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American Morning
Obama Reverses Course on Releasing Detainee Photos; Obama Addresses ASU Grads; Missouri Tornado Kills 3; Astronauts Start Hubble Fix; Craigslist Cuts Erotic Services Section; First-Time Unemployment Claims Remain Above 600,000
Aired May 14, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up to the top of the hour. It's almost 8:00 Eastern on this Thursday, May 14th. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you with us. I'm Kiran Chetry along with John Roberts. Here is what on the morning's agenda. Stories we're going to be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
The presidential 180. President Obama now says he will fight the release of more photos and allegedly show U.S. troops abusing prisoners and saying the photos could put American soldiers in danger. We'll take you live to the Pentagon with more on what was behind that decision.
Also, one down, two to go. President Obama gives his first commencement address at Arizona State University. We're going to play this message to the grads of '09 and his response to the honorary degree snub.
And violent storms cutting a path of death and destruction in the Midwest. Three people now killed in northern Missouri. Dozens of homes damaged. It all comes as CNN's Rob Marciano is actually chasing storms in tornado alley in Oklahoma. He is going to be joining us live.
And we're just about 20 minutes away from the first spacewalk as "Atlantis" repair mission taking place 350 miles above earth and we'll bring it to you live. The shuttle astronauts conducting a total of five spacewalks to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.
But we begin with President Obama's decision not to release photos at allegedly show the abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq. Originally, the president said he would comply with a court order to release these photographers. Three weeks later now he has changed his mind.
CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon. And as we ask more what brought about the change apparently he had a chance to view some of these photos, right, that would have been released?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran. That is every indication the president has now seen them. And the 180 is really multifaceted, legal and national security, by all accounts. The Obama administration now telling the Justice Department to rethink the whole agreement that they signed that would have allowed these photos to be released to try and go back to court and get this all switched around.
Why? Fundamentally, the president said his top military commanders came to him and said it wasn't a good idea, that it risked national security. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on Capitol Hill yesterday, spelled out the about-face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: A couple of things have changed on that. First I think is, as you suggest, the willingness of the president to take this on, but second and perhaps less motivated, my own change of heart on this and perhaps influenced the president, is that our commanders, both General McKiernan and General Odierno have expressed very serious reservations about this, and their very great worry that release of these photographers will cost American lives. That was all it took for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But let's close the loop. What no one can explain to us yet is why the Obama administration Justice Department went ahead with a decision that the top generals in the war zone said was not a good idea. So, there is a little bit of a disconnect there.
And, fundamentally, the basic question remains that people have really discussed for years. Was the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a few cases of so-called bad apples that then had to be gone through the military justice system, or as the ACLU says, which brought this original lawsuit, there are thousands of cases out there in their contention that shows systemic abuse over the years.
Very controversial.
It doesn't look like it's going to let up -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. Have you learned any more about what these photos show?
STARR: Indeed. We've talked to top officials who have seen the photos, and that underscores this very issue -- how systemic, how widespread.
There are two categories of photos. Some were soldiers' troops taking personal photos of detainee situations with their own cell phones or their own personal cameras. Not legal. Not supposed to do that. Some of them were photos taken by military investigators when allegations of abuse arose, and then they took basically forensic photos of those cases. So there is hundreds of them by all accounts out there still waiting to be seen by the public.
CHETRY: Barbara Starr for us from the Pentagon this morning.
Thank you. ROBERTS: President Obama taking some time out of his busy schedule for the Class of 2009. Last night, he wrapped up the first of three college commencement addresses that he'll be delivering this season.
Addressing some 9,000 graduates at Arizona State University and making light of the school's decision not to give him an honorary degree.
CNN's Carol Costello is live for us in Washington this morning.
Even the school admitted that it was just a boneheaded decision to not give him that.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not great PR for Arizona State University, was it?
Let's start there, though. You know, the president has his way of turning lemons into lemonade. Use the controversy as a life lesson. Throw in a little humor, and you've got a recipe for turning an uncomfortable moment into a meaningful one.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really thought this was much to do about nothing. But I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets.
(APPLAUSE)
It won't happen again. President Crow and the board of regents will soon learn about being audited by the IRS.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That was a little humor of Mr. Obama, as you can see. Also gave a little fist bump to graduating seniors. Now, the life lesson part? Well, President Obama told the crowd he doesn't dispute the suggestion by university officials that he hasn't achieved enough in life. He embraces that, saying, once title, even if his title is president, says very little about how one's life has been led. He says there is always more to learn.
Now, on to Notre Dame. And, of course, more controversy there. Some students and protesters are upset with the school's decision to invite the president to speak at the Catholic university's commencement and have protested because of his stances on abortion and stem cell research.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do not believe it's right to celebrate a man who has gone so against Catholic principles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't afford to be sending a message to people that we value power and fame over our Catholic identity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You know, but according to a new poll from the Pugh Foundation, just 28 percent of American Catholics said it was wrong for Notre Dame to invite the president to speak. The president will try to work some magic at Notre Dame on May 17th. And, John, maybe he'll say, you know, we can disagree, but we don't have to be disagreeable about it. Perhaps that will be one of the themes in his speech at Notre Dame.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll see. Looking forward to what he has to say on that front.
Carol Costello for us this morning. Carol, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Now, a look at your Thursday "Political Ticker." Controversial talk show host Michael Savage wants his name removed from Britain's do-not-enter list.
I interviewed him here on AMERICAN MORNING right after he was put on that list along with radicals Muslim clerics, convicted criminals, Russian skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan. Well, now, his lawyer has sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking that she call on the British government to withdraw that ban.
And everyone is a comedian, even our former President Bill Clinton. Here's what he said when he was asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent negative comment about the Obama administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wish him well. It's over. I wish him well. It's over. But I do hope he gets some more target practice before he goes out again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: It looks like the former president doesn't want to jump into the fray and stir things up again.
Well, straight talk from former presidential candidate John McCain's mother. You may remember 97-year-old Roberta McCain. She had some strong words on the campaign trail. Now, we didn't hear from her for a while. And now she's back talking about Republican Rush Limbaugh on "The Tonight Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": What about Rush Limbaugh? You're a fan of him? ROBERTA MCCAIN, MOTHER OF SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: What he thinks about or represents at the Republican Party has nothing to do with my side of it. I don't know what the man means. I don't know what he is talking about.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
LENO: I want to ask you something.
MCCAIN: Well, also, I think the chairman of the Republican Party, Steele, was exactly right when he defined this man as an entertainer. And to my horror, the Republican Party made him back up on it. Limbaugh, you're a compliment when you say the man is a entertainer. I don't know what he is. But he does not represent the Republican Party that I belong to.
(APPLAUSE)
LENO: Tell me about...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. Surprising language. She's certainly outspoken. We'll see if Rush Limbaugh weighs in on Mrs. McCain's comments.
She also jokingly -- it was funny, John, they said to her, you know, we've been trying to book you forever on the show. And she said, well, yes, they wouldn't let me talk for a while. And then he goes, why not? And she's like, "I guess I say too much."
Well, it will be interesting to see how Rush responds to her.
CHETRY: It would be smart not to.
ROBERTS: And whether John McCain is going to have to come up to him and says, "What did you say about my mama?"
CHETRY: The beauty is when you get to be at a certain age you can say whatever the heck you want, right?
ROBERTS: True.
CHETRY: You earned it.
ROBERTS: She's definitely gotten into this one.
CHETRY: And she still looks fabulous. Wow.
All right. Well, tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, it's a CNN exclusive. Former Vice President Al Gore with his take on the Obama administration's environmental progress. And also what we need to know about his climate project.
Al Gore only on AMERICAN MORNING, tomorrow.
ROBERTS: It was already a testy White House briefing, and what better to break the tension than the cell phone going off in the middle of the briefing? Not once, not twice, but three times.
It forced Press Secretary Gibbs to channel his inner high school teacher.
Check this out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Give me the phone!
(LAUGHTER)
All right? Let me see it.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Interrogation.
GIBBS: I'll be right back.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTERS: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He threw your phone.
(LAUGHTER)
GIBBS: No, no, somebody caught it. Don't worry. I made the determination that the illumination of the sound was distracting to the briefing as the press secretary to the president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a formality?
What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTERS: Oh!
(LAUGHTER)
GIBBS: You, too? You want to do this, too.
Here. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Gibbs wants to take my phone, but I don't think it's a good idea.
GIBBS: No favoritism. I'll explain later.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. There you go. Thank you.
GIBBS: Come on.
I assume it's your banker with a suit like that?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Oh, there you go. Some laughs at the White House press briefing. But the only thing was is that they were in the middle of a very serious line of questioning.
CHETRY: That's right. About the 180 on the release of the photos.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: The flop 180 on the...
CHETRY: Whatever you want to say. The mind being changed about it. But anyway...
ROBERTS: And kind of killed that moment, you know.
CHETRY: Yes.
What's the deal with the phones ringing in the White House press briefing? Aren't you supposed to turn those on vibrate?
ROBERTS: I never brought mine to the briefing. Well, I have -- actually, I have my BlackBerry with me, because sometimes I was sending messages back and forth to the home office while I was at the briefing, but I always make sure it was on stun. You know, never rang.
CHETRY: Yes. It's strange.
ROBERTS: You forget from time to time.
A killer tornado caught on tape. One of our iReporters has a close encounter with the twister in Missouri. And we'll look at where the dangerous weather is headed coming up next.
And this morning, new information about President Obama's Supreme Court short list. We're naming names this morning.
It's 10 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Pope may not have brought peace to the Middle East. But any trip, it doesn't end with escalating violence has to be considered a success, even if it does include the occasional pope blooper or plopper.
Here we are.
(LAUGHTER)
That's not going to help. Still not as embarrassing as the time the pope stood on top of a subway grate.
Whoa! Look at those gams! No wonder they call him Legs Benedict. Boom!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: New this morning, Pope Benedict XVI greeting tens of thousands of worshipers in Jesus's hometown of Nazareth, which is now Israel's largest Arab city. He urged Christians and Muslims to reject hatred and prejudice.
North Korea says two U.S. journalists will stand trial on the 4th of June. It's not saying what charges they face. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who worked for Al Gore's Current TV network were detained on March 17th, while reporting on refugees near the China border.
And accusations that police in southern California used excessive force after a high-speed chase that ended on foot. The driver took off after speeding down the street the wrong way and crashing into an oncoming car. It appears that one officer kicked him in the head, another beat him with the baton when he was already down. The two officers high-fived each other after that. The department is investigating -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, developing right now. A tornado in northeastern Missouri now being blamed for three deaths. Earlier in the morning, it was only one but authorities say that there are some 30 homes that had been damaged in the town of Kirksville, Missouri.
CNN iReporter Michael Ambrosia, who shot this dramatic video as the twister passed overhead while he was in his car. It was pretty amazing to watch.
CNN's Rob Marciano has spent the week with a team of storm chasers and they are doing something similar.
Of course, they are, Rob, trained for this. So this is not something that we recommend. And this iReporter said that it just came upon him so quickly, he didn't think it was going to happen that fast.
But that's the whole nature of what you guys are doing in Norman, Oklahoma. You guys are trying to figure out more about how these tornadoes work and why they cause the type of destruction they do.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And why some are stronger than others. Why some last on the ground longer than others. Probably the ones in Illinois and Missouri. Most of those were pretty rain-wrapped. I mean, they were tough to see. So if you were, even a professional storm chaser, you might have a tough go of it and that amateur one certainly did as well.
We want to talk briefly about what's going on right now. The radar is lighting up from Ohio back to Texas. A number of severe weather watches still in play as this line of convection continues to move to the east. Some damaging winds, possibly 60- to 70-mile-an- hour gusts possible with this.
All right. So more of that iReport, Michael Ambrosia, out of Missouri. He's a hobbyist. He does do some storm chasing. But this thing just came up on him, and he just sat in his car as it rolled right over the top of his vehicle. About seven miles from Kirksville, and this is the cell that was blamed for those fatalities and that damaged storm.
All right. A little bit of -- we've got some trouble feeding some of the video that we shot in our storm chase yesterday with the Vortex 2 Mission. Here's a still shot that I took actually off my iPhone. Pretty impressive cell here that was developing, but didn't have a tornado touch down until after dark. Still trying to get confirmation on that.
But after dark, things popped across parts of central Oklahoma. Sirens went off in both Norman and Oklahoma City, and here is what it was like around midnight last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Earlier this afternoon, have split strengthened and there have been a number of tornado warnings posted. So this cell, which is coming right down I-35 with frequent lightning strikes, sky just lit up tonight with this tornado. Vortex signature on the radar, heading this morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: That cell back-lit by the lightning continued to move to the east. So we rolled here to the National Weather Center where that rotation was headed. Oklahoma/OU, it was just to the east of us and, after that, some cold air came in and whatever the rotation was, it dissipated. But rough storms here in central Oklahoma and that to conclude our chase, Kiran, but the Vortex 2 Mission continues for another 4-1/2 weeks as they try to figure out just why tornadoes do what they do and every last one of those experts will tell you they have a lot to learn.
Back over to you.
CHETRY: Hopefully, they do learn more about it as we've seen the devastation today. Three lives lost as a result of these tornadoes.
Rob Marciano, thanks -- John.
ROBERTS: This morning, new details about who President Obama might pick to become the next Supreme Court Justice. CNN learning the list has been narrowed down now to six names. We'll tell you who they are.
Plus, orbiting high above the earth. A multimillion dollar fix and the Hubble Space Telescope is just about to start. We'll take you 350 miles above the earth, live.
It's coming up now on 17 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And the wheels on the traffic go round and round. Around Columbus Circle this morning in New York City, where it's cloudy and 58 degrees right now. Later on, a few showers. A high of just 65.
A little taste of spring yesterday, but, well, not anymore.
Did you have enough?
Right now, two members of the shuttle Atlantis crew still getting ready for the first of five spacewalks to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
Here's a look 350 miles above the earth, where today six-and-a- half-hour repairs are about to get under way. Our John Zarrella watching things overhead.
He joins us now live.
A little bit of a delay there, John.
What's going on?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, you know, the shuttle goes round and round, too, John. And right now, they are in what's orbital darkness heading towards orbital sunrise around the dark side of the earth. And the astronauts are doing what's known as the free breathing of pure oxygen, which is going to take about 40 minutes and they started just before 8:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. So before they can leave, the space shuttle, they've got to do that now.
The shot we're seeing from NASA television right now is from a camera mounted on the end of the robotic arm and that's just looking inside the cargo bay of the shuttle as they're preparing again for, John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel, to exit the space shuttle.
The Hubble Space Telescope is berthed safely inside the cargo bay, and that didn't happen until late yesterday, when they grabbed it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): The Hubble telescope stood out, a shimmering lone sentinel against the blackness of space, the sun glistening off its solar panels -- the first time glimpse in seven years.
KYLE HERRING, MISSION CONTROL: From 200 feet, the Hubble Space Telescope. First time it's been seen since March, 2002. ZARRELLA: From a camera mounted on the shuttle's robotic arm, Hubble up close. Ever so slowly, at a speed of 1/10 of a foot per second, Commander Scott Altman positioned shuttle Atlantis to within 35 feet of the telescope.
SCOTT ALTMAN, COMMANDER, ATLANTIS: And just above that, coming into view, the forward shell of the telescope.
ZARRELLA: From here, Astronaut Megan McArthur, using that robotic arm, moves in and snags it.
GREGORY JOHNSON, ATLANTIS PILOT: Houston, Atlantis. Hubble has arrived on board Atlantis with the arm.
ZARRELLA: Then, a series of precise moves -- Hubble no longer facing the heavens, but eyeballing the Earth below. Like a school-bus sized fish, McArthur reels it in to Atlantis' cargo bay.
Astronaut John Grunsfeld, on his third repair mission, likes what he sees.
JOHN GRUNSFELD, ATLANTIS ASTRONAUT: Amazingly, the exterior of Hubble, an old man of 19 years in space, still looks in fantastic shape.
ZARRELLA: This was the first of what amounts to a six act play.
GRUNSFELD: On the day when I'm there in the telescope, I'm sure I'm going to feel a little bit of pressure.
ZARRELLA: Thursday, John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel will be the first to man team spacewalking for nearly seven hours in the shuttle's cargo bay, upgrading and repairing Hubble.
In a swimming pool in Houston, they, along with astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good, have spent two years practicing for the five days of spacewalks.
GRUNSFELD: This is going to be running a marathon at a sprint pace.
ZARRELLA: The two teams will change batteries and gyroscopes, replace and repair cameras, cut through aluminum, and, in the weightlessness of space, handle hundreds of tiny screws.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, the two big orders of business today. First, replacing the wide field camera. And that's the one that has sent back so many of those 880,000 spectacular images of stars and galaxies since 1990. They say that's about the size of a baby grand piano, John.
And the second order of business, a commuter has to be changed out that actually allows ground controllers to send commands to the Hubble Space telescope's scientific instruments. Two big orders of business. The astronauts will be out there for a total of about six and a half hours -- John.
ROBERTS: You know, it's a pretty fine repairs that they are doing as well, and they are doing it with those big gloves on.
Can you imagine doing that, John?
ZARRELLA: You know, and they've had to develop all kinds of new tools specifically for this, because many of the things they are doing on this mission were never envisioned. Pieces of hardware that they never thought they would ever have to change out, they're going to try and change out.
ROBERTS: It's going to be fascinating to watch over the next few days.
John Zarrella for us at the Kennedy Space Center.
Thanks so much, John.
CHETRY: Well, President Obama could announce his Supreme Court nominee as early as next week. And this morning, CNN is learning that the field has now been narrowed down to about a half dozen names. So who are they?
Well, Alan Dershowitz is going to join us to talk more about who they are and what they might bring to the court.
One critic called it a blatant Internet brothel. Now Craigslist is pulling its erotic services section. The site CEO explains the decision and the timing of it in an AMERICAN MORNING exclusive.
24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Hello, D.C. Good morning.
Right now, we're looking at cloudy skies, 60 degrees. A little bit later afternoon, thunderstorms a possibility there. 76 degrees in Washington.
Well, President Obama's replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter could come very soon. CNN is learning that the field has now been narrowed to about a half dozen names. And most of them are women.
Joining me now is Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz.
And Alan, you know some of them so let's get right to it.
Good to have you with us this morning, by the way.
PROFESSOR ALAN DERSHOWITZ, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Well, thank you. It's a superb list. Elena Kagan is my former dean and a friend. I've argued cases in front of Judge Sotomayor. And I know the others on the list. It's a very, very good list.
My concern is this. The impression is being created, perhaps it's a false impression, that what President Obama has done is said bring me a list of women, Latinos, and I'll pick from that the most qualified people. That can create a very bad starting point for any justice. They're not on the court as representatives of a particular gender or ethnicity. They are there because they are supposed to be the greatest legal minds in the country capable of dealing with some of the most complex issues. So I hope he picks the most qualified people among the most qualified people. Obviously, are very distinguished women and Latinos and Asians and others of diverse backgrounds.
CHETRY: But if you look at the court and it is dominated by white men. The court is supposed to really represent the country's population, and maybe it is or maybe is isn't, but half of the country is made up of females. And so, don't you think it's in the interest or responsibility, perhaps, by the president to at least try to bring some gender balance to the court?
DERSHOWITZ: No. I don't think balance is the appropriate function of Supreme Court. If you were looking at who should be represented on the court, there is only one white Protestant on the entire court. And this is a country primarily of white Protestants.
We don't want to see the court divided into kind of representative justices the way we have representative Congress people and senators. I think that's the wrong approach to the court.
You have a president like Obama who is, clearly, a colorblind and gender blind. We trust him, I think, to pick the best people. He's not going to be accused of in any way engaging in prejudice. Let him pick the best person. It's very likely that best person might very well be a woman or a person of Latino background, but I think it's a mistake for him to set out in advance to say I want only a woman.
CHETRY: Right.
DERSHOWITZ: This is a woman's seat on the court.
CHETRY: All right. Well, let's go for it and talk about some of the women that -- or some of the potential justices or candidates here. Let's talk about Sotomayor. She's a Federal Appeals Court justice. And Republicans apparently are already sending out some warnings bells about her because of a past statement that she made where she said, quote, "Court of Appeals is where policy is made."
Some concerns about those comments.
What do you think?
DERSHOWITZ: Well, of course, policy is made in every court. People who criticize judges who make policy don't like the particular policies they're making. A judicial policies are made by the court whether to accept an exclusionary rule, whether to support affirmative action. Courts are very important in our country and they do make policies.
In fact, the Supreme Court really makes the policies. The Court of Appeals implement the policies of the Supreme Court. But that surely is not a disqualifying statement.
CHETRY: All right. How about Elena Kagan?
DERSHOWITZ: She is a terrific woman. She was a great dean at the Harvard Law School. She brought people together. She has the ability really to work with people of every background and every view. She would have the intellectual horsepower to take on Justice Scalia or some of the others. She was a great dean at the law school. We miss her and she would be a great justice, I think.
CHETRY: All right. Some of the other ones on the list as you mentioned. Diane Wood as well as Homeland Security Department Janet Napolitano and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. So very interesting list. And hopefully we'll find out...
DERSHOWITZ: Excellent list.
CHETRY: By the end of the month. Alan Dershowitz, always great to talk to you. Thanks for being with us.
DERSHOWITZ: Thank you.
ROBERTS: After weeks of pressure from law-enforcement officials, Craigslist is getting rid of its controversial erotic services section. Police say a medical student accused of murdering a masseuse found her on the Web site.
The company says the ads will now be manually reviewed by staff and placed in an adult services section. Late yesterday, I sat down with Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, who just two weeks ago said there would be no change to the site. I asked him if he felt pressure to change his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BUCKMASTER, CEO, CRAIGSLIST: We don't really view it as pressure. We're looking for constructive criticism, and certainly we've been getting plenty of that.
ROBERTS: Constructive criticism? That sounds like a euphemism for what was actually going on. I mean, Sheriff Tom Dart in Cook County, Chicago, had taken you to court. That sounds like a little more than constructive criticism.
BUCKMASTER: Our job as we view it is to look for the constructive criticism in what people are saying, you know, criticism that can be useful and help us get better at what we do.
ROBERTS: Right. Now, in announcing that you were shutting down the erotic services, in your statement, you blame the media for sensationalizing what was going on on Craigslist in the wake of the so-called "Craigslist Killer" up there in Boston. But isn't it true, Jim, that you knew that this site was being used for criminal enterprise and basically ignored it? Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that Craigslist was like an online brothel.
BUCKMASTER: Not at all. In fact, we thought a disservice was done to viewers and readers when Craigslist classfieds were characterized -- mischaracterized as being especially dangerous. The incidence of violent crime connected with print classified is actually, believe it or not, a thousand times greater. That's a thousandfold greater than the incidence of violent crime that we've seen in Craigslist classifieds thus far.
ROBERTS: But to the point of my question, Jim, isn't it true that you knew that people were using these erotic services for criminal enterprise, and you basically turned a blind eye to it?
BUCKMASTER: Oh, that's absolute not true. Ninety-five percent of the inappropriate activity on the site in this category was eliminated by the measures that we took last year.
ROBERTS: Instead of erotic services, you're now going to have a section of the Web site called adult services. You're going to be monitoring all of the ads that are posted. My question is, how will those monitors know which ads are legal and which ones aren't?
BUCKMASTER: Each ad is going to be read by a human and the image looked at by a human to verify that that ad is in full compliance, not only with the law but also with our terms of use and posting guidelines. Any ad that falls short of those criteria is not going to be posted to the site.
ROBERTS; How will they know for sure that somebody's not just giving you a very bland-looking ad for prostitution services?
BUCKMASTER: They'll know that in the same way that telephone Yellow Pages know it and newspaper classifieds know it. And what we're going to be doing is going to be exactly the same.
ROBERTS: The Cook County sheriff there in Illinois, Tom Dart, who had launched his lawsuit against you, says, quote, "While these changes are a step in the right direction, we know that Craigslist has promised changes before. I'm suspicious of their new promises, and our vice unit will be tracking activity there to ensure their promises are kept this time. It's just a shame that it's taken this long and so many people have been victimized before Craigslist would agree to do the right thing."
So, it begs the question, why did it take you to long to do this, to shut down these erotic services?
BUCKMASTER: Well, of course, we're always trying to do the right thing. That's been the case from when Craigslist was first established. We don't claim to have the ultimate solution from the get-go. We keep trying new things until we get it right.
ROBERTS: Can you give us a guarantee there will be no more prostitution services advertised on Craigslist as a result of these changes?
BUCKMASTER: Certainly it's going to end it on Craigslist. If we could wave a magic wand out there and eliminate prostitution from society, we would do that. But so far, we don't have that power.
ROBERTS: Well, I don't think that anybody's asking you to do that. Your promises aside here, law enforcement, they're going to be watching very closely, it would seem, at least in the nearly term.
BUCKMASTER: We think that anyone who looks at the results we've achieved in the last year will agree that we held up our side of the bargain, so we were going to keep looking for new measures, and that's exactly what we've done.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll keep watching to see how it goes. Jim Buckmaster from Craigslist, good to talk to you today. Thanks very much for being with us.
BUCKMASTER: Thanks for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, we are just getting news about some key reports on unemployment and inflation. They came out just moments ago. So what do they mean for you and your wallet? Christine Romans is here to break down the numbers for us. It's 35 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour right now. And just in to CNN, the latest numbers now on both jobless claims and inflation. Christine Romans is here with the details for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk about auto layoffs, because the recent auto layoffs have pumped up the number of people filing for first-time jobless benefits -- 637,000 people lined up at the unemployment office and logged on for the unemployment office to file for the first time for unemployment benefits.
That's 15 weeks, I believe, now above 600,000. You know we keep looking at these weekly reports, trying to look for any sign of moderation here and some of the recent signs that maybe the pace of the layoffs was slowing. Now it looks like auto layoffs might be at work in there causing a lot of people to still be losing their jobs and filing for unemployment benefits.
The next number that just came out producer prices. This is wholesale inflation. This is not the inflation at your kitchen table but it is the step before that. And that increased up 0.3 percent, that's more than they had been expecting. Food prices at the intermediate level, you know, the stage before you get to your dinner table, food prices jumped in the month.
But what about inflation overall? It's still not a problem. Rising prices are not really a problem for us out there. In fact, when you look at these numbers at the last 12 months, you still have wholesale prices that have fallen by 3.7 percent over the past year. That's the biggest 12-month decline since 1950. So falling prices is what we are looking at here as the concern even though this one little report shows an up tick in the food prices.
So still seeing a lot of layoffs, a lot of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits and still watching those numbers every week. And again It reflects, you know, what you're telling us, what you're telling us in your e-mails and i-reports that it still kind of hurts out there.
CHETRY: Interesting, though that yesterday, you had the news as well about retail sales. But we're seeing first-time home buyers slowly enter into that market.
ROMANS: That's absolutely right. You're seeing these little glimmers of hope as the president calls them, you know, people taking advantage of very low interest rates. People taking advantage of low home price. That's where we are seeing some definite activity the first-time home buyers part of things.
CHETRY: Christine, thank you.
ROBERTS: With flood waters swollen entire communities last year at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dreams vanished along with them, and now months later families are having trouble getting money from banks to rebuild. Ed Lavandera has today's "Money and Main Street" report.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the Cedar River spilled over its banks, Doug Ward's drive-in drowned in almost 10 feet of water. Almost a year later the drive-in sits in ruins. The rootbeer mugs still muddied.
DOUG WARD, DRIVE-IN OWNER: A lot of them are older mugs. The older designs.
LAVANDERA: Ward doesn't know if rebuilding here is worth it. People don't come back. Who is going to loan him the $900,000 needed to rebuild the drive-in? Even changing locations will cost more than a million dollars. It's a painful decision.
WARD: If the neighborhood was normal, we'd have this place up and running. If we decide to move somewhere else, though, we have to. You know? We have to let it go.
LAVANDERA: The flood also destroyed Ward's church and his home just a few blocks away. He estimates rebuilding the house will cost $75,000. And he doesn't have insurance.
WARD: This was the living room.
LAVANDERA: FEMA gave him $28,000 toward home costs but, for now, Ward and his wife live in a trailer six miles away. It's not the same. Since 1948, the Ward's drive-in has been a land mark in Cedar Rapids, time-checked neighborhood, a fixture for people cruising down Ellis Boulevard, in antique cars.
MARK STOUFFER HUNTER, CEDAR RAPIDS HISTORIAN: It's almost like the our little Eiffel Tower...
LAVANDERA: To Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stouffer Hunter, Doug Ward's story is why this road is the boulevard of broken dreams.
Getting loans to rebuild the drive in isn't easy. So far he has qualified for a $350,000 disaster loan but much more is still needed. Ward says each passing day brings more financial pressure.
WARD: Within a month or two, we're going to have to find something else to keep us above water.
LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: We're getting plenty of stories from people facing financial disaster who are coming up with real solutions to turn things around. Join our Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern for a CNN "Money Summit" prime time special "Money and Main Street."
CHETRY: Well, just ahead, the homes of two young stars in "Slum Dog Millionaire" bulldozed. We're live in New Delhi with more on what is going on. It's 43 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Many of you probably facing a slow ride this morning. Here are the top videos right now on cnn.com. Most popular, a Portland man is able to see his wife and children after 17 years. Thanks to a titanium eye transplant. It sounds like something out of "Terminator," but it actually looks pretty normal, he says. And doctors say he can see well enough to get a driver's license.
ROBERTS: Wow.
CHETRY: Wow.
A single mom in Bellevue, Washington checked her back account one day to find more money in it than she's ever seen -- $271,000 to be exact. Unfortunately, it was due to a bank mistake. Even though she needed the cash she reported it and the bank fixed the mistake. Did they give her some sort of a reward for being a good Samaritan?
ROBERTS: I don't know but better to tell them of the mistake before you spend the money and then they say, excuse me, we want our money back, right?
CHETRY: I just saw it in there and we quickly went out and purchased a home. I'm sorry. We showed you this video earlier on AMERICAN MORNING. A police car joyride in Edmond, Oklahoma. Handcuff suspect jumps into the front seat of a patrol car, speeds away and end up leaving police on a high-speed chase through town and eventually crashing through a construction site where police were able to recapture him. We are just showing you is the parked police car. That is what is most popular on cnn.com.
ROBERTS: Now, now, now, it's Thursday. So that means we're "Paging Dr. Gupta." CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with us in New York City today and reaching into his mailbag, taking your questions. All set?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, ready to go.
ROBERTS: Let's dive in.
First one comes to us from our Twitter page at amfix. This is from atiffarid (ph), he writes, "Dear Sanjay, how can I reduce my growing belly? I'd like to get my waistline to 34 from almost 37." We all suffer with that! A little Buddha belly thing.
GUPTA: Was that really you, John, who wrote that in?
ROBERTS: Yes.
GUPTA: Well, you know, first of all, it's good that you're trying to do this. Because when we talk about abdominal fat, it's the worst kind of fat in the body because it's biologically active fat. It's the fat that is most associated with heart disease and diabetes and things like that. So good news that you are trying to do this.
Moderate exercise seems to help better than doing things that are sort of abdominal specific exercise like sit-ups. Those are to strengthen your muscles as opposed to getting rid of the fast but the real key here is diet, as you might image, to get six-pack abs, diet much more so than exercise, eating lots of small meals throughout the day that helps boosts your metabolism. So you're burning calories just even sitting here at rest. That's the key. You know, three hours -
ROBERTS: That is the hardest fat to get rid of.
GUPTA: It really is. And people focus on things like sit-ups and it just doesn't seem to help as much.
CHETRY: All right. Well our next question struck quite a nerve with a husband in Alabama. Arthur writes "I saw your report earlier in the week on the high salt content hidden in restaurant foods. I end consuming salty foods at home too! My wife adds it to everything - even to the water she boils our pasta in." Which is actually OK. (inaudible) Sorry. "So what are the alternatives I can suggest?"
GUPTA: You're defending his wife.
CHETRY: Just a little bit of salt in the pasta water. It's bland.
GUPTA: Good that his wife is cooking for him. Having three kids in the house, I barely get that at all. Well, I'm glad he's asking about that. We talked about all these different things to help people improve their lives but there are simple things that can be done as well.
They say that if you can you cut down on salt by about half we of what we consume right now, you could save 150,000 lives a year. That is, obviously, an estimation but it leads to all sorts of different problems, having too much salt in the diet. There are alternatives that you can do.
First of all, here's a good one. Get rid of all the canned vegetables. Go to your local markets if you can on the weekend. If you buy the fresh stuff they're not going to have all the salt which they use as a preservative. Take the salt shaker off the table and maybe your wife, too, if she wants to do that. And also there are lots of different herbs and spices which may give the flavoring that she wants for the pasta or whatever that don't have the high sodium content.
ROBERTS: You don't cook?
GUPTA: Kiran, what are you laughing about?
CHETRY: I'm just laughing because you can't put herbs in boiling pasta!
GUPTA: All right. Is that why you asked if i don't cook because I suggested that?
CHETRY: No. I get what you're saying. There are other ways to season your foods. You're right.
GUPTA: You can put it on after.
CHETRY: Exactly.
GUPTA: You had to call me out on that? It's live television.
CHETRY: I'm sending you a casserole. That's it.
GUPTA: I'm losing weight here!
CHETRY: Sanjay, great to see you. Thanks. Throw some parsley in the water!
ROBERTS: Leave the poor guy alone. Come on.
CHETRY: All right. Indian authorities leveled dozens of homes they say are illegal. That's left one of the young stars of the hit film "Slumdog Millionaire" homeless. We're going to go live to New Delhi with more on why this is happening, next. 50 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Good morning, Chicago. This comes to us courtesy of WLS, our affiliate there in the Windy City. It's cloudy right now and 58 degrees. A little bit later it will be sunny and 70.
Well to a developing story now coming out of India this morning. Heartbreaking for one of the young stars of the Oscar winning international hit "Slumdog Millionaire." Indian officials have demolished his home, calling it illegal. Our Sara Sidner is live in New Delhi with the latest on this this morning. What are you learning about what went down there?
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, we have to say that the movie may have been called uplifting, but now the world is being reminded, yet again, of the real difficulties of slum life here in this country. Mumbai police confirming that the home of one of the child actors in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" has been demolished. Now, that home was occupied by Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. Ismail being the little boy who played the younger version of the main character.
Now here is what we know from him. He has said that the family wasn't even given a day's notice. No notice that the government authorities were going to come in and destroy the home. Not even enough time to take out the family's belongings at this point. We should mention that CNN did visit this home as there is plenty of Oscar buzz going on about these children and about the movie and it is nothing more than basically one solid wall and the rest is made up of bamboo, a little bit of wood, and basically tarps. That's what created the roof there. And one of the walls.
So not much to look at but certainly this is the kind of housing that tens of thousands of the poor here in cities in India have to live with and that is home to many, many people. The government, for its part, is saying that they don't basically have to give notice and that these homes were built illegally. They were encroaching on public land, a municipal park in this point. And they were perfectly able to do this in a perfectly legal manner. Kiran?
CHETRY: How common of an occurrence is it raising the illegal housing there? Do they know whether or not this was a targeted situation?
SIDNER: I can tell you this. Authorities also told us that a year back they told them this is illegal you cannot put housing up this is encroaching on public land. But from my own personal experience I've seen here in Delhi, the capital where the government has come in and there has been housing going, sort of going on the side of the street and they just come in with bulldozers and they take it all away and that's the way things are done. As cities are trying to clean up slums and clean up the city, they are doing this periodically. Kiran.
CHETRY: A lot of people still find it amazing one minute these kids are on the red carpet celebrating an Oscar victory and then the next minute they're back in this really, really deplorable conditions there. Sara, keep us posted on this. Thank you. John.
ROBERTS: Just a bizarre ongoing story with the characters in that film.
To the victor goes the spoils. Ashton Kutcher punked CNN after beating us to a million twitter followers. Find out why there may be a special on ding dongs at Ted's Montana Grill in Atlanta today.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, New York where it's starting to look a little foggy out there. Right now, it's cloudy at 58 degrees, later on a few showers, a high of 65. Not exactly a stellar day today in the big apple.
Ashton Kutcher proving he's a man of his word. He promised that he would ding dong ditch Ted Turner's house if he beat CNN to a million twitter followers. Last night he delivered, well sort of. Kutcher acknowledged that Ted Turner doesn't really have a accessible doorbell so he brought his own bell and dropped off 800 boxes of ding dongs, the snack cakes, at Ted's Montana Grill in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHTON KUTCHER, ACTOR: Good evening, Ted!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: He rings the bell and then he runs away. I guess that's kind of how a ding dong ditch works. Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore capped off the celebration by covering the logo of the CNN Center with a banner proudly displaying his twitter name.
CHETRY: I asked him what his Twitter name meant? It says "A plus" but it's A plus...
ROBERTS: Right.
CHETRY: Ashton plus Kutcher.
ROBERTS: What's he saying this morning? We are following him and he is following us. He said something about how he finally got to bed so maybe he was really tired and maybe he didn't go to bed. Yeah. That's right. He also was glad you guys like the pic. Shot it on my iPhone...
ROBERTS: There you go.
CHETRY: Actually, that was Rob Marciano!
ROBERTS: One battle down, more to be fought in the future.
That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here bright and early tomorrow morning.
CHETRY: That's right. And right now here's CNN NEWSROOM with Heidi Collins.
