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American Morning
Boston Cop in Trouble Over Gates Slur; Gates 911 Caller Says She Feels Vindicated; Obama Will Host Beer Summit for Gates and Crowley; Obama's Former Doctor Against Health Reform Plan; President Obama Set to Have Beers with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley; Text Messaging While Driving More Dangerous Than Driving Drunk; Small Business Looking For Way to Innovate During Recession; Narcotic Prescription Drugs Relatively Easy to Obtain
Aired July 30, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. It's Thursday, July 30. I'm Carol Costello, sitting in for Kiran today.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Here's what's on this morning's agenda. These are the stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes or so.
A Boston cop is suspended for calling Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., quote, "a banana eating jungle monkey." The officer made the remark in an e-mail to a newspaper reporter. Just as the president hoped a few beers would end this whole mess.
COSTELLO: They'll have more things to talk about, won't they?
New revelations about the doctor who was with Michael Jackson when he died. Authorities tell CNN Dr. Conrad Murray is now quote "the only one they're looking at." His lawyers say they don't think an arrest is imminent because they haven't seen proof or an autopsy report. But there are new details about his drastic money troubles. He's deeply in debt his, and reports say his Las Vegas estate could face foreclosure.
ROBERTS: And fess up. Have you checked the text message in the car, maybe sent out a reply at a red light or even while you're driving 60 miles an hour? Well, when you see our Jason Carroll trying to drive and text at the same time, it might just scare you straight. And you may never touch your phone or your BlackBerry behind the wheel ever again.
Well, just when it looked like the controversy surrounding the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was cooling down, a Boston police officer just reignited things all over again by clicking the "send" button. His job is at risk now over an e-mail in which he called Professor Gates, quote, "a banana eating jungle monkey."
Here's the officer. He's name is 36 years old -- he's 36 years old, his name is Justin Barrett. He's also with the National Guard.
And sent the mass e-mail to some other members of the guard and had the good sense to send it to "The Boston Globe," venting over a column on Professor Gates. Barrett uses the phrase "jungle monkey" not once, but four times, three times referring to Gates and once calling the writings of President Abraham Lincoln quote "jungle monkey gibberish." It's obviously a favorite phrase of his.
Barrett says of Gates, if he had been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle money, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC." OC, by the way, in case you didn't know, is pepper spray.
The Boston police are condemning Barrett's comments, calling them, quote, "offensive and hurtful." But Officer Barrett and his attorney launched a defense of sorts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER JUSTIN BARRETT, BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: I am sorry that I wrote that. I'm sorry that my family has to deal with the selfish motivation and feelings that I had. I regret that I used such words as -- I have so many friends of -- every type of culture and race you can name. And I'm not a racist.
PETER MARANO, OFFICER JUSTIN BARRETT'S ATTORNEY: Justin Barrett didn't call Henry Gates a "jungle monkey" to malign him racially. He stated his behavior was like that of one. And it was a characterization of the actions of that man.
BARRETT: I am sorry for the -- for the content of the e-mail. I'm sorry for how people are reacting to it, especially my fellow police officers. I am not a racist. I never have been, never will be. I treat people with dignity and respect every time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Meanwhile, the woman who called police to Gates' house is trying to clear the air, and now she says she feels vindicated since the 911 tapes have been released.
Our Elaine Quijano was live in Boston with that side of the story for us this morning.
Good morning, Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John.
When I was at that news conference yesterday when Lucia Whalen spoke out, she basically said she has been through the emotional ringer and she wanted to set the record straight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: (voice-over): Joined by her husband and her attorney, Lucia Whalen reluctantly came before the camera.
LUCIA WHALEN, GATES 911 CALLER: Cambridge is a wonderful place. And when I was called racist, and I was a target of scorn and ridicule because of the things I never said.
QUIJANO: What she never said in her 911 call to Cambridge police was that she saw two black men.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: And were they white, black, or Hispanic?
WHALEN: 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.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
QUIJANO: But in his police report, Sergeant James Crowley said he spoke to Whalen on the scene and said Whalen described seeing, quote, "what appeared to be two black males with backpacks." That's not Whalen said she said.
WHALEN: As I said, the only words I exchanged where I was the 911 caller and he pointed to me and said, "Stay right there."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing more?
WHALEN: Nothing more than that.
QUIJANO: Asked about the discrepancy, a Cambridge police spokesman said that's an issue that could be reviewed in the future. In the meantime, for Lucia Whalen: vindication.
WHALEN: Now that the tapes are out, I hope people can see that I tried to be careful and honest with my words.
QUIJANO: And despite everything, Whalen says she'd do it all again.
WHALEN: You have to, you know, if you are concerned, if you're a concerned citizen, you should do the right thing. If you're seeing something that seems suspicious, I would do the same thing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now, as for today's White House beer summit, Whalen's attorney said that her client's forthright actions should have earned her an invitation, too. And, John, that attorney, Wendy Murphy, even joked that at one point saying, "Well, maybe it's a guy thing." And then she said Whalen doesn't like beer anyway -- John?
ROBERTS: Well, it's still a few hours until the beer summit. Maybe she'll get an invitation. We'll see. Elaine Quijano for us this morning...
QUIJANO: Perhaps.
ROBERTS: Elaine, thanks so much.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's talk about the beer summit.
President Obama is hoping that meeting at the White House could bring an end to this controversy. Now, the 911 caller starts talking, as you saw from Elaine's story, and then there is the Boston cop and his e-mail that we talked about a little earlier. Mr. Obama wanted his meeting today at the White House to be with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley -- he wanted it to be a teachable moment.
But is that still possible?
Ed Henry has been working his sources at the White House this morning.
Ed, what does the president hope to accomplish?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol.
You mentioned that teachable moment. White House aides this morning are saying that is still the president's goal. But new this morning, they're adding that both Sergeant Crowley as well as Professor Gates will be bringing family members here to the White House for this beer summit, if you will.
So, obviously that personal touch, having family members here at the White House, the president could obviously bring his family along, as well, could really kind of turn the temperature down. That's more than anything what the president wants to do. The setting's going to be on the South Lawn, the picnic table that the president purchased along with that swing set for his daughters, an informal setting, he used it once before for a calm meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his former rival. Maybe that's an inspiration for bringing all of these folks together, as well.
The president clearly expressed regret last week for inserting himself in this, and as he said, not calibrating his remarks by calling the Cambridge police, saying they had acted stupidly. He wants to do two things. He wants to bring some light, according to aides, on the fact that African-Americans and Latinos have faced racial profiling, but he also wants to sort of clean up what he said about the police and also show that not every police officer in the country, obviously, is engaged in racial profiling, Carol.
COSTELLO: And, you know, every bit of this beer summit has been picked apart. There's even a controversy over what kind of beer people are drinking. What is that about?
HENRY: Well, we're told that Professor Gates wants to drink Red Stripe; Blue Moon is the beer of choice for Sergeant Crowley, the president is going to have a Bud Light. That's what he had at the all-star game in St. Louis, very politically correct, dozen (ph) of space there for him to do that for the all-star game.
But now, the folks at Sam Adams are saying why not have a Massachusetts beer, a U.S.-owned beer, in fact, since Anheuser-Busch is no longer U.S.-owned. And, in fact, a congressman, Democratic Congressman Richie Neal from Massachusetts sent the president a letter saying, "Come on, Mr. President, step up, serve some Sam Adams."
So, you're right, we found controversy in what they're drinking, Carol.
COSTELLO: It's insane, isn't it?
OK. Well, we'll be watching with interest at 6:00 Eastern tonight.
HENRY: Six o'clock tonight.
COSTELLO: Ed Henry live from the White House, thanks.
HENRY: Take care.
ROBERTS: Do people focusing on tangential issues here, do you think?
COSTELLO: Yes.
ROBERTS: Just a little bit?
COSTELLO: Well, that's what we do in America.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Also new this morning, talks on health care reform between six key senators known as the "gang of six" fall apart on Capitol Hill. The reason: Two Republicans say they can't cut a deal before the August recess.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we talked with one of them, Senator Chuck Grassley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: Instead of saying there's no way we can cut a deal, there's no way we can get all of the compromising that needs to be done by an artificial deadline of Friday of this week. So, we're going to continue to work together this week and next week, but we're getting close. I think we've got some of the big things that were contentious compromised. There's not going to be any government-run insurance company set up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That's the congressional recess for the month of August, by the way, starts on the seventh, next Friday.
COSTELLO: Hey, watch what you tweet. A Chicago woman is being sued for libel after she complained about her apartment on Twitter. She wrote, quote, "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty thinks it's OK." Well, Horizon Realty is suing her for $50,000 in damages. The company says it has a good reputation and it wants to keep it that way.
ROBERTS: And check this thing out, the next big thing in golf: llama caddy. Every Tuesday at this North Carolina golf course, you can rent a llama to carry your clubs.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Apparently, they read the greens very well, too. I'm just kidding, they don't. Once the llamas are trained, the club's owner hopes to hire them out to charity.
COSTELLO: We didn't know you were kidding.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: It's going to move a little left to right, chasing (ph) you from the right-side edge to the right hand side of the cuff (ph).
COSTELLO: Let me discuss the llama (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: OK. There's more to the Michael Jackson saga than even you expected. Supposedly he has this love child.
ROBERTS: And apparently a deal now, too, for custody according to his attorney who spoke on CBS this morning.
COSTELLO: And who can sort it out? Jeffrey Toobin. If anyone can, he can.
ROBERTS: If anybody can. We'll bring in Jeff in just a couple minutes to sort it out for you.
Ten minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning"
To a developing story now -- after weeks of quiet on the streets of Iran, a source telling CNN thousands of protestors and mourners are at the grave of the young woman known as the face of the revolution. You'll remember the video that apparently showed Neda's murder during an election protest in Tehran. It started a global outcry.
One source is telling us several hundred officers, including riot police, are there, also said to be there, the man who lost the election to President Ahmadinejad, Mr. Hossein Moussavi. We'll keep you posted -- John?
ROBERTS: All right. Now into new information on Michael Jackson's death. Federal investigators have now named Dr. Conrad Murray as the only one they're looking at in the investigation. So, what kind of legal trouble might the doctor be in?
Our Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst, joins us now. We get to that in just a second, but we also understand this morning, an interview with Londell McMillan, Katherine Jackson's attorney, by CBS this morning. He says a custody deal has been reached between Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe. Do we know anything about this?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we don't know the specifics are, but certainly, this was in the works. You recall that in Michael Jackson's will, he said very clearly that Katherine Jackson should be the guardian of the children. But what's complicated in the situation is that the mother of two of them, Debbie Rowe, under California law, might have a claim. Apparently, they've worked that out.
The interesting question would be: Did any money change hands?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: And there was some talk of that a few weeks ago which Debbie Rowe denied.
TOOBIN: She denied, but she has also gotten quite a bit of money in the past for surrendering at least some of her parental rights. So, it wouldn't be totally shocking if she'd sold them for some more.
ROBERTS: So, let's talk about Dr. Conrad Murray. Now, police have certainly looked at records from other doctors who Jackson was associated with, even looking at aliases that Jackson may have used in order to procure prescription drugs. But they say that Dr. Charles Murray is the sole focus of this investigation.
So, what does that tell you?
TOOBIN: Well, if you look at how police have acted in the last few weeks, it's clear that he is under very serious criminal investigation. You don't execute repeated search warrants of someone's house and office unless you think you were going to find evidence that that person committed a crime.
ROBERTS: Even now, his attorney says, "No, we're only being told we're a witness now, not a suspect."
TOOBIN: You know, that's just defies common sense. No one who is being treated that way by the police is merely a witness. Now, it doesn't mean this person is going to be charged or is guilty of anything, but he is clearly the last doctor who had access to Michael Jackson, who was with him on the day he died, at the time he died. So, he's under a great deal of scrutiny.
The question I have is, given Michael Jackson's enormously complicated medical history and the fact that he had relationships with many doctors and his own relationship with prescription drugs, they better be very careful that Murray alone is responsible if they want to charge him with a crime.
ROBERTS: So, what's his potential exposure in this? You know, if he was administering a legal drug -- I mean the setting was atypical, typically, Propofol is being used in a hospital or an outpatient setting, but there's nothing in the law that says you can't do it in a home. But if he was administering the drug and he was properly monitoring and something went wrong, something goes wrong with anesthesia a lot, you know, you might have a civil suit for malpractice or something like that. But do you have a criminal case?
TOOBIN: Well, that's my question. And there are gradations of misconduct and the legal system has different ways of doing it, as you point out. One of them is a civil lawsuit for malpractice; another is some sort of proceeding challenging his right to practice medicine. The most dramatic thing would be a criminal case, perhaps even a case for manslaughter.
Interestingly, the legal standards are not that different for all three of those, but there are questions of prosecutorial discretion. Do you move in a criminal direction if it's a good faith mistake? Obviously, that's what we're going to have to learn when all the facts come out, if it was a good faith mistake or if it was really reckless and irresponsible.
ROBERTS: And what about this other aspect of the case that has been illuminated again by Joe Jackson, who said, you know, quite directly that Omar Batty is Michael -- 25-year-old Omer Bhatti is Michael Jackson's love child. Now, this is something that Omer Bhatti himself has denied. That he was there front and center at the funeral.
I mean, could he contest the will? Does he potentially have standing here if what Joe Jackson says is true?
TOOBIN: Well, I saw that interview with Joe Jackson, and like most interviews with Joe Jackson, it was not entirely clear what he was saying. But it did seem to me he was suggesting that Omer was Michael's biological son.
ROBERTS: He looks like a Jackson, he dances like a Jackson.
TOOBIN: That's right. It was -- it was a classic Joe moment. Yes, it is potentially possible that Omer could bring some action. Again, when there is this much money involved, there can be quiet settlements that would forestall that kind of situation. But he is not listed as a beneficiary in the will. So, at the moment, he gets nothing.
ROBERTS: Yes. And the question is, how much is the estate worth? Anywhere between to zero, according to some people, to $200 million, to, I think, Londell McMillan was saying well over $1 billion.
TOOBIN: You know, I think, given the fact that this is so complicated and Michael's only been dead for about a month, it's going to take a long time to sort out what all of this is worth and how the executors are going to deal with that.
ROBERTS: We could be talking about this for years.
(LAUGHTER)
TOOBIN: That's why we are having our own beer summit in the green room this morning. So, all is well in the green room.
(CROSSTALK)
TOOBIN: It still holds beer.
ROBERTS: Jeff, it's always great to see you. Thanks for dropping by.
TOOBIN: OK.
ROBERTS: Carol?
COSTELLO: I'm going to the green room. I love that.
We have this amazing video to show you. It's of a car chase, but the car chase itself is not the amazing part. Actually, the amazing part is who pumps out of that car eluding police.
It's 18 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
COSTELLO: The video you have to see before you head off to work. So, sit down and relax and check this out. This is police dash cam video from Plain City, Utah. It seems like your run of the mill car chase, right? Oh, boring, boring.
Well, this is where it gets interesting. Watch who gets out of the car when the car finally stops. Here it comes.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: It's a little boy. He's seven years old. Police officer is trying to catch him. He never does catch up to the kid.
ROBERTS: Well, the kid ran into the garage. It didn't look like he has any place to go.
COSTELLO: Well, the child's father was apparently near the scene, he finally caught up with his child. And I would have liked to witness the scene inside that garage between child and father.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: He's grounded.
ROBERTS: The kid says he swiped the car to avoid going to church. So, where do you think he's going to be going every day until he's 18?
COSTELLO: He's going to be going to confession every day.
ROBERTS: I guess. Oh, my goodness.
Here's another great shot that we got to show you this morning. Watch this catch. And it's almost out of there, it's almost -- hey there he goes, it's out of there. Look at that, he one hands it -- a baseball in one hand and a child holding a big drink in the other hand.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: He doesn't protect the child.
ROBERTS: The kid didn't drop...
COSTELLO: He catches the ball.
ROBERTS: The kid didn't drop the drink, either. It happened Tuesday night at the Philly-Arizona game. The Phillies came out ahead by the way.
COSTELLO: Now, see, if I'm his wife watching and it's my child, that man's in trouble.
ROBERTS: Hey, at least he didn't hang him over the edge of the bleachers, right?
COSTELLO: That would have been much worse.
Oh, and check out this daredevil. Check it out. Here it comes. He is skating down a rollercoaster. It's not your imagination.
He covered 3,000 feet in just 60 seconds. That's about 60 miles per hour. And, by the way, that's a world record. This guy is...
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
COSTELLO: Isn't that amazing? Actually, that would be fun to do. He's considered to be the most extreme inline skater in the world. He already holds the world record for reaching speeds of 190 miles per hour as he was dragged along behind a Porsche.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness. Whew!
Well, lawmakers won't be agreeing on health care reform any time soon, but doctors will be on Capitol Hill today to see if they can influence the outcome, including the president's former doctor from Chicago.
COSTELLO: Oh, and you might be surprised by whose side he's on.
Our Jim Acosta met with him and he's not holding back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John and Carol, President Obama talks often about all of the forces lining up against his health care plan. But there's one critic you may not have heard from in this debate, Mr. Obama's former doctor, David Scheiner, and he is passionate in his belief that the president's plan won't work.
DR. DAVID SCHEINER, OBAMA'S FORMER DOCTOR: Yes, hi.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Chicago Doctor David Scheiner has taken a hard look at President Obama's prescription for health care reform and sees bad medicine.
SHINER: This isn't that kind of health care program that I think is going to work.
ACOSTA: What makes Dr. Scheiner so special? He was Barack Obama's personal physician for 22 years. He voted for Mr. Obama. But the doctor thinks the president's plan doesn't go far enough.
SCHEINER: If I had to say the single one thing, which is the worst part of it, is that private insurance companies continue to be a part of the health scheme. Everybody keeps saying we don't want the government getting involved in health care. The government is involved in health care, in Medicare, and it works.
ACOSTA: Scheiner would rather see the nation adopt a single- payer system, like the ones in Canada and Europe. It's something an up and coming State Senator Obama talked about six years ago.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care plan. But as all of you know, we may not get that immediately because, first, we've got to take back the White House, and we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back...
(APPLAUSE)
ACOSTA: But during that campaign, that position evolved.
OBAMA: If I remember designing a system from scratch, then I'd probably set up a single-payer system, but the problem is, we're not starting from scratch.
This is about the future.
ACOSTA: Now, the president favors giving Americans the option of joining a government-run plan that would compete with private insurers.
OBAMA: Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care. I'm tired of hearing that.
ACOSTA: But Dr. Scheiner points out nobody has seen the details of that option, making it a hard sell for the president.
SCHEINER: We don't even know fully what the public option is going to be. If the public option is too good, patients who are sick will flock to it, and I'm not sure it will be able to support itself.
ACOSTA: Scheiner almost had a chance to confront the president with his concerns, he was invited to a recent televised town hall with Mr. Obama, but he says he was dropped from the program.
SCHEINER: I just hope that Congress and the American public and the president will hear some of my words. We've got to do something better.
ACOSTA (on camera): Dr. Scheiner will finally get a chance to have his say here in Washington. He and other doctors who support a single-payer system are gathering at the Capitol today to meet with lawmakers and rally with supporters. He may not be the president's doctor anymore, but Dr. Scheiner says he's trying to save the patient before it's too late.
John and Carol?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta this morning -- Jim, thanks so much.
Well, texting while driving. Big problem, yes?
COSTELLO: Oh, yes, I never do it.
ROBERTS: You never do it?
COSTELLO: Oh, no.
ROBERTS: A lot of people do.
COSTELLO: I do, it's terrible, because you think you can handle it, but you really can't.
ROBERTS: Yes. Just -- I mean, just how bad is it? You know, we've got some empirical evidence of that this morning. Our Jason Carroll takes the wheel in a high-tech simulator to show you just what can happen because when you're distracted because you're texting while you're driving. It's fascinating. You got to see it -- coming up.
Twenty-six and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's now 29 minutes after the hour.
Checking our top stories this Thursday morning. The Pacific Northwest is having a heat wave. Seattle recorded the hottest temperature in its history yesterday -- 103 degrees. It was 106 in Portland, in Salem, Oregon. A break in the heat wave is predicted tomorrow, though. So, just hang on for one more day.
COSTELLO: Yes. Arizona is considering selling its statehouse and Senate offices to make ends meet. Dozens of other state properties could also be on the block. The plan isn't just to sell them off, Arizona plans to then lease them for several years before assuming ownership again. It's a plan that could save the state $735 million.
ROBERTS: In light of the debate over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the nation's first black attorney general, Eric Holder tells ABC News that he was racially profiled years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was a young college student driving from New York to Washington, stopped on a highway and told to open the trunk of my car, because the police officer told me he wanted to search for weapons. And I remember, as I got back in the car and continued on my journey, how humiliated I felt, how angry I got.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have we reached the point where law enforcement is color blind?
HOLDER: No, not yet, but I think, you know, we're certainly in a much better place than we were.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And Holder says some people in minority communities often assume that police are doing something wrong.
COSTELLO: Well, tonight, President Obama will have Professor Gates and the man who arrested him, Police Sergeant Crowley, over to the White House for some beers. He hopes the meeting will be a national teachable moment. The racially charged debate has been a learning experience for the president who helped create the rift with his response to this question at last week's news conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN SWEET, "CHICAGO SUN-TIMES" WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Recently Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race relations in America?
OBAMA: Well, I should say at the outset --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The reporter who asked the question, Lynn Sweet, is the Washington bureau chief for the "Chicago Sun-Times." She's with us this morning from Los Angeles.
Good morning, Lynn.
SWEET: Good morning. COSTELLO: So after you asked that question and the president responded -- you know, he's going to have this beer summit now -- what do you make of the way he's handled this controversy that was really caused by your question?
SWEET: Well, I think the controversy actually was caused by his answer --
COSTELLO: That's true.
SWEET: -- not really the question on it.
And I think what he tried to do was to -- what he's doing today with meeting these gentlemen for a beer is just to try to diffuse and, as he said, recalibrate the situation.
And I think it also shows that people don't -- I write about this on a column I did for "Politics Daily" today on how you are allowed a second chance to take your words back. Not that things don't happen, but you don't have to be trapped in an endless sound bite.
And I would actually thing that's a little bit of the teachable moment that the president's trying to show. It certainly has taken on a life of its own at this point with this rather unusual meeting at the White House with these men meeting again for the first time since that charged incident a few weeks ago.
COSTELLO: And you know, the controversy it's caused is at fever pitch right now. This morning we hear word of a Boston police officer sending a racially charged e-mail to the "Boston Globe" and to some of his colleagues in the National Guard.
Glenn Beck on FOX News called the president racist for his comments and how the way he's handled this controversy.
Did you expect this to become so heated, and because it's heated, do you think maybe that will help in this teachable moment?
SWEET: Well, I think it showed -- usually President Obama is so cool and so careful with language. That is one of the hallmarks of what he's about that I think one of the reasons people paid -- were in a sense surprised, and all this kind of boils down, I think, to one word that he said in a longer, much longer statement, and that was the use of the word "stupidly" when he talked about the Cambridge police, which he since said he should've recalibrated his comments.
Part of this is when you have a persona that is as cool as President Obama's has been that when you see this flash of emotion, I think people also were just a bit surprised by it.
And probably, I think that might have been a beginning of a conversation about the president as much as anything, because it was a very personal response, as well.
COSTELLO: You have sort of become part of the story because you asked this question. I want to play a clip from the Jon Stewart show. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW" HOST: No -- don't answer that!
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And you know, we can laugh about that, but he's saying that, you know -- and some people have actually accused you of setting the president up with that question, because the questions were supposed to be on health care reform, and there you go, the last question asking about race in America.
SWEET: Well, let me correct that. Let me correct that very precisely. And that was -- you're not right. This was a press conference, and anyone could ask anything. There was no mandate about what could be asked.
No, the reporters -- no one made that a requirement of going there. Ten reporters asked questions, three, including me, asked about other topics off of health care.
This was a press conference like many press conferences that presidents call. This was the fourth one for President Obama. And there was no requirement about any kinds of questions.
What Obama wanted to do and he did was make a statement at the beginning of this prime time press conference to talk about health care.
And, as is the norm, the first questions usually are on the big story of the day, which was health care. And, you know, as is the norm, reporters then ask about other stories and issues in the news, of which this was one of them.
This Gates arrest was, I believe it was on that day the front page story on the "Washington Post." Your network, as well as other cable channels, were featuring it even then.
So in that sense, it was a question in the news that the president was asked about, as is routine for many presidents in many press conferences.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Lynn Sweet, for setting the record straight and for enlightening us. We appreciate it. Lynn Sweet, the Washington bureau chief, the "Chicago Sun-Times."
ROBERTS: Well, join us tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, because at 8:00 a.m. Eastern we're going to be talking with Homeland Security Sc. Janet Napolitano about how safe America really is, and how the government plans to combat homegrown terrorists.
We're also going to have the six-month report card on President Obama's performance so far. Joe Trippi, a senior adviser to John Edwards' 2008 campaign and former Republican Congresswoman Susan Molinari, join us to grade the president's progress.
And "Confessions of a Cynical Waiter," the author of the new book will be here to tell us what you don't know, don't want to know, but should know about the person who is serving your next restaurant meal.
COSTELLO: I don't think I want to know, especially if it's bad.
ROBERTS: Well, one of the things he advises is how to behave to avoid spit in your food. It's in the book. Just saying.
The dangers of texting and driving -- our Jason Carroll takes us behind the wheel in a high-tech simulator to show you just how dangerous it is to pull out your blackberry or your phone while you're driving. Stay with us.
Thirty-six and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Laws against texting and driving could become as common as seat belt laws. A new bill in the Senate would require states to ban the habit.
This week, we learned that drivers are 23 times more likely to crash when they're texting. But we're going to do more than tell you it's dangerous, we're actually going to show you. And who better to do it than our Jason Carroll, our resident Formula 1 driver?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes --
ROBERTS: Let's see how well he can do behind the wheel while he was texting. You thought you were a good driver?
CARROLL: Yes. I thought I was a good driver. I am a good driver.
ROBERTS: You're the only one who thinks that.
(LAUGHTER)
CARROLL: You're going to hear why that's the case a little later.
Basically, went to the state of the art simulator from some of the folks in Utah. For the past 10 years researchers at the University of Utah have been studying the effects of driving while using cell phones. Bottom line, whether texting or talking hands free, you are increasing your chances of crashing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Five New York high school students killed, the driver texting before the accident. This bus driver caught on tape texting just before his crash.
Despite all the warnings... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see a lot of people texting while they're driving.
CARROLL: ...despite the risks, drivers say it is still common.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Texting, I think, is distracting and I try to keep away from that.
CARROLL: Professor David Strayer says maybe drivers would try more if they knew what he learned with this driving simulator here at the University of Utah.
PROFESSOR DAVID STRAYER, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH: Text messaging is a level of impairment that exceeds what we see with someone who is driving while they're drunk.
CARROLL (on camera): Exceeds it?
STRAYER: Yes.
CARROLL (voice-over): Driving while texting more dangerous than driving drunk? Strayer's researchers found a driver with an alcohol level .08, legally drunk in most states, is four times more likely to crash. While texting, a crash is eight times more likely.
STRAYER: You should be, frankly, quite alarmed if you see someone texting as they're driving next to you.
CARROLL: This simulator may look like an elaborate video game, but there's science here. It records brain activity and more.
STRAYER: This is an eye tracker we use.
CARROLL: For our purposes, a simple test.
CARROLL (on camera): 65's OK in the state of Utah?
CARROLL (voice-over): Stayer put me in the simulator.
STRAYER: Compose and send an e-mail or text message, and...
CARROLL: A few insults from CNN colleagues.
CARROLL (on camera): Alina Cho has sent me a text message. She sent one saying, "You're the dumbest person I know." One of our senior producers -- "You can't even type when you're standing on two feet." Who can drive with these kind of insults?
CARROLL (voice-over): I couldn't -- several near collisions.
A study released by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, using real drivers, found a truck driver's risk of accident 23 times higher while text messaging. The risk using a cell phone hands-free only slightly higher.
But Strayer says hands-free is still dangerous. STRAYER: People look but don't see important information.
CARROLL: Five states prohibit drivers from talking on handheld cell phones 14 ban drivers from text messaging, and now some senators have proposed a federal law requiring all states to ban texting while driving.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Texting while driving is even more dangerous than driving drunk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, the proposed legislation also says states that do not ban texting or e-mailing while driving risk losing federal highway funds. So that should be an incentive for some of the states to get on board.
COSTELLO: But you know, seriously, a lot of people think they're great drivers and they can handle texting while driving, no problem.
CARROLL: And that's the problem.
And the other thing is you don't find out until it's too late how dangerous it is.
COSTELLO: Well, hopefully they'll pass a law soon.
ROBERTS: Back when I was growing up, there were a lot of people who thought that they would drive and operate the eight-track machine. That didn't work, either.
(LAUGHTER)
CARROLL: Playing a little Duran Duran back in the day.
ROBERTS: They were a real problem.
Are you guilty of texting behind the wheel? We want to know, are you scared of other drivers that do it? Tell us your stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
COSTELLO: And pharmacy shopping -- we've been hearing of how many people are getting illegal prescription drugs and they're becoming hooked on it. How easy is it to get these narcotics? You might be surprised. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has our investigation.
It's 43 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: If you took all of your money and opened a small business right before the recession hit, you might be reeling right now. In today's "Money and Main Street," Reynolds Wolf found a family that got slammed, but now they're bouncing back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Julie Hamilton took their life savings and borrowed money from family and the bank to invest in their dream. These parents of three boys opened a kid- friendly franchise, Bounce U, in Charlotte, North Carolina, last year, an entrepreneurial strong city.
And then the economy took a nose dive.
JULIE HAMILTON, BOUNCE U OWNER: We knew we were going to have to get creative and proactive.
WOLF: That meant coming up with a marketing strategy to get customers in the door. They focused on children's birthdays and smaller, less expensive parties, and even some weeknight activities.
JULIE HAMILTON: We now have party packages that start at $150. And we have from all different kinds of sizes, all different budgets. And that seems to have really helped a lot.
JOHN HAMILTON, BOUNCE U OWNER: It's not just a weekend business, which is originally we bought into it for. Now it's something that we have parties on the weeknights, we have summer camp during the day, we'll have open bounce, as well.
WOLF: They're seeing a payoff. The business has increased by 20 percent with zero layoffs.
It's a common story in Charlotte, and according to the chamber of commerce, more than 7,300 jobs have been created by new business so far this year, mostly small business.
The Hamiltons say TV and direct mail ads, online marketing and fundraising partnerships have all helped.
JOHN HAMILTON: We have called every school and every church and every youth group and every scouting group, and we're talking to them about our different programs.
WOLF: All part of the plan to get people through their doors and keep them coming back.
JOHN HAMILTON: It's really easy to get on the inflatables and play with the kids and see them laugh. But at the end of the day, it's mom and dad that you want to go home feeling like they've gotten a good value for what they paid for.
WOLF: Building their business with every bounce.
Reynolds Wolf, CNN, Charlotte, North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: For inspiring stories of businesses that have figured out a way not only to survive, but to thrive in a rough economy, watch more of our series "Money and Main Street," CNN tonight at 8:00 eastern. ROBERTS: Well, pharmacy shopping -- just how easy is it to get narcotics? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta goes to the pharmacies to investigate. You want to see this coming right up.
It's 49 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning, Atlanta, Georgia. As you can see, the weather's not so great there yet. It's cloudy and 72 degrees, and won't be so great later either I'm sorry to tell you. Scattered thunderstorms predicted, with a high of 82.
ROBERTS: Strange weather we're having this year. It says 82 degrees in Hot-lanta and it's 106 in Portland, Oregon.
COSTELLO: That's very strange.
ROBERTS: Kind of like role reversal here.
COSTELLO: I know.
Well, with all of the attention on Michael Jackson's drug use and death, we wondered just how easy is it for people abusing narcotics to get their hands on them.
ROBERTS: Because if you're doctor shopping, you need a pharmacy to fill out those prescriptions. So we're paging our Dr. Gupta, our chief medical correspondent. He went undercover at the pharmacy and came back with this report. Watch this.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you, John and Carol, I write prescriptions for narcotic medications all the time in my job for a neurosurgeon.
But I do wonder and worry to some extent, are my patients getting these medications elsewhere? Are they doctor shopping? How easy is it for them to get lots of narcotics?
So I decided, with the help of my producer, Matt Sloane (ph), who's wearing a hidden camera, he's going to follow me inside, and we're going to sort of put this to the test. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: That took about 15 minutes. I was able to walk in with my prescription, about $20 on my charge card. They asked me for my address, and I walked out with 40 pills of narcotics.
The pharmacist in here has done nothing illegal at all. But the real question I had is, how much more narcotics could I possibly obtain today. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: So we made our way to another pharmacy to try to figure out. I've got another prescription here. Can I get my hands on more narcotics?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, how are you?
GUPTA: Doing well. Can I get that filled?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I see your I.D.? Thank you.
And the key words here are "as needed," OK? There's more information about the medicine. Again, just be careful.
GUPTA: OK.
When I -- when a patient comes in for these types of pills, how do you know that they're not doctor shopping our getting pills from all sorts of different sources?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only way is to -- if we don't know the patient, we actually try to verify, you know --
GUPTA: You verify the prescription. So is there anything else you can do? If I walked in here with cash or a credit card having just gotten narcotics at another pharmacy, I can get some from you. It's really no problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, I would not know, nobody would know.
GUPTA: I wasn't trying to do any kind of gotcha journalism, but are you surprised by what I was just able to do today over the last hour?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you're a clean cut, well-dressed man, educated man, not unusual I'd verify the prescription. OK, I usually -- the second the person crosses that threshold, I can tell if something's not right. If I don't feel right, I don't fill it.
GUPTA: A lot of it's based on you and your gestalt, you're good instinct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly right.
GUPTA: Thanks, appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: It's one of those things. I hadn't really seen that side of things. Like I said, I write these prescriptions for analgesics quite a bit, but that's how you can get your hands on lots of them.
Nobody did anything wrong there. This is just sort of how the system works. People can get multiple prescriptions from different doctors, and then you get your hands on lots of narcotics in a single day.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, you're advocating some sort of centralized database. But doesn't the DEA track this stuff already? Every doctor's got a DEA number, right? GUPTA: That's right. So there's a couple of things about that.
First of all, it's by no means instantaneous. So if you're getting a few different prescriptions from different pharmacies within a single day, it's not going to be able to catch up with you.
Second of all, there has to be -- the way it works now, John, is there has to be some degree of suspicion. So you have to go in. There is somebody that you're not quite sure about, and you have to query that person and start to figure out where they're getting other medications from.
So you have to have some suspicion to sort of protect patient confidentiality. It doesn't sort of flag things for you automatically so pharmacists can say, look, this guy may potentially be a problem.
ROBERTS: Sanjay, I just want to ask one thing. So the first guy you went in you had a hidden camera. The second person you went in with a TV camera with you. Can you sort of describe that situation?
GUPTA: Yes. So the second person, we wanted to see how -- would he be able to fill that prescription, as well. He didn't know we had the other prescription already. And then after he filled that, you know, just doing his job, we showed him the other prescription and asked him if we could ask a few questions. And he agreed to do that.
ROBERTS: Got you, all right. Great report. Sanjay, thanks so much.
GUPTA: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: It's 56 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Capitol building this morning, where it looks like nothing's going to get done on health care until they get back from the August break, which begins the end of next week.
Mostly cloudy and 77 there, partly cloudy and a high of 91 later on today.
COSTELLO: But there will be something going on at the White House later today, the beer summit with Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gate and is the president.
And they're going to sit down and, I guess, hash things out, and hopefully that teachable moment will come.
ROBERTS: I hope that we hear from them afterwards. What did they learn about the whole thing?
COSTELLO: It would be nice to see all three of them together talking live to the nation and saying this is what we talked about, this is what we want to share with you, and let's calm the rhetoric, because there's been some really vile rhetoric going on about this story.
ROBERTS: You know, it was about a week ago, I think, Kyra Phillips suggested that they get together for a beer, and then suddenly they came out and said we're going to get together for a beer. So maybe they'll hear your suggestion and they'll come out and they'll talk about it afterwards.
COSTELLO: I'm not as powerful as Kyra Phillips, though.
That does it for us this morning.
ROBERTS: It does. It's been great being here. And tomorrow's Friday, and we look forward to that.
We also want to know what you think will be accomplished by this beer summit.
ROBERTS: Yes, definitely. Go to our blog CNN.com/amfix and let us know.
COSTELLO: Now it's time for NEWSROOM with Heidi Collins. Have a great morning.
