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Eleven Missing After Oil Rig Explodes Off Louisiana Coast; President to Give Speech Urging Regulatory Reform; Offshore Oil Rig Explodes: Search to Resume for 11 Workers; A Look at the Government's Case Against Goldman Sachs; Homeless Teen Has New Hope: NFL Star Changes His Fortunes; Reforming Wall Street; Pandora to Planet Earth; Beating Migraine Pain
Aired April 22, 2010 - 6:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Thursday, April 22nd. Glad you're with us this morning. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for being with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about coming up in the next 15 minutes.
It's a race against time to find 11 oil rig workers missing for more than 30 hours now after a massive explosion on board an oil platform out in the Gulf of Mexico. About 100 people rescued from the still burning rig. They made it safely back to shore overnight in Louisiana. More on the search for survivors and answers just ahead.
Join us, don't fight us, that's the message from the president to Wall Street's elite today. He'll be in New York this morning talking (ph) financial reform, an urging of big banks to get on board for the good of the country, but will they listen? A live report from the White House just ahead.
ROBERTS: And back from Pandora, an Earth Day message from actress, Sigourney Weaver. She's testifying in Washington in an effort to help preserve our planet. She's going to join us live later on this hour.
Of course, the AMFix blog is up and running. Join the live conversation right now. We want to hear from you about anything in the news, whatever is on your mind. Just go to CNN.com/AMFix, and we'll be reading your comments throughout the morning.
CHETRY: We're following the latest on a drama unfolding off the coast of Louisiana where a fire is still burning and 11 oil rig workers are missing more than 30 hours after the rig exploded in flames.
Coast Guard crews have been calming the waters in the Gulf of Mexico searching for signs of life. Meantime, about 100 workers who escaped the burning oil rig are safely back on land.
David Mattingly is following the developments for us live in Atlanta. And just an update on the prospects of finding the 11 alive, what's the latest?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, we're about 30 minutes away from first light off the coast of Louisiana. When that happens, the aerial search will resume for the missing 11. The Coast Guard continued to search throughout the night and so far they've covered 1,700 square miles.
This morning, they tell me that the probability still exists that someone could be found alive.
In the meantime, the fire is still burning. Look at the spectacular video we have today. They've been pouring water on it constantly since early yesterday morning. The platform's leaning or listing pretty badly to one side, but they don't think it's going to capsize.
And 126 people were aboard at the time of the explosion. Many of them were reunited privately with their worried families just a few hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL MOSS, WIFE OF WORKER: The only thing that I was thinking is how am I going to tell my kids, you know, that their dad's not coming home. And the worst goes through your mind. So we were just blessed that we did get a call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And the Coast Guard tells me that the search conditions will be excellent today, calm seas, calm wind visibility, Kiran, for about eight miles.
CHETRY: Of course, it ups the chances enormously if they were able to make it to a lifeboat. Have any of the people who came back safely and are reunited with their families, do any of them know whether they may have made it to the lifeboat, or do they know anything about the 11 still missing?
MATTINGLY: I've been canning the coast guard about that, if they've been able to account for all the lifeboats and everything that goes on that rig. They say they don't have that answer yet.
When they're out there searching, they're searching not only for life rafts, but they're searching for individuals that might be in the water. And they keep saying that probability still exists, and they're going to keep that search going as long as that probability is out there.
CHETRY: And what about the blowout? That's what they're calling is the cause of this. What is that?
MATTINGLY: That's when you have oil and gas under pressure underground that erupts upward. This doesn't happen very often, especially at this magnitude of these operation. These operations have equipment that are supposed to prevent explosions above the ground in this event.
Apparently, if this is the case, this did not happen this time, so federal authorities will be looking into this. And they can't do that until the fire is out and the leak is capped.
There's about 13,000 gallons an hour blowing out right now. So once the fire's out, they'll have to find a way to keep that oil contained, or else we're going to be looking at a large oil spill in the Gulf on top of all of this.
CHETRY: What a mess. At least for now, some of people contacted say they believe the environmental impact is minimal right now. But as you said, they need to make sure there's not a large oil spill on top of all of this. David Mattingly for us this morning, thanks so much.
And coming up later, we're going to talk to a few people who got the call, Coast Guard crew, helicopter operator as well as one of the swimmers, they're going to be joining us to talk about more what it was like when they got to the scene.
ROBERTS: President Obama is going to try to convince the wealthiest and most powerful executives on Wall Street today to get on board with his financial reform package and change the way they do business.
His big speech begins just before noon today in the shadows of the financial district. It is designed to close the deal on a package of reforms that could face a Senate vote next week. Jill Dougherty is joining us live at the White House for us this morning. And what is the president hoping to accomplish today, Jill?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: John, into the lion's den. He's going up to New York, as he did two years ago, carrying that message about now financial reform. It's a very important priority for the president.
And some of the points that the White House says the president is going to make are that the bill draws from bipartisan ideas. That's important. He wants, of course, Republican support. He'll also urge Wall Street to join him in reform, not fight it.
And then finally, he'll push for the passage of a bill, the White House says, that protects consumers, ends too big to fail, and brings transparency to those derivatives markets that are very complex financial instruments.
They also released a quote from the president's speech that will be coming up in a couple of hours, "I believe in the power of the free market. I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings.
But a free market was never meant to be a free answer to take whatever you can get however you can get it." So that will be President Obama up in New York in a few hours. And, John, the reform bill that's actually passed the House, it still has to go through the Senate, and there are several variations on that. But you can say that it may be an easier point for the president to make than, say, health care, because after all, among the public, the reputation of Wall Street is very low. People are hurting. And so it's a message that he might be able to make more convincingly.
ROBERTS: Sure. But he needs to attract Republican support. He's got to get at least one vote. Does he think he's got that at this point?
DOUGHERTY: They do think they have one. They're pushing for more. And the tide does seem to be moving somewhat in their favor because, after all, this is something that carries well and resonates with people. Wall Street, financial crisis, and you can see there could be a lot more spark to this than perhaps some of the other things that the president is pushing.
ROBERTS: Jill Dougherty for us at the White House this morning where they're blowing off the leaves. Jill, thanks for that. The president's speech at Cooper Union College begins at 11:55 eastern this morning. You can watch live it right here on or catch it on CNN.com as well.
(WEATHER BREAK)
ROBERTS: Still to come on the Most News in the Morning, a fireball at sea. We're going to talk to Coast Guard and crew members who rescued men off the oil drilling rig that exploded into a ball of flames in the Gulf of Mexico coming up next. It's seven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Well, we're following the late developments this morning in the desperate search for those 11 workers after a massive explosion on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana.
CHETRY: The Coast Guard is hoping to get their helicopters back in the air as soon as the sun comes up. And joining us now with the latest is helicopter pilot Lt. Craig Murray, and also rescue swimmer Petty Officer Dustin Bernatovich. Both of you called out to the scene when this explosion happened. Thanks for being withes this morning.
LT. CRAIG MURRAY, USCG HELICOPTER PILOT: Good morning.
PETTY OFFICER DUSTIN BERNATOVICH: Thank you, good morning.
CHETRY: Let me start with you, Petty Officer Bernatovich. What did you see when got there, what was the condition of the rig and also the people on it?
BERNATOVICH: We were flying out we saw with the naked eye around 40 miles just the glow coming from the fire. Then when we got on scene, the oil rig actually looks like, I would say a small city block shooting flames about 200 feet in the air, and then just several other boats around the area trying to get close enough to spread water on.
ROBERTS: Lieutenant Murray, had you just completed a training mission. You were on base when you got the call. Tell me about the call, tell me about the trip out there an d what you saw when you got there.
MURRAY: We had just returned from a training mission, and before we had the paperwork completed, the alarm went off for the rig incident. So we immediately ran to the helicopters and took off. We climbed to 500 feet and transited it out.
We could see the glow, as Dustin said, on the horizon. We transited 130 miles, and when we arrived on scene the flames were shooting above our altitude. We immediately entered a half a mile search to determine whether there was anyone blown away from the rig. We eliminated any survivors that had been blown away.
We had contacted the surface assets and realized that the majority of people were already on a boat. So we immediately began rescue operations and search operations at that time. We lowered our rescue swimmer to begin triage to determine the priorities of the injuries and hoist them to a nearby rig, where we could get them to immediate medical help.
CHETRY: Wow. I mean, it's a terrible situation. I mean, thank goodness there were 17 injured, some of those which -- several of them very badly injured, but for the most part there were many who are were not injured.
Can you tell us a little bit, Dustin, about what the location was for those hurt and the other ones who were able to get away relatively unscathed from that explosion?
BERNATOVICH: Like Mr. Murray said, everyone was already on the supply vessel. They picked them up with the lifeboats. And everyone that was critically injured was inside on beds, on backboards.
When I had already got there, Curt Peterson, who is a the first rescue swimmer on scene, he started triaging people, putting people in neck braces, just doing basic first aid until we got there with a rescue litter. And we could properly hoist them to the helicopter and then get them to further attention.
ROBERTS: Lieutenant Murray, the Coast Guard goes out for so many different calls. And I know you've been out to rig fires before during hurricane Katrina. But when you get the call, when you look at all the training you go through, when you get the call and hear that there's been a rig explosion, what goes through your mind?
MURRAY: The first thing that goes through your mind is to weigh the risks and to identify the hazards. We knew by seeing the flames over the horizon this is going to be a very dangerous situation to approach.
That's why we started at half a mile identifying the hazards because we knew that there were other assets in route that would be behind us. And we wanted to come up with a good risk assessment to determine what the hazards for those other assets coming in would be in a plan to mitigate those risks.
That's why we immediately went to the supply vessel. We eliminated the fact that anyone would be in the water at that time. But we couldn't get too close. We could feel the heat from the flames at about 200 to 300 feet and realized we couldn't get any closer.
So the top priority was to get that rescue swimmer on board, Chief Peterson, get him assessing the priorities of injuries and getting the most critically injured to immediate medical responders.
I believe some commercial rescue assets had delivered some medical personnel to a rig nearby. And that's where we set up our original remote location, hospital and triage center, and that was the best way to do it.
CHETRY: Petty Officer Bernatovich, before we go, I know there's still 11 people missing, and the search is going to resume by air shortly. I guess what I was wondering is, are you guys going to have a clearer picture today of whether or not anyone made it to a lifeboat? They talk about the weather and visibility being good. Will we know if in fact these 11 may have beat the odds and made it?
BERNATOVICH: We're going to do the best we can to get out there and look. We're going to get our search patterns from the command center, and we're going to do everything we can to help find these 11 people still missing.
ROBERTS: It's 6:14 right now where you are. When do you go up?
BERNATOVICH: I'm going to leave right from here and go to the air station.
ROBERTS: All right.
CHETRY: Best of luck.
ROBERTS: Great to talk to you this morning, Lt. Craig Murray and Petty Officer Dustin Bernatovich.
BERNATOVICH: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Great work you did yesterday. And I know there's a lot of very thankful people who are on dry land today because of their efforts.
MURRAY: Thanks a lot. Thank you.
CHETRY: Yes, and good luck this morning as well as well, as you go back up into the air. We appreciate it.
MURRAY: Thank you very much.
CHETRY: Sure. Coming up on the Most News in the Morning, does the government have a case against Goldman Sachs? Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Fifteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eighteen and a half minutes past the hour. We're "Minding Your Business" with Christine Romans this morning. And she's talking a little bit about the SEC's case against Goldman Sachs this morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The plot thickens. Look, there's more drama in this Goldman Sachs-SEC case every day. We're learning more from the key players every day as they come out and start to lay out their defense and their groundwork.
First off, from -- let's talk about the players here first. We have John Paulson from Paulson & Co. He's accused by the SEC of handpicking securities for Goldman Sachs to sell to somebody else. He's not charged with anything. The SEC doesn't say that he did anything wrong but that his role wasn't revealed by Goldman Sachs, and it was the middleman, the market maker of this bet, basically -- a bet between two different parties, to different groups of parties that either housing was going to go up or housing was going to go down. And that's the thing overall here. They say that in the end, investors lost $1 billion. And John Paulson got $1 billion. And the SEC is saying that there were some shenanigans involved with that.
Now, John Paulson is now stating his case. Again, he is not charged with anything. He is just a guy who made a boatload of money betting that the housing market was going to collapse. He said his role in this deal was appropriate and conducted in good faith. He said there were many sophisticated investors who were fully convinced that we were wrong and more than willing to bet against us.
Remember, he was taking big bearish bets on housing, meaning, he was betting huge amounts of money that housing was going to fall apart at the time when the whole world thought that housing was going to go on forever, including a lot of our policymakers who kept saying, oh, no, housing prices are going to rise for all of these different reasons. We don't have to worry about any kind of subprime collapse or any kind of housing market collapse.
Now, the latest from Goldman Sachs is that according to "The Financial Times," Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, is talking to clients yesterday on the phone and was saying that the attack against Goldman is politically motivated. The SEC charges are politically motivated and bad for America, according to some.
ROBERTS: But the timing is interesting and some analysts have said it's the SEC trying to assert itself here is the financial reform bill --
ROMANS: And I will tell you -- ROBERTS: They may get a vote on the Senate floor.
ROMANS: -- I was shocked yesterday when Mary Schapiro who runs the SEC came out with a statement basically maintaining the independence of this agency, saying they don't coordinate with the White House. They don't coordinate on legislation and they simply are a law enforcement agency.
CHETRY: And the president yesterday said that he first heard about the charges watching TV.
ROMANS: But you know, covering the SEC and covering this stuff for 15 years, I've never seen the SEC have to come out and declare its independence. It does show you that there is a big political story around all of this.
You know, and also Austan Goolsbee, I asked him the other day. I said did you know that there's SEC charges? He's a top adviser to the president on many issues. You know, did you know this SEC thing was coming down? He said, no, no, no, we didn't know. We didn't know.
But it does give them wind at their back. It puts the -- you know, it puts the whole financial regulation back in the forefront again. So it helps them, many people say, but they say they didn't know about it. But Goldman's defense at this point is this is all political.
ROBERTS: Well, we'll see if they can prevail. There are some very smart people who think the government may be able to get the money.
ROMANS: Oh, imagine how much money the lawyers are making on both. I mean, imagine the cottage industry in lawyers right now.
ROBERTS: The lawyers.
Christine, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Well, coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, it was a year ago that he was living in foster homes and even homeless shelters. Kenneth Chancy wants to go to college and change the world. We're going to check with him one year later.
Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- four minutes past the hour. Top stories just six minutes away.
First, though, an "A.M. Original." Something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING.
It's an emotional story and we've been following it for more than a year. A homeless teen named Kenneth Chancey. ROBERTS: His dream of going to college and becoming a neurosurgeon was just that, a dream. But things started to turn around when we hooked him up with an NFL star. Thelma Gutierrez is live in Los Angeles to show us how his fortunes have changed.
Good morning, Thelma.
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, it was an incredible journey to watch and to be a part of. Kenneth is a teenager who has lived with so much adversity in his life, but because he believed in himself, he got others to believe in him, too.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KENNETH CHANCEY, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: I'm Kenneth Chancey. About five years ago, I was beaten, neglected. Three years ago in a foster home. Last year, just last year, in a homeless shelter. I've been at the bottom of the pits. Now, I'm on top.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): I first met Kenneth last year while working on a story about homeless children in Los Angeles. Kenneth wasn't your average 17-year-old. He was junior class president, a starting running back on the football team, and an honor student who dreamed of going to Harvard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (expletive deleted) you up. (expletive deleted) you.
GUTIERREZ: So it was hard to imagine this is where he and his sister lived, on skid row in downtown Los Angeles.
CHANCEY: I don't know how I deal with it, personally, but I do. I just wake up with a smile every morning. You kind of got to. You don't want that negative vibe on your shoulders. Plus already you have the hardship of being homeless and broken.
GUTIERREZ: We aired Kenneth's story.
CHANCEY: My mom used drugs. My stepdad used to hit me.
GUTIERREZ: Then we received a surprise call from someone who wanted to meet him. So we set it up.
NNAMDI ASOMUGHA, NFL ALL-PRO: Hi, Kenneth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. This is Nnamdi Asomugha. He's with the Oakland Raiders.
CHANCEY: Yes.
GUTIERREZ: Nnamdi Asomugha is the highest paid defensive back in the NFL. Now, the football player with the $45 million contract was inviting Kenny, a homeless high school football player on the Asomugha College tour for scholars, which is an all-expense trip that Nnamdi's foundation sponsors every year.
ASOMUGHA: I wanted to invite you along for the tour.
CHANCEY: Oh, I see it.
ASOMUGHA: Yes.
CHANCEY: Oh, my gosh.
CHANCEY: I'm so ready for D.C. I'm going to the nation's capital.
GUTIERREZ: We met up with Kenneth and 15 other students as they arrived in Washington. They're all from (INAUDIBLE) neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Oakland. All were handpicked by Asomugha to be on the tour.
ASOMUGHA: Welcome to the 2010 tour. We're in Washington, D.C.
GUTIERREZ: Here the NFL star and the teenagers are about to experience a whole new world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Upstairs, there's a nine million pound rotunda.
CHANCEY: I'm in the United States capital. I'm in a place where bills get signed.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): So what comes next for you?
CHANCEY: I believe Miss Waters, Representative Waters, she is a state leader which is awesome.
GUTIERREZ: Hey, I think it's happening now, so we're going to Maxine Waters' office.
CHANCEY: OK.
GUTIERREZ: All right.
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: As a professional athlete, you could be doing a lot of other things with your time, but obviously, you want to give back.
ASOMUGHA: No matter where I've been or where I go, I think every year that I do the tour is a new adventure.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): After the capital, they toured the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.
GUTIERREZ: Nothing like knocking down a few pins at the president's very own bowling.
(on camera): Most people who know Nnamdi Asomugha in the sports world, they know you as a great football star. How do you want these kids to know you?
ASOMUGHA: That's a good question. I want them to come away with a different type of hope, like, look, this is possible.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Many of the students including Kenneth, will be the first in their families to go to college. Asomugha's tour gives them a chance to see top schools like Georgetown University up close.
(on camera): So your darkest time, you didn't think that you would probably go to college?
CHANCEY: Yes, I didn't even think I was going to graduate, let alone go to college.
GUTIERREZ: And now your aspirations?
CHANCEY: I'm going to be -- I'm going to be someone in life. That's my biggest aspiration. I'm going to be the one changing the world.
MUSIC: I remember when we used to say --
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): After getting to know some of the students, I can say Kenneth won't be alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I want to be a pediatrician.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I want to be an astronaut.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to become a theoretical physicist.
MUSIC: In good times we've lost along the way. That's why I say no woman no cry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Amazing, Thelma. I mean, just wonderful that you followed this journey for the entire year. And now we're asking the question, does Kenneth who was once homeless and didn't know about his future, he's now going to go to college. Does he know where he's going to go?
GUTIERREZ: You know, Kiran, he has always dreamed of going to Harvard ever since he was a little boy. He did apply, but sadly, he was not accepted this semester.
Now, you know, I asked Kenneth, are you disappointed with that? And he said, no, I'm still proud of myself because I'm the first person in my entire family to go to college. We also talked about why he might not have gotten in. And he said that's because he was competing against kids who had 4.2 and 4.3 GPAs, and though he was an honor student, he really didn't become an honor student until his junior and senior year.
But his freshman and sophomore year, he was more of a "C" student. That's because he was still in foster care and his life really didn't stabilize until he got to the shelter in skid row. So ironically, that's where he started to actually to become a great student. And he says he hasn't given up on his dream to go to Harvard.
ROBERTS: That's the problem isn't, Thelma, with the GPA grading system. You know, it tracks kids over four years and doesn't track the changes. And you know, it sounds to me like Harvard would be lucky to have him.
GUTIERREZ: I think so.
ROBERTS: All right. Thelma Gutierrez.
CHETRY: Great story.
ROBERTS: Thanks so much.
Crossing the half hour, top stories this morning. Iran says war games are under way this morning. State TV said the country launched a series of military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz. It would be like putting a cork on 40 percent of the world's oil supply if Iran even try to block those waters.
CHETRY: The skies are (INAUDIBLE) this morning. Flights across Europe expected to return to 100 percent capacity today after that volcanic ash cloud kept 100,000 flights grounded for the past week.
ROBERTS: And the sun is up and the Coast Guard choppers are getting back in the air to search for 11 oil workers missing in the Gulf of Mexico. They've been missing since an oil rig exploded and burst into blames, about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. About 100 workers who survived the blast are back on land this morning. And boy are their families relieved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID SNEATHERN, NEPHEW OF OIL RIG WORKER: I worked offshore. You know, I know what it's like for a family to wonder, you know. And this is one of those things that you just hope and pray that everybody's all right. Honestly and truly, the amount of lives that's been saved, you know, it's just amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The Coast Guard officials say the search conditions in the Gulf are excellent today. And they're going to be up there in the next few minutes. We were talking with a couple of crew members from one of those helicopters and get out there and have a good look around this morning. Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks. Well, the president is trying to seal the deal today on financial reforms this morning. He's speaking in New York. And the goal is to convince Wall Street CEOs and reluctant Republicans to get behind a Democratic bill that's working its' way through the Senate right now. It's certainly no easy task. But we're going to try to break it down today with some great financial minds in Washington.
Michael Greenberger, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and also former director of trading and market, markets at the Commodity's Trading Commission. Michael, thanks for being with us this morning.
MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF LAW: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Also with us, Jill Schlesinger, here in New York, editor at large at CBS Moneywatch.com. Great to see you as well, Jill. Michael, I want to just sort of break down into the three main pieces of this legislation right now that are perhaps controversial and there are things that both sides are going to go back and forth on. One is the regulation of derivatives. These complex financial instruments or as Christine tells me, just call them bets on the future price of some assets.
Also the mechanisms in place to unwind to these markets. These bad financial institutions without taking everybody down. Sort of the too big to fail notion. And then also a Consumer Protection Bureau. So when we take a look at those things, Michael, would this bill have stopped the collapse we saw in 2008?
GREENBERGER: I definitely believe that it would have stopped the collapse in 2008. You've highlighted the three parts that are the focus of the bill. But right now, the battleground is over derivatives. And as you mentioned in an earlier segment, the Goldman Sachs which was essentially telling bets on whether the housing market would go up, or whether it would go down, had nothing to do with the real economy.
But billions and billions of dollars were bet, and then in the end, the people who lost the bet didn't have the capital to pay it off. And the taxpayer became the banker of last resort. This bill would put those bets on the public eye. They would be transparent. They would have to be backed by capital. They couldn't -- you couldn't find out at the end, for example, AIG was $80 billion short on September 16th, 2008.
CHETRY: Right.
GREENBERGER: That would be prevented. So my view is, the most important part of this bill is stopping the betting transactions that had nothing to do with the real economy and taking them off the table.
CHETRY: OK. I want to ask Jill, do you agree? You used to trade derivatives right, back in the day?
JILL SCHLESINGER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, CBS MONEYWATCH.COM: Yes, my first job on Wall Street. Well, I think the derivative reform is important. And I think that what we're really talking about is that derivatives in this light really don't have any social utility. In other words, there's no usefulness in our society in the capitalist structure. And they really are just bets as opposed to, let's say, that, you know, you're buying oil futures because you're in airline and you need to hedge your exposure to rises or falls in the price of gas, right? So that's different.
The concern I have about this bill is it still does not deal with this too big to fail notion. What they've done is say, OK, you know what too big to fail is? It's where we are right now. And that doesn't seem reasonable. These companies are so big and so interconnected even if we see what they're doing on various exchanges, it doesn't mean we can't have a bubble in an asset class.
And even though we may have some way to wind them down, why are we letting them get so big in the first place? And I fear that that is something that will continue to plague the system.
CHETRY: So you think that too big too fail aspect will go far enough, Jill?
SCHLESINGER: Absolutely. I think that they actually don't deal with the too big to fail notion and there are also my fear in the negotiation of this bill is that there is going to be a lot of exceptions and carve outs. Let's watch for that. Because you're going to see a lot of ways that people can skip through the big holes in this slice of cheese.
CHETRY: And Michael, that's what I want to ask you about as well. I mean, there are some who say look, if you try to regulate these derivatives and tell, you know, certain banks they can't have exposure in financial institutions, they can't have exposure to the consumer and to these risky bets. That they're going to take the risky bets and not the consumer because that's where the money is?
GREENBERGER: Well, actually, for example, yesterday, in the Senate Committee, they absolutely banned trading gaming transactions.
CHETRY: Right.
GREENBERGER: And I think that goes right to the Goldman case. As was said, the Goldman situation was one side was betting that housing prices would go up. The other side was betting housing prices would go down. The better on the upside lost. And there was no money there. The American taxpayer had to pay. Yes, I agree, these transactions have no social utility. They're going to be spun out of the big banks. It's going to take a risky attempt at profit center and put it to the side.
CHETRY: Right.
GREENBERGER: I think that goes a long way to shrinking these banks so that they aren't too big to fail. And then we have the vocal (ph) rule sitting on the sidelines, where proprietary trading, that is, trading only for the bank's book and no one else, where they took big risks, that would have to be sent out so I think we have a real chance here for good, helpful reform to save the American taxpayer and American jobs.
CHETRY: All right. Let me play devil's advocate here, Jill, before we go. What is the downside then? Because it seems like an easy target. Wall Street, lawyers, bankers. We need to get them under control. What is the downside of too much regulation? It could have unintended consequences that all of us at home don't really know about?
SCHLESINGER: Well, I think there are a couple of unintended consequences. One is that we end up getting a lot of rules, with lots of exemptions and there is no substantive change. One of the other problems, for example, let's look at the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. It sounds like a great idea. Who wouldn't want consumers to be protected?
CHETRY: Right.
SCHLESINGER: Except that it doesn't really feel like it's independent. Are they really going to be rule makers? Are they going to live under the feds, how is that going to work? So the problem is that we want smart regulation and I know that government hadn't been exactly in the forefront of smart but also I'm going to give you a little ray of hope.
After the crash of '29 and the depression, we had years where regulatory reform was enacted in 1933, and 1934, and 1940. And maybe our professor is right down in Washington, maybe this is the beginning of a longer-term trend where we get smarter about regulatory reform.
CHETRY: All right. Jill Schlesinger, Michael Greenberger, great to talk to both of you this morning. Thanks.
SCHLESINGER: Thank you.
GREENBERGER: You're welcome.
CHETRY: Also, the president's speech, by the way, is scheduled to begin 11:55 Eastern time this morning. It will be here on CNN live, as well as cnn.com, John.
ROBERTS: Earth Day is today, and Sigourney Weaver has an environmental lesson for us this morning. This is your ocean on acid? Any questions for her?
It's 39 minutes after the hour. She joins us coming up next.
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ROBERTS: 42 minutes after the hour. She was just in the highest grossing movie of all time, trying to preserve the moon Pandora. Now actress Sigourney Weaver is trying to help save planet earth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF SIGOURNEY WEAVER, ACTRESS: When acidity gets too high, shells dissolve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, we're in a really remarkable history of the ocean. 100 years ago it was inexhaustible. You couldn't touch it. You couldn't harm it. In 100 years you might be dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: She is in Washington for Earth Day and she will be testifying at a Senate hearing on the environmental and economic impacts of ocean acidification. Now, we welcome Sigourney Weaver, live this morning in Washington.
Sigourney, great to see you this morning. Thanks for being with us.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: Great to see you, John. Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: You bet. Tell us, first of all, for folks at home, who might not have heard of this, this is called the other CO2 problem. What is ocean acidification?
WEAVER: Right. Well, you know, America loves its oceans. We love our ocean sport and fish and sea life and a large part of our economy comes from oceans. And one of the things that scientists have realized as we've increasingly used fossil fuels is that the impact on the oceans which we didn't know about is that the carbon dioxide mixing with sea water forms carbonic acid.
So the ocean is 30 percent more acidic than it was at the start of the industrial revolution. And unless we curb carbon emissions which this Congress, you know, is enacting a bill, hopefully, to curb carbon emissions, if we don't do that, within another 50 years, some of our most precious sea life, you know, the whole chain of life that makes shells will be unable to make those shells. It will be 30 percent even more acidic than it is now.
ROBERTS: In the clip we saw, this is from the documentary that you narrated called "The Acid Test." We saw shells dissolving in ocean conditions expected 90 years from now, 90 years' time, if the current level of CO2 emission go on. What are the implications for sea life and for people who rely on the oceans for their livelihoods, for food sources, and, too, the oceans are a real measure of health for the planet.
WEAVER: Absolutely. I mean, for all of those reasons, scientists and citizens are very concern. We're already seeing the impact. We don't need to wait 90 years. For instance, the wild oysters off the coast of the northwest of America haven't been able to reproduce in the wild for the last five years. And scientists are pretty sure it's because of the carbonic acid, acidification in that area.
We're already seeing that plankton in Antarctica, their shells, is 30 percent less strong. And when these creatures can't make their shells, they're putting all their energy into making shells instead of reproducing. So we will have a huge impact on the whole chain of the whole food chain and certainly it'll have a huge impact on all the economies that -- that depend on the ocean for fisheries and tourism and everything else. And, certainly, for our whole heritage as Americans, we really -- you know, we come from seafaring stock, a lot of people, and -- and we really depend upon the oceans for quality of life.
ROBERTS: Right.
You know, we should -- we should mention too, Sigourney, that the film "Avatar", which had a very heavy environmental message, is coming out on -- on DVD today.
There were -- there were some people who were critical of it, thinking that it was too much of an environmental lecture. And, at the same time, as we talk about all of this on -- on this Earth Day, it's interesting to note that more and more people are becoming skeptical of this whole idea of global warming and its effects.
Do you have any idea why that's happening?
WEAVER: You know, I think it's probably fear and denial. I -- I -- what I found traveling around the world for "Avatar" is that everyone around the world is actually aware that our Earth is changing and that we do need to enact legislation to curb the emission of, you know, the use of fossil fuels, and it's time, really, to encourage our Congress to put aside their differences and enact legislation to create a strong green energy economy.
You know, if -- if -- the science to me is -- is very sure, and we -- and even if there's only, you know, a 50 percent chance that all of these things were -- will come true, I think we need to act now. Because, certainly, the measurements they've done in the oceans, which have seemed for years to be endlessly forgiving of whatever we do to them, it's having a huge impact on the ocean, and we're going to see it increasingly.
And it's going to have an even bigger impact on our estuaries, where the fresh water meets the sea water. The acidification will have an even stronger impact there on -- on those fisheries, and those economies.
So, you know, you can sit around arguing a little bit about whether all of this is true, but, frankly, you know, I've been reading the science for quite a while now and I'm completely convinced, and I think a lot of our congressmen are, too, because I've met with them before.
ROBERTS: All right.
Well you'll be testifying in the building right behind you a little bit later on today. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Sigourney Weaver, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Great to see you.
WEAVER: Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, still ahead, we're talking weather, strong storms out west, a threat of tornadoes and hail into the Midwest. Rob Marciano tracking all of it for us, just ahead.
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CHETRY: Pretty day to be in "Empire State of Mind". It's 53 degrees and sunny right now. A little bit later, the sun continues, 69 for a high here in the Big Apple.
Let's check in with Rob Marciano. Things are nice and sunny here, not the case, unfortunately, for other parts of the country, including out west.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. A pretty decent storm system out there, all though in New York City area and through D.C. -- you can't really see it here, but there's a little weak front that's going to try to sneak through later on today. That may pop a shower or even a thunderstorm, but, until then, light shower is pretty much negligible.
What is not negligible is the amount of fog that's around the D.C. area right now, in some cases near Dulles Airport, visibility is almost down to zero. So it will take some time for this to wash out and you'll probably see some airport delays because of that.
Now, the storm out west, that's another ball game. It's cool and it's got snow at the high elevations. It's had wind across California, even rain showers all the way down to the Mexican border, and this is slowly rotating around and like a bowling ball will be rolling into the plains and ejecting a decent amount of energy out ahead of this.
And this looks to have the ingredients for seeing severe weather now, some today and then even more so, I think, tomorrow. In the typical spots that we would normally see this time of year but haven't really seen much yet, we may break that streak of seeing very quiet, severe weather.
New York metros, a little bit of wind, maybe a pop of showers later on today, and, as mentioned, D.C., Baltimore, you'll probably see some delays because of that thick morning fog that's happening right now.
Eighty degrees expected in Dallas; 82 degrees in Memphis; and 69 degrees expected in New York City. And here comes our storm system throughout the day tomorrow and right on through Saturday. It gets into the southeast as well as it slowly makes its way towards the East Coast.
That's the latest from here. Happy Earth Day, guys!
John and Kiran, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Same to you, Rob. Thanks so much. This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including Iran playing war games at a serious time in a very serious place, a vital artery for the world's oil supply. We're live at the Pentagon as the U.S. Military keeps tabs.
CHETRY: At five minutes past the hour, the Coast Guard working through the night to find 11 oil rig workers still missing after a catastrophic, explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the blast sending a fireball into the sky.
We're going to get the latest on the search.
ROBERTS: And at 55 minutes after the hour, the medical benefits of the plant they use to make tequila. But don't run out and swallow the worm just yet.
Those stories and more coming your way at the top of the hour.
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ROBERTS: One in four Americans suffers from migraines, those incapacitating headaches that can last for several days in some cases. But a cutting edge treatment is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
CHETRY: And it could bring relief for million battle migraines, many who couldn't be treated before.
CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta live in Atlanta to talk more about this breakthrough.
I don't always know if it's a migraine. I know you get bad headaches. I get bad headaches at times as well, but it feels for many people just like a wasted day because you really are in so much pain you can't do anything.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's absolutely a wasted day, and I do suffer from migraines. You get a bad headache sometimes, your vision starts to get blurry. A lot of time you just want to be in bed because you really can't do anything.
So they are terrible headaches, and, you know, there's been concern about -- out there for a long time about trying to find the best medication to try and treat these.
When you think about these types of medications, a lot of them simply don't work. If they do work, they don't work for everybody, and a lot of them have side effects. That's why there's always searches for new medications, and potentially some excitement about a new class of medications called telcagepants.
Now, this is a medication made by Merck. Merck has been doing clinical trials in this medication for some time, and a medical journal just review a lot of the data surrounding this medication, and it's kind of exciting, I think, for a lot of people out there. Here's why. One of the biggest classes of -- of migraine medications are called triptans. The way they work, they constrict blood vessels. That can help with -- with headache pain due to migraine.
The problem is, if you also have a history of heart disease, you have a history of stroke or you're at risk for those things, those are not going to be the best medications for you.
So it's been this long search to try and find a medication that can offer something different, offer pain relief without constricting the blood vessels, and telcagepant seems to do this in early clinical trials, at least, and that -- that's specifically what people are talking about today in the -- in the headache community.
ROBERTS: So, Sanjay, what do -- what do you think the chances are that this drug is going to get approval? It's not even being tested here, is it?
GUPTA: Right.
It's hard to say how long it will take to get approval. And what's interesting is sort of the third thing that I was talking about, the side effects. In some of the early trials, some patients developed liver problems. They didn't have the heart problems or stroke problems, but liver problems.
The --the liver enzymes went up. They stopped the medication, the liver enzymes went down. So Merck is basically going to conduct another trial to see if in fact this is toxic to the liver.
If it is, John, this may never hit the market, and you just build on that learning to try and make a better drug with fewer side effects.
So it -- it's really hard to say at this point when it will hit the market or even if it will hit the market.
ROBERTS: So -- so when you get sidelined with a migraine, how do you -- how do you deal with it?
GUPTA: Well, you know, I -- I have actually found a few medications that do work for me, you know, and I've gone through a series of medications over the years.
So I have one now that I take, a dissolvable tablet. I put it on my tongue and it works pretty well. I have to take a dissolvable tablet because even trying to swallow water at that point makes me too nauseated.
ROBERTS: Wow.
GUPTA: There are people who take a board of medications, who get migraines so frequently -- I'm sorry. That's an abortive medication.
People take preventive medications because they get migraines so frequently --
CHETRY: Right.
GUPTA: -- they try and prevent them from happening in the first place, and -- and that's an option as well.
CHETRY: And some people, as you said, with the nausea, they have to do the nasal spray because they can't swallow anything.
But I've found chiropractic has been helpful as well.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, with a true migraine, it does appear to be a vascular issue in the brain. You know, there's all sorts of reasons for headaches, and I tell you, as a neuro guy, sort of parsing out exactly what's causing somebody's headache can be difficult.
But with regard to chiropractic treatment of someone who's having significant muscle tension and needs an adjustment of some sort, maybe that would help. I haven't done that myself, because I think I have true migraines, but I know a lot of people who -- who say they get benefit from that.
CHETRY: All right. Good information this morning. Sanjay, great to see you. Thanks.
GUPTA: As always, thanks.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. Our top stories coming up.
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