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American Morning
U.S. Trying New Approaches in Afghanistan; Jackson's Doctor Administered Powerful Sedative; 911 Tape of Gates Arrest Released; Colgan Air Co-Pilot Was Sick; Spotlight on Obesity Spending; Infectious Disease Lab Might be Located in Tornado Alley; National Mall in Severe Disrepair; What Health Care Reform Means for You; Media Obsesses Over Two Words by Obama
Aired July 28, 2009 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Eight years after launching Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is trying to end a stalemate there. Richard Holbrooke is the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He joins us this morning from NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Ambassador Holbrooke, it's good to talk to you this morning. Secretary Gates said that the U.S. has got about a year to turn things around there in Afghanistan, not to end what's going on there, but to show clear, visible progress. And my question to you this morning is how do you do that?
AMB. RICHARD HOLBROOKE, U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN: Well, the United States government under President Obama has made tremendous changes in our policy on both the civilian and military side. Bob Gates and Admiral Mullen have sent out the first team, general McChrystal and General Rodriguez, and the team in the field, have just been in Helmand and Kandahar. I've talked to them. This is as good a military team as I've ever seen.
On the civilian side, the president has sent out Karl Eikenberry and four other ambassadors - all these people are changing the policy. Let me give you some quick examples. Agriculture, we used to spend more, the United States, on eradicating poppy fields than we did on helping the Afghans rebuild their once vibrant agricultural sector. We're ending the wasted money on eradicating poppy fields. We're focusing on interdiction. The U.S. Army has just destroyed an immense amount of opium. CNN had a terrific piece on that by the way.
And now we're going to build up agriculture. We're going to downgrade crop eradication. We're going to upgrade interdiction of drug traffickers. Huge success already. We're going to stress Afghan governance. Now, Afghanistan's a tough place and this is a tough situation. But we do think we'll be able to show the American people by this time next year that this effort, which is supported by the international community, that's why I'm here in Brussels, will be able to show that this effort will pay off.
ROBERTS: So a question about, you know, poppy cultivation versus opium production. You know, unless the U.S. Department of Agriculture and USAID are willing to step in there with note tens but hundreds of millions of dollars, whether you eradicate the poppy crop or you go after the people that these farmers are selling the poppies to. I mean, you're still hurting the farmer, right?
HOLBROOKE: No, it's completely different. The U.S. used to assist poppy eradication, driving farmers who were after all, poor people, were growing their number one cash crop, driving them into the hands of the Taliban. Now the U.S. Army interdicts huge supplies of drug paraphernalia, precursor chemicals, opium and heroin, poppy seeds. The farmer already sold them to the Taliban are the ones that got nailed here, and you did a terrific piece on this last week. You showed the whole thing.
ROBERTS: All right.
HOLBROOKE: And meanwhile, in agriculture, you mentioned the AID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I spent an hour and a half yesterday in Kabul with our teams, and General Nicholson came up from Helmand to join the discussion. And we talked about how we're going to integrate all these efforts, and there's not going to be an AID and U.S. Department of Agriculture in Kabul. There's going to be a single ag team.
No more of this bureaucratic stuff I've seen all my career. And we are going to help rebuild the ag sector. You know, they used to export food. Now they import it. We've gotten tremendous positive feedback on that.
ROBERTS: All right. I'm wondering what the ultimate goal is here. Is it to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan? To eradicate the Taliban and al Qaeda? Reduce attacks on U.S. forces? Boost the strength of Afghan security forces so that they can take care of the country? When will you be able to say you've got a success in Afghanistan?
HOLBROOKE: First of all, we're not going to abandon the country as happened in 1989 and 2004. But we do have to transition over time from a combat-driven operational effort to a situation which the Afghan security forces can take care of their own security while we continue to help them rebuild their country, which has been torn apart by 30 years of war since the Soviet invasion in 1978.
So, I think you put your finger on the key thing. We have to build the Afghan security forces so that they can over time replace the U.S. and other NATO allied forces. And that is why we're putting so much emphasis on strengthening the Afghan security forces. I spent a long time talking to General McChrystal and General Formica, the man in charge of that effort on this project. We are going to revamp police training, which has been a mess. And we're going to do a lot of other things to focus on that point.
ROBERTS: And how much does the re-election of Hamid Karzai -- how much does all of this hinge on the re-election of Hamid Karzai? He's in a little bit of difficulty. He faces some strong challenges, surprisingly strong challenges, and now, of course, he's been accused of trying to buy re-election by many people in Afghanistan. So, if he doesn't get re-elected, does all of this come apart? HOLBROOKE: I met with four of the 41 candidates, including President Karzai and three of his leading opponents. I don't think anyone should assume the outcome of this election either way, but I want to stress, first of all, that the U.S. neither supports nor opposes any individual candidate. I work with -- I and my colleagues work with the government led by President Karzai just the way the United States only has one president at a time.
But in terms of the campaign, we're really truly neutral. And Ambassador Eikenberry has gone out of his way to emphasize that. The election is going to be an extraordinary event, the first contested election in Afghanistan history. Last week they had the first presidential debate. Karzai didn't show up. They had an empty-podium debate. You're familiar with those, John.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
HOLBROOKE: It's democracy in action in wartime situations. It's going to be an extraordinary event to watch, and I will go back out there at the president's and Hillary Clinton's instructions to do -- to help with the observing of it.
ROBERTS: You've certainly got a tough job. There's no question about that. Ambassador Holbrooke, it's great to catch up with you. Let's do this more often. Appreciate it.
HOLBROOKE: Anytime, John.
ROBERTS: All right, thanks. Good to see you.
And that brings us to -- oh, it's almost four minutes after the hour now. It's Tuesday. It's the 28th of July. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Thanks for being with us.
We have a lot of stories on the agenda this morning. We'll be breaking them down for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, a new focus on Michael Jackson's personal physician and his role in the singer's death. A source close to the investigation is telling CNN Dr. Conrad Murray allegedly gave Jackson the powerful anesthetic or sedative Propofol in the 24 hours before he died.
ROBERTS: Police are releasing the 911 tape that led to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and touched off a national controversy. There's been a lot of speculation about what was and what wasn't said. Find out if race was mentioned.
CHETRY: Also a February plane crash. You may remember this crash near Buffalo. Was it a disaster waiting to happen? There are just-released transcripts now showing the co-pilot was apparently in no condition to fly. CNN's Allan Chernoff has reported extensively on this accident. He's going to be joining us live with the latest on what these transcripts reveal. Meantime, a dramatic turn this morning in the investigation of Michael Jackson's death. It involved Jackson's live-in doctor, Conrad Murray, who was there when Jackson took his last breath. A source close to the investigation telling CNN that Murray allegedly gave Jackson a powerful sedative, Propofol, in the hours before he died. CNN's Randi Kaye is following all the latest developments for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, the latest headline, a source close to Michael Jackson's family with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN that Jackson's personal physician administered the powerful drug that investigators believe killed him.
The drug is known by the brand name Diprivan. It's also known as Propofol. And we're told Jackson's doctor gave it to him within 24 hours of his death. This is incredibly significant because Dr. Conrad Murray's lawyer has never commented on that drug, known by the brand name Diprivan. All the lawyer has told us in the past was, quote, "Dr. Conrad Murray did not prescribe or administer anything that should have killed Michael Jackson."
So, this is the very first time Dr. Murray has been connected to Propofol. We know he was at Jackson's home the day he suffered cardiac arrest, June 25th, and his lawyer has said he gave him CPR and tried to revive him.
You'll remember there were numerous news reports of Propofol at Jackson's home, and his sister, La Toya, even said she saw an I.V. stand in his bedroom. We know the drug is delivered through an I.V. drip.
This all really put investigators on alert because Propofol is supposed to be used only in a hospital setting. It's a very powerful sedative used during surgeries. A nurse who once worked for Jackson had told us he begged her for the drug to help him sleep. So, if this drug was inside Jackson's home and, if Dr. Conrad Murray provided it, this could mean big trouble.
Dr. Murray is already at the center of a manslaughter investigation related to Jackson's death. When I asked Dr. Murray's office about this, I was told, quote, "We will not be responding to rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.
A meeting was tentatively scheduled for the doctor's lawyer to meet with investigators last week but never panned out. This, by the way, would be the doctor's third meeting with authorities. He was questioned twice after Jackson died, and his car was seized and examined.
It is curious that last week they announced they wanted to speak with him again, then suddenly raided his clinic and storage facility in Houston. And now the third meeting has yet to be scheduled. Dr. Murray's lawyer's office told me he is, quote, "understandably concerned" and feels he's being made the scapegoat here.
John, Kiran, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: All right. Randi Kaye for us this morning. Randi, thanks so much.
This morning, recordings of a 911 call are giving the U.S. new insight into the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And while the call won't end the bitter debate about racial profiling by police, a meeting over beers with Professor Gates and Sergeant James Crowley at the White House this Thursday could cool the anger.
CNN's Elaine Quijano is live for us in Boston this morning. Elaine, what can you tell us about what the 911 tapes show?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, these tapes don't really answer the question of who's to blame or who might have gone too far in this situation. But they do shed some light on what started all of this. And that is that 911 call.
We should tell you that CNN did reach out to Professor Gates for his reaction to these tapes, but he declined to comment. Cambridge police, on the other hand, say these tapes speak for themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): The 911 call that eventually led to professor Henry Gates's arrest never mentioned two black men.
911 OPERATOR: Are they still in the house?
CALLER: They're still in the house, I believe, yes.
OPERATOR: Are they white, black or Hispanic?
CALLER: Well, there were two larger men. One looked kind of Hispanic, but I'm not really sure. And the other one entered, and I didn't see what he looked like at all.
QUIJANO: At one point, the caller herself raises the possibility the situation might not be an emergency.
CALLER: I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key, but I did notice that they kind of used their shoulder to try to barge in, and they got in.
QUIJANO: Cambridge police also released audio of the police radio transmissions from that day. The dispatcher can be heard repeating the 911 caller's description of two suspicious persons or S.P.s.
DISPATCHER: Both S.P.s are in the house, unknown on the race. One may be a Hispanic male. I'm not sure.
QUIJANO: Later, after Sergeant James Crowley arrived, this. SGT. JAMES CROWLEY, CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT: I'm up with the gentleman says he resides here, a little uncooperative. But keep the cars coming.
QUIJANO: Then an unidentified voice in the background can be heard as Sergeant Crowley calls in the identification.
CROWLEY: I've got ID of a Henry Louis Gates.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, Cambridge police say they are forming a panel not to conduct an internal investigation into what happened, but rather to take a look at what lessons can be learned from it. Meanwhile, a senior administration official tells CNN that meeting that President Obama suggested with him, Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley to talk about the incident over some beers at the White House, that meeting is now set to take place on Thursday night -- John.
ROBERTS: Love to be a fly on the wall there. Elaine Quijano for us this morning. Elaine, thanks so much.
We want to know your thoughts on the 911 tapes. Do they change your opinion of Dr. Henry Louis Gates's arrest? Weigh in on our blog. Go to cnn.com/amfix.
CHETRY: Well, there are some new transcripts of the cockpit voice recorder being released from that deadly Colgan Air flight that crashed over Buffalo this winter. We have some new details about the co-pilot, who complained about feeling ill and wondered whether or not she was even going to fly that flight.
Allan Chernoff joins us with the latest on this investigation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. There were some new questions this morning about the crew of the commuter plane that crashed outside of Buffalo last February. All 49 people on board and one person on the ground were killed when that plane went down.
ROBERTS: Well, in a new cockpit recording, the co-pilot says she felt sick, so sick that she considered skipping the flight. CNN's Allan Chernoff has reported extensively on the crash. He joins us now live. Seems to be more evidence of the pilot fatigue issue we've discussed and how some pilots, because of the financial considerations made and having to travel from city to city to fly these aircraft, are maybe making decisions as they should have.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: They did not earn much money at all, and indeed we do have here the co-pilot on tape admitting she was under the weather, but not wanting to call in sick because she'd have to pay for a hotel room.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHERNOFF (voice-over): As Colgan Air Flight 3407 prepared for takeoff from Newark, co-pilot Rebecca Shaw sniffled in the cockpit, telling Captain Marvin Renslow, "I'm ready to be in the hotel room."
Shaw had flown as a passenger through the night from Seattle to Newark, New Jersey, for the flight to Buffalo. "If I felt like this when I was at home, there's no way I would have come all the way out here, but now that I'm out here" said Shaw. "You might as well," responded Captain Renslow.
An hour and a half later, Flight 3407 crashed five miles from the Buffalo airport. There's no evidence that Shaw's illness caused the crash, and air safety experts say there's no way to know for sure whether Shaw was unfit to fly.
TODD CURTIS, AIRSAFE.COM: Every pilot has the right and the obligation to exercise their common sense and good judgment.
CHERNOFF: But Colgan Air puts blame on Shaw, saying, "Flying fatigued or sick is not an option. Every Colgan Air pilot has an absolute obligation as a professional to show up for work fit for duty."
ROBIN TOLSMA, HUSBAND DIED ON FLIGHT 3407: I don't understand why...
Robin Tolsma, who lost her husband on the flight, faults the airline.
TOLSMA: It was a complete recipe for disaster from the moment that aircraft took away from the jetway.
CHERNOFF: Captain Marvin Renslow was at the controls, not the co- pilot. The NTSB Monday released an interview summary with executives from Gulf Stream Training Academy, where Renslow had studied piloting. The academy director, James Bistrom (ph), told the NTSB Renslow's performance at the academy was above average.
(on camera): Indeed it was only later in his career that Renslow repeatedly failed test rides, some of which he failed to disclose to Colgan Air.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Allan, you've been doing a great job on covering, peeling back the layers of the onion here in this story. We appreciate it. Great job.
CHETRY: Thanks, Allan.
ROBERTS: Fifteen and a half minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Dallas. It is mostly cloudy right now, 73 degrees later on today, isolated thunderstorms. Going to be fairly cool there today compared to how it was a couple of weeks ago, only 89 degrees. No triple-digit temperatures there in Dallas today, which is a good thing.
Eighteen minutes after the hour. Christine Romans here "Minding Your Business," talking about obesity and the high cost of health care.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And this fits into the debate right now, because we're trying to figure out how to control costs in health care because this is the single largest thing that our economy gobbles up. It's health care costs. I think it's like 16 cents on the dollar right now, and when you look at this new Journal of Health Affairs article about health care costs, you can see why.
Think of this, $1,429 more per year per person for obese medical spending than for a normal-weight person. That's $147 billion in overall obesity-related spending. These researchers found nearly 10 percent of all health spending is for obesity. So, within the context of discussing health reform and health care costs, obesity and the treatment of obesity and the prevention of obesity is pretty key here.
And it's something that you've been hearing about in the debate on health care spending. It's interesting because last week there was a CDC obesity conference, and there they came up with strategies that they presented for different communities to try to figure out how to address this. And that could be everything from avoiding the sugary drinks and the soda and the pop and sugary foods in the schools. It can mean where we put our supermarkets, and what neighborhoods we have supermarkets with fresh foods and vegetables. It can be, even some people talking about taxing some of these things, but treating some kinds of foods the way we used to treat tobacco and other kinds of things. Making it more expensive maybe to use some of these things.
CHETRY: What's shocking to me, too, we've seen this skyrocket -- it said 89 percent, according to this article -- a jump in obesity- related illness -- 89 percent since 1998. What are we doing so differently from ten years ago.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: We're feeding people crap. Making it so much easier to get crap than good food.
ROMANS: We're working hard, working two jobs, the quick, easy -- ironically, the cheap -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta is always saying this. The cheapest thing to get is something that's been processed with ingredients from 400 different countries that's traveled 6,000 miles to get here, back and forth, all over the place. Not the apple.
Sanjay always says that, and it's true. If you go quickly to grab something, it's hard to get an apple, it's real quick to get something -- you know, 23 pounds overweight is the average person is, and two-thirds of the country is overweight or obese. You can see this is a health issue that isn't going away. And this journal, Health Affairs issue story -- study is very interesting about just how -- a big part -- no pun intended, of the whole health care cost.
ROBERTS: You know, you go anywhere, it is so much easier to get like a greasy burger loaded with cholesterol and fat and God knows what else than it is to get a nice healthy salad, or a good sandwich or something like that.
CHETRY: And just...
ROBERTS: We are fattening up America with this lousy food.
CHETRY: It's true.
ROMANS: And it's a globalization story, too. Because I did a story recently where you walk down the aisle of a grocery store and this guy was showing me, look, this has 15 different countries, it has probably traveled 3,000 different miles, burning the gas and burning the jet fuel and burning the oil to get here and it's got all of these calories.
CHETRY: And there is much more of a push on to eat local and there's much more of a push on -- right now as we said one of the things that we're buying in recession -- seeds.
ROMANS: It's true. That's right. And this whole idea of deglobalization, which I'm going to do a whole piece on later. But it all fits into this idea of getting back to basics, and you look at how fat we've become as a country. It's remarkable and it's part of the whole health care process.
I wanted to give you the Romans' Numeral -- 250 calories. Talk about what's different, Kiran. This is the average American consumes 250 calories today, than two decades ago. Why are we consuming more?
CHETRY: Because it's easier.
ROBERTS: Yes, definitely.
CHETRY: Portions are bigger at restaurants too.
ROMANS: And for a processed food, you can get to 900 calories in just like 10, 12, 15 bites.
ROBERTS: It's surprising, you know, when you walk through the airport, and I do this almost every Friday. You go through the airport and I'm thinking, well, I'm a little peckish because I ate a bowl of cereal at 3:00 in the morning. What can I eat here? And you look because they give you the calorie content now and there's nothing -- almost nothing you can eat that isn't 500 calories, at least.
ROMANS: And those calories are money. Those calories are money on the economy, on the health care system, taking money out of our pockets to pay for health care because we're not as healthy and we're not as well.
CHETRY: Cheer up.
ROMANS: I'm going to go get a bacon, egg, and cheese at McDonald's right now.
CHETRY: And you go get started on that deglobalization. It's only Tuesday, Christine.
ROMANS: I know. Oh, Kiran.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Kiran's like, I can't wait for that whole series on deglobalization.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Christine, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, the maker of the stun gun Taser rolling out now a new version that can apparently shock three people without having to be reloaded. Here's a look at it. It's a new gun. Yes, all right, great. I'm sure this guy is thrilled. All right, it's a new gun, makes it easier for officers to subdue offenders. Let's see it, let's see it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FABIAN COTA, MESA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Even when people just see the laser from it, that's enough to have people just, OK, I just give up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if the person doesn't comply, now...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're causing pulsations in his muscles, we're locking him up, he falls down. As soon as it's over, he recovers instantly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Muscles contracting 19 times a second. It's an incapacitating feeling, you cannot do anything. It does lock your whole body up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There it is. That's what the gun looks like. There you see the three Tasers.
ROBERTS: Kiran, I was going to say that, you know, haven't put a Taser gun to the test until you let Rick Sanchez (INAUDIBLE). So...
CHETRY: Poor guy deserves a break. That guy looked like he was wishing he hadn't signed up be the one. I wondered if he must have drawn the short straw there as the police were figuring out who's going to be -- there you go, there he is again.
You can see it!
ROBERTS: And of course they choose the biggest guy in the department, too, right?
CHETRY: There you go. ROBERTS: OK. So, the Department of Homeland Security wants to build a new infectious disease laboratory, right? Biohazard, you know, all of this stuff out there. Where do they want to put it? Tornado Alley.
CHETRY: Oh, no.
ROBERTS: So some people are wondering if it's the right thing to do.
Our Jeanne Meserve looks into that. Coming up next, 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
The Department of Homeland Security has a plan to build a new infectious disease laboratory in Kansas. Critics, though, say it's a bad idea to put deadly biohazards in the middle of Tornado Alley. But are their arguments about pathogens or politics? The project is worth at least a half a million in federal funding. Oh, that's not half a million -- it's $500 million -- half a billion dollars in federal funding. And when Kansas won the bid, other states lost out.
Our Jeanne Meserve is in Washington, she's taking a look at the whole thing this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A powerful tornado hit Manhattan, Kansas, last year doing $20 million of damage to Kansas State University. But this is where the Department of Homeland Security has decided to put a new agricultural laboratory to research the most dangerous animal pathogens like highly contagious foot and mouth disease. Critics say after it's built another tornado could damage the facility, resulting in a release and a catastrophe.
MICHAEL GUIFFRE, ATTORNEY: It absolutely is unsafe. You know, all they need is that tornado to hit and it will cause billions of dollars of damages to the U.S. economy. It will wipe out tens of millions of animals.
MESERVE: Guiffre represents a group that wants the lab and its economic benefits in San Antonio, Texas, one of several competing sites. He and others are seizing on a draft government accountability office report which says the DHS decision to put the lab in Kansas is based on flawed risk and economic analyses. It concludes this questionable methodology could result in regrettable consequences.
What is the GAO talking about? Foot and mouth disease was inadvertently released from a research lab in Britain in 2001, leading to eight outbreaks on nearby farms which were contained by massive animal slaughters.
A DHS official counters the GAO reports saying, "We feel like we've done a very thorough assessment of the risk, the security, and the safety of this particular facility." And proponents in Kansas insist it will not pose a hazard.
TOM THORNTON, PRESIDENT, KANSAS BIOSCIENCE AUTHORITY: The safety and security measures that go into this kind of research have advanced dramatically, in such that this kind of biocontainment research takes place safely and securely on the mainland in cities like Atlanta, Georgia, at the Centers for Disease Control every single day.
MESERVE: The construction of the Kansas lab will result in the closure of the outdated Plum Island Animal Disease Center off Long Island, New York. The GAO report concludes it would be less risky to continue animal research there than to move it to the agricultural heartland. But DHS says it has no plans to revisit its decision.
(on camera): As for the tornado issue, we talked with specialists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who points out that although there are tornadoes in Kansas and Texas, it's a bit of a red herring. He says the probability of a government building built in today's engineering specifications being damaged in either place by a tornado is pretty small.
John and Kiran, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: So, it may not sound good when you say it, but in the end, probably safe.
ROBERTS: Maybe doesn't make too much of a difference.
CHETRY: Maybe not.
All right. Well, we're...
ROBERTS: Hopefully.
CHETRY: Hopefully, fingers crossed.
Thirty minutes past the hour. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Iraq. He made an unannounced trip there to the country. He's at a summer command post. That's where U.S. forces mainly serve as advisers now to Iraqi troops. And this base is a prototype as the Pentagon's role in Iraq shifts to one of support. Secretary Gates will also be meeting with political leaders, including Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
ROBERTS: In just a few hours, the shuttle Endeavor is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station. That will end the largest meeting ever in space. 13 astronauts in total between the crews and the shuttle and the ISS. But the seven astronauts on Endeavor still have a few days in space. They're scheduled to return home again on Friday.
CHETRY: Well, it's hard to figure it out. Are airline prices going down or are you just ending up paying more with these boost in fees and rates? Well, hit hard by the economy, more airlines are boosting their fares and fees to try to stay out of the red. According to the "Chicago Tribune," even the low-cost carriers like Southwest and Airtran have added $10 to $20 on all their roundtrip fares, Delta, American, and Continental among the carries that have not done that but have upped their bag fees by another $5.
Well, more now on our developing story involving the death investigation of Michael Jackson. A source close to the investigation is telling CNN that Jackson's doctor allegedly administered the anesthetic or sedative Propofol less than 24 hours before the entertainer died.
If it turns out to be true, Dr. Conrad Murray could find himself in trouble with the law. Senior CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins me now to talk more about this.
So first of all, what do you make of the fact that there are sources close to the investigation right now saying that they're looking into whether or not this was administered by Dr. Murray the night he died?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, certainly this is not good news for Dr. Murray if, in fact, he administered the drug that was the cause of death. But I think it's a long way from establishing any crime was committed here, much less a crime that Murray could be charged or convicted of.
CHETRY: So, he's apparently cooperating with police, right? They've interviewed him. Now, I understand they conducted a raid on his clinic and they took out some of these medications as well as files. But he's cooperating for now?
TOOBIN: So far he is, although if I were his lawyer, I probably would advise him to start taking the Fifth given how clearly they're focusing on him.
But remember, we don't even know what killed Michael Jackson at this point. There has been no autopsy report issued, no cause of death established.
So, the idea that he could be charged with causing Jackson's death, I think, really is just speculation at this point.
CHETRY: Well, the police seem to think that they can at least say that he died -- when he died and what happened in terms of possible overdose, right? In the subpoena that they issued to raid his thing, they even said they're looking into it as potential manslaughter.
TOOBIN: Sure, and that is a reasonable grounds for investigation.
But, again, we don't know -- even if it is true that Dr. Murray gave him Propofol, and Propofol caused his death, Propofol is not an illegal drug, it's not a controlled substance. It is certainly an unusual drug to give in a home setting. But you'd have to know what the context was, who prescribed it, what other doctors were involved, how long Jackson had been using it, whether Jackson had access to it himself without the doctor's involvement.
There are just is a lot of questions to answer before you say that, you know, Murray committed some crime.
CHETRY: Now, when we talked to Sanjay about it, he said he's also learning more about what this drug is and how it's able to be used.
One of the things that, I guess, there seems to be consensus among doctors is that it really needs to be in a controlled environment, not necessarily a clinic, but there has to be monitoring set up.
So if, indeed, and, as we said, we still don't know from the toxicology reports which are not out yet or the autopsy which has not released yet that Propofol contributed to Michael Jackson's death, what would potentially be the culpability on the part of the doctor who gave it?
TOOBIN: There are lots of different levels of culpability. The worst thing that could happen is that he's criminally prosecuted for manslaughter. You can go to jail for that.
But at a lower level there could be an investigation of whether he should keep his medical license, or there could be a civil lawsuit for malpractice. There are a lot of different gradations of possible misconduct short of putting him in jail.
CHETRY: And as you look at precedent for this type of thing, how much does the patient's involvement go into this? If a patient, you know, in some of these cases where we've seen high-profile celebrities overdose on medication they were given. The jury is still out as to whether or not the doctors involved are going to get in trouble, because at the end of the day the patient wanted that medicine and took it.
TOOBIN: And that's always a big factor in these cases. You can have sort of a mid-level kind of prosecution.
In the Anna Nicole Smith case, the doctors who gave her the medication that caused her death were not charged with manslaughter, but they were charged with misconduct relating to the prescriptions.
So there are a lot of different crimes that you could possibly charge. But you really have to know all of the facts and circumstances.
It's a little like the Skip Gates case we've been talking about. You hear about it at first, and you need to know the details of what happened before you can really establish whether anything unlawful went on here. CHETRY: All right. And big day ahead, of course, for judicial nominee Sonia Sotomayor. They're going to be voting at 10:00 today on whether or not she'll be confirmed. What do you think?
TOOBIN: It looks like she's only going to get one Republican vote on the committee, Lindsay Graham, which suggests that she will be confirmed with something in the nature of some 60 -- from 65 votes in the Senate. That's not a big margin, but, you know what? It doesn't matter.
CHETRY: Doesn't matter, right. It'll also be 20 some more votes than Alito got when he became a justice.
TOOBIN: It'll be a little less than that. But Clarence Thomas got 52 votes. They call him Justice. Ruth Ginsberg got 90 votes. It doesn't matter. If you get more than 50, you're in.
CHETRY: When you're in, you're in, right?
TOOBIN: When you're in, you're in. This is like an up or down situation. It really doesn't matter how many votes you get.
CHETRY: Jeff Toobin, great to see you.
TOOBIN: All right, good to be here.
CHETRY: Thirty-five minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Some of the most popular videos right now on CNN.com.
If the recession is driving people to the bottle, they're not choosing Australian wine. Exports are down 9 percent this year. Wine makers say the price point on Australian wines is already scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Also, a massive sink hole in a busy street in Toronto. Just look at this, 46 feet deep. And it takes up two lanes of traffic. Toronto has been drenched by rain since Friday.
You know how many hockey pucks it's going to take to fill that hole? You have no idea.
And a soccer match turns violent for a referee in China after a game in Beijing, the visiting team turned it's aggressions towards the ref. They were angry about being hit with several red cards.
CHETRY: Wow. They take their soccer seriously.
Well, disgraced quarterback Michael Vick could be getting back in the game. It's one of the most popular stories right now on CNN.com. Vick, who just finished a prison term for running a dog-fighting ring, has been reinstated by the NFL.
Earlier on American morning we asked sports attorney Ryan Smith about the commissioner's decision to bring Vick back with conditions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN SMITH, SPORTS ATTORNEY: The NFL doesn't just want people to come and play in their league and be good players, they want good citizens. So what he's trying to say is, look, I don't want take everything away from him. He served 18 months in jail, he did his time.
But I'm not going to let him right back in unless he shows me complete remorse, unless he shows me not only is he going to be somebody who will say I'm sorry, but he's going to be somebody fight for the rights of dogs and make sure this doesn't happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right, so Vick can now sign with a team. If he's picked by one, he can play in the preseason if someone is willing to have him. A ruling on his full reinstatement though will not be expected until October, but could be cleared before then.
So, what do you think? Should Michael Vick get a second chance? We want to know your views, a lot of people weighing in on twitter as well as CNN.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: So, remember back when the stimulus was being debated in Congress? And they were all up in arms, all outraged that there was $200 million in there to repair the National Mall. And the cry was, "What does that have to do with stimulating the economy?"
CHETRY: But didn't they say it was already just repaired, too?
ROBERTS: Yes, they did. And now apparently they think it's a disgrace it's falling into disrepair and needs $400 million in repairs.
CHETRY: We're exactly the same.
ROBERTS: Yin and yang stories.
CHETRY: This is a fix that darn pothole, but don't raise my taxes to do it.
ROBERTS: Exactly yes. Why are there so many holes in the road? Can you believe that pothole crew is out there again spending money?
Our Brian Todd breaks it all down for you this morning coming right up.
It's 41minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: View from the White House this morning where it is partly cloudy and 77 right now. Later on, isolated thunderstorms, 91. Behind the White House just in the upper right hand portion of your screen, you see the bottom of the Washington Monument and a little bit of the National Mall there. It's known as America's front yard, but the National Mall is in terrible shape.
The Department of the Interior says the National Mall needs a $400 million facelift, but it's only getting $55 million in stimulus money. They wanted $200 million, but that was taken out.
Brian Todd taking a look at what some call "our national disgrace" this morning.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Kiran.
We have the perfect example of what we're talking about here juxtaposed images that are very contradictory. You've got the Washington Monument in all of its glory over there, the Jefferson Memorial here.
But our photographer Floyd Jarmuth is going to zoom into that sea wall area right there, right here on the tidal basin. That area gets breached at least once a day. You've got whole stones falling into the tidal basin. And, as is often the case in this town, it's a matter of money and influence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): It's enticing enough to draw 25 million tourists a year, more than Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite National Park combined. This is often what they stumble on, the sea wall by the Jefferson Memorial breached once a day. It's sunk at least six inches in three years. And this kind of disrepair is all over the National Mall.
TODD (on camera): This is one of the best known landmarks in Washington, the reflecting pool. It looks terrific in postcards and in movies.
But if you come down here and see it up close, this is what you're treated to. Take a look -- goose droppings on the side stone stretching as far as the eye can see towards the Lincoln Memorial, the water is polluted with it.
This is supposed to be a pool with a filtration system. It's never had one. It's standing water essentially. It's only cleaned out a couple of times a year. The National Park Service doesn't have the staff or resources to come down here and clean it up enough.
TODD (voice-over): Caroline Cunningham calls the Mall a disgrace, and it's sometimes a deadly one.
TODD (on camera): This is the capitol reflecting pool. What happened with the ducks here last year?
CAROLINE CUNNINGHAM, NATIONAL PARK TRUST: Last year 17 ducks died because of avian botulism, the water is so foul. TODD (voice-over): Cunningham is president of the Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit trying to raise private funds to match money from Congress.
That's part of the problem. Cunningham estimates some $400 million needed for the mall's upkeep hasn't been spent. She says some in Congress simply haven't realized the scope of decay at their doorstep.
Steve Ellis from the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says many lawmakers who control purse strings, like Senator Robert Byrd, have no problem sending money home for, shall we say, less trafficked monuments.
STEVE ELLIS, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: Including more than $100,000 for the Mother's Day shrine, which is in a town, a small town in West Virginia.
TODD: Contacted by CNN, a spokesman for Senator Byrd e-mailed us saying that shrine was built in 1873, is a historic landmark itself, and that the senator, responding to his constituents and the need to help restore the structure, obtained the money for the repairs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD, (on camera): The spokesman also said Senator Byrd would have supported a package of about $200 million for Mall repairs that was pulled earlier this year because some members of Congress felt it was not stimulus worthy.
John and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: All right, there you go. What did she call it? Avian botulism? Poor things.
All right, we are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're breaking down the health care plan. Dr. Gupta is going to be answering some viewer questions. A lot of people are asking is this going to change things for me for the better or for the worse? So he weighs in in just a couple of minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 50 minutes past the hour.
If you like most people, maybe you don't fully understand health care reform. It's understandable. The new bill is more than 1,000 pages.
Many are wondering exactly what would be covered under a public plan and what wouldn't. In other words, would your care be covered?
So, we're paging Dr. Gupta to find out. Our chief medical correspondent is answering questions about the plan in plain English.
And we have one, Sanjay, by the way, from Melissa in Cleveland. She writes, "My mom turns 65 years old, is covered by Medicare, but her benefits aren't as good as she had before. I'm worried if the health bill passes and I get switched to the public plan certain services that I've used to having will no longer be covered."
So how do you allay that concern, or is that a real possibility?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's tough to address the concerns specifically now because there's a lot of details regarding the bill that still haven't been worked out.
But a couple of things worth pointing out. There's going to be a lot of discussion about the quality of Medicare and the quality of a potential public option, as well.
One thing that surveys on this particular issue, one from the Commonwealth Survey says that only about 8 percent to 10 percent of people rank their Medicare coverage as either being fair or poor. The vast majority of people say their Medicare coverage is good. It provides them what they need.
But Melissa, to your point specifically, let's look at how some of these things play out. When it comes to something, for example, a pap smear exam. On average, Medicare will cover that once every 24 months, many private insurance every 12 months. All of this changes if there's abnormalities in this.
Something more common, cholesterol and lipid testing. Medicare says once every five years, private insurance, again on average, every 12 months. If you have some sort of problems, these numbers will change.
But the question a lot of people ask, does it make a difference to check these numbers more frequently five years?
Here's one I thought was interesting, Kiran, virtual colonoscopies, something we've talked about on AMERICAN MORNING. Medicare doesn't cover it. They say, look, there's not utility in it, it doesn't provide a better outcome, doesn't provide benefit. Some insurance companies will cover it.
So Melissa, this gets to the heart of how some of this might change as this health care reform debate continues on.
CHETRY: One of the things that, of course, people that are opposed to this have been showing and, of course, that famous little flow chart they were showing on Capitol Hill where this is the doctor, this is the patient, and here's all the people that you have to go through to get there.
But seriously, breaking it down, who does get to decide what's medically necessary, what's a treatment that would work best for you?
GUPTA: Well, it ultimately depends on reimbursements. Right now there's 17 health care professionals, doctors, nurses, who sort of determine the reimbursement rates, and that trickles down to how things are covered, and ultimately what doctors are more likely to order.
What President Obama's has talked about is creating this independent executive level agency that's going to look at outcomes. If you perform this type of procedure, how does it benefit the patient? Does it benefit the patient? Should it be covered? And they will make recommendations to the president and Congress.
Then there will be a waiting period to determine how this is all going to play out, should a certain procedure get covered or not?
It is going to be -- there's a lot of layers to that, as you can hear from that, but the ultimate goal is to try to reduce costs and get the best outcomes possible.
The critics will charge that's another layer of government interference between the doctors and the patients.
CHETRY: All right, some good stuff there, Sanjay.
And as always, if you have a question for Sanjay, he's answering your questions all morning long here at "American Morning." So send in your health question, go to CNN.com/amfix. You can also send him a tweet at sanjaygupta.CNN.
It's 54 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": To ease tensions, President Obama has invited Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates and the police officer who arrested him to join him for a beer at the White House.
(APPLAUSE)
They're going to have a beer. Yes, and -- if that works out, Obama's going to have Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu over for Jaeger bombs.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That will be more fruitful.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: That will fix everything. Welcome back to the most news in the morning.
When the president speaks, people listen. And often they parrot what he says, and that's not necessarily a good thing.
CHETRY: And case in point, the president's initial response to the arrest of Professor Gates spawned a whole new buzz word "stupidly." Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After being endlessly mocked as perfect...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's Barack Obama, come to save the day.
MOOS: Now he's got to save himself.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Cambridge police...
MOOS: From himself.
OBAMA: ... acted stupidly.
Stupidly, stupidly, stupidly.
MOOS: Even after the president admitted he could've recalibrated his words that one word reoccurs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Acted stupidly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They acted stupidly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Cambridge police were acting stupidly.
MOOS: Or as the English say...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stupidly.
MOOS: Next thing you know, it went from the president's mouth to T-shirts, "I'm with stupidly," to bumper stickers, "Stupid is as stupidly says," to hats, "Who looks stupidly now?"
Even the professor's words have been featured. The words Professor Gates reportedly said to Officer Crowley, "I'll speak with your momma outside."
The celebrity Web site TMZ chased down the professor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any good "yo mamma" jokes?
MOOS: If only President Obama hadn't commented. Now he's been portrayed with his foot in his mouth in a teachable moment with Vice President Biden, who advises, "I like it with salt."
Jon Stewart joked about trying to save the president.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does it say about race relations in America?
JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": No, don't answer...
MOOS: Too late. OBAMA: Acted stupidly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the president's stupid, or the cops are stupid, or Gates is stupid, or we're all stupid.
MOOS: Of course, we've all said things stupidly. For instance, the time I called former President Nixon "President Reagan."
President Reagan -- sorry, President Nixon.
RICHARD NIXON: I've been called worse than that.
MOOS: And President Bush has said worse than that.
BUSH: Too many OBGYNs aren't able to practice their love with women across this country.
MOOS: And living forever on the Web, there's that beaut from the beauty queen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere such as.
MOOS: America's a free country where everyone's free to act...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stupidly.
MOOS: Jeannie Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: We really are in no position to laugh, are we?
ROBERTS: No, are you kidding?
But I was there the day that President Bush said too many OBGYNs aren't able to practice their love with women across America. And we all said, "What? What did he just say?"
CHETRY: Wow, he was misunderestimated there.
ROBERTS: He was.
President Obama, by the way, hoping a little drink diplomacy will clear the air. He's hosting Professor Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant James Crowley for a beer at the White House this Thursday evening. Already the drink orders are in. It was even a hot topic during yesterday's White House briefing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer Crowley's drinking blue moon. We hear Professor Gates is drinking Red Stripe or Becks. What's the president drinking?
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president had a Budweiser at the all-star game -- why are you looking at me like that? That's what he drank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking Blue Moon, Red Stripe, Becks.
GIBBS: What's wrong with Budweiser? Why do you hate Budweiser, Wendell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe I don't...
GIBBS: I don't -- how about this, how about you and I we'll go pick out the beer, we'll do the beer run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There's politics associated with everything. Can you imagine if he would've said Corona? He's outsourcing his beer drinking, even though it's probably made here.
He couldn't say Stella, he had to say Bud. Nothing's more American than some bud.
ROBERTS: There you go.
Thanks very much for joining us this morning, continue the conversation of today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
CHETRY: Hope to see you back here tomorrow.
Meanwhile, here's CNN "NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins.
