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American Morning
House Dems Say CIA Deceived Congress; New Questions on Where the Stimulus Money Went; New Details the Jackson Family Attempted to Intervene and Help Michael; Country Preparing for Swine Flu Resurgence; Palin Critics Keep Going; Mixed Emotions for McNair Fans; Morning People vs. Night Owls; Reselling Occupied Graves
Aired July 09, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And we're coming up to the top of the hour here. Welcome once again. Great to have you with us on this Thursday -- what's the date, again? July...
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: I lose track.
CHETRY: Ninth.
JOHNS: Ninth. Thank you very much.
CHETRY: Joe Johns is with us, in for John Roberts. Great to have you with us.
JOHNS: I'm very happy to be here. In fact, wide awake at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Here's what's on the agenda, the big stories we'll be breaking down in the next 15 minutes.
New accusations that the CIA kept secrets from Congress. They're coming from seven House Democrats, and their source said to be the agency's own director, Leon Panetta. Our Brianna Keilar has that letter that's raising a lot of questions.
CHETRY: Also, with more Republicans saying the stimulus isn't working, where are your tax dollars actually going? A new report just breaking this morning says it may depend on how your county voted. Are parts of the country that are blue getting more of the stimulus cash?
JOHNS: Plus, new exclusive details that Michael Jackson's family tried to get him off drugs. Sources say his sister, Janet, was frightened into action by his appearance two years ago. Our special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin has exclusive report just ahead.
But we begin with a bombshell inside the Beltway. Seven House Democrats saying this morning CIA Director Leon Panetta admitted in testimony in Congress that his agency has been concealing information and misleading lawmakers for eight years.
Our Brianna Keilar is tracking the latest developments live for us from Capitol Hill. Brianna, break this down for us. What happened? BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Joe. This is, yes, a long and winding story. So, let's go ahead and start at the beginning.
Back in mid-May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading Congress in a secret 2002 briefing that she received. This was a briefing that had to do with harsh interrogation tactics the Bush administration was using on terror suspects, including waterboarding. She said the CIA misled her. And the response from the CIA, from CIA Director Leon Panetta, was to say that it's not the practice of the CIA to mislead Congress.
So, fast forward now to about two weeks ago. On June 26, the seven members of the House of Representatives sent this letter right here. These are seven members of the House Intel Committee.
They sent this letter to the CIA. And they referred to some testimony that had happened just a couple of days before according to one source, testimony of CIA Director Panetta behind closed doors with this House Intel Committee. And in this letter, they referenced it saying, "Recently you testified that you have determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from Congress from 2001 to this week."
And this letter here, Joe, actually asked CIA Director Panetta to correct the record, to come out and correct that statement that he made in mid May that it's not the practice or the policy of the CIA to mislead Congress, Joe.
JOHNS: A lot of stuff going on there at a time when the Congress is looking at the intel spending bill. Thank you so much, Brianna Keilar.
CHETRY: Well, as that back and forth continues over whether or not the stimulus is working in Washington, a new report in "USA Today" is claiming that the amount of money your county gets may depend on how you voted.
The report says counties that President Obama won in last year's election have actually gotten twice as much money per person as those that voted for John McCain. So, breaking that down into raw numbers, the counties that supported Obama, the report shows, received about $69 per person on average. Counties that supported McCain on average received about $34 per person.
But the report also says that that imbalance didn't just start with the stimulus. From 2005 through 2007, counties that later voted for Obama collecting about 50 percent more government aid any way, according to spending reports from the Census Bureau.
Many critics are now doubting that the stimulus is even working and saying that it was a $787 billion mistake. So, does President Obama have a stimulus PR problem?
Our Kate Bolduan is live in Washington tracking that part of the story. And, Kate, how much of the stimulus package is actually out there in the nearly five months that it became law?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of numbers blowing around, so it's important to talk about actual spending.
There are $57 billion, has actually been distributed. That's about seven percent of the total, Kiran. And then there's about $43 billion in tax relief, something we should know which is important. But if the question is, is the recovery plan making a difference, that's a difficult answer.
Some House Republicans, though, are giving a resounding no. They say the stimulus isn't living up to what the president and congressional Democrats predicted.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Even as the Obama administration counts the jobs being created by recovery act spending...
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're starting to see some real progress.
BOLDUAN: Unemployment has soared to 9.5 percent and 3.4 million jobs have been lost in the past six months. Republicans say the stimulus isn't working and Wednesday, they pounced.
REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R), CALIFORNIA: I think that we need to justify how much money we're spending and where are the jobs saved and where have they been preserved? And I think that we've got major credibility crisis here.
VOICE OF REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: The president is quoted as saying that the stimulus has "done its job." Is that true or not true?
ROBERT NABORS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: We believe that the stimulus has had the impact that we had predicted, which is job creation.
BOLDUAN: In the hot seat, the president's deputy budget deputy director, Rob Nabors, who said the stimulus plan is slowing the economic freefall. Nabors said 150,000 jobs have been created or saved.
NABORS: It's a work in progress, but a steady progress.
BOLDUAN: The Government Accountability Office says of the $29 billion delivered to hard-hit states so far, most has gone to pay Medicaid costs, balance budgets and avoid layoffs. At the same time, Tom Evslin, Vermont's chief recovery officer, says funds for big job- producing investments like broadband and the electric smart grid are still caught in the stimulus pipeline.
TOM EVSLIN, VERMONT OFFICE OF ECONOMIC STIMULUS AND RECOVERY: The frustration has been that the money hasn't come out, and we kept hearing later and later dates for the money coming out. BOLDUAN: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick says states are ready and waiting.
GOV. DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: No funds, no projects. No projects, no jobs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Also in that hearing, Robert Nabors, the president's deputy director of OMB, he seemed to criticize states for making what he called unwise choices to simply use stimulus money to balance their budgets. Now the administration has said actual stimulus spending, Kiran, will peak in 2010.
CHETRY: All right. Kate Bolduan for us this morning. Thanks so much.
JOHNS: I want to bring in our Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" and to talk about the stimulus.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
JOHNS: So, how much has really been spent?
ROMANS: About 10 percent has been spent. My account is some $77 billion has been spent, $20 billion in tax relief, and then some $56 billion in stimulus projects. We reported that, too, yesterday. So, we know that's how much has gone out the door.
Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, says 10 percent has gone out the door. So, we know that. That's how much has gone out the door.
Now, the state part of this is that GAO report that shows that the $49 billion going directly to states, states are playing defense with this money. And in some cases, the education money was meant to build new schools. It was built to expand early childhood education. But in some of these places, these states are in such trouble they have to fill the holes.
I mean, they're trying not to fire 2,000 teachers in Florida Miami-Dade County. You can't start a new program when you're just barely holding on to the program you've got. In some cases, there are stimulus money that has not been spent, we know, because they're waiting for the guidelines.
There are stipulations on this money. They have to show that it's going to work and that it's going to improve the education, it's going to improve teacher productivity. They have to make sure they're using the money. So that's one reason why the money hasn't been spent in some cases.
JOHNS: So they may be not creating new jobs but they could very well be saving a bunch of jobs (ph).
ROMANS: Saving these jobs. And in that GAO report, one of the places they pointed out was those 2,000 teachers in Florida's Miami- Dade County.
You know, look, there are some cases where they used the money so they didn't have to lay off a whole bunch of teachers. But it wasn't to build a new school as some had wanted.
Flint, Michigan, for example, hasn't had a new school in, I don't know, 30 years. But they are also in trouble. I mean, it's hard to figure out how to build a new school or fix your school when you're just trying to fill the hole.
So, look, we are going to be unraveling this money for years. We have never spent this money so quickly. So, I mean, we're all -- we'll all be very busy on this.
CHETRY: All right. Well, meanwhile, time for "Romans' Numeral." And this is a number that we bring you every day on the program that's driving a story about your money today. So what is your numeral this hour?
ROMANS: 2.3 million. 2,300,000. This is all about the jobs. Is the stimulus creating jobs? Are we seeing a difference?
2.3 million is the number of jobs that have been lost since the day the stimulus was passed. The White House will tell you that pace is slowing. But we know since they passed the stimulus, that's the number of jobs that have been lost.
You will hear the administration talk about saving jobs. Yesterday they said we've saved 150,000 jobs. We're on track to save 750,000 jobs. That just puts in perspective how many jobs have been lost.
And how do they know how many jobs they've saved? How do they know?
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: It's a formula. It's a formula that says for every $92,000 that goes out the door in stimulus spending, that's one job they have to create. So, it's a formula. It's not exact.
CHETRY: So, let me tell you, is there a delay in getting the stimulus money out? Is there a delay or is this how it was supposed to go?
ROMANS: In many cases, this is how it was supposed to go. The GAO report found in terms of the state aid, they're actually slightly ahead of track on the state aid. That's one part of it. That's $49 billion out of $787 billion.
But things have changed. Conditions have changed. And states seem to be using this money defensively, not to start something new, but to...
CHETRY: Stop the bleeding.
ROMANS: Stop the bleeding.
JOHNS: Right.
CHETRY: All right. Christine Romans for us. Thank you.
JOHNS: Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Well, there's some new information this morning on a Jackson family intervention attempt which began with Michael Jackson's sister, Janet. How her brother's appearance frightened her into action. And this is the only place where you will see this side of the story.
Ten minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. With the memorial for Michael Jackson wrapped up and the thousands of fans heading home, Los Angeles officials are bracing themselves for what's next -- the price tag.
Officials estimate the memorial cost more than $1.4 million, most of it overtime for the 4,000 officers on hand. The memorial itself was a mammoth television ratings event. Some 31 million people watched the service on 18 networks. And you guessed it, more people chose CNN as the network to watch, more than doubling FOX News and MSNBC.
CHETRY: Well, now to a CNN exclusive. The Jackson family may have seen this tragedy coming.
Two years ago, Michael Jackson's sister, Janet, was apparently so alarmed at what her brother looked like that she took steps to stage an intervention.
CNN special investigations unit just uncovered some dramatic details. Here is SIU correspondent Drew Griffin.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Joe and Kiran, it was 2007. That was two years after Michael Jackson's trial for child molestation in California. The jury acquitting him, but he was scarred. He all but disappeared, first going to Bahrain for a kind of self-imposed exile and then briefly to Ireland.
We're told he was happier but that his career was going nowhere. This was a period when he rarely saw his family. Now sources tell us Michael Jackson became fixated with music superstar Celine Dion and that permanent show she was starring in in Las Vegas.
Jackson thought that kind of show might be his path back to show business, so he moved to Vegas. In early 2007, he was believed to be living in this large rented home. Two sources close to the family say Janet Jackson, who'd seen little of her brother in recent years, visited him there and was shocked. We're told the house was nearly barren of furniture and creepy looking, according to one source. But it was the sight of an extremely thin, disheveled Michael Jackson that frightened Janet.
And that brings us up to the NBA all-star game weekend in February in Las Vegas. Janet Jackson there with two of her brothers. She asked those brothers to go back with her to Michael Jackson's house trying to convince Michael to get help.
Reportedly, Michael ordered his new security guards not to let them in. We've also learned that Michael Jackson at that time was refusing to take calls from his own mother, Katherine Jackson, who had been repeatedly pleading with her son to get help.
Now, all through this time, the family had been concerned. And according to both our sources, Michael Jackson would simply refuse to see anybody who tried to stop him from using drugs. One source saying that, if you tried to deal with him, he would shut you out. You just wouldn't hear from him for long periods of time.
Another source was telling us the family was concerned for a long time, but it was Janet now who tried to force the issue two years ago. We must tell you that back in 2007, "People" magazine did report about an alleged Jackson family intervention.
The Jackson family denied it, releasing this statement which said in part, "We categorically deny ever planning, participating in or having knowledge of any kind of intervention whatsoever."
Now that statement was signed by members of the Jackson family, but not signed by Janet Jackson -- Joe and Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Drew Griffin digging up new details for us. Thanks.
And there's some -- a new focus on Michael Jackson's doctors this morning as well. Los Angeles County coroner's office has drawn up a list of physicians who treated the pop star before his death, and they want to question them to find out exactly what medications were prescribed.
And one of the doctors on that list is Michael Jackson's dermatologist. Last night, Dr. Arnold Klein spoke one on one with CNN's Larry King. And listen to what he said about the report that he is the biological father of Jackson's kids.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": You said you couldn't answer that one way or the other.
DR. ARNIE KLEIN, JACKSON'S DERMATOLOGIST & FRIEND: I still can't answer it absolutely one way or the other.
KING: That means you donated sperm.
KLEIN: I once donated sperm. I don't know. But you have to know that...
KING: You donated to him?
KLEIN: No, absolutely not.
KING: Or you donated a sperm.
KLEIN: Once.
KING: To a sperm bank.
KLEIN: To a sperm bank. I don't think I should go over my legal affairs because I think to the best of my knowledge, I'm not the father. I'm going to tell you that this discussion, however, is between Michael, his children, and this person. It's not to be discussed who the father is over national television.
KING: Now, what about all the rumors about you and the fathering of those children?
KLEIN: Here's the most important thing. Michael loved those children as a father. Those children loved him as a father. As far as I'm concerned, that's the most important grouping there is.
KING: That's not answering the question.
KLEIN: No, because I'm not going to answer it the way you want it answered because I think...
KING: Well, you could say no.
KLEIN: I could say no then. I'll say no if that's what you want to hear.
KING: No, I want to hear what you want, what you know.
KLEIN: What I will tell you is I think what's most important about this whole thing, to end this thing, is that the most important thing in who the father is, is who the father is, who the children want their father to be.
And I will tell you this, I will say no because the most important person to these children is how Michael loved them and how he loved his children and how they loved him. Because they would never go past him without saying, I love you, Daddy. He would say I love you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Now, Dr. Klein also said that he told Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of Jackson's two older kids, to "get active and be the mother of those children." He also revealed some other interesting things to Larry King as they look at whether or not Diprivan, which is that anesthetic, that very powerful anesthetic, could have contributed to Michael Jackson's death. He said that on tour in Germany years ago that Michael was using it and he told Michael, "You're absolutely insane," talking about how risky it was to use that for insomnia.
JOHNS: Yes. Even Dr. Sanjay Gupta said it was one of the strangest-sounding stories he'd ever heard.
CHETRY: Yes.
JOHNS: All right. Here's what's on the "A.M. Rundown" in the next 15 minutes.
The White House is holding a summit on swine flu in just a few hours. If it comes back with a vengeance this fall, are we ready?
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius joins us live next.
At 7:24 Eastern, Lisa Ling talks to her sister, Laura, who's still being held by North Korea. Hear what it's like being a prisoner inside the secretive state.
And at 7:37, one Republican in Alaska says she has the evidence to bring Sarah Palin down. But Palin's using her last days in office to fight back.
It's 18 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The White House is putting all 50 states on notice today asking two big questions. If swine flu comes back with a vengeance this fall, will we be ready? And also, where do we stand right now?
They're holding an H1N1 flu summit in a few hours to try to get some answers on that. And for more, I'm joined by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Thanks for being with us this morning, Mrs. Secretary.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Nice to be with you, Kiran.
CHETRY: Where do we stand now with the H1N1 virus, the so-called swine flu?
SEBELIUS: Around the country, we have documented about 33,000 cases. And we've had about 170 deaths in this -- country and...
CHETRY: Sorry, are you hearing somebody in your ear? I'm sorry about that. Hopefully we'll get that worked out. I just want you to go ahead and continue.
We talked about 170 deaths so far in the U.S. SEBELIUS: We've had about 170 deaths so far. But the CDC modeling indicates that we have more like a million cases in the United States. We've had summer camps closed and luckily kids are not in school right now. So, we haven't had the kind of school disruption that we saw earlier this spring.
What we're really watching is what happens in the southern hemisphere, who is in the middle of their seasonal flu and a mix of H1N1, because we'll learn a lot from that. And we want to be ready for the fall. So, we're bringing together governors and their top health and emergency planning managers to use these summer months to plan for a fall vaccine campaign, to look at hospital capacity, to be prepared for a more serious flu that may return in the fall months.
CHETRY: Right. And so there is the possibility as we've heard from various doctors that it could return, that it could return stronger.
SEBELIUS: Right.
CHETRY: But -- so how are you balancing this with preparations for the seasonal flu which, you know, we need to gear up for every year, of course, as well that really kills about 36,000 Americans annually?
SEBELIUS: That's right. We know we're going to have season flu year in and year out. And the good news is the seasonal flu vaccine is ready to go. We would urge everyone to get their seasonal flu shot.
In addition, we're moving towards the likelihood of a specific vaccine for H1N1. We're testing the virus strains now, preparing the production lines, beginning clinical trials. What we need to make sure is we have an effective vaccine, one that actually combats this particular virus but also that we have a safe vaccine. We know the right dose. We know the targeted population.
And in the meantime, we need to keep reminding folks that there are lots of things that every family can do. The hand washing hygiene is still very much in place. Wash your hands frequently. Cough into a sleeve or into a tissue and throw the tissue away.
And please, if people feel sick or if your kids are sick, keep them home. Don't share this. We know H1N1 spreads very, very quickly. So, there are a lot of steps we can take to try and reduce the transmission of the virus right now.
CHETRY: All right, a lot of good advice.
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services, thanks for joining us this morning.
SEBELIUS: Sure. Glad to be with you. And we'll keep you posted as we move toward the fall.
CHETRY: All right. We'd like to hear more about that, especially if the recommendations change and there's possibly a recommendation to get a swine flu vaccine. Thanks so much.
SEBELIUS: OK. Sure.
JOHNS: Coming up, we're going to hear from Lisa Ling talking to her sister, Laura, who is still being held in North Korea. That is next right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
It is 25 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. It's been weeks since Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering North Korea illegally. They were doing a story on Chinese immigration at the time. So imagine how relieved CNN contributor Lisa Ling was to get a phone call from her sister from inside North Korea. Here's what she told affiliate KOVR about the conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA LING, LAURA LING'S SISTER: It was a tremendous relief to hear Laura's voice last night. It's only -- it was only the first time I have heard her voice in weeks. And so for the last two weeks, we were just going day and day -- you know, long days just without hearing anything. And that silence has just been so terrifying and deafening.
Without actually seeing her and without people actually seeing her physically, it's very difficult to tell. But she was very specific about the message that she was communicating and she said, look, you know, we violated North Korean law and we need our government to help us. You know, we are sorry for everything that has happened but now we need diplomacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Lisa Ling said that the fate and the lives of Laura and Euna are at stake here.
Well, we're coming now on the bottom of the hour. Here are the top stories this morning.
A powerful truck bomb in Afghanistan killing at least 25 people. This happened near Kabul. The country's interior ministry says that the dead include 21 civilians and four policemen. NATO troops in the area appear to be that likely target.
South Korean dealing with the second wave of cyber attacks this morning. An official says seven sites are under attack after hackers bombarded government Web sites and in the United States over the Fourth of July weekend as well. Computer security experts say at least a dozen sites, including those at the White House, Pentagon, State Department as well were targeted in a coordinated cyber attack.
And the Coast Guard is searching this morning for five people after their plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. It happened northwest of Tampa.
Authorities say the twin engine Cessna took off from McKinney, Texas and that Tampa was the final stop. Passengers' identities have not yet been released.
JOHNS: On Capitol Hill, a scathing letter has now gone public. In it, seven House Democrats say since 2001 the CIA has hidden intelligence from Congress and misled lawmakers. And their source -- the boss. Testimony directly from CIA Director Leon Panetta. But it begs the question, shouldn't we expect the nation's top spy agency to keep some secrets or not?
Joining me now, CNN national security contributor and former Homeland Security adviser to the Bush administration, Fran Townsend.
Fran, thanks so much for coming in.
FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Joe.
JOHNS: So, let's look at this letter that has been making the rounds so far. And I think we have a graphic of it right now.
It says recently you testified that you've determined that top CIA officials have concealed significant actions from Congress from 2001 to this week. And this comes from six Democratic members of Congress. What do you make of that letter?
TOWNSEND: Well, you know, Joe, I think because of the controversy over the Nancy Pelosi briefings, people are going to put these things together.
This morning I spoke to both White House and CIA senior officials who confirmed to me that these two issues, the Pelosi briefings which Panetta made perfectly clear they had -- she had been briefed honestly and fully and this led, this issue are completely unrelated. These are two separate issues. What happens, Joe, as you know, is often times what would happen as CIA or other agencies will go up and do briefings, they'll come back. They'll realize either they inadvertently left information out. Things they were unaware of that they didn't tell Congress. You want them to come back up. And I suspect what happens here is they realized there was something not included in the briefing and they did the right thing: They notified the Congress.
We got to be careful with Congress, you know, issuing letters on intelligence matters and playing politics with the intelligence community. It may have just the opposite effect of what they want, which is full and complete information.
JOHNS: So, let's dig a little deeper on that. If you step away back away from it, you know one thing, Pelosi challenged the veracity of the CIA. She challenged the fact that they were being truthful. And now you look at this letter that comes out. Even though we don't know all of the between-the-lines information, does it look like she is vindicated? Should she be vindicated? Or does it look like her colleagues in the House are trying to make it look like she's vindicated.
TOWNSEND: I think it's the latter, Joe. I think her colleagues are playing politics with this, to try and make her look vindicated. CIA issued a statement through a spokesman yesterday, making clear that Leon Panetta, the director of CIA stood by his statement, issued in May, related to the Nancy Pelosi briefing. That's done. It's clear that she was briefed. It's clear that CIA fulfilled their obligations there.
This is a separate matter. And we got - that's why I say I think it's very dangerous for the House Democrats to be playing politics with the intelligence community when you want them to do if they find that they made a mistake as an oversight matter is come up and tell you about it. And so I really think this is a pretty dangerous game they're playing.
JOHNS: There's also a behind-the-scenes fight going on right now on Capitol Hill as to whether more people on the Hill should be privy to certain information that comes out of the intelligence community or whether just that gang of eight, certain specific individuals on Capitol Hill who gets to see this stuff should continue to see these stuff. Do you think that's part of the politics of this letter coming out?
TOWNSEND: You know, I think you're right to raise it. I suspect it is. And we should tell our viewers, you know, the administration has issued a statement saying that the president's senior adviser will recommend that he veto the legislation if the briefing numbers are expanded. The reason for that, Joe, is because we understand the more people that know, the more likely it is that critical information, classified information will leak. It's very dangerous. What you want is you want effective oversight by the people who know the most and have responsibility in the area. That's why there's the gang of eight. But you don't need 40 members all knowing this critical and classified information that may put lives at risk if it leaked.
JOHNS: Fran Townsend in Washington, as always, thanks so much.
TOWNSEND: You're welcome, Joe.
CHETRY: All right. Still ahead, we're going to be hearing from one of the whistleblowers behind some of Sarah Palin - former Alaska, soon-to-be former Alaskan governor's ethics violations and investigations that have caused what she said is a lot of unnecessary turmoil. Thirty-four minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's sudden and surprising decision to step down have a lot of people, supporters and critics wondering why. Well, accusations of ethics against the governor just kept coming. And CNN's Sean Callebs caught up with one critic behind many of those complaints. SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe and Kiran, depending on who you speak with, the number of accusations are either trivial and a waste of the governor's time or very serious and provide keen insight on the way Palin has governed the state.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS (voice-over): Anchorage is bathed in an unusual heavy haze. A hot, dry, Alaska summer is fueling scores of wildfires. Governor Sarah Palin met with smoke jumpers in the small interior town of McGrath praising their courage. She's also burning up Twitter, sending out a number of messages, including the somewhat cryptic: "Today, try this. Act in accordance to your conscience, risk by pursuing larger vision in opposition to popular, powerful pressure." Author unknown.
Palin has just about two and a half weeks left in office until she becomes Citizen Sarah. In large part, the governor said she's quitting because of a host of accusations of ethics violations. Costly and time-consuming for her and the state.
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), ALASKA: It doesn't cost the critics anything to file frivolous lawsuits or ethics violation charges. It costs our state such a great deal. Thousands of state staff hours, millions of dollars in public resources that aren't going to things that it should.
CALLEBS: Andree McCleod has been an especially sharp thorn in Palin's side.
ANDREA MCCLEOD, FILED COMPLAINTS AGAINST PALIN: I have all of the evidence.
CALLEBS: She has filed four complaints against the governor and her staff and two lawsuits. Here are some of the litany of complaints leveled against Palin. A conflict of interest because she wore a jacket that had a logo on it while at a snowmobile race. Another alleged she had the state pay for her children's travel. She has since reimbursed the state. One of Andrea McCloud's allegations said Palin used cronyism to improperly hire a friend for a state job. That complaint was dismissed. McCleod says the governor threw down the gauntlet.
MCCLEOD: In December during her inauguration, Sarah Palin said Alaskans, hold me accountable and back at you. We did, and what did she do? She quit.
CALLEBS: James Muller is a political science professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
JAMES MULLER, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ACHORAGE: I think most of these ethical complaints are fairly trivial. Almost all of them had been dismissed by the various levels of review that has taken place.
CALLEBS: In fact there are a couple of charges pending, but Palin has been cleared in all the others. Palin's lawyer says the accusations have personally cost the governor more than $500,000 in legal fees.
MCCLEOD: Every one of these complaints have to do with Sarah Palin's personal choices. She always puts her personal interests before the state's interest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: The governor's attorney tells us that the complaints basically amount to "the boy who cried wolf." Even though she's leaving office, July 26, the complaints in the system won't simply go away. State officials tell us they will run their course until they've been legally resolved -- Joe and Kiran.
CHETRY: Sean Callebs for us, looking into all of that. Thanks so much. You know, people were shocked to hear about the death of very, very popular NFL quarterback Steve McNair.
JOHNS: Steve McNair. Absolutely. And we have new details coming in on that. It is quite a story just yet. A lot of people around this country, both in Baltimore where he played last time as well as Tennessee where he played before that. So, we'll have more on the death of Steve McNair coming up next.
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JOHNS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There's brand-new information this morning on the shooting death of former NFL quarterback Steve "Air" McNair. Police in Nashville are officially calling it a murder-suicide, and the circumstances of his death are leaving fans with mixed emotions. Here's our David Mattingly.
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DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): NFL quarterback Steve McNair was behind one of the biggest moments in Super Bowl history, falling just a few yards short of taking the Tennessee Titans to victory in 2000. And nine years later, fans in Nashville still loved him, knowing him to be generous and approachable in public. But in private, McNair was taking a serious and unexpected risk.
A married man with children, McNair was seeing 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi. These pictures of the couple snapped recently by TMZ. Her family said the relationship had been going for more than five months and that she was confident McNair was divorcing his wife and they would soon live together. But early Saturday, that ended with this 911 call from a friend of McNair's.
OPERATOR: Tell me what happened?
CALLER: I have no idea, sir.
OPERATOR: OK.
CALLER: I received a phone call that there were injured parties inside this apartment.
OPERATOR: Is it male or female?
CALLER: Two, there are two people.
MATTINGLY (on camera): That call came from this condo in a building not too far away from Titan's stadium. Police arrived to find the couple dead. McNair had had been shot twice in the head and twice in the chest. Police now say it was a clear case of murder- suicide and that McNair may have been asleep and did not know it was coming.
(voice-over): Police described Kazemi as a young woman in turmoil, reeling from financial pressures, complaining to her friends that her personal life was a mess and that she should end it. Early Thursday morning, she was arrested for DUI. That evening, police say she bought a nine-millimeter handgun.
CHIEF ROBNAL SEPAS, METRO NASHVILLE POLICE: We also have reason to believe that Kazemi recently learned before this day that she believed McNair was involved with another woman and that, too, participated in her state of mind, we think.
MATTINGLY: Former NFL running back Eddie George tells me the man who was murdered was not the Steve McNair that he had known since 1996.
EDDIE GEORGE, FORMER NFL RUNNING BACK: Not at all. He was in search of filling a void.
MATTINGLY: George believes his old friend was having a crisis of his own, maybe struggling with life after football.
GEORGE: What people fail to realize is that when you make a transition away from the game, emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, you go through something. You change. And you're constantly searching for something.
MATTINGLY: And in Nashville, fans now search for ways to celebrate the life of a star athlete who brought them many fond memories while mourning his scandalous death. David Mattingly, CNN, Nashville.
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CHETRY: David, thanks. Well, it's 46 minutes past the hour. We fast forward through the stories that will be making news later today. At 9:00 a.m. Eastern, drug wars and your security. There's a hearing on Capitol Hill about the increasing violence and the rise of Mexican drug cartels south of the border. Allan Bernstein, the White House border czar will testify about how all of it affects our national security.
Today also marks the 10-year anniversary of a bloody confrontation in Iran between students and security forces. That crackdown happened in 1999. Still resonates though today. Those large scale demonstrations being set to protest last month's disputed elections. Several marches are scheduled in Iran and throughout the world today, including one in London, outside of the Iranian embassy. That kicks off at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
And Vice President Biden making the rounds today to highlight the progress of the stimulus. At 10:15 a.m., he'll be in Cincinnati. And later he makes a stop in Saratoga County, New York.
So, which is better since you've done both shifts. Stay up very late or to be a morning person?
JOHNS: I used to think I was a real morning person. And then I started working at night, right? At 2:30 a.m., thank you very much. But now I think I'm an evening person. You can exercise more in the morning.
CHETRY: See, it's very interesting because I love being a morning person. By 6:00 at night, I'm shot.
JOHNS: Yes.
CHETRY: So, our Sanjay Gupta is going to joining us to talk about that. Night owls versus morning people. How it affects us and are we wired to be a certain way? It's 47 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: This is a shout-out to all of my 6:00 a.m. people to get up. They're the morning people, right. If you're watching us right now, you're probably more of a morning person as well than a night owl. And there's new research suggesting that you're better off than people who prefer to burn the midnight oil. We are "Paging Dr. Gupta," CNN's chief medical correspondent. He's in Atlanta to explain. It's better for the alarm to go off at 2:45 a.m. than, say, not going to bed until then?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at 2:45 a.m. may be taking it to a whole new different extreme we could talk about as well, but in general we know a lot more than we ever have before about morning people versus night owls, as you say, Kiran.
First of all, a couple of things sort of struck me. And I've been really fascinated by this whole thing for some time. Most people are born with the tendency to be one or the other. For example, I'm a morning person. My wife is a night owl. Also, we know that mental performance varies by time of day, depending on which you are. My guess, morning people are going to be sharper typically mentally in the morning as opposed to night owls, sharper later on in the day.
What this study out of the University of Alberta looked at was more physical performance. Trying to look at what happens physically at people who are night owls versus morning people. Now, this is a machine called an isokinetic dynamometer. You don't need to remember that name. If you're a night owl, you're not going to be paying attention to this anyway, but this is a machine that measures strength in the calf. Try to figure how does it vary over time and over the day. What they figured out was that people who are morning people, and that's in the green graph here, versus evening people really viewed to have significant changes overall with regard to their strength. Take a look here, green again, morning person, pretty level throughout the day stays around 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. maybe the highest but sort of level but evening people, lower for pretty much during the day but then they get to a peak that's higher than baseline for anybody around 9:00 p.m.. So, you know, it makes a lot of statements about when you should exercise, when your physical performance is going to be the best.
Athletes, for example, paying a lot of attention to that. Kiran, it's this area of the brain, big brain there - this area of the brain that probably makes the -- people very focused on the hypothalamus. It's sort of the area that regulates your body's clock, your Circadian rhythms. That is pretty fixed in most people, but you can start to change it over time, Kiran.
CHETRY: So that's interesting. If you are a morning person, you say maybe you should just stick with what's working for you. If you want to sort of try to wind down a little earlier in the day and be a little peppier in the morning, how do you change that?
GUPTA: Right. So, I mean, if you watch something like this and you say, you know, I'd actually prefer to do more - I like to have more of my peak performance earlier in the day, there are certain things you can do.
First of all, sleep is very critical. We talk about this all the time on this show. Figure out how much sleep you need and then start to adjust by about 15-minute increments earlier. One good piece of advice, this works for me. First thing in the morning, if you can, try to get lots of light into your eyes, as quickly as possibly, open the window, look outside, try to get light, hopefully it is light outside and you know, don't sleep in even on the weekends. There is a medication out there known as melatonin, which, you know, you don't necessarily need to take if these other things are working for you but if you do need to go that route, take it late in the afternoon, consider the sort of hormone or darkness. Take it when you want to start to feel sleepy, when you want to think it's night outside.
CHETRY: All right. Very, very interesting. We're going to put Joe johns on our isokinetic dynamometer and see...
GUPTA: There you go.
JOHNS: Do you think you can get one of those at 7-11?
CHETRY: I doubt it. Sanjay, thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thanks, Kiran.
CHETRY: If you want to see more about that, cnn.com/amfix. You night owls, you can check it out later when you're surfing the net at 1:00 in the morning.
JOHNS: It is 53 minutes past the hour.
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JOHNS: It's a somewhat gruesome story. Authorities in Cook County, Illinois, investigating an alleged grave-selling scheme by workers at a historic African-American cemetery that involved digging up more than 100 graves, dumping the remains and reselling the plots to unsuspecting customers. Tom Dart is the Cook County sheriff. He joins us from outside the Burr Oaks Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
Thank you so much, sheriff, for coming in. How did you find out about this?
SHERIFF TOM DART, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS: The management called us because they were made aware of some financial irregularities and then some employees who talked about other things that might not be right. We came here looking for it as a financial crime and unfortunately, we found something quite different in addition to the financial crime.
JOHNS: Well, this thing has been described various ways, one of the words that's been used is revolting. What did you see when you got there?
DART: You know, Joe, this one's really hard to put your arms around it because you don't know where to start because it is so upsetting, unsettling, that somebody would be doing these type of things. But we walked around here for the last week and each step you take, you're finding more remains, more bones at different locations. And we don't even have our arms completely around the magnitude of this yet.
JOHNS: So, how were they supposed to be making money with this scheme? Just simply digging up the body?
DART: You know, Joe, it was actually a pretty straightforward scheme, but nonetheless, it was also something that was well thought out. Because what they would do was an unsuspecting individual would come forward to have a loved one buried, they would get a deed to do that, and they would then leave thinking everything's all set for my loved one. They would then take the person that was in the deed that they just gave to that person, go disinter that body, dump the remains and then when the unsuspecting individual came there, all they knew is that they had a plot there and their loved one went in there.
JOHNS: Well, where were the bodies go?
DART: Quite often it was - Joe, they're scattered all over. They're scattered all over, Joe, all over the different parts of the cemetery right now.
JOHNS: All right. Emmett Till, among others, he is one of the very famous figures who was lynched years and years ago, who sort of kick off the civil rights movement, he among others is buried there. Is there any indication that his grave was disturbed? DART: No, you know, as a matter of fact, I was out here talking yesterday with groundskeepers, who have not been implicated in anything. Specifically asking them about that. And they've attested and we've interviewed other people, as well, to let us know that that grave specifically has not been in any way have they been touching that one.
But the reality of is it is, frankly we're bringing in some high- tech machines that are going to be able to be used to make sure that nothing has been tampered with. We have thermal imaging units that are going to be on site here soon. And we're going to double check everybody's because as we've told people, this is an incredibly historic cemetery for the African-American community. But as well as the notables, there are regular family members everywhere, children, grandparents.
When you look at some of the gravestones, Joe, that we've come across that have been dumped throughout the cemetery and have been hidden, you see gravestones of babies, you see gravestones of grandparents, wives, husbands. This is heartbreaking stuff.
JOHNS: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, thanks so much.
DART: Thanks, Joe.
