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Government to Cut Bailed Out Bosses Salaries; Obama To Decide Afghanistan Strategy in Two Weeks; Air Force Cadets Studied for Swine Flu; Coffee Cuts Liver Damage; Medicare Fraud; Driving Out Gangs; Sound Off to Sanchez; Catholic Church Offers to Accept Anglican Priests Breaking with the Episcopal Church

Aired October 22, 2009 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Brings us to the top of the hour. Thanks for joining us on the "Most News in the Morning." It's Thursday. It's the 22nd of October. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.

Here are the big stories that we're going to be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.

First, Washington hitting some of the biggest bailed out bosses right where it hurts, the wallets, slashing salaries by as much as 90 percent at some companies. Our CNN Money Team is here to break down the news and also the impact it will have on Main Street.

ROBERTS: Plus, coast to coast, swine flu is spreading faster than the authorities expected. Close to 200 schools have closed their doors now and hospitals are keeping some visitors out as a precaution. But an outbreak at the Air Force Academy in Colorado let doctors observe the pattern of the virus.

So what did they learn? We're talking live with the lead investigator on that study -- just ahead.

CHETRY: And what's being called a historic move by the Vatican. The Catholic Church wanting to make it easier for Anglicans disgruntled with women and openly gay clergy to join their flock, even married priests with kids are being encouraged to make the switch while current priests have to remain celibate. More on what could be a stunning irony in all of this with two men with cloaks (ph) -- just ahead.

First, though, the Obama administration getting back at some of the big Wall Street big shots making a fortune, thanks to bonuses and big pay checks -- all paid by you and me. Well, President Obama's pay czar now demanding that the amount of money the top 25 executives at seven companies be slashed. Salaries could be cut by as much as 90 percent. The companies include Citigroup, AIG, Bank of America -- have a combine $300 billion of your tax dollars.

Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning and she joins us now with the implications of this suggestion, or actually, it's more than a suggestion. Do they have to comply with this? CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's coming. It's coming. And we're going to learn at 1:30 Eastern Time, we're going to hear from Kenneth Feinberg himself, he's going to talk to reporters and in a (INAUDIBLE) briefing to talk about exactly what he's doing here overall.

But this is the big pay cuts coming to the bailout hall of shame. These are the companies that would not exist today if your money and my money weren't funneled at the very last minute to keep them afloat. These are companies like Citigroup, G.M., GMAC, Bank of America, AIG.

This is all about changing the pay culture and rewarding for performance, not for taking short-term risks. That's what's -- that's what the administration thinks is really behind so much of the financial crisis. The people who were taking these wild, risky bets for pay in the near-term, and not caring what was going to happen longer term.

These companies also knew this was coming. No doubt about that. They have been talking with him, consulting with him. They have been, for months now, giving documents over to Ken Feinberg, the guy who's in charge of trying to fix all of this in the very near term.

And I spoke with someone recently from one of these big banks who said that he's been pretty methodical and that he gets it. That there's a fine line here between making sure that you're not paying for risk and you're not using taxpayer money to give some big bloated paycheck, but also not pushing away good talent. Because these are actually the companies that need the best talent right now because they're sitting there with all of our money and we've got to make sure they succeed.

CHETRY: Also, do you have a "Roman's Numeral" for us this morning?

ROMANS: I don't have a "Romans Numeral," but I'll give you one, just for -- just for your own abdication, 525. That is how many other people are going to come under the sights of Kenneth Feinberg as well. He's going to set some broader standards for another 525 people. So, 175 top employees of these seven firms, 525 other people who will learn about the details later today.

But this is a White House that is trying to fix the optics, which have been not so good, haven't they, over the past few months? We have all been hearing, again and again, why are they getting all of this money?

ROBERTS: Yes.

ROMANS: These particular companies, these seven companies -- I mean, they have basically a lifeline at the Treasury Department right now.

ROBERTS: There's a big disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.

ROMANS: That's right.

ROBERTS: And they're trying to, as Feinberg said, bridge that chasm.

Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: Sure.

ROBERTS: In 16 days, Afghanistan holds a runoff election to decide its next president. The White House says a decision on troop levels for Afghanistan could come before that time. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns that we can't wait much longer to decide and he is making his recommendation to the president today.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning.

And, Barbara, can the president really commit more troops to Afghanistan before he even knows who's in charge there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question, John. The sound you hear in the background everywhere is that clock ticking in Afghanistan. Sixteen days to the election and a U.S. military apparatus that is urgently waiting for a decision from the White House because winter's coming and it's going to take a long time to get troops there if they want them there.

Senator John Kerry, the man who brokered the runoff election, has one view. The secretary of defense has another. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I think that as a matter of common sense the president would feel that it makes sense to wait until the end of this two-week period. Two weeks is a very short span of times, folks, to determine whether or not you have a government to work with in a war. It's very hard for me to believe that the president would decide otherwise.

ROBERT GATES, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: But I think that we need to be realistic, that the issues of corruption and governance that we are trying to work with the Afghan government on are not going to be solved simply by the outcome of the presidential election. This is going to be a work in process, an evolutionary effort. And we need to be realistic about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Behind the scenes, John -- behind the scenes, U.S. military commanders are really siding with Secretary Gates, saying you have to look at the long-term. Not just the next two weeks. Not just the runoff election. Security, they say, must be improved in Afghanistan, regardless of whoever heads the next Afghan government. And right now, the only people that can improve security in the near term in Afghanistan are U.S. troops and it's going to take more of them -- John?

ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, thanks.

CHETRY: Six minutes past the hour.

Also new this morning, musicians protesting the military's use of their songs as an interrogation tool. Headliners like Pearl Jam, REM and the Roots are joining an effort to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and they're demanding a full list of songs used at Gitmo during the Bush administration. Last year, a human rights group says interrogators blasted Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" to get information out of al Qaeda's suspects.

ROBERTS: If you were watching yesterday's hearings on swine flu, you might have noticed that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had a bit of a shiner in her left eye. Her office says she had a standard skin cancer procedure to remove a basal cell carcinoma, and some of the swelling made its way into her eyelid there. Doctors say it's the most common form of skin cancer, rarely spread if treated.

In an e-mail, her spokesperson said Sebelius is now back to fighting to get everyone the same good health care that she has.

CHETRY: Well, also, for the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Phillies are World Series-bound. They beat the L.A. Dodgers 10-4 last night. The defending world champions now advance to play either the Yankees or the Los Angeles Angels in the World Series a week from today. The Yankees, by the way, lead in the American League Championship Series 3-1 and they're playing tonight.

ROBERTS: I know of what the secretary of health and human service speaks, one there and one there.

CHETRY: Did you have a lot of swelling with that happened?

ROBERTS: Yes. This eye, it looked like somebody socked me. In fact, if you on the Internet, you will see several pictures of me. Who hit John Roberts? Nobody.

So, there was a big outbreak of swine flu -- speaking of swine flu -- at the Air Force Academy back in the summertime. The way that they handled it could be a model for how to deal with future outbreaks across the country. We're going to talk with the lieutenant colonel who was in charge of making sure that those who were sick got isolated in a way that would make the virus burn out very quickly. Stay tuned for that.

It's eight minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

Swine flu is on the move, spreading from coast to coast. The Education Department says tens of thousands of students are out of school and the U.S. Air Force Academy is not immune either. More than 100 cadets there caught the virus a couple of months ago, and while they were being treated, doctors got a unique chance to learn more about the virus. So, what did they find out?

Joining us to break it all down this morning, the top doctor in the study, Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Witkop.

Lieutenant Colonel, it's good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much for being with us.

So, there was all of this alarm and all of these warnings during the spring about the H1N1 virus and suddenly you've got an outbreak there at the Air Force Academy. What did you do when you first got word that the virus was spreading?

LT. COL. CATHERINE WITKOP, M.D., HEAD OF H1N1 STUDY AT U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY: Well, our new cadets had arrived at the Air Force Academy in July for their basic cadet training, which is a six-week training program. And within about 10 days of arrival, we realized that we had H1N1 virus among our cadets, and very quickly, a large number of cadets were infected.

And so, our first move was to go to the CDC guidelines and get our cadets separated from the other cadets. And so our -- the Air Force Academy leadership designated a dorm -- a separate dorm for our sick cadets and we had anyone who's diagnosed with H1N1 was moved to that separate dorm. They stayed there until they were seven days from the onset of their symptoms and 24 hours symptom-free.

And this allowed -- we believe this was a big factor in how we were able to control the spread of the virus.

ROBERTS: So, implementing those guidelines, how long did it take you to get the spread of the virus under control?

WITKOP: Well, within about 48 to 72 hours, we were able to get the dorms set up and our cadets isolated. It took about seven to 10 days before we saw the virus go down to a lower level, where we were seeing only a few cadets per week. And we continued to see some cases of the virus, but the outbreak itself was contained within about 10 days.

ROBERTS: You also, at the same time, undertook a big public education campaign, telling people how to limit the spread of the virus. What were the guidelines that you handed out?

WITKOP: We did. We had a very large public health campaign. We taught the cadets and others who were on campus to cover their cough, to use hand sanitizers. We placed hand sanitizers throughout the dormitories and via e-mail and signs and mass briefings, we were able to get the word out that that's...

ROBERTS: And any evidence that that actually worked in helping curb the spread of the disease?

WITKOP: We don't really know which of the factors was the most instrumental. We do know that one of the -- one of the things that we do know about, what probably helped, was the teamwork on the Air Force Academy. Everyone from the superintendent of the academy, General Gould, all the way down to our medical technicians that were collecting the samples, really helped make this -- make this effort come together, and I believe really help curb the spread of the disease.

ROBERTS: So, here's a question you can probably help a lot of folks out with. The one thing that people wonder, the H1N1 virus -- if I get swine flu, how sick am I going to be? How sick did these cadets get?

WITKOP: The disease was, fortunately, very mild. Most of the cadets, the length of their symptoms was approximately five days, give or take a couple of days. All of the cadets recovered -- completely recovered. None were hospitalized.

Now, we have a very unique population. Our cadets are screened with physical criteria to come to the Air Force Academy...

ROBERTS: Right.

WITKOP: ... which benefited them. But it was a fairly mild illness, overall.

ROBERTS: You conducted some pretty rigorous observation, too, of the cadets who were sick and isolated in that barracks. You were able to do nasal washes every day and check whether or not they had viable virus.

What did you find through that research? And when you compared it against CDC guidelines for isolation, what did you determine?

WITKOP: Well, we undertook this observational study during the outbreak in order to help inform us, you know, what the best guidelines were for isolating our cadets, the cadets who were in this six-week program. We wanted to balance containment of the virus with getting them back to training and to school as quickly as possible. So, we undertook this study to look at the shedding of the virus.

What we found was that in a proportion of cadets, 24 hours after they were symptom-free, approximately 19 percent of the specimens tested still contained viable virus. Now, this does not necessarily mean that those cadets can still transmit or spread the virus to others, but it does mean that the virus was still living in them.

And we also found that approximately seven days after the onset of their symptoms, about a quarter of them, about a quarter of those samples still contain viable virus.

The CDC does recommend that after 24 hours of no fever off of fever- reducing medicines that people can return to work and return to school. And in low-risk situations, that probably is still very good guidance. In higher-risk settings, such as health care settings or child care settings, or if the virus becomes more severe, the flu -- the severity of the flu increases, I think the findings of our study will hopefully help inform recommendations for maybe prolonged isolation of individuals. But, again, we don't know for sure if the viable virus in those specimens necessarily means that those can transmit.

ROBERTS: Lots of interesting observations and some terrific lessons learned. Dr. Witkop, it's good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for joining us.

WITKOP: Thank you, John. Have a great day.

ROBERTS: All right, you too. Thanks so much. And 16 minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Wow. What a beautiful shot this morning from New York City. Partly cloudy right now. 59 degrees. A little bit later, it's going to be up to 72. We're supposed to get a little bit of sunshine, so no complaints here. 19 minutes past the hour. We're checking what else is new this morning. Facebook and Google taking on iTunes. Introducing some new features for you to get music. Google will officially announce its plans next week but reports say the company has deals in place to let you sample and buy songs from other sites, straight from its search pages. Facebook, meanwhile, will reportedly link up with music sites like iLike, which is a division of its rival, MySpace.

ROBERTS: Doing the dishes, an aphrodisiac? A new study published in a journal of family issues looked at close to 7,000 married couples and it found that couples that spent more time doing housework have more sex. And most importantly, they have it with each other. Researchers say many couples who share the daily chores have more energy for other things.

CHETRY: And a new study says a few cups of coffee a day can keep liver disease at bay. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute tested people with chronic hepatitis "C" as well as advanced liver disease and they say the ones who drank 3 cups per day slashed in half the risk of the disease progressing. That's amazing. Millions who contract hepatitis "C" each year run the risk of developing cirrhosis or liver cancer.

ROBERTS: And check this out, first lady Michelle Obama hula hooping on the south lawn of the White House. The First Lady, trying to make the point that exercise should be fun. She also admitted she loves french fries and tells her girls that if they eat the right food most of the time, it's okay to have cake and french fries, but only on special occasions.

CHETRY: I love how she just wants to keep it moving. The kids, they're falling down. Pretty amazing. All right, still ahead the Catholic Church announcing some changes trying to reach out to Anglicans that may be upset with their own church. But is this a mixed message? We're going to be talking about it with both a Catholic priest, as well as a priest from the Episcopal church, in just a moment. It's 21 minutes past the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: The lights of Los Angeles this morning. Just about daybreak there. Folks on the west coast getting their day under way. Clear and 58 right now. Later on today, an amazing day, sunny and a high of 81. Welcome back to the "most news in the morning." Health care fraud. It's a multibillion dollar business. Wait until you hear who is secretly behind it.

CHETRY: Yeah, organized crime. Allan Chernoff joins us now with an exclusive report. So this means that crime gangs are basically, effectively stealing from taxpayers in health care fraud?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, they certainly are. The taxpayer funded Medicare and Medicaid programs are victim to billions of dollars of fraud every year and organized crime is grabbing a cut of the action. It's safer than running drug, prostitution, or gambling rings and it can be more profitable.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: Federal agents in Los Angeles last week arresting two Nigerian members of an organized crime ring. They're charged with defrauding Medicare of $6 million. It's the latest strike in a growing battle against organized crime's newest scheme. Ripping off taxpayer funded Medicare and Medicaid programs.

GLENN FERRY, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: They are definitely well organized, well schooled in how to commit Medicare fraud. Easy with sort of the heavy hand.

CHERNOFF: Organized crime groups of multiple ethnicities and nationalities are muscling in on the action in health care fraud hot spots like Los Angeles. Primeross Constantine Gregorio, a former Soviet army colonel. He pled guilty to stealing $20 million from Medicare. Caraped Precarian (ph), boss of a Eurasian crime gang. He and five of his lieutenants were recently convicted of stealing doctor identities in a $2 million scam.

The Ketarian gang filed Medicare claims for patients receiving treatment at an office here in downtown Los Angeles. But there's no doctor's office here. Only a mail drop, where prosecutors say the crime ring received hundreds of thousands of dollars of Medicare reimbursement checks.

FERRY: Medicare had no idea that a lot of this was going on, because they assumed a legitimate doctor was providing services.

CHERNOFF: In this undercover sting, Ketarian was caught giving instructions on how to set up a bogus medical clinic that bill Medicare using stolen doctor IDs.

The doctors that do know, they can claim identity theft any [ bleep ] way. Yeah. That's pretty slick.

CHERNOFF: Doctor Gian Franco Birdy had his identity stolen when he was recruited to join what appeared to be a new medical practice here. After the managers failed to show a business license, Dr. Birdy pulled out. Two years later, the FBI came calling.

DR. BIRDY, LOS ANGELES DOCTOR: I was actually pretty, pretty frightened.

CHERNOFF: The FBI questioned Dr. Birdy, a psychiatrist, whether he had prescribed electric wheelchairs for Medicare patients, $800,000 worth?

BIRDY: I said, no, I'm a psychiatrist. Why would I prescribe an automatic wheelchair?

CHERNOFF: To file fraudulent claims, criminals need beneficiary ID numbers. They're easy to collect along LA's skid row. Residents tell CNN, they've accepted cash from recruiters known as cappers to go to bogus medical clinics. There they share what they call their red, white and blue. Their Medicare card that has a beneficiary number for billing the government. And that happens all the time around here?

Yes, all the time. Every day. People down here need to eat. Somebody who comes up with a quick hustle, quick money, they're going to jump on it. I'm one of them. I will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF: And there's certainly many more desperate people who are very much willing to take advantage of the system, to sell their numbers. And the fact is that the health programs, the federal health programs, they operate on the honor system, which makes it very, very easy for everyone here to rip off the system.

ROBERTS: So how deeply involved is organized crime here? How much fraud does it account for?

CHERNOFF: The truth is, the government wishes that it actually knew. Nobody has a real number, nobody is certain at all, but they do know that it runs in the tens of billions of dollars, this type of fraud, and $4 billion is the number that the office of inspector general of the health and human services department expects to actually pull in from these investigations this year alone.

ROBERTS: All right. Allan Chernoff for us this morning. That's pretty amazing. Allan, thanks so much. So we want to hear what you have to say about all of this. And for more details on health care fraud and organized crime, head to our blog at cnn.com/amfix. And we're now 28 minutes after the hour.

Checking our top stories, a security guard at Newark Liberty airport denies that he made threats against president Obama. 55-year- old John Brek was arrested on Tuesday, one day before the president arrived in new jersey to attend a rally for governor Jon Corzine. Brek is going to be arraigned this afternoon. Apparently, a couple of his coworkers said they heard a disturbing conversation with him around the lunch cart and they reported that. A search of Brek's home turned up at least 40 firearms, all of them apparently legally owned. Sex, drugs, and Bernie Madoff. A new lawsuit claims that the convicted ponzi schemer brought so much cocaine into his office that it was known as the north pole. The complaint also said there were wild parties with topless entertainers, and employees having sex in the workplace. Madoff allegedly used money stolen from investors to pay for escorts and masseuses.

And the Tennessee father who was released after being jailed in Japan trying to get his children back now and speaking out about his ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER SAVOIE, TENNESSEE FATHER: I'm happy. I'm extremely happy not to be in the situation I was in. But then again, you know, I've basically -- my kids are still over there. And there are 125 plus kids from the united states who are still over there and hundreds of others from around the world. I'm not happy that we seem to have no ability in this great country of ours to be able to get our own children back. Hopefully that will change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Christopher Savoie went on to say that there are no words for not having his kids back at home - Kiran.

CHETRY: It's being called one of the Vatican's most sweeping gestures to other Christians since the reformation. The Catholic church has thrown open the gates to Anglicans, some disgruntled with female and openly gay clergy. Well, even married priests with kids are being encouraged to make a switch. But, what does it mean for the future of the church and its current priests?

Joining us now from Washington, Father Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University, and also here in New York joining us is Bishop Christopher Epting, Ecumenical Officer for the Episcopal Church. Welcome as well, Bishop.

Let me start with you, Father Reese. Thanks for being with us this morning. There are some who are suggesting that perhaps the Catholic Church is trying to bolster its own receding membership by capitalizing on some of the problems and riffs in the Anglican Church. What do you say to that?

FATHER THOMAS REESE, SENIOR FELLOW, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, I think what the Catholic Church is trying to do is to respond to people who are coming to us. We're not going out and looking for Anglicans to bring them into the church. They are coming to us and want to talk about joining with the Catholic Church.

At the same time, we want to have good, ecumenical relations with the entire Anglican Communion. We want to continue dialogues so that some day in the future we can have unity between the Catholic Church and the entire Anglican Communion.

But right now we have people coming, wanting to join us, and the question is, do we keep the doors shut and say, go away, you're on your own, or do we welcome them in?

And Bishop Epting, what is your reaction to this? Do some leaders in the Episcopal Church feel that this is poaching?

BISHOP CHRISTOPHER EPTING, ECUMENICAL OFFICER, EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Not so much poaching, but it certainly was a disappointment and a surprise to us in some ways. We've been engaged in Anglican and Catholic dialogue for over 40 years, both international and national, and to have this sprung without much consultation was really a surprise to us and a bit confusing at this present time.

And it will take us a while to sort all this out as for what it means for ecumenical relations in the future.

CHETRY: Do you think that a lot of Episcopalians will be taking the church up on its offer? Do you fear losing many members?

EPTING: I don't think so. These folks have already let us, of course. The people who are approaching the Roman Catholic Church are no longer Anglicans, no longer part of the Anglican Communion. They are searching a new church home, and we say, God bless you as you seek that place for your journey.

This has been done with individuals for over 25 years in the pastoral provision area. The difference here is doing it with groups of people and creating some kind of Anglican right jurisdictions.

CHETRY: And Father Reese, I want to ask you about this, because this caught the eye of some Catholics we spoke to who were reading about this new policy or at least this new invitation that married Anglican priests and seminarians that join the Catholic Church will be able to serve as priests.

So could this open the door then -- they ask questions about reconciling. Catholics don't allow their own priests to marry, yet they would welcome in the Anglican priests who already are. How does that square?

REESE: Well, the Vatican is certainly trying to downplay this issue.

But, you know, the more married Anglican priests and seminarians that we accept into the Catholic Church that begin to function as married priests in the Catholic Church, this is obviously going to raise questions with other Catholics saying, well, if they can have married clergy, why can't we?

This question is obviously going to be raised, especially if we continue to have a declining number of celibate men who want to be priests. I mean, this may be a new supply of priests for the Catholic Church.

CHETRY: And so that asks the question, then, could this possibly lead the way to the Catholic Church allowing married priests to be Catholic priests? REESE: Well, in fact, that's what it is doing. It's allowing married Anglican priests to come and be Catholic priests in the Catholic Church.

What it will do in terms of the future, I'm not a prophet. I can't predict it. But it certainly is showing that it is possible to have married priests in the Catholic Church.

CHETRY: And I want to ask our about this, bishop Epting. What is the status right now of this division, because all of this stems from a division that's going on with some Episcopalians who are unhappy with the fact that overall the American Episcopalian church has allowed for openly gay priests, openly gay bishops, as well as women to be involved in the clergy?

EPTING: I think it's important to say, though, this has to do with the entire Anglican communion and with the Church of England as well as the Episcopal church here in the states.

We're involved in stresses and strains in the Anglican Communion, and as we try to respond to complex issues that face us today, and that reconciliation process is well under way in the Anglican Communion and it continues.

CHETRY: Well, I want to thank both of you for being with us this morning. It's a very, very interesting discussion, and I'm sure we'll be having more of it in the future.

Father Thomas Reese, a senior fellow also at Georgetown University, and Bishop Christopher Epting, the ecumenical officer for the Episcopalian Church. Thanks for being with us.

Also, we want to know what you think. We would like you to share your thoughts about the Catholic Church's pitch to Anglicans on our blog. The address -- CNN.com/amfix - John.

ROBERTS: More rain and a tornado watch for Texas, and there's a hurricane sneaking up on Hawaii. Rob Marciano is tracking the extreme weather across the country. He joins us with a forecast in just a moment. Stay tuned.

It's 35 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Capitol building this morning in Washington, D.C., where it's cloudy and 54 degrees right now. Later on today it will be partly cloudy and going up to 76.

Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.

Burn, baby, burn. In the ancient Greek sanctuary where the games began, torch bearers lit the Olympic flame earlier this morning. They will carry the torch through Greece for eight days before it starts its 106-day trek across Canada next Friday for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. And hopefully there'll be snow, because it's an El Nino year, and typically in an El Nino year that area of Canada doesn't get a whole lot of snow.

CHETRY: Right, it's counterintuitive, but it can make it.

ROBERTS: Yes. La Nina, they get dumped on, but El Nino, it's like nada.

CHETRY: They can always make it, though. The real stuff is better, though.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Part two of "LATINO IN AMERICA" is coming your way tonight. Soledad O'Brien joins us in just a couple of moments.

You know those low riders, the cars, and some of them go as far to actually hop up and down. What does that have to do with giving back to the community and mentoring young people? Soledad there in the front seat examines it for us. It's a fascinating story. You'll want to see it.

It's 41minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Sometimes this song just fits perfectly with what we're about to talk about.

ROBERTS: It's almost like it was written for the program.

CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 44 minutes past the hour right now.

The second part of the CNN's "LATINO IN AMERICA" special debuts tonight and it's shattering many of the stereotypes about Latinos.

ROBERTS: Tonight we profile Pico Rivera, California. It's a community that's 92 percent Latino. And that's where we found some guys on a mission to mentor. Soledad O'Brien joins us now with a story of how looks can be deceiving.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: And so deceiving. Good morning to you.

As we take a look tonight at communities, four communities that really represent, we think, some of the issues going on in the Latino in America community, we take a look at the Together Car Club.

And I've got to tell you, these guys are so nice and kind of scary looking. But the point is that looks are deceiving. In fact, in their hearts, they're truly mentors for others behind them. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: Hector Avila is the vice president of Together.

HECTOR AVILA, VICE PRESIDENT, TOGETHER: Ok, make sure you can see the lens so the lens can see you.

O'BRIEN: A low rider car club that looks more like a casting call for gang bangers.

Are there people who see you guys at a competition, Together Car Club from Los Angeles and think, gang bangers?

AVILA: Yes, we get that stereotype. I mean, that's one of our rules in the club, is that there's no gang affiliated in the club.

O'BRIEN: Hector is the fourth generation of a hard core L.A. gang. But he chose not to follow in his family's footsteps.

Oh, someone loves daddy.

AVILA: Yes.

O'BRIEN: He makes sure members keep club priorities straight. Cars, family...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do support him 100 percent.

O'BRIEN: Community.

Mayor's Certificate of Appreciation.

In that order.

Your car is beautiful. I like the sparkles.

The cars are like works of art. Paint jobs can run $5,000 and more.

That's a big stereo system.

AVILA: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Trunks are transformed into stereos, coolers, even theaters. And what really makes these low riders dance, hydraulics. That was awesome.

This year, Together's annual car show raised $3,000 for a local anti-gang program.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Together Car Club really came through for the city.

GRACIE GALLEGOS, FORMER MAYOR, PICO RIVERA: So here you have the group that was pointed at for gang affiliation, gang association and for trouble. They came back and they're proving, let's go beyond those stereotypes. You know, we're not only trying to send the message that that's not who we are, but we are saying, we're going to help keep kids out of gangs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: As we tell the story tonight of Pico Rivera, it's also an entire city that confronted a lot of stereotypes. The city itself is 92 percent Latino and they say when they were trying to open it up to businesses to come in, many people would look at those demographics and not invest.

But those who actually invested in Pico Rivera early on have reaped giant, giant rewards. And the city of course, is doing very well.

JOHN ROBERTS: So there are number of different levels looks can be deceiving, right?

O'BRIEN: Absolutely.

CHETRY: So it's interesting because you profiled these guys that are sort of confronting their stereotypes. At the same time, they are giving back. And actually what you're talking about tonight as well what are some of the other examples of this that we're going to see on "Latino in America?"

O'BRIEN: It's interesting. There's a woman named Rosette Alvarez (ph) and she was leading the Puerto Rican Day Parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan this year.

CHETRY: Right.

O'BRIEN: Wildly popular. She was a (INAUDIBLE) came out of Cuba as a child. And so she also is reaching out to a young girl who's in a very similar situation, a refugee in Miami. We'll tell you their story as well.

And also the story of from a 1,000 people a week at one point were coming from Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida. And we'll talk about how some of them are trying to keep their Puerto Rican heritage while taking over Orlando and making that city great.

ROBERTS: Now of course, the other question that everybody is asking this morning is just how jarring is it to be in the front seat when the low rider is rolling there...

O'BRIEN: You know what, that was so fun but those cars are like works of art.

ROBERTS: Oh yes.

O'BRIEN: The cameras don't even capture the amazing job that they do. Some people -- some of the paint jobs were $10,000.

ROBERTS: Yes it's been incredible. O'BRIEN: And they're like, I say, this is great. They're like, yes, yes, don't touch my car.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: And say, like, let me wipe those fingerprints off my really expensive car.

ROBERTS: Terrific story.

O'BRIEN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: And we look forward to it tonight.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

CHETRY: Thanks, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

CHETRY: So again, tonight, our ground breaking look at how Latinos are changing America. It continues the finale of "LATINO IN AMERICA." It's tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and it will be simulcast in Spanish on CNN en Espanol.

And also continuing with our theme of "LATINO IN AMERICA" we're getting personal. Our Rick Sanchez is going to be joining us as well as Soledad O'Brien, sharing some of their personal stories as well.

It's 49 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. "LATINO IN AMERICA" is opening up a really new and interesting dialogue about the role of Latinos in this country.

ROBERTS: And before you see the second part tonight, we want your thoughts and views on what you've seen so far.

So that's where Rick Sanchez comes in. Rick's joining us now from CNN Radio.

Rick, we should tell a little bit of your personal story. We first met in 1989 when we were both working in Miami and your family came from Cuba.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They did. And, you know, I always tell this story. And it's interesting because of the fact that, look, my mom and dad, they don't speak any English, they don't speak it at all.

So I speak both languages pretty well, although some people say my English is suspect. And my kids -- my kids, on the other hand, they don't speak any Spanish because, you know...

CHETRY: Oh really.

SANCHEZ: ... I married a gringa.

So for the most part, it's that tussle, that thing called assimilation that happens in this country for many centuries now that a lot of us, as Hispanics in the first or second or third generation...

CHETRY: Right.

SANCHEZ: ... are going through.

CHETRY: Do you think...

SANCHEZ: That's part of who we are.

CHETRY: ... are people starting to realize because I have a first generation father also from Nepal who didn't teach me how to speak his language because he said you come to America you need to be American. You need to figure out how to speak English, you've got to make it happen.

But is that sort of changing as we were like...

SANCHEZ: By golly, you're going to go to school, you're going to learn, you're going to do everything that I couldn't do in this country, you know what I mean.

CHETRY: Right.

ROBERTS: You know it's true though...

SANCHEZ: I mean, that's what our parents say. I mean, let's be serious. The drive for a mother and father, like Paco and Adela, my mom and dad is I'm going to do everything possible, if I have to work two jobs, three jobs. If I have to go hungry, my kids are going to be become successful Americanos and you know what they're going to go do, they're going to go to college like we weren't able to do.

ROBERTS: Yes, it's like...

SANCHEZ: Like the story of Irish and Jews and Italians and Cubans and everybody else who has come to this country.

O'BRIEN: Are you pushing your kids Rick to learn Spanish? Because my mom when she came from Cuba in 1947 made sure that we did not learn to speak Spanish at home and didn't really push us to speak it in the house.

SANCHEZ: I you know the problem is...

O'BRIEN: So my kids are all taking Spanish now. I would like them to be bilingual because I'm not and it's so frustrating.

ROBERTS: Isn't that funny... SANCHEZ: I try, but, you know, I got to tell you, I'll give you an example. Yesterday, a long day at work, when I was finally finished here, I got home. You know what I wanted to do? I wanted to take Remy and Savannah in the front yard and play football with them.

I didn't want to become a Spanish professor. I want to be a dad, I want to hug them, I want to love them. You know, my wife, who's the most fabulous woman in the entire world, bar none, she works all day long with the kids, but she doesn't speak Spanish.

So their primary source -- if the mom is the one who is American and the dad is the one who speaks Spanish, it's difficult for the kids to be bilingual. And that's just the reality.

ROBERTS: Rick is very good at simultaneous -- almost simultaneous translation or consecutive translation.

CHETRY: It's stunning, isn't it?

ROBERTS: He did a series -- when he was in Miami, he did a series on the Contras in Nicaragua. And I remember him, he would ask the question in English and then immediately translate it into Spanish. And then as the guy was speaking back, he was translating back in English.

Rick, you're very good at that. I would also say same story with Jim Acosta -- our Jim Acosta -- he was the first person in his family ever to go to college and his dad worked his fingers to the bone to make sure that that would happen.

CHETRY: And that is a story, a common thread for people whose parents were immigrants and came here. And of course, the issue of immigration, also a really big one, Rick, as it relates to those in the Latino community right now. It's sort of hit the back burner because of health care, the economic crisis, and a lot of things we're talking about.

But looking ahead, how big of an issue is this going to be for the administration?

SANCHEZ: Well, it's going to continue to be an issue. And I don't think -- I mean, my sources within the administration that I talked to are telling me that right now it's too much of a hot potato for them to tackle it with everything else that they have on the plate. And that's pure politics.

But the fact of the matter is that this thing affects a lot of Americans. And there's -- that's why I'm so excited to be doing this hour-long show today. And I'm so excited that CNN has embraced "LATINO IN AMERICA" and is doing something that is nuanced and not just a blind partisanship conversation that we hear too often in our media and in talk radio and in newspapers.

There is a lot of nuance to this argument. And it's very important for people to understand all the different perspectives on this. And yes, speaking as a Hispanic, and I'll take my journalism hat off for just a moment, when we were going through the immigration debate in this country -- I'll talk to you as a journalist and as a human being and as a man and as a Hispanic -- I was hurt, as were many Hispanics, by the rhetoric that overtook this conversation, that had less to do with nuance and less to do with the facts and more to do with what sounded to us like people saying, get out of here, we don't want you.

It may not have been the intention, John and Kiran, but it was the tone and it's being felt to this day.

O'BRIEN: One thing I will say, as we reported "LATINO IN AMERICA," people would talk to us about those stories. And people who were of Polish background, Lithuanian, Irish, German, would say, my family story is this. My grandfather came from Ireland. My grandmother came from Italy.

I think, you know, this is a nation built on immigrants and people really feel very warmly and strongly and understanding that immigrants are what makes this country great.

ROBERTS: There's the plaque on the Statue of Liberty.

Rick, thanks for joining us. Good luck with the radio show today. Quickly what's the phone number?

SANCHEZ: John, let me just give out the number if anybody wants to call in and argue with me, not that anybody would want to do that, 877 -- we invite the criticism -- 877-266-4189. That's CNN radio. I'm going to be on for the next hour talking about this.

ROBERTS: And it's lighting up even as you speak.

Rick, thanks so much and you Soledad as well. Good luck tonight. Congratulations.

O'BRIEN: Great. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

ROBERTS: And remember tonight, our groundbreaking look at how Latinos are changing America continues, the finale of "LATINO IN AMERICA" airs tonight 9:00 p.m. Eastern. It will also be simulcast in Spanish on CNN en Espanol.

It's now 58 minutes after the hour.

CHETRY: Well, that's going to do it for us. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we would love for you to continue the conversation on today's stories by going to our blog, cnn.com/amfix.

ROBERTS: The news continues though on CNN with Heidi Collins in the "CNN NEWSROOM."