Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Protests Over False Rumors of Burned Quran; Obama Declares H1N1 National Emergency; NORAD Not Informed of Wayward Plane Until after An Hour of Radio Silence; Jane Doe Identified; Michael Jackson's "This is It"
Aired October 26, 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" on this Monday, the 26th of October. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. We have a lot of big stories we're breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
First, a setback in the critical U.S. strategy to win hearts and minds of Afghan civilians. For a second day, students take to the street in Kabul, outraged over rumors that U.S. troops desecrated a copy of the Quran. Police responded with warning shots. In a moment, we'll take you live to Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: One thousand Americans now dead, among them, 100 children. President Obama is declaring a national emergency because of the swine flu pandemic. Why he chose to do that now and how it could help hospitals handle the H1N1 outbreak moving forward.
CHETRY: Well, it could be a pivotal week when it comes to your health care. An aid to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid telling CNN he's close to including a public option in the Senate's reform bill. Both supporters and critics were fired up about it on the Sunday shows.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The only real way -- or one of the best real ways -- to bring costs down is a new entity competing. The insurance company industry will not do it on its own, the government would. And it's -- and the one other thing I'd say, and this is really important, you're not required to take the government option. It's not a government plan being forced on people. That was the rhetoric in August. It's an option.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: We had the first vote in the health care debate last week, and there was a bipartisan majority -- 100 percent of Republicans and 13 Democrats agreeing that we should not borrow a quarter of a trillion dollars at the outset. In other words, not send a bill to our grandchildren in the very first vote of the health care debate. So, we'll see how it unfolds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So, is the public option here to stay? We're going to talk about it with Karen Finney, former DNC communications director; and Ed Rollins, our senior political analyst -- still ahead.
We start the hour, though, with false rumors now fueling hatred in a war growing more dangerous. For the second time in as many days, Afghans took to the streets, outraged over rumors NATO forces burned a copy of the Quran. Police in Kabul fought back with warning shots and water cannons.
Students also burned an effigy of President Obama and shouted "Down with Americans!"
Our Chris Lawrence joins us live from Kabul.
And, Chris, we know that security is quite tense right now. You tried to go into the crowds but were stopped. What happened?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran, we went right up to that first protest and basically the crowd was very angry, very anti-western. At one point, they were taunting the police, calling them slaves of America or sons of Obama. Both the Afghan police and our security team decided it just was not a good idea for us to go directly into that crowd.
But, again, all of this anger seems to be over something that simply did not happen. By all accounts, this was just a rumor that U.S. and international forces had burned a copy of the Quran in retaliation for being hit by an IED. But both the international forces and the Afghan police did an investigation, found no evidence that it happened.
In fact, the governor -- the spokesman for the governor of the province, where this allegedly occurred, he believes that this is being -- this rumor is being spread by the Taliban. He even came out with a statement that said, "The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to make people go against the government in order to start riots" - Kiran.
CHETRY: And, Chris, President Obama's war council is going to be meeting again today. Again, a big decision at hand over what to do, how many, if more troops are going to Afghanistan. Do you know anything about whether or not they're closer to making a decision?
LAWRENCE: Well, we're being told that we're one of the last meetings that will take place, that will -- a lot of, you know -- a lot of it has already been talked out. But whether he makes that decision before the runoff election in 12 days or after, that's still not been decide. But I can tell you, there are definitely some outspoken people who feel very, very strongly on either side whether he should authorize these troops and how quickly he needs to make this decision.
CHETRY: Chris Lawrence for us in Kabul this morning, thank you.
ROBERTS: Now a story sure to have people talking as you head out to work or school this morning, the swine flu. With more than 1,000 Americans already dead, the swine flu breakout has been declared a national emergency by the president. Active cases of the H1N1 virus are now confirmed in 46 states.
Our Kate Bolduan is live at the White House. And, Kate, what does the president's national emergency declaration actually mean?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what it's really meant to do is to help hospitals and local governments bypass red tape that they say may hamper a speedy response if it is need. But the White House says while they have declared H1N1 a national emergency, they stress that there's not an emergency situation yet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Long lines and long waits...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought it was the end. It goes all the way around the parking lot.
BOLDUAN: The scene in Fairfax, Virginia, this weekend as people, young and old, searched for H1N1 flu vaccinations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're just all a little scared about this whole thing.
BOLDUAN: In a move described as preemptive, President Obama, late Friday, declared H1N1 a national emergency. Quote, "The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Mr. Obama said in a statement.
The declaration allows hospitals to cut through bureaucratic red tape in the event of a surge of H1N1 patients, reducing paperwork requirements, relaxing rules for setting up medical tents near hospital where's patients could be treated, also making it easier to transfer patients from one facility to another.
According to one administration official, the move is meant to essentially help free more doctors and nurses from administrative burdens so they can focus on patients. It comes, as the government admits, vaccine production is way behind.
DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: We're nowhere near where we thought we would be by now. We're not near where the vaccine manufacturers predicted we would be.
BOLDUAN: Despite the delay, rare bipartisan agreement Sunday, lawmakers saying they are pleased with the federal response so far.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: I think the government is doing everything they possibly can and the Centers for Disease Control.
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: I think they are making every move possible. I think it's a better indication that this is a monumental challenge, and the monumental challenge is being met.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: Now, when asked about the timing of this declaration, the White House says that this is not a development or reaction to -- or tied to any current number of H1N1 cases. One official is saying that this is a proactive measure, not a response to any new developments -- John?
ROBERTS: Kate Bolduan for us at the White House this morning -- Kate, thanks so much.
BOLDUAN: Thanks, John.
CHETRY: Eight and a half minutes past the hour.
Also, new this morning, there are big celebrations here in New York after the Yankees and their fans savor the victory that's sending the Yankees to the World Series for the 40th time in their history. The Yanks beat the L.A. Angels 5-2 to win the American League Championship series in six games. Up next, they take on the Philadelphia Phillies who will be trying to repeat as World Series champs. Game one is Wednesday night, Yankees Stadium.
ROBERTS: And when the series moves to Philadelphia this coming weekend, the city could be dealing with a transit strike. Transit workers voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to authorize a walkout if last- ditch talks with management fail. Union leaders say they've been without a contract since March and warn that this will be the last week that they'll work without one.
CHETRY: All right. Well, authorities on the Harvard University campus are investigating reports that six medical researchers were poisoned by drinking coffee laced with a chemical preservative. It happened back in August. School officials say the coffee came from a machine near their lab that later tested positive for a common chemical used in labs, sodium azide. It's a preserve they use there in labs.
Well, the six had symptoms ranging from dizziness to ringing in the ears and one even passed out.
ROBERTS: Bizarre.
CHETRY: I wonder who did that.
ROBERTS: I guess they'll be looking into that the aspect of the case.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, don't drink the coffee.
All right. Well, 10 minutes past the hour. When we return, we're going to be talking about new life for the public option in the Senate. Plus, a lot of other aspects of the health care debate as it moves forward.
Karen Finney and Ed Rollins break it down for us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Thirteen minutes past the hour now.
And we're headed toward what could be a critical week in the Senate's make-or-break debate over health care reform. An aide is now telling CNN that Majority Leader Harry Reid may be ready to try to revive the public option. That would be a government-run insurance company, to compete with private insurance.
Let's bring in our political panel to discuss this, as well as some of the issues. Karen Finney, former communications director for the Democratic National Committee -- easy for me to say.
KAREN FINNEY, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: No problem.
CHETRY: And Ed Rollins, CNN senior political analyst and Republican strategist.
Thanks to both of you for being with us.
ED ROLLINS, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
FINNEY: Good morning.
CHETRY: So, as we were saying, we could some time today about Majority Leader Reid, about the public option, and whether or not he's working on a bill that would allow states to opt out of it. Meaning, it would be in there, but if states didn't like it, they could opt out.
Is that sort of giving some wiggle room for people who say, there's a chance that this could get through?
FINNEY: Sure. I mean, that's certainly the hope that Leader Reid has. That those members who say they can't go for the robust public option, that perhaps they could be for this. You remember, towards the end of the week last week, there was a lot of back and forth about -- and over the weekend -- the opt-out, the opt-in, what about the trigger?
So, it looks like Reid is going to try to move forward with the full -- what we could call more of the full public option with an opt- out.
CHETRY: What do you think, Ed? Do you think it has a chance on the Senate?
ROLLINS: Well, he doesn't have 60 votes yet. And even the aide basically is saying, maybe today, maybe with some caveat. I think -- I think it's a battle to get 60 votes. And I think, to a certain extent, it's going to be a battle to get a full go in the House.
So, I think the votes are probably there at this point, but at the end of the day, we still have a long ways to go. We still don't know the final version of the House version, or what is the Senate version, then you have a conference. I think the bottom line is that Reid and speaker Pelosi want a public option. There are still a lot of members very worried about this basically being a very expensive part of this bill.
FINNEY: I think, you know, the politics here are that if Reid can get through -- on a procedural motion, can get it through, then if the House passes with whatever version of robust public option we end up, that then you go into conference committee with two bills that essentially have the public option in it. And then they can work out these details in conference. That's I think where they're ultimately trying to get to, is to have a public option in the versions that go into conference.
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's easier to conference if it's in both bills. The dilemma is, neither of these public options has been funded in sense of the congressional budget office saying, this is what it will cost. And there's no evidence, in my 40 years of experience around the government, there's no evidence that -- no evidence that the government has ever run anything better than the private sector. So I think there is.
CHETRY: But were they're facing problems though - is that the -- I guess there was some hope out there that insurance companies would say, all right, you know what, if you guys get closer and closer to possibly bringing government into this, we will find a way to bring ourselves in line. Is that realistic?
FINNEY: But that's part of the problem with this. That's essentially where the trigger discussion is going. That's basically saying to the insurance companies, you know, just trust us, the same way we trusted Wall Street, to do the right thing. And if you look at the conditions in terms of where we are in terms of the number of uninsured, people getting kicked off insurances, where people's premiums -- we're pretty much there in terms of the conditions for trigger.
CHETRY: But we did say trust us for pharmaceutical companies and drug companies, right, and they agree?
ROLLINS: We also -- the Democrats also saying, trust us, we'll come up with plan - we'll come up with a bill, we won't go over the $1 trillion mark if the president doesn't want us to. And there's never been anything the Democrats ever touched or anything in this whole area that hasn't been overly spent. And Medicare is almost broke, Medicaid is almost broke and we're going to add another entitlement program that I think is unfunded at this point.
CHETRY: Ed, I do want to ask you about this though because we've seen some changing support. Our latest CNN opinion research poll shows 61% in favor - clear majority in favor of a public option. We were really seeing it sort of break pretty much evenly before this past month. Are you sure Republicans are on the right side of this?
ROLLINS: The bottom line is what is a public option? If people think they're getting free insurance, if people think they're getting cheaper insurance, they're all for it. Why wouldn't they be for it? You can get a cheaper car; get cheaper televisions, a cheaper house. At the end of the day, there's no guarantee this is going to be cheaper. It may create more complication. If you really want competition, you knock the state barriers down, you let the insurance companies across the board so I'm not stuck in New York having some - accompany like, a company like Oxford that I've had bad trouble with and the others have in the past. How could I compete with Blue Cross or Kaiser or something else? That's if you really want competition. If you let other insurance companies compete in lots of States.
FINNEY: No but the problem is, many insurance companies have a control on the market. So if you have another viable option that presents the competition that I think you need to actually lower costs and get more people into the system. There's one other thing I wanted to mention as we're talking about the politics on this we focused a lot on whether or not the public option, is that going to be a dangerous vote for some people? I think if the final version has a trigger in it, that's going to be a dangerous vote for a number of Democrats. Because when I talk to Democrats, and I don't just mean liberals, I mean progressives -- the base of the party, they're clear they don't want to trigger. So there's a lot of politics playing into who's going to face a tough vote and what the consequences for 2010 are going be.
ROLLINS: Well in the long term they're going to have to explain why people who have insurance are going to be paying more and getting less service. But the critical thing here -
FINNEY: Of course, that's not the goal.
ROLLINS: Well that's not the goal, but you also know that a lot of Democrats want a Medicare, a national Medicare for everybody. The truth of the matter is Medicare doesn't pay for what costs accrue --
CHETRY: Many people have to get supplemental insurance.
ROLLINS: And not only that, the insurance companies and the individuals have to make up the difference. There's a gigantic subsidy that goes on -- if I go in hospital as a Medicare recipient, she goes in with insurance, at the end of the day, her insurance company pays more than Medicare does --
FINNEY: And there's a lot of waste in that and that's part of what we're also trying to (INAUDIBLE).
ROLLINS: Well we've talked about waste in government for as long as I've been around. And we'll see whether it -- may be I'm more cynical because I've seen it all before.
CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE) how this shakes out but we could have some movement today so we'll keep track of it.
ROLLINS: We'll know a lot more this week.
FINNEY: We will, indeed.
CHETRY: Well it's great to talk to both you Karen Finney, Ed Rollins, great to have you with us, John.
ROLLINS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: So the unemployment numbers continue to tick higher but there may be a little bit of good news out there, just a glimmer of hope. Our Christine Romans has got it coming up, now 19 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Award- winning composer and producer Andrew Lloyd Weber is now undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. His publicist said the can be is in its very early stages and Weber hopes to be back to work before January. He's been behind huge Broadway hits like "Phantom of the Opera" and "Cats."
CHETRY: Also new this morning, pop star Madonna is back in Malawi. According to her African Charity Web site, Madonna will be at a groundbreaking ceremony today at the girl's school she's having built in the impoverished nation. Madonna adapted two children from the country as well.
ROBERTS: Plus it was a bloody battle at the box office this weekend but the low-budget thriller "Paranormal Activity" topped "Saw 6." raking in $22 million the movie was reportedly shot for about $14,000 or $15,000. I went to see "Amelia" this weekend.
CHETRY: How was it?
ROBERTS: It was great, I really enjoyed it. The reviews have been kind of mixed, but you know I love the story of Amelia Earhart, love aviation, it was great to see. And there's the mystery of where did she go down?
CHETRY: I know, I know, god my grandpa use to tell me about - he was in college when she went down and about listening to the radio and how the whole world was just entranced trying to figure out where she went. And to think that that was sort of the - the pop culture event of his life time and we learned about it in elementary school now about her the whole time.
Well Christine Romans joining us now. Minding her business this morning and hopefully -- yes, movie reviews as well but no - hopefully fingers crossed, you're talking about businesses, are they dipping their toes in the water when it comes to starting to hire again.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. Employers are starting to think - thinking - starting to think about hiring again -- right now and over the next six months. This is a quarterly survey for the national association for business economics and this is what they found. 12% of companies right now in October were adding jobs. That doesn't sound like a lot, but look at that compared to July. It's doubled since July. It's starting to go in the right direction. 31% are cutting jobs, but that's fewer than July. And we asked them -- when this survey asked them about going forward, more were saying that they were going to amp up hiring in the next six months.
What about spending? Spending is incredibly too important for businesses. When they start buying equipment and investing in new technology, that shows they're feeling better and they're growing their businesses. They're playing offense, not defense and that's what we want to help the economy. 26% said they were increasing their spending. Look at that compared with July when only 8% did. It shows you a new bit of optimism or confidence or stabilization, really, among business managers, business economists as well, in terms of cutting, 22% said they were cutting spending, but that is far fewer than in July.
The other thing is credit. How has the tight credit or lack of ability or harder to get, very cheap credit. 42% of company economists said that was having a negative impact on them in October, compares with 54% in July. Again, 15% is having a positive impact. Look, the numbers are going in the right direction. We're not out of it yet. I mean, it's still tough, but this is the sign that the recession may be coming to a close and you're starting to see people who are running business feeling a little bit better about things. And John and Kiran the reason why this is so important is because you can't just have the government forever doing all the hiring and the government forever doing all the spending. You've got to see that conditions improve for business, because big business and small business, these are the people who create jobs in a healthy economy for the long run.
ROBERTS: Wouldn't it be nice if things started to get a little bit better?
ROMANS: They've stopped getting worse.
ROBERTS: That's good.
ROMANS: And now they have to stop getting worse and then they'll start getting better.
ROBERTS: That's a start.
ROMANS: Yea.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans Minding Your Business this morning, Christine thanks so much.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- seven and a half minutes past the hour right now. Michael Jackson's new CD goes on sale today. On Wednesday, a documentary about his final days with footage of his last rehearsals debuts worldwide. Both are called "This Is It," and they're expected to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for the king of pop's estate. As Kareen Wynter reports, Michael Jackson may be gone, but his legend lives on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, good morning. Michael Jackson left behind a music legacy that his estate is only beginning to profit from.
This Is It.
WYNTER: He never got the chance to take his final bow on stage for that sold-out European concert tour.
Let's do it one more time.
WYNTER: But some say the king of pop in death may have pulled off the comeback of his career. An article in the latest "Fortune" magazine shows how the entertainer's lavish lifestyle, costly litigation cases and excessive borrowing had drained his finances. Writer Richard Siklos says another factor was that Jackson hadn't worked much in recent years. His last original studio album "Invincible," came out in 2001 and hardly matched the success of previous Jackson records.
RICHARD SIKLOS, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I mean, he had no comprehension of the value of money because he just always thought he could go and get some.
WYNTER: Siklos says Jackson was solvent when died, but owed more than $400 million much of that in creditor's claims. Now in death, Jackson's financial worth has the potential to skyrocket.
SIKLOS: At least $100 million of new money has come into the estate, just on deals, since his passing. And that's not including probably another $50 million to $100 million in just music.
WYNTER: Sony paid $60 million for an upcoming documentary on Jackson using footage from the final concert rehearsal before his death. And 90% of the profits will go to Jackson's estate. An estate that also includes a $1/2 billion from his part ownership of the Sony Beatles catalogue. Siklos says Jackson has borrowed hundreds of millions against the bad investment as well as another music catalogue worth $100 million. The singer also owned a small stake in his Neverland ranch. While Jackson's empire is now raking in millions his assets still must be managed properly especially with his outstanding debt.
MINA SIRKIN, ESTATE ATTORNEY: As days go by, there are additional creditors that keep appearing in this case, and the biggest issue in this case will be the estate taxes.
WYNTER: The artist who left his mark on music could also make history by amassing a financial empire, surpassing even Elvis in death.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WYNTER: Jackson's mother Katherine is the beneficiary of his estate, but she's engaged in a legal battle with the people Jackson named executors of his will. What's at stake? Control and management of the estate -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Kareen Wynter for us, thanks.
Our series, "The Legend Lives On," from Sinatra to Elvis. Kareen's going to be examining just lucrative it can be for a celebrity's estate once their gone.
And meanwhile, "This is It," Michael's Jackson's new documentary hits theatres in just two days. Michael's sister La Toya has expressed some concern about the film's release. We'll be talking to the director, Kenny Ortega, about all of that in the next half hour of "American Morning."
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.
Crossing the half hour now and checking our top stories this Monday morning -- two helicopter crashes in Afghanistan killed 14 Americans before dawn today. One went down in the western part of the country, killing seven troops and three civilians.
More than two dozen people were wounded in those incidents. And in the south, four U.S. troops were killed when two choppers collided in midair.
CHETRY: A longtime friend of Bernie Madoff has been found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool -- 67-year-old Jeff Picower allegedly made more than $7 billion in profits by investing with Madoff. Police say his body was discovered yesterday by his wife.
In the last year, Picower has been battling legal troubles because of his alleged role in the Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
ROBERTS: And a 49-year-old woman is suing the Dallas police department for give her a ticket because she doesn't speak English.
There is a federal law that requires commercial drivers to speak enough English to identify their loads, but that does not apply to Earnestein (ph) Mondragon. She was driving a passenger car and her daughter says the ordeal has been quite a shock for her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENDA MONDRAGON, DAUGHTER: At first, I thought it was a joke. I said, I can't believe it. I actually laughed. I was like, oh, my god, mom, I've never seen this before. We moved from California two years ago, so we thought maybe it's a law here.
SGT. WARREN MITCHELL, DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We regret this happening. And although we believe it was a sincere mistake, there's just no excuse for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: The Dallas police chief confirms his officers have written 38 similar citations in the past three years. Those fines, by the way, are being refunded and any charges associated with them dismissed.
New questions this morning after that Northwest Airlines jet flew 150 miles past its destination. The two pilots have been interviewed by federal investigators.
But it's not just what happened inside the cockpit that's under review. CNN is learning that fighter jets were ready to scramble if needed, but not until after air traffic controllers had been out of contact with the plane for quite some time.
Our Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, what are we learning about all this?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Both NORAD, the North American Defense Command, and the FAA both now reviewing why it was that the military was not informed about this incident for one hour.
Flight 188 radio silent in the sky for an hour before NORAD was notified there was a plane in the air with a potential problem.
Let's get right to the timeline and show everybody. These times are converted to east coast times so you can get a quick look at what exactly happened. It was 7:56 p.m., again, east coast time, when the plane went radio silent.
About an hour later, 8:58 p.m., it flies right on past Minneapolis, its scheduled landing city. At 9:14, communications are reestablished. But it was that fly-by time at Minneapolis that is so crucial.
We have learned that the U.S. military, NORAD, was not informed until the plane flew past Minneapolis, that one hour, that there was a flight with a potential problem in the air. It was after that that NORAD scrambled fighter jets, but it was all over before they could get into the air.
Sources very familiar with exactly what transpired tell us this is troubling, that they wish they had been called earlier to put fighter jets into the air, because, of course, over the years since 9/11, we have seen that routinely happen where fighter jets go up and take a look at least when there's a plane with some potential problem - John.
ROBERTS: So what's the standard, Barbara? We've seen time and time again there, in the nation's capital because of the restricted air space around there that planes have gone up, jet fighters have gone up to check out small planes that have incurred into that air space, but halfway over the country, across the great plains, the Rocky Mountains states, is there a different standard?
STARR: Some people say that the flight wasn't presenting a threatening profile, so what's the big problem, as you say?
But the issue is this, of course, which is that the military regularly, since 9/11, is notified when there's any plane with a problem in the air.
The military point of view is that they would rather scramble jets, go up, have a look, try and see what's going on than being informed too late to do something about it if it does become a threatening scenario.
And in this case, John, you'll recall, nobody was really quite sure for some time what was going on. And in fact, the FAA made that flight crew do some specific maneuvers to prove they hadn't been hijacked.
So a lot of uncertainty here, all of this under review, including the military's role in it -- John?
ROBERTS: An awful lot of questions being asked this morning. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Still ahead, it's a bit of a medical mystery. They're trying to figure out what exactly happened to a young girl who had no idea who she was, where she lived, or what happened to her. The mystery, at least, of her identity solved because a viewer saw the picture on CNN.
But, still, a lot more questions this morning.
We'll right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 39 minutes past the hour.
A CNN viewer's tip finally helped New York police to identify a so called Jane Doe. She's 18-year-old Kacie Peterson from Washington State. And she was found here in Manhattan nearly three weeks ago, telling police she had no idea who she was or how she got here.
As our Susan Candiotti reports, there are still a lot of questions in this case.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, good morning.
Clearly, there's a lot more to learn about this teenager, but police tell CNN affiliate KOMO this is not the first time she's disappeared from home after losing her memory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: Her real name Kacie Aleece Peterson of Hansville, Washington. She's 18 years old. After her ordeal, friends are relieved she's safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New York City police, they've got a mystery on their hands, a teenager who can't remember her own name.
CANDIOTTI: CNN and other media described the girl's dilemma. The publicity worked. An unidentified CNN viewer from Maryland recognized the girl, called police, and that led them to the teen's family in Washington.
The teenager was found about two-and-a-half weeks ago on the sidewalk outside a home for runaways in New York, but she wasn't a client there. People found her in a fetal position and called police. They described her as disoriented and guessed she was anywhere from 14 to 20 years old.
They said she'd been missing for more than a month and doctors said she appeared to have amnesia.
LT. CHRISTOPHER ZIMMERMAN, NYPD MISSING PERSONS BUREAU: Her answers to questions so far have been "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." Very clear and concise but I don't know. She was disoriented when she was found. If she's a 14-year-old girl, she's definitely scared.
CANDIOTTI: This fantasy book might hold some clues. The teenager was said to have mentioned some words from a novel called "Fool's Fate" by Robin Hobb and was apparently also writing her own story. Clinical psychologist Judy Kuriansky, suggests the teenager may have been lost in her own world.
JUDY KURIANSKY, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: The book she had with her, "A Fool's Fate," is about an epic, almost like "Harry Potter," it's phantasmagoric, where the characters are going on a search to slay a dragon. And that fantasy is what she was also looking, perhaps, to write about and that she was living in her own life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: A local sheriff says Kacie was once found lying by a stream without any memory of who she was or how she got there. A few weeks ago, her father reported her missing, and after that, police were said to be following her bank activity and other evidence and did not issue an Amber alert.
So for now, we do know who Kacie Peterson is, but how she got to New York or why she vanished remains a mystery -- John and Kiran?
ROBERTS: Susan Candiotti for us this morning, thanks so much.
So Wednesday, the Michael Jackson film opens, it is called "This is It," taken from 80 hours of video taken during the rehearsals at the Staples Center. And Michael Jackson appears to be much healthier than anyone ever thought he was.
CHETRY: And really with it, directing every single move, so precise, and just really passionate about this turning point in his career. All of it ended, of course, as we know.
One on one with the director, Kenny Ortega, still ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Like that tune?
CHETRY: Modest.
ROBERTS: Really. No.
CHETRY: I just love the auto tune. That's my favorite part.
ROBERTS: Oh my God, the auto tune is the worst thing to ever happen to...
CHETRY: Oh I love it.
ROBERTS: No seriously. Hey good morning Atlanta it's 52 degrees and cloudy right now; mostly cloudy, 67 later on today.
Seriously.
CHETRY: Seriously, I love it.
ROBERTS: You do?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Really?
CHETRY: A lot of really mediocre singers rock.
ROBERTS: Oh there you are.
Hey, we've got some weather across the country. Rob Marciano is monitoring it all from the weather center there in Atlanta. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Guys you know, I just noticed yesterday on my home line, I have a feature on my phone that can change my voice to make it happy, to make it low, to make it sad. Just to reminded me of when you guys are discussing...
CHETRY: That's hilarious.
MARCIANO: Yes and so I can prank calls.
CHETRY: Why do you have that?
MARCIANO: I have no idea.
ROBERTS: To me the auto tune is to 2009 what disco was to the music industry in the 1970s. It's just like the worst thing to happen to it. I'm sorry. If you can't sing, don't get into music.
CHETRY: Well, Justin can sing. Justin Timberlake, we know, can sing. He can hit the high notes it's like...
MARCIANO: And he can dance. He's an entertainer.
CHETRY: Yes, he can.
MARCIANO: And if you get a prank call later on today, you know where it's coming from. It's not going to sound like me but it's coming from my home line.
ROBERTS: Yes.
MARCIANO: Hey guys, San Antonio to Austin, looking at rainfall here. Some of this is going to be heavy at times and because of that, flood watches have been posted. We could see a couple of inches in spots more than that and you may remember, this has been an area that's been plagued with flooding.
We really need it towards -- more towards San Antonio and south towards Corpus Christi. Starting to get there, but again most of it is two to four inch rain on top of what we've already seen the past couple of weeks, central and eastern parts of Texas.
Not a good-looking map, is it? That's not showing a whole lot of day time highs. Let's talk about where the mild and sunny weather, at least dry weather is going to be east of the Mississippi for the most part, some showers across parts of the Carolinas and it will be dry and warm across southern California.
All right, gator on the side of the road, this is out of Florida, right? No. This is out of Fall River, Massachusetts. This five- footer was tracked down and, well, taken into captivity. I assume they're going to release him somewhere more swampy.
Apparently in Rhode Island, it's perfectly legal to have an alligator as a pet. And they think this guy might have been a pet that got away and has been surviving off rodents and the like all summer long. He's kind of cute. Be good eaten and a nice pair of shoes as well.
ROBERTS: Oh Rob.
CHETRY: Poor guy. Hope they take the tape off in his mouth before they let him go.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you guys.
CHETRY: All right, well, there was a new face in the president's entourage this weekend when he hit the links. Chief Domestic Adviser Melanie Barnes was part of a group of four golfing with the president yesterday. It was his first co-ed golf game. The president has been catching some flak recently after playing basketball with just male cabinet members and lawmakers.
ROBERTS: So the Michael Jackson film, "This Is It," opens up on Wednesday around the world for a limited two-week engagement. And when you take a look at the video, you know we saw some video, "They Don't Really Care about Us," immediately after his death, but when you see this video, you get a whole different sense of where Michael Jackson actually was, just 18 hours before his death.
We'll show to it you, coming right up.
Twelve minutes now to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, you can just imagine what type of show it would have been when you take a look at the precision in the movements. There's been a lot of speculation about Michael Jackson's health right before his death. That, of course, is video you see of him prepping for his big 50-show concerts.
Now the director of "This Is It" concerts and movie is trying to set the record straight.
ROBERTS: Kenny Ortega, Jackson's longtime collaborator and choreographer is sharing the inside story of the entertainer's last days. He was with him right near the very end. So was Michael really well enough to pull off 50 comeback shows? We asked him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KENNY ORTEGA, DIRECTOR, "THIS IS IT": You're going to see exactly what Michael had in mind for this concert and come to appreciate and understand the reasons for why Michael wanted to do it.
CHETRY: Is this documentary that you guys put together something that you felt was very important, that people had to see...
ORTEGA: Yes.
CHETRY: ... what this was supposed to be?
ORTEGA: It really was demanded of us. You know, when I got the call from the estate and AEG, I wasn't surprised. I didn't raise my hand and in fact I jumped back and I just said, thanks, guy, but I can't.
I was just too emotionally close, didn't feel I would be creatively objective enough. But in the end, I realized the journey wasn't over. It really was my responsibility. This was the last documentation of Michael Jackson in a creative process and I was there. I knew the story and the fans wanted to know that story. And you know, here we go.
ROBERTS: Yes, I'm a big fan of concert films going all the way back to "Give Me Shelter." And it's almost eerie that you see this performance on stage and of course, there are number of different incarnations because you've taken footage from different rehearsals...
ORTEGA: Right.
ROBERTS: But in every one, there is no audience. And so it's absolutely still. It's absolutely quiet.
ORTEGA: Let me tell you, the audience that was there was a collection of dancers and a few technical crew members, collected in the front of the stage, looking up at Michael. And here, they're less than half his age, these dancers that came to us from all over the world, the best on the planet completely awestruck at this 50-year-old man on that stage improvising better than anybody that they've ever seen. You know?
CHETRY: Why do you think that LaToya Jackson has expressed reservations, saying that Michael wouldn't have wanted a rehearsal out there? That he was such a perfectionist...
ORTEGA: Yes.
CHETRY: ... that he wouldn't want his rehearsals or his dress rehearsals to be...
ORTEGA: Yes.
CHETRY: ... the final thing that people see. Do you agree with that.
ORTEGA: I don't agree with it. But at the same time I respect LaToya's concerns. Michael was a perfectionist.
I think the important thing here is, she hasn't seen the film yet and I hope that when she does that she comes to realizes that what this is, is a great celebration of a master of his craft. And that it is a privileged peek at the creative process of a genius and that we really do come to understand the reasons behind why Michael wanted to do this project, why it was so important to him to go back out after ten years' absence.
And that's why I think there's validity in putting this out there. Because Michael's reasons and his messages are clear. They come right from Michael himself in the film.
ROBERTS: You know he's a genius, no question, but then the oddities, the downright -- what some people have described as weirdness that's associated with Michael Jackson. What was it like living with?
ORTEGA: Well, hanging out with Michael Jackson was just fantastic. I mean, we had so much in common, we really appreciated so many of the same things in life: travel, culture, art, music, children, you know, the planet. He was a really great guy; kind, generous, appreciative, thankful, courteous.
You know, you'd ask anybody that worked with him and they'll say they'd never worked with a nicer man.
CHETRY: Do you think -- I mean, do you sometimes sit back and say, why did this have to happen?
ORTEGA: Oh yes. CHETRY: I mean did it have to end this way for Michael Jackson?
ORTEGA: No, I don't believe it did. And that's something that I'm just going to have to like sort of, you know, work to get through, because I just -- in my own heart and my own mind, I find that this was, you know unnecessary. And -- and just sort of leave it at that for right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And when you look at the video, particularly him working up those dance moves, even with the younger dancers all around him, you don't say, here's a guy that's going to be dead in 18 hours. You just don't.
CHETRY: No. And as we find out more about what happened, it looks like it was an overdose of the anesthetic. But Kenny, he understood, as he said, and I think we did get this in there, or maybe these were such like-minded people, they have the same interests. He was just as passionate as Michael was about getting this to happen. And can you imagine just one day getting the phone call Michael's dead.
And you can see how much time went into this. They were constantly recreating and adding, wanting to make the show perfect, knowing they were doing 50 of them. And for Kenny, he didn't want to even do this. He was afraid he was too close to it.
ROBERTS: I think the people will be surprised, because I know I was surprised, by this, at the extent of how produced the show really was. I mean, this was going to be a blockbuster series of shows.
CHETRY: It would have put people half his age to shame when you see some of those concerts. Really just a shame but the good news, at least for those huge Michael Jackson fans, is that they've tried, they spent -- they culled it down from 120 some hours to these two hours and wanted to show you the best.
ROBERTS: What's really interesting, too, is that in some of the songs, you get three or four different rehearsals all blended together. It's quite a fascinating concert film.
The new cnn.com is fascinating as well. We're going to run you through it. We're launching today and wait until you see what we have on tap for you on the Web.
Fifty-six and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out there's the busiest airstrip, supposedly, in the world, flights landing all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: So, that's the new cnn.com, which we've got behind us here.
CHETRY: Here it is.
ROBERTS: Here it is on our magic wall here. We're just launching today. We've taken the old cnn.com Web site, which was rich and content and everything and we've put it into a new format that's really easy to get to and really amazing to navigate as well.
CHETRY: Here you have a lot of cool things. Are you going to show them the news polls?
ROBERTS: Yes. If you're an iTunes user, you know how all the songs have got sort popularity ratings for how many times they've been downloaded. If you go to our news pulse, you get a very sort of similar thing. In terms of using news, you see the popularity here based on these bars.
You can do it via stories, see the Jane Doe story, the young woman who was found in New York City, who's now been identified. You can pull that out. Or if you want, you can go back to this and get video as well.
And when you pop on the video, like the Michael Jackson thing, you get a little preview window here right on the first page. It's a great way to use all of this.
CHETRY: Yes. A lot of new stuff; let's show you some of the stuff on the right-hand side of the screen right now. This is pretty cool. You can actually customize cnn.com to what you use it for. If you check out your local weather and news, where you live and put your location in there, you always get the highs and lows for the day. What it feels like now.
You can check sports rather quickly. We have it broken down: NFL, we have football, we have baseball, we have hockey. You can check the scores instantaneously.
Quick look at the markets, this constantly updates throughout the day.
A couple of other neat things: quick vote, which team do you want to win the World Series. Of course, most people would hit that -- just kidding.
Boo, I hear. Can you scroll down? And here's the home pages of all of the shows, click on that one.
ROBERTS: Including AMERICAN MORNING. Here's our home page where we always put video of some of our best stories out there. And we also invite you to contact us. Call our hot line. You could e-mail, we're on Facebook, Twitter, and share an iReport as well.
ROBERTS: So the news, cnn.com launching today.
Continue the conversation on today's stories, go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix.
That will wrap it up for us. We'll see you back here bright and early again tomorrow morning.
CHETRY: That's right. Thanks for being with us today.
The news continues right now. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins -- hey, Heidi.
