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American Morning
Publicly Shy Toyota CEO to Face Congress; Joint Chiefs Chairman Says There's Slow and Steady Gains in Afghanistan; New York Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty: Case Fuels Debate Over Terror Trials; Senate Jobs Bill; "We are Second-Class Citizens"; School Spycam Case; Lawmakers Who Don't Request Earmarks
Aired February 23, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday, it's February 23rd. Glad you're with us. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us this morning. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
Toyota and its top executives now facing a criminal investigation. Federal prosecutors slapping the auto giant with a subpoena right before hearings begin today on Capitol Hill. And tomorrow the man in charge of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, takes the stand with his company's future hanging in the balance.
CHETRY: Just a few months after he said we may be losing the war, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs says there is slow and steady progress in Afghanistan. But many Taliban fighters are prepared to stay and fight. We're on the ground with an update on the first major battle since President Obama's troop surge.
ROBERTS: And we're talking about what some call our broken government. Today, a number, a growing number of Americans are fed up and becoming independents. But you might be surprised to learn that going independent could actually take away your right to vote in some key elections. We'll explain that for you today.
CHETRY: We begin this morning though with the real possibility of Toyota executives facing criminal charges. The embattled automaker confirming that it has received a federal grand jury subpoena. Prosecutors demanding Toyota hand over documents relating to sudden acceleration and braking problems in its cars.
Now on the safety front, Toyota announcing its installing brake override safety systems in three more models, the Tacoma, the Venza, and the Sequoia. And on the public relations front, the company's president is now promising to change the way Toyota does business, pledging better transparency in an opinion piece published on the "Wall Street Journal." All of these developments serving as a backdrop for the start of hearings on Capitol Hill today. The main event comes tomorrow when the automaker's president takes the stand.
Kyung Lah joins us live from Tokyo this morning. And how much do we really know about Toyota's top executive, Akio Toyoda, Kyung?
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not as much as we would like, Kiran, and that is done on purpose. Despite his famous last name, Akio Toyoda has done whatever he can to stay out of the limelight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (voice-over): He's called the prince. Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, took a job most saw as inevitable. His promise as he took over the financially struggling company last June, restore the Toyota way. The youngest president in the company's history is instead facing a historic crisis, eight million cars recalled around the world. In this first major test of his leadership, say many analysts, he bungled the company's early response.
After the recalls began, it took two weeks for Toyoda to finally hold a news conference. And then only after mounting pressure and a direct invitation from Washington is he now going to testify before lawmakers.
"I'm pleased to go," says Toyoda, "but I want to stress most is our cooperation in determining the causes and our firm's stance on safety." Japan's transport minister piled on the pressure saying he's glad Toyota finally decided to go.
"It's a pity that we heard he was going, that he wasn't going. Now, he is going to the U.S.
KEITH HENRY, JAPAN WATCHER: He's been under pressure his whole life because he's the grandson of the founder of an icon.
LAH: Japan Watcher Keith Henry believes Toyoda can handle the hot seat, but notes he is notoriously publicity shy, so private that there are no public family photos. Toyoda will be in the spotlight making his case to an American audience.
HENRY: In the U.S., it's a different yardstick that we're going to assess him by. And it will be a test as to not only Mr. Toyoda but Toyota as a corporation.
LAH: In a sign that he is growing into his public role, Toyoda surprised customers in Japan by showing up at a dealership to apologize for the Prius recall. A humble move by the scion of Japan's most powerful company.
Toyota acknowledged at a recent news conference that he's not perfect. "I too have to make constant improvements," he said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Now Toyoda is certainly going to be facing pressure like he has never faced before. If he falters or if U.S. lawmakers are seen as being disrespectful to a man many here in Japan consider still their favorite son, analysts say, Kiran, this could have a significant impact on U.S./Japan relations -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Very interesting, and we await that performance by him tomorrow. Thanks so much, Kyung Lah.
ROBERTS: Well, the nation's top military commander thinks the war in Afghanistan is now moving in the right direction but progress is not coming easily. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen says the battle for control of a town in southern Afghanistan is going more slowly than expected and the enemy is fighting harder than expected.
Our Atia Abawi is embedded with the U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan. She's been covering the campaign for Marjah for us for more than a week now and she joins us now on the telephone.
Atia, what's the situation on the ground there today?
ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, John, I can tell you that the Marines are still gaining some headway when it comes to the mission in Marjah. They are trying to gain more land for more areas of the city of Marjah. But they are still receiving some of resistance from the Taliban. There are gun battles, sporadic gun battles.
Today seems a bit more quiet in the area that we've been in at the moment. But the IEDs are still rampant. The Taliban still knowing that their number one weapon of choice is the number one weapon that has caused the most NATO casualties in the war in Afghanistan.
And they keep popping up in places that the Marines have been able to clear. The Taliban come back and they come back and they come back in a (INAUDIBLE). That being said, when I spoke to commanders on the ground, they do expect the Taliban to quiet down for a little while as the Marines continue to gain some ground.
But they're not underestimating their enemy. They believe that the Taliban will eventually come back, come back in passage, in sneaky passage including suicide bombings, including using civilians as shields as they have been in the last two weeks or so.
But the city of Marjah still not under the hands of the Afghan government. The Marines still pushing their way through trying to clear areas but at the same time the Taliban still putting up resistance -- John.
ROBERTS: Atia, toward the end of last week, we heard that the Marines had dropped a contingent of troops behind the lines of what were thought to be Taliban snipers who have been harassing the forces there. Any idea on how that operation turned out?
ABAWI: Well, the unit that we were with, we were in (INAUDIBLE) Alpha Company in southern Marjah. What they were telling us is that the shooters that they expected to be formed, they were designated marksmen most likely using a (INAUDIBLE) which is sniper variant of the AK-47. And although they were making somewhat of an impact, it isn't as big of an impact as many believe it to be. There have been some casualties from the Taliban snipers, but at the same time these fighters, these Taliban fighters coming out in small groups at a time, the shooting top shots of U.S. positions in any way that they can. Some have actually impacted many U.S. positions, including the ones that we were in with Alpha Company. But at the same time, the commanders on the ground saying that the Taliban snipers they have nowhere near the capability as the U.S. Marines themselves, their own snipers have -- John.
ROBERTS: Atia Abawi for us this morning in southern Afghanistan. Atia, thanks so much for the update.
CHETRY: Six minutes past the hour right now. A look at some other stories new this morning.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is in the hospital this morning in Washington after experiencing chest pains. A spokesman says Cheney is resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital, where doctors are still evaluation his conditions. Cheney is 69 years old and has a long history of heart problems, getting back to his late 30s, including four heart attacks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to be joining us in the next hour to talk more about the former vice president's condition.
ROBERTS: Bob Dole is recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington following a bout with pneumonia. The former Senate majority leader and one-time Republican presidential candidate was admitted three weeks ago with a respiratory condition. He stayed at the hospital to undergo physical therapy on his knee after an earlier surgery. Bob Dole now 86 years old.
CHETRY: The Senate's newest member Scott Brown of Massachusetts is one of five Republicans who voted with Democrats to prevent a GOP filibuster of a jobs bill. President Obama says the show of bipartisanship is an important step forward. The scaled down $15 billion measure would give tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed workers. The bill is now cleared for a final Senate vote tomorrow. Our Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business." She'll be in and joining us in just a few minutes to break down that jobs bill.
ROBERTS: And New York City budget cuts could mean that we will be seeing less of those larger than life balloons and floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The NYPD says beginning in April, that's April 1st -- this is not April fool's, by the way -- parades in the city must shorten routes by 25 percent and not last more than five hours. Officials say the scaled-down celebrations will save more than $3 million and prevent cuts in essential police services.
CHETRY: How long are parades normally? Five hours seems like enough time.
ROBERTS: You know, I didn't have a stopwatch in the last Macy's day parade, but I think they run pretty long. And those St. Patrick's Day can go a long time. CHETRY: Oh, yes. That's the pre-party and the after-party too, if you counted that.
All right. Well, it's eight and a half minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of this morning's weather headlines with Rob Marciano. He joins us from Atlanta.
What's cooking out there? We have a little bit of rain, by the way.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a little bit of rain and then you may have a little bit of snow before this week is done. That active weather week we spoke of yesterday continues to get more interesting as time goes by.
Let's start it off with what's going on across the northeast right now, which means a little bit of rain across New York City, but is trying to mix in with snow. You see a little bit of white on the radar scope there, mostly up state.
We do have some winter weather advisories up. Two to four inches in northwest suburbs of New York, and maybe six to 12 at the higher elevations of Massachusetts and southern parts of New England. And also winter weather advisories and warnings up for parts of Texas. Could see a couple of three inches of snow in this part of the world, including Dallas.
We'll talk more details about that in about 30 minutes. John and Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it, Rob. See you soon. Thanks so much.
Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, it was described as a devastating plot. A guilty plea now from the man planning to bomb the New York City subway system just after 9/11. Jeanne Meserve with how prosecutors scored a major win against terror.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twelve minutes after the hour now. And time for a check of other stories new this morning.
Desperate digging to find people buried alive on the Portuguese island of Madeira after violent flashfloods and mudslides tore through streets this weekend there wiping out homes, roads and bridges. The number of people missing exploded in just a matter of hours from four to 32 once communications were back online. Officials say the floods have killed 42 people so far.
CHETRY: And the deadliest crash in D.C. metro's history will be the focus of a hearing that gets underway this morning, 9:00 Eastern. You may remember this crash back in June of last year, it killed nine people. Eighty others were hurt when one metro train slammed into the back of another that was standing still. That rear car basically collapsed like an accordion on impact. Federal investigators focused on the failure of the automated control system.
ROBERTS: Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has pleaded guilty to three charges here in New York City, now admitting that he conspired with Al Qaeda to make bombs and that their target was the city subway system.
CHETRY: And now this case is fueling the debate over the best place for terror trials. Is it in civilian courts or is it in military tribunals. Our Jeanne Meserve has this morning's security watch from our D.C. bureau.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, the attorney general says the Zazi conspiracy was the most serious threat the country has faced since 9/11 and he's using it to make a point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): In a New York City courtroom, Najibullah Zazi admitted he was a suicide bomber trained and equipped to blow up that city subways, ready to martyr himself to draw attention to civilian deaths in Afghanistan, his native country.
ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This attempted attack on our homeland was real. It was in motion, and it would have been deadly.
MESERVE: Zazi told the court he went to Pakistan in 2008 intending to join the Taliban, but was recruited by Al Qaeda and received explosives training. This video purportedly shows him purchasing chemical components at beauty supply stores in Denver last summer. Prosecutors say he used them to make TATP, the same explosive used by shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Zazi traveled to New York in September, intending to strike the subways. But when he realized he was under surveillance, he threw away the chemicals and returned to Denver where he was arrested. Now he has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and commit murder in a foreign country and to providing material support to a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. A former federal prosecutor called it a home run for the Justice Department.
ANDREW MCBRIDE, FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It shows a civilian court and the threat of life without parole can induce a plea and cooperation.
MESERVE: Since the decision to mirandize the alleged Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the attorney general has been under siege by critics arguing terror suspects should only be prosecuted in military commissions. The attorney general used the Zazi plea deal to defend criminal prosecutions.
HOLDER: To take this tool out of our hands, to denigrate the use of this tool flies in the face of the facts, flies in the face of the history of the use of this tool and is more about politics than it is about facts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: The plea agreement was sealed at the request of the government but a government source says it would not be incorrect to say the spread of legal action against Zazi's family and associates persuaded him to cooperate.
John and Kiran, back to you.
CHETRY: Jeanne Meserve for us. Thanks.
Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, Christine Romans is going to be joining us. She's "Minding Your Business" with a closer look at the jobs bill that the Senate is going to pass, and we're going to find out what's in it and how it may help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Nineteen minutes past the hour right now. It's time for "Minding Your Business."
We're following "Avatar's" nearly $2.5 billion lead. Hollywood is said to release at least three more 3-D movies this spring.
But 3-D fans beware, only a small number of theaters actually have the upgraded technology to run 3-D movies, meaning a lot of these movies and not enough screens. 3-D movie-goers may face limited choices and also shorter running times for each film.
ROBERTS: Wal-Mart is getting into the digital video business. Again, the world's biggest retailer announcing that it will buy VUDU. That's a broadband entertainment provider with more than 16,000 films.
Wal-Mart will now be able to deliver videos to consumers with broadband access and internet-ready television and Blu-ray players. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Wal-Mart Web store offering movie and television downloads failed three years ago.
CHETRY: Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning and she's here to talk a little bit about the new jobs bill that's likely to pass through the Senate, the scaled-down version of a jobs bill.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Was that a whiff of -- of bipartisanship we all smelled the other day?
ROBERTS: A very slightest of whiff.
ROMANS: Just -- just a little.
ROBERTS: Just this big.
ROMANS: And very carefully -- you know, it can be -- it can be a little wind will carry it away, too.
But look, five Republicans across the aisle voted with Democrats to close debate on the slimmed down jobs bill. (INAUDIBLE) at about $15 billion.
This is what it means for you. This is what your Senators are trying to do here. They want to give a tax exemption to companies so that companies who hire people who've been out of work for a long time don't have to pay social security taxes on that employee for up to a year.
There are also measures to promote a new construction and highway projects to fund them continuing through this year and it would extend tax breaks for capital investments. This means that businesses would be able to write off more of the depreciation of their new purchases. The idea here to -- to get companies to go out there and spend money by hiring people and by investing in their businesses.
It does not include a jobless benefit extension. This is something that really angers consumer advocates. We've got just a matter of days here before more than 1 million people are going to lose their -- their jobless benefits and also going to lose 65 percent government subsidy of their COBRA premiums. Democrats in the Senate they're going to work on that elsewhere, in another vehicle.
But this is what is pushing this little bit of bipartisanship in the Senate. If you look at this map, you can see this animation that shows you exactly what it looks like in this country -- joblessness. The purple stain that starts to grow -- this is from about January of 2007 to December of 2009.
Latoya (ph) (INAUDIBLE) is a grad student who put this together. He got an "A" by the way for this. But if you watch this stain spread across the country, this shows you the jobless rate and how it's starting to spread, the high jobless rate starting to spread.
This is the visual representation of what everyone in America are feeling. That yellow part, that's the only place there in the middle where -- which has avoided very, very high unemployment rates.
So that's what's driving -- maybe more than a spirit of bipartisanship, maybe something like that is what's driving some of these people -- who, by the way...
ROBERTS: That's a great little project (ph).
ROMANS: ... 36 of them are up for re-election next year.
ROBERTS: Yes, and in terms of bipartisanship, it was sort of the whiffiest of whiffs. It was a very small one.
Romans Numeral this morning?
ROMANS: Two hundred and eleven days -- 211 days, also what's driving...
ROBERTS: Oh, until the mid-term election.
ROMANS: I don't know. It might be. It's pretty close. No. It's the average number of days of the unemployed. People today -- it's a record. Two hundred and eleven days. I mean, for years you were told to keep three to six months savings...
CHETRY: Three to six months salary (INAUDIBLE).
ROMANS: Well, if you're unemployed for 211 days, you've run out of your savings and you are hurting. So this is what they're hearing on the phones back home from their constituents. This is what's driving a lot of the action in the Senate and the House right now.
CHETRY: Good stuff. Christine, thanks so much. We'll see you next hour.
Meanwhile, coming up on the Most News in the Morning, we're taking a closer look at what some say is our broken government. Today, why more voters are becoming independent and why they're now finding themselves frozen out of the primary elections.
Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's twenty-five-and-a-half minutes after the hour. Your top stories are just four and a half minutes away.
But first, broken promises from the White House to Congress. That's what many Americans think about their government these days, and all this week we're tapping into your frustrations with our look at our series "Broken Government".
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, just 26 percent of people say they trust the federal government to do what's right. For state government, that number rises slightly to 33 percent, and for local government it rises much higher. A majority, 52 percent, say they do trust their local leaders.
All politics is local, Kiran.
CHETRY: There you go. What do they call it? BIMBY, right? Better in my backyard.
ROBERTS: Exactly (ph).
CHETRY: All right. Well, that lack of trust by the way, that was firing up an increasingly powerful group of voters -- the Independents. They're of course heavily courted by both parties, affected the outcome of the presidential election in 2008.
Yet, as Casey Wian shows us, Independents are often denied the right to vote when it really matters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This mother and son rarely see eye to eye politically. He's an unabashed Liberal, she's more Conservative.
But now Jacob Carr and Nancy Corradini could find themselves in the same boat, as registered Independents, which could essentially rob them of the right to vote in some very important elections.
JACOB CARR, DISILLUSIONED VOTER: I was one of the people who voted for Ralph Nader.
WIAN: In 2008, Jason registered as a Democrat to vote for Barack Obama. Today, he's disillusioned and disappointed.
CARR: I guess just throughout the year my -- my hope flame has been dwindling and dimming.
WIAN (on camera): Would you consider becoming an independent, a declined state (ph) voter again?
CARR: Yes. I'm -- I'm, you know, I'm definitely considering that or -- or even maybe registering as some -- like a third party.
WIAN (voice-over): Nancy beat her son to the punch. She became an independent two years ago after determining her party just didn't speak for her anymore.
NANCY CORRADINI, INDEPENDENT VOTER: Sometimes that's difficult to be a moderate Republican in the public -- Republican Party. They call you Republican in name only.
WIAN (on camera): RINO?
CORRADINI: Yes. I -- I heard that buzz word the other night. RINO. I thought it was so -- so insulting.
I emotionally became detached from the Republican Party.
WIAN: But Nancy never considered that going Independent would actually take away her right to vote in some key elections -- primaries. Here in California, political parties get to decide before each and every election whether to allow Independents to vote.
WIAN (voice-over): Joseph Holland is the Elections Registrar for Santa Barbara County.
JOSEPH HOLLAND, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY CLERK: Elections are not simple. They're -- every election is different. They're -- they -- believe it or not, they do change from election to election.
WIAN: That can leave Independents like Nancy pretty confused, but that's not all.
WIAN (on camera): On a local level or even in Congressional races, primaries are often where the key political decisions are made.
Say you're an Independent living in a heavily Democratic district. If you can't vote in the Democratic primary, you're not going to have much influence over who wins the general election. It's probably going to be a Democratic candidate you had no role in choosing.
WIAN (voice-over): In the 2008 presidential primaries, Independents in 17 states and the District of Columbia were shut out of crucial primaries. Those voters had no say at all in determining the major party candidates.
JASON OLSON, INDEPENDENTVOICE.ORG: We are second class citizens when it comes to political representation and participation.
WIAN: Jason Olson is and independent voter activist pushing to change the law in California. This June there's a proposition on the state's primary ballot to eliminate party primaries entirely.
OLSON: All the candidates (ph) were on the same ballot. All the voters, regardless of party, vote for the best candidate and then the top two vote getters would then go on to a run-off style election. So there'd be no more segregating voters by political party and excluding Independents.
WIAN: That's how it's done in Washington State and Louisiana. In other states, party officials are trying to move things in the other direction. In Arizona, for example, the Republican Party is trying to close its primary so only registered Republicans can vote.
Still, Olson sees momentum moving in his direction.
OLSON: We have a real shot to have independents kind of crack open the doors, if you will, and start forcing some real change.
WIAN: And newly Independent Nancy Corradini agrees.
CORRADINI: I think it's going to snowball. It's not going to stop.
WIAN: Casey Wian, CNN, Santa Barbara, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Well, coming up tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, can we actually gamble our way out of a recession? We'll take a look at a virtual stampede by states to approve new gaming sites.
ROBERTS: Tonight at 8:00 Eastern on "CAMPBELL BROWN", defense contractor Ray Fean (ph) has scored yet another major defense contract. CNN investigates the controversy surrounding it.
CHETRY: Also, later on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," 10:00 p.m. Eastern: our efforts to fix America's health care system focus too much on coverage and not enough on keeping down the costs of health care in the first place. Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates whether the American consumer is being ripped off.
ROBERTS: Half past the hour now. It's 6:30 Eastern Time, and that means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Toyota hearings on Capitol Hill said to start in less than five hours. The automaker is now a target of a criminal investigation. Federal prosecutors are slapping Toyota and its top executives with a subpoena. They are demanding all documents relating to sudden acceleration and braking projects.
CHETRY: Your hard-earned tax dollars spent on lawmakers' special pet projects that get slipped into the federal budget. Critics call them earmarks of pork. But not every politician is grabbing for goodies. So, who are they? Our Ali Velshi digs for answer as part of our "Broken Government" series.
ROBERTS: And terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has pleaded guilty to three terror-related charges in a Brooklyn courtroom. He is admitting to conspiring with al Qaeda to detonate bombs in the New York City subway system. The Feds say Zazi could face life in prison. Attorney General Eric Holder says the case shows that the criminal justice system can be used effectively to prosecute terrorism cases.
Well, the FBI confirms it is now investigating a Pennsylvania student's stunning claim that he was spied on in his own home by school administrators using a remotely activated camera on his laptop computer.
CHETRY: That's a stunning allegation. Fifteen-year-old Blake Robbins, one of 2,300 students at Harriton High School who took home a school-issued laptop. Now, the boy's family is claiming that the school actually used the laptop to spy on Blake and then accuse him of doing drugs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLLY ROBBINS, SAYS SCHOOL SPIED ON SON: I got a phone call from the vice principal of the school and she said that she pictures of Blake that were taken on his computer of him holding up little what she thought were pills. But it turned out to be Mike and Ike candies that my son is addicted to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The school maintains that any webcams activated were only done so on laptops that were reported lost, missing or stolen. The Robbins family has filed a civil suit.
And here to break it down for us this morning is Paul Callan, a criminal defense attorney and a professor of media law at Seton Hall University.
So -- all right. So, this class action lawsuit has been filed against the school board. The FBI is now investigating. What potential grounds do they have to win this case?
PAUL CALLAN, FORMER NYC HOMICIDE PROSECUTOR: They have a lot of grounds to win this case. It's a classic invasion of privacy case. It's a violation of the United States Constitution, basically, which requires that if you're going to do some kind of a search of someone's home, you need a search warrant. A judge has to authorize the state to do that.
They allow these cameras to go into a private home with the ability to activate the camera. That's an illegal search. So, it looks to me, at least on the surface, like a slam dunk case against the school district.
CHETRY: And so, that's the other part that seems to be curious is that they're denying. Here's what the school district said, "At no time did any high school administrator access the security-tracking software. The district never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action."
Was this going to turn into a she said, he said? They are saying this never happened and Blake is saying no, he was brought into the office, showed a photo and the assistant principal said here you are doing drugs.
CALLAN: Well, if you read between the lines on their statement, they said no administrator activated the camera. In fact, when I looked into this, this is something that the security division of the school system had the ability to activate the cameras, to look for stolen computers. So, who knows who activated it?
But clearly, they have the capability of activating it and their I.T. department had that capability. That's the invasion of privacy. That's the constitutional violation, depending upon what they actually did.
ROBERTS: Now, pretty obviously, a lot of students and a lot of their parents are worried about, you know, who's looking and what they are looking at and when they are looking. Blake Robbins' father is rather incensed about it, as you can imagine. Let's listen to what he said regarding his daughter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE ROBBINS, FATHER: I have an 18-year-old daughter who also goes to Harriton High School and was also furnished a laptop. And, you know, whether she comes out of the shower or she's getting changed, you know, nobody really knows if anyone was watching her at any point. And, you know, that's a little bit disconcerting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: I know it's not going to win in a court of law, but just the outrage factor here is huge. If you got a laptop sitting here like this laptop is sitting here, and this one is and it's in your room and you walk in from a shower and you're getting dressed, maybe at that time, somebody activates the webcam and then you got a peeping tom case. It's invasion of privacy.
CALLAN: You know, there's a bigger question here, too, and I think we've really got to be afraid of this, because virtually, every household in the country now has got one of these little netbooks with a camera built in and we use it for telephone communication. But you can reverse-activate that from another location and spy on somebody. Your school system could spy on you. Your employer could spy on you if it's a employer-supplied laptop.
So, there's a real invasion of privacy issue here and we've got to find a way to deal with it. This lawsuit may be one way to deal with it -- the lawsuit that will follow this case.
CHETRY: So, then, what's the defense? What's a credible defense from the school district? Because what they are saying is, look, if we only access computers and we did in 42 cases, where it was either reported lost, reported missing or they couldn't locate it, stolen, and the family said this laptop was not stolen or missing and that nobody had reported it so. So, what is the school district's defense?
CALLAN: The only defense they're going to have is that nobody was damaged by this because they're going to say somebody in the security department may have activated it, but they didn't see anything so the child was not harmed. I don't think they have a defense on the issue of invasion of privacy, though. If you take a laptop computer, you send it home and you allow it to be activated without telling the parents and child, that's an invasion of privacy. So, that's a warrantless search.
ROBERTS: OK. But here's a point on that specific issue. Apparently, there was some agreement that students had to sign involving sort of the rules and conditions for security of taking this laptop home. And is there something within that agreement that they signed that suggest that we may use some sort of tracking software to locate the laptop if it goes missing?
CALLAN: I don't think the agreement they signed was specific enough. Yes, if they signed something that said there's a camera -- we have a right to activate the camera -- they would be giving up their rights. But you know something, I think even the administrators at the school district didn't realize they had the sophisticated capability with respects to all of these computers and they certainly didn't put enough in to warn the parents about it.
CHETRY: Unless Blake is to be believed that the assistant principal held up a photo or told him and said we had photo evidence that you were doing drugs, we saw you taking them and it was Mike and Ike...
CALLAN: Well, that's why we have to see how it plays out. You know, the school district has hired a former federal prosecutor. He's out investigating the case to see if there were violations of law. Federal prosecutors have also issued a subpoena in the case because there may be a violation of federal criminal law here.
You know, you're not allowed to tape record somebody under federal law and broadcast that over the Internet. So, you may have a criminal/federal violation here, as well as a civil case. So, this thing is going to really blow up in the faces of the school district officials.
ROBERTS: It's rather troubling what you said though about anybody at home with a company or institutionally provided laptop that's got a camera in it...
(CROSSTALK)
CALLAN: You better shut the laptop off when you get home, John, if you want to be safe. Yes.
ROBERTS: Or could hackers hack into it?
CALLAN: Hackers could hack into it and you can activate that webcam remotely. So, big brother is here, be careful out there.
ROBERTS: It's always comforting seeing you this early in the morning, Paul.
CALLAN: Nice being with you, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Thank you very much.
CHETRY: Thanks, Paul.
Well, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning: billions of dollars in so-called pork barrel projects. Ali Velshi is shining a light on earmarks and why even politicians who say they don't like them still take them? More of our CNN "Broken Government" series.
It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It was one of then-candidate Barack Obama's campaign pledges: slashing earmarks and pork, meat feasted on by so many, many, many politicians. Now, more than a year into the Obama administration, most lawmakers are still pigging out.
So, who are the few not bringing home the bacon?
As part of our "Broken Government," our Ali Velshi is manning CNN's earmarks desk.
Hey, Ali.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, we're here at the earmarks desk at CNN. This crew of people are looking through the nine-and-a-half-thousand earmarks that have gone through just this year, this last fiscal year.
A lot of people talk about earmarks. They complain, they rail against them.
We want to tell you what earmarks are. I'm going start with the official definition according to the Office of Management and Budget. I'm going to paraphrase this because it's a lot of text. But basically, it's funds for projects, programs or grants that circumvent an otherwise applicable merit based or competitive system.
Also, it might be something that specifies a location or a recipient or otherwise curtails the ability of the executive branch of government to manage its responsibilities pertaining to the allocation of funds.
What does all that mean? It means it's not in a budget. These are things that don't have to be accounted for in the same way. They don't have to be explained the same way. They don't have to be detailed. In fact, very little detail has to go into earmarks.
What are they worth?
In the current fiscal year, about $15.9 billion. Now, for some, that is a lot of money. In terms of the operation of government, it's a small percentage.
But the bottom line is, what affects people is the sneakiness with which some of this is undertaken -- the lack of explanation that people have to undertake in order to get earmarks into a bill.
There are some members of Congress who, as a matter of course or principle, do not request earmarks, do not put earmarks in bills. In the Senate -- three Republicans and four Democrats: Senator John McCain, who campaigned against them; Evan Bayh from Indiana, who's stepping down from politics; Senator Claire McCaskill; Mike Johanns; Tom Coburn, Jim DeMint, and Russell Feingold -- six people out of 50 in the Senate.
Out of 435 in the House of Representatives, 35 people from both parties typically do not request earmarks. If you look through it roughly, you see more Republicans than Democrats here, although people who study this independently say that both Republicans and Democrats take advantage of earmarks. The system allows them to do it. The system encourages them to do it.
Many congressmen in posting their explanations for requesting earmarks say they are against them, don't like them. But as long as the system allows them, they're going to take part so that their constituents get the benefit of it.
Bottom line, is people who study this independently say that some earmarks would have been funded under a competitive, transparent system, but the fact that the system is not competitive and not transparent puts them all under a cloud of suspicion -- John, Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: All right. Ali Velshi for us this morning.
Of course, though, when it comes to earmarks, one person's pork is another one's critical project, right?
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: All depends on your perspective.
Coming up tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING: can we actually gamble our way out of the recession? We're going to take a look at the virtual stampede by states to approve new gaming sites.
CHETRY: Also at 8:00 Eastern on "CAMPBELL BROWN": defense contractor Raytheon has scored yet another major defense contract. CNN investigates the controversy.
ROBERTS: And later on, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": our efforts to fix America's health care system focus too much on coverage and not enough on reducing costs. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates whether the American consumer is being ripped off in the health care debate.
CHETRY: It's 44 minutes past the hour. In just a couple of minutes, Rob is going to be coming along with this morning's travel forecast.
ROBERTS: And in 10 minutes time: the hot dog, it's an American icon. Jeanne Moos with why some people want to change the way it looks.
It's forty-four-and-a-half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Forty-seven minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's time for your AM House Call, stories about your health.
Medical experts here in the U.S. have decided to include the H1N1 swine flu in next season's standard flu vaccine. The FDA says that it's recommending the -- following the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The decision that out in the next season's flu vaccine has made every prior February to give drug companies plenty of time to make enough time to make doses.
Acupuncture seems to be an effective drug-free alternative for pregnant women who suffer from depression. It's according to a first of its kind study by Stanford University. Doctors say that major depression during pregnancy affects up to 14% of moms to be and is a risk factor for postpartum depression as well.
Hospitals can be hazardous to your health. There is a new study conducted by the University of Chicago a Washington think tank (ph) that estimates 48,000 patients died from either pneumonia or blood borne infections that were caught in hospitals in 2006. Also the cost of treating people who become ill, $8.1 billion.
ROBERTS: I like the acupuncture in pregnancy study, because it can be applied to so many different things. I know women who have gone for IVF treatments --
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: And it's a multiple times and it hasn't worked, and then they do acupuncture just before the implantation and your transport and just afterwards and bing, baby.
CHETRY: It's amazing. I did it for a knee pain when I was running a lot, and it really worked.
ROBERTS: Yes. You weren't pregnant when you had the knee pain?
CHETRY: No.
ROBERTS: Okay.
CHETRY: No. I wasn't running.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano got a quick check on this morning's weather headlines. He is in Atlanta for us this morning. We got your rain today, Rob, thanks.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're welcome. Yes. So, whatever painkillers you need to endure the next couple of days, have at it, guys. Couple of things actually --check this out. The map is pretty much a mess. You see that many L's during the wintertime, you know you're in for it, so everybody getting a piece of the action here and the rain across the northeast filled with snow at one point. Rain across Dallas today, look for delays there, New York metro, Philly airports, probably rain and low clouds, response and delays. We had a bunch of snow yesterday.
We start off with New Mexico, these are -- the most part of higher elevations snow, about a foot in Los Alamos and Santa Fe seeing seven inches; it's not terribly high, and Arbour setting a record at 8.5 inches at the airport of Detroit, seven inches Detroit proper and spots seeing 8.5, so there's your snow. Here it is now. Mostly north of I-95, and we have winter weather advisories up for the New York metropolitan area but mostly the suburbs, two to four inches north and west of the city.
You go up the thruway and up into the Adirondacks and the Green White Mountains tonight, we'll see 6 to 12 inches, so good skiing for some of the northeast mountains for sure. All right. Check out Texas, 3 to 6 inches possible across Western Texas even the Eastern Texas could see 1 to 4 inches; Dallas an inch likely or less.
Here's this mess coming into town, this will dive down across parts of the South and it will -- actually stir off into maybe yet another nor'easter as we head towards Thursday and Friday for New York and Boston. We'll talk more about that in the coming hours, but it could get interesting for you, folks, in the form of snow on Thursday and Friday. John and Kiran back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob, enough already.
MARCIANO: Sorry.
ROBERTS: Thanks.
MARCIANO: Okay.
CHETRY: Yes, we're ready for spring. Thanks, Rob. This morning's top stories are just minutes away including former vice president Dick Cheney kept in the hospital overnight for suffering chest pain. His heart problems, as you may know, go back three decades. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us live with an update on the former vice president's condition.
ROBERTS: At four minutes after, Toyota now facing possible criminal charges as top executives head to Capitol Hill today and tomorrow. Is it too late to make repairs on the company's image?
CHETRY: And at 25 after, Carol Costello's road trip across America. She had been talking to small businesses who want to put people to work, but they can't get a loan for the bank. Why they said the government isn't working for them. Those stories and much more at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS (voice-over): It is the tallest dog ever according to the Guinness World Records folks. His name is Giant George. He's a Great Dane from Tuczon, Arizona. Skips the scales at 250 pounds, and here we go, he's 3 feet 7 inches tall from paw to shoulder. Folks at Guinness say that makes George the tallest dog ever on record.
CHETRY (voice-over): It's a good looking fellow, too.
ROBERTS: It is.
CHETRY: Very cute.
ROBERTS: Gorgeous George, we'll call him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (on-camera): There you go. It's 55 minutes past the hour. Time for Moost News in the Morning with Jeanne, and speaking of dogs, they all come in different shapes and sizes, but the hot dog is really defined by its shape.
ROBERTS: Doctors, though, say it is the perfect plug for a child's airway, and they are now pushing now for a redesigned hot dog. Here's Jeanne with the news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You may think of it as a tasty treat, but the pediatricians, it's a missile that chokes toddlers.
MOOS (on-camera): Doctors say it is the perfect size to get down your throat and then get stuck.
MOOS (voice-over): Pediatricians say hot dogs are the biggest culprit among foods that toddlers choke on but to suggest the redesign of an American icon?
UNKNOWN MALE: Absolutely not. I love the hot dog just the way it is.
MOOS: Now, the doctors are saying to the meat industry --
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Oh, come on!
MOOS: You've got to, you know, redesign the hot dog.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: I'll tell these doctors to go back to school.
MOOS: The hot dog got its distinctive form because tube-shaped sheep intestines were originally used as casing, that's rarely the case now, but the shape has become iconic.
JANET RILEY, NATIONAL HOT DOG & SAUSAGE COUNCIL: We called Dachshund, weiner dog because that's how hot dogs are defined by that sort of long shape.
MOOS: Put that in your ban.
What can they do to re-design a hot dog?
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Make it a square one.
UNKNOWN MALE: I would twist it.
MOOS: Twist it?
UNKNOWN MALE: Yes.
MOOS: Twist it how?
UNKNOWN MALE: A longer one.
UNKNOWN MALE: Puree it.
MOOS: Puree it?
How would you eat it?
UNKNOWN MALE: Slap it.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Make it look like a hamburger.
UNKNOWN MALE: Like a hamburger patty, but I've choked on hot dogs.
MOOS: Did you have to get the Heimlich maneuver?
UNKNOWN MALE: No, I choked it up.
MOOS: The pediatricians want better labeling right now about half of hot dogs come with a fairly small child safety warnings for parents to cut up the dogs into easy to swallow pieces trying to figure out how to redesign the hot dog left folks per plexed.
UNKNOWN MALE: In order to put the meat inside the freaking thing, you're going to have to squeeze it.
UNKNOWN MALE: You know what parents have learned how to do? They have to learn how to watch their kids. It's ridiculous. I've been eating hot dogs my whole life.
MOOS: He's probably been eating pizza too, but they just redesigned it for the first time in New York selling pizza in a cone, you just stuff in the ingredients and more likely to strangle yourself with the cheese than choke on a pizza cone.
If they can redesign pizza, why not the hot dog? But the hot dog council isn't biting.
So, basically don't hold your breath?
RILEY: I think that's a safe statement.
MOOS: Everyone would be redesigning me.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Number one as a parent, you cut it horizontally. It's just a no brainer. Everybody does that when you cut it in small.
ROBERTS: How can you change the iconic dog?
CHETRY: That's right. Although, the pizza cone looks really good.
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
