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American Morning
Skies Clearing Over Europe; Supreme Battle Begins; Coach 'Em Up; Web of Censorship; Teachers Vs. Texting; Greensburg's Green Comeback; Dr. Gupta's Mailbag
Aired April 21, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Glad you're with us on this Wednesday, April 21st. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
Airports across Europe are reopening and planes are flying again six days after ash from a volcano in Iceland shut everything down. But it could take weeks before air travel returns to normal. That is if one very active and unpredictable volcano decides to cooperate.
CHETRY: President Obama meeting with lawmakers today, bouncing possible Supreme Court picks off of both parties. New polls show that you think you know which way the president will go when it comes to choosing the next member of the Supreme Court. We're live at the White House with more.
ROBERTS: Kids that can just not stop texting, even in class. They're getting really sneaky about it, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That's what I do on the airplane when they tell us to turn off our cell phones. In our "A.M. Original" series, "Texting Too Much," we'll take a look at the epidemic of cell phones in schools, teachers who have given up trying to collect them all and whether the technology can be put to good use in a classroom.
And, of course, the amFIX blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. We want to hear from you about what's in the news this morning. Just go to CNN.com/amFIX and we'll be reading some of those comments in the next hour here.
CHETRY: Well, air travel is kicking up again slowly but surely in Europe. Right now, officials have reopened 75 percent of the air space and planes have been taking off and landing since last night. One notable exception, though, the air space over northwest Scotland is still choked by volcanic ash. It is still closed this morning.
It will take weeks, though, for global air travel to completely return to normal. And one airline in Hong Kong says it will not be booking any new flights for two weeks in order to try to catch up with the backlog.
Still, stressed out travelers at Heathrow Airport in London were thrilled to finally be home again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We circled around to try. He knew he had an extra four hours of fuel. So, he circled, waiting for the deadline and then got the OK. So, it's brilliant gamesmanship.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three o'clock (INAUDIBLE). We've been circling around for quite some time, so we were thinking about going to Shannon but the pilot decided to land at Heathrow. So, hey, you're opened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, that volcano remains active this morning. If you look -- look at these incredible pictures. The ash is still out there. It's still spreading. And there are fears that more eruptions could be coming.
Rob Marciano joins us now from the CNN weather center with more on why they still did open up the majority of the air space even though, as we said, the ash is still in the air.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is, Kiran, but markedly less than when it first erupted four or five days ago -- about 80 percent less, as a matter of fact.
Some high-resolution satellite imagery, I want to show it to you. We'll go from yesterday to today and you'll see the huge difference. This is yesterday's picture, or Monday's picture, I should say, where that thick plume of ash was going north to south right to the U.K. And that's when they got all nervous yesterday.
And then, yesterday afternoon, this picture taken by the same satellite and you see just how dispersed that ash is, how much thinner that ash cloud is, and that's really the main reason why the air space has been allowed to open up.
Now below 20,000 feet, in this red highlighted area, highlights that fact, notice how that shrinks and moves off towards the north and west, most of it getting out into the Atlantic Ocean. And that's the next reason is forecast looks to be a lot better.
We'll talk more about the U.S. forecast and severe weather in it in about 30 to 40 minutes. Guys, back to you. CHETRY: Sounds good. Rob, thanks.
ROBERTS: Developing story to tell you about this morning. The coast guard is searching for at least 11 missing oil rig workers off of the coast of Louisiana. They vanished after an explosion last night. Search teams are hoping they are on lifeboats in the Gulf of Mexico.
There were 126 people on the oil rig last night when it blew up and caught fire. Seven of them were hurt. Two of them had to be taken to a burn unit. Five fireboats are currently working to put out the flames there.
Well, let the supreme battle begin. 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. Sources tell us that he's already had conversations with potential nominees, and some Republicans are already using the "F" word in all of this -- filibuster.
Our Ed Henry is live at the White House this morning.
Ed, it's typically taken to be bad form to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee. Is it -- is it that serious?
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is. And you're right, John, it's a very rare maneuver -- filibuster on a Supreme Court nomination.
But Republicans are keeping their options open on that. They've said that publicly. If they feel this pick is too far to the left, they may use that option.
We've seen it used obviously in all kinds of legislation the past year or so.
This is why this morning, the president is trying to use both sides together -- maybe cool those tensions a little bit, make sure this process does not become as poisonous as we saw in that health care battle.
You also mentioned the president now we've learned has started making phone calls to some of the prospective nominees. That's a sign that this process is starting to intensity. This is a chance for the president to reach out to senators in both parties as part of the advise and consent functions of the Constitution, reach out to them -- because he's said very little to them so far about what he's even looking for in a pick other than what he said in the Rose Garden a couple weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 also 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: Now, officials involved in the process say there are about 10 names on the list of people the president is taking a close look at, but three are really sort of at the top of the list, Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Also, two appeals court judges, Diane Wood, as well as Merrick Garland. These are some names that popped up last time around last year when the president had his first Supreme Court choice.
And even though those three names were at the top of the list, there are some Democrats close to this White House telling me that Elena Kagan is really kind of the front-runner, the person to keep your eyes on at this point, John.
ROBERTS: And how soon, Ed, do you think we can expect an announcement?
HENRY: We should expect one in the next couple of weeks, because what White House aides are saying is this president realizes that especially because that poisonous atmosphere on the Hill that we spoke about, he's got to get this confirmation battle started this summer, get those hearings going if he really wants to get a new justice sworn in in time for the first Monday in October, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Ed Henry at the White House for us this morning -- Ed, thanks.
HENRY: Thank you.
CHETRY: And also new this morning, some bloggers are calling into question the White House's promise of transparency after police blocked reporters who were trying to cover a demonstration against the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
Here's a look at what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: The park is closed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to get the public out, that's fine, but let us do our job.
POLICE OFFICER: Park's closed. Back off. Park's closed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The six protesters, include Lieutenant Dan Choi, were taken away by police.
ROBERTS: Well, White House aide Kal Penn was robbed at gunpoint in Washington. If that name rings a bell, you may know him for his roles in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," and the FOX television show, "House, M.D." Officials say Penn had his wallet and cell phone stolen. He, though, wasn't hurt.
CHETRY: Hmm, wow.
Well, the creators of "South Park" are being warned by a radical Muslim group for their portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in the recent episode of the Comedy Central cartoon. Poking fun at censorship of Muhammad, they put a large black box over the religious figure, hid him in a truck, and later in the episode, had Muhammad wearing a bear suit. On its website, Revolution Muslim, the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, it says -- according to this website -- will likely end up dead.
Now, our Jeffrey Toobin, legal expert, says that that's actually not enough to get anyone in a legal trouble.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Certainly, the comment on this website is very ugly, but it is certainly not specific enough to get anyone arrested.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, this isn't the first time that "South Park" has aimed at satire at Islam. But the show really is an equal opportunity offender, taking on all major religions.
Two other instances that really set people off, an episode called "Red Hot Catholic Love" that targets allegations of molestation against the church and states that the church's leader isn't the Pope but really a giant queen spider. The show also mocks Scientology's secretive origin story while showing the words "this is what Scientologists actually believe" were constantly on the screen.
Well, Arizona passes a tough illegal immigration law. It stirs a war of words. Sheriff Joe Arpaio and state lawmaker, Kyrsten Sinema debate the issue -- coming up.
CHETRY: And also, we're going to meet Michelle Obama's big brother, Craig Robinson. Why he may be the best basketball coach in the world. We had a little one-on-one interview and some hard court action.
Ten minutes after the hour.
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(MUSIC)
CHETRY: New this morning: five years ahead of schedule, General Motors has repaid at least a portion of the government loans from the U.S. and Canada, $8 billion in them to be exact. They owed or received actually $52 billion on a bailout from the U.S. government, $9.5 billion from Canada. GM now plans to invest more than a quarter million dollars in its Kansas City and Detroit plants where they're going to be building the new model Chevy Malibu.
ROBERTS: Prosecutors in New York have decided to send $10 million worth of counterfeit designer clothes to earthquake victims of Haiti. That's 125,000 tons of contraband clothing. Normally, those counterfeit clothes are destroyed but the Brooklyn D.A.'s office decided to put them to good use and got companies like Nike, Ed Hardy and Diesel to sign off on the plan.
CHETRY: And KFC is getting grilled for going pink. The fast- food chain is selling pink buckets of chicken to benefit breast cancer research. Susan G. Komen for the Cure gets 50 cents for every bucket sold, but some are criticizing the alliance as a conflict, pointing out that excess body fat alleviates the risk for cancer and there are 220 calories in a single KFC original recipe, Thigh.
ROBERTS: And she never actually went to China, but a British woman claims that a severe migraine headache has suddenly changed her accent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the day that my voice changed, I found it difficult to speak, and when I did speak, it sound Chinese.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: It might sound a little bit weird, but doctors believe the migraine damaged the 35-year-old's brain. Apparently, this happens every once in a while. It's actually got a name, foreign language syndrome or foreign accent syndrome.
Well, now to an "A.M. Original." Craig Robinson first stepped into the national spotlight back in 2008 when he introduced his sister, Michelle Obama, at the Democratic National Convention. He's also head coach of Oregon State University's men's basketball team.
CHETRY: And he just recently wrote a memoir entitled "A Game of Character." I had a chance to talk with him yesterday. The first brother-in-law gave me some pointers, actually, on the hard court.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CRAIG ROBINSON, MICHELLE OBAMA'S BROTHER: See your outside shot.
CHETRY: All right.
ROBINSON: You know, can you just get your hand under the ball and shoot it like that.
CHETRY: That was take one -- swear to God. All right.
ROBINSON: You notice I made the first shot.
CHETRY: Yes, I did. ROBINSON: All right?
CHETRY: OK. From right here.
ROBINSON: Yes.
That's pretty good. Now, you know what? I could fix that shot.
CHETRY: All right, let me get it.
ROBINSON: Do that again. Do exactly what you did and then I'm going to ask you a question. All right?
CHETRY: So I try it again?
ROBINSON: Do it again but --
CHETRY: Because just --
ROBINSON: But what were you looking at?
CHETRY: I was just looking at the orange circle.
ROBINSON: But what part of it?
CHETRY: The actual rim --
ROBINSON: The whole thing?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBINSON: See that's funny. Everybody does that. Don't look at the whole thing, just look at the front of it, OK, and shoot it over the front of the rim because you shot it perfectly. It went straight to where you wanted it to go, but it went straight to the back of the rim because that's what you were looking at. So look at the front of the rim --
CHETRY: Look at the front of the rim.
ROBINSON: And shoot it over the front of the rim. That's it. I'm the best coach you know.
CHETRY: You are the best coach in the world. I could do that every time.
ROBINSON: That's it.
CHETRY: We should quit while we're ahead.
ROBINSON: Let's quit now. We both made our shot. I gave her one instruction and she made it all net. That's it. Congratulations.
CHETRY: Thank you.
ROBINSON: You could be on my team anytime. CHETRY: You are a good coach. You're right.
ROBINSON: Now you have to tell everybody at CNN I'm the best coach in the country.
CHETRY: Unbelievable, hands down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Does he coach golf?
CHETRY: There you have it. You are right.
ROBERTS: Because if he can do that with my golf game, I'm there.
CHETRY: What are you looking at, John, when you tee off?
ROBERTS: Everything except what I should be looking at. The things and the bushes and the -- I can give you a whole
CHETRY: Yes, I know. Golf's a total loss for me. But hey, basketball, not bad.
ROBERTS: That's great.
CHETRY: And by the way we did interview him, as well. We link it to our website, CNN.com/amFIX. His book is great, as well. Check out an excerpt on our website, also.
ROBERTS: All right, Google fights online censorship by creating a new tool for you, its users. How does it work? Our Stephanie Elam will tell you coming right up, 17 minutes after the hour.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Thousands and thousands and thousands of travelers are stranded, they've got no place to sleep, they got nothing to eat, they have no place to take a shower. I'm telling you, this is the kind of thing that can take the fun out of air travel.
Ah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Actually, it makes it an adventure, right -
CHETRY: Oh yes.
ROBERTS: Because it's the journey that's part of the fun. Stephanie Elam here "Minding Your Business," now 20 minutes after the hour. Talking about Google this morning.
Good morning. STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes, no traveling for me. I'm grounded. But we'll travel around the world with Google and take a look at what's going on with something that they are saying -- they've got some criticism about.
They're saying people are not finding that they're being very transparent about what countries are asking for as far as who's asking to censor data. So because of that, they've come out with their government request tool, that's what they're calling it, and basically it's going to tell which governments, how often these governments are looking to censor data and then they're either asking to pass on user data from Google to these countries or to delete content.
So who's on top? Let's start with Brazil. They've asked for user data more than 3,600 times. They've sent 291 content removal requests. Google has honored this 83 percent of the time that it's gotten these removal requests.
Behind them is Germany. They had the most requests behind Brazil to edit their material. And this is because they have laws there in the country to restrict online content related to Nazi content. So that's part of the issue there.
India, they had 142 request, followed by the United States which sent 3,580 requests for user data and sent 123 removal requests. And they complied with that 81 percent of the time. Most of that had to do with YouTube.
And then, of course, the big question mark there -- and this is how it's listed on the website, on the tool -- China. Nothing. We don't know anything. They're not saying anything about China and they're not included because they view, in China, these sort of requests as state secrets. So for now, Google is honoring that and not putting it up on the site, for now.
They're saying things could change there, but they are trying to notify users and let them know if this affects them and why it's there, maybe popping up a little bit of a bubble that will explain that there. This data will be updated every six months to let people know which countries are looking for data and how they've responded to it.
CHETRY: It's interesting. You're saying that you don't really have obviously the information about China because they're not releasing it but you say it's a pretty safe bet that it's much higher than these other ones?
ELAM: It's probably higher I mean because we know Google has been battling with China over this and that they've moved their hub into Hong Kong because of different rules on how they could is interact with their Internet site there. So it's definitely probably safe to say a high number. Maybe not higher but high.
ROBERTS: All right. So we're getting that information out there.
ELAM: Yes.
ROBERTS: Keep watching.
ELAM: Yes.
ROBERTS: Stephanie Elam "Minding Your Business"
CHETRY: Thanks Steph.
ROBERTS: For us this morning, thanks.
Arizona passes a tough illegal immigration law. It stirs a national debate over racial profiling. Sheriff Joe Arpaio and state lawmaker Krysten Sinema debate the issue coming up on the Most News in the Morning.
CHETRY: And we continue our "A.M. Original" series on teens and texting. Teachers now saying, look, if you can't beat them, maybe you need to join them and they're giving kids cell phones in class. Deb Feyerick explains how they could be turning it into a positive. Twenty-three minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty five minutes past the hour right now. We are going to get to our top stories in five minutes. First though, an "A.M. Original.", something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING, a new study came out that basically said all teens do is text.
ROBERTS: Well it could be a real problem for teachers when they're trying to teach kids how to write without using numbers, or short hand, or u-r instead of "your." Our Deb Feyerick, is here with her "A.M. Original" series, "Texting Too Much," good morning.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, good morning.
And you know, if you're the student, you know that teachers are spending a lot of time dealing with these cell phones in class. They say they disrupt lessons, distract students, not only that, they drain energy that could be spent learning. That's why schools are now trying creative ways to deal with this technology tsunami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Seventh-grader Cyleb 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 in the hallways than it is in class.
FEYERICK (on camera): Because you're moving. COYNE: Mm-hmm.
FEYERICK: You're like a shark, always moving.
COYNE: Yes.
FEYERICK (voice-over): 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.
AVIS COLLIER SHELBY, PRINCIPAL, HAVERSTRAW MIDDLE SCHOOL: 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 far 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, as a 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 CHIKI 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 backfire.
RICH: Pandora's box is open here. The technologies are here. What we need to do is take control of them instead of letting them control us.
SHELBY: You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The stones are here.
FEYERICK: At Haverstraw Middle School, teachers like Ronald Royster have decided you can't beat them, join them.
RONALD ROYSTER, 5TH GRADE TEACHER: 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 Ellis Island.
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.
(on camera): When did you make a movie? Did you make a movie during home room?
RYAN GUZINSKI, 5TH GRADE STUDENT: No. This was actually in math. It was about decimals. You can sync it, which means the teachers will get it, and they can grade you on it.
FEYERICK: So it really is helping reinforce the lessons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
GUZINSKI: Because we're -- like we're memorizing things so much easier on here.
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 are like, you want to look at it, you don't want to look at a piece of paper.
FEYERICK (voice-over): The district superintendent says dollar for dollar, buying phones is more efficient than new computers.
(on camera): There are some educator who just say these should not be in school. What is your response to that?
ILEANA ECKERT, SUPT. 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're bringing with them?
FEYERICK: As for these fifth graders --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I actually started texting less when I have this.
RIVERA: 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 at home instead of sitting there texting all day, like, doing nothing.
GUZINSKI: It's, like, bye, phone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: And maybe phones will never go away entirely, but the goal at Haverstraw Middle School is to one day use students' own cell phones, turn those into the classroom learning devices. And really, this is a different approach from schools that are choosing to strictly enforce a no-phones policy, in some cases, actually charging students to retrieve confiscated phones. And we found one school where at the end of one year, they had made over $100,000 simply by confiscating the phones and having students pay to get them back.
CHETRY: Mindboggling, I was part of their bottom line in their budget.
FEYERICK: It is, absolutely, absolutely, they count on it now.
ROBERTS: It's great to see the students using the phones for something other than texting, using them for research, because many parents will buy their kids a blackberry, some kind of smart phone, they'll buy an unlimited data plan, which includes Internet access.
So instead of just texting your friends back and forth it's good to go online and --
FEYERICK: Exactly. If you condition a child how to use one of these devices in a way that's instructional and informational, you're guiding them on best-use principles. That's what the mediatrician expert we spoke to, calls himself a mediatrician at mediatrician.com, he basically said that's what you have to do, just teach them how to best use it.
CHETRY: You know they'll be on Facebook --
FEYERICK: Unless you disable it, that' true.
CHETRY: Rules out there, the kids break them.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much.
FEYERICK: Of course.
ROBERTS: Let us know what you think about teens and texting. Can they be stopped? How should schools deal with it? Maybe make them text 1,000 times "I will not send text messages in class"? No. That would feed the addiction. Go to our blog at CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Right now search teams from the Coast Guard looking for at least 11 missing oil rig workers off the coast of Louisiana. They have not been seen since an explosion and fire on their platform last night. Rescuers are hoping they're on lifeboats in the Gulf of Mexico.
There were 126 people on the rig last night when it blew up and caught fire. Seven were hurt. Two had to be flown to a burn unit. Five fireboats are now working to put out the flame.
ROBERTS: Iran playing war games in one of the most strategic waterways in the world. Iran's state television says the country's Revolutionary Guard will carry out military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz. And 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through there.
It comes just a couple days after reports that the Pentagon is updating military plans to strike Iran's nuclear sites just in case it comes to that.
CHETRY: And there's hope this morning for millions of stressed- out air travelers. Ash from the volcano in Iceland is beginning to dissipate over Europe. England and Germany are reopening their airspace with flights beginning to take off and land across the continent. It's a huge relief for passengers who have been stranded for days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICIA QUIRKE, BRITISH TRAVELER: Here we are, two taxis and five cars later, and hundreds and hundreds -- well, thousands of Euros, and hopefully we'll get home this morning, today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Some airlines say they're so backed up they're not booking any new flights for at least two weeks.
ROBERTS: Latino members of Congress are calling on Arizona's governor to kill a state bill targeting immigration.
The law would make it a crime to be in the country illegally, require police to question anyone if there is a reason to suspect they're in the U.S. illegally. It would prohibit slowing or blocking traffic when searching for day laborers, make it a crime to give ride to someone that you know is an illegal immigrant, and it would fine towns and cities that don't enforce immigration laws.
It already passed Arizona's Senate and House, but governor Pat Brewer has not said if she's going to sign it or not, though there is some indication she may.
Here to talk more about this is Sheriff Joe Arpaio who supports the bill, and Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema, who voted against it. Folks thanks so much for being with us this morning.
Representative Sinema, let's start with you. Some people have said this bill constitutes racial profiling. What do you say?
KYRSTEN SINEMA, ARIZONA STATE HOUSE: Well, one of the real difficult things about this bill is that it forces law enforcement into a catch-22. They have to engage in asking the status of anyone they come into contact with that they have reasonable suspicion to believe may be undocumented.
And if they fail to do so, any Arizona citizen can sue them for not enforcing all federal immigration laws. So they're really placed in a tough bind. They either will get sued for racial profiling by asking folks who are citizens to prove their documentation, or they'll get sued by citizens for not asking every person who appears to be of Latino descent to provide documentation.
ROBERTS: Sheriff Arpaio, this bill doesn't seem too far off from what you have been doing. This is a matter of common practice. What do you think of the bill? SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: It gives us an extra tool, gives law enforcement the initiative to enforce the federal immigration laws and the new state laws. So I'm all for it.
We've arrested and detained 38,000 illegal aliens, and not much problem. I have a few complaints. The U.S. Justice Department a year and a half ago initiated a civil rights investigation against me. Nothing has happened. So we're doing the right thing.
ROBERTS: Now Cardinal Roger Mahoney of the Los Angeles archdiocese, sheriff, said that this bill would encourage, quote, "German-Nazi and Russian-communist techniques." What do you say to that?
ARPAIO: Well, I do know that the demonstrators call me Hitler. They have signs. They've call me every name in the book. That's sad, right here in phoenix. But that's ridiculous. Law enforcement are trained. They're professionals. They know how to enforce the laws. So I'm very comfortable with the new law.
ROBERTS: Representative Sinema, you heard the sheriff saying it gives them another tool to enforce the law. What's your point of view on that? Should law enforcement have every tool legally at their disposal to deal with this issue?
SINEMA: Well, absolutely. Law enforcement should have every tool that they need to do their job.
The problem is that this law doesn't provide those tools. What law enforcement really need are the resources and the tools to crack down on criminal syndicates at our border. We've seen an increase in drug running, gun running, and people running all over the border regions. And there are pieces of legislation that we can pass to actually help that problem.
I just passed a bill that was signed by the governor last week to help crack down on sex trafficking, which is a huge problem in our border. Those are the kinds of tools we need to offer to police officers.
Unfortunately, this bill really puts them in a tough bind and actually ties their hands, makes it more difficult for them to do their job appropriately.
ROBERTS: Sheriff Arpaio, what do you say to that?
ARPAIO: This is garbage. I was a director in Mexico City with the U.S. drug enforcement, spent 14 years at the border. Everybody talks about the border. That's a cop-out, because no one wants to talk about enforcing illegal immigration laws in the interior because of politics, they want amnesty. So it's always secure the border.
But we have criminals right here in Maricopa County, in our jails. We have over 50 people charged with murder that are illegals, violence and everything else. So we have to hit this problem on all levels. The border, yes, but how about inside the United States too? ROBERTS: Representative Sinema, what do you say about that? Sealing the border is one thing, but there are millions of people who are already here who are undocumented immigrants?
SINEMA: Well, I think that's a really important point. And one of the things that, you know, we have offered is that folks like Sheriff Joe should consider enforcing some of the tools and using some of the skills they already have. For instance, here in Maricopa County, there are over 40,000 unserved warrants by violent felons.
ARPAIO: Oh, my gosh.
SINEMA: And we would prefer that Sheriff Joe spend his time issuing those warrants and tracking down those felons rather than finding opportunities to arrest janitors in the city of Mesa.
ARPAIO: Oh, you know, we do crime suppression. We get warrants and drugs and everything else when we're out there.
That's the old cop-out that you've been saying, and your open border people. And I'm not even responsible for the 40,000 warrants. But that's all you can say.
They're calling me a racist and you demonstrating with the demonstrators, Sharpton coming down here. Everybody demonstrated against me because I'm doing my job and I will continue to do my job. And I'll tell you one thing. When this new law is passed, I will continue to enforce that law also.
ROBERTS: Well, Sheriff Arpaio let me ask you this question, because many people have raised this, that it now becomes law that if you are a documented immigrant you need to carry that documentation with you or even, you know, if you're a citizen, you've got to have proof that you're a legal resident of this country.
If you come across someone who you suspect may be illegal simply because maybe they're Hispanic and they don't have documentation but they are either a legal immigrant or they're an American citizen, what do you do with them?
ARPAIO: Well, what we've been doing with them. We either arrest them pursuant to our law enforcement on other types of crimes or we have trained -- I did have 100 deputies trained by Homeland Security. Of course they took away that authority. But I have 900 deputies trained.
So we know how to enforce. We know the protocol. We know the criteria when we come across people that may be here illegally in the country.
ROBERTS: But can you say all law enforcement will be that adept at enforcing and applying this law?
ARPAIO: Well, they're trained all the time on all types of laws. I hope they will be trained. I hope there are no incidents from higher-ups to keep them from enforcing the new law. ROBERTS: And Representative Sinema, obviously it looks like there will be legal challenges against this bill. Some members of Congress insist federal law trumps state law, so that may be one of the first challenges. Do you expect this law if the governor signs it into law, do you expect that it will survive the legal challenges?
SINEMA: Well, I anticipate that this law will not survive the legal challenges. I'm also a constitutional attorney, and there are a number of constitutional flaws and problems with this law, one of which you just mentioned, which is the issue of requiring documentation by individuals who may or may not have status in this country.
There are a number of people who have legal status in this country who have no documentation, are not offered any by the government to prove that. An example would be the wife of a work visa holder. She's allowed to be here in this country, but she has no paper to prove that. And just two weeks ago in the city of Mesa, a tourist from Mexico was detained for two hours when officers were unable to recognize his tourist visa for the legal document that it was. And unfortunately, that represents an unconstitutional loss of liberty for that individual.
So I think we'll see significant challenges, and I do not anticipate that this law will survive those challenges.
ROBERTS: All right, Representative Sinema and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, thanks for joining us this morning.
SINEMA: My pleasure.
ARPAIO: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Good discussion, appreciate it.
It's 40 minutes after the hour. Tom Foreman is rolling through Kansas. He's on the CNN express for our series "Building up America." A couple years ago we were in Greensburg, Kansas, which had been literally wiped out by a mile-wide tornado. Well, wait until you see Greensburg, Kansas, now.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's 42 minute past the hour now. Next month marks the third anniversary of a tornado that nearly wiped out the small town of Greensburg, Kansas. The town has come back, and in the process it's become ground zero for green energy.
Tom Foreman has a firsthand look in this morning's "Building up America."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, this really is a town that has to rebuild in two ways. First it had to recover from this absolutely devastating storm, and it had to do so at a time when many, many small towns are struggling just to survive.
The tornado that ripped through Greensburg three years ago was a swirling black cloud with winds exceeding 200 miles an hour. And it left this small town in ruins.
DANIEL WALLACH, GREENSBURG, GREEN TOWN: It was a 1.7-mile-wide tornado. And the town is 1.5 miles wide. So there was just very little on the peripheries that survived.
FOREMAN: But the storm of rebuilding that Daniel Wallick and others have led since is proving just as powerful, only this one is green.
WALLACH: And so this town knew they had to have a unique identity.
FOREMAN (on camera): That's what you set out to do with this plan?
WALLACH: Yes.
FOREMAN (voice-over): With the strong backing of the local government, this town is being rebuilt as a model of environmental sustainability. At the new school, drainage systems capture and conserve rainwater to feed the landscaping. Salvage wood covers the walls. Cabinets are made of wheat harvest leftovers. And natural light pours in everywhere.
Superintendent Darin Headrick is expecting much lower power bills.
DARIN HEADRICK, SUPERINTENDENT: During the day we won't even turn lights on here to have classes and activities during the day. Our classrooms are the same way. We really don't know if we'll have to turn a light switch on during the day for the classrooms.
FOREMAN (on camera): That's a big savings.
HEADRICK: Well, we hope.
FOREMAN (voice-over): One of the town's many new wind turbines generates up to 30 percent of the new hospital's electricity, while power and water saving utilities dominate. Mary Sweet runs the place.
(on camera): Were you skeptical of this idea to begin with?
MARY SWEET, KIOWA COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Initially I was, yes. At first I thought it was a gimmick, it was a way to build back and have people help us. But like I mentioned it's a roadmap of a way to follow in construction.
FOREMAN: And you think it's working now.
SWEET: It's working wonderfully, yes. FOREMAN (voice-over): And all over town, houses are springing up with eco-friendly designs like this model made of concrete filled with smart utilities feeding off solar cells, a machine that pulls drinking water from humidity in the air, and so much more.
(on camera): What's going on up here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, up here we have the rooftop garden.
FOREMAN: You're going to grow food for the house right up here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Absolutely.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The payoff? By most accounts this was a small dying town before the storm. But with each new stage of the green comeback, it is being reborn. And every day fewer folks are looking back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With a name like Greensburg, you know, it was a natural fit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: There are still plenty of empty lots like this all over town, but eventually they hope they fill them all in with new green buildings, and they hope that what they are rebuilding is a more economically viable town for the future than the one they lost -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: It's amazing to see them coming back after that.
CHETRY: Oh, it is amazing. And I mean, people ask a lot of questions, can we come back stronger after these types of disasters. They asked it during Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. They asked it in Haiti, as well. Can we do something better than what was here before?
ROBERTS: Yes, but the interesting thing, too, about New Orleans is a lot of the city was left intact. Obviously there were some parts of the city that were terribly, terribly affected but it was like somebody -- in Greensburg, it was like somebody took their hand in this way, and scraped it clean.
You look at the town and say does it have the economic base to be able to even begin to rebuild, but God bless them for doing what they're doing there.
CHETRY: It's the amazing part about Mother Nature, too, and the way that tornadoes seem so random, leaving one part fine and --
ROBERTS: Yes, incredible.
Well, talking about severe weather, we've got some across the country. Rob Marciano has got the forecast for you coming up next.
Its 47 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: If you're just waking up in Vegas, fair and 50 degrees right now. Later on today thunderstorms and lots of wind and it's not going to be a warm day either; the high just 58 degrees.
Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather across the country --
CHETRY: No one's wakes up, no one is either awake in Vegas right now.
ROBERTS: No, well it's --
CHETRY: Still -- you know --
ROBERTS: -- it's like 5:50 in the morning.
CHETRY: And they're still coming home.
ROBERTS: Yes, a little of time before they get up there.
Rob Marciano tracking the extreme weather across the country, he's got a look for us this morning. Good morning, Rob.
MARCIANO: Good morning, guys, I was going to show you some fun video out of Nevada in just a second.
But first let's talk about the storms that are rolling across the U.S., a couple areas of action, one across the mid-Atlantic, severe weather potentially once again across the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma, and then a pretty powerful storm rolling into the West Coast and Intermountain West.
Some rain from Raleigh up through Richmond into D.C., Baltimore, Philly eventually, so a little light to moderate rainfall throughout the day today. Bring along the gear for sure. Winter gear in the mountains, wind gear across some of the valleys and certainly some rains through Salt Lake back to San Francisco.
This is a pretty potent West Coast storm that will be ejecting into the plains as we get through tomorrow. And that will be our better bet for seeing more widespread severe weather not only tomorrow but again on Friday and maybe again on Saturday as all this pushes off towards the east.
All right. Some video out of Nevada for you. The University of Nevada taking on local -- a Minor League ball club. Well, there are the mascots doing their thing, Wolfie and Archie. Oh, goodness. Wolfie took a dive. Into the dugout. But Archie says he's OK. It's all right, it's OK. Wolfie is OK. Everybody up and keep cheering. Wolfie doing some sort of dance there and kind of ran out of real estate there.
Oh, I don't know what kind of insurance those guys have but apparently you have to be pretty athletic and pretty resilient. That's your video out of Nevada. CHETRY: Sure.
MARCIANO: If you're waking up with us in Las Vegas.
ROBERTS: One more time here. Let's just -- let that play -- oh.
CHETRY: Wolfie, you shouldn't moonwalk in a mascot suit.
MARCIANO: I don't know how he didn't get seriously hurt. That's pretty impressive, ten-foot drop onto concrete, potentially some stairs as well.
CHETRY: Well, he had a lot of padding. I mean, look at that suit.
MARCIANO: Well, not as much as Archie but he had a little bit of padding, that's for sure.
CHETRY: Cute, Rob. I hope everyone's OK. Thanks.
MARCIANO: See you tomorrow.
CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Dr. Gupta is answering your questions about the benefits of lowering your cholesterol and how the heck you do it.
Fifty-two minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning.
Time for your "AM House Call"; we get lots of medical questions every single week and we try to turn them over to our medical expert, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to get some answers.
ROBERTS: Sanjay is with us and he's in Atlanta this morning. Our first question, doc, if you're ready to field it comes from Twitter. We're asked the question, "Is it possible to develop lactose intolerance later on in your life?"
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's interesting. You know, people talk about lactose intolerance, basically means you eat some dairy products, gives you tummy troubles. The reason is you don't have enough of a particular enzyme known as lactates.
A simple answer to the question is that typically babies are born with enough lactate but it can decrease over time. And typically it sort of levels off so someone who has lactose intolerance for example at age 15 shouldn't be any worse at age 60 and it really shouldn't develop later on in life.
What's interesting, there was a study about this showing that a lot of people who think they have lactose intolerance because they've eaten a lot of dairy and they had some problems after that really aren't lactose intolerant. They may have just taken too much dairy in at that point.
And for anybody, you can -- you can have problems if you simply eat too much dairy. So you may want to start reintroducing small amounts of dairy if you think you've developed lactose intolerance and things like yogurt can help as well.
And to try and get calcium, calcium for your oranges can help. So there's probably a lot fewer lactose -- truly lactose intolerant people out there especially if someone thinks they develop it at age 40 or 50.
CHETRY: You know, the other question is from Twitter, and we all know that we should try to lower our cholesterol. The question is, "Why is it so important? What are the benefits of having a low cholesterol level?"
GUPTA: That's a really important question. And it's a little bit more of a complicated answer than you might think. There's been a lot of data, a lot of studies out there to show that high cholesterol can increase your likelihood of having heart disease and having what's called cerebral vascular disease or the likelihood of stroke.
But your total cholesterol number, the number that people pay attention to, that they try and keep below 200, is really made up of a few different number. For example, LDL is bad cholesterol. You want that number to be low. Triglycerides, you want that number to be low. But there's also a thing known as HDL, or good cholesterol, and you want that number to be higher.
Think of the HDL as sort of the broom that comes up and sweeps up all the other cholesterol and plaques and sort of cleans up your arteries for you. The thing about HDL, the only ways to really increase your HDL is through exercise, for example, or decreasing the amount of sugars that you eat. Those two things actually can help.
But look at your total numbers but also look at the ratio of the numbers, as well. If you can keep those numbers down you have a much better chance of reducing your chance of both heart disease and stroke.
ROBERTS: Sanjay Gupta with some great information for us this morning. Doc, always great to see you. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: Anytime, you guys. You got it.
ROBERTS: All right, it's 58 and a half minutes after the hour. We'll be back right after this. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: We'd like feedback from you. And you can continue the conversation on today's stories, go to our blog at CNN.com/AMFIX.
CHETRY: Yes, you got a little advice on your golf swing from Frank W., who said focus on the top of the flag and you won't come up short. ROBERTS: If you hit the ball properly, I probably would hit up short.
CHETRY: There you go.
ROBERTS: That's going to wrapping up for us. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again tomorrow.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, the news continues, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips.
Good Morning, Kyra.
