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American Morning
Consumer Warning; Stopping Loose Nukes; Conan the Cable Guy; Dow Breaks 11,000; Sniffing Out Explosives; "Don't Buy" Rating For Lexus SUV; Man's Best Security
Aired April 13, 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. It's Tuesday, April 13th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us this Tuesday morning.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes. An urgent warning from "Consumer Reports" magazine -- do not buy the 2010 Lexus GX 460. The non profit group calls the luxury SUV quote, "a safety risk" and it's calling on Toyota, the parent company of Lexus to fix that problem fast.
Hard truth and some progress as day two of the nuclear summit in Washington gets under way -- one country already agreeing to get rid of its highly enriched uranium stockpile -- we're live at the White House with more on the progress.
ROBERTS: And Conan O'Brien lands on his feet. He'll return to late night in the fall hosting a talk show on TBS -- the details of Conan's big move to basic cable just ahead.
Then, of course, as it is every day, the Am Fix blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. We would like to hear from you about anything in the news, whatever is on your mind. Just go to CNN.com/amfix and we'll be reading your comments throughout the morning.
CHETRY: Well as you talked about this warning coming out from "Consumer Reports", don't buy the new Lexus GX 460. It came as an urgent warning this morning.
ROBERTS: Yes, from "Consumer Reports" magazine. They're branding the luxury SUV a safety risk. It's been nearly a decade since the magazine has evaluated any vehicle this poorly. Christine Romans with us now and yet another black eye for Toyota because it of course is the parent company --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. This is a rare and very direct warning for buyers and owners of the Lexus GX 460, the 2010. About 5,000 cars have been sold. "Consumer Reports" says do not buy this car. They found significant and severe rollover risk during turns. They do all of these controlled testings, four different drivers found the same problem. They got another vehicle, found the same problem on this one, so they said it is not isolated.
It is a problem with the electronic stability control system. This is the computerized system that organizes and manages the brakes and the steering together. So that if you're, for example, going up an off ramp and there is some sort of an obstacle, you would turn quickly, they say there could be a real world rollover risk for people with this car.
If you have this car, they say be very careful on any on ramps or off ramps, exit ramps because they're very concerned about the stability of the vehicle in those circumstances and take it to your Toyota dealer, they say, and demand a fix. If you do not own this car and you were thinking about it, "Consumer Reports" in a very rare warning saying do not buy this car. Toyota -- a spokesman for Toyota not commenting on this report this morning, again this is brand new this morning.
CHETRY: So what do you do though if you take it to the dealer and they say, listen, we have got no guidance, no you know warnings from Toyota that there's any problem with this.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: I mean what are you supposed to do?
ROMANS: "Consumer Reports" is saying you have got to demand -- you've got to take it in and demand that they address this -- that this is the electronic stability control system. We don't know what the fix will be. What -- could there be a recall -- we simply don't know, but this is -- these are the nonprofit "Consumer Reports" highly respected doing their own testing on this vehicle. And they say they have found a very serious problem. Again, that is the 2010 Lexus GX 460.
CHETRY: So this is the newest model. What about --
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: They did not have these concerns with the 2009, 2008 --
ROMANS: They did not have these concerns -- no. They said the car had been -- has been redone and redesigned in the past year. And they do not have these concerns for prior models, so a very good point.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine thanks so much. We'll be talking about this throughout the morning.
CHETRY: Yes, at 6:30, we're breaking it down with -- about this latest safety setback for Toyota with John Linkov (ph), he's the managing editor for "Consumer Reports Cars" and also Neal Boudette (ph). He is the Detroit bureau chief of "The Wall Street Journal."
ROBERTS: Securing the bomb, world leaders meeting in Washington today for day two of the nuclear summit addressing what President Obama calls the biggest single threat to global security, nuclear terrorism -- one positive development, key talks between President Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao that could decide how the world ends up dealing with Iran.
Our Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House for us this morning and a significant development yesterday and the president hoping for more today, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know John they just had their welcoming dinner last night. They haven't even had their opening session and already there are some signs of optimism and some positive developments that are coming out of this gathering of world leaders. President Obama has been meeting on the sidelines with some of these leaders, at least 10 of them or so.
And he was quite optimistic when he was asked by reporters how things were going. He was saying that he does expect some concrete results to come out of these past couple of days here. And one of the things that we saw yesterday was a breakthrough, if you will, from one of the former Soviet Republics. That is the country of Ukraine in terms of how they are going to handle some of their nuclear materials. I want you to take a listen to Robert Gibbs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Ukraine announced a landmark decision to get rid of all of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by the time of the next nuclear security summit in 2012. Ukraine intends to remove a substantial part of its stocks this year. Ukraine will convert its civil nuclear research facilities to operate with low enriched uranium fuel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: John, you may recall Ukraine back in 1994 decided that it would get rid of the nuclear weapons that it inherited from the Soviet Union. That was considered a real breakthrough. This is also moving forward. We also heard from the leader of Canada, Stephen Harper (ph) and he talked about the fact that Canada was going to send its nuclear materials over to the United States so that it would be secure. That is going to happen by the year of 2018.
And then as you had mentioned, there was a very important meeting that we were all looking out for, that is President Obama and China's leader Hu Jintao. They came away from that meeting, walked away from that meeting, both of them, their aides saying that they will talk about the potential, potential sanctioning of Iran for not complying with the nuclear laws international law. That is something that is different here.
Now, John, I don't want to overstate it. This is not a breakthrough, per se. But we're not hearing from China saying we're going to block these sanctions or veto these sanctions which they could as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, so we expect to hear from the president later this morning on what he expects in the next 24 hours -- John. ROBERTS: On that point, Suzanne, how far is it between China being at the table to talk about it and actually signing on to sanctions?
MALVEAUX: Well, right now, what's happening is it is just softer language. They're saying that they are willing to move forward. We know that they have those meetings that are going to take place in New York within a month or so. That's when they're going to sit in earnest and talk about the possibility of sanctions here. So we don't want to overstate this here. But it certainly is less of a defiant stance that we've seen from China in the past.
ROBERTS: Suzanne Malveaux for us live at the White House this morning. Suzanne, thanks so much.
And coming up at 7:30 Eastern, we're going to be speaking with David Albright. He is a former United Nations weapons inspector who has a new book out about the black market for nukes and he'll talk to us about the nuclear summit and some new information about just how diligently al Qaeda is trying to get its hands on a nuclear weapon.
CHETRY: Yes and where he thinks the biggest threats are globally, it will be an interesting conversation.
Six minutes past the hour -- also new morning, police in Tennessee say that they have not been able to talk with Torre Hanson (ph). She's the woman who sent her 7-year-old adopted son back to Russia. The local sheriff says that woman's attorney told them she will not talk unless a charge is filed. An adoption agency who's been checking on the family since the adoption says that they have not been able to contact Hanson (ph) since late last month.
ROBERTS: Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (ph) will not face criminal charges in an alleged sexual assault at a Georgia nightclub. A judge says there was not enough evidence to prosecute and that allegations by a college student that Roethlisberger attacked her could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He may still face punishment though by the National Football League.
CHETRY: Time-outs or spanking? A Tulane University study of nearly 2,500 kids found that those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were 50 percent more likely to be defiant, have temper tantrums and hit other kids by the time they turn 5. Some of the evidence showing it is stronger than ever against corporal punishment.
Coming up at 7:00, the co-author of the study joins us to explain why spanking can lead to other problems as well. And we are going to be talking more about this topic in our next hour with Dr. Katherine Taylor (ph) from Tulane University School of Public Health. If you've got a question for her or want to make a comment, join the conversation on our live blog, CNN.com/amfix. It's interesting because also in the study they found that about three quarters of people that were interviewed about it in 2005 believe that spanking is an acceptable form of punishment.
ROBERTS: Sure, but there are other studies that are out there, though, that suggest that the constant fear of being spanked floods a child with stress hormones and actually impairs their cognitive development, so a lot of evidence to talk about this morning. And we will do that a little bit later on. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines right now. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us -- hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, so that explains it.
ROBERTS: That explains it, Rob --
CHETRY: There you go.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Yes.
MARCIANO: Why I'm so messed up.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: You still get that twitch every once in a while.
MARCIANO: OK.
ROBERTS: Trying to run from the strap, you know.
MARCIANO: My rear is still a little bit sore from my childhood days. All right, guys, hey good morning. Listen. A couple of showers across parts of the northeast trying to sneak into the I-95 corridor, but not having a great deal of success. Cleveland, Ohio, seeing some heavy rain right now as is Pittsburgh, but maybe some sprinkles across parts of the northeast. The real action is really out west with this big trough against the low elevation rain -- high elevation snow. And wind -- we had winds gusting over 50 miles an hour in parts of Utah yesterday and the winds will rip across the front range of the Colorado Rockies today for that strong steadily flow.
But east of the Mississippi, for the most part, we're not looking all that bad. Temperatures will once again be right around where they should be for this time of year, almost 80 degrees expected in Atlanta. All right, guys, we'll see you in about 30 minutes. No spanking from this end.
ROBERTS: All right, Rob, looking forward to it.
CHETRY: You take care of that rear.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: I'm icing it down.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob. All right, well still to come on the "Most News in the Morning", Conan O'Brien is returning to television. We're going to tell you all about the deal that's going to bring him back to late night cable. You can say a lot more on cable. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twelve and a half minutes after the hour, welcome back to the "Most News in the Morning". There is big news this morning in late night. Conan O'Brien is going to return to television in the fall on a network owned by our parent company, the Turner Broadcasting System.
CHETRY: That's right. And Alina Cho is working the story for us. So as we know, he got the boot from "The Tonight Show." They wanted to move his time slot. He said no. Leno is back and there has been a lot of speculation ever since -- where is Conan O'Brien going to land.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right and you know he's been on Twitter a lot in the meantime. Guys, good morning -- you know, there was a lot of speculation that Conan would end up at FOX. But instead he's going to cable as John mentioned in a deal that really surprised a lot of people. The show, as he mentioned, will be on TBS, that's part of Turner Broadcasting, the same company that owns CNN.
The show is still unnamed. It will launch in November at 11:00 p.m. four days a week, guys, Monday through Thursday. Not a bad deal. We also know that Conan will remain in Los Angeles and he will own the show, too. And that ownership stake is believed to be a big part of what sealed the deal, but Conan on cable after years on a broadcast network?
Conan even joked about it in his statement saying quote, "In three months I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters and now I'm headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly." Meanwhile, TV critics say Conan on cable really is a perfect fit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CARTER, MEDIA REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think he'll have a much more free and open style than he did. You know, "The Tonight Show" he had to try to tailor it to a really mass audience, which he really wasn't getting. He was getting you know about two million less than Leno had gotten, so here -- I think he can just say here is my core audience. I'm going to speak to them. I'm going to be as wild and crazy and creative as I can be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Speaking of Jay Leno, well his ratings, we've learned, are up 50 percent over what Conan was pulling. But the audience is also 10 years older -- average age, 56. Now Conan really built up a following during that epic fight with NBC. There were protests, Web site, so maybe no surprise really that none of the networks or his competitors are commenting, but remember, it did get really ugly toward the end. And as a reminder, we pulled some clips of Conan attacking his former employer, NBC. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just coming to work in the morning now has gotten really uncomfortable.
(SOUNDS)
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morons, the incompetent, morons --
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morons (INAUDIBLE)
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Remember, though, Conan really got the last laugh. A lot of people say he ultimately got a $32 million settlement. He agreed to stay off the air until September, and so --
CHETRY: So -- so technically he could be back on in September, but they're waiting to launch this till November on TBS. What's the deal?
CHO: In a word, baseball, you know? You know, TBS carries major league baseball, and the playoffs in November -- in October, rather. And so, instead of having a show on, preempting it for a month, they're putting the playoffs on first and they think it's -- it's really a good time to promote Conan's show.
But remember, he'll be on at 11:00 P.M. and he's going to go head-to-head with John Stewart. And both of them, really, are courting the same viewers, right, and the same age group.
And so I was reading the blogs. A lot of people are saying, "Go, Coco. Coco is back. Go, Conan."
CHETRY: Team Coco (INAUDIBLE) .
CHO: Team Coco is what they'd -- right. But -- but, you know, other people were saying, you know, that's great. We're glad you have a deal on TBS, Conan, but I've already got appointment television at 11:00, John Stewart on Comedy Central.
We'll have to see how this plays out in the coming (ph) --
ROBERTS: I wonder if it could draw some people from local news as well. You know, Fox, who was also courting him, couldn't put him on at 11:00 because of local news.
CHO: There were a lot of -- yes. And -- and some people have speculated that maybe that's why, you know, Conan went to TBS. He just didn't want to wait for that deal to be worked out. He'll also have his ownership stake. ROBERTS: Yes, that's important.
CHO: But in the meantime, guys, on Monday he's going to launch his "Legally Prohibited for Being Funny" on television tour. That kicks off again on Monday in Eugene, Oregon.
CHETRY: There you go. Good for him, though.
CHO: Yes.
CHETRY: All's well that ends well, hopefully, for Conan.
CHO: It's good promotion for that show in November.
ROBERTS: Welcome to the family --
CHETRY: Thanks, Alina.
ROBERTS: -- by the way.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Welcome to the family.
Coming up in the Most News in the Morning, new milestone for the Dow, but what does it mean to the average American? Christine Romans here this morning with a preview.
Hi, ma'am (ph).
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hello.
Eleven thousand for the first time in 19 months since this whole thing came unraveling. A lot of folks are cheering, saying, yay! But what does it mean to the typical investor and the typical worker in the American economy?
We'll have that right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Beautiful sunrise this morning as we're look at (ph) a little bit of Tom Petty. Twenty minutes past the hour and it's time for "Minding Your Business", Christine Romans joining us right now.
But first, we're going to talk about the thousands of people unemployed. There's a bill right now to extend the jobless benefits. It's advanced in the Senate, but it's still unclear whether there are enough votes to pass it.
Republicans, led by Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn say that they are for extending benefits, they just insist that it has to be paid for by offsetting the costs with budget cuts.
ROBERTS: Plus, memos and e-mails released by a Senate panel show that executives at Washington Mutual created a mortgage time bomb before the bank collapsed, and the documents also show those executives knew about the risks.
Washington Mutual is the biggest bank to fail in U.S. history. Former executives will be grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. That will take place later on this morning.
CHETRY: And Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" right now. So we'll leave that on the table for now, talk a little bit about the stock market, which hit 11,000. It's going to open today above 11,000.
ROMANS: It's funny to be talking about, you know, how banks may have been engineering some of this crisis, talk about people still needing unemployment benefits, oh, and the Dow is above 11,000 again, folks, for the first time in 18 or 19 months since the crisis began.
That is the funny, kind of two-tone look of this market. You've got stocks at new highs for this move, 11,005, as John pointed out quit rightly yesterday, John who's now Mr. Stock Market analyst, who told me that it was all coming on very low volume and it wasn't very convincing over the past few weeks.
CHETRY: Right, now that he has (ph) --
ROMANS: You're absolutely right.
CHETRY: Now that has new (ph) money in the stock -- now that he lost so much (ph) money he can be an analyst.
ROMANS: It is happening --
CHETRY: -- conflict of interest.
ROMANS: It is happening on -- on low volume. You're absolutely right.
But this has been -- the AP, I think, called it a tortoise (ph) rally, and I was saying it was more like a cheater rally, because over the past year, the stocks are up 77 percent.
It's interesting, though, there's a group called ICI, which is an institutional investing company, and they say that the typical investor has been piling money into bond funds over the past year, not necessarily into stocks. So it might show you that people like us have not necessarily made a ton of money on this big move in the stock market.
Other people are still looking at their portfolio and saying, OK, great. The stock market is above 11,000. What does that mean -- I'm still down 25 percent in my kid's 529 or my investment.
So, yes, you're right. You're still down substantially from the peak. But it has been a ride here.
ROBERTS: So what does it mean if -- if all these gains in the stock market have been on low volume? ROMANS: Well, it means, recently, that some of the real buying power might be tapering off. But what you're hearing from investment gurus is that no one really wants to take any money off the table yet.
Some people are still saying the Dow could go to 14,000. Some people are saying the Dow needs to come back 30 percent. We're never going to know until it actually happens. But there is this feeling that there is an economic recovery underway and that it will be eventually sustainable, and that's what the market is -- is betting on.
We have earnings season here, so companies are going to be reporting their profits. It's going to make it a little perilous (ph) as there could be surprises. Who knows?
Also, yesterday, you guys, the NBER, the official arbiter of when a recession starts and stops, they said it was too soon for them to say that the recession was actually over. They weren't --
CHETRY: Really?
ROMANS: They weren't going to date it yet --
CHETRY: Wow.
ROMANS: -- and that surprised a lot of people, because, frankly, most economists think that it ended sometime last summer.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: That the recession ended.
Now this group, you know, they -- they always are a year or two years after the start or stop of a recession, they declare it, but they're not ready yet to say when this thing was over.
CHETRY: This Washington Mutual story is also really fascinating. I mean, we talked a lot about the, you know, selling mortgages and -- and packaging them and moving them on, knowing that they were possibly toxic.
They're going to get grilled on Capitol Hill in about three hours today about this situation.
ROMANS: And, you know, nothing has changed, really. Nothing has really changed since all of this happened to prevent it from happening yet again.
CHETRY: In terms of regulations?
ROMANS: Yes.
ROBERTS: Christine, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, "Minding Your Business" this morning.
CHETRY: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, they're more than just cute little puppies, they're also training to be the newest weapons in the war on terror.
Jeanne Meserve with an "A.M. Original" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- seven minutes past the hour right now.
Recently, the transportation industry's security screening procedures have been under intense scrutiny by the federal government. Amtrak, though, believes it is using something that's effective and also affordable.
In our CNN Security Watch today, Jeanne Meserve takes a look at Amtrak's army of specialists, highly trained to sniff out dangerous explosives.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, let me introduce you to my new best friend, Capone (ph), the next generation in explosives detection.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) there.
MESERVE (voice-over): A dog's nose samples the air many times a second. This dog sniffs it for explosives.
Zita is what's called a Vapor Wake dog, trained to pick up the scent of explosives in the air despite crowds, cross currents and other smells in Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. Her nose can ferret out TATP, TNT and other explosives in a huge space, even though a person carrying them may have passed by as much as 15 minutes earlier.
The head of Amtrak's K-9 Program compares these animals to a top athlete.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM PARKER, AMTRAK POLICE K-9 PROGRAM: Michael Jordan, and the reason why I say that is because Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players of all time, and these Wapor Wake dogs, I put in that same category.
MESERVE: Only 1 or 2 percent of puppies from Auburn University's breeding program have what it takes to be a Vapor Wake dog.
JEANNE BROCK, MANAGER, AUBURN UNIVERSITY PUPPY PROGRAM: They'll hunt and hunt and hunt and wouldn't come back without it.
MESERVE: They are introduced at an early age to slippery surfaces and a variety of environments before being sent to prisons in Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi where inmates begin training the dogs to use their noses. Back at the Auburn facility, older dogs are conditioned on a souped up golf cart to handle the rigors of their future jobs. They recognize about a dozen explosives and could be trained to find additional ones in just a day or two.
I take a backpack containing explosives into a building to test a dog. I walk, sit, and walk some more.
MESERVE (on camera): So now I'm going to hide this backpack full of smokeless powder, right here.
MESERVE (voice-over): A minute later, rangers, still in the early stages of training, tracks the explosive scent right to the source.
DR. ROB GILLETTE, AUBURN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE: There are certain chefs who'll smell a pot of stew and that's say, oh, that's oregano, or that's this type of spice. The dog walks into it, smells this whole thing and says, oh, that's C4.
MESERVE: The U.S. Capitol Police are just starting to use Vapor Wake dogs. They've already augmented security at sporting events and other large gatherings. But Amtrak has embraced them despite the $20,000 price tag per dog.
The rail carrier believes that in a high risk, ever changing transit environment, the dogs have advantages over machines, even though they can only work for about 90 minutes at a stretch.
JOHN PEARCE, AUBURN UNIVERSITY CANINE DETECTION INSTITUTE: There's nothing like a dog as far as mobility, as far as how quickly it can detect explosives and take us to the source of it, and the cost is basically less than any type of technology out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: It's amazing.
ROBERTS: It really is.
CHETRY: To see them go right up to it and sit.
ROBERTS: I think -- I mean, how many times you have seen a dog sitting there and they're going -- and you've never actually considered that it's sampling the air?
CHETRY: Exactly.
ROBERTS: You know, so many times.
CHETRY: Pretty cool. And so cute.
Thirty minutes past the hour right now. Time for our top stories.
The White House says China is agreeing now to work on new sanctions against Iran. President Obama meeting privately with China's president, Hu Jintao, yesterday on the sidelines of the nuclear summit that's taking place in Washington.
Overnight, recovery crews in West Virginia removed the last of the bodies from the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Twenty- nine men died last week in the worst mining disaster this country has seen in 40 years. Federal investigators were waiting for all of the bodies to be recovered before heading underground to begin their investigation.
And Coco moving to cable after months of speculation. Conan O'Brien or Coco, as he's been affectionately called by his fans on the blogs, returned to late night, making that announcement that he'll be hosting a one-hour show, Monday through Thursday, 11:00 p.m. on TBS. That's part of the Time Warner family. The still unnamed Conan show will debut in November.
TBS says it has made no -- it would make no sense to launch it in September and then preempt the show for four weeks because of Major League Baseball playoff coverage -- John.
ROBERTS: Toyota's taking it on the chin again. "Consumer Reports" putting out an urgent warning to the car-buying public: don't buy the 2010 model Lexus GX 460 SUV. The magazine says the luxury SUV poses an unacceptable safety risk. There you see it. That it's prone to skidding out while turning, posing a possible rollover hazard.
What does this mean for Toyota? The parent company of Lexus. And what does it mean for folks that might have one of these at home?
Joining us now to break it all down is Jon Linkov. He is the managing director of "Consumer Reports Cars." And from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Neal Boudette. He is the Detroit bureau chief for the "Wall Street Journal."
Jon, let's start this off here. You went out, you bought one of these cars, GX 460, again, is the model, the 2010 year. You subjected it to 50-some-odd tests. What was it that really raised concerns?
JONATHAN LINKOV, "CONSUMER REPORTS CARS": Well, what we noticed is that, in a maneuver, it's called a lift-throttle or lift- off oversteer. Basically, when you go into a turn and if you encounter something, or if the turn has a decreasing radius, when it's tighter, when you lift off the throttle as a natural reaction, the rear end slides out, like you can see on the video.
And basically, that's a reaction that would happen to anyone driving. But the vehicle should not spin like that. The vehicle should not turn out like that. And the electronic stability control should intervene. In this case, it did not.
ROBERTS: So, where might you encounter a condition like that?
LINK: Well, basically, if you're coming on a highway off ramp or on ramp, where you're going to slow down because the ramp sharpens its turn. Or maybe if something is front of you as you're going around the bend, you know, there's a pothole or there's a child who's running out or an animal, you're going to naturally lift-off, you might turn the wheel even a little bit more. And that's what happens. The vehicle loads the front because of momentum dropping and the rear end will naturally slide.
In this case, the ESC, electronic stability control, didn't intervene quickly enough. Whereas on a Toyota 4Runner, which is the similar platform, it did.
ROBERTS: All right. So, well, Neal Boudette, are you surprised to hear what they found out here at "Consumer Reports"? You know, Lexus is a top luxury brand with a stellar reputation.
NEAL BOUDETTE, DETROIT BUREAU CHIEF, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, sure. You know, this is just not what Toyota needs right now after all the problems they've had with floor mats and sudden acceleration and even some fatal accidents. This is the kind of publicity they don't need at this time. And it is surprising.
I mean, Lexus is a very highly-rated brand and a highly-admired brand by many consumers. And this is not the kind of thing you would expect.
ROBERTS: And as Jon Linkov was telling us, Neal, this is not every model year. It's the only model year 2010 because it has been redesigned.
BOUDETTE: Right.
ROBERTS: What does it say that Lexus -- Toyota goes out there and redesigns a vehicle and there is a fundamental flaw like this?
BOUDETTE: Well, it suggests that vehicles are so complex now that they're very much like computers. We accept flaws in computer operating systems or softwares that pop-up once the products are on the market and then are fixed. And I suspect that that's what this is.
This is a -- this stability control system is a computer system. And there may be some glitch in the software that they can very easily update. I mean, anybody who has one of these things can probably get it fixed.
But they're very, very complex products now, much more complex than they were in the past.
ROBERTS: But what about that, Jon? Is this simply this electronic stability unit and could it be updated with new software, new programming, to overcome this problem?
LINKOV: That's one of the benefits of ESC, that it allows you to play with the computers and allows you to play with the software. In the past, the last time we had a vehicle like this, it was more of a mechanical fix. It was something that was inherent in the vehicle's design. Nowadays, you can go in there and Toyota can go in and evaluate the system and see if they need to tweak it a little bit so that it intervenes earlier.
ROBERTS: So, why did you go about testing this? And how did you discover this? Did you have complaints? Did this occur in the real world? Did somebody come "Consumer Reports" and say, hey, I was making a turn on an off ramp and suddenly, the back-end skidded out, maybe you should take a look at this?
LINKOV: This is just really part of our testing. What we do as we buy every vehicle we test. We put them through our 50 tests on our test track. And it's a test that we perform with vehicles, cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, sedans, and it's the one vehicle that really stood out in this. All the other 95 or some-odd SUVs that we have on our current ratings have not exhibited any kind of flaw.
ROBERTS: So, this was -- so this was purely coincidence. You haven't had any real world reports of this?
LINKOV: No, this isn't something that we knew about or looking forward to. It's actually something we had our four other engineers drive it. We borrowed a vehicle from Lexus and paid for the use of it, and it exhibited the exact same problem, press vehicle.
So, it's something that we kind of stumbled upon. And we want to make sure that the public knows of it.
ROBERTS: And, Neal, let's go back to the 30,000-foot level here -- because you were talking about this is something Toyota does not need right at this point.
You know, we obtained documents from Toyota workers, line workers in Japan, written back in 2006 a letter to the CEO of Toyota, saying, hey, you got some problems here with cost-cutting, corner cutting, quality control. You're going to have big problems on your hands.
There's also been some documents that surfaced in Canada. Lexus is facing a threat in 2004 because of acceleration problems.
What's going on with this company?
BOUDETTE: Well, former executives have spoken out and say they kind of lost their way, that they got to this -- the beginning of this decade and the people at the top of the company were really pushing financial performance. They wanted profits to go up and they wanted to become the world's largest automaker. And they achieved that.
And I think, along the way, they took their eye off the ball a little bit on the meticulous attention you need to have the kind of quality Toyota became known for. And they cut some corners. It's clear that over the last five, six years, when the U.S. regulators brought up problems with Toyota, Toyota tried to minimize it, keep it -- downplay it and keep the recalls to a minimum.
ROBERTS: Jon, so, you got a "do not buy" recommendation out on this car. What does Lexus need to do to get back into the "buy" category? And will you continue to take a look at this, revisit it?
LINKOV: Well, we're going to wait to see what Lexus says, if they come up with a fix. We will likely borrow another vehicle and may actually go out and buy another one to make sure that it's something that's a running fix into the line. And we'll retest the vehicle and put it through the battery test that we do. If it does exhibit, you know, a correction factor, if it does intervene on time and keep the vehicle from sliding out, and, you know, potentially rolling over, then we'll probably give it back to the recommended status.
ROBERTS: The last time you issued a "do not buy" recommendation was in 2001 in Mitsubishi Montero. Did they fix the problem?
LINKOV: That, again, was a problem with -- more mechanical. And it wasn't the same situation. There wasn't the system that you could fix immediately like that.
ROBERTS: All right. Jonathan Linkov and Neal Boudette -- good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning: a look at a unique training session for marines that are headed to Afghanistan. Things to make them aware and better prepared from the sights, the sounds, even the smells.
It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Forty-eight-and-a-half minutes after the hour.
This morning, Afghan outrage is building after U.N. troops fired on a civilian bus, killing four people and wounding more than a dozen.
CHETRY: Yes. It happened on Monday. And it's showing that even the smallest mistake in battle can have far-reaching and deadly consequences, which is why the U.S. military is training its men and women to keep civilians out of the crossfire.
Here's our Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marines on patrol in an Afghan village, insurgents are nearby.
Well, not exactly. We're actually inside an old tomato packing plant at the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton, California.
(on camera): We're in this Afghan village. Of course, it's a simulated Afghan village.
(GUNFIRE)
STARR (voice-over): These marines are headed to the front lines of southern Afghanistan. But, first, they are getting some of the most realistic training the military can offer, a village of narrow lanes, mud walls and blind corners. Religious calls, smoke grenades and odors as unattractively named as they smell like dinosaur dung and gangrene are piped in.
(on camera): So, you tell -- tell people what we're seeing.
SGT. SAMUEL WALTON, U.S. MARINE CORPS: These are digital avatars that we use for shooting those shoot scenarios. Some marines enter a house, they can be presented with type of situation when they go into it.
STARR (voice-over): Bullets, even though made of chalk, are flying.
While the marines patrol at one end, those playing the role of the insurgents are getting ready.
Tensions build, marines enter the village square. Villagers are upset.
(on camera): This kind of training is about as realistic as it can get for these marines. This is what General McChrystal worries about, incidents of civilians being killed by military action and then it all spins out of control. What did the marines learn here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tactical pause, figure out what's going on. You just had an IED go off.
STARR (voice-over): How to work as a team under fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know what was going on in the back all the time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. You need to get past that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. When you guys got contact, you just bring (ph) him. When you got contact, you just have to know where the contact is coming from, until you can hear what was really going on.
STARR (on camera): How does everybody think it went here today? How realistic? How good is the training?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like it. It's good training. We get in there. You have actual role players there speaking the language. It smells different.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: You know, it was hot, smelly and sandy inside that tomato packing plant. You really felt the walls begin to close in on you. It was really some of the most hyper realistic training I have ever seen.
And, of course, the goal here is to make sure if the marines are going to make mistakes, if troops are going to make a mistake, make it in training before they get to Afghanistan, because we all see the consequences when it happens in reality.
ROBERTS: But, Barbara, the training does certainly not ensure that a mistake will not happen out in the field. They -- I would imagine -- try to minimize the chance.
STARR: Well, they do. And the real value, of course, is when it does happen in one of these training scenarios. There are senior marines there with them. And they talk it through. They talk about why did it happen? Is there something they could have done to avoid it?
And what do you do once the villagers, if you will -- once the local civilians are in the middle of all of this and things do begin to spin out of control and there is subsequent violence and anger? How do you control it? What do you do? How do you deal with all of that?
That's some of the key lessons they're trying to teach down here -- John, Kiran.
CHETRY: Amazing to get that type of insight, a firsthand look at what they're going through right now. Barbara Starr -- great stuff, thanks so much.
Forty-four minutes past the hour. Rob is going to be joining us. He has our travel forecast coming up after the break.
ROBERTS: And in 10 minutes, who knew that taking off your suit jacket could create such a stir? Jeannie Moos with President Obama, and how he really knows how to warm up a crowd.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Look right now at Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. Forty-eight degrees. A little bit later, it's going to be 60, but bring your umbrella. You're going to get some rain in D.C. today.
ROBERTS: Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines across the country. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us. Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Rain across the Northeast right now, but I think it's going to have a tough go but maybe some sprinkles or light showers. I don't think we'll see much more than that. Here it is, kind of riding along a warm front that's sliding down towards the south and east and that moisture, not a lot to it. You really have to go back towards Pittsburgh, in Cleveland, Youngstown, Ohio, to get into more moderate to heavy rainfall, and then it kind of peters out if it goes over the Appalachians. So, if you live along the I-95 corridor, of course D.C. up through Boston today, you will see the clouds increase, and you will see it try to rain, and at times, it will have some success in a way of a light shower or maybe some sprinkles. But the real strong system is back out towards the west, Idaho Falls back through Salt Lake City. Huge trough for this time of year spinning its wheels out here, lower elevation rain and higher elevation snows, and also quite a bit of wind. Yesterday, we have winds gusting well over 60 miles an hour in through parts of Utah, and this strong southerly flow will continue that trend today.
So, windy conditions across the Front Range as winds whip there up through parts of -- just east of the Tetons, also. If you are doing some travel today, there will be a few delays at metro airports in D.C., Detroit and Cleveland. A little bit of light rain, again, more so towards the west and wind in Ft. Lauderdale. Yesterday, we had delays because of thunderstorm.
Today, it will be more in the way of wind, 80 in Atlanta. Still very high pollen counts across parts of the southeast, 84 degrees expected in Memphis and 58 degrees, not quite as pretty as yesterday in New York City, but not all that bad for the most part. John, Kiran back up to you.
CHETRY: Sounds good, Rob. Thanks so much.
Meanwhile, we've been getting a lot of comments on the live blog this morning, cnn.com/amfix. One of the topics is, of course, this new spanking study showing that kids that were spanked at age 3 tend to be more aggressive by age 5. We're going to be talking about it a little bit more today with an expert. But meantime, Ralph writes, "it's not the spanking that makes kids define; it's the parents' fault for spoiling the kids and the kids get away with so much of this day. I say when a kid gets too much out of hand, put them over your knee and teach them respect."
ROBERTS: Which is why Rob was mentioning early today that his behind is still sore.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: From his childhood, yes. Melon writes and Melon a frequent contributor, yes, good to see you again this morning. "Good morning, CNN. Kids shouldn't be spanked ever, but sometimes, it sure seems that they deserve it." What's more standup, Sarah Palin or Canadian making comments in American politics. There's a none second (ph) right there
CHETRY: Melon also goes on to write, Melon also a frequent contributor. You just said that, yes. Melon responding to Ralph. So, when you were disrespectful as an adult, someone should just hit you in the head? Nice thinking.
Ron (ph) says, "Spare the rod and spoil the child. If you live according to the Bible, we wouldn't have these types of converse. Duh." So, there you go. ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much you for your comments. Keep them coming, cnn.com/amfix.
This morning to stories just minutes away now including a rare warning about a Lexus SUV. Consumer reports saying do not buy it. What parent company Toyota plans to do about it?
Also at 40 minutes past the hour, the cute little wet nose that could actually save your life, the dogs that are bred to sniff out bombs. They could be protecting everyone from subway passengers to the president.
And at 50 minutes after the hour, a new study about one of the oldest forms of discipline. We were just talking about it. Are you raising a bully by spanking your kids? We got the e-mails already. Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Time now for the Moos News in the Morning with Jeanne. Firs Lady, Michelle Obama, of course, remember, when she caused a big stir last summer by going sleeveless.
ROBERTS: Now, the president's business casual attire, jacket off, sleeves rolled up is, shall we say, stripping away some of the formality? And as Jeannie Moos noticed, the crowds went wild during the president's tour selling health care. Here's why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Definitely rated PG except presidential strip.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a little warm in here.
MOOS: As the campaign to sell health care heated up.
OBAMA : It's a little hot, I think.
MOOS: Off came the president's jacket.
OBAMA : I'm going to take off my jacket, guys. So, if you want to do the same thing, it's a little hot.
MOOS: And sometimes the crowd reacts as if he's hot. There's no whistling at the president. Look how happy she looks.
MOOS (on-camera): But then again, the crowd tends to cheer for anyone who takes off their jacket.
MOOS (voice-over): Watch how they reacted to Joe Biden.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my neighborhood -- in my neighborhood -- MOOS: No ones critic noted that at the exact moment Joe Biden took off his jacket, the Dow dropped four points. Of course, no president took it off quite like Bill Clinton. And this jibjab video George Bush's crowds --
GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You think it's all right if I take off my jacket.
MOOS: And to be more sedate about presidential stripping.
BUSH: Thanks for coming out. I hope I didn't spill any sauce on my shirt after I had barbecue at the hall hog.
MOOS: Remember, how bush supporters went whole hog attacking President Obama for taking his jacket off in the oval office and even putting his feet up on the historic desk. But Obama defenders struck back with their own photos.
UNKNOWN MALE: Same desk, different shoes. You don't recognize the guy, it's George W. BUSH.
MOOS (on-camera): And then there's the matter of what to do with the jacket.
MOOS (voice-over): President Obama either puts it on something or hands it to his aide, Reggie Love. Along with his Blackberry or --
OBAMA: You want to hold my coat?
UNKNOWN MALE: You answer all the tough questions, I'll hold the coat.
MOOS: Just so it's just a coat.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Take it off. Take it all off. Nothing takes it off like --
MOOS: Obama.
Jeanne Moos, CNN.
OBAMA: Thank you!
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Remember the time on the campaign trail where he sneezed and everybody started clapping and cheering.
ROBERTS: Anything the president does gets a sure hand.
CHETRY: There you go.
All right. We're going to take a break. Three minutes until the top of the hour. Your top stories coming up after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
