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American Morning
New Concerns on Swine Flu on the Rise; Obama to Unveil Plan on New National Fuel Standards; A Look at the Future of Car Dealerships; Airline Consumer Ratings Rise; Pakistan Nukes Being Funded by U.S.?; Drive Against Airport Body Scans; Brook Shields Claims Reporter Took Mom from Nursing Home; ROTC Ban at Harvard
Aired May 19, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. Glad you're with us. It's Tuesday, May 19th on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. A lot to cover this morning and here are the big stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Breaking news this morning, new concerns over swine flu. This morning a 16-month-old in New York City hospitalized with flu-like symptoms is dead. The CDC is trying to determine if the baby's death is linked to the swine flu. This morning we're asking questions about the virus breaking all the rules of influenza.
The Obama administration is following California's lead for creating more environmentally friendly vehicles. Today, the President will announce a plan to put all 50 states under the same fuel economy and auto emission standards. We're live at the White House breaking down all the details for you.
And car sellers beware. With General Motors and Chrysler shutting down thousands of showrooms across the country, some are wondering whether traditional car dealerships have become relics replaced by online auto malls. Here what one industry expert is saying about the car buying experience.
CHETRY: We begin though with a developing story this morning.
Swine flu concerns now back front and center, especially here in New York. The latest sad twist, a 16-month-old baby dying in a New York hospital late last night. The hospital says the young boy arrived in the ER with flu-like symptoms and died a little more than an hour later.
It's important to note this morning, though, we do not know for sure if this baby had swine flu. According to the hospital, the CDC will try to now determine that.
All of it comes as New York City closes more public schools as a precaution. A total of 17 schools are now closed as there's debate among policymakers and those in city government as to whether or not closing schools really makes a difference in flu prevention. Meantime, the government reports now more than 5,000 confirmed or suspected swine flu cases in 48 states. CNN's Mary Snow working the story for us this morning. She's live from that Queens hospital where this little baby was taken late last night.
Just a horrible story, Mary, and every parent's nightmare that you take your child to the hospital with a high fever and they don't make it.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Kiran.
We should also point out that we did place several calls to the Department of Health. We are waiting some more information but as you said, no definitive word on the cause of the baby's death. The hospital spokesman here did say, though, last night, that two other children, a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old were also being tested. This, of course, comes as a lot of precautions are being taken and concerns have been on the rise.
We have some pictures from last night of some emergency rooms where people showing up whether or not they have the flu. And we've seen this a couple of weeks ago when this flu first broke.
This comes as concerns, especially here in Queens and new questions following the first death related to swine flu. A 55-year- old assistant principal died on Sunday and more questions are being raised about his death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (voice-over): Flowers and candles line the sidewalk outside Intermediate School 238 in memory of 55-year-old Mitchell Wiener, an assistant principal who became the first death linked to swine flu in New York City.
KATRINA TOLENTINO, TEACHER: Nobody could have foreseen Mr. Wiener passing away or getting this bad as it is right now. And just everyone is devastated and just is numb. And really, really don't want it to set in. I want to be able to come back and see him and he's not going to be there.
SNOW: But along with grief, questions remain. Wiener was admitted to the hospital last Wednesday in critical condition. A spokesman for Flushing Hospital tells CNN he knows of no preexisting medical condition. Wiener's family seen here over the weekend told reporters gout was the only past health problem he had. But city health officials maintain there was another health issue.
TOM FRIEDEN, NYC HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We don't comment on individual cases. We do state that he did have an underlying medical condition.
SNOW: Timing of the school shutdown is being examined. This teacher says Wiener wanted the school to shut down earlier than last week because kids were getting sick, but the mayor has said they're closing schools on a case by case basis. But he and other officials are being questioned about whether they handled the situation effectively.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think anybody was behind the curve.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Science has no ways of stopping something like this from spreading. And you can catch it virtually anyplace with anybody. And so unless you were to go wall yourself off and never have any human contact with anybody else, which is not terribly practical.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: Health officials do say, though, that the flu has been spreading and as a precaution more schools are being closed. Yesterday about 11,000 kids were told to stay home. Today, that number is going up as 17 schools are being closed for at least five days.
And city health officials, though, Kiran, have been reiterating that most of these cases have been mild. They also point out that there are about 2,000 deaths per year in New York City from the regular flu - Kiran.
CHETRY: Mary Snow for us this morning. We'll check in with you throughout the show. Thank you.
Also, the sixth U.S. death linked to swine flu now raising more questions about just how concerned we need to be over the spread of H1N1 influenza. On "AC 360" last night, Anderson talked with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the dangers that many of us thought had passed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There has been a lot of questions about whether this is hype. I mean, it's the same question I've been asking you pretty much every night that we've been covering this.
I go out in the street. A lot of people say, look, you guys are hyping this. It doesn't seem so bad. And it does seem to have kind of gone away out of the news at least. But now I feel like in the last couple of days with these deaths, it's kind of back in and we have tens, you know, tens of thousands of kids out of school.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, it's - all the ingredients for this to be something that was potentially problematic were there. A brand new virus, it was spreading. It was causing deaths first in Mexico. Now we're seeing it here in the United States.
You know, overall, I think this is still going to look like it was a relatively mild illness keeping in mind, Anderson, it's something you and I have talked about that the regular flu kills tens of thousands of people every single year.
Here's the key, though, Anderson. If you look back on pandemics of past, oftentimes they did start with a relatively mild illness in the spring and then became much more troublesome when fall and winter rolled around. So I think this is just a message of vigilance and diligence but I don't think that this is - what's happening right now is unexpected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be joining us to talk more about this in the next hour. We want you to join the conversation on Twitter as well. It's twitter.com/AMFix. You can also e-mail us at CNN.com/AMFix.
Some brand new polls you're seeing for the first time this morning show that Americans' concerns over the virus are actually easing. According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 17 percent of people polled say they're worried that someone in their family will get the virus - just 17 percent. Sixty-three percent say they were never worried about it, and 20 percent say they were worried in the past but are no longer concerned.
Asked for what people think about the government's response, 54 percent say it's been appropriate while 39 percent believe the government has overreacted.
ROBERTS: In just a few hours time, President Obama will unveil a dramatic and historic proposal for getting cars and light trucks to run cleaner and be more fuel efficient. Both environmentalists and the nation's automakers are applauding the plan. It creates a single, national standard for reducing auto emissions and increasing gas mileage.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is the only reporter live at the White House this early.
And Jill, it seems that after so many years of resistance by the auto industry, so many people are on the same page this morning.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot has changed, hasn't it, John?
Well, you know, the idea behind this is to lower the greenhouse gases produced by cars by 30 percent. And the way they would do that would be to increase or raise the fuel efficiency standards. And senior administration officials are saying that all of this would add up to taking the equivalent of taking 177 million cars off the road.
So here is how it would work. It would begin in model year 2012. And by 2016, cars would be required to get 39 miles to the gallon and light trucks, by 2016, would be required to get 30 miles to the gallon. That comes up to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon.
Environmental groups, as you can imagine, are praising this move. In fact, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that starting in model year 2012, the new standards will deliver cleaner, higher mileage cars nationwide, cut global warming pollution, and save drivers money every time they fill up.
So President Obama we're expecting will be in the Rose Garden at 12:15 Eastern Time to make this announcement. And California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be there, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.
And why the California governor? Well, they tried going back to 2004 to introduce similar changes, but they were not able to get the waiver from the previous administration to do it. But now they're going nationwide, John.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that announcement, Jill. We're also going to be talking with the energy and climate czar, Carol Browner, coming up at our next hour here of AMERICAN MORNING.
And Christine Romans joining us now. Of course, you know, when you look at all of this, it's going to increase the cost of a vehicle.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
ROBERTS: Will there be the offset in gas savings? Will it be a wash for consumers? Will we end up paying?
ROMANS: Eventually, there will be some savings in gas, John, but this is going to be a big cost up front for the industry, tens of billions of dollars for the industry. But the industry seems to be on board here because there's the certainty of having one kind of national standard instead of a patchwork of standards overall for lots of different states.
Cars that go farther on a gallon of gas, that's what you're going to see on the road. You're going to see more fuel-efficient cars on the road. You're going to see savings at the gas pump when these cars are on the road. You're going to see basically a different fleet of vehicles on America's roads that will be better for the environment.
Thirteen hundred dollars is the cost to your car by the year 2016, $700 for some standards that were put into effect already and $600 more for these standards. But the idea is that eventually it will recover that cost at the pump.
You know, the catalytic converter, is a wonderful thing. It can clean a lot of things out of the exhaust, but it can't clean out carbon emissions. And so that's what this is all about.
You can only do that by burning less oil and this would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil through the year 2016. Think about 120 billion barrels of oil. That's, you know, 86, 87 days worth of U.S. supply of oil. So that's a lot of oil.
ROBERTS: So some big changes and a big challenge for the car manufacturers to be able to make those changes.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: Somehow the words "catalytic converter" just roll right off Christine's tongue. I bet you can change a tire.
ROMANS: I can. And the wind shield wipers too. CHETRY: Well, it's time now for "Romans' Numeral." This is something that we're bringing you every day in the program.
Christine gives us a number that's driving the story about your money today. And so she's going to let us know what it is and then we'd like you guys to guess. Head to twitter.com/AMFix and see if any of your guesses are actually the right ones.
ROMANS: That's right. And the number today is 1994. I'm going to give you a hint. It's a year.
Go to amfix at twitter.com or at CNN.com and you can see some more clues about what that number is. 1994, "Romans' Numeral," we're going to have it for you in about 15 minutes or so.
ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to that.
ROMANS: Great.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
So what's the deal with car dealers? General Motors and Chrysler dropping them by the thousands. Are they giving away to a better business model?
And we've heard a lot about President Obama tearing down Bush administration programs. Now, there's one that he's building up. We'll tell you all about that, too.
It's coming up now on 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A live look right now at Baltimore. Thanks to our friends at WBAL. It's 40 degrees right now going up to 72, and it's going to be sunny today, here up and down the east coast.
We'll look at some of the other stories this morning. At 13 past the hour, two banking titans are awaiting word from the fed on whether or not they can repay a combined $20 billion in bailout money.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley formally applied to give back the money yesterday. They think the bailout's a burden. It's capping executive pay, bonuses and preventing them from attracting and retaining employees. The government, however, says that banks has to have enough capital to keep lending before they can return the taxpayer money.
Well, President Obama is reportedly expanding a program that was created under the Bush administration to check the immigration status of people booked at local jails all across the country. "The Washington Post" reporting there will be stepped up enforcement before inmates are released from custody and that could result in a tenfold increase in deportation cases. The program began as a pilot effort back in October and according to immigration officials, it will expand to nearly all local jails by the end of 2012. Both the president and congressional leaders have pledged to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
In a little more than two and a half hours from now, the shuttle Atlantis will release the now-upgraded Hubble Space Telescope back into its orbit. After five days of spacewalking repairs, NASA is hoping that the refurbished Hubble can provide some dazzling shots of the universe for yet another decade. The Atlantis astronauts will return to earth on Friday - John.
ROBERTS: New car buyers might think of the car dealer as a necessary evil. But with General Motors and Chrysler dropping thousands of dealers as part of their survival plan, it's raising questions about whether traditional car dealerships have a future. CNN's Jim Acosta has got that story live for us in Washington.
You know, Jim, we all remember the mom and pop dealership, a fixture in every small town across America. That model seems to be changing.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, John. And it's a surprise that people are talking about car dealerships and whether they're necessary. I thought everybody had a good time when they went to the car dealership. Not necessarily the case.
With GM and Chrysler, planning to shut down hundreds of dealerships, some industry analysts are wondering if it's not only time for Detroit to build better cars but also to build a better customer experience for those buyers who want to click the tires before they kick them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Don't judge your car dealership by the sign on the side of the road.
DOTTIE FITZGERALD, FITZGERALD AUTO MALLS: That's a customer. That's a customer.
ACOSTA (on camera): And why would you put your customers' pictures?
D. FITZGERALD: Because they're family.
ACOSTA: Because they're like family.
D. FITZGERALD: They're like family. They've helped us build this business.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Dealership owner Jack Fitzgerald and his sister Dottie say judge them by the pictures lining the walls inside the showroom - generations of satisfied customers. Chrysler is pulling out of Fitzgerald's dealership as part of the carmaker's plans to shut down showrooms across the country. Fitzgerald's response? Good riddance.
JACK FITZGERALD, FITZGERALD AUTO MALLS: We're not like Detroit. We don't live in an insulated world all by ourselves with the government taking care of us. We have to earn our way.
Government doesn't give me any money. It doesn't do anything for me except it looks like they're trying to put me out of business with these insane people from Detroit.
ACOSTA: But some industry analysts wonder if the dealership model of doing business has become a lot like the cars out of Detroit - outdated. Contrast that with the array of online auto buying sites.
PETER VALDES-CAPENA, AUTO INDUSTRY WRITER, CNN MONEY: You suggest a price and the salesman says, wait, let me talk to my manager and he's gone for 20 minutes. You know, that whole haggling process, people hate it. And online interaction could be actually a very good way of getting around that.
CHIP PERRY, CEO, AUTOTRADER.COM: and I'd say about half the dealers in America are doing that pretty well and half are still kind of in the starting blocks really with a lot of improvement yet to go ahead of them.
ACOSTA: Autotrader.com CEO Chip Perry says dealers have to gear themselves toward online shopper who find their price before entering the showroom. Still, he believes most car sales are too complicated to handle solely online.
PERRY: We don't think that it's going to be a click here and buy now phenomenon anytime soon.
J. FITZGERALD: People don't buy cars without seeing them and touching them and feeling them and driving them, and getting excited over them.
ACOSTA: After 43 years in the business, Jack Fitzgerald says it's about treating his customers right. A lesson he says Detroit hasn't learned.
Three of the four brands that you sell at this dealership are foreign made.
J. FITZGERALD: Well, that's because that's what my customers want. I keep telling you that. I don't tell the customers what to do. The customers tell me what to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now here's something you should know. Laws in most states still prevent buyers from purchasing cars directly from manufacturers online, so dealers are still on the driver's seat if they can ever get out of reverse, John.
ROBERTS: You know, Jim, my mom used to work at a car dealership. And I would spend most Saturdays there as a kid hanging around. It would be a shame to see that part of America go away. But I guess...
ACOSTA: It would, yes. And I think they just have to change or die. And I think that is basically what the industry analysts are saying. And the experience up until now hasn't been all that pleasant and it's hurt them in the long run.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ACOSTA: And if they can just reboot here, press the reset button and reinvent that experience, a lot of people are saying they're going to be better off in the future.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll see if they can catch up. Jim Acosta for us this morning. Jim, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: You bet.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, peanuts, pillows, blankets, the airline is going to hit you up for just about anything. But how are flyers scoring the industry. You may be surprised to hear their latest review.
We're also playing the numbers game. Check out "Romans" Numeral." It's 1994. That number has something to do with one of today's big stories. Do you know what it is?
Send us your guess on Twitter. We're at "amfix." Christine will have the answer up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Lots of people still talking about one of the big stories we brought you yesterday.
Gas prices jumping 26 cents in the past three weeks. The national average now $2.30 a gallon. That is likely to keep rising and folks calling our show hotline at 877-MY-AMFIX do not like it one bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE (via telephone): It's the same crap we heard last time that gas went up to four bucks. It's called speculation. Something needs to be done about it.
RICH, COLORADO (via telephone): Oil companies are just going to take it from us and keep taking it from us, even though they make record profits, they've made record profits all through this recession.
VICKI, GEORGIA (via telephone): The only reason the gas is going up is because the kids are getting out of school and everybody is going on vacation. They've done the same thing at spring break. They brought it up. As soon as spring break was over, they brought it back down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And keep those calls coming. The number is 877-MY- AMFIX. The lines are open 24 hours a day.
CHETRY: All right. Well, Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning. And she joins us now with more on the airline satisfaction report card. Are people who fly happier with the airlines than they have been over recent years?
ROMANS: Amazingly, yes. Airline passenger satisfaction is up. We've been hearing a lot about complaints about air travel but this most recent survey from the University of Michigan shows in the first quarter that your satisfaction with your airline flight is actually up. It's the first time since 2003 they've reported progress in passenger satisfaction.
Now, here is how it breaks down. I want to just point out that Southwest still has the best customer satisfaction and United still has the worst. But these were the best movers, Continental and US Airways showed the best improvement. Continental up 10 percent, US Airways up nine percent. Delta already the most satisfaction among its flyers, up seven percent, Southwest up three percent, American down three percent.
The recession means lines at the airport are shorter. Planes have a better chance of arriving on time. That's what you're noticing there. Although the people who put this survey together, they're a little bit worried that as the recession stops biting so much, the lines will get longer again and it becomes very difficult to deliver on customer service when you're losing money, which is the case for many of these airlines.
But a little bit of a counterintuitive story here, passenger satisfaction on the airlines actually rising for the first time since 2003.
ROBERTS: Imagine that.
CHETRY: How about it.
ROBERTS: You wouldn't think it would be possible, but it is.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Either that or it was so bad in 2003 that there was nowhere to go but up.
ROMANS: True.
CHETRY: OK. "Romans' Numeral," the number 1994 had to do with airlines. We had a couple of guesses on "amfix." Here's a good one.
1994, the last year that gas mileage was changed.
ROMANS: No.
CHETRY: OK. Tell us what it is.
ROMANS: But that's a good guess. And keep guessing.
ROBERTS: A bad year for the Democrats.
ROMANS: Bringing it back to politics. This is frankly airline satisfaction numbers have been declining pretty consistently since 1994 with only a very few exceptions. 1994 was when we saw that sea change in customer satisfaction on the airlines.
Think of that. That is a very long time. That's the lifetime of some flyers and some people who have been traveling. It's been nothing but complaints and less leg room and packed planes and lines at the airport for a lot of different reasons. We won't go into all the reasons why that's happening but 1994, the beginning of this downward trend in satisfaction.
ROBERTS: Seat size and leg room is just that's the one that drives me nuts.
ROMANS: Yes. Yes. And that's not going away, John. But you have to fly first class I think.
ROBERTS: For me.
ROMANS: Fly first class and you might have a little more...
ROBERTS: You're right.
ROMANS: ... on this company budgets, right?
ROBERTS: I don't think so.
ROMANS: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine.
Well, if you thought good old airport pat-down was invasive, wait until you see the new security measures that will be tested at some airports and why it has the privacy community up in arms.
And the mayor of Lansing, Michigan headed to Capitol Hill for a teaching (ph) on the crisis in the auto industry. We'll talk with the mayor, Virg Bernero, about his message to Congress.
It's 25 and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Concerns that some of Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands now growing here in the United States.
Yesterday, the head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said the United States does not know where all of the unstable ally's nuclear weapons are located, but he added Washington is confident that Islamabad is protecting the weapons. The news comes as officials confirm that Pakistan is ramping up its nuclear weapons program and that your tax dollars may be paying to create nuclear weapons in Pakistan. Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Satellite images show that Pakistan has all but finished a second nuclear reactor and continuing work on a third. Once done, experts who have studied the program for over 20 years say Pakistan will be able to double its plutonium output and make smaller, more sophisticated weapons.
DAVID ALBRIGHT, PRESIDENT, INSTITUTE SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: This is a qualitative improvement in our nuclear arsenal both in terms of destructiveness and deliverability. That to me is not modernization. That's actually making things more dangerous.
LAWRENCE: Extremists are fighting Pakistani troops within a couple hundred miles of these reactors.
ALBRIGHT: And you can't find a single country in the world that has the threats that Pakistan has.
LAWRENCE: To fight them, Congress is considering proposals to give Pakistan $3 billion for counterinsurgency. But a defense official says there is some concern about accounting for that money to make sure it's not going to build more nuclear weapons. During a Senate hearing last week, the head of the Joint Chiefs admitted that Pakistan's arsenal is growing.
SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: That it may be actually adding on to weapon systems and warheads, do you have any evidence of that?
ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Yes.
LAWRENCE: Admirable Mike Mullen offered only one word. Yes.
Outside experts who examined the satellite images say this is exactly the wrong time for Pakistan to expand their nuclear complex.
ALBRIGHT: You have a lot more people involved, a lot more transported material and it's just much harder to protect. And so there's a reason from that point of view alone to try to cap the size of the complex.
LAWRENCE (on camera): The expansion includes new industrial buildings and anti-aircraft installations that will double the size of this compound. But Admiral Mullen said he saw no evidence that any U.S. aid was being used on Pakistan's nuclear weapons with the exception of money given specifically to help secure them.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROBERTS: Other top stories this morning as we cross the half hour, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill today as he wraps up his U.S. visit. Netanyahu met with President Obama at the White House on Monday. He says that he would like to begin peace talks with the Palestinians right away, but Netanyahu is not endorsing the two-state solution, something President Obama says is a must for the peace process to move forward.
And a bill that would change the way credit card companies do business is up for a vote in the Senate. It requires 45 days' notice before credit card interest rates can be raised and helps consumers get lower rates back if they have been raised because of a late payment.
CHETRY: All right. Well, with GM and Chrysler closing dealerships across the country, thousands of auto industry workers facing an uncertain future. Lansing, Michigan Mayor Virg Bernero is taking his message to Congress today - the message about the personal impact of the auto industry's troubles. And it comes as the Obama administration unveils the first-ever national fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
Mayor Bernero joins us now from Washington.
Great to talk to you this morning. Again, you're in Washington because you're trying to spread awareness about the impact that this failed U.S. auto industry situation is having on Americans and towns across America.
General Motors has until the end of this month to decide whether or not it's going to file for Chapter 11, and experts say that the GM bankruptcy is, quote, "all but inevitable." So what type of impact will we see in cities and towns across the country if indeed yet another automaker is forced to file bankruptcy?
MAYOR VIRG BERNERO, LANSING, MICHIGAN: Well, Kiran, we're here with mayors and workers and dealers from around the country not just to whine and complain, but to talk about the impact of this industry across the country. It is major. It's millions of jobs across the country. It's more than Detroit, it's more than Lansing, it's more than Michigan, but it is millions of jobs, the supply chain across this country. And, of course, the suppliers are already teetering on the edge. And a bankruptcy for GM could threaten the supply chain for the entire domestic auto industry.
Look, we're calling it a teach-in, but the reality is that the American people already know what we're here to teach Congress and the administration, which is the importance of this administration and the fact is that the best stimulus is a stimulating job.
We need to have American production stimulated. We need a "Cash for clunkers" bill that stimulates people to buy American vehicles. It doesn't make any sense to stimulate people to give them money to buy foreign cars. We need American workers to be put first. We need the American industry to put first. So we call it a teach-in, but as I said, the American public knows the score. We need to put American workers first.
And so far, what we've seen - you know, we've looked at other countries, we see other countries like France, when they helped their auto industry, you had - you had - they had - Renault had to bring jobs back to France.
CHETRY: Right.
BERNERO: And here, we are subsidizing our industry, which we're for. We are all for supporting our industry, but the industry needs to support American jobs.
CHETRY: All right. Let me - let me just ask you a couple of questions. I know that the situation certainly is less than ideal. The notices that were going out to dealerships across the country, that Chrysler and GM are going to be forced to cut some of these franchises. And there's a lot of local anger. We've talked about how a lot of these car dealerships really made up the fabric of the community.
Here's a - I want you to listen to what Jack Fitzgerald from Fitzgerald Auto Malls had to say about it, then I'll get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J. FITZGERALD: We're not like Detroit. We don't live in an insulated world all by ourselves with the government taking care of us. We have to earn our way. The government doesn't give me any money. The government doesn't do anything for me except it looks like they're trying to put me out of business with these insane people from Detroit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: He's expressing a lot of anger about the situation. What's your reaction?
BERNERO: Look, I agree with the guy. I mean, we need real support for our industry. We need an Apollo-style commitment to the cleaner, greener cars of the future. But what I see is more regulation coming from Washington. I don't necessarily see the kind of help and support that they need. I don't see fair trade which we clearly need.
That we are operating on an unleveled playing field. There's no question about that. That we're playing by one set of the rules and the rest of the world is playing by another.
You know, as I say, when the French helped their company, they said, you've got to put production here. These so-called viability plans that are being thrust by Wall Street on GM and Chrysler, the viability plans, they might create a more viable company, but they don't create viable communities. They don't create viability for the American worker or for the American communities.
You know, these programs are forcing them to subsidize. We are subsidizing, outsourcing of American jobs. It's unheard of. No industrialized country is doing that. The other countries that are providing aids to their industry require them to move production to the United States, and I say...
CHETRY: Now you - I was going to say, you come to this with a lot of passion and you really - you know, there are many things that you are articulating about why you feel that we're in the situation we're in. But if you had to distill this down to one message that you want people to hear and you want the decision-makers in Washington to hear about what's going on in the auto industry, what would that be?
BERNERO: We need to do more than save the company. We need to save the domestic auto industry. It makes no sense for us to subsidize and help prop up Chrysler and GM if all they're doing is outsourcing and moving the jobs overseas. We need Americans working. We are the most productive workers in the world. There's no question about that.
Look at the products that we make. We're making better cars than ever before. The Cadillac CTS, Motor Trend's Car of the Year, made in Lansing, Michigan. We make great cars. We have to put the P back in GDP, gross domestic product. We have to make things.
CHETRY: Right. All right. And finally, just quickly, how do you think the stricter fuel economy standards that are being unveiled today are going to affect the American auto industry, help or hurt?
BERNERO: You know what? I know that's -- I know that's the big story today, but the fact is really it's a sleeper to me, it's a yawner, because this is where the industry was headed anyway. We're talking about by 2016, you think they wouldn't have had 35 mpg by 2016? They were already headed in that direction. This is where the industry is going. At least I'll say this for the federal government. They're applying it equally to everybody unlike the trade agreements which favor our foreign competitors.
CHETRY: Virg Bernero, good luck today. I know you're going to be bending a lot of ears in a good way because you want to get your message across.
Mayor of Lansing, Michigan, thanks for being with us.
BERNERO: Thanks, Kiran. Good to talk to you.
ROBERTS: Well, the government hopes that it may be the biggest advancement to keeping you safe in the skies. But critics say it's nothing more than a virtual strip search in the new push to guard your modesty - just ahead.
And Michelle Obama takes Manhattan part two. We'll go beyond the first lady's second trip to the Big Apple as she makes a pitch for art education.
It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
And this morning, it's your privacy versus your security at the airport. Right now, there's a new campaign to stop what critics are calling a virtual strip search, scans that leave very little to the imagination.
Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve with the lowdown.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, privacy advocates have had issues with the technology called millimeter wave right from the get-go. But they're launching an online petition campaign to stop at least for the time being what they refer to as a virtual strip search.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): The technology called millimeter wave doesn't leave much to the imagination as it scans the body looking for concealed items.
DEDE COLTON, TSA IMAGING OPERATOR: And basically it just lets us know if there's anything out of the ordinary that's sticking outside their clothing, their belt, a cell phone.
MESERVE: Or a weapon. The Transportation Security Administration is pilot testing millimeter wave at screening checkpoints at 19 airports with an eye to deploying it more widely. But privacy advocates say there are no formal rules for how the machines and the images they generate will be used.
LILLIE CONEY, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFO CENTER: I'm worried that the technology can retain images, that those images may be used for more than just travel screening purposes.
MESERVE: For instance, they might turn up on the internet. But the TSA says the machines have been disabled so they cannot store, send or print images. The images are not overly detailed and other privacy steps have been taken.
JON ALLEN, TSA ATLANTA: The officer who attends the passenger at the machine never gets to see the images that are generated. The officer, who views the image, views those in a remote location. They never physically get to see the passenger.
MESERVE: But the privacy community is launching a petition drive to suspend millimeter wave testing. It fears TSA will change the rules on how the technology is used unless it goes through the formal public federal rule-making process.
CONEY: It's tried and true. It's reliable. It forces the issue out into a more transparent process. And when it's all said and done, we all have the rule book. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The TSA says all passengers are given the option of choosing a different screening method and that the majority pick millimeter wave. But privacy advocates argue that's because the public isn't adequately informed about the rest.
John, Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us this morning. Jeanne, thanks so much.
And let us know what you think. Head to our website. It's CNN.com/AMFix. Send us an e-mail, link to Twitter or call our show hotline at 877-MY-AMFIX.
CHETRY: Well, First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting the arts on her second trip to New York City. Mrs. Obama spoke about the importance of art education during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and fashion heavyweight Ralph Lauren were on hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there's free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, the first lady also stopped by the American Ballet Theater where the students put on a performance just for her.
ROBERTS: Well, Brooke Shields is threatening legal action against the tabloid reporter and photographer for what they did to her mother. We'll tell you what has the actress fighting mad this morning.
And we're tracking extreme weather right now. Could we be getting ready to see our very first tropical storm of the season? Rob Marciano is tracking it all, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Good morning to Detroit. It's a live look this morning, thanks to our friends at WDIV. 57 degrees right now. It's headed up to 74. Partly cloudy in the Motor City today.
And it's 46 minutes past the hour, time to fast forward through the stories that will be making news later today.
At 10:00 a.m. Eastern, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Capitol Hill to meet with a number of lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On the agenda, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Afterward, Netanyahu will meet with Defense chief Robert Gates at the Pentagon.
The Eiffel Tower turns 120 years old today. The City of Paris is celebrating the milestone. The tower is also sporting a fresh coat of paint, its 18th. It also has a special exhibition on its history. The iconic structure was once considered an eyesore, but now it attracts the most tourists in the world, 244 million visit each other.
And at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is holding a press conference with FEMA administrator Craig Fugate to discuss hurricane preparedness. That meeting comes about two weeks before the official start of hurricane season, which begins on June 1st - John.
ROBERTS: And they really need that preparedness this year because already we've got brewing out there somewhere what could be our very first tropical storm of the season. At 47 minutes after the hour, Rob Marciano at the Weather Center in Atlanta tracking it all for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: All right. Well, actress Brooke Shields is claiming that two employees of the "National Enquirer" magazine took her elderly mother out of a nursing home. We're going to tell you what she's threatening to do about it.
Also, inside the growing movement at Harvard University to get the ROTC that was once banned back on campus.
It's 49 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Actress Brooke Shields is furious and threatening legal action against a reporter and photographer she says took her mother out of a New Jersey nursing home and then drove her around, trying to get a story for the "National Enquirer." One of the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.
And CNN's A.J. Hammer is following it for us.
A.J. HAMMER, HOST, HLN SHOWBIZ TONIGHT: John and Kiran, Brooke Shields is upset with the tabloid over an incident involving the actress's elderly mother.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: She calls it reprehensible and disgusting. "People" magazine is reporting actress Brooke Shields is accusing a reporter and photographer from the "National Enquirer" of taking her mother who suffers from dementia out of a nursing home in Old Tappan, New Jersey last week. Shields told "People" magazine that the pair signed her mother, Teri, out of a senior living facility. The actress says they falsely claimed that they were friends of her 75-year-old mom, and later drove her around, quote, "looking for a tabloid story."
The "National Enquirer" is not denying the incident, but is claiming that the reporter has known Teri Shields for over ten years. A statement on the "Enquirer's" Web site titled, "The Boring Truth" says, "Teri asked the reporter to take her out to lunch and run some errands. The freelance reporter then got permission from the facility to do so. At no point did the facility, which had given its permission for the outing, contend that there had been any wrongdoing."
Old Tappan police are not available for comment to CNN, but told "People" that they interviewed the "Enquirer" reporter and are investigating who allowed Teri Shields to leave the facility. An attorney for Shields says the actress has not filed charges, but is exploring her options.
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, IN SESSION: At its surface, there may be some very fertile ground here for a civil case. You can't just invade someone's privacy and get away with it. There are avenues people can take to get back at you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: The attorney for Shields also tells CNN she's moved her mother out of that facility -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. A.J. Hammer, thank you.
You can catch A.J. weeknights on Headline News's HLN "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," along with Brooke Anderson, 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
ROBERTS: Your first look at top-secret briefings on the Iraq war, and a startling report about biblical phrases used in the classified documents about the war.
And breaking news this morning, a baby boy dies suddenly in New York City with flu-like symptoms. We're live at the hospital as concerns about swine flu continue to grow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It's been four decades since the ROTC was banned from the campus of Harvard University. And during the violent protests of the Vietnam War, it seemed to make sense. Now some students are saying enough is enough.
Carol Costello joins us live from Washington with more on why.
Hey there, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. You know, you're right, at the height of the Vietnam era, Harvard purge the Reserved Officer Training Corp or the ROTC from its campus. But students say, hey, baby boomers, times are changing. It's time to bring ROTC back to Harvard.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Almost 40 years have gone by. Four decades since students passionately and sometimes violently protested the Vietnam War. It was no different at Harvard. Protesters torched an ROTC classroom and got what they wanted.
ROTC, then considered a symbol of American imperialism was booted off campus. Today, the ROTC is still banned at Harvard, but for a different reason. Now it's the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. The student handbook says it's inconsistent with Harvard's values as stated in its policy on discrimination. However, well- intentioned that policy may be, some ROTC students say it's time Harvard let go of the past.
JOE KRISTOL, HARVARD ROTC CADET: Be able to recognize and support ROTC on the one hand, on the other hand do whatever they want to protest policies that they might not agree with, but not to punish the students and use them as their tool to make that political statement.
COSTELLO: These students want to use their Harvard education to serve not in America's board rooms but on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But because of Harvard's ROTC ban, they have to train at nearby MIT And while MIT doesn't blink an eye at a student in uniform, Harvard sometimes does.
SHAWNA SINNOTT, HARVARD ROTC CADET: I walk into the classroom in uniform, and the professor looked at me and said, what are you? Not like who are you? What are you doing? What is it about? But, like, what are you? And that was really shocking for me.
COSTELLO (on camera): So you felt comfortable in the classroom that point forward?
SINNOTT: So of. It was a pretty confrontational class.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Shawna Sinnott does say increasingly Harvard students support her choice, but not all.
MARCO CHAN, HARVARD COLLEGE QUEER STUDENTS & ALLIES: What's not often covered is the fact that queer students don't have that choice at all. There's not a choice of, oh, I guess I'll be inconvenience and participate in this program. They simply can't.
COSTELLO: The ROTC says recruits cannot comment on military policy but on the subject of why it's so important for schools like Harvard to embraced ROTC.
CHRISTI MORRISSEY, HARVARD ROTC CADET: As Thucydides once said, "The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Members of Harvard's faculty who could vote to lift the ROTC ban were contacted would not comment. Although, the university's president told ROTC students that last year's commissioning ceremony, I believe that every Harvard student should have the opportunity to serve in the military as those honored in the past have done.
So, Kiran, maybe little baby steps, maybe it will change. Who knows?
CHETRY: All right. Very interesting story.
Carol Costello for us this morning.
Thanks so much.
COSTELLO: Sure.
