now after the hour. Cindy Sheehan, presidential protester, anti-war activist, back in the news this morning, now saying that she wants to be on the inside. We'll tell you what she's up to and whose job she's after right after the break.
Plus, is Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Barack Obama making a difference to voters? We're counting the votes for you.
CHETRY: The flip side of the four-day week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCINE GIANI, UTAH DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE: I didn't bring the mini bar. Someone asked for that several times on my trip yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Keeping employees motivated through the 10-hour workday. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 19 minutes now after the hour. And let's fast forward to stories that are going to be making news later on today.
At 11:00 this morning, House Republicans will continue their protest of Democrats for not allowing a vote on offshore oil drilling. GOP leaders say they plan to continue the protest every weekday through the Democratic convention, but as you heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi say on LARRY KING LIVE, she might be open to a vote. Depends on what's in the package.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan back in the news this morning. This time she says that she has enough signatures to run for Congress in November. She says that she is going to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. She has long complained that Pelosi failed to cut off war funding.
And look up because the annual Perseid meteor shower is going on right now. Today is the best day to see the shooting stars. Up to 80 meteors may be visible each hour if the sky is clear. The showers run until August 13th. Probably that's the way they're scheduled.
And that's what we're following this morning -- Kiran.
CHETRY: That's right. They stay on schedule much like a train.
Well, that wasn't long ago that electric cars weren't around. Now most major car makers are saying that they want to compete to get theirs on the market.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick joins us now with more on the race to the future. It's really funny because it's almost like the past and then the future, because they were exploring this about a decade ago and then it sort of dropped off.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It failed. It basically failed. So now, they're trying to recreate this because they know this is the demand. This is where the future is.
We were allowed inside the development lab at GM. It's got frosted glass doors, special entry cards. GM is throwing everything it's got to make this car a success.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): This is not just a car. It's, perhaps, the future.
MICHAEL SIMCOE, GM NORTH AMERICA DESIGN: The design that's below this covers is absolutely the design we're taking to the marketplace. I'll give you a little sneak peek.
FEYERICK: While a lecture about GM's electric car is under wraps, the creators' enthusiasm certainly is not.
(on camera): So you catch the interior of the carbon. How does the driving experience differ from a normal car?
TIM GREIG, VOLT DESIGN MANAGER: Oh, it's totally different. In fact, I tell people I got religion when I drove an electric vehicle for the first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NARRATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the 2007 Chevrolet Volt concept.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Chevrolet unveiled its demo called the Volt last year with a promise the car would be ready by 2010. The competition for electrical car supremacy is so intense Chevrolet has taken the unusual step of designing the car based on a battery still being developed.
(on camera): This has to last a very long time for this car to succeed.
DENISE GRAY, DIRECTOR, GM BATTERY ENGINEERING: Absolutely. And one of the parameters that comes to look in my mind (ph) is the life of the battery. Can it withstand those pipelines being used going from empty to full, from full to empty? Can it handle all the temperatures of hot temperatures down in Phoenix, Arizona, cold temperatures up in the northern Canada?
FEYERICK (voice-over): Back in the '90s, GM tried and failed with its EV1 electric car. Technology, they say, wasn't good enough. The new lithium ion battery is a third the size of the EV1. It's expected to get 40 miles a charge. Plus there's a gas tank to charge the battery for longer drives.
TONY PASAWATZ, VOLT ENGINEER: So we can go hundreds of miles on a charge and with your backup gas tank system.
FEYERICK: GM says every curve, every corner has been shaved to improve air flow so the car goes farther.
SIMCOE: Even down tom, you know, one or two millimeters can affect the range of the vehicle.
FEYERICK: The Chevrolet Volt takes approximately six hours to charge. It can be plugged in at night when electricity is relatively cheap. Instead of roughly $4 for a gallon, it will cost about 50 cents to drive the same distance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: GM has a lot riding on this. The company really needs a hit. This has to be successful. The deal breaker, of course, is the battery. GM wants a warranty of 10 years or 150,000 miles. So they're testing this battery 24/7 to make sure they get it right.
You can imagine if this fails, they are behind.
CHETRY: And it really is astounding when you think about it. So they're building all of this technology and everything around a battery that still hasn't been tested?
FEYERICK: It has never been done this way before, and that's what's so unique. You have one team of designers working to make sure that everything is perfect. Then you got the battery testers. And, again, it's the wear and the tear and that's what's the unknown.
CHETRY: The other thing is, where are you going to plug it in?
FEYERICK: Exactly. And infrastructures really are going to have to change. You're going to have to see whether, in fact, companies make outlets that people can just plug in. They're not going to be able to run their extension cords into the building, of course. So what they may do is they may have these little outlets where you park.
And so, all that's being developed now. But it's exciting and people think it's the future. Even if gas prices drop, they have to do this.
CHETRY: Fascinating stuff. Deb, great to see you. Thanks.
The Oprah bounce.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've never really had an academic study that looked at the celebrity endorsement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: How much did Oprah help Obama? Two graduates say they figured it out down to the last vote. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 26 minutes after the hour. Utah now closed on Friday. The entire state government has now made the switch to a four-day workweek. Employees are trading a 10-hour day for a three-day weekend every weekend. In our continuation of our week-long series, four-day workweek, John Zarrella is taking a look at whether or not it's working and he's here now with that.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, it's a huge undertaking. Utah State government is the first in the nation to go to a four-day workweek. It hopes of saving 20 percent on energy costs. Some of that savings, it may surprise you, comes from right here on the Great Salt Lake.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Phalaropes. At least 100,000 of them have gathered here. Their stopping off point on their migration from Canada to Argentina. This is the Farmington Bay waterfowl area of Utah's Salt Lake.
RICH HANSEN, STATE WILDLIFE EMPLOYEE: Here they come. Look. Look at that. It's right on cue.
ZARRELLA: State wildlife employee Rich Hansen manages this vast migratory bird habitat. Already on a four-day workweek, he swears by it. More efficient, cuts fuel cost. HANSEN: And if we got a longer work day we can accomplish what we need to do in that one day and not to worry about going back the next day.
ZARRELLA: Hansen predicts other state employees will love it, too. We'll see. Last week, most state government offices began closing on Fridays. Shutting 1,000 state buildings is expected to save Utah $3 million a year in energy costs. Seventeen thousand employees are now on a four-day workweek.
FRANCINE GIANI, UTAH DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE: What do you want? Rock star? All right. Awesome.
ZARRELLA: Francine Giani runs the Department of Commerce. Today she's serving cold drinks to employees, a pick me up to get them through the 10-hour day.
GIANI: I didn't bring the mini bar. Someone asked for that several times on my trip yesterday.
ZARRELLA: Giani and other department heads have been instructed to help workers through the most difficult issues -- child care and transportation. Be flexible with schedules.
GIANI: If I've got an employee that wants to work and do their best and that's what their past performance has been, I'm going to work with them.
ZARRELLA: Officials believe the extended office hours will give people with state business more options. No more 9:00 to 5:00. For employees, fuel savings and more time with family.
HANSEN: It provides us a three-day weekend. They go camping or fishing.
ZARRELLA: For now, the traditional workweek here in Utah is, well, for the birds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: A year from now state government officials will evaluate the experiment. How much money was saved? How were employees effected? Then they'll decide whether to ditch the program or keep it afloat -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John Zarrella.
28 minutes past the hour now. Some of the top stories this morning.
We have breaking news. Russia's president calling for a halt to military action in Georgia. This comes as world leaders meet in an effort to end the bloody invasion that's reportedly claimed 2,000 lives. Earlier Russia said no to a U.N. backed cease fire and called for Georgia's president, a strong U.S. ally, to step down. Also happening right now, this is new video in to us. A pro- Georgian rally in the capital city of Tbilisi right aside of parliament. Hundreds of people outside waving flags despite the sound of shells going off this morning. Russian tanks reportedly came within seven miles of the city.
And a roadside blast in Pakistan killing at least 12 people. The attacker still on the loose right now after detonating a bomb by remote killing Pakistani air force personnel and civilians. The bombing took place near the Afghan border in a tribal region heavily populated by Islamic militants.
To Olympic news now, golden boy Michael Phelps wins his third gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. He dominated the field, beating his own world record in the 200 meter men's freestyle. Phelps now has nine career gold medals tying him for the most in Olympic history.
ROBERTS: He is amazing. He looked like a speedboat yesterday in that lane.
CHETRY: Hey, we watched that green line, the old world record, way behind the swimmer. It's unbelievable.
ALINA CHO, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Not too long ago, as you guys know, I interviewed Mark Spitz and he was saying - I asked him, how would you feel if Michael Phelps breaks your record? Wouldn't you be a little bit sad? And he said, actually, no. Because I consider him - I think I was a mentor. It would mean that, you know, some -
CHETRY: His protege.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: His record has stood for an awfully long time.
CHO: Yes it has.
ROBERTS: By the way, lots of other stories new this morning. And Alina Cho is here with that. What have you got for us?
CHO: Hey, a lot going on this morning. Good morning, guys. Good morning, everybody. New this morning, making trillions and paying no taxes. A startling new government report says more than a million corporations are avoiding federal income taxes. It looked at an eight-year period between 1998 and 2005. Close to 40,000 companies are on the list and their overseas business and did business here in the U.S.. Now the names of the businesses were not released. The study said some companies may escape paying these taxes because of operating losses or because of tax credits.
Some major changes to the endangered species act could be coming. For 35 years scientists have been required to give independent reviews for construction projects that may affect protected animals. Now, federal agencies may have more power to make the calls themselves. Yesterday the interior secretary said the changes were needed to ensure that the endangered species act would not be used as a, "back door to regulate global warming." There's a 30-day comment period during which you can weigh in with your opinion on the proposal.
Hefty but healthy? According to a new study, a surprising number of overweight people are relatively healthy. More than half of those who are overweight and nearly a third of obese Americans have mostly normal levels of blood pressure and cholesterol. Now, on the flip side researchers say they found nearly 25 percent of Americans at the recommended weight had high blood pressure or cholesterol.
And earth friendly and loyal. A new study says close to half, 47 percent of people who own hybrid cars stick with the same company when it's time to get a new car. Now, that's compared to 35 percent of buyers overall. Toyota Prius owners are considered super loyal. No surprise there. A quarter coming back for the same make and model. Hybrids, by the way, are the fastest growing segment of the car market. Sales are up 130 percent from 2005. Wonder how much that has to do with gas prices?
ROBERTS: Back to the study on fat and health though. We should point out too that the flip side of the story is almost half the people who are overweight do not have regular levels of cholesterol or blood pressure.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: Two-thirds of obese Americans don't.
CHO: That's right. Our good friend, Sanjay, of course, would advise diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. You know.
ROBERTS: Climb Mt. McKinley, you know.
CHETRY: I've seen the guy.
CHO: Ride your bike like you do.
CHETRY: John does, too. He can't even eat anything fattening. He's very good. Salads for lunch every day.
CHO: I didn't know that.
CHETRY: Thanks, Alina.
Well, E. coli may be the real thing. The answer to the nation's fuel crisis. CNN's Miles O'Brien shows us how bacteria is being genetically engineered to produce an alternative to oil.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like an oil field on a microscope slide. These tiny bacteria are making diesel fuel. No drilling required. What are we seeing? This is fuel here?
STEVEN: These are the E. coli cells. Converted the sugar, secreted out the oil.
O'BRIEN: Steven is the lead researcher with a company called LS9 that is harnessing a harmless strain of E. coli to make fuel. All you have to do is feed the bacteria.
Doesn't have to be, like, corn or -
STEVEN: You can use corn. You can use sugar cane. Woodchips would work. Wheat straw would work.
O'BRIEN: In short, they aren't picky eaters. They eat sugar, digest, and expel petroleum waste. () and his team had genetically engineered these tiny oil makers to create diesel because it's the easiest fuel to make. But E. coli could make other fuels as well. What is the catch?
STEVEN: No catch. We've genetically engineered E. coli to make fuel. That can be used in existing infrastructure.
O'BRIEN: And that is a key point. LS9's E. coli diesel can be mixed in with traditional fossil fuels. Ethanol is so corrosive it can not be sent through existing pipelines. But an army of microbes really make a difference? Bob McCormick is a government expert on biofuels?
ROBERT MCCORMICK, NAT'L RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB: If you've got something you can make work in a test tube, that's good. But you've got to be able to make it work on a very large scale to have an impact on our petroleum imports.
O'BRIEN: At LS9, they are ramping up as fast as they can, separating oil and water. They hope to be making millions of gallons a week in the next few years. Is it possible to say we could grow our way out of our dependence on oil?
STEVEN: I doubt we're going to completely eliminate our dependence on oil. But we'll certainly be able to wean ourselves of complete dependence.
O'BRIEN: That is, once they get the bugs out. Miles O'Brien, CNN, South San Francisco, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And at 35 minutes after the hour, Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather today, looking at the Atlantic ocean. What are you finding, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: We got a couple of areas of interest, John. Waves and then one wave that looks particularly strong. The National Hurricane Center has this as a greater than 50 percent probability of it developing into a tropical depression or storm here in the next couple of days. They may send hurricane hunter aircraft into it to check it out. Certainly looks a little bit more impressive today so they would have that recon mission this afternoon if they think that is necessary.
Meanwhile, here's your little twist in the atmosphere. Some nasty weather across the northeast. You don't really get weather like this across the northeast as far as the hail, the nastiness, the cold and the rain unless you've got a hurricane coming in in August. Certainly, that's not the case. We had winds gusting at times to 57 miles an hour last night. And below normal temperatures today again, 80 degrees in New York. It will be 84 degrees in Kansas City. And 107 for the gamblers in Vegas. John, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's a dry heat, Rob.
MARCIANO: That's right.
ROBERTS: Right, thanks very much.
John Zarrella a couple of minutes ago was talking about a four- day workweek in the state of Utah. Ali Velshi was somebody else looking at a four-day workweek. Hey, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Get ready for a long weekend every weekend. Now, one major corporation is examining the idea of only having people come in four days a week. When we come back on AMERICAN MORNING. I'll tell you which one and whether this could come to you soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Ali Velshi joins us now.
A lot going on today, Ali.
VELSHI: Well, you know, you were talking to John Zarrella about the state of Utah going to a four-day workweek. Well no, Chrysler is saying that at 12 plants in the United States that are not unionized, it's going to try and work this out with its workers. They're saying the workers will like it because it will give them four-day work weeks and three-day weekend. They also - when you're in a plant environment, there's a lot of benefit to this. Because if you get to shut down the plant for a full extra day, the amount of energy that you're using is more significant. So that's one of the things that the state of Utah is thinking about. Better environment for its workers. But at the same time being able to save energy, air- conditioning or heating of those buildings.
One of the things that the governor of the state of Utah was telling me about this plan when they announced it was that they also think in a changing world these days when you're competing for workers, right now we got a higher unemployment rate and a lot of job losses but we know that these things turn around very quickly. Will a worker who has a choice to work a four-day workweek choose to work for your company over someone else's because that work environment is better? Almost universally, people think that the four-day workweek is better than a five-day workweek. The extra two hours a day, 10 hours a day, instead of eight. The issue is of course when you initially change to a four-day workweek, you have problems with bus schedules and child care. And things like that. But If there were a bigger shift toward it you could possibly see more people doing it. So it might be part of a trend. Chrysler hasn't been able to get much right in the last several years. So it would be interesting if they could get this right. It still actually doesn't affect the way they make cars but -
ROBERTS: So Chrysler moving to a four-day workweek. Toyota now 24/7 cranking out those Priuses.
VELSHI: That's true. One way to look at it. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: If it's true, I mean, you know, in some of those, that they shift work and they're operating 24 hours so it doesn't make any -
VELSHI: Right, it doesn't make any difference. But if you're Chrysler and you're making fewer cars, why not get your workers to stay home a little bit.
CHETRY: Not bad. Thanks, Ali.
Well, Oprah's endorsement impact. She supported Barack Obama. We're going to find out the real impact of that move on the polls.
ROBERTS: And sawing logs while you sleep. Ways to stop snoring and why you should stop for you and your spouse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, she is one of the most powerful women in the world. Definitely somebody that you'd want in your corner if you were running for president. But would a candidate running for president want her in his or her corner? Well, CNN's Jason Carroll spoke to two people who think they've got that answer. We're being - we're, like, dancing around it. We're talking about Oprah. Everyone wants the Oprah endorsement, right.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Of course. And yes, these guys think they have some numbers to back up what they're going to say. You know, when Oprah Winfrey backed Senator Barack Obama during the primaries, there were pundits who is said, so what? Celebrity endorsements just don't add up to much and in the past there wasn't much evidence to show they were wrong. But now two economists say their study shows there is political power behind Oprah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, OPRAH: OK. It's book club day here.
CARROLL (voice-over): She endorses a book, it becomes a best seller. She mentions one of her favorite products, stores soon sell out. Oprah, it seems, has the Midas touch. But does it apply to voters? After Oprah endorsed Senator Barack Obama, two grad students decided to find out.
TIM MOORE, ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Statistically we found an effect that it's very unlikely to be random.
CARROLL: Tim Moore and Craig Garthway (ph) of the University of Maryland used a formula that looked at county by county subscriptions to Oprah's magazine "O" and Oprah's book club. They compared the data with votes cast for Obama. A lot of equations later their math showed Oprah was responsible for 1,015,559 votes for Obama. Though they also admit it could be much more or much less.
BETH FRERKING, POLITICO.COM: We've never had a study an academic study that looked at the effect and the impact of celebrity endorsement.
CARROLL: Others are less impressed.
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: 1,015,559 votes she brought to Barack Obama. Well, that's a little absurd. I mean, how can you get specific to that degree.
CARROLL: Other analysts say maybe some of the "O" subscribers would have voted for Obama anyway, whatever Oprah said.
MOORE: You're right. We don't absolutely know. But as you can see in the paper, we've made some pretty good efforts to try and see if there's something else. And so far we haven't found it.
CARROLL: The consensus among political commentators is that celebrity endorsements can get a candidate some attention but don't necessarily translate into votes. And Obama, they say, may have gotten his biggest boost not from Oprah but from winning the Iowa caucus, proving you could win over whites as well as blacks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And we reached out to the Obama campaign. And a spokesman said, "we are proud to have the support of such an important and dynamic individual. She was able to bring in thousands of people who might not have normally been interested in politics. As for Oprah, we were told she is on hiatus and not available for comment.
CHETRY: How about that? I'm sure you weren't working the formulas yourself, though, right?
CARROLL: Me, no. I struggled in math. English, great. Math, no. Not so much.
CHETRY: I hear you. Jason Carroll, great to have you. Thanks.
CARROLL: All right. Thanks.
ROBERTS: 47 minutes now after the hour. And here's what we're working on for you this morning. Newly released e-mails showed Hillary Clinton ignored her advisers and refused to paint Barack Obama as un-American as her staff fought amongst themselves. We're going behind the scenes for you this morning.
And Michael Phelps on track so far to become the greatest Olympian ever. We'll update you on his chase for eight gold medals. You're watching the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 49 minutes after the hour. Breaking news just in to CNN. Despite claims by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he has called off military action in Georgia and as well in South Ossetia, there are claims by the Georgian government this morning that Russian war planes have pounded two Georgian villages outside of the breakaway province there and Abkhazia as well. Apparently, according to Georgian officials, the villages of Ruisi and Sakoringo have fallen under Russian fire.
CNN has confirmed this through the Georgian government. We'll be working on this story. We'll continue to follow it for you. Again, contrary to claims by Russia's President Medvedev that military action has been called off in that region. We are now getting claims from the Georgian government that bombing is on-going.
Snoring bad for the snorer and as well for the person lying next to them. In fact, one study found 23 percent of snorer's spouses say they have to sleep in another room because the noise gets so bad on occasion. Luckily there are more options out there than ever to help snorers stop. And our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more on what's new to fight snoring. Hey, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. John, sometimes snorers think, oh I just have to live with this. It's just the way I am, and their spouses think that too. But you know what doctors tell us you don't have to live with snoring and there are some approaches that I bet a lot of people haven't heard of. They're actually quite interesting. Let's talk about them.
The first one is that you can get implants into were soft pallet, that's way in the back of your throat. It sounds painful, but you're in and out of the doctor's office in less than an hour, they use local anesthesia. There's also a tongue treatment. Get this - they inject a radio frequency into the back of your tongue, also done under local anesthesia and it's basically made to make the base of your tongue smaller so that air can pass through more quickly. You can also get customized mouthpieces from your dentist. So, John, those are just some of the kind of newfangled approaches to help snoring. John.
ROBERTS: Soft pallet implants?
COHEN: Yes.
ROBERTS: That sounds pretty dramatic.
COHEN: It does sound dramatic, but again, local anesthesia, you're in and out in less than an hour. So not nearly as scary as it sounds.
ROBERTS: All right. What does it do? It stops from the soft pallet from flapping and creating the -
COHEN: Exactly, exactly. Because that what happens, it flaps and makes noises and this sort of hardens the soft pallet so that it won't flap around. ROBERTS: Interesting stuff for us this morning. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
COHEN: Thanks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): Germ power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've genetically engineered E. coli to make fuel.
CHETRY: Microscopic bacteria that's pumping out oil and worms for food.
And front-runners fall. Leaked memos giving us an inside look as Clinton's camp unraveled.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. There is an interesting story we're bringing you today from "Atlantic" magazine. This is very interesting. They wrote an article based on some leaked e-mails that from the Hillary Clinton campaign and they did this to expose - to show some of the infighting that went on in the campaign. In fact, in one instance, Hillary Clinton refusing to follow the advice of some of her top strategists that would have cast rival Barack Obama as un-American. Now, joining us to talk more about this article is Joshua Green, the senior editor at the "Atlantic." Thanks for being with us this morning, Joshua.
JOSHUA GREEN, SENIOR EDITOR, "ATLANTIC" MAGAZINE: Good to be with you.
CHETRY: You know, you write about this and you talk about what really caused her to ultimately lose the nomination. Why did you decide to put out this article?
GREEN: Well, I mean, we got this - you know, all these internal strategy memos and e-mails leaked to us for a piece I was working on, and we really thought what this gave us a chance to do was kind of put this all up on the web and really present the information in a unique kind of way instead of having a writer like me sort of use my own interpretation and explain to people what happened, we figured, let's put these all up on the web, let readers, lets go read for themselves, be privy to the same strategy memos that the Clinton senior advisers were and the Clintons were doing during the campaign. And be able to see for themselves exactly what happened and why it happened and be able to make up their own minds about, you know, who's to blame for the fact that this historic candidacy wound up failing.
CHETRY: Well, let's show some of them and talk about some of them. We can talk about maybe who's interested in to actually leak these. But you write that her chief strategist Mark Penn wanted to attack Senator Obama for lacking American roots. And let's show one of the memos that he writes. He says, "Obama's boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii exposes a very strong weakness for him. His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who was not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values. Now, this was internally debated. This was a strategy that ultimately Hillary Clinton decided to not use. Do you have an insight as to why?
GREEN: We, I mean, what that memo represents is one side of really a two-part clash within the Clinton campaign. Mark Penn, her chief strategist, and Bill Clinton, her husband, wanted to go after Obama very, very aggressively. Much more aggressively than the campaign in fact wound up doing, but there were really two schools of thought.
One school of thought was, we need to render Obama unelectable. We need to go right after him on Iraq and any way we can, tear this guy down so that Hillary Clinton is really the only viable option to win the democratic nomination. The other side of the campaign wanted to do precisely the opposite. They wanted to build up Hillary, make her more likable, make her more palatable and kind of convince people that way. And what you see in all these e-mails and memos that were leaked is these two groups of strategists clashing again and again and again. And the fundamental problem for the campaign is that the two strategies were directly at odds with each other and Clinton herself never really stepped in to make an executive decision and say I want to do this or I want to do that and I think as a result the campaign really ran into trouble.
CHETRY: It's also interesting, this is another e-mail that was out. This from long-time Clinton adviser, Robert Burnett titled "Stop it," it's the e-mail. It says "this circular firing squad that is occurring is unattractive, unprofessional, unconscionable, and unacceptable. I know each and everyone of you to be better than this. This must stop." It does really portray the Clinton campaign in an unattractive light. So in whose interest was it to leak these memos?
GREEN: Well, you know, I think it's in all sorts of people's interest. I mean, if you talk to anyone in the campaign, to a man, to a woman, they're frustrated with the way things turned out. If you think back 18 months ago, it was all but accepted wisdom that Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president of the United States. This was a historic campaign, you know, people thought it would be an easy march to the nomination and then an easy win in the fall. And instead, we've had this historic presidential election where she's collapsed and a first-term senator has won the democratic nomination. So I think it's just epic nature of the defeat has made a lot of people frustrated, and there's certainly people out there who really want the kind of full story to come to light so people can understand exactly what happened.
CHETRY: Well, she has a big speaking role at the convention. Will these disclosures affect the relationship between Clinton and Obama? GREEN: Well, I certainly don't think it's going to make the divide any easier to bridge. I mean, what's going on right now is that a lot of Obama supporters and fund-raisers are trying very hard to retire Senator Clinton's debt. One reason they've had difficulty doing so is the dislike among Obama people for Mark Penn specifically. They tend to blame him for the nature of these negative attacks, as you can see from the documents and in my piece, and I think the fact that this is out there is going to make that job a little harder. And also at a time when Clinton and Obama, the two campaigns are kind of trying to bridge and come together in advance of the convention and really kind of make a display of democratic unity, having these memos and documents come to light probably makes that a little bit more difficult chore, I think.
CHETRY: It's an interesting read for sure and people can see it in the "Atlantic." Joshua Green. Thanks for joining us.
ROBERTS: 59 minutes after the hour. Breaking this morning, Georgia says Russian air strikes are continuing outside of the breakaway regions even though just a few hours ago Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a stopped to military action after five days of air and land attacks. Medvedev is meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy right now. We'll have the latest on that for you in just a moment.
Oil prices keep falling this morning. Prices have now hit a three-month low, trading at $113 a barrel in electronic trading this morning. That is due to a stronger dollar and less demand from China. Prices continue to fall despite the ongoing fighting in Georgia. Analysts had worried that supplies there could be disrupted.
In just a few hours time, swimmer Michael Phelps could become the greatest American Olympian in history. Phelps won another gold medal last night, giving him three in these games, nine this his career. He could win another two tonight. No American has ever won 10 gold medals.
