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American Morning
Ongoing Volcanic Eruption Near Iceland Continues to Hinder Air Travel; Mayor Weighs In On Guns, Wall Street Reform; New iPhone Found in a Bar?; Extreme Teen Texters: Can Texting Become an Addiction
Aired April 20, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, glad you're with us on this "American Morning." It is Tuesday, April 20th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us.
And here are this morning's top stories. A lot of flights are now resuming this morning across Europe, but a new cloud of ash may keep 40,000 Americans stuck in the U.K. for at least another day. We're going to show you new, amazing pictures of the eruption in Iceland that's causing all of this.
Lightning inside the ash and what it means for millions of travelers still stranded right now.
CHETRY: A CNN exclusive this morning. We're talking to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and he talks about the push to restrict gun sales across the United States, closing the so called "gun show loophole" and why he says it's not about gun control but crime control.
ROBERTS: And a study finds that some of today's teens are sending 3,000 texts every month. That's 100 a day. And those statistics worry some doctors and teachers. We'll tell you why in our new series "Texting Too Much."
We'd like to hear from you about this story, go to CNN.com/amfix. We'll read some of those comments throughout the morning.
CHETRY: We start with the latest on the volcanic eruption in Iceland. There are some flights resuming across Europe this morning but not nearly enough to ease the backlog of millions of stranded passengers around the world right now.
It looked as though things were clearing up, but the eruption intensified late last night sending a new plume of ash 15,000 feet into the sky. There's a look on where the ash is. And forecasters say it's spreading in the wrong direction if you want to resume flights over Europe and deeper into the United Kingdom as well.
It is really complicating plans to resume flights this morning especially in London. Airports from Dublin to Berlin to Warsaw are closed this morning.
CNN has the story covered like no other. We have Sasha Herriman at Heathrow Airport in London with more details about what is open and what is not and what the rest of the week could be shaping up to look like.
First though to Rob Marciano with the latest on where the clouds of ash are going right now. Good morning, Rob. This is the last thing they are hoping for as they thought the skies were starting to clear.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is a complicated issue. You're working in three dimensions, and as you go higher in the atmosphere, the winds change with speed and direction. This ash plume is going just about everywhere depending on the height you are in the atmosphere.
Most of our weather goes from west to east, at least at the upper levels of the atmosphere. But those winds can kind of weakened a little bit, so now the mid-level has taken over and thrown some of the ash plume back through even North America.
That's the main area that we're concentrating on, at least the height, the surface to 20,000 feet above the level. The air space is actually open. So below 20,000 feet is where the ash is most concentrated. The wind has taken it from Iceland into the U.K., and that's what has prompted the latest advisory to shut down the air space at the lower elevation.
Let's take a look at some cool pictures as we highlight this volcanic eruption. That is lightning, my friends. And it happens during volcanic eruptions, a similar process to a thunderstorm that creates lightning. You have particles creating static electricity.
And the colors around that lightning are totally dependent on the gases that are being emitted by that volcano. So very cool pictures being taken by some of our photojournalists in the business that are other there right now.
All right, guys, I thought we would throw that in there because it is cool, at least if you're not traveling.
CHETRY: Just making for amazing photos, no doubt. But if you're stuck in the headache, you're not enjoying that this morning. Thanks, Rob.
ROBERTS: At New York City's JFK airport it looks like a shelter following a disaster this morning. They are calling it Camp Kennedy, hundreds of stranded travelers still sleeping under Red Cross blankets on cots, sharing soap, shaving their faces and even their legs in bathroom sinks and living off in-flight snacks.
It felt a little more like home yesterday when the port authority opened up trailers with a dozen showers. Stranded travelers were also invited to a buffet compliments of an airport vendor. On the other side, the White House says 40,000 Americans are stuck, and that's just in the U.K. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said some of the stranded Americans were running out of medicines or didn't have places to stay and the State Department is trying to help them out.
And their stay may have been extended even longer. European travel officials were planning to ease the six-day air travel ban, but a new ash cloud is on the way headed for England. Still they are hopeful we will see more planes in the air today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SLIM KALLAS, EUROPEAN COMMISSION, TRANSPORTATION: We should see progressively more planes start to fly. And this is good news for Europe's stranded passengers, good news for airline industry and other sectors of the economy hard hit by this crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We're now hearing some flights may take off starting in an hour's time at London's Heathrow airport. Getting to 20,000 feet, though, could be the hard part.
Our Sasha Herriman is live for us at Heathrow this morning. How's it looking there this morning, Sasha?
SASHA HERRIMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's very quiet here at Heathrow airport. I have to say we saw a very rare sight about an hour. A plane was up in the skies at about the crucial 20,000 feet or above. As you know, no flights are allowed in the airspace below that level.
So the situation here in the U.K., not many flights are actually taking place. It's all being coordinated by the Civil Aviational Authority and the National Air Traffic Service and the government. They are looking at where the cloud of ash is and making decisions whether or not flights can take place.
Parts of Scottish air space are due to open between 1:00 and 7:00 p.m. Also New Castle in England, some flights, restricted flights. The rest of the U.K. airspace, severe restrictions in place for anything below that 20,000 feet. Transit above is OK.
Heathrow Airport, Stanford Airport, all of the main London airports, nothing is happening. As you can see behind me, it's all very quiet, a lot of planes resting on the tarmac.
As far as British Airways goes, they said no short-haul flights will be taking place. They are hoping around ten long-haul flights might ac. be coming in at some point later today. But that all depends on whether or not those restrictions are eased in any way.
Some long-haul flights have taken off from airports around the world aiming for London. It remains to be seen whether or not they can land in London or not.
As far as the rest of Europe goes, severe restrictions in place, but not quite as severe as they are here in the U.K. German airspace has reopened for some long-haul and some domestic flights.
So a very complicated picture in the U.K. and the rest of Europe. Back to you in the studio.
ROBERTS: All right. Sasha Herriman for us today.
Eleven years ago today the Columbine high school massacre was set in motion when four high powered weapons were bought at the gun show without a background check. But now a group of the nation's mayors want to close the so called gun show loophole.
CHETRY: It's called Mayors Against Illegal Guns now launching a full scale media offensive trying to convince lawmakers to rewrite the gun show laws. One of the group's leader is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg here with us exclusively this morning.
Mr. Mayor, great to see you. Thanks for being with u. I know it is an issue near and dear to your heart. One ATF study found that more than 10,000 trafficked guns a year can be traced back to gun shows. That's about 30 percent of the black market there. What is this so-called loophole?
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) NEW YORK CITY: Congress requires you to do a background check before you sell a gun in a gun store. Most gun dealers are honest and follow the law. One percent don't.
But if you go to a gun show, at gun shows explicitly there is no requirement to do background checks. And so a dealer could take all of his or her inventory and go to a gun show and sell without the background checks.
And people say I go to buy one gun. But you see people buy ten or 100 guns, and they take those and resell them to our kids and convicted felons, who under federal law can't own guns legally.
ROBERTS: Mr. Mayor, the argument against closing the gun show loophole is that private sellers can sell a gun at a flea market or person-to-person without a background check. And so you're putting an onerous requirement on people at gun shows.
There's also a suggestion that a federal law against -- that requires a background check at a gun show, would be a violation of the commerce clause.
BLOOMBERG: There's no violation. The Supreme Court has ruled it's not a violation of the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms.
ROBERTS: What about the commerce clause?
BLOOMBERG: The federal government does have the right to regulate things. They already require that you do background checks before you buy a gun at gun stores. It's exactly the same thing at a gun show. There is no difference other than they deliberately left this out.
And this is the way the Columbine massacre shooter got the guns. This is the way cops on our streets are getting shot. A third of the illegal guns that we find when we arrest somebody committing a crime come through gun shows. You can trace them back.
And it's just got to stop. It is killing our children and it is killing our police officers. And I was pleased to see the new senator from Colorado, Michael Bennett, just signed onto the legislation to close the gun show loophole. This has nothing to do with the right to bear arms. Every state can enact their own regulations.
ROBERTS: So why not do this in the state level?
BLOOMBERG: You can do it at a state level, but it's so easy to carry a gun from one state to another. In New York, very few gun dealers sell guns illegally. But people bring guns into our state. All they do is go to another state, buy it, put it in the back of their car and drive in and open the back of the trunk and sell to kids on the streets.
CHETRY: This is the shocking part. You contracted with a private firm, and they said 35 out of 47 sellers when they investigated these gun shows actually did complete sales to people who appear to be criminals or straw purchasers.
At the same time, if a criminal wants to get their hands on a gun, they are going to find a way to do it.
BLOOMBERG: If you make it more difficult, they are less likely to do it and there will fewer guns in the streets and your children will be safer, and the police officer that puts his or her life on the line to protect you will be safer.
It's true, for example, if you say it's illegal to drink and drive doesn't mean everybody is going to follow the law. But a lot fewer people will drink and drive and you're a lot safer.
ROBERTS: Let's take a moment to talk about the financial services reform bill. The president will be coming here to New York City to talk about it. You were not aware of him coming.
BLOOMBERG: I was asked about five minutes after the White House announced it. I was in a press conference and saw it in the blog as I walked in. In all fairness, it's kind of hard to know before they announce it.
ROBERTS: They could give you a head's up.
BLOOMBERG: For all I know they did. I have to talk to my office about it.
ROBERTS: Let's talk about the bill itself. You don't like the idea of increased taxes on bonuses or temporary tax on banks to pay back money -- BLOOMBERG: It isn't I don't like it. It will just drive business out of our city and an awful lot of hardworking New Yorkers on the unemployment lines. You cannot have a tax policy or a regulatory policy that is markedly different than elsewheres where business can move to. And so that's what we're worried about.
CHETRY: So what would you like to see in any type of regulatory reform?
BLOOMBERG: Transparency is the key thing, because if you have transparency, the marketplace will take care of a lot of stuff. And the regulatory bodies will have the information that they need to make sure that you don't have these explosions at the end of a cycle that we all benefited from, but when the end comes, you can cushion the blow.
You're never going to take out the risks in the marketplace or the fact that some people will expand too rapidly and some people will take mortgages that they can't afford. But if you know about it, you can take prophylactic measures to keep it from getting so bad.
ROBERTS: Let me ask you, if I could, Mr. Mayor, about the tax on bonuses. If you don't tax the bonuses, is your argument New York City gets more of the revenue because they spend the money here, and if the money would go to the state and federal government you wouldn't get the money?
BLOOMBERG: It's not New York only. It's Illinois, a big financial center. Chicago depends on this. It's Charlotte, North Carolina. If you take the money out of the economy, whether one government redistributes or another isn't the issue. What about the people driving those cabs and people shining those shoes and the people that work on your house? What about the people that clean your clothing?
ROBERTS: What about the people across America that paid a lot of money to bail these people out?
BLOOMBERG: They've gotten their money back in the case of Wall Street. Wall Street has paid back the money and the government is making money on most of that.
The real issue is if you remove money from New York City, we will lose jobs. If you remove money from Chicago, they will lose jobs.
CHETRY: What is it about the financial reform that makes you think New York City would lose jobs?
BLOOMBERG: Because if you have regulation here that is more onerous and taxes that are higher than elsewheres, businesses will move to London, for example, to Hong Long or Singapore. We live in a global world. It is very easy for business to move.
People will go where it's in their own self-interest to live, to be able to pass money on their children, to keep more of the money they make, so income taxes and sale taxes are a very big deal. Nobody is suggesting we shouldn't have taxes. Nobody is suggesting that people shouldn't pay their fair share. But if you single out one industry and make that industry pay this amount, whether you agree with it or not in a fairness test, it's just not a practical sense.
The first rule of tax policies, you can't tax somebody that can move. People will start their businesses elsewhere. People will take the jobs that you and I need elsewheres. People will go and move to more friendly places.
And we are not saying for one second that we shouldn't tax everybody, and the wealthy do pay a large percentage of the -- the one percent of the public pays an enormous percentage of taxes in this country. The question is, if you segregate out one industry, you will destroy that industry or have that industry move.
And if you think about it, the delegation from Michigan will protect any bonus increase taxes on people that work in Detroit automobile manufacturing. In Texas, their delegation will protect the energy industry. We need our delegation to protect our industry, and they're the ones that create the jobs.
ROBERTS: Mr. Mayor, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks for dropping by. Appreciate it.
CHETRY: Great to see you. Thanks.
ROBERTS: Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, something that looks like a new version of Apple's iPhone supposedly found in a bar near the company's headquarters. Is it a leak or was a prototype lost? Our Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" just ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Just in to CNN this morning, we have earnings from Goldman Sachs even as a cloud of suspicion and legality swirls over them with this SEC investigation.
Eighteen minutes after the hour. Christine Romans is here. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And maybe its earnings will take a little bit of the shine off of the fraud charges from the SEC for the moment at least for Goldman. Earnings up 44 percent for this company, more than $3.3 billion, just in three months. And the company has set aside $5.5 billion for pay and bonuses and benefits for those three months.
And Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, you guys, says that this strong performance is because of a strengthening economy and its client base that they are doing well. So an earnings report that looks pretty good for Goldman Sachs even though as it is reeling reputation wise after those SEC fraud charges on Friday. CHETRY: All right. Well, let's see how that pans out. Meanwhile, all the buzz today in the tech world and beyond is whether or not the prototype for the iPhone, the new generation iPhone, was actually left behind at a restaurant or cafe right outside Apple headquarters. And so we have a picture of it right now. What's the deal with this, Christine?
ROMANS: It was actually a beer hall.
CHETRY: A bar.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: A beer hall, which makes it even more fun. There's a joke in there. You know, a computer programmer walks into a bar with the fourth generation Apple prototype, the iPhone, and boom, he loses it on a bar stool. At least that's the story.
Gizmodo.com, a tech blog, says that they have actually seen, touched and hooked this thing up to their computer and that they are pretty convinced that it is the fourth generation iPhone, a prototype that was left by a computer programmer in a California bar.
CHETRY: There were others who are in cold water on the story, though, and saying, no, no, no.
ROMANS: Look at John. John is like this company is so slick that maybe it's some kind of a marketing ploy.
ROBERTS: Well, you know, we asked the mayor about it. And he said that Apple doesn't need --
CHETRY: Slick marketing.
ROBERTS: -- this promotion. Right.
CHETRY: But we also asked somebody we have on a lot, Nick Thompson from "Wired" magazine. And he apparently is claiming that they didn't find it. That they actually paid Apple to get their hands on it and get some early buzz going.
ROMANS: You know, look, is this a computer company or cult? I mean, people love Apple products. Let me tell you what. If this is true, if this is real, if this is a prototype, if it just a prototype they're saying, but if it is, this is what it would look like, the new iPhone, the fourth generation. A front-facing video chat camera.
CHETRY: Nice.
ROMANS: An improved back camera. All of the guts are smaller I'm told. That's my own technical interpretation so that you could have a six percent -- or 16 percent larger battery. And that's something that iPhone users are pretty excited about, a larger battery.
ROBERTS: It's interesting to see if -- CHETRY: They also say it is slimmer.
ROBERTS: Yes. But the sides are squared off so it actually looks kind of thicker.
CHETRY: Right. So supposedly it's slimmer and supposedly there's a ceramic backing.
ROMANS: And another blogger tech, well respected tech blogger said that Apple does have a patent on ceramic backing. So that's why this particular blogger thinks this was -- look, at this point it's all speculation. It could have been a computer programmer in a bar who had a few pints of apparently very good German beer and left it on the bar. So nice of him.
We don't know if he is currently -- according to "Gizmodo" he's still currently employed by Apple. But you know, this is company that's known for like bolting down its prototype that they have, you know, passwords that change every few minutes on the doors to their --
ROBERTS: How could they lose one?
ROMANS: I don't know.
ROBERTS: Well, let's see. We'll find out soon enough. But definitely it's created a buzz, right?
ROMANS: It sure has.
ROBERTS: Christine Romans "Minding Your Business." Thanks so much.
Are you in the market for a home? Is it time to rent or is it time to buy? You're going to want to hear what a recent study is advising right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- three minutes past the hour right now. We're going to get you caught up on some headlines this morning.
Could be the ultimate buyers market right now. And it says (INAUDIBLE) study finding that a gap between monthly mortgage payments and rents is actually at its lowest level in nearly 20 years. The cost difference on average down to $256. And in some markets, it's less than 100 bucks. Researchers point to years of falling home prices and also low interest rates.
ROBERTS: The Food and Drug Administration planning a major push to reduce our daily salt intake. Government regulators plan to work with health experts and the food industry toward establishing the first legal limits for sodium in processed foods. High levels of salt increase the risk of heart attack or stroke and other conditions.
CHETRY: Well, Toyota -- ROBERTS: One is trying to avoid.
CHETRY: Yes, if you can.
Toyota this morning announcing it has a fix for its recalled rollover prone Lexus GX 460. It's important it is the 2010 model here. The automaker will begin updating the stability control software in this luxury SUVs starting at the end of the month. Until then, Toyota is insisting that it is safe to drive but then you should slow down in tight turns. They are also offering loaner cars to owners who want one.
ROBERTS: The thing to be careful of those when you go into the turn, the problem is when you let off the gas quickly and then the weight of the car kind of goes around as the weight goes forward. So slow down slowly going into those curves.
Well, this could be the mother of all overdue book fines. The delinquent borrower, the father of our country, George Washington. Two books that he checked out of a New York library in 1789, one on international law, another on parliamentary debates were never returned. The estimated fine added over 221 years is some $300,000. So if you find those books, don't bring them back. Don't bring them back if you happen to get it.
CHETRY: Yes. It will be for historical context, of course.
Well, tanning, tanning, going to the tanning salon could be as addictive as drinking. At least according to one new study, one in three college students who go to tanning salons may actually be hooked. They can actually have withdrawal symptoms if they don't get their UV high.
ROBERTS: So tell your young folks out there be careful of that.
Is your kid a texting fiend? Speaking of addictive behavior, sending out messages before school, at school, after school, even while sleeping? If it sounds addictive, well, it could very well be. We'll tell you why it worries some doctors coming up.
Twenty-five minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-eight minutes after the hour and checking this morning's top stories. Some flights are finally back in the air after being grounded for five days because of a massive cloud of volcanic ash. But meteorologists warn Iceland's volcano is not finished erupting and that more delays and cancellations will happen. Short- haul flights are still mostly grounded, but flights overseas have finally started leaving JFK here in New York and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
CHETRY: Police in Knoxville, Tennessee, are trying to figure out why a man shot and killed a woman and himself outside of a hospital there. They say the man took a taxi, paid the driver $20, told him to wait for them. The driver says he thought the man looked angry and depressed. Two other women were injured in the shooting.
ROBERTS: And jury selection will start today in the case against the man accused of hacking into Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account during the '08 presidential race. 22-year-old David Cornell, the son of a Democratic state lawmaker, faces felony charges of identity theft and wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.
CHETRY: Well, now, it's time for an "A.M. Original," something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. And if you have a kid, especially a teenager, you know they have it down to a science. We're talking about texting here. For many, it's their social lifeline. That's how they communicate with friends anytime anywhere. And in fact, one study found that 30 percent of teens send 100 texts a day. So are they texting too much? Deb Feyerick joins us now.
I guess the answer is obvious. A hundred text a day.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.
CHETRY: That's a lot.
FEYERICK: When you think about it, also the numbers are staggering because they are stopping and interrupting and texting. They are doing that. So really, one mom told us that texting is like breathing to her teenage daughter. It's completely automatic. It doesn't certainly make it a good thing. There's a big move out to figure out now the potential long-term consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): How fast can your average 15-year-old text a single line? Let's just say faster than someone not in high school.
(on camera): Mine is not even English.
(voice-over): For tenth grader Sara Matzkin on the right, Sarah Marshall in the middle, and April Polubiec, texting may be as important as talking.
(on camera): How many texts do you send and receive every day?
SARA MATZKIN, TEEN TEXTER: Probably around 200.
SARAH MARSHALL, TEEN TEXTER: Definitely a lot. A couple hundred.
APRIL POLUBIEC, TEEN TEXTER: It varies.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Varies study show to the tune of well over 3,000 texts a month for the average teenager. The question now, are teens texting too much?
SARAH MARSHALL, TEEN TEXTER: It's right by my bed when I go to sleep and right by my bed when I wake up. It's the first thing I go to. FEYERICK: Eighty percent of all kids own a cell phone and the rate of texting has skyrocketed 600 percent in three years.
(on camera): But why is it so important for you to know when somebody is trying to reach you?
APRIL POLUBIEC, TEEN TEXTER: You feel like you're missing something, if someone like text me and I missed out on the moment.
FEYERICK: Do you sometimes feel your mood is changing depending on how often you're receiving the texts or the speed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
FEYERICK: Like what? Give me some examples.
SARA MATZKIN, TEEN TEXTER: Well, I mean, if like someone responds right away, yes, they responded. If they responded like two to three hours later, you're like -- what's going on?
FEYERICK (voice-over): Sounds addictive? Could be. Doctors say texting in the instant gratification of getting a text back floods the brains pleasure center with the mood enhancing dopamine.
DR. MICHAEL SEYFFERT, CHILD NEUROLOGIST: Neural imaging studies have shown that those kids who are texting have the area light up the same as an addict using heroin. They will actually describe when I don't have it, I feel bad. I feel anxious or I feel sad.
FEYERICK (on camera): So it's like the new nicotine?
SEYFFERT: That's a good description. Yes, for many it may well be.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Brain doctor Michael Seyffert treats teens with sleeping disorders at this New Jersey Sleep Clinic and has discovered that one out of five of them are interrupting their sleep to text, triggering problems.
SEYFFERT: With the lack of sleep, they are having a problem performing. They are going from honor roll students to, you know, barely passing.
FEYERICK: That's the worst case. These teens on the other hand get good grades and take part in after school activities though texting does sometimes get them in trouble.
(on camera): When was the last time you had your phones taken away?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today.
FEYERICK: Today. OK. So basically within the last 24 hours you each had your phone taken away from you? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Their school like many struggling to contain a growing distraction for students.
TRACEY BAILEY, ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN EDUCATORS: Most administrators will tell you that if it is not the single greatest problem in terms of discipline and school management, it's at least in the top three.
FEYERICK: Despite the potential downsides, these parents say texting has become a necessary evil.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't answer the phone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They will answer a text. They don't do e- mail at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forget about e-mail.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only way to get a hold of them is to text. So I had to actually get text messaging in order to communicate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes they only communicate that way.
FEYERICK: And while the behavior can be addictive, teens like Sara Marshall say they are confident they can quit cold turkey.
MARSHALL: Maybe have withdrawal symptoms, get anxious and like wonder what's going on. But once I realized nothing bad is happening, it's fine without my phone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Now a big part of the problem is with all of the texting, it's taking teens longer to do their homework, backs up sleep time, makes teens more irritable and that impairs judgment, their ability to really make quick choices. So it's really up to parents to set limits, even if it means a collective texting curfew so at least everybody can turn off at the same time.
ROBERTS: So is it just a fear of not being connected and losing touch with their friends? Or?
FEYERICK: It is so much a part of their wiring right now. It's so much a part of this generation but yes, they really feel out of sorts when they just don't have it in their hand. And that's why some people, some of the teens sleep with it on their leg so if it vibrates, for example, they will actually get up in the middle of the night, and respond.
CHETRY: Yes. And what you said was smart. Just now that you almost -- I was thinking what are some of the solutions when I was hearing about your story? You really have to get together with the other parents and make a decision, you know, 9:00, 10:00 is the cutoff, 8:00, whatever it is that everyone is sort of agreeing to do it. So that one child doesn't feel that they are ostracized because they can't text.
FEYERICK: Exactly. We've given these teens devices and yet we haven't set limits. It's almost like a present so the question is, you've got to just at least put them in the frame of mind so that they know that this is not something that they can take for granted.
ROBERTS: How did we ever have a child without the ability to text?
FEYERICK: Yes, I remember going out and reading, like on a hill somewhere. You know, I was totally happy that way.
CHETRY: Are we expecting more from our kids than we expect from ourselves? How many of us can sit in a seminar or at a meeting and we're all looking down at our Blackberrys every second... ding, ding, ding. What's going on?
FEYERICK: Right.
CHETRY: Or iPhones in this case. But you know --
FEYERICK: Think about how much you get a day. You must get -- I get at least 1,000 e-mails a day.
CHETRY: You? Well he has said before the show that more than 10,000 --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Well, I get 10,000 e-mails but I haven't cleaned them up for three days.
FEYERICK: I'm purging at least a couple thousand every week.
CHETRY: I better start doing that but yes, it's a big problem. It's very fascinating. Because we are talking about it again tomorrow. Deb, thanks so much. We're talking about texting too much, talking to teachers about this. Many of them say texting in class is becoming a huge distraction. We're going to find out what some schools are doing about it to make sure the kids don't text in the classroom.
ROBERTS: Back to our top story this morning. This volcano in Iceland is wreaking havoc for so many people on both sides of the Atlantic.
CHETRY: It's hard to understand just how a volcano can cause so much chaos, shutting down air travel across an entire part of the planet for days but the ash is so thick that it can actually block out the sun on a clear day. In fact, Gary Tuchman takes us into the giant black cloudy erupting from inside the earth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the base of the Iceland volcano, the day is cold and very clear. But up the road, a short distance, what looks like a big gray curtain, that very quickly closes on us. There is nothing gradual about it. Visibility drops to near zero as we drive through the volcanoes giant ash plume.
The view out the side window looks like something you might see from a window of a submarine. You can see virtually nothing.
(on camera): Only ten minutes away from here it's sunny. There are almost no clouds in the sky but now it feels like night time. It's literally raining ash. The ash is going into my eyes. It's on the streets. We're south of the volcano. This is the way the wind is blowing. In the western part of Iceland, Reykjavik, the capital where most of the people live, life is completely normal. The winds heading west. But south of the volcano, east of the volcano, the farm owners, the landowners, the people who live here are suffering.
Their properties are getting destroyed because of these ash storms. And we don't know yet how bad the health effects are.
(voice-over): We asked a helicopter pilot, a very good one at that, to get as close to the volcano as he dared. He took us within several hundred feet. It looked like an out of control fireworks show. With bottle rockets going haywire, shooting what looked like rocks but were actually boulders out of the crater. The steam kept changing colors and shapes, (INAUDIBLE) thousands of feet in the air. I asked the pilot his first impression.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This looks like gates of hell.
TUCHMAN: And this is what happens after the ash lands. (INAUDIBLE) is a farmer who is now dealing with a 2,500 acre farm consumed by ash that has turned into muck and mud.
He tells us, this has been in my family for three generations, me, my father and my grandfather. That's why it hurts so much.
His family owned the farm near the volcano for 104 years. The volcano had been quiet for 190 years.
Why would this happen to such a beautiful place? What are we being punished for?
Our visit with (INAUDIBLE) was on Sunday. We thought we would see how he was doing on Monday. But the visibility made it difficult to find his farm because for the second time in three days it was getting pummeled by ash from the eruption up above.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, (INAUDIBLE), Iceland.
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CHETRY: Amazing pictures. That's astounding that he said that Reykjavik, the capital where most people live is virtually, you know, unchanged.
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ROBERTS: He was able to fly in. You know, all of the ashes going that way. He came in the back side. But a lot of that ash turns very, very hard, almost like concrete after it settles down, you know, dries out, and cools down. But over time, it will become very fertile soil on those farms. But in the meantime, dead zone almost.
CHETRY: Absolutely.
All right. Well, Governor Schwarzenegger is asking President Obama to declare one California county a major disaster area. It follows the Easter Sunday earthquake that rocked Mexico. So could the big one be next for Californians? Why they are more nervous than ever and one expert says we should be paying attention. It's 38 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) after the hour and time now for an "A.M. Original." A story that you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking the President to declare Imperial County, California a major disaster. The county suffered $91 million in damage in the Easter Sunday earthquake that rocked nearby Baja. This year it seems earthquakes are striking more frequently than ever, or are we just hearing more about them?
Ted Rowlands tell us even the most the hardened Californians are nervous about what's going on.
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TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John and Kiran, most of us living in California think about the big one. Right now, we are on top of the San Andreas fault. And you actually see the fault. Look at this rock over here. You see the curves, those were formed by the two tectonic plates pushing up against each other for years which creates what they call folding or faulting.
Seismologists say San Andreas here is overdue to create a major earthquake and given the recent earthquakes around the world, a lot of Californians are worried that we maybe next.
(voice-over): Members of the Los Angeles Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue team pulled victims from a collapsed structure after an 8.0 earthquake. This is just a drill but since feeling the recent 7.2 quake in Mexico and seeing devastation from other recent quakes, the 7.0 in Haiti, the 8.8 off the coast of Chile and the 6.9 in China, many Californians think the earth is rumbling more than normal.
And according to the numbers, they are right, sort of. California in Baja, Mexico had had more than 80 earthquakes this year, 4.0 magnitude or higher, more than double the number in all of 2009.
But CalTech seismologist, Dr. Kate Hutton points out that all but a handful of those 80 were aftershocks from the Mexican quake. If you take that into account, she says the numbers are about normal. So what does that mean when it comes to determining whether the big one is imminent?
DR. KATE HUTTON, SEISMOLOGIST: I can't say it's not going to happen. But I don't think it's any different than any other week or month.
The scientists may not think anything is brewing but online the predictions are flying. Luke Thomas who has no formal scientific trending says he uses ground temperatures to predict earthquakes. He told us on his web cam from his home in Florida, that he believes Southern California will be hit with a 5.7 quake or higher in the next few days. Are you hoping for an earthquake, so you're right?
LUKE THOMAS, EARTHQUAKE PREDICTOR: Well, sort of. But I hope it hits where nobody is living.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slowly, slowly.
ROWLANDS: Well, nobody knows for certain when or where is the big one will hit. Seismologists do believe that drills like this one are a good idea. Because experts and laymen do agree on one thing that sooner or later, it is coming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: And again, John and Kiran, if there's a major quake in California, seismologists say this is a prime candidate, the San Andreas hasn't produced a major earthquake in hundreds of years. Of course, for all of us living here, we hope it holds off for a few hundred more. John, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, thanks so much, Ted.
Right now it is 45 minutes past the hour. Rob is going to be along with the morning travel forecast right after the break.
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CHETRY: There you go. Good morning, Atlanta. Fifty-seven degrees right now. A little bit later it's going up to a high of 65, but, unlike New York who's looking at some sun, there's going to be some showers in Atlanta today.
ROBERTS: Love that Billy Currington song. He was up for Song of the Year for another one (ph) at the Country Music Awards.
CHETRY: Yes, he was. I don't know if I'd (ph) remember it offhand.
ROBERTS: He didn't win though, unfortunately. Forty-seven minutes after the hour. Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob's in Atlanta will all of that. Good morning, Rob.
CHETRY: Rob, do you know it? Billy Currington?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Was it "People are Crazy"? Was that -- was it that one?
ROBERTS: "People are Crazy". That's it. Well done. Ten points to Rob.
OK, now...
CHETRY: From Billy Currington to volcanic ash.
ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) for a hundred, Rob.
MARCIANO: And, yes, beer is -- what? God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy. Yes, that's -- that's the main lyric there and an ice cold beer if you live in the U.K. right now, waiting for a flight, that would be nice, although they drink it a little bit warmer over there.
Surface to 20,000 feet, that's where a lot of the ash is right now, and although there's a plume that's heading towards the U.K. above 20,000 feet, the air space is open. So you've got flights that are, you know, traveling to and from Europe, as long as they get up above 20,000 feet, they can fly over the U.K. and we're seeing some of that.
Some of this ash is also getting towards the -- the northeast. As a matter of fact, the latest advisory brings a little bit of it towards Maine, but -- all but very, very briefly, and we don't expect any sort of long-term effects with that.
Across the northeast today, we are seeing some chilly temperatures. There are frost advisories out -- outside of the bigger cities, temperatures in the 30s and 40s. Down in the south, there are showers in Nashville, country music capital of the world, and some showers heading across Atlanta as well. These will probably intensify as the day rolls along, maybe some embedded thunderstorms at time.
Plus, rain today across parts of Florida, and that certainly is good news. They're trying to land a bird called the space shuttle, so we've got planes trying to take off in Europe, we've got one big one trying to land from orbit in Florida. Not a lot of showers around but just enough and -- and also some low visibility has -- has prompted them to delay that first attempt.
They'll try it again maybe (INAUDIBLE) in about 30 minutes. If they can't land at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:08, they may have to go out towards -- towards California. Tomorrow, some breezy conditions out -- expected out the west, and hopefully we'll get this on the ground today.
Talk more about the ash plume and whatever Billy Currington song you want to sing later in the hour. Guys, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Did -- did you watch the awards on Sunday night, Rob?
MARCIANO: I didn't get to -- I didn't know they were on. I was a bad, bad country music fan on my part, but do like that one song.
ROBERTS: There -- but there's this new woman I've never heard of before, Bundy is her last name. She's like the Madonna of country music.
CHETRY: She had the tattoo --
MARCIANO: I'll ask around the Newsroom. I think --
CHETRY: -- the tattoos on. But it was Taylor Swift. Taylor -- no, it was Carrie Underwood. Carrie Underwood was Entertainer of the Year for the second year in a row.
I know you like her, Rob.
MARCIANO: She -- she's great.
ROBERTS: Wow. From nowhere to everywhere in a heartbeat.
All right --
CHETRY: That's "American Idol" for you.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right. See you guys.
ROBERTS: This morning's top stories just minutes away, including the great wait continues. Close to 7 million travelers already stuck. Another volcanic cloud on the way. Will there be any relief today?
We're watching the skies for you.
CHETRY: And at 15 minutes past the hour, Green Day takes on Broadway. They reestablish punk in the '90s. They got political in the 2000s and John Roberts got a chance to go sneak backstage.
Get a chance to check out their new musical.
ROBERTS: Yes, and it's great too.
At half past the hour, they're even texting in their sleep. Teens glued to their cellphones. Is it like a drug to them? And whether it's having a similar effect on them as drugs?
Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
CHETRY: Were you talking about Laura Bell Bundy?
ROBERTS: Laura Bell Bundy.
CHETRY: There you go. The Madonna of country.
ROBERTS: Oh, she was amazing.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Fifty- four minutes past the hour. Time for an "A.M. House Call," stories about your health.
And there are some similarities between a particular pack of tobacco product and candy.
ROBERTS: Harvard researchers are warning parents that their kids can get nicotine poisoning from these candy-like tobacco products.
Our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is live at Atlanta for us this morning. Good morning, Doc. What's this all about?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is generating quite a bit of buzz, a little bit of controversy as well, a product by R.J. Reynolds, Camel products that -- that are exactly what you described.
They are nicotine products that don't look like cigarettes. They look much more like candy. Camel Orbs they're called, Camel Sticks, Camel Strips, all sorts of different packaging, as you can see there.
As Kiran just pointed out, they -- they do look quite a bit like candy, and that's part of the -- the controversy here. They -- they have these little -- you know, the Orbs, for example, have little -- little Tic Tac looking things in them that, if you eat one, it basically gives you the same amount of nicotine as one cigarette.
Now, the makers of this say it's not designed as a smoking cessation device but just to give you a little bit of kick if you're having a nicotine craving, for example. The concern is they could be confused by kids, especially kids between one and four years old.
You know, if a kid were to eat something like this, just one, they'd probably get a little nauseated. They might throw up. They wouldn't feel well. But if they eat up to 10 of these, it could be potentially lethal, and that's really what this controversy is all about.
You know, that's exactly what the critics are saying. We took some of those concerns to the makers yesterday of these particular products and said what about it? I mean, is -- is this potentially a problem, marketing nicotine -- making nicotine to look like this, and they'll say, first of all, you know, we put these things in childproof packaging, so it's very hard to open for a child if they were going through their mom's purse, for example.
And also, they say, as far as accidental poisonings go, there are other things like household cosmetics, household drugs that are much more commonly -- sort of you get an accidental poisoning from those things.
And, finally, they -- they say they weren't marketing these things to kids. That's not what this was intended for. It was intended for adults.
So that -- that's sort of the -- the outline here, but it's interesting because I've gotten so many e-mails about this particular thing just over the last couple of days.
ROBERTS: I'll bet. You know, if you think about two teens, you know, kids who just might start smoking and could they get access to this and could that help fuel a nicotine addiction which then would lead to -- to cigarettes as well.
So a lot of things top consider.
Doc, thanks so much for that. Good to see you this morning.
It's now 56-and-a-half minutes after the hour. Top stories coming your way in just about two minutes' time. Stay with us.
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