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American Morning
Flights Start to Resume Over Europe; President Sounding out Possible Supreme Court; Brotherly Love Story: Craig Robinson on Life with Michelle Obama; Women Still Earn Less Than Men; Teacher Vs. Texting
Aired April 21, 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: Good Wednesday morning to you. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. It is April 21st. 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, planes are taking off and landing again at London's Heathrow Airport. Volcanic ash from Iceland beginning to clear now at the higher altitudes. Much of the airspace over Europe has been reopened, but thousands of travelers remain stranded, many businesses still taking a beating because they can't get their goods, and one very predictable volcano is still rumbling this morning.
CHETRY: Cleaning up Wall Street. Republicans and Democrats are trying to hammer out a deal to prevent another economic meltdown. Will new regulations have an impact on the way Wall Street does business? We'll talk to the man once called the "Sheriff of Wall Street," Eliot Spitzer.
ROBERTS: Desk drawers full of confiscated cell phones at school, kids who can't stop texting in class, teachers who have given up trying to stop them. It's our "A.M." original series "Texting too Much."
And of course, join the conversation on this story at CNN.com/amfix. We'll read some of your comments throughout the morning.
CHETRY: Airports in Europe and much the airspace above them are opening again. These are pictures of London's Heathrow airport. There you see flights landing, travelers finally arriving after six days of paralyzed traffic. Ash from the volcano in Iceland slowly beginning to dissipate at the higher altitudes.
ROBERTS: A huge plume of ash is still blanketing much of Europe. Here's the latest map of where the ash plume is this morning. The good news in all of this, the skies are clearing above the 18,000 foot level, which is allowing planes to fly over that dark, dusty cloud.
CHETRY: Still 100,000 flights have been canceled since last week. The radar shows here shows all of the planes in the air over Europe this morning. Trans-Atlantic flights are also resuming, albeit slowly. Sasha Herriman has the latest.
SASHA HERRIMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Kiran. I'm here at Heathrow Airport. I wouldn't quite say things are busy or getting back to normal, because there still are a huge number of flights. In fact, there have only been around 30 departures from Heathrow today, so not a huge number when there are usually few every few minutes.
Between the hours of 1:00 and 7:00 this morning, there were 130 flights in total over U.K. airspace. That does paint the picture for you. But airspace is open and the airports are open. All long-haul and short-haul flights are a possibility here in the U.K.
As far as the European picture goes, they are saying as far as European air traffic controllers go that 21,000 flights should be going today. Bear in mind usually there are 28,000 flights over European skies normally. That's basically around 75 percent of the normal air traffic, so 75 percent are actually OK.
Now today 100,000 flights will have been canceled since last week. That gives you an indication about the backlog of flights still to clear here in Europe.
Flights above 20,000 feet, those are OK. Below 20,000 feet, some of those are not OK. There are still some restrictions in some places. It all depends what the weather does, where that cloud of ash actually moves. Suggestions are that by Friday it could be back this way again. It could be a different story at the end of the week.
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right, Sasha, thanks so much.
The Supreme Court battle begins today at a time when the two parties can't seem to get together on anything. President Obama will begin bouncing Supreme Court picks off of both sides this morning to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
According to a CNN Corporation/Research Opinion Poll, people are not expecting any surprises. One in four people said they want the president's pick to be liberal, 61 percent still expect the president to nominate someone from the left. Just 21 percent think he'll pick a moderate.
Ed Henry is live at the White House this morning with the latest on where this process is and where it's headed. Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Republican senators have already said they are leaving the door open to a filibuster of the president's eventual pick if it's too far to the left in their eyes. That would be a really rate step but gives you an idea how poisonous the process could be.
That's why this meeting this morning here at the White House is so critical for the president to get the leaders of both parties together and defuse that tension. But also we are reaching a critical stage where the process is starting to intensify. CNN has learned the president has started placing phone calls to some of the prospective nominees. It shows he's moving closer to this pick.
And that's why these lawmakers in both parties will be deciding on this eventual confirmation battle want some more information, because frankly they haven't heard too much on what the president is thinking here, other than what he said a couple of weeks ago in the Rose Garden on the very day Justice Stevens said he was stepping down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: While we cannot replace Justice Stevens' experience or wisdom, I will seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities, an independent mind, a record of excellence and integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law, and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people.
It will be someone who, like Justice Stevens, knows that in democracy, powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Who might fill that bill? There's sort of a short list. At the top of that list are really three names that White House insiders have been really been pointing towards. First of all, the solicitor general Elena Kagan, we've heard a lot about her, Diane Wood, whose name popped up last time there was a Supreme Court choice, and Merrick Garland, another appeals court judge as well.
All of these names getting a lot of attention. I can tell you Democrats outside this White House and very close to the president have been telling me to keep a closest eye on Elena Kagan, somebody a lot of people inside the White House are high on her. That doesn't mean she'll get it, but they're high on her here, John
ROBERTS: And we'll watch this process very closely over the next days and weeks. Ed Henry for us this morning at the White House. Ed, thanks.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, some bloggers are calling into question the White House's promise of transparency after police blocked reporters trying to cover a demonstration against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Here's a look at what went down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us do our job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back off! Closed!
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: The six protesters including Lt. Dan Choi, whose been on our show many times, were taken away by police.
ROBERTS: That's really weird. That's something we don't see very often, park police keeping you back across the street. There are certain rules -- you can't set up tripods and things like that, but that's an unusual one.
There was a haze over downtown Denver as thousands of marijuana smokers packed the civic center park to light up. For years supporters of legalizing marijuana have gathered every April 20th to push their agenda. Colorado is one of 14 states where medical marijuana is legal.
CHETRY: And check this one out, video of a tornado at sunset touching down a rural area 20 miles west of Amarillo, Texas. No one was hurt and no reports of any damage or injuries from the twister. But look at that ominous cloud touching down there and moving through town.
(WEATHER BREAK)
CHETRY: Coming up in just a couple of minutes, a brotherly love story. First Lady Michelle Obama's big brother Craig Robinson has written a memoir. I had a chance to sit down with him yesterday and talk about what their life was like growing up. You'll also hear about the family's first impression of the future president.
ROBERTS: It's 25 minutes after the hour. Teens and texting -- teachers now saying if you can't beat them, join them. They're giving cell phones to kids for class. But could that backfire?
CHETRY: Also, at 7:53, the government considering setting limits on salt. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us which products regulators are targeting, and it could be some of your favorites.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's now 11 minutes past the hour.
He's first lady Michelle Obama's big brother and a big man on campus at Oregon State University where he's the head coach of the men's basketball team. Craig Robinson also had the honor of introducing his sister at the 2008 Democratic Convention.
Now he's written a memoir called "A Game of Character." I had a chance to sit down with him, and he began by telling me how his father inspired him to write it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CRAIG ROBINSON, AUTHOR, "A GAME OF CHARACTER": I thought to myself after he died, I have to start chronicling these things for our family. And as I went through life and had more and more experiences, I tried to think about what makes people memorable like my father.
And "A Game of Character" is really a love story to my parents, whose lessons resonate with people on the ball field, on the court, in the boardroom, or at the dinner table.
CHETRY: A couple of reviews of your books said if you're looking for a biography that has dirt on family members, you won't find it here. But you did have to actually talk to Michelle about it, right and ask whether or not she was OK, and by extension the president and White House OK with you writing this book?
ROBINSON: I'm sure I could have done it without talking to them, but I would never have done that. So I wanted to clear it with both Michelle and Barack and my mom. And if those three hadn't signed off on it, I would have never turned it in.
CHETRY: A couple of funny things, one of anecdotes you talk about when your parents were first introduced to Barack Obama. They're like, he looks like, seems like a nice guy, but she's going to chew him up and spit him out. What was the first impression of what was soon to be your future brother-in-law?
ROBINSON: The first impression were that, and with my sister being tall, the first impressions, wow, he's taller than she is, she'll like that.
And then when we met him, he was a very nice, engaging, funny young man. And I think that what my dad was saying was that my sister never really had any real long-term relationships, so we just thought this was another guy she would date for a little while and it will be over. And it didn't turn out that way.
CHETRY: It's also interesting because you talk a little bit about the decision your mother made to actually move to the White House. What was that like for your family dynamic as she was mulling that decision?
ROBINSON: Well, we're a very open family and try to use each other to help each other. When my sister was moving to the White House and she wanted my mom to come with, she asked me if I would talk to her.
And I can understand my mom not wanting to do it. She's a very hands-on in-law. But I tried to explain how she would be helping Michelle by doing this and that no one would view her as this sort of pushy in-law. I kind of convinced her it was her idea to do it.
CHETRY: She had an out. She said, I'll give it a try, do it temporarily.
ROBINSON: And let's keep it straight. It's still a temporary situation. She can always leave.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: And since then, of course, we've seen some very partisan rancor going on and we've seen that there's been a lot of disappoint and anger because of the bad economic times that, you know, happened before Barack Obama was president but continue now, unemployment, other problems. But do you think that some of the rhetoric has gotten a little bit out of control in terms of criticism of the White House?
ROBINSON: You know, it's really -- I'm partisan, you know, those are family members for me. But you know, I don't think anything is surprising and I think when you think about handling situations and handling adversity, which gets talked about in the "Game of Character," you know, you can't be too high and you can't be too low. And you can't take a job and have thin skin. And that includes and with all due respect, political offices.
CHETRY: Do you think that there's any element of race involved in some of these protests that we've seen and some of the anger, some of the opposition in the administration?
ROBINSON: I'd like to think not. You know, I tell a few stories in the book about dealing with racism and it comes from both sides. I think it's hard nowadays to be race-based. It's hard to take that position. I mean, it really looks like you're, you know, in the dark ages.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: And we're going to talk to him a little bit more about how he inspired both by his parents' rules. I mean, do you remember when Michelle Obama said that she doesn't let her kids use the computers, phones.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: No television during the week. He said those same rules apply. Well, obviously, considering cell phones back then but one hour of TV, and that was it.
ROBERTS: My mom had no problem enforcing the no cell phone rule with me.
CHETRY: Right. Exactly. Me either.
ROBERTS: Now, what about -- are you going to play basketball with him?
CHETRY: Yes. We are going to -- he is a renowned coach. He was -- you know, he played at Princeton and he coached at Princeton. And, I mean, actually he coached at Brown and now he's at Oregon State. He's great. And one tip from him, honestly, one tip and the next shot -- OK, that was the bad one. And then he gave me one tip and boom.
ROBERTS: It's too bad you didn't have that five years ago at high school. It could have changed your life.
CHETRY: Exactly. Be on the Olympic team by now.
Anyway, we're going to be hearing more about what his life has been like and how all of it went. And it was so interesting when he said to me that for all of Michelle Obama's life, she's known as Craig Robinson's little sister and now, he goes, now I'm known as Michelle Obama's older brother.
ROBERTS: The tables have turned.
CHETRY: Exactly. So we're going to have more on that in about an hour.
Also, you can read an excerpt from Craig's book, "A Game of Character." It's on our Web site. CNN.com/amFIX.
Seventeen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. I guess you can't even guess what we're talking about this morning.
007 may have a hard time surviving in its latest adventure. The 23rd James Bond film has been postponed -- hold on, I can't speak. Have mercy. Sorry. Because of fears that distributor MGM studios is broke and actually may be sold. But the Bond series is the longest running film franchise in history. The last few films starring Daniel Craig sold more than a billion dollars in tickets worldwide.
ROBERTS: So who was the best Bond? We conducted a highly scientific poll this morning. We asked around the newsroom. And there was a tie for first.
CHETRY: That's right. This one is surprising a little actually. Sean Connery and newcomer Daniel Craig both getting 36 percent of the vote. Stephanie's favorite, Pierce Brosnan follows 15 percent. Roger Moore hot on his heels. No love, though, for Timothy Dalton or the other guy -- who? The other guy, George?
ROBERTS: George Lazenby?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: One Bond film. Me, Connery.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Connery. You have to go with Connery. You totally have to go with Connery.
CHETRY: I picked Daniel Craig. I'm sorry. And it was about seeing the show.
ELAM: Sean Connery is an acrobat. We have to go to Pierce Brosnan. Showing back the love, the "Remington Steele" days. You know, that's a big deal.
ROBERTS: I like Pierce, but I also like Daniel Craig. I think he's a very good Bond. I really do.
CHETRY: I do, too. ROBERTS: Yes.
ELAM: I can make my book and talk sense.
ROBERTS: I like him for different reasons.
CHETRY: However.
ELAM: Yes, same as Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, hey, you know what, next time we'll do your favorite Bond girls. How about that? We'll keep it fair.
ROBERTS: Good one. Halle is my favorite.
ELAM: He already knows the answer.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it is the new passing a note, I guess you could say, texting in class. And really it's becoming a -- how would you put it? You know what, let's bring in Stephanie right now.
ROBERTS: Let's bring in Stephanie Elam.
ELAM: I talked about that thing.
ROBERTS: You talked about it yesterday.
CHETRY: But you actually talked about the gender gap.
ELAM: Yes.
ROBERTS: Yesterday, it was a couple of days it was National Weed Day.
ELAM: Why do you know that?
ROBERTS: On 4/20. Because somebody sent me a note to say it's National Weed Day.
ELAM: OK.
ROBERTS: It was also National Equal Pay Day.
ELAM: Yes, it was equal pay day. And you know what, you're the one who gets to talk to me, but really, you're like the bad guy in the bunch here right now. Because it turns out that men are still making more money than women. Is that a surprise? I don't know if it is.
ROBERTS: Like I have anything to do with it?
CHETRY: It's all your fault, John.
ELAM: OK. Today, I'll let you off. You're right.
ROBERTS: Blame, blame, blame Canada. ELAM: All right. But you're right. But you're right. We can (INAUDIBLE) -- but the issue here is really that the gender gap has narrowed. I can tell you that. So we've seen some improvement here.
Now, there's some numbers from the Labor Department show that in the first quarter men earned -- this is the median number here -- $844 a week. Women earned 79 percent of that. So they earned $665. But this is an improvement because in the first quarter of 2000, women made about 76 percent of men's income.
Now the education gap has narrowed. We know more women going to school. More women are out in the workforce, so that's helping to narrow this gap here. But, the recession also played a part because more men were adversely affected by it than women were. A lot of the jobs that they were in really, really took a hit, like construction, for example. That's just one that we know throughout the recession has been bad.
Some say that this is an issue of sexism. Others say that because women tend to be the ones that stay at home and take care of their family, their time away from the workforce sets them back a few years and so because of that they're behind on the pay scale. We can argue multiple sides of that.
But listen to this. For every $1 that men make, take a look how it breaks down here. Hispanic women earn 60 cents. Black women earn 69 cents. White women earn 80 cents. And Asian women get the closest, earning 90 cents there.
And then take a look at some of the top-paying jobs for women. You have a CEO weekly play, $1,500 there. That's 75 percent of what men would make in that same wall. Pharmacist, you see the same thing. That's 76 percent. Lawyer, the closest really being the I.T. manager coming in at 79 percent of men's salaries there.
CHETRY: Wow.
ELAM: So still some ground to be made up here as far as equality and what men and women are getting paid. Of course, it's a very hard thing to get any transparency on because who goes around comparing like we're in the same job. Let's see your paycheck and let's see your pay stub. It doesn't really happen that way. So it's a little bit harder to clear up.
CHETRY: Yes. But you have still some work to do.
ELAM: Yes. We do.
ROBERTS: Stephanie, thanks so much. Stephanie Elam "Minding Your Business" this morning.
And it's 24 minutes after the hour. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. A bill to ban cyber bullying is now moving through the Louisiana legislature. It would make it a crime to intimidate or harass anyone under the age of 17, by text message, e-mail or posts on social networking sites. The bill came in response to some extreme cases of cyber bullying, some in which students have ended up killing themselves. Of course, that famous Massachusetts case that we've been talking about.
CHETRY: Right. And I mean, that's the extreme. But still whether it's mean, it's friendly or flirty, teens are texting more and more. They're actually texting more than they e-mail or even speak to each other on the phone.
ROBERTS: Yes. It can be a real problem for teachers when they're trying to teach kids how to write without using numbers as shorthand.
Deb Feyerick is here with her original a.m. series "Texting Too Much." Good morning to you, Deb.
CHETRY: OMG is not a word, right?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not but we use it all the time, don't we?
Well, you know, when it comes to school discipline, teachers with cell phones is one of the top three discipline problems. Eighty percent of all kids have the cell phones and schools everywhere are wrestling with what some are calling an education crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Seventh grader Cayleb Coyne has texting in class down to a science.
CAYLEB COYNE, 7TH GRADE STUDENT: Open it up, put the phone in there and act like I'm looking for something and send a text message.
FEYERICK: Hallways are also good.
COYNE: It's harder when you go on hallways.
FEYERICK: Because you're moving?
COYNE: Yes.
FEYERICK: You're like a shark. Always moving.
COYNE: Yes.
FEYERICK: Coyne says his cell phone has been confiscated six times in six months. And he's not the only one despite constant reminders from his principal at Haverstraw Middle School.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your cell phones are supposed to be where? Yes, in your locker, not in class.
FEYERICK: But class is exactly where they end up. According to the Pew Research Center, even in schools that ban cell phone use, nearly 60 percent of all students admit texting during class, a growing problem in schools across the country.
ROBIN NOVELLI, PRINCIPAL, BAYSIDE HIGH SCHOOL: Why are you so addicted to this technology?
FEYERICK: At Bayside High School in Florida, students risk being suspended if their phone is confiscated more than once. So for this year, 200 kids have had their phones taken away.
NOVELLI: Students need to be fully 100 percent authentically engaged in the classroom and pulling out a cell phone and texting their friends about whatever it is they might be talking about is not the learning environment that I, the principal, want to promote.
FEYERICK: And despite that zero tolerance policy --
NOVELLI: We still daily collect cell phones from students that have them out when they're supposed to be learning in the classroom.
DR. MICHAEL RICH, DIR., CENTER ON MEDIA AND CHILD HEALTH: I don't think we're going to stop the tsunami.
FEYERICK: But pediatrician and media expert Michael Rich says the reality is kids use more than seven hours of media a day. Depriving them of it could back fire.
RICH: Pandora boxes open here. The technologies are here. What we need to do is take control of them instead of letting them control us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The cell phones are here.
FEYERICK: At Haverstraw Middle School --
RONALD ROYSTER, 5TH GRADE TEACHER: All right, guys, turn on your MODs (ph) again, please.
FEYERICK: Teachers like Ronald Royster have decided, if you can't beat them, join them.
ROYSTER: It's not really a phone, it's their computer for class.
FEYERICK: The school handed out 75 cell phones to fifth graders as part of a unique pilot program.
ROYSTER: Click on (INAUDIBLE)
FEYERICK: Texting and calling features are disabled and Internet sites are filtered. Phones are used for things like note taking and research.
For 11-year-olds Kiara, Ryan and Naya, learning is different now.
FEYERICK: When did you make a movie? Did you make a movie during homeroom?
RYAN GUZINSKI, 5TH GRADE STUDENT: No, this is actually in math. It was about decimals. And you can synch it, which means the teachers will get it and they can grade you.
FEYERICK (on camera): So it really is helping reinforce the lessons?
GUZINSKI: Yes, because we're, like, we're memorizing things so much it's easier.
NAYA RIVERA, 5TH GRADE STUDENT: It's almost like you want to look at the screen. It's almost like a mini TV, where you like, you want to look at it. You don't want to look at a piece of paper.
FEYERICK: The district superintendent says dollar for dollar buying phones is more efficient than new computers.
(on camera): There are some educators who say they should not be in school. What is your response to them?
ILEANA ECKERT, SUPERINTENDENT, HAVERSTRAW STONY POINT CENTRAL SCHOOL DIST.: I think we're in the middle of a new revolution. It's part of who they are today and why not use something in a positive way that they are bringing with them.
FEYERICK: As for these fifth graders --
RIVER: I actually started texting less when I had this. Now that I have this, it's kind of more fun to go on the internet on this and experiment with it while I'm home instead of sitting there texting all day, like doing nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like, bye phone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: So very positive way to use the cell phone. The goal at Haverstraw Middle School is to one day use the student's own cell phones, turn those into classroom learning devices. And this is a very different approach than schools charging students to retrieve confiscated phones. So it's really a shift as schools figure out how do we use it.
CHETRY: But as you said, you think the kids are just wired differently these days?
FEYERICK: Absolutely. They are wired differently. They are taking loads more information than we ever had to take and they're able to sort of multitask. Like when a little message pops up on the screen, an IM, an instant message. It drives me crazy. Because I'm working -- I'm in the middle of working. For them, second nature.
ROBERTS: So, in other words, don't call Deb.
FEYERICK: Do not IM me. Exactly, right. ROBERTS: Thanks, Deb.
FEYERICK: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, we're crossing the half hour right now. Time to look at the top stories, more and more planes slowly but surely getting back up into the skies across Europe. Officials say that they expect only half of Europe's usual number of flights in the air today and it could be weeks before every stranded passenger is back home. European Air officials estimate that the massive cloud of ash from Iceland is costing the industry $1.7 billion so far.
ROBERTS: The parents who pleaded guilty in the balloon boy hoax have agreed to pay $36,000 to authorities who responded to their 911 call. The local sheriffs office and other agencies were originally $48,000. Richard Heene was sentenced to 90 days in jail for the publicity stunt and his wife, she got 20 days.
CHETRY: And the buzz on the blog already strong over Apple's next iPhone. The tech giant's stock hitting an all-time high in after hours trading, mostly because of strong sales of the current iPhone. The stock rose to $257 a share after Apple announced its earnings of 90 percent. Analysts say that's mostly because of expanding markets in places like Japan, Europe and Australia.
ROBERTS: It's been 18 months now since the U.S. economy teetered on the brink of collapse, and since then little has been done to reign in the guys on Wall Street, the guys who caused the meltdown in the first place.
CHETRY: This morning though, there are new developments in the fight over financial reform. Senate Republicans who had been threatening to filibuster are back at the negotiating table. So could the possibility of a bipartisan bill have a real impact on the way Wall Street does business?
Joining us now, a man once known as the sheriff of Wall Street, former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer. Thanks for being with us.
ELLIOT SPITZER, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: A pleasure. Good morning.
CHETRY: Elliot, I want to ask you about this. Because when you were attorney general, at some point you sounded the alarm about some of AIG'S risk taking --
SPITZER: Right.
CHETRY: People blew it off, and said, you know what, they're fine. Who are you to talk to -- it's the biggest most successful insurance company. Now as Congress looks to pass this reform on Wall Street, what do you think needs to be included in this legislation to help avoid another meltdown?
SPITZER: Well, the single piece that is not there that must be there, in my view, is how we address too big to fail. Those too big to fail institutions when they crumble require such a huge infusion of taxpayer dollars or else the entire economy implodes, and we have been resuscitating them and yet rebuilding the same structure, putting ourselves at risk for the same type of collapse down the road.
Too big to fail is still embedded in our system. Too big to fail is, in my view, too big not to fail. There's a growing movement to take these institutions apart and make them into smaller institutions that do not pose the same sort of structural threat to our economy.
ROBERTS: Now, Senator Chris Dodd says that the bill does address too big to fail. It eliminates too big to fail. Austen Goolsbee, one of the president's economic adviser who was here yesterday saying the bill certainly address too big to fail. Does it?
SPITZER: Not so much.
ROBERTS: OK. Why?
SPITZER: No. Because what they are talking about is giving regulators the opportunity if they choose to do so to increase capital requirement and decrease leverage. No obligation to do so and the same institutions whether it's Citibank, AIG, Goldman Sachs, all of these institutions would still be playing on every platform doing all the sorts of high risk endeavors with an explicit federal guarantee behind them, which induces them to take on the risk that creates the crisis in the first place --
ROBERTS: What's the explicit federal guarantee?
SPITZER: Right now, the federal government said we will not let these institutions fail, which means that when they go to the market to borrow, we are subsidizing their debt. So they're still in asymmetry between the risk and the return. If they fail, we pick up the tab. If they win, they get the upside. As long as I'm betting with somebody else's money, I will put more risk on the book than I should and we have a structure that will fail.
CHETRY: So how do you balance that with, you know, the free market? People who say, you know what, you have to let these companies do what they're going to do.
SPITZER: It's very easy. Break them up.
CHETRY: That's interjecting government --
SPITZER: No, no, no. That's ensuring competition. I believe this is a point where the "Wall Street Journal" editorial page and I agree, hasn't happened more than once in a century, we agree these institutions are too big. They are monopolies and they are living off the taxpayer. That is why they do what they do. If we break them up, you would see the Goldmans and the Citibanks not doing and investing in the high risk propositions they did. We wouldn't need to bail them out and then see your tax dollars go out the other side (INAUDIBLE) That is what's been happening?
ROBERTS: In late 2008, right, in the height of the economic meltdown, you wrote an op-ed in which you called the financial regulatory structure more or less a Ruth (ph) Goldberg machine. There is some streamlining in this bill. Does it go far enough?
SPITZER: Well, it's good. It's always better to have a logical system where there's structure, where people, know who's regulating whom and you don't have a regulatory arbitrage. What I've also said is that it matters much more who is in charge than where the boxes are in the flow chart. The regulators had the power over the last decade, they chose not to use it. There were some who tried, some of us who are out there aggressively and we got beaten back pretty aggressively.
But those who are in charge over the last decade, from Alan Greenspan to Tim Geithner, to Larry Summers utterly failed. And I think that's what we got to come to grips with. They did not use the power. They were wrong. President Clinton, the other day, said the advice he was given by Bob Rubin and Larry Summers devastatingly wrong on the issue of derivatives, and that was only one of many areas where they fundamentally led us astray towards a libertarian world view that has destroy our economy.
CHETRY: Well, you speak about derivatives right now. One of the things that Austen Goolsbee, as we said we talked to yesterday, the White House chief economist said that would happen, that maybe would have prevented the Goldman Sachs situation, where right now they're facing fraud allegations by the SEC, could have been prevented if those complex financial instruments, the derivatives that you hear a lot about were actually forced onto an open exchange. Do you agree with that element?
SPITZER: Well, it's certainly better to have the derivatives traded on that exchange. I think there's a more existential question is why do we have them in the first place. What Wall Street has done is to create these unbelievably complicated instruments, that are really nothing more than casino opportunities for big business and very sophisticated investors. That money should be forced into the pipeline that gets to businesses, that create jobs. Instead it's cycling through a casino-type mentality that does nothing for our economy.
ROBERTS: One of the question because you're in the news a little bit today, an article in the "Albany Times Union," going back to when you were governor, that you asked to take your name and the account number off of $5,000 payment to QAT Consulting, that was what triggered the suspicious activity report that unwound everything that was going on. Now, asking for that would have been a violation of federal law, the Code of Regulations. Were you aware at the time that former attorney general, governor of the state that would have been a violation of law?
SPITZER: (INAUDIBLE) the answer is no. It is the proper thing to do and I was told it was and that's apparently not --
ROBERTS: All right.
SPITZER: Right.
ROBERTS: Former Governor Eliot Spitzer, good to talk to you this morning.
SPITZER: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Thanks for coming in.
Should the creators of "South Park" fear for their lives. A new episode of the show pokes fun at the Muslim prophet, Mohammed. One group says they'll probably end up dead. That story coming up next. 38 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. For years, "South Park" has made fun of things usually too controversial to target, in particular, religion. Jews, Catholics, Mormons, scientologists, Hindus, Buddhists, no one is safe. In last week's episode though the world's biggest religious figures came together, including the Muslim prophet Mohammed, and to poke fun at censorship guidelines against showing him.
First Mohammed was kept inside of a moving truck and then he wore a bear costume. Now one radical Muslim group has responded warning the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that they will probably end up dead. Does that go too far or is there a threat that's protected by free speech?
Drew Griffin with our special investigation unit is digging deeper on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): Revolution Muslim says despite their provocative posting, complete with a photo of a murder victim, the group says it's only issuing a call to protest, not violence. Contacted by CNN, the creator of the posting said revolution Muslim only wants those offended to be able to voice their opposition by letters to the show's creators.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Certainly the comment on this Web site is very ugly, but it is certainly not specific enough to get anyone arrested at this point.
YOUNES ABDULLAH MOHAMMED, REVOLUTION MUSLIN: Hi, Drew. How are you?
GRIFFIN: Last year, CNN interviewed one of the founders of this radical Muslim group on the streets of New York. (INAUDIBLE) choose his words carefully, telling us he saw nothing wrong with Americans dying in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
MOHAMMED: I don't think it was wrong. I think it was justified.
GRIFFIN: And then adding he does not encourage any violence on U.S. soil. It's a word game, federal officials tell us that allows revolution Muslim to post support of terrorists, like the alleged Ft. Hood, Texas shooter. The web site itself is protected under free speech laws of the United States. Younes Mohammed told us he doesn't see anything wrong with his messages and dislikes the United States, he yearns for a Muslim world.
MOHAMMED: We're commanded to terrorize the disbelievers and this is a religion --
GRIFFIN (on camera): You're commanded to terrorize --
(CROSSTALK)
MOHAMMED: In the Koran, it's very clearly in Arabic language, (INAUDIBLE) this means terrorize them. It's a command from Allah.
GRIFFIN: So you're commanded to terrorize anybody who doesn't believe.
MOHAMMED: You define terrorism as going and killing an innocent civilian. That's what you -- I define terrorism as making them fearful so that they think twice before they go rape your mother or kill your brother or go on to your land and try to steal your resources.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The clip on the site ends with a warning on a graphic directed at Parker and Stone, that the dust will never settle down.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. Well, you know, we had a lot of comments about this story this morning. "A.M. Fix" blog, up and running and a lot of people are weighing in on this. Steven from Palm City, Florida writes in, "thanks for featuring Mohammed from New York, Americans need to know that these individuals all over this country are promoting terror and tradition and they aren't just foreign terrorists, they're our neighbors and people we grew up with.
Rosanna, actually is a Muslim female from Canada who said that she is tired of people using here faith as a scapegoat to kill, to justify their own evil. She says she was taught that it was a religion of peace.
ROBERTS: Emmanuel (ph) writes, say "I think free speech means "South Park" can show whatever they want. One extremist Muslim group can make a death threat. And everything is even as long as nobody actually gets killed, every one has expressed themselves.
So join us this morning in the conversation here on our blog. Go to our blog at cnn.com/amfix. And we'll read some more of your comments throughout the morning.
CHETRY: All right. And meanwhile, it's 44 minutes past the hour. Right now, Rob's going to be along with the travel forecast right after the break and will also give us an update on what's going on with the ash from the volcano in Iceland. It's 45 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Lovely song about Georgia this morning, but you're looking at that picture and all you can see is -- yuck. That's pretty -- that's some pretty horrible weather going on there in Atlanta. Fog, 55 degrees right now.
However, it is going to burn off and you can get your chicken fried right there.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: Because it will be 74 degrees and sunny today. Great day for a barbecue.
CHETRY: There you go. Oh, good.
All right, let's check in with Rob Marciano who's keeping an eye on the headlines. I know you love that song too, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, who doesn't?
CHETRY: I'm driving around in the minivan, you know, the -- got that volume (INAUDIBLE), two car seats in the back. It's hot.
MARCIANO: Oh, yes. Why not? Cold beer on a Friday night, pair of jeans that fit just right. Playing some feel-good country music the past couple of days. Nice work, guys.
Hey, listen, the rain across the southeast welcome (ph) yesterday, knocking down some of that pollen, but you saw in that live picture some low level moisture, so a little bit of fog to work through before we get things cracking. Another (INAUDIBLE) spots that are a little service-oriented (ph) to the mid-Atlantic and severe thunderstorms across the Texas panhandle.
But check out this tornado video coming out of yesterday, Bushland, Texas. No injuries, happy to report that. There's a little bit of -- of damage in the forms of broken windows, power lines and trees down, but that is about it. So we'll take that dramatic video with relatively little consequence.
I think we're going to see more of that maybe today, but I think even more so as we get through Thursday and Friday. If you are doing some travel today, a little bit of wind in Boston, New York metros, some rain in D.C and Philly may slow things down, especially in the afternoon and low clouds here in Atlanta and Denver might lead to some delays at least early on.
Raleigh up to D.C., there's the batch of rain that was in the southeast yesterday. Light to moderate rain at times. Again, for the most part it will be beneficial.
This thing is a big storm. It's got some snow in the Sierras, wind in California, and that energy is going to come into the plains over the next few days and that's when we're going to see the threat for severe weather and more widespread damage. So we'll watch that carefully as we're getting into primetime severe weather season.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much.
OK, so we're talking about chicken fried, cold beer on a Friday night. Well, it's the go-to place to grab that six pack on the way over to a friend's house, and now 7-11 is getting itself in the beer game.
The convenience store chain now has its own beer label, Game Day Beer. Just like Starbucks (INAUDIBLE) during the recession, 7-11 branding their beer as premium brew at a budget price.
You can get Game Day Light or Game Day Ice for anywhere between $7 and $9 for a 12-pack. Wow, that's getting down to Andy (ph) Light territory there.
CHETRY: There you go.
ROBERTS: Game Day Light 3.9 percent alcohol by volume, 110 calories per can. You can also get a 24-ouncer for a buck-fifty. No charge for the paper bag.
CHETRY: I'll just need two straws with that. Thanks.
Well, it's time for an "A.M. House Call" after the break.
ROBERTS: It doesn't work.
CHETRY: Sanjay is here, talking about a new push for the government to limit our salt intake.
It's 50 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 53 minutes past the hour right now.
Government regulators are now keeping a watchful eye on your salt intake. Americans eat more than twice the sodium they need on average and it increases the risk of many serious illnesses.
ROBERTS: Yes, don't think you can overdo it on sodium? Think again. And most of your sodium does not come out of your saltshaker.
Our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta went to the store to expose some of the hidden dangers with salt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to sodium, we simply eat too much, on average about four grams per day as an adult. We really need about half that, about two grams per day.
There's a study that came out that said if you get down to two grams per day, we could potentially save about 150,000 lives a year simply from that one thing.
Frozen foods. They're going to have a lot of sodium in there for lots of different reasons, but mainly because sodium is a good preservative. That's why it's in there.
But also canned foods. You know, a lot of parents, again, like me, will go to canned foods. The problem is you get about 950 grams, almost a gram of sodium just from something like this, far too much for an adult and far too much for most kids as well.
Cereals, also, obviously an important food choice for -- for many homes. Make sure to read those labels again.
One thing about reading labels as well, when you're reading labels, try and find foods or foods like this that have less than five ingredients. That's really going to help.
But when it comes to that sodium again, one thing that we do in our house, we never leave crackers or cookies just sitting on a big box. We'll pour a little bit into a small table, and that's really important to -- to try and find some salt substitutes as well.
We don't leave saltshakers out there. But if you find a substitute like this, no salt, for example, or just some flavorings, you can both cut down on your sodium, increase your potassium and possibly solve a lot of those problems.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: You know, and the interesting thing, too, Sanjay, and we just saw you show us firsthand the severity of just like how big of a problem this can be when it comes to salt in our foods, packed in everything, although there are some low-salt options I've been seeing in some of the canned stuff.
But what specific changes might the FDA be considering right now?
GUPTA: Well, you know, what's sort of driving this is that the, you know, public education campaign over 40 years simply hasn't worked. So the Institute of Medicine, which is a scientific arm, is basically urging the FDA to start creating what they call national averages.
This isn't a ban on salt per se, just regulating both, you know, food products, like some of the ones that I was just showing you, as well as restaurants to come up with what they think is a national average of how much salt people should be getting in any particular day.
So, for example, the can of soup there would have much less sodium than it has now because in combination with other foods throughout the day someone would hit their -- their targeted sodium levels, again, 1,500 milligrams to two grams per -- in any particular day.
Now, you know, I mean, most -- most people -- most of the people we talk to, including obviously people who've done studies on this for some time, think that this is probably a good change. The FDA is going to hear about this some more, nothing's been set in stone, and then make their decision at some point.
The Salt Institute, which -- which exists, we (INAUDIBLE), you know, these are essentially low levels of salt here that we're dealing with. They don't buy into the idea that we're actually getting too much across society in any given day, and if we start doing this, it's going to be essentially like a clinical trial on human society of lowering salt levels without knowing what it's going to do overall to the population.
But, again, the study last month out of Stanford says simply, out of all the things we do, simply cutting sodium down by half could save about 150,000 lives a year in the United States alone.
ROBERTS: You know, Sanjay, it's so easy to say it and so difficult to do because of these two things that we love on our taste buds, it's salty and sweet.
You --you mentioned potassium. Is potassium a viable salt substitute in terms of taste or does it taste a little bit different?
GUPTA: You know, I -- it's funny because it's part of the -- the one when we were doing some of the research on this, I tried some of these as well, and I think you're going to notice a little bit of change in flavor. And that's -- that's a consideration, obviously, and a lot of people bank on that increased flavor to -- to compete against other restaurants for the quality and taste of their food.
CHETRY: Right.
GUPTA: But, you know, when we were talking to the IOM about this, they say they want this to happen in an incremental fashion, stepwise, so you wouldn't see a sudden change in -- in taste, hopefully, they say, right away. But over time, you know, I think that's right.
One thing that's interesting, if you go to Europe and eat French fries, for example, or even a burger, it tastes a little bit different because they already use less salt. The people in Europe, they don't seem to notice. They just sort of have gotten used to it over time.
CHETRY: Yes, your taste buds definitely get used to -- you know, you can handle large amounts of salt and if you get away from it for a while, you don't miss it as much. You get used to it.
ROBERTS: Yes. I love the taste of salt, but it's just -- it's not great if you eat a whole lot of it.
Sanjay --
GUPTA: So help me out here, John. That's right. We'll cut down on the salt together a little bit.
ROBERTS: I'm trying. You know, I use a -- I use a combination of the potassium salt and then a little bit of sodium just to give it that flavor, but try to go more with potassium.
GUPTA: There you go. There you go.
ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay, great to see you this --
GUPTA: Help your muscles, too.
All right. Thanks. You too.
ROBERTS: There you go. Thanks, buddy.
Top stories coming your way in two minutes. Stay with us.
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