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American Morning
Hurricane Bill Brewing; Military Vets on Obama; White House Backs Away from Public Option; Homeless Veterans Has Gotten Help; Airplane Air Sometimes Toxic; New G.I. Bill Gives More Education Options; Low Milk Prices Hurting Dairy Farmers
Aired August 17, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And it's 8:00 here in New York. It's Monday, August 17th on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us. Here's what's on this morning's agenda. The stories that we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
A sleepy storm season suddenly wide awake. Tropical storm Claudette now downgraded to a depression made landfall overnight. The Florida panhandle hit with heavy rain and 50-mile-an-hour winds.
And now, churning out in the Atlantic is the season's first hurricane. Rob Marciano is tracking it all for us today.
CHETRY: President Obama takes his make or break push for health care reform to veterans today. He'll be speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Phoenix. Coming up: We're going to talk about what people who have served their country want to hear from their commander-in-chief.
ROBERTS: It looks like it is going to be a weak start on Wall Street today. Futures are down significantly as investors worry about the strength of the global economy that's similar to what's been happening in European and Asian markets where a report show Japan's economy is recovering but not quickly enough. We'll talk about all of this with Christine Romans -- coming up in just a moment.
But first, talk about a storm surge. After months of relative calm, the 2009 storm season is now seemingly kicks in to high gear. Tropical storm Claudette now downgraded to a depression, made landfall overnight. It is the first named storm to hit the U.S. mainland.
CHETRY: And it's one of two other storms now out there in the Atlantic and also the season's first hurricane, that would be Hurricane Bill.
Rob Marciano is here with us, tracking all of that.
Are we going to see -- is Bill going to give us some trouble?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Bill is going to be a bad one, to use that, and start a really bad alteration. But Claudette really just snuck up. We weren't even talked about it on Friday.
CHETRY: Right.
MARCIANO: Just a little, you know, cluster clouds and then just in 18 hours, boom. It made landfall. So very impressive stuff but that's just -- it goes to show just how quickly these things can form, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is video coming in to us near Panama City. And it made landfall last night, 12:10 Central Time, right around Fort Walton Beach, and now, it's moving slowly to north and west about 12 miles an hour.
These storms are dangerous not only for the wind and the water. There's not a terrible amount of wind with this, but also, the threat for tornadoes. And there was one that's spot up yesterday. Some damage out of Cape Coral there, down near Fort Myers and Naples. Look at that. That car flipped on its side there, doing a little somersault.
And there were some damage from isolated tornado that spun up from tropical storm Claudette, but has now been downgraded to a tropical storm that came on shore with 50 mile an hour winds. And most I could see as far as observations go was about a 45 mile an hour sustained wind. And now, that rainfall is moving inland, mostly into extreme southern Alabama and what's forecast to go into parts of Mississippi. The moisture itself is not very wide, it's not very impressive.
(VIDEO BREAK)
MARCIANO: But it won't be very, very widespread. Your forecast track as a remnant low, we'll into the Memphis area.
All right. Let's talk about Bill. This thing is the first hurricane of the season. As of few years ago, with winds of 75 miles an hour, the forecast is for this to become a major storm, at least category three status and curve way or maybe shot the gap between Bermuda and North Carolina. What it does after that we still don't quite know, a lot to wait and see.
And here's what's left of Ana, about 70 miles away from St. Croix, moving towards Puerto Rico and Dominican. It's not really forecast to do a whole lot but it will head toward the Gulf of Mexico. And that's always an eye-opening experience, especially since with what we saw with Claudette, which after forming yesterday quickly, it only took 18 hours for it to make landfall and made this little tidbit in the last hour.
1984 was the last time we had a really sleepy storm season like we did this year. And then boom, all of a sudden, A, B, and C came at one time. So, not unheard of, but it's certainly interesting for sure.
CHETRY: All right. Good to see you, Rob. Thanks.
MARCIANO: Good to see you guys. You bet.
CHETRY: Well, President Obama continues his make or break push for health care reform. He'll be in Phoenix today. One p.m. Eastern, he'll address as many as 13,000 war veterans at the VFW National Convention. And it could be a tough crowd.
Our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry sat down with four veterans to find out what they want to hear today.
Hey, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
You're right. You know, some of these veterans who are senior citizens tell me they want the president to address Medicare and make sure and tell them that that program will not be affected, not be harmed by this health reform effort. But they also want to hear more details about the way forward in Afghanistan -- an issue that is very, very emotional for these veterans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Four American vets, two voted for the president, two for John McCain. But they share a brotherhood and a feeling that many Americans do not appreciate the sacrifice of U.S. troops dying in two wars, a feeling so painful it brings one of these men to tears.
ROLAND ROCHESTER, VETERAN: I know that they are tough. I know they are strong. I have a hard feeling for those that are over there. But, I'm a marine and I will stand up for our chief-of-staff and our soldiers everywhere they go.
HENRY: All four said they want to hear more specifics from the president about the days ahead in Afghanistan in particular.
What's interesting is Gary Malone, an Obama voter from Arkansas, is deeply concerned the president is sending more troops into a quagmire.
GARY MALONE, VETERAN: We lost 58,000 -- over 58,000 in Vietnam. They said this would not turn into another Vietnam. It's turning into another Vietnam.
HENRY: But a different view from Buck Cowley of Arkansas.
BUCK COWLEY, VETERAN: I was in World War II, Korea and I started in Vietnam.
HENRY: Cowley is a McCain voter but gives Mr. Obama high marks for sending more troops to Afghanistan.
COWLEY: Classification and they'll guard (ph) anybody and anyone (ph).
HENRY: The talk of another Vietnam scares Lewis Wood, a McCain voter from Arizona, but thinks Mr. Obama has been weak.
LEWIS WOOD, VETERAN: I also don't want to see it turned into a situation where they just up and pull the troops out. We were winning in Vietnam when I left there. The politicians lost that war.
HENRY: But Wood says he will support the president now and is inspired that for the first time ever, an African-American commander- in-chief will address the VFW.
WOOD: I'm proud of the United States, you betcha.
HENRY: And so is Roland Rochester of North Carolina, whose heart aches for the men and women dying overseas. He voted for Mr. Obama and is confident he will handle both wars well.
ROCHESTER: He's my chief, commander-in-chief and I'm proud of him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, says, well, the president will thank you as troops. He's not planning to get in to more details about Afghanistan because the commanding general is going through a review right now -- that may disappoint some of these vets.
But I can tell you that even the McCain voters told me they respect the commander-in-chief and they want to give him more time to make sure he gets the mission right -- Kiran?
CHETRY: Ed Henry for us this morning -- thanks so much.
ROBERTS: As always, we'd like to know what you think. If the White House gives ground on a public option for health insurance, do you think it will help get a health care reform bill passed? Go to our Web site at CNN.com/amFIX and send us an email or you can also reach us on Twitter.
And in just a few minutes, we'll talk more politics and the president with our panel, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri, are here this morning.
CHETRY: The mayor of Milwaukee waking up in the hospital this morning. Tom Barrett was trying to help a grandmother who was screaming for help at the Wisconsin state fair when a man attacked him with a metal pipe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BARRETT, MILWAUKEE MAYOR'S BROTHER: Tom stepped up and did the right thing. He called 911 and tried to calm the situation, protecting a grandmother and her grandchild. As a result of his actions, Tom was attacked and struck repeatedly with a metal object. Tom's efforts protected the woman and the child. His efforts also protected members of our family as well. We're extremely proud of Tom's selflessness and his courage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Police now have a suspect in custody. The mayor is in stable condition. He fractured his hand and needed stitches on his head and lip.
ROBERTS: Mexico is stepping up security on its side of the border, doubling the size of its inspection teams -- all part of an effort to find contraband coming in to the country, particularly stockpiles of guns and loads of cash being funneled in from the U.S. by drug cartels. Mexican officials say the new inspectors are better educated and have even submitted to background checks.
CHETRY: Also, when you hear binge drinking, you probably think college students, right? But there's a new study from Duke University out today showing that their parents, adult age 50 to 64, could be just as guilty. "USA Today" reports that the study shows 22 percent and 9 percent of women in that age bracket admit to having five or more drinks in the last month.
ROBERTS: As the debate over health care reform continues, a possible big concession by the White House, are they willing to give up on this idea of a public option for health insurance? We'll kick it around with our political panel: Leslie Sanchez and Jennifer Palmieri joining us -- coming up next.
It's 9 1/2 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Just a quick correction to that story we just sent you guys about binge drinking. It doesn't sound right to me either. The study found that 22 percent of men and 9 percent of women in the 50 to 64-year-old age bracket report having more or five or more drinks at a time in the last month, not five or more drinks over the course of a month, which I think even Sanjay Gupta would say would be just fine - John.
ROBERTS: President Obama has been taking it to the people during this make or break month for health care reform, selling his plan and selling it hard. But this morning, it appears the White House is backing away from a key but controversial part of that plan, the public insurance option.
Here's what the president said about it last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange, including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: OK. So, that was month ago.
But here's what White House officials were saying over the weekend on the Sunday talk shows.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What I'm saying is, the bottom line for this -- for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: That is not the essential element.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Not essentially. So, why the change in tone?
Joining us now from Washington: Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez and Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri.
So, Jennifer, let's start with you. If the White House was to drop this idea of a requirement for a public option for health insurance, it would be a fairly major modification in its plans. What's going on?
JENNIFER PALMIERI, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think that it's actually not that different than what the president has said previously. You know, they've always said, if you hear what he says at the front end of the sentence, he always he says, "I'm for choice and competition and I think that a public option is the best way to get there."
Secretary Sebelius, you know, essentially for the same thing yesterday and so did the president on Saturday. But I think they want to signal that they're open to negotiation and I think they think that if they can get the choice and the competition that they want a different way, they're open to that. I think this is the part of the process where you really do start to negotiate.
ROBERTS: So, Leslie, if the president drops this idea of a public option -- which has been a real sticking point among many of his critics -- would more Republicans come onboard this plan?
LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, the devil is on the details, John. It's going to depend to what extent. I think what is very clear is Republicans have shown that they do recognize health care as an issue. They want to move forward with a measured approach that takes care of the folks that uninsured but in sensible way without, you know, ruining any private insurance essentially and nationalizing a larger option.
But you can't walk away from this. The president is in a sticky spot. You have very mixed messages. He outlined in a letter to Senators Baucus and Kennedy that he very clearly wanted this public option plan. Then you had, you know, the White House officials backtracking from one that Secretary Sebelius was saying yesterday.
So, it's very clouded, and you see the blogosphere going crazy on the left.
ROBERTS: Sure. But the point is, you know, whether or not you say the president wanted to back it out, the point is that the criticisms have all been about this idea of the public option killing private insurance. So, if there is no public option, would more Republicans be preferably disposed to sign on to health care reform?
SANCHEZ: If you're asking me, John -- John, it depends on to what extent they're talking about. I think, you know, everybody is agreeing on the ideas of choice and competition. But to what extent they reflect that, I think that you're going to find some compromise in the middle. And I think -- if you even look at things like Rasmussen's latest poll that shows more Americans are having faith in Republicans' ability to hold the line on this and have good solutions, I think that's a measure.
ROBERTS: Jennifer, you know, we talked about this last week. That Sarah Palin seems to be having quite an influence on the health care debate here. She came out with that idea that this end-of-life counseling was all about death panels. Of course, there was a tremendous amount of pushback on it. It doesn't appear to be true based on what's in the plan.
PALMIERI: Right.
ROBERTS: But the Senate decided to drop this end-of-life provision from its measure. So, is what she's saying getting some traction here?
PALMIERI: Well, you know, it's interesting, because we're told by the Senate, said that they were going to drop this measure was actually Republican senator, Senator Isakson of Georgia, who put it in.
But I think that, you know, these kinds of false arguments that Republicans are putting forward, like Palin on death panels, I think that they're so over-the-top that they almost served to help our side. I think that they motivate our base which perhaps, in a way, that, you know, discussing the dry details of health care reform don't do. But I think that, you now, as she did last summer where she served to motivate our base and I think that independent voters really started to listen more carefully to Obama after (INAUDIBLE) heat around Palin when she was first announced.
I think that this time, again, you see, there's a lot in these arguments coming from the Republican side. But Obama is great at deflecting that and I think that the death panels have served to help motivate our side and also, you know, it makes -- the other side doesn't look as credible as they could be.
ROBERTS: Leslie, would you agree that this talk about death panels is just over the top?
SANCHEZ: I agree it's inflammatory. There's no doubt about that. But look at the effectiveness of it. I think that's a bigger issue. Not only did you have the president responding to it at one of his town hall meetings to somebody who's now just a public citizen -- I'm sorry -- a private citizen. But also, she had a legislative victory in the fact that it was remove from the Senate bill.
People that underestimate the impact of Sarah Palin do so at their own peril. She is somebody who really energizes the base. She brought up an issue in a way that was inflammatory but it addressed it to the point that it got a response and it got some high-level response not only in the blogosphere, if you look at the Google searches, but also with the White House.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, we're half way through the August recess. Things are changing. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Leslie Sanchez, Jennifer Palmieri, always great to see you both this morning. Thanks for coming in.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: And we know that you got lots of questions about health care reform -- I mean, who wouldn't. We sorted fact from fiction and put together all of the answers for you. It's all online for you. Just head to CNN.com/healthcare and you can get all the answers that you're looking for there - Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Bracing for a sell-off perhaps this Monday morning. Stocks are looking like they're set for a sharp fall. Why? Christine Romans will join us live with more on what it could mean for you.
Eighteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Got to get debt, right? Twenty minutes past the hour now.
Things have been going great for the stock markets for the S&P. But today, it looks like at least the stocks are poised for a bit of a sell-off.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, watching these futures this morning, they're showing that maybe investors will be selling stocks when the opening bell rings here. And they'll be following the tone set in first in Asia and then in Europe, where stocks fell overnight. And the concern at least, the headlines are saying it's because they're rethinking the stock rally because of concerns that global recovery might not be as strong as hoped.
Well, you know, news flash, the global recovery is full of dangerous signals and there have been a lot of concerns about -- in this country in particular -- foreclosures and the job situation. So, it shouldn't really be a surprise that people are a little nervous about what the economy is going to look like going forward. And frankly, this market, stocks were ripe for sell-off. I mean, you have seen stocks rally 49 percent as measured by the S&P 500 since those 12-year low hit back in March and 43 percent as measured by the much narrower Dow 30.
So, there's been a big, huge rally on the assumption -- as John and I were just talking about -- that, you know, there's going to be better times ahead. But we don't know how good those...
ROBERTS: The financial industry was doing well, through Goldman Sachs, places like that.
ROMANS: Right, or at least it's not including anymore.
ROBERTS: Is anybody else doing well?
ROMANS: It's all -- it's not about doing well, it's stabilizing -- stabilizing, you know? If you're just not bleeding anymore, that's been the whole point here. So, I don't think you should be surprised to see stocks pulled back, that had such a good run. We're still going to see some housing numbers today, some more manufacturing data today.
So, everything can change all the time in terms of the mood of this market. But at least, overnight, there has been some selling on the idea that the global recovery may not be as strong as had been hoped. I would say that, you know, a big rally since this March's lows -- those pretty petrifying March's lows, you know, it's right for some kind of pullback here.
ROMANS: So, we'll watch and see.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: You can't worry about it on a day to day basis, right?
ROMANS: No. And, you know, I was just talking with someone last week that a financial advice is like a little black dress or a very well-cut suit, it never goes out of style. If you're changing your -- if you're changing your financial strategy based on what happened in the last two months and what you think is going to happen in that next two months, you know, you're making some mistakes. You got to have a much longer view here and know what you want long term and how you think you're going to get there.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" and your fashion today. Christine, thanks so much.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Coming up -- 23 minutes after the hour Allen Chernoff, of course, has been doing an ongoing series here at CNN on safety of air travel. He's got some very surprising information to share with you today about the quality of the air inside the aircraft that you fly on and whether on occasion it might actually be toxic.
Stay with us for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
This morning, we are beginning a special series focusing on American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. How are they coping after months and in some cases, years on the battlefield? Back from the front lines, many are fighting the war at home.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr begins our week-long series with a report on homeless veterans. She's live in Philadelphia this morning.
Serious problem, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John.
We're here at Drexel University in downtown Philadelphia, where a town hall with veterans is about to get under way. Veterans are going to ask a lot of tough questions about their benefits, about education, housing, health care, but what we are finding is very sadly, some veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are already homeless.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SERGIO ARIAS, IRAQ WAR VETERANS: You know what kind of -- forget about everything, you know, helps me stay calm.
STARR (voice-over): A calm, far from Sergio Arias's combat tour of duty in Iraq. He served as a Marine during the 2003 invasion.
ARIAS: We have apricots up here.
STARR: Sergio, now 28, says he came home from war with post traumatic stress. He wound up in jail for possession of drugs and when he was released he had nowhere to go. Sergio came here to New Directions, a recovery center for addicted and homeless veterans.
And he found John Keaveney, a Scottish-born Vietnam veteran who started the program after he served nine years in prison on a stabbing conviction.
JOHN KEAVENEY, CO-FOUNDER, NEW DIRECTIONS: He's going to get the honest truth for me.
STARR: Blunt talk from John still with a metal plate in his head from being shot in Vietnam, he mentors this Iraq vet 32 years younger.
KEAVENEY: He'll have to make the choice what he wants to do, you know, he's got all of the potential in the world. He really does.
ARIAS: I look up to John. You know, because -- you know he tells me that I shouldn't be ashamed of having PTSD, I shouldn't be ashamed that I have problems.
STARR: Sergio suddenly finds another mentor, 60-year-old Michael Anderson, a fellow marine who served during Vietnam. Michael started writing poetry while he was in jail.
MICHAEL ANDERSON, WAR VETERAN: As the bell tolls, I offer a salute to our fighting men in uniform, brave and resolute.
STARR: The vets decided to collaborate.
ARIAS: I already have a picture in my mind for what I want to paint for that poem.
STARR: While this Iraq and this Vietnam vet are separated by generations, they are now joined by their art and their battle against the demons of homelessness, addiction, and combat duty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: So, we're seeing veterans who came home 40 years ago from Vietnam reaching out to help the newest generation of veterans.
And, John, I have to tell you, here at Drexel, in this hall behind me, the town hall will be conducted by Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Eric Shinseki, the secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
But there is a lot of anxiety down in that hall right now. A lot of staffers very nervous that there could be disruptions; and no one wants to see the picture of a veteran being taken out of the room by the Philadelphia Police Department, which is here. So there's a little bit of anxiety.
And, in fact, we are told they even had very minimal publicity in the last few days about this event because they were so concerned about disruptions over the very contentious health care debate -- John?
ROBERTS: And unfortunately, they wouldn't publicize it because it's such an important issue. You would think that you'd want to get as many people involved as possible.
Barbara Starr for us this morning -- Barbara, thanks so much.
STARR: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: In about 10 minutes from now, by the way, we're going to talk with two Iraq war veterans, Don Gomez and Tammy Krum. They'll have some questions about veterans' health care in a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania today, the one that Barbara's at, with Senator Arlen Specter and the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki.
And tomorrow, in the second part of our series, Dr. Sanjay Gupta's going to look at some behavioral changes -- like binge drinking and the drug addiction that Barbara talked about -- exhibited by returning soldiers, were finding it difficult to cope once they're home from the war.
CHETRY: All right. We're coming up on the bottom of the hour now -- a look at our top stories.
Tropical storm Claudette now downgraded to a tropical depression. The storm is pounding the Florida panhandle right now, expected to head to Alabama a bit later today. Claudette was the first tropical storm to hit the U.S. mainland this year. Forecasters are also watching the season's first hurricane, Hurricane Bill, which is churning now out in the Atlantic.
ROBERTS: Firefighters dealing with 11 different wildfires across the state of California this morning. Winds, heat, and severely dry conditions just making things worse. Some residents in Santa Cruz County are returning back home, but hundreds more are still waiting for the all clear.
CHETRY: Well, it's being called one of the biggest upset in golf, perhaps even in sports history, South Korean Y.E. Yang, the 110th rank player in the world came from behind, ended up beating Tiger Woods in Sunday's PGA championship. It would have been Tiger's 15th win at the Majors, instead turned out to be Yang's first.
ROBERTS: And again, living up to his name, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set another world record in the 100-meter final at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Bolt clocked in at 9.58 seconds, shattering his last record setting time by more than 1/10 of a second. He's being checked to see if he's got auxiliary rocket packs on.
CHETRY: Well, any frequent flyer knows that air on the plane can sometimes be pretty stale, but can it make you sick? Will there or people who make a living flying these planes that are especially worried about that.
ROBERTS: And there is growing evidence, by the way, that the air pumped into planes can be contaminated, maybe even toxic. Our Allan Chernoff has been doing some digging on this, and he's here to tell us about this in his exclusive investigation -- more in his ongoing series making sure that you're as safe as possible in the skies.
Good morning, Allan.
CHERNOFF: John, Kiran, good morning to you.
It might seem that the biggest health risk in the air we breathe aboard a plane is a passenger sneezing near you, but the fact is in some cases the air circulating through the cabin can be toxic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Former flight attendant Terry Williams says she can barely care for sons because she suffers from a series of mysterious ailments. She complains of debilitating migraine headaches and tremors.
TERRY WILLIAMS, FORMER FLIGHT ATTENDANT: It just feels uncontrollable. I can't stop it from twitching or trembling.
CHERNOFF: And blind spots in her field of vision. WILLIAMS: No.
CHERNOFF (on camera): You can see my hand right now?
WILLIAMS: No.
CHERNOFF: What do you see?
WILLIAMS: A black spot.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): The symptoms, Williams says, began near the end of a flight more than two years ago, when she says she saw smoke blowing through a vent.
In a lawsuit against Boeing, owner of McDonnell-Douglas which made the MV-82 aircraft on which it was working, Williams claims for disability resulted from and hailing poisonous fumes.
Boeing told CNN "It is our belief that air quality on airplanes is healthy and safe."
CHERNOFF (on camera): Half of what we breathe on board a jetliner is filtered, recirculated air. The other half comes through the jet engines. This pressurized, cool, and then mixed with the recirculated air.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): In some cases, bad air, called "bleed air" which bleeds off jet engines, can be toxic. If an engine oil seal leaks, aviation engineers and scientists say the fuse can enter the cabin.
Boeing says in its response to Williams sued, "The potential for bleed air contamination has been known to be aviation industry for many years," though the company denies any responsibility for Terri Williams illness.
A National Academies of Science's study in 2002 found contaminant exposures do occur resulting from the intake of chemical contaminants. like engine lubricating oils, and to the environmental control system and then into the cabin.
A neuropsychologist recently studied more than two dozen British pilots who claimed they had inhaled contaminated air.
DR. SARAH MACKENZIE ROSS, NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF COLLEGE, LONDON: They did appear to underperform on tasks that required attention, processing space, reaction time.
CHERNOFF: Angie Estes, who suffers tremor attacks, believe she inhaled such toxins as airline passenger.
PROFESSOR CLEMENT FURLONG, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: There's a danger of inhaling compounds coming out of the engine, that the engine seals fail, and there're are very potent toxins that came on board with the engine seals failed.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Does that happen?
FURLONG: It does happen.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): How often? A British study for the House of Lords found few events in one of every 2,000 flights. In the U.S., airlines are required to report events to the Federal Aviation Administration. There were 108 such reports last year.
So why wouldn't more flight attendants, pilots, and passengers suffer symptoms? Furlong explains relatively few people will react to the most toxic chemicals. High levels enzymes and antibodies, which for some people can be triggered by prescription drugs, will act on the inhaled chemicals to magnify their toxicity.
FURLONG: If you happen to be taking a medication that turns on the protein that converts the pre-toxin into a very potent toxin, then you've got an issue.
CHERNOFF (on camera): So, one person could be sitting in the seat, and the person next to them could be the one who has the terrific symptoms?
FURLONG: And has a huge response to it, tremors and loss of memory and so forth.
CHERNOFF: And the other person could have no effect?
FURLONG: It could have no noticeable effects of all.
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Terry Williams says she wasn't taking prescription drugs during the event. But Professor Furlong says enzyme levels can vary greatly between people, even resulting from the foods they eat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: Furlong has blood samples from 92 people claiming to suffer from similar ailments, mostly pilots and flight attendants. He says he's close to finalizing a test that will confirm for sure whether engine oil toxins indeed are in their blood -- Kiran, John?
ROBERTS: Is there anything the airline manufacturers can do to try to filter out the air? And if they can filter out some particulate matter, but these bolotow (ph) compounds are different, isn't it?
CHERNOFF: It would seem a very simple solution. We spoke to Boeing about the idea of putting the filter actually on the air is coming and that's bleeding off of the engines. And Boeing says if you were to do that it would affect the pressurization of that air. And so that's the reason they say that they just can't do that.
But they, again, they say that that air is totally safe, totally fine. They also say that it is just as good as the air we breathe in any office building.
ROBERTS: Well, we all complain about that, don't we?
CHERNOFF: Perhaps not quite in the same way, though.
ROBERTS: No, that's true.
CHETRY: Allan, thanks so much.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking about the issue of veterans returning from the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war. Are they getting the help they need? We're talking about post traumatic stress disorder, many, many of them still dealing with that, as well as other issues like trying to find a job in a tough labor market.
They're holding a town hall today in Pennsylvania. We're going to be joined by two veterans from the Iraq war who are going to be talking about what they want to hear at this town hall.
It's 36 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, all week here on American morning, we're focusing on the challenges of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It's our "War at Home." Going from the front lines to the home front can be a difficult transition, and in a bad economy, it's even harder.
Today, a town hall meeting's taking place in Philadelphia where the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs Eric Shinseki will address some of the health care issues critical to veterans as well as education issues.
And two people who will be there, Don Gomez, an army sergeant who served in Iraq, he was deployed in 2003 and 2005, as well as petty officer in the Navy Tammy Krum, also an Iraq war veteran. Thank you for joining us, both of you, this morning.
DON GOMEZ, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Thank you.
CHETRY: Let me start with you, Don. One of the big issues they're going to be addressing at the town hall meeting is education as this enhanced G.I. bill that's going to be helping more and more of these returning veterans pay for education, not only from state schools, but also private universities, as well as helping out with housing and with paying for books.
How critical is getting that help to these veterans that are returning from these wars and trying to get employment?
GOMEZ: Well, it's very critical. We're actually very proud that the new G.I. bill is being implemented this month. IAVA led the way, led the fight in bringing that increased benefit to us.
And what it does is it pays for the highest in state tuition of the public university in your state. It pays for a living in your area, and it pays up to $1,000 a year for books. And this is a big amount above what we were getting and what I was getting when I got out of the army in 2006. And I think it'll go a long way in easing the transition from combat into the civilian world.
CHETRY: And Tammy, one of the things you mentioned is that the current bill, it covers you for 36 months, you're saying if it would be for 48, you could, you know, complete a four-year degree in a timeframe that's not as difficult. You say that right now some people are trying to cram in a bunch of credits.
TAMMY KRUM, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Exactly. Under the current program, a lot of four-year universities to complete a bachelor's is more than 120 credits, and to be able to complete a bachelor's degree in three years while transitioning to civilian life, it's quite challenging, and a lot of people I know are taking on anywhere from 18 to 24 credits per semester, trying to finish in the time that's allotted for that 36 month window to not incur student debt upon graduation.
CHETRY: Right. And I know that that can be pretty costly and expensive.
Another interesting thing is for people who served in wars and paid the ultimate price, I understand that some of these benefits can go on to the children, as well, and help them pay for their schooling. So that's another great thing.
Another big issue is health care. President Obama said last week that the V.A. is working hard to make sure that every veteran, not just active forces, but also people in the National Guard as well as reservists are aware of the benefits available to them. We're guiding them through the process.
How would you classify the coverage right now and the way that veterans' health care is handled -- Don?
GOMEZ: Well, that's one of the big questions that I -- one of the big issues I'd like to see General Shinseki talk about today. We know that there's a lot of claims issues with the backlog that's currently in the V.A.
And I'd like to hear General Shinseki talk a little bit about how the V.A. is transforming itself with updating to electronic health records and how it's going to make itself more available for veterans that are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with the signature injuries, which are post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
CHETRY: They talk about adding an additional $25 billion over the next five years, Tammy, to deal with that very thing, the post traumatic stress disorder.
Even if you're not suffering from that particular ailment as a result of your fighting over there in the war, are there other health concerns that maybe are unique to veterans that people need to be paying more attention to?
KRUM: I can't think of any that have personally impacted me. I know that people get out of the military, a lot of people have back problems, injury with ligaments, and stuff like that.
And then once you go to claim something with the V.A., if an amount of time has passed since you got out of the military, it's harder to establish service connected disability as a result of the amount of time that's lapsed since getting out of the military.
CHETRY: Right. So you're talking about trying to clear up some of that red tape that perhaps gets in the way of getting the health care you need.
And Don, we have more than a million veterans of foreign wars since 2001, I mean, just a huge number. And as we saw from Barbara Starr's reporting, many homeless veterans in this problem, growing 3,700 she said living on the streets.
What is the solution there? How do you help people who in many cases are suffering from some mental problems and perhaps post traumatic stress? And how do you deal with this homeless problem?
GOMEZ: Well, I think we've already started dealing with it by getting this post 9/11 G.I. bill passed. That's going to be the first stop in transitioning out of the military. They have a way to go to school that's not going to be too expensive. They can now afford to go to school. So that's one thing.
The other thing is enhancing those mental health services for veterans who are suffering from PTSD and TBI.
The third thing, and this is one I think we need to improve on, is finding a way to get veterans in jobs quickly when they come out of the service.
In this new economy that's not doing too well, it's very hard to find a job, especially if your skill set is an infantry man or a paratrooper. There are just not jobs for those people coming out of the military.
CHETRY: Right.
And Tammy, Don mentioned a couple of things that he would like to ask if he had a chance to today. What if you get a question to General Shinseki? What would you like to ask him today at this town hall?
KRUM: When do they plan on implementing a better transition program for those coming out of the military? I know that the process for applying for V.A. health care since I got out of the military has changed, and we were never notified of the way it changed.
It wasn't until I went online digging for the information as to how our benefits are different from other campaigns that I was able to find out how or what was available through the V.A. for health care. But there's no definitive process of this is how you seek it.
CHETRY: All right, you need better access to information and figuring out how to go about doing it quickly. I understand, and hopefully you'll get a chance to ask your question today, a lot of good issues that both of you brought up, Don Gomez as well as Tammy Krum, both Iraq War veterans. Thanks so much.
GOMEZ: Thank you very much.
KRUM: Thanks.
CHETRY: Also, remember, all week long, our special series on vets back from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, now fighting the war at home. It's all this week here on "American Morning."
ROBERTS: Michael Vick back on the football field over the weekend, and talking to James Brown for a "60 Minutes" piece on dog fighting and his rehabilitation and hoped for redemption. What are you saying about Michael Vick's return to the NFL? We'll find out right after this.
It's 47 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Michael Vick says he's a changed man and he is taking responsibility for his involvement in a dog fighting ring that landed him in prison for 18 months.
Vick is now back in the NFL after being signed by the Philadelphia Eagles. He tells CBS's "60 Minutes" about life behind bars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL VICK, SIGNED WITH THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: The first time I walked into prison and they slammed that door, I knew, you know, the magnitude of the decisions that I made and the poor judgment and what I, you know, allowed to happen to the animals.
And, you know, it's no way of explaining, you know, the hurt and guilt that I felt. And that was the reason I crashed so many nights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Michael Vick's return certainly has you fired up. We have phone calls pouring into our a.m. fix hot line. Here's a little bit of what some of you are saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is absolutely wrong and disgusting that Michael Vick is allowed to return to the NFL after what he did to all those poor, innocent animals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a country of second chances. Michael Vick played his price. He went to jail. He did his time for his crime, and I believe he deserves a second chance in the NFL.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am so glad that Michael Vick is playing football again. He have deserves it. Dog fighting is not the most horrible crime in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I told my husband I will divorce him if he turns on a Philadelphia Eagles' game. I think it's atrocious that people can kill dogs and come out and get million dollar deals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, we want to hear more from you. Call our show hot line 877-my-amfix. You can also drop us a line on our Web site, cnn.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: So many things being affected in this economy, including the price of milk. We'll tell you how it's hurting dairy farmers and what needs to be done to rescue them coming up next.
It's 52 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
If you went grocery shopping over the week, you might have noticed you paid less for a gallon of milk. And while that's good for your family budget, our Deb Feyerick found out it's hurting mom and pop dairy farmers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every morning bright and early, you'll find Alan Borbo and his two sons milking the cows at their farm in St. Albans, Vermont.
ALAN BOURBEAU, DAIRY FARMER: We've been doing it for 34 years. To be able to have a weekend off, it'd be awful nice. But I cannot afford to pay an extra man right now just to work two or three extra mornings a week just so I can have that luxury.
FEYERICK (on camera): And you're the chief executive officer.
BOURBEAU: Yes. Chief of everything, debts and all.
(LAUGHTER)
FEYERICK (voice-over): And the debts right now are soaring.
BOURBEAU: We're definitively running negative, yes, $4,000 or $5,000 negative.
FEYERICK (on camera): Every month?
BOURBEAU: Every month. FEYERICK (voice-over): Why? Last year demand for U.S. dairy experts were high and milk sold a record at $19 per 100 pounds, about two of these jars. That price has plunged to $11, less than what it actually cost dairy farmers to produce it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is certainly not overblown. This is the worst crisis that the dairy farmers probably have ever seen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now farmers are in a position where they're paying to go to work every day.
FEYERICK: Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took the unusual step of raising support prices by about 15 percent for dairy products through October.
JOE GLAUBER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, USDA: Hopefully this is -- these actions will suffice and get a lot of dairy producers over, you know, this rough patch they're going through.
FEYERICK: Maybe, maybe not.
FEYERICK (on camera): While the cost of milk is going down, the cost of virtually everything else to run a farm is going up.
BOURBEAU: Actually, my fertilizer cost was roughly $20,000. This year my fertilizer is $25,000. I have done nothing different, except now I've got $5,000 extra.
FEYERICK: Like many farmers, Bourbeau has been borrowing from the bank and cutting corners.
BOURBEAU: We're trying to cut the grain, cut every cost that we possibly can, but trying not to lose too much milk production.
FEYERICK: Sons Justin and Eric know every cow and every inch of land. What they don't know is whether there's a future here.
FEYERICK (on camera): Obviously, this is in your blood. Are there some days where you think about giving it up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, more often now than before.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Still, the Bourbeaus have faith things will turn around and that they'll keep the farm for generations to come.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, St. Albans, Vermont.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead, I don't know if you heard about this one, but a Bollywood star, one of the most famous men in India, was detained at Newark airport. He was questioned for hours by immigration officials.
There's a lot of outrage. He says it was a case of profiling because of his last name.
It's 57 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right, our top videos right now on CNN.com.
Fans are outraged after one of Bollywood's biggest stars was detained for hours at New Jersey's Newark International Airport over the weekend. Immigration officials say that Shahrukh Khan was stopped when his name came up on a computer alert list.
And in a case of from the "you can't make this up" file, he was actually traveling while promoting his film, "My name is Kang," which explores racial profiling of Muslims after the 9/11 attacks.
Check this out. Instead of cash for clunkers, why not crash a clunker? Well, some people in Wisconsin have decided it would be a lot more fun to actually launch their gas guzzlers into the air and then watch them crash into a gravel pit. I don't think you're getting a $4,500 voucher for doing that, but I guess maybe it's worth it.
They installed remote controls in each of the cars, and then, there you see. In some cases a camera was put into the cars, and just let them fly.
ROBERTS: Didn't get much of an arc on that bus, but that one car was a Dukes of Hazard jump.
CHETRY: I'm sure that complies with environmental standards for clean-up.
ROBERTS: I'm sure it does.
Continue the conversations on today's stories. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amfix.
Thanks very much for joining us this morning. We'll see you back here again bright and early tomorrow morning. Right now the news continues with Betty Nguyen and the "CNN NEWSROOM."
