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American Morning
"Don't Buy" Lexus GX 460; Securing the Bomb; Coco Channel; The China Price; Adopted Child Sent Back to Russia Alone; New Study on Children and Spanking;
Aired April 13, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING on this Tuesday. It's April 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
An urgent warning this morning from "Consumer Reports" magazine: don't buy the 2010 year model Lexus GX 460. The nonprofit group calls the luxury SUV a safety risk. And it's calling on Toyota, the parent company of Lexus, to fix the problem fast.
CHETRY: Also, fewer loose nukes. One country has agreed to get rid of its stockpile as we hear dire warnings about what the world would be like if terrorists like al Qaeda got their hands on the bomb. We're live at the Pentagon.
ROBERTS: And Conan O'Brien returning to the land of late-night and he's doing it on our sister network TBS. He's going to host a new talk show starting in the fall. The details of Conan's big move to basic cable -- just ahead.
And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the conversation right now. We want to hear from you about what's in the news this morning. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX. We'll be reading some of your comments throughout the morning -- getting a lot of comments by the way on the controversy over spanking.
CHETRY: Also, first, another setback for Toyota. "Consumer Reports" magazine is putting out an urgent warning about the company's 2010 Lexus GX 460, saying that the high-end SUV is prone to rollovers during turns, posing a serious safety risk. The nonprofit labeling the GX 460 a "don't buy." It's been nine years since "Consumers Reports" has rated a vehicle this poorly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN LINKOV, MANAGING EDITOR, CONSUMER REPORTS CARS: When you go into a turn and if you encounter something or if the turn has a decreasing radius and 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Christine Romans joins us now with more details on this "don't buy" rating, as we said, a very unusual move on the part of "Consumer Reports."
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. Consumer Reports does not do this casually or lightly by any stretch of the imagination. What they have found is a rollover risk during turns in this particular model of Lexus, the 2010 model, not prior models -- the 2010 model of the Lexus GX 460. About 5,000 of these have been sold, and as far as we know, there had been no reported accidents or concerns.
The problem here is that when this company, "Consumer Reports," was testing this car, they found -- unexpectedly, they found that on these turns, there was a real world rollover risk, they said. Four different engineers and test drivers took a look at this and then they went and got another vehicle, and said it was not an isolated incident -- that, indeed, the electronic stability control system was an issue in both of these vehicles. That stability control system -- it organizes the controls, the brakes and accelerations so when you're taking that big turn or a tight turn and you need to maneuver or decelerate, or you need to move around another object, it prevents you from flipping over.
If you have purchased this car already, they say, be very, very careful on ramps or exit ramps, and go to your dealer and demand that the company do something. If you haven't bought this car, they say, do not buy it. No word, radio silence so far this morning from Lexus and Toyota on what they plan to do to address these concerns from "Consumer Reports."
ROBERTS: All right. Christine Romans this morning -- Christine, thanks.
Securing the bomb -- world leaders meeting in Washington for day two of a nuclear summit, addressing what President Obama calls the biggest single threat to global security: nuclear terrorism. Things got off to a positive start with former Soviet republic, Ukraine, promising to get rid of material that al Qaeda would do anything to get its hands on.
Barbara Starr is live for us this morning at the Pentagon.
Barbara, a huge gathering of nations -- 47 in all. But is there a real threat?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, John, I think that's the bottom line question. It may be a huge threat. But is it very realistic that there would be this type of nuclear attack?
Now, the president's own advisors say al Qaeda has been trying to get a weapon for more than a decade -- and listen to John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism official.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: Over the past two decades, there has been indisputable evidence that dozens of terrorist groups have actively sought some type of weapon of mass effect. Relative to other such potential weapons, which include biological, chemical, radiological -- the consequences and impact of a nuclear attack would be the most devastating as well as the most lasting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: OK. So, there is a threat out there. But how could this possibly happen if it were to happen? Could terrorists get ahold of some sort of stockpile that's not guarded by the country that owns it?
The first problem would be getting that material -- experts tell us -- then fashioning it into some kind of device and then finding a way to deliver it, if you will, to a target, exploded over a city on a military base, some mechanism to actually explode the weapon. All of those are very fundamental challenges and that's what would make it very tough for a terrorist group to do it. But there's a lot of concern that with some of that stockpile material not guarded, it could happen someday -- John.
ROBERTS: Barbara, which countries are the biggest threats?
STARR: Well, when you look at the map, that's what it really comes down to. If you are going to get your hands on the stockpile, where could it come from? Let's go to a map.
There are several countries that officials say cause the greatest concern. Now, Ukraine, as we talked about earlier, has agreed to give up its stockpile. So, there's a bit of good news. But the usual suspects, Iran and North Korea, top the list of worries. Pakistan, India and Russia all have controls on their stock piles. But there's concern that those stockpile controls are really strong enough and concern that a criminal element could get its hands on those stockpiles, resell it to terrorists.
Still, very tough for al Qaeda to do it. And officials say, even though al Qaeda wants to get its hands on nuclear material, so far, they have, thankfully, not made a lot of progress in doing so -- John.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning -- Barbara, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Also new this morning: the White House is denying reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a candidate to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Stevens. The Obama administration will not say when an announcement will be made on the judicial pick. But a spokesman says that the president is pleased with the job that Mrs. Clinton is doing as secretary of state and wants her to remain in that position.
ROBERTS: The Catholic Church has finally forgiven the Beatles. The official Vatican newspaper marked 40 years since the fab four broke up by paying tribute to their musical legacy, despite their drug use and times spent, quote, "on the loss and uninhabited." One of the last two surviving Beatles, Ringo Starr, said, "Thanks, I think."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RINGO STARR, FORMER BEATLE: I think the Vatican should -- think they've got more to talk about than the Beatles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, things got a little bit rough with the church back in the 1960s after John Lennon said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
CHETRY: All right. Well, right now, we are going to check in with Rob Marciano. Eight and a half minutes past the hour right now. And he is tracking the weather for us this morning.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kiran. Good morning, John.
A little bit of rain trying to move into the Northeast. It will have limited success, I think. Philly to D.C. will have the best shot of it.
Here's on the radar scope, you see it kind of rolling across the Allegheny and the Appalachians there. Cleveland and through Pittsburgh seeing more moderate to heavy rainfall, as does Detroit. And it's squeezing over towards the capital city and it will probably get there with a little bit of light rain.
Some thunderstorms across Minneapolis, there moving off towards the north and east. Severe threat today across parts of the western and Northern Plains with windy conditions. We had winds yesterday gust over 50 and 60 miles an hour.
And daytime high today will be 80s across parts of the southeast, 50s and 60s and lower 70s elsewhere.
You know, guys, we've been talking about the pollen and the high pollen counts across much of the country today. Jack Lowe (ph), one of our camera guys, went out and gave his car a little spanking with this black felt. That's what it turned out to be. That is pollen in the shape of Jack's hand.
CHETRY: Wow!
ROBERTS: It kind of goes with that story we've been talking about all morning long about, you know, how spanking your kids is not good, I guess. They turn into bullies later on in live. So, if you spank your car here in Atlanta, your hand, at the very least, is going to turn gray.
CHETRY: There you go. I mean, that is a lot of pollen, though, seriously. People are certainly feeling the spring allergy season a little bit early.
MARCIANO: Another couple of weeks and it will hopefully be over.
CHETRY: Thanks, Rob.
Well, Conan O'Brien is returning to late night. He has a show on basic cable now. We have details of this deal and where he's landed -- coming up.
Ten minutes past the hour.
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JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: Conan O'Brien today announced he will not go to FOX. He will instead move his show to a cable channel, TBS. And then later today, Jay Leno announced he will also move his show to TBS.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, Conan O'Brien has found a new home in late- night television.
CHETRY: That's right. Months of speculation about his TV future ended with an unexpected twist.
Alina Cho has the details.
We say that because people thought he was going to go to the FOX Network, right?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He's now part of the family, guys. You know, you're right, a lot of people did think that Conan would be going to FOX. In fact, many thought it was a foregone conclusion.
But in a move that surprised a lot of people, Conan announced yesterday he is going to cable. The show will be on TBS, part of Turner Broadcasting, the same company that owns CNN. The show will launch in November at 11:00 p.m. It is still unnamed and will air four days a week, Monday through Thursday.
We also know that Conan's show will be produced out of Los Angeles. So, he'll stay there. And he will also own the show, too.
Now, that ownership stake is believed to be a big reason why Conan made the jump to TBS, but Conan on cable? He joked about it in a statement he released saying, listen carefully, "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."
Critics say, if you think about it, Conan on cable 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 2 million less than Leno would got. So, here is -- I think he can just say, here's 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, his ratings are up 50 percent over what Conan was pulling. But remember, his audience is also about 10 years older than Conan's. And it's those younger viewers that advertisers covet. The kind of viewers, guys, that generally flock to Comedy Central. And one thing that's important to point out, is that at 11:00 p.m., Conan will be going head to head with Jon Stewart, and they kind of go after the same viewers, right, those younger viewers.
ROBERTS: NBC saying anything about this?
CHO: They aren't. None of the networks are, none of his competitors are. Probably no surprise there, guys. Remember, it did get pretty ugly toward the end with that epic fight with NBC. So as a reminder, we pulled some clips of Conan attacking his former employer. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDE CLIP)
CONAN O'BRIEN, LATE NIGHT HOST: Just coming to work in the morning now has gotten really uncomfortable. Morons, incompetent morons, these people are morons
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Well you know Conan may have gotten the last laugh. He also got a $32 million payout from NBC and he agreed to stay off the air until September, which is why you have seen him on Twitter.
CHETRY: Great, I mean you actually sang the moron song better than --
CHO: He doesn't have a bad voice.
CHETRY: Well he is waiting until November to come back, a pesky little thing we like to call baseball, right?
CHO: That's right, you know, TBS will be airing the major league baseball playoffs. You know and they just decided it didn't make sense to launch Conan show in September, preempt it in October and bring it back in November. And they also thought it would be a good idea to promote his show during the playoffs with the Tiger Woods.
CHETRY: Yes and he has time to come up with lots of new material.
CHO: He has 3,000 hours of demo tape as he likes to say.
CHETRY: There you go. Thanks so much, Alina.
And now, his new TBS late night partner, George Lopez, will be Larry King's guest tonight, 9:00 eastern, he is moving back now that Conan is coming in to TBS. We are going to talk to him about what he thinks about the deal, tonight on LARRY.
ROBERTS: Meantime Conan's tonight show successor and predecessor, whatever you want to call it, Jay Leno is losing his wingman, long time band leader Kevin Eubanks made it official on last night's show that he is leaving after 18 years. He told Leno that he is ready for a career change of pace. Eubanks' final TONIGHT SHOW is going to be the 28th of April.
CHETRY: And still ahead McDonalds wants to redesign some of its restaurants. They want you to come in hang out a little longer. A little bit more like Starbucks. So is it going to work? Works for me. I'm hooked. Seventeen minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Coming up now 20 minutes after the hour, back with the Most News in the Morning, and it is time for "Minding Your Business."
CHETRY: That's why the coins were clicking.
ROBERTS: In the gold mines it is, yes. In a little more than an hour, the Dow will open above 11,000 for the first time in 18 months. Investors anticipating solid first quarter earnings and a loan agreement for cash strapped Greece helped push the Dow up eight points yesterday and got it over the top.
CHETRY: There you go and memos and e-mails released by a Senate panel show that executives of Washington Mutual created a quote "Mortgage Time Bomb" before the bank exploded and collapsed. The documents also show that those executives knew the risk. Washington Mutual, the biggest bank to fail in U.S. history. Former executives will be grilled by law makers on Capitol Hill in about an hour.
ROBERTS: The message to the post office, cut costs and cut deep. The government accountability office says the postal service is using an outdated business model. Yes, they are mailing letters and needs to cut salaries, close locations, and aggressively slash costs. The post office has nearly lost $12 billion in the past three years because of other people using e-mails, texts, and online video chatting instead of sending letters.
CHETRY: E-vite too.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, you may not have to send out an invitation anymore. Well McDonald's may be synonymous with quick service. But the fast food chain wants you to linger a little bit longer. The company is in the midst of remodeling some of its restaurants, adding lounge chairs, television, free wifi. What does that sound like? A little like Starbucks. The experts are saying the chain hopes to compete. They've already -- coffee is already competing, they are making the cafe stuff, so, there you go. Now they want you to sit around longer at McDonalds.
ROBERTS: You know, of course you know, J.K. Rolling famously wrote all the "Harry Potter" books at a Starbucks on her laptop computer. And Michael Garson, the president's speech writer in the Bush administration read a lot of his speeches on his laptop in McDonald's -- in Starbucks. But have you ever wondered all those other people on their laptops in Starbucks, what are they doing? What are they doing?
CHETRY: They are probably not as productive as J.K. Rowling. They wish they were, that's for sure.
ROBERTS: Well do you want to know if China has changed American business? Just take a look at your dinner table. That will give you an answer.
CHETRY: Also we are talking about Russian adoptions. This uproar over this Tennessee mother who sent her adopted child back to Russia. Now people who had adoptions in the pipeline are concerned. What does it mean and what about the larger concerns for people that are adopting older children? What do you do if you find that they have behavior issues? We are going to be talking about all of that coming up. Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- five minutes past the hour, your "Top Stories" just five minutes away. First though an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only here on AMERICAN MORNING. A shift in the way that U.S. companies do business is now underway.
ROBERTS: From dinnertime staples like seafood to clothes and technology, more U.S. companies are opting for the made in china label. And that is making life here less expensive. Christine Romans joins us with our week-long report, "China Rising, Opportunity or Threat." Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And here it is, this has been going on for some ten years. The American consumer has really benefited from this huge rise in China. To see how China's powerful economy affects you in just about every way, look no further than your dinner plate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): This is Alaska sole caught and frozen in the Bering Sea. Unloaded in Alaska's Dutch Harbor. And from here.
BILL ORR, PRESIDENT, SIGNATURE SEAFOOD: Most of the fish goes to China.
ROMANS: Where Bill Orr, president of Signature Seafood says his catch is cleaned and filleted cheaper and quicker in Chinese workshops like this than in the U.S.
ORR: We will sell it to companies around the world. But most of them have the fish sent to China and further processed into filets, or portions, have sauces added, or breaded/packaged, and sent back to European, United States, South America.
ROMANS (on camera): That's right, chances are the fish you ordered a restaurant like this traveled some 14,000 miles. How is that even possible, because China's economic miracle of cheap labor and a government subsidized industrial base has changed everything, even the economics on your dinner plate?
(voice-over): U.S. seafood exports to China were just $82 million back in 1996, today it's $597 million. How much of that comes back to the U.S. is impossible to know in this new globalized world. From fish to textiles, to steel, to technology, China's rise is testing American business models. Just ask Google. It searched for a new market in China in 2006 but decided China's way of doing business wasn't for them.
GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "THE COMING COLLAPSE OF CHINA": It hoped for a more open China, it didn't happen. Censorship got worse during this period. Chinese government's hacking program got worse. And so Google said, no more.
ROMANS: Moving it's Chinese search engine to Hong Kong just last month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Google's case is a special somewhat special case. Most companies in China, auto companies, grain companies, banks, law firms, manufacturer of electronic goods and so forth do not face that dilemma that Google, in particular, faced.
ROMANS: But could the allure of China's potential market and it's cheap manufacturing base be fading. Tough new rules are starting to restrict foreign companies of all kinds, which worries some China watchers.
DAN SLANE, US. ECONMIC AND SAFETY REVIEW COMMISSION: The situation is changing dramatically and China is switching over from a free market economy to a totally government-controlled economy.
ROMANS: And that has Congress howling for tariffs on goods imported from China to help correct what it sees as an unfair advantage.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: We are going to get tough medicine. We are going to impose the same penalty on you that will equal the advantage you gain from manipulating the currency if you don't change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we went out and slapped a 30 percent tariff on Chinese goods because we are going to punish the Chinese. And if it were actually passed through in full to the person on 28,000 -- you are trying to put T-shirts on his kids, it would cause a lot of damage.
ROMANS: Would Americans be willing to pay more for goods if it means more jobs would stay in America? That in a nutshell is the debate. For now, Bill Orr says, unless the economics change, he will still keep sending his work to China to keep things competitive.
ORR: It just doesn't seem practical, on the face of it, to be able to send your product to China to be processed and back to the United States. But if we needed to do it ashore, we think that cost is probably 20, 25 percent higher.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: For years while jobs were growing in this country, consumers enjoyed those cheaper import prices without much thought to simply how they were possible. But with nearly 10 percent unemployment, people are starting to think about it again. The Obama administration is pushing back against China's currency and industrial policy that favor Chinese exports over U.S. exports. Critics say at the expense of American jobs. President Hu Jintao of China says that his country will not yield though to external pressure.
ROBERTS: It is pretty amazing to think that even with all that transport it is still 25 percent cheaper. But in terms of saving American jobs, if you were to do the processing in Alaska or somewhere else in the West Coast and just keep the supply line following down, would people be willing to spend the extra money knowing they are saving American jobs.
ROMANS: And are you saving -- spending the money any way by unemployment benefits, by programs for retraining, by the defamation of the different parts of manufacturing base? I mean, what are the cost and how they balance out? Are consumers pay less but American government is paying more because they have to pick up the slack for the displaced workers?
ROBERTS: Are they paying more taxes along the line?
ROMANS: Right -- so fascinating to see how it has grown up over the last 10 or 15 years. Now, with 10 percent unemployment, people are looking sharply at some of these policies.
Also I want to be clear that there are some policies in China that American businesses are starting to be concerned about. They are called indigenous innovation policies. What it means is the Chinese government has put in controls so that Chinese companies are favored over multi-national and American companies. That's a concern here as well.
CHETRY: Interesting, and it is generating a lot of conversation.
ROBERTS: In a bizarre kind of way, it is are sort of like we are sending all the business to China so they can buy our debt because we are losing all these jobs to China and having to pay more money in unemployment benefits. Just keep everything right here.
Thanks, Christine.
CHETRY: Coming up tomorrow, we will be talking more about this subject "China Rising, Opportunity or Threat?" From Shanghai to Beijing, a colossal middle class is emerging. But is the sky the limit for China or is their growth a bubble about to burst? Christine takes a look tomorrow only on "AMERICAN MORNING."
ROBERTS: And we're crossing the half hour. That means it's time for this morning's top stories.
Major development coming from the sidelines of the nuclear summit in Washington. The White House says China has agreed to work on new sanctions against Iran instead of standing in the way of them. President Obama met privately with China's president Hu Jintao yesterday.
CHETRY: Also overnight, recovery crews in West Virginia removing the bodies of the last of the miners killed in that explosion in West Virginia. And 29 men died last week. It was the worse mine disaster we have seen in 40 years.
Federal investigators were waiting for all of the bodies to be recovered. They are now beginning their investigation underground.
ROBERTS: Did you just buy that shiny new Lexus FX-460 SUV? You'll want to hear what "Consumer Reports" magazine has to say about it. There it is. It says there is a rollover problem that happens when you are making a turn and you let up on the accelerator, the back end skids out.
The problem is considered so serious the group is urging consumers not to buy the SUV. They are calling on Toyota, the parent company of Lexus, to fix the problem for existing customers and fix it fast.
CHETRY: Police in Tennessee say they have not been able to talk with Torre Hanson, the woman at the center of an adoption controversy. She sent her seven-year-old adopted son back to Russia.
The local sheriff says that the woman's attorney told them she won't talk unless a charge is filed. This case meanwhile is grabbing headlines across the nation, and situations like this are not as rare as you would think.
For more on this, we bring in Dr. Ronald Federici. He is a psychologist that specializes in adopted children. Doctor, thanks for being with us this morning.
DR. RONALD FEDERICI, PSYCHOLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN ADOPTED KIDS: Thank you for having me.
CHETRY: In this case of this woman, Torre Hanson, saying it became too difficult and dangerous for her to parent this child and she said she didn't wish to anymore. Obviously what she did, many are slamming as the wrong thing, just sending a seven-year-old child back on a plane to Russia with a note.
You say these types of difficulties in adopting children and families and getting them to find a healthy environment together can sometimes be quite difficult. How big of a problem is this?
FEDERICI: Well, this is quite a large problem. I am a developmentalist, and I see children who have all types of developmental disabilities. Children from eastern European adoption areas have been raised in some of the most deprived, damaging conditions, where there has been no bonding, attachment, family, relationships, abuse, neglect. They have been without a family.
Coming out of these orphanage settings, these children are mostly feral, under-socialized, very impulsive. And coming to a new home is almost a noxious stimuli. So they have no database on how to function normally. They will act under-socialized and violent more out of anxiety and fear of adjustment.
So it is a common occurrence for an older child, especially a seven-year-old, to act this way. The problem is that many American families who adopt go in there with this idealistic logic that things will be fine in a good home when it is a very difficult match because the child doesn't have the skills, knowledge or database to function in a normal environment.
CHETRY: You say you estimate about 4,000 overseas kids are thrown away into the U.S. foster care system. In one case you talk about a cardiac surgeon and a therapist, financially stable and seemingly very educated and they, basically, what, left their child in your office?
FEDERICI: I have been in practice 24 years. There has been at least in the rough statistics almost 4,000 children who have been disrupted either back to the country of origin or mostly in our domestic foster care system.
Families who have not been able to care for the child because of these same behavioral developmental issues they were not trained for, not equipped for and just didn't want to deal with.
I have picked up children at baggage carousels at the airport, left in my office. People have left them in the hotels in the countries of origin.
This is not the first time where a child has been sent back to Russia or the eastern bloc. This was the first time a child was sent back unattended with just a tag. I have had several families who have sent them back on their own, including back to China, Eastern Europe. They have escorted them, left them back in the orphanage.
So it is not an unusual situation. Our U.S. foster care and our social service, including some of these special psychiatric programs, are filled with many children who have been disrupted for these same reasons.
CHETRY: It is heartbreaking to think about. These children that for whatever reason were not able to be with their birth parents, and then on top of that going through all of this only to be again dropped back into the system.
What can be done, if anything, to better prepare these families, these parents, and also when you speak about what they were -- what situation they started in? Is there any way to make that better?
FEDERICI: Well, first of all, in these orphanage settings, they do the best they can with very meager resources. The United States adoption agencies that work with these countries should absolutely and unequivocally provide more information, records information, training and education to the families to be better prepared.
And there are international adoption centers all over the United States that are available to train these parents. But it is often not filtered to the families and many of them flounder, like this Hanson case, where she had nowhere to go but she was right down the road from Vanderbilt, which has a very good adoption center.
So the international adoption agencies in the United States which are not regulated by any governing body, they have a group collectiveness that is under the Hague Treaty to provide training, but many of them do, most don't. So there is not enough training for the parents.
So it's very important that families receive extensive training in the effects of institutional care on these children prior to adoption and have immediate support after adoption to learn the concept of deinstitutionalizing a traumatized child correctly and safely so the child meshes in with the family slowly but more safely and the families do not have a chaotic situation when a child comes out under-socialized.
CHETRY: You are saying there is hope for these kids?
FEDERICI: There is absolutely hope for these children. There is a huge amount of specialists, of us that work with internationally adopted children. There are centers being developed more and more.
And also, even the least amount of support services in the United States is better than none. Many families are so overwhelmed, they don't know where to go and they give up and move on and turn around to adopt again. So there is a huge problem in our system of international adoption.
CHETRY: This is certainly bringing that issue to the forefront. Dr. Robert Federici, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for being here. FEDERICI: Thank you for having me.
ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes after the hour. What has got our viewers riled up this morning? Mostly it is all about spanking. We will check in with our live blog coming up next.
And then, Apollo Anton Ohno is going to be here. He will not be skating for us but he will talk about his efforts to keep young people away from the perils of drinking. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: It's 41 minutes after the hour.
We're reading some of your comments at our blog at CNN.com/amfix. A lot of people are talking about the spanking controversy. Some people are saying you shouldn't spank your child. It has been illegal in places like Sweden since 1979. California has a law against it.
There are a lot of people saying, it is not such a big deal. David G. writes, "I'm not a parent. But as a child, I was spanking. I'm a 25-year-old man with no history of violence, no grudge against my parents, I graduated top of my class and have a good career. Spanking isn't the issue. It's letting your kids control you."
CHETRY: And we're talking about this because another study came out in the journal "Pediatrics" saying that once again children who were spanked frequently at age three by the time they are five are 50 percent more likely to become aggressive.
However, most of the comments don't seem to mirror the study. Cheryl writing in "I found just the opposite, that people in my family who do not believe in spanking cannot control their kids. They're way out of hand. I spanked my daughter. She's not violent. She knows the rules and abides by them.
There is nothing wrong with spanking as long as you don't abuse your child."
ROBERTS: Let's see if we can get all wait down to the bottom. We have a lot of comments in the last little while about this. "Nothing wrong with spanking," another comment here. Here is one from Jenny. "For me, it is sad we have to have this discussion in 2010 to spank or not to spank children. In Sweden where I am from it is against the law since 1979. Do you spank other adults too, to make them listen or respect you? Respect your children and they will respect you."
CHETRY: There you go. We welcome more of your comments this morning. Coming up, we will be speaking with speed skating champ Apollo Anton Ohno. Meanwhile, we're going to take a quick break. You can weigh in at CNN.com/amfix. We'll be right back.
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CHETRY: There we go. We're a little early for this song. It was our 2007 AMERICAN MORNING summer song. But hey, it's spring but it's beautiful in Dallas. And it's going to feel like summer, 81 for a high later. Right now, it's 57 the sun is coming up; looking great in Texas this morning.
ROBERTS: You can never get too early a start --
CHETRY: It's true. No complaints here.
ROBERTS: -- head start on summer time.
CHETRY: Well, Rob Marciano is checking things out for us. It looks nice in Dallas today, Robbie.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, gorgeous in Dallas and gorgeous across much of the southeast. It's a nice run of weather for much of the eastern two-thirds of the country in the past -- really a couple of weeks.
A little rain is trying to sneak in through D.C. and Philly area right now. It's kind of slivering back towards Detroit and Cleveland. This will help just to knock down a little bit of the pollen in your area but not so much for the south.
Some thunderstorms rolling across Minneapolis right now, that may cause some problems. Pretty strong system rolling across the inner mountain west, higher elevation snow; this is also going to pose the possibility of seeing some thunderstorms that may be damaging later on.
Certainly, a lot of heat involved here: record-breaking heat in Sioux City, 86; Pueblo, Colorado, 83. Some winds as well. We had winds gusting to over 60-miles-an-hour in parts of Utah.
The rain that came into California in the past couple of days caused some problems across the Bay Area. A video out of Walnut Creek dramatic pictures from a water rescue there, three people fell into this canal in Walnut Creek. One of them was able to be dramatically rescued as you see there; the other two, not so lucky. So dangerous times out there in California; it looks to be a little bit more tranquil today.
If you are traveling, D.C., Detroit and Cleveland will see some rains. There are some delays there potentially. And Ft. Lauderdale will see some winds.
82 degrees expected in Kansas City, 62 degrees in Denver, 59, a little bit of light rain in New York and 81 degrees and pollen remains to be a problem across Atlanta and the south.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob thanks so much.
And coming up next in The Most News in the Morning, a CNN exclusive, Olympic speed skating star Apolo Anton Ohno is going to join us to talk about the importance of reaching people when they are young to keep them from abusing alcohol.
Stay with us, it's 48 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Fifty-one minutes past the hour. Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
From "Dancing with the Stars" to skating for Olympic gold, some say there is not a challenge our next guest can't conquer.
ROBERTS: Apolo Anton Ohno is on a new mission these days, a nationwide campaign to stop underage drinking and start getting kids more interested in healthy lifestyles.
CHETRY: Yes. An "American Morning Exclusive" now joining us from CNN Center in Atlanta, the most decorated U.S. athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics, speed skater, Apolo Anton Ohno. Great to have you with us this morning. Thanks for being here Apolo.
APOLO ANTON OHNO, EIGHT-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: Thank you. Good morning.
CHETRY: We watched you at the Olympics. You were fabulous. So congratulations on that.
And now, you're taking on another big challenge; this issue of underage drinking in kids. Tell us about the campaign that you're working on and why you decided to take up this cause.
OHNO: Absolutely. Well, basically since the Olympic Games, I have partnered up with this organization called Centric Council, and we've been touring across the United States speaking at middle schools and middle school students specifically about the dangers of underage drinking.
Trying to promote healthy, active lifestyles and just more so, just educating kids in general about giving them the confidence to be able to go out there in the real world and make active, healthy decisions, make the right decisions. Kids who are already facing challenges, kind of -- and I can relate.
You know, my middle school years were a little bit of a struggle. And my relationship with my father and the decisions that I had to make at that time kind of led me to sports and helped in turn save my life from possibly a path that wasn't for me.
So -- and this is something I'm very passionate about. We are encouraging students and parents to go to AskListenLearn.com and find out more information about this campaign, this program that we're running. And more importantly it is about me interacting with these kids in person.
ROBERTS: Ok.
OHNO: You know, today, I'm here at Atlanta, I'm actually going to speak at a school, at Kennedy Middle School and just interacting with these kids, you know sharing relationships, sharing stories that they could see me in person. They can hear my voice and know that I -- you know, I'm going to a lot -- I have been through a lot of the struggles they have been through in the past and kind of help them just get on the right path.
ROBERTS: Yes.
OHNO: You know, I think at middle school, students are at that age where kids are still so moldable. And if we can reach these kids and constantly reiterate these positive messages, it is going to further empower these kids to make better decisions in the future of our country.
ROBERTS: Yes, it's great to have a role model like yourself coming out there in person and doing it.
OHNO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: You talked about the importance of reaching these kids before they sort of develop ingrained habits. If you wait until high school, maybe it is too late. And you also spoke about sport being your way out of those problems in your -- your early adolescent years.
OHNO: Right.
ROBERTS: When you go into these middle schools to talk to these kids, you bring a game along with you. What's the game?
OHNO: That's right. Well, this is a kind of very cool interactive game. It basically allows kids to play. It is like a video game. Instead of just sitting there with your fingers, they have to be active.
So they are running in place or jumping. They are moving around all while they have to answer some questions that come with the game, whether it's about active lifestyle or about healthy decisions with food, nutrition, alcohol-related questions.
So it is a fun, easy way for kids to basically learn how to, you know, not only empower their bodies but also their brains at the same time.
ROBERTS: And what's the theory behind getting them active while they are playing this game?
OHNO: Well, I mean there is a lot of research coming out right now and it has in the past that shows that your brain performs at its peak when you are most active. I know as an athlete, when I was performing on the days where I would have a rest day or have off day, I felt a little bit sluggish.
CHETRY: Right.
OHNO: And even now, you know, post-Olympic games, I noticed that the days that I don't have time to work out, that's when I feel kind of least productive. So if I can just fit in 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, here and there, I'm working at a different pace altogether.
CHETRY: That's cool. And for the kids to make -- they are learning and they're also moving which is sort of (INAUDIBLE) killing two birds with one stone, I guess you could say.
OHNO: Exactly.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about your success with "Dancing with the Stars," because the show recently has overtaken "American Idol." I mean, getting the most viewers, 23 million. Being an athlete -- you won it, by the way, in 2007.
OHNO: Yes.
CHETRY: Does being an athlete actually make you a much better dancer even if that is not how you were professionally trained?
OHNO: I think being an Olympic athlete, performing at that stage for so many years definitely helped. I can't say. The show was much different than you can ever realize. I didn't know what I was getting myself into.
But more so, it is about the mind-set; the challenges that the show forced me into. More importantly, I had to come out and bring my emotion I had inside of me and show it and display it to the audience. I don't want to dance in front of my high school graduation class, let alone 20, 25 million people.
It is a fantastic show to be a part of it. I would do it again in a heart beat. But definitely behind the scenes, there's a lot more that goes on than people realize. It's a lot more work. But it's a great show.
It has a lot of good values. But for me personally, I learned a lot about myself. And it was fantastic.
CHETRY: Yes. A lot of people get hurt on the show, because they are training at a different level and you are an Olympic athlete, so you know.
OHNO: They can, yes.
CHETRY: But what about this Kate Gosselin? Everybody's going crazy about her -- the people that -- the mom that everybody loves to hate; the one who had the eight children. Well, she has eight total. What do you think about her out there dancing?
OHNO: Well, I think that you know, the show -- the fun thing about this show is that it brings personalities from all walks of life. And it kind of showcases their personalities, and the fans actually get to have a chance to vote and be a part of the show. That's why these shows are so successful.
Whether it is Kate, whether it's Evan Lysacek or it's Pamela Anderson or it's Chad Ochocinco, every single -- every single year they have a -- every single season, they have a great new cast, a great new crew. Fortunately, I had a lot of fun with those guys at production. It feels like a team when you are there.
I'm excited. I have fun watching the show. I try to catch it when I can.
ROBERTS: Apolo, it's great to talk to you this morning. Good luck when you go out there and talk to these kids; real important work that you're doing with them.
OHNO: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Good to see you.
CHETRY: Nice talking to you today. Thanks.
All right. Well, we are going to take a quick break. 57 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Continue the conversation on today's stories; go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix. That's going to wrap it up for us.
Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you again tomorrow.
CHETRY: And the news continues right now. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips -- hey Kyra.
