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American Morning
Toyota's CEO to Testify Before Congress; High School Superintendent Fires Entire Teaching Staff at Once; Blackwater Accused of Using Questionable Methods to Obtain Weapons in Afghanistan; Military Contractor Under Fire From Congress; A Look at Toyota's Ties in Congress; Betting on a Budget Fix: States Turn to Casinos to Close Deficits
Aired February 24, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning on this Wednesday, the 24th of February. I'm John Roberts.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans in for Kiran Chetry.
ROBERTS: She's not feeling very well today.
ROMANS: I know. We've been swapping seats for a couple weeks, haven't we?
Here are the big stories we're telling you about in the next 15 minutes. From the driver's seat to the hot seat, the chief of Toyota will talk to Congress today about when the company knew its cars could take off without warning.
And we're not in Japan any more. Brianna Keilar has a look at why these question could be different than any questions he's ever faced at home.
ROBERTS: And in one Rhode Island high school, a failing grade for the teachers, all 88 of them fired at once. Is this lesson in layoffs enough to save the school? Our Randi Kaye is digging deeper this morning.
ROMANS: And our week long focus on broken government, a report on the big gamble some states are taking to close their budget deficits. They are betting on casinos for the cure. Why some say it's a risk that simply not worth taking.
ROBERTS: But first this hour, it is time for Mr. Toyoda, the namesake of the car company, to talk. In just a few hours the top man will face a grilling on Capitol Hill. We are almost assured that there will be fireworks.
Yesterday his chief of sales in the United States was grilled about whether the fix for 8 million recalled vehicles is really just a cover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. HENRY WAXMAN, (D) CHAIRMAN, ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Do you believe that the recall on the carpet changes and the recall on the sticky pedal will solve the problem of sudden unintended acceleration?
JAMES LENTZ, PRESIDENT AND COO, TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, USA: Not totally.
WAXMAN: What do you need to do?
LENTZ: We need to continue to be vigilante and continue to investigate all of the complaints that we get from consumers that we have done a relatively poor job of doing in the past.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Brianna Keilar is live for us in Washington with a look at what's ahead for Toyota's top guy today. And if the grilling that the U.S. president got is any indication, they could be firing up the barbecue there on the Hill this morning, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's about right, John. This is what we're used to, Congress taking the CEO of a big company to task. This is the kind of environment that's commonplace here in the U.S. And these congressional hearings, as we know, they are almost a contact sport.
Contrast that with Japan where even pointed questions like certainly the ones Mr. Toyoda will get today are considered downright disrespectful.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: When Akio Toyoda goes before the House Oversight Committee he'll face a tough crowd. This is what happened to the last guy who testified, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You gave lame excuses then.
REP. STEPHEN LYNCH, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: It stinks to the high heaven what happened here. And I don't like the obfuscation.
KEILAR: They don't call it "the hot seat" for nothing. Lawmakers want answers and promises.
KEILAR (on camera): What do you want to hear from Akio Toyoda?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to hear one, a commitment to change.
KEILAR (voice-over): Darrell Issa is the top Republican on the committee. He says Toyota must be held accountable, but as former head of an electronics manufacturer, he's familiar with Japanese business culture where diplomacy and deference are paramount, the exact opposite of a Congress hearing.
REP. DARRELL ISSA, (R) CALIFORNIA: Congress is famous for rude questions. So I expect there will be some rude questions.
KEILAR: Issa worries some lawmakers might go too far.
KEILAR (on camera): You sound a little worried about how your committee will behave?
ISSA: I don't want to be embarrassed on behalf of the American people by not focusing to the important part -- did government and industry do their job? If they didn't, will they do it going forward?
KEILAR (voice-over): And if Mr. Toyoda is skewered by the committee or if he performs poorly, experts says Japan-U.S. relations could be strained.
VICTOR CHA, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: If you have a situation in which these hearings go extremely poorly and gets splashed across the front pages of major newspapers and media in the United States and in Japan, I think you could have something that leads to a little bit of a difficult, uncomfortable relationship between the two countries.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Now one other factor that may add some sensitivity in how these lawmakers question Mr. Toyoda, American jobs supplied by Toyota plants and dealerships here in the U.S. And also many in Congress are actually Toyota customers. Listen to what they said at yesterday's hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAXMAN: Toyota makes good cars. I've driven one pleasurably and safely for years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I drive a Toyota, a Camry hybrid that thus far has not been recalled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was excited to get one of the very first Camry hybrids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When it was time to replace my 12-year-old car, I went in search of a hybrid. I decided on a Prius but ended up with a cute little Solara convertible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second generation in my family, my two children who are now adults actually drive Toyotas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: John, outside of the Capitol where there's a parking lot for members of Congress, we sometimes joke because there will be so many Priuses in the role. This is a personal issue for many of these lawmakers.
ROBERTS: My son drives a Camry hybrid, which so far isn't involved, but we'll see if that remains the case. Brianna, thanks so much.
And coming up in 15 minutes time we're on the Toyota money trail. Many lawmakers who will question Toyota executives in the coming weeks have a big stake in its success. One has decided to sit out, others are not.
And a 7:30 eastern we'll speak with a woman who relived her runaway ride in a Lexus yesterday, calling it a "near-death" experience. She said that the car tried to start itself after the whole horrible idea.
ROMANS: Now to a developing story. This morning 88 teachers in Rhode Island waking up to the news they won't have a job next year. Last night city trustees approved pink slips for every single teacher at a Central Falls high school, the mass firings coming at the request of the school's superintendent.
Her attempt to fix the school where the teachers collect up to $78,000 a year while less than half of the students graduate. Here's Randi Kaye with the latest.
KAYE: John, Christine, at Central Falls high school in Rhode Island where the poorest students in the state go to school, 75 percent of the district lives in poverty. A good education may be their only shot at a brighter future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: So to give these students a better chance, Central Falls superintendent this week did something so radical, so unheard of, it's captured the nation's attention. She cleaned house, fired dozens of teachers because the district says they refused to spend more time with students to improve test scores.
DR. FRAN GALLO, SUPERINTENDENT, CENTER FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT: We have a serious problem where you have a 48 percent graduation rate. We're losing more children than we graduate.
KAYE: Central Falls is one of the lowest performing schools in the state. Of the 800 students, 65 percent are Hispanic. For most English is a second language. Half are failing every subject. Just 55 percent are skilled in reading, only seven percent proficient in math.
Meanwhile the majority of their teachers are earning between $72,000 and $78,000 a year, well above the national average. And the district says that teachers want even more money, as much as $90 an hour more for the extra time spent with students.
This in a community where the latest census figures show the median income is $22,000. Based on federal guidelines the superintendent proposed teachers work a longer school day, seven hours, tutor students weekly for one hour outside of school time, have lunch with students often, meet for 90 minutes every week to discuss education, and set aside two weeks during summer break for paid professional development. A spokesman for the school district told me the teachers' union wanted to negotiate the changes. So the superintendent felt she had no choice but to fire all 88 teachers for the next school year.
KATHY MAY, CENTRAL FALLS HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: I'm disheartened. I feel like after 20 years I can see some progress beginning to be made. And I'm sad that we're not going to be around to follow that through to push that forward.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: A spokesman for the teachers' union called the firings "drastic" and told me in the last two years reading scores have gone up 21 percent, math scores have gone up three percent. The spokesman said the teachers had agreed to most of the changes but wanted to discuss compensation for the extra hours of work. John, Christine?
ROMANS: So was firing all 88 teachers the best way to solve this problem? Sound off now on our blog CNN.com/amfix.
ROBERTS: There's a snowstorm coming. Grab the snow boots before you leave for work. The east coast is about to get a double whammy today from the Hudson Valley to western New England. We're going to see snow, sleet, and rain. Some places could get a foot of snow in the storm, and a bigger, more powerful one is right on its heels.
ROMANS: Of course it is.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROMANS: Lawless in Afghanistan, not Taliban insurgents, American military contractors, reckless behavior allegedly included using the name of a South Park cartoon character to sign out high powered weapons.
ROBERTS: Chest tube, $1,100, needle $800 -- cost of saving your life, astronomical. Dr. Sanjay Gupta breaks down the price tag for a trip to the operating room.
ROMANS: And actor Alec Baldwin, he's a primetime magnet, got an Emmy for his role on "30 Rock" and now co-hosting the Oscars. So why is he telling CNN he's simply ready to give it all up? It's 10 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
A Senate investigation is slamming the military contractor formerly known as Blackwater. Senator Carl Levin, head of the armed services committee, says the company operated in Afghanistan with no regard for rules and almost no government oversight.
In one instance contractor personnel allegedly signed out hundreds of high powered weapons by using the name Eric Cartman from the "South Park" cartoon. Company officials will testify at a Senate hearing a couple of hours from now.
Our Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence is following the story for us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Private mercenaries running around Afghanistan with no accountability, taking weapons, shooting civilians. That's the picture being painted by a congressional investigation.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: What you need is oversight, and hopefully this hearing is going to lead to dramatically better oversight.
LAWRENCE: Last spring CNN brought you and interview with one of the contractors now charged with murdering two Afghan civilians.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I got out of the vehicle I had no weapon in my hands.
LAWRENCE: This investigation alleges a series of problems that nobody caught led up to that shooting. It goes back more than two years and involves Blackwater, which now calls itself XE, and the company it created to get work in Afghanistan called Caravan.
Congressional investigators say a Blackwater employee took more than 300 AK-47s from a storage bunker, guns set aside for Afghan police. Both the company and the Defense Department admit there's no paper work to document it -- 300 assault rifles, no receipt.
When a new rule required Afghan officers to sign for any weapons, Blackwater takes another 200 rifles out of the bunker. Who signs for it? Eric Cartman.
There's a "South Park" character by that name, but Blackwater told investigators for Eric Cartman has ever worked for the company. And Blackwater admits quote, "Contractors should not have been armed without the proper approvals."
Later that year, one contractor accidentally shoots another trainer in the head, partially paralyzing him. The company reports it to the military as the reckless use of an unauthorized weapon. But Senator Carl Levin says the right people never read it.
SEN. CARL LEVIN, CHAIRMAN., ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: If that shooting back in December of '08 had been investigated, it would have been discovered that Paravant (ph), Paravant (ph) personnel were using weapons unsafely, improperly, inadequate supervision.
LAWRENCE: Flash forward to May of last year. On a dark, dusty road in Kabul, Blackwater contractors with unauthorized weapons opened fire on Afghan civilians they saw as a threat. The incident cost the U.S. military goodwill among some Afghans and sparked a diplomatic incident. LEVIN: Reckless behavior by Paravant (ph) contractors helped set the stage. Government oversight failed. And thirdly, Blackwater broke the rules relating to weapons.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Even the military's investigating officer admits that the contractors in that incident were poorly supervised. And the Army is going to take some responsibility for that. But there's a real confusion over exactly who is supposed to hold these contractors accountable. A new proposal would create one central agency to sort of oversee them all -- John.
ROBERTS: Interesting, Chris, that we had all of these questions about this organization back in Iraq and now we're hearing the same things again under a new name in Afghanistan.
LAWRENCE: Yes. Yes.
ROBERTS: Yes, Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Chris, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. Next up, the Toyota money trail. We're going to follow the cash for you. Not the cash that you pay out of your pocket for the Toyota car. We're going to follow the cash from the car company to Capitol Hill and see just what all of that money buys, especially now that its safety is in question and the company is under fire in the U.S. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning to the folks in Washington this morning. They'll be seeing the head honcho from Toyota a little bit later on today. Car companies have got a lot of problems. No question about that. But the company also has a lot of friends in Washington. High powered, high priced friends.
Christine is finding out just who they are, what they get from Toyota, and how far Toyota's influence rather reaches.
ROMANS: As the second of three congressional hearings on Toyota's recall problems takes place later today, John, we wanted to give you a more in-depth look at Toyota's ties to Congress.
First, the money. In the last five years, Toyota has spent nearly $25 million lobbying Congress. In comparison, fellow Japanese imports Honda and Nissan spent only $1 million more than Toyota combined. Toyota also has 31 registered lobbyists, eight of whom are former officials from Congress and the executive branch. Toyota also has ties to three of the richest members of Congress, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who called these hearings. He made a fortune selling his popular car alarm, the Viper, and other brands for Toyota and other makes.
Congresswoman Jane Harman sits on one of the congressional committees looking into Toyota. Last year, she reported that she held tens of thousands of dollars of Toyota stock and her husband's company has business with Toyota. So Harman just announced that she's recusing herself, saying she will not participate in the investigation of this company.
But other members with connections to Toyota are staying in the game like Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. Toyota sponsored and paid for in part a dinner where Rockefeller was honored last year, and Toyota runs a plant in Rockefeller's home state that created 1,500 jobs and close to a billion dollars in investment. His staff says he's going to stay with the investigation and that he'll be tough on Toyota if he thinks they deserve it.
But, John, let's be honest here. This is the way it works in every industry. For every major company, they have a lot of ties to that revolving door of lobbyists. Former Congress members and former federal officials are usually the top people you try to pick to work for you to get your point across the Congress.
ROBERTS: Exactly. Because they're the ones who know how things work and they're the ones who have the access and the connections.
ROMANS: And I would say the Toyota situation is probably not that unique in that it has such great deep ties to Congress.
ROBERTS: Let's go to the defense contractors.
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: That's all you got to do. Well, here's a little salt in Toyota's wounds this morning.
"Consumer Reports" has named Japanese rival Honda and Subaru the best all around cars for American drivers. That's four straight years that Honda has earned top marks. Toyota did come in second. Ford earned the highest domestic marks, and Chrysler got the lowest grades.
Now one thing we should probably point out this morning is a lot of people say, well, the company's name is Toyota, but the CEO's name is Toyoda with a "D."
ROMANS: So tell me why because we were talking about this. It's fascinating.
ROBERTS: Here's the way that the legend goes. It seems to be the correct thing. When you write the name Toyoda with a "D," it takes 10 strokes of a brush to write the Japanese characters. There's a couple of little hash marks over the last character.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTS: Toyota only takes eight.
ROMANS: And that's a lucky number.
ROBERTS: Eight is a lucky number in many Asian cultures. And apparently somewhere along the lines here, Toyoda changed to Toyota. ROMANS: The logo was most streamlined and when they were doing this whole thing, it's for marketing. That's what they did. It's really interesting.
ROBERTS: So the legend goes, anyway. It's 23 minutes after the hour. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to "the Most News in the Morning. The U.S. may be more than $12 trillion in the red -- $12 trillion -- but it's moving forward this morning on plans for a new $1 billion. Yes, $1 billion embassy in London. And it's quite fancy. Check it out.
The embassy will sit along the River Thames. It will be protected by a manmade moat on one side and a park on the other. A waste of money? You decide. U.S. officials say the cost is needed to ensure the building's security.
ROBERTS: If they were looking for something with a moat, couldn't they just bought an old castle in the English countryside? Come on.
With unemployment near 10 percent, many states slashing services while hiking fees and taxes, something is clearly broken. All this week we're focusing on broken government. So, what's broken?
Today, we're taking a look at state budgets. Dozens of them facing staggering shortfalls. So what's the fix? Well, in places like Pennsylvania, they're betting on casinos to close budget gaps.
Our Carol Costello just spent weeks traveling the country to find out what average Americans are up against. This report took her to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. And she found some people who think banking on gambling revenues is another example of broken government.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Yes.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life can be sweet at The Rivers Casino. Most come here for fun. But others come for cash.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Winning.
BILL SULLIVAN, FREEDOM, PENNSYLVANIA: Actually it helps some people in a recession if they get lucky enough to win.
ALEX ENGRAM, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: It's kind of hard that's why I'm down here most of the time to try to get some money. The most I ever won? $82.
COSTELLO: And he didn't have to travel all the way to Vegas to win it. Rivers Casino is in Alex Engram's backyard, Pittsburgh. Actually there are lots of casinos now or soon to be in the nation's backyard. Thirty-nine out of the 50 states to be exact. But not everybody is feeling lucky.
PROTESTERS: No casinos, no way.
COSTELLO: In Philadelphia, some say the proliferation of casinos is a clear sign government is broken. With seven casinos already up and running in Pennsylvania, problems remain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Housing still is broken. Joblessness still is too high. Government has failed and our politicians continue to fail us.
COSTELLO: Reverend Jesse Brown and a dozen others were cuffed and thrown into jail, protesting the construction of two more casinos on Philadelphia's waterfront. They accused politicians of partnering with casino owners to convince voters gambling is the only way out of a bad economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a quick fix. It's a scheme, frankly. And it's teaming up with a predatory industry.
COSTELLO (on camera): Where will the casino be?
DAN GILBERT, CASINO DEVELOPER: If you look along this whole riverbank here, it's --
COSTELLO (voice-over): Dan Gilbert owns the Cleveland Cavaliers. He and his partners spent $50 million to convince recession weary Ohioans to allow casino gambling.
(on camera): You answer what the critics say. They would say that Ohio's economy is so bad and people are so downtrodden right now, that it's easy to exploit them at this particular time to push through something they may not want in the future.
GILBERT: It's happening anywhere. Ohio voters are leaving the state every single day. Thousands of them driving to Detroit, driving to West Virginia, driving to Indiana. We really see this thing as a revitalization or a piece of a revitalization of the urban cores of the cities in Ohio that we're going to be in.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And clearly, casinos are moneymakers.
DAVID PATENT, THE RIVERS CASINO: January was our best month ever. The numbers here are just going to get better and better.
COSTELLO: That's a God send for Pennsylvania's governor. He says casino gambling has produced $2 billion in tax revenue and 8,000 jobs.
GOV. EDWARD RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: There are some people who don't like gaming, but the overwhelming population in the state would prefer gaming producing tax revenue than an increase in taxes that they pay.
COSTELLO: In fact, at The Rivers Casino, some bet the governor is right.
JAMIE GAWORSKI, SARVER, PENNSYLVANIA: I don't think it's a problem at all. I don't think it detracts from anything. I hope this will help us with our property taxes in the long run.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: As I told you, 39 states have or will have some form of casino gambling but 48 states have some form of gambling like a lottery or horse racing. Can we reach 50? Well, you tell me.
I'd like to know what you think of this this morning. Can we gamble our way out of a recession? Send your comments to my blog, CNN.com/amFIX. That's CNN.com/amFIX. We want to know what you think about that this morning -- John.
ROBERTS: So, Carol, some states are saying, like Pennsylvania, brings in a tremendous amount of revenue. There's also that argument that the fellow in Ohio made that if they're going to go outside of the state to gamble might as well have gaming in the state and keep the money there. But what that other fellow said about how we hoped that maybe in the long run it helps with our property taxes, is there any indication that that would happen?
COSTELLO: Well, Governor Rendell says it does pay for some property taxes and it does relieve the tax burden. The problem is so many states have casino gambling now that you only get revitalization like around those casinos.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: But it doesn't like, you know, it doesn't like go all over the state, for example. That's what gambling experts tell me anyway.
ROBERTS: So they're actually thinking that maybe they can lower property taxes with these revenues?
COSTELLO: That's what Governor Rendell says.
ROBERTS: I'll keep watching that and see what happens.
COSTELLO: But you know, a lot of people say well, why not invest the money, you know, Mr. Casino owner in a manufacturing plant or in small businesses and something else besides gambling that does prey on a very tiny percentage of Americans who have a problem with gambling.
ROBERTS: There you go, Carol Costello this morning. Fascinating new story. Thanks, Carol.
Checking our top stories now as we cross the half hour. Chilling details coming out this morning about the attacks police say Najibullah Zazi was planning for New York City. Police commissioner Ray Kelly says Zazi and two other men wanted to blow up home made bombs in the subway during the rush hour just days after the 9-11 anniversary. Zazi has pleaded guilty to three terror related charges. ROMANS,: Former vice president Dick Cheney still recovering this morning in a D.C. hospital. Tests show the former vice president had a mild heart attack on Monday. His fifth since 1978. Cheney spokesman said he's feeling fine and he could be sent home as early as today.
ROBERTS: And grab your boots as you leave for work today. Back- to-back winter storm are bearing down on the northeast. Our Rob Marciano says most of the snow from the one-two punch will likely fall in upstate New York, east of the Hudson River. Winter storm watches are in effect for New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C..
ROMANS: In just a few hours Toyota's CEO, who has come all the way from Tokyo will answer questions on Capitol Hill. There's been accusations that the company has been arrogant and way too late with its response to reports of runaway cars. Yesterday, his chief of sales in the U.S. sat and listened to a woman relive her runaway ride in a Lexus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RHONDA SMITH, EXPERIENCED SUDDEN ACCELERATION: I know he could not help me but I wanted to hear his voice. After six miles, God intervened as the car came very slowly to a stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And joining us now live from Washington is Rhonda Smith and her husband, Eddie. An emotional story you told, a terrifying six miles. Every driver's worst nightmare, not being able to stop your car and in fact, your car operating without you having any control here. You told this story with such incredible poise. I want you to tell our viewers again what led up to these moments and what happened here in this car, a Lexus ES 350, Rhonda?
SMITH: Well, as I said before, I was traveling, I had just entered the interstate, and I had accelerated into the traffic. And I took -- I was going to decelerate as I took my foot off the accelerator and the cruise light came on, and the car continued to accelerate, and I thought it was something to do with the cruise. So I took off the cruise and the car continued to accelerate.
ROMANS: And it got up to 100 miles per hour. I mean, the last time you could sort of look down and see how fast you were going, it was 100 miles an hour.
SMITH: Yes.
ROMANS: Speeding ahead. At one point you finally decided, you're on your blue tooth, you called your husband. You felt like you just need to hear his voice. You thought this was the end.
SMITH: Yes, ma'am. Yes.
ROMANS: Eddie, what did you think when you heard your wife and what she was telling you. This terrifying sort of 911 call to your husband. Honey, I'm going at 100 miles per hour and I don't think I'm going to make it.
EDDIE SMITH, WIFE EXPERIENCED "RUNAWAY RIDE": I really felt like it was probably the last time I was going to talk to her in a just waited to hear the crash. And hoped to be able to talk to her, and probably would not have been. What I was hearing going on.
ROMANS: Rhonda, why did the car stop ? When did the car stop? And what did you do then?
SMITH: Well, the car didn't stop until -- I think what was left of the brakes finally took hold whenever -- it finally decelerated to the point where the brakes took hold and I pull it over to the side of the road. And then I know it got down to like 35 miles an hour and I had the ignition pushed but it did not cut off until 33 miles per hour. And at that point, though, the radio still played and the interior lights were still on.
ROMANS: It must have been terrifying when you pulled that car over and tried to get out. Tell me about Toyota and the response from Toyota. You immediately began corresponding with this company to say something was wrong with your car. What happened and how was their interaction with you?
SMITH: Well, there wasn't much interaction. We started calling Toyota and we kept getting the response that they would call us back and we would call again and they said they would call us back that day or the next day and they wouldn't call us back. And so we emailed and we didn't get response from them so finally we called the dealership and asked them if they had heard from Toyota.
And they had said that they would send a technician out to the dealership, for no one to touch the car at the dealership. So they did send a technician out. The technician inspected, whatever that means, inspected the car, and they told us that nothing was wrong the car, and that the car was fine.
ROMANS: This was your fault? The implication there is that somehow this was a driver error or a wandering floor mat maybe. In your heart you have always said this is some sort of an electronic problem in my car. This car was -- even after you pulled over this car, the engine was racing ahead. You think this is something electronic in this car?
SMITH: Yes. Well the car even tried to start by itself. When my husband put it on neutral to put it up on the roll back at the wrecker. He put it in neutral which you shouldn't be able to do without starting the car. But whenever he moved the gear shift into neutral the car tried to start. It rolled up or as you say rolled over about twice and tried to start by itself. So, the floor mats had nothing to do with it.
ROMANS: What do you need to hear from the Toyota president, the top voice, a man who says that his name is on every one of these cars and that quality and safety are his top concern. What do you want to hear from him today? What could he say to you that would erase these past years and months of questions and frustration for you?
SMITH: Well, nothing can erase it. I just want Toyota to -- I want to know that they will take their money and spend it wiser, and that -- I want them to be able to ensure increased quality control and try to start doing a better job with our cars and to quit lying to the public and to admit their sins and to try to correct the problems that they have out on the roads today, to make it safer for people in the future, and to try to do something for all those people in the past who have been injured.
And to admit what they have done wrong in the past and to also admit that there is a problem with the electronics because the car that I drove, there was something wrong with the electronics to make it do all the things that it did.
ROMANS: All right. Rhonda Smith, who experienced sudden acceleration and testified yesterday and her husband, Eddie Smith, who was on the phone with her as she thought she was driving her last miles in that Lexus. Thank you both of you for joining us.
SMITH: Thank you so much.
ROMANS: It's 37 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to "the most news in the morning." Actor Alec Baldwin who is a regular viewer of AMERICAN MORNING, by the way.
ROMANS: Is he really?
ROBERTS: He is.
ROMANS: Good morning, Alec. How are you?
ROBERTS: How are you? He should be feeling -- Alec, you should be feeling pretty good about your career because he just won an Emmy and in less than two weeks, he's going to be co-hosting the Oscars.
ROMANS: Alec Baldwin has been on a roll lately and doing a lot more than acting. He talked with our Alina Cho who gets all of the tough assignments. She joins us now.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to say, this one was really, really tough. But he does watch AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning. You know, Alec Baldwin's star, as you mentioned, could not be brighter these days. A lead in the hit movie "It's Complicated," lead in the hit TV series "30 Rock." And as John just mentioned, now co-host of the Oscars. But the actor has a bit of a complicated life and we recently sat down to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): He's the politically incorrect boss on "30 Rock." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: Watching your lefty homo erotic propaganda hour, yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: And let's it hang all out in "It's Complicated." Alec Baldwin is riding high. On the big and small screen.
(on camera): Four Screen Actor Guilds' awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmys, back to back -- did you ever think?
BALDWIN: No. No. No. But now that I have that --
CHO (voice-over): Now that he has that -- the 51-year-old actor is doing this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you could do it over again what advice would you give yourself?
BALDWIN: How many people here sing? Everybody but you. All right. That's important.
CHO: Baldwin recently donated $1 million to his alma mater, the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, to provide scholarships to students who love the craft and demonstrate financial need.
BALDWIN: I want to sit in on some of the auditions and they said to me, we think it's a little distracting.
CHO (on camera): -- distracting.
BALDWIN: Or off putting. You being there during their audition. And I said oh, that's funny I never thought of it that way. I thought that they would enjoy that.
CHO (voice-over): Baldwin is passionate about giving back. In the same way he is passionate about classical music. So much so he signed on to be the radio announcer for the New York Philharmonic.
BALDWIN: It's the thing I wish I had done that with my life.
CHO (on camera): Really?
BALDWIN: Yes, totally. To conduct. To be executive director of a symphony. What could be better than that?
CHO (voice-over): Maybe this. Baldwin is rehearsing for his next gig.
STEVE MARTIN, ACTOR: Hi. I'm Steve Martin.
CHO: He and his co-star from "It's Complicated" Steve Martin are co-hosting the Oscars. (on camera): Are you nervous?
BALDWIN: Oh very. I've never been more nervous about a job in my life.
CHO (on camera): Really?
BALDWIN: Never.
CHO: What makes you nervous about it?
BALDWIN: Because the show is not about us. You're like a waiter. You're not the show. You're not the meal. You know what I mean, we're there to bring out the people that are the nominees.
CHO (voice-over): More dignified than funny, but humor he says will play a role. Just like it does in the movies.
CHO (on camera): Can we talk a bit about the laptop scene?
BALDWIN: If you want to.
MARTIN: Mother.
BALDWIN: What? No.
BALDWIN: It tells me a lot about you, Alina. But go right ahead. We'll do that if we must. If you need to satisfy some need you have.
CHO: Oh, my God.
BALDWIN: Shave the hair. Spray tan. Man, I look like a gigantic lobster up there.
I've never really known.
CHO (voice-over): It worked. "It's Complicated" has grossed $200 million worldwide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will do you it?
BALDWIN: I don't know. I'm not an actor.
CHO: But Baldwin, a tabloid fixture, says acting has taken its toll. So he plans to quit once his contract with "30 Rock" expires in 2012.
BALDWIN: As much as I like acting, I know that I would love to have a different life. A private life. Yes. I mean, I think that doing this now for a living has become really, really hard. It's really hard. And I would rather go do other things and have whatever amount of time I have left in my life, have more of a normal life.
CHO (on camera): Is that possible? You're already famous?
BALDWIN: Well, I want to find out how close can I get.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Interesting. You know, so what exactly would Alec Baldwin do if he quit acting? Well, politics is a possibility. He's politically active. That's right. A radio talk show host, remember he's the radio announcer for the New York Philharmonic.
ROBERTS: Yes. That will take him out of the public eye.
CHO: That's right.
ROBERTS: Hello?
CHO: Radio talk show host -- remember, he's the radio announcer for the New York Philharmonic. That's --
ROBERTS: Now, that will take him out of the public eye, too. Look at Rush Limbaugh. Nobody talks about him.
CHO: Conducting. You know, he said it's the one thing he wished he would have done with his life. That, he says, he wouldn't do.
But, either way, guys, he does seem very serious about it. He says he plans to take a year off. Remember, he still has a few years left on his contract with "30 Rock". And he wants to mull over his options.
ROMANS: Oh, and that voice! He's got a really incredible voice. I -- I like to listen -- to unwind to these nature shows, and I swear the running soundtrack is Alec Baldwin. He does -- he must do a lot of those voice-overs for those.
CHO: It's very soothing, I must say.
ROBERTS: What did you just say? You like to unwind to these nature shows?
ROMANS: I liked to watch nature shows. Some of them are all (INAUDIBLE) those lion (ph) episodes like that, but mostly just nice shows about birds. Sorry.
ROBERTS: Thanks, though. He's --
ROMANS: That's one way to do it.
ROBERTS: He's a -- he's a very, very funny guy.
CHO: Very talented.
He and Steve Martin together should be great.
CHO: Oh, it's going to be great.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. It's 45 minutes past the hour.
Big snowstorm brewing up the East Coast. Rob is going to stop by with this morning's travel forecast right after the break.
ROBERTS: It's another nature show, right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning St. Louis, where it's cloudy and 20 degrees right now. Later on today, sunny and 31.
ROMANS: Sunny in St. Louis, but it's going to be snowy on the eastern seaboard, isn't it?
Rob Marciano is going to give us his travel and getting the kiddies ready for school forecast for the next couple of days. Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys.
Yes, it's already snowed quite a bit, at least north of the city. Check out some of these snow totals -- Blandford, Massachusetts a foot of snow; Greentown, Pennsylvania, 11 inches; Goshen, Vermont nine inches; and West Rutland up there by Killington seeing 7.5 inches. So a nice little dusting. They will get four to eight additionally on top of what has already fallen, so winter storm warning still in effect for Upstate New York and parts of Northern New England.
Now, winter storm watches have been posted for Upstate New York, the western side at least, and parts of the Delaware Valley, into Jersey, down to Washington, D.C., we're thinking, at this point, 10 to 20; Upstate New York and eastern PA, five to 10 along the major city corridors, but the precip forecast is definitely going to be touchy because we got a number of things coming together.
Item number one, some of this energy from today's storm will linger, will team up with this guy, which is an upper level low. You kind of see it spinning with light snows across parts of Chicago. And the snows across Texas yesterday now streaming into the south, Mississippi to Alabama seeing some scattered snow showers today. It shouldn't amount to a whole lot, but that energy will get across Florida, across the Delmarva and really bomb out into a very intense storm.
It will start out as rain, wrap a lot of warm air into this thing, and then change over to snow. Again the 10 to 20-inch mark inland and north -- of the northeast and the strong winds, I think, are going to be the -- the bigger issue with this, and the track of it and how long it sticks around is going to be the main thing.
Some of our computer models, John and Christine, actually kind of retrograde it, move it back into the -- into the New York harbor as kind of almost like -- like a land falling storm of some sort. It will be interesting to see if that pans out. Either way, it's going to be a doozy, much different than the last one that brought two to three feet of snow across D.C. Lighter amounts of snow but heavy winds for sure.
Back to you guys in New York.
ROBERTS: And that will at least temporarily cause just as much problem as the snow will.
MARCIANO: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano for us. Rob, thanks.
Nine minutes now to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, after a year of fighting on Capitol Hill over health care, if the cost of a biopsy needle is still $800, you might say to yourself something's definitely broken.
All this week we're tracking instances of "Broken Government", and this morning we found one more -- medical billing. How the hospital comes up with those numbers, why they're so high and how much you actually have to pay -- it can all leave your head spinning.
So, how to fix it? Unfortunately, no clear answer, at least not yet. But we do have our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, taking a closer look today at what you can expect to pay on your next trip to the hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: One of the questions that comes up all the time is what about these hospital bills? How exactly do they break down? How do you make sense of it?
There's no question, it leaves a lot of people scratching their heads.
So I want to give you a little bit of an example here by taking you inside this operating room. This is the hospital where I work, where I'm a neurosurgeon, and just having an operation performed in a room like this costs about $3,000 an hour. That's for starters.
Come on in. I'll give you a couple of quick examples. If you look at a hospital bill, you might see an IV bag charge. So an IV like this, about $280 just for the IV bag. That might strike people as -- as very high.
A stapler. This is a stapler. It's often used in surgery. Something like this? Costs about $1,200. This is a chest tube. If someone has compression of one of their lungs, they might need a chest tube like this. That cost about $1,100. And you'll find examples like that, really, all over a room like this.
Suture, something that's used in just about every operating room in the world. This type of suture over here costs about $200. And if you look at even -- even devices like -- this is a needle that's used for biopsy. So if there's a concern that someone has a tumor, they would use a needle like this, and this is going to cost about $800.
Now, it's important to keep in mind, if you ask the manufacturers of a device like this, why so much money? They'll say, well, it took years to develop something like this. The research and development costs are significant. Also, they're guaranteeing a certain level of effectiveness of this needle. That cost money as well.
But something maybe you didn't know, when you look a hospital bill, it's not just the cost of the supplies. There are also administrative costs that are built in. There's the cost of covering people who simply don't have insurance or can't pay. That's built into these costs as well.
And, finally, keep in mind that what is charged and what is ultimately paid are two very different numbers.
RICHARD CLARK, HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION: The typical hospital collects about 4 percent of every dollar that they collect -- or about $0.04 cents of every $1 that they bill. So it's not coming out in massive profits. It's coming out as a result of underpayment from the government.
GUPTA: I'll tell you, you know, the cost breakdown, like I just gave you on lots of these different supplies, a lot of people simply never see. What we have found is a lot of people don't care as well. If you're insured, some people may not even open the hospital bill.
But there are about 50 million people uninsured out there, and they care very much about hospital bills like this, and what you can do is you can call the hospital and get a detailed breakdown. And while you're on the phone with the hospital, if the costs seems still too high or just hard to understand, you might be able to negotiate some of these prices down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: Now, if you dig a little bit deeper, talk to the hospitals themselves, for example, they'll say, look, we're not seeing the massive profits that you might expect. In fact, about 50 percent of hospitals operating in the red, in part because of those reimbursements I just outlined there, John.
But the makers of a lot of these products, the makers of a lot of these devices, at least some of them seem to be doing OK. 3M, for example, makes adhesives, stethoscopes, lots of other things used in hospitals, about $935 million in profits last recorded. And also Medtronic, a company that makes a lot of other devices, including defibrillators, made around $831 million.
So you get a little bit of an idea of where the money is going and how that all works as far as your bill goes, John.
ROBERTS: You know, you can understand, as you pointed out in the O.R. there, a biopsy needing, $800, did take some development. It's a specific type of -- of application. It has to be effective. But $200 for stitches? Where does that come from? GUPTA: I know, and -- and a lot of it's the same thing. You know, you are -- you are investing in a little bit of the quality, the reliability of this. This is something that's going to be used in someone's body, obviously. So, you know, you're paying, in part, for that.
But, you're right. I mean, when you look at these numbers sort of on first blush, you think, well, you know, how -- how could it possibly be so high?
One thing that's worth pointing out is that, again, you know, when it comes to the, you know, big insurance companies, they're going to negotiate prices with these hospitals to try and bring it down. You heard $0.04 cents on the $1 for some of these places. If you're under insured, if you're uninsured, you have the ability to be able to negotiate for yourself, as well, even ask to pay what some of the big insurance companies are -- are paying at your hospital.
There's one quick Web site, John, if I can give it to you, smartmedicalconsumer.com. We found this Web site. You can actually take your hospital bill, upload it to this site, they'll give you a detailed breakdown and tell you where you might be able to save some money, John.
ROBERTS: Wow, and that actually works? The -- the hospital will listen to you? You've got some negotiating power?
GUPTA: You do, and -- and that's surprising. You know, the insurance companies negotiate because they have large numbers. That's how they can negotiate with a hospital. But what -- what the way things stand is often people are underinsured or even -- underinsured or uninsured or you just even have high deductibles. They can negotiate as well, and even ask, make my prices the same as what the largest provider is paying to the hospital.
ROBERTS: All right.
GUPTA: Medicare, maybe, or a big insurance company.
ROBERTS: I'll try that next time.
Sanjay Gupta this morning. Doc, thanks so much. Good to see you.
ROMANS: All right. We've got your top stories coming your way in just 90 seconds.
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